Ba 501 Homework Assignment 3: Crafting Messages For Electron

Ba 501 Homework Assignment 3crafting Messages For Electronic And Soci

Review this IM exchange and explain how the customer service agent could have handled the situation more effectively.

Agent: Thanks for contacting Home Exercise Equipment. What’s up?

Customer: I’m having trouble assembling my home gym.

Agent: I hear that a lot! LOL

Customer: So is it me or the gym?

Agent: Well, let’s see <g>. Where were you stuck?

Customer: The cross bar that connects the vertical pillars doesn’t fit.

Agent: What do you mean it doesn’t fit?

Customer: It doesn’t fit. It’s not long enough to reach across the pillars.

Agent: Maybe you assembled the pillars in the wrong place.

Or maybe we sent the wrong crossbar.

Customer: How do I tell?

Agent: The parts are labeled so could be tough. You have a measuring tape? Tell me how long your crossbar is.

The following email message contains numerous errors related to what you’ve learned about planning and writing business messages. Using the information it contains, write a more effective version.

TO: Felicia August <fb_august@evertrust.com>

Subject: Those are the breaks, folks

Some of you may not like rules about break times; however, we determined that keeping track of employees while they took breaks at times they determine rather than prescribed times was not working as well as we would have liked it to work. The new rules are not going to be an option.

If you do not follow the new rules, you will be docked from your pay for hours when you turn up missing, since your supervisor will not be able to tell whether you work on a “break” or not and will assume that you have walked away from your job. We cannot be responsible for any errors that result from your inattentiveness to the new rules.

I have already heard complaints from some of you and hope this memo will end this issue once and for all. The decision has already been made. Starting Monday, January 1, you will be required to take a regular 15-minute break in the morning and again in the afternoon, and a regular thirty-minute lunch at the time specified by your supervisor, NOT when you think you need a break or when you “get around to it”.

There will be no excuses to this new rule!

Felicia August

Manager Billing and Accounting

Read the following case study and thoroughly and completely answer the questions that follow. Use full sentences and cite sources using proper APA formatting.

Case Study: Mary

Mary is a 36-year-old stay-at-home mother of four children. She has become bored with staying home after 15 years. Prior to children, she worked at a credit union and enjoyed her job, especially the precision of number crunching. She has carried this into her household chores, keeping her home spotless with high standards. She cleans the bathrooms daily, vacuums, dusts, picks up toys, and is almost neurotic about cleanliness. She is a perfectionist and knows it.

Despite the overwhelming task of managing a house with four children, Mary handles chores well and finds time to stay in close contact with friends, mainly via the phone. Her friends are crucial to her social support network, especially since her husband travels often and her workplace interactions are limited. They describe her as fiercely loyal, supportive, and talkative. She is always willing to help other mothers with childcare or cooking/ baking for friends overwhelmed with preparations.

Mary appears intimidating and angry because of deep lines between her eyes, often mistaken for a frown. She is self-conscious about these lines and insecure about not having attended college. She views herself as uneducated, though her friends see her as intelligent, and they encourage her to pursue an associate’s degree, particularly in legal business studies, to boost her self-esteem. She considers this for the future, planning to become a legal assistant after her children are in middle school.

Mary is a good mother, advocating for her child with a disability, and maintains a balanced sense of humor about her quirks and frustrations. She emphasizes her love for her children, family outings, and her newfound passion for roller coasters, revealing her fun-loving side. Despite her insecurities, her warmth and caring nature shine through her supportive actions and relationships.

Application Questions

  1. Using Allport’s trait theory, describe Mary’s personality, including the seven criteria of psychological health he proposed, with examples from her case.
  2. Explain the differences among cardinal, central, and secondary traits, and identify some of Mary’s central traits.
  3. Define functional autonomy and identify an example from the case that illustrates preservative functional autonomy.
  4. What is proprium according to Allport? What could be considered Mary’s proprium?
  5. Describe propriate striving and provide an example from Mary’s life that illustrates it.

Theory Comparison Questions

  1. Compare Allport’s criteria for mental health with:
  • a. Freud’s psychodynamic theory;
  • b. Rogers’s person-centered theory;
  • c. Cattell’s trait theory.
  • Compare Allport’s concept of propriate striving with Jung’s self-realization, Maslow’s self-actualization, and Rogers’s actualization.
  • Compare Allport’s proprium with Rogers’s concept of the self.

    • References

    • Ashcraft, D. (2012). Personality theories workbook (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
    • Additional scholarly sources to support the analysis.

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