STUDENT ONE:

• Our life experiences, upbringing, and view of reality are key factors that influence how we perceive other people. The knowledge gained from living and going through life is what sets our bar for expectation, judgment, and unconscious bias. Perception can be seen as bias, but it is unconscious, meaning it is installed in you from simply living and being involved in different environments. “PerceptionThe recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based upon our memory. is the recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based upon our memory. In other words, it is the way you interpret data around you. The data could come from sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing” (https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_human-relations/s05-03-human-relations-perception-s-e.html). Our needs, social groups, wants, desires, interests, and expectations are very significant factors that shape our perception. This is what makes it difficult to “agree to disagree”. Almost everyone has not understood another person’s point of view or perception. This causes many arguments, especially in the workplace. Perception is the hardest element of human behavior to overcome, due to that person being stuck in their perception because it comes from their personal life experiences or what they believe to know as right.These factors that shape and influence perception roll over into the workplace, and especially the interview process. An interviewer is only human, so they will carry their perceptions with them into the interview even though that is considered biased. An interview should be based on skill sets and needs, and not personal biases gained from perception. According to Iris Bohnet, author at Harvard Business Review, “I don’t expect lotteries to replace interviews in most situations, but the evidence against unstructured interviews should make any hiring manager pause. These interviews should not be your evaluation tool of choice; they are fraught with bias and irrelevant information. Instead, managers should invest in tools that have been shown to predict future performance” (Bohnet, 2016). Another main point of perception being used in the interview process is found heavily in managers. Many managers look for people who share similar qualities as them, and not the qualities that the job they are hiring for demands. Some managers even look into personal qualities they like about the candidate instead of the qualities and needs that are beneficial to the company. Managers should focus solely on skill sets, job performance past, and demand of the position when doing the interview process. This way, managers do not rely on their personal instinct, but hard core facts. According to Bohnet, “The unwillingness to give up a much-loved evaluation approach seems to be driven by two factors: Managers are overconfident about their own expertise and experience, and they dislike deferring to more structured approaches that might outsource human judgment to a machine” (Bohnet, 2016).

STUDENT TWO:

• There are many factors that influence how we perceive people. Attitudes, Moods, Motives, Self-Concept, Interest, Cognitive Structure, and our Expectations (Wisdomjobs, n.d.). I think that what we learn at home as a child is our first perception of people. When parents, grandparents, family, and friends make distinctions between where people live, how they live, their work, have money, no money, what they look like, education, and whose community is better than another that instills beliefs about someone that is not always fact. These perceptions can remain with a person throughout their entire life. Some people through experiences of their own, find that someone may not be the way they were taught to believe. Particularity, the perception of different ethnic groups. I believe all ethnic groups have their own perceptions of each other. The thing is to try and learn about a person first before making those child hood comments and keeping the negative attitudes about someone before coming to a decision whether they fit into your circle. In the job market, negative perceptions do exist and I believe will always exist. Because it starts at the top of an organization and if they encourage that type of behavior, it will flow down to the rest of the company or business. Expectation was last on the list. I think expectations should be number one. If we expect to be treated with respect, acceptance, and inclusion, we should do the same to others. Managers may not hire someone based on these perceptions and not be fair or impartial in their selection process. Yes, this does happen. In the article, Perception is Reality, The Voice was a prime of example of perceptions, as contestant tried to impress judges by not being seen by the judges first. That is an indication that some judges may make their decision on a contestant based on how they looked before they heard them sing. People look at business to see how diverse they are in employing women, minorities, seniors, and disabled personnel. When job seekers don’t see that in a company, the perception may be discouraging and later can hurt a business thrive alongside of its competitors (Burke, 2017).

STUDENT THREE:

• My article is based on the company Amazon. How Amazon, the billion dollar company and still growing with their deals and Prime Memberships has taken over the United States and how Amazon staff's rule of Ethics and Business Code must be followed to keep the company successful and values intact as Amazon grows. Amazon's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics states, "in performing their job duties, Amazon.com employees should always act lawfully, ethically, and in the best interests of Amazon.com. This Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (the "Code of Conduct") sets out basic guiding principles. Employees who are unsure whether their conduct or the conduct of their coworkers complies with the Code of Conduct should contact their manager or the Legal Department. Employees may also report any suspected noncompliance as provided in the Legal Department's reporting guidelines.." Amazon has exemplified responsible stewardship by strategizing to develop products that meet its customers’ needs, optimize them to the limit, and then offer them to third parties, such as FedEx and UPS to make their development and operation profitable. When companies decide to merge together or work together to up profits, there has to be a clear understanding of ethics and laws to make sure the trade is fair just as much as profitable. What is business ethics?"The definition of business ethics is the set of moral rules that govern how businesses operate, how business decisions are made and how people are treated. In business, there are many different people you have to answer to: customers, shareholders, and clients. Determining what to do when an ethical dilemma arises among these different interests can be extremely tricky, and as such business ethics are complex and multi-faceted. Some business ethics are imposed by law."Why should a company's strategies be ethical?As stated in Amazon's Code of Business and the definition of ethics is the word, "morals", we have to have values, morals and abide by laws and rules as citizens and as organizations (companies). Having ethical strategies allows for companies and customers to not be taken advantage of.

Student four:

• The news article that I'd like to discuss concerns the merger strategy between two well known home shopping networks: QVC and the Home Shopping Network (HSN). QVC purchased 100% of HSN in a $2.6 billion dollar stock deal in an effort to retain customers and compete with the mega online retailers Amazon and Walmart who are leading the way in sales in the online market. QVC's goal is to give a boost to their ecommerce capabilities, reduce costs and expand their marketing opportunities internationally to effectively compete with Amazon and Walmart. According to QVC's CEO Greg Maffei, "The increased scale of this combination will allow us to more effectively compete, we think, in a changing and evolving retail and digital environment," This merger will enable QVC to serve over 23 million customers annually.Business ethics is considered the study of appropriate business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial subjects (i.e. corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities (Twin, 2019). A company's strategies should always be ethical because it's ultimately a good business practice, and it's in the best interest of that company's shareholders. The Saint Leo core value of responsible stewardship is consistent with exemplifying ethical strategies in business as we embody a spirit of service in our everyday endeavors. We ultimately want to achieve the greater good as we develop business strategies and serve our community and the university. QVC exemplified responsible stewardship by combining the companies which enabled them to enhance the customer experience and increase customer value, increase innovation, and ultimately reshape home shopping.

Student five:

• Organizational fit is an important selection criteria, as hiring the “right fit” ensures that potential employees will embody the organization’s culture. Martocchio highlights the importance of this key criteria, noting that a poor fit harms organizational effectiveness, hurts morale, and drains creativity (p 150).Within my company organizational fit is crucial. As we are a global company with headquarters in Paris it’s very important that we hire employees that understand the culture. Being a French company, part of our culture includes a hierarchical structure, which includes strict rules of engagement and how you interact with management and peers. There have been many instances where consultants were brought on to help execute a project and are ineffective because they don’t understand the culture within the company and how to get things done.

Student six:

• The responsibility of selecting job candidates that are a good fit for the organization rests totally in the HR professionals, and this process begins months before the job interviews. HR professionals share with the top-level managers the duties of communicating to the public the corporate ethics, Corporate Social Responsibilities, and Corporate Sustainability. If HR professionals clearly communicate all corporate values to the public, only the candidates attracted to those values will consider working for the company. By communicating corporate values ahead of job openings, HR professionals can simplify the selection process, and concentrate on the specific set-of-skills needed for the advertised position.HR professionals’ agenda for the interview should focus on occupational experience, academic achievement, interpersonal skills, and personal qualities (only if they are relevant to job performance) (Martocchio, 15th Ed., Pg. 161). The applicant’s personal values and beliefs and how they compare to the company’s values should not be the main focus of the interview. Values and beliefs are malleable and can change. If selected, the new employee will go through a cultural assimilation process. During this process, their personal culture comes to resemble or assume the values of the dominant group. Additionally, if the new employee values are not at that level of the organization, HR professionals can develop performance-based pay programs that align employee performance with company values and social responsibility goals.