The document contains instructions for analyzing sales data from a real estate company. It asks the user to open an existing workbook, make some formatting changes, calculate costs and profits for each property sale, organize monthly sales data into a table, analyze house types and monthly sales trends using charts, and finalize the workbook before submitting. The instructions provide specific steps to complete these tasks using Excel functions and charts.
2. 480,0498/7/17Colonial331644$ 220,897$ 50,328$
349,8808/25/17Tudor242212$ 261,064$ 9,695$
316,7888/31/17Split-level452424$ 249,041$ 76,024$
351,0709/2/17Ranch422787$ 272,931$ 108,389$
411,8269/6/17Tudor251492$ 389,048$ 29,469$
451,9989/27/17Bungalow451276$ 323,703$ 97,657$
459,28210/2/17Split-level232668$ 292,663$ 101,437$
421,68710/6/17Ranch522179$ 324,729$ 13,852$
433,38410/8/17Colonial252597$ 350,917$ 36,481$
472,62610/23/17Tudor431365$ 387,832$ 103,564$
624,07310/24/17Ranch222545$ 231,869$ 9,717$
275,40810/31/17Colonial552768$ 389,415$ 13,262$
471,13211/10/17Ranch322446$ 261,642$ 112,070$
407,34611/13/17Bungalow551452$ 305,930$ 15,999$
354,12211/14/17Bungalow231284$ 242,301$ 55,527$
372,28511/18/17Split-level432598$ 244,056$ 57,468$
328,66111/26/17
Sheet2House
TypeJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecColonial11111
1020110Ranch113012111210Bungalow001210000120Split-
Level001120001110Tudor011021021100
Excel Test Out
Materials/e00_cumexam_instruction.docxPrepared Exam
Exploring Microsoft Excel 2016, Application
Mark’s Construction and Realty
Mark’s Construction and Realty buys and flips houses. They
have hired you to look at their sales numbers from last year to
analyze the data. They have instructed you to see if there are
any trends in the types of houses they typically purchase, if
there is a correlation between the number of houses sold and
sale date, and which sales should be included in the project
managers’ year-end bonus.
3. Perform Preliminary Work
You need to open the existing workbook they provided, save it
with a new name, and make a few preliminary modifications.
a. Open the e00_cumexam_data workbook and save the
workbook as e00_cumexam_LastFirst.
b. Change the width of column E to 15.00.
c. Insert a new row above row 1.
d. Enter the text 2017 Sales Data in cell A1, change the font
size to 14 and apply bold.
e. Add a fill color of Blue, Accent 1 for cell A1.
f. Merge and center the range A1:I1.
g. Freeze the headers so when you scroll down the headers are
always visible.
Calculate Profit and Determine if Project is Eligible for Bonus
You are ready to calculate the total costs.
h. Insert two columns after Sale Price named Total Cost and
Profit respectively.
i. Insert a function in cell H3 to calculated the total cost of each
project.
j. Insert a function in cell I3 to calculated the profit of each
project.
k. Create an IF statement in cell K3 where if the profit is
greater than $50,000 it will display the text Yes, otherwise it
will display the text No.
l. Copy the three formulas down their respective columns.
Organize Monthly Data
The company has already collected data about how many of
each type of house they sold each month. You will convert the
data into a table, apply a table style to make the data more
visually appealing, and add total rows for use in the analysis
grids later.
m. Click the Sheet2worksheet and rename it Analysis.
n. Convert the entire dataset into a new table named Date with a
4. table style of Table Style Medium 6.
o. Calculate a total for each house type in column N.
House Type Analysis
You will analyze each house type to determine if the company
has a tendency to purchase a certain type of a house.
p. Create a 2D-Pie chart that displays the total number of
houses by house type and apply chart type Style 7.
q. Move the chart to the left side of the screen directly under
the table data.
r. Change the chart title to House Type.
s. Move the legend to the top-left corner.
t. Explode the largest piece of the pie to aPoint Explosion of
20%
u. Add Data Callout data labels to the chart.
Sales Analysis
You will analyze the sales numbers across each month to
determine in which months buyers tend to purchase houses.
v. Calculate a new total row for each month.
w. Create a 2D-Line chart that displays total house sales by
Month and apply chart style Style 6 and move it to the right of
the pie chart.
x. Change the chart title to Total Sales
y. Change the plotted line color to White, Background 1.
z. Add a column to the Date table after House Type called
Sparkline.
aa. Add a sparkline for each house type over the 12-month
period in the new Sparkline column.
Finalize the Workbook
You will make some small formatting changes.
ab. Set the page orientation to Landscape.
ac. Insert a footer with your instructor’s name on the left side,
the date in the center, and your Last,First name on the right
side.
ad. Save and close the workbook. Based on your instructor’s
6. empower others. The definition used by Winston Churchill to
assess effective leadership is
mentioned, as well as the "4E" framework used by Jack Welch.
Characteristics of the
transformational and transactional leader are contrasted.
Buckingham, M. (2005). Managers and leaders. Leadership
Excellence, 22(12), 5-6. Retrieved
from Business Source Premier database.
The article presents insights on the roles of managers and
leaders. There are differences in the
roles of managers and leaders. Great managers bring out the
talents and strengths of people and
capitalize on them through techniques. Leaders transform
people strategically.
Singh, A. (2009). Organizational power in perspective.
Leadership & Management in
Engineering, 9(4), 165-176. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
Power and influence are fundamental human phenomena that are
deeply ingrained on the psyche
and conscious personality of individuals. The difference
between proper and improper use of
power is the difference between success and failure, high and
low productivity, motivation and
7. disillusionment. This paper includes a review and analysis of
the classical concepts of power in
management literature, a description of power styles, and
classical research findings on the
optimum use of power. In it I describe power bases and cover
the relationship of power with
project uncertainty, organizational climate, situational
leadership, productivity, and individual
independence. Links are made to leadership styles, and
references are made to negative uses of
power. Overall, the concept of power is placed in perspective as
it relates to management needs,
and ideas are discussed for managing and controlling power for
the benefit of organizations. The
immense advantages of expert power and personal influence
(reference power) are emphasized.
Overwhelming evidence is presented regarding the negative
nature of coercion and
authoritativeness as viable management styles in well-developed
organizations. Any power base
is seen potentially to be double-edged: effective usage depends
entirely upon organizational
8. climate and culture. A developed organization must be designed
based on increasing use of
expert and reference powers that promote reflection and choice
in decision making.
Phase 2
Arrata, P., Despierre, A., & Kumra, G. (2007). Building an
effective change agent team.
McKinsey Quarterly, (4), 39-43. Retrieved from Business
Source Premier database.
The authors focus on the importance of change agents who
implement novel processes, train
employees in new skills and act as role models during the
process of organizational change. They
mention the value of an organizational change agent program.
They focus on the elements that
are essential to change agent programs, including their design.
The recruitment and development
of personnel for the program are discussed as well as the
integration between the team of change
agents and the organizational areas to be transformed.
Higgs, M. (2009). The good, the bad and the ugly: Leadership
and narcissism. Journal of Change
Management, 9(2), 165-178. Retrieved from Business Source
9. Premier database.
Leadership is becoming increasingly recognized as a crucial
issue for organizations facing
change in a complex and volatile environment. This leads to a
need for an understanding of the
extensive leadership literature. However, it is notable that this
literature is primarily focused on
'good' leadership. Until relatively recently it has ignored 'bad'
or 'dark-side' leadership. Yet recent
research in the field of change has provided evidence that such
'negative' leadership impacts
adversely on change implementation. The purpose of this paper,
therefore, is to review the
literature on 'bad' leadership and to explore the extent to which
leader narcissism provides an
explanation of 'bad' leadership behaviors. Building from this
review the paper presents
recommendations for future research.
McMurray, P., & Rosenke, S. (2005). Leadership in a changing
environment. Rural
Telecommunications, 24(5), 30-36. Retrieved from Business
Source Premier database.
Focuses on the leadership strategies to manage employee
resistance to corporate changes.
10. Perceptions of employees on changes; Impact of changes on
employees' expertise and
motivation; Adjustment shared by employees and corporate
leaders in the change process.
Why is the failure rate for organisation change so high?. (2008).
Management Services, 52(4),
10-19. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
The article explains the reasons for the failure of organizational
change. Among the reasons cited
are absence of dedicated and fully resourced implementation
teams, lack of structured
methodology and project management, failure to plan and
manage quick wins, failure to fully
mobilize change champions, lack of sympathetic human
resource policies, use of an outsider to
transact change, and failure to monitor and evaluate outcomes.
Strategies to manage transition
are also cited, notably change in leadership culture.
Phase 3
Da, Y., & Liang, J. (2004). A new model for examining the
leader - member exchange (LMX)
11. theory. Human Resource Development International, 7(2), 251-
264. Retrieved from
Business Source Premier database.
The theory of leader - member exchange (LMX) is re-examined.
The concepts of social and
economic exchange misused in previous research are clarified.
A model that describes the
exchange relationships between manager and subordinates is
presented. The model challenges
the well-accepted positive relationship between high quality of
LMXs and organizational
performance in previous studies by pointing out that the
relationship may lead to negative
results. New research propositions based upon the model are
offered to encourage further
research efforts.
Dixon, M., & Hart, L. (2010). The impact of path-goal
leadership styles on work group
effectiveness and turnover intention. Journal of Managerial
Issues, 22(1), 52-69.
Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
Leaders continuously seek to improve organizational
performance and enhance work group
12. effectiveness to drive competitiveness and curtail the cost of
employee turnover. The diversity of
many work groups in the U.S. creates potential benefits and
challenges for their leaders. Using
data gathered from a manufacturing facility in southeastern
U.S., this study examines how Path-
Goal leadership styles, diversity, work group effectiveness, and
work group members' turnover
intention are related. Although all three Path-Goal leadership
styles demonstrated significant
positive correlations with work group effectiveness, only the
Supportive style showed a
significant negative relationship with turnover intention.
Interestingly, work group effectiveness
showed no significant correlation with turnover intention.
Spinosa, C., Glennon, B., & Sota, L. (2008). The virtues of
transformational leaders. Business
Strategy Review, 19(4), 82-86. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
They are a rare breed: transformative leaders earn that heady
title by transforming not just
companies, but industries. Charles Spinosa, Billy Glennon and
Luis Sota believe there are four
virtues that such leaders manifest.
13. Vera, D., & Crossan, M. (2004). Strategic leadership and
organizational learning. Academy of
Management Review, 29(2), 222-240. Retrieved from Business
Source Premier database.
Adopting the strategic leadership perspective, we develop a
theoretical model of the impact of
CEO and top manager leadership styles and practices on
organizational learning. We take a fine-
grained look at the processes and levels of organizational
learning to describe how strategic
leaders influence each element of the learning system.
Researchers have implicitly assumed
transformational leadership approaches to organizational
learning. We challenge this
conventional wisdom by highlighting the value of transactional
leadership as well.
Phase 4
urockra
Highlight
Kellerman, B. (2004). Leadership warts and all. Harvard
Business Review, 82(1), 40-45.
Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
14. According to today's business literature, to be a leader is, by
definition, to be benevolent. But
leadership is not a moral concept, and it is high time we
acknowledge that fact. We have as much
to learn from those we would regard as bad examples as we do
from the far fewer good examples
we're presented with these days. Leaders are like the rest of us:
trustworthy and deceitful,
cowardly and brave, greedy and generous. To assume that all
good leaders are good people is to
be willfully blind to the reality of the human condition, and it
severely limits our ability to
become better leaders. Worse, it may cause senior executives to
think that, because they are
leaders, they are never deceitful, cowardly, or greedy. That way
lies disaster.
Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard
Business Review, 78(2), 78-90.
Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
According to the author, although effective leadership eludes
many people and organizations,
new research has determined six distinct leadership types that
appear to have a direct and unique
15. impact on the working atmosphere of an organization. Research
shows that leaders with the best
results do not rely on only one leadership style. The six styles
are coercive, authoritative,
affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching. Findings
indicate that the more styles a leader
exhibits, the better. This can be accomplished by building a
team with members who employ
styles the leader lacks. An alternative approach is to expand
one's own style repertoires.
Maner, J., & Mead, N. (2010). The essential tension between
leadership and power: When
leaders sacrifice group goals for the sake of self-interest.
Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 99(3), 482-497. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
Throughout human history, leaders have been responsible for
helping groups attain important
goals. Ideally, leaders use their power to steer groups toward
desired outcomes. However,
leaders can also use their power in the service of self-interest
rather than effective leadership.
Five experiments identified factors within both the person and
the social context that determine
16. whether leaders wield their power to promote group goals
versus self-interest. In most cases,
leaders behaved in a manner consistent with group goals.
However, when their power was
tenuous due to instability within the hierarchy, leaders high (but
not low) in dominance
motivation prioritized their own power over group goals: They
withheld valuable information
from the group, excluded a highly skilled group member, and
prevented a proficient group
member from having any influence over a group task. These
self-interested actions were
eliminated when the group was competing against a rival
outgroup. Findings provide important
insight into factors that influence the way leaders navigate the
essential tension between
leadership and power.
Yunxia, Z. (2007). Do cultural values shape employee
receptivity to leadership styles?. Academy
of Management Perspectives, 21(3), 89-90. Retrieved from
Business Source Premier
database.
17. This article discusses management science and the contextual
factors that influence how
employees respond to various leadership styles. Research has
explored how group level
collectivism might moderate the relationship between
transformational leadership and employee
attitudes. The author reflects on how the use of other leadership
styles, such as transactional,
might influence these relationships. With consideration of
increased diversity within work
groups and the growth of international business, cultural values
and the reaction of employees to
various leadership styles warrants increased attention.
Phase 5
Carson, J., Tesluk, P., & Marrone, J. (2007). Shared leadership
in teams: An investigation of
antecedent conditions and performance. Academy of
Management Journal, 50(5), 1217-
1234. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
Shared leadership refers to a team property whereby leadership
is distributed among team
members rather than focused on a single designated leader. We
examined antecedent conditions
18. that lead to the development of shared leadership and the
influence of shared leadership on team
performance in a sample of 59 consulting teams. Both the
internal team environment, consisting
of shared purpose, social support, and voice, and external
coaching were important predictors of
shared leadership emergence. In turn, shared leadership was
found to predict team performance
as rated by clients. We conclude by discussing the implications
of these findings for team
leadership and effectiveness.
Druskat, V., & Wheeler, J. (2003). Managing from the
boundary: The effective leadership of
self-managing work teams. Academy of Management Journal,
46(4), 435-457. Retrieved
from Business Source Premier database.
We used in-depth critical incident interviews with the external
leaders of self-managing work
teams and their team members, and interviews and surveys
provided by managers, to understand
how effective leader behaviors and strategies unfold over time.
Content analyses of the data
produced a process model showing that effective external
leaders move back and forth across
19. boundaries to build relationships, scout necessary information,
persuade their teams and outside
constituents to support one another, and empower their teams to
achieve success.
Hobson, C., Strupeck, D., & Szostek, J. (2010). A behavioral
roles approach to assessing and
improving the team leadership capabilities of managers.
International Journal of
Management, 27(1), 3-15. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
Success in today's globally competitive marketplace requires
that managers have the ability to
effectively lead teams. While some individuals appear to have
an innate, almost effortless
capability to lead teams, most managers benefit from systematic
efforts to assess and improve
their performance in this critical area. Research on small group
interaction and leadership
behavior in teams is used to identify a set of task, social, and
dysfunctional behavioral roles that
are critical to team leader success. The widely used, well-
researched leaderless group discussion
20. (LGD) exercise is proposed as a potentially useful tool to
measure team leadership role
behaviors. A structured protocol is introduced, employing the
LGD to assess and improve team
leadership capabilities in individuals. Examples of protocol use
in business and academia are
discussed. Finally, several directions for future research are
considered.
Pearce, C. (2004). The future of leadership: Combining vertical
and shared leadership to
transform knowledge work. Academy of Management Executive,
18(1), 47-57. Retrieved
from Business Source Premier database.
Knowledge work is becoming increasingly team-based. With the
shift to team-based knowledge
work comes the need to question more traditional models of
leadership. Traditionally, leadership
has been conceived around the idea that one person is firmly "in
charge" while the rest are
simply followers--what is termed vertical leadership. However,
recent research indicates that
leadership can be shared by team leaders and team members--
rotating to the person with the key
knowledge, skills, and abilities for the particular issues facing
21. the team at any given moment. In
fact, research indicates that poor-performing teams tend to be
dominated by the team leader,
while high-performing teams display more dispersed leadership
patterns, i.e., shared leadership.
This is not to suggest that leadership from above is unnecessary.
On the contrary, the role of the
vertical leader is critical to the ongoing success of the shared-
leadership approach to knowledge
work. Thus, this article addresses the following questions: (1)
when is leadership most
appropriately shared? (2) how is shared leadership best
developed? and (3) how does one
effectively utilize both vertical and shared leadership to
leverage the capabilities of knowledge
workers?
Pinar, M., & Girard, T. (2008). Investigating the impact of
organizational excellence and
leadership on business performance: An exploratory study of
Turkish firms. SAM
Advanced Management Journal, 73(1), 29-45. Retrieved from
Business Source Premier
database.
22. The article focuses on the study of the impact of organizational
excellence and leadership on the
performance of firms in Turkey. It cites the three key factors
that are critical for business
performances including customer oriented, quality of personnel,
innovation and four key
leadership techniques. Furthermore, the seven factors, personal
interviews and surveys with 200
firms were folded up in three major cities in the western part of
the country and the outcome for
each factor was examined carefully to help managers weigh the
value of various approaches and
strategies. The study suggests the significant link of
organizational and leadership on business
performances.
Cascio, W. (2005). Strategies for responsible restructuring.
Academy of Management
Executive,19(4), 39-50. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
As organizations struggle to enhance their competitive
positions, employment downsizing
continues as a preferred part of a restructuring strategy. Its
23. objective is to reduce operating costs
as a way of increasing earnings and stock prices. A study of
S&P 500 firms from 1982-2000,
however, casts serious doubt on the long-term payoff of this
approach. The purpose of this article
is to suggest several alternative approaches to restructuring. In
contrast to employment
downsizing, a strategy that regards people as costs to be cut, a
responsible restructuring strategy
focuses on people as assets to be developed. This focus
recognizes that people are the source of
innovation and renewal, especially in knowledge-based
organizations, and that the development
of new markets, customers, and revenue streams depends on the
wise use of a firm's human
assets. The article presents company examples and research-
based findings that illustrate
mistakes to avoid and affirmative steps to take when
restructuring responsibly.
Coyne, K., Coyne, S., & Coyne, S. (2010). When You've Got to
Cut Costs Now. Harvard
Business Review, 88(5), 74-82. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
The article discusses strategies that managers can use to reduce
24. overhead costs by 10, 20, and 30
percent. The authors say that managers will have to look at a
combination of at least 10 actions
that will produce opportunities for administrative cost savings
and recognize the proportional
amount of organizational disruption that accompanies cost
control. Topics discussed include
consolidating incidentals such as organizational events,
resolving overdue personnel issues such
as under-performing employees, eliminating interdepartmental
liaisons, coordinating
departments' parallel activities such as purchasing, redesigning
the hiring and performance
management processes, and restructuring cross-department
activities.
Fryer, B., Stybel, L., Peabody, M., Dormann, J., & Sutton, R.
(2009). The Layoff. Harvard
Business Review, 87(3), 33-40. Retrieved from Business Source
Premier database.
Astrigo is in trouble. The home improvement chain has missed
its earnings forecast badly and
sales are falling. A 10% reduction in staff looks like the only
choice. Layoffs, however, would
undermine the retailer's longtime commitment to employees and
25. the ability to provide its famed
customer service. But tapping cash reserved for strategic
acquisitions goes against the firm's
values, too. What should the CEO do? Board advisers Laurence
J. Stybel and Maryanne
Peabody, of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire, suggest that the
company borrow a page from
McDonald's and declare Astrigo's intention to focus on the
interests of long-term shareholders.
This move would establish a framework that would help
management make tactical decisions
with more clarity and flexibility. The company could then use
its cash to buy a little time to
study the options. If Astrigo can't avoid layoffs, a last-in, first-
out approach would be the least
costly. Former CEO Jürgen Dormann understands the challenge
Astrigo faces. When he took
over ABB, the company was in deep distress. After shaking up
his executive committee,
Dormann personally reached out to all 180,000 employees to
enlist their help. They came back
with ideas that saved $1.6 billion -- and rescued the company.
Management professor Robert I.
26. Sutton thinks too many executives assume that layoffs are the
best way to reduce costs. They
don't factor in how long it takes to realize the savings from job
cuts, the costs to hire and train
people once business picks up, or the damage to morale and
productivity. Astrigo's executives
should consider alternatives such as pay cuts, reduced benefits,
unpaid time off, and incentives
for departure. If layoffs are inevitable, Astrigo should do them
quickly, and firing the bottom
10% of employees would be the worst approach.
Kowske, B., Lundby, K., & Rasch, R. (2009). Turning 'Survive'
into 'Thrive': Managing Survivor
Engagement in a Downsized Organization. People & Strategy,
32(4), 48-56. Retrieved
from Business Source Premier database.
The articles discuss the effect that downsizing can have on the
workplace environment and the
attitudes and productivity of the workers who survived the
layoffs. Some research has shown that
while downsizing is usually undertaken to reduce costs and
increase efficiency, there may be
limited long term benefits due to worker turnover,
27. dissatisfaction and disengagement. The
authors suggest that managers can mitigate against the negative
aspects of downsizing by
communicating with employees about the changes and the
subsequent vision for the future of the
organization. Dealing with the remaining employees in a fair
and supportive manner can help
create an environment of trust after downsizing has taken place.
(2009). Maximize Productivity, Minimize Layoffs. (cover
story). HR Focus, 86(4), 1-15.
Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
The article focuses on the effort of human resource
professionals to maximize productivity and
minimize layoffs in the U.S. It explores the means to seek
alternatives to avoid layoffs and keep
as many employees as possible. It illustrates how an
organization can avoid and handle such
situation during a recession and gives an overview on how it
affected organizations and
operations in the country.
Parks, C. (2002). Instill Lean Thinking. Industrial Management,
44(5), 14. Retrieved from
Business Source Premier database.
28. Discusses the role of corporate culture and change management
in a company's transformation to
a lean organization. Need for strong project leadership and
support from top management;
Lessons from lean implementation initiatives that failed;
Description of the Toyota Production
System; Elements of effective change management strategies;
Need for cross-functional training
in order to have productive multifunctional workers.
