The document outlines two main assignments focused on performance management systems and literary analysis, specifically analyzing scenes from Stephen King's 'The Raft.' The first assignment requires students to analyze three quotes or scenes from the short story, connecting them to societal values and horror entertainment, while the second assignment involves interviewing a nursing professional to understand performance management within healthcare. Each part emphasizes the importance of critical analysis and reflection in drawing conclusions about effectiveness and improvement strategies.

1. Analysis Assignment
Analysis Worksheet #2 for 3 scenes/quotes from “The Raft”
Minimum 1 paragraph on each scene/quote (total = 450 word
minimum)
In the humanities, analysis requires swooping in on small parts
of a “text” and making connections to its creator and societal
context: how does what we create reflect our values and how do
these creations also influence our values? We often do this by
thinking about the ways in which a “text” is representative of a
trend, how it diverges from a trend to create something new, or
even how it subverts a trend.
This assignment asks you to select and analyze 3 scenes or
quotes from Stephen King’s “The Raft” short story. You will
analyze the scene/quote via your analysis worksheet (#2) and
create paragraphs on each scene/quote that make a larger point
about the story and horror entertainment in our society.
Remember, the purpose of analysis (regardless of disciplinary
point of view) is to explain relationships between parts and
wholes—to break down the object into its constituent parts, find
meaning in those parts, and then determine the meaning of the
whole object. Your analysis must include a careful tracing of
the meaning of the 3 selected parts and how they relate to the
meaning of the whole short story; remember the meaning of the
whole is where you will at a minimum need to include and
connect scholarly sources on horror so that your work fits with
our class theme.
To describe it in a different manner: analyzing a work of art,
musical composition, literary work, historical document,
philosophical argument, or film is to explain how it "works"—
how particular part(s) contribute to some whole in order to
enhance understanding of the meaning of the text or artifact.

2. Which part(s) you choose to examine depends largely on the
question that you are trying to answer.
Your submission must include your Analysis Worksheet #2 with
the 3 scenes/quotes analyzed plus 3 paragraphs based upon the
worksheet information. These 3 paragraphs should together
comprise a minimum of 400 words.
Please use MLA guidelines to document your source(s). You
will need to have atleast 1 scholarly secondary source as
support for your ideas and it can come from reading(s) OR from
a source you find.
Module 3: Evaluating Performance Management Systems
Depending on your experience in healthcare, and other fields as
well, you may be familiar with a performance management
system or primarily with one aspect of assessing performance,
the annual performance review. As a critical distinction from
the annual review, performance management goes beyond a list
of skills to rate or expected behaviors to check off, to a larger
consideration of goals to reach and specific improvement
strategies to implement.
Gaining understanding and perspective on a nurse executive’s
role in performance management is the purpose of this Module 3
Assignment. To help inform your thinking and both the
opportunities and challenges of performance management, you
will gain firsthand information through an interview with a
nursing professional whose responsibilities include those you
will assume as a nurse executive.
Follow the guidelines for this Assignment as provided in the
overview documents. You are encouraged to give yourself
adequate time to reflect on your interviewee’s responses, the
better to support you in assuming this aspect of the work of a
nurse executive.

3. To Prepare:
Review the Learning Resources on performance management for
support in preparing for your interview with the human
resources nurse manager.
Access and review the Performance Management System
Interview Guidelines and Questions document for guidance on
selecting a nurse executive to interview, and on planning,
conducting, and analyzing the interview responses.
Note: You are required to complete and submit Page 2 of this
Guidelines document in a Word file identified as “Interviewee
Profile and Confirmation Signature.” Be sure to obtain the full
signature of your nurse executive interviewee to confirm the
individual’s participation. Initials and/or only first or last name
are not sufficient.
Access and review the Performance Management System
Interview Matrix Summary Template. Consider how you can use
this matrix to help organize information and conclusions from
your interview.
When you have completed the interview, reflect on the results,
including background information on the professional, the
healthcare organization, and performance management system.
As needed, follow up with your interviewee by phone or e-mail
to clarify answers and conclusions.
Assignment:
Part 1: Interview Matrix Summary
Complete the Performance Management System Interview
Matrix Summary, provided with the Assessment materials, to
create a visual summary of the information gathered through
your interview with the nurse executive.
Part 2: Interview Reflection

4. In a separate Word document, write 2–3 pages that reflect on
the interview and your overall impressions. Include the
following points in your reflection:
· Briefly describe the professional you interviewed, including
title, years of experience, and his/her healthcare organization
(e.g., size, location, special services). Note: Be mindful of your
interviewee’s privacy in the details you provide.
· Explain the concept of “performance management” that guided
your interview and the interviewee’s responses.
· Evaluate the healthcare organization’s performance
management system for effectiveness, drawing on the
interviewee’s assessment and your own observations and
conclusions.
· Describe characteristics and/or factors that stand out to you as
contributing to the system’s strengths and weaknesses.
· Describe actions, strategies, or approaches that you would
recommend to address weaknesses in the system.
Module 3 Assignment
Performance Management System Interview Matrix Summary

5. Complete this matrix to summarize information from your
interview with a nurse executive on the performance
management system for the individual’s healthcare
organization. Identify the nurse executive’s unit/department that
is the specific focus of your evaluation.
Characteristics/Factors
Performance Management System for [specify nursing unit]
System Features
Employee Evaluation
Criteria
Sources of
Evaluation Criteria
How Criteria
Communicated to
Employees
How Components of
Performance Management
Are Interconnected in the
System
How Information Collected,
Maintained, Consolidated,
and Summarized on
Employee Performance
and Retention

6. Technology Integration
in the System
Privacy Protections
System Analysis
How System Supports
Employee Development
How System Supports
Employee Retention
Use of Peer Reviews/
Multisource (360 degree)
Feedback and
Effectiveness
How Training Used to
Enhance Employee
Performance
and Retention
How Training Used to
Support Managers That
Evaluate Performance

7. Mechanisms for Employee
Input on the System
System Evaluation
How Well System
Supports Employee
Performance Growth and
Development
How Well System
Supports Employee
Retention
Performance Management
System Strengths
Performance Management
System Weaknesses
Overall Conclusions

8. Module 3 AssignmentPerformance Management System Nurse
Executive Interview
Planning and Arranging the Interview
For your Module 3 Assignment, you will interview a nurse
executive in a healthcare organization. Keep these qualities in
mind in identifying the professional to interview:
· The nurse executive may not have an official human resources
(HR) title but should spend a significant amount of time
leading, coordinating, or participating in HR–related functions.
· Specifically, the nurse executive must be involved in
implementing the performance management system in a
healthcare organization for his/her unit or department (i.e.,
obtains performance information, consolidates it in some form,
and works with employees on improvement strategies).
· You should have a relationship with the nurse executive that is
professional but the individual should also be comfortable
speaking honestly with you (i.e., in the same setting, the
individual should not be a direct report; or consider other
current or previous associations that could discourage candid
responses).
· This should be the first time you interview the individual for
any Walden University Assignment.
· Look for a nurse executive in a specialty unit (e.g., neonatal,
critical care, nurse anesthetist, etc.), so that the individual can
speak to specific performance requirements beyond general
nursing criteria (e.g., compassion, attention to detail, technical
training).

9. Plan for 45–60 minutes to conduct the interview. You may
speak in person, by phone, via Skype, or another means that is
convenient for you and the interviewee. If you record the
interview, obtain the person’s permission in advance.
Confirm to your interviewee that all information obtained in the
interview will be confidential. If preferred by the individual,
you may identify the nurse executive and his/her healthcare
organization using pseudonyms in the Assignment materials you
submit.
Interview questions to guide your conversation begin on Page 3
of this document.
Note: You are required to request the individual’s signature to
confirm the interview. Fill in the information on Page 2, print
out the page, and obtain the nurse executive’s full signature.
Scan and submit the signed Page 2 as a separate Word file with
your completed Assignment.
Interviewee Profile and Confirmation Signature
Name
Healthcare Organization
Unit/Department
Job Title
Years in Position
HR-Related Responsibilities
Relationship to You/How Identified for Interview

10. Interviewee’s Signature:
Conducting the Interview
There are 10 sets of question that follow for examining the
performance management system in your interview subject’s
healthcare organization. Keep the interview focus on the nurse
executive’s unit (i.e., neonatal, critical care) to obtain as
detailed information as possible:
Take notes on the responses in the spaces on the right. If you
record the interview, you are still encouraged to take notes on
the person’s responses, as a safeguard in case there is any
problem with the recording.
Questions
Responses
1. What criteria are used to evaluate employee performance
within your specific unit (i.e., neonatal, critical care) in the
healthcare organization?
What are the sources of information (e.g., observation, patient
satisfaction) that inform the criteria?
How are the criteria communicated to employees?
1. Notes/verbatim quotes:
2. Basically, “performance management” refers to all activities
carried out to manage and improve employee performance. This
includes obtaining performance information and communicating
this information to the employee; supervision; coaching;
rewards; training; discipline; and at times, career development.

11. Thinking about the performance manageme nt system for nurses
in your specific unit, how does the system support development
and retention of desired employee characteristics and
behaviors?
Note: Ask for both specific examples and comments on how
well the system works.
2. Notes/verbatim quotes:
3. To what extent are the various components of performance
management interconnected?
For example, is performance appraisal information used to help
identify training needs for employees?
3. Notes/verbatim quotes:
4. What types of training are provided to enhance employee
performance and retention?
4. Notes/verbatim quotes:
5. How is information collected, maintained, consolidated, and
summarized on employee performance and retention?
What is the role of technology in this process, including
ensuring privacy of employee information?
5. Notes/verbatim quotes:
6. Are peer reviews or multisource feedback (i.e., 360-degree
feedback) used?
If it is/has been used, what are/were its strengths and
drawbacks?
If it was tried and abandoned, why was it discontinued?

12. What is your overall assessment of the multisource feedback,
and circumstances (if any) when it might be useful?
6. Notes/verbatim quotes:
7. What are two types of training you would recommend to help
prepare managers to discuss performance with employees?
7. Notes/verbatim quotes:
8. What are strengths of your performance management system
to recommend as exemplars?
8. Notes/verbatim quotes:
9. What weaknesses in the performance management system
need to be addressed?
How do you know the nature of the weaknesses?
9. Notes/verbatim quotes:
10. What mechanisms are available, if any, for your employees
to provide input on the performance management system?
10. Notes/verbatim quotes:
Analyzing and Reflecting on the Interview
· Reflect on the results of the interview, including background
information on the professional, the healthcare organization,
and performance management system.
· Consider how you would summarize information gained in the
interview using the Performance Management System Interview
Matrix Template and your Reflection paper to provide a
thorough description of the performance management system.

13. · Consider strengths and weaknesses of the system, as described
by the nurse executive and from your own analysis, and
strategies and approaches you would recommend for addressing
the weaknesses.
· As needed, follow up with your interviewee by phone or e-
mail to clarify answers and conclusions. You may ask the nurse
executive to review a draft of your interview summary to ensure
that you captured the individual’s intent.
Completing the Module 3 Assignment
Part 1: Interview Matrix Summary
Complete the Performance Management System Interview
Matrix Summary Template, provided in the Module 3 Learning
Resources, to create a visual summary of the information
gathered through your interview with a nurse manager.
Part 2: Interview Reflection
In a separate Word document, write 2–3 pages that reflect on
the interview and your overall impressions and that include the
following:
· Briefly describe the professional you interviewed, including
title, years of experience, and his/her healthcare organization
(e.g., size, location, special services). Note: Be mindful of your
interviewee’s privacy in the details you provide.
· Explain the concept of “performance management” that guided
your interview and the interviewee’s responses.
· Evaluate the healthcare organization’s performance
management system for effectiveness, drawing on the nurse
executive’s assessment and your own observations and
conclusions.
· Describe characteristics and/or factors that stand out to you as

14. contributing to the system’s strengths and weaknesses.
· Describe actions, strategies, or approaches you would
recommend to address weaknesses in the system.
Final Submission
Submit in three separate files:
· Performance Management System Interview Matrix Summary
· Interview Reflection
· Interviewee Profile and Confirmation Signature (Page 2 from
this document)
References:
Fried, B. J., & Fottler, M. D. (Eds.). (2018). Fundamentals of
human resources in healthcare (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: Health
Administration Press.
· Chapter 6, “Organizational Development and Training” (pp.
150–173)
· Chapter 7, “Performance Management” (pp. 174–204)
Analysis Worksheet #2
Quote from Primary Source Text (cite pg #)
Literary or writing technique author used
Meaning Statement
related to quote
Support from scholarly source
on related topic
(quote and pg#)

15. Online Research Worksheet
Directions: Find sources related to “The Raft,” Stephen King
and his short stories, or even the genre of horror in general. In
the spaces below, you can just enter the author, title of the
book/article, and the journal information [if necessary].
Library books:
1.___________________________________________________
________
Academic Search Complete:
1.___________________________________________________
________
2.___________________________________________________
________
Database of your own choosing:
What database did you choose?
______________________________________

16. 1.___________________________________________________
________