Quenchbliss is a craft soda company headquartered in El Paso, Texas, with additional facilities in Juarez, Mexico. They have 80 full-time employees between the two branches. In 2023 they saw a massive increase in sales from $16 million to $20 million thanks to their expansion into Juarez. This has led them to further planning of opening facilities in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, particularly to hotels, bars, and restaurants in areas with the most tourism. In this Touchstone, you will synthesize what you have learned throughout the class by making recommendations to Quenchbliss executives on how to maintain organizational health at this time of rapid growth and change. In Unit 1 you developed a SWOT analysis to fully understand the position of Quenchbliss within their market and community. In Unit 2, you recommended an organizational structure and motivational strategies to facilitate change. You will want to have both documents available to help inform your final recommendations. For this Touchstone, we will make the following assumptions:
· Quenchbliss’s strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats (SWOT) identified in the Touchstone Task 1 have not changed and should inform your decisions.
· Quenchbliss is following the recommendations from Touchstone 2 to facilitate its expansion. Recall the timeline, organizational strategy, and resources dedicated to this growth.
· Quenchbliss’s employee turnover has improved due to the motivational strategies you recommended in Touchstone 2, but the organization is concerned that despite the motivational strategies you’ve proposed, the major change and expansion will still negatively impact motivation over the next year.
· Quenchbliss is also concerned about how these changes will affect the working units within their organization (see org chart below). They would like advice on how to help diverse cross-functional teams come together quickly and work effectively despite cultural differences.
· Finally, Quenchbliss knows that times of instability can lead to unhealthy organizational politics, power plays, and conflict. They would like to minimize these problems for their organization.
Assignment: You will write a 8-10 page (2000-2500 word) research paper for Quenchbliss, addressing the theories of organizational behavior and how they should be combined and utilized in a way that applies to Quenchbliss, given the recent changes and expansion occurring within the organization. Your research paper will include at least one concept, model or theory from each of the topic areas listed below. For each topic, review the tutorials and select a theory or model that seems most appropriate. In your Touchstone, summarize the theory or model and explain how Quenchbliss should apply it to their organization. The topics are:
· External Environment (Use the SWOT analysis you wrote in Touchstone Task 1 as a reference).
· Change Management (Use the recommendations from Touchtone 2 as a reference).
· Diversity and Cultural Differences
· Team Development
· Conflict, Power, and Organizational Politics
In order to foster learning and growth, all work you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any plagiarized or recycled work will result in a Plagiarism Detected alert. Review Touchstones: Academic Integrity Guidelines for more about plagiarism and the Plagiarism Detected alert. For guidance on the use of generative AI technology, review Ethical Standards and Appropriate Use of AI .
A. Directions
Step 1: Review tutorials on each of the topics you’ll be writing about
Some of the most helpful tutorials are listed below, but you should review all the course material and may use any tutorial to inform your decisions.
· Internal and External Environments
· Organizational Change
· Cultural Differences
· Team Development Over Time
· Conflict in Organizations
· Responding to Conflict
· Political Behavior in Organizations
Step 2: Draft the Research Paper
Prepare a research paper to present to leadership at Quenchbliss. The structure for the research paper will consist of five main topics. For each topic, you will identify a problem or opportunity at Quenchbliss either through the scenario or from your SWOT analysis. For each problem you will propose a solution based on the concepts learned in the tutorials.
For the benefit of Quenchbliss executives, summarize the framework, concept or theory from the tutorial (making sure to use in-text citations!), then synthesize and analysis this concept, and how it relates to Quenchbliss, and the change they have decided to undertake.
The topics and guiding questions for the research paper are below. Be sure to cover all of these topics in your paper.
1. External Environment
· What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the organization is facing? This should be consistent with the SWOT analysis you wrote for the Touchstone Task in Unit 1.
· What model may be applied to better understand these factors? Using the model you’ve chosen, describe how each aspect applies to Quenchbliss.
· How can Quenchbliss address the external opportunities and threats you’ve identified?
2. Change Management
· What change management model should Quenchbliss use as they enter the new markets? Why is this model the most effective?
· This should consistent with your recommendations (and org chart) in the Touchstone in Unit 2.
· List each step of the model, and address specific actions the organization should take at each step.
3. Diversity and Cultural differences
· What cultural differences should Quenchbliss consider when entering the overseas market?
· What specific differences such as minimum wage and vacation time should Quenchbliss consider when entering these two countries?
· What strategies might Quenchbliss use to help them ensure diversity throughout their organization?
4. Team Development
· Given the addition of new team members, how can the organization apply the team development model in order to move new staff and their teams into the “performing stage” more quickly?
· What actions should be taken at each stage of the team development process to ensure effective teamwork?
5. Conflict, Power, and Politics
· What strategies might be used to understand and manage conflict at Quenchbliss as it arises?
· How might power struggles and organizational politics impact the organization as they make such a large change?
· What mitigation techniques can be used to mitigate negative uses of power and politics?
Making reasonable assumptions to describe Quenchbliss’ potential challenges is acceptable and necessary. For example, you can assume factors like employment are the same for Quenchbliss as they are for El Paso, or that their product cost is similar to competitors.
You must cite 8-10 sources. At least five of these will be the Sophia tutorials which describe the theories and models of organizational behavior you apply to the case study. The rest (three or more) will be resources that inform your SWOT analysis, such as anticipated market growth for the craft soda industry, labor statistics in El Paso and the other locations, etc. While these do not have to be academic journals, you should use reliable sources of information such as reputable business publications. The paper should be in APA format with a title page; proper headings, margins and spacing; and in-text citations and references. Resources and examples are listed under Additional Resources.
Step 3: Check Your Work
Refer to the checklist below throughout the process. Only submit your Touchstone once it meets the expectations for the assignment as described in the assignment and rubric, and meets APA guidelines. The Additional Resources below include links to resources that can help with APA formatting, citations, and references.
Step 4: Submit Your Touchstone
Once you have verified that the paper meets these guidelines, you can submit as a single file in .doc or .docx format.
B. Requirements
· The paper must be 8-10 pages, 2000-2500 words when using APA formatting conventions.
· The paper should be in APA format with a title page; proper headings, font size, margins and spacing; and in-text citations and references. Resources and examples are listed under Additional Resources.
· All content must be original, created for this assignment, and appropriate for an academic audience. Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited, including the use of AI-generated content.
· Submission must include your name, the date, and the title of your paper.
· Include all of the assignment components in a single .doc or .docx file.
C. Additional Resources
The following resources may be helpful to you as you work on your Touchstone Task 1 assignment.
· Purdue Online Writing Lab’s APA Formatting and Style Guide. This site includes a comprehensive overview of APA style, as well as individual pages with guidelines for specific citation types.
· Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style. This page on the official APA website addresses common questions related to APA formatting. The “References,” “Punctuation,” and “Grammar and Writing Style” sections will be the most useful to your work in this course.
· APA Style: Quick Answers—References. This page on the official APA Style website provides numerous examples of reference list formatting for various source types.
· Appropriate Level of Citation. This page offers guidance on how to effectively avoid over- or under-citation.