Strengths-Based Development (read case P93) Summary: When drought threatened the survival of Ohio farming co-op Auglaize Provico, CEO Larry Hammond changed the business model. He implemented strengths-based development to leverage the unique strengths and talents of each employee. Hammond hoped that encouraging employees to leverage their innate talents would enable them to drive the business forward. 1. Do you think it is better to focus on assessing and developing employees’ weaknesses, or to focus on their strengths? Why? 2. Why would strengths-based development increase employee engagement? 3. If you were a manager, how might you interact with employees differently if you were using strengths-based development rather than deficit-based development?

Ryan is deciding between attending western state university and eastern state university. he cannot attend both universities simultaneously. both are fine universities, but the reputation of western is slightly higher, as is the tuition. let mu subscript upper e and mu subscript upper w be ryan's marginal utilities from attending eastern and western state universities respectively and upper p subscript upper e and upper p subscript upper w be the prices of attending eastern and western state universities. using the rule of consumer optimum, ryan will decide to attend eastern state university, if mue/pe exceeds muw/pw attend eastern state university if mue/pe is less than muw/pw attend western state university, if pe/mue< pw/muw attend western state university, since it gives him more utility.