Q Instructions Please write an essay by providing 5-8 pages around the following topic: Utilizing the library, text, and other credible resources, you will work the questions asked on page 703-704 of your text as it relates to "Still Your Turn," Managing Compensation Costs, Headcount, and Participation/Communication Issues. Read through the scenario, then answer the questions that are asked in paragraph form: Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, American Airlines, and General Motors are examples of companies that have cut employment or cut wages and/or benefits to reduce labor costs in hopes of becoming more competitive and more profitable. Indeed, American and GM went through bankruptcy in part to gain control over labor costs. In contrast, some companies—Southwest Airlines, Nucor, and Lincoln Electric—have a no-layoff practice and do not appear to have cut wages or benefits even in years when sales have declined significantly. (They have also not gone through bankruptcy.) What is the difference between these two sets of companies? Is it simply that one set of companies cares more about its employees than the other set of companies does? Or is it also the case that Southwest, Nucor, and Lincoln Electric have set up their compensation strategies in a way that makes them more able (than Cisco, HP, American, and GM) to cut labor costs when times are tough? (For more background, go to an online search engine and conduct a separate search for each company using its name and the term “layoff.”) What about protecting investment in employees and employee relations? What can an employer do to make labor costs flexible so that profits do not take as much of a beating during difficult economic times and so that fewer employees need to be laid off? If you were in charge of designing a compensation system for a company that is fairly new but is now reaching a stage and size where it needs a formal compensation system, how would you design the compensation system to have labor-cost flexibility? To what degree would you have others at the company participate in the design of the new compensation system? Who would participate? Would you follow a policy of pay openness in communicating your compensation system? Provide a rationale for your decisions. Page 703 Review Questions How can employers control labor costs? How does the management of the pay system affect pay objectives? Why is the structure of the compensation function important? Give some examples of how employers use inherent controls. What activities in managing the pay system are likely candidates to be outsourced? Why? Use Exhibit 18.13 to explain how the research on individual decision making can be used in pay communication. Use the APA format for this paper and you should not only utilize the text for cited source material but a minimum of 5-8 cited sources in addition. I have taken the liberty of inserting a link from Purdue Owl as a great resource of cited source material options when doing a research paper. I have also included the APA resource guide as well for your reference. Research Paper Resources APA Resource Part of the assignment in drawing upon real world examples as well, so feel free to include some work experience in this paper to enhance the overall project. Please place this assignment in the following Assignment Submission Folder: W8: Final Project: Business Scenario - Managing Compensation Costs, Headcount, and Participation/Communication Issues