Which of the following actions is likely to have the highest initialcost in terms of its impact on other parts of the organization?
o lay off a portion of your workforce and then try to motivate everyone who’s left to work harder. this option also means selecting future hires from a lower-skill labor pool and paying lower wages.
o begin buying slightly lower-grade materials, including hardwood, aluminum, vinyl, and nylon.
o replace existing equipment with newer, more efficient equipment. although this option entails substantial up-front investment, you’re sure that you can more than make up the difference in lower production costs.
o replace existing equipment with newer, more efficient equipment. although this option entails substantial up-front investment, you’re sure that you can more than make up the difference in lower production costs.

Replace existing equipment with newer, more efficient equipment. Although this option entails substantial up-front investment, you’re sure that you can more than make up the difference in lower production costs.

Explanation:

The action that is likely to have the highest initial cost in terms of its impact on other parts of the organization is to replace existing equipment with newer, more efficient equipment. Although this option entails substantial up-front investment, you’re sure that you can more than make up the difference in lower production costs. This because buying new equipment will require a big investment from the company at the beginning to cover its costs but this will later generate more productivity and lower production costs which will compensate the initial high cost.

The other options are not right because buying slightly lower-grade materials, including hardwood, aluminum, vinyl, and nylon can decrease the cost at the beginning but the company can have problems with the quality of the products which could be really costly. Also, lay off a portion of your workforce and then try to motivate everyone who’s left to work harder and this option also means selecting future hires from a lower-skill labor pool and paying lower wages will decrease labor costs at the beginning but can require a big investment later with the costs of the process to hire new people, compensations to the employees that were laid off and can also result on low quality job and productivity from lower-skill labor.