Managing and leading strategic change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Managing and leading strategic change - Essay Example Its purpose is to critically analyse and evaluate the nature of these relationships shared by organizations’ environment and their external activities. Introduction As the business world continues to evolve every day, people are moving from the olden formulas of doing business to new and technological equipped systems (Schniederjans, 2005:74). The scope of this paper is to show that it is needful for managers and marketers to incorporate knowledge of substantiated organizational change in order to ensure that business organizations and their environments correlate with the internal activities, processes, and systems (King, 2009:59). The essay discusses that the art of technological advancement is high thus; management and its team need to be up to date. Ultimately, this helps the company to achieve both short and long-term objectives. Further, the scope of the essay presents a documented evidence of research based on selective appropriate academic literature, concepts, models and theories based on change management in an organization. ... Critical outlook into the nature of the rapport between an organization’s surroundings and its management of internal activities shows that, at times, it may be sore following the idea that not all suppliers, consumers, and other actors in the outside environment will find the organization’s systems, activities, and processes convenient. This indicates that the nature of the relations shared between and among these agents undergoes residual changes based on prices and time (Collier and Agyei-Ampomah, 2009:44). According to evolutionary models that include adaptive models and systems theory, expound on organizational change management as cognitive. Today, organizations are facing a primary problem, which is the disconnection between organizations internal activities and their external aspects. Formerly, organizations were able to disconnect their external relations from their internal functioning activities mainly because there were just a few communication methods betwe en the outsider and insiders (Shah, 2007:82). Public relations, purchasing, marketing, top executives, and the strategic planning sectors of an organization handled the external functions (Mcdavid and Hawthorn, 2006:41). On the other end, the production, engineering, accounting, human resource management, both middle and lower level managers attended the internal aspects of the organization. However, when the facade of networking, flexible manufacturing, business process re-engineering, and redefined production as well as the new customer service focus entered the market, organization relations changed (Ramanathan, 2009:60). These constructive changes indicate that all people involved with any organization need to engage both their knowledge from the

The charity that I am going is going to be Christian aid Essay Example for Free

The charity that I am going is going to be Christian aid Essay The charity that I am going is going to be Christian aid. I am going to describe, analyse and explain the work they do for world development. Christian aid was set up in 1944, to help the many people in Europe who found themselves homeless after the war. It was set up by a group of people from Christian and Irish churches. Christian aid is committed to give help to whoever and whenever it is needed, regardless of race, culture or religion. Its work is mainly done in LEDCs because it believes that everyone should have a fair share of the worlds resources. Christian aid is based on the teachings and philosophy of Jesus. This gives them the motivation to do something for the poor and follow the teachings of Jesus. Over the past ten years Christian aid has campaigned against some difficult situations such as: The cancellation of third world debt to do this many postcards has been sent to the Prime ministers and heads of state. Some cancellations have been promised but so far only one third. Fair trade Christian aid believes that people in LEDCs should get paid fairly for the work they do. For example people working on tea plantations get roughly around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.50 a day rather than 75p. This means that with this money they can buy basic food, health care and some education. The work that Christian aid does to help world development can be split into four parts: Fund-raising in order to relive poverty Christian aid helps raise money in several ways. For example Christian aid week has been organised since 1957. In 1995 it raised over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½8.6 million. Also many churches and individuals have fund raising events throughout the year which usually raises three times more than Christian aid week. Emergency aid Christian aid spends between 10% to 15% of its budget on emergency aid each year. It has a disaster fund which helps deal with natural disasters when they might occur. For example Christian aid sent food, medicine and shelters for the flood victims in Bangladesh. Long-term aid Christian aid works alongside many partner organisations and contributes money to help with long term aid. It believes that people can solve their own problems best if they are given the chance. So for this reason they spend most of the money in a wide variety of long term projects, Such as training in new farming methods and setting up health centres. Education Christian aid spends about 5% of its budget educating the people of Britain in the need for world development and how Christians can help less developed countries. It also publishes a news paper called Christian aid week which gives us information on world development and how Christian aid is helping. It also produces teaching packs and videos for schools.

Development Factors For Pakistan Information Technology Essay

Development Factors For Pakistan Information Technology Essay It is estimated that there are roughly 450,000 new computers every year in Pakistan. While this seems a pitifully the small numbers, it represents a three-fold increase compared to 1996-1997. Analyst predicts that this number will increase 4-5 times in the next three years. Meanwhile, Pakistan economy is still largely based on the low-tech, low-value industries that have long been fully mechanized and running very efficiently in developed nations and, therefore, do not attract premier revenue from world markets. In order to put its economy on track to compete with the growing economies of the world, Pakistan needs to quickly take steps to train and bring its workforce to the international educational standards, incorporate new technologies and modern management practices into its existing industries, and bring intense focus on building an information-based economy by upgrading the technical and managerial skills of its people. The world economy has already moved from low-value basic industries to a fast paced high-value information based economy. Many countries have taken concrete steps to rejuvenate their stagnated industrial base by rapidly moving to the new-age technologies to produce products and services that are in great demand in the world markets. Information technology is the current choice of many developing and developed countries to upgrade their economies and become competitive in the global market place. The IT-based economies have streamlined the most complex economies of the world and enhanced the productivity to the level where an economy such as that of the US has wriggled out of the entire trillion-plus dollars national deficit and turned into a surplus in recent years. To compete with the growing economies of the world, Pakistan needs to educate, train and bring its workforce to the international educational standards, incorporate new technologies and modern management practices into its industry, and bring intense focus on building an information-based economy by upgrading the technical and managerial skills of its people Development Factors for Pakistan a. Good Governance and Strategic management b. Economic Stability c. High Agricultural Yield d. Industrial Energy e. Poverty Alleviation f. Positive Impact on International Foreign Policies IT as a Tool to Achieve the Development Factors No invention has ever influenced the human beings as computer has. In less than seven decades of its existence it has managed, materializing the concept of a global village. Technologies like Computational Intelligence, Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms, Data Communication Networks, Telecommunication, Databases, and Evolutionary Computing etc; collectively offer the business community a broad set of tools capable of addressing problems that are much harder or virtually impossible to solve using the more traditional techniques from statistics to operations research. Country running and putting it on the track of the development is very complex task and might requires the decisions making on the basis of the countrys past experience and present situation which is obviously available in the form data. Todays best technology to manage and process data is the Information Technology. Information Technology implementation is one of the ways to fulfill and execute the development factors on the right way, which will help the nation to grow in peace and prosperity, which will create a momentum that will result the development of Pakistan. Good Governance and Strategic management IT must be seen as an investment and not an expense. It requires vision and bold leadership to employ IT as a tool, but it must be coupled with sincere commitment to good governance since without that IT can be detrimental to the freedom and well being of the citizens. Globally, IT and good governance has come to stay and any delay in its adoption can only be at the cost of the development of the country, thus the choice must be made sooner rather than later. IT trends and technology directions have brought in applications and solutions for socio-economic development and have greatly contributed to good governance. Before deliberating on these contributions, let us turn to the second but most important part of todays subject good governance. Governance is the manner in which power is exercised by government in the management of the countrys social and economic resources, while good governance is the exercise of power by various levels of government that is effective, honest, equitab le, transparent, and accountable, thereby leading the way to the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers. A state, often has three separate branches under a constitution, namely: Legislature, Judiciary and Executive. In anticipation that each of the branches might go wrong from time-to-time and when that happened, the other two branches of state individually or together could use their power to get the offending branches back on the constitutional track. Legislative, an important institution of the state provides for the benefit of citizens the information regarding what is being said, debated and legislated for them. Towards this, IT has been employed to record all the speeches as well as all laws presented and enacted by the legislature basically in the form of texts and scripts but given the current available technology as voice or video recording available on the Internet. This information is of value not only to citizens but also to the new legislatures for learning history as well as preparing their own presentations in the legislative assembly, thus improving the quality of debate as well as avoidance of repetitive statements or time consuming checks and references towards achieving good governance. Judiciary has long benefited from IT by having case laws available to judges and to lawyers. Libraries for any professions are extremely important in terms of quality of work. The electronic library has revolutionized the world and professionalism. The central database for various reference laws has provided the service to professionals, which has in turn brought the speedy and inexpensive justi ce to the citizens. In countries like ours, where the strength of courts in terms of judges is restricted and has been identified as one of the cause of inefficiency in delivering speedy justice, the use of IT for administration of the courts and the jails is a major contributor to good governance. Citizens who have been in jails for more than their possible term, if the offence was to be proved, such information when available on computers and freely accessible brings speedy justice and reduced level of administrative costs both of courts and jails. In addition, it brings accountability of institutions and officers towards rule of law. A comprehensive administrative system helps scheduling of cases to bring efficiency and cost of litigation down, resulting in less expensive justice to citizens and making lawyers and judges more productive. Executive, the major interface of citizens with the state has the responsibility of planning, execution and monitoring. With a large population and widespread territory, IT becomes a natural ally for planning and delivering the needed services to the citizens. Planning presupposes information about countries resources such as human physical and financial. Database of all citizens is therefore fundamental to sound planning and delivery of social services like education and health, utility services like water and electricity, infrastructure like roads network are best provided by IT. In addition, economic planning is inconceivable without IT. Economic opportunities for job market supported closely by education planning can help reduce unemployment. Citizens consider all this as their right, in return for taxes paid to the national exchequer. A comprehensive, clean and correct citizens database leads to effective electoral lists and fair elections for moving towards good governance and in implementing merit based administration where appropriate people are selected for right jobs Economic Stability Needless to mention that we are in groaning need of foreign exchange to cater to our many needs. At the moment our foreign exchange reserves have not yet crossed the limit of even $2 billion and that too, is due to a number of debts and loans extended to us by a number of loan giving agencies, which in their turn would also drain our national resources to a great extent. The importance of information technology in the present world can not be underestimated as it has dominated almost all the fields of business and industry including the service sector and one having no touch with this technology would not be able to make any progress in the century to come. Instead of discussing the role of this technology in the economic development of Pakistan, it would be more appropriate to say that there would be no desired economic development of any country without fully adopting this technology. The role of IT in a financial services organization is broadly: Supporting operational efficiencies and that simply means doing routine tasks better, faster, or cheaper. Volumes are the key here and in financial institutions, the transactions that are usually handled in the back-office operations units need to be automated from account maintenance, billing, through processing of payments, loans, trade financing, reconciliation and so on. Facilitating customer services delivery increasing customer touch points, extending the duration of service, improving service delivery. Whether by automating teller functions, providing E-banking services, installing automatic teller machines (ATMs), providing PC or Internet banking. In short, making the promise to the customer Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow a reality! Risk management providing the capability to manage identify, assess and control the banks risk and exposure, whether related to operations, credit, assets, market risk and so on. Credit limit monitoring, dealing with interest rate and foreign exchange rate changes to manage product viability, and treasury and asset/liability management to ensure that regulatory reserve requirements are met. Technology must facilitate management with timely and accurate information, and Decision support the availability of information and tools to determine trends, make forecasts, and plan strategically. Today the tools available for decision support are mind-boggling, and data warehousing and data mining provide todays management with the power to gain deep insight into customer and transaction profiles and trends, with which to make strategic decisions in implementing products and services and also to align the business with reality If a country adopt IT to do all of the above, it should enable th e organization (country) to be effective, competitive, and hopefully, profitable. High Agricultural Yield Expert Systems is one of the important application oriented branches of Artificial intelligence. In the past decade, a great deal of expert systems had been developed and applied to many fields such as office automation, science, and medicine including agriculture. At the beginning of development of the agriculture expert systems, the areas selected are applications to diagnosis the diseases and pests of various crops. In recent years, research and development of the expert system fields of agriculture domain have been paid much attention by many countries, not only by developed countries but also developing countries. The complexity of problems confronting farmers like yield loses, soil erosion, diminishing market prices from international competition, increasing chemical pesticides costs and pest resistance and economic barriers hindering adoption of farming strategies necessitates that they become expert managers of all aspects of their farming operations. On the other hand agricu ltural researchers need to address problems of farm management and discover new management strategies to promote farm success. Numerical methods have failed because understanding about crop systems are qualitative based on experience and cannot be mathematically represented. Expert System are Computer programs that are different from conventional computer programs as they solve problems by mimicking human reasoning processes, relying on logic, belief, rules of thumb opinion and experience. An Agricultural Expert System is a Decision Support System for Agricultural Extension Agents who has to decide what advice to be offered to farmers who have to decide what action to take based on it. It is one of the most efficient extension tool to take the technology from scientists to the farmers directly without any dilution of content which normally creeps in because of the number of agencies involved in normal technology transfer systems. Following are the example of expert systems that are assisting in the agriculture domain. GRAIN MARKETING ADVISOR is an expert system for determining marketing alternatives and supports grain producers in finding optimal strategies. Individual farm conditions are considered. Information on storage and dryer availability, price level, price trend, government program eligibility, and timing, is required as input data. COMAX provides information on integrated crop management in cotton. It is designed for use by farmers, farm managers, and country and soil conservation agents. The system uses a combination of expert derived rules and results generated by the cotton crop simulation model named. GOSSYM. It requires external information such as weather data soil physical parameters, soil fertility levels, and certain pest management information. Based on this input data, the system makes daily management decision recommendations. POMME provides information about pest and orchard management of apples. This system provides knowledge about fungicides, insecticides, freeze, frost and drought damage, non-chemical care options as well as information from a disease model to the farmers Industrial Energy Industry is the back bone of any country. Pakistan is exporting 68% of the export from its textile industry which is obviously contributing a major part in Pakistan economy. During the development of more and more powerful and inexpensive computers, and faster, more reliable, and less expensive communication, energy utilities has increased the use of computers in the management of energy systems. For a few a years it has economically feasible to install more or less advanced energy control systems in industries and at other large customers premises. Energy Load Management is the concept of managing loads at the demand side in order to run the energy system more efficiently. The very basic principle is to try to move load from expensive to less expensive time period. Time period can be expensive for many different reasons, stemming from either production or distribution. Intelligent Multi-agent system is the answer to question of todays energy management, Poverty Alleviation The problem of poverty can only be solved through improving the total economic and social opportunities and equitable distributions of the benefits of growth to all particularly the poor thereby providing security to people who are unable to participate in the contribution of economic growth and governance. In the past decade, the advances particularly in the field of information technology have been so rapid that it has changed the shape of all economic activities in the world, and pushing the world towards globalization. However, in Pakistan efforts were never made to deliver the benefits to the poor, like improved basic services including education, health care, and in equipping the poor with necessary information and skills to bring them into the mainstream of society so that they can be the productive partners. A dramatic transition in the global economy is taking place. The globalization movement, which involves new economic world order and trade arrangements, has put developed and industrialized nations in the forefront of commerce. Then there is the shift-taking place from the oil-powered economy to the technology-driven economy followed by digital economy. In both movements, the wealthy economies and affluent sections of society in these economies will control the origination, maintenance and continuous growth in the decades to come. Now is the opportunity, to open up a corridor of empowerment for the poor. Otherwise, the poor will suffer even worst, resulting in a potential hot lid of social unrest. if left to market forces of digital economy, the poor will be left behind in light years, creating tension and potential disturbance to society. Information technology can open up this corridor of opportunity and shall be used as a key to empowering the poor and thereby gaining information to shape better decisions to determine their own destiny. Information technology can empower the poor like never before. Positive Impact on International Foreign Policies In a major foreign-policy speech at the University of Nebraska on December 8, 2000, President Clinton pointed out that there are 700 high-tech companies in Silicon Valley headed by Indians, and called for an end to the cold war estrangement between the US and India, and the start of a systematic, committed relationship. Indian IT, in other words, is even making a positive impact on US foreign policy, at least as perceived through Indian eyes! There are, of course, many IT companies in the US headed by Pakistanis as well, and the IT sector in Pakistan too is flourishing. However, Pakistan seems to have lagged behind in its marketing of these skills. This is surely an area that we could cooperate in, particularly since the Indian IT industry is starved of qualified people. One area in both countries that does need special attention is IT education. The IT sector is highly labor-intensive, and the lack of trained professionals could easily squander the positive international image that we have painstakingly built up.

Native Americans and Alcohol Essay -- Native American History

Northern Native Americans were faced with many great hardships with the arrival of the Europeans, Spanish and the French. American Indians had thrived on American soil for thousands of years with great prosperity. Living among each other in a local economy and communities The Native Americans created a civilization that was harmonious with the land and spiritual world that surrounded them. They were able to sustain their survival from the living plants and animals that lived among them in this over abundant country and all of it's rich resources. Many different tribes thrived on this land by adapting well with the elements around them. They were able to use the one living animal that co-existed with their people and made sure that a good kill was worth the effort and danger that encountered it. The Native Americans were able to use every part of the animal killed from the hide to the hoofs in an effort of survival and to counter balance the spiritual world that engulfed their heritage. The natives would give back to the world that gave unto them. With an unfortelling future the Native Americans were not prepared for what storm was about to come ashore. Europeans would soon arrive and bring the Natives demise in more ways then one(Jones-Saumty). In 1492 Christopher Columbus was said to be the first arrival on American soil from the East. Columbus would bring many new and different commodities unseen by the Natives of this world. Europeans and the Spanish brought many commodities for their own survival in this new territory, such as plants and even animals. According to Calloway some of the food items brought from England and Spain were rice, wheat, barley,... ....1 ( 1998 )166-167 George and Barbara Perkins, â€Å" The American Tradition in Literature ,† ( Boston ) Mcgraw Hill, 2009 Robert s. Young, Jennie R. Joe. â€Å" Some Thoughts About Epidemiology of Alcohol and Drug Use Among American Indian Population†. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse. Vol. 8 Iss 3:(2009) 223 â€Å"What Prevents American Indians from Seeking Treatment for Alcohol Issues?† Web. 23 May 2015. Www.Goodtherapy.com/ Mancall, Peter C. "Men, women, and alcohol in Indian villages in the Great Lakes region in the early republic." Journal of the Early Republic. Indianapolis: Fall 1995. Vol. 15, Iss. 3; p. 425 William Laurence Saunders "The Colonial Records of North Carolina", Volume 5 1887. Web. 23 May 2015. https://books.google.com/ Craig Andrew, Robert B. Edgarton. "Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation". Eliot Werner Publications. 2003

How effectively did the Liberal government meet the needs of the British people

The Liberal government implemented a number of reforms some of which were helpful to the public and some of which were not. The Liberal welfare reform legislation was grouped into five main categories. The first of these was the Young people, this included the Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906, the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907, and the Children Act 1908. The second group was the Old people there was only one reform in this group, however it was a very significant one, the Old Age Pensions Act 1908. The third group was the countries Sick people, again this only included one reform, the National Insurance Act Part 1 1911. The fourth category was the nations' workers, this included the Workmen†s Compensation Act 1906, the Coal Mines Act 1908, the Trade Boards Act 1909, and the Shops Act 1911. The fifth and final category was the counties vast Unemployed faction, this included the Labour Exchanges Act 1909 and the National Insurance Act Part 11 1911. The reforms were not accomplished over night, they introduced the reforms over a relatively long period of time. The Liberals introduced several reforms for children†s health, they initiated school meals (one per day), medical inspections, and the children†s charter. Since education became compulsory the teachers began to notice that lots of children were coming to school hungry, dirty or ill. Therefore in 1906 the government introduced legislation that compelled local government to provide free or subsidised school meals for all â€Å"poor† children. Most of the credit for this new law is accredited to two reports which were published in the wake of the Boer War: The Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland (1903) and the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. The introduction of these meals was not the be-all and end-all, by 1912 over half the local authorities had still not set up a school meals service. This reform was important for two main reasons. Firstly because it was the first step away from schooling and into the concept that welfare benefits could be granted to the poor without them having the debt or disabilities associated with the poor law. Secondly it was a step towards recognition that parents were not wholly responsible for their children†s undernourishment. Also that, with public support, needy children could be well cared for at home and did not need to be put into public or voluntary care. The second Liberal reform for Young people was the introduction of school medical inspections under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907. The Government did not want this Act to be implemented because they felt they could not afford to treat the chronic health problems which would inevitably be discovered. However, administrative pressure from Robert L. Morant, the permanent secretary of the Education Board, who was in turn influenced by Margaret Macmillan forced the government to take action. This reform was particularly helpful because the Board of Education set up a medical department, and the gloomy reports from doctors led to the introduction of school clinics from 1912. These clinics were very good at identifying defects and illnesses. On the other hand the cost of treatment was often too great for some families and their children rarely received treatment. The final reform introduced by the Liberal Party for Young people was the Children†s Act of 1908, which later became known as the ‘children†s charter. † This legislation made it illegal for parents to neglect their children. There were several extensions of this which dealt with specific circumstances such as-Children under 16 were forbidden to smoke or drink and stiff penalties were brought in for shops which supplied them with alcohol of tobacco. This Act had no real significance as most of its finer points were contained in the parents morality or the two previous Acts, it only really served as a follow up to the main Acts. The next main reform introduced by the Liberal party moved away from Young people and to the opposite end of the scale with the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908. Basically the Liberals introduced a state pension for all people over seventy who had worked all their lives and could no longer work and they complied with the conditions- which were not too strict. This Act was the culmination of over 20 years of discussion of the topic of poverty among the elderly and it came about for two main of reasons. The first and in many peoples opinion the most important was the example of the monumental German state insurance and pension scheme. The second was that leading figures such as Joseph Chamberlain and Charles Booth had taken up the cause. The government miscalculated how many people would claim the pension. They had estimated 500,000 when actually 650,000 people applied and by 1914 this had increased to nearly a million. This fact show that the pensions were badly needed and wanted by Britain†s elderly community. Just how grateful people were for this pension is displayed by this quote â€Å"When the Old Age Pensions began, life was transformed for such aged cottagers. They were relieved of anxiety, and when they first went to the post office to draw it tears of gratitude would flow down their faces. Therefore we can see that people really did want state help but were â€Å"too proud to wear the badge of Pauperism. † The next reform dealt with the countries sick people, this was the National Insurance Act Part 1. After Lloyd George had completed his inspection of the German social insurance scheme, he was left in no doubt that Britain needed a much more comprehensive system. He was presented with immense pressure from the opposition such as friendly societies and doctors, however he was determined to build the scheme and not be bullied into submission. As a result of the opposition he had to modify his original scheme accordingly. It was basically an extension of the pension scheme and the concept was that the richer elements for the country should pay more so the poorer elements could contend with difficulties when old or sick. This budget was passed in 1910. This had the same effect as the pension scheme though on a smaller and less consistent scale. The next category for the Liberal reforms was the Countries workers, the Liberal government passed four Laws which are stated in introduction, they sought to improve working conditions, these included minimum wage, fewer hours, etc. These measures constituted a significant improvement for millions of workers, many of whom had no one to speak up for them. The fifth and final category was the unemployed. Up until the turn of the century unemployment was still seen partly as a moral problem of individual idleness and partly as a seasonal problem for certain industries such as shipbuilding and construction. Few people were willing to accept that it may be out of the individual workers control as a result of the lack of wide ranged evidence. The Labour Exchanges Bill was passed in September 1909 as a result of two reports and a book advocating their establishment. The basic idea was that a Labour exchange would allow employer and employee to register their requirements at one central location and could therefore have them met. They also had detailed information of job vacancies. By 1914 there were 430 exchanges throughout Britain and 3000 people were provide work through them every day so they were pretty important in relieving Britain†s unemployment problem. The second of the reforms for the unemployed was Unemployment Insurance. This scheme was worked out be Llewellyn Smith, the permanent secretary for the Board of Trade, and it was essentially Part 11 of the National Insurance Act 1911. By 1915 2. 3 million workers were insured. Admittedly this was a small proportion of the total working population, however it was accepted as the beginning of a much more comprehensive system. Between 1906 and 1911 the Liberal Government introduced all of the above reforms, this impressive list of social reform measures adds up to a significant shift away from minimum government and Laissez Faire. Many Historians argue that the current welfare state finds its origins in the Liberal reforms. This view is justified when one considers that old age pensions, safeguards against unemployment and illness are the basis of the modern welfare state. Consequently many historians believe that the Liberal reforms were extremely limited in scope and failed to deal adequately with the considerable welfare problems of housing and they did not attempt to set up a national health service. Moreover the reforms which were introduced were very limited: Pensions too low; health insurance did not cover employee†s family; and unemployment insurance only applied to seven trades. Obviously the effectiveness of the Liberal welfare reforms is debatable. By the standards of the time they were accepted as fundamental actions for social reform-some more so than others. On the other hand, looking back with our frame of reference (modern welfare Britain), the Liberal reforms appear to be severely inadequate. However, it is important to remember that both Lloyd George and Winston Churchill saw their reforms as only the first step.

What Generation X Really Means essays

What Generation X Really Means essays Youths today are known as the Generation X mainly because they are extreme, active, fearless, risk-takers and knowledgeable. We now live in the computer generation, and youths are very intelligent and able to cope with the hi-tech world that exists today. And being very modern individuals, they are called the Generation X. But the symbol X usually signifies negative things, like when you say rated X, it means prohibited, or when you put the symbol X, it means wrong or bad. And this is the reason why some may have misinterpreted why youths are called the generation X. Drugs, troubles, rebellion, impertinency, things that youths today are known to be doing and things that are making youths become problem to the society. Some are very liberated, viewing premarital sex as a normal thing the reason why many bear unwanted pregnancy, and worst, they get sexually transmitted diseases. Some are being addicted to drugs; and some are disregarding the importance of education, that instead of going to school, they go to amusement centers or much worse, they gamble. And because of being problem to their family and even in the society, the alias generation X is viewed negatively. But although there are youths who are involved in wrongdoings, there are still youths who are God-fearing and have high moral standards. In fact, there are youths who even contributed to help the society to progress, using their skills and expertise. Like what has been said, they are knowledgeable and intelligent because of being extreme and curious, and they to help enhance our technology use those traits. And that is what generation X is all about. The alias generation X does not mean that youths today are problem to the society. It only wants to show that the youths today are extremely talented and extremely intelligent. ...

Article Review 3 Example

Article Review 3 Example Article Review 3 – Article Example Uber Infiltration Irks Delaware Cabbies Summary The article gives a summary of the reactions of the Delaware cabbies after the infiltration of the Ubers in the city. According to the article’s author Jeff Offredo, the penetration of the Uber into Delaware transport industry increase competition and that irks the Cab drivers (Offredo 1). That is because the Uber drivers are poaching customers from the densely populated locations such as University of Delaware and Amtrak station. The article highlights that the Uber drivers are not held to the regulatory standards of the Cab operators such as paying a fixed fee and tax of $5,000 and also a six-month inspection. However, DeIDOT Secretary, Jeniffer Cohan, argues that since most citizens trust the operations of the Ubers, the Delaware Department of Transportation should have an agreement with the Uber Company. This will ensure that the regulatory standards that apply to the Cab drivers also become relevant to the Uber drivers.Relat ion to Monopolistic competitionThe issue presented in the article relates to monopolistic competition in various ways and among them is the fact that the Cab and the Uber drivers offer similar services although they are not identical. The Cab and Uber drivers provide transportation services to their customers though the two companies use different types of cars. Moreover, the market has many sellers as in the case of monopolistic competition (Chang 22). According to the article, there are more than 64 licensed cab operators and an unknown number of Uber operators. The two firms compete in the market and also can face more competition from other firms since there is free entry to the market. In conclusion, it is evident that the Cab operators are not happy with the penetration of the Uber drivers. That is because they feel that these people are stealing their businesses. Besides, these Uber drivers are not held by the regulatory standards that attest that a particular driver has a go od record.Chang, W. W. (2012). Monopolistic Competition and Product Diversity: Review and Extension. Journal of Economic Surveys, 26(5), 879-910. Doi:10.1111/j.1467-6419.2011.00682.xOffredo, Jon. Uber Infiltration Irks Delaware Cabbies. USA TODAY. N.P., 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.

EVALUATION AND CONSTRAINTS Essays - Ignite, Evaluation, Motivation

EVALUATION AND CONSTRAINTS Essays - Ignite, Evaluation, Motivation EVALUATION AND CONSTRAINTS Ignite is an organization which carries out specific policies into the processes conducted. An evaluation is carried out in order to identify the drawbacks or risks involved in the business activities and objectives. An evaluation on the business activities would expose the constraints which can also be considered as limitations to the events that are organized. The kind of constraints Ignite will be facing is the employee capability and efficiency, the budget and time allocations. These constraints can be internal or external, however, the evaluators have closely monitored, analyzed and fed with necessary solutions in order to overcome obstacles laid. The diversified events mentioned above have different constraints such as price, the targeted audience, time and available resources. Ignite has made sure that these constraints have been thought through by the evaluators and is ready to overcome realistic constraints. Furthermore, Ignite offers specific rewards as forms of motivation in order to attract the fullest capacity of its talented workforce.

Mathematics and statics for economists Statistics Project

Mathematics and statics for economists - Statistics Project Example The sample data for happiness is positively skewed which means that most people interviewed has a positive happiness level. The kurtosis of 15.41579212 shows that the probability of extreme values is less than for a level of happiness, and the values are wider spread around the mean of 4.820680628. The histogram gives a clear graphical representation of positive kurtosis and skewness. The data are concentrated to the left of the mean level of happiness representing a general positive level of happiness among the sample population. In a nutshell, the data is positively skewed but with a median of 5, the data is almost normally distributed considering that the mean is 4.820680628. From the Anova results above, the P value 0.00 while the significance level ÃŽ ±=0.05. The P value 0.00 The correlation results show that level of happiness and means of traveling to work exhibit a positive association. The correlation coefficient is 0.819346. This happiness and means of travelling travel in the same direction. The regression equation shows the relationship between happiness and means of travelling travel in the same direction. According to the regression line, an increase of means of travelling to work by one unit will increase the level of happiness 2.740298 when all factors are held constant. From the regression result, means of traveling to work positively influence the level of happiness. This means the two variables exhibit a positive relationship. The results according to the link above show that there effects of commuting to the level of happiness at

International Trade Between China And Canada Essay

International Trade Between China And Canada - Essay Example Priority sectors for this trade mission included agriculture and agri-food, information and communications technologies, aerospace, biotechnology, education, natural resources, transportation, financial services and tourism. The People's Republic of China (excluding the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) is Canada's fourth largest export market. In 2005, Canada's total merchandise exports to China amounted to $7.1 billion, an increase of 6% over 2004. Total merchandise imports from China increased to $29.5 billion in 2005, up 22% over 2004. In 2003 (the last year for which statistics are available), Canada exported $754 million in services to China. The rapid recent growth of manufacturing in China has made it an increasingly important player in global supply chains. (Franks 30) Canada was a strong supporter of China's membership in the WTO. Canada's market access agreement with China, signed in 1999, took effect in December 2001 when China joined the organization. China's accession to the WTO in December 2001, and its ongoing process of implementing WTO commitments, opens up new opportunities in trade and investment for Canadian companies, for example, in the transportation equipment, financial and business services sectors. The agreement commits China to lower tariffs for Canadian goods and increased access to Chinese markets for Canadian service providers. Several projects sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) are providing Chinese policy makers with advice on managing the transition to an open, rules based economic system. Canada and China established diplomatic relations in 1970. In October 1973, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was the first Canadian prime minister to officially visit China. This year marks the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Since 1994, Canadian and Chinese ministers, Canadian provincial leaders and Chinese governors have been making several visits to each other's country every year. in September 2004 Canada and China resumed stalled negotiations in Beijing to develop a Canada-China bilateral investment treaty (also called a foreign investment protection and promotion agreement by Canadian officials),aimed to open up the investment gates and encourage direct investment in each others markets,. In January 2005, Prime Minister Martin visited China and Hong Kong, as a business delegation led by the Minister of International Trade. A joint action plan related to the Canada-China Strategic Working Group was released on that occasion. Later, in September 2005, Chinese President Hu Jin Tao visited Canada, and several agreements facilitating bilateral trade were signed. Canada's International Policy Statement, released in April 2005, recognizes China's growing global influence and articulates a new government-wide priority to broaden and deepen our engagement with China. Canada's relationship with China is evolving into a multi-faceted and increasingly interdependent partnership. Trade and investment between two countries China is Canada's second largest source of imported goods, with imports equaling $29.5 billion in 2005, more than the combined value of third and fourth place Japan and Mexico. During the

Ernesto Che Guevara, Latin America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Ernesto Che Guevara, Latin America - Essay Example On the other side, most representatives of the U.S. government overseas have always displayed a powerful ideological commitment, and never more so than during the Cold War years of the 1960s. They are often criticized, in fact, for taking a messianic approach to diplomacy. Their ideology encompasses individualism, personal rights, equal opportunity, popular democracy, and free-enterprise economics, despite whatever gaps may exist at home between ideals and reality (Llosa 45). In Cuba, 'Che' Guevara's legacy is found in spying and high number of suicides among young people, revolutionary ideas of workers and peasants, and their fighting against the government. Today, many young people in Latin America follow his ideas and ideology believing in the guerilla struggle and strike actions. In Cuba, 'Che' Guevara's ideology is still valued and followed by young people who struggle for social transformations and democratic freedoms (Anderson 161). Che' Guevara's ideology determines the social processes by which citizens and elites construct democratic state institutional structures through collective forms of organization (political parties, civic associations, social movements). Given the historical, centralized executive control over elections and the checking of the legitimacy of electoral outcomes in single-party regimes. Following Anderson (1998), the most important was "his literary legacy to Cub and a means to ensure that revolutionary principles he stood for survived on the island" (653). Guevara not only had challenged the orthodox communists' attitude toward revolution for nearly a decade but also in the process had incurred widespread... In Cuba, ‘Che’ Guevara’s ideology is still valued and followed by young people who struggle for social transformations and democratic freedoms. Che’ Guevara’s ideology determines the social processes by which citizens and elites construct democratic state institutional structures through collective forms of organization. Given the historical, centralized executive control over elections and the checking of the legitimacy of electoral outcomes in single-party regimes. Following Anderson, the most important were â€Å"his literary legacy to Cub and a means to ensure that revolutionary principles he stood for survived on the island†.Guevara not only had challenged the orthodox communists' attitude toward revolution for nearly a decade but also in the process had incurred widespread hostility. The Congo expedition might have provided Cuba with the revolutionary success it sought, but it had clearly failed. When it did, Havana returned its focus to its home turf. The Cubans had long made efforts throughout Latin America to create a sustainable revolution, doing so with relatively minor investments of men, training guerrillas from abroad, sending arms overseas, dispatching advisers to nascent rebellions.on 461).

The Role of Mother Tongues in Second Language Learning Essay

The Role of Mother Tongues in Second Language Learning - Essay Example The impact of first language on second language can bring problems especially in intercultural communication where the speakers use a lingua franca such as English or another language, hence causing misunderstandings and problems in communication. This research will look at how second language is acquired with a close look at the impact of the first language on second language learning. Literature Review/Discussion Second language is any language that a person learns in addition to his/her first language. The term can also be used to refer to learning a third, fourth and subsequent languages. Second language acquisition is therefore the process in which people or learners study that language. Errors made by second language learners have been proved to originate from the speech of their first language by majority of linguists. This occurs as a result of influence of the first language commonly known as language transfer. The errors are mostly lexical or phonological. The learners†™ mother tongue influences the way the second language vocabulary is learnt and recalled for use. Learners at their disposal compensate their lack of knowledge by constructing difficult lexical items that are characterized with errors emanating from their first language. ... What happens in the classroom, for example, is greatly attributed to the social needs of both teachers and learners. According to Chomsky, human beings are endowed with the capability to acquire any language in the world since learning a language involves learning its rules. The rules are systematic for every language though learners make mistakes in the process. These mistakes have been attributed to mother tongue interference. This paper will also look at how mother tongue can enhance or hamper a learner who is using the vocabulary of a second language. This usually happens when a learner acquires a new vocabulary, when he/she is attempting to remember the already leant vocabulary or in the process of constructing a complex lexical item that has not been learnt. Comparison between Languages Different languages construct meanings in different ways and the equivalents only exist depending on what is exactly meant. Though different speakers tend to divide themselves from others, the c onceptualization of some lexical items remains the same. For example, the term dressing is conceived the same by various speakers, a term that generally serves all clothing including shoes, jewellery, glasses among others. Differences in conceptual organization can be as a result of ways in which words are assigned to parts of speech. For instance, Japanese equivalents of English are mostly nouns and verbs. Lado (103) notes that elements that are similar in the fist and second languages will be simple for the learner to grasp. On the other hand, those that have no correspondence will be more difficult to learn. Cross Linguistic Influence and Ease or Difficulty of Learning There are a

General Public Lacks the Knowledge and Time to Contribute To Debates Essay

General Public Lacks the Knowledge and Time to Contribute To Debates about New Technologies - Essay Example This paper discusses the issues involved with public communication of risks related to new technology. Researchers have come up with models to explain the lack of knowledge regarding various risks. This paper aims to focus on exploring these models and evaluating them in the reference to the public’s views. Modern day examples of new technology risks such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and the recent Fukushima accidents have been discussed in detail to ascertain the level of knowledge that the public has on certain risks. New technologies have undoubtedly changed the life of man, mostly for the better. However, these same technologies also come with inherent risks that can cause untold damage to the environment, property and to human life. It is concluded that, the general public lacks the knowledge and time to contribute to debates about new technologies. This is mainly due the assumptions made by policy makers and experts on the level of information that people should acces s regarding new technology risks. Proper information dissemination during a disaster helps emergency officials to properly carry out rescue missions and damage control. Understanding the perception of the public regarding risks and disasters can go a long way in effectively communicating issues and facts to do with the risks. The public should be involved in debates and discussions about the risks that come with new technologies. This is one way of ensuring that all is taken into account when formulating policies to do with disaster management.

Resources for Readers Theater Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Resources for Readers Theater - Term Paper Example My group worked well together I must say. Everyone contributed to the success of the project. We shared out roles amongst ourselves. Some students carried the seats and arranged them in the auditorium for the stage reading. Other students offered to clean the stage for us to have a suitable environment (Aaron 54). We appointed a student to be the leader of the session for that time. His job was to maintain order and see to it that everything ran smoothly. The group worked remarkably well together. Everyone participated actively. People showed up in time for the stage reading. Each student would speak up when it was their turn; no one had to be reminded due to lack of attention. There was a reasonable amount of order which made it easier to work and finish in good time. Form this collaboration with my fellow student I learned a great deal. There is so much talent in my theatre class. Every student has a different kind of talent. There is also a lot of passion for the arts in the class and this is something I truly appreciated as I found people I can genuinely connect with due to similar interests. I would say the collaboration was a definite success on our part. We have never worked better or made so much progress together. A lot of things, I would say, went well during the collaboration. We all managed to master our lines in the script. We found a way to help each other with parts that gave us difficulties (Aaron 54). At the end of it all, we finished our staged reading project. Above all, we actually got time to interact with each other. I would say many friendships have been made. What I think could have gone better is the time we had to do our stage reading. The time given to us was very short for such a long script. We were asked to leave the auditorium after a considerably short amount of time. Despite this minor shortcoming, we still managed to complete the project (Aaron 70).

The Role of Mother Tongues in Second Language Learning Essay

The Role of Mother Tongues in Second Language Learning - Essay Example The impact of first language on second language can bring problems especially in intercultural communication where the speakers use a lingua franca such as English or another language, hence causing misunderstandings and problems in communication. This research will look at how second language is acquired with a close look at the impact of the first language on second language learning. Literature Review/Discussion Second language is any language that a person learns in addition to his/her first language. The term can also be used to refer to learning a third, fourth and subsequent languages. Second language acquisition is therefore the process in which people or learners study that language. Errors made by second language learners have been proved to originate from the speech of their first language by majority of linguists. This occurs as a result of influence of the first language commonly known as language transfer. The errors are mostly lexical or phonological. The learners†™ mother tongue influences the way the second language vocabulary is learnt and recalled for use. Learners at their disposal compensate their lack of knowledge by constructing difficult lexical items that are characterized with errors emanating from their first language. ... What happens in the classroom, for example, is greatly attributed to the social needs of both teachers and learners. According to Chomsky, human beings are endowed with the capability to acquire any language in the world since learning a language involves learning its rules. The rules are systematic for every language though learners make mistakes in the process. These mistakes have been attributed to mother tongue interference. This paper will also look at how mother tongue can enhance or hamper a learner who is using the vocabulary of a second language. This usually happens when a learner acquires a new vocabulary, when he/she is attempting to remember the already leant vocabulary or in the process of constructing a complex lexical item that has not been learnt. Comparison between Languages Different languages construct meanings in different ways and the equivalents only exist depending on what is exactly meant. Though different speakers tend to divide themselves from others, the c onceptualization of some lexical items remains the same. For example, the term dressing is conceived the same by various speakers, a term that generally serves all clothing including shoes, jewellery, glasses among others. Differences in conceptual organization can be as a result of ways in which words are assigned to parts of speech. For instance, Japanese equivalents of English are mostly nouns and verbs. Lado (103) notes that elements that are similar in the fist and second languages will be simple for the learner to grasp. On the other hand, those that have no correspondence will be more difficult to learn. Cross Linguistic Influence and Ease or Difficulty of Learning There are a

Resources for Readers Theater Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Resources for Readers Theater - Term Paper Example My group worked well together I must say. Everyone contributed to the success of the project. We shared out roles amongst ourselves. Some students carried the seats and arranged them in the auditorium for the stage reading. Other students offered to clean the stage for us to have a suitable environment (Aaron 54). We appointed a student to be the leader of the session for that time. His job was to maintain order and see to it that everything ran smoothly. The group worked remarkably well together. Everyone participated actively. People showed up in time for the stage reading. Each student would speak up when it was their turn; no one had to be reminded due to lack of attention. There was a reasonable amount of order which made it easier to work and finish in good time. Form this collaboration with my fellow student I learned a great deal. There is so much talent in my theatre class. Every student has a different kind of talent. There is also a lot of passion for the arts in the class and this is something I truly appreciated as I found people I can genuinely connect with due to similar interests. I would say the collaboration was a definite success on our part. We have never worked better or made so much progress together. A lot of things, I would say, went well during the collaboration. We all managed to master our lines in the script. We found a way to help each other with parts that gave us difficulties (Aaron 54). At the end of it all, we finished our staged reading project. Above all, we actually got time to interact with each other. I would say many friendships have been made. What I think could have gone better is the time we had to do our stage reading. The time given to us was very short for such a long script. We were asked to leave the auditorium after a considerably short amount of time. Despite this minor shortcoming, we still managed to complete the project (Aaron 70).

Elementary School and Middle School Essay Example for Free

Elementary School and Middle School Essay Transitioning from elementary school to middle school is something we all have or had to do! Most kids cringe at the thought of making this huge step in life. For many students this transition can be a time of mixed emotions. Having been through this experience, I will compare and contrast the two, hoping that this will give you a clear picture of elementary and middle school. Elementary and middle school have distinguishable characteristics. In elementary schools, you basically have your homeroom teacher and one other teacher. The movement of students is very limited and you are mostly escorted by a teacher. Teachers are more understanding and are not as demanding because of the student’s age. Fun days are set aside as an award for students that have done what is expected of them. Most of the children are placed in classroom with the same students each year. Elementary school is very important in our young student’s lives; this is where it all starts. However, middle school students are expected to execute their daily tasks without assistance. Teachers are there to direct the students in right direction; everything else is left up to the student. Middle school students have several different classes, in each class it is usually a different teacher. Students have lockers to store their books and other supplies. In middle school students are required to be more independent and serious about school. Elementary school set the pace for all other levels of schooling. Students enter elementary school learning all the basic aspects of school system and the learning process. At this stage in life most students are eager to learn and get excited to learn new things. Elementary is the main point of delivery, it introduces social skills, behavioral adjustments, and basic academic learning. Middle school prepares students for higher education. Ultimately, middle school bridges the gap between elementary and high school. It is definitely a different experience than elementary, but it prepares students for their future and encourages them to be more independent. Elementary schools and middle schools also have common qualities. They are both open Monday through Friday on the same days. Each day students eat lunch at a designated time. All students are expected to sit in desks in an appropriate manner. Teachers require students to be respectful and display good behavior at all times. Homework is given on a daily basis and class discussions are routine also. School is essentially school with minor differences. Each school level has its own pro’s and con’s, they are also very similar. They each have their own benefiting factors and they are used to their advantage. School systems up this way because it is initially what works in our culture. Elementary and middle schools are stepping stones that that help us get from one place to another in our academic life. Each level is an important standpoint for academic excellence and they should be taken seriously so that you can be an effective student/learner.

Challenges to HR Managers at British Gas

Challenges to HR Managers at British Gas Challenges to HR Managers at British Gas 1.0 Q 1 . Business Environment is changing everyday and bringing new challenges to the HR Managers. What are the challenges forces by HR Managers at British Gas in the UK? Ans.: With the increase in business competition locally and globally, organizations must become customer-focused to succeed. Therefore HR professional has to work out to become a strategic partner and a change mentor within the organization. In order to succeed, Human Resource must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organizations big picture and be able to influence key decision and policies. In general the focus of todays HR Manager is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. And they will also promote and fight for values, ethics, norms and beliefs within the organization. In a 2004 Deloitte Research Study, Athey (2004. p1) noted that, organizations in recent days have to deal with many external forces which influences the way they do business and how they develop and implement a business plan. Some of the external influences that impact an organizations business planning are: government, natural disasters, terrorist threats, local and community, vendor, competitors, transportation etc. Therefore it is important for British Gas to have their business continuity plan. If British Gas able to do so then they can reduce their small and large unknown affect in their daily operations. That is why HR Manager of British Gas should evolve with the change in competitive market environment and realize that they must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. So, in this global business environment crisis what kinds of challenges are faced by the British Gass HR managers? In UKs market the companies like: EDF energy, EON energy, N power, Scottish Hydrogen are consistently competing with British Gas. If these companies reduce their prices to attract more customers then it will be a challenging issue for British Gas. If this happens then, British Gas can reduce their prices at the same time manage their customers with quality services and make them happy with offering some bonus facilities. For doing this British Gas has to hire skilled employee and place them in a challenging position, Otherwise they might face the retention challenges. Secondly, looking at some political challenges like: regulation of counter policies country tax; Since the whole world economy is unstable and to make some positive changes in UKs economy govt. might impose some extra taxes to the big companies like British Gas. And if this is happen then British Gas management might think about to reduce their workers salary or layoff some workers. Thus how to plan the HR competency towards British Gas employee then? Then again some social factors like: attitude of workers towards the management is a problem. Example: workers are not giving their best effort, may be they are emotional or not satisfied with their job. Sometimes the workers bring their family problem in work. So how the HR manager will handle these issues? Then again, when British Gas hire employee from different culture sometimes the hired people dont know the English very well but they have the competency of holding the offered position. So its a kind of challenge for HR manager tha t which trainings are given to the employee and how that employee will be fitted to the specific position. A part of that, every single day new technologies are coming up. So how the British Gas HR will fit the workers with their new technologies, which training they can provide to the workers then? Then the late ages workers are not that skilled of using the technical staffs but they are well efficient towards their manual works. Thus how HR will fix this problem. According to Cox, (1993) suggests that a HR Manager needs to change from an ethnocentric view (our way is the best way) to a culturally relative perspective (lets take the best of a variety of ways). This shift in philosophy has to be ingrained in the managerial framework of the HR Manager in his/her planning, organizing, leading and controlling of organizational resources. Now we should look forward to how globalization changes the HR policies and a part of that, what kind of challenges are facing by the HR Managers. So globalization can be defined based on ongoing political, economical, social and technological issues and with the help of these issues business environments have been greatly changing from last few decades. Thus organizations are required to respond in a strategic manner to the changes in order to survive and progress in this competitive world. And for surviving well into the market the HR manager should be integrated with the strategy and strategic need of the firm. Then HR policies should adjust, accepted and used by line managers and employee as part of their daily work. According to the above statement, the British Gas has already focused on macro based oriented, productive, and long term goals. Nowadays Human Resource function faces many challenges during the globalization process, including creating global mind-set within the HR g roup, creating practices that will be consistently applied in different locations while also maintaining the various local cultures and practices and communicating consistent corporate culture across the entire organization. In this circumstance British Gas Managers should meet these challenges and the whole organization should consider the HR personnel not as just the administrative service but as a strategic business. As an expanding business of British Gas, HR managers will face some problems like: Health Safety policies, EU regulations, huge demand for quality service to the customers. Therefore British Gas can developing health safety policies by conducting risk assessments which indentify hazards, carrying out health safety audits and inspections, implementing occupational health programs, managing stress, preventing accidents, communicating with employee about the health safety practices etc. And for fulfilling the customer demand, those who are working for British Gas needed more technical training, people skills training. And the HRD of British Gas also can come up with some global training programs like: Cross cultural technology transfer, international protocol and presentation, Language training etc. If British Gas trains their employee with a global perspective then the trained employee shall be improving job satisfaction and retention of overseas staff and enabling a newly assigned employee to communicate with colleagues abroad. These kinds of training will not only help them to develop their skills and knowledge but also work as motivational and building block to organizational success. Q2. Comment on how HR activities contribute to the success of British Gas. Use any 2 HRM Models to explain your answer. Ans.: Nowadays effective and efficient HRM is a big challenge to all HR professionals. And the sole purpose of HR is to help humans via mediator between employees and employer. Thus British Gas has to determine what benefits they are willing to offer to their employees and what portions the company is willing to pay for those benefits vs. what they may mandate their employees to share costs in those same benefits. Since HR professionals are playing a very vital role for British Gas therefore its important to know that how the HR strategies align with British Gas business strategies. Since British Gas is a huge company and lots of technical workers are working with them thus in this company there is a need to attract, retain and motivate employee because it is heavily dependent on the knowledge base and expertise of the employee and such there is a need for building a kind of high performance culture based on a strategic mission. HR activities contribute to the success of British Gas in the following way: Recruiting both skilled and unskilled employee which have to go through the training and development called traineeship, which provides a way the new employee/recruit learns about the gas industry, gain relevant skills and qualification to ensure that organization objective to meet consumers high demand for quality services and competitive price for products and services. HR train their engineers throughout that career which ensure that its employees are kept up to date with new information and technology to enable them provide the best possible service. HR has strategy of retaining its people by offering a mix of financial and nonfinancial benefits. This is in line with the organization strategy. As well as the good pay and pension scheme also providing each employee the opportunity of buying shares in Centrica. From the analysis above, it is clear that we can say British Gas adopts two models, namely: Fit model Holistic/dialogue model. Fit Model: represent recognition of the importance of the people in the achievement of organizational strategy. Employees are seen as key in the implementation of organizational and HR strategy is designed to fit the requirements of the organizational strategy. British Gas uses this method to align their HR strategy with organization strategy also it aligns the interest of the workers (pension scheme, investment opportunity, development and training, salary interest)with the interest of the organizations (to maintain the competitive position the company has within the energy market, ensure returns on investment by making profit by share holders) end goal. Harvard Framework for HRM: Harvard model (Beer et al) of HRM developed by Michel Beer, Richard Walton, Quinn Mills, they argues that human resource policies are to be influenced by two significant consideration, first, situational factors, second, shareholders interest. And Harvard framework also explains the significance of the HR policies in the organization which recognize external environment and refers that if its properly used would lead to organizational effectiveness. It also can be used a good fit between organization environment and HR policies and it would lead to various element like employee commitment, cost effectiveness in product and services and congruence which are all covered by the Harvard model and the British Gas holds firmly these elements in dealing with its employee as one of its organizational; objectives. The following elements will give us the idea that how the HR in British Gas apply this to the organization. Competence: The HRM of British Gas has a policy that reflects to the organisational objective in selection of their workforce. HR department not only concern about recruiting skilled engineers but also give attention to go through its assessment centre before appointing an employee for his/her job, which can determine the core competence and life skill of that employee. Personal skills that are created an impact on the customers experience when someone is to work on the field. Core competencies involves team working, leadership skills, listening skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills(such as properly dealing with customers), motivation skills, innovation skills and responding to changes. These are crucial skills that can affect the way an individual fits in and works within an organisation and also important because these skills can determine the companys lose or gain more customers. And if British Gas loses then the customers will be shifted to their rivals. Commitment: according to Bratton, John and Gold, Jeffrey (Beer et al: Human resource management Theory and Practice second edition: page 19). Refers, one way HR of British Gas can contributes to the company is that the employee are made to invest high interest to their work within the organization, which will give up two aspects: First, it will enhance self respect and value, at British gas the HRM has a policy that counter on employees, for those offered a job, With Human resource strategy British Gas provides the job benefits including a market competitive starting salary and van from outset. And with British Gas development offers technical comprehensive training for all its engineers throughout their career by their training academy. And the training ensures that employees are kept up to date with new information and technologies and provide best services possible. Second, it will accelerate the employee loyalty and performance towards their work. When British Gas offers employee to invest in the company with having to their own shares in its Parent company (Centrica), also offering good pension scheme after retirement which increase the commitment of the job and good sense of responsibilities. And its the plus point of promotion to management level, which is a strategy of the HR in retaining its suitable people for promotion to higher role, because it needs managers to plan, organise and co-ordinate the teams of engineers. Congruence: here it states that there must be agreement between and amongst various HRM policies and practises in operation. At British Gas HR need to keep in mind the fact that having a company policies of recruiting people from different background and sex as is seen in the case, the company in trying to meet with a recruitment process that is all embarrassing (being recognised by operation now, wining the prestigious award for inspiring the work force of the future, an award for women into science and engineering etc) must consider not just overall employee numbers but ensuring that it attracts and retain the skills that will be required within the business. British Gas managers articulate a programme of forecasting to assume how much the UK market for domestic gas service will grow and this helps the company to decide how many additional engineer they will require in the near future. Cost effectiveness: At the same time HR policies must be evaluated in terms of wages, benefits, turnover etc. In this segment British Gas HR implements its strategy that confront to the organisational strategy in developing and recruiting their employees to become capable and competent employees. And future managers can ensure the organisation turnover remains increasingly high and implement in their salary policy that is highly competitive. Thus, HRM knows it is much more cost effective to retain trained staff than recruit and train up new people therefore this strategy which is in line with the organisations strategy of minimising cost and maximising quality staff retain ship through offering a mix of both financial and non financial benefits helps the organisation achieve its goals. Lastly, looking at long term scenario, the organisation tries to differentiate between three levels: social, organizational and individual. In organisational level increased effectiveness and ensure the survival of the organisation. By providing top-class service at lower price to its customers and ensuring for a well define working environment, and also developing job training and a good pension scheme for it employee at the British Gas. At individual employee level the long term output comprises the reward receive by the workers for their efforts. In the societal level some of British Gas societal goals (employment and growth) are attained, offering exciting career paths for people of all backgrounds. This is how HRM at British Gas can achieve the success. Q3. Describe Recruitment Selection Strategies that have been taking by British Gas to enhance organization performance? Ans.: For British Gas workforce planning is essential because it analyze an organizations future needs for people in terms of numbers, skills and locations. It allows the organization to plan how those needs can be met through recruitment, selection and give them proper training. It is vital for British Gas to plan ahead because the company wants to satisfy their diversity customers by recruiting socially inclusive workforce. It seems that their HR personnel are little too much busy with the recruitment and selection process to meet its future demands for staff. It allows a business time to train existing staff to take on new responsibilities and to recruit new staff to fill vacancies or to meet skill shortages. But due to the recession, many organizations including British Gas not willing to expect so much on recruitment. Thus is this circumstance what are the strategies they are following in their recruitment and selection process. Recruitment strategies: British Gas recruitment involves attracting the right of applicant to apply for vacancies. They follow some ways of recruiting people. They first looks at its internal talent plan to fill a vacancy. This is a process that lists current employees looking for a move within the same level or gets a promotion to the next level. Since they need to make happy diversify customers thus they need to search people from the different regions peoples. So they can help their customers by offering different language, cultural value, norms ethics. They also emphasis on recruiting female engineers so that they can handle the female customers. This is just because sometime some female customers do feel comfortable to talk to the male one. And for some other external recruitment, British Gas advertises vacancies (like: apprenticeship) via their specialist Sky channels like parliamentary project TV, radio, newspapers, DVD for schools and British gas website. Selection Strategies: involves choosing the most suitable people from those that apply for a vacancy, while keeping to employment laws and regulation. For British Gas screening candidates is a very important part of the selection process. This ensures that those selected for interview have the best fit with the job requirements. Ref: The Challenges of Human Resource Management..:The Challenges of Human Resource Management. 25th November, 2009

My Favorite Summer Vacation :: Summer Vacation Essays

My favorite summer vacation was when my Father took me to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. What made it even more memorable was the fact that it was my very first time on an airplane. I cannot recall another time in my life when I experienced so much joy. That trip to Universal Studios was the first time my Father and I actually did something together, just the two of us and was something brought me close to my Father. In this essay I will tell you about my plane ride over there, what I did right when I got there, and about my time at Universal Studios. I can still remember how excited I was before take off, I mean it felt like forever while we sat in the plane waiting to take off. Just all the anticipation that was inside of me had just made the wait even longer for me. Finally, I heard the pilot say 'prepare for take off'. When I heard those words I was so overjoyed I could hardly contain myself. That rush I got once the plane took off was an experience like no other. The plane ride was about hours long and I enjoyed every minute of it. Little did I know, that was less than half of the fun I was going to have at Orlando. After we got off the airplane, we rented a car and drove to my Uncle Joe?s house. We finally got there and then we all went out to eat dinner. We went to some Italian restraunt and boy was it good. To this day, I have never tasted anything as good as the Veal Picata I had that day. I ate so much that I could hardly move and once I got back to my uncle?s, I just passed out and went to bed. I had a big and exciting day ahead of me. I was going to Universal Studios and I couldn?t wait. The whole drive there I was just wondering what I was going to do and see over there. I mean I thought I thought I was excited about my plane ride there, but that wasn?t even half of what I was feeling at that time. Once I saw the roller coasters as we drove to Universal?s Island of Adventure my face just lit up like the sun.

Camar Automotive Hoist Essay -- essays research papers

The licensing contract is only three years, the Bar Maisse is not famous, and the sales is difficult to be estimated, therefore, we suspect if licensing could meet the expectation of rapid growth. The cost of licensing is lower in comparison to joint venture and direct investment, but the royalty is only 5% of gross sales. The growth of CAH might not be significant. Besides, CAH will have no control of operation and reputation if they choose  ¡Ã‚ §licensing ¡Ã‚ ¨ option. Joint venture might be an unviable choice of CAH because Bar Maisse may not be willing to launch joint venture with CAH. CAH has insufficient information about Bar Maisse, CAH doesn ¡Ã‚ ¦t know whether Bar Maisse would seek to control the operation or not, that is, CAH will have limited control of operation and reputation. In additi...

Ethics of Conspiracy Theorizing Essay

In the context of this essay conspiracies will be defined where a proposed explanation E is a conspiracy theory if and only if E is a proposed causal explanation of an event (or set of events) which postulates secret plans and actions on the part of the group and E conflicts with the official story (or stories) of the same historical events. In this instance the official story will be defined where an explanation of an event E is an official story if and only if the explanation is a theory endorsed in a conventionally recognized way by an individual or institution that bears the relevant legal responsibility for events of type E, and for providing information to the public about them. In some cases conspiracies are morally permissible however usually they are the result of nefarious motivations on the part of the conspirators. In this essay I will use the examples of the Watergate scandal and the September 11 terrorist attacks to explain how in this respect conspiracy theorizing is more often morally permissible due to the just motivations of the conspiracy theorizers and the benefits conspiracy theorizing lends to our society. It is common knowledge that governments and political bodies around the world have engaged in conspiracies. A well known example of this is the Watergate scandal which occurred during the presidency of Richard Nixon. The Watergate scandal took place in the Watergate complex in Washington DC on the 17th of July 1972. The complex was the site of the Democratic National Committee headquarters where five men were found breaking and entering. All the men were connected to President Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President. This prompted an investigation which discovered many more illegal activities connected to President Nixon’s staff including campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping, and a â€Å"laundered† slush fund used to pay those who conducted these operations. In this case the conspiracy was indeed the result of nefarious motivations on the part of President Nixon and his staff. While many and possibly most conspiracies are the result of similar motivations not all conspiracies are malevolent. For instance a conspiracy may (though perhaps not legally) be benevolent when the conspirators are acting in a way to protect the interests of the people. Reasons for this could be to prevent a counterproductive panic caused by revealing their plans before they are ready. Another conspiracy that would be both benevolent and responsible on behalf of the government would be conspiring to keep their nation ignorant of particular military actions in order to protect both the soldiers and the population that they govern. This would be the most responsible action on behalf of the government as it is their role to protect the people as best they can, in this case by way of a conspiracy. Although it is conceivable that there are some benevolent conspiracies where conspirators are trying to benefit society I think it holds true that the majority of conspiracies are caused by conspirators with nefarious intentions. It is obvious from conspiracies and cover ups like the Watergate scandal that conspiracies do take place (if not commonly) and so it follows that logically the existence of conspiracies altogether cannot be denied and furthermore it is irrational to disbelieve the existence of conspiracy theories. With this in mind it seems both reasonable and logical to conclude that conspiracy theorizing is a rational and possibly beneficial part of society. Steve Clarke supports this in â€Å"Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorizing (2002)† by proposing that ‘‘the conspiracy theorist challenges us to improve our social explanations’’ whereby he means that conspiracy theorists are invaluable to society as their existence pressures epistemic authorities such as the government to be careful in its practices and to ensure their ventures are kept above board. Clarke also reminds us that occasionally ‘‘the conspiracy theorist identifies a genuine conspiracy. ’ In contrast to Clarke, critics of conspiracy theorizing claim theorists cause unrest amongst society as they damage the trust between governments and their citizens. This is due to the way in which conspiracy theories often portray the government and government officials as being nefarious and underhanded in their dealings thus weakening the trust between society and the government. Similarly critics claim that conspiracy theorists create unrest amongst society by fostering negative beliefs about the government and the causes of historical events. Critics of conspiracy theorizing propose that unwarranted conspiracy theories have the potential to cause undesirable and harmful results. This is illustrated well by Mark Fenster in â€Å"Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture (2008)† where he postulates that ‘‘left critics argue that proper political analysis leads directly to effective political activity. Identifying both the general and historically specific economic and political structures that dominate enables activists to organize protests strategically and to build collective, alternative institutions in order to effect real social change. Conspiracy theory, on the other hand, either misattributes dominance to individuals, or simplistically places the blame for the ills of the world on individuals rather than on underlying, structural causes. As a result, it cannot lead to effective political activity; rather, it leads to harmful scapegoating; or it misleads activists into thinking that merely removing an individual or a secret group will transform society. † Arguments such as this are the cause of moral debate around conspiracy theorizing. The attacks on the Twin Towers, the 7 World Trade Centre building and the Pentagon in New York City and Washington D.  C in America on September the 11th 2001 became a catalyst for many highly publicized conspiracy theories. These conspiracy theories argue against the official story which states that the attacks were carried out solely by Al-Qaeda -a militant Islamic organization headed by Osama Bin Laden. The official story proposes that four commercial passenger airlines were hijacked by 19 members of Al-Qaeda. Two planes, American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were hijacked and flown in a suicide mission into the north and south towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City. Both of these towers collapsed within 2 hours due to structural damage caused by fires from the initial plane crash. The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was flown into the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense in the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. This caused parts of the western side of the pentagon to collapse. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was intended to be flown into the Capitol of the United States, Washington D. C but instead crashed into a field in Pennsylvania when passengers attempted to gain control of the plane. One of the most noteworthy conspiracy theories regarding the September 11 attacks states that the collapse of the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center was caused by controlled demolition on the behalf of the United States government as opposed to the structural damage caused by fire which was quoted in the official story. Many physicists, architects and other intellectuals argue that the impact from the aircraft and the resulting fires could not have weakened the buildings to the extent which could cause them to completely collapse. Instead, conspiracy theorists posit that explosives were installed in the building on behalf of the government prior to the attacks. According to conspiracy theorists there is much errant data to support this such as accounts of people hearing explosions in the lobby while trying to escape the building. High profile conspiracy such as those pertaining to the September 11 terrorist attacks serve the well-being of society. They help to regulate the governments actions. Conspiracy theories are invaluable in keeping an honest government that is pressured to act within the law -especially if the government is aware that their citizens may question the official story. Governments have the capability to be respected leaders for the people or sources of harm, in a society where conspiracy theories have the ability to become such widespread public knowledge (such as the conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11 terrorist attacks) they ensure that the government remains working for the citizens as they are prepared to be scrutinized. In this way conspiracy theorizing is extremely beneficial to society which makes conspiracy theorizing morally justifiable. Another way in which conspiracy theorizing is beneficial to society is the how it encourages citizens to think for themselves in a way that otherwise they may not. Conspiracy theorizing allows individuals to challenge the official story rather than mindlessly believing stories that have been spoon fed to them by the relevant epistemic authorities and the media. Conspiracy theorizing also offers alternative explanations than the official stories such as arguments based on facts to consider rather than the stories spoon fed to them by the government. The media is an important tool for the conspiracy theorist, in most western countries the press has liberty to publish conspiracy theories and there are even some magazines such as the â€Å"Sceptic† magazine which is available worldwide. The freedom of the media aids the governments awareness that they could very publicly be caught out in a conspiracy. Being caught amongst a conspiracy would be tragic for any democratic government since they would lose so much public support which is necessary as one of the most important things to them is being re-elected. Because governments need public support so much they would indeed be very careful about the conspiracies attempted under their power. While most conspiracies are prompted by nefarious motivations the same is not true for conspiracy theories. I believe the key to the morality of either are the intentions of the conspirators or the theorists, regardless of the outcome. The varying morality of conspiracy theorizing and even conspiracies themselves can be explained by the doctrine of double effect. This doctrine states that an action that results in harm is morally permissible if it is the side effect of a morally good initiative. The doctrine proposes that if doing something intended to be morally good has a morally bad consequence as a side-effect then it is ethically permissible on the condition that the morally bad side-effect wasn’t intended even if it was foreseen to probably happen. An important feature of the doctrine states that the good result must be brought about independent of the bad one, the bad result must not be the means to the good result. To assist in helping my point about the difference in moral permissibility I will use the following hypothetical example: There is a large munitions factory set to be bombed by a bomber pilot. The pilot knows the munitions factory is next to an orphanage and that as a result of bombing the munitions factory a collateral of 2,000 civilian casualties are predicted. However bombing the munitions factory will defeat the enemy and protect other lives. I contend that the actions of the bomber may be morally permissible. However, if I alter the case just slightly: A bomber pilot is set to bomb a munitions factory. The pilot knows that the munitions factory is next to an orphanage and that 2,000 civilian casualties are predicted. In fact, bombing the munitions factory is the fastest and easiest way to cause such a number of casualties and this is why the bomber has chosen to bomb the factory. This will weaken the enemy’s esolve with the side-effect of getting rid of their munitions factory. I contend that in this instance the bomber’s action is obviously morally impermissible. Though this example seems unrelated to conspiracies and conspiracy theorizing it illustrates how the motivation behind an action deems its status of morality. In the case of conspiracy theorizing, a moral conspiracy theory would be one where the theorist truly believes they have uncovered a nefarious conspiracy and that by exposing it to the public they would be greatly benefitting society. The doctrine of double effect would apply for instance in the following two cases: In the first scenario Mandy notices lots of errant data regarding actions made by the government. Adding this data up Mandy believes she has unravelled a nefarious and underhanded scheme by government officials. Mandy truly believes that citizens ought to be aware of this conspiracy and that publicizing her conspiracy theory is in society’s best interest. Mandy knows that her theory negatively implicates many government officials and could be very harmful if she turns out to be wrong. In this case, regardless of whether or not Mandy’s claims turn out to be true her initial motivations were for the good of society. This is similar to the first scenario of the pilot bombing the munitions factory in that the bad result is just a side-effect of the morally good intention. I propose that in this way conspiracy theorizing can be morally just and in the cases where the theorist is proven correct society is reminded of the benefits of conspiracy theorizing. In the second case Mandy, who has been fired from her position in government administration notices the same errant data. Mandy links this data together and formulates a conspiracy theory which negatively implicates her previous superiors. While Mandy in this scenario may also have the intentions of publicizing her conspiracy theory in order to make people aware of a nefarious scheme on the part of the government, she is still motivated by the thought of harming the reputation of her previous superiors. In this case the doctrine states that Mandy’s actions were morally wrong as the morally wrong result was not a side effect of the morally good action. Rather, the morally wrong result of harming her previous superiors was one f the two intended concequences so in this case conspiracy theorizing would be morally wrong. Even though the two scenarios may have the same consequence it is the difference in motivation that alters the moral permissibility. I postulate that this is the same for all conspiracy theories, this means that when motivated by the intention to benefit society conspiracy theorizing is morally permissible. In the case of the September 11 terrorist attacks the moral permissibility of conspiracy theories surrounding the event depend on the intentions of the conspiracy theorists. If the intentions of the theorist are to benefit society by making us aware of a nefarious conspiracy surrounding the government of the United States then I propose that conspiracy theorizing would be morally justifiable. Though the United States government is portrayed to be nefarious and underhanded in this conspiracy theory if this is not the intended result of the conspiracy theorist but a negative side-effect brought about by the good action then conspiracy theorizing in this instance would remain morally justified. However, if the intention of the conspiracy theorist was to undermine the government by weakening the trust between them and their citizens then I conclude that conspiracy theorizing for this purpose (despite any morally good side-effects) is morally unjust. As I have shown clearly in my essay there are many situations in which conspiracy theorizing is a moral good. It is obvious that conspiracy theorizing is beneficial to our society as it pressures the government to work for the well-being of their citizens as they are prepared to be scrutinized. Conspiracy theorizing is also morally justified by the benefits it lends to individuals freedom of speech as well as the freedom of the press. As I have explained in this essay, the doctrine of double effect illustrates how the moral permissibility of conspiracy theorizing often rests upon each conspiracy theorists motivations. I conclude that while most conspiracies are the results of nefarious motivations the same is not true for conspiracy theorizing, instead conspiracy theorists are often motivated to benefit society in some way or another and in these cases their conspiracy theorizing is morally justifiable.