A Web Designing Company

Question: Appraisal Task - Web Design Company Article (Case Study)In groundwork for work in the website composition industry understudies are required to choose a website composition improvement organization and attempt research that will set up the abilities and the board expected to work for or setting up an organization for themselves. Answer: Presentation Accomplish Internet is a site designer for the Drupal endeavor. They create sites for worldwide organizations and associations. One of their driving customers is Hunter undertaking which is a market chief in water system strategies and hardware. The contextual investigation is based around the improvement of another site for their customer Hunter venture which will unite the unpredictable administration arrangement of the undertaking to exhibit their 1900 items to the worldwide market in six distinct dialects (Yang, 2014). For the making of this contextual investigation it was imperative to visit the accomplish endeavor office and actually meet the venture contact at the tracker and fuse their client cites into the specialized subtleties composed by the accomplish engineers. Inquiries Questions What was the test that should have been met by the Achieve designs on creating website page for Hunter Industries? How was the issue for the interpreted locales understood? How was the intricacy of the item pages illuminated? What arrangements were taken before the procedure started? What were the difficulties looked by the building group and how did they conquered it? How was your experience about the Achieve group and what are the tentative arrangements? What are the characteristics of a decent originator? The Challenge The Hunter ventures is a main producer of the water system offices for property holders just as business properties like fairways and sports fields. The current page of the Hunter was created with static pages and contained a great deal of anomalies. The old pages were not refreshed as new items were being created and this legitimately influenced the watchers of the website page because of gigantic number of obsolete data. The greatest contender of the Hunter undertaking had built up a superior site than the advertisement for a similar Hunter reached the accomplish web to fabricate a site which would be the showcasing wheel of their organization , appearing of the considerable number of benefits of the organization and bringing in the clients (Xing, Li and Jing, 2011). Tracker ventures is a B2B organization and in this manner their prime clients were outside installers and contractual workers. The site was not worked for online business however it gave all the data seeing the items as a retail location gives before buy, so it was significant for accomplish to hold that data and it ought to be even good with the old programs the companys essential clients use (Su and Tang, 2013). Why drupal (accomplish web) was picked? Tracker assessed three different CMSs and in excess of seven organizations before picking Drupal. Drupal had the notoriety of overseeing a lot of information and they truly required that as a need in light of the fact that the information of Hunter was actually quite huge. Presently their activity was to discover web planning organization which had a solid information on Drupal and information structure. Accomplish came into picture from that point forward as they hung out in that division. The past destinations being made of static pages the help articles were not refreshed with the goal that ongoing items could be presented. The help branch of the Hunter businesses were the individuals who pushed the arrangement of refreshing the site with Drupal tech which have empowered them to stay up with the latest (Starr, 2013). The Advantage Of Translation The Hunter enterprises being a worldwide organization has temporary workers and clients everywhere throughout the world including Saudi Arabia, China, France and numerous other. Their business is executed in more than 24 dialects, and the development of the global fragment of the organization has gotten 40% from 5% over the most recent couple of years. In this manner the interpretation of their website pages was a game changing exertion on their side to improve the business abroad (Spragins, 1998). Accomplish interpreted the base site which was in the US English language. The interpretation procedure ought to be as simple and robotized as could reasonably be expected. A media interpretation model was created by the Achieve for this reason which would empower the Hunter to gather all their related media into an interpretation set and the naturally show the right document for that language site without stacking the media record to all the deciphered hubs. At the point when Hunter makes an interpretation set and the base media record to the base item hub and henceforth the amended media documents are naturally shown on the right locales (Schmidt, Liu and Sridharan, 2009). Nothing Is Simpler Than A Complex Issue for Achieve The website page was intricate before the execution by the Achieve group. The related pages were hard to be found by the guest and moving from item to item was a mind boggling process. Accomplish now has actualized every item in the water system line has its own page in the site now. The item picture display and recordings are itemized and infectious, empowering the watchers with enough subtleties to unravel all the enquiries. Every one of the item page likewise has a broad data insight concerning the item which can be gotten to by tab in the base of the item screen. Establishment guides, detail reports and support and investigating records are additionally remembered for the pages. A large portion of the significant items likewise have graphs clarifying the advantages and details of the relatable items. The development of the client from item to item has likewise gotten extremely simple with the consideration of menu framework in the left side bar. It has additionally included more than 1600 PDF CAD records in the broad help and establishment bolster data, WORD archives and PowerPoint slides are likewise included, each with a thumbnail and metatag data. The consideration of every one of these capacities on the sites has helped the water system installers and the maintainers unravel a great deal of the upkeep issues, by furnishing them with simple access to the data in the field and consequently diminishes the help expenses of the organization (Ross, 2002). Media Files Implementation Accomplish understood that even before the commencement of the venture the most basic requirement for the organization is to collect and find with the goal that a great many media documents ca be overseen, including picture records, recordings, PDFs, compress records and various other comprising a sum of 41 augmentation records. Accomplish made Views media program module for Hunter which uses the intensity of the Drupal see module and henceforth gives a redid perusing experience while scanning for or choosing media records (Mitchell, 2010). Tracker routinely refreshes their media document so they asked Achieve to actualize something which probably won't delete the old records however simply be supplanted by the new documents. They made a media module update for them which was made from the base of Drupal 7 center (Korman, 2006). The consideration of the media records on the Hunter webpage, for example, PDF records, JPEGs, Microsoft word reports, compress documents and moreover records were essential to be remembered for the list items of the site. The current inquiry module Solr search which can't file the real record content adequately, for example, the substance of the report documents. Accomplish created ApacheSolr media module can record the fields inside the media fields including titles, depictions and scientific categorizations which can successfully look for substance in any document. The custom module components created by Achieve permits any client to see how the asset library, bolster library and the contextual investigation library of Hunter undertaking works. They can search for anything beginning from item type client type or area and surfaces the data actually serenely for them. That was a flat out perfect work of art search module created by the Achieve for the Hunter endeavor. Accomplish has additionally incorporated the site with a numerous number of points of arrival which helps in the area of data in a comparable arrangement of data. They are for the portrayal of item and product offerings, bolster archives and assets like showcasing PDFs. The greeting pages have broad separating capacities which can extricate any snippet of data required by the client or limited inquiry is likewise present which searches kind of list items just in the presentation page (Fan, 2014). Difficulties Faced By the Engineers The difficult part was the association of the data part inside and the procedure by which the substance makers will productively deal with the data. It was one of the many fascinating difficulties looked by the Achieve group in the task. The principal impediment to be beaten was the successful usage of the intricate item pages, the tabs and the inserted diagrams. Boards, outlines, settings and custom pages were executed as answers for the issue, yet custom page was discovered generally appropriate. The position of the components of the page was to be done effectively, for example, picture displays and the squares on the correct side of the page without content wrapping was ending up being an issue. Indeed, even the Drupal squares were not working so the designers composed a custom renderer to embed the substance in the right places of the layout (Djonov, 2007). The undertaking page had a Feature tab which demonstrated the substance organized in two bulleted list. He adjusting of this segment was very dangerous and required a ton of conceptualizing. This would permit the substance maker to embed the substance in a plain book box and it will fit naturally in the right situation of the page. The presentation of tabs on the item pages was another difficult errand and accordingly sham placeholder with field types was made. This renders the Solr search as a tab on the page. The procedure to organize the assets on the item detail pages Resource

Management and Weber Essay

Drawing on Weber’s perfect sort, basically consider the significance of bureaucratic organization to the administration of twenty-first century associations. Max Weber was a German humanist in the twentieth century; he was well known for his old style the board hypothesis. Weber ordered three unique kinds of power, customary, alluring and genuine position. Conventional authority depends on conventions and customs that the pioneer has the genuine option to utilize authority. Charming authority is the conviction that the pioneer whose crucial dreams will move others. Authentic authority depends on formal, arrangement of rules. During the 1930s, Weber presented that the bureaucratic structure just like the perfect method of arranging government organizations. This before long got well known in both the private and open segments. Weber accepts that the advancement of sane structures to be the most significant attributes in the improvement of Western culture and free enterprise. He thought about the conventional and charming structures as unreasonable. Soundness depends on thinking, computation and rationale. One of the numerous sorts of soundness incorporates the proper discernment. The idea of formal objectivity is imperative to the rise of mechanical private enterprise as free enterprise esteems reason, figuring and exactness, science and rationale. Formal sanity is a type of soundness that portrays bureaucratic associations. Administration alludes to the execution of assignments that are represented by legitimate regulatory and formal principles of an association. Weber’s bureaucratic administration hypothesis centers around partitioning associations into progressive systems with specialists and control. The perfect sort is outrageous, exactly based and measuring stick for examination. Weber has 6 significant standards for his optimal sort of the board style. Initially, the association has a formal various leveled structure, which alludes to the positioning framework inside in the administration. A progressive structure the board style likewise recommends a concentrated dynamic procedure, where by far most of choices are made by few individuals, normally the senior supervisory crews. Furthermore, the association adheres to an administration by rules framework; the association is constrained by rules, which permits choices to be made at significant level at that point executed by the lower levels. Thirdly, the association is composed by useful claim to fame, which implies that there is specialization inside the association; representatives are isolated into discrete offices dependent on their capacities and aptitudes. Specialization permits the worker to be proficient and progressively talented at a particular undertaking, which expands efficiency. Moreover, all choices and rules are recorded as a hard copy to guarantee congruity after some time. What's more, in a perfect framework, there is fairness between all representatives, applying to both administrative and non-administrative specialists. Ultimately, work is entirely founded on specialized capabilities, which implies representatives are employed on a premise of their capacities and ability. Weber’s bureaucratic administration centers around the experts in the top degree of the order and causes a â€Å"iron cage† to confine the lower switch laborers which prompts demotivation and a sentiment of irrelevance. Numerous analysts contend that weber underscores on the positive results of administration and disregards its dysfunctions. These specialists incorporate Gouldner, Merton and Thompson. In Gouldner sentiments, he doesn't accept the organization authority is neither satisfactory nor effective. He proposed three sorts of administration, mock organization, discipline focused administration and delegate administration. In mock organization, the guidelines are overlooked in light of the fact that they originate from an outside office; workers feel that there is an excess of ‘red tape’. In discipline focused administration, the standards are forced on the laborers from inside the association. This sort of power disheartens the laborers from full responsibility; laborers would just play out a satisfactory measure of work. In agent organization, the guidelines are created and upheld by administrators and the workers. With respect to Merton, he accepts that discerning principles and the nearby control prompts resoluteness. He presented the possibility of ‘goal displacement’; this is when authoritative objectives are supplanted by close to home objectives. Bureaucracies’ rules become more significant than what they were intended to serve, which brings about wasteful aspects. In bureaucratic frameworks, specialization comprises of various divisions with various objectives. These objectives could cause strife and these objectives may turn out to be a higher priority than the organization’s unique destinations. Victor Thompson additionally reprimanded Weber’s ‘ideal type’, he proposes the bureaupathic conduct, and this is when representatives are more intrigued by the principles than the reasons and objectives of the association. Thompson likewise contended that in bureaucratic frameworks, the specialists create a feeling of frailty that utilizations rules to shield them from making mistakes. There are a lot progressively broken outcomes of organization. Initially, administration is an inflexible administration framework, it is intended for a steady and unsurprising business condition, consequently it can't adjust to quick and unforeseen changes. Additionally, in a bureaucratic framework, there is a grouping of intensity in the more significant levels of the executives, which would make separation between the representatives at the lower levels of the chain of importance and prompting a feeling of demotivation. There was not just Weber’s hypotheses about administration style, there were additionally Taylorism by Fredrick Winslow Taylor, Fordism by Henry Ford, and McDonaldism by George Ritzer. Taylor was viewed as the dad of logical administration. Taylorism was intended to a) limit creation time, b) accomplish divison of work, c) diminish the measure of work by following a machinelike routine d) separate work similarly among the laborers and the supervisors, e) gain control by oversight of work with chiefs arranging, and laborers playing out the errands. His definitive objective was to prevail with regards to picking up productivity by expanding yield from his laborers. Taylor additionally presented the Time and Motion Study, this was to build up profitability. He originally isolated the assignments into little advances, at that point execution was checked to dispose of inefficient movement, with the specific time recorded, at that point the creation and conveyance time and costs can be determined. Be that as it may, this is just reasonable for monotonous assignments. The possibility of taylorism is typically contended that it abuses people, it additionally overlooks individual innovativeness and there is lost independence to the representatives. Fordism was the arrangement of large scale manufacturing that was presented by Henry Ford, the originator of the Ford Motor Company. His point was to accomplish higher profitability by normalizing the yield by his organization. He was likewise the first to present the utilization of mechanical production systems. In Taylorism, it concentrated on machine and laborer productivity, in any case, in Fordism, portage supplanted work with hardware and he limits costs as opposed to amplifying benefits. Pundits contended that Fordism annihilates craftsmanship and de-talented occupations as it centers around hardware to play out the assignments, and with the modest number of laborers of the work environment, the tedium of the activity is accepted to prompt pressure and estrangement of the laborers. After Fordism, George Ritzer presented the possibility of McDonaldism, the term was to allude to the procedure of drive-through joints ruling the world. This new structure of Ritzer’s supplanted Weber’s bureaucratic structure. He proposed four standards of McDonaldization. 1) Efficiency: In McDonaldized structures, the perfect route for finishing an errand was the entire of the association expects to limit time of creation. 2) Calculability: McDonaldism proposes that a lot of item conveyed in a brief timeframe is proportional to a quality item. 3) Predictability: In McDonaldism, items and administrations are normalized, in spite of the area or time. 4) Control: According to McDonaldism, workers perform explicit errands with non-human innovations to supplant them when required. Administration has a place with the twentieth century when the business condition is steady and unsurprising, in any case, in the twenty-first century; the business condition is everlastingly changing and is deprived for an adaptable structure. There are five key hierarchical patterns in the twenty-first century. Right off the bat, globalization is the expansion reconciliation of national economies into worldwide markets as opposed to national markets. Over the previous years, there is an expanded globalized work showcase. The expanded globalized markets are for the most part because of enhancements in transportation and correspondence, for example, the Internet. Furthermore, the workforce is getting increasingly broadened because of changing socioeconomics and the globalization of the work showcase. Thirdly, in the twenty-first century, associations are getting progressively adaptable; there are less nitty gritty principles and techniques inside the work environment. Representatives are accepting more prominent independence with a progressively adaptable authoritative structure. Besides, organizations want to adjust to a level hierarchical structure with less administration levels, carrying the top administration closer to the lower levels of representatives thus improving the progression of data and accelerating correspondence inside the association. Finally, associations are generally arranged; there is immediate correspondence between various offices, overlooking the levels of leadership. Business dynamic is decentralized in arranged associations, which improves the speed of dynamic, energizes contribution from the workforce and improves responsibility of the representatives. Taking everything into account, Weber’s hypothesis of the perfect kind of association is improper for the administration of the twenty-first century associations; the business condition in the present days is rapidl

I won the game!

I won the game! DID YOU KNOW? According to Americas Test Kitchen, the best possible multipurpose 913 pan is a Pyrex pan which costs only $8.00? Its my last night in Harrisburg, PA and I thought Id spend it posting old photos on this blog. The reason being that costs me twenty-five cents to send these photos from my phone to my computer, and Im a college student and just cant afford to waste that. Anyway, another thing I did tonight was I went to the local 7-11, well, the local one that wasnt shut down last month for credit card fraud, and cashed in my winning lottery ticket. Despite having very nearly attained twenty (oh dear!) years of age, I had not yet purcahsed a lottery ticket in my otherwise typical suburban life. So, on the way out of Giant, on an impulse, I stuck a dollar into the PA Lottery machine and bought the only ticket that still cost a dollarE I E I Dough. Although I was discouraged after my poor performance in the regular field of play, I was lucky enough to get a tractor in the bonus barn, netting me FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS! I think now that I have accumulated a lifetime net winnings of 500%, I will never gamble again in my life. Anyway, I was at Giant buying some eggs, and aww, heres old pictures from my phone. My Christmas-themed egg, which I colored last week at Kates house. My beloved high school friend Shana can also color eggs. The coloring didnt work very well. I hypothesized that this was because it was not Easter. The desserts I had for ThanksgivingI believe that would be a pumpkin roll, a piece of Old Black Joe cake, and some shoo-fly pie. On my way down to Harrisburg, we stopped at a gas station and I just had to check out some Tastykakes, a regional brand of pastry that costs about 50 cents in Southern Pennsylvania and sells at around an 800% markup in the Los Angeles Farmers Market. Why they sell Tastykakes at a Farmers Market, I have no idea. I think I took this picture to illustrate how busy South Station is the day before Thanksgiving. This was what Sams Mom had set the desktop background as when I got home. Do you know whos in the picture? It was a hit for Billy Paul. Okay, thats all for Central Pennsylvania. You might get a full account of my activities at home later on, or maybe not. Anyway, its back to MIT tomorrow for a safe and productive IAP. Oh yeah.

Pornography Research Paper - 1128 Words

Pornography is a word that is used widely across the world. It is used as a topic of jokes on television sitcoms or as a topic of distress in various religious settings. But, what are the real effects of pornography on our international society? Up until the 1900’s, the dominate media outlets of pornography were through magazines, videos, DVS’s and television. However, since the intention of the Internet and Smartphone cell phones, these sexual visuals have been by nearly every individual to walk the earth. Every country on every continent ways of exploring all types of pornography. Some authors state that pornography is defined as printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity,†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"For men only, pornography consumption was found to significantly predict common sexual behaviors in non-marital relations† (Hald, 2013,p.981). In a place where six is socially acceptable only in monogamous, heterosexual, and religiously recognized marriages. I was surprised by the results that I saw. While many individuals seek out pornography. Many people are victims to Internet ads, magazine articles, or cell phone side bars that contain pornography material. Chen, professor at National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, wanted to know more about Internet pornography and intentional vs. intentional exposure. Chen, and his team, conducted an analysis of Taiwanese adolescents that involved â€Å"seeking Internet pornography, motivations and perceptions with regard to Internet pornography, and relationship among internet pornography experiences and background variables.†(Chen,2013,p.157).They were able to explore Internet pornography usage, seeking activity, experience, exposure characteristics, motivation for and perceptions of Internet pornography among the Taiwanese senior high school students. Results revealed that 71%of respondent had been exposed to Internet pornography; of this group. 41.3% reported only intentional exposure and 58.7% reported intentional exposure.â⠂¬  (Chen.2013,p157). Second, they were also able toShow MoreRelatedResearch review example2093 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿Example: Research review of a paper on the impact of pornography use in adolescence on relationship intimacy in early adulthood Please note that ethical standards of peer reviewing constrain me [JP] to give you the original manuscript. I also had to anonymize identifying information in the review. This review is meant as an example of the style used in writing a review; you do not have to understand all the details. Please note that this review is longer than the one you are requested to writeRead MoreFeminism and Pornography: Differing Views1221 Words   |  5 PagesThe pornography debate has been an issue within the feminist movement that has been pushed to the periphery in recent times. It is not as widely seen on the main stage of the feminist agenda and this may be because of a division in feminist thought with regards to pornography. Generally speaking, there are â€Å"pro-sex† feminists who believe that women have the right to do what they wish with their bodies and there are â€Å"pro-censorship† feminists who believe pornography is inherently degrading and violentRead MoreEssay about The Impact of Internet Pornography on American Society1022 Words   |  5 Pages Pornography is nothing new to American society, so why would there be a problem with the merging of the internet and pornographic material? Why would it make a difference if the material is online or in a magazine? In this paper, the issue of internet porn will be discussed in terms of its relation to the addiction of online porn, desensitization to sexual violence and rape, encouragement of sexual violence, objectification of women, sexual compulsiveness, and the reshaping of expectationsRead MorePornography : Not So Harmless1582 Words   |  7 PagesPornography: Not So Harmless The word pornography brings to mind graphic images and videos of sex and nudity. Pornography isn’t a modern idea, in fact, media meant to arouse sexual desires has existed throughout centuries of human history. Explicit murals were found among the ruins of Pompeii. The ancient Romans were delighted by erotic poetry, while the ancient Greeks adorned their pottery with sexual images. In 19th-century France, men would curtain obscene works of art and only uncover themRead MorePornographic Videos On Today s Society1605 Words   |  7 Pagesinternet on either a phone or a computer they have the ability to access pornography. While most of us think adolescents view porn when they are older; O’Sullivan and Ronis (2013) found that viewing of pornography begins at early ages. In exploring viewing rates of pornography by adolescents, O’Sullivan and Ronis (2013) found that 85% of boys and 42% of girls have viewed pornography intentionally. It is clear that pornography is reaching young boys and girls at younger and younger ages and is becomingRead More The Pros and Cons of Pornography Essay951 Words   |  4 Pagesclick of a mouse, millions world-wide are able to access pornography and see their sexual fantasies come to life (King 418). According to King, â€Å"One third of all use of the internet is connected to porn sites,† (419). With explicit sexual material nearly impossible to avoid, it may be difficult to decipher between what is normal sexual behavior and what is merely fantasy. There is belief that the sexual activities of women presented in pornography effect both genders’ perceptions of what is normal femaleRead MoreDoes Online Pornography Affect The Healthy Sexual Development That Male Adolescents Nowadays?1541 Words   |  7 PagesDOES ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY AFFECT THE HEALTHY SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT THAT MALE ADOLESCENTS NOWADAYS SHOULD HAVE? Pornography has been around for several years now, but during the last 10 years or so, the access to it has become much easier. This is because during this period many people have access to Internet, which makes it faster and easier to go to a website and watch pornography. Nobody has to go to the trouble of going to an â€Å"Adult store† to buy the movies or magazines. The companies that work withRead MoreThe Negative Impact of Pornography on Society Essay924 Words   |  4 Pages Pornography is tearing apart the very fabric of our society. Yet Christians are often ignorant of its impact and apathetic about the need to control this menace. Pornography is an $8 billion a year business with close ties to organized crime.The wages of sin are enormous when pornography is involved. Purveyors of pornography reap enormous profits through sales in so-called adult bookstores and viewing of films and live acts at theaters. Pornography involves books, magazines,Read MoreThe National Statistics For Computer Ownership Essay774 Words   |  4 Pageswhy during the last decade pornography turned out to be easily available and abundant mainly though Internet (Braun-Courville Rojas, 2009). The above data expose how everyday internet pornography get closer to our underage teens and children all around the nation and without distinction. Researchers Ybarra, Mitchell, Hamburger Diener-West and Leaf suggested that national data pointed out that around 23% of teens between ages 10-15 in the U.S. have searched for pornography intentionally during theRead MorePornography And Its Influence On Society s Greater Freedom Of Sexual Expression943 Words   |  4 PagesPornography sits at the intersection of art and obscenity, sexuality and morality. Explicit depictions of sex predate civilization, from figurines of Venus to cave paintings (Rudgley, 2000, p.195). However, during several periods throughout history more structured and intentional erotic works have been viewed as scandalous and immoral, especially in times of conservative religiosity. As sexuality became villainized into a personal sin and private affair, pornography became increasingly taboo, and

The United Kingdom - 1416 Words

In the United Kingdom, a census was taken every 10 years starting from 1801. With the exception of 1941 due to the Second World War, the census kept a very good idea of the current population and assisted in predicting futures sizes. Population data for years prior to the census was provided from directories and gazetteers as many churches took number on the size of its inhabitants. Estimated in the 1500s, Scotland had a population of 500,000 persons, and according to the 2011 census, the country has reached an extraordinary 5,295,000 persons. As of 2012, the birth rate was 11 births/1,000 people and a death rate of 10.5 deaths/1,000 people – this suggests that the population growth is rather relaxed since almost as many are born and die†¦show more content†¦The ratio of male to female has roughly been the same for the last seventy years, in favor of the females- 51%:49%. Divided amongst three age groups, Scotland has split the population by work-status; 17% aged unde r 16 (unable to work full-time), 65% aged 16-64 (potentially full-time workers) and 18% aged 65 and over (retirees). Furthermore, the end-tail of the retiree column has been growing in recent times as the number of males over 100 years of age has more than doubled between the years of 2003 and 2013. Formerly only 60 persons reached this age in a generation have now escalated to 130 males. The females, starting off substantially higher than the males, have risen as well. In 2003, there were 470 females over the age of 100 in a single generation. That number is now 720 during the same period as the 130 males. Obviously on a global scale, developed nations are living longer due to better health, better lifestyles and also medical assistance. These figures do not go into detail whether these men and women are free or are in a vegetative state, being kept alive via machine. Although not the main reason why the nation’s older population is living longer, it is certainly a contribu ting factor that Scotland s leading causes of death- including cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke- are declining and stem from the impact of lifestyle

Those Winter Sundays Free Essays

Those Winter Sundays Historical Context/Info about Author: Robert Hayden grew up in a poor African-American section of Detroit known as Paradise Valley. At a young age, his parents separated and his mother could no longer afford to keep him so he was sent to live with a foster family. His adoptive father was a strict Baptist and manual laborer and while he was a stern man, he always attempted to care for and nurture Hayden’s love of literature. We will write a custom essay sample on Those Winter Sundays or any similar topic only for you Order Now Summary: The poem, composed in 1962, is a tribute to Hayden’s stepfather in an effort to express both his gratitude for all the hard work he had done for him as well as the regret that he feels for not appreciating him more during his lifetime. The poem’s power is emphasized through the technique of using flashbacks from his childhood and juxtaposing them against the knowledge and newfound respect he now has as a man. This short, simple poem touches on topics such as family relationships, coming of age, and sacrifice for loved ones. Literary Devices Used: Symbolism Imagery – Those Winter Sundays has many symbols and imagery that are well utilized in order to convey Hayden’s message. He refers to his stepfathers â€Å"cracked hands†, which in this case, is used to symbolize the hard work this father was willing to go through for the love of his family. Another symbol present in the poem is his â€Å"polished good shoes† which is another symbol used to express the indirect nature of a fathers love. Even though he was strict and withdrawn he would take the time to make sure that his son would have a better life than he had. Syntax/Structure- In order to emphasize the labored existence of his father, the author repeatedly uses the â€Å"c† sound, which kind of adds the element of pain. Examples of this alliteration include, cracked, banked, thanked, and chronic. The overall structure of the poem also attributes to the underlying tone. It is constructed very simply which may help to express the simplicity of the love between a father and son. They did not lead an extravagant lifestyle and his father didn’t do go out of his way in order to show affection towards his son, but the point was he did what needed to be done even if it was hard, without calling for any appreciation and that was enough to show his love for his family. The poem also ends with a rhetorical question, â€Å"What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices? which helps to show the regret and change in heart the man has had through his own personal growth. Tone- the poem’s tone shifts in the beginning from a cold, harsh tone to a warmer comforting tone by the seventh line. Although by line nine the poem’s tone shifts again to a negative uncomfortable tone. The cold, harshness of the tone described in the first stanza reflects through the coldness of the house, the Father’s cracked achy hands and the fact that no one has ever thanked him. This fluctuation of tone indicates the uncertainty the son feels about his father and whether or not he truly does care for him, which of course as a man he realizes he always had. How to cite Those Winter Sundays, Papers

Nestle Erp Case Study free essay sample

Nestle is a multinational company based on Switzerland, was establish long ago in 1866 by Henri nestle which supplies different kinds of food products. Over the period nestle has grown as one of the big company. Nestle USA is a part of nestle company, having seven business divisions: beverage, confection and snacks, food service, foreign trade, nutrition, prepared food and sales. Some of Its popular products in USA were: Alpo, Nescafe, Tasters choice. Its annual revenue was 8. 1 billion and 16000 employees were working. In 1992 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system provider SAP introduced the R3 system of client server architecture and Nestle USA has decided to implement R3 ERP system in 1997 and given a project name BEST ( business excellence through system technology). It had estimated cost of $210 million with total IT staff of 250 including outside consultant and estimated time to complete was 2003. To implement the ERP there are two choices; either you change your business process or customize the ERP system according to your business process. The CIO of nestle USA Jeri Dunn has consulted with the other key stakeholders from finance, supply chain, distribution and purchasing and came up with the idea of changing the Nestles business process to fit in with the ERP system. They assume that the new system would create saving through group buying and facilitate data sharing between subsidiaries. Implementation approach and its impacts Nestle was implementing a new system but they didn’t include the real user in stakeholder team who will have to face the change in business process. Those were the one working with the system but BEST project has ignored them. In other words, they failed to address the change management. They didn’t communicate with them to set expectation and prepare plan for the implementation. As a result Nestle faced a lot of peoples issue. Employee started to resist new system and no one wanted to learn the new system of doing things, which created a pressure to divisional executives and they became affronted with the employee. This has direct effect on the self-esteem of workers. Employee started to feel unsecure and pressurized in the new system and they started to leave the job. Scenario continued and reached 77 precent of employee turnover. Employees are the company’s assets, so Nestle lost their important asset which has impact on their day to day business. That new system created a lot of problems and the help desk was overloaded they are getting 300 calls per day. Nestle USA’s implementation problems did not stop with employee issues. The project team didn’t make a clear integration point between the modules to address the Y2K deadlines. This created the miss communication between modules. When the year 2000 started, the old system where only 2 digits were there to represent the year, created a lot of problems. Nestles BEST project was also infected by this confusion of Y2K deadline and the project was stopped due to lack of improper integration planning. Project team combined its separate brand in hurry to meet the time goal of the project they didn’t count the possible outcome of combining them without proper preparation. The project team, without doing the business process reengineering, necessarily replaced the divisional silos in to process silos. This created the conflict between the division and process silos were not in proper way of reengineering the whole business process of each division. After this big mess up of implementation of new system Nestle USA learned a big lesson about the process of ERP system implementation. The company restarted the SAP implementation from a claw mark. Stakeholder’s team reassembled to start the project. Now they have realized the importance of divisional heads and the end users, so they boost the support from divisional heads and communicate to the employee about the new system and its impact on business process. They have started the project from business requirements and decided to reach the end date rather than to set the date in advanced. As a result the implementation took place in quite excellent way that they started to benefit from new SAP system. The database system became more reliable on business intelligence such as demand forecasting, inventory reducing redistributing expenses which generated a lot of revenue. In addition Nestle made a five year deal with IBM in $500 million for software, hardware, IT services and integration of its mysap. com, e-business software system etc. Nestle was practically successful with SAP system and it was trying to solve the information management system by improving the SAP system all over the world. They were using e-procurement to its major regions to improve the system management. Conclusion ERP implementation is unlikely experience that any company will have. It has to be planned prepared and stimulated from the entire stakeholder otherwise it will sunk the millions of dollar and it drain the companies market. In case of Nestle USA, it confronted a lot of difficulties due to improper implementation plan yet be able to recover as a successful project. Many organisations have gone through the similar situation that there are plenty of lesson to be learned. We can conclude that ERP implementation needs big consideration on business requirement, business process reengineering, stakeholder’s involvement, hardware and software and other units. Three important things Change Management Organisations in these days are dynamic function and they keep changing with technology advancement hand in hand. So every organisation implements changed technology, business process, business function etc. such change have remarkable effect on organisation and its employee which formalize the idea of change management. Change management is most important in any organisation when the organisation is implementing any new technology and system. Change management build up strength to handle the change in organisation. So change management is adequate to any organisation to implement change within the organisation. There are a lot of examples of failure of new technology implementation from past that is due to unaddressed change management. Recently organisations have realised the importance of change management and its impact. Change management is the process of implementing change in such a way that it will involve all the people within the organisation to face and accept change. Change management involves and agree support from people within system, environment, and processes, organisation. It will identify where the organisation at the moment is and after certain change what the organisation will be what are the measures will be for having got there. It plans the change in appropriate way by Communicating, involving, enabling and facilitating people, as early and openly and as fully as possible. As we have discuss in our Nestle case study their first attempt to implement ERP was not successful because of poor change management. Business process reengineering Business process reengineering is change in the current process of doing business in to completely new process. Business process is an act of doing business, for example; for delivering product to costumer, first need to check payment from account department, and need to check stock in go downs, approvals from sales manager and send to costumer. After implementing ERP this process may not remain same because implementing new ERP system is often required to change the business process to match with the functionality or either changes the ERP functionality. Changing the ERP functionality is not easy so normally organization prefer to change its business process to match the functionality. When organization decides to change its business process or reengineers the business process, organization should take care of the ERP functionality and the organizational needs to find the possible solution of reengineering. In case of nestle they have realized business process reengineering is required but their way of reengineering wasn’t sufficient and convenient enough to lead the project to a successful end. ERP implementation plan To implement ERP system there should be some implementation plan based on the scope, time and cost constraint. There are different methodology for ERP implementation by different vendors, among them an organisation should choose the suitable one based on their requirements and business process. There are three type of ERP implementation plan; comprehensive, middle of the road, Vanilla. Comprehensive plan is the lengthy, costly and expensive because it is a full functionality implementation, middle of the road is some change in core modules of ERP and cogent business process reengineering and vanilla approach is using the core ERP function to get the best business practise. When plan is selected, the methodology of implementing should also be clearly drawn. There are traditional methodology, life cycle methodology, fast-track; agile development etc. ecently agile methodology is being popular because it is more practical than any others. Agile approach assumes that whatever the requirements might be at the beginning of the project, they won’t remain same at the end. So ERP implementation is a plan not just set of time as nestle has done in the beginning. Question 2 Complexity of ERP implementation Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are the system which integrat e the data across and be comprehensive in supporting all major function. ERP systems are the specific software application which helps organisation to operate its function such as; accounting, finance, marketing, human resource etc. ERP system provides integrated system that operates in real time without relying on periodic updates and common database, which supports all applications. Implementing ERP system in any organization is complex task as it involves a lot of change which certainly creates the possibility of confusion and creates complexity. In these days business organization have become complex with a lot of layer of management and dependencies between departments. All the departments within the organization need a lot of communication to complete the business process. ERP systems are to ease the process of business within the organization, but ERP implementation is not similar to those other application like MS office, data base software etc. ERP implementation project needs a lot consideration and research and it has high risk of failure as well. The crucial thing for successful ERP implementation is to use the proper methodology, to take one step at a time and begin with the understanding of ERP life cycle. Even though we use proper methodology it’s not possible to implement it without discord. There are lot things which make the ERP implementation complex. The very first thing is selection of ERP vendors. There are a lot of vendors in the market providing the ERP and they all have different features. When an organization decides to implement ERP in very beginning it will face is what type, size, and scope of the future system it actually requires and how to choose the most suitable solution among the vendors but there is no Specific solution for it. Organisation itself has to make decision of suitability of system according to their business function and needs. First it needs to find what functionality is required and what future perspective for the system is. If it is not lined out clearly organisation might not select the right vendor. Including the business function organisation has to look at the various other things such as; features and integration capability of software, licensing and upgrades, infrastructure requirements, total cost of ownership etc. The second thing relates to the people within the organisation and has big impact on ERP implementation. New system implementation brings the big change and if that change is not managed properly it will bring tsunami. Past experiences shows that often the organisations were failed to manage the change due to improper management. People always act reversely when imposed new things up on them until they were awaked about the profitability of that. So people within the organisation needs to aware of change by Communicating, involving, enabling. Every person has his own thoughts and value. Convincing them and involving them is not so easy and without doing that implementation also becomes difficult. The third thing is business process reengineering. Business process is the actual act of doing business, for example; for delivering product to costumer, first need to check payment from account department, and need to check stock in go downs, approvals from sales manager and send to costumer. After implementing ERP this process may not remain same because implementing new ERP system is often required to change the business process to match with the functionality or either changes the ERP functionality. Changing the ERP functionality is not easy so normally organization prefer to change its business process though it is also not easily manageable. Changing the business process may create a lot of confusion and may create debate between departments as well. So reengineering of business process in suitable way also plays the vital role. Technically, ERP system may not fit with the current hardware and software may be it needs standardization or some of the third party software needs to be integrated with the ERP software, which is not easy task. Data issue also becomes the major problem after implementing ERP transferring legacy data into the new system from Excel spread sheets, manual records, or old disparate applications. Basically, the question is that old data that have been used and stored for years can for many reasons appear approximate or even incorrect in the new ERP. Operation of ERP and post implementation is also the critical points for successful Implementation. User needs to be trained to use the new system; active support via help desk needs to be provided and so forth. In conclusion, ERP implementation is a risky project, full of uncertainty of successful implementation and has lot of influencing factors affecting the implementation. Many factors such as vendor selection, people issue, technical and data issue, business process etc. makes the ERP implementation complex and creates the confusing situation.

Carnival Corporation Plc

The Carnival Corporation Plc is among the biggest world cruise and vacation business organizations. The company basically carries out its operations in such countries as Australia, the United States of America, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, New Zealand, and Germany (Wheelen and Hunger, 2006). It has its headquarters in the United Kingdom (London) and in Florida (Miami). Basing on the statistics that were released in the year 2010, Carnival Corporation and Plc has 93 ships under operation (Marketingtercher.com, 2010).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Carnival Corporation Plc specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This company started its operations in the year 1972 and it started as a â€Å"subsidiary of the American International Travel service† (Marketingtercher.com, 2010, Para 1). It was set up by Ted Arison. Several acquisitions were carried out beginning form the year 1989 and this went on unt il the year 2009, bringing up the level the company’s â€Å"brand portfolio†. This includes â€Å"Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, ibero Cruises, Costa Cruises, P O Cruises, Cunard Line, AIDA Cruises, P O Cruises Australia, Ocean Village and The Yatchs of Seabourn† (Marketingtercher.com, 2010, Para 2). The strategic positioning of Carnival Corporation Plc is on the basis of 3 basic divisions which include; luxury, premium and contemporary divisions. Each of these divisions has varying requirements, demographics as well as characteristics. The company has ensured that all these divisions are effectively served which has enabled the company to grow over the years to its current position. SWOT Analysis and the current strategic position of the company The Company’s Strengths One of the company’s strengths is its large size, the company being the biggest cruise operator in the world. It has a huge â€Å"fleet capacityà ¢â‚¬  and engages in the operation of eleven cruise brand names which are greatly familiar. The company’s â€Å"brand names portfolio† is appealing to closely all niche market (Wheelen and Hunger, 2006). The second strength is that, considering the company’s large size, the company has a substantial cost advantage over other companies competing with it in the industry. The company gains its strength from the large profitability it realizes, making it to carry out its operations without encountering much difficulty as compared to the competitors. For instance, the company realized an average net income of 18.1 percent between the financial years 2005 to 2009. This level of average net income was far much above the industry figure which is 6.3 percent (Marketingtercher.com, 2010). Another of the company’s strength is that it engages in aggressive and effective advertising. It invests a large amount of money in the TV media as well as print media. Last but not least, Carnival Corporation Plc has large market share in some of the major countries such as France, the United Kingdom and Italy, having a market share in each of the countries of more than 45 percent with the market share being as high as 68 percent in Italy (Marketingtercher.com, 2010).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The Company’s Weaknesses A larger portion of the company’s revenue, which is about 52 percent, comes from the clients in the United States. However, this kind of overdependence makes the company to be susceptible to the economic fluctuations that take place in the economy of the United States, which might negatively affect the company. For instance, in the year 2009, the revenue the company was receiving from the U.S customers went down by two digits because of the economic downturn experienced in the region. Moreover, another weakness w as experienced by the company where the company realized a decline in the net profit in the years 2009. A decline in the net profit was 23.2 percent in comparison with the pervious year (2008). Another of the company’s weaknesses is in regard to the currency it uses to give the financial reports. This company uses the U.S dollar in its financial statements. However, almost 50 percent of the company’s revenue is earned in the currencies that are not dollars. It was reported that â€Å"the value of the dollar against the Euro appreciated from 1.60 in January 2010 to 1.53 by April 2010 against the pound† (Marketingtercher.com, 2010, Para 10). This implies that in case the dollar gains strength, the company records in its financial statements a revenue that is below the actual value of the revenue earned in its over all performance. More so, as of November 2009, â€Å"the company had 13 ships which were being constructed and this was a time of economic uncertaintyà ¢â‚¬  Marketingtercher.com (2010). The total cost of this kind of construction was estimated to be about 8.2 U.S dollars. During such a time of economic uncertainty, it is very hard to have an immense cash outflow like that being truly justified. Carrying out such a move may bring about grave negative outcomes such as large debt burden on the company’s balance sheet as a decline in the company’s profit levels. Another weakness is the high fixed costs of the company. The fixed cost takes up 25 percent of the over all operating expenses of the company. Opportunities In the course of more than the last ten years, the cruise industry has realized a significant growth and yet it still takes up a quite small share of the world’s vacation market. As on one hand there has been realization of a decrease in the cruises revenue in the United States, on the other hand, there has been realization of an increase in the revenue from markets in Asia as well as Europe and this offers an opportunity for the company’s expansion in these markets. The company has also identified an opportunity and has put in place plans to raise â€Å"the berth capacity for the European market by 37 percent by 2012† (Marketingtercher.com, 2010, Para 12).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Carnival Corporation Plc specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The growing disposal income among the Chinese consumers offers another opportunity for the company. The disposable income has been growing at an annual rate of 10 percent. The customers in this region are currently seeking luxurious cruises â€Å"as vacation option† (Marketingtercher.com, 2010, Para13). In addition, the aging population is seeking to have relaxing vacation. This offers an opportunity for growth for the company. Whereas the size of this population enlarges, this company can capitalize on its â€Å"economies of scale† and charge these clients good prices. Another opportunity is the possibility of the Carnival Company to form mergers and acquisitions in order to expand its operations. Threats One of the threats that Carnival faces and the industry at large is terrorism and pirates. This threat affects negatively the way consumers may perceive cruising. This company experienced such a case in the year 2008 when the Somali Pirates hijacked one of the company’s cruise ships though luckily the passengers were not harmed. Moreover, the possibility of the company receiving bad press is a big threat and may also bring about negative consumer perception of the company. Such a case came about in the year 2009 when three passengers on the company’s ships fell off. In addition, another threat is in line with the â€Å"compliance regulations† and the laws of the United States. Some of these laws may cause this company to experience higher operating costs. Another of the weaknesses is in line with the issue that Carnival Corporation Plc has been capitalizing on the â€Å"special tax loopholes† to evade paying taxes to the United States (corporation taxes). Consideration was made by the U.S government in the year 2009 to close such loopholes. In case this is done, there will be a negative effect on the company’s financial statements as well as the bottom line in time to come. Last but not least, another threat is that the rate of growth is slowing. Carnival’s industry analysis using Porter’s Five Forces Model Rivalry According to Wert (2009), in the cruise industry, there is a moderate level of competition and the companies in the industry compete on the basis of differentiation, pricing and distribution or place. He further points out that â€Å"the industry contains intimidating barriers of entry with no real potential threats or substitutes from other industries† (Wert, 2009, pg.1).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to his research, Wert established that; â€Å"Carnival holds the strongest position in the industry with highest product differentiation, increasing global outreach, and promotionally offering the lowest price in the industry† (Wert, 2009, p.1). Threat of New Entry For a company to enter in the cruise industry, it appears that the easiest means to do this is through the company engaging in acquisitions, mergers and takeovers. There basically exist 3 market segments in the cruise industry. These include the luxury segment, the premium and the contemporary segments (Wheelen and Hunger, 2006). Each of these segments requires levels of expertise as well as services that are varied. According to DocShare.com (2009), â€Å"the high cost of training and maintaining exceptional employees for their shops, casinos, entertainment, hotel staff, world class chefs, and of course the maritime staff requires parent company with vast financial resource† (DocShare.com, 2009, p g 1). This implies that the threat of having new entrants in the industry is quite low. Threat of substitution According to DocShare.com (2009), â€Å"the cruise industry holds a unique position in that the threat of a substitution by another vacation activity by the current consumer market seems highly unlikely† (Page 2). There is as well an increase in the popularity of the family cruises. As a matter of fact, in general terms, a cruise vacation is less costly as compared to a traditional â€Å"vacation package†. A larger number of lines are making efforts to ensure expansion of ports and destinations in order to meet the customer demands in the current cruise market which now has great diversity. The travelers have more choices at their disposal. Supplier Power An increase and instability in the price of fuel has greatly affected the cruise industry. The companies operating in this industry have directly experienced high fuel costs for operating their ships. In addi tion, they have been forced to charge their passengers higher prices following the high fuel costs. This poses a big challenge to these companies and therefore, it is quite important o have suppliers that are of higher quality and that can be depended upon in order to make sure the company has repeat cruisers. Customer bargaining power The current day cruise vacations have a large number of lines at their disposal among which to choose from. Each and every line engages in some sort of differentiation that it carries out on cruising to attract customers. The target customers for a large number of companies in this industry are those that belong to the middle class. Those who are cruising for the first time are enticed by fairly priced cruise packages. Alongside the fair prices, the customers demand to be offered a vacation experience that is distinctive. The company’s competitive advantage and its future direction The competitive advantage that this company has over its compet itors is the wide range of the products that it offers to its customers in each of the three market segments; offering from cheap cruises to luxury ones. More so, it offers long as well as short vacation cruises on big fleet ships providing various activities. This company can currently be considered to be successful following the expansion of its operations and the high profitability it has been achieving. In order for this company to continue growing in the future, it needs to capitalize on its strengths and opportunities available and look for the best ways to overcome the current weaknesses and threats in order for it to achieve a competitive advantage, which will facilitate further growth. References DocShare.com (2009). 1 Carnival Cruise Lines Marketing Analysis. Web. Marketingtercher.com. (2010). Carnival Cruises SWOT. Web. Wert. B. A. (2009). Carnival Corporation. Web. Wheelen, L. T. and Hunger, J. D. (2006). Strategic Management and Business Policy. New Jersey: Pearson Pren tice Hall. This report on Carnival Corporation Plc was written and submitted by user Aurora O. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Past Continuous Lesson Plan for ESL Learners

Past Continuous Lesson Plan for ESL Learners Learning the basic structure and usage of the past continuous is usually not that difficult for most students. Unfortunately, this is not the case when it comes to actively integrating the past continuous into everyday conversations or written communications. This lesson is aimed at helping students actively use the past continuous in speaking and writing. This is done through the use of the past continuous as a descriptive tense to paint a picture in words of the moment when something important occurred. Aim To increase active usage of the past continuous Activity Speaking activity followed by a gap fill exercise and  creative writing Level Intermediate Outline Begin teaching the past continuous by telling a story with exaggerated details through the use of the past continuous. For example: I remember that day well. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the children were playing games peacefully. At that moment, I saw Alex and fell in love. Point out how the past continuous is used to paint a picture of the scene.Quickly review the past continuous structure with the class. Go over differences in usage between the past simple and past continuous. Point out that the past continuous focuses on a specific moment in the past.Write various examples on the board of sentences combining the past simple and past continuous to illustrate the idea of an interrupted past. For example, I was walking through the park when I met David. Ask students to comment on what function the past continuous plays in the example sentences.Have students divide into small groups of 3-4.Ask students to complete the activity by providing an appropriate response with the past continuous to describe an action that was interrupted. Next, have students first conjugate verbs in the past simple to complete the story. Next, ask them to insert past continuous clauses into the appropriate place in the story.Correct this exercise as a class. Make sure to note differences between the past continuous and past simple as you review.Ask students to complete the written exercise focusing on a special day in their lives.Once theyve written their paragraph, ask students to find a partner. Each student should read their paragraph and ask questions to check to understand.   Interrupted Actions Use the verb suggestion to complete the sentence with an appropriate phrase expressing an interrupted action: I (watch) ____________ when her boss called with a job offer.My friends (play) _____________ when they felt the earthquake.When I walked in the door, they children (study) _________________.We (eat) _________________ when we heard the news.My parents (travel) ________________ when I telephoned that I was pregnant.   Use of the Past Continuous in Writing Put the following verbs into the past simple: Thomas _______ (live) in the small town of Brington. Thomas _______ (love) walking through the beautiful forest that surrounded Brington. One evening, he ____ (take) his umbrella and _____ (go) for a walk in the woods. He ______ (meet) an old man named Frank. Frank _______ (tell) Thomas that, if he _____ (want) to become rich, he should invest in a little-known stock called Microsoft. Thomas ______ (think) Frank _____ (be) foolish because Microsoft ____ (be) a computer stock. Everybody _____ (know) that computers _____ (be) just a passing fad. At any rate, Frank _______ (insist) that Thomas _____ (be) wrong. Frank _______ (draw) a wonderful graph of future possibilities. Thomas ______ (begin) thinking that maybe Frank ______ (understand) stocks. Thomas _______ (decide) to buy some of these stocks. The next day, he ______ (go) to the stock brokers and _____ (buy) $1,000 worth of Microsoft stock. That _____ (be) in 1986. Today, that $1,000 is worth more than $250,000! Improve the Story Insert the following past continuous fragments into the above story: As Frank was drawing the graph, ...... while he was walking to work,it was raining, so...While they were discussing the stock, ...When he was returning from his walk, ...As he was walking through the woods, Written Exercise Write a description of an important day in your life. Include the most important events that occurred during that day in the past simple. Once you have written the important events using the past simple, try to include a description of what was happening at some of the specific moments when those events occurred to provide more details.Write out a few questions about your important day.  Make sure to include a few questions in the past continuous. For example, What was I doing when I found out about the job?Find a partner and read your story twice. Next, ask your partner your questions and discuss.Listen to your partners story and answer their questions.

The Politics of Global Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Politics of Global Communications - Essay Example Globalization of communication dates back to the 1920s where initially it was spurred by international trade, expansion of media companies as well as colonialism. Politics in this era were characterized by the official opening of the US global communication policy. As noted by Kamalipour', ), information and communication technologies such as internet, mobile phones, satellite radio and television are used by political power houses to meet their propaganda all over the world. Global communication has changed the way politics are done by encouraging revolutionalization, for instance in global economy and ecology .Globalization allows politics to take a vast growth worldwide through non-governmental organizations, other integrated schemes and also through global movements. Of the most important technology in politics is telecommunication which is a process through which information is transferred. Telecommunication gives people options, especially to chose the ideologies to buy and the ones to discard (Kamalipour, 2002).Global communication has a great positive impact on politics because it helps in spreading politics across boarders through its' instruments such as radios, televisions, telegraphs among others. These can generally be termed as political instruments. Kamalipour (2002), highlights the political aspects of communication as vital in the global politics. Politics of global communication have contributed to the deterioration of diplomacy and often are responsible for many wars fought. Taking the example of the First World War; communication in form of wide coverage of radio, as well as heightened and increased public awareness something which resulted into public pressure on governments, coalitions. With the media reaching more people than ever before, and the general public turning into media for news on progress of wars, the way they perceive the outcome of war usually has a meaningful bearing in the destiny of whole societies. All the above results in the political interest of by the political elites in controlling flow of news. With ICT now virtually under control of political leaders the issue of security in regard to telecommunications, results into the design of communications strategy, communications intelligence, and cryptography which are important and decisive tools in times of war. This was evident as early as during the first and second World Wars. Since technological advancements have increased the speed of communications between nations of the world, this has had an effect of increased importance to governments. The fact that knowledge is power means that, always, governments seek to capitalize on the improved speed and availability of communications, basically to advance their control of power as well as to influence of their political adversaries. Therefore emergence of new trends which influence the political aspects of the not so new concept of global communications network in the period preceding the twentieth century is to blame for many wars fought in the 19th century. When critically examined, the evolution of technology resulted into fast and reliable communication over long distances in the form of electric telegraph in the late 19th century and internet in the 21st century. Although having internal networks is viable and less risky, network communications

Corona beer Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Corona beer - Case Study Example The cause for unequal demand for alcohol is simply due to recessionary trails in the global economy. The soaring oil prices have caused a price rise for almost all the final goods and services. Though the money income has increased for buyers, the rising consumption expenses are putting downward pressure in the real income level. The beer and alcohol industry not only generates a significant share of many economies national product, but also spawns large employment opportunities. Thus, analysts and researchers are scared that the fall in production capacities of firms due to recession should not render more individuals jobless. At this juncture, it becomes rational to analyze the business of potential alcohol producing firms like Corona Beer. This essay will implicitly discuss the internal and external factors that determine the business of Corona Beer. The context of the research work will enumerate the different marketing strategies Corona beer has adopted to account for higher tur novers in future (DRUGSCOPE, n.d.). Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 SWOT Analysis 5 Strength 6 Weakness 6 Opportunities 6 Threats 7 Staying in Power 8 Porters Five Force Analysis 9 Bargaining Power of Buyers (low) 9 Bargaining Power of Suppliers (weak) 9 Rivalry in the Industry (high) 9 Threat of New Entrants (weak) 10 Menace of Substitutes (strong) 10 Summary and Conclusions 10 References 12 Introduction Corona Beer or Corona Extra is a famous pale larger that was first manufactured in Mexico by Cerveceria Modelo. The company was founded in the recent past at around 1925 in Mexico, but its unique quality and taste soon made it a famous beverage for a large customer base. Grupo Modelo always intended to extend the market of Corona Beer beyond the territories of Mexico. From its inception in 1925, by 1996 the company gained 32.7% share of the total market demand for alcohol in Mexico. The officials of the company first desired to export Cororna Beer to the prospe ctive economies of United States and then planned to enter the other markets. Europe, Latin America and Asian markets were secondary marketplaces for the company (UFL, n.d.). Figure 1: Words Top Beer Companies (Source: Ashok, 2009) The above table explains the market position of Corona in 2005 and 2006. The values are in terms of million barrels shipped. It is evident from the above schedule that the market performance of Corona was mediocre (1.9 of total market share) till 2006 when compared with the other top beer brands. Carlos Fernandez, the chairman of the company analyzed that what was most crucial for the company was to expand its market outside the domestic borders of Mexico. In 2007 the largest beer producer and manufacturing firm in Mexico (Corona) finally decided to enlarge its production capabilities. The company spends a wholesome amount of $300 million to suffice its growing market demand outside Mexico. The company first emerged in the U.S. market in 1979, its nonrefu ndable policy, unique packaging style and differential modes of marketing soon made it a potential competitor in the U.S. alcohol industry, especially in the Southern States. Although, the Federal excise tax rates in beer was increased in U.S., but the Modelo Group passed its incidence on the buyers. Figure 2:

What Is Social Policy?

What Is Social Policy? Essay Topic: What is social policy and why is it controversial? Write an essay in which you explore the topic of social policy giving consideration to differing theoretical debates, positions and arguments for and against the provision of social policy as well as the nature of wellbeing in society. Use New Zealand examples to support your discussion. Marks will be allocated based on: The breadth of your reading and the sources you use to develop your argument. Your ability to develop a strong and effective argument, with a good introduction and conclusion. Your use of references, taking into account accuracy, suitability and conformity to the Style Guide for this paper. The level of originality which you bring to the topic. The extent that you cover the topic fairly and comprehensively. Introduction Wellbeing is a relatively new concept it references draw from a satisfactory in good health and happiness through having material or attitude compare to others in society. Social policy has long been a material well being as to response to a basic needs create a safe environment, providing food and shelter. In the mid of rising populations and rapid social change and uncertainty, Social policy regards to well being becoming more important to response to more complex needs as by far is hard to measure of it quality wellbeing is increasingly important and to regulate under different political ideologies.Various environment socio economic, there is much to look for. Social policy accompanied welfare state is the remnant of an old policy from the post war era, today political parties in search policy that fit in others economic ideology spectrum, pay attention to social reform agenda, to achieve this requires great flexibility, compromise or consent of voters and opposition party. Social policy is an urgent agenda for New Zealand that have grown into multicultural society although still trapped in a disorder of a bi-culturally tough going effort to achieve in the last 200 years. This essay is an attempt to explore different theoretical debates and position for and against social policy that incorporated in New Zealand political context. Controversial policy Exiting gap between men and women, employed and unemployed, rich and poor there is large number of left out people in working life, minor, gender and others who get pay unequal to that of other workers. The disable, mentally ill and the elderly receive minimum live able income and being support by government funded organization employees to visit in their home in community, for this reason government is to look closing this gap of equality in society. The Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics defines social policy as an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies responses to social need (Pawar, 2014, p. 131) the definition confined within the idea of responding to need, it recognize the inaccessible and inequality as necessitate by default. Social policy in a wider term is an action that affects the well-being of members of a society mainly regarding distribution and access to goods and resources(Cheyne, Belgrave, OBrien, 2009). The initiative emphasis on the need that arises concerned the society where intervention and mechanism is put in place to response to it. This humanitarian response is mainly base on socialism that exit in most welfare states regarding how the government should help it citizen enhance the capability to achieve as oppose to capitalism scheme (Giddens, 2013) Influences by socialism from the left wings, Labour party for example a Social democratic old party in early 1900s initiate change to the fundamental social policy in New Zealand. After 1935 labour party won the election and form the government, result in Social reform in social security, national health services and low rent housing programs(Smelt Lin, 2008). Labour influence policy has not flourish without tension for example in 1970’s Crisis of the welfare state where theoretical debate was become critical on government legitimacy on state intervention was put to the ordeal (Cheyne, Belgrave, OBrien, 2009) key inherently to this was about the ability of state unable to develop the framework response to the market economic and political ideological context. Liberal based political ideology the prominent right in New Zealand politic perceived social policies as counterproductive it interrupting the nature of market economic and political ideology. Liberal idea emphasis on equality of the individually takes priority over society and the right to make choices for themselves. Liberalism and Neo liberal opening stages of the free-market economy has influence scientific revolution that fundamentally altered New Zealand society today however a Classical Liberal opinion awkwardly associated with state intervention as â€Å"necessary evil†(Heywood, 2002, p. 45) Political axes can no longer be over amplified from the fact that there are flavor variations within political party show pluralistic of political idea. Recently there are strong conservative patriotic support to the â€Å"new right† movement of social conservative i.e United future combine strength of voters to support state intervention(Mulgan Aimer, 2004) both came from right and left of the political spectrum. Regardless of it controversial, from an observation social democracy in a small mono ethnic country in Europe seemed to be successful with a state welfare management but could be different in a multicultural environments (Giddens, 2013) Theoretical debates/ position for social policy Socialism believes based on the principles of collectivity, equal opportunity, distribution of wealth and public responsibility for those who are able to help themselves these emphasis on the applied policy involving a welfare state within the framework of a capitalist economy (Sejersted Adams). Originated in 19th century Germany from the influence of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Aspalter, 2001) grew out of necessity to combat the universal suffrage, the poor and middle class play a great role in supporting social democratic process. Liberal on the other hands with a vague idea of allocation of resources to the disadvantage base on justice and inequality in realizing that the individual freedom need some form of guarantee (Cheyne, Belgrave, OBrien, 2009) and safeguard individual for social evil(Heywood, 2002).Liberal showed need for states to sustained and decided what matter for individual(Lister). This argument has been cultivated by Socialist resulting in assimilations and made an alliance. Social democratic party in a post war New Zealand it has morphed into hybrid, the mix between Socialism and Liberal ideology. Socialism has been favor in democratic process and it has made it way to the capitalism dominated political arena (Cheyne, Belgrave, OBrien, 2009) pressing it influences in to capitalism market economic. Policy model largely based on the principle of eligibility, government granting access to benefits and services based on citizenship, socialist regime in practice include the welfare system(Giddens, 2013) in order to achieve equality a legitimate, ideally the elected government will engages in retribution of resources depending on the given policy and process. State management involved transferring of funds to the services providers. Labour party manifesto, for example in 1960’s emphasis on taxation must be use to achieve major wealth and income for disadvantages routing distributions to education, social security and healthcare(Lavalette Pratt, 2007). Labour adopted social liberal promotes woman right, honoring treaty of Waitangi, opposing nuclear weapons and a sport apartheid in South Africa (Mulgan Aimer, 2004). New Zealand has been a bi-cultural country follows the treaty of Waitangi.(SooHoo Nevin) treaty regulates the co-exit between westerners, newcomers and the Maori indigenous population this has causes more grieve than pleased chiefly to the indigenous populations. Subjected to a colonization process that strip Maori of their land for resources, the country then route immaturely into a global market capitalism (Cheyne, Belgrave, OBrien, 2009) resulting from lost of land, cultural and identity, Maori community relied on political party’s policy draw heavily on the socialism collective practice regarding to the right of indigenous people as a citizen and as people of the land, issues highlight the problems of social exclusion (Humpage, 2006). There is yet to find solutions around the issues of Tino rangatiratanga, the right, ownership accountability, management of tribal resources recognition of duty and ability to participate the concern of tribal issues this become part of the Labour policy in 1957 and recently Maori custody right to the foreshore and seabed the space for mussel farming.(Orange, 2011) Debate argument against social policy Post cold war society Liberal have gain it popularity it satisfy the Demand for individual autonomy and accommodates the rise of global market (Giddens, 2013) Liberal admire democratic process gaining power through freedom to vote. Fredrick Hayek writing of Neo-Liberal ideas from the classic political economic believes in the power of unregulated market liberalism will deliver efficiency and prosperity (Heywood, 2002) Liberal ideas allow people to developing different ways of thinking takes action for changes to happen, practices contributes to the progression, ideology hold the individual responsibility to create their own destiny for a person fortune this oblige people to become self reliance (Pawar, 2014) for this reason Liberalism and capitalism are fit together favor free market and limited government control , they despise the welfare state as the source of all evil (Giddens, 2013) government redistribution of income or capital as an unacceptable intrusion upon individual freedom(Lavalette Pratt, 2007) The Liberal model remained market dominance and private provision, the state only recognized poverty and provide minimum support to the basic needs but still limited to it terms of agenda hence the poor need to keep up the speed or be the economic victim of the rich. There are numbers of New Zealand political party that base one Liberal ideology for example†¦. Conservative†¦ National maintain it conservative regarless of liberal favor among young people.(Mulgan Aimer, 2004) Argument; welfare state lost it quality representing the collective interest.(Sejersted Adams) nz example explain references 3 National party always oppose to socialism (Cheyne, Belgrave, OBrien, 2009) National the second oldest political party emerges from an old Liberal and Reform party to counter the balance(Miller, 2005) Labour and National currently exist as the two main rival parties. National party favored the the idea of liberal and conservatives. Having been form against Labour national have strong policy again collectivism unionist and welfare(Miller, 2005)†¦. In early 1990’s National actively promote the one country one law, new minister elected uphore the inherent Labour policy seeing favor Maori is socially devisive(Hill). Nature of well being in society The discourse of wellbeing is underpinned by an individual satisfaction and, as such, is inherently quality of life. in concept to be well is to be not â€Å"unwell† for this reasonâ€Å"well† comes to be defined by the absence of crisis episodes. In this sense identifying the sufferers, and natural human reactions can lead to a better picture of it. Enable people to experience freedom and realize their potential Material well being psychological well being development and long term†¦productivity in life cycle as social investment†¦. conclusion number of key events including the elections of†¦.help turn the tide national showed level of ideology flexibility and pracmatic†¦.. = National and Labour represent an opposing view for the same agenda to the ultimate goal of policy for the well being of all. social policy reported one sided account mark the growing self confident; well being can not be express in monetary unit†¦ , the promotion of health and treatment of the sick, the care and support of those unable to live a fully independent life; and the education and training of individuals to a level that enables them fully to participate in their society. Social policy out there†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦different theoretical social policy according to 2 rival ideas in the western world B.social democratic state duty to guarantee to establish well being. References Aspalter, C. (2001). Importance of Christian and Social Democratic Movements in Welfare Politics: With Special Reference to Germany, Austria, and Sweden: Nova Science Publishers. Cheyne, C., Belgrave, M., OBrien, M. (2009). Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Oxford University Press. Giddens, A. (2013). The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy: Wiley. Heywood, A. (2002). Political Ideologies: politics (2 ed.). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Hill, R. Maori and the State: Crownà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"Maori Relations in New Zealand/Aotearoa, 1950 2000: Victoria University Press. Humpage, L. (2006). An Inclusive Society: A leap forward for Maori in New Zealand: Auckland University Press. Lavalette, M., Pratt, A. (2007). Social Policy: Theories, Concepts and Issues: SAGE Publications. Lister, R. Understanding theories and concepts in social policy: Policy Press. Miller, R. (2005). Party Politics in New Zealand: Oxford University Press. Mulgan, R. G., Aimer, P. (2004). Politics in New Zealand: Auckland University Press. Orange, C. (2011). The Treaty of Waitangi: Bridget Williams Books. Pawar, M. (2014). Social and Community Development Practice: SAGE Publications. Sejersted, F., Adams, M. B. The Age of Social Democracy: Norway and Sweden in the Twentieth Century: Princeton University Press. Smelt, R., Lin, Y. J. (2008). New Zealand: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. SooHoo, S., Nevin, A. Culturally Responsive Methodologies: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Human Resource Management Strategies: Tesco Case Study Human Resource Management Strategies: Tesco Case Study As Tesco has grown, so has the importance of Every Little Helps. Over time, theyve gone from simply selling groceries to providing anything from loans to mobile phones. By setting out in all these new directions they ran the risk of losing our way. So, they have relied on Every Little Helps more and more over the years, to act as a common philosophy to bind us all together. Mission statement: Tescos mission statement is Creating value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. The Organisation  Structure and culture: Structure: The structure of Tesco is simple one apart from the fact that it has huge labour force under its belt. The company have found more efficient ways of completing a task or business activity. Tesco has advancement in technology to minimize human error e.g. stock ordering, delivery schedules, etc. The company is giving general staff more responsibility when helping or serving a customer. The managers within each store have now been given a much broader span of control with their workforce. This means that each manager will have more employees to communicate with, but each employee has been trained to a set standard, which allows the manager to trust them to get on with the job with little guidance from him or her. All of the key decisions are made by the board of directors based in Chesnutt, which makes the company centralized in its diction making. Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviour shared by a group of people. Culture is the behaviour that results when a group arrives at a set of generally unspoken and unwritten rules for working together (humanresource.about.com). Organizational culture is the workplace environment formulated from the interaction of the employees in the workplace (portal.brint.com). It can be analysed through the observations of the companys behaves, including routines, rituals, stories, structures and systems. Tesco has a very friendly and supporting approach in the routine ways that staff at Tesco behaves towards each other, and towards those outside the company. The control systems and measurements are constantly under the management review to monitor the efficiency of the staff and managers decisions. The rituals of the companys life are the special events, corporate gatherings, which Tesco emphasizes are very important. Leadership styles: Previously, Tesco was following John Adairs Action Centred Leadership (ACL) model of leadership. The ACL model is represented by three interlocking circles encompassing the following: Achieving the task Building and maintaining the team Developing the individual (Thomas 2005). Action-Centred Leadership tends to focus on the hierarchical structure of the organization. It is applicable in organizations that are highly authoritarian. But later, with the appointment of Terry Leahy as the Chief Executive Officer, Tesco led into a series of organizational changes. Leahy is considered as a visionary leader who aimed for the company to become more customer-focused and to develop its workforce. According to him, there are four things that a leader must provide to his workers and followers to satisfy and motivate them. These are: A job that is interesting to do A chance to get on in life To be treated with respect A boss who is some help and not their biggest problem Leahy adapted a participative style of leadership wherein the employees are given voice in the decision-making process. The organizational structure became more flat where the roles and responsibilities of everyone are clearly stated. Leahy delegates leadership roles to individuals in the organization in order to ensure that the company, with more than 300,000 employees, operates effectively. The leadership style that is manifested by Terry Leahy and is imitated by the leaders in the company has changed the structure of the company. The company has adapted an organic, a simpler and flatter organizational structure. Corporate Social responsibility: CSR is defined as the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life. Approach to CSR in Tesco: Environment: Tesco promote environmental issues through training package in order to create enough awareness on the issue of environment and to allow the company to maximize its operational effectiveness initiatives e.g. recyclable bags Community: In several attempt to give back to the society Tesco create special support for children, community based projects and education programmes in order to create a peaceful environment to operate e.g. Tesco Charity Trust. Suppliers ethical trading: In order to maintain high ethical standard in business practices, Tesco is encouraging long term trade relationship with supplier with a centralized distribution system with transparency and accountability to promote good quality of rang products and services at competitive pricing. Customers choice and health: It promotes the health of the customers through the management of customers choices. This can be confirmed by the statement that Tesco will continue to appeal to a broad range of customers and that the company will offer something for everyone through an extensive product range, offering price and product choice, in food and non-food products. People/workers: Employees are given opportunities of carrier development through Training and development programme with effective communication to facilitate staff feedback. Rewards and benefits are used to motivate workers, based on performances on the job, pension scheme, save as you earn and family friendly working through flexible hours of work to accommodate mother education. Ethical Practices: All employees contribute to TESCOs reputation; therefore, it is important that all employees adhere to ethical guidelines. Always follow these principles: Compliance with Laws: TESCO business, whether domestic or international, must be conducted in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Honesty and Integrity: All employees must be honest and honourable in all dealings with other employees, the public, the business community, shareholders, customers, suppliers, competitors, and government authorities. Entertainment and Gifts: Any gift, entertainment, or benefit you provide to a business associate must be modest in scope and value. Never provide a gift, entertainment or benefit that contravenes any applicable law. Consultant Fees, Commissions and Other Payments: Never give or receive any payment that falls outside the normal conduct of business. If staff is found engaged in giving or accepting kickbacks, bribes, payoffs or other illegal or similar transactions, will be subject to immediate discipline, up to and including dismissal in accordance with TESCOs policy on employee discipline. Political Contributions: TESCO does not wish to discourage the participation of employees in political and related activities. Employees cannot do on behalf of Tescos either directly or indirectly, without the prior written approval of TESCOs Executive Management. Compliance with Accounting Controls and Procedures: Employees must always comply with the Companys accounting procedures and controls, and all applicable laws. They should properly record all financial data and transactions. Leadership styles: Tesco PLC is one of the leading retailers in the United Kingdom and one of the largest food retailers in the world. The management and leadership styles analysed below, are approaches which are likely to be implemented by Tesco. McGregors Theory X and Y: According to Douglas McGregor (1960) in developing theories X and Y, managers took two different views of their subordinates and conducted practices that would best suit their assumption of the workers. Theory X managers, think that people dislike work, which is a necessity for survival. They perceive workers to be lazy who avoid responsibility, who lack ambition and prefer to be directed, rather than use initiative to take roles of responsibility. These managers use directive approach to leadership and are very strict and controlling with their subordinates. Organisational goals already established and workers are pushed in a certain direction so that these goals can be fully achieved. Theory Y managers believe that if workers are in the right conditions, they will work hard their own will, helping the organization achieve the set out goals, and in return, being rewarded for this hard work and effort. In this scenario, managers will work together with subordinates, deciding work objectives and by developing strategies designed to achieve these goals. They will encourage team working and also delegate decision making when and where possible. In relation to Tesco, the management are likely to take a theory X approach in running their organisation. Due to the enormity of the number of subordinates a manager is likely to be in supervision of, it would be almost impossible to use the latter approach. Blake and Moutons Management Grid: The management grid identifies a range of management behaviours based on various ways that task-oriented and employee-orientated styles can interact with each other. In relation to Tesco, the management would identify themselves mostly to an Authoritarian management style (also known as produce or perish style), which has a high concern for production and efficiency and concentrates less on people. They take a task oriented approach which takes in hand the needs of the task rather than the wants of subordinates. This is again, similar again to the Theory X approach stated approach, and is effective to Tesco where there is a larger amount of lower-skilled employees. Herzberg Two Factor Theory: Fincham and Rhodes (2005) stated that Herzbergs two factor theory involved, firstly the motivators and secondly the hygiene factors. Hygiene factors involved supervision, salary, work environment, company policies and relationship with colleagues. The absences of these were seen as dissatisfying aspects of a job which can affect the morale of workers. Motivators stated by Herzberg include; responsibility, achievement, promotion and recognition. In relation to Tesco, subordinates of the managers such as shop floor employees are unlikely to achieve the motivators stated by Herzberg. This can be very negative for a firm like Tesco because a de-motivated workforce is obviously more unproductive then a motivated workforce. Taking this into thought, it is vital for managers to tackle motivational issues of the workforce and see that the hygiene factors of employees are met, making it an effective approach to adopt. Development of workforce: Workforce development links staff learning and development to other human resource and business activities. It includes strategic planning, workforce planning, performance management and career development. Strategic planning: Tesco has a systematic planning process involving a number of steps that identify the current status of the association, including its mission, vision for the future, operating values, needs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), goals, prioritized actions and strategies, action plans, and monitoring plans. Workforce planning: Workforce planning is the process of analysing an organisation includes: Identifying current and future numbers of employees required to deliver new and improved services. Analysing the present workforce in relation to these needs. Comparing the present workforce and the desired future workforce to highlight shortages, surpluses and competency gaps. Analysing the diversity profile at all levels against that of the local population. Recruitment and selection process. Risk of deployment. Performance management: An important element in workforce development is to have clear job descriptions and person specifications. A job description sets out: the title of the job to whom the job holder is responsible for whom the job holder is responsible a simple description of roles and responsibilities If employees will know their job well, their performance will automatically be beneficial for organisation. Career development: Tesco seeks to fill many vacancies from within the company. It recognises the importance of motivating its staff to progress their careers with the company. Tesco practises what it calls talent planning. This encourages people to work their way through and up the organisation. Through an annual appraisal scheme, individuals can apply for bigger jobs. Employees identify roles in which they would like to develop their careers with Tesco. Their manager sets out the technical skills, competencies and behaviours necessary for these roles, what training this will require and how long it will take the person to be ready to do the job. Report: Organisational structure and its impact on people in Tesco: Tesco is a company that has also delayered the amount of employees used throughout the company. Reasons for Tesco delayering are: The company have found more efficient ways of completing a task or business activity. The advancement in technology has allowed the company to take some of the more demanding tasks away from employees to minimise human error E.G stock ordering, delivery schedules etc. The company giving general staff more responsibility within stores and allowing them to use their own initiative when helping or serving a customer. The managers within each store have now been given a much broader span of control with their workforce. This means that each manager will have more employees to communicate with, but each employee has been trained to a set standard, which allows the manager to trust them to get on with the job with little guidance from him or her. Looking at the Tesco Company the report can see that all of the key decisions for each region of the country are made by the board of directors based in Cheshunt, which makes the company centralised in its diction making. As the company is run centrally it allows Tesco to minimise the cost of having big finance, general office departments in each of its stores as well as minimise the amount of work each store has and allows them to concentrate on selling the businesses products to the customers. Organisational culture and its impact on workforce: In Tesco today the company is still recognised by the motto of pile it high and sell it cheap, but the company has introduced quality into its products by offering three different key areas of products. The first area consists of very high quality products such as organic and these products are usually the most expensive. The middle group of products are usually a collection of Tesco and company branded products and covers a wide price bracket. The third group of products are Tescos value range, which consists of the cheapest products such as toilet rolls, bin liners and ready meals. These types of products are all about value for money and are not priced by the level of quality. As well as offer their customers more choice, in the way of groceries, Tesco now offer their customers the opportunity to purchase clothes, electrical goods, DVDs CDs etc. By offering their customers these other products Tesco are changing their culture into becoming a one stop shop, which offers customers the chance to purchase almost anything they need at the same time. A danger for Tesco is the threat of ASDA overtaking them in affordability along with viability and becoming the new store that piles it high and sells it cheap. Leadership styles: A managers leadership style creates the climate within which employees work and influences the attitude and performance of his team. A manager will have a preferred style, but this will not be appropriate in every situation. To be effective, managers must learn to adapt their leadership style to the circumstances and in response to the employees they manage. This is known as situational or contingency leadership. In an article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2000, Daniel Goleman identified six leadership styles: coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching. Goleman linked these six leadership styles to managers able to choose the style best suited to the situation. Coercive and Authoritative: Managers with a coercive leadership style exert tight control over employees and rely on the threat of negative consequences to ensure compliance. This style of management can be successful in crisis situations. However, coercive leadership is not effective in the long term because it can create a negative atmosphere by demotivating capable employees and damaging morale. This style engages employees and results in the most positive work environment. Affiliative and Democratic: An affiliative style emphasizes harmonious interactions and can be useful if a manager needs to encourage a group to work together or heal rifts in a dysfunctional team. However, it is not effective if a manager needs to deal with inadequate performance or crisis situations that require clear direction and control. Democratic managers involve their employees in decision-making and encourage them to collaborate. This motivates capable employees because it encourages them to apply their skills and expertise. A democratic style is unlikely to be effective with employees who lack competence or require close supervision. Pacesetting and Coaching: Managers who lead by example have a pacesetting style, which can work well when an organization has to adapt and move quickly. Pacesetters set high standards and are apprehensive about delegating. A pacesetter can overwhelm his team with demands for unachievable excellence, resulting in a drop in morale. A manager adopting a coaching style of leadership helps employees identify their strengths and weaknesses. He encourages employees to set and attain goals, providing regular feedback to assist them to improve their performance. Benefits of flexible working practices to individuals: Ability to balance work and home commitments more readily. Increased quality of life. Reduced stress. Greater levels of job satisfaction. Ability to continue to work. Ability to maintain career development and personal growth during a period of temporary increased family commitments. Benefits of flexible working practices to organisation: Retention of trained and valuable staff. Increased productivity. Decreased absence. Individuals who have jobs tailored to meet their individual needs may be more motivated. The company is seen to support its diversity values. Access to a talent pool which might otherwise be unavailable thus improving recruitment. Ability to allow employees to continue to develop and grow in their career and to match the natural cycle of family commitments that everyone experiences. http://www.hirescores.com/flexible-working-corner.php Impact of ethical practices on motivation level of staff: The ethical climate of an organization can have both positive and negative impacts on employee job satisfaction. Unethical workplace behaviours create chaos and impact the organization in a variety of ways. Motivation level impacts the organization on many levels. Low levels of job satisfaction lead to low motivation, decreased productivity and increased turnover. Dishonest management practices lead workers to be suspicious of their leaders. The most successful organizations include high ethical standards at all levels of the organization. Cognitive Dissonance Theory Cognitive dissonance theory is often used to explain the loss of motivation and job satisfaction that generally results from unethical organizational practices. This psychological theory, first developed by social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1956, holds that, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviours (dissonance,) something must change to eliminate the dissonance. As this dissonance continues in the workplace, the worker feels increasingly dissatisfied with their positions when they there is no support or rewards for exhibiting ethical behaviours. http://www.ehow.com/info_7753033_job-satisfaction-organizational-ethics.html Use of CSR to motivate employees: Employees are motivated by corporate social responsibility (CSR). The integration of social, environmental, and economic improvement through CSR makes workplaces sounder. Below are the top 10 ways to motivate the workforce through CSR. Let employees participate in all the social activities done outside the company. Let employees lead volunteer and charity efforts in the local areas. Recognize attitude of the employees towards their job to raise the commitment and motivation level Encourage employee referrals to help retain and recruit talent. Bring CSR inside the company to develop employees inside the company through training and tuition Convert sick days to rewards by creating a rewards program for unused sick days. Make executive team visible by handshake and personal thanks. Encourage initiative taken by employees to increase employee engagement. Create a competitive advantage by true and defining differentiation from competitors which can be felt by employees, suppliers, partners, and customers. Be loud when you have done a great job with CSR, share it through social media, newsletters, media coverage, and face-to-face interactions to increase the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm of employees. Management styles to deal with difference in behaviour: Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes. Theory X: In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. Theory X managers rely heavily on threat and coercion to gain their employees compliance. Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision, and a punitive atmosphere. Theory Y: In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their talents are underused in most organizations. Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Motivation theories: The most commonly held views or theories are discussed below and have been developed over the last 100 years or so. Taylor: Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 1917) put forward the idea that workers are motivated mainly by pay. His Theory of Scientific Management argued the following: Workers do not naturally enjoy work and so need close supervision and control. Therefore managers should break down production into a series of small tasks. Workers should then be given appropriate training and tools so they can work as efficiently as possible on one set task. Workers are then paid according to the number of items they produce in a set period of time- piece-rate pay. As a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximise their productivity. Mayo: Elton Mayo (1880 1949) believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better motivated by having their social needs met whilst at work (something that Taylor ignored). He introduced the Human Relation School of thought, which focused on managers taking more of an interest in the workers, treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions and realising that workers enjoy interacting together. Maslow: Abraham Maslow (1908 1970) along with Frederick Herzberg (1923-) introduced the Neo-Human Relations School in the 1950s, which focused on the psychological needs of employees. Maslow put forward a theory that there are five levels of human needs which employees need to have fulfilled at work. All of the needs are structured into a hierarchy (see below) and only once a lower level of need has been fully met, would a worker be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied. For example a person who is dying of hunger will be motivated to achieve a basic wage in order to buy food before worrying about having a secure job contract or the respect of others. Benefits of training and development to individuals and organisation: Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees. This has an added benefit of making your company more attractive to prospective employees. More motivated workers, which in turn tends to increase productivity and spur profits. More effective and efficient use of workers time as a result of higher skill levels, combined with a better understanding of the job function. Employees who know they are competent, and therefore feel more confident. Self-assured, well-trained employees are important in the debt collection function. An increase from employees in the number of ideas, recommendations and suggestions for improving performance, or processes and procedures. Lower overall employee turnover and less absenteeism. Investing in employee training enhances the company image as: a good place to work a company that offers its employees the opportunity to grow and meet their individual goals and aspirations a company that values employees a company that nurtures its employees Creating a pool of cross-trained employees can bridge gaps when someone unexpectedly leaves the company or if they accept a transfer or a promotion. Doing so tends to create more efficient employees that require less supervision and who need less detailed instructions. This frees managements time for higher value added activities. Employees that receive in houses training tend to be better equipped to adapt to changes and challenges facing the credit department in particular, and the company as a whole. http://www.coveringcredit.com/business_credit_articles/Credit_Management/art204.shtml People management strategies used in organisations: Here are some key strategic factors on the management of people to reinforce the importance of them to businesses. Understanding the competitive advantage they can gain from employing good people and including workforce planning in their business strategies. Developing people management strategies, structures and practices that align with the overall business strategy and customer-driven business processes. Attracting, training and retaining key people through effective recruitment processes, training and development, employee engagement and succession planning activities. Active leadership from business owners and managers through clear organizational communication, development of a team culture and effective management of organizational change. Effective recognition and reward systems, including performance reviews and feedback, rewards for good performance and support for individual development plans. Essential human resource systems to meet legislative requirements regarding employing people to ensure the business will avoid expensive litigation and employment problems. http://www.harris-management-solutions.com/managing-people.html Conclusion: In conclusion we can argue that the human resource aspect of any organisation can be seen as the greatest asset for an organisation. However neither the knowledge of this resource or knowledge about this resource should be seen as static, instead for organisational strategies to be effective they must be dynamic and adapt to be external changes in the environment as well as internal information concerning this human resource.