Homeboy industries Essay

1. What theoretical perspective on deviance best represents Father Greg Boyle’s argument that kids are â€Å"fleeing something horrendous when they join a gang†? 2. What was the â€Å"social reality† surrounding Dolores Mission Parish when Father Greg Boyle arrived in the mid-80’s? Death. Death was the social reality of that time. There were 8 gangs fighting over the same territory, being in the area that they were the was a lack of education and access to education, violence is what almost every child grew up around. Worst of all there was no hope, no hope that things would be better and no hope that they could be better. 3. Why did Father Greg Boyle begin working with gang members in his community? Because they are the odd man out, they are the â€Å"demondnized†, the ones that no one wants to help and he believes that being a Christian we are all one. 4. What do the blossoms represent in the design of Nancy’s art piece? I saw nothing about this on the video link. 5. What theoretical perspective(s) (or parts of theoretical perspectives) on religion best represent what Homeboy Industries stands for? Community and culture. We learn from our families and all of that that is around us. 6. Explain the relationship between Father Greg Boyle’s use of the idea of â€Å"widening the circle of compassion† and labeling theory. Father Greg’s circle of compassion and the labeling theory are closely relate but yet so different at the same time, they’re opposites. His â€Å"widening the circle of compassion† is the idea of not judging, not putting down, and not turning anyone away because of what they may look like or how they may seem. To his idea we should all get to know, learn and accept one another. It’s almost as thought that he is saying that if we stopped with the labeling theory and step even one step within the circle of compassion this world could e just a little bit better. 7. Why doesn’t Father Greg Boyle want Homeboy Industries to be the â€Å"Mcdonalds of gang intervention†? He wants the organization to be from a good place, he wants it to be something that makes sense to that particular area and not just a knock off of what he did here in LA. Plus he doesn’t want to have to worry about what’s going on in â€Å"Homeboy† else where. 8. Explain how Father Greg sees kinship and share how you might apply these  ideas in your own life or career. Address his ideas about the â€Å"Service-provider, service-recipient† model. People have to have a sense of belonging, to a community, for his idea or industry to really work. A sense of belonging is key. Personally I think that Father Greg’s idea about â€Å"Service-provider, service-recipient† is great. People are so quick to want to detach themselves from something or a place that they may have come from that they see is below them and they forget where they come from. Some people just have this sense of entitlement. I believe that we should all be courteous and humble and remembering the struggle that our loved ones have made to get us to where we are now. I also really loved his story about the homegirl at the register and Diane Keaton. 9. Complete this phrase: â€Å"Nothing stops a bullet like a _______†. What does that mean? Job. A job is something that one looks forward to and it’s something that keeps homeboys and girls out of the streets. If they’re off the streets and out of trouble then there are, almost, no bullets and there is hope of a future. 10. What does Father Greg mean by, â€Å"Most people here think it’s finally a church†? A church is suppose to be place that doesn’t judge, that doesn’t turn people away and a place where one can feel safe or at home. The guy that drove up and said â€Å"This use to be a church† is one of many who believe you have to dress and act a certain way to be able to enter the place but in reality it is there to serve all without judgment.

Committee on reorganization

Leone P. Aboard, DVD, which basically aims for appropriate alignment of descriptive titles of seventeen (17) positions to be reconciled to actual nature of work rendered by the respective incumbents thereto under the Office headed by the latter, entails no change In salary grade levels and/or step Increments. The Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 160) gives the lawful authority to the Sanguinary Penalizing the determination of positions paid wholly or mainly from the provincial funds (Section 447), to which the subject Letter- Request pertains.However, Section 325(f) of the same law provides a limitation for the exercise of such authority by the SP, to wit: â€Å"(f) No changes in designation or nomenclature of positions resulting in a promotion or demotion in rank or increase or decrease In compensation shall be allowed except when the position is actually vacant, and the filling of such positions shall be strictly made In accordance with civil arrive law, rules and r egulations. The subject Request of the Honorable Governor complies with the Limitation abovementioned. In fact, it does not consist of promotion or demotion or of increase requesting Office had identified only twelve (12) positions to be re-titled. Because presently held by incumbents, such positions to be re-titled are requested in consonance with the certification issued by the Human Resource Management Office (HARM) of the Province.Thus, the positions of one Livestock Inspector V (Item No. 7) and four Livestock Inspector VI (Item No's. And 6), as originally listed by the questing Provincial Veterinarian, had been excluded due to the finding made by the Office of the Governor of the absence of approved Qualification Standards to be met by the incumbent appointees thereto set forth by the Civil Service Commission, and as another requisite to be met so pointed out in the certification issued by the HARM.

Learning Styles Inventory

LEARNING STYLES INVENTORY The report is the outcome of the project titled â€Å"Learning Styles Inventory† . This project report aims to determine the learning Styles of the employees and also to develop a learning styles Inventory. The management can better understand their faculty and environment, conduct effective and productive meetings, refine conflict resolution skills and assemble more effective teams. India, one of the strongest contenders for the leadership in the Global IT industry, is fast emerging as the â€Å"New† leader, especially in the â€Å"New Economy† services such as Software Development, IT Services and Business Process Outsourcing services. KGFSL, an acclaimed Information Technology (IT) consulting company catering to clients globally has always focused on leveraging new technologies in a proven, cost-effective fashion by the way of developing quality employees. Everybody has a preferred learning style. Knowing and understanding the learning style helps one to learn more effectively. Through identifying the learning style, one will be able to capitalize on his strengths and improve the self-advocacy skills. Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory which teaches many aspects of human intelligence, learning style, personality and behaviour – in education and industry forms the major input for the study. The study was conducted with a sample of 80 employees of the company,who were actually involved in developing the financial business solution softwares . The sample represented the entire population . The researcher collected primary data from the respondents by means of questionnaire. The Questionnaire is divided into three parts namely, ‘Personal variables’, ‘Training programs’, and ‘Learning Styles’. Multiple Intelligence questionnaire was completed by the respondents and their scores as Visual, Aural, Linguistic, Kinesthetic, Logical, Solitary and Social learners were recorded. The topic Learning Styles Inventory is relevant for modern era. People have preferences about how they like to learn (learning style). This learning preferences sometimes account for problems in learning. The problem may not be entirely due to their learning style but also due to their previous experience. From the cohort of employees of KGFSL it was found that Visual, Aural and Logical Intelligences were dominant with them. Also a high degree of correlation is found to exist between the Visual and Social intelligences. Hence it is suggested that the training materials emphasis on interaction coupled with pictorial and diagrammatic representations, multimedia applications utilising sounds and music and procedural flow of concepts need to be incorporated while designing the training materials to exploit the available human talent. LEARNING STYLES INVENTORY A learning style is the method of learning, particular to an individual that is presumed to allow that individual to learn best or Learning styles are simply different approaches or ways of learning. It is commonly believed that most people favor some particular method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information. Based on this concept, the idea of individualized â€Å"learning styles† originated in the 1970s, and has gained popularity in recent years. Learning style Inventory(LSI) will provide details of different learning preferences and to determine a student’s learning style. The LSI diagnoses an individual’s preferences and needs regarding the learning process. It does the following: 1) Allows students to designate how they like to learn and indicates how consistent their responses are 2) Provides a foundation upon which teachers can build in interacting with students 3) Provides possible strategies for accommodating learning styles 4) Provides for student involvement in the learning process 5) Provides a class summary so students with similar learning styles can be grouped together. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. We each learn and process information in different ways. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are the styles fixed. The learning style of one may have more influence than he may realize. Using multiple learning styles and â€Å"multiple intelligences† for learning is a relatively new approach. Multiple Intelligences Theory posits that there are seven ways people understand in the world, described by Dr. Howard Earl Gardner in 1983 as seven core intelligences. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I. Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes seven different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. Types Of Multiple Intelligence : Visual (spatial) intelligence – prefers using pictures, images, and spatial understanding. Aural (auditory-musical) intelligence – prefers using sound and music. Verbal (linguistic) intelligence – prefers using words, both in speech and writing. Physical (kinesthetic) intelligence – prefers using your body, hands and sense of touch. Logical (mathematical) intelligence – prefers using logic, reasoning and systems. Social (interpersonal) intelligence – prefers to learn in groups or with other people. Solitary (intrapersonal) intelligence – prefers to work alone and use self-study. According to Gardner, intelligence is much more than IQ because a high IQ in the absence of productivity does not equate to intelligence. In his definition, â€Å"Intelligence is a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture†. The visual (spatial) learning style – Picture Smart The visual style learners, prefer using images, pictures, colors, and maps to organize information and communicate with others to retain information. They can easily visualize objects, plans and outcomes in their mind’s eye. They also has a good spatial sense, which gives them a good sense of direction. They can easily find their way around using maps, and rarely get lost. When they walk out of an elevator, they instinctively know which way to turn. Learning strengths : =; Remembers what they read and write. ; Enjoys visual projects and presentations. =; Can remember diagrams, charts, maps well. =; Understands information best when they SEE it. Traits : =; Prefers to see words written down =; When something is being described, the visual learner also prefers to have a picture to view. =; Prefers a time-line or some other similar diagram to remember historical events. =; Prefers written instructions rather than verbal i nstructions. =; Observes all the physical elements in a classroom. =; Carefully organizes their learning materials. ; Enjoys decorating their learning areas. =; Prefers photographs and illustrations with printed content. =; Remembers and understands through the use of diagrams, charts and maps. =; Appreciates presentations using OHP transparencies or handouts. =; Studies materials by reading notes and organizing it in outline form =; Enjoys visual art activities The aural (auditory-musical-rhythmic) learning style – Music smart These musically inclined learners think in sounds, rhythms and patterns. They immediately respond to music either appreciating or criticizing what they hear. They have a good sense of pitch and rhythm. They typically can sing, play a musical instrument, or identify the sounds of different instruments. Certain music invokes strong emotions. They notice the music playing in the background of movies, TV shows and other media. They often find themselves humming or tapping a song or jingle, or a theme or jingle pops into their head without prompting. Learning strengths: =; Remembers what they hear and say. =; Enjoys classroom and small-group discussion. =; Can remember oral instructions well. =; Understands information best when they HEAR it. Traits: =; Remembers what they say and what others say very well. =; Remembers best through verbal repetition and by saying things aloud. =; Prefers to discuss ideas they do not immediately understand. =; Remembers verbal instructions well. =; Enjoys the opportunities to present dramatically, including the use of music. =; Finds it difficult to work quietly for long periods of time. =; Easily distracted by noise, but also easily distracted by silence. =; Verbally expresses interest and enthusiasm. =; Enjoys class and group discussions. The physical (bodily-kinesthetic) learning style – Body smart Kinesthetic learners learn through , moving, doing and touching. If the physical style is more like them, it’s likely that they use their body and sense of touch to learn about the world around them. They would prefer to pull an engine apart and put it back together, rather than reading or looking at diagrams about how it works. They have the ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. These learners express themselves through movement. They have a good sense of balance and eye-hand co-ordination. (e. . ball play, balancing beams). Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information. Learning strengths: =; Remembers what they DO, what they experience with their hands or bodies (movement and touch). =; Enjoys using tools or lessons which involve active/practical participation. =; Can remember how to do things after they've done them once (motor memory). => Have good motor coordination. Traits => Remembers what they DO very well. => Remembers best through getting physically involved in whatever is being learnt. > Enjoys acting out a situation relevant to the study topic. => Enjoys making and creating. => Enjoys the opportunities to build and physically handle learning materials. => Will take notes to keep busy but will not often use them. => Enjoys using computers. => Physically expresses interest and enthusiasm by getting active and excited. => Has trouble staying still or in one place for a long time. => Enjoys hands-on activities. => Tends to want to fiddle with small objects while listening or working. => Tends to want to eat snacks while studying. The verbal (linguistic) learning style – Word Smart Linguistic learners find it easy to express themselves, both in writing and verbally. They love reading and writing. They like playing on the meaning or sound of words, such as in tongue twisters, rhymes, limericks and the like. They know the meaning of many words, and regularly make an effort to find the meaning of new words. They use the words, as well as phrases that the other person have picked up recently, when talking to others. The logical (mathematical) learning style – Logic Smart Logical learners like using their brain for logical and mathematical reasoning. They can recognize patterns easily, as well as connections between seemingly meaningless content. They can classify and group information to help so that they can learn or understand it. The logical learners work well with numbers and can perform complex calculations. They remember the basics of trigonometry and algebra, and can do moderately complex calculations in their head. They typically work through problems and issues in a systematic way, and like to create procedures for future use. They are happy setting numerical targets and budgets, and track their progress towards these. They like creating agendas, itineraries, and to-do lists, and typically number and rank them before putting them into action. These learners ask lots of questions and like to do experiments. The social (interpersonal) learning style – People smart If one has a strong social style, he communicates well with people, both verbally and non-verbally. People listen to these learners or come to them for advice, and they are sensitive to their motivations, feelings or moods. They listen well and understand other’s views and may enjoy mentoring or counseling others. The social learners typically prefer learning in groups or classes, or like to spend much one-on-one time with a teacher or an instructor. They heighten their learning by bouncing their thoughts off other people and listening to how they respond. They prefer to work through issues, ideas and problems with a group. They thoroughly enjoy working with a â€Å"clicking† or synergistic group of people. The people smart prefer to stay around after class and talk with others. They prefer social activities, rather than doing their own thing. They typically like games that involve other people, such as card games and board games. The same applies to team sports such as football or soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, baseball and hockey. These social learners are great organizers, although they sometimes resort to manipulation. Generally they try to maintain peace in group settings and encourage co-operation. They use both verbal (e. g. speaking) and non-verbal language (e. g. eye contact, body language) to open communication channels with others. The solitary (intrapersonal) learning style – Self Smart Solitary learners are more private, introspective and independent. They can concentrate well, focusing their thoughts and feelings on their current topic. They are aware of their own thinking, and may analyze the different ways they think and feel. They spend time on self-analysis, and often reflect on past events and the way they approached them. They take time to ponder and assess their own accomplishments or challenges. They keep a journal, diary or personal log to record their personal thoughts and events. The self smart like to spend time alone and have a personal hobby. They prefer traveling or holidaying in remote or places, away from crowds. They feel that they know themself and think independently. They may have attended self-development workshops, read self-help books or used other methods to develop a deeper understanding of themself. These solitary learners prefer to work on problems by retreating to somewhere quiet and working through possible solutions. They may sometimes spend too much time trying to solve a problem that they could more easily solve by talking to someone. They feel a deep sense of dissatisfaction if they don’t know their current direction in life. Inshort the self smart have the ability to self-reflect and be aware of one's inner state of being. These learners try to understand their inner feelings, dreams, relationships with others, and strengths and weaknesses. As per the multiple intelligence theory these learning styles provide absolutely pivotal and inescapable indication as to people's preferred learning styles, as well as their behavioural and working styles, and their atural strengths. The types of intelligence that a person possesses (Gardner suggests most of us are strong in three types) indicates not only a persons capabilities, but also the manner or method in which they prefer to learn and develop their strengths – and also to develop their weaknesses. The pressure of possible failure and being forced to act and think unnaturally, have a significant negative influence on learning effectiveness. Happy relaxed people learn more readily than unhappy stressful people. Develop people through their strengths and we not only stimulate their development – we also make them happy (because everyone enjoys working in their strength areas) – and we also grow their confidence and lift their belief (because they see they are doing well, and they get told they are doing well too). Developing a person's strengths will increase their response to the learning experience, which helps them to develop their weaknesses as well as their strengths The different intelligences – in Gardner's context are not a measure or reflection of emotion type. Intelligences are emotionally neutral. No type of intelligence is in itself an expression of happiness or sadness; nor an expression of feeling good or bad. In the same way, the multiple intelligences are morally neutral too. No type of intelligence is intrinsically right or wrong. In other words intelligences are amoral, that is, neither moral nor immoral – irrespective of a person's blend of intelligences Intelligences are separate to the good or bad purposes to which people apply whatever intelligences they possess and use. Intelligences are not in themselves good or bad. People possess a set of intelligences – not just one type and level of intelligence. The primary driver of Gardner's thinking is the fact, or assertion, that intelligence is not a single scalable aspect of a person's style and capability. Historically, and amazingly a perception that still persists among many people and institutions and systems today, intelligence was/is thought to be measurable on a single scale: a person could be judged – supposedly – to have a high or low or average intelligence; or a person would be considered ‘intelligent or ‘unintelligent'. Gardener has demonstrated that this notion is ridiculous. Intelligence is a mixture of several abilities (Gardner explains seven intelligences, and alludes to others) that are all of great value in life. But nobody's good at them all. In life we need people who collectively are good at different things. A well-balanced world, and well-balanced organisations and teams, are necessarily comprised of people who possess different mixtures of intelligences. This gives the group a fuller collective capability than a group of identically able specialists. By the same token a person who struggles with language and numbers might easily be an excellent sportsman, or musician, or artist. Many very successful business-people were judged to be failures at school. They were of course judged according to a very narrow definition of what constitutes intelligence. Each one of us has a unique and different mix of intelligence types, and commonly the people with the least ‘conventional' intelligence actually possess enormous talent – often under-valued, unknown and under-developed. Gardner pointed out that managing people and organising a unique mixture of intelligence types is a hugely challenging affair. Gardner said that one should not judge and develop people (especially children, young people, and people at the beginnings of their careers) according to an arbitrary and narrow definition of intelligence. We must instead rediscover and promote the vast range of capabilities that have a value in life and organisations, and then set about valuing people for who they are, what they can be, and helping them to grow and fulfill their potential. The seven intelligences are a bloody good first step towards valuing and developing people in a more compassionate and constructive way. One of the most remarkable features of the theory of multiple intelligences is how it provides seven different potential pathways to learning. If a teacher is having difficulty reaching a student in the more traditional linguistic or logical ways of instruction, the theory of multiple intelligences suggests several other ways in which the material might be presented to facilitate effective learning. The theory of multiple intelligences has strong implications for adult learning and development. Many adults find themselves in jobs that do not make optimal use of their most highly developed intelligences (for example, the highly bodily-kinesthetic individual who is stuck in a linguistic or logical desk-job when he or she would be much happier in a job where they could move around, such as a recreational leader, a forest ranger, or physical therapist). The theory of multiple intelligences gives adults a whole new way to look at their lives, examining potentials that they left behind in their childhood (such as a love for art or drama) but now have the pportunity to develop through courses, hobbies, or other programs of self-development. The seven intelligences are measurable, we know what they are, what they mean, and we can evidence or illustrate them. However the potential additional human capabilities, perceptions and attunements, are highly subjective and complex, and arguably contain many overlapping aspects. Criticisms: The theory has been widely criticized in the psycho logy and educational theory communities. The most common criticisms are, ? Gardner's theory is based on his own intuition rather than empirical data and that the intelligences are just other names for talents or personality types. ?Intellectual relativism: People have differing abilities within these types of intelligences. Albert Einstein and a person who is good at mathematics both display logical-mathematical intelligence, but at no point does the theory say that all people with the logical-mathematical intelligence are equally intelligent. Despite these criticisms, the theory has enjoyed a great deal of popularity amongst educators over the past twenty years. Multiple Intelligence theory served as a base for the development of the questionnaire on learning syles. The Questionnaire is divided into three parts namely, ‘Personal variables’, ‘Training programs’, and ‘Learning Styles’. Based on the details elicited an Inventory of learning styles is made. Deciding on the learning styles will provide for the proper development of the training content. This content when matched with the learning preference of the target it will contribute to the success of the training program. Furthermore tips for Trainers is also given. Learning styles are simply different approaches or ways of learning. It is commonly believed that most people favor some particular method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information. Through identifying the learning style, one will be able to capitalize on his strengths and improve the self-advocacy skills. The need to retrain during the career has increased over the past 20 years. As economies and job roles change faster and faster, the ability to learn well, adapt to change and stay mentally healthy has an increasing importance n the future employment & livelihood. Most employees have elements of more than one learning style. It may be useful for the employees to think about their strongest style and weakest style to identify how they learn. By thinking about their preferred style, they can try and apply this to learning new things. If they are able to use their natural style, they may find learning much easier and quicker. Knowing the learning style may help the employees to develop coping strategies to compensate for the weaknesses and capitalise on strengths. It can no longer be assumed that all employees will achieve by being taught the same way, and consequently new teaching practices are required. The interchange between tutee and tutor plays a vital role in the dynamics of a session. Because of this, it is very important that the tutor uses appropriate and varied tutoring techniques. BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS ?A. K. Sah, Systems Approach to Training and Development,Sultan Chand And Sons , Reprint 1992, pp 135-145. ?Ahwathappa. K. , Human Resource Management and personnel Management,Edition 2002,pp 408-421. Anthony Landale, Training and Development-A complete handbook, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, First edition-2004, pp 47,48,67-72. ?C. R. Kothari, Research Methodology ,New age International Publishers, Reprint edition 2006, pp 2 -3, 258-270. ?E. D. Setty, A Practical handbook on Training, Himalaya Publishing House,First edition-2003, pp 42-56,171-180. ?John Braton,Gold Human Resource Management, MacMillan, Edition 1994,pp 666-678. ?Martyn Soloman, A Handbook for Training Strategy, Mohit Publications, First edition-2001, pp 32-38. ?P. L. Rao, HRD Through in-house Training, TATA Mc. GrawHill, First edition-1995,pp 163-174. ?Sumathi Reddy, Training and Development Trends and experience, Himalaya publishing House, First edition-2003, pp 123-138. ?T. V. Rao, Readings in HRD, Mohit Publications, Fourth edition-2003, pp 142-149. ?Udai Pareek, Training Instrument in HRD and OD, New Age International Publishers, Second edition-2003,pp 351-354. ?Vijaya Kumari kaushik, S. R. Sharma, Education and Human Resource development, Sultan Chand and Sons, Reprint-2004,pp 284-297. ?Wendell L. French, Human resource development, Houghton Mittlin Company Boston, New Jersey, 1990, pp 326-331. JOURNALS Colleen Aalsburg Wiessner, Tim Hatcher, Diane Chapman, Julia Storberg-Walker,† Creating new learning at professional conferences: an innovative approach to conference learning, knowledge construction and programme evaluation†, Human Resource Development International, Volume 11, Issue 4 September 2008 , pages 367 – 383. ?David McGuire, Thomas N. Garavan, David O'Donne ll,Sudhir K. Saha, Maria Cseh,â€Å"Managers' personal values as predictors of importance attached to training and development: a cross-country exploratory study†, Human Resource Development International, Volume 11, Issue 4 September 2008 , pages 335 – 350 Steven Eric Krauss, Khaw Ai Guat , † An exploration of factors influencing workplace learning†, Human Resource Development International, Volume 11, Issue 4 September 2008 , pages 417 – 426 ? Yahn-Shir Chen, Bao-Guang Chang, Chia-Chi Lee ,†The association between continuing professional education and financial performance of firms†, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Volume 19, Issue 9 September 2008 , pages 1720 – 1737. WEBSITES ?MargaretC. Lohman,http://books. google. co. n/books? id=FueGlAOAM9IC&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=factors+affecting+learning+styles&source=bl&ots=FJHLBiCAdd&sig=PAggcKGlja0C1NN3YYZSo1sB_o8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPA1 19,M1 ? Bethany R. Hartshorn, Dante R. Hill, and Dominique F. Keaton , http://www. learning -styles-online. com/inventory/ ? Colin P West and Tait D Shanafelt, http://www. dominican. edu/query/ncur /display_ncur . php? id=3159 ? French W. L , http://www3. interscience. wiley. com/journal/119534767 ? Paulet &

Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement Instructions on Essay

Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement Instructions on Geographical Issues - Essay Example Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement Instructions on Geographical Issues The author tries to prove the hypothesis that fish can be used as a navigation tool through various researches done by scientists and navigators. National Research Council, Committee on Precursor Measurements Necessary to Support Human Operations on the Surface of Mars et. Al. Safe on Mars: Precursor Measurements Necessary to Support Human Operations on the Martian Surface. United States, US: National Academies Press, 2002 The astronauts that have landed to the planet mars explain the different hazards posed by the planets terrain. These hazards have different forms such as radiations, geological and the hazards posed by the atmospheric dynamics, which necessitate the study of the hazards to ensure astronauts’ safety while in the planet and their journey back to avoid contamination of the return vehicles. The chemical environmental hazards posed by planet mars are presented, which include the understanding of the between interaction of the Martian soil and the airborne dusts w ith an astronaut and the equipment that are critical, establishing the risk standards, and the toxicity levels of the Martian atmospheric gases. Passing quite a large number of countries, the equator is a major attraction site for many tourists who refer to it as the center of the universe. Neuman explores the San Antonio De Pichincha, Ecuador Park that reveals that the equator is hundreds feet to the northern direction, a fact that has been doubted by many tourists who visit the equator. Neuman uses the park in this newspaper article to study how the equator runs where the path it follows leads to a land traversed by a ravine, which possess a great danger to the construction of monuments; hence, the park’s monument was located in a different area that was initially 100 feet then reconstructed to 800 feet. To ascertain the amazing facts of the equator, a number of scientific research such as â€Å"Measure of the Earth† alongside with the tourists who get to the site describes the monument in the park. Flint, Warren. â€Å"Water Resource sustainability Management: Thinking like a Watershed†. Annals of arid zone 45(3 ) (2006):399-423. Print The journal explains the importance and management practices of the most important element, water, with cited examples all over the world and the effects that the functionality intact and biologically compound ecosystems the element has to the society. Sustainability anchors of aquatic systems presented and analyzed indicate the need to determine the effect they pose to the society’s factor such as health, integrity, and function ability. The watershed improvement strategy, from tradition, starts from the stage of focusing on the specific causes of water pollution ton containing the sources to ensure natural resource protection, social well-being, and preservation of ecological integrity. Flint describes the process that leads to a sustainable watershed natural defined hydrology preservation methods that involves and require a multi-dimension approach of thinking, which results to environmental pay-offs and economic benefits the society with most

Viual Aid and Gantt Chart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Viual Aid and Gantt Chart - Essay Example The high coÃ'•t of breakdown maintenance could be unbearable Ã'•uch that the need for preventive maintenance becomeÃ'• obviouÃ'•. The Ã'•afety of equipment and employee iÃ'• improved by preventive maintenance Ã'•erviceÃ'•. ThiÃ'• haÃ'• Ã'•ignificant impact on the production proceÃ'•Ã'•. Reaching maximum plant availability through minimal delayÃ'• and breakdownÃ'• and optimal equipment working condition reduceÃ'• or eliminateÃ'• the need for Ã'•ubcontracting Ã'•ome aÃ'•pectÃ'• of the job (Chen and Liao, 2005; Cheung et al., 2005). ThiÃ'• haÃ'• a reducing effect on the uÃ'•ually large maintenance budget of many organizationÃ'•. Maintenance Ã'•cheduling iÃ'• uÃ'•ually baÃ'•ed on preventive maintenance activitieÃ'• (Oke, 2004). In an organization where a large number of equipment are operated, preventive maintenance Ã'•cheduling offerÃ'• a meanÃ'• of achieving continuouÃ'• induÃ'•trial operationÃ'• without which Ã'†¢yÃ'•tem Ã'•uÃ'•tenance would be extremely difficult. Ð…ince the coÃ'•t of implementing preventive maintenance Ã'•cheduling iÃ'• more economical than that of replacing broken down equipment, in the long term, it iÃ'• more economical to implement thiÃ'• maintenance option. Ð…ound maintenance Ã'•cheduling iÃ'• indiÃ'•penÃ'•able for high maintenance performance, which in turn facilitateÃ'• the production proceÃ'•Ã'• to yield maximum output. ThiÃ'• iÃ'• attained when preventive maintenance Ã'•upportÃ'• continuouÃ'• improvement programmeÃ'•. Effective maintenance Ã'•cheduling requireÃ'• Ã'•pecific time and labor allocation, knowledge of equipment hiÃ'•tory, Ã'•pareÃ'• availability, knowledge of work and facility priority rating, job Ã'•pecification, etc.

Roy Adaptation Model applied to Leadership and Management and Nursing Research Paper

Roy Adaptation Model applied to Leadership and Management and Nursing Education - Research Paper Example Theories have always been of prime importance in the field of nursing. They are the set of actions or activities, whose foundation is on the policies, guidelines, procedures, plan, or method that an individual follows. These specialized theories and doctrine have come under several classifications and groupings that professionals carry out and perform in various parts of the earth. There had been many theories associated to nursing and health care that has the primary focus on looking after the ill, unwell, ailing, with poor health conditions, injured and old-aged people (Meleis, 2007). NURSING THEORY Philosophical perception has molded the Nursing theory, which is the understanding of a phenomenon or an event that assists the nursing convention or process through the conglomeration of knowledge, thus, assimilating many researches and experiments when identifying the nursing convention. ... One of the most well-known and popular personalities that the world has recognized, for the uncountable services that she had provided to numerous people, known as Florence Nightingale has emerged and originated the concept of contemporary nursing theory in the middle of 1800s. Prior to the existence of the nursing theory, the nurses acted liked puppets in the hands of doctors, as the foremost and principal job of any nurse was to follow only the doctor’s prescription and guidance for taking care of the patient. Florence Nightingale placed the cornerstone with her approach that not only gave a broad and a new form and path to the nursing occupation, but also made it noticeable and apparent in the field of medical science. She developed a sense of consciousness amongst the nurses with her incredible work that this profession does not merely mean to take care of the patients upon doctor’s prescription, as it is not at all an acceptable approach for patient care. Rather, t hey should comprehensively assess the patients need and make them satisfy, comfortable and healthy with their behaviors and actions through the execution of appropriate patient care (Marriner-Tomey & Alligood, 2006). The nursing theories come under development so that the nurses have a standardized set of actions as it administers a structure and a guideline for them. The theories are in continuous support to the practices of the nursing models that have emerged as several divisions of nursing have came into existence, thus, the patients’ needs became utmost important and provision of the proper care for the patients is the basis for each nursing model (Alligood & Marriner-Tomey, 2006). The types of nursing theories include â€Å"grand nursing

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT - Essay Example It also controls two other smaller regional airlines Cambrian Airways based in Cardiff and Northeast Airlines operating from Newcastle (Hatch 2003). The four airlines merged to form one British Airways, it started as a state own corporation until 1987 where it was sold as part of the government privatization plan. Since its privatization the company has expanded its operations acquiring British Caledonian, Gatwick airline carrier and Dan-Air. The company has the latest airbuses, airlines and Dream liner’s after making a major long-haul fleet replacement of its fleet (Evans2012). The bottom-line of its long-haul fleet is its purchases from its long-time customer Boeing with 52 examples in service. It is notable that it is only British Airways and operator which have this kind of flight and service worldwide. The company is also attributed to the founding of Oneworld airline alliance, Cathay Pacific, American airlines and Qantas. The parent company of British Airways Company, In ternational Airlines Group is also listed on the London stock exchange and also in the FTSE 100 Index. In 2009 British airways merged with Iberia and in 2010 it was approved by the European Commission under competition law. This allowed American Airlines cooperate with British Airways under International Airlines group on trans-Atlantic routes to various American destinations. With this merger International Airlines Group became the world third largest Airline and second largest in Europe in terms of annual revenue. In 2012 the company purchased British Midland International and it considers opening a new subsidiary to be based in London city airport operation Airbuses. British Airways being among the largest airlines holds United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority license which allows the airline to carry passengers, cargo and mail with 20 or more seats. It is notable that its key major rival is easyJet airlines because it is a low cost carrier (Evans2012). The company has various su bsidiaries and shareholdings where it has put much focus on the financial markets and leisure industry. In addition British Airways has a cargo branch which has worldwide global freight opportunities operating along its routes. British Airways is considered the largest shareholder in the airline transport industry in the world. The world carrier serves over 100 destinations globally as well as domestic flights (Hatch 2003). The carrier has also joined the few carriers that have its operations in all the continents. Strategic management process is the process which guides members and stakeholders of an organization to envision its future. This process is also essential for developing the necessary operations and procedures to achieve sustainable future for the achievement of both long-term and short-term goals and objectives. According to David Williamson (2012) the strategic management process can be viewed as a circular flow of action steps whereby the results from one step are use d to initiate an action in the next step (Williamson 2012). Therefore it can be argued that issues arising in an organization in a particular step help the strategic management teams to plan for the future of the organization making adjustments or additional work adopting the required strategies. To achieve the desired results the underlying stages can alter the flow of the stages to suit the particular needs of the

Joseph H Pilates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Joseph H Pilates - Essay Example By the age of 14 he was the penultimate model, and had even begun modeling for anatomy charts. Eventually through the culmination of his own childhood and experiences, an idea began to grow in his mind. He eventually decided that everyone's modern lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing were the roots of poor health, and he would find a way to combat that effectively. He then began work on what would become known as the Pilates Method. He created a series of various exercises that would help combat these evils. Ultimately "his answer to these problems was to design a unique series of vigorous physical exercises that help to correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength, and flexibility, as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function. He also invented a variety of machines, based on spring-resistance, which could be used to perform these exercises"( http://www.jillianhessel.com/pilates_biography.html). He would eventually include these spring Machines into ideas such as the Cadillac and the Universal reformer. Now all that lacked was a name for his new theory of mind, which Pilates would later call contrology. The first people to embrace his methods of Body Contrlogy were dancing students.

Dealing with Stress and Violence in the Workplace Essay

Dealing with Stress and Violence in the Workplace - Essay Example ed of systems of interventions that are supposed to prevent the negative psychological reactions that arise from dealing with many critical incidents in the line of duty. The management tool is designed to address critical incident stress at an early stage to prevent post traumatic stress becoming permanent in exposed individuals. The tool facilitates the normal recovery of individuals, groups and organizations back to normalcy after a traumatic experience. The management tool also assists in the identification of personnel within an organization who need further attention in emotional support services or psychological treatment in severe cases (Human Resources Branch, 1997) A CISM program uses multidimensional approach to prevent post traumatic stress on personnel exposed to traumatic situations, the tool promotes pre-event stress and crisis management education, training and preparation for management of traumatic stress and incorporates planning and policy development to that effect. The programs have various interventions that are used when a traumatic event is happening, and interventions after the traumatic events have occurred. Many approaches and interventions are integrated together to form a systematic interlinked approach to management of stress (Mitchell, n.d). Stress management tools are expected to help individuals, emergency personnel groups and communities deal with the impact of critical incidents and enable them to live with some degree of normalcy after these events. Stress management tools reduce incidences of chronic stress in personnel, which has negative effects on an individual’s life. Yes; I believe that the stress management tool is useful in dealing with violence in the workplace because all employees are able to share their experiences which help in reducing psychological stress and promote faster healing. When used effectively, the CIS management tools allow early detection of employees suffering from post-traumatic stresses that

Prewriting Essay Example for Free

Prewriting Essay 1.   I would write about love because I feel love is a tree and romance is just one of its branches. There are other dimensions of love as well apart from romance. In the essay I would touch upon all these dimensions. Apart from love between a man and a woman, there is love between a teacher and a student, love between two friends, love between a man and his pet, love between a celebrity and his fans, love between siblings. I would touch upon all these dimensions of love in the essay. Then I would bring into focus the most divine form of love and that is the love between a mother and her child. I would elaborate on how unique this form of love is and it cannot die or change no matter how advanced the world becomes. I would write that the bond between a mother and her child is natural. This is because they are physically attached to each other for nine months. Due to the capacity of bearing children mothering instinct comes naturally to women. The intensity of this instinct might vary from person to person but it cannot be completely absent in a woman. A mother always prioritizes her child above herself. This selflessness is rare in all the other dimensions of love. I would also focus on the main concepts like jealousy, codependency, idealization, stereotyping etc. that involve different types of relations and would connect all these concepts to a mother-child relationship. This would help in understanding this divine attachment between two human beings in more depth. I would conclude the essay by weaving all the main points highlighted above into a string of points that would point towards the main idea that though there are many forms of love, the love between a mother and a child always excels above others. 2.   I would write about why we need gossip in our culture. I think that gossip is one of the necessities of human beings and all of us love to indulge in it whether consciously or unconsciously. But there are very few of us who like to accept our inclination to indulge in gossip. Even when we are gossiping about our classmates, colleagues, neighbors, celebrities, teachers etc. our conscious mind always tries to project ourselves as a person who does not indulge in this kind of lowly activities. In the essay I would like to focus on the fact that the intensity of our indulgence or love for gossip might differ from one person to another but just like other necessities like food, water, shelter etc. this also becomes one of our needs. I would write that one of the main reasons why some people gossip less when compared to others is because they have less time than the others in this fast paced world. In this context I would quote the example of the reality show, ‘Big Brother’ where the participants are not allowed anything other than the basic necessities and apart from food it is gossip that gives them the strength to survive in a controlled environment. I would write that no matter what the age or the background of the participants is every one uses this tool to ooze out his anger, distress or dissatisfaction. Some people start instantly while others take a little time to open up but ultimately every one engages in this activity. To conclude I would point out that all of us abhor the term gossip attached to our personalities. But in reality this should not be the case. We do not want to accept this important need of our existence because we relate only negative points to this activity. We should consider gossip as a way of socializing which is yet another important requirement of a healthy human mind. It helps in taking out the baggage that we carry in our inner self. However we should always try to indulge in healthy gossip instead of dirty gossip meant to malign others. In healthy gossip many people would be our friends while in the latter we will invite more foes. 3.   I would like to write about the changing attitude towards dating. Years ago dating was a taboo. Then it became an acceptable part of our society. Now it is indispensable for any relationship to bloom. The courtship period that comprises of dating and  calling cannot be imagined without these elements of love. In the essay I would write about changing attitude towards dating not only in the western culture but also in other cultures. There are a many cultures for, example in Asia, where interaction between girls and boys was not acceptable till recent times but since dating has become an integral part of western culture, these cultures are also getting influenced by this concept. The difference in the change of attitude in the  Asian countries compared to  the western  countries is that though it is being accepted the level of acceptance is lower in the Asian countries. I would highlight the point that how gradually dating has started being considered as a means of just spending a good time with the person towards whom one is romantically inclined unlike the yesteryears where it was considered a foundation of long term relationships. In the conclusion of the essay, I would write that courtship consists of dating but not vice versa. Where dating is just for fun, flirting is likely to be one of its components. 4.  Ã‚  I would like to write about anxiety disorder. In the beginning of the essay I would present an overview of the disease. I would mention that many disorders are collectively referred as anxiety disorder. These disorders are generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, specific phobia, agoraphobia etc. In fact anxiety disorder is a blanket term that encompasses within itself different types of anxiety, fear, nervous condition or phobia. It can occur suddenly or gradually and can affect people of different age groups and genders. Then I would focus on the causes. Apart from the psychological causes, I would also touch upon the hereditary and genetic causes of the disease. This disease disrupts the day-to-day activities of the people suffering from it. I would write about the symptoms of anxiety disorders. For example there are psychological symptoms like social avoidance, depression, frustration, lack of concentration etc. Apart from that there are physical symptoms too, for example dizzy spells, fatigue, chest pain etc. This would throw light upon how it affects the people suffering from it. Apart from medication there are other things like good family atmosphere, indulgence in some constructive work and exercises that help in the recovery process. I would mention that the people suffering from it should be honest to the practitioners so that they  get cured in the right way.

Tesco Assessing The Impacts Of Ebusiness Information Technology Essay

Tesco Assessing The Impacts Of Ebusiness Information Technology Essay This paper presents research findings expounding on the relative impacts of e-business technologies when integrated into an organization. The key objective of the study is to determine that how the adoption of innovative technological applications serves to be beneficial or detrimental to the business world and more specifically to the business sector. The recent trade practices require embracing newer technologies as they offer instant access and exposure to consumers and keep 24/7 connectivity to management resources. The positive aspect of e-commerce technology and social networking tools, is to provide users with the ability to communicate both synchronously and asynchronously i.e. via emails, video conferencing, chat and blog forum services. There has been a considerable amount of research conducted on several organizations for the adoption of innovative technologies and the general findings reveal that entrepreneurs often lack the skill, time or money to implement technology up grades. Followed by these key study points highlighted in this paper, assessments are done to gain the insights on the impacts of deploying new web based technologies and social networking techniques. The research has been conducted in 3 phases to determine the consequences of e-business practice of Tesco, a leading supermarket of UK. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 4 TESCO: COMPANY PROFILE.. 4 ONLINE MARKET SHARE 5 PRODUCT RANGE .. 5 COMPETITORS. 5 TESCO: AN OVERVIEW OF E-BUSINESS PRACTICE.. 5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 6 RATIONALE OF INVESTIGATION 7 LITERATURE REVIEW.. 8 ADOPTION OF E-BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES. 8 LIMITATIONS TO ADOPTION. 9 CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY 10 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.. 11 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES RESEARCH DESIGN.. 11 PHASE I.. 12 PHASE II. 12 PHASE III.. 13 PROTOCOL FOR DATA COLLECTION.. 14 ASSOCIATED RISKS TO DATA COLLECTION 14 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF DATA.. 14 MEASURES TO ENSURE DATA PROTECTION. 15 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 15 DETRIMENTAL EFFECT OF STUDY.. 15 INFORMED CONSENT.. 15 PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY 16 CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS. 16 CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF RESULTS FINDINGS.. 17 RECCOMMENDATIONS. 19 IMPROVE THE WEBSITE.. 19 REVIEW WEB TRAFFIC. 19 EXAMINE THE COMPETITIVE STRATEGY. 19 CORRECTIVE MEASURES BASED ON FEEDBACK.. 20 CONCLUSION 20 BIBLIOGRAPHY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This paper is intended to highlight some the consequences of integrating e-business technologies within an organization and study the relative impacts with respect to the companys growth pattern and fiscal benefits attained by the e-business practices. For the purpose of identifying the relative advantages or disadvantages associated to the utilization of e-business technologies, Tesco has been chosen as the subject which has a prominent presence as the leading supermarket across the globe and specifically in UK. The incorporation of e-business technologies are seen as a reality for many organizations and are considered as a vital element of a business plan. The immediate benefits to an organization are in terms of cost savings, efficiencies and enhanced profitability that can be clearly observed at every stage in the supply chain. Adopting e-business technology is no longer a competitive advantage, but a normal business process, without which an enterprise is unlikely to survive in the new economy (Dave, 2001). With the commencement of year 2000 a number of dot-com companies were established however, with a continuously evolving trends of the contemporary business practices a majority of companies are failing to and therefore, the investors have become extra cautious to invest money into electronic ventures. The study encompasses the relevant limitations and hurdles of adopting the e-business techniques and furthermore analyses the integral aspects and impacts of e-commerce practices within the selected organization. TESCO: COMPANY PROFILE With its mass penetration of approximately 90% within the UK retail market alone and having an annual turnover of more than 1 billion, Tesco is generally recognised as the worlds largest online grocer. Tesco has been launched in various other countries and with its strong international presence it is diversifying into non-food categories as well. Tesco began to offer online services in 1995 which was based on consumers orders generated via local Tesco store using the internet (Mohorovice, 2000). To extend its e-business operation further, Tesco also launched its own Internet Service Provider (ISP) i.e. Tesco.net, for the purpose of creating an effective link between internet access facilities and the online delivery services; providing their consumers with a greater choice of ISP. The initial investment for the commencement of online service was relatively small as a network of existing stores, warehouses and distribution centres were already in place (Griffith, 2002). In order to ef fectively integrate the online service throughout the UK, an estimated amount of approximately  £25 million was spent by the company (Griffith, 2002). 1.1.1 ONLINE MARKET SHARE The overall online market share of the leading supermarkets has been illustrated in Table: 01; Tesco 27.1% Asda 10.1% Sainsbury 6.9% Waitrose/Ocado 4.2%. 1.1.2 PRODUCT RANGE Food Ranges: Milk, eggs, butter and all grocery items Non-food Ranges: Books, DVDs and Electronic products Others: Dieting clubs, flights and holidays, music downloads, gas, electricity etc. 1.1.3 COMPETITORS According to the Nielsen/Netrating audience panel for September 2007 for the top UK supermarkets shows the lead of Tesco, offline market share is in brackets from TNS which monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the U.K as illustrated in Table: 02; Tesco 30.9% Asda 16.9% Sainsbury 16.4% Waitrose 332,000 Morrisons 225,000 1.2 AN OVERVIEW OF E-BUSINESS PRACTICE There is an increasing demand of e-business technologies as the consumers today prefer to utilize online services for shopping due to lack of time or extremely fast paced life and the launch of Tesco.com online service has served as the most simple and convenient way of shopping for consumers who are willing to pay a little extra for their groceries to deliver at doorstep and saves time. The orders once received are further processed online and the information is instantly passed on to the nearest stores. By developing the e-commerce and e-business practices, Tesco has extended its leading position in grocery home shopping since the foundation of tesco.com and has grown registered customers up to more than 750,000 with online orders up to 60k per week giving sales of over 5 million pounds (Palmer, 2005). To maintain the accuracy of the online orders, Tesco has maintained staff to gather the items in accordance with those specified in the online order list and then the groceries assem bled at a delivery point to be distributed to households within a given area. A number of timeslots have been made available for delivery of online orders and consumers are directed to ensure the availability of someone to collect the requested stuff. The payment process is also convenient and most of the payments are collected online. To keep the consumers updated with the information on prices, all items are marked with their status of availability and sell-by date. A close substitute is added in case where a product is out of stock. The online sales in just the first half of the year 2007 were 748 million, a 35% year-on-year increase, and profit increased by 62% to 54.7 million (Palmer, 2005). Further to add value to its e-business technology, sophisticated software has been formulated to manage the collection and delivery of the goods to customers. It is also important to note that a number of marketing benefits are also associated with the incorporation of e-business practice w ithin the business. Moreover, a database is maintained to extract valuable information about the products higher in demand and those which require specific types of marketing and promotion; can be identified. Feedback on satisfaction rates and responses of consumers to new offers or products can also be pulled out through this database. In addition to this, the database helps to horn the online strategy and deliver an added-value service to customers by effectively responding to their needs. Tesco has an active customer base of 850,000 and more than 250,000 orders are completed each week (Griffith, 2002). 1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES This research aims to enhance the understanding of acquiring e-business technologies and their utilisation and thereby assess the basis for improved business competitiveness. The theme is based on one of the largest retail store in UK i.e. Tesco, illustrating the impacts of e-commerce techniques implicated in regional, historical and economic contexts of the retail businesses (Yoruk and Radosevic, 2000). With continuously evolving global trends a need has been develop for the transition of business practices in order to achieve a knowledge-based economy by stimulating innovation and improved access to advanced research and development practices and e-business technologies. The proposed paper aims to study the relative impact of innovative internet technology encompassing the business practices of Tesco within UK. The investigation is based on how the innovative use of business networking and advanced e-commerce solutions encourage and support the Tesco to play a leading role in the a dvancement of a cutting edge trade society (Yoruk and Radosevic, 2000). At the same time the research expounds on addressing the related competitive challenges to this largest retail store of UK, in absorbing and developing new-fangled social networking culture. The study design is fabricated to expound on the impacts pertaining to Tesco benefiting from the e-xploitation of science and technology in order to develop closer links with new markets and consumers of the region. The theme of the overall exploration is to develop an understanding of how e-business technologies enable Tesco to broaden and deepen their consumer acquaintance and leverage business culture of excellence. 1.4 RATIONALE OF INVESTIGATION With the passage of time e-connectivity and social networking practices are becoming obligatory for the success of businesses and followed by the observations it can be suggested that the adoption and implementation of the internet connectivity, e-commerce practices and social networking technologies by retail stores offer a great potential for creating new markets, new organisational forms, and new ways of working in the knowledge-driven economy. The motors of economic growth with their loose organisational structures and often fuzzily defined organisational roles and relationships perceived as fruitful milieus for innovative activities (De, 2000). All e-commerce networks have significance for innovative activities and the extent and the nature of overlap between social networks is especially important bearing heavily on the extent to which cooperation can be produced over large sectors of the economy. Business groups are based on social linkages whether its cultural similarity, inf ormal link or an everyday contact. The need for adopting e-techniques and social networking arises in situations where economic advantage can be achieved for the group members of a business. To understand the ability of firms to respond to the fast-changing environments of the business world the approach of e-business technologies within business development process is important which can provide suitable insights into the structure and dynamics of local economies(Palmer, 2005). Although the bulk of the effort in innovation is to be done by the firms themselves, the difference between national and regional patterns of technological development highlights the importance of external economic and non-economic factors that encourage creative interactions between all parts of the society, leading the economy into virtuous circle of technological development (Rogers, Ghauri and George, 2005). Considering the significance of e-commerce and e-business activities within the business environm ent, this study has been conducted to expound on the subject matter and thereby present effective measures and recommendations to further enhance and overcome the limitations to adopt e-business practices. 1.5 LITERATURE REVIEW A community can be more willing to adopt a certain technology when it can offer some beneficial package through which an existing human need can be fulfilled. The e-business technology is capable to offer enhancements to communication that improves networking and also sufficient enough to make needed knowledge resources more readily accessible; and this is what makes it striking for the retail sector (Goode and Stevens, 2000). It is also interesting to note that those that have been most successful in fulfilling specific market needs, or niches, also encounter competing technology vendors which can also be the case in any other situation. 1.5.1 ADOPTION OF E-BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES The e-business technologies offer additional benefits in the productivity of an organization and furthermore, a peripheral vision is offered to integrate within the business successful community building devices like Face book, twitter and MySpace and these possess a vital niche within the lives of their consumers and the communities that they tend to form. Astoundingly, the e-business networks which are the main selling product offered by these community building devices, is mostly formed outside of the e-environment before an electronic communication takes place (Rogers, Ghauri and George, 2005). Interestingly the e-business activities and these social networking platforms are not just for the purpose of fun instead they offer a means for advertising potential business practices. The social networking websites were formerly utilised by young however, the technologies that link individuals are no longer limited to the younger age groups and their significance has been realised hence , the models are now designed to serve as an interactive tool which can help diffusion into target markets (Fildes, 2002). In addition to these social websites an alternative niche is provided by a business focussed solution termed as Linkedin that offers the professionals and businessmen from diversified backgrounds with an ability to form business networks and maintain searchable contact information that can be further utilised for trade purposes (Goode and Stevens, 2000). These highly successful e-business technologies provide elementary communication and collaboration environments via text and sometimes via audio channels within specified limitations. Much better and enhanced communication and collaborative environments are provided by certain recent innovations as for example, Skype, which is not web based but offers a range of telecommunication devices and by utilising the IP connectivity it offers call and video conferencing options that can be very useful for swift business activities. All these e-business activities and social networking websites within their own capacities offer a platform for the organizations like Tesco to further enhance and develop their businesses with an unlimited access and exposure of consumers globally. 1.5.2 LIMITATIONS TO ADOPTION Research from the European Commission (2002) constitutes that when it comes to introduce technological advancements especially e-business technologies to the retail industry, they face certain problems as statistics suggests that the smaller retailers are less likely to familiarise themselves with e-commerce techniques. This does not necessarily means that by the enlargement of size or by integrating specific regulations or policies will solve these problems. Reliable, stable and open business environment is what retail industry will benefit from and therefore policies encouraging this along with liberalisation of ecommerce practices and the interoperability of internet solutions, and easier access to finance through horizontal policy initiatives are likely to succeed in tandem with retail-specific initiatives (Goode and Stevens, 2000). The competitive or environmental pressure that compels a retailer to adopt e-business technologies tends to result in sustained and improved profitab ility of an organisation. In accordance with another study by (Robertson, Lockett, Brown Crouchley, 2007) it can be observed that among the retailers their poor perception towards computer based technologies limits adoption as small retailers or organizations have limited finance or support to engage with state of the art web based technologies that would enhance communication. When larger companies adopt the e-business technologies it is interesting to note that positive network external effects can be achieved which can also be thought of as word of mouth effects (Frambach Schillewaert, 2002). The significance of words spread within general public is highly recognised within the business world and organizations do realise that the adoption of techniques which can broaden the horizon of their trade can be extremely beneficial. The e-commerce technologies offer the same by providing the business owners with all ingredients to attain better chances of success. As for example the ne twork externality effects were particularly important in the success of fixed line and mobile phone adoption as an additional subscriber leads to an increase in the utility of all existing and future subscribers thereby augmenting the eventual success of the technology (Fildes, 2002). The existing relationships between the retailers and the consumer markets also tend to hinder in adoption of the innovative technologies. There is a specific load or pressure within everyday business practice and the knowledge that is required to carry out routine activities through technological means is absent in most of the business environment unwilling to become a part of modern trade practices. The inability to deal with the recent technological environment tends to compromise the credibility with business partners and leaves sensitivity amongst the workforce that the business environment is less dynamic. On the other hand, in some instances there are numerous of consumers without internet capabilities or those who do not feel secure to utilise advance e-business techniques; also see their credibility compromised in terms of other retailers. Furthermore, industry, market scope, competitive pressure and external technological support are considered to be factors that influence r etailers willingness to adopt e-business technologies. The adoption of advanced technologies is greatly influenced and also dependent upon the industry in which the retailer operates (Levenburg et al. 2006, Raymond 2001). Processing of information is carried out by the service industry and therefore, much of their functions rely on the information systems. Retail industries are increasingly reliant upon the point-of-sale systems for the transfer of goods. Manufacturing industry rely more on technological systems. It has been observed by a study that the ecommerce practices vary not only across sectors i.e. across Standard Industrial Classification codes but also within constituent sub-sectors (Fallon and Moran, 2000). CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY The research methodology incorporates the use of both primary and secondary data including exhaustive literature review, interviews and observations based on studying the obtainable research data. The study expounds on observing a radical intent to utilise the development of innovative networking technologies as part of retail processes however, certain limitations make it difficult for the owner managers. The contemporary business practices and market trends has established that by implicitly adopting social networking techniques wider level of transformations within an organization can be obtained (Fink, 2007). To obtain a better picture the study needs to obtain a theoretical understanding of how economic costs and lack of technical knowledge become two of the most important factors that hinder in growth of social networking technologies in small organisations. The research methodology involves observation of theoretical data, data collected through interviews and analysis of mark et activities, validated research procedures and investigative strategies upon the area under discussion. The method used in this research is to evaluate various technological, organisational, and environmental aspects that facilitate or inhibit adoption or diffusion of social networking technologies and thereby identifying the relative impacts on an organization. 2.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS The core element of this dissertation is to determine the upshots of implementing e-business technologies within Tesco and studying in detail how it affected the organization with a particular emphasis on the business practices. The objective is to assess the overall business activities and growth pattern of Tesco to find out the impact of the innovative networking technology and also elicit the views of significant participants of the organization. The five main objectives of this study are; To establish how e-business technologies are acquired, absorbed and utilised within Tesco to gain competitive advantage; To study the relative impacts of e-business technologies when applied to a retail organization particularly within Tesco; To investigate enablers and constraints that influence e-business practices within a wider context embracing all the regional, social and economic factors; To adopt a methodology, influenced by data collected from the active respondents and theoretical groundings for investigating Tescos e-business practices; To utilise a research design incorporating users of e-business technology such as the owners, managers and administrators of Tesco, to gather valuable views and comments about the relevant consequences. 2.2 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES RESEARCH DESIGN The recruitment and designing of sample required the random selection of the study population that is acquired from the 500 employees working on various levels within Tesco, located in Central London. The additional information about the organization was supplemented by the retail stores online website. The sample was designed to develop and benchmark the present scale of adoption of e-business technologies among the allocated sample of Tesco located in the Central region of London. The design of sample was tailored at diverse echelons. A brief semi-structured questionnaire was distributed and the interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim for the assessment of relative impacts of e-business technologies. A back up staff for taking notes in writing and recording was made available to the interviewers, where applicable. The interviews were conducted on the basis of discretion; hence the sample store, market participants and the respondents are kept unidentified. Initially 500 active employees were engaged in the study functioning at various levels within the organization that include owners, managers, IT administrators, support staff and also some regular consumers. The sample is further categorised in accordance with their level of maturity i.e. depending on their status of commencement, stability and innovation. At the outset, the interviews were conducted in each firm and the respondents were selected from senior management team. The interviews were based on open-ended questions with in-depth interrogation in which the flexibility was maintained on the focus, follow-ups and probes clarifications to pursue the emerging themes (Alvesson and Skà ¶ldberg, 2000). The duration of interviews lasted between one and one-and-a-half hours session. The research has been conducted in three phases; each phase is discussed in detail as under: 2.2.1 PHASE I For understanding the existing research exhaustive literature and systematic reviews were carried out. Review was based on investigating how social networking has been adopted and integrated in small firm and thereby identifying their relative impacts. The exhaustive literature study also examined the association between the use of social networking technology and small firm growth. These reviews helped to identify major themes within previous research and the details contained within the papers highlighted concerns with social issues, absorptive capacity and policy support that enable the transfer and development of social networking technologies within business practices. Gaps include sector bias, lack of research on the situated nature of technologies, factors that mediate the adoption of new systems of organising, and how relational competence and social skills influence firm growth (Alvesson and Skà ¶ldberg, 2000). An in-depth study was carried out of relevant literature presen t in books, newspapers, articles and renowned academic journals. 2.2.2 PHASE II The research survey was administered during the period in between February 2010 and March 2010 and the investigation was focussed on studying the relative consequences of integrating e-business technologies within UKs leading retail, Tesco. A smaller canvassing team of 5 interviewers were trained to administer the telephonic survey and approximately 500 employees of Tesco were contacted via telephone. The inclusion criteria as set in accordance with the research methodology allowed the survey information to be collected from the owners, managers, IT managers or from employees and people of similar stature by the canvassers. Certain regular consumers were also considered as respondents and accepted as per the inclusion criteria. A response rate of approximately 18% was received through the outbound calls that helped to achieve about 90 completed forms. It is important to note that problems of sample selection and response bias can lead to results that are difficult to extrapolate to l arger populations. In this case two types of bias were encountered. Firstly, regional bias arose due to the over collection of surveys from the upper management and too few from the lower management. Secondly, the survey contained too few surveys administered to the consumer base of the organization. Both imbalances were corrected using a weighting process called rim weighting (Alvesson and Skà ¶ldberg, 2000). All results generated for this document are weighted implying that the results reflect the general picture to be found in the organization. 2.2.3 PHASE III The third phase of the research methodology is designed to understand the need for incorporating e-business technologies within the potential retail market and assessing how entrepreneurs would utilise the technology to gain competitive advantage, and finally investigating the limits of the e-business technology when put into practice. In order to gain deeper insight into the need for e-business technology within the retail store, qualitative interviews were conducted on 500 employees of Tesco selected from different departments within the organization. The interviews were conducted on the upper management and directorship level or with IT decision makers of the companies (Fink, 2007). The research encompasses the incorporation of e-commerce and e-business techniques for selling products from a broad range of departments of Tesco including food products, healthcare products, sports, groceries, electronic products and home accessories. To acquire a rich background of company informati on there were about 10 stores enlisted for interview via cold calls to the database collated during the enterprise survey and further 5 stores were enlisted through general contacts. Respondents were asked to illustrate the nature of the retail business practice in order to gain insight into the role of e-business technology in the company. Details were collected regarding the trade practice of the enterprise to identify the level of operation i.e. local or international, furthermore, investigations were made about the current level of networking technologies in use and the mode of communication between employees, suppliers and customers were also studied. 2.3 PROTOCOL FOR DATA COLLECTION The target study population is comprised of actively participating members and employees including owners, directors, managers, administrators and IT staff of Tesco. An aggregated set of data collected through authenticated annual reports of the organization to determine the growth patterns after the adoption of e-business technologies. Renowned economic journals, newspaper articles and books are used for compilation of authentic data. An open ended brief survey questionnaire was distributed to the respondents in order to collect valuable comments and meetings to discuss and accumulate annotations of relevant stakeholders. ASSOCIATED RISKS TO DATA COLLECTION There are certain practical difficulties that hinder in the collection of data that eventually result in delaying the research procedure. Due to the indulgence of human objects there are chances of missed appointments, absences due to illness that might account for the down gradation of the research process. Effective time management by pre-evaluated questionnaires cut short and transcribed interview sessions and appropriate theoretical observations are required to anticipate research obstacles in timely manner (ESRC, 2010). 2.4.1 VALIDITY AN

The Transformation of Ishmael in Snow Falling on Cedars :: Snow Falling Cedars Essays

The Transformation of Ishmael in Snow Falling on Cedars What can be said about a novel of such luminance as Snow Falling on Cedars that has not already been said? Certainly it is a work of much vision and insight and speaks volumes about prejudice and race. The wordplay of Guterson creates a world of vivid reality-it surrounds the reader with sights, smells and a clearly defined sense of touch. Perhaps lost amidst the smells of the strawberry fields, the cold of the winter storm, and the deep social statements about the nature and quirkiness of prejudice is the fact that this beautifully crafted story of immense complexity is in reality a very simple story about the identity of one man. Guterson himself says, "Post-modernism is dead because it didn't address human needs. The conventional story endures because it does. I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation" (qtd. in Kanner). This book is a conventional story, a simple story about the internal battle of Ishmael Chambers as he struggles with himself. This is made evident in the subtle and not too subtle comparisons made between Ishmael and other characters. Taking all of this into account reveals that the true theme of the book centers on the transformation of Ishmael from weak to strong. First, who is Ishmael Chambers? He is the son of a very well-respected and prominent citizen of San Piedro, Arthur Chambers. When Arthur dies, Ishmael takes over the job as the local news reporter. He is introduced into the story as a journalist in the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto and appears to remain aloof, a passive third person eye that would analyze the information impartially. In addition to being a reporter, Ishmael is also a war veteran with a missing limb as a souvenir to boot. The reader gets the feeling that Ishmael plays a small and minor role in the upcoming plot. This, however, is false. As the book gathers momentum, it becomes increasingly clear that Ishmael ties into the fabric of the outcome of the story-from the childhood and young adult romance between Hatsue and him, to the emotional scene where his arm is amputated, to the final climax where he discovers the evidence that can clear Kabuo's name, Ishmael is the crux on which the storyline hinges.

Personal Narrative: Almost Drowning :: essays research papers

Have you ever had a moment in time that seems like minutes or hours even though it was only a few seconds? Have you ever seen everything before you play out in slow motion, where you are aware of everything around you, yet not knowing what was going on? I have, and as I look back on it, I feel very blessed and protected. On December 22, 01, I decided to take a little swim in our swimming pool and almost drowned. I still can remember it like yesterday. This incident almost cost me my life, I was disobedient and it still has a big effect on me now. It all started when it was my seventh birthday party. There was a certain girl I liked. So I decided to show-off and do crazy stuff to impress her. First I tried drinking soda off the bottle but I spilled it on the rug. Everyone laughed so hard that their heads fell off! The girl I liked just sat there, not smiling. For my next attempt, I tried to wrestle my friends but I ended up breaking a lamp. Everyone laughed again. I thought about what I could do to impress the girl I liked. It was finally time to swim. I finally came up with a plan and decided to swim in the deep side of the pool even though I didn’t know how to swim. I knew it would work but I was also scared. As I walked to the swimming pool, everyone laughed at me again for wearing a speedo. I dived into the deep side of the pool and noticed everyone was staring at me in amazement. Then I swam up and hung onto the side of the pool. Everyone was shocked and puzzled. Even the girl I liked looked surprised. When everybody left to get cake, I had to clean up the swimming toys. Because one toy was in the middle of the deep end of the pool, I dived into the water. I picked it up and tried to swim up. My hair was stuck to the ladder! I didn’t know what to do! Running out of oxygen, I tried to yell for help.

Gay and Lesbian Issues - Homosexuality Is Wrong Essay example -- Argum

Homosexuality Is Wrong      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Within the past several years gay and lesbian rights has become a huge issue. Gays and lesbians have started to come out of the ''closet," and proudly admitting their sexuality. In the past few years gays and lesbians have been fighting for the right to marry, and adopt children. So far there is only one state that allows gays to become married. People have become more and more open minded with homosexuality. Twenty years ago homosexuality was looked down upon (in general), but now our society thinks that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality. Our nation has started to move away from God, this is why people think that homosexuality is all right. If people are not close to God and do not follow Him, then they are not going to abide by His standards.    There are several places in the Bible where it talks about homosexuality. The Bible has nothing positive to say about men and women sleeping with the same sex. In Leviticus 20:13, it states ''If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.'' This is saying that if a man has sex with another man, then both of the men should be put to death. It would be the men's own fault for their death. This is one of the few sins mentioned in the Bible that suggest death for the sin. Now days people are not put to death for this sin, they are accepted and viewed as ''normal''. People do not really see anything wrong with homosexuality. Our culture needs to study the Bible and come closer to God instead of moving away from Him. If our nation does this then they may see why homosexuality is wrong. Our culture does not view homosexuality as a ... ...ast several years. People are believing that homosexuality is o.k. if it feels good. People need to learn that God hates the act of homosexual relations. God has destroyed cities in the past because of the gays and lesbians. Homosexuality just is not a natural act. You have never seen animals that keep mating partners for life, go and have sex with the same sex. The Bible teaches that gays and lesbians should be punished, in the Old Testament they were killed for their actions. Our nation needs to realize that being gay is not all right, that it is an abomination unto the Lord.       Works Cited Bible. It's a sin this we know cause the Bible tells us so. internet. 1996. 1-7. It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. internet. 1998. 1-2. Living On The Edge. internet. 1998. 1-2. The Christian Anti-Homosexual Web Site. internet. 1998. 1-2.   

Guernica and the Torture of Politics Essay

When Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted Guernica (1) in 1937, the painting was not only a pictorial documentation on the horrors that took place on a small Basque town in northern Spain on April 26th, 1937, but a testament to the tragedy of all war that humankind wages upon itself. Picasso says he created the painting to bring the world’s attention to the Spanish civil war and to General Franco’s unusually cruel tactics to try and win this war. In the case of Guernica, this painting has monumental political significance and is still viewed today as greatest anti-war symbol of our time. This massive, mural- sized painting (11 ft. tall by 25 ft. wide) is painted in oil and currently on exhibit at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. Even if we remove the political significance of this nearly monochromatic painting, we are still left with one of Picasso’s masterpieces of cubist composition. The twisted, disjointed figures undulating across the canvas create a tapestry of suffering in sharp contrasts of black, white and blue. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Picasso in 1937 to create a large mural painting to help bring to the light the misery of the Spanish Civil War to an international audience. Rather than seeing this very political commission as a limitation, Picasso embraced this opportunity as a platform to use his mastery of oil painting to affect political and popular opinion. Even those who are Basque or Franco sympathizers can not escape from the deep sadness and despair they are confronted with in this painting. In no way is this painting’s political tie a limitation to its greatness. Picasso’s Guernica has been exhibited throughout the world, viewed by millions, and many would argue that this was Picasso’s greatest achievement. Fast-forward 70 years to 2007; Different artists, different politics, different wars. No longer does the general populous receive its information in newspapers or the radio as they did in 1937. Our access to information is now instant and mainlined. In 2004 accounts of torture, sodomy and rape at the Abu Ghraib army prison in Iraq began to surface. The world, including its artists began to react. Richard Serra (born 1939) created a series of litho-crayon drawings depicting a scene of an Abu Ghraib prisoner being tortured (2), arms outstretched like a Christ figure, with the words â€Å"Stop Bush† on either side of his hooded face. The Whitney Museum of American Art used images of this drawing for posters of their 2006 Whitney Biennial at a time when America was still deeply divided over the continuance of this war. This mass-produced, photographic image had become a symbol of the anti-war movement in the United States. But unlike Picasso’s Guernica, Serra is working directly from a photograph of the actual event, simplifying it into a cartoon like image. Thus, Serra’s anti-war statement does not appear to be a timeless piece of art as Picasso’s did. If we take away the political significance from Serra’s drawings we are left with a compositionally stark subject. The politics must be included in Serra’s drawings for us to have an appreciation (or hatred, depending on your political view) of it. This is, perhaps, intentional on Serra’s part, being a minimalist sculptor, to strip the very concept of torture and war down to its most essential parts. The speed at which Serra created this drawing is parallel to our contemporary, insatiable appetite for news and information. It is possible that Serra wanted this drawing, like the actual photographic image itself, to be ephemeral; viewed and discarded to make way for the next headline. In conclusion, the political art that can align itself with our speed of information will be the political art that is successful in the future. Like it or not, we are all involved in politics in some way and affected by the decisions our governments make. If art is a mirror of our surroundings, then at some point it’s going to cross over into the realm of politics. We can only hope that our contemporary artists will utilize the same care and skills to create political work with mature political significance rather than first-idea, sophomoric vision.

Compare and Contrast: Capital One 360 to Dezurik

Company OverviewFrom an operations management perspective, we compared and contrasted Capital One 360 to Dezurik. We looked at many different aspects of both businesses in relation to various operational and business elements. We conclude that both corporations have significant differences based on manufacturing versus service operations. Dezurik is a pure manufacturing company, which was founded in 1928, while Capital One 360 is a pure service company that was founded in 2013. Dezurik designs and manufactures valves for use in commercial and residential applications. Capital One 360 provides online banking options to consumers in the United States.Topics CoveredOur goal in this business report is to compare and contrast Capital One 360 and Dezurik based upon the following categories:Service vs Manufacturing contrastBusiness and Operations StrategyProcess Design and Supply Chain, Flow ChartTQM, Jit, Six SigmaKanban, KaizanSWOT AnalysisCapacity PlanningLayout and DesignRecommendations In summary, both companies are making short and long-term adjustments to prepare themselves for the years ahead. By implementing our original  recommendations within each company, they will both become more efficient and effective companies as a whole.Manufacturing often provides services, and services often provide tangible goods. Dezurik is a pure manufacturing company, whereas Capital One 360 is a pure service company. Dezurik designs, develops, and manufactures tangible products that are valves and inventories them inside their manufacturing facility. Dezuriks plant equipment is used solely for the production of their valves and related products. The dezurik manufacturing company has low customer contact and a longer customer response time. In contrast to Dezuriks pure manufacturing company, Capital One 360’s pure service corporation handles their business much differently.Capital One 360 has intangible products that cannot be inventoried. Capital one 360 has high custo mer contact and can be reached 24/7. They offer many different ways to service customers such as in their cafes, calling and talking to a real capital one associate, blogging, and also offer a mobile app. The cafà © allows customers to interact with Capital One 360 employees and the employees working behind the counter are educated in their business. Capital One 360 has a short response time; customers can go online to access their accounts which saves them time and money. They are also labor intensive and have around 450 associates working in their St. Cloud office.Although Dezurik and Capital One 360 differ in terms of service vs manufacturing, they share many similarities. Both corporations use technology. Dezurik uses modern up-to-date technology in the machines they use to manufacture valves, as well as in their 3-D solid modeling of valve parts and assemblies. Capital One 360 also uses technology by offering services over the web, phone, ATM or by mail. Both companies have qu ality, productivity, and response issues that must be dealt with on a daily basis to maintain customer satisfaction. Both companies must have forecast demand and each will have capacity, layout and location issues.Both Dezurik and Capital One 360 have business and operations strategies in place to ensure success in their respective businesses. Dezurik has a strategy of giving their customers high quality products that will withstand the test of time.   Capital One 360 wants to give the consumer an easy to use product that is incredibly efficient and environmentally friendly. Both companies have  strategies that are similar, while others are completely different from each other. Dezurik, being a pure manufacturing company, needs to focus more of their work on their manufacturing process.In order to produce the valves they need, they must regulate their supply to correlate with their demand. This can be shown in their manufacturing process. Dezurik has some valves that they are ma ss producing all of the time. They also are able to take on project builds for custom sizes and designs. These are two different segments of Dezurik which require two different business strategies. The first strategy that Dezurik has is to be continuously producing their standard size valves. This is a fairly straight forward operations strategy. Keep up with the demand for the valves, and at the same time maintain an efficient product assembly line. The second strategy has to do with their special product order segment. They do this in several different ways.The first is to complete the projects in house, which shares the same as the previous strategy. The second strategy is to have one of their teams build and complete their projects on site. This typically happens when they work on a project with components that are too big to build in house. The business strategy for Dezurik is much different. They want to become the largest producer of valves in the world. They do this by outso urcing some of their components to China, which brings down production costs. They also need to be certified to be sold in other countries around the world. They are trying to expand internationally and build up partnerships and relationships with governments and companies from around the world. In order to keep these relationships intact, Dezurik has a full time service team that travels around the world to ensure that their products are working correctly and that they have satisfied customers.Capital One 360 shares some similarities with Dezurik in their business strategies, but is completely different with their operations strategies. To begin, Capital One 360 is a pure service company. They have around the clock customer service to provide help and services to their customers. This is similar to Dezurik, but on a much larger scale. Since Capital One 360 has no physical locations, they need a much larger service department to help satisfy the demands of their customers. Their ser vice department does differ in that they do not need to travel around the world to help their customers, rather they can do it all from their computer with just a few clicks of the mouse.Capital One  360 has a unique business strategy for the banking industry. All of their banking business is done online. This means they have no physical banks. Also, all the money they have is virtual. This means they will need a large technical service department to help keep everything that is online, sorted out. Their operations strategies are different from Dezurik in several ways. First, Capital One 360 does everything online. They do have a sale department, but they never have to leave their cubicle to make a sale. This is different than Dezurik who may have to send their sales person out to a job site in order to ensure that the product they receive will be correct.While these two companies do share business strategies, their operational strategies do tend to be further apart from each othe r. Dezuriks process design supports product manufacturability and defines their product characteristics of appearance, materials, dimensions, and performance standards. Dezurik’s process design starts with the idea that customers need better valves. Dezurik uses a hands-on philosophy that begins with design. They then use modern computer aided design systems to construct 3-D models of valves and assemblies. From here, the models are transferred to an area where stress tests are performed on the models. The final step in Dezurik’s process design is continually analyzing and adding safety factors to the models to ensure long-term reliability.The flow chart inside Dezurik’s manufacturing facility starts at the loading docks. Here, ready to go shipments of valves are placed. As you enter further into the facility, the size of the valves placed in inventory decrease from 72 ’’all the way down to 3’’. This ensures that heavier and harder to move valves are placed closer to the loading dock to improve efficiency. Dezurik also uses intermittent operations, which means they produce a variety of products in lower volumes. Intermittent operations are used because different valves have different processing needs. This causes the workers to perform different tasks, and during the tour we learned that some workers switched stations on a daily basis. Dezurik has multiple buyers who want different specifications for every valve they receive.This creates a batch process within the manufacturing facility allowing Dezurik to separate one customers order from another customers order. Dezurik’s designing process and consideration consists of make-to-order strategy. Moving away from Dezurik and into Capital One 360, there is contrast in the design of services that  Capital One 360 has vs Dezurik’s design of goods. Capital One 360’s service design is unique in that the service and entire service concept are bein g designed. However, they are similar in which product and service design must match the need and preferences of the targeted customer group. Capital One 360’s flow chart differs from Dezuriks flow chart. Capital One 360 does not flow from one end of the building to the other in a line; instead they have different floors within their building where they communicate back and forth.This creates a batch process where each floor is a batch working on a different project then the other floors. This is also called intermittent operations where Capital One’s resources are grouped together by function. The overall efficiency at Capital One 360 is around 65%. Both Capital One 360 and Dezurik have Total Quality Management plans in place to help ensure that their customers get the products and services that they want. Capital One 360 has different banking plans that have been developed to help cover a wide range of customers. Basically, they have standardized their products to he lp ensure efficiency and to keep costs lower.Dezurik on the other hand, has many different products and services that can be produced based on what the customer wants. This may not be as efficient, but it gives them the advantage in securing business that cannot be obtained by companies that incorporate standardization. Dezurik also does a ton of product testing to ensure that the customer is getting a product that is guaranteed to last a long time. Capital One 360 and Dezurik also work with JIT. Just In time production can be shown more effectively in Dezurik since it is a pure manufacturing company. They use a pull system for production which causes them to have an inventory of their products. They can increase or decrease their production of certain models based upon forecasting.Capital One 360 does not focus as much on Just-in-Time manufacturing, rather they spend more of their time using TQM and respect for people. Since they are purely a service company, They are constantly wo rking with people to ensure that they have an enjoyable experience banking with Capital One 360. If Capital One 360 doesn’t respect their customers, it would be extremely easy for their customers to take their business to another bank. Like Capital One360, they also need to focus on TQM. They need to constantly be updating their products and services to give the customer want they want. They need to be surveying and working with their customers all the time to help them  develop effective strategies in the online banking world.Capital One 360 does focus a lot on Six Sigma. They have people in house that are constantly working to help make the company more efficient and effective. Basically, there are only four defects per million opportunities. This forces Capital One 360 to run incredibly lean. A few ways they do this is by going completely paperless. This saves a ton of money, as well as paper. Another way Six Sigma has been useful to Capital One 360 is in processing time . They have reduced the amount of time it takes to pull up and process a customer when they are on a service call. This is critical because the faster they can make their customer service process, the faster they can help more people. By doing some serious improvements to Capital One 360, they have become incredibly lean and efficient. This is different than Dezurik.They can’t run Six Sigma because they take on custom jobs. These can be made more efficient, but to run a whole company Six Sigma test just is not practical.Dezurik follows Kaizen, continuous improvement, which requires the company to continually strive to get better at manufacturing valves through learning and problem solving. One way they comply to Kaizen is in their testing room, where they test their valves to see where any improvement can be made. Dezurik uses a pull system where communication is made possible through the use of kanban cards. These kanban cards consist of the product name, the part number, an d the quantity that needs to be produced. The kanban cards are attached to a group of Dezurik’s products.When the employees need products from a preceding workstation, they pass the kanban to that station. This kanban authorizes the worker at the preceding station to produce the amount of goods specified on the kanban. These kanban cards are placed in visible areas for everyone to see. There are as many kanban cards in the system as there are batches of products or valves. This allows Dezurik to continually improve the efficiency of their system. In contrast, Capital One 360 does not have kanban cards, but they do follow the Kaizen approach of continuous improvement. Capital One 360 is constantly trying to help their customers save time and money. They are doing this in part by offering simple financial products such as giving fee-free checking and savings that they can access from their own computers. They are also continually trying  to find ways to outpace and outperform their competitors.This approach forces Capital One 360 to continually improve their business functions in order to get a step ahead of competitors. Layout and design for Both companies is incredibly different. Dezurik, being a pure manufacturing company, has their main office, and they also have a large warehouse where they manufacture their valves. The front office of Dezurik is rather old. This works for them because they don’t necessarily need to keep up with the newest, up-to-date technology to make their valves. Instead of investing money into their office, they have spent more of their money investing into newer, more efficient machines in their warehouse. They have also changed some of their design to allow for a more efficient production process. They run a pull process at Dezurik. At one end of the plant, they take in all of their supplies.The supplies then get put into an inventory rack until they are needed. The supplies are then distributed throughout the factory to where they are assembled. The first area you walk into from the supply area is where all of the standardized valves are made. They have multiple stations where one person is running about four machines constantly. These are very efficient. This is because they have outsourced the production of their standard valves to China for manufacturing. The next segment of the plant is made up of several assembly lines that produce other varieties of products. The other side of the warehouse is where all of the large valves are made. They are made here because they typically are too large to be moved across the entire plant. This end of the warehouse is also where their products get painted.The paint booths are strategically placed at the end of the assembly lines so that as soon as the products are manufactured, they can be painted. They then get sent off to testing. All the valves they make are tested to ensure that the product can withstand the pressures of daily use for years. After th e products are tested, they are either loaded onto trucks and sent off, or put into the warehouse until they are needed. Capital One 360 has a completely different layout than Dezurik. To start out, They are in a very modern building located right in the middle of downtown St. Cloud. When walking in the door of Capital One 360, the first thing you will notice is that you are in an ultra-modern cafà ©. Since Capital One 360 doesn’t have physical banking locations, the cafes are the closest thing that people can get.These cafes are not just for a cup of  coffee either, the people who work at these cafes are a highly knowledgeable sales associate who can make you a latte and sell you a checking account at the same time. This is for people who are either curious, or just not as comfortable with starting a new bank account online. Once past the cafà ©, Capital One 360 pretty much looks like almost every other office building except for a few key features. The first is that All the departments are located separate from each other. Sales is located on one floor, while fraud protection is located on another floor. Capital One 360 also has an interesting layout design. The cubicles are very different from your traditional office building.To start, they run diagonally across the entire floor. They also are much shorter than a normal cubicle. This is so people can locate each other without having to walk across the office to find out they are not there. They also are not enclosed. This promotes an open workspace that allows people to communicate information quickly and efficiently. Another interesting aspect is that they only have about 60 percent of their office filled with employees. This is so that they can grow and add on employees at any time. The new employees can start and have their own functional workspace instantly.Capital One 360 also has a central command area located right in the middle of the office. This is where security works. Also this comman d center has TV monitors that are linked up with their other offices around the country. This feature is so they all can be working together with their offices all around the country. If something happens at their Delaware office, they can get it verified by their office in St. Cloud.Capacity planning within Capital One 360 and Dezurik are decisions that depend tremendously upon forecasts of demand. These forecasts determine the size of current and future capacity needs. Capital One 360 recently put their capacity planning into effect when they purchased ING Direct and moved into a new building downtown St. Cloud. Capital One 360 made the choice to expand now enabling it to meet customer demand not only for now, but also in the future. If Capital One 360 planned its capacity incorrectly, they may find that they don’t have enough output capability to meet customer demands, or has too much capacity sitting idle. Capital One 360’s move into the new building required long- term commitments and expensive resources.This move  of purchasing a new building came in anticipation of greater demand from their customers. To measure Capital One 360’s capacity, you need the amount of available capacity and the effectiveness of capacity use. From our tour of Capital One 360, we determined that their capacity was operating at an efficient level. When examining Dezurik’s capacity planning, we looked at their recent expansion. In 2011, Dezurik acquired two water and wastewater brands and then in 2012 Dezurik acquired a valve company. This tells us that Dezurik is expanding to meet customer demands in the future. These recent acquires to Dezurik increases capacity and allows them to meet customer demands as well as sales.We can reasonably measure Dezurik’s capacity by measuring their input, which is labor hours, with their output, which are valves per shift. However this is not a very effective method to measure capacity because Dezurik produce s many types of valves. We believe that Dezurik is having success because of its focused factory that responds more efficiently to demand. In todays’ world, large factories need to be more flexible and focused, and from the tour, we believe Dezurik is doing a good job of staying agile within the industry.This will help Dezurik identify long-term capacity requirements in their forecasts of future demand. In Dezuriks planning for capacity, they have strategic and tactical decisions. Their strategic decisions consist of what investments in new machines and equipment it should make, and by the looks of it, they are investing in new machines that increase automation and decrease manual labor. Their tactical decisions consist of planning their workforce, inventories, and day-to-day use of machines. From the tour, we learned that some of the new machines run 24 hours a day. Dezurik and Capital One 360 have similarities in their capacity planning, that being that they are both prepar ing for long-term and high customer demands in the future.Let’s look at some of the strengths of Dezurik. The first strength is that they make a high quality product. Also, they have a very efficient production process for their standardized products. Another pro for Dezurik is they are working hard to become more efficient. They are implementing all sorts of new machines to help speed up and improve the manufacturing process. There are multiple weaknesses that plague Dezurik. To start, they are not an efficient company. This is mainly due to the poor layout of their production area.A second weakness is that they have begun to outsource some of their products to  China. This can be a negative because if they get a bad shipment, it can take over 6 weeks to be corrected. This could become a huge problem if they get the wrong product sent multiple times. There are a few opportunities that Dezurik can expand into. For starters, they are putting in a new paint booth. This will h elp cut down on time. Before, they outsourced their paint of some products to a place in Alexandria. This means that the product had to leave and come back before it can be shipped out.They are also making their assembly line more efficient which will really help them improve the speed at which they can produce valves. Dezurik does have some threats that they have to deal with looking into the future. The biggest threat will be imports from China and other places. These places have very low labor costs, and they also don’t have the same environmental regulations that we do. This means that they are able to produce similar products at a much cheaper price. The only flaw is that these products also tend to be of a much lower quality. This is why Dezurik has not been highly affected by this threat. Capital One 360 has multiple strengths as well. The first is they are incredible efficient.By not using any paper, they are able to cut down on the amount of waste that they have. No physical banks helps to cut down on their carbon footprint too. Second, by utilizing standardization, they are able to run a very lean company. These strengths can also be some of their weaknesses. Having no locations means that people have to do all of their banking online, or over the phone. They cannot go to the bank to talk to a person, rather they have to call into their customer service lines and do all of their problem solving over the phone. There are some opportunities that Capital One 360 has that they are taking advantage of. They are targeting the younger generation. This is because they are appealing to the tech savvy crowd.They younger generation tends to be more familiar with technology. They will be able to expand into this younger generation, and this is where their greatest opportunity will lie. In the world of banking, there are threats all over the place. For starters, all the banks are going to online banking. Most of these banks also have physical locations tha t people can go to when they have questions. Also, you will tend to be more of a number at Capital One 360. At the smaller banks, people will know you by name, and the service will be more  personal. If Capital One 360 can deal with these threats, they will be able to succeed in a threat filled environment.There are a few recommendations that could be made for both Dezurik and Capital One 360. To Start with Dezurik, we would recommend that they make some serious improvements to their factory layout. They should be able to take the supplies right off the truck and instantly put them into production. They could implement a better JIT strategy. They are doing a good job of spreading their business around the world. We would also recommend that Dezurik should go paperless. Its more sustainable, and it would help them to move towards and electronic inventory system. This would speed up their order processing time, and make them more efficient. For Capital One 360, we would recommend th at they begin to open more cafes around the United States.These are a tangible part of Capital One 360 that consumers can actually go. Also, they could provide their users with more banking options. Giving their customers banking options can be key in making them feel like they are more than just a number to Capital One 360.In Conclusion, Both Dezurik and Capital One 360 are both leaders in their respective industries. Dezurik, being a purely manufacturing company, is run completely different from Capital One 360. Being a bank, Capital One focuses their efforts on its services. This means they are more frequently talking to consumers while providing them with a service. Dezurik focuses its efforts on their manufacturing operations. Both companies compare and contrast greatly in relation to various operational elements. Overall, these are two strong companies that are innovative and leading the way in their respective fields.