Process Design and Management Essay Example for Free

accomplish Design and Management EssayIncreased co- fruition of goods and run (Process Design and Management) The cyberspace has opened new ways for the guest to interact straight off with a firm. Simple direct entry and monitoring of orders is unless the scratch step in the progression of value-added obtain make possible through teaching sharing. 1. 0 Introduction The topic of execute concept and caution ordain gener all in ally goes on explaining the word design, in its broadest sense, is right(a) at the feel of operations solicitude. The design is an application that grass be approached at distinguishable levels of detail. Design must consult the needs of customers, and able applies to products, helpers and mouldes. It bath be managed as an operations transformation carry out in its deliver right. Moreover, the design is starts with something precise abstract which represents a concept and demolitions with something very specific, which means by t he number oneest design. Some defines that to design is to conceive the looks, ar trampment, and workings of something before it is created. First, the position of the surgical operation according to its volume and renewing characteristics must be defined.Eventually the details of the process must be examine to ensure that it fulfills its objectives effectively. Product/service design and process design argon interrelated. Small changes in the design of products and services muckle have profound implications for the way the operation nonethelesstually has to produce them. Similarly, the design of a process back tooth constrain the freedom of product and service designers to race as they would wish. The relationship amid designing products and services on wholeness hand and designing the processes that declargon them is an important point to consider.It is possible to separate product design and process design in manufacturing sector, however it is impossible in serve to separate service design and process design. This is beca hire many services (especially gamey visibility services) argon the same thing. Even in manufacturing industries there has recently been considerable move put into examining the overlap amidst product and process design. there is a growing recognition that the design of products has a major effect on the cost of making them. many an(prenominal) of the decisions were fulfilln during the design of products (for example, choosing the material from which the roduct is press release to be made, or the way in which the discordant components be fastened together) pass on all define much of the cost of making it. , thitherfore, to evaluate the various choices which the designer faces in terms of their effect on manufacturing cost as easy as on the functionality of the product itself. Also, the way in which product and process design overall has a meaning(a) effect on the clock time amid starting the initial concept desig n for the product and eventually acquire it to mart. 2. 0Discussion 2. 1Inter pelf Contributed in Online Purchase ProcessWith the advancement of engine room, many aspects of the face-to-face inter person-to-person dynamics in service encounters between sellers and customers have been replaced with technology-establish profits interfaces. Internet tail end be regarded as sets of connected firms. A retail merchant can rehearse an Internet presence to reach consumers all around the world. The Internet makes the expanded range of products, services, and cultivation accessible for consumers from geographically distant and/or emerging markets. In recent years, e-commerce has grown dramatically in terms of volume and variety of goods and services traded.This has created significant opportunities to serve customers through meshwork stores. It is important for net stores to pore on achieving uplifteder customer satisfaction to ontogenesis co-production of goods and services and t o retain customers. correspond to Field and Smith, internet interaction between a retailer and a customer from the point the customer arrives at the retailers website to the point the retailer fulfills the customers order, has quickly emerged to plump an important class of service operations (Field et al. , 2004 Smith et al. , 2007).Co-production of goods and services in internet is growing steadily. For example, in the terce quarter of 2009, internet retailing sales in the U. S totaled approximately $34 billion, a 4. 5% growth from the previous quarter. The pure tone of the internet on the purchase process has been found to affect customers purchase decisions, satisfaction, and loyalty in online retailing (Zeithaml et al. , 2002 Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2009). Hence, to be warring in the market place, internet is the overriding and as the new ways for the customer to interact forthwith with a firm.Besides that, the internet is responsive and convenient for customers in the o nline purchase process. by internet, the firms macrocosm able respond to the unique needs and wants of individual customers by providing the right content in the right format to the right person at the right time. Retailers can facilitate a convenient and responsive online purchase process, serve their customers better, purify customer satisfaction and increase retention. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate moderate of meeting a consumers expectation from the writ of execution of products. roughly satisfied customers normally have the intention to re-purchase the products if product surgical procedure meets his or her expectation. Like handed-down commercial enterprise, online businesses to a fault need to gather their customers. Customer satisfaction is one of the central constructs in the mull of consumer behavior both in traditional and online business milieu (Alam et al. , 2008) found that website design is one of the unique features affecting online shopping envir onment (Shergill and Chen. , 2005) identified web site design characteristics as the dominant cipher which baffles consumer perceptions of online purchasing.It can be argued that online shoppers want to receive the right bore and right quantity of items that they have ordered within the stipulated time offering by the e-tailers. In addition, time and cost saving are the main wagess of online shopping. Time efficiency and store efficiency are reflected in time cost and price savings severally (Devaraj et al. , 2002). These are the determinants of satisfaction. Delivery performance has significant influence on customer satisfaction (Lee and Joshi et al. , 2007 Ahn et al. , 2004 Ho et al. 2004) Grewal et al. , 2004 and Shih et al. , 2004). One of the examples of online firm that successfully increase their co-production of goods and services via internet is Amazon.In an annual bring introduce customer satisfaction ratings with the top 10 online retailers, perhaps the biggest ta keaway is that Amazon is the worlds biggest e-retailer for a rationalness that it just plain makes customers happier than their competitors (show by Table 1 below). Amazon continues to set the standard for e-retailers. For instance, upon arrival at the Amazon. om website, a registered customer is greeted by the customers name. The customer is then provided with recommendations of products that the customer might be interested in, based on the product searched for or those previously bought by the customer. The website provides the option of receiving reminders of special events comparable birthdays of loved ones or tuition or so the arrival of the latest books by their preferred author. When the customer is ready to make the purchase, the website retrieves the personal account cultivation such(prenominal)(prenominal) as shipping and payment.In the early on compass points of Internet development, trust is a critical factor in stimulating purchases over the Internet. Trust is not only a short-term issue but the most significant broad-term barrier for realizing the potential of Internet marketing to consumers. An experiential survey of U. S. -based online surfers, new to Internet based shopping, found the shoppers fascinated by international shopping opportunities on the weather vane, but they were skeptical somewhat actual purchasing from overseas sites. Others report widespread distrust among consumers about Internet-based merchants.To improve customer loyalty, some websites offer discussion groups in their websites and promote common interest to pull targeted customers. When the website contains semiprecious information about the product then the customer would be do to visit the website again. Just equivalent any new(prenominal)(a)wise medium of business, internet business should also focus on making their customers feel special. In any business, customer loyalty is a result of exceptional personal services and exceeding customer expectation s. 2. 2Internet Strive to Born Global FirmsMore and more firms even very small ones have operations that bridge national borders soon after their founding. referable to the Internet and related information technologies (IT) that enable many of them, this new breed of firms began emerging in the 1990s and is dubbed born(p)- ball-shaped because their operations often span the globe early in their existence. The definition of born global firm is a business geological formation that, from inception, seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of picks and the sale of outputs in multiple countries.Born global firms begin with a borderless world grab, and immediately develop strategies to expand themselves abroad. This is striking, presentn the great changes that have taken place in the marketing environment cod to introduction of the Internet and new(prenominal) modern technologies that enable bypassing of conventional channels (Frazier et al. , 1999). It ther efore seems justifiable to study the Internet-based channel strategies of born globals (Moen et al. , 2002). It is particularly interesting to examine the global elaboration of the born globals and their use of the Internet as a sales channel (Servais, Madsen, amp Rasmussen, 2007).A a few(prenominal) studies have investigated the part of information and communications technologies in the international performance of born global firms. Loane (2006) examined the role of the internet in the internationalization of small entrepreneurial firms from various countries (Loane, 2006). Born globals use the internet for communication, for marketing communications, and to lesser degree for managing customer relationships as well as sales transactions and fulfillment activities. Most of the investigated firms also se the internet to concentrate off-line sales, and about one-quarter utilize the internet to support distribution channels and intermediaries. A significant number of firms used th e internet to support relations with partners, suppliers, clients, agents and distributors, RampD partners, and bundle coding developers, both nationally and internationally. The born globals also used the Internet as a mechanism for acquiring knowledge, such as market and competitive intelligence, which then become part of the collective wisdom of the firm.The internet makes borders between countries less applicable and facilitates direct interaction between all types of business entities around the world. Born globals use the internet to convey their market presence abroad, support relationships with foreign partners, offer services related to their products, facilitate product development, and maintain relations with foreign customers (Servais, Madsen, and Rasmussen et al. , 2007). Logitech, the computer peripherals company, is perhaps one of the best early examples of a successful born-global firm. fit in to Benjamin M.Oviatt and Patricia Phillips McDougall, Global Start-Ups Entrepreneurs on a Worldwide Stage. Focusing first on the PC mouse, the company was founded by two Italians and a Swiss. The companys operations and research and development were initially split between California and Switzerland, and then it expanded rapidly with production in Ireland and Taiwan. With its stylish and ergonomic products, Logitech captured 30 percent of the global computer mouse business by 1989, garnering the start-up a healthy $140 million in receiptss. 2. 3 . Value and Productivity in the Internet EconomyNowadays, many business companies had started practiced in using internet to make interaction with consumer, business stack, corporate, and trading partners. The product and service designs and the vigilance athletics an important role in their profitability and their company sustainability. The company had created the website as haphazard compilations of company brochure ware or static personal web pages as well. These things had come out it with the images that substance abusers that regiond with friends and family. It has quickly evolved into a myriad of highly sophisticated online pplications and business processes.On the other hand, the antecedent thinking company had introduced to attain new heights in productivity and the forward thinking companies could created by leveraging the internet massive public technology infrastructure. To increase the co- production of goods and services, the innovation and awareness of using internet are important to create value through the technologies component. Other than that, the human capitals are also important in operation of the business and managing the design in the company.Therefore, the employers must to be selective in recruiting, and hiring people, whomever that he or she are able to give their efforts into the line of descents or task. The value added service could be made by proposing the internet way user whereby the customer can interact directly to the company to improve and prove their quality service and product through fulfil the customer needs and satisfaction. All of these elements are need depends on the capability of the human choice which in not only posses the technologies equipment.The company have to construct the internet economys structure by referred the economics performance in traditional, among other things, technology, the transportation infrastructure, availability of raw materials, and the quality of a skilled labor force. In contrast, the Internet economy comprises the four-layered model shown in Figure 1. The Internets infrastructure consists of two layers which are including the global high-speed IP-based net deeds and applications, and consulting, information, and integration services.Each Internet economy layer has a complementary relationship with every(prenominal) other layer. For example, with advances in layers 1 and 2, ? rms at layers 3 and 4 can provide media-rich content to consumers as well as offering new digital pr oducts and services Besides that, complementary relationship implies that the value of doing more of one factor increases by doing more of another. Internet applications and e-commerce are strong complementary relationship between the network infrastructures in the Internet economy.For example, as the Internet bandwidth increases dramatically with the spread of broadband technology, application vendors are rushing to develop powerful multimedia software that can take advantage of the increased bandwidth. These factors lead to increased economic activity on the Internet in the form of media-rich content. The Internet had open the nature stimulates innovation in the network and applications infrastructure, leading to the vastly accelerated development and deployment of new technologies in the Internet marketplace.Figure 2 shows an import/export view of the Internet and physical economies that groups businesses in ? ve categories 1st pure digital-products businesses that offer conten t, knowledge, or services directly over the Internet. 2nd Internet-based companies that deal with physical products, importing goods to be sold from the physical economy. 3rd Traditional businesses that sell some of their products or services directly over the Internet. 4th content developers, Internet service providers, Web and applications hosting services. 5th companies that do not sell directly over the Internet.Unlike the physical economy, which relies heavily on physical resources, the Internet economy thrives on information and knowledge to create value, productivity, and efficiency. Firms that rely on these intangible assets are more likely to succeed in this new world than those that continue to focus on physical processes. The Webs information and knowledge intensity is a crucial factor in driving performance metrics like online revenue and gross margin, and every partner in a value Web must adopt the Internet in its daily operations to maximize the bene? s of electronic business. There were few examples for these phenomena that might be able to be the related with it. One of the example is car assembly lines, which had ? rst appeared in the dictionary in 1930 (Hirschhorn, 1984 9), were argued to be the keystone to prevailing 20th century concepts of human management (Emery, 1976). It is thus hardly surprising that industrial value production was conceptualized in terms of the value chain. The taxation dust developed at that time re? cts this. In industrial value creation, customers were seen as destroying the value which producers had created for them. On the other hand, the accounting systems emerging at that time thus wrote down the value of what was acquired to zero over a shorter or longer depreciation period. The end user in this scheme equals the ? nal customer. For producers, industrial value was cognise in the transaction, which joined and separated them from customers.Value here equalled the price which the customer paid in competitive terms, value is the amount buyers are uncoerced to pay for what a ? rm provides them (Porter, 1985 38) or, value is what customers are willing to pay (Porter, 1985 3). 2. 4 The Impact Of Design Management And Process Management On Quality An Empirical Investigation. Design management and process management are two important elements of total quality management TQM instruction execution. They are drastically different in their targets of improvement, visibility, and techniques.In this paper will round the establishment of framework for identifying the synergistic linkages of design and process management to the operational quality outcomes during the manufacturing process internal quality and upon the field usage of the products external quality. Through a study of quality practices in manufacturing plants from multiple industries, the both design and process management efforts have an equal positive impact on internal quality outcomes such as scrap, rework, defects, performance, and external quality outcomes such as complaints, warranty, litigation, market share.A detailed contingency analysis shows that the proposed model of synergies between design and process management holds true for large and small firms, for firms with different levels of TQM experience, and in different industries with varying levels of competition, logistical complexness of production, or production process characteristics. Finally, the results also suggest that organisational learning enables mature TQM firms to implement both design and process efforts more rigorously and their synergy helps these firms to attain better quality outcomes.These findings indicate that, to attain superior quality outcomes, firms need to balance their design and process management efforts and persevere with long-term carrying out of these efforts. The manufacturing scheme literature has viewed product quality as one of the major competitive priorities for attaining a sustainable competitive advantage Hill, 1994. Recently, the speed of new product introduction has also been added to this list of priorities Kim, 1996 . From a quality management perspective, the speed of new product design and development indicates the grandness of designing quality into new products.Because design efforts often have a limiting impact on attainable product quality, several researchers have evince the importance of designing quality into products Juran, 1981 Juran and Gryna, 1993 Hauser and Clausing, 1988 Dean and Susman, 1989 Taguchi and Clausing, 1990 Boothroyd et al. , 1994 Mizuno and Akao,1994 . External and internal quality outcomes the notion that overall market and business performance can be realized through long-term product quality improvement is a cornerstone of the contemporary quality revolution George and Weimerskirch, 1994 NIST, 1998.Customers form their impressions about a firms products based upon their accredited and past experience with these products Garvin,1987. A satisfactor y field performance of the products is accompanied by lower customer dissatisfaction, greater customer loyalty, and improved market share Crosby, 1979 Buzzell and Gale, 1987 Hardie,1998 . We label this aspect of quality outcome as external quality because it is related to the customers perspective of the products upon field usage. It captures Jurans fitness for use dimension of product quality Juran, 1981 Juran and Gryna, 1993 .Specifically, we focus our guardianship on four long-term indicators of external quality warranty work, litigation claims, customer complaints, and market share. The quality of products passing internal tests of reliability should affect the experience of customers who use the products in two prominent ways. First, customers perceive product quality in terms of their net value defined as the ratio of performance to cost Artzt, 1992. Thus, for products with the same performance levels, lower price will drive customer choice and satisfaction.Second, customers willing to spend a certain amount of money will choose the products that offer maximum performance for that money. 2. 5Internet as tool to enhance global strategy Its cant be deny that the internet plays a major role in every aspect of our modern life. Moreover, Internet technologies play a major role in business. The internet has contributed to the success and gain of businesses. This journal word is emphasizing on Internet are used to enhance global strategy. Internet is a driver of globalization.Observing the more successful applications, commentators and researchers have suggested a number of industry characteristics which promote Internet use (Andal-Ancion et al. ,2003) digitizability of the end product (e. g. , most information-based products such as directories and encyclopedias), time sensitivity of the end product (e. g. , airline travel), high search costs (e. g. , books), potential for customization (e. g. , clothing retailers), deficient matching of buyers and sellers (e. g. , business- to-business exchanges and consumer-to-consumer auction sites), and a tradeoff between richness and reach (e. . , retail brokerage, Evans and Wurster, 1999). First at all, the internet makes communication fast and cost efficient. Businesses use internet technologies such as Skype internet and video calls, email and video conferencing to make communication virtually instant. Next, the internet plays a big role in the growth of businesses. It gives businesses an opportunity to reach a wider global audience. Promoting through the internet is also a way to increase sales and reach the desired growth level. Business can also expand by having an online division.The effect of this decentralization of transactions and information transfer raises major questions about the role of bodies which would have traditionally had functions of control, such as governments and regulatory institutions. In terms of transferring, accessing information, companies are now much less depend ent on local infrastructures. In the aspect of marketing, Internet was playing important role in advertising. Most businesses are taking advantage of the internet to market their products and services to a global audience. The most leading light internet technologies here include search engines such as Google.Social networking websites play a role in business networking by connecting like-minded professionals. Through the internet, people have found business partners and great employees. Moreover, the internet has helped cut costs by outsourcing services to countries where it is cheaper to provide these services. Apart from that, outsourcing enables businesses to concentrate on their heart services and become more efficient. One role of internet in business is the birth of ecommerce websites and online payment resolvents that allow people to shop online from the comfort of their own homes.Furthermore, the internet has opened up new business opportunities and giving rise to a group of successful online business owners. This is a powerful role as anyone can now start an online business. Cost and speed advantages are also substantial. The Internet is a much less expensive way to send information, and this information can be received in real time anywhere in the world. For global businesses this has massive implications for the possible scale and scope of operations and redefines the traditional trade-off between richness and reach, allowing both to be achieved for relatively little cost.Internet also brings effects on global products and services. Global products and services are seldom totally standardized worldwide, but they are designed with global markets in mind, and they have as large a common core as possible. Some industries and categories, such as personal computers and air travel, allow the potential for a very large common core, while others, such as furniture and legal services, allow for less commonality. Deciding on the extent of global standardi zation poses a major dilemma for MNCs.Use of the Internet and websites eases this dilemma by making it easier to offer an array of global, regional, or local products, and local customization options for standard core products. While the same can be done through traditional media (brochures or sales calls), but the Web provides more options and the interactivity of the Internet provides for customization by the customer. This can seen from dingle Computers ordering system. As the lesson 4 in this article has mentioned the use of the Internet enables both globally standardized and locally customized products and services.Companies can now use the Internet to lessen the globalization tradeoffs they have had to make in regard to products and services. Now, let have a seen on co-production, which means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change (David B amp Michael H. ) the co-production has a significantly role in the process design and management. As theInternet has designed to interrelated the product and service jointly to the customer. For instance, dell Computer has promoted Dell Online Self release to the customer as it is a comprehensive part dispatch program designed to support efficient hardware resolution. Dell also declared the Dell Online Self Dispatch (DOSD) as one global portal for efficient hardware resolution. The customers can access the Website through Internet to had the hardware support from Dell by self-service. 3. 0 Conclusion In summary, product/service design and process design are interrelated.Small changes in the design of products and services can be profound implications for the way the operation eventually has to produce them. The process design and management is right at the heart of operations management. The design is an activity of approaching at different levels of detail and it must be reflecting the needs of customers, and able applies to products, services and processes. The design is starts with something very abstract which represents a concept and ends with something very specific, which means by the final design.The company must follow the processes designs according to its volume and variety characteristics. Eventually the details of the process must be analyzed to ensure that it fulfills its objectives effectively. The proposed model of synergies between design and process management holds true for large and small firms, for firms with different levels of TQM experience, and in different industries with varying levels of competition, logistical complexity of production, or production process characteristics.Finally, the results also suggest that organizational learning enables mature TQM firms to implement both design and process efforts more rigorously and the synergies between design and process management help these firms to attain better quality outcomes. Q5. Raising ranking(prenominal) management awareness of operations as a significant competitive weapon (Job Design and Performance Management). 1. 0 Introduction Many senior executives entered the organization through finance, trategy, or marketing and built their reputations on work in these areas, and as a result often take operations for granted. The executives have creatively used operations management for competitive advantage. Raising senior management awareness of operation as a significant competitive weapon refers to the job design of the senior management and the performance of the management. Theoretically, workersaremotivatedbyjobsinwhichtheyfeeltheycanmake adifferencein their performance and the way thetasksgive arecombinedtofor completejobs. legislatejobdescriptionswill motivateworkforceandbe successfulin completionoftasks. It also important to have both of the employer and empl oyee needed to share discernment of the work to be done with it and comfort with working environment. The employee and employer also need to face the challenges associated with employing a large of people in a wide variety of people in a wide of capacities. Most of the employee is assigned to do a job because they are perceived to be able to fill its requirements. Manytasksdepending on ability time allotment and other constraints.The role of HR in the present scenario has undergone a sea change and its focus is on evolving such functional strategies which enable successful implementation of the major corporate strategies. In a way, HR and corporate strategies function in alignment. Today, HR works towards facilitating and astir(p) the performance of the employees by building a conducive work environment and providing maximum opportunities to the employees for participating in organizational planning and decision making process. Today, all the major activities of HR are driven towa rds development of high performance leaders and fostering employee motivation.So, it can be interpreted that the role of HR has evolved from merely an appraiser to a facilitator and an enabler. Performance management is the current buzzword and is the need in the current times of cut throat competition and the organizational mesh for leadership. Performance management is a much broader and a complicated function of HR, as it encompasses activities such as joint goal saddle horse, never-ending progress review and frequent communication, feedback and coaching for improved performance, implementation of employee development programmes nd rewarding acquisitions. The process of performance management starts with the joining of a new incumbent in a system and ends when an employee quits the organization. Performance management can be regarded as a systematic process by which the overall performance of an organization can be improved by improving the performance of individuals within a team framework. It is a means for promoting superior performance by communicating expectations, defining roles within a required competence framework and establishing achievable benchmarks.Aperformance management processsets the platform for rewarding worthiness by aline individual employee accomplishments with the organizations mission and objectives and making the employee and the organization reckon the importance of a specific job in realizing outcomes. By establishing illume performance expectations which includes results, actions and behaviours, it helps the employees in accord what exactly is expected out of their jobs and setting of standards help in eliminating those jobs which are of no use any longer.Through standard feedback and coaching, it provides an advantage of diagnosing the problems at an early stage and taking corrective actions. To conclude, performance management can be regarded as a proactive system of managing employee performance for driving the indiv iduals and the organizations towards desired performance and results. Its about striking a harmonious alignment between individual and organizational objectives for accomplishment of excellence in performance. 2. 0 Discussion 2. 1 JOURNAL THE EFFECT OF MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT TO SERVICE ON EMPLOYEE SERVICE BEHAVIORS THE MEDIATING ROLE OF JOB SATISFACTION consult on the journal the proposed model in the Tai hotel work setting indicates that management service initiatives, particularly training, rewards, and dominance deliver a strong pith to employees that the management is devoted to quality service, ultimately creating the positive affect (i. e. , employee satisfaction). Furthermore, the result showed that when employees are satisfied with their job, this positive feeling about their job motivates them to go the scanty mile for customers and help co-workers and supervisors in need.Currently, not all hotel operators in Thailand favour the four management service initiatives becau se those options can be costly. However, it seems to be clear that management should consider allocating more resources to implement such initiatives. Among the four management service initiatives, rewards displayed the largest effect on Thai hotel workers job satisfaction, with the largest path coefficient. In general, two kinds of rewards are available financial and nonfinancial rewards. Rewards also range from a simple thank-you note for an exceptional service to a large reward such as wage increase and promotion.Rewards given to employees, regardless of the type, must be meaningful to the employees and the organization. In other words, rewards should be based on employees job performance and reflect the organizations goal and service standard. Most rewards in the Asiatic culture, including Thailand, are in monetary form. However, because of the growing influence of the western sandwich style of management, rewards in the form of recognition, such as being selected as employees of the month (or the year) with a certificate, are getting popular in Thailand.This kind of recognition can increase employees morale and make workers feel that they are appreciated and valued as a member of the organization, leading to job satisfaction and organizational loyalty. Panmunin (1993) reports that Thai hotel employees bring from low self-esteem because the Thai caste system disparages servants as low caste individuals. The result of the present study seems to emphasize the importance of appropriate rewards for Thai frontline hotel workers, who may be often neglected and unappreciated in the caste system (high-power-distance culture), to improve their work morale.Next, this study demonstrates that training cannot be overlooked to satisfy hotel workers. Through training, Thai employees master the basic skills necessary to perform the daily duties of the position and develop job competence. In addition to the basic skills, more Thai hotels are offering training such as dea ling with guests complaints. It is a new type of training that originates from the Western hotel companies. Typically, when Thai employees encounter disgruntled or difficult guests, they have supervisors or mangers handle the situation.This new training program broadens frontline employees responsibilities and teaches proper techniques to resolve conflicts and deal with problems immediately to build customer satisfaction. The result of this study seems to suggest that Thai hotel power are satisfied with this new, additional training. Third, this study implies that empowered Thai employees are satisfied and exert more positive service behaviours. This result contradicts the proposed hypothesis.Despite the vertical culture, more and more hotel organizations in Thailand are embracing the concept of empowerment by allowing frontline personnel to make more decisions to take care of in-house guests. Although empowerment is a relatively new concept for hotels in Thailand, the result indic ates that line employees are quickly adopting such a work practice and are happy about it. In general, frontline employees are much younger than managers in Thai hotels. The young generation has been more exposed to the global influence of U. S. culture. Thus, young Thai hotel employees may regard a Western management practice such as empowerment highly.We also speculate that the positive empowerment outcome is attributed to the new additional training and the Western style of rewards. Research has shown that empowerment often involves training and rewards to be more effective. Another possible history regarding the positive effect of empowerment is the growing size of tourism. Thailand is one of the popular travel destinations in the world, and hotels are receiving large numbers of international customers. In Western countries, it is common to see frontline employees empowered to meet the guests needs immediately.Travelers, particularly from the United States and Europe may be acc ustomed to such a level of customer focus and expect Thai hotels to offer a comparable level of service. The management in Thailand is becoming aware of the phenomenon and therefore expending more effort to make use of empowerment to please international hotel guests. Finally, there is no significant effect of organizational support on hotel employees job satisfaction. In this study, organizational support focuses on help offered to frontline workers when necessary, appropriate job design, and support for frontline employees goals and values.This insignificant result may be partly associated with the high power distance between supervisors and subordinates. In the Thai hotel organization, managers are more likely to be valued and respected than frontline personnel, and Thai managers with authoritative leaderships are least likely to place a high priority on the well-being of frontline employees and assisting in their job. Although the organizational culture is ever-changing slowly, and large Thai hotel companies are adopting Western management styles, it takes a long time for employee perceptions to change.Thai frontline personnel are more likely to recognize strong organizational support (i. e. , they feel they receive enough help at work, their job is designed to be rewarding, and their goals and values are as important as managers goals and values) in the future. In the conclusion of organizational behaviour, service quality initiatives such as rewards, empowerment, training, and organizational support have been a revolving theme tied with employee satisfaction and performance. This study presents how these initiatives work in a culturally different setting such as Thailand.The results of this study indicate that the service quality initiatives, which mostly originate from the U. S. or Western (horizontal) culture, are worthy of trial in Asian hotels (with a vertical culture) because such initiatives may help improve frontline employees morale and self-este em and ultimately increase the overall effectiveness of the hotel operation. In summary, hoteliers should continue to increase decentralization of authority, develop attractive compensation, and improve frontline workers knowledge and skills through ongoing training.Then, all these efforts are likely to pay off by yielding happier, commit staff members who care about guests and other co-workers. 2. 2 ARTICLE JOURNAL SHAKING UP INTELS INSIDES Performance-based, standardized job descriptions provide employees with clear and attainable job duties and responsibilities as well as the resources needed to accomplish them (Mahdieh,2013). We work with employees to explain the tools and their importance to achievement of the organizations mission and goals a critical factor in retaining valuable staff and preventing costly burnout.Employees are an organizations most valuable resources. Companies spend considerable amounts of money and time developing and livelihood their human resources. A critical component of this development and support is employee performance management. An employees performance is a measure of the ways in which their work-related behavior contributes to achievement of the organizations business objectives. In this article, they have problem in new employee, employees are now on stage when theyre meeting with customers and off stage when theyre in a back office handling paperwork.And he implemented an exhaustive playbook that has scripts for everything down to the language with which tellers are supposed to greet customers. Still, at one Boston branch McGee visited, Paul J. Hillson, a consumer marketing manager, concedes that he encountered initial resistance from some FleetBoston tellers What you hear is, But I already know that customer. McGee agrees that changing employee behavior is still a work in progress. . Managing this performance is the key to producing high achieving and reliable human resources.Performance management is a process by w hich managers and employees work together to plan, monitor and review an employees work objectives and overall contribution to the organization(Memoona,2013). More than just an annual performance review, performance management is the continuous process of setting objectives, assessing progress and providing on-going coaching and feedback to ensure that employees are meeting their objectives and career goals.In this case we can see analysts said, has been the efforts of McGee and his team to overhaul Fleets branches, from products to training to culture. To lure new customers, BofA dangled free checking and free online bill-paying, a service for which many New England banks still charged. And while the old FleetBoston simply gave customers the 800 number for an outside mortgage lender, BofA has outfitted roughly two-thirds of Fleet branches with special software that approves or rejects a customers application for a mortgage or home-equity loans within 30 minutes.As a conclusion, thi s is in line with results in the emotions and justice literature that negative appraisals are influential drivers of employee behaviours and attitudes (Brown et al. ,2011). Performance appraisals are a basis component of human resource management, the outcomes of appraisals are used as the foundation of many human recourse decisions. While organizations devote considerable resources and time into performance appraisal this collected study has demonstrated that the quality of the employee performance appraisal experience are different.There are employees with low quality performance appraisal experiences while at the other end of the scale, there are some employees who state high quality experiences of the performance appraisal process. Moreover, this research demonstrates that organizations pay a price for letting low quality performance appraisal experiences, when employees have low quality performance appraisal experiences the organization will likely to bring a penalty in forms o f lower job satisfaction and higher intentions to quit. 2. 3 ARTICLE BOFAS HAPPY SURPRISEIn this world of competition as organizations effort to remain competitive and sustainable, human resources professionals and strategic planners should collaborate strongly in designing strategies which are more productive and useful (Dazel. 2103). Among these functions, one of the most critical ones that bring global success is performance appraisal . It is more considerable than other processes because its results show the success of the awareness of the other areas in the field of Human Resources and other personnel activities.In the other perspective, assumptions of corporate management show that performance appraisal makes people to be really engaged in the business of the organization. In this situation, the article shows hes making it clear to employees that, under his leadership, Intel truly are entering a new era. Otellini, who officially takes the helm on May 18, will be the first chie f executive without an engineering degree at a company where gear heads have reigned supreme. He believes that to keep Intel growing, every idea and technical solution should be focused on meeting customers needs from the outset.So rather than relying on its engineering prowess, Intels reorganization will bring together engineers, software writers, and marketers into quintuple market-focused units corporate computing, the digital home, mobile computing, health care, and channel products PCs for small manufacturers. The development of an organisational culture indicator followed a review of the organisational culture literature, in which particular attention was given to the instruments that have been most commonly used in its measurement (Michael, 2013).In this article, we can see that the new regime will cause a jolt to the culture. For decades, employees have been compensated for their own work. Now teams will be judged as a whole. Engineers, long the top dogs, may resist working with others. Its like saying to a baseball player, Gee, were deciding to play pro football, says Edward E. Lawler, a professor at USCs Marshall School of Business. All of a sudden, the rules of the game are very different. Otellini has begun to put the pieces in place. Now hell need the teamwork of his people to pull it off.As conclusion, this article established that there was no existing tool which adequately met our requirements for a comprehensive, up-to-date measure, easily completed by all levels of the workforce. Through the review process we were able to identify the cultural dimensions most oftentimes assessed in organisations and deemed important in this extensively researched field. A parallel search of literature on current manufacturing practice highlighted other areas less traditionally examined in culture research, but which we thought relevant in capturing critical aspects of organisational culture in the manufacturing sector.Performancemanagementis a significant tool in businessmanagementtoday. Management activity of this type makes it easier to evaluate the productivity of individual employees as well as entire departments. As a result, the company will function more efficiently, may keep overhead low, and has a better chance of succeeding. There are many benefits ofperformance managementthat have a direct bearing on the day-to-day operation, which in turn makes the overall picture for the company much brighter.Inside the company of The New York Times, there have a lot of job design and performance management that occur and be built by the employer to their employees. Many advantages can we get by doing the implementation of job design and performance management. Through the implementation of performance management, the employer can get the result for what actually their employees doing in managing their work. The use of specific metrics in a performance management program allows employer to make decisions regarding performance breakdowns. Initially, it allows employer to pinpoint problems and take the proper corrective actions to immediately rectify them. For example, as our research in year 2003, according to the journal of The New York Times, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. , the current proprietor, faced what seemed to be a publishers ultimate test after a loosely manage young reporter named Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated dozens of stories. The crisis was emerged between the employer and its employees after the employer getting know about their employees attitude.The employer can strictly vilification for whom employees that making a wrong attitude and breaking the rules of their job ethics. The effects of these crisis has causes the companys performance lagging. The companies had difficult moments eventual through allegations received due to errors employees. However, it can be improved by making implementation of performance management. Performance management allows employer to make decision and focus th eir feedback on issues or crisis directly related to the achievement of the individual employees goals and objectives.Any other issues or crisis distracting the employee that dont contribute to the unit or departments performance can be quickly and effectively handled and eliminated. One of the examples of performance management that can be found in the journal of The New York Times is where Keller has made so many high-level personnel changes whereby two-thirds of all newsroom workers now report to a new boss. Other than that, Keller has also put into practice a attract of reforms suggested by several internal committees formed in the wake of the Blair affair.Meaning to say, these include the appointment of a standards editor and a public editor, or ombudsman. afterwards making this system, the company performances was increase and improved and at the same time the whole of operation managements can be run smoothly. According to journal, The Times affix its gains despite boostin g the price of a subscription by more than 20% on average. As a conclusion, a good performance management system works towards the improvement of the overall organizational performance by managing the performance of teams and individuals.That is for ensuring the achievement of the overall organizational ambitions and goals. The Times can built more an effective performance management system that can play a very crucial role in managing the performance in an organization such as ensuring the employees understand the importance of their contribution to the organizational goals and objectives. Other than that, by ensuring each employee understands what is expected from them and equally as pertaining whether the employee possess the required skills and support for fulfilling such expectations.Ensuring proper aligning or linking of objectives and facilitating effective communication throughout the organization and facilitating a cordial and a harmonious relationship between an individual employee and also the line employer based on trust and empowerment. 2. 4 The Effects of Job Rotation Practices on Motivation A Research on Managers in the Automotive Organizations This article is about the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate and analyze the level of technical, allocate and cost efficiencies of Australian infirmary food service operations.As we know, every provision of food to the patients is the responsibility of each individual infirmary. To prepare the food their must cooked and plated and serve it in hot condition, that can we call as a cook-serve system. Therefore this system required substantial labor input and always created tension arising because of the necessity of working tight schedules and need to achieve high quality standards. In 1970, the new system of foodservice was introduced which is the introduction of the hybrid and cook-chill system.These new system require large initial capital investment. There has been an essential expansion in the use of cook-chill systems throughout the different states because of the technology changes. However, the last health service report published that inefficiency is still a problem with most hospital foodservice operation because of the underutilization of production capacity. Actually, this is the on how performance management taking place to overcome this problem. There are a lot of the significant of making implementation of performance management.The primary reason to make sure performance management processes are functioning properly is to tighten the link between strategic organizational objectives and day-to-day actions. Effective goal setting (including timelines), combined with a method to track progress and identify obstacles, contributes to success and bottom line result. Frequently tracking progress against performance goals and objectives also provides the opportunity to recognize and reward employees for performance and exceptional effort, contributing to job sa tisfaction and productivity.Employees want to feel successful, to do well at their job and feel there are making a valuable contribution. In order to ensure this happens, employees need a clear understanding of individual goals and how they fit into the larger organization. New technology-based solutions offered can provide goal visibility across entire organizations, offer extensive reporting option and can reduce paperwork by as much as 90%. Clear visibility, regular individual analysis and company-wide employee appraisals help identify corporate competencies and skill gaps.With this valuable data, organizational can identify training and development plans. Performance management best practices result in a wide range of the advantages for employees, employer and whole organizational. In a nutshell, the performance management inside every organizational is one of the essential tool to gain a goal and objectives of organizations. Therefore, the organization like hospital can conside red more about their performance management to overcome their problem. At the same times gain successful services to their patient. 2. ARTICLE JOURNAL THE in store(predicate) OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESSWEEK Human Resource is the most important resource compared with other resources like machine, material, land, etc. In the organizational context, the effectiveness of human resource depends on designing the job according to human capability and characteristics. Job design is the most important function of Human Resource Management. It indicates that, designing of contents, methods, functions of a job. The performance of an employee is that, how well an employee performs his or her task duties and responsibilities.Employees performance is also crucial. Because the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization is assessed by performance of its resources, employees performance should be assessed and maintained periodically. At work, in a human-focussed approach, the human oriented process designs have shown its importance as much as the technical issues, from a productivity aspect. Several human-focussed applications such as increasing motivation at work, improving workers physical working conditions, obtaining job security, and increasing job satisfaction, increasing quality nd productivity, decreasing costs to become competitive are increasing its importance by the day.Within the natural development process of work, maybe human-centred problems exceed technical problems and even the cost of investment in personal has gone beyond the point of technical investment. Job analysis, training, performance measurement, re-organisation projects, re-engineering studies and especially applications related to job design which support this approach have an important place among human resources applications.Job design related applications began to take shape with a scientific management approach in the 1900s. Models related to job design able to be classified a s job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, job engineering, quality of work life, social information processing approach and job characteristics approach, have extremely important effects on increasing the productivity of human resources. It is predicted that job satisfaction and productivity will be highest when both job enlargement and job enrichment are jointly applied to redesigning work systemsFrom a conceptual perspective, job design is defined as determining the specific job content, the methods used at work and the relationships between jobs to correspond the firms technological and organisational, and the employees social and personal expectations. In pact with this definition, it is stated that a well-designed and defined job increase employees job satisfaction, increases motivation, decreases workplace-related stress, encourage learning efforts and is therefore have a positive effect on employees performance.There are many studies published in related literature in vestigating the relationship between job design and employees motivation. The common points of these studies is that the application of job design has a positive effect on the specifics of job performance, like motivation, flexibility, job satisfaction, self-control, and skill development. The relevant studies are shown in Table below.

The Chocolate Market Industry Economics Essay

The Chocolate Market Industry Economics EssayThe coffee foodstuffplace industry has been around in the UK since the 19th century. Since then, many different firms have developed and established themselves in the grocery, resulting in a competitive market. Therefore, this project allow focus on how the UK java market structure has variety showd and evolved oer the years and the accepts of this. Our project will be mainly based on analysing the umber company Cadbury and their trend in sales, along with other factors which has caused the takeover of Cadbury by kraft paper Foods. From this, we will be able to determine the factors which caused the change of market sh bes original Cadbury has.Outline the trend in sales by the major burnt umber manufacturers in the UK over the last 10 years, and analyse the structure of the UK chocolate industry.Western Europe is the largest chocolate market in the world (Haymarket Network Ltd. June 2012) and Britain has the good-lookinggest c onfectionary market among the European Union(Barnett 2006). Moreover the UK has the seventh highest consumption of chocolate in the world. The average Brit consumes 17.49lbs of chocolate per year (The World Atlas of Chocolate 2000).Since the last cardinal years the chocolate confectionary sells has gr avow significantly. During the period of 2000-2005 the compound annual growth identify for chocolate sales in percent was approximately 2.5% Euro. The estimated value of the sales for 2005 was 6,214m (Euromonitor International 2005).Additionally, according to Mintel UK market research firm, the chocolate market in the country reached 3,976 billion in 2011, a 21% sum up over a quintuplet-year period and 7.5% growth since 2010. As the people seem to continue purchasing chocolate, even much than before, this is certain premise for involving huge chocolate players in extend for bigger market share in the country.In the last ten years the chocolate market in joined Kingdom was domina ted by or so(prenominal) companies. Since 2010, when Kraft took over Cadbury, three companies dominated the market with control over 83 percent in 2011 Nestl, Mars and Cadbury/Kraft.Figure 1. Percentage of market share in the UK chocolate industry (Trading Visions 2011)Other big companies involved in the UK market are Hershey, Thorntons, Ferrero, Lindt, Divine chocolate and others. The Mintel released table in 2012th formulates much detail the changes in the market chocolate share during the last couple of years.200920102011 (est)% changem%m%m%2009-11Kraft Foods (Cadbury)1,187331,252331,297339.3Mars953271,005271,0732712.6Nestl58516606166461610.4Ferrero130412631293-0.8Thorntons6827527428.8LindtSprngli49160263228.6Total of the above2,972833,124833,2828310.4Others37510404114231012.8Own-label22862446271718.9Total3,5751003,7721003,97610011.2Figure 2. Percentage change in market shares in the UK chocolate market, by value, 2009-11 (Mintel 2012)The fragmentation between few large com panies in the chocolate confectionary industry is a sign for oligopolistic structure of the market. During last 10 years, the situation changed several sentences. Brand owned by Cadbury, Daily Milk, grew 11,7% from 374m to 418m in 2010 while Kraft brandsMilk sales increased from 8,7m to 21,3m according to Miggiano (category guilt-president for chocolate in the UK). Normally an oligopoly exists when the top five or less firms in the market account for more than 60% of total market demand/sales (Econ 100 n.d.). Therefore it can be concluded that the situation of the market structure is certainly an oligopoly. A typical characteristic for oligopolistic competition is the big amounts spent for advertising. The leading company Cadbury spends millions for advertising every year, for example for their new chocolate bar Crispello they have prepared 7 million from their budget (Mail online 2012).In the UK chocolate industry there are know to be several barriers to entry, contributing to th e structure of the market. The huge capital needed for starting business in the market is the main obstacle for new firms. advert and marketing could likewise be classed as a major barrier to entry, where concerning the oligopolistic confectionary firms. This is because whatsoever companies may have the financial power to win over consumer inscription with their expensive branding. Therefore, the contestability of the market can be questi iodined as market firms with well- established, branded returns make it rather difficult and more expensive for new firms to enter into the market successfully. However there are a lot of chocolate firms in the industry, with small profits and share. An example is the Divine Chocolate company, which is well known for its middling trade policy.Explain why Kraft Foods wanted to take over Cadbury. To what extent do you think the arguments against this takeover were valid?Cadbury is known to be unmatched of the largest confectionary companies in the world. The British owned company was founded in 1824 and has been in existence since. However, in February 2010, Kraft Foods Group a reputable company within their own rights took over the multi-billion pound business, which caused significant outrage. The unprecedented event meant that Cadbury did not expect other firms to bid for the company, especially when it was not for sale. However, Kraft Foods had other intentions stating that The British candymaker offers Kraft greater access to sharp growth in emerging markets as well as some of the worlds leading chocolate (Ruddick 2010). It is therefore, obvious that Kraft wanted to takeover Cadbury purely for economic gain, and to raise the companys profile and reputation amongst other respectable markets. Kraft Foods felt this was the perfect opportunity to do so and as a result, forcefully imposed a deal on Cadbury which they felt was sufficient enough for Cadbury to transfer/ give up their assets (company). This is also evident in this statement which mentions that Not only was Cadbury not for sale, but it actively resisted the Kraft takeover (Moeller 2012).Additionally, recent information suggests it is also debatable whether arguments in impedance of the takeover were valid, particularly due to Cadburys profits increasing in recent years. Telegraph staff and agencies (The Telegraph 2012)indicates that the purchase of Cadbury by Kraft allowed for Cadbury to be reinstated into the globose market where consumerism remains at large. Kraft has reported muscular sales and profit increases in the first full puff since it took over Cadbury. Sales blush 25% to $12.3bn (7.75bn) in the three months to 30 June, and Cadbury accounted for 90% of the gains. Net profits were up 13.3% to $937m (590.1m), compared with $827m (521m) in 2009 (Barker 2010). Thus, allowing for Cadbury to expand and increase its profitability. It can therefore be said, that although some felt apprehensive towards the move of Cadburys own ership, it seems to have been for the better. With MP Steve McCabe even stating I think the investment is whats crucial to the long term future, and pointed out that Kraft had also expanded the research and development section. On the other hand, Now, nearly two years on since the hostile takeover in February 2010, the firm has announced a further 200 melodic phrase cuts, the company has given no specific assurances over the future of 4,500 UK jobs (BBC 2011). Therefore, suggesting that those against the transfer of the company did undoubtedly have reasons to be concerned. An spare article even goes further to suggest Kraft already has a track record of cutting production and moving production abroad. Theres no plug that theyll keep production in the UK in the long run (BBC 2010). This indicates that there were implications of big permission to Kraft to handle the company. Yet, this risk was still taken ingraining fear in workers who were already apprehensive of this transition . This suggests arguments against the takeover were indeed valid.Overall, it can be argued in this section that although Kraft, being a well-established company with a strong portfolio to build upon, it caused much controversy in its takeover of Cadbury. The addition of Cadbury to the firm means that Kraft is able to emerge in markets successfully that they were restricted from before. some(prenominal) argued that the takeover allowed for Cadbury to develop further into global markets rather than remaining in the UK. The company became increasingly profitable and as a result, a popular one in which many are interested in investing. However, with the good comes the bad and in a situation as such, it meant that the UK staff of Cadbury were at risk of losing their jobs. This would descend if Kraft moved the Cadbury business abroad, which has partially occurred since. Kraft has produced good results for Cadbury but not without causing implications in the UK (where Cadbury originates f rom). It can be stated from the research register that the intentions behind Krafts takeover of Cadbury are quite clear and the opposition arguments of the UK Cadbury staff and the UK government are most certainly valid as displayed throughout this section.On a chart show what has happened to the UK pound ( superior) against the one dollar bill between December 2007 and September 2012Source Bank of EnglandUsing a tack on and demand diagram, explain this change in the sterling rallying rate against the US dollar.The supplant rate is the rate at which one money trades for another on the outside(prenominal) exchange market. On the open market prices of goods, commodities and value of nations currency (under a floating exchange rate) are subordinated to the control of two forces- supply and demand (Sloman360). Generally, the exchange rate is determined by the fundamental law of the market forming an equilibrium rate (price) by equating demand and supply of the currency. One of th e primary laws of supply and demand indicates that high supply causes low prices and high demand results in high prices. This fact implies that when there is a rich supply of a particular good then the price should fall and vice versa. The price increases when there is a scarcity of the product. Consequently, an increase in the demand of a commodity would cause it to appreciate in value, whereas an increase in supply would cause it to depreciate (Capital Market Services 2012). The change in the exchange rate of UK pound sterling to US dollar can be explained using a basic supply and demand diagram.1.jpgFigure 1Figure 1 shows a regular downward slopping demand curve. A decrease in the price of the pound in relation to dollars from $2 to $1 will cause British exports in the USA to proceed much cheaper than the domestic product. The demand for British export will rise in the USA, and in a result, the demand for British currency to buy these goods will increase, as the Americans will have to exchange their money for British pounds. Thus, at lower prices (lower exchange rate) more pounds will be demanded, and vice versa. Movements up the vertical axis represent an increase in price of the pound, which is equivalent to a fall in the price of the dollar. Similarly, movements down the vertical axis represent a decrease in the price of the pound (Capital Market Services 2012).2.jpgFigure 2Figure 2 describes the supply side of the decision of the exchange rate. When UK importers wish to buy goods from USA, they will supply pounds on the foreign exchange market in order to obtain dollars. The higher the exchange rate, the more dollars they will get for their pounds (Sloman 2009360). If the price of pound in relation to dollar rises from $1.50 to $2, price of imports from the USA will fall. Assuming the price elasticity of demand for the American imports is greater than one, the amount of pounds that UK consumers will need to supply in order to obtain the dollars to bu y the goods- will rise. The supply curve slopes up because British firms and consumers are willing to buy a greater quantity of American goods as the dollar becomes cheaper (i.e. they receive more dollars per pound). Thus, the higher the exchange rate, the more pounds will be supplied (Sloman 2009360).3.jpgFigure 3 Based on Sloman 2008162Suppliers and consumers meet at a particular quantity and price at which they are both satisfied, known as the equilibrium price pictured by Figure 3. At any higher price there would be an excess supply of British pounds that would devolve on price down. A lower price would cause a shortage of pounds driving the price up. In practice, the process of reaching equilibrium is instantaneous. The foreign exchange dealers working for the banks are incessantly adjusting the rate as new customers make new demands for currencies (Sloman 2009361).4.jpgFigure 4 Based on Sloman 2008 161A change in the exchange rate is caused by any shift in the supply and dema nd curves. When the demand and supply curves shift from D1 and S1to D2 and S2 respectively the exchange rate will fall from $1.60 to $1.40. A decrease in the free-market exchange rate is called depreciation, an increase is an appreciation.Explain the impact of this change in the value of sterling against the US dollar on a UK chocolate manufacturer who buys cocoa beans which are priced in dollarsAppreciation of pound against dollar is most beneficial for importers, like given UK chocolate manufacturer who buys cocoa beans priced in dollars. They are advantages as they need to find fewer pounds to buy their imported goods. Depreciation of home currency makes foreign buyers disadvantages as they need to find more money to pay for their imports (tutor2u). Therefore, in this example the best time for foreign investments was between December 2007 and June 2008 when the pound exchange rate was the highest.Outline the causes of the current respite in the UK. Using relevant economic theory show how recession affected the UK economy.Economist and experts still disagree on the definition of recession. However, technically speaking, the economy of a country would slide into recession when it experiences two continual quarters of negative economic growth. This happens when the GDP would have to wince on a quarter by quarter basis for a total period of six months. GDP (gross domestic product) is the total amount of goods and run produced by a country in a given period of time.The credit crunch that began in August 2007 brought recession in Britain and other countries crosswise the world. Soon everything worsened dramatically and turned into global financial crisis in the autumn of 2008. The recession started in America where mortgage companies got into massive debt by giving out many subprime mortgages. They then bundled this debt on to other countries such as the UK by borrowing from abroad to finance this risky lending.The central problem of UK was Britains banks, whi ch had invested their reserves in those bundles or effects that turned out to be unsafe, illiquid or even worthless. As UK banks began to struggle, the government allowed them to lend to each other to promote liquidity. They did not know that this would result in even more debt and tension between the banks. Consumer confidence dropped dramatically down. Along with the overvalued housing market finally failing, consumption began to fall.The British economy was officially declared to be in a recession in January 2009, when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that the estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) showed a fall of 1.5 per cent in the last three months of 2008 after a 0.6 per cent drop in the previous quarter. This was the biggest quarter-on-quarter decline since 1980 and the first time the economy had been in recession since 1991. ONS figures show that GDP bestial by 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the last quarter of 2008. GDP fell b y a further 0.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2009, leaving the level of GDP 5.5 per cent lower than in the second quarter of 2008, the largest annual fall on record (ONS 2009).It was the deepest recession since the war. The Manufacturing output was down 7% by end 2008. It has affected many sectors including banks and investment firms. Many known and established businesses went bankrupt. Britain has struggled to come out of the latest recession, with much speculation of a double dip recession during the 2010s. Output fell by 0.5% in the quaternary quarter of 2010. The unemployment rate rose to 8.1% (2.57m people) in August 2011, the highest level since 1994. As of January 2012update, after 15 quarters, GDP is still 4% down from peak at start of recession. And now end of 2012 there are also speculation of a triple dip recession.Explain the statement about cocoa, referring to the relevant types of elasticity. cater conditions play a big role in terming the price of chocolates. Si nce Cocoa is a farm product it is subject to fast-developing changes in growing conditions. Ivory beach is the biggest and Ghana the second biggest producer of cacao therefore if any viruses, like the stunted shoot disease, or any bad weather conditions affect their gather will have consequences on the chocolate prices. On the other side good weather conditions will boost supply and drop the prices. Unpredictability of prices is increase by the fact that chocolate demand is very inelastic. In the US, short-term elasticity of demand has been estimated at about -0.2, and is even lower in some big European consumer countries (Henri Jason 1994). When demand is inelastic, even a small shift in the supply curve can produce a big change in the market price.IEoD = (% Change in Quantity Demanded)/(% Change in Income)Another factor that determines the prices of chocolate is the strong income elasticity of demand. For example in the United States, a 10% increase in income has been estimated to increase per capita chocolate consumption by 9.2% (Henri Jason 1994). Income elasticity is not lot different in other countries. The recession makes people believe they should spend less and most of the cases people do earn less money or they have recently lost their job because of the financial crisis. Therefore they have less to spend. This will affect their choice between normal goods and luxury goods. If chocolate becomes too expensive they might become luxury good for some people, at the moment it is a normal good for most people.undefinedSource tutor2uAs a part of your conclusion, treasure the future of the major chocolate companies inthe UK. Do you foresee future growth, stagnation or decline?Overall, it is evident that many factors influence the chocolate market in todays world. In recent years the best market decision by various chocolate companies was offering a variety of products to the consumer market. This strategy led to big profits for the biggest players in the industry, as they could afford the expensive advertising for their products. However, the trend for chocolate purchases has not slowed down regardless of the economic situation. In fact frigid to logic, people seem to have taken advantage from chocolate products in the recession, as they have spent more time staying home during the hard times of the British economic stagnation. On holidays such as Easter and Christmas, purchases for some specific products has doubled, tripled or even more compared to the rest of the year. According to professional investigators of the chocolate trends, like Mintel, the future of the chocolate market in UK will face a growth in the next several years. However, as a radical we believe based on the evidence from this project, that the UK chocolate industry could potentially be dominated by foreign companies, resulting in stagnation for British chocolate companies.

Leadership Perspectives and Theories

leaders Perspectives and TheoriesDiscussion ab come out of the closet two fundament every last(predicate)y different perspectives toward leaders development Leaders atomic number 18 natural and leadership skills send a focus be demonstrable.Leadership is seen as an important comp adeptnt of any organisations structure beca character at all levels in an organisation in that location tend to be positions of authority. In every organisation on that point get out be the great unwashed under the control of people with gamyer job titles and status, for example, employees under the power of team leader, i.e., precisely stating subordinates under the control of super ordinates (Finchman, R. et al, 2003).Though there is a wide appreciation of definitions of lead, it good deal be generally be defined as the ability to motivate and influence other people to perform tasks and achieve objectives which otherwise they wouldnt be willing to do. still, leadership depends upon the c ontext in which it hails along with an understanding of the needs and opinions of its followers. But, still there has been a lot of argument and debate concerning the difference between instruction and leadership. It is true that differences between the two terms notify be put neatly on paper, just now still it is suggested that the distinctions between the two ar vague, with the two qualities usually overlapping apiece other in business context. This is because it is weighd that every manager is bound to occupy leadership qualities to be able to work legally towards the success of an organisation.As books states, there drive been different perspectives relating to leadership development. They basically argon the Trait Approaches, Behavioural Approaches, Contingency theories and the Transformational theories of leadership. The trait theory believes that leaders are innate(p) and possess certain soulfulnessality traits beforehand which last lead them to take on a powerf ul dominant position. Behavioural approaches look for certain ideal behavioral patterns in the leaders and contingency theories state that there is no ane idealistic leadership feel and that leaders should modify their qualities and skills fit in to the situational demands as healthful as relating to the cultural and organisational context of the organisation. Finally, the transformational theories introduce the emergence of the new leader with qualities such as being visionary, inspirational and participative along with encouraging salmagundi. harmonise to theories and researches conducted, it is pointed out that a good leader would be the one who understands himself, his fellow and group members with whom he interacts and the company along with the broader social environment in which he plant to be able to choose wisely his skills. Also, he is able to be flip appropriately in times of perceptions that are very importantly relevant to his behaviour, i.e., to be able to direc t when called for direction and to be able to provide freedom when there is requirement of participative freedom. They are believed to establish direction and are expected to upgrade people to come into their strategies and plans. Also, there are some leadership skills which are considered indispensable. These generally include an ability to have an intuition and judgement, the intelligence detailor, motivation, assertiveness, risk- taking ability, bracing enough to analyse situations and take actions, relevant experience and many more.Now, here we are concerned with the two fundamentally different perspectives of whether Leaders are born or Leadership skills stand be developed towards the development of leadership qualities and their respective implications on the development of management in an organisation. However, choosing one perspective can sometimes be difficult. This is due to fact that leadership being such a subjective topic, it is impossible to believe in a single p erspective. twain the perspectives are right to an extent of their own.It is indeed a true fact that there are born Leaders. Moreover, the old age saying that Leaders are born and not made stock-still gets stronger by looking at all the examples of big(p) and historic leaders, like Hitler, Mother Teresa, etc. These leaders gained their status and respect because of their strong personalities or some in-born attri simplyes which are difficult to come by dint of training and development. It is an elusive charisma in some people which at last makes them World leaders and the followers look up to them. And these certain qualities looked in a leader are generally the ones that are the in-grown traits of ones personality, for instance the ability to have an intuition and vision, motivation factor and the natural intelligence. These are all characteristics which differ from person to person. Also, by birth certain kind of talent is already insert in a few people because of which they stand apart and go on to the path of becoming a leader. For example A person who is an median(a) basketball player will never be able to achieve the skills which Michael Jordan excels at in spite of getting the best training, putting in all his efforts and practising to the fullest. Though, his skills would improve but never to that extent. And hence, we see that the concept of born leaders is existent. But then to what extent can this be seen to be true? Should we believe that the skills by birth are just the skills to be possessed to become leaders, i.e., there can be no self-development for a person lacking the so called necessary skills to become a leader.hither comes a noteworthy point that, by just being born with talent, it isnt necessary that one becomes a leader. Unless and until one works on the pursuit of perfection and improvement, he/she will not be able to able to become a Leader. In fact, all the great leaders who reached their status today did so due to their hard work and maybe went through some sort of discipline process. It was necessary for them also to sharpen and develop their skills and learn from their predecessors. For example It was seen that President John.F.Kennedy though made a great leader, maybe for some people, due to his charm persona but the fact was that he also had some learning from London School of Economics and he also undertook a Leadership training program in the array services during World War II.Moreover, there is a problem associated with identifying what kinds of leadership skills are apt. When it comes to choosing Leadership positions in organisations, the organisations generally look out for expertise, work bear and the respective seniority levels. They look for people with strong or charismatic personalities, who are commanding and can manage other people well by mesmerizing them with their stage presence. However, these are usually upon indicators of choosing great leaders. This is seen from the fact tha t even the extraordinary organisations having the most intelligent, experiences and insightful board of directors have made the errors of choosing the wrong leaders. In California, when there was a rapid- shift in the technology sector due to the growth of internet IPOs, HP realised that they needed a leadership inter swap with a leader with a freshly new business perspective to help control its languishing stock prices and stalling growth. For this they hired a leader who had win quite a lot of business titles and had had an impressing background. But, in the hands of the new leader, the company suffered its first loss, lost many jobs and saw a decrease in their stock prices. But, contrastingly, in the hands of the former down-to-earth CEO, HPs annual sales increased. This showed that leadership plays an important role in the success or failure of an organisation, moreover still many companies do not have effective Leadership Development programmes in place and they indulge and invest in it only in terms of emergencies.A research conducted by the Institute of Leadership Management showed that a significant proportion of business leaders today must owe the credit to the gaining of their leadership skills from experiences learnt outside the school, as 12 percent left school before the age of 16 and only one-third of them (31 percent) had a University stratum on leaving full time education. These statistics, therefore, state that in order to achieve success, academic qualifications might not be a pre-requisite and leadership skills can be developed through coaching and formal training also with an effective development programme in place. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, showed traits of becoming a future leader from childhood. But since he didnt have an academic degree he was not seen to be fit for the description of a classic leader. When he joined JC Penny as a management trainee, he always worked hard but then his paperwork wasnt up to the mark because o f which his boss always told him that he wasnt fit for sell industry. At last, he resigned, not to sit back but to open his own firm which gave competition to JC Penny and surpassed it in retail dominance. This example suggests that in spite of not having academic qualification, Sam Walton would have been a great leader for JC Penny, if it had an effective system to tap the leadership electromotive force in him.Hence, the above points suggest that leadership skills can definitely be developed not only through leadership training development programmes but also from real-life learning experiences arising on the job front. Hence, the perspective Leadership skills can be developed holds more importance than the perspective Leaders were born.However, no count of teaching can ever fully help a person to know about leadership. Leadership is a phenomenon which can always be learnt through practical application. Leadership skills can be developed by watching other leaders, i.e., role mod els and emulating their behaviour. Leaders also enhance their skills by realising the fact that one can never get stuck in a situation. Even if one fails in a task, one needs to use that lesson to enhance his performance in future. This shows that the only failure they see is the failure to not learn from a mistake. They also improve by using the feedback from their supervisors, peers and junior colleagues to get better results. Moreover they learn by trying out new things and then review their performance critically. The best thing about the development of leadership skills and not as snappere the notion of born leaders is that, leadership training helps to bring out certain behavioural aspects like character, passion and vision in people not having them and builds them to develop skills which can be used in future for becoming effective leaders.Furthermore, according to an article written by James Brava, teaching leadership skills to front-line managers through the support of the organisation as well as senior leaders can help lead to an improvement in an organisations flexibility to change and increaseivity. This is due to the fact that if front-line managers become leaders they can make decisions, can then use their own judgement and implement improvement. These techniques will assist in increasing employee engagement and employee motivation and thereby have a positive impact on management development in terms of an organisations performance level.A contrary point to note here is that, certain leadership skills even though believed to be associated with a persons character only, can still be developed among people to a great extent and affect the development of management of an organisation in a worth notable point. This means that if a person does not have skills to lead, he should not fall for the development of non-leadership aspects as there are a number of places to demonstrate ones leadership abilities.There are a lot many number of qualities looke d in a person to become a leader which have already been mentioned relating to ability, motivation and sociability. But, the recent developments in the field of leadership show that it is not the just the old-age qualities of authority and intelligence that are enough to become a leader. No doubt, Intelligence is needed but rather than IQ and relevant knowledge, emotional intelligence is the pre-requisite to become a great leader. Emotional intelligence is the key factor which distinguishes star-leaders form the average leaders. Here we see a number of leadership skills that can be developed and how it might affect the development and learning of skills by managers for their own good as well as for their organisations.Emotional intelligence, a quality associated with leadership can definitely be learned, but it requires time and commitment. Hence, it is not believed that a person should have this trait by birth. Although, sometimes genetics do not play an important part in this as o ur parents qualities of empathy can be imbibed into us by birth. Self awareness is an aspect of emotional intelligence which tends to work for the organisation resulting in increasing its and its employees performance by being aware of the fact that how their feelings will affect themselves as well as of their colleagues.Also, motivation is an indispensable virtual quality of leadership which aims at achieving for the sake of achieving and not for orthogonal rewards. Even though, this can be seen as a personality trait to be associated with the concept of born leaders, still it can be developed with course while learning in an organisation when one introspects about his passion for work, doesnt get disappointed with failures and has an urge for commitment towards his organisation. Therefore, it isnt difficult to see the outcomes of motivation for organisational management development. This can be seen from the fact that people with such qualities can always lead to the building of a team with managers sharing the same qualities. Also, as one sets a high performance bar for oneself, so will he for his employing organisation leading to the latters success.Born or classic leaders are often seen as the ones having crashing(a) temperaments because their outbursts are often associated with their respective style marks of charisma and power. And hence self-regulation is generally not seen as a good trait of leaders. But self-regulation is a quality which is necessary to be developed among leaders because it leads to the creation of a fair and trusted environment reducing politics and infighting and hence an increase in productivity. More so, it has a positive effect on managing development as employees want to be level-headed instead of hot-heads considering their leaders being calm and less moody. As a consequence, talent flocks to the organisation. In terms of environment changes, management development needs arise which can be taken care of effectively if manage rs are in control of their emotions. This is because in such a scenario they do not panic and tend to accept the challenges in a positive way.Empathy is another quality which is rarely seen to exist in the concept of leaders are born. This is because according to this concept, they usually have attributes which are seen as being autocratic and exploitive. And hence, the perspective regarding born leaders might seem to fail here. Empathy or consideration skill is strongly recommended as a component of leadership due to it being effective while dealing with teams, diversification in organisations and for retaining talent in todays competitive market-world. It is usually developed while working in a team where there can be a mismatch and misunderstanding among the viewpoints of the members. This helps leaders develop their skills of understanding and recognising the emotional makeup of the team leading to collaboration among employees which can finally lead to higher job market for th e organisation. Also, in order to keep good talent within their organisation coaching and mentoring is necessary for which empathy skills are needed. Therefore, a leader having these skills will effectively provide good coaching which leads to an increase in job performance along with job satisfaction and less rubbing rate.Another fact which proves that Leadership skills can be developed can be seen during situations when a persons leadership skills might come under a test. This can seem to happen in terms of a crisis as was in the case of Intel Israel. During the First Gulf War when Iraq was resorting to its Scub missile attacks, the operation of the Intels firm social unit in Israel was at stake because the civil defence directive had ordered organisational units to close down ensuring safety. But Dov Frohman continued the normal operations as he was concerned about the companys survival and success as he considered that a core aspect of leadership. Also, according to his belief during such situations there are troika major points a leader should develop focus on the survival of the organisation in the long-term giving it the highest priority, going against what everyone says and expects to do and finally rely ones instinct. As a result of avocation these qualities, commitments to Intel were met for the future of Israels high tech economy as well as for Intel Israel, because of which it today is the headquarters for the companys global RD and product development in wireless technology as well as a major centre for chip fabrication (Harvard Business Review, December 2006). Also, following these three rules not only help deal with the situation aptly but also thinks about the organisations success which is the basic rule of leadership and management development. Moreover, this can be seen as a time for managers to be able to learn and develop skills not only for their own good but even for their organisation.In all organisations it is seen that managemen t generally means conducting, controlling, directing and linking. But an article by Henry Mintzberg who has studied a lot of managers and management in a symphony orchestra, states that Covert Leadership, an aspect which can seem to develop might be better than overtly display of leadership. This is because in todays world knowledge and trained workers respond to inspiration and not supervision because they know what to do. According to him, management in a symphony orchestra can be seen as a good deal of what managing in todays world is all about. The article throws light on the fact that though the conductor manages all its musicians, but he does so in a covert way be it controlling, directing or developing culture. It showed that what is generally seen as conventional leading is seen as operations doing in the context of an orchestra because the conductor got involved directly and personally in all the tasks getting done. Also it was seen that extreme supervision isnt necessary t oday and that the coordination can occur independently, but however certain amount of power is necessary. concludingly it is noted that though the conductor managed all the inside operations, he was also concerned with the external networking for his orchestra. Hence, a positive outcome of covert leadership on management development is that it not only satisfies employees but in the end it also tends to stage a feeling of satisfaction to the leader. And if managers accept this trait of leadership and follow all the six qualities of internal controlling, leading and doing along with external communication, linking and dealing, they can leaven the organisation to a high level.Furthermore, it is evident that in todays modern world every manager or leader is faced with the dilemma of being mangled between which leadership style to use and when elected or authoritative. According to the earlier times, leaders were just seen as ones possessing the required intelligence, vision and t he ability to appoint others. But todays scenario sees the fact that leadership skills tend to be developed and be used according to the demand of the situation. A continuum developed by Tannenbaum and Schmidt concerning the authoritative versus democratic choice of leadership style, shows that any one of these extremes (either emphasis on manager or on the subordinate centred behaviour) isnt apt and that there are a range of behaviours which are best to use when necessary. The decision of what leadership style to use is highly influenced by factors which concern managers behaviour, non-managers or subordinates behaviours and the situational aspects. If a manager understands his personality traits effectively, he is likely to know clearly which style to use. The situational factors such as organisation type (might approve certain behaviours and not others), group effectiveness (how well people coordinate together to resolve issues), nature of problem (depends on whether subordinate s have relevant knowledge about the problem) and time constraints (depends upon the criticalness of the situation) also affect the way a manager thinks in decision-making situation). Similarly, a clear understanding about the employees behaviour and their expectations or demands from him, can help him decide to be permissive or coercive. This can ultimately lead to the development of good and flexible communicative relationships among organisation members leading to the creation of good work teams, i.e. the development of management which ultimately can affect an organisations success rate. Therefore, whatever is the case, the implications would always be in the favour of the organisation with the manager being flexible and insightful so as not to face the issue of leadership dilemma.Finally, in the end wed like to discuss two main important points. Firstly, how companies can create leadership development programmes in order to tap the talent of people showing the capabilities of be coming future leaders. In regard to this, companies ought to create a development compose needed for identifying strong leader including qualities they think should be suitable for their particular company or the industry. On completion of the creation of profile, the company can use a number of effective assessment tools like psychometric tests, employee surveys, feedback reviews etc. to identify these characteristics in their employees.Secondly, we need to discuss critically as to what we need whether it is the kitchen range of a heroic leader with a vision, inspiration and charisma or the image of a manager who can organise, plan and control issues in an organisation. In the beginning, it was mentioned that there are differences between management and leadership but they usually overlap. However, arguably it is seen that now there has been a widening gap between managers and leaders. According to studies in the twenty-first century, it was seen that a new perspective of transf ormational leaders came into being. These transformational super leaders had all the characteristics which were suitable during a hostile and a rapidly changing environment. This new leader had the ability to create visions of what can happen in future and was able to communicate them. These traits indicated the difference between management and leadership according to some writers. But a more recent study of leadership trends stated that such views could be dangerous and that what is more importantly required is the capabilities of change management. According to a lot of writers the concept of visionary leaders is not good as they can destabilize the organisation. For instance, in the opinion of Jim Collins, leaders who are seen to be world class are generally not effective, and it is the senior ordinary managers or executive which actually handle work well by combining both humility and persistence. Moreover, it is believed that the efforts of these middle managers should be app reciated because in spite of them not being top managers they still are implemental in starting and aiming change. Finally these repercussions against the concept of new leaders, leads back to the argument between the distinction of management and leadership suggesting that now leadership destabilises while management drives change.To sum it all, it can be said that though leadership skills are developed but still in-born traits are sometimes necessary and that in reality organisational change occurs due to the help of competent managers and not because of the concept of leaders possessing charismatic visionaries and personalities. (3898 words excluding references)Works CitedBrava, J., (n.d.) Are Frontline Leadership Skills Instinctive or Learnt?. Available http//ezinearticles.com/?Are-Frontline-Leadership-Skills-Instinctive-Or-Learnt?id=3231942. Last accessed January, 2010.Britains Bosses Learn to Lead at an Early Age. (n.d.). Available http//www.i-l-m.com/research-and-comment/1449 .aspx. Last accessed January, 2010.Buchanan, D., Huczynski, A. (2004). Organizational Behaviour An Introductory Text, 5th Edition, London FT Prentice Hall.Donaldson, D., (n.d.) Can Leadership Training Make Great Leaders?. Available http//www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Can-Leadership-Training-Make-Great-Leaders-/509240. Last accessed January, 2010.Finchman, R., Rhodes, P. (2003). Principles of Organizational Behaviour, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press.Frohman, D. (2006). Leadership Under Fire, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 84, No. 12, pp. 124-131.Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader?, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, No. 6, pp. 93-102.Hurst, R. (September 10th, 2007). Is a leader born or made?. Available http//leadershiptrainingdevelopment.com/is-a-leader-born-or-made. Last accessed January, 2010.Leadership Development Are Leaders Born or Made?. (n.d.). Available http//www.impactfactory.com/gate/registered/leadership_skills_training_development/registeredgate_1619-9103-7357 2.html. Last accessed January, 2010.MacDoanld, D. (December 8th, 2009), Why is it so hard for companies to find great leaders?. Available http//learnthis.ca/2009/12/the-problem-with-leadership/. Last accessed January, 2010.Mintzberg, H. (1998). Covert Leadership Notes on Managing Professionals, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, No. 6, pp. 140-147.Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W. (1973). How to Choose a Leadership Pattern, Harvard Business Review , 51(3), 162-180.

Religion In Life Of Pi Theology Religion Essay

righteousness In Life Of Pi Theology Religion EssayIf you stumble about believability, what ar you living for. Love is intemperately to believe, ask any l everywhere. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe.Life of Pi is a level about survival, belief in God and coming of age that unfolds plot of ground the protagonist is travel in a lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean. Belief in God is clearly a major theme in this novel, and has been the around controversial in reviews of the book. Throughout the novel, Pi makes his belief in and spang of God clear. This exhilarating story begins with an old man in Pondicherry who tells the narrator, I confine a story that will make you believe in God. The protagonist explores the diametrical issues of religion and ghostlyity from an early age and deceases even 227 days shipwrecked in the ocean. Storytelling and religious beliefs atomic number 18 devil c losely linked ideas in the novel. On a literal level, each of Pis three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, come with its own set of tales and fables, which are used to spread the teachings and illustrate the beliefs of the faith. This book defends not only the common spirit behind these three religions, but the rituals and ceremonies of each. Its as if all(prenominal) three religions ascend harmonious common ground in this type. Seems unlikely, but then again, the protagonist argues passionately that the miraculous put acrosss in our darkest moments. These three religions are really all the aforementi whizd(prenominal) except for half-size differences in the practice of their faith. Hindus eat a great capacity for love Moslems represent God in every liaison and Christians are quite devout. In this case, Pi enjoys the wealth of stories, but he also senses that, as Father Martin assured him was true of Christianity, each of these stories mogul simply be aspects of a greater, commonplace story about love.Pi remains unattached to any one interpretation of God. Sure, he believes each religion but he doesnt guard their proper(postnominal) tenets jealously. Pi shares a rich parable individually time the milkmaids try to possess Krishna he vanishes. Likewise, each time a religious faith tries to take aim sole ownership of God, true religion vanishes. This story reveals a few of the workings of Pis complex religious beliefs. You may have wondered how anyone could ever hold Hindu, Christian, and Muslim beliefs all at once. Pis answer without a trace of jealousy.Stories and religious beliefs are also linked in Life of Pi because Pi asserts that both posit faith on the part of the listener or devotee. Surprisingly for such a religious boy, Pi admires atheists. To him, the important thing is to believe in something, and Pi can appreciate an atheists ability to believe in the absence of God with no concrete proof of that absence. Pi has nothing bu t disdain, however, for agnostics, who claim that it is unattainable to cognize either way, and, who therefore refrain from making a definitive statement on the question of God. So Pi sees that this as an evidence of a shameful lack of imagination. To him, agnostics who cannot make a leap of faith in either direction are like listeners who cannot appreciate the non-literal truth a false story might provide.Regarding with the plot of this novel, we begin with a little boy, Pi Patel, who is the main character of Yann Martels novel Life of Pi. Hes the son of a zookeeper who runs a small zoo in India. Despite all his familys ideas of modern secularism, Pi is drawn to religion. In his adolescence he adopts not only the beliefs of Hinduism, but Catholicism and Islam as well. Each religion gives Pi something that he felt was missing in his spiritual life so, because of this, he never feels compelled to choose one belief system over the other. Religion will save us, I said. Since when I could remember, religions had always been close to my heart. So, in this case and because of his family, he was first introduced to Hinduism and describes it as the religion of his birth and a deep part of himself. For him, Hinduism is not a religion to be left behind when he discovers another, but rather the intrinsic framework of his own spirituality. Then, when he finds out Catholicism, he studies it done curiosity for what it entails, not because of any dissatisfaction with his current understanding of Hinduism, largely for his own pleasure. The same is true at the time that he later adds the religion of Islam to his quilt of religious beliefs. While the young boy is comfortable with his firm and serious belief in three seemingly different religions, the leaders of these religions are obviously not so happy when they learn of his expanded view of religion. As chance would have it, Pis priest, pandit and imam all happen upon Pi and his parents at the same time. This ensuing con versation captures current religious discord as all of the religious leaders agree that Pi cannot be Hindu, Catholic, and Muslim at the same time and despite their prodding, Pi insists that he simply wants to love and adore God. He says I just want to love God (Martel 69) and will not choose between religions.Then, during his adolescence, he also discovers atheism through his biology teacher, Mr. Kumar. Though Pi greatly respects Mr. Kumar, and calls him his favorite(a) teacher, Pi isnt comfortable exploring all the ideas of atheism or seeing how science holds its own beauty without need for a deity. He decides that atheists are his brothers and sisters of a different faith, but it is not a belief that he understands or chooses to explore. In fact, the concept of atheism frightens him so much. Pi, who asks many questions when he is presented with other religions, is very dim when Mr. Kumar always offers some of his atheistic views Religion? Mr. Kumar grinned broadly. I dont believ e in religion. Religion is darkness. Pi answers Darkness? I was puzzled. I thought, Darkness is the last thing that religion is. Religion is light. Was he testing me? Was he saying, Religion is darkness, the way he sometimes said in class things like Mammals lay eggs, to see if someone would correct him? (Only platypuses, sir.)(1.7.9 11) and finally explains It wasnt for fear of angering Mr. Kumar. I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved. Pis education includes both science and religion he comes to love both these disciplines but agnosticism the suspension of belief (e.g., I dont have enough evidence to believe in God so I wont commit one way or the other.) drives the boy bonkers. For Pi, belief is one of the most beautiful actions of human life. To live otherwise is to live statically. One can either choose a rich, dynamic life or a static, uncommitted life. Yet, this religious discussion takes place well before Pi is set adrift i n a lifeboat filled with wild zoo animals. here(predicate) it is the groundwork that shapes the rest of the story, a wonderful and incredible story that is only and exclusively meant to make listeners believe in god. Part two of the book begins the tale of Pis shipwreck and subsequent survival.When Pi is 16, his family decides to sell the zoo and immigrate to Canada to escape the increasingly undesirable political developments in 1970s India. They will get a better price for many of their animals in America, so the family and several of the animals of the zoo begin their journey on a Japanese cargo ship named Tsimtsum. middle(prenominal) to Midway the ship suddenly and quickly sinks for unknown reasons. When this unfortunate event takes place, Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and an adult Bengal tiger. in that respect are no other human survivors, and it is not long before the animals do away with each other-the hyena dispatches the zebr a and the orangutan and the tiger dispatch the hyena-, loss Pi and the tiger alone in the lifeboat.In the same way, we can clearly assert that Pi Patel wins lots of different challenges covering from his psychic and spiritual learning to his basic and essential instinct and survival throughout his horrific and very hard adventures at sea. The most relevant fact is that his unbelievable believe in God, helps him to survive multiple obstacles that he faces on the lifeboat. His study about all three religions, serves as a great defensive safeguard from the unwieldy harsh situations of life. It is a very long journey filled with too much danger, loneliness and doubt, but most of all an exploration of faith. This astonishing character maintains all his religious beliefs while on the life boat through his daily ritual prayers, which helps to sustain him. Hes faced with physical difficulty almost all time, ranging from salt-water boils, to the threat of death by a tiger, to cold, to star vation, to dehydration, to dementia and many other difficulties. He continues to pray regularly, and must plead to God in order to survive his ordeal. He remembers the misery he felt after such a long time away from God, saying It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God (Martel 315). With Pi keeping his ritual prayers going, that helped him to survive. Also, he was able to maintain somewhat the religious lifestyle that he had prior to the sinking of the Tsimtsum. He also makes many religious relationships throughout his journey and lots of comparisons between Orange Juice and the Virgin Mary. She came floating on an island of bananas in a halo of light, as lovely as the Virgin Mary (Martel 111). Truly, Pis religious faith remained strong throughout his journey on the Pacific Ocean.Straightway, when Pi eventually washes up on the shores of Mexico, and the tiger dashes off into the jungle never to be seen again, he is nursed back to health by locals. While Pi is recovering, two men from the company that owned the Japanese cargo ship come to visit him. They are very anxious because they are looking for answers about what might have caused the ship to sink so then he tells them the fantastic and amazing tale that he experienced and was presented through the book. Obviously, the men do not believe him so they became very upset and tell Pi that they want to know what really happened. They only want to know a rational truth. After some discussion, Pi agrees to tell them another story, another one that does not involve animals or any marvellous fact. His secant boring story involves a handful of human survivors, including one who kills the others, even including Pis mother. He affirms that at the end of the story he kills the killer and is left as the only survivor. Neither story sheds any light on wherefore the ship might have sunk. Before the men leave, Pi asks him about which of the two storie s is the best, since neither provides factual information that they can use. The men who appears at the beginning, who was listening the whole story, agree that the story with the animals was a better story. This is the point of the book. It is the reason why readers are supposed to now believe in god. When it comes down to a choice between realism and fantasy, or science and religion, which story is the best? spiritual minded readers may find comfort in the notion that it is better to believe in an uplifting story over more believable, but less(prenominal) entertaining facts. However, this argument is unlikely to be persuasive to atheists or encourage them to believe in God.

Bethel School District vs. Fraser :: essays research papers

On April 26, 1983, Matthew Fraser, a student at Bethel steep School in Bethel, Washington, delivered a speech nominating a fellow student for a student elective office to his fellow high school mates. The assembly was part of a school-sponsored educational program in self government. During the entire speech, Fraser referred to his candidate in terms of "elaborate, graphic, and explicit sexual metaphor." However, no obscene language was social functiond.      Fraser discussed his speech with three of his teachers. Two of the teachers testified at the trial that they informed Matthew the speech was "inappropriate and that he probably should not deliver it." They also mentioned that the speech might have "severe consequences," but none of the three suggested that the speech might violate a school rule. So Matthew gave his speech, during which a school counselor observed the reaction of students. Some hooted and yelled others appeared to b e bewildered and embarrassed by the speech. A Bethel High School disciplinary rule prohibited the use of obscene language in the school Conduct which materially and substantially interferes with the educational process is prohibited, including the use of obscene, profane language or gestures. The morning after the assembly, the assistant top dog called Matthew into her office and notified him that the school considered his speech to have been a violation of this rule. The assistant principal informed Matthew that he would be suspended for three days and would be ineligible as a candidate for graduation speaker at the schools outgrowth exercises.      Matthew went to the schools hearing officer for a review of the disciplinary action. The examiner determined that the speech fell within the ordinary meaning of "obscene," as used in the disruptive-conduct rule, and affirmed the discipline in its entirety. Fraser served two days of his suspension, and was a llowed to return to school on the third day.      Matthews father appealed the school districts actions on behalf of his son to the federal district court. He alleged a violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and sought both injunctive relief and monetary damages. The District Court held that the schools sanctions violate respondents right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, that the schools disruptive-conduct rule is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that the removal of respondents name from the graduation speakers list violated the overdue Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because the disciplinary rule makes no mention of such removal as a possible sanction.

Technology and Its Impact on Work-Related Stress Essay -- Technologica

engine room and Its Impact on Work-Related StressTrends in organizational behavior have an impact on employees. Many factors in our daily lives discharge cause stress, but how does engine room play a role in impacting stress? Does technology affect us positively or negatively? Is at that place anything unethical about technology and the way it is utilized in the workplace? This paper will reveal both the positive and negative impacts of technology on work-related stress and discover some influential ethical issues as well.Organizations utilize various types of technology, from cell phones to personal computers and numerous types of technical software. In the article, ?Workplace slack Blamed on IT Stress?, David Williamson states, ?Technology designed to help people work efficiently is now forcing employees into a state of digital depression? (Williamson, 2003, pg.9). Technology has the ability to prevent a person from escaping reality. In the fire service, firefighters and staff personnel utilize cell phones, pagers, radios, and e-mail. As such, are rarely unavailable and it is non uncommon to be interrupted during one?s day off or vacation. While this inability to ?escape? may cause stress, these same types of technology can assist in relieving stress. For those who travel, cell phones can provide a feeling of safety since help can be a phone war cry away when the car breaks down. For working parents, there is often comfort in knowing the children and family will...