Mae Jemison, First Black Woman Astronaut - Quotations

Mae Jemison (born October 17, 1956) became the first African American woman astronaut in 1987. Inspired both by Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, and by Nichelle Nicholss portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, Jemison applied in 1983. The program had been suspended following the 1986 Challenger disaster, but Jemison was accepted after it re-opened in 1987. Mission Specialist Mae Jemison flew her sole mission in 1992 aboard the shuttle Endeavour. Born in Alabama but raised in Chicago, Jemison had an interest in science from a very young age. Although the early space program had no female astronauts - or black astronauts, for that matter - Jemison was determined. She started college at Stanford University at the age of 16, got an engineering degree, and followed it with medical school at Cornell Medical College. Jemison was a physician and scientist who also spent time with the Peace Corps before applying to NASA. After leaving NASAs space program to pursue her interest in the intersection of social science and technology, Jemison became a professor: first at Dartmouth, then at Cornell. She continues to use her knowledge to support educational efforts and encourage curiosity and scientific experimentation, especially among young people. Selected Mae Jemison Quotations Dont let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. Its your place in the world; its your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.Never be limited by other peoples limited imaginations...If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility wont exist because youll have already shut it out ... You can hear other peoples wisdom, but youve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself.Sometimes people have already decided who you are without your story shining through.The best way to make dreams come true is to wake up.There have been lots of other women who had the talent and ability before me. I think this can be seen as an affirmation that were moving ahead. And I hope it means that Im just the first in a long line.More women should demand to be involved. Its our right. This is one area where we can get in on the ground floor and possibly help to direct where space exploration will go in the future.The thing that I have don e throughout my life is to do the best job that I can and to be me.People may see astronauts and because the majority are white males, they tend to think it has nothing to do with them. But it does.When Im asked about the relevance to Black people of what I do, I take that as an affront. It presupposes that Black people have never been involved in exploring the heavens, but this is not so. Ancient African empires -- Mali, Songhai, Egypt -- had scientists, astronomers. The fact is that space and its resources belong to all of us, not to any one group.I want to make sure we use all our talent, not just 25 percent.Pay attention to the world around you and then find the places where you think you’re skilled. Follow your bliss -- and bliss doesn’t mean it’s easy!It is important for scientists to be aware of what our discoveries mean, socially and politically. Its a noble goal that science should be apolitical, acultural, and asocial, but it cant be, because its done by people who are all those things.I dont know that having been in space gives me a better idea of whether life might exist on other planets. The reality is that we know that this universe, that our galaxy, has billions of stars. We know that stars have planets. So the likelihood that there is life somewhere else to me is just absolutely there.Science is very important to me, but I also like to stress that you have to be well-rounded. Ones love for science doesnt get rid of all the other areas. I truly feel someone interested in science is interested in understanding whats going on in the world. That means you have to find out about social science, art, and politics.If you think about it, HG Wells wrote First Men in the Moon in 1901. Imagine how incredulous, fantastical that idea was in 1901. We didn’t have rockets, we didn’t have the materials, and we weren’t really flying. It was incredible. Less than 100 years later, we were on the moon.While were orbiting Ea rth in the shuttle, the sky looks exactly as it looks here on Earth, except that the stars are brighter. So, we see the same planets, and they look the same way as they look here.In some ways I could have been seen as further ahead if I had taken an easier path, but every now and then I stop and think I probably wouldn’t have been happy. Selected Sources Cooper, Desiree.  Stargazer turned astronaut credits the MLK dream.  Detroit Free Press, 20 Jan. 2008.Fortney Jr., Albert. The Fortney Encyclical Black History: The Worlds True Black History. Xlibris, 2016.Gold, Lauren. Former shuttle Endeavour astronaut Mae C. Jemison encourages students to think like scientists. Cornell University, 11 July 2005.Jemison, Mae.  Find where the wind goes: moments from my life. New York: Scholastic, 2001

Essay - 655 Words

Essay Loralye Reed Alicia Plant HUM 111 1/29/13 Tutankhamun (Tutankhamen) was born in Egypt in 1341 B.C. In 1323 B.C. Tutankhamun died of an unknown death; he was only 17 or 18 years old. Before he died he got to live a short time as a ruler. After his body was exhumed, there have been signs that Tutankhamus could have been murdered, or died from an infection from an injury. â€Å"Historians generally agree that he was the twelfth ruler of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty, who assumed the throne when he was eight or nine years old. Before puberty he was married to his half-sister (or, possibly, niece) Ankhesenamen, daughter of Queen Nefertiti. He reigned until his death in his late teens. Some studies of his remains suggest that he was†¦show more content†¦Its likely that the family of pharaohs had a heritable form of temporal lobe epilepsy, he says. This diagnosis would also account for the feminine features. The temporal lobe is connected to parts of the brain involved in the release of hormones, and epileptic seizures are known to alter the levels of hormones involved in sexual development. This might explain the development of the pharaohs large breasts. A seizure might also be to blame for Tutankhamuns fractured leg, says Ashrafian (Epilepsy amp; Behavior, doi.org/h8s).† (Hamzelou, J. (September 5, 2012). King Tutankhamun (King Tut) may have not been an important ruler, but he has been made known by the artifacts found in his tomb when it was discovered in 1922. â€Å"Though he was of little importance as a ruler, King Tut became the most famous of the Pharaohs thirty-two centuries after his death, when his mummified body and treasure stuffed tomb were discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. The lavish accessories that filled his tomb have toured the world. Almost two million people visited the Tut exhibit in England in 1972, more than eight million saw Tuts treasures on a 1976-77 tour of America, and millions more worldwide saw the artifacts in their 2007-08 exhibition at s ome of the worlds most prestigious museums.† (Tutankhamun, (2012).Show MoreRelatedWhat Is an Essay?1440 Words   |  6 PagesBuscemi Essay #3 Rough Draft An essay is a creative written piece in which the author uses different styles such as diction, tone, pathos, ethos or logos to communicate a message to the reader using either a personal experience, filled with morals and parables, or a informative text filled with educational terms. Educational terms could mean the usage of complicated and elevated words or simply information you would get in schools. Some authors, such as Cynthia Ozick, claim that an essay has noRead Morenarrative essay1321 Words   |  6 PagesNarrative Essay A Brief Guide to Writing Narrative Essays Narrative writing tells a story. In essays the narrative writing could also be considered reflection or an exploration of the author s values told as a story. The author may remember his or her past, or a memorable person or event from that past, or even observe the present. When you re writing a narrative essay, loosen up. After all, you re basically just telling a story to someone, something you probably do every day in casual conversationRead MoreApplication Essay : A Process Essay770 Words   |  4 Pagesassign an essay. The entire class lets out a groan that could be heard from miles away, however this doesn’t phase your professor. The essay is assigned: a process essay. Now what? What is a process essay? How do you go about writing one? How do you get the A you so desperately need? This paper will discuss everything one needs to know in order to write the perfect process essay such as the definition of a process essay, how to construct it, and how to use proper transitions to make the essay flow. Read MoreEssay763 Words   |  4 PagesCan’t be Built on Soccer Fever† and â€Å"Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye† In Jonathan Zimmerman’s essay â€Å"African National Identities Can’t Be Built on Soccer Fever† he describes how soccer brings the people of Africa together. He talks about the unity of Africans and how much soccer is a part of their lives. He also describes the underlying reason of why soccer is so heavily pushed. The perspective in the essay â€Å"Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye† Tim Bowling discusses his passion for hockey and his hate forRead MoreThe Colonel Essay1320 Words   |  6 PagesIn the essay, The Colonel, Michael Hogan illustrates the importance of the influential sport of tennis. Hogan writes about how tennis changed his life from an early age. When he was younger he saw tennis as a rich mans sport in which he had no interest. One of his much-respected neighbors, the colonel, approached Hogan’s father with the idea that his son might like to learn how to play tennis. After pondering the thought with his father, Hogan decided to take t he offer. The Colonel became his mentorRead MorePersuasive Essays : Persuasive Essay897 Words   |  4 Pagesbegan this class, I loved to write persuasive essays. I loved to write about my own opinions and I was quite good at convincing people to agree with my stand points. To convince others to agree on my point of view was an extraordinary feeling. I am very good at getting my point across and giving my reasons on why I feel the way I do about a certain situation. I loved writing persuasive essays because I love to read them as well. I love how persuasive essays have a call-to-action; giving the readers aRead MoreEnglish Composition One: To Be an Essay or Not to Be an Essay That Is the Question910 Words   |  4 Pages In the past, the mention to have to write a paper for an assignment caused me to break out in a sweat or my mouth instantly dries, well it does not have that kind of effect on me anymore. 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Ex. 9 Analyzing students’ essays. Use the assignment and the Student Essays to answer the following questions. Assignment: Computers have become an important part of educational process. Write convincing illustration to this statement. Use specific and convincing examples and details. Student Essay 1 Computer as a multipurpose universal instrument of education. In our days computers have become an importantRead MorePristine Contentment Essay590 Words   |  3 Pageshome she becomes absorbed in its tranquility and indifference. She is reborn, starts anew and creates a new life for herself. Ehrlich even cut her hair and buys new clothes to create a quot;newquot; and different person. To read and understand this essay means looking deeper into the authors story of rebirth, and how the big Wyoming skies were healing and put things into perspective for her. Thus, improving her quality of life without any fillers or distractions. Ehrlichs purpose for being in

History of Minority Populations in the Child Welfare System Free Essays

The child welfare system was created as the need to address the basic needs and provisions of poor children was more and more evident throughout the 19th century. Through the passing decades, the need to provide supportive services for these children’s families was also a concern. Among the agencies responsible for providing these services are state and county child protective services as well as adoption agencies and foster homes. We will write a custom essay sample on History of Minority Populations in the Child Welfare System or any similar topic only for you Order Now The main goal of these agencies is the protection of children who have experienced abuse from those who are responsible for their care such as parents or guardians. The ultimate goal is to have abused children reunited with their biological parents -when possible- once the danger of repeated abuse has been curbed. The decision to place children up for adoption is a measure of last resort. However, it is evident that children of minority groups are the ones most represented within the national child welfare system. The Relevant History of the Minority Populations Minority populations within the United States have always been at a significant disadvantage socially and economically. The roots of these disadvantages among minorities go back to the initial colonization and subsequent expansion of this country. For example, the African American and Native American populations were once the target of systematic, institutionalized racism. The literal and cultural destruction of Native Americans and the racially biased laws passed by federal, state and local governments against the African American population have subsequently resulted in a socio-economic breakdown within these groups (Martin, 2007). These disadvantages have caused a social stagnation among subsequent generations within these groups. Undeniably, the stresses of disadvantaged families trying to reach self-sufficiency have caused many to experience behavioral and emotional issues of which the result is many times the abuse of their children or children in their care. However, there has been a response to these issues within the Human Services community especially from the child welfare practice. The U. S. Child Welfare Response The resulting awareness that there is in fact a need to concentrate efforts in helping improve the quality of life among minorities and their children has caused the Human Services community to implement more comprehensive actions towards the social assistance of these children. In recent decades the preservation of the family unit has been the ultimate goal when a child protective services agency interferes. But other preventative measures have also been implemented many of which have seen positive results. Contemporary Efforts to Intervene With Child and Family Services Respecting Cultural Diversity The necessary interference from child protective services mostly results in temporary placement of abused or allegedly abused children in foster homes. As previously mentioned, the goal is eventual reunification of the child with his or her family but not until there is clear evidence that there have been efforts made by the biological parents to make behavioral improvements within their families to prevent any future abuses of their children. Programs available to parents of abused children range from counseling, parenting classes, treatment for substance abuse, anger management, employment services and housing services (Martin, 2007). Preventative measures have also been taken by social service agencies in the form of early intervention and prevention programs. These services can include family counseling, parenting training, household budgeting, stress management, and in some cases cash assistance (Martin, 2007). There is however another area of focus among the child welfare system in regards to the methods of providing services for children of American subcultures. Methods of Cultural Competent Practice in Child and Family Service Settings Cultural competencies are the methods developed for Human Services professionals that are designed to increase cultural awareness and sensitivity. The application of the principles learned with their application allow the child welfare worker to better serve minority children and their families. As the child welfare professional applies what he or she learns regarding the culture of the child and his or her parents, the worker will achieve the ability to respect the dignity of all people regardless of race, gender, age or sexual orientation (Martin, 2007) How to cite History of Minority Populations in the Child Welfare System, Essay examples

Case Study on Oz Supermarket-Free-Samples -Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Case Study on Oz Supermarket. Answer: Introduction Oz Supermarket is a retail chain that is new and it aims to reduce the queues during the point of exit. This retail chain only deals in household, non perishable and stationery goods. It has adopted several methods to overcome the problems that other supermarkets face and to improve its efficiency. This report describes about the various ways that Oz Supermarket has adopted to improve its customer service and to decrease the problems that they face by waiting in the queue. This report also gives certain recommendations to further improve the customer service of the Oz Supermarket. Oz Supermarket Oz Supermarket is a retail chain that is new. It has made a new type of set up in order to remove all the problems that people face at the exit queues. They have taken several steps in order to overcome this issue. Oz Supermarket only sells stationery, household and non perishable goods. This is the first step that is taken by the retail chain. The main step that they have taken is the use of an electronic card called PayWave. This is a technology that is based on special RFID (Jia et al., 2012). This supermarket does not give the facility to the customers to pay in cash. The customers are allowed to pay via the PayWave card that is provided to them. The customer needs to wave the card while entering the store. This allows their entry. The trolleys that are provided in the Supermarket have special radio frequency identification reader installed in it. It works in a systematic way. Whenever any customer puts their selected items in the trolley, it gets queued in the billing list. And whenever any customer removes any item from the trolley then that particular item gets deleted from the billing list. Unlike any other retail store the customer does not have to wait in the billing counter for payin g the bill. Here the customers simply exit the store after selecting the items. The total bill amount is deducted from the PayWave card as they move out of the gate. There are new customers who arrive at the store. They do not have the PayWave card. They have to follow another procedure. They have to speak with the front desk people and deposit cash on a temporary basis. They will be provided with a PayWave card for temporary purpose like in the case of tourist and children. They will also get the facility to walk out of the store without waiting in the queue. After the tourists or temporary customers leave the store permanently their cash balance is returned to them. Or in other case the balance can be used by the customers when they return to the store again. They can use that card again for the purpose of shopping in the future. Every item in the store has RFID chip installed in it (De Marco et al., 2012). The extra cost of the RFID is used for the interest of the customers who are in a hurry for some reason. The entire retail store has stations placed at regular intervals. These stations are known as the summary stations. Here the customers can go and check their bill amount when they are in any type of confusion. The shopping summary stations are placed in several locations in a strategic manner. Oz Supermarket has also thought about the parking issues of the customers. They have a system of charging the rate based on the time taken. In the non peak seasons, the customers are charged a lower rate. The parking rate for the disabled people is free. The Oz Supermarket has taken several strategies in an intelligent manner to increase their efficiency and improve the work of the store through customer satisfaction. Recommendations This report provides three recommendations outlining the business operations of the Oz Supermarket. Overcoming the security threats: In this era of information and communication technology, security is a major issue. There are several security threats that can take place. The PayWave card that is used by the retail store is based on information technology. It has cash stored in it. Hacking can be one of the major issues that can take place in this case. Hacking falls under the category of deliberate security threat. Hacking this system can cause loss of money for several customers that visit the store (Coleman, 2013). Oz Supermarket can take several steps to protect itself from any malware attack or any kind of hacking issue (Zhou Jiang, 2012). Security programs that are up to date must be installed in the information system of the store. They should not use any type of Wi-Fi system. This can cause severe issue if the hackers get access to the Wi-Fi. A signature authentication method should be followed for protecting the PayWave card. A safe and secured process used in the market can help the customer satisfaction to improve and to attract more number of customers. The system should install programs to protect itself from any type of spyware (Agrawal Smith, 2013). All these issues can be easy solved by installing antivirus programs and having a strong security policy integrated in the system. Cost reduction: RFID tags that are used, consume huge amount of cost. Different types of RFID tags must be selected depending on the organization needs and requirements (Choi et al., 2012). There are active and passive tags. Oz Supermarket should carry out a proper investigation in order to determine the suitable tag for the retail chain. The speed and range of the passive RFID is more. Active RFID on the other hand has a higher cost as well as performance in comparison to the passive tags. A proper cost analysis should be done before implementing the RFID (Fan et al., 2014). In order to reduce the overhead charge the supermarket can use passive RFID. Cheaper tags will help the store to benefit in a cost effective manner. RFID interference: There can be certain interference that can cause problems in the RFID tags. The noise or electromagnetic wave can block any wave from entering into the RFID tags. This limitation can be resolved or minimized by the Oz Supermarket in several ways. They must check the spectrum of frequencies that are used by the devices in the environment. They should try to gain commitment from the suppliers on the protocols and standards. A trial installation must be done before installing any type of tags (Krigslund et al., 2012). A performance review must be carried out in order to understand the performance of the existing system and the RFID components. The tags must also be aligned with the antennas for better performance of the system. Additional Option to Improve Customer Service One additional option that can be provided in order to improve the customer service in the store is to hire more number of employees and to train them according to their needs. More number of employees is required in case of helping the new customers like tourists to make them understand the process of purchasing that takes place in the store (Sung Choi, 2014). These employees can guide the customers to understand where several items are present. They can even guide them to use the summary stations that are located in various locations. The management team must find out the weak employees and then train them for improving the process of customer satisfaction. More number of employees will reduce the workload of each employee and they will be able to focus on a particular job at a time. This will improve their performance leading to customer satisfaction (Ford, 2014). Engaging more staffs will help the customers to get accustomed to the system and procedure in the Oz Supermarket. The y will find it to be very comfortable to access the systems and understand the procedure. Suggestions to Improve the Business Operations and Services Customer feedback: The purchasing behavior does not explain about their feelings regarding the store. This method can be used in order to understand what the customers want and what the area of rectification is. There can be online suggestion forms that can be filled up by the customers to understand the weakness of the store (Olsson Bosch, 2015). They can take further steps to improve their quality of service and operations. They will be able to find out what the local customers value. They can be asked questions regarding why a particular type of promotion is attractive to them. Any kind of sensitive issue can be tackled in an organized way. Consider a situation where a customer is unable to speak up to the management due to some issue. The feedback system will make it easier for the customers to communicate with the store authority. Strategic planning can be done in order to improve the services and operations of the store. Any organization is able to grow because of their custom er base. Customers bring value to any business. Business deals are successful because of the customer satisfaction. Their feedback is the most important thing (Nacif, 2012). The store will be able to minimize their weaknesses and maximize their strengths. Product quality review: Various products can be reviewed in order to understand the quality of the items. The products can be compared with those of the competitors in order to find out the loopholes and limitations. Innovation is an important step in the quality improvement of the product. In order to survive and grow in the industry the supermarket can improve the products through the process of innovation. The process of continuous improvement is used in this method. The quality of the product must be reviewed in a periodical manner (Goetsch Davis, 2014). A critical method of review must be done to find out the in process and finished goods. The supply chain system of the company must be traced in a proper manner. The review of the product needs to be done in six main areas. The legal areas must include the market authorization of the products. The external complaints issues must be looked into and resolved. The processes must be improved in order to improve the quality of the pr oduct. Testing of products must be done in a proper manner. Any kind of deviations from the product can be resolved in a proper manner. New business models: The Oz Supermarket should include other business models also like online retail websites. The supermarket can create a new website which will be an ecommerce website. There they can sell their products over the internet. Customers can enter their PayWave card ID and given password to log in to the website. Any new customer can register their by applying for the PayWave card. Once they have registered, they can purchase anything online (Laudon Traver, 2013). They will get the scope to view all the products available in the store just by using the internet. The customers will also be able to file any complaint or give a good feedback over the internet through the website. These types of models are implemented for the betterment of the business. ERP software: Enterprise resource planning software can be used in order to improve the efficiency and the operations of the business. Oz Supermarket can use ERP software to reduce the manual strain of the employees (Leon, 2014). It will integrate all the information and make it available to the departments that need the information without any delay. Integrated functioning of all the departments will help the supermarket to improve its efficiency in operations. Several ERP options are available like SAP (Monk Wagner, 2012). This is also a cost saving method. Other software like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software can be used to help the store to improve the functionality of the store. Conclusion This report concludes that Oz Supermarket has implemented several steps to eliminate the problems that customer face at the queues. They have automated the entire process through the help of RFID technology. This report also discusses recommendations to improve the business operations and efficiency References Agrawal, N., Smith, S. A. (2013). Optimal inventory management for a retail chain with diverse store demands.European Journal of Operational Research,225(3), 393-403. Choi, J. S., Lee, H., Engels, D. W., Elmasri, R. (2012). Passive UHF RFID-based localization using detection of tag interference on smart shelf.IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews),42(2), 268-275. Coleman, E. G. (2013).Coding freedom: The ethics and aesthetics of hacking. Princeton University Press. De Marco, A., Cagliano, A. C., Nervo, M. L., Rafele, C. (2012). Using System Dynamics to assess the impact of RFID technology on retail operations.International journal of production economics,135(1), 333-344. Fan, T. J., Chang, X. Y., Gu, C. H., Yi, J. J., Deng, S. (2014). Benefits of RFID technology for reducing inventory shrinkage.International Journal of Production Economics,147, 659-665. Ford, J. K. (2014).Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014).Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Jia, X., Feng, Q., Fan, T., Lei, Q. (2012, April). RFID technology and its applications in Internet of Things (IoT). InConsumer Electronics, Communications and Networks (CECNet), 2012 2nd International Conference on(pp. 1282-1285). IEEE. Krigslund, R., Popovski, P., Pedersen, G. F., Olesen, K. (2012). Interference helps to equalize the read range and reduce false positives of passive RFID tags.IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics,59(12), 4821-4830. Laudon, K. C., Traver, C. G. (2013).E-commerce. Pearson. Leon, A. (2014).Enterprise resource planning. McGraw-Hill Education. Monk, E., Wagner, B. (2012).Concepts in enterprise resource planning. Cengage Learning. Nacif, R. C. (2012).Online Customer Loyalty: Forecasting the Repatronage Behavior of Online Retail Customers. Springer Science Business Media. Olsson, H. H., Bosch, J. (2015, June). Towards continuous customer validation: a conceptual model for combining qualitative customer feedback with quantitative customer observation. InInternational Conference of Software Business(pp. 154-166). Springer, Cham. Sung, S. Y., Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations.Journal of organizational behavior,35(3), 393-412. Zhou, Y., Jiang, X. (2012, May). Dissecting android malware: Characterization and evolution. InSecurity and Privacy (SP), 2012 IEEE Symposium on(pp. 95-109). IEEE.

Linking Human Resource Management

Introduction The last few decades have witnessed the evolution of debates linking Human Resource Management (HRM) to organizational strategy. Decisions made by Human Resource Managers have notable influences on the performance of organizations. It is important to define the link between HRM and the wider organizational strategy.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Linking Human Resource Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This study tries to determine how organizations deal with HRM and relevant issues to the organizations’ approach to HRM. The study also seeks to examine possible links between HRM and wider organizational strategy, their rise and effects to the organization. For the research to meet its goals, the roles of HRM management in organizations and the organizations approaches to HRM issues will be discussed. The study will use St. James hospital a study case. Roles of Human Resource Managem ent Human Resource Management (HRM) is an important discipline in all establishments. HRM concerns itself with the control of human resources to support organizational objectives. St. James hospital has a HRM department that is responsible for managing its human resources. The HRM department deals with: Recruitment of new employees The HRM department conducts interviews for prospective candidates and hires them to promote the best interest of the society. This section determines the functioning of the entire organization in terms of human labor and intelligence advice in decision-making. The department also deals with appraising and rewarding employees for their work. Employee Development and Training Matters concerned with employee training and development activities are handled by the HR department. HRM facilitates workshops and seminars that empower employees with more knowledge and skills to move the organization to its full capacity. Employee Relations and Conduct The departmen t has a responsibility of dealing with problems that affect employees and hinder them from performing efficiently. Therefore, this department makes sure employees maintain discipline in their profession. This makes sure that all policies governing the organization are observed and enforced. Creating and Implementing Policies The HR department has a duty to review company policies, amend changes and proposes the adoption of new policies that cater for the demands and growth of an organization. These policies make sure that organizational goals are achieved, and promote the interests of the company and safeguard interests of employees.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Organizational Approaches to Human Resource Management All issues discussed above are relevant to the organization as regards to the functions of the HR department. The HR department acts as a strategic partner to wards the implementation of the organizations goals and objectives. The organization employs the use of strategic HRM to meet its goals. The concerns of the organization are competitiveness, flexibility, efficiency and integration. To do this, the HR department will, provide the organization with a competitive, responsive, flexible and efficient personnel environment. Application of an effective strategy in HRM enables the organization improve its competition and efficiency. In that case, HRM is concerned with factors that affect the organization internally. Strategic Human Resource Management Human resource management strategies are important sources of competition among organizations (Pfeffer 1994). The strengths of strategic HRM are on the actions implemented by organizations to single themselves out from their competitors (Purcell 1999). It involves complementing HRM policies into organizational strategies to achieve a common goal. Strategic HRM concerns itself with issues relat ing to changes in organizations structures and culture to improve performance. Strategic HRM deals with human resources, their development and abilities to be efficient and effective. Deb (2006, p. 54) notes that strategic HRM builds ‘high performance human resource management functions’. Human resource functions add value to organization’s core business ideas. Strategic HRM also makes sure that business strategies and human resources support implementation of the organizations’ goals towards achievement of better results. In strategic management, HRM acts as a strategic partner towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. One of the major functions of HRM in strategic human resource management is establishing high performance practices. To accomplish this, the HR department makes sure that there is quality and qualified human resource powers to enable an organization achieve desired goals. Strategic HRM emphasizes on maintenance of mutu al commitment between all parties involved (Walton 1985).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Linking Human Resource Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Strategic HRM is geared towards the provision of results and is associated with high productivity rates and notable financial outcomes (Ichiniowski 1990). High productivity is achieved when organizational strategies are met. Therefore, this entails the application of strategic HRM techniques that involve the introduction of a qualified working human resource force to complete set tasks. Linking Human Resource Management and Organizational Strategy Deb (2006, p. 55) identifies a ‘positive link between sets of human resource management practices and business performance.’ He employs universalistic, contingency and configuration approaches to organizational performance. His analysis yields positive organizational outcomes characterized by quality, service and productivity (Deb 2006). HRM can be linked to organizational strategy through the following ways. Regenerating an Organization HRM re-generates the performance of an organization through the employment of various HR techniques and practices that harmonize work ethics and organizational cultures. Techniques used include the setting of human hierarchy, introducing information technology, re-generating policies and centralizing decision making processes. Creating a positive learning environment Strategic HRM creates formal and informal learning environments in the workplace. Deb (2006, p. 56) notes that strategic HRM ‘develops action plans for transferring learning to the organization.’ Strategic HRM brings together intelligence and cultivates ways having its input to the system. To accomplish this, organizations nurture human talent leading to the creation of a learning environment that breeds innovation hence enhances competition. Creating high-performance ma nagement Strategic HRM creates a high performance management by applying the use of HR management practices. To accomplish this, the HR department employs recruitment and selection processes and offer periodical relevant training. The HR department also strives to make sure the handling of human resource is managed professionally. High performance management is also the self-regulation of individual behaviors in relations to the organization (Wood 1996). Creating high-involvement management The link between HRM and organizational strategies pops out when the overall management partners with its human labor. Therefore, management is achieved creation of a dialogue environment between the management and human labor.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Examples Case 1: Employment of business leaders in Martin Company Martin Company needs marketers to market its new products. They have targets to meet by the end of the year. They seek the services of a HRM agency to hire business leaders on their behalf. In business leadership, consensus highly depends on the HR leadership. Strategic HRM identifies key human resource services to offer to the business. This includes material and personnel support. The HR department designs strategic services and policies to meet strategic objectives laid down by the business. Strategic HRM is positioned to meet business needs due to its experience in the economic system. Business leadership in this sense requires HRM services. In cases that there is no application of HRM, the recruitment of personnel qualified to carry specified tasks may not be attained. This would lead to partial or lack of positive outcomes in business objectives. Case 2: Employment of Nurses at King James Hospital Two years ago, King James Hospital lacked personnel. The management decided to carry out direct interviews and employ the missing personnel. After one month, patients started complaining of poor services. In that case, the hospital management did not seek HRM services to recruit personnel. As a result, unqualified personnel were recruited, and services were poor. In service provision, the use of HRM technique to achieve strategic objectives is important. Service provision requires experienced personnel to handle client’s needs. A qualified and productive workforce would achieve the specified strategic objectives. This would employ the use of HRM services for recruiting. When HRM is not utilized, then the service provision is below average, and poor outcomes are recorded Conclusion Business challenges in this vigorous economy are forcing organizations to reposition functions of the HR department. Business leadership is becoming more depended on strategic leadership acquitted from HR. The dr iving force behind notable business achievements is through support from human resources. A strong link exists between HRM and Organizational Strategy. The link should be build up for the achievement of better results in organizational management. So far, this paper has analyzed the roles of HRM, strategic HRM and has established a link between HRM and organizational strategy. List of References Deb, T 2006, Strategic approach to Human Resource Management, Atlantic Publishers, India, New Delhi. Ichniowski, C 1990, Manufacturing businesses. NBER working paper, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge. Pfeffer, J 1994, Competitive advantage through people. Harvard Business School Press, Boston. Purcell, J 2006, ‘Best practice and best fit: cimera or cul-de-sac?’, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 26–41. Walton, R 1985, ‘From control to commitment in the workplace’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 63 no. 2, pp. 76- 84 Wood, S 19 96, ‘High commitment management and payment systems’, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 33, no.1, pp. 53–77. This essay on Linking Human Resource Management was written and submitted by user Mohammed Drake to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Improve Business Writing Skills with the Right Measurements

Improve Business Writing Skills with the Right Measurements Improving Business Writing Skills Requires Attention to Both SubstanceandSyntax Of the many challenges a business faces when it comes to improving the business writing skills of its employees, the biggest challenge is selecting a yardstick for comparison. Since writing is a subjective skill, deciding the appropriate standard to differentiate â€Å"good† business writing from â€Å"bad† business writing is difficult. Similarly, â€Å"good business writing† appears to be a fuzzy concept thatis difficult to measure. How then,can one define and measure good business writing skills? What should be measured and what tools can help? Improving Business Writing Skills Requires Attention to Both SubstanceandSyntax Luckily, there are two important criteria to determine the effectiveness of business writing: Substance Syntax Substance refers to the content of the document. Substance includes the information contained – the facts, the findings, the requests. It’s the â€Å"meat† of the document. Syntax, on the other hand, refers to the language of the document. This includes the words, sentences, and tenses used. Syntax carries the presentation of the documentand its readability. Syntax will shape the tone of the document. In essence, syntaxcarriesthe substance. Together, substanceand syntaxare two ways to judge a business document and decide whether it is good or bad. The substance of a document is more important than the syntax. If the basic idea and information for a specificaudience for a report are unclear, for example, the report won't carry the right information the reader needs, regardless of how grammatically correct it is. If you don’t get the substance right, syntax alone cannot fix content errors or omissions. As my grandmother used to say, â€Å"You’re just putting lipstick on a pig.† Nonetheless, syntax is also important. Honing good substance in business documents should always be a primary focus in business writing training, but syntax (the language and grammar) carries the meaning. Poor syntax is very unprofessional. With the advent of new tools and technologies, measuring and improving syntax has become easier than before. Here are the two ways syntax in business writing can be measured: 1) MeasureSyntax withMicrosoft's Readability Index Most writing software (including the very popularMicrosoft Word) offers areadability tool to measure syntax. It will measureactive voice and passive voice and the simplicity orcomplexity of sentence structure throughout the business document. This tool is also useful in assessing clarity. If passive voice is high and sentence structures are complex, it's a clear indication that clarity is lacking. Readability tools provide reporting on the words per sentence used, the percentage of passive sentences, and assign a readability score and grade to the overall document. When combined with the overall document content, this score helps you determine whether the appropriate message has been communicated in the document or not. As a rule of thumb, remember these three tips: The lower the passive voice used, the better the readability score. Flesh Reading Ease score should be just above standard for a well-written business document. Flesh-Kincaid grade level tends to vary with the complexity of the document, but lower is always better in business writing. We want to express, not impress. 2) Assess Grammar withGrammar Check Another easy-to-use tool to both measure and improve syntax is to check the grammar in the document. Thanks to Microsoft Word’s grammar check, some of the proofreading requirements have been reduced. It'sineffective and boring to teach your staff how to avoid spelling mistakes when as a single red or green dotted line on the Word file highlights potential errors. Spellcheck is far from infallible, but it will flag typos. Tip: watch for grammar error patterns in your own writing, or your employee’s writing. This will diagnose individual grammar errors, allowing you to focus on improving the issues that truly need attention. Remember to focus first on substance in business writing training. Once the substance is verified, then use syntax rating tools, such as Microsoft’s Readability Index and simple grammar check to verify syntax. To learn more on how to improve business writing skills for yourself and your employees, download the guideâ€Å"Four Steps to improve your Team’s Business Writing Skills† today!

Peter Smythe vs Vincent Thomas Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Peter Smythe vs Vincent Thomas - Case Study Example The fall of the hammer in a traditional auction is complete when the auctioneer announces its completion by the fall of the hammer or in another customary manner—and until any such announcement is made any bidder may retract his or her bid. The equivalent of the fall of the hammer in an eBay auction is the automatic close of bidding at a fixed time and the generation of an eBay advice headed â€Å"won† appear to have been accepted by the parties to an eBay auction. An order for specific performance of the contract was appropriate because of two reasons: 1) the Wirraway was not at the time in flying condition, and 2) the plane was in a hangar owned by a third party. It was ruled that a binding contract was formed between the plaintiff3 and the defendant4 and that it should be specifically enforced.5 Further, the two parties would be given a chance to reach agreement on the precise nature of the agreement. McMuffins Ltd is a fast food company. Yesterday, before work had started, an argument arose between three kitchen hands: Tom, Dick, and Harry. Over the weekend, Tom had offered to sell his motorbike to Dick for $5000. Dick said this was far too much but he would pay $4000. Tom refused. Before Tom left for work this morning Dick phoned to say he would buy the motorbike for $5000 but Tom said he had already sold it to Harry for $4,500. It was not a good day for Dick: he was one of the six employees of McMuffins Ltd that buy a weekly lottery ticket, each contributing an equal amount of money. Every week the money is collected by Lotty, the office junior, who also buys the lottery ticket. The group has always agreed to share any winnings equally. Lotty discovered this morning that the lottery ticket has won $1,000,000, and tells the other members of the group that she intends to claim the money for herself and leave McMuffins Ltd. According to Tom, he has already sold the bike. If there is a bill of sale6 made out to Harry, the bike has technically already been sold.

Problem Facing UK Copyright Law Arising in Digital Market Essay

Problem Facing UK Copyright Law Arising in Digital Market - Essay Example This paper will evaluate the Problems facing UK copyright law as a result of the digital market. Additionally, I will explain why I chose this topic. Moreover, the paper will cover my intended research methodology. Also, it will cover a review of the previous studies conducted on this topic. Many organizations and people come up with new innovations and inventions in addition to improving their current properties. This innovations, inventions and improvements have an economic value. As such, laws have been formulated to protect such intellectual properties and innovations against copying or illegal usage. These laws are founded on the concept or idea that if an individual, group or organisation has utilized his or her expertise, knowledge and resources to design and create a new item, no other person must benefit from that invention without the inventor’s authorization. In order to enforce compliance, there is need for legislation to deter illegal usage of another person’s property. Most governments enact copyright laws to guard and provide exclusive rights to creators of original work for a specified time. Often, it is referred to as the right to copy. However, it gives the copyright holder other additional rights. The development and creation of the computer network and digital media technologies have prompted the UK government to reinterpret the copy right laws. Patents, trade secrets and trademarks are applicable to expressible forms of information or ideas. Under the intellectual property law, owners are given exclusive rights to a multitude of intangible assets (Lemley, 2004). For example, literary, artistic works; inventions and discoveries, designs and symbols and musical works. Intellectual and copyright property rights encompass patents, trademarks, trade secrets and industrial design rights depending on the jurisdiction. Although most copyright laws in protecting property are territorial and confined to the area of their origin, a lot of

Corporate finance and Financial Accounting Essay

Corporate finance and Financial Accounting - Essay Example However, it is the responsibility of the organization to formulate and implement appropriate strategies to deal with risks. For this case, the management of XYZ opted for acquisition of the company. XYZ sold itself to ABC International in exchange for $8.2 billion. After the acquisition, XYZ estimated that the worth of its shares would be placed at $100 per share. After the acquisition, ABC would take the sole responsibility of selling the XYZ’s stock exchange ventures situated in different countries that include Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal. ABC International’s operations ABC International is a leading global operator that deals with exchanges and the market for various forms of contracts ranging from agriculture to equity index. The corporation is based in the United Kingdom with its operations in Russell, Europe and some parts of the United States. The company operated under ABC Int’l as the trade mark and name. The company is managed by a board of direct ors, who set high standards that help in day-to-day management of the company. However, there exist guidelines and regulations of the organization that must be followed from time to time, subject to modification by the board of directors. This ensures a fulfillment of the best interests of the organization in line with the rules and regulations of the company. ... The company’s financial analysis is as presented below: Valuation ratio P/E Current 20.27 P/E Ratio (with extraordinary items) 20.27 P/E Ratio (without extraordinary items) 16.46 Price to Sales Ratio 6.61 Price to Book Ratio 2.46 Price to Cash Flow Ratio 12.39 Enterprise Value to EBITDA 11.19 Enterprise Value to Sales 8.02 Total Debt to Enterprise Value 0.13 Efficiency Revenue/Employee 1.27 Income per Employee 0.51 Receivables Turnover 10.34 Total Asset Turnover 0.04 For the liquidity ratio, the current and the quick ratio both stand at 1.04 while the cash ration remains at 0.05 Profitability ratio Gross Margin 70.00 Operating Margin 60.00 Pretax Margin 57.50 Net Margin 40.00 Return on Assets 1.20 Return on Equity 16.30 Return on Total Capital 12.50 Return on Invested Capital 12.88 Capital Structure Total Debt to Total Equity 30.00 Total Debt to Total Capital 20.50 Total Debt to Total Assets 3.00 Long-Term Debt to Equity 26.50 Long-Term Debt to Total Capital 20.00 Rationale fo r the acquisition The acquisition would ensure improvement in the ranking of the XYZ Corporation in the stocks exchange market. This is because of the strengthening of products and leadership (Ehrhardt & Brigham, 2011). After the completion of the acquisition, the new company will focus on the improvement of financial services, leading to high growth potential. Diversification of risks will attract more investors to invest in the company, hence growth and expansion of the company (Nofsinger, Kim & Mohr, 2010). In addition, existing investors will be certain of their investments, whereas the same venture will aim at increasing shareholder’s wealth through improved profitability. Acquisition

Skills for Project Leadership and Team Building

Skills for Project Leadership and Team Building ABSTRACT This report is based on project leadership and team building i.e. PLTB. The various skills required for PLTB, human resources needs and challenges in PLTB and the role of PLTB in adding the value to the project management scenario. The implementation of self directed teams into the project management has been increased and has replaced the traditional manufacturing ways. According to many experiments done, self directed teams provide the performance effectiveness to the organization. For a successful project management, the organization has to define various key performance contributors like selection of team, clear project objectives, innovation and the commitment of the project team members. All the four aspects are important for the success of any project. First of all the concepts like project management, product life cycle, team building, human resource development theories and innovation for team building are discussed. After that a case study RL Wolfe, a pipe manufacturer, has been taken and the impact of implementation of self directed teams on the organization is discussed. Further the recommendations and conclusion are made. INTRODUCTION The scenario today has changed to a kind of frame where the self direction, self motivation are the main concerns. The project management if understood in simple words is nothing but the set of stages where the each stage has got the equal importance. The success of a project is mostly dependent on the project manager or project leader because the leader will have to make the goals, get the employees together and make them as a team and ultimately guide them till the end. The team selection or building team in itself is a very tedious and intelligent task because it is always very difficult to understand the capabilities and hidden qualities of the employee and the way to use it for the project. The cross-cultural conflicts are also to be dealt with in order to confirm the success of the project The report will include the necessary the practical, theoretical and empirical examples to support the statement of the report. The report will be guided with the help of relevant case studies as well wherever needed. MAIN BODY Project Management The project management does not simply means to execute a certain job, rather it is set of activities one followed after the other and in some cases it some activities are not even in the to do list but are instant and demand for prompt response. The project management is supposed to be the set of activities which includes the planning, initiating, monitoring and finishing the project. This is basically the art to get the work done form the various elements involved. As Peter Drucker once said that management is doing the things right, leadership is doing right things, this means there has to be a proper balance in the management and leadership. As it has been a matter of debate since the beginning that what the difference between the leader and manger is, can a manager be a leader or vice-versa. The trait theory has said that there are certain traits which decide whether the particular person is a leader or not and it can be concluded from other theories as well that there are certa in traits which are innate and some qualities can be learnt with the experience over the period of time. A per Lock D (2007:8), Project management has got one purpose to foresee or predict as many dangers and problems as possible and to plan, organise and control activities so that the projects are completed successfully in spite of all the risks. He has also argued further that the role of a project manager is to justify his/her existence by satisfying the stakeholders by cost cutting and successful ending. There has to be particular model for the particular project but general there are the following steps: Integration Scope Time Cost Quality Human resource Risk Communication Procurement The project leadership is the point which is there to direct and control the task. The leaders are always gaining the trust; there is a relation of trust between the leader and followers. This point is justified by the lecture given by Murray Johannsen that managers are the one which are having the subordinates to help them or to listen to them whereas the leaders have the followers. The difference here lies in the way to get the work done. It is pertinent to mention the fact a follower will never feel uneasy to do any task given by leader but a subordinate will always find the faults in the managers work. This is the basic human tendency which the leaders always win upon. The project management is also further defined as Project management is a set of principles, methods, tools, and techniques for the effective management of objective-oriented work in the context of a specific and unique organizational environment Knutson, J. Bitz, I., (1991:2). The common methods used for achievin g the targets are PERT, CPM. The main logic of using the scientific methods for project management is to minimize the risk factor and be competitive. The project leadership is a very important in todays market place because the team building has grown very critical. The one most important thing is that the project leader should use empowerment and let the employees take some crucial decisions. It has been demonstrated through several scholarly researches that the most important and valuable concept in self directed teams is of empowerment. Empowerment in simple manner can be understood as gaining the power by giving away the power or authority. As per a web source, according to Harvey, L, (2004-9) Empowerment is a continuous process comprising a series of conscious steps taken by individuals to gain access resources; to better express and defend their rights and in the process. Empowerment is not about wresting power from an individual or group of individuals and handling it over to another. It is the means to an end, not an end in itself. Also, the time does not allow today to give the reaction after the action, rather the projec t leader should be proactive in nature and should try to foresee the changes and should form a team which always gives critical remarks. This will ultimately help in the successful completion of the project. As it has been quoted several a times that leadership is ultimately held responsible for the things. This is also supported by the article of Dr. Keith Mathis where he says Everything rises and falls on leadership. This quote is especially true in running successful projects. You must have strong leadership, or things fall through the crack. Every individual must be committed to do what they say they will do. Source: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/six-ways-to-give-proper-project-leadership.html Cited on: 25/03/2011 Project Life Cycle The diagram below shows the four common stages of the Project life cycle: Source: http://www.onestopsap.com/images/project-lifecycle-v2.jpg Cited on: 20/03/2011 As per westland, J., 2007 the four stages can be understood as following along with their relevance: Within the initiation phase, the business problem or any conflict or risk or opportunity is found and further a solution is found. This is followed by the team building. In Project Planning, is all about creating a framework, assigning duties and taking care of risk issues. In project Execution, the plan is followed upon, the various measures are employed and it is checked whether some alteration is needed or not In project Closure, included the final derivates to the end consumers in the desired format, some lessons are learnt for the future form eth experience of the whole project. Now this particular concept has to be related to the self directed teams and the team should be well aware of all the steps. The advantage of using self directed team is clearly understood in the case study of R L Wolfe the pipe manufacturer company, which has employed it in 2004 and the results were seen very soon. The self directed teams are nothing but the Self directed teams SDT are natural work groups. Each SDT is responsible for a business process that delivers a product or service to an internal or external customer. Each SDT manages its business is continued improvements for the success of the business are the measurements of its performance. (Wentz, 1998, p. 59) There is one more thing that counts a lot in terms of the success of project i.e. Project Initiation Document (PID). This is a kind of checklist which reminds of the certain things to be upright at all times which includes the controlling of risk factor, budget factor, deviation control and human factor control. The project leadership should always keep in mind the critical success factors. Let us understand this with an example from the real estate field. While launching a new project there are several things that can make it a success or sell it at a faster pace. The project manager should employ some special people for the particular projects because the word of mouth marketing plays a vital role in real estate. The flexibility of the prices and the total expenses on the marketing should be kept in mind along with the break even points. The another example can be thought of electronic gaint SONY, whenever SONY launches any new product in the market it has still got the beats and sound system because that is its USP. Scenario of the Question Now in this particular section this will be discussed that why the company has hired the group of consultants. On a very simple logical note this can be thought of if the company is working properly why will it be hiring any consultants. Now the situation here arises that: there might be some change or a new project, which is scheduled to be taken place There is some conflict in the company which needs to be care of The company is working fine but it wants to be more competitive because the competitors are more solid on the balance sheets Also, this can be the case that there are some aspects in the company which can be useful for cost cutting, but the company is not having any expertise on that matter. As per the scenario it is clear here that the company which is of concern here has recognized some of the facts which are related to the human resource management and development and more specifically to the team building. Here the company thinks and it is logical as well to think that team selection, clear objectives and innovation are key success factors. The company is now moving forward and is ready to invest on the human resource aspect. As said above that the consultants are the group of people which have different expertise, but in this case more of them will be form the team building or human resource management side. Now the consultants here will work to form the self directed teams and to train them in the specific context for the success of project. The term which is meant to define is self directed teams, it simply means the group of people working together in order to achieve something on the similar platform but are much focussed and self driven and self motivated. Normally when there is a team of consultants it includes the people of various expertises like from marketing, sales, finance, operations management etc. so in this scenario as well there will be different expertise working together because the project management calls for collective effort of the human resource Team Building Now here comes the main part of the report and the role of consultants. The team building or getting some people along to work is a very tedious task. The reason for this is that the different people have got the different backgrounds, learning, roles or simply speaking the postionality of every individual is very different. The conflict management and cross cultural management is the key factor for the success of the project. The effective leadership has to take care of this, especially in this case. The company should always take care of all the issues related to the employees, the relation with the employees is the one which needs to be managed. For example, if someone in the morning feels sad about going to the office, that employee cannot be an asset for the company; rather the company should try to make him so enthusiastic that every morning the employees should be willing to go the office. There have been several theories on this that what can motivate an employee or what can foster in to the employee the zeal to work and achieve. Malows Need Hierarchy Theory This model has been a very famous and well applied as far as the needs and motivation factors are concerned for the team building. This should always be kept in mind while team building by the project leadership. For example, a small monetary gift cannot be the motivation for the upper management but is a too much appreciation for the lower grade employees. Source: http://www.businessballs.com/images/maslow%27s_hierarchy_businessballs.jpg Cited: 25/03/2011 Herzbergs Two Factor Theory This theory states that motivation and job satisfaction are the factors which if taken care of can result in a very good team building. The project leadership should take well care of the factors that cause satisfaction and which cause dissatisfaction. There are some hygiene factors, which are not the exact satisfaction factor but their absence will cause some de-motivation like fringe benefits, salary hikes and all. HRD/HRM Theories Now comes another step in the project management is that how to get the proper people for the project. The project leadership should take this thing very carefully otherwise it can result in a disaster. The human resourcing and team building also shows the efficiency of the project leader in ensuring the project. In building the right team it should be taken care of that there is proper communication channel upwards and downward so that the information is exchanged. The objectives and goals are properly inculcated into the team members in to be truly efficient and effective. This can be understood with the example of sports as well. The way the Australian have led their team since last 7-8 years has been marvellous. This has become a case study for the students in various schools. The attitude, response and responsibility have all been the strong killing points of the team. To play and end a series is same as to execute a project. There has to be proper strategy that how to play whic h players to use, what strategy to employ including everything else. The Austrian team has been famous for the mind game, to handle the pressure and the as the real warrior. The captain and coach in this case work as the project leader and help the whole team to win. They are the people who decide that which bowler to use and how Now other responsibility of the project manager or leader is to manage the change. The concept which is very important to be taken care of is the change in technology because there is a foremost characteristic of the employee to resist the change but it has to be implemented for ensuring the successful project management. Hence it is pertinent to mention here that a team of consultants should always comprise of the people from several fields having the proven expertise because this will certainly help the project to in the end. This thing is supported by the diagram given here that how the various tasks are allotted to various people in the team in order to maintain the accountability. Source: http://www.fieldsrecruitment.com/media/img/team_structure.gif Cited on: 21/03/2011 The team structure depends from project to project but the team should be built in accordance to the project needs. The fresh talent should always be mixed with the experienced talent. Innovation in Project Management and Leadership for Team Building Team Building is a very critical task for the management as it involves getting people along to work together for a particular goal, of different backgrounds, beliefs, religions etc. Team building is main key factor for the success of any project and for a good leadership. Hence there is a need for continuous innovation and positive changes in the project management for the successful achievement of the project objectives and leading a team in a better way. The innovation can be operational innovation, management innovation, product service innovation and strategic innovation. Innovation is front and center on the corporate agenda, according to a global survey. Executives are adding more breakthrough innovations and business model changes to their portfolio to fuel the growth engine. (Business Week, November 16, 2009). The innovation process into project management and leadership starts with the setting up the stage and defining the concepts and objectives. Then the opportunities ar e discovered by understanding the needs of the employees. After finding out the opportunities, the ideas are developed. The forth step involves the conversion of the ideas into actual operations. Finally the commercialization of the innovation ideas is done i.e. the success rate, financial impact transition etc. of the ideas. Various innovation theories can be used in project management and leadership for team building. Diffusions of innovation theory has four main elements i.e. innovation, communication channel, time and social system. Diffusion is a special type of communication that helps a team in spreading the messages within the time limit that pursue the new ideas for team building. The innovation in project management and leadership for team building can involve implementation of new ideas for the improvement in motivation and satisfaction level of employees, implementation of an effective leadership style is also important like entrepreneurial leadership, creative leadership or transformational leadership, removing any kind of discrimination developed into the minds of employees etc. Hence innovation plays an important role in the development of a team and success of any project. Case Study In this section the company profile will be studied and the main components of the statement of the question with reference to the company. Company Name RL Wolfe RL Wolfe is a plastic pipe manufacturing company having head quarter in Houston, Texas. The company has a net worth of $350 million. PAST In 2003, when RL Wolfe purchased Moon Plastics which was a small family owned business of customs plastic manufacturer in Corpus Christi, they found an opportunity to implement the concept of self directed teams into their new plant. Surprisingly after the implementation of self directed teams, their reports show around 40% improvement in their productivity and quality of the products as compared to their traditional way of manufacturing products as self directed teams increases the motivation and satisfaction level of employees. John Amasi, the director of production and engineering at RL Wolfe, was the one who suggested the idea of the implementation of self directed teams to the organization. In 2007, an assessment took place for the evaluation of the implementation of self directed teams. And again the productivity level was 82% higher than the other RL Wolfes Columbus and Austin plants but still they have to achieve a target of 95%. RL Wolfe used to have three shifts per d ay of eight hours each. In traditional manufacturing way, the work was divided among the foreman, production operators, line operators, downstream technicians, loaders and finished material handlers. PRESENT John Amasi has planned for the Corpus Christi Experiment i.e. he is planning to get an approval from the board of directors for a long sought concession in health care coverage for increasing the commitment and satisfaction level of employees that further increases the productivity level. Also due to the implementation of self directed teams, the organization is achieving 95% or more design capacity. The leadership style also plays a positive role in productivity level as more than 80% decisions were taken at the ground level by the line operators or material handlers through the directions given by the coordinator. The implementation of SDTs divided the work among two parts i.e. technicians and line operators or material handlers. PROBLEMS -The assessment done in 2007 i.e. after 4 years of implementation of self directed teams, exposed few problems along with the increased productivity. The implementation of self directed teams provides ongoing tensions to the technicians as the technicians provide the engineering oversight and it is the duty of technician to ensure the workings according to the plans made. Evaluating the performances of the employees is another problem faced due to the implementation of self directed teams. It is only the performance evaluation that shows the positive and negative aspects of implementation of any new ideas or practices. The assessment shows a decrease in absenteeism level for first and second shift while there is no change in the third shift i.e. the night shift. Many employees are not interested in doing the management type work and hence their satisfaction decreases. It also leads to labour turnover as the manager level employees have assigned the lower level jobs under sel f directed teams and hence they demoralize and leave the organisation. Recommendations for the problems faced in Self Directed Teams No doubt that innovation, self directed teams, clear objectives and commitment of employees leads to team building and better project management. The implementation of self directed teams is increasing in todays organizations over the traditional ways of handling teams as its implementation has shown tremendous project effectiveness. Along with the advantages, self directed teams have few disadvantages as well. These problems have in the above paragraph. For minimizing the negative impact of self directed teams, various measures can be taken. As many employees cant take the management workload, hence the employees should first get scheduled for their own work load and assignments and then further management work can be given to them. Slowly, over a period of time further responsibilities can be transferred to the employees under self directed teams. To decrease the absenteeism and employee turnover because of the dissatisfaction from the type of work given, the employees should be as ked first that what type of assignments they would like to do and according the work should be divided. An implementation of self directed teams increases the employee skills and employees motivation level which further increases the productivity and quality of products and services. The implementation of SDTs without considering the various aspects like effective planning requirements, training needs, coordination with the organization etc. put an adverse impact on the performance of the organization. The cost of implementation of SDTs is quite very high and the organization has to make special budget for the same. Also time to time evaluation is important for knowing the progress of the organization. CONCLUSION Project Leadership and Team Building add value to the success of project management. Various factors affect project management like leadership style, innovation, coordination, methods of team building etc. Leadership and team building are the two most important factors that affect the project success. Many surveys and experiments have proved that Self Directed Teams contributes to the effectiveness into the performance of an organization. This effectiveness is in terms of higher productivity, higher quality, employee satisfaction, team effectiveness, cost effectiveness etc. From the case study of RL Wolfe, it is very clear that adaptation of self directed teams is very helpful in success of any project but again its impact on the organization cannot be ignored.

Henrik Isbens A Dolls House :: A Dolls House Essays

Nora received supernatural aid in the form of self awareness of her own value/worth. Some could say her ignorance, ignorant as to what her actions would cause to happen if they where known publicly. Innocently she thought there was nothing wrong with saving her husbands life, but his pride, his ego would be hurt and society would outcast them. Another form of aid was Linde who served as a mirror like character who showed Nora what she had done in a way, and how an independent woman could The long and winding road was quite harsh on Nora, even a close friend such as Dr. Rank proved to be an obstacle she had to hurdle when he professed his love to her. All the time Krogstads blackmailing her, having to raise money, working at nights and the like where constant torments. The constant secrecy and stress accumulating and building up never giving her space to catch her breathe. To top it all off, Helmer continually restricted her, molded and sculpted her like a toy. Any other character would have cracked under this enormous burden but Nora just kept on going, with the hope of a â€Å"wonderful thing† keeping her going.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stumbling upon the realization that the â€Å"wonderful thing† was but a mere fantasy that did not exist marked her final encounter with the ultimate dragon, Torvald. She had already had to tolerate his restrictions and lack of freedom that he imposed on her tyrannically. Also, there is the blackmailing by Krogstad whose hunger for a second chance to redeem him self is great. However, he does not plan on relinquishing the bond, which gives him the leverage over Nora. Her encounters have been plentiful with these two dragons that daunt her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ultimately Nora vanquished the supreme dragon Torvald. After the Tarantella, which did not stall for enough time, Helmer discovers the truth by mail. Because of his jealousy/sexual urge that made him decide to come down to early he discovered this in such a fashion that showed his true character. Nora then proceeds to tell him that she cannot stay with him anymore, in essence slaying him. Torvald is helpless and dazed, and utterly defeated though his ignorance, of how to treat Nora.

Job Design at Pepperdine University Essay

This case study primarily focuses on the dimensions of specific roles for Pepperdine University employees. The aspect of job analysis or job reviews is an overall exploration of specific responsibilities accountabilities and duties of specific jobs. This is quite a lengthy process that requires the gathering of background information and the creation of a job specifications and descriptions. This case study highlights the roles of several employees at the Graziadio School of Business and Management at the Pepperdine University. Job design There is no definite job design that can be clearly identified at the Graziadio School of Business and Management therefore most of the observations can only be inferred from obervation of employee duties and responsibilities(Cummings & Worley, 2009). Job design is supposed to determine the manner in which specific jobs are supposed to be carried out and how this ultimately affects the individuals worker as well as the overall work place. This includes aspects such as employee authority, processes of decision making, amount of respnsibility among other criteria. It was noticed in the case study that there were three jobs that would be categorized in the same job design group and these were the program administrator, the administrative assistant and the faculty director. The roles of employees in these positions have distinct job descriptions but from their duties it is clear that they are interdependent. Another issue that is dealt with in this case study is that of employee rewards. From the example in the test, the university clearly appreciated the diligence and loyalty of the Program Administrator and for this he was to be rewarded through the enrichment of his current position. The job enrichment was partly due to the personal character of the Program Administrator because he was able to exhibit diligence and patience for 15 years. Assesment of an  employee’s persoanality is therefore key when an organization is considering formulating a formal job design model. Skill appraisal In the case of the Program Administrator, it was evident that the specific duries were very varied in nature ranging from student recruitment and supervision to advisory roles. Other aspects in this analysis include the assesment of task identity, task significance as well as job autonomy (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Planning and implementation The planning of this study was quite thorough and widely encompassing. There was a great deal of assesment and also use of diagnostic models which were associated with individuals and groups. All the models that were used were carefully structured and diagnostic in nature. They included the issues to do with design components, inputs, and output of both individual and group job specifications. The reason was doing group diagnostic was deemed necessary is because the organizational make-up is considered as a primary input that needs to be properly examined. This brings out the functions of group dynamics. However, to bring out the individual aspect of the study, the plan included an individual job level assesment to offer infomation regarding issues like individual task significance, task autonomy, identity and all the feedback that can be achieved from all this collective data. Overall the planning of the case can be considered quite thorough. Reference Cummings, T, Worley Christopher. (2009). Organizational Development & Change. South-Western CENGAGE learning, 9th Edition

Unnecessary Law essays

Unnecessary Law essays The infamy of 9/11 was a tragic attack that devastated the citizens of The United States. In September of 2001, Islamic terrorist group "al-Qaeda" attacked The World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Virginia. The cause of the attack was due to the United States support of Israel, the presence of U.S troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq. The World Trade Center was a one-stop shopping center on international trade and business. It was also proof of New York's belief in itself. The building was constructed during the uncertainty of New York's future; the towers boosted the confidence of lower Manhattan from its previous economic hardships. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. After the vicious attack, the proposal for the Real ID Act, also known as National ID card, was presented. In addition to the multiple identification cards, the government will assign to the citizens National ID card. It will be a combination of one's driver's license, social security card and passport. The purpose of the National ID card is to easily verify the identity and provide concrete proof of one's citizenship. The National ID card is going to minimize long wait at security points in federal buildings but will also cause identity theft once its lost. Picture waking up one day finding out that your National ID card, which has all your information, such as social security number, bank account number and health information, is missing. How would you react? Wouldn't you be scared? The attack of 9/11 inspired the government to create a National ID card to keep the nation safe from future terrorist attacks. National ID card, which was created with positive intention would ultimately, cause more harm than good. For example, if you fail to carry the National ID card, you're most likely to be searched, detained or perhaps even be arrested for being suspected of carrying nuclear bomb, to just bei...

Microsoft Office Essays - Presentation Software, Free Essays

Microsoft Office Essays - Presentation Software, Free Essays There are many ways Microsoft Office, which include-Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, can help me in my future career. Not knowing how to use widely-used products could greatly hinder my chances at success. These tools can make many different tasks and projects simple and easy. Think back of how hard it was just two decades ago to do presentations like we do today using PowerPoint. PowerPoint presentations have made it so we can make our point of view appealing to a wide range of people with minimal effort. Excel has made doing all sorts of organizing tasks so much easier, and the wide range of tasks it supports is indeed numerous. Microsoft word has made writing documents and letters in business format so much easier. And more accessible from a click of a button. Microsoft Office is the most widely-used productivity suite in the world and thats not for nothing. It tends to work. Of the millions that own the software however, a scarce few are probably fully aware of what power lay beneath their fingertips. (Boundless, 2014). Try thinking back to two decades ago, if anyone had an idea for a new product or a new way to do business and wanted to present this what would they have done? In order to do a presentation on this, the task would have been an overwhelming one. With only some writing material- pens, pencils, paper, and a typewriter- one would have been required to make a presentation on the various subjects. One of the only means that is like PowerPoint would have been a screen projector, which is rather makeshift compared to the PowerPoint we have today. With PowerPoint I can add facts, pictures, graphics, and sounds that make the presentation look very professional and fun. Microsoft Excel is a program that is found within the Microsoft Office Suite of computer programs that are meant to make life easier for both individuals as well as businesses of all sizes. Excel has a wide range of useful functions like spread sheets for almost everything that requires organization! Making different charts, graphs, budgets, and much more (Ruparel, 2014). Excel allows me to unlock the potential of my data, by using formulas across a grid of cells. I can use pie charts, graphs and clustered columns to add meaning to data, which otherwise may just exist as row after row of numbers. References Ruparel, A. (2014, August 07). 5 Key Uses of Microsoft Excel in the Workplace. Retrieved from learn.filtered.com: http://learn.filtered.com/blog/5-key-uses-of-excel-in-the-work-place Source: Boundless. The Advantages and Disadvantages of PowerPoint. Boundless Communications. Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 01 Apr. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/communications/textbooks/boundless-communications-textbook/preparing-and-using-visual-aids-16/using-powerpoint-and-alternatives-successfully-85/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-powerpoint-323-5654/

Voting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Voting - Assignment Example Michigan as a state has 16 electoral votes, which are highly influential during the process of electing the next president. As a rule, the 16 electoral votes from Michigan will go to the presidential candidate who has won the majority rule. Majority rule at times is usually overlooked when electoral votes are considered. When analyzing the 1876 election, electoral votes proved to be powerful than the majority rule. Nebraska as a state has 5 electoral votes; the majority rule will determine the presidential winner (McCaffrey, 2004). In 1876, the presidential election in the United States was tightly contested, and it resulted in a lot of controversy. The presidential race was between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes was a republican candidate from Ohio, while Tilden was a democratic from New York. Although, Hayes was pronounced as the president, a lot of questions were raised. The results showed that, Tilden had a popular vote of 4.2 million, against Hayes’s 4.0 million. However, regarding electoral votes, Hayes had 185 electoral votes, a difference of 1 from Tilden who had 184 electoral votes (McCaffrey, 2004). The 1968 presidential election, tightly contested by top candidates Richard Nixon a republican, Hubert H. Humphrey a democrat, and George Wallace from the American Independent party, ultimately resulted in Nixon winning. The popular vote results were Nixon’s approximately 31,700,000 votes, Humphrey’s approximately 31,200,000 votes and Wallace’s approximately 9,900,000 votes. The electoral vote results were Nixon 301, Humphrey 191 and Wallace 46. The election was a plurality because the presidential winner, Nixon, only attained 43.4%, which was less than the required majority vote of more than 51%. The other candidates, Humphrey, and Wallace had 42.7% and 13.5% respectively (McCaffrey, 2004). The 1824 presidential election, contested

Industrial Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Industrial - Assignment Example The root level meaning of culture is to nurture and cultivate. Values and beliefs to certain extent cannot be differentiated since they are internal to an individual. Beliefs and values are most integral component within an individual that governs their overall behaviour. Values basically includes analyzing what is wrong or right and staying truthful to others. This factor greatly influences attitude and behaviour of a person. There are certain common values for business such as community involvement, innovation and fairness. Beliefs and values are in-built within an individual and this drives their overall culture. Values can also be incorporated by getting influenced by a social group. Every individual possesses a set of values and beliefs which one follows for life-long. Organizational culture, values and beliefs play a significant role in terms of building a corporate image. Culture clearly reflects the execution of business operations in an organization (Boxall and Purcell, 2003 ). Organizational value helps to structure set of behaviours which is shared amongst all team members. This aspect distinguishes one organization from others. Values not only enhance commercial value but even enable workforce importance in a firm. For instance, some companies are focused on achieving high performance standards and some are aligned with developing a participative work culture. Hence values are different in both these organizations and this creates different corporate images. This can be observed in real world scenario where some firms are regarded as high performance workplace and some companies are denoted as following appropriate work culture in terms of employee motivation or level of job satisfaction. An organization’s importance is totally dependent on its set of values and beliefs. For example, a firm can be inclined towards seeking high revenue margins whereas another firm might be closely knitted with achieving higher level of

Significant Events in the Middle East After 1850 Term Paper

Significant Events in the Middle East After 1850 - Term Paper Example Saddam hated living with the step father which prompted him to move to his uncles, subsequent to his release from prison. At this point Saddam was a 10-year-old boy. Saddam then went to Baghdad to continue with his schooling where he joined high school. But, he enjoyed politics than school. To his rescue, his uncle helped him make a debut in politics. In 1957, he joined his uncles party Baath. His membership started with a low tone, until 1959 when he was appointed a member of the squad Assassination. He, however, fled Iraq after a failed assassination attempt in the same year, of the then prime minister. Then he went to Syria for one month and then to Egypt, where he stayed for three years in exile. Saddam was a brutal and ruthless president as depicted by most of his actions during his time as the president of Iraq. For instance, he executed three hundred military officers in the year 1982, after their rebellion on his approach of fighting with Iraq. He ousted out of power in 2003 by US forces and after he was found guilty of various human atrocities he was hung in 2006. (thefamouspeople.com, 2010) Yasser Arafat was born in 1929 in the city of Cairo by a Palestinian father with an ancestry of Egypt and his mother was a Palestinian. His mother died while he was just 5 years of age. Subsequently, he moved to live with a material uncle in the city of Jerusalem. After living in Jerusalem for four years, his father took him back to the city of Cairo to be taken care of by an elder sister alongside other siblings. he never attended his fathers funeral in the year 1952. While in Cairo, before age 17, Arafat used to smuggle fire arms to Palestine with the aim of their being used against the Jews and the British. During the period of the war between the Arab states and the Jews, he abandoned his studies at Cairo University so as to go and battle against the Jews around the area of Gaza. He later

Implementation of an IT Project †A First Hand Account Essay Example for Free

Implementation of an IT Project – A First Hand Account Essay With innovation of computers, the business world is changing very fast as seen during the last 3 decades. Due to the advances in IT and Communications technology, the world has become a global village. The business opportunities have multiplied due to opening up of global markets. But so have the challenges. No economy is isolated or transparent from rest of the economies. Industries are expected to offer custom designed products at most competitive rates in shortest possible time. Even the multinational organizations operating in many countries across the world have been facing these challenges. One of the answers to these challenges they have been relying upon is to introduce Information Communications Technology in their organizations and leverage upon them to meet these challenges. In this document, we describe a case of one company in a country. This company was a part of a US based multinational group which decided to implement Oracle e Business 11i suite at all its units worldwide so as to consolidate required information at its headquarters at US. To comply with the requirement, this unit also decided to implement Oracle e Business Suite at its plant offices. How this implementation was planned, what were the objectives, what measures were taken to ensure conformity with the project plan, how the changeover to new software was planned, how the business associates were affected and what steps were initiated to ensure that the envisaged benefits actually accrue, is described in this document. Also various activities right from the initiation of the project, the project organization, roles and responsibilities, communications and reporting with the principals are also described. Implementation of an IT Project – A First Hand Account : EXCEL Auto Components Pvt Ltd EACL (a hypothetical name) is a part of a multinational EXCEL Group having its headquarters in US and group companies located all over the world. The Group is engaged in manufacture of engines, compressors, generating sets automobile components worldwide. EACL is engaged in manufacture of Automobile and engine components. Much of the orders received by EACL being repeat orders, are based on exiting design and technology. Besides these, there are sizable number of orders based on the same technology but involve a fresh design and prototype development, before the commercial production takes place. EACL is a subsidiary company of Excel Industries Ltd EIL which the main company of the group within the country. EIL centralizes many activities of the group and looks after these activities of the group companies in that country. Information Communication Technology is one of such activities which EIL handles for all group companies in the country. EIL handles IT Infrastructure management, Software Applications Management and other related activities for all group companies in the country. Recently the Corporate HQ at US has announced a decision to standardize on Business Application Software, directing all group companies worldwide to implement and switch over to Oracle 11i e Business Suite within a period of 18 months. Accordingly all companies had implemented and switched over to Oracle 11i except for EACL where the implementation had to be called of for various reasons, lack of in-house IT staff being one of them. Later on it was taken up once again. This time EIL Looked for an IT Consultant to be placed on site with the total responsibility of implementing Oracle 11i, with the help of Functional Consultants from EIL and a cross functional team of users from EACL. A person was found suitable and was placed on site at EACL to handle complete, end to end implementation of this project. He was to report to Lies Program Manager and was to be assisted by a Project Team comprising of 6 Functional Consultants from EIL and 5 Key Users from EACL, drawn from relevant functional areas. While EIL consultants had prior experience of Oracle ii1 implementation in their own company, EACL Consultants did not have any experience even of other ERP Products or any other applications. They – like most other users of EACL, had an exposure limited only to Microsoft Office Suite. However, most of them were young, fresh Mechanical Engineers very enthusiastic about the project. Similarly for EIL also this was their maiden experience to implement Oracle 11i at a company other than their own company. So everyone was totally charged up to take up this challenge. The assignment was clear for the Project Manager. Oracle 11i e Business Suite comprising of Financial, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Order Management Modules was required to be implemented within a time frame of 6 calendar months with the help of the Project Team assigned. CEO of EACL was fully backing this project and he had publicly instructed two senior most managers at the site – Plant Head and Finance Controller – to ensure full support resource commitments to the project. The Project implementation required to covered Plant as well as a Marketing office located in two different cities. CEO was also located in the Marketing Office. Objectives : The Objectives set out for the project included 20% reduction in investment in Inventory due to savings in inventory carrying cost and improvement in the planning process, Reduction in throughput time by 20% (increase i production sales and improvement in sales margins), Fast Order Execution with 90% on time delivery. Another significant objective was Confirming to standardization as laid down by the corporate group so as to facilitate group consolidation of information. Besides, the changeover was required to be transparent to the outside world i. e. the Business Associates. Investment : Since EACL was already running a home grown ERP Product, it already had in place the Client PCs, LAN, connectivity to EIL where Oracle 11i server was located. Some augmentation of resources like PCs printers, up-gradation of the bandwidth was required. EIL had already accounted for and arranged for the Software Licenses for ERP RDBMS Products for all group companies in the country. Fresh investment called for was related to the Fees payable to the Project Manager and the visits by the EIL functional team for implementation. How well the project met its investment objectives and what mechanisms would you suggest to allow ongoing evaluation of benefits realization? The Project Objectives were met very well. A fresh Bill of Materials was designed for regular items to be produced. Items requiring design development were defined separately in BOM. While this introduced some redundancy in the BOM, this resulted into reduction of many duplicated items from the BOM and thereby, from the stock. This drastically reduced the investment needed in Inventory. Items needed for development production were segregated such that production items do not get consumed in development vice-versa. The production cycle was mapped to a production process that had certain in-between milestones where items were issued and quality checks were performed. This resulted in reducing the number of days for which an item was stocked and also, control further movement of the semi finished product in case of a quality problem, such that the same could be reprocessed, rechecked for quality and forwarded only if the quality problem was resolved. Earlier the quality problem got detected only at the end of production cycle resulting in much more wastage of material, labor overheads. Marketing Manufacturing had more informed and accurate judgment of the cost and time estimates for a product at the time of accepting an order. Improved control over production process along with more accurate promise of delivery resulted in 90% on time deliveries. In case of a quality problem, only the immediately preceding steps needed to be repeated upsetting only that part of the process as against upsetting the entire process earlier. This also resulted in fewer rejections or defects in the production. Linking Sales Order right from planning stage till invoice dispatch advice virtually eliminated misplaced deliveries or wrong products being delivered. With more accurate accounting and posting of transactions, carrying out physical stock taking less frequently was also a possibility. All this was accompanied by a complete visibility over entire production process to the plant head. In this way, the project actually exceeded the anticipated benefits. Post implementation, certain benchmarks for performance were decided and periodically the cumulative actual performance was measured based upon these benchmarks. For example, Regular and extra hours needed for given quantum of production, reduction in inventory, on time delivery %, i. E delivery performance, value added during a period. Appropriate reports were designed and made available to the Finance Controller, Plant Head and the CEO. The effectiveness of stakeholder engagement activities during the project. Employees and Heads of all Departments including the Plant Head the Finance Controller were among the stakeholders. However, the main stakeholder was the CEO – he had sanctioned the investment, worked out what benefits to expect how, had a calculation of no of days within which the changeover had to be completed (termed Black Out period) and regular operations resumed on the new system. Business associates were not to be caused any disturbance due to the change over (excepting a blackout period of 5 days) and above all, a project of a given size and complexity affecting every employee in every corner of the organization had to be completed as scheduled with mathematical precision. The main stakeholder that is the CEO took a lot of interest and a keen interest in every aspect of the project. He participated in understanding, reviewing approving the requirements formulated, understood how the prototype presented offered to fulfill these requirements, he provided directions to the project team and other employees regards various activities related with the project, intervened whenever a help was sought in anticipation of a bottleneck or a deviation apprehended from the plan. He always had a positive contribution to offer in terms of identifying typical scenarios that might be encountered or regards the training of the end users or in ensuring 100% and timely attendance of the members in all project events. This propagated a clear message across that the project has to be completed, on time and with contribution from everyone with no exception and zero tolerance. He always supported implementation of new ideas like maintenance of Time Sheets for the Project Team or conducting tests to assess the learning of the trainees. He mandated the contribution to this project by an employee be counted during the periodic appraisals. In all his communications with the employees he never failed to stress the importance of the project, praising efforts of those who did well and pulling up the laggards, warning them to come up to expectations. He studied every fortnightly report with interest and took appropriate action based upon the same in time. He also attended every review presentation and tried to bring out the maximum from everyone. He ensured that not only he himself but also the Plant Head and Finance Controller provided immediate response to Project Team Members for any help or intervention desired. The same spirit was displayed both by the Plant Head as well as by the Finance Controller. They arranged for all required resources to be made available for the team. What provision was made during the development phase to facilitate roll-out during the implementation stage, and how effective this was ? Many provisions were made during the development phase to ensure a smooth roll out during the implementation stage. The provisions were related with the systems as well as with the operations. Systems : A training to the EACL Consultants was provided on the product right at the beginning of the project. Thereafter they were closely associated with the corresponding members of the CIL Team in related functions to learn from them. They were asked to take up the initiative to develop the Operational Manual for their functional area which was reviewed and finalized in consultation with EIL Consultants. They were made responsible for testing the prototype against the requirements by way of test data, preparing test data visualizing typical exceptional â€Å"scenarios† that might be encountered, carrying out an integrated testing covering certain transactions encompassing all functional areas and finally, the load testing to assess the capability of the infrastructure to sustain the number of concurrent users envisaged. They also imparted training to the end users so that they are better prepared themselves and develop a sound knowledge. They also assessed the performance of the end users by setting up question papers for these trainees. Hardware and Software requirements considering the eventual number of users was reviewed and necessary enhancements were carried out to make the infrastructure adequate for live run. Document forms and preprinted stationery in line with the standardization requirements were designed and procured in time before the switchover. Menu Access Permissions and Transaction Authorization Set Up was designed and set up in the software. Operations : There was a blackout period required to complete the processing in the old system, transfer the balances masters to the new system and resume operations in the new system. The CEO insisted that this must not exceed 5 days failing which the business may be adversely affected. As regards the provisions made in operations, certain actions were planned to be taken and completed before the commencement of the blackout period e. g. clearing deliveries against all sales orders. Certain actions were suspended for the duration of the blackout period i. e. placing fresh purchase orders or accepting deliveries. All Business Associates were informed about the changeover and the black out period preceding it to enable them to plan their activities accordingly. A detailed meeting was conducted between the Project Team, Finance Controller and the Plant Head along with all Departmental Heads and an elaborate plan of action naming the concerned responsible person was chalked out well before the beginning of the black out period. This eventually resulted into a smooth changeover with no adverse impact on the Business associates – all within a black out period of 3 days against the 5 days planned. How effective were the governance and reporting arrangements, particularly in assuring delivery to time, budget and quality, and how were key stakeholders involved – both formally and informally – in these arrangement ? There was plenty of information maintenance and reporting but the tempo set by the project never made it look like a burden. Plenty of reporting was carried out to different groups in different ways. Firstly the Project Team was made to sit close to each other to facilitate communication between them. There used to be a meeting among the team members everyday where required information on current status against the plan was exchanged. In addition, the Team Members submitted a Time Sheet giving hour wise break up of total activities planned for the day and actually carried out This constituted a critical input regards the progress of work and helped in promptly identifying potential bottlenecks and deviations for initiating suitable action. In addition, there was a meeting every day between the Project Teams of EACL CIL even if they were not at the same location. The Project Manager had a daily round of appraising the Program manager about the status of activities. In addition, Project Manager maintained a day wise information on different event / developments in the project and periodically shared the same in confidence with the Program Manager by way of an informal reporting. A weekly progress report was submitted by the Project Manager to the CEO, Plant Head, Finance Controller, Program Manager, Infrastructure Manager. Both the progress along with the anticipated bottlenecks along with remedial action planned were reflected in the report. Periodic Presentations were delivered to CEO in presence of all Departmental Heads including the Plant Head Finance Controller wherein the progress, forthcoming activities and anticipated problems and their solutions were discussed. A Centralized Project Database was maintained by IT Group at US for all IT Projects initiated worldwide. Periodically at the end of every milestone all relevant documents as prescribed in the Project Methodology were submitted to this database. This was followed by a presentation made to the Steering Committee Members comprising of senior personnel from EACL, CIL US HQ. Only upon receiving approval for a phase, the next phase was entered into. Daily interactions with Project Team with the help of Time Sheets led to assessment of the progress. Interactions between two Project Teams brought out further tasks to be initiated and provided an idea about the time estimates and criticality. Reporting to Program Manager, CEO Steering Committee resulted in receiving guidance regards the project and eliminating the bottlenecks and problems. Presentations with CEO ensured cooperation from all Departments. Thus every formal or informal communication or reporting had served its intended purpose. Besides this, there always was a freedom to make a need based call to anyone with appropriate response and action sure to come by. While the project involved a lot of work, called for detailed planning and close monitoring and had many complexities, it was also not without the lighter moments. Following every milestone, there was required to be a get together of the Project Teams and he Departmental Heads where a lot of formal and informal interaction used to take place making its own contribution to the success of the project. Scheduling such a get together following each milestone was also a part of the project plan and a subject of Project Review ! The project management methodology used and its contribution to the success (or otherwise) of the project. The Project Management Methodology followed was one that was developed by the IT Department of the Corporate IT Group itself and broadly, it was a prototype oriented methodology. It was a tried and tested methodology already put into practice at the group companies within the country. Among the very first activities in the project was to depute the Project Manager for undergoing a training on this methodology and specifically, the documentation which was standardized across all companies in the world within the group. This methodology made everything so simple to understand and help ensuring that once we start religiously practicing the methodology, we did not miss out on anything in the course of the project. Particularly noteworthy in the methodology was a process of IT Requests Management. It handled the entire process from initiating an it request to providing all required details about it to seeking and enabling required authorizations, assigning the work till completion, testing certification of the results, configuration management and finally, approving the satisfactory completion of the IT Request by the request initiator. Entire process was handled by a software, which facilitated electronic approvals to the requests. This process accepted only those IT Requests which were backed by relevant details, having appropriate authorization from the concerned departmental heads, feasibility assessment by the Functional Technical Consultants, approval by the IT Program Manager assignment of the same to functional / technical consultant for compliance. Once completed, the relevant software was tested on a separate system, approved by the IT Program Manager and only thereafter the software was allowed to be transferred to the production server. Finally the initiator of the request was required to confirm that the request has been complied with to his satisfaction – a precondition for treating it to be completed. Thus Change Management was appropriately controlled in the project. The Documents to be maintained for the project related with the quality aspects, risk assessment and mitigation, investments, benefits anticipated, project plan, impact on IT Infrastructure currently in use, manpower currently deployed so on – in short, touching all aspects that are concerning the project. The Group IT Dept at US had a Project Document Repository where the documents were required to be posted before each Steering Committee Meeting. This enforced appropriate handling of quality, risk, time, investment, benefits other aspects to be clearly defined beforehand and their achievement during the course of the project. The Project phases also included a Post Production Review phase where the post implementation benefits were compared with the anticipated benefits. As regards this project, requirements were collected and a prototype developed so as to fulfill the requirements. The prototype was demonstrated and further tuned based upon the feedback of the end users. Next, the prototype was given to the end users for testing – testing with test data, testing with specific â€Å"scenarios† prepared to test typical conditions or situations anticipated. This was followed by an integration testing i. e. testing encompassing multiple functions to test the integration and finally, the load testing to measure the adequacy of the infrastructure to support the given number of users as envisaged. After such exhaustive testing and based upon the feedback received, the prototype was fine tuned and the software set up for production. Conclusion : The Oracle 11i e Business implementation was already planned as to what needs to be implemented, how and within what time ! It touched almost all employees in all functions at all offices of the organization. The time allowed for changeover was limited to 5 days. The in-house Key Users were with no major exposure to IT and especially, ERP. Every milestone was required to be reviewed and approved by the IT Team at US the Steering Committee. All this called for a very detailed planning and an extremely time bound execution with hardly any scope for deviation. The eventual consolidation with Group Headquarters and visibility over complete data by them made it totally transparent to them, also making quality assurance a pre-requisite. Obviously with most of the major investment having already been made, the project was required to be completed within the budget. To ensure a smooth implementation, major thrust came from the CEO and continued throughout the implementation. The determining factor that led to the success of the project was the high motivational level of the project team which could be raised and sustained throughout the project. Once this was achieved, execution of every project activity became a simple affair. Another major factor was the anticipation of bottlenecks and problems raised by the Project Manager initiation of actions to control the same. Emphasis on preparation and testing of scenarios eliminated chances of facing any surprises after the implementation. Detailed planning carried out for the black out period was a significant step in ensuring a quick and smooth changeover. Thus the Project was a grand success story !