Handguns Should Not Be Banned Handguns - 1677 Words

Gun violence, especially that as caused by handguns, is a major problem in America. It affects millions of people annually, and the effects it has are irreversible. However, this reality does not constitute for a complete ban on the private ownership of handguns. A ban on the private ownership of handguns should not be enacted on the grounds that the United States government ought to preserve democratic legitimacy and constitutionalism, and a ban is not feasible or just in America’s political climate. Every day, 282 people are shot in the United States but this is not merely the result of the array of firearms available in this country. Instead, a minority of the guns that Americans own are responsible for much of this violence.†¦show more content†¦Wintemute and Teret, professors at Johns Hopkins University attribute this to the shame associated with mental health in America. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation reveals that from 1990 to 1997, 90,000 of the 147,000 suicides committed were committed with a firearm―a tribute to the handgun’s operational simplicity and effectivity. Overall, handguns are responsible for seventy percent of firearm suicides. Douglas Wiebe of the University of California-Los Angeles School of Public Health conducted a nationally representative study which revealed that ninety-four percent of gun-related suicides would not have occurred had a gun not been present. A motley of international examples provide proof of concept for a national handgun ban. For example, the Australian prime minister announced in 1996 that Australia would be enacting a national handgun ban, and guns would be collected through a gun buyback program. This resulted in the confiscation of 650,000 guns, a forty-two percent drop in the homicide rate, and a fifty-seven percent drop in the firearm suicide rate. In addition, no mass shootings have occurred since the ban, a sharp contrast to the thirteen shootings that took place in the thirteen years before. The homicide rate also fell to less than one per one hundred thousand, while the United States’ hovers at five per one hundred thousand. Professor Donahue of Stanford University attributes this to â€Å"more than merely the

The Ethics of Belief Free Essays

Argumentative Essay on â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† PHIL 2641 Online – Section 001 February 13, 2008 William K. Clifford sets out to show in â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† that â€Å"it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In this paper, I will show that his argument lacks key definitions needed in order to found his inference upon and that it begs the question as to what qualifies as â€Å"insufficient† evidence. Furthermore, I will show that the primary issue is not the belief but the results of the belief that is important and that all judgment and interpretation should be based upon said results. We will write a custom essay sample on The Ethics of Belief or any similar topic only for you Order Now Clifford introduces his argument by using the example of a shipbuilder who allows his ship to be used on a transoceanic voyage despite its age and the supposed need for repair. The vessel sinks and Clifford asserts that the ship owner is guilty of the death of the passengers because his belief in the ship’s seaworthiness was unsupported and ill-founded. However, there are several problems with his conclusion. First, Clifford ignores the ship owner’s reliance on the vessel’s past sailing history as being sufficient evidence as to its stable condition. The fact that the vessel had made many a voyage without incident can be viewed as sufficient proof of its ability to set sail safely. This begs the question, â€Å"How can one determine what constitutes sufficient evidence? † The ship owner by relying on the history of the ship alone could have met his obligation. A second problem with Clifford’s argument is that he likely oversimplified the cause of the ship’s sinking. Perhaps the ship sank because there was a collision with another ship. Perhaps it sank because it struck an iceberg in the water. It may have sunk because of human error. In all of these scenarios no amount of fortification of the ship’s structure would have Argumentative Essay on â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† Page 2 of 3 prevented the demise of the voyage. Any one or combination of these causes could have been responsible for the ship’s fate, yet the ship’s age and need for repair is identified as the sole cause of the ship’s sinkage. Finally, Clifford fails to address the source of the ship owner’s doubt and therefore leaves a multitude of unanswered questions. If the question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of belief and whether or not one has the right to believe in the first place, then would the ship owner have been culpable had the doubts about the ship’s condition not been introduced? Is a person required to investigate EVERY doubt or question that is raised by another, which directly or indirectly impacts their belief? What if the source of doubt is unreliable? Without properly addressing these questions it is difficult to determine what the ship owner’s (or anyone else’s) responsibility was in the first place. This, I assert, is the fundamental problem with Clifford’s argument. To implicitly assume that one is guilty for simply believing without â€Å"sufficient† evidence can not be easily determined because the standards and thus the determination for â€Å"right† and â€Å"wrong† are too vague. The solution follows immediately. Since a person can have a different belief at any given point in time and there is no metric by which to determine the sufficiency of evidence upon which they are based, it is not the belief that is to be judged, but rather the action and the positive or negative impact upon society that results from it. Clifford’s primary concern was how beliefs impact humanity, and the impact can only be determined by assessing actions, not beliefs. Argumentative Essay on â€Å"The Ethics of Belief† Page 3 of 3 We can now see that Clifford’s uncogent argument is the result of a lack of clarity as to how one could determine whether or not given evidence was sufficient and the vagueness surrounding the definitions of â€Å"right† and â€Å"wrong†. In its amended form, however, the argument is valid and can serve as a useful tool to determine and measure the overall impact beliefs have on society. My central argument is an inductive argument. Here are the premises and the conclusion: Premise 1: Premise 2: Conclusion: There are no clear metrics to measure the sufficiency of evidence from which a person’s beliefs are derived. Actions and their impacts on society are definite and measurable. Therefore, people should probably be judged based upon their actions and not their beliefs. My argument is cogent because my premises are true and it is improbable that my conclusion is false. Furthermore, no evidence which would have rendered a different conclusion has been ignored. How to cite The Ethics of Belief, Papers

Contract with Robert-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignmenthelp.com

Questions: 1.Can Peter enforce his Contract with Robert? 2.Each will bill and be exclusively entitled to the fees received in return for their own work. Is this a Partnership? Answers: 1.As per the Alberta Regulation 196/1999, Fair Trading Act- Public Auctions Regulations, it is the duty of the auctioneer to read out the conditions of sale or make sure that the conditions of the sale are read by those present at the sale. The auctioneer must do this before the commencement of the sale or at the beginning of the adjourned sale. However, the auctioneer need not ensure that the condition are read by those present at the auction if they are regular bidders in the auction sales business (Casey, 2012). Also, the auction sale business have to provide the bidders the necessary conditions of the auctions in the bid cards if they are registered bidders and may not be attending the auction on the given day. Moreover, the auctioneers cannot make statements which are incorrect in any manner. And for the bidders, it is their duty to read and understand the conditions of sale before the beginning of the Auction (Riefa, 2015). They should also inspect the commodities themselves be fore placing the bid so that they can be aware of every detail of the commodity in auction. In the given case, Peter owned a vacant land that he wanted to sell. Peter made a contract an Auctioneer named Howard. The rules and conditions of the sale were given in the catalogue made for the auction, wherein it was mentioned that the auctioneers do not have the authority to make the representation on behalf of the owner of the land. Robert was one of the bidders for the vacant land. Robert enquired Howard about the zonal arrangement of the vacant land and placed the bid relying upon the zonal arrangement as told by Howard. However, later on it turned out that the zonal arrangement as told by Howard was wrong and as a result Robert refused to pay for the property. When analyzing the case given above with the law governing the auctions, it can be said that both Howard and Robert have made mistakes. Howard made the mistake of making a representation for which he had no authority and also gave an inaccurate representation relying upon which Robert placed the bid. The mistake made by Robert was that he did not read the rules and conditions that was given in the catalogue for the auction because if he had read and understood the regulations, he could have known that Howard did not have the authority make the representation and he would have been careful in finding out the detail about the property. Moreover, it is the duty of the Bidder to inspect the commodity or the item held for auction. He did not do anything of this sort. Thus, it can be said that Peter, the owner of the land can enforce the contract on Robert for the vacant land because everything was mentioned in the catalogue meant for the sale of property at the auction. Despite, this he enquired the auctioneer who had no authority to make any representation. Moreover, Robert relied upon the representation made by the Auctioneer without even making any further enquiry about the property. Thus, it can be said that Peter can enforce his contract for sale of the property with Robert who cannot claim the fact that he relied upon an inaccurate representation made by the auctioneer. 2.As per the Partnerships Act, R.S.O. 1990, chapter P.5, the determination of partnership can be done by the real intention of the parties involved. This can be determined by the way they conduct themselves. For the determination of the existence of partnerships, the court of law sees the business relationship of the parties involved rather than relying on the form of the relationship (legalline.ca, 2017). The factors that court sees to check the substance of the business relationship are as follows- The official registration of the partnership. The contributions made by parties involved in terms of property, knowledge, money, skills and so on. A joint interest in the property of the business The right of control or management of the property or business. The expectations of the profits from the business or the intention to earn profits. The profit sharing rights of the parties involved in the business (bclaws.ca, 2017). In the given case, Susan and Joyce are accountants and are carrying on their respective business as sole proprietors. In order to reduce their expenses they decided to enter into an arrangement. For the reduction of costs, they rented premises together; it consisted of 3 offices and 1 reception area. Both of them signed the lease as the tenant. Then they hired a secretary who would be working for the both of them. It was decided that they would share the office expenses equally. However, apart from the expenses that are shared, any other expenses incurred by them would be borne by the person incurring them. Any decision relating with the management of the office and the secretary are taken by with the consent of both the parties. The revenue they generate in the form of fees for their service is kept by the person providing the service. Analyzing the factors for the determination of the substance of the partnership with that of the conditions of the arrangement entered between Susan and Joyce, it can be said that the arrangement cannot be said to be a partnership because they do not have any formal registration of their partnership. Moreover, the contributions made by them are only in terms of expenses for the management of the office premises and the salary of the common secretary. Though they do have a joint interest in the property of the business it is not a conclusive evidence for the existence of a partnership between them. The most important factor considered in all the cases by all the court of law dealing with partnership determination is the intention of earning profit from the partnership and their profit sharing terms. However, both these factors are missing in the arrangement entered between Susan and Joyce. Thus, it can be said that the arrangement entered between Susan and Joyce cannot be said to be a Partnership because they do not have any official registration for their partnership deed. Moreover, their contributions merely reflect the sharing of expenses and do not reflect any fact which can be seen as spent for the purpose of the smooth sailing of the partnership. And the biggest factor missing from the arrangement is the intention to earn profit from the partnership and the profit sharing rights of the partnership business. Hence, it can be concluded that the arrangement between Susan and Joyce cannot be termed as a Partnership. Bibliography Casey, J. B. (2012).Arbitration Law of Canada: Practice and Procedure. Juris Publishing, Inc.. Riefa, C. (2015).Consumer protection and online auction platforms: Towards a safer legal framework. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. www.bclaws.ca. (2017).Partnership Act.Bclaws.ca. Retrieved 31 July 2017, from https://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/ID/freeside/00_96348_01 www.ianwyles.co.za. (2017).General Rules Of Auction | Ian Wyles Auctioneers amp Appraisers.Ianwyles.co.za. Retrieved 31 July 2017, from https://www.ianwyles.co.za/general-rules-auction/ www.legalline.ca. (2017).How to determine if a partnership exists - Legal Line.Legal Line. Retrieved 31 July 2017, from https://www.legalline.ca/legal-answers/how-to-determine-if-a-partnership-exists/ www.ontario.ca. (2017).Cite a Website - Cite This For Me.Ontario.ca. Retrieved 31 July 2017, from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90p05 www.qp.alberta.ca. (2017). Retrieved 31 July 2017, from https://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Regs/1999_196.pdf www.thebalance.com. (2017).Eveything You Need to Know About Business Partnership in Canada.The Balance. Retrieved 31 July 2017, from https://www.thebalance.com/partnership-in-canada-2948122

Nathaniel Hawthorne Essays - Nathaniel Hawthorne,

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors, including John Hathorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials. After his father was lost at sea when he was only four, his mother became overly protective and pushed him toward more isolated pursuits. Hawthorne's childhood left him overly shy and bookish, and molded his life as a writer. Hawthorne turned to writing after his graduation from Bowdoin College. His first novel, Fanshawe, was unsuccessful and Hawthorne himself disavowed it as amateurish. However, he wrote several successful short stories, including "My Kinsman, Major Molyneaux," "Roger Malvin's Burial" and "Young Goodman Brown." However, insufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to enter a career as a Boston Custom House measurer in 1839. However, after three years Hawthorne was dismissed from his job with the Salem Custom House. By 1842, however, his writing amassed Hawthorne a sufficient income for him to marry Sophia Peabody and move to The Manse in Concord, which was at that time the center of the Transcendental movement. Hawthorne returned to Salem in 1845, where he was appointed surveyor of the Boston Custom House by President James Polk, but was dismissed from this post when Zachary Taylor became president. Hawthorne then devoted himself to his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. He zealously worked on the novel with a determination he had not known before. His intense suffering infused the novel with imaginative energy, leading him to describe it as the "hell-fired story." On February 3, 1850, Hawthorne read the final pages to his wife. He wrote, "It broke her heart and sent her to bed with a grievous headache, which I look upon as a triumphant success." The Scarlet Letter was an immediate success and allowed Hawthorne to devote himself to his writing. He left Salem for a temporary residence in Lenox, a small town the Berkshires, where he completed the romance The House of the Seven Gables in 1851. While in Lenox, Hawthorne became acquainted with Herman Melville and became a major proponent of Melville's work, but their friendship became strained. Hawthorne's subsequent novels, The Blithedale Romance, based on his years of communal living at Brook Farm, and the romance The Marble Faun, were both considered disappointments. Hawthorne supported himself through another political post, the consulship in Liverpool, which he was given for writing a campaign biography for Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne passed away on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire after a long period of illness in which he suffered severe bouts of dementia.. Emerson described his life with the words "painful solitude." Hawthorne maintained a strong friendship with Franklin Pierce, but otherwise had few intimates and little engagement with any sort of social life. His works remain notable for their treatment of guilt and the complexities of moral choices.

The performance of organizations

The performance of organizations Executive Summary The performance of organizations is greatly affected by a number of variables. These are customer satisfaction, forecasting, capacity planning, location, inventory management, layout of the store and scheduling. Secondary data from diverse publications vividly show that the internal and external environments, where operations of most firms revolve, are greatly affected by these variables. It is therefore important to examine how and why these variables lead to the successful performance of firms as is the aim of the current project.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The performance of organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Introduction The aim of this project is to study how and why certain factors affect the successful performance of an organization. The factors are customer satisfaction, forecasting, capacity planning, location, inventory management, layout of the store and scheduling. The f irst part deals with research methodology, the second part reveals the main project findings, the third part entails the analysis, and interpretation of the findings and the last section comprises of conclusion and recommendations. Research Methodology Data Collection Method Secondary Data The factors under study that affect the operations of various have been found to affect numerous business organizations. Due to this, terabytes of data have been collected and analyzed by several reputable scholars, credible economists, and excellent researchers on the same. Secondary data was therefore the kind of data that was found to be appropriate for this project. The selected secondary data makes use of published data that is already available in books, reports, and publications of several organizations and linked to business and industry, technical and trade journals, and, other sources of published information (Kothari, 2008, p. 111). In the process of collection of these data, caution wa s taken due to the uncertainties that may that may arise due to the circumstances that surrounded those who compiled the data or because of varying intellectual interpretations. Therefore, to ensure that sufficient caution was exercised in the entire data collection process, the published secondary data was selected based on the following features: Dependability of data To establish that the data to be used in this project was reliable, it was subjected to several tests that entailed some aspects like who carried out the data collection? From what sources was the data obtained? Were suitable methods applied in the process of data collection? When was the data collected? Was the one compiling data biased in any way? Was there a degree of accuracy that was intended? Was this degree of accuracy attained? Appropriateness of Data The data that fits a certain enquiry may not necessarily be applicable in another research. In particular, if the data at hand is inappropriate, it cannot be ap plied by someone else conducting the research.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In regard to this, the researcher is supposed to cautiously put under scrutiny the definition of certain terms and tenets of compilation that were applicable in extracting the data from primary sources initially. On the same note, the object, spectrum, and environment of the initial enquiry should also be studied. Incase the researcher encounters disparities, the data will remain unfitting for the current research, and it will not therefore be incorporated in the study. Sufficiency of Data If the degree of accuracy obtained in the data is found to be inadequate for the use in the current research, they will be termed as insufficient and hence unsuitable to be used by the researcher. Another base on which data may be regarded as insufficient is when they are suitable to be applied in a st udy whose scope may be either narrower or wider than the scope of the study involved in the current research. Therefore, due to the risks involved in the use of the available data, the current research, the secondary sources used in the current research have been selected based on their suitability, reliability, and sufficiency. Therefore, the project is intended to study why and how the following factors are significant to the successful operations of an organization: Customer satisfaction Forecasting Capacity planning Location Inventory management Layout of the store Scheduling Findings Customer Satisfaction Huselid, Becker, and Beatty are three scholars who have an innovative expertise in business and economics. They concede that even though the strategic objective of a retail organization is to maximize sales, this goal cannot be attained in the absence of customer satisfaction. This customer satisfaction, they argue, is partly motivated by an improved purchasing experience (H uselid, Becker and Beatty, 2008, p. 12). Their analyses reveal that improved buying experience is influenced by customer service, and specifically, the conduct of front marketing staff, which may include being kind, enlightened about the products and customer needs and being timely. There are therefore specific jobs and labor force demeanors that influence the purchasing experience of customers. Research conducted at Price Club business organization shows that in this organization, the clients require a clean retail store with accessible advertised products. In this organization, the front line employers may not influence the purchasing experience of the customers except by ensuring adequate stocking of the shelves, coherent arrangement, and necessary changes. Their strategic importance is therefore restricted in this case.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The performance of organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Alternatively, broadly put, the purchasing experience of customers in this organization is driven by the price. Thus, customer satisfaction is the key to success in any organization although the qualifications and behaviors of the employees that trigger customer satisfaction vary from one organization to another (Huselid, Becker and Beatty, 2008, p. 13). John Oakland, a business management expert echoes the fact that the goal of all work and attempts to make progress is to be committed to attending to the customers in a proper way. This requires the organization to be hitherto conversant with how effective its outputs are performing before customers through evaluation and feedback. Although the most crucial clients are the external ones, anything can change in the course of business operation. In particular, internal customers ought to be accorded quality service if the external ones should be satisfied (Oakland, 2004, p. 449). Forecasting Suntanto, a reputable scholar and lect urer in management asserts that at the start, managers are supposed to assess the future supply of workforce, both in the internal and external environment of the organization (Suntanto, 2004, p. 2). In addition, the future demand for particular numbers and kinds of employees ought to be ascertained. In particular, the analyses for supply and demand are supposed to be done differently. The chief reason for this is that supply forecasts are mainly dependent on the internal factors of the organization, which include staff turnover, retirement rates, relocations, and promotions. On the contrary, demand forecasts are dependent on external factors such as demand for goods and services. There are two main categories under which demand and supply-forecasting techniques fall. These are qualitative and quantitative forecasting techniques. Qualitative forecasting techniques are basically intelligent anticipations or estimates from people who have some previous knowledge regarding the number o f employees, and, demand and supply of products. The data for the four main qualitative techniques have been tabulated below. It briefly highlights the technique and its explanation. Qualitative Technique Explanation . Nominal assembly At least four individuals are accorded an opportunity to air their opinions about forecasts in work force. After all members have submitted their views, the team then discusses the opinions aired and eventually agrees on the ultimate judgment based on a ballot. Delphi Method A facilitator gathers written views from expert regarding forecasts in labor. After collecting all views, a synopsis is made and given to the experts. The experts do not interact face-to-face but the facilitator coordinates them. Replacement arrangement Charting methods are used to come up with forecasting estimates. They recognize current labor states and their significant details. Allocation arrangement The movement of workers through the organizationa l structure is used to deduce judgments on labor supply or demand Quantitative forecasting techniques are certain quantitative elements that are used in the forecasting of demand supply and work force. Data on the methods and their explanations is shown in the table below (Suntanto, 2004, p. 3).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Technique Explanation Regression model Changes in work force levels are forecasted using relevant factors like sales. Times of shorts of such changes are the computerization of product functions, interconnection of both clinical and fiscal systems, bottom line size, and the devolution of the inventory management role (Ozcan, 2009, p. 268). The era of microcomputers has facilitated opportunities changing routine duties to enhance efficiency and performance. For instance, tasks from users in various institutions can be easily transferred through the computer before being directed to vendors who are ready to offer online approval. In addition, these continuous routine tasks create databases of use, price, and other details that are important to the organization’s future planning (Ozcan, 2009, p. 268). Layout of the store Study from Lewis and Slack (reputable operation managers) reveal that service based environments play a significant role because they ensure that p articular customer needs are met following fulfillment of certain tasks by the staff. Store layout and functionality of the physical surrounding are very essential. Store layout refers to the way equipment, furniture, machinery has been positioned, the capacity they occupy, and how they compare in the space they occupy. Functionality on the other hand means the capacity of these items to enhance both performance and the attainment of the organization’s goals. A lot of experimental research in organizational psychology has revealed impacts of store layout and functionality aspects, always from the standpoint of the staff workers. However, little has been researched on the effect of store layout and functionality on clients within commercial service surroundings (Lewis and Slack, 2003, p. 517). What ought to be noted here is that store layout and functionality dimension is exceptionally important to clients in environments that require them to conduct self-service where they ar e required to carry out majority of the duties without necessarily seeking assistance from employees who work there. In the same vein, if the functions to be performed by the clients are more intricate, efficacy of layout and functionality will be paramount compared to if the tasks were less complicated and ordinary (Lewis and Slack, 2003, p. 517). Thus, based on the nature of the tasks and the setting, it is important to assess the layout and functionality of the organization to ensure that there is better customer service and hence successful business operation Scheduling According to Ozcan, scheduling is part of the duties of workload management. It aims at establishing the time that each employee is supposed to be present or away from duty apart from revealing on which shifts the employees work. Staffing, scheduling, and reallocation are the three duties of workload management go a long way to affect performance and performance related factors such as work fulfillment levels, an d how the organization will utilize its employees (Ozcan, 2009, p. 162-163). In healthcare settings, the types of scheduling employed are cyclical and flexible scheduling. The former is where work schedule can be regarded as permanent or discretionary. Under this kind of schedule, workers do not alternate shifts (Ozcan, 2009, p. 191). Flexible scheduling is where without changing the number of weekly working time, employees are given the freedom to choose the time they should begin their workday. Analysis and Interpretation Data from several credible and reputable scholars reveal that all the seven variables that is customer satisfaction, forecasting, capacity planning, location, inventory management, layout of the store and scheduling are all vital in the successful operations of a business organization. First, customer satisfaction is determined by both the behavior of front marketing staff and the price of the products. This is mainly common in retail organizations. How front mar keting staffs behave influences the buying experience of customers. A good buying experience increases sales volume and in turn boosts the organization’s profitability. Second, with regard to forecasting, an organization is supposed to anticipate the future of its demand and supply of labor force. This is meant to ensure that there are no unnecessary deficiencies. Both qualitative and quantitative mechanisms are used and doing this enables the organization to employ the right staff who will in turn render quality services to it, making it competitive and able to meet the demands of the dynamic world. Third, capacity planning affects manufacturing companies and it involves coming up with either short term or long-term mechanisms that may affect both clients and the company’s capacity. Any adopted strategy is meant to boost the operation of the company. Fourth, the location of an organization should be closer to the customers and near raw materials and suppliers. This en hances cost effectiveness and maximizes gains. Fifth, inventory management aims at ensuring that the organization’s stock is up to date thus eliminating chances of deficits, which may curtail its performance. Sixth, the store layout has a functional and spatial dimension. The former enhances both the performance and attainment of the firm’s objectives while the latter necessitates proper customer service that is vital to the success of the business. Finally, scheduling is a program that works at establishing when an employee is on or off duty. It determines both job performance and job satisfaction among employees. Conclusions and Recommendations Several reputable scholars have conducted research and presented credible findings regarding how successful business operations emanate from the seven variables (customer satisfaction, location, schedule, inventory management, capacity planning, store lay out, and forecasting). The findings from the selected credible secondary sources show a direct relationship between how these factors affect both internal and external aspects of the organization. Labor, customer relations, manufacturing process, time, and profitability are a firm’s operational variables that have been seen to be affected by the seven factors. On the other hand, it is recommended that first, more research should be done to show how scheduling affects the success in operations of other types of organizations apart from the health organization. Secondly, more research ought to be done to reveal how customers in commercial surroundings are affected by store layout. References Abrams, R. and Kleiner, E. (2003). The successful Business Plan: Strategies and Secrets. Ontario: The Planning Shop. Huselid, A., Becker, B., and Beatty, R. (2008). The Workforce Scorecard: Managing Human Capital to Execute Strategy. MA: Harvard Business Press. Lewis, M. and Slack, N. (2003). Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Manageme nt. NY: Routledge. Oakland, J. S. (2004). Quality Management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Ozcan, Y.A. (2009). Quantitative Methods in Health care Management: Techniques and Applications. San Francisco: John Wiley Sons Inc. Panneerselvam, R. (2005). Production and Operations Management. New Delhi: Prentice Hall. Suntanto, E. M. (2004). Forecasting the Key to Successful Human Resource Management. Web.

How to Give Teenagers Advice Lesson for ESL

How to Give Teenagers Advice Lesson for ESL In this lesson plan, students will have the opportunity to practice offering advice to teenagers. This can be an especially fun activity to do with high school students. Lesson Plan - Giving Advice to Teenagers Aim: Building reading comprehension and advice giving skills / focus on modal verb should and modal verbs of deduction Activity: Reading about teenage problems followed by group work Level: Intermediate - Upper Intermediate Outline: Start off the lesson by asking students to suggest what type of problems teenagers typically may have.Use one of the problems mentioned and inductively review modal verbs of deduction by asking questions such as, What must have happened to the boy?, Do you think he might have lied to his parents?, etc.Ask students for advice on what the person should do (reviewing the modal verb should).Have students get into small groups (four or five students).Distribute the handout with the various teen problems taken from real life. Assign one (or two) situations to each group.Have the students answer the questions as a group. Ask students to use the same forms as given in the questions (i.e. What might he have thought? - ANSWER: He might have thought it was too difficult.)Students should then use the sheet to report back to the class actively using the modal verb should to give advice.As a follow-up exercise or homework:Ask students to write about a problem they have had.Students should not writ e their names on their short problem descriptionDistribute the problems to other studentsHave students answer the questions about the situation described by on of their classmatesAsk students to verbally give recommendations Teenage Problems - Giving Advice ​ questionnaire: Read your situation and then answer the following questions What might the relationship be between the person and his / her parents?How must he / she feel?What cant have happened?Where might he / she live?Why might he / she have this problem?What should he / she do? (Give at least 5 suggestions) Teenage Problems:Sample Texts Should I Marry Him? I have been with my boyfriend for almost four years, We are going to get married next year but, there are a couple of concerns I have: One is the fact that he never talks about his feelings - he keeps everything inside of him. He sometimes has trouble with expressing his excitement about things. He never buys me flowers or takes me out to dinner. He says that he doesnt know why, but he never thinks of things like that. I dont know if this is a side effect of depression or, maybe, he is sick of me. He says that he loves me  and that he wants to marry me. If this is true, what is his problem? Female, 19 For Friendship or Love? Im one of those guys who have the quite normal problem: Im in love with a girl, but I dont know what to do. I have already had a crush on some girls, never with any success, but this is something different. My problem is actually that Im too cowardly to tell her anything. I know that she likes me and were very, very good friends. Weve known each other for about three years, and our friendship has constantly become better. We often get into quarrels, but we always make up. Another problem is that we often talk about problems with each other, so I know she is having problems with her boyfriend (who I think is no good for her). We meet almost every day. We always have a lot of fun together, but is it really so difficult to love someone who has been a good chum until now? Male, 15 Please Help me and My Family My family doesnt get along. Its like we all hate each other. Its my mom, my two brothers, a sister, and I. I am the oldest. We all have certain problems: My mom wants to quit smoking so she is really stressed out. I am really selfish - I just cant help it. One of my brothers is too bossy. He thinks he is better than the rest of us, and that he is the only one who helps my mom. My other brother is kind of abusive and depressed. He always starts fights and hes really spoiled. My mom doesnt yell at him for doing things wrong and when she does, he laughs at her. My sister - whos 7 - makes messes and doesnt clean them up. I really want to help because I dont like being upset all of the time and having everyone hate everyone else. Even when we start to get along, someone will say something to upset someone else. Please help me and my family. Female, 15 Hates School I hate school. I cannot stand my school so I skip it almost every day. Luckily, I am a smart person. Im in all of the advanced classes and dont have a reputation as a rebel. Only the people who really know me know about my strange feelings. My parents dont care - they dont even mention it if I dont go to school. What I end up doing is sleeping all day and then staying up all night talking to my girlfriend. I get behind in my work and, when I try to go back to school, I get a bunch of crap from my teachers and friends. I just get so depressed when I think about it. I have given up on trying to go back and am considering dropping out altogether. I really dont want to do that because I realize it would ruin my life. I dont want to go back at all, but I also dont want it to ruin my life. I am so confused and I have really tried to go back and just cant take it. What should I do? Please help. Male, 16

Corporate-Level Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Corporate-Level Strategies - Essay Example Most of the firm’s activities concentrate on its major brand, the Mexican Grill, which generates approximately 95% of Chipotle’s revenue. The firm couples the strategy with the slogan ‘food with integrity’ to imply its commitment to offer customers a unique experience at its restaurants while considering the local community, animals and the environment. By so doing, the company creates a good reputation thus maintaining its customers. The company engages in effective financial management to ensure that the company can fund its operations without using debt financing. The company maintains a debt ratio of 23% that implies that the value of assets is higher than liabilities. The situation means that the firm can easily offset its debts without debt financing that would otherwise increase costs (Paiz et al., 2011). Chipotle hires highly qualified and talented staff with a broad array of professional skills to execute the company’s objectives. A motivated human resource forms strong competitive advantage for the company. One of the strategies to motivate employees include the â€Å"people first† culture that extends to granting leave to employees during public holidays when competitors are open. From the analysis, it is evident that Chipotle corporate strategies work and enable it to survive the fierce competition from well-established companies such as Yum! Brands and McDonalds. Strategies such as differentiation, financial management and good human resource strategies are responsible for its

Promised land Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Promised land - Movie Review Example The atmosphere of realism is created by the environmental issues addressed in the film. The town people are introduced to the idea of mining of natural gas, without being given the precise details by a salesperson. The role of the soft spoken but self-driven sales-person Steve Butler is played by Matt Damon. Steve is employed by the oil company in a bid to convince the country folk to sell the drilling rights they hold in their own lands (Vant). The town is rich in oil but highly polluted making it a hazardous place to live in. A retired town scientist tries to educate the town folk on the dangers arising from natural gas mining. In his argument the scientist compels individuals to research on the oil mining method called fracking. Fracking poses a serious problem for everyone in the town, since chemicals and harmful gases get releases during the mining process. In the movie signs of dead cows are shown in protest of natural gas mining (Lemire). The cows are a representation of loss of life due to poisoning from chemicals released by the mining plant. The film is highly centered on an activist theme, since the issue of fracking is felt in America especially in Pennsylvania (Lemire). All in all , the film tries to educate Americans on the dangers of natural gas mining on both plant and animal life. The film is a clear statement against environmental pollution and corporate greed

Erasmus vs Luther; Discourse on Free

Erasmus vs Luther; Discourse on Free Will Essay The Erasmus-Luther Discourse on Free Will begins with the Diatribe concerning free will, written by Erasmus. Luther then refutes Erasmus Diatribe with The Bondage of the Will. The question being debated is whether man is in control of his own will, or whether everything is preordained by God, thus leaving man without free will. Their diverging philosophies have been interpreted as being the basic difference between Catholic and Protestant positions regarding free will. This debate offers two very conflicting views, although both philosophies were basic principles in their respective religions. Erasmus builds his argument without a solid foundation; like building a house without a foundation, it can easily crumble. Thus, Luther convincingly attacks Erasmus Diatribe. Erasmus holds that man is left with the choice of doing either good or evil. It is mans choice and therefore, free will exists. In the opinion of Erasmus, the freedom of the will in Holy Scriptures is as follows: if on the road to piety, one should continue eagerly to improve; if one has become involved in sin, one should make every effort to extricate oneself, and to solicit the mercy of the Lord. Two conclusions concerning Erasmus beliefs can be drawn from this statement; firstly that man can himself find repentance and secondly that God is infallible, meaning that a person engages in evil acts with his own will. The definition of free will given by Erasmus is the power of the human will whereby man can apply to or turn away from that which leads unto eternal salvation. While addressing the topic of Adam and Eve, Erasmus states, In man, will was so good and so free that even without additional grace it could have remained in a state of innocence, though not without help of grace could it attain the blessedness of eternal life, as the Lord Jesus promised his people. Erasmus, therefore, believes eternal salvation is attainable with the help and mercy of God, but Erasmus also believes that Adam and Eve caused man to have original sin. Erasmus goes on to write, In those without extraordinary grace the reason is darkened, but not extinguished. Probably the same occurs to the power of the will: it is not completely extinct but unproductive of virtuous deeds. In short Erasmus believed that man has free will and therefore is punished or rewarded according to the choices he makes. He backs his argument with many quotes from the scripture but so does Luther, thus the argument shifts, and the sense of scripture is the debate. Luther, who wrote The Bondage of the Will to refute what Erasmus had written in the Diatribe, disagrees; stating that man does not have freedom of the will. In the first few pages, Luther proclaims The Holy Scripture is no skeptic, and what He has written into our hearts are no doubts or opinions, but assertions more certain and more firm that all human experience in life itself. Furthermore, he goes on to say The essence of Christianity which you (Erasmus) describe is without Christ, without the Spirit, and chillier than ice Luther immediately implies that Erasmus has not been saved. Luther abhors those who claim to be self-reformers, once again contradicting Erasmus. You say: Who will reform his life? I answer: Nobody! No man can! God has no time for you self-reformers, for they are all hypocrites. The elect who fear God will be reformed by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the quote that best exemplifies Luthers position is as follows: Thus the human will is like the beast of burden. If God rides it, it wills and goes whence God wills; as the Psalm says, I was a beast of burden before thee (Psalm 72:22) If Satan rides, it wills and goes where Satan wills. Nor may it choose to which rider it will run, nor which it will seek. But the riders themselves contend who shall have and hold it. This philosophy contends that both good and evil are worked by a higher being. Both authors in this work make reference to Judas and his betrayal of Christ. Both parties acknowledge the foreknowledge of God, but Luther proclaims that God willed it. Thus the Protestant faith grew on the principles of predestination and the absolute belief that the scriptures are to be interpreted literally. At no point does Luther ever stray from the central point of his refutation, proving Erasmus wrong by presenting the conclusive evidence needed. Erasmus, on the other hand, never really plants his feet in this argument. Erasmus covers his tracks by changing the terms of the debate throughout his work. For example, Erasmus fails to define the limits within which the reader should think that the will is being acted upon. One can not conclude that Erasmus does not fully believe what he states in his Diatribe, but he admittedly discloses I have always preferred playing the freer field of the muses, than fighting ironclad in close combat. Erasmus proclaims that their debate is in the sense of scripture, yet how can one who defends free will pigeonhole the interpretation of the reader? Luther is much more direct in laying out his arguments and criticizes Erasmus for stating a bare definition without explaining its parts. The debate has very much become a personal matter by the time Luthers discourse commences. There is no mutual agreement whatsoever, thus it is easy to see why the views of Catholics and Protestants were so divergent. Erasmus is clearly trying to convince his readers, most particularly Luther, that free will does indeed exist. Luther continues to stay his course and states that God wills all. Everything is preordained, evil included. Of the assertions, Luther simply states one must delight in assertions to be a Christian at all! While Erasmus seems leery to take a firm stance in his debate, he is changing the circumstances of the debate, which clearly is an attempt to prevent Luther from pinning him down in Luthers The Bondage of the Will. After thoroughly refuting everything Erasmus has stated, Luther proclaims that Erasmus has asserted nothing but made comparisons . Whether there be complete merit in either mans philosophy, Luther has quite convincingly made Erasmus position appear flawed.

Internet Addiction :: Essays Papers

Internet Addiction ABSTRACT The Internet is the largest source of information in the world today. With its web sites and chat rooms, it is a means of communicating with people in places all over the face of the earth. Since its conception in 1973, the Internet has grown at a whirlwind rate. 51 million adults, were on-line as of the second quarter 1997 in the United States alone. Some say that the Internet is so enjoyable that it is almost addictive. The problem is that researchers are beginning to agree with them. Studies are revealing that there may be an actual form of addiction involved with over-use of the Internet. Identifying which category of addiction the Internet falls into is the problem. There are no real answers yet because research in this area is at the beginning stages. While lost in this so called ‘Cyber Community’ for long periods of time, people are neglecting other important activities like; time with the family, socializing, work and health concerns. One of the most extensive studies on Internet Addiction to date was conducted by Dr. Kimberly S. Young of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. In her study, she revealed concrete evidence supporting the Internet Addiction claim. However, help for web addicts is available. There are several web sites available for the treatment of Internet addiction, as well as counseling centers and clinics. Is it Live, or is it Internet? Internet Addiction The Internet is the largest most versatile source of information in the world today. With its web sites and chat rooms, it is a means of communicating with people in places all over the face of the earth. But with all this power at our fingertips, are there any negative impacts of using this interface? Are we as ‘simple humans’ capable of interacting with such a powerful communication source. Recent studies are beginning to uncover evidence that would suggest that maybe some of us are not so capable of dealing with this technology. In fact, as more research is conducted, experts are finding that the Internet may even be addictive! Development of the Internet began about 15 years ago. In 1973 the U.S. Defense Research Projects Agency initiated a program to research the techniques and technologies for inter-linking various types of networks.

American Airlines Case Study Essay

Executive Summary With 1988 operating income of $801 million on a revenue of $8.55 billion, American Airlines, Inc. (American), principal subsidiary of Dallas/Fort Worth-based AMR Corporation, was the largest airline in the United States. At year-end 1988 American operated 468 aircraft on 2,200 flights daily to 151 destinations in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, France, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela, and West Germany. The objective of American Airlines revenue management effort was to maximize passenger revenues by selling the right seats to the right customers at the right prices. As the decision maker of American Airlines, I recommend introducing Upgraded Computerized Reservation System to replace current SABRE system to keep the company leader of the industry while maximizing profit. Part 2: Issues Identification Immediate Issue Low load factors for Chicago – West Coast Nature: tactic Timing: short term In 1987, in the nonstop markets, American and United competed on the basis of fares, flight schedules, and factors such as quality of service. In the connecting markets, American, United, and Continental also competed on the basis of fares and flight schedules. Once again American and United matched each  other’s fares, while Continental, with its post-Chapter 11 reorganization and low-cost structure, was the low-price provider. So, United had a superior flight schedule, and Continental cheaper fares. As for American, our load factors were down to an unacceptable level. Deep discount for New York – San Juan Nature: tactic Timing: short term New York-San Juan was American’s largest market, measured in revenue passenger miles. The market was fairly evenly divided into three categories. The first category consisted of business passengers; business travel occurred year-round. Leisure passengers made up the second category; leisure travel peaked in the summer. Passengers of Caribbean origin either coming to the United States or returning to the Caribbean to visit friends and relatives constituted the third category. Eastern periodically offered deep discounts to stimulate demand during traditional slow seasons. In September 1988 Eastern introduced a restricted round-trip fare of $198 midweek and $238 weekend. The fare was applicable for travel until December 14, 1988. American had to decide if and how to respond. Systemic Issue Complicity of Yield Management Nature: Strategic Timing: long term American Airlines broadly described the function of yield management as â€Å"selling the right seats to the right customers at the right prices.† At American Airlines, almost everything is automated because the yield-management decision-making process is too large and therefore too complex to be processed manually. Part 3: Environmental & Root Cause Analysis In the past, under regulations, airlines were not allowed to set their ticket prices at will. Rather, all fares had to be approved by the government. Normally, fares were set on a cost plus basis in order to guarantee airlines a minimum return. On the one hand, airlines had no incentive to reduce costs by streaming operations and increasing productivity. Essentially, price discrimination under regulation was based on the assumption of two distinct  and easily separable types of customers: price-insensitive, yet very time-sensitive business travelers, normally flying on expenses, and price sensitive, yet-time-insensitive leisure travelers, typically paying for their own trips. The deregulation of the airline industry has opened up many opportunities to seize market share and revenues. American needs to identify and develop a detailed revenue management and yield management plan to capitalize on this opportunity. Airline deregulation in 1979 led to additional complexity in the practice of yield management. Two major changes took place. First, the number and variety of discount fares increased. Second, airline began offering connecting service, using centrally located airports as hubs, to serve more of the traveling public and provide national service. The resulting airline environment is very complex. The following factors complicated the yield management task: (1) the demand for full- and discount-fare seats on any given flight was uncertain; (2) the demand was variable over time; (3) in certain cases, for example leisure flights, the demand was also â€Å"lumpy†; (4) there was a bewildering multitude of fare types and restrictions; (5) the hub-and-spoke system made some customers in one fare type more attractive than other customers in the same fare type; (6) some customers booked seats but did not show up for their flights. Part 4: Alternatives and Options Below is a detailed breakdown of the alternatives and options for the issues identified above. Option 1: Marketing American Airlines could focus its priorities on marketing in order to realize its full potential from a demand, capacity and yield perspective. Offering last minute vacation packages or more aggressive pricing policies for flights that look increasingly like they will not reach capacity would be another way to help fill vacant spots. Pros: a. To sell deeply discounted seats at the last minute could make additional profit. b. American Airlines could be known to offer fantastic last minute vacations periodically. Cons: a. Focusing solely on marketing in an industry that is undergoing rapid  change could be extremely costly in the long run. b. Marketing would provide short term benefits but concrete improvements by other airlines may leave American behind. c. Another drawback to an aggressive marketing focus is would skew yield management regression models, most notably overbooking. Option 2: Upgrade Computerized Reservation System American Airlines’ â€Å"store front† is the computerized reservations system, SABRE (semi-automated business research environment). All sale and cancellation transactions, whether from American Airlines reservations agents or travel agents, pass through SABRE, updating reservations inventory for all affected flights. Because the yield management decision-making process is so large and complex at American Airlines, effective control of the inventory of seats can be accomplished only with more advanced automated models. Pros: a. Increase the productivity of yield-management specialists and the reduction in work load can allow them to spend more time reviewing only critical flights thus making better revenue decisions. b. Instead of being a price follower, the system could guide the company make better pricing strategies. c. Keep American Airlines leader position in the industry. Cons: a. It takes time and capital investment of new system. b. There is a learning curve for new system and takes time to get used to new system. Part 5: Recommendations Critical to an airline’s operation is the effective use of its reservations inventory. American Airlines currently has the most advanced computerized reservations system – SABRE. To increase the responsiveness and effectiveness of yield-management strategies and to coordinate reservations inventory decision with SABRE, it is recommended that option 2 is applied. Because the yield-management decision-making process is so large and complex at American Airlines, effective control of the inventory of seats can be accomplished only with more advanced automated models. The new model is aiming at handling overbooking control, discount allocation and traffic management. Part 6: Implementation Plan Step 1: Acquire buy-in from stake holders and management. Step 2: Set up target and create budget. Step 3: Establish a team to do the development of new system. Part 7: Monitor and Control Yield management performance is difficult to measure because of the dynamic nature of the marketplace. Decision Technologies developed a reliable and credible method of measuring performance that we believe is unique in the airline industry. In order to gauge the success of implementing this process certain KPIs need to be established to compare against previous system: Load factor Revenue yield per passenger mile Operating expense per available passenger seat mile

Nokia: Values That Make a Company Global

STraTeGiC Hr MaNaGeMeNT case study with teaching notes Nokia: Values That Make a Company Global By Geraldine Willigan, MBA Project team Author: SHRM project contributor: External contributor: Copy editing: Design: Geraldine Willigan, MBA Nancy A. Woolever, SPHR Ram Charan, Ph. D. Katya Scanlan, copy editor Terry Biddle, graphic designer  © 2009 Society for Human Resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBA. This case was prepared by Geraldine Willigan, MBA, former editor at Harvard Business Review, under supervision of Ram Charan, Ph. D. , former faculty member at Harvard Business School, winner of best teacher award at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a regular teacher in executive programs across the globe. The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Juha Akras, Ian Gee, Antti Miettinen, Arja Souminen, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Hallstein Moerk, Tero Ojanpera and Shiv Shivakumar. Note to Hr faculty and instructors: SHRM cases and modules are intended for use in HR classrooms at universities. Teaching notes are included with each. While our current intent is to make the materials available without charge, we reserve the right to impose charges should we deem it necessary to support the program. However, currently, these resources are available free of charge to all. Please duplicate only the number of copies needed, one for each student in the class. For more information, please contact: SHRM Academic Initiatives 1800 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA Phone: (800) 283-7476 Fax: (703) 535-6432 Web: www. shrm. org/education/hreducation 09-0353 Nokia: Values That Make a Company Global Introduction In the summer of 2006, the global competitive landscape in which Nokia was operating was changing at an astoundingly fast pace. Market growth was shifting to emerging countries, mobile devices were being commoditized, handset prices were declining, networks were combining (Nokia had just merged its own networks infrastructure business with that of Siemens, forming Nokia Siemens Networks, or NSN), Microsoft and Apple were making moves toward mobile devices, new technologies were being developed, and new strategic opportunities were arising as mobile phones were becoming the gateway to the Internet. To win in such a fast-paced and intensely competitive environment, the company had to move with speed and do a superb job of satisfying consumers. Decision-making would have to occur at the lowest possible level to reflect the peculiarities of the local markets while leveraging the power of Nokia’s diverse people, its brand, its financial resources, and its technology and design expertise. Collaboration between locals and headquarters and among multiple cultures and partners was paramount. Nokia conducted extensive interviews with people inside and outside the company, including partners and suppliers, to understand how Nokia was perceived and how it might have to change. That research informed a number of actions and renewed the focus on Nokia’s culture and, in particular, its values. From Paper Mill to Conglomerate to Global Brand Nokia, headquartered in Espoo, near Helsinki, Finland, is the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturer. It holds some 40 percent of the global device market as of the second quarter of 2008. It operates in 150 countries and had more than 117,000 employees, including NSN, as of late June 2008. It is the top-rated brand globally. Annual revenues for 2007 were $74. 6 billion (51. 1 billion euros). The company began in the late 1800s as a paper mill, then evolved into a diversified industrial company and was an early entrant in the mobile era in the 1980s. In the 1990s, CEO Jorma Ollila restructured the conglomerate to focus on mobile phones and telecommunications, and Nokia became the technology and market leader, starting first in Europe, then expanding to the United States and dozens of other 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 1 developed and emerging economies, including China and India. In the early 2000s, Nokia was briefly challenged by Motorola and Samsung but was able to maintain and soon to increase the lead. In 2006, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (OPK, as he is known at Nokia) became CEO. Nokia’s strategy at that time was changed to c over both the mobile device market as well as services and software. In 2007, Nokia announced that it would become more like an Internet company. Transforming the Culture for the New Challenges As Nokia’s leaders pondered what would hold people together and enhance collaboration and speed across their large global company, they arrived at an answer—culture, of which values had long been a foundation. Values align people’s hearts and emotional energy and define how Nokia employees (â€Å"Nokians†) do business with each other and the rest of the world. Because Nokia’s existing values had been unchanged for more than a decade and research showed there was some ambivalence about them internally, the executive board, comprised of the CEO and about a dozen senior leaders, decided it was time to re-examine the values. OPK selected a team of people to create a process for doing so. The challenge to the team was to get all the people of Nokia intellectually engaged. In keeping with Nokia’s culture, the values would have to be the result of â€Å"the many† communicating with â€Å"the many. † Assigning this task was not trivial. It required that senior management be committed to live with the outcome. The values that emerged from the bottom up would have to be taken seriously and stick—or the organization would be seriously harmed. As the team got to work and explored the options, they determined that the best approach would be to combine high tech and high touch. The high-tech part of the values-creation process would be through the â€Å"Nokia Jam†Ã¢â‚¬â€using IBM’s Jamming technology that would allow all Nokians to engage in an online dialogue. The hightouch part would come through the use of the World Cafe methodology. The World Cafe methodology had sprung up in the mid 1990s to accommodate a large group of people from diverse disciplines and far-flung locations around the world who wanted to discuss issues of common interest. 2 That group was known as the Intellectual Capital Partners. To create an informal conversation among so many people, participants were divided into small groups seated around tables to discuss a given question. The groups would then repeatedly disperse and individuals would rotate to other tables, so ideas were disseminated, cross-pollinated and combined. As the conversations continued, facilitators compiled the ideas that emerged. The World Cafe methodology had been used in some small pockets within Nokia but had never been tried on a companywide scale. The concept was right, but it was impractical for all 50,000-plus Nokians to directly engage in a dialogue. So the idea emerged to have a subset of people from across Nokia get together to discuss Nokia values with a totally clean slate, as if they were recreating Nokia on the planet Mars. 2  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa A trip to Mars became the metaphor for assembling a cross-section of Nokians to participate in the World Cafe format and create the new values. Nokia’s Trip to Mars Nokia produced 5,000 elegant, visually exciting invitations that looked like boarding passes and airline tickets. These were sent in bundles through snail mail to people at various organizational levels and functional areas, including HR, in each of the business units. The instruction to the recipients was to find a way to randomly distribute their bundle to people in their offices and factories whom they would trust to have a discussion about Nokia’s values and culture. The recipients could also keep a ticket for themselves. Each ticket was in a â€Å"wallet† that described what Nokia was doing. It stated the current values and gave instructions for how to proceed, first by going to the Nokia Way web site to learn more and to register for a cafe in their local area. Participants also got two luggage tags, which they were supposed to discuss with their colleagues beforehand: a green one, which represented the values or ideas Nokia should be sure to take with it as the company moved forward, and a gray one, for things that could be left behind. Nokia held 16 cafes in 60 days around the world. More than 100 employees representing a cross-section of Nokia attended each one. The day of the cafe, small groups discussed a predetermined set of questions. One person served as host and stayed at the table while everyone else rotated to other tables, eventually returning to their original spots. People had taken the preparation very seriously and interviewed their teams ahead of time; some brought stacks of paper with various notes and ideas. As the discussions took place, ideas began to emerge and converge. Facilitators captured them graphically and in written scripts. The outputs from each cafe were then uploaded to the Nokia Way web site, and everyone at Nokia had access to it and was invited to comment. Several thousand more employees were able to participate in the dialogue through the means of the web site, giving their opinions and making suggestions and sometimes asking questions they hoped the next cafe would address. The sessions were also videotaped and edited into short video blogs that were so funny and engaging that they logged approximately 30,000 visits. The video blogs, too, elicited comments from fellow Nokians. The mix of people attending the cafes was just what Nokia’s executive team had hoped for: an assortment of people from offices and factories and from every functional area and organizational level. The cafe process allowed those diverse viewpoints to be heard. Engineers said Nokia needed greater tolerance for risk, for instance, while marketing people wanted more stability. In the process, it broke down biases and misconceptions and began to build social bonds. â€Å"Latin Americans were not the only people with emotions! one participant commented. Another said: â€Å"At first it felt like I couldn’t even find a common language with my Mexican  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 3 marketing colleagues in Nokia. It was exciting when we found a common language and vision, and everybody was on board. † As the cafes took place, four values began to emerge. These were to be presented to the top 30 leaders at the final global cafe to be held in Helsinki. But instead of writing them on a PowerPoint slide, the values were presented in a way that was experiential. Representatives from each of the Nokia Way cafes were chosen to attend, and on day one of the Helsinki cafe, they got together and brainstormed how to make the values come alive. They recreated some of the skits, songs and visual aids their local cafes had generated to express the thoughts and feelings that underlay the values. The representatives from the Finnish cafes built a bird’s nest and a sauna in the hotel meeting room to represent Nokia’s passion for innovation (the bird’s nest was for the hatching of ideas, the sauna to represent the fire of passion). The next day, the group made their presentation to the senior leaders, and after some discussion, the four values that had came out of the cafe process were affirmed. OPK, who, like many Finnish people, was ordinarily quite reserved, was visibly moved by the intensity and sincerity of the feelings expressed. He felt as though he could hear the voices of Nokians around the world, and he, too, wholeheartedly supported the values. He asked that a representative present them to a group of 150 top leaders that was meeting three or four weeks later as part of the annual Strategy Sharing process. The group selected Ganeas Dorairaju, a native Malaysian who had been working in Finland for the past decade, to represent them. He stood in front of the top leaders and explained the values and the process by which they were created. At the end of it, the audience gave him a standing ovation. One leader wondered if the values could be turned into a catchy tune. Soon after, an employee teamed up with her husband and did just that! Nokia’s New Values3 Nokia’s new values and the explanation of them are as follows: n achieving together. Achieving together is more than collaboration and partnership. As well as trust, it involves sharing, the right mind-set and working in formal and informal networks. engaging You. For us, ‘engaging you’ incorporates the customer satisfaction value and deals with engaging all our stakeholders, including employees, in what Nokia stands for in the world. Passion for Innovation. Passion for innovation is based on a desire we have to live our dreams, to find our courage and to make the leap into the future through innovation in technology, ways of working and through understanding the world around us. Very Human. Being very human encompasses what we offer customers, how we do business, how we work together, and the impact of our actions and behavior on n n n 4  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa people and the environment. It is about being very human in the world—making things simple, respecting and caring. In short, our desire is to be a very human company. The world cafe process generated values that are different and more open-ended than most companies’. As leaders at Nokia note, the values require discussion. People might not know right away what â€Å"very human† means, but once people start to discuss it within the context of Nokia, it becomes very clear. People do, in fact, have those discussions. They use them to say, â€Å"Hold on a minute, is this engaging you? Are we meeting that value in what we’re doing? † ‘Very Human’ is closely associated with technology; it reflects the fact that Nokia has to develop devices that are easy to use. And ‘Achieving Together’ is about customers and suppliers as well as fellow Nokia employees. ‘Achieving Together’ also helps remove the fear associated with being an industry pioneer. The values are aspirational but also model what was already working well at Nokia. In India, for instance, where Nokia has built a dominant market position of some 75 million subscribers in a very short time, the values were evident before they had been articulated, which likely influenced the input of the three cafes conducted in that country. One of the key factors that drove business success in India was the distribution system, which Nokia and its business partner, ATL, built from scratch when large consumer electronics retailers declined to carry mobile phones because of their low margins. Working together to find an alternative, Nokia and ATL hit on the idea to mimic the small (sometimes just 5 x 5 feet) kiosks that are found in villages across India from which vendors sell fruits and vegetables. They recruited individuals interested in running their own kiosks, trained them and ensured they would have products in the right quantities and at the right margins for those vendors to make a living. The Nokia team wanted to be sure that whatever arrangement they designed would benefit Nokia, ATL and the individual mobile phone vendors. That way, they would Achieve Together. The Nokia team in India—a mix of native Indians and technology and other experts from such far-flung Nokia locations as Finland, China and Indonesia—collaborated in listening to and observing people in various parts of India to understand their needs. Their approach was collaborative and Very Human. As a member of the leadership team in Nokia India explains, â€Å"One thing that Nokia prides itself on is that it is not arrogant. That comes across in every interaction. People never take for granted that they know everything. Because of conditions in parts of the country, Indians needed a mobile device that was dustproof and didn’t slip out of sweaty hands. They wanted a device that could be an alarm clock, radio and flashlight (or â€Å"torch†) as well as a phone. Nokia’s Passion for Innovation drove the team to find the technology solutions Indians needed. Nokia found that the process of creating values itself had merit. It allowed the many to connect with the many and demonstrated that heterarchy was more important than hierarchy. It captured Nokia employees’ understanding of the challenges they were facing personally and organizationally and their desire to create an organization  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 5 that could meet them. It also reflected the spirit of bonding across cultures, functions and silos. As a member of the executive team says, â€Å"It is proof that a strong global corporate culture is possible. † The next order of business was to track the effectiveness of the values. To that end, the company has created a number of vehicles. Nokia includes values in its annual employee survey, â€Å"Listening to You,† and made them a key part of the change pulse survey it undertook during a recent reorganization. The suggestion arose to have pictures to demonstrate the new values, so the company staged an employee competition for photos that represent the values. Photos were posted online, and employees voted for their favorite. The top prize went to a quality manager in one of Nokia’s Chinese factories, who got to accompany Nokia’s brand people on a photo shoot in Paris. Given the quality of Nokia’s artistic skills, it was a choice prize. More than 22,000 employees took part in the competition, and Nokia has a rich bank of photographs to represent the new values. Nokians now are learning to create 90-second films that tell how values are making a difference in their work. These films can be uploaded to a video hub where fellow employees can view them. As of October 2008, more than 60 films had been uploaded to the internal VideoHub, and they have had over 50,000 viewings. 6  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa Teaching Notes Global companies require the alignment of their employees and partners not only on the strategy itself but also on the values needed to make that strategy successful. Values reflect and shape corporate culture. A shift in strategy often requires a shift in values. The Nokia case explores the connection between values, strategy, and the collaboration, innovation, speed and flexibility that are required for Nokia to succeed. Nokia is a very large company, with one of the highest brand recognitions in the world. It has the rare ability to design a new strategy and reshape its culture to deliver the strategy at the same time. The Nokia case describes Nokia’s social process for achieving alignment on values—a component of corporate culture—across geographies, silos and hierarchical levels. The learning objectives of the case are as follows: n note NOTE note Instructor’s Note Distribute only pages one through sixNOTE case study document to of this students. A PDF version of this document is also available online for your convenience. To learn the social process of engaging multicultural, multi-country employees in generating and agreeing on a set of values. To concretely demonstrate one way to build a workforce receptive to crossfunctional, cross-cultural teaming that can therefore make fast, high-quality decisions and increase the organization’s flexibility. To probe and deepen understanding of the relationships between strategy, culture, values and business outcomes. To encourage participants to brainstorm alternative ways to engage employees and accomplish similar results. To challenge participants to think critically about whether Nokia’s approach to creating values can apply to other business issues. n n n n The case is appropriate for graduate students in higher-level HR courses and for HR professionals at the highest levels.  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 7 The classroom instructor might want to pose the following questions for discussion: 1. Why did company management choose values as a foundation for taking the culture to the next level? Nokia needs collaboration because it must routinely leverage its technology platforms, global brand and manufacturing footprint, experience base in multiple countries, and in-depth knowledge of consumers and the marketplace. While individuals must have some degree of freedom to act, they cannot know everything or understand in depth all of the implications of various trade-offs that must be made in the ordinary course of business. As people come together to exchange information and make trade-offs, they must also have a common glue to hold them together. Values can be a uniting factor; they can be the glue. In the process of creating values, discussions touch on other topics, such as strategy, management style, opportunities, competition, priorities, and the inadequacies of organizational structure and reward systems. Values can fill in the gaps or provide what formal mechanisms miss—for instance, they can support open communication outside of formal reporting relationships. 2. What is your view about the four values the cafe approach produced? Note that they are few in number—four instead of 12. They describe the kind of company many people would like to work for. They can be applied in the real world and are relevant to any job function or organizational level. They are in keeping with requirements for Nokia to succeed. They capture the sense of higher purpose and human dignity people long for in their personal and work lives and therefore encourage positive, authentic behavior. 3. How do Nokia’s values compare with those of your company? Graduate students can compare with a company they are familiar with or one the instructor presents. One option is to look at the values of a competitor—for instance, Apple, given that Apple is now going into the cell phone business. Consider whether people â€Å"connect† with the values, or whether the values are too abstract or too generic to be meaningful. How many are there? Are they actually practiced? Do they relate to company strategy? 4. How will Nokia’s values help execute the change in business strategy? The process and content of the values build trust, making people more receptive to information and ideas from elsewhere in the company. Information flows are likely to be nonhierarchical. Nokia should therefore be able to innovate and respond to change better and quicker. Take, for example, the value â€Å"achieving together. † This value is now fully socialized at all levels in the company. It gives a lower-level person the freedom to call a higher-level person for collaboration and expertise where needed. By reinforcing this behavior, the values help break hierarchies, silos and other barriers. 8  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 5. concisely define the behaviors that were stimulated through the cafe approach at Nokia. What information channels got opened? Individuals took time to think about the company and how it does and should operate. They expressed their ideas, knowing their ideas could have wide visibility and make a difference. Before attending the cafes, people sought input from their peers. Participants listened to the views from many other employees. They sought commonality among the viewpoints. They experimented with creative ways to express their ideas. Employees became excited about the company and renewed their emotional commitment to it. Information flowed across boundaries. Because participation in the value creation process required no special knowledge, every participant was on equal footing, including newer employees, whose fresh ideas and energy got released. Thus, information flowed up even from some of the youngest Nokians, who represent the future of Nokia. 6. What’s your evaluation of the social process for engaging thousands of employees across the globe in defining the values? It was an efficient way to engage a broad, diverse set of people. The ready acceptance of the values (the output) indicates that the process was effective. It mirrored the patterns of communication and cooperation in a matrix organization. 7. What does Nokia’s cafe process say about its senior leaders? The senior leaders were secure about their role in the company and heir personal power. Once they committed to the process, they had to be prepared to accept the output. They also had confidence in Nokia employees. They were willing to â€Å"let go. † Senior management of any company should not feel insecure about the outcome of the bottom-up process. Because the process is open, it has built-in sincerity. People want to do the right thing. Also, broad participation is a check against a few radicals who want their way. 8. If Nokia were to use the cafe process again in 2010, what change in values would you anticipate? The outstanding goal of this process is to produce a set of values that are enduring. If the company were to do it again, the values themselves might not be very different, but they might be deepened or tweaked because people will have examples of how they have been used, or not used. The exception is if Nokia were to make a 180-degree change in strategy direction. Then some new values might be needed. If such new values did not emerge through this process, consider whether the strategy shift will succeed. Also consider how the outcome might be different if some regions are far more successful than others going forward, and how working relationships might be affected. Consider, too, the values of younger people who will be entering the workforce around that time.  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 9 The instructor needs to press participants on how concrete the values are, how engaged the people are, what are the pros and cons of having values cascade upward, why this process generates energy, and how management can measure whether the values are indeed being practiced and having the intended results. The instructor can jumpstart discussion by dividing the class into eight small groups and having each group discuss one of Nokia’s four values, addressing the following: If the group participants were the leaders, how would they ensure that the value takes deep roots and builds a superb social fabric while at the same time improving business results? The instructor may choose to broaden the discussion to explore issues around new theories of organization and management, such as Enterprise 2. 0 and the use of Web 2. technologies that promise to overcome the bureaucracy associated with hierarchy and make the organization more agile and productive. 4 What some people refer to as Enterprise 2. 0 or depict as a flat organization includes the direct exchange of information among people at lower organizational levels and bottom-up decisionmaking. Nokia’s value-creation process is representative of this new way of engaging employees and doing business. The following questions c an prompt discussion: n Is there a negative side to mass participation, or connecting the many to the many? Lack of knowledge or commitment can cause people to generate bad ideas that nonetheless gain momentum. Senior management will appear to be heavy-handed if it derails or ignores them. The major risk is when management is not trusted by employees, is erratic or seen as incompetent. Under those conditions, this process will fail. If that failure gets the attention of the board, which in this day and age is likely, the board might well insist on a change in management. Good management should learn from anything that comes in that does not match their expectations. In what situations, or for what issues, does a cafe-type approach work or not work? Any time a new leader is starting to take charge of a unit or company, cafe-type approach is a fantastic tool to energize and align people and hear what’s on their minds. This could be used to generate ideas around any particular topic—for instance, to gather ideas for coping with the global financial crisis. Do you think employees want to weigh in on all issues? In this knowledge worker society, tapping everybody’s brain and energy can create momentum and be a competitive advantage. People want to participate. There may be some managers who don’t want to hear what people have to say. The blockage tends to be from management, not the employees. n n 10  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa n How do you know if the masses are generating a better or more authentic solution than a smaller number of experts? The adoption and application will reveal the validity of the solution. Let’s remind everybody that â€Å"experts† are also employees. All experts can learn from the front lines. Experts also can be narrow. An open process will surface those conflicts in point of view. In a fast-moving, highly volatile environment, it is hugely important to draw those conflicts to the surface and get them resolved. Even if the outcome is not better in some absolute sense, it will be better accepted. to what extent does engagement affect business performance? How can you measure it? An employee audit or pulse survey are common tools to measure engagement as well as perception of business performance beyond financial numbers. Have people shown more commitment? In this case, the value of achieving together might be evident in shorter decision cycle times. n  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 11 For Further reading Lawler, E. E. III, & Worley, C. G. (2006). Built to change: How to achieve sustained organizational effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Shirkey, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin. Charan, R. (2007). Know-how: The 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t. New York: Crown Business. McGregor, D. (2005). The human side of enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hamel, G. (2007). The future of management. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Goldsmith, M. (2007). What got you here won’t get you there: How successful people become even more successful. New York: Hyperion. 12  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa endnotes 1 For more on the history of Nokia, see â€Å"The Story of Nokia† on the Nokia web site, www. nokia. com/a4303001. For more on the World Cafe methodology, see www. theworldcafe. com /reading. htm. Nokia’s earlier values are as follows: 2003 n Customer Satisfaction n Respect n Achievement n Renewal 1992 n Customer Satisfaction n Respect of Individual n Achievement n Continuous Learning 3 4 For more on theories of organization, see, for example, Andrew P. McAfee. (2006, Spring). Enterprise 2. 0: The dawn of emergent collaboration. MIT Sloan Management Review.  © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 13 SHrm members can download this case study and many others free of charge at www. shrm. org/education/hreducation/pages/c ases. aspx. If you are not a SHrm member and would like to become one, please visit www. shrm. org/join. 1800 Duke Street Alexandria, VA 22314-3499

20 Critical Essay Topics on Environment Health and Development

20 Critical Essay Topics on Environment Health and Development Before delving into today’s topic, it’s best we understand what the environment means and why its health is so important to human development and the earth’s entire ecosystem. The environment is everything- both indoors and outdoor- around us. It is made up of the air we breathe, the food we consume, the parks we visit, your workspace as well as your relaxation spots. Therefore, land, the atmospheres and the world’s rivers and oceans are how make up the environment. Since we reside in the earth’s environment, it is important to note everything that affects us both negatively and positively in order to reduce the negatives while maximizing the positives which make the topic on environmental health quite important to the human race. Therefore, this article will focus on helping everyone interested in writing critically on environmental health and development with the needed assistance to write in an effective manner that will pass your message across in a succinct manner to your intended audience. In order to help you do this, below are 20 essay topics on environment, its health and how it affects human development for you to choose from when working on your critical project. Rounding up the provided topics will be a sample essay draft exploring one of the provided topics in such a way that it provides you with clear guidelines on how to kick-start your chosen essay: The importance of Environmental Health to Human Development Discussing the Effects of Culture and Civilization to Environmental Health How Can the Environment Affect Women’s Health? The Impact of the Earth’s Environment to Child-mortality Rate The Impact of Environmental Health on the Economy of Developing Countries The Importance of Safeguarding Environmental Health Is Global Warming Harmful to Environmental and Human Health? The Effects of Indoor Air Pollution to Environmental Health the Impact of a Working Environment to our Personal Health The Ozone Layers Role in Protecting the Earth’s Ecosystem Water Contamination and its Hazards to Plant and Animal Life The Impact of Air Pollution to Economic Growth Environmental Pollution and the Global Burden of Disease Global Environmental Health and Building Sustainable Cities The Importance of Environmental Health in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals The Harmful Effects of Lead Exposure to Environmental Health The Effects of Pesticide Exposure in Third World Countries Driving Government Policies Through Environmental Health Research The Impact of Mercury Exposure to the World’s Oceans Global Waste Disposal and its Effects on Environmental Health As promised, above are the 20 timely essay topics on environment and the need to preserve the earth’s ecosystems developed for writing critical essays on this subject manner. The above topics cover a wide range of factors that are both natural and manmade combined with their effects on the environment. As it happens, we provide you with 10 facts on environmental health and development as well as in-depth for a critical essay. Lastly, a critical essay discussing one of the provided essay topics on environment will be provided as a guideline below. Sample Critical Essay: The Impact of the Earth’s Environmental Health on Child Mortality Rate The task of studying environmental health, human’s negative impact on it and how it can be curbed or reduced to its bare minimums is important to human development. And this importance is better understood when we consider the havoc diseases due to pollution wreck on the world’s most vulnerable citizens- our children. This essay will attempt to explore the impact of environmental health to child-mortality rate on a global scale as well as discuss ways to improve the environment we currently reside in. Environmental health is influenced by diverse factors such as the quality of air around us, the health of the world’s waterways and the manufacturing as well as human day-to-day activities. Sad to say, the factors affecting the environment in the 21st century are mostly negative for poor mining and manufacturing practices as well as the use of unhealthy facilities, machines and waste disposal techniques have taken their toll on every aspect of the earth’s environment. Now, recent studies from the World Health Organization (WHO) on environmental health paints a bleak picture for the survival of children born in underdeveloped, developing and developed nations worldwide due to the real possibility of kids being harmed by overexposure to the earth’s environment. As expected, the situation is bleaker in 3rd world and developing countries as children born into these vicinities are exposed to elements dangerous to their positive development. In 2014, the WHO reported that approximately 6.6million children under the ages of five die every year from a combination of factors such as poor health care, congenital diseases and yes, environmental factors. The study went further to state that a third of these deaths are due to the state of the environment health and could have been prevented if exposure to hazardous environmental elements were eliminated which indirectly points their death to human practices. This statistic raises the question of if humans truly contribute to a third of the current child-mortality rate due to their practices and the following paragraphs will attempt to answer this question. Asthma has been given the notorious tag as the number cause of death in children under the age of 5 and this respiratory condition is in most cases caused by the quality of air a child breathes in. And the air our children take in has been contaminated by emissions from automobiles, pesticide, lead and other harmful elements human everyday activity produces. Landfills have also been attributed to producing its own fair share of pollutants thereby adding waste disposal to the list of things harming the environment. In conclusion, the solution to drastically reducing the child-mortality rate lies in our ability to be more accountable on how we work and leave our lives both indoors and outdoors. Going green in manufacturing factories, the integration of recycling policies and participation of the world’s government in ensuring sustainable environments will be important in solving the current child mortality rate the world witnesses. Here we come to the end of these guidelines on drafting an essay topic on environment. So do not hesitate to select a topic from the above and use the sample essay as a tutorial for writing yours. References: The 1999 International Environmental Monitor Survey, Environics International, Ltd . (2000). The Coming Green Wave: Global Public Opinion on the Environment. environics.net/eil/ WHO Press Release. (2000). who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-46.html Pretoria: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. (2007). Annual Report of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry for 2006/07. dwaf.gov.za/Documents/ AnnualReports/2007.asp Gordon, M Simon, L. (2000). Environmental Change and Human Health. https://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Risk-livelihoods/environmental_change_human_health_africa.pdf Cortinas de Nava, C. (1996). Worldwide overview of hazardous wastes. Toxicology and Industrial Health. 12(2):127-138. Murray, F. (1998). Regional Air Pollution in Developing Countries: Background Document for Policy Dialogue Bangkok. Satterhwaite, D. (1999). The Links between Poverty and the Environment in Urban Areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.