Behavioural Economics Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Behavioural Economics - Coursework Example Economics by definition involves a study in which the structures, manners, standards, and trends through which resources are allocated. Organization in economics is debatable, as there is no limitation to the strategies that may be employed by stakeholders to gain an edge over the competition. Economics is perceived as being a practice and academic undertaking. Economics has varied interpretations and in some instances, perceived as a theory. The most popular definition of economics is a discipline that studies â€Å"the organisation of economic activities in society†. There are several queries that arise from the definition of economics concerning the elements and aspects of the discipline, such as the production quantities limits, pricing of products, and generally how one may make money from engaging in such activities. Considering the definition provided, the ‘economics’ of regions vary depending on the values, virtues, and preferences of the society in questi on. This draws interest to the concepts of capitalism and socialism, among others. The mode and trends of decision-making is a determinant of the economic system in the society. The ‘economic problem’ is sourced from this approach instilled in society. The concept of the economic problem involves â€Å"how to satisfy desires, and/wants with scares means. Be it as stated above, institutions operating under a similar economic model may not share the economic problem, as each institution has a different perception. The meaning of this argument is that economics is a rationalized concept that is predetermined by the subject. The definition of the economic problem is parallel to the definition of an economic good. An economic good is defined as anything that is both scares and desirable, which further complicates the concept of economics, since even straightforward

Illegal immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Illegal immigration - Essay Example However, such immigrations adversely affect the economy and society of the United States. The thesis statement for this paper is, ‘economics and social costs of illegal immigration outweigh the number of associated benefits’. Social and Economic Cost of Illegal Immigration Illegal immigrations put a damaging impact on the economy of a country. Some of the main effects on the economy of a country due to large-scale illegal immigrations include increased poverty, less job opportunities for local people, and decreased foreign investment because of increased fear of crimes in immigrant-populated areas. Immigrants are cutting down the wage levels for local Americans (Porter, n. p.). Reports show that many companies in the United States prefer to hire illegal immigrants because they are willing to work for low salaries as compared to the salaries that local people demand. Such situations result in decreasing the number of job opportunities for local people because companies fi ll many job positions with people who demand less money in exchange for job and confidentiality about their legal status in the country. Such situations also cause an increase in the graph of poverty in a country because when local people will not have jobs, they will face shortage of money, and their spending power will decrease as well. Overpopulation in the host country is also an effect of illegal immigrations. The demand and supply system also gets affected due to illegal immigrations because economic analysts cannot count the presence of illegal people accurately. In the United States, increase in the number of crimes is also associated with large-scale illegal immigrations. Some percentage of illegal immigrants start engaging in criminal activities when they do not get proper job opportunities even in the developed countries. Increased drug trafficking in the United States is also associated with large-scale illegal immigrations. As Go states, â€Å"the US suffers an annual loss of about 70 billion dollars due to drug-related illnesses, death, and drug related crimes.† Along with high economic impact, crimes and violence also affect the society. Crimes cause threat and terror in the minds of local people because of which they start thinking negatively about all immigrants. Benefits of Illegal Immigration Although there are no apparent benefits of illegal immigrations, if we analyze the positive effects of presence of illegal immigrants deeply, we come to know that they do play a little part in keeping the system running. For example, they do low profile jobs from which legal citizens usually keep themselves away, such as, sanitary jobs, waiter jobs, and petrol filling worker jobs. Illegal immigrants do such jobs to earn their livings by hiding themselves from the law enforcement agencies. As Mauriello states, â€Å"one of the perceived benefits of illegal immigration is that of filling in of low wage jobs that a regular American would not be wil ling to accept.† Rights of Illegal Immigrants Basic rights of a person remain the same wherever a person lives and in whatever way a person arrives to the other country. In the U.S. constitution, the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments protect the basic rights of all individuals living in the United States. The law grants protection to every individual and applies law for illegal immigrants. Although illegal immigrants

Bus reservation Essay Example for Free

Bus reservation Essay The purpose of this report is to explain detailed description of Bus Reservation System. It will explain the aim of the project, the limitations of the system, interfaces of the system, what the project will do, what kind of future works may be done. 1. 2 Maintenance An accredited bus operator may demonstrate compliance with this requirement by: †¢ accessing manufacturer’s specifications and/or any other reference material deemed appropriate for the age, make and model of the buses in the accredited bus operator’s fleet †¢ developing and implementing service schedules 1. 3 Objectives This project is based on a scenario. In this scenario, customer wants to know bus services with their time and date when he decided to travel. He can do this by a phone call or going to agency. In both situations, he will meet the employee who work at the agency and get information about services, its departure time, departure date, destination time, suitable seats etc. If he decides to reserve a ticket, then employee will take some personnel information from customer and will reserve a seat that customer selected. Travelling is a large growing business in Turkey and other countries also. It becomes very difficult to keep bus services records and customer information. Our project will be useful in the Bus Reservation System. This project’s aim is to satisfy a facility to reserve seats, cancellation of seats and different types of enquiry like seat status, service enquiry and service time. 1. 4 Limitations This project has some limitations. Firstly, services are only between Laoag-Manila and Manila-Laoag. Secondly, each day there are three services for each direction at 9. 00 am, 1. 00 pm and 8. 00 pm. Thirdly, ticket can be reserved by an employee who works at the agency. Namely; customer cannot reserve a ticket. Finally, man and woman cannot seat side by side if they do not know each other. 1. 5 Problem Customers have to go to the counter to buy bus ticket or ask for bus schedule. Customers need to pay cash when they buy bus tickets and sometimes needs to queue up for hours to get bus tickets. Besides that, customers are also not allowed to buy bus tickets through telephone because the bus companys telephone line is always busy. II. Flowchart III. Screenshots This shows the title of our system which is the Reservation System. As we can see we put the name of the programmer. Then press any key to continue the program. This data shows to fix the first few errors or warnings, since they may be causing all the rest. A compiler warning indicates youve done something bad, but not something that will prevent the code from being compiled. You should fix whatever causes warnings since they often lead to other problems that will not be so easy to find. Compiler messages usually list the file and line number where a problem occurs. Nonetheless, errors often occur on the lines prior to what the error message lists. Especially check the line immediately preceding where the error message indicates. Finally, note that some compilers may choose to call something an error while others may just call it a warning or not complain at all. As we can see we have no warnings and errors. After the welcome form then system opens the login form. Here user has to enter valid user id and password. There are shown as below.. This shows the main menu where you can choose your reservation. This shows the different choices of bus, we have deluxe, air-conditioned bus and ordinary bus. You can also choose the time you want.

Cadbury Human Resources Management

Cadbury Human Resources Management Assess the fit of Cadburys approach to managing its human resources and its business strategies with reference to relevant models of SHRM. Cadburys approach to manage the human resource and business strategy in regards to the case study given can be categorized in two models: Resource based models and best fit models. According to the case study, it is assumed that resource based model was used prior to the acquisition of Adams and best fit approach were used after the acquisition done. Most traditional HRM approaches use organizational external factors to determine HR policy, resource based, instead focus on companys internal factors (e.g. strength) and develop further using the available resources. In Cadbury case, it can be seen that, using Managing for Value was launched in 1977 which focused on companys internal ability (employee understanding) to decide how the company could be more profitable. Managing for Value itself has been categorized in three parts: Accountable (individual responsibility), Adaptable (get adjust with recent trends) and Aggressive (result oriented and goal driven). And then, Result Focused is also implemented for the sake of employee development let the employee understands the business goals and the environment where Cadbury operates the business during training session. The outcome was about 90% of employees returned with a better understanding and values of Cadbury and was proud to be in a team. As such, resource based model was used based on companys abilities and resources to determine the appropriate strategic actions. Cadburys approach to resource based approach can be summarized in the following 5 steps: Cadburys is ranked 26th in FTSE and had a profit of 6% amounting  £1115 million and had appointed a HR manager in main board. But then the major weakness was to identify the potential employees and promote and motivate them to perform better. This strength-weakness analysis is used in very first step of resource based model against the competitors. Next, Cadbury identified that the employees skill must be analyzed to motivate each employee through some goals so that they can perform better (known as capability analysis). Employee motivation has been seen fruitful after the training session. The Cadbury assess their unique set of resources to stay ahead of competitors. To be a competitive leader, Cadbury brought the employees closer to the company by offering them share in 1974. Employees had invested their own money and for that reason each employee has a good reason to be motivated towards a common goal to perform better than yesterday. By offering the part of the company business, 90% of employee said they liked the share investment which has proven big returns for the company itself. This strategy fitted with the Cadburys then competitive step as no such company had offered this opportunity before. And then, to formulate the strategy into realty and to be a market leader, Cadbury took aggressive step toward acquisition of Trebor Bassett and Adams. This acquisition followed by a decentralized command of the company split into five regions which demands that Cadbury can no longer stick on old concept. As the business trends had changed, to be competitive and earn above-average returns after big acquisitions, HR has to play its roles. There came the Best-Fit model which derived from the business strategy. Cadburys step forward to best fit was hugely changed trough the acquisitions. The following are the valuation how best fit approaches fitted with Cadburys Human resource management. Recruitment and selection process had been adapted with extreme care. Both businesses had been given equal priority as both had two different cultures. Some employees had been shifted over the businesses on demand. Communications has played its role and made things easier. The managements of two different businesses had been asked what culture the company should adopt to be a market leader. This communication let the employee had their flexibility on job rather than having job imposed on them. Direct discussions with employees had been made and few standards of behaviors had been set. Cadbury identified that, rather than focusing on individual employee it could form a team for specific goals for a certain time and replace them for some other purpose at a later time. This strategy did make diversification among employees and known as Working Better Together in the case study. Cadbury introduced extensive training program with more than 50 online tools for employee to let employee work more collaboratively in a decentralized business structure. However, despite these steps, Cadbury wasnt able to bring out the best of the workforce. A more growing approach more likely a joint problem solving approach was necessary. As a result, Growing Our People had been initiated so let employee be involved in decision making process with responsibility. Employees went through side by side with managers in assessment process of companys various stages and gain their performance. Performance appraisal was essential at this stage. Cadbury had to assess what were the outcomes of the training, communication etc to determine the next possible steps towards the HRM (e.g. pay increase, promotion). It has found that, poor performed employees were not given fair chances and opportunities. Since Cadbury placed its first priority to stakeholders and only fifth priority to built reputation with staff, it took serious actions towards the poor performed employee; noted as Passion for People. Well performed employees had been give pay rise while low performed employees had been disqualified. AS a global business leader, it had no chance to retain poor performed employees. Conclusively, optimal employee commitment has been established. To let the HR strategies more employee friendly, HR professionals was appointed in every regional decision making board. Cadbury initiated sense the employee considerations in different cultures. Best fit model proved to bring success in Cadburys HR strategies up to date. While other elements have been considered over time as business grows, Cadbury is proven to be stable in human resource managements with more than 50,000 workforces globally and one of the top confectionary company around the world. Words Counted: 970 Using your own knowledge from unit 8 and the related information about managing effective change evaluate the organizations approach to change assessing its impact and the role played by SHRM techniques and processes. (20 marks) Cadbury went through many changes in the give case study. Taking consideration of strategic human resource management, Cadburys approach to assess the changes could be based on the following: Change in Employee Roles and Responsibility Cadbury went through many changes on employee roles and positioning during the case study; beginning with Andrew Gibson which didnt follow traditional HR guidelines. But since Andrews appointment was based on his aggressiveness towards the shareholders and make the company profitable, led the leadership to promote him than his seniors. Change in Strategies 5 different approaches throughout the case study had been flowed. Beginning with managing for value (increase employee understanding), result focused (employee must reach the goal), working better together (work as a team), growing our people (provide training and workshops) and passion for people (retain the talents). It should be noted that the 5 approaches had been implemented in different times. Except the working better together which failed to identify potential workforce in a cultural mix, all other approaches was seen viable and brought positive impact to Cadbury. Talent Management Talent management is a common and natural home for HR particularly where it may also need to become part of a broader culture change program. Talent management has been developed along with the approach of Passion for People where well-performed employees had been offered promotion and pay-out. In the mean time, it was found that poor performed employees had not been dealt with fairly. Change in Culture After acquisition of Trebor Bassett and Adams, it was necessary to change internal culture to let employee mix with other culture and know each culture better. Culture tells how each business goes through with its own resources. Often acquitted business needed to adapt with existing business but in Cadbury, both new and old business had been told to build a new working culture to be a winning business which is known as working better together. Change in Training and Development Employee training plays the most innovative role in employee development. Business changes every day globally. New techniques and business policies are invented regularly. To let employees stay ahead with the latest business development, Cadbury had implemented various training facility over time. During the Result-focused it was seen 5 day training had been provided to understand the business goals. It has to be changed after acquisition of another business which had been implemented in Working Better Together to let the employee works together in a team despite of cultural differences. Change in Structures Before the acquisitions, Cadbury had a centralized business structure located in UK. Every decision was made in the head quarter and then made available to all sectors. After a large acquisitions and global business expansion, centralized business was not worthy. UK officers were not able to feel the cultural differentiation and its affect on Cadburys business in USA. To grow the business further Cadbury split the business to five different regions each having own standards and culture. And now, with more than 50,000 work forces from hundreds of different cultures put Cadbury ahead as one of the top confectionary around the globe. Words Counted: 520 From your knowledge of the course how does the HR function seem to be supporting the business strategy at Cadburys? In general how can HR best support an organization going through change? (10 marks) HR function to adopt the attraction, the development, grants or is the special value these individual retention and the deployment systems process which enlightens is achieved to the organization by the high potential. Before the integration new and existing high skills staff members, will absorb the management organization to enable each one and the organization goal understanding. Indeed, HR function integration and the alignment to other organization process is a crucial successful factor. The HR expert policy and the practice possible to create the value to the organization through the integration, the analysis, the survey and the appraisal human capital; Indeed the HR domain has develops richly. In view of the fact of Cadbury, may attract without doubt it, fosters the talent, retained the staff to rise the majority organization precedence finally to be surprised. Outside it may be in a wasting assets huge process attempts to seek for the organization and the staff needs the new person only then the even more way to solve the problem now, and integrates it the work innovation creativity. Despite the development of other were not aware of the benefits of a good bottom line has been embedded. Perceived in the development of a strong embedded inside the organizations, have a higher level of total shareholder return as seen in Cadbury case supports the philosophy of many top-performing corporations, both public and private, that effective HR functions is an inherent element of a high performance and successful business culture. The single most important factor in the successful development of other embedded active sponsor of senior management. The HR functions, more and more business press reports as a more strategic approach, which aims to ensure the organization of a series of events, winning the people they need to meet the challenges of the future skills as noted at the end of Cadbury case study. Respondents planned development of the organization, ask them the organization is hoping to achieve it. The top three responses, including succession planning, to attract, retain and develop the sustainability and future growth Managers should take the following key measures to ensure that HR can best support an organization going through change. Get the right people: Proper care, but must be taken to employ the people themselves. This will be useful to the organization to recruit young people and nurture them, and not substitute for other organizations to employ. Even though the board has a member from HR department, to employ the right people in Cadbury, HR strategies should be diversified and more decentralized. Promises must be kept: Any commitment to employee must be dealt with proper care and attention. Cadbury should bear in mind that, employees are asset to the organization; thus any promise given to then (e.g. promotion, pay, assessment, dividends) must be kept even if the expected profit outcome is not achieved. Healthy working environment: Rules of the organization must be flexible enough to provide them with the freedom to fulfill their part of the mandate, they like, as long as the task of implementation. Opportunities should be provided to employees to achieve their personal goals. Talent identification: Of course talents are the precious asset any organization be proud of. During the Cadbury case study it was seen that, after merge with Adams, Cadbury were unable to identify the potential talent even though their intention was good. Talents can be anyone in any field. One good way the HR policies in Cadbury can identify the talents is to reassign the employees in different position and let them be a part of every decision making process, if possible. It is no so easy to identify a talent unless they have given a chance. Rewards and Appraisal: Employee should be provided with proper appraisal and pay assessment based on performance. Low performed employee should be given extra care and opportunity to perform better. Continuous training: Employers must provide employees with continuous learning and closed areas of work opportunities, through the management development programs and distance learning programs. Adequate relax: Rest and Recreation (RR) is a common aspect ever big organization adhere in today business. Taking consideration of human psychology, rest and recreation can refresh employee mind and soul and let them think clearly with ideas. Even companies worldwide spent thousands to let their employee be fresh (e.g. annual trip, picnic, diner party etc) so that they can be more motivated and get the message that the company appreciates their service and wished better service in coming days. Cadbury could definitely adapt this process. In case study it was seen that only training was provided for employee motivation. Cadbury shouldnt ignore that, if employees are not re-energized, they will not feel interest on any such training and workshop. Overall, HRD policies in Cadbury should be adhering to an on-going evaluation process. Well-performed employees must be given awards to be more competitive and poor performed employees should be given more spaces to work on with. Diversification is also important to ensure that gap of cultures; race and religion do not make an issue and jeopardize the organizations common goal. Words Counted: 850 Total Words Counted for Section A: 2,340 SECTION B (60 marks) Question 2 What is the value of organizations in creating a learning organization culture? How can organization work towards creating this culture through its HRD/HRM Strategies? (30 marks) Learning organizational culture is a growing trend in making more employee oriented organization. Many organizations, particularly large organizations are aware of the need to encourage learning and assume learning through work is a perfect fit (Billett, 2001). Small organization, however do not take much advantage of organizational learning due to limited organization scope and people diversity (Antonocopoulou, 2001). Recently small firms also started focus on learning in order to success over long term. Learning in the organization is a descriptive topic to conclude (Brown and McCartney, 2004). Due to different culture, organizational culture would differ asymmetrically, some organizations provide formal learning, and some adopt informal learning, some offers blended learning, some even offer e-learning (Becker and Gerhart, 1996). Whatever the policy is, the main aim remains same: to ensure the employee would be able to adapt a change as soon as it is implemented, than competitor to stay in focus (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989). Culture is most famously defined as an integration of shared values and theories (Tharenou, 1997). Culture itself is a combination of internal organizational components like employee interactions, organizational functions and performance, employer attitude, organizational decision making process (Billett, 2001). These combinations defines the policies for a organization to solve normal problem as well the any unknown problems using new knowledge and scenarios are shared between multiple level employees; thus provides employee to address challenging and difficult situations (Antonocopoulou, 2001). This culture of learning organization is a continuous process of moving along with indefinite changes for a better learning environment (Maurer, Weiss, and Barbeite, 2003). Overall, the aim of a learning environment can be defined as the share of practical knowledge towards organization innovation, performance, growth (Booth, 1991). Continuing with the theme, this paper will address the valu e of learning organization culture, how organization can implement a learning environment and individual elements thats plays the role (Becker and Gerhart, 1996). Well trained employees play the first role in building of organizational learning culture (Parker, 2000). Many researchers identifies that putting employee in right place, giving time on right thing, utilize employee skills, introduce new learning method with fun is to implanted before expecting employee to do the right thing for the firm and the customer (Booth, 1991). Thus, in todays business, much concentration should be given to companys human capital strategy along with economic strategy and this has to as regularly as economic strategies are implemented to future performance (Antonocopoulou, 2001). Model of learning process is another factors included in organizational learning process (Tharenou, 1997). In traditional human resource management process, companies usually takes extensive training based learning programs which focus only on related content (Becker and Gerhart, 1996). Since business trend has been changed, so did human learning behavior and intention. Traditional learning process doesnt count how people learn and measures it success on how quickly the training is finished (Billett, 2001). Very often trainee employees dont learn much as expected and measured this policy a failure in terms of cost, mistakes and outcomes. Todays learning considers many aspects before design learning process (Booth, 1991). Employee can learn from home, learn as they work, learn in friendly consultation, learn through internet, share knowledge with worldwide employee unions etc (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989). They not only tend to learn but also evaluate their learning with each oth er stay ahead. This creates a tendency to adopt as soon as there is any information out before anyone else (Brown and McCartney, 2004). Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRD) may put much focus on learning styles with four different approaches: Experiment Doing This learning approach provides a details outline of a clear picture of the job to be done within the given time. Examination is taken to check the learning accuracy and always provides feedback with questions answered. This learning process is a go-on process to run until the learning objectives are fulfilled (Antonocopoulou, 2001). The trainee people are able to choose their resources to get the job done and are keen to finish the job given (Frese and Fay, 2001). Observing Participating In this learning process, employee needs an overview of the process, and then follows a superior doing the job and then go with it ownself with a superior monitoring. Sometimes the trainee may learn for the mistakes that senior people does, take lesson from the mistakes, avoid repeated mistakes. Instant feedback is given during learning process (Becker and Gerhart, 1996). Inquiring Consulting The trainees will learn through inquiring and consulting mode to have all the information of the new ideas (why, how, when, where etc) (Wall and Wood, 2005). After understand the context of the task, employee will apply the new knowledge into their work and expect details feedback (Booth, 1991). Analyzing Patterning For an employee to learn in this way, a precise and details how-to-do guidelines must be presented in an organized and logical manner. These guidelines would be used in step by step process from start to end that is coherent to all (Eraut, 2004). To work towards creating the learning culture through HRD strategies, following points might be considered: Skill Gap Analysis Skill gap analysis used organization human resource management which critically assess the current skill of an individual, team or even an organization. Skill gap can be as simple as communication skill and can be as complex as complex decision making. Identifying skill gaps will help organization to design learning program which have significant impact on skill level and performance. Another major impact of skill gap analysis is, when the skill gap is address and monitored properly and a on-going learning culture is on the way, employee might be more engaged and motivated towards the goal which might fulfill the achievement of skill gap, as a result makes the whole job easier and eventually benefits the company (Gherardi, 2000); (Malcolm, Hodkinson, and Colley, 2003). Catalyst for Change Introduction of new management skill, leadership style, monitoring and coaching the employees during any organizational change can channel the learning process inside HRD policies. It also might provide expert motivation, consulting skills as well as on-site learning. The aim should be incorporated to achieve said results, goals and objectives and establish sustainable innovative practices in the organization. In addition, the change will let employee committed to action and to be self dependant in terms of productivity (Fuller and Unwin, 2004); (Huselid, 1995). Competitive Advantage Of course, integrated learning process and continuous implementation will let managers keep making profits and sustain the company position over the competitors. Its been long considered as one of the fundamental factor of competitive advantage in companys strategic management. Learning culture through coordinated system change, with mechanisms available for individual and organizations to access and culture to develop long term organizational capacity is already a part of Strategic Human Resource Management. To stay competitive, creation, acquisition and integration of skill aimed for the development of human capital and capabilities might be included that influence organizational better performance (Crant, 2000); (Tight, 2000). Creation of a Learning Environment Learning environment can be viewed as the spaces where the learning will take place. Learning environment contains all necessary learning equipments, from class room to meeting board, from exam hall to discussion room. Learning environment usually plays its role to apply the knowledge instantly in different teams on different purpose and view the outcomes. Often whole organization can play a mock test to assess the validity of a resolution which can be defined in HRD policies. Learning environment arrangement can have impacts on employee learning, learning outcome and finally on Learning environment performance. The HRD policies in organization let employee learn as they go through everyday work by providing both informal and formal conversation, discussion etc (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000); (Wall and Wood, 2005). Words Counted: 1290 Question 4 To what extent can performance management systems stand alone from an organizations overall approach to developing and managing people? How can organizations integrate the performance and developmental aspects of managing people? Use case examples to illustrate your answer. (30 marks) Performance management involves training, team cooperation, dialogue, management style, attitude, shared vision, employee involvement, multi-capacity, incentives and rewards. It is used to maximize the employee performance in an organization (Neely and Bourne, 2000); (Williams, 2003). Performance Management System (PMS) provides performance reports on time and relevance to the organization helps to take swift decision. It also helps business to focus on achieving results to internal and external stakeholders (Blalock, 1999); (Bassioni, Price, and Hassan, 2004). Disadvantage of PMS are often are not designed to be well-informed about the nature and link of the processes Performance management system may not be consistent always. Today PMS may not be useful tomorrow. It has to update and change regularly (Papalexandris et al, 2005; (Meyer and Rowen, 1991); (Lawler, 2003). Several Performance Management System (PMS) are in use today like Balance Scorecard, Performance Prism etc (Kaplan and Norton, 2000); (Meyer and Rowen, 1991). Performance Management System is designed to clarify the purpose of assisting individual employee performance management and program-related training and development programs (Kaplan and Norton, 2000). Consistent with the main objective, performance management should be seen as a fully integrated system of personnel management. Personnel management, including work and business design, job descriptions, selection process, performance requirements of the induction, proof, training, effective supervision, performance feedback and suggestions (Bontis et al, 1999); (Bassioni, Price, and Hassan, 2004); (Halachmi, 2002). Traditional PMS mostly focused on theoretical and experience based approaches while modern PMS can be customized thoroughly based on organization needs. Modern business are not bound in one culture, they are fitted with hundreds of culture and environment which doesnt really rely on theoretical approaches but rather focus on business driven trends which can be updated and upgraded regularly (Neely and Bourne, 2000); (Nilsson and Kalid, 2002); (Williams, 2003); (Lawler, 2003). According to the case study given (of Cadbury), five framework analysis can explain how Cadbury integrated the PMS systems over time and what were the outcomes: Managing For Value Managing Value let employee work for companys value. Three main As has been initiated for maintain the company profitable. Accountable held individual responsible for the roles. Adaptable adjust as the business world changes and upgrade own skills and knowledge whenever available and applicable. Aggressive individual should be result and goal oriented and each goal must be achieved. However, this framework was based on older basis business style which doesnt suit with todays complex business needs (Kaplan and Norton, 2000); (Bassioni, Price, and Hassan, 2004); (Meyer and Rowen, 1991). Result Focused Result focused has brought the idea that the Cadbury holds a strong financial goals thus employee must be talented and strong too. Employees were sent to training that was linked with the goals achieved from managing for value. They were given a idea and context of business environment where Cadbury operates. This framework brought employee closer to invest inside the company. While own money is invested, every employee tends to work harder for the best of the company. Yet, this result focused approach was not enough when Cadbury went through acquisition of other companies (Bontis et al, 1999); (Nilsson and Kalid, 2002). Working Better Together This framework has been established bearing in mind that Cadburys global business. Cadbury found that employees should work collaboratively rather than individually. After the acquisition, different types of employee joined the company. There was a need to construct a framework where new comer will work with experienced as a team or group for certain purpose. This framework unfortunately didnt bring the expected outcomes due to failure of identify potential workforce and lack of motivation. Employees had been assigned to the working environment where they werent familiar with (Blalock, 1999); (Meyer and Rowen, 1991). Growing Our People This strategy is a small training program for managers to teach them how to identify and manage potential talent and ensure equal participation of every resource. Managers were set to motivate the employee about the company succession and let them make decision in certain cases. What this policy missed is deal with poor performed employee. The framework did mention to motivate every employee but didnt clearly identify how to influence poor performed employee, whether they will be left behind etc (Papalexandris et al, 2005); (Bassioni, Price, and Hassan, 2004). Passion for People Passion for people is said to be the best suited with Cadbury which looks at the mechanics of managing performance. Before this policy is established, stakeholder has been given first priority whereas deal with staff is given fifth priority. On certain point both conflicted. Thus Cadbury decided to demolish the poor working performance for the sake of stakeholders which has been a bottleneck for a long time. Cadbury decided to go for the people who work with Cadbury, but not for Cadbury. Employees has been given freedom and choice to do what is right for the job and thus each job in Cadbury now is a role of enthusiasm (Neely and Bourne, 2000); (Nilsson and Kalid, 2002); (Meyer and Rowen, 1991); (Norreklit, 2000). Performance Management System (PMS) must implement 6 common features widely considered as the succession factors for such kind of system. They are: Objective Setting It appears that the main purpose of performance management systems, the focus of its strategic objectives, is not it have been a lot of people think that management and staff to assist in achieving other objectives of the system, namely, a comprehensive evaluation and the corresponding performance development and improvement of staff (Bassioni, Price and Hassan, 2004). In the performance management system aims at one of the reasons is the apparent conflict of strategic planning business development (Kaplan and Norton, 2000) (Neely and Bourne, 2000); (Bassioni, Price, and Hassan, 2004); (Lawler, 2003). Ongoing Review of Objectives Performance management system should be designed in a way that participants are well-informed about the objectives and link of the processes. PMS objectives should be closely related to the boundary of the working environment and it must ensure objectives are changed whenever company vision, mission and scope are changed (Papalexandris et al, 2005); (Meyer and Rowen, 1991); (Williams, 2003); (Halachmi, 2002). Development of Personal Improvement Personal improvement closely related with employee training about the PMS system is considered as the most important factors

Nirvana - Nevermind :: essays research papers fc

History of Rock and Roll There possibly isn't an album in history that is as genre defining as Nirvana's Nevermind. Released in 1991, it single handedly was responsible for the birth of what became to be known as grunge and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone (Stuessy, Joe). It reached number 1 in 1991 and was the first album to bring Seattle grunge to the mainstream audience (Stuessy, Joe). Nevermind is a mix of slow, dark songs and fast paced grunge rock songs. With its grinding guitars, pounding drums, and lead singer, Kurt Cobain's distinctive voice, Nevermind found a distinctive way to fuse alternative punk with 70's rock (Nirvana, Nevermind). The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit.† It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit,† white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their â€Å"teenage anthems† (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, â€Å"...here we are now, entertain us†(Stuessy, Joe). â€Å"Smells like Teen Spirit† was Curt Cobain’s â€Å"attempt to write the ultimate pop song†(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). Th e style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very â€Å"innovative† or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. â€Å"A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics† (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history. â€Å"Come As You Are† and â€Å"Polly† showcase that Nirvana were not only a band interested in seeing people jump up and down and scream at shows. Many people, fans and celebrities alike consider â€Å"Polly† to be Kurt Cobain’s most well written song. â€Å"Polly†, number six, is a story of a girl who got molested and tortured and sexually abused. Nirvana - Nevermind :: essays research papers fc History of Rock and Roll There possibly isn't an album in history that is as genre defining as Nirvana's Nevermind. Released in 1991, it single handedly was responsible for the birth of what became to be known as grunge and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone (Stuessy, Joe). It reached number 1 in 1991 and was the first album to bring Seattle grunge to the mainstream audience (Stuessy, Joe). Nevermind is a mix of slow, dark songs and fast paced grunge rock songs. With its grinding guitars, pounding drums, and lead singer, Kurt Cobain's distinctive voice, Nevermind found a distinctive way to fuse alternative punk with 70's rock (Nirvana, Nevermind). The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit.† It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit,† white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their â€Å"teenage anthems† (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, â€Å"...here we are now, entertain us†(Stuessy, Joe). â€Å"Smells like Teen Spirit† was Curt Cobain’s â€Å"attempt to write the ultimate pop song†(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). Th e style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very â€Å"innovative† or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. â€Å"A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics† (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history. â€Å"Come As You Are† and â€Å"Polly† showcase that Nirvana were not only a band interested in seeing people jump up and down and scream at shows. Many people, fans and celebrities alike consider â€Å"Polly† to be Kurt Cobain’s most well written song. â€Å"Polly†, number six, is a story of a girl who got molested and tortured and sexually abused.

Cartoon Violence, Has it gone too Far Essay -- essays papers

Cartoon Violence, Has it gone too Far Aggression. Killing. Revenge. Sound like the latest Scream movie or Keanu Reeves thriller? You may be surprised to hear that this describes the average Saturday morning cartoon. One of the most surprising facts is that the level of violence during Saturday morning cartoons is higher than the level of violence during prime time. There are 3 to 5 violent acts per hour in prime time, versus 20 to 25 acts per hour on Saturday morning (Gerbner,1). Violence on television in general is damaging to society. But the specific targeting of the younger population through the use of cartoons to show violence is destructive and in no way helping to profit the upcoming generation. Violence in cartoons is harmful to children in many ways. Desensitizing children, increasing aggressiveness, and increasing their fear of becoming victims in real life, are all accredited to violence on television. â€Å"Myriad studies show that television violence affect children by desensitizing children to the horror of violence, teaching them to accept violence as a solution to problems, teaching them to imitate the violence they see on the television and leading them to identify with characters seen on television (and thus imitate the characters they identify with) (Parenthood Web).† The amount of violence in television programming is obviously directly related to the amount of violence witnessed by children. The more of a role that television plays in the daily activities the more of a role violence will influence that child. In 1985 alone, 85% of all television programming contained violence, with 92.1% of cartoons aired containing violence. These cartoons generally contain one violent act every three minutes ... ... and go straight to fighting. Children are becoming more desensitized, more aggressive and more afraid with the huge influx of violence on the glowing television set in all of our homes. Clearly, the children watching television all over the world are learning to embrace violence, often the wrong solution to any problem. Violence in television should not be banned, however, the frequency of the violence in television shows, especially cartoons aimed at kids, should be cut down significantly. Bibliography: Work Cited 1. Chen, Walter. http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/FA/MLArticleFolder/kalin.html, 2000. 2. Gerbner, George. http://www.4children.org/news/1- 97vtch.htm, 1999. 3. Liebert and Sprafkin. Violence in the Media. New York: Basic Books, 1990. pages 115-120. 4. The Parenthood Web. http://www.4children.org/news/1-97vtch.htm, 2001.

Amazon vs Wallmart

Amazon vs Wallm Amazon vs. Walmart Alexandra Tikhonkikh Professor N. Kentish Metropolitan College of New York The case study Amazon vs. Walmart is illustrated several concepts, which was described in the chapter. One of them is a sales Revenue Model where companies get revenue by selling goods, information, or services to customers. Like Amazon. com which sells books, music, and other products. Another one is e-tailer model.It is close to the typical bricks-and-mortar storefront, except that customers only need to connect to the Internet to check their items and place an order. The value scheme of e-tailers is to provide convenient, low-cost shopping 24/7, offering large assortments and consumer choice. Some e-tailers, such as Walmart. com, indicated to as â€Å"bricks-and-clicks,† are divisions of existing physical stores and have the same products. Others, however, exist only in the virtual world, without any ties to physical locations like Amazon. com. Before we going to a nalyze Amazon and Walmart. om using the value chain and competitive forces models, we suppose to describe these two concepts. Business Value Chain Model include: 1) views firms as series of activities that add value to products or services, 2) highlights activities, 3) primary activities vs. secondary activities, 4) regulate how information systems could advance customer and supplier disintermediation at each step of development, 5) utilize benchmarking. Michael Porter’s competitive forces model provides general view of firm, its competitors, and environment.It also substitutes products and services. The model include customers and suppliers, moreover, it contains traditional competitors and new market entrants. Besides, five competitive forces shape fate of firm. Amazon. com started as on line bookseller, but has expended into a wide variety of media, electronics, and other general merchandise categories in support of its business strategy. Amazon’s value chain includ es primary and support activities. Primary activities are very important for business, because those needed to manufacture a product or services for the end users.These activities typically include: 1) service: basically meant by after-sales support like user training, install applications, customer support and etc. , 2) operations: manufacturing the product, 3) inbound logistics: receiving goods from supplier and storing those goods, 4) outbound logistics: sending goods to wholesalers, retailers or directly to the end customer, 5) marketing and sales: product needed to be sold to the end customer, to understand customer requirements and also to promote goods.Support activities help to facilitate or assist the primary activities of producing product. There are four category: 1) Procurement: purchasing raw material and other items used in operations, 2) Human Resource Management : recruiting, hiring, firing, training, developing, compensating, 3) Technological Development : research and development, process automation, software, hardware, equipment, etc. , 4) Infrastructure : may include accounting, legal, finance, planning, public affairs, government relations, quality assurance and general management.As to Amazon’s competitive advantages from a value chain there are several strategies of development like strong technological infrastructure with a single platform, high investments in technology development for example Kindle, the best leverage digital products, great product forecasting system, print on demand, constantly imploring suggestions on new products, easy and fast payment system, 24/7 operations, free returns within 30 days. Amazon. com competes with product specific retailers; online marketplace and mass merchandise retailers.This creates an environment of intense competition and requires Amazon. com to differentiate itself uniquely based on the competitor. Let’s try to consider a Wal-Mart position from the competitive model as well. C ompetition among rivals is fairly weak. The market is crowded but Wal-Mart has the lowest costs, prices, profits, and market share. The warning of substitute products is also weak. Wal-Mart exerts a great deal of effort in making sure they are innovative and meeting customer requests. The bargaining power of suppliers is weak as well. For most producers, Wal-Mart would be their largest account.The bargaining power of buyers is also weak. There is a very broad base of customers and a meaningful demand for low prices. The threat of new entrants is weak. Wal-Mart has a scale of operation that is very important, it would take years, maybe even decades, for a new company to be on the same level. Even prominent companies today would have really difficult time matching the costs and prices Wal-Mart provides. A more sophisticated analysis of Wal-Mart’s internal value chain shows that Wal-Mart is hold in esteem to technology and was the ? rst merchant, which uses bar codes.It also use s satellite connections to communicate with all its stores. Moreover, Wal-Mart has integrated its POS, inventory-control, RFID, and other logistical technologies to haste product delivery, improve security and decrease costs. Besides It has developed regional obtaining centers in addition to its legendary center in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart even has one in Shenzhen, China. Merchants set up satellite of? ces next door to the most suitable procurement center. Because Wal-Mart is a retailer, not a manufacturer, its external value chain is extremely simple.It deals with a variety of merchants and sells to customers. But the secret to discovering what makes Wal-Mart successful in studying its internal value chain. We should mentioned Walmart's competitive advantages from a value chain perspective. First of all it is a distribution capabilities: well-organized distribution, leadership of Walmart’s own distribution centers and â€Å"inside-out† location strategy. Second , is partnership relationship with merchants: integrates suppliers via IT ; treats them well in terms of pricing, they are more business partners than â€Å"value takers†.Third, is advanced data mining: dynamic group and usage of customer buying behavior report. Forth, workforce culture and EDPL: customer-oriented workforce interested through substantial monetary contribution and belief in Walmart’s culture. And that’s not hard consider the fact that Walmart is almost 50 years old. Wal-Mart’s business strategy is to provide â€Å"Every day Lower Prices† or EDPL for all its products and services. Their organization, company culture, and supply chain management all support and emphasize this business strategy.Also, Wal-Mart use strategy of managing costs which include: budgeting payroll cost, saving on business travel cost, investing in technology, eliminating unnecessary costs. Another strategy that we have to mention is a strategy of managing growt h, which consists of location and acquisition. And the last one called strategy of managing people resources. Every company that wants to be successful supposes to pay attention to this strategy as well. Internal promotions, employee motivating and external recruitment are the main components of this strategy.By implementing these three important strategies successfully, Wal-Mart has become from a single store to the biggest retailer in the United States and the biggest company in the world. The cost management strategy of Wal-Mart was created an operational model with the lowest cost which was increased the ratio of profit on the financial reports. Products found in Wal-Mart stores are not considered to be a high-end, luxury, or fashion oriented. Because their strategy is being a low price leader. Wal-Mart aims to provide a wide variety of products under one location for a low price.Wal-Mart stores also carry their own private labels that compete on price with national brands. More over, the growth management strategy had hauled Wal-Mart into the right direction of investment and expanded radically around the distribution center. However, the people management strategy motivates all employees to work more efficiency and generates a great workplace environment which full of self-improvement, competition, and respects. It also provides a chance for people to build-up experience from the low-rank position to the high-rank position.Consequently, strong management in these three strategies had transformed Wal-Mart into the biggest company in the world with the highest number of workers worldwide and had also provided benefits to millions of people around the world by transferring avoidable cost into low-cost products. Now we are going to consider the management, organization and technology factors that have contributed to the success of Amazon. Firs of all, Amazon is convenient and easy of use. It has a large selection of different items, unlimited virtual shelf sp ace and wholesale relations, so you could find any product for acceptable price.The service is high performance, which could be proven by high speed and reliability. Customers are kept informed well about new products and the system that provides shipping makes the process fast. Also, Amazon use innovative technology, which contribute development and support of all system in whole. For short time Amazon. com became a well-known brand with cross promotion, high advertising, co-branding and publisher relations. Amazon. com is also famous for its large community where customer and author reviews post. It has a great gift policy for customer like bookmarks, notepads, cups, etc.Amazon arranges promotions where customers could collaborate with famous authors. The site has a large customer database with personalization pages, which contain extensive customer profiles. It also has recommendation pages, which help other readers make a right choice. Amazon has a high trust for their users bec ause of guarantees and return policy. Great customer service is also promote trust of users because of superior service reps, easy search, email confirmation, extended service, extensive subject index, ability to order before publication. By the way Amazon has good cost structure.Besides low prices it has fast, reliable and inexpensive shipping. Amazon and Wal-Mart using e-commerce is a fascinating combination of business models and new information technologies. Wal-Mart’s impressive growth in such a short time and perhaps the most important factor in it’s rise was their exploiting of the dominance of e-business, e-procurement, and the modification of internal processes to maximize it’s benefits. In compare with others companies, Wal-Mart transformed supply chain management by using a sales revenue model where customer requests satisfy by wise variety of goods.Inventory control is perfect improved and purchasing trends are available to sellers, whom nowadays mus t be able to respond as quickly as possible to the needs of millions of customers. To decentralize the procurement was a great business decision for Wal-Mart, that helped simplify the process for employees in every store immediately order the applicable stock automatically, which is require prompt turnout of product from the suppliers. This fast replenishment system, attached with perfect purchasing forecasting, helps Wal-Mart reduce overall costs.Wal-Mart’s power as a giant in business has helped in establishing new standards for B2B e-commerce. Wal-Mart’s approach of cutting costs at all costs resulted in them deploying EDI over the Internet to eliminate the costly VAN altogether. EDI over the Internet (EDI-INT) uses a new standard called AS2, a communication protocol that attempts to make EDI communications over the Internet both secure and reliable. By mandating their suppliers to use AS2, Wal-Mart leads the way in creating a demand for a new generation of EDI, and in turn drives the whole world of e-business advancing.Amazon’s e-commerce business model Amazon started as a store that focused primarily on books and music. It quickly expanded to other sectors and now sells products in nearly every segment – apparel, home improvement, groceries. In addition, Amazon has expanded from a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) only store to a mixed model with its corporate account functionality that focuses on business customers. Added to the mix, is the Amazon marketplace – Amazon's answer to eBay, which allows merchants to list their products and customers to purchase from merchants while using Amazon's e-commerce platform.As a provider of e-Commerce software to mid-market, we use Amazon as a reference for the features it has on the web store. Some of these features not easily found on other sites include the ‘1-Click Ordering’, ‘Customer Viewing’, ‘Recently Viewed Products’, ‘Keyword Auto-fill ’ on the product search, ‘Your Personalized Store’, and ‘Items to Consider’. While some of these features are relatively easy to implement e. g. ‘1-click Ordering’, others are not so easy and demand an advanced platform. But selling goods isn't the only way to make money with Amazon. com.The Web site's affiliate program is one of the most famous on the Web. Through Amazon's   Associate Program , anyone with a Web site can post a link to Amazon. com and earn some money. The associate can also take advantage of Amazon Web Services , which is the program that lets people use Amazon's benefits for their own purposes. The Amazon Web Services API (application programming interface) lets developers access the Amazon technology infrastructure to build their own applications for their own Web sites. All product sales generated by those Web sites have to go through Amazon. om, and the associate gets a small commission on each sale. On the flip s ide, Amazon seems to not have kept up with the Web 2. 0 and Web 3. 0 user interface improvements and for most part still incorporates Web 1. 0 technology which means – you still need a mouse click to view a product as opposed to being able to see product details with a mouse roll-over. Amazon could use a make-over to make for a brighter shopping experience. For my opinion Amazon’s e-commerce business model is stronger than Wal-Mart’s e-commerce business model because E-commerce is Amazon’s core mission and environment.Amazon started with a store that was properly feature-rich for its time and has gone on to strengthen that foundation. Today, it probably defenses as the leader in terms of the richness of its e-Commerce features, product breadth, personalized recommendations and depth of content available across e-commerce sites. However, there is a need for Amazon to offer a simplified and trendier shopping experience as an alternative which many other sit es now offer. I don't think Wal-Mart will replace Amazon any time soon, if ever, but it gives them a good shot of increasing their overall Web penetration.Amazon's value proposition until now has been a broad assortment. This enables Walmart to compete with other companies with big assortments. I would prefer to make my internet purchases at Wal-Mart because this company has a great experience and long term history. Wal-Mart exists almost 50 years, Amazon is a brand new, successful but still doesn’t have that experience that Wal-Mart does. Some reviewers have actually built their following on Amazon. com with good quality reviews. References 1. â€Å"Wal-Mart Form 10K: Portions of Annual Report to Shareholders†.United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved June 28, 2011. 2. Ann Zimmerman (2010-06-07). â€Å"Rival Chains Secretly Fund Opposition to Walmart†. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-06-08. 3. Daniel, Fran (2010-09-29). â€Å"Head of Walmart tells WFU audience of plans for growth over next 20 years†. Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-29. 4. Walton, Sam; Huey, John. Sam Walton: Made in America: My Story. New York: Bantam, 1993. ISBN 978-0-553-56283-5. 5. Sam Walton: Great From the Start — HBS Working Knowledge 6. Frank, T. A. â€Å"A Brief History of Wal-Mart. † The Washington Monthly.April 1, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2006. 7. â€Å"The Rise of Wal-Mart†. Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?. 2004-11-16. Retrieved 2007-09-19. 8. â€Å"The Wal-Mart Timeline. † Wal-Mart (published on walmartfacts. com). Retrieved July 24, 2006. 9. â€Å"2010 Form 10-K, Amazon. com, Inc. â€Å". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. 10. â€Å"Amazon. com Site Info†. Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2011-12-02. 11. Jopson, Barney (2011-07-12). â€Å"Amazon urges California referendum on online tax†. FT. com. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 12. â€Å"Amazon Spain launch may pres age new overseas push†, Reuters, Sept 14, 2011. 3. Ann Byers (2006). Jeff Bezos: the founder of Amazon. com 14. â€Å"Harvard Business Review†. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 2010-08-29. 15. â€Å"Person of the Year – Jeffrey P. Bezos†. Time Magazine. 1999-12-27. Archived from the original on 2000-04-08. Retrieved 2008-01-05. 16. Rivlin, Gary (2005-07-10). â€Å"A Retail Revolution Turns 10†. Seattle, WA: The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-08-04. 17. â€Å"Amazon. com Introduces New Logo; New Design Communicates Customer Satisfaction and A-to-Z Selection†. Corporate IR. net. Retrieved 2010-08-29. 18. Amazon company timeline, Corporate IR. *