Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Global Business Entry Strategy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global Business Entry Strategy - Research Paper Example The organization was founded by Todd Park and Jonathan Bush in 1997. The company became public in 2007 when the managers of the firm sold its shares in public. The company’s headquarters is at Watertown in Massachusetts and it has branches in India. The Health Inc may penetrate the United Arab Emirates market through the use of Greenfield investment. Greenfield investment is one that involves building a manufacturing plant from the ground until it becomes a fully operating company. This means that an organization transfers its competencies in the new market so that it can produce all its products in this location (Rogmans, 2012). The managers of Athena Health Inc need to start by acquiring a license that allows the company to construct a plant and conduct business in UAE. The managers should then plan how they will begin the investment project after purchasing land and acquiring permission to conduct business in the country. The business plan includes projection of costs of constructing the firm and the profits that the business expects to earn in the new business (Rogmans, 2012). The company will hire experts such as engineers and experts when making the plan so that they can help in the predictions of technical aspects of the business. For example, the company must hire environmentalists who will help in forecasting the organization’s future level of pollution. The company must then write an environmental report and present it to the UAE environment authorities for approval. This is because each country has an acceptable level of pollution beyond which firms are not expected to continue their operations (Hubbard, 2013). The company will create relationships with the government through the tax department, and the environmental authorities in the new location. This is because the organization has an obligation to file its tax returns and not exceed the acceptable level of pollution. The company may create

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Conditional Statement Strategies for Code Obfuscation

Conditional Statement Strategies for Code Obfuscation Chandan Kumar Behera, Pawan Kumar, D. Lalitha Bhaskari Abstract Obfuscated code syntax has been set intentionally unclear. Different obfuscation techniques may have different impacts on the source code. In the presented paper, the ‘if condition’ has been used several times with the purpose to make the code obfuscated one, but in the mean time, the code should look like very simple. The idea behind this concept is to make feel the reader a simple code and ignore the code basically as it looks straightforward. Keywords: Software code protection, code obfuscation, conditional statements, malicious code Introduction Software protection is increasingly becoming an important requirement for software development according to industry. The software protection problem is fundamentally harder than other security problems. When one has the adversary for full access to the chosen software or hardware and can examine, or modify it, then no piece of software can be protected for the long period of time. An example of very common form of protection against reverse engineering attacks is obfuscation, which modifies a program to make it harder for the adversary to understand or analyse. At the beginning this techniques is developed for automatically creating multiple transformations of same program, by that each version will be difficult to analyse and modify for some more time. That means code obfuscation makes it more laborious and troublesome for understanding completely, because of that it will be not advisable to go for code tampering. The technique obfuscation helps for manipulating source code to make it harder to analyze and more difficult to understand for the attacker. Obfuscation is a common technique used to protect software against malicious reverse engineering. This approach could focus on changing a specific aspect of the code (e.g., complexity). But, the aim of code obfuscation is to prevent malicious users by disclosing the properties of the original source program. Typical code obfuscation techniques include splitting of codes into smaller pieces, merging pieces of unrelated codes, randomizing the code placement, mangling of data structures, field assignment, obfuscates the literal strings of a program, merging local integers, use of random Dead Codes, inserting dead variables, reordering of instructions, parameter reordering, transparent Branch Insertion, variable renaming, variable reassigning, aggressive methods renaming, renaming of registers, duplication of registers, promoting primitive registers, reorders the constants in the bytecode and assigns random keys to them, randomly marks all basic bytecode blocks in the program with either 0 or 1, array folding, array splitting, constant unfolding, Control flow obfuscation, flattening or introducing bogus control flow, breaking abstraction boundaries, false refactoring, mapping of bytecode instructions to source code line numbers, removal of local variable tables in the bytecode that store the local variable names in the source code, also various techniques using Opaque Predicates (Ex: branch insertion) etc. Some more techniques can be used in higher level languages, mostly in object oriented are splitting or merging of classes, finding of inner classes ( if available or not and then use obfuscation there even), new obfuscated names for methods and classes in a random fashion, encrypts class files and causes them to be decrypted at runtime, converting functions into inline methods at runtime, Interleave Methods by that will have the same signature, use of more methods having same names (overload names), takes a class and replaces all the fields with fields of the objects belong to the same class, converting the fields of a class to public, splits all of the non-static methods into a static method, open all the classes for modification, group the classes for modifying the original structure, selects a random method from the class or a random basic block from a method (i.e. a copy of the basic block will be created and some additional malicious code will be added in the new basic block, by which the values of local variable might be changed and the basic blocks will be bypassed from execution) etc. In this paper, the discussion is basically about the conditional statement. There are different ways of different obfuscation techniques by using conditions. Like, reversing the ‘if’ and ‘else’ conditions, using negation of the condition, introducing ‘if condition’ which will never true, breaking of the condition into nested. Conversion form ‘if- else if’ conditions to switch cases, etc. Proposed strategy Generally, use of conditional statements in a program is common. Mostly, for optimizing a program, the writers give the stress towards the loops. According to this thought the obfuscation also can be done on conditions, where ever it is used. Normally, after obfuscating a program, the code will be lengthier as well as difficult to understand. But, in the proposed logic, neither the code will be lengthier nor the code will look difficult to understand. Therefore, the malware witters may ignore the code. Actually the modified code will give some undesired result, by which may surprise the reader. Here, in place of â€Å"if else† or â€Å"if else if – else† conditions, we use several times the ‘if’ condition. In the proposed method if the use of ‘if conditions’ several times is replaced by ‘if- else or if-else if-else’ condition, then output will be totally different and the logic is going to change totally. Figure 1: Proposed code obfuscation logic by using ‘if condition’ several times In this paper, some proper fractions have been used for generating different patterns. Those patterns with bit wise represented and by rounding-off the values, sometimes the result will be undesirable. But, actually this is not at all undesirable, and properly calculated. So before execution of the code, it can be identified the condition which is going to be satisfied and with that the function, which is going to be executed. As the result is not undesirable and looks very simple, by and large readers may ignore the conditional statements with high percentage. The second concerned point is the repetition of patterns. As the remainder will be not zero, during the conversion of the proper fractional number into binary format, because of the infinite string of zero’s and ones. Obviously, the string will be getting a repetition of a kind of pattern. But, the visualization of the value in a variable is not possible, because of limited bytes are allowed to the variables. Fig. 2 Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 2/3 Fig. 3 Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 2/3 Because of the proper fraction, there are several repetitions of the pattern of 10 in case of rational number 2/3. Then we try to store that infinite value in a double variable and a float variable. After that the both numbers are compared. According to the result shown in the graph in figure 2, more than 88% of times functionC is executed. Here, for the values, functionC is not executing, to be uncovered. This concept can be used in several ways, like comparing two numbers or comparing a variable with a constant. Any type of program, if that consists of at least one condition is there, then that can be modified in the proposed method to obfuscate the program effortlessly. This strategy can be used in place of or with inserting some dead code or XOR operation or as well as doing some bit wise operations. In the above code, in figure 1, if the rational number 2/3 is replaced by 3/7, then the functionB will be not executed at all. The functionA will be called, when the value will be in between 1 to 2 or 27 to 31 or 251 to 255 and so on. Here the pattern is 001. i.e. the functionA executes, when the value will be with the range as follows: Fig. 4. Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 3/7 Similarly, if the proper fraction number 2/3 is replaced by 1/7, then the functionA will not execute. But, the functionB will be called, when the value will be from 3 to 7 or 59 to 63 or 507 to 511 and so on. Here, the pattern is 011. Fig. 5. Function execution for different values, while the fraction is 1/7 Conclusion Many times the code seems to be very simple and understandable, but actually not, and because of this, anybody can be confused more. This paper mostly discusses similar to that by using ‘if’ condition. In the paper, it is discussed about code obfuscation by using ‘if condition’ several times. Simply looking to the program, it is very difficult to guess that whether the program is obfuscated. Because, neither the size of the program increases nor the program looks difficult as compare to the original code. The use of several ‘if’ conditions is not at all looking different than that of ‘if –else if-else’ conditions. Most of the cases the values will be same. The important thing is when exactly the values will differ and if they differ, then which function is going to be executed. This need to be understood and bring into play in the code and the obfuscated code should give the desired output. There are several software engineer ing code techniques to measure the effect of code obfuscation, in terms of the complexity, the modularity and the size of obfuscated code. This methodology will not affect much in complexity or in size of the code. Even the original code and the obfuscated one will be not having much difference according to the modularity. This proposed obfuscation scheme may not be able to satisfy any strong definition of obfuscation, but the combination with any other obfuscation techniques to the same program, can go for a much better result. References The Effectiveness of Source Code Obfuscation: an Experimental Assessment, Mariano Ceccato, Massimiliano Di Penta, Jasvir Nagra,, Paolo Falcarin, In Proceedings of the17th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2009),Vancouver, Canada, 17-19 May 2009.IEEE, pp-178-187, A Large Study on the Effect of Code Obfuscation on the Quality of Java Code, Mariano Ceccato, Andrea Capiluppi, Paolo Falcarin, Cornelia Boldyreff. Empirical Software Engineering, Springer, Towards experimental evaluation of code obfuscation techniques, Mariano Ceccato, Massimiliano Di Penta, Jasvir Nagra, Paolo Falcarin, Filippo Ricca, Marco Torchiano and Paolo Tonella..InQoP `08: Proceedings of the 4th ACM workshop on Quality of protection,Alexandria (Virginia), USA, 27 October 2008. ACM pp. 39-46 (2008). A family of experiments to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of source code obfuscation techniques, Mariano Ceccato,Massimiliano Di Penta,Paolo Falcarin,Filippo Ricca,Marco Torchiano,Paolo Tonella, Empirical Software Engineering, August 2014,Volume 19,Issue 4,pp 1040-1074 A New Code Obfuscation Scheme for Software Protection, 8th International Symposium on Service Oriented System Engineering (SOSE), 2014, Oxford, IEEExplorer, pp 409 – 414, DOI:10.1109/SOSE.2014.57 A taxonomy of obfuscating transformations , Collberg C, Thomborson C, Low D (1997). Technical Report 148, Dept. of Computer Science, The Univ. of Auckland Protecting software code by guards. Chang H, Atallah M (2002) In: ACM workshop on security and privacy in digital rights management. ACM Program obfuscation: a quantitative approach., Anckaert B, Madou M, Sutter BD, Bus BD, Bosschere KD, Preneel B (2007) In: QoP ’07: Proc. of the 2007 ACM workshop on quality of protection, ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 15–20. doi:10.1145/1314257.1314263 Locating features in source code. Eisenbarth T, Koschke R, Simon D (2003) IEEE Trans Softw Eng 29(3):195–209 Deobfuscation: reverse engineering obfuscated code, Udupa S, Debray S, Madou M (2005). In: 12th working conference on reverse engineering. doi:10.1109/WCRE.2005.13 Obfuscated Malicious Code Detection with Path Condition Analysis, Wenqing Fan, Xue Lei, Jing An, Journal of Networks, Vol 9, No 5, May 2014, doi:10.4304/jnw.9.5.1208-1214 Static analysis of executables to detect malicious patterns, M. Christodorescu and S. Jha, In Proceedings of the 12th conference on USENIX Security Symposium Volume 12, Berkeley, CA, USA, 2003, pp. 12–12. Software protection technology research based on code obfuscation, Song Yaqi, Northwestern University, 2005 Hong Luo, Jiang Jianqin, Zeng Qingkai. Code obfuscation techniques based on software protection, Computer Engineering, 2006, Vol 32 No. 11 A. Balakrishnan and C. Schulze,†Code Obfuscation: Literature Survey†, Technical report, Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, 2005. B. Anckaert, M. Madou, B. D. Sutter, B. D. Bus, K. D. Bosschere, and B. Preneel. †Program obfuscation: a quantitative approach†, In QoP ’07: Proc. of the 2007 ACM Workshop on Quality of protection, pages 15-20, New York, NY, USA,2007. ACM. Intellectual property protection using obfuscation, S. Drape et al. Proceedings of SAS 2009, 4779:133–144, 2009

Friday, October 25, 2019

Genhis Khan The Great Essay -- essays research papers

His name struck anguish in the hearts across Asia, yet he remains an icon to the people of Mongolia. He could slay thousands without flinching. He was considered one of the most barbaric people ever, yet he ruled fairly. He gave his enemies one simple choice: surrender and be enslaved, or die. By consistently enforcing discipline, rewarding skill and allegiance, and punishing those who opposed him, he established a vast empire. His empire was far greater than Alexander the Great. Meet the man behind the myths, the incomparable Genghis Khan. Yisugei was relived after his son, Temujin was born. The chief thought that the boy was going to be a worthy successor to his throne. Temujin had a fire in his eye according to the people of the town. By the time he was four, he was already using a bow and arrow set. He was very good because he practiced for hours everyday. By the time he was seven he was excellent in battle skills. However tragedy struck that year. Yisugei was murdered by a local tribe. His family tried to overcome it but the people left the tribe and joined other tribes. A few people stayed but they also left after a while. Temujin and his family lived off berries, animals, and plants.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Temujin started working harder on his archery. He was one of the best in the land by the time he was eleven. By eleven seventy-three, Temujin had risen, he became chief of a tribe. People noted how fierce he was and how he had no mercy. He was engaged to Botei in eleven seventy-five. They were married in eleven seventy-eight. After the marriage, a tribe kidnapped Botei. Temujin was outraged. He attacked the tribe and slaughtered them all. This was the first time when Temujin killed everyone in a tribe. He showed the world his bad side. He rescued Botei in eleven-eighty and she never fell under any more harm again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Following the massacre of the tribe, Temujin killed his half-brother. He found out that his brother was a spy for a local tribe. With the massacre and the murder of his brother, people knew that Temujin was not joking around. People started getting scared of Temujin. The fear that they had would not disappear until they died.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Temujin kept on conquering local lands. He was enthroned Genghis Khan is 1206. Genghis Khan means “strong ruler.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  ... ...hat he ruled because he was feared so much and it is not good if a leader is feared. People were initially scared of the Khan but after time the loyal people were not scared. The Khan was very easy to get along with only if a person was loyal to his cause.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All though he was a fierce man with strict rules, he was very loving. He cared for his people. He helped everyone he could. He would let himself starve if another person needed food. If a disaster struck he rushed supplies to the area. He gave many people, food and money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Temujin is not known as much as other leaders. When people think of leaders, Temujin usually doesn’t appear in their minds. He was one of the greatest leaders of all time, if not the greatest. He unified all of Asia, with his massive empire. He punished those who disobeyed him and rewarded the highly skilled. He shared his things with the common people. His legend is still intact. The Mongolians are full of pride when someone mentions Genghis Khan. “Eternal Heaven chose Genghis Khan and his descendants and made us a gift of the whole Earth, from east to west.'; (Ratchnevsky, 159)

Thursday, October 24, 2019

GCSE statistics coursework

In this coursework I am going to investigate the affect that age has on the car. I am going to look at price, engine size, mileage, and age of the car. By the end of the coursework I am aiming to have a set of results about how the cars are affected by the age, price and mileage. My prediction should show that * As the car increases its price will decrease * The higher the mileage the price will decrease. Plan I am going to be collecting a sample of 100 cars. I will find mean, median, mode and range for some certain makes of cars, from the data I have been given. I will then represent my data by the following diagrams * Bar charts * Tally charts * Pie charts * Standard deviation (mean and mean deviation) * Scatter diagrams. The reason why I am doing so many diagrams is to give a clear understanding and also to give the reader a pictorial view about what is happening, and also I must say to get more accurate results. The diagrams would maintain a clear understanding and show what is happening to the cars and what people prefer according to their engine size. After each of the diagram I would explain how I did the diagram and what people prefer and why. I would compare the mean, median and mode to support my hypothesis. At the end of the coursework I would be doing a conclusion explaining what has happened and why. I am going to calculate the number of each type of car according to its age and mileage. I would provide my entire hypothesis to get more accurate results and also to include my prediction. I would provide me working on computer to avoid biased results and also to get more accurate results. I think doing my investigation on computer would give a better pictorial view than by hand. I predict that as the age of car increases the mileage would increase. I think that this is because an older car would have been driven more than a new car and therefore

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Communication and Collaboration Strategy Essay

Being able to accomplish a task with a team can be both rewarding and challenging. Learning how to effectively work with a group of people from diverse backgrounds can ultimately be draining. First and foremost there has to be an understanding that everyone is not the same, personalities are different, attitudes are different, work habits are not the same, and definitely learning styles are different. Becoming more sensitive with other team members actions or behaviors is a must. This will help to guide the team as a whole in developing different work strategies to reach the success of the team. The tests that I took to determine my personality and learning style were called â€Å"Multiple Pathways to Learning and the Personality Spectrum. † My highest most dominant personality scores were about equal between â€Å"organizer, thinker, and giver† my weakest point was being an adventurer. It also revealed that I my most dominant learning style is bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, and interpersonal but I am also verbal-linguistic. I find that I do agree with the results of these tests and I will use these learning styles to connect to my fellow team members that are in my group and those that are yet to come. I can use these beneficial techniques in my studies and work on those benefits that I am not yet strong in. There are other different personality types that were mentioned in the tests, they include: Thinker, Giver, and Adventurer, along with Organizer. They can all have an effective way that can increase the advance of a team. Thinkers are good at solving problems, and are very efficient when constructing models, while still able to analyze things. The Givers are peaceful, helpful, and caring and are very useful when dealing with human relationships. During times of conflicts between the team givers are exceptional at resolving the conflict and are seemingly good at negotiating (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits 2007). The Adventurer are individuals who love to explore new things. They often excel at new ideas and are also problem solvers. They also are always thinking of new ways to learn and are very good a puzzles and riddles. The different learning styles that are helpful in a team environment are: visual-spatial learning, verbal-linguistic, interpersonal, and logical-mathematics. People with the Verbal-Linguistic learning style are those people who are good in remembering terms, and familiarizing sentence structures, syntax, and word meanings (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits 2007). These individuals are also good in grammar, and would excel in teaching, and discussion. The best way to communicate with these individuals would be to be as clear as possible. Individuals with interpersonal learning style like being around people so this would best work in a team environment. Always in a clear manner they have no problem expressing themselves either verbally or non- verbally. The best way to deal with these individuals would be to allow them to express their concerns and find a way to get the job done. Being kind and warm with these individuals will help to further the progress of the team. Individuals with logical-mathematics are always reasoning logically. These individuals have above average skills when it comes to scientific reasoning and using tables and charts. It is best to use logical communication skills when dealing with this learning style. Maybe make presentations with charts and graphs or just plain common sense. When dealing with a team environment you have to first set ground rules and figure out a way that everyone can have their voice heard. This will ensure that no one is left out and everyone participates without any problems or conflicts. But should they arise being patient with one another and allowing an open floor for discussion will be beneficial to resolving any conflicts and getting the job done.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Bacteria essays

Bacteria essays Bacteria live almost everywhere, even where other forms of life cant. The only places where they cant survive is in sanitized places. Some bacteria need oxygen to survive, and others dont need any. Also some can survive with both, but some cant survive with oxygen. They protect themselves by forming a thick cell membrane inside the old one. Bacteria get food by feeding off of other tiny organisms and by making food. They make their food by using the sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. They move by attachments off their body, which is mainly, called flagellas. Theyre like a tails or antennas. Bacteria reproduces when one of them become to large. It then divides into two. Bacteria can also harm humans, plants, and animals. They harm are bodies by coming through a opening in are body and then finding a cell. When they take over a cell they reproduce and kill it. Without a cell to take over they would die. Some diseases that bacteria makes are cholera, gonorrhea, leprosy, pneumonia, syphilis, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and whooping cough. ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Nahuatl - The Lingua Franca of the Aztec Empire

Nahuatl - The Lingua Franca of the Aztec Empire Nhuatl (pronounced NAH-wah-tuhl) was the language spoken by the people of the Aztec Empire, known as the Aztec or Mexica. Although the spoken and written form of the language has substantively changed from the prehispanic classical form, Nahuatl has persevered for half a millennium. It is still spoken today by approximately 1.5 million people, or 1.7% of the total population of Mexico, many of whom call their language Mexicano (Me-shee-KAH-no). The word Nahuatl is itself one of several words that mean to one extent or another good sounds, an example of encoded meaning that is central to the Nahuatl language. Mapmaker, priest, and leading Enlightenment intellectual of New Spain Josà © Antonio Alzate [1737–1799] was an important advocate for the language. Although his arguments failed to gain support, Alzate vigorously objected to Linnaeuss use of Greek words for New World botanical classifications, arguing that Nahuatl names were uniquely useful because they encoded a storehouse of knowledge that could be applied to the scientific project. Nhuatls Origins Nhuatl is part of the Uto-Aztecan family, one of the largest of the Native American language families. The Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Nahuan family includes many North American languages such as Comanche, Shoshone, Paiute, Tarahumara, Cora, and Huichol. The Uto-Aztecan main language diffused out of the Great Basin, moving where the Nahuatl language probably originated, in the upper Sonoran region of what is now New Mexico and Arizona and the lower Sonoran area in Mexico. Nahuatl speakers are first believed to have reached the Central Mexican highlands sometime around AD 400/500, but they came in several waves and settled among different groups such as Otomangean and Tarascan speakers. According to historical and archaeological sources, the Mexica were among the last of the Nhuatl speakers to migrate from their homeland in the north. Nhuatl Distribution With the founding of their capital at Tenochtitlan, and the growth of the Aztec/Mexica empire in the 15th and 16th centuries, Nhuatl spread all over Mesoamerica. This language became a lingua franca spoken by merchants, soldiers, and diplomats, over an area including what is today northern Mexico to Costa Rica, as well as parts of Lower Central America. Legal steps which reinforced its  lingua franca  status included the decision by King  Philip II  in 1570 to make Nahuatl the linguistic medium for clerics to use in religious conversion and for the training of ecclesiastics working with the native people in different regions. Members of the nobility from other ethnic groups, including Spaniards, used spoken and written Nahuatl to facilitate communication throughout New Spain. Sources for Classical Nahuatl The most extensive source on Nhuatl language is the book written in the mid-16th century by friar Bernardino de Sahagà ºn called the Historia General de la Nueva Espaà ±a, which is included in the Florentine Codex. For its 12 books, Sahagà ºn and his assistants collected what is essentially an encyclopedia of the language and culture of the Aztec/Mexica. This text contains parts written both in Spanish and Nhuatl transliterated into the Roman alphabet. Another important document is the Codex Mendoza, commissioned by King Charles I of Spain, which combined a history of the Aztec conquests, the amount and types of tributes paid to the Aztecs by geographical province, and an account of Aztec daily life, beginning in 1541. This document was written by skilled native scribes and overseen by the Spanish clerics, who added glosses in both Nahuatl and Spanish. Saving the Endangered Nahuatl Language After the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the use of Nahuatl as an official medium for documentation and communication disappeared. Intellectual elites in Mexico engaged in a creation of new national identity, seeing the indigenous past as an obstacle to the modernization and progress of Mexican society. Over time, Nahua communities became more and more isolated from the rest of Mexican society, suffering what researchers Okol and Sullivan refer to as a political dislocation arising from the lack of prestige and power, and a closely-related cultural dislocation, resulting from modernization and globalization. Olko and Sullivan (2014) report that although prolonged contact with Spanish has resulted in changes in word morphology and syntax, in many places there persist close continuities between the past and present forms of Nahuatl. The Instituto de Docencia e Investigacià ³n Etnolà ³gica de Zacatecas (IDIEZ) is one group working together with Nahua speakers to continue practicing and developing their language and culture, training the Nahua speakers to teach Nahuatl to others and to actively collaborate with international academics in research projects. A similar project is underway (described by Sandoval Arenas 2017) at the Intercultural University of Veracruz. Nhuatl Legacy There is today a wide variation in the language, both linguistically and culturally, that can be attributed in part to the successive waves of Nahuatl speakers who arrived in the valley of Mexico so long ago. There are three major dialects of the group known as Nahua: the group in power in the Valley of Mexico at the time of contact was that Aztecs, who called their language Nahuatl. To the west of the Valley of Mexico, the speakers called their language Nahual; and dispersed around those two clusters was a third who called their language Nahuat. This last group included the Pipil ethnic group who eventually migrated to El Salvador. Many contemporary place names in Mexico and Central America are the result of a Spanish transliteration of their Nhuatl name, such as Mexico and Guatemala. And many Nahuatl words have passed into the English dictionary through Spanish, such as coyote, chocolate, tomato, chili, cacao, avocado and many others. What does Nahuatl Sound Like? Linguists can define the original sounds of classical Nahuatl in part because the Aztec/Mexica used a glyphic writing system based on Nahuatl that contained some phonetic elements, and the Spanish ecclesiastics matched the Roman phonetic alphabet to the good sounds they heard from the locals. The earliest extant Nahuatl-Roman alphabets are from the Cuernavaca region and date to the late 1530s or early 1540s; they were probably written by various indigenous individuals and compiled by a Franciscan friar. In her 2014 book Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory, archaeologist and linguist Frances Berdan provides a pronunciation guide to classical Nahuatl, only a small taste of which is listed here. Berdan reports that in classical Nahuatl the main stress or emphasis in a given word is almost always on the next-to-last syllable. There are four main vowels in the language: a as in the English word palm, e as in bet, i as in see, and o as in so. Most consonants in Nahuatl are the same as those used in English or Spanish, but the tl sound is not quite tuhl, it more of a glottal t with a little puff of breath for the l. See Berdan for more information. There is an Android-based application called ALEN (Audio-Lexicon Spanish-Nahuatl) in a beta form that has both written and oral modalities, and uses homemade illustrations, and word search facilities. According to Garcà ­a-Mencà ­a and colleagues (2016), the app beta has 132 words; but the commercial Nahuatl iTunes App written by Rafael Echeverria currently has more than 10,000 words and phrases in Nahuatl and Spanish. Sources Edited and updated by K. Kris Hirst Berdan FF. 2014. Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory. New York: Cambridge University Press.Dakin K. 2001. Nahuatl. In: Carrasco D editor. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p 363-365.Garcà ­a-Mencà ­a R, Là ³pez-Là ³pez A, and Muà ±oz Melà ©ndez A. 2016. An Audio-Lexicon Spanish-Nahuatl: Using technology to promote and disseminate a native Mexican language. In: Bradley L, and Thouà «sny S, editors. CALL communities and culture – short papers from EUROCALL 2016: Research-publishing.net. p 155-159.Maxwell JM. 2001. Languages at the Time of Contact. In: Evans ST, and Webster DL, editors. Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing Inc. p 395-396.Mundy BE. 2014. Place-Names in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Ethnohistory 61(2):329-355.Olko J, and Sullivan J. 2014. Toward a comprehensive model for Nahuatl language research and revitalization. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berk eley Linguistics Society 40:369-397. Sandoval Arenas CO. 2017. Displacement and revitalization of the Nahuatl language in the High Mountains of Veracruz, Mexico. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 16(1):66-81.Various authors. 2011. Los Nahua. Cultura Viva, Arqueologà ­a Mexicana 19(109, May-June)

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Cross-cultural Marriages Contribute to Racial Tolerance

Cross-cultural Marriages Contribute to Racial Tolerance CROSS-CULTURAL MARRIAGES CONTRIBUTE TO RACIAL TOLERANCE According to the Pew Research Center, 15 percent of U.S. newlyweds in 2010 were in marriages to people of another race or ethnic group and eight percent of all married people were in these cross-cultural marriages. This is up significantly from four percent in 1986. The growth in the number of these marriages contributes to racial tolerance. Intermarriage strengthens tolerance for reasons related to family, age, and mass media and social platforms. Familial Ties Influence Tolerance of Interracial Marriage One reason cross-cultural marriages contribute to tolerance is because of family bonds. Thirty-five percent of Americans report that someone in their family married outside their race, according to a 2010 Pew Research Center study. Sixty-three percent of the respondents said they would be comfortable if someone in their family married someone from another race or ethnic group.Some people who have a hard-hearted attitude about cross-cultural marriage softened their views when they realize acceptance is the only way to maintain a good relationship with their child, sibling, relative or friend who has entered into one of these marriages. And even though people over 65 are less accepting of these marriages than younger people, not too many are willing to cut off a good relationship with their child because he or she entered into such a marriage. Certainly, most grandparents will want to stay connected with grandchildren who are th e offspring of these relationships. Young People Are More Likely To Accept Cross-Cultural Marriages Age is a factor in who is more tolerant and accepting of intermarriage. While a Pew Research Center study about Millennials- defined by Pew as people ages 18 to 29- found that people over 65 were less accepting of cross-cultural marriages, it reported that large numbers of African-American, white and Hispanic Millennials would accept someone in their family marrying a person of another race or ethnic group. The study, Almost All Millennials Accept Interracial Dating and Marriage, also reported that 93 percent of the respondents said they would be okay with a family member marrying an Asian-American, 92 percent with a white American, 91 percent with a Hispanic-American and 88 percent with an African-American. Eighty-five percent said they would be okay with a marriage to any other group. Millennials are now the largest population by age in the U.S. At 75.4 million, they outnumber Baby Boomers (people ages 51 to 59) whose number is 74.9 million. For these reasons, more cross-cultural relationships can be expected. Talk in Communication Outlets Influences Tolerance The medias focus on celebrity couples is another reason tolerance moves forward. In bombarding people with images of famous people and their marriages, some of which are cross-cultural, mass media and chatter on social platforms foster acceptance. This coverage of celebrity couples is akin to advertising these marriages. The more people see celebrities in cross-cultural relationships, the more likely they are to accept them. In additional to some professional athletes, other famous people who have intermarried include Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, Audra McDonald and Will Swenson and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. In conclusion, tolerance is fostered by intermarriage. Since the 1980s, the percentage of cross-cultural marriages has risen. Many younger people and people who have family and friends in these marriages accept them. Discussion about intermarriage in all forms of communication also contributes to the acceptance of these relationships. Within 30 years, nonwhites will outnumber whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. To avoid debilitating conflict within this country and to get along better with other nations, it is good for U.S. residents to look to successful cross-cultural marriages for inspiration about harmony and facing and overcoming the challenges of peoples differences.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

A recent crisis in tourism in Thailand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

A recent crisis in tourism in Thailand - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is Thailand as the second –largest player in the tourism sector in the region and one of the top 30 destinations in the globe both in indirect and direct contributor to GDP and in absolute terms. In 2010, 15.8m foreign tourists visited Thailand. However, the arrival of the foreign tourist sharply declined by 12.9% in May 2010 as contrasted the corresponding period in 2009. In the last two decades, Thailand had witnessed one after another worst crisis. The decline in numbers in 2010 was due to long-run street protests in Bangkok that dispirited the foreign tourists. In the fag end of the year 2011, Thailand met with another crisis – unprecedented flood, which devastated its economy and tourism sector. Thailand has been regarded as one of the South-East Asia’s largest economies and has been reckoned as one of the regions’ preferred destination for investments. In the background of global economic downturn and political turb ulence it witnessed in 2010, the country is slowly recovering on strong phases. While the tourism industry prolongs to contribute a major part of its export revenues and is set for further growth in 2012 as well and there has been a visible increase in its export revenues but in the fag end of the year 2011, Thailand met with another crisis – unprecedented flood, which devastated its economy and tourism sector. Tourism has been regarded as one of the largest sectors of the Thailand’s economy and a major foreign-currency earner.... (Oxford Publishing Group, 2009, p.131). This research essay will analyse the various crises witnessed by the Thai’s tourism industry and recent havoc flood in 2011 and how it has impacted the tourist industry of Thailand and suggest means to devise suitable strategies to mitigate the future crises from impacting the Thailand’s tourists industry. Analysis In 2010, 15.8m foreign tourists visited Thailand. However, the arrival of the foreign tourist sharply declined by 12.9% in May 2010 as contrasted the corresponding period in 2009. The decline in numbers in 2010 was due to long-run street protests in Bangkok that dispirited the foreign tourists. As WTTC report 2011, tourism industry directly contributed BT 617.7bn or 5.8% of its economy. (Oxford Publishing Group, 2011). If one look at the above graph, Thailand’s economy had performed since Q4/2008 moderately when compared neighbouring nations like Hong Kong and Singapore but its performance was poor as compared to Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Jitsuchon & Patanarangsun, 2009, p.2). The number of foreign tourist visited Thailand was at its peak in January 2008 but dipped to very low level in 2009. Despite the fact that the Thailand’s very positive future outlook for long-run growth , both 2008 , 2009 and 2011 were the toughest years for the Thai’s tourism industry due to political turmoil that occurred both in Pattaya and in Bangkok in April 2009 and devastating floods in 2011. (Jitsuchon & Patanarangsun, 2009, p.6). WTTCs benchmark estimations of Thailand’s tourism effect on its economy which has taken account of the wider input of tourism both indirect and direct across all sections. Hence, it is estimated that the tourist industry’s net contribution to Thailand’s

Friday, October 18, 2019

Identify various grading methods in special education classrooms and Essay

Identify various grading methods in special education classrooms and give examples of appropriate uses of each - Essay Example â€Å"It is up to the classroom and special education teacher to ensure that appropriate strategies are being used† (Watson, 2008). Let’s discuss those grading methods which are turning out to be very successful and are becoming a need for special education classes. â€Å"A special education class needs a variety of behavioral systems† (Barrett, n.d.). In this method, students are given opportunity to write some report on any given topic. In this way, the teacher will be able to know the mental strength of students and will grade them according to their writing style and knowledge which they have put into the report. For example students are asked to write a report on their hobbies. Now, this will be an opportunity for the special students to write it according to their senses and get graded by the teacher accordingly. In this method, students will be graded according to the number or percentage of correct and relative answers to the assignments or questions given to them to be solved. For example, a class of special students is given a questionnaire to be solved by the students. Now, the student who will give the most correct answers to the questions will get more percentage of marks and will be graded as the best student. This is a very useful technique to enhance the answering skills of special students. In this method, the authority of final grading is given to both; class teacher and the resource center teacher. â€Å"In addition to the regular teacher, there will ideally be a special-education teacher whose job it is to adjust the curriculum to your childs abilities† (Mauro, n.d.). Both of them work mutually in cooperation with each other to finalize the grades of any special student by analyzing their skills and abilities in various conditions. This is a useful technique as the efficiency of any student is judged by two authorities rather than one. In point grading system, the performance of any student is based on various factors which include

Explain how the treatment of internal and external customers is one Essay

Explain how the treatment of internal and external customers is one more important than the other How does this affect "quality" in the organization - Essay Example Internal customers are the human capital that constitutes the factors of production. The expertise of the internal customers determine the quality of the output which the influence the external customers. In a service industry for example, the knowledge and skills of the employees influence the end product which determines the satisfaction of external customers. In Hill & Allen (2007) the external customers also influence the operations of the organization. A service industry like the Insurance industry is usually operated by the needs and wants of the external customers. The needs or complaints of the external customers are normally factored by the organization with great interest. In return, the organization executes their demand with effective conditions in order to suit their tastes and preferences. Martinez & Hobbi (2008) explain that the internal customers facilitate in the marketing of the organizations services. The internal customers through effective communication and delivery of the services influence the customers’ perception. The Insurance Industry in one slippery sector that is entirely operated by the act of faith. The internal customers are required to fully disclose the benefits and terms and conditions of the policy so as the external customers can be convinced in order to purchase the product. Hill & Alexander (2006) explain the external customers act as a measure of the organization’s performance. The effectiveness of an organization’s operations can be evaluated based on the external customers’ feedbacks. A company that pollutes the environment can receive negative comments regarding activities and vice versa. In addition, the quality of its services and products can be evaluated based on their numbers (sales), feedbacks and support. The services or products delivery of the internal customers is highly on the organization’s support. The health sector for example, is a vital

Enhancing Employability Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Enhancing Employability - Assignment Example Unlike other industrial sectors that require immense capital to invest in, this sector of business comprises of small businesses, which require less amount of minimum capital in order to invest in. This means that even college student after getting through with their course work are capable of acquiring capital and investing in small businesses. Throughout my entire life, I have always wished to invest in self-employment, since it will allow me to work under my own conditions and rules. I have also wished to create a less formal working condition for fresh graduates. Additionally, I want to invest in a business sector that provides more than better services to the community. In this paper will, therefore, detail my qualifications, analyze my job skills/opportunities verses my skills, and justify my career choice. Methodology In the Business and Administration class students are always divided into small groups comprising of seven students each. Apart from discussions and assignment w orks, the groups are also charged with the task of coming up with available business opportunities they are interested in, at the end of the course. From the discussion groups, students are expected to list all the available business opportunities that are available in the current local and global markets and discuss the requirements required for each job opportunity. From here, each student is also expected to select one of the business opportunities they have described in their group, and justify why he or she is interested in that area of business opportunity. From the business opportunities described in my group, I decided to choose the self-employment opportunities available in the small business management and administration. In order to understand the requirements needed...

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Operations And Operations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Operations And Operations Management - Essay Example Certainly, all major serviceable areas of an organisation are somehow tangled; all interrelate with and supply support for the others, and the limitations are not for all time obvious among them. Slack (2004, Pg 9-10) suggests that the Operations Team is accountable for the everyday operations of the organisation counting scheduling jobs, coordinating service or goods transfers, updating or loading information, and monitoring organisation performance and security. ''Operations management,'' then, points to making the customary managerial purposes (development, organizing, directing, and scheming) on the organisation 's operations. ... Workforce personnel are accountable chiefly for arranging suggestions concerning the setting up, organizing, and control of operations, while process workers have the genuine ability to conduct the operations (Johnston, 1999, Pg 12-13). In Operations management, according to Johnston (1994, Pg 49-50), a great deal is made of the leader's responsibility in locating the idea, correspondence, engaging in the processes, situation and preserving prospects, and holding his or her answerability. A good deal also is made of nurturing accomplishments at the grassroots stage- authorizing employees to take actions, taking benefits of their additional precise awareness of the customer and market inclinations, importance given to employees from technical proficiency, and pulling down the organisation to go faster in decision-making. During conversion of organisation 's resources into services or goods, the occupied Operations manager must create the hardest options. It is most frequently the manager's judgment to modify a procedure that puts the jobs of a group of employees at danger because employees may not have the systematic skills to job successfully in the fresh progression. And it is the Operation manager's accountability to converse with those workers; to talk about the value on their jobs; to offer the foundation, resources, and alternatives accessible to employees; and to be rigid about the modifications while empathetic about the value. (Slack, 2004, Pg 36-37) If a purpose is recognized as more professionally and with a reduction of expenses carried out by a service provider, the Operations manager plays a position in that assessment and

Advanced Quantitative Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Advanced Quantitative Research Methods - Essay Example For example, ANOVA method is applied, in general, statistical difference rather than distinct difference of the research mean (Hox 2010, 35). It is worth noting that, at zero variance, all the values measured are regarded to identical even through variance always maintains a non-negative value. Therefore, as the ANOVA method is used to analyze the difference between several or a single variable, a small variance obtained in the statistical significance difference illustrates that the values or data points obtained are very close to the expected mean. Similarly, High statistical significance difference data points justify that the data values obtained in the research spread out from each other or spread around the mean (Woodward 2014, 210). On a broad aspect, the variance is usually divided into various components by utilizing ANOVA method that is then attributed to various types of variations in different sources of the variations obtained. In simple words, ANOVA method has its origin in experimental studies. However, ANOVA method uses four basic assumption that errors obtained in the statistical data analysis are normally distributed and independent (Salkind, Neil 2010, 34). In addition, it is always assumed that, all variance errors are equal, and the expected statistical values of the errors obtained are equal to zero. In simple terms, the ANOVA method produces a statistical test that determines as to whether the mean obtained from several tested groups are equal or whether they are not equal thereby providing a generalized t-test for more than two evaluated groups. In this regard, ANOVA method is used in providing a comparative test for more variables for the purpose of estimating a reliable statistical significan ce (Myers, Jerome 2010, 271). ANOVA method is a very powerful parametric and inferential statistic technique that can find differences or reject a null hypothesis among

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Operations And Operations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Operations And Operations Management - Essay Example Certainly, all major serviceable areas of an organisation are somehow tangled; all interrelate with and supply support for the others, and the limitations are not for all time obvious among them. Slack (2004, Pg 9-10) suggests that the Operations Team is accountable for the everyday operations of the organisation counting scheduling jobs, coordinating service or goods transfers, updating or loading information, and monitoring organisation performance and security. ''Operations management,'' then, points to making the customary managerial purposes (development, organizing, directing, and scheming) on the organisation 's operations. ... Workforce personnel are accountable chiefly for arranging suggestions concerning the setting up, organizing, and control of operations, while process workers have the genuine ability to conduct the operations (Johnston, 1999, Pg 12-13). In Operations management, according to Johnston (1994, Pg 49-50), a great deal is made of the leader's responsibility in locating the idea, correspondence, engaging in the processes, situation and preserving prospects, and holding his or her answerability. A good deal also is made of nurturing accomplishments at the grassroots stage- authorizing employees to take actions, taking benefits of their additional precise awareness of the customer and market inclinations, importance given to employees from technical proficiency, and pulling down the organisation to go faster in decision-making. During conversion of organisation 's resources into services or goods, the occupied Operations manager must create the hardest options. It is most frequently the manager's judgment to modify a procedure that puts the jobs of a group of employees at danger because employees may not have the systematic skills to job successfully in the fresh progression. And it is the Operation manager's accountability to converse with those workers; to talk about the value on their jobs; to offer the foundation, resources, and alternatives accessible to employees; and to be rigid about the modifications while empathetic about the value. (Slack, 2004, Pg 36-37) If a purpose is recognized as more professionally and with a reduction of expenses carried out by a service provider, the Operations manager plays a position in that assessment and

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Survices Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Survices Marketing - Essay Example Customer complaints may help the management team to identify internal weaknesses in service provision, and help the company improve. In the end, a complaint benefits the firm positively. Moreover, if the complaint from the customer is handled professionally, the customer may recommend others to the firm’s product or services. The experience of Qantas Airlines helped me to understand the correct procedure for handling complaints from customers in a professional way. I gained familiarity with the critical aspects that should be highlighted when responding to a customer’s complaint. More specifically, I learned how to exhibit timeliness, facilitation, redress, apology, credibility, and attentiveness when handling complaints from customers. In addition, I realized that a customer’s response should be personalized and well framed so that it exhibits the firm’s recognition of its mistakes, but does not reflect negatively on the reputation of the company. The knowledge I gained is of critical importance in the business world. In the future, I will be in a position to handle customer complaints professionally (Barlow & MÃ ¸ller 2006, p.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Evolution Of Management Theory

Evolution Of Management Theory Management has existed throughout the time of man. Management throughout the passing of time has evolved and segregated into different theories however the end game, remains the same that is to achieve a certain goal while working together as a team. There are various definitions to the term management. Lawrence Appely defines management as Management is the development of people and not the direction of things, management is personnel; administration (Agarwal, 2010, p.4). Whereas William Spreigel terms it as Management is that function of an enterprise which concerns itself with the direction and control of the various activities to attain the business objectives. Management is essentially an executive function; it deals particularly with the active direction of the human effort. (Agarwal, 2010, p.4). Management is the integrating force in all organized activity. The verb manage comes from the Italian maneggiare (to handle especially tools), which in turn derives from the Latin manus (hand). The French word mesnagement (later mà ©nagement) influenced the development in meaning of the English word management in the 17th and 18th centuries. (www.wikipedia.com. 2012. Management. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management. [Accessed 13 December 12].) Management has been put to use throughout the history of mankind. Management like thought has been seen right from the building of the pyramids to emperor Ashoka conquering all of India or bharat as it was and still is known. Management is extremely important in the functioning of any task, or organisation in order for it to be successful. If there is a fault in the management it can lead to failure of the task or improper functioning of the company. It is difficult to trace the exact origins of management but one can see its evolution throughout time. In chronological order the very first piece of evidence of management theory can be seen in Chanakyas Arthashashtra, followed by Sun Tzus The Art of War, followed by Niccolà ² Machiavellis The Prince, followed by Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations. The 19th century later gave rise to classical economists such as and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873 Adam Smith (1723-1790). These economists provided an academic background on resource-allocati on, production and pricing issues. Alternatively, visionaries like James Watt (1736-1819), Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) Eli Whitney (1765-1825), and developed fundamentals of procedural assembly such as standardization, quality-control procedures, cost-accounting, inter-changeability of parts, and work-planning. The first complete principles of management appeared around the year 1920. The Concept of Corporation (published in 1949) a well-known book that was written by Peter Drucker (1909-2005) was one of the earliest books on applied management. Science of management written by Henry R Towne was published in the 1890s, The Principles of Scientific Management conceptualized by Frederick Winslow Taylor was published in the year 1911, Applied motion study was published in the year 1917, which was written by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.J. Duncan wrote the first college management textbook in 1911. Yoichi Ueno was the first person to introduce taylorism to Japan in 1912 and he became the first management consultant of the Japanese-management style. Ichiro Ueno, his son pioneered Japanese quality assurance. As one can see from the above examples we know that management has been influenced by various disciplines such as economics, political science, psychology, anthropology and even literature. Earlier management theories aimed at getting to know these newcomers of the industrial life at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century in Europe and the United States. THE CLASSICLAL OR UNIVERSAL SCHOOL The oldest form of the school of management of thought is the classical school. It dates, back to the twentieth century. The classical or universal thought deals with how to manage work organisations more effectively. There are three areas of management that can be classified under the classical school or universal school of thought. They are as follows- 1. Scientific management 2. Bureaucratic management 3. Administrative management The beliefs of the classical or universal school of thought- Fredrick Taylor was the founder of the classical school of thought. Earlier, the body of the classical school of thought implied that employees, have only psychical and economical needs, and that the concept of job-satisfaction was in fact alien to it. This school advocates high specialization of labour, centralized decision making, and profit maximization. The basic components compounded by Taylor for the scientific management school are as follows- Determination of standards of performance. Functional foremanship Responsibilities of management. Differential piecework of system of wage payment Mental revolution. Henri Fayol, and Max Weber are exceptional contributors of Classical School of management thought who made great contribution and laid the grounds for contemporary management. THE BEHAVIOURAL OR HUMAN RELATION SCHOOL The Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company conducted experiments by Mayo,Roethlisberger and others for the first time on the human aspects of organizations in the 1930s. This approach had previously been ignored by the classical theorists. This school is dubbed as neo-classical as it follows the academic form of classical theory and emphasises the human element of management as a counterpoint in contrast to the impersonality of classical theory. These experiments led to the development of new premises. These premises were the motivation to work; morale and productivity are related to the social conditions among the workers and the supervisor, and not to the psychical conditions at work. Considerable contributions made by Kurt Lewin, Chris Argyris,Rensis Likert ,and Douglas McGregor have helped shaped this school for being whatever it is today. Abraham Maslow a renowned psychologist developed a very widely recognised hierarchy of needs. This is now known as Maslows hierarchy of needs. This is a concept of motivation based on the needs of every human being. His concept had three assumptions. They are- The needs of a human being are never truly satisfied. Human behaviour is purposeful and is motivated by the need for satisfaction. The needs of a human being can be classified according to a hierarchical structure of importance, from the lowest to highest. The above three premises prove that human beings need a motivation in order to get the job done. This theory has been highly useful for managers in order to help motivate their employees. THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCE OR QUANTITATIVE SCHOOL Mathematicians, physicists, and scientists came together in order to solve the problems caused by World War II. The key feature of this school is its use of mathematics and statistics to help in determining production and operation problems. This approach helps in solving technical rather than human behaviour problems. It comprises a diverse team of experts from whatever fields the problem being attacked calls for. The team members then analyse the problem and then make a mathematical representation of it. Therefore they would change some aspects of the equation to see what would happen in the real world. The most important contributions of management science are in the areas of operations management and production management. (Duening, 2003) THE CONTENGENCY/SITUATIONAL OR ALL DEPENDS SCHOOL The contingency school was birthed in the 1970s. As the very name suggests this school of thought is based on possibility. In this approach managers deal with each problem differently based on the situation and its belief lies in evaluating many options to solve one problem. This theory recognises that there is no one best way to design organisations and manage them. It weighs down the variables and then decides based on the varying factors as to what would be the best solution. This approach is highly dependent on the judgement of the manager in any given situation. It focuses on the inter-relationships within and among the subsystems as well as between the organisation and its environment. (Agarwal, 2010) For example-when taco bell asked itself what would ensure its success, they revamped their business based on the simple philosophies of customers value food, provision, and the aesthetic appeal of the restaurant. Taco bell then hired new managers who would ensure that their philosophies were put into action thereby ensuring their success. (Anon., n.d.) THE SYSTEM SCHOOL The system school of thought sees the organization as one whole purposeful and united body rather than seeing it in its different parts and pieces. Its early contributors include Lawerence J.Henderson,W.G.Scott, Daniel Katz, J.D Thompson, etc. This approach helps the managers to look at the broader picture. This school conveys to us that every single action done by any section of the company affects the other segments of the company in varying degrees. In this school managers make their decisions only after they have weighed down each and every single option as to if that decision has been taken, how it will affect the company. The managers cannot function based on their department alone; they must take the whole company into account. In order for them to run smoothly they must be in constant touch with the other departments of the company as well, so that they can base their decisions accordingly. CONCLUSION Management as one has seen above is under constant development. It always has more room for change for its own betterment. It has existed since time immemorial. The schools of thought are simply the different approaches that are used by any person, or organisation in order for it to achieve its goals. In this document there are 5 schools of thought that have been explained. They are the classical school, the human relations school, , the management science school, the contingency theory school. They are summarized as follows- The classical school- the classical school consist of three theories, namely. Scientific management, Bureaucratic management and Administrative management. The major purposes of the school were to develop the basic principles that could guide the design, creation and maintenance of large organisations and to identify the basic functions of managing organizations. (Duening, 2003) The behavioural school or human relation school- this school takes on a managerial approach as to how the role of people affects the success of the organisation. It also emphasises the structure of the organisation and work environment affects their behaviour and performance.it simply states that if the employees are kept in a good working environment then their productivity will increase, which in turn will lead to successful operations of the company. (Duening, 2003) The management science or quantitative school- this school gives us a mathematical representation of the problems that are faced. Therefore when one changes one of the factors in the equation one can anticipate what the result would be in the real world. Important contributions that were made were in the areas of production management and operations management. The contingency /situational or all depends school- this theory implies that every situation that a management faces is unique therefore it is left up to the managers discretion as to how h/she chooses to deal with it. This requires the manager to have a great deal of experience and good judgement. It also states that there is no one best way to deal with a problem. Instead it asserts the need to understand different problems and how to deal with them differently. The system school- the system school saw the organisation as a whole instead of dividing it into bits and pieces. This helped keep in mind the larger picture and that was the achievement of the companys goals rather than those of the individual departments.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

The Trend Towards Longer Work Days: No End in Sight :: Business Management Human Resources

The Trend Towards Longer Work Days: No End in Sight One of the most common conceptions of the East Asian people and the East Asian way of life is their undeniably strong work ethic. Many people in the West believe that Asians are probably the most hardworking people on Earth . Many facts, including most of the available official statistics, support the view that Asians do indeed work longer weeks than Europeans. A Singaporean, working for a private company with at least 25 employees, worked 47.1 hours on average in 1995, plus 4.6 hours of overtime (Department of Statistics, Singapore). Compare that to the average working time for a Swede, who works 34.1 hours per week (SCB Statistics Sweden). The average Japanese factory worker worked for a total of 2124 hours in 1990, compared to 1683 hours for a French worker (Japan External Trade Organisation, JETRO). The most obvious answer to this question is Confucianism. Confucian-based societies in Asia have during the recent decades been characterized by rapid economic growth. "[Confucian] values permeate all of Asia, not just the Chinese part of it" (Rohwer). Diligence is one of the basic values of Confucianism, together with perseverance, moderation and education. In the Confucian model, the society is based on authority and unequal relationships between people: father and son, master and servant, husband and wife, etc. In this society, someone always has authority over someone else's life. Confucianism is also very elitist - a person does not have to understand it, but he does have to follow it in order to maintain the stability in society (more about Confucianism can be learnt from Encyclopedia Britannica). Because of this, hard work has always been a virtue in a Confucian society. If a person living in a Confucian society did not consider work being a virtue, the model made sure t hat someone else, the "top-half" of the unequal relationship, reminded the "lazy" person and made sure he or she would return to the right path. This top-down style is further strengthened by the strong role the family has in the system. A person is to a greater extent considered being a part of a family, rather than an individual. All this fortifies the incentives to work hard. The Confucian system, when applied to the extreme, does not give anyone a choice of choosing another way of life.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Snapshots of Miss Emily in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily Essay

Snapshots of Miss Emily in A Rose for Emily â€Å"A Rose for Miss Emily† by William Faulkner is a story of quiet lonliness and tragedy. The story ends on a surprising note, but one for which the reader is not totally unprepared. Faulkner very cleverly uses changing pictures of Miss Emily’s physical state to give the reader a clue as to what is transpiring inside her. The picture or â€Å"tableau† of Emily in her childhood gives us our first clue into her strange personality. She is â€Å"a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.† The scene almost blatantly reveals Emily in her youth, constrained by a wildly over-protective father. Her natural attempts to leave home and have relationship with the outside world are thwarted by a dark, mean, even evil-spirited father who refuses to let her leave. Our next view of Miss Emily is some time after her father dies. â€Å"Her hair is cut short,† Faulkner tells us. The strength...

Friday, October 11, 2019

Poetry Discussion Questions

How does the language of the poem make Moore more relatable to the audience? A lot of poems are composed of long difficult words that are hard to pronounce and hard to understand. However, in â€Å"Poetry', Moore took a different route to explaining to the reader what poetry is. That is, she approached the poem with words that are used everyday, a technique to help the reader to understand the true meaning of poetry.I also feel like these lines, that we do not admire what e cannot understand† (lines 9-11), point out that the average person does not understand deep, complex literary meanings of words that are not used in everyday life. I also feel like Moore is expressing that this is one of the reasons why people do not read as much poetry, since they are indirectly discriminated due to the language filter. To add on, this may be the reason why the author started off with the lines, â€Å"l, too, dislike it, there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle† (l ine 1).Once again, she relates to the audience in preference of literature. Perhaps through the poem, she is attempting to show herself grow out of the phase of dislike and into the phase of loving poetry to the extent of becoming a poet. The ignorance to poetry makes us believe that we do not enjoy poetry, but I feel like the author expresses that it is a matter of opening the book and surpassing the fear of feeling unintelligible due to the language in sophisticated poems.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Anna Karenina: a Different Kind of Love Essay

Progress is â€Å"the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level (Dictionary.reference.com)†. Anna Karenina, written by Leo Tolstoy, is a book filled with tragedy, love and choices. This novel can be interpreted in several different ways, but the most common interpretation is that Anna’s husband Alexis Karenin represents the old fading traditions in Russia and Count Vronsky, Anna’s lover, represents the progress of Russia; Anna who is torn between choosing her husband and young son and her lover represents Russia itself, faced with the choice between the old traditions and the new â€Å"progressive† era. This â€Å"progressive† interpretation of Anna Karenina is the best and most accurate understanding of the book because of its meaning, its origination, and the affect it has on the characters. In Leo Tolstoy’s book Anna Karenina, the theme of â€Å"progression† plays a major role throughout the whole of the book. Count Alexis Kirillovich Vronsky, Anna Karenina’s lover, is an officer in the Russian army who is handsome, young, and charming, but morally unstable. When Vronsky first meets Anna he is mesmerized by her beauty and, for him, it is love at first sight; for a while his chief goal in life was to make Anna his own. Vronsky is a significant character throughout the novel because he embodies the modernization and progress of Russia. In contrast, Karenin personifies the old and dying customs of Russia. Because Anna decided to have an affair with Vronsky, she symbolizes Russia struggling while choosing between the old, Karenin, and the new, Vronsky. Because Anna chose Vronsky, at least at first, and forsook Karenin, or the old ways, she fell to ruin. As a result of her choices, Anna went mad with uncertainty; because she committed adultery, she began to doubt Vronsky’s faithfulness to her. Soon, Anna became wholly dependent of Vronsky, so much that he grew tired of her, believing that her new way of clinging to him was old fashioned and annoying. Convinced that Vronsky no longer loved her, Anna threw herself under a moving train at the train station where she was supposed to meet up with Vronsky. Anna did not realize that although there are certain things about progress that are virtuous, too much of anything, even a good thing is bad. The topic of â€Å"progress† seen throughout the book Anna Karenina was implied due to the setting of the book. Leo Tolstoy, the author, placed the book in the 1870s. From the 1850s to early 1900s Russia had the fastest and largest population growth rate out of all the important major powers after the U.S.A.; during this time Russia’s population nearly doubled. In 1870 the czar or Russia authorized city councils to be made that raised taxes and charged labor to help with city expenses, such as: roads, local schools, public healthcare, food supplies, and jails (Wikipedia.org, History of Russia; geographic.org). During the 1960s and 1970s the percentage of working age people with at least a minor education nearly doubled. All of this â€Å"progress† steadily affected the characters of Anna Karenina. This kind of modernization helped instigate Anna to be discontent with her life as Karenin’s wife and desire to be with Vronsky. If Anna had not desired life to be exciting, as modern ideas portrayed life to be, she would have easily been satisfied with a dull life with her old husband Karenin. All through the entirety of Anna Karenina, one can see how Anna’s choosing Vronsky over Karenin (the new over the old) affected her and the people around her. Before Anna met Vronsky she was much more contented with her life; after she met Vronsky and had grown to know him, her life, her husband and her son, seemed dull and boring in comparison. Upon getting to know Vronsky, Anna began to crave love, the kind that was exciting, and the kind that Vronsky offered her. Slowly, Anna realized how tedious her relationship with Karenin was; she realized that before Vronsky had come into her life, she had poured out all her love on her son. In the beginning, Anna did not wish to affiliate with Vronsky because she knew that an affair with another man would not only affect her and her place in society, but it would also affect her young son and her relationship with him. Not long after Vronsky had proclaimed his love to her, Anna told him â€Å"What you are saying is wrong, and if you are a good man, I beg you to forget it, as I will forget it (Part 1, Chapter 30, and Page 2).† From this quote an individual can see that, Anna was a conscientious woman, who knew right from wrong, and chose, at first, to do what was right. However, she was tempted by evil and sadly she gave in. Later on in the story, Anna discovered that she was pregnant with Vronsky’s child; in her confused frightened state of mind, she told Karenin, her husband, that she was Vronsky’s mistress. One would think that this would be a significant turning point in the book, but instead of breaking off their marriage Karenin decided that he wanted to put an end to their affair as privately as possible and have his marriage with Anna appear as it had before. For the longest time, Karenin had been suspicious, but he trusted his wife and believed she would never be disloyal to him; in his heart of hearts Karenin realizes that he is jealous of Vronsky because Vronsky is young, handsome, and the embodiment of progress and modernization. In comparison, Karenin was old; he was twenty years senior to Anna. A successful marriage is built around love and trust; in Anna and Karenin’s marriage there had been no true and enduring love; this caused Anna to be unfaithful to Karenin, which caused Karenin to be envious of Vronsky, and as a result of it all no love or trust remained between them. In comparison, two other character’s relationship was quite the opposite. Anna’s brother’s wife’s sister was a young woman named Kitty; near the end of the book Kitty married a man named Levin, who was also an old friend of Anna’s brother. Earlier in the book, even before Anna met Vronsky, Kitty had rejected Levin’s proposal believing that Vronsky intended to propose to her. However, after Vronsky had met Anna he stopped going to see Kitty and went instead to follow Anna wherever she went. Well along in the story, Kitty regrets rejecting Levin and after a while they get back together. Because of how Anna had stolen Vronsky from her Kitty, for the longest time, was envious of Anna and Levin was jealous of Vronsky because Vronsky had also taken his love. Since Kitty’s and Levin’s love was much deeper than that of Anna’s and Karenin’s, they were able to overcome these trifles and (basically) lived happily ever after. In conclusion, the understanding of â€Å"progress† seen throughout the book Anna Karenina is accurate because of its meaning, origination, and overall effect of the characters. The interpretation of Alexis Karenin representing the fading old area of Russia, Vronsky symbolizing â€Å"progress†, and Anna herself signifying Russia is most relevant because of how significant it is throughout the entire book.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Discuss Somerset’s global supply chain Essay

Somerset Furniture Company (SFC) was founded in 1957 in Randolph County, Virginia. Traditionally, SFC manufactured large, medium-priced, ornate residential home wood furniture such as bedroom cabinets and chests of draws, and dining and living room cabinets, tables, and chairs. Somerset prides itself on customer service. They believe that late deliveries to its customers would harm its credibility and result in loss of customers and excessive inventories. Somerset has recently set up new strategies and tactics to meet goals and improve global supply chain. They first found their problems were, and focused on its core capacities that will improve productivities and reduce inefficiency to win in the global market. In the mid-1990s, SFC was faced with increasing foreign competition, high labor rates, and diminishing profits. SFC decided to outsource several of its furniture product lines to manufacturers in China. This reduced the size of its own domestic manufacturing facility and labor source. SFC considered quality and time as its core competences. SFC planned to implement and strengthen its core by adopting EDI, RFID, and RTA (ready to assembly) to acquire more competitiveness on time by reducing time, improving the delivery of economic value to customers. Because of supply chain variability, shipments can be off schedule or delayed. Since 9/11, random security checks delay shipments. SFC’s global supply chain was getting lose its competitive edge and even faced shipment delays by as much as 40%. SFC was initially successful in their idea to outsource their business on a limited basis. SFC has since then discovered that as many companies do this same thing, out sourcing can result in a host of supply chain problems. Discuss possible remedies for its supply chain problems. Reduce Variability: Somerset should implement processes and tools that will reduce variability. The current process orders furniture on a weekly and bi-weekly basis. The process takes between 12 and 25 days to develop a purchase order which is then released to the Chinese suppliers. With these kinds of gaps in order creation, it makes it extremely difficult to forecast demand. The supply chain can easily be improved by implementing a real-time internet driven system that allows for direct communication between the retail operations and the supplier. Suppliers then can begin manufacturing  new furniture as orders come in. Additionally, implementing such a system will help ensure that once an order is received, that there is an urgency to deliver that order to the store, versus the current process where it may take from one day to a month before furniture is delivered to a store. Somerset wants as much of the order delivered to a store as possible in order to improve their on hand inventory levels and reduce variability. Improved Transportation: Somerset should also leverage technology with its transportation companies. Technologies such as RFID can be used to provide real-time updates to the transportation company. With improved forecasting, thresholds can be established, so that once reached, a truck is pre-ordered with the expectation that a complete order will be reached once the truck reaches the manufacturing facility. With improved forecasting and the use of technology, the trucking company can better estimate its consumer needs, thus improving their preparedness. Shipping Partnerships: In order to improve the probability of securing shipping containers and to reduce the delays caused by security checks, Somerset should leverage partnerships with companies that have similar shipping needs. By increasing the scale of their shipping needs, Somerset and t heir partners can compete with larger companies like â€Å"Big W†, by placing advanced orders. Additionally, Somerset, will experience cost savings, because of the shared container costs. The company will have fewer concerns with partially filled containers. Lastly, due to the increased scalability, the company (along with the business partners) may be able to leverage their size and avoid delays caused by security checks. Alternative Suppliers: Somerset should begin exploring opportunities with different global suppliers. Given quality concerns with production facilities and the difficulties with improving transportation and shipping resources, China may not be the best supplier for Somerset. By securing a different supplier, Somerset can not only improve its quality (thus securing its reputation), but also improve the expedience with receiving its ordered goods. These improvements can result in cost savings and improved customer service for Somerset. Discuss strategic and tactical changes that might improve the company’s supply chain performance. Collaborative Data Collection: Somerset needs to partner with the stores they deliver furniture to in order to gat her sales and other data customer facing attributes like delivery performance, fill rate and order  fulfillment. They could use this data to address supply chain response time and make their production more flexible. This entire process should be automated and accessible over to all of the stakeholders. By evaluating this data and comparing it with data about their competitors Somerset can develop a more accurate model for forecasting future sales and returns by reducing the variability due to a shorter lead time. Optimizing the customer facing fulfillment system will provide insight into how to adjust their internal supply chain process. For example, Somerset will be able to shorten the time it takes to develop and release their purchase order to their Chinese manufacturers. However, this process needs to be automated and accessible to their Chinese manufacturer so they are better able to prepare to fulfill the orders in a timely manner. This purchase order process should be combined with a plan that incentivizes their manufacturer to process their orders quicker. They also need to penalize th e manufacture for faulty products and late delivery. Although they currently have a Quality Control process they should have their own representative participate in the QC the process in China. Since Somerset has the machinery to make the custom furniture, part of the agreement should include requiring their Chinese manufacturers to use them. They also need to find other manufacturers so that they can mitigate the risk if their primary manufacturer experiences a problem meeting the deadline or there is a problem with the shipping deadlines. New Product Release: Somerset should re-evaluate how they introduce new products and phase out old product lines. For example, instead of replacing the entire product line at the same time they could introduce new products that replace the products are beginning to experience a drop off in demand. They should also examine the cost of replacement parts. They should look for ways to replace the faulty parts at a minimal cost. Standardized Parts: Somerset should identify parts that can be made interchangeable. The use of standardized parts would cut down on the time and skill required to make the furniture without affecting their customized features. Another option would be for Somerset to incorporate the manufacture of replacement parts into the facility where new products are developed. That could reduce the cost and time it currently takes to get replacement parts from China. In order to address the partially filled container problem and the creaking issue Somerset should ship the parts in standardized boxes that stack better an  fill the containers. Then establish an assembly plant in the US. That also provides them with a final control over the quality of the finished product. Somerset should also add a distribution center in China where the products are delivered prior to being shipped to the US and another distribution center in the US near the port of entry. This would help address the delays in delivery to the ports. Furthermore, Somerset should purchase their own trucks and coordinate delivery of finished product s with the pickup of raw materials. Additionally they could ship these standardized containers via airplane verses relying exclusively on ships. Although they can’t shorten the time it takes their containers to clear customs Somerset could reduce the time it takes to deliver them by purchasing their own delivery trucks to pick up the delivery from the dock. They can still contract with larger delivery services pick up from the distribution centers. Please note that these distribution centers could act as warehouses where additional inventory is stored. Product Visibility: In order to further remove uncertainty the individual boxes should be bar coded and the containers should have RFID capabilities. As a result of using technology, Somerset will have visibility to status of their products and shipments at all times. The information derived from the enhanced process would enable Somerset to reduce the supply chain cost and continue optimize their supply chain efficiency ultimately cutting cost and increasing revenue. Discuss strategic and tactical changes that might reduce system variability. Somerset Furniture faces the challenge of trying to alleviate delayed shipments in their supply chain process from their current 40% variability rate. The dilemma with shipment lead time is that the determining factor is processed orders from the past. Somerset’s management team would evaluate their past orders to determine how much lead time was reasonable in order to forecast future furniture shipments. As we learned from the case, Somerset’s variability issues stem from many factors. Some of the factors are beyond Somerset’s control due to the strict compliance factors in International shipping. For example, the size of Somerset’s business causes them to generate more security checks than larger companies because of the smaller and infrequent number of shipments. These security checks can lead to a three week delay in the shipping process. Also there is a 3-6 day lead time for containers to be loaded at the docks. There really isn’t much that  Somerset can do about this lag time because ports have their own employees and contract labor group to handle loading and off-loading duties. Furthermore, ports order containers according to bulk demand and availability which makes it hard for companies like Somerset to control the 1-7 day wait time that it takes to empty and transport available containers to the port loading docks. Another issue facing Somerset and other retail companies is that companies like SunKist and SeaLand, who own containers, only wish to order and manufacture enough containers that can be loaded and off-loaded on a continuous basis. This maximizes the fleet inventory of SunKist and SeaLand so that they can generate the most profits from their assets. Container Purchase: One way that Somerset can alleviate this problem is to purchase or lease their own fleet of containers from container manufacturers. This would allow them to reduce the 1-7 day variability wait period for empty containers. Somerset Furniture could own or lease this inventory and contract with companies like SunKist or SeaLand to store the empty containers at their docks for rental fees. By purchasing or leasing their own fleet of containers and contracting with available container owners, Somerset would also be reducing the excess space problem that they are having due to the dimensions of the containers. By ordering th eir own fleet of containers, Somerset could customize the orders to better accommodate their furniture shipments thus maximizing container space. Regulatory Compliance: Another challenge facing Somerset is that the inventory trip from China to Somerset’s Norfolk warehouse takes 29 days. There really isn’t much that Somerset can do about this timeframe. In addition to the above waiting period, the stringent process that International shipments undergo during the Customs inspections is also beyond Somerset’s control. The only thing Somerset can do to alleviate this problem is to comply with every aspect of Customs to not cause a further delay in the process. Trucks can only be loaded with furniture when the containers past inspections at the docks. One would think that the common sense thing to do is to have trucks waiting on the containers to pass Customs to prevent further delays; however, 3rd Party trucking companies charge for hold over time. The reason behind the downtime charge is that they lose money if their vehicle fleet is not on the road carrying a load. The 1-3 day trip that it takes for trucks to get from Customs to Somerset’s  warehouse is a minor issue compared to the potential 30 day period that it takes for the trucks to be unlo aded at Somerset’s warehouse docks. Supplier Incentives: The variability issues for Somerset that are within their control exist on the front end of the process beginning with the work order and purchase order process. For starters, one of the things that Somerset can do to eliminate wait time is to offer incentives to its Chinese suppliers to search for ways to process purchase orders faster. If the Chinese suppliers can accurately and efficiently reduce the 10-20 day wait period it takes to process purchase orders on the front end, then Somerset Furniture Company can reduce the potential 30 day wait period that it takes to unload trucks on the backend at their warehouse. This would help Somerset Furniture to be able to reduce excess storage fees that they have to pay to 3rd Party trucking companies for having their trailers occupied for many days at Somerset’s docking stations. Another tactical strategy that Somerset can employ is to seek ways to reduce the 60 day wait time that it takes for their suppliers in China to begin the manufacturing process. Questions need to be asked. What kind of incentives can be offered to their suppliers to start the manufacturing process earlier? Are there other suppliers in China that Somerset can employ as sole supplier manufacturers? Employing sole suppliers would help to cut down on variability because there would be no other customers hindering the manufacturing process since Somerset would be the only customer. Lastly, rather than use low-cost suppliers in China, Somerset should do the math and see if it makes sense to become their own low-cost supplier in China. By searching for ways to reduce the 60 day manufacturing cycle ¸ Somerset could reduce excess inventory and increase Just-In-Time (JIT) shipments. Also by searching for a sole supplier in China, Somerset could enjoy a streamlined manufacturing process with little or no lag time. This in turn would help to alleviate the quality issues that Somerset was having because there would be one supplier to hold accountable for their product. Discuss strategic and tactical changes that might improve quality and customer service. We have listed multiple strategic and tactical changes that Somerset could potentially make to their organization that would not only improve the overall quality of their product, but would certainly improve their customer service. If Somerset made a deliberate effort to improve its transportation via technology, engage in strategic  shipping partnerships, standardize some of its key parts, and offer supplier incentives, it would undoubtedly improve its quality and its customer service. Inspections: In addition to the above listed items, Somerset should acquire the services of an independent auditor or inspector. By placing an independent inspector in the facilities of its Chinese suppliers, Somerset could greatly increase the quality of its products and would likely reduce the amount of customer complaints. Proactive Customer Service: Somerset could greatly increase its customer service by committing to a proactive customer service team. Somerset could increase the size of its customer service support function that would allow its customer service team more time to place courtesy calls, follow up calls, emails, and texts to customers that may have had a bad experience. A dissatisfied customer could likely become a lost customer if there is not a proactive customer service team to follow up on each issue. Customer Service Score Cards and Online Surveys: Lastly, Somerset should make every attempt to listen to the voice of its customers. Somerset could provide its customers with customer service score cards and/or online surveys so that they could stay in tune with the changing demands of their customers. The exceptions such as late deliveries or damaged products should be addressed as expeditiously as possible, however, it is in the organization’s best interest to know and understand what their customers like, dislike, want, and need. Customer service score cards and online surveys would give Somerset priceless feedback and it would open lines of communication between the organization and its customers.

Community, Education and Project Management Essay

Community, Education and Project Management - Essay Example A comprehensive analysis regarding complete features of workshop sessions is provided in a chronological sequence, followed by details of my personal development and experience from this entire exercise. Here, I also discussed a special case of a particular child who showed symptoms of evolving through the knowledge and confidence gained from my sessions and how I was moved from this astounding development. This area confers about how I take pride and credit for achievements that I gained by conducting an effective workshop and for amazing feedback I received from an audience as well as my mentor. The chapter closes in with a concluding summary of how this whole exercise enhanced my learning curve and how I see myself merging as a new person after the end of this spiritual journey. The notes provided in this report can be helpful for anyone who desires to conduct a successful workshop, learning from where I made mistakes and how I coped with challenges that came my way! Background: W ho’s who and what’s what? Location for workshop After being instructed to plan a workshop, the very first step to ponder about was the location where the workshop could be possibly held in the most effective manner. To discuss regarding this, I met my mentor and talked in detail about my placement. Initially, my intentions were to try for some non-profit organizations engaged in community development activities with a primary focus on schools and educational institutions. My theme was dance and movements and I strongly believed that dance can be best used in education for children who can’t communicate verbally and therefore, seconding to Mertz in ‘As I See it,’ dance is a language and communication mode which uses one’s body and movements instead of vocal notes to convey a message. The person at the other end reads the gestures and decodes the subtle meaning behind them. For kids, it could be the only mode of speaking up until a later age an d the workshop could be useful in this context. It was vital to decide what target I desire to target for the workshops for which an article by Natura Networking Programme (ELO) came in handy. Based on nature of my workshop, I needed to determine whether I shall need an assistant, any external funding, group of people for whom my intended workshop shall be most fruitful and associations that might be interested in my subject matter. My mentor gave me the names of some popular groups and associations where I could consider conducting my workshop. Accordingly, I applied to these entities requesting them to grant me permission to hold a workshop as part of my coursework. In order of my priorities, I applied first to Village Primary school but got a negative response on the grounds that it already had a full subscription of clubs. However, the school referred me to another association namely Refugee Housing Association.