Monday, September 30, 2019

Opposition to The New Deal Essay

The New Deal, it’s many Administrations and their policies were making major changes to American Industry and society. As a result of this, some people were quite unhappy and attempted to stall The New Deal. As time went on, FDR’s gained more and more power over the reformation of the American economy and businesses. People feared the amount of power FDR had and started questioning his intent. What really caused people to question Franklin D. Roosevelt was his attempt to â€Å"fix† the Supreme Court. As the nine judges making up the court were mainly old and conservative, FDR believed they were too opinionated and too eager use their authority without considering the consequences. Therefore he decided it wise to request he appoint up to six new, open-minded judges. Some people saw this as FRD attempting to tamper with the constitution in order to give himself more power, and it scared them. It was mainly because of this reason that FDR’s request was turned down, but the judges certainly seemed to have got the point and from then on were a lot more careful. Republicans certainly disliked The New Deal and found it dangerous. Leading Republican, Frank Knox, summed up Republican views on The New Deal by saying â€Å"The New Deal candidate has been leading us toward Moscow†. By this he meant that with Roosevelt’s increasing powers and his guidance and control over industry it seemed that he was slowly but surely verging towards communism. They also disliked Roosevelt’s industrial laws because they took power of the owners and benefited the workers with policies such as trade unions and social security. Some extreme opposition came from a self-educated man with a degree in law after only 8 months – he was a â€Å"shameless politician with no morals† and he fought dirty. In order to get where he was he had fixed ballots by placing his own men at available posts in the state government, he had used blackmail and bribery to get votes. Sometimes opponents were as much as kidnapped on Long’s orders. Huey Long became US senate in 1930 and claimed that if he were to become president he would adopt the policy of confiscating any personal fortunes of over 3 million U.S dollars and giving $5000 to each and every less wealthy family. Long did not at any point explain how he would do this, but the idea of much needed money being given to them for nothing was jumped at by the poorer families, and Long gained a lot of support. Fortunately for FDR, Long’s career ended due to assassination before he was able to challenge him. So with certain aspects of luck, and a well-conducted New Deal, FRD managed to rescue America from its depression without any great hitches. There were careless flaws such as the move Roosevelt made trying to fix the SC without considering the consequences, but in the end all went to plan and opposition was only opposition, and not a threat to the New Deal.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Process Design and Management Essay

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

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Capital Account Convertibility Essay Example for Free

Capital Account Convertibility Essay Capital Account Convertibility. Should India adopt full convertibility? Capital Account Convertibility-or a floating exchange rate-is a feature of a nation’s financial regime that centers around the ability to conduct transactions of local financial assets into foreign financial assets freely and at market determined exchange rates. It is sometimes referred to as Capital Asset Liberation or CAC. CAC is mostly a guideline to changes of ownership in foreign or domestic financial assets and liabilities. Tangentially, it covers and extends the framework of the creation and liquidation of laims on, or by the rest of the world, on local asset and currency markets. Current account convertibility allows free inflows and outflows for all purposes other than for capital purposes such as investments and loans. In other words, it allows residents to make and receive trade-related payments receive dollars (or any other foreign currency) for export of goods and services and pay dollars for import of goods and services, make sundry remittances, access foreign currency for travel, studies abroad, medical treatment and gifts, etc. Capital account convertibility is considered to be one of the major features of a developed economy. It helps attract foreign investment. It offers foreign investors a lot of comfort as they can re-convert local currency into foreign currency anytime they want to and take their money away. At the same time, capital account convertibility makes it easier for domestic companies to tap foreign markets. At the moment, India has current account convertibility. This means one can import and export goods or receive or make payments for services rendered. However, investments and borrowings are restricted. But economists say that Jumping into capital account convertibility game without considering the downside of the step could harm the economy. The East Asian economic crisis is cited as an example by those opposed to capital account convertibility. Even the World Bank has said that embracing capital account convertibility without adequate preparation could be catastrophic. But India is now on firm ground given its strong financial sector reform and fiscal consolidation, and can now slowly but steadily move towards fuller capital account convertibility. CAC has 5 basic statements designed as points of All types of liquid capital assets must be able to be exchanged freely, between any two nations, with standardized exchange rates. The amounts must be a significant mount (in excess of $500,000). Capital inflows should be invested in semi-liquid assets, to prevent churning and excessive outflow. Institutional investors should not use CAC to manipulate fiscal policy or exchange rates. Excessive inflows and outflows should be buffered by national banks to provide collateral. Prior to its implementation, foreign investment was hindered by uneven exchange rates due to transactions, and national banks were disassociated from fiscal exchange policy and incurred high costs in supplying hard-currency loans for those few local companies that wished to do business abroad. Due to the low exchange rates and lower costs associated with Third World nations, this was expected to spur domestic capital, which would lead to welfare gains, and in turn lead to higher GDP growth. The tradeoff for such growth was seen as a lack of sustainable internal GNP growth and a decrease in domestic capital investments. When CAC is used with the proper restraints, this is exactly what happens. The entire outsourcing movement with Jobs and factories going oversees is a direct result of the foreign investment aspect of CAC. The Tarapore Committee’s recommendation of tying liquid assets to static assets (i. e. investing in long term government bonds, etc) was seen by many economists as directly responsible for stabilizing the idea of capital account liberalization. The Reserve Bank of India has appointed a committee to set out the framework for fuller Capital Account Convertibility. The Committee, chaired by former RBI governor S S Tarapore, was set up by the Reserve Bank of India in consultation with the Government of India to revisit the subject of fuller capital account convertibility in the context of the progress in economic reforms, the stability of the external and financial sectors, accelerated growth and global integration. Economists Surjit S Bhalla, M G Bhide, R H Patil, A V RaJwade and Alit Ranade were the members of the Committee. The Reserve Bank of India has also constituted an internal task force to re-examine the extant regulations and make recommendations to remove the operational impediments in the path of liberalisation already in place. The task force will make its recommendations on an ongoing basis and the processes are expected to be completed by December 4, 2006. The Task Force has been set up following a recommendation of the Committee. The Task Force will be convened by Salim Gangadharan, chief general manager, in- harge, foreign exchange department, Reserve Bank of India, and will have the following terms of reference: Undertake a review of the extant regulations that straddle current and capital accounts, especially items in one account that have implication for the other account, and iron out inconsistencies in such regulations. Examine existing repatriation/ surrender requirements in the context of current account convertibility and management of capital account. Identify areas where streamlining and simplification of procedure is possible and remove the operational impediments, especially in espect of the ease with which transactions at the level of authorized entities are regulations are consistent with regulatory intent. Review the delegation of powers on foreign exchange regulations between Central Office and Regional offices of the RBI and examine, selectively, the efficacy in the functioning of the delegation of powers by RBI to Authorised Dealers (banks). Consider any other matter of relevance to the above. The Task Force is empowered to devise its work procedure, constitute working groups in various areas, co-opt permanent/special invitees and meet various trade ssociations, representative bodies or individuals to facilitate its work. Capital Account Convertibility. (2018, Oct 17).

Friday, September 27, 2019

Foundation of Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Foundation of Management - Essay Example Specifically, culture is the personality of an organization around which the whole organization revolves. Therefore, it is necessary to make a fundamental criterion and embed these core values with the individuals/employees of the organization. Without its existence, the energy of all the members will dissipate in terms of plans, decisions, and operations. Over the past decade, the concept of organizational culture has gained significant importance and acceptance. It is considered as a way to understand human systems. Each element of culture can be viewed as an environmental condition that has a great impact on the entire system and its subsystems. Increased competition, mergers, acquisitions, alliances, advancements and diversification in various workforce departments have created an urgent need for strong organizational culture (Daft, 2008). Thus, the role of culture in organizational development cannot be overlooked. An accurate understanding of organizational culture will not onl y help in directing activities towards the productive manner but it will also avoid the destructive influence of those employees who are not committed and loyal to the goals of the organization. ... For instance, if the organization’s mission is to provide excellent customer services but the employees are not empowered with the authority to carry out the required responses or results then this discrepancy will lead to a major decline in the overall performance of the company (Alvesson, 2002). In this regard, it is the premise of this paper that in order for a business organization to be successful, culture is the most important notion, and management can put efforts to foster ‘right culture’ in the organization. In order to be SUCCESSFUL, Culture is the MOST IMPORTANT thing The concept of culture is described as how employees or members of any organization understand their world and their position in it (Alvesson, 2002). There are varieties of definitions attached to the world ‘culture’, most of them are widely in acceptance and they share the same aspects. Schein's defines organizational culture as "A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems that has worked well enough to be considered valid and is passed on to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems" (Schein, pp. 30-39, 2010). In simpler terms, organizational culture includes a group of people who are trained to deal with a situation through guidelines or by those around them. It works like any other social learning process. One important aspect of organizational culture is that it is deeply rooted within its members. It creates the identity of the company and shapes the identity of its workers as well. This social identity is valuable in for company’s market position and an inherent conflict with the employees values can be a serious disadvantage. Due to this fact, companies transmit their values

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Religion and Healing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Religion and Healing - Essay Example Religious healing causes a healing of the person as a whole as opposed to physical healing only and some people have even abandoned the medical doctors in search for religious healers. In this paper, a critical analysis of three religions would be conducted so as to identify the practices involved in comparison to common practice and Christianity. The three religions include Buddhism, Sikhism and Bahaism. There have been major conflicts between faith healing and biomedical practice in the modern era due to diverse perspectives by the two as much as there are coinciding views. Barnes and Seres note that there were dramatic changes in the 1990s that caused religious healing to become a common feature in the American society (2004). The number of synagogues and churches conducting healing services increased and the use of alternative therapies increased. Similarly, there were amendments on immigration laws that saw America flock with various cultural communities bringing in their approaches to healing. Some of these included the Buddhist priests from Cambodia, herbalist acupuncturists from China, Hmong shamans and the santeros from Cuba. Buddhism has been described by many scholars as a religion that focuses more on philosophic principles as opposed to beliefs like Christianity (Pilgrimage India, 2009). Buddhists believe that in his early life, Buddha, also referred to as the great physi cian, learnt medicine and gained knowledge on the nature of diseases and the cure which enabled him guide the other people into healthy living. Buddhism would not delve so much into the meaning of sickness but rather on what a patient needs to do to be whole. In this religion, suffering would be a consequence of anger, greed, lust or passion of hatred. In Christianity, these would be considered as sin which eventually cause suffering according to Exodus 17 (New King James Version). Buddhism argues that physical and mental wellness would be achieved through developing a centered and unified personal approach to life. The well being of the body would come through the synthesis of the body and mind where the psychological, physical and spiritual dimensions form a continuum and an active interrelation. While the common perception has been that the body and flesh; spirit and matter; and soul and body are distinct, Buddhists see all these as a process where these features are interdepende nt and one. The mind influences how the body would be. Therefore, hospitals should provide appropriate environment for people to be trained on meditative awareness no matter the religious principles upheld in the institution. The inner resources could be optimized for healing and for personal health responsibility. Buddhism does not involve miracle cures such as those conducted by Jesus in the New Testament (Kajitani, 2005). Instead, it deals with methods that involve one’s emotional elements which accompany pain and at times intensify it. Dalai Lama observes that happiness is not a result of feeling, but rightful thinking, which involves transformation of a person’s understanding of existent nature (Bryson, 2009). All problems are a result of negative thinking. Naikan therapy helps one appreciate their independence with others resulting to a positive force that offsets personal problems which induce negativity. Morita therapy on the other hand tries to close the gap b etween the world as it is and the world as thought to be by filling it with positivity. Buddhists uphold inner healing which would then translate to the physiological healing. Therefore, it would be important to respect their religion when treating them if the physician is from a

Supply chain operations and concepts Research Paper

Supply chain operations and concepts - Research Paper Example his endeavor, the rise of the computer age has provided some tools that reduce the level of paperwork in the supply chain while it has also blown apart many of the preconceived ideas regarding territory and boundary. Now, not only are companies attempting to compete with regional and national firms, but must also fend off the advances of international organizations while attempting to gain footholds in new countries. This introduces differing sets of criteria for the supply chain manager including the production of products, governmental regulations or specifications and available technology or resources each of which must be addressed before a product can be offered in a new or old market. To help cope with these multiple concurrent concerns, operations managers and scientists have developed a wide range of strategy sets that are capable of addressing each concern independently or a variety of concerns concurrently depending upon the operation of the firm which is further defined by the type of product produced and the methods by which it is created and delivered. Supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion and all logistics management behaviors. It also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers or customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies. Logistics management is the element of supply chain management that plans, implements and controls the efficient forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements (College of Business Administration, 2005). Many types of businesses and organizations most likely to employ supply chain managers include communication, consulting, military,

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Appraising and Developing Staff Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Appraising and Developing Staff - Essay Example It should be clear to the parties involved in the appraisal process that the outcome of the appraisal process may be positive or negative, but the intention is usually positive for the employees. In essence, performance appraisal is meant to help the employees to evaluate their previous year’s work and also develop strategies for improvement. They are empowered to overcome the challenges faced in the workplace for improved performance. It is important to ensure that anxiety among the employees is controlled by ensuring that the appraisers demonstrate supportive and positive intentions for the employees. This is accomplished through positive criticism. Credibility is also a significant aspect of effective employee appraisal. The technique applied for the appraisal should not be weird (Harris & DeSimone, 1994). It is important to develop performance goals, which are significant in employee motivation. The goal theory of motivation explains the significance of managers who are able to enhance the pursuance of a common purpose. When the employees are aware of the goal that they are intending to achieve, they are motivated to be effective in the accomplishment of tasks. The experienced employees ensure that they maintain good performance and are encouraged to make the right decisions that can facilitate realization of the goal. Appraisers who encourage creativity are able to maintain a competent workforce. Employees derive enthusiasm from coming up with workable ideas that can be attributed to their ability to think critically. Failure to get such a chance to demonstrate inventiveness may cause low spirits in the workplace especially when the employees are used to rely on the leader for decisions (Aguinis, 2009). Managers who promote creativity in the workplace also promote organizational lea rning since workers are able to learn from the diverse inventions. They also learn together with the workers. Clients are usually attracted to the

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

POWER AND VIOLENCE IN FAMILIES Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

POWER AND VIOLENCE IN FAMILIES - Movie Review Example However, the part where Jennifer Lopez is shown getting trained in just one month and taking a revenge on her husband is a bit dramatic and theatrical. It usually takes longer than that to get trained for self defense and learn martial arts. At the same time, one cannot say that this cannot happen in real life. If a woman is strong and determined, then she can do anything to fight abuse. So the movie is quite realistic. A: Wives who are psychologically weak are the ones who usually become the victim of abuse. It is their psychological and emotional weakness, and the fear of being abandoned, that makes women suffer the domestic violence silently. It is the lack of psychological weakness in the first place which makes them vulnerable to abuse. Huge amount of mental strength and determination is needed for women to overpower their husbands and fight physical abuse at home. Hence, it is not easily possible for abused wives to overpower their husbands physically. They lack the mental strength to do so. Unfortunately, it is the mental strength that is usually found missing in victims of physical abuse. A: No. One can say that a woman is ‘most battered’ when she experiences persistent beating for no reason, suffers physical injuries due to physical violence everyday, lives in constant fear, and is tortured mentally and emotionally. Most of the times, battered women suffer major physical injuries and psychological traumas which make them incapable of functioning normally in daily life. Most battered women lose their self-esteem, confidence, communication ability etc. However, this does not happen in case of Lopez’s character. Lopez is shown getting only one tiny scar on her face and no other major injuries. The physical abuse shown against her is quite less and hence, one cannot say that she presents ‘most battered women.’ A: This movie is definitely not damaging. In

Monday, September 23, 2019

Exodus 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Exodus 3 - Essay Example Exodus also teaches us a few things that I would like to speak to you about today. These are leadership, obedience, sacrifice, and compassion. In the age of Moses and the prophets, God used to reveal Himself to people in such explicit and remarkable ways that even the prophets themselves would be left astounded. In addition, God used to correspond with prophets directly, and this communication was so direct to the point that it was virtually face-to-face. Modern religion finds it difficult to reconcile with such events because they are unheard of nowadays. However, this does not mean that God’s presence in our lives has waned. All of us are His children, and so long as we walk in His ways He will manifest Himself to us in ways that serve His purpose. In Exodus 3, we can see that God chose Moses to carry out His mission, which was to deliver the Israelites from Egypt and bring them back to Him. Moses’ story is remarkable because he was abandoned as an infant because his mother feared he would be killed by the Egyptians1. More remarkably, he was later rescued by the unlikeliest of people: Pharaoh’s daughter. He was, subsequently, raised as royalty, an Egyptian prince. Another observation is that Moses was the youngest in his family, and going by the standards of that age he was the least likely to be chosen by God. However, God works in mysterious ways, especially when it comes to choosing leaders. People need to understand that leadership is ordained by God; it is not anyone’s birthright. Consequently, those who occupy leadership positions should work to fulfill God’s commands and guide His people in His path. Leadership, at whatever level, is not something to be trifled with; it is a manifestation of God’s nature and character. Moses had a life before God revealed Himself to him. Of course, he was just herding sheep, but his life was

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Modern Architecture de Stijl Architecture Essay Example for Free

Modern Architecture de Stijl Architecture Essay De Stijl architecture was formed by a group of young artists who created the new movement in 1917; calling both the movement and the magazine they published De Stijl. The group promoted utopian ideals and group members believed in the birth of new age in the wake of WWI. They felt it was a time of balance between individual and universal values. The work was completely abstract as well. The goal was total integration of art and life. GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD, Schroder House, the Netherlands, 1924. Rietveld came to the De Stijl group as a cabinet maker and created spectacular furniture throughout his life. He used this as an inspiration for the plans and designs of his architecture. He expresses his spirits and definition into the whole piece. This structure is an anti-cube and does not contain much functional space, nor did it intend to. It instead throws all of this space out of the center therefore making the height, width, and depth an open space. The main areas such as the living room are on the second floor where as the private rooms are confined to the bottom. The second floor also uses sliding objects in order to be able to have definite shape or be open when needed. The movable panels illustrate three-dimensional ideas but have proportional planes. This contemporary style portrays nature through its open plan. The Bauhaus Walter Gropius developed a particular vision of â€Å"total architecture†. He made this concept the key to his work and the work of others who studied under him at a school called, The Bauhaus. It taught that all art forms, from simple to complex should be designed as a unit. WALTER GROPIUS, Shop Block, the Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925-1926. In 1924 a new government was elected who forced the Bauhaus to move north to Dessau. When the Bauhaus program had matured, Gropius set guidelines for the schools universal goals. These included maintaining a positive attitude to living in a contemporary world (technology was embraced), avoid all romantic embellishment and whimsy, restriction to basic forms and colors to what is typical and universally intelligible, and simplicity within complexity. All these goals are used in Gropius’ Work Shop Block. The building consisted of workshop, class areas, dining rooms, a theatre, and gym. Standing 3 stories tall, it housed many activities and programs however in a simplistic form. They constructed the Skelton of reinforced concrete but supported it back farther in order to sheath the entire building with glass creating a streamlined and light effect also revealing the classrooms beyond. The building is lifted off the ground slightly, seemingly floating. The white horizontal stringcourses also embrace the building. He wanted the â€Å"economy in the use of space† which was one of the schools ultimate goals. It is organized and simplistic, free from embellishments or architectural motifs, a masterpiece he always dreamed to create during his career. International Style This style from the 1920s to 1950s was greatly influenced by the Bauhaus. Its qualities and styles focus on simple geometric aesthetics. Le Corbusier, an influential architect and theorist on modern architecture applied himself to designing a functional living space which he referred to as a â€Å"machine for living† using these ideas. LE CORBUSIER, Villa Savoye, 1929, Poissy-sur-Seine, France Le Corbusier made an elegant country house which dominates its site and has a broad view of the landscape that surrounds it. It is essentially a cube that is composed with the idea of space where free open-rooms let light flow freely throughout the house as well as utilizing the space it has, including using the roof as a patio. It contains a three-bedroom villa with servant’s quarters and the main part of the house is lifted off the ground by narrow columns and thin freestanding posts. It does not have a definite entrance and the building has no traditional faà §ade so one must walk around the house to truly comprehend its layout, however, the turning circle on the bottom floor is a carport so that family members can enter directly from their car. The boxlike horizontal quality of the house displays its abstraction by showing that the spaces and masses interpenetrate so fluently that the inside and outside space intermingle. Art Deco Contradicting the simplistic forms of the international style, Art Deco focuses strictly on industry, the machine and aerodynamics by focusing on industrial designs. The names comes from the 1925 exposition International des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes, held in Paris, which celebrated living in the modern world. It replaces the vegetal forms of its parent with machine stylization. Its products have a â€Å"streamlined† elongated symmetrical aspect through its simple flat shapes alternate with shallow volumes. Many themes of Art Deco include automobile wheels, grills, cruise ship portholes and railings. This style was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. WILLIAM VAN ALEN, The Chrysler Building, 1928-1930, New York Art Deco’s masterpiece is the stainless steel spire of this particular building being the world’s tallest building during its time, even taller than the Eiffel Tower! It is built up of fan shapes and has an extensive use of metalwork on the faà §ade. The car motifs dominate the building; the symbols of hubcaps, car fenders, gargoyles in the form of radiator caps and hood ornaments. At the top there is a brilliant crown honoring the business achievements of the great auto manufacturer. The Chrysler Building was dedicated to the principles and successes of American Business before the Great Depression. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT- Robie House, Chicago, Illinois, 1907-1909. Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by volumetric shapes. His architecture is â€Å"natural and organic†. He sought to develop an organic unity of planning, structure, materials, and site. Also he showed a lot of continuity in his patterns and designs. This structure (the Robie House) was known for its naturalism in the way it was adjusted to the site. The long, sweeping, ground-hugging lines, unconfined by abrupt wall limits, reach out toward and capture the expansiveness of the Midwest’s great flatlands. This building has no symmetry, and the entrance is almost concealed. For the plan of the Robie House, Wright filled it with intricately joined spaces (some large and open, others closed) grouped freely around a great central fireplace. He extends the roofs far beyond the walls for dramatic effect. This house has domestic significance showing unexpected light sources designed with enclosed patios, overhanging roofs, and strip windows. Also they show glimpses of the outdoor viewers as they move through the interior space. The construction of this house creates a sense of motion, inside and out. The flow of interior space is determined by the sharp angular placement of exterior walls. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT- Kaufmann House (Fallingwater), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939. This residence was nicknamed â€Å"Fallingwater† because of the image of the water that flows through the exterior of the house. Wright believed that the inhabitants of this Residence would become desensitized to the waterfall’s presence and power if they merely overlooked it, so he built it over the waterfall. He confines the building-to-site relationship in this architecture by incorporating the natural water around the building into the actual construction of it. This was designed as a weekend retreat at Bear Run near Pittsburgh. It is perched on a rocky hillside over a small waterfall; the building extends in all four directions. The full-length strip windows enliven the house’s shape, as well as the contrast in textures between concrete, painted metal, and natural stones in its walls. This site is an icon of modernist architectural design because of its unique approach to space design. It was made as a space designated to fit the patron’s life. Unfortunately, Fallingwater has been plagued in recent years with structural problems due to the unusual terraced design. The dynamic exchange of fluid between the interior of the house and the natural environment outside was a problem. Frank Lloyd Wright designed a series of terraces that extend on three levels from a central core structure, like self-supporting shelves. However, overtime the â€Å"shelves† became unstable. In the end, about $11.5 million was put into the restoration of Fallingwater and was completed in 2003. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (exterior view from the northwest), New York, 1943-1959 (photo 1962) In the age of modernism, architects became concerned with a formalism that stressed simplicity. Wright had already introduced curves and circles in his earlier plans, so the spiral (the circle brought into the 3 rd and 4th dimensions) was the next step. The thick walls and solid organic shape give the building a sense of turning in on itself. Inside the building, the shape of the shell expands toward the top, and a winding interior ramp spirals to connect the gallery bays, which are illuminated by a sky light strip embedded in the outer wall. The long interior viewing area opening onto a 90-ft. central well of space gives the impression of a sheltered environment, secure from the bustling city outside. LE CORBUSIER- Notre Dame du Haut, 1950-1955. Ronchamp, France. This is a fusion of architecture and sculpture. The building is illusive, giving the impression that it is huge from afar, when it actually only holds about 200 people. The stale, heavy walls and ambiguous illumination make the building reminiscent of a sacred cave or a medieval monastery. Like the medieval cathedrals, this structure was built and designed with an underlying system integrating mathematics. This structure is made from fabric formed by a steel frame and metal mesh. The entire interior is painted white except for the ceiling in a couple of private chapel niches which were left unpainted to darken and lighten with the time of day. Corbusier constructed the roof so that it appears to float freely by elevating the roof with near invisible blocks. The same illusion can be seen on the Indian structure Hagia Sophia with had the same effect achieved through the usage of windows. These two structures share many qualities and thus demonstrate the roots of inspiration. The overall design of the building came from shapes such as praying hands, the wings of a dove (which is the symbol for the Holy Spirit), and the prow of a ship (this is referring to the Latin word â€Å"nave† which means ship, referencing old basilicas). Through those images, Corbusier wanted all who viewed this structure to be in awe of the floating roof, see the religious shapes, and then have the urge to go forth and profess their faith in God. He hoped to develop a new interpretation of the sacred beliefs of his people and of the natural environments, bringing them closer together as a society. LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE and PHILIP JOHNSON- Segram Building, 1956-1958. Manhattan, New York. This is a rectilinear glass and bronze tower in Manhattan and was one of the first models for skyscrapers when the industrial revolution was taking place in the United States and large cites began to urbanize. Once finished, this building plan was common in all major cities, all around the world. Although many people vulgarized this design, it was easy to duplicate and so many companies used the same design for their own buildings. This building was designed thin purposely so that the first quarter of the space that the building was to occupy could be used as an open pedestrian plaza. This plaza has been famous for drawing people to the building for social interactions. The architects gave the illusion of the building rising out of the street on stilts; they even made the lobby completely out of glass giving it the illusion of being invisible and unsupported to further that effect. The recessed structuring of the building makes it seem to have glass skin being that everything is glass apart from the bronze that holds the windows in place. Together, the bronze and amber glass make the building appear more elegant, rich, and illuminated. The architects even went a step further and planned the interior and exterior lighting to achieve an intriguing and elegant look both day and night. RICHARD ROGERS and RENZO PIANO- Georges Pompidou National Center of Art and Culture (the â€Å"Beaubourg†), 1977. Paris, France. This structure marked the beginning of deconstructivist architecture, incorporating the characteristics of being unfinished and incomplete. The architects incorporated motifs from industrial building in their design for this structure, seen by the metallic, factory theme to the building. What is fascinating about this structure is that the anatomy of the entire structure was left visible with no exterior walls, very reminiscent of the Crystal Palace. What is even more intriguing is that the metabolism -pipes, ducts, tubes and corridors- is visible and color coded according to function (red=movement of people, green=water, blue= air conditioning, yellow=electricity). Common criticism of the structure is that it requires frequent maintenance to protect the exposed structure from the elements. While that is true, it doesn’t stop the many people who still go to enjoy the art that they building holds. Its many functions include art galleries, industrial design centers, a library, science/music center, conference rooms, research/archival facilities, movie theaters, rest areas and even a restaurant. The same type of activities and demonstrations that occurred outside of the great cathedrals can be seen outside of this building. Art lovers can be found performing day and night outside of the building along with the likes of salesmen and people who utilize the large number of tourists that visit to their advantage. It is all of these characteristics that further the building’s prominent reputation for culture and popular entertainment.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Analysis of mentoring, coaching and counselling

Analysis of mentoring, coaching and counselling This report has been compiled by. This report is intended for., and is written to show them the vast knowledge that we have received as a result of the mentorship program. It analyses the mentoring, coaching and counseling principles. Moreover it contains the mentoring program itself and reflections. The primary purpose of this report was to expand our knowledge base on the business by learning through primary research and self learning. B. METHODOLOGY In order to produce this report, sources of research were used. The primary sources consist of the mock interview and tape recordings while the secondary sources are referenced from the internet and major books. A diverse number of databases were also referred to for the research data required. Book references are listed in the bibliography. C. FINDINGS 1.1 Theory 1.1.1 Definition of the term mentor. The word mentor has many definitions around the world. However, the basic definition is that of a wise and trusted advisor. One who is willing to meet others and pass on information (Pegg, 1999). Thus mentoring can be considered as a process by which information is passed on to future mentees thus developing them into better people. Mentoring is an important aspect of modern culture and is practiced in many institutions and business organizations around the world. It is not only a tool by which to pass on knowledge to that person. Mentoring exists also to form a bond between the mentee and the mentor. Mentoring can be seen to have found its place in todays modern society. Companies have started designing and implementing their own mentorship programs to help facilitate their employees. Institutions have already put in place the mentorship programs to help groom the 1st year students and help them to properly adapt to new environments. In this light mentorship can be seen to be a form of leadership. The mentorship process is important to modern society as it helps young aspiring individuals to grow in the light of people who they look up to. By doing so it helps them to succeed in all their endeavors. 1.1.2 Definition of the term coach, Coaching is a process that enables learning and development to occur thus performance is seen to notably improve. Thus being a coach can be defined as one who primarily helps in the development of performance in a specific skill area. Often, people confuse the two terms, mentor and coach and it is usually seen that the two terms overlap. However coaches are seen to be more of strategists and planners who are essentially team builders. 1.1.3 Definition of the term counselor A counselor is one who is mature, respects other peoples opinions, is willing to listen rather than to talk and uses the insights he gets from the persons emotions and words to give advice. Thus a counselor differs from a mentor in that he/she is rational and more objective. Thus the relationship with whoever is being counseled tends to be more professional than personal. 1.1.4 The difference between mentoring, coaching and counseling Most people confuse the three terms and use them interchangeably. However, it can be clearly seen that the three carry different meanings. Coaching refers to the process that improves on performance by enabling learning and development to occur. Counseling as described above is whereby one is provided professional advice based on the counselors insights. These insights are based on the persons emotional state, words as well as appearance. Mentoring is the process of sharing insights, advice or informational that is useful to the mentee. Mentorship is a process in which the insights are drawn from real life experiences and not random facts. Thus mentorship is seen to be all inclusive. This means that it entails coaching and counseling as well. It includes because it helps the individuals performance in a particular area to improve. It also includes counseling as the individuals free to seek help and advice from the mentor whenever possible 1.2 Role of a mentor The role of a mentor is to enable the mentee to become a better individual in the professional domain as well as their own personal world. By doing, the mentor inadvertently improves himself in the same manner due to insight and personal contact with the mentee. Mentors have various duties. The primary aim of a mentor is to aid the mentee to reach a new level of personal and professional improvement thus the mentee is able to accomplish the tasks laid before him/her. The mentee also has the task of ensuring that the mentees progress is consistent. This is accomplished but the mentor providing additional skills and techniques to aid in ensuring the mentees continued progress. The techniques should be based on real-life encounters s these help the mentee make a solid connection with how his/her mentor used the techniques. Often the question is raised on the qualities that make a good mentor. This is normally raised by people all over the world who do not understand the principles of mentoring. Every individual is different by virtue of their personality. Thus the mentor and the mentee have to adapt to each others personalities in order to achieve proper results. Even though each mentor has different personalities, some notable aspects differentiate between a good mentor and a poor mentor. A good mentor should be capable and well experienced to aid the mentee in any sort of situation. The mentors should be able to encourage the mentees by constantly challenging them. The challenges should not discourage the mentees. Mentors must have a certain level of credibility both personally and professionally. Mentors should be able to encourage their mentees thereby enabling them to express their ideas more confidently. Also the mentor should learn to be versatile especially when engaging and challenging the men tees. 1.3 Role of a mentee A mentees main aim is to expand his knowledge and learn new skills. This is facilitated by the mentorship program whereby the mentee has the opportunity to get advice from someone who has much more experience is an invaluable opportunity. A mentee will find that mentors tend to make things much clearer than they were before. Due to the mentor-mentee relationship, the mentee is able to feel more secure as he knows the mentors is there to genuinely offer him help and is primarily there to help the mentee learn from his mistakes. Thus it can be said that this is grooming of the mentee in order to help him achieve specific goals or tasks. Thus it can be clearly seen that the mentee is learning new skills and gaining experience from the mentor. In general the mentee role is crucial as the mentor himself is able to learn more about his own mistakes from the mentee. Thus, it seems the mentor-mentee relationship is of a symbiotic nature in which each benefit the other. 1.4 Relationship between the Mentor and the Mentee. As mentioned above, the mentor-mentee relationship is a symbiotic relationship which benefits both of the people involved. Thus it is crucial for this relationship to be one where honesty and communication are freely exchanged between those involved. The mentor-mentee relationship is one based on trust and it is crucial that this trust is not compromised in any way by either of the parties. Breaking of this trust could result in the breakdown of the mentorship program and essentially the whole process could be discarded. To ensure this trust is not broken, it is essential that what is discussed between the mentor and the mentees stays purely between those involved in the discussion. Both the mentors and the mentees have to abide by this rule if the mentorship program is to succeed. Communication is also an essential part of the relationship between the mentor and the mentee. Communication aids in the mentee being able to seek advice whenever he requires it from the mentor. It facilitates smooth passage of information and enables the mentor to be able to communicate freely to his/her mentees. The crucial role of communication in the mentorship program cannot be overemphasized. It is vital that communication be highly regarded as it ids through this that the mentor is able to spot weaknesses and guide the mentee to improving on the weaknesses. This way the mentee is able to acknowledge the mentors role and accepts his advice. Thus without proper communication, the mentorship program will be for naught and the mentor will have failed at his task. In some cases there is mutual fallout between the two parties. In most cases, it is due to the lack of communication between the two parties. However, in some unrelated cases, it is noted that the mentorship process was difficult. Sometimes this is attributed to sexism and racism when it comes to the selection of the mentees. In other cases, it is attributed to the fact that the selected mentees are unwilling to learn anything from their mentor. This may be because the mentees do no respect the mentor or his employment position. All in all, the relationship between the mentor and the mentee plays a crucial role in the mentorship process it is essential that trust be maintained throughout the process as well as communication. Honesty as well must be upheld. Moreover, the mentees must be willing to form relationships with the mentors for the process to be successful. 2.0 Mentoring Process 2.1 Pitch Before I went before the students to present my pitch, I was very nervous as this was my first pitch. My content emphasized the strong role mentorship had in my life and the unbreakable bond that I had developed with my mentor. Though my voice was shaky and a bit weak, I felt proud because I had attracted three mentees. Reflecting back, the pitch was a good experience as it pointed out my weaknesses thus helped me grow just a bit more. 2.2 Meetings 2.2.1 Progress The first meeting was an informal face to face meeting so that we could properly get acquainted with each other. At this juncture, I should mention that the mentees were Niklas Kainrad, Alexander Kern and Yashar Berry. We mainly discussed about our pasts, our current selves, our future and what we aimed to achieve. Furthermore, we discussed the project, made detailed notes on what we aimed to achieved, proposed and clarified the time frame for which we were supposed to accomplish the set objectives and also set the times for regularly scheduled meetings. During the meetings, I tried to play the role of a mentor by striving to listen rather than to talk. However the first two meetings I noted that I played the role of a coach more than a mentor. I constantly interrupted asking questions rather than listening. As the meetings passed, I noted that I settled more in to the role of a being a mentor. It was really exciting because as the days passed, the more involved we became with further improving ourselves as individuals. We had the strong desire to grow into better people. The mentees were more involved when asked to reflect on their past and who they dream to be. 2.2.2 Mentees Development a) Niklas Kainrad During the first meting Niklas seemed mild-mannered, mature and confident in himself. When asked to think back on past experiences and say a personally affecting experience, he properly communicated his thoughts and his feelings. This was clearly seen as it affected his other mentees. However, it was noted throughout the meetings that though he was a cooperative team player, he could not be called upon to make critical decisions that the team required. Moreover, he was over-optimistic in some situations and at other times, he seemed preoccupied by his own thoughts especially during discussions. Thus throughout the meetings we aimed at improving his strengths while limiting his weaknesses. Throughout the mentorship, I called upon Niklas to share his opinion especially when he seemed to be wandering off. This proved to be very effective as with time Niklas became less aware of what was keeping him pre-occupied and more involved in the class discussions. Thus Niklas who previously was unable to focus on discussions was now major participator and contributor to them. Based on Niklas self perception details in the counseling report (appendix), t was concluded that due to his high maturity, Niklas was able to convince others to follow him. He was inspiring especially with his unique innovative ability. His cooperation skills likened him to working with colleagues who are genuinely interested in his ideas and opinions and with whom he can communicate effectively. Due to his observable discipline, strategic weighing of decisions and making judgments, it was further concluded that his management style would be more of cooperating with his colleagues in finding the way forward or mapping the way himself. As for his weaknesses, it was noted that though he paid little attention to all the specific details in the operations, this could easily be resolved by him working in harmony with someone who does. Thus his performance is likely to greatly improve. Thus during the mentorship meetings, we worked on the above noted strengths so as to grow Niklas. b) Alexander Kern. During the face to face interview with Alexander, he was sent to take great acre especially when answering questions. He seemed to be mentally weighing the quality of his answer against the questions asked. When asked what he thought of the other mentees opinions of certain issues, he carefully drew upon what the others had said and gave his opinions on the same. His slow but yet very effective method of thinking made him out to be a decisive decision maker. The leadership qualities that he displayed during the meetings showed that he was a strategist taking into account all the details in a particular session. Often during the meetings it was seen that most of the other mentees consulted with Alexander before a decision was made. Thus throughout the meeting one strength that defined him was that he was reliable especially when called upon to quantify decisions. Alexander throughout the duration of the meetings was noted to a key player especially when it came to making critical decisions. His major attribute that was clearly visible was the fact that he was a strategic leader. However, he was not without weaknesses. His leadership qualities made him unsuitable for low key situations. Thus during the meetings he learnt how to keep a low profile when situations call for such action. This helped him to adapt to supportive and subordinate roles when necessary. c) Yashar Berry Yashar Berry struck me with her vocal confidence especially when evaluating her strengths and weaknesses. She did not seem ashamed of her weaknesses but rather showed the strong desire to learn ho to improve on them. Over the past few weeks as we got to know more about each other, she showed real ingenuity when called upon to undertake certain tasks. Though this ingenuity earned her admiration from her other mentees, it was slow in showing. This somewhat affected her confidence in engaging in such crucial tasks. However, as time passed, her confidence in herself and her ingenuity grew. She was generally a great contributor especially when during group discussions. Her attitude to tasks had a preference for that tasks that required innovativeness. Thus she was seen as someone who would be more suited to working in mentally challenging situations. This though largely attributed to her innovativeness was also due her above average qualities in self organization and control. 2.2.3 Methods of improvement On the onset of the process, it was rather difficult to improve on the three different people as each their own individual weaknesses. However after thorough analysis, it became clear that Alexanders weaknesses turned out to be Niklas strengths. Thus the two worked together during the meetings, often correcting each other and pointing out their weaknesses. This turned out to be a very effective method of improving themselves. Yashar Berry had limited weaknesses and these were resolved through group interventions during the meetings. The teamwork tasks greatly improved the individuals capability to work in a team. The meetings were not held on a daily basis. Therefore, as a method for improvement the mentees were required to spend the non-meeting days reflecting personally on themselves and their weaknesses. Particularly, we agreed that the reflection sessions focus would be on how to improve on the weakness that each individual had. The conclusions of the personal reflections were then presented to the group during the meeting sessions. We also developed various strategies that were aimed to bolster their performance during the interviews. Thus through constant analysis and motivation the three were able to help each other grow. 2.3 Evaluation and conclusion Reflecting back on the whole process and its effect on the mentees, it can be concluded that the overall impact it had on them ws massive. All three mentees showed more determination to better themselves both professionally and personally. The serious attitude exhibited by all of the showed the real determination to succeed. They took into account all the mentorship knowledge that they had learned during the duration of the mentorship program and were keen to utilize it in the proper manner. On A more personal case, I, as the mentor, have gained valuable knowledge in identifying the personality characteristics of the different individuals. I have also learnt how to approach these case characteristics each in its own manner and properly help the individual to grow. Therefore, I have gained insight into the proper strategies to be used when evaluating the individual and helping him improve himself. 2.4 Comparison and mock interview. In the next session, the performance of mentees shall be evaluated based on how well they performed in the mock and real interviews. The real interview is thus the true evaluator of the total effectiveness of the process. 2.4.1 Evaluation of Niklas Niklas was very striking in terms of dressing during both of the interviews. His vocal strength was strong and depicted open body language. His answers to the questions that were asked proved satisfying. He showed real confidence in his answers and spoke confidently throughout the interview. However, not both interviews were conducted without mistakes. When faced with questions asking him to explain how he would undertake a particular task, it was noted that he continuously ignored the minor crucial details. His arguments to the questions though satisfying were not without flaws. He generally answered the questions but there was hesitation on his part to divulge greater details especially when he was asked to clarify on given points. He showed great improvement during the real interview. It was clear that he had worked on his mistakes and improved on the weaknesses. His answers were now clearer and he did not hesitate to divulge information when asked to clarify on unclear points. 2.4.2 Evaluation of Alexander Kern Alexanders mock interview showed that he had taken what he had learnt during the mentorship program and properly implemented it to improving his behavior. In terms of his oral language he was able to present strong answers in a very convincing manner. His answers still showed that he had taken great care on consideration of the question. Though the speed of his answers was still very slow, it was clear that he had improved greatly since entering the mentorship program. His calm disposition when faced with many questions displayed his oozing confidence when placed on the spot. During the real interview, it was noted that Alexander had noted his mistakes made during the mock interview and made an effort to correct them. The rate of delivery of his answers was speedy and they still contained as much depth as the mock interview answers. Moreover, it was impressive that he showed he could answer even the most unexpected of questions. 2.4.2 Evaluation of Yashar Berry. Yashar Berry was very impressive at both the interviews. Her limited flaws that she had displayed early were now completely erased. Her smooth manner of talking, the ease with which she answered questions and the ingenuity that she displayed all showed that she had garnered a lot of experience from the mentorship program. 2.5 Summary. As a summary of the real interview, which is the final evaluation of the mentors mentoring skills, it was clear that the mentees had listened carefully to the mentors, taken their advice and implemented it properly. They remembered the basic rules which they displayed in the interview. On terms of performance, it was rather clear that Yashar performed more professionally than the other two. It was thus clear that Yashar had carefully listened to what the mentors had commented on and worked on it thereby improving herself professionally. In the case of Alexander, it was clear that with a little pressure he could be pushed to succeed. He showed his decision-making prowess when called upon. Niklas also exhibited marked improvement especially in his concentration. He paid little attention to his own personal interests and concentrated completely on the interview. 2.6 Reflection on my own personal performance After analyzing the performance of my three mentees, I reflected on my own personal performance and progression. I identified three major things that I would have to change given the opportunity to take part in the mentorship experience again. First, I will have to be more observant of how my mentees present themselves. Niklas was unable to give decisive answers during the mock interview. I, as the mentor, should have noted this and worked on it with him. Secondly, though the mentees showed marked improvement, some still exhibited difficulties when answering the questions. Given the opportunity to take part in the mentorship program once more, I will undertake to simulate real life situations with my mentees so as to avoid this. 2.7 Conclusion. The mentorship program was not only a wonderful experience for the mentees. it proved to be a worthwhile experience for me too. Through sharing and working together to eliminate each others weaknesses, it was shown that the mentees showed marked improvement especially in how they present themselves professionally. Helping others find their own weaknesses as well as my own turned out to be an invaluable experience for me. It also showed that people can truly aim higher if they have a common goal and a person who is willing to mentor them and assist them into achieving that goal. 2.8 Recommendations. The mentorship program in the EBS is truly an invaluable source of knowledge. One gets to learn more about him/her, the opportunity to identify their weakness and to work on improving them. The pitching of the program is also very essential as it gives the mentees a positive feel about the program. With all the above said, I would thus like to recommend that the mentorship program be carried over into the other years. This would enable mentors to keep in touch with their mentees thus the bonds are not broken after the mentorship program is finished.