Discussion Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 15

Discussion Questions - Assignment Example I am morally obliged to tell my friend about positive or negative perceptions about him. However, telling a friend about public perception about him is dependent on several issues. The closeness of the opinion makers to him, the magnitude of the perception, and the positivity or negativity of the perceptions will be the main factors under considerations. I would tell a friend if the perception about him is positive or is not so damaging if it is negative. People lose personal confidence if their ego is hurt by enlightenment about other perceptions about him. The most appropriate way to tell a friend is through reasoning similar situations with him to understand his reaction if it as his case. By doing this, I would understand the possible way to explain the perception about him without him developing negative emotions or perceptions about the people. This is because he or she would be prepared to deal with such an

Crisis Within an Organization Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Crisis Within an Organization - Research Paper Example The facts of the crisis shall first be set forth and laid out, including the facts which gave rise to the crisis and the facts relating to individuals in the organization and their response to the crisis. It shall discuss the extent to which the organization had a code of conduct or set of principles, statement of values, or policies in place in order to respond to the crisis. Finally, this paper shall assess whether the individual decision-makers within the organization acted in a morally responsible manner. In 2000, Toyota launched its ‘Construction of Cost Competitiveness for the 21st Century’ program which was meant to cut the costs of 180 key car parts by 30 percent, with the aim of saving about $10 billion by the year 2005 (Kim & Bailey â€Å"Article†). In February of 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated a review of complaints on electronic throttle control malfunction on the Lexus ES300; the investigation was resolved without a finding of defect in the vehicle (Kim & Bailey â€Å"Article†). At about the same time, Private Insurer State Farm informed the NHTSA of some incidents on unintended acceleration in 2002 and 2003 Lexus ES300 and the Toyota Camrys (Kim & Bailey â€Å"Article†). By the end of the year, similar complaints added up to 20% of all unintended acceleration incidents in 2004. Another investigation by the NHTSA was conducted on August 2005 on the 2002-2005 models of the Camry, Solara, and Lexus E S300; and still no defect findings were found by the NHTSA (Kim & Bailey, â€Å"Article†). When global recalls on Toyota cars increased in 2006, Toyota head Katsuaki Watanabe issued an apology, citing quality glitches on some of its cars. Consequently, Toyota models were delayed for about a year (Kim & Bailey, â€Å"Article†). In March of 2007, another investigation by the NHTSA was initiated, this time on pedal entrapment concerns on the

Wal Mart s Competitive Advantage Essay Example for Free

Wal Mart s Competitive Advantage Essay Wal-Mart, likely the nation’s most popular discounter, entered the market at the right time, when the barriers to entry were low. Benefiting from first mover advantage, Wal-Mart moved into markets that were not already served by competitors and was able to set higher prices in these areas (6). Conversely, to compensate for low margins in areas heavily congested with competition, it cut costs (1). With an aim to offer low prices, the Company soon learned that it needed to trim its expenses and establish itself as a lean organization, eventually leading to profitability and strong competitive advantage. Refer to Exhibit 1 for Wal-Mart’s successful performance, compared to the rest of the industry, as well as the sections below for an explanation by expense item. Cost of Goods Sold Inventory logistics were positive. Turnover exceeded 4.5 in the mid-1980s, well above that of competitors and trucks were 60% full on backhauls (4). In addition, getting in the forefront of technology allowed for lower overhead costs. The use of UPC scanning increased: from 25 stores in 1983 to 91 stores in 1984 and 235 stores in 1985 (5). Even though the Company catered to a vast market, offering 36 merchandise departments across 70,000 SKUs, it was able to remain highly organized with a computerized system to track inventory, which set itself apart from its peers, as well as a central computer at headquarters, which was updated on a weekly basis (5), the accuracy of which led to efficiencies. The Company shopped around with its vendors, using around 3,000 of them, taking â€Å"no more than a fifth of its volume from any one vendor† (3). In 1984, the cost of inbound logistics was 50% that of the industry at 2.8% of sales (4). Still, Wal-Mart’s cost of goods sold was almost 2% higher than the industry average of 71.9%. Given the lack of distributors who would be able to offer competitive pricing, Wal-Mart built its own warehouse in 1970. By the mid-1980s, Wal-Mart’s five distribution centers served the rapidly expanding number of stores – over 850 stores, meanwhile racking on steep upfront expenditures. Operating Expenses Payroll Expense The Company was able to minimize employee costs by paying low wages (7), meanwhile keeping employees happy, in hopes of avoiding turnover costs. In 1984, Wal-Mart’s salary expense was approximately 1% lower than that of the industry. Unlike its competitors, the Company’s 12 regional VPs all lived in surrounding areas, enabling intimate visibility over a relatively smaller geographic network, which ultimately saved the Company about 2% of sales by not having to set up regional offices. However, contrary to intuition, this decrease in expenses did not adversely impact anyone at the Company. Instead, the offsetting increase in costs resulted in a company-wide benefit as Wal-Mart offered profit sharing, employee stock purchase plans, bonuses, and rewards for low shrinkage. With its â€Å"people-focused† initiatives, Wal-Mart was able to use intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to show employees how much they were appreciated. There was a huge emphasis on communication as management strived to be as transparent as possible with lower level staff. For example, executives came into the office for meetings on Saturdays, then disseminated the latest updates downward, starting with the regional managers, district managers, store managers, and so forth. With its personable CEO, who â€Å"kept a pledge to put on a grass skirt and dance hula on Wall Street to celebrate the achievement,† Wal-Mart was able to distinguish itself and was named one of the 100 best companies to work for in the United States (7-8). Advertising Expense Refer to Exhibit 1 for a high level summary, as well as Exhibit 2 for a more detailed breakdown, of the Company’s advertising expense compared to the higher industry average. Marketers placed a heavy emphasis on low prices with tag lines such as â€Å"we sell for less† (5) or â€Å"everyday low prices† (6). As expected, the cost of advertising was directly correlated with the launch of new stores (6), as well as the location of those stores (i.e. cosmopolitan areas would be more costly): after entering a new area and establishing itself, Wal-Mart would then scale back advertising in that area. Branded merchandise, which made up the bulk of the inventory, was mostly nationally advertised (5), thus quickly building brand awareness among consumers. Rental Expense Rental expense at Wal-Mart was 0.3% lower than that of the industry. A large part of this was attributable to the fact that Wal-Mart did not permanently lock itself down to a certain location; of the 859 stores in the mid-1980s, 812 were leased. With the flexibility to move during flourishing times, the size of an average Wal-Mart store went from 42,000 square feet in 1975 to 57,000+ square feet in 1985 (3). In addition, the Company made a smart decision to stay out of locations that could not be expanded, again showing the Company’s long-term, instead of short-term, mindset. Counter-Intuitive Comparisons After further analysis of Wal-Mart’s costs in 1984, we encountered findings in the data that was counter-intuitive to the costs that we would expect to see from the most successful discount retailer of its time. Naturally, the area in which we would expect Wal-Mart to exhibit higher than average cost savings compared to the industry average would be in Cost of Goods Sold. However in 1984, Wal-Mart’s COGS at 73.8% was almost 2% higher than the industry average. As mentioned above, Wal-Mart’s system contained over 70,000 SKUs, a number larger than most other discount retailers which would lead one to believe that a high volume discounter like Wal-Mart would achieve economies of scale to produce a COGS lower than the industry average. Next, due to Wal-Mart’s efficient distribution network, inventory did not back up in storage as quickly as other retailers. Wal-Mart boasted inventory turn 4.5 times in the mid-1980s, which was higher than the industry average. With reduced inventory levels due to the speed at which Wal-Mart was selling its inventory, this would lead one to believe that there would be a smaller amount of ending inventory to subtract from beginning and purchased inventory. Expansion â€Å"Being the first warehouse club to solicit and introduce the concept in a market can be a major competitive advantage† (9). As a result of the distinctive features mentioned above, Wal-Mart was able to set itself apart from its peers and rise to the top of the industry. In 1984, it started to diversify by starting three new ventures, the most notable of which was  Sam’s, a warehouse club. The Company expanded from three stores in 1983 to 11 stores in 1984 and 23 stores in 1985. It took what it learned from the Wal-Mart venture and applied it to Sam’s accordingly. Conclusion Over the years, Wal-Mart’s success grew and it distinguished itself from its competitors, thus enabling the Company to expand its operations and diversify into the warehouse club market with the now-renown Sam’s Club. David Glass (later Wal-Mart’s president and chief operating officer) summarized the Company’s history best when he said: â€Å" ‘We are always pushing from the inside out. We never jump and then backfill.’ † (3) Instead of becoming greedy and aggressively dominating the market, the Company did so steadily over time; by not taking on more than it could handle, the Company was able to strategically position itself. In the years to follow, Wal-Mart’s market value was twice that of its competitor, K mart, even though it was a third as large.

Successful management and team development

Successful management and team development Due to the nature of this essay it will be discussion and analyses of the following; firstly successful management process on the field work. Secondly, Team make up and team development. Thirdly, leadership effectiveness in field work and what influences making them taking responsibility. The discussion will be attached with examples of ‘2009 Outreach trip. For any successful organization need a successful management. Management is a difficult term to define. The simplest definition of management is the use of people and other resources to achieve the objectives (Boone Kurtz 4:1992). An effective teams and individuals depends on varies factors. The most important factor is the management process (Chambers, Johnston Slack 1:2010). Management process contains four functions: planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Boone Kurtz 4:1992). There are two important factors lead an organization that work in field (such a disaster organization) to success: team work, and the right management process. Strategy in management is sets the objectives and goals for the organization into a framework of time to allow people know what must be achieved, when and by whom (QuickMBA 2007). Strategic analysis process is looking on the organization externally and reflect back internally to identify weaknesses, strengths and culture to enable a strategic direction to be chosen. After identifying yourself then you can choose the organization structure and use short term tactics to achieve your goals. (QuickMBA 2007). In the field trip our main strategy is to absorb the maximum of information and experience from the exercises. We used different tactics which are get full participation in exercises and take different roles and responsibilities in each exercise. Team make up and team development is important be understood between the individuals. There are many definitions define what is team, Katzenbach and Smith (1993) stated that â€Å" A team is a small number of people with complementary skill who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable† (Sheard Kakabadse 2004:13). As in the field trip my team doesnt exceed twenty people and we all complementary skills with common goal to achieve it in exercises. Team make up is together individuals with different abilities and skills to make up a perfect group/team for achieving the objectives (Hayes 1997:45). A team should be defined in terms of purpose, power, place, people and plane (5 ps). If one of the â€Å"Ps† fail the team may be slightly more than a group of individuals whose work is related but not coordinated in any efficient manner (Holpp 4:1999). Individuals in the team pass through different stag es of development. Tuckmans model of team development (1965), his four stages model; forming, storming, norming, and performing. In (1977) the model reviewed by Tuckman and Jensen and the added the fifth stage ‘adjourning (Rickards Moger 2000:276). Referring to the Outreach trip experience that this year development stages happened quicker, and individuals settle with the team members quicker, this because the team already passed through the stages last year and every individual understand his/her role and abilities in respect of others. Furthermore, Belbin showed that successful of teams consisted mixture of different individuals. He argued that successful teams would always need involve people with different roles (Hayes 1997:47-48). See appendix 1 for Belbin team role. Different roles in the team may be crucial to the overall success. In Outreach we tried to make the team balanced in the context of person personality which every team have a range of doing/acting, thinking/problem-solving and people/feeling so the team balance up. The roles identified in one of our lectures which everyone has identified his/her role and some people have multiple roles. Moving forward, any team need a leader to guide them to the right track. Leader responsibility is to protect productivity, minimize risk and motivate the team members so they perform and realize the teams objective, furthermore, leader coordinate team effort and set direction, goals, targets and purpose for the team (Foster Wellingtom 2009:27). Claire Rubin stated the importance of leadership in emergency management. She reveals that there are several characteristics associated with good leaders in emergency management. She discussed the quicker you able to put resources to work and let people know what their task are the more effective recovery operation will be (David 2007:437). However, most of the times in disaster situation the leader need to think regather all the information so to make the right decision, the first few mints are valuable for reviewing and thinking on the situation rather than rushing to the incident knowing nothing what to do that may cause significant mistak es. Communication is a very important aspect between the leader and the team. Lumsden Wiethoff (2010) defined leadership as verbal and nonverbal communication that assist a teams transactional and task processes in achieving individuals and teams needs and goals (p.28). Mainly there are three leadership styles; authoritarian, laissez-faire leadership and democratic leadership. Each style determine to the leader and the participation level between the leader and the team. The diagram below explain the participation level in each leadership style. Leadership takes place on three levels: teams, operational and strategic. The essential kind of leadership refers to ‘Adair three circles; task, team and individual. The leader must be in awareness, understanding the three circle model (Adair 2007:65). The focus may be more in one aspect, for example, in exercises the individual learning and team development is more crucial then the task, but in a real situation as an earthquake then the task be more important than individual learning or team development. Reflecting back in the field trip individual learning and team development was more important than the task. The diagram below show the difference of exercises and earthquake. However, there are five key functions of leadership linked with Adair model which are; define objectives, plan organize, inform confirm, Support monitor and evaluate. Within this communication is crucial a factor (LMC 2008) Communication is crucial factor of team success. A successful information sharing make the objective clear and each individual in the team will have a clear view of role. Hayes said â€Å"effective communication between members does more than simply remove status barriers it lead to the team success† (41). McGregor stated that an effective group/team include; participation, leadership, trust, communication, respect, commitment to common aim, team spirit and congenial atmosphere (Heller 2006). Reflecting back to the outreach trip the team was in full participation, leadership role was understood and took effectively, there was respect between members of the team, for example when someone talk everyone listen, the communication between the team was good made the aims and objectives clear to everyone, the motivational spirit was attend in which every member want to finish the task even if we have been stopped by the supervisor. Any operation must come to a decision on the balance between using specialist, dividing the total task down into smaller parts, each which is accomplished by team or single person (Chambers, Johnston Slack 242:2010). For example in the Outreach earth quake exercise the task accomplished by dividing into teams (like the logistic team, map reading team and search and rescue team) this made the task carry out easier. The division of teams made by individual preference and knowledge, for example the map reading team include members who are most familiar with maps and maps reading. Decision-making beside to leadership and communication is one of the most import aspects of a successful manager. Decision making is a key element to reaching goals and objectives. It is about the why, who, when, where of a course of action and how to overcome difficulties and solve problems. It is important to have contingency plans to backup and avoid failure (Adair 2008:48). The effective decision has six elements: Defining the objective, gathering sufficient information, identifying the feasible options, evaluation, making the decision and testing and implementing (Adair 2008:49). Shared leadership is important in teams field work, which every individual responsibility for practicing shared leadership has increased in importance as teams assume more and more management and decision making roles (Lumsden Wiethoff 2010:35). In outreach in some parts of the exercise the leader need help so Conclusion: I have refered to the importance on the communication in any point of work. Communication in disaster management is one of the key success which the statistics says that about 90% of the disaster failures caused by lack of communication. Communication is the link between teams, individuals, leaders etc. Individuals cannot be perfect but group of people can be perfect. http://changingminds.org/explanations/preferences/belbin.htm Reference: Boone, L.E. Kurtz, D.L. (1992) Management. New York ; London :McGraw-Hill Chambers, R., Johnston, S. Slack, N. (2010) Operation Management Edinburgh Gate: Harlow Holpp, L. (1999). Managing Teams. London :McGraw-Hill. Rickards, T. Moger, S. (2000) British Journal of Management. Creative Leadership Processes in Project Team Development: An Alternative to Tuckmans Stage Model. Vol.11, 273-283 Sheard Kakabadse (2004) A process perspective on leadership and team development. Journal of Management Development. Vol.23 pp.7-106 Foster, N. Wellingtom, P. (2009) Effective Team Leadership. Stevenage :Institution of Engineering and Technology David, A. (2007) Disaster Response and Recovery :strategies and tactics for resilience. Hoboken, NJ. :Wiley Lumsden, G. Wiethoff, C. (2010) Communicating in groups and teams :sharing leadership. Boston, Mass. :Wadsworth Cengage Learning Adair, J ed Thomas,N. (2008) The of Best John Adair on Leadership and Management. London:Thorogood Adair, J. (2007) Develop your Leadership Skills. London ; Philadelphia Hayes, N. (1997) Successful Team Management. London :International Thomson Business Press http://changingminds.org/explanations/preferences/belbin.htm QuickMBA (2007). Strategic Management. [online] available from [25th January 2010] LMC (2008). Adairs model of Leadership Functions. [online] available from [29th January 2010] Heller (2006). Team Management: True leadership and teamwork. [online] available from [2nd February 2010]

Revolution Girl Style: Fifty Years of Women in Rock and Roll Essay

Revolution Girl Style: Fifty Years of Women in Rock and Roll Rock and roll was born of a black man's soul and a white man's...well, his whiteness; his wallet and radio station. Rock is the white man's version of black man's music; it's full of rebellion and rawness and soul, a style of music that captured America's youth and the fire and brimstone of the clergy's private hell. Elvis heard Big Mama Thornton's throaty and soulful "Hound Dog" and the rest is history; unquestionable talent aside, it was his white skin that allowed certain DJs to play him on the radio in the midst of the rigid segregation of the nineteen-fifties. Ever since then, rock has constantly walked the line between trendsetters and trendfollowers; those who innovate and those who capitalize. It is, perhaps, a natural occurance when you combine rebellion with big business. An innovative band or artist does something raw and passionate; other artists or labels take it and water it down just enough to make it marketable. As such, rock also has to keep reinventing itself, for t oday's innovation will quickly become tomorrow's tripe. The rawness of rock either frightens people or attracts them; its ability to shock and offend is legendary and vital to the survival of the genre. "Rock has always professed (although many times hypothetically) to ally itself with rebellion and to the dismantling of the status quo." (Juno 4) In the 1960s, racial tensions far surpassed gender ones; the Supremes encountered far more prejudice because of their black skins than Janis Joplin did because of her gender. But in the late sixties and early seventies, the faultlines that held together America's illusions of bliss fractured, and out of the cracks came people fighting for sel... ... Juno Books, 1996. Laven, Anna. Telephone interview. 11 April 2004. McDonnell, Evelyn and Ann Powers, ed. rock she wrote: women write about rock, pop, and rap. New York: Copper Square Press, 1995. Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. New York: Touchstone Books, 1999. O ¹Dair, Barbara, ed. Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. New York: Random House, 1997. O ¹Hara, Craig. The Philosophy of Punk. San Francisco: AK Press, 1999. Sinker, Dan. Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews. New York: Adeline Press, 2003. Sinker, Dan.  ³Venus. ² Punk Planet July-Aug 2002: 64-67. Swirling, Ross. Telephone interview. 11 April 2004. Turner, Chà ©rie. Everything You Need to Know about the Riot Grrrl Movement: The Feminism of a New Generation. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2001.

Babbage Charles :: Essays Papers

Babbage Charles Charles Babbage was born at Walworth, Surrey England in December 26,1791. He achieved many great feats and belonged to many very distinguished groups before he died in October 18, 1871. Many people consider him to be the grandfather of computer science due to his great works with his Difference Engine (1821), which printed tables of polynomials, and his Analytical Engine (1856), which was intended as a general symbol manipulator. Babbage grew up with a fascination with the way mechanical objects worked and was an excellent mathematician. This was discovered at an early age when he employed a tutor only to find out he knew more about math than the tutor did. He was home schooled for most of his early education mainly on account of his invalid health. Babbage eventually enrolled in Cambridge University in 1810, an institution where he would later hold the position of Lucasian chair of mathematics from 1828 to 1839. He was involved in many different fields of science. He was the first person to be presented the Gold Medal award given by the Astronomical Society, and a key figure in the founding of the Astronomical Society in 1820, the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831, and the Statistical Society of London in 1834. He authored the very influential book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, as well as a series of papers on varied topics such as optics and cryptology. Charles Babbage had a fascination with numbers and statistics. He was obsessed with quantifying everything observable in nature. Babbage delighted in the thought of having a daily account of food consumed by zoo animals, or the "proportion of sexes amongst our poultry". He proposed tables to calculate the amount of wood (elm or oak) a man would saw in 10 hours, or how much an ox or camel could plow or mow in a day. In Mechanics Magazine in 1857 Babbage published a "Table of the Relative Frequency of the Causes of Breaking of Plate Glass Windows" detailing 464 breakages, of which "drunken men, women, or boys" were responsible for 14. Babbage thought the table would be "of value in many respects", and might "induce others to furnish more extensive collections of similar and related facts". In Babbage’s early years he was a popular and well-liked socialite. In fact, he was known for extravagant dinner parties where many famous and prominent people would be in attendance.

Child Development Article Reaction Paper Essay

The article How Your Child Learns by Jeannie Ralston, in Parenting magazine’s September 2006 issue, addresses the different learning and motivation styles of children. According to Jeannie Ralston, there are three learning styles: by listening, looking, or doing. Most children will either rely heavily on one of the learning modes, or use a combination of the three. Children that learn by listening typically are not motivated by pictures, but by sounds and songs. Listening children learn through conversation and jingles. Auditory learners need quiet for concentrated tasks and do well when asked to repeat back ideas to reinforce what has been learned. Visual learners often are described as having photographic memories. Children that learn visually learn well from pictures, videos, maps, models, and charts. Visually oriented children often are so captured by pictures on a page; they have problems concentrating on any one thing. Kinesthetic or doing children learn by using their bodies. This can mean a child needs to move around while thinking or use his fingertips to absorb meaning. Kinesthetic children tend to not be able to sit still for long periods and prefer to act out stories rather than hear or see them on a page. Active learners are easy to spot because they always want to be shown how to do things. Jeannie Ralston posits that there are also three styles that motivate kids to learn: the desire to please you; perfectionism; and competitiveness. Earning praise is the strongest motivator for children with a desire to please their caregivers. The key is to teach the child that pleasing himself is just as important. Some children have a driven desire to master everything and be perfect. These children need to be taught that mistakes are inevitable and that productivity need not suffer in light of mistakes. Competitive children are driven by the ‘I’ll show you’ streak. These children need to be taught that there are different ways of learning and not everyone will do things the same way. Both learning and motivational styles need to be combined for an effective early childhood learning experience. Combining motivational and learning styles of children allows parents to effectively support their children. I agree with the basic premise of Jeannie Ralston’s article and feel that most parents do not spend enough time or have the knowledge to figure how children learn and are motivated. Within one family, several children can have completely different learning styles. Children and parents alike are frustrated when presented with the wrong method of learning or motivation. I posit that all children have a combination of the three learning styles, maybe favoring one over the others. In order for a life long passion for learning to be cultivated in a small child, the child needs to be continually positively motivated. Knowing a child’s learning style will allow the parent to formulate learning opportunities that will continually excite the child. If the wrong learning style is presented to the child, the child will quickly loose interest and seek motivation else where outside of the learning arena. With all the current early childhood development research, parents need to understand that learning starts at much younger ages than five when a child starts school. Parents need an awareness of learning styles so that early childhood learning can be maximized. Parents also need to consider that each child will differ and what works for one child, may not work for the next. Parents also need to have flexibility and insight into their children to know when something is not working for the child. Knowing motivational styles will allow parents to ease difficult situations into win-win situations for both the parent and child. In all, Jeannie Ralston gives a good over view of learning and motivational styles. Understanding how one’s child learns and what motivates them will make parenting and learning an enjoyable and bonding experience. Capitalizing on this research is essential for a life time of learning and bringing out the best in one’s child.