Research Agenda in Cloud Computing Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Agenda in Cloud Computing - Research Proposal Example This study will require a survey of the available information or literature by the use of a methodical and principled approach; all the major databases of research for computer science will be searched, and these include the ACM Digital Library, the Google Scholar, the IEEE Xplore, the ScienceDirect together with the SpringerLink, for the key words such as cloud computing, Service Infrastructure, elastic computing, Service Software, utility computing, Service Platforms, the IaaS, Service Everything, the XaaS as well as the PaaS. Nevertheless, the range of information of data for this search will be limited from the year 2009 to the month of April 2013. This range of date is picked because the research is initiated in the month of April 2013. In addition, it is the best range because it is fairly long after the launching of all public clouds in the year 2005, thus there is adequate or sufficient data required for the survey to be accurate.For instance, the EC2 was first launched by Am azon in the month of August 2006, while the App Engine was launched by Google in April 2008. The term cloud computing, according to the Google Trends, began to become well known in the year 2007. After searching from the targeted five databases, we will find out the total number of papers returned. The paper’s abstracts together with titles will also be read, and for the purposes of quality, only peer-reviewed papers will be used for the review. However, only a very small number of the articles that are non peer-reviewed can be used.

Why is it profitable for a stable like redbull to race in the F1 Research Paper

Why is it profitable for a stable like redbull to race in the F1 championship - Research Paper Example The research centers on the profitability of a stable like Redbull to race in the F1 championship. In terms of the Redbull products, Dubrin (2008) emphasized Red Bull’s corporate strategy includes its marketing strategies; the strategies include product, price, place, and promotion factors (Kruz, 2010). Dornbusch and Fischer (1990) emphasized price is the amount that the buyer and seller agree as payment for each Redbull beverage product. Place represents where each product is displayed. Promotion includes advertising. Promotion also includes paying the sales person to advertise the company’s Redbull products. In this case, Redbull is eager to invest lots of cash to sponsor a car racing team. In return, the company expects to recuperate the expenses from the increase in the sales of the Redbull products. The target market includes all markets located in countries around the world, especially countries where the Redbull racing team is mentioned, such as news stories. Gen erally, pricing includes selling products at equilibrium or fair market amounts. Palmer (2004) insists the company continues to financially grow despite the presence of the current global recession. The company’s present strategy focuses on product and service promotion to increase its net profits and dividend distribution. Further, the Redbull company continues to retain its huge share of the beverage market segment by implementing customer –based marketing programs (Kruz, 2010). The programs include filling the needs of the niche market – people needing energy boosting drinks. The offering of the company’s energy-enhancing products is grounded on the Redbull branding strategy. The racing includes the expansion, and customer delivery activities precipitating to the company’s leadership in the energy drink market segment in terms of net profits and revenues in the local and international market place (Feldman, 2007). Redbull continues to creatively enhance its popular beverage image by maximizing scarce assets to fulfill the company’s aim and objectives. To be profitable in the racing and marketing areas, the Redbull company incorporates innovation, challenge, and passion in its customer-based marketing activities. Aim and Objectives In terms of consultancy, Helfert (2001) reiterated the aim of the Redbull company in sponsoring its own formula one racing team is translate the cost of sponsoring the Redbull races into increases is the profits of the Redbull beverage products. To achieve the aim, the company generates several objectives. First, the company uses the races to advertise the Redbull products. To achieve the aim, Kotler (1994) opined the company generates objectives. The objectives geared towards achieving the Redbull team’s aim. One of the objectives is to initially sponsor a formula one racing team. Next, the company pursues a spectacular performance in the races. Specifically, one of the teamâ€℠¢s objectives is to win the world constructor’s drivers’ championship. Second, the team wanted to win the world driver’s champion. Third, the company wants to retain its current position in the racing championships and current Red Bull market segment. Literature Review The Formula one championship is characterized as auto racing. Maguire (2007) opined there is only one person inside the vehicle during each race. The Formula represents the rules or policies that each car racer must comply with without exception. The Formula one championships is includes Grand Prix races set in different countries. The results of the Grand Prix race are used for ranking the

Management Information Systems At Singer Information Technology Essay

Management Information Systems At Singer Information Technology Essay Companies today are more dynamic and complex in terms of their products and operations. Therefore in order to survive in the challenging modern business environment the management needs information on their organization as well as the industry at the touch of a fingertip. Having appropriate information systems for the business processes help companies to have clarity across all aspects of their business, allowing them to act quickly with increased insight, efficiency, and flexibility. With information systems companies can reduce costs, optimize performance, and gain the insight and agility needed to close the gap between strategy and execution. Objective The objectives of this study comprises of the evaluation of business processes and information systems that support these business processes in the organization selected Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC, identification of areas where information systems have not been introduced yet and the suggested proposals to fill in these areas. The study describes in detail about the business and information process of Singer. 1.3 Methodology For this study, information was collected mainly through an in-depth analysis of the processes at Singer. In addition user manuals, articles by various scholars and books were referred in order to relate the Singer practices to the industry standards. INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE COMPANY SINGER (SRI LANKA) PLC Singer Sri Lanka started its operation in 1872 in Sri Lanka and is a Company that has grown over the years into a benchmark entity in Sri Lanka in terms of popularity, modernity and reach. Singer today is synonymous with quality, wide reach, and wide product range across diverse lines and wide appeal to consumers across the entire spectrum of buying power. Source: Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC Annual report 2007 With its inception through the sewing machine, Singers product portfolio has diversified to encompass a highly successful multi-brand strategy combining products of top world marques with the companys own products across a range of household, industrial and financial categories. Over the years Singer structure has strengthen immensely to incorporate with the strategies formulated to face the changers in the environment. Singer Sri Lanka has only around 10 brands in early 2000 and mainly concentrated on market penetration by providing affordable products to the mass market. In order to bring down the pricing, the company has moved to strategic sourcing of its major brands through an intermediary which purchases for the entire south Asian region which affects economies of scale. Singer has moved to differentiation and multi brand strategy to enter into a new era of retailing. In all categories, with different brands positioned to appeal to the different customer segments. Figure 2.2 Singer trade name has changed to SINGER Plus from SINGER on 1st of January 2007 and the slogan to MORE BRAND MORE CHOICE. It enables to increase the appeal to customers and the message of choice available in the stores. . Our journey into multi-branding commenced in 1996. With Singer as the parent retailing brand, we have acquired distribution rights for some leading brands in the world picked by a careful selective process. Among brands falling within our supervision are Whirlpool No. 1 Home Maker in the World, TCL largest manufacturer of Televisions worldwide, Hitachi the Japanese leader in Electronics and two heritage brands Sisil and Panasonic. The recent appointment as National Distributor for Samsung, leading electronics brand in the world and Philips, another global heritage brand, exemplifies our diversity and we believe will significantly add to our future revenue earning potential. Source: Chairmans Review Singer (Sri Lanka) Limited Annual Report 2007 Singer has moved to multi channel strategy to cater to the different market segments. Singer has identified and divided its customer base into different categories based on their purchasing power, level of education, standard of living, brand loyalty, etc. different channels are there to cater for these different customer groups, which have shown in the figure 2.3. Figure 2.3: Multi Channel Strategy Source: Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC Annual report 2007 LEVEL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USE AT SINGER (SRI LANKA) PLC Singer (Sri Lanka) has already implemented the ERP system (Powered by IFS) and this is greatly help in numerous ways. It provides lots of benefit to the organization such as it makes available in real time data, providing tools for planning and monitoring various business processes, facilitating customer interaction, maintain the records of entire customer base, speedy attention in customer complaints, etc. Singer as a trading company always used to practice modern technology and try to be edge over the other competitors in the similar industry. They have many Information Technology (IT)/Information Systems (IS) systems that provide various value adding and support functionality through the business processes. 3.1 ERP System: Through ERP system Singer handle all the transactions and information regarding the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, shipping, invoicing, accounting, human resources, shop sales, market campaigns, bargain or auction sales, promotion activities, etc. So in practice Singer district managers first getting the orders from their relevant shop managers in product wise and then they pass it to the area managers. Then the area managers review that and giving the information to the sales department. Then with the involvement of product managers, sales manages and sales director they have further adjust those figures and release the forecast for the next 03 months period. This cycle happen every month in continuous basis. ERP system helps a lot to keep this wheel turning. 3.2 Inventory Management System: Managing inventory for more than 1000 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), delivering from 4 warehouses in separate location and to fulfill the requirement of more than 550 Shops Island wide is not an easy task. For that Singer have to have sophisticated inventory management system since over inventory results in tied up of money unnecessarily and shortage in inventory is directly resulting in loosing the customer as well. To over come both these issues Singer already implemented reliable Inventory Management System as main application software of ERP system. 3.3 Human Resource Information System: This system has installed with the Finger Scan System as well. Finger Scan Units will be installed at the required entry and exit points. The employees will point their fingers on these machines each time they enter or exit the work site. The machine stores this information in its memory and will transfer the same on to a PC as and when required. This system can provide summarized outputs such as Time In/Out reports, Absenteeism, Late Arrival, Attendance Summary, Over Time Report, Leave Report, Individual Employee Report and Integration to payroll, etc. 3.4 Financial Accounting Module: This is one of the key modules at Singer. It has control and monitoring features in receivables and collections management, dispute management, reconciliation, and auditing. Daily financial transactions can be tabulated at any given point of time and able to generate more useful results for the decision management purposes. Some of the results can be generated from this software are; Profit and Loss account, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Variance Reports, Aged Analysis Reports, Non Moving Report, Obsolete Item List, Transfer Pricing report, etc. 3.5 Material Master Module: Raw Material stock at warehouses and stores are managed through this module. Authorized staff (eg: Production Managers) can request for goods (eg: Goods needed for forecasted production), and store keepers can release materials upon receiving necessary authorization. Any shortages in materials can be viewed from the purchasing department and they can order materials based on these requisitions. This module helps purchasing management to meet necessary re-order levels, and warehouse operations also have been smoothened. 3.6 Enterprise management and support: This is the most important and busiest module of ERP at Singer. This module handles day-to-day operation related matters such as purchase requests, purchase orders handling, payment processing, etc. 3.7 Sales System / Sales Force Automation System: Sales system at Singer is similar to key organizations in that nature. It would tracks all the sales done by the organization at the time of invoicing the product and keep on updating the system. This system is crucial in terms of operational efficiency and strategic value. IT department should ensure smooth operations of the sales system in order to avoid sales duplications. 3.8 Internet Access via a Company Lease Line: Singer has given internet facility to all executives via a separate SLT line leased by the company. This helps managers to update with latest tools and facilitate to get required information on time. Exchange server system is the controlling server of company email system. It provides both client based and web based email solutions to internal staff. 3.9 Black Berry Phones for All Directors: Timely decisions are vital factor for the success of any organization. Since the directors are involve with corporate level expansion activities most of the time they are out of the office and the large number of important mails are pile up in their PCs waiting for a approval or quick decisions for further actions. The new CEO has identified this gap and decided to offer Black Berry phones for all directors to overcome this matter. 3.10 Lap Tops For All Managers (Entitle for Replacement Computers): All replacement due computers belongs to managers have replaced with Lap Tops to enable managers to do urgent office work even they are at home. More significantly this would help managers to answer for the important e-mails without any delay. 3.11 Sophisticated CNC Machines: All new machines purchased by the Singer factories are decided to go for sophisticated CNC machines, mostly imported from European countries and always compatible with the latest technology and the software available. As an example engineers are doing all the designs in their PCs by using common design software like AutoCAD, Pro-Engineering, etc and directly transfer those data to the CNC machine as it is. Then these machines are able to convert it to machine coding and no need to do the manual programming again, which save a lots of time and money to the company. 3.12 Well Trained And Updated Live Ware: All level of staff starting from key managers to junior clerks, well trained for using the available systems and software and also promote to do the improvements by their own. COMPETITIVE PRIORITIES OF SINGER (SRI LANKA) PLC A product or service should have key attributes to be competitive in the market place. These are known as the competitive priorities. The competitive priorities may change with the market segment. For example, customers in a rural area may be interested primarily in the cost of product while the customers in urban areas are interested in quality of the same product. (Chandana, 2009, p.9) Cost Or Price As A Competitive Priority Type of competitive strategy with which the organization aggressively seeks efficient facilities, pursues cost reductions, and uses tight cost controls to produce products more efficiently than competitors (Daft, 2009, p.240) Manufacturing plants should plan their systems in such a way that all resources such as material, labour and machines are efficiently used to bring down the cost significantly. Also company should make sure to keep sufficient margin to cover all other overhead before going to reduce the selling price to get more volumes. Quality As A Competitive Priority Quality should be there in every aspect including design quality, process quality, product quality, service quality, etc. While maintaining ISO 9001:2000 standards factories are make sure that every item produced up to the required or expected level in terms of both quality of conformance and quality of design. To continue that everybody was well trained and responsible to maintain the required quality standards in each working point as specified in the documents (work instruction lists). In overall companys point of view its also a crucial factor to maintain the balance approach between the price and quality of all the products. So to have a full range of products in each categories company decided to go with multi brand strategy, where the company doesnt want to compromise quality and damage the brand image due to get the price advantage. This differentiation strategy is also a type of competitive priority with which involves attempts to distinguish the firms products or services from others in the industry (Daft, 2009, p.239) Flexibility As A Competitive Priority With the bath production operation system in factories they are able to produce variety of products, develop new products, able to do some product changes to fit the customer specifications and also quickly able to respond increasing and decreasing demand due to the seasonal sales pattern. Manufacturing system is also able to undertake bulk special orders at a competitive price and deliver within a shorter time period. Company highly believes there should be a flexibility and variability in all categories. That is also another reason company has moved to differentiation and multi brand strategy to enter into a new era of retailing as explained earlier; in all categories, with different brands positioned to appeal to the different customer segments in terms of quality and the price. Delivery: Speed And Dependability As A Competitive Priority As a policy Singer is maintaining one month finished goods inventory in all SKUs in general and 1.5 to 2 months finished goods inventory for identified fast moving items in the sub warehouse. Singer also has the island wide distribution network with more than 500 shops and goods are transporting everyday to all locations from the central warehouse. Shops are also permit to keep sufficient inventory in their stores and with that the factories and company can assure they can deliver products on time and most often customers can get the products without waiting. Service As A Competitive Priority Singer provide unmatched service to their customers by giving not just a product but with a full package which include super shopping environment, friendly customer care staff, product demonstration, discount schemes, easy payment schemes, free delivery to the door step, free installation, customer training, free services for selected items like A/Cs, extended warranty scheme, excellent after sales service, etc. In other words simply customer doesnt have to worry about any other thing after purchasing the item. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS USED AT SINGER (SRI LANKA) TO GIVE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ERP Implementation At Singer In year 2005 ERP was a quite new concept for the Sri Lankan businesses, the majority have heard that ERP is a tool which can integrate the individual divisional business processes and give information about the entire organization and increase the efficiency. Usually Singer is well known company for try out new concepts in the industry in its nature. The requirement of implementation came into the picture in the top to bottom approach, which is the normal case at Singer. Even though before the idea of ERP emerge there were no big issues in the existing processes and whatever the IS used, senior management started to see large loop holes in the existing systems compared to the capabilities of ERP. The introduction of the ERP to the existing setup required comprehensive study, lot of changes and reengineering to the existing processes. Actually this can be considered as one of the major revolutions which Singer has gone through the short history which is less than two decades. The senior management view ERP as an IT system rather IS. The main reason was nobody wanted to understand the difference between IS IT, or even nobody realized these are two different things and ERP implementation is an IS project not an IT alone. The best example of ignorance of IS aspect is throughout the revolutions of the organization structures at Singe r they have not thought of IS managers, only about IT managers. There has not been a job description of an IS manager nor the IS functions inside IT manager. It is essential to look at any IT related changes to be done to the organization in an IS perspective. Since the senior management identified ERP implementation as an IT task, they did not thought it about on the IS perspective. Thus the ERP implementation team was formed as an IT team. The attitude toward ERP from the middle management and rest of the organization was in the negative side at the initial phase. They visualize ERP as a tool which will be introduced by senior management with the support of IT team to find the mistakes and audit individuals on their deliverables. For an example warehouse managers saw ERP as a watch dog who can report the inefficiencies of the warehouse. He never understood ERP as a tool which can increase his efficiency. The problem is not with either the managers or ERP, it is due to the human nature. As human beings anybody does not like to change, there is an inherent resistance for change. Therefore it is the duty of the steering committee to make the environment and culture where employees are ready for change. This is nothing related IT, but its completely related to the IS. Simply the attitude should be changed slowly where employees will say yes we need the change. One major reason for not doing proper change preparation was the strict timeline for the ERP implementation. Thus some of the key aspects of IS has been ignored. It is a known fact that sometimes we need to do the changes gradually, when the resistance is high. Therefore this could have been a good strategy if Singer ERP implementation was initially well planned and introduced as a gradual change. Even though the ERP implementation went with a rapid phase it was 50% successful at the first attempt because of the visionary leadership of the chairman Mr. Hemaka Amarasooriya. The formation of the ERP implementation was done with the majority of IT personnel but with the presence of representatives of key divisions. At this stage most of the middle managers did not treat this seriously and they asked somebody from his/her division in the ERP team, but the member was frequently changed when divisional workload increases. Thus there were no dedicated representatives from key departments. On the other hand middle managers do not involve in reviewing the progress. Further in 2005 Singer did not have well defined and documented processes to handle the day to day work. The general working culture was heavily depending on the manager of the division. There were lots of situational decisions taken by the managers with the gut feeling and most of the time they worked fine. Eventually what happened was the existing process was not thoroughly studied by the ERP team and they came up with an inappropriate reengineering plan to fit ERP into Singer processes. In a nutshell, this plan was not to customize the ERP into the Singer culture, but to customize Singer culture in such a way that it will fit ERP general template. For an example if we compare the finished goods delivery for a particular location, previously it was approved by the district managers or area managers. At that point they decide exact quantity to go there and make the delivery note for the ware house team. Then if the goods are available they will directly deliver them and acknowledge the originator. If the products are not available warehouse will contact the requester and ask for a modification with available types of products. Sometimes this make the things to get delayed but good situational decisions were possible. When this process was cutover to the ERP, the process was modified. Th e new request was to be selected among pre defined product sets. Therefore if any single product was short, system will not allow to select that template and choose an equivalent to unavailable product from the list. This became a big restriction for day to day operation, because in majority of the cases people were used to do customization according to the situation and send the goods to the shops. Eventually the efficiency achieved by integrating warehouse and material planning is of no use due to the restrictions which were not thought of at the planning stage. Even though the above discussed example is related to product delivery similar examples are spreaded across the company with the ERP implementation. The major reason for this was lack of the support given by experienced staff when the ERP implementation was planned. The ERP implementation at Singer in year 2005 was an exercise of more than 2 years, but not fully bad experience; even there were highly impacted cases. The finance department got much enhancement for their day to day operations because almost the entire business was integrated compared to previous individual MIS run at individual departments. For an example the finance manager can get an entire view on the financial status online and drill down to micro detail for analysis purposes. Further the documentation work of the ware house material ordering departments were reduced immensely. Because prior to ERP the same information which was entered in different systems at different departments. Sometimes due to mistakes the same information recorded by two departments was not identical. Since ERP integrated all the departments via the processes, information was accurate and available online. Even though ERP was took the cold start and kept on moving with day to day work, Singer did not stop the previous systems overnight. It was like a parallel operation of the previous systems and ERP. This was a very good decision, because otherwise there could have been a significant impact and delays due to the initial problems ERP faced. At the ground level running ERP had lot of operational issues because the existing systems were not studied properly and necessary reengineering was not done. The next biggest problem was the real users of ERP were not feeding the accurate data in to the ERP system. This was mainly due to the culture which was established in the lower levels of the company. Majority was interested in doing the job properly, but hated the documentation work. Thus they entered some data for the sake of completion; this was severe because the initial ERP system was not equipped with proper data validation mechanisms. Again this was not a limitation of ERP; it was an issue of customization and implementation. For an example when issuing products for a new location (shop), there was a requirement to fill something in the location/shop name field. So the person who is issuing the delivery note just enters some word as the location/shop name. Therefore for the financial department it would be like junk information, because they cannot perform the assets capitalization at shop level. After few month of the operation this problem was noticed and resulted in doing a n audit on the entire network on the shop level. Plenty of money was spent on this audit just to correct some mistake which were not anticipated at the beginning due to tight time schedule. After running ERP for about six months all the people began to realize that ERP implementation have lot of problems than expected. The employees from the bottom was complaining and raising the voice that the ERP is not functioning properly and signs of failures of entire system were popping out, since ERP is the only integrated system running in Singer. For an example in first quarter of 2007 employees freely express their views to senior management on the problems of ERP. These motivated the senior management to take the bottom up approach and relook at the ERP again. Eventually management took a serious call and formed cross functional teams (CFT) to find the problems in ERP and iron them out. This was initiated in second quarter of 2007 and given a time line of 12 months. More importantly real hard users of ERP was put into the CFTs and take out all the issues of the system. Then there was an ERP consultant in each CFT, who has to solve the issues with the agreement of the team. Finally the CFT has to certify and sign off there are no more identified issues in the ERP. This became a fruit full exercise due to following reasons, Actual users became a part of the team who studied the issues in the system. Each CFT was equipped with ERP consultant IT department played the role of IS with the support of all the divisions Senior management support and guidance Last but not least attitude of the organization was to correct whatever issues with ERP and move forward to face the competition. Finally after about 2 years of period Singer was able to make ERP a success. In any successful project there is plenty of room for improvement, thus that global rule applies to Singer ERP as well. For an example currently the ERP operates as an internal system, but the capability of ERP is far beyond. The present supply chain should be extended to include the suppliers, distributors and business partners, though internet to guarantee a smoother process of ordering and purchasing of goods with minimum time-to-market, stock holdings, less problems. Singer should improve and use the present ERP system to access suppliers and distributors stock databases on-line and in real time to check stock levels. There should be information integration, planning synchronization and work flow coordination to achieve this goal. With a fully fledged SCM and close cooperation with the each organization in the supply chain will add value, reduce costs, improve flexibility and increase responsiveness of Singer. Information Systems In The Human Resource Department One can ask why we need IS for the HR department, but actually IS can improve the HR department functions extensively in a large organization like Singer. Human Resource Management Information Management System is vital organization, where manual record keeping is an inefficient task. For an example let us recall the method of sending birthday greeting to employees. If the data was not available in the computer and it is in the personal files clerk or assistant should routinely check for the upcoming birthdays and trigger the sending of birth day card. But thank to computers every morning there is a pop up with the names of the birthday celebrities. At Singer, its HRIS basically performs three services, Record keeping parallel to the traditional method of keeping hardcopies in the personal file, all the information is fed to HR database. This database is shared in the intranet at different access security levels. For an example the basic information is shared among everybody, but personal and HR specific data are limited to selected HR personnel. Even though IT is used for record keeping it can be seen that the work is duplicated by keeping hard copies too. Thus it is recommended to limit the hardcopy based record keeping to the documents which have a legal requirement. Otherwise the IT use is not optimized in the aspect of record keeping. Facilitating human resource operations Thanks to the HRIS majority of the HR operations are computerized. For example staff recruitment, attendance and leave recording, linking up with payroll, performance appraisal, training management are done using the HR portal, and this saves a lot of time. HRIS is accessible to any staff in the company. Staff performs all their administrative requests via the HRIS portal and the relevant supervisor can approve or reject the relevant request from the system itself. There will be automatic email alerts sent to relevant parties by HRIS, if any task is pending to be performed by a person. Therefore HRIS is linked with the exchange server of the organization to facilitate this feature. Staff personnel file details are scanned and stored securely, in addition to the hard copies for back-up and easy retrieval purposes. Payroll system is connected to the HRIS to minimize intermediate human intervention. The human resource management can retrieve custo mized reports from HRIS such as, division wise staff attendance, overall working hours, division/ unit wise performance etc. Reporting for management decision making Since the entire aspects of HR is computerized, it is very easy to do data mining and come of with summaries which will ease the decision making with quantitative figures. The cost reduction Initiatives Company has implemented in the recent past has been taken with the support of HRIS data. Another important support HR got by means of IT was implementing the forced ranking performance appraisal. Since 2006 Singer was trying to implement the forced ranking in the annual performance evaluation. This was initiated to make sure the best performers will be filtered and top percentage will be rewarded. The majority of the company did not like this bell curve method because it can deteriorate the team culture, but the management wanted to implement this and the HR was trying hard. Somehow the exceptional performance of the company made HR to deviate from the forced bell curve. The major reason was the power and politics of the line managers. For an example the line manager who was doing the performance evaluation ranked everybody in his team with A+, for a year he has achieved targets exceptionally. After couple of rounds of discussions HR changes their mind and agree with the line manager. Therefore consecutive two years of failure on implementation of bell curve based ranking, HR decided to get the support of IT. IT modified the existing HRIS in such a way that a single manager cannot submit his evaluation on his team if he does not adhere to the bell curve. With this manager was not supposed to mark A+, A, B, C D they had to give marks out of 100, but cannot give identical marks. Then the system will rank them accordingly. So one can give almost 99% to all employees, but system will rank using the differences in decimal places. Eventually in 2008 HR was able to implemented to bell curve based ranking in reality without going for personal level arguments with managers, because they used the IS effectively. IDENTIFICATION OF GAPS The information systems (IS) at Singer can be identified from the functional perspective based on the major business functions of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting and human resources. As illustrated by the following diagram, the IS serve the three different levels of the organization i.e. operational level, management level and strategic level. IS at Operational Level The operational level systems support operational managers in monitoring the daily activities and transactions of the business. At Singer, the sales and marketing function at operational level is supported by four information systems. The order processing, is mainly related to sales and billing at Singer. The material movement control under manufacturing and control is done using ERP System (e.g. Material Master and Plant Maintenance modules). ERP accounting system at Singer enhances the financing and accounting function by tracking the flow of funds in the firm through transactions such as paychecks, payments to vendors, securities reports and receipts. The operational management of Si

Alzheimers Disease Essay -- essays research papers fc

An Exploration of one of the Most Mysterious Diseases   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alzheimer’s disease, named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, is a disease that is on the rise in America and the rest of the world. People should learn as much as they want about this disease, because as you age, your chances of becoming an Alzheimer’s Disease, or AD, patient increases. It is estimated that approximately 3 percent of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 have the illness, and more than half of all people over age 85 have the ailment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  AD is a form of dementia, a disease, that according to the Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center is defined as: â€Å"†¦a group of symptoms that are caused by changes in brain function. Dementia symptoms may include asking the same questions repeatedly; becoming lost in familiar places; being unable to follow directions; getting disoriented about time, people, and places; and neglecting personal safety, hygiene, and nutrition. People with dementia lose their abilities at different rates.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is not uncommon for AD patients to become lost and wander away from their homes, thus leading to a very disturbing and upsetting experience for family members.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alzheimer’s can be diagnosed before age 65, although rare, and is caused by a mutation in 3 known genes. About 5 percent of those who are under 65 and possess the ailment have AD in their family history. Given that the symptoms of AD are caused by plaque in the brain, causing loss of nerve cells that help the body communicate with the brain, mutations to these genes; amyloid precursor protein, presenilin 1, and presenilin 2 cause a excessive production of certain proteins (primarily a B-42 form of amyloid protein), and therefore spark an excessive growth of plaque cells which are toxic to the neurons of the brain. For those cases of Alzheimer’s that occur after age 65, a genetic mutation has yet to be proven, although some may be linked, to the fact that a difference may cause an increased chance of developing the ailment. Whatever the case may be for patients over 65 years old, the disease and its symptoms are caused by neurofibrillary tangles of al myloid plaques. It is impossible for someone to test positive for Alzheimer’s Disease, because the only way to determine an affirmative case i... ...t one has it. Many scientists hypothesize that there is an inflammatory response in the brain when there is an extensive B-42 amassing. To slow or stop this, scientists theorize that the use of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, could delay the swelling in the brain. Also, as scientists have known that taking a multi-vitamin tablet each day is good for you, there has been recent research demonstrating that the use of antioxidants may protect neurons, not just the immune system and keeping the body healthy by providing vitamins and minerals. These special supplements protect the neurons from the effects of the accruing B-Amyloid that would likely cause the plaque that causes AD. Works Cited www.crystalinks.com/ alzheimers.html Picture of Brain Cross Section http://apt.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/6/3/193 Information on Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia http://www.emental-health.com/alzh_biology.htm Information on the biology of Alzheimer’s Disease http://www.alznyc.org/ Information about Treatments and the AD community Delaware Valley Veterans Hospital- Alzheimer’s Ward- Allowing me to enter the facility and communicate with AD patients, nurses, and care-takers.

Domestic Violence Against Women

Domestic abuse against women In her news article, the spokesperson for amnesty international describes domestic violence as a worldwide phenomenon that violates the human rights of female victims (Mite, 2005). In addition, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) described violence against women as â€Å"a global epidemic that kills, tortures, and maims – physically, psychologically, sexually and economically. It is one of the most pervasive of human rights violations, denying women and girls equality, security, dignity, self-worth, and their right to enjoy fundamental freedoms† (UNICEF, 2000).I agree with the above assertions because violence against women is so rampant and it happens in all spheres of life, be it in homes, work places, on the streets, learning institutions, and during moments of war and peace alike. Because of the pervasiveness of domestic violence against women and its devastating physical and psychological effects, my paper will be focusin g on domestic violence against women in Canada.I believe that domestic abuse against women should be eradicated in this twenty-first century because it breeds psychic disempowerment, mental distress, and affects women’s health, wellness and self esteem. The question that this paper will address is the following: what resources should be made available to support female victims of domestic violence who are currently living with an abusive partner, or have recently left an abusive relationship? The paper will begin with a definition of domestic violence, followed by a discussion of resources and the nursing role.According to Etter and Birzer (2007), domestic violence occurs when a partner or former partner inflicts physical harm on someone with whom they have or previously had an intimate relationship. This physical harm can result in major or minor injury, and can be inflicted with or without a weapon. Researchers have identified supportive counseling as beneficial to female v ictims of domestic violence (Madoc-Jones & Roscoe, 2010; McNamara, Tamanini, & Pelletier-Walker, 2008). The emotional support that counseling offers can help female victims of domestic violence identify trengths and assets that they may not have been aware they possessed because their partners’ criticisms may have left them feeling worthless and feeling incapable of taking action to alter their circumstances. Working with a counselor would enable the women to develop a healthy self-image, become aware of their resilience and personal strength, and they may begin to see themselves as survivors of domestic violence as opposed to victims. By becoming aware of their strengths, women may begin to feel empowered and capable of mobilizing their personal resources to take steps towards leaving the abusive relationship.Counseling can also provide female victims of domestic violence with an opportunity to reduce their feelings of self-blame for the abuse they receive when they are made aware of the prevalence of domestic violence and the factors that contribute to it, such as patriarchal social structures, income differentials between men and women, and cultural norms that condone the use of physical aggression against women. This knowledge would help reduce their feelings of isolation and blame because they would understand that they are not alone in their experience of domestic violence.Because of the economic dependency of women on their abusers (Sanders, Weaver, & Schnabel, 2007), the social structure has placed women on the receiving end by keeping them down economically through lower wages and less opportunities for employment (Sanders, Weaver, & Schnabel, 2007). As a result, it can be argued that belonging to a low income group and economic dependence, among other factors, may be linked to higher rates of spousal assault against women. Many low income female victims of domestic violence are at a high risk of developing psychological problems such as depres sion, stress, and low self esteem (Hare, 2010).They are also emotionally attached to the abuser to the extent that they cannot leave a relationship for fear of being left alone in a wretched economic situation (Hare, 2010). As a result, some may be worried about child support and financial assistance, and others may be afraid of the threats of retaliation and abduction of children by the abuser. Given that economic dependence is significant in domestic abuse, there is a need for victims to create their own economic independence. In this way, women would no longer look at men as the sole bread winners of the family or providers of childcare and financial ssistance, and they would be able to support themselves financially if they were to leave their abusive partners. To implement the above, the government needs to provide access to job training and education geared towards female victims of domestic violence. This could serve as a fundamental tool that dismantles a vicious cycle of op pression, abuse and poverty of women. Given that the nursing profession plays an important role in public health, nurses can use their skills to advocate on behalf of the abused by creating awareness about the impact of domestic violence against women.Advocacy could also involve referrals to resources for women, such as counseling services and shelters for women leaving abusive partners, as well as providing victims with information about how to protect themselves against abuse, helping them develop a safety plan, and helping to reduce their feelings of self-blame and shame by highlighting the pervasiveness of domestic violence. This paper identified some of the resources that would provide support and assistance to female victims of domestic violence, such as economic support and counseling.The importance of economic support cannot be overlooked because financial independence can lead to improvements in psychological health and well-being, and creates the material means through whi ch these women can escape from an abusive relationship. In addition, counseling can reduce women’s isolation, self-blame, and help them identify their assets and personal resources, which can boost their self-confidence and provide them with the strength to leave the abuser.

Child Labor And Development Implications For Third World Education Essay

This essay will concentrate on development in Senegal and the social jobs that are keeping the state back from certain facets of their development. Issues, such as child labour, are prevailing in the big metropoliss of Senegal. I know this because I have had the chance to see Dakar while on my sailing boarding school. We spent approximately two hebdomads in the metropolis and partnered with the university childs and a development group called SYTO Senegal. SYTO stands for Student & A ; Youth Travel Organization. It is a non-profit organisation that is now used in many African states to raise consciousness and assistance in development. Some of the plans and enterprises that SYTO offers are: Volunteering, non-paid internships, cultural submergence and place corsets. All these different enterprises are meant to incorporate visitants and locals into larning from each other. The intent of our stay in Dakar was to distribute consciousness about different facets refering the development of their metropolis. We split into assorted groups all with different undertakings and duties for the two hebdomads. The groups dealt with environmental issues, wellness and sanitation, H2O preservation, finance and news media. Within our groups, we discussed thoughts, had guest adept talkers and visited some of the schools in the country. One of our primary ends was to educate the immature coevals about these pressing issues so that they could develop a passion for bettering their native land. We thought up originative thoughts like skits and games in order to exemplify these issues in a manner immature childs could understand. For illustration, the H2O preservation group created postings that displayed the H2O rhythm and set on a drama for the childs. Aside from the development undertaking, we besides had many chances to research the metropolis and dig deeper into the cultural norms of the state. I saw everything from the hustling markets to adult females selling their hand-made car pets and covers on the side of the streets. Despite basking their traditions, there is a more emotional and saddening side of the life style and we saw this in the many kid mendicants and poorness afflicted people in the metropolis. UNICEF defines child labour as work that exploits kids under unsafe working conditions. When kids are faced with these jobs it frequently takes off from prolonging their instruction. This relates to development because instruction is one of the factors that stimulate development. I will besides discourse more facets of Dakar ‘s development, like: the alteration of urbanisation and instruction rates, I will discourse how all these development factors have to make with the kid labour issue in Senegal. The importance of our development undertaking in Senegal was to expose the jobs in the state that are maintaining them from come oning. My definition of development is patterned advance and progressing the current province of personal businesss. Develop ment besides refers to the economic, cultural and societal alterations that a state goes through to go more advanced in modern twenty-four hours. I witnessed the extent of exploitatory kid labour in Senegal, which gives me the passion to desire to happen out more and do anything I can to assist. I think that this is relevant to Global Development Studies because it is an issue of societal development that needs to be addressed. It is besides a human rights issue that I believe should be an international concern. In this essay I will reason that the child labour issues are procrastinating development, taking off from enriching the instruction of the immature coevals and ensuing in long-run damaging effects for the state. The Development Theory, as learned in the first semester of Global Development Studies, encompasses many sub-theories that all purpose to depict how alteration in a society can be achieved. Modernization theory describes a stratification of development phases and how to track a states advancement based on what they have achieved. Dependency Theory describes how â€Å" fringe † states depend on â€Å" nucleus † states for counsel and support through their development journey. These theories relate to the issues of child labour in Senegal because it is an international concern and is responsible for much poorness in developing states. Non-profit organisations, such as UNICEF, purpose to raise consciousness and money to back up the obliteration of exploited kids. They besides give hope to kids in developing states that are non able to foster their instruction because their milieus do non let them to make so. Bonnet ( 1993 ) writes about kid labour in relation to the failure of the instruction system in many African states. The article suggests that the deficiency of a structured instruction system and the sum of child workers are straight correlated. This could be because the school system can non back up the instruction needs so kids are frequently forced into exploitatory work at early ages to counterbalance for the deficiency of instruction. Harmonizing to Bonnet ( 1993 ) , there are besides many kids that drop out of school early because of force per unit area to supply another beginning of income for their struggling households. The article coins the rough â€Å" socio-economic environment † as something that contributes the increasing figure of child workers. Although this article reviews the predicament of Africa in general footings associating to child labour, it shows many issues refering development are related. As in Modernization Theory, a state can non accomplish the following degree of development without over-coming initial stumbling blocks. Bonnet ‘s ( 1993 ) article provided insight into how a state can travel â€Å" backwards † in the development procedure, and therefore, make more issues to postulate with. Some statistics form Bonnet ‘s ( 1993 ) article showed the GDP in many of the African states as being rather low. This is decidedly a pressuring factor for most dwellers of these states, as they have to populate under these conditions and experience the full consequence of the missing economic system. Exploitative kid labour is a manner that some households generate more income. Developmentally, this is an international issue and it oversteps many moral boundaries that have been constructed by the developed universe. Forastieri ( 1992 ) suggests that there are socio-economic factors that create the increasing statistic of child labour happening in the universe today. Many jobs associated with being in a underdeveloped state lend to the oncoming of child development. Forestieri ( 1992 ) explains that many kids populating in these destitute states frequently have no other option to supply nutrient for themselves and household. She talks about the relation between a state ‘s economic development and the deficiency of instruction taking to many kids being forced into child labour and other signifiers of kid maltreatment. The article besides talks about the certain conditions that are present in many developing states and how it presents a jeopardy to youth. The bulk of exploitatory kid work begins at a immature age, which violates developmental phase in the kid ‘s life. Forastieri ( 1992 ) acknowledges that the solution to the job is long-run. Problems of development, such as economic sys tem, wellness, safety and instruction have to be addressed foremost to give households an option to subjecting their kids to exploitatory work. The article coins child labour as â€Å" the merchandise of poorness † , which describes the nexus to development that is most of import to understand the issue. The international universe and the developed universe has an duty to convey these destitute states out of the utmost poorness that is taking to decease, disease and development. For illustration, an article in The Vancouver Sun ( 2007 ) discusses child labour as a regular happening in West Africa. It discusses the chocolate farms in many West African states and how we, in the developed universe, are able to hold our favourite cocoa at our disposal anytime we want. The article states that kids under 14 old ages of age are forced to work on these chocolate plantations under backbreaking conditions. It mentions a statistic that three per centum of the universe ‘s chocolate production is harvested under the worst signifiers of child labour. This should do the developed universe think about how they may be indirectly advancing the usage of immature kids as labourers in these West African states. The article in The Vancouver Sun ( 2007 ) goes on to depict the worst signifiers of child labour. Some kids are being sold to husbandmans and are frequently lured by false promises of hope once they do what they are told. It is a job that this is happening every twe nty-four hours in our universe. However, there are things that we can make to seek and advance good working conditions and the importance of child instruction instead than maltreatment. From development position, there are many things that we can make to seek and excite improved conditions. The article references â€Å" Fair Trade † , which represents a merchandise that has been grow under good and humanist conditions. The developed universe seldom thinks about the impact that traveling out to purchase a confect saloon can hold. That confect saloon could possible stand for long hours that a immature kid has spent on the chocolate farms. It is our duty to do certain that we educate ourselves about how some of the merchandises we consume are made. Grootaert ( 1995 ) provides some statistics of child labour in some West African states. He shows that 52 per centum of kids in Senegal are involved in kid exploitatory labour. The high per centum shows that the state has hapless economic agencies and hence people have to prosecute in these Acts of the Apostless in order to do adequate money to hardly acquire by. Grootaert ( 1995 ) suggests ways in which the horrors of child labour can be lessened, doing manner for new chances of growing for developing states every bit good as the international universe. First and first, he suggests that statute law would be the figure one opposite number to conflict kid maltreatment. Ways to excite economic system and ways to authorise the kids and their households are other things that the article references that could assist to eliminate child labour. It is an international concern how the strains and force per unit areas that cause child maltreatment in developing states finally lead to the decre asing value of instruction and attention for the environment. The obliteration of kid maltreatment in the work force is going a urgent issue and there are many organisations that are entirely aimed at distributing consciousness and raising money to assist to battle the development. Myrstad ( 1999 ) discusses the function of trade brotherhoods in contending child labour. They have the perfect platform to prosecute people and to raise consciousness about the horrors of child development and to emphasize the importance of instruction as a necessity. On an international graduated table, the article references that trade brotherhoods have the capacity to mobilise the populace. Myrstad ( 1999 ) mentions the chief trade brotherhood scheme to contend kid labour, which is corporate bargaining. Trade brotherhoods can efficaciously utilize bargaining schemes to negociate certain codifications of behavior that employers must follow. Myrstad ( 1999 ) outlines the power trade brotherhoods have to intercede the occurrences between some companies in the underd eveloped universe and the developed universe. They can negociate just trade and spread consciousness about the importance of just work sing all facets, but particularly when it comes to kids. Another article ( Anonymous, 2001 ) on West African chocolate production negotiations about the ground why some husbandmans feel that they have to inscribe kids in the slave labour. This is relevant to development because it helps one solve an issue if we know what may be doing the job. The article says that West African husbandmans blame transnational companies for their low monetary values. So in order to earn a net income they must enlist inexpensive work by kids. This is much like a rhythm that will non stop if the roots of poorness are non solved in these states. The international community has the duty of puting down statute law via political leaders that can assist to eliminate child bondage in the underdeveloped universe. There are state of affairss that cause the oncoming of child labour and things that are effects. Many of these convergences because, as antecedently stated, it all becomes a rhythm. Poor instruction system, deficiency of employment and rampant disease are th ings that all cause people to fall back to cheap labour to do ends meet. The deficiency of instruction, which leads to a coevals that can non make, better than the last, is a major effect of child labour. If our universe is genuinely going a globalized universe so we must all set the load of this on our shoulders and assist back up the attempts made to cut down the job. An article in The Financial Times ( 1999 ) references that the International Labor Organization says that the riddance of all child labour is unrealistic. However, they say that it is more realistic to turn to the worst signifiers first- such as trafficking. They say that doing instruction a precedence and beef uping the instruction system is what will assist. The article acknowledges that in some of these developing states there is no other agencies of income coming into households, as the parents are excessively old or ill. This is what is so distressing because it is non just to do these kids pay for the fact that they were born into this environment. Through the media, many of us know the state of affairs in the Third World and are cognizant of how some people are enduring. Miller and Ross ( 1998/1999 ) talk about â€Å" Development Week † and how it engages pupils to what is go oning in the universe around them. As we have learned, instruction is the most of import for cognition and patterned advance. By transfusing these values in their pupils, these instructors believe that it will do alteration. One of the ways that they involve pupils is to emphasize the importance of â€Å" a strong sense of partnership between the North and the South † ( Miller and Ross, 1998,1999 ) . This makes manner for international voluntary activities and engagement. My trip to Senegal was one of those edifying minutes where we saw things we had ne'er earlier. The trip caused us all to reflect on our ain lives and what we have. Many people in the word do non hold half of what a batch of people in The First World do. There is a batch tha t we can make to demo our engagement and passion in many facets of development. Volunteering, fund-raising and child sponsorship are all ways that we can get down to turn a negative state of affairs into something positive. To reason, exploitatory kid labour in the underdeveloped universe creates many reverses that stall development. Development is classified as traveling frontward economically and socially. Poor instruction is a chief factor in the start of immature kid labour. The immature coevals is being stripped of the ability to acquire an instruction. Some deductions of my findings on this subject are that poorness and socio-economic position is straight related the sum of kids that are being exploited. Some of the positive deductions are the things that trade brotherhoods and the international community can make to decrease the job. The deductions for development environing this subject is that an issue can non be solved or wholly eradicated till more cardinal issues are addressed. The international community should be concerned with exploitatory kid labour in Africa because it is a human rights issue.

The Threat Called North Korea essays

The Threat Called North Korea essays Nearly a year ago, George W. Bush first labeled Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, as the axis of evil. So why then have we heard so much about how Iraq is such a threat to U.S. national security, and hardly a word about North Korea? There is no doubt in Americas mind or in anyone elses outside of Baghdad that Sadaam Hussein is a menace to society. Hes both a threat to his own people and to the rest of the world. He has broken sanction after sanction; and received nothing more then a smack on the hand for it. Meanwhile, with the worlds view pointed in Iraqs direction, and Iran trying not to anger anyone, North Korea has decided to try to steal some of the limelight. Always a problem, and sometimes referred to as a rogue-state, North Korea is stirring up quite a mess in Washington, and the worry is well warranted. For the following reasons North Korea has become more of a threat than Iraq: For their development of nuclear technology, their willingness to sell weapons to the highes t bidder, their disregard for several treaties, and their emerging capabilities to hit the continental U.S. with a nuclear tipped missile. North Korea has proven time and time again that they are more then willing to sign a treaty, or agree to sanctions, and then continue on without the slightest regard to international law. On October 21, 1994, the Unites States avoided a deadly and costly showdown with North Korea by signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) along with South Korea, and Japan, a treaty that North Korea would then break only a few years later. This treaty gave North Korea a package of benefits in return for a freeze of their nuclear program. The benefits were to include: light water reactors totaling 2,000 electric megawatts and shipments of heavy oil to North Korea (50,000 tons in 1995 and 500,000 tons annually beginning in 1996 until the first reactor was...

Theories From the Preamble essays

Theories From the Preamble essays The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States is a declaration to the foundation of our nations political society. Although many individuals view the preamble as being a unique theory in and of itself, in fact it is anything but unique. The Preamble is actually a composite of several different political theories as developed by other philosophers and theorist and applied to the unique American experience. Several of these theories include Social Contract Theory, Deontological and Virtue Ethics. The Preamble of the United States Constitution is a single sentence that states: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Social Contract Theory is a political philosophy most often associated with the works of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Rousseau. To briefly summarize, the general theory is that social order (or nations) are created when people give up some of their rights to a government in exchange for social order. Accordingly, humans are taken out of the chaos of the state of nature by agreeing to submit themselves to the rule and authority of the government for their long-term best interest. In the Preamble of the Constitution, social contract theory can be seen throughout. For example, it is clearly stating that in exchange for a more perfect Union, Justice, domestic Tranquility, and to promote the general Welfare, among other things, the People of the United States hereby ordain and establish the Constitution. In other words, in order to live in an orderly society that protects the listed rights, the citizens of the United St...

Bukidnon Deer Park and Wildlife Center Reaction Paper Essay Example for Free

Bukidnon Deer Park and Wildlife Center Reaction Paper Essay On August 26, 2012 I visited the Bukidnon Deer Park and Wildlife Center located at San Miguel, Maramag, Bukidnon. The purpose of the trip was to look at some fascinating wild animals that live from different parts of the world and to learn more about them. The first animals I visited were the mammals. Mammals are class of warm-blooded vertebrate animals that have, in the female, milk-secreting organs for feeding the young. The animals available at the park that represents this class were the Long-tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis), Palawan Bear Cat (Arctictus binturong), Common Palm Civet (Paradoxuros hermaphrodites), Balabac Mouse Deer (Tragulus nigricans), Leopard Cat (Pronailarus bengalensis), Philippine Mouse Deer (Cervus marianus), and lastly the Wild Pig (Sus philippinensis). After we have visited the mammals we then go straight to the Aves. But on the way to the Aves we came along to pass by the Japanese Koi (Cyprinus carpio). These are carps with red-gold or white coloring, kept as an aquarium or ornamental pond fish, native in Japan. They were so fun to watch. Finally we arrive where the Aves are caged. Aves are two-legged, warm-blooded animals with wings, a beak, and body covered with feathers. These animals lay eggs from which their young hatch, and most of the species can fly. The animals available at the park that represents this class were the Philippine Serpent Eagle (Spilornis holospilus), Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indicus), Single-wattled Cassowary (Casuarius unappendiculatus), Dwarf Cassowary (Cassuarius bennetti), Indian Blue Peafowl (Pavo cristatus), Indian Ringneck Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), Blue-naped Parrot (Tanygnathus lucionensis), Pied Imperial Pigoen (Ducula bicolor), Nicobar Pigeon (Caleonas nicobarica), Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), Spotted Imperial Pigeon (Ducula carola), Lady Amherst Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae), Blacked-chinned Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus leclancheri), True Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera), Mindanao Rofous Hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax mindanensis), Visayan Hornbill (Penelopide panini ), and lastly the African Ostrich (Struthio camelius) which I liked the most because of its beautiful eyes and long eyelashes. Ostrich is also the largest and fastest living bird. It is a two-toed fast-running bird with a long bare neck, small head, and fluffy dropping feathers. But sad to say, it cannot fly. The third and last animal I visited were the reptiles. Reptiles are animals with tough, dry skin covered with horny scales. Reptiles are vertebrates – animals with backbone. They share characteristics common to other vertebrates – fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals. But reptiles display a unique combination of characteristics that distinguishes them from other vertebrates. Like amphibians, modern reptiles are cold-blooded, or ectothermic. This means that they are unable to produce their own body heat, so they rely on the sun for body warmth, and much of their behavior is directed toward regulating their body temperature. Some of the most widespread living reptiles are turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and alligators. The park only exhibit crocodiles among the class reptilian. They have the Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), and the Philippine Crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis). The Bukidnon Deer Park and Wildlife Center helped for the maintenance of these wild animals that are near to endangerment and they also hatch eggs and do breeding for these animals to survive in this cruel world. This is very important so that our next generation can still see this wonderful creatures and gain knowledge at them. Bukidnon Deer Park and Wildlife Center Reaction Paper. (2016, Nov 27). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

The necessary use of persuation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The necessary use of persuation - Essay Example In an organization it is necessary to have persuasion; as the same is an outward appearance of power. It is the procedure of directing the public in the direction of the implementation of a thought, approach, or accomplishment by way of lucid and emblematic means. It is an analytical approach, which to a certain extent depends on petition more willingly than power. There are various ways a manager of an organization may persuade an employee of a company to work hard; motivation, efficient leadership and communication skills are some factors, which may persuade the employees in working hard within an organization. Organizational behavior is based on the presumption that people perform better when they know what is expected of them and can relate their personal goals towards the organizational goals. Accomplishment at work is not only technological knowledge but it has been seen that the same has also been reliant on the concentration of the personnel. Constructing awareness in the populace to provide their levels best towards the job and the place of work is the means to have persuasion in practice in the first place. When the workers who are being persuaded, fully apply their ability and proficiency, the organizational resources are exploited by a good number of positives ensuing in minimum consumption as well as lesser costs. Productivity augments and competence of operations is maximized to say the least. If a manager persuades his employees it would lead to higher motivation in the midst of the individuals which shows the way to better job satisfaction amongst the workers. Persuasion gives details of an assortment of monetary and non-financial inducements, opportunities for progression, industrial tranquility and compassionate ambiance in the venture. The manager in order to persuade the employees should devise a two-way system of communication for effective persuasion. Rhetoric or public speaking is the skill or to put it in a

The Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) Assignment - 1

The Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) - Assignment Example The present research has identified that the RNIB need donations to stay afloat.   How the organization goes about getting that support is as yet unknown, but it is hoped that the RNIB will read these recommendations and take them seriously enough to consider implementing all, if not a few of, the suggested media campaigns.   These various campaigns span a wide variety of strategies in order to get the most profitability with regard to how donations are collected. That having been said, it is hoped that several of the strategies to be discussed in this report will be ultimately implemented. Hopefully, these strategies will alleviate some key financial stresses. The general role of advertising—in other words, the advertising campaign that will be conducted—will be focused on improving the livelihoods of several people who use the RNIB in order to provide the services and materials as blind or partially sighted people. â€Å"The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) is the leading charity providing practical support, advice, and information for the one million blind and partially sighted people in the UK†. In order to generate revenue, basically, the RNIB needs to conduct some sort of marketing campaign, which will be discussed further in other sections. Generally, however, the role of advertising is to convince the public that funds must be solicited, and elicited, in order to keep its platform and variety of services available for the portion of the public which is blind or partially sighted. Some of the key messages that must be presented are that: a) this is a good cause which benefits the disabled or partially disabled residents of the UK; b) in order to continue providing their clients service, they need funds; and c) without additional funding, the RNIB would probably not be able to continue servicing their clients. That is the message to prospective customers. The messages to current consumers of RNIB is that they must get on the bandwagon in order to promote RNIB or there are going to be serious consequences—one of those consequences, namely being, that RNIB could potentially shut its doors forever without receiving adequate support.

Home Health Care Services for Alzheimer's Patients and Their Research Paper

Home Health Care Services for Alzheimer's Patients and Their Caregivers - Research Paper Example The paper throws light on Alzheimer disease, incurable diseases that worsen with age and eventually lead to death. Alzheimer sufferers in 2006 were 26.6 million. It is predicted that, by 2050, it will affect 1 in every 85 people worldwide. Alzheimer disease symptoms can easily be confused with other age related diseases. The first, early symptoms of Alzheimer are trouble in remembering events that may have occurred recently. It is confirmed using behavioral evaluations, thinking abilities and brain scan tests. At an advanced stage, symptoms include irritability, confusion, aggression, trouble with language mood swings, long term memory loss, withdrawal from family and society, loss of body functions, which leads to eventual death. Researchers infer that the life expectancy after diagnosis relatively seven years with three percent of patients living for more than fourteen years after diagnosis. There are several possible, suggested ways that can be used to delay symptoms in older indi viduals. These ways include a balanced diet, exercise and mental stimulation. These ways can effectively manage the symptoms, therefore, making the patient more comfortable. Since Alzheimer disease is incurable and degenerative, the patient depends on care given by other people. In most cases, the role of the caregiver is usually taken by taken a close relative or the spouse. Alzheimer disease places a massive burden on the caregivers. This places pressure on the caregiver’s life involving psychological, social, economic and physical aspects of his or her life. It is also extremely expensive disease to the family and society. United States and other countries are carrying out research on Alzheimer disease seeking its treatment and prevention. Professional home health agencies give support to the care givers. If the caregiver knows the services rendered by the agencies and know the right time to transit from home to palliative care, gives the caregiver respite and peace. Preve ntion as the basis for effective home care There is no absolute evidence that supports measures as effective in preventing Alzheimer disease. Studies conducted globally regarding delaying and prevention of the disease show inconsistent results. However, there have been proposed relationships between some factors such as diet, pharmaceutical products and cardiovascular risks in relation to developing the disease. Cardiovascular risks factors like diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and smoking are associated with a risk of Alzheimer disease. It is proposed that Mediterranean diet that includes fruits and vegetables, wheat, cereals, fish, red wine and olive oil reduces the risk of this disease. However, there is little evidence to prove that moderate use of alcohol specifically red wine lowers the risk of Alzheimer disease. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs reduce inflammation associated with amyloidal plaques, which increases the chances to be affected by Alzheimer disea se. Research as also shown that people who get involved in intellectual activities, for example, playing board games, reading, completing crossword puzzles, regular social involvement and playing musical instruments are at a lower risk of getting Alzheimer disease. Medical marijuana has been found to hinder the progress of the disease. It prevents by hindering formation of deposits associated with brain disease. However, cannabinoids have not been found to improve or treat the disease. Environmental factors such as metal intake especially aluminum and exposure to solvents increases the risk of Alzheimer although these studies have been criticized based on credibility and accuracy. Management and home based care for Alzheimer patients As explained earlier, there is no absolute cure for Alzheimer disease. The medication available offers small symptomatic help but remains in palliative in nature. The current treatment they can be given to Alzheimer patients

Melissa Mayers decision related to Yahoo and telecommuting Assignment

Melissa Mayers decision related to Yahoo and telecommuting - Assignment Example In addition, the assertion by several researches is that only sustainably managed human resources ensure sustainable growth and development. In this regard, the company’s top management, in consultation with heads of departments, decided to abolish home-based telecommunicating work by its employees, and instead, have them work from company’s the offices. The company notes that by so doing it would have the assurance of long-term sustainable development. Precisely, this decision has numerous advantages especially for the good of the company’s sustainability. Working within the company premises’ vicinity, there is a high likelihood of abating the employees’ abuse of privileges and harm to the company’s productivity. Office-based work would foster better communication and collaboration between and among the staffs thereby enhancing ease in decision-making. Furthermore, the initiative would enhance work reliability and efficiency within the company while also promoting a sense of togetherness. Face-to-face interaction would also serve to promote the company’s culture (Knowl 1). Knowl, David. â€Å"Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer lays down the law, telling telecommuting employees either to show up at the office or find a new job.† New York Daily News. Monday, February 25, 2013. Web May 21, 2014. Viewed from:

Marketing and Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing and Strategy - Essay Example Adaptation is essential to an organization's survival in today’s unreceptive business environment. Marketers need to understand what is at the heart of their consumer offering and stay one-step ahead of the competition in terms of delivering it. It is quite evident that with increased globalization and improved technology, there are constant key emerging trends in marketing which are also changing various consumer needs. Marketing is defined as the conceptualization ad delivery of great customer satisfaction. According to Kaplan and Michael (2010), customers are no longer viewed as members of passive audiences rather they are now active participants in marketing processes. Marketing and marketing communication are changing daily. These changes offer a new wave of communication channels to both new and existing markets, which were not evident in the past decade within organizations. Clearly, there have been significant evidence on shift of focus and budget resources allocation into interactive online marketing which is facilitated with increase use of internet. Based on organizational changes across the globe, new theories of marketing have been largely developed such as electronic, social, and environmental and network marketing. These changes in marketing presume changes within consumers’ behaviors and transition towards electronic marketing (Kaplan and Michael 2010). Technology is changing the world past acknowledgment and consumer potential are evolving with it. No industry can afford to rest on its success. In this tough economic climate, small changes are not always enough to sustain a competitive advantage. New marketing models and fresh approaches to customer problems need to emerge rapidly to stay ahead of the competition. Today, the internet is considered one of the biggest forums. Kaplan and Michael (2010) assert that, there is a new change in marketing where marketers have turned to internet to facilitate their marketing processes. Many marketers have resulted to internet marketing for their business regardless of the kind of business being operated. Internet allows customers to review and purchases an organization product and services regardless on which part of the world they are in. customers are able to access company’s website purchase a commodity or service as well as refer a company to other at the comfort of their homes. Anderson and Narus (2004) maintain that, the use of internet is viewed as a holistic marketing, which has become today platform. Here, holistic marketing widely combines traditional marketing with new computer and digital capabilities to build long term and mutual satisfying relationship between the company and its customers. A good example in the adaptation of a holistic marketing process is in Japan where the country engages in u-Japan where information flows freely which facilitated by a network which can be accessed anytime from anywhere. The letter u represents ubiquitous which indicates a time where internet communication plays a major role in marketing linking both consumers and company (Anderson and Narus 2004). Further, based on online marketing marketers have engaged the use of email newsletters to keep in touch with their customers as opposed to traditional method of designing catalogues and brochures. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) assert that, email newsletters are considered as the method, which displays return on investment (ROI) in internet marketing. For example, markets are using full service providers, which are known to create content as well as designing the marketing layout and later send out organizational newsletters. In addition, online marketing have resulted to two new kinds of resellers namely; infomediaries and metamediaries (Dwyer and Tanner 2006). Infomediaries are web pages such as Google and Yahoo that acts as brokers in today’s marketing world. Metamediaries are companies that possess robust internet

Home Health Care Services for Alzheimer's Patients and Their Research Paper

Home Health Care Services for Alzheimer's Patients and Their Caregivers - Research Paper Example The paper throws light on Alzheimer disease, incurable diseases that worsen with age and eventually lead to death. Alzheimer sufferers in 2006 were 26.6 million. It is predicted that, by 2050, it will affect 1 in every 85 people worldwide. Alzheimer disease symptoms can easily be confused with other age related diseases. The first, early symptoms of Alzheimer are trouble in remembering events that may have occurred recently. It is confirmed using behavioral evaluations, thinking abilities and brain scan tests. At an advanced stage, symptoms include irritability, confusion, aggression, trouble with language mood swings, long term memory loss, withdrawal from family and society, loss of body functions, which leads to eventual death. Researchers infer that the life expectancy after diagnosis relatively seven years with three percent of patients living for more than fourteen years after diagnosis. There are several possible, suggested ways that can be used to delay symptoms in older indi viduals. These ways include a balanced diet, exercise and mental stimulation. These ways can effectively manage the symptoms, therefore, making the patient more comfortable. Since Alzheimer disease is incurable and degenerative, the patient depends on care given by other people. In most cases, the role of the caregiver is usually taken by taken a close relative or the spouse. Alzheimer disease places a massive burden on the caregivers. This places pressure on the caregiver’s life involving psychological, social, economic and physical aspects of his or her life. It is also extremely expensive disease to the family and society. United States and other countries are carrying out research on Alzheimer disease seeking its treatment and prevention. Professional home health agencies give support to the care givers. If the caregiver knows the services rendered by the agencies and know the right time to transit from home to palliative care, gives the caregiver respite and peace. Preve ntion as the basis for effective home care There is no absolute evidence that supports measures as effective in preventing Alzheimer disease. Studies conducted globally regarding delaying and prevention of the disease show inconsistent results. However, there have been proposed relationships between some factors such as diet, pharmaceutical products and cardiovascular risks in relation to developing the disease. Cardiovascular risks factors like diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and smoking are associated with a risk of Alzheimer disease. It is proposed that Mediterranean diet that includes fruits and vegetables, wheat, cereals, fish, red wine and olive oil reduces the risk of this disease. However, there is little evidence to prove that moderate use of alcohol specifically red wine lowers the risk of Alzheimer disease. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs reduce inflammation associated with amyloidal plaques, which increases the chances to be affected by Alzheimer disea se. Research as also shown that people who get involved in intellectual activities, for example, playing board games, reading, completing crossword puzzles, regular social involvement and playing musical instruments are at a lower risk of getting Alzheimer disease. Medical marijuana has been found to hinder the progress of the disease. It prevents by hindering formation of deposits associated with brain disease. However, cannabinoids have not been found to improve or treat the disease. Environmental factors such as metal intake especially aluminum and exposure to solvents increases the risk of Alzheimer although these studies have been criticized based on credibility and accuracy. Management and home based care for Alzheimer patients As explained earlier, there is no absolute cure for Alzheimer disease. The medication available offers small symptomatic help but remains in palliative in nature. The current treatment they can be given to Alzheimer patients

Marketing and Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing and Strategy - Essay Example Adaptation is essential to an organization's survival in today’s unreceptive business environment. Marketers need to understand what is at the heart of their consumer offering and stay one-step ahead of the competition in terms of delivering it. It is quite evident that with increased globalization and improved technology, there are constant key emerging trends in marketing which are also changing various consumer needs. Marketing is defined as the conceptualization ad delivery of great customer satisfaction. According to Kaplan and Michael (2010), customers are no longer viewed as members of passive audiences rather they are now active participants in marketing processes. Marketing and marketing communication are changing daily. These changes offer a new wave of communication channels to both new and existing markets, which were not evident in the past decade within organizations. Clearly, there have been significant evidence on shift of focus and budget resources allocation into interactive online marketing which is facilitated with increase use of internet. Based on organizational changes across the globe, new theories of marketing have been largely developed such as electronic, social, and environmental and network marketing. These changes in marketing presume changes within consumers’ behaviors and transition towards electronic marketing (Kaplan and Michael 2010). Technology is changing the world past acknowledgment and consumer potential are evolving with it. No industry can afford to rest on its success. In this tough economic climate, small changes are not always enough to sustain a competitive advantage. New marketing models and fresh approaches to customer problems need to emerge rapidly to stay ahead of the competition. Today, the internet is considered one of the biggest forums. Kaplan and Michael (2010) assert that, there is a new change in marketing where marketers have turned to internet to facilitate their marketing processes. Many marketers have resulted to internet marketing for their business regardless of the kind of business being operated. Internet allows customers to review and purchases an organization product and services regardless on which part of the world they are in. customers are able to access company’s website purchase a commodity or service as well as refer a company to other at the comfort of their homes. Anderson and Narus (2004) maintain that, the use of internet is viewed as a holistic marketing, which has become today platform. Here, holistic marketing widely combines traditional marketing with new computer and digital capabilities to build long term and mutual satisfying relationship between the company and its customers. A good example in the adaptation of a holistic marketing process is in Japan where the country engages in u-Japan where information flows freely which facilitated by a network which can be accessed anytime from anywhere. The letter u represents ubiquitous which indicates a time where internet communication plays a major role in marketing linking both consumers and company (Anderson and Narus 2004). Further, based on online marketing marketers have engaged the use of email newsletters to keep in touch with their customers as opposed to traditional method of designing catalogues and brochures. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) assert that, email newsletters are considered as the method, which displays return on investment (ROI) in internet marketing. For example, markets are using full service providers, which are known to create content as well as designing the marketing layout and later send out organizational newsletters. In addition, online marketing have resulted to two new kinds of resellers namely; infomediaries and metamediaries (Dwyer and Tanner 2006). Infomediaries are web pages such as Google and Yahoo that acts as brokers in today’s marketing world. Metamediaries are companies that possess robust internet

Essay One Description and Narration Essay Example for Free

Essay One Description and Narration Essay Anyone who has ever achieved anything has had to face many obstacles to accomplish their goals. But what defines their success is never how many obstacles stand in their way, but how many obstacles they overcome. Even though I might have to overcome many tough obstacles in order to become a police officer, I believe that it is important to protect the public and prevent crime. In order to gain a position in the police force, I will have to pass various examinations, such as a written exam that will be based on correct wording, grammar, spelling and punctuation. In my opinion, this exam seems pretty easy because I am good in language arts and reading. Perhaps whenever it comes my time to take this examination, I will ace it. The police academy training also prepares police officers for active duty. The training probably has to be the hardest obstacle for me because it requires intense physical workouts. The first week in training I will have to run, and do calisthenics, which consists of push-ups, crunches, and jumping jacks. I will also have to use the medicine ball to do sit-ups, twist and hand offs, curls presses and extended workouts. Each week I will have to do the sets and reps for these physical workouts and each week the exercises double , so I will have to do double the work. Finding the job as a police officer will definitely be the second hardest obstacle. There will be a lot of competition in order for me to get into police training. In the past, becoming a police officer was not as difficult as it is today. One of the  main reasons that getting a police officer jobs is more difficult now, is that there are many more applicants than there used to be. Once I am a police officer, I can move into other areas like drug investigation. If I become a drug investigator I will have to have five or more years of police experience. Police dog services, also known as K9s is another advancement that I am interested. As K-9 handler I must be able to perform specific tasks with my dog, such as bomb and narcotic detection, human tracking, and finding hidden objects. Or even an explosives disposal technician, which are specialized in training to handle chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons. Out of all these three options, the main one that catches my attention has to be a drug investigator. Hopefully when I have a lot of experience in the police force I can work my way up and become a drug investigator or even a police k-9. It will also be personally gratifying to protect the public.

Adams Building St Marys Church: Nottingham Architecture

Adams Building St Marys Church: Nottingham Architecture Outline the stylistic and technological contexts which influenced the buildings In this patchwork essay I will be outlining the stylistic and technological context which has influenced my chosen buildings, which is the Adams Building and St Marys Church in Nottingham. The Adams Building dates back to the 10th July 1855 has been the largest building in the Lace market district of Nottingham City centre. When Nottingham was the heart of lace production around the globe the building was once a lace warehouse and also a showroom for the people. The building got its name after Thomas Adams who was once a famous Quaker and industrialist in the 19th century. The St Marys Church is known to be the oldest parish in Nottingham and is believed to date back into the Saxon times. The building dates from the end of the reign of Edward III (1377) to that of Henry VII (1485-1509). The entire nave was finished before 1475. It is also The University church for the University of Nottingham and several schools and organisations hold annual services here. Many organisations hold annual yearly services and many use its function for a place of worship. As mentioned above, Adams was a Victorian industrialist with strong Quaker views and a deep social conscience. He had selected a local Nottingham based architect Thomas Chambers Hine who was drawn equally to history and technical innovation. Between them they created a building which, for a variety of social and architectural reasons, is now a quite a unique building. The building shows series of construction from 1854 to about 1874. The earliest phase of the building was when it faced Stoney Street with its unique symmetrical frontage behind a railed courtyard. Adams was very determined had provided good facilities for his workers. A large area of the basement was designed as a chapel where nearly 500 workers and managers would share service each day. On the other hand indoor toilets and rooms where also provided for employees, records show various funds and savings and a book club. During winter heating was also provided by the use of coal and patent warm air which flues through du cts from a heat exchanger boiler. Adams Buildings main entrance display area seems to have a very spectacular two storey light well in the centre of the building which is lit up by decorative gas lamps and approached by a grand staircase. As time went by the building became as part of Nottinghams heritage and was later listed as a grade 2 building.  £16.5 million was also spent on the building for refurbishment allowing the site to convert into Nottinghams college. Several floors had to be altered so that it met the buildings requirements. The main reason for refurbishment of the building was during the WW2 when the RAF used parachutes to store their belonging and this had damaged several floors which forced the building to close in the 1950s. The building became into disrepair as many of the floors were structurally unsound and often heavy machinery had caused some of them to fail. St Marys church is the only the present building on the site which occupies a prominent position in what was originally the Saxon town of Nottingham. Over the years great amount of work was done on the fabric of the church. In 1588 the tower vaulting collapsed into the church and was not replaced until 1812. The foundation stones of the piers of the tower had consisted of various fragments of a much earlier building, probably Saxon, or very early Norman. They consist of capitals, shafts, bases, arch mouldings, and plain ashlar of strong grit-stone. In conclusion to my two building i have outlined the stylistic and technological context which has influenced the twobuildings. Over the years the two building has playeda very important part for their people. The importance of these great two buildings only comes to know if we research thoroughly. Bibliography: http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk/search/detail.aspx?uid=145421 http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1317165 http://flickriver.com/photos/bobwatt/tags/staircase/ https://sarahormerodntuarchitecturaltechnology.wordpress.com/author/sarahnormerod/page/2/ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56275a18e4b0361a456e9c4d/t/5630e9abe4b0d9f80f94ded6/1446046123819/adams-history-leaflet.pdf http://www.nottinghamenglishschool.com/location/ http://www.experiencenottinghamshire.com/discover/adams-and-page-building-p666951 http://southwellchurches.history.nottingham.ac.uk/nottingham-st-mary/harchlgy.php http://www.stmarysnottingham.org/about_st_marys.html Strength through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism | Review Strength through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism | Review In Strength through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third Reich, Shelley Baranowski presents a detailed history of Nazi Germanys main leisure organization Strength through Joy (Kraft durch Freude or KdF). Although she attempts to point out the failures of KdF, the influence of politics and propaganda, and the likely inflated statistics of the organization, Baranowski seems to portray KdF as being largely successful in achieving many of its goals. Particularly, the author argues that KdF achieved an impressive increase in tourism and was relatively successful in improving the popular appeal of the regime and that its after-work branch, Beauty of Labour, improved conditions in numerous companies, though not appeasing workers entirely. This essay will provide arguments that in some cases contradict these conclusions. Overall, Strength through Joy sheds light on some of the positive aspects of the Nazi regime and helps explain to what extent KdF managed to bring leisure to the m asses, serve the political purposes of the party and diminish the role of class in society. Despite these strengths, Baranowski fails to include important economic and statistical measures and comparisons with other Nazi, pre-Nazi and foreign organizations or commercial travel agencies. Furthermore, the author appears to not discuss sufficiently the extent to which KdF was based on Socialist or other Weimar organizations. Without these points elaborated, the author seems to make some questionable interpretations regarding the extent of KdFs success. Therefore, this essay will argue that although this book attempts to provide a detailed and objective look into KdFs activities, it seems to lack information necessary to construct an accurate portrayal of KdFs impact in and on the Third Reich. Strength through Joy was organized under the German Labour Front in late 1933 as a tool to coordinate existing leisure organizations in the newly formed National Socialist regime. It soon consisted of several departments including the Beauty of Labour (for the beatification and improvement of factories), Sport and Tourism, among others. The Nazi idea for the organization was based on the Italian After Work, but while After Work was, as the name suggests, only concerned with organizing workers leisure time after working hours, KdF was meant to take on the ambitious task of managing both work and leisure for German workers (Baranowski 2004, 45). One of the main themes in Strength Through Joy is thus the role of KdF as a political tool and a class destroying mechanism. More specifically, Baranowski points out that KdF was a way to save resources for rearmament by providing the German people with an alternative to mass consumption (2004, 8-9, 119). KdF was supposed to achieve this throug h the creation of cultural activities, sport facilities, the active organization of tourism and the improvement of factories conditions. KdF was also to solve the problem of the eight-hour workday, which according to Robert Ley, leader of the Labour Front, left too much free time at the hands of the workers and could potentially threaten the unity of the racial community (Baranowski 2004, 42). In addition, Kristin Semmens adds that another purpose of KdF was to prepare the German Volk for future struggles through strengthening their bodies, but at the same time to aid for the temporary avoidance of war, through the significant exchange of German and foreign tourists (2005b, 145-146). However, perhaps the most important goal of KdF was to provide the feel in the German public that living standards have improved under the Nazi regime (Baranowski 2004, 38-39). In Strength through Joy Baranowski examines mainly two ways in which KdF attempted to achieve its goals, namely KdFs Beauty of Labour and the Tourism departments. She looks at case studies of workers experiences in factories, trips and cruises and although she attempts to maintain a fairly objective view of KdFs success, from those individual cases she generalizes that the regimes social policy yielded positive results (Baranowski 2005, 197). Baranowski even goes as far as to claim that KdF was relatively successful as an alternative to other options to raise living standards Fordism and Socialism (2005, 136), which seems far-fetched considering these two alternatives were never truly experienced within Nazi Germany. Here, Baranowskis definition of raised living standards is required. It would be perhaps possible to demonstrate that KdF or the regime in general had been successful in improving the well-being of ordinary Germans, if the results are measured by intangibles, such as access to vacations and improved factory conditions. On the other hand, it would be fairly hard to demonstrate the same if the r esults are measured by increased wages or material goods. The author does not provide that definition. Therefore, although it may seem logical to conclude that KdF was at least partially successful in both improving the public perception of the ruling regime and the well-being of Germans judging by some of the statistics it managed to achieve, the correlation between the increasing activity of KdF and the increasing support of the Nazis does not necessarily imply a causal relationship. For example, other factors in the 1930s such as the rise of employment and productivity could have contributed to the increased standards of living. Therefore, one should be careful when drawing conclusions on the KdFs success on a stand-alone basis, especially considering KdF was a part of both the Reich Tourism Association and the Ministry of Propaganda (Semmens 2005b, 147) and therefore it was just a small part of a very big machine. Furthermore, in terms of reducing the clash between classes and promoting the Volksgemeinschaft, Baranowski concludes that KdF helped link Volksgemeinschaft and Lebensraum (2005, 138) and that the organization was no mere beautiful illusion' (2004, 177). Undoubtedly, she does discuss the social conflicts on the KdF trips, but she seems to put more emphasis on the numbers that these tours achieved to draw her conclusions about their success as a political tool. Baranowski states that through the number of tourists who flocked to KdF, it reaped the dividend it sought, the enhancement of the Third Reichs popular legitimacy (2004, 161). However, other historians such as Christopher Kopper find that the propagandistic self-stylization of a seemingly classless society of vacationers was based on a Utopian vision, not on hard socio-economic facts (Kopper, 3). Thus, workers were still underrepresented on tours, middle classes were unhappy with the quality of KdFs service, Jews were consisten tly ignored and discriminated against and party leaders consistently flaunted a well-being far superior to that of most other Germans. More specifically, Kristin Semmens points out that only 5% of all KdF overnight stays in 1939 were taken by workers. She explains that number with the fact that although tour prices were astoundingly low, they were still fairly high compared to workers salaries, which had to cover many expensive trip extras (2005a, 100, 108). This argument weakens significantly Baranawoskis conclusion regarding the success of KdF, especially considering that even in the Weimar Republic workers composed about 10% of all tourists (Baranowski 2004, 15). Furthermore, KdF seems to have actually intensified class conflicts to some extent. First of all, the organization made the middle and especially the upper class angry when it refused to let them sign up for the considerably cheaper tours (Semmens 2005a, 107). Second of all, richer tourists seem to have been complaining openly against the behaviour of the masses of KdF tourists, while the KdF tourists complained they were not getting the same level of service as the richer tourists (Semmens 2005a, 102,107). Eventually, KdF was forced to move to unpopular and poor sites in order to both avoid growing conflicts and to attempt to financially support those underdeveloped areas (Semmens 2005a, 110). As a result, Semmens findings partially contradict Baranowskis, as she claims that KdFs promises to eliminate privileges were entirely unfulfilled and images of community misleading (2005a, 100). Nevertheless, although perhaps not as successful in promoting unity and improving the regimes image as Baranowski argues, KdF seems to have effectively demonstrated Nazi Germanys supremacy over other countries in at least one way -through its foreign tours. German tourists often visited cheap and poor areas of Portugal, Italy and Africa, where they could see for themselves the superiority of the Aryan race and thank the regime for the benefits that it brought (Baranowski 2004, 127). Still, despite the obvious effects of this subtle propaganda, Baranowskis generalization of the impact of these foreign tours on the German population seems far-fetched. Specifically, it is debatable whether she is correct in her conclusion that the KdFs foreign tours persuaded the majority of Germans that an improved economy, rising living standards and the regimes commitment to social opportunity defined the Third Reich (2004, 198), when her evidence seems to consist of only a few case studies from satisfied workers. A second theme that Baranowski discusses, though more briefly, is the emergence and the role of the Beauty of Labour office of Strength through Joy. The Beauty of Labour (Schà ¶nheit der Arbeit, SdA) was given the relatively difficult task of eradicating political divisions on the shop floor [through] environmental improvements in the factory, as well as the supervision of the recreational choices and personal habits of workers (2004, 75). Interestingly, this definition did not entail eliminating racial conflict, as the SdA sometimes described to employers the alternatives to its visions as Jewish (Baranowski 2005, 129). The main goal of this office was therefore to eliminate class conflict in factories by improving the quality and efficiency of design, lighting, ventilation, sanitation, noise and temperature, as well as sports, dining and washing facilities. SdA was most likely a way to increase the regimes public appeal and boost productivity, but also to compensate for reduced wa ges and the destruction of trade unions and the overall domination of employers over employees under the regime. It is fairly difficult to assess what Baranowski believes about the actual achievements of the SdA. On the one hand she seems impressed by the sheer number of events that SdA managed to organize. For example, the author quotes the programs likely inflated statistic that it improved over 17,000 companies by as early as 1935 and over 33,700 companies by 1938 (2004, 56, 110). She explains this apparent employers volunteerism to cooperate with SdAs suggestions with the fact that businesses were grateful to the regime for the destruction of unions, but also that in the mid-1930s organizations were actually competing for labour (Baranowski 2004, 112). Thus, Baranowski suggests that employers themselves considered that making factory improvements would be an important factor for attracting workforce. Baranowski seems to have paid little attention to the third likely reason for corporate cooperation the perceived and desired boost of productivity that would come as a result of improved fact ory environment and increased goodwill on the workers side. Tom Mason claims that there was such a boost though it was likely a very short term one (1966, 120). Thus, it is possible that corporations took that into account when complying with SdAs proposals. On the other hand, Baranowski makes the conclusion that improved factories did not compensate for longer hours, frozen wages and coerced volunteerism' (2004, 116), which seems to have been drawn from evidence of individual workers opinions. This conclusion makes intuitive sense, as within their workplace workers were actually under the direct control of the harsh reality of the Nazi regime geared towards rearmament, marked by frozen wages and curtailed consumption, and often dominated by big business. These workers were underpaid and overworked, and the beatification of their working environment, which they often had to execute themselves in unpaid overtime, seems a less efficient propaganda tool than after-work cultural events or vacation trips. Nevertheless, there were aspects of SdAs policies that workers appear to have welcomed. For example, some companies employees took it to heart to improve their working environment, either for their own healths sake or for the pride of winni ng an SdA award. As a result, Baranowski concludes that the praise [that]Beauty of Labour bestowed on retinues dedicated to improving their workplaces was less empty than it might retrospectively appear (2004, 114). Interestingly, with regards to the SdA program of improving the overall look of villages on key German roads, Baranowski claims that by 1938 only 708 villages were affected (2004, 107). It seems difficult to justify her qualifier (only), as the author does not provide any information on how many villages were supposed to be reformed or how many villages were there in total in Germany at the time. Nevertheless, the number seems vast and demonstrates a point Joshua Hagen supports- that from this success rate it is evident that these villages had some desire for and experienced pride from doing beautification. Particularly, Hagen analyzes the example of Rosenthal and describes how the political agenda and foreign policy at different times of the regime during its 12 year hi story had different impacts on Rosenthals desired image and the tourist groups that visited it. He concludes that the level of initiative demonstrated by local residents to beautify their city, the pride they seemingly experienced from doing that and number of tourists that came to the city were all significant (Hagen 2004, 223). Therefore, one should possibly be careful to qualify SdA as unsuccessful, coercive or as a small scale program, because it appears to have been, at least in some cases, the exact opposite of that. The third main theme in Baranowskis book regards the success of KdF in stimulating tourism in Nazi Germany. The tourism industry was one of the several focal points that the Nazi regime had since its coming to power. With considerable effort the regime strived to coordinate hundreds of independent travel societies and as a result by 1938 the Reich Tourism Association had managed to become a central authority incorporating all tourism organizations. Additionally, through establishing a legal framework, it was able to create a proper hierarchy, standards and professionalization requirements. Thus, it managed to distance itself from the usual organizational chaos in the Nazi regime (Semmens 2005a, 9, 23, 34, 41).Tourism is also the most widely covered and most debatable point in Baranowskis book. That the numbers KdF managed to achieve are impressive seems beyond doubt from 1934 to 1939, 43 million Germans took advantage of its trips (Baranowski 2004, 55), thus becoming the worlds bigg est organizer of package tours (Kaiserfeld 2009, 9). However, what is problematic is the perspective that Baranowski takes as presenting KdF as achieving these statistics almost single-handedly, with minimal discussion of the size and impact of commercial tourism in Nazi Germany , the role of the improving economy on the growing desire of Germans (and citizens of virtually all industrialized countries) to travel and of the significance of Socialist and Weimar organizations to the jump start of the organization. At the same time, she provides few economic figures to support her conclusions, and even those stand alone, left with no explanation as to their value in the 1930s and compared with neither commercial tourism, nor with similar organizations in France, Italy, Spain or Britain. When one does such a comparison, it appears that while KdF did achieve a rise in tourism, it was by no means unique. For example, Kopper states that while only 15% of adults in Nazi Germany took a week-l ong vacation in 1939, in the same year about 40% of the British vacationed for a week (2009, 2,4). Moreover, Semmens points out that between 1928 and 1933, domestic travel decreased by 40% (2005a, 8), which was most likely the result of the Depression. This allows for the reasonable assumption that at least part of the increase in tourism in the 1930s was due to the return of tourism to pre-Depression levels, as people deprived of resources and possibility to travel for several years finally had this opportunity again. Perhaps even more importantly, while Baranowski discusses in great detail the positive impressions that the KdF Tourism departments flagship- its cruises left on certain workers and other tourists, it seems that one cannot generalize from these individual cases that Nazi tourism or KdF as a whole left the same agreeable impression on the German population. In addition, cruises only accounted for about 2% of all KdF trips (Hachtmann 2007, 124) and so they were experie nced by a very small portion of Germans. What is more, on a national level KdF never really managed to compete with commercial tourism within Nazi Germany, as it never actually exceeded 11 % of the tourism industry. Furthermore, KdF had troublesome collaborations with hotels, restaurants and other travel accommodations, because the rates these had to agree on were far below what they charged individuals or even travel agencies (Baranowski 2004, 165). Importantly, one of Baranowskis strongest arguments regarding KdF that it promised comfort, individual choice and outlets for fantasy (2004, 161) can be disputed. The organizations cheap package tours certainly allowed at least some workers access to previously inaccessible luxuries and left them pleased (Semmens 2005a, 117). However, for the majority the KdF vacation meant a visit of unknown or poor domestic areas by travelling in a 3rd or 4th class train cars, cramped with hundreds of other tourists (Semmens 2005a, 126), which could probably be hardly described as comfort or fantasy. In addition, Baranowski nearly neglects to discuss the role of commercial tourism in the public perception of the Nazi regime. In contrast, Kristin Semmens argues that this type of tourism was more influential on German opinion of the Nazi party, which the regimes leaders realized well. Semmens further claims that this perceived importance of private tourism was the reason why KdF was not allowed to interfere with or endanger in any way the commercial travel sector and often had to succumb to travelling to unfamiliar sites. However, the Nazis did not merely let commercial travel unattended or uncontrolled. Instead, through it they purposefully provided continuity and an illusory escape from everyday reality in a particular area of civilian life. Thus, commercial tourism actually became a calculated attempt to maintain a degree of touristic normality (Semmens 2005a, 40, 73, 97, 99). Semmens concludes that there was only a superficia lly state-free sphere in the realm of tourism (2005b, 157), and thus both KdF and commercial tourism actually served the same, essentially political, purpose. However, there was one important difference between the two types. When the war started, KdFs activities became critically limited or stopped completely, and the organization was reduced to troop entertainment. At the same time, commercial tourism thrived until late in the war (2004, 201). Private travel survived in other hit hard countries as well, such as in occupied France until about 1943 (Furlough 2002, 469) and Civil War stricken Spain, where it thrived throughout the entire WWII (Holguin 2005, 1424). This demonstrates the inherited deficiencies of the state-run KdF as compared to private tourism that it was extremely dependent on state budgets, public appeasement, rearmament and later war effort, macroeconomic and political conditions. Thus, when problems began the government support needed to maintain the organization was no longer available and KdF had no choice but to assume a much smaller scale and a less visible role in the new war reality. This essay has attempted to provide a critical review of Shelley Baranowskis book Strength through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third Reich. Quotes, statistics and examples were drawn from different sources to confirm, or more often to contrast, Baranowskis findings in three main areas of her book the success of KdF as a political tool, the impact of Beauty of Labour on workers view of the regime and the role of Strength through Joy for the increase in tourism in the 1930s. For all three points, some weaknesses and limitations of Baranowskis work were pointed out. Admittedly, this essay has therefore taken a rather critical view of Baranowskis book. However, most criticism has been directed not towards the authors research, data, sources or methods of presentation, but rather towards her conclusions. Thus, this essay should not help diminish the importance of the book for the topic of tourism in the Third Reich. While Baranowskis book may have potential for improvement, it is certainly one of the first and so far major sources on Strength through Joy available in English. The significance of the book is further elevated when one considers that KdFs main archive and other related documents were largely destroyed during WWII, that the topic of tourism and popular appeal in a dictatorship are generally difficult to research and analyze, and that throughout most of the book the author has actually managed to preserve an organized, objective and fairly detailed view of her topic. In conclusion, a consideration of the points made in this essay may certainly contribute to Baranowskis pioneering study, but even without them the book still remains a strong addition to the Third Reichs historiography. Bibliography Baranowski, Shelley. Strength through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Baranowski, Shelley. Radical Nationalism in an International Context: Strength through Joy and the Paradoxes of Nazi Tourism. In Histories of Tourism edited by John Walton. Clevedon, UK: Channel View Publications, 2005. Furlough, Ellen. Une le?on des choses: Tourism, Empire, and the Nation in Interwar France. French Historical Studies 25, no. 3 (2002): 441-473. Hachtmann, Rà ¼diger. Tourismus-Geschichte. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 2007. Hagen, Joshua. The Most German of Towns: Creating an Ideal Nazi Community in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94, no.1 (2004): 207-227. Holguin, Sandie. National Spain Invites You: Battlefield Tourism during the Spanish Civil War. The American Historical Review 10, no. 5 (2005): 1399-1426. Kaiserfeld, Thomas. From Sightseeing to Sunbathing: Changing Traditions in Swedish Package Tours from Edification by Bus to Relaxation by Airplane in the 1950s and 60s. Working Paper, Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, 2009. https://www-edit.sys.kth.se/polopoly_fs/ 1.29134!KAISERF.pdf Kopper, Christopher M. The Breakthrough of the Package Tour in Germany after 1945. 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