Luis Velez Essays - Geography Of Asia, Tibet, Asia, Western China

Luis Velez David Eichler World Civilization: China Cultural Paper 10/10/2016 The Tibetans / Zang The Tibetans are a Chinese ethnic group who first settled in the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet around the 6th century. They currently number an estimate of 7.8 million. Significant Tibetan minorities also live outside of Tibet Autonomous Region inChina, and inIndia, Nepal, andBhutan. Tibetans speak differentlanguages, many varieties of which areequally incoherent spoken by approximately 8 million people. They belong to the Tibeto-Burman languages. The traditional, or fabled, explanation of the Tibetan people's origin is that they are the descendants of the humanPha Trelgen Changchup Sempa. It is thought that most of the Tibet-speakers in Southwest China, including the Tibetans, are direct descendants from theancient Qiang.Most Tibetans practiceBuddhism, though some observe the nativeBonreligion and there is also minorMuslim group. Tibetan religion influencesart, drama, and architecture, while the harshgeography of Tibethas produced an adaptive culture ofTibetan medicineand cuisine. An earlier study in 2010 suggested that the majority of the Tibetan people may have derived from the Han around 3,000 years ago. However, there are prospects of much earlier human descendants of Tibetians, and these early residents may have contributed to the present Tibetan genetics. Historical documents have proven that the leader of the Yarlung Tribe declared himself as the "Zambo" or king of the tribe, thus initiating the first direct contact between the Tibetians and the Han people, including other ethnic groups in China. The Kingdom of Tibet began to have recurrent contact with the Tang Dynasty in 1618 and the Tibetan and Han peoples started to mutually benefit from each other through trade and other cultural exchanges . As for religion, most Tibetans generally practice Tibetan Buddhismor a collection of local customs known asBon. There is also a small group of Muslims and Christians, but it represents only a small fraction of the entire population. One interesting aspect of their religion is the existence of the prayer wheel, which is a religious artifact seen amongst Tibetan people. Today, Tibetans can be observed inserting Mani stonesprominently in public places.Lamas also play a role in the lives of the Tibetan people, leading religious rites and residing in the monasteries. The Tibetan people are recognized for their diverse culture. For example, Tibetan artis deeply religious in nature, from the divinely made statues found in Gonpas to wooden carvings and the complex designs of theThangkapaintings. Tibetan art can be observed in practically every object and aspect of daily life. The Tibetan opera, also known aslhamo,is a mixture of dances, hymns and songs. The list is derived from Buddhist tales and Tibetan history. Their architecture is influenced by many other ethnic groups including primarily the Han, but it is also unique in itself. Many of the buildings and monasteries are built on elevated, bright sites facing the south. They are usually made of a combination of rocks, wood, and cement. Limited energy is available for heating or lighting, so roofs are made on a flat surface to conserve warmth, and several windows are employed. Walls are also usually inclined inwards at 10 degrees as a protection against recurrent earthquakes in the hilly area. Ti betan homes are white-washed on the outside, and beautifully decorated inside. Tibet has been occupied and taken over by China and the Chinese People's Liberation Army since 1951 with the purpose of fully destroying the Tibet's identity as a group. This has regularly been denominated by the people of Tibet as a cultural genocide. Eight years of resistance of the government and repression led to the Tibetan Uprising of 1959, in which Tibetans protested in an attempt to overthrow the Chinese regime; instead, the uprising led to the fleeing of HH the Fourteenth Dalai Lama into India, where he has been living since. A few hundred Tibetans originally followed the 14th Dalai Lama into exile, and since then hundreds of thousands have followed. Then, in the late 1980s, pressures between Tibet and the Chinese Armed Forces increased until violence peaked with the losses of many protesting Tibetans by police fire. Other protests for the exiled Dalai Lama and pro-liberty (such as the march in Tiananmen Square in Beijing) received worldwide attention and made Tibetan religious devotion equal to radical views in the eyes of the

Secret Recipe Essay Essays

Secret Recipe Essay Essays Secret Recipe Essay Essay Secret Recipe Essay Essay Background Secret Recipe. a popular life style coffeehouse concatenation. has become a family name following its introduction in 1997. Secret Recipe has successfully established in brandname in Malaysia. Singapore. Indonesia. Thailand. China. Philippines. Pakistan. Brunei and Australia by virtuousness of its all right quality bars. merger nutrient and typical service. A prima and largest coffeehouse concatenation in Malaysia. with Halal enfranchisement awarded by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia ( JKIM ) . Secret Recipe in committed to go on frog here to the criterions of readyings of all nutrient and processing works in the eating house in conformity to the regulative guideline including HACCP and VHM guidelines. Customers can ever bask in assurance from more than 20 types of merger nutrient. 40 bars creative activities and pastries. with a flavorful scope of ice pick and drinks offered in all Secret Recipe mercantile establishments. In a short period of 13 old ages. Secret Recipe has experienced a rapid growing of over one hundred and fifty ( 150 ) coffeehouse throughout the part. Secret Recipe continuously strives to surplus its ain achievements and to be recognized as a leader in the industry. Strengths 1. Brand Secret Recipe has strong term on trade name edifice earlier on by constructing easy to retrieve logo. corporate coloring material. selling schemes. uniforms. bill of fare layout. Interior design and client service criterions to differ than others. 2. Merchandise The merchandises offered at Secret Recipe are high in standard and quality. which specially crafted and tailored by the Secret Recipe. The merchandises are besides closely monitored to keep their quality at their production works in KlangValley and the eating house besides offers broad choices of secret formula of homemadecakes. baked sweets. drinks. merger nutrients and many others 3. Selling Secret Recipe have the strength in footings of cost every bit good as the selling channels. They have utilized assorted methods of advertisement and selling through cyberspace. booklets. catalogues. circulars. newspapers and telecasting advertizement and many others. They besides offered particular bars and bill of fare during particular juncture such as Valentine’sDay. Mother’s Day and others. 4. Franchised System Franchise system is advantageous for Secret Recipe as they have the rights and entree to informations from the central offices. All the trim operational systems. buying systems. hive awaying. merchandises. service s criterions. selling and many others has bring easiness of operations for Secret Recipe and minimise the drawbacks.

Individual Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Individual Project - Essay Example Some other communication responsibilities entail conflict resolution, employee motivation and speaking to the public on behalf of the company Managers have to ensure they have qualified staff to perform their duties. They schedule training programs and orientation and always carry out continuous assessment to identify training needs. They work with every employee to create career objectives and plans to achieve them It is the sole responsibility of a manager to ensure the success of the organization. Managers are hired to run daily operations, maintain quality control, coach employees and make sure that company’s products and services meet the needs of the customers. Managers review the company’s financial, production and budgetary goals to ensure the success of the organization Ethics forms everything we do in day to day activities. As a manager, you continuously make decisions through the prism of your ethics and values. Ethical dilemma involves situations where it becomes difficult to ascertain whether a conduct is regarded as right or wrong. Project Management Institute (PMI) provides guidelines to be followed before making a decision. As for the case where a manager is faced with a dilemma of whether to expose the information to his friend, the following guidelines should be followed to determine whether the decision to be made is right or wrong. An organization exists in various types of environment ranging from political, economic, social, legal and technological environment. These are forces that are outside control of an organization and can cause some potential threats to the performance of an organization. Managers should therefore understand that any change in the global environment can create opportunities for them to strengthen the organization. On the other hand, managers should also understand that such changes may pose a threat to the organization if not properly handled This is the process where an organization measures

Driving Under the Influence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Driving Under the Influence - Essay Example Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA (2013) indicate that motor vehicle crashes resulting from alcohol impairment costs over $37 billion every year. In 2010, the number of associated deaths were 10,000, accounting for about 31% of traffic-related deaths in the US, implying one death in every 51 minutes. Therefore, those driving under the influence pose a serious social problem to the society. This has seen many organizations, such as Students Against Drunk Driving, SADD and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD, set up to impact on public attitude and the enactment of appropriate legislation on DUI (Carper & McKinsey, 2012). A police officer could contact a driver for various reasons including speeding, dangerous and aggressive driving, running the red lights or just an equipment violation. Pulling over such drivers aims at ensuring the safety of the suspect and all the other road users. When one is suspected of intoxication and as such stopped, sub mission to a field sobriety test would be required. This preliminary test conducted at the scene could involve standard roadside tests as documented by the NHTSA (2013). An officer conducting the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test looks whether the suspect’s eyes jerk involuntarily. ... Intrusive and extractive methods have however proven to be expensive as more states rely on the accurate and economical method of using machines such as the breathalyzer to measure vapor content. Refusal to submit to such a chemical test in the pre-text of the right against self-incrimination could lead to the driver’s license being revoked. This follows the implied consent to test of sobriety whenever suspected by the police, with Nemeth (2012) documenting this implication through the acceptance of a driving license. Carper & McKinsey give the example of the Illinois Vehicle Code which states that for any one below 21 â€Å"arrested as evidenced by a Uniform Traffic Ticket†¦ shall be deemed to have given consent to chemical tests of blood, breath, or urine† to determine the blood alcohol content of such a person, provided the police have a reason to believe that the driver has consumed alcohol (2012, 474). Even so, before revoking the license, the driver has the r ight to warning of the effect of law and administrative or court hearing. All the 50 states in America have set the blood alcohol concentration, BAC of 0.08 as the legal limit for all drunk driving. The BAC for commercial drivers is even lower, at 0.04. For those below the age of 21, the limit is set to zero: any level of alcohol warrants arrest of such persons. Some jurisdictions illegalize driving while taking alcohol, as such, open container of alcohol in a car could warrant an arrest. BAC conveniently measures the alcohol content in the blood by weight. According to Hunter, Wong, Beighley, and Morral (2006), this intoxication level could be reached by a 120-pound female and 180-pound male after only two

Outsourcing and Risks.Outsourced Software Products Essay

Outsourcing and Risks.Outsourced Software Products - Essay Example Companies generally opt for outsourcing to reduce production costs (i.e. outsource to a company that would develop the software in less cost), to access skilled labor force and knowledge expertise (i.e. when the in house employees do not have the essential domain knowledge and skills required for development and teaching costs would be too high and time consuming), to achieve on-time marketing (i.e. when the company cannot meet a deadline within the available time and resources) or to level workload (i.e. when the company cannot complete all tasks as per schedule). Although the service providing organizations offer outsourcing companies with opportunities towards stability, there are some basic challenges and risk involved in the various kinds of outsourcing means. When any of these services are taken from a company within the same geographical region, it refers to as domestic or onboard outsourcing; when acquired from neighbouring countries that are aware of the cultural status of o utsourcing company, it is called near-shore outsourcing and when the services are acquired from beyond national boundaries, it attributes to global or off-shore outsourcing. This document discusses a major common issue associated with these outsourcing means i.e. the maintenance of outsourced software. 2. Issues in Software Maintenance Software maintenance is usually the longest and most demanding phase in the software lifecycle model. New releases and upgrades make software outdated in no time. Therefore, software companies invest considerable resources in keeping the software in line with customers’ requirements even after the software is launched (Ahmed, 2006). For software maintenance, a company has two options; either to maintain it in-house which could induce a technical overhead or outsource the maintenance which imposes managerial overhead. Whether in-house or outsourced, when the various components of software are outsourced for development, the maintenance activitie s such as bug fixing, code maintenance, upgrades, hardware/software compatibility, testing, etc. becomes challenging. This is because the outsourced software could either be of fundamentally low quality or the associated documentation could be incomplete or poor. As a result of this, the contractor may have to invest extra budget in in-house maintenance of the developed product. For instance, a team would have to be arranged to reverse engineer the finished product and extract the missing details in the documentation or attain its better comprehension. In case of upgrades, its effects in the working of various components would have to be retested. Or the contractor could avoid the hassle and outsource the maintenance task by paying some extra. Both ways the objective of outsourcing which is to save cost is somewhat compromised in the maintenance (Earl, 1996). Secondly, if various components of the software are outsourced to different parties then in case any problem is found in the software product, none of the parties would take complete responsibility of the association of the problem to their developed component. And therefore, troubleshooting problems would get further complicated (Ahmed, 2006). Even besides testing, verifying and validating the software on test data, it could happen that the software shows different results when installed in the actual environment. In that case, the software maintenance crew (in-house or outsourced) would have to take over as the purchase would already have been made from the vendor. In case of poor documentation and low quality code, the maintenance team would be placed in a critical situation as the

The Use Of Operations Management Today Business Essay

The Use Of Operations Management Today Business Essay Operation management is a term used or the activities which produce and deliver product and services.in many small organisation operation management performed by people who perform task and activities within the organisation. First of all we use the four Vs of operations, volume, variety, variation, and visibility. Before we tackle the activity think about how we could measure each of these dimensions for the operations that we will visit, Volume   It is important here to distinguish between the actual volumes in this case the number of customers served that the impressive burger has to cope with, and the maximum it could cope with. This is called the capacity of the operation. Capacity is easier to measure because it can be calculated by multiplying the number of seats in the takeaway by the average number of customers per hour (calculated by timing the customers) and by the number of hours the takeaway is open. In other words, imagine there is a queue of people outside the restaurants, what is the maximum number of customers that the impressive burger could serve? Contrast this capacity figure with the actual number of customers in a day that the restaurant serves. You could ask the restaurant manager for this information or make an approximation from your own observations at different times of day. Variety   There are two important aspects to measuring variety for restaurants. The first is the range of different foods that the impressive burger serves. Just count the number of different items on the menu to get an indication of this. The other factor to take into account is whether the impressive burger will customize food to your own preference. For example, does it serve burger well-done, medium and rare? Does it allow you to choose the fillings for your sandwiches? Etc. Variation   Possibly the easiest way to measure variation is the ratio of peak demand in a day or a week, to the lowest demand during that day or week. Again, you could try asking the impressive burger manager for this information or (if you have time) make observations throughout the day or even the week. So, for example, if the restaurant was busy up to its full capacity for part of the day but, at its lowest, was only ten per cent full, then the peak to trough ratio is 10:1. Visibility   This is a relatively simple issue. Simply ask, how much of the preparation of the food do you witness. It is unusual to see every aspect of food preparation, for example preparing the vegetables, slicing the bread etc. But you may see food being cooked and assembled in some burger restaurants. The other way of looking at this issue is to ask yourself whether the preparation of the food is being deliberately put centre stage in the restaurant. Some restaurants deliberately do this so as to entertain customers while they are waiting for their food. Function of Operation management The role of the operations function means something beyond its obvious responsibilities and tasks it means the underlying rationale of the function, the very reason that the function exists. The implementer of business strategy. The supporter of business strategy. The driver of business strategy Two things are important in understanding these roles. First, they are stated in order of difficulty and in order of importance. Implementing business strategy is a very basic responsibility for operations, supporting business strategy is what most operations should aspire to, but driving business strategy is only possible if the operation really does have unique capabilities. Second, they are cumulative in the sense that an operation cannot be a supporter of business strategy unless it has skills as an implementer, and cannot drive business strategy unless it has the skills to support the business strategy. Process Volume-variety and design In the four Vs of operations were described. These were volume, variety, variation and visibility. The first two of these volume and variety are particularly important when considering design issues in operations management. Not only do they usually go together (high variety usually means low volume, high volume normally means low variety) but together they also impact on the nature of products and services and processes which produce them. The volume and variety of an operations activities are particularly influential in determining the way it thinks about its performance objectives. The figure below illustrates how the definitions of quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost are influenced by the volume-variety position of the operation. Quality Quality in a low volume-high variety process such as an architects practice, for example, is largely concerned with the final aesthetic appearance of the building and the appropriateness of its detailed design. In an exceptionally high volume-low variety process, such as an electricity supply company, quality is exclusively concerned with error-free service electricity must be constantly available in the correct form (in terms of voltage, frequency, etc.). The meaning of quality has shifted from being concerned primarily with the performance and specification of the product or service towards conformity to a predefined standard, as we move from low volume-high variety operations through to high volume-low variety operations. Speed Speed for the architects practice means negotiating a completion date with each client, based on the clients needs and the architects estimates of how much work is involved in each project. Speed is taken to its extreme in the electricity utility where speed means literally instant delivery. No electricity company could ask its customers to wait for their delivery of electricity. Speed therefore means an individually negotiated delivery time in low volume-high variety operations, but moves towards meaning instant delivery in some high volume-low variety operations. Dependability Dependability in processes such as the architects practice means keeping to each individually negotiated delivery date. In continuous operations, dependability often means the availability of the service itself. A dependable electricity supply is one which is always there. So dependability has moved from meaning on-time delivery in low volume-high variety operations to availability in high volume-low variety operations. Flexibility Flexibility in low volume-high variety processes such as the architects practice means the ability to design many different kinds of buildings according to its clients various requirements. With the electricity companys process, the need for product flexibility has disappeared entirely (electricity is electricity, more or less) but the ability to meet almost instantaneous demand changes through volume flexibility is vital if the company is to maintain supply. Flexibility has moved from meaning product flexibility in low volume-high variety operations to volume flexibility in high volume-low variety operations. Cost Cost, in terms of the unit cost per product or service, varies with both the volume of output of the operation and the variety of products or services it produces. The variety of products or services in low-volume operations is relatively high, which means that running the operation will be expensive because of the flexible and high skill levels employed. Further, because the volume of output is relatively low, a few products or services are bearing the operations high cost base. Also, and more significantly for the operation, the cost of each product or service is different. At the other end of the scale, high-volume operations usually produce similar products or services, output is high, so that whatever the base cost of the operation, it is shared among a high number of products or services. Cost per unit of output is therefore usually low for operations such as the electricity utility but, more significantly, the cost of producing one second of electricity is the same as the next second. Cost is relatively constant. Change management Change the face nothing will change but facing to the change everything can change. The process of making things different is known as CHANGE. like impressive burger changed its menu to get more customer attention but because the lack of staff and its training business started to decline. Organisational change is an on-going process, Change can make things different Change is an ongoing activity Change creats new opportunities and challenges. Change is extensive in nature Change is impossible to avoid Help organisation to move from the present state to a desire state. Bring new opportunities for the business Reasons for change Internal factor There may be a change in leadership, structural change, adoption of new technology, there may be a decline in profit like impressive burger because of change, industrial relation problems. External factor Change in the policies by the government, technology advancement, demographic changes, change in the market, changes in the economy conditions. There are different types of changes, Planned and unplanned change Rate of change can be slow or fast Remedial and development change Wide and subsystem change for organisation Impressive burger point of view it brought some risks and uncertainties and brought new challenges for the staff and decline in the profit was big threat to the organisation. Failure reason for Impressive Burger Main reason behind problems of Impressive Burger 1. New service development: Due to development of new services all the schedule and activities of company disturbed. Numbers of operations within the impressive burger increased, but number of staff and machines remained same. 2.lack of proper arrangement: due to fast growing changes, there should be need to arrange staff,equipment,inventory,cleaning services,maintance etc. But due to lack of proper planning all schedule is disturbed and cause problems. 3. Reduction of staff: as the operation of PLC company increases, there is need to be recruiting new staff. but plc company did not focus on these things. results of less no. of staff:   Poor productivity levels   Bad feeling among staff    Customer complaints 4. Lack of training: due to increasing customers and functions of PLC there is need to be trained staff. Lack of proper training causes customers unsatisfaction. 5. Lack of machinery: main problem of the company Is that they increase their operation function But there is reduction of equipments or resources. The staff cannot do anything without useful resources like electrical equipment, fridge, microwave oven, vacuume etc. 6. Lack of motivation of staff: motivation encourages staff to do their services properly .but lack of motivation from high authority side, the staff dont know how, when and why to do this.   Dissatisfaction about the job   High level of absenteeism   The search for a replacement 7. Overburden of staff: due to less number of employees, the responsibilities of each staff member become double. For e.g. the person who cooks food, now doing dish washing as well. These type of workload became employees frustrated, irritated and they cant serve customers properly 8. Time consumption: due to lack of machinery and equipment, the whole process from food making to serving becomes time consuming the order that suppose to be completed in 4 min is now taking 9 min. 9. Hygienic problem: due to lack of proper staff and equipments, the hygienic problem increases. Because there is not proper cleaning of store inventory, kitchen, bathroom. So that the customer feel uncomfortable to sit on these places. 10. Lack of quality: quality is consistence conformance to customers expectation, the quality of product decreases day by day due to overall problems. 11. Incomplete order: due to untrained and rude staff the customers order remains uncomplete.This is also the main cause of their operation problem. Impressive burger failed its operation because of following reasons, Change management Change in impressive burger menu brought some uncertainties and new challeneges for the organisation which created a threat for the company because staff was not ready for a change because of unplanned change. People dont resist change , they resist being changed. (peter senge) If u want to make enemies, try to change something. (Woodrow Wilson) Impressive burger made change because of changing customer needs and preferences. Goal of change management is to ensure that procedure and standards are being followed efficiently and prompt handling of all changes, to minimise change related incidents and service quality to improve day to day operations in the organisation. The Need to Change The pressure of market forces organisation to change rapidly. Specified this persistent speed, influential discover they no longer can consider above choices before taking action. Organizations must be quick in considering and acting on changing needs in staffing. Leaders must ask: What kind of expertise they need? What kind of experts do we need in future? Ensure that we have exact amount of staff? Ensure that we have right amount in future too? Compare the cost of staffing with other same kind of business? These questions are difficult but essential and if we dont address these problems we have to react quick if problem happens in the organisation. Reduction in force almost always happens when we respond shoot from hip. Study explains us that downsizing is unsafe chance which means very less chance of improvement in revenue or production. Downsizing has different alternatives. There are thirteen different alternatives which explain either need for long term staffing and reduction in short term expenses. Last option number fourteen is considerably is one possible option as well.but I personally think that it is awrong choice for the organisation and its people because it is too much on the side corporate philosophy nowadays so it should be consider with other options. Several of the alternatives depend on two important points. They Share the Discomfort.  This seems to be a significant factor in the success of alternatives, according to researcher Wayne Cascio. Sharing the pain means that no one from executive to maintenance worker is immune from the strategies for saving money. Strong Human Resource Advantages.  The Human Resources Department must be proactive in developing career assessment, training and placement opportunities, and creative wage and benefit packages. Long-Term Staffing Alternatives 1.  Hiring Linked to Vision The institution identifies what skills it will need in order to meet its vision and goals. During job interviews, human resources and department managers need to ask questions specifically related to skills it will need now and in the future. This strategy helps assure that you are recruiting and hiring people who can meet future challenges. 2.  Cross Training By understanding the skill mix of staff today and linking it to the skills needed in the future, the organization allows individual employees to determine what they need to do in order to remain gainfully employed. It also gives the training department a clear mandate regarding the type of skills training they need to make available to staff. In Prahalad and Hamels excellent book  Competing for the Future, they suggest that businesses identify their core competencies and build strategies based on these fundamental building blocks. This provides a foundation for the organization and employees to build a career development process that matches what the organization needs. 3.  Succession Planning The institution needs to identify the types of management and technical skills it needs in various positions. Human Resources should work with line managers to identify likely candidates so that they can begin preparing them for positions once they become vacant. Often, succession planning is left to chance. Baseball provides a good analogy for effective succession planning. With its farm systems, players move up from A to AA to AAA as their skills increase and as openings occur. 4.  Redeployment within the Organization Redeployment can be linked to Alternative Placement, but it seems to be used most often within the organization. Successful redeployment requires: A sophisticated career management process so that managers and employees are aware of open positions. Career assessment and development activities that allow people to get ready for positions. One company linked individual career planning to corporate objectives so that people could see how their plans fit into overall direction. It allowed individuals who wished to remain within the company to make career development and placement decisions that increased their chances of succeeding. 5.  Creating Value-Added and Revenue-Enhancing Opportunities This is an Employee Buy Out within the organization. A group of employees create a new business or line of service that the company can market. (3M is a leader in this form of entrepreneurship.) Of course, the company does not enter this agreement lightly. When Ford was about to sell the name Mustang to a foreign automaker, engineers asked Ford leadership for a chance to reintroduce a Ford version of the car. Leaders said they would agree if the engineers could demonstrate that the car could be built to certain stringent quality specifications and manufacturing time that rivaled their most efficient operations. On their own time, the engineers developed plans that met these requirements. Cost-Saving Strategies 6.  A Comprehensive Model Automakers, as well as other industries in Japan, have adopted a series of steps they use as an alternative to downsizing. If the first step does not get the needed savings, they move to the next. Compensation. 50% of compensation is set, the other 50% is determined by profit or productivity measures. Hours. Cut the number of hours. Wages. Cut salaries. Placement. Make arrangements with other employers who will agree to take displaced workers. 7.  Reduced Hours A policy  is established that either places everyone in a particular job category on a flexible working arrangement or creates a flex-pool made up of volunteers from the department. The goal is to reduce the number of hours worked by each employee. Job sharing is a variation of flextime and has been used successfully in many organizations. People divide a job between them, with each person receiving proportionate benefits. 8.  Lower Wages Wages are lowered in order to save money. Wage reduction programs differ, but here are some typical elements: Everyone in the institution is part of the wage reduction program. Executive compensation is reduced by the highest percentage, followed by middle management, with non-management staff suffering the smallest percentage of loss. This is usually a temporary program instituted to get through a downturn or until other reductions such as attrition can take place. 9.  Attrition Attrition, or waiting for people to retire or leave on their own, can work in two ways: Natural attrition. Positions are not filled as people leave. This can work in an organization where turnover is sufficiently high to gain the savings quickly. Offer voluntary early retirement or other packages to people within a certain category, such as particular position or years of service. If this offer does not result in enough savings, it is extended to a broader pool. In an agreement between the Communication Workers of America and NYNEX, they created an eight-step process for reducing costs. 10.  Alternative Placement Offer early retirement incentives to pension-eligible employees in a specific area. If that doesnt get sufficient response, expand the pool and so on. None of these options includes downsizing. The organization makes arrangements with similar institutions or suppliers for placement. A variation of this occurred at ATT: after the company said it would downsize, they ran ads letting other technology companies know that there were many talented men and women available for positions. Although they have been accused of using this as a public relations gimmick, it has resulted in a significant number of requests for more information about potential candidates. 11.  Leave of Absence People are offered a leave of absence with full benefits for a specified period of time to help organization weather a downturn. Although people are promised a job upon completion of the leave, it may not be the same job or at the same pay level. This alternative must be used as a temporary measure to help an organization through a crisis. 12.  Employee Buy-Outs Some organizations have allowed employees to buy the operation that was slated for closing and set up their own business. 13.  Shared Ownership An alternative to wage cuts is concessions for equity. In other words, trading pay increases or pay cuts in return for company stock. This requires a high degree of employee participation in decision making. Employee ownership seems to falter when people are owners in name only, but are shut out of the decision making process. 14.  Downsizing Downsizing means that the organization makes a decision to terminate people against their will. Although sometimes described as getting rid of dead wood, the sweep of downsizing is much broader. (If an organization really has so much dead wood, shouldnt those who allowed this condition to persist be the ones to go?) There appears to be no good way to downsize. Studies indicate that in over half the cases, it does not meet its intended goals. And many companies find that they must rehire staff within a year. Morale and productivity often plummet. Among employees who remain after downsizing, more than half report increased stress. And the risk of violent behavior of people laid off is six times that of their employed counterparts. In a study of 531 large corporations, three-quarters reported having cut payrolls. Of the 85 percent that sought higher profits, only 46 percent saw any measurable increase. 58 percent sought higher productivity, but only 34 percent saw even a slight increase. 61 percent wanted an increase in customer service but only 31 percent achieved it. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "https://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })() http://www.beyondresistance.com/ http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management-hiring/359335-1.html

The Role Of Prejudice In The Merchant Of Venice :: The Merchant Of Venice

The Role of Prejudice In The Merchant of Venice This paper discusses the subject of prejudice in the William Shakespeare play, The Merchant of Venice. I. Introduction William Shakespeare's satirical comedy, The Merchant of Venice, believed to have been written in 1596 was an examination of hatred and greed. The premise deals with the antagonistic relationship between Shylock, a Jewish money-lender and Antonio, the Christian merchant, who is as generous as Shylock is greedy, particularly with his friend, Bassanio. The two have cemented a history of personal insults, and Shylock's loathing of Antonio intensifies when Antonio refuses to collect interest on loans. Bassanio wishes to borrow 3,000 ducats from Antonio so that he may journey to Belmont and ask the beautiful and wealthy Portia to marry him.Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, and knowing he will soon have several ships in port, agrees to part with a pound of flesh if the loan is not repaid within three months. Shylock's abhorrence of Antonio is further fueled by his daughter Jessica's elopement with Lorenzo, another friend of Antonio's. Meanwhile, at Belmont, Portia is being courted by Bassanio, and wedding plans continue when, in accordance with her father's will, Bassanio is asked to choose from three caskets -- one gold, one silver and one lead.Bassanio correctly selects the lead casket that contains Portia's picture.The couple's joy is short-lived, however, when Bassanio receives a letter from Antonio, informing him of the loss of his ships and of Shylock's determination to carry out the terms of the loan.Bassanio and Portia marry, as do his friend, Gratiano and Portia's maid, Nerissa. The men return to Venice, but are unable to assist Antonio in court.In desperation, Portia disguises herself as a lawyer and arrives in Venice with her clerk (Nerissa) to argue the case.She reminds Shylock that he can only collect the flesh that the agreement calls for, and that if any blood is shed, his property will be confiscated.At this point, Shylock agrees to accept the money instead of the flesh, but the court punishes him for his greed by forcing him to become a Christian and turn over half of his property to his estranged daughter, Jessica. II.Body Prejudice is a dominant theme in The Merchant of Venice, most notably taking the form of anti-semitism.Shylock is stereotypically described as "costumed in a recognizably Jewish way in a long gown of gabardine, probably black, with a red beard and/or wing like that of Judas, and a hooked putty nose or bottle nose" (Charney, p. 41). Shylock is a defensive character because society is constantly reminding him he is different in religion, looks, and motivation.He finds solace in the law because he, himself, is an outcast of