Middlefield Hospital

As the Chief Executive Office of Middlefield Hospital, it has been brought to my attention by the Chief Financial Officer that our financial performance has been deteriorating for the past six (6) months. It has also been brought to my attention that the new facility has been admitting more new patients and our admissions have been declining. The number of uninsured patients has increased over this period of time. The management team has identified some other interesting facts that are possibly hurting the reputation of Middlefield Hospital. My determination is that the financial performance of Middlefield Hospital needs to be improved.Research has shown that hospitals are operating on tight budget all over the world, and they need to find way to reduce their costs and also try to manage productivity in all areas and job categories. I have developed some strategies and recommendations for Middlefield Hospital that will help us to improve the financial performance of the hospital. I w ill individually address each of the facts discovered by the management team and discuss the proposed recommendations for each. The payer mix of Middlefield Hospital is comprised of more and more Medicare, Medicaid, and uninsured patients and fewer patients have commercial insurance.This has caused a decrease in the net income of the hospital. Therefore, I think we should considering more advertising to increase the new come. Advertising should and will attract more profitable patients. The nearby hospital that competes with Middlefield has opened a wellness center that offers a comprehensive array of preventive and wellness services to the community. Wellness centers can offer services that are very useful and convenient to the community. Some of these services are skin care and body services, which include fitness services, personal training and nutrition consulting, chiropractic, holistic medicine, and acupuncture.  (http://www. salonbuilder. com/info/wellness-centers. html)I a lso think we should open a wellness center that offers a full service fitness center to accommodate the community. We should look into the services that this other nearby hospital is providing in their wellness center, and we should extend our services to the ones they are not offering. Our wellness center should also include a retail store to allow the patients to purchases the products that we use on them. I know this will require a specially trained staff, and we will make sure that the staff is qualified with all certifications needed.Also, in lieu of the wellness center, we should offer a monthly health fair for new and existing patients. This monthly health fair will also draw new patients to the clients. Most of Middlefield’s managed care contracts are more than 2 years old. In hopes of getting a handle on the managed care contracts, I would like to assign a team of personnel to specifically handle and maintain the various managed care contracts. I would like for this team to make sure that we are getting the best out of these contracts. The team will know what our goals are before deciding on a managed care contract.Some of the goals that would be considered are: Increasing or protecting revenue Aligning with other practices that already contract with the specific Managed Care Organization (MCO) Fostering a relationship with certain MCOs Increasing/protecting our patient panel The Joint Commission survey is scheduled for next year, and there are significant problems with the hospital’s quality improvement program. To improve the quality program, each department will be assigned a staff member to follow-up with patients after their hospital stays or visits via email or telephone.We will also send out surveys to all patients for feedback on their visits. Surveys will also be available to visitors for feedback on their visiting experience at the facility and their interaction with the personnel of the facility. Follow up will be very importa nt for providing good quality care. The health plan offered to employees is getting more expensive each year. The benefits director has been asked to look for more cost effective health care plans that are more affordable to our employees. I am working on some financial incentives that I can offer to the employees to help curtail the cost of the health plans.The benefits director will also work with the health care plan providers to ensure that we are choosing the best health plans for our employees. With the strategies and recommendations I have suggested, it is hopeful that Middlefield Hospital will overcome its poor financial performance. I am looking for Middlefield Hospital to supersede its competition and excel with its reputation and performance to the communities and areas that it serves. We strive to provide outstanding health care services to all who utilize our facilities.

Progressive Era and Gilded Age Essay

In Walter Nugent’s book Progressivism: A Very Short Introduction, he claims Progressivism emerged as a response to the Gilded Age, an unfortunate era that left the average working Americans poor while a new class of wealthier people started to rise. Nugent explains to us the breakdown of Progressivism and what occurred when it struck our nation. Progressivism began to come together in the end of the 1800s due to the ills of American Society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth. It shaped and progressed from 1900 to 1917 and finally started to disappear from 1917 to the early 1920s. Nugent claims Progressivism emerged as a response to the Gilded Age, an unfortunate era that left the average working Americans poor while a new class of wealthier people started to rise. For once, Americans sensed change in their society. Some change for the good but most of it for the worse. Nugent talks about how cities began growing up faster than the blink of an eye. The railroad companies started to turn into monopolies. Unfortunately, more problems started to rise in America other than this one. The rich became wealthier and the poor became poorer. The nation had also previously faced a serious recession from 1893-1896, and recovery did not actually really begin until 1897. Other factors that occurred during the progressive era: prostitution and alcohol abuse, the great railroad strike of 1877, and the Homestead Strike. The main progressive leaders, such as, Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and Woodrow Wilson stepped in to make a difference. Theodore Roosevelt claimed he backed up the middle class and showed no mercy toward monopolies. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson accomplished many things such as: the 16th amendment which modified the structure of taxation, demolishing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to dissolve trust so the railroads would not create a complete monopoly in the North West part of the country, the 18th amendment which banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol, and the passing of the Woman’s Suffrage Act in 1920 which allowed women to have larger roles in issues with our society. However, according to Nugent, reformers such as Jane Addams, W. E. B DuBois, and Booker T. Washington also had a huge impact on the Progressive Era as well. Addams founded settlement houses like the famous Hull House, where immigrants and the poor resided. The Hull- House also showed change could come without overthrowing the political and economic system. DuBois, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped to reduce discrimination. Nugent later describes what occurred in America when Progressivism slowly started to die out. It considered to have ended with the outbreak of the First World War. The war left over 53,000 killed in combat while 63,000 died from other causes. A Flu pandemic also struck which killed roughly 600,000 Americans. In conclusion the progressive era had rough times. Although not everything turned out completely successful, it did put America in the position it needed to be in in order to achieve success.

An Organizational Study of The United States Air Force

With the resignation of Mr. James Roach and Deputy Prime Minister Peter Tets, Secretary of State Secretary of State, the US Air Force faces the leaders vacuum. The Pentagon thought that no one could be held responsible, so he decided to take over the Air Force purchase decision. The Department of Defense is responsible for the support and support of the Air Force Headquarters to monitor and advise on important air force plans during the transition period. The US Air Force (USAF) is a branch of the US military aerospace service. It is one of five branches of the US military and one of seven US military uniforms. Originally founded as part of the US military on August 1, 1907, the US Air Force was established as an independent branch of the US military on September 18, 1947 and passed the National Security Act in 1947. It is the youngest branch in the country. US military, and priority ranked fourth. The US Air Force is the largest and most technically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force clarifies its core mission including sky and space advantages, global integrated ISR, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control The US Air Force Academy was established in 1954 in the north of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The US Air Force Academy School founded by the US Air Force is an institution for education and training interested in serving the US Air Force Academy. The US Air Force. Through training at the US Air Force Academy, students will strive to acquire a four-year bachelor's degree and become a lieutenant of the US Air Force. Currently, there are more than 4,200 students at the US Air Force Academy. In competitive schools, students enrolled in the US Air Force Academy are looking for work at the elite military school in the United States. Through this education students will be prepared to enter the leading role of the US Air Force and will learn how to be a reliable pilot and soldier.

The Yuan Dynasty is the Golden Age of Chinese Drama Research Paper

The Yuan Dynasty is the Golden Age of Chinese Drama - Research Paper Example This essay highlights that  the woman decides to take her own life rather than join the rival forces. A goose symbolizing her soul, then haunts her empty chambers. However , the Khan leaders after discovering the evil intent of the courtier Mao Yen-Shou, decides to make peace with the Han Emperor by sending him the courtier to take revenge for his fallen woman. An analysis into the play also reveals the use of self identification and explanatory monologue witnessed from characters in the play. An example is that when a character in the play is invited, he starts by revealing his identity   and telling background. Moreover, the structure of the play reveals use of alternative prose   and verse.  As the discussion declares  the role type used in the play is limitation to one single role because, for example, one character in the play is used in singing songs present in the play all through the way. Lastly, the play also demonstrates the use of recapitulation almost all charac ters in the play recapture the happenings in the previous scene before proceeding to the actions of the present scene. Moreover, the play deploys the use of four-act division   and the wedge in its structure. It includes four acts and one short unit known as the wedge.

Is the EU reaching the limits of enlargement Essay

Is the EU reaching the limits of enlargement - Essay Example These problems such as the ever increasing size of the subsidy programs and additional payments to keep countries in line with the overall EU policy have imposed some limits on the current enlargement process. Despite an ever increasing degree of interest shown by these East European countries in joining the EU the organization has almost come to a stretching point where there is little or no room for further expansion. This dilemma is basically attributed to the very structural constraints experienced by the former communist economies in Eastern Europe (Jacobsen, 1997). For instance when countries like Poland, Hungary and Rumania joined the EU during the initial stage following the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe there was much greater hope about the future of the EU as an economic union. Subsequently with further enlargement and monetary union the organization began to develop first the structural constraints and next trade related problems on the allocation of subsidy funds. The future of the EU now is more or less determined by how best the organization would be able to absorb those new entrants and how best the structural problems arising from its subsidy programs would be handled. Various writers have pointed out that the EU is basically a behemoth that is much less likely to absorb the remaining East European countries in to the fold with any degree of success. The rapid transformation of th... However what the EU could do as a customs union and then as an economic union is no more possible under the present dispensation. Primarily the EU has been evolving on unbridled largesse in the form of farm and agricultural subsidies. When all these subsidy programs culminated in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) the organization did little realize what was ahead. In fact it is the CAP that caused the current impasse between the US government and the EU on international trade.The World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international trade forums have almost failed to reconcile the two sides to the conflict. Similarly Japan and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have objected to the presence of CAP in the EU. Despite these disputes the EU has been compelled by an ever increasing necessity to maintain a minimum level of subsidies to the new member countries. The net result of this commitment is the further aggravation of trade relations with the US in particular an d other countries in general. The EU has come a long way in giving farm and agricultural subsidies to its powerful community of farm producers who demand the continuation of the programs irrespective of the global pressure to wind them up. These trade related outcomes have compelled the EU to adopt some new programs and to redesign the existing programs in keeping with the adjustments required by its member countries' commitments to the WTO.This paper would particularly focus attention on the current phase of EU enlargement arising from the post-communism developments in Eastern Europe while the theoretical considerations of enlargement related structural constraints would be discussed with reference to the empirical evidence on the EU's inability to absorb new

FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Essay - 1

FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Essay Example The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia (FARC) is one of the largest and most well organized rebel military forces operating in the world today. Based in Columbia, South America it has reached a global level of influence through its worldwide cooperation with other terrorist groups around the world. Though the organization was started as a militant human rights organization that had the purpose of fighting for the rights of landless peasants, they have since become more violent and have expanded their sphere of operations. The FBI, CIA, State Department, and United Nations all agree that to attain the label of terrorist they must target the civilian population (Beres n.d.). It may be an individual, a group, an organization, or a country that funds and advocates terrorism. Terrorism must use misappropriated violence or the threat of violence against the civilian populace to alarm or intimidate a government. The Unites States Department of Defense further defines terrorism as, "...violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives" (Beres n.d.). The activities of FARC in recent decades have seen the graduation from a rebel army fighting a right wing government to an organization that routinely attacks civilian targets and uses violence indiscriminately. A study of the history and structure of FARC can illustrate the strategic changes an organization can go through when faced with frustration in the political arena.

How should we explain the decline in levels of membership of political Essay

How should we explain the decline in levels of membership of political parties across most western democracies - Essay Example Individuals receive support from the state at the expense of accepting an increase in regulation, mostly with respect to the exercise of conducting elections (Albertazzi,D. & McDonnell,D. 2010)This piece of work permits an extensive investigation about the levels of party membership across vast democracies in Europe. Along with a robust exploration on the difference in the patterns of party association existing between older democracies and the newly created ones along with the post-communist democracies as well (Rozenvalds, 2005, p.163). According to Crouch (2008), Party membership levels in the post communist democracies have remained substantially below those in the established Western politics Definitely the novelty of these democracies, the weakening or elimination of traditional cleavages that resulted from the attempt by communism to construct a classless society along with the fact that party organizations surged in a perspective in which they could already gain the benefits of modern communications networks in their efforts of seeking support, are likely to have dispirited their efforts to put up mass organizations for a longer term (Putnam, Robert 2000) This is also probable and obvious to be the same case in the southern European polities that surged from authoritarian rule in the 1970s (Crouch 2008) we will continue to anticipate that the newer the democracy, the smaller is likely to be the membership level. Based on the recent data available from many sources, party membership in contemporary European democracies produce figures of total party membership expressed in raw numbers and as a percentage of electorate (M/E) which is an indicator which is more suitable for cross-national comparisons. Activists are authorized to monitor and implement heavy burden of regulations who end up being uncompensated for their (Whiteley, 2014, p.102). These advances have turned political parties to public utilities to say

Competitiveness and Customers Satisfaction Research Proposal

Competitiveness and Customers Satisfaction - Research Proposal Example Although current recession continues to be evident, economists project that as soon as the economy recovers local and international travel businesses would again progress. The US government (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2008) calculates that their number of international visitors will rebound by year 2010 and beyond. Thus, this is certainly a good news in tourism business; particularly those with high number of travelers as customers like hotels, restaurants, car rental companies, tourist attractions and online merchants. This study investigates he business competitiveness and customer satisfaction in "Airline Ticketing business", which is group in two varied settings: The Online booking and purchasing versus Office ticket booking and purchasing (Traditional booking and purchasing). Travel agencies would most likely benefit the study, since results can be one of their ultimate basis of In the totality, this research aims to assess by comparing the competitiveness and customer satisfaction in both Airline ticket online booking and purchasing, as well as Airline ticket Office ticket booking and purchasing - popularly called as the traditional booking and purchasing. The study intends to assess by comparing the competitiveness and customer satisf... 1. Determine the marketing strategies adopted by Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses' 2. Assess the level of competitiveness in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses in terms of: a. Number of successful airline ticket bookings b. Number of successful airline ticket purchases c. Companies' Net Income d. Current total number of customers 3. Find out the level of customer satisfaction in Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses to the companies' based on: a. Customer Services a.1. Customer-Customer Service Representative Interaction a.2. Customer assistance b. General facilities & accessibility c. Costs Office and Online 3 4. Test the significant difference in the competitiveness and customer satisfaction of Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses. 5. Establish the significant relationship between the level of competitiveness of Airline ticket booking and purchasing and the level of their customers' satisfaction. Problem Statement The study intends to assess by comparing the competitiveness and customer satisfaction in both Airline ticket online booking and purchasing, as well as Airline ticket Office ticket booking and purchasing - popularly called as the traditional booking and purchasing. The entire course is further directed to answer the specific questions below: 1. What marketing strategies are adopted by Airline ticket online booking and purchasing and office airline ticket booking and purchasing businesses' 2. How competitive are

Film Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Film - Assignment Example Its presence or absence does not affect the main story’s message. b. Dugan’s murder is part of the plot because it gives additional reason or motivation as to why Terry would start doubting and turning his back on Johnny near the movie’s ending. It can also be a part of the story to show the ruthlessness of Johnny in dealing with those that stand in his way. c. Dugan’s testimony is part of the plot because it gives is part of a series of events that would lead up to Terry’s testimonial against Johnny later in the movie. The presence or the absence of the testimony would not affect the main theme of the movie d. Terry’s dive in the ring can both be a part of the story and the plot. It is a part of the story because it shows why Terry ended up in the docks instead of a career in boxing. It can also be a part of the plot because it would lead up to Terry becoming part of Johnny’s gang ruling the docks. 4. During the opening sequence of the movie, Munny’s balance can be seen as rather distorted, due to the loss of his wife. His crises were precipitated by the death of his wife, his inability to tend to his pigs that were getting sick with some fever, and a young man showing up in his farm to enlist his help in killing two thugs, criminal acts which he had left behind after marrying his wife (Eastwood). The fact that he is being enlisted to kill hoodlums added to Munny’s internal conflict of choosing to be a person of peace. After the young man showed up in his doorstep he started having doubts as to whether staying as the mild-mannered man his wife hoped him to be was a better option than getting back on the road and taking another person’s life in exchange for a lot of money. Since he wasn’t going to kill innocent men anyway, he chose the latter and left his children alone in the

Critical Thinking and Perception Essay Example for Free

Critical Thinking and Perception Essay What is real? Our perception of reality is often a product of the environment in which we live. In general, we formulate ideas of reality based on our own experiences as well as the experiences of the people around us. Our lives are influenced constantly by our surroundings. I truly believe that perception is a learned skill and not instinctive. Outside of our communities, television, radio and movies sculpt our perception of the outside world. I think most of my thinking at the ordinary level is based on perception, language, and information. At the most there is one logic step: If this than that. I think most thinking takes place in the perceptual stage. These are the questions that arise, How much do I take in? and how do I look at things? This perception is based on habits of perceptions and what I hear, what I read and how I express myself. I understand that we do not need to use much explicit logic because we have already built the logic into our language. For example, killing is bad unless justified by war or self-dense. I know that with decisions I followed what was recommended and what my friends were doing and then rationalized it with the following rationalization: Everyone does this and the stock rises for a while and when the market eventually gets a severe correction I rationalize that as well. This rationalization is based on informationnot all-available information but a selection that fits what I was inclined to do anyway. I think that logic can be used to reinforce perceptions (and prejudices) but logic and argument will not change perceptions. Perception is more than sensing; it is processing, reacting, and interpreting. Faith Bryne describes perception as, detecting the nature of both outer and inner worlds. In many cases, it also means responding in some way, either consciously or unconsciously. (Perception, 57) Perception is the way we look at things and I think processing is what we do with that perception. In my view if we take processing for granted then perception becomes even more important, because the way we look at a situation will determine what we can do about it. The influences (family, teachers, religion, race, environment, and economic level) that have shaped or conditioned my identity by instilling values, beliefs, viewpoints or attitudes that I have a ccepted without challenge serves as a perceptual block. The situations in which I am less of an individual because of these influences occur when I refuse to understand someone elses opinion or look for other points of view because of something I have been conditioned to believe is true. I am not one who handles others opinions without asking for them. I am not very consistent in ensuring that my opinions are informed. Often times I have not taken careful consideration of the evidence and have treated opinions as facts especially if I have expressed it to the point that I have begun to believe it as truth. At times, in what matters most I am inclined to assume too much and take too much for granted. I feel the strongest urge to conform when someone is a positive role model and conforming to this type of behavior I believe adds value. However, a situation in which this conformist tendency has interfered with my judgment is following others because it seemed the lesser of two evils. All to often at the workplace this is how some decisions are made just to close an issue that ultimately will recycle. Additionally, I tend to jump or make hasty conclusions more often than I would like. This occurs more so in the area of personal relationships. I have learned that there ar e some errors and bad habits that can lead to shallow or uncritical decisions instead of careful judgments. I have gained the most insight from the following errors and bad habits, which are: Resistance to change (habits), Conformity, Rationalization, Stereotyping, common sense, Oversimplification, Hasty conclusions, and unwarranted assumptions. I think the real key to each the of errors and habits mentioned above is my being conscious of the tendency to do them and to get into the habit of applying and practicing the different ways or approaches to avoiding the blocks to critical thinking. This will be an ongoing process if I am to be in control of my own beliefs, and to somehow gain an understanding of the truth, then I must know what good reasoning is, and be aware of the ways in which my reasoning (and that of others) can go astray. How I tend to perceive certain situations in my life and how others may see it may not always agree with my thinking. This is a big obstacle that I will have to work on being better at and learning how to understand others perceptions. References Brynie, Faith Hickman. (2001). Perception. Blackbirch Press, Inc. (p 57

Hotel project management

Hotel project management SUMMARY Kerrison Park Hotel in London, is a Part of Kerrison Travel group. GGTA, a French business conglomerate has recently purchased. The hotel is operating at a loss unlike other Kerrison Park hotels across the European mainland. The author will explain here how a project management approach will help the hotel to make changes to turn the loss making situation around. The Author has explained to the management of Kerrison Park Hotel the meaning of Project Management, the process involved in it, the tools and techniques used in it and the benefits of using a Project management approach in developing of the improvement opportunities. The Author has identified all the improvement opportunities of Kerrison Park Hotel, London, and done a detailed SWOT analysis which has given an insight to the problem and improvement areas along with the companys strengths and weaknesses. According to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), Project is defined as a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or a service. The act of managing, controlling, coordinating, directing, etc is called management. Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet stakeholders needs and expectations from a project. Projects need to be performed and delivered under certain constraints. Traditionally these constraints have been listed as ‘scope, ‘time and ‘cost (Burke, 2003). PROCESS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Agree precise specification for the project. Plan the project time, team, activities, resources, and financials. Communicate the project plan to your project team. Agree and delegate project actions. Manage, motivate, inform, encourage, enable the project team. Check, measure, review project progress; adjust project plans, and inform the project team and others. Complete project; review and report on project performance; give praise and thanks to the project team. SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. After explaining all this the author has given recommendations as to how to develop those improvement opportunities identified in SWOT. INTRODUCTION Case Study Background: This case study refers to Kerrison Park Hotel in London, a Part of Kerrison Travel group. GGTA, a French business conglomerate has recently purchased this hotel as a part of a financial package that also involved the takeover of three aircrafts and routes serving Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Oslo. The hotel is situated 25km from Heathrow Airport and is well connected by public bus and Underground. The hotel is operating at a loss unlike other Kerrison Park hotels across the European mainland. The author has been given the role of a project manager to use his project management skills and investigate the hotels SWOT analysis and make a proper project plan to retain business and turn this loss making situation around. Aims and Objectives: Define the benefits of the Kerrison Park Hotel, London of adopting a Project Management approach towards the development of the improvement opportunities. Identifying these improvement opportunities within the hotel, recommend a project plan that should be tackled within the next 18 months. Research Methodology: The author has used a lot of secondary resources to research and collect data related to case material like books, websites, etc.. Initially all about Project Management is explained along with some techniques and their importance. Then a detailed SWOT analysis is done for the Kerrison Park Hotel, London. On the basis of this SWOT analysis a Project Plan is prepares and recommendations are given. There is no primary research undertaken for this report. MAIN BODY Kerrison Park Hotel in London, is a Part of Kerrison Travel group. GGTA, a French business conglomerate has recently purchased this hotel as a part of a financial package that also involved the takeover of three aircrafts and routes serving Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Paris and Oslo. The hotel is operating at a loss unlike other Kerrison Park hotels across the European mainland. The author will explain here how a project management approach will help the hotel to make changes to turn the loss making situation around. According to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), Project is defined as a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or a service. The act of managing, controlling, coordinating, directing, etc is called management. Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet stakeholders needs and expectations from a project (Burke, 2001). Projects are executed and achieved under scope, time and cost constraints. These constraints when combined together form the Project Management Triangle. As these constraints are linked together therefore, the triangle would be affected if either of the constraints is changed. The advanced enhancement of scope, time and cost produces a fourth constraint called Quality. ‘Scope describes what must be done to produce the end result of the project, ‘Time constraint specifies the available time to meet the project and ‘Cost refers to the total amount available for the project completion. The main purpose of Project Management is to offer the appropriate tools and techniques that initiate the team to work towards the achievement of these constraints. Time The time required can be estimated through Work Breakdown Structure where each task is separately broken down into the time required to complete each task contributing to the completion of each component. Cost The cost constraint is estimated on variables like resource costs, labour rates, material rates, risk management, Earned value management, plant, equipment, cost escalation, indirect costs, and profit. Scope Scope describes the actual project to be accomplished and the end result. Quality of the actual output product is one of the major components of scope. The quality of the project is determined on the actual amount inputted towards the individual tasks. (URL: http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/rh/62/The-traditional-triple-constraints.html) PROJECT LIFE CYCLE: Project Management Life Cycle comprises four phases Initiation involves starting up the project, by documenting a business case, feasibility study, terms of reference, appointing the team and setting up a Project Office. Planning involves setting out the roadmap for the project by creating the following plans: project plan, resource plan, financial plan, quality plan, acceptance plan and communications plan. Execution involves building the deliverables and controlling the project delivery, scope, costs, quality, risks and issues. Closure involves winding-down the project by releasing staff, handing over deliverables to the customer and completing a post implementation review (URL: http://www.mpmm.com/project-management-methodology.php). PROCESS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Agree precise specification for the project: Often called the project terms of reference, the project specification should be an accurate description of what the project aims to achieve, and the criteria and flexibilities involved, its parameters, scope, range, outputs, sources, participants, budgets and timescales Plan the project time, team, activities, resources, financials: Plan the various stages and activities of the project. A useful tip is to work backwards from the end aim, identifying all the things that need to be put in place and done, in reverse order. Communicate the project plan to your project team: This serves two purposes: it informs people whats happening, and it obtains essential support, agreement and commitment. If your project is complex and involves a team, then you should involve the team in the planning process to maximise buy-in, ownership, and thereby accountability. Agree and delegate project actions: Activities need to be very clearly described, including all relevant parameters, timescales, costs, and deliverables in a plan. This plan will then be published to all team members and the tasks will be issued to all on the basis of their capability of their own forward planning Manage, motivate, inform, encourage, and enable the project team: Manage the team and activities by meeting, communicating, supporting, and helping with decisions. Your role here is to enable and translate. Face to face meetings, when you can bring team members together, are generally the best way to avoid issues and relationships becoming personalised and emotional. Communicate progress and successes regularly to everyone. Give the people in your team the plaudits. Conversely you must take the blame for anything that goes wrong never dump on anyone in your team Check, measure, review project progress; adjust project plans, and inform the project team and others: Check the progress of activities against the plan. Review performance regularly and at the stipulated review points, and confirm the validity and relevance of the remainder of the plan. Adjust the plan if necessary in light of performance, changing circumstances, and new information, but remain on track and within the original terms of reference. Complete project; review and report on project performance; give praise and thanks to the project team: At the end of your successful project hold a review with the team. Ensure you understand what happened and why. Reflect on any failures and mistakes positively, objectively, and without allocating personal blame. Reflect on successes gratefully and realistically. TOOLS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT: PERT: The Program Evaluation and Review Technique is a model for project management designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency (i.e, precedence network) relationships between activities. A work breakdown structure or WBS is a tree structure, that permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks, materials, etc., into their successively higher level â€Å"parent† tasks, materials, etc. It is a fundamental tool commonly used in project management The Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or critical path analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is an important tool for effective project management. A Run chart, also known as a run-sequence plot is a graph that displays observed data in a time sequence. Often, the data displayed represent some aspect of the output or performance of a manufacturing or other business process. IMPORTANCE AND BENEFIT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO KERRISON PARK HOTEL, LONDON: Develops Exponential Effectiveness: In most organizations, people work on cross-functional teams to complete projects. When people from different departments know and understand a common Project Management process to get their work done, they can start to work together without having to design how they are going to do it. Empowers Individuals and Team Leaders: When there is a common, simple approach for Project Management and the correct tools are available throughout the enterprise, people are empowered to reach their goals, together and individually. Creates Institutional Memory: Industry standard Project Management practices require a critical project closeout phase that collects lessons learned and gives your organization powerful historical knowledge from across the enterprise. Realizes Return on Innovation: An easy-to-use Project Management methodology gives organizations a framework that makes it achievable for people to move from vision to action with a comprehensive project plan that supports their objectives. Turns Information into Insight: You capture best practices and know what is and isnt working in your organization, giving you a competitive advantage by turning information into insight. SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. Here we need to do the SWOT analysis of the Kerrison Park Hotel, London which will help us further to make a Project Plan to make recommendations as to what changes are required by this Hotel to run successfully. Strengths: The Hotel has a very good location as it is just 25 Km from Heathrow and is well connected by Bus and Underground. Hotel owns a large reception area out of which a part can be used for other purposes. A large full functioning kitchen builds up the backbone of the hotel Hotel has 150 rooms. All rooms have ensuite facilities, tea and coffee facilities, satellite TV, Air-conditioner and mini-bar which shows it provides all the facilities which a normal 4star hotel should have. The double rooms have adjoining lounges. The hotel provides an elaborate English and Continental Breakfast which is considered to be the main meal of the day. Hotel owns a Big Conference and a banqueting suite with a separate bar and four syndicate rooms. The Hotel gets a regular business from the parent companys aircrew and passengers. The Hotel also possesses a successful In-house Laundry which also has a contract for companys airline uniforms which ensures fixed revenue. Weaknesses: The hotel is suffering from a low occupancy rate of 45% as compared to other hotels in the city with 65% on a typical day. It has an inappropriate and a weak marketing strategy as the hotel principally relied on tour operators who use the hotel seasonally and local corporate business, gained through minimal advertising. The computer systems on the front of the house have become obsolete and needs to be upgraded to be in sync with the parent companys airline reservation system. Many of the Hotels facilities were not marketed successfully because of poor coordination and irregularity within sales and marketing departments. Lack of security of cleaning stores and linen on floors and their distribution. Lack of regular preventive maintenance of rooms and corridors. Internal painting, re-grouting of tiles, etc. needs attention. Restaurant is not big enough with 90 covers to handle major rush hours during peak season. Lunch time business is poor. Garden side of the restaurant which can be used a n additional room in quite weekends was not publicised properly. The staff seems to be lacking the sales and service orientation. The department heads are given the responsibility for recruiting and training of staff members rather than a proper Human Resource Management system which leads to inconsistencies in approach and quality. Gymnasium is not well equipped and there is no swimming pool facility provided by the hotel. There is no health bar either where a guest could refresh himself after a workout. Opportunities: Since the Hotel has a good location, it can easily pull up the chartered tourism. Students and Backpackers use London as a base for visiting other parts of the country who can be wooed by attractive discounts and offers. Large reception area gives the opportunity to use a part of it for some other purposes for eg. Extending Coffee Shop. Laundry Business can be improved by recruiting more skilled staff and sign up more contracts on revised prices with airlines. Hiring more experienced staff and training the existing one will help in upselling in all FB areas. Coffee Shop is more popular than the restaurant and the bar and is also doing well, so the covers can be increased and it can be livened up for young clientele. There is a good opportunity to start a new buffet style menu in the restaurant after convincing the Head Chef of its advantages. Hiring more efficient and professional Sales and Marketing Team will help the Hotel to boost up its sales volume. The Human Resource Department have a lot of knowledge and experience of working in different cultures which makes it easy for the hotel to understand its staff better and provide them efficient training through proper communication and practice. Threats: The airlines are in doubt as to continue with the laundry contract with the hotel due to the high prices offered as compared to other competitor laundries. The FB staffs have a low skill level; and therefore it leaves the guest into a bad impression of staff lacking service orientation and hotels poor standards. Inappropriate Security systems might lead to loss by theft. Storage of food is disorganized and sometimes no stock rotation is done which can be very dangerous and also lead to wastage. Competition in terms of prices and facility given by other hotels is leading to lower occupancy rate which is not good at all for the hotel. There is no Job satisfaction due to which motivation is lacking in staff. RECOMMENDATIONS After completing this detailed SWOT analysis the author is clear about Hotels situation inside out. Now the author would like to give recommendations for how to overcome the problems and weak areas of the hotel in a Project Management approach. Following are the areas and the changes that need to be done in them: Reception: Since the front of the house systems are obsolete and 12 years old, they require an upgrading to cope up with the expected increase in the business and interface with the parent companys airline reservation system which will create ease of work and efficiency for the reception staff. Changing the system will also require hardcore training to the staff who are habitual of using the old system. This whole process will take about 3 months to come into existence. Accommodation Operations: Author would suggest to turn 20 twin rooms into double rooms which will help the reception to give out more options to the customers. Secondly 10 suites should replace either of the rooms for fulfilling special needs of the guests like honeymoon couples. This operation will take around 4-6 months. In House Laundry: The Laundry has shown a return on investment recently and is running successfully. It is suggested to add up more storage space and recruit more efficient staff. The hotel also needs to take into consideration the prices of the laundry as they are too high compared to competitors due to which it might lose its present contracts. Prices needs to be lowered down. This will take about 2 months. Housekeeping and maintenance: To Control the security of the cleaning stores and linen, the author suggests to put up security alarms and CCTV Cameras in all important areas where undesignated staff isnt allowed. The storage areas should be moved away from back door entry to avoid loss. The rooms need to undergo minor maintenance like internal painting, re-grouting of tiling, replacing shower curtains, etc. Carpeting on first and second floor corridor will be replaced and reinstated as soon as possible. This will take approximately 6-8 months to complete. Food and Beverage: The covers in the restaurant should be increased to at least 120 to cope up with busy hours. The idea of introducing buffet style of menu is very appropriate. The FB manager must convince the head chef about the advantages of buffet style menu for eg, it will save labour force and the guest would get a choice of wider variety of food. Various schemes like ‘Sunday English Roast Lunch or ‘Happy Hours should be introduced which will attract local clientele and families. This operation will take around 1 month to come into existence as there are no major physical changes taking place here. Since the Coffee Shop is very popular and generally remains busy it is suggested to liven and pep it up in sync with the young and modern customers with some exciting decor, video games, darts, etc.. which will attract more people. We have the advantage of having coffee shop next to the large reception area. So it can be extended using a part of the reception area and covers will be increased from 50 to 70. Professional English speaking and permanent staff must be hired for the coffee shop as it will lead to good service and better guest satisfaction. The Coffee Shop menu should be renewed. This will take around 3 months to complete. Bar staff needs to be trained to be multi-skilled so that they can help in other areas when busy. A fool-proof method of controlling and counting sales should be introduced. A versatile drink list should be developed. Night porter facility should be provided to fulfil the needs of late night residents. This will again take around 1 month to come into existence. Gymnasium: It is suggested to install modern and state of the art machinery in the gym. At least 2 trainers should be employed. A proper changing room with modular fittings should be constructed with sauna, spa and a small swimming pool should be built up. Swimming pool will be a great attraction for the in house guests and local residents. The gym kitchen should be refurbished and spruced up and used as a sports bar offering health food and beverages.the Gymnasium and swimming pool will take a long time say around 12 months so should be started well in advance. Goods Delivery and Storage: Food storage in the main cold room must be organised using the FIFO (first in first out) system and keeping HACCP (hazard and critical control points) into consideration. Delegation of responsibility to the heads of the departments and supervisors is of utmost importance for all the storage areas as to keep a control on food storage, rotation, inventory keeping, etc.. The responsibility of the keys should also be delegated to either Head chef or FB manager. A proper inventory management system must be installed to analyse the sales level appropriately. This process will take 2 months. Management and staffing: a lot of emphasis needs to be put on the training and development of the staff as most of the staff is unskilled and unprofessional. A detailed training and development programme needs to be developed. The recruitment responsibility needs to be taken solely by the HR department in coordination with the Heads of the Departments to select only eligible staff. All the lousy and unskilled staff must be replaced by the professional ones. Work incentives and motivational schemes needs to be introduced to ensure job satisfaction and improved performance. Training and Development is an ongoing process so time cannot be calculated here. Replacing staff will not take more than 1 month. Sales and Marketing: First of all a strong, experienced and highly skilled marketing team needs to be hired as the previous one could not prove itself. Then coordination between Sales and Marketing needs to be built up by proper communication and regular meetings. All the facilities of the hotel must be advertised on websites, buses, trains, etc., showing attractive pictures of the hotel rooms, coffee shop, and gymnasium and highlighting the new facilities added. Promotion should be done at trade fares. Hotel must tie up with major tour operators. To increase the sales volume the hotel needs to revise its rack rate in accordance to competitors and give more discounts and attractive offers. Students and Backpackers can be wooed by good discounted rates and offers if they make the bookings in advance which will help hotel to increase its occupancy rate. The marketing team should also promote the in house laundry and get more orders from airlines to make additional revenue. Time Management: There are a lot of tasks to be done here. If we calculate the total time it will be more than 18 months, whereas we only have 18 months to get things done. So we need to manage our tasks in a timely order where two or more tasks can be done in a particular time side by side. The next important thing which we need to consider is that in what sequence the tasks will be accomplished. The activities should be put in such an order that they do not become a hindrance for one another and the hotels routine operations. The time that will be saved will indirectly save our costs as well. CONCLUSION The purpose of the report was to define to the hotel the benefits of adopting a project management approach towards development of improvement opportunities. Then these improvement opportunities were to be identified within the hotel and recommendations were to be given that prioritise and justify the projects that should be tackled within 18 months. The author would like to conclude that these purposes were solved by explaining in detail about the Project management, its process, tools and techniques. A detailed SWOT analysis is done to justify all the changes and improvement to be done in the hotel. Then the author has given recommendations for all that is to be done to retain the business and make profits. This will help the Kerrison Park Hotel to become a successful running Hotel in the city. BIBLIOGRAPHY A quick and comprehensive introduction to Project Management and its advantages Building the Buzz on Project Management (Available from URL: http://www.pmhut.com/a-quick-and-comprehensive-introduction-to-project-management-and-its-advantages-building-the-buzz-on-project-management) (Accessed on 11th March 2010) Burke, R. (2003) Project management planning control techniques (4th edition), England, Wiley Lock, D. (2000) Project Management (7th edition), England, Gower House Project Management Process, Techniques, tools, tips and training (Available from URL: http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm) (Accessed on 10th March 2010) Project Management Methodology: Project Life Cycle (Available from URL: http://www.mpmm.com/project-management-methodology.php) (Accessed on 10th March 2010) The Traditional triple constraints (Available from URL: http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/rh/62/The-traditional-triple-constraints.html) (Accessed on 11th March 2010) Wiest, J.D. and Levy, F.K. (1994), Management Guide To PERT/CPM (2nd edition), New Delhi, Prentice hall of India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management, accessed on 19th October 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis, accessed on 19th October, 2008.

The Journey of Lily in Sue Monk Kidds The Secret Life of Bees Essay

The Journey of Lily in Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees The devastating tragedy of losing a person's mother at an early age can drastically affect that person's life. It can impact the way someone thinks, corresponds with others, and the way someone handles themselves emotionally. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees Lily Owens loses her mother at the early age of four. During Lily's journey she finds comfort and support in the women that she meets. Throughout the novel Lily goes through many changes because of the impact of the motherly figures of the Black Mary, Rosaleen, and the Calendar Sisters. During Lily's journey the Black Mary helps change Lily's life by providing structure. The ritual of the Calendar Sisters, Rosaleen, and Lily praying before the Black Mary everyday provides Lily with time to focus on her emotions and thoughts. Structure gives Lily a routine with helps her stay organized. "'I reached out and traced Black Mary's heart with my finger'" (Monk Kidd 164). Lily is able to touch the Black Mary on her second attempt. This gives Lily as physical connection to the Black Mary, which she never had with her real mother. The Black Mary acts like a silent mother towards Lily because Lily can connect with the Black Mary physically, but not as much socially. Lily can relate to the Black Mary socially but only through prayer, which is not as strong of a connection as the physical aspect. After Lily learns about the stories that tell the Black Mary's past, she can relate to the Black Mary even more. "'You know, she's really just the figurehead off an old ship, b ut the people needed comfort and rescue, so when they looked at it, they saw Mary, and so the spirit of Mary took over'" (141). When L... ... (243). Lily received a lot of love that gave her hope and made her feel good about herself. Instead of having one mother, Lily had three. Which she felt was the best thing for her. "All these mothers. I have more mothers than eight girls off the street. They are the moons shining over me" (302). Through Lily's life journeys and lessons she learns to appreciate the small things in life and thank those who care. The impact of the Black Mary, Rosaleen and the Calendar Sisters help Lily go through positive changes. Even though Lily lost her mother at an early age, she still had the opportunity to have a great life. Lily was lucky to have the love and support of the many women that are in her life. Lily had a great life and fit into the African American culture perfectly. Works Cited: Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Penguin, 2002.

Zarathustras Prologue and Three Species :: essays research papers

Summary of â€Å"Zarathustra’s Prologue and Three Species†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the beginning of the story a man named Zarathustra who was thirty years of age had left his home to go live in the mountains. He had lived in solitude of the mountains for ten years. The text said, â€Å"He enjoyed his spirit and his solitude, and for ten years he did not become weary of it.† I believe that Zarathustra move to the mountains and lived a solitary life to get more in touch with himself. He probably wanted to get to know himself more spiritually. Until one day he finally decided to leave his life of solitude and begin another journey of his own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During his journey down the mountain, Zarathustra did not encounter anyone. All of that began to change as Zarathustra was walking through a forest and encountered an old man. The old man began to speak to Zarathustra. It had seemed like the old man had met Zarathustra many years ago; he believed that he had changed after living a life of solitude. I believed the old man caught on to the fact that Zarathustra was leaving the mountains, and assumed that he was going to back to civilization. The old man told Zarathustra, â€Å"You floated in the sea of solitude. Alas, will you go ashore?† When the old man said that, he meant that Zarathustra was finally going to be among other people for the first time in along time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After journeying through the forest, Zarathustra had finally arrived at a town. He noticed that many people where gathered around a marketplace waiting for a rope dancer to perform.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zarathustra decided to speak to the people. He wanted to teach the people the way of the superman. He made a lot of deep philosophical points about the superman. It seem like no matter how much he tried to prove his point to the people of that town, he just could not get to them. All they did was laugh and ridicule him. Because of this, it made him sad. Zarathustra mentioned, â€Å"They do not understand me; I am not the mouth for these ears.† He started to think the reason behind this is that he had lived in the mountains for too long. He believed living in mountains had made his soul calm and clear, and that is the reason the people do not understand him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I will briefly talk about one the three speeches.

Essay --

"I believe you don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or rather get educated out of it." Once a year one thousand remarkable people gather in Monterey, California to exchange something of incalculable value, their ideas: Sir Ken Robinson is one of those remarkable people. During his talk Robinson takes the opportunity to â€Å"pin his audience to the wall† while talking about his views and ideas on education. Robinson is a talented author as well, in his latest book he talks about natural talent. There is a point in the book when he says, â€Å"The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels.† And during his speech he makes it clear that our education system is stunting our children’s creativity, therefore preventing them from achieving their very best. Ken Robinson speaks out of a true passion for education and his t houghts on the ideas that, though born with a true sense of creativity, as we age our education makes no room for our creative side to truly blossom and grow into something special. There are two main themes in Sir Robinson’s speech, the first being that everybody is born with a natural desire and ability to be creative and that our schools are in fact minimalizing those abilities. The second is that we need to instead of suppressing those talents we need to cultivate and mature them. We need to re-examine the way we educate and find new ways to involve creativity in our schools education system. In the duration of his conversation with the audience Robinson lays out the idea that our education system is mostly geared towards our left-brain thinking, and therefore is squashing out... ...human imagination, and we need to be wise with the way we use this gift. He says that as a society we have to â€Å"adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity.† It is our job to find ways to help mature and grow the creative capacity of our children, instead of â€Å"strip-mining† their minds for a single resource. He leaves his audience with the idea that the only way to avoid doin this is to start looking at ourselves and our children’s creativity in new light and finding the value in it. Our students face an unknown future, and the only way to help prepare them for it, which is our job, is to teach to their whole selves, â€Å"educate to their whole being, so they can face this future†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He challenges us to find new ways to help them do something worth their talents for the life ahead of them.

Digital Age and Global marketing

Today in the area of sales and marketing, digital age or the age of internet has helped the marketers to connect to customers to help dramatically get associated with the various business processes and the rules there-of. The creation of a Digital age by getting equipped with vast web capabilities and technologies is the requirement in today’s information age to satisfy the informative demanding customer. Internet thus has helped as an important tool under the promotional mix categorized as a means for Direct Marketing.If marketers adopt it meaningfully, if they are in a position to conduct a dialogue based discussion on the web portal, if they can initiate a conversation between the customer and the firm, then it is considered to be the greatest strength of the company who will result in predicting the best business drivers required. Thus as we also are consumers of certain products, getting internet promotions pre-sales and post-sales is the need of the hour and is the cheap est form considered. But this web-based age does encourage networking between stakeholders and partners, having trade and consumer associations and person-to-person marketing.In the digital age marketing scenario, time and speed are the most important as it is also used as a tool to educate and inform the masses. Brick and click has thus proved to be advantageous to our digital consumers in the arena of cyber culture (Gmii. com, 2001). Prospective customers are definitely affected by privacy and hence would always prefer personal contact. Digital age should act as an advancement to develop another means for marketing but shouldn’t substitute the sales force.Despite the huge advantages of Digital Age, consumers are very secretive to have a transaction online because it affects their privacy which forces them to lose power of their personal issues. Surveillance by using technology to capture the personal information by using listening and spying devices in the age of dataveilla nce is what customers are skeptical about. Businesses should therefore develop something called as a trust infrastructure which vouches for the safety of information and builds better relationships. Thus buyers and sellers should transact without disclosing the identity and the authenticity of the other.Therefore consumers themselves must be given the control to use the digital age of media only if they feel the firm is worth relying upon. Consumers’ in-turn has to be very vigilant about the transactions they conduct on the web (Zwick, D. et al. 1999). A double bottom line system could be beneficial to the firm but it takes time to get successful results. Considering revenue diversification, mission and focusing on the cost effectiveness the best results could be achieved for which Digital age of marketing would facilitate the process in a speedy manner (Iff. org, 2008).

Fiction Essay: A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay

The choices that we make determine who we truly are. The immense pressure of certain situations in which we are faced will ultimately differentiate the type person that we think we are, from the kind of person that we actually are. In the short story â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find â€Å"Author Flannery O’Connor tells a story about a family that includes a Grandmother and her superficial beliefs. The family ultimately crosses paths with â€Å"The Misfit† that is on the loose, who represents the total opposite of what the grandmother is perceived to be. O’Conner uses the characterization of both the Misfit and the grandmother throughout the plot in order to reveal the theme of this piece which is achieved when the grandmother is finally brought to grace. In the start of the piece O’Conner brings the reader into a conversation that is taking place between the grandmother and her only son Bailey. The family is planning a trip to Florida in which the Grandmother is strongly opposed. She attempts to find every reason that she can possibly come up with to convince her son to change the destination of the trip from Florida to Tennessee. Throughout the story the grandmother gives the impression that she is a figure of grace, dignity and prestige. Although she did not want to attend the trip she is the first person in the car the next morning, ready to go. She is dressed very carefully because she sees herself as lady who is very polite and astute and she must be seen by others in the same manner. She also takes advantage of every opportunity to correct her grandchildren when making remarks that are less than courteous. When the children see the black child sitting on the porch they begin to giggle, she quickly reminds them that â€Å"black children in the country don’t have the things we do†. She tries to teach the children to respect the land in their native state of Georgia when the children try to throw trash out the window of the car and June Star makes the comment that Tennessee is â€Å"a hillbilly dumping ground and Georgia is a lousy state too. †The grandmother again hisses at June Star when she makes the impolite statement that â€Å"I wouldn’t live in a broken down place like this for a million bucks†. One of the ways that O’Conner characterized the grandmother is being manipulative. Knowing what to do and say in order for her to achieve whatever it was that she wanted. An example of this being true is by her sneaking the cat into the car against her son’s wishes. Another is after the family had left The Tower and she manipulated the children into believing that the house she wanted to visit had a secret a panel. After getting the children riled up about the secret panel they nagged until Bailey finally had no choice to but to turn around and go down the deserted dirt road. After traveling down this dirt road a while the grandmother realizes that the house that she remembered was in Tennessee. As she comes to this realization the cat springs out and frightens Bailey and he drives the car over the embankment. The grandmother hopes that she is injured so that her son will have sympathy for her and she would not have to reveal her mistaking the location of the house. O’Conner has used the characterization of the grandmother and her family as well as the plot to this point in order to give an account of what type of person the grandmother is based off her actions. A man with two others arrived in a car and they got out and to help the family. The grandmother reveals that the man is â€Å"The Misfit† that she had seen in the newspaper. It seems as if the misfit’s attention had suddenly reverted from assisting the family to now killing the family based on her recognition of him. The Misfit has Hiram and Bobby Lee to take Bailey and John Wesley out to the woods first because they could be the most troublesome of the bunch. Shortly after, they take the mother and her baby into the woods and June star takes Bobby Lee’s hand and follows. As stated in Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"Spoiled Prophet† written by T. W. Hendricks, â€Å"the family members enter the fatal woods without resisting†. This is said to be because they are accustomed to doing what is expected of them. They are not capable of acting on their own interest because none of them truly know who they are. The only exception to this being the grandmother who is considered to be a round character whose personality has been fully developed throughout the story. While Bobby Lee and Hiram are in the process of murdering the rest of her family she is pleading with the Misfit to spare her life. He rejects all of her attempts to talk him out of his murderous intentions. The story then goes on to the duel, what O’Conner considers to be the theme of the story. This conflict is between the grandmother’s belief that she is morally superior to everyone, and the misfits close examination of his life as well as his self awareness that he is not a good man. This critical part of the story takes place during the dialogue that ensues between the misfit and the grandmother. The grandmother insists that the misfit is too good a man to shoot a lady. With this attempt to save her own life she is appealing the decency of the man. The grandmother tells his that â€Å"I know you must come from nice people. † He says that he does come from the finest people in the world, but the he is not a good man. The grandmother begins to lose her voice as she realizes that her son and grandson were killed and that her daughter in law as well the rest of her grandchildren were about to be killed, and that she would soon follow. The misfit goes on to explain to the grandmother that Jesus has thrown everything off balance. He compared himself to Jesus in the sense that he had been punished but hadn’t committed any crimes. The Fact that Jesus was also able to know what he was being punished for ate at him because he had no idea what he was being punished for. He had come to the conclusion that the punishments that he had gone through did not fit the crime that he was accused of. The grandmother repeatedly urged the Misfit to pray. Praying would not help the misfit because he doesn’t see what he has done as being a sin. The misfit believes that there is no hope for a good life in this world or any hope for bliss in the next life. He says that â€Å"it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. † This is considered to be the Misfit’s motivation for him committing these murders. The grandmother see’s something in the Misfit that makes him like one of her own children, one of her sheep that have only strayed off course. The grandmother reaches out to touch the misfit both spiritually and physically but instead of breaking down, the misfit jumps back and fire 3 shots into her chest. O’Conner intended for the grandmothers last moments to be led by grace. In the end she was personally connected with the misfit and genuinely concerned about him as a person. It is this connection to being compared to a child that the misfit takes issue with. He mistakes her gesture for a form of belittlement. In the short story â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find† the characters, characterization of the characters, the occurrences throughout the plot as well as the conflict are all literary elements critical to reaching the final â€Å"coming to grace† theme of the story.

Place-Names: Its Cultural Significance Among the Western Apache Essay

Between 1979 and 1984, Professor Keith Basso of he University of New Mexico conducted a study of Apache places and place-names. Specifically, this stud focused on the ways in which the Apache refer to their land, the legends behind these places, and the ways in which these place-names are used in everyday conversation. Basso’s ethnography can be considered as an attempt to correlate social landscape with culture. Basso attempted to examine the effects of landscape to the everyday social interaction of Apache men and women. The Western Apache construction of history is a ‘worn trail’ created by the tribe’s first ancestors. It was also the same path that several generations of Apache undertook. It was in these places that ‘special events’ took place. The ancestors gave names to landscapes based on the events that happened there. These place-names were passed down from one generation to another to serve as a bridge between the Apache and their ancestors. It was in every sense, a memorial of the past, a dedication to the ancestors. Even if the landscape changed, its name remained alive in Apache culture. Basso then examined the specifics of the language used by the Apache to refer to place-names. Basso found that the Apache usually manipulated language (with regard to place-names) in order to elicit acceptable behavior and moralistic values from the members of the tribe. It can be said that the creation of place-names tales was generally moralistic in nature. It was intended to influence patterns of social collectivity. Its purpose was multi-faceted: 1) to provide enlightenment, 2) to criticize, and 3) to warn. The general implied purpose of place-names was to promote the general interest and unity of the Apache tribe. This is the reason why place-names remained a central force in Apache cultural life. As in every tribe, a historical tale is intended to create a critical and remedial response to specific situations, mostly on the individual level. An individual ho committed crime would have to be judged based on its implied offense to the historical value of place-names. The Apache examined whether such offense created a gap between the individual and the place-names. The landscape, therefore, served as the moral guide of the Apache. It generally outlined the dos and don’ts of an ethical and moral living. It was in every sense, the Apache view of moral life (a reference to ancestral events that occurred in specific places). The place-names when spoken evoked moral truths. Those who spoke it must know its essence. By judging it to be morally relevant, an Apache was expected to proclaim it from the heart. The process of knowing the truth must be silent and critical. One need not study it. Only an invocation from the heart would provide images of the truth and serve as an infallible guide to moral life. This â€Å"evoking of images† provided a direct form of criticism or advice without so much linguistic references. Thus, it can be said that the value of place-names to Apache life is both direct and indirect. It is direct because it served as a guide to the ideal life. It is indirect because the individual understood it from the heart. It was, in every sense, a bridge not only between the individual and the past, but also between the individual and the society. For example, the place-names of ‘great dog mountain’, ‘pillar of fire’, and ‘hill of discontent’ provided the means by which the individual may connect to the past. The anchorage of his actions could not be independent of the ‘will’ of these places, since these places are the only ones which give meaning to life. For an Apache, the ‘pillar of fire’ signified the foundation of life and the solitude of existence. The Apache mind rested on the edifice of these place-names both as a testimony to the greatness of their ancestors as well as the worth of its society. Reference Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company.

Mobile Technology Essay

Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile code division multiple access (CDMA) technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld game console. Many experts argue that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers are becoming more popular. The most popular tablet at the moment is the iPad, by Apple. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks. Contents 1 4G networking 2 Operating systems 3 Channel hogging and file sharing 4 Future of smartphone 5 External links 6 References 4G networking One of the most important features in the [4G] mobile networks is the domination of high-speed packet transmissions or burst traffic in the channels. The same codes used in the 2G-3G networks will be applied to future 4G mobile or wireless networks, the detection of very short bursts will be a serious problem due to their very poor partial correlation properties. Recent study has indicated that traditional multi-layer network architecture based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model may not be well suited for 4G mobile network, where transactions of short packets will be the major part of the traffic in the channels. As the packets from different mobiles carry completely different channel characteristics, the receiver should execute all necessary algorithms, such as channel estimation, interactions with all upper layers and so on, within a very short time to make the detections of each packet flawless and even to reduce the clutter of traffic. Operating systems Many types of mobile operating systems (OS) are available for smartphones, including: Android, BlackBerry OS, webOS, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen), Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen), and Bada. Among the most popular are the Apple iPhone, and the newest – Android. Android is a mobile operating system (OS) developed by Google. Android is the first completely open source mobile OS, meaning that it is free to any cell phone carrier. The Apple iPhone, which has several OSs like the 3G and 3G S, is the most popular smart phone at this time, because of its customizable OS which you can use to download applications (â€Å"apps†) made by Apple like games, GPS, Utilities, and other tools. Any user can also create their own Apps and publish them to Apple’s App Store. The Palm Pre using webOS has functionality over the Internet and can support Internet-based programming languages such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTML, and JavaScript. The Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry is a smartphone with a multimedia player and third-party software installation. The Windows Mobile Professional Smartphones (Pocket PC or Windows Mobile PDA) are like that of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and have touchscreen abilities. The Windows Mobile Standard does not have a touch screen but uses a trackball, touchpad, rockers, etc. The original smartphone OS is Symbian, with a rich history and the largest marketshare until 2011. Although no single Symbian device has sold as many units as the iPhone, Nokia and other manufacturers (currently including Sony Ericsson and Samsung, and previously Motorola) release a wide variety of Symbian models each year which gave Symbian the greatest marketshare. Channel hogging and file sharing There will be a hit to file sharing, the normal web surfer would want to look at a new web page every minute or so at 100 kbs a page loads quickly. Because of the changes to the security of wireless networks users will be unable to do huge file transfers because service providers want to reduce channel use. AT&T claimed that they would ban any of their users that they caught using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications on their 3G network. It then became apparent that it would keep any of their users from using their iTunes programs. The users would then be forced to find a Wi-Fi hotspot to be able to download files. The limits of wireless networking will not be cured by 4G, as there are too many fundamental differences between wireless networking and other means of Internet access. If wireless vendors do not realize these differences and bandwidth limits, future wireless customers will find themselves disappointed and the market may suffer setback. Future of smartphone The next generation of smartphones are going to be context-aware, taking advantage of the growing availability of embedded physical sensors and data exchange abilities. One of the main features applying to this is that the phones will start keeping track of your personal data, but adapt to anticipate the information you will need based on your intentions. There will be all-new applications coming out with the new phones, one of which is an X-Ray device that reveals information about any location at which you point your phone. One thing companies are developing software to take advantage of more accurate location-sensing data. How they described it was as wanting to make the phone a virtual mouse able to click the real world. An example of this is where you can point the phone’s camera while having the live feed open and it will show text with the building and saving the location of the building for use in the future. Along with the future of a smart phone comes the future of another device. Omnitouch is a device in which applications can be viewed and used on your hand, arm, wall, desk, or any other everyday surface. The device uses a sensor touch interface, which enables the user to access all the functions through the use of finger touch. It was developed at Carnegie Mellon University. This device uses a projector and camera that is worn on the person’s shoulder, with no controls other than the user’s fingers. Acknowledgment I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to (Name of your Organization Guide) for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for their support in completing the project. I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents & member of (Organization Name)for their kind co-operation and encouragement which help me in completion of this project. I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to industry persons for giving me such attention and time. My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleague in developing the project and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.

Dunns Emporium Experiences Growth Research Paper

Dunns Emporium Experiences Growth - Research Paper Example Leadership is the process of motivating, empowering, influencing and communicating with people to achieve organizational goals in a given situation. The role of a leader is to encourage the team to work towards the goal, define the task by providing a structure, classify the decorum, policies and the working methods for the team and evaluate the performance to enhance the individual development of the team. Therefore a leader motivates, encourages, guides creates followers, controls, negotiates and inspires the team for quality performance achievement. Joseph Dunn needs to act as a motivator and encourage the staff of Dunns Ski Emporium and The Deli to acknowledge his decision of the merger. He would act as a mediator to enable consensus among the employees. He must act as an initiator to promote innovation that can be brought in the strategic implementation of both the firm’s growth. His role as a strong leader is important to assure complete harmony among the employees of th e firm by integrating the departments. He must implement working methods and behavioral conduct as well as facilitate ideas from a team which was a problem being faced in The Deli due to the new ice-cream manager, John Levitz as his arrogant behavior towards his subordinates were inappropriate and was discouraging the team to perform and coordinate among themselves.On the other hand, John was young and enthusiastic about the expansion of the ice-cream business which would benefit from the merger of the two firms.

Interaction Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interaction Analysis Paper - Essay Example essed his concern about the loneliness he felt at home with nobody to care for him, and how he would be unable to take the medicine in case he dosed off. I promised to visit him at home and call him on phone to remind him of his medication at the precise moments he was supposed to take them. As he had a normal pulse and blood pressure, I applied an ice pack on his forehead to relieve him of the headache, to which he responded positively and confirmed that the headache was gone. I promised to get him examined by the concerned physician before he is allowed to go back to his home, so that he gets reassured psychologically and is not overwhelmed by the task. I watched his expression throughout the procedure and noted the relaxation he felt after being examined and talked to in a friendly manner. Hidden Messages/Themes: The relaxation revealed by his countenance due to the approach adopted was a cue to the inference that his condition was related more to anxiety rather than actual pathology. His positive reaction to examination on the couch revealed that he sought attention from somebody to sympathize with his condition. On being promised a consultation with the physician, he felt more relieved than before. In my opinion the patient just needed a psychological boost to cheer him up as he was confronted with the prospect of being alone at his home again. Reflection: In my opinion, at the very outset it was evident that the patient was feeling apprehensive on being discharged from the hospital. Faced with the daunting task of looking after himself at home, his anxiety manifested in his claim that he had a headache and felt numbness in legs. At this critical juncture, he needed a skilful handling by first agreeing to find a medical cause for his complaint, and then providing him with a cure for his symptoms, which he expected of me as a nurse. The therapeutic communication used in this interaction are, the immediate solution offered to him by examining him on the spot,

The Most Effective Way of Looking at the Health Essay

The Most Effective Way of Looking at the Health - Essay Example Usually, the main causes of morbidity are the likely combinations of biochemical, genetic, psychological and environmental factors. Studies in England have shown that this type of illness is a disorder of the brain. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a brain-imaging device had shown that the brains of people with depression are different than those without depression. How is the health care system of England delivered to its people? A health care system is a group of people organized to provide health care services to the people who are part of it. England’s National Health Service (NHS) is considered to be its publicly funded health care system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service).   It has also been a separate system from the other national health systems which are also operating in England. The NHS has been active in providing the people with healthcare including primary care, in-patient care, dentistry, and ophthalmology. On July 1948, the National Health Service Act 1946 became effective thus NHS has become an essential system for the majority of the British people. Although private care has still been operating in this country, paid by most private insurance companies, yet, a large percentage of the British population are mainly using the services the NHS provided. Because NHS is funded by England’s Department of Health, it further provides the majority of the necessary th ings concerning a patient’s health free of charge. People with permanent disabilities and low income are usually the ones who are provided with 100% services free of charge. Around 86% of prescriptions are covered free for the others.               Because of England’s NHS, the people will receive immediate attention where health is concerned. In fact, among all countries, British people can be considered lucky to receive such health care services for free. Although the death of a person is a natural event, the presence of health care services could be considered as one of the great things that could prevent a person’s untimely death. Regardless of whether a person may or may not die on an exact date, at least, there are people who are doing their best to save one’s life.  Ã‚  

Why does ethnic conflict occur How can it be avoided Essay

Why does ethnic conflict occur How can it be avoided - Essay Example They usually fall under the following categories namely instrumentalist, primordialist and constructivist. Instrumentalist seeks to explain the role of community leaders in ethnic conflict while primordialist relates ethnic conflicts as being caused by a common feeling of kinship which makes a group to think along the same line. On the other hand constructivist tries to explain conflicts as being caused by individuals’ learning process1; however, most of the ethnic conflicts are largely caused by social and economic injustices. Gross violations of human rights have played a great role in fuelling ethnic violence; as a result, this has brought about a lingering question as to whether human rights can be enforced and at the same time end violence. Therefore, human rights have a strong negative effect in the management of ethnic conflicts. This has led to the establishment of the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda as well as the special courts for Sierra Leon as an indica tion of the need of involvement of the international community to address the issues of human rights violations.2 In the 1990s most ethnic conflict were religious base for instance the Palestinian-Israel conflict, Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the Tamil rebellion in Sri Lanka, the southerners in the Sudan conflict with their northern counterparts just to mention but a few.3 Iran and Sudan are the best example of ethno religious conflicts, and this makes them attract international attention as well as journalistic and diplomatic coverage. The minority tag as in the case of the Kurds in Iran, Iraq and turkey is also a source of ethnic conflict due to their relationship with the state which is governed by the majority ethnic groups. This has exposed them to political and economic discrimination which has resulted in protest and rebellions to air their grievances. Consequently, they have resulted to the use of violent and rebellious organizations and other extra legal means geared towa rds attaining their rightful status in the society. The media is also to blame for ethnic conflicts that have occurred in various countries around the globe. This is owing to the fact that at times it abuses the freedom of speech and peddles propaganda pitting ethnic groups against each other, and a good example is on what happened in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.4 The media was used to fuel ethnic animosity against the minority Tutsi in Rwanda that resulted in the death of thousands of Tutsi civilians. Furthermore, the absence of a democratic government leads to formation of violent organization by the minority group e.g. in Sudan. Democracy ensures that the minority goals are achieved through a democratic process, and gives room for due process to be followed be it legal means or peaceful organizations. Therefore, the lack of proper democracy being practiced in a country makes violence to be the last resort.5 Mobilization of ethnic groups has also played a major role in fuelling ethnic c lashes, which can take the form of being offensive, defensive and preparatory that are all to blame for ethnic uprising. As a result, it leads to the formation of unruly militia groups that bring chaos in the society. Preparatory mobilization is highly counterproductive while at the same time creates unnecessary ethnic tension considering that some minor flare up in most cases leads to ethnic conflict due to this nature of preparedness. Ethnic security dilemma whereby there is no sovereign authority to oversee the security of every group security is another major factor that leads to conflicts. The government may be weak or entirely absent which creates a situation where the respective group acquires a group concern of feeling threatened, as

Violence and its effects on children and families Research Paper

Violence and its effects on children and families - Research Paper Example Many video games these days are based on the theme of violence. Violence through media is a very silent yet a very effective way of changing the minds of the young generation especially children. â€Å"[T]he motion picture, music recording, and electronic game industries attempt to market the same products to children that they label as unsuitable for children† (Cornell, 2006, p. 117). Children are drawn toward video games in which they have to do target killing. Anything from rape to genocide and drug dealing can be the activity in a video game or a movie. In the present age, children spend a lot of time watching television and playing video games. Gradually, these activities become ingrained in their personalities. They develop a level of comfort with such activities. Television programs showing children kidnapping and murder teach them the ways and means to do these acts of violence (Freedman, 2002, p. 5). The more they watch it happen, the more the negative or at least, aw kward image of these activities fades away. Children become used to seeing violence and becoming part of it. This reflects in their behavior in the form of rudeness, lack of respect for the elders, lack of discipline, and physical and verbal abuse. Parents adopt different ways of counseling their children but not many get successful in disciplining their children after they have been spoilt. If parents take it too lightly, the chances of children getting spoilt are maximized. If parents take it too seriously and scold their children for such behaviors and activities, their relation with their children is distorted. Parents are perplexed and curious which affects their own lives as well. Family violence is commonly observed in the present age. Domestic violence is defined as â€Å"any violent or abusive behavior (whether physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, verbal, financial, etc.) that is used by one person to control and dominate another with whom they have or have had a re lationship† (Pearson, Hester, and Harwin, 2007, p. 18). Chances of family violence are maximized in distorted families. Family issues that often become the cause of violence include but are not limited to divorce, teenage pregnancy, and step-parenting. Usually, in these cases, at least one of the parents is not able to pay due attention toward the children. Children require care and love from their parents that they are deprived of in such cases. Divorce draws them away from one of the two parents. The emotional and physical gap thus created instills negative feelings in the children that are further strengthened with the passage of time because of lack of parental supervision. Likewise, children born to and raised by single parents are stereotyped and grow up with an inferiority complex. As they reach adolescence, they tend to join groups and gangs for identity. These groups make them part of their violent activities, and children develop into criminals. Many children are abu sed by their step-parents either physically or verbally or both. Many step-parents do not accept children of their spouses from their first marriages as part of their family. The hatred shows up in the form of verbal abuse. Many step-parents also abuse the children physically, thus leaving them with a life-long trauma and suffering. Some children share their experiences with their biological parents while others do not. In either case, the

Motivation Theories and How It Affects Employees' Commitment and Essay

Motivation Theories and How It Affects Employees' Commitment and Performance at Work - Essay Example From this study it is clear that   businesses should motivate its workforce not only for them to commit and perform but also to keep them in the organisation. Keeping valuable employees motivated in an organisation is not only intended to make them commit and perform but also to keep them over the long haul. The most common notion about motivation is to shower them with fat paychecks but this proved to be inadequate in keeping employees motivated. As what organisational theorists have reported, committing employees to perform towards a common goal involves an interplay of various factors that involves not only remuneration, but also the social and psychological dimensions of work that keep employees productive. Several business organisations even went as far as integrating play with work not only to keep their employees committed and productive, but also to induce creativity in the workplace which proved to be beneficial to a company’s diversification drive such as the case of Google. These various motivation theories shall be discussed in this paper and we will also tackle how these theories affect performance in today’s competitive environment. According to the discussion the classical theorists of motivation a. Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management Taylor first conceived the idea that workers are mainly motivated solely by wage. He posited that management has to possess the control and knowledge of the methods of production so that it would have a greater control of achieving efficiency in an organisation that includes motivating its workforce. For Taylor, the breaking up functions into small quantifiable tasks is necessary to make the time-piece rate pay possible that will encourage employees to work harder if they can see that they are being paid with more work. This theory assumed that employees are more motivated with more pay and confined motivation to solely addressing the economic needs of a business org anisation’s employees.