Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Classics 20 - discovering Romans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Classics 20 - discovering Romans - Essay Example as such a playwright who infused humor in comedy with several other literary techniques to enact and resolve such types of cultural conflicts as generational and social problems as portrayed in the discussion below. In his play entitled Brothers, Terence uses fictional characters as he attempts to analyze and represent that various types of cultural conflicts that existed in the society. The characters possess appropriate personalities a deliberate feature that Terence employs in order to justify the conflicts that existed during the early Roman society. Demea one of the key characters is an Athenian man with two sons Aeschinus  and Ctesipho. Demea is a strict father who strives to raise his children in a manner he considers upright. In an unprecedented shift, Demea separates his children at a tender age thereby giving one of his sons to his brother Micio while he remains with one of the sons, Ctesipho. While the playwright does not validate Demea’s decision to separate his children, the separation helps portray the various types of cultural conflicts that existed in the Roman society. The early Roman society expected parents to raise their children. Such is a portrayal of responsibility. Parents therefore make decisions for their children as they grow. This way, children grow into adulthood as defined by their parents. By separating the two sons, Demea develops a scenario where his sons grow into two different adults with different personalities. The relationship between sons and fathers for example influences the nature of adults the sons become. As explained earlier, Demea is a stringent father and a strict disciplinarian. His brother Micio is an easy going and liberal bachelor. His lifestyle therefore influences the relationship he creates with his nephew, Aeschinus. The separation of the boys at such tender age instigates the formation of difference personalities in the boys owing to the fact that they live the rest of their lives with two different men

Monday, October 28, 2019

Kristens cookie company Essay Example for Free

Kristens cookie company Essay From the given data we can draw the following Process Flowchart The case analysis yields the following points 1. The time taken to fill rush order will depend on whether there are any orders that are being processed currently or not. Accordingly we will have two scenarios a). No order is being processed when the rush order is received. The time in this case will be equal to the sum of the time required for all the processes. Time = 6 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 26minute b). An order is being processed when the rush order is received. In the worst case, the cookies will have just been put in the oven. Thus oven will not be free before (1 + 9)= 10 minutes. By this time, the washing of the bowl and mixing of the dough for the rush order will be done. This will take 8 min. Since oven will not be free for 2 more minutes. Thus total time for this process will be 8 + 2 + 1+ 9 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 28 minutes Every additional order of a dozen cookies will take an additional 10 minutes to fulfill (as the time taken for baking is the only bottleneck involved) 2. If we are open for 4 hours (or 240 minutes), the number of orders that can be filled will be: Every order will take 10 minutes, since the baking time (ie 10min) is the bottleneck, except the first order which will take 6+ 2 =8min in the beginning and the last order which will take 5+2+1=8 more minutes. Thus, [240 (8+8)] / 10 = 22.4 orders can be filled in a day. That is 22 orders or 22*12 = 264 cookies in a day. 3. I am performing the process of washing, mixing and filling the dough in the tray, while the roommate is putting the tray in the oven, packing, and collecting the payment Thus for each order I spend: 6 + 2 = 8 minutes Roommate spends: 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 minutes A problem of idle time arises when more than one order is to be fulfilled, now if 2 simultaneous orders come, then I will have an idle time of 2 minutes and the roommate will have an idle time of 6 minutes. 4. If we order 2 dozen cookies or 3 dozen cookies, then my time will be reduced for washing and mixing, since the dough for 3 dozen cookies can be mixed together. That is my time will be reduced by 6 minutes for a 2 dozen order and 12 minutes for a 3 dozen order. My roommates time will be reduced by 1minute for 2dozen and 2 minute for 3 dozen. It is the time required for collecting payment since now she will collect payment only once for the whole order. However the total time for the process is still the same, since the baking process is the bottleneck and this will not affect the process of baking ,If this time that is saved, can be utilized for some productive work, which can earn more than the discounts we give, only then should we give discounts for 2 dozen or 3 dozen orders. 5. The business can be run smoothly using only one food processor, but the minimum number of trays that are required are 2 trays. This can be explained as follows The total time required for fulfilling an order is 26 minutes, now if another order is taken before the fulfillment of the first order then we will need another tray in which to place the ingredient mix and prepare it for baking. If we have further orders then the first tray can be used again since it will have come back after the cooling cycle. 6. To make cookies in lesser time we can use 3 ovens or use an oven with a larger capacity. With 3 ovens we can make 3 dozen cookies in just 31 minutes as compared to 48 minutes taken with just 1 oven. This amounts to an increase of 35% in sales due to time being saved. Addition of an extra oven can also help in this regard; with an extra oven we can fill 28 orders in a day instead of only 22 orders. Thus the additional rent that we can pay for an additional oven will be an amount lesser than the additional profit made by tending to 6 extra orders in a day. The additional oven will be very useful since the main Bottleneck encountered in this process is the time taken to bake the cookies. Additional analysis 1. If I were to do the whole process by myself it would take me 36 minutes to fill 2 orders which come back-to-back. The problem in this case would be that there can be no parallel processing. Thus after every 2 orders the process of baking has to start afresh, hence the total number of orders that can be filled per day will be X = (240*2)/36 = 13.333 Therefore only 13 orders can be filled everyday as compared to 22 that can be filled by 2 people. Hence working alone would have the same costs but sales would decrease by close to 50%. 2. There will be no effect on the time taken to manufacture the Crash priority order that has come up; both the new order and the order already in the oven can be delivered on time. The only problem here can arise if we have other orders in queue when this order arrives, then those orders will have to be kept waiting when we attend to this order. We can charge the customer a premium which will be equal to the number of orders whose delivery time will be extended beyond an hour due to this order. i.e. if we have 6 orders in queue and 3 of them are delayed due to the new order then Premium charged= No. of orders unfulfilled due to the new order * price; 3. The entire process time taken here is 26 minutes; every additional order will take an additional 10 minutes. Therefore we can service 4 orders in the first hour and 6 orders in every subsequent hour, this holds good if we have to deliver within an hour. If that restriction is relaxed, then delivery time we promise will be determined by the number of orders already in queue and any work-in-progress The formula that we can use for determining delivery time will be Time = (No. of orders in the queue*10 minutes) + (Work in progress* Time remaining in baking) + 10 minutes (Baking time of the new order) + 8 minutes (time till packing) i.e. if we have 3 orders in queue and another order which has to be baked for a further 5 minutes the delivery time we can promise will be Time = (3*10) + (5) +10+8 = 53 minutes. This is how we can promise delivery. 4. The major factors that should be considered at this stage of planning the business are what prices to charge, how many orders to accept and what can the profit be, the business has no extra costs apart from the input costs. But to safeguard against breakdown of equipment we must add a maintenance charge for the machine maintenance, the other costs that can come into picture are the opportunity costs, i.e. if our time was utilized in other tasks what could have been the profit we could have made. Hence these are the important factors that must be considered at this stage of planning. 5. If the product was a standard product then the following changes could be made * We can have 3 ovens, this will be useful because if the product is a standard one then we will always make 3 dozen cookies every time we prepare a mix, thus it would be useful for us to have 3 ovens as it would considerably reduce our time and give faster output * We can increase the number of orders that we can service each night * The order-taking system will be changed since now there is no customization so we will only be required to ask the customer as to how many dozens does he/she want These are the changes that should be made if the product is changed to a standardized one.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, Sometimes I think :: English Literature

Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. How do you judge Atticus as a parent? Does he make any mistakes? What do other characters say about him? Near the end of the book Atticus says to Heck Tate, "Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got." How do you judge Atticus as a parent? Does he make any mistakes? What do other characters say about him? Atticus is a single parent who is nearly fifty years old when we first meet him. He lives with his two children, Jem who is 10 at the beginning of the book, and Scout who is six. His wife died when Scout was two, so Atticus has had to bring the children up for four years, on his own, with help from Calpurnia-a coloured servant. Atticus is a lawyer, who practises in his hometown, which is a small town called Maycomb in Alabama. Hard times fall upon the Finch family when Atticus is appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white girl. Atticus does not have to agree to take the case, but his self-respect and pride demand that he makes sure Tom gets a fair trial. He knows that he does not have a good chance of winning the trial, because it is a case of a white mans word against a black man, he admits this, "we were licked before we started". This act displays his belief in humanity and his sense of justice. It also verifies that Atticus is not a racist man and views the black community as equals. This attitude was not prevalent at the time, despite the fact that it was over seventy years since the Civil War. We learn of Atticus' approach to bringing up his children when Scout says, "he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment". This, however, is not the only view Scout and Jem have of their father. To begin with they seem disappointed that their father does not do the same sort of things that other fathers do. He does not play football or poker, and he does not drink or smoke. Even though Atticus may have been remote in some of his dealings with his children, he did speak frankly to them, even about embarrassing things. He bought them a shotgun for Christmas, telling them not to kill a mocking bird. He may have been reserved, but I think he was

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Application of Consumer’s Knowledge

| CONSUMER BEHAVIOR PAPER| The Application of Consumer’s Knowledge and Involvement Concept in â€Å"Adu Segar Larutan Penyegar† Case Study from Brand Cap Kaki Tiga Perspective | September 2012| MMBM Batch 25 Team #2 Dickson Mulia 0152121007 Genoveva Iswati0152121016 Arfianti Puspitarini0152121035 Maulana 01521210xx EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga, currently being manufactured by PT Kinocare, is facing a fierce competition against Larutan Penyegar Cap Badak since Wen Ken Drugs decision in February 2011 to withdraw the license from PT Sinde Budi Sentosa and granted it to PT Kinocare.In the market, the new Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga is perceived as a replica product of its predecessor and they are struggling to gain consumer brand awareness and eventually become consumer’s choice. In this case study, we recommend Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga to get out of the tight corner by implementing a breakthrough innovation in order to gain consumer inte rest and remove consumer’s visual imagery of Badak logo that has been anchored in consumer’s memory since 1937 I. BACKGROUND 1937 – The Product EraAbout 75 years ago, in 1937 four Singaporean Chinese families decided to go into business together to market a secret traditional medical recipe which becomes known as Three Legs Cooling Water. In Hokkien, ‘3 legs' (pronounced as Sa Ka) is a popular proverb meaning to flatter someone. But in the world of traditional medicine in Singapore and Malaysia, the ‘3 legs' means a simple effective way to prevent or heal fever and headache caused by ‘healthiness' in the body The logo features two legs on solid ground and one additional leg to provide additional support and expedite the healing process.The symmetrical legs represent equality for all and humbleness on others' views and suggestions. And finally, the circle marks the cohesiveness of the staff and customers centered on the triple legs 1978 – Introduction into Indonesia Market About 30 years ago, in 1978 Wen Ken Drug Co. Ltd Singapore granted the license of Three Legs (known locally as ‘Cap Kaki Tiga’) to PT Sinde Budi Sentosa as licensed manufacturer with headquarter located in Jakarta. 2011 – Transfer of License Wen Ken Drug Co. Ltd Singapore withdrew the license of Cap Kaki Tiga from PT Sinde Budi Sentosa and transfered it to Kino Group.February 2012 – The Competition Kino Group was prohibited from using Cap Kaki Tiga brand together with Cap Badak painting on the product. PT Sinde Budi Sentosa has won their claim over the usage of Cap Badak painting on their products and Kino Group may use Cap Kaki Tiga brand. This is the beginning of the competition on cooling water between Cap Kaki Tiga and Cap Badak. Following is the comparison of the product : Larutan Penyegar Cap Badak (Sinde) and Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga (Kino). About Kino Group Kino Corporation started as a small distribution c ompany named Duta Lestari Sentratama back in 1991.Another big step was taken in 1999, Kinocare Era Kosmetindo,  manufacturer of a wide range of personal care products for all genders and ages was established. 2003 saw Kinocare Era Kosmentindo enlarged its businesses further into homecare division by providing a wide range of homecare products under the brand Sleek. Expanding  into Asian region, in 2002 Kino opened its branch office in Malaysia; Kino Care (M) Sdn. Bhd. , and in 2003 in the Philippine; Kino Consumer Philippines Inc. and also established distributorships with some other big distributor companies in Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam and Myanmar. Kino Group consists of the following: . PT KinoCare Era Kosmetindo : Personal care and Home care products (Kino Sweat, Ovale, Eskulin, B;B Kids Shampoo, Ellips, Sleek, Cap Kaki Tiga) 2. PT KinoSentra Industrindo: confectionary products such as candies, snacks and chocolates (Kino Candy) 3. PT KinoAid Indonesia : Pharmacy and Bevera ges (Resik V, Absolute, Panthers) 4. PT Duta Lestari Sentratama : Distribution After almost two decades, Kino Corporation Group   products are now available in big distributors, hypermarkets, supermarkets, mini-markets, thousands of cosmetic stores as well as   million of small traditional outlets throughout   the Indonesian archipelago.Kino’s product quality has met international standard qualification, proved by the increasing demands from the markets all over the world. II. BASIC CONCEPT AND THEORY The scope of analysis of â€Å"Adu Segar Larutan Penyegar Cap Badak vs. Kaki Tiga† case is focused on Consumer’s Product Knowledge and Involvement concept. Consumers have different levels of product knowledge, which they can use to interpret new information and make purchase choices. Levels of knowledge are formed when people acquire separate meaning concepts (accretion process) and combine them into larger, more abstract categories of knowledge (tuning).The levels of product knowledge are classified based on below spectrum: More Abstract| | | Less Abstract| Product Class| Product Form| Brand| Model/Features| â€Å"Larutan Penyegar†| Ready-To- Drink| Cap Kaki Tiga| Original(Bottled , 200ml ; 500ml)Fruity taste(Canned, 330ml, available in 7 variants)| Because consumers are likely to make separate purchase decisions at each level of knowledge, marketers need to understand how consumers organize their product knowledge in terms of these different levels.Thus, based on this concept, the basic questions that might arise are â€Å"What are the levels of product knowledge for â€Å"Larutan Penyegar†? and â€Å"Which are the dominant factors that influencing consumer’s purchase decision? † The knowledge of consumers is organized into means-end chain concept. In this concept, consumers can have three types of product knowledge: * knowledge about the attributes or characteristics of products, * the positive consequenc es or benefits of using products, * the values the product helps consumers satisfy or achieve Products as Bundles of AttributesThe simplest line to describe â€Å"Products as Bundles of Attributes† is that it is the physical characteristic of the product itself. From a cognitive processing perspective, we might wonder if consumers really have knowledge in memory about all of these attributes and whether consumers actually activate and use this knowledge when deciding which products and brands to buy. To evaluate whether consumer awareness of product attributes of â€Å"Larutan Penyegar† , we might get the figure by asking â€Å"Do you know the basic ingredients being used in this product? or â€Å"Would you compare the ingredients of each brand? † Products as Bundles of Benefits Marketers also recognize that consumers often think about products and brands in terms of their consequences rather than their attributes. Consumers can have knowledge about two types o f product consequences: functional and psychosocial. Functional consequences are tangible outcomes of using a product that consumers experience rather directly while psychological consequences of product use are internal, personal outcomes, such as how the product makes you feel. Products as Value SatisfiersConsumers also have knowledge about the personal, symbolic values that products and brands help them satisfy or achieve. Values often involve the emotional affect associated with such goals and needs (the strong feelings and emotions that accompany success). In contrast means–end chain links consumers’ knowledge about product attributes with their knowledge about consequences and values. In other words, consumers see most product attributes as a means to some end. The end could be a consequence (a benefit or a risk) or a more abstract value. A common representation of a means—end chain has four levels:Brand| Attributes| Functional Consequences| Psychosocial C onsequences| Value| Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga| Mixture of medicinal ingredients | Help relieve sore throat | I feel better / healthy| -| Based on above figure, the means – end chain of Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga ends at the level of psychosocial consequences. III. CONSUMER ANALYSIS Having all the questions behind the basic concept, we must get the answer in order to understand the levels of consumer product knowledge, the means-end chain of â€Å"Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga† and whether consumers aware of the competition of â€Å"Cap Badak† vs. Cap Kaki Tiga† and if the subjected case influences the purchasing behavior. Therefore, a small research was conducted with the following design: Methods: Quantitative, Face to Face interview Geographic location : Jakarta, Bogor Sample criteria : Consumer of â€Å"Larutan Penyegar† with the following constraints: * 18+ years old * Purchase decision maker for Larutan Penyegar RTD * Purchase Larutan Penyegar RTD in last 6 months Sample size : 21 samples Research findings: 1. Cap Kaki Tiga name dominates the Top of Mind awareness by 90%, left Cap Badak with only 10% TOM. | Cap Kaki Tiga| Cap Badak|Top of Mind Awareness| 90%| 10%| Q: Thinking about â€Å"Larutan Penyegar† brands, what brand name do you think first of all? 2. 90% of respondents recall their last purchase of Larutan Penyegar brand is Cap Kaki Tiga   | Cap Kaki Tiga| Cap Badak| Last Purchase| 90%| 10%| Q: What was the brand(s) have you bought in past 6 months? 3. Interestingly, from 90% respondent who mentioned that their last purchase was Cap Kaki Tiga, only 19% who can distinguish the new packaging of Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga and chose it, while 62% of the respondent most likely recall visual imagery of Badak and chose Cap Badak brand.The rest 19% didn’t remember which bottle that they bought. | Cap Kaki Tiga| Cap Badak| Don't Remember| Visual Imagery| 19%| 62%| 19%| Q: Now I would like to k now how familiar you are with the †Larutan Penyegar† product. 1 set bottles of Larutan Penyegar Cap Kaki Tiga vs. Cap Badak, and point which bottle they bought the last time 4. 90% of the respondent does not aware about the competition about the product   | Not Aware| Aware| Awareness about the case| 90%| 10%| Q: Do you know that currently there are two different products? 5.After the respondents are told about the brief description whether the â€Å"old† Cap Kaki Tiga is currently produced by different manufacturer (PT Kinocare), and the manufacturer of â€Å"old† Cap Kaki Tiga is now producing Cap Badak, only 10% of respondent who prefer Cap Kaki Tiga, 52% prefer Cap Badak and 38% would choose any products that is available in the store. | Cap Kaki Tiga| Cap Badak| Anything| Brand Preference| 10%| 52%| 38%| Q : After you have the knowledge that currently there are 2 brands, which product(s) that you would choose?To summarize, based on the research above , the insights are: 1. Most of the respondents (90%) do not aware about the competition of Larutan Penyegar products from the two brands (â€Å"Cap Badak† vs. â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga†). 2. Inconsistency happened on brand name and product recollection. The high respondent mind share on â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† name (90%) is not translated into product election (19%) due to people historical memory about the product is anchored in the strong visual image of the â€Å"Badak† packaging. 3.An interesting fact appears when respondents are told about the difference of the brands, ironically most of them (52% vs 10%) prefer to choose â€Å"Cap Badak† instead of â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga†. However, there is still an opportunity for â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† to win the 38% respondent who would choose any brands. Then, based on insights above, we can identify few problems of Cap Kaki Tiga current products, which are: 1. â€Å"Badak† logo imagery is very str ong in consumer’s mind. To win over â€Å"Badak† image is quite impossible eventhough consumers have strong awareness on â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† name.If both products have to be in head-to head competition, such in display, most likely consumers will always choose â€Å"Cap Badak†. 2. From interviews, we got few comments about â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† logo which is not quite familiar and don’t look interesting at all. Some of them think that logo of â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† makes the product looks like a fake. Some even thought the logo looks associated with poisonous mosquito-killer insecticide product logo. IV. RECOMMENDATION â€Å"RECOVERY/SOLVING† AND KEY LEARNINGOur group proposes several recommendations for â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† brand to be considered: 1. Launch new format of â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† with totally fresh new whole concepts (packaging design, formats and marketing communications). a. Changes of packaging desig n should emphasize on the â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† name, as its strong point, and minimize the proportion of â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† logo, as its weakness point. b. Changes of bottle format with new shapes. We analyzed that with same bottle format as â€Å"Cap Badak†, it won’t be beneficial for â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga†.The reason for that is the consumer will always associate the bottle format with â€Å"Badak† painting in it and they would most likely prefer it and assume the â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† current same format as a fake. c. To support the changes in design and bottle format, we have to give strong marketing communications emphasizing on historical â€Å"journey† of original â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† brand product. This approach has the ultimate goal to underline the originality of the brand with â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† as the holder of official license from Wen Ken Drugs since the very beginning and create consumer confidence that the product is not a fake. . In order to increase consumer involvement, we recommend Cap Kaki Tiga to tap into younger segment through its flavored variant product line by communicating â€Å"Larutan penyegar† as daily beverage. Through this strategy, it is expected to create a new image and perception that a consumer does not have to wait until he feels sore throat to consume â€Å"Larutan Penyegar†. To support this strategy, Cap Kaki Tiga might conduct a marketing event that promote consumer’s involvement in the usage of the product, for example : conducting 10K Running Competition for charity, sponsorship in sports competition (e. IBL) as the official beverage, sponsorship in school annual music festival, and so on. 3. Strengthen distribution channel is also key strategy â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† have to explore to win the competition. To target indifferent consumers, availability of the product is a must. Kino should have expertise on this area, sinc e other Kino’s products are already strong in distributions. 4. Have further research (ZMET Study) in order to get further insights on: d. The brand and logo association, how â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† brand and logo can affect the consumer purchase decision. e.To understand the key reason for purchase and also the influential touch point so we are able to develop effective marketing campaign on the new concept launch Key learnings from our study on â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† brand, stated as following: 1. Top of mind awareness of brand is not necessarily translated into consumer’s decision to purchase (share of market) for the case of â€Å"Larutan Penyegar† competition. Therefore, an effective marketing strategy is needed to drive consumer purchase furthermore. 2. High brands awareness means nothing if the consumers don’t aware about the product itself.A product must have a uniqueness to be able to distinguish itself from the crowd and chosen by the c onsumers. 3. â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† has to try to go out from ‘Red Ocean’ competition with â€Å"Cap Badak†. The more they are trying to compete head-to head with similar concept as â€Å"Cap Badak†, the less opportunity for Cap Kaki Tiga to win â€Å"Larutan Penyegar† competition. 4. It worth to have a shot on going to the market with fresh new whole concepts, because â€Å"Cap Kaki Tiga† has opportunity to be the ‘offense’ side, rather than â€Å"Cap Badak† as defense’ side. Offense as to grab the indifferent market as mentioned before on the short-term basis, and to grab the current market share from â€Å"Cap Badak† on longer term period. V. REFERENCE 1. Peter, J. Paul & Jerry C. Olson, â€Å"Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy†, 9th edition, McGraw-Hill International Edition, 2010. 2. http://www. wenken. com 3. http://harrysanusi. blogspot. com/ 4. capkakitiga. com 5. Suryadi, Dede, â₠¬Å"Adu Segar Larutan Penyegar†, SWA Magazine Edition 22, October 2011.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Internal Control and Risk Evaluation

A risk is the chance of a negative event occurring. Internal controls are policies and procedures set in place to reduce the occurrence of an associated risk. Risks are never entirely eliminated; however, internal controls help reduce the occurrence and balance the risk. This brief will discuss the risks of Kudler Fine Food’s current Accounting Information System (AIS). In addition, the internal controls designed to mitigate the risks. Furthermore, this brief evaluates the internal controls for the AIS. Last, this brief addresses other controls, outside of the AIS that Kudler’s may need. Identify Risks According to Hunton, Bryant, and Bagranoff (2004), â€Å"business enterprises face a variety of risks, including business, audit, security, and continuity risks. † Business risk means the company may not achieve its goals and objectives. A review of Kudler’s strategic plan will help determine the business risk. The adoption of the new Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory system would be an IT timing risk. An IT timing risk is an example of an internal business risk that Kudler would face. An audit risk is the likelihood that Kudler’s external auditor would make a mistake in his or her opinion of the financial statements. Audit risks are broken down further into inherent, control, and detection risks. Every business has inherent risk because doing business is risky in itself. Control risks are the likelihood the internal controls the company has in place would not prevent a material error. Detection risks are the likelihood the audit procedure would not detect material errors. Security risks involve data access and integrity. The AIS converts raw data into useful information. To ensure the data integrity, Kudler will need to control the risks associated with collecting and processing the data. By implementing the JIT inventory system and point of sale system, data is processed as soon as something purchased from the stores. This mitigates human error under the old system. Continuity risks are associated with the AIS’ availability, backup, and recovery. Kudler’s will need to implement stronger firewalls and larger servers. This will ensure when Kudler’s does business online, customers will be able to access the website at any given time. Any down time of the website would be potential loss of business. Internal Controls Management must design and implement the internal controls. However, this is just two steps of the control process. Management must evaluate the controls for effectiveness. Kudler’s size would not necessitate an internal auditor; however, an external auditor would be beneficial in testing the effectiveness of the controls. In addition, Kudler’s would need to document policies and procedures to establish an audit trail. According to Bagranoff, Simkin, and Strand, (2008, p. 50-251), these documents should include: 1. â€Å"A chart of accounts (with the purpose of each general ledger account)† 2. â€Å"A complete description of source documents individuals must use to record accounting transactions† 3. â€Å"A comprehensive description of the authority and responsibility assigned to each individual† Controls Outside the AIS Kudler faces other external threats as well. T hese threats can be reduced by securing the AIS with firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spam, and other anti-spyware software. This will deter any potential hacker from accessing confidential information. Whereas, the software will not completely eliminate the risks involved with doing business over the Internet or remotely from each store, the risks will be greatly reduced. Conclusion Risk assessment and internal controls are vital to Kudler’s continued success. Kudler will need to monitor the effectiveness of the internal controls once the new JIT inventory system is in place. In addition, management will need to assess the risks associated with expanding business. However, these risks are balanced out by the expected increase in business transactions to ensure Kudler’s lasting success.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Inland Beach essays

Inland Beach essays Margaret Creal leaves us with plenty to ponder about as her use of symbolism is used to describe the strength and wisdom of women along with the miracle of birth. Margaret Creal uses symbolism to link the fragility of birth to the delicateness of life. Margaret Creal describes the scenery at the beginning to illustrate what the surrounding beach looks like, however we can also see that her description also resembles the miracle of birth. It is evident that the bay as representing the outside world and the ocean as being still in the women. The bay empties through a narrow neck into the ocean(153). This description of the ocean and bay resembles how babies are brought into the world. This description helps the theme of the story as it may not be possible for all readers to figure it out but it is pretty interesting when found. When Ben tries to get back in from the ocean to the bay he struggles and kicks rhythmically. This is the same as birth in life as it is always difficult to get the child out of the mother. I said, Im trying to come in, and I cant (154). The author only allows us to see the story through the mothers eyes so we can never completely get the full impact of what Ben feels as he is fighting to get back in. This directly reflects what happens when babies are thinking when they are brought into the world. The mood of the story changes dramatically as the mothers attitude changes rapidly as Ben is stuck in the ocean. The mother is very happy when she gets to the beach as everything is in order but she becomes very angry with Ben, as he does not listen to orders. She is in fear as she finally discovers that Ben is moving further out and he cant come back in. She then feels pain in her stomach when she thinks that Ben and she are going to die. In the end the mother is happie ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Gladiatorial Combat essays

Gladiatorial Combat essays Munera gladitoria (gladiatorial contests) hold a central place in our perception of Roman behavior. They were also a big influence on how Romans themselves ordered their lives. Attending the games was one of the practices that went with being a Roman. The Etruscans, who introduced this type of contest in the sixth century BC, are credited with its development but it was the Romans who made it famous. A surviving feature of the Etruscan games in the Roman contests was when a gladiator fell he was hauled out of the arena by a slave dressed as the Etruscan death-demon Charun. The slave would carry a hammer, which was the demons attribute. Moreover, the Latin term for a trainer-manager of gladiators (lanista) was believed to be an Etruscan word (Hopkins 50). Gladiators of Ancient Rome lived their lives to the absolute fullest. Gladiatorial duels had originated from funeral games given in order to satisfy the dead mans need for blood, and for centuries their principle occasions were funerals. The first gladiatorial combats therefore took place at the graves of those being honored, but once they became public spectacles they moved into amphitheaters (Dining 83). As for the gladiators themselves, an aura of religious sacrifice continued to hang about their combats. Obviously most spectators just enjoyed the massacre without any remorseful reflections. Even ancient writers felt no pity, they were aware that gladiators had originated from these holocausts in honor of the dead. What was offered to appease the dead was counted as a funeral rite. It is called munus (a service) from being a service due. The belief was that the souls of the dead are appeased with human blood, they use to sacrifice captives or slaves of poor quality at funerals. Afterwards it seemed good to obscure their impiety by making it a plea sure (Hopkins 170). So after the acquired person had been trained to fight as best they can, their training was to learn t...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Famous Books Rejected Multiple Times

Famous Books Rejected Multiple Times Famous Books Rejected Multiple Times Famous Books Rejected Multiple Times By Maeve Maddox Commenting on That First Page, a reader remarks: Then there is the story of Orwells novel being rejected by American publishers because American readers dont like animal stories! Publishers and agents alike have turned down books that finally made it into print and immortality. Two books devoted to the subject give details of now embarrassing reasons given for turning down writers who have become household names: Pushcarts Complete Rotten Reviews (1998), Edited by Bill Henderson and Andre Bernard. (Youre welcome to Le Carrà ©; he hasnt got any future.) Rejections of the Written Famous (2003) by Joyce Spizer   (Tony Hillerman’s agent told him, Get rid of the Indian stuff') Here, with the number of times the book was turned down, are some examples to give you courage next time you receive a rejection letter. (Note: the figures are taken from websites and not directly from the books.) Auntie Mame, Patrick Dennis (15) Carrie, Stephen Kng (30) Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfeld and Mark Victor Hansen (140) Diary of Anne Frank (16) Dr. Seuss books (15) Dubliners, James Joyce (22) Dune, Frank Herbert (23) Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (38) Harry Potter book one, J. K. Rowling (9) Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach (18) Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl (20) M*A*S*H, Richard Hooker (17) The Peter Principle, Laurence Peter (16) The Prncess Diaries, Meg Cabot (17) Watership Down, Richard Adams (26) A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine LEngle, (26) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive AtWork of Art Titles30 Nautical Expressions

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Scholasticism Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Scholasticism - Term Paper Example The Meaning of Scholasticism Scholasticism is a term that is used to refer to an approach or method of instruction or study which was employed early education among schoolmen who were known as scholastics (Coakley and Andrea 2004). This approach to scholarship was used during the medieval times. Scholasticism as an education method lasted from about the year 1100 to 1500. In was common among early universities in Europe. Through Scholasticism, critical thought about scholarly concepts was achieved. This mode of education was employed to defend various theories, dogma and concepts in education. In addition, Scholasticism was used to communicate or articulate concepts in education between the educators and learners or among learners themselves (Coakley and Andrea 2004). More notably is the fact that Scholasticism emanated from schools which taught religious concept or the study of theology. This approach was used in Christian schools and universities within the British monarchies. Scho lasticism became popular at the time and was considered the most effective way of presenting religions material and discussing concepts on Christianity and religion in general. Scholasticism as a method of learning however had attributes or characteristics that were different from theology and even philosophy. This is because unlike theology and philosophy, Scholasticism form of instruction allowed educators and articulators of religious material to employ dialectics in their mode of reasoning. This means that Scholasticism promoted the extension of religious knowledge through a critical thinking process which ended with inference about specific topics. Scholasticism played a central role in achieving comprehension of religious material and ideas that seemed contradictory (Coakley and Andrea 2004). This was achieved through a process of analytical interpretation of concepts and ideas in religion with a view of developing a reasoned justification on the distinction which existed amon g religious ideas, concepts and beliefs. Scholasticism was employed in religious studies within classrooms where concepts in religion that were disputed were discussed, thought upon to result into inferences and convincing distinction among concepts and ideas (Qualben 1936). Application of Scholasticism The topics that were discussed within the Scholasticism mode of study were taken from the cultural and religious values and the traditions of the scholars. After the topic was decided upon, question was designed to present an argument for a critical and procedural discussion. Suring the processes of study, opponents of the arguments first presented their responses on the question. This was followed by arguments and counterproposals which were focused at refuting the claims of the opponents. This demonstrated that Scholasticism laid an elaborate emphasis on a dialectical approach to study. The effectiveness of this approach to study attracted the attention of other disciplines of stud y. With time and the growing population of Scholasticism, it was also employed in studying concepts and understanding phenomena in other fields of study as well. Since Scholasticism was now applied in various fields or disciplines of scholarship, it became a program. This program was then used as a tool for

Friday, October 18, 2019

Compare and Contrast Herbal medicine and Nutritional therapy Essay

Compare and Contrast Herbal medicine and Nutritional therapy - Essay Example In addition, complementary medicine incorporates alternative medicine applied for curative and therapeutic purposes, instead of the western medicine (Robson, 2003). Other important component of complementary medicine according to Robson, (2003) includes indigenous practices and medicines traditionally used for medical intervention in addition to integrative medicine, which involves using both western medicine and complementary medicine to cure diseases. In view of these dimensions, Robson (2003) argues that complementary medicine is an inclusive term, incorporating both complementary medicines and therapies. In health care, Mark and Brown (2007) note that the major concerns of complementary medicine are maintenance of health and curing diseases. Therefore, different medicines and therapies not regarded by mainstream medical practice are included in the practice. These include herbal medicine, acupuncture, reflexology, aromatherapy, nutritional therapy, hypnotherapy, massage therapy, yoga, homeopathy, osteopathy among others (Mark, & Brown, 2007). According to Blackman, et al. (2009), many health care professionals are increasingly applying both complementary and conventional medicine and therapy in their practices and this has resulted to high incidents of overlap between the two. In this regard, Fass (2001) formulated four domains of complementary medicine considering the existence of some intersections while applying medical practices. These domains include mind and body medicine, practices based on biological applications, energy medicine, and body based (manipulative) practices (Fass, 2001). Mind - body medicine in complementary medicine involves the application of diverse methods intended to improve the power of the mind to affect the functions of the body and symptoms (Damery, et al. 2009). Examples of mind-body

Freedom Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Freedom - Article Example veloping informants is finding legal sophisticated ways and strategies to recruit counterspy rather than promising good incentive packages regarding the quantity and quality of information given by involuntary informants (Baumann 1). As the director of FBI, there is need of monitoring and promoting integrity of all law officers in order to curb cases of fraud and to ensure transparency of all activities within the FBI unit so as to earn public trust and enable citizens to facilitate the FBI with information against criminals and terrorist. Another method would be to deploy undercover officers to investigate about criminals and this ought to be the best measure in knowing about their planning activities and making it easy in tracking them down. When developing informants, the best method would be to carry out interviews, assessments and training to interested candidates so as to avoid forcing people to mole information against their will especially to their families and communities Naji Masour had legal rights to hire his own attorney and if not present, he would have been appointed one to represent him. He had a fundamental right to plea of his innocence until proven guilty by a court of law. The last legal right that he had was to be subjected to a public hearing unlike where he was being prosecuted in a private detention. The writ of habeas corpus would have been the best likelihood for the accused to state whether the incarceration was against the constitutional right and if found true, this would make Naji Masour to be released by court. Boumediene v. Bush would have been suitable to Naji Masour for him to get a fair hearing from courts of his home country. The accused would have been deported to his country to face trial and detention if proven guilty. Relationship spyware technologies are resulting into safe and easy methods of detecting spouse unfaithfulness in committing acts of adultery; the effect of this leads to domestic violence between couples,

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Paris - Gertrude Stein's Salon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Paris - Gertrude Stein's Salon - Essay Example Her greatest and lasting influence though was perhaps in her role as a collector of post-modernist art, and through the artistic salon she maintained in her Parisian home ( A and E Television 2010) . Together with her brother until 1913 when they separated, she played host to many writers from many different countries. Her artistic purchases helped to establish and to support now well-known artists such as Picasso and Matisse in their early years. The walls of her French home were almost invisible under the number of artistic efforts that covered them. Stein tried to bring the principles of Cubism and prose into her writing, which resulted in works which were not understandable to even intelligent readers, but at least she attempted to experiment, and so moved on literature from its Victorian state, and demonstrated that experimentation was at least possible. Her home was also open to various Americans visiting Paris such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Lewis points out ( 2012) her influence on literature by others , far outweighed the influence of her own output. Ernest Hemingway for instance received encouragement and tuition from her. Stein is perhaps remembered today more for her long relationship with Alice B. Toklas, but her art purchases are celebrated today. It is through these that from the 21st century we can look back to see what a huge change Modernism was for the artistic world. In 2011 her collection, now dispersed, was brought back together in San Francisco, more than 150 pieces, but not the work of unknowns as they were when first purchased. Stein helped these great artists to be recognized, and so helped to establish Cubism, Fauvism and Surrealism and for that she should be

An introduction to accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

An introduction to accounting - Essay Example Accounting may not be popular but it is a must for any organisation,be it in the manufacturing or service sector, whatever its size,whichever country it is based in and whether or not its aim is to maximise profits.Without accounting resources cannot be managed effectivelyIt is irrefutable that any business organization requires the use of accounting. In fact, the use of accounting dates back from the time a business organization is formed. A company cannot function efficiently without the use of a system which list down the financial transactions that it undertakes (Atrill and McClaney 2001). In the simplest sense, accounting can be defined as the system which provides information about the financial situation of an organization.Since accounting is all about recording financial transactions, it is then a necessity for any organization which deals with money (Atrill and McClaney 2001). And looking at the global business situation right now, no business entity is ever existent without financial resources. Accounting provides a systematic and comprehensive way of recording a company's financial transactions. For one, the accounting equation serves as the basis of the company's financial statements recognizing the principle of double-entry bookkeeping in accounting. The accounting equation is as follows: assets less liabilities = shareholders' equity. It can also be expanded as: assets less liabilities = shareholders' equity (revenue less expenses)(Keown et al 2005). ... Accounting aids a business organization to gather three types of information namely operating, financial, and managerial (Atrill and McClaney 2002). All companies are required to use accounting for operating purposes or for daily activities in order to record and determine the amount of salary owed to workers, track sales, and level of inventory. Secondly, financial information is also needed in order to attract shareholders and creditors. The company often needs to prove to these providers of financial aid that it is worthy of receiving resources. Thus, a company should record transactions and report them to these interested entities. Lastly, accounting is used for decision making. Companies are interested to know how much inventory should be produced in a given month, whether to manufacture in-house or source from a supplier, whether to acquire a new equipment or not. It should be noted that the purposes and information provided by accounting is used by any business organization whether from the goods or service sector. As long as there is money involved, transactions are irrefutably recorded. The financial resources are tracked through accounting. For one, the most common goal of a company which is to make money can only be evaluated if financial transactions are constantly monitored and recorded systematically. A business can only know whether it makes money or not when it employs a system which tracks its revenue and its expenses. However, it should also be stressed that accounting is also required even for not-for-profit business organizations. Non-government organizations like Red Cross and Youth for Christ employ accounting to record their expenses and budget

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Paris - Gertrude Stein's Salon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Paris - Gertrude Stein's Salon - Essay Example Her greatest and lasting influence though was perhaps in her role as a collector of post-modernist art, and through the artistic salon she maintained in her Parisian home ( A and E Television 2010) . Together with her brother until 1913 when they separated, she played host to many writers from many different countries. Her artistic purchases helped to establish and to support now well-known artists such as Picasso and Matisse in their early years. The walls of her French home were almost invisible under the number of artistic efforts that covered them. Stein tried to bring the principles of Cubism and prose into her writing, which resulted in works which were not understandable to even intelligent readers, but at least she attempted to experiment, and so moved on literature from its Victorian state, and demonstrated that experimentation was at least possible. Her home was also open to various Americans visiting Paris such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Lewis points out ( 2012) her influence on literature by others , far outweighed the influence of her own output. Ernest Hemingway for instance received encouragement and tuition from her. Stein is perhaps remembered today more for her long relationship with Alice B. Toklas, but her art purchases are celebrated today. It is through these that from the 21st century we can look back to see what a huge change Modernism was for the artistic world. In 2011 her collection, now dispersed, was brought back together in San Francisco, more than 150 pieces, but not the work of unknowns as they were when first purchased. Stein helped these great artists to be recognized, and so helped to establish Cubism, Fauvism and Surrealism and for that she should be

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Brand Evaluation of Paul Smith Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Brand Evaluation of Paul Smith - Assignment Example brand value, brand position, and brand image. Moreover, to present comprehensive outlook of the brand’s successiveness, the paper has also implied the multidimensional approach of brand evaluation. Subsequently, the discussion of the paper initiated to suggest few strategic measures to eradicate the shortcomings of the brand. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 1.0. Introduction 4 2.0. Brand Evaluation of â€Å"Paul Smith† 5 2.1. Brand Value 6 2.2. Brand Image 7 2.3. Brand Positioning 9 2.4. Multidimensional Evaluation 10 2.4.1. Branding Vision of Paul Smith 12 2.4.2. Organisational Culture 13 2.4.3. Brand Objectives 13 2.4.4. Audit Brand Sphere 14 2.4.5. Brand Essence 14 2.4.6. Internal Implementation 15 2.4.7. Brand Resourcing 15 3.0. Conclusion 16 4.0. Recommendations 17 References 18 1.0. Introduction Evidences reveal that the concept of branding has changed drastically from that of the past. In the present era, brands are perceived to be assets. According to the Oxford American Dictionary, brand can be defined as â€Å"a trade mark, goods of a particular make†¦.† (Clifton & Ahmad, 2009). According to many marketers and analysts, it is also referred as â€Å"a promise of satisfaction† which exists between the manufacturers, sellers, performers, and the consumers and environment at large in an unwritten form. While brand is termed as an intangible property, branding is recognised as a multidimensional process through which a marketer continuously strives to improve its products and/or services to develop the trust relationship with the customers. Thereby, brand emerges to be one of the crucial components of businesses in the highly competitive environment of the 21st century. With all its virtues, a well-developed brand rewards numerous advantages to an organisation. It reinforces a superior reputation of an organisation, assures quality-performance from its end and above all, builds customer loyalty besides their stimulate d confidence on the product and/or services. This in turn facilitates shareholder values rewarding the organisation better growth and strength (Healey, 2008). Realising all these aspects of brands numerous companies have initiated to enhance their brand value, brand image and brand reputation in their targeted markets, e.g. Marks & Spencer, Wal-Mart, Gucci, D & G, and others. On the similar context, Paul Smith can also be recognised as a brand. However, in the modern context, few brands can be identified as successful while few others can be recognised as inefficient and less beneficial to the organisations. With this concern, the paper will intend to discuss the various features of branding initiatives adopted by Paul Smith. The objective of the paper is to critically examine the brand, â€Å"Paul Smith† in order to identify its successiveness in the international market. Perpetually, the paper will aim to document the various branding strategies adopted and benefits gained by the organisation, through an extensive research. 2.0. Brand Evaluation of â€Å"Paul Smith† Paul Smith is recognised as a marketer of fashion wears and accessories to the international customers of the fashion industry. The first initiation was taken by Sir Paul Smith, the owner of the organisation in 1970. However, for the first time he showcased his designs as menswear collection in Paris in the year 1976 with his own name. This initiative made the young marketer famous in the region and also rewarded the recognition

Monday, October 14, 2019

Bio Cement Essay Example for Free

Bio Cement Essay The project aims at attaining high durability of concrete and gaining high strength of cement. We plan to make use of bacterial species which can hydrolyze the enzyme Urease efficiently to produce microbial concrete. Such bacterial are known to produce calcium which is useful in giving strength to cement. We are working in 2 stages. Stage 1: Here we check the effect of bacterial solution on cement mortar and along with that we check the effectiveness of the bacterial solution to fill the cracks in concrete by precipitation of calcium in the cracks. Stage 2: To prepare concrete using the cement and solution (bacterial) in optimum ratio and checking its effectiveness from strength and durability perspective. Till now Stage 1 is partially over: We have made use of this bacterial solution(Emulsion: Bacillus culture+ nutrient broth+ sucrose+ urea+ calcium chloride+ antifungal agent(griseofulvin)to heal the existing cracks in the concrete walls. For achieving high 7 days we have made use of bacterial solution in some fixed proportion with water. The 7 days test was performed on 7/12/11 with 5%, 10%, and 15% of the bacterial solution with respective percentage of water. We have gained a significant percentage increase in the strength of the cubes made with bacterial solution with water versus those made with only water Bacteria at work Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is known to be a natural phenomenon associated with a wide range of bacterial species such as Bacillus spp. provided the right conditions, namely, an alkaline environment rich in Ca2+ ions. Bacterially induced mineralization has recently emerged as a method for protecting and consolidating decayed construct materials. Calcite (CaCO3) is one of the most common and widespread minerals on the earth, constituting 4% by weight of the earth’s crust. Calcite precipitation is a common phenomenon which forms natural rock and exists in environments such as marine water, fresh water, and soils. Microbial calcite precipitation can be induced by organisms involved in the nitrogen cycle, via the hydrolysis of urea by enzyme urease, which results in the production of carbonate ions in the presence of ammonium. Calcium carbonate is readily precipitated under these conditions, in the presence of calcium. Microbial calcite precipitation comprises a series of complex biochemical reactions. During microbial urease activity, 1 mol of urea is hydrolyzed intracellularly to 1 mol of ammonia and 1 mol of carbonate, which spontaneously hydrolyzes to form additional 1 mol of ammonia and carbonic acid. Subsequently, these products equilibrate in water to form bicarbonate, 1 mol of ammonium and hydroxide ions which give rise to a pH increase and ions Ca2+ and CO32- present in the surrounding precipitate as CaCO3. Urea hydrolysis is the most easily controlled of the carbonate generating reactions, with the potential to produce high concentrations of carbonate within a short time. Bacillus spp. was used in this study. The culture was grown in Nutrient broth-urea (NBU) medium containing peptone, sodium chloride, yeast extract, 2% urea and 25mM calcium chloride and incubated at room temperature on shaker condition (130 rpm). Calcium chloride acts as the source of calcium ions and urea as the source of carbonate ions. Observations * There is a rise in the compressive strength of the mortar cubes till 5 % bacterial solution. * The strength is reduced when the proportion of bacterial solution is increased up to 10 % and beyond. * The cubes with 15% bacterial solution shows 8 % decrease in strength. * The 1%, 2%, 3% cubes developed less cracks in comparison to control cubes. * The cubes when observed after testing , the control cubes had more number of empty pores. Conclusion * 3% cubes showed an increase in compressive strength of 36 % in comparison to control cubes. * Reduction in empty pore space.(which prevent the ingress of water and other chemicals ) * Bacteria does not have any physical effect on the cement. * Chemically inert. * Bacterial solution can be prepared on a large scale . * No skilled labour is required. * Its production is economical. References * Microbial activity on the microstructure of bacteria modified mortar by S.Ghosh, M.Biswas, B.D. Chattopadhyay, S.Mandal. * Effect of calcifying bacteria on permeation properties of concrete structures by Dr. Varenyam Achal. * Work on BacillaFilla by New Castle University.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Why Has Reality TV Become Popular?

Why Has Reality TV Become Popular? Reality TV is a phenomenon that has now been the norm for a number of years. What is the reason reality TV has become so popular and what are the negative effects on young audiences? Discuss the differences between reality TV in America and/or other western countries and reality TV in the Middle East. The bug word of my first research question is REALITY PROGRAMS. The trend of reality TV shows in today’s surrounding is increasing and spreading like a fire in forest. Every channel wants a reality TV show once in a year to broadcast to increase and enhance their GRP’S. Why the rates of reality TV shows are touching the skies now days? Obviously, people are getting attracted towards those reality TV shows like a magnet. These reality TV shows are acting like gravity for the channels which attracts the attention of our society’s conversations today. Not only ladies and women in their kitty’s parties are discussing that reality TV programs like before they used to discuss on typical women oriented dramas, about their heavy jewelries and embroided sarees. People from all age groups are watching the every season of reality TV programs. As the demand of these reality TV shows is increasing therefore channels are producing them annually in terms of seasons. And every season smashes the GRP of that channel as compare to previous season (Ramos, R. A., Ferguson, C. J., Frailing, K., Romero-Ramirez, M. , 2013). Now the question arises that why is the reality TV shows gaining importance and popularity so extensively? At first instance people used to hate them but once the train come on to the platform, no one resist catching that train. It means once the show has been broadcasted on TV, no one resist to watch the whole season that reality TV. The answer for the popularity of reality TV shows is that people start relating their own lives to the contestants on reality TV shows. People love to hear and watch the true stories and trues events of every single contestant. People get bored on the scripted items. They want something new, something extravagant, something very much prodigiously attractive for their leisure time. And all these ravishing spending they can earn from reality TV shows (Bhatti, M. A., Hassan, A. A. U. , 2014). Everything which reaches towards the highest sky of fame, people in its surrounding is going to perceive something from them, whether it’s in a good way or a bad way. Similarly it goes for the popularity of reality TV shows. What people do extract from them. Here we will discuss some facts about reality TV impact on our young generation (Gentile, D. A., Bushman, B. J. (2012). , 2012). Physical Attractiveness And Sex Appeal Numerous reality shows portray women idealizing beauty and slimness, giving the impression that a woman’s value is based on her physical appearance, and that popularity is resultant from beauty. Reality cum Competition shows such asAmerica’s Next Top Modeldisseminate this idyllic, as women participate and compete with every of their opponent to gain a worthwhile modeling agreement (Krahe, B., Moller, I., Kirwil, L., Huesmann, L.R., Felber, J., Berger, A., 2011). Acquisitiveness And Extreme Partying Other conjoint values propagated by reality TV include acquisitiveness, and an idealism of a hard-partying and â€Å"superstar† lifestyle without respect for values. BothRich Kids of Beverly HillsandShahs of Sunsetportary the lives of privileged fresh adults living in southern California. They take overgenerous trips, wear fashionable and expensive clothes, spend a lot of money on alcohol-fueled parties, and are seldom seen employed consistent jobs (Ramos, R. A., Ferguson, C. J., Frailing, K., Romero-Ramirez, M. , 2013). Difference between reality TV shows in Western Countries and Middle East countries is not very much unalike. Infect the reality TV show which western countries announces and if it gains popularity to its highest level then most seldom Middle East countries copied them and introduces them in their own country. And again that copied reality TV show also gains importance and popularity at its height. For Example: Western Reality TV Show: The Big Brother Eastern Reality TV show: the Bigg Boss Both of them gains extreme popularity not even in their own countries but also across the globe. REFERENCES: Gentile, D.A., Bushman, B.J. (2012). Reassessing Media Violence Effects Using a Risk and Resilience Approach to Understanding Aggression.Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol. 1, No. 3. Krahe, B., Moller, I., Kirwil, L., Huesmann, L.R., Felber, J., Berger, A. (2011). Desensitization to Media Violence: Links With Habitual Media Violence Exposure, Aggressive Cognitions, and Aggressive Behavior.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 100, No. 4. Ramos, R. A., Ferguson, C. J., Frailing, K., Romero-Ramirez, M. (2013). Comfortably numb or just yet another movie? Media violence exposure does not reduce viewer empathy for victims of real violence among primarily Hispanic viewers.Psychology of Popular Media Culture,2(1), 2. Bhatti, M. A., Hassan, A. A. U. (2014). Psychological effects of TV News Violence on youth: A Case Study of the Students of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan.Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS),34(1), 295-309. Scarborough, R. C., McCoy, C. A. (2014). Moral reactions to reality TV: Television viewers’ endogenous and exogenous loci of morality.Journal of Consumer Culture, 1469540514521078.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Physics of Caterpillar Tracks :: physics tank tracks

Every time you see one of the CATs clearing the hill at university of the snow, you probably don't see anything amazing about it. However, caterpillar tracks used on it are just ingenious and its invention is comparable to the invention of the wheel. History First vehicles powered by the steam engine started to appear in the early 1800s. Various machines started slowly replace horses. It was especially true for the jobs that required a lot of power. Transportation, of course, was the first and the most beneficial adopter. Goods could be carried across large distances with relative ease. No wonder that farmers were also eager to adopt engines. By that time most of the work was done using horses and basic tools. Problems Steam powered harvesters and tractors were introduced by the end of 19th century. It started to gradually replace horses. However in some regions they created new problems as well. Vehicles proved to be too heavy for soft soils and often stuck and even sunk. Experiments with various sizes of wheels didn't produce good results. Increasing size of wheels just made vehicles heavier and more difficult to operate. Benjamin Holt of Holt Manufacturing figured that using an old trick of pouting planks before the wheel would improve cross-country ability. By doing so, it provides solid plane for better traction and lower pressure on the ground since size of the plank is larger then of the wheel. Basics The main advantage of the track over the wheels is that it can distribute a very large force over a large area. That means that instead of applying all the force on little area where wheels touch the ground, it applies it over the whole area of the track. In physics terms it can be expressed as P = F / A where P is pressure, F is force and A is area. Less force applied to every square meter means that it's harder for the heavy vehicle to sink into the ground. Another benefit of the tracks is that large area of contact allows to have a very good traction with the ground. That is why tracks are used for mission critical jobs, including military use and high cost operations, such as excavations and space rocket movements. Drawbacks Even though caterpillar tracks provide very good cross-country ability, they have its drawbacks. Because of the weight and the construction of tracks speed of the vehicle is limited in comparison to the wheeled machines.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Langston Hughes Poems Analysis Essay

Langston Hughes purpose of these sets of poems was to outline the current condition for African Americans at that time, and also to display his desires and present the ideal conditions for African Americans. Below are several of his poems that has symbology and reflects and demonstrates his desires and ideals. In my opinion, Dream Variations demonstrates Hughes desire for African Americans to be able to enjoy the pleasures of life as white people did. When he says â€Å"to whirl and to dance till the white day is done† he is speaking of being able to be free, dancing and â€Å"flinging your arms† is demonstrative of freedom and an open expression of freedom. Then be able to rest at night and have a sense of peace of mind, knowing that African Americans have the same opportunities that White Americans experienced. In Hughes’s poem Prayer Meeting, he displays a sense of hope and longing for improvement in African Americans lives and wanted African Americans to be free from oppression. â€Å"Glory! Hallelujah! The dawn’s a-comin† demonstrates that freedom from oppression is on the horizon and that African Americans should rejoice. The setting of this poem in religion also demonstrates a sense of hope since religion is often sought after to achieve a sense of hope. In Song of the Revolution, this poem uses the symbology of the American Revolution as another call for freedom from oppression, however this is freedom from the oppression of White America. â€Å"Marching like fire over the world, weaving from the earth its bright red banner† uses fire as a symbol for hope and courage and the use of a red banner as conviction and steadfastness. In the third stanza, which states â€Å"Breaking the bond of the darker races, breaking the chains that have held for years, breaking the barriers dividing the people, smashing the gods of terror and tears† This stanza serves as a call to arms for African Americans. This stanza is less symbolic and cryptic than the others. â€Å"smashing the gods of terror and tears† is the freedom from rulers and the establishment which has wronged and oppressed them. He wants a unity of the races and a freedom and lack of oppression. In Let America Be America Again, hughes is using America’s calling as a beacon of hope to the world to demonstrates his ideal for America to truly be free and not simply as a saying. This is evident in the first stanza, which states â€Å"Let America be America again, Let it be the dream in used to be, let it be the pioneer on the plain, seeking a home where he himself is free. † The parenthesis between the stanzas is what is important, because it displays Hughes’s real opinion of America at that time, which was he doesn’t believe in America, and to him was never a beacon of hope or a land of liberty. He believes that America is tyrannical, oppressive, and discriminatory to him and his people. In the last stanza he also uses divisions of class and other races that are oppressed as reinforcement for his opinions of America. In the third stanza which states, â€Å"O, let my land be a land where Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, but opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breath. † It’s demonstrating Hughes’s desire for America to really be as it’s envisioned and not simply as it is portrayed (in the eyes of Hughes); equality should be as prevalent and available as air.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Principles of Dimensional Modeling

Dimensional modeling is system of a logical design used by several data warehouse designers for their commercial OLAP products. DM is considered to be the single practicable technique for databases that are intended to support end-user queries in a data warehouse. It is quite dissimilar from entity-relation modeling. Though ER is very functional for the transaction capture and the data administration phases of creating a data warehouse, but it should be shunned for end-user delivery.This paper explains the dimensional modeling and how dimensional modeling technique varies/ contrasts with ER models. Dimensional Modeling technique is a preferred choice in data warehousing. Basically, it is a technique of logical design which presents the data in a standard, intuitive framework that allows for high-performance access. It is intrinsically dimensional, and it sticks on to a discipline that uses the relational model with some significant restrictions.In each DM, there is one table with a m ultiple key, called the fact table, and a set of smaller tables called dimension tables. Each dimension table consists of a single-part primary key that corresponds precisely to one of the components of the multipart key in the fact table. This characteristic of star-like structure is generally called a star join. Due to multipart primary key made up of two or more foreign keys in fact table, it always articulates a many-to-many relationship.The most valuable fact tables include one or more numerical measures that crop up for the permutation of keys that delineate each record. Dimension tables have explanatory textual information. Dimension attributes are used as the source of most of the interesting constraints in data warehouse queries, and they are virtually always the source of the row headers in the SQL answer set. Dimension Attributes are the various columns in a dimension table. In the Location dimension, the attributes can be Location Code, State, Country, Zip code.Normally the Dimension Attributes are used in report labels, and query constraints such as where ‘Country=US'. The dimension attributes also contain one or more hierarchical relationships. One has to decide the subjects before designing a data warehouse. In DM, a model of tables and relations is constituted with the purpose of optimizing decision support query performance in relational databases, relative to a measurement or set of measurements of the outcomes of the business process being modeled.Whereas, conventional E-R models are composed to eradicate redundancy in the data model, to facilitate retrieval of individual records having certain critical identifiers, and therefore, optimize On-line Transaction Processing (OLTP) performance. The grain of the fact table is usually a quantitative measurement of the outcome of the business process being analyzed in a DM. The dimension tables are generally composed of attributes measured on some discrete category scale that describe, qualify , locate, or constrain the fact table quantitative measurements.Ralph Kimball views that the data warehouse should always be modeled using a DM/star schema. Kimball has affirmed that though DM/star schemas have the better performance in comparison to E-R models, their use involves no loss of information, because any E-R model can be signified as a set of DM models without loss of information. In E-R models, normalization through addition of attributive and sub-type entities destroys the clean dimensional structure of star schemas and creates snowflakes, which, in general, slows down browsing performance.But in star schemas, browsing performance is protected by restricting the formal model to associative and fundamental entities, unless certain special conditions exist. The dimensional model has a numerous important data warehouse advantages which the ER model is deficient in. The dimensional model is an expected, standard outline. The wild variability of the structure of ER models m eans that each data warehouse needs custom, handwritten and tuned SQL. It also means that each schema, once it is tuned, is very vulnerable to changes in the user's querying habits, because such schemas are asymmetrical.By contrast, in a dimensional model all dimensions serve as equal entry points to the fact table. Changes in users' querying habits don't change the structure of the SQL or the standard ways of measuring and controlling performance (Ramon Barquin and Herb Edelstein, 1996). It can be concluded that dimensional modeling is the only feasible technique for designing end-user delivery databases. ER modeling beats end-user delivery and should not be used for this intention. ER modeling form the micro relationships among data elements thus it is not a proper business model (Ramon Barquin and Herb Edelstein, 1996).

Assessing your own leadership capability Essay

Understand leadership styles within an organisation 1.1 Review the prevailing leadership styles in the organisation There are a range of leadership styles that can be adopted by organisations in order to try to achieve their goals. Each of these is often suited to certain situations and has drawbacks preventing any one style being the best style of leadership for all situations. Even within organisation different styles of leadership can be identified with this being more prominent in larger organisations with a longer chain of command. One â€Å"study suggests that differences in the leadership styles practised by managers may be blurred in organisations with short chains of command, while it will tend to be pronounced in organisations with long chains of command, other things being equal.† (Oshagbemi T & Gill R, 2004) Within Dacorum Borough Council there are different prevailing leadership styles present at different levels of the organisation. On a corporate level senior management are trying to adopt a transformational style of leadership, which would reflect the changing nature of the organisation. However a trait style of leadership is far more prevalent, with this being of a task orientated nature. This is due to that although ambitious new projects are planned and underway, often work is set in a very formal manner or very inflexible due to the demand of the politicians who have a large influence on how work is undertaken. This is reinforced by the way telling, rather than selling, or preferential gaining true buy-in, has been adopted with very little staff engagement within the senior levels of the organisation. Even since major management changes four years ago when 50% of the senior management team were made redundant the council has still struggled to fully move to the transformational leadership style that it is clearly trying to establish. When the senior management team was reorganised managers were kept who were flexible and could identify and act on opportunities. However given the political constraints I have mentioned above this is often  problematic with the council needing to fulfil often bureaucratic processes. Although much of the work directed from senior management levels is task orientated, once these have been set the middle managers vary across the organisation in their own styles of leadership. The amount these vary is quite dramatic with some areas adopting a laissez-faire approach and others taking a much more autocratic approach to the leadership style that is used. Much of this can be down to personality and the types of work that are being delivered. Tannenbaum & Schmidt looked at the issue of leadership styles within organisation and developed a leadership continuum. The model demonstrates the relationship between the level of freedom that a manager chooses to give to a team and the level of authority used by the manager. (Tannenbaum, Robert and Schmidt, 1973) This model assists leaders and managers in their choice of leadership pattern by making them aware of the forces which are most relevant. At a middle manager level there are different levels of freedoms within the organisation corresponding to the leadership styles that have been adopted and the service area staff work in. Within my service there is less freedom, as the head of service has a very hand on attitude to certain elements of work, often meaning that rather than having full control over a situation that at best this is done via consultation and more frequently direction. There are three sub teams in my area and even between these different approaches are taken as the head of service is a specialist in one of the areas but has very little interest in another which is reflected in the way that they interact with the managers below. This allows some mangers in the team more freedoms and others less so, thus restricting their own abilities to do there jobs. 1.2 Assess the impact of the prevailing leadership styles on the organisation’s values and performance The task orientated leadership that is demonstrated by Dacorum Borough Council effects the values and performance of the organisation, with the two heavily linked together. With Dacorum being a large complex organisation, which needs to fulfil statutory responsibilities to the tax payers, the senior management need to establish a leadership style that then can both do this but also strive to establish the vast changes that are planned for the organisation in the coming months and years. However this is sometimes at odds with the values that Dacorum have recently been promoting of becoming more innovative and transformational, to match the way in which future working and the physical surroundings themselves will be changing. The task orientated approach leads work and key projects being defined at a senior level with often one of the senior managers taking an active role in the project to oversee these. This has led on occasion to middle managers being disillusioned by having little say over decisions they could be involved in and being told what action is required. This approach may have more positive impacts in areas such as finance and benefits, as this approach would be more suited to a more highly regulated service area which would add certainty in the way work is carried out. One of the core values that the council is fostering is that of creating a high performance culture. However, as I have mentioned above, the style of leadership shown by the senior management can be stifling to the middle level managers below them and not motivate them to want to work towards the vision that they have very little influence over. Middle management at Dacorum has adopted democratic and bureaucratic styles within different areas of the council. Input is taken from lower level managers and a selling approach, rather than telling, used when setting goals and targets. This has a better impact on employees with an understanding of what is trying to be achieved and gains some buy in from those expected to deliver the work programme. This approach will harness better results as the performance of staff under a task orientated or autocratic style when not in a time of crisis. (Unknown (2013)) Be able to review effectiveness of own leadership capability and performance in meeting organisational values and goals 2. 1 Assess own ability to apply different leadership styles in a range of situations Different leadership styles are required for different situations as each style has its own benefits and drawbacks. Examples of when different styles would be required can be seen through Tuckmans (1965) model where teams are forming, storming, norming and performing. As a team is forming, this can be a new team or when new employees have joined the team, the employees need to be given clear direction with reliance upon the leader for both guidance and instruction. During this stage it would be appropriate to adopt a more autocratic approach to leadership; this would be shown towards the left hand side of the Tannenbaum & Schmidt model. Once formed the team would then move to the storming stage where individual’s roles are established. This stage requires coaching to help with uncertainties that could exist within the team and the leadership style to start moving towards the right on the Tannenbaum & Schmidt model. After the storming stage the team will enter the norming, this is where the roles and responsibilities are understood and the team encourage each other with the leader gaining respect. At this stage a democratic style of leadership can be adopted where the leader acts to facilitate rather than give firm direction. The final stage, which some teams may never achieve, is the performing stage. During this stage instruction is no longer required as independence is achieved and the team moves towards shared goals. At this stage a laissez faire style can be adopted where each team member knows what they are doing and needs little guidance. FORMINGSTORMINGNORMINGPERFORMING Team Focus Inclusion: â€Å"Why are we here?† Control: â€Å"I want to have my say.†Openness: â€Å"Let’s do it.† Success: â€Å"Wow, we’re great!† Typical Team Behaviors Dependent on leader/facilitator Uneven/tentative participation Quiet defiance Polite conversation Conflict Question leadership, authority, rules Verbal/nonverbal resistance Dysfunctional behaviour Frustration Give/receive feedback Encourage others Active listening Recognize and discuss differences Trust and comfort Task appears to be effortless Interdependence develops Balanced, supportive participation Differences valued and discussed candidly Facilitator Focus To model openness, disclosure, and active listening To help the team recognize group dynamics and address conflict positively To uncover unspoken issues and encourage self-critique To teach the team to self-facilitate Facilitator Behaviors Listen, especially to what is not said. Be attuned to nonverbal cues that signal apprehension. Intervene. Demonstrate disclosure by expressing your feelings. Ensure objective, goals, and agenda are clear. Use icebreakers to encourage disclosure. Ask team members to clarify their assignments at close of meeting. Pay particular attention to group dynamics. Be specific when describing behaviours. Encourage team members to discuss their feelings. Encourage team members to discuss their interests versus their positions. Immediately point out non-conformance to ground rules. Encourage self-critique. Encourage the full exploration of ideas. Explore inferences. Plan with the team leader how to share leadership role. Coach the team in facilitator skills. Plan brief sessions for the team to recognize progress. Encourage reinforcing and redirecting feedback. As well as this different styles may be appropriate for other reasons, such as adopting a more autocratic approach in times of crisis to speed up decision making without dissent, such as in times of war. When I first started out as a manager I was managing three members of staff, all of which were new to their roles, with two new to the council. The team at this point was very much in a forming stage where clear direction was  needed from all members of the team and a decisive autocratic style was needed to give stability and assurance to the team. Of the three employees it was clear that each had different strengths and weaknesses as well as goals and ambition within their roles. Naturally I have a tendency towards a theory Y (McGregor, 1960) style of management which offers more coaching rather than taking such an autocratic approach. This situation required this firm approach and it was only was each team member was confortable in their roles and the storming process had finished that I was able to move towards my natural tendencies. It was noted that while all team members joined at approximately the same time some settled and became familiar with their responsibilities and objectives quicker than other team members. This meant I could take different approaches when dealing with different members of the team, as some where still storming while others had a clear grasp on their role and were now performing. Moving forwards the team will be changing as will how we work at the council. While we move through this process a transformational style of leadership will be of most benefit to the team, who are now well formed. Rather than continue to use a situational style, the team understand how their work fits in to the organisation goals and with the wider vision. By fostering the feelings of trust, admiration, loyalty and respect, and because of the qualities of the transformational style of leadership, staff are willing to work harder than originally expected (Bass & Riggio, 2006). This style requires the leader to act as a role model for followers, to inspire them while challenging them to take greater ownership for their work. This will be explored in more detail under section 3.1. 2.2 Assess own ability to communicate the organisation’s values and goals to staff in own area Dacorum Borough Council has both clear values and goals. The goals are set out through the corporate vision as well corporate documents by both senior management and middle managers. The values come through from the vision of the council as well as more formalised values within corporate policy documents, although many values, such as performing a good public service  are not explicit in corporate documents. To communicate these values and goals to staff within my own area I use range of communication tools and methods. The most important thing to establish is the individual needs of each member of staff to make a judgement on which methods will work best to get the messages through that I would like to deliver. With all staff in my area who I manage I hold regular 1-2-1’s and appraisals, This helps me understand what types of communication and interaction suits them best as well as giving a clear opportunity to talk about their objectives and demonstrate how these fit in to the wider goals and then to the vision of the organisation. Commitment to goals & values are built through these meetings, where action plans are linked to the key delivery documents (PID’s) which are focused around delivering the organisation goal, which creates the ‘golden thread’ through all the work we do. Feedback through these 1-2-1’s is an important mechanism as this can reinforce positive behaviours that are in keeping with the corporate values and goals although once again the level of feedback will need to be different for different members of staff depending on how they like to be managed. Another method that I regularly use to help communicate the key goals is through regular team meetings. At these meetings it is also important to recognise that the way one speaks to a group may need to differ from interacting with individuals, as it is important to find the best method that helps communicate the goals and values to the group as just using the same techniques may alienate some members of staff. To reinforce the values it is important to ensure that when the goals are set they are grounded in the values of the organisation. This helps that when setting individual objectives with staff that the link between all of this work is clear and easy to identify and understand. Gaining the buy in from the staff ensures that they will By using the corporate values in the work we set it helps to create a consistency and fairness when dealing with all members of staff so that one approach is adopted. As well as this we also hold annual or bi-annual service events where the key messages and values from the organisation are reinforced, with this giving members f staff to not only give feedback on their objectives but also ion the goals which have set. 2.3 Assess own ability to motivate others and build commitment to the organisation’s values and goals In motivating a team the first aspect is to identify what it is that motivates the individuals. When holding regular 1-2-1’s with staff I would look to establish what motivates them so I can look to develop a framework for how I can create the conditions for them to be motivated. It is important to remember that rather than trying to motivate staff we should be trying to create the conditions where staff will be motivated. Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on. This model can be used to assist in the understanding of human behaviour and understanding motivation by listing the key driving forces for individuals. Following this framework it shows how manages nee to create the correct environment for their staff and the staff will then act to motivate themselves. Now the team I manage is settled, with all the members of staff settled in their roles, I am able to identify mechanisms that will help create the conditions to motivate each member of staff. Although each member of staff is an individual it is possible to sometimes group individuals together if they share the same individual motivations, e.g. if two members of the team were both seeking further social needs through work then it may be possible  to use the tools to help achieve a situation to motivate both of these employees. Setting clear goals which jointly created objectives can feed into helps in this process of staff understanding why certain tasks are being carried out and helps to create greater ownership of the work they are doing. The CMI motivating the demotivated checklist offers other examples of how staff can be addressed to increase motivation within the work place. The checklist includes offering help with planning, involve the unmotivated, try to get buy in, and make sure the rules are clear. These examples have been carried through to help identify when these approaches can be used to address individual situations. Be able to adopt an effective leadership style to motivate staff to achieve organisational values and goals 3.1 Justify the most effective leadership style to motivate staff in own area, to achieve the organisation’s values and goals While one needs to ensure in a given situation the leadership style that is chosen be explicit in order to remain consistent and ensure that a clear message is delivered, the leadership style chosen must be correct for the situation and be able to be reviewed as a situation changes. Given the range of leadership styles that have been identified it will be important that the correct style is chosen by a leader in order to get the most out of staff. Theories have evolved from the â€Å"great man† notion of heroic leaders, through trait theories, behaviourist theories, situational leadership, contingency theory and on to transactional and transformational leadership. As I have described in previous questions the team are currently in a state where each member knows their roles and are comfortable in the job they are doing. Dacorum Borough Council will be changing the way we work over the  next two years and this will affect all staff in the council including those who work in my area. This will mean that the leadership style that I take on will need to be able to accommodate these changes and motivate staff to get the best results in a time of change. Given the changing nature of the team and the changes due to take place in the future a contingency-situational theory may be appropriate. These theories were developed to indicate that the style to be used is contingent upon such factors as the situation, the people, the task, the organisation, and other environmental variables. (Boulden & Gosling (2003)) A situational style of leadership, such as through the Hersey-Blanchard model of leadership, allows the developmental levels of a leader’s subordinates to play the greatest role in determining which leadership styles are most appropriate. From here four leadership styles develop: Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating. This approach was used when the team first formed and as the team matured and moved towards performing, on the Tuckman stages of team development, so I could change my style to reduce task behaviour and increase relationship behaviour until the followers reach a moderate level of maturity A more recent approach would have been to use a situational model as described by Tannenbaum & Schmidt. Rather than responding to the maturity of subordinates they view leadership along a continuum from one extreme of autocracy to the other as democracy with subordinate’s participation and involvement increasing as you move along. This approach allows you to change based on the situation you are in and more readily respond to changes in the environment. The theories mentioned previously describe ways in which could be used to successfully manage my team, however the leadership style that has the potential to motivate staff in my area most will through a transformational style of leadership. Employees in my area are now well established and performing well but in the future more will be expected from each of us and I feel that this form of leadership has the most potential to give  subordinates genuine self-esteem and self-actualisation. This style of leadership requires me, as the leader, to take actions to increase employees awareness of what is right and important to raise their motivational maturity and to move them to go beyond their own self-interests for the good of the group and the organisation. Transformational Style Leader Behaviour 1) Idealized Behaviours: living one’s ideals †¢ Talk about their most important values and beliefs †¢ Specify the importance of having a strong sense of purpose †¢ Consider the moral and ethical consequences of decisions †¢ Champion exciting new possibilities †¢ Talk about the importance of trusting each other 2) Inspirational Motivation: inspiring others †¢ Talk optimistically about the future †¢ Talk enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished †¢ Articulate a compelling vision of the future †¢ Express confidence that goals will be achieved †¢ Provide an exciting image of what is essential to consider †¢ Take a stand on controversial issues 3) Intellectual Stimulation: stimulating others †¢ Re-examine critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate †¢ Seek differing perspectives when solving problems †¢ Get others to look at problems from many different angles †¢ Suggest new ways of looking at how to complete assignments †¢ Encourage non-traditional thinking to deal with traditional problems †¢ Encourage rethinking those ideas which have never been questioned before 4) Individualized Consideration: coaching and development †¢ Spend time teaching and coaching †¢ Treat others as individuals rather than just as members of the group †¢ Consider individuals as having different needs, abilities, and aspirations from others †¢ Help others to develop their strengths †¢ Listen attentively to others’ concerns †¢ Promote self-development 5) Idealized Attributes: Respect, trust, and faith †¢ In still pride in others for being associated with them †¢ Go beyond their self-interests for the good of the group †¢ Act in ways that build others’ respect †¢ Display a sense of power and competence †¢ Make personal sacrifices for others’ benefit †¢ Reassure others that obstacles will be overcome Transformational Leadership Styles and Behaviours (Bass and Riggio, 2006) This approach allows for the elevation of the needs for employees (from security needs to needs for achievement and self-development) which in turn will allow for greater productivity with well-motivated staff and allow for high performance. 3.2 Implement the most effective leadership style in order to motivate staff in own area to achieve the organisation’s values and goals As there are significant barriers that exist in order to implement a change in leadership style at the senior management level within the organisation this approach will be first adopted within my service to use as a test case for the wider organisation. Based on whether this style of leadership is successful this can then be reported back through the organisation through the various senior management meetings. A first step to adopting this within my service area will be to meet with other managers of people, as this approach will need to be adopted across the service area to become effective. Once the buy-in of front line managers and the middle managers has been secured I will meet with staff to discuss the organisational values and see how these fit with theirs. At these meetings I will also again set a clear direction of where and what we want to achieve and reiterate how their specific objectives are working towards our goals of making Dacorum a better place to live and work. These themes will then also run through team meetings and 1-2-1’s to further reinforce this message. The next step will be to set the example of a positive new direction and embracing the changes that we are about to face both for the team and for the council as a whole. Regular communication of these messages will be made through regular meetings and as the changes draw closer team days to look at how we can take the most out of these future opportunities. Some of my time will be allocated towards both mentoring and coaching of staff to help bring out their strengths and to work on any areas which the staff feel require further development. References: Bass B M & Riggio R E (2006). Transformational Leadership (Second ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Bolden R & Gosling J (2003), A review of Leadership theory and competency frameworks, Centre for leadership studies: University of Exeter. Hersey P & Blanchard K H (1969), Life cycle theory of leadership, Training and Development Journal, 23 (5), pp 26-34 Maslow A H (1943), A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), pp370-96. McGregor D (1960), The human side of enterprise. McGraw Hill Higher Education Oshagbemi T & Gill R (2004), Differences in leadership styles and behaviour across hierarchical levels in UK organisations, Emerald 25. Tannenbaum R & Schmidt W (1973), Choosing a leadership pattern. Harvard Business Review, May-June 1973, Cambridge, Mass Taraschi R (1998), cutting the ties that bind, Training and development USA, Nov vol. 52 no. 11, pp. 12-14. Tuckman B (1965), development sequence in small goups. Psychological bulletin. 63, pp 84-99, Bethseda Unknown (2013), Various ILM 5 course handouts, May-July