The Development Of The Cognition - 1013 Words

The development of the cognition in the early years of life (2-6 year olds) is the assembly of the thought processes. The thought processes are comprised of memory, problem solving, and decision-making (Encyclopedia of Children’s Health). Universally all children’s thought processes consist of these three abilities; however, there are cases where the child doesn’t have the ability or can be impaired in one or more of these abilities. Several theories of how a child in the early years thinks have been developed over the years. The motor skills, brain development, and impulse control that advances every year of a child’s life affect the cognition or ability to think (book). Two theorists that first described this were Jean Piaget and Lev†¦show more content†¦According to Kathleen Stassen Berger, the Preoperational stage is where children don’t use the reasoning process and is different than the Sensorimotor stage because they can now think sy mbolically. Until the child reaches around the age of six there are 4 limitations of logic, including: Centration, the focus on appearance, static reasoning, and irreversibility. Centration is to focus on only part of the situation rather than the situation as a whole. A major type of centration is egocentrism which means â€Å"self-centeredness†. This means the child understand the world only from their perspective. The focus of appearance is the idea that an object is what it appears to be. Static reasoning is that the child believes the world is exactly how it is now and won’t change. Lastly, irreversibility is child belief that once something happens it can’t be changed (Berger, 2014, p.182-183). Piaget proved this in an experiment done on conservation and how no matter if the object has the same amount of something in it, if one is narrower and so the substance is higher, the child believes that there is more substance in it. This chart from the book shows conservation. Kathleen Stassen Berger explains the outcome of the experiment when she says, â€Å"Young children fail to understand conservation because they focus (center) on what they see (appearance), noticing only the immediate (static) condition. It does not occur to them that they can

The Most Popular Scholarship Essay Topics 2018

The Most Popular Scholarship Essay Topics 2018 But What About Scholarship Essay Topics 2018? Some prompts specify educational ambitions, but others concentrate on employment. Among the most debated topics in the us is the way to give affordable healthcare to the masses. It may be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma anything that's of personal significance, regardless of the scale. The potential for facing a war. Scholarship Essay Topics 2018 - What Is It? The absolute most important part of your scholarship essay is the subject issue. You don't need to possess the ideal writing skills to be able to be creative and compose an effective essay. You won't have the ability to compose an outstanding essay in case you don't devote your soul to it. Persuasive essays are an excellent approach to encourage the reader to check at a particular topic in a different light. Have a peek at the illustration of a superior scholarship essay conclusion. When you're prepared to start writing, an excellent structure can help you strengthen your case of why you need to be awarded the scholarship. Another good idea is to receive some completely free essay examples of different kinds and on various subjects to find a general idea of the way in which a prosperous debatable paper looks. Another outstanding idea is to complete the paper with an easy action to earn the end opened. Each calendar year 1 topic is going to be posted. These essay topics will serve a crucial role to fetch you a nice scholarship. Any or all these topics could possibly be fitting based on the essence of your scholarship. Share an essay on any subject of your pick. The Basics of Scholarship Essay Topics 2018 Do everything you can to be among the most creative and memorable applicants. Probably you're going to apply for many studies abroad scholarships. By accentuating your strength s by your writing, you will have the ability to effectively communicate that you're a deserving candidate for their award. All applications have to be submitted in English. If You Read Nothing Else Today, Read This Report on Scholarship Essay Topics 2018 Without knowing good essay making, your probability of going into a very good college are slim. Remember, every group of admission committee is seeking something new and different. If you're asking for a scholarship, odds are you're likely to should compose an essay. The scholarships you find are likely to fit into specific themes that you must have the ability to identify as a way to save your family time, frustration, stress, and above all money. The Argument About Scholarship Essay Topics 2018 Now it's possible for you to learn how to write a scholarship essay. If no, you should learn to compose an essay for scholarship. There are more than a few reasons why you might want to read sample scholarship essays. They are a serious matter. If you haven't written any narration essays before, you ought to read works of different students to fully grasp how to develop a structure, the way to use your private narrative ideas, and what topics you're able to utilize. This topic may be used for any form of essay like argumentative or persuading essay too. There are a lot of intriguing topics that could be become a persuasive essay if you take the opportunity to think about doing it. Locate an instance of a fantastic topic of narrative essays of different students. New Step by Step Roadmap for Scholarship Essay Topics 2018 The subsequent easy scholarships have application processes which are a little more manageable. Therefore, if you're considering applying to college within the next calendar year, you will probably complete the typical application. A scholarship essayis part of ascholarship application. 3 scholarships awards will be granted dependent on the amount in the fund and the consequence of the investment th e prior calendar year.

Guide to Biometrics for Large-Scale Systems

Questions: Choosing from among ANY ONE of the business scenarios provided below, prepare a Market Analysis Report that outlines an overall market analysis for your client. This analysis will include a comprehensive macro- and micro-environmental business analysis, an industry analysis, the challenges and opportunities, customer analysis including current and potential target customers, market segments, and some influences shaping their behavioural choices, and an analysis (if applicable) of key competitors. Also to be included are some ideas about how further market research can be carried out to gain more insights. You are the senior market analyst for a leading marketing consultancy firm. You have been approached by clients asking you to prepare a market analysis that will help them in firming up their marketing plans.? Answer: Introduction Marketing for a selected product or a business is much important for any organisation than to establish the organisation. Without proper marketing, no product or no business will run in the future. In this essay, the marketing strategy and development for the company Bodeans BBQ which is a renounced supply chain of American style Diner- Delis over 10 years will be described. To make a proper recommendation for the Bodeans BBQ the marketing manager should understand their macro and Micro- environmental factors and also to develop a proper planning relevant with the proper theories and models. In this paper, the organisation is willing to expand their business in the east and south-east England and mainly focused on the Norwich where they want to make proper business. To evaluate all these processes, the senior marketing manager should understand all the marketing processes in the East and South-East England and also should analyse the market and customers to understand to opportunitie s for the company. Macro and Micro Environmental factors of Bodeans BBQ and England market Every business has an impact of macro and micro environmental factors. It is important for any market analyst to understand these all factors which are impacting the business. In this report, the Bodeans BBQ is going to develop their business in the market of Englands East and South- Eastern zone (Myra Shackley., 2012). Therefore, it is important to understand the macro and micro environmental factors in the Eastern and South- eastern zones of England to make a proper marketing development and strategy. The factors are described in the next segmentation: Macro analysis: There are many factors which are affecting a business very crucially. Here, among all factors the macro environmental factors are described to understand the proper business environment of the Eastern and South- Eastern England (Kinra, 2009). To describe the macro environment, PESTEL analysis is very much important. The PESTEL analysis is described below: Political Factors: England is based on dictatorship. Thus, the Bodeans BBQ has a great chance to fit in the political environment in the east and south eastern England. So, it is very much clear that the organisation has a chance to match with all the rules and regulations of the zones where they are willing to develop their business (Hall, 2012). Apart from this, it is also a notable part that the organisation should maintain all the governmental factors which should be followed by all the organisations in the eastern and south eastern England. It is clear that the political factors are in favour of the Bodeans BBQ Company (Editors, 2010). Economic Factors: England is one of the richest countries in the world. They are developed in all the economic states and they are also a developed country according to the world survey (Pertschuk, 2010). Depending on the recent condition, the organisation is gaining profit from all the outlets. Bodeans BBQ has a great financial strength as they are the most successful company among all supply chain companies of foods in the world. According to the scenario, the organisation is going to develop their marketing strategy in the eastern and south-eastern zones of England. Therefore, these two zones are also very much developed and they have a potentiality to adopt the prices and foods of Bodeans BBQ (Wunder, Kemp and England, 2009). It is visible that the economic condition of the states are also supporting the company and they also have a great strength to sustain in the condition where they are going to develop their marketing strategy. Social Factors: Every English person lives a high profile life in the England. They always prefer branded products whether it is a t-shirt or food. So, it is very much important for any organisation to make products with the best quality. Quality defines the brand and people of England emphasise the quality to judge a product's brand value. In this case, the Bodeans BBQ is a well-known company and they are producing great quality foods like barbeques, steaks, and burgers (Sole  and Recasens i Vives, 2012). Thus, it is very much important for them to develop their quality more to impress the customers in the England. The same situation goes with the selected area Norwich where the people are willing to accept the quality products and the brand. The company has a great brand value and they are also producing a good quality product for satisfying the customer's satisfaction (Editors, 2010). Technological Factors: many organisations are producing the quality materials with a great technology having in a background. The Bodeans BBQ is also a great company who has a great technology to produce the best quality products. Depending on their technological background it is sure that they have a great opportunity to fit in the Eastern and South- Eastern England while they will develop their business there (Ashbourn, 2011). Moreover, there are many other companies who are delivering the best technology based products. In this case, the company have to introduce more improved technology to sustain in the market. Micro Environmental factors: The micro environment is made up of the factors which are affecting the organisations with a daily bases like the customers, employees, suppliers, and competitors (Ashbourn, 2011). The micro environmental analysis is as follow: Figure: 1 Source: https://learnmarketing.net/microenvironment.htm Macro Environment: Customers: Every organisation has a need of customers who are the main base of the marketing process. The Bodeans BBQ is well-known to all the customers as they have a great quality and brand image (Wang, 2014). Keeping these all in mind, the organisation should focus on the targets as like the customers and market while they will develop their business in the eastern and South- Eastern England. It could be a great factor for them while they will deal with the customers of Norwich (Brown, 2010). Employees: Employees are the strength of organisations. Here, the company has a good employee strength which gives them a great support to retain the best position in the market. When they will make business in the Norwich they have to be very specific towards the market and should train all the employees according to the situation where they will act perfectly to deal with the customers and suppliers (Brown, 2010). Suppliers: to make proper business in the East and South-Eastern England, the organisation should make a healthy supplier base to do proper business. The market will be tough for them in a case of competition and they have to understand the products that the customers desire. According to the customer's need, they have to arrange the suppliers in the Norwich. Competitors: though the Bodeans BBQ is one of the leading organisation, in the market of Norwich they will face many competitors who will compete with them. Thus, the marketing strategy should include the solution for competing with other and the way to establish there as the best organisation (Brown, 2010). Opportunities and Challenges in the Market of East and South-East England Before understanding the market challenges and opportunities, it is important to analyse the Bodeans BBQs opportunities and challenges first (Clements, 2012). To evaluate the requirements the SWOT analysis it important for any researcher to carry out the organisations potentiality. The SWOT analysis of Bodeans BBQ is as followed: SWOT analysis: Strength: the organisation has a great employee strength and they are the leading company in the market of food supply chain industry. Therefore, it is important for the organisation to retain the position as they are willing to expand the business in the eastern and south- eastern England. The main strength of the company is their management (Clements, 2012). They have a great management who are always taking are of the quality and their customers needs. Weakness: the organisation is not worldwide produced. They have to be more flexible while they are willing to expand the business in the market of Eastern and South- Eastern England. One of the main weakness of the organisation is they have no proper marketing strategy which can affect them in future development (Sawant, 2010). As a result, marketing strategy is necessary for the organisation to sustain in the market. Opportunity: as it is mention in the previous discussion that they have a great strength of employees and management they can make a great impact on the development. They have a great opportunity to develop the business in different countries and regions. Therefore, it is mandatory for the company to develop the strengths while they are making their development in different places (Kristof and WuDunn, 2009). Threats: every organisation has a threat of being taken over by other companies. Though they are the leader in this field, they have to be more conscious while they are making marketing in the eastern and south- eastern England (Wang, 2014). There are many other companies who are willing to make their impressions in the market with the best quality. So, their proficiency will be a great threat for the Bodeans BBQ (Clancy and Greaney, 2012). Figure: 2 From the above analysis, it is clear that the Bodeans BBQ is very much potential to put their new steps in the Norwich. They have a great management who are efficient in working in various conditions no matter whether it is good or bad. They have a great employee strength, depending on that they will make their business effectively with best employees. Though they have some barriers like; they didnt compete at the international level, they have no idea of the international market. Apart from that, they have to face many new competitors who will be a threat. By making a great marketing strategy, they can overcome these all implications (Encourage Great Ideas, 2015). Industry Analysis for Bodeans BBQ in the East and South- East England Knowledge of the industry provides the best understanding of organisations strength and weakness and also the competition in the market along with the best customer analysis in the targeted market (Simpkins, 2004). Here the company Bodeans BBQ is going to make business in the new market of Norwich. Thus, analysis of the Norwich market is very much important for the company. Competitive Force: Competition is the main trend of any market and this can impact on any organisation. Making business in the Norwich is very tough though the organisation is best in the industry. In the market of Norwich, many small and medium-sized similar business is making their impression on the market (Calley, 2012). Therefore, as a new entry in the market, they have to be very much careful when they will introduce their product in the market. They might get much competition while producing the business. New Entry: A new entry is always a great factor for any organisation. No company can imagine which kind of technology and product the new organisation will bring (Canton, 2003). So, it is necessary for any organisation to be prepared for the newcomers and their threats. The Bodeans BBQ should make proper planning for the threat of newcomers. That will give them to understand the organisation with its strengths and weaknesses (P. and Chaudhury, 2012). Customers Demand: As mentioned before, the English people are living an aristocrat living. They always try to accept the brands and best quality. Thus, to meet all the requirements of customers, they should produce the best quality and best service for them in the new market. In this way, they can satisfy customers demands (Cerasale and Stone, 2004). Competitive Business Strategy for Bodeans BBQ in East and South- East England According to the current scenario, the corporate strategy and marketing mix strategy are one of the best choice for the company (Gregory, 2013). There are four corporate strategy concepts like: Portfolio theory: A strategy stand primarily on diversification during attainment. The business shifts capital among the components and monitors the presentation of every industry part and its best. All elements usually run freely, with partial meddling from the commercial hub provided aims are congregated. 2. Restructuring: The business workplace acquires then vigorously intervenes in an industry anywhere it perceives possible, frequently by restoring organization and implementing a new selling scheme. Transferring skills: significant professional skill and organisational ability are basically extended to numerous businesses. The skills have to be an essential to reasonable benefit. Sharing activities: aptitude of the joint business to influence centralised jobs, such as sales, economics, etc. Thus plummeting expenses (Gregory, 2013). According to the theory, the organisation should prepare the best utilisation of the product units which should only be used by the organisation when they will start the developmental process in the Norwich. Marketing Mix Strategy: The marketing mix is the arrangement of controllable, strategic marketing tools that an organization uses to create a craved reaction from its objective business sector. It comprises of everything that an organization can do to impact interest for its product. It is likewise an apparatus to help marketing arranging and execution. Four Ps of Marketing: Product: The merchandise and/or administrations offered by an organization to its clients. Price: The measure of cash paid by clients to buy the product. Place: The exercises that make the product accessible to purchasers. Promotion: The exercises that convey the product's components and advantages and induce clients to buy the product. A viable promoting technique joins the 4 Ps of the marketing mix. It is intended to continue the organization's marketing so as to promote destinations its customers with worth. The 4 Ps of the marketing are connected, and consolidate to set up the product's position inside of its target markets. Marketing Techniques and Methods There are two sorts of market research strategies. The strategies are: Primary Research: Surveys and questionnaires: Another magnificent and extremely influential approach to lead essential arithmetical survey is during overviews and ballots. The phrase "reviews" is a generous expression to facilitate a tonne of equipment, for example, overview polls, study shape, learning summits and buyer faithfulness cards, and so on (Hawkins and Hawkins, 2006). It is an obvious plan for meaningful despite of whether the customer is satisfied by the selling present administration and items or what sort of changes might the customer want to see. Secondary research: Internal sources: Inward sources are those sorts of secondary market research sources that as of now exist and are gathered in the business' database or document framework. Inward sources incorporate data that has as of now been gathered by the organisation and demonstrates helpful for future ventures, and so forth. For most organisations, inward sources might demonstrate enough to grow new items and administrations. Illustrations: benefit and misfortune articulations, accounting reports, and sales figures (Hawkins and Hawkins, 2006). Market Segmentation Apart from these strategies the organisation may also use the market segmentation technique to be most powerful in their marketing and developing their business in Norwich. In market segmentation there are various types of techniques like: Geographic Segmentation: geographic location can influence any business. This segmentation includes nation, regions, states, countries, and so on. Depending on these variables the organisation should produce their products where these division will accept their products. Demographic Segmentation: demographic segmentation includes, age, sex, generation, religion, and occupation and education. All categories of variables have their different choice of foods. So, the organisation will understands the desires of these geographic customers and they will provide service according to the choice. Behavioural Segmentation: every customers have their own perspective and behaviours based on their choice, usage and interests. Therefore, understanding the customers in the new area will be their 1st activities. Psychographic Segmentation: this segmentation includes the lifestyle that the customers have accepted. The organisation Bodeans BBQ should recognize the lifestyle of customers. That will give them a proper knowledge of their product quality and how much they have to improve in the new place. Occasional Segmentation: Incidental customer segmentation combines customer level and event level segmentation models and gives a comprehension of the individual buyers needs, conduct and esteem under various events of utilization and time. Recommendation and Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that the organisation has a great opportunity to undertake a development of business in the east and southeastern England. So, they have to understand the main factors that the organisation will face in the new market. They have to be careful about the new companies and the existing companies in the Norwich. For marketing strategy, the organisation should follow the corporate strategy as this is most appropriate marketing development in the new city. Therefore, if they follow all the necessary factors and do proper implementation according to the market they will lead in the market again. References Ashbourn, J. (2011). Guide to biometrics for large-scale systems. London: Springer. Brown, S. (2010). Tough customer. New York: Simon Schuster. Calley, D. (2012). Market denial and international fisheries regulation. Leiden, NL: Martinus Nihoff. Canton, L. (2003). Guard force management. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. Cerasale, M. and Stone, M. (2004). Business solutions on demand. London: Kogan Page. Clancy, T. and Greaney, M. (2012). Threat vector. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Clements, B. (2012). The challenge of public pension reform in advanced and emerging market economies. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund. Editors, A. (2010). The Five Basic Methods of Market Research | AllBusiness.com. [online] AllBusiness.com. Available at: https://www.allbusiness.com/the-five-basic-methods-of-market-research-1287-1.html [Accessed 12 Feb. 2016]. Encourage Great Ideas. (2015). The Volunteer Management Report, 21(1), pp.2-2. Gregory, A. (2013). GOLDEN LESSONS. Business Strategy Review, 24(4), pp.76-81. Hall, E. (2012). Political Realism and Fact-Sensitivity. Res Publica, 19(2), pp.173-181. Hawkins, J. and Hawkins, K. (2006). Professional marketing selling techniques for digital wedding photographers. Buffalo, NY: Amherst Media, Inc. Kinra, A. (2009). Supply chain (logistics) environmental complexity. Frederiksberg. Kristof, N. and WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the sky. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Myra Shackley., (2012). Environmental Archaeology. Springer US. and Chaudhury, B. (2012). Competitive strategy (Porter) - IS Theory. [online] Is.theorizeit.org. Available at: https://is.theorizeit.org/wiki/Competitive_strategy_(Porter) [Accessed 12 Feb. 2012]. Pertschuk, M. (2010). The DeMarco factor. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Sawant, S. (2010). SWOT Analysis of Dabbawalla's. Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management, 3(11), p.38. Simpkins, R. (2004). The secrets of great sales management. New York: American Management Association. Sole , M. and Recasens i Vives, D. (2012). The initiation of sound change. Amserdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Wang, H. (2014). Theories for competitive advantage. [online] Ro.uow.edu.au. Available at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1410context=buspapers [Accessed 12 Feb. 2014]. Wunder, T., Kemp, T. and England, S. (2009). Fact Based Economic Education. Journal of Economic Issues, 43(2), pp.467-476.

Strategic Initiatives XM and Sirius Essay Example Essay Example

Strategic Initiatives: XM and Sirius Essay Example Paper Strategic Initiatives: XM and Sirius Essay Introduction One of XM’s attempts to appeal to broader demographics has been its wide variety of receivers—from personal portable systems to smart phone capabilities and all the way up to home theater systems. However, a positive short-term strategy would be to build more of a potential lifetime base of customers by targeting young people. To this end, they should focus on a demographic of 18-25 year olds. One of the simplest ways to do this is for the company to form agreements with major colleges to sell (and aggressively market) XM personal systems in campus bookstores. In turn, XM can launch a new, exclusive channel to broadcast the sports events of these universities.particularly ones that are unlikely to get major media attention. In the longer-term, this will result in more new subscribers. Another way of reaching a younger demographic it to find a way to break into the podcast phenomenon that is most commonly associated with Apple’s iPods. Integrating a recording feat ure in future models that synchs up with a wireless communication program would allow individuals to record their own podcast and, if within range of a wireless network, to go ahead and upload it. Such features are important as smart phones get more and more advanced—for all intents and purposes, all portable electronics devices are competing with what smart phones are increasingly capable of. XM already allows play through existing smart phones, such as â€Å"iPhone or Blackberry† (â€Å"Change the Way You Listen†). Integrating more interactive technology may help give XM a needed edge, though by definition this is a short-term strategy, and XM will need to adapt to newer technology and trends as they emerge. Best of all, such a feature is not that different from the existing ability to â€Å"[let] consumers record songs onto special receivers† (Numeister). Strategic Initiatives: XM and Sirius Essay Body Paragraphs One of the key long-term prospects of appealing to a younger demographic is appearing more eco-friendly. A way of doing this that doesn’t really alter how XM devices are made is to reach a partnership with companies like Prius to have XM radio already installed in those vehicles. This can be accompanied by advertisement campaigns linking environmental friendliness and XM radio in customer’s minds—slogans like â€Å"Satellite radio—so Earth-friendly it’s out of this world† with a visual focus on a satellite. The cherry on the top of this campaign would be for the monthly fee of Prius-owning XM subscribers donating a percentage to an eco-friendly charity of their choice. The final key to XM’s future is to embrace their own past. Their previous programming agreement with Clear Channel radio allowed them to appeal to conservative listeners who favored programs such as Glenn Beck’s radio talk show. Beck, particularly, is a good entit y to have a commercial agreement with, because of his ability to help sell merchandise on both his radio and his TV programs. If XM was willing to re-negotiate with Clear Channel radio and reach a similar agreement as they had before, it would be a great â€Å"quid pro quo† long-term way of marketing XM to an extremely broad audience over the airwaves. Better still, though a longer shot by far, would be an attempt to reach an exclusivity agreement with a right-wing media figure. For all intents and purposes, it would be the more conservative answer to the Sirius agreement with Howard Sterns—if XM was suddenly the only way for conservative audiences to portably hear a figure such as Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, it would greatly increase both system sales and new subscribers, as well as bring old subscribers back into the fold. Value Added, Lessons Learned and Insights Gained nbsp; The value added to the company by such changes would be significant. By expanding the cust omer base, XM will receive both short-term and long-term benefits by bringing in new subscribers and illustrating to existing ones the company’s dedication to offering a variety of services to a variety of clients. These recommendations are all centered on what amounts to the key issue regarding any form of satellite radio to a potential new customer: why should they pay for the radio, when the radio in their car is free? These recommendations form a kind of variegated rhetoric to draw in different customers: individuals can feel like they’re able to follow their favorite talk-show pundit, bringing in customers based on loyalty. They can feel like they are helping to save the world by helping themselves to XM’s services, which appeals to them emotionally. They can feel like they are imparting their unique vision to the world through broadcasts, which appeals to their aggrandized sense of self. And they can also feel like embracing XM radio makes them a more soli d part of their college community, which appeals to both their sense of school spirit and, to be frank, their sense of peer pressure. The insights from this exercise are chiefly centered on this.it is surprising to learn the difficulty of how to appeal to a mass of people while still offering the vision of a company as unique and individual. However, it is rewarding to find out that such a task is far from impossible. Recommendations for Strategic Initiatives: Sirius Radio An admirable recent move on the part of Sirius to branch out from their traditionally-perceived image as a haven for bad boys such as Howard Stern is the inception of the Sirius Backseat TV initiative, offering streaming video of kid-friendly programming such as Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. One logical extension of this progression would be to offer a cheap (less than $50), colorful receiver model (that is limited to kid-friendly music channels) that is marketed to young children. This would a ppeal to children of existing Sirius customers that wish to emulate their receiver-owning parents and, in some cases, the reverse: children requesting it as a gift from their parents may actually get their parents to purchase a receiver for themselves. Especially if an incentive was included with the children’s models which stated that their subscription to the limited â€Å"kid-friendly† stations would be free if another individual in the household purchased a receiver and a full subscription within thirty days. Otherwise, the â€Å"kid-friendly† subscription would be $5 a month. On the opposite spectrum, it would be wise for Sirius to expand an initiative they started in 2003 by launching Sirius OutQ, which appeals to the LGBT audience and invites listeners to hear â€Å"news, information, and entertainment for the gay and lesbian community.† It would be wise for Sirius to launch exclusive channels concerning music and talk radio for other minority audi ences. This is something that would appeal to a teenage and young adult demographic, which would certainly help to sell units and subscriptions among a target audience that represents years of possible subscriber income. It would also dovetail well with the image of Sirius as a more â€Å"liberal† radio station, willing to grant controversial audiences their own voice.something that is often stifled, if not outright prevented, by mainstream media. Sirius currently offers a â€Å"Sirius Music for Business† model in which businesses can legally use commercial-free Sirius broadcasts in everything from â€Å"on hold† telephone music to conference presentations. It would be profitable to expand this model to other venues, such as colleges and universities. A program with a clever name such as â€Å"Sirius for U† could provide music in university dormitories, cafeterias, and student centers. This functions well as a long-term strategy because it means exposing a rotating crop of students to Sirius programming for a period of four years. This will inevitably drive sales, and would offer a chance for universities to feature their own radio station on the Sirius network. In this way, both the university and Sirius radio will benefit. A solid long-term strategy for Sirius would be to acquire exclusive radio rights to NBA games. This would serve as an answer to XM’s exclusivity with MLB games, and help reinforce the image of Sirius as hip and sports-friendly. A short-term way of doing this would be to focus on more obscure sports—Sirius already has the world’s only horseracing talk show, and adding channels focusing on poker, chess, and even dodgeball would add a quirky charm that rival services cannot offer. One humorous hook for such a channel would be to name it â€Å"The Ocho,† in honor of the movie Dodgeball’s humorous vision of an ESPN channel that focuses exclusively on quirky sports. Value Added, Less ons Learned and Insights Gained The value added to Sirius through these suggestions primarily centers around expanding on the services it already offers. There is a reason for this—as the most recognized brand of satellite radio, Sirius has had years to throw almost every idea against the wall, and see what sticks. These ideas represent an expansion of stickiness—appealing to those who feel like mainstream outcasts while, at the same time, appealing to the nuclear family of traditional values through kid-friendly programming. It also represents an opportunity for ongoing customer appeal—the institution of a â€Å"Sirius for U† program, particularly, means that thousands of students can experience Sirius every day that otherwise would be unfamiliar with it. A continued focus on sports serves as the second part of a one-two punch that starts with the appeal to college students.a group that is traditionally sports-focused, and likelier to stick around as par t of the Sirius customer base if they feel that their favorite sport (to watch or to play) is being featured. The insight of this experience is primarily centered on perfection, as opposed to creation.as elaborated on above, Sirius is a company that has tried an impressive variety of marketing tactics over the years. The challenge comes from singling out the ones that have further potential from the ones that, rightfully, were discarded by the wayside. However, the evolving nature of business means that businesses must be constantly evolving; perfection of the moment can easily be the defects of the future, so business models must constantly strive for change. Works Cited Numeister, Larry. â€Å"Suit by Record Companies Against XM Going to Trial.† The Washington Post. n. pag. Jan 20 2007. Web. 30 May 2010 Sirius. â€Å"OutQ Radio.† n. pag. 30 May 2010 XM Radio. â€Å"Change the Way You Listen.† n. pag. Web. 30 May 2010 nbsp; nbsp; We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Initiatives: XM and Sirius Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Initiatives: XM and Sirius Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Initiatives: XM and Sirius Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Antonio López de Santa Anna, 11-Time Mexican President

Antonio Là ³pez de Santa Anna, 11-Time Mexican President Antonio Là ³pez de Santa Anna (February 21, 1794–June 21, 1876) was a Mexican politician and military leader who was President of Mexico 11 times from 1833 to 1855. He was a disastrous president for Mexico, losing first Texas and then much of the current American West to the United States. Still, he was a charismatic leader, and, in general, the people of Mexico supported him, begging him to return to power time and again. He was by far the most important figure of his generation in Mexican history. Fast Facts: Antonio Là ³pez de Santa Anna Known For: President of Mexico 11 times, defeated U.S. troops at the Alamo, lost much Mexican territory to the U.S.Also Known As:  Antonio de Padua Marà ­a Severino Là ³pez de Santa Anna y Pà ©rez de Lebrà ³n, Santa Anna, The man who was Mexico, Napoleon of the WestBorn:  February 21, 1794 in Xalapa,  Veracruz  Parents: Antonio Lafey de Santa Anna and Manuela Perez de LabronDied:  June 21, 1876 in Mexico City, MexicoPublished Works:  The Eagle: The Autobiography of Santa AnnaAwards and Honors:  Order of Charles III,  Ã‚  Order of GuadalupeSpouse(s): Marà ­a Inà ©s de la Paz Garcà ­a, Marà ­a de los Dolores de TostaChildren: Marà ­a de Guadalupe, Marà ­a del Carmen, Manuel, and Antonio Là ³pez de Santa Anna y Garcà ­a. Recognized illegitimate children: Paula, Marà ­a de la Merced, Petra, and Josà © Là ³pez de Santa AnnaNotable Quote: As general-in-chief I fulfilled my duty by issuing the necessary orders for the vigilance of our camp, as a man I succumbe d to an imperious necessity of nature for which I do not believe that a charge can be justly brought against any general, much less if such a rest is taken at the middle of the day, under a tree, and in the very camp itself. Early Life Santa Anna was born in Xalapa on February 21, 1794. His parents were Antonio Lafey de Santa Anna and Manuela Perez de Labron and he had a comfortable middle-class childhood. After some limited formal education, he worked for a short time as a merchant. He longed for a military career and his father procured an appointment for him at an early age in the Army of New Spain. Early Military Career Santa Anna quickly rose through the ranks, making colonel by the age of 26. He fought on the Spanish side in the Mexican War of Independence. When he recognized that it was a lost cause, he switched sides in 1821 with Agustà ­n de Iturbide, who rewarded him with a promotion to general. During the turbulent 1820s, Santa Anna supported and then turned on a succession of presidents, including Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero. He gained a reputation as a valuable if treacherous ally. First Presidency In 1829, Spain invaded, attempting to retake Mexico. Santa Anna played a key role in defeating them- his greatest (and perhaps only) military victory. Santa Anna first rose to the presidency in the 1833 election. Ever the astute politician, he immediately turned over power to Vice President Valentà ­n Gà ³mez Farà ­as and allowed him to make some reforms, including many aimed at the Catholic Church and the army. Santa Anna was waiting to see if the people would accept these reforms. When they did not, he stepped in and removed Gà ³mez Farà ­as from power. Texas Independence Texas, using the chaos in Mexico as a pretext, declared independence in 1836. Santa Anna himself marched on the rebellious state with a massive army, but the invasion was conducted poorly. Santa Anna ordered crops burned, prisoners shot, and livestock killed, alienating many Texans who might have supported him. After he defeated the rebels at the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna unwisely divided his forces, allowing Sam Houston to surprise him at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and forced to negotiate with the Mexican government for recognition of Texas independence and to sign papers saying he recognized the Republic of Texas. The Pastry War and Return to Power Santa Anna returned to Mexico in disgrace and retired to his hacienda. Soon there came another opportunity to seize the stage. In 1838, France invaded Mexico in order to make them pay some outstanding debts. This conflict is known as the Pastry War.  Santa Anna rounded up some men and rushed to battle. Although he and his men were soundly defeated and he lost one of his legs in the fighting, Santa Anna was seen as a hero by the Mexican people. He would later order his leg buried with full military honors. The French took the port of Veracruz and negotiated a settlement with the Mexican government. War With the United States In the early 1840s, Santa Anna was in and out of power frequently. He was inept enough to be regularly driven out of power but charming enough to always find his way back in. In 1846, war broke out between Mexico and the United States. Santa Anna, in exile at the time, persuaded the Americans to allow him back into Mexico to negotiate a peace. Once there, he assumed command of the Mexican army and fought the invaders. American military strength (and Santa Annas tactical incompetence) carried the day and Mexico was defeated. Mexico lost much of the American West in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war. Final Presidency Santa Anna went into exile again  but was invited back by conservatives in 1853, so he served as president for two more years. He sold some lands along the border to the United States (known as the Gadsden Purchase) in 1854 to help pay some debts. This infuriated many Mexicans, who turned on him once again. Santa Anna was driven from power for good in 1855 and went once again into exile. He was tried for treason in absentia, and all of his estates and wealth were confiscated. Schemes and Plots For the next decade or so, Santa Anna schemed at getting back into power. He attempted to hatch an invasion with mercenaries. He negotiated with the French and Emperor Maximilian in a bid to come back and join Maximilians court  but was arrested and sent back into exile. During this time he lived in different countries, including the United States, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas. Death Santa Anna finally was given an amnesty in 1874 and returned to Mexico. He was then about 80 years old and had given up any hope of returning to power. He died on June 21, 1876, in Mexico City. Legacy Santa Anna was a larger-than-life character and inept dictator. He was officially president six times, and unofficially five more. His personal charisma was astounding, on a par with other Latin American leaders such as Fidel Castro or Juan Domingo Perà ³n. The people of Mexico supported him multiple times, but he kept letting them down, losing wars and lining his own pockets with public funds time and again. Like all people, Santa Anna had his strengths and weaknesses. He was an able military leader in some respects. He could very quickly raise an army and have it marching, and his men seemed to never give up on him. He was a strong leader who always came when his country asked him to (and sometimes when they didnt ask him to). He was decisive and had some crafty political skills, often playing liberals and conservatives off against one another to build a compromise. But Santa Annas weaknesses tended to overwhelm his strengths. His legendary treacheries kept him always on the winning side  but caused people to mistrust him. Although he could always raise an army quickly, he was a disastrous leader in battles, winning only against a Spanish force at Tampico that was ravaged by yellow fever and later at the famous Battle of the Alamo, where his casualties were three times higher than those of the outnumbered Texans. His ineptitude was a factor in the loss of vast tracts of land to the United States and many Mexicans never forgave him for it. He had serious personal defects, including a gambling problem and a legendary ego. During his final presidency, he named himself dictator for life and made people refer to him as most serene highness. He defended his status as a despotic dictator. A hundred years to come my people will not be fit for liberty, he famously said. To Santa Anna, Mexicos unwashed masses could not handle self-government and needed a firm hand in control- preferably his. Santa Anna left a mixed legacy to Mexico. He provided a certain degree of stability during a chaotic time and despite his legendary corruption and incompetence, his dedication to Mexico (especially in his later years) is rarely questioned. Still, many modern Mexicans revile him for the loss of so much territory to the United States. Sources Brands, H.W. Lone Star Nation: The Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence. Anchor Books, 2004.Eisenhower, John S.D.  So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848. University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United States. Hill and Wang, 2007.Herring, Hubert. A History of Latin America From the Beginnings to the Present. Alfred A. Knopf, 1962Wheelan, Joseph. Invading Mexico: Americas Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 1846-1848. Carroll and Graf, 2007.

Genyornis - Facts and Figures

Genyornis - Facts and Figures Name: Genyornis (Greek for jaw bird); pronounced JEN-ee-OR-niss Habitat: Plains of Australia Historical Epoch: Pleistocene (2 million-50,000 years ago) Size and Weight: About seven feet tall and 500 pounds Diet: Probably omnivorous Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; hooved, three-toed feet About Genyornis From Genyornis Australian provenance, you might think it was closely related to modern ostriches, but the fact is that this giant prehistoric bird had more in common with ducks. For one thing, Genyornis was much more solidly built than an ostrich, packing about 500 pounds into its seven-foot-tall frame, and for another, its three-toed feet were hooved rather than clawed. The truly mysterious thing about this bird is its diet: its jaws seem to have been well-adapted to cracking nuts, but theres evidence that occasional servings of meat may have been on its lunch menu as well. Since Genyornis is represented by numerous fossil remainsboth of various individuals and of eggspaleontologists have been able to pinpoint with relative accuracy when, and how fast, this bird went extinct. The speed of its demise about 50,000 years ago, toward the end of the Pleistocene epoch, points to relentless hunting and egg-raiding by early human settlers, who reached the Australian continent around this time from elsewhere in the Pacific. (By the way, Genyornis was a close relative of another Australian mega-bird, Bullockornis, better known as the Demon Duck of Doom.)

B2B and Reseller Markets Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

B2B and Reseller Markets - Coursework Example Thus, the report provides a view about which business relationship the organisation should develop by taking into concern the theories of business relationship and b2b marketing. Every successful business is established on the basis of solid and progressive relationship with the customers. The origin of business relationship has been traced back to the 19th century and since then the idea of business relationship has changed considerably. Traditionally, b2b market is dependent on encompassing the predominant view of consumer marketing. It was fairly unsophisticated approach, which was subjected towards manipulation of certain marketing variables such as products, price and promotion among others for raising desired rate of returns. The viewpoint of customer relationship was overwhelmingly adversarial and short-term in nature. However, after 1990s, it was appreciated that such aspect does not satisfactorily reflect the intricacies of how b2b market perform. Rather, it was argued that b2b marketing is long-run in nature and involve proper relationship between buyers and sellers to reap mutual advantages (Buttle, 1996). Unlike b2c model, customers in b2b model are basically organisations or companies, which signify that there are few customers for Airslash to serve in its respective market. However, it is worth mentioning that although there are small number of customers, they make large amount of purchases and the purchasing procedure is quite complex in nature. Besides, in comparison with business to consumer (b2c) customers, relationship in b2b customers are quite close in nature. In general, Airslash can develop two types of relationship with its customers namely transactional or cooperative. In this similar context, transactional relationship comprises timely interchange of basic services for extremely competitive prices and cooperative relationship constitutes strong ties established over times with the aim of accomplishing shared

The current state of HRM In Saudi Arabia.The impacts of motivation on Research Proposal

The current state of HRM In Saudi Arabia.The impacts of motivation on workers and staff, which encourage employees to work In Saudi private sector - Research Proposal Example The current state of HRM in Saudi Arabia is characterized by a number of features. HRM covers all organizational levels and functions, and has already become a definitive ingredient of the process of management within organizations (Randhawa 2009). HRM is inherently people-oriented, which means that human resource managers are concerned with employees as members of a separate organizational group and as individuals (Randhawa 2009). Finally, HRM is equally pervasive, challenging, and essential for the future of organizations (Randhawa 2009). The complexity of HRM issues is difficult to underestimate, and the current research holds a promise to clarify these issues and support the development of efficient HRM strategies and solutions. The current research into HRM is associated with numerous limitations. More often than not, scholarly research defines HRM too narrowly, leaving numerous issues beyond the boundaries of learning (Lewin, Mitchell & Sherer 2008). This is one of the reasons why the given study will explore â€Å"The impacts of motivation on workers and staff, which encourage employees to work in Saudi private sector†. The proposed research will aim at clarifying the factors that motivate workers in Saudi Arabia to work in the private sector. The proposed research will aim at clarifying the factors that motivate workers in Saudi Arabia to work in the private sector. The researcher expects that the proposed study will help private sector enterprises in Saudi Arabia to develop effective HR strategies and attract prospective workforce, which will help organizations to improve their performance and strengthen their competitive position. 2.2. Will your research be industry-based? - Industry-based approach: the proposed research will utilize the benefits of industry-based approach. The petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia will serve the principal object of analysis. The choice of the petrochemical industry is proved by the fact that (1) it is one of the most important industrial sectors in Saudi Arabia and (2) it combines the features of public and private ownership. For example, 70% of SABIC is being currently owned by the government, with the remaining 30% distributed among private owners (SABIC 2011). As a result, the petrochemical industry exemplifies one of the most attractive objects of organizational analysis in the context of motivation and its implications for the Saudi workforce. - The organization to consider: SABIC will serve the central object of the analysis for the proposed research. The choice of SABIC is not accidental. First, SABIC is the largest non-oil company in the Middle Eastern region and is included in the list of the top five manufacturers of petrochemical products in the world (SABIC, 2011). The size of the company and its profitability provide a wealth of opportunities for researching its workforce and motivation issues in the workplace. Second, SABIC considers itself as a company, which invests heav ily in the development of sophisticated training and development strategies for its employees. According to SABIC (2011), the company is dedicated to its people, enjoys detecting and developing talents, whereas its HR department has recently undergone a serious change. Thus, the company seems to possess vast training and development potential. Ultimately, little is known of what attracts individuals in Saudi Arabia to work in private sector companies. Moreover, the body of research concerning motivation in Saudi companies and private sector organizations is increasingly scarce (Al-Eisa, Furayyan, & Alhmeoud 2009). The researcher expects that the proposed study will add to the existing

Human Resources Management In Small and Medium Enterprises Essay Example for Free

Human Resources Management In Small and Medium Enterprises Essay Introduction Competitive advantage to a firm accrues from the judicious employment of three basic types of resources, namely Physical Capital Resources, such as Finances, Plant and Equipment Organizational Capital Resources – Structure and systems in the organization Human Capital Resources, which include the skills, competencies, experience and intelligence of employees.[1] Human resources are among the most important resources that an organisation utilises and hence its importance to any organisation can be easily understood. Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are no exception to this rule, although this aspect is frequently lost sight of. This paper examines the role and importance of Human Resources in SMEs, and compares SMEs from two different cultural backgrounds – Taiwan and the UK. Role of Human Resources in SMEs The study of human resources management in SMEs needs to be strongly encouraged. CEO/founders in SMEs view human resource management decisions as very important to the growth of their enterprises[2]   A study into the perception of important HR issues in small organizations showed that top six issues were wage rates, availability of quality workers, government regulation, training, benefits, and job security[3] The role of Human Resources in SMEs is to contribute meaningfully to organisational objectives in a flexible and demanding environment. Lack of strategic employee management is widely accepted as characteristic of small enterprises. Decision-making has been perceived to be of relatively short-term nature compared to larger organisations, making small enterprises more flexible and less conflict-prone. At the same time, this also means that the advantages of long-term planning such as greater efficiency and effectiveness are lost. On the human resources front, this means that such organisations tend to have reduced capability to attract, retain and motivate the best human resources. This becomes important in view of the fact that out of thousands of small businesses that are established every year, only a few manage to survive in the long-term. While long-term planning and HR strategy are not the only reasons for this, they are among the important reasons. Hence an examination of the HR function as a strategic part of business, and its relevance to long-term planning, is in order. In addition, the role of recruitment and selection, training, and performance management, are also relevant to any discussion on the role of human resources. Planning and Human Resources Management Strategic planning for the organisation needs to be linked to individual goals. In turn, this means that the job design should take into account the long-term objectives of the organisation. â€Å"A framework for strategic management incorporating HRM involves developing a mission statement that answers questions of what businesses the organisation is in; determining goals that are general and long term; and establishing objectives that are short term and measurable. It should also encompass a complete SWOT analysis that incorporates HRM as a functional unit of analysis.†[4] One of the essential requirements of Human Resources Planning is proper job design. Human resources planning involves the matching of the knowledge and skills that are likely to be required in future with those that it has or will have. Human Resources Planning will help the organisation to estimate critical resource requirements, plan training and development needs, and link individual goals to organizational objectives. Job design involves specifying the characteristics of the job and the requirements such as skills for performing these jobs. Job design will thus provide the framework for a host of HR planning activities that can be linked to organizational objectives.[5] Recruitment and Selection Once the plans of the organization are clear the next important issue that any organisation needs to address is to get the right staff to implement the plans. â€Å"Surveys indicate that about 25 per cent of small businesses view the lack of qualified workers as a threat to their expansion and very survival.†[6] The problem assumes particular importance in the case of small enterprises because they almost always have a problem in attracting and retaining the best talent. This is partly due to the fact that they are unable to compete with larger firms for quality staff, because it is impossible for them to match the rewards and prestige that come along with positions in larger firms. Additionally, smaller firms have a reputation for being oriented towards a ‘hire and fire’ culture. Training Once the plans are clear, and the recruitment of the right people has been completed, it becomes necessary to motivate the staff, as well as to enable them to perform their tasks efficiently. This requires periodic training of the employees. Training is important in the case of small enterprises because they are more prone to changing environments and higher attrition rates. This makes it necessary for people to be more flexible, and to be trained in all aspects of the business. While the need for training of staff is thus greater in the case of a small enterprise, it is also accompanied by greater constraints that make it more difficult for these organisations to implement training programmes. Small organisations face two constraints in t his respect: Their budget for training may be more limited, and they may lack the necessary resources to carry out such training It is more difficult for small enterprises to spare their people for training programmes. In spite of the above limitations, however, small enterprises need to concentrate more on training, as it is an investment that needs to be done. â€Å"It has been suggested that top performing companies are distinguished by their higher spending on training and development.†[7] Performance Management Performance Management â€Å"includes work and job design, reward structures, the selection of people for work, the training of these employees, assessment of work performance and policies associated with rewarding and improving performance.†[8] Performance Appraisals are an important part of Performance Management and are useful in improving performance, assist HR planning, and identify development needs and potential for promotion. Small businesses, in general, lack a formal performance appraisal system. The disadvantages of not using structured and formal appraisal systems are that appraisals, and the consequent rewards, are often subjective, and may promote greater dissatisfaction. Consequently, appraisal systems and Performance Management play an important role in determining the alignment of HR planning with organisational goals, and ensuring that a proper climate is available for the achievement of the objectives. â€Å"In developing formal performance appraisal systems, small businesses not only are able to ensure that performance management may become strategically aligned with organisational goals, but also increase accountability, decrease under-utilisation of human resources, address concerns of productivity, and decrease employees’ concerns about fairness and accuracy.†[9] In addition, the salaries and rewards that are offered as part of the employment and the management of diversity within the workforce are important considerations for any organisation. These have a greater significance in the case of small organisations. As can be seen from the above, the role of Human Resources management in small organisations is an important one that needs to be well understood and implemented with care. One interesting extension to the role of HR management in small to medium industries is the use of Balanced Score Cards, which are normally viewed as the exclusive tool of large industries. The Balanced Score Cards approach shifts the focus to long-term growth, and includes measures of operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and employee related measures. The Balanced Score Card method thus includes a part of HR Management to assess the overall performance of the organisation. In a case study that included three SME organisations, Gumbus and Lussier present some interesting conclusions that have significance for the HR function in SME companies. The cases also serve to highlight the importance of HR in SME companies and the link between performance and HR. One of the three companies cited in the case is Futura Industries, an international company based in Clearfield, UT with 230 employees. It has over 50 years of experience in aluminium extrusion, finishing, fabrication, machining and design. The company believes that the two competitive weapons that put them ahead of competition are â€Å"their ability to hire and retain the best people and their devotion to the customer.† Futura’s President, Susan Johnson’s belief that committed and loyal employees make the difference has led the company into using the Balanced Score Card method. In the words of Ms. Johnson, the company â€Å"had all the financial metrics, lots of customer measures, and got ISO accredited three years ago †¦ but it is our employees that differentiate us from all other extrusion companies.[10] A Comparison of SMEs in the UK and Taiwan A study by Lin found that successful SMEs in Taiwan place greater emphasis on soft skills and attitudes rather than on hard skills. He infers that SMEs in Taiwan seemed to have a better grasp of its human resources.   â€Å"Whenever SMEs modernize equipment, alter production processes, revise compensation policies, and engage in other reorganisation activities, they take pains to handle employees responses and feelings with special care and invest heavily in skills development.â€Å"[11] According to Hu, the Human resource scenario in Taiwan is characterised by abundance of entrepreneurs and availability of high quality professionals. Hu traces this to the importance laid on education by Chinese, and the large-scale injection of high quality human resource into the island in the aftermath of the retreat into, and subsequent withdrawal from, Taiwan of the KMT government. In addition, the Taiwanese population has inherited from its ancestors the qualities of â€Å"hard working, brotherhood, strong family ties, competition, and similar attributes that form the basis for strong family businesses.†[12] According to McKenna Beech, the following values characterise the Asian HR scene[13]: Politeness and courtesy Emphasis on personal relationship Not losing face Harmony- avoidance of open conflict Predominance of group interests over individual interests Discipline and respect for authority and for elders Normative, rather than externally imposed control Trust and mutual help in business relationships Centralisation and authoritarianism As against the above, the HR scenario in Europe is characterised by the following features[14]: Pluralism as against unitarism Collectivism and social orientation instead of individualism, with the emphasis being on national, rather than individual, interests Legal framework: firing is more difficult Social Partnership: Employment security, protection of workers’ rights, and representation of workforce through trade unions. Social Responsibility: Concern for environment and other social obligations Tolerance for diversity Recognition of complexity and ambiguity. The characteristics enumerated under Asian values represent the Taiwanese scene, and the scenario in Europe is representative of the UK. From the above, it can be seen that the SMEs in Taiwan are formed with reliance on individual assistance, based on respect for authority, with trust and mutual relationships as the supporting factor. In the UK, and other European countries, it is the legal framework that gives the necessary assurance and support to the business rather than trust. In Taiwan authority is enforced, and followed, because it is natural to the culture. In the UK, the legal aspects are augmented by collective bargaining with a recognized trade union to achieve this purpose. Taiwanese take great care to handle employees’ feelings appropriately whenever major decisions need to be taken. This is replaced by collective bargaining and more formal communication in the UK. SMEs predominate in Taiwan, whereas larger firms represent the more prevalent form of business in the UK. SMEs constituted 99.43 percent of Taiwans total manufacturing firms in 1954, the highest level ever recorded; 95.26 percent in 1976, the lowest; and 98.07 percent in 1996. Among them, the smallest firms, employing fewer than 10 persons, accounted for 90 percent of all firms in the manufacturing sector in the 1950s.[15] On the other hand, SMEs generate roughly one quarter of the GDP of the UK. The generation of employment by SMEs varies from sector to sector, the highest being in the construction sector with 84% of the employment being generated by this sector. The SME sector, which was declining up to 1970, picked up momentum thereafter, and showed a rising trend till 1994. Since 1994, the number has remained constant.[16] As can be seen from these figures, the SME sector is less dominant in the UK than in Taiwan. Why Human Resources are important in firms The resource-based view of organisations explains variations in firm performance by variations in firms human resources and capabilities[17] Firms can gain competitive advantage by generating specific knowledge and skills that are difficult to imitate. This can be achieved through human capital development. The importance of Human Resource Development in small firms is thus self-evident – they help the firms to succeed by being competitive. In a study of more than 100 small enterprises in two towns from Germany, Rauch et al found that â€Å"human resources are essentially important and an optimal utilization of skills and knowledge increases small business growth.† [18] In order to harness this important resource and ensure it gives the best returns, an organisation needs to select its employees with care. It is expected that as firms grow, the skills and abilities required to perform various functions and activities no longer would be available from the familiar and informal recruitment sources preferred by the owner-manager[19] Apart from recruitment, other functions such as Training and Development, Performance Appraisal, and formal procedures and documentation help the organisation in improving efficiency. According to Kotey and Slade, â€Å"Benefits of formal HRM practices include meeting legal requirements, maintaining records in support of decisions in the event of litigation, treating employees fairly, and increasing efficiency.† [20] A study by Kotey and Slade involving more than 1300 small firms in Australia showed that as firms grow they tend to introduce formal HR practices and procedures. In the words of the authors, â€Å"While the analyses show that a significant percentage of SMEs implement formal HRM practices with growth, HRM remains informal in the majority of firms, particularly in small firms. It could be that implementation of formal HR structures and procedures necessary to support growth differentiates successful from unsuccessful SMEs.†[21] In a small organisation, people need to be more flexible and undertake a greater variety of jobs. This needs both motivation and skills. In turn, many employees may get better exposure and greater opportunities to learn and shoulder higher responsibilities in a small firm. All of these underline the importance of Human Resources Management in organisations, particularly small firms. The HRM model is â€Å"composed of policies that promote mutual goals, influence, respect, rewards and responsibility between employees in the organisation.†[22] These policies are promoted by practices such as team working, aligning performance objectives with organisational goals, and a flat organisation structure, all of which can be achieved only through a proper Human Resources Management in the organisation. Survey Research findings have confirmed the theoretical position with the conclusion that good HR systems is a source of competitive advantage. One study has shown that higher performance in a number of areas is correlated to good HR systems and practices. Companies that had significantly higher ratings on their HR practices also reported better market value, higher accounting profits, higher growth rates, better sales per employee, and lower employee turnover. Another study has found that newly started companies had a better survival rate if they had good HR practices. The probability of survival was found to vary by as much as 42% between the firms with the best HR practices and rewards, and those with the worst. Yet another study found that performance of the organisation was strongly linked with practices such as acquisition and development of skilled people, better job design, better autonomy, and positive employee attitude. All these studies clearly show that good HR could positively impact organisational performance practices, highlighting the importance of Human Resources in an organisation. Apart from improving performance good HR practices result in lower costs, while poor practices increase the costs to the organization. One of the contributing factors for this is the cost of employee turnover. â€Å"Interviewing and training recruits has significant out-of-pocket costs for the employer.† Replacing an employee involves expenses for Separation, Replacement, and Training. [23] Employee turnover costs can be divided into three major elements: Separation costs: These are the costs that are directly incurred when an employee leaves the firm, and include such costs as exit interviews, administrative and paperwork costs, disbursement of separation benefits, and revenues lost due to shortage of staff. Replacement Costs: These represent the cost of replacing the employee who has left and include the costs of advertising, sourcing, interviewing and selection. Training Costs: These are the costs that the company incurs for training and induction of a new employee. Apart from the actual expenditure on these activities, the costs of loss of efficiency in the initial stages, and the time lost during the training period should also be considered. Thus employee turnover could represent a fairly high cost to the organisation. Employee turnover can be classified into avoidable and unavoidable turnover. Most of the avoidable turnover results from lack of proper HR initiatives.[24] How Good/Bad employees affect the firm â€Å"A good employee is possibly the most valuable asset a small firm or SME can possess; a bad one could ruin the enterprise.†[25] Any firm, and more importantly a small firm, can ill afford to have people who do not perform. Robert Townsend, a noted Management expert was once asked the secret behind his ability to take over loss making firms, and changing them into profitable ones. The reply that he gave will be of interest to anyone asking how good or bad employees make or mar the firm. Mr. Townsend identified three factors that contributed to his success: Releasing the potential of employees so that they could perform at much higher levels by the practice of appropriate management styles Identifying people within the organisation who were blocking progress and preventing others from performing, and either changing their ways, or dismissing them Identifying people who had the ability and drive to take the company to greater heights, and promoting them. It can be seen that this highly successful Management practitioner reduced success to three simple rules, namely, eliminating deadwood, promoting and encouraging those with potential and creating the right climate in the company. This clearly shows that apart from creating the right environment, the most important requirement for success is the quality of people. Good people could transform a loss making company into a profitable one.[26] â€Å"Whether a firm is small or large, its only as good as its staff.†[27] This can be easily understood because the employees of the organisation make the vital difference between good and poor performance in every area. Apart from the demonstrated effect that this has on the firm’s performance, which has been cited earlier, this also stands to reason. A company depends on coordinated working by its employees towards a common goal to achieve its objectives. In order to meet these objectives, the organisation has to do what it does well. In other words, the competence of its employees should be good if it wants to achieve results. Secondly, the soft skills of the employees are important to achieve internal teamwork as well as to nurture customers with excellent performance and service. Thirdly, the employees of the company need to work efficiently if it is to have a healthy bottom line. All these objectives can be achieved only with good employees who know their job and possess the necessary hard skills, have the necessary soft skills, and are committed to the company’s success. In other words, a company needs good employees who have the right levels of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Conclusion Human Resources Management in Small-to-medium industries has been gaining a lot of attention lately. There is increased awareness among many of the SME entrepreneurs themselves about the importance of good HR practices and policies. It has been shown that organisations having formal Human Resources practices grow faster, and are more profitable, than those that do not do so. A comparison between SMEs in two countries, namely Taiwan and the UK, shows that the SME sector is more predominant in Taiwan, which is characterized by a culture that lays greater emphasis on group working, respect for authority, and mutual trust. This is contrasted by the UK situation where the SME sector is les pervasive, and the HR climate is characterised by formal and legal supports, collectivism, and social responsibility. Although the two situations are quite different from each other, the importance of formal HR systems in the SME segment is being recognised in both cases, and seem to affect performance positively, irrespective of the background. Works Cited A Causal Analysis. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 29(6): 2005: 681+. Bennett, Roger. Small Business Survival: Strategies for Delivering Growth and Staying Profitable: Second Edition. London, Financial Times Management, 1998. Burns, Paul. Entrepreneurship and Small Business. New York, Palgrave, 2001. Griffith, Roger W and Hom, Peter W. Retaining Valued Employees. London, Sage Publications, 2001. Gumbus, Andra, and Robert N. Lussier. Entrepreneurs Use a Balanced Scorecard to Translate Strategy into Performance Measures. Journal of Small Business Management 44(3): 2006: 407+. Heneman, Robert L., Judith W. Tansky, and S. Michael Camp. Human Resource Management Practices in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Unanswered Questions and Future Research Perspectives. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 25 (1): 2000: 11. Holbeche, Linda. Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy. Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001. HRD in Small Organizations, Edited by Graham Beaver Jim Stewart. New York, Routledge, 2004. Hu, Ming-Wen. Many Small Antelopes Make a Dragon. Futures 35(4): 2003: 379+. Kotey, Bernice, and Peter Slade. Formal Human Resource Management Practices in Small Growing Firms. Journal of Small Business Management, 43 (1): 2005: 16+. Lin, Carol Yeh-Yun. Success Factors of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Taiwan: An Analysis of Cases. Journal of Small Business Management, 36(4): (1998): 43. McKenna, Eugene and Beech, Nic. Human Resource Management, A Concise Analysis. Essex, Pearson Education Limited, 2002 Megginson, David, Banfield, Paul, and Joy-Mathews, Jennifer. Human Resource Development. Kogan Page India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2001. Rauch, A., Frese, M., Utsch, A. Effects of Human Capital and Long-Term Human Resources Development and Utilization on Employment Growth of Small-Scale Businesses: Satava, David. The A to Z of Keeping Staff: Few Firm Employees Leave without a Good Reason-Heres How Not to Give Them One. Journal of Accountancy 195 (4): 2003: 67+. [1] L. Holbeche, Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001, pp.10-11. [2] R.L. Heneman, T.W. Judith and S. M. Camp. Human Resource Management Practices in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Unanswered Questions and Future Research Perspectives. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice 25(1): (2000): p. 11 [3] HRD in Small Organizations, Edited by Graham Beaver Jim Stewart, New York, Routledge, 2004, p. 81. [4] Ibid, p81 [5] Ibid [6] ibid, p82 [7] ibid, p 85 [8] ibid, p 89 [9] ibid, p 89 [10] A. Gumbus and R. N. Lussier. Entrepreneurs Use a Balanced Scorecard to Translate Strategy into Performance Measures, Journal of Small Business Management, 44(3): 2006: p.407. [11]C.Y. Lin. Success Factors of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Taiwan: An Analysis of Cases. Journal of Small Business Management, 36(4): (1998): p. 43. [12] M. Hu. Many Small Antelopes Make a Dragon, Futures, 35(4): 2003: p. 379. [13] E.McKenna and N. Beech. Human Resource Management, A Concise Analysis. Essex, Pearson Education Limited, 2002, pp.4-5. [14] ibid [15] M. Hu. P. 379. [16]   P.Burns. Entrepreneurship and Small Business. New York, Palgrave, 2001, p12. [17] A. Rauch, M. Frese A. Utsch. Effects of Human Capital and Long-Term Human Resources Development and Utilization on Employment Growth of Small-Scale Businesses: A Causal Analysis. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 29(6): 2005: p681. [18] ibid [19] B.Kotey and P. Slade. Formal Human Resource Management Practices in Small Growing Firms. Journal of Small Business Management, 43(1): (2005): p.16. [20] ibid [21] ibid [22] E. McKenna and N. Beech, p34-35 [23] D. Satava. The A to Z of Keeping Staff: Few Firm Employees Leave without a Good Reason-Heres How Not to Give Them One, Journal of Accountancy, 195(4 ): 2003: p. 67. [24] R. W. Griffith and P. W. Hom. Retaining Valued Employees, London, Sage Publications, 2001, p10 [25] R. Bennett. Small Business Survival: Strategies for Delivering Growth and Staying Profitable: Second Edition, London, Financial Times Management, 1998. [26] D. Megginson, P. Banfield and J. Joy-Mathews. Human Resource Development. Kogan Page India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2001, p. 82. [27] Satava, David. The A to Z of Keeping Staff: Few Firm Employees Leave without a Good Reason-Heres How Not to Give Them One. Journal of Accountancy 195.4 (2003): 67+.

Slavery - A Respectable Trade? :: Film Capitalism Britain Essays

Slavery. - A â€Å"Respectable† Trade? A Respectable Trade is quite an ironic title for such an enterprise as slavery. In the 1700s Britain, and France, traded cheap manufactured goods for slaves. 1788 was the beginning of the abolition movement, yet slave trade was still booming. Frances Scott, the protagonist of the movie, was thrust into the horrors of slavery when she decided to marry Josiah Cole. This marriage was an economic contract benefiting Josiah much more than Francis. Francis was a widow, she lived with her uncle, but she didn’t have many choices being a single woman of those times. She could have become a governess, but she wasn’t too good at that as we see at the beginning of the movie when her pupil hits her and runs out. Having a husband gives her economic security, or so she thought because she’d get an annual allowance. In turn, Josiah receives an educated woman, a woman of higher status with connections with the elite, and a schoolteacher for his slaves. Educated slaves in the hous e serving field are worth more than field slaves because they can speak English, they are supposedly more civilized because they learn the bible and can speak English so it is easier to give them orders. Frances didn’t really know what she was getting into at all when she accepted Josiah’s proposal. On her wedding night Josiah went to a bar to get drunk and brag of his socially high wife. When he returned home he knelt down next to his bed to pray, yet the only thing he prayed for were his two slave ships, the Rose and the Daisy. He prays to God to let his ships, packed with extremely abused, horrified, mentally tortured, dehumanized people, come back to him in one piece with all these people decent enough to sell. This perhaps illustrates that Josiah thinks that slavery is moral, he has no hesitancy in destroying African people’s lives and selling them so he can buy a bigger house (and hideous blue dragon things). When Frances goes back to Josiah’s house, by the navy yard, it’s like she has entered an entirely different world. She sees that her new husband is severely financially inferior to her uncle. All of his income derives from his two ships g oing to Africa, capturing slaves and taking them to plantation owners in Jamaica in exchange for rum and sugar.

Han and Roman Dynasty View on Technology

After studying the provided documents (#1-8) its come to my understanding that both the Han and Roman empires thought of technology as useful and somewhat revolutionary, but both of them had somewhat different feelings of it. The Han dynasties attitude toward technology was that they thought it was very benefical, and they admired it. The reason this was because they though it to be very helpful in agriculture and construction purposes. Evidence of the positive effects of this can be seen in Document 4: History of the Early Han Dynasty which tells of a governer of Nanynay and as the very generous and loving person he was his policies also refelcted his personality. He had so much love for his people he wanted to lift weight of their shoulders and make their lives a little easier by inventing a water-powered blowing-engine which was enjoyed by eveyone adopted and spread his invention. The Roman empire however were not as positive about technology as the Hans. Even though they appreciated it to some extent the main viewpoint from the documents suggested that they thought of it was a bit demeaning also. Evidence can be found in Document 7, written by an upper-class Roman philospher and adviser which was saying that he did not believe that tools were created by â€Å"wise men† meaning a very developed mind, or someone who was thinking outside the box. He believe like the hammer for instance was created by a simple minded human, though its a very popular tool it was not advanced a tool as it could've been. Han and Romans both used technology for conservation and storage purposes of water in the environment. In Document 1 written by a Han goverment official. He wrote about the most efficent ways to ensure that flooding would be prevented. He thinks everyone should cooperate togther as a team, the high officals should patrol each side of the river and the common people should help in construction and repair. They welcome technology in this way because it will be saving the lives of people. In Document 8 written by a Roman general, governer of Britain, Frontinus, and water commissioner for city of Rome which basically brags about how great and sufficient their water system of distribution and compares it even to the great pyramids using the word ide meaning a waste of time, non functioning. By saying this you could imply how they looked down upon other structures that weren't their own, no matter how great. Saying that their construction is both useful and a marval and ts just something pretty to look at. The Roman empire and Han dynasty both needed technology to be able to help with their agricultural and structure building accuracy. In Document 6 written by Plutarch, Greek-born Roman citizen and high officals describe second-century B. C. E Roman political leader Gaius Gracchus, first century C. E. he is admired for his appliance[->0] of the condtion plan of the grace, beauty, detailed that he put into he design of the columns and the other monuments of Rome. In Document 3: New Discourses written by Hauan Tan an upper-class Han philopsher is saying how a mythological wise emperor Fuxi invented the pestle and mortar after it was imporved it thus notably increased the efficiency in China. These 2 documents show that technology was used profusely and was progressing. Document 2: written bu Huan Guan a han goverment offical, Discourses on Salt and Iron he describes how the salt and iron markets begin to manufacture backwards or useless tools. Previously these tools were quite excellent in quality but now that the state has monopolized the salt and iron trades most of the tools provided are hard to work with. This is a view by the Romans that demonsrtaes the more negative side of technlogy or how they were highly upset and unimpressed with the technology. In Document 5 written but Ciero and upper class political leader On Duty he finds that working in a workshop is not only degrading but he doesn't find it enlightening or in other words he thinks that it's useless. Ciero finds no use for technology, and that may be beacuse of his high placing in society he's not in touch with the world of craftsmen whatsoever so there is of course no use for it to him. Another example of a high class official having a negative view was in 7, like stated before Seneca believed that tools were useless he an adviser to Emperor Nero so that could be a reason why his views were different. The lower ranking people, or commoners can only use tools so that's why I believe that they were so grateful for the technology they were given ot provided with. The upper class people only use the finished poduct they don't know the importance of tools. The Roman and Han both found technoloy very useful and an everyday neccessary. Although the Han viewed the technology verey beneficial for their agriculture and praised the advanced tools and their inventors and well as their own work. The Romans only appreciated the product of technology and its design and craftmeship. Both civilizations technology was very imortant and helped to advance both that can still be seen in China today. [-;0] – /Dictionary/search? q=define+appliance=DTPDIA

Requirement I

G51REQ Coursework 1 REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION REPORT Group: Authors: Muhammad Khidhir Hein Min Htike Ang Rhu Zen Date: 10/11/2011 Part 1 Report Summary The report is about the activities done and observed before, while and after the trip to Zoo Negara. The main activities were deciding where and when to go, making the trip, arriving at the place and doing a visit, returning from the trip and activities after the visit. Initially, we were planning to visit A’ Famosa in Malacca, but it was canceled as Malacca was a big distance away from the campus, and the travelling will take most of our time.After searching on the internet about places to visit in Kuala Lumpur, we decided on visiting Zoo Negara on Saturday, which is much closer compared to Malacca and almost none of us had visited the place yet. On Saturday morning, we met at the SA building and drove to the zoo. Having a driver who knows the routes in Kuala Lumpur, we reached Zoo Negara in about an hour. However, we had a har d time finding parking spots as it was the eve of Hari Raya. In the end, we had to park our car a long distance away from the entrance, but at least we have arrived at the zoo.Inside the zoo, we saw different kinds of animals and there were several centers that function as a sanctuary for famous local birds, reptiles and fish. We collected data by taking pictures and interviewing a few individuals while having a break at one of the train stops. After we went to see the tigers and lions in the Mammal Kingdom, we finally left the zoo from another entrance, which was not far from where we parked. On the way back, we stopped at a Burger King in Damansara for late lunch before heading back to Nottingham. When we got back to our own home s, we saved the pictures hat were taken and started on writing the report. In the end, the problems we had on that trip was based on finding places within the zoo and wasting our time seeing some of the same attractions. Part 2 Approach to requirements el icitation Requirements elicitation is also known as requirements gathering, which is part of the process upon enquiring the requirements of a particular system from users, customers and stakeholders. In other words, it can also be considered as consul tation with the people who are involved in the process as mentioned above.Stages of elicitation include objective setting, background knowledge, knowledge organisation and stakeholder requirements collection. There is various specific approach of requirements elicitation which includes interviewing, soft systems methods, prototyping, scenarios, and requirements reuse and participant observation. These are some of the familiar approach to requirements elicitation. Firstly, the requirements engineer will talk about the system with numbers of stakeholders and boost the understanding of their requirements.Therefore, an interview will be conducted in order to get the necessary information. This can be done in two different ways, either thro ugh closed interviews or open interviews. Closed interviews will be conveyed by looking for answers from a pre-defined number of questions which has been set by the requirements engineer. Unlike closed interviews, open interviews let the requirements engineer to dispute with the stakeholders in an open-ended way about what they want from the system. Interviewers can never approach the interview with disapproving ideas about what is needed and must be open-minded.Besides that, stakeholders must be given an idea about the discussion by requirements proposal or show examples of an existing system. Secondly, scenarios technique is used for elicitation which explains the way a system is being used through stories description. It starts with an introduction of the system before the scenario starts, then the usual flow of events with some exception and information about coexisting activities. At the end of the scenario, a description of the system is being stated. Scenarios describe how a user communicates with a system.Participant observation is observing people at work because they find it difficult to tell what they do because it is normal to them. Moreover, ethnography method also has proved to be precious in understanding actual work processes. An ethnographer can observe people at work and create an image of how work is done. Furthermore, another method in requirements elicitation is requirements reuse. It involves taking a developed system and uses them in different system. These reused requirements have already been checked and validated in other system, thus saves time and effort.But, currently it is an informal process but through this, it could lead to bigger cost savings. By reusing, it could lead to a consistency of pattern through applications. While being at the zoo, we walked throughout the whole area of the zoo to get a better view and some first-hand experience on how things work there. We could see that, the signage doesn’t really give accur ate direction to the place we wanted to go. The signage tells us to go towards the direction they give but in the end we were in a different pathway from the one we were supposed to be at. They should provide a clearer signage for people to understand it better.Additionally, I think there should be more staffs in and around the zoo to explain further information on the kind of animals we are looking at and provide some interesting details on how they eat or the kind of food that they eat and many more. These are the things that they should focus more on, and who wouldn’t like list ening to interesting stories of animals? Likewise, I can also observe the backgrounds of people who were there, so that a wider view can be seen on the people who we can put more focus on. I must say that, most of the visitors were foreigners and only a nu mber of Malaysians were there.This might be because of the past experience they had at the zoo. Therefore, I conducted interviews and ask them a few questions related to the zoo to know exactly what they think of the place and get some opinions and ideas from them. In my opinion, the interview gave us a lot of useful information on what the zoo can improve on and the things that should be maintained for them to get a better experience of the zoo. And hopefully, this will result in an increase in the numbe r of visitors and a better review from everyone Part 3 Practicalities of field study Anonymous1 Nationality: Malaysian Age: 42Gender: Male Race: Malay Date of Birth: 12/05/1979 Occupation: Teacher Location: Ampang Marital Status: Married Anonymous2 Nationality: Malaysian Age: 18 Gender: Male Race: Chinese Date of Birth: 06/12/1993 Occupation: Student Location: Kampung Pandan Marital Status: Single Our group went to the National Zoo for up to almost 6 hours, including the journey of going to the zoo and coming back from the zoo. Later on, we went for a late lunch in Burger King which took us about half an hour to get there a nd left at approximately 30 minutes later. Then, we went back to our campus which took us another 40 minutes.In total, the duration of the whole trip was about 8 hours. There are a few data that we gathered which includes photos, informal interviews and field notes. From the informal interview, we interviewed two different people from completely different background, thus the answer from both of them gave us the idea of how people in their respective age think. When we did an interview with anonymous1, he complained about the number of staffs who were working in the zoo. It results in a poor service and maintenance of the place and also dirty cages and walkways that are fu ll of leaves.In addition, anonymous also complained about the lack of choices when it comes to food. There were only one restaurant inside the zoo and the price of the snacks is more expensive than outside. I think they should provide better facilities all around the zoo and increase the number of restaurants or j ust improve the quality of the restaurant that is inside there. There should be more places where people can sit and r elax in an airconditioning environment especially when time comes noon, it would be very hot in Malaysia nowadays.Other than that, we experienced the bad condition of the toilet where the water were flushing out from the floor and clogged sinks and toile t bowls. This issue should be resolve for it to be a better place. Part 4 Activities observed and their sequential orders The main activities involved in visiting places are finding a place to visit, planning the trip, performing the journey or going to the destination, doing the actual visiting, leaving and returning home, and after visit. The activity of finding a place to visit is composed of not only deciding where to go but also when to go. This activity is closely related to planning the trip.As a product of this activity, we will get a confirmed destination of visit and confirmed time-frame for the visit. The activity of performing journey is the process of actually going to the decided destination. This activity has to be carried out as planne d in the first activity. The product of this activity is that, we actually reach to planned destination. The processes in the activities of doing actual visiting are the processes carried out at the planned place. In our case, the processes like going ar ound and seeing the zoo and conducting the interviews are the processes that form the actual visiting activity.Data for ethnographic analysis can be obtained as the product of this activity. The activity of leaving and returning trip is the processes in volved in returning home from zoo. The product of is that, we get back home. The processes that made up the activity â€Å"after visit† are like transferring the pictures from cameras and writing the report base on the experiences from the above activities. T he products are saved pictures in pc and a report to submit. Sequential order of a ctivities –Deciding and planning the trip Performing Journey Doing the visit Leaving and returningAfter Visit Part 5 Work Practice 1 (Deciding where and when to go and planning the trip) The work of visiting places begins by deciding where to as a group. We sat down in SA and decided where to go by using information from the internet. The first suggestion by Khidhir to choose as a visiting place was â€Å"D-paradise and A’ Famosa in Malacca†. But we the main problem with going to Malacca was the distance from our places. Malacca is 130 km from our place and the driving time to get there is 2 hours with no heavy traffic . The round trip will take approximately 4 and half hours.So, with the time frame we got, we will not have much time to do the actual visiting in Malacca. So, we decided not to go to Malacca and the other option is to visit a place near Kuala Lumpur. We s earched on the internet for places to see in KL. We got 3 options to visit in KL, namely, Bat u Caves, Aquaria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, and Zoo Negara. We chose zoo Negara because two of the group members have not been there and thought it would be int eresting to see Malaysia major zoological park. We decided to go there on Saturday and to depart from Nottingham at around 9am.One of the group members own a car, so we decided to go with his car. Then, we discussed about the time allocation for the trip and what to do during the visit. Zoo Negara is only 43 km from Nottingham and can be reached within an hour drive. So, we will be at the zoo at around 10, and then we planned to do visiting and stay at zoo until after 3 pm because there is animal show at 3 pm. We planned to do some interviews at the zoo for the ethnographic analysis. We also discussed about what should be interview questions and we finally agreed for ten questions which will be stated in â€Å"Work Practice 3†.The products of this activity are that, we have definite idea of where to go and we have a plan for what to do during the trip. Work Practice 2 (Undertaking the journey) We met up on Saturday as planned and went on to have breakfast at the SA building. Then, we departed for zoo at 9:35 am. Khidhir was driving and Rhu Zen took the front seat beside him and Hein Min Htike was at the back seat. The driver knows KL routes insi de out, so, we didn’t need to any work of way-finding. We went to zoo directly except one pit -stop for fuel. It took us 50 minutes to get there and we were at zoo at 10:30.The problem when we reached zoo was that we could not find a parking space easily. Since we visited there on Saturday which was not only normal public but also eve of Hari Raya, there were so many visitors’ cars. We have had to park our car six streets away from entrance. The product of this activity is that, we really reached the zoo. Work Practice 3 (Arriving at the zoo and doing the visit) We took some photos at the entrance and then bought tickets and entered zoo. The ticket price for Malaysian is 20RM and for foreigner is 30RM. We first went to visit the â€Å"hornbill center† where they keep many hornbill species, monkeys and hippopotamus.Then, we visited the â€Å"bee museum†. Bee museum is a Kiosk selling honey and other bee related souvenirs. It also features displays of all the integrated honey industry activities from bee breeding to honey extracting. Then, we went on to see the Indian cows and the bears’ complex. Then, we took the Savannah Walk and saw a variety of African animals like Sable antelopes, Scimatar oryx, giraffes, ostriches, zebras, and white rhinoceroses. At the end of Savannah Walk road, we sat down at train stop 5 to give a rest to our legs and to make some interviews.We firstly interviewed â€Å"Anonymous1† from KL who was there with his family. Khidhir conducted the interview in Malay Language. We then interviewed â€Å"Anonymous2† who also lives in KL and he was there with his fri ends. We will write the main points of those interviews in â€Å"Question and Answer† format to save word count and to avoid repetition. Question: With whom you came here today and how many peop le are there with you? Is there any particular reason to come here? Anonymous1: I am visiting here with my family and there are total of 4 people with me, my wife and my two kids and myself. We are just having our week-end day out.Anonymous2: I am here with my friends and there are total of 5 people in my group. We have not been here for very long time, so we just wanted to see the changes inside the zoo. Question: How did you come here? Was there any problem getting here like parking problem? Anonymous 1: I drove here and there was not any particular problem to get here. We arrived here really early and so, we could manage to find a parking space easily. Anonymous 2: We came here with LRT and taxi. We reached Wangsa Maju station and we took taxi to get here. This place is easily acce ssible and there was no problem to get here.Question: Any comments about the animals in zoo? Anonymous1: Quite a lot of varieties of animals are kept in this zoo and the animals seem happy. Anonymous2: We have been walking around the zoo for only 2 hours and we have been to almost all the places inside the zoo. There are not much interesting animal in here except penguins. I have not seen penguins before. Question: How do you think of animal show available in this zoo? Anonymous1: The animal show at 11 am was quiet good, they spoke in Malay, so my kids could understand very well, and they really enjoyed it. Anonymous2: We arrived here at around 11 am.So we missed the morning show. But we really are not into seeing the animal show as there will be a lot of people at the show. Question: Any comments about staffs? Anonymous1: I didn’t see much of staffs. Only staffs I saw were at the entrances of zoo and aquarium world, and the staffs conducting the animal show. I th ink the num ber of staff is inadequate compare to the size of zoo because the animal cages are dirty and walkways are full of dry leaves and did not see anyone cleaning them. Anonymous2: I have nothing special to say about staffs from here. I rarely see the m inside the zoo.Question: How do you think of food shops and souvenir shops inside zoo? Anonymous1: As things inside the zoo are very expensive and I did not buy anything. Moreover, there is only one restaurant to have lunch or breakfast. Anonymous2: We were just discussing to go and have lunch. There are quite a lot of snack shops, but there is only one restaurant for lunch. I think there should be more restaurants, so that, visitors can choose their favorite meal. And drinks here at the snack shops are slightly expensive than outside. Question: Transportation inside zoo? Did you use it?Anonymous1: We preferred to walk to get closer look at the animals. Anonymous2: We planned to stay here until evening, so we are not in hurry. We decided t o walk around the zoo. Question: How do you describe your overall experience at zoo? Things you like most? Things you like least? Anonymous1: We are having a fun time; especially for my children. It has been a good day out so far. What we liked most is Savannah Walk, which is like a small version of African landscape with the animals roaming freely, especially giraffes. Anonymous2: There is nothing much for adults to do in zoo.For sure, this is not one of our best days out. The good point inside the zoo is the tall, shady trees which provide shade for leisure troll. Things I do not like here are that, animals are kept in very dirty environment. The worst thing is aquarium where you cannot even see the fish clearly because of the dirty water and grubby mirrors. Question: What should be done to improve the overall quality of zoo? Anonymous1: More staffs should be stationed inside the zoo, to p rovide information and interact with visitors. And they should also prioritize the cleanline ss of zoo.Anonymous2: There are so many rooms to improve in this zoo. Zoo maps are available for 2RM, which should be given free to every visitor. The signages ar e not around every corner, and even when you see them, they are not quite clear in their pointing direction. With no free map, and no clear signage, I am pretty sure that, visitors will get lost quite often. Moreover, there are no staffs to be seen inside the zoo to ask information or to ask direction. Another important thing there is that they should focus more on the cleanliness of environment. Everywhere inside the zoo is stinking.The toilets are very dirty. Question: Do you plan to visit the zoo again or would you recommend this to your friends? Any tips to organize a good day out to zoo? Anonymous1: My kids would like to come back here, so we might be coming again like 2, 3 months later. I would definitely recommend this place for a family day out fo r those with small kids. I would advise anyone to bring along their own food and drinks as things inside are twice the price outside. Anonymous2: No, we are not coming back here anytime in the future. And we will never recommend a friend to visit here.As a tip, don’t come here. Even when they come, come here early, to avoid extremely hot temperature inside zoo and to avoid heavy crowd. After the two interviews, we continued our visit inside the zoo. We went to mammal kingdom and then went on to see the tigers and lions. After that lion place, we went inside the reptile house and spent around thirty minutes inside. Then, we went inside bird house where so many species of birds are kept inside different compartments. We then sat bough some cold drink and sat down under the shade for about 15 minutes.Then, we went to see the aquarium world which is very dull and boring place. Fishes inside are nothing much interesting. Then we watched the animal show for a while because there were so many people and we could not see or hear the show very well fr om our place. We then went to penguin house and we have completed visiting the whole zoo. We made our way out from entrance B and found out that it was not far from the street where we parked our car. The products of this activity are that, we could enjoy the zoo, we could manage to finish the interviews and we got data for ethnography.Work Practice 4 (Return and getting home) We left zoo at around 3:50 pm and we drove to Damansara Burger King to have a late lunch. Damansara Burger king was 25 km far from zoo and it took us around 30 minutes to get there. Then, we have had lunch until around 4:50 and then we left for Nottingham University. It took us around 30 minutes to reach school and the distance was around 30 km. Once we reached Nottingham, we parted our ways to our houses. The products of this activity are having lunch, and getting back home. Work Practice 5 (After Visit)When reach our houses, we rested for some time. At night, we copied the pictures from camera memories cards to PCs. And we all started writing the report to submit. The products are the saved pictures and the report. Part 6 The Requirements Problem During our trip, we had a hard time navigating the zoo as we did not bring a map and also there were occasions that we had to use some of the facilities that were not well maintained. Another problem while doing the trip was that we may have missed some of the attractions because we did not have a map in the first place.We decided we need a system to be keeping track of what we had seen, what attractions we may have missed, and because there were not many staff members seen inside the zoo to maintain the facilities, which places to avoid. It should also update the group about any show times inside the zoo and keep a watch handy to check how long we were visiting some of the attractions. As a task scheduling system, it should be able to display some main attractions that we should see within the zoo itself, although the place itself is sm all, and not just simply walk around and attempt to understand what every animal is or does.Any group would definitely get bored walking under the hot sun only to see that the animals are sleeping during the mid-day. It should also be able to sort and notify the user or users of any events or shows that are going to start. That way, the group could plan on which places to visit in the zoo before walking back to see the animal show. This will also prevent the group from rushing around as the zoo has some very odd placement of some of the facilities, including toilets. Besides that, it hould have a mapping system so that it will display the locations of all the main attractions, the bus stops, resting spots and the toilets within the zoo as it was difficult to find a sign with the entire map of the zoo easily and therefore avoid wasting time going rounds inside the zoo. Other than that, because there were many places that had the same attractions, which eventually made one of our group mem bers bored, the ta sk scheduling system should also have a notepad for any individual in the group to write their own comments about the zoo.This is to avoid having to see the same attraction under the very hot sun the next time he visits the zoo. Lastly, for any group members who were not familiar with the animals and find the description beside the animal cages confuse them even further, there should be a translator or encyclopedia to make it more understandable. It will also help other tourists who were busy looking for directions from us as they could not read some of the signs.