Breathe Right Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Breathe Right - Case Study Example With the expansion of the market, this means that the company had to modify its drugs to meet the various requirements of the foreign markets. Secondly, the company experienced increased growth. The growth was because of the company having new markets. They therefore, had to grow in large numbers and launch new branches in the different countries. This means that the company had to employ more people to work on its newfound market. A third advantage is the increased consumer awareness of CNS products. When new products were introduced in the new markets, more consumers were eager to know what the products were about and the different curative effects that the products had. Through advertising for these products in media stations, it helped increase consumer awareness of CNS products. This in turn attracted more consumers who buy the drugs either as a prescription or over the counter. Additionally, the company benefited from the increased sales. When the company decided to go global, it increased its sales volume by a large percentage. This was because of the increased demand of its product. An increase in sales means that there was an increase in sales revenue too. This means that there was increase in the amount that the company was able to transact in a day. More notably, the company benefited from the newly gained local partnership in the various countries where it expanded. Moreover, the company benefited from an increase in profits, which enabled it to expand. However, the company faced some disadvantages. These include the increased operational cost. The company had to increase the amount of money that it spends in order to maintain the new operations at the various places where it expanded. Secondly, some consumers bought the drugs over the counter without the right prescriptions. This was jeopardizing the existence of the CNC Company in that it was at a risk of being sued for selling its

Performance - Dance Essay Example for Free

Performance Dance Essay This evaluative essay will explore why the dance piece â€Å"Twilight† choreographed by Sarah Boulter and performed by Grace, Jessie, Heath and Nick, should be chosen in the Empire Theatre â€Å"Youth Arts Showcase†. This piece is an outstanding example of contemporary dance and by far the perfect choice for the showcase, as it clearly follows the selected criteria given by the committee. These are that it clearly exhibits the characteristics of contemporary dance, has a clear intention and is extremely entertaining to watch. The characteristics of contemporary dance are clearly evident in the performance of â€Å"Twilight†. One evident characteristic in this piece is the use of Gravity (Rise and Fall) which is shown in a lot of movements. This is identified when each male lifts his female partner of the ground and the female performs a high kick into a split position, then back up again. In extension to this, flexed feet movements are included and shown when at the very start of the dance all four of the dancers perform their own movements/mini sequence for about 8 seconds in the middle of the stage, facing towards the audience. Movements include leaps, high kicks, jumps and tumbling. Finally the dancers perform movements in parallel, which are seen when they position themselves in a diamond shape in the centre of the stage, facing the audience and perform the same energetic and percussive running, lifting and leaping movements at the same time, across the stage at high and medium level. Sarah Boulter’s dance sequence â€Å"Twilight† clearly tells the story of 4 vampires that are in battle. This is shown through the female’s short, dark, ripped dresses and the male’s long black, ripped capes and pants. It is also highlighted by the fast, upbeat and loud tempo in the music as well as the lyrics â€Å"We will be Victorious†, which reveal that they are fighting and will win. The intention of the dance piece was also shown through the movement elements. The 4 dancers begin walking down a flight of stairs into a horizontal line, facing the audience. Each dancer then breaks into an individual routine, showing their â€Å"battle moves†. In addition to this, the dancers are also seen running around the stage in a circular formation, then breaking into a straddle leap across the stage, onto the ground. Finally, at the end of the dance all 4 dancers are seen in a different pose, then all dropping to the ground. This shows that they had either been defeated or were â€Å"worn out† and tired. After reading the above statements the intention has clearly been successfully conveyed to the audience in both a exiting and ingenious manner. In my opinion â€Å"Twilight† was both an entertaining and creative dance piece to watch. This is achievable by including the amazing use of many lifts, jumps and varied floor patterns. The choreographer also included a lot of movement elements that the dancers did in unison. An example of lifts was when all dancers were in a square shape, and then the 2 females and 2 males branched off into couples. Each couple were then seen to do a lift, down into side splits then up again. Another great element in this piece was the veritable use of jumps and leaps. This was seen at the start of the dance, when all of the dancers bunched up together and one of the females stood up on both of the males backs, jumped up and then landed on the males, they then all collapsed to the ground. Finally the various floor patterns showed many outstanding shapes and levels, which was seen when each dancer ran round the stage and zigzagged through each other. Consequently it is extremely clear that this dance piece is amazingly entertaining and creative to watch. In conclusion, I believe that it is extremely clear that the dance piece â€Å"Twilight† choreographed by Sarah Boulter and danced by Grace, Jesse, Nick and Heath should be included in the Empire Theatres Youth Arts Showcase. This piece should be chosen as it clearly addresses the selected criteria supplied by the committee. The characteristics of contemporary dance are clearly highlighted through the use of Flexed Feet, Gravity (Rise and Fall) and Parallel Movements. These can be seen when the dancers perform movements on different levels, as well as the use of energetic running in parallel and suspended leaps and lifts with flexed feet. The intention of the dance was clearly conveyed through the costumes which showed their characters. Finally the dance was amazingly entertaining to watch. The use of exciting level, directions and floor patterns kept the audience entertained and intrigued, so did the marvellous performance skills of the dancers. Consequently it is clear that this dance piece is the perfect choice for the showcase and therefore should be chosen.

Different Forms Of People Management Commerce Essay

Different Forms Of People Management Commerce Essay At the end of the nineteenth century many workers were employed in the manufacturing sectors, where they had to put in long hours and conditions were often harsh. The welfare state did not exist and no work could mean destitution. However, even in such unenlightened times some employers did value their workers and took on a paternalist role for their employees. Such famous names as Cadbury, Rowntree and Bournville, all chocolate manufacturers, and Lever, a soap manufacturer, all took their employees` welfare very seriously and established the provision of health and education as part of their role as a responsible employer. These enlightened employers tended to be Quakers and were some of the first employers to employ welfare officers. The welfare officers were often women and were concerned not only with visiting sick employees but also with supervising moral welfare. We will take an overview of the state of debate. THE STATE OF DEBATE The question of whether human resource management has the capacity to transform or replace deeply rooted models of personnel management and industrial relations, or could become fully worked-through theory of management, is one that cannot be answered in a simple manner. Human resource management has many cogent critics and many sceptical supporters. Initial criticism which claimed that it was `old wine new bottles` ,the restatement perspective outlined earlier in this chapter, still has strong adherents (Keenoy and Anthony, 1993). Others see it as a version of `the emperor`s new clothes` (Legge, 1989) or a `wolf sheep`s clothing` (Armstrong, 1987) The 1990s have seen a growing sophistication in the nature of the debate involving HRM. One very strong characteristic is the desire on the part of a number of commentators to explore the consequences of implementing HRM techniques for organizations. Thus the nature of the argument now strongly incorporates the concept of HRM outcomes rather than relying largely on descriptions of styles or types of HRM philosophies. Part of this development has been promoted by the realisation that traditional sources of competitive advantage, such as technological supremacy, patents, capital and so forth, are very much less important than they were in a world in which many countries can display equal advantage in at least some of these critical aspects (Pfeffer, 1994). Thus the extent to which an organization can mobilise is internal human resources may hold the key to achievable advantage in the future (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The general managerial epithet that `people are our greatest asset` is a tried clichÃÆ' ©; what distinguishes the most recent work is its focus on the recourse based model of HRM and the particular mix ofskills and attributes that can be developed and applied to economic performance. Thus Huselid (1995) has argued that high performance work practices have an economically and statically significant impact on such employee outcomes as turnover and productivity and both short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. In my opinion is, the importance of HRM as rhetoric that speaks to the concerns of a wide range of stakeholder groups-personnel and line managers, government and academics-should not be underestimated. We will take an overview of the chances in external environmental factors and HR practices and strategies. CHANGE-MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES These are required if organizations are to be effective in developing an innovative and fast moving organisation that keep up with the fast pace of development in a modern society. Organizations need to be adaptable and flexible, which means that policies and objectives need to be place to manage change. Many of the IT industryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s need to be adaptable and fast changing to keep up with changes in modern technology. For example, Apple Computers` market share was in decline due to monopoly of the Microsoft windows operating system, but it has reinvented itself with the iPod, and is now leading the way in music technology. Without change management objectives Apple would have found it much harder to respond to rapid changes. For this reason the recruitment, selection and development strategies all need to feed into the change management objectives. Policy formulation and management of change This means using HR policy to identify and manage change in a business environment. This extends from Harward model, which has not identified change effectively to ensure competitiveness. Apple Computers managed to develop the iPod and gain competitive advantage by having policies for managing innovation and change. Nevertheless, these assumptions inform the practices and policies of management, and hence define the organizational and conceptual space that HRM fills and generate the multiple meanings of which HRM is constructed. We shall examine some of them in greater detail shortly. Competing interpretations of organisations and management When we stand back from the concrete world of managing to that of theories about organizations and management, we find that not only have very different interpretations been made overtime, but there exist simultaneously several strongly competing interpretations. Again, we can only skim over this material, but u can pursue the issues by reading, for example, Child (1969), who traces the development of management trough in Britain or Morgan (1986), who examines in a very accessible way eight different metaphors or ways that theorists as well as others have construed organisations. Brunsson (1989) throws a different light on the nature and goals of organising, based on his research in Scandinavian municipal administrations. He suggest that the outputs of these kinds of organizations are `talk, decision and physical products`. He proposes two ideal types of organization that depends on action for its legitimacy. Talk and decisions in the action organization lead to actions, whereas the outputs of the political organization are talk and decisions that may not lead to action. Having now examined some of the choices managers make to deal with the tensions within organizations and some of the competing interpretations offered by theorist of those tensions and choices, we need to stepback even further to become aware of the ways of thinking and of seeing that inform their assumptions. First, however, we shall examine the next layer of the context of HRM. THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN RECOURCE MANAGEMENT Human resource management cannot take place in isolation from the internal organization or the external environment where the political, economic, societal, technological and international context can have an impact on how the organization operates and how HRM is managed within that context. The context (the external and internal environment within which HR operates) within which HR takes place will impact on organizational polices and have implications for the functions of HR. this has been highlighted earlier in the example of the Beardmore conference Hotel, whose flexible benefits reflected the local society and culture as well as the economic environment, where managers recognised the need to attract and retain staff at that time. Context has many layers, which build up to impact on how the organization does business. THE ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT To operate successfully the organization needs to ask itself the following questions. What business are we in? How can we carry out our business to be as effective as possible and to meet out stakeholders`(identifiable clusters of people who have an economic and/or social interest in the performance of an organization) needs? The organizational context is also influenced by external context; it interacts with its environment and this in turn impacts on HR. for this reason, HR practices need to be designed to reflect the organizational context. However, in a fast-changing working environment this is often difficult to achieve: new technologies are developed, governments and attitudes change policy will, in turn, inform practice but needs to be flexible enough to respond to the influences of the external environment. For example, changes in practise, which in theory has meant a reduction in working hours for some workers. The approaches adopted by managers to resolve the tensions in organizations; The existence of several stakeholders in the employment relationship; Their differing perspectives upon events, experiences and relationships; Their differing aims, interest and needs; The interplay between formal organization and individual potential. These tensions have to be resolved through the process of management, or rather, continuously resolved, for these tensions are inherent in organizations. THE EXTERNAL CONTEXT The external environment influences the external context of the organization. An organization would not be effective if it ignored the external context of politics, economics, society and technology. In London and the south-east of England, there is a shortage of key workers, such as nurses and teachers, and many workers have been employed from abroad to fill the vacancies. For organizations, this means a review of policies to ensure that new workers` needs are considered. On a practical side, new aspect of training may have to be delivered to meet language needs. To do this an organization needs to operate as an open system (system influenced by the external environment and inputs, making it complex and difficult to control), which can change to meet the needs of its external environment. The political context The political context not only refers to the type of government in power at the time, but also, whether the country is democratic or not. In UK the political context changes depending on which political party is in power. In the past, the conservative government has tended to favour the employer over the employee; an example of this was the removal of the minimum wage. Traditional labour governments have focused on the employee and have had close links with the unions. With new labour the lines have become somewhat blurred: although they have reintroduced the minimum wage, they have also formed close links with industry by encouraging public/private partnerships. With every change of government the HR practitioner needs to identify the impact on the organisation and the HR department. The economic context The economic context refers to health of the nation. If business is booming and unemployment is low, it may be harder to find and retain staff. In times of economic decline, unemployment increases and greater choice of labour is available to the employer. However economic decline may also mean that your organisation has to downsize and HR department will than face the dilemma of dealing with redundancies. An organization may also need to answer to shareholders, who expect to see a healthy return on their investment. For the HR professional this could mean developing operations overseas where labour is cheaper, such as prudential moving its call centres to India. It may also mean outsourcing some or all of the functions of HR, as the organization pursues its competitive advantage. An example of outsourcing is discussed in the technology transformation box. The social context the social context refers to the culture, politics ,leadership and management style that influence the organization. An HR manager must be able to identify the culture within which the organization operates. This means he or she needs to recognise and understand the values the organization is trying to promote. However, they also need to understand the culture and society from which their employees are recruited. An HR manager should not underestimate the importance of the social context of business as, in many instances. Businesses have foundered due to a lack of understanding of the culture. Examples are Euro Disney Paris, whose lack of understanding of European culture and its failure to embrace all things American had a serious impact on business. Or, Wal-Mart in Argentina, which failed to understand how the argentines liked to shop, and could not understand why business was not booming in its bright and shiny new supermarkets. CONCLUSIONS HR goes in to decline-outsourcing and downsizing has removed the HR specialist from organisations and placed the HR role with the overworked line manager. The HR function will be closely integrated in to the vision and strategy of the organization and it will continue as it has done in the past, due to the limitations of labour markets, unions, legislation, etc. this implies that it stands still and does not develop. Whatever the view of HR and how it develops in the future, it is important to understand where it has come from and what has influenced it.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Years ago there was a traveler who came upon an old-fashioned pump from which he would have to pump the handle in order to retrieve the water. Beside the pump there was a pitcher full of water, and on the pump there was a sign. The sign instructions were to prime the pump with the water in the pitcher, pump the water for use, and then refill the pitcher. The thirsty man looked at the pitcher, the pump and the sign. He thought to himself, "If I pour this water down the pump, and it doesn't work, I will have no water to drink and it will be wasted. But, if I drink the water, I will be satisfied, but the next traveler will have nothing. We as graduates are like this traveler and we have decisions to make. We have the potential to be contributing members of society -- we are the doctors, nurses, farmers, servicemen and pastors of tomorrow. We can use the water in the pitcher that is like the education and resources this country has given us, and we can prime the pump for others, providing them with the opportunities that we have already been given. We can give back to society with our...

Webster Case

The case suggests that the performance evaluation data (PAS, personnel audit, and the impressions and opinions of the group members) had several problems. From the perspective of the decision-making biases, analyze how the characteristics of the performance data were likely to affect the decisions made by the Carter group. In your analysis, cite specific problems with the data and how they relate to the decision-making biases that we discussed in class.PAS†¢Loss aversion: Webster had a culture that promoted employee loyalty at all costs. â€Å"In more than one instance, Webster had kept an employee long after alcoholism had impaired his or her effectiveness, primarily because of top management’s feeling that the person had no other place to go.† This culture affected the type of feedback granted in the PAS process and skewed the data to show better employee performance on the evaluations than Webster was actually experiencing.†¢Illusion of transparency: Take R ay Pearson as an example, â€Å"Though is performance had been unsatisfactory for at least the last 10 years, he was not given any negative feedback unit the fall of 1974.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Anchoring: Webster rank and file suffered from anchoring in the inflated results of their evaluations. Imagine how Ray Pearson’s would have assessed himself he were not overconfident in his performance (which, unfortunately for Ray, was likely a result of his managers’ unwillingness to give truthful feedback).†¢Sampling on the dependent variable: the participation in the PAS evaluation process is poor at best. It could be possible that – notwithstanding the transparency issues – only the good performers submitted evaluations and the poor performers avoided the process altogether.Personnel audit†¢Illusion of transparency bias: while the audit doesn’t create this bias, Jack Bryant’s process fails to effectively resolve discrepancies between a subordin ate’s perceptions of her performance and her manager’s evaluation of performance.Group opinions†¢Confirmation bias: Again, the group has been immersed in a culture that prioritizes years of service over performance. Cecil Stevens leads the discussion with using seniority as the first criteria to make separation decisions. The group likely confronted confirmation bias towards weighting that criterion more heavily when weighting the other criteria (e.g. performance, potential, etc.).†¢Escalation of commitment: Take for example the counter-intuitive message given to Bob Carter by Ike Davis (superior). â€Å"These men have too much service to be treated as you have proposed.† It seems to me that despite Carter’s reasoned desire to demote individuals, the organization â€Å"doubled-down† on its message of loyalty as the most important consideration in making personnel decisions.

Quantitative Research Paper Essay

Quantitative research includes classification of certain features, calculations and construction of statistical models that can describe these features. In contrast, qualitative research is more focused on description of features excluding statistical descriptions. In quantitative research, data are summarized in the form of verbal descriptions or graphical representations. On the contrary, in qualitative research they appear in statistical tables, graphs, or charts. The researcher is more likely to use qualitative research in the earlier phases of the research project when one is looking for ideas to be later explored in depth within a quantitative framework. The processing of data in quantitative research is more likely to include a subjective component than in the other type. As a result, the results of quantitative research can often mix the context of the study but provide enough material to evaluate a certain hypothesis. A literature review should be compiled in order to answer a specific question or gather data to evaluate a hypothesis. The researcher should define the type of literature one wants to use as well as the scope of information to be used in the research. The sources used should be appropriate for the topic. Depending on the type of research, the sources should be predominantly or only peer-reviewed academic publications relevant to the explored question or field of study. The publications used in literature review should be critically evaluated by the reviewer. It is also important to organize the literature review in a coherent manner so that it is divided into understandable units. An explanation of how this or that topic fits into the research framework should be provided. The synthesis of material should provide adequate background for the topic under research. Conceptualization and operationalization form two pillars of science as these two methods allow researchers to use concepts that are the foundation of human exploration of the universe. By grouping objects into categories called concepts and developing practical ways of measuring these concepts through operationalization, researchers can explore a variety of objects, phenomena and situations. Theories need to be formulated with the help of specific concepts. Here conceptualization plays a crucial role, permitting scholars to define classes that will be described by this or that concept.   Conceptualization creates a concept that can be defined in all complexity of relationships and serve as common ground for exploration of an object or phenomenon by different researchers. Operationalization allows practical application of concepts, permitting their measurement through concrete observations. Each science seeks to define its conceptual apparatus through specific observations. As a result of this quest, â€Å"to operationally define basic concepts has now become central to all sciences† (Wikipedia, 2006). The article â€Å"Money, money, money: an exploratory study on the financial literacy of Black college students† by Angela J. Murphy that appeared in the September 2005 issue of College Student Journal investigates â€Å"the influence of race, gender, age, major and parental educational level on the financial knowledge of undergraduate students attending a predominantly Black institution†. The researcher has identified a strikingly low level of financial literacy among such students. Age and major were found to have less influence, while parental education and major had more impact. One research question can be formulated as â€Å"Does age have an influence on financial literacy of Black college students?†. Another one is â€Å"Does major have an influence on financial literacy of Black college students?†. Independent variables included race, gender, parental education, and age. The dependent variable was the financial literacy in certain areas including â€Å"the topics of income taxes, credit consigning, short term savings, investing for retirement, social security, future college costs and home ownership† (Murphy, 2005). The research used surveys. The method is justified because it permitted researchers to have structured, generalizable results that could be analysed with statistical methods. The survey also allowed people to ask a broad range of students attending various institutions. Mail survey and personal interview are similar in the first place because they test personal attitudes of people toward a subject or phenomenon. Both involve respondents with their individual differences, cultural background, demographic situation that influence the research. The difference lies first of all in the procedure: personal interview involves face-to-face contact whereas a mail survey envisages written communication. Consequently, an interview is more personal, while a mail survey presupposes less personal interaction between the researcher and the respondent. In organizational behavior investigation, a personal interview is more subjective because the participant will be influenced by personal perception of the researcher, possible positive or negative associations, etc. A mail survey, on the contrary, will be free from these limitations. The downside, however, is the frequently low rate of response that is often accountable for bias in answers. A more personal interaction can create more opportunities for the researcher to probe the topic with open-ended questions and find out the opinion of the interviewee with more detail. In addition, if the interviewee finds certain questions ambiguous, he or she can clarify details with the scientist, while this opportunity is absent in the case of a mail survey. To investigate the question of trust, a personal interview is preferable. First, it is considered â€Å"the most reliable method of data collection, especially when attitudinal behavior is of concern† (Pennsylvania Department of Health, 2001). Especially when executives are targeted, the time consumed in filling out a mail survey may become a factor that will discourage most of the targeted public from answering. The choice can be constrained by the budget, as personal interviews are traditionally considered the most expensive research method. In an experiment, the researcher is trying to answer a question performing certain actions that will test the validity of a hypothesis. In a focus group, the researcher is typically trying to explore a broad range of issues. As such, a focus group is called upon to conduct a discussion using prepared question rather than answer a specific question. Besides, the results from a focus group will be less rigidly defined and will require more scholarly interpretation whereas the experiment should deliver a more specific answer to the question. The advantage of focus groups is the open-ended nature of the research that opens possibilities for participants to air their views on many important subjects and share opinions. Besides, it is more personal and allows for greater consideration of individual differences, as â€Å"interaction also enables participants to ask questions of each other, as well as to re-evaluate and reconsider their own understandings of their specific experiences† (Gibbs, 1997). However, a focus group can be practically difficult to organize, involves participants coming from different cultures that can contribute to bias. Besides, these groups offer less predictable results as â€Å"researcher, or moderator, for example, has less control over the data produced† than in other methods (Gibbs, 1997). An experiment, on the other hand, provides for a greater degree of control, especially in controlled experiments, which makes the data more adapted to generalization. However, there is a possibility that participants will behave in controlled environments differently than they would under typically circumstances. An example of research question that can be tested through a focus group is â€Å"What qualities of â€Å"Dove† soap brand make it appealing to consumers?† A focus group would allow participants to share views on the subject with a relatively large degree of freedom so that new, unexpected answers can come up. A question to be tested with an experiment can be â€Å"Do people buy Mercedes cars for quality or prestige?† This question can be answered in an experiment since here one can identify dependent and independent variables and develop a statistical apparatus to answer the question. References Gibbs, A. (1997, Winter). Focus Groups. Social Research Update. Retrieved July 2, 2006, from http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU19.html Murphy. A.J. (2005, September). Money, money, money: an exploratory study on the financial literacy of Black college students. College Student Journal. Retrieved July 2, 2006, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_3_39/ai_n15384395 Pennsylvania Department of Health. (2001). Health Statistics – Technical Assistance Tools of the Trade. Retrieved July 2, 2006, from http://www.health.state.pa.us/hpa/stats/techassist/surveytypes.htm Wikipedia. (2006). Operationalization. Retrieved July 2, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operationalization