Literary Analysis of the novel Enders Game Essay

Literary Analysis of the novel Enders Game - Essay Example This essay analyzes the heroic evolution of Ender Wiggin and how he successfully meets the criteria of an American monomyth. In Ender’s Game, the readers are firstly made aware of Andrew Wiggin’s character, particularly the strange story of his birth. Andrew Wiggin is labeled ‘Third’, because he is a third child in a civilization that imposes harsh punishments on parents who have more than two offspring. Especially strange was the fact that his birth was ordered by an oppressive, authoritarian regime, triggering the cause-and-effect waves of remorse arising from his former-Mormon mother and former-Catholic father, who feel in Ender the guilt of violating their public oath not to bear more than two offspring, and their intense buried desire to â€Å"multiply and replenish the earth† (Collings 102). The actual existence of Ender is ironically a continuous condemnation of their inability to live in accordance to the rules of their society and a continuous mental note of the deterioration of their religion. Ender is secluded and reserved from the very start. He should have not existed, but he did. The story’s action starts toward the finale of the second phase of Ender’s evolution. He has put on the monitor and was discovered deserving of the state’s involvement in and postponement of its rulings with regard to thirds. At this time, all of a sudden, he is shoved into a new dilemma. The monitor is taken away, and he should show his capacity to work—indeed to survive—without any way out. Repeatedly, all through the story, Card mentions this theme as Ender successfully grasps something about every new scenario and is, therefore and instantly, presented to new, more difficult test, that consequently necessitate new, more advanced insight (Spinrad 159). The method of repetition is vital in the story, because the author handles the American monomyth with intricacy and richness; nowhere does Card merely depend on it for a direct

It dont matter Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

It dont matter - Article Example Hippocratic Database (HDB) which is composed of different technologies with the capacity to store medical information to change the system from manual and paper-based to computer-based systems. This can attributed to the fact that modern and computerized systems and infrastructures are deemed to have less medical errors, lower costs and ultimately more improved patient care. The HDB is the answer to the vision of PITAC in the provision of health information infrastructure that can be made available to health professionals nationwide to be able to improve the level of health care knowledge since there is a single collection of clinical and empirical data important for decision making support. The said system can be accessible for data entry and data retrieval. The said system can be considered highly applicable and practical but there are different concerns, one of which is the security of the information stored within the HDB (Agrawal, Grandison, Johnson, and Keirnan, 2007, p.36). There is a built-in policy-based privacy management feature of the HDB referred to as the Active Enforcement to answer the concerns regarding the secured state of the health care data stored in the system. The said feature which is also referred to as AE is an ‘agnostic middle ware solution for privacy and security needs.’ Basically the application of the said feature is situated in the system to gauge and to filter the input and output of data based on the governing policies which are based on the preferences of the patients and the applicable laws (p. 36). Strengths of the HDB AE include general methodology for handling and codifying policy and preference information, transparency of policy enforcement to enterprise applications, being agnostic to underlying database technology and improvement of query processing speed (p.37). The study by Agrawal and colleagues presented numerous capabilities of the HDB such as enforcement of privacy policies at database level, efficient

Malignant Hyperthermia Treatment Case Study

Malignant Hyperthermia Treatment Case Study In this scenario, there is a 35 year old female patient who develops malignant hyperthermia during surgery. Malignant hyperthermia is an uncommon pharmacogeneric disorder that leads to the hypermetabolic reactions of the skeletal muscle. [Ben Abraham, et al, 1998, Britt, 1985, Hopkins, 2008]. Age, type of anesthetic, environmental temperature, mitigating drugs administered simultaneously and degree of stress play an important role in triggering malignant hyperthermia. [Ording, 1985]. Primarily, potent inhalation anesthetic agents and depolarizing muscle relaxants such as succinylcholine are the major triggering factor amongst all the triggering factors. Malignant hyperthermia can happen at any time during surgery especially after the induction of the anesthetic and in the early postoperative period. Besides that, there is a tendency of the recurrent of malignant hyperthermia as well. Even though hypermetabolic reaction of skeletal muscle will cause hyperthermia and rhabdomyolysis but fever is not the earliest symptom of malignant hyperthermia. The earliest signs and symptoms of malignant hyperthermia are increase in the end-expired carbon dioxide concentration (EtCO2), tachycardia and muscle rigidity (especially when succinylcholine is given). [Britt, 1985]. Furthermore, the late sign of malignant hyperthermia is elevation of the body temperature. [Ali et al, 2003; Britt,1985].The other signs and symptoms are unstable blood pressure, tachypnea, hyperkalemia and arrhythmia. According to Hogan, 1998 the estimated incidence of malignant hyperthermia during anesthesia in North America and Europe is 1:15000 anesthetics for children and adolescents and 1:50000- 1:150000 anesthetics for adults. [Hogan, 1998].All ethnic groups are affected with malignant hyperthermia and males are more prone to be affected compared to female. [Britt, 1976; Hopkins, 2008]. The mortality was around 80% thirty years ago and has been reduced to less than 10% with the introduction of the muscle relaxant dantrolene sodium, widespread education and clinical and research investigation. [Ali, 2003; MacLennan, 1990] Malignant hyperthermia is an inherited disorder where the calcium channel that mediates the excitation contraction coupling in skeletal muscle is mutated. As a result, the calcium channel is very sensitive to the anesthetic agents [Hopkins, 2008]. This will lead to the uncontrolled release of cytoplasmic calcium from the sarcroplasmic reticulum upon the induction of anesthetic agents [Hopkins, 2008; Rosenberg et al. 2004]. As a matter of fact, there is a continued interaction between actin and myosin with sustained muscle contraction [Hopkins, 2008; Rosenberg et al. 2004]. The manifestation of the signs and symptoms of malignant hyperthermia can be explained by the increased release of the calcium. At first, this mechanism is compensated by the resequestion of calcium, which has lead to the breakdown of the adenosine trisphosphate (ATP) [Hopkins, 2008; Rosenberg et al. 2004]. This will cause the stimulation of the metabolism and results in increased oxygen consumption, heat and carbo n dioxide production. The breakdown of the ATP causes the release of the potassium into the extracellular fluid results in hyperkalemia and this will lead to the development of cardiac arrhythmias. Besides that, the continuous contraction of the skeletal muscle due to the breakdown of the ATP will lead to the further production of heat. As a result, there will be a further increase of oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide and lactic acid production, which, will lead to metabolic acidosis [Britt, 1985; Hopkins, 2008; Rosenberg et al. 2004]. In addition, the increase of the production of heat will also increase the contractility of the skeletal muscle hence further worsening the rhabdomyolysis process. If malignant hyperthermia is untreated, it might lead to vital organ dysfunction, acute renal failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation, congestive heart failure and even death. In this scenario, since the patient developed malignant hyperthermia during surgery, thereby the management of malignant hyperthermia can be divided into emergency treatment and postoperative treatment. When there is an acute development of malignant hyperthermia during surgery, all triggering agents have to be discontinued and the patient has to be hyperventilated with 100% oxygen to lower the end tidal CO2 immediately. This is followed by administration of 2.5mg/kg dantrolene sodium intravenously every 5 minute until the signs and symptoms of malignant hyperthermia are under controlled. [Morgan et al. 2006]. The dose of dantrolene can be titrated up to 10mg/kg. [Gronert et al., 1976; Harrison, 1988]. The monitoring of blood gases, all serum electrolytes, muscle enzyme such as cretine kinase, clotting profile, blood and urine for myoglobin, blood glucose, lactate and urea nitrogen must be carried out frequently during the surgery. Sodium bicarbonate should be given to correct the me tabolic acidosis to the normal level. In addition, patient has to be closed monitored and anti-arrhythmic except calcium channel blocker can be given for arrhythmias. Cooling measures have to be initiated if there is the present of hyperthermia. Ice packs to groin, axilla, and neck, cooling blanket, and nasogastric lavage with iced solution can be used to cooling down the patient. The cooling measures have to be stop if the body temperature is at 38.5oC. In order to treat myoglobinaemia and thus acute prevent renal failure urine output and urine pH should be greater than 3ml/kg/h and pH7 respectively. [Hopkins, 2008]. This diuresis can be achieved by hydrating the patient with crystalloid solutions together with mannitol (0.3g/kg) and furosemide (0.5-1.0mg/kg). [Hopkins, 2008; Mary, 1998]. Hyperkalaemia which is life threatening can be treated with glucose, insulin, intravenous calcium and intravenous potassium chloride. [Britt, 1979; Hopkins, 2008]. Once the surgery is finished, the patient has to be moved to intensive care unit or recovery room until malignant hyperthermia is under controlled and the patient should be monitored closely. Since it is possible for the recrudescence of malignant hyperthermia, dantrolene should be continued giving to patient for at least 48 hours. [Flewellen, 1983; Rosenberg, 2004]. Several laboratory tests such as blood gases, electrolytes, coagulation profile, muscle enzyme, blood and urine for myoglobin should be assessed more frequently. [Hopkin, 2008]. At first, besides dantrolene, procainamide/ procaine was recommended to treat malignant hyperthermia. The use of procainamide/ procaine was due to the successful studies carried out by Harrison, 1971, Denborough, 1972 and Noble, 1973. The study carried out by Harrison, 1971 showed a successful treatment of malignant hyperthermia with large dose of intravenous procaine in 2 out of 5 Landrace pigs. However, the study from Gronert, 1976 showed that the recommendation dose of procaine/ procainamide was ineffective in preventing malignant hyperthermia of the 20 susceptible pigs. Study compared the effectiveness of dantrolene and procainamide conducted by Nelson, 1979 showed that procainamide did not block the contracture response to halothane and it is ineffective for therapeutic and as prophylaxis of malignant hyperthermia. Procainamide or procaine was not been used after all. Harrison, 1975 demonstrated that dantrolene can relax muscle rigor in pigs with malignant hyperthermia and ceased the excessive heat and acid production. The study showed 100% survival rate in the last seven of eight experiments. Besides that, based on Britt, 1984 that 79 patients who received dantrolene therapy showed a significant 16.56% reduction in mortally (p Dantrolene is now the only known therapeutic agent used to treat malignant hyperthermia. Dantrolene is a diphenylhydantoin derivative that is highly lipid soluble but poorly water soluble. [PMJ GG Harrison]. Dantrolene can be administered by oral route or intravenous route. Roughly, 70% of dantrolene is absorbed with the peak plasma concentration reached in 6 hours following the ingestion of dantrolene by mouth. From the experiment performed by Harrison 1975, oral dantrolene was effective in treating procaine malignant hyperthermia. Nevertheless, there is a great variation in the plasma concentration for the oral dantrolene especially in children. Dantrolene is formulated as lyophilized orange powder, which comprises of dantrolene sodium, mannitol and sodium chloride. These contents are dissolved in water to yield a solution with the pH of 9.5 for intravenous injection. Moreover, the additional of the mannitol is to improve the solubility since dantrolene is poorly water soluble and mannitol also acts as diuresis, which prevent the deleterious effects of myoglobinaemia. The biological elimination half life of dantrolene is 12 hours. As a result, after 12 hours the plasma concentration of dantrolene will be 4.2ÂÂÂ µg/ml with the administration of 2.4mg/kg body weight of dantrolene intravenously. [Allen et al, 1988; Muehlschlegel Sims, 2009]. Dantrolene is mainly metabolized in the liver through oxidation and reduction reaction. Oxidation and reduction of the dantrolene result in the production 5-hydroxydantrolene and aminodantrolene respectively. Aminodantrolene will then undergo acetylation leads to the formation of reduced acetylated derivative of dantrolene. The metabolites of the dantrolene are excreted in urine and bile with 79% of 5-hydroxydantrolene, 17% reduced acetylated derivative of dantrolene and 4% of the dose is excreted unchanged in the urine. [Dykes, 1975; Lietman et al, 1974]. Moreover, it has been stated that the metabolites of dantr olene especially 5-hydroxydantrolene has some muscle relaxant activity. [Ellis Wessels, 1978; Ali et al, 2003]. According to Malignant Hyperthermia Association (MHAUS) the recommended dosage of dantrolene is approximately 2-3mg/kg. [Schulte-Sasse]. It had been stated by Flewellen Nelson 1980 that, 95% of the skeletal muscle of swine was depressed with the administration of 3.5mg/kg dantrolene intravenously. In addition, clinical study showed that administration of 2.4mg/kg of dantrole intravenously was able to depress 75% of the skeletal muscle in human. [Flewellen et al., 1983]. The dose was proved to be effective in the treatment of malignant hyperthermia.[ Hall et al, 1980; Kolb et al, 1982]. Thus, for acute malignant hyperthermia crisis, 2.4mg/kg of intravenous dantrolene is effective in life-saving of treating malignant hyperthermia. [Harrison 1988; Allen et al. 1988; Flewellen et al., 1983]. The single dose of oral dantrolene that is currently given to patient is 1-2mg/kg four times a day.[ Pandit et al, 1979; Fitzgibbons, 1981]. However, it was found that this recommended dose of oral d antrolene was not effective in preventing malignant hyperthermia in human. [Fitzgibbons, 1981; Flewellen et al, 1983]. Administration of oral dantrolene has been recommended before the operation and after the malignant hyperthermia crisis to prevent the recrudescence. Besides administration oral dantrolene, dantrolene can also be given intravenously as a prophylaxis therapy after the crisis. [Flewellen et al, 1983]. The prophylactic continuous intravenous dose of dantrolene is approximately 2.4mg/kg. [Flewellen et al, 1983]. Dantrolene is a muscle relaxant, which, acts on skeletal muscle cell to inhibit the release of calcium from sarcoplasmic reticulum. This will reduce the contractility of the skeletal muscle cell. According to Ellis,1973, the relaxant action of dantrolene acted directly and specifically on skeletal muscle but did not act on cardiac and smooth muscle. Besides that, dantrolene did not have any action on central nervous system. [Harrison,1988 Ellis, 1972]. Harrison and Chapman 1982, stated that the reduction in the amount and rate of calcium release by dantrolene is effective in preventing and reversing the pathophysiology of malignant hyperthermia in patient. In the experiment carried out by Harrison, 1975 has demonstrated that administration of dantrolene will cause a relaxation of the muscle rigor, cessation of the production of heat and acid. Based on the study carried out by Nelson, 1996 dantrolene is clinically effective in the treatment of malignant hyperthermia and showed a remarkable reduction in death and syndrome associated with malignant hyperthermia. When the syndrome of malignant hyperthermia was first noticed by the world during 60s, the rate of mortality was about 80%. The increasing awareness of syndrome with resultant in earlier diagnosis and treatment markedly reduced the mortality to 28% during 70s. With the introduction of the dantrolene, the rate of mortality reduced to 7%. [Harrison, 1988]. In addition, the experiment done by Harrison, 1988 showed that 100% survival rate was achieved with the administration of dantrolene. Long term administration of dantrolene orally is associated with some side effects such as hepatotoxicity and vomiting, which sometimes may be accompanied by diarrhea. [ Faling et al, 1980; Wilkinson et al, 1979]. However, the occurrence of hepatotoxicity is rare and several studies have been failed to prove whether hepatotoxicity is due to ingestion of dantrolene orally alone. [Flewellen et al, 1983; Dykes 1975; Durham et al, 1984]. As the reconstitution solution that is formulated for intravenous injection is highly alkaline, if extravasation occur it may irritate the vein which will lead to phlebitis and tissue necrosis. Therefore, dantrolene is recommended that to be injected into the large vein via a central venous catherter.[Ward et al, 1986; Muehlschlegel Sims, 2009]. Besides that, the mannitol that added to the dantrolene powder will cause osmotic diuresis with the loss of fluids and electrolytes. This will increase the risk of the patient who has poor renal function. [Bastro n,1983]. In addition, in the experiment that carried out by Flewellen and Nelson, chronic administered of dantrolene intravenously will result in difficulty in walking especially down stair. Muscle weakness lasting up to 48hours in 12 malignant hyperthermia subjects and associated with difficulty in walking, especially down stairs. [Flewellen Nelson,1983]. In the clinical studies that performed by Flewellen and Nelson and Oikkonen and his colleagues, patients were experienced fatigue and difficulty in swallowing accompanied to the long term administration of continuous intravenous dantrolene.[ Flewellen Nelson, 1983; Oikkonen et al, 1987]. The other common side effects of administered of dantrolene are dizziness, light-headedness, drowsiness, weakness, malaise and nausea. [Ward et al, 1986; Dkyes, 1975]. There is an adverse interaction of dantrolene when co-administration with verapamil. Co-administration of dantrolene and verapamil will cause hyperkalaemia and depression of the cardiac contractility. [Rubin Zablocki,1987; Saltzman et al, 1984]. The studies carried out by Lynch and colleagues and Saltzman and colleagues stated that administered dantrolene and verapamil concomitantly will cause remarkable hyperkaelemia and cardiac depression in dogs and swine. [ Saltzman et al, 1984; Lynch et al, 1986]. However, not all the calcium channel blockers will cause hyperkaleamia and the depression of cardiac contractility. Neither nifedipine nor amlodipine has significant of hyperkalaemia and depression of cardiac contractility when given together with dantrolene. [Freysz, 1996; Saltzman et al, 1984]. Besides having adverse effects and adverse interaction, another disadvantage of dantrolene is its cost. Dantrolene is an expensive drug, for intravenous dantrolene, it costs ÂÂ £15.08 per 20mg vial. As it is a huge amount of dantrolene are needed for immediate use, this has became an issue for some hospitals when purchase the dantrolene as dantrolene is very expensive especially intravenous dantrolene and dantrolene has a limited shelf life of 18 months to 2 years. [Allen et al, 1988; Hall, 1980]. In conclusion, malignant hyperthermia is uncommon life-threatening inherited disorder of the muscle cells. A sudden hypermetabolic reaction of the skeletal muscle when exposed to potent volatile anaesthetics and depolarizing muscle relaxants such as succinylcholine will endanger the patient by causing hyperthermia and massive rhabdomyolysis. Studies showed that appropriate dose intravenous dose of dantrolene is effective in treating patient during acute malignant hyperthermia crisis. Thus, 2.4mg/kg of dantrolene should be given intravenously during acute malignant hyperthermia crisis and continue giving 2.4mg/kg dantrolene after the crisis for 48 hours to avoid recrudescence of malignant hyperthermia. Besides, hypermetabolic reaction and the mortality rate of malignant hyperthermia can be reduced by taking precautions and increasing the awareness of patient who is malignant hyperthermia susceptible. With appropriate counseling, pre-operative screening and intraoperative monitoring th e vital signs and symptoms of malignant hyperthermia can prevent the potential lethal complications arise.

My Vision Of Tomorrow Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

Tomorrow's world will be much different and also, much better in many ways. We will have developed much better technology. We will have made huge medical advancements. The general quality of life will be much better, and living will also have become much easier. Still, nothing can ever be perfect, and in a world of the future, we will experience many complex and unavoidable problems such as depletion of resources, overpopulation, and the threat of nuclear and biological warfare. The solutions to these dilemmas will not be immediately apparent; but, we will have to overcome them. The future could hold great opportunities for many people, but we will need to work at it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the future, technology will have advanced so much and so fast that many new possibilities will arise. Most likely, we will enjoy interplanetary space travel frequently in the future and we may even develop communities on other planets, such as mars, or perhaps on the moon. Numerous scientists and writers have already also predicted this. Life will also be made much, much easier in the future for humans by robots, computers, and other automatons. Many simple tasks done today by humans such as cooking, cleaning, and repairing household items will be done by these machines much more quickly and efficiently and with less pollution. Almost all of the current manual labor jobs, especially in the United States, will become obsolete and robots wil...

Organisational Design

Nine tests of organisation design The weight of research and insight into organisational design is heavy and growing. Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell cut through the complexity and emerge with a new approach to organisation design which includes a rigorous framework for design choices based on nine key tests of organisational effectiveness. Michael Goold is a director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre. His research interests are concerned with corporate strategy and the management of multi-business companies, and he runs the Centre’s programme on Group Level Strategy. Product-market strategies What are the factors that should guide the choice of organisation design? There are many managerial rules of thumb about things such as spans of control and reporting relationships. In addition, academics and consultants have produced a huge amount of work on organisation design. But our research told us that managers still lack a practical and systematic framework to guide their organisation choices. An important purpose of our work has been to condense previous ideas on organisation design into a few core principles, on which to base a usable framework. Less an intellectual triumph than a practical checklist for addressing the most important issues, FIGURE 1: FRAMEWORK FOR ORGANISATION DESIGN GOOD DESIGN PRINCIPLES Specialisation principle Email: michael. goold Corporate strategy Co-ordination principle @ashridge. org. uk ORGANISATION DESIGN People Control and commitment principle Knowledge and competence principle Constraints Innovation and adaptation principle 4 DIRECTIONS FIT DRIVERS www. ashridge. com/directions The Ashridge Journal Summer 2002 Ashridge Business School http://www. ashridge. org. uk FIGURE 2: NINE TESTS FOR ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN Product-market strategies GOOD DESIGN TESTS Specialist cultures test Specialisation principle Andrew Campbell is a director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre and visiting professor at City University. Previously Redundant hierarchy test Knowledge and competence principle Market advantage test Corporate strategy Difficult links test Co-ordination principle Parenting advantage test ORGANISATION DESIGN People he was a Fellow in the Centre for Business Strategy People test Accountability test Constraints Control and commitment principle t the London Business School, and a consultant at Feasibility test Flexibility test FIT TESTS Innovation and adaptation principle McKinsey & Co. Email: andrew. campbell our framework is grounded on some basic principles. The first and most important, the fit principle, embraces four drivers of fit – productmarket strategies, corporate strategies, people and constraints. The other good design principles are the specialisation principle, the co-ordination principle, the knowledge and competence principle, the control and commitment principle, and the innovation and adaptation principle (Figure 1). The principles are broad in nature and not always easy to convert into prescriptive guidance. They are more valuable in orienting managers than in resolving particular organisational dilemmas. However, as we worked with the principles, we found ways to convert them into some practical tests. Perhaps the most important contribution of this lies in the insights and understandings that the tests produce. The tests match the fit drivers and the good design principles. (See Figure 2). @ashridge. org. uk The fit tests One almost universally agreed proposition is that organisations need to be fit for purpose. Strategy, 5 DIRECTIONS www. ashridge. com/directions The Ashridge Journal Summer 2002 Ashridge Business School http://www. ashridge. org. uk Nine tests of organisation design therefore, should be a key driver of organisation design, and we have found it useful to distinguish between product-market strategies and corporatelevel strategy. But strategy is not the only driver of organisational design. At least as important are people. Many authorities counsel against designing an organisation around people, preferring to build around the strategy and change the people if necessary. However, people cannot always be changed and new ones with the required attitudes may be hard to find. So designs should take account of the people available to lead and work in them. Finally, organisation design is subject to various constraints, ranging from laws laid down by governments to organisational capabilities or resources that are deeply embedded. The people test: â€Å"Does the design adequately reflect the motivations, strengths and weaknesses of the available people? † The feasibility test: â€Å"Does the design take account of the constraints that may make the proposal unworkable? The fit tests bring out the most important inputs that should guide organisation design choices. Provided the design has been selected with these inputs in mind, there should be no problem in passing the fit tests. However, organisation design choices are not always so rational. All too often, organisations evolve in ways that are not sufficiently related to the strategy of the compan y, or else pay scant attention to the limitations of managers who will fill key positions. In one company, we were told that the structure had always been primarily driven by the balance of All too often, organisations evolve in ways that are not sufficiently related to the strategy of the company, or else pay scant attention to the limitations of managers who will fill key positions. power between the four barons who ran the main divisions, resulting in business unit groupings that had little to do with the opportunities in the markets being served. Under these circumstances, the organisation will be a barrier to successful strategy implementation and will damage competitiveness. The fit tests ensure that organisations that are evidently not fit for purpose will be exposed, and that more suitable alternatives will be adopted. The good design tests The fit drivers lead to four fit tests: While the four drivers of the fit principle are The market advantage test: â€Å"Does the design allocate sufficient management attention to the operating priorities and intended sources of advantage in each product-market area? † recognised by most managers, we believe the good design principles and tests represent more of an advance. They synthesise the vast quantity of academic research and managerial experience about what makes an organisation work well into The parenting advantage test: â€Å"Does the design allocate sufficient attention to the intended 6 DIRECTIONS few basic tests that should guide any organisation designer. The specialisation principle and co-ordination principle both concern the boundaries between sources of added-value and strategic initiatives of the corporate parent? † www. ashridge. com/directions The Ashridge Journal Summer 2002 Ashridge Business School http://www. ashridge. org. uk units. The specialisation principle states that boundaries should exist to encourage the development of specialist skills, whereas the co-ordination principle emphasises that activities that need to be co-ordinated should be located within the boundaries of a single unit. Although these basic principles are clear, there are unfortunately often trade-offs between specialisation and co-ordination. A broadly-based product structure may give economies in purchasing and manufacturing, but be detrimental to the development of specialist products for particular markets. A disaggregated geographical structure with many local units may support the special skills needed for different regions, but prevent effective co-ordination in product development or IT infrastructure. The difficult organisational problems arise when there are trade-offs between different ways of grouping responsibilities. In order to help with these trade-offs, we have developed two tests, which give more precision to the basic principles and make them more practically useful. business unit, with little or no contact with the rest of the company. Alternatively, instead of setting up a separate unit, it may be possible for the corporate parent to ensure that the specialist culture receives sufficient protection by flexing corporate policies and procedures or by giving it certain powers. The test focuses attention on the dangers of suppressing or damaging activities that fall outside the mainstream corporate culture, dangers which are easy to overlook. The difficult links test recognises that many co-ordination benefits can be achieved through spontaneous networking between units, but that others will be more difficult. For example, best practice sharing can often be left to networking between units, whereas the establishment of common technical standards is unlikely without a corporate policy which makes them mandatory. Organisation designers should focus only on the few co-ordination benefits that will be difficult: where networking will not deliver the benefits. For these difficult links, it is necessary to develop appropriate co-ordination mechanisms or interventions to overcome the difficulty, or to The specialist cultures test: â€Å"Do any ‘specialist cultures’, units with cultures that need to be different from sister units and the layers above, have sufficient protection from the influence of the dominant culture? † readjust the design so that the co-ordination lies within the responsibilities of a single unit. This test makes managers assess which co-ordination benefits will be difficult to achieve if left to the network, and to think through whether and how the difficulty can be overcome. The difficult links test: â€Å"Does the organisation design call for any ‘difficult links’, co-ordination benefits that will be hard to achieve on a networking basis, and does it include ‘solutions’ that will ease the difficulty? † Together, the specialist cultures test and difficult links test give managers a powerful means of assessing the trade-offs between the benefits that can be gained from co-ordination and from specialisation. In the 1980s, IBM decided to set up its PC division as a very separate unit, free from the influence of the IBM corporate culture and The specialist cultures test questions whether the required specialist skills will thrive only if the managers concerned are insulated from the influence of other parts of the organisation. For example, sometimes the best way to develop and market a new product is to set it up as a separate policies. This promoted a specialist PC culture that was highly successful in bringing the new product to market rapidly. Using a similar logic, many commentators argued that, when faced with performance problems in the early 1990s, IBM should break up the whole company into separate, 7 DIRECTIONS www. ashridge. com/directions The Ashridge Journal Summer 2002 Ashridge Business School http://www. ashridge. org. uk Nine tests of organisation design independent units. Lou Gerstner, however, believed that the opportunity for IBM lay in providing integrated customer solutions. He therefore kept the company together. But he recognised that co-ordination between separate product divisions was not proving a satisfactory means of offering integrated solutions, due to conflicting divisional priorities and incompatible technologies. He therefore gave authority to IBM Sales and Distribution division and to a new unit, the Global Services division, to concentrate, respectively, on customer solutions and services, using both IBM and competitor products. These divisions have the power to offer a unified approach to customers and have dealt well with the previously difficult links between IBM divisions. At the same time, Gerstner has encouraged new business activities, such as Business Innovation Services, IBM’s e-business initiative, not to be bound by IBM’s traditional policies nd ways of doing things. IBM’s structure now takes account of both the difficult links and the specialist cultures tests. The difficult links and specialist cultures tests help managers to address the organisation design issues faced by companies such as IBM, where there are evident advantages both from specialisation and co-ordination. The tests identify the real trade-offs between co-ordination and specialisation and h elp managers to find ways of gaining the benefits of co-ordination without undermining the development of specialist skills. The knowledge and competence principle is mainly concerned with delegation. It states that responsibilities should be allocated to the person or team best placed to assemble the relevant knowledge and competence at reasonable cost. The practical test that follows from the principle is: This test is based on the premise that the default option should be to decentralise to operating units, only retaining responsibilities at higher levels if there is a knowledge and competence rationale. As we have argued in previous work, hierarchy can only be justified if it adds some value to the functioning of the organisation. 1 Questions about whether and how the hierarchy adds value have helped numerous companies to sharpen their thinking about the design of their headquarters, group and division levels. The redundant hierarchy test is a way of formalising these questions. The control and commitment principle concerns two challenges that arise in any decentralised organisation: how to maintain appropriate control and how to ensure high levels of motivation. Units should feel strong pressures to self-correct if they are failing to deliver, and parent-level managers to whom the units report should be able to identify problems easily and promptly. This leads to a further test: The accountability test: â€Å"Does the design facilitate the creation of a control process for each unit that is appropriate to the unit’s responsibilities, economical to implement, and motivating for the managers in the unit? † The accountability test focuses managers on the pressures that exist for a unit to self-correct. These depend on the relationships the unit has with ts internal and external customers, the performance measures for the unit, and the unit’s reporting relationship. Market-facing business units with arms-length customer relationships and bottomline performance measures are relatively easy to control and motivate. Corporate functions with no external customers, tied internal relationships and The redundant hierarchy test: â⠂¬Å"Are all levels in the hierarchy and all responsibilities retained by higher levels based on a knowledge and 8 DIRECTIONS subjective performance measures present more accountability problems. In a complex structure, it is all too easy to create a design that looks good on paper, but leaves unit managers de-motivated and unclear about their performance objectives, and competence advantage? † www. ashridge. com/directions The Ashridge Journal Summer 2002 Ashridge Business School http://www. ashridge. org. uk parent managers unable to control those who report to them. The accountability test helps managers design units and establish performance measures that produce effective, low-cost controls that are highly motivating. The innovation and adaptation principle states that structures should be designed to innovate and adapt as uncertainties become clarified and environments change. An organisation design that is perfect for today is of little use if it cannot adapt to cope with the conditions of tomorrow. The principle yields our last test. under-attending to product or from underattending to geography? † Often there is no clear The flexibility test: â€Å"Will the design help the development of new strategies and be flexible enough to adapt to future changes? answer to these trade-offs, but making sure that the question is asked helps managers to find a reasonable balance between competing interests. By pointing out the trade-offs and weak points in a The test recognises that some structures allow for evolution and adaptation, whereas others build in rigidity and power bases that resist change. It ensures that the designer considers the changes which may be needed and whether the design will b e flexible enough to make them. chosen design, the tests help managers to be more thoughtful about problems that may occur and future changes that may be needed. The tests also help managers weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different designs and provide a rigorous analytical structure for making design choices. An organisation design that is perfect for today is of little use if it cannot adapt to cope with the conditions of tomorrow. Using the tests The purpose of the tests is to raise issues. Some can be addressed by refining the structure, by designing process solutions, or by appointing different managers. A key benefit from using the tests comes from the ideas for design improvements that they suggest. For example, a common problem is the creation of a layer of management, say a geographic region or a product group, without specifying what responsibilities should be retained by this layer and why. The redundant hierarchy test helps point out this design weakness, alerting managers to the need either to eliminate the layer or to define the responsibilities, skills, management processes and leadership style that is needed to make the layer a positive influence on performance. Some issues raised by the tests point to unavoidable trade-offs: â€Å"do we lose more from The nine tests are the core around which we have built our new approach to organisation design. This article is drawn from Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell’s new book, Designing Effective Organizations (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). REFERENCE 1. Goold, Michael; Campbell, Andrew and Alexander, Marcus. (1994). Corporate-level Strategy, John Wiley & Sons and Goold, Michael; Pettifer, David and Young, David, â€Å"Redefining the Corporate Centre† , European Management Journal, February 2001. 9 DIRECTIONS www. ashridge. com/directions The Ashridge Journal Summer 2002 Ashridge Business School http://www. ashridge. org. uk

Miguel Street Essay

Discuss the representation of man and manhood in the 2 short stories of Miguel Street. On Miguel Street, the representation of man and manhood can be seen negatively in these two short stories† â€Å"Bogart† and â€Å"A thing without a name†. Where as a man’s manhood is considered strong if certain characteristics such as aggression, evading the law and their present living circumstances. The story about Bogart illustrates where his manhood being threaten where as Bogart is unable to father a child by his Tunapuna wife so he finds a means to escape this difficulty. He goes elsewhere, run a â€Å"high-class† brothel, meets another woman and successfully impregnates. Once he has achieved his goal of proving his virility, he may return to Miguel Street although he returns as a bigamist as Hat would say â€Å"To be a man, among we man†. He would now be seen as a high standing man of the community, playing with the surrounding children and giving them parties, which is a vastly different from the life he once had by pretending to be a tailor but now is seen The main character in â€Å"A thing without a name â€Å" Popo is a carpenter by profession but he is not considered a man among his peers as his wife was the main breadwinner of the family which did not bothered him as he would continue to make â€Å"a thing without a name†. This however changed when Popo wife left him for another man, it is then that he was accepted as â€Å"one of the gang â€Å"within Miguel Street, as they could related to his pain and heart ache. His man hood was however bruised by the separation of his wife , so he would then retaliate by fighting the other man and going to prison, which eventually made him an hero on Miguel street.

Writing A Research Paper In APA Format - Paperell.com

Writing A Research Paper In APA Format Writing A Research Paper In APA Format Why are students often so concerned about citation styles? The main problem is a wide variety of these formats and different requirements that each has, which usually makes young people confused and frustrated. When you prepare an academic paper and your teacher can ask you to use APA format, it is not hard if you have the proper guidelines to do that. Do not panic! In this article, we are going to give you all the needed information and guidelines, which may help you to write a smart paper in APA format. Let’s start.The General Formatting Guidelines You Need To Know When You Work On Your PaperYou should use only white 8  ½ x 11 paper;The margins you make are usually 1 cm on the top, sides and also on the bottom;Don’t forget to indent every first word in the paragraphs one half inch;The recommended font is Times New Roman. The recommended size is 12;It’s also necessary to double space your research paper;The header of a page is so-called ‘running headâ₠¬â„¢. Where to put it? You should put it at the top of every page, so it can be easier to put it, using your word processor. You can program adding these components automatically onto each page;And something more about the running header. To create it, you should insert the number of pages on the right-hand side of your page. You don’t need to put the letters like ‘p.’ or ‘pg.’ in the front of the numbers of the pages. After that, only type the title of your work, moving it to the left. Use the capital letters here. You can also shorten your title if it is too long but on the first page, it has to be an entire version.The List Of Components Of The APA Paper Which Sections Your Paper Should Have?There are four major sections in APA papers and essays. Here they are:Title page;Abstract;Main body;Text citations and references.Title pageOn this page, there are two major pieces: title for research paper, the running head, your name (author’s name), a place where the study has taken place (institutional affiliation), and your personal notes. Remember that only a title page and a page header include the words ‘Running Head’. After these words, you need to write your title in all capitals, while other pages should not have this phrase in the page-header. Note that your title always shows the main idea of your work, and it should have neither excess words nor abbreviations. The title is always centered on your page and written in Times New Roman, size 12. What else to keep in mind? It is not allowed to underline, italicize or bold your title and, also, you should not include the names such Ms. or Dr. on your title and don’t forget to double-space all your text here like in the rest of your paper. You can type a title in one or two lines but remember that they shouldn’t be longer than 12 words. An institutional affiliation is a place attended the research.AbstractOn this page, you should begin with a ru nning title. When you are on the first line, center the word ‘Abstract’ without the excess marks, below, you need to write the main aim of your research. It has to be a summary of your experience in a particular field of study you write about. This way you represent the theme to your readers and make them familiar with the main questions of your research. You also include here your findings, the process you used, and, in the end, you add a conclusion, the summary needs to be double-spaced and it shouldn’t have more than 250 words. What else? Moreover, you can add the keywords from your paper to help the other researchers in finding this work in databases. The word ‘keywords’ should be written in italics, and after it, you need to list the keywords.The BodyWhen you work on the body of your work, start again with a running title and then write your title (without bolding, italicizing, or underlining). Write an introduction, where you show a problem and give a characterization to it. Here you can add more details and information about your research, then write a method in the new section, it should be bolded and centered. Here you need to describe the method you used in your research, show how your data was collected. In the new section, you should write about the results of your research and it is also bolded and centered – here you sum up your data and can use the graphs to show it. And in the end, you write a discussion. Like in other sections, it is also bolded and centered. Here you analyze and interpret your results, make a smart and clear conclusion and show the connections between your data and this conclusion. Write something about your hypothesis if it was confirmed or supported by your experiment. Show the limits of your study and say something about your future steps in this field of study (or about the future steps of other scientists).Text Citations And ReferencesStart a new page and write here your reference s. As usual, begin with a running title, and then, center and make bold this word, without using any excess marks. Do not use here the underlining, bolding or italicizing. Double-space all your entries and give a list of your references in an alphabetical order. Remember that every article or source that you have mentioned in your research paper, has to be referenced and it shouldn’t be without an entry. When you use citations, do not forget to mention the original source, books, and authors that you use in your paper. All words and ideas must be acknowledged in a proper way here. We hope, this article has helped you to understand how to write research papers in APA format style. These rules are quite easy. Besides, if you need some help with research paper wrting, we are ready to solve your problem!

The Formula for Expected Value

The Formula for Expected Value One natural question to ask about a probability distribution is, What is its center? The expected value is one such measurement of the center of a probability distribution. Since it measures the mean, it should come as no surprise that this formula is derived from that of the mean. To establish a starting point, we must answer the question, What is the expected value? Suppose that we have a random variable associated with a probability experiment. Lets say that we repeat this experiment over and over again. Over the long run of several repetitions of the same probability experiment, if we averaged out all of our values of the random variable, we would obtain the expected value.   In what follows we will see how to use the formula for expected value. We will look at both the ​discrete and continuous  settings and see the similarities and differences in the formulas.​ The Formula for a Discrete Random Variable We start by analyzing the discrete case. Given a discrete random variable X, suppose that it has values x1, x2, x3, . . . xn, and respective probabilities of p1, p2, p3, . . . pn. This is saying that the probability mass function for this random variable gives f(xi)   pi.   The expected value of X is given by the formula: E(X) x1p1 x2p2 x3p3 . . . xnpn. Using the probability mass function and summation notation allows us to more compactly write this formula as follows, where the summation is taken over the index i: E(X)   ÃŽ £ xif(xi). This version of the formula is helpful to see because it also works when we have an infinite sample space. This formula can also easily be adjusted for the continuous case. An Example Flip a coin three times and let X be the number of heads. The random variable X  is discrete and finite.  The only possible values that we can have are 0, 1, 2 and 3. This has probability distribution of 1/8 for X 0, 3/8 for X 1, 3/8 for X 2, 1/8 for X 3. Use the expected value formula to obtain: (1/8)0 (3/8)1 (3/8)2 (1/8)3 12/8 1.5 In this example, we see that, in the long run, we will average a total of 1.5 heads from this experiment.  This makes sense with our intuition as one-half of 3 is 1.5. The Formula for a Continuous Random Variable We now turn to a continuous random variable, which we will denote by X.  We will let the probability density function of  X  be given by the function f(x).   The expected value of X is given by the formula: E(X)   Ã¢Ë† « x f(x) dx. Here we see that the expected value of our random variable is expressed as an integral.   Applications of Expected Value There are many applications for the expected value of a random variable. This formula makes an interesting appearance in the St. Petersburg Paradox.

Verbs Used With Electronics

Verbs Used With Electronics Today we live, work, eat and breath surrounded by gadgets. Gadgets can be defined as small devices and tools that we use to do a wide variety of tasks. Generally speaking, gadgets are electronics, but some gadgets such as a can opener are not. Today we have many mobile devices that are our favorite gadgets. There are many common verbs used to describe the actions we take with these devices. This article focuses on the proper verbs to express these actions for gadgets in the home, cars, computers, tablets, and smartphones. Lights Turn On/Turn Off The verbs turn on and turn off are the most common verbs used with a wide range of electronic devices including lights. Could you turn the lights on?Ill turn off the lights when I leave the house. Switch On/Switch Off As an alternative to turn on and turn off we use switch on and switch off especially for devices with buttons and switches. Let me switch on the lamp.Could you switch the lamp off? Dim/Brighten Sometimes we need to adjust the brightness of lights. In that case, use dim to reduce light or brighten to increase light. The lights too bright. Could you dim them?I cant read this newspaper. Can you brighten the lights? Turn Up/Down Turn up and turn down are also sometimes used with the same meaning as dim and brighten.   I cant read this very well could you turn up the lights?Lets turn down the lights, put on some jazz and get cozy. Music We all love music, dont we? Use start and stop with music devices such as stereos, cassette players, record players, etc. These verbs are also used when speaking about listening to music with popular music programs such as iTunes or apps on smartphones.   Start/Stop Click on the play icon to start listening.To stop replay just tap the play button again. Play/Pause Just click here to play the music.Click on the play icon a second time to pause music. We need to adjust volume as well. Use the verbs adjust, turn the volume up or down. Adjust the volume on the device by pressing these buttons.Press this button to turn the volume up, or this button to turn down the volume. Increase/Decrease/Reduce You can also use increase/decrease or reduce to speak about adjusting the volume: You can increase or decrease volume using the controls on the device.Could you please reduce the volume? Its too loud! Computers/Tablets/Smart Phones Finally, we all use a wide range of computers which can include laptops, desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones.  We can use the simple verbs turn and switch on and switch off with computers. Turn On/Switch On/Turn Off/Switch Off Could you turn on the computer?I want to switch off the computer before we leave. Boot and restart are terms that are often used to describe starting your computing device. Sometimes its necessary to restart a computing device when you install software to update the computer.   Boot (Up)/Shut Down/Restart Boot the computer and lets get to work!I need to restart the computer to install the software. Its also necessary to start and stop using programs on our computers. Use open and close: Open/Close Open Word on your computer and create a new document.Close a few programs and your computer will work better. Launch and exit are also used to describe starting and stopping programs. Launch/Exit Click on the icon to launch the program and get to work.In Windows, click on the X in the upper right-hand corner to exit the program. On the computer, we need to click and double click programs and files to use them: Click/Double Click   Click on any window to make it the active program.Double click on the icon to launch the program. On tablets and smartphones we tab and double tap: Tap/Double Tap Tap any app on your smartphone to open.Double tap the screen to see the data. Cars Start/Turn On/Turn Off Before we go anywhere, we need to start or turn on the engine. When were done, we turn off the engine. Start the car by placing the key in the ignition.Turn off the car by turning the key to the left.Turn on the car by pressing this button. Put, place and remove are used to more precisely how we start and stop our cars. Put the key into the ignition/remove the keyPlace the key into the ignition and start the car.After you have put the car in park, remove the key from the ignition. Driving the car involves using different gears. Use these verbs to describe the various steps. Put Into Drive/Gears/Reverse/Park   Once youve started the car, put the car into reverse the car out of the garage.Put the car into drive and step on the gas to accelerate.Change gears by depressing the clutch and shifting gears. Gadget Verbs Quiz Test your knowledge with the following quiz. The light is too bright. Could you _____ it?On your smartphone, _____ on any icon to open an app.To _____ your computer, press the on button.I cant hear the music. Could you _____ the volume _____?Reduce volume means to ______ volume._____ the key into the ignition and start the car.  _____ your car in that garage.To drive forward, _____ drive and step on the gas.Click on the icon to _____ Word for Windows.Click on the X in the upper right-hand corner to _____ the program.Do you _____ your computer before you go home every evening? Answers dim  tapboot (up)turn the volume  updecreasePutParkPut into  launchcloseboot down/turn off

Tax Havens or Off Shore Financial Centre Research Proposal

Tax Havens or Off Shore Financial Centre - Research Proposal Example Economic federations typically struggle with the impact and desirability of tax policy diversity among member states. In particular, there is widespread concern that low-tax areas within a federation impose a fiscal externality on other countries and might attract investment that would otherwise locate in high-tax areas within the same regions. There are no reliable estimates of the magnitude of such diversion. Moreover, there has been little consideration of the possibility that the availability of low-tax jurisdictions facilitates foreign investment and economic activity in high-tax jurisdictions within the same regions. The latter possibility arises if affiliates in low-tax areas offer valuable intermediate goods and services to affiliates in high tax areas, if the ability to relocate taxable profits into low-tax jurisdictions improves the desirability of investing in high-tax areas, or if low-tax jurisdictions facilitate deferral of home country taxation of income earned in highe r-tax countries. High-tax countries might then benefit from tax diversity within regions, particularly if domestic governments would prefer to offer tax concessions to multi-jurisdictional businesses but are constrained not to do so by non-economic considerations. The study willThe study will analyzes the use of tax havens by multinational firms, and the effect of tax haven operations on economic activities in foreign countries other than tax havens. First, havens serve both to permit firms to relocate taxable income out high-tax jurisdictions and to facilitate deferral of repatriation taxes, suggesting that multinational parents with differing foreign tax rate exposures can benefit from haven activities. Second, the use of havens to relocate profits from high-tax jurisdictions is concentrated amongst larger tax haven countries, and the effect of these havens on activities in non-havens is most pronounced within regions. Third, there appears to be a complementary relationship between levels of multinational activity in havens and non-havens within a region, in that the establishment of tax haven operations is associated with expansions of activity outside of tax havens. Large multinationals, and those with the greatest reliance on foreign profits, are the most likely to operate in tax havens, suggesting that there are economies of scale in using havens to avoid taxes. Additionally, multinational parents with foreign (non-haven) operations concentrated in low tax countries, and those in technology-intensive industries characterized by extensive intra firm trade, are more likely than others to operate in tax havens. While the latter evidence is consistent with the intuition that multinationals employ haven affiliates to move taxable profits out of high-tax jurisdictions through intra firm trade and transfers of intangible property, the fact that

Us formative history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Us formative history - Essay Example They are document 1, document 2, document 3, and essay on the New World of Indians. Document 1 is a myth by Iroquois explaining the world’s beginning. The myth illustrates that the world never existed in the beginning, not even the land, the creatures, or the men. However, there was only the ocean that occupied entire space and the great air void above ocean surface. Document 2 illustrates the 1448 historic events of the battles between the Portuguese and the West Africans. The Portuguese directed their voyage to Cape Verder where two Guineas were captured in the past. On reaching the shore the Portuguese found a village with houses and men willing to defend it. Alvaro Fernandez killed the leader of the village, and the Guineas stopped fighting on realizing that their leader is dead (Jones 107). Document 3 explains the 1493 encounter of Christopher Columbus with the Native People. Christopher Columbus passed by Indies, using the fleet given by the King and the Queen, and saw several islands with many inhabitants. The inhabitants walk around naked; save for some women who cover their private parts with a plant leaf or some specially made cotton material (Morison 55). The essay explains the New World of the Indians. Even though the encounter of the Americas by the Europeans led to major effects in the Indian society; the indigenous people had inhabited the Americas for approximately millennia. The New World was experienced when the Indians encountered the Africans and the European, in the Virginia and also the California. The contact brought vast changes to the Indians society (Johnson 24). Document 1 describes the world origin myth. The sea had fish and deep sea creatures. The birds lived in the air, and the sky world had a man and his pregnant wife. The wife fell through a hole in the sky and landed on the back of the huge sea turtle. The woman gave birth to a daughter, who on reaching maturity bore quarrelsome twins. Right handed twin

Political science (you can find the topic from sources) Essay

Political science (you can find the topic from sources) - Essay Example Anti-Federalists were alarmed that the Constitution would demolish civil liberties and genuine democracy if the states yield significant power to the new national government. They asserted that representation should be fair in all terms of directness and intimacy, with the government representing as many interests as possible. Politicians must then be substantively like the people they represent. They may not necessarily be the political elite, but instead, ordinary people who were educated enough to participate in political affairs. Anti-Federalists based this assertion the logic that those who were more responsible were less self-interested and those who knew their accountability were less prone to corruption. The people were more responsible than the political elite because they were more in touch of the realities of their local communities. They were less prone to corruption because they would be less vulnerable to damaging their representation to the local populace where they ca me from. The Anti-Federalists, furthermore, intended to have an outcome where there were small constituencies with many representatives, where the axis of power is on the states or local bases, not the national base of collectivity or community of interest. They wanted strong powerful states, not a powerful national government. These powerful states could make decisions regarding their political, social, and economic affairs without intrusion or intervention from the national government. With these goals, outcomes, and processes, Anti-Federalists were leaning more toward descriptive and participative forms of representation. The Federalists believed, on the contrary, the representation is a nationally-determined public good. They did not reject the states’ rights to representation, though they focused on a political arena of substantive representation. The states could represent themselves in Congress and to some extent, in Senate, but they should not be concentrated on their state

Foreign Currency Debt at Vodafone Group plc Case Study

Foreign Currency Debt at Vodafone Group plc - Case Study Example 2-3; Lustgarten, 2006, p. F-22). The aim of management is to give investors the highest possible return on their investment (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). A common strategy is to bring up the stock price if the company, like Vodafone, is listed. Since stock price is based on net present value of all future cash flows of the company, and cash flow depends on profits, the price goes up if profits go up. Profits go up if turnover increases or expenses go down, or both. The stock price reflects the value of the company, so an increase in the price results in the growth of the stock's value to its shareholders. This is known as shareholder value. The growth in shareholder value and the increase in the stock price depend on the growth of profits, which in turn depends on how well the management raises turnover or controls costs. Since Vodafone does business all over the world, it earns and spends money in different currencies. This exposes it to several risks that can bring down revenues or bring up expenses: political, ma rket, interest, or currency risks. Each risk can affect the firm's finances. Political risk can lead to changing firm ownership and loss of investment and value, as when government takes over the firm. Market risk can collapse the stock price and shareholder value when investors lose confidence in the stock market. Interest risk can raise expenses if interest rates on the firm's debts go up; financial income can also decrease if interest rates go down. Currency risk can raise (or bring down) expenses or sales if exchange rates change: if the home currency (sterling) weakens relative to the host (or foreign) currency (dollar), dollar loans would be more expensive and increase expenses in sterling. Of these four types of risk, the last two - interest and currency risks - can be minimised by using foreign currency debt (Allayannis et al., 2001; Keloharju et al., 2001). How does this happen If a firm is well-managed, its assets produce a stream cash flow that goes to shareholders if the firm is financed entirely by common stock. But if it issues debt securities, which is borrowing money from lenders, the firm would divide the cash flows between holders of debt and the stockholders or holders of equity securities. The firm's mix of securities is known as its capital structure. Since the most important task of managers is to maximise the firm's market value, is there a combination of debt and equity securities that would

Art Fund Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art Fund Proposal - Essay Example Impressionists did not use color black but rather used dark greens, blues and purples to convey shadows and darkness. The impressionists included Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, August Renoir, and Edgar Degas. They painted en Plein air, meaning that the painting was outdoors and that it tried to capture those fleeting moments of beauty as well as the vivid colors that sunlight illuminated. They were less fascinated in symbolism and in a form. However the main characteristics include relatively thin, small but visible brush strokes, it involves open composition, emphasizes on accuracy in the depiction of lights in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, common, visual angles that are unusual and inclusion of movement. I chose to fund on impressionist mostly because of the artists in the group. I feel they were focused and dedicated to painting. For instance Claude, Monate prioritized on the mixing of colors and then afterwards he would think of which image to paint. I also like this category of artwork due to the fact that it was motivated by photography which had started to gain popularity by then and it went on to represent momentary action in the fleeting lights of landscape and day to day lives of people. Examples of artworks Some of the examples of impressionism artworks that would be amusing for acquisition by the fund include Port of Dieppe, evening, 1882, water lilies, 1916 both by Claude Monet, the visitor, about 1880 by Mary Cassatt, at the cafe, about 1879, still life, 1869 by Henry Fantin-Latour Market analysis In determining the marketability of impressionist art, the price indices must be computed. Impressionist art is not a homogeneous commodity and therefore not traded in well organized markets such as stocks and bonds. It has special features which include reputation and reliability which make it be characterized by a hierarchy of sub-markets. The primary market normally involves the artist taking the artwork for sale at local exhibitions, galleries and also taking directly to the customer. This normally serves to give artists an opportunity to signal their abilities mostly to the secondary market. Selling is normally by auctioning (Agnello, 1986, 446). However, auction does not capture the f luctuations in the prices of low demand and paintings that are out of fashion. Factors that may affect demand and supply include external factors such as those characteristics that surround the sale and end up affecting prices as well as returns, sale of out-of-fashion paintings, repeat sales, selling of works that have got a low public interest. The supply is affected by the demand factor and also the availability of funds (Agnello, 1986, 447). The relationship between demand and supply for the impressionism art is similar to that of luxury goods. There is a limited supply, making art have a higher value. Also, exclusivity associated with the art normally leads to higher prices thus affecting the demand curve. The indicators that may point towards the inelastic demand curve include change in taste, threat of substitutes, pricing and accessibility and changes in income (Mamarbachi & Favato, 2013, 4) Performance of the market The vogue to invest in the art has received a large boost from the availability of the art price data (Campbell, 2013, 2). However there are a number of inefficiencies in this market art as an investment has remained risky (Ralevski, 2008, 2)The art market has lead to much stronger economic expansion in some countries including brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa. China particularly has modified profoundly the geographical structure of the global art market. In Beijing Hong Kong and Singapore their governments support strongly major cultural

D2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

D2 - Assignment Example These parents are mostly aggressive while treating their children and instead of being obedient, they prefer using punishment to discipline their child. These parents become very aggressive if their children take a stand against them and punish their children for questioning their authority. Another form of parenting style researched by Baumrind is authoritative parenting style, parents following this style expect their children to be mature and act maturely at all times, these parents are high in emotional intelligence and can guide their children so they can easily control their emotions. These parents contribute a lot to their children’s upbringing and help them develop problem solving skills, these parents allow their children to gain independency but they even prefer certain amount of restrictions and limitations. These parents appreciate two way communications and are ready to answer all the questions of their children and hold a very warm and affectionate attitude towards their

Art Fund Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art Fund Proposal - Essay Example Impressionists did not use color black but rather used dark greens, blues and purples to convey shadows and darkness. The impressionists included Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, August Renoir, and Edgar Degas. They painted en Plein air, meaning that the painting was outdoors and that it tried to capture those fleeting moments of beauty as well as the vivid colors that sunlight illuminated. They were less fascinated in symbolism and in a form. However the main characteristics include relatively thin, small but visible brush strokes, it involves open composition, emphasizes on accuracy in the depiction of lights in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, common, visual angles that are unusual and inclusion of movement. I chose to fund on impressionist mostly because of the artists in the group. I feel they were focused and dedicated to painting. For instance Claude, Monate prioritized on the mixing of colors and then afterwards he would think of which image to paint. I also like this category of artwork due to the fact that it was motivated by photography which had started to gain popularity by then and it went on to represent momentary action in the fleeting lights of landscape and day to day lives of people. Examples of artworks Some of the examples of impressionism artworks that would be amusing for acquisition by the fund include Port of Dieppe, evening, 1882, water lilies, 1916 both by Claude Monet, the visitor, about 1880 by Mary Cassatt, at the cafe, about 1879, still life, 1869 by Henry Fantin-Latour Market analysis In determining the marketability of impressionist art, the price indices must be computed. Impressionist art is not a homogeneous commodity and therefore not traded in well organized markets such as stocks and bonds. It has special features which include reputation and reliability which make it be characterized by a hierarchy of sub-markets. The primary market normally involves the artist taking the artwork for sale at local exhibitions, galleries and also taking directly to the customer. This normally serves to give artists an opportunity to signal their abilities mostly to the secondary market. Selling is normally by auctioning (Agnello, 1986, 446). However, auction does not capture the f luctuations in the prices of low demand and paintings that are out of fashion. Factors that may affect demand and supply include external factors such as those characteristics that surround the sale and end up affecting prices as well as returns, sale of out-of-fashion paintings, repeat sales, selling of works that have got a low public interest. The supply is affected by the demand factor and also the availability of funds (Agnello, 1986, 447). The relationship between demand and supply for the impressionism art is similar to that of luxury goods. There is a limited supply, making art have a higher value. Also, exclusivity associated with the art normally leads to higher prices thus affecting the demand curve. The indicators that may point towards the inelastic demand curve include change in taste, threat of substitutes, pricing and accessibility and changes in income (Mamarbachi & Favato, 2013, 4) Performance of the market The vogue to invest in the art has received a large boost from the availability of the art price data (Campbell, 2013, 2). However there are a number of inefficiencies in this market art as an investment has remained risky (Ralevski, 2008, 2)The art market has lead to much stronger economic expansion in some countries including brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa. China particularly has modified profoundly the geographical structure of the global art market. In Beijing Hong Kong and Singapore their governments support strongly major cultural

Ode on a Grecian Urn Essay Example for Free

Ode on a Grecian Urn Essay In the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats took inspiration from a visit to a museum exhibiting artifacts, one of which is an urn with figures on its surface. The urn depicts scenes taken from ancient Greek life. Intrigued by the Urns beauty and the figures depicted on its sides, Keats was moved to write a poem expressing wonder, admiration, questions and criticisms. Without knowing who these figures are, what they are meant to reflect and to what purpose were they made for, the poet revels in the mystery they represent. The Odes first stanza is filled with wonder and questions; the last stanza has none. Being a piece of art, the urn can speak to its viewers in whatever way it chooses to communicate. In the first stanza of the poem, the writer addresses an ancient urn and reflects on its beauty and what story it can tell. He calls the urn a historian possessing secret knowledge. The writer looks at one group of pictures that seem to be of men pursuing women. He wonders if it was a pursuit among lovers, a struggle between sexes, or a playful episode among the young on a beautiful day. In the next stanza, the poet focuses on another figure on the vase. This time, it portrays a man with his lover, both lying beneath a tree while he plays his pipe. The writer declares that the pipes silent music is sweeter than a mortals music because the former lives through time. While the man and woman cannot kiss because they are frozen in time, they should not despair because their beauty and youth will forever remain. In one stanza, the poet is able to present two contrasting realities. One is that of unfilled longing through eternity, while the other speaks of unfading glory. The odes third stanza reflects the poets general feeling of happiness for the things he observed about the couple described in the previous stanza, as well as the trees surrounding them. The poet is glad for the trees leaves, which will forever be green and remain attached to the branches. The poet is also happy that the man with the pipe will have his songs forever new. He is also happy that the lovers love will last until eternity. Here, the poet laments that mortal love is just the passing of passion. By the time it passes, which it eventually will, there is nothing left. In the fourth stanza of the Ode, the poet turns to examine another picture. This time, it represents villagers leading a young cow, which seems to be a sacrificial offering. He imagines where they have come from and where they are headed for. The poet visualizes empty streets because the citizens have all left to witness the sacrifice. And the streets will forever remain empty for those who have left the town are frozen on their way to the sacrificial place. For the fifth and final stanza, the poet goes back to addressing the urn. He tells the ornamental vase that while it lives and remain forever, the poets generation would have long passed. He ends it with the famous quote that equates beauty with truth. By doing this, the author seems to criticize and admire the urn at the same time. While the poet thinks the urn beautiful, he thinks that that is the only thing it will ever possess. This is the same manner of admiration and criticisms that the poet has vested on the characters found on the urn.

Impact of Information Technology Outsourcing

Impact of Information Technology Outsourcing Introduction Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) will continue to have a major impact on all organizations and will over time increasingly becomes an integral part of the organizations strategy. Various aspects within the metamorphosis of ITO will be covered but not necessarily detailed. ITO has become a global phenomenon. Globalization with some distinct drivers in technology evolution has reshaped the market place and given rise to the advent of the digital age. Sustainable competitive business strategy will need to embrace this opportunity and will need to seek enablers to exploit it. IT, by virtue of the web and broadband communications in particular, allows an organization to fulfill this need. Further decrease in costs communication, increase in broadband capacity and web collaborations accelerates the process. Definitions Outsourcing has variously been defined by scholars in the Information Systems (IS) literature as follows: â€Å"The significant contribution of external suppliers in the physical and/or human resources associated with the entire or specific component of the IT infrastructure in the user organization.†(Loh and Venkataraman,1997) Outsourcing occurs when third party vendors are responsible for managing the Information Technology components on behalf of their clients. IT Outsourcing means handing over the management of some or all of an organization’s information technology (IT), systems (IS) and related services to a third party.†(Willcocks et al.,1998) †¦business practice in which a company contracts all or part of its information systems operations to one or more outside information service suppliers (Hu et al., 1997, p. 288) â€Å"Outsourcing is the handover of an activity to an external supplier. It is an alternative to internal production†(Aubert et al.,2003) â€Å"IS sourcing† is the organizational arrangement instituted for obtaining IS services and the management of resources and activities required for producing these services (Dibbern et al., 2004 , p. 11). Therefore outsourcing involves the transfer of the responsibility for carrying out an activity (previously carried on internally) to an external service provider against agreed service levels at an agreed charge. History ITO has received great attention for scholars and researchers since the mid 1990’s but it’s been around for a while as per the examples below: 1963 – Electronic Data Systems (EDS under Ross Perot) signs an agreement with Blue Cross for handling of its data processing services. Mid-1980s EDS signed contracts with Continental Airlines, First City Bank and Enron. 1989 – Kodak outsources its IS function to IBM, DEC Businessland (â€Å"Kodak Effect†) being the most notable example. More recent developments (Kern and Willcocks 2000, Ross and Westerman 2004, Kishore 2003, Kaiser 2004, Lander 2004, IBM 2004, Smith and McKeen 2004), suggests motivation is more strategic in nature with the goal of improving the business’ competitive advantage. It’s clear that ITO is not quite a new phenomenon but increasingly more prominent in this era where it is prevalent in almost every facet of business. The industry evolved from monolithic mainframe to pervasive computing. A survey of the London Stock Exchange FTSE Index over a period of three years found a generally positive relationship between high levels of outsourcing and enhanced stock market performance. Reasons for outsourcing Organizations adopt ITO for various reasons (Turban et al, 2006). The ever dynamic evolution within the IT sector grants great opportunity to business. The following reasons were invariably most common as per numerous surveys done and researched globally: Cost reduction This has been the foremost reason to outsource as senior executives’ only views the IT function as a noncore activity and a necessary cost to be minimized. Economic pressures are also external factors that lead to advent of ITO. Lacity and Willcocks(2001) explains that cost savings are no longer a major reason for outsourcing. Focus on core competency Business deems IT as a cost centre and excludes it from its core strategy. With increased shareholder demands organisations feel they need to refocus on broader business issues other than technology. Organizations places more focus on their â€Å"core competency† business (Field, 1999). Access to specialist expertise and technology Highly skilled labour comes at a cost and also the technology and is also not readily available. ITO is not only for cost savings but as a tool for utilizing state of the art expertise and technology through their service providers (Field, 1999). However of late, the companies with strong IT capabilities, such as IBM, Microsoft and SUN, are also outsourcing some of their IT functions to concentrate on their core-responsibilities and reduce costs to the economies of scale. Decision Making In the past, organizations used frameworks and models as guidelines for assessing their current state and determining future strategic actions (Gorry and Scott-Morton 1971, Nolan 1973, Luftman 1999, Venkatraman and Henderson 1993). More organizations are considering ITO as part of their strategic thinking. Organizations use ITO as a method to reduce costs, achieve efficiency and flexibility but many don’t realize the benefits due to bad decision making. ITO decision-making is a process and requires careful scrutiny before being finalized. ITO decision making process addresses a wide range of issues, such as economical (eg., financial feasibility), technological and political .This process starts with an in-house assessment of the IT capabilities which should highlight to management activities that can potentially be outsourced. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threats) analysis could be used to substantiate the need whether ITO can possibly be used to negate those threats and weaknesses or whether at all necessary to explore ITO. The facts gathered should include a baseline and evaluation of the current environment which should be made available for executive management approval. Knowledge within the strategic decision at this higher level can thus be descriptive (know-what), procedural (know-how) or reasoning (know-why) (Fahey et al., 2001; Holsapple Singh, 2000). Case studies within surveys conducted by M.C.Lacity,L.P.Willcocks and D.F.Feeny published in the Sloan Management Review(Spring 1996) summarizes the ITO process. The abovementioned reasons were most common in their samples. Scope of sourcing Sourcing is often referred to in IT literature as outsourcing. The research delineates four categories of sourcing: Total outsourcing is where all IT activities including assets and management become the responsibility of a third-party vendor. Total insourcing refers to the in-house management of IT activities where external or internal staff is used with the buying in of the vendor resources to meet a temporary need. Vendor resources are only used to supplement the internally managed teams. Selective sourcing locates selected IT activities to vendors while the customer remained responsible for delivering the result and will be held accountable. De facto insourcing uses internal IT departments to provide products and services that arise from historical precedent, rather than from a reasoned evaluation of the IT service market. Considerations of sourcing Critical review of above categories found that the all-or-nothing approach ( total outsourcing) characterized by long-term(5 years or more) deals can lead to trouble after a few years as exemplified in the case studies due to: Senior Management approach ITO like any other make-or-buy decision where ubiquitous IT applications across business functions complicate matters. Lost alignment between business and IT strategies. Failed promises to access new technologies. Processing power cost depreciates at an average of 20 percent annually due the IT capabilities evolvement. And contractual costs soared greater than market prices. Termination of such contracts was found to be prohibitively expense. Research found that those who approach ITO in all-or-nothing terms either incur great risks or forego the potential benefits of selective sourcing. Reasons for ITO can be categorized as two dimensional and based on: Purchasing style refers to contracts to either be once off or an expectation of business for many years. Purchasing focus refers to companies buying resources from vendors, such as hardware,etc, and manage the delivery of IT themselves or vendors manage the IT activity and the organization expect the specified results. The result is four distinct categories will be representative of whether ITO is required as figure 1 represents. The figure also represents a decision matrix for business and guide for an effective strategy. A decision in selecting what can be outsourced usually distinguish between the contribution that IT makes to the business operations and it’s impact on competitive advantage. ITO was primarily domestic but has now evolved due to globalization and can also be categorized now by variance of service provider distance. The same reasons apply globally for ITO. On-shoring refers to the outsource vendor located in the same country of the customer. Near-shoring refers to the outsource vendor located geographically close but not in the same country. Off-shoring refers to the outsource vendor located offshore and possibly on a different continent and time-zone. Managing ITO Once the scope and type has been identified,the vendor selection process will be initiated by soliciting via Request for Proposal(RFP). Not all service providers are equal as all offer different types of services like: IS consultancies/solutions providers services in all IS functions Systems houses system integration Hardware vendors – hardware platform Ex-IS departments industry specific sourcing Development houses – develop software Generic outsourcers manage functions, especially infrastructure Freelancers There are also important criteria to look for in your service provider. Appropriate outsourcing experience and proven customer satisfaction track record. Accredited in application of best practices such as ITIL with the necessary evidence. Adequate numbers of skilled labor. Scale and geography to fulfill the organizations needs. Prepared to be flexible to you organizations needs, ie plan with current staff. Upon selection of the ITO partner, an outsourcing contract provides a legally bound, institutional framework in which each party’s rights, duties and responsibilities are codified and the goals, policies, and strategies underlying the arrangement are specified. Selective sourcing allows for flexibility within the short contracts. While some organizations realized their benefits in ITO, others have not been able to achieve benefits due to poor staffing of the IT function, poorly written service level agreements (SLA), lack of outsourcing experience on the client side, poor project management skill, poor technical infrastructure (especially in some offshore cases), and lack of trust (Jennex and Adelakum 2003, Lacity and Willcocks 2001). A contract alone is insufficient to guide outsourcing evolution and performance since it involves repeated inter-organizational exchanges that become socially embedded over time.This is why ICT outsourcing is very challenging and often a painful process!! Governance is fundamental to outsourcing relationships. Tracking SLAs and ensuring compliance to contracts are critical to controlling costs and setting minimum performance requirements. It is therefore important to ensure that the ITIL framework,starting with support management, are implemented to ensure that the IT aligns with business with the necessary metrics in place. Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) framework will ensure that all policies should be enforced, especially adherence to security. Critical Success Factors in an outsourcing relationship that should mitigate risk: Define a strategy with measurable goals within your SLA to ensure the relationship don’t lose momentum over time. Exercise due diligence to establish a baseline for the relationship. With the adoption of the ITIL Framework,adopt a comprehensive change management strategy. Always keep senior management involved to ensure that adherence to policies and procedures. The right metrics and regular reporting build confidence and help sustain relations. As per the Tuckman’s stage model the relationship should grow like a team and evolve in stages. Stage one is the Insourcing stage where organizations buy only a few IT functions or services from external vendors on short term contractual agreements. Only a few IT activities are bought from outside parties, generally less than 5% of the entire IT operation. Stage two is the Forming, or experimenting, stage. In this stage organizations engage in sporadic outsourcing of IT activities. Sourcing activities may be between 10-20% of the entire IT needs in the organization. Stage three is the Storming stage; it is regarded as a transition stage. At stage three organizations need to make a decision either to pursue outsourcing actively or to keep on experimenting. Stage four is the Norming stage. At this stage organization have already made a decision to pursue IT outsourcing actively and have established some norms, methods or processes for IT outsourcing within the organization. The reason for outsourcing could be either cost focus or desire to improve internal efficiency. Outsourcing could account for up to 40% of IT activities. The last stage is the strategic focus stage. In this stage IT outsourcing is part of the corporate strategy and it is not based just on cost reduction or IT improvement but is a strategic decision to use IT outsourcing within the entire organization as part of corporate strategy. Benefits from ITO Offshore outsourcing holds more advantages than disadvantages with: IT outsourcing to India helps to leverage from immensely intelligent, skilled and dedicated resources at reduced labor. Opportunity to expand service levels beyond ordinary. 24/7 Productivity has given rise to the â€Å"global delivery system† where development in particular could be done around the clock or â€Å"overnight† in a collaborative model. Choice of accredited vendors indicates that best practices are applied which should result in increase quality of service. Best-of-breed technologies accompanied by best practices should decrease the latency on time-to-market. Conclusion All factors for outsourcing was highlighted in would thus mitigate risks and highlight benefits.The future of outsourcing include service-oriented architecture (SOA), green IT, the changing role of practitioners and what the future holds for convergence of technology and business process. The ITO market would thus become more specialized and modular. Offshore ITO has also grown due to the bandwagon effect where other organizations just take advantage of the options prompted by others. Numerous surveys in outsourcing indicates that Offshore Leaders are Canada, India, Ireland, Israel, Philippines Up-and-comers are Brazil, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa. Rookies are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Thailand, Ukraine Reverse sourcing is a new trend in global business where offshore outsourcing is reversed to near-shore outsourcing but not primarily for cost factors. This trend is more evident in call-centers as customers prefer dealing with agents proficient in their language and culture. References Apte, U. M., Sobol, M. G., Hanaoka, S., Shimada, T., Saarinen, T., Salmela, T. and Vepsalainen, A. P. J. (1997). IS Outsourcing Practices in the USA, Japan and Finland: A Comparative Study, Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 12, pp. 289-304. Bansal, V. and Pandey, V. (2003). A decision-making framework for IT Outsourcing using Analytical Hierarchy Process, Kampur, Indian Institute of Technology Buchanan, Steven (2006). â€Å"A framework for business continuity management† International Journal of Information Management, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 128-141, Apr 2006 Corbett MF (2004)- The outsourcing revolution, Dearborn Trade Pub Dibbern, J, Goles,T, Hirschheim, R, Jayatilaka, B (2004). Information Systems Outsourcing: A Survey and Analysis of the Literature. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems – 2004 (Vol. 35, No. 4). Felton JD (2008)- The Art of Outsourcing Information Technology,AuthorHouse Gallivan, M. J. and Oh, W. (1999). Analyzing IT Outsourcing Relationships as Alliances among Multiple Clients and Vendors, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii. Gottschalk P (2006)- Knowledge Management Systems: Value Shop Creation,Idea Group Inc (IGI) Greaver MF (1999)- Strategic outsourcing: a structured approach to outsourcing decisions and initiatives,AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn Gupta A (2008)- Outsourcing and Offshoring of Professional Services,Idea Group Inc (IGI) http://is2.lse.ac.uk/asp/aspecis/20040001.pdf http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/1997/spring/3834/beyond-outsourcing-managing-it-resources-as-a-value-center/ http://www.eds.com/about/history/timeline.aspx http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/veena/PAPERS/icsci04.pdf Hu, Q., Saunders, C. and Gebelt, M. (1997). Research Report: Diffusion of Information Systems Outsourcing: A Re-evaluation of Influence Sources, Information Systems Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 288-301. Khosrowpour M(2003)-Advanced Topics in Information Resources Management,Idea Group Inc (IGI) MC Lacity, LP Willcocks, DF Feeny (1996)- Sloan Management Review http://hickeyj.googlepages.com/p5.pdf Mcivor R (2005)- The Outsourcing Process,Cambridge University Press Michaelides P -Reasons Leading to the Ineffectiveness of Information Systems Outsourcing in Minimising Costs,Universal-Publishers Schniederjans AM,Schniederjans DG(2007) Outsourcing management information systems,Idea Group Inc (IGI)

Self-employment in Do the Right Thing Essay -- Working Films Movies Ca

Self-employment in Do the Right Thing Self-employment is often confused with capitalism. This is because the word capitalism has come to mean "free markets" and "free enterprise," rather than a specific type of economic system. However, the conflation of the term capitalism with these other terms reduces the concepts available for doing social scientific analysis. We need to be able to identify the traditional capitalist system: a system based on free wage labor creating products that are owned by capitalist directors who are distinct from these original wage laborers. Self-employment is then distinct from this capitalist economic system precisely because it is based on free independent labor creating products that are owned by the individual direct producers. In other words, a self-employed laborer is very different from a capitalist laborer. This difference is, without question, of great consequence and worthy of social scientific analysis. Most past conceptions of the self-employed direct producers have regarded this unique economic system as of only minor importance (if even that) in a world dominated by feudalism and/or capitalism. However, historically self-employment has played an important role in many societies, including the United States, and continues to do so today. The relative prevalence and particular types of self-employment in society influences other social processes, including political processes, cultural processes, and individual psychology. In a society where self-employment exists, it is simply not possible to adequately understand and explain social change in the absence of a concept of self-employment (and a concept that is clearly distinct from other types of production and distributio... ... way that is very different from the relationship between producer and product in other class processes. It is, therefore, all the more tragic in the film when the pizzeria is destroyed. It is not simply the destruction of a work place, but the destruction of Sal's identity as a self-employed producer (although this identity can, persumably, be resurrected in a new structure). For Mookie this is better than harm having been done to Sal, the person, and this is why he redirects the hatred of the crowd away from Sal and his sons to the building. But for Sal, it is difficult to take a great deal of solace in this diversion (although in the end, he seems to harbor no ill will towards Mookie, perhaps because he understands the context in which Mookie threw the garbage can through the pizzeria window) because some essential aspect of his identity has been destroyed.