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Good Managers Are Born Not Made Management Essay

Great Managers Are Born Not Made Management Essay The way in to an effective association is said to exist in a decent administrator. It i...

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

How A Quilt Is Unique, And Prospects For Restoration

So you ve inherited a family quilt, and discovered that it has deteriorated over the years. The normal aging process of textiles cannot be halted, but there are some things that can be done to help restore a quilt to its former glory. Every quilt is unique, and prospects for restoration will be different from quilt to quilt, but if your heirloom is in poor condition, this is the place to go for information about getting help for it. As stated on the homepage, Don t let your family quilt sadly crumble away. Click on this website link, Heirloom Quilt Restoration at www.restorequilts.com and you will find lots of information about caring for your vintage quilt, and how to store it properly. If you decide that your quilt may need some restoration or repair done, you can see that the process is tailored to the individual needs of each quilt. The specific needs for each quilt will differ. Since there are so many types of deterioration that can affect a quilt, it is important to find out w hat the specific problems are and what some possible solutions are. You can t un-do the ageing from normal use or previous poor storage conditions, but you can learn how to properly care for and store your heirloom to avoid causing additional damage. If you want to have an evaluation done, there will be a small fee charged. When you email for more information, you will receive an offer to email any pictures of your quilt and its damage for a no-cost assessment. Specific recommendations orShow MoreRelatedLaundry Shop- Business plan6416 Words   |  26 Pagesproviding quality services and products that will meet the needs and wants of our customers. There are many groups of individuals in the Sydney Central Business District; a concentration of high disposable income families who can afford to pay for Restoration and Dry Cleaning, a number of small families who have limited income, and need maximum return on every dollar they spend, those who have plenty of time on their hands, thos e who are time-poor, as well as individuals who live in high-rise small apartments;

Monday, December 16, 2019

The Importance of Going to College - 765 Words

Is only knowledge that is deserved to learn at college? Will a man be brilliant if he is a studying machine? Will your mother be satisfied with you if you cannot even take care of yourself? As science and technology develops, more and more students choose to go to college instead of working after they graduate from high school. Their parents are strongly for this in that they can command more skills, or else they will be in a lower status in the society full of competition. Some may ask why we should go to college. From my point of view, not only should students learn knowledge in four years, but also they should learn how to cooperate with others, how to step into society in advance, how to take care of themselves as well as how to broaden their horizons in their tedious studying life. According to the opinion of a bloger blogger named Bing Xinjie, the greatness of a college is not lying in its buildings but is lying in that there are many brilliant people (Bing, 2011) . Every school absolutely has people or matters that affect us very much, so we are supposed to make sufficient use of resources in our school. Besides, college provides us with an easy atmosphere for studying which we do need to take good advantage of to learn something that we like or that we think is of great significance. She also implies that it is the way we think and the ability of solving the problems by ourselves that we are supposed to improve.Show MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Going To College759 Words   |  4 Pagesparents and teachers, that you have to attend college if you want to succeed in life. Before I started my college journey, I thought the reason for going to college was that you could have a high paying job. Then that high paying job would make you super successful, and you would be filthy rich. Which would make all your problems in the world go away. What if they were wrong? That means every student must face this question. Why do I have to go to college? Life never stops. You cannot call a timeRead MoreThe Importance Of Going To College1014 Words   |  5 PagesGoing from high school to college has been a big step in my journey to success. It is partly because of this that going to college is so important to me. Being successful is what I strive for and in today’s society, I have to go to college in order to achieve this. I plan to become a Dental Hygienist, make money, and along the way open myself up to allowing the college to make a positive difference in my life. However, with college comes with many challenges. My greatest challenge will be toRead MoreThe Importance Of Going To College893 Words   |  4 Pages As I’m growing up, I’ve realized that college is necessary. My life after high school is full of dreams, full of riches, full of achievements, and most importantly failure. In order to have all that, I need to go to college. In order to have a good future, I have to suffer a bit. I have to study a bit, I have to stay up later than usual studying, and reading till my eyelashes fall off. Many of my peers around me think differently though. They think college isnt necessary, and they put up all theseRead More The Importance of Going Away to College Essay1261 Words   |  6 PagesThe Importance of Going Away to College Imagine the senior year of high school when students are poised to enter college and become adults. Its a time of responsibility, of being on ones own, and of shaping lives by making daily decisions. One of the major decisions is where to attend college. Should a person stay close to home and attend an in-state school where people and even campuses are somewhat familiar? Or should the decision be to start a completely new chapter in ones life byRead MoreInâ€Å"Are Too Many People Going To College?†, The Author,1239 Words   |  5 PagesIn â€Å"Are Too Many People Going to College?†, the author, Charles Murray explains the advantages of a liberal arts undergraduate degree, diminishes the importance of a college B.A., and claims that more people should consider providing goods and services rather than pursuing more advanced careers. He begins by outlining the importance of â€Å"core knowledge† being taught at a younger age in order to provide students wi th â€Å"cultural literacy† in American history and literature. After addressing a basisRead MoreIs College Degree Necessary Or Not?1302 Words   |  6 Pageswould be huge differences of opinion among people when asked if a college degree is necessary or not. This is because, it is a very open-ended question as the parameters of success differs from person to person. Moreover, different people have different ambitions in life. For some, being wealthy is success while for others stability in life may be success. Some may consider being famous to be a critical parameter for success. A college degree does not necessarily guarantee your success, though in mostRead MoreThe Benefits of a College Education in David Leonhardts Even for Cashiers College Pays Off1001 Words   |  4 PagesCashiers College Pays Off†, Leonhardt argues that going to college is not a waste of time, only that the college education needs improvement. College education requires money and so thatâ€⠄¢s the reason why some people consider it as a waste of time. However, college students get financial aid, and money is not a problem to them. In the context, Leonhardt explains how America got benefits from engaging a lot into college education before other countries. Leonhardt analyzes the importance of college educationRead MoreWho Should Go For College?992 Words   |  4 PagesWho should go to college? Who should go to college? We live in a world where some people are forced to go to college or some people are told college is not for them. Should college only be for those with higher intelligence, should people put college to the side and only focus on work, or is it set in store for some to follow in the footsteps of their parents who did not attend college? There are some that protest against some going to college, on the other hand, there are some that indicate thatRead MoreThe Importance Of College Education1257 Words   |  6 Pageswhen deciding whether to go to college or which college to attend. The importance of college has been a long-debated topic that is becoming more and more popular. It used to be that a high school education was necessary to succeed, and a college degree was merely beneficial. However, today college has escalated into something that is considered necessary to succeed. New York Times columnists, David Leonhardt, states that â€Å"if youre someone who can get into college, going is practically a no-brainerRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School997 Words   |  4 PagesWhen growing up, I loved going to school and dreamed of one day attending college. Attending school every day and receiving good grades had become my top priority from K-12. I excelled from K-8th grade, but entering into high school was completely different than primary school. The atmosphere and environment was new to me, I was free to roam the halls or walk back out the door without any repercussions. This began my downward spiral in high school. My freshman year was by far the best school year

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Innovation and Reverse Innovation

Question: Explain Innovation and Reverse Innovation. Answer: Business phenomenon refers to something, which is very impressive and remarkable in a business environment. It implies that some unique strategic thinking of a company that is path breaking. This kind of business phenomenon adds significant value to the organization and every other business follows the same strategy for the development of the organization. This paper will focus on the business phenomenon: Innovation and Reverse Innovation. Innovation creates value to the organization. Innovation is possible through strategic thinking planning. With proper planning the innovation of the organization will lead to success of the company. Moreover, it leads to growth of the firm and consumers can avail more modern and innovative products and services. Strategic thinking of a company induces innovation and creativity. Innovation requires resource utilization and this can be done through proper strategic planning. Innovation is a part of strategic planning (Rothaermel 2015). To create ideal future, innovation assists the company to do something out of its comfort zone that exceeds the expectations of customers and companys requirement. Innovation should be meaningful; therefore, through proper strategic planning that includes the requirement of the customers; company and the employees, proper innovation takes place. To attain success of the firm because of highly added value to the company, the innovation should be benchmarking. The innovation should incorporate effective plans and involve employees ideas in order to ensure that the companys innovation is the best practice of the industry. When the company successfully implements the strategic thinking by initiating innovation process, then it will add value at every level of the organization (ODonohue 2015). Innovation creates competing elements and value management enables the stakeholders to understand the value of the new creation. Innovation helps an organization to be more competitive. Through value management of the company, unique value will be provided for customers. The aim of any strategy of a company is focused on producing new value through innovation. The strategic thinking of a company also incorporates planning of reverse innovation. in this process goods are developed by inexpensive model to meet the demand. Reverse innovation removes the expensive par t of the earlier innovation (Johnston and Bate 2013). However, this approach is not so competitive in nature but this helps to increase profit from selling of the products to the affluent section of the society. However, this enables the company to earn significant revenue. The reverse innovation process is mostly used in the developing countries. This kind of process also requires strategic planning, as it is important to understand the market for this kind of products. Whether this will create value to the consumers and add value to the company, depends on the fact how much the audience will accept the lower cost product. It is clear that, the innovation of product and reverse innovation brings something new to the society. It might be a new product or new process of production or an improved product. Therefore, this business phenomenon is important to be discussed. This assignment will discuss the review of the theory on this topic. It will also critically analyze application of the theoretical perspective of this business phenomenon. Literature Review Definition Innovation Due to social, economic and technological changes are the features of the global market place, it is important to adapt changes. Hence, to cope up with the changes innovation plays an important role in order to enhance the performance of the firm in building competitiveness. There is high interest of innovation studies as value judgment is attached to it. Scholars have defined innovation as an adoption of change. They emphasis on adoption, that is beyond the concept of new ideas. Innovation of production process is completed only when the innovation and operational structure of the company is achieved. Innovation is defined into six types of activity, such as, new services; new products; new methods of production; new sources of supply; opening new markets and new organizing way. Innovation performs as a key driver to deal with the problem of quantity; quality and speed (Davenport 2013). Therefore, creating new value proposition become a problem. The companies seek to maximize the se arch for new value and design it in the form of a new products; new process or new method of doing business. In this regard, the scholars referred that innovation is the capability of the organization to create new value proposition for the stakeholders. There are many variables that link to the innovation capability are, organizational culture; leadership; resources and participation of supplier, customer and employee. Innovation is a multidimensional concept as it is used to analyze performance of the business; firms innovation etc. Innovation not only implies the product or process innovation but also indicates innovation in the management system and in the organization. The authors of innovation pointed out three sequential components: innovation as an outcome; innovation as a process and innovation leadership. Crossan and Apaydin (2010) stated that innovation is exploitation; incorporation; production or adoption of a value added novelty in economic social and economic area. Innovation Generations Literature has identified that, there are various models that explain the innovation process. According to the Rothwell (2012), innovation process can be classified into five generations. During the first generation, the innovation was dominated by technology-push model. Here, innovation is interpreted as progressing way of R D. Innovation took place only in terms of manufacturing new products in the market. It was seen as a linear process, which assumed that the market is ready for the output of R D activities. It was believed that more is the engagement on the R D activity; the more would the innovations that are beneficial to the market and society. The second-generation innovation put focus on innovation in the marketing strategy. The market played a crucial role in the innovation process. The innovation was driven by the needs of the customers, therefore, it is known as market- pull model. The market was considered as the source of the ideas for conducting the research and de velopment. The third generation innovation process shifted to coupling model. The proponents have described is as a complex intra and extra organizational communication path, that links in-house functions and firms to broader technological and scientific community and marketplace (Anderson et al. 2012). This model has drawn attention to the significance of feedback. This process is influenced by the interactions of technological and market forces. The fourth generation innovation is an alternative model of the coupling model. The approach of product development process was based around a sophisticated functional integration and parallel activities. The information sharing process became efficient as the 4th generation innovation process promotes the cross-functional parallel development and more effective integration. The fifth generation or the present generation of innovation process resembles the networking processes. Rothwell (2012) has opined that this innovation process can be called as systems integration and networking process. This approach has generated due to mutual R D relationships; increasing international strategic alliances and growing consciousness of supply chain management; networking connections between large and small firms (James et al. 2014). Linkage to external networks and relations with the customers have been given importance in this generations innovation activities. The firms of the present generation stress on the networking among the organization and the role that competition plays in improving the innovation. Studies have also emphasized on the impact of geographical location to innovative capacity and identified that the networking is the major component of advancing the innovation capacity of the firm. Level Analysis Authors have pointed out that phenomenon of innovation has different levels of analysis. Broadly, they can be classified into industry- level; firm- level; subunit level; regional- level; national level. Industry level innovation refers to extra or intra-industry development of the innovation. The extra-industry level stresses on the aspects of that make distinction between innovation development pattern and innovation magnitudes. The intra-industry level stresses on differences in the time of adoption of innovation across firms and inferences of the innovation for performance of various organizations (Harrison et al. 2014). The firm or organization level innovation involves the process of outcome approach of the innovation. The process approach explains a broad range of events and orders central to innovation process. The outcome approach finds out the contextual; structural and behavioral features of innovation. The sub-unit level of analysis indicates the departmental innovation d ecision-making factors and communication that affect the R D unit; diversity in the RD team and also the tenure of the R D group. The geographic level of innovation emphasize on innovation capacity of the nation and contributing aspects of the level of input devoted to innovation and aspects that drive research and development activity of the nation (Malecki 2013). Regional level analysis is same as the national level analysis; the difference is that innovation can differ with respect to the region within the same nation. The firm level innovation can be classified into three categories: diffusion; organizational innovativeness and process theory (Kilic et al. 2015). The studies of diffusion try to explain and predict the rates of innovation adoption and the pattern over the time and space. The unit of analysis is innovation itself that has an extra-organizational focus. Organizational innovativeness focuses on the factors that influence the tendency of the firm towards the innovation. Unit of analysis is the organization. The process theory explains the processes of innovation by focusing on the way of implementation of the innovations by the organizations (Brockhoff, Chakrabarti, and Hauschildt 2013). Process of innovation is the unit of analysis. The literature on regional innovation is the complex networks of social informal relationships within a certain region that in order to develop the local innovative capacity through synergetic and combined learning process. Many literatures have looked int o the fact that spatial elements affect the innovative behavior. This concept has incorporated the significance of the social elements and transfer of know-how; imitation of managerial practices etc. national level analysis is group institutions that support innovative activities within the country. Innovation Process Gerybadze et al. (2012) described the innovation process as a stage that starts from strategic planning; innovation planning; idea generation; screening; selection of project; development of project; testing the market; production; introduction of the market and controlling the innovation. Literature reviews that innovation process depends on several dimensions: direction; source and locus. Direction dimension takes into account how the process starts and develops be it top-down or bottom-up. The source dimension involves the ideation behind the innovation that is internal source and adoption of innovation invented already that is external source. The locus dimension describes the extent of a process of innovation whether firm only or the network. According to Narvekar and Jain introduced three-stage innovation process, those are, ideation, incubation and demonstration (Volberda, Van Den Bosch and Mihalache 2014). It is suitable for technological innovation process and examines the n ature and association between innovation and intellectual capital. This process is used to explain the process of learning and the company generates flow of new knowledge; proficiency and capability. Firms Performance Many scholars have recognized the significance of innovation on the performance of the firm. A firm introduces changes in their structure and processes with the target to improve over its performance. Studies have found that high performance of the firm and rate of innovation of the firm has strong relationship. It has bee also identified that technical and administrative innovation contributed to the performance of the company. The climate of the organization, communication, personnel policies and interdepartmental relations can be changed by the administrative innovations. These kinds of innovation have more impact on long run. Hence, innovativeness can be determined by the capability of maintaining balance between the technical and social systems. In literature, it has also been found that synergies between two types of innovation and overall corporate performance can be provided through the association between administrative and technical innovation. Innovations play a meditation al role between performance and market orientation. Gunday et al. (2011) has classified firms performance in terms of production; innovation; market and finance. Innovation has positive impact on the firms performance in the manufacturing industries. The innovation is the main driver of firms performance and this should be considered as the integral part of the business strategy in order to enhance the operational performance. It has been found that, when the firm has achieved significant market performance when it has given priority to innovation and manages innovation through strategic thinking. According to Salomo et al. (2013) innovation has significant indirect performance impacts intervened by innovativeness of the organizations new product portfolio. Some organizations establish strategic alliances and joint venture in order to improve the rate of success from innovation. By networking with the external scientists in new areas to lead an entire new business is a crucial part of the company (Ngo and OCass 2013). For example, to develop new car by BMW, it relocated its members from finance; engineering; production; design; marketing and purchasing to a separate unit to work collaboratively. These kinds of teams are small and flexible and considered as creative organization. To keep the business alive with sufficient competency, the management of the company emphasizes on innovation. Innovation of product, management, process and corporate values keep the organizations expanding and changing (Prajogo 2016). A company cannot survive without innovation in the long run. It is important to recognize the need for change in th organization. Small and medium enterprises often fail because they do not see any incentive in introducing new product to create a niche market, where they have to change for surviving. Large firms invest on product innovation and process innovation. Reverse Innovation Reverse innovation is the new way of innovation in the developing nations. In this process the firms produces low-priced products that generates huge demand by the low income group. The product can be developed by the developed western world in the developing nations and returned back to the western countries, or, firms of the developing nations produce low price products, that are going to disorder the price structure in the western companies. The economical innovations are referred as reverse innovation. The product through reverse innovation attracts cost sensitive customers. Govindarajan and Euchner (2012) postulated that reverse innovations are the low cost innovations that diffuse into the less developed nations from the developed nations. Reverse innovation is the creation first adopted in the less developed market before they trickle up to the rich nations as well. However, the concept arises to produce low cost product for the affluent people; in the western world, the rever se innovation is used to serve the rich customers for a distinct purpose. For example, low cost ECG machine developed in India is used in the ambulances in western nations, as installing high cost ECG machine is impractical. It challenges the belief that innovation flows from the advanced nations. The literatures have found that low-income countries no longer receive innovation from the rich countries. They are now capable of innovating their own needs at a subsistence cost (Govindarajan and Trimble 2013). The western firms engage in reverse innovation because their subsidiaries in the low-income countries have different roles than the roles of the headquarters. The western companies entered the market of developing countries in order to reap the benefits out of R D and skills of innovation to their home countries. technology in emerging economies changes in the reverse direction from distribution to production, then to development to research. The products from reverse innovation have high cost advantages than the prevailing solutions. This is a process of strategically rethinking to reduce the cost of production for the development of the company. Gupta (2013) opined that reverse innovation is a management philosophy developed newly, that integrates specific requirement of the weaker section of the society. Some have considered reverse innovation as frugal. However, many have opined that frugal innovation is designed mainly to offer products to the affluent segments, whereas, reverse innovation refers to developing new products in developing nation that are then modified for sale in developed nation (Nunes and Breene 2011). This difference is important because reverse innovation is main challenge for western firms as R D is rapidly becoming important in the emerging markets (Goel and Singhal 2015). The reversely innovated products are developed for selling worldwide from the beginning. The primary situations that create possibility of reverse innovation ar e income gap; infrastructure gap and sustainability gap. The per capita income is very low in the emerging world; there is huge possibility that there will be a decent quality product will be produced at a lower cost. The most of the innovation is unattractive in rich world. The infrastructure gap is another motivation for reverse innovation. The demand for new and advanced infrastructure is more in the developing world than in the developed world. In the developed nations, advanced infrastructure is already present. Rich word only demand to replace the new infrastructure (Crisp 2014). Therefore, through reverse innovation, new products are developed at low cost for the emerging nations as well as to replace the infrastructure of the developed world. Another situation of innovation is created due to sustainability gap as well. Developing countries are dealing with environmental rigidity far sooner than the advanced nations. Therefore, some certain technological advancement or the ad vancement in the process of innovation is highly required in the underdeveloped region. Reverse innovation also requires shifting the power or the control from the headquarters and needs to reshape the models of the organization. Critical Analysis The linear model of innovation is inadequate for depicting the process of innovation. The critics of the linear model of first generation innovation have opined that this approach is oversimplified. The first reason is that the linear innovation model lacks to-and-fro process and the second reason is that it has placed too much emphasis on the research and development and other inputs of innovation are completely ignored. The major weakness of this model is that there is absence of feedback path within the process of development and from the market as well. Feedback is necessary for evaluating the performance of the firm. Kline and Rosenberg opined that the first generation model of innovation distorts the reality of innovation (Panopoulos and Sarri 2013). The second-generation model of innovation fails to consider the importance of the linkages to technological and scientific knowledge, which are essential element of the innovation; and only focused on market needs. It also neglects the other crucial inputs for innovation. The critiques opined that the innovation process of third generation is also sequential. It is complex as well. Various reviews seek the implication on the management issues of innovation process. Critiques have opined that organization may not involve in all stages of innovation. Hence, it is important to identify the deficiency of the organization in order to improve the overall success from innovation. The effectiveness of innovation process requires balance of all innovative factors like culture; leadership; participation etc (Davenport 2013). Moreover, implementation of innovation requires several techniques to support the innovation. The problem is that the process of innovation occurs as a sequence of tasks that requires coordination; interdependence of management and the control; communication and information stream. Process of innovation is necessary to create an environment to promote the technology breakthrough. Technical innovation is has less impact in the long run than administrative innovation, and instantly affect in the short run (Damanpour and Aravind 2012). Moreover, literatures reviewed suggest that even if innovation can yield positives benefits for business, it cannot be concluded that the innovation process equates performance of the business. Business performance is not an outcome of innovation alone. Success and failure of innovation process is considered to be necessary but it is not sufficient factor to affect the business performance and its survival. Moreover, it is not possible to quantify the relationship between innovative effort and innovations. This is because, the effort is measured by innovation cost; efficiency in resource usage and innovations is measured as impact on firm; profitability and market share. The strategy of innovation and hence investing in the R D activity can bring major benefits to the business. However, there are potential risks associated with it. An innovation can only offer competitive advantage if the rival firms are unable to replicate the process in their own products (Maughan 2012). Though, patent gives a protection from imitating the invented idea by other people, but some innovation is difficult to protect. The main disadvantage of innovation is that one innovation is made through huge innovation but all other companies are enjoying the benefits. Therefore, innovation sometimes faces problem of free riding. Sometimes research and innovation are speculative as there is no assurance that the company will earn significant revenue. It might also happen that due to long term development process, the research or the outcome is already innovated by the other firms. Hence, there is high risk associated with long run development process. R D demands a high rate of return as there is high risk involved in this activity (Schneider and Spieth 2013). Hence, the opportunity cost of investing for innovation is quite high. It has been reviewed from the literatures; innovation is costly due to high rates of failure. Moreover, critiques have opined that due to complexity and non-linearity and knowledge intensive investment the innovation is quite risky. In the industries, where the entry barriers are less stringent, there is hardly any incentive for an individual firm to innovate. Even if the innovation is successful, the costs involved in developing can be too high to avoid the risks. Performance measurement has four phases: design; implementation; use and maintenance. It has been criticized by the scholar that innovation will be a failure, if the innovate product is not accepted in the market. The major disadvantage regarding innovation is that, innovation requires extensively high level of investment that might not be paid back during the life cycle of the product (Rothaermel 2015). The concentration of resources on the new product ignores the necessity for marketing of the existing product and maintaining the quality of the existing product. Moreover, innovation does not always produce superior products or the new innovated process is not always efficient. Hence, the effort or the investments become a waste for the organization. Innovation alone may not lead to improve in the business performance; the firm must have capacity to implement the innovation. Critics have also mentioned that innovation of technology reduces the dependency of the company on the labor force (Boons et al. 2013). This is highly debatable issue as this leads to loss of job . Therefore, the concept of innovation is highly criticized by the people. In addition to this, even if the innovation is not labor saving, it might be possible that due to implementation of the process, the employees may find it difficult to adapt the change. During incorporating the changes, the employees are supposed to be on the learning curve; therefore, the productivity declines in the short run. The performance of business might improve but overall impact of innovation is quite doubtful in nature. As discussed, the as workers lose job due to technical changes resulting from innovation. As a result of this, jobless people have to come to grips with the change in paradigm. Innovation is also criticized because; process innovation may lead to economies of scale that drives down the rivals and results into monopoly power. This might cause market to fail. Due to the disadvantages of innovation, most companies are engaged in reverse innovation. The reverse innovation enables firms to reduce the high cost of product innovation. Innovation is referred as knowledge development (Berchicci 2013). Small firms lack innovation but they are engaged in certain innovation activities. The source of knowledge in the small firms is the imitation of knowledge from bulk innovation (Westney 2013). Hence, they cannot have competitive advantage over others. Hence, through reverse innovation no significant knowledge is developed; therefore, it is believed that contribution of innovation is more than the reverse innovation. However, the disadvantages of reverse innovation is that, to relocate the operations of the MNCs to the developing nations, it requires some times; and cost and energy to invest (Yip and McKern 2014). This is a lengthy process and may require huge cost. Critiques have also opined that the reverse innovation is risky as customers may not prefer low cost products, as they may perceive a low quality of the innovated product. In this kind of case, reverse innovation is risky, as the market may not accept the product. The product of reverse innovation is mostly risky in the developed nations, as the market is niche there. Conclusion The report has discussed about a business phenomenon, reviewed the literature and critically analyzed it. Innovation and Reverse innovation is chosen as a topic as it is considered as a random and unpredictable phenomenon. All firms have same probability of innovating and ensuring the competitive advantages. However, some innovations are successful and some fail. In this report, the literature regarding the innovation has been reviewed. The literature has reviewed definition of innovation. The generations of innovations have also been explained. The report has also reviewed different levels of innovation. The process of innovation has also been described. The literature mainly focuses on the business performance of the firm. The report also aimed to describe the concept of reverse innovation. The report also critically analyzed the idea of innovation. The report has described the problem of different generations of innovation. It has also criticized that the process of innovation req uires proper coordination, without which the entire effort might be failed. Moreover, some effect of innovation is instant and some takes a long span to be realized. It has been realized that innovation has significant positive impact on the performance of the business, as it allows to be more competitive in the market. In spite of this fact, there is high risk associated with innovation. The report has described the advantages of reverse innovation and identified that how this kind of innovation is growing in the developing nations. To capture the share of the low-income segment, reverse innovation is considered as a best practice. From the above discussion, it is clear that, innovation is inevitable for every organization. Innovation leads to path breaking business practices, which achieves high levels of profit. However, the other firms can use an innovation of another firm as well, if it is not protected properly. Hence, copying a innovated product or the new process then it cau ses high risks for the firm that has invested to innovate. The paper has criticized this kind of disadvantages of the innovation in a business. The firms need proper strategic thinking for innovating a product, however, it is more important to implement the innovation strategically, that needs to have proper planning. It has been identified that innovation adds value to the organization and hence, it is important for the organizations to invest in the innovation and reverse innovation. References Andersson, M., Johansson, B., Karlsson, C. and Lf, H. eds., 2012.Innovation and growth: from RD strategies of innovating firms to economy-wide technological change. OUP Oxford. Berchicci, L., 2013. Towards an open RD system: Internal RD investment, external knowledge acquisition and innovative performance.Research Policy,42(1), pp.117-127. Boons, F., Montalvo, C., Quist, J. and Wagner, M., 2013. Sustainable innovation, business models and economic performance: an overview.Journal of Cleaner Production,45, pp.1-8. Brockhoff, K., Chakrabarti, A.K. and Hauschildt, J. eds., 2013.The dynamics of innovation: Strategic and managerial implications. Springer Science Business Media. Crisp, N., 2014. Mutual learning and reverse innovationwhere next?.Globalization and health,10(1), p.1. Crossan, M.M. and Apaydin, M., 2010. A multià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ dimensional framework of organizational innovation: A systematic review of the literature.Journal of management studies,47(6), pp.1154-1191. Damanpour, F. and Aravind, D., 2012. Managerial innovation: Conceptions, processes, and antecedents.Management and Organization Review,8(2), pp.423-454. Davenport, T.H., 2013.Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press. Gerybadze, A., Backes-Gellner, U., Harhoff, D., Llerena, P., Luther, J. and Schnitzer, M., 2012. Research, Innovation and Technological Performance in Germany (Report 2012).Innovation and Technological Performance in Germany (Report 2012)(February 28, 2012). Goel, A.K. and Singhal, P., 2015. Innovation Landscape Idea to Product Development.Product Innovation through Knowledge Management and Social Media Strategies, p.358. Govindarajan, V. and Euchner, J., 2012. Reverse innovation.Research-Technology Management,55(6), pp.13-17. Govindarajan, V. and Trimble, C., 2013.Reverse innovation: Create far from home, win everywhere. Harvard Business Press. Gunday, G., Ulusoy, G., Kilic, K. and Alpkan, L., 2011. Effects of innovation types on firm performance.International Journal of production economics,133(2), pp.662-676. Gupta, S.M. ed., 2013.Reverse supply chains: issues and analysis. CRC Press. Harrison, R., Jaumandreu, J., Mairesse, J. and Peters, B., 2014. Does innovation stimulate employment? A firm-level analysis using comparable micro-data from four European countries.International Journal of Industrial Organization,35, pp.29-43. James, A., Gee, S., Love, J., Roper, S. and Willis, J., 2014, June. Small FirmLarge Firm Relationships and the Implications for Small Firm Innovation: What do we know?. InDRUID Society Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark(pp. 1-29). Johnston, R.E. and Bate, J.D., 2013.The power of strategy innovation: a new way of linking creativity and strategic planning to discover great business opportunities. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Kilic, K., Ulusoy, G., Gunday, G. and Alpkan, L., 2015. Innovativeness, operations priorities and corporate performance: An analysis based on a taxonomy of innovativeness.Journal of Engineering and Technology Management,35, pp.115-133. Maughan, C. 2012. Organisational Innovation: A review of the literature CRC-REP Working Paper CW001. Ninti One Limited, Alice Springs. Ngo, L.V. and O'Cass, A., 2013. Innovation and business success: The mediating role of customer participation.Journal of Business Research,66(8), pp.1134-1142. Nunes, P. and Breene, T., 2011. Reinvent your business before its too late.Harvard Business Review,89(1/2), pp.80-87. ODonohue, W., 2015. Progress in innovation and knowledge management research: From incremental to transformative innovation.Journal of Business Research. Panopoulos, A.P. and Sarri, K., 2013. E-mentoring: The adoption process and innovation challenge.International Journal of Information Management,33(1), pp.217-226. Prajogo, D.I., 2016. The strategic fit between innovation strategies and business environment in delivering business performance.International Journal of Production Economics,171, pp.241-249. Rothaermel, F.T., 2015.Strategic management. McGraw-Hill. Rothwell, R., 2012. 5 TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH IN.Cooperative Research and Development: The IndustryUniversityGovernment Relationship, p.85. Salomo, S., Schultz, C., Brentani, U. and Kleinschmidt, E.J., 2013. How Formal Control Influences Decisionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Making Clarity and Innovation Performance.Journal of Product Innovation Management,30(3), pp.430-447. Schneider, S. and Spieth, P., 2013. Business model innovation: towards an integrated future research agenda.International Journal of Innovation Management,17(01), p.1340001. Volberda, H.W., Van Den Bosch, F.A. and Mihalache, O.R., 2014. Advancing management innovation: Synthesizing processes, levels of analysis, and change agents.Organization Studies,35(9), pp.1245-1264. Westney, D.E., 2013.Imitation and innovation(p. 117). Harvard University Press. Yip, G. and McKern, B., 2014. Innovation in emerging marketsthe case of China.International Journal of Emerging Markets,9(1), pp.2-10.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Rich And Poor Essays - Corporate Finance, Social Philosophy

Rich And Poor The United States is the most developed capitalist economy in the world. The markets within the economy provide profit-motivated companies endless potential in the pursuance of pecuniary accumulation. Throughout the twentieth-century competitive companies have implemented modernized managerial procedures designed to raise profits by reducing unnecessary costs. These cost-saving procedures have had a substantial effect on society and particularly members of the working class. Managers and owners of these competitive and self-motivated companies have consistently worked throughout this century to exploit the most controllable component of the production process: the worker. The worker has been forced by the influence of powerful and affluent business owners to work in conditions hazardous to their well being in addition to preposterously menial compensation. It was the masterful manipulation of society and legislation through strategic objectives that the low-wage workers were coerced into this position of destitute. The strategies of the affluent fragment of society were conceived for the selfish purpose of monetary gain. The campaigns to augment the business position within the capitalist economy were designed to weaken organized labor, reduce corporate costs, gain legislative control and reduce international competition at the expense of the working class. The owners have gained and continue to gain considerable wealth from these strategies. To understand why the owners of the powerful companies operate in such a selfish manner, we must look at particular fundamentals of both capitalism and corporation strategy. Once these rudiments are understood, we will more clearly relate the perspective of the profit-seeking corporations of America. Legal discussion will also be included to show how the capital possessing elite operate through political parties to achieve their financial objectives. It is the synergist effect of these numerous strategies that have lead to the widening income gap in America, persistent attempts of contraction in worker's rights and increased corporate political influence. These campaigns have come at an expense to Americans and will only continue to benefit the affluent society. Creating Corporate Value The United States is a capitalist economy. In a capitalist economy individuals who wish to gain wealth can invest their capital into markets in hopes of future returns. If this investment gains in value then the investor has earned a return, which can be reinvested. This creates a cycle of investing and reinvesting for potential future return. This wealth creating cycle is a fairly simple concept to understand, but wealthy individuals have learned to fabricate this cycle into different situations. A common form of investment is purchasing and selling of corporate stocks. The stock market works like all markets on the fundamental theory of supply and demand. The more demand for a stock the higher it is valued and conversely the less demand the less it is valued. Corporations are legal entities which issue stock to investors who purchase them and become shareholders of the company. The risk taken by investors is that when they buy stocks it is possible that the individual company will not do well, or that stock prices will generally weaken. At worst, it is possible to lose entire investments, but no more then that. Therefor, shareholders of a corporation are not responsible for corporate debts. So, a corporation would be a very attractive type of investment for potential investors to consider. Corporations compete against each other in markets in the United States and around the world. These corporations have employees who perform various functions that contribute to successful strategic goal completion. Corporations often will offer stock incentive plans strategically to employees in positions of importance. The enticement to employees is to work in a manner that will increase the value of the company and their shares of stock. These incentive plans were strategically developed by major shareholders because the corporate executives felt that people would be motivated to increase their own wealth. Most employees are motivated by money and will work harder when the chance is given for more money. The very nature of this strategy consolidates all the employees to act as one self-motivated entity in the pursuit of monetary accumulation. In Piven and Cloward's Regulating the Poor, this point is illustrated: "Capitalism, however, relies primarily upon the mechanisms of a market-the promise of financial rewards or penalties-to motivate men and women to work and to hold them to their occupational tasks" (4). The increased motivation of important members of the workforce by the enticing tactics of greed for wealth is a result of strategic planning by the major shareholders of the firm. The cost to these primary shareholders is the stock incentive plans needed additional stock to fulfill, which reduced the

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Willa Cather a Lost Lady Essays

Willa Cather a Lost Lady Essays Willa Cather a Lost Lady Paper Willa Cather a Lost Lady Paper In Willa Cathers A Lost Lady, we are confronted with many examples of love and personal growth, two themes that Cather seamlessly intertwines by utilizing her technique of elucidation of complex emotion through use of nature and landscape throughout the novel. In this essay, I argue that Cather defines love and personal growth of Marian Forrester through three distinct scenes: the drunken long distance call between Mrs. Forrester and Ellinger after she learns of his elopement, the story of how Mr. nd Mrs. Forrester met and fell in love (told at the boys dinner party after the death of Captain Forrester), and the scene where Neil discovers that Mrs. Forrester found a happily ever after, after all. I chose these specific scenes because they explicate Mrs. Forresters romantic ideals of love and her personal growth as she struggles in vain to find the life shes looking for, that is, a life of both wealth and true love. Though some may view Marian Forresters long-standing affair with the masculine Frank Ellinger as a fatal character flaw, I contend that its existence and its abrupt demise via long distance telephone call illustrate a vital stepping stone along her journey of personal growth, and give us an important piece of the puzzle that is her evolving ideal of love. As soon as Marian Forrester storms into Neils house in the middle of the night, we learn that she has braved the rain, mud, and (especially), the ford crossing that was â€Å"up to a horses belly† with flood water (Cather 123). In her drunken state, nothing will distract her from her present mission, which is, to give Frank Ellinger the telling off hell never forget for betraying her trust. Presumably, she had meant to marry Ellinger herself, after the death of Captain Forrester, but Ellinger had been forced to choose otherwise when a mysterious feminine illness – that is, pregnancy – happened to befall the very lady whom Mrs. Forrester had been the source of introduction. We learn of this only through Mrs. Forresters end of the conversation, where she remarks, â€Å"Where shall you go on your honeymoon? Oh, Im very sorry! So soon you must take good care of her† (Cather 127). Of course, Ellinger may also be referring to an illness, as some excuse not to come see Mrs. Forrester. Either way, it becomes clear that Ellinger is forgetting the promises he made to Mrs. Forrester, and making his final attempts to be rid of her forever. It is the beginning of night at this part of the story, and ne may also conclude that this is the beginning of a sort of â€Å"night† in Marian Forresters life as well. It is following this point that Mrs. Forrester begins to sink into a deep depression, and allows herself to fall from the high esteem in which everyone in the community has held her. But there is also a glimpse into the personal growth that will occur from that point on, for this was not the first time that Marian Forresters ideal of love had gone terribly awry. Following the death of Captain Forrester, Marian slowly gains back a bit of her determination; indeed, she is determined to no longer let love stand in the way of the life she seeks – that is, a life of wealth and consequence. Twice before, her ideals of love had not turned out the way shed hoped. After her husbands death, we finally catch a glimpse into how it came to be that Mrs. Forrester was married to a man so much older than she. After being taken to the mountains to avoid publicity over her fiances murder, she fell almost to her death during a hiking trip. All night in the bitter cold, she laid there. But then, Captain Forresters party came to her rescue. It did not escape her that â€Å"she suffered less when Captain Forrester carried her, and that he took on all the most dangerous places on the trail himself† (Cather 158). In his arms, she felt secure, saying to those listening that â€Å"I knew that if we fell, wed go together; he would never drop me . . . when he asked me to marry him, he didnt have to ask twice† (Cather 158-159). She thought that he would never drop her, never let her down in life. That is why she consented to marry him. At nineteen, she was not in a position to understand what she was getting herself into. But as we meet with her in the novel, we see that she is starved for something that she had likely never known shed have to leave behind when she said yes to Captain Forrester at the sprightly age of nineteen: companionship with those on the same social level. Captain Forrester did indeed let her down, by isolating her from her natural habitat of socialization, like an exotic tropical bird locked away in a cage in distant northern mountains. After telling her story, Marian â€Å"drew her finger-tips absently across her forehead, as if to brush away something, – the past, or the present, who could tell? † Marian was brushing away those foolish ideals of romance and the heroic triumph of true love. She was embracing her own power and independence, to effect change in her own life, without waiting for change to present itself. Marian was preparing herself to shed her former romantic self, to do what she had to do to get what she wanted, indeed, what she had been starved of so long through her own foolish pursuit of love. Indirectly, we discover the result of Marians struggle to redefine herself. â€Å"Oh yes,† we learn, â€Å"she was married again, – to a cranky old Englishman; Henry Collins was his name† (Cather 165). Marian has found once more her natural place in society, she is discovered at a banquet, in a big hotel, â€Å"all done up in furs, with a scarf over her head† (Cather 164). Her husband, we learn, cannot really truly love her, and nor can she truly love him. However, she has found at last the sort of life she was looking for, if only by shedding her true identity. She was a good deal made up, of course, like most of the women down there; plenty of powder, and a little red, too, I guess. Her hair was black, blacker than I remembered it; looked as if she dyed it† (Cather 165). Like most of the women of her age, and certainly, of her era, she had to cover up her true self in order to exert her power and independence in the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, he r remarkable comeback stuns Ed Elliot, who states that â€Å"It was remarkable, how shed come up again. She seemed pretty well gone to pieces before she left Sweet Water† (Cather 165). Of course, any one who truly paid attention to Mrs. Forrester throughout her journey could never have been truly surprised at her outcome. Mrs. Forrester, though sometimes allowing herself to be carried away with the strong emotions she faced, always maintained willful independence and control over the opinions others may have of her. She had faced her night, with the death of her husband (who she once, I believe, truly did love dearly), and with the marriage of Ellinger, whom she never loved truly, only believed she did. She makes peace with both, by forgetting the latter entirely, and by paying her respects to the former, â€Å"wherever she was, she always sent a cheque to the Grand Army Post every year to have flowers put on Captain Forresters grave for Decoration Day† (Cather 166). She understands the role they played in the development of her character, and especially, her own understanding of the extent of her resolve. While her new husband Collins seems deliberately misplaced, (an Englishman whom she met in America before moving to South America), Marian is quite at home. She has finally found her place in life, by conquering her foolish ideals of romanticism in exchange for something she loves still more – comfort and consequence. In the end, Marian makes peace that she is not destined to have both true love and a comfortable life of wealth, and is contented with the fact that she must choose. We follow her through three distinct life stages. At first, she is an idealistic young woman, who believes that she is attaining love and comfort in her choice of Captain Forrester. As her comforts slowly wear away to nothing, and her romance along with it, she discovers that she made the wrong choice in Captain Forrester. Her passionate mid-life encounter with Ellinger finalizes the blow that she received from Captain Forrester, and that is that love can be fickle and decietful, and cannot be trusted with something as important as the rest of ones life, sending her into a proverbial â€Å"night,† where she is clouded by darkness and feels miserable. At the end of her life, she learns to trust in something far more substantial – herself. She gives up her pursuit of love, and instead pursues only comfort in life. She finds what she is looking for, and with that, she is contented. Only with distant nostalgia does she look upon her life in Sweet Water, because she knows that it was a life as unsustainable as it was unsupportable. Just as Sweet Water is cleared away to make room for industrialization, Marian clears the ideals of romantic love from her existence. Though she learns to live practically, and to find happiness in her life without love, she never forgets the life she led before, and the love she knew. Through the encounter with Ed Elliot, where she states â€Å"if you ever meet Neil Herbert, give him my love, and tell him I often think of him,† and by her respect toward her husband, through the decoration of his grave, she reveals that she looks upon her life of love without regret (Cather 165). Through her personal growth, we find that Marians ideals of love must evolve over her life based on the circumstances with which she is faced, and we come to understand her as an individual with both the power to change her own circumstances and the ability to love deeply, whether or not she chooses to pursue that love.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Factors that determine your success as a kid

Factors that determine your success as a kid 13 Things You Need to Be A Successful Kid! Want to be successful and trying to determine some dependencies, which can make you such a person? Or are you a loving parent and want to make everything possible to bring up a prosperous person? Scientists have made thousands of investigations, directed on the examination of parent and children relations, behavior patterns and other facts. There is no doubt that parents and family environment are the determinants for kid’s further life. Children are absorbing all behavior and emotional patterns, so they are like a mirror of their parents. The scientists prove that even small habits and parent’s actions matter for kid’s success. So the most common things, which are characteristic for successful kids are: Doing chores Scientists prove that children, who are made to do chores, are more organized and disciplined. These children are more successful at school than the kids, who do not perform some kind of household duties. When a kid understands that he/she has the range of certain responsibilities, it is easier for them to adapt for educational or real life environment. Sufficient social skills As follows from the scientific research, one more success factor for kids is represented by the social skills, which they have developed due to their parents. If parents have active social positions and have quite a big circle of contacts, their children have all chances to develop their social skills and have more effective results in the communication. Parents with high expectations If parents feel reliance upon their children and plan their college education or carrier, this will motivate their children. In such a way kids make more efforts and feel more responsibility. Indifferent and not caring parents usually have less successful children with poor number of achievements. Healthy relations with parents When parents and children are friends, children have fewer reasons for deviant behavior.   Healthy relations with parents make children happier and more capable to cope with different situations, always feeling the support of their relatives. Parents with higher educational degree If parents have completed education in higher institution, their kids are more likely to do the same. And higher educational degree correspondingly means more chances for success in professional sphere. Scientists assure that the percentage of successful kids with certified parents is distinctively higher. Learning math from early on It was noticed by the meta-analysts, that children, who have background knowledge of numbers and their order, have better study results further. Besides, kids gain high achievements not only in math, but in other subjects and gain reading and writing skills faster. Warm and developed relationships with parents Thus, relationships with parents are the determinative factors for kids’ lives. That is great when kids ask advices, share their problems and have trust-based communication with their parents. Such kind of relations gives confidence and provides a moral support. Less stress The emotional state of parents is absorbed by their kids. So when parents have less stress situations, it is reflected positively on their children. Less stress gives more emotional strength and effectiveness by reaching different goals within the kid’s life. Effort to avoid failure When kids strive to avoid any sort of failures, using their abilities or making efforts to develop new ones, it is great if parents appreciate this. In such a way their parents create an image of persons who achieve success, no matter what failures and misfortunes are on their paths during lives. Working mom If a child has a mom who spends much time working and earning money he or she generates an example of the person who knows the value of a labor. Also such life conditions provide more time for children to develop independence and more â€Å"adultery† view on life from an early age. Higher socioeconomic status No wonder that the higher socioeconomic status of a person is, the more abilities for his or her children are accessible and there are more ways in life to follow. It is sad that people possess different socioeconomic statuses, but anyway, for those who set their goals and try to realize them, there exist no obstacles that can stop them. Authoritative parents Authoritativeness is best for the children bringing-up process. In such a way they learn from their closest people how to behave in a correct way without letting others do inappropriate things and perform not strict, but right control. Learning ‘grit’ â€Å"Grit† is the ability to achieve the goal on long-lasting terms, and if the children possess such a quality, they can more easily and possibly reach their goals, that they set for themselves. This feature is essential for those who want to bring their dreams into reality, no matter what.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Conflict Management In The Area Of Public Management Essay

Conflict Management In The Area Of Public Management - Essay Example Conflict management is an art, and when dealing with public issues, this becomes a major challenge. In the broad context of defining conflict management with the tag of public issues, the scope moves beyond the office set-up and can involve, for example, union-management issues, public-counsel issues, etc. Seemingly, these words are fairly common terms used in the English language, but the gurus of the language speak themselves that at times, the most common terms are the most difficult ones to describe. Following the same, it is essential to describe these key terms with reference to the given topic. Logical sense generally implies, understanding a certain issue in a manner that it makes sense via the route of logic i.e. the explanation contains logic and has substances, and makes sense. For example, raising salaries can deteriorate profits makes perfect logical sense, but the solution is not not-raising-salaries, but rather a good way out can be introducing performance-based bonuses because salaries are fixed and bonuses vary with relation to the profits. Arguments are the cross-charge statements whereby one entity disagrees to the viewpoint of the other and presents its statement of disagreement. Managerial advice is simply put the advice placed to the management, and likewise any other entity getting advice, the management also needs to comprehend and analyze various factors including the outcome of the application/implementation of the advice. The three terms described by far can be combined together to comprehend that the arguments, when presented to the management should make logical sense for the application. However, in line with the given statement for discussion, it is difficult to make logical sense out of the arguments presented to the management.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Trends in Mining Industry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 98

Trends in Mining Industry - Case Study Example Aluminum cost is going even lower in China beyond much of other countries. This is due to the funding by the Chinese government which has now reduced competition for the aluminum product from China. Silver and copper are amongst those expected to drop as well, however, this may not be immediate but rather gradual. Diamond and gemstone are the minerals whose mining are expected to experience a boom realizing the largest industry growth in Australia. The mining industry in Australia has experienced a tremendous growth over time and is thus expected to affect a change in the mining industry. However, explorations or mines are in a downturn. There is slush in companies’ exploration budgets. Additionally, there is a plummet of about 30% in the exploration of non-ferrous metals. Thus the focus is shifting away from the exploration of minerals to production. The nursery sector of mining is shrinking due to a rise in troubled small miners. Small miners are experiencing problems due to lack of economies of scale. Costs are likely to careen beyond control due to the resultant pullback in the budgets for exploration threatening to widen the rift between supply and demand. The mining sector is in a decline falling with over 7.5% in 2014. The effects of these challenges have subsequently made companies mothball their projects as well as cap capacity. Therefore only an adoption of new ways of business will break this cycle. Nonetheless, CIBC world Market projects a likely rise in gold at about $US1383 per ounce as silver on the other end is to fall to about $US22.81 per ounce similarly, copper will experience a drop to $US3.17 per pound. A critical evaluation of Dicores customers and Dicores competitors shows the table below using strengths, weakness risks and opportunity (Amin, Razmi, & Zhang, 2011).

Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Solar System Essay Example for Free

The Solar System Essay Astronomers have found a new dwarf planet far beyond Plutos orbit, suggesting that this distant realm contains millions of undiscovered objects — including, perhaps, a world larger than Earth. The newfound celestial body, called 2012 VP113, joins the dwarf planetSedna as a confirmed resident of a far-flung and largely unexplored region scientists call the inner Oort Cloud. Further, 2012 VP113 and Sedna may have been pulled into their long, looping orbits by a big planet lurking unseen in these frigid depths. These two objects are just the tip of the iceberg, study co-author Chadwick Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, told Space. com. They exist in a part of the solar system that we used to think was pretty devoid of matter. It just goes to show how little we actually know about the solar system. [New Dwarf Planet Photos The orbits of Sedna (orange) and dwarf planet 2012 VP113 (red). Also shown are the orbits of the giant planets (purple). The Kuiper belt is the dotted light blue region. Illustration: Scott S Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science Astronomers have increased the size of the observable solar system after spotting a 450-km wide object orbiting the sun. The lump of ice and rock circles the sun at a greater distance than any known object, and never gets closer than 12bn kilometres – 80 times the distance from Earth to the sun. If its size is confirmed it could qualify as a dwarf planet in the same category as Pluto. Researchers said the discovery proves the existence of the inner Oort cloud, a region of icy bodies that lies far beyond the orbit of Neptune – which at 4.5bn kilometres from the sun is the most remote  planet in the solar system. Until a proper name is decided upon, the body is known only as 2012 VP113. According to the science journal Nature, the team that discovered it call it VP for short, or Biden, after US vice president Joe Biden. Its pink tinge comes from radiation damage that alters the make-up of frozen water, methane and carbon dioxide on the surface. Though exciting in its own right, the discovery raises a more tantalising prospect for many astronomers: that a Super Earth up to 10 times the mass of our planet orbits the sun at such a great distance that it has never been seen.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Pastoral Ministry Essay -- Religion, Christ, Church, God

Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said â€Å"God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church† however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was â€Å"How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?† This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to ministry, especially the first call, what is in pastor’s mind is not the community in general but only the congregation he/she is going to serve. As a pastor we are not just called to deal with the Spiritual life of p eople in the Church, we are also responsible to take part in the leadership of socio-economic, political, cultural and others aspect of the whole community we are called to. God calls pastor through congregation, whenever God calls it is not because who we are but because whom God is. Jesus does not says to the eleven disciples, all authority has been given to you, therefore go†¦ what is said was all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Matthew 28:18). All the power and the authority belong to God, however, God entrusted his authority to us to go and be a servant. Who is going to be a good leader? Leading does not demand perfectness; the only perfect leader of his people is God. Paul did not pressed on the perfectness of young Timothy we he gave for public l... ...ng out and proclaims the gospel for unchurhed, and pastors should focus on internal evangelicalism. It is hard to evangelize other before we got evangelized ourselves. Most Churches tries to evangelize other by giving away their resources, being a good steward is good to promote the work of evangelism; however, pastor should focus first on evangelizing the members of their congregation. Today majority of Church goers do not understand their bible. When God ordered Moses to build the Tabernacle, its construction started from the inner most of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:10), the last work to be done to finish the Tabernacle was the outer parts ( Exodus 40:33). Here I want to indicate that the Pastor should start the work evangelism from the pew to the community. To produce good evangelist the pastor should work on making his congregation biblical well versed.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Mental Models About a Person’s World Essay

INTRODUCTION: Meeting a person for the first time, can either be a positive or negative experience and the way someone interacts with this person can also show both positive and negative behaviours. So the question is, how can mental models about a person’s world, both aid them and also limit their perceptions when meeting a person for the first time. Through exploring how and why these perceptions can be assisted and limited, we can start to question the reasoning behind our mental models. MENTAL MODELS Throughout the years, academic literature has defined a mental model in many ways, however the best way to understand what a mental model is, is the deeply imbedded ways of thinking or even certain images, that trigger assumptions and generalisations, ultimately affecting the way a person responds too or behaves in the world, be it towards a person or a life situation (Senge 2006). A good example of a mental model is, the generalization that only rich people live in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. This generalisation may be true in some cases, but in other cases, other people may live there because they have lived their all their lives, and so, we can see this particular generalisation or â€Å"mental model† has not be thought through. Not questioning mental models, can often lead to false generalisations, this situation can also arise when meeting a person for the first time. When meeting a person for the first time, our mental models can help us both understand and ultimately get along with the person or they can limit our perceptions, meaning we make assumptions or generalisations that eventually alter our perceptions about this person or how we act towards them. Very often, we see that we are not consciously aware of our mental models and the affects that they can have on our behaviour (Chermack 2003), this in turn, restricts our perceptions. Mental models are often vague, incomplete and imprecisely expressed (Karp 2005) however, once believed, mental models are extremely difficult to change (Chermack 2003). This is highly due to the  fact that people are unaware of their own mental models, and the only way for a person to change their mental model, is for them to acknowledge that they have one to start with. Mental models can be useful as they can help us to process information and make decisions quickly (Unknown 1997) and they can also be imperative foundations for building knowledge about the world we live in (Karp 2005). For instance, when an individual has a mental model that all take away food is bad for their health and wellbeing, when given the option of either having take away food or a healthy meal at home, the individuals mental model will therefore lead them to quickly decide to eat a healthy meal at home. However, very strong mental models can hinder active thinking and the acceptance of new ideas (Unknown 1997), and often arise problems when they are tacit, meaning that they are below the level of awareness (Senge 1992). Using the example of the Detroit auto maker, not recognising that they had the mental model that all that customers cared about was styling, believing that â€Å"all people care about is styling†, evidently shows us that their mental model had become tacit. This mental model continued to be unexamined, and because this mental model remained unexamined, the model remained unchanged, and thus as the world changed the gap grew between the mental model of this Detroit automaker and the world (Senge 1992). Clearly, mental models can perform as filters that screen incoming information that come to us, limiting our ways of thinking and also our perceptions (Unknown 1997). An individual’s mental model represents their view on the world, it also provides them with the context in which they view and interpret new material and also new people in which they meet for the first time (Kim 1993). It not only helps us to make sense of what is going on around us, but it can also restrict our understanding of a certain situation. For example, when someone has been labeled as not a nice person, with never questioning the validity of it, people create a mental model that, that person is not nice, and so when they do or say something nice it goes unnoticed, and therefore, the behaviour does not fit with the mental model people have towards this  certain individual. These untested assumptions or mental models can eventually cause conflict and misunderstandings between people. Developing skills in reflection and inquiry can aid us in realising our mental models and also with dealing with others. When we use skills of reflection we slow down our ways of thinking and acknowledge how our mental models are formed and how they affect our behaviour. Where as skills of inquiry, is concerned with how we operate in face-to-face situations with others, especially when we are dealing with complex and conflictual issues (Senge 2006). Together with the tools and methods used to develop these skills these constitute the core of the discipline of mental models, which consists of; the distinctions between espoused theories and theories-in-use, recognising â€Å"leaps of abstraction†, exposing the â€Å"left-hand column† and balancing inquiry and advocacy (Senge 2006). When an individual says that they value or desire something, that is known as espoused theory, however, what they actually say or do, is known as theories-in-use (Bocham 2010). Acknowledging the gaps between what we say and what we do, can be seen as an effective reflective skill in becoming more aware of our mental models. Someone may profess their view (espoused theory) that people generally are trustworthy, but their actions (theories-in-use) show differently, as they never lend out money and keep their possessions to themselves (Senge 2006). As evident in the example above, there is a gap between the individual’s espoused theory and their theory-in-use. By recognising the gap between espoused theory and the theory-in-use, learning can occur, as we as individuals question whether or not we really value our espoused theory (Senge 2006). When we meet a person for the first time, we can quickly jump into generalisations as we never think to question them. For example, when we meet a person and they say that they are a doctor, we automatically assume that they are smart, as it is a generalization that all doctors are smart we never seem to question this mental model. These are known as â€Å"leaps of abstraction†. â€Å"Leaps of abstraction† occur when we move from direct observations to generalisations without questioning them, this ultimately  impedes learning because it becomes axiomatic, as what was once an assumption is now treated as a fact (Senge 2006). Therefore, this becomes another limitation, in which mental models can have on our perceptions when we meet people for the first time. However, these â€Å"leaps of abstraction† can easily be identified when people ask what their generalisation is based-on and whether or not the generalisation is inaccurate or misleading (Senge 2006) Senge (2006) identifies the â€Å"left-hand column† as a powerful technique whereby individuals begin to see how their mental models operate in differing situations. This exercise can show individuals that they indeed have mental models and show them how those models play an active part in sometimes negative interactions with people, not only do these people become aware of their mental models, but they begin to acknowledge why dealing with these assumptions is imperative (Senge 2006). In order for good communication between individuals to arise, people need to recognise that in order for the communication process to be effective, mental models must be managed properly, this is done by balancing advocacy and inquiry (Peggy & Bronn 2003). Advocacy is the process of communicating an individual’s ways of thinking and reasoning in a manner that makes it clear for others (Peggy & Bronn 2003). When there is advocacy without inquiry, it only leads to more advocacy, and therefore leads to two individuals stating their ways of reasoning and thinking, they both are keen to here the others views, but do not inquire into what they are saying because they believe that what they are saying is ultimately the best way of thinking. A way to tackle this, is through the process of inquiry. Inquiry engages two individuals into the communication process in a joint learning process (Peggy & Bronn 2003). Here the objective is to understand the reasoning and thinking of the other individual, this can be done by asking them questions in order for them to determine the origin for their conclusions and statements (Peggy & Bronn 2003). Individuals can do this by asking questions such as; â€Å"What is it that leads you to that position?† and â€Å"can you illustrate your point for me?† (Senge 2006). Thus, it is evident  that grasping the skill of balancing advocacy and inquiry, is highly advantageous in interacting with other individuals, especially those you meet for the first time. CONCLUSION: Therefore, it is imperative and highly advantageous for us to question our mental models in everyday situations, such as meeting people for the first time, as it will deter us from automatically making assumptions and making generalisations. Through acknowledging ‘leaps of abstraction†, using the â€Å"left-hand column† technique and also personally mastering the skill of balancing advocacy and inquiry, we can learn to question these mental models, and thus questioning whether or not they really do hold their value in our world. Thus, when we meet a person for the first time, before we make assumptions and generalisations, we may need to recognise our imbedded mental models and learn to question them, therefore aiding the process of communication to be a positive experience. REFERENCE LIST: Bochman, DJ & Kroth, M. 2010, â€Å"Immunity to transformational learning and change†, _The Learning Organization,_ vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 328-342. Chermack, TJ 2003, â€Å"Mental models in decision making and implications for human resource development†, _Advances in Developing Human Resources,_ vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 408-422. Karp, T 2005, â€Å"Unpacking the Mysteries of Change: Mental Modelling†, _Journal of Change Management,_ vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 87-96. Kim, DH 1993, â€Å"The Link Between Individual and Organizational Learning†, _Sloan management review,_ vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 37-37. Peggy, SB & Bronn, C 2003, â€Å"A reflective stakeholder approach: Co-orientation as a basis for communication learning†, _Journal of Communication Management,_ vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 291-303. Senge, P 2006, â€Å"Mental Models†, _The fifth discipline: the art and practice of learning organizations,_ rev. edn, Doubleday, New York, pp. 163-190. Senge, PM 1992, â€Å"Mental Models†, _Planning Review,_ vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 4-4. Unknown 1997, â€Å"What are Mental Models?†, _Sloan management review,_ vol. 38, no. 3, p. 13.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Why Study Organizations?

In order to answer an essay question, first of all, we need to understand what is meant by the term ‘organization’ from the sociological point of view. Then we need to understand what role organizations are playing in our life and why it is essential to study them. As we can imagine, there are different types of organizations. All of them have their own structure and purpose. In this essay I would like to focus on business organizations: how they appeared and developed; how employees’ relations were changing, etc. I would like to pay the specific attention to such department as Human Resource Management – how this term appeared and why it is so important nowadays. So, why do we actually need to study organizations? This question, from my point of view, has a very easy and obvious answer: we need to study organizations for the same reason we study the world around us. We are intelligent and curious people. We always need an explanation of what is happening, how the things are working, and what place do we take among other people. Organizations are the huge part of our modern daily life: we either study or work for them, or we are obtaining goods and services from them. We are interacting with organizations all the time, so it is not surprising, that we want to study them; and it does not matter if you are a manager or consumer – you are still involved in it and you want to be aware of what is happening around you. What is organization? In sociology term ‘organization’ has a very general meaning. This â€Å"is basically a structure for carrying out a particular social activity on a regular basis† (Fulcher and Scott, 2009; p. 542). All the organizations have such features as specific goal, defined membership, rules of behaviour, and authority relationships. This is also important to mention, that all organizations have the characteristic of continuity. This means that personnel can be changing, but the organization will still exist. There is no clear definition of what social units come into the category of organizations. Some of them are easy to define, other will bring us some difficulties. For instance, business corporations, schools, hospitals, trade unions are definitely organizations, as they all have the characteristics mentioned before. On the other hand, communities, social groups, and class are not organizations, as they do not have rules of behaviour or specific goals. The problem can occur, when we come across the term ‘institution’. The first thing we need to understand here is that organization is not an institution. Institution is â€Å"an established practice that regulate the various activities that make up social life† (Fulcher and Scott, 2009; p. 543). The most common examples of institutions in daily life are weddings and funerals. Although, these are two different terms, there is one class of organizations which is called total institution. Most of the organizations leave people with their separate private lives, but it is not the case with total institution. It is characterised by such features as disappearance of private life, planned and supervised activities, sharp division between staff and inmates, the mortification of the self. The biggest examples of the total institution are mental hospital and prison, where people are isolated from the outside world and society. Now we know what defines organizations, but we still did not get to the point why do we need to study them. From my point of view, it is essential to look at the historical background of organizations. We need to understand how they were appearing and developing trough the time, in order to understand how they are functioning nowadays. In this essay I have decided to look specifically at one type of organizations – business corporations. Weber (1914) said that modern society is distinguished from the earlier one by the appearance of the multiplicity of administrative tasks and the need to expertise and carry them. He called it â€Å"the increasing complexity of civilization†. Weber said that this phenomenon is caused by growing size of organizations, greater wealth and increasing social problems. If we would refer to the history of organizations, we can see the significant changes in structure, polices, employee relations, values, etc. The first interest in organizations appeared in the 19th century, which was driven by industrialization. Industrial revolution was caused by development of technologies, which completely changed the structure of most of the organizations, and lead to the transformation of society. The introduction of manufacturing process completely changed the employment relations. Discipline was the key feature of the new organization, as it helped to control and organize people more effectively – this lead to the process of bureaucratization. New industrialists were looking for the profitable production. In order to achieve it, they needed punctuality and uninterrupted work during fixed hours from their employees. These targets were achieved by bureaucratisation, which was central to the administrative revolution. These rganizations were highly rational, they functioned in a discipline and unemotional manner, their activities were calculated, systematic and predictable. This approach helped the manufacturers maximize the return on their capital. This new manufacturing process was the beginning of the new era of employment relations. Bureaucracy is a systematic approach; all the workers had their duties and were paid respectively. But, as many other theories, this sys tem did not work so smooth in the real life, as it seemed on paper. Employers’ main purpose was to increase the profit, in order to do so, they were underpaying their employees. At the beginning people were happy just to have jobs, but the time passed and workers started to understand and fight for their human rights. This situation caused the appearance of the new type of organizations called ‘trade unions’. Trade union is an organization of workers, who tied together in order to achieve better working conditions. It is suggested that the origins of trade unions lay in the failure of the early Factory act to protect children and women at the work place; as a result many began to work together, forming unions to agitate for change in the law and greater respect for the workers (BBC). As we can see, relationships between employers and workers were getting more and more complicated. In order to keep company’s profitability, employers had to meet workers’ conditions – this brought the necessity of new management approach, which was called scientific or personnel management. This approach was first introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late 19th century. Personnel Management was an administrative record-keeping function; it attempted to maintain fair terms and conditions for employees. This was the beginning of the employee relations. Its main idea was to pay people for their productivity, the new reward system was introduced. In other words people were paid for the amount of time they worked and for the quantity of items they produced. This was the beginning of new era of management. Lately Personnel Management evolved into the Human Resource Management, it was again caused by the employee’s unsatisfied demands. People were paid properly, but it was not enough anymore. Workers were tired of being treated as machines, they were demanding for more personal attitude. It was the time when Human Resource Management was introduced. It was concerned with carrying out the same functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, etc. But HRM approach was looking at employees from the point of view, that they are the main organizational assets. It was seeking to achieve the competitive advantage trough the strategic development of highly committed and capable work force. In other words, employers were trying to create the comfortable and friendly working environment, in order to keep the best employees in the company. As we can see from the historical background, there were massive changes in the organizational structure; and these changes appeared in a relatively small amount of time. We are living in the world of progress, where everything is developing so fast, that it is sometimes very hard to catch up. By ‘everything’ I mean every aspect of our lives: technologies, government, countries, and of course people. People is the most important cause of all these changes: organization, on the first place, is all about its employees – without them it wouldn’t exist. Thinking about personal development, I would like to mention Maslow Hierarchy of needs: This pyramid clearly explains how workers’ needs were changing through the time: first of all they needed job to earn money for living; when they got it they needed to be secure that their income would be stable (Trade Unions appear); then they needed to feel comfortable in their working environment (Personnel Management); the top two requirements consider the personal recognition and the opportunity for development (this is what HRM is dealing with). Summarising everything said above, we can finally try to answer the question: â€Å"Why do we need to study organizations? † Organizations are imprescriptible part of our life: we are dealing with them practically in any aspect of our lives. We all study at the University at the moment, which means we are all part of this organization. In the future we are going to find the job and, most likely nowadays, going to be the part of another organization. As we can see, we cannot avoid this component of our life. As the Latin saying claims: â€Å"Forewarned, forearmed†. Studying organisations gives us an opportunity to know more about the world we live in, to know our lives and grab our chances. As we can see from the history. It was people, who changed the structure of organizations – simple workers, who was looking for better life. The world has changed a lot and it keeps on changing. Organizations nowadays have to be more flexible and open-minded, in order to attract the best ‘human assets’ and remain competitive; enormous amounts of money are spent on the Human Resource Development. There is prediction that the relationship that individuals will have with organizations will change: there were no longer be fixed working lives. People still need to earn money, but they do not want to be tied up with their jobs. Humanity is developing, we are having different demands and priorities from our predecessors. To go with the times, we need to study the society we live in, and organizations is one of its biggest and important parts nowadays. References 1. BBC/Learning zone Broad Band. Why Did the Trade Unions Come About? Available at: < http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/why-did-the-trade-unions-come-about/11082.html> Accessed: 20/03/2011 2. Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: Theory & Practice (4th edition). Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. 3. Clegg, S. and Hardy, C. (1999), Studying Organizations: Theory and Method. London: Sage. 4. Clegg, S. Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T. (2008) Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. London: Sage. 5. Fulcher, J. and Scott, J. (2009) Sociology (OUP, 3rd edition). Oxford University Press. 6. Giddens, Anthony. (2009) Sociology (6th edition). Cambridge: Polity Press. 7. Storey, J. (1995), Human Resource Management. London: Routledge.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Free Essays on Postomodernism

Postmodernism. The term postmodernism is used in a variety of ways. On one hand, it has a common language usage, which is so broad and imprecise as to be effectively meaningless. On the other hand has also a rigorous usage which itself seems to have two variants: one as a term used to describe perceived conditions of the contrary world, the other, a term denoting an epistemological critique of modernism. In relation to strategy, the term postmodernism is a useful illustrative device used to suggest that it is a management and/or the world, which has changed, but what has really changed is our understanding of them. The locus of its ideas has been Europe, and of its development, application, and polemic has been the USA, and beyond that international. Virtually all the hundred-or-more contributors are American academics. For me, postmodernism is infuriatingly multi-dimensional but uniquely represents the paradoxes and reflexivities of modern living, bringing together a range of exciting disciplines to explain and explore experience, meaning and truth. The influence of postmodernism on management According to Norman Jackson and Pipa Carter, the influence of postmodernism on management is the emergence of three distinct conceptualisations of the â€Å"fact†. They have in common only their rejection – intentional or otherwise- of the modernist conceptualisation of formally logical truth, of the transcendent fact, and the consequent abandonment of a unitary management knowledge rooted in science. In this they offer, on the one hand, a resolution of the embarrassing paradoxes, which have inhibited management thinking in its modernist way, and, on the other, a plurality of approaches to post-modern management Features of post-modern way of living The modern and post-modern can be defined through contrasting sets of antinomies (Featherstone, 1988). The post-modern appears to represent a break with the modern, which is defined as being... Free Essays on Postomodernism Free Essays on Postomodernism Postmodernism. The term postmodernism is used in a variety of ways. On one hand, it has a common language usage, which is so broad and imprecise as to be effectively meaningless. On the other hand has also a rigorous usage which itself seems to have two variants: one as a term used to describe perceived conditions of the contrary world, the other, a term denoting an epistemological critique of modernism. In relation to strategy, the term postmodernism is a useful illustrative device used to suggest that it is a management and/or the world, which has changed, but what has really changed is our understanding of them. The locus of its ideas has been Europe, and of its development, application, and polemic has been the USA, and beyond that international. Virtually all the hundred-or-more contributors are American academics. For me, postmodernism is infuriatingly multi-dimensional but uniquely represents the paradoxes and reflexivities of modern living, bringing together a range of exciting disciplines to explain and explore experience, meaning and truth. The influence of postmodernism on management According to Norman Jackson and Pipa Carter, the influence of postmodernism on management is the emergence of three distinct conceptualisations of the â€Å"fact†. They have in common only their rejection – intentional or otherwise- of the modernist conceptualisation of formally logical truth, of the transcendent fact, and the consequent abandonment of a unitary management knowledge rooted in science. In this they offer, on the one hand, a resolution of the embarrassing paradoxes, which have inhibited management thinking in its modernist way, and, on the other, a plurality of approaches to post-modern management Features of post-modern way of living The modern and post-modern can be defined through contrasting sets of antinomies (Featherstone, 1988). The post-modern appears to represent a break with the modern, which is defined as being...