How does Arthur Miller make passions and desires so memorable Essay

Given that Eddie Carbone only ever explicitly expresses his passions and desires once in the play, how does Arthur Miller make them so memorable? Much of Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge works to create the impression that Eddie Carbone is disgusted by Rodolpho’s effeminate appearance and supposed homosexuality. He uses this as an argument against Rodolpho’s suitability as a husband for Catherine. When Eddie’s own homosexual desires are revealed, then, they strike us as completely antithetical to these sentiments. It is this irresolvable and perplexing contradiction that makes his repressed homosexuality, rather than his incestuous desire for Catherine, so memorable for the audience. Eddie lives in a community where intolerance greets any man who does not conform to the most parochial definition of masculinity, an intolerance that Miller clearly articulates through the minor characters Mike and Louis. While Mike and Louis reverently point out Marco’s physical strength when working at the docks, Rodolpho, â€Å"that blond one,† is instead said to have â€Å"a sense of humour.† This remark isn’t obviously pejorative, but Mike and Louis â€Å"grin,† â€Å"snicker,† and become â€Å"hysterical† as they voice it. The discrepancy between their speech and behaviour points to an underlying and unspoken insinuation. Of course, â€Å"a sense of humour† is a stand-in for what they see as Rodolpho’s difference compared to Marco. Marco conforms to their definition of masculinity: he is physically strong, and works quietly and diligently. Rodolpho does not, and they mock this difference, revealing their intolerance . Eddie is similarly appalled by what he sees as Rodolpho’s effeminate appearance, giving voice to both this and his belief that Rodolpho is a homosexual in his conversation with Beatrice. Eddie remarks on Rodolpho’s â€Å"wacky hair,† declaring he’s â€Å"like a chorus girl or sump’m.† Similar to Mike and Louis, Eddie calls attention to Rodolpho’s hair, implying that Rodolpho bleaches it. According to Eddie, a preoccupation with his appearance is a strictly feminine trait and therefore casts doubt over his masculinity. The simile that compares Rodolpho to a â€Å"chorus girl† makes this all the more clear. The intolerance and resentment this provokes in Eddie is revealed through Eddie’s reference to Rodolpho as â€Å"that† and the assertion that he’s â€Å"like a weird.† By â€Å"weird,† Eddie means homosexual. Eddie uses Rodolpho’s alleged femininity and homosexuality to argue against his suitability as Catherine’s husband. Seeking legal counsel from Alfieri, Eddie claims that Rodolpho â€Å"ain’t right.† Again he calls attention to Rodolpho’s â€Å"platinum blond† hair, as well as the â€Å"high† notes he hits when he sings. The thought of such an effeminate man with Catherine seems to deeply disturb him as he admits that â€Å"when I think of that guy layin’ his hands on her I could – I mean it’s eatin’ me out.† Eddie struggles for words, his incomplete and incoherent sentences revealing his intense anger. He’s disgusted by the idea of an effeminate homosexual touching the niece he says he seeks to protect. Given Eddie’s sentiments, how, then, are we to respond to him kissing Rodolpho? The kiss is deeply unsettling because it is so antithetical to everything Eddie has said and done leading up to it. Miller’s stage directions vividly call to mind the moment when Eddie kisses Rodolpho: â€Å"Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him.† The use of the verb â€Å"pins† underscores the violence and brutality of this sexual act. It’s likely that the ferocity of this expression of homosexual desire corresponds with the ferocity of Eddie’s suppression of that desire leading up to this moment. Furthermore, his â€Å"laughing† suggests a frantic sense of relief. The aggressive expression of homosexual desire is incompatible with every impression we might have formed about Eddie before this moment, and we are left struggling to reconcile these two wildly disparate sides of his character. In summation, the homosexual passions and desires of Eddie Carbone are an astonishing revelation in Miller’s play, making them both unfathomable and memorable. Their eventual and painful expression leaves us wondering how well we know Eddie, despite having formed what appeared to be an accurate impression of him. It encourages us to consider more generally the extent to which any person’s true nature is knowable when we can only observe them from the outside.

Down East Spud Busters Case Analysis Essay

This will give this big conglomerate grounded to the â€Å"little guy† and hopefully keep the company connected on the local level as it expands. As Deep East Spud Busters expands from Canada and Maine to Idaho, Europe, the Pacific Rim, and then into nationwide sales and distribution, the â€Å"people factor’ will become increasingly important. By the â€Å"people factor,† I am of course, to put it into business terms, talking about Human Resources. Given the immense geographical expanses and logistical challenges that will no doubt be a factor in such a major expansion, Human Resources are going to very important as they open up the new production plant in Idaho, continue innovating at the Maine higher-value processing plant where new, fresh ideas are paramount, penetrating international markets in Europe and the Pacific Rim where consumers have a totally foreign culture and speak a different language, and as they tap into nationwide sales and distribution here across the United States. The reason being is that folks are different wherever you go and to have a successful company these days, management needs to be less rigid and more organic while treating its stakeholders as individuals with different needs and embracing diversity. But maybe you’re saying to yourself right now â€Å"potatoes are potatoes anywhere you go† or something like that. My response would be that sure potatoes are potatoes but people and their cultural situations are unique wherever you go. Laws and regulations are also different wherever one might go. Legislation, the role of trade unions and governments and their agencies, culture and values vary between regions and countries. Therefore the particular institutional structures operating in different national economies and societies are no doubt influential in my opinion, in maintaining dissimilar Human Resources policies in different countries, American states, counties, and cities. People’s behavior and needs will be influenced by the land in which they reside, and Deep East Spuds Busters is going to have to adjust accordingly. If DESB holds the people factor in high regard as they expand into new territories, they will increase their chance of success exponentially. I have personally have had several jobs where the company couldn’t care less about its employees and it’s not only miserable for the workers, but in my opinion it’s got to be bad for business as well. Company’s like Home Depot, Whittier Wood Products, and literally every wood mill in the Eugene/Springfield area treats their employees like crap, doesn’t pay them enough, overworks them, fires them and lays them off like it’s nothing, and most importantly, those businesses don’t take into account their employees individuality at all. There are definitely companies that not only should follow my idea of how Deep East Spud Busters should maintain their Human Resources departments, but also could be successful in adopting a similar organizational structure to their current and future business models. Some types of companies that I think could benefit from copying DESB’s current and future organizational model are of the following: Land owners who have timber on their land, independent gardeners, independent gold miners, independent mushroom growers, local artisans of pottery, wood crafts, and textiles, the list goes on and on. There are many types of businesses that could follow a template starting with a local cooperative, refinement of received products and materials, nationwide distribution and sales involving local salesmen, and then expansion into international markets. I think companies that produce a product easily made by the individual person could follow this model and not so much highly technical and industrial fields that already have their structures well establishes. For example, it would make no sense for Intel’s microchip producers to follow this model but it would make sense for an individual or small business that creates popular art pieces. Important Mechanisms Used to Coordinate Work: Modular Network: Temporary arrangements among partners that can be assembled and reassembled to adapt to the environment: also called a virtual network. Broker: A person who assembles and coordinates participants in a network. Standardization: Establishing common routines and procedures that apply uniformly to everyone. Formalization: The presence of rules and regulations governing how people in the organization interact. Coordination by Plan: Interdependent units are required to meet deadlines and objectives that contribute to a common goal. Business Agility and Ways to Improve It: Business agility is the ability of a business to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently in response to changes in the business environment. Business agility can be maintained by maintaining and adapting goods and services to meet customer demands, adjusting to the changes in a business environment and taking advantage of human resources. Agility is a concept that incorporates the ideas of flexibility, balance, adaptability, and coordination under one umbrella. Put in the context of business, agility refers to the ability of an organization to rapidly adapt to market and environmental changes in productive and cost-effective ways. The agile company is an extension of this concept, referring to an organization that utilizes key principles of adaptive systems and complexity science to achieve success. One can say that business agility is the outcome of Organizational Intelligence. Different areas that enterprises can improve their business agility are through strategy, commitment to customers, and their use of technology. Organization Structure Definition: Definition: The typically hierarchal arrangement of lines of authority, communications, rights and duties of an organization. Organizational structure determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled, and coordinated, and how information flows between the different levels of management. A structure depends on the organization’s objectives and strategy. In a centralized structure, the top layer of management has most of the decision making power and has tight control over departments and divisions. In a decentralized structure, the decision making power is distributed and the departments and divisions may have different degrees of independence. A company such as Proctor ;amp; Gamble that sells multiple products may organize their structure so that groups are divided according to each product and depending on geographical area as well. An organizational chart illustrates the organizational structure Citation: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/organizational. html Four Dimensions of an Organizational Structure: Authority: The legitimate right to make decisions and to tell other people what to do. Span of Control: The number of subordinates who report directly to an executive or supervisor. Delegation: The assignment of authority, responsibility, and accountability. Centralization: When important decisions are made at the top rather than spread out over the mid and lower levels of an organization. 4 Basic Forms of Horizontal Structures of Organizations: Functional Organization: Jobs and departments that are specialized and grouped according to business functions and the skills they require: production, marketing, human resource, research and development, finance, accounting, etc. Divisional Organization: Groupings of all functions into a single division that duplicates functions across all divisions. These are created as an organization becomes more diverse, complicated, and spread out over geographical regions. Matrix Organization: A hybrid form of organization in which functional and divisional forms overlap. Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Personnel Group Personnel Group Design / Research Group Design / Research Group Production Group Production Group Supply Group Supply Group Divisional Manager Traditional Potato Line Divisional Manager Traditional Potato Line Network Organization: A collection of independent, mostly single-function firms that collaborate to produce a good or service. Organizational Structure Chart for Down East Spud Buster (Note: Chart Represents Each Division): Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Sales ;amp; Distribution Group Personnel Group Personnel Group Personnel Group Personnel Group Personnel Group Personnel Group Personnel Manager Personnel Manager Sales ;amp; Distribution Manager Sales ;amp; Distribution Manager CEO CEO Divisional Manager Frozen Food Line Divisional Manager Frozen Food Line Divisional Manager Dried Food Line Divisional Manager Dried Food Line Divisional Manager Traditional Potato Line Divisional Manager Traditional Potato Line Supply / Purchase Manager Supply / Purchase Manager Design and Research Manager Design and Research Manager Production Manager Production Manager Sales ;amp; Distribution Manager Sales ;amp; Distribution Manager Supply Group Supply Group Production Group Production Group Design / Research Group Design / Research Group Supply Group Supply Group Production Group Production Group Design / Research Group Design / Research Group Supply Group Supply Group Production Group Production Group Design / Research Group Design / Research Group

Impact of Secondary use of Data Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Impact of Secondary use of Data - Essay Example In this scenario, secondary data is data that has already been collected by someone else for a different purpose and we want to use it. Some of the common examples of data collection could be: data presented by an organization for its business marketing, gathered by a hospitality firm on its guests by using its guest history system, annual business reports or Government statistics and figures (Thames Valley University, 2010). On the other hand data can be used in different scenarios such as: someone can simply present the original data in its unchanged format. In this scenario, probably this data will be used in the introduction or literature review as support or proof for their argument. A person can also make use of this data in a different way if this data is utilized (for analysis or interpretation) for a wide variety of purposes than the original then the most likely place would be in the ‘analysis of findings’ part of a research report or thesis. For instance, a research work carried out on suicide issue can comprise the official suicide data of different countries or regions (which was collected by government or their equivalent) and evaluate this data to determine if they could categorize variables that would indicate that some people are more likely to commit suicide as compared to others (Thames Valley University, 2010). However, there are numerous issues involved with the secondary usage of data. This paper will discuss the secondary uses of data, some of its advantages and disadvantages. In the end, this paper will discuss issues with secondary usage of data and laws to deal with these issues. Secondary Use of Data: An Overview No doubt secondary research can be considered as the most extensively used technique for collecting data as this process of data collection engages retrieving information that is previously collected from either the inventor or a distributor of primary research. In addition, secondary data comprises the information and data collected from third-party sources for instance a business website, sales and accounting records, marketing research reports and magazine articles. Moreover, it can also comprise any already collected information utilized by the vendor from any external or internal source (BlogSpot, 2008; Thames Valley University, 2010). Advantages of Secondary Use of Data In fact, there are a lot of benefits of making use of the s econdary data or research. First of the most important advantages of using secondary data is that it is relatively easy get access to a wide variety of sources of secondary data. Some time ago secondary data collection required business marketers or sales management to spend a lot of time in libraries, or wait for reports to be received via mail. On the other hand, at the present there exist a number of modern technologies for data collection for instance with the availability of the Internet and online access to a lot of digital resources, the access to the secondary data and information has become very simple. In fact, the Internet has become a convenient and usually standardized tool for all sources of secondary research. In addition, by making use of the secondary data researchers can be able to get access to important data and information for small or in many cases absolutely no cost to acquire. For that reason, this secondary data is much more affordable and less expensive as compared to other methods of data collection where researchers perform the research themselves. Additionally, the use of secondary data allows researchers to make clear the research problem. In many cases, secondary data is utilized before primary

CLIMATE CHANGE Exercise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

CLIMATE CHANGE Exercise - Essay Example Australia is trying to minimize the carbon emissions so that it can control the climate changes. The reduction target laid down by Australia is quite possible to achieve in ten years given the budget allocated to the new plans. The basic plan of cutting down the carbon emissions arose when Australia witnessed many droughts and spontaneous weather changes. The decision of cutting down the carbon emissions is quite right but according to some experts the cut in emissions is quite less in comparison to the alarming rates laid down by different environmental agencies. In my view the decision taken by Australia is quite right even though it is not cutting the emissions by a great percentage because if this decision is not taken then the rate of emission would only increase rather than decrease. The approach that Australia has adopted is a realistic one as cutting down the emission by 15% is possible. They have proposed new legislative measures which would hold the industries accountable f or the carbon emissions and have even levied taxes on the sources which are emitting such gases (Australian Government Department of Climate Change 2008;CSIRO 2010; BBC News 2008). Australia has realized the grave danger that the carbon emissions put the state into and have taken a stand on it. By taking an action on reducing these emissions they have urged other developed and undeveloped countries to do the same and make the earth a better to live. If other states do not follow the same schemes put forward by Australia then these spontaneous climate changes would go on with great disasters (BBC News 2008; McCaffrey 2006). Climate change all over the world is alarming not only to the developed countries but also to the undeveloped countries. Bangladesh is one of the examples of undeveloped countries which has realized the potential of emissions and has taken a stand on it. They have proposed

Quantitative data analysis( By using IBM SPSS ) Essay

Quantitative data analysis( By using IBM SPSS ) - Essay Example It helps to identify the case that has the outlying values. When the initial_output and final_output is taken together for a study, we must examine whether there are outliers in both these variables, unlike there is only one outlier in initial_output so that we can omit both of those extreme cases coming out of initial_output and final_output for any further analysis (like correlations, regression etc..) so that the statistical analyses would be perfect. The following tables and diagrams depict the same. Now by analysing the final_input and final_output variables together, we observe that only case number 58 is the outlier, shown in both the initial_output and final_output box plots. So we can omit that entry for analysis involving the variables initial_output and final_output. Interpretation: From the above t-table, we observe that there is a significant difference between the initial_output and final_output (t value is significant with probability 0.000) which indicates that the training programme is effective. From the above box plot, it is observed that the final output of the case number 58 is outlier, which indicates that in one weeks training programme, the output of case number 58 has tremendously improved in one week training programme compared to the other respondents. Also we notice that case numbers 37 and 55 are extreme low outliers in 1 week training programme. There is no effect of training programme for these outliers. Interpretation: From the above output, we observe that the final output of 1 week training programme is tremendously appreciable when compared to other training conditions ie. 1 day training programme or no training programme. The homogeneous subsets indicate that there is a significant difference between the 1 day and 1 week training programmes but there is no significant difference in the final output between

Week 3 Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Week 3 Assignment - Essay Example The book ‘Global issues in intellectual property law’ is a section of the GLOBAL ISSUES SERIES. Every book in the series has materials designed to assist the introduction of transnational, international, and comparative legal issues into courses of some schools. The aim of the series is to guarantee that every student has an adequate familiarity with the effect of non-domestic basis of law, and the increasing potential for transnational legal disputes and transactions, to work in this era of increasing globalization. Additionally, introduction of transnational, international and comparative law information can enhance a student’s comprehension of domestic law. The book is very important to this paper since it offers additional information pertaining to domestic laws on intellectual property. The book provides information on current issues in regard to intellectual property. Hansen, S., & VanFleet, J. (2003). Traditional Knowedge and Intellectual Property: A Handbook on Issues and Options for Traditional Knowledge Holders in Protecting their Intellectual Property and Maintaining Biological

Most Effect Strategies in Resolving Organizational Conflicts Essay

Most Effect Strategies in Resolving Organizational Conflicts - Essay Example To make cross-border alliances, merger and acquisition (M&A) successful, Mintzberg et al. (2003, p. 258) explained that managers should be able to establish the organizational culture that strongly promotes team collaboration in order to increase the efficiency of a company’s production output. The main purpose of this study is to determine the best and most effective strategies that managers can use in resolving organizational conflicts. In order to address the main purpose of this study, a qualitative research study will be conducted in order to determine how managers can effectively resolve organizational conflicts. Research Question What strategies should managers consider in order to implement effective conflict resolution in a newly merged company? Literature Review Employee involvement is â€Å"the voluntary employer-led initiatives that are designed to encourage a more active employee to participate in the business organization† (Caldwell, 1993). Guest, Peccei, and Thomas (1993) explained that implementing employee involvement could increase the level of employee commitment towards the business organization. As a result, managers can easily add the extra role to each employee without creating too much organizational conflict (Langan-Fox, Code, and Gray, 2002).   Aside from building a stronger relationship between the top management and employees, establishing a two-way communication between the two groups could strengthen the flow of business processes and minimize operational errors (Eisenberg and Witten, 1987). Through open communication, managers can avoid the occurrence of unnecessary organizational conflicts since managers can freely communicate their ideas with the rest of the team members. Transformational leaders are committed to training the subordinates to become a leader in their own way rather than practicing positional authority (Barbuto, 2005). Therefore, managers should use effective leadership style in controlling and persuading employees to work together towards achieving the organizational goals. In case the organizational conflict arises, managers should negotiate with the customers, employees or business suppliers in order to maintain the stability of the business operations (Ertel, 1999). Research Methodology According t o Bryman and Bell (2003), qualitative research methods emphasize on text rather than statistical data they argue that qualitative research method is the best way to gather and analyze data that will make the researcher determine strategies that managers consider when designing strategies that could effectively resolve organizational conflict within a newly merged company. In most cases, qualitative data generates a more detailed approach yet it does not imply evaluation methods or set analysis. This study aims to determine the best and most effective strategies that managers can use in resolving organizational conflicts. Target readers for this study include the CEOs, production managers, team leaders, sales managers etc.

Arms And The Man Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Arms And The Man - Essay Example The second act takes place four months later after the war ends and Sergius and Major Petkoff return. Though Raina and Sergius declare eternal love, they are only acting and their real feelings are very different. Sergius soon begins flirting with the maid Louka, and Raina’s thoughts keep returning to her chocolate crà ¨me soldier. Bluntschli comes back to return a coat he has borrowed from the Petkoffs and now that the war is over he is welcomed by Sergius and Major Petkoff and even helps them in moving their armies since as a pragmatist, he is willing to fight for whichever side pays. Bluntschli makes fun of Raina's romantic pretentiousness; though he is secretly attracted to her. Things come to head when Louka in trying to get Sergius for her self-tells him about Raina and Bluntschli. Sergius gets jealous and challenges Bluntschli to a duel, he accuses Raina of secretly trysting with Bluntschli, but they both deny this. Bluntschli tries to help Sergius repair things with R aina, but it is too late as Sergius’s philandering with Louka also comes out also. During all this, a letter arrives informing Bluntschli that his father has died and that he must return to Switzerland immediately. Sergius finally rejects his romantic ideals and declares his intention to marry Louka. When Bluntschli discovers Raina is twenty-three and not a teenager as he had thought he quickly asks her parents for her hand in marriage. When they find out how wealthy he is, they agree, and after some token resistance, Raina submits 1.

How sexist, racist, and homophobic language creates a barrier to Essay

How sexist, racist, and homophobic language creates a barrier to communication - Essay Example In most instances, this form of discrimination targets the women. However, the main culprits are the male chauvinists. In some circumstances, men have refused to listen to what women have to say or when they listen; their minds are already registered that they would not act on it. Therefore, either the person can be absent minded or can listen but immediately forget about what transpired. Communication can also be hampered by the realization that the listener is not keen. Based on sexism, some men develop an attitude towards not only towards the message being delivered but also to the person delivering the message. On the other hand, stereotyping based on gender can make an individual develop communication biasness towards the other gender. For example, a woman who has labelled all men as cheaters will not be convinced to any man claiming that they have never cheated. Racism can also be a communication barrier. The perception that a particular race is knowledgeable that another will make a person disregard information from another person of a race that they demonstrate prejudice against. The attitude formed is that the communicator is unable to deliver any important information. It is also possible that a racist will focus on the language use and fail to get the message. Racial disparities emanates from differential origins, therefore, the assents are different. Instead of listening to the person speak, a racially biased person will listen to the language use of the communicator. In addition, a person from a race labelled â€Å"inferior† may fail to capture what the other person is saying, they agree on anything that is said courtesy of inferiority complex. For example, a local inhabitant of the Congo forest who knows some French will perceive that whatever the white man is saying is true hence failing to capture the message as it was deli vered. Communication breakdown can also be contributed by the use of homophobic language. Homosexuals have attempted to air

International Organisations and their role in environmental protection Essay Example for Free

International Organisations and their role in environmental protection Essay Our planet has become a risk society; being exposed to the disastrous efforts as a result of the harm caused by humans. There are several risks with varying magnitude and severity such as the natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, tornado etc. and man-made disasters such as biological weapons, nuclear programme and so forth. Ulrich Beck, the German anthropologist intimates that the above mentioned factors indicate a world risk society. Natural hazards are existential threats to the entire human lives. Rising or falling sea level can remold the world’s coastlines and seashores and most of the densely populated areas on earth will be affected as a result. There is a drastic change in the behavior and rhythm of the sea that the uniformity of the sea which was found previously is terribly missing now. The living beings in these coastal areas would be going for a task; it affects the agricultural fields and extends to a level of causing great damage to cities across the coastal areas. As per the reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the coastal regions inclusive of mangroves, reefs and several other regions are on high risk. Another alarming effect is the greenhouse effect. The role of Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen nitride are proportionately high when relatively compared to the other greenhouse gases. Reports from IPCC confirm an anticipated response in proportion to the rapid increase in greenhouse gases. The overall effect is observed to increase the temperature of atmosphere, precipitation and evaporation rates. Rising ocean levels and relative changes in the atmosphere are additional effects. Another relevant effect which is thrown in lime light is global warming- a rapid increase in the temperature of earths atmosphere (in simple words the air we breathe) due to the blockage of the earths radiation, that reflects back from the surface of the earth, caused by the formation of a blanket like layer from the excessive emission of hazardous gases such as Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen nitride. This is also the reason for acid rain; due to the hazardous contamination of clouds with these gases the rain gets polluted and returns to the earth in the form of nitric acid, sulfuric acid, carbonic acid and so on. All the above mentioned effects have led to the depletion of a huge diameter of ozone especially in Australia and according to the reports it continues to expand. The practice of nuclear energy testing and the dumping of nuclear waste has led to change in the demographic position of tectonic plates which was the main reason for tsunami and earthquakes in India, Indonesia and the other coastal regions. It is important to be reminded that the disaster has caused a huge death toll. In addition to the existing hazards, there are so many pandemic diseases such as SARS, bird flu, swine flu and other diseases that have targeted several countries, leading to a significant death toll. International Organisations Every individual has started giving a thought about the environmental protection and preservation of energy. They are worried that the next generation would be left empty with nothing in reserve for survival. Environmental protection has become every countrys concern in todays world. In their attempt to preserve environment from further deterioration of environment, the states push off the economical cost to be borne by someone or the other, walking away with whatever benefit that could be incurred in the attempt. We are running on high risk with clear evidences such as hole in the Ozone layer, fast melting of icebergs, global warming and many natural havocs which are a result of exceeded exploitation of nature by human. The forthcoming natural hazards would be even worse beyond the imagination of human brain. Many International organisations such as World Meteorological Organisation, UNEP, UNDP and IPCC have played a major role in the protection of environment. UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (shortly recognized as DOALAS) is the secretariat of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). DOALAS in coordination with UNCLOS assists, advices and submits reports on the marine resources, ecosystem and environment. Similarly the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) established in 1902; an International Organisation attributed to the protection and preservation of the living beings and to maintain a check on the ecological balance of the North Atlantic Sea. The report also includes the rate of contamination and the source of contamination. This guides them to decide on the steps to curtail preventable contamination if any. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) an association formed to create awareness on the issues of environmental hazards, the causes of the environmental hazards and eventually to raise voice against the industrial sectors or individual accountable for environmental degradation. When the depletion of ozone layer was brought into limelight by the American scientists, UNEP and few NGOs volunteered to make a consolidated effort to build awareness among public through public awareness programmes. In response to the bourgeoning harmful effects of climate change, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) came up with a group that would focus entirely on various scientific and socio-economic contributions geared towards understanding environmental and resource degradation brought about by climate change. This notable body was called Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its main objective is to get the perspective of different scientists and other professionals from all over the world in order to touch all facets of causes and effects of climate change. Through this way, concrete actions could be taken based on the reports released by the intergovernmental body. According to the Global Environment Outlook 1 (UNEP Report, 1997), there has been a remarkable progress with regards to the implementation of biodiversity, climate and desertification conventions; however, there is still a visible lack of urgency present from across the globe. These reports which consist of environmental issues would be nothing if the society continuously fails to recognize the implications of their actions towards nature. Environmental progress in an international level could only be met if strong governmental structure and environmental unity would be strictly imposed on all regions of economic development. European Environmental Agency was established in 1990; aimed at consistent development and record maintenance on the improvements in Europes environment. They conduct periodical meeting and exchange information on the report submitted to know the real condition of the environment. They also established European environment information and observation network (Eionet) to provide a coordinated effort towards the protection of environment and preservation of resources. They form a group of 27 EU member countries which is inclusive of Turkey, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Switzerland and Norway Just recently, the European Environmental Agency (EEA) released their report entitled â€Å"Signals 2009† which highlights the primary environmental issues confronting Europe. One of the most impacting challenges of Europe is the sustenance of water in certain regions experiencing the blow of climate change. Some of the regions such as Cyprus and Turkey have been experiencing calamitous drought over the past few years which is why the water demand continuous to increase in an annual basis. In response to this trend, EEA recommends the need for adaptation and climate change mitigation in order to lessen the emissions of greenhouse gases within Europe. Governmental policies on adaptation also call for concrete projects that would tap the necessary resources in order to store and supply enough water for the people (Signals, 2009, p. 11). Nevertheless, the Signals 2009 Report covered fascinating yet informative depictions of what will become of our planet if none of these highly suggested plans of action were realized by the end of this year. Another enlightening and results-driven undertaking rose in October 2008 and it was managed by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). This program wanted to veer away from the regional impact of climate change. It would rather focus on building an all-in-one package that would support the way nations govern their society as well as incorporate earth friendly systems in their future developmental plans. The scheme deemed necessary to build the Earth System Governance Project which aims â€Å"to engage more and more actors who seek to strengthen the current architecture of institutions and networks at local and global level† (Earth System Governance Organization, 2008, p. ). More so, this project finds it important to concentrate on five specific aspects that would form the structure and content of their science plan, and these are: architecture, agency, adaptiveness, accountability and allocation and access. All the same, they have integrated the themes of power, knowledge, norms and scale into their agenda in order to strengthen the formulation and implementation of their analysis on massive environmental pr oblems hitting our planet today. Though it is a politically-driven concept, it aspires, nonetheless, to create a globally regarded research network where every country can benefit from the projects and breakthroughs done by concerned scientists. The Role of United Nations UNEP conducted an international conference in Washington in 1977 with the issuance of World plan of Action for the Ozone layer and an Ad Hoc working party was formed to be in charge of the issue. The working party was constituted of environmental experts from 22 countries, eventually they submit a report of all the negotiations at the end of the ever year. The Toronto Group (IO formed by USA, Canada and Scandinavian countries) pinpointed the increased release of CFC from EU. EU refused to agree to reduce the production of CFC by using the lapse that there was no evidence to prove the connection between ozone depletion and CFC. Eventually in 1985, Vienna convention was established. It is an agreement signed by most of the European countries and the objective is to acknowledge the efforts to protect ozone layer and to cooperate to protect the layer. The UNEP along with the Toronto Group conducted marathons for public awareness and various conferences to insist the reduction of CFC by a significant proportion say 95%, but the EU agreed to reduce it only by 50% in 1999 due to the pressure from Germany. Yet the developing countries and small countries were under tremendous pressure as the reduced production of CFC would affect their growth, eventually they agreed to reduce it to a great extent as much as 300 grams per capita. In 2000, EU joined 81 states and showed an active participation in ban the production of CFC. The developing countries were guaranteed financial aids to assist the reduced production of CFC. The USA and Japan was slowly backing out with its slowing of the process whereas EU was very concerned and it continued till 2004, until the issues were resolved and the countries agreed to stop the production of CFC completely. There were a number of treaties such as Vienna convention of 1985, the Montreal Protocol of 1987, the Amendments of London (1990), Copenhagen(1992), Vienna(1995), Montreal (1997) and Beijing (1999) (www. nep. org/ozone/index. asp) regarding the fund allocation and technical assistance. World Bank, UNEP and UNDP played a major role in allocation of funds to execute Montreal Protocol. In the context of dealing with transboundary environmental issues, UNEP and WMO (World Meteorological Organisation) played a major role in the formation of Coordinating committee on the Ozone Layer (CCOL). The objective of the committee was to create awareness and to spread the pros an d cons of Ozone depletion. Later with the help of the scientists they were able to discover the fact that the reduced production of CFC will contribute towards the decelerated depletion of Ozone perhaps would not stop the depletion completely. The Ozone was measured by the US space agency NASA, the connection between the CFC emancipation and the depletion in the Ozone layer was also proved. Conclusion Global environmental issues have always been an issue of concern since there were no coordinated efforts from the International organisations. As a result, the continued efforts to preserve Mother Nature from the industrialist countries and developing countries have not been successful down the years. The industrialised countries were concerned about their growth and in the process failed to realise hazardous effect that was caused in turn. The most prudent effort of an International organisation purely depends on the way it deals with the political and technical accords. Several times their attempt to convince the developing countries and capitalistic countries was in vain. Most of the times the International Organisations are driven by the politics of the global economy and that is the major cause for a biased decision making. Nations which follow the ideologies of capitalism and socialism, both followed paths to develop their countries at the cost of exploiting the environment and causing maximum utilization of available resources. The major reason for such an unorganised work style, according to liberalists, is due to the lack of global governance.

Impact of Retention Rate on KFC

Impact of Retention Rate on KFC KFC is one of the busiest fast food industries in UK and it is based in USA. KFC has big market share in UK. KFC provides training and good career path to its employees. KFC faces problems to meet business objectives, increasing customer satisfaction. To overcome difficulties and increasing organizational performances KFC wants to finds out the impact of retention rate on organizational performance. This is one month survey conducting with KFC employees and various secondary resources. Various articles, journals, newspaper and magazines have been collected to find out the information on motivation and organizational performance. 30 employees have been communicated via email to collect primary data. The primary and secondary data show that motivation has major impact on organizational performance. If organization can motivated its employees then performance of employees with a high volume. Employees attitude towards motivation is very positive. Employees want motivation rather than an y other things. From the research it is clear that if KFC can improves its motivational strategy it can increase its organization performance. Impact of Retention Rate on Organizational Performance 2. INTRODUCTION Employee retention is a process through which the organization can keep its employees with a certain period of time. Retention is good for both employee and organization. The objectives of the research are about employees retention and organizational performance. Beginning of the research paper describes briefly about the research topic. It has three different parts. The paper is started by pointing out the research topic and its impact. After that the main parts are discussed. Among the three main parts the initial one is Research Proposal. The research proposal starts with the hypothesis. After selecting hypothesis the research proposal describe briefly about the organization. After that the research proposal describes about the context and rational, reason for research, aim, objectives, literature review, methodology, resources and action plan. The next part of the research is Actual Research. It has research design, data collection, and data analysis. The ending part of the research is Presentation and Evaluation. It is about the analysis of findings, methodology evaluation, conclusion and recommendation. The references, bibliography and appendix are also included with the research. 3. RESEARCH PROPOSAL 3.1 Hypothesis If retention rate is related to organizational performance, than by increasing employees retention rate will increases organizational performance. 3.2 Background Theory Employee retention is the main concern of almost all of the organizations. Basically, small businesses suffer more because of employees high expectation. There are many firms; offer little benefits last 10 years or so. Now-a-days employees need and wants growing every day. Employees want more than their salary. As a result employee turnover is increasing. On the other side the importance of retention become very important for every organization. (Kim McLean, 2008). Employee retention always increases organizational performances. Retention also encourages current employees to remain with the organization. Long term service of employees means they are efficient and effective to their job duties. Again they know very well how to job done. On the other side retention can save several costs to the organization. Such as, hiring cost, training cost, productivity lost, replacement cost and efficiency cost. (Workforce Planning for Wisconsin State Government, 2005). Employee retention has seve ral benefit but employees turnovers has several disadvantages. Some of the article shows that, turnover is a silent but significant profit killer. (Kottolli, 2010). 3.3 Brief Summary to the Organisation KFC is one of the busiest fast food industries in UK and it is based in USA. KFC has big market share in UK. KFC provides training and good career path to its employees. The company was founded as Kentucky Fried Chicken byÂÂ  ColonelÂÂ  Harland SandersÂÂ  in 1952. At present KFC have more than 24,000 employees. KFC operates all over the world and its main business trend is Halal food. 3.4 Context and Rational 3.4.1 Problems Faced by KFC Today KFC faces some problem with its employees turnover. Employees do not paying attention to their job duties. They turn up late and try to go home early. They are not very active as they used to in 2008. Customers often complain to the manager that, employees are serving very late. They are more concentrated in gossiping with each others. Some of the KFC stores take 5 to 10 minute to serve customer even though there is only one customer. Some employees are giving resignation without having informed. Due to frequent change of employees, customer dissatisfaction is growing day by day. Lack of concentration of employees and their carelessness shows that employees are not loyal to KFC. Sometimes managers also support employees and careless about KFC code of conducts. 3.4.2 Reasons for the Research KFC undertakes the research to find the ways retain its employees. Employees turnover is growing day by day. KFC wants to keeps its employees in order to provide high level of customer service. KFC also wants to reduce the cost of hiring, training and efficient cost. If employees turnover rate decreases KFC can increase its market share. Also it is possible for KFC to increase its customer satisfaction and bring back previous business reputation. 3.5 Aim The aim of the research is to discover the impact of employees retention rate on organizational performance. 3.6 Objectives A list of the objectives of the research has given below: To reduce employee turnover To increase customer satisfaction To increase employee satisfaction 3.7 Literature Review According to Robert L. Mathis, John H. Jackson in their book, Retention of human resources must be viewed as a strategic business issue. Retention of employees has several benefits and advantages. Employees are getting high level skills when they working same environment for long period of time. But, the result of employees turnover is vital for the company. If an efficient employee gives resign company need to appoint new people. The new employee is not efficient and cannot provide satisfactory level customer service. That cost higher for the company. To support employee retention an article can help further. The world leading company shows high level of employee retention programme. As a result employees are providing high level service and working hard for the organization. Anne bruce (2006), described in his article, ÂÂ  how to motivate every employee. He also described, how Google manage its employees retain with its. He described that, like at Google, one of the webs most successful and growing search engines. Here employees play roller hockey during work hours, bring their dogs to work, and eat lunch and the company cafe. The result? Employees work long, hard hours and love their jobs. Again, survey and research on employee retention is an issue since the early age of industry revolution. A survey takes place in 1980. The focus of the survey was on the employee retention. The survey demonstrated that, people want more from work than money. An early study of thousands of workers and managers by the American Psychological Association clearly demonstrated this. While managers predicted the most important motivational aspect of work for people would be money, personal time and attention from the supervisor was cited by workers as most rewarding for them at work. In a recent Workforce article, The Ten Ironies of Motivation, reward and recognition guru, Bob Nelson, says, More than anything else, employees want to be valued for a job well done by those they hold in high esteem. He adds that people want to be treated as if they are adult human beings. Another article shows described that, We knew from past experience that Love2reward offered a great product and service (for our employee retention scheme). Its all about giving our team what they want, and feedback tells us that weve got it rightÂÂ  Pizza Express UK. 3.8 Methodology 3.8.1 Chosen Methodology It is easy and very reliable to use qualitative and quantitative methods together. There is a method that gives chance to use qualitative and quantitative methods together and it is, Triangulation of Positivistic and Phenomenological Paradigms. For this research the Triangulation of Positivistic and Phenomenological Paradigms is selected as methodology. Triangulation of Positivistic and Phenomenological Paradigms uses both quantitative and qualitative methods for this research. 3.8.2 Evaluation of Methodology The methodology is very effective for the research as it uses both qualitative and quantitative methods at the same time. If the results of two methods are same, then the result of the research will consistent. Again the methodology of the research collects data from secondary sources and primary sources as well. It has no chance to gives a false result. Therefore the methodology is very effective for the research. 3.8.3 Limitations of Methodology The methodology uses two methods at the same times. This is the main limitation of the research. Because, the variation of results of two methods make the whole research value less. Again, in case of different result from the two methods, the research needs to do again. It is very costly and time consuming. The methodology has other some other limitations two. It uses two methods. But it is very difficult to select two methods for one research. 3.9 Resources A short list of the resources has provided below: Computer with the Internet connection Internet for articles and journals Books and articles Library access for recent magazines and newspapers 3.10 Action Plan A Gantt chart has prepared for the action plan. The Gantt chart is included in the appendix section. 4. ACTUAL RESEARCH 4.1 Research Design 4.1.1 Step-by-step Design Stage 1: Define Research Topic and Describe Research ProposalThe step-by-step research design has shown below: Stage 2: Extensive Research on Literature Stage 3: Find out suitable methodology and creating research plan Stage 4: Secondary and Primary Data Collection Stage 5: Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis Stage 6: Evaluation and Presentation of findings Fig: Flow Chart for research design 4.1.2 Step-by-step Explanation Stage 1: Research Proposal Topic is the main subject of any research. Identify a suitable research topic is very difficult task. The topic needs to support by various secondary sources of data. After selecting topic a research proposal is essential. This two are the most important task for any research. It is assume that 6 days are enough for the first stage of the research. Stage 2: Extensive Research on Literature It is the most important part as all the supported evidences are collected from Literature review. Among several literatures the most related 5 or seven literatures need to select and then make a research on the literature. It is assume that 3 days are enough for this stage. Stage 3: Find Suitable Research Methodology and Creating Research Plan As the whole research is depend on the research design it is need to carefully create. All tasks follow the research methodology and the research plan. It is assume that 4 days are enough for this stage. Stage 4: Secondary and Primary Data Collection Data collection is the most important part of the research. For this research primary and secondary data need to collect. It is assume that 7 days are enough for this stage. Stage 5: Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis The result of the research depends on data analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative data need to analysis for the result of the research. It is assume that 4 days are enough for this stage. Stage 6: Presentation and evaluation of findings Analysed data is very easy to evaluate and presented. It is assume that 5 days are enough for the presentation and evaluation of data. 4.2 Data Collection 4.2.1 Secondary Data Collection Secondary data is collected throughout the Internet research, using company record, articles, journals, books and web pages. In this section the topic related data is selected and summaries all of them. The data sources are given below: Turnover is a silent but significant profit killer. By Arun Kottolli (2010), Employee Turnover Kills Profits. Keeping good employees is a challenge that all organizations share and it becomes even more difficult as labour markets tighten, by Robert L. Mathis and John H. Jackson. (2008:76), Human Resources Management Retention of human resources must be viewed as a strategic business issue by Anne Bruce, How to motivate every employee Nelson (2003) writes in The Ten Ironies of Motivation that, I have known for yearsthat money isnt everything when it comes to employment Employee retention is most critical issue facing corporate leaders as a result of the shortage of skilled labour, economic growth and employee turnover By www.retentionconnection.com For service-orientedÂÂ  careersÂÂ  such as account management andÂÂ  customer service, high turnover can lead to customer dissatisfaction. By Shelley Moore (2010) The above resources give qualitative data about the retention and organizational performance. From the data it is found that retention can change trend of employee turnover form any company. Retention makes employees motivate. It also brings job satisfaction. It gives clear definition of job responsibilities. The motivated and satisfied employees provide high level customer service. The high level customer service increase organizational performance. On the other hand employee turnover show negative impact to company. The results are hiring cost, training cost, efficiency cost and much other cost. The collection of secondary initially shows that there is a relationship between employee turnover and organizational performance. If employees retention increases then organizational performance also increases. If employee performance decreases then organizational performance also decreases. 4.2.2 Primary Data Collection The questioner method has been used to collect primary data. The primary data is collected by sending e-mail to 30 employees who are working KFC. A total of 10 questions have been set for every employee. From their response and activeness it is found that employees are more concern about retention that any other thing. The primary data initially shows that retention play a major role in organizational performance. Organizational performance will increase if retention increases for the organization. 4.3 Data Analysis 4.3.1 Qualitative Data Analysis Quantitative data collection is very critical task. Here some basic criteria are essential to follow. The analysis of data need to be valid, reliable, fair and must be follows some ethical issues. Valid: All the secondary data are valid. They have strong relationship with the subjects matter. They show the relation between employee retention and organizational performance. Again, all data shows the effect of employee performance. Some of the articles show the survey and research has been taking in order to decrease turnover. It is clear from the initial research that all secondary data are valid. Reliable: Qualitative data has been taken from various reliable sources. Books, articles, journals, and web pages are used to collect qualitative data. Qualitative data also collected from a sample of 30 employees. They provide qualitative data by their questions answer. Fair: Data are directly taken from sources. No modification has occurred while taking data from its sources. No data has been taken in order to support the hypothesis. Ethical issues: Qualitative data collection follows a set of agreed policies, such as literature review, secondary data collection, primary data collection. Data is not modified of misinterpret by any one. While collecting and using data permission from the authority has been taken carefully. In case of web based data, the sources are indicated very carefully. No influence has take place in order make the result of the research similar with qualitative and quantitative data. 4.3.2 Quantitative Data Analysis Quantitative data analysis follows a set of ethical issue. It also uses the valid, reliable and fair policies. Valid: All data are taken from current employer of KFC. Questioner has been set in a way that employees give answer along with their own feeling about retention and organizational performance. All the data related to the topic of the research. Reliable: Data are taken from KFC employees. They are not influence to give the answer. No suggestion has been provided them regarding the questioner. Employees are actively replay their answer and express their free thinking. So, data is reliable. Fair: No answer has been modified in order to get positive result. Participants are always free to replay the questioner. Answer from the questioner has been taken accurately. Ethical: Data was confidential. Only the researcher saw the data. Participants are not influenced participate the research. Participant privacy policy got priority. Data is not affected by anyone. Participate did not get reminder to replay the questioner. 5. PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION Analysis of Findings What is your job position? Reasons: Job position gives the overview about employees experience with the company. It also shows the time spent by employees within the organization. Majority Answer The majority answer was Team Members Conclusion Team members are can give the most recent experience about retention. They are worried about their job duties, getting promotion and other benefits. The sample group is the right one. Please indicate your work experience with KFC? Reasons: Job experiences show that the employees working life experience. Higher the job experiences higher the knowledge about retention. Majority Answer: The majority answer was 3 to 5 years experience Conclusion: The sample of 30 people, with 3 to 5 years experiences show that all employees are aware about employee retention policies. 5.1.3 What is the level of your job satisfaction? Reasons: Job satisfaction levels provide information about employees loyalty to the organization. Satisfied employees are happy with their retention and other policies. Majority Answer: The majority answer was satisfied. Conclusion: Satisfied employees are loyal to the company. They are happy with their retention and motivation policies. They can provide high level of performance in order increase organizational performance. How satisfied you with KFC? Reasons: This is similar to the prevision one. But, it takes the answer critically and specifically about the KFC. Majority Answer: The majority answer was Average. Conclusion: It is very difficult to distinguish the previous answer and present answer. Employees are satisfied with their job but not to KFC. Possibly, job satisfaction of KFC is good but some other policies are not good. How satisfied you with your Payment and other Benefits? Reasons: Payment and benefits is the indicators of employee satisfaction. If employees are satisfied with their payment and other benefits it will reduce employee turnover and increase organizational performances. Majority answer: The majority answer was average. Conclusion: KFC provides many benefits to its employees but the does not enough for employees satisfaction. The average level of job satisfaction shows that employee retention rate will decrease in KFC and its performance will decrease day by day. Do you satisfied with you promotion policy? Reasons: Promotion policies are major indicators of employee retention. If company have suitable promotion policy, employees are very active to meet the criteria to get promotion, as a result organizational performance increase. Majority Answer: The majority answer was average. Conclusion: The answer shows that KFC promotion policy is not good enough to meet its employee satisfaction. If employees are not satisfied with their promotion policy they cannot provide high level of customer service. That will affect organizational performance. If you get better chance to other company what will you do? Reason: This shows the loyalty to the organization. If employees are not loyal to the organization they not provide high level performance. As a result, organizational performance will decrease. Majority Answer: The majority answer was Quite the Company Conclusion: Employees want to quite the organization. KFC need to appoint new employees and level of its performance will decrease. What is your view about employee retention? Reason: It will help to find out employees personal view about retention policy. Majority Answer: The majority answer was very helpful Conclusion: If KFC take better retention policy employees will satisfied. They can help to increase company performance. If you will be promoted as a manager of a new opening store, what is your plan for long term and constant success for your organization? Reason: This question gives chance to employees to take decision about the improvement of company performance. Majority Answer: The majority answer was Retention Policy Conclusion: Most of the employees want to improve retention policy KFC has many employee employees development programmes for its business success. Which is most preferable to you? Reason: Find out the most preferable methods to keep employees and increase organizational performances. Majority Answer: The majority answer was Retention Policy Conclusion: Among all the development programs employees are like retention policy for the improvement of KFC performance. The result of this question indicates that KFC need to improve its retention policy in order to increase its performance. 5.2 Methodology Evaluation The selected methodology for the research is Triangulation of Positivistic and Phenomenological Paradigms. The methodology is best suited for the research as it is used two methods at the same times. The methodology is effective to find out the impact of retention on organizational performance. The data is collected by following a set of ethical rules. All the data are valid, reliable and fair. 5.3 Conclusions The research proves that retention has major impacts on organizational performance. Thus, the hypothesis is supported by the research. Finally it is found that if KFC develops better retention policies it can keep its employees. As a result KFC can increase it organizational performances. 5.4 Recommendations Although the sample of the research was only KFC employees, it can be used by any organization. Both qualitative and quantitative data shows that retention can increase organizational performance. The methodology has some limitation to. The data is collected from a sample of 30 people. Again, only KFC employees provide data. There is no way to make sure that the target employees have replayed back the questioner. Employee may not give the right answer. Though the limitation, this research can help further research in retention and organizational performance. All the resources have valid source identification. The final result of the research is retention rate can help the organization improves its performances. This research is made independently. As the hypothesis of this research is proved and this research is made only on fast food company(KFC) so other fast food companies like MacDonalds and Burger king, Subway can make use of the results of this report for the related featured problems and to improve their performances. Furthermore it is advised to KFC that it should focus on employees retention rate by using different tools for retention such as salary increase, bonuses, promotions and pension schemes. As this is identified that organizational performance is mostly depending on retention rate so company should take this matter seriously to enhance their organizational performance worldwide and to sustain their business profitability. Because of the limitation of methodology (qualitative and quantitative) in future they need to use one methodology so that they cannot find any conflicts by using two different methods and will research on more employees of KFC from different areas so that they can get more people point of view. REFERENCES Bruce, Anne. (2009:3-47), How to Motivate Every Employees, [online] Madison, USA: The McGraw-Hill. Available form: books.google.co.uk Last accessed 25th Oct 2010 Cooper, Evan. (2007).ÂÂ  Job Stickiness Employee Retention Rate.ÂÂ  [online].Available: http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/management/d952374028.brc Last accessed 1oth Nov 2010ÂÂ   Gordon Barker, (2009) Challenging times require a different talent focus, Strategic HR Review, Vol. 8 Iss: 4, pp.24 28. [online], Available from: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Last accessed 12th Nov 2010. Jammes Harris Group. (2010). How to Decrease Turnover and Increase Employee Retention.ÂÂ  CBS Interactive. 1 (1), p1-3. Kottolli, Arun . (2010).ÂÂ  Employee Turnover Kills Profit.ÂÂ  [online].Available: http://akottolli.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7320740A5EA5572!177.entry. Last accessed 12th Oct 2010. Love2reward. (2009).ÂÂ  Employee Retention / Staff Retention.[online]. Available: http://www.love2reward.co.uk/rewards/solution-finder/employee-retention?sen=Googlelink=7id=311051gclid=CP_EzYzMraUCFVBO4QodhWq8Yg. Last accessed 12th Oct 2010. Nelson, B. (2010).ÂÂ  The Ten Ironies of Motivation.[online]ÂÂ  Available: http://www.cognitivehorizons.com/assignments/ED7672/weekFour.htm. Last accessed 20th Oct 2010. Robert L, Mathis. And John H, Jackson. (2008).ÂÂ  Human Resource Management [online].ÂÂ  Available: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_yCe7fiQbokCpg=PA74lpg=PA74dq=%E2%80%9CRetention+of+human+resources+must+be+viewed+as+a+strategic+business+issue%E2%80%9D+by+Robert+L.+Mathis,+John+H.+Jacksonsou. Last accessed 30th Oct 2010 retentionconnection.com. (2010).ÂÂ  Employee Retention: Vital Strategy.[online].Available: http://www.retentionconnection.com/. Last accessed 25thÂÂ  2010 Ross Blake. (2006).ÂÂ  Employee Retention: What Employee Turnover Really Costs Your Company.[online].ÂÂ  Available: http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2006/07/24/employee-retention-what-employee-turnover-really-costs-your-company. Last accessed 30th Oct 2010. Shelley Moore. (2010).ÂÂ  The Effect of Employee Turnover.[online]ÂÂ  Available: http://www.ehow.com/facts_4866742_effects-employee-turnover.html. Last accessed 28th Oct 2010. Susan M. Heathfield. (2010).ÂÂ  Keep Your Best: Retention Tips.ÂÂ  [online].Available: http://humanresources.about.com/cs/retention/a/turnover.htm. Last accessed 29th Oct 2010. wfnetwork.bc.edu. (2007).ÂÂ  Definition of Retention.ÂÂ  [online].Available: http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/glossary_entry.php?term=Retention,%20Definition(s)%20ofarea=All. Last accessed 14th Oct 2010 Buchanan, D. Huczynski A, 2010.ÂÂ  Organizational Behaviour.ÂÂ  7th ed. England: Pearson. Lewis, R. 2007. Business, .England: Nelson Thornes Price,A .Human Resource Management in a business context.3rd ed. England: south-western Cengage learning Bloisi,w. Human resource management. England: McGrawHill education BIBLIOGRAPHY

Colors :: Creative Writing Essays

Colors Emulsions are thin, gelatinous, light-sensitive coatings on film that react chemically to capture the color and shadings of a scene. Color film requires three layers of emulsions, typically cyan (a greenish blue), yellow, and magenta (a purplish red). As light passes through the layers, each emulsion records areas where its particular color appears in the scene. When developed, the emulsion releases dye that is the complementary color of the light recorded: blue light activates yellow dye, green light is magenta, and red light is cyan.(1) golden beer lemon (sickly) Sunflower caution banana (mourning) school-bus Yellow. In sixteenth century England yellow was a sign of mourning. Sunflowers are yellow- and there must have been lilies in the arrangement too, because I remember the smell of the hot-yellow pollen. Sunflowers are yellow, but I didn't know it then. In that lemon-meringue hospital room; sunflowers, for sunny, for sun. He was called Sonny (for son for Sunny: he who is built around an engine), and for a long time I thought it was spelled Sunny, and into the blue my sun fell one day and proved me right. I belong to this Sunny, whose light was so strong people flocked to him - he saw through them to them, I belong to this Sonny who had enough heart (engine red and strong,) to keep up old arguments while his eyes yellowed and that paper thin hospital gown became thinner, the thin oxygen tubes terribly distracting from his face (though he wasn't thin - he had been gorging himself to save us from watching him fade.) He had put me in charge of taking care of the (sun)flower arrangement and my hear t broke (like rays of sun, fragmented) as I poured the golden water down the drain and threw the dying flowers out. (We still have the vase at home. It was useless and too necessary.) Over and over, in my mind, I trot up the aging stairs in our house. I hear a voice chanting, "I'mgonedieI'mgonedieI'mgonedie" and I see him lying splayed out on the cyan bedspread in that egg-shell room and I want to scream, "Heywhat'suphowwasyourday?" The baseball game (thick with silence) is playing on the walls and ceiling at sickly angles and I want to whisper, "Sowho' swinning?" I want to disappear. I go into my room and I close my head and I search for a cardboard box (ripping through piles of paper inside myself), something to put him in before.

Standardized Testing and Teacher Cheating Essay -- High-Stakes Standard

In the contemporary American education system high-stakes standardized testing has resulted in a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large increase in the numbers of teachers cheating by alternating their students' test scores. Both these phenomena are a direct consequence of the incentives and punishments directly linked to standardized test results. Many teachers have taken acceptable measures in improving their students’ scores, such as simply â€Å"teaching to the test†, and taking class time to teach test taking techniques and procedures often resulting in a significant loss in time for other important standards and benchmarks that are not tested on. Taking a deontologist stance, one would propose that the teachers are merely acting from their duty to help their students succeed, and that if the standardized test is a true reflection of the material a student should have mastered, â€Å"teaching to the test† exactly the course a teacher should take. With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 teachers are â€Å"implicitly encouraged to reallocate classroom time, because it only requires testing in reading and math in seven grades and science in three† (Phelps) and taking any other form of action would result in failure for the students and the instructor. One can argue that teac hing to the test can easily be squashed by changing and rotating test topics between all of the benchmarks and standards teachers are ethically obligated to teach; however, this arises the question, do administrators and educators really want to stop this well adapted to process? This phenomenon places a utilitarian at a conflict of short term versus long term effects and benefits. When focusing on the short term benefits, a utili... ...2011): 38+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Smolin, Andrea, and Jennifer Clayton. "Standardized Testing: How Prepared Are We?." Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. 12(4). (2009): 29-36. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Wiliam, Dylan. "Standardized Testing and School Accountability." Educational Psychologist. 45(2). (2010): 107-122. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Farah, Yara N. "Through Another's Eyes." Gifted Child Today 36.3 (2013): 209-212. Professional Development Collection. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. Was, Christopher A. "Standardized Testing: NOT The Root Of All Evil." Psyccritiques 54.23 (2009): PsycCRITIQUES. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Jacob, Brian, and Steven Levitt. "Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating." Oxford University Press. 118.3 (2003): 843-877. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .

King of Kings :: social issues

King of Kings Even though the people of Israel were under the leadership of the almighty God, they were not pleased. They wanted a human king, someone fallible and imperfect to lead them. Even then, God was forgiving and appointed a human king over them. As I intend to prove, kingship was not a good thing for the nation of Israel because kings were corrupt and sinful. They imposed harsh labors and laws on the people who followed them. But most importantly, by having a king, they were turning their backs on God. There were a few benefits that came from having a king, but these proved to be an illusion. Many will argue that a king was good for Israel. Proponents for a king argue that kings brought political stability to the country. By imposing taxes and labors, they argue that the economic stability of the country was established. A king would unite all the tribes of Israel into a single country under his leadership. A human king was someone whom all the people could approach and talk to, whereas God only appeared to a select few people. While David was king over Israel, the kingdom reached its peak in territory and conquests. He captured the strongholds of Zion and Jerusalem; 2 cities which held great importance to the people of Israel. Solomon, with the knowledge God gave him, was perhaps the wisest man of his time. He was a great arbiter of justice and the depths of his knowledge amazed all who came to seek his counsel. A king was also the leader of the army and would lead his troops into battle. Even though these were beneficial aspects of having a king, they did not overcome the negative aspects of kingship. I will argue that having a king was bad for the nation of Israel. I will refute the arguments that supporters of a king. Even though the Israelites made many territorial conquests under the leadership of King David, these gains would only be temporary. They would later lose much of the lands they gained. David, though he was a good king, also sinned against God. He coveted another’s wife and indirectly had her husband killed. Even though Solomon was wise, all his wisdom could not prevent him from sinning against God. A king and his reign are not permanent. A good king may sit on the throne, but he will die, and the king who follows him may not be a good king at all.

The Relationship of Childhood Sexual Abuse to Teenage Pregnancy

Running Head: RESEARCH ARTICLE REVIEW Research Article Review The Relationship of Childhood Sexual Abuse to Teenage Pregnancy Ashlee L. Glover Lindenwood University The Relationship of Childhood Sexual Abuse to Teenage Pregnancy I. Questions and Answers 1. â€Å"The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy† (Roosa, Tein, Reinholtz, & Angelini, 1997). 2. â€Å"Three research questions guided this effort. First, do women who were sexually abused as children and women who had teenage pregnancy have similar developmental backgrounds (sociodemographic and risk factor profiles)? Second, does the risk for teenage pregnancy differ, based on whether a woman was sexually abused as a child, sexually precocious, or both? Third, does childhood sexual abuse contribute to an increased risk of having a teenage pregnancy after the influence of other factors related to teenage pregnancy (e. g. , social class) have been accounted for† (Roosa et al. 1997)? 3. â€Å"We expect victims of sexual abuse to have first voluntary coitus earlier, to be less likely to use contraception, to be more likely to participate in high-risk sexual behaviors (e. g. , sex with strangers), and to have a higher number of sexual partners than their peers who were not sexually abused† (Roosa et al. , 1997). 4. The variables being studied is sexual history, High-risk sexual behavior, Sexual abuse, Sexual history pa thways, childhood physical abuse, and High-risk behaviors. Roosa et al. , 1997). 5. The participants were 2,003 women, 18 to 22 years old, living in Arizona. (Roosa et al. , 1997). 6. â€Å"Participants completed the questionnaire alone or in groups. They recorded their responses on computer-scored answer sheets to ease data entry and minimize errors. After completing the questionnaire, a participant placed her answer sheet in an envelope, sealed the envelope, and gave it to either the project manager or agency representative† (Roosa et al. , 1997). 7. We used chi-square and analysis of variance to compare sociodemographic and risk factor profiles of (a) women who were sexually abused as children with their non-abused peers and (b) women who had teenage pregnancy with those who did not. Next, we compared the incidence of teenage pregnancy for five sexual history pathways using chi-square. Finally, we used logistic regression to determine whether experiences of childhood sexua l abuse contributed to risk for teenage pregnancy after the influences of other variables had been accounted for† (Roosa et al. 1997). 8. â€Å"The results of our study do not support arguments that sexual abuse is a major contributor to the risk for teenage pregnancy† (Roosa et al. , 1997). 9. The importance of the findings is that childhood sexual abuse contributed little to the likelihood of teenage pregnancy. The severity of sexual abuse was not significantly related to teenage pregnancy. Sexual abuse followed by sexual precocity was related to a higher risk of teenage pregnancy for some. (Roosa et al. , 1997). 10. The results were limited by two methodological factors. First, the sample, although large, was a sample of convenience from a single state, and participants were slightly more educated than the average for this cohort. Second, this was a cross-sectional study that relied on the recall of events that occurred several necessary years prior to the surveyâ₠¬  (Roosa et al. , 1997). 11. â€Å"It may be important for future studies to identify factors that explain the risk associated with sexual abuse for these subgroups† (Roosa et al. , 1997). It was also stated that in the future longitudinal studies are necessary to establish causality. Roosa et al. , 1997). II. Summary The United States has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy with about 25 percent of all U. S. women having a pregnancy by the age of 18 (Roosa et al. , 1997). The purpose of this study was to determine if childhood sexual abuse is a factor associated with an increased risk for teenage pregnancies (Roosa et al. , 1997). Recent studies have reported that sexual abuse is more common among pregnant teenagers than in general population and therefore could possibly be a major contributor to teenage pregnancy. Many mechanisms have been proposed to explain the linkage between childhood sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy. Roosa et al. , (1997) outlined several mechanisms including (a) some teenage pregnancies may be the direct result of sexual abuse, (b) childhood sexual abuse may socialize female victims to believe that their purpose in life is to fulfill the sexual needs of others, (c) the lowered self-esteem of sexual abuse victims may make them more vulnerable to males’ sexual advances, and (d) victims of incest may plan pregnancies as a means of escaping from their victimization. Three research questions guided this effort: First, do women who were sexually abused as children and women who had teenage pregnancy have similar developmental backgrounds (sociodemographic and risk factor profiles)? Second, does the risk for teenage pregnancy differ, based on whether a woman was sexually abused as a child, sexually precocious, or both? And for those who experienced both abuse and precocity, does the relative timing of these events make a difference in risk for teenage pregnancy? Third, does childhood sexual abuse contribute to an increased risk of having a teenage pregnancy after the influence of other factors related to teenage pregnancy (e. g. , social class) have been accounted for? (Roosa et al. , 1997) The variables being studied are sexual history, high-risk sexual behavior, sexual abuse, sexual history pathways, childhood physical abuse, and high-risk behaviors. Sexual history was assessed by asking about the respondent’s age of menarche, first coital experience, use of birth control, and pregnancy (Roosa et al. 1997). Any pregnancy occurring before age 18 was labeled a teenage pregnancy. High risk sexual behavior was described as anyone who had sex for alcohol, drugs, or money; having sex with strangers, having multiple sex partners, and not using birth control (Roosa et al. , 1997). Roosa et al. , (1997) used five mutually sexual history pathways to examine the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy: One pathway rep resented those who reported no precocious sexual activity and no sexual abuse before the age of 18. A second pathway represented women who were sexually abused before age 18 with no precocious sexual activity. A third pathway represented those who had been abused before their first precocious sexual experience. A fourth pathway represented those who had been abused before age 18 but after their first precocious sexual experience. A fifth pathway represented participants who had not experienced any sexual abuse before the age of 18 but who were sexually precocious. The last measures used were childhood physical abuse. Eight questions dealing with spanking and hitting adapted from the Conflict Tactics Scale (Roosa et al. , 1997). Participants were 2,003 women, 18 to 22 years old, living in Arizona (Roosa et al. , 1997). Participation was limited to this age range to reduce reporting bias due to widely varying time intervals since sexual history events occurred (Roosa et al. , 1997). The women were recruited at 44 sites in urban and rural areas throughout Arizona (Roosa eta l. , 1997). Participants completed the questionnaire alone or in groups, with assistance from the project manager (Roosa et al. 1997). They recorded their responses on computer-scored answer sheets to ease data entry and minimize error (Roosa et al. , 1997). To analyze the results chi-square and analysis of variance were used to compare sociodemographic and risk factor profiles of (a) women who were sexually abused as children with their non-abused peers and (b) women who had a teenage pregnancy with those who did not (Roosa et a l. , 1997). Next, they compared the incidence of teenage pregnancy for five sexual history pathways using chi-square (Roosa et al. , 1997). Finally, they used logistic regression to determine whether experiences of childhood sexual abuse contributed to the risk for teenage pregnancy after the influences of other variables had been accounted for (Roosa et al. , 1997). Using data from 2,003 women this study took three approaches to examine the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and the likelihood of teenage pregnancy. The results of the study did not support the argument that sexual abuse is a major contributor to the risk for teenage pregnancy (Roosa et al. , 1997). Childhood sexual abuse contributed little to the likelihood of teenage pregnancy in this sample (Roosa et al. , 1997). According to Roosa et al. , (1997), it may be important for future studies to identify factors that explain the risk associated with sexual abuse of different subgroups. Regardless of the strengths of associations found or the number of factors statically controlled, it cannot be determined which relationships may be casual and which may be spurious (Roosa et al. , 1997). Longitudinal studies are necessary to establish causality.

Owens & Minor case for aligning supply chain incentives Essay

Executive Summary Statement of issues: Due to the changes of business environment, O&M suffered a continuous loss on business. Instead of acting individually, customers formed buying groups and combined buying power to gain advantages in negotiating gross margin with distributor. With the increased popularity of JIT and stockless idea, customers want to shift cost and risk associated with inventory to distributor, and they also want distributor to provide better services at its own expense. Moreover, competitions from private label distributors and manufacturing distributors further squeezed profit margin of our company. Owens and Minor play a very important role in the entire SC. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow. Their services to the hospitals include storing the inventory in their warehouse and making constant shipments based on stockless and JIT strategy, thus taking all the financial risk in inventory handling and storage. They don’t add value to the product itself, but they do add a lot of value to the SC. The nature of distribution has changed over time. The bargaining power of hospital has increased due to mergers and alliances, pressuring the distributors to reduce their margins. Upstream members of the SC have also put some pressure on O&M to take additional cost in their operations. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributor’s and customers’ incentives could be allied. Customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors’ channel instead of buying directly from manufacture. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. Also, customers who understood and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. ABP was a new concept and its value had not been proven. Aggressive  implementation of new idea such as ABP might drive customers away and fed competitors. There are internal obstacles exist in the ABP implementation. Hospitals have to restructure its organizational structures to fit in ABP system. Rearranging employees and reallocating facilities would increase the distrust to ABP system. Also, a substantial amount of investment is needed for establishing the EDI system. How to overcome these obstacles and make ABP implementation smooth is a big challenge. In order to illustrate the idea of ABP more clearly, we have come up a simple pricing matrix based on ABC method. We have identified two cost drivers and separated fixed and variable costs from general cost information. However, for simplicity we have not considered the cost difference of EDI and non-EDI ordering in this simple matrix. Owens and Minor should carefully deal with its customers’ resistance to the new pricing system by making them truly understand the new system and benefits they would get after the implementation. Owens and Minor also needed to launch a pilot program before full implementation and provide help and support to its customers to insure the success of the implementation. Statement of issues Historically O&M was doing very well in the industry, however, for recent years company suffered continuous loss on business. At the end of 1995 O&M had ended with an $11 million loss due to decrease in gross margin and an increase in expense. There are many reasons that caused this result, and we are going to identify the most important ones. Healthcare industry has changed a lot since 1980. Historically, hospitals purchased healthcare products individually. However, in order to achieve economies of scale and gain more control over supply costs, hospitals joined forces with other hospitals to form large buying groups. With such combined buying powers, hospitals are much more powerful in negotiating gross margins  and service levels with distributors. Distributors are forced to cut gross margins and increase service level. A quote from O&M manager can illustrate this situation very well: â€Å"whoever had the strongest will would win the price†. Apparently, in current supply chain, the relationship between distributors and customers is not harmonious. Moreover, with the increased popularity of Just-In-Time and stockless management ideas, hospitals are reluctant to hold large inventory because they wouldn’t benefit from JIT whose primary principle is to lower inventory carrying cost by ordering when needed. Instead, they want distributors provide Just-In-Time delivery service. Also customers require special handlings such as smaller package and different products batching and these services are at distributors own costs. Distributors also experienced margin pressure from the manufacturing side because manufactures do no compromise on the already low healthcare product price. Competitions in the industry also results profit decline of O&M, especially with distributors who also produce healthcare products entered the market. Those distributors are able to offer extremely low price to customers because they are the manufactures as well. Even though O&M commits to provide better service, it lost many customers because of this. Analysis of Data Services rendered by O&M and changes in Distribution. Owens & Minor play a tremendous role in this industry’s Supply-Chain. They are in charge of providing information to manufacturers on product flow such as: market trends, buying patterns and product penetration, so that their suppliers use this valuable information in order to manage their operations and production schedules. By doing so, manufacturers are able to produce the right quantity of supplies, which in turn reduces stockouts and/or excess stock costs, in other words O&M provide the necessary tools for the upstream members to have adequate inventory production planning. As for their customers, their role is to purchase the products from the manufacturers and ship those medical supplies to their warehouse where they will store them until delivery to the hospitals. So O&M owns and manage the inventory themselves, taking all the financial risk associated with product handling, shipment and storage. â€Å"O&M’s main operational functions included receiving, put-away, order picking and shipping†. O&M don’t add value to the product itself since they just act as an intermediary to pass the products from the manufacturer directly to the hospitals, however they do add value to the Supply-Chain. They enrich the SC with the necessary information needed to avoid phenomena such as the Bullwhip Effect and they bring expertise in stockless and JIT inventory management systems, consequently lowering costs along the chain. However, it is certain that the nature of distribution, that is, the role of O&M has changed through time and not for the greater good. This change has occurred mainly with its downstream partners the hospitals. They have shifted they costs to their distributors and demanded better and faster service without any additional rewards, this is why O&M relies heavily on its logistics department to make process more efficient. This was made possible for hospitals due to their increase in power by merging or joining forces with other hospitals. Voluntary Hospitals of America member hospitals represented $1.2 billion in annual revenue to the company, meaning that O&M’s switching cost is too high. They are able to minimize their own costs by forcing distributors to hold their inventory and transport in smaller units, sending it to the nursing and surgical units instead of leaving it at the loading dock as before. Margin pressures have also been present upstream with manufacturers, which were reducing discounts even as small as 0.5%, thus lowering significantly up to 31% distributors net profits before tax. A main issue taken from this case is that incentives along the Supply-Chain are not aligned. The risks and rewards of doing business are not fairly distributed across the network. Even if the manufacturers and hospitals are better off with the cost-plus strategy, the whole SC still does not have a win-win situation and they might lose against other Supply Chains. The truth  behind this issue lies in that there is no trust in the SC, this assumption is made given that nobody wants to share critical information, which enhances Impact of Cost-Plus Pricing on the members of the Supply-Chain. On the side of the distributors O&M, engaging in a cost-plus pricing strategy means charging a 7% markup, meaning that profits lie on expensive products, which they don’t have the change to deliver cause Hospitals bypass them and deal directly with manufacturers in order to avoid the 7% increase in prices. The most important aspect to consider about this strategy is that it does not take into account the services added. In addition, this method caused the effect of Distributor giving more and better service holding more inventories, which increases carrying costs and risk of damage during storage. Distributors enforce supply-chain speed without any additional profits. On the customer’s side, cost-plus pricing implies less risk on inventory carrying cost, creating more incentive for hospitals to order frequently due to flat rate. Nevertheless, there is some unethical activities in which they can participate. They can avoid paying high costs on expensive products to their distributors by jumping them through the SC and dealing with manufacturers instead, an activity called â€Å"cherry-picking†. Finally, the manufacturer engaging in cost-plus strategy needed to handle some shipment to deliver, mainly expensive products, to hospitals. This resulted in inefficiency for both parties due to the fact that manufacturers required hospitals to buy in bulk and they did not have the space or management systems as distributors did to handle the product. Mishandling, damaging and loosing expensive items often occurred in the â€Å"cherry-picking† process. Alternative Courses of Action for O&M. Based on our five quantitative and qualitative decision criteria: cost, time, ease of implementation, customer satisfaction and future benefit for the  company, we are able to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative and help us make the best decision. 1)Status Quo: The easiest option for O&M is to keep operating as they are, which is not the best alternative for them for financial reasons. They currently have customers who are not profitable for the company, customers who keep asking for higher service at the same price that would keep profit margins low as personnel costs increase. For the year of 1995 they incurred a net loss of $11.3 million, which compared to last year’s profit of $7.92 million represents a dramatic and also unstable change. Based on this data, the assumption is that the upstream and downstream partners will not change their business habits and incentives will keep unaligned and that the company will not be able to reduce costs to an extent where they can offset service costs and generate profits. O&M will keep generating loses for the company and will ultimately yield to bankruptcy. The time to implement is inexistent, since no actions are made. The cost of implementation is also inexistent; nevertheless the company’s cost on the long run will be very high because cost-plus strategy is not profitable for them. There is no ease of implementation. The customer’s benefit is high, since they don’t have to pay additional service and inventory carrying cost. The future benefit for the company is very low, might loose contract with clients because of their lack of ability to fulfill all products and keep taking all the costs. 2) Vertical Integration: Our second proposed alternative is vertical integration, which means to acquire a manufacturing plant. By using this strategy, O&M would be able to create its own healthcare product brand and reduce the purchasing price on that. Thus, O&M could offer a more competitive price to its customers and might get some recovers from the high operating costs. However, there are some problems associated with this alternative. O&M had to spend time on finding suitable acquiring target, understanding manufacturing process and integrate the manufacturing plant into the company system. Therefore, this strategy requires a relatively longer time period to get things work. On the other hand, in order to do vertical integration, O&M had to prepare a huge amount of cash. Based on the fact that O&M’s current cash flow was very tight, acquiring a manufacture  would have a big impact on company’s financial health. Implementation of this strategy would be quite diffi cult as well. Since O&M had no experience on healthcare manufacturing, it has to get familiar with the process from very beginning. Also, how to control manufacturing cost at a competitive level is a new challenge to O&M. Because O&M can create its low-cost private label products under this strategy, it has the incentive to promote private label products to hospitals. However, hospitals do not like private label products since it limits the scope of choice so under this strategy customer satisfaction level is low. In general, vertical integration is effective in reducing company’s cost on healthcare products purchasing but requires a substantial investment and long implementation period. Customer satisfaction is also low in this case. 3)Selected ABP: Another alternative that O&M could use is to use ABP system only on certain type of customers. More specifically, O&M could choose unprofitable customers to implement ABP and keep its profitable customers status quo. The time required for this alternative will not take too long, less than 6 months would be a reasonable estimation. The majority of time would be spent on the analysis of profitability of customers. The challenge of implantation this alternative is to make sure the customer profitability analysis would be done under a proper and correct result would be produced. To estimate customer satisfaction after the implementation, we needed to split our customers into two groups. Those customers determined as â€Å"profitable† to us under current cost-plus system would likely to maintain the current satisfaction level, but customers viewed as â€Å"unprofitable† would feel less satisfied since they would have to pay more after ABP implemented. The downsides of this alternative are the risk to drive some customers away and the increased complexity of our pricing system which might lead increased error rate. The good side is that O&M would benefit in the long run because of the elimination of unprofitable customers. If O&M would have all the information and could develop correct ways to conduct the analysis, this alternative would be a possible choice to lead O&M succeed. 4)ABP for all Customers: this final alternative considers implanting ABP to all customers, both profitable and non profitable. The cost of this option  is higher than â€Å"Selective ABP† previously mentioned, due to the fact that all customer base will be subject to EDI technology and connecting to all of them takes organization within the company and thus training cost by employees for both O&M and hospitals. The time to implement will be longer compared to Selective ABP; however based on our assumption that O&M will be located higher on the learning curve, their time per implementation per customer will be less the more customers they have previously served. The easiness of implementation therefore is not easy due to the large customer base dealt and new systems and training needed. However, the future benefits, not only for O&M, but also for the entire SC will be substantially improved in the sense that incentives would be aligned. Based on previous analysis on alternatives, we conclude that â€Å"ABP for all customers† is the most feasible solution that can maximise company’s profits, as well as aligning the incentives along the SC. This is important not only for the short term, but also for the long term of the entire chain. Impact of ABP on Customer Behavior. Before the implementation of ABP (activity based pricing), the current dominant form of pricing in the medical/ surgical industry was cost-plus pricing. If the ABP strategy could be successfully implemented, both distributor’s and customers’ incentives could be allied. Under ABP, the distribution fee was no longer based on the value of item but the value of service. In that way, Owen & Minor’s customers would begin to think about the real cost of various activities through the supply chain. Instead of wanting to order as less as possible per time and increasing order frequency, customers would begin to seek a way to reduce the order frequency to reduce the distribution fee charged by Owen & Minor. Also, since now the fee was not determined by product value, customers would be willing to order expensive products via distributors’ channel instead of buying in bulk directly from manufacture. So the possibility of mishandling, damaging and lost of expensive items would be reduced. From the distributor’s side, it would be more happy to provide good service because it would be paid based on the service it provided not the value of item. Of course, it’s unlikely to ask all Owen & Minor’s customer to turn to the new pricing system at the same time. Depends on the type of customers, some of them might be adopt the ABP quicker and with less resistance. Generally, customers who could reduce or simplify the activities happened through the supply chain would adopt ABP faster. First, customers willing to simplify or reduce the order frequency would be more likely to adopt the ABP. By doing that, the fee charged by distributor would be decreased. Also, those customers often ordering large amount of expensive items would adopt the ABP first. By doing that, it shits the risk of mishandling, damage and lost to the distributor. Compared with previous fee charged by item value, now they would more likely to pay less but get better service. Furthermore, those customers who understood and were willing to develop a sustainable relationship with distributors would adopt the ABP first. They understood that if distributor was losing money because of the improper pricing system, the entire supply chain would collapse someday and both of them would be hurt finally. There were also risks associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt. Proposed ABC pricing matrix In order to have a better demonstration, O&M designed a simple pricing scheme using activities-based costing. The pricing scheme is based on two major cost drivers–number of purchase orders per month and number of lines per purchase order. The number of orders was tied up to O&W’s fixed administrative costs and number of lines was tied to variable costs such as the labour handling cost of different products. This is a very primitive matrix because it only listed two cost drives and priced based on them. In reality, there should be a price for every value-adding service provided by distributor and the number of cost drives is huge. However, this simple  pricing matrix could effectively show our clients that their operating cost is associated with level of service they demand, and lower cost is achievable if they can optimize their behaviors. Because we designed this pricing matrix based on two cost drivers, costs included in matrix are directly related to number of ord ers and lines. For example, fixed order costs such as procurement, labeling, account management fees and variable costs like shipping & handling, delivery, interest cost are all included. However, some costs are not comprised in the matrix. O&M believes all costs associate with number of orders are fixed but there are variable costs incur in placing orders. Activities such as taking orders, processing and staging & processing are not free so in the future we need to include these costs in more sophisticated pricing matrix. Moreover, operating cost of an EDI system and a non-EDI system are very different. For simplicity reason we just ignore the difference and assume identical prices for both systems but actually using non-EDI system would incur more cost due to high level of manual works. We have worked out some simple examples on ABP and it shows that company’s profitability increased dramatically under ABP system. Please refer to exhibit #1 fro more details. Risks & Challenges. Although this selected alternative presents many future benefits for the company and the Supply-Chain, certain risks are involved. Risk associated with ABP for Owens and Minor. ABP was a new concept and cost-plus pricing system was still a dominant form in the medical/ surgical industry. It was hard to convince customers adopt the new and even unproven concept. Some customers might turn to other competitors and the relationship that needs built over long time might get hurt. Customer’s entire internal system such as budgeting and incentive programs are formed based on old cost-plus system, and a change in pricing structure is very time consuming. Restructure of pricing system will also affect customer’s buying personnel because their compensation was related to the percentage they negotiate with distributor, and under ABP structure that percentage disappeared Employees on the customer side might have problems understanding the system and change their behaviors to reap maximum savings. Organizational structure will be adjusted to fit ABP which means some employees will be reassigned or resigned, but this decision will have negative impact on morale and productivity. EDI system implementation requires a substantial commitment in resources. Sharing valuable information with customers can be misused at their advantage with O&M’s competitors. The main challenge will be to build mutual trust among the parties involved. Implementation Plan. The successfully have a fully implemented ABP system; we suggest the following action steps: 1.Establish ABP System within the company first and find out cost drivers (services which incur costs). Upgrade IT infrastructure to facilitate further implementation steps. 2.Analyze the benefits of SC based on ABP, benefits such as: improvement on inventory management, aligned incentives to efficiently compete with other Supply Chains, reveal hidden costs on activities, and build long-time relationships, among others. 3.Communicate to selected customers with the previous benefit analysis. 4.Initiate ABP pilot program. 5.Setting up EDI and give continuous support. 6.Adjust and upgrade ABP system based on feedbacks from pilot program 7.communicate to all customers with the success of pilot ABP system 8.Full ABP implementation. (For suggested time-line refer to exhibits.). Conclusion In general, we do see huge potential benefits on the implementation of ABP system. However, risks and challenges will emerge from this alternative and opposition will be strong on the customer side. The implementation steps provide an easy guideline to have a successful ABP system in the SC.