Macroeconomics in Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Macroeconomics in Finance - Essay Example The model is taken to be equally influential as the Keynesian model that which was originally formulated by John Keynes in the 20th century. The model relates employment and aggregate demand to three exogenous quantities namely; the government spending, business expectations by the state and the total amount of money in circulation. The model can be understood in the general equilibrium theory. The model can be used in line with the Phillips curve to make prediction for example an increase in the general employment level would lead to increased inflation rate (the general price rise) the resultant increase in money supply would hence increase employment and the output level (Obstfeld, M. and Kenneth, R.(1996) Under the model a sustained fail in general prices (deflation) will be caused by a shift in the supply curve and more importantly the demand curve for goods and interest. This means a fall in how the prices of goods compared to how much the economy is willing to buy of. It brings the idea of benefit of unemployment, insurance and fluctuations costs. i.e. the unemployed exhibit significant heterogeneity in marginal propensity to consume the available income and in holding of wealth. (Obstfeld, and Kenneth, 1996) Aspects for example it has all the variables that are contained in the IS-LM model i.e. consumption interest rate, expected inflation, the gross domestic product, investment and government spending. (Uzawa, 1969) However, the two models have some differences in their basic setup. The IS curve is given as Y=C+I+G+NX Where NX= net exports While the LM curve is given as M/P=L (I, Y) Where M= money supply P= average price L= liquidity I= interest rate U=GDP Question Two IS -LM-FE Mundell Fleming model in comparing effect of an increase in public spending under fixed exchange rates Under a flexible exchange rate an increase in public spending will translate into an increase in the money supply in any given country. According to this model an increase in money supply will shift the LM curve to the right. The resultant effect will be reduced local interest rate thus

Software for Human Services Organization Essay Example for Free

Software for Human Services Organization Essay Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services is an organization that services the mental health population. This population has continued to grow, and because of the increased turnaround in clients served the company had to invest in multiple software products. Electronic Health Record or (EHR) is one of the software programs that are used by Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services. This software is designed to be shared with several different health care providers or settings. The Electronic Health Record software is an electronic collection of systematic health information about a certain population or client. Using Electronic Health Record software will be the digital backup version for a client’s paper chart. Electronic Health Record systems are client centered records that are recorded in real-time. Authorized users of this system are able to obtain this secure information instantly. Using the Electronic Health Record software client’s medical, mental, and treatment records are tracked faster. This program was designed to go further than the normal intake data that is gathered in a provider’s office and is inclusive of a larger view of a client’s care. Electronic Health Record software has tools that will allow providers to make accurate decisions pertaining to client’s mental health care. Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services use Electronic Health Record software to streamline and automate the workflow for different providers. One of the benefits of Electronic Health Record software is that Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services authorized employees has easier access to client’s medical history. This history consist of radiology images, diagnoses, treatment plans, allergies, results from a test that was taken, immunization records, medications, and laboratory results. Using this software to centralize client’s records electronically has helped the communication between other agencies flow smoothly. Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services use Electronic Health Records software to track information from  other organization, non-profit agencies, and other human services provider who may have provided services to a client. Some of these services are Medicaid approval or reimbursement, clinic management, subsidized housing, drug rehabilitation, and section eight housing. An advantage of this software is the improvement of client’s care, efficiency, safety, client-centeredness, and equity. This software allows each clinician involved in the client’s care the ability to share and obtain the client’s medical history and other pertinent information with other medical providers. Pharmacies, medical imaging facilities, schools, emergency facilities, and other clinics are a few providers that are authorized to receive client’s information from Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services in a digital format. As more and more health care providers continue to migrate to digital electronic management because of the advantages, there are some disadvantages to using Electronic Health Records software. One of the disadvantages can be the initial start-up cost may become pricey in the beginning. This consists of hardware installations, training of staff, and software upgrades. It does not matter if the facility that is converting to digital Electronic Health Records is large or small the start-up cost will be expensive. If administrative staff, nurses, and doctors are not too familiar with the way the new system is operated, these individuals will waste more time trying to figure it out. This can sometime force the administrative staff, nurses, and doctors that are uncomfortable with this software take longer to master a task, this is wasted time that could be used for other important missions or serving clients. Another downfall or disadvantage of using this software is the concerns of client ’s security. Most individuals think a disadvantage would be the security vulnerability for the client’s medical records. The ultimate concern is that hackers are still out there and may steal client’s personal information and possible compromise their identity. It does not matter how many password encryptions, security features added, and firewalls are put up, hackers can get in there. However, there are also companies that specialize in security measures for the maintenance of Electronic Health Records software. Client Track software is another software that is used at Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Service. Several of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Service case managers, social workers, and other field professionals have  their mobile device set up so that they can have full access to enter the client’s chart and work on it without having to be at work. Client Track is optimized to be compatible with mobile Firefox, Apple iPad, iPhone, Chrome, Safari Web Brower, and iPod touch. Client Track has allowed Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services to take providing services t o a whole new level. Client Track has made it possible for employees to input important case notes in the client charts while they are continuing to work in the field. Different facilities can expedite the check in the process of a client by incorporating other mobile devices and iPads. This software will only allow designated staff to access areas pertaining to their job title. Client Track software has been an asset and benefit to Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health. The collaboration, compliance, efficiency, and outcomes have shown to be another benefit of using Client Track. Other communities, agencies and multiple programs can collaborate and transfer client’s information amongst each other securely and smoothly. Most agencies and programs have stakeholders, which they are required to report outcomes, activities, and services rendered, Client Track provide an automatic update with this information, which can be obtained by the stakeholders on an as needed basis. The efficiency of Client Track will eliminate having to use spreadsheets and give more time for staff to help the clients that are in need. Since Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services have been using Client Track software, the service to client’s outcome has increased. One of the advantages of using Client Track software is that this software is configured to meet various types of software. Homeless Management Information System or (HMIS) is a software application that is used daily by human service workers nationwide. Individual’s would think that an organization the size of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Service will be the determining factor of the software chosen, this company has chosen the software that is a better fit, which allows them to communicate with several agencies. A possible challenge that may be encountered from the implementation process is the difficulty comparing the associated health IT products and EHRs products. Because of the newness of this software there were not a lot of competitors to compare to. References Gungor, F. (2014). OneSource DocumentManagement. Retrieved from http://www.onesourcedoc.com/blog/bid/71535/Disadvantages-of-Electronic-Medical-Records Health IT.GOV. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/faqs/what-are-advantages-electronic-health-records

sibling rivalry :: essays research papers

Sibling rivalry is the jealousy, competition and fighting between brothers and sisters. It is a concern for almost all parents of two or more kids. Problems often start right after the birth of the second child. Sibling rivalry usually continues throughout childhood and can be very frustrating and stressful to parents. Sibling rivalry is one of humanity's oldest problems. One of the first stories in the Bible deals with the rivalry between two brothers, Cain and Abel. The older brother, Cain, was irritated at constantly having to help take care of his younger brother, Abel, and kept asking his parents "Am I my brother's keeper?" The story of these two brothers has a tragic ending; Cain becomes so angry that he kills Abel. The fact that this is one of the first stories written in the Bible shows the great importance given to the problem of sibling rivalry. What causes sibling rivalry? After doing my research and interviews I have found out that there are many factors that contribute to sibling rivalry. Listed below are some facts and some of my opinions on what causes sibling rivalry. †¢ Each sibling is competing to define who they are as an individual. As they discover who they are, they try to find their own talents, activities, and interests. They want to show that they are separate from their siblings. †¢ Siblings feel they are getting unequal amounts of the parent’s attention, discipline, and responsiveness. †¢ Siblings may feel their relationship with their parents is threatened by the arrival of a new baby. †¢ Sibling’s developmental stages affect how well they can share your attention and get along with one another. †¢ Siblings who are hungry, bored or tired are more likely to start fights. †¢ Siblings may not know positive ways to get attention from their brother or sister, so they pick fights. †¢ Family dynamics play a role. For example, one child may remind a parent of a relative who was particularly difficult, and this may subconsciously influence how the parent treats that child.

Electoral Systems :: essays research papers fc

From my limited studies of comparative government I have come to the conclusion that a plurality type of electoral process where winner takes all is a superior compared to proportional representation for several key reasons. Proportional representation is based on having an election based on census instead of consensus. In other words, ask the masses which party they feel will do the best job on a ticket where there may be several political parties running which intern will select its own leader from a list based on an individual's faithfulness to the party. The pros of proportional representation includes increase voter turnout based on the premise that every vote counts for a particular party, so you may not get all of the representation as in the plurality, but you may get some representation, so it gives more choices to the voter. Proportional representation would increase the amount of women in office because they make up 50 percent of the population, and this form of election would decrease the amount of negative campaigning, because the competition shift from all or nothing to all or something (http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/6/0,5716,63126+1+61565,00.html). An example of this would be if a politician gets 51% of the vote, this would garner 100% of the representation. There is no reason for a political party with less then 45% of the vote to make an effort as a party. Why spend the money?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Plurality on the other hand is a vote of consensus rather then census in other words, the party with the most votes will be elected. It's easy to understand by voters, allows quick decisions and it is less costly to run. The only significant drawbacks include low voter turnout and the party that has the less amount of voters usually gets removed, so the winner takes all. The drawback to this is there may not be significant representation among the masses, but at least there is a constraint in the number of parties (http://www.ask.com/main/metaanswer.asp?metaEngine=directhit&origin.html). Plurality is ideal for us Americans who are accustomed to a simple yuppie lifestyle with the most complicated decision in our daily existence is what will eat for dinner.

Operations Management in Daimond Manufacturing Essay

Definition Operation Management is the activity of managing the resources which produce and deliver goods and services (Slack et al, 2010). These activities commences from the very initial production stage of information gathering right up to the final stage of consumer consumption of the product. Every organization does operation management even if they do not notice it. All organizations produce goods and/or services and to create goods and/or services, the organization must perform a number of operations which must be effectively and efficiently managed. 1. 2 Role of Operations Management Operations Management is of prime importance in all sectors, cells, functions, units and groups within the organization. An organization is a system and according to the business dictionary, (http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/system. html) a system is ‘An organized, purposeful structure that consists of interrelated and interdependent elements (components, entities, factors, members, parts etc. ). These elements continually influence one another (directly or indirectly) to maintain their activity and the existence of the system, in order to achieve the goal of the system’. Read more: http://www. usinessdictionary. com/definition/system. html#ixzz2QSyXAP1f . All employees are part of this system and have a common interest in making the consumer to receive goods and/or services in the best way possible. So I will say every manager in every part of the organization is to some extent an operational manager. According to James (2011), the role of operations manag ement is to manage the transformation of an organization’s inputs into finished goods and services using processes. Processes are actually present in all areas of the organization from Human Resource to Finance to Marketing to Procurement etc. 1. The ‘Input – Transformation – Output’ process Resources can either be transforming resources or transformed resources. After the transformation process is complete, transforming resources give rise to transformed resources. According to James (2011), there are 2 main types of transforming resources: * Facility which comprises of land, building, plant and equipment. * Staff which comprises of everyone involved in the operation process. There are 3 main types of transformed resources: * Material. Transformation can be physical (manufacturing), by location (transportation), by storage (warehousing), or by ownership (retail). Information. Transformation can be by property (accountant’s information), by p ossession (market research), by storage (libraries) or by location (telecommunication). * Customer. Transformation can either be physical (plastic surgery), by storage (hotel accommodation), by location (airline transport), by physiological state (hospital), or by psychological state (entertainment). Input Output Input that will be transformed * Material * Information * Customer Input that will transform * People * Facility * Goods * Services Transformation Input Output Input that will be transformed * Material * Information * Customer Input that will transform * People * Facility * Goods * Services Transformation Figure 1: The ‘Input-Transformation-Output’ process 2 Operations Strategy 2. 1 Definition Strategy is defined by Johnson et al, (2008) as ‘the direction and scope of an organization over the long term: ideally, which matches its resources to its changing environment and in particular its markets, customers or clients so as to meet stakeholder expectations. ’ 3. 2 Levels of Strategy Strategy can be viewed from 3 levels which are: The Corporate level: This level looks at the long term position of the company. It answers questions like ‘where will the organization be in 10 years? Or are we going to launch a new product in a new market? ’ The Business level: This level looks at the market and is concerned with the goods and services which the organization has to offer. It answers questions like ‘how do we compete? ’ The Functional level: This level deals with the functional aspect of the organization like finance, marketing, human resource etc. It answers questions like ‘how do we manage our financial resources’. . 3 Operations Strategy Operations strategy is the total pattern of decisions which shape the long-term capabilities of any operation and their contribution to overall strategy, through the reconciliation of market requirements with operations resources (Slack and Lewis, 2011). A 5 step structure has been designed by Hill (2005) so as to design and understand a goo d operation strategy. The steps are as follows: 1. Define Corporate Objectives Here, long term objectives are set-up so as to give the company balance and a good direction. At this stage, Sparkle does environmental scanning and the company also looks at its core competences, core processes and its global objectives. Performance Indicators (KPIs) are also established here so as monitor the accomplishment of these objectives. Top management uses a number of models which includes PESTEL, SWOT and Porter’s 5 forces. See appendix A. 2. Set Marketing Strategies Here Sparkle identifies the market it wants to compete in and then it looks on how to compete in these markets. Ansoff’s matrix is used. | New Product| Existing Product| NewMarket| Diversification| Market Development| Existing Market| Product Development| Market Penetration/ Market Growth| Figure 5: Ansoff Matrix. Source: Kaplan Financial Ltd, 2008. Sparkle uses the market penetration/market growth pathway for now. With time, they will start manufacturing out of the UK thus implementing the market development strategy. It is yet not known if they are thinking of one day starting up the production of a new product. 3. How do we gain competitive advantage? At this stage of Hill’s structure, the organization is to find ways to make its product win other products in the market. For this to happen, the organization must have a base to make its competition and this base is usually one or more of the following performance objectives: speed, quality, cost, dependability and flexibility. See chapter 3. Sparkle uses the above performance objectives to gain competitive advantage but it must be noted that, competitive advantage must: * Be real * Add value (to the consumer) and * Be difficult to imitate. 4. Choose a delivery system Here, the organization has to choose an appropriate delivery system so as to meet up with speed and maybe dependability. In Sparkle, most orders are icked up by the customer but if not, Sparkle uses their vans which have a high level of security for close distances or they post the jewelry for faraway distances. 5. Choose your Infrastructure The company at this phase has to choose all necessary infrastructures that it has to obtain so as to gain an edge over its competitors in the market. Different organizations in different industries wi ll need different types of infrastructures. But in the diamond manufacture industry, the infrastructures are almost the same and can hardly give competitive advantage. 3 Performance Objectives In the present congested and very competitive business environment, companies must do something extra so as to stand out of the crowd. For them to do this, they must react to what customers value and these fall into the following category. They are called performance objectives. 1. Cost 2. Quality 3. Dependability 4. Reliability 5. Speed Sparkle is aware of the tight competition in the diamond market and it takes its performance objectives very seriously so as to gain competitive advantage. Before achieving the above performance objectives, they must achieve the 4 Cs (see appendix B). * Cost. The principle of cost is doing things cheaply. Sparkle changes its processes, its materials and its suppliers every now and then so as to operate on a lower cost scale. They buy rough diamonds directly from the companies who buy them from the mine and sometimes the make orders directly from the mine so as to reduce cost because the more intermediaries there are, the higher the final price. They sometimes buy more rough diamonds than what the actually need so as to gain discount for bulk buying. They automate most of their processes to reduce the number of hours worked by human beings thus reducing total wages. Quality. This involves producing durable high standard error-free goods that consumers perceived to the good. In the fashion business, quality is king because consumers are becoming more conscious of what they wear. One can say that everything in the diamond industry is of good quality so in this kind of high standard industry, quality is not the issue but superb quality. Spark le buys the best of the rough stones which are hand-picked one after the other so that their final product will be of the best quality and they will have very little waste during production. * Dependability. This is doing everything on time so as to keep commitments and promises made to customers. Sparkle has a track record and reputation of never keeping its customers waiting. Customers’ diamonds are always fully processed before the pick-up date. Customers love coming to this organization because they know they can rely on them when it comes to delivery. There was a scandal in March 2008 in Real Diamonds where a couple arrange for their wedding rings costing thousands of pounds to be manufactured but the company was unable to meet up with the due date so the couple had to use different rings for the wedding. Flexibility. This is being able to change what you produce or how you produce it. Sparkle is very flexible in regards to their products because they produce apparently anything requested by the customer. We pride ourselves on being different, you won’t find our jewelry just anywhere, we appreciate that you want something special to you (Source: sparlediamonds. com/abo ut). They manufacture dressing rings, marriage rings, engagement rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, bangles and designers jewelry out of diamond. Over the years, they have come up with different diamond designs thought by others as impossible and have now gained a name as being the company that uses diamond to manufacture anything and everything. On the other hand, their production process is flexible too but not very flexible. They change little bits of their production process all the time to cut down cost and to increase the quality of the diamonds but this change is never a big change (process improvement). Figure 5: Different items made out of diamond. Source: * Speed. This can be described as how responsive an organization is to the customers’ demands and complain. It is a measure of the time between a customer’s order or complain to the time when that customer’s order or complain is sorted out fully. Sparkle is very fast in dealing with complains. Any customer who comes to the company with a complaint is not allowed to leave when the matter concerned has not been resolved. Complains made online take a maximum of 2 working days to be dealt with and those by post takes a little more time. Figure 5: Different colors of diamond. Source: 4 Product Design . 1 Definition Product/service design is the process of defining the specification of products and/or services in order for them to fulfill a specific market need (Slack et al, 2009). According to Russell and Taylor (2009), new product designs can provide a competitive edge by bringing new ideas to the market quickly, doing a better job of satisfying customers’ needs, or be ing easier to manufacture, use and repair. Product design is of great importance in any organization because consumers are becoming more and more conscious of the products they consume and their contents. Almost everybody in the organization is involved in product design because bringing in a new product design is not just about the market requirement but it is also about anticipating future demand and this needs imagination and creativity. In coming out with a good product design, market requirements, technical issues, cost, quality, investment information and the target market must be considered and dealt with appropriately. Diamond design ‘step by step’ Various steps are followed when coming out with a good diamond design. 1. Generating Ideas Ideas to bring up a new diamond designs can come from anywhere and comes from everywhere. Some organizations look only within the organization and come up with a diamond design but this approach is very dangerous because it can easily back fire leading to a poor design. Ideas in Sparkle usually come from: * The customers who will use the product. Most at times, the customer comes to the organization with a design in mind. The design team in the organization then sits with the customer and adds ideas to perfect the customer’s request. * The employees who serve the customers. These groups of persons know exactly what customers wants because they are the people who take customers specifications, demands and complaints. They play an important role in the creation of a new design. * Competitors and any new technology. Sparkle sometimes looks at the designs of its competitors like Avi Paz and tries to modify it so as to create something better than theirs. * Research and Development (R&D) Department. One of their major roles in the organization is to look for new possible designs which will entice customers. It is at this stage that the diamond color, size, weight, cut grade, clarity grade, carat weight, laser inscription and shape is decided. Figure 4: Computer simulated diamond designing in progress. Source: www. sparklediamonds. com 2. Product Screening According to Slack et al (2009), not all concepts and ideas generated will be capable of being developed into products and/or services. Each idea generated is taken and examined to see whether or not they are acceptable, feasible and vulnerable. Fig 5 illustrates. Figure 5| Some typical evaluation questions for marketing, operations and finance. | Evaluation Criteria| Marketing| Operations| Finance| Feasibility| Is the market likely to be big enough? | Do we have capabilities to produce it? Do we have access to sufficient finance to develop and launch it? | Acceptability| How much market share could it gain? | How much will we have to reorganize our activities to produce it? | How much financial return will there be on our investment? | Vulnerability| What is the risk of it failing in the market place? | What is the risk of us being able to produce it acceptable? | How much money could we lose if things do not go as planned? | Fi g 5: Slack et al (2009) Some typical evaluation questions for marketing, operations and finance [e-book] p. 89 3. Preliminary Design At this stage, the design is reviewed by the cutters and polishers to see if the can really produce the diamond and any unnecessary complexity in the diamond’s design is eliminated because such complexities can build cost. For example; there are some unnecessary and unnoticed cuts in a diamond’s design but these cuts could split the whole diamond if not done carefully. Because customers will not even notice the additional cuts and even if they do, they will not be willing to pay an addition for it so the cuts are eliminated. Figure 4: Different diamond designs (drawing). Source: Figure 4: Different diamond designs. Source: 4. Final Design After all the above has been done, a prototype is then created out of glass and tested to see if it meets market requirements, technical requirements and the financial limit. Tangible prototypes are created and virtual (computer simulations) model too to properly assess the diamond before production goes any further. Sometimes, customers are called in to see the prototype and give their feedback from which some adjustments may be made on the product’s design. An after acceptance, diamond cutting commences. Figure 5: Prototype diamond made out of fine glass. Source: 5 Process Design 5. 1 Definition Process design is Sequence of interdependent and linked procedures which, at every stage, consume one or more resources (employee time, energy, machines, money) to convert inputs (data, material, parts, etc. ) into outputs. These outputs then serve as inputs for the next stage until a known goal or end result is reached (www. businessdictionary. com). Read more: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/process. tml#ixzz2QTQAtoBi When deciding a product design, it is advisable to simultaneously come up with a matching process design. This will entail the flow of the process and Barnes (2008) said that the design of processes is different in all organizations and these designs will be based on the volume and variety of the demand for the product in the market. He further categorized the processes under project, jobbing, batch, line and conti nuous. Types of Processes There are different production processes namely project, jobbing, batch, line and continuous. See Appendix C. Sparkle is in a business of very expensive products which are very small in size so they do jobbing. Customers usually give orders which are produced by the company (make to order). They usually hold little or no fully-processed inventory. The Production Process Diamond ore is sorted by density using X-rays. Before that technology became available, grease belts were used to separate diamonds from the rest of the ore, due to the diamonds’ greater tendency than other minerals to stick to grease. Rough diamonds are then set to be cut as gemstones in the cutting laboratory. A diamond has different cuts and different professional specialize on different cuts. This is the most daunting task of diamond production because a bad cut will cost the company a fortune. Figure 5: Diamond plan before cutting. Source Cutting produces the facets associated with a diamond. The angles of the facets maximize light, giving the diamond its greatest possible luster (dispersion of white light). The cutting process can take as much as 50% of a rough diamond’s weight. Figure 5: Illustration of diamond facets. Source: A number of factors come into play when deciding how a diamond should be cut. X-rays are employed to analyze the stone’s crystallographic structure, its hardness and ability to cleave. The diamond’s flaws are considered, and the cutter decides which to remove and which can remain. Either a hammer or a diamond saw can be used to split the diamond – the hammer is quicker, but the saw is surer. Figure 5: Diamond cutting. Source: A number of institutes in the diamond industry offer courses for diamond cutters, but the bulk and most crucial part of the training for this delicate trade take place during the cutter’s apprenticeship. A diamond may get its final cut from many skilled hands: the diamond marker or designer; the diamond sawyer; the diamond cutter or brute; the cross-worker; and the brillianteer. After the initial cutting, diamonds undergo the polishing stages, usually performed by a technician as the process is a standard one. Polished diamonds are reexamined for flaws, which can be addressed through enhancement techniques or disguised when set in jewelry. Figure 5: Diamond Polishing. Source: Finally, the polished diamonds are sold to individuals, retailers, wholesalers and jewelry shops. Figure 5: Diamond quality check. Source 6 Planning, Control ;amp; Innovation In any good type of project or manufacture to be successful, it must be planned at the very beginning and at the end, it has to be controlled to make sure that the planned processes and cost is not very different from the actual. Businesses must also continuously innovate so as to move line to line with the changing tastes of consumers and to beat numerous designs from competitors. 6. 1 Planning Eur says this about planning â€Å"It lists the phases and encapsulates all the main parameters, standards and requirements of the project in terms of time, cost and quality/performance by setting out the ‘Why’, ‘What’, ‘When’, ‘Who’, ‘Where’, and ‘How’, of the project. † Planning therefore looks at the entire process, product and project but in an imaginary form which has not yet happened but it is wished that it should happen that way. 6. 1. 1 Advantages of Planning 1. It gives direction of what has to be done and how it has to be done. 2. It assigns responsibilities on every person thus answering â€Å"Who does what? 3. A good plan will see problems a project, product or process will encounter before the problem strikes. 4. A plan helps us to manage cost, quality and design side by side with the profit we will want to make on the product. 5. Plans are used to assess how well a product, process, p roject or person has done. 6. 1. 2 Disadvantages of Planning 1. It is usually made up by top management and given to the employees down the management ladder who just follow it. 2. Plans are usually followed to the latter. Even when some changes have to done, it is not because a plan is being followed. 3. Plans are usually just estimates and it has no use in turbulent economic environments as the plan and the actual are usually very different. 6. 2 Control Control involves measuring the actual results against the plan and then taking action to adjust actual performance so that it moves in line with the plan. So in other words, control is only possible when we have a plan. Control has a feedback phase and this involves adjusting the actual to move in line with the plan or reporting differences between actual and budget so that there may be no such discrepancies in the future. 6. 3 Innovation Innovation is defined by the oxford dictionary as â€Å"changing something established by introducing new methods, ideas or products. † Just like there is no control where there is no plan, there is no innovation where there is no control. They all rely on one another. After control has been done, feedback is sent back and improvement or innovation is made. But in the complex business environment operating now, innovation just not just come from within the company but from outside the company like from competitors and especially from the consumers due to the rapid change in customers taste, design and fashion. In the diamond manufacture industry, there are many different innovative ways manufacturing diamonds and Sparkle has had the following innovations: 1. The Supercut design Sparkle has introduced the innovative supercut design into the industry: a patented ideal emerald cut, with more than twice the facets of a traditional Emerald – providing unparalleled brilliance and fire. The culmination of three years of research, the supercut gives extraordinary brilliance and reflection and this innovation gives Sparkle competitive advantage in terms of having good designs with extraordinary glittering. 2. Precision cutting Since 2010, Sparkle has brought in a technology of cutting the diamonds using computer software and this cut is so exact that less than 0. 000002% waste is created from diamond cutting. Waste use to be about 0. 5% during diamond cutting and this innovation has caused drastic cost saving making Sparkle to be more competitive in terms of cost. 3. Sparkle offers a wide range of jewelry manufacturing processes, including design, modeling, prototyping, grooving, setting, finishing and meticulous quality control; all featuring our own fine diamonds, and designed for clients’ to sell under their private labels. . 4 The ‘Planning – Control – Innovation’ Cycle. From the above notes, it can be seen that planning, control and innovation work together. Sparkle’s cycle looks like this. Plan Procurement of unrefined stones. Process the stones into fine diamond. Sell and make a reasonable gain. Actual Procurement of unrefined stones. Process the stones into fine diamond. Sell and make a reasonable gain. Control Looks at the difference between what was planned and what actually happened. External Information Customer specific design New tastes and fashion Design from competitors Market Research (R&D) Feedback and Innovation Plan Procurement of unrefined stones. Process the stones into fine diamond. Sell and make a reasonable gain. Actual Procurement of unrefined stones. Process the stones into fine diamond. Sell and make a reasonable gain. Control Looks at the difference between what was planned and what actually happened. External Information Customer specific design New tastes and fashion Design from competitors Market Research (R&D) Feedback and Innovation Figure 7. The ‘planning-control-innovation’ cycle. 6. Changes happening in the diamond industry. * Researchers are on the verge of bringing in new materials which reflect light better than diamond and these materials are stronger and more durable than diamond. But, they will be far cheaper than diamonds and this is going to be a big problem to diamond manufacturers as the demand for diamond will surely drop. An example is synthetic stones. * In response to growing concern over illic it trade in conflict or â€Å"blood† diamonds, the United Nations General Assembly established the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in 2003. This scheme is going to make sure of the source of every single diamond so as to ensure that they are from a genuine source. This happening will increase the price of diamond because more than 55% of diamonds are from Africa and the mines there are operated by very cheap labor and sometimes by slaves, women and children. The UN will come in and stop this practice thus increasing the cost of labor, working conditions and ultimately the price for diamonds. 7 Quality Management Quality is one of the performance objectives and it is taken very seriously by all organizations because if achieved, may give them competitive advantage. Some organizations rely on quality more than others and the fashion and health industry takes quality as primary considering the fact that people want to look good and in good health. Quality is a matter of perception so what can be called quality for A might not necessarily be called quality for B. According to Garvin (1984), the attributes in quality for a product are: * Performance * Features * Reliability * Conformance * Durability * Serviceability * Aesthetics * Other perceptions Parasuraman et al. (1985), on the other hand listed 5 attributes in defining what is quality of a service? nd they are: * Reliability – Are we always going to get on time delivery? * Responsiveness – Are the always going to respond quickly to our demands and complaints? * Assurance – Are we assured of their competence? * Empathy – Does the organization feel and understand customers’ needs and concerns? * Tangibles – Is the physical surrounding conducive? 7. 1 Qu ality in the Organization But in relation to Sparkle, the best definition of quality is that as per Slack et al. (2009) â€Å"quality is consistent conformance to customers’ expectation† and I will say and even surpassing those expectations. Sparkle uses total quality management as their quality management technique. They look for means and ways to maintain and continuously improve quality at each stage of the production process. All employees meet once a month to discuss on how to improve the organization’s present performance. Books by Deming, Crosby, Juran, Hill and other total quality management gurus are in the company’s library and research department for employees to read and be motivated to contribute into the organization’s performance. All employees are made to know that quality and customer’s requirements being met comes before any other thing. The organization has a suggestion box where employees can write any inspiring idea that comes in mind and this box is emptied every day and read by the research staff and it is summarized and sent to the manager examine. 7. 2 The Cost of Quality Quality has a cost which is like a double-edged sword meaning that good quality will have a cost and bad quality will also have a cost. 7. 2. 1 The Cost of Good Quality This is also known as the cost of quality assurance. Sparkle has a lot of this cost because they are continuously always trying to get better in quality all over the organization so as to better serve customers’ needs. The cost of quality assurance is further divided into prevention cost and appraisal cost. * Prevention cost is the cost of trying to make everything right on first attempt and some of this cost are: * Sparkle does not give a command for precious stones and wait for the stones to come. They go to the supplier’s premises and pick the stones one after the other and not in groups to ensure the best stones are taken. The supplier charges more for this. * The cost of designing the jewelry in a computer automated system and running several checks with other very expensive bespoke software before the design is confirmed. Sparkle trains its employees every 6 months and buys books to update them on new technologies and to keep their skills up and awake. * All employees are taught a wide variety of skills so that if a certain employee is not available to do a specific thing, there will always be another to do it. * Appraisal cost is concerned with controlling quality and this is achieved by testing the process before the product is manufactured and testing the product before it gets to the customer. Some of these costs are: * The cost incurred in testing all equipment, machines and ensuring staffs are fit and able before any diamond is processed. The cost of checking the diamond after manufacture by employees and with the use of a computer aided personalized software which is very expensive to make sure that the diamonds are flawless. * The time spent in testing the diamonds ensuring the pass all the set of test before and after manufacture. 7. 2. 2 The Cost of Bad Quality All organizations including Sparkle wants to evade this cost because it is very dangerous and it can even bring down the entire organization in a blink of an eye. The cost of bad quality is divied into internal failure cost and external failure cost. Internal failure cost is cost incurred before the product reaches the customer. Some of this cost are: * The cost of scrap. Diamonds are very expens ive so any little scrap of badly shaped diamond is worth a whole lot. So Sparkle makes sure the best quality diamond is procured and diamond cutting should be not less than perfect. * The cost of reshaping ill-shaped diamonds and gluing broken once. * The resources lost in repairing diamonds. Labor, machine time, and electricity are used which should have if the diamonds were made right the first time. External failure cost arises after the product has been received by the customer and some of this cost include: * The cost listening to customer complaints and responding to them. * The cost of replacing a defective diamond which a customer has rejected. This can cause the organization a fortune. * The customer might have to take the company to court and the organization will pay a huge sum if the lost the lawsuit. Some compensation may run to millions of pounds and could bring the organization to its end. * One of the most dangerous costs is that which we don’t see. An example is the lost sale and contribution. When a customer is dissatisfied, he will most at times not want to come back and he will discourage a potential customer who will discourage another customer to come to us. Saying all this, quality should be treated like an egg in the midst of rocks. 8 Supply Chain Management 8. 1 Definition Supply Chain is the management of the interconnection of organizations that relate to each other through upstream and downstream linkages between the processes that produce value to the ultimate consumer in the form of products and services (Slack et al. 2010). A supply chain is a holistic network starting from the sourcing of material, through its transportation to the organization’s premises, to manufacturing, to storage and warehousing and finally to consumers. So it is a whole system and it works as one therefore is one part of the chain is broken, the whole system will fall apart and consumers’ will not be satisfied. 8. 2 Sparkleâ⠂¬â„¢s Supple Chain Stage 1 Sparkle’s supply chain starts from the diamond mines in Africa which produce more than 50% of total diamonds to mines in India, Russia, Canada and Australia. The mines usually dug very deep but the deepest diamond mine runs for about 160km passing through sand, rocks, and gravel to be blasted drilled, crushed and processed. It should be noted that only 20% of diamonds from mines can be polised and used for jewelry; the rest is used for industrial use. The stones picked here are very rough still with no beauty (see figure 10). Stage 2 Companies and independent buyers go to these mines and buy the rough stones from the mine owners and take them to their premises for processing. These stones are then processed to make them a little bit more presentable so that diamond manufacturers can then buy them and further process them into diamonds. Diamonds at this stage looks like that in figure 11. Figure 8: Trapping stones to look for diamonds in an African mine. Source: Figure 9: A typical unprocessed diamond. Source: Figure 10: Unprocessed diamonds directly from the mine. Source Figure 11: Diamonds which have been slightly processed. Source: Stage 3 Sparkle buys the diamonds in fig. 11 and examines them with the use of a computer aided personalized software. After a series of checks, rejected diamonds will be sent back to the suppliers and the good ones will be cut into different shapes so as to give the greatest value. After cutting, the diamond goes through computer aided software to confirm its perfection and after this, it is polished and cleaned. Sparkle will also buy what the diamonds are going to be fitted on because people will scarcely buy a chunk of diamond. Diamonds are usually fitted on rings, pens, earrings, belts and many more (see figure 14). These things are usually bought from top manufacturers with good design and quality and they are usually very expensive. Figure12: Diamond cutting in Sparkle. Source: Figure 13: Diamond polishing in Sparkle Source: Stage 4 After polishing and the diamond have an unblemished shine, shape and color, it is then taken by the customers. Some of the customers ordered just a few and sometimes even just one special diamond while other big customers like jewelry shops order bigger quantities at ones. It is either Sparkle delivers the diamond to the place agreed by the customer or the customer comes to the organization’s site on an agreed date and after a phone call to pick up the diamond. The supply chain ends after the diamond has reached the customer. Figure 14: Finished diamond ready for the customer. Source: Figure 15: Diamonds bought by jewelry shops. Source: The Mine The Cutting Company Polishing Customers Jewelry Shops Manufacturing The Mine The Cutting Company Polishing Customers Jewelry Shops Manufacturing The supply chain of Sparkle is a good and effective. Its success can sometimes be attributed to the information technology they use. They use the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which brings in data from all sources and this is used to know when suppliers have diamonds and the variouse categories, to know when jewelry shops are running short of iamonds, and many more (all discussed in chapter 9). Figure 16: Sparkle’s Supply Chain 9 Information Systems As seen in chapter 1, â€Å"Operation Management is the activity of managing the resources which produce and deliver goods and services† (Slack et al, 2010). For these activities to be properly managed, it needs the help of automated process and compu ter aided techniques. Information systems are found throughout an organization and if used well reduce costs and can be a source of gaining competitive advantage. 9. 1 Computer Aided Techniques Sparkle uses information systems in many ways in its business. Listed below are some specialized computer aided programs used. 1. They use Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) which gives an optimum layout of the cutting steps and their sequence (this is different for different diamonds). There are many diamond cutting machines and they all have different cutting styles and they are operated by specialist in the different cutting sectors. So the CAPP examines a diamond and gives different possible steps on which machine to use first and which not to use so as to minimize waste and give the diamond the best possible cuts so as reflect light in an optimal way. 2. They use Computer Aided Designs (CAD) to design the shape of diamonds on a computer and finished diamonds can actually be seen even before processing starts. If an error is made in the design, it can be corrected but this could have been impossible without CAD. 3. The also use Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) which takes the drawings and designs from the CAD and test them for perfection. Different test are administered and the flawlessness of a diamond can be confirmed even before manufacture. 4. Automated Material Handling (AMH) system is also used. Diamonds are very expensive and so care must be taken at each step. The AMH system improves efficiency in diamond movement, storage and retrieval. 5. The Laser Security System (LSS) is used where diamonds are kept be it rough stones, semi-processed diamonds and fully processed diamonds. Invisible laser rays crisscross the diamonds and it needs a password to be deactivated. Only top managers have the password and the password of each of them is different making it easy to know who accessed the diamond safe. If someone tries to pass through the laser rays, it can kill or paralyze them and the security alarm is automatically triggered and an automated call goes to the nearest police station. . Security Camera Systems (SCS) make use of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) at all times to monitor the whole building especially where inventory is held. 7. The Inventory Control System (ICS) gives detail information about each diamond rough, semi-processed or fully processed held in inventory at any point in time. Management must no go into the safe to see what t hey have in stock because the ICS does it all. This system is also used online to make customers see the diamonds, its specification and all other relevant information. Figure 16: The CAD system used to design a blue diamond. Source: Figure 17: The virtual version of the diamond in fig 16. Source: 9. 2 Pros and Cons of Information Technology (IT) IT is a very necessary tool in any organization be it a big or a small one. IT has advantages and disadvantages. They are listed in Appendix D including ‘Why IT cannot replace Human Beings’. 9. 3 Information Systems ‘Information system can be defined as a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization’ (Laundon & Laundon, 2006). Most organizations use some form of computer-based technology to accumulate, organize and distribute information’ (Ted, 2011) and Sparkle is not an exception. They use a set of interrelated information systems. 9. 3. 1 Transaction Processing System (TPS) This system is used to account for day by day transactions of Sparkle. It records all sales, purchases, expenses, income, tax, bills paid, equipment bough t and all other transactions performed by organization. This system is also used to account for employee’s attendance, absences, pay, overtime, bonuses, remuneration, and all other things concerning the employees. . 3. 2 Supply Chain System (SCS) This system deals with customers and suppliers. It monitors the stock in the jewelry shops so as to know when to give the shops an offer. It monitors the stocks which are demanded more and those demanded less so as to know when to produce. It tracks frequent and valuable customers and grades them into groups so as know how to give discounts. This system also monitors the stock in the cutting companies. It looks at the new stocks and compares price side by side quality so as to know which supplier to order rough diamonds from. 9. 3. 3 Knowledge Management System (KMS) In Sparkle, all manufacturing processes are recorded and stored in the KMS. Any ideas gotten either by inspiration, customer’s requirement, employees’ suggestions or business intelligence are stored in the KMS for future use. Sparkle is said to be very innovative and has this edge over its rivals because of its mastery of the KMS. When a new employees is recruited, he has 2 weeks probation where he is taught how to operate in the organization and how processes function. Before the implementation and use of the KMS, probation was 3 months so this system has greatly reduces learning time. 9. 3. Management Information System (MIS) This system takes all the information from the above systems and summarizes them into financial statements and reports. It is used by management to make decisions on how to run and control the business. 9. 3. 5 Decision Support System (DSS) This system looks like an advance of the MIS. It takes data from all sources (internal and external) and su mmarizes them for top management to make decisions on the long term plans of the organization. Information from this system appears as statements, reports, charts, graphs, ratios, statistics and trend analysis. . 3. 6 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) This can be called the overall system. It takes information from all sources of the organization and brings them together in one large database. From there, required information is taken out and implemented or used to make decisions in Sparkle. It should be noted that all other systems deposit their information in ERP. Figure 18: Example of ERP. Source: LSBF MBA Intake 14, SOM Lecture 3, Session 9, Slide 34. 9. 6 Intranet and Extranet Sparkle uses intranets to deal with its employees and management. Staffs all have a particular passcode which the use and your code depends on your position within the company. Some passcodes can access some areas which other codes can’t. They also use extranets to communicate and share information with customers, suppliers, some competitors and the government. This system is more secured and less vulnerable to attacks as compared to the internet. 10 Job Design It is said that the blood stream of any organization is money and I will say the skeleton holding an organization and making it stand up straight is its workforce. An organization manages resources so as to be able to deliver acceptable goods and services to its customers and one of these resources is its workforce. An organization’s workforce is its most valuable and the most complicated of all its resources because unlike other resources, humans have a mind of their own. To be able to deal with human beings, you must know what they like and this is different for different people but these needs though different are similar. In providing this, it motivates the employees and when motivated, they produce better output eventually yielding higher profits, quality and flexibility. 0. 1 Motivation Motivation is the urge to take action to achieve something or to avoid something (BPP, 2010). Motivation can either be intrinsic (wanting to satisfy an internal urge like being happy to be able to help others) or extrinsic (reliant on tangible rewards like money, fame and power). Continues in Appendix E. 10. 2 Empowerment This is the act of delegati ng work to employees making them feel more superior because of the added responsibility and new accountability. This is good motivation for many employees. ‘Job design is about how people carry out their tasks within a process. It defines the way they go about their working lives. It positions the expectations of what is required of them, and it influences their perceptions of how they contribute to the organization. It also defines their activities in relation to their work colleagues and it channels the flows of communication between different parts of the operation. But, of most importance, it helps to develop the culture of the organization – its shared values, beliefs and assumptions’ (Slack, 2009). In designing any job, the following have to be put into consideration. * Safety. Jobs should be design in a way that it will bring no harm to the employee be it physical, psychological, mental or emotional harm. Workers in the mines especially those in Africa are exposed to a lot of risk and still earn less than the minimum wage. The mine owners wanting to make more profits cut down on cost by reducing expenditure on employees’ safety. The employees of Sparkle all have safety equipment like hats and new ideas are being implemented to make the process safer. The organization has also fully insured its entire staff. * Legal and Ethical Issues. Jobs should be design in such a manner that those doing the job will not go against the law or their code of ethics. * Own time. Job design should create time for the employees to catch up on something other than work. For example visiting new places, being with their families or performing other social activities. Employees working in the mines have little of this, but Sparkle’s employees all have right to a paid holiday and taking permission to be out of work if the need arises. * Employee’s Ability. An employee’s ability to do the job or a range of task should be considered before designing the job. For example; only heavy built men carry cargo from the trucks into the warehouse because of their physical ability to carry heavy weight unlike their colleagues. * Wage and Benefits: In designing any job, the wage and benefits to be paid for the job should be considered if not the employee can be over-paid or under-paid for the job. 10. 3 Division of Labor Unlike traditional production approaches that stipulated that one person should know everything in the company so that he can serve any function, Henry Ford came in with the idea that one man should only know one thing and should be an expert in that thing. He suggested that with specializing in a particular function, the whole organization will be specialized and will give the best quality goods and services. So jobs should be broken down into smaller portions and given to different individuals who will specialize and bring forth quality cost-effective products. 10. 3. 1 Advantages of Division of Labor (Slack, 2009) * It is easier to learn. Short and simple tasks are easier to learn compared with long and complex tasks. This will be very advantageous when training new recruits because training will take a shorter time and it will be better mastered. Automating. Short and simple task are easily automated as compared to long and complex task. * Time. More time is spent on one long task compare to time if that task was broken down. This extra time is as a result of picking different tools up and putting them down, looking for equipment, thinking of what to do next etc. 10. 3. 2 Disadvantages of Division of Labor (Slack, 2009) * Monotony. The same small task will be repeated every hour, week, month and year. This will make the job boring and less fulfilling thus resulting to absenteeism, staff turnover and errors. Over-reliance. If one employee is absent, no other will be able to perform his duty and this may bring the whole production process to a halt. * No flexibility. Employees let to do one particular thing over the years turn to lose the skill of being able to learn another thing. So if the production process was to change, many employees will not be able to cope with learning how to perform a new task. * Physical Injury. The repetitive use of one part of your body let’s say arm or wrist will in the long run cause pain to that part. This is known as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Sparkle teaches their employees a wide range of task during their probation but the employees are assigned to do just one thing when they fully start work. Teaching them a wide range of task is to expose them to the processes of the whole organization so that they can contribute ideas in the development of a department or process which does not involve them. Another reason for giving employees holistic training is to make an employee being able to do an absent employee’s work. This tactic was also implemented because the organization did not want an employee to feel indispensable. 0. 4 Job Design Approaches In coming out with a good job designing, the following approaches should be implemented:- 1. Job Simplification: The organization tries to the range of task and their complexities. Polishing diamond use to be a very complex task at Sparkle but with the introduction of DiamondShines TM a specialized software where diamond polishing is programmed with exact details. 2. Job Ro tation: This is periodically interchanging employees performing different task to do the task of the other. Sparkle does a lot of job rotation and this makes the employees’ job more exciting. Job rotation is successful in this organization because they train their employees to perform a number of task but if division of labor was strictly implemented, this approach could have been impossible because employee A will not have a clue of employees B’s task. 3. Job Enlargement: This involves integrating same level tasks to the ones already performed by the employees to make the job more exciting. This is not practiced in Sparkle. 4. Job Enrichment: This involves integrating different level tasks to the ones performed by the employees. The new tasks are usually higher level tasks giving employees more responsibility and decision making power. Sparkle once a week picks an employee randomly and gives him the power of a supervisory manager so as to see the changes and innovations he is going to bring to the organization. Sparkle also makes employees work in small teams and the organization creates a competitive strain amongst the teams. The competition amongst the teams brings a lot of hard work, efficiency and effectiveness.

The eNotes Blog Life of Pi the Book and theMovie

Life of Pi the Book and theMovie Which story do you prefer? Have you been following the trailers for  Life of Pi? After months of anticipation, I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of it  last night. The new movie is the cinematic adaptation of Yann Martels celebrated 2001 novel, is directed by Ang Lee, and has been generating Oscar buzz for weeks thanks to its imaginative art direction and astounding special effects. But theres more about the film you should know There are a lot of movie adaptations set to be released in the upcoming monthsThe Hobbit, Anna Karenina, and  The Great Gatsby to name a fewthe  wait for which brings excitement to the literary masses, though the products often bring disappointment; avid readers time after time conclude that the magic that comes with reading a novel just cannot be translated onto the big screen. And I am usually one of them. But Life of Pi is a unique case. For one thing, I actually didnt even enjoy the book all that much. My apologies in advance to the die-hard fans out there, because I know youre there; the novel has such a polarizing effect, it seems that everyone Ive ever talked to about it either loved it or couldnt finish it. On the one hand, its manuscript was rejected by five publishing houses before it was accepted by Knopf, on the other it was endorsed by President Obama in a private letter to Martel as, an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling. Oh yes, and it won the Man Booker Prize in 2002. What kind of precedence does that set for its translation into film? Well, having watched the movie, I can say that its given me a new appreciation for Martels storytelling. His writing, so hard for me to get through on paper, has been transformed into a format that can celebrate all of its surrealist qualities and make them magical. Just watch the scenes on meerkat island if you dont believe me. But youd have to celebrate that surreality to make the film a success. In a novel, the allegorical tale of a boy sharing a lifeboat with a massive Bengal tiger just works. In a movie, the fact that its impossible to throw your lead actor in with a real-life mankiller is only upstaged by the greater challenge of bringing character to the animal and making him real. On that I will only say that I was told that fewer than a quarter of the tiger shots in the film depicted a non-CG tiger. Good luck picking out which ones. Not only do we end up believing Richard Parker is real and alive, but we, like Pi, believe in his soul, all thanks to the reality-bending technology of computer graphics and the artistry of Parkers animators. Because of his embrace of the novels surreality, director Ang Lee has not only managed to retell Martels story, but to bring to it a spark of magic that is normally only reserved for the original book, something relatively unheard of in an adaptation. Based on Martels own words from the novel, I think hed agree: â€Å"Thats what fiction is about, isnt it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?† Life of Pi So, are you excited to see a movie based on this bestselling book? What are your thoughts and expectations for movie adaptations, or this one in particular? More on Life of Pi from : The Life of Pi Study Guide, a perfect reading companion complete with chapter summaries and analysis. Have a question? Post it to our QA area for the novel and our expert editors will provide answers. Test your knowledge of the novel with Life of Pi Study Questions. Teachers, planning on teaching Life of Pi in the classroom? We have an exclusive Teaching Unit  to help you with that, plus related lesson plans from Prestwick House Publishers to aid your instruction.

Free Essays on The Tragedy Of Othello

The Tragedy of Othello An innocent wife is killed by her husband who is over-come with sexual jealousy created by lies. A.C. Bradley concluded, †From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader’s heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation.† (Bloom’s†¦) Most will agree that the theatrical Othello is the most tragic of Shakespeare’s to readers of today. Since the first time man and woman met, the human being has been aware of sexual jealousy. Solomon described jealousy in the New King James’ Version of the Holy Bible, â€Å"For jealousy is a husband’s fury; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.† (Prov. 6:34). Jealousy is still and eminent, yet evil force in society. A.C. Bradley stated: Such a passion as ambition†¦but jealousy, and especially sexual jealousy, brings with it a sense of shame and humiliation. For this reason it is generally hidden; if we percieve it we ourselves are ashamed and turn our eyes away; and when it is not hidden it commonly stirs contempt†¦Such jealousy as Othello’s converts human nature to chaos, and the liberates the beast in man; and it does this in relation to one of the most intense and also the most ideal of human feelings.† (Bloom’s†¦) The ever-manipulative Iago lies to Othello consistently to achieve his revenge, using the faithful devil’s tool of sexual jealousy. Through out the play Iago is â€Å"silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  with such a high intelligence of the matter, the reader might look upon him as a sick sort of genius (S. Johnson, Tipton 2 Bloom’s†¦). From the beginning of the play one finds fault in Iago as he is introduced as a sadistic ‘match maker’ who foreshadows things to come in a statement proclaiming unhappiness with a General’... Free Essays on The Tragedy Of Othello Free Essays on The Tragedy Of Othello The Tragedy of Othello An innocent wife is killed by her husband who is over-come with sexual jealousy created by lies. A.C. Bradley concluded, †From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader’s heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation.† (Bloom’s†¦) Most will agree that the theatrical Othello is the most tragic of Shakespeare’s to readers of today. Since the first time man and woman met, the human being has been aware of sexual jealousy. Solomon described jealousy in the New King James’ Version of the Holy Bible, â€Å"For jealousy is a husband’s fury; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.† (Prov. 6:34). Jealousy is still and eminent, yet evil force in society. A.C. Bradley stated: Such a passion as ambition†¦but jealousy, and especially sexual jealousy, brings with it a sense of shame and humiliation. For this reason it is generally hidden; if we percieve it we ourselves are ashamed and turn our eyes away; and when it is not hidden it commonly stirs contempt†¦Such jealousy as Othello’s converts human nature to chaos, and the liberates the beast in man; and it does this in relation to one of the most intense and also the most ideal of human feelings.† (Bloom’s†¦) The ever-manipulative Iago lies to Othello consistently to achieve his revenge, using the faithful devil’s tool of sexual jealousy. Through out the play Iago is â€Å"silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  with such a high intelligence of the matter, the reader might look upon him as a sick sort of genius (S. Johnson, Tipton 2 Bloom’s†¦). From the beginning of the play one finds fault in Iago as he is introduced as a sadistic ‘match maker’ who foreshadows things to come in a statement proclaiming unhappiness with a General’...

Science Fair Essays

Science Fair Essays Science Fair Essay Science Fair Essay Dylan Missel Cass 2nd block Science Fair Conclusion Baseball vs. Aerodynamics Conclusion For Science Fair, Steven Bowman, my partner, and I decided to test which mass baseball would travel farther when launched from a pitching machine. We decided to use three different types of baseballs. We used an official baseball, a tee-ball (rubber ball), and a plastic, hollow ball (wiffle ball). Before we started the experimentation we researched all the theories that were involved in the experiment. Aerodynamics played a key role in the experiment because based on how the air traveled along the outside of the ball can cause it to many sorts of things while in the air. The seams were a main factor with the baseball because the seams can disrupt airflow and cause spin to evolve on an around the ball. After researching we began experimentation. We conducted the research by having seventeen trials for each ball. We would start by putting the ball through the machine and seeing how far it would travel. We repeated the step seventeen times for each ball. After each attempt we recorded the distance it traveled in meters. The results that we got are as followed: the average distance the official baseball traveled was 9. 3 meters, the average distance the tee-ball (rubber ball) traveled was 8. 4 meters, and the average distance the plastic, hollow ball (wiffle ball) traveled was 6. 2 meters. After reviewing the results, we can conclude that the official baseball traveled farther than the other baseballs. This confirms my hypothesis which was if the baseballs were put through the machine correctly, than the official baseball would travel farther than the other baseballs. In today’s world baseball is a crucial part in entertainment society. Both players and fans are paying large amounts for baseball accessories. I believe that our testing can help baseball players understand the game better. By realizing that how aerodynamics affects the balls pitchers can throw better more accurate pitches also along with more tricky pitches. The batters in realizing the affects that aerodynamics has on the ball will be more in tuned to pitchers when they throw the ball. The batters can also predict what the ball will do once it leaves the pitcher’s hand.

Automotive Cruise Control System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Automotive Cruise Control System - Essay Example The governor adjusted the engine up thrift when the engine speed changed. The system was first used in automobiles in the year 1910. Thanks to Peerless motor company who upgraded the system to maintain speed of an automobile regardless of the topography the vehicle was moving on. Modern cruise control or speedostat was invented in 1948 by Ralph Teetor a long term president of the perfect circle company which specialized in manufacture of automotives. The first car with speedostat system was manufactured in 1958 which processed a vehicle speed on driveshaft and utilized a loop wire wrapped in a metallic core to vary throttle positions. In 1950 constant speed regulator a patent was imposed by Frank Riley, however in the following years, Mr. Riley and the other patent holders did not manage to collect royalties for inventions using the cruise control. Automotive device controls became more popular in USA in the year 1973 after the historical oil crisis which led to tremendous rise in fu el price. This was due to the nature of the system of saving gas intake by minimizing level of fuel intake when a vehicle was accelerating. Automotive cruise control uses the mechanism of transmission whereby a sensor system is mounted to the vehicle front. Control mechanism is transmitted through the on board sensors. A driver feeds in the speed and the unit maintains the speed by taking over the car’s throttle. The systems are ideal because they improve a driver comfort in a free flowing traffic conditions. However the systems are not ideal in heavy congested traffic as they do not allow the cruise control to run below a certain speed normally 25mph. the vehicle maintains the desired speed by up thrusting the throttle cable with a loop wire and a closed loop feedback. Modern cruise systems have power buttons which allows a driver to turn on or off. The systems

Capitalism and Socialism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Capitalism and Socialism - Assignment Example Brooking institutions researched and found out that income inequality in the year 2013 was rising to alarming rates and negatively affected the US social mobility (Nilufer 21-2). For about 30 years now the income disparity has been notably growing this is after some statics have been carried out. The richest that is 1% of the Americans have so much wealth as compared to the greatest of the poor that’s about 90%.this disparity is increasing now for about 25 years down the line (Ebenstein 12). This has not only affected the United States but nations around the world.Some of the reasons and evidences are discussed below. Education has to a great extent contributed to this income disparity, payment for the educated has been increasing since 1969 in every economic sector. This is because in America less skilled personnel are being dismissed from work because of high competition between businesses and also when businesses adopt new technologies the uneducated have no place which can suit them for they lack the required skills and knowledge. This creates a big gap between the poor and the rich. Class struggle has been one of the major reasons for the worsening of incomeinequality, the gap between the poor and the rich has been widening over the last three decades. ... In 2007 it rose to 24% but for the three decades it fell to 10%. A new system of taxation, unions being strengthened and moderation of the National Labour Board made the income of the low earners and those working to upgrade by reducing that of the highest earners, this policy lasted only for about three decades. In 2009 the income of middle class totaled to $49777 this is according to data collected during census, it then reduced by 4.2% in the years 2007 and 2009 (Ebenstein 29). Neoliberalism advocates that capital and labour which are some of the factors of production should receive payments which are worthwhile. Americans Keynesians support the neoliberal which states that one should be paid what they are worth. This has caused a lot of disparities in income distribution since people work at different rates and have different abilities hence giving out different results in their performances; this automatically leads to income inequality. Outsourcing can be defined as the process where a company works together with an outside company on contractual basis; this is preferred due to the low cost advantages. Most of the US companies have been out sourcing their products and hence gaining comparative advantages. A greater percentage of the investors in US have also engaged in businesses outside their country this has made them earn more than their fellow investors hence the reasons for the income inequalities (Ebenstein 71). Finally, the communal ideology has a role in the economic systems with respect to resource distribution. Ideology can mean beliefs, visions, objectives that can be set by a group of individual or an individual either

Labour Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Labour Law - Essay Example This paves the way against further abuse by employers who wish to minimize the number of employees employed by demanding rendition of work beyond what a human being may ordinarily give. Three, it also provides no less than twenty-eight (28) paid holidays which gives an opportunity to implement work-life balance. The latter is the strategy recently being propagated in the international community that allows every employee or worker to perform his responsibilities as a family man and as a social person without sacrificing his work. Since work-life balance theory was only introduced and implemented lately, it can be considered that British Labour Law appropriately and timely provided for this right or opportunity to all workers under its jurisdiction. Four, the right to flexible working patterns provided under the Employment Rights Act of 1996, the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations of 1999, and the Additional Paternity Leave Regulations of 2010 provide for more broader opportunit ies for both men and women to perform their tasks as parents. The laws also recognize the need of the parents to take leaves from work in order to care for their children without fear of affecting their career advancement. These laws, obviously give equal rights for both mothers and fathers, unlike in other countries and/or in previous laws wherein only the rights of the mother is recognized due to physical giving of birth. Now, British Labour Laws recognize the fact that even the father of a child needs to be with his child, and has the obligation or responsibility to care for the child in lieu of or together with the mother. The Pensions Act of 2008 which requires the employers to automatically enroll every jobholder or worker in an occupational pension scheme, unless the latter refuse later on, is also commendable, considering that with the recent trend amongst young professionals, the biggest tendency is for them to spend their hard-earned monies to travels and buying unnecessar y gadgets, leaving nothing for the future. This law adequately addresses the long-term problem that might be encountered by the workers by mandating the periodic contribution to a pension plan that will ultimately benefit the workers themselves. Also, the Equality Act of 2010 which provides for a detailed process of investigation of discrimination and/or harassment cases, is considered adequate to address contemporary manner of abuses in the workplace. Unlike before wherein the prosecution and investigation of abuses are left with the individual concerned, now, the employer has the obligation to undertake its own investigation of any possible act of discrimination or harassment. Thus, the employers are now more involved in the protection of its employees against abuses, not only against the employers themselves but also against fellow employees. On the other hand, while the Employment Rights Act of 1996 provides for a consolidated set of rights for working persons, still, British La bour Laws fail to give an exact or concrete definition of an employee for purposes of determining who are the real beneficiaries of these rights. Some parts of the law mention of worker, other parts mention of employee, while others refer to job contractor, and others. It would have been better if this can be addressed to as soon as possible so that the persons to whom these

Exploring Information Technology Careers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Exploring Information Technology Careers - Essay Example A computer software developer is someone who designs and develops new softwares by applying different computing and mathematical theories. They go through a step by step phase, where it starts from analyzing an organization need; this need creates an idea followed by planning, designing, coding, testing and finally evolving into new software which then reflects the change in technology. They can develop any software including computer games, operating systems, network related and business applications. Businesses will always need to upgrade, optimize and customize their computer systems due to which the job prospects of software developers will always remain high. A computer network system consultant assists a corporation with analyzing, designing their information technology networks such as LAN/WAN, Cisco switching, IP Telephony, etc. They may be contracted to evaluate the need of the client, documenting and designing the required network and also recommending the equipments and networking softwares required to meet the target.

Management and leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Management and leadership - Essay Example In case of leadership, organizations like American Express, Li & Fung Limited, FM Global performs leadership role and puts a high priority on people, brands and values helps employees to make good decisions (O’Brien, 2011). The management forms a formal relationship with the employees in an organization but leader’s forms an informal and comfortable relationship with the employees. The employees at American Express, Toyota, and Google are able to talk freely with its leaders and maintain a healthy relationship. General electric’s leader Jack Welch is an example of a leader with all the traits of personal quality of a leader. He is articulate and has been able to convey the complicated concepts in few phrases. Management such as HP tends to practice the management style of providing the answers and solving the issues and problems. Organization with leadership style has been able to bring about a change such as introducing new products and services. Companies like Toyota and Google has all adopted the leadership style and has achieved success. Third trait constitute of social characteristic as the operational leader follows characteristic such as of cooperativeness, interpersonal skills, are diplomatic and are able to handle pressure with ease. The three traits which are required for a leader in collaborative role includes personality, social characteristic and work related characteristic. The above traits are chosen because the collaborative leader is optimistic about his work self confident, they are admirable, have the desire to lead from the front and are independent. And finally the collaborative leader constitutes of work related characteristic to show his dedication and drive to excel. The collaborative leader do not avoid obstacles but face it and makes every possible way to resolve

Exploring Information Technology Careers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Exploring Information Technology Careers - Essay Example A computer software developer is someone who designs and develops new softwares by applying different computing and mathematical theories. They go through a step by step phase, where it starts from analyzing an organization need; this need creates an idea followed by planning, designing, coding, testing and finally evolving into new software which then reflects the change in technology. They can develop any software including computer games, operating systems, network related and business applications. Businesses will always need to upgrade, optimize and customize their computer systems due to which the job prospects of software developers will always remain high. A computer network system consultant assists a corporation with analyzing, designing their information technology networks such as LAN/WAN, Cisco switching, IP Telephony, etc. They may be contracted to evaluate the need of the client, documenting and designing the required network and also recommending the equipments and networking softwares required to meet the target.

Investigating Dynamic Malware Analysis tool Research Paper

Investigating Dynamic Malware Analysis tool - Research Paper Example It has been identified that the sandbox tools are effective in terms of updating the malware signature databases and understanding the behavioral patterns of such codes. Malware is identified as a form of malicious software that can cause tremendous level of damage to a standalone platform or to an entire organizational setup if ignored. One of the major issues being faced by the online security companies is regarding identification of the continuous evolutionary pattern of the malware programs. The functionality of the malware programs gradually depends on their types, which further does have multiple counts. Popular examples of malware programs includes ‘Ransomware Trojans’, ‘Keyloggers’, ‘Rootkit virus’ and multiple more. Within the drastic evolution in the areas of software fields and data execution patterns, multiple unauthorized individuals have started using these kinds of malicious contents for attaining illegal access to those systems from where they can gather crucial data for sufficing their needs (Malware Help. Org, 2014). Taking into consideration of the loss caused by such malicious programs, multiple static and dynamic malware detection tools have also been developed that often prove effective in mitigating the risk associated with malware attacks on crucial data storage and execution systems. Static and dynamic malware detection analysis are few such tools that are provided by the software vendors, which are capable of identifying existing malware codes within a system and blocking or terminating them at the same instance (Egele et al.,2010). The entire concept of dynamic malware analysis mainly depends on the signature identification technique. When a new malware detection tool comes under the supervision of an analyst, he / she continuously updates the database of that tool with all the possible malware signatures, which the system is previously subjected. With the help of an

Boston Beer Company Essay Example for Free

Boston Beer Company Essay

Research Project On KFC co

Research Project On KFC co Business organizations endure because they have customers who are prepared to pay for their product and service (Cinoy, 2007). In this competitive world satisfying the needs of the customer plays an important role for any business organization with providing the quality service that reaches the expectations of the consumer and satisfying them with their product by this company can adopt successful business strategy that can take them over their rivals in the market. Now a days many organizations are investing considerable amount of resources in finding out new methods and tactics for filling the gap between the actual customer expectation and service provided by the organization this is because of lack of correspondence between customer expectations and actual service provided by the organizations which results in dissatisfaction of consumers. This research project is concerned about analyzing the service quality provided to its customers by KFC store, Belle vale, Liverpool and to analyze the level of satisfaction experienced by its consumers. Service quality has been conceptualized as the difference between customer prospect regarding service to be received and opinion of service being received (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Customer satisfaction is recognized as being highly associated with Value and consequently on the Price (Antreas, 1999). Customer satisfaction has been acknowledged as central concept as well as essential goal of all business activity (Eugene et al., 1994). These food court industries are fast growing industries in the whole United Kingdom and Globally. There is intense competition among the firms in the industry for example: MC Donalds, Burger King Etc. Expansion in service sector has resulted in increased variety of customer demands and customer needs and wants. To reach increased customer demands busi ness should adopt strategies which gain the business than its rivals. 1.1 Problem outline As the most successful food firms are organized to deliver most enviable combination of food and service to consumers (jean Ben, 1996). The firms find it difficult to understand how consumers perceive their services and evaluate service quality (Valarie et al., 1985).This research is concerned with customer satisfaction and Service Quality in the hospitality industry focusing KFC store, Belle vale. Research will critically analyze to determine the level of customer satisfaction provided by the store and makes suggestions how to plan to increase the level of customer satisfaction which in turn increases the store overall performance. Report will investigate and come up with the steps and suggestions to be taken for the customers to be satisfied. 1.2 Organization overview KFC (GB) Ltd forms a part of Yum Brands. Yum Brands consist of 5 core Quality service Restaurant (QSR) KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, AW, and Long John Silver. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) operates in 74 countries and territories throughout the world. The KFC concept was introduced to Britain in 1965. Following by worldwide acquisition of KFC by PepsiCo it was announced that the British operations KFC GB Ltd has become a joint venture a company owned by Trust House Forte and PepsiCo (KFC, 2000). KFC Store, Belle vale is one of the new store it just being 20months. As its a new store this report would suggest some of the plans that are important for the store to increase their level of customer satisfaction among its customers. 1.3 Aims and objectives This research main aim is to study and critically evaluate the customer satisfaction of the customers for the service quality provided to them by the KFC store in Belle vale. To suggest solution for some of the issues faced by the consumers respectively thus by fixing them store can gain higher customer satisfaction and could provide their customers with proper service quality which could reach the expectations of them. The research plan is to use different types and modes of the quantitative research methods for collecting data. Quantitative data is collected by questionnaire. The data collected through questionnaire is analyzed through SPSS. Objectives: To adopt Quantitative research methods in order to know how far customer is satisfied. To critically review the literature of the customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry, Identify key areas, and concepts to develop and support the research. To make suggestions and recommendations to the store so that they plan and attain higher customer satisfaction from the survey conducted for the research. To investigate the importance of customer satisfaction and service quality in order to create new customers To reach the expectations of existing customers and to retain them in future. To critically review and apprise the current literature on SERVQUAL. Literature review The Literature review is the work of syntheses. The literature review is an attempt to summarize the existing state of knowledge about a subject and, in research proposals, to frame the proposed researchs expected involvement to knowledge (Jeffrey, 2006). Literature review enables the researcher to position research in a large context by determining on overall review of the body of research and revealing the work that already being done and reported. The fundamental variables contribution to customer satisfaction in store about The Quality, and Environment can be ultimately enhanced but the service offered eventually provide business a competitive advantage (Evert, 1991) The predominance of evidence in the accessible literature on the marketing of services has identified the critical role of service quality and satisfaction in the formation of customer purchase retention (Steven Thomas, 1994). Understanding the relationship between the customer satisfaction and service quality is crucial for the effective management of any business institution (Rust Oilver, 1994). However drive for the product and service apparent worldwide but the increasing customer satisfaction has become corporate goal for the business (Bitner Hublert, 1994). The development of better understanding of how service quality perception and consumer satisfaction judgment interacts and influence each other on consumer purchase intention is a key challenge face by current services in marketing discipline (Bolton Drew, 1994) 2.1 Concept of Customer satisfaction Market researcher distinguishes between customer satisfaction with respect to a specific transaction and their global evaluation of service (Eugene et al., 1994). Customer satisfaction has been distinguished under two different conceptualizations they are Transaction specific and Cumulative (Boulding et al., 1993). Transaction specific perspective customer satisfaction is viewed as post evaluative judgment of a specific purchase occasion (Oliver, 1980). Cumulative customer satisfaction is an overall assessment based on total purchase and consumption experience with a product or service encountered (Fornell, 1992). Once the customers are satisfied with a service, they become more likely to re-purchase, which then increases the companys profits. As per the survey conducted food quality, restaurant atmosphere and fairness and efficiency of seating procedures significantly influence customer satisfaction. Also service quality, personnel response, food price and convenience directly influ ence customer satisfaction with their meal experience. Concept of service quality Service quality is defined as the gap between the customer expectations and perceptions (Zeithaml et al., 1998). Over the past years service sector has become the dominant sector in the economy, and the studies reveal that service quality is the pre-requisite for the success and survival for business organizations in the competitive world. Service quality is famous as SERVQUAL. SERVQUAL has two types of approach Normative, and Predictive. Normative study explains how a firm proves to be excellent apart from the other firms operating in the same industry. Predictive SERVQUAL study explains expectation of the customers and perceptions of the same customers after them being served. The interest in service quality has increased noticeably (Gummesson, 1991). Service quality leads to customer loyalty, attraction of new customers and increased business performance through increased high levels of satisfaction (Parasuraman et al., 1988). The problems which are involved in service quality are in part a manifestation of intangible, Simultaneous, Non standardized and perishable nature of service. Its very difficult to clarify the characteristics of service and their relationship with service quality. Usually they are many problems faced by organizations providing high quality service to its customers. From the customers point of view they are five factors that affect the service quality of a firm (Suresh, 2001). Core services or service products Human elements of service delivery Systemizations of service delivery: Non-human element Tangible of services Social responsibilities Measuring service quality They are many service quality measurements and methods proposed by various researchers. These methods can be broadly classified into two groups incident based and attribute based service quality measurements. Attribute based methods exist in a wide range of variants. One of the few tested instruments available to measure service quality from the customers perspective is the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Perceived service quality is measured by subtracting customer perception scores from customer expectation score. The five dimensions considered are: Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. . The research conducted by researchers found that the three most important expectations of Quick service restaurant patrons were assurance, reliability and tangibles. This instrument will be used in the store to compare service quality to that of the other sectors and to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the store. Service Elements Service encounter elements are studied by many service marketing scholars to reveal personal interaction because increasing the pleasure of service encounters can reduce the perceived risk associated with purchasing a service and improve the buying experience (Briggs et al., 2007). The influence of service encounter elements can be reduced to three main components. The first is environmental elements, which include tangible and intangible elements in the service environment such as ambience, lighting, music and internal and external environmental design. The second component comprises of service employee factors which include the kind of employees providing services to customers. Specific behaviors, including the behavior of service employees are the key determinants of perceived service quality and customer satisfaction. The third component is consumer factors such as whether the consumer is influenced by the appearance, behavior and perceptions of other customers. Research methodology The research methodology is an approach which encompasses of several issues including problems, constrictions and ethical preferences within the research. The methodology is the speculative examination of the methods that are appropriate to a specific field of study. To achieve the objectives and goals of the research, selection of methodology is essential and is indispensable for investigation and analysis. Keeping in consideration the quality of services provided by the organization (Valarie et al., 1985) the onion theory, plays an important role in determining the philosophy, approaches, strategies, time horizon and the data collection methods 3.1 Research philosophy The learning style questionnaire or assessment assessed the researchs style as a Positivist and an Accommodator (See Appendix 1 -Learning Style Assessment). The perception by which a researcher carries out his or her research is called as research philosophy and these are classified into three positivism, interpretive and realism. With positivism, a researcher will work with an observable social reality with the end product of the research being generalizations (Saunders et al., 2003). The positivist approach is taken in the value free way. This implies that the researcher will neither affect or be affected by the subject of the research. Approach to research Deductive and Inductive are the two approaches to research. Deductive approach is a process in which we develop a theory and hypothesis and design a research strategy to test the hypothesis, whereas in Inductive approach we would collect data and develop theory as a result of data analysis. As the researchers study deals with positivism a deductive approach will be adopted in this research (Saunders et al., 2003). In the deductive approach, the laws present the basis of explanation, allow the anticipation of phenomena, predict their occurrence and therefore permit them to be controlled (Collis Hussey, 2003). There are five sequential stages through which deductive research will progress (Robson, 2002). First stage is Deducing a hypothesis from the theory. Secondly, expressing the hypothesis in operational terms, which propose a relationship between two specific concepts or variables. Testing the operational hypothesis. Examining the specific outcome of the inquiry. If necessary, modifying the theory in the light of the findings. Research strategy The strategy can be used for explanatory, descriptive and illustrative research (Yin, 2003). There are seven strategies namely Experiment, Survey, Case study, Action research, Grounded theory, Ethnography, and Archival research (Saunders et al., 2003). The survey being the popular strategy in business and management research it is used for exploratory and descriptive research. This strategy allows the collection of large amount of data from a sample in an economical way. The survey strategy is perceived as authoritative by people in general and is both comparatively easy to explain and to understand. It allows us to collect quantitative data which can be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The questionnaire, however is not the only way to collect data, it includes structures observations, structures interviews etc. This survey strategy calculates and analyzes the satisfaction levels of the customers. Methodology conclusion The researcher intends to use a quantitative approach using a positivist and deductive approach and utilizing the data required in a way to support the research and provides the ability to understand. Research methods Research may be categorized into two distinct types: Qualitative and Quantitative. The former researcher concentrates on words and observations to express reality and attempts to describe people in natural situations (Amaratunga et al., 2002). The latter grows out of a strong academic tradition that places considerable trust in the numbers that represent opinions or concepts. According to the other researcher research strategy should be chosen according to the research situation. The researcher uses quantitative method (i.e. questionnaire survey) to measure the customer satisfaction and quality of service provided by the restaurant staff (Yin, 2003). 4.1 Quantitative research Quantitative data is the information that can be counted or expressed numerically. Quantitative data refers to all the numeric data that can be a product of all research strategies (Saunders et al., 2003). This type of data is often collected in experiments, manipulated and statistically analyzed. Quantitative data can be represented visually in graphs and charts. A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. They are often designed for statistical analysis. Questionnaire survey Questionnaires are often used to collect primary quantitative data from the customers. The aim is to gather valid, reliable and unbiased data from a representative sample of respondents. One of the objectives of this research is to investigate factors which are more effective on overall customer satisfaction and service quality, in which case a certain proportion of customers should be inquired to draw out quantified information, and the sample will be chosen in a random basis. Questionnaire based survey is more efficient in terms of time, cost, thus increasing its accuracy. Moreover, the sample is much easier to be picked up. Types of questionnaire There are two types of questionnaires namely Self-administered Questionnaires and Interviewer Administered Questionnaires (Saunders et al., 2003). As far as this research is concerned the researcher will use Self administered Questionnaires which will be delivered by hand and collected later. Questionnaire design Questionnaire consists of a set of questions that the respondent has to answer in a set format. Questionnaire design calls our sociological imagination into play in a number of ways. It is designed in such a way that the questions are meaningful, sensitive, precise, searching and salient to our respondents. The construction of questions should be done precisely so that the respondents will want to answer them fully and truthfully as they can. It consists of open ended questions and close ended questions. The open ended question asks the respondents to formulate their own answers, whereas close ended questions requires the respondents to pick up an answer from a given number of options. The questionnaire will include: Ranking questions, open ended questions, simple direct questions requiring the respondent to tick a box and questions using Likert scale. Sample selection A sample is a set of elements selected in some way from a population. the available sampling methods fall into two main categories: probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling. The researcher prefers to go for Non probability convenience sampling where the sampling will be randomly done until it satisfies the requirements of the research. The minimum criteria for selecting the samples from the population would be that the individuals or the group of individuals selected should be the customers KFC Belle vale. Formula to Calculate sample size (S). S = Where n = no of customers e = 5% Data collection methods If the researcher wants to use some data for a particular purpose, he may use either the primary data or secondary data (Waters, 2001). Primary data is collected by the researcher himself for a particular purpose. Secondary data will be collected for other purposes. Primary Data The primary data will be collected through the questionnaires distributed to the customers/guests. A well structured questionnaire will be given to the customers in order to evaluate the opinions, beliefs, views and preferences of different people. The primary data collected through the questionnaires will be interpreted using SPSS. Secondary Data Data which includes both raw data and published summaries is incorporated in secondary data (Saunders et al., 2003). Various forms of secondary data will be collected from journals, books and websites in order to support the research. The researcher has access to wide range of facilities of the learning resource centers of the universities in Liverpool Profile, Personal Suitability 5.1 Researcher personal knowledge and skill Researcher is the graduate in Bachelors of commerce (Honours) from Osmania University. The researcher has done a project on Export Finance provided by banks in India from the State bank of Hyderabad (SBH) during his graduation. The store understands that this research can help them to improve their business as the researcher has prior experience in customer services. Research suitability As the researcher is the employee of the KFC store, it will enable him to get the required data and conduct a survey on service quality. Being the employee of the organization, the researcher did not want to lose the opportunity to enhance on his personal interests. Moreover, with the support of his manager the researcher has gained confidence in the completion of the task successfully. A consent letter has been issued by KFC to carry on the survey which has been put in Appendix 3. Time and project management 6.1 project plan A project plan which is produced using the Microsoft Office project 2007 is presented in the Appendix 2. The project starts on 1st July 2011 and ends on 29th November 2011. As the researcher is an employee of KFC, there seems to be no hindrance for the successful completion of his project. However there may be some aspects which may exceed the time allocated, say for example the questionnaires. This is because the researcher will have to manage with the customers for their respective feedbacks which may exceed the allocated time period. Cost The only cost involved in this research would be the printing cost of the questionnaires. Research protocol 7.1 Questionnaire protocol Questionnaires will be directly given to the customers after they complete their meal. Sufficient time will be given to fill the questionnaires. A brief idea about the research will be included in the questionnaire. On receiving the completed questionnaires, the data will be loaded into SPSS to analyze it. Using Microsoft Word Amend all the text to be Times New Roman size 12. Amend all the text of any bold or italic script. Remove all headers and references to original authors. Others 8.1 Ethical issues Research ethics relates to questions about how we formulate and clarify our resource topic, design our research and gain access, collect data, process and store our data, analyze data and write up our research findings in a moral and responsible way (Saunders et al., 2003). The researcher guarantees that the research will cause no harm in terms of personal or physical harm (Kumar, 2005). That sharing information about respondents with others for non-research purpose is un-ethical. All the data will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed without the organizations permission. The author will make sure that no questions will be asked which would break the legal rules and the privacy of the organization. The raw data will be safely stored by the researcher who will be the only person to access it, and it will be destroyed once the study is completed. The required ethical approval form has been put in the Appendix 4.