W2A 590 Whole foods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

W2A 590 Whole foods - Essay Example The welfare of employees in terms health insurance cover, compensation and development are well taken care of. Associates even contribute in the recruitment process for their potential colleagues and the recruitment process aims at tapping top talent. With such autonomy, independence and great teamwork the associates are motivated and this translates into exceptional customer service. Top management at Whole Foods Market strongly believes in building a shared identity where all team members participate. Management therefore encourage all associates to take part in the daily decision making process at all business levels. Employees are empowered to contribute to decisions on the benefit options. The company has also adopted an open-book policy approach where every associate is allowed access to company financial information including compensation all employees. Transparency is regarded highly the management stresses company values such as collaboration and decentralization. At the store levels, associates are members of teams and engage with their team leaders proactively to voice their contributions on product lines and the leaders take that into consideration. Associates re given the authority to participate in the vetting potential employees before they are confirmed. The approach has seen the company attract associates sharing their core values maintain and re ward a workforce that is engaged and highly productive. One potential risk of the company’s democratic model of selecting new associates is that it could interfere with the development of a diverse workforce. With the direct involvement of every employee there always come issues such as bias and favouritism. Some of the store leaders or influential employees could recommend potential employees on personal considerations and therefore bit the logic of tapping talent whilst at the same time maintaining diversity. However this should not be a major problem if the HR function implements

Ethical behavior principle Essay Example for Free

Ethical behavior principle Essay The behavior of each and every person is control by moral and the guiding principles. This is normally portrayed in our daily usual acts, and hence shaping of our ethical behavior is critical in the making sound decision and upholds the trust of the public. A successful business is only possible if there is a strong and profound held value. Most companies will set up strategy of coming up with the required values in order to attract their prospective clients, manage their workers, and attained the expected development of the company. The guiding principles of ethical behaviors which these companies will struggle to uphold are based on the values. According to American Psychological Association, (1953) these values include beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, respects for people’s rights, and dignity. Coordination and active participation of the workers will be of great importance in attracting the attention of the clients. In any organization, leaders will continually strive to ensure that their company achieved its standard. Their main aim is to make sure that the rights of the employees are taken care of, and that the company in general performs well at all cost. In order to achieve this, their actions will be guided by the ethical values which will assist them in the decision making processes (Leal, 1998).

Healthy People Cannot Give Blood Essay -- Health

Everyone has seen the horror movie narrative time and time again. One person watches someone they love be put into a horrifying circumstance while being nothing but a helpless bystander, watching through a window or a television screen. Watching the bystander is almost as tragic as watching the victim, as the innate compulsion of a human to help others is relatable and recognizable to everyone. Unfortunately, there is a community in today’s world that is prevented from helping fellow humans in a simple act of charity some may take for granted: giving blood. Current United States policy bans homosexual men from being blood donors, regardless of testing and other standard procedures, such as testing blood for transmittable diseases and administering extensive questionnaires regarding risk factors of blood-borne illnesses (American Red Cross, 2012). This policy preventing men who have sex with other men (MSM) from donating blood should be modified, as advancements in technology h ave eliminated the high safety concern that once made the policy the best logical solution for safe blood transfusion (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). Policies restricting blood donors cover a wide range of potential issues with the blood supply. For the most part, these policies are very logical and give a greater piece of mind to those receiving blood; however, the policy regarding homosexual men is both outdated and illogical. As outlined on the United States Food and Drug Administration’s website (2009), no man who has had sex with another man since 1977, regardless of protective barriers or number of partners, may donate blood at any point after intercourse. Many people are unaware of this policy; it has not received attention in the... ...eller, A. J. (2010, December). No evidence of a significantly increased risk of transfusion-transmitted human immunodeficiency virus infection in Australia subsequent to implementing a 12-month deferral for men who have had sex with other men. Transfusion, 50(12), 2722-2730. doi:10.1111/j.1537-2995.2010.02793.x Thrasher, S. W. (2009). Blood, sex, and the FDA. Advocate, (1032), 50-53. The Constitution of the United States. Amendment 1. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, (2009). Blood donations from men who have sex with other men questions and answers. Retrieved from U.S. Food and Drug Administration website: http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/bloodbloodproducts/questionsaboutblood/ucm108186.htm Waters, A. (2011). FROM THE HEART. Nursing Standard, 25(29), 24-25. (2012). In American Red Cross. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www.redcross.org/

Mattel Essay -- essays research papers

1) What was Jill Barad’s primary goal for Mattel in 1996? What strategy did she choose in order to pursue these goals? Answer: The primary goal of Jill Barad for Mattel was to increase earning per shares by 15% per annum compounded before the effects of any acquisitions. The following are the 4 elements of her strategies: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Continue with the highly profitable practice of extending the company’s existing brands (e.g. she had plans to further develop a line of collectible Barbie dolls); 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Develop new product categories, particular in boy’s toys and board games where Mattel had traditional been weak. It could be accomplished through internal product development or by acquiring an emerging company and then growing its business through further investments. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Expanding overseas market sales to more than 50% of Mattel’s total; 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cost reductions by outsourcing production to low-cost foreign factories in places such as China. 2) Why did Barad’s strategies fail to generate the profit growth she had planned? Could better planning have helped Barad anticipate market trends? Answer: The following are the number of problems that had stymied Barad’s strategies: l  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Parents were buying fewer toys and shifting their spending to computer software and video games for their children; l  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Parents were shifting the spending ...

Good, But Not Good Enough Essay

There are times when we feel we must be perfect in order to please others. No matter if we did the best we could do, if it wasn’t perfect we felt like a failure. We want the approval that comes with perfect ness. Every day we see a new commercial or magazine showing an image of a hunky, greased up muscle man or an anorexic model with tons of make up air brushed on her body and society compares you with that image. We as a people tend to use those false images of beauty as a scale to rate the rest of the population by and if you do not fit in that category you are not beautiful. So we strive to be accepted to be approved by the rest of society. In Janice Mirikitani’s poem â€Å"Suicide Note† a young Asian American college student apologizes to her parents for not being perfect. Perfect in school and perfect in life. Even though the girl worked very hard and did very well it wasn’t good enough in her mind and maybe in her parents’ mind to be worthy of her parents’ love or life itself, and so her only option was death to atone for her sin of imperfectness. The poem begins: How many notes written†¦/ ink smeared like bird prints in snow./ not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough / dear mother and father ./ I apologize/ for disappointing you / I’ve worked hard, / not good enough / harder, perhaps to please you.(373.1-9) Clearly the girl in this poem the girl is apologizing for much more than  grades. She has set unrealistic standards for herself and has a lack of self worth all because she cannot achieve these standards. She cannot change the way she looks, yet she is apologizing for not being â€Å"pretty enough†. She also goes on to talk about how life may have been better for her if she were a son instead of a daughter. She would be worthy of love because she associates strength, confidence, beauty and smarts with being male. â€Å"I would swagger through life / muscled and bold and assured,†(373.17-18). Who do we blame for this young girl’s negative self-image? Is it society’s fault that she values being a male more than her own life or is it her parent’s fault for not making her feel the love that she so desperately needs right now? Obviously she was never appreciated for her work because she’s constantly apologizing for not being â€Å"good enough† throughout the whole note and talks about how failure, disappointment and disapproval drive her closer to committing suicide. Maybe if her parent’s voiced how they felt about her this tragedy could have been prevented. Further into the poem she talks about how she will atone for her sin of imperfectness. â€Å"My sacrifice I will drop / bone by bone, perched / on the ledge of my womanhood,/ fragile as wings†(373-374.31-34). She is toying with the idea of jumping from a ledge knowing that death will be the out come of her actions. Who will be there to stop her since she doesn’t matter? † Not strong enough†(374.35) she utters next. She doesn’t yet have the courage to fly like a baby bird from a nest off of her window ledge. She pictures herself as a sparrow â€Å"sillied and dizzied by the wind†(374.39). The reason she pictures herself as a sparrow because a sparrow is a little bird that is not considered to be a really important creature. Compared to a hawk or an eagle, a sparrow is a peasant bird, or an everyday bird. People have noticed sparrows before, but never pointed them out like they would if they were a hawk or an eagle. They would praise a hawk or an eagle, not a sparrow. Each line in the poem is building the young girl up to that state of mind where only death is the escape. She’s thinking of all the things that have led her up to this point. â€Å"not good enough not strong enough / not smart enough†(374.48-49) Maybe this way someone will finally notice her. She hopes that † they will bury / my bird bones beneath / a sturdy pine†(374.57-59). The pine refers back to the beginning where she pictures herself as a male child. The pine represents what would have happened if she turned out to be a boy. This could also mean, that in the afterlife she wants to be as strong as a pine, hoping that she would be brought back in the afterlife as a boy. The suicide was a way for the college student to be noticed. It was very unfortunate that she had to take her own life just to get attention, and to get appreciation for all the things that she had done and still it wouldn’t be good enough for her parents.

Poetry Writing Courses for International Students

Poetry Writing Courses for International Students Poetry Writing Courses for International Students People usually write poems because they want to capture a moment or certain emotion they have experienced. Poetry employs a different approach to communication with the reader. This genre of literature has its own devices and techniques to convey your experience to the audience. Practice makes perfect, but if you write poems, or at least tried to, you know that prior knowledge of these techniques is extremely helpful. Here is a list of courses that will help you start the journey into poetry, improve your skills as a writer and publish your work. Some of the courses are free and some of them are paid, but all of them are online, and thus, suitable for international students. â€Å"What is poetry?† from OpenLearn is a free course, a popular platform for online studies. It is great for beginners as it covers the basics, teaches how to use writing techniques and literary devices. This course is designed for people who wish to start writing poems, but for some reason keep postponing. It can help you realize what stops you from writing, and free your imagination. â€Å"Poetry writing† form Gotham Writers is useful for those who cant find their way with words. The course teaches how to make the most powerful impact on the reader, but also addresses the forms of poetry and writing techniques. This course is also held in New York, so you can take it in person if you live near this location, or if you are going to visit the city in time of their workshop. â€Å"Writing poetry† from University of Oxford focuses on writing devices and how to use them. If you trust university education more than private courses, than this course might be better for you. After completing it, you will feel more confident in your writing skills, learn different types of verse forms and poetic structures. â€Å"Poetry writing course† from London School of Journalism consists of 8 lessons. It is a complete course that walks you through from the basics to getting published. If you want to find your personal style this one is definitely for you. â€Å"ENGL 310: Modern Poetry† is one of the introductory courses from Yale University. It consists of 25 free lectures and an exam. The course is useful for people who would like to get acquainted with authors of modern poetry and find inspiration in their writing. â€Å"Writing and reading poetry†, interestingly enough, is yet another poetry writing course from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It has an emphasis on practice of making poetry and analyzing 20th century poetry. This course is more useful for students, who already know everything in theory and want to start practicing. If you want to start writing poems or you do, but feel like something is missing from your work, or you just cant get published for some reason, take up an online course. Fill the gaps in your knowledge or skills. On another note, in an auditorium, you will have to share your progress with a bunch of other students. If you are a beginner and feel intimidated with taking a creative group course, an online programme is a good place to start. Visit our trustworthy writing service to buy student essays online if you need help with writing your academic papers.

3 Cases of Too Many Commas

3 Cases of Too Many Commas 3 Cases of Too Many Commas 3 Cases of Too Many Commas By Mark Nichol This post illustrates several types of sentences that incorporate excessive punctuation. Each example is followed by a discussion and a revision. 1. Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and killed him, has been the subject of contentious debate. A verb is preceded by a comma only when that comma is one of a pair that frames a parenthetical phrase: â€Å"Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and killed him has been the subject of contentious debate.† (An example of the type of exception noted is â€Å"Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and kill him, and why the police reacted the way they did, has been the subject of contentious debate.†) 2. The stakes are high because, without effective management of regulatory risks, organizations are reactive, at best, and noncompliant, at worst, with all of the attendant consequences. The punctuation bracketing the phrases â€Å"at best† and â€Å"at worst† is optional, but because they, in combination with the required commas that set off the sentence’s parenthetical phrase and its subordinate clause, create a cluttered effect, it’s best to omit the discretionary ones: â€Å"The stakes are high because, without effective management of regulatory risks, organizations are reactive at best and noncompliant at worst, with all of the attendant consequences.† (Note that in the case of â€Å"at worst,† only the preceding comma can be deleted, because the one that follows it serves double duty, setting off the subordinate clause as well.) 3. He would replace conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court. This sentence is punctuated as if â€Å"Justice Antonin Scalia† is an appositive of conservative- that is, as if the phrase and the word are equivalent to each other- meaning that the parenthetical phrase could be omitted without affecting the validity of the sentence’s grammatical structure. However, the result would be the flawed statement â€Å"He would replace conservative, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† Conservative is simply part of a descriptor providing additional information about the person named; therefore, no intervening punctuation is necessary: â€Å"He would replace conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† (Note that because the descriptor is â€Å"conservative justice,† not simply conservative, justice is not a job title and is therefore not capitalized.) A revision of the sentence that incorporates an appositive and thus validates the parenthetical punctuation, is â€Å"He would replace a conservative justice, Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† (Here, â€Å"Antonin Scalia† - and the framing punctuation- could be omitted without damage to the sentence.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†11 Writing Exercises to Inspire You and Strengthen Your WritingAffect vs. Effect

Vibrant Story in Your Narrative Essay Make Your Professor Your Reader

Vibrant Story in Your Narrative Essay Make Your Professor Your Reader Vibrant Story in Your Narrative Essay: Make Your Professor Your Reader This form of essays involves narrations of events and stories and the detailed description of how they unfold. These pieces of writing are used at various stages in school life and the art world. Typically, most assignments include telling stories of an individual’s life and its connection with class themes. These forms of essays are usually engaging and fun, as writers select interesting topics, have rough drafts on them before writing and revise their work after writing. So, here are the tips on how to make your narrative writing interesting and challenging: Go for stories that illustrate themes There are two components of narrative essays: the story itself and its analysis. These essays usually mean to communicate something that may be an issue, concept, event or a certain theme, hence you must use personal chronology to show an idea. Most narrative essays are not referenced or researched but are developed from the personal point of view. The personal artistic is what stands out as evidence to show certain points the author is trying to make. These essays are used to test a person’s creativity in storytelling skills as well as the ability to link current issues to topics in discussion. Always ensure your story stays in line with the prompts Narratives are mostly written in school as assignments or just for artistic purpose driven by certain prompts that might be from the teacher or appropriate parties. However, to make your story captivating you should follow the set guidelines and requirements so as to produce a true masterpiece essay. There are numerous topics that one can write about but the most common ones include: The transformation of a person’s character or personality The lack of privileges and discrimination experiences you’ve had The failure you’ve experienced and the consequences How you overcame some adverse experiences Choose the story with a convenient plot Interesting narratives tells stories in an illuminated and vibrant manner. The story should be brief and concise. Always hit your points head on. One should try to minimize characters complication as much as possible by setting the story and the plot. Long and broad narrations are normally boring. â€Å"My final year in high school† is a topic that is too wide and would have to involve a lot of concepts as opposed to simple but more detailed narrations. Reduce the number of characters as much as possible (but within the bound of reason). Only essential ones are to be incorporated. Make sure your story has vibrant details Best narratives are usually specific in details, portraying specific images and not general. Stories of this kind capture readers to sit through your story till the very end. Consider the following issues when deciding over good essays: Use your imagination (but again, within the bound of reason). Always try and stay true to your story as most narrations are not fictions. So, now you understand what you should focus on to make your narrative paper interesting for your professor. The key is in the detail and topic that should be not too wide but worth of telling about. This way, you’ll be able to show all your narrative skills and make your essay great. At our custom writing service you can buy narrative essays online which will be written by highly qualified academic experts.

HP's strategic choices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HP's strategic choices - Essay Example In the process of discussing the major accomplishments and failures made by Florina, the student will evaluate her decision-makings and the effectiveness of her strategic choices in terms of being able to cut down the operational costs of HP. One of the business strategies that Florina implemented together with the company’s business executives is not to reward employees their annual bonuses in case they fail to meet their profit target each year. (Information Gatekeepers, 2002) Even though holding on employees’ bonuses could save the company a large sum of money at the end of the year, this strategy could de-motivate some of deserving employees within the business organization. Given the fact that some of HP employees were disappointed with the top management’s decision not to release their annual bonuses, the work performance of HP employees may suffer. Back in 2002, Florina was behind the actual merger that has occurred between HP and Compaq Computer. Aside from the fact that merger between the two companies could result to cutting down its operational costs through economies of scale as it increases the market opportunity on the part of HP, some analysts have argued that it was a mistake to pursue the merger between the two companies since this strategy made HP lost some portion of its market shares in some areas. (LaMonica, 2005) Upon analyzing the situation, it is possible for HP to lose some of its market share in certain areas when the top management fails to develop a single organizational goal and business objectives which could align the employees coming from the two separate companies. When there is a miscommunication or internal conflict arising between the two groups of employees, there is a higher possibility for the quality of HP products to decrease due to miscommunication and other technical errors. One of the best ways of maintaining the competitiveness of HP in the global

I just need you to paraphrase Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

I just need you to paraphrase - Essay Example The profession requires nurses to be able to deal with emergency cases, on-call duties and extended working hours, as well as be able to deal with emotional aspects of patients as well as their families. A good nurse needs to be able to give patients consistent moral support, take care of their needs and advocate on behalf of their patients. All of these tasks and requirements mean that a nurse must be empathetic, mentally prepared, are physically able to handle long hours and show professionalism always. There are skills needed when pursuing a nursing career. A nurse is required to provide care for people of all ages and background, ensure that patients are comfortable and ensure that all their needs are addressed (Daniel 2011, p. 57-63). Communication and observation are crucial to good nursing. Listening and being constantly alert to changes in a patient’s condition and the implications are also other important aspects. Having the ability to work as part of a team is a qual ity that every nurse should possess. A nurse one is always part of a multidisciplinary team that includes doctors, pharmacists, dentists and many more and should be able to relate and easily work with the various specialists to solve a particular problem (Strauhair 2012, p. 162-167). Additionally, a nurse needs to know how to deal with emotionally charged situations. Nursing sometimes involves managing distress; whereby one wills at various times to help the patients and their families in solving their problems. In this case, a nurse should be able to strongly and professionally handle such situations without getting emotionally involved. There are certain right values and behaviours required in the nursing career. They are defined as the 6Cs, which include care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment. Care is a vital element in nursing and as patients requires it in their daily life. Compassion is shown by a nurse towards a patient and includes sympathy, resp ect and dignity. Competence refers to the ability of a nurse to comprehend both the health and social needs of a patient. With regard to this, nurses’ expertise, clinical and technical knowledge required for quality delivery of information and healthcare treatment requires research and evidence (Neil and Katherine 2009, p. 16-17). Communication is essential to caring relationships and teamwork as it helps in ensuring that the nurse is able to understand, inquire about and take care of the patient’s condition. Commitment and courage are very important in nursing as they guide the nurses in their duties and enable them to work diligently and embrace new ways of working (Straughair 2011, p. 162-164). The concept of compassion is an essential virtue and one that is needed for one to qualify as a professional nurse. Ranges of contemporary political and professional literatures endorse the principal of compassion in nursing as a core and underpinning philosophy fundamental t o the profession. Compassion can be thought of as a type of love that requires critical self-reflection but also something that has a tremendous ability to that has an enormous power to increase the self-esteem of the patient. The duty of a nurse is to make sure that patients are not under unnecessary stress. These roles ensure that the concept of comp

Effect of Stress on the Immune System Research Paper

Effect of Stress on the Immune System - Research Paper Example Increased stress could make the immune system weaker and could lead to death. Aging Immune System The immune system changes a lot during the aging process. The numbers of cells that are associated with the immune system reduce significantly. The remaining cells may not be able to handle all the immune related responsibilities leading to low immunity. The immune system is comprised of two systems; the Innate Immune system and the Acquired Immune system. Innate Immunity in Aging The innate or natural immune system is made by the bone marrow and the thymus. Scientists have consistently claimed that the size of the thymus reduces in size a person’s age. This is characterized by the loss of the thymus epithelia cells, which are important for the production of immune cells. This leads to a decrease in the number of T cells including the CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ and the B cells. There is an increase in production of the Natural Killer Cells (NK) with the comprehensive cytotoxic function. The decline in especially the CD8+ leads to the vulnerability of bacterial and viral infections. CD95 cells become exhausted as people age and the remaining virgin CD95 cells are replaced by large clonal expansions of the CD28 cells, which lead to less proliferative capacity. Inflammatory cytokines, which are produced by the persistent viral and bacterial infections increase during the aging process. They increase the cases of inflammatory pathogenesis. In fact, most of the elderly have inflammations at some parts of their body.i Acquired Immunity in Aging Acquired immunity is the responsibility of the spleen and the lymph nodes. The spleen produces the B cells which are associated with the production of the antibodies. Aging has been found to alter the expression of the system responsible for the production of these cells. One, there is a decrease in the number of cells produced. Secondly, there is impaired induction f E47 and activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) which are i mportant for class switch recombination (CSR) leading to defects in production of secondary isotopes of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG3, IgE antibodies. Aging has also been associated with the overproduction of the Id2 which regulates the E47 negatively.ii Another theory of acquired immunity change in aging points out that the B cells produce antibodies but they have low affinity. Usually, aging leads to change in isotypes related to production of the various antibodies. At the same time, there are few naive B cells in the elderly people meaning that there not many antibodies that can be produced. The already recruited B cells do not have good memory making it a challenge for them to detect previous pathogens detected in the past. Low affinity and low production of the antibodies cannot detect the pathogens effectively showing that the immune system is weak. The body is therefore unable to respond to infections accordingly. iii Effect of Nutrition on Immunity in Aging The elderly people, especial ly those above sixty years, do not take nutrition seriously. According to Gorczynski and Terzioglu (2008),iv most elderly people lack important nutrients. They claim that most of these people have deficiencies in zinc, iron, Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Ubiquinone and selenium. Zinc is important in the activation of the immune system; iron plays a role in oxidative reaction immunity, vitamins are important in the modulation of cytokines and Ubiquinone influences the

Adaptive Culture and Cultural Artifacts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Adaptive Culture and Cultural Artifacts - Essay Example While the organization needed to know every accurate detail about its stakeholders, the latter also needed to provide an honest and realistic output of needs or wants that are to be fulfilled. In other words, information is the framework of those mentioned requisites; its timing and accuracy significantly determine the capability of the organization to process and integrate it with the organizational processes and practices. Moreover, all other aspects that serve to shape an organizational culture has to be taken into consideration -- its level of impact on organizational culture should determine its ability to be incorporated in the whole adaptive culture-framework. While in general, these aspects are conveniently referred to as processes and practices, in specific it includes policies, competencies, reinforced norms, et cetera. A more binding reinforcement for an organization aspiring an adaptive culture is the top management’s commitment. Additionally, the organization†™s people should be tirelessly reminded of the purpose of such adaptive culture. Both commitment and purpose are consistent ‘reinforcers’ of any desired organizational culture, and adaptive culture is no exception. I think that our organization has a relatively strong culture. First, because everybody knows what and who we do for; more than just profit or bonuses, we serve people. Every business unit, whether directly or indirectly involved, recognized its part in the whole value chain. In other words, each of us, from top to the bottom level, could identify ourselves in the organization’s collective mantra. Moreover, this recognition is reinforced through the individual integration of our own task to the company’s core task. Second, our Human Resource Recruitment filters the entrant workers; they make sure that the individual’s goals are well aligned or approximately paralleled with the company’s. Moreover, the HR people look at the

Strategic isuues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic isuues - Essay Example rder to analyze the strategic position of Toyota, we would evaluate the political scenario, the company’s economic position, the social impacts, the technological position, position in automobile industry and the stakeholder’s influence (Lees and Technical Information Service, 2008, p.1). Considering the political influence on Toyota as a part of its external environment, the company has lot of friends on both the parties of federal government in Washington, D.C and has a record of considerable political donations given for the campaign of several political leaders who have been good friend to the company (U.S News Rankings & Reviews, 2010, p.1). Toyota has taken over General Motors in 2012 and has reclaimed its position as the world’s biggest car-maker. Toyota’s sale rose by 22% in 2012 as compared to General Motors’ 2.9%. Toyota has sold 9.7 million cars and trucks worldwide in 2012 (TheStreet, 2013, p.1). Toyota’s corporate culture has placed them in a position which focuses at adding value to current and future generations of the world, promote activities leading to social contribution, maintain healthy environment with the people, government and its internal human resources (Vezjak, Stuhler and  Mulej, 1997, p.25). Toyota’s global vision has been to be an industry leader in tackling technological advances. This has put Toyota in a leading position to integrate information technology with automobiles in producing quality products like world’s best cars which are having original designs and advanced technology. Toyota’s strong value chain, continuous effort of reducing non-value added activities, strong inbound and outbound logistics, suppliers and creditors, strong equations with distributors, strategies for trade association and activists have put them in a position of world leader in automobile. The sales growth of Toyota which rose to 22% in 2012 has dethroned General motors’ from the position of industry leader. The total equity of

Adaptive Culture and Cultural Artifacts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Adaptive Culture and Cultural Artifacts - Essay Example While the organization needed to know every accurate detail about its stakeholders, the latter also needed to provide an honest and realistic output of needs or wants that are to be fulfilled. In other words, information is the framework of those mentioned requisites; its timing and accuracy significantly determine the capability of the organization to process and integrate it with the organizational processes and practices. Moreover, all other aspects that serve to shape an organizational culture has to be taken into consideration -- its level of impact on organizational culture should determine its ability to be incorporated in the whole adaptive culture-framework. While in general, these aspects are conveniently referred to as processes and practices, in specific it includes policies, competencies, reinforced norms, et cetera. A more binding reinforcement for an organization aspiring an adaptive culture is the top management’s commitment. Additionally, the organization†™s people should be tirelessly reminded of the purpose of such adaptive culture. Both commitment and purpose are consistent ‘reinforcers’ of any desired organizational culture, and adaptive culture is no exception. I think that our organization has a relatively strong culture. First, because everybody knows what and who we do for; more than just profit or bonuses, we serve people. Every business unit, whether directly or indirectly involved, recognized its part in the whole value chain. In other words, each of us, from top to the bottom level, could identify ourselves in the organization’s collective mantra. Moreover, this recognition is reinforced through the individual integration of our own task to the company’s core task. Second, our Human Resource Recruitment filters the entrant workers; they make sure that the individual’s goals are well aligned or approximately paralleled with the company’s. Moreover, the HR people look at the

International businesse in emerging market Assignment - 1

International businesse in emerging market - Assignment Example The emerging market accelerated growth of its international business, which were up 4% LFL. In June 2014, the company planned to invest $20 billion in a gas-fired power complex in Vietnam. In its planning, the company recognized the need to create a partnership with a host well-known company in Vietnam in an attempt to sell its products in this emerging market. It, therefore, collaborated with Vietnam’s state-owned petrol Vietnam. It erected two power plants with a capacity to produce between 6000 and 6500 megawatts of power. In this perspective, the company focuses on capturing the gas and oil market in Vietnam through provision of cheaper prices and diversified oil and gas brands (Regester & Larkin, 2014). It proposed to position its operation in 700 locations and several retail operations. In addition, the strategy aims to present its brands closer to consumers and therefore making its brand most accessible products in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of the top five developing nations in Asia. It has a robust middle class, a crucial driver of economic expansion in a developing country. It is valid to argue that middle class mainly supports the policy change significantly to the success of the country and in supporting capitalist democracy. The country has the fastest-growing middle class in the whole Southeast Asia and is expected to double in size from 12 million (2014) to 32 million by 2020. Generally, Exxon Mobil was experiencing various impending challenges in Vietnam such as complex foreign investment laws, corruption in infrastructure projects, lack of comprehensive and transparent legal system and restricted land usage rights (Plunkett, 2014). However, Vietnam is currently undergoing trade liberalization through negotiations toward a free agreement with the European Union (Van Dyke, et al., 2014). The negotiation presents viable market to Exxon Mobil since its

Wal-Marts Unethical Behavior Essay Example for Free

Wal-Marts Unethical Behavior Essay For the past few decades Wal-Mart has been criticized and accused for being involved with all sorts of unethical behavior. Many various groups of people have come after Wal-Mart protesting against their company’s policies and business practices. Labor, community, environmental, and religious groups are some of the most known types of groups that have tried to personally attack Wal-Mart for their lack of social responsibility. Just some of the many areas that have raised concern by people would be the corporation’s foreign product sourcing, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, and the treatment of employees and product suppliers. Wal-Mart continues to deny any allegations of wrongdoings and unethical behavior (Fishman). Many stories have surfaced that would label Wal-Mart as being an unethical company. Some stories are big, some are small, and some are probably completely made up. However, there is a lot of evidence that shows how unethical Wal-Mart has been in many different types of circumstances. Prior to 2007 it was estimated that 87,000 Wal-Mart employees were cheated out of $34 million because the Wal-Mart executives failed to pay workers overtime. Some even admitted that they were trained by their superiors to not pay anyone overtime. This is a very immoral act because the workers are not getting paid what they deserve and this makes it harder for them to pay for their living expenses (Fishman). Wal-Mart has had over 100 lawsuits concerning wage and hour violations. They have been charged with not giving workers federally mandated breaks and lunches. They have also required workers to take their missed breaks or overtime before the Friday’s end of the pay period, which is an illegal act. Wal-Mart has been accused for not paying full-time benefits for workers who work 40 hours or more per week. In 2005 in the state of California, Wal-Mart was forced to pay $172 million in damages. There has been several cases of where Wal-Mart has had to pay many millions of dollars for employee damages. The ethical issue in this case would be fairness. All employees should be granted what they deserve and what they were promised (Greenhouse). Wal-Mart does not pay many of their employees enough money to support their family or even have health care. They pay 26-37% less than the national average for the same jobs in the retail industry. Wal-Mart pays poverty level wages and this is very unethical because they make such huge profits that can allow them to pay decent living wages. Wal-Mart profits more by using State Governments to fund health care for its employees which is not fair to their competitors or the society (Olsson). Wal-Mart has the worst health packages when compared with their competitors. For example they cover only about 50% of their employees while the national average for major retailers is around 64%. Wal-Mart employees have to wait for 6 months to get health insurance compared to the national average of 3 months. They even charge extra for emergency room visits and ambulance usage. Also, employees with pre-existing conditions have to wait at least one year to receive any treatment. Instead of trying to give their employees the bare minimum, Wal-Mart should readjust their prices and salaries so that enough money would go towards things like basic health care (Fishman). Thorough studies have been done as well as many court cases that prove that Wal-Mart discriminates against women by not paying them as much as their male counterparts. It is also much rarer for women to be promoted to upper management than it is a male. A 2003 study was done that showed that women received 37 cents an hour less than the men that held the same position. Female managers earn about $5,000 less than male managers. Even though 72% of Wal-Mart’s workforce consists of women they still only make up 33% of all managers. Jon Lehman who is a former Wal-Mart store manager said that most of the superiors believed that women are useless at Wal-Mart. An African American woman asked a superior if she wasn’t promoted to management because she was a woman or because she was black and the superior replied that two out of two isn’t bad. Not only is this against the law, but it is very immoral as well as discriminatory (Norman). Just one audit of one week’s worth of time clock records at one specific Wal-Mart showed that minors were working too late at night, during school hours, and were working too many hours a day. It also found more than 60,000 cases of minors not taking breaks and even more cases of minors working through meal times. This is unethical because minors should be focusing on school and not working too many hours at Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart in CT was given huge violations for having minors working with machinery such as paper balers, chainsaws, and forklifts. Children are not at the age of consent to operate such machinery in any fashion. Horrific incidences were discovered in a Wal-Mart factory in Bangladesh where children were routinely beaten, forced to work overtime for little or no pay, and were told to lie about their age (Greenhouse). In China, workers are treated more like slaves than people. They are treated as tools to get the work done as quickly and cheaply as possible. They are taught to lie to inspectors and auditors about the amount of time they work and the working conditions that they endure (Greenhouse). They were told that if they didn’t lie then they would lose their job. Wal-Mart pays only 18 cents for a product that is made in China that they charge $14.96 for in America. It was reported that a Wal-Mart supplier factory employed minors as young as 12 working them for excessive overtime hours and for under minimum wage. They were also working with chemicals without any protective gear. All human beings should be treated with a certain level of respect regardless of age or ethnicity. Wal-Mart should improve their working conditions and remedy all situations of unethical behavior especially towards those who are under age and not supposed to be working in the first place (Fishman). Wal-Mart claims to care about the environment, but they actually harm the environment. They lied about having an environmental person dedicated to these issues and they don’t actually have an environmentally friendly policy in place. Wal-Mart shows to have more of an avoidance towards their harming of the environment. They have been known to put chemicals into the environment that can cause birth defects as well as storing fertilizers in parking lots unprotected. Wal-Mart has seemed to continue to ignore the idea of better storage for certain products and necessary environmental policies. Over a few years span Wal-Mart has had to shell out millions of dollars to pay for Clean Water Act violations (Olsson). Wal-Mart has received billions of dollars in subsidies to set up shop nationwide as well as some other countries. Wal-Mart is so profitable that it does not need to receive money from anyone. If Wal-Mart was a community conscious organization then they wouldn’t need any money from cities, states, or communities. They often set up their stores on the outskirts of town so they can receive free plumbing, however other companies and citizens have to pay for such utilities themselves when they’re in the same situation (Bianco). Sam Walton was known for practicing corporate socialism. He sought out free land, long term leases at prices below market, getting workers trained at the government’s expense, and even pocketing sales taxes. He also had a $37 million ramp and roadway constructed for Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters in Arizona which the State paid for (Fishman). The government’s money that is going to Wal-Mart could be going towards things such as education and building our youth. They are a very selfish organization that strives to get bigger individually and have complete disregard for everyone else. There was a case in Denver where three schools ended up closing because there was not enough money to keep them open, however around that same time period Wal-Mart received $2 million. It is very unethical and not abiding by free market policies to give such a huge store like Wal-Mart such a competitive advantage when the mom and pop stores continue to go out of business (Bianco). By being such an unethical company Wal-Mart is putting smaller, trustworthy businesses out of business. Since they pay very low wages and receive money from states and governments, they can charge such a cheap price which in return puts those smaller businesses that have to charge slightly more for the same products out of business. It is just plain wrong how Wal-Mart treats everyone that is involved with their organization and the competitors. They don’t care about the economy or the environment; they only care about how much money they can collect. It is estimated that Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China eliminated 200,000 U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2006 (Olsson). If Wal-Mart was its own nation then it would be China’s eighth largest trading partner. Wal-Mart is able to have such cheap goods because the safety standards are lower in China which in return puts the American consumer at risk. This is very unethical because Wal-Mart is risking their consumer’s health by trying to maximize their own profits. By offering such low prices, Wal-Mart is putting other companies out of business that actually sell quality products that are safe to the consumer (Bianco). Wal-Mart has hundreds of cameras and security guards inside their stores to protect their own merchandise, but it’s a completely different story when it comes to the type of security that is present in the parking lots or outside of the stores. There has been so many shootings, carjackings, and muggings in Wal-Mart parking lots that many local police departments have asked Wal-Mart to hire on site security guards to help protect against such behavior. However, for the most part Wal-Mart has failed to do so. Wal-Mart has known of these types of issues in their parking lots, but have continued to turn their heads in the opposite direction (Norman). When Wal-Mart plans for new store locations, there are many activists and groups of people that oppose and try to protest the construction of the new store. Wal-Mart tends to ignore issues such as traffic congestion, potential environmental problems, public safety, and bad public relations. In 2004 Wal-Mart opened a store in Mexico just over a mile from the historic Teotihuacan archaeological site and the Pyramid of the moon. This caused a lot of protests with the locals because they thought this was a very disrespectful notion. By building a Wal-Mart in such a symbolic area it was seen by many as placing one of the main culprits of globalization in the heart of ancient Mexico (Fishman). In 1998 Wal-Mart wanted to open a store in Nashville, Tennessee right on top of Native American burial grounds and where a Civil War battle took place. Protests took place, however Wal-Mart won the battle and ended up moving the graves so they could construct the new store. If this isn’t immoral and disrespectful then I don’t know what is. I would have to think that there would be other locations where they could have opened the store. It almost seems as if Wal-Mart likes to show their power in any way possible (Norman). Wal-Mart cannot justify all the wrong that they have done to many people and communities by simply offering and continuing to express their low prices. Money may make the world go around, but it won’t save the world. People’s actions is what will make this world a better place to live in. Sacrificing the environment and human rights is simply immoral and unethical just so one major monopolistic organization can continue to offer the lowest prices possible. Wal-Mart needs to be held accountable for all of their actions regardless of the amount of money they produce. It is very difficult to monitor and control such a huge companies actions and to try and stop them from being completely unethical. The outcome of their unethical behavior has been many lawsuits and they just continue to surface. Wal-Mart has such a huge profit that these lawsuits do not stop them from being unethical (Bianco). Hopefully Wal-Mart’s unethical behavior will eventually catch up with them. Wal-Mart superiors at the corporate level should understand that unethical behavior eventually turns around to bite you but they continue to ignore the issues. It will take many years to completely resolve the type of unethical behavior that is allowed but steps need to be taken to reach that sort of goal. A complete restructuring of the company and those in charge may be necessary to cleanse the unethical behavior. The right people and policies must be in place from top-down to every Wal-Mart store across the entire world. Once they realize all the issues and feel the need to correct them, then they can look forward to the future in a positive and ethical way that will benefit everybody involved. References Bianco, Anthony; Zellner, Wendy. Is Walmart Too Powerful? Business Week. 2003. Fishman, Charles. The Walmart You Don’t Know. Fast Company. 2003. Greenhouse, Steven. In-House Audit Says Walmart Violated Labor Laws. The New York Times. 2004. Norman, Al. The Case Against Wal-Mart. Raphel Marketing. ISBN 0-9711542-3-6. 2004. Olsson, Karen. Up Against Walmart. Mother Jones. 2003

Common Causes for Emergency Geriatric Treatment

Common Causes for Emergency Geriatric Treatment Introduction Chronological age of 65 years or above is accepted as the defining criteria for Geriatric patients in most developed countries 1 .This large heterogeneous group is further classified into three subpopulations commonly referred as ‘Young-Old’ [65-74 Years], ‘Old’ [75-84 Years] and ‘Old-Old’ [85 years and older]. Worldwide, the number of Elderly persons is expected to more than double from 841 million people in 2013 to more than 2 billion in 2050 2.In United States, patients over the age of 64 years account for 15-18% of ED visits 3 .Of these, about 35% requires admission as inpatient and a significant proportion of this gets admitted to Intensive care units 3.. The common geriatric syndromes in the Emergency Department include altered mental status, functional decline, fall, trauma, acute abdomen, infections, acute coronary syndromes, cerbrovascular accidents and exacerbations of chronic respiratory disorders. There are unique characteristics and special needs which have to be kept in mind while addressing elderly patients in the emergency department. The clinical presentation of geriatric patients is usually complex with more of atypical manifestations; confounding effects of co-morbid diseases, super added cognitive dysfunction, polypharmacy and associated adverse drug reactions, psychosocial issues and lack of adequate social support etc 4. Assessment of these issues usually demands a comprehensive approach with detailed clinical and liberal laboratory and imaging evaluations. This is justified in the context that a brief focused evaluation can overlook many life-threatening conditions in these patient group. More over the attending physician should also try to understand the baseline functional status of the patient prior to the presentation as it has got important prognostic implications. Thus it requires great skill, knowledge and patience from the part of the attending physician and the health care team as such to effectively and safely manage this vulnerable patient population. Approach to Unstable Elderly patient in Emergency Department In general, the principles of resuscitation in elderly patients are same as the standard guidelines followed for adult patients. But it is desirable for the emergency physician to speak to the immediate relatives or to the patient himself if possible to see whether there is any advance directive or patient’s wishes for end of life care decisions. If present, it has to be respected before taking treatment decisions. The special characteristics in elderly while assessing Airway, Breathing and Circulation are summarized in figure 1.Nasal airway or Nasogastric tube has to be inserted gently with care as the nasal mucosa is very friable and has a tendency to bleed in elderly patients. Always examine the oral cavity in unconscious patients for loose fitting dentures or partly chewed food as they can cause potential airway obstruction and if present, has to be removed. Edentulous airway can result in ineffective bag-mask ventilation. Hence well fitting dentures can be kept insitu while bag mask ventilation but always has to be removed before attempts of intubation. Difficulty in extending neck or in opening mouth has to be anticipated while attempting intubation due to degenerative diseases of spine and temperomandibular joints. Arterial Blood gases are an important adjunct to the clinician as the clinical response to hypoxia, hypercapnea and acidosis can be blunted in elderly. Arterial hypotension (systolic BP 5. Serial assessment of Blood pressures and Arterial Blood gas examination to see trends in lactate, base excess and acidosis can identify such potential high risk candidates early 6. Fluid resuscitation should follow in the standard fashion with fluids or blood in an elderly patient who is hemodynamically unstable in the Emergency department. But it should be careful with constant monitoring to avoid pulmonary edema. Early blood transfusion should be considered in elderly unstable trauma patient. Common Geriatric syndromes in Emergency department Altered Mental status At least 25% of elderly patients in the ED have altered mental status 7, 8. Delirium is an acute confusional state and dementia is a chronic confusional state. Etiology of delirium is often mutltifactorial but often represents an underlying medical emergency. Diagnosis of delirium is clinical and is based on assessment of the level of consciousness and cognition. The confusion assessment method (CAM) is a useful tool for diagnosing delirium at ED 9.The important management steps in the Emergency department are illustrated in Figure 2.The first priority is to address predisposing and precipitating factors like hypovolemia, hypotension, hypoxia, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, Acidosis etc. Often inpatient admission is needed for the management of the underlying illness. Drugs like haloperidol or lorazepam may be used in cases of extreme agitation but with caution and at titrating doses. Decline in Functional status Functional status reflects how well a person is able to meet his or her own daily needs-like feeding oneself, dressing up, getting out of bed, bathing, toileting etc. The attending physician should not misinterpret a decline in functional status as a part of normal ageing process. Functional status of an elderly patient can be formally assessed with use of standard scales for basic activities of daily living. Activity of Daily living –ADL is one such tool and is shown in figure 4. New onset Functional decline is often precipitated by medical, psychological or social reasons. Patients with unexplained functional decline need admission for evaluation and management. Functional decline is an important predictor of further functional decline, repeat ED visits, hospitalization, need for home care or institutionalization and death10, 11. The general approach to a patient with decline in functional status is illustrated in figure 5. Falls Falls account for approximately 10% of emergency visits in Elderly 12, 13.Falls are the most common cause of fatal as well as non fatal injuries in geriatric population. A fall should be treated as a symptom and the physician should evaluate the causes and consequences of fall. The most common reasons for injurious fall-related ED visits among the elderly were fractures (41.0 percent), followed by superficial/contusion injuries (22.6 percent) and open wounds (21.4 percent) 13. Serious injuries associated with fall include hip fracture, rib fracture, subdural hematoma, other serious soft tissue injury or head trauma. It is important to remember that a fall can signal a sentinel event in an elder person’s life triggering a downwards spiral of complicating events, finally leading to death. Acute abdomen in elderly Acute abdominal pain in elderly usually poses a challenge to the clinician as the symptoms are often non-specific, abdominal findings are often subtle and the presence of co-morbid conditions which can complicate the definitive surgical procedures. Common causes of acute abdomen in elderly include acute cholecystitis, acute appendicitis, peptic –ulcer perforation, mesenteric ischemia, acute pancreatitis, ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, bowel obstruction and diverticular diseases. Elderly usually presents with atypical symptoms, often significantly late in the course of the illness. It is essential to consider serious medical conditions like inferior myocardial infarction, pneumonia, pleurisy, diabetic ketoacidosis and pulmonary embolism in all cases of suspected acute abdomen. Abdominal tenderness may not be present or poorly localized. Guarding or rebound tenderness might be difficult to appreciate. Serial abdominal examination is important as new signs tend to appear with time. High risk features include acute onset of pain, severe pain, pain followed by vomiting, worsening or persistent pain, signs of peritonitis, hemoperitoneum and hemodynamic disturbances. Liberal imaging is the usual protocol with Plain x-ray abdomen, abdominal ultrasound and CT abdomen as necessary. Patients with continuing symptoms but with unremarkable laboratory and imaging studies should be observed and serially evaluated as necessary. An approach to elderly with abdominal pain is illustrated in figure 6. Infections in elderly Elderly are significantly more prone to infections and its life threatening complications. Presentation of infection can be atypical with lack of fever or localizing features. Sepsis can present with subtle clinical features like lethargy, decline in functional status or confusion. Usual site of infections include lung, urinary tract, skin and abdomen. High index of suspicion is necessary to early identify the patients with sepsis. Management of Severe Sepsis and Septic shock in elderly should follow the standard guidelines used for adults like international surviving sepsis guidelines 14. Early initiation of antibiotics and other sepsis resuscitation bundles is found to improve mortality and functional recovery 15, 16, 17 .The salient points in the clinical approach to an elderly with suspected sepsis are summarized in figure 7. Medication related problems Adverse events related to drugs are common in elderly population and is a common cause for ED visits. Elderly are more susceptible to serious and fatal adverse drug effects due to polypharmacy, lack of monitoring , non-adherence, use of multiple medications, use of over the counter medications, wrong dosage , altered drug metabolism and propensity for drug interactions. The risk factors for serious adverse drug reaction in elderly include ‘old-old’ patient, lean body mass, more than 6 chronic medical illnesses, 9 or more drugs, more than 12 doses per day and a previous history of adverse drug reaction 18. Most commonly encountered problematic drugs include diuretics, NSAIDs, Warfarin, Digoxin, antidiabetic agents, antiepileptic agents, chemotherapeutic agents, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs 19. Detailed drug history, reviewing prescriptions and direct verification of current medications may prove to be very helpful strategies while evaluating geriatric patients in th e ED. Elder Abuse and Neglect Elder abuse is defined a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person 20. It can result either from an act of commission or of omission and may present as physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, care giver neglect, self neglect and financial exploitation. It should be suspected in patients who present with unexplained or multiple injuries in various stages of evolution. Key points: The characteristics and needs of elderly in the Emergency department are quite different than the younger patient. Clinical presentation of life threatening diseases can be atypical, subtle or misleading with absence of classic symptoms and signs. Presence of multiple co- morbid conditions and cognitive impairment usually complicates the picture. A comprehensive work up-including detailed history, physical examination and liberal investigations and imaging is recommended than a brief goal directed or symptom based work up. Altered mental status, falls, functional decline, acute coronary syndromes, stroke, infections with or without sepsis, acute abdomen and trauma are the common geriatric syndromes in the emergency department. Social and non medical issues are important and need multidisciplinary input to ensure safe and effective disposition of these population.

Diabetes, Minority Status, and the African American and Hispanic American Communities :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Diabetes, Minority Status, and the African American and Hispanic American Communities In March of 2003, a bill known as the "Minority Population Diabetes Prevention and Control Act of 2003" was introduced to Congress, and then referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. According to this bill's findings, "minority populations, including African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians, have the highest incidence of diabetes and the highest complications of the disease" (1). The alarming rate at which the incidence of diabetes is affecting African American and Hispanic American communities has led the government, health care professionals, clinics, and other organizations to begin to question the process by which information and treatment is being accessed by members of these communities. Diabetes mellitus is defined as "a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose, which result from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action or both" (2). There are two types of diabetes, one that "occurs when the body produces little or no insulin, and that typically affects children and young adults," and the other, which "typically develops in adults, and occurs when the body does not use insulin effectively", types II diabetes being the most common (3). According to the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics, "the number of Americans with diabetes in the year 2000 was 17 million or 6.2 percent of the population, as compared to 15.7 million (5.9 percent) in 1998" (4). However, and on average, Hispanic Americans and African Americans are almost twice as likely to have diabetes in comparison to white Americans. In addition, African Americans and Hispanic Americans show a higher incidence of suffering from diabetes related complications including but not limited to eye and kidney disease, amputations, heart disease, heart stroke etc (5). Various factors are said to increase the chances of developing type II diabetes. These factors fall under two categories-genetics and medical/lifestyle risk factors, which include impaired glucose tolerance, gestational diabetes, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, obesity and physical activity (6). Although studies have shied away from making direct correlations between obesity/physical activity and the susceptibility of developing type II diabetes, researchers suspect, however, that a lack of exercise and obesity, as well as other unidentifiable factors, may be contributing to the high diabetes rates in African American and Hispanic American communities. The NHANES III survey indicated that "50 percent of African American men/65 percent of Mexican American men, and 67 percent of African American women/74 percent of Mexican American women participated in little or no exercise" (7).

A Roller Coaster Ride through Sins in The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

A Roller Coaster Ride through Sins in The Scarlet Letter Through Hawthorn's discrimination toward Puritans,he makes a plot with a series of events that leads you through sins and torments of the three main characters. The setting is the colonial time period, in the Puritan town of Boston, Massachusetts. The story starts with a group of puritans standing outside a prison door. Hester Prynne leaves the prison to go to the scaffold to stand with her newly born daughter Pearl. Hester is standing on the scaffold for punishment of adultery, which there is also a scarlet "A" on her breast symbolizing the sin and crime. She is known to have sinned because she came to the new world without her husband and gave birth to Pearl. While standing on the scaffold, she notices a gentleman standing next to an Indian. This gentleman is who we know as Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is the husband of Hester. With Hester still on the scaffold, he acts why she is standing there with the child. He is told that she has committed adultery . Hester returns to prison and Roger Chillingworth visits her. He gives Pearl a drink to make her stop crying and talks to Hester about her sin. She tells him she won't tell him who she slept with and he asks her not to tell anyone that he is her husband. Hester agrees to this. Hester is released from prison. She makes a living by her amazing sewing abilities. As Peal gets a little older, Hester tries to discipline her. However, Pearl seems to love to be rebellious. This brings Hester and Pearl to governor Bellingham's. Hester is there to deliver some gloves she made, but is truly there because she has heard that they might take Pearl away from her. She dresses Pearl up and talks to Bellingham, who is in company of Dimmesdale, Wilson,and Chillingsworth. These men are in a meeting to determine weather or not Pearl will stay with her. The four men see Pearl first and ask her were she comes from.

How agriculture has changed from early Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the present Essay

The history of the practice of agriculture can be divided into two different eras – the ancient agriculture and the modern agriculture. Many early civilizations contribute to the knowledge that is harnessed by modern agricultural practice, including those adopted from Egyptian, Roman and Greek agricultural practices. Egyptian agriculture – The main characteristic of the agricultural practice in Egypt is how Egyptian farmers during the ancient times managed to understand the changing patterns of the season and weather and work their way around it so that they can maximize the entry of each new weather and season and synchronize their agricultural effort with the weather patterns and with the weather changes. Egypt was able to show the rest of the world how a place with hardly any rainfall can still maintain and sustain a very good agricultural practice by the use of the inherent geographical advantages found in the area. In the case of Egypt, they found sustenance in the Nile River, which played an important role in their early agricultural practices. Like many ancient agricultural practices, Egyptian agriculture during the ancient times depend on agricultural tools like plows and sieves as well as on animals that can make their agricultural activities easier and faster to accomplish, like cattle and ox. Egyptian agriculture also featured their own version of the irrigation, which they called the ‘shaduf’. Egypt was able to make use of its agricultural products to generate income, usually by selling any excess from agricultural harvests to other countries and neighboring states. Roman agriculture – Roman agriculture was one of the important sections of the global agricultural history that provided different and important usable information some of which are still in use and in practice today while some acted as catalysts for the entry of newer methods and technologies in the practice of agriculture. While Rome was not in itself the point of origin of the ideas and practices in agriculture which the locals used and practiced owing to the fact that they are greatly influenced by other countries when it comes to the practice of agriculture, Rome nonetheless was an example of a country that blossomed because they were able to use agriculture and maximize its effects. Underscoring the importance of Roman agriculture is the fact that many writers used the topic of agriculture as the topic of many of their written works. Virgil, Cicero, Cato, Columella, Varro and Palladius spent some of their time by writing on topics that are directly involved in agriculture. The important contribution of Roman agriculture to the modern world is its introduction of many different approaches to farming. Unlike other ancient countries that exercised farming in just one uniform manner, Roman farming is managed in different ways – there is the traditional farming wherein the members of the family who owned the land were also the direct farmers; there are some farms that is tilled by slaves; there is also the practice of share cropping and lastly the practice of leasing a part of the farm to a tenant. Farm sizes during the Roman times fall in one of the three categories based on size (small, medium and large-sized farms). Roman farming during the ancient time was commendable for its great understanding of soil quality as the methods and practices during that time allowed for the identification of different kinds of manure that can be used to help improve farming and crop yield. Greek agriculture – The Greeks were very much dependent in their agriculture largely because of the fact that agriculture sustained the people and contributed significantly in their economy that most people during the ancient Greek times were directly involved in different agricultural practices. Greek agriculture was characterized for its biennial crop rotation. The most common agricultural products during the ancient Greece include cereals, olives, grapes, vegetables and different kinds of herbs. The Greeks focused on their crop yielding activities as much as they put importance in animal husbandry for their meat and dairy products. The Greeks also exercised beekeeping for their supply of honey from which they derive sugar which they use for everyday consumption as well as for medicine. Greek agriculture was characterized by its use of crop rotation methods as early as the fifth century. The Greek, Roman and Egyptian eras of agriculture had similar characteristics – agriculture was greatly depended for survival; they depend greatly on their farms and used the ability of human strength as well as animal power in the undertaking of strenuous agricultural activities during those times, when agricultural machines and technologies that made farming and agriculture easier are not yet available. The most important lesson that these era provided is the practice of being able to understand well the terrestrial advantages that a certain area can provide for agriculture, and maximizing it. Rome, Greece and Egypt had some differences in its respective land areas, and yet they were all very successful when it comes to agriculture. While they provided the bedrock of knowledge for agriculture (many of which are still in practice today), there are now many different developments that featured improvements in the manner by which ancient Roman, Greece and Egyptian undertake agricultural activities. Modern day agriculture – Modern day agriculture is generally characterized by the creation of a formalistic institution that is focused on developing agriculture and enables new ways so that there is an improvement in production and things can be done in an easier manner, like agricultural research, which, according to Schjonning, ‘is an applied science with the main objective of improving production methods and developing production systems’ (p3). Unlike the ancient times, modern day agriculture is supported by technologies that make work easier, and because of that and because of the diversification of the source of economic sustainability towards other different industries, agriculture saw the decline in number of people that participate in it over time. Aside from the mechanization of agricultural processes and practices, there are also other technological innovations towards agriculture, like the genetic modifications of crops and advanced food processing techniques. There is also the focus in the use of crops that are not edible but are nonetheless very usable in today’s society, like rubber and animal hide. References: Erdkamp, Paul. (November 2005). Grain Market in the Roman Empire: A Social, Politicaland Economic Study. Cambridge University Press Harris, Catherine C. (July 1, 2001). Ancient Egyptian Agriculture. Tour Egypt Monthly. Volume II, Number 7. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from http://www. touregypt. net/magazine/mag07012001/magf5. htm Isager, Signe and Skydsgaard, Jens E. (October 1992). Ancient Greek Agriculture. Taylor & Francis, Inc. P. Schjonning, S. Elmholt, B. T. Christensen. (December 2003). Managing Soil Quality: Challenges in Modern Agriculture.

Communication and Presenting Information

What is active listening? Active listening is a person’s ability and willingness to listen and understand. Often we people talk to each other. We might not listen at a time because lack of attentiveness, which can distract the speaker. In way active listening can be called as responding to another person that develops mutual understanding. Active listening is process in which the listener paraphrases in its own words what the speaker had said to confirm or clarify of accuracy of the message. Active listening involves listening with your head and your heart; that is, you listen to the content of the message but also the feelings behind the message. The skill of active listening involves paying attention with empathy to the listener, as opposed to distracted denying, cynical or ostrich behavior. New session leaders of alcoholics anonymous meetings are advised to’†¦. Take cotton form your ears and put it in your mouth’. (Hogan, 2000) Listening can wrongly be vi ewed as a passive activity; the speaker talks and the listener listen’s. The listener is silent and passive and the speaker is active and verbal. When the speaker finishes its talking, the assumption is that the message has been accurately received by the listener, with no observation participation or effort active listening statement. â€Å"The most basic of all human needs is the need to be understood†. (Fujishin,1997) Listening does not mean just have sit with the mouth shut stirring at the person. A dead body can do that. It is an active process which requires participation to understand fully the meaning of a communication. Listening actively involves clarifying, paraphrasing, giving feedback. Paraphrasing: state in your own word what the speaker had said in the talk. It is sign of good listening. It keeps the listener busy trying to understand and know that other person means rather than blocking. Clarifying: it goes along with paraphrasing. It means asking questions until the listener get the correct picture. In order to understand fully what the speaker said. Clarifying assist the listeners to sharpen its listening focus so that the listener hears more than vague generalities. Giving Feedback: feedback is what active listening depends on. After paraphrasing and clarifying the listener gives an example what had been said and hopefully understands it. This is the point at which the listener can talk about reaction. In freely way the listener share its thought, felt or sensed. Active listening is really one of the mostly physical and mentally challenging aspects of facilitation. Listening sometime does not come easy for some people not because they are not willing to listen but because they are not able to do so. Actually their mind does not come up with the total picture because some people see the world in one dimension. This inability to listen using both side of the brain can cause misinterpretation, miscommunication and miscalculation. As a result the listener with in ability could not be able to deal with logic of a relationship and also with the emotional component. Therefore this unbalanced use of brain often results in the inability of the listener understand all the essential signs form the person speaking. Therefore active listening require usage both side of brain. Unfortunately there are few people who are able to understand this fact who instead see this skill in one reflecting use of the both side of brain. Taking holistic approach toward listening requires special discipline or rules on the part of the listener. The basis reason is that many listeners tend to fall into their own comfort zones by in taking what they want to hear and skipping rest of the important data and facts. As a result hearing selectively can lead to incorrect conclusion of data and information. Listening is like art were there are opportunities for huge errors. â€Å"This information is taken from the Source: Kliem (2007) â€Å"Effective Communications for Project Management† CRC Press Feature of active listening Active listening motivates the person to listen carefully which eventually motivates the speaker to talk effectively. Active listening helps the speakers to identify that whether the listener is taking afford to understand thing with any distraction and helps the listener to clear their doubt and revert back the message to the speaker in order to give idea that he as understood. The distraction is big treat while listening and speaking, were the listener forgets the point or get miss leaded about speaker’s talk or message, were as speaker also gets frustrated and won’t put his best effort. The active listener use both side of brain. They see the skill as one reflecting the use of the right or left side of the brain. The left side of the brain highlights facts, organizational, logical reasoning and thinking and discipline and accuracy in thought. It is extremely goal and analysis oriented. Active listening exclusively from this viewpoint can result in ignoring the important emotional message of the speaker: for example the importance on calculating metric is left brain activity. Focusing on scheduling and cost performances index as a measure of success is a prime example of left brain thinking. The right side of the brain highlights emotional and sensory view. Imaging and imagining are two quiet actions of this side of the brain. The importance is on nonverbal communication and impulsive behavior. Active listening from this view point can result in ignoring or skipping the important data and fact and being influenced by the speaker. Most common example of active listening is boards meeting of the company were each directors or shareholders as listener listen actively because every decision raised in the company is important and should be planned in order to achieve objective and goals. BARRIERS OF ACTIVE LISTENING â€Å"Man inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively, skillfully and with understanding to other human beings†. Carl roger,1850) The biggest barrier of the active listening is the unconscious nature of the process. When we listen to take in information from all of our sense continuously and for which automatic we give a meaning to what we take in. Responding without thinking for the first is easy, as there are some people who use very little of their full listen ing capacity because they do not intentionally put their full energy into it. However there are barriers to listening beside the environmental barriers. Some of the common see barriers are: Negative and positive trigger: there are certain words, sound, phrases; gesture that can draw out an emotional response from the person. A positive trigger is phrases or word that produces a good feeling for the listener and negative trigger is a phrase or word that produces feeling such as anger. The trigger causes when a person reacts before for thinking. The listener just by hearing few words has a preprogrammed understanding and response because the trigger cuts off the information gathering actions of the senses and can show the way to greatly mistaken estimation. This trigger interferes with the listeners listening because the listeners immediately change their attention to the emotions that they are experiencing. Any effective listener can identify their own trigger in order to gain their conscious control of their action and listen more effectively. ?Difference in word definition: No two people have same meaning for the words or phrase. These differences in meaning can lead to misinterpreting and misunderstanding. A responsible person first check with the speaker and helps groups builds up harmony on the definition of important words and phrases. Personal issues: every person has important personal issues beside the work life. Sometimes these issues want a huge attention and take a lot of energy which make the person tough to actively listen at some moment. A Responsible person first observes the effect of the personal issues and then takes time to deal with them. When it is time to listen, they intentionally remind themselves to use active listening process. For example a manager who is going through break up found it difficult to listen during board meeting. But his boss was supportive and understanding; however at that moment the manager should put his personal matters at a side and meet his obligations of the organization. ?Poor physical surroundings: poor physical surrounding involves Noisy, distracting or uncomfortable places and situation make it hard to listen and also make it difficult to focus on what the speaker is explaining. ?Tiredness: it becomes difficult to listen actively when a person is tried. Active listening requires active or alert mind and energetic body to considerate. A student in order to be active listener should get good night sleep before attending the early morning lecture so that the student considerate without any tiredness. ?Filter: Your beliefs, values, assumption, expectation, past experiences and interest all these things interfere with active listening. There are subtle and thus are hard to detect. For instant, think as if your enemy sitting beside you, eventually you will be thinking some else rather that listening to the speaker. Importance’s of active listening Active listening is an important skill that can bring changes in people. Changes as such in attitude toward themselves and others and also bring changes in your vital value and physical philosophy. People who contain active listening skill are more emotionally mature, less defensive, have more experiences, more independent and less demanding. The people who listen sensitively tend to listen themselves with more care so they are make clear about what they are thinking and feeling. Some of common Importance of active listening is: ? It helps you to focus on one task without any distraction and enable you to get clear picture of what speaker try to explain. It helps you to develop your interest in listening and keep you active and alert. ?It keeps you way from misinterpretation and misunderstanding of idea of other person because understanding other person is very difficult. ?It helps to develops trust between listener and speaker. It isn’t very often an individual is given the opportunity to share what’s really on his mind or deep in his heart without be attacked and rescued. This is one of the most important rewards of actively listening for understanding where the speaker trusts you. Conclusion Listening well is an essential component of every successful person. Active listening takes a lot of energy and very irritating to mirror every statement during conversation. At some extend, it can drive person crazy. A person should keep active listening for those occasions when the person require clarifying the speaker’s message, the speaker want to feel understanding of listeners. Active listening just encourages a person to set aside the trouble of self talk, in order to get mixed up with what the others are relating and to experience totally what they feeling. You will be shocked to discover that when you focus on your speaker rather than yourself, it become far easier for you to think of things to say. As said by Fritz Perls â€Å"the pictures of the world do not enter us automatically, but selectively. We don’t see, we look for, search, scan for something. We don’t hear all the sounds of the world, we listen†. References 1. Hoppe(2007) â€Å"Active Listening: Improve Your Ability to Listen and Lead† London Publisher: Center for Creative Leadership 2. Ivey , Bradford Ivey & Zalaquett (2009) â€Å"Intentional Interviewing and Counseling: Facilitating Client Development in a Multicultural Society† Publisher: Cengage Learning 3. Jones (2008) â€Å"Introduction to Counselling Skills: Text and Activities† Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd. 4. Moyet(2005) â€Å"Understanding the nursing process: concept mapping and care planning for students† Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 5. Weaver & Farrell (1997) â€Å"Managers as facilitators: a practical guide to getting work done in a changing workplace† Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers 6. Fujishin(2007) â€Å"Creating effective groups: the art of small group communication† Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield 7. Kliem(2007) â€Å"Effective Communications for Project Management† Publisher: CRC Press 8. McKay, Davis & Fanning (2009) â€Å"Messages: The Communication Skills Book† Publisher: New Harbinger Publications 9. Spencer & Pruss (1997) â€Å"The professional secretary's handbook† Publisher: Barron's Educational Series 10. Farrell & Weaver (2000) â€Å"The Practical Guide to Facilitation: A Self-Study Resource† Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers 11. Garner(1997) â€Å"Conversationally speaking: tested new ways to increase your personal and social effectiveness† Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional 12. http://www. gordontraining. com/artman2/uploads/1/ActiveListening_RogersFarson. pdf (accessed 6 august 2009)

Nursing Precpetor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Nursing Precpetor - Essay Example This definition describes the many roles or functions the preceptor fills, and illustrates how difficult and complex it is to be a preceptor. Furthermore, being a preceptor is especially important since it affects the quality of care given by preceptees (the new nurses or student nurses which are taught and guided by the preceptors) to patients. As highlighted in the analysis of the available literature on the subject, preceptorship is an "essential part of the socialization and professional development of nurses with a new registerable qualification" (OMalley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000. It was also found by Davis (2003) that the professional development of nurses, which is incorporated in the preceptorship program, is linked to high quality service provision (as cited in Davidson, Glasper & Donaldson, 2005). Hence, it is obvious that the preceptorship improves the quality of care being given to patients. A preceptor has many responsibilities, which can be divided into two groups- fundamental responsibilities and procedural responsibilities. The ones of the former group are: commitment to the role of the preceptor and desire to teach and share expertise with co-workers. The responsibilities of the latter group, the procedural responsibilities, include: orientation and socialization or the preceptees to the unit, assessment of the developing objectives of the preceptees, being a role model, observing and evaluating the preceptees, giving constructive criticism and supporting, facilitating preceptees development, supervising patient care provided by the preceptees to ensure it is safe and competent nursing, documenting a summary of the preceptees performance and maintaining strict confidentiality of all preceptee-related information (OMalley, Cunlitte & Breeze, 2000, Smith, 2006). The complexity and multiplicity of the preceptors responsibilities were recognized by Cerinus and Ferguson (1994), and were

Human Resource Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Human Resource Strategy - Essay Example What is strategic human resource management? Strategic human resource management can be considered to be the capability of an organisation to ensure that it has the right mix of talent and skill in order to meet its business objectives (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 42). Holbeche (2001, p. 13) highlights strategic human resource management as a ‘focus on implementing strategic change and growing the skill base of the organisation to ensure that the organisation can compete effectively in the future.’ SHRM involves the recognition of the internal intelligence available at all levels of the organisation and creating processes to draw upon this knowledge. Communication ‘is at the heart of these processes (Brewster, 2000, p. 153). The author discusses Mintzberg’s observation that strategy involves planning ahead of time and making changes to the plan on the basis of real world situations. The ability of an organisation to alter its course is dependent on the abi lity of the culture to allow for internal flexibility. SHRM then is an attempt to link organisational strategy with human resource management and drawing from this effort, makes an attempt to provide direction to the functional areas on HRM. Salaman, Storey and Billsbury (2005, p. 5) view SHRM as a ‘repository of ways in which academics, consultants†¦ think about ways to change organisations’. SHRM then is the key to how business is run and people managed. Huber and Glick (1995, p. 297) highlight the importance of facilitating organisational learning as a means to understand and adjust to changing business environments. Organisations that are designed to allow two-way information flow to ‘reflect cultural values and economic perspectives of top management’. This is of particular relevance in a multinational corporation. Ready and Conger (2007) reiterate the role of talent development in providing company’s the competitive edge to stay in the mar ketplace. They believe that companies that create ‘talent factories’ have the right mix of ‘functionality and vitality’ to fill key positions as and when the need arises. Storey (2007, p. 79-80) foresees a risk to the study of human resource management claiming to be a strategic function in the absence of a ‘robust analytical framework’. Terms like knowledge management have not been proven on grounds of efficacy in gearing the business up for change. The author suggests that some part of the responsibilities can as well be transferred to departments like marketing for managing the communications and the HR department relegated to the purely administrative practices of yore. The traditional role of HRM as policy maker to guide people management is incomplete without a conscious alignment to business goals. Strategic HRM aims to utilise the capabilities of the workforce towards a unified goal. The match between employee talent, employee goals and business goals is the key to successful work organisation. The necessary ingredients for an effective Strategic HRM process are the learning processes to facilitate future strategy development and adaptation to changes in the business environment. Who takes responsibility for strategic HRM? Ivancevich (2004, p. 48) recognises the role of the leader in laying the foundation for strategic HRM. Functional specialists provide the framework to carry out effective talent management processes; individual team heads determine

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Exercise #1 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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