Performance Appraisal, Diversity Management, And Employee Essay

Performance Appraisal, Diversity Management, And Employee Participation - Essay Example The leaders of the organization are the key to the success of any organization. They who set the goals, define the mission and vision and work with the employees to get the objectives completed. The problem that the company is facing is due to the lack of leadership qualities shown by the leader and non-satisfactory part played by the managers in performing their roles. Let’s identify some of the problems that are found in the company: Like the case study tells us, most of the top level and middle-level management positions are occupied by white men who share similar interests. This gives an idea that the organization is in control of the white men, and decisions are taken by them. When even white middle managers would spend time with the white top-level managers, the minority groups in the company would feel cut out and would generally blame the management of favoring the whites even if this wasn’t true. So by not having a diverse top management force, the perception o f the minority groups becomes biased. (Ely & Thomas, 2001) The minority groups are complaining about the incorrect and unjustified performance appraisals done. They received lesser points when compared to other white employees and for this very reason, their accusations of discrimination have become certain. Although the management may not be discriminatory and performance appraisal is done solely on merit, but due to the management’s negative attitude towards the minorities, any appraisal done is looked from a critical look.  ... This gives an idea that the organization is in control of the white men, and decisions are taken by them. When even white middle managers would spend time with the white top level managers, the minority groups in the company would feel cut out and would generally blame the management of favoring the whites even if this wasn't true. So by not having a diverse top management force, the perception of the minority groups becomes biased. (Ely & Thomas, 2001) 2. Injustices to the Minority Groups The minority groups are complaining about the incorrect and unjustified performance appraisals done. They received lesser points when compared to other white employees and for this very reason their accusations for discrimination have become certain. Although the management may not be discriminatory and performance appraisal is done solely on merit, but due to the management's negative attitude towards the minorities, any appraisal done is looked from a critical look. (Ely & Thomas, 2001) 3. Lack of Knowledge and Trained Human Resource Staff The company has a HR team however the team hasn't been able to fulfill its responsibilities as yet. Not enough knowledge is imparted to the employees about employee appraisal and diversity at the work place which is turning the company into a non-diverse white men company. Such a company can only be successful to an extent since diversity brings in new challenges and with it, it brings creativity. (French, 2006) 4. No Motivation for Minority Groups Minority groups are not finding any luck on their sides. They see no benefits for working and hence some have even resigned from their jobs. Since there is no encouragement, motivation, rewards and appreciation

Hero Myth - Achilles Essay Example for Free

Hero Myth Achilles Essay The concept of the hero is as old as myth itself. Throughout history both concepts have evolved together. Myths tell tales of the adventures of man, frequently the son of a god or goddess and a human, who is endowed with great promise and destined to perform great feats. Often these feats involve acts of rescue, war or protection. This heroic myth is rooted in the ideal of familial romance. Particularly during adolescence it sustains and expresses the identification of the ego with idealized imagery. The hero myths have been used for centuries to educate and train youths as parts of institutions and groups. One example of a hero is Achilles, made famous through Homer’s epic Illiad. While we may not look at myths today in the same ways as our ancient forebears, the hero myth is still alive and well in our culture today. Achilles was the hero of the Trojan war as related by Homer in the Illiad. He was the mightiest of the Trojan warriors. He began life as a demigod, the son of Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons and a mortal, and Thetis who was a Nereid. The Myrmidons were legendary warriors, very skilled and brave. Nereids are sea nymphs being the daughters of Nereus and Doris. Thetis was very concerned that her son was a mortal. Therefore she attempted to make him immortal. There are two stories of how she wet about this. The lesser-known story is that she burned him in a fire nightly and then healed his wounds with a magical ambrosia. The more well-known story is that she held him tightly by the heel and submersed him in the river Styx. This made his entire body invulnerable except for the spot on his heel where she held him while he was in the river. During Achilles’ boyhood, a seer named Calchas prophesied that Troy would not fall without help from Achilles. Knowing that he would die if he went to Troy, Thetis sent Achilles to the court of Lycomedes in Scyros. He was hidden there in the guise of a young girl. While at the court he had a romance with Deidameia who was the daughter of Lycomedes. The result was a son who was named Pyrrhus. The disguise finally came to an end when Odysseus exposed Achilles by placing arms and armor amongst a display of female garments and picked Achilles out when he was the only â€Å"female† to be interested in the war equipment. Achilles then willingly joined Odysseus on the journey to Troy. He led a host of his father’s Myrmidon troops in addition to his utor Phoenix and his friend Patroclus. Once in Troy, Achilles quickly gained the reputation as an undefeatable warrior. One of his most notable feats was the capture of 23 Trojan towns. One of these was Lyrnessos where he took a war prize in the form of a woman named Briseis. The central action of the Illiad was sparked when Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced to give up his war-prize woman, Chryseis, by an oracle of Apollo. As compensation for the loss of Chryseis, Agamemnon took Briseis from Achilles. Thus enraged, Achilles refused to continue fighting for the Greeks. With Achilles’ withdrawal from the action, the war started to go badly for the Greeks and they offered large reparations to try to lure back their greatest warrior. Achilles continued to refuse to rejoin the war, however, he did agree to allow his close friend Patroclus to don his arms and armor and fight in his place. The next day Hector, a Trojan hero, mistook Patroclus for Achilles and killed Patroclus. Achilles was engulfed with rage at Hector and consumed by grief for his friend’s death. Thetis went to Hephaestus and obtained fabulous new armor for Achilles. Achilles recommenced fighting and killed Hector. Not satisfied with Hector’s death, Achilles used his chariot to drag the body before the walls of Troy and refused the corpse funeral rites. Hector’s father Priam, the king of Troy, went secretly to the Greek camp to beg the return of the body. Finally, Achilles relented and allowed Priam to take Hector’s remains. After Hector’s death time started to run out for Achilles. He continued to fight heroically and killed many Trojans as well as their allies. Eventually, Paris, who was another of Priam’s sons, enlisted the aid of Apollo and wounded Achilles in his weak spot – the heel – with an arrow. This caused Achilles death. The enduring legend from the story of Achilles has to do with the concept of the Achilles’ heel. An Achilles’ heel has come to mean that despite overall strength, there is a mortal weakness that can lead to one’s downfall. While the original myth refers to a physical weakness, in modern times it has come to reference other types of character flaws or qualities that can cause ruination. The concept of the hero has changed somewhat in our modern culture. Instead of daring people who buck trends and traditions in order to help their families, nations or cultures, today we tend to revere people like sports figures and actors. While we have the occasional government or political leader such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, most of what you hear about is who is making the most money due to their sports or acting ability. The concept of the sports figure hero can have some validity as these figures do occasionally overcome great odds and perform daring feats on the modern â€Å"battlefield†, i. e. , the sports arena. However, this is nothing compared to the feats of the ancient heros. Hero myths are powerful stories from ancient times. So powerful are they that they cross cultures and ages, continuing to influence us today. Achilles was one of the great heros of ancient times as the mightiest warrior of the Trojan war. While who we classify as a hero has changed in our modern societies, we still look to the concept today. We teach young people about heros as a method to inspire them. We look to our heros as adults to give us guidance and to give us something to guide our hopes and dreams. While modern heros may not be of Achilles’ status, they remain an integral part of our cultures.

Defining And Understanding A Formwork System Construction Essay

Defining And Understanding A Formwork System Construction Essay Nowadays, construction industry in Malaysia is a mature industry. The Malaysia construction sector is regarded as a catalyst for growth while its own performance serves as an indicator to the nations economy. It is supported by a fraternity of construction player encompass developers, contractors, building material and equipment, suppliers, manufacturers, financiers, regulators and other in the value chain (Lynda, 2006). Formwork system is defined as the system of support for freshly placed concrete including the mould or sheathing which contacts the concrete as well as supporting members, hardware, and necessary bracing. Formwork system development has paralleled the growth of concrete construction throughout the twentieth century. Both designers and builders are aware of the need of construction industry in order to develop creative innovations from traditional method to improve quality and economy in the face of incoming construction industry challenges. Formwork is the largest cost component for a typical multistory reinforced concrete building. It normally cost account around 40% to 60% of the cost of the concrete frame and for approximately 10% of the total building cost. Besides, the demands and requirement of the clients have continued to grow and it is essential to find ways to build faster, cheaper and better quality building. Consequently, cost, productivity and quality of formwork system is variable by the system and material choosing. Therefore, consider as much as issue possible must be done before make the decision of choosing formwork. Definition of Formwork Formwork is a temporary boarding or sheeting erected to contain freshly placed and compacted concrete until it has gained sufficient strength to be self-supporting. The appearance of the finished concrete depends on the face texture and stiffness of the formwork. (Dictionary of Quarrying Terms) Formwork is the term given to either temporary or permanent moulds into which concrete or similar materials are poured. In the context of concrete construction, the falsework supports the shuttering moulds. (Wiki Answer) Definition of Steel Wall Form System Steel is a material generally hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon, often with other constituents such as manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, or silicon, depending on the desired alloy properties, and widely used as a structural material. Steel wall form system is one of the Engineered Formwork systems. (Answer.com) This formwork is built out of prefabricated modules with a metal frame (usually steel and aluminum) and covered on the application (concrete) side with material having the wanted surface structure (steel, timber, etc.). The two major advantages of formwork systems, compared to traditional timber formwork, are speed of construction (modular systems clip or screw together quickly) and lower life-cycle costs (barring major force, the frame is almost indestructible, while the covering may have to be replaced after a few or a few dozen uses, depending on the applications). (Nation Master.com) Definition of Conventional Timber formwork Conventional Timber formwork is also as known as Traditional timber formwork. The formwork is built on site out of timber and plywood. It is easy to produce but time-consuming for larger structures, and the timber facing has a relatively short lifespan. It is still used extensively where the labour costs are lower than the costs for procuring re-usable formwork. It is also the most flexible type of formwork, so even where other systems are in use, complicated sections may use it. (Nation Master.com) Background of Research Formwork is the single largest cost component of a concrete buildings structural frame. The cost of formwork exceeds the cost of the concrete or steel, and in some situation the formwork costs more than the concrete and steel combined. (Robert Leroy Peurifoy, Garold D. Oberlender, 1996) For some structures, deciding the priority of the formwork design allow to reduce the total frame costs by as much as 25%. This reduction involved direct cost and indirect cost. Formwork is one of the main components in a project, it efficiencies in accelerate the construction schedule in order to reduce interest cost, labour cost, machinery cost and etc during construction and early complete for the project. (Formwork for Structure, 1996) Formwork can be categorized into two types, which are conventional timber formwork and system formwork. Conventional timber formwork is the most common type of formwork, local contractors are already familiar and get used with this method. System formwork is a new technology which introduced by Industrialized Building Systems. Based on lack of knowledge on this technology, local contractor still refused to apply this method in project broadly. The main reason they refused to applied this technology is cost of conventional formwork is much lower than IBS or the technology of it. Justification of Research Presently, high rise building project is increasing in Malaysia. It consider as the main trends in Malaysias development policy. Steel wall form system and conventional timber formwork both is the main method to construct a building. The contribution of this research will be explorer and analyzed in order to allow provided information to allow contractor in placing formwork design. Problems Statement Adapting the usage of Industry Building Systems in the construction of high rise building had significantly giving advantages in various aspects, such as reducing the construction cost, speed of construction, minimizing manpower, environmentally friendly, improved site safety and better quality construction (Shaari 2004). In order to obtain the advantages of IBS, during pre-planning stage, contractor has to decide which type of formwork is most suitable to be use in the project before contractor tender the project. For a consultant, he must have well sensed in selecting the suitable formwork system to satisfy clients requirement. Therefore, this dissertation will suggest and provide a detail of comparison of costing and productivity between steel shear wall form and conventional timber formwork for high rise building to contractor and consultant. Consequently, they are able to choose suitable formwork system instead of increase quality and productivity of work, and save time and cost in the same time. Objectives of Study The aim of this research is to compare and find out whether steel wall form system or conventional timber formwork is more suitable in high rise residential building construction. The specific objectives were: To analyze and cost and labor force required for both types of formwork system. To define and study productivity of steel wall form and conventional timber formwork. To study into different quality outcome from the both formwork system. To compare of costing and productivity between steel wall form and conventional timber formwork. Scope of Project This research will focus on the local projects that are using steel shear wall form and traditional formwork system. The study is limited to high-rise residential building construction. Site visit to the high rise residential building project will be carry out in this research. One project will be sampled for this research with two different of formwork system for wall only. Research Methodology Desk Study The data, information and reference materials will be collected through reference books, journals, magazines, newspaper and etc will be major tunnels for me to gather information for my research title. Initial study is carried out by comprehensive review on the literature on all the resources, to gain the basic understanding and ground theory on the relevant topics and area, which then be used in generating useful information and data. Internet Research Internet is a major tool to allow me finds out the information about steel shear wall form and traditional timber formwork. It also enables me to get the latest information which is related with my dissertation. Site Visit Throughout site visit, it allow me to understand the method of the construction in apply both different types of formwork in detail. Interview will be carrying out during the construction site visit. The people to be interview included contractors and other relevant party. Case study Case study about steel and timber formwork system used in high rise residential construction will be carried out. Interview will be carried out during the construction site visit. The people to be interview included contractor, project managers and other relevant party. Chapter Organization Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter has been a general introduction to dissertation research and outlines the main aims and objectives of this dissertation. It also consists of clarity of problem statement and justification of the research before to start this research. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter explains and describes the characteristic and the usage for the steel wall form system and conventional timber formwork. It wills emphasis in the usage of both type of formwork in local high rise residential building construction. Besides, this chapter is going to introduces steel wall form system and conventional timber formwork in costing, productivity, quality, advantages and disadvantages. Chapter 3: Research Methodology This chapter will explain the process of the whole dissertation and the type of research Methodology. The method of collect data, information and analysis will be explained in this chapter Chapter 4: Data Collection This chapter will be completed by carried out one case study in order to understand in more detail of the steel wall form system and conventional timber formwork. Besides, a structured interview is conducted for analysis. Data and photographs will be show as an evidence for case studies. Chapter 5: Data analysis This chapter carries out analysis and discussion of the data collected from the interviewer and case study. The data analysis will included cost analysis, productivity analysis, quality analysis and manpower analysis. Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendation This chapter includes the objectives review of this dissertation. All the studies on this dissertation will be concluded in this chapter too. There will be further recommendation of this A Study on Cost, Productivity and Quality Comparison of Using Steel Wall Form System and Conventional Timber Formwork in Residential High Rise Building.

EASY ON THE RELISH :: English Literature

EASY ON THE RELISH The two characters I have chosen to write about, apart from Tofler, are Ray and Brian. The reason for my choice is that both of these characters play a large and significant part in the play, particularly Ray. They compliment each other because, Brian is serious, whereas Ray is carefree and has a sense of humor. RAY is 18 years of age and was a butcher’s apprentice, until he lost his job. He is a cockney, fairly well built and a jack-the-lad type of character, who no one pushes around. He detests rules and regulations. In Act One, Scene 1 he says, ‘No smoking in the locker room. What is this, bleadin Alcatraz?’ Despite his objection to working in a burger bar instead of an organization that sells real meat not ‘donkey flavoured camel turds’, his lack of education gives him no option than to work at Binders. An example to support this theory is in Act Two, Scene 3 during a conversation with Kishori. ‘Well, I’m not sayin’ I’m not pissed off, cos I am. But no sense in causin a ruckus. I mean, I need the money. I’ll take money from anyone. Yanks included’. Ray is also a male chauvinist. In Act Three, Scene 1 he proves this because he has second thoughts about joining a union, as suggested by Kishori, when he says to Francis ‘Well she’s a bird’. Further into the conversation he continues his reasons saying ‘A bit of skirt stirring it up like that. Men’s work, unions. Always has been’. Ray is a racist. At the beginning of the play in Act One, Scene 1 he objects to wearing the hats provided as part of Bunter uniform and says that the hat reminded him of a fez. ‘I’m not wearin no gypo gear, ‘gainst my religion’. His racist attitude if further evident in Act Three, Scene 1. He not only objects to Kishori because she is a woman telling him what to do, but also because she is of ethnic origin and called her a Paki bird. Ray is a generally likeable but ignorant character, who is not very bright and whose lack of education is evident because of his poor use of English language and grammar. He is easily led into situations without thinking out the consequences first and generally likes to go with the flow of things. However, he appears anxious that Brian is also keen to join the union and picket the burger bar which suggests that he is not as confident as he would like those around him to believe and feels more self assured with Brian’s support.

Precise Software Case Analysis

PRECISE SOFTWARE CASE ANALYSIS Problem: When and how to introduce an end-to-end new product to the market? Issues: 1. Should we (Precise) introduce a new product in Open World conference 2000? What could be the impact if we delay to offer an end-to-end solution in the performance management space? 2. What is the best selling strategy for the new product? 3. What is the best pricing strategy for the new product? 4. Should we maintain a single sale force or separate sale force dedicated to the new product? What kind of commissions and how much authority should we set up for the sales force regarding to the new product? 5.How can we deliver the value of the new product to meet our customer expectation and solve our customer problems? 6. How to grow and compete in order to be a leader in the market on a much broader level? Industry/Market Analysis: Database management software referred as performance management market where efficiency and effectiveness are really important. There are a l ot of opportunities due to the need of IT system from the companies. Nearly every company in the industrialized world spent a significant amount of money every year on software purchases ranged from $99 to $10million. The software market estimated to be $4. billion in 2003 compare with $2. 4billion in 1999. However, the market was fragmented. Products were differentiated principally in two ways. On one hand, products differed widely in terms of underlying resources and platforms with they are associated. On the other hand, available products also differed in terms of the functionality they offered. There are few major competitors in this market and the industry need high intensive labor cost. It usually takes long time to develop new product in this industry. Effective advanced technology and product, which can solve the problem for the companies, are very important to success in the industry.Time is another important key to determine whether business will success or fail. Companies in this industry should improve their technology quickly to catch up the ever-changing information technology trend as well as dig the problems of the companies to present the right problem-solve products. One of the largest segments of the market was for software to manage the performance of Oracle databases. A true end-to-end market seemed to be quite large and there was no current direct competition because none of the companies offered an end-to-end solution yet. Consumer Analysis:Database administrators (DBA) are the main targets for Precise. The former usually are well trained thus capable of recognizing the products value. Many DBA’s were authorized to purchase a product range under $25,000. Precise looked for companies had sales of at least 100million and had a business model that required database-intensive applications. DBA need to report to the CIO and need to improve the job performance in order to make performance application efficiently as well as satisfy the b usiness unit head. They are usually budget-limited when they purchase the product.IT Reliability and effectiveness are the other main factors to concern for users. Regarding to the end-to-end management tool service, business firms using enterprise-wide applications have a desired demand. They require the enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM, which were 10million and above. The applications were distributed across many locations and highly data intensive. Firms depended critically on the ability to deliver information quickly, will be the main targets for the new end-to-end product. Competitor Analysis: The three biggest competitors in the software market were Oracle, BMC Software, and Quest Software.Oracle is provides â€Å"Oracle Optimizer† as a part of its basic database package helped to execute SQL statement it received in the most efficient fashion and also offer an add-on package to help measure efficiency. BMC Software has a large range of products. Its revenue grew rapidly since 1998 and Patrol Product line, which target on performance management and availability market, provided timely and accurate data. Quest Software offered around 25 different products, with some of the functions offering products relevant to Precise. Marketing Mix Analysis: A) Product Analysis:Precise offered the software that helped its clients to manage the performance of their information technology (IT) systems. Precise is in the performance management and availability market. Its products are designed to manage the performance applications utilizing Oracle database. The company had focus on a small range of core products but provided users high quality that promised. Precise offered the software license and services. The main products were insight products, SQL and Presto. Precise/SQL accounted for 86% of all Precise’s software licensing fees.The company has strong trained account reps with very strong relationships with key clients. End-to-end response time is extremely important to ensure the system ran efficiently and effectively. All of the available products focused on the performance of each of the components of the system. The sales cycle is 6 to 12 months on average. Precise realized from the feedback of its consumers that they should provide right solutions to its clients rather than the products. However, a full-functionality end-to-end performance tool needs a long time to be developed.It’s going to take six and nine months to get a basic product with purely monitoring only. The fully functional product will accomplish in 2 years. B) Price Analysis: It has one-time license fee with annual maintains and service contracts, priced 15%-20% of the one-time licensing fee. Average price of Precise /SQL had been between $15,000 and $25,000. Precise often offered discounts around 25% which allowed sales force to sell the product easier as well as DBAs can make their decision easily to purchase without approve by the CIO. I n addition, price can be varied greatly depending on the customers and other factors.They charged more for higher-powered computing environments, which means the price is based on the value that the customers receive from the performance management. C) Distribution Analysis: There are three common channels for distributing commercial software applications such as direct sales, value-added resellers (VCRs), and systems integrators. VCRs and systems integrators earned a margin of about 30-35% on the software sales. And original equipment manufacture (OEM) agreement is popular in smaller niche areas. Precise sells its products through a duel-channel distribution system.Internationally, the company sells through both VARs and system integrators in most countries. 17 account executives are hired to do direct sell and also sell through distributors in most countries, and each is paid a salary of $75,000 and a 5%-9% rate high commission. The average sale of each rep is $800,000 annually an d earned $300,000 for the highest. Therefore, the operating expenses are extremely high (sales and marketing is 35% of the total operating expense) and made the operating loss since 1996. About 55% of its revenue comes from the direct channel and 45% come from the resellers.Precise had a client list of about 400 companies and each sale rep was well trained to sell the products. D) Promotion/ Advertising Analysis: Reps in Precise are the main factor in selling the products. Precise purchase industry lists with the names and phone numbers of key contacts in the target firms and give it to reps. Reps can call the main clients and meet them and try to keep a good relationship with the people who make decisions. Reps are high motivated and professional to sell the products because of related training and high commission strategy.They have an effective sales tool that reps can offer to put the product on the potential buyer client’s system to demonstrate what the product would do. In addition, Precise conducted a survey of ten Precise/SQL clients drawn from a range of different business to find main benefits of their products and able to generate an expected ROI for the purchase. Options: A) To launch a new product in 2000 ROI Analysis Pros: – To be the first one get into the end-to-end market and to be able to announce the new product in the conference with many motivated and qualified prospects gathered in the room at one time. Precise will become a much broader level brand. – Gain more revenue at the beginning with no competition so far in the market. Cons: – New products will attract competitors to get in the market. – There is not enough time for reps to be trained properly to sell the products. – If the new product cannot satisfy the clients, it will destroy the brand image as well as make competitors catch up and run over the Precise. – The new product can only be â€Å"generally available† at this time. There will be much more problem and risks.B) To launch after fully-functional Pros: – Have much more possibility to satisfy customers with fully functional product in term of effectively and efficiency – Its reps will be fully trained to get ready to contribute in selling the new products – If consumers satisfied with the products, Precise will be a leader in the market and increase its profits in the long-term. Cons: – Competitors may launch a similar new product in this market before Precise. – A small range of the products may slow down Precise to be a real broader level brand

Google Alerts

Google Alerts Google Alerts Google Alerts By Simon Kewin Most writers will have typed their name, or the title of something theyve written, into a search engine at some point. This can be a useful way of finding references to or reviews of your work that you didnt know about. Google Alerts is an invaluable (and free) system for automating this process. Using it, you can set up the search terms youre interested in : your name, say, or the title of your novel, short story, poem or article. Google will then automatically email you if it finds any new references to the terms youve provided. As well as keeping tabs on your own works, you could use the system in numerous other ways: for updates on a favourite writer, for example, or on an agent you are interested in contacting. Or you could use it to find updates on a particular period or location you are researching for a novel. The system gives you some control over which web sites it will check on your behalf. For example, you can tell it just to look at blog posts, or videos, or simply to look everywhere. You can also specify how frequently alerts are to be sent to you: daily, weekly, or as they are discovered. The success with which the system works depends very much on the search terms you use. If you provide a commonly-used term, youll probably get lots of false positives. A more distinctive term the exact title of a novel say will work better. The web site for setting up these alerts is here. The system lets you set up as many as you like (up to a maximum of 1000), although note that you do have to register with Google to use the system. 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 General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Handy Expressions About HandsAt Your DisposalWord Count and Book Length