The Importance Of Special Educational Needs ( Sen ) Essay

Introduction: Some children cannot conform to a conventional educational system. We will have to celebrate their differently abled gift, says Sameer Noorani. The school bell was ringing and Naushad was not very happy about going home. He received his progress card for the monthly exam. He was very scared of his dad, who would be signing the monthly progress card. Naushad was anxious, confused and didn’t understand what was happening. This scenario reminds us of an acclaimed Bollywood film, Taare Zameen Par, released in 2007. This film, which celebrates the abilities of children, ‘brought about a change in perspective and an increase in awareness regarding special education in a larger audience. This brief write-up reiterates the messages regarding special educational needs (SEN) by using some basic remedial techniques that will be useful for both teachers and parents. Attentive teachers and parents can transform the life of a student with SEN. The term SEN refers to the needs of children with learning difficulties or disabilities; these children find learning more difficult than most children of the same age. Many children have special needs of some type at some time during their education. This brief write-up will create awareness among parents and teachers regarding SEN. Young people have a special educational need if they: †¢ Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of young people of the same age. †¢ Have a disability which prevents orShow MoreRelatedHow Can An Early Years Setting Support The Needs Of Children With Speech Language And Communication Needs1116 Words   |  5 PagesSupport the Needs of Children with Speech Language and Communication Needs Introduction This assignment aims to explore Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) with a focus on Speech, Language and communication needs (SLCN). This will be researched by having a brief look at the History of SEN including Legislation and the Warnock Report 1978 and the 1981 Education Act as according to the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee Special Educational Needs reviewRead MoreThe Development Of Education During The Uk Since 19941678 Words   |  7 Pageschanged drastically over time. â€Å"Children with special educational needs were seen as ‘imbeciles’ and the behaviour within the classroom was controlled by corporal punishment†; as cited in Changes in Education, 1994. Inclusion is about all children, not just children who have an SEN or an AEN need, which has stemmed from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Ofsted (2001) said inclusion is about ensuring that all children are included regardless of their SEN or AE N need, but also ethnicity, race, gender or religionRead MoreEssay1086 Words   |  5 PagesA Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) have the strategies overview of a school’s SEN policy by way of they embrace responsibility for the daily practical implementation by all teaching and support staff (REF). The SENCO has a fundamental role to perform in assuring that children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) within a school obtain the support they required (REF). The SENCO is accountable for operational management of SEND policy hence the SENCO regarded as a crucialRead MoreWhat Constitutes High Quality Education for Early Years provision? 1321 Words   |  6 Pagesupon statutory descriptors of quality early years provision. It will analyse current policies and legislation drawing historical and international references for comparison and contradiction. When first considering the need for state provision of early years childcare the importance of the home was highlighted in the statement; The home affords advantages for the early stages of education which cannot be reproduced by any school or public institution. Acland report (1908) It was further recognisedRead MoreBenefits Of Support For Sen And Disabilities1084 Words   |  5 Pagesof support, Schools and colleges can raise the aspirations of learners with SEN and disabilities. According to the Equality Act 2010, education providers and employers have a duty to ensure the inclusion for the SEN learner in the workplace. Reasonable adjustments must be in place; to ensure that the employee with SEN has the same accessibility in the workplace as typically developing employee. If the employee with SEN is at a disadvantage, there are three requirements that must be available toRead MoreSummarise the Laws and Codes of Practice Affecting Work in Schools.948 Words   |  4 Pagespre-school children. The Act also defines new rules in relation to childcare for working parents as well as parental information services. It is aimed at improving the well-being of young children. It emphasises the importance of safeguarding children and young people within an education al setting. If a child discloses neglect or abuse; an establishment should have instructions to help the child. This could be referral to an outside organisation or internally. †¢ Human Rights Act 1998 – is an ActRead MoreSpecial Educational Needs Support For Children With Special Needs1906 Words   |  8 Pages(GOV.UK, 2016), special educational needs support is available at all educational levels. This was in light of international developments, modifications to national legislation and decisions by law makers. The key international influencer was presented by the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action (UNESCO, 1994). Also, two cases in particular the O’Donoghue (1993) and Sinnott (2000) cases contributed significantly to changes in educational provision for children with special needs (Griffin andRead MoreFactors That Influence Learning Essays4853 Words   |  20 Pageslist shows a number of other factors that may also have a bearing on a pupil’s capability to learn: * Family * Culture * Gender * Impact of peers * Subject content * Teaching style * Learning skills * Recognition of need to learn * Past experiences of learning * Personal learning styles * Range of opportunities * Awareness of the learning process * Barriers to learning * Rewards and punishments All these factors have an impact on the qualityRead MoreUnderstand the Importance of Promoting Equality and Diversity in Work with Children and Young People.734 Words   |  3 PagesUnderstand the importance of promoting equality and diversity in work with children and young people. 1.1 Identify the current legalisation and codes of practice relevant to the promotion of equality and valuing of diversity. Below is a list of the legislations which form the basic government statutory codes of practice and frameworks that school policies and procedures should have in relation to equality and inclusion. United Nations Convention on the rights of the Child. This is set up to makeRead MoreA Unit 14 Cache Level 3 Diploma Childcare and Education Essay679 Words   |  3 PagesA A multi-agency approach is a range of professionals including speech therapists, Special Educational Needs Co-coordinator (SENCO) , key workers or physiotherapists etc. that all work together and support children and their families in provisions that need to be made in order to support a child with special needs. Working within close partnership with parents is expected for all babies and children within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) ‘Early years practitioners have a key role to

Illegal Immigration On The United States - 2434 Words

Immigration has been a topic for debate in the last couple of decades. Migrations have always caused a shock to the American people, whether it was from Japan, Eastern Europe, and now the large quantity of immigrants coming from Latin America. People on both sides of the spectrum pose valid arguments of the effects of illegal immigration on the U.S. Economy. People fear that immigrants will take their jobs, use their taxpayer dollars to receive government benefits, and they will take over the country. Yet time has proved that illegal immigration brings positive impacts on the economy, through job creation and contribution. The next couple of articles are an example of perspectives on the jobs crisis from a favorable angle. In the article†¦show more content†¦Hence the authors validate that immigrants do contribute by paying taxes. Their article includes a study that was found in their research which concludes that â€Å"the impact is virtually neutral† when debating o ver the impact of immigration (156). That means that the pros and cons of the debate are not strong enough to hurt the economy. The authors urge for an immigration policy that allows immigrants to work legally and take advantage of their contributions. By doing this, it would allow border security to focus on the real threats, not those who want to work. Furthermore, Delener and Ventilato address a major follow-up concern amongst Americans. People fear that their tax dollars are funding social services such as health care and education programs for immigrants. All of this while immigrants aren’t paying their fair share in taxes. The authors’ chose to show that instead the result of immigration has led to â€Å"higher productivity and a stronger economy† (157). Although I believe that this article is intended to push for a favorable immigration policy, they address the main concern about how immigrants do contribute, just like any one else, by paying their fair share of taxes. From a more split angle, Robert J. Blendon and a group of collaborators conducted several surveys based on what ev eryday people think on the subject. In their article â€Å"Immigration and the U.S. Economy: The Public’s Perspective†, Blendon

Discussion-Reflections and Responses Free Essays

What does Lynda Parry’s comic strip suggest about children and drawing? What do they enjoy about it? Why might they suddenly stop drawing? What does Barry seem to be saying about the creative process In general? I believe that children love the Idea of drawing whatever Is on their mind. If something pops up, they could express themselves by drawing whatever It Is. Barry Is trying to say that children should draw no matter what happens. We will write a custom essay sample on Discussion-Reflections and Responses or any similar topic only for you Order Now There may be times where they second guess homeless and that will have an effect on the final outcome. Children may suddenly stop drawing because they are being criticized by other students or even their teacher. Being criticized may bring them down and can have a negative feeling on them. By doing so, they will feel that art is not for them and not want to draw anymore. 2. What are the â€Å"two questions,† and how are they visualized throughout the comic strip? What does their appearance suggest about them? What is their connection to â€Å"good† drawings and â€Å"bad† drawings? What do you think the octopus-like creature is meant to suggest? What is the significance of the repeated phrase â€Å"don’t know†? Two Questions is a comic strip about Lynda Barry and the art of cartons and drawing. This writer/artist had times of troubles that made her a better person. â€Å"Is it good,† â€Å"Does it suck,† were the two questions that were asked every time she had drawn something. Barry wanted to be a good artist, but she had her doubts about herself. She had to try and figure out the answers to her questions, but instead she shows objects and creatures that are trying to pull her down. For example, on page 66 there Is a picture of a creature that says â€Å"Man the torpedoes she’s getting closer. † There are four different torpedoes that explain four different names: moron, genius, stupid, and brilliant. This signifies that she Is getting closer to the answer of these two questions. 3. Consider â€Å"Two Questions† not as an Illustrated personal essay but as an amalgam of verbal and visual craft Intended as a unified creative process. Explain how Barry achieves this Integration of word, Image, and concept. How does she go about making drawing Inseparable from Its language? Barry achieves the Integration f everything by putting them all as one. Through word and Images a story comes about. She Illustrates what she Is felling and everything that Is on her mind. She sticks with one concept throughout the whole essay, which is drawing. The two word, image, and concept Barry came out with an meaningful essay that teaches a lesson. Peer Review What I learned from this paper is that kids like to think a lot and are also very creative when it comes drawing. I like how the author says that when she was younger she would Just make a few lines and the next thing you know she was drawing and she also says that every kid understands the concept behind that, it is something that doesn’t not have to be taught to them they Just know how to draw. Kids will draw Just about anything monsters and even funny looking people. Brandon does a great Job of formulating his thoughts and answering the questions that were asked for this assignment. He referred to the text explicitly to give the reader an idea of what the â€Å"Two Questions† was about. He also mentioned the author’s name at appropriate times and gave his own interpretation of the text and does a great Job of answering the questions required for this assignment. How to cite Discussion-Reflections and Responses, Papers

Strategic Resource Management In Mcdonalds Global Perspectives

Question: Describe about the Strategic Resource Management In Mcdonalds? Answer: Introduction: Be it a physical resource, human resource, time, funding and technology fusing all types of resource together for the achievement of organisations objectives is the key function of strategic resource management. As commented by Armstrong (2012, p- 14), at the heart of this function there is efficient and effective planning and distribution of resources according to the organisations needs. Effective resource management results into resource utilisation, waste reduction and yielding of high organisational productivity. For working with McDonalds (UK), the learner has an easy access to the information required for conducting the investigation. McDonalds is a chain of fast food restaurants that operate throughout the world. In the UK, the organisation started operating in 1975 (What makes McDonald's, 2015) Activity 1- Human Resource Management Objectives of McDonalds and Contributions of Human Resource Management (HRM) in achieving the Objectives: The corporate objectives of McDonalds are as follow- To become customers favourite place to eat To maintain consistent profit for the shareholders To foster and nurture a motivating environment for employee development To maintain high standard of ethics and give back to the community (Refer to appendix 1 for further information) As opined by Lawler (2008, p- 353), in contemporary business, the management focus hangs on ROI. Therefore, it is very important that HRM is geared to the effective utilisation of the workforce in realising the business objectives and objectives. In McDonald's, the HRM plays a very important role in achieving the objectives of the organisation. The nature of HRM of the organisation needs to be analysed for understanding its contribution in objectives achievement. In accordance with Hope-Haileyet al. (2005, p- 61), effective HRM employs performance-oriented pay, profit sharing and attitude survey in motivating the workforce to achieve organisational objectives. In McDonald's, HRM uses a variable pay for motivating employees to achieve their individual targets. Employees are provided with incentives in case better performance regarding sales. In addition, various rewards such as home telephone bill assistance, life assurance cover, pension, and company car (McDonald's UK, 2015) are off ered to the employees for generating a strong sense of responsibility. It clarifies the HRM exercises, models of HRM, viability of hierarchical goals, execution observing of McDonald's restaurant. The HR of any association is an essential asset that is the direct joined between the workforce's nature and extreme objectives. It likewise shows us what is the utilization of human asset administration and how can it work in the organization. Critical Evaluation of the Roles of HRM in McDonalds: The role of HRM in an organisation has been evolving since it first originated. Earlier the role of HRM was only to maintain records of employee information. Now, the role of HRM includes Performance Management, resource planning and employee relations (Bjorkman and Stahl, 2010, p- 56). In McDonalds, HRM guarantees ROI (Return on Investment) by performing the following roles- Roles Played by HRM in McDonalds Performance Management Recruitment and selection Pay and compensation Career development Employee retention Tracking work hours Training and development Employee welfare Table 1: Roles Played by HRM in McDonalds (Source: Created by the Learner) Figure 1: Karen Legge Model of HRM (Source: Becker and Huselid, 2009, p- 921) In accordance with the Karen Legge Model of HRM, there are two types of HR managers- Conformist innovators and Deviant innovators (Becker et al. 2009, p- 923). The first type of managers always tends to put effort in achieving the organisational goals and objectives. The other type of managers always tries to propose and obtain support for a different set of organisational objectives (Boxall and Purcell, 2007, p- 189). In McDonalds, the HR managers can be considered as conformist innovators, as they always try to achieve McDonalds objectives by performing HR functions. In this organisation, the goals of the HR department are always aligned with the organisational goals and objectives, so that the corporate goals and objectives of McDonalds can be easily achieved. HRM is the general population administration capacity where a hierarchical function is satisfied and concentrates on the issues identified with individuals. Those issues are as: instance pay, execution management, association advancement, security, advantages, worker inspiration, correspondence, organization, preparing and, and so forth. Control within McDonald's is just not attained by the direct supervision, machines, physical layout of restaurant as well as detailed prescription of the rules and regulations but also via proper recruitment policy. Even unskilled labors here have little power to interrupt efficiency of operation through withdrawing the co-operation from production procedures, disrupting process otherwise through simply leaving the firm. Staffs here are also allowed to submit to the power of employer, yet are always probable to retain very strong interest within use of their workers. Advantages and Disadvantages: Advantages- Flexible work hours- Flexible work hours and good amount of motivation by the managers make the staffs of the firm feel at home and thus they are capable of supplying their best to the organization. Team building- HRM policy and strategies at McDonalds enables team building and also insists the employees to remain loyal to the firm. Innovation and assessment- Strategic vision of the firm influences creation as well as evaluation of the HR policies and human resource management of this firm helps in monitoring its progress towards attaining the desired aim and goal in the strategic plan as these plan lie upon the people working within the firm. The HR management system of the firm is overall an efficient one except some cons that are mentioned below. Disadvantages- Privacy- A major con of the firms HR management scheme is that it enhances the capability of the breaches in privacy of its staffs, management and also business officials No realistic data can be drawn- The HR management scheme at McDonalds is effective in choosing staffs for some particular posts or for advancements on basis of performance scores as well as some other information. Moreover, when human factor is removed like while analysing staff talent, the system at time reveal high score in sales, new accounts and marketing efforts but does not reveals a staffs habit or his/her performance Evaluation of Recruitment and Retention Strategies in McDonalds: As per Hope Haileyet al. (2005, p- 51), methods used for recruiting employees can be either you find us or we find you. In the first method, organisations communicate about vacancies through their corporate websites, newspapers or other public channels. This is a very common method of recruitment. In McDonalds, for recruiting employees for the restaurants, this strategy is followed (refer to appendix 2). Such job advertisements attract many candidates, and HR managers have to work hard for selecting pick qualified candidates. As McDonalds is a well-renowned organisation, it can be easily assumed that the HR managers have to spend a considerable amount of time for recruitment. As argued by Lawler (2008, p- 363), this strategy is not at all effective in case of urgent recruitment. For recruiting in important positions such as top managers, we find you strategy is followed. The organisation identifies top achievers and reaches them. This is effective because this strategy is less time-c onsuming, more concentrated and reduces number of applicants. For retaining strong performers, McDonalds offer a number of benefits to the employees. Both the part-time employees and full-time employees enjoy such benefits (refer to appendix 3). Attractive rewards and benefits to the employees have facilitated the HR department in McDonalds to retain strong performers. The major success of McDonald is totally dependent on quality of the production that is makes and its link with excellence of the services that it provides to worthy users.At McDonald's, employees are considered as most vital part of the firm. The firm treats its staffs as the most important part of the firm. They also provide best employment skills and experience for all of their employees for to attain their goal and aim of supplying their customers, world's best and quick-service food restaurant experience. The firm strives to anyhow recruit best, hire best, and retain them for longer time through providing them the best place of work (Blythe, 2006). Commitment towards their workers also is shaped upon simple fact that the firm values the staffs, their growths as well as their contributions. This is the organization which strives to attain success through actions of staffs day to day. Number of staffs leaving per year is equal to the number of staffs joining per year- McDonalds is actually one of the best food chains in the globe and has vast quantity of staffs working for the firm. The count of members leaving each year is almost equal to the people recruited same year. This not just enhances the recruitment and selection cost rather even spoils the general reputation because of which people dislike to work for and in McDonalds outlets. Some staffs feel burdened- Because of recession few staffs cannot even afford to leave the existing job and this makes their job a burden on them and rather than enjoying they become careless towards their work and later result in efficient and ineffective carry outs. The firm thus needs to motivate its staffs at this point of time and try to enable them to work more efficiently for the firm. Long way to go in HRM- A feeling of love and care must be developed by the supervisors and managers in the minds of lower level staffs. And thus the firm has yet long way to go for attainment of better HR system. Recommendations such as treating staffs as customers; and encouraging novel ideas as well as initiatives, involving staffs in the decision making, particularly those which directly impact them, providing the staffs with the sense of the ownership in all their work and restaurant, giving staffs a proper chance to develop and grow as well as learn new knowledge and skills, taking proper time to hold regular team meetings plus organize exterior activities, identifying, rewarding as well as promoting staffs based on individual performance plus sense of good security could definitely reduce turnover rate. All these recommendations might take some time to implement yet in reality could bring a very positive change within the race of the competition. Critical Assessment of the Techniques Used for Employee Development in McDonalds: In McDonalds, the most used techniques for employee development are as follow- Technical trainings Mentoring programs Job rotations Leadership trainings Formal career mentoring Interpersonal skill trainings In McDonalds, employee development is aligned with organisational development. In initial training, employees are informed about the organisation standards and expectations. After that, employees are provided with structured training in all of the business areas. In this organisation, employees are facilitated to open their own restaurants and earn a lucrative sum of money (McDonalds UK, 2015). Employees are also provided with management training. The firm also provides proper training to its staffs whenever something new is brought in the firm and also makes them understand the facts and details of the novel technology and tools in use. This training at the McDonald's is kept extremely structured. The internal recruitment process is also designed to attain advantage of the existing staffs and give them a chance to enhance their career. Primary workers actually are first given the essential crew training and then others are focused on. Each phase of staff development helps crew members to attain training with skills becoming extra complex as well as generalized. Planning for the human resource in the firm is also related to variety of functions like recruiting, empowerment, utilization services, selection, motivation, compensation, training, development and promotion as well as retirement. The main and leading function of the management of human resource is to control plus manage as well as utilize human resource efficiently ( Gould, 2010). For more information refer to appendix 4 Contribution of the Above-discussed Techniques in Employee Engagement: As per Budhwar and Debrah (2009, p- 514), an employee can be engaged, if he or she is both intellectually and emotionally committed in the achievement of the organisation mission, vision and objectives. An employee is less likely to hesitate for leaving an organisation, if he or she is not provided with career growth and self-development opportunities. As analysed in the previous section, employees in McDonalds are provided with excellent self-development and career growth opportunities. These opportunities play a significant role in increasing employee engagement in the organisation. As argued by Brewster and Harris (2009, p- 964), in an organisation, where development and learning becomes a common and expected norm, it fails to have expected impact on employee engagement. In a country, where the employment rate is very high, the impact of employee development opportunities on employee engagement becomes lower. The present unemployment rate in the UK is lower than past statistics. T he current unemployment rate in the country is 5.8% (BBC News, 2015). It implies that though McDonalds invests in employee development, it will not have an expected impact on the employee engagement. Moreover, this is not a new practice in McDonalds. Employees have become accustomed to it. Therefore, in order to have increased employee engagement, the organisation needs to invest more in employee development programs. HR planning is worried about getting the right individuals, utilizing them superbly, and preparing and creating them to accomplish the McDonald's objectives. McDonald's starting points and destinations are effective. Individuals utilizing are to distinguish flawlessly and compelling route and to recognize any issue that are prone to happen, (for example, enrolling the best applicants) and after that getting with the appropriate adaptation. Human Resource Planning (HRP) is the procedure of guaranteeing an association has the right staff at the opportune time, with the right aptitudes and capacities in the perfect place. The points of HRP are to: Make the best utilization of HR Anticipate the issues with surplus staff Develop a very much prepared and adaptable specialists Reduction association's reliance on outside enlistment offices Strategic Analysis for HRM in Context of Achievement of Organisational Strategy: The first strategy that must be employed in HRM for achieving organisational strategy is that the HR department in McDonalds must align employee competencies with the career development plan and job requirements. For doing this, the HR department can follow competency-based approach to recruiting employees. By doing this, they will be able to align the competencies of the employees with the organisational requirements. The second strategy is working as a strategic business partner. As commented by Budhwar and Debrah (2009, p- 501), in a knowledge economy, the strategy of an organisation must be closely associated with its human talent. It is of utmost importance that the HR department of McDonalds is deeply involved in strategy making and implementation. Appraisal of the Processes of Planning Used in McDonalds: Decisions for planning human resource requirements are based on the organisation business plan for a certain period (Arthur, 2012, p- 647). Planning requirements in McDonalds include reshuffling of job functions, downsize and open doors to recruitment. Every planning requirement aims to increase the organisational efficiency. The phases involved in human resource planning in McDonalds are identification of the size and skill requirements for the future, determination of the availability of strong performers to fill in higher positions in the future and designing of particular course of action for ensuring right sized human resources with right skills. This is an effective planning process, as with the help of such planning; HR requirements for future to achieve business goals can be identified. Like every single different business, for a day to day operations, McDonald's need the help of a staff. All the essential number of personnel in McDonald's satisfies a critical part of its fun ctioning. Without complex innovation, McDonald's would not be effective, for setting up appropriately individual are mindful. The director of McDonald's does not choose the potential workers incautious way. He does not coordinate against the capacity of post that implies who are unacceptable. It can make various issue, for instance Poor profitability levels No beloved sentiment among staff Work disappointment High non-appearance levels Client gripes Rejection Substitution For the interest of work, McDonald's examination it is feasible arrangements and appraisal the levels of action inside McDonald's. Accordingly, they can foresee that the association has a right number of the potential worker with the sound quality. The outer work business sector is critical for any organization in light of it can make up to potential representatives, locally, provincially, who have the right abilities and capability fundamental whenever. For McDonald's, neighbourhood unemployment figures are imperative who give the general's sign work accessibility needed around then. Likewise, HR arranging of McDonald's incorporates looking at how work is sorted out inside of a business or an association. Activity 2- Physical Resource Management Physical Resources Required for Achieving the Objectives of McDonalds: Objectives Physical Resources To become customers favourite place to eat Restaurants, fittings and furniture, modern cooking and storing facilities, entertaining facilities To maintain consistent profit for the shareholders Restaurants, fittings and furniture, modern cooking and storing facilities, entertaining facilities To foster and nurture a motivating environment for employee development Office building, employee facilities To maintain high standard of ethics and give back to the community Not applicable Table 2: Physical Resources for Achieving McDonalds Objectives (Source: Created by the Learner) Apart from human resources, physical resources also contribute to the achievement of business objectives. As physical resources play an important part in the achievement of corporate objectives, management of the physical resources is of great importance in an organisation (Barker and Chitty, 2009, p-65). McDonalds is not an exception to this. As shown above, for the achievement of most of the business objectives of McDonalds, it requires certain objectives. Customer satisfaction is one of the key goals of the organisation and one of its objectives is to become customers favourite place to eat. In order to achieve these goal and objective, the organisation needs sufficient number of restaurants at many places throughout the country. In the UK, McDonalds have around 1200 restaurants. Availability of the restaurants is effective to make a special position in customers mind. In the country, there is strong competition in the fast food industry due to the existence of many players. In or der to beat the competition, McDonalds requires sufficient number of restaurants with modern cooking and storing equipments, attractive decor and entertainment facilities. Most of the restaurants of McDonalds fulfil this need. These physical resources not only generate high customer satisfaction but also generate profit for the customers. Facilities provided to the employees such as company car, attractive office building and resting place are effective in achieving the objective of employee development. McDonald has basic focus on the key areas for operations that are the effectiveness, calculability as well as preventability. Even machines in the firm play a vital role as machines perform in very consistent plus better manner as compared to human and even they help in getting uniform quality plus services to supply proper customer satisfaction. The firm values all its physical resources and regular checks are organized in the firm to check updating of all the machines and tools. The objective of such facet is to provide the decision process, as well as Performance Management scheme, and reward system. Physical resources within McDonalds include restaurant locations that are several buildings. These restaurants are equipped with latest cooking as well as storing equipment and tools. The firm has facility of the Play Place intended to students and also has a television (Johnson, Robison and Goodman, 1997). Critical Evaluation of the Role of Physical Resource Management within McDonalds and Appraisal of Processes Used for Planning Physical Resource Requirements in McDonalds: As identified above, without physical resource, it is not possible to run McDonalds. None of the organisations can run without physical resources, but in restaurants, the role of physical resource becomes more important, as customers have an easy access to the restaurants and its physical resources such as furniture and decor. The organisation can hardly generate employee satisfaction without an attractive restaurant environment and the restaurant environment can be made attractive with the help of certain physical resources such as comfortable and cosy furniture, attractive decor with the use of light, paintings, decorative plants etc. For serving premium quality foods to the customers, physical resources such as modern cooking and storing equipment are of great importance. Entertaining facilities such as free Wi-Fi, television, music systems and indoor games are important in generating customer satisfaction. In McDonalds, requests for increasing physical resources are always guided by management approvals, policies and budget and these are generally backed up by justification. The organisation frequently opens new restaurants in various parts of the country. Decisions of opening new restaurants are always approved by the management committee. For searching good locations for restaurants, the organisation can contact external agents and consultants. The firm is also concerned about all its resources, be it human or physical or even financial one. The firm also keeps proper check on all financing activities. Also McDonald's is now working with about two banks named CIMB plus May Bank that take care of financial activities of the firm inside as well as outside the nation and even supplies short-run loans to McDonalds. The firm also has a concern for knowledge management, and it is primarily implemented within McDonald's management system. The main essence of the systematization of skill plus knowledge is also followed by each outlet of the firm with a properly detailed deposit of the rules. Thus, operating practices also has become a part of each employee in the firm. (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2002). Salaman depicts that there exists two major theories underlying ideas of the performance and knowledge management and they are: The goal-setting theory- this was given by scholar named Edwin Locke and it suggests that individual goals and aims established by the employee also play a vital role in motivating the person for better performance. Expectancy theory- was given by scholar named Victor Vroom and the theory is actually based on hypothesis that people adjust their behaviour in firm on basis of the probable satisfaction of all the valued aims and goals that are set by them. Performance Evaluation and Effective Solutions to the Manager to Improve the Current Situation For the effective practices of individuals administration, "Performance Management" is an all-encompassing procedure which uniting numerous components of the authoritative capacity. It incorporates specific learning and advancement and gives an outline of representative status. "Performance Management" is setting up a society where individual and gatherings get obligation regarding the nonstop improvement of business procedure and their particular commitments, ability, and conduct. "Performance Management" speaks the truth interrelationships and enhancing the nature of the relationship in the middle of director and individual, in the middle of supervisor and groups, between individuals from groups, and so on. In this way, McDonald's trust that it is a joint procedure, not an erratic occasion, not simply supervisors, apply to all representatives. In this manner, McDonald's business administrator can make clear what they anticipate individual and groups to do. For instance, how they ought to be overseen and what they have to carry out their occupations. McDonald's takes after the continuous "Performance Management" for representatives. For instance, setting objectives, observing the representative's achievement of those prods, contributing criticism with the employee's, assessing the worker's execution, remunerating execution or terminating the worker. "Performance Management" incorporates regular exercises to build up authoritative expects to accomplish those urge all the more adequately and productively. McDonald's trust that the best way to deal with finish "esteem for cash" is to screen the execution levels of staff and need to decrease inefficient activities. By checking change, departmental administrators or business supervisors can survey the productivity of representatives and figure out which ones are meeting the terms of their assertion and adding to McDonald's prosperity. McDonald's checking is the nature of work being created that is one of the components and the effectiveness levels inside of divisions. Representative's execution helps the chief to know how they have been showing signs of improvement in their business with the workers. For the future, it is a worker guide that expands work fulfilment. McDonald's surmise that it can help to add to their ability pool, bolster potential appraisal and progression arranging. The work which is offered by McDonald's might have few positive elements, yet workers generally choose employment at this firm in context of having some other attractive choices. Almost regardless of what staffs think of work itself, working at McDonald's can also be said as offering advantages for few staffs who like and demand flexible hours as well as are engaged within other activities as well as responsibilities. For such marginalization in labor market that have some chances of getting job elsewhere, McDonald's also offers extra needed work. Moreover, the staffs dependence upon McDonald's and their propensity to see employment as the short-run strategy also makes them very much vulnerable to the management manipulation. Such staffs with minimum interest just leave if anyhow they never like it, plus this is also clearly reflected within high labor turnover. Possibly they actually are attracted by mix of some fairly secure employment and familiar surroundings built by some highly paternalistic loom towards management and many employees of same age or similar temperament. Activity 3- Marketing Investigation about the Role of Marketing Activities in the Achievement of McDonalds Objectives: Figure 2: Role of Marketing Activities in Achieving McDonalds Objectives (Source: Created by the Learner) As identified above, generating high employee satisfaction is one of the key objectives of McDonalds. Generating consistent profit for the shareholders is another important objective of McDonalds. None of these objectives can be achieved without effective marketing activities. The roles played by the marketing activities in achieving McDonalds Objectives are as follow- Integration- Integration is one of the marketing roles in McDonalds. As the responsibility of determining organisational success does not depend only on marketing activities, marketing plays the role of integrating other departments for ensuring organisational success. In McDonalds, one of the main focus of marketing activities is research and analysis of the market trend, competition and change in customer needs. The other departments work as per the findings of the research. Managerial Role- One of the roles played by marketing in McDonalds is to make aggressive market plans for the achievement of the organisational objective. The marketing department in McDonalds makes effective market plan and implement those plans. Investment appraisal conducted by the marketing department of the organisation facilitates the organisation to understand the scope of investment. Competitive Advantage- The role of strategy formulation is also played by marketing activities. By conducting environmental scanning, identifying opportunities and threats in the external environment, marketing helps McDonalds to formulate effective business strategies. Marketing mix: McDonalds today has become the worlds best known brand for the marketing strategy that it has. McDonalds also is constantly building its novel brand through listening all the recommendations and suggestions that come from its customers plus through recognizing several steps within business marketing. The 7ps for marketing are manipulated to ensemble the requirements of marketing plus environment (Mathis and Jackson, 2003). Product: McDonalds constantly tries to offer the customers with full menu with vast quantity of the choices that people and chose from. The firm emphasizes totally upon development of a new menu each day and also specialized within some from the list. The firm has a very vast number of paths where the firm spends its money. Market research of the firm also establishes for it all the specific needs and wants of people and the firm knows how to fulfil them all. The firm even adjusts with changing needs and demands. The form of the marketing undertaken as well as amount invested actually varies, depending on stage that the product has till date reached. Like launch of any new item involves advertisements on televisions and billboards. Few of the McDonald's options now are growing in popularity. Source: (One, 2015) Price: McDonald's common pricing policy is actually followed for all its products in market segment. The firm provides products within very affordable price. Price is a factor that decides target customers. The firm, has till date been using price strategy named Going rate pricing, which is all about selling at average price and the most average cost in the entire fast-food market. For instance, the firm offers its buyers a hamburger otherwise cheeseburger at lowest price of some 1 euro! Price decision made by the firm undertakes all profit margins and also the probable pricing response of the rivals in the market. The pricing by the firm not just counts on the list price rather even includes discounts, financing and other choices like leasing. Promotion: Promotion also is general policy of McDonalds and through this its properly communicates with customers. It uses promotional activities like advertising, exhibition, sales promotion, public relation plus direct mail (McDonalds jumps on the CSR bandwagon, 2002). Promotion at McDonalds is the most vital element which the firm uses to enhance its entire competitiveness in front of the other strong brands, such as KFC and Burger King. Theoretically, besides utilizing traditional methods like advertising and sales, gifts, direct mail and also telemarketing, exhibitions otherwise TV and radio, cinema, or even social sites like facebook twitter, newspapers as well as magazines, the firm promotes their entire product line through using many athletes as well as celebrities. For example, their brand featured the nine Olympic as well as Paralympic Athletes upon cups plus packages during Olympics in the Beijing, in the year 2008. Another was the Marketing Campaign within Australia where custome rs were allowed to decide name of their own new burger. Source: (How communication affect motivation?, 2015) Place: McDonald's has located itself in all the prime location within almost big cities and also at big malls as well as near some residential area. McDonalds has placed its outlets in such a way that in USA it just takes 3 minutes to reach from home to a McDonalds outlet. The firm has tried its best to be in most easy reach of buyers. People: People are key asset for McDonald's. The firms staffs play very vital role in management of the decision making at the firm.The staffs in McDonalds also have a very standard uniform as well as focused and very prompt service to all its customers. The staffs in the firm are also treated very lovingly and firm care about its people as well Process: The firm has several different processes which includes the procedure of inventing novel equipment intended for cooking and also processes for using novel ways for packaging the food. Food manufacturing procedure at McDonalds also is totally transparent where whole process is very visible to customers. In fact, this firm also allows all its customers to see and judge hygienic standards within McDonalds outlets through permitting them to enter area where process actually takes place. The customers are invited to check the ingredients used in food. Customers are invited towards checking ingredients used within the food. Physical Evidence: The firm maintains full cleanliness, ecological friendly situation and also proper hygiene in all its restaurants. McDonalds focuses upon clean as well as hygienic interiors for is outlets plus even at same time interiors are also very attractive and fast food joint also maintains a good decorum at all its joints. The firm and its staffs are trained in a way that they are pleased if one can add their own points towards Marketing Mix of the firm. Critical Evaluation of Marketing Operations in McDonalds: Research and Analysis- Market research and analysis is one of the key marketing operations (Boulding et al. 2009, p- 924), as without marketing operations, an organisation cannot be aware of the competition, customer needs and wants and opportunities and threats. In McDonalds, research and analysis cover company analysis, customer analysis and competitor analysis. The aim of customer analysis is to scheme development for market segment. Detailed profiles for each of the market segment are created so that McDonalds can effectively reach the segments. For creating sustainable competitive advantage, the marketing department analyses core competencies of the organisation. In analysing competitor, profiles for each of the key competitors in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are generated. Formulation of Marketing Strategies- The marketing department of McDonalds formulates effective marketing strategies for increasing the organisational revenue and profit. For doing this, information gained through marketing research and analysis are utilised. Marketing Planning and Implementation- Integrated marketing plans are developed the identification of strategies, target market, competitive information and company positioning. This includes the use of relevant techniques such as promotions and advertising. Finally, the results are monitoring and changes in the marketing plans are made as per the requirements. Appraisal of the Processes Used by McDonalds for Market Development: For market development, the organisation puts special attention to customer segmentation, development of integrated marketing plans, customer retention, rewarding the loyal customers, and monitoring competition. Aaker (2010, p- 547) opined that for effective development of the market focus should be both on the existing customers and the new customers. An organisation with a lack of focus on the present customers can hardly be successful in retaining its customers and achieve a strong market growth. Market development processes of McDonalds focus both on the retention of the existing customers and attraction of the new customers. This has been helping the organisation to increase its customer base significantly. McDonalds offers attractive rewards to the loyal customers. This help in convincing the customers about their values. When customers understand that the organisation puts positive effort in retaining them, they become emotionally attached to the organisation. On the other han d, the attracting new customers, each of the customer segments are focused with different strategies (Anderson and Vincze, 2008, p- 885). Activity 4- Information Systems Investigation about how Information System Management (ISM) contributes to the Achievement of McDonalds Objectives and Critical Evaluation of the Role of ISM: McDonalds actually is one amongst fast growing fast food chain within the globe. It has also developed an international recognition and a proper competitive advantage throughout the world. In McDonalds, the ISM, is greatly responsible for a large variety of connectivity and communications that increase organisational productivity. The hardware, software and IT components that comprise the IT asset of the organisation must be effectively protected. Information stored in IT systems should also be protected and used effectively (Mathieson, 2010, p- 231). Marketing data gathered by marketing researchers are stored in the IT systems that these data help the organisation to formulate effective marketing plans and strategies. As marketing data are of utmost importance to achieve organisations objectives, effective IT systems must be there so that responsible personnel can easily access the data (Gill, 2011, p- 236). The technology that firm implies relates to new paradigm for assessing the business performance as well as success of the firm (Mondy, Noe and Gowan, 2005). Today because of current advancements within the technology, the firm has developed proper computer as well as information technology scheme to manage operations that have now become the core competence of the McDonalds against all its competitors. McDonalds well understands that technology can actually be a vital competitive advantage alongside competitors if this is used resourcefully and correctly.By analyzing the operations of the McDonalds, it can be easily said that because of wide spread as well as diversity within operations of McDonalds, the firm needs a well complicated, complex as well as flexible interior computer database scheme and McDonalds has this at proper place. The diverse types of operating schemes that firm uses are Amiga, Windows, Acorn, Apollo, and Apple (O'Donnell, 2004). The firm selects its operating sy stem by depending on its competence, known excellence as well as compatibility with firms systems. Diverse categories of the operating systems within the firm are technology, licensing, ownership, usage and also working state. ISM facilitates McDonalds to identify its strengths and weaknesses through the generation of revenue reports, error rate reports, employee performance reports and other data. As commented by Kendall and Losee (2012, p- 109), feedbacks provided by customers are helpful in understanding the organisational performance in satisfying customer needs and wants. This directly helps in achieving the most important objectives of McDonalds (generation of customer satisfaction). IT systems used in the organisation store customer feedbacks. The roles played by ISM in achieving McDonalds objectives are as follow- Figure 3: Roles Played by ISM in Achieving McDonalds Objectives (Source: Created by the Learner) Appraisal of the Processes Used by McDonalds for Planning its IS Requirements: In McDonalds, the process of planning its IS requirements include system design, system analysis, programming, implementation, conversion, testing, production and maintenance. In planning the IS requirements, the organisation focuses on cost reduction, improvement of efficiency and faster communication (Swanson, 2014, p- 291). Cost associated with the adoption of a new IS is compared with the cost that can be saved for the implementation of the system. If the result is positive, then the management takes the decision in favour of the implementation of a new IS (Szajna, 2012, p- 154) Conclusion: Management of both tangible and intangible resources of an organisation is crucial for determining the success of an organisation. In this assignment, only the management of tangible resource by McDonalds is analysed. It shows that though the processes of managing human resources, physical resources, and marketing and information systems are quite effective in the organisation, there are scopes of improvement. By improving the strategic resource management, the organisation can generate more revenue and achieve its corporate objectives easily. The current resource management processes of the organisation are effective enough in achieving its business objectives, but improvement in resource management can be considered for further development. Reference List Books: Aaker, D. (2010) Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Anderson, C. and Vincze, J. (2008) Strategic marketing management. 5th ed. London: Chapman and Hall. Armstrong, M. (2012) Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 12th ed. London: Kagan Page Arthur, D. (2012) Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting and Orienting New Employees, 5th ed. London: Routledge Barker, N., and Chitty, W., (2009). Integrated Marketing Communications Asia Pacific Edition. 6th ed. New York, London: Routledge. Becker, B. E., Huselid, M. A., and Ulrich, D. (2009) The HR scorecard: Linking people, strategy, and performance. 4th ed. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Bjorkman, I.,and Stahl, G. (2010) Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management. 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Blythe, J. (2006). Marketing. London: SAGE Publications. Gould, A. (2010). Working at McDonalds: some redeeming features of McJobs. Work, Employment Society, 24(4), pp.780-802. Journals: Becker, B. E. and Huselid, M. A. (2009) Strategic human resources management: Where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 32 (6), 898-925. Boulding, W., Staelin, R., Ehret, M. and Johnston, W. J. (2010) A customer relationship management roadmap: what is known, potential pitfalls, and where to go. Journal of Marketing, 69(4), 15566 Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2007) Strategic human resource management: where have we come from and where should we be going?, International Journal of Management Reviews, 2(2), 183203. Brewster, and Harris, H. (2009) Towards a new model of globalizing HRM. International Journal of HRM, 16 (6): 949-970. Brodie, R J, Brookes R .W. and Little, V. (2009) Towards a paradigm shift in marketing; an examination of current marketing practices. Journal of Marketing Management, 13(5), 383-406 Budhwar, P. and Debrah, Y.A. (2009) Rethinking comparative and cross national human resource management research. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12(3), 497515. Gill, S. (2011). Information System Planning: A case review. Information Management, 4(5), pp.233-238. Hope Hailey, V., Farndale, E., and Truss, C. (2005). The HR departments role in organizational performance. Human Resource Management Journal, 15(3), 49-66 Johnson, C., Robison, R. and Goodman, D. (1997). The New Rich in Asia: Mobile Phones, McDonalds and Middle-Class Revolution. The Journal of Asian Studies, 56(1), p.156. Kendall, K. and Losee, R. (2012). Information system FOLKLORE: A new technique for system documentation. Information Management, 10(2), pp.103-111. Lamb, C., Hair, J. and McDaniel, C. (2002). Marketing. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western. Lawler, J. (2008). Strategic human resource management. Handbook of Organization Development, p. 353-364 Mathieson, K. (2010). Variations in users' definitions of an information system. Information Management, 24(4), pp.227-234. Mathis, R. and Jackson, J. (2003). Human resource management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-western. McDonalds jumps on the CSR bandwagon. (2002). Strategic Direction, 18(9), pp.8-11. Mondy, R., Noe, R. and Gowan, M. (2005). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. O'Donnell, M. (2004). McDonalds Education? My Experiences with Information Technology. New Zealand Journal of Geography, 117(2), pp.10-13. Swanson, E. (2014). A note on interpersonal information system use. Information Management, 1(6), pp.287-294. Szajna, B. (2012). Determining information system usage: Some issues and examples. Information Management, 25(3), pp.147-154. Websites: What makes McDonald's, (2015). When did McDonald's first UK restaurant open?. [online] Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/whatmakesmcdonalds/questions/running-the-business/company-history/when-did-mcdonalds-first-uk-restaurant-open.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015] How communication affect motivation?, (2015). Communication: Effective vs Ineffective. [online] Available at: https://maxcommunicationmotivation.weebly.com/communication-effective-vs-ineffective.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2015]. McDonald's UK, (2015). Learn how we work. [online] Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/People/Schools-students.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015] One, C. (2015). Understanding PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE. [online] Are you on the go?. Available at: https://mobisynth.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/understanding-product-life-cycle/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2015]. BBC News, (2015). UK unemployment falls to 1.9 million. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-30913960 [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015] What makes McDonald's, (2015). How many McDonald's restaurants operate in the UK and worldwide?. [online] Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/whatmakesmcdonalds/questions/work-with-us/employee-diversity/how-many-mcdonalds-restaurants-operate-in-uk-and-worldwide.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015]

Death Penalty Essays (1390 words) - Capital Punishment, Law

Death Penalty Virtually every major program designed to address the underlying causes of violence and to support the poor, vulnerable, powerless victims of crime is being cut even further to the bone? In this context, the proposition that the death penalty is a needed addition to our arsenal of weapons lacks credibility? Scott Harshbarge, Attorney General of Massachusetts Across the United States, police officers are losing their jobs, prisoners are obtaining parole early, courts are clogging with cases, and crime is on the rise. Over two-thirds of the states use capital punishment, which is a grave mistake by any measure of cost effectiveness. The government spends hundreds of millions of dollars in order to punish a few individuals each year. Yet, these actions do nothing to slow the rise in violent crimes. Moreover, the death penalty has been used to portray toughness on crime, but it actually leaves communities worse off in their fight against crime. At the same time that states are pouring money into the capital punishment black hole, lack of funds is also causing the criminal justice system to break down. Consequently, the public is left with fewer resources, which otherwise could benefit their entire community. Every working person in the United States pays taxes to fund the government. However, is the death penalty a cost-effective way to use the taxpayer's money? After evaluating the cost of the death penalty and the effects of paying that cost, one would agree that the death penalty is not a cost-effective way to fight crime and thus the government should abolish the death penalty. The death penalty is much more expensive than life imprisonment. In Texas, the death penalty cost taxpayers an average of $2.3 million each year, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. Death penalty trials are also longer and more expensive than ordinary murder trials. A North Carolina study found that death penalty trials take 4 times longer and cost $200,000 more than non-death penalty trials. In California, capital punishment trials are six times more costly than other murder trials. A Kansas study also found that capital punishment trials cost an extraordinary amount more than ordinary murder trials. The irreversibility of the death sentence causes courts to heighten due processing through preparation and through the course of the trial. In the North Carolina study, twenty-four principal areas were identified as the causes of death penalty cases being longer and more expensive. Some of these areas are pre-tri al motions, expert witness investigation, jury selection, and the necessity for two trials. The two separate trials, one for guilt and the other for sentencing, are prime examples of the cost multiplier of pursuing the death penalty. The separate sentencing phase of the trial at times takes even longer than the guilt phase of the trial. Yet, if the death penalty was abolished, all these extra cost would be prevented. The trial itself could at times be avoided because defendants are much more likely to insist on a trial, when they are facing a possible death sentence. That is evident, as shown by the lack of guilty pleas in capital punishment cases. Self-preservation is a natural instinct. Therefore, even after conviction, defendants are constitutionally mandating appeals, which involves both prosecution and defense costs. Regardless of the outcome, these costs are the norm for every case where the death is sought. So in actuality, the true cost of the death penalty includes all the added expenses of the unsuccessful trials that sought the death penalty but failed to achieve the sentence of death.. And to make matters worse, if a defendant is convicted but not sentence to death, the state will still have to pay the price of life imprisonment, in addition to the increased trial expenses. In Florida, each execution costs the state $3.2 million. In California, it was reported that the state could save $90 millions a year if it abolished the death penalty. The New York Department of Correctional Services estimated that implementing the death penalty would cost the state about $118 million annually. The money that would be spent to implement the death penalty in New York for five

American Music essays

American Music essays This book is an in-depth look at contemporary American popular music and the kind of musicianship that is appropriate to it. Stith attempts to explain dynamics of rock musicians by studying how the skills, ideas, and human identities associated with this population manage to be created and transmitted in the context of industrialized culture. In addition, he is trying to examine how musicians begin to take on and are characterized by that identity. Stith is interested with this phenomenon because these people were not successful or had not received a record contract, yet their identities remained intact. Stith gathered his data through six years of sporadic field study throughout Colorado, Illinois, Washington, California, Missouri, and southern France. He used both observational and interview methods in his study, however, it was participant observation that was used as a primary data-gathering technique. He presented himself as a musician and indicated in some form that he was interested in forming a group. At times he presented himself as a performer, other times as a role organizer, yet never hiding the fact that he was involved in social research. His secondary data-gathering technique was that he conducted several informal interviews with several members of these rock groups that he was associated with. These interviews were conducted during down-times, usually times where the group was hanging out, eating, traveling, etcetera. The size of the sample Stith studied and the ways in which the data-gathering techniques were administered differed from group to group, usually because his role within the population wasnt always constant. The interview questions that were asked were hardly ever uniform, they were administered differently to suit different individuals in specific situations. ...

Evaluation of the Company's Strategy Coursework - 1

Evaluation of the Company's Strategy - Coursework Example The company operates in two segments that include retail and financial services. Its financial services include personal banking mainly mortgages, credit cards, personal loans, and savings (Tesco Plc, 2013). Analysis and critical evaluation of Tesco’s strategic position In the first assignment, the SWOT analysis, Porter’s five forces model and PESTEL framework have been used to analyze the external environment surrounding Tesco Plc. Its opportunities include opening up of its stores within the country and outside it, the building up of its clients around the world, and its strategy to expand to the Indian market. In 2009 the company opened up 620 stores out of which 435 were international thereby creating a network of commercial stores which would help Tesco benefit economically and reduce systemic threats. Its 1 million clients in 2010 provided an excellent opportunity for it to attract customers. Also its expansion in the Indian market would enable Tesco to maintain a nd grow. This will result in the strengthening of Tesco’s position in the global market. However threats continue to surround Tesco as the economical conditions are changing continuously economic recession and the financial crisis has to lead to unemployment and a decrease in sales. Moreover, as new giant departmental stores are emerging in the retail business Tesco is facing stiff competition as a result. Due to the financial crisis in the UK and the subsequent contraction of the economy, Tesco has faced problems in consolidating its position in the UK market. A decrease in sales has resulted due to low income and unemployment that people face and are therefore changing their buyer habits. As a result consumers are changing their behavior so as to allow them to spend on products and... As Tesco continues to explore its opportunities to expand in countries where there exist high returns, it also aims to be competitive by realizing its customer demands and needs so that they are able to provide them with a great experience. For that it needs to conduct frequent market reviews to analyze customer satisfaction. Also due to inflation the price setting should be done such that it attracts customers thereby creating a greater competitive environment. The focus is also on improve the performance of its current markets to maintain and grow its market share. The implementation of strategies that focus on customer reviews to tackle competition and grow could lead to better performance as most of the threats and weaknesses Tesco is as a result of rivals and the economic conditions. Sustainable growth is one of Tesco’s strategies. This means that profits are not the only governing factor in expanding but growing with responsibility thereby creating a sustainable operatin g environment. Knowledge Hub was started by Tesco for its suppliers to encourage the sharing of environmentally friendly ideas. Tesco wants to create a sustainable supply chain and by 2020 it aims to cut down emissions by twenty to thirty percents.

Image Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Image Analysis - Essay Example The society he represented became known and understood through some of his famous works (Jackson 79). It made them, as people, proud to know they had representation in the form of an artist. This paper will examine one photograph by Carlos Bernal, and the concept behind the image. It was after receiving funding from the Mexican American Legal Defence that prompted Carlos to follow the path of photography. He had the experience after joining the faculty at the college and developed the institution’s photograph program. This funding enabled Carlos and a few other faculty members, to explore the possibility of bringing out the subculture of society through photography. In the following photograph, Carlos decided to capture the Martinez brothers in a candy store. Through such photographs, he brought out the family ties, and the life they led. This was the spiritual and cultural journey Carlos set out to achieve with the belief of making everyone understand the nature of a subcultu re (Kaplan 165). Analysis of the image Images people see in photographs often have a consistent and recurrent structure (Debroise 176). This is based on the standards of the camera setting, and how it may be placed. In the image of the Martinez brothers, Carlos decided to take the picture while behind a glass frame. He did this so as to capture some of the products that the candy store also had to offer. By putting these two together, the audience gets to understand the closeness of the family relations, and ties to this economic activity. Carlos often tied his subjects to material possessions in order to capture a way of life. Photographs that have the ability to do this often bring out more than just colour and imagery into the mind of the audience. He understands the innovation of having his subjects in a photograph surrounding themselves with treasured possessions. Many at times, this further leads to a superior understanding of the subjects (Debroise 187). One can respect the s ubjects based on the things that surround them, hence; one might try to find a deeper meaning to the image presented. In the Martinez photograph, the two children appear oblivious of the photographer’s intention. This means that their emotions are displayed genuinely. He did not have to tell them to smile for the camera or pretend to do anything. Such works often depict the subject’s emotions and what they are thinking. His technical expertise is seen in the way he brings out the candy’s bright colours. The audience may be drawn to the candy, but not too much because; they might lose focus of the primary objective. The clothes, the Martinez brothers wore showed of the daily attire the subculture wore during daily life. It is such unawareness displayed by the brothers that brings out the daily life of the subculture. In most subcultures, the mode of dressing is an enormous aspect because it brings out how individuals chose to live their lives, and how they prefer to relate to each other (Debroise 216). The image’s compositional design brings out the colour of their clothes perfectly. In his subsequent images, one gets to see the evolution of the sub-culture’s mode of dressing. In the image, the audience gets to see of the age difference that exists between the two brothers. It is through such imagery that Carlos brought out the distinct way of life of the

Wal Mart Marketing Audit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Wal Mart Marketing Audit - Essay Example Market of a company means the present and future customers of its goods and services. Wal-Mart's market indicates its actual and potential buyers. Apart from United States of America, Wal-Mart market is gradually expanding in some other regions of the world; such as, UK, China, USA, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Russia etc. Wal-Mart has a favorable stock- market in some regions by means of which the company avails the advantage of selling out their shares at the significantly increased rate. Some stockholders contribute professionally-managed funds that widely help in buying and selling huge numbers of shares for pension plans, unions, and other large groups. Others are individuals who are saving for their retirements, children's college funds or other needs. In both cases, the goal is to buy the shares when the stock is low and sell is high. Neil Currie and Svetlana Sukhanova states that "Wal-Mart may follow its past practice of using a joint venture or acquisition to enter the market " (Ermakova, 2008). From a minute analysis of above data, it is clear that MOSCOW is the most profitable area of Wal-Mart in the present context as well as of future. Wal-Mart is expecting that the future profit will be doubled in MOSCOW. MOSCOW- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, may expand into Russia within the next two years to capitalize on a swelling economy and a dearth of competitors may be taken place (Ermakova, 2008). 1.2. Customers Customers are the most significant fraction of a company. A company has to study its customer markets very closely. There are 5 types of customer markets; such as, Consumer markets, Business markets, Reseller markets, Government market, International markets. All of those markets want to satisfy themselves by qualified goods and services at a reasonable price .Every customer's resources are limited and in order to get maximum

Ethical standards require businesses and individuals to use moral principles

Ethical standards require businesses and individuals to use moral principles One difference between an ordinary decision and an ethical one lies in the point where the accepted rules no longer serve, and the decision maker is faced with the responsibility for weighing values and reaching a judgement in a situation which is not quite the same as any he or she faced before. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, 1994) Ethics is not simply a glorified intellectual game, of no practical relevance. We become moral individuals by practice; good at being truthful by habitually telling the truth; becoming honest by trying always not to be dishonest. There is nothing abstract about business ethics. It is simply another tool to help the practical business man or woman deal with the endlessly recurring moral dilemmas of business life. There is a connection between our perception of the world and the way in which we make decisions in the world. If managers believe that they are and ought to be rational egoists, concerned only with maximising profit, they will take the decisions accordingl y. If, on the other hand, they are aware of moral theories and social policies that affect their own societies and the wider world, then they will be likely to make rather different and more sophisticated judgements, (Vallance, 1995). The idea of ethics in business focuses on the moral or ethical actions of individuals. It is in this sense that many people, in discussing business ethics, immediately raise examples of immoral or unethical activity by individuals. Included with this notion, however, is also the criticism of multinational corporations that use child labour or pay pitifully low wages to employees in less Developed Countries. Many business people are strongly influenced by their religious beliefs and the ethical norms that they have been taught as part of their religion, and apply these norms in their business activities. Aaron Feuerstein is a prime example of someone whose actions after fire destroyed almost all of his Malden Mills factory complex kept his workers on the payroll until he could rebuild. He has stated often and publicly that he just did what his Jewish faith told him was the right thing to do (Richard T De George). The study of Business Ethics has evolved through many years since before the 1960s. Business ethics continues to change rapidly as most organisations recognise the advantages of improved ethical conduct in business and there is an increased understanding between business ethics and financial performance. Up until 1960 ethical issues related to business were often discussed theologically. Through churches, synagogues and mosques, individual moral issues related to business ethics were addressed. Religious leaders raised questions about fair wages, labour practises and the morality of capitalism. Courses began being offered in social ethics in some catholic colleges and universities. During the 1970s business ethics began to develop as a field of study. Theologians and religious thinkers laid down groundwork suggesting that certain religious principles could be applied to business activities. Because of this professors began to teach and write about corporate social responsibility. By the end of 1970s a number of ethical issues had emerged and business ethics became a common expression. In the 1980s business academics and practitioners acknowledged business ethics as a field of study. Business ethics organisations grew and expanded to include thousands of members. Many rules of business began changing at a phenomenal rate because of less regulation. Corporations had more freedom to make decisions, and the government developed new mandatory federal sentencing guidelines to control firms that were involved in misconduct. Business ethics today is still an evolving field of study. Business ethical issues can be approached from the perspective of law, philosophy, theology or social sciences; or they can dealt with in a pragmatic spirit, seeking solution for specific managerial problems. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002.) Some ethical principles include: Fudicary Duty, Property Principle, Reliability Principle, Transparency Principle and Dignity Principle. Fudicary Duty involves each officer having a legal fudicary duty to act in the best interests of the stakeholders and other employee within the firm such as, loyalty. Property Principle is based on the belief that every employee should respect property as well as the rights of the owners of the property for example, theft. Reliability Principle believes that it is the employees responsibility to honour the commitments that they have made to the firm for example, breaching a contract. Transparency Principle is based on the belief that every employee should conduct business in a truthful and open manner and assumes they will not make decisions based on a personal agenda. Dignity Principle believes that each employee needs to respect the dignity of all individuals such as safety and privacy. Fairness Principle based on belief that stakeholders who have vested interest in the firm should be treated fairly for example they should be entitled to fair reciprocal. Citizenship Principle believes that every employee should act as responsible citizen in the community, for example they should abide and respect the laws of the community. Responsiveness Principle based on belief that employees have the responsibility to respond to requests for information about operations from various stakeholders. Being socially responsible will enable you to get greater profits, be more responsive to consumer demands and attract investment. An example of a socially responsible company is The Body Shop (Harvey, 2010). Social Responsibility is the obligation a business assumes to have for society. To be socially responsible is to maximise positive effects and minimise negative effects on society. The economic responsibilities of a business are to produce goods and services that meet the needs and wants of society at a price that can perpetuate the business while also satisfy the needs of the investors. (Ferrell Fraedrich, 1994) The legal responsibilities of businesses are the laws that they must obey. (Ferrell Fraedrich, 1994) The civil laws are the rights and duties of individuals and organisations. The criminal laws prohibit specific actions and impose fines and/or imprisonment as punishment for breaking the law. (Harvey, 2010) At a minimum, companies are expected to be responsible for their employees obeying local, state and federal laws. Ethical responsibilities are the behaviours or activities that are expected of the business by society but are not codified in law. (Ferrell Fraedrich, 1994 ) These are the standards, norms, or expectations that reflect the concern of major stakeholders. (Harvey, 2010) Consider the responsibility issues for many riverboat casinos that serve their patrons as many free drinks as they want. The result is that many of the drunken patrons may decide to drive after leaving their premises and then cause an accident. For example, one patron at the Players Casino in Louisiana, had twelve drinks in two hours, got into his vehicle and then crashed into a van carrying five people, causing three of them to lose their lives. Although the casino operators fulfilled their legal responsibility to provide alcoholic beverages to adults only, they sometimes fail to address the ethical issues presented by the spirit of law. The final obligation a business assumes towards society is philanthropic responsibilities. These are the behaviours and activities that society desire and business values dictate. Philanthropic responsibilities represent the companys des ire to give back to charity. For example, Ben Jerrys donate 7.5% of pretax profits to charity. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002.) The idea of social responsibility became prominent during the 1960s in response to changing social values. Many businesses have tried to determine what relationships, obligations and duties are appropriate between the business organisation and society. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002.) Therefore, Social Responsibility can be viewed as a social contract with society, whereas ethics relates to carefully thought-out rules of moral philosophy that guide individual decision-making. While business ethics relates to the effect of moral rules and principles on individual decisions, social responsibility is concerned with the decisions the organisation makes and their effect on society, (Ferrell Fraedrich, 1994). Corporate Social Responsibility refers to any voluntary business activity that goes beyond legal compliance, enhancing economic performance and contributing to sustainable development of the environment and the community in which a business operates. Corporate Social Responsibility is a decision for business and generally a companys CSR activity will fall under one of four priority headings: workplace, environment, community or marketplace. Corporate Social Responsibility is getting more and more attention as the natural complement of social activities and business sustainability is gaining recognition. Contemporary developments, values and stakeholder expectations have shifted and to survive companies must develop new activities and processes that reflect the societal, demographic, economic and legislative changes. Better working relationships with stakeholders can result from the greater management of expectations, (IBEC Policy, 2006). Business ethics attempts to apply general moral principles to business activities in order to resolve, or at least clarify, the moral issues which typically arise in business. (Vallance, 1995) Moral philosophy refers to the principles or rules that people use to decide what is right and wrong. For example, a production manager may be guided by a general philosophy of management that emphasises encouraging workers to know as much as possible about the product they are manufacturing. It comes into play when the manager must make decisions such as whether to notify employees in advance of upcoming layoffs. Although the workers might like advance warning, its side effects may have an affect on production quality and quantity. There are many moral philosophies and each one is complex. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) Some types include: Teleology, Deontology, The Relativist Perspective, Virtue Ethics and Justice. Teleology is an act considered morally right or acceptable if it produces some desired result i.e., realisation of self-interest or utility. The two teleological philosophies are Egoism and Utilitarianism. Egoism is the right or acceptable behaviour in terms of the consequences for the individual. (Harvey, 2010) In an ethical decision- making situation, an egoist will probably choose the alternative that contributes most to their own self interest. Many believe that egoists are inherently unethical, that such people and organisations are short term oriented and will take advantage of any opportunity or consumer. For example, some telemarketers demonstrate this negative egoistic tendency when they prey on elderly consumers who may be vulnerable because of loneliness or the fear of losing financial independence. Many senior citizens fall victim to fraudulent telemarketers each year. In many cases they lose all their savings and in some cases their homes. Utilitarianism is concerned with the consequences in terms of seeking the greatest good for the greates t number of people. Utilitarian decision making relies on a systematic comparison of the costs and the benefits to all affected parties. Using a cost benefit analysis, a utilitarian decision maker calculates the utility of the consequences of all possible alternatives and then selects the one that results in the greatest utility. For example, the Supreme Court has said that employers are responsible for the sexual misconduct of supervisors, even if the employers knew nothing about it. Thus, it has established a strict standard for harassment on the job. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) Deontology focuses on the rights of the individual and on the intentions associated with behaviour not on the consequences. It believes that there are some things we should not do regardless of the utility. (Harvey, 2010) Unlike utilitarians, deontologists argue that there are some things that we should not do, even to maximise utility. For example, deontologists would consider it wrong to kill or harm an innocent person, no matter how much utility might result from doing so, because such an action would infringe on that persons rights as an individual. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) The Relativist Perspective states that ethical behaviour is defined by experience of the individual and the group. (Harvey, 2010) Relativists use themselves or the people around them as their basis for defining ethical standards. The relativist observes the actions of members of a group and attempts to determine the group consensus on a given behaviour. A positive consensus signifies that the action is considered right or ethical. Such judgements may not remain the same forever i.e., advertising in the accounting profession. Relativism acknowledges that we live in a society in which people have many different views and bases from which to justify decisions as right or wrong. The relativist looks to the interacting group and tries to determine probable solutions based on the group consensus. When formulating business strategies and plans, a relativist would try to anticipate the conflicts that will arise between the different philosophies held by members of the organisation, its suppliers, customers and the community at large. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) Virtue Ethics consists of trust, self-control, empathy, fairness and truthfulness. (Harvey, 2010) Attributes in contrast to virtue would include lying, cheating, fraud and corruption. The problem of virtue ethics comes in its implementation within and between cultures. Those who practise virtue ethics go beyond societal norms. For example, if an organisation tacitly approves of corruption, the employee who adheres to the virtues of trust and truthfulness would consider it wrong to sell unneeded repair parts despite the organisations approval to do so. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) Justice is fair treatment and due reward in accordance with ethical or legal standards. Justice deals more with the issue of wh at individuals feel they are due based on their rights and performance in the workplace. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) One type of organisational justice is distributive justice. It is based on the evaluation of the outcome or results of the business relationship. If you perceive that you are underpaid, you may cut back on your amount of work output. Another type is procedural justice. It is based on the processes and activities that produce the results or outcomes. A procedural justice climate is expected to positively influence workplace attitudes and behaviours related to work group cohesion. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) Interactional justice is another type of justice. It is based on the evaluation of the communication processes used in the business relationship. Supervisor visibility and work-group perceptions of cohesion are associated with procedural justice. Wainwright Bank and Trust Corporation in Boston has made a commitment to promote justice to all its stake holders with a sense of inclusion and diversity that extends from the boardroom to the mail room. This example illustrates that procedural justice seeks to establish relationships by providing understanding and inclusion in the decision-making process. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2002) Organisational Justice is the study of fairness in organisations. Companies may promote organisational justice by paying their employees what they deserve, offering workers a voice, openly following fair procedures, training all workers to be fair and explaining decisions thoroughly in a manner demonstrating dignity and respect. (Harvey, 2010) An ethical issue is a problem, situation, or opportunity requiring an individual or organisation to choose among several actions that must be evaluated as right and wrong, ethical or unethical. Ethical issues typically arise because of conflicts between individuals personal moral philosophies and values and the values and attitudes of the organisations in which they work and the society in which they live. Ethical issues can be explored in terms of the major participants and functions of the business. A good rule of thumb is that an activity approved by most members of an organisation and customary in the industry is probably ethical. An issue, activity, or situation that can withstand open discussion and survive untarnished probably poses no ethical problem. (Ferrell Fraedrich, 1994). A reason for unethical behaviour is individual differences in cognitive moral development. Situational determinants of unethical behaviour involves the organisation encouraging behaviour that violates ethical standards or workers emulate the unethical behaviour of their superiors. (Harvey, 2010)

Field International Case Study :: Field International, Case Studies, business,

Field International is a large production company that operates for fifteen years. This company has three divisions: Field Production, Field Music, and the new venture, Field Advertising. The president and chairman of the board, Lawrence Field, has operated this business in a pooled interdependence fashion. Each division is directed independently by a vice president, and evaluated in the same independent basis. Recently, two major clients complained directly to Field about some production delays of the Advertising Division. Therefore Field decided to meet with his three vice presidents on a weekly luncheon; so the two experienced vice presidents could contribute to the one that is having problems. In addition, he taught that this would be a good occasion to change the usual independent method of operation of each division to a new reciprocal interdependence form of operation where all can cooperate with each other. However this sudden change cause a negative reaction on his v ice presidents, and Field had to drop this idea of change. Consequently, Field International is going through communications problem that could damage the growth of his company. First, Mr. Field tried to impose a radical change on the operation of the business without notifying to the vice presidents of each division. During long time, the production vice president and the music vice president have worked in an independent basis and during this time they get used to it. So, when they get Mr. Durkey’s memo they probably thought that now the authority that they used to have was been restricted without any reason. Also, they could feel offended by the sudden show of distrust of Mr. Field. After all, they had been working for long time for the company without having major problems. In the same way the new advertising vice president was aware of this independent way of operation within the company. Thus, he also must felt professionally underestimated. In addition, the two major clients of the company made the mistake of going over his head which cause an immense indignation on him. In the same way Mr. Field made the mistake of exposing the adverti sing problems in front of the other two divisions without knowing the magnitude of the problem. All these complications contribute to the gloomy atmosphere of the meeting. Next, characteristics like the setting of the meeting and the personality of the employees also contribute to the development of the problem.