Ethics and policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Ethics and policies - Essay Example The intense and dynamic nature of business pressures may not provide enough time for reflection and with the high stakes involved it may be tempting to compromise on ideals. Moreover, well-minded people often exhibit major differences in opinions about what constitutes ethical behavior and how these ethical decisions need to be made, further compounding the complex nature of the subject. A lot of evidence that we discuss in this paper shows that the advantages gained in taking an ethical stance are well worth the efforts taken in this often tricky path. This paper identifies the inherent long term benefits of actively managing the business ethics process in organizations and explores the value in ethical leadership especially in the air travel industry using relevant examples. The ethical issues that have afflicted companies like Enron, WorldCom and Tyco have brought the impact of ethics violations to the popular attention in the United States. Parmalat, Adecco, Ahoid and Skandia have grabbed the media focus in Europe. In all these scandals involving breach of corporate ethics, revelations have been followed by investigations, accusations, claims and counter claims. Legal wrangling involving formal investigations, testimony, evidence trials, verdicts and punishments have gained relentless media coverage. The resulting damage done to the reputation of these businesses is enormous. As a result, the employee morale becomes very low in this worrisome, suspicious and discouraging environment. May International, a management consultation firm, recently conducted a survey of businesses in US and in Italy to determine how business owners viewed corporate ethics. Concern for business and personal reputation was the reason most often (54% of respondents) stated by Italian business owners for concern about ethics. The most common reason (43%) noted by U.S. business owners for their ethics concern was the basic belief that

The Land Registration Bill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

The Land Registration Bill - Essay Example One significant step towards achieving the mirror principle, a step which is particularly welcome, has been the phasing out or complete removal of a number of overriding interests by the 2002 Act. This is because the 2002 Act envisages that the majority of interests in land will only be capable of being created when simultaneously registered. However, admitting to there being overriding interests undermines the ‘mirror principle’. These un-registrable rights, deemed so important that they do not require registration and which have to date been given statutory protection, dilutes the fundamental objective on which the 2002 Act is based. Lord Denning in Strand Securities v. Caswell spoke of the purpose of the overriding interest in Section 70(1)(g) of the Land Registration Act, 1925 (the â€Å"1925 Act†) as being to â€Å"protect the person in actual occupation of land from having his rights lost in the welter of registration†. He further stated that such a p erson may â€Å"simply stay there and do nothing† but will nonetheless be protected. The 1925 Act listed out the ‘old law’ overriding interests in Section 70(1). Section 70(1) consisted of a number of lettered paragraphs. Many of the types of interest listed in Section 70(1) were unimportant; in practice there were five important categories of overriding interest. â€Å"The guiding principle on which it [the Bill] proceeds is that interests should be overriding only where it is unreasonable to expect them to be protected on the Register.†

Value Chain Of Unilever Management Essay

Value Chain Of Unilever Management Essay Any profit motive concern would like to keep the costs to the minimum and maximize profits that can be sustainable as well. Lean production and waste elimination is the product of years of innovation to reduce costs. (Karlsson and Ahlstrom, 1996) This has worked to the favor of external entities such as suppliers and customers, and to some extent, the employees. Companies have realized the importance to involve the community as a whole in the process to foster a sustainable infrastructure that can ensure growth for the company and other associated with it. Introduction Unilever is a large multinational company, having its sourcing, production and sales throughout the world. There are a large number of fast moving consumer goods including foods, beverages, home and personal care products, and cleaning agents. A single category of products sell under various brands, having different attributes and varieties within a single brand. Some brands are limited to certain regions while some brands are under partnerships or have been acquired from local companies. Production of many products has been outsourced to other companies, under strategic alliances, in order to cut on cost of production, like Lux. The company has been continuously engaged in implementing such strategic moves. To improve the value chain, the secondary activities are highly evident as well as the primary activities. Lean Production at Unilever Unilever has a focus toward eliminating waste and bringing lean production into practice, right from the sources through internal processes to the consumers. With its complex procurement network and production scattered in different places, the possibilities for further enhancement in the value chain are endless. Unilever aims to be a multi-local company, which can understand local needs, and produce new products tailored to local needs.(Jones and Decker, 2007) This localization takes into account the different strategies that have to be put into practice for the same product in different locations, which can be put into reducing costs. There have been various success stories from around the world in this regard. In Peru, Unilever does not has a production facility so it uses the cost effective strategic option of outsourcing to local companies including Alicorp S.A.A., which reduced labor requirements and more focus was given to marketing the products. (SOMO, 2006) The companies involved in these strategic alliances have been strong companies. Unilever has a policy to find a partner with a high innovation potential, that can be used to ensure efficient synchronization with Unilevers own supply chain. As Bonney, 2002 has said that the company practices have partners dedicating a team solely for joint development exercises, where knowledge is effectively shared and applied, and commercial agreements are reached on patents, which signified long term partnership approach. Garijo, 2002, adds that Unilever, before going for an alliance, analyzes its internal capability in a particular domain and asks a potential partner to do the same on its own end. Future agreements are based on such defined capabilities. The gradual shift from house of brands to branded house has involved better internal processes. One example is their investment in information technology, which is been superseded by knowledge management practices over the last decade. Knowledge workshops have led to the creation of the Community of Practice (CoP), which pertain to a certain domain such as supply chain or production RD, who are involved in Knowledge Management Groups (KMGs), which continually enrich the knowledge of the employees. Marketing is one domain where KMGs are becoming active, owing to the tacit nature of localized knowledge in this area, while there are already dozens in supply chain and production technology. (Pos et al, 2005) Unilever has used CoP effectively to deal with Agronomy issues in areas with scarce water. In Australia, innovative irrigation systems were developed while in Brazil, an improved system curbed over-irrigation and associated problems. The resulting agricultural products are low-cost, better quality and have lower disease rates. Through this way of sourcing of raw materials, Unilever has established long term control over its sourcing needs. Given the leverage of its size, Unilever can further and continuously leverage its size to strengthen the very entities that it interacts with; the customers, suppliers and strategic production partners. Waste Management Being a large and growing company, the company needs continuous innovation to manage its waste along the value chain. It has been observed that outsourcing looks convincing but it discounts the control factor. For example in Perus case, the outsourcing has caused considerable cost reduction however it has also made it difficult to impose the standards practiced by the company. The layoffs resulting from the outsourcing and further layoffs by the outsourced company, have spoken about the cost to the employees of such strategic moves. The company has reduced the waste of over-employment and has improved efficiency but created the waste in the form of tarnished labor relations, which shows the inability of the company to follow its own Business Partner Code. (SOMO, 2006) As already discussed, Unilever is effectively improving its inbound logistics. The case of Palm Oil controversy, is one of the reasons to do so, and has in fact made the company respond quickly to such issues. In the case, Unilever could not fully adhere to its Sustainable Development Report 2009 where the company aims to grow while improving the environment and recognizes that each stage of the value chain can affect the environment. Prior to this and earlier declarations, the company had been working hard to restore its reputation, damaged by Greenpeaces Cooking the Climate report, where the company was named as a largest buyer of palm oil made from non-sustainable sources. Further media revelation of the companys continued purchase compelled the company to order its Indonesian supplier to stop buying from a local rainforest. Despite the companys successful sourcing of 15% of its tea and palm oil from sustainable resources, the company has been inconsistent in fulfilling its pledge s. The company has to practically prove its 2015 plan to source all its raw material from sustainable sources. (Drnach and Dowding, 2010) Unilever has been able to nearly eliminate waste in its production facilities and in the outsourced production. This has been due to the implementation of latest technology in its mass production models. At the outbound logistics domain and marketing sales domain, more and more services are being outsourced. There are a large number of companies like advertising agencies, brand activation, event management, media planning, business process outsourcing, distributor networks and more which are specialists in their respective domains (McGovern, 2005). It has been beneficial for the company to outsource to these companies due to the nature of these tasks. However, a collaborative and strategic partnership is made with these companies which can ensure better quality of results. The waste that occurs in this stage is that of the work rejected or delayed, for example, an advertising agency comes up with an advertising idea which is rejected or the distributor mishandles distribution, resul ting in inventory losses. Another waste that occurs in this area is in the form of delays that result in stockpiles of inventory. The distributor can misunderstand the change in the product brand image and fails to distribute to the markets intended for in the new branding. Failing to distribute the product properly can cause the product to lose its repeat or prospective customer. (Spence, 1977) The dual company structure does not create any impediments in the value chain as an equalization agreement eliminated dual board and management. (Jones, 2002) Under an agreed structure, where beneath the two parent companies are many local subsidiaries, the degree of involvement with the subsidiaries is gradually increasing, like its strategic plans, and moving from house of brands to a branded house. (Daye and VanAuken, 2007) It is highly recommended that Unilever should be more proactive by enlisting support and collaboration with their distributors and outsourced companies for marketing sales. The company should avoid being heavily dependent on the outsourced companies by having a system to create its own plans while approaching these companies.(Lei and Hitt, 1995) As for the inbound logistics, I adhere to Drnach, 2010 recommendations that the sources of supply should be tracked and audited regularly. The company should take a step in the improving its value chain without waiting for competitors to do the same, where there might be short term losses. It is also recommended that the knowledge management groups and related programs should be taken to other domains in the value chain by making its use compulsory for maintaining employment. Instead of using community of practice as a tool, the company should consider community of interest in order to create an acceptance of the knowledge management among the employees. It is important, also, to assign enriched roles or provide them alternate roles along the value chain, once the outsourcing has been done, rather than to lay them off. Any addition to the value chain, despite the cost, will add value to the organization as long term. The waste generated from the production itself should be utilized as a raw material for other production processes. Idle time can be utilized in training especially for factory workers, if it cannot be reduced immediately or not at all. This time can also be used in recreation activities for the employees. Employees should be given the chance to take part in decision making exercises that can help the top managers understand the complexity of problems inside the organization. Before the recommendations can be implemented, there should be a comprehensive audit of the value chain of the entire organization that can refine the recommendations. Impact of Change The recommendations will increase the efficiency of the organization and fewer resources would be used in production process. If implemented in letter and spirit, and with greater efforts, the recommendations can provide benefits beyond the intended ones. For example, by enlisting the support of distributors, the company can gather more information about the customers, through the retailers. Such information can be more meaningful than a consumer research conducted by a research company. With technological collaboration (like RFID Tags) with the distributors, the company can track the movement of the products from the production to the consumer in real-time, thus identifying where and when the products reach first and where the product demand varies owing to different factors, like seasonal and occasional. Distributors can also provide the company with information about changing consumer needs in various parts of the same location, leading to a different variety to be researched and launched for that area only, with a limited marketing budget. Maintaining linkages with the outsourced companies can be beneficial while having its own plans before approaching the outsourced companies can be even more beneficial owing to reduced dependencies on those companies. For example, it the company wishes to reposition the brand of an ice-cream, it should do complete planning of the work that is to be outsourced to different companies. With a plan in hand, the company will have a benchmark to compare the results with, so that they will not have to approach the companies again and again for improvements. The company can send a dedicated team to work along with these companies to report back the updates regularly so that the concurrent adjustment and enhancements can be made, rather than making a second approach to adjust the changes. For the inbound logistics the recommendations of tracking and auditing of the sources of raw material will improve the raw material quality and ensure long term availability. This will be possible as the audits will provide information whether the source of the raw material is sustainable. Furthermore the audit will provide information about the supply chain origins. For instance, in a South Asian country, the company can sell packaged milk like Nestle has. The company can reach the dairy farmers, who can be provided vital information as to the time they should deposit the milk. Technology at the village can be enhanced by installing lactometers that can measure how pure the milk is and the farmers are then paid according to the freshness of the milk rather than large quantities of low quality milk. Farmers would be encouraged to take care of their livestock to improve milk quality. Meanwhile the company can educate the farmers on taking care of the livestock through modern technique s such as medication and veterinarian care facilities. The village itself would find incentive to acquire such facilities. Thus by improving the technology of the village i.e. by going on a focused corporate social responsibility initiative, the company has a considerably better raw material that saves processing time and cost. Short term losses for implementing a value chain initiative can be high where the industry structure is not compatible with the initiative. A large company such as Unilever can bear such losses, but the impact it will have on the existing environment and the industry structure will be large enough to influence other players in the industry to follow suit. In my recommendation, that the company should not be reluctant at implementing a value chain initiative even if the losses seem to be high. The enhancement in the value chain will thus be beneficial to the industry not just the organization. The first company to implement the change will be the first one to benefit from the change, while other companies will be forced to follow the new industrial standards to survive. The long term sustainability will be created in term of continuous supply of better quality raw material from a sustainable source. The recommendations on forming knowledge management groups for more employees to share knowledge in their area of practice and interest, will considerably improve the quality of human resources at the organization. Community of interest should be promoted over practice, as it can diversify the views of the employees so that they can become more occupationally mobile rather than restricted strictly to their area of specialization.(Curtis, 1959) Furthermore the strategic moves by the company are expected to result in shifting existing employees to different areas on the value chain. The more occupationally mobile the employees are, the more quicker they will be able to learn their new roles, reducing hiring and training costs as well as retaining the employees along with the company specific knowledge. New employees would have to be taught about the organization from scratch, and would require more training. Lastly the idle time and waste generated by the production process itself can be managed to provide training time to the employees. This will avoid wastage of time in activities unrelated to work. If it is possible, the idle time can be used as a reason to employ part time wage workers who can work between the idle time intervals, while being trained during the intervals. Technology can be used to allow workers to work from home, if they are well trained in their area of work, and use the free time to maintain a reasonable work/home life balance. Waste from the production process itself can be used in other production processes in another factory of the company. For example, certain waste material from the production of soaps can be utilized in producing more soaps. Improved value chain will provide benefits to the community and the company. If both of them grow well, the benefit is passed on to all other players in the market. Framework to Respond to Danger Signals Keeping the Porters value chain model as a tool, a new first-line manager at Unilever can use the framework to identify the waste that occurs at each stage of the value chain, find the danger signals of each waste and respond to it. Inbound Logistics The waste can be the lost production time owing to delay in arrival of raw material, or the low quality raw material. The danger signals can be the number of hours a production process has to be stopped or slowed down, and the number of hours factory workers may have to wait. For each progressive number of hours, the manager has take a certain action. For instance, initially the incoming logistics has to be contacted for verifications of delayed time schedule. Later the production manager has to be informed, while workers are to be informed of the expected time and compensation. If the logistics is too much delayed, the managers can send the workers back to reduce wage cost and inform the higher management through production manager. Production and Operation The waste can include the idle time inherent in various machines in factory due to cool-downs and maintenance. This can cause wasted labor hours, which are paid for the idle times as well. The number of hours elapsed since the shut down is the danger signals. Initially the manager has to inform the workers to wait while the maintenance is in progress. On further delay, the workers are paid and sent back, while the manager liaisons with the maintenance team to know the status and inform the same to production manager. Outbound Logistics The waste includes inventory losses on mishandling, the lost consumer due to delay, misdistribution or low stock at the retailers end and losses owing to miscommunication with the distributors. The danger signals can be the loss percentage. As the percentage increases, the danger signals increases, and so a more high level decision has to be taken. For instance, for a small loss, the distributor is sent the first warning, while both company and distributer assume loss and the manager process the proceeding and informs the production manager and accounts department. On a greater loss, the distributor assumes the loss, failing which the manager has to inform the same to the production manager, accounts manager as well as the Marketing department. Marketing and Sales The waste is the time involved in rejected work from an outsourced company, and lost customers owing to failed brand repositioning based on unreliable research. The line manager has little to do with this domain, however the danger signals is the accumulated inventory if the full or partial production has started concurrent to change in, for instance, product attribute takes place, but is not marketed as yet. The manager can stop the production and inform the concerned positions. Service The waste is the loss of consumer due to inability to attend to consumer complaint or suggestion. The danger signals can be the increase in unattended consumer complaints on which the production has not taken any action, as well as an increase in the inventory levels. The manager has to inform the production to check the complaints and improve the product quality, while coordinate the production with procurement in case a machine update in needed. Procurement The waste that can occur at this stage of the value chain is the negative publicity as well the long term depletion of a raw material from a non-sustainable source. The danger signals can be the increase in inventory as fewer orders are being taken. The manager has to inform the procurement and marketing department after a certain inventory level is reached. Technology Development The waste is the lost production time due to an outsourced production facility not being fully compliant with the technology standards set by Unilever. The danger sign can be the total number of accumulated idle time in a week. Considering that the line manager is employed by Unilever at the outsourced facility, the manager can first inform the outsourced company production department, then to his companys outsourcing manager and production manager. Later the technical team of Unilever can be informed to perform necessary adjustments. Human Resource Management The waste can be the lost production time caused by delays caused by training new personnel. The number of hours elapsed since shutdown are the danger signals. Line manager can inform the human resource and production department to quicken the training period Firm Infrastructure The waste can be the lost production time caused by delays due to unrealistic plans and lack of finance. The number of hours elapsed since shutdown are the danger signals. Line manager can only inform the management of the happenings and try in his capacity to facilitate solutions. Conclusion Operations management is now the key to achieve faster production rates and improve both the top line and the bottom line. (Mukherjee, 2009) This area of study is increasingly being merged with the domain of marketing based on indirect responsibility because of the realization of need to be agile in competition.(Pycraft, 2000) To make sure that consumers are reached in time, sourcing, production and distribution has to be achieved quickly and efficiently.

Farenheit 451 as a Warning :: Farenheit 451 Essays

Farenheit 451 as a Warning What are the rights of a government? Does the government have the right to control what we think and where we get our intellectual stimulation? After the Constitution of the United States was drafted, a Bill of Rights containing ten articles was adopted and ratified by the thirteen states. In the first article, it guaranteed the people the freedom of religion, speech, the press, and public assembly. People were given the right to enrich themselves with knowledge accumulated through their readings from whatever source they chose and to make criticism towards the government as they saw fit. Because of the liberty given to its people, it is no wonder that the United States government is considered a model government in the world today. Any sound government would allow its people to make their own free judgement according to their knowledge from any sources they may gather. Ray Bradbury's vision of a disordered world was expressed in his book Fahrenheit 451. Set in the future, it deals with a man's struggle between his destructive government position and his inner self-conscience. Guy Montag was a fireman but he did not put out fires. Instead, he created them through the burning of books. This was what Bradbury was trying to imply through the title of his book, Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which books burn. Montag was leading a fairly happy life until he met a girl, Clarisse, who aroused his deepest feelings and fears. He became curious about the contents of books and wondered why they were so feared. This led him through a series of events which changed his life forever. When Montag asked Beatty about the burning of books he was told, "If you don't want a man to be unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." The futurist government displayed in Fahrenheit 45 1 tried to prevent any feelings or opinions contrary to their own because they did not want to be challenged. Instead, they fed unwanted junk into the minds of their people through the parlor, a wall to wall television. This machine, that does not inspire the thinking process, lead them to make the conclusion that their world revolves around it and nothing else.

Artificial Intelligence Essay

â€Å"The brain is simply a computer made of meat†. Discuss this assertion with reference to the current debate about Artificial Intelligence. In discussing the assertion â€Å"The human brains is a computer made of meat†, there must be a reference to Artificial Intelligence. As Martin Minsky (1968) noticed â€Å"Artificial Intelligence is the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done my men†. About Intelligence it can be defined as the power of seeing, learning, understanding and judging though a mental process, which requires knowledge, consciousness – subconsiousness and emotion An important example in the field of Artificial Intelligence is the Turing Test. With this test, Alan Turing (1950), claimed that this test can be used to answer the question of whether a computer is capable of thought. The test involves two human beings and one computer. The main idea, is that the human investigator, must figured out with his question which of the other two is the computer. These three are kept in different rooms and communicate each other by computer terminal. The investigator is allowed to ask whatever he likes, until he decides which the computer is. If the computer answers so well, then this computer passes the Turing test and is recognised as intelligent. The most well known researchers have accepted this test as standard of assessing intelligence. But this is test is inaccurate, because even if a computer answers correctly there is no statement of consciousness An other experiment that has to do with A. I. and generally with intelligence, is the â€Å"Chinese Room† by J. Searle. He argued that behaving intelligently was not enough. Here is how the Chinese Room works: there is one person locked in a room. This person has nothing to do with the Chinese language. Also there are two Chinese people outside, who asks the questions, but they do not communicate with any other way with the person inside the room. So, for every Chinese character he has the reply into the box and the only job he is doing is to replace the questions with the right responses from the boxes Searle ‘s point is that although the Chinese room seems to have intelligence and the person inside gives the right answers but he does not really understand Chinese. The only thing he is doing, is following a set of rules, as all the computer systems do. This argument is similar to human memory and the memory is only one part of intelligence. For the human being, our decisions depends on our experiences and background. But memory is only a part of intelligence and not the intelligence it self Some people argue that the true intelligence can never be achieved by a computer. Most computer programs do just the they are programmed for. Some of these, they are caught in endless loops, doing the same thing over and over again. Some other, are more cleverly programmed, when anything goes wrong they can try something else. But if the programme tries to solve the same problem, from the begging, it is going to make the same mistake until it is going to find the right operation to solve the problem. That’s why, many people believe the computers will never be intelligent, because of this lack of common sense. Nowadays, we know many things about how to build them, but we still don’t know how to give them common sense An other disadvantage for people, who believes the brain is a computer made of meat, is the learning ability of computer systems. They need someone continuously update information for them. And the ability of learning is very important to call something intelligent. Also, an other problem is the vision of computer systems. Of course, to call someone at least intelligent, ha can see whatever normal people do, without any instructions for the manufacture On the other, computers have been developed remarkably to a level which reach perfection it terms of speed, calculation and generation in cascade process. Also, new types of computers are been designed, with much more capabilities than the previous one. An example is storage as the years passes we have more storage in less space. But to say that a computer system is intelligent, cannot be based on the above parameters. These systems, have not yet achieved consciousness and therefore limit their ability to judge and understand Also, to call a computer system intelligent it requires some characteristics that they are connected with intelligence in human behaviour: understanding language, problem solving etc. Addinitionally, the human mental process is not based only on data and input. This is because, data are auto-generated and not previous supplied, e. g. a teenager finds a wallet and then decides whether to keep the money or hand them in the police based not onto a previous experience, memory or outside information, but on the criticism developed by consciousness and sub-consciousness. In addition to, there is no computer program that has its own freedom. Each of the computer decisions are based to the instructions that the program contains On the other hand, a classical example of intelligent computer systems, is a well known chess program called â€Å"Deep Thought† , which has beaten a few chess grand masters. The chess computers advance is the fast calculation. The human chess players advance is their power of judgement. However, when a computer system make o move on the chess board, it does not have the sense about the move it makes, he just perfume a series of calculations. Even a not very smart human being can only play chess at a good level, due his ability of fast calculations. But fast calculations is not a signal of intelligence Generally speaking, there are many reason why humans wants to create intelligent machines. The will never be tired, they will always obey etc. But, the building of these machines, have found reaction mostly from the philosophical point of view. That is because if the build of intelligent systems will succeed, this will doubt the uniqness of the human mind. Some experiments of artificial intelligence are the â€Å"Expert Systems†. A definition of expert systems, according the British Computer Society’s Specialist Group on expert system is the following one : â€Å"An expert system is regarded as the embodiment within a computer of knowledge-based component from an expert skill in such a form the system can offer intelligent advise or take intelligent decision about a processing function. A desirable additional characteristic, which many would consider fundamental, is the capability of the system, on demand, to justify its own line of reasoning in a manner directly intelligence to the enquirer† These computer systems, helps us in construction, simulation and diagnosis, for medical and healthy purposes. Some of them are, QMR and MYCIN, which are two expert systems that helps for diagnosing illness and diseases. But, the major problem is, who is responsible for a wrong diagnosis, that the computer system did. Some people believes that the mistake belongs to the creator of the system and some other believes that the doctor is responsible In addition, an other part of artificial intelligence, has to do with robotics. By this we mean † a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to more material, parts, tools or specialized devices though various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of task† as mentioned by the Robot Institute of America (1979). Nowadays, more and more people use robots for their job. Especially, managers of large factors, cause they are cheaper they don’t complaint etc. On the other hand, workers agree for this situation, if and only of, robots going to perform the dirty or the dangerous jobs At the end, a quite huge problem, is speaking and feeling too. For example, everyone understands worlds like friendship, love and we have some feelings for them either positive either negative. We ca not say a computer system intelligent, if it does not understand the above words or meaning like partnership, where two persons can help each other in difficult situations The last 10 years, scientists are working on a bio-computer system. This system use human-neural tissue connected to an electronic circuit. This idea hopes to link the power of neurones to create conscious state with the effiency of computer processing. Such projects hopefully will create an original state of computer intelligence Also, it is well known, that the human brain is the most difficult part of the human to explain, even from entire the world. We have now discuss this assertions with the most current sources and debates for artificial intelligence. My point of view, is that computer systems only succeed in some parts of intelligence, as playing board games, take care of people’s health etc. But, they do not reach the entirely meaning of intelligence such as consciousness and motions. And because everyone is doing a really go to work, probably mane years later they are going to match the above assertion

Difference Between Computer Literacy and Information Literacy Essay

1. Why is it important to understand the difference between computer literacy and information literacy? The difference between computer literacy and information literacy is as follows: Information literacy is the ability to access, organize, evaluate and use information from various sources. Computer literacy is having the knowledge to use technology in order to manipulate computer software or hardware. There is a strong correlation between the two, but they are still different. Both concepts use critical thinking, but information literacy goes beyond knowledge and access in learning more. To be clearer, with information literacy one is taking what has been read and learned and applying it. With computer literacy one can have the knowledge but not necessarily know how to use it or apply it. Basically, with information literacy one will take the knowledge to the next step by using the access to organize, use and evaluate what has been found. With computer literacy one has the technology to manipulate the computer, but they may not have the information to continue on through the process and derive a conclusion based on evaluations and organization. Computer literacy, if you want to think of it in steps, is the literacy before information literacy in which the person is on their way to gaining the extra knowledge they need in order to apply what is currently known. Information literacy also requires one to have awareness in how information systems work and the link between information need, sources and channels. An example would explain this easier. You can know how to use Google search, but unless you take it a step further such as knowing what you need, the sources and the channels to gain what you need you will be stuck with unhelpful answers. Certainly, you know you need keywords in a search engine, but unless you know what keywords you are stuck. This is the relationship between the two concepts. 2. Discuss the three elements of an information system (hardware, software and persware) that managers must consider. Which of the three do you consider the most important? Hardware: Is the physical aspect of computers, telecommunications, and other devices. The term arose as a way to distinguish the â€Å"box† and the electronic circuitry and components of a computer from the program you put in it to make it do things. Software: Software is a term for a set of instructions, which makes a computer to perform a task. The set of instructions are commonly known as a program, without which computers cannot do any operations. A software is classified broadly in to two groups, application software, which includes normal utility applications like Microsoft word, PowerPoint etc. that interacts and performs user specific tasks and system software, such as operating systems, which interacts directly with hardware to make the system work and also provide a platform for other applications to work. Persware: Defined as the people aspect of an information system, without this aspect of an information system the hardware and software components become computer literacy. The people who drive and run the information system also help to determine which types of data to collect, store and disseminate for reporting and analysis purposes. The three Components of information system talked about the input, processing, output and feedback processes. Most important is the feedback process; unfortunately it’s the one most often overlooked. Just as in the triangle above, the hardware (input and output) and the software (processing) receive the most attention. With those two alone, you have computer literacy. But if you don’t use the â€Å"persware† side of the triangle to complete the feedback loop, you don’t accomplish much. Add the â€Å"persware† angle with good feedback and you have the beginnings of information literacy. 3. Which of the six business objectives do you think is the most important? How can information systems help a business meet these objectives? The Six Important Business Objectives of Information Technology Product Development Information technology can speed up the time it takes new products to reach the market. Companies can write product requirement documents by gathering market intelligence from proprietary databases, customers and sales representatives. Computer-assisted design and manufacturing software speed up decision making, while collaborative technologies allow global teams to work on different components of a product simultaneously. From innovations in microprocessors to efficient drug delivery systems, information technology helps businesses respond quickly to changing customer requirements. Stakeholder Integration Stakeholder integration is another important objective of information technology. Using global 24/7 interconnectivity, a customer service call originating in Des Moines, Iowa, ends up in a call center in Manila, Philippines, where a service agent could look up the relevant information on severs based in corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas, or in Frankfurt, Germany. Public companies use their investor relations websites to communicate with shareholders, research analysts and other market participants. Process Improvement Process improvement is another key IT business objective. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems allow managers to review sales, costs and other operating metrics on one integrated software platform, usually in real time. An ERP system may replace dozens of legacy systems for finance, human resources and other functional areas, thus making internal processes more efficient and cost-effective. Cost Efficiencies Although the initial IT implementation costs can be substantial, the resulting long-term cost savings are usually worth the investment. IT allows companies to reduce transaction and implementation costs. For example, the cost of a desktop computer today is a fraction of what it was in the early 1980s, and yet the computers are considerably more powerful. IT-based productivity solutions, from word processing to email, have allowed companies to save on the costs of duplication and postage, while maintaining and improving product quality and customer service. Competitive Advantage Cost savings, rapid product development and process improvements help companies gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. If a smartphone competitor announces a new device with innovative touch-screen features, the competitors must quickly follow suit with similar products or risk losing market share. Companies can use rapid prototyping, software simulations and other IT-based systems to bring a product to market cost effectively and quickly. Globalization Companies that survive in a competitive environment usually have the operational and financial flexibility to grow locally and then internationally. IT is at the core of operating models essential for globalization, such as telecommuting and outsourcing. A company can outsource most of its noncore functions, such as human resources and finances, to offshore companies and use network technologies to stay in contact with its overseas employees, customers and suppliers.

Social Consequences of Tourism

Social Consequences of Tourism Executive Summary Tourism has a number of social benefits to the host communities. From one end, it assembles people of different cultural affiliations together. The act of sharing and learning from each other’s culture fosters cultural understanding. This understanding is an incredible ingredient towards embracing the spirit of multiculturalism.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Social Consequences of Tourism specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, when cultural inferiority and superiority complexes exist between the host communities and the visiting people, embracement of multiculturalism suffers a great deal. The perceptions of the host people about tourism also play pivotal roles in determining the social impacts of tourism. When tourism serves to introduce some lifestyles that are not acceptable within the ethical and moral domains of the host communities, they may perceive it as a means of deter iorating their cultural beliefs and norms. Therefore, rather than tourism serving to highlight and reinforce the need for global cultural integration, it serves to produce cultural conflicts. The paper notes that some of the things that cause the cultural conflicts are only undue indulgences by some specific persons but not the entire society from which the tourists come. Unfortunately, chances exist where the host communities may tend to over generalize the behaviors of an individual tourist to use them to define the entire society from which she or he comes. This leads to stereotyping, which is another social impact of tourism. The paper also argues that tourism has the social impacts of creating public awareness of the host communities’ cultural artifacts coupled with their needs to the international community. More often than not, such awareness has the implication of attracting the attention of the global community to the societal needs. Introduction Across the globe, to urism constitutes an industry that is growing rapidly. It affects communities both socially and economically. This means that it is a source of livelihood to many people living within tourism destinations. However, even with these advantages, tourism creates a perceived fear among the residents of the tourism destinations who associate with the perception of its capacity to erode the cultures of the indigenous people. Opposed to these negative social impacts, â€Å"as with any economic activity, tourism can have negative impacts on communities† (Surabaya, Tee, and Somme 57). Thus, it is critical for measures and steps taken to be taken to minimize all these negative impacts so that tourism can act to benefit the communities living within the locations of the tourism destinations. As an economic sector, tourism is peculiar in comparison with all other economic sectors. In the first instance, unlike many sectors, tourism remains a subtle industry whose employees remain not repl aced by technology. Consequently, tourism will continue to act a major source of employment. It â€Å"aids in the conservation of natural spaces, avoids the migration of the local population, and improves the economic and socio-cultural level of the local population† (Haley 4).Advertising Looking for research paper on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Tourism plays pivotal roles as a major employer in changing social interactions of people. Additionally, tourism facilitates â€Å"the commercialization of the local products, interchange of ideas, costumes and the sensitization of the tourist, and local population for protection of the environment† (Haley 4). From the perspective this fundamental argument, this paper focuses on highlighting the various social impacts of tourism. However, since time constraint hinders one from scrutinizing all the impacts in a single paper, the researc h paper only considers the social impacts of tourism. Methodology This research utilizes secondary data and information to analyze the social impacts of tourism. The research generates data and information from a variety of secondary sources including libraries, journals, and internet resources. After an in depth analysis of the social impacts of tourism as reflected in these secondary sources, the research will draw inferences from them. However, it is crucial to reveal that such an approach introduces a major drawback especially on issues such as the reliability of the secondary sources as general reflections of social impacts of tourism. Nevertheless, the paper mitigates this limitation by drawing the sources utilized in the literature review from a variety of studies based on largely disbursed geographical regions across the globe. Aims and Objectives The main objectives of this research are to Introspect the social impacts of tourism Deploy the social impacts introspected in ( i) above to prescribe some approaches that may be used to minimize and mitigate the negative impacts Based on these objectives, the main aim of the research is to lay down theoretical constructs on how tourism can act to influence societies living in tourism destinations positively. By shedding light on the negative and positive impacts of tourism, the point of argument here is that it becomes possible to capitalize on specific policies to enhance the realization of optimal benefits from the positive impacts while minimizing the negative impacts. Literature Review Residents’ Perception of Tourism An enormous body of knowledge, which scrutinizes the impacts of tourism on societies living within tourism destinations, depicts tourism as having both positive and negative social impacts. On the negative side, Deer, Jag, and Fred argue, â€Å"most jobs for local people in the tourist industry require the locals to work as servants, house maids, waiters, gardeners, and other menia l works that may give people a sense of inferiority† (66).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Social Consequences of Tourism specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Consequently, tourism may make people perceive themselves as inferior in comparison to those touring their historical areas of residence. The danger in this kind of perception is that local people possess high risks of their cultures mixing with those of the tourists. Therefore, their cultural artifacts are likely to disappear or fade. While this argument may remain valid in some situations, it is also arguable that cultures of people may also act as sources of tourism attraction. Consequently, while tourism may serve to dissolve indigenous people’s cultures, it may also act as a mechanism of reinforcing them because, if indigenous people’s cultures attract tourists, it is likely that the tourists would tend to associate themselves wit h such cultures for them to have an ample experience on the cultures. Deer, Jag, and Fred agree with line of argument by claiming, â€Å"Tourists come from other societies with different values and lifestyles, and because they have come to seek pleasure, they may spend large amounts of money besides behaving in ways that they would not accept at home† (68). This implies that the fantasy associated with tourism may act to justify some otherwise morally unacceptable social indulgences. In this line of argument, Haley asserts, â€Å"visitor’s behavior can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of the host community including crowding and congestion, drugs and alcohol problems, and prostitution and increased crime levels†(5). When some of the unethical behaviors evidencing themselves within societies because of tourism end up being justified, the moral norms that tie the host communities together must disintegrate. Thus, the society becomes fragmented. In addition, societies may develop a perception that tourism is one of the mechanisms of taking away what is traditionally rightfully theirs. For instance, in most cases, some people normally move from their places of residence to pave ways for construction of tourists’ recreational centers, restaurants, and amusement parks among other things. This case has the implication of making tourism â€Å"infringe on human rights† (Haley 6). Where tourists may engage in morally unacceptable indulgences within their societies of origin, their interaction with local people within the tourism destinations may create the wrong impression about the social, moral, and ethical constructions of the societies from which particular tourist comes. In one end, this may have the implication of stereotyping some people of a given originality. On the other end, where a given society living within tourism attraction centers perceives itself as inferior in comparison to the visiting people, chance s are that it may end up embracing certain unethical indulgences, which may not even be acceptable by the visitors’ cultural, moral, and ethical norms. In this context, Deer, Jag, and Fred argue, â€Å"local people seeing the tourist example may want to live and behave the same way† (67).Advertising Looking for research paper on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This step is a great impediment to social norms of the indigenous people living within tourism attraction destinations. By impairing the social norms of the residents of tourists’ destinations, tourism creates differing perceptions about the tourists among the locals. For instance, Haley argues that aspects that are akin to the perception of tourism among the local people living within north America results to poor and inappropriate hosts’ attitudes. According to him, tourism truncates into â€Å"increased noise, litter, traffic, crime, over-crowding, and tourism-induced price increases† (5). In particular, price hiking that is induced by the perception that tourists have a lot of money to spend impairs the buying power of the local people living within the localities where the tourism attraction centers are located. Nevertheless, the same perception leads to prioritization of certain developments within the tourism destination centers, which have the overall im pact of bettering the mobility of the local people. A good example of this is the immense investment by the governments towards the development of infrastructures including roads and recreational facilities in areas of tourist attraction. The myriads of social impacts of tourism based on the perceptions of people about economic activities are ideally theoretical in nature. Quoting Ape et al. work on ‘Developing and Testing a Tourism Impact Scale’, which was published in the journal Travel Research in 1998, Haley supports this line of argument. He asserts, â€Å"While the research conducted has made a significant step towards a better understanding of the relationship between positive and negative perceptions of tourism and support for specific tourism-related policies, historically, most of the research on the topic of residents perceptions has been theoretical in nature† (Haley 6). To resolve the criticism of understanding of social impacts of tourism based on t he constructed perception of people about the industry, the theory of social exchange is relevant. Surabaya, Tee, and Somme have done a research on the capacity of social exchange theory to explain the social impacts of tourism. Their research claims, â€Å"It is not simply the existence of an exchange that is important, but the nature and value of the exchange that influences attitudes and perceptions† (Surabaya, Tee, and Somme 59). This implies that people who are likely to hold a positive perception of the social impact of tourism are the ones who have been employed by the industry. However, for this to happen, such people need to have had a positive employment experience with the industry. Otherwise, their perceptions would end up being negative. Thus, it is arguable that the discussed social impact of tourism based on the perception of the locals is akin to experience that people have with the tourism industry within their areas of residence. Tourism and Stereotyping Tou rism brings together people of differing nationalities, race, and gender coupled with people segregated based on other demographic differences. More often than not, conception of differences among people in a negative way based on nationality, gender, and race among other social and demographic differences merely entangle oversimplification of perceptions of people involved. In fact, association of one group with some certain characteristics that are inferior or negative is not based on facts but rather on misconceptions and prejudices. These misconceptions and prejudices about a particular group of people lead to their stereotyping. More interactively, and from the perspective of socio-psychology, stereotyping entangles â€Å"the pictures that people have in their heads about other groups† (Major et al. 34). When the interactions of tourists with the indigenous people within the localities of tourism destinations serve to amplify the differences between the tourists and the locals, the preconceived negative perceptions of the indigenous people against the tourists’ of particular origin are confirmed. For instance, when an indigenous person living within a tourist attraction destination encounters an individual of a certain nationality who is violent, the person may spread the news that all people belonging to the same nationality as the tourist are all violent. This kind of generalization hinders diversity besides leading to stigmatization and discrimination. Although these are examples of negative stereotypes, positive stereotypes associated with tourists of a given originality may also be harmful since they truncate into limitation of the attitudes of people towards a group of people. Bearing in mind the arguments raised here, is becomes imperative to posit that, depending on the nature of social and cultural differences between the indigenous people and the tourists, tourism may act to either boost the spirit of multiculturalism or destroy it even further when two groups of people of different nationalities come together. Concepts of stereotyping are anchored on three fundamental aspects. These are traits, concepts, and antecedents. Antecedents involve feelings of being rejected or accepted at an individual level. In the interaction process of tourists and the local people, such feelings influence the local people’s behaviors and attitudes towards tourists and vice versa. On the other hand, concepts entail a â€Å"person’s beliefs regarding the stereotype that out-group members hold about his or her own group† (Voyager and Main 917). This implies that people who are stereotyped presume that the version of beliefs held against their intergroup are justifiable from the basis of impressions held by other people as opposed to out-group stereotypes. This aspect of stereotyping is significant in the social interactions of people possessing conspicuous differences. Arguably, tourism presents such kind of s ocial interaction. Indeed, the traits of stereotypes are contextual components, behavioral components, and cognitive components. Such components play incredible roles in defining social relationships between tourists and the host communities. Tourism and Multiculturalism For the creation of an environment that would foster multiculturalism, it is desirable that the parties coming together respect the cultural norms of each other. Unfortunately, â€Å"†¦out of ignorance or carelessness, tourists may fail to respect local customs and moral values† (Deer, Jag, and Fred 67). The repercussion is the emergence of cultural conflicts. This means that one of the groups of people would be seeing the other as having some cultural traits, which are inferior in comparison to the cultural norms of the group from where one comes. This hinders the integration of the indigenous people’s and the tourists’ cultures. The implication is hindering multiculturalism. In the same l ine of thought, Gawker Visitor Information posits, â€Å"there are some concerns that tourism development may lead to destinations losing their cultural identity by catering for the perceived needs of tourists – particularly from international markets† (2). Therefore, a cultural battle exists between tourists and the indigenous people due to the need to protect the cultural artifacts of the indigenous people and the need to fulfill the cultural desires of the international tourist in the attempt to entice them to come back. Where tourism is the only source of income in societies that are caught up in the mayhem of cultural conflicts, the battle has the highest probabilities of favoring the tourists. Put differently, the cultures of the indigenous people would be superimposed by those of the tourists. Consequently, the fertile environments for fostering multiculturalism cease to exist. Where the indigenous people are culturally inflexible, the overall impact is hostilit y. The local people acerbate this hostility towards the tourists in the attempt to maintain cultural status quo. The argument here is that, in case the interaction process of tourists and the local people produces threats to the cultures of both parties, it becomes incredibly difficult for either party to embrace the differences between them. Therefore, creating the spirit of multiculturalism becomes difficult. Amid the raised concerns that cultural conflicts between tourists and the host communities establish an environment that is prohibitive of cultural integration and hence multiculturalism, there is a scholarly evidence that tourism is an essential tool for propagating cultural understanding. For instance, Surabaya, Tee, and Somme argue, â€Å"tourism is an interface for cultural exchange, facilitating the interaction between communities and visitors (domestic and international)† (59). Opposed to the raised arguments, where the grounds for visiting a particular destinati on are pegged on the reasons for coming to an understanding and experiencing a certain group of people’s cultures, cultural conflicts may not exist because there is no point that the tourists would attempt to seek attention for their cultural beliefs and affiliations from the host communities. Rather, the intention of visits is to experience cultural beliefs and affiliations of the host communities. In this dimension, Surabaya, Tee, and Somme assert, â€Å"People want to interact with other cultures, learn about traditions, and even confront themselves with new perspectives on life and society† (59). Directly congruent with this view, it sounds plausible to infer that the tourism industry is driven by experience. Hence, host communities’ culture constitutes unique experiences. Tourism as a Tool for Creating Social Awareness The cultural artifacts of different people are unique. When tourists visit to experience these artifacts of local people, awareness of both the existence and value for the cultural artifacts of the host community is created. This way, tourism helps in the integration of the host communities’ beliefs and norms with those of the wider global community. It also helps in raising the caliber of awareness of the host communities’ social needs. For instance, through tourism, awareness is created for the inadequacy of community services such as healthcare and or continued persistence of cultural beliefs that impede the development of societies such as seeking access to education, gender equality, and other things that are given amicable consideration by the developed societies. Based on the experience concerning the ways of life of particular groups of people, donor agencies are able to design programs to address the challenges that face people in ways that the programs are going to be welcomed without undue friction. Still in the realm of awareness, Haley argues that tourism helps to create awareness for the need to â€Å"promote conservation of wildlife and natural resources such as rain forests, as these are now regarded as tourism assets† (12). However, even though the awareness of the needs to conserve the natural environment is created coupled with the society embracing the efforts, tourism also acts to destroy it. Surabaya, Tee, and Somme exemplify how tourism may serve to destroy natural ecosystems amid the intensive awareness by the host communities on the significance of their conservation. They argue, â€Å"Tourism poses a threat to a regions natural and cultural resources such as water supply, beaches, coral reefs, and heritage sites through overuse† (Surabaya, Tee, and Somme 63). This negative impact is even more amplified by considering how tourism results to more waste release to the environment, more noise, and littering among other things. Conclusion Therefore, based on the expositions made in the paper about tourism, it suffices to declare the industry as one that has a lot of influence socially and economically. Socially, tourism influences host communities both positively and negatively. In this research paper, it has been argued that some of the social impacts of tourism are erosion and or fostering the cultures of the indigenous people. It may lead to stereotyping besides serving as a tool for creating awareness. The capacity of tourism to result to reinforcement of the cultural beliefs of the locals or to erode them depends on the perceptions that the locals have on tourisms and the reasons as to why people visit a particular destination. From this paradigm, the paper argues that, in case people tour certain tourism attraction centers with the chief intention of learning and experiencing the cultures of the indigenous people, chances of cultural conflicts are minimal since tourists would not bring in their cultural beliefs and affiliations in the interaction process. Furthermore, the paper argued that where tourists engage in some b ehaviors, which are not morally acceptable by the host communities, tourism might have the social impacts of inducing stereotypes. This acts as immense impediments to the integration of the persons brought together by tourism. In overall, the paper maintains that tourism has more positive social impacts than negative impacts. Therefore, tourism acts to benefit the host communities both socially and economically. Deer, Margaret, Leo Jag, and Liz Fred. â€Å"Rethinking social impacts of tourism research: A new research agenda.† Tourism Management 33.1(2012): 64-73. Print. Gawker Visitor Information. The Social and Cultural Impacts of Tourism, 2011. Web. Haley, Arthur. The Social Impacts of Tourism: A Case Study of Bath, UK. Surrey: University of Surrey, UK, 2004. Print. Major, Boniface et al. â€Å"Coping with negative stereotypes about intellectual performance: The role of psychological disengagement.† Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24.3(1998): 34-50. Print . Surabaya, Elijah, Veronica Tee, and Stephaney Somme. â€Å"Understanding Residents’ support for tourism development in the central region of Ghana.† Journal of Travel Research 41.3(2002): 57-67. Print. Voyager, Douglas, and James Main. â€Å"How Do Individuals Expect to Be Viewed by Members of Lower Status Groups? Content and Implications of Meta-Stereotypes.† Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75.4(1998): 917-937. Print.

Seven Samurai essays

Seven Samurai essays In 1954 Akira Kurosawa released his film, Seven Samurai to the public. Almost half a decade later I have the privilege to also view this great film. This was the first Japanese film that I have ever given the time of day to actual view in its entirety. From the beginning to the end I was totally involved with the characters. And awesome characters they were with each and everyone of them showing their own personality and opinion throughout the plot. The story is placed in 16th Century Japan. There is a village of farmers who are going to be under yet another attack by a large group of Bandits. Convinced not to go through it all again the villagers send a couple of farmers into town in search of four Samurai that would fight for their lives. The topper is the fact that the farmers can only pay with three meals of rice to the brave warriors. After winning over the heart of one wise and very smart Samurai, they easily recruit five more great Samurai and one wannabe. They all travel back to the village where they have to act right away to setup for the defense. They setup walls, dig waterways, and train the local farmers to fight for their ground. Just when they start to get restless of waiting the Bandits arrive and are taken down little by little. After three days and nights of fighting it all comes to an end with the Farmers victorious. Only three Samurais survive in the end and a great lesson is learned. Thats the ba sic flow of the movie. There is many side stories on the side such as a goofy Samurai, funny old farmers, a love story that must be hidden, and much more. Now in the technical aspect of the film. In my opinion the film was pretty much flawless. The editing was done wonderfully with fades, soft cut, quick cuts, and wipes to give effect. One scene in the movie where I believe the editing was awesome was in the beginning of the movie when the farmers have arrived into town to find Samur ...

What You Can Learn From Obamas Biggest Failure

What You Can Learn From Obamas Biggest Failure Everybody fails. Even the fanciest and most successful of celebrities, historical figures, and our most idolized idols. Including the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Here’s a look at Obama’s biggest failure in his career and how it paved his path to the presidency. You know Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States and an all-around successful  guy, helping dig the economy out of it’s 2008 chasm, presiding over recovery, stimulating job growth, improving global opinion, etc., But did you know that he was once a big fat failure? Really.He lost. Big time.His first bid for national office was a total flop. Having spent two terms in the Illinois Senate, he made a run for Congress in 2000- running as a practical nobody against an opponent who was both a household name and had a 70% approval rating. His first failure was choosing the race. His second? The race itself. He lost by 31 points.Part of this was out of his control. His opponentâ €™s son was shot and killed during the campaign. And while Obama suspended his campaign for a month and worked to help champion gun control legislation, circumstances found him stuck in Hawaii caring for his sick daughter when the vote occurred. The story told by the news media? He was lounging on a beach instead of helping to make Illinois a safer place.He made up for it.What matters is what he did with that failure. First he went back to the state Senate, then he ran successfully for U.S. Senate in 2004. Somewhere in there he retooled his message, shooting bigger and higher, focusing on hope. He wrote his book, The Audacity of Hope, and set his sights on the presidency.Without that one humbling failure, Obama may never have had to do the kind of soul-searching and message re-thinking he did in 2002. The next time you fail, take a few steps back and remember how a guy from Chicago went from getting spanked in a run for Congress, and turning that failure into the spectacular suc cess of a two-term presidency of the United States.President Obama: A Profile in Failure

Assessment and treatment options for substance abuse and dependence Essay

Assessment and treatment options for substance abuse and dependence clients - Essay Example Alcohol and chemical abuse, for example, have been estimated to co-occur in one third of the psychiatric disturbances presented in therapy (Doweiko, 2006). Doweiko cautioned that mental health practitioners need to be cognizant of individuals presenting with concurrent diagnoses. Students do experience crises in their lives and the extent to which they seek counseling services will be determined by their knowledge of the existence and purpose of such services, their belief in the competence of such services, and their assurance of mutual confidentiality. Such efforts are possible only through extensive outreach and public relations activities and programs, and through counselors' reputation of being concerned, effective professionals. There appears to be less stigma attached to counseling now than has been the case in past decades. The shift from traditional to modern culture may be seen as one reason for this change (Axelson, 1993). Traditional culture (before the Industrial Revolution) emphasized personal direction through collaborative family bonds, whereas modern culture focuses on individual improvement minus family attachment.

Jazz Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Jazz - Research Proposal Example It was only associated to music around 1915 when it was constantly played in Chicago and then it was indelibly called JAZZ music. Throughout the 19th century, there was a growing interaction between black and white people in the United States. This meeting of cultures led to the merging of two musical ethnicities, and the combination of which inspired the development of JAZZ. This type of musical genus was born in America. During the time African slaves were brought to the United States, these slaves preserved much of their culture. The city of New Orleans in Louisiana had a â€Å"population of white settlers, black slaves, and mixed race, most notably the descendants of French and Spanish settlers and blacks known as the Creoles.† (The Story of Music Vol. 5 1) Plantation slaves meet at the Congo Square were they dance to African drumming. Even after the time slavery was abolished during the Civil War, the Congo Square remained to be the favorite meeting venue to perform African rhythm which was soon picked up by other local bands. â€Å"They were black bands made up of freed slaves and house servants throughout the South.† (The Story of Music Vol. 5 2) New Orleans then became the birthplace of jazz being the most prolific ground for the expression of black music. One facet is their musical culture, including rhythms, songs and dances, wherein African Americans were introduced to the European and white popular music. Likewise, European Americans were introduced to the â€Å"off-beat† rhythms and various pitches used in the African melody. For that reason, the development of jazz which became the most important music genres of the 20th century came into being. Jazz is said to be America’s greatest contribution to music. Its impact on American society has been massive and its influence on world culture has been far reaching. â€Å"Its message has been direct, vital, and immediate, enabling it to hurdle cultural,

Two high school teachers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two high school teachers - Essay Example gh school teachers is the same that is guiding and educating the students; despite of this, their way of teaching, giving instructions and their relationship with the students is very different. Both the teachers are excellent at their job but their methodologies of teaching differ from each other. My Maths teacher places greater emphasis on class work and ensures that all students complete the work taught in class there and then. She does not burden the students with homework. Instead, her stress is more on regularly testing the students and she conducts class tests every week. This is a method used by her to make sure that the students study at home and practice for the tests. She does not overburden the students by giving them too much of homework and conducting tests at the same time. On the other hand, my English teacher tries to spend greater time in class to explain and teach the students and answer their queries. He does not provide much work in class. But he ensures that the students are given regular homework. He does not conduct regular class tests but rather he takes monthly tests. He follows this pattern so that the students gain the maximum in class and revise the subject while doing the homework. Both the teachers try that their students gain the maximal knowledge, but their instructional goals are different; such as the student’s grade, what they would like their students to learn, and what a successful future is for the students. It is the goal of every teacher to make their students learn new things and to enhance their knowledge but their approaches vary. My English teacher focuses on helping the students improve in their weak points rather than only focusing on their strengths. He wants us to improve ourselves not just in a particular sector but to be all-rounders. According to him, our successful future depends on not just being book-worms or getting high grades but also being intellectual and smart. He expects us to have clear concepts

Torture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Torture - Essay Example This paper examines the pivotal differences between Alan Dershowitz and Elaine Scarry on the question of physical torture in order to determine whether the arguments of the former are adequately tackled by the latter as well as the actual possibility of establishment of public accountability standards for extraordinary measures such as the use of physical torture to prevent terrorism. The Ticking Bomb Argument The controversy surrounding the use of torture to prevent terrorism is explicitly demonstrated via the â€Å"ticking bomb scenario†, where a captured terrorist refuses to divulge information concerning the imminent use of weapon – whether nuclear, biological or chemical device – capable of killing and injuring a huge number of civilians (Dershowitz 259). The grave moral dilemma here is whether the captured terrorist should be subjected to torture in order to disclose the location of the device or the bomb to be allowed to explode and kill perhaps thousands of people because of legal and moral considerations. In other words, the safety and security of a nation’s citizens must be weighed against the preservation of human rights, which engenders a choice between one evil or another (Dershowitz 266, 272). While both Dershowitz and Scarry agree that the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario is a rather hypothetical situation, they consider its implications for the individuals and institutions involved, as well as for the society as a whole, from vastly different points of view. According to Dershowitz, in nations such as Israel, for example, where both terrorism and the use of torture to prevent terrorism are anything but hypothetical, the ticking bomb case in fact provides a moral, legal and intellectual justification for applying the system of coercive interrogation (258-9). On the other hand, although being generally deemed unproductive, those methods – euphemistically called by the Israeli Security Services (GSS or Shin Be t) themselves â€Å"moderate physical pressure† – sometimes proved successful and led to prevention of terrorist acts that otherwise might have killed many civilians (Dershowitz 258). The latter observation, however, implies that the possibility of an actual ‘ticking bomb’ case shouldn’t be readily ruled out. Similarly, following September 11, 2001, it has become not so rare practice in the US security and intelligence services to employ rough interrogation technique

Biochemistry and Medicine Information in Pharmacology Assignment

Biochemistry and Medicine Information in Pharmacology - Assignment Example AD brains are particularly marked by neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid plagues, neuronal cell loss, innate immune responses as well as a prominent activation of the glial cells. This paper critically investigates the potential relationship between Alzheimer’s disease, Beta-C kinins and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as well as their improvement on the cognitive function of patients. Numerous recent empirical studies suggest that the production of a class of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is significantly diminished among the patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Generally, BDNF is normally produced in the entorhinal cortex area of the brain (the part involved with cognition and memory) throughout an individual’s life Honea et al., 2013). It is widely believed that the production of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor is particularly enhanced by beta-C kinins, a class of neuropharmacological molecules some of which include AB 123. Although the correlation between the lowered levels of BDNF and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has not been effectively established, studies indicate that neurotrophic factors normally play a critical protective role against amyloid beta toxicity (Mattson, 2008, p.97). This is further supported by the growing number of scientific studies in Alzheimer’s disease that have revealed significant alterations in the immune responses including observable changes in the macrophage and lymphocyte distribution and activation. In a recent study conducted by Weinstein et al(2014), the researchers examined the levels of BDNF in 2131 healthy adults and then followed them for ten years. The results revealed that up to 50% individuals with the highest baseline levels of BDNF were less likely to develop dementia compared to their counterparts with the lowest levels of the molecule. It was concluded that a higher level of BDNF may protect against the occurrence of memory loss.

Social Penetration Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Penetration Theory - Essay Example The personality structure of individuals resemble a multilayered onion since if one peels the outer layers of the onion he or she will be capable of reaching the inner layers that are more vulnerable and important to self-image. I had a personal experience that can be best explained by the social penetration theory. I was capable of making close friends with an American girl through use of the social penetration theory. During the first days at the University, I was socially disliked by certain friends, but my lecturers persuaded me to look for other friends who we shared same values and beliefs. On the other hand, my parents persuaded me to stay only with friends who offered ‘good’ social influence. Most of the friends were heavy drinkers, cheerful and would constantly engage in games. Ironically, I do not take alcoholic beverages and it started becoming apparent that this was the reason why many friends ignored my company. However, I was capable of making close friends with an American girl who is a alcoholic drinker. The critical concepts of social penetration theory helped me understand how to form intimate relationships and share personal beliefs with fellow students. The concept of self-disclosure involves voluntary sharing of personal history, feelings, attitudes and secrets that define a person. In this case, I was able to relax these tight boundaries and approached a certain American girl so that we could become friends. I started by telling her demographic information, my country of origin, my attitudes towards studies and social lifestyle preferences. Accordingly, I went further to talk about preferences in terms of clothing, music and drinks. In this case, I mentioned to her that I do not take alcohol due to my religious convictions. Accordingly, I went further to mention that my deeply held fear was failure in my studies. The American girl was willing to listen after I taught her my preferences in terms of music and she too provided me with her biographic information, her preferences and deeply held fears. The depth of penetration explains how I managed to form close friends with the American girl despite our differences in lifestyles and religion. The depth of penetration is the degree of disclosure in a specific aspect of individual’s life and is determined by the frequency of sharing the private information. In this case, I shared my private information with her during every lesson. Accordingly, the law of reciprocity is essential in the early stages of the relationship. The law predicts that two people will attain the same level of closeness since the penetration will be rapid at the start of the relationship, but slows down as we progress to the inner layers. As I taught the American girl about my family history, she reciprocated by telling that her family lives in an expensive New York estate. She again taught me that alcohol consumption is acceptable in her family and had no fears of academic failur e since she was used to the lifestyle. Accordingly, she stressed that her societal norms encourage cheerfulness, physical exercises and sometimes having fun by taking expensive alcohol. At this point, I felt that the relationship would fade due to our differences in societal norms, but I managed to remain comfortable while sharing both positive and negative private information, beliefs and attitudes. Another concept that is central to social penetration theory

Biochemistry and Medicine Information in Pharmacology Assignment

Biochemistry and Medicine Information in Pharmacology - Assignment Example AD brains are particularly marked by neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid plagues, neuronal cell loss, innate immune responses as well as a prominent activation of the glial cells. This paper critically investigates the potential relationship between Alzheimer’s disease, Beta-C kinins and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as well as their improvement on the cognitive function of patients. Numerous recent empirical studies suggest that the production of a class of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is significantly diminished among the patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Generally, BDNF is normally produced in the entorhinal cortex area of the brain (the part involved with cognition and memory) throughout an individual’s life Honea et al., 2013). It is widely believed that the production of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor is particularly enhanced by beta-C kinins, a class of neuropharmacological molecules some of which include AB 123. Although the correlation between the lowered levels of BDNF and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has not been effectively established, studies indicate that neurotrophic factors normally play a critical protective role against amyloid beta toxicity (Mattson, 2008, p.97). This is further supported by the growing number of scientific studies in Alzheimer’s disease that have revealed significant alterations in the immune responses including observable changes in the macrophage and lymphocyte distribution and activation. In a recent study conducted by Weinstein et al(2014), the researchers examined the levels of BDNF in 2131 healthy adults and then followed them for ten years. The results revealed that up to 50% individuals with the highest baseline levels of BDNF were less likely to develop dementia compared to their counterparts with the lowest levels of the molecule. It was concluded that a higher level of BDNF may protect against the occurrence of memory loss.

RR communications Essay Example for Free

RR communications Essay At RR communications, it is obvious there is a problem that needs to be handled if they are to avoid losing customers. The problem lies with the decentralized operations where each business unit has a mandate to operate independently. The business units have the power to make and implement new projects and make decisions without having to involve the whole firm. This has led to many problems such as customers complaining of having receipts for each of the four products offered by the company and would prefer having one receipt for all their transactions. Due to the division among departments, the company has been unable to meet reporting requirements for the Sarbanes Oxley Act. It has proved obvious that a shared IT service, which is standardized among all the units, is needed to ensure everything goes well. The first problem we see at RR Communications is that there is a definite lack of centralized and concise IT governance. Currently all of the separate functions of the company have their own individual leadership with no central leadership. For this reason, each of the sections takes actions and makes decisions based only on how it affects their own particular departments. There is no coordination to ensure that the act of one area does not negatively affect the rest of the firm. This in turn has led to a significant lack of uniformity across the organization, which is hurting customer relations. There are unified databases and each section maintains their own set of records; this is causing great frustration among their customers who continually have issues when dealing with more than one area. Much of the division of departments has been caused by a lack of central leadership. The CEO of the firm has failed to unify the department or assert any control over the individual IT vice presidents. Even though they reported to him, each had acted entirely independently. This continuous failure of leadership has caused the department heads to develop a sense of isolation and self-survival. Even though a new executive VP of IT has been appointed to bring unity to the firm, there has been severe resistance as each department feels it will suffer. The lack of centralized management for so long has caused significant discord between the departments that will take considerable effort to overcome. In addition, this company attitude has filtered down from the VPs to the middle and lower management creating an overall atmosphere that is dangerously disjointed. Even the suggestion of bringing together the database systems and management has caused a near  mutinous uprising and rejection of leadership. The current managerial atmosphere has been around so long, the attitude of individualism has been deeply imbedded in the corporate culture. While, individual thinking is useful to foster innovation and creativity, when the entire organization acts to satisfy only its individual requirements, the firm overall will suffer. Unless this attitude can be overcome, any attempt at bringing unity to the company will fail. From the technical standpoint, RR Communications is suffering from a severely fractured information management system. Every section of the company maintains its own individual customer databases, which are in incompatible formats. If a customer maintains relationships with more then one division, they get bills from each individual area. Customer issues often fail to get resolved because the departments do not communicate or share information. This is causing problems with diminished customer satisfaction. In addition, without a centralized database, full customer information and statistics are impractical to collect. In addition to suffering by not being able to collect detailed records, the company is facing regulatory issues by not being able to provide complete information on the company’s activities, and significant resources are being wasted to assemble simple reports. Currently management and associates at RR Communications believe that a collective solution is impossible, and any attempt to do so will cause them to suffer. While it may be true that the initial implementation of such a system will require a significant collective effort, the end result will be well worth it. It is also clear that much of the perspective of management is extremely short sided; projects are selected only based on a very narrow and limited benefit view with no regard for their long-term viability. As more and more systems have been patched together to fulfill immediate gaps, the overall collection of programs has become a cumbersome, inefficient, and unmanageable mess. A truly efficient system would be one that is all-encompassing and communicates across all facets of the organization to deliver a unified and fully integrated information system that can add real value to the firm. One other major issue at RR Communications is the proliferation of rouge projects completed without oversight or regard for how they will affect the firm. In a large company every project should be examined to determine how it could provide value to the organization before being launched. At RR  Communication projects are being launched that benefit only select areas and may in fact be causing a significant negative impact to the rest of the firm. The company currently does not have a steering or operating committee to oversee and exert control over these projects. Without any form of centralized control and governance, these rouge projects will continue to sabotage the effectiveness of the organization. Lack of common information and enterprise IT strategy has caused several problems for the business and the IT departments of RR communications. Customer service has suffered and customer dissatisfaction has grown. Lack of common information has made it difficult for management to monitor the businesses as a whole. Business units are unable to exchange information and remain unaware of the other divisions’ work. There is little sense of how the divisions work together to meet the company’s overall goals. The accounting problems make it difficult to present shareholders with accurate financial information, and the system is not cost-effective in any case. Furthermore, each division working at individual level to attain its success makes them rigid and unable to adapt to changing requirements; under these circumstances even the implementation of new technology will be extremely difficult. The organization cannot operate efficiently as a whole or at division levels, and the costs are bound to keep increasing. Analysis: As many annoyed customers can probably agree, being transferred from one department of the company to another over and over again to resolve a simple issue is one of the main reasons many companies lose customers. This is certainly an issue at RR Communications. The main cause of the problem seems to be the division of the different business units. This lack of unity is caused by a faulty commission system that rewards individual performance over company profit. The fact that the four CIOs refuse to work together and resort to sabotaging the efforts of the others, serves to show that they are more interested in their own selfish financial goals. While the president of the company may have been a visionary and brilliant entrepreneur, he lacked the managerial skills to recognize the need to have a unified commission system which would foster participation in a common goal, and thus a common  commission which is interdependent on all four business units would be most beneficial to the company. Unifying IT Resources The most important problem for RR Communications to correct is a significant deficiency of successful information management, reflected by the confused state of their customer information databases. Currently customer data is disbursed in separate databases for each section of the company, so that data from one department is not available to another. Thus, customers are forced to maintain relationships with multiple departments and receive billing from each. This separation means that valuable information resources are not being effectively utilized, hurting the firm’s productivity and efficiency. To improve the state of information capital at RR Communications, a complete overhaul of the current systems will be necessary, from both an IT and business standpoint. Information represents a vital asset to any company. This can be in the form of customer accounts, sales records, research development, financial statements, etc. However, in order to realize full benefits, the same information must be readily accessible by all individual units, so that the company can leverage it in the most efficient manner. The first step to correct the issues at RR Communications is to create a unified data architecture that combines all information resources into a central database that is accessible to all sections of the firm. By providing a centralized database clients will be better served by allowing complete access to customer records throughout the company. This will also improve reporting abilities, lower administrative costs, and greatly increase the value of information resources. To achieve the greatest benefit to the company, RR Communications could consolidate its data from multiple silos into a unified enterprise data warehouse (EDW) (Smaltz, 2011). This architecture provides multiple benefits including a single location for all information storage reducing the amount of duplicated efforts. This also greatly improves the integrity of data by providing a ‘single version of the truth’ (Smaltz, 2011). When data is spread throughout multiple databases, invariable some of it will differ. For example, a customer’s address may have been changed in one department but not another. These differences can prove costly to a company. A centralized EDW means that only one record should exist for each customer and reduce  data discrepancies. Having such a centralized system would also satisfy customer needs in a more efficient manner and would help to cross-sell products, which in turn would result in higher profits and more profit for the company. By allowing customers to have a single point of contact, and sharing information by standardizing software and databases across the organization, information will flow more freely and readily available thus giving the employees the ability to communicate in real time with accurate data and maximizing customer contact to increase profits. Having a decentralized IT function is not conductive to achieve an enterprise vision because by keeping the separate business units separated, it keeps pertinent information out of reach of other business units, and thus allows missed opportunities to maximize profit. Also, the lack of communication among the units creates chaos and disorganization in the organization and gives precedence to individual goals above company goals, which in turn will end up hurting the overall enterprise vision and may even spell the end of the enterprise altogether. Finally, having a decentralized IT function creates customer frustration such as in the case of getting several bills for different products. This frustration may cause the company lost customers and lost profits. Information Stewardship Information Management Policy The difficulty in implementing this solution is the current state of the databases scattered about the firm; many are in incompatible formats, so that significant effort will need to be invested to bring together all of this data into a single, shared IT service system accessible to all. In addition, not all data is equally valuable to each unit. Efficiency necessitates allowing employees access to the information that is most pertinent without inundating the various departments with extraneous details. For this reason, whatever IT solution is implemented must be able to adapt dynamically to the storage and retrieval needs of each department. Another challenge to creating a centralized system is the role of information stewardship. Information stewardship involves the ownership and control of information to reduce discrepancies and redundancies. To maintain the consistency and accuracy of data, information stewards need to be appointed. â€Å"Information stewards are businesspeople. They should be responsible for determining the meaning of information ‘chunks’ and their  business rules and contextual use. They should be responsible for the accuracy, timeliness, consistency, validity, completeness, and redundancy of information† (McKeen Smith, 2009, p. 76). A serious challenge to the consolidation of data at RR Communication will be consolidating all of the disparate information from around the firm into a single enterprise data warehouse. It is very likely that there will be duplicate information, conflicting records, incompatible data formats, and other inconsistencies that will not lend themselves to easy integration. However, the reduction in duplicate and conflicting information will be vital to the success of RR Communication. Duplicate data means an increase in administrative work and overhead, a nd conflicting and inconsistent information means the company is not performing at optimum levels. The reduction of duplicate data, or data deduplication â€Å"can improve the performance of virtual systems, reduce network traffic and cut the costs associated with data protection. In addition, deduplication allows backup data to be replicated more efficiently to other sites for disaster recovery† (Symantec, 2011). Duplication increases the amount of data a corporate network must process, reducing efficiency and increasing costs. Storage costs increase as the same information may be stored and backed up across multiple databases, again wasting resources. Finally, duplication of data significantly increases the amount of labor required to utilize it in any useful manner. Clearly, RR Communication will need a significant amount of data deduplication to create a useful, consolidated enterprise data warehouse. To facilitate the proper stewardship of information, an information management policy needs to be created that addresses these issues in a way that prevents such confusion and disarray. An information management policy will dictate the rules and guidelines for how information is handled, who is responsible for maintaining and updating it, and outline the policies and practices to do so (McKeen Smith, 2009). To begin to unravel the data mess at RR Communications they should define an encompassing information management policy that will effectively address the issues of what information is retained, who is responsible for updating it, how it is to be maintained, and who should have access to it. Critical to the success of this policy will be the involvement of management from all functional areas of the company. Each should be given the opportunity to contribute to the policy,  and each individual needs should be addressed. In addition, the problem with this solution will be gaining acceptance from the different functional areas of the business. There will obviously be conflicts of ideas and differences of opinion in how the policy should be created and enforced. To improve the effectiveness of the policy it needs to be thoroughly enforced from top management down. This means to gain compliance, RR Communications’ CEO needs to set the example and pressure all levels of management below to do the same. Another strategy to encourage the support of the divisional presidents for the shared customer service is by creating awareness that the free information flow would be beneficial for all and would simplify business processes, thus allowing then to increase their bottom line, and thus their bonuses. Finding opportunities to demonstrate small success would help show the support being given to the divisions. To aid in compliance, a large corporate training program should be initiated to ensure the policy is well known by all associates. Gaining compliance by all of the business areas will be the most difficult part of this solution; the ingrained attitude of self-preservation that exists at RR Communication will be difficult to overcome. However, change is not impossible, but only by dedication of management. The initial implementation period will be the most difficult, and if enforcement waivers the policy may fail. Creating Useful Information from Raw Data One characteristic of an enterprise system is ensuring seamless integration of a company’s information among all divisions, including financial and accounting Markus, M.L., Tanis, C. (n.d.). Hence, to achieve a successful enterprise system, a company must have its IT systems centralized to ensure information runs smoothly and is relevant among all divisions, especially the financial and accounting information. Considering the accounting problems brought up at the final meeting, the company obviously needs to implement a centralized IT function. Moreover, it will be far more expensive to have an enterprise system with a decentralized IT function, which is contrary to the aim of achieving an enterprise system. While a centralized information management system will indeed offer benefits at RR Communication, if there is no way to utilize and interpret that data, it is useless; this is analogous to being data rich and information poor. Just  because a company has loads of data does not mean that is fully informed. A company such as RR Communication collects vast quantities of data, but having the resources to convert that into useful information can be an extreme challenge. At RR Communication, they are facing a double-sided problem; they have neither a collective data warehouse, nor do they have any effective information management. Once the problem of centralization has been addressed, information management can be. One potential way to improve the use of massive amounts of data is using a metadata repository. A metadata repository functions much like the card catalog of a library; while it does not specifically contain the information, it provides an index of what is available, including the relevant points on what it contains, as well as a pointer to locate the information (Moss Brodie, 2002). This index provides an extremely valuable resource tool to quickly locate pertinent information. In addition, the metadata repository should be designed with the ability to hook into other systems that are developed to provide information to mother systems as necessary. Establishing this framework now will offer increased benefits as more systems are built off the central repository. Addressing Corporate Culture As seen in RR Communications, lack of common information and enterprise IM strategy can cause several problems to the business and the IT department. RR Communications has encountered serious customer service problems, due to lack of common information and enterprise strategy. In addition, lack of common information makes it hard for the overall management to monitor the businesses. Business units are unable to exchange information, and none is aware of the other divisions’ work. The company is not in a position to strengthen its brand since no divisions work together. To remedy this, a unification of the firm needs to take place from more than just an IT standpoint. The disjointed nature of the firm’s information assets reflects a deeper separation of the personnel at RR Communications. Departments work for their own ends with naught but passing concern for their effects on the company as a whole. This lack of cohesion manifests itself in the behavior of the CIOs, divi sional managers, and even the employees, and has resulted in the severe fragmentation of corporate culture. The fragmented IT systems are only a symptom of a much larger problem. Before addressing the IT  problems at RR Communications, the underlying culture of the business needs to be transformed. This begins at the very top, with the president of the company and the highest leaders; they need to be the first to set the example, and it is clear their current attitudes have set the company on the disastrous course it is on. Removing the CIO team which has hampered the company’s efforts at unification up until now was a good step, but serious considerations now need to be taken to prevent things from getting worse. Other associates could easily see firing the CIOs as a usurping of departmental sovereignty; however, they need to use this as an opportunity to show that the company can be brought together without sacrificing any of their needs. To capitalize on this opportunity the president and vice president should bring together the next level of management into a council of members to set the direction and culture of the firm in a way that promotes unity and mutual respect. This council should be responsible for creating and fostering an atmosphere that shows the benefits of the firm functioning as one. They need to prove to the management and associates that their departments will have a say in decisions, and their needs will not be overlooked. To improve the odds of acceptance, the council should be selected from leaders that have proven themselves as examples of good leadership and who are respected in the firm. Key to the success of this council will be keeping everyone on equal footing and ensuring that no one area is given preference over another, especially in the beginning. It is obvious that certain departments will have greater needs then others, and sometimes priority will need to be given to one area; however, if this behavior is present from the outset they will receive much resistance from the firm, as this will reinforce existing fears. Once a unity of the firm has been established, people will be more flexible to accept changes after they see the benefits. It will be up to the president and vice president as leaders to maintain these policies and be the example. As demonstrated in previous cases, the president has been lax in demonstrating himself as a leader and this could prove damaging to any such plans to unify the firm. Leadership must begin at the top, and the success or failure of a company often reflects the abilities of its leadership. Implementation Challenges The advantages of a shared IT system eliminate some of the above-mentioned  problems. A single centralized and standardized IT operating system will enhance quick decisions across all the departments, since all units will be looking at the same data. Furthermore, with a shared service, customers will not have to visit different databases for the same company; rather, all their queries and purchases can be done from one site that will serve them with all that they need from the company. Another advantage will be easy monitoring of the divisional units—their individual performances as well as their contributions to the whole company. Another advantage for the company will be the ability to monitor financial operations, since all operations will be reflected on one database centrally (Amces, 2010). To implement the shared service strategy, it will be important to seek support of the divisional presidents, considering they will be in charge of the units, which are the moneymaking branches. Their willingness to participate in the construction of the shared service will benefit the whole company. The first step to the implementation of this strategy will require assurances that it will benefit the whole company far more than the current system that is facing opposition from not only the customers but also other stakeholders such as the suppliers. In turn, since employees’ remuneration is awarded on performance, improved performance for the whole firm will be an added advantage. Since the divisional heads are used to being in control, it is important to remind them that having a shared service will not mean the imposition of decisions from above. Rather, the shared service will make the operations of the whole organization work in harmony for the purpose of easy monitoring customer convenience. They should be included as part of the implementation team, so they can offer input on what they may not want to change. For instance, many are worried they will have to do away with specific projects. Ensuring them that these projects will continue after implementation of the shared service would increase their support, as would helping them understand that the new, shared system will enhance the harmony and efficiency of whole organization; eventually they will come to see that their roles will remain mostly the same. Another way to improve the odds of success to a centralized data structure is by appointing a team to oversee the maintenance of the data warehouse fr om an enterprise level. Ideally the members of this team should be comprised of analysts from the important functional areas of the company. This can help gain buy-in from the company  due to the fact that the members of this team have already proven themselves to be knowledgeable and capable in their previous environments (Smaltz, 2011). In addition the benefit of incorporating these individuals is that individual departments will feel that they have representation in the new system, and that their interests are protected. This will increase the potential for global acceptance in the program. Another way to increase compliance with the new systems is to implement an incentive program that would drive associates to achieve the best results. Incentive programs drive people to reach specific targets by offering them tangible rewards beyond their current compensation. At RR Communications, an incentive program could be implemented to increase compliance and adoption of a new centralized system. For example, the company could offer monetary bonuses to departments that lower their operating costs using the new system the most. Another more abstract idea would be to have a small bonus program for departments that offer ideas to enhance the productivity of the system. Many of the departments have complained that a shared system would cause them to be overlooked; however, offering this type of inventive would both encourage them to make enhancements of the system while simultaneously demonstrating that their opinions count. Positive reinforcement, such as an inventive program, help gain the compliance of the workforce in a much more efficient way then punishment or negative reinforcement. There are governance mechanisms and metrics that can be used to encourage the implementation and use of a shared enterprise data system. The governance that needs to be put in place is the alignment of divisional units with the IT department. The metrics must be aligned with transparency to ensure that IT is in congruence with business operations. The governance mechanism should involve all departments focusing on regulatory issues, risk alleviation and opportunity enhancement. The metrics used should be concerned with making divisional data fit into an enterprise system. These metrics will identify areas of weakness and avenues of improvement. To quote an analogy, â€Å"Rome wasn’t built in a day;† and it will take significant time and effort to remedy all the problems at RR Communications. Close governance and metrics will aid in any improvement plan. Recommendation: It is evident that RR Communications need an intervention in its customer  service center. The lack of a centralized customer care center is making it hard to provide unified services to customers. More so, a lot of time is wasted by customers who have to be referred to different department for billing. Customers are forced to have several accounts with the company for each division since each division is held with its independent operations including billing (Smith McKeen, 2007). This makes it hard for customer care provision. Considering consumer service is very crucial for any business, RR Communications need a centralized customer service center. A centralized service center will have many benefits to the whole organization such as cost reduction, time saving, good management of customers’ data or information, and customer satisfaction. I recommend a centralized customer service center for RR communications for its advantages as predetermined below. The divisional IT service means having separate audits for every division. Having each division with an individual audit is expensive for the company since several auditors will be needed. Eliminating the divisions will save some costs that would otherwise be used for the services of the auditors at every division. With a single it department, data can be fed there and only one audit team will be required for the whole company. This also means reduced time for audits since with divisions audits have to be put together after each department has completed its audit (Smith McKeen, 2007). Coordination among the auditors will be efficient since information is collected from one point where all information concerning company accounts is stored. Therefore, having a centralized service center will enhance such operations across the whole organization. In addition, with a centralized customer service center as well as IT, it will ensure information is collected at one point making it easy to access information concerning any department from any point within the company without having to refer to the division in charge. Hence, for the auditors, complying with the set Sarbanes Oxley act will be easy since information about customer billing and accounts of the whole firm will be centralized ensuring accuracy. Having the customer service centralized enhances business operations and processes, ensuring best practices such as timely audits are realized. With data consolidated in one central place, information can be exploited to breed new opportunities for the company. When data is at one place for all the divisions, it is easier to have a broader picture  concerning how the divisions can create a new opportunities. Exploiting these opportunities jointly among the divisions is better than going individually. Moreover, security can be more enhanced with a shared service center since monitoring will be done by one entity. This will further reduce costs associated with having each division taking responsibility of storing and maintaining its own data. Considering that RR communications is currently having several softwares, consolidating information together for the whole company is hard. Smooth flow of information across departments to ensure easy sharing is vital; not only for the whole com pany, but for divisions too, considering information consolidation is a fundamental instrument for doing business. Consolidating the IT services to one centralized structure will require removing of service center hardware from each division to one central department that will mitigate risks and have a common structural design as well as policies that are easily reviewable for updating. A common security procedure will reduce risks associated with information breech. Through the same procedures and practices, the company can reduce file systems redundancy within the organization and enhance efficient document retention as well as reduce costs. Another reason to have one service center is to match the technical capacity of the company with its vision. At the current divisional independence, the divisions exploit their own visions that are not in congruence with the organization’s vision and mission. Considering the company’s vision is to have a consistent brand across all the divisions, it is necessary to have cross-shared services across all divisions to achieve this vision. The vision can be achieved through cross- sales of all the company services to its customers, as opposed to each department having its selling strategy. Having a shared sales service will serve to reduce the costs incurred when divisions do it individually hence creating a better chance for profit across all departments. Having a central service center will ensure that the overall vision of the company is followed since the central service center will be inclined towards the vision of the whole company. This way, each division can have a chance of benefiting form other divisions, hence the company as a whole (Smith McKeen, 2007). Having a single service center will allow easy outsourcing for the organization. Currently, businesses are outsourcing majority of their operations to other professional companies for reductions  of costs. With independent divisions and IT strategies for each individual division, outsourcing will be quite complicated. Having a central service center to oversee all requests will enhance efficiency as well as value. More so, through the consolidation of IT services and information at one common place will reduce security risks associated with outsourcing services. This will further ensure reliability and security of information. A consolidation of information and IT services will enhance cross-services for customers such as billing (McKeen Smith, 2011). The company divisions at current circumstance hold their information secret from each other, making it a competition within the divisions that raise the problem of billing where customers have to be referred to other divisions for other services. With the consolidated information, customers will only need to visit one department from which other information concerning other divisions can be met. This will improve the perception of their whole company as a brand and the standing of the company can be improved as well as customer satisfaction. There is need for the company to realize that in the current world information is one of the drivers of businesses, which all businesses need to survive. Having each division with its own information center reduces the chances of the company improving in the future since the harmonious climate needed among the divisions for this achievement is minimal. Having stipulated the advantages bound to arise or reasons why a central service center should be achieved, it is important to consider how RR can be able to implement this recommendation with ease and least resistance from the divisions. This is the first most likely problem to arise during implementation. Hence, the first step should be generating support form all divisions, which has been quite hard up to now especially from the managers who are self centered and concerned with their earnings that depend on their performance. The managers also have a negative attitude towards merging of information and data among the divisions through one central service. A three-point strategy can be used to gain their support. It includes financial strategy, mitigation of risks associated and compliance to regulation. Financial point can emphasize the advantages the shared service is bound to raise, which will for the benefit of all the divisions and organization as a whole. Risk mitigation will arise from security of information through monitoring by one entity in a standardized  way, while regulatory will be concerned with abiding to set accounting rules of the Sarbanes Oxley act which the company has been having problems with (Schwartz, 2007). The next step would be to lay out the vision of the company and show why it cannot be achieved with division of operations among the divisions. This will impart some reasoning among the leaders, and support fore all divisions should be ensured. The main aim is to make everybody in the divisions aware of the role they will play and their stake to ensure thee is compliance and acceptance of the strategy to build a one services center (McKeen Smith, 2011). One of the problems that could arise after implementation of a shared service center is ease of adoption. Some employees who have been used to the old system will require to be trained how to work harmoniously with a single service center. Many will be required to handle more information concerning not only their divisions, but also other divisions. Hence, there will be need to have them trained to provide a central service to the customers. Another problem would arise for the culture set by the independent divisions prior to the implementation of a single service center. The current culture is of rivalry among the divisions considering they have been competing among themselves. Killing the culture will be a little hard. To deal with the problem the company will have to sta rt early through brining people together and coming up with tasks that can be incorporated in all divisions that allows all members to interact. The shared tasks will enhance cooperation among the different divisions. Conclusion RR is having problems because of lack of a common service center. All divisions are held with their own operations that aim at achieving divisional goals at the expense of corporate goals. The company is lacking a strong unified brand to sell to customers since all divisions are accounted for independently. This has made it obvious that a shared service will be the best for solving these issues. RR needs to put in place an alignment of their IT services with the business units. Transparency must be encouraged and joint responsibilities of IT ad businesses to achieve shared service center (smith McKeen, 2007). The company should also have a common enterprise vision for their systems. All the departments should be included with emphasis on joint business opportunities and risk mitigation. The top  management should be in forefront to creating an atmosphere of improvement continuously with a key focus on customer service to ensure the shared service center is successful. References McKeen, J. D., Smith, H. A. (2009). IT Strategy; Issues and Practices (2nd Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. McKeen, J. D., Smith, H. A. (2011). IT Strategy; International edition (2nd Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Moss, L., Brodie, M. (2002, July). Data Rich, but Information Poor? Retrieved October 26, 2011, from Information Management: http://www.information-management.com/issues/20020701/5341-1.html Schwartz, K/D. (2007). IT Governance Definition and Solutions. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/111700/IT_Governance_Definition_and_Solutions#what Smaltz, D. H. (2011, July/August). Are You Leveraging Your Data or Is Your Data Leveraging You? HIT Exchange , pp. 8-9. Smith, H. A., McKeen, J. D. (2007). Shared Services at RR Communications. Queens School of Business. Symantec. (2011, May 2). Deduplication and Efficient Data Storage. Retrieved October 26, 2011, from PR Newswire 1. List the advantages A single customer service center will yield both financial and human resource savings for RR Communications by eliminating the allocation of duplicated resources to the multiple divisional and regional customer service centers. With valuable resources freed from these multiple customer service centers, the company will be able to allocate more resources to its value added activities and improve operational efficiency. RR Communications run four divisions, each with a distinct but a complimentary product. They are internet, mobile, landline, and cable TV service. There is a deregulation in the telecommunications industry and its becoming a norm for competitors to offer multiple services like RR Communications. RR Communications’ customers  have been complaining about double billing because the four divisions have no working collaboration and thus, no way of knowing when the other division may already have sent the bill. A single customer service center will consolidate the da ta of the customers of all divisions and by addressing the problem of inaccurate billing, it will potential save the loss of dissatisfied customers to the competitors. A single service center will also yield growth opportunities by marketing the company’s other services to customers that they may not already have and offer discount incentives on the purchase of multiple products. A single customer service center will allow comparison among the company’s divisions in terms of product quality, customer satisfaction, and retention rates so that more resources could be allocated to troubled areas. A single customer service center will also make it easy to gather data about the company’s divisions and store them in standard formats for management analysis. By having access to all the relevant information about the customers, the customer service center will be better able to address customers’ questions and market company’s products which would not have been possible with separate customer service centers. It will also be convenient for the customers to call only one place for all their questions and thus, will increas e goodwill for RR Communications. 1. Is it possible to achieve an enterprise vision with a decentralized IT function? The answer to this question really depends on what the meaning or intention is behind the idea of an enterprise vision. If this simply means of having certain departments existing and able to complete their tasks and accomplish their goals, basically that the enterprise is functioning, than the answer is certainly. As demonstrated in the case study, there were multiple divisions for IT that were each doing their own thing, and while it wasnt pretty, compatible or optimal, everything did, technically, work allowing each department to function. As soon as the vision of an enterprise expands to a desire to work more efficiently, unify tools and platforms, have stronger compatibility or be one company a decentralized IT function becomes a massive hindrance. Turning to the case study again, each department was replicating the efforts of the other departments by finding their own software/data vendors, creating unique database systems and having their own support staff. This not only made it difficult for clients who  needed assistance, but meant there was excessive spending, and an inability for multiple departments to come together to function as a a single entity within the enterprise. 2. What business and IT problems can be caused by lack of common information and an enterprise IM strategy? There are numerous business and IT problems that can arise from the lack of common strategy. In terms of IT there can be duplication of efforts, systems and tools leading to not only multiple expenditures to yield the same results, but this may mean there is no strong outline of how systems are set up or designed, there may be no map detailing the hardware and software in place, which makes it far more difficult to not only run inventory, but ensure that new expenditures are needed and not (again) duplicating tools that have already been purchased or implemented. When different software and hardware solutions are used across departments, this also leads to difficulties in compatibility. When the organization wants to implement something new, it would be difficult if not impossible to determine if it can be integrated into the existing tools, or this may result in unanticipated technical errors arising from compatibility issues. Business problems stem primarily from an inability of data to be effectively shared across groups, thus limiting the ability of various departments to work together. Not only could this cause rifts to form between various groups, but it also means that there could be issues with data consistency. This is especially troubling for client data, as a change in one department may not be updated elsewhere due to data being stored in different databases, the inability for data to be updated across databases, and even opens up the potential for technical errors causing data that is normally consistent to suddenly become dispar ate from similar data elsewhere. Additionally, when the business requires technical assistance it is likely to be difficult to find the correct person with the knowledge needed to resolve a particular issue if that department is using specialized systems that are not consistent across the organization. 3. What governance mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure common customer data and a shared customer service center? What metrics might be useful (think service level agreements, etc.)? Common customer data will require a standardized database, as well as regular auditing procedures to ensure that data is only being modified/updated by those individuals who are supposed to have access, as well as verifying  accuracy for these modifications. Customer service really depends on the objectives of the company. I worked on an inbound phone line at a call center for 3 years while this was technically brokerage service, arguably it was a cutomer service center. Training had to be farily comprehensive so we could assist clients with almost any issues they had, and on top of that reps have to know what departments specialize in certain topics in case they need help figuring out what happened or resolving a complicated problem. On top of that, there is regular review and QA of random c alls to ensure representatives are giving correct informaton and assisting the client based on the standards and expectations set by the organization. Call reviews are measured on a scale where there are certain objective actions that are required on every call, then measured more subjective terms such as professionalism. I work with a tremendous amount of shared customer data, and everything is monitored, recorded and subject to audit procedures. There is always the abilty to find out who did what, when, and every phone call is recorded and maintained for a period of time. This of course protects the client as much as it helps protect the firm. As far as data is concerned, I dont know if there are specific service level agreements in place, but I do know that there is regular testing of what is referred to as host fallback where all the primary systems are taken down for a period of time, then brought back up. While this is frustrating for reps and clients who need access to the data, the very small number of times I experienced an unscheduled outage the backup systems performed well, all reps knew how best to work within the confines of the backup system, and the discussion with clients about why certain things could not be done went far more smoothly than if regular testing was not performed. The case study this week describes the classic example of an organization which is heavily decentralized into distinct lines of business (each with its own IT group) that realizes their need for a flexible and responsible IT function, a common view of the customer, and the elimination of redundant systems