Proto-Miob Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Proto-Miob - Essay Example Herein, both sides of the arguments will be considered with the intention of proving to the reader that the removing the smoking ban is a better option than maintaining it. According to Singleton, a spokesman for Reynolds American, it should be the decision of the establishment owners to decide if they want to uphold the rules on the environment (Winslow). The anti-smoking ban group â€Å"NYC Clash, Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment† stated after the ban was upheld by as new york judge that these laws are vague and infringe the smokers’ rights by violating the 1st and 14th amendments. It denies them the freedom to choose how they live since smoking is a personal choice and since the smokers are aware of the risks; the government has no business dictating how and when they smoke. Furthermore, according to Winslow, several thousand nonsmokers die due to conditions attributed to second hand smoke hence giving credence to the argument that cigarette smoking harms not just the smokers but their neighbors. Statistics show that bans on cigarette smoking have caused drastic reductions on the levels of cancer by an average 17% with the greatest drop being witnessed in nonsmokers (Winslow 2009). This is ample evidence that smoker do not only jeopardize their health but that of those who do not smoke hence the need for a ban. Notwithstanding, many people claim that smoking is their right, and any attempts to ban them from engaging are tantamount to infringing their freedom because they believe they should be able to move anywhere they want, more so in public, and restrictions on this are unconstitutional. Smokers hence claim that, banning smoking in public is an infringement on their freedom. However, proponents of the ban argue in the opposite direction they hold that it the rights of nonsmokers which will be infringed upon if they smoke bans are disallowed they will lose their right to live in a clean and healthy environment due to the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke. In addition, the city health officer, Thomas Friedman argued that, the â€Å"Smoke Free Air Act† was intended to protect the city resident’s health from the effect of secondhand smoke. To this effect, arguments have been made to prove that workers in bars and restaurants are vulnerable to the effects the many cigarettes being smoked in the premises. Therefore, as a potential health hazard in the workplace, the ban on public smoking is very much justified. Cigarettes pose a health threat not only because of the diseases they can cause but also as a fire hazard, since poor disposal of glowing butts can lead to fires resulting in the destruction of life and property (Dillenberger 1). On the other hand, several NYC claim that smokers’ personal lives are private, and the government has no right to interfere with it. Those in support of this argument state that people who are banned from public smoking are being marginalized by these bans. They state that it is wrong for the government to interfere with liberty and personal freedom of an individual all in the name of protecting the health of the public when many nonsmokers do even worse to their own bodies’ every day through other activities (Saulny 2004). In addition, the other argument against public

Teamwork Makes a Dream Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Teamwork Makes a Dream Work - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that team working/interpersonal skills is one of the seven skills listed by the Chartered Management Institute as essential for business management. Traditionally, management exercised control over the organization through planning and control, solving problems, making decisions and giving orientation, all by itself.   Problem-solving used to be the prerogative of the management. In modern times, the above mastership culture has transformed into team leadership characterized by empowered individuals. The team oriented management has come to be known as the second industrial revolution which the Fortune magazine calls as the great discovery of the 1990s. Management through teams has proved to be the cornerstone for many organizations to realize enhanced organizational effectiveness and productivity. Thus, traditional individualistic functioning has been replaced by team functioning in modern times. Team oriented management is a flexible or ganizational model with â€Å"laminar and flattened structure† as opposed to the traditional organizational structure wedded to top-down (hierarchical) functioning. This flexibility of approach towards problem-solving envisages participation of all the team members at the same time in the decision making and problem-solving processes. Due to the underlying commitment, the team members would never overlook the common objective and most importantly, the team-based functioning is a morale-booster, cost-cutting technique, means of improving quality and productivity, leading to the highest possible organizational performance.... The functional role is drawn from the role theory which emphasizes the role as a part of social structure in that everyone has a role to play in a given activity. The functional role theory is explained in two perspectives of behavioural perspective and expectancy perspective. The former is manifested in an individual who is given or who has assumed a certain position in a community. The latter is manifested as an expected behaviour of an individual occupying a definite position in a society. Belbin states that while functional role is for survival, team role consists of roles required for the pursuit of the common objective (Gunduz, 2008). Self-managing teams The concept of self-managing teams has been discussed as early as 1997. Organisations have embraced the practice of self-managing teams for the sake of flexibility, decision making at the front-end and exploitation of employees’ capabilities to the fullest extent. The rationale behind self-managing is to make employees f ully accountable for their actions/performance rather than being dependent on their managers. This practice of day-day to management has been found to improve organisational performance for reasons of closeness between the front end people and the customers, the potential to improve ‘organisational learning and adaptability’ enabled by the freedom with which the teams can experiment with their work so as to formulate their own unique methods of problem-solving and the employees’ commitment made possible by their wider participation (Belbin R. M., 2012) (Wageman, 1997). Mixed Results Self-managing team concept has its own drawbacks in spite of the promise it holds for

Locals spend lavishly thanks to windfall from IPOs Essay

Locals spend lavishly thanks to windfall from IPOs - Essay Example "I took a Karwa taxi to the Industrial Area from the Old Airport locality on Friday evening and I paid QR30 as one-way fare It is too much," he said. Even a Qatari national, Yahya Abdul Rahman, felt the sheep were costlier this Eid. He blamed house rents as the single culprit for the rising cost of living and said he had let out four houses to expatriate tenant families and raised rents only marginally. "I have concern for them," he said of his tenants. The article mainly talks about how locals in Doha, Qatar enjoy affluent lifestyles as opposed to foreign expatriates. Expatriates are people who are temporarily living in another country, the culture of which different from the one they are from. The locals' and the expatriates' economic and financial differences are highlighted during the Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice, the most important feast of the Muslim. The feast is celebrated by sacrificing domestic animals, particularly sheep. The article narrates how it is easy for an average Qatari to purchase a fair number of sheep, while the foreigners struggle to buy even just one. The local Qataris can manage to be extravagant because of the "booming stock market" especially initial public offerings (IPO... He blamed house rents as the single culprit for the rising cost of living and said he had let out four houses to expatriate tenant families and raised rents only marginally. "I have concern for them," he said of his tenants. "Landlords are greedy," he said of property owners, his fellow countrymen. "Rising inflation is not good for all of us." Section: Local News Accessed 1/9/2006 from http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 1.2 Commentary The article mainly talks about how locals in Doha, Qatar enjoy affluent lifestyles as opposed to foreign expatriates. Expatriates are people who are temporarily living in another country, the culture of which different from the one they are from. The locals' and the expatriates' economic and financial differences are highlighted during the Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice, the most important feast of the Muslim. The feast is celebrated by sacrificing domestic animals, particularly sheep. The article narrates how it is easy for an average Qatari to purchase a fair number of sheep, while the foreigners struggle to buy even just one. The local Qataris can manage to be extravagant because of the "booming stock market" especially initial public offerings (IPOs). IPOs are the first sale of stock offered by a private company to the public, stocks being the element of ownership in a corporation. IPOs can only be offered once, many people take advantage of the opportunity. It is typical for the value of IPOs to rise on debut. However, many fall below the offering prices before the year ends. Because of this investing in IPOs are risky, as with all other investments. But even with the booming shares in the Doha Securities Market (up to 98% in 2005), economists raise concern that it might

E-Business Foundation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

E-Business Foundation - Essay Example The main redeeming aspect about Google’s approach has been its innovative approach.Thus, it is seen that all their website projects integrate the latest thinking on design, usage, accessibility, technology and marketing strategy. Google has been serving their customers for over a decade now. They have attributed their success and long life to their quest for making rewarding and long-term relationships with both potential and existing clients it is believed that Google take special interest in the success of their clients and work hand- in- hand to ensure that the product is of high quality that could meet the clients’ goals and objectives. Google has decided to take over YouTube for $1.65 million in stocks. This would spell great opportunities for internet users and content owners throughout the business world. The takeover merges one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment businesses with Google's proven proficiency in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The merged companies would focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach vast new viewers. Next, Google has also received approval from the US Federal regulators to acquire Double Click for $3.1 billion. Google generates revenue from selling text-based ads that appear next to search results.

CIF Shipment Contract Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

CIF Shipment Contract - Essay Example Fundamentally, cost, insurance and freight in a C.I.F Contract are tied to the shipment industry. A C.I.F Contract is quite similar to a Cost and Freight contract, and the same rules apply. Aside from the Cost and Freight features, a C.I.F includes an insurance policy. This covers any risk when goods are being delivered from sellers to buyers (Chua, 2000, 158-159). With all Cost and Freight rules being applied, insurance is the included factor in a C.I.F contract. The insurance factor prevents a seller and buyer facing any loss during transfer of goods. Documents of goods are handed by the seller to the transporter, and then they are handed to the buyer. While this process takes place, the insurance factor remains in effect. Therefore, protection of the goods starts from the time the insurance policy commences up till the time the transporters hand the goods over to the buyer (The Law of International Trade, 2000, 23-27). Usually, such an insurance policy in a C.I.F contract is signed for the period during which the goods are in the care of the seller or the buyer. From this, one can see that the C.I.F. insurance factor is associated with the contract because it is intended for the purpose of shipment. Further more, the insurance is mentioned in the sales contract. The amount that is insured is particularly written in the sales contract, and the amount insured should not be less than 110 percent of the total C.I.F value. This shows that the insurance factor covers everything, and the seller and the buyer will stand no loss if anything happens to the good while being delivered (The Insurance Element in lncoterms CIF and CIP Contracts, 1995, 8-25). Under C.I.F terms, it is a requirement for an exporter to have marine insurance. Obviously, this means that if an exporter does not have marine insurance, s/he would not be able to sign a C.I.F contract. The idea of having marine insurance means that the insurance is specific to the transporter, and provides coverage against loss in case during transportation (The Insurance Element in lncoterms CIF and CIP Contracts, 1995, 8-25). A C.I.F contract appears to be a comprehensive shipment contract because it encompasses all important aspects for transporting goods under international trade. It could be asserted that this contract is a step ahead of the Cost and Freight contract, while variations of a C.I.F contract are seen in the form of C&I contract. In a C&I contract, Cost and Insurance are mentioned in the sales agreement while freight is not included. It can be noted that the marine insurance requirements in a C&I contract and in a C.I.F are the same (The Insurance Element in lncoterms CIF and CIP Contracts, 1995, 8-25). A seller in a C.I.F contract has the responsibility of fulfilling all the contractual requirements. Details such as the exact date and time the goods are to be delivered to the buyer need to be mentioned in the contract. Therefore, it is often said that in a C.I.F contract, a seller has more responsibility than a buyer. The seller has to make sure that everything is in order while the buyer has to receive it as per agreement. If there are any problems with delivery of goods, the buyer is not responsible (The Nature of CIF Contract, 1993, 159-176). However, the seller is on the safe side because s/he is protected due to insurance in the

Training for Excellence at Wegman's Food Markets Essay

Training for Excellence at Wegman's Food Markets - Essay Example It has consistently appeared in Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work for, since Fortune started compiling it. The question now is how Wegmans can improve its training system better, so that it does not only measure store sales, but also evaluate changes in employee reaction, learning, and behaviour, as well as changes in results that pertain to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Problem Statements Challenge 1: The inclusion of new measures in assessing training effectiveness: â€Å"Wegmans measures the success of its training based on whether a store’s sales are growing.† Challenge 2: Changing the training process to include approaches that will be effective in influencing the new measures of training effectiveness: â€Å"Wegmans uses a blended approach to training, combining classroom sessions with on-the-job learning.† Challenge 3: Understanding the connection between employee satisfaction and delivery of services that result to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, because customer satisfaction and customer loyalty can also impact organisational succcess: â€Å"This vision of training assumes that people who understand what they are selling and who care about customers will naturally be able to sell by providing value to the customers...† Solutions Solution 1: It would be useful for Wegmans to expand the results it measures. At present, it only measures training effectiveness through store sales. In order to remain competitive, it must have a human resource (HR) strategy that fits its organisational strategy, and it can do so by doing its training differently from other supermarket chains and competitors (i.e. substitutes that do not directly compete with Wegmans, such as farmers that directly sell their goods at residential subdivisions). A different kind of training will need a different set of measures, so that the training process can improve the connection between positive reaction and learning t o behavioural changes, and results. In Ibrahim’s 2004 study on training effectiveness for 94 trainees, findings showed that the training program resulted to positive reactions and improvement in trainee’s knowledge and skills. This study has not established a direct link between positive reactions and employee and organisational performance, but it does suggest a potential relationship between training reaction and knowledge and skills development. Giangreco, Sebastiano, and Peccei (2009) suggest the importance of training reaction to training usefulness. Thus, it will also be fruitful for Wegmans to measure training reaction and learning, aside from its usual focus on the effect of training on store sales, so that it can enhance its training effectiveness. Solution 2: Changing the training process to include approaches that will be effective in influencing new measures of training effectiveness can also improve training strategy at Wegmans. At present, â€Å"Wegmans uses a blended approach to training, combining classroom sessions with on-the-job learning.† This means that Wegmans predominantly uses apprenticeship training. In order to identity additional training methods, it is important to conduct training needs analysis for both shop-level employees and management. The two main ways that can be used to analyse training needs are task analysis and performance analysis. Task analysis will focus on the kind and frequency of tasks performed, as well as where and how they can best be learned. Performance analysis will be conducted

Active Intellect in Aristotle Essay Example for Free

Active Intellect in Aristotle Essay All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. This is the foundation of human knowledge Aristotle presents us with in Book Alpha of the Metaphysics. The next question which we must naturally ask ourselves is, How? How is it that we can have any knowledge at all? We by our very nature desire to know and we love the senses in themselves but what is the relationship between the two and by what faculty are we able to call anything knowledge once sense perception has occurred? Aristotle sets up as his faculty for knowledge both the active and the passive intellects. We begin to have knowledge through sense experience. We cannot know without sense experienceand it is from sense experience that all knowledge is therefore generated. Knowledge for Aristotle is a knowledge of universals, that is, a knowledge of Essences. Thought is thus the faculty by which we come to comprehend universals. And since material objects are a composite unity of essence and existence, it naturally follows that we grasp the universal through our encounter with the particular. What follows is a series of events which leads to knowledge. The passive intellect receives the image from the sense data and it is stamped upon the passive intellect from the material impression. From this stamp the active intellect is to draw out of it and somehow make a universal concept from this particular experience. But there is something more at work here. There is something in the mind ( more specifically in the soul) that somehow comprehends and makes universals intelligible. Various theories have been postulated concerning this but we shall concentrate on Aristotle and leave the other philosophies for now. What is at work in man is a divine reason immanent in mans soul. Somehow man is connected to and shares in divine reason. A distinction must be made here. We are not saying that the human souls capacity to grasp universals is in some way a maker or shares in the pure act of God, but that without this divine reason at work in the souls of men no understanding of universals could take place at all. The mind works on the material given to it, that is its potential, and from this material it moves to actuality. An example of this is the man who is without music becoming musical. His potential to be musical always existed in him but it wasnt until he studied the particulars of music that he became a musical  man. Aristotle refers in his Meteorology (1072, b14) that we can live a life like that of a God, a time of reason being broken down where we become aware of the oneness with the principles, whose knowledge is always actual and always complete. The active intellect does not in any way act strictly on material that was already there but undisclosed, it does act on material given to it in sense experience and illuminated by mans reason and divine reason as well. We share in the reason of God Aristotle believed. The philosopher God is a God of pure act, in other words Thought thinking Thought. This is the goal of man, to achieve a similar state of being in contemplation and reflection. And it is only through the active intellect that man is able to come to universals. The active intellect acts on the passive intellect the way an artist acts on stone to create an image. The artist impresses the form of a knowable object into the stone and the active intellect impresses a knowable object onto the passive intellect. We must not make the mistake here of understanding the active intellect as a medium between the passive intellect and the object to be known. Knowledge for Aristotle is a direct and not mediated relationship. The relationship of active to passive intellect is that of illumination shared in divine reason whereby man is able to see the universal in the particular and understand or grasp the idea of universal. This I liken to the statue made by the artist. By sharing in divine reason and the reason in his own soul (which I understand to be an imperfect representation of Gods) the artist is able to take a universal image in his soul and craft a particular. This particular statue thus becomes a representation of the universals we can synthesize through sense experience. Aquinas furthered this theory of the active intellect not as a maker but as an abstraction. This abstraction is taking the impressed species and expressing it through the faculty of the active or agent intellect. The material image is given in sense experience and then expressed as a universal to the mind by the very nature of the active intellect which is abstraction. This abstraction is how for Aquinas that we come to know universals. Gods pure act is translated here to fallen man by which he can begin his ascent to a higher existence. The active intellect in Aristotle is not a reason which creates out of nothing. It works on a material given to it, which it promotes from potentiality into actuality. The one reason is analogous to matter because it becomes all things; the other is analogous to the efficient cause because it makes all things. The first statement points to the act of apprehending, the second to that of art. Art makes its objects by making the material become them. And if the analogy is meant to be an exact one the role of the active intellect must therefore be to make the passive intellect its object so this apprehension can occur. What is potentially comes to be actually. This implies that there is something similar to Platos world of Forms insofar as man is cut off to a pre-existing knowledge and with which we are not in communication. Where Plato called it the re-collection of forgotten forms I believe Aristotle to call it divine reason actuating itself in human reason. Because all men by nature to desire to know, and by knowing we share in the being of God.