Wk5 Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans Essay

Wk5 Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans - Essay Example One of the noted weaknesses of Apple is its poor relationship with the market than Microsoft (Iftikhar, 2013). This means that for many years, Apple has the consensus of specifying its own standards, rather than the standards of customers. This could mean more of a production-centred management strategy of products, rather than market or customer-centred approach. For this reason, it is necessary to ensure that Apple will take seriously the necessity of ensuring the voices of the customers are constantly heard in its production setting. On the other hand, Iftikhar noted that the products of Apple have very short life cycle, implying that constant maintenance of the research and development department has to be initiated. This prevailing management system has to be changed for good. Thus, the research and development department has to be dynamic, but on the other side, should also be one of the most expensive departments at Apple. Thus, it is necessary to ensure huge capital for this reason. The management therefore, in order to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage should further double its effort in research and development, primarily for the associated expenses of its actual operation. This is to suggest that point that Apple should primarily put the context of adjusting its budget for research and development much more than what is has tried so far from the past until recently. In addition, Apple according to Iftikhar has very low presence in the advertisement. The marketing department should therefore try to improve its strategic approach in communicating its product offerings. This means that in order to ensure a sustainable growth for its offerings and retention in the market, Apple should ensure constant communication and a wide coverage of its message to its market. Finally, Iftikhar also pointed out that Apple has very small market occupation. This issue is one pertaining to organizational

Human ResourcesTraining and Development #2 Essay

Human ResourcesTraining and Development #2 - Essay Example SWOT Analysis is an effective tool in identifying the internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats. It helps to develop a plan of action to concentrate on weaknesses and threats and get maximum advantage from the strengths and opportunities it has. The strengths of Abbott Labs are: its great history of innovation, its wide range of products, the great respect it commands in market ratings, and finally its expanding geographical reach opening up new opportunities. These are certainly its strengths to build on. Its overdependence on the anti-bacterial Biaxin and the anti-epileptic Depakote is could be a major weakness for Abbott. Both these products contribute substantially to the company revenues and profits. The challenge for Abbott is to minimize the decline of sale of these two. Abbott has been doing it bests in exploring new opportunities and keeping its position of strength. The new agreements and acquisitions it has had with Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Vysis Inc, and Biocompatible will help expand its product range and its pipeline. The company signed a The price regulation of prescription drugs in various markets by peers and government agencies, strong competition from generic manufacturers, and the expiring patent protection are the major threats Abbott is facing. "Abbott Laboratories' 'Position of Strength'

A Hunger Artist Essay Example for Free

A Hunger Artist Essay Misunderstanding must be exposed and handled accordingly in order for understanding to occur Throughout the short story, â€Å"A Hunger Artist†, misunderstanding often created a separation of artist from society. Franz Kafka uses various literary elements and devices such as symbols and conflict to demonstrate this theme. One way that Franz Kafka explicitly displays misunderstanding in â€Å"A Hunger Artist† is through his use of symbolism. Throughout the work, the hunger artist was locked inside of a cage to isolate himself from the fickle public. This cage represents alienation from society and also a barrier that prevents understanding. The spectators’ positions outside of the cage prevent them from truly appreciating the hunger artist’s feat and often times causes those to misunderstand the concept of â€Å"art† that the hunger artist is attempting to exhibit. In the artist’s case, being an artist means cutting oneself off from the world and this is reflected in the artist’s conscious choice to sequester, or seclude, himself in a cage. The physical separation of hunger artist and spectator that the cage creates mirrors the spiritual separation of the individual artistic ego and public will. This separation in mindset leads to a critical dividend in understanding in which only the hunger artist realizes the importance of his ambitions and accomplishments. In regard to the artist’s behavior, the impresario would apologize as stated, â€Å"He would apologize publicly for the artist’s behavior, which was only to be excused, he admitted because of the irritability caused by fasting; a condition hardly to be understood by well-fed people† (Kafka 3). Spectators often misinterpreted the point that the hunger artist was attempting to portray. The purpose of the cage was to secure him from those who do not understand him. Another way that Kafka demonstrates misunderstanding is through his use of external conflict. The hunger artist’s troubled relationships with his spectators suggest that the artist exists apart from society and must therefore be misunderstood since the spectators do not perceive art in the same sense that the hunger artist does. This conflict ultimately occurs on more than one occasion throughout the text. The artist does not want to be rewarded with materialistic contributions and/or praise from the public; he finds the greatest reward in others’ understanding of art from his perspective. The public pretend to admire the hunger artist’s accomplishments merely because they do not understand the true concept of art that the artist is striving to convey. Kafka states, â€Å"His public pretended to admire him so much, why should it have so little patience with him; if he could endure fasting longer, why shouldn’t the public endure it? † (2). The fickle public that the hunger artist encounters does not pay him as much attention as he expected. The public are glad to finally see the artist stop his fasting so they are able to proceed on with their lives; they don’t show much interest in the art of fasting. In an article, Ian Johnston translates, â€Å"In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably†¦Back then the hunger artist captured the attention of the entire city. From day to day while the fasting lasted, participation increased† (Franz Kafka A Hunger Artist). This explicitly expresses the reason why the public show no interest in the hunger artist’s fasting. An art that was greatly appreciated before has now died down and is not trendy. The hunger artist’s attempts to gain the public’s recognition of the true concept of the art of fasting have failed. From reading the short story, â€Å"A Hunger Artist†, one can gain the concept of how important it is to expose misunderstanding before true understanding can develop. Whether it be with an in-depth look at art or simply a misunderstanding between two people, developing an understanding is vital. The reason for misunderstanding must be addressed and handled accordingly prior to proceeding in the process of understanding. Works Cited Kafka, Franz. A Hunger Artist. Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1996. N. pag. Print. Yancey, Phillip. Good Reads. N. p. , n. d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. lt;http://www. goodreads. com/quotes/tag/misunderstandinggt;. Understanding. Def. 2a. Merriam-Webster. n. d. N. pag. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. lt;http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/understandinggt;. Johnston, Ian. Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories. Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications, 2009. N. pag. Web. 11 May 2013. lt;http://www. richerresourcespublications. com/Books/Classic_Books/Philosophy/Kafka/Franz_Kafka. pdfgt;.

Approaches of contemporary globalization

Approaches of contemporary globalization The term globalization is multi dimensional, and therefore it can be complex in its definition. It is a method where all political, economic, cultural and social activities start operating at a international level. In recent years there has been a unexpected growth in global connections with the people and communities around the world. The distance between different communities, cultures and countries has become less of a physical distance and can now communicate using new technology. Although the claim that contemporary globalization has made the nation state obsolete depends on which view you look at, as there are 3 different approaches to globalization. This globalization also depends on how you are looking at it from a cultural , economic,political or social point of view. In the UK today we are living in a very diverse society with a lot of different cultural backgrounds. With the use of the internet we are able to communicate around the world , and even the way we dress is starting to look similar to cultures from around the world and we are inspired by their style. This technology is a stepping stone for businesses to become bigger and expand world wide. A nation state is an independent country which has a large amount of people that share the same language, traditions and history but the nations state are being affected by globalization. There are 3 approaches to globalization, internationalist, transformationalist and globalist. The globalist view could be viewed in the eye of a pessimistic globalist or the optimistic or positive globalist. The optimistic view is that globalization is exciting and creating a more diverse society, but still recognise the dangers of global environmental pollution, positive globalizers argue that we could improve the position if we all took some responsibility for reducing unsustainable levels of consumption, and they point to the development of new technologies which are likely to reduce levels of pollution. ( p22, Held 2004). Globalists see that globalization is disappearing as there is less control of the nation states than in the past. Globalization is an inevitable trajectory of development , so any attempts to resist it are doomed to failure. (p22 Held 2004). Internationalists views argue that globalization is a myth. They believe that most economic and social activity is regional rather that global. Transformanationalists views argue that the nation state still remains powerful they also see the problems can be reversed by restructuring and accommodate the new forms of global governance. Looking at the views, the transformanationlaist on globalization making nation state obsolete seems to be the most plausible from any finding at this stage as it seems that the government can adjust there roles instead of losing power altogether. Nation states are seen as blocks of territory with fixed borders, it is argued that these boundaries are not as important as they used to be due to globalization. There has been an increase in the co-operation and mutual understanding between countries as politicians try to elude national boundaries, or which on based in other countries. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of intergovernmental organisations IGOs around the globe from 37 in 1909 to nearly 300 in 1999. Globalists would have us believe that the governments are fragmenting it is more likely the governments are learning to accommodate a more complex international co-ordination than has been in the past. The main problem with this increase in intergovernmental associations is that the foreign office find it more difficult to control the increased amount of intergovernmental operation. Looking at how these organizations set up it is obvious that the representatives for each country are actually representing the nation state they come from. Globalization encourages the growth of communication and organisations that link human kind across the globe. Because the communication link and interaction people are not constrained by their national boundaries , this does not mean that a nation state loses its sovereignty. UK government does not always agree completely in its decisions, However the people of the UK still seem to stay confident in their nation state as this is what we identify ourselves with. The nation state that we identify with most is the UK and is very important because there has been such change over the authorities. Governments might have found themselves subject to actions from other organisations that would of not happened in the past, as back then we would have only cared for our own need without any outside interference. For example the UK government might have been under some sort of control of the EU and the World Trade Organisations. This would have been said to create a more uncertain society in terms of the nation state identity by tranformationalist. According to inter-nationalist there are a few general multi-national corporations than thought they are more accurately described as transnational corporations (TNCs) which are not governed from any national base, and which have a more genuinely international organisation personnels. (Thompson, 2000 p103). The percentage of a countries trade is global and often thought as being greater than it actually is. Globalists view MNCs are taxing over from government power, however this is flawed as it is still the government who has the power to enforce laws and legislation. Transformationalist would argue that there is a new global politics appearing, this does not mean that all government have an equal say in global decision making. The poorest people in the world still have a little say in what goes on. In the UK our nation state is still very important. The government might have to adjust to consider other countries but a majority of these countries are within the EU more than around the world, it looks like the UK government is becoming more regionalised than globalized. USA and the EU and Japan may work together and some other countries ignored, mainly the poorer ones. This is quite true as most powerful economies have more political power than the poor countries that have little power. The UK government may have had to change its roles on a local level more than global level, but the claim that globalization has made the nation state obsolete, its more likely that it is being reshaped within the EU but nothing says if this is really happening at a global level. As we can see in my conclusion is that globalization is changing,and how fast and to what extent that this is happening might be a slightly exaggerated. This does not mean the end of the nation state, it just means that it is being redefined. Globalization in one way or another is creating a more uncertain, yet diverse world. Each of the points have there flaws and their valid areas to each of their arguments, the transformationalists view of the government having to adjust the way it is run is a very valid point. Each argument could be seen valid depending on how its seen and what you believe in, but every individual will have there own opinion on each outcome. REFERENCES Kelly, B. and Prokhovnik, R. (2004) Economic globalization? in Held, D. (ed) A Globalizing World? Culture, Economics, Politics, London, Routledge/The Open University.

Essay --

Strengths Here at Admatch there has been very little turnover among employees. There are a total of 12 employees that work here in total, and out of that total 7 are full time employees, and 4 are part time. Out of the 7 full time employees 4 of them have worked for Admatch for at least 18 years. I have worked here at Admatch for a total of 8 years this part November of 2013. We here at Admatch have all the knowledge we need to know about all of the products that we sell. This is great because when our customers need to call us for a question they need answered they can usually ask for who they would like to speak with or they can talk to someone else they have spoken to a few times. Most of our customers have a favorite person they like to speak with when calling us here at Admatch. This also helps us to build customer relationships and loyalty all at the same time. It kind of reminds me of the television show â€Å"Cheers† theme song, â€Å"Where everybody knows your name.† Another great reason why having very little turnover among employees here at Admatch is because work can get done efficiently and effectively. We all know and understand how each other work, and we know what part each of us plays in the company. This helps us to build our relationship with each other to make working together much easier. We also get to have fun sometimes while working. It will be pretty tuff to do that with new employees who don’t yet understand the relationship we all have with each other. We also know the go to person for certain situations. What some people have as a weakness other people have as their strength. I know exactly who to go to for pricing help or with a customer service problem on an order. For some people you may think it is the same ... ...t for us to sell. When we do not fulfill those needs they tend to go elsewhere without taking a second look at all the other products that we can offer. Admatch has seen much of our business being lost to our competitors. When contacted by one of the employees in our sales team and asked why we have not seen any new business or repeat order, the answers Admatch gets are With inflation increasing at such a rapid rate, the price of materials to produce products have also increased. This is very tuff to for Admatch because that means prices have to rise. Admatch has had to raise their prices for the last 3 to 4 years at about 10% a year on all items that the company sells. While Admatch has held out for a long as possible in increasing prices, they soon began to realize they had no choice in the matter. Everything from paper to ink to overhead expenses has increased.

Leadership Styles :: essays research papers

The style of leadership that would be the most comfortable for me would be delegation. One of the first signs of good supervision is effective delegation. Delegation is when supervisors give responsibility and authority to subordinates to complete a task, and let the subordinates figure out how the task can be accomplished. Effective delegation develops people who are ultimately more fulfilled and productive. Managers become more fulfilled and productive themselves as they learn to count on their staffs and are freed up to attend to more strategic issues. Delegating is a critical skill for supervisors. Delegating involves working with an employee to establish goals, granting them sufficient authority and responsibility to achieve the goals, often giving them substantial freedom in deciding how the goals will be achieved, remaining available as a resource to help them achieve the goals, assessing their performance, addressing performance issues and/or rewarding their performance. Ultimately, the supervisor retains responsibility for the attainment of the goals, but chooses to achieve the goals by delegating to someone else. True delegation means giving up a little of what we would like to hold onto while keeping what we might prefer to give up. Participative style of leadership would be least comfortable for me. A participative leader, rather than making decisions, looks to involve other staff in the process. Often however, as it is up to the manager to decide how much influence others are given, this style can only work well, when both managers and staff understand and are in agreement about which tasks are important. The staffs expertise, experience and intuition need to be encouraged, not stifled, if challenging situations are to be negotiated. The goal of the participative leader is to persuade followers to share their values and connect with their vision. It appears to me, to be obvious that most large organizations, the federal government, the military, etc., require leaders and followers that possess the same core Leadership Styles :: essays research papers The style of leadership that would be the most comfortable for me would be delegation. One of the first signs of good supervision is effective delegation. Delegation is when supervisors give responsibility and authority to subordinates to complete a task, and let the subordinates figure out how the task can be accomplished. Effective delegation develops people who are ultimately more fulfilled and productive. Managers become more fulfilled and productive themselves as they learn to count on their staffs and are freed up to attend to more strategic issues. Delegating is a critical skill for supervisors. Delegating involves working with an employee to establish goals, granting them sufficient authority and responsibility to achieve the goals, often giving them substantial freedom in deciding how the goals will be achieved, remaining available as a resource to help them achieve the goals, assessing their performance, addressing performance issues and/or rewarding their performance. Ultimately, the supervisor retains responsibility for the attainment of the goals, but chooses to achieve the goals by delegating to someone else. True delegation means giving up a little of what we would like to hold onto while keeping what we might prefer to give up. Participative style of leadership would be least comfortable for me. A participative leader, rather than making decisions, looks to involve other staff in the process. Often however, as it is up to the manager to decide how much influence others are given, this style can only work well, when both managers and staff understand and are in agreement about which tasks are important. The staffs expertise, experience and intuition need to be encouraged, not stifled, if challenging situations are to be negotiated. The goal of the participative leader is to persuade followers to share their values and connect with their vision. It appears to me, to be obvious that most large organizations, the federal government, the military, etc., require leaders and followers that possess the same core

Brain and Language

Damasio and Damasio (1992) discussed the detailed mechanics of language processing by the human brain. Their article, first established a general understanding of such concepts as the brain’s ability to categorize and classify word-forms through the mediation of the human sensors. According to their article, the brain’s left and right hemispheres contains three neural structures. The first extensive structure processes the non-verbal representations organizing objects, events, and relationships.Second structure, located only in the left hemisphere is responsible for producing the language through and with phonemes, phonemic and syntactic structures with the resulting word-forms. They referred to the third structure as a mediating structure that can change the concept into the word form or vice versa. Their further discourse proceeded into the specifics of the brain anatomy and various effects of the damage or lesions of the portions of the brain. Their examples with the color recognition were particularly impressive when they described the condition known as achromatopsia – lack of ability to perceive colors (i.e. seeing the environment in the shades of gray). The article was especially effective in describing the complicated mechanism behind the color recognition, color categorization and classification, and producing the correct word-form for the specific color. The article argues against the traditionally thought the â€Å"pictorial† representations of the objects, persons, or any combination of the environmental experiences but instead the authors describe their theory of how records of neural activity are stored in the sensory and motor cortices.Such patterns of synaptic activity also act through and with associations on which one particular object will associate with the patterns of color, shape, usage, tactile perceptions, and the feelings that a person has usually when using this object. The authors further state that the neu ral actions that occur as the result of interaction between the person and the object happen in different functional areas of the brain and come together in areas of â€Å"convergence† of synaptic connections.Then recall of the event and its associated experiences depend upon simultaneous reactivation of the neural actions within the neuron assemblies when those fire simultaneously and reactivate the previously occurred patterns of neural activity. Simultaneously, the categorization and classification occurs in such similar or related neural actions are activated together. The categorization and classification abilities of the first neural structure make it possible to distinguish objects by their characteristics and function ‘stored’ previously, as Damasio and Damasio describe the example with a coffee cup.Such ‘recollection’ is perhaps responsible for the brain’s ability to express the formed within concept and to understand a comprehensive input as the concept. The article further exemplifies a curious condition in which a patient would loose an ability to define a concept for a unique entity (like an animal species in the author’s example). From this example, the reader would learn that the affected patient would not be able to name any animal species (i. e. raccoon) nor would say its size, color, or shape.He would simply say â€Å"animal† when presented with the picture of a raccoon (Damasio Damasio, 1992). When describing the affect produced by the specific lesion of the portion within the left hemisphere, the authors wrote about the earlier discovery by Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke of the phenomenon called ‘cerebral dominance’ which specifically pointed out at the left hemisphere as the organ responsible for the production and processing of human language in â€Å"99 percent of right-handed and two-thirds of left handers.† The article confirms these studied by briefly discussing t he research by Edward Klima of the University of California at San Diego and Ursula Bellugi of the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in San Diego who have discovered that aphasia (condition that impedes language-interpreting ability) is caused by damage to the particular region of the left hemisphere of the brain. Using the aphasic patients, the investigators were able to map the neural activities responsible for the formation of the language and its interpretation (also including other variations of language such as sign language) (Damasio & Damasio, 1992).With having a map in front of them, the neuroscientists and other field investigators would be able to specify exactly which function would be impaired as the result of damage to which portion of the left hemisphere. This would also extend to the predictive ability as far as other functions of the whole language production mechanism are concerned. Example of such can be actual production of speech sounds, intonation (i. e.spea king in a ‘flat tone’, long pauses between the words and defective grammar), the impairment of associative and habit learning, production of nouns, production of verbs (nouns and verbs are produced and processed in different regions), difficulty understanding meanings that represent the syntactic structures, and the inability to understand the meaning of non-reversible passive structures. The authors further attempt to defend their point of view in favor of the mediating system between the structure that is responsible for concept processing and the system that actually produces word and word structures.According to them, the mediating system’s function would be that of the selection of the correct meaning of lexicon or that connecting the concepts’ interrelationship. It is understood that mediation system is mostly activated when the person attempts to understand the comprehensive input. The purpose of comprehension sets in motion the mediating system tha t is capable of bringing associative connections between the concepts, particular experiences, and generalized experiences together. To exemplify their view, the authors mention A. N. and L. R.as patients who have a problem in retrieval of common nouns representing certain entities. Their deficit in the specific word-form retrieval is causes by their inability to activate the mediation system that deprives them of the ability to bring the connection between the concepts (i. e. of the noun and what that noun represents as far as the object and its function). Damasio and Damasio explained such selective deficiency by stating that the selectivity in conceptualization of entities depends upon the absence or presence of the personal relation of the patient to the entity/concept.By loosing the function of some regions of the left hemisphere, the patients will respond by loosing the specific speech/conceptualization function that is mapped to that region. In A. N. and L. R. case it was the damage to anterior and midtemporal cortices that rendered them unable to pick may common nouns. The article concludes with the detailed discourse into the studies by the group of researchers at Washington University.Specifically, this group was interested in the production and interpretation of verbs and functors and how the nouns can be mediated together with the appropriate actions, like the noun ‘apple’ would mediate with the verb ‘eat. ’ Their conclusions illustrated a situation in which the damage to the certain left hemisphere regions would disrupt such association rendering the patient unable to produce the appropriate verb and further disrupting their use of grammar (Damasio & Damasio, 1992).The article was comprehensive in its purpose in terms of being able to describe the complex structure and function of the left hemisphere’s regions responsible for processing, production, and mediation of the components of human language. The only critiq ue of the article that I have is that the authors attempted to place too much of very specific information into a very small format. The complexity of the concepts behind the message would be better delivered if more practical examples were used and the text would be delineated with a larger number of lay terms.In general, the article’s audience appeared to be professionals or paraprofessionals who already had a significant understanding within the field. It would be difficult to understand for people with a limited knowledge and background within the field. The illustrations were adequate and the sources appropriate in both quality and quantity. My suggestion for the further research would be targeting the Visio-Spatial Memory Units that are units of memory assembled from different perceptual input within the Working Memory (Baddely, 1992).Further, my suggestion would be to investigate the alternative approaches to the definition and theoretical function-ability of the short -term memory. References Baddeley AD. 1992. Working memory. Science 255:556-59 Damasio, A. R. , & Damasio, H. (1992). Brain and Language, Scientific American, pg. 89- 95, Retrieved June 28, 2007 from http://www. utdallas. edu/~wkatz/Proseminar_articles. html