KM Phase Project Report

Electronics (GAPE) to analyze their processes and to come up with a KM improvement plan to shorten their product development lead-time. We took a closer look at the key activities in the product development process and identified critical activities that had most impact on the development lead- time which is the focus for our study. We also got to learn development that did not go as planned as well as getting to know what is working well in product development.Completing the KM assessment has allowed us to draw the following results: GAPE should focus on Exchange, Combination and Colonization (for both Knowledge Sharing and Discovery). Attention should be given to Routine, Direction, Sterilization and Initialization. The majority of knowledge were captured through formal procedural processes and stored in the Exchange database. But it is not easy for engineers to find them. Knowledge locator may help to solve this problem.The current KM Infrastructure does not support colonization w ell enough and does not really exhibit knowledge sharing between development teams. This could improve by setting up community Of practices. The key to success is in getting the product design requirements right the first mime, perform thorough evaluations on all project risks and get the design right the first time. This goes with the reuse of knowledge (I. E. Past product development experiences, standard proven design, lessons learned from the past so that mistakes will not get repeated and the use of best practices).This calls for all internal as well as external brains together to approve design before proceeding to the next stage of development. [2] Company Background Information Gold Peak Industries GAP (Holdings) Limited -the parent company of GAPE- was established in 1964 and it has been in the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 984. It is well known by the public for its battery products under the GAP Batteries brand. GAPE is in the design and manufacturing industry special ized in both consumer and professional audio products. Reduces developed range from personal audio system & HI Speakers to professional amplifiers & speakers use in cinemas, stadiums and concerts. Engineers take ideas from product concepts through to mass production, then leave the design in safe hands to their manufacturing colleagues in their Hough production plant. The Center of Engineering Department is located in downtown Sheehan and as over 135 Engineering staff. Located in the same site, there are over 65 staff from various associated activities to support the Engineering needs.The Engineering Department is organized into 3 main branches: Product Development Operation (65 persons) Technology (35 persons) Engineering Support Services (35 persons) Also the Acoustic Team at Hough factory has 44 persons And at Hong Kong office the RFC Team with 7 engineers. The Department Business Strategy is strong product development with dedicated functional teams – Electronics Teams, M echanical Teams, Software Teams, DSL Teams, RFC Teams, Quality Assurance Teams, Safety & Environmental Team, Test & Measurement Team, etc.For further information, please visit our client's websites: Gold Peak Group www. Galloped. Com Electronic Division: www. Gap-industries. Com [3] Assessment Scope and Objective Assessment Scope : Product Development Product Development is the primary task in the Engineering Department. Therefore, putting forward Product Development as our assessment scope came with no surprise. Assessment Objective : Shorten Product Development Lead-Time There are wow key strategic performances in product development, namely Quality and Time-to-Market.In order not to make our assessment too broad for this Knowledge Management project, we have chosen the latter as our assessment objective which is also the most important out of the TV'0 for GAPE. By improving Time-to-Market, in product development perspective, we are referring to shortening product development lead -time. The following are advantages from a shorten product development lead-time: Stay competitive in the increasing competition in the worldwide market Avoid back-orders and preventing lost sales. It may also lead to more orders and more sales if development is ahead of schedule. 4] Organization Chart Figure 1: Organization Chart In reference to Figure 1, we have the Department's organization chart. Sitting at the top of the chart, we have the Engineering Director and then branching down to sections Of functional teams. Starting from the left, we have the Product Development Section composed of a team of project managers and 4 Development Teams. Development teams are primarily consisted of Electronics engineers where they are responsible for electronics design and development as well as leading the verbal activities in Product Development.Next, we have the Mechanical Section consisting of Mechanical engineers. Mechanical Product development team support mechanical related design an d development of Product Development. Advance Mechanical section specialized in new design techniques and choice of materials, simulation and other tools that may help development. The Engineering Service Section provides support and services to other sections. It consists of the Safety, Environmental and Material Teams, The Artwork and workshop. Document Control takes care of all documents in & out of Engineering.The Technology Section consisting of Advance Engineering, Software Team, RFC Team and the DSL Team all working towards the same goal to maintain a competitive edge to compete with the others. These are the lucky group in the department whom will get to learn, design and develop first of the kind in both technologies and products (I . E. Technologies and products that are new to GAPE). Finally we have the Acoustic Team. This Team is responsible for design and development of drivers and speakers. 5] Product Development Process projects are initiated with feasibility and just ification with the introduction Of product design specification. In reference to the Product Design Specification Engineer, the engineers will review all past design in the Exchange system with similar specification and review all lessons learned from similar field. The engineers will then work on the initial draft design considering technical risk assessment, BOOM cost, tooling cost, development lead-time and Engineering hours and other investment that go with the project.Reuse existing design and components where appropriate. Tacit Sharing on design and progress are held on a weekly basis. Only the final sign proposal will be uploaded to their Exchange system when all criteria are met and ready for management approval. Formal procedures (routines) and document format are in place for uploading design document to the Exchange system at the end of each development stage. Design are checked according to design rules and approved by managers before the upload is approved. Please refer to the following figure for the Product Development Process Flow.Figure 2: Product Development Process The Product Development Process consists of 4 stages – Feasibility, Design & Realization, Industrialization and Mass Production. The items in the middle are key activities that we have identified in the product development process. At the bottom are the outcomes from each of these stages. Below is an explanation Of the activities in each Of the 4 Stages. Feasibility Stage The project typically starts with a set of requirements listing out the required features, the industrial design and the target cost.The engineers will need to process this information, consider their Use Cases and their User Interface. They will then find out if there are any past projects and designs that can be used to meet some of these requirements. Reusing proven designs will minimize the development lead-time and impose minimal risk to the development. The engineers will then put together a proposal for customer to sign off the project. Often a time the proposal will get adjusted to better match with the end user's needs, cost target of the customer and time to market.Any new technology, new component needed and any performance specification required beyond those achieved in the past by the department had to be found, evaluated and learned. All risks will need to be assessed before committing to the project. These are conducted in the Technology Scouting & Evaluation activity. Once all risks are assessed and requirements are met per customer wish, Engineer can proceed with the Project planning activity to draw up the development schedule and plan all resources (both man power and equipment) for the development. The concept release will be granted after successfully completing all feasibility activities.Design and Realization This involves all knowledge from past projects, lessons learned and best practices together to come up with the solution. Design involves electronic circu its, software and mechanical design. Once the design is drawn, the engineers will conduct simulations to predict if the design conformed to performance requirement. Once the design passed simulation test, Engineer will design the circuit on PC. This is the PC Layout Design activity. They will also design a test plan to qualify the design at board level as well as at system level.The realization is a collection of activities in getting physical samples, build and design tested. These activities are the Prototype Sample Build, the Engineering Sample Build and the Tool Making. Only a few samples (typically 3 sets) will be built during the Prototype stage. The Engineering Sample Build mom after the Prototype Build involving a larger quantity (typically 1 5 sets) and it will have all design improvements in place from the prototype design. Engineer will initiate Tool Making once the mechanical design is mature enough and off-tool parts will be used on the Pilot Build.The design release is granted only when enough confidence is gained from the design during the Design and Realization stage. The engineers may proceed to the next stage of development after granting Design Release. Industrialization This stage consists of 2 key activities: the Pilot Build and the Pre-production Build. Both builds are conducted on the production floor with production flow, processes and test fixtures specifically designed for the product. The design for Manufacturing issues and Standard Operating Procedure gets verified and optimized on the Pre-production Build prior to Mass Production.The build quantity is considerably larger than previous builds. These processes are also very valuable in verifying design tolerances and production process variations. Mass production At this stage, all design and production processes would have been fully verified and qualified for production in huge quantities. Product Development Process Flow will come to an end after executing the first production lot . The engineers will then leave the design, repair and product know to their Manufacturing Engineers whom will have full responsibility of the product from there onward. 6] Learning from Past Product Developments Let's take a closer look on past product development and see if we find opportunities to shorten the development lead-time if we had been given another chance to do it again. We have reviewed 10 products developed in the past 12 months. We have observed there was no hold up on schedule urine the Industrialization Stage and the Mass Production Stage. The following activities typically are more procedural and time controlled and they did not show sign to have impact on the lead-time: Project Planning, Simulations, PC Layout, Test Plan, Prototype Build, Engineering Sample Build and Tool Making.We found issues that lead to a longer lead-time fall into the following categories: Technology Scouting and Evaluation Example: Risks are not thoroughly understood before committing to d evelopment. One of the projects had its USB Audio with intermittent audio while operating from Windows XP. This intermittent problem was unknown until the team got to the evaluation stage on the first prototype sample. The problem resides in the software driver design where the solution provider could not solve in a short time and the team has no access to the driver codes to solve it.The team had to find an alternative USB Audio solution to continue the development. This had resulted in a time loss of 2 months. Circuit, Software & Mechanical Design a) Example 1: Design from scratch where they could have reused an existing proven solution. We have identified one Of the project where the engineers ad designed an all new amplifier from scratch where they could have simply reuse design from a past project. This new amplifier had no performance, cost, weight or size advantage over the existing design.The reason for designing the new amplifier was because the team of engineers was not aw are that there was an equivalent amplifier design which they could have just copied. This has resulted in a time loss of 1 month and also in a waste of engineering effort. B) Example 2: Repeating problems that had been encountered and solved by another team in past developments. [7] Critical Activities Figure 3: Critical Activities in the Product Development Process After understanding what went on with past product developments, we have concluded that some Of the activities are less critical to our assessment objective.In reference to Figure 3, these non-critical activities are highlighted in grey colored text. Activities remained in black color text are areas we have targeted to focus our study to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in order to shorten the overall development lead-time. [8) KM Assessment [8. 1] Desire KM processes We have mapped out contingency factors to each of the 2 critical sub- recesses to determine their desired KM processes.These contingency factors come from informal interviews conducted with various experienced Engineers working on product development in the department. These factors reflected how they overall judge each of these activities based on their participation in current and past product developments. Figure 4: Chart to determine desire KM Processes Major Processes Us b-processes Task Characteristics Knowledge Characteristics Organizational Characteristics Environmental Uncertainty Desired KM Process(SE) Uncertainty InterdependentTIE DIP Size Strategy Feasibility Technology scouting & Evaluation Medium High D Combination Colonization for knowledge Discovery Design Circuit , Software , Mechanical Low Exchange Colonization for knowledge sharing Projects handle by the department vary considerably in complexity ranging from a simple audio docking system to a complex Audio Visual Receiver involving complex DSL processing. By averaging out these extremes, we have decided to weight Task Uncertainty as â€Å"Medium† f or both sub-processes. This weighting is more representative of the real situations.

Human Physical Appearance and Women Essay

Throughout these moments in time, the term beauty has slipped out of control and become something utterly dissimilar. The significance of beauty has developed into something so unappealing, so unpleasant, so repugnant, that even now society is coming to the apprehension that the way they are portraying the description of beauty is erroneous. Over time, ‘beauty’ has evolved to something rather peripheral. Being beautiful is turning into an undesirable act, that most girls will go into extremes, just to get a sense of feeling ‘beautiful. ’ Although beauty is now considered something by which your looks will define, during Greek times â€Å"beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. Person’s then were assumed to be what we now have to call – lamely, enviously – whole persons. If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a person’s â€Å"inside† and â€Å"outside†, they expected that inner beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind† (313, Sontag). Nevertheless, there was once a time where beauty was interpreted or described as something internal, unlike now, beauty goes more towards the looks. â€Å"Beautiful† people have lots going on for them. They are more confident, make more money, and get promoted faster than their â€Å"less attractive† colleagues. But for the career – driven women, beauty is a no-win situation; the public wants you to be attractive, but, at the same time, not so beautiful that it is off-putting. People might say that looks shouldn’t matter, but in the real world, they do. Women try so hard to look their best, and at the same time, feel their best. Women struggle a lot in trying to â€Å"fit in† to what society sees as being beautiful. Women nowadays alter their body parts, faces, and their diets in order to feel satisfied with themselves. A universal obsession that girls have been approaching with is that that they must be required to look a certain way to be thought of as pretty. Girls look up to celebrities and models and see how skinny, scrawny, almost skeletal, and undernourished they are and they get this idea that they must look like that in order to be noticed. A widespread trend that has been going around has been that of the name anorexia and bulimia. Starving yourself, or eating excessively and then purging – girls see it as something they must do in order to feel good about themselves. They glimpse these famous figures with their collarbones showing, thigh gaps, small waists, and they get this state of mind that they must achieve that to feel beautiful. Society and mass media are barraging women with images that portray what is considered to be the â€Å"ideal body. † Such standards of beauty are almost completely unattainable for most women; a majority of the models displayed on television and in advertisements are well below what is considered healthy body weight. Mass media’s use of such unrealistic models sends an implicit message that in order for a woman to be considered beautiful, she must be unhealthy. And this is what beauty is defined as in our time. Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual’s perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance. Females of all ages seem to be so vulnerable in this area, starting off in their pre-teen years, going along throughout their existence. Body dissatisfaction is something that goes through most women or young girls at some point in their lives. Females have been found to experience dissatisfaction with physical appearance at a much higher rate than males, and women of all ages and sizes display body image disturbance. Concern over weight and appearance related issues often surfaces in a woman’s early life. Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating patterns have been found to be an especially prevalent issue in adolescent and college females. Body image becomes a major issue as females go through puberty; girls in mid-adolescence frequently report being dissatisfied with weight, fearing further weight gain, and being preoccupied with weight loss. This is a problem that we are now facing, and because of this many girls are suffering and going through difficult times, juts to feel good about themselves. The 20th century has seen a huge upsurge in the importance placed by Western society on physical beauty, particularly for women. The fashion, cosmetics and plastic surgery industries have thrived on 20th century preoccupation with physical appearance. It is a preoccupation that affects women in every sphere, whether they choose to pander to it or not. Definitions of beauty in the 20th century, when referring to human physical  beauty, are nearly always constructed in terms of outward appearance and sexual attractiveness. Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves. From the perspective of the mass media, thinness is idealized and expected for women to be considered â€Å"attractive. † Images in advertisements, television, and music usually portray the â€Å"ideal woman† as tall, white, and thin, with a â€Å"tubular† body, and blonde hair. This representation that is being portrayed has been a vast difficulty that girls are coming across of. They don’t feel beautiful, thus altering their ways of eating and the way they look very drastically in order to fit in. Only a very small percentage of women in Western countries meet the criteria the media uses to define â€Å"beautiful†; yet so many women are repeatedly exposed to media images that send the message that a woman is not acceptable and attractive if she does not match society’s â€Å"ultra-thin† standard of beauty. In recent years, women’s body sizes have grown larger, while societal standards of body shape have become much thinner. This discrepancy has made it increasingly difficult for most women to achieve the current sociocultural â€Å"ideal. † Such a standard of perfection is unrealistic and even dangerous. Many of the models shown on television, advertisements, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa. Research has repeatedly shown that constant exposure to thin models fosters body image concerns and disordered eating in many females. Almost all forms of the media contain unrealistic images, and the negative effects of such idealistic portrayals have been demonstrated in numerous studies. The mass media’s depiction of women portrays a standard of beauty that is unrealistic and unattainable for a majority of women in society. Models shown in all forms of popular media are often under what is considered healthy body weight, which sends a powerful message that women must sacrifice their health to be considered attractive by societal standards. The negative effects of ultra-thin media images of women have been well documented; research has shown that females who are repeatedly exposed to and internalize the thin ideal are at greater risk to develop body image disturbance and eating pathology. Although it is clear that the media influences the way women view themselves, it is unclear how this process takes place. The social comparison theory, cultivation theory, and self-schema theory can be used to examine how media images of women come to affect the way women feel about their bodies and physical appearance. These perspectives also give some explanation for why some women show resilience to the negative effects of the media, while others are dramatically impacted. Nevertheless, beauty has become something rather disturbing and unwell. The image of beauty has been portrayed onto something so popularized that mostly all women around the world are being affected by it. Women are changing their ways and changing themselves to feel as if they fit in to what society expects of it. Beauty is still evolving, and is changing throughout the time, not for the better but for the worst.

A Biography Of Sir James Chadwick History Essay

A Biography Of Sir James Chadwick History Essay James Chadwick, a remarkable man, may rank among the greatest of all experimental nuclear physicists and he may have played a pivotal role in the development of the atom bomb. James Chadwick had many achievements – Nobel Prize, wartime knighthood, Master of Gonville and Caius, Companion of Honor à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬  but was a troubled, hyper-tense human being, capable of love and anger as well as restraint. Chadwick was born in Bollington, not far from Manchester, England, on October 20, 1891, to John Joseph Chadwick and Ann Mary Knowles. Chadwick senior owned a laundry business in Manchester. At the age of sixteen, Chadwick won a scholarship to the University of Manchester, where he had intended to study mathematics. However, because he was mistakenly interviewed for admittance to the physics program and was too shy to explain the error, he decided to stay in physics. Initially Chadwick was disappointed in the physics classes, finding them too large and noisy. But in h is second year, he heard a lecture by experimental physicist Ernest Rutherford about his early New Zealand experiments. Chadwick established a close working relationship with Rutherford and graduated in 1911 with first honors. Chadwick stayed at Manchester to work on his master’s degree. During this time he made the acquaintance of others in the physics department, including Hans Geiger and Niels Bohr. Chadwick completed his M.S. in 1913 and won a scholarship that required him to do his research away from the institution that granted his degree. At this time Geiger returned to Germany, and Chadwick decided to follow him. Chadwick had not been in Germany long when World War I broke out. Soon he was arrested and sat in a Berlin jail for ten days until Geiger’s laboratory interceded for his release. Eventually Chadwick was interned for the duration of the war, as were all other Englishmen in Germany. Chadwick spent the war years confined at a race track, where he shared w ith five other men a stable intended for two horses. His four years there were quiet, cold, and hungry. He managed to maintain correspondence with Geiger. Although the work he did under such harsh conditions was not very fruitful, Chadwick felt that the experience of internment contributed to his maturity. Moreover, when Chadwick returned to England, he found that no one else had made much progress in nuclear physics during his time away. His careful self-humbleness, though, kept him from the limelight, and his primary role over the next 20 years was as Rutherford’s assistant. They had a complex relationship where Chadwick was confidant, critic and counselor as well as general factotum (laborer) for the great man, particularly during their long association at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. One of Chadwick’s first tasks was to help Rutherford establish a unit of measurement for radioactivity, to aid in experiments with the radiation of atomic nuclei. Chadwick th en developed a method to measure radioactivity that required the observation of flashes, called scintillations, in zinc sulfide crystals under a microscope and in complete darkness. Chadwick and Rutherford spent much time experimenting with the transmutation of elements, attempting to break up the nucleus of one element so that different elements would be formed. This work eventually led to other experiments to gauge the size and map the structure of the atomic nucleus.

Global Management Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Global Management Report - Assignment Example The company uses the number to strategize on long-term sustainable growth. The annual report of 2014 indicated a 4.3% market share above top competitors such as Kantar Grocery Market (Johnlewispartnership.co.uk, 2015). Operating margin is measured in percentage and often expressed as a part of the revenue (Marr, 2012). John Lewis uses operating margin to measure or indicate its overall profitability. The company uses the data to evaluate the pricing strategy and operating efficiency. The company generated an operating margin of 5.2% in 2014 due to pension operating and restructuring costs. John Lewis uses this measure to know the amount of profit left after cost and expense deductions are made. The deductions must be made before partnership bonus, tax and exceptional item. The company knows its trading strength when it utilizes profit before partnership bonus, tax and exceptional item. John Lewis struggled with increased pension cost in 2014 and generated $375.9M. Group profit margin is a percentage of revenue and is expressed through profit before partnership bonus, tax and exceptional item (Marr, 2012). John Lewis uses group profit margin measure to know how its profitability is changing with different revenue levels. The company generated a group profit margin of 3.6% after exceptional item was included (Johnlewispartnership.co.uk, 2015). Measuring the amount of cash generated through group business operation is essential for John Lewis. John Lewis group uses cash flow from operations measures to ascertain if there is adequate positive cash flow to sustain its operation and indicate the need for external financing. The cash flow is generated from Group business operations. Normal pension contributions went high in 2014 and contributed to $784M cash flow. The figure was also attributed to low improvements in the company’s working capital. The company’s process of acquiring physical and intangible assets such as

Decision Making using Critical Thinking Techniques Part 2 Essay

Decision Making using Critical Thinking Techniques Part 2 - Essay Example Department of Energy, 2001). The decision-making technique that will be used in this proposal will be the plus, minus and interesting technique (PMI). In using the PMI technique, it would be useful to make a three column table with the headings plus, minus and interesting (Mind Tools Ltd., n.d.). Under the plus column, one has to write all the positive aspects of the alternative. On the minus column, all the negative effects will be listed down. In the interesting column, the implications and possible outcomes, areas of uncertainty and areas which one thinks as either good or bad will be included. There are several alternatives that one can choose from with regards to increasing the presence of the company. To address the expectation of government on the company with regards to giving support to the social needs of the people of Kava, one alternative is to design a health program for the coffee farmers and their families. To illustrate the PMI technique, a PMI Table is presented below. Another alternative that one would like to propose and which will be evaluated using the PMI technique is to put up a store where there are plenty of foreigners residing or working because they are known to be coffee drinkers, such as the French and Americans. The PMI Table for this alternative is shown below. After using the PMI technique and applying it in all the alternatives open to the company, one can decide on the best decision to be made, which will result in the achievement of their goal of increasing their presence in Kava. In this case, one does not have to choose only one alternative; it could be a combination of alternatives whose benefits more than outweigh the negative effects of the options available. One can see that the steps utilized in making the PMI tables are very useful indeed in coming up with the strategies that the company can implement to increase their presence in Kava. Identifying the pros,

Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Management - Essay Example Till now, the organisation has more than 240 aircrafts serving over 33 million passengers (British Airways-a, 2009). In the 2009, the company has earned a revenue amount of ?8,992 million (British Airways-b, 2009). As in the year 2009, the company has employed more than 40000 people. Since its privatisation back in the year 1987, the company has experience a continual growth with intensified competition across the globe. The Airways Company has marked its significant presence through being the first airline to contribute to reduce the greenhouse emissions. The company has also been the first to allow its passengers to get the online boarding passes. In the recent downturn British Airways has experienced enough slowdown in the passenger traffic. Despite of the fact, it can be anticipated that British Airways would be able to grow with appropriate framing of strategies and required guidelines to move towards successful strategic direction. This report discusses both the macro and micro environments of British Airways. The internal analysis of the company includes an analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities with an insight into the financial analysis of the company. At the end, recommendations have been provided with a discussion of the present strategies. A conclusion has been inferred from the analysis with an effort to have a better idea of the strategic management of British Airways. Macro-Environment Analysis Porter’s Five Force Analysis â€Å"The economic structure of an industry is not an accident. Its complexities are the result of long-term social trends and economic forces† (Ehmke, Fulton & Akridge, n.d., p.1). â€Å"Porter’s Five Forces provides a convenient framework for exploring the economic factors that affect the pro?ts and prices of an industry† (Australian School of Business, n.d., p.1). Threat of New Entrants The Airline industry demands a considerable amount of capital as in s et up and large investment. Till sometime back, the probability of new entrants used to be quite low. However, with the increased easiness in the loan and credit accessibility, it can be expected that an increasing number of companies may enter into the business. If the borrowing is cheap, this can pose as a major challenge for the existing airlines with intensified competition to make the market saturated (Investopedia, n.d.). However, that does not imply that the entry is going to be easy in this industry. As the industry demands huge investment in the fixed assets, there exists a considerable amount of exit barriers. Factors like competitive environment, high regulation requirements and high capital requirements are significant barriers to entry. The services in this industry considerably differentiated with increasing degrees of quality, customer service and convenience. The company is a famous airlines company which also operates in alliance in the international routes, which w ould be tough for the new entrants to be into international alliance. So, the entry barrier is high in this industry. Bargaining Power of the Suppliers The airline companies do not have enough choices in case of their

Professional Knowledge and Abilities Paper Essay

Professional Knowledge and Abilities Paper - Essay Example Freidson (1986) found that when an individual knows every thing related to his professional field, only then he is able to achieve the desired goals and objectives from his professional field. There are many factors that contribute to success of an individual and professional knowledge holds the top most importance in that companies and organizations hire only those individuals who are well equipped with technical and organizational skills and capabilities accompanied with certified knowledge base. According to Althoff (2005), professional knowledge not only improves an individual’s professional performance but also helps the individual in making a significant progress in his career. It enables him to add to the company’s reputation. The individual becomes confident enough to tackle with all sorts of organizational conflicts and problems. He is able to communicate with the authorities and negotiate with them. This increases his chances of promotion. Professional knowled ge helps both; employees and the organization (Karagiannis & Reimer, 2002). It helps employees in a sense of career success. And any organization’s success also depends upon employees’ professional knowledge and abilities because they help the organization in establishing a set of core competencies that is essential for distinguishing one organization from the other. My Organization While talking about professional knowledge and abilities, let’s now discuss an association related to the field of information technology which really helped me in increasing my professional knowledge and abilities. The association which we are talking about is MSDN, Microsoft Development Network. MSDN is the organization which not only helped me in increasing my professional knowledge and abilities but also helped me in my career progress. MSDN is a set of those online and offline services, which is designed in such a way that it helps the developers in writing various applications using Microsoft products. Microsoft Development Network provides various training sessions to the information technology professionals. It acts as a part of Microsoft whose purpose is to manage the relationships between various developers and the Microsoft. While developing any application related to Microsoft, MSDN is the key player which plays a vital role in establishing and maintaining relationship between the developers of the applications and Microsoft. I obtained a huge amount of professional knowledge through interacting with many highly qualified programming professionals. I attended many training sessions to improve my professional knowledge and to learn how to survive in a particular organizational culture. It is because of this organization that I am now able to deal with all types of application developers effectively. My abilities have really grown significantly regarding my professional field. When I came to the organization, initially I felt a bit distressed because my knowledge regarding Microsoft and its related products was not very huge. I had little experience and I did not feel confident enough working in teams. I thought I would never be comfortable with supervisors. But as the days passed by, I became more and more efficient not only in computer applications but also in dealing with the developers. All credit goes to the professional know

Product Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Product Design - Essay Example In addition, it can also offer a unique stance in a highly competitive world (Slack 2006). The compass of design is substantial, covering graphic communications to integrated systems and then from information technology to urban environments. While globally it is described as the formation and development of all man-made products; it is fundamentally perceived as a device for improving the quality of life (Taschen 2001). Designers are not futurologists; however, they have to be in line with clearly identifying the relationships of the past, present and future as well as the prospective effects of political, social, and emotional impacts of the environment for them to create objects that would become a desirable product. They may carry this out by means of giving it the semblance of acquired improved functionality. Moreover, the added cultural value or further processes in the design or production create an amplified demand for a product (Slack 2006). Product design is a general term for the conception of an object that stems from design ideas which is manifested in the form of sketches, drawings, models or prototypes. This then can stretch into the production, logistics, and marketing the conceptualised objects. Products are designed with particular considerations valued by the designer, client, or end user that are then communicated through the products’ purchase and use (Slack 2006). It is a crucial facet of the method of product development and innovation; nonetheless, its success lies on the management practices though are no standard agreement in general as to what specific activities the management involves (Chiva-GÃ ³mez et al 2004). Great design is intentional and calculated. It put together real product modernisation with bona fide brand expression to come up with an ideal user experience. Balancing to strike is not an easy task nonetheless it is the art generally applied to attain a

Television Media Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Television Media - Term Paper Example The last nineteen twenties saw the first successful experimentations of the electronic television. Designed by Philo Taylor, who had a vision of inventing a system that captured moving images that could be coded and transmitted onto a screen, it was a great success. The first image transmitted was a simple line and the dollar sign which he captured with a primitive camera. RCA, which dominated the radio business in the United States, invested fifty million dollars into the development of the television set. The company hired Vladimir Kosma to hasten the development and in nineteen thirty nine RCA televised the launching of the New York Fair. It included a speech by President Roosevelt who became the first head of State to be on television. The first television sets RCA sold had five by twelve inch picture tubes and broadcasted regular programs. This included televising of the first baseball game. The game was between Columbia and Princeton universities. The Second World War slowed down the development of television but by the nineteen fifties there was a growth in television stations and most homes in the United States could receive broadcasts. NBC and CBS were among the first stations and they aired news and programs such as â€Å"The Jack Benny Show† between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty five (Angelova, 2011). Through the decades there was great development in the television set and soon the tubes had bigger screens with clear imaging. More television stations came up and the television industry became a major industry in the United States. Television programs made individuals everyday figures in people’s homesteads. Television was able to create a new type of hero; television and film stars, musicians and news anchors. The television made the conveying of news not on in the United States but across the world easy. Today, the television has come a long way and we have multi-billion dollar companies like Sony and Samsung who

Society Defined by how it defines Everything Else Essay

Society Defined by how it defines Everything Else - Essay Example Deductive reasoning elicits the idea that this civilization existed near or in the middle of a plains-type terrain. The use of only three terms for terrain, "absolutely flat," "rolling," and "slightly hilly," are evidence of this assumption. With only these terms to distinguish the surrounding area, as well as the lack of terms for "ocean" or any large body of water, it is left unknown as to whether mountains or any large bodies of water are within viewing distance of the civilization. It is obvious that these people could not exist without water and as the need for water exists to sustain animal and human life, and the lack of terminology for any large bodies of water is evident, the people must have cultivated some form of irrigation, or advanced means to collect falling rain to sustain their human and animal populations. The careful dissection of the society's language deciphers the choices of consumption made by the civilization. The people use dozens of terms for grains and other plant-based foods. Wheat alone consists of more than half of these terms. Where it is evident that plants are the many dietary source or means of consumption, the true evidence produces itself by the lack of terms for animals as food. There are no terms for cooked meat, the eating of meat, pork, or other animal products, and there are no terms for the use of animals as clothing. The absence of these terms also produces the idea that the people of this society were vegetarians. The choice to consume vegetables and plants instead of animals signifies a respect for other living beings. This shows a degree of intelligence, supporting the idea of a society of advancement. The interpretation of the development of the society in connection with age is evident in the people's respect for other living beings as well as the terminology used to describe the stages of life. The civilization divides the growth of a being from birth to puberty into seven stages, and from the time of puberty to death, in only one stage. The evidence suggests that the first seven stages are more of a path of learning and enlightenment. Once the person attains enough knowledge and experience in life, that person becomes an adult, moving from puberty into the final stage of life. This mental, societal, and perhaps spiritual development builds on the prospects of laws and an active government. The few terms that are available about government and law submit the belief of a highly developed, intellectually advanced society. There are a few terms that substantiate this theory. There are no words for violent conflict or war. The terms for praise translate as "peacemaker" and "conciliator." Finally, the several terms for leader are plural. These examples show that this society believes that the society as a whole will run the government, and that every member of the society is responsible for every other member. John Stuart Mill's states in his article On Liberty, "Though society is not founded on a contract, and though no good purpose is answered by inventing a contract in order to deduce social obligations from

Shouldice hospital Essay Example for Free

Shouldice hospital Essay Executive Summary: The Shouldice Hospital, Ontario, Canada is a pioneer in the field of treating patients suffering from external abdominal hernia. The speedy ambulation coupled with its reasonable price rates leads to satisfied patients publicizing the hospital by word of mouth. The issues that confront the hospital management are:  ·Deciding on ways to meet the backlog of operations, by expanding the hospitals capacity, while still maintaining control over the overall quality of service delivered.  ·Handling piracy and bad mouthing due to piracy.  ·Selection of the next chief surgeon after Dr.Obney. After analyzing various plans of actions, it is proposed that the capacity of the hospital be increased by scheduling the operations on Saturdays also. At the same time a successor to Dr. Obney must also be selected. This solution seems like the most feasible in terms of cost and time and also leverages the existing strength of the hospital in providing quality services to the patients. To implement the solution discussed above, first of all, awareness must be created among all the employees by means of workshops etc., about the urgent need for such a step to expand capacity. The selection of the new chief surgeon must be done by carefully scrutinizing all the surgeons in the hospital as well as interviewing new candidates for the same. The administrative processes in the hospital must be made computerized to improve their efficiency. Proper training for using them must also be imparted to the employees. If it is not possible to increase capacity beyond a certain limit due to the above plan and the backlog list continues to expand, then opening an additional facility in some other geographical location, such as the US of A may be considered. Situational Analysis and Problem Definition: The Shouldice Hospital, Ontario, Canada is a pioneer in the field of treating patients suffering from external abdominal hernia. With its current capacity, it can treat 6850 patients annually. The patients are treated using the operated upon using the Shouldice Method, and on an average each patient has to spend four days in the hospital recuperating. The USP of the Shouldice Hospital is its distinct surgical procedure. The speedy ambulation coupled with its reasonable price rates leads to satisfied patients publicizing the hospital by word of mouth. The hospital is having a successful run as a niche player catering to the demand for treatment of hernia patients. In spite of this, there is a huge backlog that the hospital needs to meet. Because of an increasing backlog, patients tend to go to other doctors for operations. The issues that confront the hospital management can be primarily listed as follows:  ·Deciding on ways to meet the backlog of operations, by expanding the hospitals capacity, while still maintaining control over the overall quality of service delivered. The primary issue here is deciding on the manner in which the capacity should be increased without diluting the quality of service rendered.  ·The issue of piracy and bad mouthing due to piracy are also important concerns for the hospital. Many clinics or doctors claim to use the Shouldice technique or the Canadian method and in the eventuality of the operation performed by them being unsuccessful it brings a bad name to the  Shouldice Hospital.  ·The next chief surgeon after Dr.Obney, who is due to retire soon, has to be selected. At the same time, retaining the existing talent pool of doctors and attracting newer doctors willing to learn the specialized hernia operations skill is also a primary issue. Long Term and Short Term Objectives: Short term: -To clear the backlog by increasing capacity of the hospital services. -To select a successor for Dr. Obney, the chief surgeon who is to retire soon. Long term: -To sustain quality in their services, ensuring good patient experience. -To remain the leader in the medical field of hernia operations. -To maintain the brand equity associated with the specialized technique of Shouldice Method for performing hernia operations. -To ensure working towards goal of profitability while at the same time serving the society by passing on the proper knowledge of the Shouldice technique to other surgeons. Evaluation Criteria: -Whatever step is taken, it must ensure that there is no dilution in the quality of the services rendered by the hospital. -The action plan implemented must adhere to the government regulations regarding the profitability of hospitals. -The solution implemented must be economically viable. Hence any step taken must be cost effective. -There is an atmosphere of concern for the employees in the hospital. The decision with regard to the issues at hand must ensure that the employees are receptive in accepting that decision. -The existing strengths of the hospital setup must be leveraged in any decision taken. -Also because of the increasing wait lists of patients to be attended to, it must be ensured that the plans be implemented as swiftly as possible. Alternatives: 1.Capacity of the hospital could be expanded by scheduling operations on Saturdays also, leading to a 20% increase in existing capacity. 2.An additional floor of rooms could be added to the hospital, with an investment of $2 million and permission from the provincial government. This would expand the number of beds by 50% and result in scheduling the operation rooms more heavily. 3.Expansion into other geographical locations such as the United States could be undertaken. For having a quality level in the new facility equivalent to that as in the current Hospital facility at Canada, one option maybe to transfer 6 of the 12 specialized surgeons to the new facility. Also diversification into other related medical fields of surgery such as eye surgery, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids is possible. 4.Another alternative could be scheduling operations at other times during the day too, by utilizing the capacity of the operation theatres to the optimum level. This can be implemented by having doctors and other medical staff to work in shifts. 5.The successor to Dr. Obney as Chief Surgeon has to be selected. The selection of such a candidate should preferably be done among the existing doctors in the hospital. In case a specialized doctor from outside is appointed, proper induction to acquaint the existing surgeons must be carried out. 6.Currently the hospitals services are not being marketed. Plans to adequately market them in order to create awareness of the genuine Shouldice method of surgery should be undertaken. This would also aid in protecting against privacy to an extent. Evaluation of alternatives: 1.Increasing the capacity by scheduling Saturday operations is a swift and cost effective solution (See exhibit 2 and 3). No additional capital expenditures need to be incurred to carry out this plan. It does not violate any government regulations and at the same time also leverages the existing strength of the hospital in rendering high quality services to the patients. However, some employees seem to have some reservations about operations on Saturday. 2.This plan involves an additional capital expenditure of $ 2 million. While this would lead to an increase in capacity of the number of beds by 50%, but it would also require additional well qualified surgeons who will be able to carry on the quality tradition at the Shouldice Hospital. Also this solution would take some time to implement. 3.The plan of expanding the capacity by moving into another geographical segment such as the United States, involves extensive capital expenditure in setting up a new facility. Also by dividing half of the specialized staff into the two respective facilities, the quality levels may not remain same for the initial span of time. Since we are looking at the United States as an alternate the government regulations of Canada would not be applicable. This plan would be beneficial in meeting the demand in the US of A of the  42% American patients of the Shouldice Hospital. By diversifying into other medical fields of surgery, the low cost and high quality advantage, which the Shouldice Hospital currently enjoys, will be diluted. Currently the patients are made to become self sufficient soon after the operation. 4.By implementing the shift system, the existing strengths of the hospital will be leveraged. This is similar to the plan 1 in terms of the expenditure involved and the time frame being talked of. However, under the given case facts, the employees might resent this move of working in extra shifts during the day. 5.The selection of a successor to Dr. Obney is a step that must be taken soon, in conjunction with any of the above plans chosen. 6.Marketing the services of the hospital, though would lead to an increased awareness of the authenticity of the Shouldice method, while exposing the piracy in the method, but at the same time it will also lead to an increased number of patients wanting to come to the hospital. The backlog list would continue to increase. Recommended Solution: After analyzing all the alternatives I would propose a combination of plans 1 and 5 to be implemented. The operations should be scheduled on Saturdays also (see Exhibit 1). At the same time a successor to Dr. Obney must also be selected. This solution seems like the most feasible in terms of cost (see Exhibit 2 and 3) and time and also leverages the existing strength of the hospital in providing quality services to the patients. Plan of Action: To implement the solution discussed above, first of all, awareness must be created among all the employees about the urgent need for such a step to expand capacity. Workshops for the same will help dispel any fears in the minds of the existing staff. The selection of the new chief surgeon must be  done by carefully scrutinizing all the surgeons in the hospital as well as interviewing new candidates for the same. The administrative processes in the hospital must be made computerized to improve their efficiency. Proper training for using them must also be imparted to the employees. Contingency Plan: If it is not possible to increase capacity beyond a certain limit due to the above plan and the backlog list continues to expand, then plan 3 may be considered. This would need some capital expenditure but at the same time will help us expand our capacity into another geographical location, i.e., the USA. Information Adequacy Issues: There is insufficient amount of information given in the case about the internal dynamics of the hospital vis a vis the issue of the successor to Dr. Obney. Also no information is forthcoming about the market status of other hospitals, that is whether they are open on Saturdays or not. This bit of information is likely to hasten our decision making process.

Effects of Alcoholic Drinks to College Students Essay Example for Free

Effects of Alcoholic Drinks to College Students Essay Although alcohol may give you a feeling of elation and aroused senses due to a lessening of inhibitions during the early stages of alcohol intoxication, alcohol is a depressant. It depresses the central nervous system—leading to slowed reactions, slurred speech, and ultimately, to unconsciousness. Alcohol progressively affects different brain areas. Alcohol first affects the part of the brain that controls inhibitions. When people lose their inhibitions, they may talk more, get rowdy, and do foolish things. After several drinks, they may feel â€Å"high,† but really, their nervous system is slowing down. Alcohol acts fast because it is not digested like food. Instead, it moves directly into the bloodstream from the stomach and small intestine. It takes a long time for alcohol’s effects to wear off—as it takes approximately one hour for the liver to process the alcohol in one drink. ALCOHOL’S DAMAGING EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN Difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory: Clearly, alcohol affects the brain. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops. On the other hand, a person who drinks heavily over a long period of time may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety. Exactly how alcohol affects the brain and the likelihood of reversing the impact of heavy drinking on the brain remain hot topics in alcohol research today. We do know that heavy drinking may have extensive and far–reaching effects on the brain, ranging from simple â€Å"slips† in memory to permanent and debilitating conditions that require lifetime custodial care. And even moderate drinking leads to short–term impairment, as shown by extensive research on the impact of drinking on driving. A number of factors influence how and to what extent alcohol affects the brain (1), including * how much and how often a person drinks; * the age at which he or she first began drinking, and how long he or she has been drinking; * the person’s age, level of education, gender, genetic background, and family history of alcoholism; * whether he or she is at risk as a result of prenatal alcohol exposure; and * his or her general health status. BLACKOUTS AND MEMORY LAPSES Alcohol can produce detectable impairments in memory after only a few drinks and, as the amount of alcohol increases, so does the degree of impairment. Large quantities of alcohol, especially when consumed quickly and on an empty stomach, can produce a blackout, or an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events. Blackouts are much more common among social drinkers than previously assumed and should be viewed as a potential consequence of acute intoxication regardless of age or whether the drinker is clinically dependent on alcohol (2). White and colleagues (3) surveyed 772 college undergraduates about their experiences with blackouts and asked, â€Å"Have you ever awoken after a night of drinking not able to remember things that you did or places that you went? † Of the students who had ever consumed alcohol, 51 percent reported blacking out at some point in their lives, and 40 percent reported experiencing a blackout in the year before the survey. Of those who reported drinking in the 2 weeks before the survey, 9. 4 percent said they blacked out during that time. The students reported learning later that they had participated in a wide range of potentially dangerous events they could not remember, including vandalism, unprotected sex, and driving. Binge Drinking and Blackouts| †¢ Drinkers who experience blackouts typically drink too much and too quickly, which causes their blood alcohol levels to rise very rapidly. College students may be at particular risk for experiencing a blackout, as an alarming number of college students engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking, for a typical adult, is defined as consuming five or more drinks in about 2 hours for men, or four or more drinks for women. | ARE WOMEN MORE VULNERABLE TO ALCOHOL’S EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN? Women are more vulnerable than men to many of the medical consequences of alcohol use. For example, alcoholic women develop cirrhosis (5), alcohol–induced damage of the heart muscle (i. e. , cardiomyopathy) (6), and nerve damage (i. e. , peripheral neuropathy) (7) after fewer years of heavy drinking than do alcoholic men. Studies comparing men and women’s sensitivity to alcohol–induced brain damage, however, have not been as conclusive. Using imaging with computerized tomography, two studies (8,9) compared brain shrinkage, a common indicator of brain damage, in alcoholic men and women and reported that male and female alcoholics both showed significantly greater brain shrinkage than control subjects. Studies also showed that both men and women have similar learning and memory problems as a result of heavy drinking (10). The difference is that alcoholic women reported that they had been drinking excessively for only about half as long as the alcoholic men in these studies. This indicates that women’s brains, like their other organs, are more vulnerable to alcohol–induced damage than men’s (11). SUMMARY Alcoholics are not all alike. They experience different degrees of impairment, and the disease has different origins for different people. Consequently, researchers have not found conclusive evidence that any one variable is solely responsible for the brain deficits found in alcoholics. Characterizing what makes some alcoholics vulnerable to brain damage whereas others are not remains the subject of active research (34). The good news is that most alcoholics with cognitive impairment show at least some improvement in brain structure and functioning within a year of abstinence, though some people take much longer (35–37). Clinicians must consider a variety of treatment methods to help people stop drinking and to recover from alcohol–related brain impairments, and tailor these treatments to the individual patient. Advanced technology will have an important role in developing these therapies. Clinicians can use brain–imaging techniques to monitor the course and success of treatment, because imaging can reveal structural, functional, and biochemical changes in living patients over time. Promising new medications also are in the early stages of development, as researchers strive to design therapies that can help prevent alcohol’s harmful effects and promote the growth of new brain cells to take the place of those that have been damaged by alcohol.  ¦ As well as damaging their health, university students who drink too much alcohol may also be damaging their academic performance. Alcohol: The Benefits of Moderate Drinking Drinking alcohol in moderate amounts can have positive influences on physical and mental health. While alcohol is one of the most widely abused substances on the market, it is also one that features certain benefits for drinkers who consume it in safe amounts. For individuals who consume low levels of alcohol, benefits like reduced stress, increased cardiovascular health and decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes offer a wealth of reasons for consumers to drink in moderation. Reduce Stress, Anxiety and Tension. Research shows that the consumption of alcohol in moderate amounts can lead to certain psychological benefits. Low levels of alcohol can trigger stress reduction, easy feelings of anxiety and help consumers to reduce tension. In addition, low levels of alcohol consumption can also cause the consumer to feel more pleasant and relaxed. Studies on sleep show that people who drink in moderation get more sleep on average than do those who indulge in excess. These psychological effects of moderate drinking are positive ones that can be beneficial to the consumer. A Longer Life The positive psychological effects of drinking in moderation can be associated with the studies that show moderate drinkers tend to love longer than people who dont drink at all or those who drink in excess. Studies from a number of different countries including China, the United States and England indicate that longevity is highest among groups of people who drink alcohol in moderation. Increased Cardiovascular Health Several studies have shown that drinking alcohol in moderation has a positive correlation with certain aspects of cardiovascular health. In particular, the risk of developing coronary artery disease is significantly lowered in conjunction with moderate consumption of alcohol. Another link between alcohol and cardiovascular health shows that moderate consumption of alcohol has a positive correlation with survivability in the event of a heart attack. Those who drink low levels of alcohol are more likely to live and less likely to experience another heart attack. Alcohol produces several positive effects on the body when consumed in low levels. For example, it increases levels of good cholesterol (HDL) and lowers levels of bad cholesterol (LDL). Alcohol also acts as a blood thinner once it enters the human body, much like common aspirin does. Thus, when consumed in moderation, it can reduce the likelihood of developing blood clots in arteries. Decreased Risk for Type 2 Diabetes While consuming alcohol in large quantities has been proven to put drinkers at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes, some studies show that drinking in moderation might have the opposite effect. The relationship between alcohol and type 2 diabetes is the focus of a great number of ongoing studies. Findings show, however, that moderate drinkers are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than heavy drinkers. All of these health benefits associated with moderate drinking serve as an incentive for consumers to limit their levels of alcohol intake. Too much alcohol eliminates the health benefits described above. The best way to maximize on the health benefits of alcohol is to consume it in low levels. Negative Effects of Drinking Alcohol on Physical Fitness While occasional alcohol use may not have a major impact on physical activity, there is a clear link between sports, exercise and drinking alcohol. In fact, alcohol is the most widely used drug by athletes which is why alcohol related difficulties seem to be more common among those who exercise regularly. It is clear that drinking in excess can negatively influence exercise. Studies done to determine the influence that alcohol has on exercise Studies have shown that consuming alcohol has the following influence on exercise: *Diminishes the use of amino acids and glucose by the muscles of the skeleton *A detrimental influence on the supply of energy *An impairment in metabolism while exercising In addition, persuasive evidence implies that continual use of alcohol is connected with unfavorable effects on systems of the body and organs, including the liver, brain, heart and blood vessels. Exercising while under the influence of alcohol Drinking alcohol has a negative influence on motor skills, stamina and aerobic ability. Alcohol has the following effects on motor skills: *Delayed reaction time *A decrease in hand-eye coordination *Less precision and balance Alcohol has the following effects on strength training and short term athletic functioning: *A decline in athletic performance as a whole. *Decreased times in cycling and running *Weakened pumping power of the heart *Impaired temperature control while exercising *Weakening of grip strength *Decreased jump altitude *Lower 200 and 400-meter running performance *Becoming tired more quickly while participating in high-intensity workouts Alcohol has the following effects on aerobic performance: *Dehydration *Considerably diminished aerobic performance *Hindered 800 and 1500-meter running speeds *An increase in health risks after working out in hot atmospheres for an extended amount of time Working out with a hangover. A hangover is caused by a number of factors including, dehydration and toxicity from the alcohol. The symptoms include a gloomy mood and headache. Unfortunately, these side effects can cause a decline in athletic performance. Working out with a hangover has been shown to considerably decrease aerobic adequacy by as great as 11 percent. Long term effects that alcohol has on exercise performance Long term, heavy (more than two drinks each day) alcohol use can impair exercise in the following ways: *Hindering the cardiovascular reaction to exercise *Cause nutritional deficits from changes in nutrient consumption, digestion and metabolism. *Cause muscle injury, wasting and feebleness in several muscles, including the heart. *Changing the bodys hormonal atmosphere It is also important to note that women might be more susceptible to the toxic results of alcohol on the heart. It is clear that drinking in excess can negatively influence exercise. Alcoholism is a growing problem in the United States and is even a problem in teenagers, too. Unfortunately, there are a variety of negative effects that are associated with the consumption of alcohol. While the negative effects can either be long term or short term, all of them start with the first drink of alcohol. Negative effects may not become apparent immediately, but as time goes on, the adverse effects of alcohol will become more and more noticeable and, in some cases, they can even lead to death. Diseases One of the negative effects that alcohol tends to have is the increased risk for multiple serious diseases. Increased consumption of alcohol can lead to serious medical problems such as cirrhosis of the liver, which often results in death. Infections, sleeping disorders and sexual dysfunctions can also be caused by consumption of alcohol. Recent studies have also shown that consumption of alcohol can actually raise the risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer, throat cancer and intestinal cancer. Consuming alcohol can be very serious and there are many grave negative effects that are caused by alcohol. Avoiding alcohol can help you avoid these adverse effects and perhaps even save your life.

Democratic Leadership Style Advantages and Disadvantages

Democratic Leadership Style Advantages and Disadvantages The democratic leadership style is a very open and collegial style of running a team. Ideas move freely amongst the group and are discussed openly. Everyone is given a seat at the table, and discussion is relatively free-flowing. This style is needed in dynamic and rapidly changing environments where very little can be taken as a constant. In these fast moving organizations, every option for improvement has to be considered to keep the group from falling out of date. The democratic leadership style means facilitating the conversation, encouraging people to share their ideas, and then synthesizing all the available information into the best possible decision. The democratic leader must also be able to communicate that decision back to the group to bring unity the plan is chosen. When is it Used? When situations change frequently, democratic leadership offers a great deal of flexibility to adapt to better ways of doing things. Unfortunately, it is also somewhat slow to make a decision in this structure, so while it may embrace newer and better methods; it might not do so very quickly. Democratic leadership style can bring the best out of an experienced and professional team. It capitalizes on their skills and talents by letting them share their views, rather than simply expecting them to conform. If a decision is very complex and broad, it is important to have the different areas of expertise represented and contributing input this is where democratic leader shines. Good fits for Democratic Leadership: Creative groups (advertising, design):ÂÂ  ideas need to flow in creative environments to find create new concepts and designs. Consulting:ÂÂ  when paid to explore problems and find solutions, your role will be to explore the possibilities in depth, and that means there has to be a great deal of exploration and open discussion. Much of the Service industry:ÂÂ  new ideas allow for more flexibility to changing customer demands. Education:ÂÂ  few places need to be open to different ideas than education, both by educators and their students. How to be effective with this position: Keep communication open:ÂÂ  If the marketplace of ideas is going to be open for business, everyone needs to feel comfortable enough to put their ideas on the table. The democratic leadership style thrives when all the considerations are laid out for everyone to examine. Focus the discussion:ÂÂ  Its hard to keep unstructured discussion productive. Its the leaders job to balance being open to ideas and keeping everything on-topic. If the conversation begins to stray, remind everyone of the goal on hand and then steer it back. Make sure to take note of off-topic comments and try to return to them when they are pertinent. Be ready to commit:ÂÂ  In the democratic leadership style, you get presented with so many possibilities and suggestions that it can be overwhelming and difficult to commit. But as the leader, when the time comes, you have to choose and do so with conviction. The team depends on the clear and unambiguous mandates to be committed. Respect the ideas:ÂÂ  You and your team might not agree with every idea, and thats ok. It is important, however, that you create a healthy environment where those ideas are entertained and considered not maligned or the flow of ideas will slow to a trickle. Explain, but dont apologize:ÂÂ  You want the advocates of the solutions that were not selected to understand that their thoughts were considered and had validity, but that ultimately you had strong reasons to go a different direction. Its important that the decision be communicated, but you should not apologize for deciding on what you think. (http://www.leadership-toolbox.com/democratic-leadership-style.html) DemocraticÂÂ  Leadership Under democratic leadership, the people have a more participatory role in the decision making process. One person retains final say over all decisions but allows others to share insight and ideas. This is often a highly effective form of leadership. People are more likely to excel in their positions and develop more skills when they feel empowered, and people are empowered when they are involved in the decision-making process. Although it may take some time to achieve full participation from a group, the end result will be rewarding if you can manage to establish a power-sharing environment in your group project. You will find that democratic practices often lead to a more productive and higher quality work group. Examples of democratic leadership: Asking all group members for ideas and input. Voting on the best course of action in a project. Asking group members to work with their strengths and provide input on how to divide the work. ]li]Enabling members to work at their own pace and set their own deadlines. Pitfalls of Democratic Leadership It doesnt take too much imagination to think of ways that democratic leadership could backfire during a group project. As you probably know, some members of a group will work well on their own and complete all work in a timely fashion. But there are other workers who will procrastinate-and that can lead to disaster. If you are a natural democratic leader, it might be necessary to learn some traits of the autocratic or bureaucratic leaders and tap into them as necessary. Always have a backup plan on hand! What is Democratic Leadership? Democratic Leadership is the leadership style that promotes the sharing of responsibility, the exercise of delegation and continual consultation. The style has the following characteristics:ÂÂ  1.ÂÂ  Manager seeks consultation on all major issues and decisions.ÂÂ  2.ÂÂ  Manager effectively delegate tasks to subordinates and give them full control and responsibility for those tasks.ÂÂ  3.ÂÂ  Manager welcomes feedback on the results of intiatives and the work environment.ÂÂ  4.ÂÂ  Manager encourages others to become leaders and be involved in leadership development. What Are The Benefits Of The Democratic Leadership Style? Positive work environment.ÂÂ  A culture where junior employees are given fair amount of responsibility and are allowed to challenge themselves is one where employees are more enthused to work and enjoy what they do.ÂÂ  Successful initiatives.ÂÂ  The process of consultation and feedback naturally results in better decision making and more effective operations. Companies run under democratic leadership tend to run into fewer grave mistake and catastrophes. To put it simply people tell a democraticÂÂ  leaderÂÂ  when something is going badly wrong, while employees are encouraged to simply hide it from an autocrat.ÂÂ  Creative thinking.ÂÂ  The free flow of ideas and positive work environment is the perfect catalyst for creative thinking. To further their leadership education, people often check theÂÂ  online MBA rankingsÂÂ  to see whether MBA online is a match for them. The benefits of this arent just relevant for creative industries, because creative thinking is required to solve problems in every single organisation, whatever its nature.ÂÂ  Reduction of friction and office politics.By allowing subordinates to use their ideas and even more importantly gain credit for them, you are neatly reducing the amount of tension employees generate with their manager. When autocratic leaders refuse to listen to their workers, or blatantly ignore their ideas, they are effectively asking for people to talk behind their back and attempt to undermine or supercede them.ÂÂ  Reduced employee turnover.ÂÂ  When employees feel empowered through leadership development, a company will experience lower rates of employee turnover which has numerous benefits. A company that invests in leadership development for its employees, is investing in their future, and this is appreciated by a large majority of the workforce. What Are The Disadvantages Of The Democratic Leadership Style? Lengthy and boring decision making.ÂÂ  Seeking consultation over every decision can lead to a process so slow that it can cause opportunities to be missed, or hazards avoided too late.ÂÂ  Danger of pseudo participation.ÂÂ  Many managers simply pretend to follow a democratic leadership style simply to score a point in the eyes of their subordinates. Employees are quick to realise when their ideas arent actually valued, and that the manager is merely following procedure in asking for suggestions, but never actually implementing them. In other words, theyre simply exerting autocratic leadership in disguise. When Is The Democratic Leadership Style Effective? Now youve heard about the benefits and drawbacks of this leadership style, lets look at where its actually implemented in the business world.ÂÂ  1.ÂÂ  Democratic leadership is applied to an extent in the manufacturing industry, to allow employees to give their ideas on how processesÂÂ  canÂÂ  become leaner and more efficient. While Fordism is still applied in some factories across the country, truth is that production managers are now really starting to harness the motivational bonuses associated with not treating employees like robots anymore.ÂÂ  2.ÂÂ  Democratic leadershp is effective in proffessional organisations where the emphasis is clearly on training, professional leadership development and quality of work performed. Democratic procedures are simply just one cog in the effective leadership mechanisms firms likeÂÂ  The Big FourÂÂ  have created over the years.ÂÂ  3.ÂÂ  Non profit organisations also tremendously benefit from dra wing upon the creative energies of all their staff to bring about cost cutting techniques or fund raising ideas.ÂÂ  4.ÂÂ  As previously mentioned, creative industries such as advertising and television enjoy alot of benefits from the free flow of ideas that democratic leadership brings.

OnLive: The Future of Gaming or Technological Disaster? Essay

OnLive: The Future of Gaming or Technological Disaster? The OnLive Company first proposed their plan to provide cloud-based gaming service to the public at the E3 conference, June 2009. To many of the enthusiasts at the conference, it seemed that an On-Demand service for video games was only natural, given that movies and music have already adopted cloud distribution. As Microsoft and Nintendo premiered their new resource-hungry consoles, OnLive demoed Crysis, a graphics intensive videogame, on an iPhone. The crowd was astonished by the games low-latency, and quality. CEO Steve Perlman also points out â€Å"we can deliver anything† through the cloud, including design applications, movies, and other forms of multimedia. OnLives idea to deploy the innovative service has not gone without criticism; many people are skeptical of their business plan and believe it to be impractical. In prospect, the OnLive service will revolutionize the gaming industry. After using the service for only a few minutes, I mused that gaming consoles would never again dominate the market. Along with games, OnLive’s interface is also a social network. It allows users to interact and share information, such as "Brag Clips" which are user-selected 10 second clips of memorable moments in their gameplay. Perhaps most importantly OnLive can be played through nearly every new device with an Internet connection, including iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Currently on pre-order is OnLive’s â€Å"MicroConsole", a cigarette package-sized device that can connect to OnLive to a Television. Even the old IBM computer that has been sitting in your garage for years can run the newest games through OnLive. Whereas in the past gamers were forced to purchase the new Sony Pla... ...Perlman Gives Us His Post-launch Perspective.† Interviewed by Rich Brown. CNET News. Communication Network Inc., 15 July 2010. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. . Paul, Ryan. "40GB for $55 per Month: Time Warner Bandwidth Caps Arrive." Ars Technica. 3 June 2008. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. . MMOGchart. MMOG Subscriptions Market Share - April 2008. Digital image. MMOGchart.com. MMOGchart, Apr. 2008. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. . Rayburn, Dan. "The Rapid Decline in Bandwidth Costs Since 2005 -- Seeking Alpha." Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha, 2 June 2009. Web. 1 Nov. 2010. . "What Is MMOG?" GamesTotal.com. Games Total. Web. 6 Nov. 2010. . "What Is Pandora Radio?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. WiseGEEK. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. .

The Function of Blogs :: Internet

The Function of Blogs There are so many things one could do with the relatively new medium of blogs. They can be almost anything a person wants: a journal, a compilement of links, a scrapbook of information, or even a discussion board. The only definition I've seen that can encompass it is that they are postings in reverse chronological order. Blogs are the newest Internet craze, but do they serve a purpose? Early on, experienced web users, who knew web-programming language, kept blogs to keep track of their mind’s wanderings. They were like a "Captains log on the quest of discovery" (Brown). For the average Internet surfer, they weeded out sites worth viewing from the rest. Now, sites like blogger.com have taken the work with web languages out of blogging, opening it up to the general public. New age blogs are seen as "vain self publishing" by experienced bloggers (Fitcher). I can see their point, as many inexperienced bloggers seem to ramble on about themselves as if they are to be praised. They only seem to want attention. This has made me wonder, what is the point of personal blogs? All blogs must have some entertainment value; otherwise no one would keep or read them. Entertainment isn’t a very commendable purpose, but it has more value than watching television. It is better to be learning about news events and stating your opinion on it than just hearing it. At least then you’re developing your ideas, and the reading and writing will help develop communication skills. Bloggers learn to put more thought into what they say, or just the act of writing daily can help thoughts flow into words. A blogger’s thoughts may stem from a news article they recently read. In this case they usually link you to the article and state their opinions, or point out different aspects of it. Their comments are kind of a one-way discussion leading you down their train of thoughts. You can usually reply to what the author says, but the time delay in responses may result in the author’s lack of interest to questions posed. Walt Crawford threw an interesting concept my way in his article, Announcing Cubed: Media about Media about Media. Blogs are just another form of media coverage. Our media affects how we think to a great extent. It is always rating other forms of media, and many blogs are no exception (Crawford).

Writing For Design :: Personal Narrative Papers

Writing For Design I was born in Salem, Oregon, which is a fantastic place to leave. It’s one of those places that people appreciate more not having ever been there. They may have some vague idea that it’s the capital of the most underrated state in the country, but they are astonished that people actually come from it. Well, we do. Not a lot of writers, though. I think this is the case because to be a writer you can stay where you are, and that contradicts the basic drive of everyone born in Salem. However, before I left, I wrote things for me to say. You see, I shy away from the term â€Å"perform† because, in actuality, it was just me talking for the sake of talking. Which is why my first calling was acting. The first thing I ever wrote was a play about Zorro, with whom I was in the throes of a passionate love affair. It was legitimate, we had been secretly married, after all, but we could not be public about it because of his persona as a romantic super hero. It would have been devastating to his following, you understand. Like a Backstreet Boy. I talked the story out to my babysitter and she transcribed it for me. Every line was mine, every plot twist was mine, including the show stopper where Zorro discovers that the masked man stealing the pies off the window sill is in fact – shock – the obese sheriff. A little bit Scooby Doo, a little bit Bernstein Bears and Brother’s Problem With Kleptomania. I wish I could say that I had some cool Hawking-esque paralysis that prevented me from writing it myself, but the truth is I just couldn’t write. I was three and a half. Later, after my parents seemed utterly bored with Zorro and the Missing Pies after only three hundred performances, I began writing on my own. What, one might ask? Well, I am an only child†¦ I invented siblings. There were four of them: two older, two younger, two boys, two girls. With me in the middle. I like balance and symmetry. We were like the Box Car Child ren or those orphans in Homecoming, but with really cool, undead parents. In addition to my chronicle-writing duties, I had to take care of these characters I had created. I made them soup when they were sick.

Winn Dixie

William Milton Davis and his four sons founded Winn-Dixie in 1925 in Miami, Florida. On February 18, 1952, Winn Dixie became the first Florida-based industrial corporation listed on the NYSE. In 2005, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in â€Å"an effort to address financial and operational challenges that had hampered its performance. † (NYTimes. com) Winn Dixie was having a difficult time trying to overcome competitors, such as Wal-mart, that had blanketed crucial markets, such as Florida. In March 2012, Winn Dixie became a wholly owned subsidiary of BI-LO, another Southeastern supermarket chain, who took over Winn Dixie’s headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. Currently, Winn Dixie operates more than 480 stores and 380 in-store pharmacies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, employing approximately 63,000 individuals. Management Style Winn Dixie stores operate individually in that they all have their own general manager who is in charge of that store. This person is â€Å"responsible for deciding how to create a competitive advantage and achieve high profitability with the resources and capital they have at their disposal. † (pg. 9) The general manager hires functional managers who are responsible for the various departments (ie deli, pharmacy, dry goods, bakery, etc). Functional managers are responsible for â€Å"the specific business functions or operations that constitute a company or one of its divisions. (pg. 11) Therefore, the general manager looks at how the store as a whole is doing and pinpoints areas that need improvement. The GM then tells the functional managers what goals they need to achieve for their specific departments. The functional managers then need to develop a strategic plan in order to get their team to achieve those goals. An example: The GM is alerted to the fact that the customer service is not up to par. They would inform the customer service manager of this fact, and the customer service manager would decide how to get the team to improve customer service. Perhaps an incentive plan that rewards positive customer feedback or better training may be necessary. After a set period, customer service will be re-evaluated to determine if the changes were positive or negative and what can be done to continue improvement.

In which ways does Shakespeare build up a mood of tension and horror in the scenes? Essay

I think that Shakespeare built up a mood of tension and horror in the scenes by using particular scenes with a kind of situation ‘Will he? Wont he?’ which builds up the tension incredibly. Act I scene VII is the scene where Macbeth makes the decision even if not his own, that he will kill King Duncan. Though Macbeth wasn’t ready for Lady Macbeth’s fury. She calls him a coward and mocks his masculinity, ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ Mentally beaten by his wife and persuaded by her mockery, Macbeth makes his makes his final verdict. This part creates tension in the form of Macbeth’s uncertainty. Act II, scene I starts off the horror and the tension, of the murder, by using that point in time as ‘midnight’. The witches haven’t just disturbed Macbeth, as Banquo grasps his sword whilst crossing the courtyard as he heard a noise. You can tell that Macbeth is distressed as he answers very little to Banquo and it clearly shows when he leaves. When Macbeth hallucinates, seeing a dagger before him, ‘A dagger of the mind, a false creation’ Shakespeare increases the tension in this scene by using language that is full of references to blood and darkness, ‘And on thy blade, and dungeon, gouts of blood, Which was not so before?’ The dagger goes then returns, but on its return Macbeth notices that it is of his own dagger covered in blood which increases the horror, the handle pointing towards his hand, inviting him towards King Duncan’s chamber. The dagger was basically giving him a step by step guide to committing regicide. Macbeth’s final words before regicide are very dramatic, ‘I go, and it is done’ This creates images of what is about to come. Lady Macbeth goes and gets the scene ready for Macbeth by framing the guards, she drugs them and takes their daggers. In act II, scene II the murder of King Duncan takes place and fear and regret dominates the scene. Macbeth returns with the guard’s two daggers which he was meant to of left at the scene to frame the guards, this creates both tension and horror as the audience doesn’t know if they will be found out. Lady Macbeth then takes control of the situation by taking them back herself. When she returns she is fuming and begins to call her husband a coward. But to add to the tension Macbeth can’t wash the blood off his hands which shows regret and guilt; Macbeth compares his hands to the seas of Neptune, ‘Will all great Neptune’ Ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ Saying that his blood will turn Neptune’s Ocean from green to red, ‘The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one, red’ But then Lady Macbeth tries to reassure him by saying ‘My hands are of your colour: but I shame to wear a heart so white’ They hear knocking at a door so Lady Macbeth tells him to go and put on his night gown and forget what has just happened but it is easier said than done! Macbeth believes that he is outside the Christian world as he couldn’t say ‘amen’ also that he will never sleep again because regicide is a sin. The knocking at the end of the scene creates suspense because it plays on the audience’s fear of discovery.

Paradox Essay

Michael Seamen wrote People of Paradox based on the United States story, culture, and politics, as a paradox and making it tie together all the themes and facts in the American government. He lists his analysis of the many paradoxes that riddle American life. He often observes that the American people expect their leaders to be â€Å"Every man and Superman† which he elaborates that our society is so pluralistic that we expect our leaders to be all things to all people. But not one individual can possibly be everything; not one can be the villain and the hero.With that paradox of â€Å"Every man and Superman† shows how our society is contradicting itself because it's not Seibel to be both or even all. Its what America runs off of and the idea that our leaders should make us all happy, which isn't the case, nor will society make it that way. Although Seamen had strong ideas that showed how paradoxes govern American society, it is often opinionated that the ambivalent stru cture of people is the reason that society can't all agree on one thing.It has been the impulse of our egalitarianism to make all people alike, but because of our social order and intolerance to accentuate differences among groups this cannot be achieved. Paradoxes also show how people are often diverse. Its important to cooperate common goals as a society to create a stabilized life, and I agree that having paradoxes truly do help make that happen.It sticks in people's minds and makes them conjure up their own opinions and ideas on how certain paradoxes can govern their own life and what it means to that person individually. In conclusion, paradoxes govern American life in many different ways. We use them to govern our society and to govern ourselves. It lists to moral concept of how America should be understood. It shows the essential need to be understood even though we as people are often misunderstood.And with that paradox, it just shows how we are not perfect. We live in a soc iety with flaws and aspirations. Not everyone can be fulfilled, but showing your individuality puts you apart from everyone else keeping your mind sane and having your own creed beliefs. Though we are only human, our government leaders are not perfect and are only as ambiguous as the rest of society, its our job to get through life knowing what you personally believe in.

Discussion Forum for Nursing Leadership Course

Managers over the years yearn for the best managerial style there is in accordance with the kind of leadership that organization necessitate with. A managerial style needs to examine the influence of other important variables (ward philosophy, leadership style, intra- and inter-professional working, staffing levels and skill mix) which could have been as important as the nursing system in affecting performance.Continuity of care, responsibility and accountability are among the virtues required for every leader so as to maintain a strong disposition in a group and at the same time create a harmonious relationship with the rest of the members. As for this case, the organization’s goal is toward productivity—therefore the group needs a foundation of values and task descriptions that will keep the members informed on the tasks at hand (Meredith & Jr. , 2008).Directive autocratic form of leadership would be most appropriate. In essence, the leader should be intellectually eq uipped and experience-ready since nursing programs are typically run through a set of standards. The very fact that such kinds of practitioners are dealing with health, or most importantly the lives of their patients, it is only but fitting for the leader to be composed, systematic and organized especially when it comes to delegation and on meeting deadlines or time-frames. AnalysisFor example, as for instances wherein the organization is one point or another required to work with a partnership, the leader should anticipate possible discrepancies in terms of production so as to preempt the occurrence of one or, at the least, allot enough time for the partnership to address or to be able to resolve the impending crisis as soon as possible. Internal problems can be resolved through the early exposition of predicted problems thereby creating enough time between the occurrence of the predicted problem and the current timeframe.This expanse of time should be used in order to formulate se ts of solutions as early as time permits. , when the partnership is faced with drawbacks from either sides, it should be the case that both should not leave-out the other party and, instead, provide substantial assistance in order to uplift the business relationship and lessen the impact of the problem to both organizations concerned. Conclusion As a matter of fact, managers can empower others through a variety of ways.These ways include granting subordinates with technical skills acquired through skills-enhancing tasks or through educational discussion, or by delegating to the employees special or non-conventional aptitude or competence by involving these people on duties that are beyond their working status quo. Managers can also empower not only their subordinates or employees but also those who belong to the higher or superior ranks.Supervisors or office executives can be further empowered by the manager by providing critical insights and ideas that are fresh and go beyond the u sual habit of mere task accomplishment. Those in the upper positions can obtain empowerment when the manager exposes these individuals to the recent developments within the firm or company either through status reports or through corporate discussions, thereby providing them new information that grants them the capacity to craft new business policies. Discussion Forum for Nursing Leadership Course A nurse manager’s role is one of leadership. A person would therefore require excellent communication skills with people of all ages, genders and races. The nurse manger role requires a lot of responsibility and one must be able to accept this challenge and all the duties and responsibilities that are allocated with this skilled and professional line of work. Your nurse manager role would be to oversee that all duties and work responsibilities in a particular unit are done in accordance with the organization’s vision and mission statement.As a nurse manager, you must be a reliable person, the organization would require that you live up to their needs and expectations and portray that for which they stand. Nurse Manager’s roles also involve the building of team leadership. Nurses within a particular unit should be able to work well together as a team and form a uniform whole; this will ensure the success of a nursing unit. In the given situation, the nurse manager should be able to resolve the problem wherein she will not be put into a situation that will affect on her credibility as a professional.Whoever is under her authority, may it be a family or a friend, there is no excuse to disregarding her responsibilities as manager. The success of her leadership will depend on how she will handle the circumstances that comes her way. Within a position of authority, one should live and represent the organization for what it stands; this includes the ethics it follows and type of service it offers. Communication is a key tool that health care professionals must use to elicit cooperation among individuals in the delivery of health care services.Communication among health professionals can: increase awareness of a health issue, problem, or solution; affect attitudes to create support for individual or collective action; demonstrate or illustrate skills; increase demand for health services; inform or reinforce knowledge, attitudes, or behavior. Health care institutions include many interacting groups: staff with staff, staff with patients, and staff with families and visitors, staff with physicians etc.These interactions frequently lead to conflict. In which the manager is faced on with the complaints against Mary’s performance in their unit. Conflict is defined as an acknowledged struggle from differences in ideas, values, actions or feelings resulting in increased stress levels between two groups or two people. Usually, conflict is handled in one of five ways: reflecting differing degrees of aggressive, assertive, or passive, and cooperative or competitive behavior.There are a lot of strategies to approach conflicts. In the case of Mary, the manager should employ the Collaboration approach which implies a mutual attention to the problem that utilizes the talents of all parties. In collaboration, the focus is on solving the problem, not defeating the opponent; the goal is to satisfy both parties’ concerns. It is ap propriate for the manager to bring clashing groups together to mediate.Before coming together for mediation, everyone in the groups needs to agree on the following: to get together to work on problems; that there are problems that can be solved; that all individuals have some responsibility for working toward solving the problems; that they are not expected to like one another at the conclusion but to understand one another better and be able to work together; that they are not expected to place blame on someone for the problem, but are expected to consider differences and come to a consensus about solutions(Hartley.  2007).Coaching is an effective way to help staff identify and meet professional goals. The goal of nurse manager coaching is to make nurses responsible for their actions and redirect any resistance by determining goals, purpose, and vision (Powell, 2001). In this manner, Mary will realize that there is a problem that needs attention. And this way, too, everyone will be able to meet common goals and be successful in their endeavors.References The Healthcare performance Institute. (2006). Nurse Manager Role. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www.healthcareperformanceinstitute.com/nurse-manager-role.jsp National Center of Continuing Educatuion, Inc. (2009). Communication Strategies. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www.nursece.com/onlinecourses/3453.html CEUFast.com. (2007). Conflict Management. (2007). Retrieve March 9, 2009, from http://www.ceufast.com/courses/viewcourse.asp?id=91 Nurse.com. (2001). The Nurse Manager as Coach. (2001, July 2). Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://include.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2001107020368