Letter Requesting university to allow the reenrolment of the student Essay

Letter Requesting university to allow the reenrolment of the student who has failed the subject twice - Essay Example The only excuse for me is that there are great differences between educational standards of two counties and organization of the education process. During the first year of study, things were really different for me: I was deprived friends and family support. I had no one to give a piece of advice and emotionally support me. Within my class, I did not have a true friend to analyze and compare my educational progress and achievements. My life resembled a snow ball: one problem caused another problem, etc. It seemed reasonable to expect that there would be cross-cultural differences in homework preferences similar to learning style preferences. But I learnt the same way as I had taught it in my native country. I am grateful to Professor Antony who directs and supports me in my professional growth and career development. Professor Antony advised me to work with a construction company as an architect in order to improve my academic results and skills. On holidays, I went back to my home country, India, and worked under an architect office for two months. During this period, I worked hard on my weak areas due to which I was facing academic difficulties. I understand that there is growing need for highly trained staff specialists, as well as for architects to coordinate the work and construction projects. I am very serious about my career and this year is crucial and precious time for me. I ask you for a chance to continue education and develop strong personal skills and values important in my profession. Every vocation has its peculiar satisfactions and frustrations, when considered from the viewpoint of routines and rewards. If you give me a chance to re-enrol, I will take into account all my weak areas and previous problems: 1) my attendance is going to be 100%; 2) at least a week before or 4 days before, I will complete my submissions and show them to the tutor for his review; 3) as I already mentioned, I have worked on my weaknesses so I will not have any difficulties during this course; 4) by now, I am very comfortable with Australian cultural environment, and therefore will be making more friends within a class with whom I can compare my work and progress; 5) instead of working at home for my submissions, I will work on studio or cad so I can mix with other students and can compare my progress. In order to meet the challenge, it is important to compare your progress with other students. This plan will come true only if I could get your support at this last year of my studies. If still I find I am not suitable for this course I will withdraw from the course myself. From time to time, all of us have some difficulties and problems in our life and we really need a helping hand to solve these issues. In difficult life situation, every person needs a chance to prove his professional and personal strengths. This year was a real trial for me, but I achieved personal and professional growth. Please re-enrol me to prove I am a worthy student of the University. Please give me a helping hand at this difficult period in my

Individual Assignment Process Improvement Plan Essay Example for Free

Individual Assignment Process Improvement Plan Essay Individual Assignment: Process Improvement Plan  · Complete the Statistical Process Control for the process identified in Week One.  · Write a 1,050 words (maximum) explanation of the control limits including the calculations and data used to determine them.  · Discuss the effect of any seasonal factors using the process performance data collected each week.  · Discuss the confidence intervals and their usefulness based on the number of data points. General Questions General General Questions Complete the Statistical Process Control for the process identified in Week One. Write a paper of no more than 1,050 words in which you explanation of the control limits, including the calculations and data used to determine them. (I expect everyone to use the data that they have collected and create a control chart for your process. I want to see your calculations for the upper and lower control limits as well as the raw data). Discuss the effect of any seasonal factors using the process performance data collected each week. Discuss the confidence intervals and their usefulness based on the number of data points. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. When choosing your major, think about the kind of job you want, but think about the person you are. If you are someone who doesnt want to get up before noon, for example, you might not want to choose a major where the job possibilities require you to work early in the morning. In this file OPS 571 Week 5 Individual Assignment Process Improvement Plan you can find overview of the Statistical process control (SPC) Individual Assignment: Process Improvement Plan  · Complete the Statistical Process Control f Complete course guide available here https://bitly.com/12CiLPG When choosing your major, think about the kind of job you want, but think about the person you are. If you are someone who doesnt want to get up before noon, for example, you might not want to choose a major where the job possibilities require you to work early in the morning. General Questions General General Questions Complete the Statistical Process Control for the process identified in Week One. Write a paper of no more than 1,050 words in which you explanation of the control limits, including the calculations and data used to determine them. (I expect everyone to use the data that they have collected and create a control chart for your process. I want to see your calculations for the upper and lower control limits as well as the raw data). Discuss the effect of any seasonal factors using the process performance data collected each week. Discuss the confidence intervals and their usefulness based on the number of data points. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Digital Media And Print Media: Dying Out

Digital Media And Print Media: Dying Out With reference to the presentation of Fenna Statz on the 14th of December, in which we spoke about the problem that due to digital media, print media no longer will exist in the near future. I hereby want to talk about the problem, to offer a conclusion and a solution. The problem is that print media is dying. Since the first facts of electronic media and print media has always felt an undue threat. First was the radio and then to the television. Now the internet is apparently up against the vast and widely spread print media. Or print media is dying, is a question that a lot of marketers ask themselves from time to time. Whether they believe in the power of the printed word or choose to put all their advertising dollars into digital media. This report is to provide you more detailed information about the problem that print media is dying and if it will exist in the near future. Everyone knows already what digital media is, but most of the people have no idea what it is and how it can help you out when it comes to marketing. It is very important that you get up to speed so you can use this to benefit your business. In fact digital media refers to any type of electronic media out there. Today media has accessed in many ways, including with hand held devices like mobile phones, laptops, desktops, mp3 players, and more. The digital media will take over the world. You can read everything on the internet and everybody has their own network, like social media. Social networking sites are the websites using which you can make new friends and find out your old friends. Not only making and finding friends you can also find many other services available in networking sites. Usually all the networking sites work in a similar way. The difference is just of rules and regulations. Usually people who join these sites have some common reasons like finding old friends, makin g new friends, dating, religion, etcetera. There are many forms of social media, the most common are: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Facebook is the largest social networking site for people connecting with friends and others. More than 500 million people are active users on Facebook, 50% of the active users log on to Facebook in any given day. The average user has 130 friends and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. MySpace is the same platform as Facebook, and is commonly referred to as a place for friends. Twitter has 190 million accounts. Almost 91 percent of the Dutch youth is active in the social media. This includes the Dutch youth to the top of the European Union. Only Polish people make more use of social media almost 94 percent. The use of social media decreases with age. In the age group 25 to 55 years, the proportion of those active in social networks in the Netherlands and 54 percent of the age of 55 to 75 years just over 30 percent. Print media advertising is exactly what it says, it is advertising in a print media arena. The two most forms of print media advertising are newspapers and magazines. Print media also includes many other advertising like: Posters on buses, trains, toilet rooms, subways and a lot of other thing. Also outdoor billboards, ads in phone books, flyers, etcetera. The proportion of Dutch says that someone in their household has subscribed to a newspaper, decrease from 62 percent in 1997 to 50 percent in 2008. This decrease may be related to the emergence of a number of free newspapers. I think that in the future the people will read the news on the internet. News breaks are much faster online than in any other medium, except for live television. From all that facts of above it can be concludes that now it is very clear where the trend is headed, so no doubt, print media in its traditional form will decline. But I do not think that it will cease to exist in 10 years. Printed media will be less, but there will always be a need for a printed copy by the people. With print media you can share it and you can move it. So keep that fact in your mind if you develop a media strategy. Studies have shown that print advertising has a lower ROI and that should bring down the cost of advertising soon. Think of it is a non expensive channel to advertise. While we are used to accessing news in real time from the web, print media will still have a role in providing content where timing is not an issue. And the transition to a digital world will not be accomplished within 10 years. I think that will take over more than 100 years. The government could not forbid the newspapers because it will be always a need by many people.

The Outsiders :: essays research papers

The Outsiders   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the book the Outsider by S.E. Hinton Ponyboy is the main character, in the book he is mostly referred to as Pony. Pony has two brothers, Sodapop and Darry. Pony is fourteen and doesn’t have any parent’s, they died in a car accident. Pony and Soda and Darry all live in the same house, with Darry and Soda supporting them. He has long black greasy hair, he has hair like that because most of the people do in the gang their part of the â€Å"Greasers†, and it probably fit with the time period, the fifties. Pony’s best friend Johnny who is also part of the gang; theâ€Å"Greasers† that includes most of the kids that live around their part of town including Soda and Darry. Pony being part of the Greasers hates the Socs, short for socials; in the beginning the socs beat Pony for no reason just because he didn’t dress like them or have money like them. The Socs are basically rich kids that dress nicely and beat the Greasers up. So far everyone likes Pony except the Socs. Pony is unlike all the other Greasers because he likes to watch movies and read books and look at the stars at night. The other Greasers don’t give him a hard time about it sometimes they’ll even go to movies with him and look at the stars with him. Towards the end of chapter two Johnny, Pony, and Dally, (another one of the guys in the Greasers), met Cherry and Marcia. They were two girlfriends of some Socs that they met at the drive in movie theater. At the end of chapter three Johnny, Pony, and the girls were walking home when their boyfriends pulled up and started trouble with Pony and Johnny. Johnny got beat up really bad by the same guys before so he wasn’t going to take any chances so he pulled out his switch blade and Soda had a broken bottle, but nothing happened except the girls went with the Socs so there wouldn’t be any trouble.

Ambiguity in Translation Essay

Abstract This paper deals with translation ambiguity and target polysemy problems together. many Words have more than one translation across languages. Such translation ambiguous words are generally translated more slowly and less Accurately than their unambiguous counterparts. Additionally, there are multiple source of translation ambiguity including within language semantic ambiguity and near synonymy, the present study examines the extent to which word context and translation dominance reduce the difficulties associated with translation ambiguity , using the primed stemming from the two source , especially translation ambiguity derived from semantic ambiguity (meaning translation ambiguity) and translation ambiguity derived from near synonymy (synonym translation ambiguity). Translation unambiguous pairs were recognized more quickly and accurately than translation ambiguous pairs. In this paper I have used qualitative and quantitative methods of research to investigate And describe ambiguities in the text translation. Key words: translation ambiguity – polysemy problems – ambiguous and unambiguous texts – qualitative and quantitative – semantic ambiguity . Introduction Ambiguity is a pervasive phenomenon in language which occurs at all levels of linguistic Analysis. Out of context, words have multiple sense and syntactic categories, requiring Listeners to determine which meaning and part of speech was intended. Morphemes may also be ambiguous out of context , as in English. Phonological forms are often mapped to multiple distinct word meaning, as in the homoPhonemes,( too , two and to). Syllables are almost always ambiguous in isolation , meanIngs that they can be interpreted as providing incomplete information about the word The speaker is intending to communicate. Syntactic and semantic ambiguity are frequent enough to present a substantial challenge To natural language processing. The fact that that ambiguity occurs on so many linguistic levels suggests that a far reachIng principle is needed to explain its origins and persistence. The existence of ambiguity Provides a puzzle for functionalist theories which attempt to explain properties of linguIstic systems in terms of communicative pressure . One might imagine that in perfect Communication system , language would completely disambiguate meaning. The communicative efficacy of language might be enhanced since there would be no danger of comprehenders incorrectly inferring the intended meaning confusion about ( who is on first) could not occur. Indeed, the existence of ambiguity in language has been argued to show that the key Structures and properties of language have not evolved for purpose of communication or Use. The natural approach has always been : is language well designed for use, understood typically as use for communication? I think that is a wrong question. The use of language for communication might turn out to be a kind of epiphenomenon. If you want to make sure that we never misunderstand one another , for that purpose language is not well designed , because you have such properties as ambiguity. If we want to have the property that the things that we usually would like to say come out Short and simple , well , it probably does not have that properties. Statement of problem Translation is a challenging activity and there are few difficulties that appear during translation process. so every language describes the word in different way and has its own grammar structure , grammar rules and syntax variance . During this process the following are the most particular problems : problems of ambiguity : these originate from structural and lexical differences between languages and multiword units like idioms and collocations. Problems of grammar : there are several constructions of grammar with rules that are poorly understood. Problems of language : these includes idiom terms neologisms , slang difficult to Understand, respect to punctuation conventions and proper name of people, organization And places. Problems of source texts: these are illegible text, spell incorrectly. It can easily be seen that language differ from one to another in terms of many ways and Not just in grammar subjects . for example, small words are hard to translate and the Meanings of common words depends on context. Besides, some words, are untranslatabLe when one wishes to remain in the same grammatical category that is why translators Face of with many problems. Another problem is that translators have a hard time to convey the same meaning to the Other language. For example: translation of literature, poems and songs are impossible To express their same meanings in another language. So these texts need to be familiar With two languages . Translation process is not only to translate the words, but also to Find ones that rhymes as well. Keep in mind , lack of vocabulary knowledge cause certain problems. for those reason Translators need and in-depth knowledge of two language to translate advanced texts and Avoid using dictionary that many times make this process very boring. The last problem is that translators will encounter complex grammar structures that they Must interpret correctly. Techniques to overcome translation problems In this part of article I have presented some techniques in brief to overcome the problems That could be useful in translation , such as : back translation , consultation and Collaboration with other people and pre testing or piloting such as interviews. Research question In case of translation ambiguity we are face with some critical questions and that most Important of them is the real meaning of ambiguity that can be designed like below questions. What does language ambiguity mean? Something is ambiguous when it can be understood in two or more possible senses or Ways . If the ambiguity is in a single word it is called lexical ambiguity, in a sentence or Clause, structural ambiguity. In the field of ambiguity we are face with two interrelated questions: 1 what is being denied? And 2 what would have been dissolved? One answer equates ambiguity within the semantic, given that equation ambiguity can be Overcome by resolving either the founding lack of clarity in the first instance or in the Second addressing and eliminating contestation posed on the level of meaning. Review of literature We tend to think of language as a clear and literal vehicle for accurately communicating ideas. But, even when we use language literally , misunderstandings arise and meanings shift . People can be intentionally or unintentionally ambiguous. Nevertheless , when someone uses a potentially ambiguous sentence or expression, usually the intention was to express only one meaning . As we know , most words can have denotations, apparent meaning , connotations and implied or hidden meaning . Also, we often use words in a figurative way. even though figurative language is more often used in poetry and fiction it is still very common in ordinary speech. Ambiguity is a poetic vehicle. It is human nature to try to find meaning within an exchange . a text is given to us and in Return we give our interpretation . Our own associations give understanding of what is Presented to us . The characteristic of the late 20th century, as well as of postmodern Literature , is that certainties are continuously called into question and thus allegory becomes a suitable form for expression. Allegory is a classic example of double discourse that avoids establishing a center within the text. Because in allegory the unity of the work is provided by something that is not explicitly there. In contrast to symbols, which are generally taken to transcend the sign itself and express The universal truths, allegories metaphors divided the sign, exposing its arbitrariness. ( I used sign here in the sense of the direct intended meaning). Thus, the allegorical impulse in contemporary literature can be seen as a reflection of the Postmodern emphasis on the reader as co-producer, since it invites the reader s active Participation in making meaning. Metaphors are indeed highly appropriate postmodern devices, because they are obvious Vehicle for ambiguity . A living metaphor always carries dual meanings, the literal or Sentence meaning and the conveyed or utterance meaning. A metaphor induces comparison , but since grounds of similarity are no t always given, Metaphors serve to emphasize the freedom of the reader as opposed to the authority of The writer . historically, we can point to Saussure as initiating the discussion related to the Arbitrariness of the sign as described in his course of general linguistics. The signifier may Stay the same but the signified will shift in relation to context. In terms of change over time, Saussure states whatever the factors involved in the change Whether they act in isolation or in combination , they always result in a shift in the relationship between the sign and the signification. Methodology Addressing qualitative and quantitative method appears to be rather ambiguous task, Especially when we consider our experience of working on the issue. On the one hand , we experienced fears that working on this topic may damage one s Reputation as a scientist: talking about oneself may appear indecent and self-aggrandizing Unless one belongs to a science studies disciplines. Additionally, the messenger maybe Called to account for the message. The message being that social sciences are inherently Structured by historical , local , social and personal characteristics of those involved in Them . anyway , we should not forget that quantitative approaches have been seen as more scientific and objective. discussion one problem with attempting to identify different kinds of lexical and semantic ambiguity is that there is not definitive consensus among commentators of how these terms should be defined . semantic ambiguity has a fairly wide range of linguistic concern . Palmer discusses ambiguity as an attribute of the discipline of semantics in general. Semantic ambiguity in Palmer s formulation would refer to potentially multiple meanings of the relations within language (sense) and relations between language and the world (reference) . In other words , it would refer to a pattern or structure of meaning of a linguistic presentation , such as a sentence , a paragraph, a poem, a novel, a scene from a movie. the ambiguity is to be found in the sense relationships of the piece as a whole or in parts of a whole . it is difficult to discuss lexical and semantic ambiguity apart from pragmatics . Because so many commentaries bring in all three kinds in their discussions. For instance , Poesio refers to semantic ambiguity as having simply a multiplicity of Meanings , but links it to the structure or grammar of a language in a way that assigns Responsibility for the ambiguity to the deliberate intent of the one who originates but Underspecified, what the language means or its rhetorical intent. tropes: metaphor, metonym, allegory, homonym, homophone, homograph, paradox these are only a few of the language figures of ( tropes) providing concepts useful to understanding ambiguity in language. Metaphor: This refers to the non-literal meaning of a word, a clause or sentence. Metaphors are very common; in fact all abstract vocabulary is metaphorical. A metaphor compares things. A metaphor established by usage and convention becomes a symbol. Thus crown suggests the power of the state, press = the print news media and chair = the control (or controller) of a meeting. metonym : a word used in place of another word or expression to convey the same meaning. (eg: the use of brass to refer to the military officer) allegory: the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalization about human existence. homonym: when different words are pronounced , and possibly spelled the same way. (eg: to , too, two) homophone: where the pronunciation is the same but standard spelling differs , as in flew (from fly), flu ( influenza) , and flue ( of a chimney). homograph: when different words spelled identically, and possibly pronounced the same. (eg: lead the metal and lead /what leaders do). paradox: the statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true . a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true. an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises. Significant of research The significant of research about ambiguity is in clearing the real meaning of a word in Different situations . as I said before a word in English and any other language has many different meanings that its real meaning depends on the situation that those words are used . one word may have different meanings in sport , medical , computer, science , military fields and so on . But translators should have much more information about the target and source language till choose the proper meaning for the used words and should be much experienced at this field and had much researches to be in perfect position of translation. Conclusion We have provided several kinds of evidence for the view that ambiguity results from a Pressure for efficient communication . we argued that any efficient communication system will necessarily be ambiguous when context is informative about meaning. The units of an efficient communication system will not redundantly specify information Provided by the context. these units will appear not to completely disambiguate meaning. Language can not exist without ambiguity , which has represented both a curse and a Blessing through the ages. Language is a very complex phenomenon. Meanings that can be taken for granted are in  Fact only the tip of a huge iceberg. Psychological , social and cultural events provide a moving ground on which those Meanings take root and expand their branches. The overlapping meanings emerge from The tropes , ways of saying something by always saying something else. in this sense ambiguity in literature has a very dark side, when important documents are interpreted in different ways , resulting in persecution, oppression , and death . the meaning in each situation appears as an effect of the underlying structure of signs. These signs themselves do not have a fixed significance, the significance only exist in the individual . sign is only what is represents for someone . Disambiguation is a key concept in computational linguistics. The paradox of how we tolerate semantic ambiguity and yet we seem to thrive on it , is a major question for this discipline . at this time , there is no computer capable of storing enough knowledge to process what human knowledge has accumulated. It can be seen, there for that ambiguity in language is both a blessing and curse. references (1) Clare, Richard Fraser. (Historian) Informal conversations about historal consequences of different interpretations of the Bible (2) Engel, S. Morris. â€Å"Fallacies & Pitfalls of Language† from Fallacies & Pitfalls of Language: The Language Trap. Ed Paperback Nov. 1994. (3) Fortier, Paul A. â€Å"Semantic Fields and Polysemy: A correspondence analysis approach† University of Manitoba. Paper. (4) Frath, Pierre â€Å"Metaphor, polysemy and usage† Universite MarcBloch, Department d’anglais. France. (5) Freud, Sigmund â€Å"El sentido antitetico de las palabras primitivas† Obras Completas Ed. Biblioteca Nueva. (6) Fromkin, Victoria/Rodman, Robert. â€Å"An introduction to language† Ed. Harcourt. (7) Hobbs, Jerry R. â€Å"Computers & Language† SRI International, Menlo Park, CA.

Capital Punishment6 essays

Capital Punishment6 essays Eye for an Eye and Tooth for a Tooth remains to be two of the 282 laws of justice that Hammurabi established. I am headed towards the topic of Capital Punishment. I am here to support Capital Punishment, and I believe that it has many positive effects to our society. One of the more common procedures in our country is the Death Penalty. the death penalty is extraordinarily rare. Since 1967, there has been one execution for every 1600 murders, or 0.06%. There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996 FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) s money, and is an equal retaliation. I personally believe that execution is an effective deterrent of crime. To support this argument, I think that if a person knows how fast you can be put to death by committing a crime, it will make them fully aware of their consequences in doing such crime. Although this doesnt stand for all people, I can say that it is an educational statement that many believe to be true. For all the people that are rational in the thought, the punishment of death seems to be a likely deterrent. Safety is another reason why I am fore Capital Punishment. It guarantees the society that the convicted murderer will never be out to commit another crime, which takes away a persons fear for their life from that one person. Statistics by Dr. Isaac Ehrlich at the University of Chicago claimed that capital punishment is indeed a deterrent. His research has shown that if the death penalty is used in a consistent way, it may deter as many as 8 murderers for every execution carried out. Also, Life Impri sonment most of the time only gives the prisoner one last chance to get out of the punishment, because prisoners a ...

Pablo Picasso1 essays

Pablo Picasso1 essays have always had an interest in art but nothing major. All throughout high school and grade school I attended art classes and always seemed to enjoy them more than my peers. It wasn't until I attended this art class that I realized that art is more than just paint and water. It is what ever you make of it. Being that I never painted before that also means that I've never studied any artists either. While completing my art assignments this semester I have also been reading about a certain artist on the side. No one could ever get me to pick up a book before but something in this art experience made me do it on my own. The man that I have been studying is not only intriguing but is beautiful and entertaining in his own ways. Not only is this man a legend but has taught me to look deeper into a work of art because you could find your own meaning of life. This man that I speak of is non other than Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881. His family had lived in Day, Nancy. Animal Experimentation. New Jersey, 1994. Dolan, F. Edward. Animal Rights. New York, 1986. Farm Sanctuaries. Online. Netscape. Available. Factoryfarming.com PETA. Online. Netscape. Available. http:// wwwbullfighting.com PETA. Online. Netscape. Available. http:// www.carriagerides.com PETA. Online. Netscape. Available. http:// www.circuses.com PETA. Online. Netscape. Available. http:// www.greyhounds.com PETA. Online. Netscape. Available. http:// www.peta-online.org Pets Alive Animal Sanctuary. Online. Netscape. Available. RobinsFYL.com/petsalive.htm. August 1999. ...

Effects of monetary policy on the money supply essays

Effects of monetary policy on the money supply essays U.S. Faces Tariffs In Response To Trade Dispute This article posted in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday the 18th of November discusses how in response to the highly criticized Byrd amendment the European Union has announced plans to impose a set of punitive tariffs on several U.S. products in the coming year. The Byrd amendment, which has been in place four years, is legislation that provides for protection for U.S. companies who believe a foreign company is selling products in the U.S. at prices lower than those in the home market by imposing tariffs on such goods. The primary problem with the amendment is that the U.S. offers revenues generated from these tariffs to Companies in the U.S. who complain of the foreign dumping. The World Trade Organization has thus claimed the amendment illegal due the fact that U.S. companies are receiving double benefits both from protection from the tariffs and revenues benefited from such tariffs. The new tariffs proposed by the EU will be on almost 80 products ranging from textiles to heavy machinery. The tariffs are meant to be more symbolic than financially crushing. I felt that the best way to apply this article to the models we discussed in class was to represent the tariff using our model of large country market equilibrium and the imposition of a specific tariff. The graphs on the following page represent the effects the tariffs will have both in the U.S. and the European Union Countries. In the following model, Sfx represents the supply schedule for foreign exports and Dm represents the demand for imports, E is the point of equilibrium. An imposition of a simple tariff will cause for the supply of foreign exports (Sfx) to decrease and shift to the left. The new supply of foreign exports is now parallel to the old but above it at each quantity by the amount of the tax. This in turn raises the market equilibrium from E to E, which means that consumers are now forced to...

Strategy management case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Strategy management - Case Study Example Hikma Pharmaceuticals Company has experienced expansive growth and success over the years (Gillespie & Hennessey, 2011). To match the world’s current competition status in the pharmaceuticals industry, the company needs to implement the following recommendations. Hikma has defiled odds of political turbulence to become one of the world’s top drug producing companies in the world. However, there is a challenge of political risks especially from MENA community. Hikma should therefore carry out thorough international relations to win the politically unfriendly countries. The move will see the company enjoy good customer relations in all its marketing environments. Hikma should have continued investment in the research and development (R&D). The R&D investment will be crucial in maintaining pharmaceutical company’s efficiency through development of innovative and new drugs that current world market demands (Chrysostome & Molz, 2014). The company should also take part in genericization process in which it develops and modifies the already existing drugs. Hikma should put more efforts to acquire FDA approval as quality drug manufacturers to penetrate US market effectively and efficiently (Johnson & Scholes, 2006). Successful acquisition of FDA means Hikma shall have acquired quality-manufacturing standards to assure it of a wide market base. In addition, Hikma will also overcome the restrictions and regulatory measures that bar it from manufacturing certain products as well as accessing some markets. To fulfill and reach its global market ambitions, Hikma should create more opportunities for a profitable future by increasing the demand for its shares and improving its liquidity (OBG, 2010). Consequently, employee commitment and profits will increase significantly. Finally, Hikma should focus on advocating patent expiries and increase in demand for medicines that are cost-effective. Such strategies will help in easing the current pricing pressures

Why U.S automobile company such as Ford had great lost in 2006 and how Essay

Why U.S automobile company such as Ford had great lost in 2006 and how it influences on the U.S auto market - Essay Example (Isidore) Plans to cut-off more jobs were also announced and more than half of its U.S. hourly workforce had already agreed to take one of its buy-out schemes in the next few months. For the first time, Ford Motors is mortgaging its total assets to finance all of this restructuring. It hopes to raise $18 billion from its factories, equipment, office buildings, patents and trademarks, and stakes in subsidiaries; an amount that exceeds the company's total market value of all its outstanding stock by more than $2 billion. This move has never been done before as Ford Motors' credit line has always been good and it can borrow money without mortgaging its assets (Bunkley) So what is really happening to Ford Motors and the U.S. automobile industry as a whole Why is it losing so much while its overseas counterparts like Toyota and Honda, are moving towards the opposite direction Declined Sales, Quality Issues, Marketing Strategy, Labor Cost Discrepancies, Productivity and Currency Exchange Rates are the principal factors. Declined Sales - Overseas Automobile makers share in the U.S. market had steadily grown through the years. Chart 1 shows how Japan and the European markets had slowly crept up in market share from the 70s to the present, a trend that had Toyota surpassed Ford Motors as being the second biggest seller of automobiles in the U.S. This loss in the market share however, is not experienced by Ford Motors alone but by practically all U.S. automobile manufacturers as well. Honda has exceeded Chrysler in sales and is almost catching up with Ford. On the other hand, General Motors has not had the lowest share in new car and light truck sales since the 1920s. (Train & Winston) The pickup trucks, though still considered as the nation's best selling vehicle, also experienced very low consumer demand in 2006. Ford Motors' F-series pickups, regarded as one of its main product lines had a major sales drop exceeding 100,000 units. (Isidore) This shows the magnitude of the dire state the U.S. car makers are facing. With surging oil prices in the world market, consumers are opting for the more fuel efficient smaller cars, vehicles that does not guzzle gasoline like light trucks do. With this preference shift, U.S. automakers, such as Ford Motors are left with many truck factories that can't afford to be operational but stay inactive. Adjusting to the changes, U.S. car makers are not only closing their truck factories but have re-focused towards the smaller "cross-over" type cars which are scaled down versions of SUV. While GM announced its plans to shift towards building more small vehicles in the Beijing auto show last year, Ford Motors also confirmed that it will cease its Freestar minivan production and redirect its focus on building more crossover vehicles (CBC) Quality Issue - Sales drop due to quality issues is totally another story. Of this year's "Top Picks" lists based on the annual Consumer report, all picks are vehicles made by Japanese automakers. It has been two years in a row that no American cars made it to the list. To merit a Consumer Reports' recommendation to the "Top Pick", the car must pass certain criteria like reliability, safety,

Article summary Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summary - Article Example finally that CBPR would seek balance between community members and researchers/practitioners through shared co-teaching, leadership, co-learning opportunities and therefore benefit from the expertise of both community practitioners and researchers. Participatory action research was suitable for this patient population because this kind of research is especially appropriate for public health nurses working with populations and communities since it offers a framework that builds upon local community knowledge, enabling the public health nurses as well as their community partners to be sensitive not only to the culture but also ecological context. Secondly participatory action research also serves as a useful guide in development of programs suitable for promoting healthy communities and health equality. Thirdly, this kind of research also allows socio-cultural contexts, systems, and meaning to emerge through a collaborative process between community members and public health nurses. Fourthly, early research in substance use provided a firm foundation for community participation .Participation action research is also very important in the acquisition of local community’s knowledge of substance nonuse and use so as to provide a richer understanding of the health-related needs and assets of the community, environment and circumstances surrounding substance-related illness and health, population and community conditions, beliefs, attitudes as well as traditions directed toward substance nonuse or use-related health risk behaviors. Some of the unique benefits of this study revolve around the unique strategies utilized in the community participation such as mapping (Geographic Information Systems) (GIS), and Photovoice (picture-taking by members of the community as well as researchers and practitioners).GIS as a tool enables assessment and analysis of the ecological context of a population together with phenomena such as youth substance nonuse and use within a

Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts Essay

Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts - Essay Example Therefore, Healthcare Inc. approximates that turnover expenses are to the tune of $2.2 million per annum and that falling turnover could have a beneficial effect not just on its outcome, but also the drive of its employees. As a result, it is imperative to underscore the core essence of the company’s turnover problem in order to tackle the problem as a whole. Such a process will involve a number of considerations as to why employee turnover is high in the company and the reasons behind the phenomenon. To kick-start, the process will be the naming of the reasons for the high turnover at Healthcare Inc. In essence, high turnover emanates from a diversity of factors that affect the working morale and drive of the employees. Several issues in the operation of the organization are responsible for its turnover problems. It is only through the identification of the issues causing turnover that a formidable solution for Healthcare Inc can be developed (Jex, 2002). Issues at the Root o f the Healthcare Inc Turnover Problems Recruitment and Employee Selection Issues Healthcare Inc high turnover is mainly as a result of recruitment and employee selection issues, which have an upper hand in influencing the drive and confidence of workers. Under normal circumstances, recruitment and selection issues are the principal process of admitting new talent into the organization (Smith, 2007). Whenever there is a problem regarding the quality of staff or the nature of the process, the organization is affected in a great way. Recruitment and selection are two related processes that determine the nature of employees the company attracts and retains over and above the way in which the workforce operates in the organization. Whereas recruitment deals with the general hunt for talent, selection involves the particular scrutiny of potential staff for employment considerations. Selection relies so much on recruitment owing to the fact that the employees to be selected emanate from re cruitment stage. Issues surrounding the recruitment and selection of staff have a significant implication on the operation of an organization and are leading causes of high turnover. It is evident that Healthcare Inc turnover problems mostly affect new employees in their first year of service; this is a direct result of recruitment and selection issues. Half of the turnover cases involve fresh employees, which imply that the company’s recruitment and selection process is flawed and does not herald required staff in the organization or fails to inculcate organizational values in them. There must be a reason why fresh employees are a huge source of turnover, the organization processes of searching and choosing new employees is not up to date or does not satisfy the threshold of organizational effectiveness. Recruitment along with selection issues are crucial components in an organization’s turnover problems. Motivational Issues High turnover could be as a result of motiv ational issues because the ability of workers to stay committed to their roles squarely lies with their level of motivation.

Critically analyse what is meant by the New Third Way as a political Essay

Critically analyse what is meant by the New Third Way as a political ideology - Essay Example These ideas are very progressive and necessary at first sight. The matter is that these ideas were formulated in the end of the 20th century, and the political situation was not the same as today. The ideas of the Third Way are of liberal views which are in great crisis today. The world community is facing a lot of new challenges, especially after September 11, 2003. Most of them are related to the global world terrorism and numerous terrible actions made by terrorists throughout the world. Many challenges are connected with WMD proliferation and drug trafficking. The twentieth century was a century of capitalism and socialism ideas realization, but now in the beginning of the 21st century the ideas of pure capitalism (when profit is the main value, and all problems must be overcome by free entertainment) and socialism (when state is the main power in economic life) are become outdated, as practice shows. So, the leaders of the most powerful countries offered a new decision, so-calle d The Third Way.

English Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

English Research Paper - Essay Example In each chapter of the book Gardner illustrates a different philosophical theory. In an interview John Gardner (1974) said that the purpose of writing this book was â€Å"to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization ... and go through them in the voice of the monster, with the story already taken care of, with the various philosophical attitudes (though with Sartre in particular), and see what I could do." Grendel is based on Beowulf, a Danish epic, which tells the story of King Hrothgar who is subjected to repeated attacks from the monster Grendel. For 12 years Grendel wages a guerilla-style war with Hrothgar. The king is unable to ward him off. Finally Beowulf, a stranger comes from the land of the Geats and kills Grendel, as well as Grendels mother and the dragon. Gardner begins his tale from the twelfth year of Grendels battle with the Danes. Grendel in the novel narrates the story of his life as he looks back and reflects on his life. He is drawn by the poetry and beauty of the world of humans, but is unable to escape the monstrousness in him. As Steven Wu says (2002), â€Å"he is both beast and human and despises both his bestiality and humanity with equal bitterness†. When Shaper, a poet whose evocative poetry and music shape the Dane’s views first joins Hrothgars men, Grendel is inspired by his heroic ode to hope. He is inspired to join the human race but he is m isunderstood and turned out by the humans. This makes Grendel revert to his belief in nihilism which to him means there is no purpose to existence. He becomes vengeful but continues to be haunted by the Shapers words of hope. Grendel then meets the dragon and his hopes are dashed further. Grendel again becomes the destroyer. In his journey of life he constantly confronts â€Å"meaning†. He sees Hrothgar age and as Grendel repeatedly attacks him, he sees him becoming humble and noble instead of being bitter. Wealtheow, the beautiful young queen withstands with grace her

Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts Essay

Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts - Essay Example Therefore, Healthcare Inc. approximates that turnover expenses are to the tune of $2.2 million per annum and that falling turnover could have a beneficial effect not just on its outcome, but also the drive of its employees. As a result, it is imperative to underscore the core essence of the company’s turnover problem in order to tackle the problem as a whole. Such a process will involve a number of considerations as to why employee turnover is high in the company and the reasons behind the phenomenon. To kick-start, the process will be the naming of the reasons for the high turnover at Healthcare Inc. In essence, high turnover emanates from a diversity of factors that affect the working morale and drive of the employees. Several issues in the operation of the organization are responsible for its turnover problems. It is only through the identification of the issues causing turnover that a formidable solution for Healthcare Inc can be developed (Jex, 2002). Issues at the Root o f the Healthcare Inc Turnover Problems Recruitment and Employee Selection Issues Healthcare Inc high turnover is mainly as a result of recruitment and employee selection issues, which have an upper hand in influencing the drive and confidence of workers. Under normal circumstances, recruitment and selection issues are the principal process of admitting new talent into the organization (Smith, 2007). Whenever there is a problem regarding the quality of staff or the nature of the process, the organization is affected in a great way. Recruitment and selection are two related processes that determine the nature of employees the company attracts and retains over and above the way in which the workforce operates in the organization. Whereas recruitment deals with the general hunt for talent, selection involves the particular scrutiny of potential staff for employment considerations. Selection relies so much on recruitment owing to the fact that the employees to be selected emanate from re cruitment stage. Issues surrounding the recruitment and selection of staff have a significant implication on the operation of an organization and are leading causes of high turnover. It is evident that Healthcare Inc turnover problems mostly affect new employees in their first year of service; this is a direct result of recruitment and selection issues. Half of the turnover cases involve fresh employees, which imply that the company’s recruitment and selection process is flawed and does not herald required staff in the organization or fails to inculcate organizational values in them. There must be a reason why fresh employees are a huge source of turnover, the organization processes of searching and choosing new employees is not up to date or does not satisfy the threshold of organizational effectiveness. Recruitment along with selection issues are crucial components in an organization’s turnover problems. Motivational Issues High turnover could be as a result of motiv ational issues because the ability of workers to stay committed to their roles squarely lies with their level of motivation.

English Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

English Research Paper - Essay Example In each chapter of the book Gardner illustrates a different philosophical theory. In an interview John Gardner (1974) said that the purpose of writing this book was â€Å"to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization ... and go through them in the voice of the monster, with the story already taken care of, with the various philosophical attitudes (though with Sartre in particular), and see what I could do." Grendel is based on Beowulf, a Danish epic, which tells the story of King Hrothgar who is subjected to repeated attacks from the monster Grendel. For 12 years Grendel wages a guerilla-style war with Hrothgar. The king is unable to ward him off. Finally Beowulf, a stranger comes from the land of the Geats and kills Grendel, as well as Grendels mother and the dragon. Gardner begins his tale from the twelfth year of Grendels battle with the Danes. Grendel in the novel narrates the story of his life as he looks back and reflects on his life. He is drawn by the poetry and beauty of the world of humans, but is unable to escape the monstrousness in him. As Steven Wu says (2002), â€Å"he is both beast and human and despises both his bestiality and humanity with equal bitterness†. When Shaper, a poet whose evocative poetry and music shape the Dane’s views first joins Hrothgars men, Grendel is inspired by his heroic ode to hope. He is inspired to join the human race but he is m isunderstood and turned out by the humans. This makes Grendel revert to his belief in nihilism which to him means there is no purpose to existence. He becomes vengeful but continues to be haunted by the Shapers words of hope. Grendel then meets the dragon and his hopes are dashed further. Grendel again becomes the destroyer. In his journey of life he constantly confronts â€Å"meaning†. He sees Hrothgar age and as Grendel repeatedly attacks him, he sees him becoming humble and noble instead of being bitter. Wealtheow, the beautiful young queen withstands with grace her

Change models Essay Example for Free

Change models Essay Scenario Planning: Supplementing Traditional Strategic Planning It is clear the rate of change in todays work environments has been aggravating with more emphasis nowadays on smaller teams, incremental and rapid delivery, faster payback, and frequent project status reporting. This acceleration has instigated uncertainty that forced organisations to start supporting their strategic planning with a longer term perspective of planning called scenario planning or scenario thinking/analysis. Scenario Read More A Simple Method to Split a WordPress Post into Multiple Pages One of the most effective ways to increase the number of page views and decrease the bounce rate of your site is by splitting your long posts into several pages. In the first part of the article, you will learn in 2 steps how to split a post in WordPress using the codex function wp_link_pages() and the tag. In the second Read More Boosting Your WordPress Sites Performance By Enabling GZIP Compression Ever heard of GZIP? It is a simple software application that compresses/decompresses files based on an algorithm named DEFLATE. It works by finding similar strings in a text file and replacing them temporarily to make the overall file size smaller which would drastically improve the performance of your website. The algorithm perfectly works with CSS and HTML filetypes which typically Read More Improving Quality of Project Estimation It is clear that estimating a project is important for the project manager to determine how long the project would take, to figure out how much the project would cost, to decide whether the project is worth doing, to measure variances against the baseline plan, and to take corrective actions. However some project managers nowadays tend to put minimum effort Read More Avoiding Common Pitfalls of High Performance Project Teams Previously in one of my earlier articles, I discussed the key qualities required for a project manager to be effective in building a high performance project team. Believe it or not, though high performance project teams can produce incredible outcomes, there still remain some serious pitfalls that project managers need to be aware of in order not to fall victims Read More Contract Management Must-Knows For Project Managers Contract management constitutes a major component of a project procurement system. Most work done nowadays on projects involves dealing with contracts or has a contractual nature. Although some companies have purchasing departments that specialize in procurement, one of the basic knowledge and skills of a project manager is to be able to read and manage contracts. This post basically discusses Read More Understanding And Managing Your Boss The idea of â€Å"managing your boss† may sound quite unusual for some managers, considering the widespread adoption of the traditional top down management  approach in most organizations. Even though talented and aggressive managers nowadays carefully control and administer their subordinates, services, and products, they might reveal, on the other hand, a passive stand with their bosses (Gabarro and Kotter 1993). Read More Changes in Project Management Processes Between PMBOK 4 And PMBOK 5 This post presents a tabulated summary of diff erences in the names, inputs, tools, and outputs of project management processes between PMBOK 4 and PMBOK 5. Note that terms in Red which exist in PMBOK 4 have been removed or replaced in PMBOK 5, terms in Blue have been newly added into PMBOK 5, and terms in Black have not Read More Critical Analysis of Porters Five Forces Model Information Technology (IT) Industry In order to appropriately formulate their corporate strategies and distinctively compete in the market, organizations are in a need for a framework that would help them in understanding industry structure and in overcoming rivalry. This essay aims at discussing, analyzing, and criticizing Porter’s Five Forces model using a wide variety of academic literature. The first part introduces the model, discusses Read More Key Qualities For An Effective Project Manager This post describes key qualities needed for an effective project manager. It discusses the differences between leading and managing a project, explains the importance of managing stakeholders, describes how to gain influence by reciprocity, stresses on the significance of leading by example and managing by wandering around (MBWA), explores how to deal with the contradictory nature of work, and finally Read More 12345678910 Home ; Change Management ; Change Management Diagnostic Models – Case Study â€Å"Jamie’s Food Revolution† Change Management Diagnostic Models – Case Study â€Å"Jamie’s Food Revolution† April 14th, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments This essay presents three different diagnostic models that serve as a change management guidance for organizations by helping them in considering what factors are important for this change and how these factors are interrelated together (Nadler and Tushman 1980). The main purpose of these models is to help in reducing the complexity of the change situation by identifying what change variables require attention by the organization, what sequence of activities to adopt in dealing with the change situation, and how the various organizational properties are interconnected (Ian Palmer 2009). The essay compares and contrasts Burke-Litwin, Six-Box Weisbord, and Congruence models, pinpoints their strengths and weaknesses, and then applies one of these models to the case study â€Å"Jamie’s Food Revolution†. The first organizational and causal model to be discussed is the Burke-Litwin model. The strength of this model lies on the fact that it consists of twelve key variables, at three different organizational levels (external environment, leadership, strategy, and culture at the total system level; structure, management practices, systems and climate at the group or work unit level; and tasks, motivation, needs, and values at the individual level)(Burke and Litwin 1992). The variables on the top have a stronger influence on systems than the bottom variables (Leadersphere 2008). The model is based on an open systems principle whereby it considers the external environment as an input and the organization performance as output with a bidirectional feedback between them (Jackie Alexander Di 2002). What makes this model unique is that it houses almost all of the variables considered in the 7-S, Six-Box Weisbord and Congruence models (Burke and Litwin 1992) and it also stresses on the point that changes can lead to transformational organization-wide (leadership, strategy, and mission) as well as internal transactional (management, structure, system, individual needs, tasks) dynamics which altogether affect individual and organization performance (Jackie Alexander Di 2002). Burke and Jackson (1991) demonstrated the scenario of a successful merge between two companies, SmithKline and Beecham, which concentrated on establishing a unique culture with a loose-tight behavioral leadership, and on adopting a customized Burke-Litwin model to increase its performance. This model however may impose some complexity in its usage. Dana (2004), in her study to apply this model to a quality management system, has limited her research to specific variables for this model because of the big amount of information required to be gathered on each variable. Also, a quantitative study done by Jackie Alexander Di (2002) on the model’s variables failed to reveal the hidden communication variable, which shows that this model may not foresee all organizational problems. The second model to be discussed is the one developed by David Nadler and Michael Tushman, the Congruence model. Like the Burke-Litwin model, the pragmatic Congruence model is based on the open system’s principle (input environment, transformation, output)(Nadler 1982) and deals with the organization as a whole dynamic and social system where the purpose lies in realizing the state of congruence among the various subparts or components of the organization (Nadler and Tushman 1980). The measure of organizational effectiveness depends on the total degree of congruence as a normative approach to ensure fit among these components (Hatton and Raymond 1994). Nevertheless adopting this model is dynamic (should be changed with time) and poses a lot of challenges including the management of political dynamics, the anxiety created by the change, and the control of the transition state (Nadler and Tushman 1989). Additionally, it requires special care to ensure appropriate fit between strategy and environmental conditions, as well as among the four organizational components (work, people, formal structures and process, and informal structures and processes). Burke ; Litwin (1992) state that the number of items to be matched for congruence is great and the Congruence model fails to provide a mechanism for determining which of these items are important and what level of congruence yields desirable results. For further help, several studies have presented major efforts to discuss strategies to attain the maximum congruence. Hatton and Raymond (1994) concluded with several postulates that describe how congruence can be achieved by interrelating together specific dimensions of these key variables (environment, strategy, technology, task, structure, and individual). Also, Nadler and Tushman (1989), in their view of organizations as political systems, posit that there is no general way for dealing with change. They stressed that managers should understand these political dynamics of change by diagnosing the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, developing a clear vision, creating energy within teams, and possessing active leadership, thus achieving the congruence between strategy and environmental conditions, as well as among the four organizational components.

Foundations and Earthworks Problems

Foundations and Earthworks Problems a) There are four types of foundation loads as follow: Firstly, live loads. Live loads is produced by the users of a home. Example, people, furniture, storage items. The affects of the load is exert force on almost all of a house’s. To design floor systems that limit deflection vibration. Secondly, dead load. That means, forces incurred due to the weight of all the materials used in construction of a home. For examples, roof, ceiling, floor, wall partition. The affects of the this load is a constant over the life of the structure. Big impacts on the long-term deflection/creep of framing members. Thirdly, wind load. Positives or negatives pressures exerted on a house when it obstructs the flow of moving air. The affects of wind load is depends on : location, height, and roof pitch. Fourthly, seismic load. Seismic load that means the inertial forces acting on a house due to earthquake-induced ground motions. The affects of seismic load all components of a frame and shear-resis ting elements are most affected. b) The two types of foundation are as follows: i) Pad foundation Pad foundation is normally used as foundation to building or residential building not exceeding four storeys on stiff soil such as gravel. Most of the said buildings are framed structure. The pad foundation is built if the load supported by the column is small. A pad foundation is the base of a column. The size of pad foundation depends on the size of load to be carried and load bearing capacity of the soil. The pad foundation is not suitable for large and high-rise building because it needs to carry high load, which is not practical and uneconomical. Pad foundation ii) Raft foundation Raft foundation are used to spread the load of the superstructure over a large base to reduce the load per unit one being imposed on ground and this is particularly useful where low bearing capacity soil are encountered and where individual column load are heavy. This types of slab is known as the foundation. Raft foundation can be constructed as follows: a) solid slab raft foundation Solid slab raft foundation is constructed at the entire base of the planned building. The thickness of slab depends on applied load and strength of soil at the site. b) beam and slab raft foundation Beam and slab raft foundation is required when thickness of the designed solid slab raft foundation exceeds 300 mm. The reinforced concrete slab is constructed on the ground whereas the beams are constructed on the slab at specific locations. c) cellular in raft foundation Cellular raft foundation is establishment is built on detached soil and on soil that operation to settle uncalled for case in point unmoving mining site. In such condition, the thickness of the constructed slab may exceed 1 meter, therefore the construction of cellular raft foundation is preferable. Task 2 a) The effect of water and chemicals in the soils are there is either too much water, causing the soil to swell, or not enough, or not enough, causing the soil to shrink. If all soil beneath a foundation swells uniformly or shrinks uniformly it is unlikely to cause cracks and other damage. Most differential movement is caused by differences in soil moisture. After construction, soil moisture. After construction, soil beneath part of foundation becomes wetter or drier than the rest of the soil. The chemical can seep is contaminated with toxic materials. These toxic materials can seep into ground and eventually contaminated the water. Therefore, it is important to conserve the ground water resource so that surfaces it can be used as an alternative resource in the event that surface water is contaminated or dried during dry seasons. The treatment can be done to avoid foundation failure is the treatment process depends on properties of raw water and this properties of water can be divide d into three categories; physical, chemical and biological properties. The properties of raw water depend on impurities in it. Impurities in water can be categorized into macro and micro impurities. Macro impurities are debris such as garbage, twigs, leaves and others. Micro impurities are very fine and cannot be seen by eyes. b) The effect of subsoil movement there are different constrains that cause the development of soil and rock. Furthermore that, gravity is a significant drives that draw rock parts down inclines in occasions called mass developments. Likewise, mass developments fluctuate in their rate, force, and section size. Besides, when mass developments happens quickly, they have a tendency to be the most ruinous and emotional. In this manner, rock falls happen when rock parts tumble from soak precipices. This is the speediest kind of mass developments. Along these lines, the pieces may be as small as stones or as enormous as titan rocks. Avalanches happen when a lot of detached rock joined with soil fall abruptly down an incline. Finally, The steepness of the slant may influences the sum and the span of the rock material in the avalanches. Bigger avalanches have a tendency to happen on steeper inclines and include bigger squares of bedrock. Task 3 a) The importance of underpinning work are to transfer the load carried by an existing foundation from its presents bearing level to a new level at a lower depth. Beside that, to replace an existing weak foundation. In construction, underpinning is the process of strengthening and stabilizing the foundation of an existing building or other structure. The reason for underpinning are as follows: the original foundation is simply not strong or stable enough. The usage of the structure has changed. The properties of soil supporting the foundation may have changed (possibly through subsidence) or were mischaracterized during design. The construction of nearby structures necessitates the excavation of soil supporting existing foundations. It is more economical, due to land price or otherwise, to work on the present structure’s foundation than to build a new one. b) The precaution steps before underpinning works are as follow before impleting suitable underpinning measures the accompanying vital focuses ought to be precisely went to : Firstly, the existing structure ought to be completely inspected painstakingly and proper underpinning strategy ought to be embraced. Besides, all poor stone work, for example, joints, breaks, putting ought to be amended in the recent past. Thirdly, fundamental shoring and struting ought to be carried out such that current structure is sheltered. Forward, Urgent repair like grouting of splits, insertion of pole between dividers. Other than, ought to be completed before beginning underpinning. Fifth, satisfactory consideration ought to be taken to guarantee that there ought to be no development of structure for which levels ought to be stamped. Sixth, underpinning procedure is not a science yet a symbolization ought to be practiced relying upon the circumstances. Underpinning works Task 4 a) i) Trench excavation Trench excavation in development industry is something that specialists ought to be prepared on keeping in mind the end goal to avoid disaster. So as to work securely in the region of trenches or unearthings managements and workers need to character perils connected with trenching and unearthing work, evaluate hazard and dispose of or minimize those danger in the recent past, throughout and after the execution of work. Trenches and unearthings  greatest danger is the likelihood of breakdown because of precariousness. Before starting work in a trench, unearthing or limited space on a development site laborers ought to perform an audit to figure out if it is completely important to work in the trench/exhuming, bound space. Trench excavation ii) Basement excavation A basement excavation is a development burrow performed for the mean of unpredictable out a cellar. There are a few settings in which storm cellar uncovering may be performed. This procedure is usually supervised by an experienced contractor or a basement excavation company, because it can be complicated in addition to labor intensive. While it is possible to excavate by hand, there are some serious risks which must be carefully evaluated before taking the plunge. Besides that, the best time to do a basement excavation is when a home site is being prepared. In this case, the site is already being excavated in preparation for laying the foundations. Therefore, if people want a basement, the depth of the excavation can be deepened to rough out the basement so that the basement and foundations can be form at the same time. Thus, this can be a way to add room to a structure without adding height, and some people leave the basement unfinished to cut costs while protect that they will have that space accessible at a later time if they need it. This basement was built to the same footprint as the house above, which in turn was the footprint of the pair of semis that had been there before, plus a room at the back. The planning permission limited the basement to a railway carriage-shape down the middle so the client said he would block off what he didnt have permission for to put it out of use. (No talking in the ranks, the cynical amongst you should believe that he did so). The area at this endwas for a stairwell. The area at the far end for a window well.

Madness and Insanity in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay example -- GCSE Eng

Hamlet and Insanity      Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shakespeare’s creation of the character of Hamlet within the tragedy of that name left open the question of whether the madness of the protagonist is entirely feigned or not. This essay will treat this aspect of the drama.    George Lyman Kittredge in the Introduction to The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, explains the lack of success with Hamlet’s pretended insanity, and in so doing he implies that the madness is entirely feigned and not real:    The necessity for some device like the play within the play is due to the failure of Hamlet’s assumed madness to achieve its purpose. [. . .] In Shakespeare’s drama, however, Hamlet’s motive for acting the madman is obvious. We speak unguardedly in the presence of children and madmen, for we take it for granted that they will not listen or will not understand; and so the King or the Queen (for Hamlet does not know that his mother is ignorant of her husband’s crime) may say something that will afford the evidence needed to confirm the testimony of the Ghost. The device is adopted on the spur of the moment (i.5, 169ff.), and, once adopted, it must be maintained. But it is unsuccessful. The King is always on his guard, and the Queen is not an accomplice. (xii)    The question arises: Is it truly possible to have a noble tragic hero who is indeed bereft of the proper use of his mental faculties? Doesn’t this â€Å"lack† compromise the very essence of a â€Å"noble† protagonist who is worthy of the tragic ending? A.C. Bradley in Shakespearean Tragedy staunchly adheres to the belief that Hamlet would cease to be a tragic character if he were really mad at any time in the play (30). On the other hand, W. Thomas MacCary in Hamlet: A Guide ... ....: Cambridge Univ. P., 1956.    Kittredge, George Lyman. Introduction. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In Five Plays of Shakespeare. Ed. George Lyman Kittredge. New York: Ginn and Company, 1941.    MacCary, W. Thomas. Hamlet: A Guide to the Play. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1998.    Mack, Maynard. â€Å"The World of Hamlet.† Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet. Ed. David Bevington. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.    Rosenberg, Marvin. â€Å"Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.

Bureaucracy and the Church of God Essay -- Religion

Max Weber, German sociologist, social theorist, and economist, explicated the theory of bureaucracy in which he details the monocratic bureaucracy â€Å"as an ideal form that maximized rationality† (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 48). He provided his most complete exposition of theory in his 1922 tome Economy and Society (Casey, 2004). This classic form of bureaucracy is characterized by the following (a) well-defined official functions; (b) specialization of function; (c) clearly defined hierarchy of offices; (d) rules governing performance, which require training to administer; (e) impersonal treatment of clients, in that all are treated equally; (f) merit as the basis of promotion or appointment; (g) compensation based on rank; (h) separation of personal and company assets and interests; (i) discipline and control of daily work; (j) files and record keeping for decisions, acts, and rules (Bolman & Deal, 2008; O’Connor, 2011). There are numerous shorthand versions of We ber’s theory including Harmon and Mayer (1986) in Organization Theory for Public Administration and Heady (2001) in Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective (O’Connor, 2011). The prime directive and raison d’à ªtre of the bureaucracy is to act as a bulwark against the forces of chaos, irrationality, and disorganization that constantly jeopardize an organization (Casey, 2004). In this sense, bureaucracy can be seen as necessary to the survival of groups. It is, however, a term that is vilified in popular culture, used pejoratively even by some researchers, and reviled as nearly blasphemous and certainly anti-democratic by many reform-minded persons. To the Weberian observer, in contrast, bureaucracy is not only as equal to all other organizational forms, but is ... ...e. Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Casey, C. (2004). Bureaucracy re-enchanted? Spirit, experts and authority in organizations. Organization, 11, 59-79. doi:10.1177/1350508404039658 Nelson, R. E. (1993). Authority, organization, and societal context in multinational churches. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(4), 653-682. Retrieved from http://web.edbscohost.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid-fd218266-afad-43b7-bfbb-5c53002cd06d%40sessionmgr14&vid=8&hid=19 O’Connor, T. (2011). Theories of bureaucracies. Retrieved from http://drtomoconnor.com/4090/40901lect02.htm Yeakley, R. (2011, February 15). Growth stalls, falls for largest U. S. churches. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-02-16-church_growth_15_ST_N.htm

Modern Political Theory

Freedom, one of our most common and powerful concepts, is used (and misused) with extraordinarily little appreciation of its significance. Not only is freedom poorly understood, but we are falsely confident that we do understand it (Dudley 24). One of my main goals in this paper, therefore, is to explain it. In order to do so, freedom ought to be understood or conceived by comparison.In preparation for these interpretations, the paper will consider very briefly the two most important conceptions of freedom on which Mill and Nietzsche build. The first and less comprehensive of these two is that of liberalism. The second, which is more comprehensive than that of liberalism, is that of Nietzsche. The purpose of this paper is to consider the relationships between the conceptions of freedom developed by Mill and Nietzsche. These conceptions, while undeniably different, are complementary.Nietzsche believed that freedom is one of the fundamental problems. But not freedom understood in conve ntional or political terms. Freedom for Nietzsche depends upon both moral virtue and intellectual virtue, yet it is neither exercised in or nor achieved through political life. That does not mean that Nietzsche's account of freedom is devoid of political implications. To the contrary, his peculiar identification of freedom with philosophy and mastery reflects a rank order of values in which political liberty and legal slavery are essentially indistinguishable—both, from the perspective afforded by the commanding heights above political life where the free spirit dwells, are equally forms of unfreedom.Addressing a â€Å"serious word† to â€Å"the most serious,† Nietzsche connects freedom to devotion to the truth (BGE 25). While he warns â€Å"philosophers and friends of knowledge† about the temptation to martyrdom involved in â€Å"suffering ‘for the truth's sake'!† (BGE 25), he nevertheless indicates that the truth is worth seeking for those fit for freedom and solitude. Whereas scientific knowledge serves life by fostering ignorance, philosophical knowledge seems to undermine life by estranging the knower from society.Whereas the scientist, a lover of ignorance from Nietzsche's perspective, is destined to a pleasant unfreedom, the philosopher, in Nietzsche's sense of the term a lover of truth, achieves an excruciating freedom through fidelity to his vocation. This fidelity consists in a measured skepticism directed toward all doctrines, accompanied by a prudent withdrawal from political life.The free spirit's knowledge and freedom are not the highest of which human beings are capable. The highest awaits the advent of a â€Å"new species of philosophers† (BGE 42-44). These future philosophers are especially characterized by the risky experiments they undertake. They probably will be â€Å"friends of ‘truth†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ and very likely will love â€Å"their truths,† but, Nietzsche insists, they â₠¬Å"will certainly not be dogmatists† (BGE 43).By this he does not mean that the new philosophers will lack beliefs they hold to be true, but rather that they will refrain from insisting that what is true for them must be â€Å"a truth for everyman.† Yet so far from reflecting a leveling doctrine that celebrates the equality or dignity of all opinions, Nietzsche's understanding of dogmatism is rooted in the deeply aristocratic view that only the â€Å"higher type of man† is fit to hear, and to live in accordance with, the highest insights (BGE 30).While the free spirit remains the new philosopher's herald and precursor (BGE 44), there is a chasm on the opposite side between the freedom of the free spirit (der Freie Geist) and the freedom of the â€Å"falsely so-called ‘free spirits,†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ that is, the freethinkers (Freidenker), the democrats, all the â€Å"goodly advocates of ‘modern ideas†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ (BGE 44). Free thinkers reveal their un freedom in their â€Å"basic inclination† to see aristocratic political life as the root of all suffering and misfortune.Nietzsche discovers in the democratic interpretation of political life the same offense against truth that he claims Plato perpetrated, for it is â€Å"a way of standing truth happily up on her head† (BGE 44). Democratic freethinkers, wishing to spread material prosperity, guarantee comfort and security, establish universal equality, and most characteristically abolish suffering, are blind to the rank order of human types and hence enslaved to ignorance.What is so terrible from Nietzsche's point of view in the promotion of democratic, bourgeois notions of the good is not simply that the democratic interpretation of man is false but rather that, like Socrates' theoretical interpretation of reality and Christianity's religious interpretation of the world, the democratic interpretation cripples those of high rank by poisoning the air that free spirits b reathe.The free spirit is educated and elevated not by material prosperity but by deprivation, not by comfort and security but by fear and isolation, not by equality but by slavery, not by the abolition of suffering but by the release of â€Å"everything evil, terrible, tyrannical in man,† and not by happiness but by â€Å"malice against the lures of dependence that lie hidden in honors, or money, or offices, or enthusiasms of the senses† (BGE 44). Nietzsche knows of no interest that supersedes, recognizes no right that limits, and sees no good beside that of the higher type. This is not a matter of calculation but of principle.Embracing as his own the struggle to return truth to her feet and restore her dignity, Nietzsche defends truth's honor by challenging not only Plato but Christianity, the form in which Platonism has conquered Europe. The struggle against Christianity has opened up tremendous new possibilities; it â€Å"has created in Europe a magnificent tensio n of the spirit, the like of which has never yet existed on earth.†Note that Nietzsche not only makes philosophy, and its political reflection in Christianity, responsible for the worst, most durable, and most dangerous of all errors, but, in proclaiming that â€Å"with so tense a bow we can now shoot for the most distant goals,† he also finds in philosophy the source of his highest hope (Dudley 31). That most distant goal, which he speculates is only now coming into view for â€Å"good Europeans, and free, very free spirits,† among whom he classes himself, is a philosophy of the future.Platonism and Christianity granted human beings a sense of security as individuals. Christianity did this by promising a beatific afterlife as a reward for the proper conduct of this life. Platonism gave the individual the hope that individual limitations could be transcended by rational insight which, when fully developed, could transport the soul to an experience of the ultimate , atemporal reality. Christianity and Platonism offered the individual a sense that the activities of this life were meaningful by referring them to unchanging realities outside life.The Platonic-Christian interpretation of individual existence is, in a sense, already dead, according to Nietzsche. The members of the modern world do not really experience their lives as meaningful as a consequence of these traditions' extraworldly visions. But modern human beings who have come to believe that this world is the only world, this life the only life the individual will ever experience, are likely to be disturbed by this insight. Our Platonic and Christian background has given us the sense that our activities have meaning, yet the ground of that meaning no longer seems available.Nietzsche's version of this critique of liberalism is implicit in his discussions of decadence. For the decadent subject, it turns out, is precisely one whose will fails to be self-determining. Free willing is rese rved for, and is the determining characteristic of, the noble subject, with whom Nietzsche contrasts the decadent. Nietzsche's discussions of decadence and nobility can thus fruitfully be understood as addressing the question of the necessary requirements of a free will.Nietzsche also recognizes, like Mill, that even the most freely willing subject remains incompletely free, and that an adequate account of freedom must therefore discuss the activities that provide a liberation that willing cannot. Nietzsche's account of the limitations of willing is implicit in his critique of nobility. The noble subject manages to will freely, but nonetheless remains externally determined and so incompletely free.This incomplete freedom of nobility is overcome only by those individuals and communities able to develop the stance that Nietzsche characterizes as tragic. Nietzsche understands the development of the tragic stance required by freedom to depend upon philosophy. He thus agrees with Mill th at freedom is not only treated in philosophical works, but also produced through philosophical practice.Mill’s discussion of liberty focuses on when society may impose constraints on individuals, rather than on the nature of constraint. Accordingly, his discussion generally refers to intentional, rather than unintentional, constraints on individuals. Nevertheless, Mill believes that customs and traditions are constraining. To the extent that these are the unintentional results of human life, he is committed to the view that some constraint is unintentional.Mill has argued that the social tyranny of others which takes place in moral coercion, custom, and tradition is one of the most important constraints that people face today (Mill 1956: 7). For instance, if people express their views that homosexuality or polygamy ought to be allowed, but their neighbors and employers strongly disagree (even though the government does not), they may be constrained in their actions and lifest yles. Finding work may be more difficult; access to housing may be blocked. They may feel themselves compelled to move to other cities or countries to live. Thus, though early liberalism placed great emphasis on the limitation of freedom by physical constraint, it is false to maintain that it has only done this.Mill is simply much more sensitive than Nietzsche in recognizing that social pressure may be â€Å"more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself† (Mill 1956: 7). Further, Mill’s view has been dominant amongst liberals. Morality, custom, tradition, and the law are viewed as constraints on people’s freedom. One is less free to the extent that he or she is constrained by any of these institutions.The implication of the preceding expanded concept of constraint is that any n arrow or restricted model of liberal freedom can no longer be defended. Once the Pandora’s box of constraints is opened, the thrust and momentum of this view is not to be detoured. The burden will always be placed on the person who claims not to see an obstacle by those who claim to see the obstacle and claim that their activity is hindered, retarded, or impeded by that obstacle.Some liberals have tried to stem this tide, but they fight an overwhelming flood. The thrust of liberalism is such that if an obstacle can be humanly removed, then it will be seen as inhibiting someone’s freedom if it is not removed. The upshot is an enormous extension in the number and kinds of constraints to which people are thought to be subject. The implications of this are of the first importance.There remains one essential aspect of the liberal determination of when constraints may be imposed on other individuals. How directly or indirectly may individuals impose injuries on themselves or others without being legitimately subject to restraint in the name of freedom? To decide this issue is part and parcel of the liberal attempt to define a sphere of privacy as opposed to publicity – a private realm of freedom, in which people may act, think, and relate to consenting others without constraints imposed by others. In this private realm, and only in this private realm, may that ideal of complete freedom be most fully realized.Mill refers to such a sphere of personal, private life, where society may not legitimately interfere as â€Å"the appropriate region of human liberty† (Mill 1956: 16). In this realm, Mill says, â€Å"in the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his body and mind, the individual is sovereign† (Mill 1956: 13).Nietzsche's philosophical practice, however, is quite obviously not the same as Mill's. Mill’s philosophy is always systematic philosophy. Nietzschean philosop hy is resolutely unsystematic. And thus, although Mill and Nietzsche agree that philosophy has a role to play in our liberation, the liberating roles that they envision for philosophy, and consequently their conceptions of freedom itself, are significantly different.Works CitedBeyond Good and Evil, trans. Walter Kaufmann, New York: Vintage, 1966.Dudley, Will. Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002.Mill, J. S. On Liberty, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc, 1956.

Managing Knowledge and Learning Essay

Managing Knowledge and Learning at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Summary National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established by Congress on October 1, 1958, in order for the United States to keep up with the technological advancements achieved from former Soviet Union’s successful launch of the Sputnik (1957). The Apollo Era-Mission had risen from the support of John F. Kennedy’s goal, which was â€Å"landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. † Prioritization at NASA evolved into the center’s motto of â€Å"Faster, Better, Cheaper† (FBC), which was mandated in the Goldin Era beginning in 1992. NASA shifted priorities from: 1) performance, 2) schedule and 3) cost to 1) increase mission performance, 2) cut cost and 3) work force reduction. However, this reform was not as successful as planned. From 1992 and 2000, six of 16 FBC missions failed. To address concern of the impact of failed missions and impending retirements of many of the most experienced NASA employees, Congress enforced that the agency search for the solution to Knowledge Management (KM) and promoting learning initiatives at NASA-JPL. NASA’s KM tools were mainly IT systems of Internet-based databases and portals for ease of lessons. The NASA KM crisis was attributed to the organization’s inability to document experiences of failures and successes of missions or projects; ultimately incapable of capturing the â€Å"experiential knowledge† from expert engineers and scientists. In addition, this lack in KM was due to â€Å"privatizing knowledge† and promoting creativity, that stemmed from NASA’s culture where competition among centers for projects and funding was the norm. Several KM Initiatives were developed including project libraries for document and data management, developing standards, establishing databases to find experts, ask technical questions, and to capture history and legacy reviews. 1) What were the pros and cons of the â€Å"Faster, Better, Cheaper† model? How might outcomes (both positive and negative) of projects executed with this model impact NASA’s stakeholders, i. e. Congress and the general public? The â€Å"Faster, Better, and Cheaper (FBC)† objectives were to cut cost and maximize mission performance. There were several advantages of the FBC reform. FBC allowed compressed development and launch schedules that lead to an increase in the number of missions. Mission time could be reduced from decades to a few years. The number of NASA projects increased from four to 40 under the FBC model. An increase in mission projects was thought to lead to additional discoveries so that NASA could gain further wisdom and space knowledge. FBC missions were changed from one big project to multiple smaller projects. Dividing the program into smaller projects helped to minimize the pressure and stress on the team if a mission failed. Furthermore, one mission failure did not consequently lead to the failure of the entire program. FBC practice allowed senior managers more freedom to implement FBC the way they found fit which promoted creativity and autonomy among senior managers. FBC also reduced the cost of each mission and NASA’s overall budget. For example, the Mars program budget was reduced from one billion dollars to $260 million. There are numerous disadvantages of the FBC reform. Applying the FBC model could lead to more mission failures. During the FBC era, there were 6 failed missions out of 16 FBC missions. Cost and schedule constraints, insufficient risk assessment, planning, and testing, underestimation of complexity and technology maturity, inattention of quality and safety, inadequate review processes, engineering, under-trained staff, poor team communication, and design errors all attributed to NASA’s mission failures. Projects conducted â€Å"faster† does not allow for adequate documentation, time for redlining the project, and recording lessons learned from one mission to the next. This could result in repeated mistakes that could be avoided by future missions. Missions carried out faster do not allow time for mentorship and sharing of knowledge. Also, the term â€Å"better† was not properly defined and was open to interpretation, which may negatively impact maintaining standard procedures and processes. The results of the FBC vision could impact NASA’s stakeholders in several ways. The increase in smaller successful missions would alleviate the risk of one large failure, although any failures will have a negative impact on stakeholders. Congress could be discouraged to provide support and funding for major space programs if they fail but might be more likely to fund smaller missions. The public could either lose or gain confidence, support, and belief in the space program depending on the magnitude of success or failure. FBC mission are less expensive which would decrease NASA’s budget and help satisfy both Congress and the general public by reducing the need for extra taxation by Congress and collection of taxes from the general public. 2) Why was the Mars Pathfinder project so successful? Explain how Anthony Spears management style impacted future missions. Project management was the key to success of the Mars Pathfinder project. It began as an experiment to test the validity of the FBC reform mandated in 1992 when Daniel Goldin was assigned as the new administrator of NASA. A clear and specific plan for the Pathfinder mission was laid out in the beginning and followed through until the end. Analogous to the success of Cisco’s ERP implementation, Anthony Spears, an excellent manager and thought leader with years of experience at NASA, gained the support of top management and the JPL institution (Spears, 1999). Spears developed a unique balance of an advisory committee of experts to support and guide the difficult project, while he recruited talented, yet naive, energetic youngster’s to do what some more experienced people thought impossible. As Spears writes in his lessons learned report it was â€Å"†¦a blend of bright, ambitious youth and scarred old timers, each challenged and empowered, all working each issue together†¦ † (1999). Together, they created a team that bonded and worked together successfully. Spears’ goal was not only the success of the Pathfinder project, but of the FBC program success, unlike the vision of future project managers. The success of Pathfinder did not translate well in future FBC missions. Risk management and testing were important to the Mars Pathfinder success. While the Mars Pathfinder team worked together successfully, the younger players went on to think they were great project managers themselves, but still hadn’t learned enough to manage their next missions successfully. In future FBC projects, some reasons for failure were poor team communication, inadequate or under-trained staff or insufficient testing in 70% of missions and insufficient risk assessment and planning on 86% of missions (exhibit 4). 3) One of the major issues in this case is the retirements of experts. Why is this a problem for NASA? Would it be less of a problem in a different type of organization? Suggest immediate steps that NASA could take to mitigate the problem. Explain your choices. By 2006 half of NASA’s workforce was eligible for retirement which could lead to a major loss of knowledge, especially tacit information, diminishing the collective wisdom of the organization. A senior manager at NASA states, â€Å"we have no formal process for transferring knowledge† from thought leaders to new managers and IT systems had not yet been sufficient in transferring â€Å"experiential knowledge† to the younger generation. Unfortunately, this would be true in many organizations unless they had sufficient knowledge management systems in place and a culture where sharing knowledge was valued and encouraged. In order to mitigate the problem of losing their knowledge base, NASA not only needs to continue to implement their KM strategy, but truly change the culture. Experienced project leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), such as design engineers, should openly share their knowledge and not just when asked for it. I support several of the planned KM initiatives such as the capture of information by improving documentation, development of an enterprise web-based portal, and the Knowledge Sharing Initiative (KSI) aimed at changing the companies’ culture. In addition to these activities, an exit strategy could be developed for retiring employees where they must follow standard procedures for employing case-based reasoning in an online database employing a searchable classification system. Additional knowledge could be disseminated by those eligible through training sessions. A reward system should be coupled to these exit requirements and could be increased if the employee decides to be available in the Expert Connections directory of SME’s that could be contacted for support after they leave. New positions might need to be created for dedicated knowledge managers such as Chief knowledge officers. It’s also possible that NASA could obtain some replacement of lost experts by collaborating with space programs in other countries. Collecting the information from experts must be coupled with management support of a corporate wide schema to store the data, methods of dissemination, and apply the information to ultimately make better decisions on projects that involve risking people’s lives. 4) Jean Holm had two options she could choose from: 1) upgrade the IT systems or, 2) change the culture. Which would you choose and why? Is there a third option? Explain your answer. In order for Holm’s to truly have a successful knowledge management system in place, implementation of a hybrid system should be in place; enforcing both upgrade to IT systems occurring simultaneously with changing the private culture into a shared one. Integration of both, changing the culture and IT upgrades will be a lengthy process so it would be critical to first strategically plan for cultivating and managing formal processes for knowledge transfers. Implementing formal processes such as required protocols, reports, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and work instructions for each mission or project should be enforced from every high-level management as it might help with the KM transfer crisis. Once every item has been completed by the high-level management it would be placed into the appropriate IT systems database in conjunction with the integration of the required knowledge management video synopsis from experienced engineers and scientist who exit the centers. Curriculums would be in place with learning modules with specific need encapsulating these protocols, reports, SOPs, work instructions and video synopsis would then be posted on the intranet, ready for the potential novice engineers and scientists entering the NASA work force; making the system more enriched and meaningful. 5) President Obama is implementing changes to NASA’s charter, which will create new ways of funding/executing projects than NASA is used to. Do a little online research. Do you agree or disagree in this change of direction? Explain. Caution; this is not to be addressed as a political issue) The Obama administration’s new NASA charter includes a couple of key parts: A) In February 2010, the Obama administration canceled the Constellation Program, which was started by former President George W. Bush’s administration in 2004. This program aimed to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020, for the first time since the final Apollo mission. B) In April 2010, Obama proposed increasing NASA’s overall budget by about $6 billion over five years and shifting NASA’s aim for manned space program to Mars (from the moon). By the mid 2030s, â€Å"I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And landing on Mars will follow,† he said. C) He also challenged the commercial space industry to take up the routine tasks that NASA would abandon – such as ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. I do not agree with him on the part A and Part B of the new charter. The Constellation Program is already 5 year old, and has spent $9. 1 billion. It has already made significant progress and will help America maintaining its space leadership position over Russia and China. On the other hand, I think that it will set a foundation for manned space mission to Mars. Obama’s vision of manned mission to Mars by mid-2030 does not seem realistic to me as he has not talked about its technology feasibility. However, I do agree with his plan’s Part C. I think that it will significantly reduce the cost for transporting people and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit, and might induce the rise of a true space economy.