Demography of China Essay

The demographic situation in People’s Republic of China is one of the burning issues nowadays widely discussed in the global community. Today, China’s population is over 1. 3 billion, the largest of any country in the world. So every 5th person in the world is coming from China. The population of China is greater than the entire world 150 years ago. Every year the population of China increases by 14 million people (the number of people in Texas or Chile). Each decade it increases by about 130 million (more than the population of Japan). About 39,000 new people are added every day. Cultural prerequisites for such family expanding tradition: The Chinese traditionally prefer early marriage, early child-bearing, and large families. Each married women usually raises between five and six children. The Chinese say: â€Å"†¦ more children means great happiness†. Population Problems in China. There is a great number of social, economic and environmental problems evoked by the demographic situation. * High unemployment rate. The competition to find a job is very high and as Chinese people saying themselves: â€Å"I’m frightened for my children`s future, China’s biggest problem is the population†. As a result a lot of people migrate to a bigger cities or to neighboring countries to seek for a job. * Water and food shortages. As the world’s population increases, so too does its need for food and water – the two resources which are absolutely necessary to sustain life. The Asian giant has been warned by one of its own groundwater experts to either cut its food production or else face â€Å"dire† water levels, especially in the dry northwest plains. If not, aquifers will sink to â€Å"dire† levels not seen in 30 years. For example, the yellow river is dying up. The river has been overused and abused. Dozens of dams block its flow, drawing off huge quantities of water to grow cotton in the desert. * Housing shortages. China has an acute shortage of housing, attributable not only to the large annual increases in population (over 10 million a year) that must be accommodated but also to the long-standing policy of directing investment funds into heavy industry rather than into housing and other social amenities. As a result of expensive housing, people are forced o live in poor conditions and share a flat with big number of people. * Chronic air and water pollution problems are now evident in rural and urban areas throughout the country. China didn’t join Kiyoto protocol, so having a well- developed industry it keeps on emitting CO2 in great quantities. Air pollution is all over China, even harming the most picturesque locations. Acid rain is also a common place. * All of these are issues that the Chinese government must struggle and find a lot of solutions in order improve the lives of its people.

Financial Environment Essay

Introduction With recent big changes in healthcare legislation, health care organizations are moving towards a system that changes reimbursement procedures. Health care organizations will be reimbursed by the government based on the quality of care provided by that organization. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires certain steps to make Medicare more resourceful by decreasing the amount of overpaid funds to insurance companies, adjusting reimbursement rates to levels that are more suitable, and altering payment scales and systems to support the delivery of efficient, premium health care (â€Å"Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services†, 2013). There are several different types of health care organizations that offer medical services to patients. Because of the many different services and organizations in healthcare, the financial aspect of health care is not so cut and dry. Health care organizations can be described as either for-profit, not-for-profit, or part of a government organization. Some examples of these health care organizations are hospitals, nursing homes, health insurance companies, and home health care agencies. Gapenski (2008) explains that he healthcare field is different from any other field mainly because of two factors. Unlike other types of services, most healthcare providers and organizations are structured as not-for-profit rather than being owned by an investor. Another major factor that contributes to its uniqueness is the fact that payment is made by a third party rather than the individual who receives the services. For-profit Organizations The Watermark at Logan Square, Tenet Healthcare, and Hospital Management Associates (HMA) are just three examples of for-profit health care organizations in today’s market. These are investor owned organizations that must pay taxes and do not receive the same benefits that not-for-profit organizations receive. For-profit healthcare organizations are owned by investors. In terms, this means they have shareholders who benefit directly from any profits that are generated from this organization. Unlike, not-for-profit organizations, these for-profit organizations do not usually have the mission of taking on charity work or cases. Not-for-profit Organizations Not-for-profit hospitals are nongovernment entities that are organized with the main goal of providing inpatient healthcare services. Three examples of not-for-profit healthcare organizations include The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and The Cleveland Clinic. Gapenski (2008) explains that not-for-profit organizations must be structured and managed so that they operate exclusively to the interest of the public. Non-profit organizations were formed with the purpose of servicing the needs of the less fortunate. This later led to non-for-profit hospitals being free from paying taxes because of the fact that they were providing certain social services. Due to the fact that individuals can not benefit from the profits of not-for-profit organizations, dividends from these organizations cannot be paid (Gapenski, 2008). Not-for-profit organizations are also controlled by a board of trustees, which often times makes it hard to make certain changes or decisions without everyone in agreement. Because of the current economy, Ebrahim (2010) explains that not-for-profit organizations stand out more in the area of public policy and the delivery of public services than they have ever before. Currently, the existing economic crisis has caused cuts in funding at both the state and local level. These financial cuts often times force many not-for-profit organizations to reduce the services offered. Obtaining funding with these setbacks is a major challenge for any nonprofit organization. When these organizations are not getting the funds they were once given, it takes a lot of budget restructure to not be incomplete deficit. It is still important  for these organizations to gain some type of profit to be able to purchase more equipment, technology, or even land to help provide quality care. For-profit vs. Not-for-profit Both for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals produce revenues through their daily operations and interactions. Unlike not-for-profit hospitals, for-profit hospitals are able to generate funds by issuing stocks. On the other hand, not-for-profit hospitals can accept tax-deductible contributions. The two different types of organizations generally have different ways of handling decisions regarding different financial and capital investments. A not-for-profit organization does not have the same opportunities for the capital structure that a for-profit organization does. In particular, a not-for-profit organization cannot sell new shares or ownership interests. Governmental Organizations Government organizations, like not-for-profit organizations, have no stockholders who receive the remaining assets when they are liquefied. Government health care organizations offer care to patients at a certain cost or agreed fee. The patient is responsible for a certain amount and the insurance is responsible for the remainder of the bill (Berger, 2008). Conclusion Healthcare finance is not always easy to grasp. It is important that one has a general understanding of how finances are managed in healthcare. It is essential for one to understand the differences in the types of organizations and it may help understand why certain decisions are made. It is also beneficial for one to stay updated on legislation in healthcare because it may directly shape the way that finances are handled. References Berger, S. (2008). Fundamentals of health care financial management. A practical guide to fiscal issues and activities. John Wiley & Sons. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/ Ebrahim, A. (2010). Nonprofit agency challenges. Journal Of Policy Analysis & Management, 29(3), 628-632. Gapenski, L. C. (2008) Healthcare finance: An introduction to accounting and financial management. (4th ed.). Chicago, IL: Association of University Programs in Health Administration. 0 replies | 0 drafts

How useful and reliable are these sources in explaining how women’s lives were affected by World War One? Essay

World War One began in 1914 and ended in 1918. Women’s lives were majorly affected during the war. My role is to find out if the lives of women were greatly affected by the First World War. During the war since most of the men were off fighting, the women were needed to stay home and run things so that the economy would not completely fall apart. Women had to take over men’s work to ensure that the jobs were fulfilled this was a huge step for most women as before all that they knew was house work and how to look after the kids. The following source explains the wages and problems women had whilst working. Source A5, is useful to me because it tells me how much women earned in the munitions factories and whether or not they liked it. In domestic service women did not like the work, but when they started to work in such places like the munitions factory some changed their minds and actually enjoyed it. ‘I started on hand-cutting shell fuses, we worked twelve hours a day apart from the journey morning and night, as for wages; I was very well off earning  £5 a week’. Source A5 was written by the memories of women’s lives that were altered by the war the main write being Mrs H. Felstead. These memories are shown in the ‘Imperial War Museum’ for the public. This source is reliable because it states when it was written and who wrote it. However the source might not be completely reliable because the memories of the women may have changed since then; I think that source A5 could also be biased in some way or another. The purpose of this source is to show what it was like 1914-1918. Source A7 links in with source A5 because it is also talking about wages in the First World War. Source A7 is reliable to me because of what is written in the poem, it was about the munitions factory in 1917. The source might not be entirely reliable because there is a chance that somebody made it up for entertainment. The poem explains someone earning high wages; ‘She can buy all of the jewellery that she wants, she takes taxis and even has a sergeant to walk with’, basically she can afford anything that she wants. This tells me that her life was affected in a positive way during the war. Another interesting source that backs up A5 is A10, I think that source A10 is useful to me because it says when the war ended at an exact date, ‘11th November 1918’ and how the  government practically forced women to go back to their old jobs. ‘Many women were pressurised into handing in their notice, within months of the end of the war, hundreds were out of work.’ I think that this source is reliable because the book was written by a Historian name is Josh Brooman who would have spent many years researching this subject, years in College and University, read sources and facts and gathering enough evidence to provide this information, He was chosen to be the author for a school’s history textbooks for GCSE students so he would have been respected and valued for his job as a Historian. Also a key part that is useful in this source is at the beginning where he states the exact date that the war ended, this is not opinion; but fact. But, this source could not have been completely reliable because it was written in 1994 for students, The truth could have been shaded a little in the book ‘People in change’ Parts of the text may have been edited a little not because they are wrong but so that it was suitable for the students learning about this subject for example information about how dangerous it was. I think that the purpose of source A10 is to explain to future children when the ‘First World War’ ended and both what women did during and after the war. Source A6 is another interesting source that I choose; I think that this source is useful to me because it is about a man, who does not want things to change. To me it already sounds as if the source is biased, I also think that this source is reliable because it was written by a soldier from the first world war that could tell us everything that happened, His name is H.V Shawyer, he would have no reason to lie about his past and things he witnessed and would have told the truth people should respect this. It makes the source ALOT more reliable coming from a man who took part in the war because he has a first account of what really happened. ‘Many of the girls earned ten times my pay as a full corporal’ The source came from a book called ‘Voices and Images from the great War’. However, this so urce could not be entirely reliable because the book was written in 1990 and the soldiers memories of what happened me have been played out so many times in his mind that they change slightly psychologically and he may of tried to block out certain aspects of war meaning his opinion and past might not seem the same now as it did back then. I think that the purpose of this source is to explain what men and women did in their spare time during World War 1 and share a man’s account  of past events. During the war many women campaigned for women’s rights they were called campaigners. Suffragettes also were involved with these campaigners but they focused more on the privilege to be able to vote. This was a positive thing to happen because they began being able to voice their opinions of the world and how things worked without men’s input and opinions that were not fair. Source A8 explains some of this. The source was written in 1932 by Sylvia Pankhurst (An author and campaigner for women’s rights) Writing in a history book called ‘The Home Front: A mirror to life in England during the First World War’. In my opinion from hearing that Sylvia is a campaigner for women’s rights, this could be biased. I find that this source is useful to me because it explains what most women felt like when working in an aircraft factory. This source Is reliable to me because it states when it was written and who wrote it. ‘They were painting aircraft w ings with dope varnish at a wage of 15s a week, For which they had to work from 8am to 6:30pm. It was common they told me, for six or more of the 30 women to be laying ill outside the workshop’ This means that it was a dangerous job where workers earned little money for working long hours. This means that the government didn’t really care about the workers nor support them despite them having to take over men’s jobs and keep the quality of work up. I think that the purpose of this source is to explain to other men and women what it was like working in an aircraft place. In conclusion from all the information that I have gathered I have learnt that The war affected women in a number of ways. For one thing, women were told to begin working to help the economy. Some became nurses and many had to work in dangerous factories. A lot of women did not enjoy this line of work, it was tiring dangerous and underpaid. But, quite a few women were happier with their lives during the war. They fought to be heard, were allowed to vote were even seen to be more equal to men after the war. Many women lost men in their lives, their husbands, brothers, and fathers this would have been devastating. Before the war began, women were known to work in the kitchen, feed the kids, complete housework and look after their husbands. Many enjoyed the change of working to help everybody and were  proud that they could prove they were just as capable as men, this changed the way of everything. In my opinion, Women’s lives were affected greatly by World War One and it was a massive change in history. I have the evidence from sources to prove this.

Costco Wholesale In 2012 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Costco Wholesale In 2012 - Essay Example The philosophy of the Costco is to be concerned with customers and employees and meeting their needs which in the long-run results to rewarding of their shareholders. Stakeholders have invested a lot of their money in the company. They have faith that Costco will invest wisely and despite the ups and downs, the business has operated in profitable ways. Costco has inventories traded publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange market. The stakeholders therefore get good returns from the company. Porters Five Forces Model has five forces which include: The threat of substitute products. This can be a strong threat especially considering there is e- retailing and websites like costo.com in Canada. It therefore limits the profits that a company could actualize and the amount of sales. The bargaining power of suppliers is moderate to low competitive force. Costco has many warehouses and therefore it requires many suppliers. However there is no supplier who can singly influence the pricing of raw materials or even striking due to financial instability. Instead, the suppliers compete for the supply orders despite the poor terms and conditions of trade. This reduces their bargaining power. Bargaining power of customers is a weak threat because Costco is a large retailer which even sells its products in bulk. Most of the members purchase products in small amounts as compared to the whole stock. One member has very little or even none influence on the quality and prices of products sold by the company. Even if the member results to quit the company and go to the competitor of Costco will have no effect on the sales volume of the company. Threats of new entrants are low considering that Costco has already established itself and it offers low prices of its products. This discourages any new entrant because it cannot reduce prices below the ones existing in the market.

Environmental impacts Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Environmental impacts - Coursework Example While oil shale offers an important source of energy, the processing should comply with the regulations of Energy Information Administration and appropriate measures should be undertaken to combat the impacts. The conventional habitats of the living creatures are encroached upon and this adversely affects the biodiversity in a region. The variety in the species begin to shrink owing to unfavorable living conditions. (Kattel 2003). The gaseous, solid and liquid wastes emitted as a result of the extraction process interact with each other to produce more toxic and carcinogenic effects (Molder 2004). This causes immense harm to the health and habitats of all living creatures, including humans. Due to loss of habitat and a source of food, many species become rare and at times extinct from the earth. Also the extraction site has to be evacuated which leads to loss of homes for the inhabiting populations. Huge amounts of water are required during the extraction process and for cooling down the effluents. The discharged wastes run off into the local water bodies, causing water pollution. This harms the aquatic animals and plants. The discharged water laden with waste products like tar, phenol, etc. often seeps into the soil through a process called leaching and then comes in contact with underground water and other potable water sources. Consumption of such water by plants, animals and humans have serious aftereffects (Tuvikene 1999). The open dumping of solid wastes can create the risks of a fire or an accident owing to the self-ignition of some inflammable solids when they come into contact with certain atmospheric gases (Petts 2009). Few of the gases that are released as a result of the thermal processing of compounds and the combustion of wastes cause a rise in global temperature and lead to an irreversible damage to the protective ozone layer. The above figure shows that the temperatures in the Colorado Basin estimated on average over

Eric Owen Moss Samitaur Tower Culver City, California Essay - 1

Eric Owen Moss Samitaur Tower Culver City, California - Essay Example ome to terms with something that vehemently challenges the status quo, giving way to forms and features that defy preconceived notions and set views about the relationship between functionality and form. It would not be wrong to say that ‘Samitaur Tower’ in Culver City is an apt representative of the typically Californian constructivism, which accomplishes, energizes and animates the surrounding landscape with its bold defiance, almost naà ¯ve and innocent tendency to challenge set notions and the innate tendency to redefine architecture by going for the possible and phantasmagoric permutations and combinations resulting out of the interplay between form and functionality. Of course, it would be totally simplistic to say that ‘Samitaur Tower’ is merely an information tower located at one corner of Hayden Avenue and National Boulevard, near the primary entry point to the redeveloped section of Culver City (Anderton 29). In fact, ‘Samitaur Tower’ is much more than this (Anderton 29). It is not merely a landmark representing the entry into a newer section of the Culver City, but rather boldly and somewhat audaciously represents entry into a new era of modern architecture, where an architectural innovation supersedes over all the requirements of form, functionality, environment and even user. The Tower marks an initiation of the era where the form, functionality, landscape and the end user stand subservient to a marvel of abstraction that though being under control, leaves no stone unturned to project an image of defiance, rebelliousness and one-upmanship. An architectural wonder that though in its very essentials intends to serv e a set and preconceived function, somehow manages to explode in the yearning to give way to something that is much more than mere functionality. In that context the ‘Samitaur Tower’ could be interpreted as being the extreme of something both good and bad, a beautiful building signifying the unrestrained expression of Id, and

Primary Drawbacks of Net Present Value as Capital Budgeting Technique Assignment

Primary Drawbacks of Net Present Value as Capital Budgeting Technique - Assignment Example This entire process has multiple loopholes, for instance the uncertainty that is prevailing when it comes to estimating future cash flows of that investment opportunity is high enough to put this technique under scrutiny. Next loophole is regarding the discount rate that is used to reach the present value of a cash flow. Again the accuracy of discount rate used is of critical importance in determining the correct value of the cash flow’s present value. This makes NPV value dependent or sensitive to the value of discount rate and forecasted cash flows. Third loophole that is pretty much evident from the assessment of this tool is that this tool takes into account information that is present at the time of decision making, thus it does not take into account changes in the initial conditions of an investment opportunity. The fourth loophole that can be seen is that this tool is only applicable when projects being assessed are tangible and quantifiable. And in reality firms undert ake certain projects that are aimed at enhancing the brand equity, such projects are out of the scope of NPV (Kent & English, 2011). Question # 2: Comparison of Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return: This tool or technique is another capital budgeting technique. IRR is the discount rate that turns the net present value of forecasted cash flows from an investment opportunity equal to zero. ... A decision regarding a particular investment opportunity that is based on NPV technique will find itself under scrutiny when assessed using IRR technique. While this fact is not true for independent projects where both techniques will yield similar results, but when it comes to mutually exclusive projects (one project or the other) these tools do not yield a consistent result. The reason behind this conflict is that the set of investment opportunity that is being assessed consists of projects that vary in their size and timings of their future cash flows (Helfert, 2004). So it is clear that if a company is deciding between two investment opportunities, it will encounter a problem when it is using NPV and IRR to assess the value of these investment opportunities for the company. In this conflicting situation the company shall have to decide whether it will make its decision based on NPP or IRR (Helfert, 2004). Question # 3: Avenues to raise equity for a Profit Driven Firm: A profit dr iven firm, if assumed to be a corporation, has multiple options at its disposal to raise new equity capital. The first option that it has is to go to its existing shareholder for additional capital. The second option it has is to add more shareholders into the company by offering new share in the primary market. The third option available to a profit driven firm is that it can seek help from a venture capitalist firm; again this will be in exchange for some portion of the company’s equity. The fourth option available to the company is that it asks a bank for a loan in return for interest payments. These mentioned options are most suited to meet the company’s short-term capital requirement

Democracies around the World Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Democracies around the World - Coursework Example & Nishikawa, 2006), a combination of the two can be used to create harmony between different sections of the society and represent a greater number of the people. Different sectors of the economy and the government have been proved to be dependent on each other through the complex processes that link a government to its governed (John & Cole, 2000). In a similar fashion, the different forms of the government are linked to each other. This can help in greater coordination between the different sectors of the governments and better distribution of responsibilities. With a greater number of people to look into affairs of the state, it would be possible for them to be dealt with in a better way. In the model of government that exists in South Africa, the parliament and the president have different sets of responsibilities. The parliament assumes the legislative function f the government and makes laws regarding the functioning of the state. It consists of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. The legislature is thus, a bicameral one that provides representation to the different parts of South Africa (Chapter 4 – Parliament, 2009). The president and other members of the cabinet are members of the legislature and need to be elected members. The president is usually the leader of the party that is able to win a majority of the seats in the parliament. The importance of the election is thus, paramount. This reveals to one the democratic nature of the governments that have come up in South Africa after the era of apartheid was over. The president has the powers to ask of the parliament to reconsider certain decisions that it has made. He or she also possesses the power to implement the acts and the decisions that are made by the parliament and thus, the president assumes the executive power of the government. The president, along with the other members of the cabinet, is the connecting link between the executive and the legislative (Chapter 5 -

The Bible and Catholic Hermeneutics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Bible and Catholic Hermeneutics - Essay Example Catholic hermeneutics might be confused with the theory and practice of Catholic Biblical interpritation. But Catholic hermeneutics marks the appropriation by Catholic theology of philosophic hermeneutics. The latter can be called the study of humanity's participation in the truth and the knowledge mediated by history. So Catholic hermeneutics is the understanding of Cristian truth and knowledge within the Catholic tradition. Catholic hermeneutics is not just a philosophy of interpretation. It is an example of the general philosophical thesis that interpritation always exists within a tradition. The Catholic grasp of Christianity growing out of and expressing a theological tradition examplifies what Heidegger has called the historicality of understanding. The Catholic interpreter, educated within the Church, understands things according to what can only be called a Catholic interpretation of reality. Concrete acts of understanding refine and transmit that interpretation. Thus Catholic hermeneutics is no exception to the universality of hermeneutics, but an illustration of it. Catholic hermeneutics is not thereby curtailed in scientific value. ... It revealed the authoritative role of the magisterium as judge in case of Scriptual and dogmatic dispute, the irreducibility of dogmatic tradition to a historical analysis of first-century documents, and the inadequacy of Scriptural interpretation uninformed by Church tradition. These aspects of the theology of tradition contradict a particular notion of science. According to this notion, the scientific enterprise is wholly emancipated from authority, documentary evidence is the only admissible historical proof of a tradition's anticuity, and independence from tradition is the only guarantor of the truth (i.e., objectivity) of interpritation. If this notion of science were canonical, then Catholic hermeneutics would be unscientific (Hick, 1980). The development of the Catholic hermeneutics clousely connected with the development of historical consciousness. Ancient people didn't have the historical consciousness, because they lived in sincere world and tried to survive in it. Then terrors, death, hunger, destruction and catastrophes made a psychological change in their attitude to the reality. The ancient people really wanted to know about their origin. That's why they appealed to religious myths and legends. Some of them told about a "golden age" when people lived in harmony with each other and nature. The other story showed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Some of legends depicted the relationships with gods and goddesses, which possessed human appearance and characters. According to the myth the gods could fight with each other for love and power and even organize wars. We could see numerous examples in Greek Mythology. When misfortunes, wars and catastrophes happened in reality people thought that gods or supernatural powers were against them.

Firework by katy perry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Firework by katy perry - Essay Example The song Firework was written by Katy Perry, Ester Dean, Sandy Wilhelm, Tor Hermansen, and Mikkel Eriksen. While this is the case, the song is always assumed to have been written by Katy Perry. The song recorded by Katy Perry was meant to inspire people, especially the youth, to overcome their insecurities and fears (Gundersen par. 5). Perry reminds her audience that within them is a spark that can ignite them and make them shine (AZLyrics.com par. 5). Perry’s personal experiences greatly relate to the song having been brought up in a Christian family. Her mother restricted her from listening to or even singing secular music. She was brought up in an environment that only encouraged gospel music, which in her view was quite restrictive. Perry made several attempts to produce albums that would drive her to fame in vain. She however did not give up, instead choosing to ignite her fireworks until she became famous. Later in life she threw her restrictions and fears to the wind an d has been a great success in the secular music realm, both locally and internationally. She is internationally celebrated as a renowned actress, song writer, and recording artist with many awards to her name. Perry reflects social ideas in that she seeks to empower people to live beyond their common fears and shine. While the song does not respond to a historical movement, it represents the current state of affairs in society – many people struggling with various issues that limit their potential. The audience should know that Perry has struggled to become a success story. The target audience of the text includes all people, the youth especially, who feel like giving up their dreams. The target audience of the text is captured by the words â€Å"Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin; Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?† (AZLyrics.com par. 1). The text in this regards excludes the audience of people who are feeling good or who

Barriers and Disparities in Health Care Research Paper

Barriers and Disparities in Health Care - Research Paper Example The paper â€Å"Barriers and Disparities in Health Care† investigates the numerous barriers to achieving satisfactory health care, which in turn lead to disparities and eventually result into poor healthcare. Some of the barriers currently existing in the health care provision include geographic barriers, socioeconomic and cultural barriers. Geographical barriers refer to people living in the rural parts who cannot get quality health care because of insufficient facilities in those regions. Health care facilities in the rural regions are normally understaffed because there is challenge of recruiting the health care providers to work in the rural regions. Rural populations are exposed to numerous geographic and climatic barriers which at times makes the hospitals to be located in rugged terrain which are not easily accessible. Moreover, there are lacks public transportation in the rural areas which hinders populace from receiving health care. There is also widespread poverty in rural areas than in the urban settlements. Socioeconomic factors also largely deters adequate provision of quality health care since low income households cannot afford health insurance cover and access the high cost of health care delivery. The less income families may not be able to pay for essential out of pocket charges such as deductibles and medicines even if they may afford insurance cover. Socioeconomic factors are therefore very significant in preventing adequate access to health care facilities.... Cultural beliefs about diseases and health care differ amongst different communities around the world across the world. For instance, the Western attribute of healthcare may differ from other countries health belief systems. Other people especially from Asia are always comfortable with traditional mode of treatment than the modern strong and improved medicines. Sensitivity about culture is therefore very important because any disregard of culture by a healthcare practitioner may prevent an individual from vulnerable populace from receiving quality healthcare. There is disparity in health literacy and therefore health care providers must ensure that they consider cultural considerations before for successful health care delivery (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013). Health Care Disparity Better health outcome requires that the entire population should receive equally superior health care but this has not been the case due to numerous disparities that persist. Disparities however differ in almost every population depending on various factors. Ethnicity, culture and race are amongst the parameters that contribute to disparities in healthcare provision. Generally, these disparities can be classified into communication failure, provider discrimination and lack of preventive care (Mason, Leavitt & Chaffee, 2006). Communication between health care providers and the patients is vital in ensuring adequate provision of health care. Failure to properly communicate may result into inappropriate diagnosis and improper admission of medicines. There are some patients who cannot speak similar language as the health providers hence there may be a need of

Use this Sample Basic Essay as a Model Essay Example for Free

Use this Sample Basic Essay as a Model Essay The essay below demonstrates the principles of writing a basic essay. The different parts of the essay have been labeled. The thesis statement is in bold, the topic sentences are in italics, and each main point is underlined. When you write your own essay, of course, you will not need to mark these parts of the essay unless your teacher has asked you to do so. They are marked here just so that you can more easily identify them. A dog is mans best friend. That common saying may contain some truth, but dogs are not the only animal friend whose companionship people enjoy. For many people, a cat is their best friend. Despite what dog lovers may believe, cats make excellent housepets. In the first place, people enjoy the companionship of cats. Many cats are affectionate. They will snuggle up and ask to be petted, or scratched under the chin. Who can resist a purring cat? If theyre not feeling affectionate, cats are generally quite playful. They love to chase balls and feathers, or just about anything dangling from a string. They especially enjoy playing when their owners are participating in the game. Contrary to popular opinion, cats can be trained. Using rewards and punishments, just like with a dog, a cat can be trained to avoid unwanted behavior or perform tricks. Cats will even fetch! In the second place, cats are civilized members of the household. Unlike dogs, cats do not bark or make other loud noises. Most cats dont even meow very often. They generally lead a quiet existence. Cats also dont often have accidents. Mother cats train their kittens to use the litter box, and most cats will use it without fail from that time on. Even stray cats usually understand the concept when shown the box and will use it regularly. Cats do have claws, and owners must make provision for this. A tall scratching post in a favorite cat area of the house will often keep the cat content to leave the furniture alone. As a last resort, of course, cats can be declawed. Lastly, one of the most attractive features of cats as housepets is their ease of care. Cats do not have to be walked. They get plenty of exercise in the house as they play, and they do their business in the litter box. Cleaning a litter box is a quick, painless procedure. Cats also take care of their own grooming. Bathing a cat is almost never necessary because under ordinary circumstances cats clean themselves. Cats are more particular about personal cleanliness than people are. In addition, cats can be left home alone for a few hours without fear. Unlike some pets, most cats will not destroy the furnishings when left alone. They are content to go about their usual activities until their owners return. Cats are low maintenance, civilized companions. People who have small living quarters or less time for pet care should appreciate these characteristics of cats. However, many people who have plenty of space and time still opt to have a cat because they love the cat personality. In many ways, cats are the ideal housepet.

The Case Study On Employees Motivation Of Starbucks Beijing Management Essay

The Case Study On Employees Motivation Of Starbucks Beijing Management Essay The purpose of this questionnaire is to investigate the current situation of employees satisfaction in Starbucks of Beijing. In order to know how satisfied employees are with Starbucks of Beijing, the questionnaire must refer to every aspects of employees work life. That is to say, any factor which will influence their satisfaction with Starbucks of Beijing should be designed into a question. The questionnaire is designed from the analysis of four aspects. The first one is employees satisfaction with the reward they get for their work. In the aspect of work reward, there are three problems that must be paid enough attention to. That whether the employee is satisfied with his own pay is the basic one. If the employees feel fair when comparing his pay with his investment, if the employees feel fair when comparing his own pay with others. The two problems come from the fairness theory in motivation, which means that the fairness include absolute fairness and relative fairness. And then is the employee option program of Starbucks, which is one of the welfare of Starbucks. Referring to the employee option program, it is an interesting thing. In Starbucks, the employee is not called employee, but partner. That is to say, if you are employed by Starbucks, you will be probable to become the stakeholder of Starbucks. This is also a type of reward for employees. So the relationship between employees work motivation and the employee option progra m should also be investigated. The second one is employees satisfaction with their own job. That is to say, what the employee values most beside the pay should also be taken seriously in their work. These factors include their work environment, a sense of achievement, Harmonious interpersonal relationships, the opportunity to improve ones skill, and so on. For example, if they are interested in the work, their feeling about the challenge of their job and if they can get a sense of achievement in their work. And also, the personal growth in the work is also important for the employees working motivation. And then in the aspect of the employees satisfaction with the work itself, a theory must be considered. That is the goal-setting theory. Through the theory, goal-setting in the work is necessary and important. And also the goal should be specific. There are three questions, which are designed considering from the goal-setting theory. If the employee likes setting a goal in his work, the goal should be specific or c oncrete, and then if the employee want to participate in the process of setting the goal together with his administrators. And then the third one is employees satisfaction with their work environment and work group. The employees satisfaction with the work environment and work group is a very important one among the factors that influence his satisfaction and work motivation. As is known to all, one person will work more comfortably and more effectively in an environment that he likes. So the employees satisfaction with his work environment must be paid enough attention, when considering the employees work motivation and satisfaction. And then is the work group. This problem can be divided into two parts. The first one is the employees relationship with his direct superior. The superiors attitude towards his employees, the superiors work style, leading style and some other things will all influence the employees satisfaction and work motivation. And the last one is employees satisfaction with the company. That is the employees general impression about Starbucks. The employees attitude towards the company policy, whether it is positive or negative is very important. And then the companys attention on employees is enough or not. For example, whether the company gives the employee enough opportunity to grow and show his personal ability is very important for the employees satisfaction. The employees view about the company performance and about the staff ability of the company can also inflect the employees impression about the company. In addition, the sense of belonging and identity in the company is also a sign of satisfaction with the company. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Data Collection Before the process of collecting the data, a series of problems must be considered and settled. For example, the way of carrying out the investigation, the location of the process of writing the questionnaires, the ratio of the gender and age of these objectives and the ratio of employees of different level positions. These problems must be settled perfectly before the process of investigating. In order to have reliable data, 100 questionnaires must be sent out, of which 80 will be useful for us. That is to say, 100 employees should be selected from all of the employees of Starbucks in Beijing. In addition, 80 of these 100 questionnaires are expected to be effective and reliable. In Beijing, there are about 35 stores of Starbucks. Among those stores, 5 stores of them are selected randomly according to their locations. And then 100 employees of these 5 stores will be the research objects of the questionnaire. And also, these 20 people of every store are selected randomly. The Starbucks stores we research are all of Beijing, of which the locations are relatively intent. And then, the number of employees that we should research is not so much. In addition, in order to get a set of reliable data from these employees, we had better send out these questionnaires and then collect them after about 2 hours. During the two hours, these objectives can answer these questions at the most natural state. So we can carry out the investigation by the way of sending out on-site questionnaires in these objective Starbucks stores. Firstly, we ask the managers of these stores and get their allowance to carry out the questionnaire. Considering the busy work-time of the employees of Starbucks Beijing, the time is set at 12:30 to 14:30. At that time, the employees have a little work to do and have enough time to thingk carefully about the questions on the questionnaire. In addition, twenty objectives of every store will be a large task and work. So the questionnaire is carr ied out in five days. The time is from August 15th to 19th. The time arrangement assures the reliablity of the employees answers. In order to study if there are differences between male employees and female employees, the gender ratio should be also considered. In Starbucks of Beijing, the ratio of female employees is aliitle more than the ratio of male employees. So during the questionnaire, the female employees will be also a little more than male employees. Also, the difference between the old employees and young employees should also be investigated. In Starbucks Beijing, younger employees are more than older employees. Therefore, in the investigation, about 30% of all the objectives are in the age range of 35 to 45 and the other 70% are in the age range of 25 to 35. The much bigger proportion of relative young employees is because the proportion of young employees in Starbucks of Beijing is much bigger than the proportion of the old ones. In addition, the bigger proportion of young objectives is also because the views of these younger employees can be better able to explain the problems about the employees satisfaction with the company and his work. And then the position level should also be considered. That is because the purpose of the investigation is to study the satisfaction of the low level employees of Starbucks. So 80% of our objectives are low level staff of Starbucks. And other 20% are management staff. Validity and reliability of questionnaire/interviews The study uses the questionnaire survey method, which is a widely used method of investigation. In this investigation method, questionnaire is a tool to obtain information. So the quality of the questionnaire is very important for the reliability and validity of the survey result. So it is necessary to analyze the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Reliability means the consistency degree of the results when repeating measuring the same object using the same method. When the questionnaire is designed, almost all of the important factors are considered carefully. Firstly, the basic factors that influence the employees motivation must be analyzed. They are employees satisfaction with the reward they get for their work, their satisfaction with their own job, their satisfaction with their work environment and work group and their satisfaction with his work environment and the company. After the full consideration of these factors, the motivation theories are considered. According to the two-factor theory, there are two kinds of factors that must be paid attention to. They are hygiene factors and motivation factors. Then all the factors, which are included in the two kinds of factors, are considered before the designation of the questionnaire. Some of the inmportant factors for Starbucks Beijing are selected to be designed into the questionnaire. So in the comprehensive aspect, the reliability of the questionnaire is no doubt. And then, referring to the validity of the questionnaire, it can be analyzed from the view of data collection. When selecting the objective employees, the ratio of the genders, the ratio of the work positions, the ratio of the locations and some other important factors are all considered. With these consideration, the data selected in the questionnaire are of validity. Generally speaking, after the careful questionnaire designing process and data collecting process, the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire can be enough for the research. Chapter Four ¼Ã… ¡Data Analysis 1. Data presentation and Statistical analysis Chart 1 From chart one, it can be seen that 65% of the employees are satisfied with their pay and the other 35% are dissatisfied with their pay. It can be concluded that most of employees of Starbucks of Beijing are satisfied with their work pay. However, 35% is not a small number. By a deeper research, it is found that the 35 percent, who are dissatisfied with their pay, are mainly these people, who are in the age range of twenty five to thirty five. It shows that there are some problems in the pay system of the new and young employees, which must attract the attention of the Starbucks of Beijing. Since 35 percent of the employees are dissatisfied with their pay, it should be explored that why they are satisfied. There are two reasons that can explain the problem. Firstly, they think their reward is not matching with their investment in their work. Secondly, they compare their pay with their colleagues, they think it is unfair. The question will be referred to in the end of this part. Chart 2 From chart two, it shows that 60 percent of these employees value the work environment most, 20 percent of these employees value the sense of achievement and belonging most, and the other 20 percent of them value the opportunity for their personal growth most. That is to say, most of the employees take the work environment as the most important factor in their work. It can be explained that employees can work well and comfortably in a good work environment, which is the basic condition for a good work performance. And then, the sense of achievement and belonging and the opportunity for ones growth are also important. It can be said that, when people work in a good environment and he likes his own job, then he will want to have the sense of achievement and belongings, which means he hope that his job is full of challenge and he can belong to the company out of his heart. From this data, Starbucks of Beijing should pay enough attention to these three factors. If these three factors are all done well, then the employees are very likely to be loyalty to his company and his own work, which means he will perform actively and excellent in his work. Chart 3 Considering the title of goal setting, chart three shows that 80 percent of the employees are very willing to participate in the process of setting goal. Only 8 percent of them are reluctant to take part in the activity and 12% of them are indifferent to the matter. Its easy to find that most of people are willing to take part in these more important and more leading work together with their administrators. In fact, there are two questions before this question in the questionnaire. In the first question, about 80 percent of the employees think that it is necessary to set a goal for their work. About 10 percent of them think sometimes it is necessary to set a work goal and the other 10 percent think that it is unnecessary to set a goal. And the second question, 75 percent of the employees think that a specific goal will enhance his work performance, while only 5 percent approve a concrete goal. These three questions altogether tell Starbucks that the employees know the importance of s etting a goal in the work and most of them are willing to participate in the goal-setting process. So some policies about the goal-setting, which is taken part in by the employees should be formulated and carried out. Chart 4 In chart four, there are only 15 percent of the employees, who think their work to be challenging. And 25 percent of them think their work are challenging sometimes. In addition, 60 percent of them think their work is lack of challenge. This can be seen as a challenging problem of Starbucks at least in Beijing. In chart two, it can be seen that the challenge of work is also valued a lot by the employees. So the work lack of challenge is unlikely to be liked and loved by employees. In addition, there is another question, which is closely related with this chart. Considering the biggest problem of the employee, 60 percent of these employees select the sense of achievement and 20 percent of them select the relationship with colleagues. These two questions all show that the challenge of the work in Starbucks is not so enough. In addition, there are some more important questions should be paid enough attention to. About 80 percent of these employees think his pay is fair comparing with his investment in his work, while the other 20 percent think his pay to be unfair. Referring to the problem of the relationship between employees work motivation and the employee option program of Starbucks, 90 percent of these employees select the answer of close relationship. That shows the importance of a good welfare policy. And then some questions about the satisfaction with his work should also be paid enough attention to. Firstly, the interest of these employees for their own work, 60 percent of these employees are very interested in their work, 22 percent of them have a little interest in their work and 18 percent of them have no interest, which means that a lot of the employees in Starbucks of Beijing are working for their interest. Secondly, When referring to the question that if the company gives the employee enough opportunity to grow, only 25 percent of the employees believe that there are enough opportunities for them to grow, 35 percent of them admit that there are some opportunities but not enough, and there are 40 percent of the employees believe that there is no opportunity for them to grow. At last, some questions about the employees satisfaction with the company are also very important. Firstly, the question about the enthusiasm of employees, 7o percent of these employees think that most of the staff of Starbucks is working positively. Among them, 15 percent think that minority of the staff is working positively and 15 percent think that all the staff is burnout. From these data, it can be concluded that the staff motivation of Starbucks of Beijing is much positive. Secondly, there is a question about the companys attention on the employees. In this question, 60 percent of the employees believe that the attention of the company is enough and 40 percent of them think that it is not enough. And among the 40 percent, who think the companys attention is not enough, most of them are low level staff. So Starbucks should pay more attention to the low level staff. And then the last one is the employees best liked way of getting reward for his excellent performance. In this que stion, 50 percent of them approve the present method the company is carrying out. And 30 percent of them select the material reward and 20 percent select the other choices. It can be seen that these Chinese employees like material rewards or good welfare. That can contribute to the common value for the life assurance of Chinese people. 2. Findings 2.1 The good work environment Through the result of the questionnaire, it can be seen that employees of Starbucks Beijing are very satisfied with their work environment. Starbucks is an international band. In the industry of service, the environment is likely to be the same with each other. To achieve success of environment in the service industry is a difficult task. However, the environment of Starbucks is very unique and comfortable. When you come into the Starbucks Beijing for the first time, the only feeling is comfortable,relaxed,unique and amazing. Starbucks is the third space for people, except for the home and the office. The third space is a unique space for the customer to relax and enjoy their life. And also, the unique environment is a beautiful and comfortable environment for the employees of Starbucks. In an environment like this, the employee can provide service for the customer with the companys mission in their heart. For the customers and the employees, the environment of Starbucks Beijing is s uccessful. So the good environment can be regarded as one of the factors for the success of Starbucks Beijing. 2.2The satisfying material reward Through some questions and their anwsers in the questionnaire, it can be found that it is very important for employees of Starbucks Beijing to have a satisfying material reward. In Starbucks Beijing, the staff is not be called employees but partners. That is to say, the people employed by Starbucks Beijing is likely to become the stockholder of Starbucks. The coffee stock is a stock program for the staff, which is carried out by the Starbucks Beijing. The idea of the stock program is that every excellent employee of Starbucks is probable to hold a stock of Starbucks. That will relate every employee of Starbucks with the general business performance of the company, which means that every employee of Starbucks will work with the same active attitude with the CEO of Starbucks. The motivation method of Starbucks Beijing is related closely with the unique management method of Schultz. Schultz thinks that, the wealth can only be achieved by the honesty and continuous effort. He said that, the management of a band is a whole-life cause. Band is a fragile matter. It must be admitted that the success of the Starbucks band is not a one-time grant of the title and nobility. And the band must be protected and maintained every day. This kind of protection and maintainance must be carrie d out by all the staff of Starbucks Beijing. The employee stock program is a kind of this protection and maintainance. It should be believed that the strongest and longest band is built up in the heart of customerd and partners. The stock system of Starbucks improves the reward of employees, improves the culture and value of the company, and also lowers the staff turnover rate. Therefore, it can be said that satisfying material reward is another factor for Starbucks success. In addit ion, it should be paid enough attention to that some employees are not satisfied with their material rewards. So Starbucks Beijing should do more effort to satisfy employees in the aspect of material rewards. 2.3The employee training of Starbucks The good work environment and the satisfying material reward are the hygiene factors, which influence the employee motivation of Starbucks Beijing. These factor can only avoid employees dissatisfaction, but cant lead to motivation of employees. In the following part, some motivation factors of Starbucks Beijing will be analyzed in detail. In the questionnaire, there is a question about the employee training of the staff of Starbucks Beijing. Through the answers, it can be seen that the employees are very satisfied with the employee training of Starbucks Beijing. That is to say, the employee training is enough for these employees to work smoothly and easily. For every new employee of Starbucks, they will have a training program, which teaches employees how to become a qualified coffee barista and teaches them the core idea of Starbucks Beijing. Through this kind of training, they will know more about the company and deliver the legend service of Starbucks Beijing to the customers and the communities with their work enthusiasm. Besides this training program, the employees also have a lot of other training programs about their specific job after taking part in the service work in Starbucks Beijing. In addition, the coffee barista plan is designed for these partners of Starbucks Beijing to help them to become a coffee barista and provide for the customers. All these training programs contribute to the success of Starbucks Beijing, which is another important factor for the success of Starbucks in the aspect of employee motivation and business performance. 2.4The company culture For a company, the enterprise culture is the spirit of a company. The culture of Starbucks Beijing greatly values the companys responsibility for the employees and the responsibility for the society. Starbucks of Beijing gives the employees the respect that they deserve. The employees of Starbucks Beijing are also the band delegation of Starbucks and the marketing staff of Starbucks Beijing, who will tell the customers what Starbucks is like and how an unique company Starbucks is. This is the best advertisement for Starbucks. The good relationship between the employees and the customers makes the success of Starbucks Beijing. Besides the responsibility for the employees, Starbucks also values the responsibility for the society. For example, the ethical sourcing, the environmental commitment and the community feedback. These are all the performances of Starbucks Beijing in the aspect of the society responsibility. The society responsibility Starbucks loads gives the employees their co hesion and identity for Starbucks. So the company culture must be concerned, which can lead to the loyalty of the customers and the employees. 3.Discussion The aim to pursue by administrators of modern enterprises is to create maximum value for the enterprises and bring staffs enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity. In practice, the enterprises should take effective motivating measures and establish rational objective and motivating measures for a long time to urge staff to create more value for the enterprises. 3.1 The theory analysis of employee motivation of Starbucks Beijing 3.1.1 Two-Factor Theory The traditional theory, which is also called motivation-hygiene theory, holds that the opposite side of satisfaction is dissatisfaction and the opposite side of dissatisfaction is satisfaction. However, two-factor theory holds that the opposite side of satisfaction is that there is no dissatisfaction and the opposite side of dissatisfaction is that there is no dissatisfaction. In the two-factor theory, the factors that affect peoples work performance are devided into two aspects. The first one os called hygiene factors. And the other one is called motivation factors. These two aspects are independent of each other and they influence peoples work enthusiasm and motivation in different ways. Firstly, the hygiene factors refer to these factors, which will cause the dissatisfaction of the employees. And the improvement of hygiene factors can just lift the employees dissatisfaction and cans satisfy the employees and motivate their work enthusiasm. These factors include the working environment and conditions such as company policy, administration, relationships with supervisors, working conditions, wages, relationships with colleague, personal life, relationships with subordinate, status, security and so on. These factors refer to the negative factors of work and they are related with the work environment and condition. When these factors deteriorate to a level that is not accepted by the employees, the employees will be dissatisfied with their work. Although these factors are in a good level, this can just eliminate the employees dissatisfaction and cant lead to a positive work attitude of the employees, which means a neutral state that the employees are not satisfied and a lso not dissatisfied. These factors can just maitain the present state. So they are called maintainance factor. Secondly, the motivation factors are factors that make the employees feel satisfied, the improvement of these factors can not just lead to the employees satisfaction but also give the employees enough motivation, enhance the employees work motivation and improve their work productivity. These factors include work achievements, approval of working performance, attraction of the working itself, responsibilities, promotion, growth and so on. They refer to the employees positive feeling for work and they are related to the content of their work. These factors, which can bring the positive work attitude, satisfaction and work motivation of the employees are called motivation factors. If these factors are all gathered, the employees will have a great work motivation. According to the view of the two-factor theory, the administrators of the company must know that the hygiene factors are necessary, without which there will be no satisfaction. And only the motivation factors can make the employees do a excellent work performance. The two-factor theory is designed for the goal of the employees satisfaction. The hygiene factors can satisfy the employees in the aspect of outside conditions and the motivation factors can satisfy them in the aspect of the work itself. The former one is for outside motivation and the latter one is for inside motivation. That is to say, according to two-factor theory, the word satisfaction must be paid to enough attention in order to motivate the employees effectively. 3.1.2Goal-setting theory The goal-setting theory holds that the goal let people know what work they must accomplish, how to accomplish their work and how much effort they must pay. A clear goal will improve the employees productivity. And especially when the goal is with a certain difficulties but not set higher beyond employees capacity, a higher productivity can be achieved. In addition, a specific goal will be better for the employees to enhance their work performance and improve their work productivity. In the goal-setting theory, there is another important matter that should be paid enough attention to. That is the participation in the formulation of organizational goals of the employees. 3.2 Recommendation 3.2.1 Improving the challenge of the work Repeating the same job day after day, the employees will be caught into the trouble and cant escape from it. From the result of the questionnaire, it can be found that employees think that their works are lack of challenge. However, the appropriate challenge in the work will stimulate their ambition and keep their enthusiasm for their work. In order to improve the challenge of the work, Starbucks Beijing must take some effective measures. Firstly, Starbucks Beijing can increase work standards of employees. After continuous exercise of work ability and their self-growth, the employees will show a higher productivity and be more skilled to handle the issues in their work. At that time, Starbucks Beijing can appropriately increase work demands of the employees. For example, at the right time and circumstances, the employees performance requirements should be improved, which will be followed by a appropriate standard of compensation awards. Secondly, increasing the job content can also improve the challenge of the employees work. With the increase of job content, employees responsibilitied will increase and also the challenge of the work is improved. Then the employees will use more enegy and skill to work, which will enhance their work ability greatly. The employees will feel the interesting change of their work when the work content is increased. However, the increase of the work content mustnt bring unnecessary trouble for the employees. Only the reasonable increase of job content can really serve to increase the work challengign. For example, establishing a team of employees. With these teams, employees are allowed to handle some difficult issues. Starbucks Beijing can assign some tasks about developing customers to the employees. With this kind of work, they can challenge their ability, intelligence,communicaition skill, and so on. Thirdly, giving rights to the employees can also give them some challenges. Getting some rights, the employee will enter a new work field, in which he will handle some issues and load some responsibilities. Generally speaking, the employee will be motivated and load some responsibilities after getting some rights, which will improve their work motivation. So the employee will regard the rights as the reflection of his ability and the companys affirmation of his work performance. There are variety of ways to give rights to employees. For example, give them the right to manage a team or take responsibility for a group job. Generally speaking, in order to increase the challenge of the work, Starbucks Beijing can take measures in the aspect of improving work standards, increasing work content and giving rights to employees. Every employee likes to do a job full of reasonable challenge. So managers must spare no effort to provide the employees an opportunity to face with challenge. 3.2.2 Providing more opportunity for employees self-growth In the questionnaire, most of the employees of Starbucks Beijing think that they have no opportunity for their self-growth in work., which is an important matter for a company of service industry. The development and growth of an organization should depend on the effort of all the staff instead of only one persons effort. Sometimes, some managers may complain about the disability of the employees, which is a bottleneck problem in the development of the company. After a careful analysis, it can be found that the problem is not the disability of the employees. The problem is whether managers give the employees enough opportunity to exercise their abilities. In order to improve employees ability to meet the companys demand, the company must take a reasonable measure and cultivate employees in some effective ways. As our growing process, we learn to walk.We try again and again. And at last we can stand steadily and then we can walk quickly. The process is an exercising process. The abili ty of the employee is not decided by ones IQ. The work experience and enrichment of knowledge can alsi influence the work mind of an employee. When the employee does more and more work and load more and more responsibilities, he will be full of work experience and his work style will change a lot. That is one of the important problems of a company, which is called the management of human capital. 3.2.3 Providing goal-setting opportunity for employees Through the goal-setting theory, it can be seen the great importance of goal-setting. And also in the questionnaire, employees also express that they believe that goal-setting is very important and they want to participate in the goal-setting process. Firstly, the goal must be specific and measurable. And then, the goal must be accepted by the superiors and subordinates. At last, the goal must be full and challenge and can be achiev

Strategies for Utilising IT in Business Operations

Strategies for Utilising IT in Business Operations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Carsem founded in the year 1972 and had been acquired by Hong Leong Group in the year 1984. Carsem had been allocating most of its revenue in the research and development to maintain its position in the market. The main objective of this report is to understand how Carsem utilize it available information technology (IT) infrastructure in operating the daily business processes associate with the challenges it faced. Analysis carries out enable the challenges to be group into three categories which are management, organization and technology perspective. In the generation of this report help had been provided by Mr. Chai and Mr. Koay (IT engineer from Carsem IT department) in the investigation of Carsem IT infrastructure and the challenges its faced in the maintaining of those infrastructure. Apart from that this report also evaluates and proposes on the cloud computing which will help to minimize and overcome challenges identified. Clouding had been recognized as a latest delivery model and provides comprehensive services which allow Carsem to compete in the market without the needs to spend an excessive investment in which this investment may be channel for organization products and services research and development. Cloud computing comes with a list of benefits and costs in which Carse needs to analyze and weight to which extend the clouding is needs in ones organization business processes. An organization that had decided to adopt clouding need to realize the cost associated with the implementation and come out with a series of strategy to transform those costs to benefits to be further competitive advantage in the industry. Parts of the benefits associate with clouding are: Reduced in the IT infrastructure investment. Automated system and application updates Allow IT to shift focus in the development of new program Highly secure infrastructure by the vendors Parts of the costs associate with clouding are: Organizational changes which lead to organization culture shock Information security issue Control issue over the data and information stored in cloud 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Carsem Carsem, a leading provider of turnkey packaging and test services to the semiconductor industry, and offers one of the largest package and test portfolios in the world with recognition of one of the largest in unit volume production in the industry. Carsem have proved to be one of the six largest independent semiconductor sub-contract assembly houses in the world. As a member of the Hong Leong Group (Appendix 2), the company has been operate in the assembly and test services for over 25 years with over 10000 employees and assembles in excess of 100 million units each week with 65 percent of this volume is fully electrically tested product. Carsem has three high-technology manufacturing factories (as shown in Appendix 5). Carsem organizational structure as shown in Appendix 3. 1.2 Carsem Strategy To be competitive in the industry and establish a long term relationship with customer, Carsem need not only compliance with Moores Law, which stated that device complexity doubles about every 18months (as shown in Figure 1 Appendix 4); but also to responses progressively to the Moores Second Law, which stated that cost increase on a semi-log scale (as shown in Figure 2 Appendix 4). To coherent with the Moores Laws, Carsem Technology Center (CTC) had been established as a Research and Development department in drive for the cost competitive and technology advancement. The role of the CTC as stated below and Carsem latest technology solutions such as system in package (SiP), copper wire bond (Cu WB), etc (as shown in Appendix 6) are some of the effort by CTC. Re-invest existing products for cost and efficiency Develop new capabilities in processes and equipment to push existing design envelopes Introduction of new materials per assigned material roadmap Drive towards a center of excellence for Semiconductor Subcontractor Packaging Provide a platform for the Nurturing and Education of Carsem Engineering Graduate Program 1.3 Carsem Services and Products Carsem incorporated with highly sophisticated equipment to ensure that the services stated below meet with the quality standards (as shown in Appendix 7) set by the automotive, telecommunication, computer and consumer electronics industries. Carsem is not only a world leader in manufacture of the MLP package with over 12 billion units shipped worldwide but also excel in the services of designing modeling of new package and process. Carsem offering a full range of turnkey test services for RF, mixed-signal, linear, digital and power devices. Product groups for each factory are shown in Appendix 5. Services: Packaging and Assembly Test Services 1.4 Carsem Vision and Mission Carsem employees strive to improve in quality, productivity, delivery, services and cost in order to be competitive and profitable in lieu with Carsem Vision and Mission shown in Table 1. The homepage URL of the Carsem Semiconductor is: http://www.carsem.com/. 1.5 Semiconductor Industry Semiconductors, or microchips, are tiny, powerful devices that control electrical current. They work like electric switches, either blocking or conducting the flow of electrical current. The best known semiconductors element is silicon. As per the Wikipedia, the semiconductor industry is the aggregate collection of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices, or microchips. Semiconductor industry had been considered as a high-technology industry by where the companies allocate a large sum of their revenue to research and development. The industry is recognized as a key driver for economic growth in recent years by where the development of new semiconductor products, manufacturing technologies and applications has lead to the development of other important industries, such as computers, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. The industry consists of four main products as shown in Table 2. In year 2009, Intel still remains as the market leader for 18 consecutive years despite the global semiconductor revenue decline on year 2009. Mean while as per the source from iSuppli Corporation, the global semiconductor revenue on year 2010 had growth to $304 billion with a growth of 32.5 percent compare to year 2009. Top 20 semiconductor suppliers ranking recorded by iSuppli Corporation such as Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, etc as shown in Appendix 8. 2. CARSEM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE 2.1 Computer hardware platform Carsem engaged with Dell and Acer on it client machines; meanwhile Dell, Sun and Hewlett-Packard (HP) had been chosen in the support of it Server machines. The reason behind the choice is none others that cost related decision and the after sales service support and maintenance. 2.2 Operating system (OS) platform Carsem had been adopting in Microsoft Windows (Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows NT4) for years in managing the resources and activities of the client machines. Linux, inexpensive and robust open-source software; Microsoft Windows Server 2008, most flexible and robust OS had both need the choice of Carsem for it server OS. Sun Solaris is also another OS by Carsem in managing it server machines. The need to control and reduce IT spending and license cost had been the main factors for above OS selection. 2.3 Enterprise software application Carsem had been attached with Oracle and Microsoft for years such as Oracle Database, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange 2010, Microsoft Office, etc for it enterprise software application. The interrelationship between OS and enterprise software application had make Carsem to make such a decision with the consideration of Carsem needs. 2.4 Data management and storage Carsem selected Dell Equalogic Storage area networks (SANs) network-based storage technologies which connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage. The SAN with it huge storage capacity and stable performance is suitable for Carsem business processes. 2.5 Networking and telecommunication platform, Internet platform Carsem wide area network (WAN) had been attach with Telekom Malaysia (TM) providers for years due to the provider able to provide Carsem with a customized package pricing. Apart from that, WAN network equipment such as network termination unit (NTU) circuit, Cisco router is provided by TM as well. Carsem had been using Cisco router and switch for it local area network (LAN) for years for it is a market leader. Mean while as per management direction Dlink Wireless AP had been the choice in support Carsem wireless local area network (WLAN). To further align with management direction cost related, Carsem had been deploy with Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) under Asterisk for the recent years. 2.6 Consultants and system integrators Carsem maintain a continuous consultation contract with it providers such as Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, and TM due to providers able to provide a consistence and prompt service as needed. Providers professional skills and experiences on the infrastructure often give a handy solution to Carsem in a timely manner to minimize the factory losses due to the IT infrastructure down time. 2.7 Choice of Carsem In general the factors affecting the selection of IT infrastructure in Carsem including the management direction, business processes, budget, licenses, ease of use, life span, support, maintenance, associated partnership gain and etc. Take one examples, in choosing the brand of client computer hardware, there might be a number of vendors offering the same specification. But due to the product life span and in house supporting, Carsem had chosen Dell. Reason for engaging with Dell for years is due to the redundant to change by where the organization will need to go through a total change and adopt all necessary. Although the process is onetime deal but if the change does not generate a great improvement and additional benefits there is no value to make the change. This potential changes will also resulting in significant increase of the company cost. Another factor that is affecting the selection would be on the cost basis, by where the selected providers able to provide the infrastructure is a relatively low price compare to its competitors. This point is also applied to the maintenance cost. Dell solid reputation proven to be a reliable and prompt support services provider and that is another reason of Carsem choice. Dell also provides complete solution through its partnerships with software vendors such as Microsoft. As per Ratnam (Carsem former group IT Manager), Carsem manage to get Microsoft licensing through Dell so that the servers and desktops supplied to Carsem arrive with pre-installed software, all within one purchase order. For examples, in selecting an OS platform, Microsoft is preferable over others due to the system is more flexible and robust by where it can support a wide range of application included a third party software. 2.8 Carsem challenges in managing IT infrastructure Carsem faced with a legacy IT infrastructure that could not be accommodate the expanding manufacturing orders, the organization wanted to consolidate its server environment. The larger Carsem user base, the more diverse the environment, the greater the challenge will be. Some of the challenges are as per Table 3. Table 3: Challenges in managing IT infrastructure 3. CLOUD COMPUTING 3.1 Cloud computing Cloud computing, ‘a new delivery model; refers to style of computing in which various resources servers, applications, data, and other often virtualized resources are integrated and provided as a service over the Internet (Australian Government, Department of Finance and Deregulation, 2011). Cloud provides virtual server, software, store and secure immense amounts of data, application, which is accessible only by the authorized applications and users. Cloud computing eased the integration of photos, maps, and GPS information to create a mash up in customer Web browsers. As per professional like US National Institute of Standards and Technologys (NIST) and Sun Microsystems, 2009, cloud computing is pay-per-use networking computer with a minimal management effort and service provider interaction. Visual of NIST working definition cloud computing as shown in Appendix 9. 3.2 Cloud computing characteristic and types In general there are five essential characteristics that promote the cloud model included on-demand self service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service. In detail cloud computing enable user to adopt and devise various resources as ones requirement without interaction with the services providers at any available clients platform such as laptop, mobile phones or PDAs. User gathers necessary resources through clouding in a flexible manner without the awareness on the resources location in a pay-per-use method. Detailed descriptions of each characteristic are shown in Appendix 10. Cloud computing can be on public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud depending on an organization requirement (Appendix 11). Temporary application may be deploy in a public cloud due to cost censes and likewise a dedicated application should adopt a private or hybrid cloud. 3.3 Cloud computing services models Cloud computing providing a comprehensive services from hardware to applications and all this services may be grouped into three categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as per Appendix 12. Organization will choose a cloud service based on the organization specific business, technical, and operational requirements. SaaS is a model that offers software as service over the internet. SaaS eliminates the need to install and run the application on the client hardware. PaaS providing a computing platform as service which compliance of cloud infrastructure and cloud applications. IaaS services deliver a virtualization platform for computer infrastructure. The top cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google, 3Tera, etc are shown in Appendix 13. 3.4 Cloud computing trends Could computing isnt a new technology or a new architecture; its a new delivery model. This model is still an evolving paradigm. As per NIST, cloud computing definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks, and benefits will be refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors. These definitions, attributes, and characteristics will evolve and change over time. In general cloud computing is like weather, full with uncertainty but a trend can be observed through it grow. The top ten cloud computing trends of current clouding are as stated below (Appendix 14). 3.5 Cloud computing solutions 3.5.1 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Amazon EC2 is a specialized IaaS by where it provides a sizeable computing capacity to an organization through clouding. Amazon EC2 with the pay-per-use concept allow an organization to scale up and down as per the latest computing requirement by only paying for capacity the organization actually use. It saves the needs for an organization to spend heavily on its IT infrastructure in order to operate its business processes. Amazon EC2 allows an organization to have complete control over the selected combination of instances, operating systems and software. With the highly reliable environment and numerous securing mechanisms, Amazon EC2 providing an assurance service to an organization. With the Amazon CloudWatch, an organization can had an overview of its resources utilization and performance at own pace. This solution is suitable to be adopting by Carsem as it coherent with the business processes and environment requirement. 3.5.2 Google App Engine With its specialties in PaaS, Google App Engine enables an organization to develop and host applications on the cloud platform without the needs for the organization to hold any server. With no set-up costs and recurring fees, an organization will only need to pay on the resources such as storage and bandwidth that are used by organization to support those applications. Google App Engine with its ability to automatic scaling enables an organization to scale up and down according to its current needs. 3.6 Cloud computing benefits and costs Clouding able to reduces organization hardware and overall IT expenses, apart from the benefits of pay-per-use. With the scalability of the clouding, organization may choose to expand its storage without the needs to pay an expensive price for the hardware and the programs. The availability of Cloud solutions enables an organization to run project at own ease and increase the deployment of new products. There is no payment needed by the organization on the future updates due to clouding provide automate updates services. Clouding reduces IT focus on system administration work such as manage servers and application upgrades and channel their skills in integrating the legacy system with the new cloud solution. The availability of templates allows the implementation and deployment of cloud services is much easier and minimizes the needs of IT. Clouding also enable users to access and updates information anywhere as their own convenience. Data are being managed and protected by the skilled vendors and the amounts of infrastructure needed had been the responsible of the cloud providers. This will ease the pain of an organization in deciding on the purchasing and the maintenance of the infrastructure base on the rapidly increasing workload. With the high secure infrastructure by the cloud providers, an organization is being relief off the infrastructure disaster such as power lines cut off, flooding, fire, security, etc. Clouding able to reduce the run time of an applications and enable the batch jobs to be completed in a short time frame so that management able to make a prompt decision. As the cloud services is provided via internet, internet service loss may result an organization unable to perform its business processes or unable to make a prompt decision. Due to the physical infrastructure locations is unknown to the organization, the data and information might run at risk of not be compliance with local privacy requirements. Apart from that organization might run at a risk that the data being expose to others users especially for public cloud which might had hundreds to thousands user. Organization might loss of control over its storage due to had no insight of cloud provider contingency procedures whether there are any backup, restore and disaster recovery. Organization might run into cloud providers that are using different application programming interface which resulting both application unable to synchronize. Below table summarize a list of benefits and costs in running cloud computing. 4. CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION Carsem need to take into consideration forces such as market demand, business strategy, IT department strategy, IT assessment and competitors IT infrastructure related services in the implementation of cloud computing. 4.1 Market demand for Carsem services Semiconductor industry had been growing in a pace and face constant demand for products. In order to maintain its position in the market, Carsem needs to ensure that its customers, suppliers and employees are satisfied with the services provided. Currently Carsem facing with the challenges of maintain a good rapport with its customers by where queries unable to be attended on time and customers facing a hard time in getting a real time product status via extranet established by Carsem. Apart from that suppliers also having difficulty in monitoring the raw materials inventory level for a prompt replenish due to no inventory tracking system established. There is no real time data shared with the oversea sales team which will enable the team to make an on time potential sales decision due to the data are locked away with the factory. Mean while information availability to the in house employees to make an immediate disposition is an existing challenge, as the information is only made available to a specific level of employees with granted access right. 4.2 Carsem business strategy Carsem goal of maintaining as a leading semiconductor sub-contract assembly house by providing zero defects products in a reasonable pricing achievable through a series of strategy such as maintaining a good relationship with the customers, continuous improvement system towards zero defects, quality control measurement, on-going research and development of high-technologies products and comprehensive monitoring system. In order to maintain a good relationship with customers, on time delivery and products information visibility need to made available. To further impress the customers, Carsem employees will need to be able excel in operational, services and technology delivery. A good monitoring system will ensure that the product deliver on time with zero defects, never the least ensure that Carsem inventories is in a healthy state. Continuous improvement system such as employee suggestion system (ESS) or operators advancement training program will ensure that the employees equipped with needed information for their job. 4.3 Carsem IT department strategy IT department is a crucial department in driving Carsem business strategy to meet with market demands. The department prior tactic is to conduct a throughout analysis by department basis to understand each department requirements and access needs towards the use of information system. The result will enable the IT department to create a fitting system to drive the business strategies smoothly to achieve information sharing and better decision making. Therefore total cost ownership (TCO) analysis is needed to justify to which extend an investment is needed. TCO included direct costs and indirect costs such as software and hardware acquisition cost, setup cost, maintenance cost, infrastructure cost, downtime cost, space and energy cost associate with non other the hiring cost. Management will be able to make a wise decision base on the TCO analysis. 4.4 IT assessment IT department strategy will lead to the need of IT assessment, as an appropriate IT tools are key to IT strategy success. IT assessment will be consisting of an inventory check on the current IT infrastructure available in house in comparison to IT infrastructure needed in association of the IT strategy drawn. The assessment will also need to take into consideration whether the IT infrastructure compatible with individual department needs. Apart from internal assessment, external assessment is also critical. A comparison also need to be carry out between IT infrastructure suppliers to enable a better choice; taking into consideration the factors such as cost, support, standard, licensing etc. IT department need to ensure that there is a database information available persistence to customers IT infrastructure so that Carsem data and information successfully directed to customer. The most common systems used in today market included ERP system, data mining system, information sharing system, reporting system to resolve current challenges faced by Carsem effectively with future expansion therefore cloud computing will be the optimum environment to run above mention system. 4.5 Competitor services and investment In terms of the hardware platform, Carsem nearest competitor is engaged with Dell and conducting with dos system for its software. In general, Carsem and its competitor are offering the same standard of services to its stakeholders. To a certain point, Carsem competitor had a better system by where they had establish a share point system by where it allows employees to upload and share documents thru share point portal. In term of the operation system support, Carsem is gaining an advantage as Carsem had engaged with MES system compare to its competitor which still yet to develop to the MES. 5. CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Recommendations Carsem should go for cloud computing to be at the edge of competitive advantage. Cloud computing solutions such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Google App Engine are suitable to be adopted by Carsem. The stated clouding solution will ease off the burden such as managing issues, financial costing, and maintenance problem and in the mean time promote a secure environment for data storage and enable the user to access whenever and wherever they like. 5.2 Summary of findings Carsem had been rapidly growing to achieve competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry. Through the competitive forces model, it is get to know that Carsem is facing with the problem of satisfying its stakeholders due to the incompetence IT infrastructure. Carsem will also need to ensure that both its business strategy and IT strategy are aligned to meet with the markets demand. Additional knowledge of its competitors services and IT infrastructure investment are some essential forces in determining Carsem success. Challenges identified associate in managing Carsem IT infrastructure can be grouped into three categories which are management, organization and technology perspective. Carsem need to realize that information system is the key for solving business problems. As such information system needs to be managed wisely to gain competitive advantage in the market. Information delivers on time will save up time and in turn resulting in cost saving.

Simple Sammy :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In John Updike’s short story â€Å"A&P†, small town New England life is teeming with a whole lot of nothing. Sammy, the man who tells all, seems very uninterested in his job as a check out boy at the local A&P, yet very interested in the people who shop there. He uses his boredom as a vehicle of his imagination that allows him to pry his customers open and expose their true selves. Updike’s Sammy shows himself as an observant, critical and very bored young man through his first person narration.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Updike’s choice of first person perspective lends Sammy the ever powerful ability to quietly but relentlessly gather observations of the people and things around him. The first characters encountered are â€Å"three girls in nothing but bathing suits†(369). This scene would obviously catch the attention of any breathing male. But Sammy first takes in â€Å"the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid . . . [with] a sweet broad soft-looking can†(369). With these quick and most likely mindless observations, Sammy exposes himself as a person who judges others based on appearances. As he takes note of the three girls, he sees â€Å"the queen†¦ [with] a kind of prim face. Walking into the A&P with your straps down, I suppose it’s the only kind of face you can have†(370). Sammy’s observations of the girls in bathing suits are not the only ones made throughout the story. However, the notice taken of the girls i s the most kind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perhaps through his mindless job of ringing up items, Sammy finds that making quick judgments of his customers through brief interactions is quite entertaining. He sees one female customer as â€Å"one of those cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows†¦she’d been watching cash registers for fifty years and probably never seen a mistake before†(369). Sammy gathers this unfair judgment coarsely and without much thought. He uses this same technique while watching the girls in bathing suits, for example, he thinks the older woman is a witch while he thinks that the girl with her straps down is the queen of her group. And why? Because it’s easy for him to assume these things based on what he sees. He also sees a man â€Å"in baggy gray pants who stumbles up with four giant cans of pineapple juice† and wonders to himself â€Å"what do these bums do with all that pineapple juice?