Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 21

Human Resource Management - Essay Example The paper also aims to discuss the various constituents for successful learning and development strategy. Learning is a continuous process that leads to development. It is a process of understanding through which the modification in the attitude and the behaviour takes place. Through learning and development strategies, the competencies and the behaviours of the individual as well as the team can be enhanced and the goals of the organisation can be achieved. For the learning and development strategy to be successful, it is important for the organisation to foster an environment that provides the trainee with ample scope to learn and develop his skills, knowledge that is necessary to perform the job effectively. Adaption to the changes is very important for the employees in the organisation. If they can adapt to the unanticipated changes then the learning and development is said to be successful. The term human resource development can be said as a coordinated use of the training and the development, career development as well as the organisational development for the improvement of the individual and the group and to increase the effectiveness of the organisation. The learning and development strategy uses the various interventions and the techniques in order to improve the performance of the people in the organisation (Swart & Et. Al., 2005). Learning and development is not any course or any event, but it is a continuous process that requires commitment from all the concerned parties. Whenever changes occur it is important for the learners and the organisation to remain agile. If the organisation as well as the learner is able to adapt to the changes then that can be considered as the biggest gift of learning. Learning and development is the process of acquiring the information and it is a quantitative increase in the knowledge of the learner. It means to store the information in such a way that it can be reproduced as and when required.

Law & Ethics Essay Example for Free

Law Ethics Essay BB General Partnership Dracca is able to seek recover from Silva Gray individually on the judgment for BB partnership because the partnership has not been incorporated. In a general partnership each individual can be sued for the full amount of the business debt. The partners cannot have personal interest within the partnership (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 729). If one partner incurs all of the debt, they can then sue the other partners for their parts of the debt. Within a Limited Liability Partnership these three items would differ from the general partnership. 1. Limited partners do not play an active role in the business 2. Limited partners are not personally liable 3. Limited partners face slightly different tax rules (NOLO) BB is not a formalized company under the laws of corporation and taxation, so in turn each individual can be held liable for the debt legally. However, Dracca should not have gone after Ms. Grey solely on a tip of her wealth. Business Judgment Rule The Business Judgment Rule states that as long as the board members have acted in good faith and meet the basic standards, there should not be a fear of prosecution when making decisions (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 801). To insure that the board of directors did not fault their duty of care and the Business Judgment Rule several items must be analyzed. 1. â€Å"Were the directors interested in the transaction?2. Did the directors act in good faith? 3. Did the directors act in a manner that cannot be attributed to a rational purpose? 4. Did the directors reach the decision by a negligent process?† (Bagley Savage, 2009 p.801). The board must also consider their duty of care and duty of loyalty. Duty of care requires people involved in the company to make informed and reasonable decisions for the business. Duty of loyalty requires employees to act in good faith and in good interest of the company (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 799). In the case of Dracca vs. BB, the board did not act in good duty of care, duty of loyalty or use the Business Judgment Rule appropriately. The overall concept to obtain the debt from BB was an action of duty or care and loyalty to the company. However, the way the board of directors went about the retrieval of the debt was not the best method. By pursuing Ms. Gray off a ‘tip’ the fund backfired and the company incurred a lot of fees that might not of occurred if the pursue was planned correctly. The process of pursuing the money was neglected, fault number three in the Business Judgment rule. Employment Discrimination The accounting manager for Dracca overseeing the BB account, Martin Long had his pay and responsibilities decreased by Accounting Director Mary Smith. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was developed to help employees against discrimination of age, sex, race, gender, national origin, disability, and religion (Bagley Savage, 2009 p.466). In Martin Long’s case he left the company because Ms. Smith’s visual and vocal opinions. The opinions turned into harassment and eventually Long left the Firm. By vocalizing and placing visual signs Ms. Smith was creating a harsh work environment for employees. Long will be able to sue Dracca for employment discrimination and argue constructive discharge because there must be evidence of unpleasant working condition that it forces the employee to resign and the employer has not taken care of the complaint within 15 days of being informed of the issues. The harassment must be worse than Title VII (Runkel, n.d.). Dracca is responsible for Ms. Smith’s actions/discrimination against Long. Kate was fired after reporting to the EEOC the harassment from Ms. Smith. Kate should not of been fired for reporting the discrimination. Due to Dracca’s action upon firing Kate, the company seems to approve of Ms. Smith’s actions. The EEOC Compliance Manual states that the person filing the complaint is â€Å"protected against retaliation by a respondent for participating in the statutory complaint proceedings even if that complaint involved a different covered entity† (Igasaki, 1998). From the EEOC, Dracca would be held liable for Hernandez’s actions within the court system. Hernandez violated the EEOC Title VII discriminatory actions. The Title VII makes two theories clear to businesses. 1. The theory of disparate treatment and 2. The theory of disparate impact. Disparate treatment means that the plaintiff has to prove that the employer intentionally discriminated against him/her denying a benefit of employment (Bagley Savage, 2009 p.471). Disparate impact is when employers make employment decisions based on selection, making employers complete test and evaluations. BFOQ stands for Bona Fide Occupational that an employer must prove that the type of person is not able to perform the job position. In this case, women with children were hired in order to sell the product. Dracca would have to prove that men were not able to perform the job. The BFOQ cannot be used as a defense when there is a preferred gender within the company. The following also apply. Usually BFOQ is not based on color and gender will not qualify when the 1. â€Å"Assumptions of the comparative employment characteristics of women in general, 2. Stereotyped characteristics of the sexes, and 3. The preferences of coworkers, employers or customers for one gender or the other (Bagley Savage, 2009 p. 485). Conclusion After reviewing the case, I recommend the following 1. Dracca hire new board members with a focus on the business, and not a focus on money. The Board of Directors should be compiled of people that are business savvy and care about the firm and about the financials in a legal and ethical manner. By the Board leaning on a tip and not fact, the business incurred a lot of debt that could have been spent somewhere else within the firm. 2. Dracca should have a firmer hiring process where the prospects are asked to observe and manage for a day, or write out a list of goals, or how to hire people for certain positions. This could show some speculation to discrimination. Also, Dracca should be stricter on company policy regarding religion, politics, and harassment. If need be the company can have classes on what is and is not harassment within the workplace. In this case, it seems that Dracca turned a blind eye on Mr. Long. References Bagley, Savage (2009 Feb. 5). Managers and the Legal Environment: Strategies for the 21st Century, Retrieved from: http://online.vitalsource.com/books/1111439885/S3.2/25 Igasaki, P., (1998), The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC Directives Transmittal, Retrieved from: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/retal.htm Runkel, R. (n.d.), Constructive Discharge #9, Law Memo: First in Employment Law. Retrieved from: http://www.lawmemo.com/101/2005/12/constructive_di.html

Upton Sinclair :: essays research papers

Upton Sinclair was an American writer whose works reflects not only the inside but also the socialists view on things. Upton sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born into a family which held to it’s Southern aristocracy in every thing that was done. When Sinclair was ten years old, the family packed up and moved to New York City ( Where there were more opportunities to succeed ). Upton Beall Sinclair began writing when he was 15 years old. He mostly wrote ethnic jokes and fiction for a fun magazine. He wrote these silly stories and jokes in order for the magazine to pay for his studies at New York City College. After he was done at New York City College, in 1897, he enrolled at Columbia University. By this time, Upton was putting out many novels and respected works. He was already being realized as one of the greatest writers of his time. Upton was putting out up to two novels per week. This was unheard of at this point in time. During these years he wrote Clif Faraday stories such as "Ensign Clarke Fitch." He was also writing Mark Mallory Stories like "Lieutenant Frederick Garrison" for boys’ weekly magazine. His writing was on the right track, but he still didn’t have that one book to put him over the top. In 1900 Sinclair married his first wife. This was a start of a whole new era of writing for him. By 1904 Sinclair was moving toward a realistic fiction type of writing. He had become a regular reader of the "Appeal to Reason", which was a popular socialist-populist weekly magazine at that time. Upton’s big break came in 1906 when he published a book called, " The Jungle." As a writer this is where Sinclair gained most of his fame. This book gave him not only fame, but it also led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This book had the deepest impact since Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The books popularity enabled Sinclair to establish and support the socialistic Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, N.J. However the popularity of his type of writing fell away after that year. After " The Jungle" was written it set off many sim ilar studies of a group, and industry. or a region. Among some of them were: "The Metropolis" (1908) which was a exploration of New York people, "King Coal" (1917) which was a story about the Colorado Mining strike of 1914, and "Oil!" which was considered one of Sinclair’s most influential writings. Upton Sinclair :: essays research papers Upton Sinclair was an American writer whose works reflects not only the inside but also the socialists view on things. Upton sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born into a family which held to it’s Southern aristocracy in every thing that was done. When Sinclair was ten years old, the family packed up and moved to New York City ( Where there were more opportunities to succeed ). Upton Beall Sinclair began writing when he was 15 years old. He mostly wrote ethnic jokes and fiction for a fun magazine. He wrote these silly stories and jokes in order for the magazine to pay for his studies at New York City College. After he was done at New York City College, in 1897, he enrolled at Columbia University. By this time, Upton was putting out many novels and respected works. He was already being realized as one of the greatest writers of his time. Upton was putting out up to two novels per week. This was unheard of at this point in time. During these years he wrote Clif Faraday stories such as "Ensign Clarke Fitch." He was also writing Mark Mallory Stories like "Lieutenant Frederick Garrison" for boys’ weekly magazine. His writing was on the right track, but he still didn’t have that one book to put him over the top. In 1900 Sinclair married his first wife. This was a start of a whole new era of writing for him. By 1904 Sinclair was moving toward a realistic fiction type of writing. He had become a regular reader of the "Appeal to Reason", which was a popular socialist-populist weekly magazine at that time. Upton’s big break came in 1906 when he published a book called, " The Jungle." As a writer this is where Sinclair gained most of his fame. This book gave him not only fame, but it also led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This book had the deepest impact since Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The books popularity enabled Sinclair to establish and support the socialistic Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, N.J. However the popularity of his type of writing fell away after that year. After " The Jungle" was written it set off many sim ilar studies of a group, and industry. or a region. Among some of them were: "The Metropolis" (1908) which was a exploration of New York people, "King Coal" (1917) which was a story about the Colorado Mining strike of 1914, and "Oil!" which was considered one of Sinclair’s most influential writings.

Causes of the Franco-Russian Alliance :: European Europe History

Causes of the Franco-Russian Alliance During the late 19th century many countries sought an alliance with other countries to guarantee their own safety, preserve peace and sometimes to help their economic position. this is highlighted by alliances and treaties such as the "Dual Alliance" of 1879, the "Dreikaiserbund" of 1881 and the "Reinsurance Treaty" This was also the case for both France and Russia, with them agreeing the "Franco-Russian Military Convention" on August 18th 1892 and later agreeing the "Franco-Russian Alliance" in 1893. France and Russia were animated by a common desire to preserve peace. The only reason it was possible for France and Russia to form this alliance is because Germany allowed the Reinsurance treaty to become invalid. Both countries wanted different things from the alliance but there was one common reason between them, and that was to oppose Germany - although both countries had different incentives for this. France, Russia and Germany all contributed to the alliance being formed, either t hrough their aims or what they did. France aimed to get revenge on Germany for the Franco - Prussian war of 1970 - 1971 where France were disastrously defeated, Germany aimed to stay free from an invasion from France and keep Austria-Hungary happy as France and Austria- Hungary were on either side of German, and Russia wanted an ally so it could feel safe form Germany. France made an alliance with Russia because it was against Germany. France wanted Revenge on Germany because of the humiliation of losing the Franco-Prussian war and the valuable land lost, like "Alsace - Lorraine". They wanted revenge and this widely known. France knew that "without Russia's help, the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871, in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine could never be repaired", so it was important France allied with a relatively strong power. Karl Marx said "If Alsace - Lorraine is taken, then France will later make war with Germany in conjunction with France". France needed an ally because she felt extremely vulnerable, this was mainly due to Bismarck and Germany. Bismarck had been successful in isolating France diplomatically over the previous decade, so she needed to catch up with the other major powers. France couldn't ally with Britain because Britain kept itself in "splendid isolation", so Russia was really the only real choice as they were the only other great power who was suspicious and disliked Germany. France feared Germany, Germany had a preponderant military, so to counterbalance the German - British alliance, France agreed the Franco-Russian alliance.

Columbia Business Environment

According to (Walter, J. (2006), any business worthy its salt must carry out a business analysis audit before venturing into expansion plans. This often saves an organization time and resources which would be lost if the decision to expand or relocate business is not based on sound business practices. The case below analyses the business environment in Colombia, by addressing the political, cultural, economic, and domestic and industry analysis of the country. Finally the paper gives a verdict based on the findings of the analysis which is basically a recommendation on the economic investment options for a business aiming at venturing into the Colombian market. Location. Colombia, neighbors Caribbean Sea, Panama, Venezuela, a well as North Pacific Ocean. With a population of about 40 million people, the country has a good domestic market. Colombia enjoys a mixture of climates such as coastal- tropic climate as well as in the eastern plains it also has cool highlands climate suitable for agricultural activities. Political environment Major political parties currently include, Democratic Alliance, Liberal Party, Patriotic Union, and Social Conservative Party (Kline, & Harvey, 1985). Political leaders include the president, Carlos Franco Echavarria, Antonio Navarro Wolff, Otty Patino, Carlos Alonso Lucio, Jose Fernando Bautista, Aida Abella and Dr. Eugenio Merlano de la Ossa. The country has democratic ties with the US and has ambassador in the US as well as hosts an ambassador from the US. In terms of religion the people are largely Roman Catholics, which constitute over 90% of the population with other religions forming the 10 percent. Currently the country is grappling with civil riots, poverty, lawlessness, depreciating currency as well as unstable political environment. The country has been faced with civil strife for the past 40 years something which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people internally (Amnesty International, 2002). Currently, the presidency is from right –wing and many pundits have predicted that, as long as he continues to favor socialist ideals, the long waited reforms especially those addressing the plight of the poor in Columbia will continue unresolved. Economic conditions. The economy is predicted to grow at a rate of 6. 1something attributable to stable domestic consumption as well as favorable private investment situation. In the year 2005 the GDP was 5. 13 and a 6. 1 growth this year is appositive indicator of a favorable economic environment. The best performing sectors are trade, infrastructure and industry. Columbia’s GDP has been growing at a rate of 3. 1 to 3-6 in the last 3 years that is from the year 2004 to presently. Improved global economic environment is the reason behind a lot of economic activity being experienced in Colombia (Bagley, & Michael, 1987). In addition, the domestic market is growing in a sharp contrast to the impoverished people. The growth rate can be termed as encouraging with the country experiencing strong and predictable exchange rates, as well as low and favorable interest rates. On top of the above, the credit conditions have improved significantly as compared to the situation in the 90’s. Major economic sectors include textiles, oil exploration, beverages, chemicals, cement; as well as minerals like gold, coal, and emeralds (Thoumi, Francisco 1987). Labor conditions. The labor market in Colombia is ready and oversupplied. However major challenges lay ahead because of the deplorable labor movement conditions in that country. In a nut shell it is evident from the available literature that, labor organizations are non operational in Colombia, joining trade union is equitable to courting death something which has greatly affected the labor relations in the country. On top of that, employees’ morale in the country is on an all-time low due to the fact that, the workers in that country do not have a strong bargaining power (Peeler, &John, 1976). The situation becomes more complex due to the involvement of military groups which besides being armed, seem to operate undeterred by law enforcement agencies. There have been reported numerous abductions, threats and assassinations all directly related to labor issues something which calls for great planning on the side of a foreign company wishing to invest in Colombia. The above have had a negative effect on the economic environment of the country and have been the leading causes for investors shunning from investing in the country. Besides the above named conditions of crime, there has been of late a wave of economic crime such as hijackings of shipments, ransom demand kidnappings, counterfeit goods trade, all of which have made production costs to go up due to high risks. Colombia is active in regional and international organizations such as UN, Andean community, the Rio group and OAS (Martz, & John, 1962). The country’s political system is a democracy of bicameral congress and independent executive as well as judiciary. The biggest political parties are the Liberal and Conservative currently the president is, Alvaro Uribe. The people speak their ethnic languages of their respective ethnic groups but Spanish is the official and national language, such ethnic groups and languages include; Mestizo, Whites, Blacks, mulatto and Amerindian. The literacy level is very high with 91% of the population being literate which implies that skilled labor is readily available in the country. The people are known to be hospitable and rarely has there been reported animosity related to foreigners. Evidently, Colombia is not a politically stable country something which has resulted from continued guerrilla warfare as well as paramilitary activities. Urban crime rate is very high as well as the insecurity conditions in the whole country. Corruption is reported to be very high couple with drug trafficking and all other manner of social crimes. It is correct to say that Columbia is one of the most unsafe places to invest in and therefore the business should postpone its expansion plans in Colombia and perhaps relocate to other neighboring countries with same strategic business advantages as Columbia but less risks and therefore operational costs..

Word Choice Reluctant vs. Reticent

Word Choice Reluctant vs. Reticent Word Choice: Reluctant vs. Reticent â€Å"Reluctant† and â€Å"reticent† are both adjectives that mean â€Å"unwilling.† They also look similar written down, so it’s no wonder people use these terms interchangeably. But there is a difference between â€Å"reluctant† and â€Å"reticent,† so check out our guide to make sure you can use them correctly. Reluctant (Unwilling or Slow to Do Something) To be â€Å"reluctant† is to be unwilling or hesitant to do something. For example: I was reluctant to leave before the fireworks. You can use this term in any situation where someone is resistant to something, so it has a wide range of possible uses. This flexibility is reflected in the origins of this term, which comes from a Latin word meaning â€Å"struggle.† As such, if we are struggling to bring ourselves to do anything, we can say we feel â€Å"reluctant† about it. Reticent (Unwilling to Speak) While â€Å"reticent† also implies being unwilling or hesitant about something, it applies specifically to speaking or revealing our thoughts and feelings: Tom was reticent about why he left the party. Here, we’re not saying that Tom was â€Å"reluctant† to leave a party. We’re saying he was unwilling to tell us why he left the party. We can also use â€Å"reticent† to describe someone’s character in general: Hannah has been reticent for as long as I’ve known her. Even in this case, though, the word â€Å"reticent† suggests that Hannah is quiet and reserved in particular. It does not mean she is â€Å"unwilling† in other ways. And we would not use reluctant to describe a personal trait like this. Again, looking at the origins of this word can help us understand how it is used in modern English: â€Å"reticent† comes from reticere, which means â€Å"silent† in Latin. Thus, if we are â€Å"reticent,† we are being quiet about something. Reluctant or Reticent? Although some now use â€Å"reticent† to mean â€Å"unwilling† in any context, it would be a mistake to do this in formal writing. So to avoid errors, remember that â€Å"reticent† has a more specific meaning than â€Å"reluctant†: To be reluctant is to be unwilling to do something. To be reticent is to be unwilling to speak or reveal your thoughts. If you can remember this distinction, you should be able to use these terms correctly. But if you want to be extra sure that your writing is error free, you can also submit a document to our outstanding proofreading service.

Leadership is central to the appeal of Fascism essays

Leadership is central to the appeal of Fascism essays Leadership is central to the appeal of Fascism During the 1920s and early 1930s Germany was unstable economically and politically. The government was in a state of dismay, the population was disheartened and scared and the great Wall Street stock market crash of 1923 saw the economy crumble before the counties eyes. These unfavourable factors combined to create a nation of unstable form, a country that was looking for a saviour. This came in the form of fascism, a type of government based on the principles in which the individual is dominated by an all powerful state under the control of one supreme leader. The hand to lead the people of Germany out of all the problems and deceptions of these terrible times was Adolf Hitler, a fascist dominator. The problems that the German government was having were a blessing to Hitler and gave him and the Nazi party the opportunity to employ their propaganda skills to capture this frustrated nation and win their hearts, but more importantly manipulate their minds and maintain power in Germany . Hypothesis: it was propaganda, which enabled the Nazis to gain and maintain power 1. The organised spreading of ideas and information, which is meant to make people think and or act in a certain way. It normally has little to do with the truth and can be very exaggerated. Propaganda played a huge role in enabling the Nazi party to gain and maintain power. One of the main reasons that propaganda was used so much in the nazi party campaign was because the national leaders, Hitler and Goebbles were so good at designing it. They were masters at propaganda and they carefully trained their local groups in propaganda skills and used every trick in the book to get their message home. Propaganda was also used because it wasnt straightforward. Propaganda enabled the Nazi party to create any image that they wanted for their party, and with their brief slogans and vague promises, propaganda sto...

Free Essays on McDonalds

Does McDonald’s offer a model which other businesses should follow? At first, most people must have laughed at the idea of a chain of restaurants selling identical products all over the country, but little did they know that the genius idea that they had mocked would go on to revolutionise the business environment of the future. McDonald’s is now the international market leader for fast food, and has been ever since its pioneering first restaurant was launched in San Bernardino, California in 1948. Historical Background The original founders of McDonald’s, and the fast-food concept, were brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1948, they modified their drive-in restaurant, creating the standard for the contemporary fast-food restaurant of modern times. From the introduction of a limited menu of just nine items, and by focusing on efficient production and service, the brothers were able to halve the price of their hamburgers to 15 cents. Ray Kroc, who, at this time was a 52-year-old! milkshake machine salesman, heard of the brothers’ generation of around $350,000 in annual revenues, and instantly became convinced that its concept could work in other cities. Kroc became the first franchisee appointed by the McDonald brothers, and opened his first restaurant the following year in Des Plaines, Illinois. In 1961, Kroc bought all the rights to the McDonald’s concept from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. Kroc was somewhat of an obsessive individual, fixated with rules, regulations, procedures, and obedience to his strict rules of discipline. Kroc was especially concerned with maintaining McDonald's clean image, as well as that of life in general, and could regularly be seen picking up litter outside of his restaurants in order to maintain the high standard of cleanliness upon which many of his principles were based. During the 1960s, McDonald’s invested a great deal of capital into advertising and marketing campaigns. In 1962, ... Free Essays on McDonalds Free Essays on McDonalds Does McDonald’s offer a model which other businesses should follow? At first, most people must have laughed at the idea of a chain of restaurants selling identical products all over the country, but little did they know that the genius idea that they had mocked would go on to revolutionise the business environment of the future. McDonald’s is now the international market leader for fast food, and has been ever since its pioneering first restaurant was launched in San Bernardino, California in 1948. Historical Background The original founders of McDonald’s, and the fast-food concept, were brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1948, they modified their drive-in restaurant, creating the standard for the contemporary fast-food restaurant of modern times. From the introduction of a limited menu of just nine items, and by focusing on efficient production and service, the brothers were able to halve the price of their hamburgers to 15 cents. Ray Kroc, who, at this time was a 52-year-old! milkshake machine salesman, heard of the brothers’ generation of around $350,000 in annual revenues, and instantly became convinced that its concept could work in other cities. Kroc became the first franchisee appointed by the McDonald brothers, and opened his first restaurant the following year in Des Plaines, Illinois. In 1961, Kroc bought all the rights to the McDonald’s concept from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. Kroc was somewhat of an obsessive individual, fixated with rules, regulations, procedures, and obedience to his strict rules of discipline. Kroc was especially concerned with maintaining McDonald's clean image, as well as that of life in general, and could regularly be seen picking up litter outside of his restaurants in order to maintain the high standard of cleanliness upon which many of his principles were based. During the 1960s, McDonald’s invested a great deal of capital into advertising and marketing campaigns. In 1962, ... Free Essays on McDonalds Catering to customers had always been the company’s focal point, but to meet changing and divergent customer needs, McDonald’s was exploring many different options, and management thought a basic question had to be answered. Would the chain’s new concern with flexibility in meeting customers’ changing needs require a fundamental change in McDonald’s bedrock strategy? or was this just a new, albeit incredibly complicated, situation once again adaptable to the company’s traditional approach? Early responses to new customer desire and intensifying competition represented just a piece of the company’s maelstrom of creative activity. Further efforts were in progress as well. 4. Why did McDonald’s undertake its collaboration? How should McDonald’s proceed next? Consumers have been changing. They are worried about the effects the products or its package might have on the environment. While this awareness is growing up, a new cha llenge had been approached: protecting the environment. While many companies had seen the outbreak of environmentalism in the late 1980’s as a threat, McDonald’s saw an opportunity: the chance of knitting a responsible environmental policy into its evolving operations strategy. McDonald’s take Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as a new partner. They engaged EDF to help address environmental concerns, one aspect of increasingly complex situation in which the company now found itself. For the private corporation of McDonald’s stature to collaborate with an environmental organization entailed significant risk and required willingness, by both parties, to consider new ways of thinking about operation practices. The partnership turned out to be a success, generating advances in area beyond waste reduction. McDonald’s had announced its McRecycle USA. Program. They achieve to improve functionality of package, reduce waste and volume of boxes. Moreover less pollution was handled. McDonald’s did fact...

Hydro electricity verses wind turbines in the Waikato (New Zeland) Essay

Hydro electricity verses wind turbines in the Waikato (New Zeland) - Essay Example It became evident from the research that wind turbine power generation will lead to low levels of pollution, reduced cost of power production and large amounts of power being generated to the national grid. Although hydro power has dominated the sector of power generation in Waikato, it is expensive to construct a power plant for the generation of hydroelectricity. It leads to pollution of the environment and make aquatic life endangered. To conclude, we have recommended further study on the power production trend and more research into systems for a more effective method and calculation of the cost and benefit analysis between these two methods of electricity generation. Upon evaluation and analysis of these two methods of power generation, we realized that wind power generation systems stand an upper chance to continue generating power for use in Waikato. Wind power already provides some percentage of power into the grand power used in the Waikato Te Uku which is a wind power generating farm about 28 turbines and has produced a fairly high amount of power in watts. This is possibly due to the presence of winds which have speeds going beyond 6metres per second. In future, Waikato residents and business operators would like to get power which is consistently available, cheap and also causes minimal pollution to the environment (Craddock, 2008). Failure to choose the best option between the many options of power generation including the burning of coal will mean continued pollution to the environment and intermittency in the production of power. This report therefore entails; a research plan; (1) the development of evaluation and comparison aspects, (2) data collection, (3) an assessment of the power needs and supply for Waikato, (4) and an interview of an expert from the field and (5) an analysis of the previous and current trends in the power supply. Due to our need of clear information as

Chemistry Term Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Chemistry Term Paper - Essay Example Fossil fuels are the fuels that have developed over millions of years through various natural processes. Thousands of centuries ago, when plants and animals perished, their fossils gradually became a part of the soil. These were pushed deeper into the earth and were acted upon by intense pressure and temperatures. Over the years, the fossils underwent slow chemical and physical changes, and gradually attained the state they possess now. The main types of fossil fuels are coal, petroleum and natural gas. Because the global economy is powered by fossil fuels, it is critical to know how long world reserves will last. However, estimating the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves requires extensive information, including comprehensive geological maps of the world’s sedimentary basins, models of energy production systems, and data showing world energy consumption patterns and trends. When estimating the world’s fossil fuel supply, experts distinguish between reserves and resources. Reserves are fossil fuel deposits that have already been discovered and are immediately available. Resources are fossil fuel deposits that geologists believe are located in certain sedimentary basins, but have not yet been discovered. Because geologists base fossil fuel resource estimates on the location, extent, and formation of deposits recovered in geologically similar basins, resource estimates are less certain than reserve estimates. Both reserve and resource estimates are revised as data about new and existing deposits become available. Because fossil fuels are being consumed at much faster rates than they are produced in the earth’s crust, humankind will eventually deplete these nonrenewable resources. While it is unclear how far in the future this will happen, there is evidence that some regions are becoming depleted in certain types of fossil fuels. For example, production of crude petroleum in the United States

Hong Kong Law of Tort Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Hong Kong Law of Tort - Essay Example The mother, after witnessing the series of events, called her husband Ben, the stepfather of Elizabeth who came one hour after. He collapsed after seeing the bandages on Elizabeth. John, brother of Elizabeth after being notified, came one day after incident. All three persons, Lucy, Ben and John, suffered from shock after the incident. The idea of negligence is a product of hundred of years of law making. Until the present, the idea of negligence is still very much open to interpretations by the court. Although there have several attempts in the past to come up with criteria for negligence, the‘ categories of negligence are never closed.’1 Although the courts wanted a rule by which to judge conduct, they wanted the rule to be flexible enough so that the rule could be applied in various circumstances. Lord Atkin in Donoghue v Stevenson, the courts were initially quite reluctant to apply it as a criterion of general application in every case of negligence. Instead, they ad opted a case by case approach, thus restricting the imposition of liability to only few situations of negligence. 2 Negligence is generally defined as the failure to use ordinary care. A person fails to use ordinary care if he/she does something that a person of ordinary prudence would not have done under the same or similar circumstances. Failure to use ordinary care can also occur by omission, or failing to do something which a person of ordinary prudence would have done under the same or similar circumstances. Negligence, then, is a judgment of both acts and omissions.

Web Browsers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Web Browsers - Research Paper Example Over time their usability has increased. Though, their main function is to act as browsers for the web, they are also used in different networking solutions. The first web browser was introduced in 1993 by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina. It was named Mosaic and made to run on UNIX platform (Rosen et al. 290). Mosaic Communications Corporation was founded and later named Netscape Communications Corporation and hence, the browser was renamed Netscape. Functionality was added over time and it was fairly simple. Various bundles were added along with the browser to improve its functionality and enable it to connect with an email client and for composing a webpage. In 1995, Microsoft countered Netscape with the introduction of Internet Explorer for its Windows platform. The browser was based on the original Mosaic browser. The two companies fought for dominance for almost three years and a race started between the two. This war for dominance is known as the Browser War (Ensor 164). Over this time new features were introduced and the development of feature rich modern browsers started. Microsoft gained dominance by including Internet Explorer fr ee in its Windows operating system and furthermore, developed a version for the UNIX foundation also available free of cost. Netscape could not sustain damages and was sold to Mozilla Foundation; the maker of Firefox. Over time, other browsers joined in the list. Most notable of them are Apple’s Safari, which was introduced in 2003 and the more recently Google’s Chrome introduced in 2008. The major web browsers in use today include Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. The basic functionality of all these browsers is to enable user navigation in a webpage. Different features have been added over time and they are all different from each other in operation, features and interface. The most common features besides supporting HTML files include; built in search

Brain Drain and Brain Gain In Asia (India, South Korea, China) Research Paper

Brain Drain and Brain Gain In Asia (India, South Korea, China) - Research Paper Example However, a different trend was noted towards the turn of the millennium where many immigrants from these Asian countries embarked on a reverse mode to their countries of origin (Lien & Wang 156-157). In this regard, the return channel of the immigrants meant substantial brain gain for the developing countries and absence channel for the western countries. It has been noted that professionals from China and India who have acquired higher education in the western countries are increasingly been forced back to their homelands. This is as a result of the economic instability and changing immigration laws in the western countries such as the United States. On the other hand, it is plausible that about 55% of Indian immigrants and about 80% of their Chinese counterparts return to their homelands due to the availability of equal business and employment opportunities back home. On a specific basis, about 30% of these immigrants have returned home due to increased job security. In addition, 2 8% have been attracted back by brighter future prospects, and 25% have been attracted by enhanced education systems and options. Furthermore, about 12% of the immigrants have cited attractive employment packages as their major reasons for opting back to the motherland (Paldam 458). Within the Asia-Pacific region, immigration and emigration of professionals and skilled workers has become as a pivotal point for some of the world’s economic movers including China and India. It has been noted that some of the major reasons that initially contributed to the movement of professionals from India and China included shortage of skilled labor, changing demographic patterns and rising costs of living. It is noteworthy that enhanced social, economic, political, and educational environment in the Asian region are churning new opportunities for migrant students, talented individuals, and skilled labor (Paldam

Web Browsers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Web Browsers - Research Paper Example Over time their usability has increased. Though, their main function is to act as browsers for the web, they are also used in different networking solutions. The first web browser was introduced in 1993 by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina. It was named Mosaic and made to run on UNIX platform (Rosen et al. 290). Mosaic Communications Corporation was founded and later named Netscape Communications Corporation and hence, the browser was renamed Netscape. Functionality was added over time and it was fairly simple. Various bundles were added along with the browser to improve its functionality and enable it to connect with an email client and for composing a webpage. In 1995, Microsoft countered Netscape with the introduction of Internet Explorer for its Windows platform. The browser was based on the original Mosaic browser. The two companies fought for dominance for almost three years and a race started between the two. This war for dominance is known as the Browser War (Ensor 164). Over this time new features were introduced and the development of feature rich modern browsers started. Microsoft gained dominance by including Internet Explorer fr ee in its Windows operating system and furthermore, developed a version for the UNIX foundation also available free of cost. Netscape could not sustain damages and was sold to Mozilla Foundation; the maker of Firefox. Over time, other browsers joined in the list. Most notable of them are Apple’s Safari, which was introduced in 2003 and the more recently Google’s Chrome introduced in 2008. The major web browsers in use today include Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. The basic functionality of all these browsers is to enable user navigation in a webpage. Different features have been added over time and they are all different from each other in operation, features and interface. The most common features besides supporting HTML files include; built in search

Environment and Evolution of human being Research Paper

Environment and Evolution of human being - Research Paper Example nce has been collected through considerations of facts like fossils of the early human skull and concurrent bone structure that indicated the presence of the differences in the structure of human with respect to respective age period in the past. Such differences were notable in the human skull morphology, for instance, in some human species like Lucy. The stand has been further supported by Adrienne Zihlmans article regarding "paleosols" that hugely back up the relationship between environment and human evolution (Penna, 2010). According to (Haviland, 2007), the current theory and entailed elaborations on the evolution of man attains its backing from a set of independently notable observations well placed in the fields of anthropology, molecular biology and other sectors like paleontology. All the three segments outline or exhibit life originating from a common point of ancestor and then branching into various categories under a gradual and progressive genetic changes spanning millions of years in a "tree of life" that is hugely influenced by environmental variations. Evolution of man similar to other animals in the ecosystem has been impacted by the environment that has consecutively acted in the formats of three main principles. The first principle is through microevolution that refers to the presence or the occurrence and establishment of build-up of mutations acting on the genetic sequence of an organism. The environment created huge impacts on established of the new establishment of build-up of mutati ons acting on the genetic sequence from the historic ancestor of man. Though the change can equally occur naturally. Several environmental effects have been linked to the microevolution of the mankind especially those originating from different geographical regions. The main environmental variations includes existent chemicals and varied earth radiations notable in various parts of the earth. Environmental radiations is believed to contribute to the difference

Proposed HR Program for CompuLearn Essay Example for Free

Proposed HR Program for CompuLearn Essay CompuLearn is a private sector provider of IT-based teaching and learning programmes in business and management based in the UK, with corporate headquarters in Preston, Lancashire and with trading centers in Mumbai, Nairobia and Dubai. Its current global market is focused in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, with 200 education centers in 30 countries. CompuLearn partners with UK universities which validates its programs so that   students are able to qualify in the University programs leading to academic degrees. Its current manpower complement numbers 50 employees mostly based in the corporate office in Preston, Lancashire doing the following functions: Program Development, Customer Service, HR, Marketing, Finance, Sales, IT, Quality Assurance. CompuLearn has embarked on a mission to be market leader in e-learning delivery of University validated programs and foremost learning company in the world. It is on an expanded growth program and it adopted a new strategy to extend to 500 education centers in 60 countries over a span of 3 years. The role of HR is very critical in this new strategy, which is to attract top IT experts. It could be a relatively easy task if not for the following: 1. There is a high turn over in the IT industry in UK and new employees leave after only one month for a new job that offers better pay. 2. CompuLearn has a limited training system in place. Its strategy is to recruit highly trained staff instead of training them in house. The allocated budget for training is almost used up and was used to train the Sales team. 3. Employees have limited management skills as they are mostly technical staff whose training is not in the soft skills development. 4. The company does not have a Performance Appraisal System in place. 5. The staff at the corporate headquarters do not have a comfortable relationship with the staff of the UK universities largely due to complaints of attitude. 6. The HR Director’s strength is in micro-managing and does not have expertise in long-term management plans for the company employees. The Limitations and Constraints Faced by the Company The HR Department will play a very strategic role in supporting the growth of CompuLearn. Among other things, it needs to address the following limitations and constraints faced by the company, whether internally caused or faced by the industry in general: 1. The high turn over rate in the IT industry in UK 2. The lack of a professional or well-developed training and development program for employees 3. The employees’ limited skills in management, customer service and other soft skills 4. The lack of a well-placed Performance Appraisal System 5. The not-so-friendly attitude of the academic staff of the Universities towards the company employees at the corporate headquarters 6. The limited knowledge and skills of the HR Director in long-term planning for the management of the employees Recommendations The HR strategies recommended are based on the following assumptions: 1. Budget The company is working on a limited budget, which is just around 30% of the  annual budget of 25,000 Euros. 2. Lead Department The HR Department will take the lead in implementing the strategies. The HR Director shall formally appoint the section heads to serve as lead persons in implementing the strategies in their respective sections. The HR Director has the free hand in creating working committees to participate in the entire process from planning to implementation. The process will be participatory and with some amount of consultation from the employees. 3. Timetable The strategies are proposed for implementation on a focused basis within the first year (Year 1 Month 1 to Month 12). Beginning Year 2 (Month 13) the focus of the activities will be on monitoring, evaluation, and implementation of improvements. 4. HR Management Perspective/Model Available literature identify different HR Management models that attempt to explain the various strategies adopted by different companies. General classifications fall under the â€Å"soft† and â€Å"hard† models, based on the definitions of employees considered as either â€Å"human† or â€Å"resource†. The hard versions consider employees as resource and adopt a rational approach to managing them, aligning their HR strategies with the strategies of the business. The soft version, on the other hand, considers employees as human and adopts strategies to train and develop them (Bratton and Gold, p. 5). The recommendations adopted in this case will be based more on the soft version of human resource management. Focus will be more on training and development as well as in developing commitment from employees. A limited form of the hard version will however allow the HR to link the strategies with the overall corporate strategy of the company. In analyzing the challenge faced by CompuLearn, a simplistic framework was designed around the following questions, based on the limitations/constraints faced by the company and to become the basis for the strategies: 1. On the high turn-over rate in the IT industry How can CompuLearn keep its employees from leaving the company after short- term engagement only? Or how can the company motivate its employees to stay longer? 2. On the lack of a professional training and development program Should the company train in-house or continue to hire experts from outside? 3. On the employees’ limited skills in management, customer service, and other soft skills. How can the employees learn the soft skills and apply them at work? 4. On the lack of a well-placed Performance Appraisal System Is there a need to formulate or adopt a Performance Appraisal System? 5. On the not-so-friendly attitude of the academic staff of the Universities towards the company employees at the corporate headquarters How can there be a more cordial relationship between the two parties? How can the company make the employees appreciate the importance of having good relations with the University staff? Can this be done through training or should the company replace those who transact with the University staff with other company employees, either through job rotation or job enrichment? 7. On the limited knowledge and skills of the HR Director in long-term planning for the management of the employees. Should the HR Director undertake refresher courses in management? Or should the company hire a new HR person who has the skills in long term planning to assist the HR Director? Below is a presentation of the proposed HR strategies and programs, in matrix form,   that can be implemented under the leadership of the HR Director. They are composed of both short term and long term strategies. The short-term strategies are those that can be immediately implemented, within the first six months from the time the recommendations will be adopted. The long term strategies are those that can be adopted over a longer period and on a continuing basis like the periodic reviews of policies and developing a system whereby improvements can take place every so often whenever warranted. It will be observed that most of the strategies will be newly introduced to the company and it can be expected that certain difficulties will be met. This will include among other things, resistance to the changes to be introduced, the difficulty of the HR Department to implement them for lack of the appropriate knowledge and skills, and with some â€Å"difficult† employees. This is all part of the process of the HR accepting the initial resistance  to the changes. The HR should be firm and consistent but at the same time adopting an attitude of openness and willingness to see through the improvements. Education and training are two important components of an empowered workforce. The saying that a company is only as good as its weakest employee is very much applicable here. Each employee is responsible for knowing about his company and performing according to the expectations set at the time of his engagement. However, it is the job of HR to find the employees who have the potential to learn more and continuously give them the opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills.

Performance and Reward Challenges in the Retail Sector

Performance and Reward Challenges in the Retail Sector REPORT ON PERFORMANCE AND REWARD CHALLENGES RETAIL SECTOR FACE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD. OVERVIEW This report aims to discuss, analyse the Reward and Performance challenges faced by the retail sector, there were two major retail organisations used in the names of Tesco Store and Waitrose Supermarket, Hence the report considers recommendations and solutions to these challenges with the help of performance and reward theories by the writer. INTRODUCTION Organisations generally need to monitor the performance of itself and its employees in order to achieve its goals either in a short or long term, however, in order to attain an acceptable performance level, there is a motivating factor attached to the employer/employee relationship which is called reward. In relations to the Retail organisations there is a need for organisations to retain and motivate employees to work due to the demand for manpower to satisfy the retail sector needs, for employees to perform well, it is necessary for an existence of a reward package in place; this is basic in retail organisations just like any other business firm, on the other hand, organisations expects a good performance from the rewarded employees as well, thus, there are some arising issues and differences of opinions between both parties such as failure in psychological contracts, low employee morale,absence,e.t.c which results in major challenges for organisations to reach their desired goals, however, there is a need to explore what performance and reward really entails in order to have a easy understanding as this report evolves, hence, examine how rewards scheme enhances employee performance as there are major challenges faced by organisations to fulfil psychological contracts between them a nd their employees which has a vast implication on performance. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT This has changed over the years, it has been a general believe that performance management is about rating employees using a trait-biased instrument such as neatness, punctuality and attendance as opposed to focusing directly on the work output, it tends to be secretive while employees were not really involved in the process nor told of what rating they got, however, this style of performance method is no longer considered to be of good practice. It is the means of getting better results from the organisation, teams, and individuals where there is an agreement of objectives, skills and competence required so it is therefore, the way in which an organisation improve and develop its workforce, however it is also used to measure the distribution of rewards aligned to a performance related pay procedure.(Armstrong,2002:373), hence it is the believe that PM is a process of management by using it to analyse,measure,monitor performance and plan for organisation improvements. Furthermore, as it has been highlighted earlier that performance management aids the measurement and distribution of rewards, the next paragraph would explain what reward is, and how it helps performance within an organisation. REWARD MANAGEMENT This has been related to the performance output of an individual, it has changed the tradition of status but contribution as employees are being awarded benefits which could be tangible or intangible rewards for their additional hard work, Armstrong and Murlis,(1998) argued that performance related pay is a motivator for reward management but stressed that it should not only be about money but those non-financial rewards which provides intrinsic and extrinsic motivation such as continuous development, more employee involvement, partnership, mutuality, trust and transparency hence, it is now evident that performance is related to rewards. As they are both key factors in organisation success, there would now be an in-depth evaluation of the current challenges retail organisations face today. There are two retail organisations considered in this report, first is Tesco Plc which I have worked with for five years, second is Waitrose supermarket which is also a leading retail firm in the U.K, the use of these two organisations has given me advantage to compare and contrast while I was able to critically evaluate these challenges they face. TESCO BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW Tesco is the largest food retailer in UK with over 2,200 stores worldwide and 450,000 employees around the world, it also has around 1,878 stores throughout the UK with many other stores outside the country which includes America, Asia and Europe. The company also offers online shopping and home delivery, its largest market is in the UK with four different types of stores namely Extra store which runs 24hours, Superstore which also runs 24hours, Metro and Express, it has as a non-food and clothing department with three different own label named value, normal and finest which accounts for almost a half of the organisation sales. REWARD AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN TESCO Tesco organisation structures runs in form of a bureaucratic structure as power and authority flows from the top to the low level in the organisation, this equally has similarity in the rewards structure as well because top level employees get much reward that the low level though the latter are more influential in the carrying out of the operational activities that makes the organisation succeed. The present salary structure does not reward individual or team effort, the staff receives the expected automatic annual increments that are incorporated into their base pay in addition to that they get cost of living rise which is determined by the location, this structure reflects the increasing value which individuals are deemed to give to the organisation as they gain experience in the job, it has major disadvantages as increments reward the passage of time and ignore performance as the current reward structure is thus geared towards rewarding staff for their time and loyalty to the organisation and disregards individual performances within the organisation(Boyne,2002) The pay structure is standardised as directors, senior managers are set on individual basis, and new employees are normally placed on the lowest salary point within the grade for their post and service longetivity, the appropriate grade for a post is identified using HAY job evaluation scheme, progression in the grade is reached by acquisition of annual increments until the maximum of the grade is reached which however leaves employees stuck at the top of their grade with no real prospects to progress further or get a promotion into the next salary grade as this could be considered as a factor which derails the morale of individual and it certainly affects performance too. Hence, there is a big issue that needs to be solved as Tesco needs to balance the advantages of having a long service,reliable,experienced,commited workforce against the inherent conservatism, inflexibility and resistance to change usually associated to them, the organisation faces pressures to become more efficient and performance-oriented. Automatic service increments are costly to Tesco and they are not fully appreciated by employees that feel they are entitled to annual increases and progression though star performers are encouraged and signed on to a programme called Options which is training on how to be a manager but there are still questions if everyone is motivated with such motive as some wouldnt be interested in this initiative. As a result they may put in the minimum effort as they are fully aware that they will be guaranteed a pay increase at the end of the year which some writers referred to as a golden handcuff as poor performers continue to stay with the organisation because they continue to be rewarded well, as a matter of fact, a director mentioned 2we have many long-serving staff, as pay and conditions here are very good and there are not too many performance expectations. (Dittenhofer, 2001). This might contribute to organisational inertia if managers are reluctant to manage poor performances through the performance management system and employees may feel as the programme manager put it so they can get away mediocre and contribute to under- performance. Additionally, there is a free company shares given annually to employees as a way to reward them for their hard work which is a good idea and gives them the advantage of 10% discount from any of their purchases from the company by issuing employees a discount/privileged card after six months of service but how are the exceptional performers rewarded? It is left be unknown which is a major challenge to be considered and looked into. Therefore, the challenges faced by Tesco from the discussion above could be listed as follow Non-existence of Individual/Team Reward Lack of Motivation Organisation is Less Performance Oriented Low Performance Output from Employees Inability to Manage Poor Performances Hence, the need for comparison with a relatively successful and large retail organisation is needed in order to justify the challenges the retail sector is facing in the reward and performance management world, this would enable one to evaluate the situation more and leads me to the discussion of reward and performance management in Waitrose supermarket in the subsequent paragraphs. PERFORMANCE AND REWARD MANAGEMENT IN WAITROSE Waitrose is a relatively big supermarket in the UK; it has 221 branches across the United Kingdom. Waitrose creates some act of uniqueness for itself from competitors by offering high quality food and emphasising good customer services which is fundamental for the success of any organisation. However, for the organisation to attain the required level of customer services offered, they strategized by making cultivating the culture of making all its employees a co-partner which is very welcoming from the view of any employees as this gives them sense of belonging in the business running, partners get certain benefits called partnership bonus which is around 10-20% of a partners annual income and it is paid in a monetary value sometimes in the year, discount cards are issued after 3 months of service which entitles them to 15% discount in Waitrose and 25% in John Lewis departmental store as to rewards for their efforts towards the success of the organisation, this sound like a good initiative to reward the employees for their good and hard work. There is a focus to train new partners for customer services skills, health and safety, fresh food handling and fire safety, partners are trained to drop whatever they could be doing(within reasoning) upon the request of the customer and lead customers to the product ,so this shows the extent at which customers are being taken to be their priority. In 2005, there was an introduction of performance management scheme called Mystery Shopper which scores its branches on the service they provide considering the presentation, service on the shop floor by the employees ranging from the service counters, checkouts, wine, grocery departments and general assistants, this initiative is believed to help keep level of performance of each partner on top but it is left to be known if it is a motivator for good performance or trick for the organisation to succeed In 2008 W?itro introduced training for its p?rtn?r? with a new program called frh on rvic? which ?im? to lift core rvic? ?t?nd?rd? and continue to make the bu?in ?t?nd out from its competitors by training partners to be more confident on their job to deliver great service by inspiring among other things an attitude to believe things can be done. (www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk) At this point, it can be deduced that Waitrose tries its best to attain the best performance level with range of offers and trainings they give to the partners of the business, additionally they train people to be managers, and where school leavers are being trained to become section managers within a period of few years, then they also offer a graduate scheme that groom people achieving high managerial posts within some few years. The last few paragraphs evidently shows how Waitrose rewards its co-partners in order to achieve its set goals but the argument is that, does these rewards and benefits given to the partners motivate and spur them all to put in a better performance on their jobs, is money a good key to motivate them or is everyone motivated with tangible things? This leads me to highlight the challenges faced by Waitrose in Respect of Performance and Reward Management. Inability to manage performance Non-existence of Individual/Team Reward Too focused on customer satisfaction INTRODUCTION Organisations generally need to monitor the performance of itself and its employees in order to achieve its goals either in a short or long term, however, in order to attain an acceptable performance level, there is a motivating factor attached to the employer/employee relationship which is called reward. In relations to the Retail Supermarket sector, there is a need for organisations to retain and motivate employees to work due to the demand for manpower to satisfy the retail sector needs, for employees to perform well, it is necessary for an existence of a reward package in place; this is basic in retail organisations just like any other business firm, on the other hand, organisations expects a good performance from the rewarded employees as well, thus, there are some arising issues and differences of opinions between both parties such as failure in psychological contracts, low employee morale,absence,e.t.c which results in major challenges for organisations to reach their desired goals, however, there is a need to explore what performance and reward really entails in order to have a easy understanding as this report evolves, hence, examine how rewards scheme enhances employee performance as there are major challenges faced by organisations to fulfil psychological contracts between them and their employees which has a vast implication on performance. RETAIL SUPERMARKET SECTOR OVERVIEW The retail sector a very active in the society in terms of day to day living as it involves food,clothing,furniture.e.t.c it is always an increasing market though the present economic situation in term of recession making slow down of growth as companies who cannot compete suffer, however organisations face challenge of meeting both customer and employee needs, organisations try to secure the confidence of customers as there is a high risk of losing them because customer spending will decline, hence there is need to be at utmost best delivery best service at every given time, on the other hand, this would require a 100% performance from its employees in order to deliver a high and acceptable service but there are challenges being faced in this respect at the sector as employers face the challenges of meeting employees expectations such as psychological contracts which this report aims to evaluate and suggest recommended solutions with the help of academic theories. This report would discuss findings on the performance and reward challenges faced currently by have two of the Britain most successful retail supermarkets namely Tesco and Waitrose. It aims to discuss and analyse the Reward and Performance challenges faced by the retail sector, there was a SWOT and PEST analysis carried out in order to realise the situation of the supermarkets and the challenges they face. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT This has changed over the years, it has been a general believe that performance management is about rating employees using a trait-biased instrument such as neatness, punctuality and attendance as opposed to focusing directly on the work output, it tends to be secretive while employees were not really involved in the process nor told of what rating they got, however, this style of performance method is no longer considered to be of good practice. It is the means of getting better results from the organisation, teams, and individuals where there is an agreement of objectives, skills and competence required so it is therefore, the way in which an organisation improve and develop its workforce, however it is also used to measure the distribution of rewards aligned to a performance related pay procedure.(Armstrong,2002:373), hence it is the believe that PM is a process of management by using it to analyse, measure, monitor performance and plan for organisation improvements. Furthermore, as it has been highlighted earlier that performance management aids the measurement and distribution of rewards, the next paragraph would explain what reward is, and how it helps performance within an organisation. REWARD MANAGEMENT This has been related to the performance output of an individual, it has changed the tradition of status but contribution as employees are being awarded benefits which could be tangible or intangible rewards for their additional hard work, Armstrong and Murlis,(1998) argued that performance related pay is a motivator for reward management but stressed that it should not only be about money but those non-financial rewards which provides intrinsic and extrinsic motivation such as continuous development, more employee involvement, partnership, mutuality, trust and transparency hence, it is now evident that performance is related to rewards. As they are both key factors in organisation success, there would now be an in-depth evaluation of the current challenges retail organisations face today. There are two retail organisations considered in this report, first is Tesco Plc which I have worked with for five years, second is Waitrose supermarket which is also a leading retail firm in the U.K, the use of these two organisations has given me advantage to compare and contrast while I was able to critically evaluate these challenges they face. TESCO BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW Tesco is the largest food retailer in UK with over 2,200 stores worldwide and 450,000 employees around the world, it also has around 1,878 stores throughout the UK with many other stores outside the country which includes America, Asia and Europe. The company also offers online shopping and home delivery, its largest market is in the UK with four different types of stores namely Extra store which runs 24hours, Superstore which also runs 24hours, Metro and Express, it has as a non-food and clothing department with three different own label named value, normal and finest which accounts for almost a half of the organisation sales. (www.tesco.com) REWARD AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN TESCO Tesco organisation structures runs in form of a bureaucratic structure as power and authority flows from the top to the low level in the organisation, this equally has similarity in the rewards structure as well because top level employees get much reward that the low level though the latter are more influential in the carrying out of the operational activities that makes the organisation succeed. The present salary structure does not reward individual or team effort, the staff receives the expected automatic annual increments that are incorporated into their base pay in addition to that they get cost of living rise which is determined by the location, this structure reflects the increasing value which individuals are deemed to give to the organisation as they gain experience in the job, it has major disadvantages as increments reward the passage of time and ignore performance as the current reward structure is thus geared towards rewarding staff for their time and loyalty to the organisation and disregards individual performances within the organisation(Boyne,2002) The pay structure is standardised as directors, senior managers are set on individual basis, and new employees are normally placed on the lowest salary point within the grade for their post and service longetivity, the appropriate grade for a post is identified using HAY job evaluation scheme, progression in the grade is reached by acquisition of annual increments until the maximum of the grade is reached which however leaves employees stuck at the top of their grade with no real prospects to progress further or get a promotion into the next salary grade as this could be considered as a factor which derails the morale of individual and it certainly affects performance too. Hence, there is a big issue that needs to be solved as Tesco needs to balance the advantages of having a long service,reliable,experienced,commited workforce against the inherent conservatism, inflexibility and resistance to change usually associated to them, the organisation faces pressures to become more efficient and performance-oriented. Automatic service increments are costly to Tesco and they are not fully appreciated by employees that feel they are entitled to annual increases and progression though star performers are encouraged and signed on to a programme called Options which is training on how to be a manager but there are still questions if everyone is motivated with such motive as some wouldnt be interested in this initiative. As a result they may put in the minimum effort as they are fully aware that they will be guaranteed a pay increase at the end of the year which some writers referred to as a golden handcuff as poor performers continue to stay with the organisation because they continue to be rewarded well, as a matter of fact, a director mentioned 2we have many long-serving staff, as pay and conditions here are very good and there are not too many performance expectations. (Dittenhofer, 2001). This might contribute to organisational inertia if managers are reluctant to manage poor performances through the performance management system and employees may feel as the programme manager put it so they can get away mediocre and contribute to under- performance though organisation sometimes tend to stay on the neck of employees trying to impose behaviours that meets the need of organisation. Additionally, there is a free company shares given annually to employees as a way to reward them for their hard work which is a good idea and gives them the advantage of 10% discount from any of their purchases from the company by issuing employees a discount/privileged card after six months of service but how are the exceptional performers rewarded? It is left be unknown which is a major challenge to be considered and looked into. The next paragraph shows the strong and weak sides of Tesco with aid of Swot analysis to figure out its challenges. Therefore, the performance and reward challenges faced by Tesco from the discussions above could be listed as follow Non-existence of individual/team reward Lack of motivation Organisation is more performance oriented than rewards Low performance output from employees Inability to manage poor performances STRENGTHS Increasing Market Share It has an increasing market share and a good percentage of the UK retail market of around 13% which continues to grow share in food and non-food, it has also grown to into various parts of the country and world making it the second biggest chain convenience store chain retailer so far and it plans to explore with new stores openings so it has a good market share which is a strength. Tesco Online The companys dot.com is the world online biggest online supermarket with huge millions of sales with an increase of 29% on last year and operates in over 250 stores in the UK so this is a strong base where they could still exploit for longer time. Brand Value The results from the last fiscal year suggests that the company profits on operations around the world increased by 78% which is affected by the strong image the company has and also the good quality that equals to good value, profits from the other forms o their market such as insurance and finance is a major factor to this. WEAKNESSES Reliance upon Success. The company is too dependent on the believe they are the leading retailer in U.k which could cause them lapses making them exploit in some cases as they believe people will come for their products because of their customer base and also could exploits staff too as it is widely known that people will always come to work for them. Reliance upon the UK Market. The company is too dependent on the UK market bringing 73.8% of revenues in 2003 though it might not affect them in short term but they are of risk of any changes in the UK supermarket industry in the near future like threats from organisations merging could alter the balance of power and affect them, however the international business is still growing and widely known to contribute huge amounts to the companys profit till the near future. Signs of Serial Acquisitions The company is in risk of becoming a serial acquirer due to the firepower it has and the circulation of its product range mostly in the UK while the gap filling strategy would be useful just as it is to the convenience markets so this may reduce earnings visibility and quality. OPPORTUNITIES Health and Beauty Tescos UK health and beauty ranges grows drastically, and it is currently the fastest growing skincare retailer in the UK market leading in toiletries and healthcare, it also delivers a first class service in the baby goods products. It continues to invest in price to deliver the value customers have come to expect and this year invested  £27 million on health and beauty pricing and it now has 19 ?tor with opticians and closely 200 ?tor with ph?rm?ci. Non-food retail The companys plan to make its non-food be as big as the food sector is a sign of growth opportunity they are really planning to exploit which would see their retail share climb over the next few years as it boost sales and production, it has advantage of a good clothing brand as well which could bring profits too. TREATHS UK structural change could spark a price war The price followers in the UK market are about to become aggressive investors in price, Safeway because of now ownership and Sainsbury because of now manegement. Morrison is reducing safeways prices by up to 6% ?nd Sainsbury is bound to see lower prices is one of the basic changes necessary to drive its recovery. With both Asda and Tesco committ?d to price leadership, this could result in a step down in industry profitability. Wal-Mart/ Asda Challenge Since the US shopping giant Wal-mart purchased Asda, Tescos rank as the top UK supermarket has been threatened. Asda can now compete extremely well on price and range of goods. For the moment, Asda is the third largest supermarket in the UK, just behind Sainsburys and then Tesco. However, Asda closed the gap on Sainsburys in 2003, leaving the company to directly challenge Tescos dominance. Tesco is well aware of this, and has so far been quick to keep up with price cuts or special offers at Asda. Wal-mart may also decide to wield its buying power more heavily in the UK, and this could spell the end of Tescos brand dominance in the future. Hence, the need for comparison with a relatively successful and large retail organisation is needed in order to justify the challenges the retail sector is facing in the reward and performance management world, this would enable one to evaluate the situation more and leads me to the discussion of reward and performance management in Waitrose supermarket in the subsequent paragraphs. PERFORMANCE AND REWARD MANAGEMENT IN WAITROSE Waitrose is a relatively big supermarket in the UK; it has 221 branches across the United Kingdom. Waitrose creates some act of uniqueness for itself from competitors by offering high quality food and emphasising good customer services which is fundamental for the success of any organisation. However, for the organisation to attain the required level of customer services offered, they strategized by making cultivating the culture of making all its employees a co-partner which is very welcoming from the view of any employees as this gives them sense of belonging in the business running, partners get certain benefits called partnership bonus which is around 10-20% of a partners annual income and it is paid in a monetary value sometimes in the year, discount cards are issued after 3 months of service which entitles them to 15% discount in Waitrose and 25% in John Lewis departmental store as to rewards for their efforts towards the success of the organisation, this sound like a good initiative to reward the employees for their good and hard work. There is a focus to train new partners for customer services skills, health and safety, fresh food handling and fire safety, partners are trained to drop whatever they could be doing(within reasoning) upon the request of the customer and lead customers to the product ,so this shows the extent at which customers are being taken to be their priority. In 2005, there was an introduction of performance management scheme called Mystery Shopper which scores its branches on the service they provide considering the presentation, service on the shop floor by the employees ranging from the service counters, checkouts, wine, grocery departments and general assistants, this initiative is believed to help keep level of performance of each partner on top but it is left to be known if it is a motivator for good performance or trick for the organisation to succeed In 2008 Waitross introduced training for its partners with a new program called fresh on service which aims to lift core service standards and continue to make the business stand out from its competitors by training partners to be more confident on their job to deliver great service by inspiring among other things an attitude to believe things can be done. (www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk) At this point, it can be deduced that Waitrose tries its best to attain the best performance level with range of offers and trainings they give to the partners of the business, additionally they train people to be managers, and where school leavers are being trained to become section managers within a period of few years, then they also offer a graduate scheme that groom people achieving high managerial posts within some few years. The last few paragraphs evidently shows how Waitrose rewards its co-partners in order to achieve its set goals but the argument is that, does these rewards and benefits given to the partners motivate and spur them all to put in a better performance on their jobs, is money a good key to motivate them or is everyone motivated with tangible things? This leads me to highlight the challenges faced by Waitrose in Respect of Performance and Reward Management. Inability to manage performance Non-existence of Individual/Team Reward Too focused on customer satisfaction

Anthony Whiteside :: Business and Management Studies

Human resources The human resources are expected to look around and see what jobs need to be done, make sure the company is being advertised and they also deal with applications. They also choose who would be the best to employ by setting tasks for the employees. They make sure that all the staffs have got the appropriate training needed for the job. They talk to employees about wages and the employees have to agree. They make sure the staffs understand what they have to do and encourage them to work harder. Finance The finance area watches how much money goes out and how much money comes in they make sure the company don’t over spend * The finance area is responsible for all the financial documents and the amount spent they also have to understand how the documents work and were they go. * What ever the finance area say the company have to trust them and do what they say. * They have got the task to pay the wages of the staff and making sure there is enough money to pay them. * The finance area is in charge of the loans and bank amount if a firm has borrowed money of the bank to start up a business it would be their job to make sure that it got paid when ever it needs to be paid and their job is to make sure the company doesn’t go into bankruptcy. * The finance area will inform the business when they are spending more money than their making so the firm would close. Operations/production The operations department needs inputs which are then processed to produce an output, this is a product. The overall function of this department is to over see and organise the whole production process. The production department will make decisions including * They decide what materials will be needed. * Where to get the raw materials from and how they are transported. * They decide the amount off raw materials needed. * They also decide how the materials are delivered. * They decide what new equipment will be needed. * How many workers will be needed to carry out the program. * What skills the workers will need. * They are in charge of how the production will be carried out. * How the product will be packaged. * How many products will be produced and how long it should take. Anthony Whiteside Customer service A business will not be able to run if they don’t have customers to buy

College And Sleeping :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Are you curious if those all night cram study hours are working? I bet your wondering if they are actually helping or hurting your midterm grade? I’m sure all of us have spent an all nighter studying for that Chemistry or Economics exam that you just have to do well on because its 50 percent of your grade. Not only are you studying so hard for that A+, but your mental well-being. We all feel pressured to do well in college for many reasons. For that high paying job were promised if we graduate from a top-notch school or what about the assumption that you will have a better future. And for those of you whose parents are paying thousands of dollars for tuition, wouldn’t want to let mom or dad down. The answer is here. June J. Pilcher conducted a study of whether sleep deprivation affects your ability of acing that test if you just would have went to bed earlier.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  June J. Pilcher published an article â€Å"How sleep Deprivation Affects Psychological Variables Related to College Students Cognitive Performance,† in the Journal of American College Health on November of 1997.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Voluntary sleep deprivation is a common occurrence for many collge students, who often partially deprive themselves of sleep during the week and compensate by increasing their sleep time over the weekend. This pattern of sleep deprivation and rebound becomes more pronounced around examination periods, sometimes resulting in 24 to 48 hours of sleep deprivation. By depriving themselves of sleep, college students are not only increasing their feelings of sleepiness during the day, thus decreasing their ability to pay attention in class, but are also negatively affecting their ability to perform on exams.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The effect of sleep deprivation on psychological variable associated with performance, such as self-reported estimates of attention, effort, and performance, have not been thoroughly investigated. Few studies have examined perceived effort and performance, and the results from those studies have often been contradictory. For example, some researchers have suggested that sleep deprivation may affect the willingness of the individual to put forth the effort to perform well on a task more than the actual ability of the individual to perform.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By contrast, other researchers have concluded that people may realize a decrease in performance levels following sleep deprivation and attempt to overcome this by increasing their effort . However other studies have shown that a perceived increase in effort does not appear to overcome the harmful effects of sleep deprivation.

Manchester United Finance

INTRODUCTION Today Manchester United is the most powerful football club in the world. They have been successful and renown mainly for their sporting success in the UK and in Europe where some of the best players went through such as George Best, Bobby Charlton, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and more recently Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Manchester United is more than a simple football club, it’s a brand and they have been very successful in marketing. In less than 20 years they went from local to global and have more than 650 million fans through the world.They tried to deversify their activity during the years and the brand is also present in the business industry. STRATEGY Mission Statement. Manchester United wants to be the best football club on and off the pitch. Strategy a. Expand their portofolio of global and regional sponsors. b. Develop the retail, merchandising, apparel and product licensing business. c. Exploit new media and mobile opportunities. d. Enhance the reach and distribution of the broadcasting rights. e. Diversify revenue and improve margins MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE CEO : Michael Bolimbroke – Vice President of the Executive : Ed Woodward – Group Managing Director : Richard Arnold a. Director of Finance and IT : Steve Deaville b. Director of Venue : Karl Evans c. Director of Legal and Business Affair : Patrick Steward d. Director of Communications : Phil Townsend MARKETING MIX Positionning The product Manchester United is an upmarket product. It want to be different than any other football club, this is the reason why they have developed different range of product above football. Moreover they are always artnered with the best such as Nike, AIG, Vodofone all leaders in their sector. Product. First of all the product includes providing an excellent football team that plays and wins in an exciting way. Every season they want to be the best. However, there are other ingredients of the product including merchan dising such as the sale of shirts, and a range of memorabilia. The product also relates to television rights, and Manchester United's own television channel. Place. In one respect the place is Old Trafford where home games are played, but Manchester United also plays at a range of other venues.And, of course its products are sold across the globe, through the club's website and a range of other sales media. Manchester United markets itself as a global brand. The club also engages in a range of joint promotional activities, for example with the mobile phone company Vodafone. Manchester United books, shirts, programmes, keyrings and many other items are sold and promoted through its website. Price. The club has positioned itself at the upmarket premier end of the market and, as a result, it tends to charge premium prices as evidenced by the high cost of a season ticket to watch home league games. . Perform a general account analysis of Manchester United. Observe whether there is a bal ance between debt and working capital? Information There are three important parts of a company's ? nancial statements: the balance sheet, the income statement and the cash ? ow statement. The balance sheet gives a one-time snapshot of a company's assets and liabilities. And the income statement indicates the business's pro? tability during a certain period. MANCHESTER UNITED BALANCE SHEET. Consolidated Balance Sheet*

Case Study †Mandalay Shweyi Co., Ltd.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to U Aye Kyaw, Managing Director – Cum Principal of Myanmar Human Resources Co., Ltd. (MHR). I would like to express my heartfelt thanks and deepest gratitude to my course instructors, Dr. Ohnmar Myint for providing invaluable guidance, encouragement and supervision throughout the process of this assignment. I am also deeply thankful to Mandalay Shweyi Company Limited for the kind permission to study and analyze their operations. I also would like to express my special thanks to ABE for the opportunity to study for the Post Graduate Diploma through which I have gained a thorough understands of business concepts, idea and knowledge. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their love and support throughout my life. I would also like to thank all my friends for their help in the task of developing this assignment.Executive SummaryThis assignment focuses â€Å"A Research on Improving Customer Satisfaction and Retention† of Man dalay Shweyi Co., Ltd which is a major manufacturer of alcohol industry and also a nationwide foods & beverages marketer in Myanmar. Customer satisfaction may be identified as external and internal customer satisfaction of an organisation.The main objectives of this study were focused on external customer satisfaction, to explore the main influences of customer satisfaction and to determine their relationships with customer satisfaction. This paper also intends to present the research methods reflection of customer satisfaction lead to maximize customer satisfaction benefits and minimize the customer dissatisfaction which were caused by customer service and product quality factors of Herbal Tea Product from Mandalay Shweyi Co., Ltd.Personal StatementI am a candidate of Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management (ABE). I have been trying to complete post-graduate diploma in business management as a bridge to further study for MBA because my aim is to manage either my own business or to be able to successfully manage other businesses. This assignment is requirement for â€Å"Research Methods and their Applications to Marketing† course.Firstly I learnt the business operations and activities of Mandalay Shweyi by interviewing, observation, surveying and studying documents. I learned of the vision, mission, business strategies and challenges by interviewing the management team and identified business practice and activities through dialogs with technicians and staff. By preparing this assignment, I can apply the marketing research concepts and marketing concepts which are covered in ABE courses.This paper displays â€Å"A Research on Improving Customer Satisfaction and Retention† profile of Mandalay Shweyi Company. I have tried my best not only reflection on the subjects and experiences but also to meet the assignment goals and constraints. I hereby declare that this assignment is a bonafide work carried out by myself. It has not been submitted to an y other university or institution for the award of any degree, certified or published any time before.Corporate ProfileAlthough started as a small scale business in 1992, Mandalay Shweyi Co., Ltd. Shweyi has grown into one of Myanmar's largest alcoholic beverages manufacturers with two distilleries one in Yangon and one in Mandalay. The full product portfolio includes 20 products in six different groups. Superior quality is obtained through Shweyi’s strict quality standards which are applied advanced manufacturing process. The company was formed with the well experienced distillers, knowledgeable technical experts and engineers from Yangon Institute of Technology. Shweyi is a major manufacturer of alcohol industry and also a nationwide foods & beverages marketer in Myanmar.There are nine branch offices in order to cope the whole national market (see Appendix-A). The vision of the company is â€Å"to provides healthy foods & beverages to consumers†, they produce healthy liquors series includes HERBAL RUM and SOBASHOCHU (Buckwheat Liquors). And the company also  manufactures various kinds of healthy food including Buckwheat products, Honey products and Herbal Tea products.Background of the studyNowadays, bombing of global market effect, it becomes more and more competitions in business environment and then customer satisfaction is becoming crucial role to the survival of any business organization. The competitors who will be successful recognize that customer satisfaction is a critical strategic weapon that can bring increased market share and increased profits. Therefore most of the companies all over the world are beginning to realize that customers’ satisfaction has a direct impact on the bottom line.And then they are trying to develop the unique strategies and new changes to satisfy their customer needs and wants and strive to exceed their expectations. Measuring customer satisfaction is the most important in differentiating the compan y. As markets shrink, companies are scrambling to boost customer satisfaction and keep their current customers rather than devoting additional resources to chase potential new customers. The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction.Therefore â€Å"A Research on Improving Customer Satisfaction and Retention† is essential for all business organisations. The need for customer satisfaction measurement is well documented and it can increase revenue and profit due to higher customer retention.MethodologyThis paper is a case study of Mandalay Shweyi Co., Ltd. from an inside-out perspective. It attempts to explore the benefits of Customer Satisfaction Survey and how it can provide the company with insight for development and support for future strategic decision making processes.This research was completed to identify what key components affect customer satisfaction at Mandalay Shweyi product. In this research methodology which included research design, questionnaires, samp ling process, data collection method, research timeframe and method of analysis.Research Design Exploratory: After getting the permission from company’s board of director, I  started to discuss what factors of Herbal Tea product contribute to customer satisfaction with marketing team. Because of time and budget constraints, I was unable to conduct focus groups or in depth interviews. By doing brainstorming with marketing team, I developed the research design.Descriptive: To gain a better understanding of the problem, and to clarify the research questions, I conducted secondary research to discover what experts found customer satisfaction to be at other food and beverage products. This research allowed me to gain a solid understanding of the business.QuestionnairesAfter developing what factors may lead to customer satisfaction at Herbal Tea product, I began to design a questionnaire to collect primary data from wholesalers and consumers. The type of instrument used in this r esearch was a five-point likert scale questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The initial portion of wholesaler questionnaire included customer service factors, the second section tested the product quality and the last section tested the pricing and reliability (reliability means that it has no side effect on customer) of Herbal Tea product.In the first portion of consumer questionnaire included demographic factors, the second section was asked the product quality and the last section measured the pricing and reliability of Herbal Tea product. The five-point likert scale assigned points 1,2,3,4 and 5. The questionnaire was pre-tested among a group of 25 potential respondents but no major problems were detected. Several minor modifications were made to ensure clarity of the items in the final version of the questionnaire (see Appendix-B).Sampling process Data were collected through survey using a structured questionnaires administered to wholesalers and con sumers (end-users). The total number of respondents (samples) who participated in this research was 149. The sample was separated into two groups. One is wholesalers group (wholesalers, N=58) and the next is consumers group (consumers, N=91). In this research the type of sampling that I used was convenient sampling.Data Collection MethodI collected the primary data by using marketing team and distributing the questionnaires to wholesalers and consumers. After collecting the data, I coded the questionnaire and entered the data into the SPSS software system to run statistical tests to analyze the data I collected. I collected the secondary research by finding professional articles and past research.Research Time FrameI compiled a research report that addresses how to improve customer satisfaction and retention at Mandalay Shweyi. I began my research in October 2010 and started to develop constructs and research hypotheses to answer the research question of what factors influence custo mer satisfaction at Mandalay Shweyi. In early November I developed my survey by putting the constructs I had previously created into likert scales. In last week of November I surveyed customers in the market, using questionnaire to measure satisfaction, and at early December I ran tests on the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 15.0. Method of AnalysisIn this research diagrammatic representations are used to represent the information which included frequencies and correlation tables, and bar charts (see Appendix-C). Appropriate statistical techniques like descriptive data analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were used to analyse and interpret the data.A Literature ReviewMarketing Concept Philip Kotler who is the world's foremost marketing guru. In his first book, â€Å"Marketing Management (1967)†, marketing has been defined as â€Å"A function of management with scientific rigour, models and statistical analysis†. The à ¢â‚¬Ëœmarketing concept' in the words of Kotler is â€Å"Holds that achieving organisational goals depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and more efficiently than competitors do.†Marketing is only one factor in attracting and keeping customers but it cannot fulfill its managerial role unless customer needs and wants are understood and satisfied. The organisation must try to understand the target market’s needs and wants.  Needs describe the basic requirements of human, people need food, air, water, clothing, and shelter to survive. People also have strong needs for recreation, education, and entertainment. These needs become wants when they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy the need (Philip Kotler, 2006). Marketing StrategyThe aim of any business organisation is to make profit. This can only be achieved by forming an effective marketing strategy which can actually incre ase double or triple of organisational sales. Marketing Strategy is the set of helps to guidelines and policies used for effectively matching marketing programmes with target market opportunities in order to achieve organisational objectives. Developing marketing strategy includes deciding which customers to target and how to position products and etc. When forming a marketing strategy, customer satisfaction is really the main goal. And a strategy that does not address the needs of the customers cannot be classified as a good marketing strategy.Marketing MixThe major marketing management decisions can be classified into four categories as follow: Product: The product is the physical product or service offered to the consumer. Price: Pricing decisions should take into account profit margins and the probable pricing response of competitors. Place (distribution): Place decisions are those associated with channels of distribution that serve as the means for getting the product to the ta rget customers. Promotion: Promotion decisions are those related to communicating and selling to potential consumers. It is useful to know the value of a customer in order to determine whether additional customers are worth the cost of acquiring them.These variables are known as the marketing mix and also referred to as the â€Å"Four ‘P's. The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities that an organisation engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted market. The service marketing mix involves analysing the 7’p of marketing, involving Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Physical Evidence, Process and People. Most of the firm attempts to generate a positive response in the target market by blending these four marketing mix variables in an optimal manner.External and uncontrollable environmental factors are very important elements of the marketing strategy  Programs. Therefore Marketing Mix should include customers, environmental variables, and c ompetitive variables (Kotler, 1984). Marketing ResearchMarketing research is a systematic process which may include these steps: data – gathering, analysis, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information and finally to aid decision making. The main reasons of doing research are to reduce risks, to help in planning and forecasting results, to aid marketing mix-decisions and to improve decision making capabilities (ABE, Strategic Marketing Management, Study manual). Effective communicating research result on marketing mix is an essential component of the research process. Clear, concise, and cogent reports enable informed effective decision making. For this reason marketing research is necessary to measure and track customer satisfaction.Customer SatisfactionCustomer satisfaction is regarded as customers can get more benefits than their cost (Liu and Yen, 2010). In comparison with other traditional performance measures, customer satisfaction is probably less sensitive to s easonal fluctuations, changes in costs or changes in accounting practices (Kotler, 2006). Therefore, many researchers consider customer satisfaction to be the best indicator of a company’s future profit. Keeping existing customers is as important as acquiring new ones.The approach towards existing customers must be active, based on a separate marketing mix for customer retention (Rozenberg and Czepiel, 1992). Interaction between the one delivering the service and the customer is very important and has direct effect on the service quality and quality perception (Heuvel, 1993). Sales are the most important goal of any commercial enterprise; it becomes necessary to satisfy customers. For customer satisfaction it is necessary to establish and maintain certain important characteristics like:Quality Fair prices Good customer handling skills Efficient delivery Serious consideration of consumer complaintsAccording to the Michael Porter (2006), today, more and more companies are recog nizing the importance of satisfying and retaining current customers.  Major advantage of customer retention is â€Å"Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than the costs involved in satisfying and retaining current customers.It requires a great deal of effort to induce satisfied customers to switch away from their current suppliers.† Customer satisfaction levels can be measured using survey techniques and questionnaires. Getting high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfied customers are most likely to be loyal and to make repeated orders and to use a wide range of services offered by a business.Analysis, Findings and DiscussionTo begin analyzing the Herbal Tea Product data, SPSS version 15.0 was used for statistical testing. In this research descriptive data analysis, frequencies and inferential statistic (Pearson correlation analysis) were used. From the analysis of Descriptive, Frequencies and Pearson correlation, the m ain findings and discussion can be found as follow.Demography of CustomersThe total number of respondents who participated in this research was 91 consumers and 58 wholesalers. Table 1 illustrates the demographic data of consumer respondents. Table 1: Demographic data of Customers (Consumers, N=91)Items n %Gender Male 38 41.8Female 53 58.2Age 20 to 40 41 to 60 61 and above 39 43 9 42.9 47.3 9.8Monthly Income (Myanmar Kyat) 10,000 to 4,00,000 4,10,000 to 8,00,000 8,10,000 and above 50 33 8 55.0 46.2 9.8As shown in table (1), the respondents consisted of 41.8% male and 58.2% female. Most of the respondents (47.3%) were in the age range of 41 to 60 years old. 42.9% of the respondents were 20 to 40 years old and only 9.8% of respondents were 61 years old and above. With regard to personal monthly income level, over half of the respondents i.e (55%) had the level of (10,000 to 4,00,000) Kyats, whereas another 46.2% of respondents earned (4,10,000 to 8,00,000) Kyats and only 9.8% of respo ndents had the range of above 8,10,000 Kyats.Frequencies of Consumers SatisfactionFrom the result of descriptive analysis on customer satisfaction (illustrated in Table 2), 29.7% of the consumers were satisfied with Good condition,  25.3% were satisfied with Fair condition, 17.6% of consumers were satisfied, 16.5% were satisfied with Very Good condition and only 11% were dissatisfied with Poor condition in quality of products.Table 2Customer satisfaction on product quality, taste of product and quality of packing (Consumers, N=91) Item Poor Fair Good Very Good ExcellentProduct Quality (%) 11.0 25.3 29.7 16.5 17.6Taste of Product (%) 18.7 24.2 25.3 23.1 8.8Quality of Packing (%) 16.5 25.3 34.1 12.1 12.1The result of finding on taste of products and quality of packing were displayed in Table 2. According to this research we can see most of the consumers are satisfied with 24.2%, 25.3% and 23.1% for fair, good and very good respectively on the taste of products. But 18.7% of consumer s were dislike the taste and only 8.8 % of the consumers were completely satisfied for taste. We can also see the frequencies of customer satisfaction on Table 2. Therefore we can conclude that majority consumers are satisfied with quality, taste and packing of the products. Table 3 shows the result of customer satisfaction on price, reliability of product and recommend to other for products.Even though (30.8%) of the respondents perceived that the price of the product were fair, another 33% were no comment (neither agree nor disagree) on price. However it was found that a significant total of 36.3% did not perceived price as fair. We can draw a conclusion that the price is not fair for most of respondents and we need to adjust the pricing strategy because pricing is one of the most important elements of the marketing mix and pricing a product too high or too low could mean a loss of sales for the organisation.For reliability (cannot side effect to consumer) of product, (38.5%) of c onsumers were neither agree nor disagree and a total of (34.1%) of the consumers were strongly reliable on product. But (27.5%) of consumers were not reliable on product. According to this result, we need to develop the product to get more reliable from customers.Table 3Customer satisfaction on price, reliability of product and recommend to other (Consumers, N=91) Item Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Disagree Agree Strongly AgreeFair Price (%) 16.5 19.8 33.0 14.3 16.5Reliability of Product (%) 12.1 15.4 38.5 24.2 9.9Recommend to other (%) 5.5 20.9 26.4 30.8 16.5Frequencies of Wholesalers SatisfactionTable 4 shows the result of wholesalers’ satisfaction on service quality. From this result most of the respondents of (20.7%, 39.7% and 12.1%) were felt neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, somewhat satisfied, completely satisfied respectively for on time delivery. According to this analysis we found that most of the respondents were satisfied for on time delivery. But 15.5% of respondents were felt completely dissatisfied and 12.1% of respondents were also felt somewhat dissatisfied for on time delivery. If we want to maintain our customer satisfaction and retention we should care dissatisfied customers by doing effective service recovery which can improve their satisfaction level.Half of the customers were felt neither satisfied nor dissatisfied on sale management. Completely dissatisfied was not found at sale management. For sale person’s dealing, we found most of the customers were satisfied and only 1.7% of respondents were completely dissatisfied. The result of non-defect performance revealed that only 1.7% was defected. Mostly they were performed without defect.Table 4Customer satisfaction on Service Quality (Wholesalers, N=58) Item Completely Dissatisfied Somewhat Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied Somewhat Satisfied Completely SatisfiedOn Time Delivery (%) 15.5 12.1 20.7 39.7 12.1Sale Management (%) 0 17.2 51.7 24.1 6 .9Sale Person’s Dealing (%) 1.7 13.8 32.8 41.4 10.3Non-Defect Performance (%) 1.7 20.7 44.8 27.6 5.2Hypothesis Testing and Results Table 5 Hypothesis 1: There is relationship between product quality and customer satisfaction Variable Pearson Correlation, r Significant, p Mean Standard Deviation Product Quality .276(**) .008 3.04 1.255 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)