Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) essays

Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) essays According to Harris Countys 2006 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) generated and published by the County Auditors Office, Capital Projects Funds are used to account for bond sale proceeds and other revenues which are used for the construction and acquisition of major capital projects in the county including the Flood Control District, and the countys Sports and Convention Corporation. According to the CAFR, Capital Projects Funds include: Roads: This fund is used to finance the construction and improvement of roads throughout the County, Permanent Improvements Fund: The proceeds of funds received from the sale of Permanent Improvement bonds are used for the purchase, construction or improvement of a variety of County owned facilities including office buildings, parks, courthouses, jails, juvenile facilities, and many other public facilities, Sports and Convention Corporation Capital Projects Fund: This fund is used for the construction of the sports and entertainment complex located on property owned by the County, Flood Control District Fund: This fund is used for the construction and improvement of flood control and drainage systems across the County, Reliant Park Fund: This fund is used for the construction and improvement of facilities known as Reliant Stadium, Reliant Exposition Center, the Reliant Park Central Plant and the Astrodome Complex. Capital assets of the County are defined as assets with individual costs of $5,000 or more and estimated useful lives in excess of one year. The threshold for capitalizing land improvements, buildings and building improvements and park improvements is $100,000. The capitalization threshold for infrastructure ranges from $25,000 to $250,000, depending on the Based on the above explanation or definition, each of the Capital Project Funds described above will be used to fund or finance the acquisition of assets that will becom ...

25 Google Power Search Tips for Genealogists

25 Google Power Search Tips for Genealogists Google is the search engine of choice for most genealogists I know, due to its ability to return relevant search results for genealogy and surname queries and its huge index. Google is much more than just a tool for finding Web sites, however, and most people surfing for information on their ancestors barely scratch the surface of its full potential. If you know what you are doing, you can use Google to search within Web sites, locate photos of your ancestors, bring back dead sites, and track down missing relatives. Learn how to Google as youve never Googled before. Begin With the Basics 1. All Terms Count - Google automatically assumes an implied AND between each of your search terms. In other words, a basic search will only return pages that include all of your search terms. 2. Use Lower Case - Google is case insensitive, with the exception of the search operators AND and OR. All other search terms will return the same results, regardless of the combination of upper and lower case letters used in your search query. Google also ignores most common punctuation such as commas and periods. Thus a search for Archibald Powell Bristol, England will return the same results as archibald powell bristol england. 3. Search Order Matters - Google will return results that contain all of your search terms, but will give higher priority to the earlier terms in your query. Thus, a search for power wisconsin cemetery will return pages in a different ranked order than wisconsin power cemetery. Put your most important term first, and group your search terms in a way that makes sense. Search With a Focus 4. Search for a Phrase - Use quotation marks around any two word or greater phrase to find results where the words appear together exactly as you have entered them. This is especially useful when searching for proper names (i.e. a search for thomas jefferson will bring up pages with thomas smith and bill jefferson, while searching for thomas jefferson will only bring up pages with the name thomas jefferson included as a phrase. 5. Exclude Unwanted Results - Use a minus sign (-) before words that you want to be excluded from the search. This is especially useful when searching for a surname with a common usage such as rice or one which is shared with a famous celebrity such as Harrison Ford. Search for ford -harrison to exclude results with the word harrison. It also works well for cities that exist in more than one area such as shealy lexington south carolina OR sc -massachusetts -kentucky -virginia. You have to be careful when eliminating terms (especially place names), however, because this will exclude pages that have results including both your preferred location and the ones you eliminated. 6. Use OR to Combine Searches - Use the term OR between search terms to retrieve search results that match any one of a number of words. The default operation for Google is to return results that match ALL search terms, so by linking your terms with OR (note that you have to type OR in ALL CAPS) you can achieve a bit more flexibility (e.g. smith cemetery OR gravestone will return results for smith cemetery and smith gravestone). 7. Exactly What You Want - Google employs a number of algorithms to ensure accurate search results, including automatically considering searches for words that are common synonyms to be identical, or suggesting an alternate, more common spellings. A similar algorithm, called stemming, returns not only results with your keyword, but also with terms based on the keyword stem - such as powers, power and powered. Sometimes Google can be a little too helpful, however, and will return results for a synonym or word that you may not want. In these cases, use quotation marks around your search term to ensure that it is used exactly as you typed it (e.g. power surname genealogy) 8. Force Additional Synonyms - Although Google search automatically displays results for certain synonyms, the tilde symbol (~) will force Google to show additional synonyms (and related words) for your query. For example, a search for schellenberger ~vital records leads Google to return results including vital records, birth records, marriage records, and more. Similarly, ~obituaries will also include obits, death notices, newspaper obituaries, funeral, etc. Even a search for schellenberger ~genealogy will yield different search results than schellenberger genealogy. Search terms (including synonyms) are bolded in Google search results, so you can easily see what terms were found on each page. 9. Fill in the Blanks - Including an *, or wildcard, in your search query tells Google to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. Use the wildcard (*) operator to end a question or phrase such as ​william crisp was born in * or as a proximity search to find terms located within two words of each other such as david * norton (good for middle names and initials). Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words. You cant, for example, search for owen* in Google to return results for Owen and Owens. 10. Use Googles Advanced Search Form - If the search options above are more than you want to know, try using Googles Advanced Search Form which simplifies most of the search options previously mentioned, such as using search phrases, as well as removing words you dont want included in your search results. Search Suggested Alternate Spellings Google has become one smart cookie and now suggests alternate spellings for search terms which appear to be misspelled. The search engines self-learning algorithm automatically detects misspellings and suggests corrections based on the most popular spelling of the word. You can get a basic idea of how it works by typing in geneology as a search term. While Google will return search results for pages on geneology, it will also ask you Did you mean genealogy? Click on the suggested alternate spelling for a whole new list of sites to browse! This feature comes in particularly handy when searching for cities and towns for which you arent sure of the correct spelling. Type in Bremehaven and Google will ask you if you meant Bremerhaven. Or type in Napels Italy, and Google will ask you if you meant Naples Italy. Watch out, however! Sometimes Google chooses to display the search results for the alternate spelling and youll need to select the correct spelling to find what you are really looki ng for. Bring Back Sites From the Dead How many times have you found what looks to be a very promising Web site, only to get a File Not Found error when clicking on the link? Genealogical Web sites seem to come and go every day as webmasters change file names, switch ISPs, or just decide to remove the site because they can no longer afford to maintain it. This doesnt mean the information is always gone forever, however. Hit the Back button and look for a link to a cached copy at the end of the Google description and page URL. Clicking on the cached link should bring up a copy of the page as it appeared at the time that Google indexed that page, with your search terms highlighted in yellow. You can also return Googles cached copy of a page, by preceding the pages URL with cache:. If you follow the URL with a space separated list of search words, they will be highlighted on the returned page. For example:  cache:genealogy.about.com surname  will return the cached version of this sites homepage with the term surname high lighted in yellow. Find Related Sites Found a site that you really like and want more? GoogleScout can help you find sites with similar content. Hit the Back button to return to your Google search results page and then click on the  Similar Pages  link. This will take you to a new page of search results with links to pages which contain similar content. The more specialized pages (such as a page for a specific surname) may not turn up many relevant results, but if you are researching a particular topic (i.e. adoption or immigration), GoogleScout can help you find a large number of resources very quickly, without having to worry about selecting the right keywords. You can also access this feature directly by using the related command with the URL of the site that you like (  related:genealogy.about.com). Follow the Trail Once youve found a valuable site, chances are that some of the sites which link to it may also be beneficial to you. Use the  link  command along with a URL to find pages which contain links pointing to that URL. Enter  link:familysearch.org  and youll find about 3,340 pages which link to the homepage of familysearch.org. You can also use this technique to find out who, if anyone, has linked to your personal genealogy site. Search Within a Site While many major sites have search boxes, this isnt always true of smaller, personal genealogy sites. Google comes to the rescue again, however, by allowing you to restrict search results to a specific site. Just enter your search term followed by the  site  command and the main URL for the site you wish to search in the Google search box on the main Google page. For example,  military site:www.familytreemagazine.com  pulls up 1600 pages with the search term  military  on the Family Tree Magazine Web site. This trick is especially useful for quickly finding surname information on genealogy sites without indexes or search capabilities. Cover Your Bases When you really want to make sure you havent missed a good genealogy site, enter  allinurl:genealogy  to return a list of sites with  genealogy  as part of their URL (can you believe that Google found more than 10 million?). As you can tell from this example, this is a better option to use for more focused searches, such as surnames or locality searches. You can combine multiple search terms, or use other operators such as OR to help focus your search (i.e.  allinurl:genealogy france  OR  french). A similar command is also available to search for terms contained within a title (i.e.  allintitle:genealogy france  OR  french). Find People, Maps and More If youre searching for U.S. information, Google can do so much more than just search Web pages. The lookup information they provide through their search box has been expanded to include street maps, street addresses, and phone numbers. Enter a first and last name, city, and state to find a phone number. You can also do a reverse lookup by entering a phone number to find a street address. To use Google to find street maps, just enter a street address, city, and state (i.e.  8601 Adelphi Road College Park MD), in the Google search box. You can also find business listings by entering the name of a business and its location or zip code (i.e.  tgn.com utah). Pictures From the Past Googles image search feature makes it easy to locate photos on the Web. Just click on the Images tab on Googles home page and type in a keyword or two to view a results page full of image thumbnails. To find photos of specific people try putting their first and last names within quotes (i.e.  laura ingalls wilder). If youve got a bit more time or a more unusual surname, then just entering the surname should be enough. This feature is also a great way to find photos of old buildings, tombstones, and even your ancestors hometown. Because Google doesnt crawl for images as often as it does for Web pages, you may find many pages/images have moved. If the page doesnt come up when you click on the thumbnail, then you may be able to find it by copying the URL from below the feature, pasting it into the Google search box, and using the cache feature. Glancing Through Google Groups If youve got a bit of time on your hands, then check out the Google Groups search tab available from the Google homepage. Find info on your surname, or learn from the questions of others by searching through an archive of over 700 million Usenet newsgroup messages going back as far as 1981. If youve got even more time on your hands, then check out this  historical Usenet timeline  for a fascinating diversion. Narrow Your Search by File Type Typically when you search the Web for information, you expect to pull up traditional Web pages in the form of HTML files. Google offers results in a variety of different formats, however, including .PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format), .DOC (Microsoft Word), .PS (Adobe Postscript), and .XLS (Microsoft Excel). These files appear among your regular search results listings where you can either view them in their original format, or use the  View as HTML  link (good for when you dont have the application that is needed for that particular file type, or for when computer viruses are a concern). You can also use the filetype command to narrow your search to find documents in particular formats (i.e. filetype:xls genealogy forms). You arent likely to use this Google feature often, but I have used it to find genealogy brochures in PDF format and family group sheets and other genealogy forms in Microsoft Excel format. If youre someone like me who uses Google quite a bit, then you may want to consider downloading and using the Google Toolbar (requires Internet Explorer Version 5 or later and Microsoft Windows 95 or later). When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar and makes it easy to use Google to search from any Web site location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search. A variety of buttons and a drop-down menu make it easy to perform all of the searches described in this article with just a click or two. Best wishes for a successful search!

Art periods - Impressionism and Post Impressionism Essay

Art periods - Impressionism and Post Impressionism - Essay Example The impressionist deviated from their predecessor artists as they painted in the open air (en plain air) (Rewald, 2005). This was very important in confronting the modern city life and the nature. They further painted their work by use of pure color. The use of pure color was very important as they made the work of the artist impressive. The work was attractive unlike the previous artistic work. The artists who fall in this category influenced the western conception of drawings and paintings. The impressionists revolutionized the western work of art. It was an avenue of the post impressionists who created their work basing on the impressionism. They modified the impressionism work of art. They thus, maintained some other aspects of the impressionism. The impressionism is very important as it made a base for the post impressionism. All the paintings, drawings and films of post- impressionism were borrowed from the impressionism. Even though the post impressionists deviated from the im pressionists, they still borrowed some knowledge from impressionists to perfect their works of art. Claude Monet is the greatest artist in this period. He aimed at catching light and atmosphere something which had not been thought by the past artists. His enjoyment in painting outdoors let to spontaneous and free painting technique. Monet’s brushwork is remarkably varied and flexible. He could change his work. Sometimes his work was dappled and sparking but at other times it was broad and sweeping.

Assignment 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Assignment 3 - Essay Example We are now more than ever connected as a social society in new ways. The boundaries that once separated wireless mobility, the Internet, computing and media are now being merged together to create a more mobile, 2.0 connected social society. Many of the devices that consumers use on a daily basis are now connected to the web. These connections allow them to link to resources, people, information, and entertainment. These connections are now defining the expectations for communication devices as people are undergoing new social behaviors and consumer expectations. (www.motorola.com) As of now, â€Å"Motorola’s Mobile Device portfolio includes a broad array of converged devices including smartphones based on the Android operating system, led by the highly successful DROID family of products, as well as the tablets and Bluetooth accessories.† These devices service the needs of businesses and consumers by delivering Internet services, phone, email, social networking and ent ertainment all in one small device. (www.motorola.com) In the past Motorola was great at developing new products, yet they always seemed to ‘lack a viable product map and continued to lose market share to competing vendors that were consistently bringing better products to the market.’ (Martin, Richard) It seems as though Motorola’s new products such as the Android phones and the Xoom tablet held high expectations in making a dent in the portable communication device market share as well. However, after the release of the Xoom, Motorola continued to put more pressure on their sales efforts by releasing more Android based operating system tablets. It appears as though they may be falling back into old habits as these products are failing expectations even with the credible partnership of Google Inc., a company that a great track record when it comes to mobile operating systems. The Xoom has been labeled in the media as a â€Å"promising, but unpolished product.â €  The product was set at a premium price of $599, and has failed to compete with its main competition, the thinner and lighter Apple iPad 2. Overall, the sales picture isn’t inspiring. Motorola’s key strengths have always been at creating innovative products and forging relationships with service providers ahead of the curve. The Motorola Razr, was introduced in 2004, and was a huge hit. However, they saw an instant share price decline as competitors took their ideas and brought better products to the market. Motorola missed the boat when they split the company into two divisions, the struggling mobile phone business and its broadband and mobility solutions unit. They are now paying for that mistake as they have come to realize that the interconnected future of mobile communications devices was soon to come. Motorola made the right move in partnering with Google, and for forming a competitive OS system like Android to compete with Apple. However, they did not think about the application and infrastructure the same way as Apple. Motorola’s weakness continues to remain the same, as they develop great products ahead of the tech curve, yet they fail to implement a product map for effective product release and application support. The anticipation for the Xoom was not comparable to that of Apple’s iPad products. This is because they release products as soon as they come out without an overall brand strategy and interface direction. It is Apple’

JKL International plc. International Human Resource Essay Example for Free

JKL International plc. International Human Resource Essay INTRODUCTION With the trend of globalisation, the number of multinational companies is constantly increasing as well as expatriates (Business Recorder, 2011). Expatriate management now is an essential issue of human resource department because it takes a large amount of budget from the corporation. It is inevitable for expatriates to face culture barriers in subsidiaries because of unique national cultures in all countries over the world. National culture is cultural experiences, beliefs, learned behaviour patterns, and values shared by citizens of the same nation (Neale _et al_, 2006, p. 26). A national culture will significantly affect any employee working in firms and furthermore, national culture will influence the management framework in a company as well accompanied with organisational culture so that cross culture management is helpful not only for the supervisors decisions but also for employees especially for expatriates (Chen, 2006, p. 2). In the case study of JKL, it showed a range of problems in their expatriates which related national cultures and JKL will implement a British managerial system into its Russian subsidiary. This essay will first examine the problems and issues in managing expatriates in JKL and then evaluate the proposal from Jim Flinn, the CEO of Zagorski who will apply an entire British managerial system into a Russian subsidiary. ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT (CASE STUDY) JKL is a British pharmaceutical company which was founded in 1925 and it has expanded its business by acquiring other pharmaceutical companies in Malaysia, India, Greece and USA. Recently, JKL has made the largest acquisition of Zagorski, a pharmaceutical company in Russia. At the headquarter of UK, JKL applies a decentralised organisational structure. All managers are required to give their own opinions to avoid some drawbacks of group decision making which is conformity pressure in groups (Robbins and Judge, 2009, p.336). Employees are allowed to propose valuable ideas to manufacture and administrative systems as well. Supervisors will award monetary incentives (one of the physical needs) as motivation to employees and managers (Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield, 2000, p.129) if their initiatives are judged as potential innovations. On the other hand, in subsidiaries, JKL applied localised human resource practices in order to fit local cultural values and legal systems (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.217) by keeping local managers with existing  organisational and managerial systems. In past years, those subsidiaries in Malaysia, India and Greece were continually making profits to JKL and JKL also regularly sent managers and specialists to those subsidiaries for expatriation in a period of time. After the acquisition of Zagorski, Dr. Jim Flinn will be the CEO who had spent last three years in the subsidiary of USA. PART ONE: EXPATRIATES MANAGEMENT AND CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT IN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS INTRODUCTION Culture is a popular topic in literature research and it could be described as a software of the mind (Hofstede, 1991, p. 2) .With the trend of globalisation, managing cultural differences has become an important issue in human resource management of multinational corporations. Misunderstanding may be occurred if culture differences are not well-managed even these colleagues are working in the same organisation (Hall, 1995, p.6). In the case study, seven expatriates of JKL have their own problems and for JKL, there is a high expatriate leaving rate after repatriation (Appendix F). This essay will identify the problem of seven expatriates working in JKL and its subsidiaries and after that, rational proposals of changes will be given to them on the basis of improvements of JKLs human resource department. EXPATRIATES AND ORGANISATION PROBLEMS AND PROPOSALS FOR CHANGES EXPATRIATES In the case study it lists seven expatriates with their problems and in the following essay they will be numbered from A to G. A (RETURNED FROM PENNSYLVANIA, USA) According to the case study, expatriate A was the first expatriate to Pennsylvania because of an attractive salary. The reason of returning is that expatiate A was annoyed about following managers received better compensation packages than him although they were almost doing the same works. The main problems of the human resource department of JKL are rewarding system and lack of correct performance appraisal system. Every employee believes, and most experts believe, that pay and rewards are an important part of an organisations human resource management (Harris, Brewster and Sparrow, 2003, p.91). In fact, the first expatriate to a subsidiary will face loads of difficulties in practical and then try to solve them as a pioneer (Business Wire, 1998). As a result, the first expatriate is deserved to have a better compensation package than followers. As the perspective of organisation, the first expatriate may important to human resource managers because this person can be regarded as a training model of human resource management (Arusha Times, 2009, p.16). On the other hand, because of lacking effective performance appraisal, expatriate A had a lower compensation package compared with following managers and that may be the reason of the compensation package of expatriate A was retain unvarying for a long time as well. Expatriates sometimes will feel unfair if performance evaluate system is not effective enough because insufficient performance appraisal system may make expatriates uncertain of their performance especially for those hard working expats (Gordon, 2010, p.56). The possible solution of dealing this problem is establishing an effective reward system by performance appraisal (Performance -related reward system). Performance-related pay (PRP) can change the payment from a rigid structure to a flexible way depended on performance (Harris, Brewster and Sparrow, 2003, p.94). By applying this system, the productivity of employees will be significantly increased and for expatriates, they will be motivated and more  willing to finish their assignments as well (Gielen, Kerkhofs and Van, 2010, p.299). Furthermore, accurate evaluation is also a factor which company need to take account because there is an essential link between motivation and performance appraisal (Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield, 2000, p.315). B (RETURNED FROM INDIA) The reason of expatriate B returning to UK is that his spouse and child had enough of India living and schooling as seemed to be suffering (Case Study). The main problem of the human resource department of JKL is expatriate selection especially in cross-cultural suitability and family. Cross-cultural suitability and family are two of the most crucial criteria of expatriate selection (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.120). In culture aspect, Hofstedes national culture model demonstrated the main various between UK and India in power distance and individualism (Appendix A). According to appendix A, the power distance column in India is much higher than it in UK as well as individualism so that there maybe the reason of his spouse had enough of India. In addition, unlike Western Europe civilisation, there is a caste system in India which cause the high power distance and many females in India basically are not regarded as equal to males (Robert _et al_., 2000, pp.654-656). Moreover, individualism in India is much less important than UK so that residents in India intend to work, study and live collectively (South Asian Studies, 2011) that is totally different to UK. As a result, the wife and child keened on back to UK because of the cultural adjustment problem while her husband was still working only with British colleagues (Case Study). The solutions will be provided here are selecting an appropriate candidate as an expatriate and putting more emphasis on cross-cultural suitability and family requirement. Cotemporary, the family element is having more important weight in expatriate selection because of non-working factors and potential influence to working expatriates (Andreason and Aaron, 2008, pp. 386-387). C (RETURNED AFTER A-FIVE-YEAR-ASSIGNMENT AND WOULD BE SENT OUT IMMEDIATELY) The problem of JKL here is about repatriate management and in detail; it will be related to re-entry management. In general, after completing an international assignment, an expatriate will go back to the home country as called re-entry or repatriation (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2004, p.337). However, most repatriates will cope with culture shock after they back to the home country. Using an example of India and UK here, although many British work in India as expats for its booming economic and after their finishing assignments, back to UK, they therefore only find they cannot work under a UK context (The International Herald Tribune, 2009). That may be the reason that JKL sent employee C abroad again without hesitation in order to avoid coping with culture shocks (Case Study). It is obviously that JKL need to improve their repatriate management and there are many models here from other multinational companies. JKL could Offer repatriation training, pre-departure training, and re-entry orientation to employees and their families (Liu, 2005, p.129) and expats can increase the awareness of repatriation and decrease the uncertainty after back to the home country . Moreover, JKL could prepare a job vacancy in expatriate management division of human resource management because expatriates have various working experiences in other countries (Berman and Ursula, 2009, pp.80-81). D (NOW WORKING IN GREECE AS AN EXPATRIATE) The major issue of expatriate D in Greece now is adapting the local customs and culture in Greece although JKL had a prepared pre-departure training programme (Case Study). In Hofstedes national culture demonstration of UK and Greece (Appendix B), the uncertainty avoidance is extremely high and no long-term orientation in Greece. In the case of expatriate D, a problem of communication is occurred as well. In theoretical aspect, there four problems in cross-cultural oral communication: semantics, word connotations, tone differences and differences among perceptions (Robbins and Judge, 2009, pp.407-408) and English and Greek are classified to two different language system. As a result, it will take a longer training  programme to completely learn and understand a foreign language. Likewise the body language and gestures in England are slightly different to the world, for example, a V gesture means victory or peace in many countries but in England, if the palm and fingers face inward, it means up yours especially if executed with an upward jerk of the fingers (New York Times, 1996, p.E7). Consequently, post-departure training is a rational option for expatriate D to continually make adjustments into Greek culture. The reason is that post-departure training is suit for expatriates living in a country which has an entirely different culture and it can accelerate accustoming another culture (Managing Training and Development, 2005). E AND F (CONFUSED AFTER REPATRIATE) Expatriate E and F have similar problems after finishing their international assignments because JKL currently have no response about their repatriate (Case Study). The problem of JKL must be repatriate management. The possible solution will be provided here is putting emphasis on repatriate management. In fact, in last ten years, there is an increasing number of multinational corporations focus on repatriate management while in 1990s, only few companies would hold a re-entry discussion. According to a survey in 1997, only 27% firms supposed to hold a discussion about re-entry and it had been improved in 2000s. In 2004, there are 86% companies intended to discuss the re-entry issue (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.199). JKL could offer repatriate supports to repatriates such as give interaction to human resource management to increase the sense of loyalty so that the company can avoid losing these experienced employees (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2004, pp. 343-344). G (THOUGHT GREEK DISCRIMINATE AGAINST FEMALE) From expatriate Gs case, it seems Greek dislike the idea of female even she is well qualified or experienced (Case Study). Thus, for JKL, it shall  investigate the culture and even the working environment in Greece. From Hofstedes national culture model, UK and Greece possess almost the same figure in masculinity and Greece actually has a lower masculinity figure than UK (Appendix B). However, the power distance in Greece is much higher than it in UK which means whatever a male or female, their ideas are hardly applied to supervisors as an employee. In Greek working condition, it is surprisingly to find much evidence of discrimination against female. According to an official report written by Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) (2002, pp.13-21), there are approximately 4500 rapes in working communities every year and only 6% are reported to police. Furthermore, Sexual harassment in communities is common in Greece due to no specific legislation of sexual harassment. Those factors may be the reasons of Greek male employees discriminate against female in the working place. In JKLs view, it is a challenge to solve this problem as well, one of the effective ways is sending a male expatriate instead of female employee in Greece to prevent any hidden risks in Greece and make further investigation in Greek subsidiaries. ORGANISATION From the case study, JKL have a high expatriate failure rate (Exceed 46%) in subsidiaries except USA (Appendix F). JKL has paid a low attention on cross culture management because it applies a localised managerial system and most managers in the subsidiaries are from the host countries. In fact, many multicultural corporations which apply localised managerial system have the same issue in manage culture difference (National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2006, p.1). According to Brunstein (1995, pp. 275-280), a localised managerial system will positively fit the local context and it is easier to bring profit like autonomy units in a shorter of time than centralised management system. However, the drawbacks are employees especially the expatriates from the parent company will probably face a huge  culture shock in the subsidiary if their cultures are totally different. As a result, JKL must release many improvements in human resource department especially in expatriate management field. If JKL continually applies a localised managerial system in acquired firms, it may only have problems on expatriates management. However, once the supervisors intended to transplant the whole management system into a country with entirely different national culture like flag-planting, it definitely will bring a serious impact to the target subsidiary and the worst consequence may like the failure of Japanisation entering UK in 1990s. CONCLUSION The main problem that JKL has is on its international human resource management as a part of managerial system. In the case study, seven expatriate had a range of typical expatriate problems comprising training, expatriate selection and repatriate management. Moreover, 43 per cent of expatriate left JKL after their repatriation and at least 46 per cent of expatriate cannot complete their tour in subsidiaries except USA. In short, those fundamental factors of expatriates problems are totally based on various national cultures that JKL need to take account in its cross culture management. PART TWO: APPRAISE THE DECENTRALISED MANAGERIAL SYSTEMS OF JKL APPLIED IN RUSSIAN AFFILIATE INTRODUCTION Like national cultures, many companies have developed their own organisational culture as well as managerial structure. Organisational structure is important to multinational corporations because it will definitely interact with different national cultures in host countries (Francesco and Gold, 2005, p.236). In the case study, JKL applies a  polycentric control system in Malaysia, India and Greece and decision making authority is awarded to subsidiaries in order to avoid drawbacks on the motivation and political problems in these countries (Stonehouse _et al_, 2004, pp.382-383). As a result, those subsidiaries make profit very shortly (Case Study). This essay will evaluate Jim Flinns proposal who intends to transplant a whole managerial system from JKL headquarter to its Russian affiliate. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS OF JKLS AND ZAGORSKIS STRUCTURES AND MANAGERIAL SYSTEMS At the headquarter in UK and its affiliate in USA, JKL uses a decentralised management structure and employees will be empowered to make decisions on their own works (Case Study). Currently, many European multinational companies applied decentralised managerial structure and developed an organisational culture called old boys network with high autonomy (Bartlett, Ghoshal and Birkinshaw 2003 pp.342-343). Decentralised structure is one of the most successful management systems in transnational corporations which has experienced a long time modification and has generated many derivative systems. Under this system, diverse standards are made to fit specific manufacturing cases and it will enhance developing new and innovative products (Johnson _et al_, 2008, p. 166). For JKL, it is a brilliant choice because innovation is actually a crucial factor to a pharmaceutical company. Yet, the weak point of this system is hard to implement global business strategies because those subsidiaries are working as autonomies while Zagorski used to apply a centralised structure which renowned for the efficiency of implements business strategies. Furthermore, JKL developed a monitoring system with performance appraisal in headquarter and USA which can significantly motivate employees in working place (Decenzo and Robbins, 1999, pp. 292-294). However, there are a few weaknesses of performance appraisal system. For example, a report from General Electric (GE) which applied performance appraisal system and it found that those employees who received a honest but negative feedback from supervisors would actually not motivated them but decrease the motivation in their work  (Oberg, 2000, p. 64). On the contrast, a centralised structure has a formal bureaucracy system with a tall hierarchy and fixed official duties (Francesco and Gold 2005, pp.240-241). This structure is therefore suit for small or middle-sized companies at the beginning stage for effective control power in strategy implementation (Jeong, 2001, p. 446). One the other hand, the Economist (2004, p.33) found that with the increasing size of firms, a centralised structure will constantly lose the efficiency of decision making process through the complicated bureaucracy system and the employees will get used to receive orders from supervisors instead of expressing their own idea. In addition, there is no performance related rewards in Zagorski because a tall hierarchy management system proposed to make a uniform management system by formalised, vertical and fair control so that regulations are designed to fit every employee as a same unit (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 1999, p.712). NATIONAL CULTURE DIFFERENCES JKL used to transplant their management system to its subsidiary in USA and it successful worked. This is the main reason that Jim Flinn, the former manager in US affiliate wants to transplant the system to Russia again. Before making the final decision, it is necessary to analyse the reasons of this success in USA. As main economics in Europe and North America, there are many similarities in the national culture of UK and USA. According to Harris, Moran and Moran (2004, pp.297-298, pp. 437-440), free enterprise, culture affinity, English speaking, private, good manners, aggressive and self-realisation are the common key words of American and British. Moreover, in Hofstedes national culture model (Appendix C), the national culture of USA and UK are almost the same and in uncertainty avoidance column, USA is slightly higher than UK. However, Russia is totally a different country in East Europe. First, employees in Russia are regarded as a kind of cost rather than a resource (Organizational Dynamics, 1999, p.75). Second, beside the language usage, all management decisions are made by supervisors in business context.  Furthermore, Russian basically have a slow time sense and they intend to work collectively (Harris, Moran and Moran, 2004, pp.497-500). In Hofstedes national culture demonstration (Appendix D), Russia has a higher power distances, lower individualism, higher uncertainty avoidance and no long term orientation compared to UK and USA. From a report, Russian firms used to apply a reactor business strategy in order to meet immediate need instead of long term benefits but most of those companies are finally failed (Milles and Snow, 1978, p. 353). RELEVANT CASES After culture analysis, it is showed that there is a huge difference in national culture between Russia and UK. Hence, it is not sure that Jim Flinn will still succeed again in his transplanting programme. Look back at history, in 1990s, Japanisation once became a popular word in UK and Toyota established its manufacturing plant in Derby in 1992 because there was an existing skilled engineering workforce there (The Independent, 1992, p.23). During the early 1990s only about 55000 people were employed by Japanese companies in the UK (The Journal, 1999). Japanisation is a Japanese managerial system with Cost-centred Just in Time System, long term contracts, vertical integration to supplier and low labour turnover rate (Hasegawa, 2001, pp.165-166). However, once Japanese manager attempted to entirely implement this system into British subsidiaries, it was not worked effectively with British employees and many Japanese companies like Nissan finally failed in UK market because Japanese manufacturing method did not fit British economic and culture conditions with collective working method (Procter and Ackroyd, 1998, p. 241, pp.244-245). In Hofstedes national culture model (Appendix E), Japan is a collective, success oriented and long term oriented country with high uncertainty avoidance which is almost an opposite of UK. It is recommended to apply a centralised managerial structure in Russia because many most Russian companies applied a traditional production-oriented culture with strong factory patriotism just like a  typical Soviet traditions (Clarke, 2004, p. 418). In 2003, IKEA opened its first store in Russia and many Swedish worked in IKEA Russia as expatriates. After repatriation, their feedbacks are high power distance in the working place accompanied with rigid centralised management structures (Jonsson, 2008, p.34). Despite the nation culture of Russia possess a high power distance, there are some autonomous states in Russia which has rich unexplored natural resources such as Komi and Sakhalin actually have a more decentralised culture and many Dutch petroleum and pharmaceutical companies had established their affiliates with decentralised management structures in those regions (Condon, and Dauman, 1993, p.31). FORECAST According to the case study, Jim Flinn intends to use a top-down change approach to transplant the managerial structure which may be imposed in a coercive manner (Balogun and Hailey, 2004, p.27). Once Jim Flinn has completely applied the management system that used in the headquarter and USA, the employees in Russian subsidiaries have to cope with a huge culture difference from West Europe. Jim Flinn may draw attention on the success of Dutch pharmaceutical companies in Russia as mentioned before. Thus, in a short term, transition will be a main issue in Russian subsidiary and it probably will take a long time in this process. However, in a long term perspective, the management structure of JKLs headquarter may bring a range of benefits because a decentralised management system is exactly helpful in research and development department although the Russian employees are used to reluctant in changes (Case Study). CONCLUSION The main problem of JKLs Russian affiliate is culture adjustment if Jim Flinn transplants the whole management structure from JKL to Zagorski. In fact, national culture will strongly influence the organisational culture as well as managerial framework of a company. Changing management system in a  subsidiary is not a flag-planting work because of various national cultures involved. In the first part of essay, some expatriates actually have problems on their international assignments in India and Greece. Hence, it can be estimated that, after the transplantation, many local employees working in Russia subsidiaries may have the same problems. Furthermore, many previous cases above are provided which could be used as a reference to Jim Flinn as well. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This essay examined the problems in managing expatriates in JKL and evaluated the proposal from Jim Flinn who will transplant a British managerial system to a Russian subsidiary. Through these analyses, it is concluded that national culture will influence both expatriates and organisational cultures. It is essential for multinational corporations to have a good command of human resource management because of the large proportion budget of expatriates and efficiency of implementing business strategies. Managerial structure, on the other hand, it cannot be easily changed and sometime it will bring a series negative consequences in real business context because national cultures are involved as well. JKL have to improve its human resource department especially repatriate division and training programme to offer better supports to expatriates and eventually, there is a suggestion to Jim Flinn which is making further investigations on previous cases and local subsidiaries REFERENCE: Andreason and Aaron, W. (2008), Expatriate Adjustment of Spouses and Expatriate Managers: An Integrative Research Review, _International Journal of Management_, 25(2), pp.386-387. Around The World in Eighty Years. Arusha Times (2009), Trends in Management of Human Resource in Civil Service, p.16, 28 March, 2009. Balogun, J. and V. H. Hailey (2004), _Exploring Strategic Change_, p.27. Pearson Education Limited, Essex, England. Bartlett, C., S. Ghoshal and J. Birkinshaw (2003), _Transnational Management: Text, Cases, and Readings in Cross-Border Management_, pp. 342-343, McGraw-Hill, Singapore. Berman, W. and Ursula (2009), International Assignments and the Career Management of Repatriates: The Boundaryless Career Concept, _International Journal of Management_, 26(1), pp.80-81. Brunstein, I. (1995), _Human Resource Management in Western Europe_, pp. 275-280, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany. Business Recorder (2011), Economic Development, 27 February, 2011. Business Wire (1998), Expatriate Resources: Corporate Update, 26 March, 1998. Carrell, R. M., F. N. Elbert and D. R. Hatfield (2000), _Human Resource Management, Strategies for Managing a Diverse and Global Workforce, Six Edition_, p.129, p.315, The Dryden Press, Harcourt College Publisher, Orlando, USA. Chen, Y. R., (2006), _Research on Managing Groups and Teams_, p.2, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, UK. Clarke, S. (2004), A Very Soviet Form of Capitalism? The Management of Holding Companies in Russia, _Post-Communist Economies_, 16(4), p.418. Condon, J. and J. Dauman (1993), New realities and prospects for Western business in the new Russia of decentralising regions, _European Business Journal_, 5(2), p.31. Czinkota, M. R., I. A. Ronkainen and M., H., Moffett (1999), International Business, pp. 712, The Dryden Press, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Orlando, USA. Decenzo, D. A. and S. P. Robbins (1999_), Human Resource Management, Sixth Edition_, pp.292-294, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, USA. Dowling, P. J., M. Festing and A. D. Engle (2008), _International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context_, p.120, p. 199, p.217, South-Western, London, UK. Economist (2004), Centralised intelligence?, 373(8405), p.33. Francesco, A. M. and B. A. Gold (2005), _International Organisational Behaviour, Second Edition_, p. 236, pp. 240-241, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. Gielen, A. C., M. J. M. Kerkhofs and O. J. C. Van (2010), How performance related pay affects productivity and employment, _Journal of Population Economics_, 23(1), p.299. Gordon, K. (2010), What Employees Want, _Campaign_, p.56, 1 March, 2010. Greek Helsinki Monitor and the World Organisation against Torture (2002), _Violence against Women_ _In Greece_, pp.13-21, July, 2002. Harris, H., C. Brewster and P. Sparrow (2003), _International Human Resource Management_, p. 91, p.94, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, CIPD House, London. UK. Hall, W. (1995), _Managing Cultures, Making Strategic Relationships Work_, p.6, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., West Sussex, England. Harris, P. R., R. T. Moran and S. V. Moran (2004), _Managing Cultural Differences, Sixth Edition_, pp.297-298, pp. 437-440, pp. 497-500, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK. Harzing, A. W. and J. V. Ruysseveldt (2004), _International Human Resource Management_, p. 337, pp. 343-344, SAGE Publications Ltd., London, UK. Hasegawa, H. (2001), Globalization and Japanisation: implications for human resource management in Britain, _Japan Forum_, 13(2), pp.165-166. Hofstede, G. (1991), _Cultures and Organisations_, p.2, McGraw Hill, Maidenhead, UK. Hofstede, G. (1992a), National Culture of UK and India. Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom-and- india.html. Accessed 20 December 2011. Hofstede, G. (1992b), National Culture of UK and Greece. Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom-and-greece.html. Accessed 20 December 2011. Hofstede, G. (1992c), National Culture of UK and USA. Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom-and- united-states.html. Accessed 20 December 2011. Hofstede, G. (1992d), National Culture of UK and Russia. Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom-and- russia.html. Accessed 20 December 2011. Hofstede, G. (1992e), National Culture of UK and Russia. Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom-and- japan.html. Accessed 21 December 2011. Jeong, J. (2001), Pursuing centralised bargaining in an era of decentralisation?, _Industrial Relations Journal_, 32(1), p. 446. Johnson, Gerry, Scholes and Kevan (2008), _Exploring Corporate Strategy (8th edition)_, p. 166, Harlow, Essex: Financial Times and Prentice Hall, London, UK. Joneeon, A. (2008), a transnational perspective on knowledge sharing: lessons learned from IKEAs entry into Russia, China and Japan, _International Review of Retail, Distribution Consumer Research_, 18(1), p. 34. Liu, C. H. (2009), The Effects of Repatriates Overseas Assignment Experiences on Turnover Intentions, _Journal of American Academy of Business_, 7(1), p.129. Managing Training and Development (2005), Culture Training How to Prepare Your Expatriate Employees for Cross-Cultural Work Environments, p.2, February, 2005. Milles, R. and C. Snow (1978), Organisational Strategy, Structure and Process, p.353, McGraw-Hill, New York, USA. Neale, M. A., M. A. Elizabeth and Y. R. Chen (2006), _National culture and groups_, p. 26, Bingley, U.K National Centre for Vocational Education Research (2006), Managing CultureMaking Culture Work for You, p.1, March, 2006. New York Times (1996), Whats A-O-K in the U.S.A. Is Lewd and Worthless Beyond, p. E7, 18 August, 1996. Oberg, W. (2000), Make performance appraisal relevant, _Harvard Business Review_, 50(1), p. 64. Organizational Dynamics (1999), Doing Business in Russia: Effective Human Resource Management Practices for Foreign Firms in Russia, 28(2), p.75. Procter, S. and S. Ackroyd (1998), Against Japanisatoin: Understanding the Reorganisation of British Manufacturing, _Employee Relations_, 20(3), p.241, pp. 244-245. Robbins, S. P. and T. A. Judge (2009), _Organizational Behavior, Pearson International Edition_, p.336, pp. 407-408, Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey, USA. Robert, C., Probst, T. M., Martocchio, J. J., Drasgow, F. and J. J. Lawler (2000), Empowerment and continuous improvement in the United States, Mexico, Poland, and India: predicting fit on the basis of the dimensions of power distance and individualism, _The Journal of Applied Psychology_, 85(5), pp.654-656. South Asian Studies (2011), The State, Media, Religion and Emerging Challenges in India, 26 (1), July, 2011. Stonehouse, G., D. Campbell, J. Hamill and T. Purdie (2004), _Global and Transnational Business, Strategy and Management_, pp. 382-383, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, West Sussex, England. The Independent (1992), Britains motor parts suppliers learn Japanese, p.23, 8 June, 1992. The International Herald Tribune (2009), A Reverse Culture Shock in India: Workers Returning Home Find It Hard to Cope with Clash between Two Worlds, p.10, 28 November, 2009. The Journal (1999), Japanese bring 150 more jobs  £5m investment in Tees Valley, p.26, 8 September, 1999.

Love in a Snow Globe :: Snow Globes Personal Narratives Essays

Love in a Snow Globe Packing for college is a normal and exciting event in many newly turned legal adults’ lives. It is the first time they get to live with peers in place of nosy parents. Some items are packed are out of necessity, such as clothes, and others are to decorate the bland white walls and wooden desks to show some personality, which are all the things every teenager tells their parents they â€Å"need† to bring. When it was finally my turn to pack for college, there were many boxes that I â€Å"needed† to bring. Pictures of friends, celebrity posters, scheduling calendars, alarm clocks, school supplies, desk lamps, quick food, and tons and tons and tons of clothes were packed along with one tiny green snow globe on my first year of school. That snow globe meant and still means the world to me. The snow globe was given to me before college, even before my final year in high school. It was a random day in the summer of 2002. That was the summer before my senior year of high school. It had been one stormy week of summer. I do not mean literally in the sense that the weather was like the end of the world type weather, but mentally and physically for me the past weeks have been nothing but thunder and lightening going off in my head. A gray storm cloud had been hanging around over my head, raining on me and only me. It was because during the last three weeks of summer vacation, I had spent hours upon hours in my high school looking at the concrete walls painted as though a rainbow had thrown up inside the school. My time had been spent on trying to fix my schedule of classes, so that I could have the perfect balance of classes to slack off in and ones that would impress colleges. The lazy counselor was taking her time and needed me to return almost everyday so that she could lecture me about her personal life. This information was important to the reason why she continued to have trouble with scheduling my classes to my liking.

5.05 Works Cited

I do think that the lawsuit against Brianna LaHara was fair; she technically stole over a thousand songs. I do feel that it is a bit unfair that there was a law suit against a 12 year old, but also she needed it to be done now before she got herself into some real trouble when she was older. If it was me in this situation, I would just give myself over to them and confess what I did. I do not think it is a reasonable program at all.I am not one for having that fear constantly eating at the back of my brain, so I would rather just face the consequences. If I knew I was at such risk for arrest and lawsuits, I would turn myself in voluntarily. There are too many risks, and cases already made against this subject. According to CBS News, a woman in 2009 illegally downloaded TOO much music! She shared copyrighted music online and levied $222,000 in damages against her.She even had to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. WORKS C ITED: â€Å"Woman Faces The Music, Loses Download Case. † CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n. d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. . â€Å"12-year-old Settles Music Swap Lawsuit. † CNN. N. p. , 18 Feb. 2004. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. .

Path-Goal Theory Essay

Purpose: Leadership is the key to the success of organizations, businesses or individuals. While the leaders are important, so are the subordinates. This article digs deep into the leader-subordinate relationships, what are the expectations from the leader, what are the various kind of leadership styles and how each styles impacts the subordinates. There have been immense amount of researches done on the topic of leadership and impact on subordinates. One theory ‘Expectancy theory’ states that and individual’s attitude (eg. Satisfaction with supervision or job satisfaction) or behavior (e.g. leader behavior or job effort) can be predicted from 1) the degree to which the job or behavior is seen as leading to various outcomes (expectancy and 2) the evaluation of these outcomes. Our interest on any project basically depends on the expected outcome. I want to relate this theory to a different kind of topic. I have observed, peoples’ passion for a certain â€Å"demand† goes down after they don’t see an outcome from the authorities. A good example could be the â€Å"Immigration Protests†. The proponents of â€Å"path to citizenship† and illegal aliens did protests etc. several times between 2008-2011. These protests were more common and passionate in President Obama’s previous tenure. But since nothing has come out even after several years of unrelenting protests, debates and voting on numerous immigration bills in the congress, I feel now that they are exhausted and not very positive this time around. The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership suggests that effective leadership affects subordinates’ motivation and their ability to perform. The theory proposes that leaders behavior is acceptable to subordinates as far as it is a source of satisfaction also leaders behavior is motivational for the subordinates if it helps the subordinates to perform better or it provides coaching, guidance, support or reward for effective performance. Considering these propositions Path-Goal theory suggest that leader’s main functions are to enhance subordinates’ motivation to perform, satisfaction with the job and acceptance of the leader. Leader’s Function: Path-Goal Theory and other leadership-Subordinate theories describes there are several strategic function of the leader which consists of 1) recognize and arouse subordinates’ needs for outcomes over which the leader has some control. 2) Setup a rewarding system after achievement of certain objectives 3) Make the path to achieve easier by participation, or supporting them 4) remove barriers 5) Give more opportunities that motivates them. Leadership Behavior: There are four important leadership behaviors that are discussed in the article, Supportive, directive, participative and achievement oriented. The research suggested that supportive leadership works best in the stressful & frustrating conditions also when the tasks given to subordinates are not satisfying. Leader’s directiveness is found to be positive when tasks are ambiguous and directions are not clear. In this scenario subordinates gets information from the directions and have more information how to achieve the task while directive nature of the leadership has a negative effect when the tasks are clear, it kind-of frustrates the subordinates. A study by House, Valency and Van Der Krabben suggested that â€Å"Achievement Oriented leadership†, has positive effects on the workers who does non-repetitive and ambiguous jobs, the reason behind workers satisfaction could be their belief that good performance could mean better payoffs. While it seems that â€Å"Achievement-oriented† leadership has no or very little effect on the subordinates who does repetitive or â€Å"clearly outlined† tasks. There is one more reason that is provided in the article is about the nature of the people who does non-repetitive and more ambiguous jobs. These people may be IT professionals or white collar jobs who may get more flexibility and autonomy while working for achievement-oriented tasks. Mitchell described four ways in which Participative Leadership affects subordinates’ behavior, first a participative climate increases the clarity of the tasks, organizational contingencies etc. Secondly it gives a choice to the subordinates to pick their goals they are able to see what they value more and how they can achieve it. Thirdly when the leader participates with the subordinates they get more involved in the process and subordinates get more ownership of the work. The fourth impact is a result of the third point, when subordinates starts to feel to get â€Å"ownership† of the work, then they starts feeling the pressure for high performance due to inner conscience. I think it is a very good article as it is very relevant to our daily work be it professional or personal challenges. It clearly shows the path for the leadership style you should take for managing your subordinates and ultimately reach your organization’s and your personal goals. 1)Discussion: Can people, who hold certain personality traits, fit in situation where a different kind of leadership is required? For example a â€Å"micromanager†, who has a directive nature, will he be able to fit in the situation where the subordinates’ job is stressful and tasks are dissatisfying. 2)How can these researches be used when companies are hiring managers? Do they need to first layout the kind of the work company does and then they should interview people and try to find out the personality traits and their leadership style and then map it with what is best for the organizations’ environment. 3)Can there be leaders who have all the leadership styles ie. Directive, Supportive, Participative and Achievement Oriented?

2 Ways To Make a Model Comet That Makes a Tail

2 Ways To Make a Model Comet That Makes a Tail   A real comet is a mixture of several materials. While each comet has its own unique chemical signature, most of them contain water ice, organic compounds, dust, and rocky or stony chunks. Its fun to make your own comet and expose it to a simulated solar wind to observe its behavior. Heres how to make a model comet that behaves like the real deal. This particular recipe uses solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) so that it will sublimate into a comet tail when exposed to heat. Feel free to substitute ingredients to see what effect they have on your model. Use caution with the dry ice. It is extremely cold and can give you frostbite if you touch it. Wear gloves! Dry Ice Model Comet Materials A bowl or pot large enough to hold your ingredientsA cup of water (it will freeze into ice when mixed with the cold dry ice)A cup of dirt (this contains organic compounds and grit, like a real comet)A cup of sand (many comets contain silicates, like sand or quartz)Some charcoal (comets contain dark material, which can be carbon, like charcoal)A bit of household ammonia or window cleaner (ammonia is a nitrogen compound observed in comets)A couple of cups of crushed dry ice (carbon dioxide is common in comets)Syrup (optional: adds organic compounds and helps the comet stick together)Newspaper (optional: place it on your workspace to make clean-up easier) Make the Comet If your dry ice arrives in large chunks, you can place it in a paper bag and smash it with a hammer to crush it. If you get dry ice pellets, you can use them as they are. Use a wooden spoon or gloved hand to mix together the ingredients and crush them together to make a lumpy ball. Like real comets, your model may break apart. One tip to help it stick together is to let it rest for a couple of moments before picking it up and examining it. You can simulate the solar wind to make a comet tail by blowing on the model. The heat of your breath will mimic the warmth of the sun. Do you smell the ammonia? Real comets smell a bit like window cleaner! Liquid Nitrogen Comet Another way to simulate a comet with a tail is to use liquid nitrogen. For this comet, you dip a porous, rocky material into liquid nitrogen and remove it to see the vapor trail. Since liquid nitrogen is even colder than dry ice, youll want to use long-handled tongs. A good material for the rocky comet is a charcoal briquette. Compare the Simulated Comet To a Real Comet Comets that we see come from either the Oort Cloud or the Kuiper Belt. The Oort Cloud is a sphere of material that surrounds the solar system. The Kuiper Belt is a region located beyond Neptune that contains many icy bodies within range of the Suns gravity. A real comet may be considered to be a sort of dirty snowball made of frozen water, dust, rocks, and dust. There are three parts to a comet: Nucleus - The dirty snowball part of the comet is its nucleus, which consists of meteoritic dirt, frozen gases (like dry ice), and water.Coma - As the nucleus of the comet moves close enough to the Sun, it warms and the frozen gases sublimate into vapor. The vapor pulls dust particles with it away from the nucleus. Light reflecting off the dust accounts for the fuzzy shape of a comet.Tail - Comets are in motion, so they leave a trail of gas and dust in their wake. The solar wind also pushes matter away from the comet and ionizes it into a bright tail. Depending on its location, a comet may have one or two tails.

Liquid Nitrogen Activities and Projects

Liquid Nitrogen Activities and Projects Are you looking for an activity or project with liquid nitrogen? This is the most extensive list of liquid nitrogen ideas youre likely to find: Make liquid nitrogen ice cream.Make Dippin Dots type of ice cream.Fill a whistlings include wine or soda. Youll get a cool fog effect, plus a cool drink.For a party or group, freeze graham crackers in liquid nitrogen. Wave the cracker around to warm it up a bit and eat the cracker. The cracker has an interesting texture, plus people eating crackers will be spouting clouds of nitrogen vapor. Miniature marshmallows also work quite well. The risk of injury from either food is quite low. Freeze a banana in liquid nitrogen. You can use it to hammer a nail.As a demonstration that even antifreeze freezes if its cold enough, solidify antifreeze using liquid nitrogen. Dip a carnation, rose, daisy, or other flower in liquid nitrogen. Remove the flower and shatter its petals in your hand.Use a squirt bottle of water to spray designs into liquid nitrogen vapor.Spin a tub of liquid nitrogen to create a vapor vortex. You can float paper boats or other lightweight objects in the maelstrom.Pour a cup of liquid nitrogen into about a liter of warmed bubble solution to produce a mountain of bubbles.Pour a small amount of liquid nitrogen into a Pringles can and pop the lid on. The vapor will (loudly and forcefully) pop the lid off.Break an incandescent light bulb (type with a filament). Turn it on in the liquid nitrogen. Cool glow!Bounce a lightweight hollow ball on a hard surface. Immerse the ball in liquid nitrogen and try to bounce it. The ball will shatter rather than bounce.Pou r liquid nitrogen onto weeds to kill them. The plant will die with no toxic residue or other harm to the soil. Examine the color change of LEDs under normal temperatures and in liquid nitrogen. The band gap of the LED increases at lower temperature. Cadmium red or cadmium orange- bandgap of Cd(S,Se)- are good choices.Foods high in water will break with a tinkling sound like glass when smashed. Orange segments are a good choice for this project.Insert flexible rubber or plastic tubing into a dewar of liquid nitrogen. The nitrogen will spray out the end of the tubing onto you or the audience, etc. so use care that you have protection on the hand holding the tubing and that there is enough distance at the top of the tubing for the nitrogen to vaporize before contacting with people. Although the tubing is flexible at room temperature, at liquid nitrogen temperature it becomes brittle and will shatter if hit with a hammer or whacked on a lab bench. If you twist the tubing around itself before putting it in the nitrogen, the tubing will uncoil itself as it thaws, in a sort of serpentine manner.

Human Resource Development-- Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human Resource Development-- - Assignment Example As Coates (2010) explains, acquiring new knowledge, attitudes and skill sets in one environment and applying them in another may be affected by several factors. Effective and the experience of the trainer is a very essential factor in influencing the training transfer to job places. Any trainer must be a fluent and effective communicator (Coates, 2010). This facilitates the conversations and ensures the learners’ needs are met, a clear and effective presentation of the material that makes the information interesting. Another factor is the in-class and out-class practice. More of this practice ensures the learner gains enough experience of handling cases, and it is easier to transfer the training to workplaces in case a similar case appears as to that tackled during the practices (Coates, 2010). An organization should also mount some quality pressure on the trained employees to work as of their acquired knowledge and towards the set goal of the organization. This will ensure th at the employees apply their learnt skills at their workplaces effectively. Needs assessment are usually conducted so as to facilitate the growth of employees of a company in terms of the knowledge and skills they possess. This helps the organization to know the type of employees in the organization, how to train them and what they need to be motivated. According to Barbazette (2004), a needs assessment is conducted to link a deficiency in performance to a desired result and ensure that appropriate training is formulated and conducted to combat the problems caused by the deficiency. To do this, an organization needs to analyze their needs and wants by conducting a performance analysis to identify which skill shortcomings can be bridged through training. To conduct a training needs assessment, an organization will have to first gather information for aiding in appropriate

Interpersonal conflict between stakeholders Essay

Interpersonal conflict between stakeholders - Essay Example Three per cent of nurses reported verbal threats (Whitworth, 2008). Distress was experienced by 66%. Females were the main perpetrators. Conflict had been described as a social behavior between individuals who attempted to gain something both could not have (Moss, 2002). Nursing conflicts had been termed as role conflict (Cooper, 2003), burnout (Poncet, 2007), horizontal violence (Abu Alrub, 2004) and intergenerational conflict (Swearingen & Liberman, 2004).Reflection and the impact on work practices and stakeholders  Conflict constituted most of the management problems in nursing. The hospital environment or primary care or community centers worked well and efficiently partially due to the efficacy of conflict management. The variety of people with diverse â€Å"perceptions, personalities and behaviors† could ignite a problem at any moment (Sikes, 2010). The common goals were what brought them together. Barriers were inevitable but efforts to prevent conflicts needed to com e from the right quarters. The idea was not to totally prevent the conflict but to manage it well so that a creative style with classic decision-making produced improved outcomes. Cohesion of the group was ensured through the efficient management of conflict. Too much conflict was conducive to frequent sparring and a decrease in performance; group cohesion suffered in the long run. Conflicts could arise between any of the stakeholders in a health environment: between nurses, nurses and doctors, nurses and patients.... Nursing conflicts had been termed as role conflict (Cooper, 2003), burnout (Poncet, 2007), horizontal violence (Abu Alrub, 2004) and intergenerational conflict (Swearingen & Liberman, 2004). Reflection and the impact on work practices and stakeholders Conflict constituted most of the management problems in nursing. The hospital environment or primary care or community centers worked well and efficiently partially due to the efficacy of conflict management. The variety of people with diverse â€Å"perceptions, personalities and behaviors† could ignite a problem at any moment (Sikes, 2010). The common goals were what brought them together. Barriers were inevitable but efforts to prevent conflicts needed to come from the right quarters. The idea was not to totally prevent the conflict but to manage it well so that a creative style with classic decision-making produced improved outcomes. Cohesion of the group was ensured through the efficient management of conflict. Too much confl ict was conducive to frequent sparring and a decrease in performance; group cohesion suffered in the long run. Conflicts could arise between any of the stakeholders in a health environment: between nurses, nurses and doctors, nurses and patients, nurses and the patients’ families, doctors and patients’ families, nurse manager and staff nurses, staff of different categories and between policy makers and the hospital industry. The nursing profession needed to handle conflicts with confidence and evoke the best results. The resolution of the conflict The nurse manager had to use her skills of communication and interpersonal skills to identify the main problem of the conflict by