Faculty of Business Environment and Society Assignment

Faculty of Business Environment and Society - Assignment Example In any sector, with the increasing competitiveness of the market and changing nature of customers’ demand, change has become crucial up to a larger extent (Kramar & Syed, 2012). It will also be crucial to mention that a change in any business sector is initiated with the assistance of a systematic process that is planned and executed in an efficient manner altogether. However, it is often seen that changes are welcomed in organsaitions in a collective manner, which further affects the potential effectiveness of the proposed change. There might be various reasons that develop reluctance in employees with regard to the initiation of change within the organisations (Briscoe, Schuler & Tarique, 2012). To get a conceptual understanding in this context, this particular discussion will mainly focus on analysing some recent changes in the workplace of Tesco along with comprehending the causes for their reluctance to change. The discussion will also emphasise depicting a set of recommendations to the company so that it can mitigate the resistant factors amid the employees that results in the reluctance to change. Tesco Plc is recognised as one of the leading players in the international retail sector in terms of its operational experiences as well as scale of operations worldwide. One of the major driving factors that have ensured unparalleled operational success for the company over the years is its effective approach towards dealing with the external environment (Tesco, 2014). Notably, change, as depicted above, is one of the most important aspects associated with the operations of any particular business. It is quite a stable approach in business and it rarely changes over the period. Contextually, Tesco is also aware of the constant changing nature of the external environment, which further encourages it to change its business functions accordingly

The Relative Roles of the Individuals Freewill Essay

The Relative Roles of the Individuals Freewill - Essay Example These texts highlight different societies, all of which have come under control of the government, whether by peaceful or violent means. They also shed light on what happens to the freewill of individuals within each scenario. The relative roles of the individual's freewill within society begins with making it appear as if the individual is acting of their own freewill, while displaying socially appropriate and societal programmed responses. An individual's freewill could not exist without society's carefully orchestrated ministrations in allowing it to seem as if the individual is indeed making their own choices. Choices and actions made by said individual have to be engineered to look as if they were made by the individual. Through careful programming, society and government can achieve a desired result from the individuals. There are numerous ways of programming an individual within the society. These include but are not limited to: happiness, hate, brutality, genetics, drugs, love, fear, careful monitoring of said individuals to disallow privacy of any kind, and sex/eroticism. Through use of the aforementioned subjects, society and governments can exert control over the freewill of the individual, while maintaining the premise that they are not using these to manipulate individual actions and thought. Instead, those in control must convince the populace that what they do is for the good of all.All authors appear to agree that there are basic tenets for societal control. The individual must understand his/her status within the community. The underlying motif corresponds in all texts: an individual should be able to make their own choices without society or governmental intervention. If said person poses a danger or threat to others, then an authority must step in. If an individual is unable to make cor rect choices, i.e. the very young or aged, then it is also expected that someone will intervene on their behalf. Mills makes a point in stating that actions, though, should not be as free as opinions. He sets forth guidelines in lengthy detail discussing how each part of society is to function in harmony. All authors agree that the government is to become involved only when necessary, and to leave individuals alone to self-govern.If government decided to tamper with society and the individuals within it, a likely start would be where society and individuals begin: DNA and genetics. This is a horror that Mills in 1859 could hardly conceive of ever becoming a reality, due to minor knowledge of these subjects during his life. Huxley, however, provides in inside look at universal happiness via genetic engineering of society, at the moment of artificial conception. Through use of genetic methods, a form of super humans could evolve, eradicate disease, and achieve universal happiness thro ugh a caste system. Through happiness, a government could achieve control in influencing an individual's freewill through pleasantry. Physical pleasure via games or sexual gratification, the idea that "every

Adele Laurie Blue Essay Example for Free

Adele Laurie Blue Essay Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on May 5, 1988 in North London, England. She was the only child of Penny Adkins who was just 18 at the time of her birth, and a Welsh father, Mark, who left the family when Adele was only 4 years old. Mark, who never married Penny, stayed in contact with his daughter up until her teen years, when appeared problems with alcohol. That is the reason why Adele grew close to her mom, who said her young daughter to explore, and not to stick with one thing†. Adele developed a passion for musicin her early years. Because of it her mother took Adele in the BRIT School for Performing Arts Technology, where Amy Winehouse studied. While at school, Adele made a three-track demo for a class project, which was posted on her MySpace page. When executives at XL Recordings heard the tracks, they contacted the singer and, just four months after Adele had graduated school, signed a contract. Adeles debut album, 19, hit record stores because of two singles Hometown Glory and Chasing Pavements which became very popular. She won Grammy and the Critics Choice prize at the BRIT Awards. See more: Homeless satire essay Her album 21, selling 352,000 copies by its first week. Her two singles, Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You, became top and 19 and 21 became a top albums in the same week. Adele also broke the solo female artist record for staying at No. 1 for 11 weeks. At that year Adele won six Grammies. In this year Adele won her seventh Grammy for her hit single Set Fire to the Rain†, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the song Skyfall†. Also Adele has a child. The babys father is Adeles boyfriend, Simon Konecki. She said that she wants to have three sons by the time shes 30.

Poor Project Leadership And Lack Of Motivation Management Essay

Poor Project Leadership And Lack Of Motivation Management Essay Leadership is a significant factor in the whole project process. A good leadership will lead to project success. A poor project leadership will cause failure in the project. Project leader who is responsible to the project is someone that sets direction and influences people to follow that direction. Many project leaders were selected because of their education background rather than their experiences. The result is, the project leader will lead the project that exceeds their capabilities. Poor project leadership also the result of project leader that does not see the opportunity and does not listening to the people. One secret to successful project implementation is the project leaders ability to get the diverse background, education and experiences of project team members performing at maximal effectiveness. Consequently, the project leader must be both a leader and a motivator. Poor project leadership was a leading factor of the company failure. A leads behaviours such as excessive ego often lead to a poor project leadership. The lack of leadership skill will result in people get demotivated and eventually reduce their work performance. And because, a project leader does not have a clear vision of the market trend such as soaring of oil prices and credit crunch, the project will cost more and will be delayed. Lack of Motivation According to William R.King (1998) page 756, stated that motivation is important to the project manager from two perspectives. First, the individual must be motivated to be a project manager. If one does not have sufficient intrinsic motivation to take the types of managerial steps required, then one is not likely to success at the project management task. Second, the project manager must be able to motivate others. For this it is crucial that the project manager have an adequate understanding of motivation and techniques for motivating others. Lack of motivation is one of the project failure factors. It will be crucial, if a project leader is demotivated because it can directly influence the project team and give impact to organisational performance. Lack of motivation can be the result of many factors such as company policies, work condition and salary. Lack of motivation equates to less work being accomplished by the employee. The productivity of the employee will transfer to something that does not relate to projects work. Things like internet surfing, personal chat and taking longer lunches cost the organisation time and money. Low employee motivation could be the result of decreased success of the organisation, abrupt changes in organization and economic downturn. No matter what the cause, while working in unpleasant work environment due to lack employee motivation will give an impact to the existing and potential clients and partners. A reputation can be tainted and dictate its future in the industry. Employees are like lifeline to the company. When they are highly motivated, they will do whatever is necessary to achieve the targets and maintain the company stability. An organisation whose employees have low motivation is completely prone to challenges because its employee are not going extra mile to maintain the companys stability. The space shuttle Columbia disaster One of the top project failures cause by poor leadership is Columbia disaster. Columbia was one of the space shuttle owned by NASA. Amy Donahue (2004) stated that on January 16, the Columbia with her crew of seven was lunched to begin a scientific research mission. Sixteen days later, Columbia and her crew were lost during re-entered the earths atmosphere with unknown damage to her left wing. Columbia broke up over the western United states at 200 000 feet and 12 000 miles per hour. Columbias disintegration was both a tragedy and a disaster. A tragedy because the lives of seven heroic astronauts and their lifes work of countless engineers were lost that morning. And a disaster because more than 87 000 pounds of debris from the shuttle was strewn over 2000 square miles of east Texas and western Louisiana. Some material was as small as postage stamps but other pieces weighed some 800 pounds and came in at upward of 1 600 miles per hour, angering several feet into the ground. Just after the 2003 tragedy occurred many experts concluded that technology was to blame. But a more thorough and comprehensive investigation, undertaken by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, CAIB, concluded differently. It maintained that management was as much to blame for the failure as was the foam strike. The Board described an organizational culture in which, at every juncture, program managers were resistant to new information. It was a culture in which people were unwilling to speak up or if they did speak up were never heard. In their report they wrote that the organizational failure was a product of NASAs history, its culture, and its politics. (Columbia Accident Investigation Board, 2003). Engineers requested inspection by crew or remote photo imagery to check for the damage but no actions were taken to ensure space shuttle integrity. Management, however, was apparently confident that there was no safety issue and a decision was made against imagery. Had the imagery been authorized, and the damage discovered, the conjecture is that a rescue attempt would have had a reasonable chance of success. The project leader didnt take the advice from his engineer and still proceed with his decision. Senior management also ignored the flight data from the previous mission where foam had broken on every lunch. This is a typical example of poor project leadership. On top of these problems, the initial leadership structure was diffuse, with federal state and local field offices, operations canters and command posts all directing of the operation. Figure 1 : Foam strike detected in launch Taken from www.aiche.org/uploadedFiles/CCPS//Presentation_Rev_newv4.ppt Denver International Airport Baggage handling System On top of that, one of good example of project failure that caused by poor project planning and poor risk management was Denver International baggage handling system. According to Dr.R.de. Neufuille (1994) Denvers baggage handling system was the worlds largest automated airport baggage handling system. Faced with the need for greater airport capacity, the city of Denver elected to construct a new state of the art airport that would cement Denvers position as an air transportation hub. Covering a land area of 140 Km2, the airport was to be the largest in the United States and have the capacity to handle more than 50m passengers annually The airports baggage handling system was a critical component in the plan. By automating baggage handling, aircraft turnaround time was to be reduced to as little as 30 minutes. Faster turnaround meant more efficient operations and was a cornerstone of the airports competitive advantage. Despite the good intention, the project complexity was underestimated and was delayed by 16 months and cost the city of Denver USD 1.1 Million per day. After ten years of opening, the system never worked well and in august 2005, United Airlines has abandoned the system completely. The root of this failure was Denver international airport failed to estimate the complexity involved. The system which was the first in the world and 10 times larger than any other automated baggage handling system. The project team estimated the project can be done in two years but it took almost four years to complete. Because of the complexity involved, the airport management does not provide enough trolley in case the system failed .They were overconfidence that the project wills success. The system that worked on 100 individual PC that were connected together have no back up if one PC failed to operate. The system also was unable to detect any jams in the system and instead the system keeps piling more and more baggage making the jam much worse. Another project failure factor was poor in risk management. The project encountered a massive technical problem but not action has been taken. The most significant issue was, the system suffered from electrical shock, To resolve this problem, a filter is used in the electrical circuit to prevent current surge. But the delivery and installation of the filter took several months. Such issues were predictable if the project team more focused on risk management. Figure 2 : Denver baggage handling system Taken from http://calleam.com/WTPF/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/denverbag5.jpg Motivation From the PMBOK 4th Edition (2008) page 418 motivating in a project environment involves creating an environment to meet project objectives while offering maximum self-satisfaction related to what people value most. These values may include job satisfaction, challenging work, a sense of accomplishment, achievement and growth, sufficient financial compensation, and other rewards and recognition the individual considers necessary and important. Motivation is the task of the project manager. He has to provide motivation for his project team. He has to motivate them individually and collectively, that they each may produce their best-and then excel even more. The essential tools in the project managers kitbag for the motivation of his team are: Approval, praise and recognition-These will encourage people to do work and keep the focus Trust, respect and high expectation-Trust is the fundamental of project success. The leader should put trust on his people and in return, people will feel encourage to work Job enrichment Good communication-Communication is simply a two communication between top and bottom. A leader should listen for any suggestion from his employees. Most of the project failure was caused by the breakdown in communication structure. With a good communication system between project leader and workers, any problem can be resolved Cash incentives-Money is a good motivator. Good salary and incentive based on performance will encourage people to go extra mile. The project manager has a much better chance of success if he uses persuasion rather than coercion. The former build morale and initiative, whilst the latter quite effectively kills such qualities. Three basic components in persuasion are: 1. Suggestion 2.Playing the persons sentiments 3.Appealing to their logic. Using these tactics, the project manager will achieve his goal quietly, gently with the minimum of real effort. It is, in effect, an effortless achievement. The project leader has a great role to play in respect of the productivity of his team and through them, the productivity of the whole site. It is on this the actual productivity of the people on the site-that the success of his project finally rest. Productivity is an abstract concept and very controversial indeed. According to William R.King (1988) page 764 one very useful model for explaining the changes that have occurred in human motivation over the years is that developed by Abraham Moslow. Maslows hierarchy argues that mans needs come in an ordered sequence that is arranged in the following five need categories: 1.Physical needs : the foods, water ,air 2.Safety needs : the needs for security, stability and freedom from threat to physical safety. 3.Love needs : the need for friend with whom one may affiliate. 4. Esteem needs : the need for self-respect and esteem of others. This includes recognition, attention and appreciation from others. 5.Self-actualization needs: The need for self-fulfilment to be able tp grow and learn The project leader must be able to assess where each of his subordinate and co-workers are on the hierarchy and attempt to appeal to the appropriate needs. some people crave status and recognition. Others wand strongly to be a member of a cohesive team and to belong Herzberg has suggested that they are two types of motivational factors: hygiene factors and motivators .He suggest that the hygiene factors are necessary condition for a satisfied workers, but do not guarantee satisfaction. The hygiene factors include Company policy and administration Supervision Relationship With supervisor Working condition Salary Personal llife Relationship with peers Status Security In other words, the hygiene factors satisfy the lower level maslow needs. On the other hand, there are motivators which are factors that account for satisfaction in the worker. the motivators include Achievement Recognition Work itsef Responsibility Advancement Growth As a conclusion, motivation is a must that drive people to work. Motivation also has to do with human factors. People are willing to do work if they feel comfortable to do it and fell appreciated with their work. Leadership From the PMBOK 4th Edition (2008) page 417 leadership involves focusing the efforts of a group of people toward a common goal and enabling them to work as a team. In general terms, leadership is the ability to get things done through others. Respect and trust, rather than fear and submission, are the key elements of effective leadership. Although important throughout all project phases, effective leadership is critical during the beginning phases of a project when the emphasis is on communicating the vision and motivating and inspiring project participants to achieve high performance. A good leader always lead by example and make the people work under him feel pleasant. According to William R.King (1988) page 741, leadership behaviour can be divided into task behaviour (one way communication) and relationship behaviour (two way communications).These principles of leadership present s variety of sometimes conflicting premises which make it difficult to select appropriate behaviours in practise. Throughout the project, the project team leaders are responsible for establishing and maintaining the vision, strategy, and communications; fostering trust and team building; influencing, mentoring, and monitoring; and evaluating the performance of the team and the project. If the project leader plays a main role, the project will run smoothly. The good concept off leadership will determine whether the project wills success or not. By implementing the basic techniques of leadership, the people that work for the project will put their heart on work. People at lower level also have right to speak up if the feel something wrong with the project. By taking into account various opinions a final decision can be made by the project leader

Jane Eyre Essay -- essays papers

Jane Eyre The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte delivers a strong feminist message. Jane was a strong woman in a time when women were not meant to be strong. She was very out spoken (even as a child) and very sure in her values and opinions. She would not change them for anyone. She did not even let men control her, which is what was expected of women in this era. Jane’s father died when she was a little girl, leaving her basically on her own. The only kin she had that she knew of was an aunt that saw her as nothing but a burden and treated her cruelly. Her three cousins were just as bad, which further distressed her situation. Jane’s only escape from living with these awful people was the solitude she found in books. Any time she had spare time she would read. It is Jane’s love for reading and the knowledge she gained from them that gives her the power to finally stand up to her aunt. Her aunt ultimately gets rid of Jane by sending her to a very strict boarding school designed for orphans called Lowood. At Lowood Jane befriends a girl by the name of Helen Burns. When she first meets Helen, she sees her being punished in front of her entire class for virtually no reason. After witnessing this incident, Jane talks to Helen about it because she does not understand why she did not resist the teacher she says: You are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be. If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we sho... ...he now has complete financial independence which I believe makes her more secure in returning to Thornfield because she is in need of nothing but peace of mind in knowing that Mr. Rochester is alright. When she gets to Thornfield she finds it burnt to the ground. Mr. Rochester has gone blind and is very deformed after he went into the fire to try and save his wife from the burning house. His attempt had failed and his wife died. So in the end, Jane can now be with the person that she loves - Mr. Rochester. The irony of their marriage is that Jane will be the one taking care of Mr. Rochester instead of the other way around. Throughout the novel, Jane stands up for what she believes in even though in some cases it hurts her very badly. By her not being scared to do what it takes to follow her beliefs she went from a girl who had nothing to a woman who had it all.

Queen Elizabeth I :: England Queen Elizabeth First Essays Papers

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace near London. Her father was England's King Henry VIII; her mother was the king's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary, who was the daughter of the king's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. King Henry had moved heaven and earth to marry Anne Boleyn. He had parted from the Catholic church, established the Church of England, and annulled his twenty-four year marriage to Queen Catherine - partly because he loved Anne, and partly because he wanted the male heir Catherine could not give him. Henry and Anne were convinced that their first child would be a boy. The new queen even had a document drawn up ahead of time that announced the birth of a prince. When the prince turned out to be a princess, her parents were dismayed. Over the next few years Anne had three miscarriages, and Henry - who had become disenchanted with her even before Elizabeth's birth - decided to be rid of her. In 1536 he had Anne arrested on false charges of adultery. The Archbishop of Canterbury bowed to the king's will by declaring that Henry's marriage to Anne had never been valid. Like her half-sister Mary, two-year-old Elizabeth was now considered illegitimate. Anne was executed, and two weeks later the king married Jane Seymour. In 1537 Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Elizabeth and Mary participated in his christening ceremony. As Edward grew older, he and Elizabeth became close; although they lived in separate households, they wrote to each other often. When Elizabeth was four, Katherine Champernowne became her governess. The well-educated Champernowne - known as Kat Ashley after her marriage in 1545 - began teaching Elizabeth astronomy, geography, history, math, French, Flemish, Italian, Spanish, and other subjects. Elizabeth was an excellent student. Her tutor Roger Ascham later wrote, "She talks French and Italian as well as she does English. When she writes Greek and Latin, nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting." In 1540 Elizabeth's father married Anne of Cleves. Repelled by what he perceived as his bride's ugliness, Henry quickly had the marriage annulled and instead married Anne Boleyn's first cousin Katherine Howard. Katherine was very young - about fifteen - and something of a featherbrain, but she was kind to Elizabeth, who was surely appalled when, in a repetition of the past, the queen was arrested and charged with adultery. This time the charges were true. Queen Katherine was beheaded in 1542, when Elizabeth was seven years old.

Indigo Airlines

While the other airlines in the industry purchased rivals, flew different models of planes and tried to offer costly services, Indigo stuck to single model planes with a reputation of being a no frills airline. Indigo has stuck to operating the world’s largest selling single-aisle aircraft, the Airbus A320. This has helped the airlines to not just survive the economic slump in the industry but infact to post profits year-on-year end. Capacity utilization of IndiGo airlines fleet The utilization rate of IndiGo is around 16hours a day which is infact one of the highest in the industry. Thus even without using too many airplanes, the airlines can provide its ferrying service to a larger number of people. On an average its passenger loads have been around 90%. High seating Capacity of aircrafts Indigo operates a fleet of 62 aircraft and has been expanding its fleet rapidly. Even though the number of aircrafts are lesser than some other airlines, it offers higher seating capacity as most of its aircrafts are 180 seaters rather than the standard 60 – 70 seater aircrafts of most airlines. Indigo’s fleet is approximately 6. 5% of India’s combined fleet but it serves a market share 27%. Young fleet of aircrafts One of the strengths of Indigo Airlines is its fuel efficient young fleet of aircrafts as compared to other airlines. A young fleet of aircrafts has ensured increased service levels, high operational efficiency and low maintenance costs. Indigo recently bought 100 new A-320 jets from Airbus. Such volume purchases have helped Indigo in cutting its cost by availing volume discounts. Superior technology The consistent use of superior technology has helped Indigo achieve its USP of on-time performance. By making use of technologies such as ACARS Aircraft Communications Addressing And Reporting System), an automatic message is triggered from the aircraft to control centre and the departure time recorded immediately. Similarly during landing, this technology sends of an automatic message to the control centre which immediately records its arrival time. This has helped the airlines monitor and maintain strict on-time schedules. Excellence in operations Indigo has be en able to sign favorable contracts with engine, airframe and other critical component manufacturers securing warranty claims against defects. This has enabled indigo to minimize technical snags and enjoy superior operational efficiency. Owing to this Indigo has also been able to bring down its maintenance costs. Superior customer service One of the greatest strengths of Indigo airlines is the superior service it offers to its customers. The airline has the highest 95. 3 per cent on-time performance record and the lowest number of complaints per passenger. It offers unique services such as step-less stairs (walking ramp), web check-in, booking capability on handheld devices and automated real-time flight status on handheld devices. Human resources Another strength that Indigo airlines enjoys is its excellent management of human resources. It has a single central training program which gives training to its employees on functional skills, soft skills as well as leadership qualities. With a very robust system of internal promotions and flexibility in horizontal movement across the company, the airlines has seen zero or almost negligible attrition rate over the past server years. Tie-up with hotels Major hotels like Sarovar hotels etc have tied up with Indigo Airlines in order to provide a packaged service to customers. This type of bundling of services has created a value addition to customers who wish to sync their travel times and accommodation timings in order to receive the best deals at reasonable costs. This has in-turn increased the customer base for both the airline as well as the hotels. Superior brand image Good advertising and marketing strategies have increased Indigo’s brand recall and have helped in creating a superior brand image. With very high operational excellence, cost control, great experience, lowest cancellations Indigo enjoys a superior reputation amongst its customers, difficult for the competitors to replicate. Its unique advertising and marketing efforts have also helped in this regard. Weaknesses Easily Imitable Since Indigo has not concentrated too much on providing a differentiated experience with no-frills and on-time being their central theme, this is imitable by other players in the industry and thus a possible threat to its position as a cost leader. Limited number of International Routes Indigo Airlines operates on a limited number of international routes. This restricts the options and choices for international travelers. Only about 14% of its total fleet flies international. This is very low compared to its rivals and the general industry standard for airlines. International routes is an untapped segment where Indigo has not ventured too much into yet. Restricted Services In an attempt to operate as a low-cost airline, Indigo does not operate in many routes where the profit margins are below their set standard. This in turn in-conveniences many passengers. Also, the no-frills element of their services leads to other passenger inconveniences such as cramped seats, lower comfort during travel, non-refundable flights and higher charges of excess baggage.