Summer Of My Germin Soilder Essays - , Term Papers

Summer Of My Germin Soilder CN - Can you tell me the first time you met Anton. What was it like? PB - I first heard his name when some soldiers told my father that he was the only English speaking German. When I saw him he was different from the others. He did not look as strong or as tall as the others, but his eyes speckled with green. The first time I talked to him he was looking for a pocket pencil sharpener. We ended up talking. He told me about his family, their jobs and things like that. He also spoke about himself. He asked me to sell him a pin that looked like diamonds. Later I found out he would use the pen to sneak out of prison. I made a prayer just before he left. I prayed we would become friends, that he would become a doctor, and that he would go back to his home. only half of my prayer came true, we became friends. CN - Can you tell me how he escaped from prison? PB - He was planning to bribe a soldier with the pin that had fake diamonds. He told the guard his father would pay anyone who let him out of jail. The first payment being in diamonds. The guard believed him and helped him escape. CN - Why did you decide to hide a German Prisoner? PB - I hid him because he was a person. I liked him and he was different from what I had heard about Germans. I knew what I was doing was against the law. I was 12, and followed my instincts. Why should I not help someone who was in need. After all God made all men equal. One girl said God was on our side. I disagree with her comment, he was probably on all sides. CN - What were your feelings of the trial? PB - I thought that being sent to reform school was not fair towards me. I only helped a person, a friend. Hearing that he died was the worst punishment. Also that my father might never forgive me is hard to live with. I know I broke the law, but I did not kill anyone. I only helped him. In a way I got punished for helping another human being. CN - How were you treated after everyone found out? PB - In reform school I was called names like: 'Nazi' and 'Spy.' I had very few friends there. I'm not sure if I could even call them friends. Back home practically no one spoke to me. Pretty soon I was sent to live with my grandparents, and I'm still here. My dad never did forgive me and hardly speaks to me. My sister is still sweet and loves me, no matter what. CN - In your childhood was there anyone who influenced you to do the things you do and did? PB - Yes Ruth. Ruth was our house- keeper. She always tried to make me a better person then I was. And now that I think about it she was like a mother to me. CN - In what ways was she like a mother? PB - She visited me in the reform school, when my real mother did not. She protected me from my father once. He was going to hit me. She stood in front of me and would not let him hurt me. She got fired because of this. I admired her as a person and loved her. CN - Why did you admire her? PB - I admired her because she stood with dignity. She was black, it never stopped her from being strong. She thought a person was important no matter what status they had in life. On Saturday she wore her best dress, and if I would go to the store she would ask me to wear my nice dress. She did this so I would look presentable. Ruth acted this because she believed in holding her head high. Also races and culture never bothered her, a person was a person. When she met Anton she was kind to him and did not judge him. CN - How did she find out about him? PB

Study of Mercury †Astronomy Essay

Study of Mercury – Astronomy Essay Free Online Research Papers Study of Mercury Astronomy Essay Suppose mercury is our home planet(Although it is not possible)but we concive by the imaginary that, we are animal of mercury planet. then A.U and Orbital period will be of other planet is:- Planet A.U Orbital period - - Mercury 1 88 Days Venus 1.86 223.16 Days Earth 2.58 364.6 Days Mars 3.93 685.5 Days Jupiter 13.34 4335.76 Days Saturn 24.64 10762.4 Days Uranus 49.51 30693.5 Days Neptune 77.89 60499.2 Days About the deflection of planetary winds:- Infact, durinal motion of Mercury is very slow. For this slow motion, there is no deflection of matters on Mercury. Hence, Mercury has no deflection of planetary winds. Suppose the 1st days Mercury enters on Aries then 29.4 Days enters cancer, 51.5 days Libra, 73.5 Days capricornius and again 88 days enter on Aries. HOW MUCH TIME WILL BE REQUIRED FOR COMING OF LIGHT FROM SUN TO MERCURY AND MERCURY TO OTHER PLANET? Sun to Mercury 3.2 minutes Mercury to Venus 2.7 minutes Mercury to Earth 5.0 minutes Mercury to Mars 9.4 minutes Mercury to Jupiter 40 minutes Mercury to Saturn 1.2 Hour Mercury to Uranus 2.6 Hour Mercury to Neptune 4.1 Hour AN AVERAGE DISTNCE OF MERCURY FROM THE SUN IS 57900000 KM(APPROX)SO WHAT IS DISTANCE OF MERCURY TERMS OF LIGHT-YEAR? Light year of mercury is 6.1*10^-6 ly. COMPARE OF AXIAL ROTATION PERIOD BETWEEN THE EARTH AND MERCURY:- EARTH MERCURY AXIAL ROTATION PERIOD 5.6 Minutes 5.5 Hours 1.4 Degree 11.25Minutes 11.06 Hours 2.8 Degrees 22.5 Minutes 22.12 Hours 5.6 Degrees 45 Minutes 22.12 Hours 11.25 Degrees 1.5 Hours 88.5 Hours 22.5 Degrees 3 Hours 177 Hours 45 Degrees 6 Hours 354 Hours 90 Degrees 12 Hours 708 Hours 180 Degrees 24 Hours 1416 Hours 360 Degrees Note:- Axial rotation period of earth and Mercury is respectively 24 Hours and 1416(59Days). VARIATION OF g WITH ALTITUDE:- Altitude(Km) ag(m/s^2) 0 Km 3.70 8.8Km 3.67 36.6Km 3.59 400 Km 2.73 35700Km 0.0 RELATION OF SYNODIC PERIOD BETWEEN THE MERCURY AND OTHER PLANETS:- Planet Sidereal period synodic peroid - Mercury 88 Days Venus 224.7 Days 145 Days Earth 365 Days 116 Days Mars 678 Days 101.11 Days Jupiter 11*3/4 Years 89.9 Days Saturn 29*1/2 Yaers 88.7 Days Uranus 84 Years 88.3 Days Neptune 164*3/4 Years 88.2 Days pluto 247*3/4 Years 88.1 Days SIZE a) Mercury is 2.4 times smaller than Venus. b) Mercury is 2.5 times smaller than Earth. c) Mercury is 1.3 times smaller than Mars. d) Mercury is 28.5 times smaller than Jupiter. e) Mercury is 23.8 times smaller than Saturn. f) Mercury is 10.3 times smaller than Uranus. g) Mercury is 9.9 times smaller than Neptune. h) Mercury is 1.1 times smaller than Pluto. i) Sun is 278.4 times bigger than Mercury. j) Moon is 1.4 times smaller than Mercury. Research Papers on Study of Mercury - Astronomy EssayThe Spring and AutumnThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationThe Hockey GameThe Project Managment Office SystemQuebec and CanadaThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsResearch Process Part OneBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married Males

Self-Build Play Equipment For Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Self-Build Play Equipment For Children - Essay Example A merry go round is playing equipment very commonly seen in parks and is also one of the children’s favorite. By installing simple electronic controllers, wind power generators and speed-increasing gearboxes a portion of the kinetic energy generated by the children can be converted into electrical power [7]. The electric power produced can be stored in batteries. These batteries can be then utilized to light up the house at night preferably through LED lights. The product can be designed to power the lighting of the whole house for more than a week with only a few hours of play by the children. The product can be sold as a complete package consisting of the playing equipment coupled with the generator assembly, high performance LED lights, batteries, and the wires to install the electrical circuit. The product can be a very good investment because the payback is very quick. Another simple but innovative playing equipment can be a ‘tow down zip-line’ in which children can pull themselves down from a height on platforms suspended on a rope. Two pulleys on either side of the rope are rotated as the children grab and pull the rope while going down. The generator can be coupled with one of the pulleys to generate electric power which can be utilized to power lighting in the same manner as the merry go round. This product is new for the children as it is not very commonly seen in the parks and thus can attract more customers. The height of the rope can be kept low to ensure the safety of the playing children. The product can be sold in the form of ropes and pulleys along with a generator and the lights. The whole system can be assembled easily at the site of installation.

Causes of Domestic Violence, Suggestion of Solutions Assignment

Causes of Domestic Violence, Suggestion of Solutions - Assignment Example The school argues that humans are biologically programmed for causing violence. To some extent, this appears to be correct. People or for that matter an animal also becomes violent if he is deprived of his most basic need that is food for survival and attacks his opponent who is there to snatch away his right. Similar is in case of sex. Up to this, there is no difference between human and animal but beyond this, there is a difference. Humans have more and more possessions, positions, social status, and honor. Anybody usurping on these parts become the subject of violence inflicted by the person who tends to lose in the process. There is another school of thought who advocates that human beings are bio-social animals and his conduct is determined both by biological and social needs.   Eysenck and other Socialist try to explain the violent and anti-social behavior in terms of social factors such as inequality, poverty, lack of housing, lack of basic resources, lack of dignity, honor in the society, social injustice and many others. WMS Russell puts his view that there is a distinct correlation between Violence and overcrowding. He cites the examples of an animal world where this symptom is found and can be extended to human society. Other social scientists refute this analogy and counterattack that there is no such evidence found establishing a direct relationship between violence and Overcrowdings. Overcrowding and violence may be associated in certain groups but can't, therefore, be taken as a general premise that they are always correlated.

Critiques on Finance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critiques on Finance - Case Study Example Rising fuel costs forced cost cutting measures and hence necessary upgrades were put on the back burner. Flight and crew scheduling systems, reservation and call-center systems all need to be upgraded if the airline wants to retain its passenger share. Parallels are already being drawn to People Airline Express, another low cost carrier that sank without a trace in 1997 under similar constraints as are being faced by JetBlue today. JetBlue however, still has something going for it in the form of a healthy balance sheet, and $699 million in cash. It has also re-structured its ambitious growth plans as it tries to consolidate its operations. The problem JetBlue is facing is basically that, "rapid expansion [has] outstripped management's ability to keep everything together". Rough and ready methods, suitable for small, low-cost operations contribute to profitability. But these methods start falling apart when the size of the operations cross a certain optimum level. At this stage JetBlue risks having the same overheads and union problems, as do other larger carriers, thereby nullifying the advantage of being a low cost carrier. In October 2005, after six years of double-digit growth, Avon sales suddenly slumped all over the world as, "the global diversity that had long propped up the company's performance suddenly began to weigh it down".

The Techniques For Requirement Elicitation Information Technology Essay

The Techniques For Requirement Elicitation Information Technology Essay By analyzing these processes it will give an understanding up to a level enough that this document can act as an easy to read and simple enough reference document for students who wants to 1.4   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Background As we know that the requirement elicitation is an ongoing problem area which may cause to the failure of the produce system. There are many problems i.e. problems in the system scope, many other problems are still present in the development of the system, which may cause to the failure of the system or leads to high maintenance cost of the system [1]. In the requirement elicitation there are many people evolve and have different perception about the system. From many years requirement elicitation is a research focus area and researchers have developed many techniques. As Zarinah M.K and Siti Salwah S mentioned in their paper Eliciting requirements should be carried out in a form, which encourages participation of all the stakeholders[1]. In this paper they focus on the participation of all the stakeholders during requirements gathering. For this purpose, to follow the requirement elicitation process, techniques and shared document with all the participation. Ann M. Hickey and Alan M. Davis mentioned in their paper that software development consists of many knowledge-intensive processes. One of the most difficult to model, however, is requirement elicitation[5]. In their paper they present a mathematical model of requirement elicitation process[5] which explains critical knowledge and how to select the best requirement elicitation technique. Their work in this area shows that the requirement elicitation is a very critical process in the software development process. Many models and frameworks are introduced by the researchers for good and correct requirements gathering. Some problems are on the user side because some time the user cant explain the scope of the system. So for this purpose most researchers focus on the requirement elicitation techniques which help the user to understand the system scope. Software industry is a very huge market and in todays world our lives are so influenced with software products that we are highly dependent on them from paying or bills, buying food, bank transactions, traveling,   businesses to communicate world wide, research, mobile phones etc.   But along the way what we dont see is that a lot of software products are failing today, many software companies are getting bankrupt and most softwares are breathing their last breaths as they will soon be replaced with a much better softwares well designed, less bugs, more features and efficient enough. One can ask a question why are softwares failing and why are companies getting bankrupt due to a software that is no more needed in the market.   The answer can be very complicated and long but to summarize it, its lack of acquiring proper requirements before starting to write the actual code, failing to understand the current and future trends of the software to be built, lack of understanding the market and opportunities and finally choosing the right technologies to implement the software product. In order to understand all these gray areas before writing the software product one needs to adapt and follow some processes, by doing so a set of valuable knowledge will be gained that can help the software to be following the current trend and survive in the market for much longer period. These processes includes a) Brainstorming b) interviewing c) Surveys d) Prototyping e) Focus Group f) Workshops g) Observation 2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Research Methodology Our work in this area is to analyze the requirement elicitation techniques, based on this we   will be able to explore these different techniques and see how can it benefit us in different areas. For this purpose we studied the related research work and requirement elicitation books, and in listed some of the techniques that can be used for requirement gathering process. For the analysis we already studied the related research work to understand these techniques. During this process we will highlight the psros and cons of these different techniques, which can help different targeted audience such as students, start up organizations and other software professionals. In the process of methodology we got an opportunity to meet with different software professional and got some valuable feedback that could help us understand how important all these processes are and what are possible implications and drawbacks if there are any. Finally after defining all the techniques with their Pros and Cons, it will clearly specify the importance of each technique and weather it is possible to skip some of them during the requirement gathering process. And also the implications of skipping any of these well   known techniques. 3   Ã‚  Brief Introduction to requirement elicitation techniques. 3.1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Brainstorming: Brainstorming is the name given to a situation when a group of people meet to generate new ideas around a specific area of interest[6].In Brainstorming Technique may be involve one person or group of people.They set to gather and discuss the requirements and new ideas of the system. It is a special technique which help you to think about various answers and questions. Advantages Of Brainstorming: Brainstorming technique is low cost. The group which involve in this technique, not need to be high qualified. It is very easy technique to understand. It help you to create new ideas and get answers of old question. It provide widespread involvement throughout the group. Brainstorming does not need more resources. Disadvantages Of Brainstorming: If the group is not properly organised, it can take more time. One cant describe his opinion in front of group. Due to go into the detail that something does not use. Some people afraid to talk with leadership. Not good for large group which may cause that some people say at the same time. There are repeat of opinions, if the people doesnt give attention[7]. 3.2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  interviewing Interviews are in-person meetings where the business analyst asks questions to get information from the stakeholder[8]. Advantages Of Interviewing: Good for complex topic The interviewer can deeply understand the interviewee views. In interview high response rate are produced. Disadvantages Of Interviewing: Inconsistent   interviewer may effect the data. This technique is time consuming. There are small people involved. The interviewer may ask closed questions [9]. 3.3   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Surveys In survey technique all the information of a system may gathered anonymously. In survey all the general aspects of the software are asked to answer. Advantages: Survey is good for a large respondent. In survey large of information may be collected. This is a standardised technique which free from all types of errors. This technique is cheaper. Disadvantages: This technique focus on subject, motivation etc its not easy to understand the reason. 3.4   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prototyping In this technique minimum version of softwares are written with few functionalities than the actual product in itself. It only simulates few modules/features of the final solution. Advantages: Software designers and implementers can get valuable feedback from the customers. it can allow the software engineers to know and verify the internal complexities of the system. Early detection of faults in design. Early detection of performance bottle neck in the application. Customers can verify the implementation and technology. Disadvantages: Excessive development time to develop the prototype. Large investment of resources to complete this. Unclear objectives can be confused by the developers. Insufficient analysis. 3.5   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Focus Group Focus group is a group which raise some issues and questions about the software and ask them from the system users. Advantages: It can help generate a lot of good ideas and opinions. group discussion can help find weaknesses in the early stage of design and architecture. group discussions can generate finest solutions. Disadvantage: it can lead to disagreement and arguments. discussions can last for very long hours and several days without any conclusion. 3.6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Workshops Workshops is the technique to share different ideas about different technologies by doing presentation and meeting between people from different backgrounds. Collecting valuable feedback and suggestions and business opportunities. Advantages: Expanding social network among people from same background. Exchanging and sharing up to date knowledge. Exploring new business opportunities. Attracting investments for the business. Making new customers. Disadvantages: It involves travelling to other countries. It consumes week of business time. It demands a lot of preparation and time. 3.7   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Observation By observation we means to look the requirements for the   developing system with full concentration[3]. Advantages of observation It provides varieties to the stockholders[a]. It provides us the detail information about the developing system[z] How the user will interact with the system, so it give this type of results in advance. Disadvantages of the observation The requirements may not be up to dated. This requirements always evolve and need revisions. some requirements may not be implementable and needs to be up to the facts and possibilities. 4 Results Brief analysis of the mentioned techniques with explained advantages and disadvantages we can summarize our result in following way. As in todays industry majority of softwares are trying to compete or survive against other softwares that seems to be producing much better than their previous predecessors. This improvement in softwares is the result of acquiring/collecting appropriate knowledge through the processes/techniques that we have mentioned including others. Hence it is difficult to say which one is better than the other or which one can we skip because the more information we can collect the more knowledge we will have about market, future scope, what technologies to select, how much can it earn, for how long can a product survive and how the product can improve in coming years. Attaining all the mentioned points means that we have to go through all the techniques at one stage or another, if not earlier then definitely later at some other stage as long as the time and resour ces are enough. One of the quotation might explain it very well which is Writing system software is like planning a family, if you make a mistake you have to live with it for 20 years[10] So the more knowledge we have about what we are making and why we are writing, the less mistakes we will do. 5. Conclusions Hence in short we can conclude from our findings in this research that all software industries while planning to kick off new project/software our any new start up company about to take place. This document will act as a must have for them they would need to define these techniques and make them part of their company processes. The more the knowledge is acquired about the technology in the beginning the less mistakes they make and   more chances would be for company and software to succeed.   Also this document can help students and software developers who want to write their private applications and want them to launch in the softwares market. 6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Literature references [1]. Supporting Collaborative Requirements Elicitation Using Focus Group Discussion   Ã‚  Ã‚   Technique by Zarinah M.k and Siti Salwah S. [2]   IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1998 Requirements Elicitation and Validation with Real World Scenes Peter Haumer, Klaus Pohl, Member, IEEE, and Klaus Weidenhaupt [3] Field research method and type of observation by Throchim, B. 1999 [5]. Requirements Elicitation and Elicitation Technique Selection: A Model for Two Knowledge-Intensive Software Development Processes. By Ann M. Hickey and Alan M. Davis University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. [6 ]http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/whatisbrainstorming.html [7]   http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_brainstorming [8] http://ezinearticles.com/?Requirements-Elicitation-Techniquesid=1901263 [9] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Advantages_and_disadvantages_of_interviews [10]http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~iany/consultancy/proverbs.htm

Downsizing: Layoff and Employees

A Project Report on: Corporate Downsizing in the Indian context TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Objective3 2. Introduction4 3. Why do Firms Downsize? 6 4. Downsizing – Indian Perspective10 5. Effect of downsizing on organizations13 6. Survey Analysis and Results18 7. Process of Downsizing24 8. Suggestions to improve the morale of survivors post downsizing27 9. Conclusion29 10. References30 1. Objective Corporate downsizing is very common in the US corporate sector but it has till recently not been adopted by many Indian companies. This is changing nowadays, with many Indian companies going in for downsizing as an organizational strategy to cut costs or get rid of non-performing employees. Our objective in this project is to analyze some of the reasons why firms are taking up downsizing. We have studied the effects of downsizing at the organization level, the managerial level and the survivor level. As part of our project, we conducted a survey on survivors of downsizing from Indian companies which have conducted mass or individual layoffs in the recent past. Since downsizing is still relatively new in the Indian context and in most cases, the survivors do not wish to delve further on this topic, our responses were limited in number but they were sufficient to give us an idea of downsizing in the Indian context. Apart from this, we have also studied the actual downsizing process in companies and how it is carried out. We have given some recommendations on steps to be followed by organizations to make sure that they do not acquire a negative image post downsizing. Also, steps to boost the survivors’ morale have also been suggested. If this is not done, downsizing typically leads to increased turnover among high performers in the organization. Downsizing may be unavoidable in some organizations to cut costs – however the HR departments and managers should handle this issue with utmost sensitivity – to avoid any long-term negative effects to the organization. 2. Introduction Layoffs, frequently called downsizing, describe the process in which companies remove temporarily or permanently a number of employees from their payroll. The general purpose of this practice is to reduce the organization’s burden of excess labor costs when human resources cannot be used effectively. Charles Handy first predicted that the technological revolution, which was beginning to make its force felt back in the mid-1970s, would transform the lives of millions of individuals through a process he termed . down-sizing. Downsizing is not a new phenomenon. Downsizing came into prominence as a topic of both scholarly and practical concern in the 1980s. It became a management mantra. (Lecky, 1998) in the 1990s which subsequently became known as the downsizing decade (Dolan, Belout, & Balkin, 2000). In the early 1990s, CEOs and executive management were being targeted more and more by the shareholders. The merger wave of the 1980s taught executives that any company trading at price-earnings multiple lower than the industry-wide multiple was considered undervalued, or a poor-performer, and ripe for a takeover, or messy shareholder law suits. CEOs used to be concerned with optimizing production and cutting costs, which they hoped would engender profits and therefore shareholder wealth. The focus moved on to convince the market of the upward potential in their stock prices. In other terms, it doesn’t matter whether you really have good project or potential to grow but what matters is whether the stock market believes that ou have such strength. To handle such pressure many CEO’s looked for the quick fixes which would reflect immediately in the profit margins of the organizations. Instead of focusing on the long terms planning, short terms goals were set which to project good picture of company’s status. And the easiest way to go around it was to cut down labor cos t as it has a significant contribution to the expenses incurred by the company. Executives looked at the balance sheet to trim the fat, and viewed cutting labor as a necessary and relatively painless method to boost profit margins. The economy was experiencing the sort of growth that made both skilled and unskilled labor more and more superfluous. At the low end of the wage and skill scale, advanced automation in machinery and assembly were enabling workers to become more productive, and reduced the amount of workers necessary for a given level of profit. At the middle end, rapid advances in information technology reduced the need for a large layer of middle management to process and interpret data and feed it to higher management. Additionally, trimming the payroll liability seemed an easier way to increase profits in the short term. The payroll is basically a current liability, and to the extent that workers are not engaged in long-term contracts (or to the extent that a long-term contract with a substantial number of employees is soon to expire), the firm has a certain flexibility in determining the amount of labor it uses in the short run. A move to adjust employment might be a relatively painless way to boost cash flow, when compared to selling land or equipment to obtain cash. A buyer might not be readily available, and the purchase price would not be certain. At first, firms that were lagging their competitors in terms of accounting earnings and price-earnings multiples decided to downsize. As these firms began to catch up to the rest of their industry in terms of profitability, firms that were performing quite well also began to turn to downsizing as a way to convince the market that they were worthy of a substantial jump in market capitalization. From 1993 to 1996, there was a sentiment in the market that smaller up-start companies were going to overtake the larger, blue chip corporations, which were perceived to be bloated with superfluous workers and internal red tape. Although these rumors of diseconomies of scale were widely exaggerated, many large corporations slashed their labor force in a move to maintain an aura of competitiveness. Downsizing is not specific to any industry, it has occurred across the industries. While manufacturing, retail, and service have accounted for the highest levels of downsizing, it is evident that downsizing took place in both the private and public sectors. 3. Why do Firms Downsize? During periods of economic uncertainty, increased costs and declining sales, business owners are sometimes forced to evaluate cost-cutting options including downsizing and layoffs. When a business is in a cost-cutting mode, downsizing and layoffs can take different forms:   †¢ Reduction in force—this is when an employer decides that its labor costs are too much, so they reduce the number of positions. †¢ Position elimination—this is when an employer determines that the position skill-set requirements have changed, the market and competition have changed or sometimes the position simply goes away. Restructuring—while disruptive, some employers find it necessary to restructure their organization. Basically, companies restructure in order to reassess strategies and improve operations. Individual layoffs It is recognized that an employee's commitment to an organization can be expressed in three particular ways: affective, continuance, and normative. Affec tive commitment is focused on an emotional attachment to the organization. On the other hand, continuance commitment is when an employee stays with an organization based on a perceived cost of leaving. In this case, the employee is staying because he/she thinks it will cost more to go find work elsewhere. Lastly, normative commitment refers to an employee's moral obligation to stay with the organization. This can arise due to the employee feeling that the organization has treated him/her well and therefore, he/she owes the organization a continued period of employment. In one sense, each type of commitment somewhat ties the individual to the organization; however, each impacts differently on the manner in which the employee conducts him/herself in the workplace. For example, an employee with an affective commitment will often go above and beyond what is required of his/her position in order to assist the organization in meeting its goals. Employees with high affective commitment tend to be absent from work less frequently and display a higher work motivation and organizational citizenship. Continuance commitment, however, is negatively related to performance whereby employees tend to do simply what is required, have higher rates of absenteeism, and low motivation. An individual can become a threat to the company by engaging in activities which are against company’s norms. These activities may include coming late for the meetings and for work, intentionally working slowly, wasting resources, gossiping and spreading rumors or some serious misconduct such as stealing from company or colleague, verbal abuse, insubordination, sabotage, sexual harassment etc. His behavior in the organization can adversely affect the productivity of other members of organization. And sometimes the situation can be so serious that it can hamper the image of the organization. And if he can influence coworkers to indulge in such activities then it becomes serious problem for the organization. The best approach to handle such situations is to consult that particular individual and convince him from engaging in such activities. But even if with the repeated warnings, he refuses to change his deviant behavior then it is necessary to get rid of such person. Mass Layoffs †'Mass layoff†' implies laying off a large number of workers. Mass layoff constitutes a set of activities, undertaken on the part of the management of an organization, designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. It represents a strategy implemented by managers that affects the size of the firm's workforce and the work processes used. The reasons given for the mass layoffs are: Changing market conditions The market determines the lifecycle of a business, and the organizations must stay in touch with changing market conditions in order to keep up the pace of growth. The business climate these days has become enormously more competitive. Global markets have contributed new competitors that can offer goods and services at a much lower cost. Market shifts and the introduction of new technology can make a business become obsolete almost overnight. As many times it is not possible to make the suitable adjustments immediately, and to remain competitive companies often go for the downsizing. Mergers and Acquisitions A merger is a tool used by companies for the purpose of expanding their operations often aiming at an increase of their long term profitability. An acquisition, also known as a takeover, is the buying of one company by another. When this happens, many positions gets replicated or become redundant. For the efficient operation of the organization, it becomes necessary to cut off these jobs. Closure of business unit Due to ever changing technology, development of new products, a company might decide to take out a particular product from the market and close that business unit. If it not possible to accommodate released workforce in the production of the goods then only option remains is that of lay off. Poor financial forecast If the performance of the company is not up to the mark in the recent years and the gloomy picture is supposed to remain for later period also, then it becomes absolutely necessary to cut the costs in some way or other. This may lead the managers to takes decisions of mass layoffs. Overstaffing Organizations hire employees by forecasting their human resource requirement in near future. This forecasting is based on the company’s current position, state of the economy, growth in the industry, ongoing deals with the clients, company’s growth plans etc. The predictions made during this analysis may go wrong for several reasons and organization may end up in hiring the employees beyond its requirement. It is not possible for all the organizations to keep these employees on the payroll due to economic constraints or space constraints. In this case manager often take a decision to layoff the extra resources. Meeting the goals Each company decides and declares the targets for the current fiscal year. But as the end of the year comes nearer, company’s realizes that these goals cannot be achieved by current pace of production. Since there is high pressure from the upper management to meet these goals, managers look for the softer targets such as reducing cost by the mass layoffs. Unprecedented disaster Any unpredicted disaster like sharp fall in stock market, natural calamity, or accidents can plunge organizations in huge losses. So a business owner has a no choice but restructuring his business which often involves downsizing. 4. Downsizing – Indian Perspective Before Indian companies felt the effects of the economic reforms, lifetime employment was often standard practice. Job seekers would get their foot in the door at their favorite companies with the aim of settling down permanently within the organization. Perhaps the main reason for this reluctance to hand out pink slips was cultural – there simply was no knowledge of the concept of â€Å"downsizing. † India’s integration into the global marketplace has changed the rules of the ame significantly. As the economy and the technology industry have slowed to sustainable growth levels, various companies have been forced to downsize in order to remain competitive. Although corporate downsizing in India increasingly resembles downsizing in Western countries, there is residual reluctance to laying people off. A broad selection of com panies operating in India, from shabby state-run enterprises to lean and efficient high-tech multinationals prefer to use of voluntary retirement schemes to trim their numbers in tough times. Some larger companies also elect to downsize through other methods, including deferred recruitments, â€Å"benching† people, and using employees for internal or community service projects. This institutional squeamishness toward layoffs, while understandable from a social perspective, has had some negative effects. State-owned enterprises as well as some private companies are still overstaffed as a result of an unwillingness to lay off employees. Layoff practices in US: ? A generic reduction in force, of undetermined method. ? An Involuntary Reduction in Force – The employee(s) didn't voluntarily choose to leave the company. A Voluntary Reduction in Force – The employee(s) did play a role in choosing to leave the company, most likely through resignation or retirement. ? Layoff notice by email. Following are common practices followed by Indian organizations for downsizing: Deferred recruitments: This is not actual downsizing but one of the ways to bring down the s trength of company for a short term. In this case the recruitment process is deferred, so that by the time the new recruits have joined the company, the company is out of the crisis which is the cause for downsizing. This process is mainly followed in IT companies, where most of them recruit high number of students who are in final year of their graduation. Usually, these companies take into consideration that the next year market will be at the same pace, but there have been considerable variations in market during the last decade. The students who were recruited will join the company as soon as the company has found out ways to come out of the crisis. For example, many students who were recruited in 2006 by many IT services companies have joined in 2008. So, effectively the company saves the costs on those employees. Following this method, the company doesn’t need to layoff any of the existing staff. Benching people: Bench strength is defined as the finding the perfect pool of employees who will be substitutes for existing employees incase of employee turnover. These people are trained for those positions so that they can hit the deck running. But this essence of bench strength is lost in case of Indian companies where, Bench refers to the buffer of employees not assigned to a particular project. As the company works towards improving utilization rates while keeping a tight rein on employee additions, its bench strength would come down. In some cases, employees are on bench for a long period. This is a signal that these employees are just in job because they were previously recruited but not because of the work the company has. So employees who are benched have no work to do. They get bored of not doing any productive work and so try to find out a job where they can really work, instead of just coming to office everyday and passing their time. In this way Indian companies don’t layoff anyone but create circumstances where the employee doesn’t have any option but to leave the company. Using employees for internal and community projects: Internal projects are the projects which are done by the company to increase efficiency within the organization. Usually these projects have no dead lines or have a specific plan. They are just conducted as there is more of man power. This is one of the first steps an Indian company takes when they want to downsize. They put the excess workforce in any one of the internal or community projects. Some of these projects are created so as to accommodate all the excess employees. Employees in these projects will be outcast as the internal projects will not produce any output. Also, employees in these projects do not get enough incentives for their performance. This decreases the employee morale and employees tend to quit the organization. This also serves a signal to employees that the next step is to put them on bench. Bottom performers’ layoffs: This is the only case in which Indian companies hand over pink slips to the employees. Every company has a policy of reviewing the work done by an employee in last few months. After the review, employees who are not performing well are sent for special training. Luckily, if the review period and the time at which the company decides to downsize coincide, company uses this opportunity to layoff the extra employees by not giving them a chance which they used to provide earlier. 5. Effect of downsizing on organizations Even though downsizing is primarily done as a positive action to turn around an organization, the main casualty of the process is the way in which people affected are dealt with. Majority of the research on organizational downsizing has been carried out to study the consequences of downsizing at the employee level and the organizational level. At the employee level, research is carried out from a psychological and behavioral viewpoint with a focus on the survivors (employees who remain in the organization after downsizing), victims (employees who are asked to leave) and implementers (managers involved in implementing downsizing, including asking employees to leave). In our study, we have restricted our focus to the survivors and implementers. We have not focused on the effects of downsizing on the actual victims since they are outside the scope of the organization. Effect on survivors An organization’s post-layoff success depends upon the reactions of people in its surviving workforce. Researchers have identified a number of negative symptoms exhibited by survivors during and after downsizing. The most common of these include: Survivor syndrome: A set of emotions, behaviors and attitudes exhibited by surviving employees. This is mainly manifested by lowered morale, initial upsurge in productivity followed by depression and lethargy, increased stress as a result of increased level of uncertainty and ambiguity, threat of job loss, denial or psychological distancing from the perceived threat, lower commitment, increased absenteeism, turnover, decreased loyalty to the organization, fear of future cutbacks and diminishing expectations regarding future prospects in the organization. Survivor guilt: Feeling of responsibility or remorse and is expressed in terms of depression, fear and anger. Survivors may perceive that traditional attributes, such as loyalty, individual competence, and diligence are no longer valued since their co-workers, who had displayed such traits, were themselves victims of downsizing. Survivor guilt mainly occurs when survivors perceive that their own performance merited no better treatment, than that accorded the downsized victims. Survivor envy: Feeling of envy towards the victims. Survivors presume that victims are able to obtain special retirement packages, financially lucrative incentives, and new jobs with more attractive compensation. In most cases, downsizing fails to address the ‘people factor’ effectively whereby the needs of the surviving employees are paid due attention. In many organizations, employees form social groups to fulfill their needs for affiliation. When any member of this social group is laid off, the remaining members see the procedure as unjust, even if the laid-off employee was incompetent for the job. This triggers the feeling of survivor guilt and resentment against the organization. In some cases, the survivors are asked to take broader and unfamiliar responsibilities as a part of efforts to cover the tasks previously performed by those who leave the company. This can lead to burnout, frustration, decline in creativity and trauma – all symptoms of the survivor syndrome. Survivors are reluctant to take up projects from which their peers or friends were laid off, since they feel that working on that project increases their chances of getting laid off as well. Survivor envy occurs when the victims get very generous rehabilitation packages from the organization. In this case, survivors see this as an unnecessary expenditure on behalf of the organization. Also, if victims manage to find new high-paying jobs in other organizations, survivors feel a sense of envy towards the victims. Psychological contract has been defined as â€Å"an individual’s belief in mutual obligations between that person and another party such as an employer†. Survivors of downsizing hold the organization responsible for breaking the psychological contract with the victims. Perceived violation of psychological contract might lead to a decrease in the employees’ organizational commitment and enhance their intention to quit their jobs and to look for alternative employment. On the other hand, some researchers have also found positive effects on survivors post downsizing. Survivors who feel that the top management has carried out the downsizing process justly, feel an increased sense of self-esteem at being retained by the organization and hence their motivation to work increases. These survivors do not view the process as threatening. If the reasons for downsizing are communicated beforehand, survivors tend to see the process as transparent and fair. Also, empowerment and job redesign gives survivors the confidence in their individual capacity to cope with the threat of downsizing and hence result in their exhibiting more progressive responses. Effect on implementers Consider the case of survivors in managerial position, who are the ‘implementers’ or ‘executors’ of the downsizing process. Studies have shown that their job performance and organizational commitment of managers suffers significantly following downsizing. Managers feel responsible for violating the ‘psychological contract’ with their subordinates. In some cases, the managers feel responsible for not providing enough training opportunities to the laid-off employees and hold themselves personally accountable for not guiding their subordinates correctly and not being able to avoid the layoffs. This is more likely to occur in Asian nations, where the feeling of ‘collectivism’ is high, as compared to western nations, where the feeling of ‘individualism’ reigns higher. The feeling of personal responsibility causes huge stress in the implementers of the downsizing process. To overcome this feeling and project an image of being just, most implementers start looking for options in other organizations. Alternately, managers try to rationalize their actions by devaluing and blaming the employees who were laid off. In some cases, the downsizing process implementation creates so much stress on managers that they tend to become hyper effective. They tend to think that all the roles that they should be playing are important and try to perform effectively in all dimensions. This normally results in burnout since the behavior cannot be sustained on a long term. Managers who are optimistic, have high future success expectancy, a high tolerance for ambiguity and a greater openness towards change are less negatively affected by downsizing than those who lack these emotional resources. In times of crisis like organizational change, ‘toxic handlers’ – managers who shoulder organizational pain by helping their co-workers deal with their workplace frustrations, sadness and bitterness, are better handled to act as implementers of downsizing. Negative reactions to psychological contract violation perceptions in implementers might be mitigated to some extent through good working relationships with co-workers, making conservative promises to new recruits which the organization can live up to, clear explanation with rationale for the downsizing decision, extensive and transparent communication with employees regarding the exact scope of the changed contract, evenhandedness in dealing with both survivors and victims, and encouraging cohesiveness and team spirit among employees. Thus, the actual downsizing procedure should be carried out only by those managers who have a high emotional quotient, to handle the various psychological effects and stress arising out of the implementation. Effects on organization Organizations report both positive and negative effects of downsizing. In many organizations, the anticipated economic benefits like lower expenses, higher profits, increased returns on investments and higher stock prices do not occur as expected. Also, other anticipated organizational benefits like lower overheads, smoother communication and increased productivity do not develop. On the contrary, downsizing causes increased turnover among the survivors as well. Hence, the organization also ends up losing valuable organizational memory, knowledge base and experience. In case of mass layoffs, downsizing leads to the loss of key talents and disappearance of crucial skills. Survivors who take over the jobs of their laid-off colleagues start feeling perceptions of job overload and lack of job clarity. When organizations downsize in response to decline in growth rather than a strategy to boost performance, the most competent employees quit voluntarily since they do not see any growth prospects in the organization and the relatively incompetent and inefficient employees get left behind. This further hastens the organizations decline. Organizations that carry out downsizing along with a reduction of assets show higher financial performance than other firms. So downsizing should be part of an overall restructuring package rather than a one-point solution to reduce organizational costs. Downsizing alone cannot ensure an improvement in a firm’s performance. The manner in which it is carried out plays an important role in the financial and operating performance improvement of the organization. 6. Survey Analysis and Results We conducted a survey of 100 people across various organizations varying from manufacturing to services and from public sector to private sector. We got varied responses with respect to our survey. We are presenting the analysis of the survey through different perspectives and are representing them through various charts. In the survey 34% of the respondents reported that the layoff they have seen in their professional life was mass layoff, whereas 64% reported cases of individual layoffs. [pic] The cases of individual layoffs were due to various reasons ranging from technical incompetence to distrust in the organizations core mission and its values. More than 40% of the individual layoffs were due to technical incompetence and 30% were the cases where there was distrust between the employee and his boss. In 10% of the cases, the employees were found to be engaged in anti organizational practices. In 10% of the cases the employees laid off were victims of politics in the organization. In some of these cases, they were part of the lobby that was working against the will of the ruling coalition, these were the employees who were holding important positions and were bottle neck in the process of decision taken by the department heads. The cases of mass layoff happened during the period of recession and due to major change in the technology. These cases happen when the industry was in a smooth phase and the company they were engaged was a middle level company and the company was unable to sustain the market pressures, these were the reasons that were given by the HR department of those organizations while laying off the employees. One of the questions in survey was regarding the effect of downsizing on the productivity and motivation of the remaining employees. 52% of the respondents reported that it did effect the employees productivity and motivation which led to increased absenteeism. The employees lacked focus while working atleast during the next month and a half, they had a notion that a similar thing can happen to them as well. They were psychologically effected when one of their close friends, who was among the employees who were laid off. [pic] Even after the mass layoff took place there were rumors in the organization regarding further such layoffs that can happen in future. Several employees tried to relocate to other organizations, some of them were ready even to join at less salary and perks in other organization. 0% of employees who felt demotivated after the layoff were those who some how felt that they are less technically competent or they lacked some of the basic skills such as communications. When respondents were asked whether they thought of quitting their job soon after the individual or a major layoff, the response varied. Some of them thought of quitting the job immediately and choose the next best possible option they had in hand. 52% of them were somehow indifferent to the recent layoff, they didn’t think about leaving the organizations due to mal effects of layoff. Some of the employees amongst them who held important positions in the organization, they were in positions of decision making or were close to the people who were decision makers. [pic] A high 18% of the respondents felt like leaving the organization within a month while 21% of them thought of biding their time and believing that will improve. They thought of leaving the organization in the next six months duration if the situation doesn’t improve. % of respondents plan to leave within three months. Almost 40% of these respondents actually left the job since they believe that this organization is not worthy enough to put their efforts in, as they felt that loyalty is not the virtue of praise in their respective organization. Among the respondents who planned to leave within a month, 60% of them have seen mass layoff. Hence, mass layoff is perceived as more of a breach of psychological contract between organization and the employees. [pic] The query posed to respondents was regarding whether the notice period was served to the outgoing employees or not. 21% of them replied no to the question. The outgoing employees felt the breach of psychological contract by the company, the same was felt by rest of the employees as well. Every employee seems to be of an opinion that the organization should have atleast given a one month’s notice to the employees. The HR department on the other hand felt that sometimes its inevitable to give notice period. There are several reasons for that, primarily they stressed high absenteeism by the employees and unethical behavior and practices including sexual harassment and other such personal inclinations. [pic] 12% of the respondents reported that the outgoing employee faced embarrassing moment while he was laid off. It includes being escorted by the security personal, personal abuses by the immediate boss and comments by the colleagues. Almost 30% of these employees were charge sheeted treated on the grounds of unethical behavior and 90% of these cases happened during individual layoffs. pic] One of the important area that needs to be addressed whether or not the company has taken due action to keep up the morale of the remaining employees and sideline the side effects of the layoff. 45% of the respondents responded that the due course of action was not taken by the organization. This somehow made them feel to plan to quit the organization. They somehow felt ignored and indifferent in the e yes of the management. Out of these 45% cases, 30% happened during the individual layoffs. The course of remedial action is expected from the organization especially in cases of mass layoff as it turns down the morale of the remaining employees and it further affects the productivity, absenteeism factor and the turn over ratio of the organization. 7. Process of Downsizing The most prominent reason for failure of downsizing is lack of preparations for this process. A successful downsizing process requires planning that begins long before the formal announcement. Downsizing project consists of four stages. These are 1. Making the decision to downsize, . Planning the downsizing, 3. Making the announcement, 4. Implementing the downsizing. [pic] Fig: The Stages in downsizing process. 1. Making the decision to downsize: The first step in the process of downsizing is making the decision to downsize. But, before making that hard decision, it is important to investigate all possible alternatives and use downsizing as a last resort. Various alternatives, such as: freezing hiring, ov ertime restriction, freezing salary, pay cuts, elimination of bonuses, shortening workweeks, unpaid vacations, etc. hould be tried before taking the decision. If the company considers all possible alternatives and find that they could not help to achieve company's goals, it should consider forced layoffs and make the decision to downsize. The reasons for downsizing need to be clearly defined by management. Also, the decision to downsize should never be a short-term solution. It must be integrated into company's vision that makes clear how downsizing will create a competitive advantage. The vision will help employees to understand why downsizing is necessary. It also helps employees to see a real future for themselves in the company. 2. Planning the downsizing: Before making the announcement of downsizing it is very important to make implementation plan. Some of the issues which have to be considered within planning the downsizing include the focus of the downsizing strategy, who should implement the downsizing process, how should the leavers be identified, what compensation will leavers receive and when will they receive it, how and when will the stayers` jobs be reorganized, what training will be necessary. In order to do this stage successfully, it is necessary to do activities such as: a) Form a cross- functional team: The team which will plan and implement the downsizing project should consist of many specialists who come from many functions: human resource, operations, finance, public relation, etc. The team should represent the interests of all members. Also, the team members should divide up the responsibility for communication to stakeholders. b) Identify all constituents: One of the first tasks of the team is to identify constituents who are affected by downsizing and to include their interests in implementation plan. The constituencies include: employees who will be laid off, survivors, shareholders, the community, etc. c) Use expert if it is needed: If there are some areas about which the team does not have enough information or knowledge (job retraining, financial counseling, etc. ) it will be necessary to engage experts from the outside. Outplacement companies can help employees to find new job quickly. d) Provide training for managers: By providing training for managers, they become able to communicate the downsizing convincingly, gain skills to deal with emotions of laid off workers, etc. ) Supply information about the business: By sharing information about the business employees will have full knowledge of the company's finance and its activity and downsizing will become less a crisis and more an expected solution. Also, sharing sensitive financial or competitive data ensures employees that they can trust the management to be open and honest. 3. Making the announcement: The key activities t o be taken care of while making the announcement of downsizing are, explaining business rationale, announcing the decision and notifying benefits. The management should explain the reasons for downsizing and the implementation process. By explaining the necessity of downsizing management can help employees see that downsizing is not caused by their contribution. The company should make the announcement simultaneously to all constituencies. Announcement should give information about downsizing benefits, separation process and the benefits and services for those who will be laid off. Also, at this stage it is important to communicate the company's vision so that the employees who stay will know how downsizing will help the recovery of the company and to see themselves in companies` future. 4. Implementing the downsizing: The first three stages are very important for the effective downsizing, but the fourth stage is where former preparation and promises are to be realized. The key areas in the implementation stage are communication and employee involvement. At this stage it is important to tell the employees the truth about all their concerns and needs. The best is face-to-face communication. By honest answering, the management builds trust and the sense of necessity. A well implemented downsizing process requires the employees involvement, too. Remaining employees often have good ideas about restructuring their jobs and improving internal processes, so they should be involved in implementation phase. 8. Suggestions to improve the morale of survivors post downsizing The morale of the survivors post downsizing would be very low and the management should take enough care to improve the employee morale post downsizing. This can be achieved by proper planning, communicating and by maintaining an environment of trust. Some of the suggestions to improve the morale of the survivors post downsizing are: 1. Plan: The plan should be made by reviewing prior changes, analyzing how the changes were made and making corrections based on their assessment. This plan should include: redefined tasks and responsibilities; strategies to assist managers in helping surviving employees adjust to organizational changes; communications on why changes are necessary and how roles will change. 2. Communicate concisely, clearly and frequently: For both managers and â€Å"survivors† layoffs are emotionally draining experiences. It is often difficult for managers to know what to say and how to say it properly to those who are still with the corporation. Experts agree that it is better to communicate bad news when it is known than keep it waiting for a more appropriate time. At the same time the manager needs to communicate with the survivors how the organization plans to recover, the employees’ role in that recovery and why the changes are necessary. 3. Apply emphatic listening: Often managers are required to console or counsel with survivors of downsized organizations. Managers with strong Emotional Quotient (EQ) may naturally be able to empathize with and consol survivors. However, many managers may require some points on the importance of â€Å"listening emphatically†. Listening is trying to understand the ideas and feelings expressed by others. Good listeners use silence effectively. They postpone judgment about the other person’s feelings, attitudes and concerns until after they have completely heard the person. 4. Maintain an environment of trust: Managers must reinforce the trust factor since many survivors may feel emotionally disappointed. Employees must understand that the charge of the manager is to ensure the organization survives and must trust him to make and communicate the right decisions. 5. Keep Employees Grateful and Humble: The survivors should also be reminded that they should be thankful to have a job. By not filling those vacant positions there's less competition for eventual promotions 6. Avoid Negative Feelings through Positive Motivation: The confused and vulnerable employees should be reassured that a change of job or an out-of-state position is the new learning curve they've probably needed. 7. Separate the Transitionally Displaced: Create a transition center for the dispirited who no longer have a job (but are still on payroll) that removes them from the rest of the company. Without distractions, these isolates will focus expeditiously on their future career plans. 8. Disinformation about restructuring: The information about the restructuring has to be kept as vague and inconsistent as possible. In fact, the more disinformation the better. A certain amount of uncertainty heightens group competition and, hopefully, will disorient your best people and/or intimidate them from leaving. 9. Create Social Diversions: Some diversionary event for should be planned for the beleaguered, â€Å"survivor shock† employees. 9. Conclusion It has to be noted that downsizing or any dramatic change will be met with an emotional response that will be as intense as the situation is threatening. In many cases people will feel victimized and will need to mourn their losses before they can move on. They should be handled properly and if possible, professional counseling should be given to them. 10. References †¢ Learning from the past – Downsizing Lessons for Managers, Franco Gandolfi †¢ Organizational Downsizing: From Concepts to Practices, Sanghamitra Bhattacharya and Leena Chatterjee †¢ Network Destruction: The Structural Implications of Downsizing, Priti Pradhan Shah

Competitive Intelligence Essay

Introduction Competitive intelligence (CI) refers to a tool used for marketing used by business organizations to study the competing surrounding. The process incorporates a determined information gathering based on the operations and other factors considering the competitor that enables proper decision-making of the organization management. Gower. Moloi and Iyamu, (2013) indicates that CI is significant in making marketing-related decisions and the development of market–oriented companies. Different companies use different methods to gather competitive intelligence. Companies study an array of industry specific and general publications to provide information of the current competitive intelligence. However, the most mentioned source of industry information are monographs. Monographs refer to the grey literature that may not be disseminated through conventional publishing channels. These include academic theses, business schools, technical reports, scholarly papers, case studies, and private and public sector documents. Sometimes the monographs are published that provides the most cost-effective and comprehensive source of CI information. Industry monographs are instrumental in providing information of the industry secular progress and historical background. Profits analysis can be obtained through long-term perspective that is compost of a richer experience variety as opposed to when only recent developments are considered. However, the major downfall is that the company conference proceedings and monographs date speedily. Internet searches, and the British Library form the major sources of grey literature. According to Murphy (2005,) the press reports and features provide the source of current and retrospective understanding of the competitor. The journals such as Financial Times sectoral surveys enable a company to obtain an excellent overview of the competitor of various business lines. Likewise, it outlines the individual players’ profile and the most pressing current issues affecting the competitor. Numerous trade journals provide annual surveys of the major trends and events in their specific business line. Furthermore, Murphy (2005) writes that the regulatory authorities also provide a great quality of information may be availed at a modest cost. The studies and reports provided by the Competition Commission have plenty of significant data and analysis that provides an excellent model on the procedures of undertaking the studies of the competing industry. The public watchdogs charged with the roles of overseeing the public sector forms excellent targets of CI information. Company circulars that they have to send to their shareholders under specific conditions are also significant sources of CI. For example, material acquisition and classified information on the listing rules provides information on the size of the company. Circulars contain FSA that may require the researcher to visit the company headquarters to obtain the corporate documents. Furthermore, Murphy (2005) indicates that shareholder data that has special rules that apply to the reporting of the changes within the entire PLCs. The Companies’ Act provides that PLCs are always documented in the company annual reports. This information provides the holdings of 3 percent of the total voting share capital of the firm. The information provided in such notifications that are subjected to public scrutiny provides CI information. Murphy further writes that company patents provide mechanisms of obtaining competitive advantage and the trademarks that provides the insights that describe the company enrichments. However, some companies believe that human resource intelligence. Company investigators may use direct contact with company human resource intelligence through identifying the subjects and planning of interviews. Human resource provides updated information on the company; however, it may be difficult to secure the potential individual to approach for such CI information. A typical example of CI mentions the stock traders who analyze the data based on the price movements and prices to determine the best investments. They possess similar data to other traders, yet data analysis provides their difference with others. Moreover, Japanese automobile industry that analysed the U.S automobiles of in the 1970s based on the products and the demands of the customer (Wagner &Van 2011). The smaller families and high gasoline prices created a demand in the U.S for fuel efficient and smaller cars. Therefore, the Japanese automobiles applied CI methods to establish a trend and further made the decisions on manufacturing based on the results of CI information. The produced cars defeated the U.S Big Three in the market due to fuel-efficiency and high-quality cars. Despite the entire pool of information sources, the internet and human resource intelligence may be the most effective sources of information in terms of accuracy, ethics and cost-effectiveness. The company websites provide an array of information that can be easily assessed compared to published documents. The website provides comprehensive information on the new developments, business practices, and detailed information on strategies and tactics established by the company. Likewise, as Wagner and Van (2011) establishes, the internet can provide detailed information based on the vision, CEO statements, goals and objectives, and the overall management of the firm. The commitment of the firm to quality, consumer problems, investments and plants, structure are also provided in the web pages of the company. Likewise, human resource can be maintained for a long period once the first interview is secured. Although it is a subject of ethics, human resource intelligence will provide the most updated information on the company plans. References Gower. Moloi, R., & Iyamu, T. (April 01, 2013). Understanding the Deployment of Competitive Intelligence Through Moments of Translation. International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering (ijitwe), 8, 2, 33-45. Murphy, C. (2005). Competitive intelligence: Gathering, analysing and putting it to work. Aldershot, England: Wagner, L., & Van, B. J.-P. (January 01, 2011). Web Mining for Strategic Competitive Intelligence. Â  

Lorenzo Ruiz essays

Lorenzo Ruiz essays Lorenzo Ruiz was born in Binondo, Manila between the years of 1600 and 1610. His father was Chinese and his mother was a Filipino, just like him. His parents were Christian and he was baptized with the name of Lorenzo after a Martyr during the third century. His last name Ruiz was taken from the last name of his godfather. In his younger years, Lorenzo served at the convent of Biondo. He learned Spanish and Catechism from the Dominican priests. After several years he earned the title of notary. He became a member of the Confraternity which is an organization devoted to the Blessed Virgin. He soon married and had two boys and a girl. Lorenzo then went on a ship to Japan to escape the chance of being caught by authorities that thought he committed a crime. At this time there was a large amount of persecution against Christians. People who believed in Jesus were jailed or put to death. Thousands of people chose death over denying the belief in Christianity and of those people was Lorenzo. Lorenzo went through a lot of pain for not denying his love of God. He said, I am a Christian and I will remain a Christian to the point of death. He was told that if he didnt renounce his faith for God that he would be put to death. Lorenzo chose his love for God and death over being set free and renouncing his faith in God. On September 23, 1637 he died in the hanging pit, which was a form of persecution. He was blessed on February 1981, at Luneta. He was declared a saint on October 18, 1987 in Rome. His feast day is September 28th. I chose this saint because I read about his life story and I was extremely astonished by his faith in God. He inspired me to always have faith in God and never deny your love in Him. I also chose this saint because my brothers name is Lorenzo and he is my sponsor, so I thought it was appropriate to do a repor...

Bronsted-Lowry Acid Definition

Bronsted-Lowry Acid Definition In 1923, chemists Johannes Nicolaus Brà ¸nsted and Thomas Martin Lowry independently described acids and bases based on whether they donate or accept hydrogen ions (H). The groups of acids and bases defined in this manner came to be known as either Bronsted, Lowry-Bronsted, or  Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases. A Bronsted-Lowry acid is defined as a substance that gives up or donates hydrogen ions during a chemical reaction. In contrast, a Bronsted-Lowry base accepts hydrogen ions. Another way of looking at it is that a Bronsted-Lowry acid donates protons, while the base accepts protons. Species that can either donate or accept protons, depending on the situation, are considered to be amphoteric. The Bronsted-Lowry theory differs from the Arrhenius theory in allowing acids and bases that dont necessarily contain hydrogen cations and hydroxide anions. Key Takeaways: Bronsted-Lowry Acid The Bronsted-Lowry theory of acids and bases was proposed independently in 1923 by Johannes Nicolaus Brà ¸nsted and Thomas Martin Lowry.A Bronsted-Lowry acid is a chemical species that donates one or more hydrogen ions in a reaction. In contrast, a Bronsted-Lowry base accepts hydrogen ions. When it donates its proton, the acid becomes its conjugate base.A more general look at the theory is as an acid as a proton donor and a base as a proton acceptor. Conjugate Acids and Bases in Bronsted-Lowry Theory Every Bronsted-Lowry acid donates its proton to a species which is its conjugate base. Every Bronsted-Lowry base similarly accepts a proton from its conjugate acid. For example, in the reaction: HCl (aq) NH3 (aq)→ NH4 (aq) Cl- (aq) Hydrochloric acid (HCl)  donates a proton to ammonia (NH3) to form the ammonium cation (NH4) and the chloride anion (Cl-). Hydrochloric acid is a Bronsted-Lowry acid; the chloride ion is its conjugate base. Ammonia is a Bronsted-Lowry base; its conjugate acid is the ammonium ion. Sources Brà ¶nsted, J. N. (1923). Einige Bemerkungen à ¼ber den Begriff der Suren und Basen [Some observations about the concept of acids and bases]. Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas. 42 (8): 718–728. doi:10.1002/recl.19230420815Lowry, T. M. (1923). The uniqueness of hydrogen. Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. 42 (3): 43–47. doi:10.1002/jctb.5000420302

Economics - DQ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economics - DQ - Essay Example The price in this setting is Pareto efficient which means that no one can be made better off without making anybody worst off. In the short run, some firms might gain and some loses but in the long-run a perfectly competitive market yields zero profit. The scenario is different from an imperfectly competitive market characterized by one or few number of sellers which gives the firms the ability to influence the pricing strategy. In this case, the customers are price takers as opposed to the perfectly competitive market where firms are price takers. In order to maximize profits, the firm set prices where marginal cost equals marginal revenue. Unlike in the perfectly competitive scenario, the firms in imperfect market have all the advantage of raising prices especially when price elasticity of demand for customers is less than one. A price discriminating monopolist is one which charges different prices to customers according to their willingness to pay. On the other hand, a normal monopolist is one that charges prices where marginal cost intersects marginal revenue. It should be noted that as opposed to a perfectly competitive market, monopolists are free to choose prices in order to maximize profits. A normal monopolist earns a much greater profit than a price discriminating one. It should be noted that monopolist gain profit through the deadweight loss which results in not producing at the maximum capacity. This deadweight loss is attained when price is set such that marginal cost equals marginal revenue. For a price discriminating monopolist, as the prices are individually charged according to the consumers’ willingness to pay, it will charge prices to the marginal customer similar to the prices and quantity of a perfectly competitive firm. In this way, the deadweight loss is eliminated from the pictures and the profits are not made. It should be

Leadership Analysis Paper (Ray Kroc,Mcdonalds Founder) Essay

Leadership Analysis Paper (Ray Kroc,Mcdonalds Founder) - Essay Example He ensured the growth and consistency of production in the company. Notably, McDonalds is the world's largest chain of restaurants based in San Bernardino, California with its first restaurant starting in 1955. The company continued to open other restaurants all over the world where it sells the same brand and quality of the world’s favorite foods, which include Fries and Chicken, Big Mac sandwich, and Nuggets. Today, McDonalds is the world’s leading foodservice retailer. The leadership case of Ray Kroc relates to me since I also worked for McDonalds and I could use his leadership style in my position. Abstract Leadership is one of the dominant aspects in modern life. There are different forms and levels of leadership and thus it is not easy to define leadership. However, leadership involves the ability to establish a long-term policy and influencing others towards the realization of that policy (Bennis, 2009, p.1-8). Leadership requires leadership skills which are eith er taught or acquired and may have formal powers to exercise their mandate. Notably, leadership is very subtle in any organization and the leaders have unique responsibilities over their followers (Bennis, 2009, 147-149). This paper will analyze the leadership practices of Ray Kroc who was the founder of the McDonalds. In doing this, the paper will rely on theories covered in this course. Chapter 1: Introduction Ray Kroc was an American entrepreneur whose name is very dominant in the restaurants industry because he was synonymous in propelling McDonald’s to international success where it is now the world's largest chain of restaurants. Ray Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 5, 1902 (Mattern, 2011). Ray Kroc grew and spent the greater part of his life in Oak Park, Illinois. He dropped out of school at an early age 15 years to become a Red Cross ambulance driver in World War I after lying about his age to become an ambulance driver at 15 (Mattern, 2011). After the World War 1, Kroc tried various career options, which included selling paper cups, plying piano, and being a DJ on a local Oak Park radio station (Mattern, 2011). At 20 years of age, Kroc got married. He started selling cups during the day for Tulip Cup Company in 1922 and plays the piano on the radio at night. He worked as a sales representative for 17 years where he rose to become the Tulip’s Midwest sales manager (Mattern, 2011). In this position, Kroc acquired the exclusive rights to a new milkshake machine that could make five milkshakes at once and promoted it across the United States (Mattern, 2011). He got big orders for the new milkshake machine and because of the savings he got from the sales, Kroc approached the McDonald brothers to start a number of restaurants. As a result, he opened two restaurants in Illinois when he was fifty-two years old (Mattern, 2011). He consequently bought the McDonald’