Environmental Science Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Environmental Science - Research Paper Example This power is not limited to controlling the face of our own government through consistent, record-breaking, campaign contributions, but also the fate of millions of people and the planet itself through jobs, resource exploitation, pollution, working conditions, energy consumption, forest destruction, and so on. Make no mistake, these new power centers are not democracies. We don’t vote for the CEO’s or the policies (unless we are rich enough to be significant shareholders, who are informed enough to know what’s going on, and compassionate enough to care about more than just personal profit), yet our destinies are increasingly left in their hands. The Solution: As these power centers shift, we must shift our own voices if we wish to be heard. As citizens, on average, we might vote once every four years, if at all. As consumers, we vote every single day with the purest form of power †¦ money. The average family spends around $18,000 every year on goods and se rvices. Think of it as casting 18,000 votes every year for the kind of world you want to live in. Unfortunately, as difficult as it is to find good, solid information on candidates during an election year, it’s often even harder to find good, solid information on corporations.

A geographer assesses the impact of diamond mining on South Africa Research Paper

A geographer assesses the impact of diamond mining on South Africa - Research Paper Example Mining is South Africa (SA) started in 1880s after the discovery of diamonds on the banks of river Orange. The mining of diamonds and other metals like gold, platinum and cadmium have significantly contributed to making SA the richest nation on the African continent.The impact of diamond mining in SA is a profound phenomenon whose results can be noticed with turn of the eye. The discovery of the first diamond on the banks of river Orange saw the subsequent change of the regions name from Vooruitzigt to New Rush to Kimberly (Ritter 372). This is just an example of how diamond mining had a life changing influences on the lives of everyone in SA. The discovery of diamonds in Kimberly led to a rush or a massive migration of people from other places who came there to mine this new found treasure. According to historical records, in 1873 Kimberly became the largest and most populated town in SA just a few months after the confirmation of diamond deposits in the region. Kimberly is today kn own as a town with one of the largest holes dug by hand held tools, which has contributed to the site being named as a world heritage site by UNESCO (Sharma 132). Kimberly a city in the Northern cape of SA is nowadays better known as the historic town that pioneered the mining revolution in SA, and helped forever shape the fortunes of the country as a leading producer of precious metals and gemstones. Diamond mining, in SA, can be attributed to have had a significant impact on the lives of communities and individuals who got directly or indirectly involved with the mining activities of SA. A notable character or name that is synonymous with mining and especially diamond mining and trade in the world De Beers. The second large diamond to be discovered in Kimberly was discovered on land belonging to the De Beers brothers who later came to dominate diamond mining and trade in SA and all over the world up to this date. This was made possible by the consolidation of the small mining comp anies of time to form the De Beers Consolidated Mines which has a monopoly over diamond trade in the world up to this date (Afolayan 68). Diamond mining caused elevated levels of rural-urban migration especially of black Africans who sought employment in the mines and the great city life experience that Kimberly as the largest town in SA provided. The De Beers encouraged this rural-urban migration because it provided cheap labor that was vital to the profitable running of the mines. The urbanization of this region in SA contributed to a myriad of both negative and positive social cultural factors that were directly or indirectly affected by mining activities. A good example of a vice or social ill that can be construed to be as a direct result of mining and the miners who worked there is prostitution (Marsh 230). Women and girls from every part of SA moved to Kimberly in an effort to cash in on the gold and diamond rush that was taking place. There were other varieties of socio-cult ural ills that are usually spawned by urbanization and they were all present in Kimberly. Mining helped create a phenomenon called the status quo, which saw the establishment of classes within the society. These classes saw black Africans occupying the lowest class in that society, which was the poorest, least educated and most oppressed by the rich and educated class of mainly white people (Pitzl 141). This unequal stature in society is still present today albeit diminished or in represented differently compared to that period. Urbanization meant that people got exposed to the white man’s education which can be said to have significantly contributed SA’

Nursing Job Description Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing Job Description - Essay Example These numerous tasks make the head nurse central in ensuring the efficient performance of the team. Thus, this involves financial planning as well in order to ensure that goals are being met. Forecasting is defined as the task of making projections about the future performance on the basis of historical and current conditions data. A head nurse often makes decision regarding the future of his or team. A more appropriate example of this is the amount of budget that the team needs for the coming month. In order to make projections, the head nurse will rely on the historical data of the actual expenses in the previous months. Based on these records, he or she will then determine which types of expenses will apply in the forecast period as well as eliminate the costs that are be foreseen to be insignificant. Afterwards, he or she also analyzes the factors which will make costs in each individual item higher or lower. In order to do this, he or she will rely on current situation which were not present in the previous budgeting period. Example is cost of input which drives up prices of materials needed. With these, he or she can then forecast the budget to be appropriated in t he next period. Long-range planning is another typical activity of a head nurse. Like forecasting, long range planning is concerned with the future of the team. However, as opposed to forecasting, long-range planning involves the head nurse making decisions according to the strategic goal of the healthcare organization. Long-range planning encompasses both financial and non-financial goals and the focus is always the achievement of a specific objective. Most companies have embarked on aligning their plans with the overall organizational goal. A head nurse also does this. For example, when the overall plan of the hospital is to transform itself into a state-of-the art organization by utilizing the latest medical technology available in the market, the head nurse prepares his staff for this. Long-range planning may include but is not limited on his efforts to build a program which will enable the members of the team to get acquainted with the new image to be established. This will include putting up quarterly meetings in order to educate members as well as having appropriate training classes that will equip the members with the skills needed to operate the equipment. As a part of the plan, monitoring will also be installed in order to assess the development and performance of the members of the team. Benchmarking means the process of comparing the performance, policies, philosophies, and other factors of one business organization to the other. These comparisons are often geared in ascertaining how an organization stands in comparison to the other players in the market. In the setting of the healthcare organization, a head nurse benchmarks when he or she compares the performance of his or her team through a defined metrics. The benchmark often looks at the historical and current performance in order to make an improvement in the future. For instance, a head nurse might want to compare his team's level of performance by the number of times late or

GE’s Talent Machine Essay Example for Free

GE’s Talent Machine Essay Leadership development is a heavy priority for GE. The company put a great emphasis on building leaders. Four successive CEO each made contributions to the development of management talent. The CEO Cordiner implemented a decentralization practice that broke the company into various departments. The new company structure was more manageable but required more delegation. As a result of the decentralized structure, GE put a great emphasis on developing organizational learning. GE spent a lot of money on management education to expand managers’ leadership ability and general management skills. Education is one of the three life and work experience that contribute to leadership development (P479). The first corporate university was built by Cordiner where provided programs on executive education and management training. Those learning programs focus on personal growth that help employees to improve themselves continuously in GE’s learning culture. GE had various programs for finding potential leaders and preventing brain drain. The Session C was a performance assessment process that implemented to promote â€Å"high potential† employees. It included the individual evaluations, the career forecasts, and the succession plans. Subordinates were placed on a six-point scale from â€Å"high potential† to â€Å"unsatisfactory†. This feedback-intensive program helped the potential leaders to understand their behavior patterns, and they were able to find more constructive ways of achieving their objectives (P488). Another GE’s leadership excellence named disciplined performance management analysis, also known as the â€Å"vitality curve† was added to Session C. The incentive ranking system help GE to seek the best talents and to sustain a high-performance workforce. In addition, the CEO Reg Jones initiated a more structured practice to strategic planning to make the review process more manageable- the strategic business unite (SUBs). All those programs help GE to build a results-driven workforce. That is why GE is a â€Å"CEO factory. The forced ranking system put much pressure on employees for improving performance and productivity. The system feed on favoritism, and managers as rankers may intentionally give the high assessment to the people who are close to them. My suggestion for the vitality curve is to add a peer  evaluation into the ranking system. However, fairness could also be questioned in this case, because some people end up at the bottom even thought their performance may be perfectly satisfactory when judged in isolation. Also, it is easy to present the blind competition because the success of one employee is a lost opportunity for others. Additionally, I suggest having the 20% highly progress reward from the highly valued 70%. Recognition and rewards for the top 20% should keep the same, but add more recognition to the average performers who improved a lot compared with last year. This practice will boost the confidence of average employees who think they will never be rewarded. On the flip side, it may be more complex and take longer time to evaluate the performance. Since GE conduct business all around the world, a more aggressive international approach is needed. I suggest GE to focus on global recruitment that can provide more opportunity to hunt talents. One thing GE could do is partnerships with universities overseas, and open training and developing programs in the universities to attract potential non-American young talents. GE could provide internships and jobs for high performers who enter the programs. The programs may require a lot investment, and the benefit is unknown. People may use the programs as stepping stones to their own career. Great leaders are great learners. Learning does not end when I get out of college. Learning is a life long process. As a potential future leader, I have to adopt continuous learning as my personal leadership priority. As I learned form the ITO (Individual, Team and Organization) class, knowledge could be classified into explicit knowledge and tactic knowledge. Explicit knowledge could be learned though training and books. It is beneficial for me to read more books to enrich the knowledge, and keep my knowledge updated to the current world. Also, I need to learn to be opportunistic, and take advantage of training programs. Tactic knowledge, in contrast, is what I can learn through experience. I could take advantage of networking, and meet new people to build week ties. Therefore, I could have more opportunities to experience different things though those week ties. Finding a good mentor in the organization is also good for my learning development. Also, ask for  feedback. Another thing I learned from GE is the goal orientation. The company set a clear objective of building leaders, and all the leadership development practice were build to fulfill that goal. I have to set both short term and long term goals that motivate me to achieve. Finally, be self-awareness. I need to take time to think about my strengths and weaknesses, and do self-evaluation regularly to summarize areas that I need to improve.

ACQUISITION OF JAGUAR AND LAND ROVER

ACQUISITION OF JAGUAR AND LAND ROVER In a changing world the only constant is change. The world hates change but, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. Charles Kettering (Brainquotes.com) Change is a pervasive influence. We are all subject to continual change of one form or another. Change is an inescapable part of both social and organizational life. (Mullins, 2007:909) Organisational change means significant alteration in any one or more of the tasks, techniques, structures and people of the organization. (Saiyadain, 2003:174) Change is introduced either to improve effectiveness or to adapt to external changes. Managers face complex and challenging pressures and opportunities while introducing change in an organization. They must ensure the efficient use of resources and, at the same time, find ways of guaranteeing the long-term effectiveness of the organizations for which they work. Planning, implementing and coping with change has been, and seems likely to remain, one of the main challenges facing managers, in both the private and public sectors, today. In manufacturing, banking, education and health care change is the norm. (Carnall, 2007) Managing change at the best of times is a challenge since it goes beyond the realms of logic and delves into the realms of perception. People are naturally inclined over centuries of conditioned behaviour to be comfortable in the present and any announcement of change makes them perceive new situations, new people, new places, and newer security issues. Once again, when man is asked to think outside his comfort zone, his first perceptions are mostly defensive and negative, hence managing change is a challenge. Managing change in a personal or family environment is difficult enough in light of changed equations, changed economic status, and changed relationships. However, there is rarely any competitiveness or a threat of economical or emotional security from ones near and dear ones. None the less, the two points mentioned in the earlier paragraph about man perceiving change negatively remain a challenge. The process of organizational change can be initiated deliberately by managers, it can evolve slowly within a department, it can be imposed by specific changes in policy or procedures, or it can arise through external pressures. Change can affect all aspects of the operation and functioning of the organization. Most planned organizational change is triggered by the need to respond to new challenges or opportunities presented by the external environment. Planned change represents an intentional attempt to improve, in some important way, the operational effectiveness of the organization. Thus, the basic objectives of managing organizational change are: Modifying the behavioural patterns of the members of the organizations Improving the ability of the organization to cope with changes in its environment. It is also important for management to understand the reasons for, and nature of, resistance and to adopt a clearly defined strategy for the initiation of change. The successful management of change is an increasingly important managerial responsibility. (Mullins, 2007) The merger and acquisition boom has brought change on its trail throughout industry and commerce. A major aspect of organizational change can be viewed in an acquisition. In order to understand this facet, I studied the case of an Indian company acquiring a UK one; the Tatas acquiring Jaguar Land Rover. Tata is seen to value its employees as much as its profits, and prides itself on equality and fair management. After a great deal of bidding and negotiations, the Tatas bought the earlier Ford owned Jaguar Land Rover, for a whopping USD 2.3 billion. Both the corporations entered into mutual agreements regarding various aspects such as support facilities like IT, design and development of the automobiles to keep the uniqueness intact. By studying this organizational change, I analysed and focused on, how smooth communication and understanding can lead to copying with resistance of any sorts. LITERATURE REVIEW The concept of organizational change is a wide change as opposed to small changes. Examples of wide change may include a change in a mission, restructuring operations, new technologies, mergers and acquisitions, re-engineering etc. change should not be done for the sake of change its a strategy to accomplish some overall goal. (www.managementhelp.org) Typically there are strong resistances to change. People are afraid of the unknown. Often there are conflicting goals in the organization. Organizations wide changes often go against the very values held dear by members of the organization. Thats why organizational change discusses needed changes in the cultural aspect of values and beliefs. Planned Organization Change Process:- (Behaviour Modification) Organizational change calls for a change in the individual behaviour of the employees. Any organizational change whether introduced through a new structural design or new technology attempts to make employees modify their behaviour because unless the behaviour patterns change, there will be very little impact on the effectiveness of the organization. Kurt Lewin came up with a three-phase process of behaviour modification to implement planned change. Change in Organization Requires Change in the behaviour of individuals Calls for Unfreezing Movement Refreezing (Ahmad, Gilkar and Darzi, 2008) Unfreezing The process of unfreezing is the toughest phase where one has to overcome the inertia of comfortable practices and complacency to convince others that the change is not just necessary but desirable too. Lewin believes that change should not come as a surprise to members of the organization, unannounced change would be socially destructive and opposed by the members. (Cole, 2005) The management must pave the way by unfreezing the situation, so that members would be willing and ready to accept the change. This way any resistance to change can also be neutralised. Movement Once the unfreezing process is complete and the members of the organization accept and recognize the requirement of change and have been fully prepared to accept the same, their behaviour patterns have to be redesigned. (Kumar and Mittal, 2002) This can be done by establishing new reporting relationships and creating reward/incentive systems.(Hunt Simms) The movement process involves development of new attitudes or behaviour and the implementation of the change. (Mullins, 2007) Refreezing Change or movement phase continues until a new balance is made between the forces driving and restraining change. Thus the aim of refreezing is to establish this balance at a higher level of performance. This is done by supporting mechanisms for example policies, structure or norms (Mullins, 2007:910) which positively reinforces the new ways of working. (Hunt Simms) During this phase, individuals internalize the new behaviour developed in the movement phase. Resistance to Change:- Change in an organization can have different responses. The most obvious one is resistance. Any change whether beneficial or superficial, is likely to meet some resistance which is usually from the people of the organization, especially if the present system favours them. Respect for individuals and communication are the basics required to help people adapt to change. (Hunt Simms) In a sense, resistance to change is positive. It provides a degree of stability and predictability to behaviour. If there is not some resistance, organizational behaviour would take on characteristics of chaotic randomness. (Ahmad, Gilkar and Darzi, 2008) Resistance to change can take many forms and it is often difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for the resistance. The forces against change in work organizations include: ignoring the needs and expectations of members; when members have insufficient information about the nature of the change; or if they do not perceive the need to change. Fears may be expressed over matters such as employment levels and job security, de-skilling of work, loss of job satisfaction, wage rate differentials, changes to social structures and working conditions, loss of individual control over work, and greater management control. (Mullins, 2007 Resistance to change can be classified into two categories: Individual resistance Organizational resistance Reasons for individual resistance to change within organizations include the following: Selective perception: Peoples own interpretation of stimuli may lead to selective perception which further form a biased view of a particular situation, and thus cause resistance to change. For example, trade unions may have a stereotyped view of management as untrustworthy and therefore oppose any management change; however well founded might have been the intention. Habit: people tend react to situations in an accustomed manner. Proposed changes to habits, especially if the habits are well established and require little effort, may well be resisted. However, if there is a clearly perceived advantage, for example a reduction in working hours without loss of pay, there is likely to be less, if any, resistance to change. Inconvenience or loss of freedom: If the change is seen as likely to prove inconvenient, make life more difficult, reduce freedom of action or result in increased control, there will be resistance. Economic implications: People are likely to resist change which is perceived as reducing their pay or monetary rewards, requiring an increase in work for the same level of pay or acting as a threat to their job security. Security in the past: In times of difficulty or when faced with new or unfamiliar ideas and methods, people tend to reflect on their past to find a sense of security. For example, in bureaucratic organizations, officials often tend to place faith in well established procedures and methodologies and adhere to them as giving a feeling of security. Fear of the unknown: Many major changes in a work organization present a degree of uncertainty; for example, the introduction of new technology or methods of working. These changes which confront people with the unknown cause anxiety or fear. Reasons for organizational resistance to change within organizations include the following: Organisational culture: Culture is pervasive in nature, develops overtime and may not be easy to change. It has a significant effect on organizational processes and the behaviour of the staff. An ineffective culture may result in a lack of flexibility for, or acceptance, of change. Maintaining stability: Organizations pay much attention to maintaining stability and predictability. The need for formal organization structure and the division of work, narrow definitions of assigned duties and responsibilities, established rules, procedures and methods or work can result in resistance to change. Investment in resources: Change often requires large resources like buildings, technology, equipment and people, which may already be committed to investments in other areas or strategies. For example, a car manufacturer may not find it way to change to a socio-technical approach and the use of autonomous work groups because it cannot afford the cost of new purpose-built plant and specialised equipment. Past contracts or agreements: Organisations enter into contracts or agreements with other parties which many times limit changes in behaviour for example, organisations operating under a special licence or permit. Threats to power or influence: Change may be seen as a threat to the power or influence of certain groups within the organization, such as their control over decisions, resources or information. For example, managers may resist the introduction of quality circles or worker-directors because they see this as a threat to the power in their own positions. (Mullins, 2007) Managing organisational change: The successful management of change is clearly essential for continued economic performance and competitiveness. New ideas and innovations should not be perceived as threats by members of the organization. The efforts made by management to maintain the balance of the socio-technical system will influence peoples attitudes, the behaviour of individuals and groups, and thereby the level of organisational performance and effectiveness. (Mullins, 2008) Overcoming resistance to change A manger need not always be saddled with the task of change in organizations where resistance is strongly prevalent. There are some techniques which can assist him in overcoming resistance. But he should not underestimate the variety of ways people react to change and the ways they can positively influence specific individuals and groups during the change process. (Ahmad, Gilkar and Darzi, 2008) There are a number of ways in which resistance can be minimised. These have been developed from the ideas of Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) Education and Communication: Educating people and providing them with adequate information before the change takes place may not lessen resistance but should reduce the unnecessary stress. Managers should communicate their ideas via one-on-one discussions, presentations or reports, so that people understand the need of rand see the logic of the proposed change. Facilitation and support: If the proposed change is likely to mean changes in skills, time needs to be given for training and development. Managers need to provide all the support they can and lend an ear to their subordinates and their grievances. Negotiation and Agreement: It is possible to reduce resistance by offering incentives to active or potential resisters. Co-option: Another way to overcome resistance, obtain commitment and increase the quality of the change, in an individual or group is to give them a role with responsibility and status attached, in the implementation of the change. (Hunt Simms) Organizational Responses to Disruptive Change Christensen and Overdorf, identified three factors that affect organizational responses to different types of change and what an organization can and cannot do: resources access to abundant, high quality resources increases an organizations chances of coping with change processes the patterns of interaction, co-ordination, communication and decision-making employees use to transform resources into products and services. values the standards by which employees set priorities that enable them to judge whether an order is attractive, whether a customer is more or less important, whether an idea for a new product is attractive or marginal. There are three possible ways in which managers can develop new capabilities to cope with change: create new organizational structures within corporate boundaries in which new processes can be developed spin out an independent organization from the existing organization and develop new processes and values acquire a different organization whose processes and values match closely the new requirements. (Mullins, 2007) Actions to Secure Effective Change Kotter and Cohn list the following eight steps for successful large-scale change. Create a sense of urgency among relevant people, whatever the nature or size of the organization. Build a guiding team with the credibility, skills, connections, reputations and formal authority to provide change leadership. Create visions which are sensible, clear and uplifting, and sets of strategies. Communicate the vision and the strategy in order to induce understanding and commitment. Empower action and remove obstacles that stop people acting on the vision. Produce short-term wins that help to provide credibility, resources and momentum to the overall effort. Dont let up but maintain the momentum, consolidate early changes and create wave after wave of change Make change stick by nurturing a new culture, and developing group norms of behaviour and shared values. (Mullins, 2007) A Chosen Case : Tatas acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover Allow me to illustrate- In an economics class, some students felt that capitalism has negative connotations leading to disparities in society and hence socialism is a better option. The economics class teacher threw change in the direction of the students by offering an average gradation to all students ala socialism. At the end of the first test the students were all given B which was the cumulative average of the class. The students who usually did well did not find this change acceptable as their As became Bs and so in the next test the good students made lesser effort and the poorer students hoped that the performance of the good students will keep their grade at B. But in the second test, since the good students had made lesser effort the average of the class fell down to C and this made everybody unhappy with change and fulfilled the innate human belief that change is negative and bad. Arising from the above example, it becomes obvious that the change agent must not only have a powerfully beneficial idea but also have plans, programs, initiatives and good communication to help overcome the known and existing devil of negative perception to change in the human mind. Its in the above context that we assess how the new owners of the legendary Jaguar and Land Rover dealt with the organizational change in light of the ownership transferring to the Indian industrial giant-the house of Tatas. Tata Motors is Indias largest automobile company, with revenues of US$ 8.8 billion in 2007-08. With over 4 million Tata vehicles plying in India, it is the leader in commercial vehicles and among the top three in passenger vehicles. It is also the worlds fourth largest truck manufacturer and the second largest bus manufacturer. Tata cars, buses and trucks are being marketed in several countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia and South America. Through subsidiaries and associate companies, Tata Motors has operations in South Korea, Thailand and Spain. It also has a strategic alliance with Fiat. (www.tatamotors.com) In January 2008, Tata was named the prime bidder for the upscale Jaguar and Land Rover units besting two other finalists, Indian automaker Mahindra Mahindra Ltd. and US private equity firm One Equity Partners LLC. On March 26th, 2008, Tata Motors announced its acquisition of the Jaguar-Land Rover businesses from Ford Motor Company for a net consideration of US$ 2.3 billion on a cash free, debt-free basis. The final purchase consideration includes the ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover or perpetual royalty-free licences of all necessary Intellectual Property Rights, manufacturing plants, two advanced design centres in the UK, and worldwide network of National Sales Companies. Ford completed the sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover businesses to the Indian multinational Tata on the 2nd of June, 2008. Tata Motors established that Mr. David Smith, the acting Chief Executive Officer of Jaguar Land Rover, would be the new CEO of the business. (www.expressindia.com) Long term agreements and contracts have been entered into for supply of engines, stampings and other components to Jaguar Land Rover. Other areas of transition support from Ford include IT, accounting and access to test facilities. The two companies will continue to cooperate in areas such as design and development through sharing of platforms and joint development of hybrid technologies and power train engineering. The Ford Motor Credit Company will continue to provide financing for Jaguar Land Rover dealers and customers for a transition period. (www.tatamotors.com) Britains traditionally feisty and combative trade unions, cheered Tatas purchase of Jaguar-Land Rover. The top bosses of Unite, the UKs largest trades union called this acquisition real good news for the UK automotive industry because according to them Tatas are into making cars, not just money. Tata also promised that including retaining jobs and existing employee contracts for at least the next 5 years as well as putting money into J-LR to grow the business. Tata recognised the Britishness of the two brands and have no intention of closing any plants in the UK. In fact they are committed that after 2011, all the Jaguar Land Rover products will still be designed and manufactured in the UK. (www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com) The purchase agreement was seen by trade unions as safeguarding jobs in the UK for two reasons. First , Tata committed to follow an existing five-year plan to invest in and develop the car manufacturing businesses. Jaguar and Rover employ just under 16,000 people, most of them in the Midlands and at Halewood near Liverpool. Also, Tata is contracted to buy engines and other parts from Ford until at least 2012, which should protect employment at Fords plants in Dagenham and Bridgend. As of now, Tata has no plans to relocate manufacturing capacity to low-cost India. Instead it appears to see the purchase of Land Rover and Jaguar as a route into the middle to top end of the global motorcar market. Ford also reassured employees of Jaguar and Land Rover that they will face no financial risks from the takeover and that their pensions are safe because it will inject  £300 million into their pension scheme, to eliminate any deficit. (www.bbc.co.uk) DISCUSSION The Tata deal is known to be one of the most ambitious purchases of a British based manufacturer, by any company from the fast emerging economies of Asia. It is considered to be a momentous time for all at the Tata Corporation. The announcement of Tatas acquisition created many unusual challenges including cultural, financial, industrial and communication challenges. But, the Tatas managed this situation thoroughly and coped with any resistance they faced from the employees or the company really well. An advantage: Tatas had an edge as they had very recently acquired the steel producer Corus Steel. This gave them an upper hand over the rest of the bidders as they had enough knowledge concerning the laws, mind set, unions, heritage, business culture etc which helped them understand the British environment better than the rest. Pre Soaking the government: Tatas also did a very wise thing by approaching the government of the United Kingdom before the final bidding. They pre-soaked the government and most rightly convinced them about the acquisition which helped them out with understanding the scenario in the country. Education and Communication: Information is the life blood of any organisation and the way in which any idea is communicated can make a difference between a productive and committed workforce and one that is sceptical and unreceptive. Tatas took extreme care in their communication, initial interaction, minimal disturbance to operating practices to ensure that they had enough time to understand the national and corporate culture at Jaguar Land Rover. This also made the Jaguar Land Rovers management and staff secure about their job and financial security and thus provided them with the conviction to protect them both. Retaining many officials: A judicious decision which the Tata Corporation took was to retain the chief executive officer and many other top level management of Jaguar Land Rover. This made it easier and convenient for the Tatas to transmit important information and communicate effectively through the employees own credible leaders. Thus the workforce was more receptive to any decision or conclusion arrived at than that was expected to be. Negotiations and Agreements: Corporate values must be understood, respected and appreciated while entering into such propositions. This is essential to ensure that the merged organisation is run to the new organizational culture that they have jointly created. Tata entered into long term agreements for supply of engines, stamping and other components of Jaguar Land Rover. Both, Ford and Tata will continue to cooperate in different areas like design and development. This motivated and provided incentive to the company and its employees and thus Tatas avoided any resistance in this area. Facilitation and Support: Different perceptions of time was a particular challenge for both Jaguar Land Rover and Tatas. Indians usually take more time than the Brits to meet and interact with employees at all levels and develop relationships. This on the whole conflicted with the approach of the Brits who paid greater importance to things being done quickly and relationships can wait for later. The Tatas built excellent relationships with the management and the company. They took one step at a time. They have even agreed to keep intact the plants in the UK and committed further that the designing and manufacturing will be based there as well. Co-option: Including and involving the present employees of Jaguar Land Rover is an extremely important area which needed to be targeted. This is mainly so that the employees feel a part of the proposition and refrain from any sort of resistance to the acquisition. Thus from the above derived points and discussions, it is evident that the Tatas coped with resistance to change very well. There were no major problems that they faced regarding resistance and in fact were cheered by the employees for their entire proposal. The complete catch in the whole acquisition is time. All that the corporate world, specifically which of India and the United Kingdom needs to do is to wait and watch. It is with time that one will know how successful or unsuccessful this proposition of Mr. Ratan Tata (Chairman of the Tata group) will be. CONCLUSION A broad recommendation that I want to touch upon is that there is an enormous need for an organisational behaviour division in all corporations. Organisational change is not an easy task. It is serious business and may be one of the most risky decision making processes which no organisation can avoid either. The main aspect of change is faced and resisted by people ranging from the ones working in the organisation, running it or may be even the ones outside it. Thus the facet that organisational change impacts the most is organisational behaviour. It may be said that the human resource department can handle such deeds. But, in my opinion a human resource department looks into and understands matters of people of one particular country or culture. With the emerging multicultural, multi-geographical and multi-country mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, it is of crucial need to start an organizational behaviour division which handles these features of organisational change to secu re the financial health and reputation of a company. To conclude, I feel that steps should be taken to ensure that the human element is not ignored in the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover because at the end of the day it is the combined effort of each employee that will have the biggest impact on the booming outcome of this acquisition. This can be done by watchfully selecting potential leaders in the organisation to help carry out and communicate the necessary changes to all other employees as this will subsequently help ensure they feel cared for. It is exceptionally necessary that the Tatas take out time to understand and appreciate the impact of a changing organizational culture on its employees and at the same time, recognize the challenge of bringing together both the national cultures or else the company will risk a lot at stake. With estimates signifying that as many as 80% of international and cross cultural mergers and acquisitions fail, it is only two years down the line in 2012 when all the agreement and contracts entered into by both the companies end, that we would have known whether Mr. Tatas team in spite of the unforeseen global economic downturn were able to achieve a smooth organizational change and manage it with à ©lan or were they 8 of the 10 that fail. To summarize, I began my essay with a brief introduction on managing organizational change and my specific case to illustrate the theme of the paper. This was followed by deeply understanding the main theories and points supporting managing change in the literature review section, where I focused mainly on resistance to change and different ways to cope with it. I then brought forward the case of Tatas acquiring Jaguar Land Rover and discussed the basic facts and information of the acquisition which led me to the discussion section. I pointed out various ways by which Tatas coped with resistance of any kinds and on paper seemed like one of the most perfect acquisitions. In conclusion, I further gave in some of my recommendations to support the case and of what I felt was the need of the hour. REFERNECES Ahmad, Gilkar and Darzi (2008) Organisational Behaviour Atlantic Publishers Distributors Carnall, A.C. (2007) Managing Change in Organizations 5th ed. Essex: Prentice Hall Cole, G. A. (2005), Organisational Behaviour Cornwall : Thompson Learning Hunt, M. S. Simms, H. Organisational Behaviour and Change Management Kumar, N. and Mittal, R. (2002) Organisational Behaviour New Delhi : Anmol Publishers Mullins, L.J. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour 7th ed. Essex : Prentice Hall Mullins, L.J. (2008) Essentials of Organizational Behaviour 8th ed. Pearson Education Saiyadain, M.S. (2003) Organisational Behaviour New York : Tata McGraw-Hill www.bbc.co.uk Available at [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/03/tata_and_british_jobs.html] Accessed on 2/01/2010 www.brainyquotes.com www.expressindia.com Available at [http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Ford-Tata-closing-in-on-Jaguar-deal/267399/] Accessed on 1/01/2010 www.managementhelp.org Available at [http://managementhelp.org/mgmnt/orgchnge.htm] Accessed on 30/12/2009 www.tatamotors.com Available at [http://tatamotors.com/our_world/press_releases.php?ID=370action=Pull] Accessed on 1/01/2010 www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com Available at [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/Three-cheers-for-Tata-Britains-trade-unions/articleshow/2911159.cms] Accessed on 1/01/2010

NETWORK EFFECTS AND COMPETITION: :: essays research papers

In many industries, the network of consumers using compatible products or services influences the benefits of consumption. Positive network effects arise when the consumer utility of using a product or service increases with the number of users of that product or service. The telephone system is a widely used example since it seems clear that the value of being part of the network rises as the network sizes increases. Consumption benefits can also arise in markets where a large customer network leads to increases in complementary products and services, which in turn, leads to increased consumer utility (e.g., see Farrell and Saloner 1985; Katz and Shapiro 1985;1986). Prominent examples of industries thought to exhibit network effects include automated bank teller machines, computer hardware and software, videocassette recorders, video games, and Internet web browsers. Not surprisingly, network externalities and the implications of having a large installed customer base are receiving increased attention by strategy researchers (e.g., Garud and Kumaraswamy 1993; Hill 1995; Wade 1995). As noted by Majumdar and Venkataraman (1998), the literature related to network effects broadly tackles three categories of research questions: (1) technology adoption decisions (e.g., what factors are related to whether and when a new technology is adopted), (2) technology compatibility decisions (e.g., what factors influence a firm’s decision to seek compatibility), and (3) decisions among competing incompatible technologies (e.g., what factors are related to consumers’ choices among rival incompatible products within a single product category). While theoretical research has addressed all three of these categories, empirical research has been limited to the first and second categories of questions (e.g., see the reviews in David and Greenstein 1990; Liebowitz and Margolis 1994; Economides 2001). Empirical efforts supporting the existence of network effects for a single product technology show that a larger network size is related to higher minicomputer sales (Hartman and Teece 1990), higher likelihood of adopting a new telecommunications technology (Majumdar and Venkataraman 1998), and quicker adoption of a new banking technology (Saloner and Sheppard 1995). In addition, Gandal (1994; 1995) and Brynjolfsson and Kemerer (1996) use a hedonic price model to show that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for software products that are compatible with the dominant product standard, i.e., the product with the larger customer network. However, with the exception of a few industry case studies (e.g., Gabel 1991; Grindley 1995; Liebowitz and Margolis 1999), we are unaware of any published studies that empirically investigate the nature of network effects in an industry with multiple competing product technologies that are incompatible.

Democracy in Platos the Republic Essay examples -- essays research pa

Democracy in the Republic In Plato's Republic democracy made a controversial issue in a critique by Socrates. The theory of the soul accounts for the controversy as it states that the soul is divided into three parts: the rational, the spirited, and the appetite which are ranked respectively. The idea of the soul's three parts and the soul being ruled by a dominant part is used as the basis for identifying justice and virtue. However, the theory of the soul is not only used to identify justice and virtue, but also used to show that the virtue within a city reflects that of its inhabitants. Socrates evaluates four city constitutions that evolve from aristocracy: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. As a result that these four types of cities exist, four additional types of individuals who inhabit them also exist. Although these city constitutions evolve from aristocracy, Socrates deems aristocracy to be the most efficient, therefore the most just, of the constitutions because the individuals within it are ruled by the rational part of the soul. Timocracy and oligarchy are valued more than democracy by Socrates. Individuals within a timocracy are ruled by the spirited part of the soul and as a result are constantly in search of honor. The spirited part of the soul aides the rational and therefore is valued as the second best part of the soul. The principle of specialization is still apparent among the individuals within the timocratic city but it is not governed as well as an aristocracy. Oligarchy is valued above a democracy although they are both ruled by the appetite of the soul. Those within an oligarchy pursue necessary appetites whereas democratic individuals pursue unnecessary appetites. Rulers are present... ...should either live the life of those that they rule, as an equal, or as a superior allow the necessary input of those whom they rule, to decide the best course of action, as is done in a democracy. Truth be told there is no real justice in Socrates? ?just city?. Servitude of those within his city is crucial to its function. His citizens are, in every aspect, slaves to the functionality of a city that is not truly their own. True justice can not be achieved through slavery and servitude, that which appears to be justice (and all for the sake of appearances) is all that is achieved. Within Socrates? city there is no room for identity, individuality, equality, or freedom, which are the foundations justice was built upon. These foundations are upheld within a proper democracy. In fact, the closest one can experience justice, on a political level, is through democracy.