Angels Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Angels - Essay Example Indeed the angels have been major guiding forces through the ages and they have remained an intrinsic part of my life from the childhood. I do agree with the author that angels do exist and influence our decision in issues and events in our daily life. While they may not come as fairies and bright lights or even people with halos, the voice of our conscience at critical hour, could be construed as the voice of the angels who want us to take the right path and correct decision. The subtle ways in which people are forewarned of dire consequences greatly reinforce the presence of some super power in our life and calling them by angels would not be incorrect, especially when our religious mythology has called them as messengers of God. My belief in the angels has not mellowed with growing up because I still believe that angels have come to me whenever I have been in difficult situations, in the form of friends, relative or even stranger who have come forward and guided me to safety and right path. In my acquaintance, I don’t have people who have unbiblical ideas about angels though, some of them may not believe in the existence of guardian angels. I do believe that angels are someone who want us to fight against the evil forces that might come in different forms, shapes and means. That is the reason that the new age angels have taken the form of Harry Potter, Sabrina, the witch etc. The media is abound with the tales of heroes that have fought the death traps and conquered the destructive forces that have come to harm the people and threatened the existence of this world. The children are greatly attracted to such serials and show because somewhere deep within them, they believe that good people will overpower the evil forces. These shows are successful primarily because they confirm the beliefs of the children. The scriptures of various religions have one common belief and that is that there is some super power which takes care

Whistle-Blowing. Interest in Public Administration, Policy and Ethical Essay

Whistle-Blowing. Interest in Public Administration, Policy and Ethical Analysis - Essay Example Politicians must, as a result, maintain equilibrium between information exposure and the preservation of the incentives of the bureaucrats in order to exert efforts. The tradeoffs can easily be explored with the help of a model of agency decision-making under partial information. It involves an employee's effort which determines a project's type, and a manager which opts whether to approve the project and regulate the employee. With the help of whistle-blowing, an employee unleashes the type to a politician, who may supersede the manager's decision. While whistle-blowing always increments the transmission of information, its influences on employee effort are dependent on the managerial preferences. A key finding states that stronger whistleblower securities reduce effort when the manager is aggressive and may commit more Type I faults than the politician would, however, would increase efforts otherwise. Whistleblower protections, therefore, definitely benefit the politicians if an ag ency is oriented to make Type II errors (Ting, 2006:2). Whistleblowers have chronologically played influential roles in passing critical information from lower gradations of the organizations to higher grade officials. An informal survey of American organizations in recent years delineates that this trend has not subsided. In the year 2002, the Federal Bureau of Investigation staff attorney Coleen Rowley went communal over the bureau's investigation of the suspected 9/11 accomplice Zacarias Moussaoui (Ting, 2006:2). Her account of the way FBI headquarters stifled attempts to examine his activities build assistance for the reorganization of its anti-terrorism attempts. Further, in the year 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researcher David Graham gave evidence before a Senate committee that the agency had paid no attention to the warnings about the heart disease menaces posed by Vioxx prior to its endorsement (Ting, 2006:2). Such exposures caused crucial destruction to the credibility of the FDA, thereby, generating the demand f or both the stricter drug approval processes and improvised the post-approval monitoring. Such incidents have not been confined to the public sector. In the year 2002, Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom gained acknowledgement for their roles in unleashing the managerial irregularities in their respective corporations (Ting, 2006:2). Instantaneous with its practice, whistle blowing has enjoyed both the political as well as legal protection. In the United States, the rudimentary securities were first enacted by the Continental Congress, and a centralized entity of the contemporary legal framework dates to 1863, when Congress passed the False Claims Act so as to combat the Civil War profiteers (Ting, 2006:2). The law enabled the citizenry to bring about a suit against an alleged offender on behalf of the government, thereby, sharing in a percentage of the damages awarded. In 1978, the Civil Service Reform Act criminalized the vengeance against the whistle blowers b y creating procedures for altering the terminations of their employment. The Whistle blower Protection Act or WPA of 1989 ensured confidentiality of the whistleblower

The Security payment in E- commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Security payment in E- commerce - Essay Example Internet can be considered as one of the most revolutionary inventions of the last century [2]. It is used by different people for different reasons; some people use it to communicate with the other end of the world, some use it to increase their knowledge with the vast information available online [1]. Another area that has made a prominent name in the World Wide Web is E-commerce. E-commerce, which is the process of business transactions on the web; is preferred for its simplicity and ease [3]. However, one of the factors that cause a great degree of concern for customers and merchants is the level of security involved with these business transactions [4], [15]. The mode of payment in e-commerce transactions is through ‘credit cards’; which have established more opportunities for businessmen but at the same time introduced new problems in the whole process of selling goods. The fear of fraud in online business transactions keeps on increasing every year due to the increase in the respective crime [8], [39], [40]. According to National Consumers League statistics for the year 2007; millions of dollars were lost in e-shopping transactions and have exposed the weakness of the credit card payment system [5]. Credit card fraud and identity theft [11] are the two most prevalent security risks. In the past, many efforts have been done to secure online transactions and make this medium a trusting one. During such efforts, the protocol of Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) was developed to secure credit card information from several kinds of attacks present online [6]. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) also helps in providing a secure environment as it provides an encrypted medium to transfer credit card information [7]. The use of biometric has also been proposed by one of the researchers; this proved helpful to prevent identity theft and any false authorization regarding the credit card information. Numerous aspects have to be considered

The Women of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay Example for Free

The Women of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay William Shakespeares plays often pitted men against their women in order to move the action of his plays. Strong women, however, often seemed to move against each other, as well as moving against the their male relatives and the current or future mates. The women in Shakespeares plays were not afraid to compete for knowledge, power, men, or any or all of the three. Both Titanias persistence and the competition between Hermia and Helena are evidence of how the so-called weaker sex is actually the controlling sex in Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream. It Hermia’s own series of choices that lead to the four lovers being present in the woods. Demetrius, Egeus, and Theseus might believe that they are in control of her future when they sequester themselves to converse, their control over her ends the moment that they leave. The contrast between Hermia and the men is evident, even in that scene; although she is willful, the older men are guided only by laws, Demetrius is arrogant and willing to see her put to death if he defies her, and Lysander is weak-willed. Although his idea is that which is implemented as the resolution to Hermia’s problem, it is he who laments all of the difficulties that come with love, while Hermia is the one who points out that it is necessary to persevere (1.1.132–134). It is also Hermia’s willingness to pass her plan on to her former friend, Helena, that encourages Helena to develop a plan of her own, with Demetrius being none the wiser over being manipulated. The women’s power may extend, at least somewhat, from loyalty. When Hermia and Helena were friends they had a strong union, sharing everything. Shakespeare describes them as unified, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, Both warbling of one song, both in one key, (3.2.205-206). Maturity, however, changes this relationship as sexual politics takes the place of their original loyalty. The bond between dissolves when a man, Demetrius, comes between them. Without this loyalty, the women lose much of their power. When Helena makes plans to manipulate Demetrius without concern over Hermia’s safety it is then that events put into play by Oberon’s machinations, overwhelm them. Similarly, Oberon perceives Tatiana’s strength as coming from the loyalty to a woman, the Indian prince’s mother, who was a worshipper of hers. When she refuses to give Oberon the child to be his knight, Oberon plans to take the child by force. As with Demetrius, Egeus, and Theseus in the beginning, Oberon wishes to seize loyalty through force. Oberon’s decision has far-reaching and chaotic effects, just as Helena’s plan to force affection does. Interestingly, although love moves the action of the play it is manipulation that eventually brings the events to a close. Lysander’s plan to manipulate the law, Helena’s plan to manipulate Demetrius, and Oberon’s plan to manipulate Titania all succeed, while the original bonds of loyalty are lost in the chaos that takes place in Act 3. Ultimately, this play shows that loyalty can shift; however, the individuals are stronger when they are loyal to someone than when they are not. Helena and Hermia, once so close are now completely at odds. Hermia has not only attacked Helena over her loss of Lysander, but she also mocks Helena’s desire to repair their relationship (3.2.317). Because of Oberon’s successful manipulation, Titania’s loyalty to the child is also severed. However, it is only after this destruction that newor renewedbonds of loyalty are forged. The four lovers are successfully paired with their â€Å"correct† mate. Titania is no longer at odds with Oberon. The only thing that remains lost, however, is the loyalty between women. Having lost that bond, all three of the women, strong at the beginning of this play, find themselves under the control of their husbands. Love, loyalty, and feminine strength are apparently only part of a dream, which, as Shakespeare has demonstrated, is not always a pleasant dream.

The five levels of employee motivation

The five levels of employee motivation Title Impact of economic stability on the employees motivational levels and sustainability Aim The aim of this research is to find the strategies and theories of motivation for economic stability and sustainability of Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd employees and explore the effectual ways by examining the factors that employees made their decisions for their development. Introduction Motivation amplifies as employees or team members take pleasure in one another and struggle not to let each other down. For motivating employees organizations must always work to support employees for their sustainability and for their financial growth. Satisfied and happy employees about their work are motivated to work better in an organization. Other factors also play a vital role in motivating employees then pay rates. Therefore management must do best to make available an environment of work which increases employee satisfaction even if the market is in uncertain conditions. Then economic instabilities would never affect organizations employees bank. The Hawthorne study proves this point after conducting a research on the employee productivity and its effects on working environment (William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor, 2009). Motivation leads to higher productivity and longer sustainability of employees in an organization. As self motivating is crucial for empl oyees it is also necessary for organizations to ensure that their employees are motivated. To some level, a great level of motivating employees obtains from valuable management practices. Hence this research will identify the strategies in order to motivate employees under economic instability conditions. Therefore choosing this topic for conducting research will help to learn and experience the practical conditions of employees in economic crises. Example for this topic is Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd. Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd is a service provider of web designing and development. Company believes in thoughts as the starting and ending of all creative work. This is a total creative workshop handling a to z things of internet and intranet solutions including ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, website and brochure design and development etc. It is situated in London, and servicing to provide complete end to end internet solutions to customers requirements. Major services provided by the company are web designing and development, graphic design and SEO services, to provide these services with the best technology based solutions, company has to maintain speed in terms of following latest technological changes with the support of their employees. A discussion on the Sumudra technologies pvt Ltd issue As discussed above, it is one of the best companies to provide best internet solutions to the customers in London and it also worries about its employees pay packages due to the fear of their productivity and sustainability in their company. Though, from the employees perspective over a 3years there was about 86% higher total return to shareholder for the companies which have maintained elevated levels of trust evaluated to those with low levels of trust (Watson Wyatt, 2002). Regional or global strategies of sustainability of employees should be chosen wisely by companies. Strategies chosen according to the regional requirements would give fruitful results to companies or to individuals (SAS, 2008). Hence, company should improve its strategies of motivation and sustainability to pace according to the new changing market conditions in order to overcome the hurdles of market situations. This research work will give valuable information on how company can improve its strategies to motiv ate its employees. Literature Review Motivation Motivation is a drive which leads people towards achieving their goals. Its a enthusiasm and determination with a kind of excitement that directs one to continue to achieve greater heights, whether it is personal or professional. Motivating oneself is a continuous requirement for constant growth. Kanfer (1990) says that it is a imaginary construct that cannot be seen or cannot be felt. People can observe the impacts that are indicative of various motivation levels. Another author Pinder (1998) resolves the direction, form, strength, and duration of work-related behavior. He argues that by observing these dimensions of behavior, one can make conclusions about the effects of motivation on employees behavior (Steve M. Jex, 2002). This is a crucial factor because in economic instability of the present market conditions its very important to have a workforce with high spirits of motivation. This is a factor which normally produces results that are incompatible to study the employee behavi or. It can also be defines as the quality of actions, initiation, persistence and it can be categorized with their comparative constructs, goals and strategies. Strategies are the techniques used to get the goals and therefore to assure the goals and motives are the direct objectives of specific sequences of employee behavior. It is all about an individual moving towards the goal to understand the thing that sends them into deed. Intrinsic and extracts are the two types of motivation. These two types help to achieve and develop skills of a particular species. Jere E. Brophy (2004) says that motivation is differed from its related parts called goals, approaches which are used to achieve aimed goals and objectives. It is used to boost people to initiate useful activity sequences. Motivation is considered as an important factor in making employees upbeat and down to business which results in increasing organizations output. Levels of motivation Motivating employees would be a challenging task for management. The decision on how dedicated and committed will be an employee towards the company will totally depend on the individual employee. Here management of Sumudra technologies need to understand that applying one strategy to all employees cannot help to motivate everyone in the organization. While looking at the levels of motivation Maslows hierarchy theory of needs has helped us to guide to recognize what to look for management with their employees. Level 1: Security and safety Employees need to be assured about their safety and security at the work place; management must provide security services and create an fear free environment. Level 2: Incentives This is a level which is known by every individual. Most of the people dont work after winning a huge amount of reward. With this perception companies try to satisfy the compensation and benefits requirements of employees. Level 3: Affiliation This level discusses about the sense of belongingness. It contains being in the know and being part of the team. This is too a variance in professional and personal values can have a great affect on the motivation of employees. Level 4: Development Employees wish to have the faith that success is taking place. They feel secure, obtain all the money they want to earn and feel part of the group. But if there are no development opportunities employees think about absconding from the organization. Level 5: Life or Work Harmony Employees may have all types of rewards which are desired by them, but they will burn out closer or later if employees dont have the sufficient time to spend it on the other things they desire for (Derik Mocke, 2010). Therefore it is advisable to be aware of these five levels of motivation of employees when management employ with their employees. Company should assess what are the needs and desires of every individual employee before applying these levels in their organization. Employ with every individual and explain them about the various levels and inquire them where employees find themselves suitable on the pyramid. Engaging with greater teams and eventually with the entire company about the levels of motivation of employee etc are some points which are to be remembered when management engages these five levels with their employees. This needs a detail discussion which will be done in the research dissertation project. As there are six more steps to high levels of motivation. Thi s needs to be discussed in detail in order to understand the intensity of motivation factor when applied on employees. Theories of motivation Motivation of human beings is a study which has been carried from past many years. But none of them were not developed to explain employee behavior at workplace or were they practical enough to apply in the working environment. The following are some theories which specially explain motivation for employees. Theories of motivation are categorized into four: Require based theories explains work motivation in terms of the level to which employees satisfy their necessary needs at the place of work. Job based theories rest the resource of motivation majorly in the content of jobs that employees execute. Cognitive procedure theories highlight the decisions and choices that employees make when they distribute their attempts. Lastly behavioral approach highlights principles of learning. These will be discussed in detail in the research dissertation. Motivation and Communication Motivation is depended on having clear goals and objectives. As motivation is personal, goal is align staffs individual constrains with the companies uses in common and units in specific. Motivation can be done through communication organizational goals correctly to the employees (John Kotter, 1995). Author says to analyze how much communication of the vision is required, and then multiply that attempt with ten. He mentions that management should not limit to the meeting rooms. Actions adjoined with words are powerful communicators of the fresh ways. Here one needs to understand that transformation effort will fail if most of the employees doesnt understand, realize, commit and try to make the effort occur. The principle behind this is utilize every possible communication channel and opportunity to motivate in order to achieve the organizational goals. Teach fresh behaviors by showing the example of the guiding coalition team to the companys employees. Communication at the workplace can acquire numerous forms and has a lasting cause on motivation of employee. If employees feel that communication from organization is valuable it can show the way to feelings of employee work satisfaction, loyalty towards the company and increase trust at the workplace. This is an area of which a detail research and review is required. This will be done in dissertation part. Process of motivating employees Some standards are required to motivate the employees to achieve the objectives (quality) and to continue improvements and growth of the organization. Achievements of an organization completely depend upon the workforce and its activities so the organization will recruit the staffs who are motivated to attain the organization goals. Motivation is a key to the performance where it depends upon the environment, motivation and ability to perform the task. Motivation can be simply defined as it is an inner mental state to prompt intensity, directions and persistence. The proposed dissertation will explain about the motivation process which operates inside the individuals (Marjaana Gunkel, 2006). From the diagram motivation occurs if the employees satisfies their personal requirements and also work expectation from the company. Usually any employee can be motivated if an organization recognizes his efforts and appreciation and hence they can feel like, they are the main part of an organization or team. This process also explains about the barriers which affect the motivation process like job related, goal related, fear of failures, suspect of management, not a challenging environment, little respect, no rewards, no responsibilities. So the manager has to motivate the employees by removing these barriers to achieve the organization goals. Employees can be motivated if proper training and counseling sessions should be conducted to improve the process under the controlled conditions (David Hoyle, 2000). Sumundra technologies are also providing the motivation process to increase the employee capabilities in order to enhance the business prospects. Here the employees should have proper communication skills because this organization majorly deals with the customers throughout the world so better understanding of the customer requirements is very important. So the staff should have good communication skills to interact with the various customers and they ought to know American and UK accent to understand the clients without any disappointments (David Hoyle, 2000). Culture and leadership Culture is defined as learning values, norms, symbols, beliefs, traditions which are common to the group of people. Sharing these qualities of a group will make people unique. According to gudykunst and ting Toomey (1988), culture is the way of different customs, different scripts of group and their lives. Whereas nature of the leadership itself is the complex and it can be defined as stepping forward to solve the problems by sheer force of will. It is the influenced relationship between the followers and the leaders who plan for real revolution and outcomes to replicate their shared purpose (Richard L. Daft, 2007). The main important task that the leaders can do is, managing and creating the culture in addition to this they (leader) also have the capability to understand the work with culture. Studying the organizational culture can be focused more on performance and behavior of an employee than the values. If the interaction or the communication between the employees and management is good then the organization culture could be created. If it not good then the culture of an organization has to be changed inside and outside of an organization. But changing the organizational culture is not an easy task and it takes more time through the relationship of individuals and interactions (Mary J. Davis, 2000). Proposed dissertation will give a detailed description about the culture and leadership definitions and with some examples. It also discusses about the organizational cultures and how will be the organization if it does not maintain proper leaderships and culture inside and outside the company, how it effects on the present economy will be discussed. Present sumundra technologies are maintaining proper culture and leadership qualities among themselves. This is a corporate culture and they are completely aware of how to behave, how to understand, how to manage the things, how to communicate, how to work in a team. Their managerial staff also recognizes what the present culture is expecting, and how to nurture and feed the current culture is. Here the corporate changes has been occurred and is successful because of its good team work and proper leadership. From this I can say that culture can effect on a strong leader. And if and only if the culture and leadership of an organization is maintained well then that particular organization can give best customer satisfaction and good customer service. Psychological contract levels and factors Rousseau, D.M. (1989) describes psychological contract as an entitys belief in mutual compulsions among this entity or person and another person or party, like employer. This faith is forecasted on the perception that an exchange of promises have been prepared to which the parties are vault. Tekleab (2003) in the book Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management suggests designing realistic job previews to comprise data on employee obligations and socialization agendas to contain information on companys obligations. Psychological contract levels and individual factors that influence data formation of the contract are discussed by many authors in their articles. Like in the same book Vos et al (2005), views at how work values and locus of manage or control influenced data seeking during socialization. He also agrees that individual factors influence psychological contract level developments. But these factors are of limited significance when talking about psychological contract level s which intends to indentify organizational and supervisor chances to make easy positive psychological contracts (Maida Petersitzke, 2009). A 3rd group of extra-organizational factors contains wider political, economic and legal changes that in turn form observations of the psychological contract (Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner, 2005). Psychological contracts would be operationalised from a diversity of viewpoints. A prior cut on operationalization happens with the decision whether to focus or not on the aspects of the psychological contract considered to simplify across persons and settings. And a 2nd cut on the operationalization happens with the decision of whether to concentrate upon content, characteristics, evaluations. This refers to the terms and elements which have the contract (Rousseau, D.M. and Tijoriwala, S.A., 1998). Economic Circumstances Economic conditions play a major role in motivating employees and in creating sustainability. Assessment, tax rates, revenues, municipal debt, financial assets like development charge accounts, reserve funds, complete fire protection system charges, employment and unemployment conditions, previous and present political philosophy regarding the budget up/downs, borrowing, etc, loss affect of one employer, main industry institution, barriers to rebuilding like zoning and climatic needs are some of the economic circumstances which effects the employees (Ontario, 2010). For example decreasing prices have not allowed decreasing nominal pensions in a way of prevailing monetary circumstances. So for the time being undoing the move from payment to price indexation would result in the level of pension waiting, comparative to national income, anticipated for the year 2008 was attained in 2002. This is presented by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004). Perceptual Process Perception or awareness is a process through which people choose, systematize, understand and react to data from the world in the region of theirs. This is the data which is collected from the 5 senses like hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. It responds to the psychological process whereby people take data from the atmosphere and make sense of their particular worlds (Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum, 2007). Perceptual process permits management to test their present level of perceptual expertise. Perception engages several sub-processes like Stimuli, attention, translation, recognition, behavior, performance and satisfaction etc are some of the things which takes place only after giving some attention to them (Perception, 2010). Sumudra Techonologies pvt ltd has to know and understand all these procedures and processes to motivate and sustain their existing employees. Conclusions According to the discussion happened above makes clear that there are some questions which have risen out from the initial literature review: There is a minute literature which examines theories of motivation. There is also a minute literature that investigates theories and processes of motivation with respect to Sumudra technologies. There is no literature that evaluates Sumudra Technologies management in detail. There is no discussion about the surveys of relationship between motivation and communication. There is no research that scrutinizes the benefits of motivating employees by Sumudra Technologies Company. There is also no literature that revises the gap of perceptual apprehension recruitment management among management and employees concurrently. There is no discussion done on the sustainability benefits which can be earned if Sumudra technologies motivate their employees in down turn economic situations too. Therefore, this proposal proposes the following objectives for the proposed dissertation: To find out the effect of economic instability on the Sumudra Technologies employees motivation levels. To identify the advantages of motivating employees in Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd. To examine the sustainability aspect of employees in detail. To study the various elements of motivation theories and levels in order to fulfill the proposed aim for the dissertation. To suggest Sumudra Technologies to the way that its motivational strategies are able to manage employees effectively. Hence there is need for conducting enough research on this topic to know the sustainability and motivational levels of employees to be consistent in this company. Bibliography David Hoyle (2000), Automotive quality systems handbook, A division of reed educational and professional publishing limited, Linacre house, Jordan hill. * Derik Mocke (2010), The Five Levels of Employee Motivation, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 1st April, 2010]. Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum (2007), Organizational Behavior, Published by Cengage Learning, ISBN: 0324377126. Jere E. Brophy, (2004), motivated students to learn, published by Routledge, pp.418. John Kotter (1995), Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, Harvard Business Review, pp. 3. Maida Petersitzke (2009), Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management, Published by Gabler Verlag, pp. 377. Marjaana Gunkel (2006), Country-compatible incentive design: a comparison of employees performance reward preferences in Germany and the USA, Published by Springer, pp. 189. Mary J. Davis (2000), TCRP synthesis, Published by Transportation Research Board, pp. 91. Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner (2005), Understanding Psychological Contracts at Work: a critical evaluation of theory and research, Published by Oxford University Press, pp. 226. Ontario (2010), Economic Circumstances, Economic considerations, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 5th April, 2010]. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004), OECD Economic Surveys: Japan 2003, Published by OECD, pp. 224. Perception (2010), Elements of Perception, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 4th April, 2010]. Richard L. Daft (2007), The Leadership experience, Published by Cengage Learning, pp. 493. Rousseau, D.M. (1989), Psychological and implied contracts in organizations, Employee Rights and Responsibilities Journal, 2, 121-139. Rousseau, D.M. and Tijoriwala, S.A. (1998), Assessing psychological contracts: Issues, alternatives, and types of measures, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19, 679-695. SAS (2008), Sustainability across Borders, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 30th March, 2010]. Steve M. Jex (2002), Organizational Psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach, Published by John Wiley and Sons, pp. 540. Watson Wyatt (2002), Weathering the Storm: A study of employee attitudes and opinions, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 29th March, 2010. William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor (2009), Business, Published by Cengage Learning, pp. 627.

MRO Activities in Aviation Industry

MRO Activities in Aviation Industry Definitions: MRO: Maintenance, repair and overhaul organization. OEM: Aircraft original equipment manufacturers. Such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier Embraer and others. Airworthiness Authorities: Regulate all aspects of civil aviation. These include the construction and operation of airports, the management of air traffic, the certification of personnel and aircraft. There are two main organizations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States of America and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Airworthiness: FAA Part 3 defines Airworthy as, the aircraft conforms to its type design and is in a condition for safe flight. A more generic and non-process oriented definition is required. Airworthiness is defined in JSP553 Military Airworthiness Regulations (2006) Edition 1 Change 5 as: The ability of an aircraft or other airborne equipment or system to operate without significant hazard to aircrew, ground crew, passengers (where relevant) or to the general public over which such airborne systems are flown. Mother airline: In MRO aviation sector mother airline is the core airline from with the MRO unit segregates, for instance British Airways is the mother airline of British Airways Engineering. Virtual airline: Is an airline that has outsourced as many possible operational and business functions as it can, but still maintains effective control of its core business. Line Maintenance: Usually carried out at or near the aircraft dock or parking. The level of dis-assembly is usually limited to what can be reassembled and restored within a short period in order to allow the continuous aircraft operation. A limiting factor is usually the level of Ground Support Equipment and the scope of the revisions reaches to the A-Check. Heavy Maintenance: The mayor level of maintenance with capabilities of disassembling, inspecting, repairing, refurbishment, overhaul and restoration. It is usually carried out into specific installations called Hangars with and extensive source of facilities, tools and equipment. The scope of the revisions in this kind of maintenance is focus in C-Checks and in mayor structural repairs and inspections. Engine Overhaul: Comprises of the whole disassembly of an engine. The overhaul facility inspects the engine, repairs it as necessary, reassembles, tests, clean and approves it for return to service within the fits and limits specified by the manufacturers overhaul data (Lee et al, 2008). This kind of maintenance need to be done in a very specific installations approved by the engine manufacturer. Component Maintenance: Reparation of aircraft components is slightly different from a complete overhaul, as the workshop needs to determine the cause of a given defect, correct that defect, perform bench tests and release the component back to service. Very specific workshops needed for different components such as: Radio transceivers, Hydraulic valves, batteries, passengers seats, etc. Modifications: This kind of maintenance is performed in order a manufacturer option or an authority requirement. During the manufacturing process of an aircraft, improvements have been implemented over time, for early versions, these improvements can be made later in the form of modification, on the other hand civil aviation authorities generates Airworthiness Directives (AD) of mandatory compliance to the aircraft operators , that needs specific modifications. Introduction Maintenance, repair and overhaul in the aeronautical sector is a complicate procedure that has strict and particular requirements defined by airworthiness authorities to guarantee the safety of passengers and aircrew. MRO could be defined such all actions that have the objective of retaining or restoring an item in or to a state in which it can be perform its required function. (Vieira, Loures, 2016). The aviation MRO engineering could be defined such the arm of the aviation industry responsible for the retaining or restoring aircraft parts to a state in which they can perform the required design applications (Al-kaabi, Potter et al. 2007). Chang and Abdullah (2014) states that the business model of the MRO is a combination of technical capacity and logistic configuration counting the level of supply chain vertical integration and outsourcing practices. Chris Markou (2015) estimates the maintenance cost for an airline is 17% of the operational cost. MRO Activities and Models: Al-kaabi, Potter et al (2007) study assesses the decision-making process of an airline when deciding on the outsourcing of maintenance services, the study define three different phases: The first phase corresponds to the activities developed by the MRO, in this section the critical activities of the organization that are included (figure 1). The second phase deals with the study of demand based on a series of entries that will take into account the logistical complexity, the age of the fleet and its use, among others. The MRO have to focus on the actual market and need to develop a plan strategy for short, medium and long term. The third phase addresses the study of capacity and the true need to outsource taking into account the MRO cost, that include maintenance resources such hangar space, qualified equipment , qualified manpower and the dispatch reliability related with technical delays. During 2014 Global Market of MRO spends was value at %62.1 billion, excluding overheads, with a 3.8% increase per annum, the market size is estimated to reach $90 billion in 2024 (Chris MARKOU, 2015). The following graph represents the distribution of cost between MRO activities for the year 2014. Al-kaabi, Potter et al (2007) states that according with the critical activities of an MRO and the level of outsourcing developed, a MRO could be categorized in different models: Fully Integrated MRO: Where all MRO activities are generated and performed internally and in addition the MRO can support other airlines different to the mother airline generating external revenues. Partially Outsourced MRO: Where airlines try to maintains most of their MRO activities internally but some are externalised, for example the outsourcing of the Engine Maintenance. Mostly Outsourced MRO: Where only critical activities are performed internally for instance, generally airlines consider Line maintenance such a critical activity for the relation with the punctuality, for this reason is maintained such as in house activity. Wholly outsourced MRO: Where all activities are outsourced, it is similar to the Virtual airline model and it is highly extended across the new Low-Cost airlines that cannot afford the initial investment to create their own MRO. The following table represents an SWOT evaluation performed by Al-kaabi, Potter et al (2007) of the difference structure models. This variety of organizational models in which certain critical activities are externalized requires a maximum level of coordination between the actors involved, as well as within the organization itself. One of the leading issues in aviation industry today is how information is managed and retained in an organization (Flouris, Oswald 2006). Regarding to the operational aspect of the MRO activities Vieira and Loures (2016) states that the maintenance could be: Scheduled Maintenance: Defined as an anticipatory action to ensure that a product works properly at pre-defined intervals. The intervals can be defined in terms of hours of operation, number of flights or flight cycles. (Figure 5). Unscheduled Maintenance: Defined as not planned or programmed is performed when an unexpected component failure occurs. Actual MRO Scenario in aviation industry Aviation MRO activities cannot be precisely defined solely within manufacturing or service term alone, Given that it is a product of both (Ayeni, Ball et al. 2016). The process are very complex, each component needs to be certified by the competent airworthiness institution which define severe requirements to guarantee safety (Vieira, Loures ,2016). Due to the high quality requirements, there is a very small number of authorized companies to serve parts and services in the sector, this fact generates limitation in the options available when a MRO or manufacturer has to select the provider, creating a lack of influence to discuss commercial conditions. It can be highlighted four stakeholders in the service flow of an aviation MRO: Subtier/Supplier, Aircraft OEMs, Aircraft MRO and Customer. The flow model used by OEMs provides for key suppliers working as system integrator, this means in comparison with other sectors aircraft OEMs have very few suppliers approximately 50. The production parts is very standard and similar compared with other industrial sector, OEMs submit a purchasing order with the system supplier and making and respect a commercial agreement the part is delivered. The complexity increases with spare part due to the logistic and regulatory framework. Customers can purchase orders to the rest of the stakeholders always depending of the type of structure and also can request the MRO services. In order to obtain a complete an actual vision of the MRO sector, the following table shows the top 10 aviation MROs ordered by the number of airframe maintenance hours during 2014. (AWST, 2015) MRO Procedures: Lifecycles: Two main flows can be identified within an MRO Aviation (CHANG, Abdullah 2014): The Physical flow: Is the aircraft maintenance process which comprises: professional methodology, material, machine, manpower and environment. The information flow: Defined as the company management process which comprises the cycle of P-D-C-A (Plan-DO-Check-Action) that includes functions of demand integration and material logistic. These flows have to be analysed through the lifecycle of the different components of the Aviation MRO activity: The previous diagrams show a generic lifecycle for the different elements with which MROs work, they are valid regardless of the level of outsourcing that the organization has, because it is the complete cycle, which would vary the organization that would perform the task in case they were outsourced. Many common characteristics can be seen in the different cycles, such as logistics for the receipt and delivery of the product, personnel and tooling distributions, documentation and various final tests. During the development of the phases, the physical flow and the information flow must be taken care of equally. Is very important visualize the wide intricacy of the MRO organization management (Bierer, Gtze et al. 2016). The two types of flow mentioned above are then analyzed further in detail: Physical flow Regarding the physical flow, the maintenance process does not vary significantly with the product to be treated within the 3 life cycles previously exposed. Chang and Abdullah (2014) divides the aircraft maintenance process in 8 parts: Review Flight history: Make a review of previous maintenance actions and evaluate the current status. Determine Maintenance Items: Following manufacturer requirements and documentation, perform an engineering evaluation and determine the maintenance items. Receiving Process: Accept the aircraft from customer and perform the maintenance previous set-up. Disassembly: Gain access to the maintenance item. Inspection and testing: Perform the evaluations and approved test to ensure the state of the maintenance item. Assembly: Substitute and assembly the relative parts of the maintenance item, including de aces panel to the maintenance item area. Functional test: Perform a functional test of the maintenance item. Flight test: In some maintenance action could be necessary a flight test to ensure achieve the original performance requirement according to the regulatory framework. Figure 12: General Maintenance Process of Aircraft flow shop. Source: (CHANG, Abdullah 2014) It can be seen the easy allocation of the parts to the previous discussed lifecycle in Figure 8. The complexity and the resources used in the maintenance task may vary, however the process remains essentially unchanged. Information Flow The information flow is the company management process, Chang and Abdullah (2014) argues that is composed by two major functions: Demand integration: Divided in three stages: Delivery schedule: Where is necessary the management of customers orders taking into account the delivery date, aircraft model and requirements, this stage makes the link with the investment and business plan. Rough-cut capacity: Consider the information and the overall demand, during this stage the rough-cut capacity for midterm and long term is computed. Material requirement planning (MRP): In this stage inputs are receive from engineering evaluation (Bill of material), current inventory and current capacity, after the pertinent evaluation the detail production schedule is generated. Material Logistic: Divided in three stages: Detail production schedule: Generated in the MRP phase, it is based in the feasibility of the production schedule, taking into account the lead time of the details parts, outsourcing level, procurements and resources. Shop floor control: This phase monitor the progress and daily performance in order to achieve the targets of the detail production schedule. Delivery: After the maintenance task and checks, all the documentation and quality records should be prepared for reviewing and approval. In this section it is necessary to differentiate information from knowledge. The information is the raw content of the metric being used, Gunasekaran, Patel et al (2001) use some of the following metrics in the aircraft maintenance process: Documents rejected, Defects at final inspections, Rework, Tool bag audit among others. Knowledge however is formed through the analysis and study of information, and gives a real vision of the state of the process as well as the achievement of objectives. Significant knowledge construction and application involves information to be accessible and relevant moment and relevant situation (Iyengar, Dharwada et al.). One of the most important factors in the Aviation industry is how information is managed and retained in the organization. The concept of Knowledge Management in an organization is supply managers to with all the tools and knowledge necessary for decision making. Knowledge should be made available to the correct people at the correct time, and it must be sheltered so that this knowledge does not leave the organization. (Flouris, Oswald 2006). Bierer, Gtze et al (2016) indicates that the knowledge management is necessary to obtain a successful generation and correct handling of knowledge, they also emphasize the tendency of MROs to outsource services by aggravating the problem of making knowledge accessible within the company. Little literature exits on information management of the data obtained from various aircraft maintenance process which have direct consequence on the safety of the aircraft. (Iyengar, Dharwada et al. ). Nonetheless, in the publication the authors describe the hierarchy through different levels of the maintenance environment: Senior managers refers to the higher managers who reviews all the maintenance activities. Manager refers to the individual who reviews and report all the maintenance activities to the senior manager. Airline representative refers to the individual who performs day-to-day surveillance at the vendor location. Vendor refers to the independent maintenance operator who performs maintenance operations on the aircraft. Human resources: One of the most critical and most important components within the physical and information flows within an MRO is the human component, two main roles are mainly involved in the whole process (CHANG, Abdullah 2014). Engineer: The role is related with planning, certification liaison, and regulation, specifications to maintain the reliability, relations with financial departments and provide technical and analytical support. Technician: The qualified technician cover three main categories: structure repair, avionics and mechanical. The technicians are the main component of the manpower and they performed the designed maintenance task accourding to the valid regulation. . Mapping information flows is a process for analysing how information is transferred between two points inside an organization (Hibberd, Evatt 2004). There are two types of information flows: Direct information and indirect information, companies have for a long time tried to optimize and improve the physical material flow within the supply chain but is needed also improve the information which is connected to the physical flow (Chibba, Rundquist 2004). Figure 17: The physical material flow and the information flow showing two different Approaches (Indirect and direct information). Source: (Chibba, Rundquist 2004). Hibberd and Evatt (2004) indicates some benefits of mapping information: Enables the understanding of who is the user of information and how is used. It identifies the ultimate client or key stakeholder for various types of information services. Help to focus information services where more necessaries are. Steps: They also pinpoints a process of five steps to perform the information flow mapping: Describe current situation: They suggest a hierarchical chart showing the mission, goals and objectives of an organization, in addition it is also exposed the interaction with various business units and how these units support these goals. Describe potential clients: Identification of potential clients in other business units. Determining the organizational goals and objectives of each unit and identify what information may need. Map potential clients: Listing the units, needs and resources help to analyse the potential overlap areas, the current clients maps is completed with the potential clients information. The map should be completed with suggestions and reallocation of resources, products and services. Rank solutions for prioritization: Make a classification of the possible solutions: Low Risk: Organizations is not making a mission-critical decision. Moderate Risk: Organizational activity involves a complete department and its budget. High Risk: Organizations is making a mission-critical decision. Create an Information map: Mapping the final solution to show each department and the suggestions for their information, the information map will require updating to continue its function. Chibba and Rundquist (2004) argues that a data flow diagram (DFD) could be used to map typical supply chain information flows the article present difference commercial solutions for DFD creation and the characteristics for a process: Is necessary a supplier that contribute with some measurable entity into the process. The process comprises a number of activities that convert the object in a more valuable object. The process should have well defined start and concrete ending. The process should be regularly iterated. The process should use the organization resources. Is good for organization to work with a process model that all the member could understand, they should know how their process are connected, the hierarchy, hat resources are critical to the clients. References AL-KAABI, H., POTTER, A. and NAIM, M., 2007. Insights into the maintenance, repair and overhaul configurations of European airlines. Journal of Air Transportation, 12(2), pp. 27. AL-KAABI, H., POTTER, A. and NAIM, M (2007) An outsourcing decision model for airlines MRO activities, Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 13(3), pp. 217-227. AYENI, P., BALL, P. and BAINES, T., 2016. Towards the strategic adoption of Lean in Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry: An empirical study into the industrys status. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, , pp. 38-61. AWST. 2015. Aviation Week Announces Top 10 Airframe MRO Providers: Biennial survey examines MRO developments, 2014 airframe maintenance hours and revenue. Aviation Week and Space Technology, MRO Edition, Aviation Week Ranks. May 2015. BIERER, A., GTZE, U., KHLER, S. and LINDNER, R., 2016. Control and Evaluation Concept for Smart MRO Approaches. Procedia CIRP, 40, pp. 700-705. CHANG, H.M. and ABDULLAH, K., 2014. The Operation Management Model of Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Business. International Journal of Trends in Economics Management Technology (IJTEMT), 3(3), CHIBBA, A. and RUNDQUIST, J., 2004. Mapping flows-an analysis of the information flows within the integrated supply chain. Chris MARKOU Assistant Director, IATA Operations, MRO, December 2015 Airline maintenance cost executive commentary: public mctf An Exclusive Benchmark Analysis (FY2014 data) by IATAs Maintenance Cost Task Force. FLOURIS, T.G. and OSWALD, S.L., 2006. Designing and executing strategy in aviation management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. HIBBERD, B.J. and EVATT, A., 2004. Mapping information flows: a practical guide. Information Management, 38(1), pp. 58. IYENGAR, N., DHARWADA, P., KAPOOR, K., GRAMOPADHYE, A. and GREENSTEIN, J., DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO REDUCE ERRORS IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE. M. TAAFFE, K., WILLIAM ALLEN, R. and GRIGG, L., 2014. Performance metrics analysis for aircraft maintenance process control. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 20(2), pp. 122-134. SAHAY, A., 2012. Leveraging information technology for optimal aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). Elsevier. VIEIRA, D.R. and LOURES, P.L., 2016, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Fundamentals and Strategies: An Aeronautical Industry Overview.

Daniel Clowes Ghost World: Argumentative Comparison Essay -- Ghost Wo

Pictured on the back cover of the comic book "Ghost World," by Daniel Clowes, are the two main characters of the book in full color. This strikingly significant image, surely shrugged off by most Clowes' readers, represents worlds of diversity within the frames of the book. Sporting pink spandex pants underneath her goldfinch yellow skirt and a blue t-shirt to match perfectly, Enid seems to live her life outside the bubble. She's a very dynamic girl, especially interested in her surroundings and people around her. On the other hand, Becky is dressed like a "typical" girl, with a long black skirt and a white blouse, thus representing her conforming presence in the world. Becky is much more passive than Enid, going with the flow of things just living life. The contrasting personalities of Enid and Becky come ironically, being best friends. However, it brings out their defining qualities in the comic book while quietly calling attention to the values of life, what is real an d what is not. The title page on the second page of the book can be analyzed to show how Enid lives a different life than those on the "inside." The illustration is colored in a light hue of blue, somewhat casting a bleak and lifeless feeling. The picture shows Enid walking down the street with her hands in her pockets, back turned. Nighttime falls as the luminous moon watches down on Ghost World at dusk, casting Enid's shadow down on the sidewalk behind her. To her right is a house with window and the phrase Ghost World scrawled on the side of building. Everything in the scene is shaded and colored in a robin's egg b... ...ple, or the adorable old man who bought the pathetic flowers from the grocery store to take home to his wife. Becky doesn't notice these minute details that Enid does, nor does she care very much. In any case, they are in different worlds. Whose world is real? There's no answer to that. If it's real to them, then that's what it will be. The characters are diverse in the comic book, and it helps for the reader to not only understand the plot and distinguish between the two characters, but to show that people are naturally different, immature or mature, conforming or nonconforming. Diversity makes the world what it is, and that's as real is it can get. Work Cited Clowes, Daniel. "Ghost World" Fantagraphics (April 1, 2001)