Analyze the Marketing Mix of Toyota Corporation Essay

Analyze the Marketing Mix of Toyota Corporation - Essay Example In terms of product, Toyota understands what drives the consumer to buy today. The company remains focused around the ecologically-friendly aspects of auto design as a means to make their product stand out against all other competition in Toyota’s various car markets. In 1997, Toyota created the first widely-manufactured hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, which was a revolution in auto design for consumers who wish to buy green (Potterf, 2006). Using a variety of public relations strategies and other promotional materials (such as print and on-air), Toyota capitalized on their strategic advantage by developing the hybrid model when companies such as General Motors and Ford only had these cars on their design drawing boards. In terms of product focus, Toyota appears to have always been a leader in catering to the eco-friendly buyer. Positioning the entire company as an eco-friendly business is designed to appeal to the buyer who is concerned about environmental impact and desires a quality hybrid car model. In terms of price, Toyota appears to be highly competitive, keeping car prices lower than what would be found domestically in the United States. Any business of this variety must consider their pricing models based on the cost of goods sold (supply chain costs generally) and what customers will actually be willing to pay based on perceived quality. Toyota’s sales volumes have continued to increase year-by-year until the recent global economic crisis, which points toward a pricing model that is acceptable by consumer standards and expectations. Since Toyota and other companies create multiple, international models of cars, there is no distinct pricing model available through research which indicates specific, targeted pricing guidelines as a part of Toyota’s marketing. In this sense, the sales volumes tend to speak for themselves. In terms of place, Toyota has developed a very distinct distribution system by which cars are delivered to various national

Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo Essay Example for Free

Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo Essay This essay analyses the case of RestaurantCo, a large non-unionised restaurant company with over 300 branches across the UK, and more than 7000 employed staff members (Suter Marchington 2011). According to Brad and Gold (2012, p.401) the term non-unionised is a ‘workplace, where managers have flexibility in designing work, selecting, promotion and training people, and determining rewards and other human resources (HR) practices.’ As briefly defined managers carry out many duties and responsibilities for the business. In order to have a better understanding of the role of line managers and employee relations at RestaurantCo it would be necessary to explore and outline the strengths and weaknesses of the company. To be more specific, this essay will explore and outline the main strengths and weaknesses in the working style of branch managers and the structural centralisation within the organisation, the formal and informal employee involvement and participation (EIP) practices, the working relationships between front line managers and employees, and the competitive effectiveness of the organisational HRM system and capability framework for branch managers. This case study of RestaurantCo focuses on the organisational problems that stems from the centralisation of corporate decision making and monitoring. The company regarded itself as a high quality restaurant business with a strong focus on positive employee relations thus reflected in their history of informal employment relations approach (Suter Marchington 2011). However, since the change in ownership the company had to implement new business strategies and HR practices as well as make further enhancements to the restaurant environment. For instance, the changes in the restaurant environment included refurbishments, expanded food and drinks menus, and cost savings by integrating the supply chain with other  restaurants owned by the group (Suter Marchington 2011). Consequently, some of these changes were seen as quite extensive and problematic for restaurant managers. For instance, some of these organisational changes were somewhat inefficient and costly in terms of deliveries and that mistakes were frequently made in the order and supply of ingredients (Suter Marchington 2011). Managers were no longer able to order directly from suppliers but instead were instructed to direct their orders through the supply chain department, whose understanding of the needs of individual branches were seen as limited (Suter Marchington 2011). There were also additional changes in improving customer service such as the introduction to the ‘Mystery Customer’ initiative (Suter Marchington 2011, p.213). This program initiative was seen as a form of corporate centralised monitoring and control of service, which somewhat contradicts the supposed given autonomy to branch managers. This demonstrates senior management distrust in its branch managers’ abilities to meet or fulfil their duties and responsibilities. This form of control violates the ‘psychological contract’ between the branch managers and employers which is also known as a ‘two-way exchanged of perceived promises and obligations between employees and their employer’ (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 12). In this case, senior management had infringed on the trust between its branch managers by having a ‘centralised monitoring system’ in placed to gather customer information and business performance, thus in turn violat ing their psychological contract (Suter Marchington 2011). Consequently, creating a negative ‘low-trust and low-commitment’ relationship compared to a ‘high-trust and high-commitment’ participatory relationship between senior management and branch managers (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 160). Nevertheless, control is seen as somewhat necessary by senior management, but ‘too much control might be counterproductive’ (Dant Nasr, 1998, p. 7). Hence, ‘excessive levels of control’ should be carefully considered as it will ‘impact on business performance levels’ (Dant Nasr, 1998, p. 7). As stated in Dant and Nasr (1998, p.7) tight control is generally not perceived well by managers who are driven by a strong desire for ‘independence and autonomy’, they may withheld ‘authentic and helpful information’ from senior management or employers in order to preserve some indirect form of control as they might believe that their input would not be valued or validated. In th is particular case, tight control would lead to less cooperation between branch managers and senior management. Furthermore, feedback from mystery customers to senior management may not be as useful or informative compared to the managers’ vast degree of knowledge and experience regarding its local business restaurant market environment and business performance levels. Rather than just rewarding ‘performance related bonus’ to managers who receive an overall satisfactory rating from mystery customers there should also be incentives or reward schemes in placed for managers who actually provide ‘authentic and helpful information’ to senior management (Michael, 2002, p. 329). This sort of privileged information could further enhance the organisation’s productivity and performance. For instance, the organisation would have a greater competitive advantage through new strategic opportunities and awareness of new threats as mentioned by its’ branch managers (Michael, 2002, p. 329). This ‘upward’ flow of information decentralises the tight monitoring and control of senior management but more importantly strengthens the communication, commitment, trust and employee relations between senior management and its branch managers through reciprocal cooperation and reward schemes (Michael, 2002, p. 329). It is crucial in service industries that branch managers be given more autonomy to make operational decisions as their understanding of the business environment surrounding their individual branches is relatively more extensive compare to senior management and management support, who have limited understanding of the business environment. This process is referred to as ‘decentralisation’ (Dant Nasr, 1998). According to Suter and Marchington (2011), each restaurant establishment was usually run by a branch manager and two assistants. The role of supervisory responsibilities was shared between the branch manager and assistant manager due to the long operating hours and the shift system, hence, the manager on duty would take on the role of supervising employees (Suter Marchington 2011). The manager on duty dealt primarily with problems and issues in regards to employees, and that wider issues were assigned to the branch manager. The branch managers in addition carried out a number of HR functions such as employment appraisals, pay reviews, and personal development plans (Suter Marchington 2011). These branch managers had described their work as being more intensified and that the HR policies had become more sophisticated and  formalised (Suter Marchington 2011). Branch managers were supposedly allowed a fair degree of autonomy in how they could manage the restaurant. A key element of the capability framework enabled branch managers to take charge of their own delivery and performance. However, managers experienced great difficulty in making operational decisions regarding their restaurant. Some of the reasons were due to the fact that the management support team were not always readily available to branch managers but also that company-wide operational decisions were being implemented at branch levels, in turn conflicting with branch managers’ operational decisions (Suter Marchington 2011). Branch managers should be provided with support throughout the restaurant operational hours from the management support office except, the restaurant support team operates on a 9-5 office-based workplace arrangement (Suter Marchington 2011). This would lead to significant problems when the restaurant requires assistance after the support office ends operation, therefore causing an inconvenience when decision and support is needed. It might also affect the organisation’s reputation if issues are not promptly resolved. Without proper support and facilitation from the support management team, branch managers are unable to perform their role efficiently. Under the influence of senior management, branch managers were pressured into implementing formal relationship practices with their employees (Suter Marchington 2011). However, one of the core components of a psychological contract is ‘workplace communication’ which will generally help to minimize the ‘false consensus effect,’ meaning that people assume that they share the same perceptions (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 433). For instance, branch managers perceived the restaurant and its employment relations as informal whereas head office had expressed the need for more professional management and more importantly had over-rated the formality of policy implementation at branch level (Suter Marchington 2011). Notably, communication is a significant component of a psychological contrast as it is quite evident that branch managers and senior management had conflicting views on how the restaurant business needed to be operated. Alternatively, It would be beneficial for senior management and branch managers to effectively communicate their views across to one another in order to minimize the ‘false consensus effect’ (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 433). Again, to ensure that this can actually happen, senior management  would need to be more readily available to branch managers and vice versa in order to strengthen the psychological contract between them. According to the branch managers the organisational change brought about more job responsibilities, intensified workload and more expectations from senior management (Suter Marchington 2011). Whilst handling their ‘supervisory responsibilities’, the day–to-day HR functions and operational responsibilities such as ordering and control of stock/supplies, forecasting labour budgets and marketing initiatives were devolved into the roles of branch managers (Suter Marchington 2011). This devolvement of HR functions into the role of branch managers goes beyond the parameters of what is required of branch managers. Despite this, senior management have not provided their branch manager with further additional training in their new responsibilities and duties neither has it been outlined in their legal binding contract. Even though the assistant managers and branch managers shared the same responsibilities of supervising the employees, employees still reported directly to the branch managers (Suter Marchington 2011). Instead of sharing this supervisory responsibility of employees, it would be more efficient and productive to delegate this responsibility to the assistant manager so that branch managers can focus more on the operational responsibilities and HR functions. Another obstacle branch managers had identified was their inability to make operational decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the branch due to the lack of coordination or collaboration in the senior management company-wide operational decision-making process (Suter Marchington 2011). This in effect reinforces senior management distrust in its branch managers’ ability to fulfil their role and therefore, causing resentment and animosity towards senior management from its branch managers. According to Dant and Gundlach (1998, p.37) ‘excessive controls aimed at monitoring’ employees can be costly as it can generate ‘motivational and morale problems’ among employees. It is important from a management perspective to ‘balance the forces of dependence and autonomy’ within the business in order to maintain ‘the long run viability’ of the business organisation (Dant Gundlach, 1998, p. 37). In terms of achieving overall effectiveness senior management need to contribute to a more productive relationship between branch managers and employees in their organisation. Another important aspect to consider is  that the company and branch units have ‘contrasting economic and managerial characteristics’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 276) whereby, the senior management of the company must meet two key management challenges: ‘maintaining uniformity and system-wide adaptability’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 277). With reference to RestaurantCo, units in a chain share a common identity by operating under the RestaurantCo trademark (Bradach, 1997, p. 277). There are five underlying categories of uniformity in an organisation and they are, ‘the line manager, organisational systems, learning culture, role and responsibility and HR department and professionalism’ (Harrison, 2011, p. 921). In order to ‘preserve the integrity and value’, the company must enforce uniformity across these five underlying categories through bureaucratic control and standardisation (Bradach, 1997, p. 277). Furthermore, in order to ensure the sustainability of the company, it must be able to adapt to the ‘opportunities and threats’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 282). In addition, senior managers must identify and implement system-wide adaptation processes and practices that will fit to some extent across all of the individual branches, except the main challenge of this is to ensure that all the branches move in the same direction. The ‘plural form’ model of management proposed by Bradach (1997) can be used to effectively a ddress the uniformity and system-wide adaptability problems. The ‘plural form’ consists of four processes which are as followed: ‘modelling process, ratcheting process, socialisation process and mutual learning process’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). Through these processes the company can pursue greater uniformity and improve system-wide adaptation across the restaurant chains (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). The modelling process is focused on the structural element of the management by increasing the use of common practices across the organisation and the restaurant chains (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). The ratcheting process is part of the control system of management which enables both branch managers and senior managers to influence each other as well as increase the level of uniformity and performance of the chain overall (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). The socialisation process reflects the career path aspect of management, which essentially helps to create a shared understanding of what is required to operate a restaurant, thus will increase the uniformity across the chain (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). Lastly, the mutual learning process is also referred to as the strategy making  process, which focuses on improving the system-wide adaptability by providing ‘performance data and demonstrating new ideas to help persuade branch managers to adopt the proposed system-wide adaptations’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). Overall the ‘plural form’ is used to overcome some of the control problems associated with managing restaurant branches and maintaining uniformity across the chain (Bradach, 1997). Another important key issue highlighted from this case study is how formal and informal employee involvement and participation (EIP) practices are implemented by management. According to the RestaurantCo capability framework which consisted of eight capabilities, four related specifically to informal EIP (Suter Marchington 2011). EIP is influenced or shaped by four dimensional factors which are, the two type of ‘forms of EIP’ (formal and informal EIP), ‘degree of involvement of the employees’ (ranged from very little to a considerable amount), ‘different levels of EIP within the organisation’ (head office to branch level) and ‘scope of subject matter’ (long term plans that are central to the organisation and short term issues regarding the restaurant) (Marchington Kynighou, 2012, p. 3338). RestaurantCo depend heavily on their employees’ interaction with customers, for this reason it is noticeably best to implement informal EIP because their engagement with customers is instrumental to the organisational performance levels and profitability. By using informal EIP branch managers are able to gain employees’ affective commitment to the organisation (Rodrigues, 1994). Although, branch managers must take into consideration the contextual circumstances in relation to the restaurant and the four contingencies outlined above to assist in determining the appropriate EIP to implement for their given work situation (Rodrigues, 1994). More specifically, formal EIP was utilised in the larger and busier restaurant branches as branch managers had less time to involve employees informally and formal EIP was the most effective way of bringing staff members up to date with important information and news (Suter Marchington 2011). On the other hand, informal EIP was utilised or practised more predominately in the smaller branch restaurants (Suter Marchington 2011). However, effective co-existence of formal and informal EIP is essential for the organisation’s long term sustainability (Denton, 1994). Informality at RestaurantCo is an effective instrument of recognising and managing employee voice (Denton, 1994). The  role of informality is to give employees an open channel for informal communications with managers, so that they can address their concerns and to give informative feedback on work related issues (Beattie, 2006). The constant changeability and flexibility of the workplace environment, illustrates the need for informal day-to-day communications in comparison to official formalised meetings with employees, which can be more costly and time consuming. Above all, the flexibility and diversity of organisational arrangements in the service industry reinforces the need for the implementation of informal EIP practices (Beattie, 2006). In summary, the RestaurantCo case study illustrated some important strengths and weaknesses in the HR management practices and organisational frameworks. Overall, several weaknesses were identified such as the need for informal relations between line managers and employees, the importance of decentralisation to enable cooperation and collaboration between branch managers and senior management through the ‘plural form’ model. Furthermore, it was exemplified that there should be a co-existence and implementation of both formal and informal EIP in the workplace. Evidently, business performance levels can be improved by balancing the dependency and autonomy of branch managers, so that they can efficiently perform to their capabilities. In conclusion, this essay highlighted some positive and negative issues regarding operational responsibilities of senior management and branch managers. References Beattie, RS 2006, Line Managers and Workplace Learning: Learning from the voluntary sector,Human Resource Developmental International, vol.9, no.1, pp. 99-119, viewed 2 Setptember 2013, Ebsco database. Bradach, JL 1997, Using the plural form in the management of restaurant chains, Administrativ.e Science Quarterly, vol.42, no.2, pp. 276-303 viewed 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Bratton, J Gold, J 2012 Human Resource Management: theory and practice, 5th edn, Palgrave Macmillan, London. Dant, RP Gundlach, GT 1998, Dependence in Franchised Channels of Distribution, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 14, pp. 35-67 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Dant, RP Nasr, NI 1998, Control techniques and upward flow of information in franchising in distant  markets:conceptualisation and preliminary evidence, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol.13, pp. 3-28 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Denton, DK 1994, Empowerment through Employee Involvement and Participation: Fords Development and Training Programs, Empowerment in Organisations: An International Journal,vol. , no.2, pp. 22-28 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Harrison, P 2011, Perspective on Practice: Learning culture, line managers and HR professional practice,Journal of European Indutrial Training ,vol. 35, no.9, pp. 914-928 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Marchington, M Kynighou, A 2012, The dynamics of employee involvement and participation during turbulent times, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol.23, no.16, pp. 3336-3354 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Michael, S C 2002, Can a franchise chain coordinate?, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol.17, pp. 325-341 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Rodrigues, CA 1994, Employee Participation and Empowerment Programs: Problems of definition and implementation,Empowerment in Organisations,vol. 2, no.2, pp. 29-40 viewed on 2 September 2013, Ebsco database. Suter, J Marchington, M 2011, ‘The role of line managers and employee voice in the restaurant industry’, in T Dundon and A Wilkinson (eds), Case studies in global management: Strategy, innovation and people management, Tilde Press, pp. 212-220

Physics of a Spudgun :: physics potato gun cannon

Well it's quite simple actually. Spudguns use some of the same principles as internal combustion engines. Just as burning gas forces a piston out of a cylinder it can also force out a potato. A spudgun is a device that uses some form of propellant to project a potato across the sky. Usually these devices are made of ABS plastic sewer pipe. There are several major parts of the spud gun that these pages will refer to. These parts are the firing chamber, the igniter, and the barrel. The ignition device of a spud gun is simply put the spark generator that causes the combustion of the fuel in the firing chamber. This device is usually a charcoal grill lighter. The button on the sparker is depressed and a spark arcs across a wire lead and a ground wire. The grill sparker is installed in to the back of the firing chamber by means of threading, epoxy, and bolts. This sparker becomes a projectile if it is not well seated in the end cap of the firing chamber. It must be held firmly in place withstanding any pressure produced by the fuels being burned in the chamber. This type or igniter will work in most conditions including when it becomes wet with fuel. Other igniters exist but are not recommended as highly as the charcoal grill sparker. The Colmen lantern spin lighter which use a flint and striker can become gummed up with some fuels and is not recommended for use in spud guns which will use hairspray as a primary fuel. This lighter must have new flints installed when they run out. This type of lighter also will fail to function when wet with fuel. The flame style barbecue lighter is a click lighter that produces a small-sustained flame. This lighter rarely misfires but is very hard to install given the high pressures it would be subjected to. Also the fuel in the lighter it self must be refilled. Some Spud Guns use a spark plug and battery setup that involves more work as well as more components. The benefits of this style of ignition system is that you have the ability to remote detonate the fuel from a safe distance. By far the push button charcoal grill sparker is the recommended igniter. It is cheap, effective, relatively easy to install and long lasting.

Ups Essay

UPS Introduction Operations Management is a vital and fundamental key to any successful business. This form of management helps a company become more efficient, effective, and most importantly, customer satisfying. For our groups Business analysis, we studied the operational tools and ideas implemented by United Parcel Service (UPS). UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company and is always on the cutting edge of efficient delivery. Within our research of UPS, we studied aspects of facility layout, logistics, and demand management. Along the way we relate what we found with our classes’ operations book.History Now a billion dollar company, UPS had a very humble beginning. In 1907, a young man in Seattle, Washington named James E. Casey borrowed a $100 from a friend to create The American Messenger Company. James, along with his brother and friends, delivered packages, letters, and even food to restaurants locally. Since cars were still limited at this time, the deliveries were made by foot or bicycle. Even though the company was young, it thrived because, â€Å"Jim Casey? s strict policies of customer courtesy, reliability, round-the-clock service, and low rates† (United Parcel Service, 1994-2010).These are the very same principles that the company operated by today. In 1913 technology began to have its place in the company, when they purchased their first car, which was a Model T Ford. They also changed their name from The American Messenger Company to Merchants Parcel Delivery, resulting from a merge with a competing company. The simple name change foreshadowed what the company would be known for from then on. The new name â€Å"reflected a shift in the primary focus of the business from messages to packages† (United Parcel Service, 1994-2010). The company kept purchasing delivery vehicles and finally was able to expand out of Seattle.In 1919, the company once and for all adopted its present name, United Parcel Service, and expanded to Oakland, California. From then on, UPS has grown to be a leading provider of delivery service, and has been on the cutting edge of specialization of the required processes to carry out their services. Facility Layout UPS provides a critical link for many company supply chains. To get products from manufacturer/supplier to customers, companies all around the world use UPS as their â€Å"middle man† for deliveries. To handle such demand, UPS has to be extremely efficient and can’t afford unnecessary costs.One way to cut costs and remain efficient is to have an appropriate facility layout. Once a package has left a local UPS office, they get shipped off to one of the regional air hubs. The busiest and largest UPS air hub is in Louisville, KY. The layout of this extremely vast facility at 550 acres is essential to the flow of parcels and letters through the system. As we learned in class, there are 4 basic types of layout formats: workcenter, assembly line, ma nufacturing cell, and project layout. Out of these four formats, the UPS air hub mostly resembles an assembly line.An assembly line is defined as â€Å"equipment or work processes arranged according to the progressive steps† (Jacobs, Chase, & Aquilano, 2009, p. 221). Even though a product isn’t being assembled, a package flows in a progressive system through the facility getting sorted and filtered out as needed. This process is highly automated using bar codes and scanners to do the necessary sorting. Human hands are only needed for unloading and loading packages onto conveyer belts, and packing pods for the airplanes. Once unloaded from a plane, a package gets loaded on to conveyer belts that total 122 miles.The belt runs the package through scanners and weight scales. The scanner and scale tells the system the type, shape, and weight of the package. After it is scanned, packages get sorted to smalls, parcels, or irregulars. When the package has been sorted by type, machines continue to scan and group them by destination all the way down to zip codes. Because of the high automation of the system, the air hub avoids a key problem a lot of assembly lines run into, assembly line balancing. Assembly line balancing is â€Å"the problem of assigning all the tasks to a series of workstations so that each workstation has no more than can be done†¦. nd so that idle time across all workstations is minimized† (Jacobs, Chase, & Aquilano, 2009, p. 228). Since machines can be synced with one another, processes flow in a consistent, calculated manner. Having a facility laid out in this manner allows for high efficiency, because packages are continuously being processed through the system at high speeds and low costs. Demand Management Running such a large company can come with many obstacles and challenges. For a company like UPS, these challenges can come with the need to forecast the projected demand for shipping.UPS has gotten every process it does down to the smallest detail, and is practically a science. They can accurately predict the volume they will be shipping, whether it is daily, weekly, or yearly; sometimes so accurate, the forecast is within a few pieces. When forecasting volume, UPS takes many things into consideration. UPS looks at the previous year’s volume shipped on a certain day, and strangely is very accurate to the volume being shipped on the current day. The bigger companies that ship through UPS tend to ship very consistently, allowing for UPS to be more accurate in their forecast.Taking the past volumes into consideration, logistics and planning people look at how much the city has grown in the past year. They then take the growth percentage and apply it to the previous year’s volume. This method tends to give accurate projections of what the company has in store for them on any given day. Sales of major manufacturers are also taken into account when forecasting. When UPS’s leadin g shippers, such as Wal-Mart, have these huge sales, UPS can just about guarantee that the volume of packages from that company is going to increase. There is a time of year that everyone at UPS anticipates; that time of year is Peak Season.Let’s just say that every year around the holidays, Santa has been lazy and uses UPS as his major way to ship. The holidays, or peak season, is when UPS realizes its greatest volumes for the year. Demand for its service increases greatly, beginning right before what we call â€Å"Black Friday†. Every year before peak season, materials such as empty pods, are sent to the bigger air hubs because of the increased demand. Plane scheduling is also revised; bigger planes are sent to the bigger cities with busier routes, while smaller planes are sent to places that aren’t as big but with increased frequency of arrivals.Also, people are hired seasonally to help deal with the increased workload. After the Christmas season, things begi n returning to normal, but UPS always has a sure bet that they will always have great business around that time. Not always is the demand for shipping as high as peak season, it tends to decrease at certain times of the year. UPS has implemented many solutions to try to deal with this decreased demand. In one program, UPS encourages its employees to actively go out and â€Å"recruit† potential customers.Whether it is a family member who owns a business, or a store who currently uses FedEx, the employees are asked to go out and aggressively take business away from competition. When a sales lead is given to management, a professional sales person is sent out to the business interested, and goes over options and different pricing discounts UPS can offer. If the potential lead indeed becomes a new customer, the original employee who gave the lead is given a percentage of the sale from every package ship. This is an incentive UPS gives for their employees to actively go out there and create demand for the company.

Unappropriate Tv Shows for Children

Unappropriate Television Shows Abstract Children are being influenced by television shows on a daily basis. Some children are watching inappropriate television shows such as SpongeBob, Fish Hooks, Family Guy, South Park, Ed, Edd, Eddy, Scooby-Doo, Boondocks and etc. These shows can affect children as they grow up in many ways such as using profanity, violent and aggressive behavior, poor school performance and watch too much television may cause a slight obesity. There are many educational television shows that are best for child to watch such as Barney, Blue’s Clue, Dora the Explorer and etc.Parent should also limit the amount of time children spend watching television. Monkey see, Monkey do Has your child ever said something to you and you were thinking, where did they get that from? Have the television shows that he or she watches daily ever come to your mind? Your child could be watching a television show that models inappropriate behaviors. I have experienced my nephew be ing influenced by SpongeBob and Family Guy. Recently, he was watching an episode and SpongeBob was calling himself and everybody an â€Å"idiot boy†, so my nephew began to call his mother and himself an â€Å"idiot†.He also started hitting himself on the forehead and saying he is stupid, which he also got from watching SpongeBob Square Pants. Research shows that children of the age two through ten should be playing sports, interacting with their peers or doing more gross motor activities. There are many ways television can affect children as they grow up such as watching television and video game that may influence kids between the age of two through ten by using profanity, violent and aggressive behavior, poor school performance and watch too much television may cause a slight obesity.It’s not so much that kids have changed, but the world is changing around them. Every day, children are being influenced by the world around them, and television is taking a big p art in it. Television programming is teaching children to do the things the show is displaying. A known saying is â€Å"Monkey see monkey do. † Suppose a child was saying inappropriate things and they were thinking it was fine to say it, because they didn’t know the real meaning of it. They also think they can say it because SpongeBob can.Now, you are left with no reason to tell them why they should not say it. The television shows that children are watching are influencing them to do the things they do, say the things they are saying, and try to have the same image as them. There are many different sources that can influence and or teach kids inappropriate actions such as video games, music videos, hearing things from adults but mainly television shows. Some television shows that are not appropriate are SpongeBob, Fish Hooks, Family Guy, South Park, Ed, Edd, Eddy, Scooby-Doo, Boondocks and etc.Parents may think that SpongeBob can be the best television show to watch, but at times SpongeBob can be inappropriate in many ways such as calling everyone an idiot, doing a wrong action by hitting his forehead calling his self â€Å"stupid†, and blanking out profanity. Also, Scooby Doo sometimes may scare children by having scary creature and monsters. Some television characters often depict risky behaviors such as drinking, smoking, and reinforce gender roles and racial stereotypes (How TV Affect Your Child).Most of these shows are mainly for entertainment and not for education so while kids are watching television they are just laughing when they really should be running to tell someone what they have learned while watching the show. There are a lot of educational shows on television that teaches kids valuable skills, such as their alphabet, and also counting. Those shows include Dora the Explorer, The Wiggles, Barney, Blue’s Clues, Sesame Street, Go Diego Go are extremely helpful in many ways. Barney is a very great show to watch.It is a show that teaches kids to show respect to an adult and it also teaches you to have manners. Blue’s Clues is also a great source because they teach kids to identify patterns and the opposites from two objects. Television shows have a powerful impact on young viewers in our society. When does it all start? More than 98 percent of homes in America have at least one television, and 25 percent of all households purchase a new model each year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (Television can harm children literally).Some children were sat in front of the television to get their attention, sometime to fall asleep, to calm down or stop them from crying. Parents usually sit babies in front of the television so they can finish home chores. Parents may start having them watch television at the age of eight to ten months. Normally, there is not an affect or impact on babies. As they start to grow older and also smarter young children of one to three years of age start t o love to watch television show. Also, television starts to become a child’s daily routine and they start to have a favorite television show and character.As they get to be the age of five to seven and are enrolled in some schooling and they start to watch every television show and they start to want every item or merchandise with their favorite television show or characters. From the age of eight to ten, their television shows starts to become a lot more inappropriate and they no longer watch SpongeBob, Family Guy, or South Park. They may start to play video games which may also influence bad images and language. Our youth are also exposed to violent words, music, and images every day and it should be stopped. But how? How is there such a big impact on them just because of watching television?Television can affect learning and school performance if it interferes with the time kids need for activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. Some shows (SpongeBob) teaches that it is fine to commit an inappropriate action because there will not be a punishment and kids feel that if they do the same thing as their favorite character from the program who committed the crime they will be a hero. Researchers have identified three potential responses to media violence in children: increase fear, desensitization to real life violence, and increase aggressive behavior.It may desensitve kids so much they think it is okay and no big deal for somebody to be hit or to hit someone in the head with a hammer. Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior, but also fear that the world is scary and that everyday something bad will happen. Scary-looking things like grotesque monsters especially frighten children aged two to seven. Telling them that the images aren’t real does not help because kids under age eight can’t always tell the difference between fantasy and reality (Television and Children).When watching a televis ion shows usually every episode has a bad situation or a lot of drama in it so kids will start to have that mind frame that things will happen to them just like on the show. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under two years old not watch any television and that those older than two watch no more than one to two hours a day of quality (How TV Affect Your Child). Children who watch too much television don’t get as much physical activity and do not explore new activity, according to Family Education Network.Television viewing has been linked to violent or aggressive behavior, sleep problems, substance abuse, poor school performance, and obesity (How TV Affect Your Child). Most children who watch the inappropriate shows are most likely to hit their playmates and argue. This issue of violent which media have the greatest impact on many people only on television many children today may be more influences by video games and computers games. There are many things parents can do for their child to help them do well in school and also not be addicted to television.Children that is too young to enroll into preschool yet spend a lot of time out of the day watching television, playing outside, or sleeping. While watching television, they should watch educational shows that may broaden their knowledge to be ready for preschool. Some educational television shows can be very helpful in many ways. Some programs combine entertainment and education to help children learn to identify characters, shapes, colors, sequence numbers, and phonics skills. Active parents should set limits, participate, monitor, analyze, and be good leaders.Parents can set many of limits in the child’s life but when watching television it is very good to set limits on how long they can watch television and what shows they can watch. Some parents do not always participate with their children. When a child is watching television, the parents should watch the show wi th them, sing alone, and interact with the show. Parents should always monitor what their child is watching. Before you allow your child to watch a show; the parent should watch a couple episode of the show and give it an approval. Every child looks up to their parents and to do or be just like them.Parents should always watch what they say or do because your child could be over listening to what you are saying and do or say that same thing that they heard their parents displaying. Parents should ask their children what are they watching and what the show is about. When your child is studying or having family meals and are not paying attention it is best to turn the television off. As much as possible encourage your kids to be involved in hobbies, sports, and peers with proper guidance, your child can learn to use television in a healthy and positive way.TV viewing is probably replacing activities in your child’s s life that you would rather have them do things such as playin g with friends, being physically active, getting fresh air, reading, playing imaginatively, doing homework, doing chores (Television and Children). Television is not always a negative influence to young viewers, there is strong evidence that children’s shows that were developed to teach educational and social skills which can help children learn well.Educational shows will expand a child knowledge but not only are they getting entertainment but they are learning their numbers, recognizing letters, and valuable skills. Sometime it is good to get some entertainment when watching television. What a child learns during his young years may affect his childhood and their older years. There are many ways such as watching television, video game, hearing what other adults may say that may influence kids bat the age of two through ten by television programming. Young children are easily influenced by the media.Children will soon find a favorite character then start to look up to them a s a hero or a role model. If that character is displaying an inappropriate behavior the child will soon imitate the character action. The goal is to keep young children active, in shape, and to have great school performance. Works Cited Anonymous. â€Å"An annotated bibliography: Television can harm children – Literally. † The Consumer’s Medical Journal Issue 94 (2006): 15. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . The article give statics, give advice from Pediatricians on what parents should do when children love to always watch TV. Pediatricians at the at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas reviewed a year’s worth of emergency department cases of children who had been injured by TV sets toppling over, usually because of a climbing toddler or because someone accidentally knocked over the set.More than 98 percent of homes in America have at least one television, and 25 percent of all households purchase a new model e ach year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Adults need to be better educated about television’s potential harm, not just the content or programming but the physical danger of falling sets. Boyse, Kyla, and Brad Bushman. â€Å"Television and Children. † University of Michigan Health System. Regents of the University of Michigan, Aug. 2010. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. .The article examines the effect of children when watching too much TV. It explains how it affects your child’s brain development, the aggressive and violent behavior. It also show how TV can scare children, affect they school performance, and affect their health. TV viewing is probably replacing activities in your child’s s life that you would rather have them do (things like playing with friends, being physically active, getting fresh air, reading, playing imaginatively, doing homework, doing chores. An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18.Scary-looking things like grotesque monsters especially frighten children aged two to seven. Telling them that the images aren’t real does not help because kids under age eight can’t always tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Dowshen, Steven. â€Å"How TV Affect Your Child. † KidsHealth. The Nemour Foundation, Oct. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. . The article discusses how you child is being influenced by television. This article gives parent advice on how parents should control who they view on TV and how long they should watch TV.Some TV shows a lot of violence, risky behavior, obesity, and the article also give some ways to practice good TV habits. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming. Fields-Meyers, T, et al. â€Å"Kids out of Control. † Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO, 2004. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. This article gives information on what different family how experience well raising a child who loves watching inappropriate television shows.

Understanding Parenthetical Elements

Understanding Parenthetical Elements A parenthetical element is a word or group of words that interrupts the flow of a sentence and adds additional (but nonessential) information to that sentence. This element can be long or short, and it can appear at the beginning, the middle, or the end of a clause or sentence. John, the second batter in the lineup, is a fast runner.Mildred is an excellent cook, as a matter of fact.Just this once, you should try mustard on your peanut butter sandwiches.The dog, after guarding the chewed-up toy for more than an hour, finally got tired of waiting for me to play with him. Types of Words or Word Groups that Can Be Parenthetical Elements: Appositives Example: The book, a 758 page monster, was required for my history class. Relative clauses Example: My professor, who eats lunch every day promptly at noon, was not available for discussion. Prepositional phrases Example: The turkey, after moments of deliberation, ate the bug. Phrases as examples Example:  Foods that are hot or spicy, e.g. jalapenos or hot wings, make my eyes water. You might think of the parenthetical element as a sudden thought that pops into your head as you are making a statement. Because it provides additional or supporting information to a complete sentence, the main part of the sentence should be able to stand alone without the words stated in the parenthetical element. The name parenthetical might cause confusion because it resembles the word parentheses. In fact, some parenthetical elements are so strong (they can be quite jolting) that they require parenthesis. The previous sentence provides an example! Here are a few more: My sister (the one standing on the chair) is trying to get your attention. The strawberry tart (the one with the bite taken out of it) belongs to me. Yesterday (the longest day of my life) I got my first speeding ticket. Punctuation for Parenthetical Elements The examples above show that parenthetical elements are usually set off by some form of punctuation in order to avoid confusion. The type of punctuation used actually depends on the degree of interruption caused by the interrupter. Commas are used when the interruption is least emphatic. If the sentence containing the parenthetical element flows pretty smoothly, then commas are a good choice: My friend, who doesn’t like to wear socks, is trying to give me his tennis shoes. Parentheses are used (as stated above) when the interrupting thought represents a bigger diversion from the original message or thought. Pizza is my favorite food (the brick oven kind is best).I think Ill go home now (the walk will do me good)  before I fall asleep on the job. But there is one more form of punctuation that you may use if you use an interrupting parenthetical element that really jolts the reader from the main thought. Dashes  are used for the most emphatic interruptions. Use dashes to set off a parenthetical element for a more dramatic effect.   My birthday party- what a surprise!- was a lot of fun. The frog- the one who jumped on the window and made me jump a mile- is now under my chair. I bit my lip- ouch!- to keep from speaking my mind.

Techniques, methods and tools used in the project life cycle The WritePass Journal

Techniques, methods and tools used in the project life cycle Introduction Techniques, methods and tools used in the project life cycle Introduction1) Initiation2) Planning3) Execution and controlling4) ClosureReference ListRelated Introduction A Project is the combination of organizational resources pulled together to create something that did not previously exist and that will provide a performance capability in the design and execution of organizational strategies (Cleland and Ireland, 2006). Projects have a distinct life cycle, starting with an idea and progressing through design, engineering and manufacturing or construction through use by a project owner. For a project to be successful there are main things which are to be considered always, like the cost of the whole project, time that it’s going to take for it to be complete, the technical performance capability that it’s going to provide and be able to match the results with the design and execution of organizational strategies. This whole process in the other name it’s called Project Management. Project management is an important management tool to implement strategy and achieve an organization’s strategic goals. Organizations are using projects to adapt to changes in the competitive environment including increasing cost pressures, scarce available resources, global competition, new technologies and a race to get products to customers first (Hyvari, 2006). Projects deliver the most benefit when they are directly linked to corporate strategy (Crawford, 2006, Srivannaboon, 2006). Also, Project Management is a continuing process of controlling the development of a project from initial planning, to monitoring progress and finally to seeing the successful completion of the project. Every program, project, or product has certain phases of development known as life cycle phases. A clear understanding of these phases permits managers and executives to better control resources to achieve organizational goals (Kerzner, 2003). As a result, the project manager must learn to deal with a wide range of problems and opportunities, each in a different stage of evolution and each having different relationships with the evolving project (Cleland and Ireland, 2002). In this assignment, I’m going to discuss all the activities that are required and analyse some of the techniques, methods and tools used on the project life cycle. Also, I will discuss the skills and competences that project managers’ needs to possess. At the end, I will talk about the roles played by the stakeholders and the contribution of the computer packages towards the successful running of a major project. a) The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages during its life. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs and critical success factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down the project into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and lastly a Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project. Project activities must be grouped into phases because by doing so, the project manager and the core team can efficiently plan and organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of goals and justify their decisions to move ahead, correct, or terminate. It is of great importance to organize project phases into industry-specific project cycles. Why? Not only because each industry sector involves specifi c requirements, tasks, and procedures when it comes to projects, but also because different industry sectors have different needs for life cycle management methodology. And paying close attention to such details is the difference between doing things well and excelling as project managers. Diverse project management tools and methodologies prevail in the different project cycle phases. Let’s take a closer look at what’s important in each one of these stages: 1) Initiation In this first stage, the scope of the project is defined along with the approach to be taken to deliver the desired outputs. The project manager is appointed and in turn, he selects the team members based on their skills and experience. The most common tools or methodologies used in the initiation stage are Project Charter, Business Plan, Project Framework (or Overview), Business Case Justification, and Milestones Reviews. 2) Planning The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews. 3) Execution and controlling The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the projects requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of Risk Analysis and Score Cards, in addition to Business Plan and Milestones Reviews. 4) Closure In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client, Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or methodology is needed during the closure phase. Reference List Kerzner, H. (2003). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (8th ed.). New Jersey: John wiley Sons Inc. Cleland, D.I, Ireland, L.R. (2006). Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 26 Cleland, D.I, Ireland, L.R. (2002). Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 32 Crawford, L., Hobbs, B. Turner, J.R. (2006), Aligning capability with strategy: Categorizing projects to do the right projects and to do them right,  Project Management Journal; Jun. 37, 2; ABI/INFORM Global, pp.38-50 Hyvari, I. (2006), Project management effectiveness in project oriented business organisations,  International Journal of Project Management,  24 pp. 216-225 Srivannaboon, S. (2006), Linking project management with business strategy,  Project Management Journal, Dec; 37, 5; ABI/Inform Global, pp.88-96