Saturday, October 12, 2019

Essay examples --

Introduction This article discusses the comparison between archives and records system in South Africa and Botswana. In this study, they used the best approach to draw conclusions and make recommendations in both archives. They have been doing research on both the archive and collect data from the questionnaire. In the survey, found that achieve found in their country are not recognized and have a very weak system insufficient staff. Government does not care about these archives. They also, lack of funds and infrastructure not strong. Leaders there also overlooked in this matter. They just take this trivial. South Africa and Botswana have freedom in care of the problem. This task is only given to the subordinates to run. This study aims to suggest the best way to protect the archive. They are to reveal all the goodness in charge of the National archives. They also want to guide the two countries in maintaining and managing the archive with a more efficient way. They also want to share ways to evaluate existing records in the archives for future generations. Maybe the record will be useful for all future generations. This article is first issued to compare the situation of archives in south africa and bostwana. Authors of this article hope this article can help employees make the best archives in the evaluation record. Objectives The purpose of this article is published to study the performance of records management between the two nations of South Africa and Botswana. The main goal of this article is to review the archives they are upgraded or left alone so. Second, they want to discuss about the structural in building and their placement in the archive records. Third, a guide to the records to keep records in the archiv... ... both countries, namely South Africa and Botswana should be independent and reports directly to Parliament when there is a problem. This will bring greater recognition and support that they need to be more proactive in its role. In public opinion, the archives in South Africa should be moved to the prime minister's office because it has wide powers. Skilled workforce also plays a vital role in developing all the things in all the activities in the archives. To get skilled staff, both countries should provide adequate facilities to its employees rather they are interested in making the work. Furthermore, the government should retain skilled staff rather mandate in the archive does not fall to normal. Government should sacrifice a little reward for skilled staff. The government should also take archivist from outside to teach staffs were unclear on the archive system.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Head Sea Defences

There are two long groynes here. These are really effect at doing their job. Although it is not clear from the image how well these work, if you go there you will see it quite evidently how well they do their jobs. In some areas with long groynes, there have been large parts of beaches rebuilt. They are made out of rubble in order to slow down the weathering caused by the waves hitting the groynes. These work by stopping sediment from being dragged across the shore by the effects of Longshore drift. Their sole purpose was to protect the beach what was already there but have surpassed expectations and added a lot of material to the beach. For a clear understanding of all the different sea defences I did an evaluation of the effectiveness and Environmental (looks). Looking at the graph, there is no doubt that the groynes are effective at what they do. For the effectiveness they received the highest rating of 2. The size of the beach been restored back and the amount protected is a large amount. With a total mark of 3 from a potential 4, it is definite that the groynes are assisting in the protection of the beach. The groynes did lose a mark for the way they look aesthetically. Being a tourist destination it was important that Hengistbury Head is pleasing to the eye. 200m Gabion: At the top, there is an image of the 200m Gabion which has been built at the South Cliff. The result of placing the Gabion here is not clearly seen but an explanation will be given. The Gabion at Hengistbury Head is a long cage which has been put in place to hold back the rocks that have been filled behind them. Also the cages absorb the force of the waves and hold back the material behind them. The Gabion is working brilliantly to protect the South Cliff. The people walking on the land at the top of the cage would not be able to walk there if it wasn't for the Gabion. The Gabion prevents slumping which stops the material falling onto the beach and keeps it in one steady place. The gabion stops the waves eroding the ground further down. There is a footpath which is not visible in this image. This footpath wouldn't be there since the waves would have reached there if the Gabions weren't built and eroded the rocks and made large cracks, making it dangerous to walk on. In the end the purpose of the Gabion is to stop the waves force reaching too close to the land and destroying it. As a total score, the 200m Gabion faired quite well, but not too well. This is because of the -1 it received for its Environmental Score. After understanding how the Gabion works the picture displays more than clearly that the effectiveness of it is brilliant. It does what it is supposed to do more than perfectly. It has prevented the waves from reaching inland and in doing so ensured that the South Cliff remains safe. The Environmental Score for the 200m Gabion was very low. This is because it conflicts with the natural beauty at Hengistbury Head. This is because it is clear that it has been placed there and looks out of place at the Top of the beach. Rubble Groynes: This is a plan view of the East facing cliff and the groynes that have been built to prevent Longshore Drift. Unlike the other image, this image shows very clearly how the groynes have affected the beach. The red arrows point out the sediment that has been caught thanks to the groynes. It might not look like much but if you consider the material each groyne has picked up, it adds up a lot. These groynes have the same purpose as the gabion, i.e. stop he waves from eroding certain parts of the beach. The groynes prevent the waves from carrying beach material out to sea. This eventually builds up to a major part of the beach. At the top there is a graph portraying the evaluation the gryones received. Since there were so many groynes present, I worked out the means by assessing each groyne then calculating the mean. The total score of the groyne is similar to other defences, but the other defences lost marks due to the way they look and at the same time gained marks from their effectiveness. The image does show that the groynes are working well, but there is more that needs to be taken into consideration. Since the groynes are just piles of rubble, it is more than likely that a piece of rock will be taken out into sea by a strong wave causing the rocks on top of it to tumble and fall. It will also not be able to withstand the force of powerful waves. They could crumble during a storm completely. This defeats their purpose since they are most needed during storms since that is when most material is taken out to sea. Environmentally the groynes would have got a higher score if they were not so many of them present. The natural beauty of the East Cliff is questioned when so many of these groynes are built Sand Dunes: The sand dune at the top here is present at South Cliff. These are naturally occurring and have a wide range of sizes. They can be anything from small hills to huge mounds. They are most commonly found at the top of beaches. These are formed when winds lift the sand from the beaches surface and are blown to the top. The sands are caught by materials that come in their way such as driftwood. Over a long period of time, the sand keeps getting deposited in the same area. This eventually grows bigger and bigger and builds up into big mounds. These dunes are a perfect place for vegetation such as Marram Grass to mature and thrive successfully. Some wildlife might also be found to nest in these dunes. These dunes are extremely prone to erosion naturally as well as human contact. These dunes absorb the force from powerful waves keeping things behind them safe. At the top you can see the sand dunes scored top marks, the best score compared to all the other sea defences present at Hengistbury Head. Because the dunes form near the cliff and are so big (in most of the cases), it protects it from erosion from the sea. Because of this I though the sand dunes deserved top marks for effectiveness. Since they form naturally it definitely deserved top marks for Environment as well. These dunes do not look out of place since they are formed from material that is found at the sea. They blend into the surroundings perfectly and add to the natural beauty of the South Cliff. Causeway: At the top here you can see an image of the causeway at the East Cliff. From the picture here you can see that the causeway is having no effect at all on the beach. It is just present there. It is a pointless waste of money, time and effort. It was put there in the intention to work like the gabion cages i.e. hold the east cliff back. Since the causeway was placed at a ridiculously low height there is no effect at all in preserving the beach. The causeway has scored the worst compared to all the sea defences present at Hengistbury Head. It achieved an overall score of -3. As you can see from my above explanation there is no reason why the causeway should get a higher score. The causeway could possibly have been a great sea defence but the fact is that this was certainly not the right place for it. It got the lowest effectiveness score for this reason. Environmentally, I did not give it the worst possible score since looking at the picture carefully, if it wasn't built there, some people could have difficulties coming down from such a tall gabion. It could possibly be used as a step from the top of the gabion to the beach surface. That is why I think it did not look that bad environmentally. The first time I saw it, I thought it was built for that purpose. Overall the causeway was a total waste of time, effort and money that could have been used for other ways of protecting Hengistbury Head. Drainage Weir: At the top you can see an image of the drainage weir present at East Cliff. The drainage weir looks like a waterfall. It is man-made and fulfils an important purpose. The purpose of the drainage weir is to drain out and down all the water (more specifically rain water) from the cliff to prevent it from becoming to saturated. If it ever does get over saturated the outcome could be major slumping. In this image you can see the drainage weir working at optimum. This is because the day we went, it was raining quite heavily. Vegetation grows very well next to the drainage weir due to the large amount of fresh water that flows from the top. Marram grass grows very well around it. The Marram grass also helps since it holds the sand together and stops it from eroding and falling. Looking at how effective it is in the weather this picture was taken in, it shows how effective it is. The bar graph here shows that it is as effective as the sand dunes. It has also scored a 4 out of a possible four. The effectiveness is unquestionable as you can see in the above image. The sheer amount of water flowing down from the top shows its effectiveness. Without it, there would definitely be a problem with slumping. It also got top scores for environmental since it does look very good. Being a man-made object, it perfectly fits the environment and at the same time fulfils its purpose. Gabion Cages: At the top you can see an image of the gabion cages present at the East Cliff. If you look clearly at the image, you can see some sand at the bottom of the causeway. It is very clear that the gabion cages are doing their job. These gabion cages are filled with rocks just like the other ones. The gabion cages absorb the impact from the waves and holds them back, preventing them from reaching the east cliff and eroding it. They are doing exactly this but they are doing it well. They are stopping material being dragged into the sea and preventing erosion of the east cliff. The gabion cages have been placed on top of the causeway in order to have a much higher height. Also the causeway is not tall enough to protect the cliff. The cliffs have started to slump but the gabions have managed to drastically slow it down. At the top you can see an image evaluating the Gabion Cages' Effectiveness and Environmental. The total score being a 0 is not that good. The score was mainly affected by the Environmental rating, since it looked out of place completely and harshly affected the natural beauty of the Eat Cliff. Considering all this I decided to give it a -1 for an Environmental rating. It would have got a much better score if it wasn't for the presence of the cages and ruining the final outcome, but removing the cages would allow the rocks to fall over. The gabion cages are definitely effective as you can see in the photo. But I still have it a rating of 1 instead of 2 since there is some material creeping over them. This is quite bad since over a period of time the Cliff could slump over the gabion cages. Rip Rap: At the image at the top you can see an image of the Rip Rap which is visible at East Cliff. Rip rap is basically a lot of rocks scattered along the beach in order to absorb the energy from very strong waves and breaks them before they reach the cliff base. This type of sea defence is very cheap to put into action but at the same time it is extremely effective. It is a very good way of reducing the damage that might have been caused if powerful waves were allowed to get to the cliff base. Because of its effectiveness it slumping caused by undercutting is very unlikely to occur and because of this expensive ways to reduce slumping can be not put in place too often. In the end the rip rap is a perfect all round way of defending the cliff base and reduces slumping. At the top you can see an image of the Rip Rap's (present as South Cliff) score for its defence evaluation. It got an overall score of 2 which it deserved quite fairly and is quite a good score anyways. I gave it a score of 1 for its effectiveness because there were not any excessive amounts of slumping at the South cliff where the rip rap was present. Environmentally the rip rap fitted in its environment and blended in quite well but since it was fairly obvious that the rocks were placed there since the boulders were quite large and they were not any visible cracks on the cliff big enough to fit any one of the large boulders. But it did blend into the surroundings very well. The natural beauty of Hengistbury Head was not affected by the rip rap. Sea Wall: The picture at the top is an image of the Sea Wall at Mudeford Spit. Sea Walls vary in size and materials in which they are made from. The sea wall at Mudeford Spit is made of large concrete slabs that have been laid on top of each other. They have been place next to the beach huts to protect them from all types of waves that could potentially erode the ground on which the huts are built on. They are barriers against weak and strong waves. Unlike some other sea other defences like the gabions, the wall does not absorb any of the waves but just prevents the waves from reaching far ahead up the beach. The sea wall breaks the waves before they reach the huts, so even if they go above the wall the water will just spray on the huts. But if a tall and powerful wave does have the force to cover enough distance to reach the huts then it is very likely for the huts to get damaged since if it had enough force to reach up to the huts then it will definitely have enough to cause some serious damage. This is a problem because of the rather small height of the sea wall. But I think it is highly unlikely for a wave with that intensity to reach Hengistbury Head but due to the effects of Global Warming there can never be any assurance. At the top you can see an image of the evaluation the Sea Wall received based on its Effectiveness and Environmental. Mudeford Spit's natural beauty was already tarnished thanks to the littering, vandalism and beach huts but now thanks to the sea wall, the little left beauty has vanished. The Beach huts definitely stood out but kind of fitted into the area but this concrete slab wall does not fit in at all. It got an Environmental score of -2 for that reason. It did not deserve anything higher. I gave it a rating of 1 for its Effectiveness, because it definitely does what its suppose to do without any problems, but I didn't give it a two since it would've have been better if it was higher. This would have made the beach huts feel a bit safer. But the huts are still standing strong because of the sea wall. The final score the sea wall received a -1. The environmental score dragged the score down a significant amount. Beach Nourishment: At the top you can see two images. Both of them are images of the equipment needed to perform Beach Nourishment. Beach Nourishment is a simple idea which entails taking sand from a source (usually another beach) and dumping it into the beach which requires nourishment. This process is important because although most of the sea defences might be working efficiently to tackle the beach erosion, there is still a lot of sand that is carried out into the sea because of the waves. It is sometimes needed in order to widen a beach. This method doesn't stop erosion but simply replaces what has been lost by the waves. It balances the amount of sand on the beach because the areas of the beach are unlikely to lose similar amounts of sand. By replacing the sand from the worst affected area it makes the beach look more pleasing to the eye. A problem with this method is that the sand needs to be continually replaced since the sand naturally on the beach erodes away slower than the sand that has been artificially added. At the top you can see an image of the graph with the evaluation of Beach Nourishment. Beach Nourishment has also been awarded the top score with a four out of four. The Beach Nourishment is definitely an effective way of dealing with the wave's strong backwash. It allows the artificially added waves to be carried out the beach rather than the natural sands. And for Environmental, it deserved a two because it just replaces what needs to be there. It makes the beach look more complete. The only environmental effect it has on the beach is to improve it. Groynes: The various groynes seen in the satellite image below can be found at Mudeford spit. Looking at the image below you can see just how effective these groynes really are. They are doing a fantastic job of stopping the sediment in the waves from moving down the beach. The sediment is being carried down the beach by nothing more then long shore drift. Although long shore drift created Mudeford spit it could also destroy it or make it so big that the harbour becomes closed. For these reasons these groynes have had to be put in place. Looking at the bar graph above overall the groynes have done very well with an overall score of 3 out of 4. Environmentally on Mudeford spit because it is so crowded by beach huts I do not think that the vast amount of groynes effects the natural appearance of Mudeford spit. Nothing short of perfect describes the effectiveness of these groynes it is truly amazing how much sediment they have trapped over the years.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

E-Hr in P&G

Introduction to Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble (P&G) is a multinational corporation that provides consumer products in the areas of pharmaceuticals, cleaning supplies, personal care, and pet supplies. The global consumer goods company was started by William Procter, an English candle maker & James Gamble, an Irish soap maker in 1837, and has been well established since then, ranking fifth place of the â€Å"World's Most Admired Companies† by Fortune Magazine . P constantly strives to provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improves the lives of the world’s consumers , where P brands serve 4. billion people in more than 180 countries. A High Performing Organization Being a multinational corporation, P values its people as the company’s most important as-set and source of competitive advantage, and understands that its success greatly depends on the strength of the talent pipeline. The Human Resources department inevitably plays an im-portant role to the company, responsible in attracting the top talents, managing P talent globally to enable career development and growth across businesses and geographies and de-veloping leaders at P around the world in every business, in every region and at every level. In view of the fast technological advances, P continues to stay at the global frontline by in-corporating e-HR into its everyday processes such as selection, recruitment and training. The use of the Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) was also able to increase administra-tive efficiency and produce reports that have the potential to improve decision making for managers. E-HR not only provided human resources departments with the opportunity to make information available and accessible to managers and employees, but was also able to improve the company’s overall efficiency and effectiveness. With all its efforts over the years, P has been widely recognized as the industry’s global in-novation leader and brand-building leader of the industry, being consistently ranked by leading retailers in industry surveys as a preferred supplier and generating $82. 6 billion dollar of sales in 2011 alone. The HR department was also awarded the â€Å"2010 Asian Human Capital Award from Singapore's Minister for Manpower†, a highly recognized award in the industry. Technology in HR Functions Training & Development Early 2000s Being a global company that has hundred years of history, P&G owes its success partly to its large pool of capable and well-trained workforce. P&G trained its workforce on a regular basis. Since early 2000s, P&G sees the need to share product information and knowledge to its em-ployees quickly, while keeping its employees skilled and knowledgeable. P&G thus appointed Saba Learning Enterprise to develop an Internet-based learning system to be used by over 100,000 of its employees in over 70 countries . Through the collaboration with Saba Learning Enterprise, P&G were able to have a scalable system which featured various functions through its web compatibility. Powering the RapidLEARN initiative , Saba had helped P&G to consolidate multiple Learning Management Systems (LMSs) into one that improved the company’s global learning pace, thus reducing its costs greatly . New strategies and direction could be passed on to its employees with great consistency. Through the development of such integrated system, P&G was thus able to meet the needs of various business requirements. As a result of this, number of employees that utilized e-learning had increased from less than 5% to over 25% . It was estimated that such initiative had resulted in cost savings of around $14million after 5 years. In 2003, P&G moved on to engage BrightWave, UK e-learning developer, to transform its in-house presentation materials into an online training program, a 2-hour stand alone modular course, for its employees . Late 2000s With the success of Saba since early 2000s, the system had undergone multiple upgrades and customization. By 2009, the Saba system provided online training to over 90,000 of its em-ployees. There was an average of 16,000 individuals among P&G’s employees that made used of its online training each month. Such success leads P&G to expect an online training growth in the near future. To support such anticipation, P&G planned to improve its learning management system in terms of its availabili-ty, tracking, learning process governance and application support . As a result, P&G decided to assign Accenture in developing its learning management system for 6 years. Prior to the transformation, P&G had over 200 training administrators that provided decentra-lized Tier 1 support, with multiple vendors providing support on more serious application issues on Tier 2 and Tier 3 . Over a period of 3 months, all support services from Tier 1 to Tier 3 had been successfully migrated to Accenture to meet several objectives such as creating a consis-tent development on its application system, having a reliable learning system with high availa-bility, as well as improving the control of its learning process . To meet the increasing demand that P&G was expecting, it moved its Saba-based RapidLEARN to a clustered environment. Today, P&G had a reliable LMS which was scalable to meet the increasing need of web-based training across the globe. More than 90,000 of P&G’s employees now have access to the system. Today †¢Online system To enable all its employees be updated with the most up-to-date trainings, all of P&G’s em-ployees have access to a website (P&G’s online system) listing all the available courses, with details such as timing, course descriptions, and illegibility. P&G’s employees are to sign up for all the trainings online through a common online system. With online registration, em-ployees are able to understand the details of the course as well as select the suitable sche-dule for the courses quickly through a simple click. New courses can be search and signed-up courses can be dropped through the same online system. Aside from the course listings, the webpage also has other information (guidelines) that guides its employees through their own learning path. The system contains detailed infor-mation on the career stage at which certain trainings should be taken. Trainings are categorized into â€Å"General Trainings† which covers soft skills such as leadership and business communications and â€Å"Functional Trainings† which covers expertise knowledge such as finance and marketing. All these trainings are also categorized according to different career stage. As a result, the availability of the guidelines aims to help its employees sign up for the suitable courses during different career stage. E-learning For online trainings or the so-called â€Å"e-learning courses†, employees are able to complete the course at the leisure of their own pace. The system will track the attendance and progress of each employee in the trainings. In fact, employee’s attendance record for all courses attended is readily available online. Some of the common e-learning courses include training on procedures, standard business models , and business ethics. Upon completion of such courses, there will be compulsory tests which the employees have to pass. According to one of the employee’s experience, while such e-learning courses provide them with the necessary information, the knowledge absorbed is very much short-term. Some-times, employees will end up skip the on-line courses and move on directly to the tests by guessing the correct answers so as to pass the tests. Such ‘short-cut’ approach defeats the company’s purpose of having online trainings and wastes the resources of the company. †¢Trainings across the globe Being a global company, the company carries out its e-learning globally. The same trainings are made available to all of its employees at different countries. For other trainings that are not carried out online, the company provides the same content to be used globally. The ac-tual trainings will, however, be carried out by P&G at different regions and offices separate-ly. The trainers for such courses often come from P&G’s employees. These are keen employees who sent to external trainers to receive trainings. As a result of that, the training content of non-online trainings (despite having the same content across the globe) may vary slightly depending on the trainers’ style and expertise. In any case, not all trainings can be attended by all employees. Some training has specific requirements of having to meet certain career stage. Hence an approval status is needed before the employee can attend it. There are also certain trainings which can only be at-tended by certain employees upon recommendation from the managers. Therefore, em-ployees have to take note of such details as well as the location of trainings as an employee in Singapore could not simply attend trainings that are held in United States. The overall benefit of having such a complete online system in its training system is to allow P&G’s employees to realize their own learning progress and to direct them into knowing what kind of skills they need to develop further in the future. It also serves to save employees time by providing the employees the flexibility of completing the trainings at the own time. E-Recruiting With nearly 300 brands worldwide, P&G places high importance in the people and values the talent of every individual. The company spare no effort in attracting suitable talents into its company and promises to offer exciting new challenges, tremendous growth and support, and a chance to touch and improve lives daily for every of its staff. In the modern era, there have been an increasing number of people who are dependent on technology and the internet. In the past, people used to flip through job ads in newspapers. However in this age of internet technology, more people are increasingly turning to online job portals such as monster. com, recruit. et and efinancialcareers. com. USA Today reports that 95% of the college graduation class of 1997 used the Internet as the medium of choice for their job searches while a recent study by JWT Specialized Communications found that 70% of active job seekers are more likely to use the Web than traditional job hunting methods . The increasing popularity of these new and rising recruitment channels provide fresh and innovative ways that P&G can tap onto for thei r recruitment efforts, instead of relying only on personal network or head hunters. One example of such a channel is the increasingly popular use of online job por-tals (e-recruiting) in a candidate’s job search. P&G’s human resource team was able to identify the fast and moving trends of technology and in turn capitalize on the accessibility and availability of the internet to incorporate into its hiring process, making e-recruiting a part of their overall recruiting strategy. The key to successful e-recruiting is by providing a good job site which would make it easy for candidates to understand and apply and for the company to accomplish its goals of attracting the right talent. McKinsey & Company, the global consulting firm, identified recruiting as a critical issue in its 1998 report, The War for Talent, where McKinsey points to various demographic and industrial changes that are making it harder to recruit and retain good employees . A Fast Company article on the report also reiterated the importance of talent, stating that â€Å"The most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent: smart, sophisticated businesspeople who are technologically literate, globally astute, and operationally agile. And even as the demand for talent goes up, the supply of it will be going down. By providing a good e-recruiting website, P&G is able to benefit as the website has acted as an effective filter, making it easy for the correct candidate to apply and deter the wrong applicants from applying. Other benefits of e-recruiting include huge cost savings. Research has shown that e-recruiting is not only faster than traditional channels but the efficienc ies of e-recruiting can also cut the amount of time needed to identify, interview and hire for a vacant position, in turn helping a company to save as much as $8,000 per hire over traditional hiring channels . Considering the scale of P&G with more than 129,000 employees worldwide, the amount of cost savings is substantial by just making 10% of it hires through e-recruiting. A unique website domain was devoted to P&G’s career centre: http://jobs-pg. com/, with a link to a similar interface easily accessible, appearing on the home page just beside the â€Å"Investor Relations† tab, signifying that P&G values e-recruiting as much as it cares about its investors. This career website has been designed in a very user friendly manner, where one is able to search jobs by category, location or groups, enabling candidates to be able to identify the area of interest or job they would like to apply quickly. P&G’s hiring process is then spilt into 5 gen-eral stages, namely application, assessment, initial interview, final interview and the offer, with specific instructions on what is required for every individual step. †¢Application This simple application process instituted a â€Å"paperless† online application system allowing electronic applications to be submitted 24 hours a day and helping the company to find ap-plicants in a timely manner. The information required in the application stage includes con-tact information, education, resume, questionnaire, confirmation and a summary. Appli-cants are also able to save the application as a draft first before completing it at a later time, allowing greater flexibility. †¢Assessments P&G uses online assessments to measure skills and accomplishments that generally do not emerge from interviews. These assessments are beneficial and well received by the appli-cants as it not only allow the company to assess the abilities of the applicant, but also help determine if it is equally beneficial for the applicant to continue through the hiring process, in turn acting as a screening stage for both parties. Examples of the online assessments are: oSuccess Drivers Assessment: â€Å"Assess your background, experiences, interests and work related attitudes and measures your compatibility against P&G compe-tencies for defining successful job performance† oReasoning Screen: â€Å"Measures your cognitive ability. This is important because the nature of our work is complex and continually changing† †¢Initial Interview Behavioural based interviews used to know more about the applicant’s previous accoplish-ment and the applicant relate to, compare with and connect with the company’s Success Drivers. †¢Final Interview One-to-one or panel interviews to find out in greater detail about the applicant’s skills and capabilities. This is also an opportunity for the applicant to get a more in depth understand-ing of P&G’s unique culture, values and endless opportunities. †¢Offer An offer of employment will be first notified through a phone call before a confirmation with details is given through the electronic mail. The comprehensive and descriptive steps of e-recruiting has allowed P&G to achieve a competi-tive advantage in attracting global talents to its company by making job postings available and conducting a firsthand filter of the job applicants through the several stages of recruitment in place. The advantages of e-recruiting for P&G include the ability to reach a wider range of audience, being cost effective and achieving a faster recruitment cycle. With cost effectiveness and a faster recruitment cycle being discussed previously, the ability to reach a wider range of audience is especially important for a global company with job openings suitable for people from all over the world. Opportunities/ Recommendations P&G faces many opportunities that it can tap onto for growth. With the constant increase in the use of internet revolutionizing the way people communicate and interact, majority of the companies today have incorporated e-recruiting into their recruitment strategy. Therefore there is a need for P&G to tap into new opportunities to further enhance and improve its current e-recruiting strategy. In conducting the field research of e-recruitment in P&G, it could be seen that technology was greatly used in the application, assessment and offer process, but not applied in the initial and final interview process. Hence P&G could actively test alternative methods of recruitment such as using audio and video conferencing or a real-time virtual Business Game Challenge in the interview stages to continue develop its recruitment strategy. For training wise, our group believes that P&G could have regular pop-up quizzes which test its employees on the general contents of the past trainings that the employees have attended. This serve to add on the recall on the employees and reminding them about knowledge taught such that it will prevent the employees from forgetting the training content after attending them. This is to ensure that all the resources that P&G develop are put into good use. Such pop-up quizzes, though simple, could serve as a constant reminder about the need of being aware of such knowledge even though they may not use them directly on a day-to-day basis. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, we see that talent is the key resource that drives P&G forward and helps the company to remain on top in today’s competitive market. Realizing this, P&G never let loose its effort in finding the right talent and providing them with proper trainin. The company want to ensure that all of its employees share the same values and are equipped with the most up-to-date product knowledge in a consistent manner. In order to do this efficiently, the use of technology in its e-HR system has proven to be an ef-fective and efficient method that keeps the company ahead globally. With change being the only constant in today’s world, the continuous upgrades in its HR system as well as review on recruitment process are some of the key efforts which require great efforts and are of high importance to the success of the company. Considering the size and global positioning that P&G has, keeping its e-HR competent is therefore the key to success. ? References Fast Company (1998). â€Å"The War For Talent†. Retrieved 22 December 2011 from http://www. fastcompany. com/online/16/mckinsey. html Mark. H & Jakob. N (1999). E-Recruiting. Creative Good Inc. McKinsey & Company (2001). â€Å"The War For Talent†. Retrieved 22 December 2011 from http://autoassembly. mckinsey. com/html/downloads/articles/War_For_Talent. pdf CNN Money (2011). â€Å"World’s Most Admired Companies†. Retrieved 20 December 2011, from http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2011/snapshots/334. html Procter & Gamble (2011). Purpose & People†. Retrieved 20 December 2011, from http://www. pg. com/en_US/company/purpose_people/index. shtml National Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (January 2002) â€Å"Asia-Pacific e-learning Alliance: A Report on e-Learning and Best Practices† Retrieved 19 December 2011, from http://unpan1. un. org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN011272. pdf SABA Customer Overview (Se ptember 2001) â€Å"Procter & Gamble†. Retrieved 21 December 2011, from http://www. betacom. com. pl/files/other/PnG_v4. pdf National Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (January 2002) â€Å"Asia-Pacific e-learning Alliance: A Report on e-Learning and Best Practices† Retrieved 19 December 2011, from http://unpan1. un. org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN011272. pdf Training Press Releases (11 April 2003). â€Å"Procter & Gamble use BrightWave†. Retrieved 20 December 2011, from http://www. trainingpressreleases. com/news/brightwave/2003/procter-gamble-use-brightwave Accenture (2009). â€Å"Helping Procter & Gamble strengthen a culture of high performance through its learning program†. Retrieved 21 December 2011, from

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

A Look At Three Types Of Price Searchers Economics Essay

A Look At Three Types Of Price Searchers Economics Essay A monopoly is a firm producing a commodity for which there is no close substitute. There are usually some forms of barriers of entry. It is difficult to define a pure monopoly as close substitutes are difficult to define. For example, there are no close substitutes for cigarettes, but there are many substitutes for Marlboro. 1.1 Characteristics à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Features (a) Only one seller. (b) Restricted entry by barriers. (c) Market information is not free and perfect. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Barriers to entry (a) Legal barriers create legal monopolies. (i) Public franchise: exclusive right to run a business, e.g. TVB. (ii) Government licence: exclusive right to entry into a business, e.g. taxi licence. (iii) Patent: exclusive right to use an invention, e.g. right to produce a drug. (b) Natural barriers create natural monopolies. (i) The average cost falls over a large volume of output before it rises. LRAC would be lower if an industry were under monopoly than if it was shared between two or more competitors. (ii) Control the supply of an essential raw material, e.g. most diamond mines in the world are controlled by De Beers Ltd. (iii) Economies of scale: The large fixed cost of production requires a large output to pull down the average cost, e.g. electricity generated by China Light Power Ltd. 1.2 Output And Price Decisions Definition A single-price monopoly is one that charges the same price for every unit of output it sells. The monopoly must decide how much to produce and what price to charge. It is a price-searcher. Definition A price searcher is a seller with sufficient market power to set its price by adjusting supply. Since there is only one firm in the industry, the demand curve of the firm is also the demand curve of the industry, and the seller faces a downward sloping demand curve. Table 1 illustrates the demand function of a petrol station. The marginal revenue is less than and falls faster than the price charged. The price is also equal to average rev enue (AR). Table 1: Demand and marginal revenue Price (P, $/Litre) Quantity Demanded (Q) Total Revenue (TR = P x Q, $) Marginal Revenue (MR = ΆTR = ΆQ) ($/Extra Litre) 18 0 0 – 16 1 16 16 14 2 28 12 12 3 36 8 10 4 40 4 The monopoly maximises its profit by producing the level of output to MR = MC. Given the total cost as in Table 2, we can find that the best output level to maximise profit is at three litres, where both MC and MR are equal. The price charged is $12. Table 2: Demand and marginal cost Price (P, $/Litre) Quantity Demanded (Q) Total Revenue (TR=P x Q, $) Marginal revenue (MR = ΆTR / ΆQ, $/Extra Litre) Total Cost (TC, $) Marginal Cost ($/Extra Liter) 18 0 0 – 15 – 16 1 16 16 18 3 14 2 28 12 22 4 12 3 36 8 30 8 10 4 40 4 41 11 Graphically, the same conclusion can be derived in Figure 1. Figure 1 A monopoly’s output and price The price is determined by demand curve corresponding to the equilibrium quantity at which the MR equals to MC. The profit or loss is again determined by the ATC with reference to the quantity sold and the price charged. Owing to barriers to entry, economic profits will not be eliminated away in the long run. The only difference between short-run and long-run equilibrium is that in the long run, the firm will produce where MR = LRMC.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

How U.S. Government and regulatory bodies can manage business cycles Essay

How U.S. Government and regulatory bodies can manage business cycles - Essay Example Business cycles can be defined as larger fluctuations in the economic activities or in the production of goods and services over a long period of time. It is sometimes known as economic cycle and is often associated with periods of high economic growth. The business cycle therefore consists of periods of economic booms as well as periods of economic recession or decline. The measurement for the business cycle is often done by the government through the measure of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a particular nation. It is however important to note that even though it is termed as a business cycle; it does not follow ant pattern or any mechanically predictable pattern (Lynch, 85). In this context, it is therefore difficult to tell what pattern or direction the future cycle will take. This presents a challenge to the managements of the business cycles and call for better ways of forecasting. The explanation of the causes of the business cycles remains some of the controversial issue s in the analysis of economic growth in many economies (Hill, 320). One of the most common known causes of business cycles is the disequilibrium commonly known as the Keynesian theory. This theory is based on the argument that the fluctuation in the economy often begin because of lack of demand for the workers or labor. The argument here is that labor market or demand for labor do not adjust immediately but take very long time and hence it is difficult for the government to adjust appropriately and at the right time (Agnew, 197). The lack of demand for workers often adjust after very long period of time and the result of this is that it takes time. Moreover, the wages for labor and the prices are sticky as some are not easily adjustable and hence it takes very long time for the labor market to respond to the demand. â€Å"If output goes down it is due to that market fails to clear pushing the economy into recession† (Brentani, 109). This explains the downwards and the upward trends in the economy that forms the business cycles witnessed not only in the United States of America but also in the other nations across the world. The real business cycle theory on the other hand asserts that the changes or the fluctuations in business occur as a result of real factors. It is important to note that this theory believes that the government should not take part in controlling the market forces. The market forces of demand and supply should be left to adjust on their own (Treve, 72). The intervention of the government through the monetary as well as fiscal policies is not necessary, because the economy is capable of adjusting to the changes on its own. This theory also puts more emphasis on the substitution of labor and technological shocks as the major causes of business cycles. Failure of the economy to adjust to these changes would therefore lead to economy moving to recession. With regard to this theory, the rates of changes or the degree to which workers resp onds to incentives determines the supply of labor. Fluctuations in the level of technology also have serious impacts on the labor productivity because it affects the incentives (Knoop, 251). The high rise in technology would improve the productivity of labor and hence the real wages would rise as well. This would then result into the increase in the output and rates of employment and vice versa. This theory has also considered other factors like terrorism, disasters, political unrests, weather conditions among other factors that can affect output of an economy. In this way of argument, money does not impact on output neither does output impact on money and hence both move together in the same direction (Knoop, 253). Real business cycle theory is thus very important in the understanding of business cycle theory. However, just like any other theory, it is not perfect and has its own limitations. The

Monday, October 7, 2019

Questions on Hans Selye's Stress Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Questions on Hans Selye's Stress Theory - Essay Example If situations are supposed by the human being as traumatic, then this assessment will set in action a chain of stress-impacts mechanisms comprised of integrated behavioral and physiological, hard work to get used to the environmental hassle (Van, 2004). Stress is the unpleasant response people have to extreme pressures or other types of challenge located on them. There is an apparent dissimilarity between stress, which can generate a buzz and be an inspiring issue, and stress, which can happen when this stress becomes extreme (Unamaka, 1995). Causes of stress According to Hans Selye's Stress Theory, workplace stress is tough to pact with at the optimum of era, but when joblessness is elevated, redundancies are ordinary and struggle for promotions is so ferocious it’s terrifying, workplace stress steps go all the way through the roof. The difficulty with workplace stress is that it is habitually tough to recognize other than a universal emotion of stressful life at work (Taffinder, 2006). Being Overworked This is possibly the most clear of all the stress factors. If one has too a good deal work to do, scarce time to do it in, and awkward stress on one to meet those deadlines, yet the most competent worker is going to sense the intensity. Being Underworked Not common as a clear stress feature, but in the existing situation where redundancies are still being completed, no one needs to be viewed to be shaking their thumbs and being paid to do zilch on the organization moment. This is particularly solid if you have no jurisdiction over your workflow (Stankard, 2002). Job Security Situations have been hazy for more than 50 years and job safety does not really survive any longer. Although, in an economic recession when workers are laid off and hiring are not, the stress of not getting job safety can be gravely overstated. Job Succession There is nobody who wishes to linger constant position, on equal salary for an unlimited time, however, numerous skills are at the present stifled by bazaar in which there exist no employment or endorsement is being completed. Even though, you might have a occupation, not being capable to obtain to your subsequently phase can make you deem bored and fascinated, which can be stressful. The Incorrect Job When one discovers that he is in an occupation that you have inadequate skills to deal with, you will feel like one who is plummeting from the start.   When you cannot ask for guidance since one does not desire to confess one is not the right candidate for the job the stress increases to open up (Ralph, 1981). Guilt Traditions The unlucky result of a being short of job safety is that no one needs to attach their head above the ramparts and confess to mistakes in a situation that it can cost them their work. Unluckily, in this type of traditions, if one cannot confess to mistakes that one is improbable to evolution and be trained. In addition, when it comes to indicative the reason of issues that have arisen can create an ambiance of terror and wariness that is extremely stressful to job in everyday situations. Bad Management Being deficient in durable and successful organization can make a team wandering and persons in a situation of muddle puzzlement that is awfully stressful. On the contrary, over-management and small administration are claustrophobically stressful for personnel and put down no space for originality or enlargement. Harassment One might believe that when you leave suddenly the playing field bullying becomes a thing of the

Sunday, October 6, 2019

MPAA Censorship Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MPAA Censorship - Research Paper Example MPAA is alternate to federal regulation of motion picture content by United States government. This is because America lagged behind other countries in implementing motion picture rating. After the desertion of Production Codes in the 1950s, (Acland, 2009) movies became explicit all in the name of expressing realism. The realism movement had its significant contribution to the film industry and disadvantages. Realism movement boasts of production of great and timeless movies like Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock. However, it also gave arise to low-budget films that became extremely graphic in their sexual and violence content. The brutal and vicious content of movies such as Straw Dogs directed by Sam Peckinpah startled and troubled most conservative Americans. Moreover, a sequence of movies released later buried the realism movement to its grave by their obscene content. Due to this, a form of regulation had to be established, resulting to the birth of Motion Picture Association of America. In addition, National Association of Theater Owners consented to implement uniform rating system to all the movies shown. The distributors and exhibitors would enforce the system (Sklar, 2009). . The MPAA rates movies according to their content. It assists consumers especially parents to select appropriate movies for their children in different age groups. MPAA works in association with major movie production studios in America like, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studio and many others. The core functions of this rating system body includes, control and of distribution of movies, fighting unlawful copying of films and managing film ratings (Balio, 2000). Submission of movies for rating should be voluntary. Despite this, some producers prefer not to submit their films for rating to avoid incurring losses. To reinforce the submission on movies MPAA has a de facto obligatory position in the film industry. Since independent films do not focus on entertainmen t but rather on the artistic and aesthetic values of a film, they do not submit their films to the rating system. Independent filmmakers argue that their films require no distribution since they already have an existing consumer base. Hence, submission of their films to the rating system incurs unnecessary expenditure. When it comes to the rating process, MPAA does not have publication of a standard requirement of words, actions, or exposed body parts that filmmakers should incorporate in their films to get PG-13 rating (Balio, 2000). If a film contains use of drugs and callous sexually derived words, it gets a PG-13 rating. However, if the film uses such words a couple of times it gets an R rating. After rating, a film, the members submit their verdict to the producer of the film. The producer has the will to re-edit the film or appeal to the Appeals Board of the rating system if the results are not satisfactory. To avoid wrangles during the rating process movie publishers state th e desired MPAA rating with the movie producer. Some of the main rating categories MPAA uses to rate movie include- G— a film to that gets a G-rating should have mild humor. It should not have any form of crude language. There should be no nudity or sex scenes. Drug use and violence should not be present in the motion picture. PG—