Group Project Final Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Group Project Final Report - Essay Example After a certain time period, the evaluation can be carried out to find out if the investment is turning out as planned. The assumptions that can be applied the fact that the bond’s rate of return will remain constant and will be paid in time. The other assumption is that there will be no external factors that will adversely affect the running of a company. The reevaluation of assumptions can be done based on factors that affect the rate of return of bonds. The assumptions cannot be accurate because there are many external factors that largely affect rate of return. The things that did not work to our favor include the inflation rates. The inflation rates are dependent on a number of factors that cannot be controlled by a single individual. In reallocating, the investor can consider taking up investments that are in independent industries to ensure that profits are reaped even in the case of economic

Lupin Marketing Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Lupin Marketing Plan - Essay Example Perceptual map has also been prepared to analysis the competitor’s position in the industry so that Lupin can implement strategies accordingly along with the 4Ps. Finally to measure the effectiveness of the business plan, balance scorecard will be used which will determine the working and effectiveness of the strategies adopted and if any changes to be made in the business plan. Contents 1.Executive Summary 2 Contents 3 2. Introduction 5 3. Situation Analysis 5 4. SWOT Analysis 8 5. Evaluation of Alternative Strategies 10 6. Objectives 11 7. Recommended Strategy 12 8. Economic Evaluation 15 9. Implementation and Control 16 9.1 Managing, measuring and controlling 16 9.2 Contingency plan 17 Reference 18 Bibliography 19 Appendix 20 25 2. Introduction With globalization acting as a permanent as well as irreversible part of the economy and economic life providing the firms with both opportunities as well as challenges to prove themselves and compete in the competing market environm ent. Therefore international expansion has become one of the prominent strategic responses towards global dynamics for organizations. International expansion can be defined as a process through which the multinational enterprise enters and also invest in some foreign country in pursuit of strategic objectives (Luo, 1999, p. 5). The project report highlights the process of internationalization and the benefits involved in the process of going global. The company taken into consideration is Lupin pharmaceuticals which is among the top five pharmaceuticals companies in India. Lupin Pharmaceuticals plans to enter America with its product generic, specialty and API. The reason behind choosing America is that US is the largest market for pharmaceuticals and is also global leader in biopharmaceutical research. The US market provides a free pricing market and a favorable and also regulatory environment (Select USA, n.d). By entering the US market particularly America, Lupin aims to capture the market share and build in brand value in the international market. 3. Situation Analysis 3.1 Business Environment Political Pharmaceutical industry has over the years gathered political focus as well as pressure from the government across the globe and its impact has been highly experienced in US industry. The US pharmaceutical industry tends to operates differently as compared to other national industries. Consumers and patients do not pay for their drugs directly, but receive them through government run healthcare systems. Political factors play a huge role in the regulation of distribution, manufacturing and also sale of the pharmaceutical with regards to safety of its consumer. The Food and Drug Administration is the regulatory body in the US and sets a standard of quality (Castner, Hayes & Shankle, 2007). Economic The US pharmaceutical industry has been for decades among the most profitable and also growing sector encountered by the American economy.

External World Skepticism Essay Example for Free

External World Skepticism Essay ‘’Locke and Descartes have very different ideas about how to defeat external world skepticism.’’ Whose views are more valid about the realiability of sense perception for understanding the external world? The knowledge, the idea of the existence of external world and the way it is perceived by human being has been controvesy issue for centruies. Descartes and Locke also two very important name who proposed some viewpoint, even it can be said some theories, on the issue. The existence of external world and external bodies are true without us? Or do they exist as long as we perceive them? The idea of existence of external bodies, the knowledge of them can be attained through the way they reach us in any form. The most common and the easiest, as it will be discussed later as the only, way is the senses through them we perceive the material objects and arrive at the information they exist or not. Every existential material being has some spesific physical qualities that appeal to our senses, and through this way we experience them. It is an obvious fact that something that does not exist can do nothing to us or can show no quality to be noticed by us. Famous philospher Descartes also, basically based on this perspective, put forward that what we are perceiving through our senses are the external bodies that caused the ideas in us. As the ideas of external bodies caused in us by their perception through our senses, they exists outside independent of us. This means that whether or not we perceive any material being, it keeps to process of existence. Only, the idea of it, in us, begins with our noticing, perceiving and putting in a place in our mind. To be more clear, the part of it, its existence to us is this: our getting the idea of it. And getting an idea of an objects is provided through experiencing it by our senses independent of our will and desire. When we notice an object it has been realized that it reached us with one or more physical qualifications of it; thus we perceived it through our sense organs and have an idea about its existence. So, tt the very moment we perceive an object, its existence accepted by us in my opi nion. However, Descartes claims that sensory ideas must be produced by some substances other than us as we have a passive faculty of sensory perception and only active faculties can use them. It is worth to noting that it is totally wrong as it is possible our having an idea that produced without us. The ideas are produced, no matter what they are about, in our mind. And, ideas of external things comes into being in our minds just because we can notice them in a way. After their idea, their knowledge is reached with the way their qualities are perceived by senses. On the other hand, Locke makes his theory depend on a more assured ground. The Knowledge of the Existence of any other thing we can have only by Sensations. The only way to know any external thing is to experience it through our sensory organs. Because their realization in our minds or their existence in us is created by the testimony of our sensory organs. It can be said that our understanding of the external things pass through our reliability on our sensations. However, it also is worth to note that whenever we perceive something through our sensory organs, a certain quality of them affects us in a specific way. After their perception realizes in our mind, we makes reasons about them and understand that there are material objects that exists outside, independently. So mean, there are external material things that exists without and independent of us. Furthermore, the knowledge of them can be gained only through sensations and perceptions. First of all, when we face with an object, we perceive it through our sense organs. This perception is moved on to our brain, and with its interpretation of the object, an idea of it takes place in us. For instance, my perception of a book, my knowing of a book is provided me with the certain qualities of it. Its shape and color could be an example for this. It has a shape and a color and i can see it with my eyes, so the idea of the book reach me through the testimony of my eyes. In this example the color and the shape of the book helps me to define it in my mind with some specific qualities. Again, let’s consider a flower which has a good odor and pink color. Using our sensory organs we can ascribe the flower color and odor qualities. In a more detailed way, thanks to its odor i know that there is a thing independent of me which has a color and an odor. It already has been there with its color and odor but we were not aware of it before perceive it. Otherwise, because our sensory organs do not have the capability of producing some senses without getting any stimulus from outside, it would be a fallacy to believe that we create the ideas of external objects in our own mind without their existence, even though in some situations stimulus may leads us to have wrong ideas about the reality. Additionally, it is also another possible situation that we may have the idea of an object, without getting any cause from it at the very that moment depending on past experiences. As an illustration, let’s consider a nomad traveler who passing through a desert. The weather is so hot, everywhere is yellow and the tiredness of walking very long time increases the desire to have some water but he does not have. In this while, within this deprivation he sees a puddle. But as far as he gets close to it, the puddle becomes distant, and the nomad realizes that it is not a real, existed puddle but just a mirage. His eyes tricke him and he sees an object which, in fact, does not exist there at that moment. With the effect of other stimulants like hot weather, yellow color etc. the thirst increases to the extend that it gives rise him to see an unexisted thing as it exists there. The idea of a puddle comes into being in the mind of the nomad at the result of the causes come from the ou tside existed things, but it drags him to be under the illusion of an unexisted thing at that moment. To be more clear, it is not the situation that the nomad sees a never existed thing as existed at that moment; on the contrary, he sees an image of an existed thing which existed in fact on this world, but unexisted there and for that moment. The appearance of a puddle is a consequence of the perception of hot and the vast desert. Perceptions of their being truly creates a false idea of another object. So to speak, her brain plays a game with the nomad and brins up the idea of a previously perceived object. The nomad has the notion of puddle. He has the idea about how a puddle looks like. And at that moment with the wrong association of ideas, he had wrong idea about the puddle’s to be there at that moment. Nonetheless, it does not change the reality that there is a puddle thing outside him and the perception of it realized before, the idea of it comes into being in the mind of the nomad, thus he can recall it among from all the ideas he has thanks to previous perceptions. The perception of the puddle came to existence in a moment his previous life. Consequently, our sensory organs may lead us to have wrong perception in a moment of our life, but it cannot be deniable that this wrong perception also comes from a true perception of the object in another moment, so it exists for another moment even though it does not exist for that moment. Locke has a claim related to this: ‘’ As when our Senses employ’d about any Object, we do know that it does exist; so by our Memory we may be assured, that therefore Things, that affected our senses, have existed. And thus we have knowledge of the past Existence of several things, whereof our senses informed us, our memories still retain the ideas; and of this we are past all doubt, so long as we remember well.’’ We believe the existence of some objects as we have past experiences with them, even though at the moment we think about them we do not have any physical relation with them. Moreover, as another point of view, if it would be thought for things that cann ot be sensed by our sensory organs but material, it can easily be said that it is impossible that there such a being exists, as the material objects are the ones that have some physical qualities that affect us through sensory organs of us. When it comes to abstract things or their ideas in us, the situation is totally different and we cannot be so sure about their existence and we cannot have a definite, true knowledge of them. They are not physical obejcets nor are qualified with the features that can be comprehended through perception. As i agree with him to some extent but do not completely, Locke thinks that the idea of spirits does not make us know that any such thing do exist without us, but Eternal God. And according to him we must believe existence of some spiritual things, even though we cannot perceive and discover them in any way, as God created them and we informed about them with revelation or for other reasons. The spirits or abstracts that we have idea about them are known by us, as some of us experienced them. We are tend to believe in what majority believes. Although we do not perceive them with our own senses, we may be persuaded to have the idea of their existence. It also is related to our beliefs. If God informs us that they exist even though we do not experience them, we may believe as we faithfully trust and obey Him. However, It is not certain that some spirits are around exists. They may be there for the ones who believe in them, and not for the others who do not believe. These kind of knowledge depends on belief and it would not be logical to say something certain about them. Descartes on the other hand, links the knowledge of non-material things to God. According to him, if God had not give us a way to recognize such ‘higher forms’, we has been strongly inclined to believe that bodies produce them. And so if the ideas were transmitted from a source other than corporeal things, God would be a deceiver; and he is not; so bodies exists. This claim again would be true if one believe in God without any doubt, but s/he may not. So it shoul have more logical explanation that do have a common validity for everyone. As i mentioned above, since the ideas of abstracts cannot be thought independent of belief, their existence might be related to the believing them directly. As an example, think about Deism; those who believe in it consider God as the only holly one. They believe in God, but they rejects the religions, reveletion and all the other things which are mentioned in religions as things created by God. So in short, the existence of things other than the material things cannot be known clearly and certainly as they might be accepted by the ones who believe and might not be accepted by the others who rejects. Last but not least, it can be said that having knowledge about any issue begins with knowing and knowing with understanding. To understand something, it is a must that its being left an impact on us in such a way that we perceive it through sensations. Addition to this, it is a fact that an impact comes with a feature that belongs to an object and helps us to perceive the object, thus we comprehend its existence and have the knowledge of it. [ 1 ]. Descartes, Meditations 6 , p 43 in textbook. [ 2 ]. Descartes, Meditations 6 , p 45 in the textbook [ 3 ]. Knowledge of the Existence of other Things p. 630 (in textbook) [ 4 ]. Knowledge of the Existence of other Things (p 636, p 134 in textbook) [ 5 ]. Knowledge of the Existence of other Things (p 637, p 134 in textbook) [ 6 ]. Descartes, Meditations 6, p 45 in textbook.

Comparison Of Kotter Lewin And Positive Models Management Essay

Comparison Of Kotter Lewin And Positive Models Management Essay Change is good, changes in the market, change requests and client technology for supporting activities changer, but change is not always in control of the organization (Vroom, 1993). Research shows that it is important to manage proactively monitor and seek changes to succeed and to gain a competitive advantage. Management must communicate the need for change and to highlight the crisis situation that may develop while avoiding the change. Effective communication should be used to promote or market the new proposed changes while at the same time, demonstrate the shortcomings of old system. Users resist change because they fear the unknown, but effective communication at the beginning of the project can contribute to reduce this fear. It was noted that communication efforts must be verbal and active (Kotter, 1995). Management must be seen to actively support the process of change so that it can get the full support of the active population. Actually change not only to be managed, but must also be marketed. Once the change has been implemented, the change management process must constantly reviewer change and it strengthen. In this paper we will see how the three models play important role in change process for any organization. Kotters Eight Steps Model John Kotter who teaches in Harvard Business School has made it his business to study both success and failure in change initiatives in business. The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces satisfactory results and making critical mistakes in any on the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains. Kotter summarizes the eight phases as follows. (Kotter, 1997) 1) Establish a Sense of Urgency Talking about change usually begins with some people noticing vulnerability in the organization. The threat of losing ground in some sort of spark these people to action, and in turn, they try to communicate this sense of urgency to others. Congregations, it generally is loss of financial struggles or turnover in key volunteer members and leaders. Kotter noted that more than half business that he observed were never able to create enough emergency measures. Without motivation, helping people and effort goes nowhereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Frameworks underestimate hard how there may be people to drive their comfort zones. In most of the successfully cases, the leadership group facilitate a frank discussion of potentially unpleasant facts: topic of the new competition, flat earnings, decrease in market share or other relevant indicators. It is useful to use outside people (by example, to get consultants, unchurched, people of other faiths, regional or national staff people) who can share the w holesale image from a different angle and help to expand awareness of your members. When relatively high levels of emergency? Kotter suggests that it is when 75% of your leadership believes honestly that business as usual is no longer an acceptable plan. (Kotter, 1997) 2) Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition Often change efforts start with only one or two people should continually grow to include more who believe that the changes are necessary. The necessity of this phase is to gather a relatively large initial core of believers. This initial group must be powerful enough in terms of the roles they hold in the Church, the reputation they have skills that they bring and the relationships they have. Regardless of the size of your organization, the Director coalition for the purposes of change to have 3-5 people leading the effort. This group, in turn, can lead others on board with new ideas. The construction of this coalition their sense of urgency sense of what is happening and what is needed is crucial. Involving respected leaders key areas of your church this coalition pay dividends much later. (Kotter, 1997) 3) Create a Vision Successful transformation is based on a picture of the future that is relatively easy to communicate and appealed to clients, shareholders and employees. Vision help clarify the direction in which an organization must pass. The functions of vision in several ways: it helps spark motivation, it helps to keep all projects and changes aligned, it provides a filter to assess how the Organization and provides a rationale that changes in the Organization should weather. A useful general rule: If you cannot communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a response which means understanding and interest, you have not yet finished with this phase of the transformation process. (Kotter, 1997) 4) Communicate that Vision Kotter suggests that leadership to estimate how many communications vision is needed and then multiply this effort by a factor of ten. Do not restrict it to a congregation meeting, a sermon by the Minister or by a couple of mailings to members. Leaders must be considered walk the talk another form of communication if people are going to collect important effort. Actions with words are powerful communicators new ways. The bottom line is that a transformation effort will fail unless that most members understand, appreciate, engage, and try to make the effort to occur. The principle is simple: use each existing communication channel and an opportunity. (Kotter, 1997) 5) Empower Others to Act on the Vision This involves several different actions. To allow people to the Church to start living on new ways and to changes in their fields of intervention. Allocate budget money for the new initiative. Carve out time on the agenda of the session to talk about. Change how your church is organized for the people where the effort must be. Free people key existing responsibilities so that they can concentrate on the new effort. In short, remove any obstacle, there may be to obtain a change. Nothing is more frustrating that believing in change, but then do not have the time, money, help or support needed to affect it. You cannot get rid of all obstacles, but those great needs to be dealt with. (Kotter, 1997) 6) Plan for and Create Short-Term Wins Given that the actual processing takes time, the loss of momentum and the appearance of disappointment are real factors. Most people wont on a long walk to change unless they begin to see requiring evidence that their efforts are paying off. Successful transformation leaders actively plan and short-term gains that will be able to see and celebrate. It proves the Church that their efforts are working and adds to the motivation to keep efforts. When it becomes clear that major changes would take some time, emergency levels can drop. Commitments to produce short-term wins help keep emergency level up and detailed analytical thinking who can clarify or revise the visions of the force. (Kotter, 1997) 7) Consolidate Improvements and Keep the Momentum for Change Moving As Kotter warns, do not declare victory too early. Until changes sink deep into culture Church, a process that could take five to ten years new approaches are fragile and subject to regression. Yet once a premature victory declaration kills momentum, which allows powerful forces to return to tradition. Leaders of successful efforts use sense of victory as motivation to delve more deeply into their organization: to explore changes in the culture database, to expose relationships of body systems that need adjustment, move people is committed to new ways in the leading roles. The leaders of change must go in the process of belief that their efforts will take years. (Kotter, 1997) 8) Institutionalize the New Approaches Ultimately, change sticks when it becomes the ways do us things here, when it infiltrates into the bloodstream of the organization. Until the new behaviors are rooted in shared values and social standards, they are subject to degradation as soon as the pressure for change is deleted. Two factors are especially important for this. People first of all, a conscious attempt to show how new approaches, behaviours and attitudes have contributed in improving the lives of the Church. People must be helped to establish links between effort and result. The second is to ensure that the next generation of leaders congregations believe in new ways. (Kotter, 1997) Lewin Model Kurt lewin proposed a three-stage theory of change commonly referred to as unfreeze, change, freeze (or refreeze). (Mind Tools, 2007; Syque, 2007). Stage 1 Unfreeze This step is prepared for change. It consists in a point to understand that change is necessary and prepare to move away from our current comfort zone. Free and reasoned that the change is all about weighing pro and con and decide if the more pro that the con to take any action. This is the basis of what Kurt Lewin calls the force field analysis database. Analysis of the field strength is a fantasy to say that there are many different factors (force) for and against change we need to know (analysis). If the drivers of change outweigh the factors change, we change. If not, then there is low motivation change and if we pushed to change, we are likely to get Crabby and dig in our heels. This first step Thaw is to move ourselves, a Department or entire company to the motivation for the change. (Mind Tools, 2007; Syque, 2007) Step 2 Change Kurt Lewin, that change is not an event, but rather a process. This process is called the transition. Transition is the internal movement or the trip that we do in response to a change. As with role models and allowing people to develop their own solutions also help to make the changes. It also really helps keep communicating a clear desired changes and benefits to persons picture where they lead so that they lose. (Mind Tools, 2007; Syque, 2007). Step 3 Freezing (or Refreezing) As the name suggests this stage is about establishing stability once, the changes have been made. The changes are accepted and become the new norm. People form new relationships and become comfortable with their routines. As its name implies this stage is to establish stability once, the changes have been made. The changes are accepted and become the new standard. People in the form of new relationships and becoming comfortable with their routines. (Mind Tools, 2007; Syque, 2007). Positivist Model: This model consists of five stages Initiate the Inquiry, Inquire into the Best Practices, Discover Themes, Envision a Preferred Future, and, Design and Deliver Ways to Create the Future. This model is quite similar the above two models in many ways. It talks about initiating an inquisitive enquiry as to why, what, when and how things have to be reshuffled or changed which is central for every change effort to effect positively. At the second stage, the model proposes to enquire only the best practices and eliminate the redundant ones to narrow down the scope of the change towards a particular area. Through subsequent stages, this model encourages to devise the vision for what is expected from a change which can then be used to formulate operational strategies accordingly. However, it does not talk about anchoring the new change into a companys culture. By doing so, it keeps the door open for continuous improvements and change. Also, accountability and continuous communication are missing in this model. (Cummings and Worley, 2008) Advantages and Disadvantage of Three Models Kotters Model As the above two edit templates, Kotter eight step change model has many drawbacks and benefits. The advantages are that it is the step by step, which is easy to follow model. Another is that it does not focus on change itself, but rather the acceptance and the preparation of this change, which makes it an easy transition. Focuses on the buy-in of employees as the focus for success. May be communicated among all steps and adapts well in traditional hierarchies. Downside is that you cannot ignore the steps or change process fails completely. As with the other two models change still takes time with it too. (Kotter, 1996) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢The linearity of the model can lead to wrong assumptions. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Once process has begun, it is difficult to change the direction. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢The model is clearly downward; it gives no margin of co-creation or other forms of real participation. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Can lead to deep employee frustration if the stages of grief and individual needs are not taken into account. (Kotter, 1996) Lewins Model Although the theory of the Lewin has proved useful to understand changes in relatively stable conditions, the nature continues and the dynamics of change in todays business world, it makes more sense to implement a process for freezing modified behaviour, part of the procession takes the view that the change is a complex process and dynamics, which should not be solidified or treated as a series of linear events, in the heart of the development of an approach to the procession is the need to integrate analysis of change management policy. (Cummings, 1997) Have many pointed out that the planned approach Lewin is too simplistic and mechanistic for a world where the organizational changes is a continuous process open to all (Dawson, 1994; Garvin, 1993; Kanter et al., 1992). The Lewin work is relevant to progressive and isolated projects and is not able to integrate the radical change, transformation (Dawson, 1994; Dunphy and Stace, 1992). Lewin is accused of ignoring the role of power and politics in organizations and wildlife continues to a large part of organizational life. Lewin is seen as advocating a top-down approach on change management and do not take into account situations requiring changes from bottom to top (Dawson, 1994).. He clearly recognized that pressure for change has many neighbourhoods, managers and leaders, and seeking to provide an approach that could accommodate this. Therefore, rather than supporting Lewin has seen change of behaviour as a process from top to bottom, it would be more accurate to say that recognize d that might be initiated the high, low or medium, but it could not be successful without the active participation, willing Lewin and equal for all. Positivist Model The main advantage is that this is a simple and easily understood model for change; the model is done through steps; this is an efficient model that is used today (Mind Tools, 2007; Syque, 2007). The main disadvantage of this model is that it is timely, but you must consider that it is timely for any change to take place. Another disadvantage is that at the envision the preferred future, many people are worried that another change is coming, so they are in change shock (Syque, 2007). This change shock causes employees to not be as efficient or effective in their jobs (Syque, 2007). Similarities between the Three Models All three models Kotters change model, model change of Lewin and positive role model describe the phases through which the change occurs in organizations. All three approaches focus on the application of the knowledge of behavioural science, involve the members of the organization in the process of change, to varying degrees and acknowledge that any interaction between the consultant and an organization is an intervention that might affect the organization. However, model change of Lewin differs from the other two in that it focuses on the overall process of planned change, rather than on specific organizational development activities. In Kotters and Lewin both discusses about how difficult it is to get the people from the comfort zone for the change to happen. In both of the models they use different set of calculation to know whether there is any need of change to take place in the organization. In all three models it starts to identify the problem at the beginning and starts to rectify and implement the change. In Positive and Kotters model the vision for change is declared and works accordingly towards it and it can be done by allotting work to each employees. Conclusion With the recent crises many organizations are willing for change to cope up with market. So surviving in the market is the key for the organizations so they are wiling for change but its the employee or the people who are working in are against it because of fear that what this change might ask them to do. But its the people only who are willing for change like the senior managers. So with different people opinion some with positive and some with negative changes are happening. Important change has increased substantially in the organizations for the past two decades as a result of strong macroeconomic forces. Whenever human communities are forced to adapt to the changing conditions, the pain is always present. Some errors during the processing of a common organization are: (1) leave too complacent, (2) do not create a sufficiently powerful Director coalition, (3) underestimate the power of the vision (4) to communicate the vision of a factor of 10 x-100 x, (5) permits obstacles to b lock the new vision of failing (6) to create some victories in the short term (7) giving victory too soon, (8) neglect anchored firmly in the corporate culture change. These errors amplify a globally competitive rapid movement. These errors can be mitigated and perhaps avoid. The key is to understand why organizations resist changes and the process in several steps to achieve, and how leadership is critical for driving the process in a socially healthy way. You have to work hard to change an organization successfully. When you plan carefully and build the proper foundation, implementing change can be much easier, and youll improve the chances of success. If youre too impatient, and if you expect too many results too soon, your plans for change are more likely to fail. Time for the change to happen depends from organization to organization and the approach they take. They take different steps or models for the change to prosper. So many models available for the organization to play with like the ones discussed above Kotters, Lewins, and Positivist Models. So with these many models changed many organization futures some models worked some didnt. The three phases of Lewin for the management of change, organizational development theory and macro change theories are useful for managers to understand the dynamics of change. It is also important for managers to know how to overcome resistance to change, including education and communication, involvement and participation, negotiation and agreement, manipulation and co-option and use of stress. Lewins model is very rational, goal and plan oriented. It doesnt take into account personal factors that can affect change. Conversely, social cognitive theory proposes that behavioral change is affected by environmental influences, personal factors, and attributes of the behavior itself. Lewins model makes rational sense, but the Social Cognitive Theory because it takes into account both external and internal environmental conditions. The positive role model is a simple model that can be used to guide the principles that underlie effective interventions for change, the individual levels and groups. Should redraft fundamental issues (e.g., how can determine what level of involvement is appropriate for this person?), accept that change is likely to be a phenomenon of development instead of a single decision point (for example, it may take several iterations of the cycle, according to the great how change is for the persons involved) and recognizing that the emotional elements (hope and trust) are inextricably interrelated with the behaviour (qualified practice) and cognitive elements (information, beliefs, attitudes and new objectives). Positive change cycle also suggests that we need to rethink what really are the components of effective career interventions and take concrete steps which testify of change of these critical components. Ultimately, our goal is to help people develop self-managed adaptability to chang e. We must find ways to better measure each of the components of positive change, hope and courage; changes in attitudes and relevant skills and confidence to apply skills; and ability to generate new goals for a self) and also show the cumulative impact of positive change cycle. If we can, we are much more on the road to help create interventions that promote long-term changes and to demonstrate our role in the promotion of this change. I think that Kotters Model is the best choice because it is a simple model. I also feel this way because it fully prepares the employees of the company before the vision is even created, which means that the actual transition will be much easier in the long run. There are fewer disadvantages to this model than others. Overall it is the best fit for most companies because substantial change is needed for the divisions because its history. This will also help ease the transition because the division has quite a history compared to the rest of the company, so people are not as set in the ways, as they would be if the division had been around longer.  Create a sense of urgency, recruit powerful change leaders, build a vision and effectively communicate it, remove obstacles, create quick wins, and build on your momentum. If you do these things, you can help make the change part of your organizational culture. Thats when you can declare a true victory, then sit back and enjoy the change that you envisioned so long ago. There are further errors that make people, but these eight are greatest. In fact, even successful change efforts are messy, and full of surprises. But just as a relatively simple vision is necessary in order to guide people through a major change, therefore a vision of the change process can reduce the error rate. And fewer errors can make the difference between success and failure. I have observed many attempts of the metric system conversion in many organizations for many years and I think that John P. Kotters first change provides a reference for the leaders of the conversion to metric to consider as they plan upgrade conversion to metric.

The Underworld, Logos, and the Poetic Imagination Essay -- Essays Pape

The Underworld, Logos, and the Poetic Imagination I In the Odyssey of Homer, Odysseus travels to the underworld and meets the soul of Achilles, who bitterly comments on existence after death: O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying. I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead.[1] The ancient Greek interpretation of death, as expressed by Homer, portrays the Underworld as a horrible place, terrifying in its monotony and lack of meaning; and Death is something to be feared and avoided as long as possible. Poetry's representation of death has changed dramatically since Homer, especially in the hands of more modern poets like Rilke and Gregory Orr, who, in their handling of the Orpheus and Alcestis myths, treat death as desirable, even more fulfilling than life. In the earlier Greek versions of the Orpheus myth, Eurydice reacts with despair when she loses her only chance to return to the realm of the living. In the modern poetry of Rilke and Orr, however, Eurydice does not want to leave the Underworld. Indeed, returning to life is a painful and dreadful experience for her. She responds to the possibility of life with the same hesitation and fear that the Homeric heroes felt toward death. What has not changed, however, from Homer to the twentieth century is that we do not know what happens after death, and we still use poetry as a means of addressing the uncertainty of death. Poetry is our way of immortalizing and idealizing the dead, and, consequently, the poet acts as the bridge between the living and the dead. II The Iliad begins with the invocation of the Muse, or the poet en... ... her back,/ to hurt her into memory." Gregory Orr, Betrayals/Hades, Eurydice, Orpheus, in City of Salt, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), ll. 10-15, p. 34. [8] Martin Heidegger, "Being and Time," Basic Writings, Edited by David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1993), 78. [9] When Heidegger speaks of the Logos with a capital "L," he is speaking of some sort of higher, transcendent truth. When he speaks of logos with a lower-case "l," he simply means "word." [10] Heidegger, "On the Essence of Truth," Basic Writings, Edited by David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1977), 125. [11] Heidegger, Early Greek Thinkers, Translated by David Farrell Krell and Frank A. Capuzzi (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1975), 73. [12] Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, I, 2, ll. 1-5, p. 229.

What might cause an appreciation of a floating exchange rate? Essay

What might cause an appreciation of a floating exchange rate? Discuss whether an appreciation of a country's exchange rate will always be beneficial to that country. a) what might cause an appreciation of a floating exchange rate? b) Discuss whether an appreciation of a country's exchange rate will always be beneficial to that country. (15) A free, fluctuating or floating exchange rate means the existence of a free or competitive foreign exchange market where the price of one currency in terms of another is determined by the forces of supply and demand operating without any official interference. ====================================================================== A rise in the price of a currency in terms of another currency is called an appreciation. ================================================================= The following figure shows the equilibrium price of pounds in terms of U.S dollars. Short and long-term movements in the exchange rate, like any price, are caused by changes in market demand and supply conditions. The appreciation of a country's currency will occur due to either an increase in demand or fall in supply of that currency. The demand for sterling (pounds) in the FOREX markets comes from many sources UK goods and services are exported overseas - . if there is an increase in exports this will create an inflow of currency into to the UK which needs to be turned into sterling this will increase demand for the sterling . When US consumers but British Whisky they supply dollars and this is eventually translated into a demand for pounds. This will cause an outward shift in the demand curve for sterling, thus causing the currency to appreciate. Foreign long te... ...viously cause a serious fall in living standards. Exchange rate and inflation: An appreciation of the exchange rate helps to control cost and price inflation in the economy. A fall in import prices means that it is cheaper to import raw materials, components, finished manufactured products leading to an outward shift in Short Run Aggregate Supply shown in diagram - this has a direct impact on the Retail Price Index Tougher for domestic companies to compete with cheaper imports - lower profit margins as businesses have to adjust (less pricing power in their markets) Slower growth of exports (leading to a slowdown in aggregate demand - possibly the emergence of a negative output gap where actual GDP A bigger trade deficit represents a net outflow of demand from the circular flow of income and spending - leading to less demand-pull inflation.

Physical Attractiveness and Criminal Behavior

Physical unattractiveness, deformity, and disfigurement have been associated with evil since antiquity. In the Iliad, Homer described the wicked Thersites as possessing thin hair over a â€Å"misshapen head,† with one blinking eye and a lame leg. Physiognomy (the â€Å"science† of reading personality characteristics into facial features) traces its practice to Homer's Greece. When Socrates was convicted for heresy and the corruption of youth in the fifth century B. C. , a physiognomist charged that his face betrayed a brutal disposition. Greek culture embraced the notion that mind and body were interconnected; if a sound mind went together with a sound body, the implication was that a twisted mind resided in a deformed body. Aristotle confirmed this view in his Metaphysics when he reasoned that the essence of the body is contained in the soul. These opinions were ensconced into law in medieval Europe. Among those accused of demonic possession, ecclesiastical edicts interpreted large warts and moles on the skin as physical signs of the entry point of the devil into the soul (Einstadter and Henry 1995). Secular law directed jurists to convict the uglier of two people who were under equal suspicion for a crime (Wilson and Herrnstein 1985). In an echo of these sentiments some years later, Shakespeare's Cassius, in Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II), is judged a dangerous man by his â€Å"lean and hungry look. † The link between unattractiveness and criminal behavior remained alive and well in 20th-century American popular culture. In his famous comic strip and in the movies it inspired, cartoonist Chester Gould sharply contrasted the square-jawed, clean-cut good looks of detective Dick Tracy with cutthroat criminals like the flat-headed â€Å"Flattop,† the pointy-snouted â€Å"Mole,† the wrinkle-cheeked â€Å"Pruneface,† and the big-bottomed â€Å"Pear Shape. † Hollywood imitated science in Johnny Handsome (1989), a feature film about a robber with grotesque facial deformities who reforms after receiving extensive cosmetic surgery. Some of the earliest criminological researchers shared this thinking. Physiognomy persisted throughout the 18th century, most notably in the work of Swiss scholar Johan Casper Lavater, whose influential Physiognomical Fragments appeared in 1775. One hundred years later, Italian prison physician Cesare Lombroso published Criminal Man (1876), a famous study that attributed criminal behavior to what he termed â€Å"atavism,† an inherited condition that made offenders evolutionary throwbacks to more primitive humans. By conducting autopsies on 66 deceased criminals, and comparing 832 living prison inmates with 390 soldiers, Lombroso created a list of physical features that he believed were associated with criminal behavior. These â€Å"stigmata† included sloping foreheads, asymmetrical faces, large jaws, receding chins, abundant wrinkles, extra fingers, toes, and nipples, long arms, short legs, and excessive body hair-hardly the image of handsome men. The notion that criminal behavior was related to physical anomalies was dealt a severe blow by the publication of Charles B. Goring's The English Convict in 1913. This study subjected 37 of Lombroso's stigmata to empirical testing by comparing 2,348 London convicts to a control group that represented a cross section of young Englishmen. Goring found little support for Lombroso's arguments, concluding that criminal behavior is caused by inherited feeblemindedness, not physical appearance. Undaunted by these results, Harvard anthropologist Earnest A. Hooton conducted an ambitious 12-year study that compared 13,873 male prisoners in 10 states with a haphazard sample of 3,023 men drawn from the general population, searching once more for physical differences. Hooton published his findings in The American Criminal and Crime and the Man, both books appearing in 1939. The books attributed criminal behavior to biological inferiority and â€Å"degeneration,† ascribing a variety of unattractive physical characteristics to criminals (including sloping foreheads, compressed facial features, drooping eyelids, small, protruding ears, projecting cheekbones, narrow jaws, pointy chins, and rounded shoulders). By the 1930s, however, biological research was rapidly losing favor, as criminologists increasingly argued that social factors alone cause criminal behavior. Hooton's research was ridiculed in particular, one sociologist dismissing his findings as comically inept in historic proportions (or â€Å"the funniest academic performance†¦ since the invention of movable type† [Reuter 1939]). Hooton was condemned for his circular reasoning: offenders were assumed to be biologically inferior, so whatever features differentiated criminals from noncriminals were interpreted as indications of biological inferiority. Despite the skepticism of many sociologists regarding these attempts to link physical unattractiveness to criminal conduct, self-derogation and general strain theories can explain this relationship. Self-derogation theory asserts that youth who are ridiculed by peers lose self-esteem and the motivation to conform (Kaplan 1980). General strain theory claims that repeated â€Å"noxious,† unwanted interactions produce disappointment, depression, frustration, and anger (Agnew 1992). Both theories see delinquency and crime as means of retaliation that boosts one's self-worth or vents one's anger. Certainly, unattractive youths are prime candidates for noxious ridicule that results in low self-esteem and emotional strain. Only a handful of modern studies have tested the relationships among attractiveness, criminal behavior, and perceptions about crime. Saladin, Saper, and Breen (1988), for example, asked 28 students in one undergraduate psychology class to judge the physical attractiveness of a group of photographs of young men. Forty students in another psychology class were asked to examine the same photographs and then assess the probability that those pictured would commit either robbery or murder. The researchers found that men rated as less attractive also were perceived to be prone to commit future violent crimes, suggesting that unattractive people are more likely to be branded as criminals. Another study randomly scrambled 159 photographs of young men incarcerated in juvenile reformatories with 134 photographs of male high school seniors (Cavior and Howard 1973). College sophomores in psychology courses were asked to rate the facial attractiveness of these youth. Significantly more high school seniors were judged attractive than males from the reformatories. In the fascinating policy-oriented research that became the basis for the movie Johnny Handsome, surgeons performed plastic surgery to correct deformities and disfigurements (e. g. , protruding ears, broken noses, unsightly tattoos, and needle track marks from intravenous drug use) on the faces, hands, and arms of 100 physically unattractive men at the time of their release from Rikers Island jail in New York City (Kurtzberg et al. 1978). These ex-convicts were matched against a control group of equally unattractive inmates released from the jail who received no reconstructive surgery. When the researchers compared recidivism rates one-year later, those who received the surgery had significantly fewer rearrests. Apparently, improved appearance resulted in improved behavior. These research findings are preliminary and suggestive; more definitive studies using better measurements are needed. In particular, future research should relate ratings of physical attractiveness to the self-reported riminal behavior of persons taken from the general population. Such studies would rule out the possibility that unattractive offenders are more likely to appear in jails and reformatories simply due to the prejudices of the police and prosecutors. Nevertheless, existing research hints that the folk wisdom dating back to the ancient Greeks may have some basis in reality. Physical appearance is related to self-worth and behavior; as th e adage goes, â€Å"pretty is as pretty does. † When it comes to criminal behavior, the opposite may be true as well.