Servant leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Servant leadership - Essay Example The authoritarian leadership style denotes a centralized decision making approach where the final decision is taken by the topmost executive. The participative leadership style indicates that employees should be included within the decision making process. Employees are able to influence the decision making approach, and simultaneously the responsibility of team members also increases. The laissez-faire leadership approach is the least observed within an organizational system. There are similarities between servant leadership and participative leadership styles. In the current scenario there is a wide range of firms following the servant leadership approach. The servant leadership style is valued by many organizations so as to strengthen employee relationships. The organization selected for this particular study is Prince’s Court. This is a healthcare provider that aims at providing family-centered and quality healthcare to individuals. The study will summarize the implementat ion of the service leadership approach within the chosen organizational framework. The servant leadership concept suggests the primary role of a leader is to extend support towards team members or to serve them appropriately. This approach does not believe in exercising power over other team members, but distributes power amongst all individuals. It is an ancient philosophy and is closely knitted with the concept of participative leadership approach. A servant leader possesses certain priorities such as enabling, encouraging and supporting subordinates to address specific goals or objectives. This eventually leads to distribution of power and responsibility amongst employees. It can be considered as a participative decision making style, where all team members contribute their opinions or ideas (Mello, 2011). Servant leadership approach is not only confined to employee related behavior but its objective is to alter hierarchical relationship between team members

Histort Essay on Globalization Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Histort on Globalization - Essay Example The Internet has made products more accessible to people all around the world and corporations are willing to dip their hands in the pockets of other countries. Globalization is basically an effort for a business to provide a product on a multinational effort in search for profit from wherever they can possibly get it, even if that includes having products manufactured for little cost overseas. This then has resulted in a lack of jobs in the United States due to globalization and has ultimately led to an economic downward spiral. Corporations thrive on the globalization of their business, able to make millions and offer their goods to developing companies. Occupy Wall Street is an anti-globalization group that currently protests shipping jobs overseas and keep the work here in the United States. It ks a movement designed to completely protest globalization because they expect for economic movements to stay local within our own government here in the United States. The western worlds currently dominate the majority of the world's economy and the United Nations plays a huge role when it comes to globalization. The United States plays a huge part in the United Nations due to the country being a giant in the corporate and developing realms of business. Alternately, globalization is also impacted on by embargoes that are set up in other parts of the world that can otherwise effect the rest of the world that are unable to trade goods. The economy as a whole is deeply affected in a negative way, particularly in the United States while there is a huge economic crisis going on. The value of a dollar is going down and will also affect other areas in the world and exchange rates which then also effects People on the political left have the tendency to want change while the people on the right wing do not want change. Conflicting visions are typically the topic of most political issues. Globalization is just another means for conflict in politics. It also results in a stru ggle between states. Some states have different resources to offer than others so globalization can effect the local economy as well as the overall national economy. The current Obama administration has the same policy that was passed from the Bush administration. Obama's stimulus package also plays a huge role in globalization not just in the United States, but also in other parts of the world because many other countries rely on the United States. Though it appears that Obama has tried to impact the economy, when looking at the bigger picture, there are still major issues in the United States that lead to unemployment, the middle class is the suffering class, and therefore contributing to the issue of globalization. It may have been a gesture of collective action but it was not quite effective enough or at least Americans are still feeling the burn of globalization's effects. The lack of jobs seems to be the largest sour idea when it comes to globalization, from the perspective of an American. Corporations not only are making money off of high priced items, but are shipping their jobs overseas to be performed at extremely low costs. Additionally, globalization is changing the world. Change does not just make the United States uneasy, but people in other economies do not know what to expect either. As a giant powerhouse of a country, many of the moves of other countries are impacted by the decisions of the United States. 2. The United States is struggling from economic recession and though it is the

Critical Analysis Of Heart Of Darkness English Literature Essay

Critical Analysis Of Heart Of Darkness English Literature Essay Considered one of the greatest novelists in English, Joseph Conrad (born JÃ ³zef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski), Conrad was actually of Polish descent. Although he did not fluently speak English until his twenties, Conrad nonetheless excelled at prose and the written English language, with many of his works having been adapted into film. English was in fact his third language, Polish and French being the first two languages he learned. Conrad led a harsh life as a child (Conover), and when he was only three, his father was imprisoned Warsaw for his supposed revolutionary political affiliations (Conover) until the family was exile to northern Russia in 1861 (Liukkonen). In 1869, both of Conrads parents passed away due to tuberculosis, and he was sent to live with his uncle Tadeusz in Switzerland. While living with his uncle, Conrad persuaded his uncle to let him go to sea (Liukkonen), where his many adventures and journeys laid the foundation for most of his works, which are mostly sea- faring stories. In 1890 he sailed up the Congo River, a journey that provided much of the material for his most notable and highly regarded work Heart of Darkness. During his time in the Congo, Conrad experienced extreme physical and mental stresses, which eventually affected his health for the rest of his life. Resettling in London, Conrad went into exile for various reasons including political (Conover). Ending his mariner career that spanned more than twenty years of sea-faring experiences, Conrad was able to draw from there intricate characters and stories which spoke of the human condition, and the complexities of the inner psyche. One such important literary work titled Lord Jim, in which Jim, a young British seaman accompanies his captain and other crew members in abandoning the passengers of their ship. Later hounded by his misdeed, Jim settles at a remote island where the natives title him Tuan or Lord. While there he protects the villagers from bandits and a local corrupt chief. Lord Jim speaks of the rise and fall of the human spirit, and the honor and redemption inherent in noble deeds. These themes are present throughout Conrads stories, and in the Heart of Darkness he also makes heavy use of colors, primarily white and black, and references to light and dark, often intermingling the socially accepted view of each one respectively. Conrad also deals with the issues surrounding imperialism in the Heart of Darkness (Sparknotes), yet there is also a larger underlying issue of race and equality, or lack thereof, within the overall story. The story revolves mainly around Marlow, and his journey through the Congo River to meet Kurtz, purported to be a man of great abilities. In his job as a riverboat captain with a Belgian Company organized for trade within Africa, Marlow encounters much brutality against the natives within in the Companys settlements. The inhabitants of the region have been pushed into forced labor, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment in the hands of the Companys agents. The cruelty of the imperial enterprise contrasts sharply with majestic and massive Congo jungle that surrounds the white mens stations, causing them to appear like small islands amongst the vast darkness of Africa. Amidst problems with the oppressed natives, Marlow manages to survive his time in the Congo, but because of the extreme conditions and harsh living in the area at the time, he returns home with ill health. The events depicted in Heart of Darkness truly could have occurred anywhere, but Conrad chose the Congo for the feeling and impact of the climate, the individuals involved, and the very way of life there. The title itself reflects the heart of darkness within men, who can sometimes use others for their own benefit and profit, casting away human life as if it had no value. The title may also refer to the Congo itself, due to the darkness and uncharted territory and mysteries that lurked within at that time. Conrad creates a build-up of tension and mysteriousness to the plot, which causes one to wonder what may happen next, and even though nothing overly climactic occurs, each individual event adds to the foreboding of the story. Deaths and other dark happenings are spoken of, and Conrads technique in describing these events conveys the darkness and hopelessness of the entire situation. The story portrays darkness as emanating from the depths of the jungle; it fills men with evil and allows them to act upon it. The main example of this darkness is within the station manager Kurtz, who performs such debauchery in the jungles that he eventually becomes ill and dies. The character of Kurtz could be considered a catalyst for change, and the symbol for the Europeans failure in the Congo. Unaware of his own evil, Kurtz is unable to fight the darkness within. There is a question of good and evil that is addressed within Heart of Darkness; the motifs of light and dark in which the darkness in Africa is separate from its blackness, and the whiteness in Europe being far removed from the goodness of light. In a sense, light and dark are polarized; Light represents the falsehoods and corruption in the world symbolized by the white man, whereas dark is a symbol for truth, while the dark natives show the pureness and innocence of humanity. Though there is some ambiguity of whether the title Heart of Darkness refers directly to Kurtz dark heart, or to the darkness of the jungles interior, the latter is more likely, due to the extent of abusive and evil actions portrayed by all the white men, which only grows in intensity with their close proximity to the center of the jungle. These settings and symbols help to portray the theme of universal darkness that Conrad alludes to. Conrads descriptive passages about the interminable waterways of the Congo and the Thames River show the connection between humanity and darkness. Each river flows into each other, and lead into a heart of immense darkness. This shows that all of humanity is connected through the heart of darkness and the truth. Ultimately Heart of Darkness is a story of the pitfalls and perils of greed, lust, and the corruption of ideals and values by the darkness that dwells within all of mankind. It tells of the madness that the greed for riches or power can create within the heart and mind, and that even the best of intentions can become twisted into something evil and oppressive. Works Consulted Conover, Matt. HEART OF DARKNESS: The Hypertext Annotation. The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, 23 Nov. 2003. Web. 19 Nov. 2010. . Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Planet EBook. Web. 19 Nov. 2010. . Crowther, John, ed. No Fear Heart of Darkness. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2010. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Search EText, Read Online, Study, Discuss. The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays Summaries. The Literature Network. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. . Liukkonen, Petri. Joseph Conrad. www.kirjasto.sci.fi. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. . Roberts, Andrew Michael. Joseph Conrad. London: Longman, 1998. Print. SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on Heart of Darkness. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.

The Red Badge of Courage - Henry is No Hero Essay -- Red Badge Courage

The Red Badge of Courage - Henry is No Hero      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane explores the theme of courage and heroism in depth. He develops these themes through the main character, Henry Fleming. Henry is a naà ¯ve young man faced with the harsh realities of war, in this book, some argue that Henry is transformed into a heroic "quiet manhood" while others see Henry as the same young man who ran from battle in the beginning of the book. I think Henry doesn't change, his heroic status acquired at the end of the book isn't truly him, instead he merely is motivated by fear of dying and being rejected by his fellow soldiers.    At the beginning of the novel Henry is disappointed of war; he had far greater expectations of war. He wants one thing out of this experience, Glory, and he would go to any extreme to fulfill it. In battle Henry acts impulsively and is easily manipulated, he flees from battle at the sight of others running. When he realizes his cowardice he rationalizes without end to why he ran. He justifies that nature also flees at the sight of fear when he scares a squirrel to runoff. Henry acts shallow and vain when he manipulates his friend, Wilson; he uses the letters Wilson gave him as leverage if Wilson finds out Henry's "crimes". His pride is restored when he finds out that he doesn't get caught. He is constantly comparing himself to others, and doesn't judge himself by the same standards as he does others. I think Henry is envious of his friends. The only thing the tattered man wanted is warm pea soup and a warm bed, but he wants to survive to be there for his children. I think Henry admires the tattered man's selflessness and courage, he never really complained abo... ...ck at his General for calling them mule drivers by dying in battle. In reality Henry was an insignificant soldier and the General would never care whether he died in battle or not. To me, a hero doesn't try to hide behind his insecurities, like Henry did, he faces them.    In conclusion, I think Henry was not a hero in this novel, in fact I thought he acted more like a coward. Though during brief periods of time Henry physically acted heroically, his moral character was weak, trying to cover up his psychological wounds with self-justification and delusion. I think towards the end of the novel Henry abandons the notion of becoming a hero, mostly because it is unrealistic. Instead, he settles with a more humble title of being a man.    Work Cited: Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage.   Logan, IA:   Perfection Learning Corporation, 1979.

Food Security in India

Food security is access to enough food by all people at all time for an active and healthy life. In the past concentrated efforts were made to achieve food security by increasing food grain production. Thanks to the impact of green revolution though, it was limited to same crops and too in limited states. To ensure easy access to food at household level, government monopolizes grain management and subsidized food gains. Paradoxically, India attained national food self-sufficiency 35 years ago yet about 35% of its population remains food insecure. Low incomes and high food prices prevent individual food security. Another aspect of Indian food security situation is that after over three decades of operation, public distribution system meets less than 10% of consumption of PDS grains– rice and wheat –by the poor. At the global level, poor harvest coupled with rising demand has led to and overall increase in food prices. Unfavorable weather conditions in parts of Europe and North Africa, together with worst ever drought in Australia put stocks of major food crops, especially wheat, at record low levels. Tight supply pushed up the prices of wheat to unprecedented heights, significantly affecting food inflation across the globe including India. Surging food grain prices and worsening global supplies are now bringing the domestic food crisis to the boil. The crisis has been building up for sometime. The food grains yields of India farmers are not going up. Grain output has been stagnating for over a decade and there is a growing gap between supply and demand. Attaining long-term food security requires the raising of incomes and making food affordable. To ensure food security for the vulnerable section of the society a multiple pronged stately is to be evolved. To begin with all the existing social safety net programmes need amalgamation and should focus on vulnerable and underprivileged regions and groups. The existing anti-poverty programmes may be made more transparent with better government that minimizes leakages and benefits from such programmes. Simultaneously, agriculture needs to be reformed by improving incentives, incentives, increasing in vestment etc. So that production of traditional and high-value commodities can be increased. Unfortunately agriculture is in the grip of poor performance. Traditional sources of augmenting income are ceresin. Production environment is changing it is not dominated by small holders. With the shrinking land holdings, their sustainability and viability can not rely solely on production of food grains. To augment their income, small holders need to diversify their production and crops. Ten years after the dismantling of the universal public distribution system systems, the statistical jugglery of the targeted food distribution system actually excludes millions of poor in both the BPL and APL categories. Targeting is linked to neoli9beral policies that seek to limit, if not eliminate, the government’s welfare responsibilities. The denial of the right to food for a large section of the Indian population reflected in increased malnourishment strutted growth, ill health and loss of energy and therefore productivity is an issue that deserves more national attention. If countries agree to be graded in terms of provision of food security to their citizens, India would rank along with Ethiopia at the lower end. The United Nations children’s fund report that tone out of every tow children in India in malnourished confirms the lopsided priorities of successive governments at the centre that seek to narrow fiscal deficits by reducing food subsidies. Until 1996, India has universal PDS. There it introduced the targeted system with the mistaken notion that the infirmities of the PDS should be curbed and that it would enable subsidized grain to reach those who actually needed it. India now has 10 years of experience of the targeted (into APL and BPL ouseholds with access to foodgrain at different prices) and further targeted (into BPL and Antyodaya households) system. Last year, the planning commission did an evolutions of the PDS and found that 57% of the poor hand been actually excluded from the BPL system. Earlier the Abhijit Sen committee had also come up with similar findings, pointing to the utter failure of the targeted system, and suggested a return to the universal PDS. For these schemes is a major problem. If only those who are officially identified as poor can have access to food, then clearly the method has ensured accuracy. The prevailing method of identification is entirely unsatisfactory. There are two sets of estimates. The estimate that is linked to allocations of foodgrain is made by the planning commission. According to a replay given in parliament, the present concept of the poverty line is based on the per capita consumption expenditure needed to attain a minimum amount of calorie intake out of food consumption along with a minimum amount of not-food expenditure in order to meet the requirements of clothing, shelter and transport, among other things. This is based on the methodology suggested by the Lakdawala committee in 1993 and the population projections of the registrar-general of India as of march 12000. Shockingly, according to the current assessments, it works out to around Rs. 11 an adult a day clearly; this is not a poverty line but a destitution line. Earlier foodgrain allocations were not linked to poverty line assessments but were open-ended depending on past utilization by the states. The linkages came along with the targeted system. This creates another anomaly. The rural development ministry has set of programmes for BPL families. According to current estimates, 6 crore households in India come under the BPL category. That such a large number of people are earning less than Rs 330 a month is shocking enough. But what is cruel is that anyone earning above this meager monthly income is classified as APL and excluded from the right to subsidized foodgrain. The very words ‘Above Poverty Line’ misleading because they include a vast section of poor who have been denied their entitlements through statistical fraud and jugglery to serve a neoliberal agenda. The need for subsidized food grains for a wider section of people is also reflected in increased off take. While the off take in the Antyodaya system is around 90%, showing the desperate need of people for cheap foodgrain, the off take for BPL has doubled in the past few 73. 67 lakh tones to 228. 45 lakh tones in 2005-06 out of an allocation of 273. 20 lakh tones which constitutes 83%- of the allocation. As far as APL is concerned, the off take is much lower not because people do not need the grain but because for several years there was not much difference in the APL price and the market price. The central issue price for wheat is Rs 7. 50 a kg. For rice the price range is from Rs 10 in Gujarat and Maharashtra for a kg to Rs 9 in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. As current market prices of foodgrain have shot up, the demand for APL foodgrain will definitely increase but the poor offtake of the grain in the demand for APL foodgrain will definitely increase but the poor off take of the grains in the past few years is being cited by the government to cut allocations, precisely when people require it more. Since rise procurement is reportedly up by around 28 lakh tones, it is possible for the central government to replace wheat allocations will rise at least for the time being in consultation with the states. Instead of taking such a step, the Centre is proposing a cut in allocation. The demand for a revision of poverty assessment also needed. Secondly, the neglect of foodgrain production consequent to the new agricultural policy’s emphasis on export-oriented cash crops is a major reason for current shortfalls in wheat production. The third Issue is that of procurement of wheat. Wheat deficits to the extent of 29 lakh tones below the buffer stock norms leading to imports for the first time in decades are a result of the deliberate policy of the government to cut down procurement on the one hand and encourage private trade on the other. Big farmers who could hold on to their stocks would have benefited from the higher price offered later, but the bulk of the peasantry sold their produce to traders at price below the Rs 700 offered three week too late by the government, the FCI had been given the same leeway as private trade, then the present dismal record of low procurement could have been avoided. Shockingly, the government offered the Indian farmer almost Rs 100 less than what it paid foreign trades. The concerning of the stock by private trade has permitted wheat hoarding, which has pushed market prices up by Rs 5-6 a kg. Decades of building a food security system can be wiped out by such neoliberal ideologies that undermine the principal of self-reliance. Besides, it reflects a naive belief that international prices will remain static whereas clearing international trades are waiting to maximize profits through wheat imports as higher, price to India. Further, a dangerous concession by way of lowering of phytosanitary standards in the quality of wheat is also being planned- This must be opposed strongly. India can spend thousands of crores to protect itself through nuclear might but can render itself completely vulnerable by losing its greatest achievement, the backbone of sovereignty—– food self-sufficiency. With this approach, the situation on the rice front could follow a similar disastrous pattern in the future. It also raises the question of whether it is appropriate to combine the Agriculture Ministry with the food and Public Distribution Ministry. Fourthly, the FCI is being weakened systematically. The employment schemes of Government, which offer part of the payment in food grains. Play an important part in the provision of food security, through inadequate. The move to cut back on this component will also cut down on the real wages of the worker. With the current high prices of wheat and other essential commodities, What the worker grains in cash is less than what he/she has to pay for his/her foodgrain needs in the market. What needs to be done is improve the system – whether of procurement agencies, the fair price shops or the methods of distribution – but not to destroy them. But that is what the Food and Public Distribution Department seems to be proposing. People –centered reform requires a return to the universal PDS. During periods of high inflation in food prices, governments must provide a basic minimum quantity of food grain and other food items at low prices through public distribution systems to low-income, food-insecure, and vulnerable populations. In India, the ostensible purpose of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) was to take food to the poor; in practice, it has resulted in the large scale exclusion of the poor and food-insecure from the public food system. Recent evidence from a report titled Public Distribution system and other Sources of Household Consumption 2004-5 (GOI. 2007), which presents data from the 61st Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), establishes that targeting has led to high rates of exclusion of needy household from the Public Distribution System (PDS) and cleared deterioration of coverage in States like Kerala where the universal PDS was most effective. Let me illustrate with evidence from rural India. The recent report of the National Sample Survey gives us an insight into the magnitude and nature of this exclusion from the PDS. At the all-India level, 70. 5 per cent of rural households either possessed no card or held an APL card. Since household with APL card are effectively excluded from the PDS, the majority of rural households in India are excluded from the PDS. The NSS Report also allows us to classify-by caste, occupation, land ownership and consumer expenditure category-the household that are excluded from the PDS. The NSS maintains five types of rural households, based on information on source of income; self-employed (agriculture), self employed (non-agriculture), agricultural labour, other labour and other households. We focus on agricultural labour, since manual agricultural labour households are undoubtedly among those most in need of access to the PDS. The all India average indicates that 52percent of agricultural households either had no card or an APL card. The corresponding proportion was 96 per cent in Manipur, 68 per cent in Rajasthan and Assam, 71 per cent in Bihar and 73 percent in Uttar Pradesh. Can 70 per cent of agricultural labour households be considered as ineligible for the PDS? There were only four States in which two thirds or more of agricultural labour households were not excluded from the PDS (that is, held a BPL or Antyodaya ration card). These States were Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura. Secondly, we examine the social back-ground of households, focusing on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Treble households. We have selected only those States where the rural Scheduled Caste population is more than 10 percent of the total population. In rural areas, there is known to be substantial degree of overlap between the Scheduled Caste status, blandness and poverty. The NSS data shows that 70 per cent or more of Scheduled Caste households had no card or an APL card in rural area of Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Utter Pradesh. Among these states, only Punjab is a cereal-surplus State. At the all-India level, 60 per cent of the scheduled Caste households in rural areas were effectively excluded from the PDS. States with a lower degree of exclusion of Scheduled Caste households were Karnataka (27 per cent excluded), Andhra Pradesh (31 per cent), and Kerala (38 per cent). A large number of households belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, Again, do not have access to the PDS: to illustrate, 90 per cent of rural Scheduled Tribe households in Assam, 79 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh and 68 per cent in Chhattisgarh were excluded from the PDS. Surprisingly, the North Eastern Sates did not perform too well on this count (though again there may be a problem of data quality). There were only four states – Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and Maharashtra-where more than 50 per cent of rural Scheduled Tribe Households had received a BPL or Antyodaya card. The NSS report classifies households by the extent of land they possessed. It is not noted that land possessed† refers to all types of land and includes agricultural land, homestead land and non-agricultural land. It is not surprising, then, that a very small proportion of households are reported as landless. I have therefore grouped together the two categories of landless. Again, the conclusion is that a very high proportion of landless and near landless household did not possess BPL or Antyodaya cards (86 per cent in Sikkim, 80 percent Goa, 79 per in Uttar Pradesh. 6 per cent in Haryana, 75 per cent in Jharkhand, and 74 per cent in Uttaranchal, for example) and were thus effectively excluded from the PDS. In striving for â€Å"efficiency† by means of narrow targeting households that should be entitled to basic food security through the PDS have been left out. The data from the 61st round of the NSS make it quite clear that a high proportion of agricultural labour and o ther labour households, of households belonging to Scheduled Caste and the scheduled Tribes, of households with little or no land and households in the lowest expenditure classes, are effectively excluded from the PDS today.

Learning Activities Essay

Think about your own organization and the people related records that it stores Identify five records that would fit within any of the identified reasons for keeping records outlined above (you will find more information on these on p278 –p280 of the course textbook). Explain why your organization needs to maintain and use these records (provide examples of how they are actually used where you can). Training Records – At Enterprise we have a spreadsheet called â€Å"The Matrix†, this stores each employed persons training records. It is a basic excel spreadsheet with a column for names and a list of each of the available courses within Enterprise along the top. As soon as an employee has been on a course this will be inputted on to the spreadsheet along with the expiry date (if there is one) so we can ensure all personnel have valid records. Having this information available is very important, due to the nature of our work we need to show that we are keeping our employees safe by having valid training records. For example if there is an accident on site and an employee has hit an underground cable, we would need to be able to show that the person has valid training records for â€Å"safe digging† to our Health and Safety officer otherwise we as a company could be seeing as being negligent when we have a duty of care towards our employees, this could result in claims against the organization. Invoice Tracker – Every week invoices are sent in from our DSP’s to each of our contracts within the Trowbridge office. I am the project manager of shrouding and have 2 invoices sent in from each of the companies working for me. Leven’s & MOYAD construction. Once these invoices are emailed to me I will copy and record the information on to my â€Å"surveying† spreadsheet. This spreadsheet contains all site numbers ever worked on by each of my sub contractors and to what percentage that they were done on which day. Having  this information is vital to my contract I need to be able to check that each site is not being invoiced on more than one occasion as well as to the percentage that is required. Also on this spreadsheet it shows how much money will be due to be paid to both the contractor and Enterprise. Showing weekly turn over information and that we are hitting profit margins are essential on monthly meetings. Also if there was ever a dispute of pay, being able to refer to this information is important. Employee personnel Files – Each employee of Enterprise has their own personnel file. This file contains full name, address, date of birth, bank details, sickness and holiday absence details as well as written warnings (if they have any) and their signed Enterprise contract stating what their job role is and salary. These files are used when appropriate, usually when employees details need updating or they have booked holiday. Online Time Sheets – Every week every employee within Enterprise must fill out an online time sheet in order to be paid. The guys on site bring in a written version of this for the person who deals with time sheets to update their online version. This is so that any absence is recorded whether it be for half an hour or for an hour, this provides accurate attendance percentages and highlights regular patterns of absence. Curriculum Vitae – For every Job advertisement that is put on the job websites a large number of CV’s from potential applicants. These are all then filtered down to persons with most experience and knowledge of the role that we are looking to fill. These persons will then be asked to interview, if they are not successful we will still store there CV on file for six months. This is a helpful system and saves re advertising for the same job if a vacancy arose for that position. Learning activity two Again think about your own organization. For the five records you have identified above, identify and describe how the records are stored. Explain the rationale for this. Training Records – These records are stored on Microsoft Excel, this system allows us to filter out what’s relevant and what isn’t depending on the persons records we are searching. As soon as a course is booked for an employee the date of the course is put on the system till the certificate is received, at which point the expiry date ( if there is one) will then be entered in it’s place. Invoice Tracker – The invoice surveying data sheet is in Microsoft Excel, this allows easy copy and pasting of data from spreadsheet to spreadsheet. Once an invoice has been received all data from the invoice will be extracted by copying and recorded on to the surveying form by pasting in to the relevant columns. Employee Personnel Files – These are all held in a locked filing cabinet in alphabetical order. Any new employee will have an personnel file created on their day of induction. All of their personal information will be stored in here and updated when necessary. Online Time Sheet – The online time sheet is kept on our internal server database, It is a case of simply going in to â€Å"online time sheet† on the server, clicking on last weeks week, and inputting the hours worked during that day. CV’s – All CV’s received from suitable job applicants will be stored in a file on the computer. They will be copied from the Enterprise email inbox and pasted in to the file, or scanned if received through the post. Learning activity three Take one of the examples of areas of organizational activity that require accurate information to facilitate decision making. For this example: Identify and describe how the data is gathered Provide at least three examples of the sort of information that is derived and why it is useful Describe how the information is used to inform the decision making process Describe how and to whom the information is presented Draw up a list of these. Curriculum Vitea when advertising a vacancy: Once Enterprise have advertised a vacancy on the system, this will be logged on to the job centre website and other job search sites. With an Enterprise email to send all Cv’s too, there is also an address for those who are unable to send via email. All CV’s are automatically filtered in to a separate email inbox, and posted CV’S are scanned in to the system as well and will wait for review by the relevant persons. Once a significant amount of CV’s have been sent in the filtering process will begin, for example if we were advertising a Data input/Administration role we would look for experience in those titles from previous roles. Or a qualification in business administration. Filtering through this information is important so as to find the right person for employment. Once the CV’s have been filtered through they will be passed on to the office manager for review. They will then pick names from the persons filtered and make an appointment for interview. The interview is carried out by our office manager and a member of staff who will be training the potential candidate. The candidate will be asked a series of questions relating to their working background and what their skills are as well as a question on Enterprise this usually tells us straight away whether they had made the effort to do some research. This goes down very well with the office manager. Once all interviews have been carried out they will be filtered down to three potential employees who will go to the final stage of the Interview process which is a trial half day. The people who were not successful will be sent a standard letter telling them that their CV will be kept on file for 6 months. Trial half day consists of a member of staff who has a good knowledge of the role being taken on, And the potential employee. They will be shown what to  do and given tasks to get on with. Once all three candidates have been in for this, the office manager, the trainee and and a member of office staff will sit down and make a decision based on how well they got on, how quickly they learned the tasks and general attitude within the workplace. This person would then be informed of their success and will be given a start date. The two other candidates will be sent a standard letter informing them that they were unsuccessful on this occasion and that their CV will be kept on file. The short listed CV’s will be kept in a separate folder to the other batch of CV’s. Learning activity four Consider what data gathering methods you might use for a particular information gathering requirement. Cover: The specifics of the requirement The method(s) used Reason for using that particular method Any considerations in using the particular method Interviews – Potential employees, this method is perfect for getting to know the candidate, asking any questions not answered in their CV. Consider writing down all questions you are thinking of asking to avoid forgetting to ask. Surveys – Surveys are a good way to gather data from a large number of people when it’s impractical to meet them face to face, it is a good method of getting an opinion on a product, service or company. Surverys can be both formal where the results are due to statistical, reliability and validity. And informal where the results are anecdotal – Anecdotal The definition of anecdotal is something that is story-like or something that is based on stories and retellings, not based on provable facts. Observations – Direct observations are a good way of recording data, especially in a working environment, they are often done in conjunction with  another data gathering method that is used to fill in the gaps and answer questions. Observations must be arranged with plenty notice to the person you are observing and the permission from management. Consider getting someone who can tell you what to look for with regards to what you are observing, for example the use of a new mechanical device in a warehouse. Learning activity five Explore the information under the link above, then tackle the following: List the eight principles of the DPA with a brief explanation of each What does the DPA say about the rights of individuals to access to data kept on them? List at least five measures you might take to protect personnel information The eight principles of the DPA Data Protection act are the following: 1: Processing personal data fairly and lawfully, It means that you must have legitimate reason for collecting and using personal data, you must not use the data in way that have unjustified adverse effects on the individual concerned, be clear on how you intend to use the data, handle the personal data in ways they would expect and make sure you do not do anything unlawful with the data. 2: Processing personal data for specified purposes, meaning you must be clear from the offset as to why you require the information and what you are going to do with it, comply with the acts fair processing requirements – including the duty to give privacy notices to individuals when collecting their personal data. You must also comply with what the act says about notifying the information commissioner and ensure that if you wish to use or disclose the personal data for any purpose that is additional to or different from the originally specified purpose, the new use or disclosure is fair. 3: The Amount of personal data you hold; Personal data should be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed. Meaning that you hold personal data about an individual that is sufficient for the purpose you are holding it for in relation to  that individual and you do not hold more information that you need for that purpose. 4: Keeping personal data accurate and up to date; personal data shall be accurate and when necessary up to date, to comply with this you should take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of any personal data you obtain, ensure that the source of any personal data is clear, carefully consider any challenges to the accuracy of the information, and consider whether it is necessary to update the information. 5: Retaining personal data; personal data processed or any purpose shall not be kept for loner than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes. Meaning review the length of time you keep personal data, consider the purpose or purposes you hold the information for in deciding whether and how long for to retain it, securely delete information that is no longer needed for this purpose or these purposes; and update, archive or securely delete information that goes out of date. 6: The rights of individuals; Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this act; the rights of access to copy the information compromised in their personal data; a right to object to processing that is likely to cause or is cause damage or distress, a right to prevent processing for direct marketing, a right to object to decisions being taken by automated means, a right in certain circumstances to have accurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed, and a right to claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the act. 7: information security; appropriate technical and organizational measures shall be taken against unauthorized or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. It means you will need to design and organize your security to fit the nature of the personal data you hold and the harm that may result from a security breach; be clear about who in your organization is responsible for ensuring information security; make sure that you have the right physical and technical security, back up by robust policies and procedures and  reliable, well trained staff as well as being ready to respond to any breach of security swiftly and effectively. 8: Sending personal data outside the European Economic Area; personal data should not be transferred to a country or territory outside the #EEA unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level od protection for the rights and freedoms od data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data. Individuals who wish to access personal data on themselves commonly known as subject access; Can do so by writing a request to the company with possibly paying a fee, this entitles them to be told whether their personal data is being processed, they can request that they are given a description of the personal data, the reasons it is being processed and whether it will be given to any other organizations or people. The individual can also be given a copy of the information compromising the data and be given details of the source of the data. An individual can also request the reasons as to why any automated decisions are made for example a computer generated decision on credit. Whether to allow or deny. The individual is entitled only to their own personal data and not to information relating to other people. If I was running my own company the five measures I would put in place to protect the personal data are the following: Install a fire wall, anti spy ware and virus checking on all computers, this is a very common security implication, this would protect my computers from viruses which have the potential to download information from my computers to theirs. Anti spyware provides a monitoring service which stops programs being installed that can read passwords, bank details and other sensitive data. Protect computer files with passwords: Protecting files with passwords is a good way of keeping data restricted; I would ensure that only a few members of staff have the password and that it is changed on a regular basis. Disposing of computers; All old computers should be destroyed correctly, by using a recognized computer disposal service or by destroying the hard disk. Any old computers despite deleting the data, can still be accessed. Email information securely: Consider whether the email should be password protected. Learning activity six Look at the information provided under the link above, then tackle the following: What are the two ways that public authorities are obliged to provide information? What is the public interest test? What is a vexatious request? Try to interpret your answers using your own words Public authorities are obliged to publish information about their activities, as well as members of the public are entitled to request information from them. Public authorities must publish information proactively; The freedom of Information act requires every public authority to have a publication scheme. A publication scheme is a commitment by the council to make information available routinely, without waiting for someone specifically to request it. The publication scheme must state a promise to make certain levels of information routinely available such as who you are and what you do, the services you offer, organizational structure, policies and procedures, Contracts and reports, minutes of meetings, annual requests and financial information. Once the publication has been created it must first be approved by The Information Commissions Office ICO. Information in the publication scheme represents the minimum that must be shown, if a member of the public wants information that is not on this, they can still ask for it. Members of the publican request information from public authority and they have two separate ways in which they can respond: 1: Tell the applicant whether you hold any information that matches the criteria of what they have requested. 2: to provide them with the requested information Usually the request should be responded to within 20 working days. When receiving a request it must be in the form of a letter of email to be valid under The Freedom Of Information Act, the request must include their name, address and a description of the information requested, the act covered information not specific documents. The public interest test is a guidance document provided by The Information Commissioners Office,he has produced this series of good practice guidance designed to aid understanding and application of the FOIA The aim is to show some of the key areas of the freedom of information act and to help guide on how to respond to information requests. The guidance provided by the ICO is only a starting point going from research I found: section 1 of FOIA sets out the right to any person making a request for information to a public authority these are: The right to be informed Whether the information is held or not by the authority and if so then The right to have that information communicated to them. In principle it states that both these rights need to be treated separately. When applying the public interest test, consideration should be given first to whether it is right to confirm or deny whether the information is held and secondly whether the information should be supplied. To decide whether a request is vexatious you would need to look at the following: Can the request be seen as obsessive Is the request harassing the authority or causing distress to staff Would complying with the request impose significant burden in terms of expense and distraction ( with regards to employees) Is the request designed to cause disruption or annoyance Does the request lack any serious purpose or value You should be able to decipher whether the request is vexatious by looking at  these headings. Learning activity seven There are many methods of keeping records or information, some of which are computerized. Identify three types of records or information that relate to an area of business and inform decision making in that area. For each of the three types: Describe how the information/record is stored How reason for storing the information/record in this way How the storage method meets the requirements of the DPA Keeping records of employees sickness and absence, we keep his electronically on the system in a password secured file. Each person has there own line on a spread sheet and each day they are off that date will be marked in red, with a comment attached to it stating why the person was off sick. Any sick notes will be scanned in to the system and stored within that persons file. We ensure that this file is secure at all time and only management have access to it. Reasons for this is that we want to ensure other employees cant see other peoples absence and reasons for being off sick as that is private and confidential. The DPA states the following: obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes adequate, relevant and not excessive to the purpose for which the data are required accurate and, where necessary, kept up-to-date kept secure against unlawful or unauthorised processing, or accidental loss or erasure This is compliant with the Data protection act as we have only managers who have access to the file. We must keep this information as up to date as possible as absence and sickness in the work place can highlight problem areas that need to be looked at and resolved. Keeping CV’s – These are all stored in a file on the main system, these can be accessed by the nominated filter processors who are usally a member of the team which the vacancy is for, and the manager of that dept. This is so  they can access them when needed. CV’s are usually kept for a year and then disposed of. This is compliant with the DPA’s standards as we don’t keep information longer than we need to as well as having only a select few people who are able to access the information. Training certificate records – All certificates are kept in our personnel files, however our training dept at head office also holds a copy as when the training is carried out a copy of the cert is sent to them also. This information is recorded on our training matrix and updated accordingly. We store the certificates in this way so that we can see who requires training and when. Also if anything happens on site and our health and safety officer needs to see what training they have in place we can have it available as soon as possible for him. Our storage methods meet the requirements of the DPA by keeping the information secure, all our employees have access to their records when required. We do advise that when we receive a certificate that they come in for a copy to put in their own records at home. Learning activity eight Take one example from the context of your organisation where information has been sourced, collected, analysed and then interpreted to inform decision making. For this example: State why the information was needed (how was it intended to support decision making?) How was it sourced? What method of data gathering was used and why? Show an output from the analysis of the data (example: pie chart, bar chart) Sickness and Absence – The information is gathered from employees time sheets which are handed in weekly to the office manager the time sheet consists of a basic table on an A4 piece of paper that requires the employees to input their hours. This will then be handed in and inputted manually. This can then be printed off and used. Sickness and absence information is required once a month at the operations meetings, the operations manager will go through with the contracts manager as to why someone was off for a period of time whether it was due to sickness, was a doctors note provided or whether it is a reoccurring unauthorized absence. If it is an re occurring unauthorized absence; this will be highlighted with our HR Department at head office. Once this happens our HR representative Jo Betts will arrange an interview with the person to get to the bottom of why they are having this time off and whether an improvement program can be put in place. Usually they will be issued with a warning and put on an attendance watch if they cannot give a valid reason as to why they aren’t coming in to work. This bar chart is in my Evidence folder 02.07 document Learning activity nine Look at the example above – and considering the broad principles of a dashboard – describe how you might create a dashboard (or describe an existing dashboard What areas of information would/does it contain? From where would you source the data to populate the dashboard? Who would use the dashboard and why? I would create a dashboard based on training record information; it would show what percentage of employees had valid training records and what percentage have them but they are out of date.. I would also have an accident chart, we have a few accidents a month relating from hitting underground BT cables and water pipes, as well as employees having accidents from climbing electric poles. Due to the fact most of our accidents are fairly similar, I would be able to group them easily by title. We provide training courses for all of these incidents such as â€Å"pole top rescue† and â€Å"Safe digging practices†, so where an employee may not have a valid training record for this, and that employee was involved in the accident this would be a good way of highlighting why the accident happened in the first place and that he should not be carrying out that particular job without undergoing training. I would source the training data from the Training Matrix file system. This  information is kept up to date at all times and is readily available to me when I need it. The accident data is kept with our Health and Safety manager, I would request the information from him. The dashboard would be a great tool to take to Operations meetings where our health and safety manager goes over the level of accidents and training carried out for that month. He can then compare using a bar chart whether there are a higher percentage of valid training records for that month in comparison to others. Learning activity ten Read the information contained under the link above, then tackle the following: A Balanced Scorecard approach generally has four perspectives – what are they? What are the potential benefits of using a balanced scorecard? Why is feedback essential? A balanced score card is defined as â€Å" a strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision statement of an organization† in more simple and realistic terms a balance score card attempts to translate the sometimes vague, hopes of a companies mission statement in to the practicalities od managing the business better at every level. To produce your own balance score card you must know and understand: The companies mission statement The companies strategic plan/vision The financial status or the company How the organization is currently structured and operating The level of expertise of their employees Customer satisfaction level. The four perspectives that the Balanced score card generally has are that of: Finance – in which covers the following areas: Return on investment Cash flow Return on capital employed Financial results Quarterly/Yearly Internal Business processes – which covers the following areas: Number of activities per year Function Duplicate activities across functions Process alignment (is the process in the right dept.)(When the organization’s business processes, quality definitions and measures are aligned to the strategy) Process bottlenecks Process automation (A general technology term that is used to describe any process being automated through the use of computers and computer software. Processes that have been automated require less human intervention and less human time to deliver) Learning and Growth – which covers the following areas: Is there the correct level of expertise for the job Employee turnover Job Satisfacti0on Training/Learning opportunities Customer – Which covers the following areas: Delivery performance to customer Quality performance for customer Customer satisfaction rate Customer percentage of market Customer retention rate. The benefits of using a balanced score card are that it enables you to see a mixture of financial and non financial measures each compared to a target value within a single concise ( expressing alot of detail in a few words†¦) report. Once the Balanced score card is implemented within the organization you should see improved processes. Motivated educated employees Enhances information systems Monitored progress Greater customer satisfaction Increased financial usage. However for any software to work effectively it should be: Compliant with your current technology platform Always accessible to everyone – Everywhere Easy to understand/update/communicate The balanced score card is only of good use when available to everyone, not by keeping it hidden. Feedback is essential and should be contributed to by everyone within the business Carol do I need to go on to discuss the 360 degree feedback here?

How To Make Scrambled Eggs Essays

How To Make Scrambled Eggs Essays How To Make Scrambled Eggs Paper How To Make Scrambled Eggs Paper A staple of almost every American breakfast, scrambled eggs are enjoyed by many every day. But, Im sure everyone has experienced a bad batch of scrambled eggs. To avoid this truly unfortunate happenstance, lovers of the scrambled egg should learn how to make delicious, fluffy eggs each time without fail. There are many different ways to go about this, and one method I use when preparing eggs of the finest quality has yet to fail me. First, you must obtain your ingredients. You will need 3-4 eggs, about 1/3 cup of milk, butter, salt and pepper to taste, and optionally, cheese. Personally, I add about two tablespoons of cheese to my mixture, Just out of preference. The milk will keep the eggs from getting too dry and will make them fluffy. The butter is used to grease the pan Beat the eggs until they are well mixed and almost foamy. Now add milk, salt, pepper, and the optional cheese. Beat only a few more strokes to blend well. While you are beating the eggs, you should have a pan on medium-high heat with a pat of butter to grease. Once your pan Is heated up, you may add the egg mixture to It. As the eggs cooks, continuously stir and flip them. This step is crucial when making the difference between an omelet and scrambled eggs. If they are not continuously stirred, the entire batch with cook Into one big omelet. As you stir and flip, you should see Individual lumps of cooked egg as you go along. When they are to the consistency and tenderness of your liking, you may remove them from the pan and enjoy. These eggs are perfect for an everyday breakfast. Or, If youre ever feeling like a nice Brenner, (breakfast for dinner) theyre great as well. I guarantee your egg-loving family and friends will adore them and lull be remembered as an egg-traditional cook from then on. How To Make Scrambled Eggs By Alexis-Cambridge pan on medium-high heat with a pat of butter to grease. Once your pan is heated up, you may add the egg mixture to it. As the eggs cooks, continuously stir and flip scrambled eggs. If they are not continuously stirred, the entire batch with cook into one big omelet. As you stir and flip, you should see individual lumps of cooked egg as breakfast. Or, if youre ever feeling like a nice Brenner, (breakfast for dinner) theyre youll be remembered as an egg-traditional cook from then on.