Analysis of Tomtom free essay sample

Analysis of TomTom Several years ago, it was so difficult for people to reach a place that they never got. The traditional paper maps were the useful tools for people travel. However, it is so dangerous for drivers look at the map while they drive. Also, if the road is being fixed, it is hard to plan another way to destinations. Over the society develops, there are more and more new technologies coming out. A great innovation gets into our life—the personal GPS. It gives many conveniences to us. In this assignment, we will launch the analysis of a well-known GPS company with the management knowledge. In this paper, we will discuss TomTom in the following topics: the summary of TomTom base on the case, the problems of TomTom face in the market, the SWOT of TomTom have, the recommendation of TomTom in my opinions, and the questions of TomTom’s presentation team. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Tomtom or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Summary of the TomTom’s Case By reading the case â€Å"TomTom New Competition Everywhere! † by Alan N. Hoffman, it discusses TomTom in several topics. First of all, it briefly discusses about TomTom. It tells us that TomTom is an Amsterdam-Based company that majorly produces navigation services and devices. TomTom Go and TomTom One for cars, TomTom Rider for bikes, TomTom Navigator (digital maps), and TomTom for iPhone are their major product’s lines. It has a large market share in U. S. and European markets. Next, it talks about what TomTom recently did such as acquisition of Tele Atlas. After that, Hoffman explains TomTom’s five major products in details. Then, he states TomTom’s background such as its history, customers’ groups, resources and capabilities. He highlights the acquisition of Tele Atlas, which is a digital mapping company. In addition, Hoffman points out that the competitions of TomTom. He divides those competitions in the two groups, which are the new and traditional competitions. And the new competitions are majorly from cell phones, ATT Navigator, Online Navigation App, Build-in car navigation, and physical maps. Another section is TomTom’s Internal Environment. There are three aspects he mentions. They are finance, marketing and human resources. Finally, he indicates the issues that TomTom concerns. Problems of TomTom faced Based on the case, even through TomTom is one of the most successful GPS companies in the world, there are several problems TomTom has to face. First of all, the demand of personal navigation systems gets saturated. In the past few years, many people have got their personal GPSs in American and European markets. It causes that sales growth rate declines. In the management views, the personal navigation system industry has got into mature stage, which the market is saturated, demand is limited to replacement demand, and growth is low or zero. As the case states, TomTom’s sale growth rate has decreased since 2008. Furthermore, by researching, the revenue of TomTom falls to 1,273,217 from 1,521,083 in Euro dollars by the end of 2011. From the annual report, we can find that 74% of revenue was contributed by EMEA region (2010: 70%) while North America and Rest of World (mainly Asia Pacific) accounted for 20% (2010: 25%) and 6% (2010: 5%) respectively. Compared to 2010, revenue in the EMEA region and North America decreased by â‚ ¬133 million and â‚ ¬124 million respectively. Second, as mention above, TomTom is at the maturity phase within its industry. Competition for market share develops, Garmin, which has 45% of the market share while TomTom only has 24%, and Magellan has 15% of the market share. These two major competitors have their own superiorities to against TomTom, and drive TomTom has to work better and increase its cost to maintain or develop its market share. Therefore, the threat of competitive rivalry within the current industry is very high. In addition to new technology, there are more and more drivers have the navigation function. As the case states, cell phones are one of new competition for PND. Most cell phones especially smart phones can be used as a GPS. The telecommunication services companies such as ATamp;T, also provide the navigation services. Furthermore, we can get the navigation service from other ways such as Google maps, and the car manufacturers have put GPS into their vehicles. They lead the high threat of substitutes. Third, the uncertain issues in the legal area, which mean that PNDs might be limited or restricted to use in the future. As the case mentions, the NPD will be banned by legislation because it has the negative effects on driving safety. The reason of legislative banning of PND on the automobiles is the navigational systems make drivers distractive during they are driving. Some ountries such as Australia are worried about the effects of GPS on driving increasingly, so it has a high possibility that navigational systems is banned by law in the future. Another legal issue caused by GPS is using navigational devices as tracking tools inappropriately. The other issue TomTom faces is their satellites need to be replaced or fixed before they have problems but it is uncontrollable for TomTom. Therefore, these legal issues that TomTom have to face might lead TomTom changes their business strategies or develops the new technologies in the future. In short, by reading he case, there are three major issues TomTom has to face. They are decrease in sales growth rate, high threat from substitutes and current competitive rivalry, and uncertain issues in the legal area. SWOT Analysis of TomTom Strengths Based on the case, TomTom is one of the largest PND companies in the world. It has large market share in both of European and American market within the navigational industry. As a market leader, TomTom has a powerful customer and technology base. It does well in distribution. Also, TomTom has an outstanding brand image and recognition. As Hoffman highlights, the acquisition of Tele Atlas had significant improvements of TomTom. It made TomTom different from its major competitor, Garmin, which its executives decided to have a long-term partnership with its supplies rather than acquiring Tele Atlas because they thought the acquisition of Tele Atlas was too expense. By acquiring Tele Atlas, TomTom decreased its dependency on supplier. TomTom could control the producing process more easily. In the corporate-level strategy, TomTom chose the strategy of vertical integration. It helped the TomTom in enhancing product quality and improved scheduling. Moreover, the powerful workforce of 3300 employees from 40 countries gives TomTom has more opportunities and competitive power in global market. The case points out that the revenues of TomTom have grown from â‚ ¬8 million in 2002 to â‚ ¬1. 674 billion in 2008. And then, TomTom has multiple products lines that have a wide coverage to meet customers’ needs of navigational hardware and services. It keeps developing on not only the traditional navigational devices, nut also the application on other devices, such as cell phones and tablets. It does well in monitoring the movement of market and reacting on time. As people increase the demand of all-in-one devices, TomTom makes their navigational software as applications that can be compatible with other devices. As Corinne Vigreux, Managing Director of TomTom, said, With TomTom for iPhone, millions of iPhone users can now benefit from the same easy- to-use and intuitive interface, turn-by-turn spoken navigation and unique routing technology that our 30 million portable navigation device users rely on every day. In addition, Hoffman mentioned there were three unique resources of TomTom by 2008. They were routing algorithms, digital mapping technology, and automotive partnerships. Today, TomTom have more strength. For example, it extended its relationships with its existing partners Renault, Fiat and Mazda. It means that TomTom became a supplier of built-in navigational system for these manufacturers. TomTom provided the modified navigational systems to meet these car manu facturers. Weaknesses Even though there were many benefits from the acquisition of Tele Atlas, it had some negative effects. For example, long-term debt, TomTom had enough cash in account before the acquisition of Tele Atlas. In order to acquiring Tele Atlas, TomTom had to release of new shares as well as long term debt, which was a borrowing of â‚ ¬ 1. 2 billion. It was not good for financial structure. It increased the operating risks. Since TomTom choose the strategy of vertical integration, disadvantages that arise when demand is unpredictable. In TomTom’s case, sales revenue decreased by 3. 7% and the net income decreased by l36% in 2008. The acquisition of Tele Atlas increased cost structure. The high operating expense decreased operating margin. As the case states, it came down to 13% by the end of 2008 compared to 26% in 2006. Opportunities Since TomTom stands second in the market share of America, it has a large potential sales growth rate. Also, as the increased demand in vehicles in developing countries, such as China, it is a great opportunities for TomTom to extent its business in those areas. The large demand in those countries can make TomTom more profitable. Within the navigational industry, TomTom, as one of dominant player, has large amounts of resources to invest in the developing country. It helps TomTom build the block for the potential new entries, so creating digital maps for developing countries and creating navigational services can be a great opportunity for TomTom. Then, the increasing demands on the applications of navigation on the iOS and Android platforms, it also is a opportunity for TomTom. In the current market, customers trend to use their own mobile phones as a navigational device. Since TomTom has launch Tom-Tom for iPhone on 2009, it has a great experience on this type of application, it allows TomTom to develop application on other platforms. Another opportunity is to diversify its business structure that based on its current business. For example, they entered the car lease industry. TomTom provides the services, which are called TomTom Business Solutions, can help protecting environment based on the driver’s driving behavior and fuel efficiency, then giving suggestion to drivers. This is the opportunity for TomTom move their business from a navigational devices manufacturer to a navigational relevant service. Threats In Hoffman’s views, the threats for TomTom are majorly from two ways. The first threat is from the legal restriction. For example, Egypt, which restricted the usage of GPS since 2003, was worried about the security problems. Since security and terrorism concerns are increasing in the world, the navigational devices can be used as a tool for terrorists. In the global market, there are more and more countries limit or restricted the navigational devices. Otherwise, some countries, such as China, is limited the navigational relevant information for foreign companies due to the security concerns or countries’ secrets. It is hard for TomTom get into such those kinds of countries. How the policies change in global market can be a threat for TomTom. Moreover, the environmental protection is also a threat for TomTom. In fact, it affects on not only TomTom, but also the navigational industry as a whole. It is a trend that to encourage reducing to use of vehicles in order to reducing the CO2 emissions. The public transmissions will be more popular. It means that the demand of PNDs trends to decrease in the future. Recommendation By reading the case and doing further researches, TomTom is a great navigational devices manufacturer, but there are issues TomTom has to face. In my opinion, I recommend TomTom should invest in more areas other than navigational manufacturing industry. As I mentioned before, the navigational industry has got into mature stage in American and European market, so there is a little space for TomTom expanding. Based on this, I think TomTom should move its business to providing navigational service. For example, providing navigational information for people how they can get the public transmissions. Next, to against the other two major competitors, TomTom should be focus on the customers’ groups who will replace their PND soon. As the new features come out and the navigational information updates, customers who have had their GPSs for a while plan to change their current one. Therefore, TomTom should spend more resources on Ramp;D to find out what this group of customers’ needs in order to gaining the market shares. For example, the real-road view, it likes the Google street view. Driver can see the real street view within 0. 1 miles. It can help drivers avoid accidents. The third recommendation is to avoid uncertain issues from legal areas. TomTom should make a good prediction. TomTom should pay attention on the movement of policy changes and make correct reaction on time. Questions for Presentation Team of TomTom 1. How will TomTom change its business strategies in the future? 2. What are kind of business strategies suitable for TomTom in the future? 3. How does TomTom avoid the potential adverse legislation and restrictions?

Legalize Marijuana Essays - Drug Control Law, Drug Culture

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Reward Management To Motivate Employees Commerce Essay

Reward Management To Motivate Employees Commerce Essay From the inception of organisational science, pay has been considered an important reward to motivate the behaviours of employees (Taylor Vest, 1992). A consistent literature on rewards has been that to influence performance, pay level must not only be high enough in the absolute sense, but must also be adequately different to reflect the differences in contribution, human capital and efforts that exist within an organisation (livernash, 1957:143). For this reason, Hamilton and Macy (1923:15) maintain that differences in pay must reward excess ability, knowledge, skills, training, diligence possessed by its recipient over the common labourer. In addition, Lawler and Jenkins (1992), also agree that the impact of reward systems cannot be discussed without considering what behaviours they affect in an organisation. They argue that a number of factors influence reward system and this in turn influences organisational effectiveness. Research has shown that the attraction and retention of workers in an organisation is influenced by the kind, and level of rewards an organisation offers (Mobley, 1982; Mobley, Hand, Meglino Griffeth, 1979). Thus Lawler (1971) posits that organisations which give the most reward would attract and retain the most people, as individuals satisfied with their jobs would want to stay within the same organisation. According to Alan Price (2007), the term reward management covers both the strategy and the practice of pay systems. Traditionally, human resource or personnel sections have been concerned with levels and schemes of payment whereas the process of paying employees the payroll function has been the responsibility of finance departments. There is a trend towards integrating the two, driven by new computerised packages offering a range of facilities. Financial rewards normally come in the form of monthly salary or hourly wages (Bratton Gold, 1999). Most employees that work in organisations or company that have professional human resource management in the UK will attend appraisal which will allow both employees and employers to discuss about their current pay and if it should be increased. According to Allen Kilmann, (2001) his studies has shown that assumption is not always true because solid evidences have confirmed that employees earning less than  £25,000 per year can be motivated with the use of financial reward, while those who earn more than  £25,000 per year are willing to stay with one job and do their best if they have high level of job satisfaction. This shows the more money an employer pays his or her employee the more job satisfaction expected by the employee in order to stay in the job leading to more reward management. Reward Management Research studies have shown that organisations have an interest in reward management because of two reasons. Cost effectiveness and profitability, which is based on organisational type and relative cost of workers (Romero Kleiner, 2000). Organisations can save cost of employees in order to gain competitive advantage in the UK market, Which are done by reducing the cost of employees and make use of the benefits of reward management to motivate employees to apply their best efforts. They must also ensure that its pay meet the minimum requirement of employment law. Organisation use reward management as a tool to motivate their employees, influence their attitude and change their behaviour, with an aim to improve their work quality and responsibilities. Organisation can use reward management to help it maintain its competitiveness in its marketplace. Which are done by reducing the cost of its employees and make use of the benefits of reward management to motivate employees to put their best efforts in the organisation. Bratton and Gold (2003), state reward can be divided into individual rewards, team rewards and organisation rewards Individual reward: This reward system will be paid directly to the employees which would lead to having different rate of pay depending on their years of experience in the organisation and energy commitment. Organisational rewards: In this case organisation offer rewards in form of profits with its employees which is increasingly employed by many organisations who has a custom driven culture. This enable organisation gets the best outcome in terms of employees performance, staff commitment and organisational productivity. Team rewards: This reward has been increasingly been used and recognised in the UK. This is because the work system recognised self-management team in the organisation. Team reward is also believed to give greater performance and productivity from each worker (Yahya Goh, 2002). According to Gratton (2004) he states while motivation is determined by both monetary and non monetary factors, money has come to play an overly important role in our thinking about the causes of behaviour. In most companies, very limited time and effort are spent on considering non-monetary sources of motivation This has prove that financial rewards are important as a mechanism to aid recruit and retain talent, and as a means of providing tangible recognition of effort in the organisation. Financial Reward This the use of money as a tool to motivate employees in a working environment, whereby employees are rewarded in the form of pay, bonuses thereby leading to applying more effort to better financial reward in an organisation. 1 Instrumental theory This theory states that money provides a means to achieve an ends. It is an instrument for gaining desired outcomes and its forces will depend on the strength of the need and the degree to which people are confident that their behaviour will earn the money they want to satisfy the need. Gellerman (1963), state that money in itself has no intrinsic meaning and acquires significant motivating power only when it comes to symbolize intangible goals. Firms use money as the powerful force which linked directly or indirectly to the satisfaction of all the basic needs of employees in the organisation. 2 Equity theory This theory was developed by Adams (1965) which argues that satisfaction with pay is related to the perception about the ratio between what one receives from the job and what one puts into it compared with the ratios obtained by others. Lawler (1971) state equity theory is related to discrepancy theory which indicates that satisfaction with pay depends on the difference between the pay people receive and what they feel they ought to receive. According to Jaques (1961) he states they exist in an unrecognised system of norms of fair payment for any given level of work, unconscious knowledge of these norms being shared among the population engaged in employment and an individual is unconsciously aware of his own potential capacity for work, as well as the equitable pay level for that work. Organisation can establish this principle; its pay must be felt to match the level of work and the capacity of the employees to do it in the organisation. Non Financial Reward This is a method of identifying individual employees for a particular praise or acknowledgement. Rose (1998) state a non cash awards given in recognition of a high level of accomplishment or performance such as customer care or support to colleagues, which is not dependent on achievement of a pre-determined target. 1 Self-actualisation Self-actualisation model is one of the most famous models of motivation. It was developed by Abraham Maslow (1954). This model explains that a person has a need to fulfil his/her capability and potential because a person has a desire for growth. Self-actualisation model is one of the most famous models of motivation. Ambitious and determined employees will seek and find these opportunities for themselves, although the organisation needs to clarify the scope for growth and development it can provide. Mullins, (1996) state once a lower need has been satisfied it no longer acts as a strong motivator, the needs of the next higher level become the motivating influence Organisation can use the self actualisation model to motivate employees to their best efforts if they know their highly demanded need, e.g. Staff member wanting to build a career goal and development in a firm. Thus, putting the staff in the right training and human resource development program cannot only increase positive outcomes, but also gain his loyalty in the organisation. 2 Achievements Achievement needs by McClelland (1975) is known for competitive success measured against a personal standard of excellence, which can be increased by organisations through processes such as job design, performance management and contributing skill in the organisation. McClelland also mentioned that power was a prime motivating force for managers, the needs for warm friendly relationships with others was also present to managers. Organisation policies for involvement can provide motivation by putting employees into situations where their view can be expressed, listed to and acted upon, thereby forming a means of empowerment in the organisation. Motivation Many contemporary authors have also defined the concept of motivation. Motivation has been defined as: the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedeian, 1993). Seligam(1990) also states that motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality. Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either volition or optimism. Workers in any organization need something to keep them working. Most times the salary of the employee is enough to keep him or her working for an organization. However, sometimes just working for salary is not enough for employees to stay at an organization. An employee must be motivated to work for a company or organization. If no motivation is present in an employee, then that employees quality of work or all work in general will deteriorate. A) Intrinsic motivation This is described as the process of motivation by the work itself in so far as it satisfies peoples needs or at least leads them to expect that their goal will be achieved. This is also a self-generated in that employees seek the type of work that satisfies them, but management in an Organisation can enhance this process through its values as well as empowerment, development and job design policies and practices in the firm. Research studies have indicated that this type of motivation is generally involved with educational enjoyment and achievement of many higher education students (ODonohue et al., 2007). Intrinsic motivation has also been discussed and referred to by many researchers, such as attribution theory of Fritz Heider and cognitive evaluation theory of Ryan and Decis (Guest, 1989). Under the concept of intrinsic motivation, it can be assumed that a person can be intrinsically motivated or influenced if they give credit of their hard work outcomes to internal factors that they cannot control, e.g. an employee of an Organisation works hard to make sure that all of its customers get served within five minutes after their entrance into the restaurant. An employee can also be intrinsically motivated if he or she believes that their skills, knowledge and hard work can help the firm to achieve the desired goals. Intrinsic rewards can be explained under the scope of enjoyment, while another one is based on obligation, it also occurs when people are internally motivated to do something because it either brings them pleasure, they think it is important, or they feel that what they are learning is significant. (Herriot et al., 1997). Obligation refers to motivation of an employee and its based on what he or she thinks it should be done or completed. E.g., an employee has a responsibility to serve customers well under limited time, but the quality of the service should exceed expectation. This would be seen as a challenge for the employee when they exceed the standard set by the firm, thereby leading to motivation in the organisation. B) Extrinsic motivation This is what is done to and for people to motivate them. It arises when management in a firm provides rewards as increased pay, praises or promotion. Research studies have revealed that threat of punishment is also recognised as common extrinsic motivations (Cooper et al., 1999), e.g. management of an Organisation can deduct their pay if they are more than 15 minutes late for work. This kind of punishment is part of extrinsic motivation that can influence employees to get to work on time in the restaurant. Incentive theory of motivation This refers to a reward, which are both tangible and intangible forms. Incentive reward is likely to be presented to a person after the occurrence of an expected action or behaviour. Such reward is given to a person with an intention to cause desired behaviour to ensure that it happens again. This can be done by relating positive meaning to action or behaviour of a person (Clutterbuck, 2005). If an incentive reward is not presented immediately, it is likely to decrease satisfied behaviour (Guerrero Herrbach, 2008). This can be believed that if an organisation uses repetitive action reward combination, it can lead to certain action or behaviour to become a habit. Applying proper motivational techniques can be much harder than it seems. Steven Kerr notes that when creating a reward system, it can be easy to reward A, while hoping for B, and in the process, reap harmful effects that can jeopardize your goals (kerr, 1995). Expectancy theory Victor Vroom (1964) was the first to put forward his theory of expectancy, which was specifically aimed at work motivation. He produces a motivational force notion, whereby the product of valence and expectancy, is the motivational force. Vroom Valence expectancy theory is that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards. The employee would be more motivated when the reward is positively high, the more negative the reward the less the employee will be motivated. Galbraith and Cummings (1967) found little support for Vrooms model they outline difficulties with the methodology and the concepts involved and found it very hard to apply to organisations. This theory is applied by organisation by setting a target for employees e.g. sales target; this will enable employees to carry out his or her daily activities effectively in return for values, goals which lead to an effective performance in the organisation. Vroom distinguishes valence from value Mullins (2002) This is shown in that a person may not gain as much satisfaction from receiving an object as from the desire of obtaining it In this situation an employee may not gain as much job satisfaction from receiving an object e.g. money and employee may find more satisfaction in the working environment than expected from an object in the organisation. (Armstrong,2006 Mullins, 2002) THEORY OF MOTIVATION According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943): physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Herzbergs work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction. Vrooms theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated. Adams theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). Furthermore in some specifiable conditions, reward has been observed to motivate performance (Blinder, 1990; Vroom 1964). Majority of literature on motivation strongly upholds the view that rewards such as pay has a huge impact on an employee (Vroom, 1964; Lawler, 1971). In recent times, important rewards have been perceived to be tied to performance. Study after study has shown that an effective pay system can increase motivation of individuals to perform well (Kerr, 1975; Blinder, 1990). Armstrong and Murlis (1994) went further to state that reward process would most likely improve motivation, performance and commitment if they are operated fairly and the rewards are equitable in the sense that they are proportionate with the value of the job and of the person to the organisation Conclusion

Galileo: Scientist, Scholar, Rebel Essay -- essays research papers

Seventeenth-century European study was controlled by two powerful forces: the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the Pope, and ancient philosophy dominated by the 2000-year-old ideas of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. The Church had an overwhelming influence on the lives of most Europeans. During Galileo’s time one in twelve people living in Rome was either a cleric or a nun.1 The Church forbid any teaching that deviated from what was taught in the Bible. To enforce this control, the Church set up the Inquisition. Galileo was targeted by the Inquisition for his observations and experiments. 2 Because his teachings differed from the socially accepted ideas of Aristotle, the Inquisition believed he should be persecuted. Even though Galileo’s observations were much more factual than Aristotle’s and, more important, backed up by experiments and the use of the telescope, he was still sentenced to house arrest for life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa Italy.3 Galileo was born into a family considered nobility, and his father, Vincenzo Galilei, was an accomplished musician.4 Galileo was tutored privately and also educated by his father until the age of eleven, when his family moved to Florence and sent him to a Jesuit monastery to study medicine.5 Three years after his son began school, Vincenzo was surprised to learn Galileo had decided to become a monk. Somewhat angered, his father withdrew him from the monastery, and Galileo continued his high school education in Florence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At age seventeen Galileo began college at the University of Pisa, where he reluctantly studied medicine. 6 Throughout his first term attending the university, Galileo became more interested in mathematics than medicine. A court mathematician, by the name of Ostillo Ricci, noticed Galileo in his lectures.7 Impressed with Galileo’s knowledge, he urged Galileo change his major to mathematics. Against his father’s wishes, Galileo changed courses, and by the end of his first term he was a mathematics undergraduate.8   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Galileo made his first important discovery while attending the University of Pisa. Galileo noticed a swinging lamp above him during a church sermon. Extremely bored, Galileo conducted an experiment to see if the amount of time in between each swing was the same. Using hi... ...i. School of Mathmatics and St. Andrews, Scotland, August 1995; available from http://www.history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/history/mathmatics/galileo.html;Internet. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University; New York, 1987, p. 35. 8 Deborah Hitzeroth and Sharon Heerbor, Galileo Galilei. Lucent Books Inc; California, 1992, p.15. 9 Ibid., p.16. 10 J.V. Field, Galileo Galilei. School of Mathmatics and St. Andrews, Scotland, August 1995; available from http://www.history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/history/mathmatics/galileo.html;Internet. 11 Ibid. 12 Galileo Galilei- Astrology. Available from http://www.astrology.about.com/library/weekly/aa0zz00b. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University; New York, 1987, p.41. 19 Deborah Hitzeroth and Sharon Heerbor, Galileo Galilei. Lucent Books Inc; California, 1992, p.24. 20 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University; New York, 1987, p.44. 21 Ibid., p.45. 22 Giorgio De Santillan, The Crimes of Galileo. Time Inc; University of Chicago Press, 1962, p.185. 23 Ibid., p.257. 24 Ibid. 25 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University; New York, 1987, p.48. 26 Ibid

International Organisational Behaviour

Introduction This assignment will analyse the organisation behaviour of two mining companies: WMC Resources and BHP Billiton. It will discuss issues such as: motivating in the short term, resistance to change, internal and external forces that favour change, characteristics of an effective team, factors of team effectiveness, and how to use punishment strategies successfully. Summary Clear understanding of the relationship between performance and outcomes – e. g. he rules of the reward ‘game’ Trust in the people who will take the decisions on who gets what outcome (BHP) Transparency of the process that decides who gets what outcome The people who will make the decisions (BHP) have stated â€Å"we continue to grow and expand our business quite significantly, and that always requires first-class people† So this again should be used to motivate the employees into realising that, good performance leads to your desired outcome (keeping their job). Evidence to justify this is the following example; there are three sales representatives who are candidates for promotion to one sales manager’s job. Bill has had a very good sales year and always gets good performance evaluations. However, he isn’t sure that he wants the job because it involves a great deal of travel, long working hours, and much stress and pressure. Paul wants the job badly but doesn’t think he had much chance of getting it. He has had a terrible sales year and gets only mediocre performance evaluations from his present boss. Susan wants the job as much as Paul, and she thinks that she has a pretty good shot at it. Her sales have improved significantly this past year, and her evaluations are the best in the company. Expectancy theory would predict that Bill and Paul are not very motivated to seek the promotion. Bill doesn’t really want it, and Paul doesn’t think he has much of a chance of getting it. Susan, however, is very motivated to seek the promotion because she wants it and thinks that she can get it. (Pride, 2009) b) There are three reasons the WMC employees are resistant to change; Fear of the unknown, need for security, and not feeling the need to change. Employees resist change because they have to learn something new. In many cases there is not a disagreement with the benefits of the new process, but rather a fear of the unknown future and about their ability to adapt to it. De Jager (2001, p. 24) argues, ‘Most people are reluctant to leave the familiar behind. We are all suspicious about the unfamiliar; we are naturally concerned about how we will get from the old to the new, especially if it involves learning something new and risking failure†. The WMC employees are facing this problem right now with the takeover that is about to go through. The employees are unsure about the future of the company and won’t know whether BHP will change things such as: daily duties, company protocol/processes, and even add new tasks. To help minimize resistance to change, the manager should try to offer information to the employees about what might change in the future. This will remove the element of the unknown and help them to deal with the changes early on. Also they should try to encourage staff and make them believe that they have the ability to adjust, therefore removing the anxiety of the takeover. If employees don’t see the need to change, they may become very stubborn and difficult to work with. Sometimes when there is a change in the workplace, employees don’t agree with it and feel they are doing jobs well enough and the organisation is running smoothly already. Even if this is true, there is always room for improvement and this should be expressed to the employees. WMC has a great opportunity to become involved in a bigger corporation and with some employees having a chance to keep their jobs, it should be highlighted to them that perhaps this will lead to a pay rise or even promotion. To minimize the resistance they should: provide support to the staff by actively listening to the problems and complaints they have, provide training to help the staff blend in with the new way of doing things, and help to overcome the performance pressures. Maybe then, the WMC employees will see that this change will lead to an improvement of the company and work efficiently and peacefully once again. c) Organizational change can be caused by external forces and internal forces. External forces commence outside of the organization and not only do they affect a company, but they also cause global affects. There are three components that play a crucial role in change of an organization from an external forces view. These three key factors allow a company to undergo change and reconstruct its organization to improve its production and services. Economic factors greatly affect WMC. This includes the nature and direction of the national economy in which a company does business. For international entities, it includes the global economy. We know that consumption is affected by the wealth of the population, and business people must plan accordingly. Some major considerations include the availability of credit and the amount of disposable income in a given market. Both inflation and interest rates and a given country's GDP are other economic factors that can help or hinder a company’s marketing efforts. The current economy has left smaller companies vulnerable to bankruptcy. Merging with a larger company like BHP will allow WMC to compete effectively in the world market. Internal forces for change come from inside the organization. These forces may be subtle, such as low morale, or can manifest in outward signs, such as low productivity and conflict. Internal forces for change come from both human resource problems and managerial behaviour/decisions. Human Resource Problems is a major internal force for change. These problems stem from employee perceptions about how they are treated at work and the match between individual and organization needs. Dissatisfaction comes from an underlying employee problem that should be addressed. Unusual or high levels of absenteeism and turnover also represent forces for change. WMC might respond to these problems by reducing employees' role conflict, overload, and ambiguity, and by removing the different stressors. Prospects for positive change stem from employee participation and suggestions. Managerial Behaviour/Decisions are an essential reason for organisational change. Excessive interpersonal conflict between managers and their subordinates is a sign that change is needed. Both the manager and the employee may need interpersonal skills training, or the two individuals may simply need to be separated. For example, one of the parties might be transferred to a new department. Inappropriate leader behaviours such as inadequate direction or support may result in human resource problems requiring change. Leadership training is one potential solution for this problem. Inequitable reward systems are additional forces for change. Clear Purpose – The vision, mission, goal or task of the team must be defined and accepted by everyone. In the case of BHP-WMC, there will be many changes when the two merge, so all the staff will have to be notified of the new action plan. This will make the team focused on the goal. Informality – A good team should be informal, comfortable and relaxed. There shouldn’t be any obvious tensions or signs of boredom. This may be tough for BHP-WMC because of the merger, there may be some resentment towards the other company’s staff for having to merge with them. Also cliques will have formed which may cause some problems with the group working together. If they can work together effortlessly they will perform to a higher standard. Participation – There should be much discussion and everyone should be encouraged to participate. This is also great for getting all the new staff members to bond with the BHP staff and to make them feel they are important to the company. Listening – The members should use effective listening techniques such as questioning, paraphrasing and summarizing to get out ideas. Therefore benefiting the company with possible innovative ideas. Civilized Disagreement – If there is disagreement, the team must be comfortable with this and show no signs of avoiding, smoothing over or suppressing conflict. This is likely to happen with the two companies’s having their own previous ways of doing things, but to create an effective team, they must all constructively discuss and find a middle ground. Consensus Decisions – For important decisions, the goal is substantial but not necessarily unanimous agreement through open discussion of everyone's ideas, avoidance of formal voting or easy compromises. This way the group should get the most suitable outcome without upsetting any of the group members or giving in to a poor idea due to peer pressure. Open Communication – Team members should feel free to express their feelings on the tasks as well as on the group's operation. There should be few hidden agendas. Communication takes place outside of meetings. This way nobody is hiding any feelings and is comfortable with the ongoing operations. Shared Leadership – While a team has a formal leader, leadership functions shift from time to time depending on the circumstances, the needs of the group and the skills of the members. The formal leader should models the appropriate behaviour and helps establish positive norms. This will give everyone a chance to feel important to the company and a chance to improve their leadership skills. External Relations – The team should spend time developing key outside relationships and mobilizing resources, then building credibility with important players in other parts of the organization. This will be handy for when they need help from other departments, especially in a fast growing company like BHP. Style Diversity – The team should have a broad spectrum of team-player types, including members who emphasize attention to task, goal setting, focus on process and questions about how the team is functioning. This gives diversity and strength is every area. Self-Assessment – Periodically, the team should stops to examine how well it is functioning and what may be interfering with its effectiveness. This is essential for any team, especially a newly created one like BHP-WMC. b) In creating effective teams, managers should act as facilitators and accept mutual accountability. do not monopolize team projects do not control daily activities. BHP-WMC could adopt these two theories quite easily. The managers could act as facilitators to the team so that it became more effective. They need to have a shared understanding and share responsibilities so that they can understand each other and work together as a well functioning machine. Mutual influence and task autonomy is also necessary to make BHP-WMC more effective than they currently are. Mutual accountability will improve BP-WMC effectiveness because it means the responsibility doesn’t land all on one person, which means it’s more likely to improve your chances of achieving your objective if the responsibility is shared across the team. To increase an employee’s behaviour, a positive re-enforcer is used immediately after the behaviour is presented, the premise being that if the employee does something and is rewarded, then they are more likely to repeat the act. Constant reinforcement must be used to help new behaviours become established. To maintain the desired behaviour once it is established, an intermittent re-enforcer, one that is used only occasionally, should be sufficient to use. Negative reinforcement is similar to the concept of a reward. Essentially, this is when something negative is removed from a person’s experience as a way to increase the likelihood of good behaviour happening again. For example, if a child studies hard for a test and the parent rewards the child by not making him do chores, it is likely that this good studying behaviour will recur. Extinction is the stopping of positive reinforcers that have been maintaining an inappropriate behaviour. This relies on the theory that behaviours which are not reinforced will soon disappear. Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a response and increase the possibility of repetition. Both punishment and extinction, however, weaken behaviour and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency. b) Punishment should be used as a last resort only. With the employees already low on morale due to the uncertainty of their jobs, it wouldn’t take much to push them over the edge and start acting inappropriately, or even worse, quitting. Ways of using punishment as a reinforcement strategy are as follows: The behaviour plan is congruent must be within regulations and company policies. The use of punishment procedures to manage employee behaviours is an issue of growing debate. Employees should take care that all elements of a behaviour plan, including punishment procedures, fall within disciplinary guidelines both of the company policies and within the law. Reference List Dick, P. & Ellis, S. (2006), Introduction to Organizational Behaviour 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, Berkshire, UK Mosley, D. C. , Megginson, L. C. , & Pietri, P. H. (2001) Supervisory Management: The Art of Empowering and Developing People, South-Western College Publishing, Ohio, U. S. A Ehlen, D. (1994), Supporting high performance teams, Manage, 46(2), pp. 32-34. Organizations, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, U. S. A

Develop Delphi programs in Windows API (Without VCL)

Develop Delphi programs in Windows API (Without VCL) About the course: intermediate The course is written by Wes Turner, brought to you by Zarko Gajic Overview: This Guide is about developing Delphi programs without the Forms and Controls units or any of the Component Library. You will be shown how to create windows classes and windows, how to use the Message Loop to pass messages to the WndProc message handling function, etc... Prerequisites: Chapters: Introduction: The file size of a standard Delphi application is at least 250 Kb, due to the Forms unit, which will include a lot of code that may not be needed. Without the Forms unit, developing in API means that you will be coding in the .dpr (program) unit of your app. There will not be a usable Object Inspector or any components, this is NOT RAD, it is slow and there is no visual Form to see during development. But by learning how to do this you will begin to see how the Windows OS operates and uses window creation options and windows messages to do things. This is very useful in Delphi RAD with the VCL, and almost essential for VCL component development. If you can find the time and patients to learn about windows messages and message handling methods, you will greatly increase your ability to use Delphi, even if you dont use any API calls and only program with the VCL. CHAPTER 1: When you read the Win32 API help, you see that the C language syntax is used. This article will help you learn the differences between the C language types and the Delphi language types. Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter! CHAPTER 2: Lets make a formless program that gets user input and creates a file (populated with system information), using only Windows API calls. Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter! CHAPTER 3: Lets see how to create a Windows GUI program with windows and a message loop. Heres what youll find in this chapter: an intro to Windows messaging (with a discussion on message structure) ; about the WndMessageProc function, handles, the CreateWindow function, and much more. Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter! More coming...

Free Essays on Odyssey-penelope

Penelope was the paragon of marital devotion and fidelity. Penelope showed us exactly of how women’s character was to be played out. They were beautiful, intelligent, and submissive to their husbands and/or other men. The fact that Homer continuously mentions Penelope’s beauty shows us that this feature was expected of a woman. A quality in which Penelope was blessed with. At the beginning, Homer introduces us to Penelope saying this: "She came, then, down the long stairs of her house, this beautiful lady," (Odyssey. 1.233). In every scene that the she performs, Homer states of her beauty. Intelligence is shown to us by Penelope all throughout the books. For example Penelope says she will marry again once her sewing is complete, but every night she unwinds it, she is able to fool the suitors to avoid an unwanted marriage. The women role of submissiveness is shown when the suitors arrived for Penelope. Despite her unwillingness to choose a new husband she remained obedient to them. Showing them much generosity as Homer states, "Attendants poured water over their fingers, while the maids piled baskets full of brown loaves near at hand, and houseboys brimmed the bowls with wine." (Odyssey 229) Her submissiveness to her husband is widely shown throughout the book. Penelope continues to remain devoted to him and only him. The Odyssey seems to be the product a society in which the dominant role was played by the men. The Odyssey has shown women in subservient roles. Many of these characteristics are still valued in the women of today, now whether or not the women of today adhere to them is a different story. I think many of the women of today’s society want to be beautiful, and intelligent, but it is not as highly expected of them to do so.... Free Essays on Odyssey-penelope Free Essays on Odyssey-penelope Penelope was the paragon of marital devotion and fidelity. Penelope showed us exactly of how women’s character was to be played out. They were beautiful, intelligent, and submissive to their husbands and/or other men. The fact that Homer continuously mentions Penelope’s beauty shows us that this feature was expected of a woman. A quality in which Penelope was blessed with. At the beginning, Homer introduces us to Penelope saying this: "She came, then, down the long stairs of her house, this beautiful lady," (Odyssey. 1.233). In every scene that the she performs, Homer states of her beauty. Intelligence is shown to us by Penelope all throughout the books. For example Penelope says she will marry again once her sewing is complete, but every night she unwinds it, she is able to fool the suitors to avoid an unwanted marriage. The women role of submissiveness is shown when the suitors arrived for Penelope. Despite her unwillingness to choose a new husband she remained obedient to them. Showing them much generosity as Homer states, "Attendants poured water over their fingers, while the maids piled baskets full of brown loaves near at hand, and houseboys brimmed the bowls with wine." (Odyssey 229) Her submissiveness to her husband is widely shown throughout the book. Penelope continues to remain devoted to him and only him. The Odyssey seems to be the product a society in which the dominant role was played by the men. The Odyssey has shown women in subservient roles. Many of these characteristics are still valued in the women of today, now whether or not the women of today adhere to them is a different story. I think many of the women of today’s society want to be beautiful, and intelligent, but it is not as highly expected of them to do so....

Management - Conflict Resolution Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management - Conflict Resolution - Assignment Example More employees were hired in the weeks and months that followed. The basic salary that all floor employees earned was $7 hour. At the time the federal minimum was $5.85 an hour. The company offered the employees through a verbal offering a $5 production bonus per hour if the employees’ production exceeded a specified quota. The production incentive the company offered led to a major conflict between the administration of the company and the employees due to the fact that the company failed to pay the production incentive it promised. The conflict escalated as time passed on. The employees of the company became extremely agitated at the company because they felt the firm lied and stole from them. They were offered a financial incentive that increased the productivity of the company, but the company did not honor the verbal agreement. The morale of the employees became completely deteriorated as a direct consequence of the conflict. Other negative aspects of the conflict include d a breakdown of communications between the employees and the administration, demise in the productivity of the company, and a lack of trust in the managerial staff of the firm. Things started to worst at this firm instead of better as the conflict continued. The company began to implement other abusive labor practices such as missing hours worked from the employee checks, late payment of payroll, and bounced checks. Sometimes the employees had to wait two to three weeks after the payroll was due to get paid. As things got worse the employees began to rely on each more for financial and emotional support. On many instances the workers helped each other out by giving rides to work to employees that ran out of gasoline money due to the delays in payment. The employees also united their efforts to find a resolution to the problem. The labor movement led to the formation of an employee union. I was right in the middle of things when the union was formed. I joined the union because I tho ught that this was the best way to take a collective stand against the oppressor. My employer was wrong because its actions violated U.S. labor laws. People that work are entitled to a monetary compensation to be paid on time every payment cycle. After the union was formed the president of the union requested a meeting with the general manager in order to find a peaceful resolution to the labor conflict. The manager denied the meeting and the employees decided to go on strike. The history of U.S. labor strikes dates back to the 19th century (Washington, 2012). In search of greater protection the unionization of employees increased after the Great Depression. The strike led to a labor stoppage that lasted three weeks. The administration finally gave in and decided to have a meeting with the union leaders to resolve the conflict. After this meeting the company decided to honor the previously negotiated incentive of $5 an hour for employees that exceed a specified production quota. Iro nically this negotiation did not lead to the greatest result in the long run since the company lost the faith of its top corporate clients. The firm lost some of its biggest clients and was forced to close down operation less than three months after the labor strike ended. Upon reflection of the conflict I faced at my former employer I would have handled the situation much differently. I was part of the founding team of this company. The labor conflict

Development Of Cities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Development Of Cities - Assignment Example Through this development, the region became an early center of civilization. Rivers among other geographical features played a very important role in consolidating people together so that they could engage in economic activities. According to Robert Braidwood, â€Å"most historians and anthropologists point to agricultural revolution†¦ as the central development in this transformation to civilization.† In another instance, the Nile was also a landmark geographical feature that facilitated early civilization in Egypt. The Hymn to the Nile provides first-hand information of how the Egyptians perceived the Nile and the relationship that their relationship with their deity. These aspects made people come together hence the development of the early centers of civilization.  Apart from geographical factors, other influential factors made it possible for early civilization to be achieved. The political leadership played a pivotal role in the consolidating people together for a common objective. This can be viewed through the modern management systems, organizations that have good management are able to outdo those that are mismanaged. For example in Egypt, the Pharaoh was a very influential leader in this early center of civilization. As documented in the Hymn to the Pharaoh, the people demonstrated allegiance and commitment to their leadership. They heaped praise and demonstrated their contentment to the pharaoh through the hymn. The artwork has revealed several of the ancient civilizations. For example, ‘The Royal Standard of Ur’ helps in realizing that aspects of peace and war dominated in the course of early civilization. The availability of peace is an indicator that people will have the freedom to live whatever they wanted and do whatever pleased them.