The Computer: Humankind’s Greatest Scientific Discovery

Discoveries throughout time have moved mankind forward in many fields, such as medicine, technology, communications and manufacturing. These findings have also contributed to shifting the way humankind operates on a global basis. Defining the greatest discovery should encompass the revelations which have had the most beneficial impact on our societies. For our generation, it is the founding of the computer. The computer has affected virtually every aspect of our lives, from the way people do business to the way we communicate. Since its humble beginnings with the inventions of the first binary computer in 1936 by Konrad Zuse, and the mechanical calculator, the use of computer has become more than just widespread: it has developed into a phenomenon that has altered the lives of every human living on Earth today in some shape or form. In 1939, Hewlett Packard was founded and by 1945, John von Neumann had discovered electronic storage for data. Subsequently, the year 1967 saw the first metal oxide semiconductor built by Fairchild Camera and Seymour Papert, and it created a language on the computer for children that operated a mechanical turtle. Later in 1967, the first storage system for digital photography was invented by IBM, which had the ability to translate a trillion bits of information. In 1994, Windows first browser Netscape 1.0 was released. Additionally, the Internet search engine, Yahoo, was invented. From this point, computer technologies have constantly been improving and have resulted in modern wonders. Computers have made the technological advances we enjoy today possible. These include online purchasing, business and private communication through social networks, selling to global markets, creating personal websites, or talking to people while seeing them on our computer screens while they are thousands of miles away, and many more advances. All of this is done with little cost, except for a wireless connection fee. People tend to store information not in the public archives, libraries, or in other ways that require using physical media, but in a digital format with the help of cloud technologies. Many significant scientific discoveries are made with the help of computers, and even if the findings are made by hand, computers are still used to process and calculate data gathered during these researches. Computers are indispensable for many business and financial operations, exchange trades, freelance jobs, medicine, production quality control and studying – almost all aspects of life today are tied to the use of the computer. Clement Mok, former creative director of Apple, once said, â€Å"Five years ago, we thought of the Web as a new medium, not a new economy.† As civilization races ahead, technology also speeds up, creating new markets and jobs while helping with advances in medicine and agriculture. Computers have evolved from a simple mechanical calculator, which was still revolutionary for its time, into a sophisticated and complicated helpful tool that has become an essential part of humans’ everyday lives. Nowadays, it is difficult to find a part of modern humanity's existence which has not been reshaped by the invention of the computer, and there is no way of knowing where this great discovery will end up leading civilization in the future. ReferencesMok, Clement.   â€Å"Technology Quotes.† IT History Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. .â€Å"Computer History Museum.† Timeline of Computer History. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013..

Workforce Planning

Group 2 Manage Workforce Planning Autism Victoria – Workforce Plan By James Watts, Jessica Lim, Luke Farrugia and Kair Aueil For Jan Kelly 06/04/2012 Table of Contents 1. The Necessity of Workforce Planning3 2. Overview of organisation3 2. 1. Autism Victoria’s services3 3. Strategy3 3. 1. Autism Victoria’s Vision3 3. 2. Autism Victoria’s Values3 3. 3. Autism Victoria’s Mission4 3. 4. Autism Victoria’s Strategic Priorities4 3. 5.SWOT Analysis4 4. External Factors4 4. 1. Global Factors5 4. 2. National and Regional Factors5 4. 3. Challenges5 5. Internal Environment6 5. 1. Business Planning Process6 5. 2. Internal Changes6 5. 3. Labour Issues6 5. 4. Organisational Structure6 6. Current Workforce Profile7 7. Future Workforce Profile7 8. Gap Analysis and Closing Strategies7 9. Conclusion and Recommendations8 10. References8 1. The Necessity of Workforce PlanningWorkforce planning is a comprehensive process that provides managers with a framework fo r making staffing decisions based on an organisation’s mission, strategic plan, budgetary resources and a set of desired workforce competencies. (Dessler, Griffiths & Lloyd-Walker 2007 pp78) Workforce planning allows managers to anticipate changes in the external and internal business environment and how they will impact their organisation’s workforce needs.It also provides a basis for managers to devise strategies to tackle said changes and generate the maximal amount of value for their dollar. As Autism Victoria is a non-profit organisation, it relies heavily upon government grants and funding. The limitations on this form of income make it imperative that Autism Victoria invests every penny wisely. And because the hiring and payment of workers is so costly, significant effort must be put into the workforce planning process in order to ensure that it isn’t costing the company more than it benefits it. . Overview of organisation Autism Victoria, trading as Amaz e, is a member-based not-for-profit organisation and is the peak body for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) in the state of Victoria. Their aim is to improve the quality of life for people affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders, their family and carers. They also provide a range of services to individuals and agencies with an interest in Autism Spectrum Disorders (including Asperger Syndrome and PDD-NOS). 3. 1. Autism Victoria’s services Autism Victoria offers the following services: free phone support for individuals and organisations affected by ASD * certified and customised training programs for professionals and businesses * information and education sessions for individuals and families including the Early Days workshops * autism accreditation for services, schools and practitioners * administration of the FaHCSIA â€Å"Helping Children with Autism† funding on behalf of government * information Services – Autism Library, Spectrum Magazine, eSpectrum newslett er, online resources, Fact Sheets and more 3.Strategy 4. 2. Autism Victoria’s Vision That all people affected by an ASD have the best quality of life outcomes possible 4. 3. Autism Victoria’s Values * Diversity * Co-operative spirit * Willingness to learn * Background in dealing with an ASD 4. 4. Autism Victoria’s Mission To provide the best quality range of information, advice and support to families and individuals and advocating for systemic change, the establishment of networks, links and communities and the provision of training and accreditation to the service support system. 4. 5.Autism Victoria’s Strategic Priorities Autism Victoria’s most recent Board of Directors meeting yielded 5 priorities for this quarter. They are: 1. To confirm and enhance the role of Autism Victoria as the Peak Body on Autism Spectrum Disorders in Victoria 2. To ensure Autism Victoria is a robust and functional organisation 3. To develop and adopt a number of divers e income streams to ensure the financial viability of the organisation 4. To provide comprehensive quality information and advice on all matters related to Autism Spectrum Disorders 5.To take direct action to improve the provision of service and standards to people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder 4. 6. SWOT Analysis 4. External Factors There are several external factors which currently have an influence on Autism Victoria’s workforce planning considerations. Some of these external factors have a positive influence; others, negative. In this section, several strata of external factors will be discussed. 5. 7. Global Factors As Autism Victoria is a state organisation, there aren’t many global factors currently affecting it. The most notable factors would be the new developments in ASD diagnosis and treatment.The American-developed DSM-X diagnostic tool will be replacing the current DSM-IV version, and this has the potential to cause a great deal of uncertainty in the di agnosis of ASDs. Autism Victoria predicts that 20% of would-be autistics would be failed to be diagnosed. This would lead to a large population of ASD symptom carriers being deemed unfit for access to quality knowledge and care. One potential global factor that could be beneficial for Autism Victoria involves a conference that is currently being held by them every two years. This conference is streamed into 9 regional centres in Victoria.With the advent of new media technology that is available today, they would have the opportunity to stream the conference live into surrounding nations, spreading knowledge and awareness much more effectively. Autism Victoria is constantly on the lookout for new research and technologies which have the potential to benefit their cause. This would greatly influence their workforce planning process, as technological knowledge and skills would be a crucial part of assessing an applicant’s suitability. The advent of this technology may even creat e new job positions. 5. 8. National and Regional FactorsA national factor which has the potential to affect Autism Victoria is the introduction of a new National Disability Insurance Scheme by the Victorian Coalition Government. It is still unknown whether this new process will have a positive or negative effect on Autism Victoria and their beneficiaries. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has released an Autism State Plan for Victoria, which is committed to supporting all children affected by an ASD. In conjunction with Autism Victoria, they have been promoting the spread and knowledge of ASDs through the Victorian school system.Autism Victoria is also constricted by the funds and resources they have at their disposal. Though the amount of funding they have received has increased greatly over the last few years, there is still room for growth, as there are still a large number of ASD sufferers in Victoria. 5. 9. Challenges There are several challenges that are currently being faced by Autism Victoria. In Australia today, 1 in 100 children is diagnosed with Autism. This places a large demand on the services and support Autism Victoria provides. Funding and manpower is a significant part of the fulfilment of these demands.Autism Victoria’s CEO organises a quarterly board meetings in order to discuss a wide range of matters. The current purpose of their next meeting, which is due to happen as of now is to develop a paper for the government underling what policies Autism Victoria believe should be changed or added. They also prepare papers on how much funding is needed. Recently Autism Victoria has been lobbing with education ministers to get the amount of experience teachers get with autistic people while studying to become teachers increased.There are currently no guidelines on how much time teaching students get hands on with Autistic children, with many universities offering no hands on time with Autistic children while studyin g teaching. This is something that the current CEO of Autism Victoria believes strongly in and is trying to get changed. 5. Internal Environment 6. 10. Business Planning Process Every year Autism Victoria holds their Annual Planning Day. This is a day where planning for the next year is done. The strategic plan is revised by the Board of Directors, and all managers are required to do SWOT analysis of their departments. . 11. Internal Changes As Autism Victoria as an organisation has had enormous growth within the past 3 years, during the increase in size of Autism Victoria’s operations they have had hire many new people to meet the demands of the organisation and the community. As a result, current offices have become cramped and there is no free office space within their current offices, due to this they are currently looking at moving to a new larger office. 6. 12. Labour Issues Autism Victoria’s only current problem with labour is an oversubscription.They recently e ncountered a problem in which 100 applicants applied for a new position that Autism Victoria had made available, this in turn created a problem of having to interview lots of applications. The CEO of Autism Victoria states that they only interviewed the people that where in the yes category because there where so many applicants it was not worth there time to interview the maybes as well. 6. 13. Organisational Structure At the head of the organisation structure of Autism Victoria is the current CEO Murray Dawson-Smith. Below him 5 work teams which are headed by respective managers. There are roughly 5 staff per work team.Autism Victoria’s Organisational Chart: 6. Current Workforce Profile The current workforce employed by Autism Victoria is more than adequate to perform the tasks and operations necessary at the organisation. Though the company is expanding and will be able to hire more employees, the supply of workers desirous to gain employment at Autism Victoria far exceeds the demand for employment by the organisation. This means that Autism Victoria has a great deal of control over both the internal and the external elements of hiring and promotion, and the luxury of choice when it comes to filling any position within the organization.The internal supply of workers, however, is largely tapped out. Though the workforce is highly qualified, experienced, and performs their tasks/fills their roles in a manner that meets or exceeds expectations, individuals at the organisation are also well-suited to and satisfied with their current positions, making internal promotion or lateral movements to fill vacancies and new positions undesirable and an ineffective and inefficient way to meet current workforce needs.External supply is also quite extensive, meaning Autism Victoria has many choices when it comes to filling current workforce needs. A high level of experience is not actually a requirement for considering employment, as extensive training is available for the right candidate. When seeking employees in the external workforce, then, personality, values, and ability to fit in with the other individuals at the organization are the key considerations. 7. Future Workforce ProfileThe most significant difference between the current and future workforce profiles at Autism Victoria is the planned expansion of the organisation, which will enable it to hire fifteen more individuals. As the organisation is devoted to providing autism assistance services, the new hires will need to be willing to work in this environment and to receive ongoing training and development towards providing individuals with autism and their families with always-improving services; however current knowledge or experience in the area is not really required.Even so, there are many applicants on file in the external workforce with experience, knowledge, and a strong desire to work at Autism Victoria, such that if the experience and knowledge considerations were to becom e more important in the future this would not present a problem to the organisation in the slightest. The desire to work for Autism Victoria in the wider external workforce is so strong, in fact, that the company should not have problems filling any open positions for some time, even with the company’s emphasis on ability to personally integrate with the other members of the organisation in a productive fashion.Such strong embedded cultures can be prohibitive to outsiders, but with a large pool to choose from this should not be an issue. In addition, former employees will and do apply for open positions. Even in the external workforce, then, there are potential employees known to be a good fit with the organization. The supply of available employees in the external workforce is more than enough to meet the organization’s needs. 8. Gap Analysis and Closing Strategies Autism Victoria is in a good state to fulfil their current strategic obligations.However, with the impen ding relocation on the horizon, they will need to focus on expanding their workforce capacity in order to cope with the coming staffing demands. This will not require a large increase in staff-seeking expenditure or effort, as Autism Victoria already has the exposure necessary to warrant oversubscription. Another area Autism Victoria should focus on is increasing the technological capabilities of its workforce. With the advent of new diagnostic and treatment tools, a workforce capable of utilising these developments stands to retain its usefulness far into the future.Autism Victoria can promote this focus by developing technological training programs for its staff. An increase in funding is imperative to secure the aforementioned developments. Thus, it necessary for Autism Victoria to continue to promote government funding at every available opportunity, as this provides a layer of buffering in the event that said developments fall through and contingency plans must be introduced. 9 . Conclusion and Recommendations Autism Victoria has had the good fortune of rapid expansion within the last 5 years, and has thus far been capable of adapting to the changing environment of the industry’s workforce.But in order to secure its place in the future and fill out its expanding business scope, Autism Victoria will have to take the following actions: * Increase its workforce by 15 staff in order to adequately expand into its new location * Develop a training program to education staff in the use of the DSM-V diagnostic tool * Secure a 50% increase in government funding through the lobbying of ministers It is reasonable to believe that through the use of these recommendations, Autism Victoria stands to perform exceedingly well in the industry in a period out to 2020. 0. References Dessler, G, Griffiths, J & Lloyd-Walker, B 2007 Human Resource Management, 3rd edn, Pearson Education, Australia Workforce Planning India shines Shalini Shukla 18 Apr 2012 In the last two decades, India has gone from being one of the least globalised economies in the world to one of the most dependent on international commerce. â€Å"Our markets are more open, we enjoy a wider range of consumer items than ever, and those who go abroad (far more than ever before) finance their travel expenses with foreign exchange,† says Shashi Tharoor, elected member of the Indian Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala and former Minister of State for External Affairs. Business process outsourcing has (also) tied large numbers of Indians to foreign work environments and business partners. † This year, India is poised to over take Japan as the third largest economy in the world, based on purchasing power parity. James Agarwal, consulting director and head – India, BTI Consultants, a part of Kelly Services, says that main growth drivers seem to be a variety of internal and external factors , including investment-friendly public policies and regulations. India has also successfully raised its aggregate savings rate to levels that would allow sustained high levels of domestic capital formation, in turn helping high growth,† says Agarwal. While India’s economy is one of the world’s most dynamic, corruption, sloppy standards, a lack of decent staff and too much red tape are common gripes amongst businesses. Prince Augustine, EVP – Human Capital at Mahindra & Mahindra, says there is much to be improved. â€Å"The potential of India has not been fully tapped in terms of its resources and people capability,† he says. There is ample scope for growth looking at the vast expanse of the country, its population and rich cultural heritage. † The country’s labour force is one to be reckoned with. It boasts the world’s largest labour pool, with 270 million entering the workforce over the next 20 years, says McKinsey & Company. It also has the world’s youngest workforce, with 70% of the population falling under the age of 35, according to the latest Indian Census. â€Å"By and large, people (in India) are hard-working, and management is participative, forward-looking and quite performance-oriented,† says Augustine.Agarwal agrees and says work culture in India requires one to be acclimatised to the behavioural as well as cultural variations of the country. â€Å"For instance, here, people consider their family when accepting job proposals, although Gen X is emulating the west gradually,† he says. â€Å"Also, workers in India have a strict work ethic; they do not mind even working on weekends if the demands are such, unlike most other countries where weekends are almost exclusively considered personal time. However, Agarwal added that Indian workers can be rather particular about certain festivals which cannot be ignored, such as Diwali. Gender equality While India has certainly done some things right on the business front to achieve double-digit economic growth, gender equality in the country still has a long way to go before it comes even close to levels of other economic giants. According to the Gender Sensitivity Benchmark for Asia 2011 report, India is the worst among six top Asian economies when it comes to the representation of women in the workplace at the junior- and middle-level positions.Indian multinational companies studied had the lowest number of women employed, at 24. 43% of the total workforce in India. Agarwal laments that despite the fact that recent times have witnessed a boost in the status of women, such discrimination still seems to exist. â€Å"Discrimination here relates to matters like pay, conditions pre- and post-employment, promotions and other opportunity matters,† he says. â€Å"For a developing country like India, gender equality is still a long way off, coupled with unprecedented efforts to grant women an equal status and the reby ensure her development. There is a silver lining though. In spite of all the challenges, India has shown and worked on progressive policies. Today, most of India’s companies are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all. Employers are increasingly realising the value of trained human resource, especially women in India. Diversity hiring intent among leading companies has gone up by almost 500% since 2010, according to a study by the Chennai-based FLEXI Careers India, which sources only women executives. Some organisations are changing their HR policies to retain their valuable employees,† says Agarwal. â€Å"There are companies which are providing flexibility so that female employees at various life stages could benefit from these policies, like working from a different city, sabbatical from corporate life, and extended maternity leave. † A host of companies, like Godrej Industries, Pepsico, Genpact, Kraft, P&G, Deutsche Bank and others, have all stepped up their gender diversity hiring recently.Progressive companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra believe in equal opportunity and do not discriminate in any form. â€Å"Our philosophy is that the right person should be selected for the job. We have an evolutionary approach to diversity as the working population base needs to be aligned to ensure that there is a rich supply of employable workforce,† says Augustine. â€Å"In the manufacturing sector primarily in engineering, although the number of woman employees is limited, we have good representation. IBM is another company that’s been championing diversity in the workplace. Three or four times a year, a team from IBM goes on a recruitment drive with a difference – they screen and select only female employees. Conservative estimates suggest IBM has added well over 2,000 women in two years, with the proportion of female workers increasing from 24% of the workforce to 26%. â€Å"We keep trying to fin d new ways of hiring women,† Kalpana Veeraraghavan, diversity manager for India and South Asia at IBM tells The Economist. This is not just about filling a talent crunch. There is a strong correlation between success in the marketplace and having a diverse workforce. † Other examples include Genpact, where the overall ratio of men to women is 60:40; Kotak Mahindra Bank, where two out of 10 employees are women; and KPMG, which has increased its headcount for female employees by 75% as compared to its figures for 2010. Schneider Electric has also bumped up its percentage of women in the workforce from just 9% in 2009 to 20% in 2011. Money talksCompanies in India are cautious, but also confident of long-term performance this year. Organisations have emerged in a mature way post-downturn with a stronger compensation philosophy in place, designed around ‘pay for performance’ and a comprehensive view for long-term sustainability. According to the Hay Group Compens ation & Benefits Report 2011, the country witnessed an actual average salary increase of 11% in 2011 and is optimistic about seeing double-digit growth this year at an average of 12% across levels.Sridhar Ganesan, managing consultant and Rewards Practice Leader, Hay Group India, says, â€Å"in a short span of the last five years, the Indian employment market has witnessed a range of behaviours with employers on a hiring spree and also in rightsizing mode. The market is now stabilising and maturing to the next level of employer and employee relationships. † Graduate salaries are also picking up with monthly salaries touching Rs 40,000 (US$758) in industries including engineering, sales, marketing and even in support functions such as finance and HR.Salaries are going up at a good time as India experiences its highest inflation rates yet, with the annual inflation rate for the country accelerating to a 13-month high of 9. 78% in August 2011. For instance, Mahindra & Mahindra do es regular Mark-to-Market comparisons and appropriate changes are made in compensation based on market realities. â€Å"Employees are aligned to these realities,† says Augustine. Ganesan also observed that there is a constant reinforcement of pay for performance. Bonus figures have been continuously showing an increasing trend year-on-year, as organisations now believe in pay for performance with controlled merit increments. † More organisations have certainly designed variable pay to induce a performance-driven culture. The target bonus percentage ranges between 8% and 44% of base salary at junior management levels, 11–63% of base salary at middle management, and 15–75% of base salary at senior management levels. The Hay Group report found that around 79% of the organisations participating paid some form of bonus in the last 12 months.When it comes to bonuses, Diwali is the time when employees expect them in India. According to The Economic Times, Diwali bonuses range from 10% to over 200% of basic pay. Consumer durables companies and IT and business process outsourcing companies are the most generous, with the former giving out 20–250% of basic pay during the festive season and the latter shelling out 80–100% of basic wages as bonuses. Bonuses in the financial services sector range from more conservative figures of 16–50% while those in the automobile industry fluctuate between 10% and 25%.The retail sector can give out anywhere from 9% to 60% of basic pay in bonus pay-outs during the festive season. LG Electronics India is a case in point. The consumer durables company gives out a total of 200–700% of basic salaries to its 4,500 employees annually through six bonuses, including two half-yearly performance incentives in January and July, a Diwali bonus, a post-Diwali bonus, an LG birthday bonus in May and a retention bonus to employees who have completed two years of service at LG.The retention bonus is a maximum of 400% of an employee’s basic monthly salary and is paid in three instalments in every consecutive year. Talent development There is no doubt that India’s vast manpower pool has played a vital role in its economic success story. It is increasingly obvious that the success of Indian companies is not just based on superior access to raw materials or technology or patents, but also fundamentally upon human skills.The major challenge, though, seems to be the issue of upgrading skill sets of this human resource through training & development in the face of high attrition and competition, says Agarwal. â€Å"Indian companies are recognising their responsibilities to enhance the employee’s opportunity to develop skills and abilities for full performance within the position and for career advancement,† he says. The India that is going global is also a remarkably young country. â€Å"India’s youth population remains an under-utilised economic as set,† says Tharoor. Census figures show that nearly one-fifth of India belongs to the 15–24 year age group.Each year, the country will add around five million young adults in that age group – five million potentially productive workers providing India with the fuel it needs to drive productivity higher, powering its economy even further. The education system is working to create a steady stream of young talent. According to National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), each year over three million graduates and post-graduates are added to the Indian workforce. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of developing this talent. Today’s new graduates seem to be grossly lacking in all-round skills – something that’s expected, given their formal education,† says Agarwal. Augustine agrees, saying some big concerns include the employability of fresh graduates and how aligned these graduates are to business re ality. Still, many reforms are underway, from governance structure of higher education and decentralisation, to major investments in faculty development, for both private and public institutions. â€Å"A lot of effort is being put into expanding tertiary education, especially for low- and middle-income students,† says Agarwal.Corporates are also doing their business to improve the quality of education and hence increase the number of employable talent. For instance, Wipro works closely with the Indian school and college system through the Wipro Applying Thought in Schools (WATIS) programme. The strategy revolves around systemic education reform and transforming the current nature of schools and pedagogy, it works through building capacity of social sector organisations working in the space of education and directly with schools. The WATIS programme has engaged with over 2,000 schools and 30 social organisations across 17 states of India.Mission10X Learning Approach (MxLA) is another program by Wipro that focuses on improving the potential for employability of engineering graduates in India. It does this through direct engagement with engineering colleges and faculty capacity development. The program reaches out to over 300 colleges and has trained 10,000 engineering college faculty members. Aditya Birla Group offers Management Trainee Programmes through which the company recruits exceptional management graduates from the best business schools in the country.Siemens India’s one year training programme sees newly recruited management trainees undergo a rigorous five-week classroom training, six stints of three weeks each in Sales, Operations, Finance, HR and Corporate Strategy, and a 26-week project within a business unit or corporate function. The synergy between the public and private partnership with a strong focus on key HR programmes such as talent management and employee capability-building, coupled with attraction and retention will be pivot al as India continues its journey of rapid growth.Laws to keep in mind when doing business in India+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to James Agarwal, consulting director and head – India, BTI Consultants, some important Labour Acts which are applicable for carrying out business in India are:+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Employees’ State Insurance Act+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Workmen’s Compensation Act+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Maternity Benefit Act+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Factories Act+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Minimum Wages Act+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Payment of Wages Act|JugaadA Hindi slang word, jugaad (pronounced ‘joo-gaardh’) translates to an improvisational style of innovation that’s driven by scarce resources – a case of ‘get it done, by hook or by crook’. Just as Guanxi describes the central idea in Chinese society, jugaad is almost a way of life in India. Most workers in India embody this intrinsic trait of jugaad in their day-to-day work, allowing them to creatively come up with products and services that are more economical both for the supplier and consumer, and maximises resources for a company and its stakeholders in as little time as possible. Resolutions for 2012The English daily, Mumbai Mirror, sums up some of the biggest workplace resolutions that people in all industries will try to keep in 2012:+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Encourage leadership – This comes in handy as companies transition from closed to open source leadership formats this year+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Monitor workplace gossip – Managing office gossip is important in keeping major conflicts at bay+  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Strike a connect – Know the ‘why’ and then focus on the task, helping to avoid miscommunication, politicking, etc†¦|POISED TO: Cool, calm, collected or waiting at attention : as in poised to strike. purchasing power parity : aggregate:accumulated,  added,  amassed,  assembled,collected,  collective,  combined,  composite,corporate,  cumulative,  heaped,  mixed,  piled,total

Advertisement-Rhetorical Analysis draft Coursework

Advertisement-Rhetorical Analysis draft - Coursework Example according to the time and demand needs; in that continuum, advertisement in 40’s has its own dimensions as one can find number of examples in this link .To be precise, the selected advertisement for analysis is â€Å"ham on rye scotch tape 3m†. This ad is the clear depiction of 1940’s trends in the domain of advertisement. This ad is the portrayal, includes the picture or graphical representation with the detailed text that was the norm of that era. The interesting aspect is that the text portion is dedicated to the blonde and her burgers that are filled with comparatively bright colors. However, the critical issue is that the text portion is not interpreting the graphical segment properly that is confusing because in the picture there is no any such thing that belongs to the war and its discussed related dimensions. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem any correlation with the thumbnails pictures in the text portion and the blonde portion that is standing insi de the rail with other people. Therefore, this piece of advertisement cannot be categorized in the domain of ideal and properly organized ad because it is the perception, general people heed to the pictures and graphical representations than to waste the time in reading the long, unnecessary and loosely connected texts. One can analyze the current trends in advertisement that significantly altered because of that

Policy Proposal to Institute Ethics in Business Essay

Policy Proposal to Institute Ethics in Business - Essay Example I am sure that you have been briefed by your staff about the capital surplus that was just parked last year that amounted to a couple of trilion dollars that instead of reinvesting to expand the operation of business and create jobs (that would have helped us recover from the recession) businessmen and investors alike just waited and see. That is more devastating than what Enron and company did to the US economy for it is already a crisis of confidence of which we will not know when it will be over. I cannot stress enough how important it is for businesses to act ethically and responsibly. It is not just about being proper as a corporate entity but to avoid the economic consequences if business will misbehave. I am well aware that government cannot alter how people thinks and behaves but it has the power and resources to restructure the corporate and legal environs that would rehabilitate corporate behaviour and align its actions to a desirable corporate citizenship that is wanted by all through its various legal and policy instrumentalities that would make it act ethical. To achieve this, there are two policy proposals that I would like to suggest. This two pronged proposal is based on two principles. First, instilling business ethics at a preparatory level to make it as part of discipline that business professionals has to learn and imbue. Second is to make corporate malfeasance less advantageous by imposing heavy penalties to the level of economic sabotage to those corporations and individuals who will transgress the ethical law therefore serving it as a deterrence towards corporate malfeasance. At present, the punishment and aggravation against white collar crimes particularly corporate malfeasance is lesser than the benefits that the benefits that corporations and benefits will reap from it. For example, an executive and a business entity who is found guilty of corporate malfeasance amassed hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars only to be sentenc ed to few years of prison and/or few million dollars fine which in effect incentivize them to commit crimes. The recent laws enacted to prevent corporate malfeasance while needed were reactive to the present realities of business. For example, the Sabarnes Oxley Act is just a reaction to whistleblowing at Worldcom and intends to protect other whistleblowers in the future. While the law is good, it is limited and does not cover the entire gamut of corporate malfeasance nor encourages business to act ethically. My suggested proposals are as follows; first, require universities through the mandate of the law to include in their syllabi business ethics. Each student must be required to have an Ethics subject at least once per school year. The rational for this is not just to react for every corporate transgression that catches our attention but preventing it right from the source, when professionals are still learning the ropes of business. Second, disincentivize corporate crimes. Eleva te corporate malfesance to the level of economic sabotage applying the principles of general deterrence of which I will explain at length later. But for now, let me elaborate my first suggested proposal. Incorporate Business Ethics In School Curricula Intensively I believe that given the recent scandals that rocked the business and financial world, it now becomes an imperative that each individual entering into the corporate and financial industry must have a

Minorities and culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Minorities and culture - Essay Example A concept of whiteness often comes up in different contexts. Â   Social sciences, linguistic studies, psychology, social work, gender studies and many others are focused on the ideas of whiteness. There is no doubt that the concept of "whiteness" is an integrative element of the modern social context. It is often claimed that dark color of skin is similar to peoples inability of a high-level performance. A modern society is well known for the presence of full kaleidoscope of skin colors. The scientists have often agreed upon the existence of a certain biological and genealogical basis, which identifies peoples performance in the global society. A concept of whiteness includes knowledge of body language, ideologies, behavioral norms and some practices, which have been developed for many centuries. The American colonies and the history of European white roots have been often considered as the dominant in development of the concept of "whiteness" (Barrett, 1977). We think about race in a different way and whiteness is based on different social insti tutions, such as legal, economic, educational, political and religious etc. Rothenberg underlined that a concept of whiteness and a rigid differentiation between a concept of "blackness" and "whiteness" are deeply rooted in America. On the one hand, the Europeans were focused on the differences in skin color, but on the other hand, they did not emphasize theirs. White people have often been ruling. The European monarchs have reigned for ages and it should come as no surprise that a stereotype of white dominance became a wide spread one. A power of control often belonged to white-skinned people. Only a small part of elite gains its power because of the color of their skin. It can be often argued that white race is not the greatest benefit, but the inner contents. W.E.B. Du Bois claimed that a "white blindspot" was the name of interests, which related to some white people. A concept of whiteness has a

Discussions questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussions questions - Assignment Example Large enterprises have many employees spread of a lager geographical cover i.e. worldwide who could be difficult to control. These employees could be compromised by hacker so as to provide details to help them hack in the systems. Research shows that most large enterprises hackings are always done from the inside. The greatest tool that these hackers have at their disposal is Google. Using Google smart search a hacker can get any information they want about any individual including family names, credit card information, date of birth, home address, medical records, classified government records etc. Once hackers have access to this kind of information, it is easier for them to carry out any attack ranging from theft, fraud or gain access to restricted resources. Google can also provide information about organizations’ profile of web servers, unprotected directories, financial information and database information. This is the kind of information hackers use to attack there target. Hence Google smart search has become the greatest tool used by hackers. One recent cyber-crime that is on the rise is cloud crime. Cloud computing is trending in IT and most companies are moving to cloud services. Therefore with more companies putting information on public cloud services, cloud services have become targets. However system forensics investigators face several challenges in trying to solve the crime. For instance, form the legal dimension, there are no agreements among cloud organizations to enable collaborative investigation. Also majority of SLAs between these companies have no terms and conditions regarding the separation of responsibilities between the cloud service provider and the customer The greatest challenges facing system forensics investigators is how to retrieve and handle data form mobile handheld devices. Revolution in technology has seen emergence of mobile handheld devices like smartphones like Apple iPhone and blackberry, iPads,

An experiential Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

An experiential - Essay Example tood and in this manner, we build trust as well as compassion with each other and people spontaneously look up to my leadership with gratitude and respect, voluntarily taking part in becoming a developed community that can be well-sustained in different aspects of living. Community, in our common knowledge and as the term implies, makes typical reference to that local spot or group in which find and sense belongingness in a unified body with common goals, interests, or deeds. In it we realize the natural process of a give-and-take mechanism when it comes to allocation of social influences that correspondingly affect an individual’s response and social behavior toward the rest of community members. We may go beyond such usual notion and perceive how else a community may be defined or characterized by the emerging social attitudes which are essentially patterned after a particular origin or structure. Normally, we find ourselves bound to care with one another in a community not only because we readily understand the necessity of survival through interactive relationship but even for the natural truth in historicity where there emerges discernment of historical background that enables one person to gauge the other in terms of a continuing culture they have both lived with though at separate places and time. The mutual respect or concern established toward a cultural or religious tradition, for instance, may hold us within a sensible definition of community in which while we distinguish individual selves with unique identity to develop for personal growth, we know somewhere from the inner core that our mutuality in beliefs and principles sets us apart from certain degree of plural indifference. As a community leader, I personally advocate the aforementioned findings and believe that I can significantly contribute on promoting the essence of communication by allowing more educational and recreational programs to be conducted in order to discover potentials of each

In what ways has comparative research improved our knowledge of the Essay

In what ways has comparative research improved our knowledge of the strengths and limitations of established national patterns of employment relations and HRM - Essay Example In the context of globalization, lean management provides the paradigm with which human resource management can be understood as â€Å"the acknowledgement, development and systematic use of the skills and knowledge of employees.† (Ramirez et al 2007, p 496) Thereby, recognizing the integral and necessary role of employees in the survival of the organization in the global economy, global market. Being such, there is a continuous demand to undertake studies that will address questions pertinent to human resource management and employee relations as it is an accepted truism in human resource practices â€Å"that high performance work systems, the focus is on more than simply information sharing; they also involve the decentralization of decisions and work enrichment, that is providing employees with opportunities for involvement in decision-making and innovation.† (Wood & de Menezes 2008, p 639) In this regard, this paper intends to focus on the question in what way has comparative research improved our knowledge of the strengths and limitations of established national patterns of employee relations and human resource management? The author will primarily draw his claims from UK HRM and employee relations framework. In the end, it is the hope of the author that this paper may provide a clearer perspective on the important role that comparative research plays in the understanding of employee relations and human resource management.

France business code Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

France business code Ethics - Essay Example France is not only a developed country, but one that has moved from economic government ownership and control, to free market economy. Many large companies in France have been privatized, with France Telecom, Air France, Thales and Renault being examples of plans that have undergone privatization. France enjoys the third largest earning from tourism, being the world’s most visited tourist destination. Despite these points of strengths, France is greatly affected by cultural dynamics and ethical constraints. France, officially known as the French Republic is an independent republic in Western Europe. It extends as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the English Channel, the North Sea, the Rhine River and the Atlantic Ocean. Presently, France is the largest country in Europe and also owns the world’s second-most important exclusive economic zone. While the history of France is always traced back to the Franks, France has developed over time to be a leading democracy and one of the pillars of European Union (EU). Likewise, France had been an absolute monarchy until the Storming of the Bastille took place on July 14th, 1789 and culminated unto the French Revolution. It was also at this historical juncture that France founded the fundamental rights and freedoms of the French citizens without any exception by making a declaration on the rights of man and those of the French citizen. All the above developments have given businesses in France a greater impetus. For instance, through the declaration of human rights and freedom, French citizens are able to choose their occupation, including entrepreneurship. Conversely, the aforementioned leadership position is seen in the manner in which it has continued to dispense an important global role as one of the permanent member of NATO, the EU, the Great 8, the Great 20 and the United Nations Security Council. Initially, France had been removed from NATO forces or

Violent Media with Parental Involement is Better Than Without It Essay

Violent Media with Parental Involement is Better Than Without It - Essay Example main contention is that violent media helps children master their rage, develop confidence and enables them to handle their personal and family problems effectively. Jones believes that the present day society is too afraid of rage and violence and aims to suppress it in the same manner as the Victorian society once suppressed sexuality. He further argues that violence and sexuality are natural inst in humans and it is wrong to suppress them. Jones also emphasizes that stifling such human emotions will ultimately hamper the development of children’s identifies. I agree with Jones’ contention that violent media can be positively used to help children understand and control their rage, if there is parental or adult involvement, but I oppose his belief that trashy aspects of pop culture have developmental functions, especially since his logic suffers from the fallacies of post hoc, overgeneralization and slippery slope. The claim of Jones that violent media can be used as a tool for children to understand and control their rage, depending on their circumstances, is founded on sound reasoning. Research evidence suggests that children who are products of broken and dysfunctional families, especially boys, tend to develop anti-social and aggressive attitudes and behaviors in the later stages of their lives (Kimm and Kim). Violent media in such situations can be used as a form of therapy, as long as children receive parental or adult supervision as well as guidance from psychologists or counselors. Jones’ statement that â€Å"At its most fundamental level, what we call ‘creative violence’ †¦ gives children a tool to master their rage,† is credible to some extent. If a child watches violence under the supervision of a responsible adult, the latter may be able to explain the reason for the violence, which will offer the child an insight into when violence is justified and when not. Similarly, when a negative result entails from enraged behavior on the screen,

Black Codes Essay Example for Free

Black Codes Essay ‘Black~Codes’ were legal statutes and constitutional amendments enacted by the ex~Confederate states following the Civil War that sought to restrict the liberties of newly freed sIaves, to ensure a supply of inexpensive agriculturaI Iabor; and maintain a white dominated hierarchy. However; the history of Black Codes did not begin wIth the coIIapse of the Confederacy. Prior to the Civil War, $tates in the south enacted Slave Codes to regulate the institution of slavery. Furthermore, northern, non~slave holding states enacted laws to limit the [emailprotected] political power and social mobility. For example~ in 1804, Ohio enacted Iaws prohibitin black people from immigrating into states. In 1813, the State of lllinois enacted a law banning free BIacks outright from immigrating into the $tate. Black Codes adopted after the Civil War borrowed elements from the antebellum slave laws and from the laws of the northern states used to regulate free blacks. Some Black Codes incorporated morality clauses based on antebellum slave laws into Back Code labor laws. For example, in Texas, a morality clause was used to make it crime for laborers to use offensive language in the presence of their employers, his agents, or his family members. Borrowing from the Ohio and Illinois codes, Arkansas enacted an ordinance banning free blacks from immigrating into the state. In the end, the Black Codes were largely extinguished when Radical Republican Reconstruction efforts began in 1866-67, and with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights legislation. Though the statutory lives of the Black Codes were short-lived, they are significant in that they served as precursors to the Jim Crow laws and social segregation among whites and blacks. For example, Arkansas passed a law prohibiting black children from 1attending school with children. The Texas legislature enacted a law requiring railroad companies to set aside a passenger car for black passengers. While each ex-Confederate state enacted its own set of Black Codes, all of them shared certain features. First, they defined the term person of color. Second, they prevented blacks from voting, holding office, or serving on juries. Third, they prevented blacks from serving in state militias. Fourth, they mandated for poor, unemployed persons (usually blacks) be arrested for vagrancy or bound as apprentices. Fifth, they mandated and regulated labor contracts between whites and free blacks. Sixth, they prohibited interracial marriages between whites and blacks. All of the Black Codes defined what it meant to be a â€Å"person of color. † However, these definitions were far from consistent. The Virginia legislature decreed that any person with onefourth Negro blood in their veins was a person of color. Georgia set the limit at one-eighth. Still yet, the Tennessee legislature declared anyone having any Negro blood at all made an individual a person of color. The leaders of the ex-Confederacy made no qualms about their desire to keep blacks out of the political process. To this end, all of the ex-Confederate states prevented blacks from voting, holding political office, or serving in the state militias. This view had some measure of support in the North. In an article appearing in the New York Times, an author wrote, â€Å"The denial of suffrage to the freedmen, we believe, cannot be made a bar to admission of the Southern representatives, for the reason is that it is no real denial of justice. No man, white or black, has title to a civil power which he has not the intelligence to exercise. † The Black Codes also prohibited blacks from serving in state militias. A principle reasons for these laws was probably a concern for insurrections and armed violence. However, a 2corollary concern was that the presence of armed black soldiers encouraged undesirable attitudes in blacks. For example, in Florida, the state legislature drafted resolution requesting that black Union Army troops be withdrawn from their lands because their presence alarmed whites and encouraged insubordination among blacks. Florida also passed laws prohibiting blacks from carry fire-arms or weapons. If blacks wanted to own a gun, these laws often required blacks to obtain a license from the county judge and to have witnesses, usually white, vouch for their nonviolent temperament. The vagrancy statutes were particularly harsh on freed blacks. While these statutes did not specifically target blacks in their language, they were predominately applied to blacks because of their impoverished condition. In general, vagrancy statutes stipulated that any person a law enforcement officer or judge deemed to be unemployed and not owning property could be arrested and charged as a vagrant. It was easy to arrest blacks for violating vagrancy laws because the freed blacks lacked wealth and land owning to their previous condition of servitude, and to a lesser extent because the federal government reneged on its promise to deliver forty acres and a mule to 40,000 freed slaves. Once arrested and convicted of vagrancy, a person would be forced into conditions nearly identical to slavery. They were either hired out to private individuals or forced to work public projects. They were not paid for their labor. In Florida, disobedience, tardiness, or running away could be punished by imprisonment, standing in the pillory or stockade, or flogging. Punishment by flogging usually consisted of receiving 39 lashes, a number frequently used when flogging slaves. Apprentice statutes functioned along with vagrancy statutes to ensure a steady supply of inexpensive labor. Under apprentice laws, minors of poor parents, or parents deemed to be 3vagrants, could be taken as wards of the court and bound out to a master for varying lengths of time. Males were usually bound until the age of twenty-one, females until the age of eighteen. Apprentices frequently had no choice in the trade they would be required to learn, however, masters were required to teach the apprentice a trade, provide for the apprentice’s living expenses, and provide the apprentice with a basic elementary level education. Some states even required the master to provide the apprentice with a monetary gift when the apprenticeship expired. Apprentices who violated apprentice laws by running away being disobedient to their master could be imprisoned, flogged, or forced to pay damages. The regulation of labor contracts with blacks was another hallmark of the Black Codes. In article appearing in a popular magazine of the time, a Southern author wrote of black people, â€Å"We should be satisfied to compel them to engage in coarse, common manual labor, and to punish them for dereliction of duty or non fulfillment of their contracts with such severity, as to make them useful, productive laborers. † Under the Black Code labor regime, blacks were free to work for any one they chose, but they were required to sign contracts that bound them to the employer at least a year. Once the contract was signed, blacks could not get out of the contract unless a court first declared the master violated the contract first. This deprived blacks of the opportunity to accept better paying jobs if they arose, and insured landowners had a steady supply of cheap labor. Punishment for blacks who broke their labor contracts included payment of damages, imprisonment. In states like Florida, it also included standing in the stockade or floggings. In Florida, behavior that constituted a breach of the contract included laziness, failure to appear for work, using offensive language with the employer, or running away. Most of the slave codes also made it a criminal offense for anyone to entice or encourage a black laborer to break an existing labor contract. Criminal laws also played an important aspect in the Black Codes. To varying degrees, ex-Confederate states passed criminal laws that prohibited petty that blacks were more likely to commit due to their immediate condition. For example, the Louisiana Penal Codes specifically criminalized trespassing on plantations. Because free blacks often had no place to live other than on their previous master’s plantation, they were more likely to be arrested under these statutes. Penal Codes also specifically targeted blacks by inflicting harsher punishments for some crimes than whites convicted of the same crime. Unequal punishment was important for keeping blacks in a condition of servitude. For example, a North Carolina statute made it a capital offense for a black person to assault a white woman with intent to rape. Finally, the Black Codes uniformly prohibited interracial marriages between blacks and whites. For example, in Texas anti-interracial marriage laws called for the punishment of both spouses with a fine, imprisonment or both. It was a criminal offense, as it was in Georgia, for anyone to knowingly marry a white and black person. And frequently county clerks were required to record marriages of blacks and whites in separate registries. Conversely, the Black Codes also uniformly recognized black marriages and the legitimacy of children born to black parents. However, many Black Codes made it a criminal offense under adultery and fornication laws for blacks to live together without getting married or registering as a married couple with the county clerk. These statutes were frequently applied to blacks living in rural areas who were living together as result of their impoverished condition.

European Union And Its Application In Zara Commerce Essay

European Union And Its Application In Zara Commerce Essay In todays competitive world, the organisations have to focus on the development of effective logistics and supply chain that will ensure that it is able to meet the demands of its customers at a consistent pace. With the advent of time and increased trend of globalisation across the world, the trade barriers are fading out and favourable trade policies are promoting fast and quick exchange of goods and services (European Commission, 2010). The latest trend in the market is creation of an integrated logistics and supply chain infrastructure that is supported by the technologically advanced systems such as SAP, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), E-Retailing, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and many more (European Logistics Report, 2012). All leading corporations that are operating on international level have ensured that they have a well-coordinated Supply Chain Management and Logistics system that will employ the best systems for procurement, warehousing, inventory management, storage and inbound and outbound logistics (Johnson Turner, 2006). In order to gain competitive edge in the market especially European market, the logistics and supply chain system has to be developed after exploiting all available options so that the inventory is effectively managed and there is proper balance between the demand and supply of raw materials, inventory and goods (DeMeyer, Van Dierdanck Vercecke, 1996). There has been drastic shift in the European Logistics and Supply Chain Business operating systems as its market has been transformed into single market that allows the operating firms to take advantage of various economies of scale. European Logistics and Supply Chain System In the European economy, both logistics and transport are considered to be its primary means of support that have mean the contributing factor in the robust growth of economy. According to European Union (2012), there is strong relationship between the economic growth and level of transportation escalation. It is believed to be the fundamental part of every society that is the main factor for intensive growth of every countrys economy and creates ample opportunities of job for the citizens. In European Union, more than ten million people are employed in the transport and logistics industry which makes a significant contribution in GDP i.e. almost 5% (Evans, 2000). The European Commission (2011) highlighted in its annual report that a well-developed system of transportation is the primary driving force for dynamic performance of the member states. For all European companies, their logistics are the vital areas of concern as the storage and transport cost accounts for about 10-15% of the total cost of a product that is completed and finished. Almost every corporation is spending certain percentage of the budget on effective transportation system for its goods and services which is usually about 13.2% (European Commission, 2011). The market of European Union can work smoothly only when there is a well-integrated transport system which provides assistance in free movement of the goods within its territory; it is mandatory for the cohesion of territories and long-term economic growth. The pre-requisite for an effective logistics and supply chain system is the transport system that has interoperability of networks and harmonisation among rules. European Transport Policy In order to develop an excellent and well-defined European Transport Policy for the entire European Union region, the European Commission has undertaken various steps to address the obstacles that are hampering the creation of an effective transport system. It is reported by European Commission (2012) and Harps (2002) that the region is the central hub for manufacturing of products for various leading companies and they are looking for accurate logistics and supply chain system that can boost their performance in the market. The key mediums of transportation used are air, sea, road and rail but the latest trend is of intermodality. Intermodality is defined as the mechanism in which different modes of transportation are used along the entire chain of transportation to ensure that the overall supply chain system is effective and promotes the attainment of desired efficient logistics system objectives (Tseng, Yue Taylor, 2005). The European Transport Policy has been developed to provide guidance to the companies about developing an appropriate and highly efficient logistics and supply chain system so that they can supply goods and services with precision worldwide (Cooper, Browne Peters, 1994). Since there are many companies that are operating in European Union region, both markets and European Transport Policy have been modified to a greater extent to incorporate all the requirements of the players of the diversified industries (). Changes in European Market for enhanced growth of Logistics and Supply Chain system Up till now, the market of European Union has evolved from national emphasis to regional and finally to pan-European but now it is moving more towards customer-oriented. With the advent of Single Market which is also known as Common Market, the logistics networks of all companies have evolved and they have been developed to ensure compliance with the latest market trends (EIU, 1999). The organisations are restructuring their strategies of distribution in Europe and even revisiting their networks so that they can move closer to internationalisation by sourcing the products from other fields and ensure supply of products from one central location (). The developmental phases of the single market can be broken down into three parts i.e. pre-1993 period, 1993-present period and future period. In pre-1993 period, there was no specific European logistics strategy has European Union was not established at that time. All companies had a single national setup along with a distribution centre that was located in every major country of their operation. Every organisation used to do sourcing directly from the plants of manufacturing present in Europe and the logistics strategy differed among every country as it was developed in accordance to the respective country. Most of the offerings for supply chain services were similar as the suppliers followed the one-size-fits-all concept. The domestic carriers were the main source of transportation and majority of the third-party logistics providers were either regional or local companies (Harps, 2002). Larsen (2000) has stated that after the formation of European Union, all member states have been able to achieve robust growth in their economic performance and they have exploited all benefits for doing expansion globally at an accelerating rate. After the era of 1993, European Union opened its borders internally because global outsourcing was heavily demanded by the companies and factories of the manufacturers were starting to become focussed on global level. As a result of shift in the logistics strategy, the organisations revamped their supply chain management structures so that they were consistent with the European Logistics and Supply Chain Business Operations System. In major countries across Europe, the Pan-European Distribution Centres marked their developments in the region and they extended their importance by incorporating all processes required in the effectiveness of logistics and supply chain system. These centres postponed the role of manufacturing and combined some value-added activities to various traditional activities such as receiving of raw materials, transportation of inventory and shipment of the finished goods. In fact, Pan-European Distribution Centres allowed the companies to transfer their transport needs to the integrators who had the facilities of doing direct shipment from one central location (McDonald Deardsen, 1994). With the help of the centralised and Pan-European networks of distribution the products were easily shipped to the customers living in far off distant places and they helped the companies in saving huge amount of time and money. However, the companies are changing their logistics and supply chain systems to develop a perfect blend of both decentralised and centralised facilities for distribution so that they can strategically fulfil all their business objectives. With the developments taking place at an accelerating pace in the market, the entire logistics and supply chain system will get extraordinary efficient and competent for the organisations (Cousins, Lawson Squire, 2006). Key Drivers of change in European Transport Policy Since transport is the crucial element of logistics and supply chain system, the European Transport Policy has been developed by the European Commission so that the companies can abide by the laws related to the transportation policy. According to Walker and Jones (2012), the main driving forces that are impacting the European Transport Policy are as follows: Political Developments The liberalisation in the transport sector like US-EU Open Skies Initiative has a significant impact on Europe as it is expected to increase the traffic and create competition within the region. The international liberalisation of the trade has even boosted the transport as there is an increase in need of transportation of goods and services because of growing trend of outsourcing. There has been a rise in the environmental concerns which is leading immense pressure on sustainability within the environment. Economic Developments There are many economic drivers that are impacting the development of Europes economy on the targeted level. The key economic factor impacting the economy is the rising oil prices along with an increase in the transportation level that is closely linked to the economic growth level. As the income of people is increasing, there is an increase in the number of car ownerships and there is an increase in the GDP of the country as a whole. Environmental Issues The environment is one of the main areas of concern for any country and the transport sector has responsibility of about 28% of the Carbon dioxide emissions in European Union. The policymakers are identifying the alternatives that control the emission of Carbon dioxide by investigation various options for the road transport. As a result of growth in transport, the routes have become congested that have been hampering the transportation at both commercial and passenger level. Technological Drivers Since both increase in prices of fuel and environmental issues are primary areas of apprehension, there is an increase in the work of researchers to indentify excellent alternatives for the transport technologies. However, an enhanced level of efficiency is expected in the transportation of all goods by adoption of latest technologies such as RFID. Socio-demographic Changes The European workforce is getting older now and there is a huge reduction in the labour force. The companies are forced to recruit women in the manufacturing and logistics sector. The organisations are even compelled to provide additional training to the workforce so that their skills are enhanced and they have to incur more cost for recruiting new workers who are more competent and skilled. ZARA Leading Fashion Retailer in Europe ZARA is a top-ranked Spanish retailer of clothing and accessories that is headquartered in Artexio, Galicio. It was founded by Rosalia Mera and Amancio Ortega in 1975 and it is the leading flagship chain store of the Inditex group. ZARA has been successfully meeting the demands of its customers by employing an entirely different strategy from its competitors. According to Zhelyazkov (2011), ZARA follows a differentiation strategy of Porters generic strategies and focuses on enhancing the value chain by developing highly efficient and effective logistics, distribution and supply chain system. According to Cook, Heiser and Sengupta (2011), ZARA used to follow time-to-market strategy i.e. competing on the basis of time before the formation of European Union. After 1993, it shifted its policy to agile supply chain which meant that every step in logistics and supply chain was visible and well-coordinated. It is believed that the company needs only two weeks of time to develop the unique products and deliver them to the stores and it has made a reputation of launching more than ten thousand new designs on yearly basis (About US, 2012). The three key success factors of ZARA are short lead times, limited number of products and extensive range of styles. Agile supply chain of ZARA In order to get competitive edge in the market, ZARA is employing an agile supply chain which allows it to make the best use of Quick-Response System. Agile supply chain is described as the supply chain in which all elements work together in the form of a cross-functional team with the aim of eliminating unnecessary steps and predicting the demands of customers beforehand so that the products are available in advance in the market (Zhelyazkov, 2011). ZARA has been successful in the market because of its focus on designing of an excellent and efficient logistics and supply chain system. The entire process of supplying the goods to ZARA stores is started at the cross-functional teams who are working in the design department located at the headquarters of company in La Coruna. Almost all the designs are contemporary and inspiration for them is drawn from conducting various researches in the market by visiting university campuses, pubs, fashion shows, competitors offerings and cafes in addition to other places where the target customers can be found. Further data about the customers is gathered from EPOS data and online sources from across the websites. When the design that has been proposed is accepted, the specialists of commercial department move ahead with their tasks and do negotiation with the suppliers, decide about the purchasing price, carefully analyse the cost and margins and then fix price position of cross-currency for garments. It has a global sourcing policy which is organised by the buying offices present in the Netherlands, China and UK; the wide supplier base ensures that the best fabric is selected and there is less risk of dependence on one supplier. More than 40% of the garments which have the least transitory appeal are mainly imported in the form of finished goods from various low-cost centres of manufacturing located in the Far East, while, the rest are produced on quick responses in Spain by using the automated factories of ZARA that has a small network of contractors (Godsell et al., 2011). Value Chain Analysis of ZARA ZARA ensures that there is a proper balance between in-house and outsourcing operations. The operations that enhance the cost-efficiency of the company via economies of scale are done in-house such as packaging, labelling, cutting and dyeing. The labour-intensive tasks required at the finishing stages are usually done by the subcontractors network that comprises of more than 300 firms and each one of them has specialisation in specific garment type or process of production. In order to respond quickly to the demands of the customers, the process is flexible and the production level is always kept slightly less that the expected level of sales so that the stock is always moving. It believes in having under-supply of stock as opposed to stocking huge amount of inventory. When the finished goods have been labelled, packaged and price-tagged, they are then transported by the third-party contractor either by road or air to their destinations. There is only one distribution centre that is located in the companys headquarters i.e. La Coruna. Every store of ZARA gets fresh stock twice a week that has been pre-determined by the design department of the company (Zhelyazkov, 2011). Figure : Designing, production and marketing cycle of ZARA (Source: Godsell et al., 2011) The entire cycle of designing, production and marketing has declined to 22-30 days that is too less when compared to the industry average of nine months as the lead time. The main factor that has supported such an efficient logistics and supply chain system is the investment in Information technology. The 500,000 sq m. and five storey centre of logistics comprises of about 200 kilometres of moving rails along with an automated routing system that delivers all electronically tagged garments at the proper bays of loading for dispersal through the third party distributors. Almost all the products can be dispatched within eight hours of their arrival and it has been found that almost 98.9% perfect and the shrinkage level is even less than 0.5%. Implications of changes in EU Policy With the changes in EU Policy especially transport policy, ZARA has been able to develop a highly competent logistics and supply chain system. It has been able to utilise all available options within European countries to a maximum level. With the help of development of a good logistics system within the region, the transportation of goods, materials and inventory has become quick and responding to the customer changes on fast pace has become convenient for the companies. The biggest advantage for ZARA has been that it has been able to expand into European countries strategically and has even exploited all available opportunities so that it can maintain its core competencies in the production and operations area. Future of Logistics and Supply Chain System in European Union Since European Union is continuously striving to develop a good transportation system for development of an effective logistics and supply chain, there are huge chances that the countries are able to take advantage of developments in the transport and logistics sector. In years ahead, there kind of revolutions are expected in this sector i.e. increased trade globalisation, development of the information era and continuously changing preferences and demands of customers. In order to provide excellent logistics and transport sector to the companies, the concerned authorities will have to take certain steps to develop the best logistics and supply chain system for the business operations. Some of the suggestions made by the European Commission (2012) are: Improve interoperability by standardising the processes of loading units. Set up an entire network of transfer of nodes across Europe. Eradicating all differences found in the national regulations that are the barriers for achievement of flexible and smooth interoperability around Europe. Using Information Technology to boost the performance of key players and define a single most authentic and worthwhile ICT system that can meet all requirements of the participants. Ensuring harmonisation of paperwork and reducing and simplifying the number of the documents required for transportation. Review the current regulations at both international and European levels for development of an approach that is integrated for implementation of the measures required for security related to the transportation along with the assessment of risk along the entire chain. Enhance the co-operation among the players among the supply chain that can result in improved competitiveness via the reduced costs, high service quality and smaller lead times. Conclusion All organisations that are competing in todays dynamic and ever changing environment have to ensure that they have a well-coordinated and highly integrated transport and logistics system that will allow them to meet the requirements of their customers. E-commerce and RFID are gaining immense popularity in the market and it is expected that the every supply chain will have to employ these technologies in their systems to have an efficient inventory management system along with warehousing facilities, cordial relations with suppliers and enhanced production locations that assist in appropriate deployment of finished goods. Third party logistics service providers have become an integral part of the entire logistics and supply chain systems and it is vital for the companies to implement an appropriate policy of logistics management. All the companies in Europe have huge potential of growth as the trade barriers have faded and there are ample opportunities available for them to enhance their production and operations within the region. Hence, European Union offers immense range of options to the organisations for development of a cost-effective and flexible logistics and supply chain system for efficient management of their business operations.

Advanced Metering Technology

Advanced Metering Technology Abstract: This paper describes about the development of advanced metering and the power management system.  Energy saving is the very important one in the world scenario. We need energy to do anything in this world. The demand of power is growing at a faster rate than the transmission capacity due to the increase in population growth and also increase in coal, fuel prices. To overcome the shortage of power supply, this paper provides an overview of wireless sensor network by managing an equal distribution of power to the consumers by using Zigbee technology and also to avoid the power theft problem. The Zigbee Digital Power meter (ZPM) which utilize the Wireless sensor network to send the power usage reading of the consumer node to the energy provider section. The energy provider side will display the energy unit consumed by the consumer in the LCD which placed in their homes. At the energy provider side they have the control to change priority of the devices when power distributed in low range. Keywords: Power management system, wireless electric meter, Wireless sensor network, Zigbee etc INTRODUCTION The World is now facing a most critical problem of not getting a uninterrupted power supply. In many countries, the people living there had not even getting the supply for their primary needs such as light,fan,tv etc.This occurs due to shortage of power supply.Due to enoromous growth in population the power distributed by the base station cannot be able to utilise equally by all the people living in the country.Because of over population,the demand of energy is increasing day-by-day. Inorder to overcome the shortage of power supply,government is underlying many projects to provide continuous supply to the consumers by implanting nuclear power plants,by having MOU with foreign countries to get coal,fuels et,and many more.And also scientists are doing many experiments,researches to provide more power supply to fulfil the peoples need.The governments are now taking many steps to save the energy instead of underlying power generation projects and this paper will be one of key for that. At existing system,the energy provider are shutting down the power supply inorder to save energy during the energy crisis time for more than 4hours per day.This causes discomfort to the below averaged and the middle class peoples are affecting more by power cut.The industries,companies,factories are having inverters to get continuous power supply.The peoples who does not have the inverters are suffering more. During the power shortage times many of them using AC(Air Conditioner),Fridge,Heater etc so demand of power is more i.e.,the nductive loads consuming more energy so the people who having single phase supply are having low-voltage problems.Through this method we can able to manage the power by providing energy only to the low power consuming devices like fans,light,computer etc which are the primary needs.And not allowing the power to the high power consuming devices like air conditioner,heater,etc. To achieve this, system can be created which will differentiate between high power and low power devices at every node and allow only low power devices to be ON.This can done by creating a wireless sensor network having number of nodes which communicate with each other in full duplex mode. The communication will consist of data transfer, controlling node operation. We are using zigbee protocol for the wireless communication. The main advantage of using ZigBee protocol is that the nodes require very less amount of power so it can be operated from battery.If any node which consumes more power than the allotted energy then the power flows that node gets cutted through the interrupt given through the zigbee so we can avoid the power theft. Each node is measuring the power, which is being consumed by the appliance and it is sent to the energy provider section through wireless sensor network and also the units consumed by the node is displayed in LCD which is place at the consumer side. The appliance is controlled by the end device i.e. node. An overall operation of the system controlled by the control device. The main purpose of the project is that the wireless sensor network will differentiate and control the devices in the network on the basis of power consumed by appliances to make the efficient use of power also to avoid power theft and units consumed by the node can also intimated to the consumer side and the energy provider side. Through that the consumer can able to monitor the usage of energy. Also we proposed the e-billing system in this paper. Billing system for electricity consumption is manually done by human operator. Readings collected by human operator are used for bill calculation. Manual processing of billing system is very time consuming and it can cause human error also.The manual bill entry is inaccurate and inefficient.Due to the technology development we are using digital meter instead of analog meter. . It is convenient to implement wireless electric meter by interfacing Zigbee module with the digital electronic meter. All digital electronic meter along with Zigbee module can form a network. The use of Wireless Personal Area Networks has been steadily increasing in recent years. The inconvenience and logistical concerns of laying wires for a communication network lay the ground for a much more appealing technologies incorporating wireless transmission. Removing the constraints of the physical installation of wires, wireless solutions provide diversity and in many applications can reduce cost. Data from electric meter such as meter reading can be transmitted to the energy provider Station from consumer node by forming a path using network topologies. Zigbee module support Star, Tree, and Mesh topology. Zigbee networks facilitate many applications, such as Commercial Building and Home Automation, Security, Healthcare Medical Monitoring, Vehicle Monitoring, Agriculture and Environmental Monitoring and so on. The Zigbee protocol stack based on IEEE 802.15.4 offers a practical, cost-effective solution for low-cost and low power consumption WPANs. . Zigbee is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard along with other protocols like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Zigbee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band, specifically at 2.4 GHz internationally and 868MHz or 915 MHz in specific parts of the world. The simplicity and cost of Zigbee networks makes them a greater one for wireless control and monitoring applications. The Zigbee protocol can support over 65,565 nodes and can operate in three network topologies: Mesh, Star and Ring. LITERATURE SURVEY 2.1 S. Vukmirovic, A. Erdeljan, F. Kulic, and S. Lukovic, â€Å"SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE FOR SMART METERING SYSTEMS WITH VIRTUAL POWER PLANT,† in MELECON 2010-2010 15th IEEE Mediterranean Electro technical Conference. IEEE, 2010, pp. 448–451. This paper presents a novel architecture for Smart Metering systems which enables their seamless, secure and efficient integration in wider Smart Grid software structures. Smart metering solutions represent one of the fastest evolving areas in the field of power distribution systems. There is an extensive interest of leading software vendors in the field, for development of architectures that can efficiently manage transmission, processing and storing of the tremendous amount of data produced by such metering devices deployed at the end-end side. The integration of these systems into existing power system software architectures (outage management, workforce management, etc.) represents a major challenge for the research community. In such an environment it is of fundamental importance to adopt standardized data exchange mechanisms. The proposed architecture is conceived as a modular and scalable structure so that it can support implementation of novel power distribution concepts as V irtual Power Plants (VPPs). The proposed architecture has been successfully tested and verified in real life operation as one of the modules of Smart Metering system named Meter Data Management (MDM). 2.2 Z. Xiao, Y. Xiao, and D. H.-C. Du, â€Å"NON-REPUDIATION IN NEIGHBORHOOD AREA NETWORKS FOR SMART GRID,† IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 18–26, 2013. Lack ofnon-repudiationis a major barrier to building a trustworthysmartgrid.Oncurrent power systems, bills are generated based on the amount of service consumed by residential or commercial users. However, meter readings may not be trustworthy due to malicious behavior (e.g., energy theft) or external attacks. The root cause is that power providers have no means to obtain the reading value other than receiving it from the others. To resolve this issue, we present a mutual inspection strategy, which enables no repudiation on meter readingsforsmartgrid. The goal of our scheme is to discover problematic meters that report inaccurate reading values. 2.3 S. Depuru, L. Wang, V. Devabhaktuni, and N. Gudi, â€Å"MEASURES AND SETBACKS FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRICITY THEFT,† in IEEE North American Power Symposium, 2010, pp. 1–8. Most of the utility companies in developing countries incur huge losses because of the non-technical losses (NTL). It is very difficult to detect and control potential causes of NTL in developing countries due to their poor infrastructure. Electricity theft and billing irregularities form a major chunk of NTL. These losses affect the quality of supply, electrical load on the generating station and tariff imposed on electricity consumed by genuine customers. This paper discusses various factors those influences the consumer to make an attempt to steal electricity In addition, some handy cases where electricity theft are detected will be illustrated. In view of these ill effects, some methods for detection and estimation of the theft will be discussed. This paper also illustrates several methods to quantify and control theft. In essence, setbacks for implementation of these measures and techniques will be illustrated in detail. The motivation of this work is to conserve the interest of utility companies in providing quality electricity to genuine customers at affordable tariff. 2.4 C. Bandim, J. Alves Jr, A. Pinto Jr, F. Souza, M. Loureiro, C. Magalhaes, and F. Galvez-Durand, â€Å"IDENTIFICATION OF ENERGY THEFT AND TAMPERED METERS USING A CENTRAL OBSERVER METER: A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH,† in IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition, vol. 1, 2003, pp. 163–168. This paper presents a new methodology to identify energy theft and tampered meters as well as meters that are not working properly. It is based on a central observer meter that is responsible for metering the overall energy of a group of consumers under investigation. Deterministic and statistic approaches are used to determine which consumers have problems with their premises. Also, pattern recognition is used to discover energy theft using bypass. 2.5 G. Hart, â€Å"NONINTRUSIVE APPLIANCE LOAD MONITORING,† Proc. IEEE, vol. 80, no. 12, pp. 1870–1891, 1992. A nonintrusive appliance load monitor that determines the energy consumption of individual appliances turning on and off in an electric load, based on detailed analysis of the current and voltage of the total load, as measured at the interface to the power source is described. The theory and current practice of nonintrusive appliance load monitoring are discussed, including goals, applications, load models, appliance signatures, algorithms, prototype field-test results, current research directions, and the advantages and disadvantages of this approach relative to intrusive monitoring. 2.6 C. Bandim, J. Alves Jr, A. Pinto Jr, F. Souza, M. Loureiro, C. Magalhaes, and F. Galvez-Durand, â€Å"IDENTIFICATION OF ENERGY THEFT AND TAMPERED METERS USING A CENTRAL OBSERVER METER: A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH,† in IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition, vol. 1, 2003, pp. 163–168. This paper presents a new methodology to identify energy theft and tampered meters as well as meters that are not working properly. It is based on a central observer meter that is responsible for metering the overall energy of a group of consumers under investigation. Deterministic and statistic approaches are used to determine which consumers have problems with their premises. Also, pattern recognition is used to discover energy theft using bypass. III.BLOCK DIAGRAM

Evaluation Essays- Ruff Ryders And Cash Money Millionaire Concert :: essays research papers

Grade B+ Evaluation Essay Ruff Ryders and Cash Money Millionaires   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This concert was held on Thursday March 2, 2000. Some of the hottest rap and r&b artists included in this mix were DMX, Juvenile, Ruff Ryders, Drag On, Hot Boyz, Eve, The Lox, Lil Wayne, Big Tymers, and B.G. It was hosted at the Marine Midland Arena in Downtown Buffalo. Tickets ran anywhere from $40.00 to $55.00 for the five hour long show.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The wait to get in was some what frightening due to a check point like station everyone had to be searched at. Police and security guards patted each and everyone down for drugs, weapons, and what ever else they could try and stop. After the long wait to get in you found your seat and waited for the group who was first. You would figure that know one would be doing any drugs due to the search before you got in there, but I was wrong not even ten minutes before the show you could smell the pot in the air. That was one of the few things wrong with this wild and crazy concert. After it was over that was all you smelled like and you were feeling the contact buzz as it felt like things were moving in slow motion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DMX opened the concert with one of his greatest songs â€Å"It’s All Good†. All the ladies in the place were going wild when he yelled, â€Å"where my ladies at!† while he then tore off Mike Barr  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  page 2 his shirt and threw it in the crowd. DMX’s time on the stage was incredible his voice was sounding good in concert unlike most rappers voices. As the night passed on the music was turned up a couple notches. All of the groups were sounding good until it got to Eve. This young lady singer is nice to here on the radio with her vocals tuned to perfection, but in concert it was horrible and the crowd was going from crazy to just about silent. Juvenile was the last rapper to finish the (what felt like short) concert. By the time he came up there the music was so loud you couldn’t here the guy sing. You would be singing along because you know the words and when the bass, of the beat of the song kicked in you couldn’t hear him singing. One of his top songs â€Å"Back That Ass Up† drove the crowd nuts as some of ladies in the crowd became topless and started shaking there booties. But when you could here him he sounded excellent. By the time the whole thing was over you

Important Symbols in The Glass Menagerie Essay -- Glass Menagerie essa

Important Symbols in The Glass Menagerie      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In his play The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses a multitude of symbols. From these symbols, there comes a deeper understanding of the relationships between the play's four characters. The most obvious symbol in this play is Laura's glass menagerie, representing the world she lives in. Another recurring symbol is that of the fire escape. Outside the fire escape is the dance hall, a symbol for the reality of the outside world. Candles and rainbows are often mentioned in the play and carry a variety of meanings. Each symbol is a concrete substitution used to express a particular theme, idea, or character. One of the most obvious symbols in this play is Laura's glass menagerie. The glass menagerie is what keeps Laura occupied; it's the world she lives in. It is a representation of Laura's family, a representation of their isolation from the rest of the world. The Wingfields exist in a separate world, Tom lives in his dreams, Amanda lives in the past and Laura lives in her world of glass animals. When Jim enters the illusory world of the Wingfields, he is able to relive parts of his high school glory. However he can onl... ...5 March 2000. 15 March 2000 *http://hipp.gator.net/glass_alligator_review.html*. Kahn, Sy. Modern American Drama: Essays in Criticism. Edited by Willima E. Taylor. Deland, Florida. Everette/Edwards Inc., 1968. 71-88 Kapcsos, Kristal. "The Glass Menagerie." Online posting. 13 Nov. 2000. The Glass Menagerie 21 Nov. 2000 *http://www.mccnic.mohave.az.us/wcb/schools/NMC/dl/dtimpson/1/forums/forum12/me.../26.html*. Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Writing, Thinking. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 1999. 1865-1900   

The Modern Tragedy: Death Of A Salesman :: essays research papers

A Modern Tragedy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A form of drama in which a person of superior intelligence and character is overcome by the very obstacles he/she is struggling to remove defines a tragedy as most people know it. However, tragedy can reflect another aspect of life: the tragedies of the common people. Heroic behavior in these instances may at times be impossible. We expect, from reading the first tragedies, that only kings or nobility can be tragic heroes. Arthur Miller himself said, â€Å"I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were†¦[The same characteristics] which were enacted by royal beings†¦apply to everyone in similar emotional situations.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Death of a Salesman can be defined as a tragedy, with Willy Loman as the tragic hero. Willy Loman has a tragic flaw characteristic of all tragic heroes, however, it is not â€Å"necessarily a weakness.† Willy has a lot of dignity, and he is unwilling â€Å"to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.† His tragic flaw leads to his demise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A tragic hero begins with a purpose, falls on hard times, but, in the end, gains a better perception. This perfectly describes Willy. Willy’s initial purpose is to maintain his dignity by pretending in front of his family and not accepting a job that he believes would lower his position. He obviously falls on hard times: he loses his job, his sons are lazy bums, Biff is a thief, he constantly relives his mistakes, and Biff resents his dad because of something that happened years ago. All of these are evidence of the hard times he is having in his life. After a confrontation with Biff, which occurred because of Linda’s insistence, Willy gains a better perception of his life. Or, at least, he thinks he does. Willy believes that, by committing suicide, he can gain dignity in the eyes of his family. By doing this, they can live off the insurance money, and he will finally have been able to provide for them.