The Nature of Douglasss Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass Es

The Nature of Douglass's Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass wrote his autobiography the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass to tell his story and to help the abolitionist's cause. It provides a window into his world, which is that of a former slave and of a prominent speaker. Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818; his exact birthday is unknown. Unlike most slaves he had a mistress, Sophia Auld, who taught him his letters when he was about 10 and that basis of knowledge allowed him to 'steal literacy' over the years. Douglass was hired out to a slave breaker named Edward Covey in order to make him more subservient. In 1834 Frederick Douglass and Edward Covey had a battle which changed the course of Douglass?s life, and shaped him into a man who speaks and acts out against injustice. After Fredrick Douglass stood up to Covey he became free in sprit, if not in body, and vowed to allow no one to control his mind again. He escaped slavery and went to New York in 1839. His career as a speaker started in 1841 and in 1845 he published the Narrative. Although, those are some of the basic facts about his life but they do little to describe the man that he was, and what his first work says about himself and what he believed. The Narrative was written after he had spent a few years as a speaker going around telling his life?s story to abolitionist and therefore was in part rehearsed and also meant to be used as propaganda in the fight for equality. The book also serves as a historical source because it documents his voyage though slavery and the movement to end it. It is important when reading his autobiography to keep both views in mind. Many people have analyzed this complex work, Donald B. Gibson wrote about Douglass?s dual focus in his writing about how he had a public and social focus and a personal focus and private. The public and social focus was to correct the moral and political ills that slavery brought. While the personal and private focused on Douglass?s own thoughts, feelings, reactions, and emotions. The social focus was what presented the first twenty-one years of Douglass?s life in a way that allowed it to serve as a weapon for abolitionism. William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips recognized the public perspective, both of which wrote prefatory material to the Narrative. I... ...hen reading Frederick Douglass?s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass it is important to take in to account the time period in which it was written, who the author was and their background, and the purpose that the work was written for. Douglass was a slave and an abolitionist who wrote about his life for two reasons, to give the facts and to convince people that slavery was wrong. The way he wrote both parts are intertwined so that they compliment and support each other it exist as a work of abolitionist propaganda and as an historical source. Bibliography Andrews, William L., To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986. Douglass, Fredrick, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass: An American Slave, ed. David Blight. New York: St. Martins, 1993. Gibson, Donald B., Reconciling Public and Private in Frederick Douglass? Narrative, Rutgers University. Polsky, Milton. The American Slave Narrative: Dramatic Resource Material for the Classroom. Hunter College of CUNY. Stewart, James Brewer, Holy Warriors The Abolitionists and American Slavery. New York: Hill and Wang, 1976.

How can I as a Nurse Change the Public Health System in the USA?

The functions of the public health care system according to Deacon (2001) are: improving the health and well-being of the population; preventing disease and reducing its consequences; prolonging life; and minimizing imbalance in health. The United States government has always been persistent in addressing public health. In line with this, the government proposed a new public health reform that attempts to acquire a wider coverage of state residents by requiring them to get a health care coverage. According to Kaisernetwork.org (2007), the reform would have the following provisions: 1) Residents having 250% and below of poverty level would receive subsidies from the state; 2) Residents having up to 400% of poverty level would have the opportunity to remove health care premium costs that are beyond 5.5% of their compensation; and 3) Residents who retire before age 65 would be given tax credits to avert them from spending more than 10% of their insurance savings. The planned reform attempts a wider coverage so it prohibits insurers to turn down residents wishing to acquire health care coverage. However, critics contend that the health care reform would be unfair and unproductive. In addition, it would be unsustainable – politically and financially. Public servants such as myself who belong to the nursing profession concern ourselves with the community’s health. We play a critical role in improving public’s health based on their knowledge, adequacy, and accessibility as mentioned by Deacon (2001). Our knowledge as nurses is quite depended by the public since they have extensive awareness of the communities they serve and the needs of these. We as nurses are also considered to be in a position to work for the public since they are regarded legitimate individuals that promote health improvement. The adequacy of nurses also enables people to confidentially discuss issues with them since they are viewed to be part of a large population of both ill and well. Biomedicine.org (2008) asserted that the contribution of nurses, like myself,   to the health care reform will be on the calculations of the patient result quality and costs of health care. Nevertheless, nurses can help change the existing health care system by providing substantive information to the community at large, thereby educating them with the cure and prevention of certain diseases. DOH (2000) stated that nurses are responsible of health awareness activities such as immunizations, cancer screening, and helping people with diabetes and asthma live dynamically. Problems with communities can also be addressed by nurses by facilitating groups that will educate individuals with health issues such as smoking and mental illness. Above all, these public figures should be well informed in educational and organizational support to be fully trusted by local communities as health practitioners so that they may be able to embark systematic measures to change the current health care system the society is put in. Public health care reforms are made for the benefit of state residents, but some reforms are just too costly and unproductive to be appreciated by average citizens. Nevertheless, nurses play the crucial role of promoting health, preventing illness and prolonging life, no matter what health care reform the country is put in. But for nurses to help change the current health care system, they must be able to fully utilize their potentials by sharing their knowledge and experience to educate and promote health awareness; assessing the information, terminologies, and concept available to them and creating opportunities such as support groups to share new information and experiences which are accorded to them, as mentioned by GANM (2006). References Bio-Medicine.org (2008). Mnnesota registered nurses promote law to improve patient care and address health care costs. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 Deacon, S. (2001). Nursing for health: Areview of the contribution of nurses, midwives and health visitors to improving the public’s health in scotland. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2001/03/8525/File-1 Department of Health. (2000). Vital contribution made by community nurses to public health. February 27, 2008 from http://archive.nics.gov.uk/hss/001110e-hss.htm Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery Communities of Practice. (2006). Wrking together for health knowledge exchange. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 from my.ibpinitiative.org/public/Default.aspx?c=1325c561-2b21-449e-880e-6623a1214707 Kaisernetwork.org. (December 17, 2007). State wtch  California Gov. Schwarzenegger, state assembly speaker reach compromise on health system overhaul. Retrieved on February 27, 2008 from http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=49449   

Success, challenges and future prospects of IS outsourcing in the UK: A case study of an UK company outsourcing most of its IS activities.

Outsourcing has become increasingly attractive for many organizations. In such relationship, a company contracts with a vendor that rents its skills, knowledge, technology, service and manpower for an agreed-upon price and period to perform functions the client no longer wants to do. Much attention has focused recently on the outsourcing of IS/IT services to countries such as India and the Philippines. Indeed outsourcing any business activity creates potential risks as well as benefits.Companies can find themselves overly dependent on suppliers, and they can lose strength in strategically core competencies. Interestingly, given the importance of the outsourcing decision and the amount of academic and practitioner literature on it, there is surprisingly little consensus about the topic, probably because of the multiplicity and complexity of the factors involved. In this section, the authors identified six key factors that companies should consider when making outsourcing decisions. Th e framework, which helps assess the pros and cons of outsourcing, can be applied specifically to IS/IT functions.Changes in the broader business environment are affecting nearly every aspect of how companies manage their human resources, altering the balance of pros and cons for outsourcing IS/IT business process. First, conflicting pressures in the labor market have brought the role of human resources to the fore. On the one hand, the 1990s bought the so-called war for talent for IT professionals. On the other hand, intensifying competitive pressures have forces companies to be more aggressive in cutting costs, often by reducing head count.Human resources have had to manage such downsizing, while also trying to be innovative in attracting and retaining valuable employees. Second, IS/IT themselves have become the target for belt-tightening efforts, and they must now find ways to provide more value at lower cost. Many have argued that the key is to focus on activities that are essent ial and outsource the rest. Third, the growing complexity and increasing regulatory changes in the legal environment for human resource management, in particular in the areas of health care, stock-related compensation, overtime-pay calculations, pension reform, and eligibility for contingent workers.This has driven demand for outsourced IS/IT activities from vendors that are subject-matter experts. Globalization poses a comparable challenge, requiring IS/IT departments to address the needs of the business and moving between different countries and markets. Lastly, mergers and acquisition have become increasingly frequent, creating huge IS/IT integration challenges. Often, IS/IT is charged with the simultaneous tasks of integrating and managing the technologies and business processes in the face of continuous change. Problem StatementThe primary objectives of this dissertation will be to investigate the issues involved in factors affecting the success or failure of outsourcing IS/IT activities. Before doing this however there will have to be a thorough examination of the current state of global IT outsourcing services. The main task of the research is to find out what actually makes outsourcing work for Welsh Water. Challenges of having multiple suppliers and the steps Welsh Water undertakes to make outsourcing success. The following is a list of objectives which the author aspires to accomplish in the dissertation:– To analyse the objectives for outsourced services, selecting outsourcing suppliers, benchmarking. – To research contractual aspects of ‘multiple suppliers’ outsourcing, problems and risks associated with it. Assessment of contracts/SLAs: structures, similarities and differences between contracts/SLAs – What steps Welsh Waters undertakes to make outsourcing success (outsourcing program management, contract management, building outsourcing relationships, partnership, mutual benefits, communications, change control, h ow performance is measured, what constitutes for success/failure, etc)– To investigate if any proven/best practices have been adopted by Welsh Waters to mitigate the risks and manage the suppliers effectively. – To look at the ‘uneasy’ relations between the Welsh Waters IT management and some of the suppliers – To research relations between suppliers themselves (possible hostile behavior towards each other, rivalry, hidden conflicts, etc). The Overview of the Study The remainder of this study is as following statement: Chapter 2, Literature Review, will provide first a concise concept and explanation of IT outsourcing.We will examine the competitive landscape within the IT outsourcing industry. We will also define critical success factors and key trends for IT companies operating in this market. We also look different related literature on supplier management and sourcing decision framework for clients. Chapter 3, Methodology, will describe the rese arch design of this study. The research design of this study is empirical research method using secondary data for quantitative analysis. The researchers administered a case study framework to understand the factors affecting the IT sourcing decisions of clients.Chapter 4, Results, will demonstrate the results of this study. The authors will provide a brief description of the company under study, highlighting IT sourcing decision of the company. The research also will employ statistical data such as frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation on the different factors that affect the success and failure of IS/IT outsourcing. These data will be tabulated and analyzed to examine the effect of the various variables. The findings will then be generated from these analyses will be presented and interpreted.Chapter 5, Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations, the â€Å"Summary† section will first provide a comprehensive summary of the major findings of this study. The â€Å" Conclusion† section will highlight the implications of the research findings. Finally, â€Å"Recommendations† will be proposed to help companies improve IT implementation with partner suppliers and avoid pitfalls and traps. In next chapter, we will discuss the environmental analysis on Global outsourcing highlighting process management services, IT management, and data processing. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATUREThe literature review will first define nature of business process outsourcing. This section will offer a concise definition of IT outsourcing and its ability to thrive in a globalized economy. Then, the review will consist of three parts: (1) Environmental Analysis of the Outsourcing Industry and competitive landscape in the industry, (2) define the common IS/IT activities that are outsourced, (3) identify the key success factor of IT outsourcing and define the maturity stage of the company, and (4) the importance of customer-vendor relationship in providing innova tive solutions to the clients.Defining of Business Process Outsourcing Given the potential headaches of managing IT, it is tempting to hand the job over to someone else. Indeed, outsourcing once appeared to be a simple solution to management frustrations, and senior management teams at many companies negotiated contracts with large service providers to run their entire IT functions. At a minimum, these providers were often able to provide IT capabilities for a lower cost and with fewer hassles than the companies had been able to themselves.But many of these outsourcing arrangements resulted in dissatisfaction, particularly as a company's business needs changed. Service providers, with their standard offerings and detailed contracts, provided IT capabilities that were not flexible enough to meet changing requirements, and they often seemed slow to respond to problems. Furthermore, a relationship with a supplier often required substantial investments of money and time, which entrenche d that supplier in the company's strategic planning and business processes.The company then became particularly vulnerable if the supplier failed to meet its contractual obligations (Ross and Weill, 2002). Problems arose because senior managers, in choosing to outsource the IT function, were also outsourcing responsibility for one or more of the crucial decisions they should have been making themselves. Companies often hired outside providers because they were dissatisfied with the performance of their own IT departments—but that dissatisfaction was primarily the result of their own lack of involvement.In light of this track record, most larger companies, at least, are deciding to keep their main IT capabilities in-house. But many engage in selective outsourcing. Good candidates for this are commodity services, such as telecommunications, in which there are several competing suppliers and specifications are easy to set, and services involving technologies with which the compa ny lacks expertise. Unlike decisions to outsource the entire IT function, selective outsourcing decisions are usually best left to the IT unit, assuming that senior management has taken responsibility for overall strategy.Beaumont and Costa (2002) studied IT outsourcing in Australia. They found that almost 40% of Australian organizations outsource one or more IT applications. Large organizations tended to outsource more than small ones. The three most important reasons for outsourcing were access to skills, improved quality and focus on core business. Four factors contributed to successful outsourcing: a tight contract, a partnership, a change process, and the IT manager's role changing from managing projects and operations to acquiring and managing the internal and external resources required to do the organization's IT work.Successful IT outsourcing relationships enable participants to achieve organizational objectives and to build a competitive advantage that each organization co uld not easily attain by itself. Outsourcing success can be viewed as the level of fitness between the customer's requirements and the outsourcing outcomes. Outsourcing success can be measured in terms of both business and user perspectives. From a business perspective, outsourcing is motivated by the promise of strategic, economic, and technological benefits.The success of outsourcing, then, should be assessed in terms of attainment of these benefits. From a user perspective, outsourcing success is the quality level of services offered. A decision to outsource on the basis of saving costs without analysis of the quality of services frequently leads to higher costs and lower user satisfaction. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct a proper analysis of the service quality before building a relationship with a service provider for a successful outsourcing arrangement (Lee & Kim, 1999).In this paper, we define outsourcing as the process of turning over an organization's computer cente r operations, telecommunications networks, and/or applications development to external vendors is called outsourcing (Laudon & Laudon, 2005). Loh and Venkatraman (1992a) define IT outsourcing as the significant contribution by external vendors in the physical and/or human resources associated with the entire or specific components of the IT infrastructure in the user organization. Vendors may contribute computer assets for the user from outside the organization.Alternatively, the ownership of certain computer assets of the user may be transferred to the vendor. Similarly, vendors may utilize their personnel to provide the required services, or the vendor may employ existing staff of the user. In their research, they attempted to explain the degree of IT outsourcing by using cost structures and economic performance. They found that the degree of IT outsourcing is positively related to both business and IT cost structures, and negatively related to IT performance.IT outsourcing was fr amed as a make-versus-buy decision, where contractual modes differ in the domain of influence within the corporation (Loh & Venkatraman, 1992a, 1992b). Environmental Analysis of Outsourcing Market In the global front, the increasing trend towards outsourcing is evident from the high year-on-year growth of the global market for data processing and outsourcing, a sector, which consists of the provision of commercial electronic data processing and/or business process outsourcing services.Since 2001, the market has expanded by almost 50%. The global data processing and outsourced services market reached a value of $265. 5 billion in 2005, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9. 7% in the 2001-2005 period. The rise in credit card use and Internet banking/payment has created new types of problems for operators in this area; firms in this market are engaged in developing and refining data protection techniques to fight against money laundering and fraud.

Study Guide Oncology Essay Example

Study Guide Oncology Essay Example Study Guide Oncology Essay Study Guide Oncology Essay Study Guide Oncology BY generated -IA patient who starts chemotherapy for a solid tumor may develop tumor lists syndrome (TLS) How is it treated? (838): Prevent it by recognizing the patient population who is at risk and initiating prophylactic measures before antiseptics therapy begins -Hydration: maintain urinary output of 150 murmur. Should begin 24 to 48 hours before treatment before and at lest 72 hours after treatment. Diuretics: may be used to promote the excretion of phosphate and uric acid. Allophonic: prevents uric acid formation. Begun a few days before. Continued 3-5 says after treatment to complete. -Sodium bicarbonate: is used to maintain an alkaline urine (pH>7) to prevent uric acid crystallization. -Calcium calculate :Given IV is used to correct hypoglycemia. If your platelets are low, should you use a blade razor? (838) No, use electric razor What is the difference between a benign tumor and malignant? Malignant tumor: growing worse, resisting treatment; said of cancerous growths. Also tending or treating to produce earth; harmful. -Benign: not recurrent or progressive; opposite of malignant. When would you place the Nitrogen patient in reverse isolation? 833) The nurse needs to protect the patient against pathogens, monitor the patient for signs of infection, and respond aggressively if infection occurs. Reverse isolation private room to prevent transmission. Your patient is post-pop coronation and has increased pulse and increasing blood pressure. The testis should feel smooth and egg-shaped and be firm to touch. The epidemics, found behind the testis , should feel like a soft tube When should you do self breast examination(SUB)? (606) Monthly starting at 20 years of age. Physical examinations of the breast by a trained health professional; every 3 years between 20 and 40 years of age and every year thereafter. Screening mammography annually beginning at 40 years of age.

Personality and Its Assessment Essays

Personality and Its Assessment Essays Personality and Its Assessment Essay Personality and Its Assessment Essay Personality has different meanings for theologians, philosophers and sociologists, and within psychology it has been defined in many ways (Allport, 1937). The main reason that leads so many psychologists to explore the human personality is that by doing so, the opportunity to predict a person’s behaviour in a situation presents itself, even before a situation occurs. Knowing more about one’s personality also allows us to learn about his/her dominant traits, information that can be of use in many aspects of everyday life (e. . recruiting the right people for the right jobs, treating a patient with the most suitable therapy etc. ). Many psychologists today (Block, Weiss and Thorne, 1979) define personality as a â€Å"more or less stable, internal factors that make one person’s behaviour consistent from one time to another, and different from the behaviour other people would manifest in comparable situations† (Childe, 1968). This definition gives us a clear v iew of the four major assumptions in the concept of personality: stable, internal, consistent and different. From the constructivist view, personality is seen as the combination of three equally important components: the actor, the observer and the self-observer. The actor component refers to the characteristics that a person brings to the social situation in which personality is constructed. These include all the genetic factors that may have the influence on a person’s behaviour, what he/she is capable or incapable to perform, as well as the individual’s history and present goals. The observer component refers to the way the actor is perceived by other people. Observers use the actor’s behaviour to construct an impression of the actor’s personality by adding social significance and meaning to the presented behaviour. As a result of this, we categorize people’s behaviour into different groups (e. g. ‘friendly’, ‘obnoxious’). These categories, apart from telling us about directly observable information, also add inferred meanings. The self-observer component is the direct consequence of the human ability to be self-aware. We can observe ourselves as we can observe other people, and we can see ourselves as we think other people see us. Throughout time, researchers have constructed various tools, scales and tests to attempt assessing personalities. The four main assessment methods currently used are interviews, observation, objective tests and projective tests. Interviews can be of two kinds, the structured and the unstructured. In the structured interview the person would be given a set list of questions to answer. These would mostly refer to the way a person sees him/herself behaving in different situations, by choosing the most appropriate statement that would describe him/her most accurately. In the unstructured interview the person would be asked to talk about himself without any obligation to a specific order and without much direction from the assessor. The observation method is used by the psychologist to learn about a person’s personality, through observing a person’s action and behaviour in different situations. The objective and projective tests are designed to learn aspects of one’s personality. While the objective way uses self-inventories that involve paper and pencil test, the projective way is about deriving information while a person talk about ambiguous stimuli. I shall go into further detail on these two means of assessment and their validity. While looking into methods of assessment, the two main personality tests appeared in either a structured or in an unstructured form. Structured Personality Tests The first structured personality test (also known as ‘objective’) was introduced by the U. S Army, while recruiting soldiers for World War I. The purpose of this test was to identify emotionally disturbed recruits. The test consisted of a list of questions that dealt with different symptoms or problem (e. g. â€Å"do you wet your bed? †). If the recruit was reporting many such symptoms, he was sent to further psychiatric examination (Cronbach, 1970). More personality tests were later introduced; the 2 major ones were the MMPI (Hathaway and McKinley, 1940) and the CPI. The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) assesses traits in comparison to psychiatric diseases, with the intention to make the test multiphasic, meaning diagnostic of a number of different kinds of psychopathology. This test was more concerned in finding abnormal behaviour that would indicate a psychiatric criterion (e. g. paranoia, depression, schizophrenia etc. . The CPI (California Psychological Inventory), unlike the MMPI, focuses on non-clinical behaviour and is more directed to high school and college students. This test investigates various personality traits such as sociability, dominance, responsibility etc. The validity of Structured Personality Tests The main problem with constructed personality tests is that most people taking i t are more or less aware of what the questions represent. Instead of giving an honest account of themselves they may try to manipulate their answers to avoid a stigma of a mental disorder or social stereotypes. Likewise, a person may wish to present him/herself in a bad light, in order to avoid undesirable object (e. g. being drafted). Even when precautions were taken by adding certain validity scales to the test, scales that were meant to make it easier to indicate when a lie was recorded, there was still no guarantee that patients weren’t lying to themselves and projecting their false interpretations when answering such tests. Furthermore, though personality tests can predict behaviour, their accuracy is doubtful. The correlation found between test scores and validity criteria are generally around +0. 0, indicating a low to moderate association (a perfect association between sets of scores produces a correlation of (+/-) 1. 00, whereas scores that are totally unrelated produce a correlation of 0) (Lasky et el. , 1959). Unstructured Personality Test The unstructured personality tests (also known as ‘projective’), introduced in the 1940’s and 1950’s, presen ted the examinee with unstructured tasks such as making up a story to fit a picture or describing what he/she sees in an inkblot. These tests were formed in such way that the examinee -instead of describing how he/she feels, acts or wishes- requires to do so regarding other stimuli. One example of such test is the Rorschach test (Rorschach, 1921). In this test, 10 symmetrical inkblots are presented to the individual; some are coloured and some black and white. The individual is required to describe what he/she sees. The method of interpretation regarding this test consist of various hypothesis, such as the one which claims that using the entire inkblot indicate integrative, conceptual thinking, whereas the use of the white space is supposed to be a sign of rebelliousness and negativism. Responses that are dominated by colour suggest emotionality and impulsivity. Another example is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) (Murrey, 1948). This consisted of thirty pictures of various scenes and a blank card. In each the examinee is required to imagine his/her own scene; describing what is shown, what led up to it and what the outcome of the scene will be in his/her eyes. This outcome of the TAT was interpreted by considering the examinee’s desired end- product as a picture of his/her major motives and conflicts, achievements and aspirations. The validity of Unstructured Personality Tests By now there are over 11,000 published articles regarding the Rorschach and the TAT. According to some experts, these tests have a very limited validity (Holt, 1978; Klein, 1982; Rorer, 1990). These studies have shown that individual Rorschach measurements have little relation to external validity criteria. In its ability to predict psychiatric symptoms, TAT assessments proved no better than the Rorschach’s test. In a study initiated in 1950, TAT was administrated to over 100 males, some in psychiatric facilities and others in college. The TAT results showed no difference between the normal group and patients. It also lacked the ability to show differences within the psychiatric groups (Eron, 1950). Although the TAT was proved to have little value as a diagnostic assessment for psychiatric classification, studies have shown that the test has some validity for more limited purpose, in particularly regarding indications of personal motives. One group of investigators worked with examinees who had not eaten for various periods of time. When presented with TAT pictures, their stories were highly connected to food and hunger, in comparison to the participants of the control group. Similar findings have been obtained concerning various other motives such as aggression, sexual arousal and the need for achievements (Atkinson and McClelland, 1948). Personality tests, in both their structured and unstructured form, consist of many more formats and use a large quantity of assessment methods. Although both types of tests consist of certain flaws, and are not always reliable, their contribution to the understanding of personality is significant. The appearance of such tests in the early 40’s has raised the interest of many researchers, psychologists and psychiatrics, and gave way to further studies on the issue of personality and its construct. References: Gleitman, H. (1999) psychology 5th edition, Norton (chapters 16 and 17) Hampson, Sarah E. (1988) The construction of personality: an introduction. 2nd edition, London: Routledge

Business Model and Strategic Plan Essay Example for Free (#3)

Business Model and Strategic Plan Essay Coffee (372) , Starbucks (158) , Strategic Plan (66) , Business model (48) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints Why do businesses need innovation is simple, the world is changing at a rapid speed and no one can predict what is coming in the future. Organizations are facing many new types of vulnerabilities everyday. Innovation helps to determinate the strategic management within an organization and prepares organizations for the unforeseeable change and to make the change. Although very organization have different priorities, or balance the unique issues of their own, ignoring the innovation, or implementing the strategic plan inefficiently can bring risks of losing key employees, inefficiency of the operation, and lose competitive advantages to the competitors. This paper will create a new division for Starbucks Coffee Co. Using this division as an example to explain the importance of the innovation in company’s vision, mission, and values, and how it related to strategic management. Starbucks Corporation, doing business as Starbucks Coffee, is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Today, with more than 21,000 stores in 65 countries, Starbucks is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. And with every cup, the company strives to bring both their heritage and an exceptional experience to life. (Starbucks.com) Since the first Starbucks opened in 1971, the company has a goal to share great coffee with friends and help make the world a little better place. (Starbucks.com) To better server Starbucks Coffee’s customers, and provide quick and easy coffee for the people who have to fight the morning or anytime traffic, Starbucks coffee co. has purposed a new business model of Self Severed Coffee Machine. This new Machine will be located outside of Starbucks stores, shopping centers, and large office buildings to better server the consumers who does not have time to wait in line and get their favorite cup of coffee. In this tough economic climate, Starbucks needs to compete smart, this means to stay a step head on ensuring the best response to customers’ need and demand. It is often to see a line of customers either inside the store or in the drive through. While we appreciate the their patience to wait in line, we also share their frustration. It is our intention to ensure everyone loves his or her coffee. While we are proud that every cup is made to earn our customers’ satisfaction, we are also spending a considerable amount of time on making them. The Self Served Starbucks machine has an ability of produce majority flavors of the coffee, which our customer likes. Simply pay the cash, wipe the credit card, or scan the mobile Starbucks App on your smartphone, the machine will make a fresh brew cup of coffee in just 45 seconds. With this machine outside of store or mall, our customer can save time on waiting in line. Even more convenient, the machines outside of the office building not only can save our customer a trip to the coffee shop in the morning, also be able to enjoy a hot fresh coffee when they sat down by their desk. This new machine can ensure the competitive advantage by its product differentiation, more focused group on customer service, and operational efficiency. Starbucks’ mission is a reason for the company’s existence. With the unique style of combining both, our vision and mission statement is â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.† (Starbucks.com) To align with this mission statement, our new division’s mission statement is to † bring the best quality coffee and convenience to our customers on the go, one machine at the time† This mission statement reflected the company value and beliefs to show our costumers that we care, it will also guide our employees on understand and establish what the company truly does. A good mission statement inspires employees and provides a focus and direction for strategic planning. While mission statements vary from organization to organization and represent the distinctness of each one, they all share similar components. (Mission and Vision Statements, 2010) The new division’s mission statemen ts include descriptions of Starbucks’ target market, the geographic domain, and concern for survival, growth, and profitability. Being the giant leader of the coffee and snacks industry, Starbuck coffee company needs to develop a strong strategic plan through the analysis of SWOTT. SWOTT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends. A SWOTT analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses within a company, and outside opportunities and threats. The most important parts of a SWOT analysis specify the actions that correspond to the elements the company identify. By using the results of the analysis to improve the situation of the new division, we can reduce the likelihood of developments that negatively affect the business while improving performance. (Smallbusiness.Chron.com) Starbuck is currently in the retail coffee and snacks industry. The  self-serve coffee machine will be able to satisfy customers not just a cup of coffee but also tea, water and juice, which Starbuck currently provide in the store. The loyal based reward programs provide customers with convenience, giving presents, and increasing frequency of the machine visit. Although there will not be any customer service involved, but the efficiency of leveraging technology with the capability of mobile App will still attract customers. The machine will provide extra ideas on the screen related to recycling and reducing waste; this is a great way to communicate with people about the social responsibility initiatives of the company. Due to the economic crush in 2008, this industry has experiencing a major downfall in sales. Because of the sensitivities to the macroeconomic factors, most of industry consumers have to give up extra expenses such as over priced drinks, snacks, and food. However, with economy slowly recover, consumers will start feeling the relaxation of the financial situation, it is safe to say, this industry will has a considerable amount of growth in the near future. With Starbuck having the most of market share in the industry, they have a monopolistic competition. By far the biggest threat the company face is the mature stage of the industry. Dunkin donuts, McDonalds, or Pete’s coffee are all the main pressure on Starbucks. Starbucks brand recognition and the convenience of the self-severed machines differentiates itself, the brand and the machine will draw more customers’ attention, gain competitive advantages for the company. The self-served Starbucks coffee machine will be located in some of the most prime and strategic location across the city such as universities, office buildings, and grocery stores. They will primarily targeting mid-income individuals and students. This strategy will gain competence due to the customer convince factor. The Starbuck coffee-pricing factor does pose a weakness to some targeted consumers; however, the self-severed machine will be 5% cheap because there are no labor costs involved. Expansion into a global market is an opportunity for these machines. Starbucks has a great growth potential in further expanding into the emerging and developing  markets. The company can leverage their size, experience, financial prowess and efficiencies to make new market share. (Forbes.com) Starbuck has putting significant amount of time and money on training their employees. Their employees are known for highly knowledge and experienced. They are the main assets of the company and they are provided with great benefits like stock option, retirement accounts and a healthy culture. This effective human capital management translates into great customer services. It was rated 91st in the 100 best places to work for by Fortune Magazine. (CNN.com) The internal threat for Starbucks currently is the change of life style and taste choices of consumers. More and more customers are shifting towards healthy foods and drinks; this treading can hurt the coffee culture of the company, even to industry in the future. The Balanced scorecard is a management system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It also provides an organization with feedback of both the internal business processes and external outcomes, which allows for continuous improvement of strategic performance and results. Develop the strategic objectives for the new division of the Starbuck in the balanced scorecard format in the context of key trends, assumptions, and risks. The strategic objectives are measures of attaining the new vision and mission. Below are the three strategic objectives for each of the four balanced scorecard areas identified (Financial, Customer, Process, Learning and Growth). How to gain the market share is the objective in financial perspective. This is aggressive strategy the new division can use to power our organization and weaken the competitors. The new † Self served coffee machine† can gain market shares by: One: New technology. This market has always been a high growth market, and high growth markets has less competitors, it means they will not fight our  efforts as fiercely. Two: Innovation. This new machine is absolutely a breakthrough innovative idea once it is release into the market. Innovation can help the new division obtain large market share. Three: Strategic Alliance. The new machine can advertise other products, which is great choice when drinking coffee. If the alliance company can help with founding, we can lower our coffee price. This is efficient way to lure customers from competitors. How do we create value for our customers are the objective for the customer perspective? Customers are the key factor to an organization success. Creating value for our customers in three ways: One: New Value. This is the most challenging way to impress customers. By setting new machines by the office buildings or school parking lots will be most convenience for people do not have time to stop for coffee in the morning, or anytime during the day. Two: More value. The machine will provide the same product as in a Starbucks coffee store, but cheaper. Three: Better Value. To expend on the existing value, the customer will be able to purchase snake from the machine. The addition product provided will simply delivering more powerful impact to consumers. PROCESS OR INTERNAL OPERATIONS PERSPECTIVE How we measure the new division performance? The new division will have its own survey attached to the machine. Customers are the top choice for us to know what does the new division do to make them come back for more. Also, customers can leave feedbacks and advice via Facebook, Yelp, or preferred  social Media. Our new division will make huge impact on the organization, because it will release the busy traffic in the morning for the store location. LEARNING AND GROWTH (EMPLOYEE) PERSPECTIVE There is no employees’ turn over or retention involved with the â€Å"Self served machine† However, the mechanics are needed for the daily maintenance and refill. The new technology will notify the mechanic department if the machine needs any attention or checkups. While having a strategic plan, mission and vision Statement is crucial for the new division, but crafting and developing this plan is only the half of the battle. To have a communication plan is one of the most important factors after the plan and analysis is finalized. Although the new division will not have any human operating the machine, there are still the needs of new policies and procedures to be carried out. The effective of these policies and procedures are most likely effect the success of the plan. For example, machines maintenance schedule, or refill of the machine. Failure to take communication plan into account can cause disastrous. Our new business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines key elements of how we going to operate this new division. The plan typically includes an assessment of the market and the competition, operating budget breakdown, and short and long-term business goals. (smallbusiness.chron.com) There are three suggest way to monitor and control our new plan: Any new business plans within an organization needs to be reviewed on a regular basis, especially the expectancy of the busy traffic with the new  self-served machine. The new division management needs to set a date, this can be quarterly or annually, to review the long-term and short-term goals. Conducting the comparative analysis will help to ensure the strategic plan is on the right path. The management team of new division needs to develop a new tracking system to assess how the sales are doing regularly. For example, if the target sales goal is 5000 cups per month, then track the sales weekly or twice a month to monitor and control the process. Monitor key elements frequently. Key elements of the business plan include research on the market and competition as well as revenue projections. Each of these elements is subject to rapid change, and the management team should remain aware of where you stand with regard to these issues. (Smallbusiness.chorn.com) COORDINATE BUSINESS AND MARKING PLANS Our new division will have both business and marketing plans. Sometimes, they overlap in several ways. For example, if the Marketing plans calls for a major launching campaign with the media, but the business plan’s revenue prediction rejects that plan, then the managers needs to revise the plan to stay on track. Ethical behaviors and organization social responsibility is one of the key factors to bring large benefits for the business. With the new self-served coffee machine, it attracts customers with Starbucks signature products, thereby to boosting sales and revenue. It will create more jobs, therefor, help with unemployment. It will also attract more investors and keep the company’s share price high, therefor, protecting the business and employees’ benefits. The fact is brutally simple: the accelerated change within the business world is unavoidable. Evidence shows in current business world, customers are changing their needs and interest each day, markets are relentlessly unstable, and competitors are more aggressively capture any chance possible at new ideas. With technology advances faster and faster, and modifying the traditional strategic management that it touches, Innovation has become what shapes the current strategic management trends, and the right strategic management is the key to business success. http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage Mission and Vision Statements. r Business Plan. We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Statistical Critique of an Article Research Paper

Statistical Critique of an Article - Research Paper Example The article clearly identifies the primary concepts/variables in the study and states its hypotheses. The main concepts are perceptions of self-efficacy and CM knowledge and skills. Authors defined these concepts and their applications to the study. Moreover, the study identifies clear independent and dependent variables. The independent variable is the CMT, while the dependent variables are participants’ perceived self-efficacy in managing conflict situations and conflict management knowledge and skills. Aside from having explicit concepts, the article clearly states its hypotheses. Authors are fundamentally concerned of the relationship between CMT and learning. Learning is assessed based on changes in CMT knowledge and skills, as well as perceptions of self-efficacy. Moreover, authors are interested in maximizing self and peer/supervisory ratings. They want to use self, peer, and supervisory performance reviews as methods of broadly assessing the success of CMT in enhancing the CM skills.Aside from determining explicit variables, the study’s introduction provides relevant and sufficient background information that helps readers understand the skills and knowledge being studied because it includes a general introduction on the topic of conflict and discusses the definition of the concept of conflict, the conflicts that traffic officers face, benefits and costs of CMT, review of literature, basics of Hong Kong’s CMT program, theoretical framework, and the hypotheses of the study. The introduction is exhaustive because it outlines the major concepts and elements that readers need to understand the literature on conflict in general, its relation to police work, and the basic components and goals of the CMT being examined. This section answers different â€Å"what† and â€Å"why† questions, which help readers, understand what the study is about and how it responds to the gap in existing literature. Apart from having a relevant and exhaustive introduction, the sampling strategy is appropriate to the small sampling and research question, though not fully discussed. The study followed the train-the-trainer model, and so two groups of participants were assessed, primary level (PL) participants or the trainers for subordinate officers, and secondary level (SL) participants or the end learners of the CMT program. The article did not use random sampling strategy since all participants were assessed. This strategy enables the researchers to fully answer their research question. In addition, the objectives of the article required assessment of all participants. Authors cannot fully understand if the CMT is effective for all participants, if it applied random sampling strategy only. After discussing sampling strategy, this paper notes that the article sufficiently uses descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as qualitative analysis, to present a comprehensive view,