Management: Questions and Answers for Midterm Examination

Identify and describe the three levels of the organizational hierarchy. Which types of Information systems serve each level? Answer: The three levels of the organizational hierarchy: Senior Managers Middle Managers Operational Managers Types of Information systems serve each level: Operational-level systems: support operational mangers, keeping track of the elementary activities and transactions.Management-level systems: serve the monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities of middle managers. Strategic-level systems: help senior management tackle and address strategic issues. 2- List and briefly describe the major types of system in organization? Answer: Transaction Processing Systems (TIPS): are the basic business systems that serve the operational level of the organization. And it is also a computerized system that performs and records the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business.Management Information Systems (MIS): serve the management level of the organization, providing managers with reports and often-online access to the organization's current performance and historical records and primarily serve the functions of planning, controlling, and decision-making. Decision-support System (ADS): also serve the management level or the organization. ADS help mangers make decisions that are unique, rapidly changing, and not easily specified in advance.MIS differ from SEES: MIS serve at management level and SEES serve at strategic level. 5- What are the characteristics for ADS? How do they differ from those of SEES? Answer: Characteristics for ADS: (Inputs: transaction level data; Processing: Interactive; Outputs: Decision analysis; Users: Professional and staff ADS differ from SEES: ADS revere at management level and SEES serve at strategic level and its characteristics are: Inputs: Aggregate data; Outputs: projections; Users: senior managers. – Describe the relationship between TIPS, MIS, and SEES. The relationsh ip between TIPS, MIS, and SEES: TIPS are typically a major source of data for other systems, data also be exchanged to MIS to produce reports, whereas SEES are primarily a recipient of date from lower-level systems. 7- List and describe the information systems serving each of the major functional areas of a business. Answer: Sale and Marketing Systems: SystemDescription Organizational Level Order processing Enter, process, and track orders Operational Pricing analysis Determine prices for products and services Management Sale and forecasting Prepare 5 years sales forecasts Strategic Manufacturing and Production Systems Machine control Control the actions of machines and equipment Production planning Facilities location Decide where to locate new production facilities. Finance & Accounting Systems Account Receivable Tracks money owed the firm Budgeting Prepares short-term budgets Profit planning Plans long-term profits Human Resource SystemsTraining and Development Tracks employee tr aining, skills, and performance appraisals Operational Compensation analysis Monitors the rang and distribution of employee wages, salaries, and benefits Human Resource planning Plans the long-term labor force needs of the organization 8- What is a business process? Give two examples of processes for functional areas of the business and one example of a cross functional process. Answer: Business process refer to sets of logically related activities for accomplishing a specific business result, and also refer to the unique ways in which organization and management coordinate these activities.Example for functional area of business process: (Finance and Accounting: paying creditors, creating financial statements and managing cash accounts); (Human Resources: hiring employees, evaluating employees' Job performance and enrolling employees in benefits plans) Example of a cross functional process: Order fulfillment process (Sales Department: Generate order and submit order; Accounting Dep artment: Check credit and approve credit and then Manufacturing & Production department: Assemble product and ship product, and finally Accounting Department: Generate invoice). Why are enterprise applications for organization-wide process integration? Answer: Organizations are trying to integrate their business processes because they want to enhance the performance of the organizations as a whole. The system takes advantage of corporate intranets and web technologies that enable the efficient transfer of information within the firm and to partner firms. And these systems are inherently cross-level, cross-functional, and business process oriented. The four key enterprise applications: Enterprise Systems, Supply Chain Management Systems,Customer Relationship Management Systems, and Knowledge Management Systems. 10- What are enterprise systems? How do they change the way an organization work? Enterprise Systems, also known as enterprise resource planning systems, provide a single info rmation system for organization-wide coordination and integration of key business processes. Information that was previously fragmented in different systems can seamlessly flow throughout the firm so that it can be shared by business processes in manufacturing, accounting, human resources, and other areas.

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe was born in a town called York in the seventeenth century, the youngest son of a merchant of German origin. Crusoe's father wanted him to become a lawyer but he expresses his wish to go to sea instead because he was adventurous. His family was against Crusoe going out to sea, especially his father. Initially, Robinson is committed to obeying his father, but he eventually gives in to temptation and embarks on a ship bound for London with a friend, without his family's consent: â€Å"but if he goes abroad he will be the miserablest wretch that was ever born: I can give no consent to it†(p. ) However he decides to runaway: â€Å"I resolv'd to run quite away from him†(p. 6) His character seems resourceful because whenever he feels that he has to do something, he manages to find the resources to complete what he wants to do. This is a theme as this continuous in the novel, he obviously manages to go to sea without any hassle, his friend gives him a free ticket and so therefore he makes a use of it. The first thing that caught my eye when reading this opening of the novel was that it has been written from a first person's narrative. â€Å"I† is the first word of the ovel, presenting what he himself observes usually, he favours a more factual narrative style and focuses more on events and actions. Crusoe is the narrator and also the main character of the tale, everything is described in his own words and as mentioned earlier, he expresses a factual and detailed narrative style. It goes on to talk about himself, the main character and his brother and father. This shows that his family had a big influence on him, this familiarization of his family bri ngs the readers closer to the character and shows that Crusoe an ordinary man. Having read the novel ‘Robinson Crusoe', I will now comment on how the opening scenes to introduce themes which will be important to the novel as a whole. The first theme I have noticed from the opening is betrayal because he disobeyed his father even though his father did not want him to go on an adventure. He then regrets this and wishes he were at home: † I would go directly home to my father and never set it in a ship again while I lived. â€Å"(p. 8) Crusoe says this long before the adventure has started, this quote gives a sense of egret and therefore makes the readers curious about what is going to happen next and therefore gives a sense of enigma. Regret meaning that whatever is going to happen, is not going to be good so therefore Crusoe is already unhappy with the adventure, so from this we, as the audience know that there is more to come. He prepares us for the adventure and makes it seem that at that time, he didn't think much of his father's advice. Now that he has experienced and found out he did the wrong thing he is on his father's side: My father, a wise and grand man, gave me serious and excellent council against what he foresaw was my design†(p. 4) There is an also religious element being portrayed here because religious people usually believe in a plan that has been designed by god. He becomes more religious due to being isolated on the island and starts communicating with god, so religion becomes a theme in the novel. Even though he seems to be religious later on, he still accumulates money from all his adventures and he also manages to make a profit out of his loss. This makes him an conomical man and this all comes down to his family background and the way he been brought up from what we gather in the first few paragraphs: â€Å"prospect of raising my fortunes by application and industry, with a lif e of ease and pleasure†(p. 4) His father always reminded him about the middle class people and told him that it is the best station of life and to be grateful of what he already has. You can tell that Crusoe is very fond of money because of the way he has been brought up, he thinks about raising his fortunes by application and industry, so we know that he has an educated background (father. He also sees money as ease and pleasure: â€Å"That the middle Station of life was calculated for all kind of Virtues and all kinds of Enjoyment; that Peace and Plenty were the Hand-Maids of middle Fortune. â€Å"(p. 5) The first few paragraphs are highly specific and detailed which fully informs the reader about every situation Crusoe goes through (his family's definition and his escape from home). This also makes the novel an eyewitness account and gives the sense of truthfulness, this makes the readers more connected to the character and therefore are able to relate more to the novel. This shows that Defoe is quite good at creating a sense of realism. Finally, Crusoe seemed to be in control of his life where he didn't want to listen to his father but later on in the novel manages to have success in mastering his situation, overcoming his obstacles and controlling his environment. So Crusoe wanting to be in control and independent of his life and rebellious against his father in the first few paragraphs seemed to help him later on in the novel and taught him to take control of his life. Every reader can in some way identify with Crusoe and his situation. His inner conflicts are obvious in the first few paragraphs, which are duty and independence, the duty being that he had to stay home and study law as his father wished, and the independence being the fact that he wanted to be independent and that happened to him. Hope and despair is another inner conflict because when he left home, he realised what he has done is not what he expected so therefore regretted the runaway which made him quite desperate but he had hope. His hope shows that he is an optimistic person. When he was at home, he was not happy with what he had, we know this by his haracter, always looking for something he didn't have, but later on in the island, he made himself happy with what he had and made the most of everything. This shows a change in his character to be a more mature man rather than a little immature boy with unrealistic dreams. The themes of religion, resourcefulness, independence, betrayal, management and economics are definitely important in the novel as a whole. They are emphasised on later when gets stuck on the island and I would say that the two most important themes would be religion and economy management. Robinson Crusoe Writing Assignment #1 From many people’s perspectives, Robinson Crusoe’s intention of going on a boat and observe the whole world is probably just a desire of youth and ebullience. He rejected his Father’s suggestion of a â€Å"middle-stage† life fulfilled with happiness that the higher and the lower stages have envied for ages. But is it true that the only thing attained from his desire is just setting foot on a boat? Needless to say, the trip also changes the way he has always been from the inside, which is clearly seen in the second and the third paragraphs on page 18 when Robinson and Xury were discussing who would go and find the water.Compared to other passages in the whole book, the language in this paragraph is not much complicated, but it signifies a huge change in Robinson’s attitude towards life and especially his little friend Xury. At the beginning of the book, Robinson is pictured as a man born in a fine family, whose Father is able to suggest and support him with a happy and peaceful life. But at the age of eighteen, it is hard for Robinson to simply accept all the things his Father offered without having to struggle, which motivates his dream of going to sea and rejects all the pleasure that he might have if he stays home.No matter how encouraging and excited Robinson is, it is undeniable that he was born and raised in ease, which explains why he decided to take his Father’s advice when he was suffering from the storm in his first time being on a boat. It seems that his dreams are big, but it needs a lot of effort to overcome the difficulties that he never faced before. On page 18, second paragraph, it is seen that there has been a significant change in Robinson’s thoughts. From a man who just wanted to go home and never go to sea again in the first place, Robinson turned into a man who is ready to support his own life and sacrifice himself for his friend. So much affection† and â€Å"Made me love him ever after† are the proofs for what has changed in Robinson: after listening to his friend Xury’s reason of wanting to goon shoar alone to protect him from wild mans, Robinson realized Xury’s loyalty that he insisted on going together with Xury and shall fight against the wild mans. The â€Å"affection† of another changed his attitude and his reason of existing: not only for himself but also for someone else. In the third paragraph, Robinson’s attitude is once again proved at the moment he found out that Xury might need his help. Pursued† and â€Å"frighted† described how Robinson is seeing Xury’s situation when he was running towards Robinson, which then led to Robinson’s reaction of â€Å"ran forward towards him to help†. Those simple yet descriptive words again showed how much caring and loving Robinson has become towards his little friend Xury and informed how Robinson has changed when being put in t his situation. In addition, these words â€Å"like a hare but different in colour, and longer legs† make the novel sound more real as Robinson now actually is a part of the wild life.As seen from the beginning, he did not know many things about the wild animals or creatures, which were not the main parts of his life. But as he steps in this adventure, Robinson achieves the great deal of knowledge, and comes to know how â€Å"very good† such â€Å"meat† of that creature can be, especially how joyful â€Å"good water†, which is not hard to find at all on land, can bring to him. The words used in those two paragraphs are simple, yet they still managed to describe how Robinson’s attitudes towards the real life and his friend have changed.From a Robinson Crusoe who was scared and sea-sick on the first trip to the sea, we now see a Robinson Crusoe with a loving heart towards Xury, who is willing to fight and protect his little friend, and who is now livi ng in a real wild life with creatures he has never seen before. Defoe, from my perspective, was successful in capturing the gradual change within Robinson’s thoughts, beliefs and actions, and the descriptive language somehow brings something up to readers’ minds about how the trip to the sea is going to affect Robinson’s life.

Case Study about the Capital Gains Tax

In the given case, Dave Solomon age 59 is planning to get retired at an age of 60. He has decided to plan out his assets in the best possible way so that he has enough money at the time he gets retired. With an intention to save maximum amount available with him at the time of retirement, he decides to collect $1,000,000. HE decides to rent a city apartment and withdraw the tax free amount that he has saved in the superannuation fund for the retirement purposes. He was living in St Lucia from the past 30 years. He in order to raise the money that he has decided he plans to sell out his home through an auction. He conducts and auction and sells the house for $850,000 which has cost him $70,000, 30 years back. During the auction process, Dave has forfeited $85,000 from one of the customer, who first agreed to buy the house but after he fails to meet out his commitment. In this process Dave has paid $15,000 to the agent who has helped in fetching the right customer for the process. Cons idering all these points, Dave has made profit of $850,000 for the sale transaction. A person is not required to pay any capital gain tax on the profit that the person has earned on the sale of his residence. The exemption that has been given in the Australian tax laws is applicable only on the property in which the person is living or residing into. Thus, a person is required to pay the capital gain tax only on the property that has been earned by the person only on the property that has been held by him as an investment. In the given case, Dave has been living in his house located at ST Lucia which he has sold for $850,000. Being this property is the only in which Dave is living from past 30 years. Thus, in light to the above provision, being a property which has been used by the person is his own residence does not attract capital gain tax. Thus in that case, the capital gain earned by Dace worth $850,000 is not eligible for capital gain tax. As per the Australian tax laws, a person is not eligible to pay any capital gain tax liability arising on the profit that he has earned on sale of personal and collectible assets. In case of personal and collectible assets we have a separate classification which would be used for such taxation and thus the same in no case should be mixed with the provision of normal capital gain tax laws. The collectable and personal asset in this case includes art work such as drawings, paintings, photographs etc., jewellery, antiques, coins etc. In the given case, the painting of pro hart that has been sold by Dave would be covered in the definition of personal and collectible assets and thus the profit worth $110,000 that he has earned on such sale would be covered under the separate category other than capital gain. A person is not eligible to pay any tax liability on the gain that he has earned on sale of personal assets. The personal assets in this case includes car, resident property etc.   In the given case, the assessee sold motor cruiser for $60,000 which he has purchased for $110,000. In light to the above provision, Dave is not likely to bear any capital gin tax from sale of his personal assets. Although, Dave has incurred loss on the above transaction, thus being the gin is not taxable, the loss so incurred by Dave would also not be carried forward or set of from any taxable capital gain. Dave during the year has taken a loan of $70,000. He has utilized the sales proceeds on purchase of shares which he has sold during the year for $80,000. On this sale, Dave is required to pay brokerage and stamp duty worth $750 and $250 respectively. In case of sale of shares, a person if carrying out the same a business, he would be eligible to bear the tax on ordinary income basis; else the income so earned would be taxable as capital gain. Dave in the above case has to bear interest cost worth $5,000 on the loan amount. While calculating the capital gain tax all the expenses that have been incurred in earning the profit on such sale would be allowed as deduction. However, the interest that the individual has paid on the loan amount that he has utilized for purchasing the shares, would not be allowed as deduction being the same does not have any direct link with generation of income. In this case, Dave made a profit of $9,000 on the transaction. The interest amount of $5,000 would not be allowed as deduction. Considering the above points, Dave during the period has earned the following as capital gain: Dave in the last year has a net capital loss of $10,000 that he has earned on sale of shares. The capital loss so incurred by Dave can be carried forward and will be reduced from the gain made in the current year. The amount that has been earned by Dave during the period would be used by him for meeting his retirement needs.   ATO. Gov, Statutory formula method for Car FBT taxation, viewed on 1 st June 2016. ATO. Gov, FBT Tax rate 2016, viewed on 1 st June 2016. ATO. Gov, Market Interest Rate 2016, viewed on 1 st June 2016. ATO. Gov, Collectables and personal use assets, viewed on 1 st June 2016.

The Caribbean History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Caribbean History - Essay Example Dominique, and Cuba, and finally, about the achievements of the Haitian Revolution and its impact on the Caribbean. THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND TRIANGULAR TRADE The 16th century saw the beginning of the slave trade in the Caribbean islands. The European importers had started demanding high quantities of sugar, a product of sugarcane which grew easily in the Caribbean’s temperate climate. As a result, the demand for sugar increased which directly increased the demand for labour. The Arawaks, the original slaves employed by the Europeans had started vanishing and so then-friar Bartoleme de las Casas of Hispaniola suggested to enslave the Africans. The slave raiding parties, who were generally endorsed by the local government, performed the task of enslaving the Africans and bringing them to the island. The slave traders then use to auction the slaves in the market and the whites bought them. The whites insisted that the slaves should cut off all ties with their homeland and the ir families, and also preferred keeping slaves of the same culture apart. The slaves were not given any personal or civil rights; in fact their owner could order them any task that they wanted from them. In the Western hemisphere, the demand for labor gave emergence to a commercial network which was named the Triangular trade. It was so called because it followed a triangular route: firstly, the European merchants would set sail to Africa with bartering goods, arms and liquor and traded for slaves with the African slave traders; slaves were then shipped to the Caribbean islands and; in the final step, the plantation owners purchased slaves from the merchants in exchange of tobacco, sugar and rum which the merchants took to Europe from the Caribbean islands, thus completing the triangle (Figueredo and Argote-Freyre 60-63). THE MIDDLE PASSAGE The middle passage was the second step of the Triangular trade in which slaves were transported from West Africa to island colonies in the Atlan tic. This journey which generally took four to six weeks was the most dangerous and hazardous voyage for the slaves. They were packed into ships in two ways, either a tight pack or a loose pack. The slaves were first laid on shelves, chained to each other with no space in between them. They were supposed to eat, sleep, urinate, defecate, and even give birth in the same allocated place. The conditions were so pathetic that they refused to eat. Most of the slaves revolted; indeed, the lacks of awareness of where they were being taken made many of them commit suicide. However, the ships’ crews practiced various cruelty measures to keep the slaves alive, for instance, they forcefully opened the mouth of the slaves with tools to feed them (Equiano n.p). The slaves were treated very harshly along the whole passage and most of them died because of poor treatment and malnutrition. Records reveal that on an average 9% of the slave died in the middle passage and those who survived were properly fed on the last days, were ‘oiled’ and paraded through the streets to the slave markets. There, they were auctioned off and traded for liquor, gums and other goods (Figueredo and Argote-Freyre 64). LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS The work on the plantations was very intense and exhausting with the working hours extending up to 18 hours and even up to 24 hrs during the peak

Debate paper in intellectual properties Assignment

Debate paper in intellectual properties - Assignment Example In the absence of these protection laws, individual’s original ideas would be plagiarized and exploited by unethical participants in a given economic environment (Gollin 23). Therefore, the concept of intellectual property proves advantageous in numerous ways including; Intellectual property in form of a patent protects an individual’s or a company’s original knowledge from duplication by competitors and other unethical parties. Fortunately, the government issues patent owners with the sole right to use an underlying intellectual property for a specified period of time (Tavani and Spinello 41). Currently, advancement in science and technology leads to a corresponding increase in inventions and related knowledge. These new scientific information and technological designs could offer great benefits to business organizations upon application. Undeniably, an inventor or researcher responsible for development of a new piece of information may have invested intensively not only in terms of finances but also in labor hours. In this context, duplication of intellectual property without the owner’s permission would amount to an instance of economic exploitation. Therefore, intellectual property rights are instrumental in preventing expl oitation from competitors. In March 2014, Samsung and Apple Inc ended a patent infringement dispute in court. Allegedly, Samsung duplicated the ’slide to unlock’ feature of Galaxy Nexus smart phones without permission from the feature’s inventor, Apple Inc. Consequently, Samsung paid Apple $120 million in damages. In this context, existence of intellectual property rights prevented further exploitation of Apple’s patented information by its competitor. In another case, SanDisk is seeking to prevent exploitation of its flash memory cards by Apple Inc. Aside from being the plaintiff in Samsung vs. Apple case; Apple Inc also infringes patents of other competitors (Reed 01). As of September 2014, Apple Inc was being sued

Arab Open University Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arab Open University - Essay Example Institution to spread knowledge and train people beyond borders. This not only shows the quality and standard of education that is being imparted, but also elucidates the uniformity and lack of discrimination in training. Such a regional center of educational excellence was absent previously in the area, and the need of such an open university was gravely felt. This helps make it accessible to all the students under the expanse, and helps educate a wide mass of people. This also allows for the mutual sharing of faculty, and increased platforms for sharing information and prospective research. The University makes use of modern IT resources in order to support the learning process. This is a characteristic feature that makes it different from its adversaries. Being 'open' in mature, its has students of all ages and all walks of life. To add, these people work and live in different areas and continuing education with a profession was not a common concept in the region until the Arab Open University. Now, this institution has enabled people to continue with managing their previous affairs, and yet have the opportunity by mean of technology to study from places of their convenience. This not only enables the people to gain education in a discipline of their choice, but also has made it possible for the large Arabic population to become computer literate. Therefore, the in a practical domain has become a hallmark of the AOU. PERSUASIVE ESSAY WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2: Write a persuasive essay which presents your opinion on whether car seat belts should be required by law. Make sure the thesis statement clearly reflects your opinion on this. Follow the steps of the writing process. PART A. Plan your essay before you...Make sure the thesis statement clearly reflects your opinion on this. Follow the steps of the writing process. Accident simulations by the leading car manufacturers of the world have shown the grave difference between the aftermath of an accident with and without a seatbelt, the latter being much more destructive.

Supply chain management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Supply chain management - Essay Example Earlier, companies were individual entities that gained profit for itself and were based on specified strategy of their production programs, which was not necessarily connected to the external world. However, in the future, companies will either be trading partners where the companies are linked to selected partners through exchange program, or the companies will have integrated supply chain management, which can build relationship with customers and suppliers. Christopher (1998) found competition is not within firms but between the supply chains. The main difficulty is to develop SCM, which not only creates effective relationship with supplier and customers but also is transparent, definable, demonstrable, tangible and communicable for the involved parties. Organizations have been making use of collection of methods, tools, techniques and programs for SCM. Fisher (1997) found two distinctive approaches in supply chain - efficient supply chain and responsive supply chain. The applica tion of SCM improves efficiency of industries and the target is to improve competiveness and profitability (Ellram 1991; Cooper et al. 1997; Persson 1997; Christopher 1998; Mentzer 2001). 2. Supplier Partnerships Working with suppliers provides an opportunity to acquire high quality products and services. Additionally, long term loyalty can be developed. The concept of JIT becomes significant in this regard where the raw materials are delivered on need and not before. Deming (1986) claimed building long-term relationship with suppliers can ensure improved products delivery. For long term commitment, the organization needs to be involved and each party has to contribute to the process of production and manufacturing. The supplier and buyer both need to understand that ultimately the goal is to satisfy the customers and hence, the decision should be made as a team. Various types of sourcing are used for supplier partnership such as single sourcing and multiple sourcing. In case of mul tiple sourcing, the products are delivered through competition. Further, it also reduces the disruption of work. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa’s (1980) ten principles on supplier and buyer relationship include: 1. Customer and supplier are responsible for quality control. 2. Customer and supplier should respect the independence of other. 3. Supplier is entitled to get complete information from the customer. 4. The contract should be based on quality, price, quantity, method of delivery and payment terms. 5. Supplier should provide the quality desired by the customer to ensure satisfaction. 6. The quality should be determined through mutual consent. 7. The settlement of disputes should be made through agreement. 8. Frequent exchange of information should be promoted to improve the service or product quality. 9. The partner should be involved in procurement, inventory planning and production. 10. The interest of end users should be considered above all. In the case - NOSC has a proposal t o enter into ULV’s partnering agreement for office supplies; offering discounts between 50% and 70% will help to reduce total costs of acquisition of supplies. Additionally, it would provide daily deliveries of supplies to users. In return, ULV will use NOSC exclusively for the purchase of office supplies. It can be concluded the partnership is beneficial for both the parties. 3. Supplier Partnership

Mangement on Thomas cook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Mangement on Thomas cook - Essay Example Under the leadership of Harriet Green, Thomas Cook achieved various transformations that made it match the current environment in the travel industry. She implemented a number of saving plans including the reduction of the number of employees and closure of some outperforming branches that built more confidence leading to a rise in the share prices of the company. However, Green failed to maintain the performance of the company as performance declined and shares dropped by around twenty percent in 2013. On her departure, four hundred million pounds discovered to be missing showing difficulty in business operations during her time (Goodley 2014). In addition, there had been views that Green lacked expertise in the operation of business in the travel industry. He rose to the post of CEO in the November 2014 after a working in the organization for around twelve years after joining in 2001. Earlier before joining the company, he had gained much experience in the travel industry after working for Kuoni Travel limited. In the tear 2003, he became the chief product officer and the CEO for the company division in Germany. From June 2007, he was managing the operations of the company in Continental Europe division. In the November 2012, he became the CEO for the United Kingdom and the Continental Europe Divisions (Thomas Cook Group 2014). He rose up to the post of the CEO of the company in November 2013 and began transforming the company to make it the people’s option of all the players in the travel industry. The travel industry is the biggest and fastest growing industry in the world. The industry is very dynamic faced by the need of responding quickly to factors out of its control. In the few years ago, the increased cases of terrorism in the world, the increased use of the internet for booking flights and the increased environmental awareness

Motivation Concepts in Criminl Justice Communities Research Paper

Motivation Concepts in Criminl Justice Communities - Research Paper Example As a result, managers should be aware that one of their main functions at the workplace is to motivate workers for them to be able to increase their efficiency and efforts towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. Despite the benefits of motivation in the workplace, motivating workers have never been easy to some organizations. This is attributed to the fact that not all employees are motivated by the same factors. For instance, one employee can be motivated by simply increasing the benefits to workers while others will require more things to be done such as offering job securities. Therefore, managers should understand well what motivates his or her workers and employ the right tools for the success of an organization. Significance of motivation at workplace Motivation plays a big role at the workplace. Gail (2010) notes that for an organization to accomplish its objectives and meet its short and long-term objectives, then workers must be motivated. This is because a motiv ated employee works hard towards the attainment of the organization’s objective, which is very important. In addition, motivation increases an employee’s efficiency and productivity, which is important for an organization’s overall performance (Gail, 2010). ... A happy employee will certainly work hard thereby ensuring organizational goals are achieved. It also reduces instances of absenteeism at the workplace that may affect the company. Research indicates that most companies that perform well have high levels of motivations their workers. In addition, motivation reduces labor turnover within an organization because it makes employees feel comfortable working for the organization. This is because motivation makes employees feel attached to the organization they work for (Mork, 2010). Further, motivation reduces incidences of labor unrest among employees. Research has established that organizations, which motivate their workers, do not experience labor unrest among its employees, which is certainly very important since this help build the reputation of an organization. Motivation is also important because it defines whether an organization will be successful or fail. This is because a demoralized employee may not see the need to working tow ards achievement of organizational goals, which will certainly result in low productivity or labor unrest. Therefore, managers should strive to ensure that workers are motivated all the time for greater productivity and success (Mork, 2010). Workplace motivation techniques Managers can use a variety of techniques to motivate their workers. Recognition is one of the tolls that can be used by managers to motivate workers (Ray, 2010). Recognition here refers to acknowledging a job well done by an employee. In fact, it cost absolutely nothing to recognize an employee. However, an employee who feels appreciated will be motivated to work extra hard towards achievement of organizational objectives. Secondly, employees can also be motivated by offering promotion and leadership opportunities.

The Christian’s Weapons for Spiritual Warfare Essay Example for Free

The Christian’s Weapons for Spiritual Warfare Essay Christianity presupposes the existence of the supernatural. After all, God is invisible and so are the angels and demons documented in the Bible as spirits that are present in the world inhabited by humans. Too often, however, because they are not seen, most people do not believe in the reality of the spiritual world. The Christian worldview takes into account the different unseen beings present and active in the world. This is well documented in the Bible and can be attested to by a lot of people who have been involved in one way or another in demonic possession. The church is also not spared in doubting the reality of spiritual beings at work. As such, they can easily fall prey to the wiles of Satan, which is described as â€Å"a prowling lion† in the Bible. Not only that, when they encounter demon possession or any spiritual activity involving demons. In fact, even Christians sometimes are not spared from demon activities, especially if they place themselves in places and circumstances where demons can work in their lives. Spiritual Warfare The world in which Christians live is full of circumstances where the spirit of light and darkness struggle against each other. Dr. Ed Murphy said that there is a kingdom of Christ where believers belong to and the kingdom of Satan where the powers in the air and in the world reign and influence the lives of people who choose to live outside the fold of Christ’s grace and love. This statement was presented in page 5 and I agree because this dichotomy is reflected in the different activities of people in the world. Part One of Dr. Murphy’s book talks about worldviews and how such worldviews affect the thinking of people in the world. Those who belong to the two different kingdoms necessarily espouse different kinds of viewpoints. Those who have become believers in Christ have been transformed and redeemed. They no longer belong to the sinful ways of the world, where the influence of Satan is very much at work. The saving grace of Christ enables a person to change his views and his outward expressions. As such, spiritual warfare is truly a clash of worldviews between that of the Kingdom of Heaven and that of the world. The Bible also supports the worldview that spiritual beings are very much at work in the world then and now and it is the source of authority of God’s work. Dr. Murphy also expounded on a kind of history of spiritual warfare. Satan used to be one of God’s top angels but was transformed by his desire for power and because of his pride. By relying on what the Bible says, the author traced the source of the cosmic conflict and how such conflict affects the world that we inhabit now. When Satan and his horde of fallen angels were cast down from heaven, the battleground has shifted to the earth. The fall of man in the Garden of Eden became a reality and has become the source of the rift between God and man. Dr. Murphy expounded this history in page 41. Through his explanation, I understood how humans are being influenced by demons and spirits. Christ became the centerpiece of history because He is God’s ultimate way to redeem fallen mankind from sin and shame. The battle is not complete, however, with one’s coming to Christ. It may be difficult to accept, yet, even Christians are not exempt from demon activities such as implanting thoughts and even demon-possession. Encountering such claim has taken me aback at first. However, as Dr. Murphy went on to explain the dynamics and levels of God’s protection towards His children, and the way that Christians put themselves in a position where demons may influence them, it dawned on me that he was right. He even related several real life experiences that he had. Christians therefore had a battle to fight. Such battle occurs in their minds, which is the battlefield for control. In addition, the battle also occurs at a higher level when culture collides with the claims of the gospel. Part III surveys the biblical view on spiritual warfare with a focus on the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, warfare in a lot of instances took on physical war and bloodshed. More importantly, however, is the spiritual nature of this war. The warfare between good and evil has been going on since the beginning of time. When man entered the picture, it has just been intensified. The Old Testament contained a number of promises that dealt with the promise that was fulfilled by Christ—the promise that evil and death will be ultimately conquered. Dr. Murphy made it clear that the Old Testament showed the need for an ultimate sacrifice in Christ and the inadequacy of human agency in waging spiritual warfare. Even if God made a covenant with Israel as a chosen nation in the Old Testament, there were kings and prophets who led the nation politically and spiritually. Dr. Murphy stated the role of kings and prophets in page 253. Through the role of kings and prophets, the author masterfully showed the coming ministry of Christ and of Christians. Spiritual warfare then truly involved warfare in the traditional sense—involving physical weapons. The problem, however, is that the spiritual aspect of the warfare has been disregarded and even denied. Worse, the Israelite nation forgot to keep the covenant they have with God, which led to the downfall of both the Northern and the Southern kingdom. The Old Testament was a foreshadowing of the new one. With the coming of Christ, the New Testament was put in place. Christ and the New Testament The first covenant failed to fulfill the terms of the covenant. In fact, the chosen people have failed to do their duty in becoming the light in the world. Yet, God has put in place a plan for redemption, which, incidentally, was also a part of God’s strategy against the Kingdom of Satan. Jesus Christ represented God’s ultimate plan for the redemption and restoration of creation from the clutches of Satan. Through Jesus Christ, man was no longer in the clutches of demons. Rather, a choice has been given to them so that they can be free. After all, Jesus came to set the captives free. Dr. Murphy also chronicles the encounters of Jesus with the demons. Before he started his public ministry, he was tested in the wilderness and tempted by Satan himself. It was a reenactment of the temptation that Satan presented to Adam and Eve but only this time, he did not succeed. Hence, his dominion and authority was about to be wrested away from him. He did not want to be deprived of such power, however, and so he gave a fight. In other passages in the gospels, Jesus encountered demons in the synagogue and in the tombs. In cases where he encountered demons, they recognized him for who he is—the Son of God. Jesus silenced these demons so that he can proceed with his ministry unabated. It was as if he wanted people to listen to Him instead of having to cast out demons. As the ministry of Jesus progressed, he managed to train his disciples in asserting His authority. When the disciples came back and reported that even the demons were obedient to them, he gave them occasion to celebrate while at the same time asked them to focus on building the kingdom of heaven instead of casting demons out. With the training of his disciples, Jesus passed on his authority to them. Throughout Part Four, Dr. Murphy looked at the development of the training of disciples and the way in which they encountered demons in their ministries. The Book of Acts, particularly, contains a lot of stories of demon encounters that followed the disciples wherever they go. In page 342, Dr. Murphy explained that there were times that the power encounters with demons led to conversions. There are also instances that they did not. Nonetheless, what is important is that, the early disciples knew that demons are real and that they are subject to the authority of believers given to them by Christ. The New Testament chronicles the development of the church from being a simple band of believers to a growing church in different areas of the known world then. As believers were preaching to people about Christ, no doubt the demons were also at work. That is why the believers saw the need to assert the weapons that Christ gave them for spiritual warfare. On the whole such encounters pointed out to the authority of Christ in the spiritual world as much as in the material world. Dr. Murphy also takes a look at different biblical passages dealing with spiritual warfare and the weapons that believers can use regarding against the powers in the air. The author also takes a look at some instances that even believers were besieged by demons in their efforts to live out the gospel given by Christ. Power encounters were also frequent as the church was growing. He said that power encounters were necessary in some places but not in others. This is because the people listening to the gospel of Christ should be able to make the decision of whether or not to accept Him. When the demons interfere, therefore, the Christians can assert their authority in Christ and ask these demons to get away. Christians can also be demonized. Although this may come as a shock to others, Dr. Murphy elaborates why in Part Five, particularly in page 440, where he discussed the different entry points of demons in the lives of Christians. There are sin areas that a Christian may wallow in. These areas then become the entry points for demons to establish their strongholds. I agree with Dr. Murphy’s assertion that demons can assail Christians. It is very similar to the captain of a ship who possesses the authority but refuses to assert it but instead gives the authority to somebody without rank in the ship. Demon possession of Christians works in the same way. There are a lot of manifestations of demonization. A lot of these can be easily spotted when one reads the newspaper—child abuse! The act of abusing a child can both be the cause and the result of demonization. A lot of social issues arise from demonization even though few people would accede to that. Even the mental health of people can be severely affected by demons—they lose their wits and logical judgment but instead rely on the voices telling them what to do. Dr. Murphy draws from psychology to explain that in some instances demonization leads to the alienation of the individual and leads to losing his mind. In closing, he also discusses the way in which people, Christians included can be free from demonization. The section dealing with finding freedom, however, appears to be inadequate given the number of chapters he dedicated to explore the causes of demonization. He also recognized the dangers of spiritual warfare and the way that people may shirk from taking responsibility for their action because of spiritual warfare. Nonetheless, Dr. Murphy’s book derives biblical insight and is a practical guide for all.

Report On Bed Capacity Planning In Hospitals

Report On Bed Capacity Planning In Hospitals Nowadays, the number of medical treatment and medicines increases which allows a spectacular growth of the health care sector. Despite this development, the sector suffers from inefficient management and ineffective planning [15]. Managing patients, nurses and physicians is a difficult problem that needs to be solved. Hospital bed planning is a central problem that affects hospital capacity, health care quality and also management of nurses and physicians. During the last decades, hospitals are a non profit organization where the demand is not a primary concern for the manager of these hospitals. Today, many private hospitals are acting with a primary objective to satisfy the demand and to provide outstanding services to compete with other private hospitals [10]. The hospital is not just a medical care unit but also is providing hotel and transportation services. To insure competiveness of hospitals we need to improve the quality of services and to satisfy as much as we can the deman d. Therefore, hospitals need to look for their supply chain and how to manage it. In this report, we focus on the supply chain management of hospitals in Dubai. Dubais health services are internationally recognized and due to their high standard and their modern facilities equipment, are comparable to other developed countries. The location of hospitals in Dubai is strategic to ensure accessibility for patients. There are approximately 20 clinics and hospitals distributed across the Emirate. The ratio of clinics/hospitals to patients is 1:78,000. One of the more impressive practices of medical professionals in Dubai is the post-clinic, private medical call. These are considered as part of their responsibilities. Medical attention is provided, regardless of residency or nationality. In general, Dubai aims to improve the over-all wellbeing of its people. Its strategy is to provide patient-specific care. The most popular medical services provided by healthcare providers in Dubai include immunizations and vaccinations, psychiatric treatments, medical fitness examinati ons, community services (such as marriage and family counseling), adult and infant yoga therapy, rehabilitation, and education on health and nutrition. We focus on this report on Rashid private hospital in Dubai, UAE. We mainly present a multiple objective stochastic programming for the bed capacity planning taking into account the quality of the service and the stochastic demand in that hospital. In the next chapter, we present a general overview of the hospital supply chain in general before we present in chapter 3 some of the Rashid hospital operations. In chapter 4, we focus on hospital bed capacity planning in order to introduce to the multiple objective stochastic program that we are going to propose for Rashid hospital bed capacity planning. The obtained model is transformed in chapter 6 into its certainty equivalent and solved in chapter 7 using data from Rashid hospital. Chapter 2 Hospital supply chain 2.1. Introduction Health is defined as à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"a state of complete physical, mental and social well beingà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ . The health care sector is an important sector as regards to the welfare of people. Health services require the synchronization of various resources, such as Human resources, medicines and medical equipment. In any organization, a supply chain must be designed in accordance with its mission. The mission of all hospitals includes the maximization of the level of patient care. The size of a hospital, geographical location, diversification, and the various specializations all affect the nature of care provided in a hospital and, therefore, the goals of its supply chain. The hospital chain may have some of the following goals [7]: To secure the availability of product , To Reduce the storage space and to maximize the patient care, To reduce time and cost of handling the medical team (nurse, pharmacist, physician) Minimize the stocks of inventory The main functions of hospital supply chain are defined as follows [7]: To allocate the main resources (technical platforms, beds, physicians, nurses ) and their location in the hospital. To plan for extra resource needed (medical staff, medical equipment), and to schedule the care activities. To organize transportation of patients and equipment. Generally, the hospital supply chain may be split into two parts (see Figure1): the external chain and the internal chain [14]. Fig 1: Hospital supply chain [15] 2.2. The external supply chain The external chain begins with companies specialized in the creation of the raw material (patent, drug, machinery, etc). The raw material can be materialized (machine, drug, etc.) or immaterialized (know how to cure). The manufacturer may itself be the creator or a company that works in relationship with him. In this case, the company is responsible for the duplication (making molecules on a large scale and add excipients or drug) for the test and for the control. Once the product is ready to be used and receives the necessary certifications, the role of the distributor is to place the product on the market. The market is generally formed by a central purchasing (WHO, national distributors, NGOs, etc) or individual (hospital, pharmacy, etc). Each health facility may maintain direct relations with manufacturers so that products pass through certain distributors. 2.3. The internal supply chain The health establishment is the last link in a supply chain consisting of manufacturers and distributors from various industries (medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, food, laundry, maintenance, etc). The supply chain within the hospital is complex. The size of the hospital, the geographical location, the diversification, various specializations, the high cost and perishable goods, all affect its supply chain. The first characteristic of the appropriate health care supply chain is its diversity in distribution channels. Inside the hospital, the hospital product is made up of items at low prices or high-prices and durable and perishable goods that are consumed in large or small quantities. A health institution is composed of five main activities that manage different types of flows to offer many services or products to patients. These activities are defined as follows: Intralogistics activities which are the fact that the hospital acquire, receives and distribute different supplies used in the service. The demand management that is the planning and the coordination between the different necessary resources. Operations and services given to the patient within the hospital from admission to discharge. External logistic represented by the medical follow-up for the patient. Services to the patient which are all auxiliary activities that are not linked to medical activities offered to the patient (gift shop, religious programs, etc). The supply chain within the hospital can therefore be presented as follows: 2.4. Conclusion The hospital supply chain must be developed for a specific product based on its unit cost, demand variability and the physical size. We can say that integration of the supply chain in the health care sector requires the synchronization of internal and external supply chains to each individual service. A good supply chain management within a hospital is necessary and must be performed efficiently Chapter 3 Operations in Rashid hospital 3.1. Introduction Rashid Hospital is a 454-bed general medical/surgical hospital in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and is a part of the Dubai Government Dubai Health Authority. Rashid Hospital is considered in Dubai as one of the first medical facilities for trauma, emergency, ambulatory care and critical care which provide a high-quality of services to all patients within the community. The Rashid hospital provides also leadership in the training and education of health care professionals. In the emergency, Rashid Hospital is considered as one of the most reputable and prominent medical centers in the Gulf region. It receives the majority of complicated case other hospitals are destined to Rashid hospital which coordinates also closely with the Dubai Civil Defense and Police for the training of emergency medical staff inside the airports In Rashid hospital, two types of admissions are used: the outpatient admission and the admission through emergency department 3.2. Outpatient registration This type of admission or registration is present in all hospitals and it can be defined as follows: An outpatient admission is presented when a patient is admitted to the hospital, surgical center or ambulatory center for a surgical or nonsurgical operation, therapeutic procedure or diagnostic procedure, that does not require an overnight hospital stay. The preparation for outpatient admission varies with each procedure [20]. In Rashid hospital, the responsible physician, the treating physician and the admitting physician are responsible of the admission procedure of the outpatient. The registration of the outpatient is done after the patient gets a discharge from the emergency department or the inpatient unit. This must is done by the physician who gives the patient an outpatient appointment for follow up with the required specialty. After that the patient will be transferred to the required specialty. The next step is the direct admission which must be done during the same day. The admitting physician/clinic nurse informs the case manager and the admission office that the patient requires admission, and then the admission of the concerned patient is linked with the availability of a bed. Next, the account department or the admission office informs the patient about charges for treatment as per the hospital payment policy. The clinic nurse will inform the patient about the admission conditions and about provisional diagnosis. But if the hospital cant find an available bed, the treating physician will give to the patient another appointment or ask for a transfer of the patient to another healthcare unit (if the case is urgent). In Rashid hospital, urgent case admission is directed to the emergency department. The admission in this department is different from the outpatient admission. In the next section, we are going to overview admissions procedures in the emergency department. 3.3. Admission through the emergency department This type of admission is different from the outpatient admission because patient must access directly to health due to the urgency of his/her case of illness. It can be defined as housing the patient in the hospital to provide special interventional procedure(s) or definitive treatment. We can distinguish three types of patients in this admission. First, the unstable patients who will suffer irreversible damage or loss of life if not admitted immediately. Second, the stable patients who are the patients that requires urgent treatment or interventional procedures(s) that cannot be accomplished on an outpatient basis. Third, patients are not suffering loss life or serious damage if not admitted [21]. In the emergency department, the emergency physician has to observe and to investigate to know if the patient needs admission and to refer the patient to the on call physician. The emergency physician and on call physician will decide about the required screening and diagnostic tests after examining/before admitting the patient. The emergency department must inform the case management about the admission, provisional diagnosis and level of care needed and check for the availability of bed. If there is no available bed in the selected department, the case manager can admit the patient temporarily in another department where bed is available (with adequate equipment). But if there are no available beds throughout the hospital, the case manager has to refer patient to another hospital. The patient flow in Rashid hospital can be presented as the following figure [10]: Bed flow in hospital 3.4. Rashid hospital departments At Rashid Hospital it exists many specialized medical and paramedical departments all equipped to receive all kinds of patients and also patients from neighboring hospitals. The existing specialities in this hospital are: Psychiatry Cardiology Gastroenterology General surgery Hematology Infectious disease Respiratory Neurosurgery Traumatologie Geriatric 3.5. Conclusion Rashid Hospital aims to provide an outstanding service to all outpatients and patients that are admitted through the emergency department. This aim cannot be achieved if the hospital has not the adequate capacity in terms of hospital bed and human resources (physicians and nurses). At the same time the hospital must run in profit to ensure the future of its activity. In this study we will try to answer this important question of hospital capacity planning in order to determine both the level of beds and the number of resources that Rashid hospital needs to satisfy the random demand. Chapter 4 Hospital capacity planning 4.1. Introduction The capacity is defined as the quantity of service that the health care institution must provide to satisfy patients need. Capacity management is related to the control of the impact of demand variability on the management of the health care institution. It concerns the good coordination of resources through the management of medical equipments, human resources and bed occupancy. Hospital capacity has long been an indicator of the importance of the hospital structure and for budget allocation [18]. The capacity planning is a component of the internal hospital supply chain. This planning is usually used to help hospitals, to do well their objectives which are: Trying to avoid an underestimating of the number of beds, planning for the future maintain a good service quality, optimize resource use, satisfy the requirements of internal and external security. 4.2. Bed capacity management In hospitals, capacity planning usually focuses on the total capacity of beds, the capacity of the surgical system, the allocation of beds for different services, equipment capacity, the ability of auxiliary services, and the number of staff and their competence [11]. Before we plan capacity in a hospital, the following issues must be clarified [1]: The length of the planning horizon (operational, tactical and strategic) The level of the provided care (primary, secondary) The type of care (provided to inpatient and / or outpatient) The quality, cost and types of available resources (physicians, nurses, technicians, rooms, beds, medical equipments and all what constitute an input for health) The hospital capacity depends not only on the number of beds, but also how these beds are used. The hospital capacity can be influenced by several factors: The geographic distribution of patients: each locality has its own hospital. The type of resources currently in use: a patient who wants to have a particular diagnosis by the nearest hospital must visit the hospital where it exist the necessary equipment. availability of nurses, physicians, and support equipment in the hospital Hospital bed management may affect cost, quality and accessibility of care. The daily management of beds is closely related to the management of the hospital. To properly determine the capacity of beds, we need to track the activities of hospital patients (admission, assignment, stay and leave) [12]. The essential role of the hospital bed manager is to ensure balance between supply and demand for hospital beds. Bed management has a long-term component, which is the choice of the overall number of beds as well as sharing among different departments, and a short-term component for the daily bed allocation to patients. We conclude that hospital beds are important measure to determine the hospital capacity. The bed management does not only affect the overall capacity but it also impacts on cost, quality and accessibility of care [8]. 4.3. Models for hospital bed capacity management Many models were elaborated to determine the optimal number of beds inside a hospital. The simple and the most used models to evaluate the adequate capacity of a hospital department are based on the following index: N = (length of stay * number of patient)/number of days = number of patient per day / number of days The transfer between departments and the randomness of some of the index parameters are not considered in the above model. To overcome this shortness in the index model more elaborate stochastic models can be used. These models can be used for the short term (daily problem), the long term (monthly problem) or even for the case of a disaster. The Queuing models are short term models that are usually related to the operational level of the hospital capacity planning. These models characterize the relationship between the number of beds, the average occupancy levels and the number of patients transferred from one department to another based on the arrival time of patients, the nature of patients transferred from one unit to another and the period of use of each type of bed by the patients. [13]. The simulation models have the ability to consider the results of a decision on an item without carrying out the experiment on the actual item [9, 19]. They represent an artificial reproduction of what will happen when random parameters change their values. Sally C. Brailsford [16] proposed a simulation model to plan for the capacity of an intensive care in hospital using software called SIMUL8. Nowadays, the health sector, an increasingly privatized sector, seeks to find an effective planning of his resources for the long term. Taking into account the benefit t and also the quality of offered service. The medical ethics and money profit are two conflicting criteria. Multiple objective programming is a model that can deal with several criteria. Chu and Chu [6] proposed a goal programming model for hospital beds allocation in Hong Kong. The model takes into account the constraints of location, the demand constraint and constraints related to manpower. Black and Carter modeled the problem of allocating physicians to hospital department using a linear goal programming model [3]. The model focuses on the number of cases handled by a physician taking into account that the hospital must be able to generate enough revenue to cover fixed costs and variable production. 4.4. Conclusion The models developed for the hospital bed capacity planning problem are mostly categorized as stochastic models. These models are suitable for short and medium term. In this study, we are more concerned with the long term. This is way we focus on multiple objective programming models to plan for the bed capacity in Rashid hospital. Chapter 5 The model In this document, we follow Ben Abdelaziz and Masmoudi model to determine the optimal bed capacity in Rashid hospital [2]. The model was first developed for bed capacity planning in all public Tunisian hospital to evaluate of missing beds. 5.1. Notations l: specialty in a hospital department, . We have two kinds of specialties. Those called primary health specialties for which we cannot transfer the patient to another hospital and secondary healthcare specialties that in case of no hospital bed available can be transferred to another hospital. : A subset of primary healthcare specialties that can be served by the same hospital bed (for which we are using the same equipment), . : A subset of secondary healthcare specialties that can be served by the same hospital bed, . : the set of specialties that may be served by the same type of nurses , : the set of specialties that may be served by the same type of physician , 5.2. The parameters : Existing beds in specialty in the hospital, . : the number of beds that can be added in the specialty in the hospital, . : ratio of nurses per bed, i.e. the number of nurses needed to serve one patient in the specialty l, . : ratio of physicians per bed: The number of physicians needed to serve one patient in the specialty l, . : the stochastic yearly demand for the specialty in the hospital where express the random demand. 5.3. Decision variables : number of beds in the specialty in the hospital. 5.4. Constraints of the model Maximum and minimum number of beds in the hospital The demand for the set of specialties in the hospital must be satisfied The demand for the set of specialties must be satisfied otherwise transferred to another hospital (1) where express the number of vacant beds in the set of specialties and the number of missing beds in the set of specialties . 5.5. Objective functions The first objective function is to minimize the cost of adding and managing new beds where is the daily cost of creating and managing an additional bed of the specialty in the hospital during the period of investment. The stochastic constraint (1) is related to the satisfaction of the demand in secondary health care specialties. This transfer generates an additional cost (transfer cost). We have to use a recourse approach to get certainty equivalent constraint. In a recourse approach a penalty in the objective function is generated when the solution does not satisfy the random constraint. Here the penalty is the transfer cost. The expected transfer cost is where is the expected transfer cost. The third group of objective functions is to minimize the number of nurses in the groups of specialities in the hospital The fourth group of objective functions is to minimize the number of physicians in the groups of specialities in the hospital 5.6. The final model The final model is expressed as the following multiple objective stochastic program 5.7. Conclusion To solve the above multiple objective program, we need to transform it into an equivalent mathematical program. This transformation must be done following the problem hypotheses. In the next chapter, we will review these hypotheses and we will provide a suitable transformation of the program (P) into its certainty equivalent program. Chapter 6 The certainty equivalent program 6.1. Introduction The program (P) is a stochastic program as it presents two stochastic constraints (P.5) and (P.6) and a multiple objective program as it has several objective functions to minimize. To solve a multiple objective stochastic program, we need to transform it into its certainty equivalent program, under predefined approaches. In the next sections and using a chance constrained approach for the constraint (P.5), a discretization technique for the constraint (P.6) and a goal programming approach to deal with the two objective functions (P.3), and (P.4), we are going to build such a certainty equivalent program to the program (P). 6.2. Chance constrained approach The chance constrained approach transforms the random constraint into a deterministic constraint by considering as feasible solution those satisfying the uncertain constraints with a predefined level of probability [4]. Therefore, under a chance constrained approach, the following stochastic linear constraint where , and are random variables, will be transformed into the following deterministic constraint where is fixed level of probability. It means that a feasible solution must satisfy the uncertain constraints for all scenarios with a probability of occurrence higher than . The constraint (P.5) expresses the satisfaction of the demand on primary health care specialties (the demand on these specialties cannot be transferred to another hospital). It is difficult and not justified to satisfy the demand for all scenarios and especially scenarios with a small probability of occurrence. In the following, we propose a chance constrained approach to deal with the constraint (P.5). Therefore, the demand on the primary health care specialties Ar must be satisfied with a given fixed probability level as follows (3) The constraint (3) is a chance constraint. Using the model hypotheses, the random daily demands are normally distributed with a mean of and standard deviation of . Note that, Then, we can rewrite the chance constraint (3) as follows 6.3. Discretization approach We must satisfy almost surely the constraint (P.6). In stochastic programming, the normal distribution is approximated by a discrete distribution and then the constraint (P.6) can be rewritten as follows: The total recourse cost and the monthly transfer cost for secondary health care specialities are transformed using the discretization of the normal distribution of demands as follows: 6.4. Goal programming approach Charnes and Cooper [5] are the first to introduce the goal programming approach which is essentially used to transform multiple objective linear program into a linear program. This transformation consists on these steps: First, to fix a target values for some or all objectives (called also goals) Second, to transform the objective functions to constraints and third minimizing the difference between objective functions value and these goals. Using a goal programming approach, the following objective functions can be transformed to constraints as follows where and are the negative and the positive difference, respectively, between the fixed goals and the achievement , and the new objective function to optimize is expressed as follows where and are weights of the negative and the positive deviation, respectively. The objective functions (P.3) and (P.4) minimize the number of nurses and physicians in each hospital. As the actual number of nurses and physicians can not be reduced, a goal programming approach is used to deal with objectives (P.3) and (P.4) where goals must be equal to the number of nurses and physicians already working in hospitals. Let us denote by and the number of nurses and physicians, respectively, who already work on the specialty in the hospital. We denote by and the goals for the objective functions (P.3) and (P.4), respectively, and are expressed as follows where is the number of nurses in shortage in the group of specialties in the hospital, is the number of nurses in excess in the group of specialties in the hospital, is the number of physicians in shortage in the group of specialties in the hospital and is the number of physicians in excess in the group of in the hospital. From these goal constraints the additional cost that gives monthly salary of new nurses and physicians is as follows: where is the nurse salary per month in the group of specialty in the hospital and is the physician salary per month in the group of specialty in the hospital. The monthly salary of nurses and physicians who work in hospitals is fixed. Now, as all objective functions represent yearly expenses, we propose to combine all cost objectives which are the yearly transfer cost, the yearly cost of creating and managing new beds and the yearly salary of new nurses and new physicians, into a single objective function expressed as follows: 6.5. The certainty equivalent Finally, under a chance constrained approach and a goal programming approach, the certainty equivalent program to the multiple objective stochastic program (P) is expressed as follows: (CE) 6.6. Conclusion The chance constrained and the goal programming approaches are used to generate the certainty equivalent program. Their use is motivated by the problem hypotheses. In the next chapter, we are going to test the model using real data from Rashid hospital. Chapter 7 The experimental study In this chapter, we discuss the results obtained by the previously presented model for hospital bed capacity planning using data from Rashid hospital. The data was obtained from the administration of the hospital and is related to a recent period (2009-2011). The quality of results here is highly linked to the quality of the input data. We are going in the following to report some of the data given to us as well as the model output. 7.1. Model parameters From the Rashid hospital we collected data related to the following parameters: Number of patients / specialty New admissions/ day Discharges / day Stay of every patient Number of Physicians / specialty Number of physicians / team Number of teams / specialty Number of hours worked by each physician Number of patients assigned to each team / day Number of nurses / specialty Number of beds / specialty A description of the system of operation of each specialty. In this document we cannot disclose the information that was given to us. We refer the reader to the manuals that the hospital published yearly and that are related to his yearly activity. 7.2. Lingo 12.0 To solve the linear programming (CE), we used the commercial software Lingo 12.0. Recently Lingo was ranked by INFORMS (www.informs.org) as one of the most valuable package for linear and nonlinear mathematical programming problems. For the mixed integer linear program (CE), Lingo uses a modified Branch and Bound algorithm [17]. 7.3. Hospital beds The Rashid hospital must have 467 beds in the total. It means that 15 supplementary beds must be added to the hospital. The number of optimal beds in each speciality is presented in the following table: Specialty Current number of beds Optimal PSYCHIATRY 46 46 CARDIOLOGY 74 74 GASTRO 9 9 GEN.SURGERY 84 84 HEMATOLOGY 4 4 IDU 23 23 RESPIRATORY 22 22 NEUROSURGERY 39 44 TRAUMA 104 114 GERIATRIC 47 47 TOTAL 452 467 Table 1: number of optimal beds Only two specialities require additional beds. These specialities are the Neurosurgery where 5 beds must be added and the trauma speciality which requires 10 additional beds. This difference between the optimal number of beds and the current beds is also represented with the following histogram: 7.4. Nurses The Rashid hospital needs to hire 3 additional nurses to the hospital to cover the demand. The optimal number of nurses per specialty is represented in the following table: Spec. Current number of Nurses Optimal PSYCHIATRY 12 14 CAR

Genetic Engineering: DNA Testing and Social Control :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

DNA Testing and Social Control    Pragmatism is the name of the game when it comes to taking away freedom. The public tends to be against any attempt to curtail civil liberties across the board. It is standard practice, however, to for the government to violate the rights of certain groups in the name of public safety or to fight crime. This is what is happening with the government collection of DNA samples.    The state of New York announced on August 5 that it intends to collect DNA samples from every person in prison, on parole, or in probation in that state for one of a specified list of crimes. Included on this list are murder, sex crimes, drug dealing, and some drug offenses. The samples will be digitized and placed on state computers. Once this database has been establish, police will be able to search it in order to find a match with evidence found at crime scene.    New York is not alone in doing this. All 50 states maintain a DNA database of some type. Mostly though it is only individuals convicted of sex crimes that have their records stored. Eight states sample DNA at a level comparable to the New York proposal. In Louisiana the police actually take and keep DNA samples from any person that they arrest.    Proponents of expanding the use of DNA tests in the legal arena like to point out that these tests will exonerate truly innocent individuals. DNA tests have exonerated some wrongly imprisoned people but it is disingenuous to think this is the real reason for growing use of DNA tests. The real reason for all of this is, of course, to help prosecutors obtain more convictions. It is thus worth keeping in mind that the criminal justice system currently reflects deep class and race biases. Journalist and attorney David Cole argues persuasively in his recently published book No Equal Justice that this is no accident. Rather law enforcement, the legal system, and the prison system operate in a way that insures the disproportionate imprisonment of poor people and people of color. If the government only conducts DNA tests of people convicted of crimes, it will fortify and expand this already unfair process.    Of course one possible way to blunt these biases is to take DNA samples from absolutely everybody. This might seem Orwellian but there is a certain logic to it.

Independence in Jane Eyre Essay -- Essays Papers

Jane Eyre Essayindependence Jane Eyre, a novel written by Charlotte Bronte, is about a young girl named Jane that struggles to discover her identity. Jane’s a girl who is â€Å"unhappy, very unhappy†(23). She grows up with relatives that treat her unfairly because her diseased family was not wealthy. Jane’s uncle Mr. Reed had reminded his wife and family to consider Jane as their own, but in contrast she experienced physical abuse by her aunt and cousin John. â€Å"John Reed knocked me down and my aunt shut me up in the red-room...†(23), the abuse that Jane experienced impacted her young soul, but also helped her grow into a stronger person. Unlike her cousins, Jane’s childhood was unpleasant because â€Å"...I have no father or mother, brothers or sister...†(23). Years later, Jane goes to Lowood institution where she succeeds and becomes a school teacher. From there, Jane meets Mr. Rochester who turns out to be the love of her life. Throughout the novel the readers se e a dependent girl transform into an independent young lady that overcomes all her tribulations. Charlotte Bronte allows us to trace Jane‘s character. While at Gateshead, Jane is a dependent young girl learning and yearning to be independent. Jane acknowledges that without Mrs. Reed’s assistance of financial issues and disciplinary actions, she wouldn’t be able to survive. â€Å"Benefactress!...They all called Mrs. Reed my benefactress;†, here Jane declares she knows who's responsible for raising her. Jane’s independency...

Direct Digital Democracy :: Technology Government Papers

Direct Digital Democracy The central question of this paper is whether or not the rise of the Internet – and, in general, new communications technology – alters â€Å"the limits of the human capacity for self-government.† My answer to this question is no. Advancements in communications technology, no matter how significant or revolutionary they may at first seem, ultimately have no fundamental effect on man’s literal capacity to govern himself. The Internet, like the television, the telephone, and the transatlantic telegraph before that, all have one basic thing in common: each is a tool and not a force of nature. Each must be comprehended, manipulated and applied by an individual, using his own rational faculty and according to his own devices. The technology itself – although complex – is fundamentally no different than the spear, the wheel, the stirrup, the combustible engine, or the space shuttle. Technology does not change man’s fundamental nature, but it does affect how well he lives, what he does, where he goes, and how quickly he can get there. Will the Internet alter the American political system? Indeed it will, and to a large extent already has, by facilitating the work of current government officials and representatives within our present system of representative democracy. But will the Internet revolution drive the American system of government toward direct digital democracy – a â€Å"third transformation† as significant as the transformation from Athenian direct democracy to American representative democracy? Most empirical evidence suggests it will not. Normatively speaking, political scientists ought to retain James Madison’s view that the purpose of gove rnment is to prevent tyranny of the majority and to constrain evil. Therefore, contemporary politicians should openly oppose measures that seek to alter our existing institutions in an effort to make them more conducive to direct democracy, whether digital or not. This Madisonian view of government is neither the sole standard of government in contemporary American society, nor is it the frontrunner among competing political ideologies. I would argue that the mythology of liberalism or populism is accepted as just and revered by most average Americans. In the 2002 Presidential Election, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in the Electoral College vote, thus winning the presidency, but lost the overall popular American vote by a significant margin.

Employment-at-Will Doctrine Essay

Jennifer is a recent college graduate who has been hired by an accounting firm. In the short time she has been employed with the firm she has discovered a number of behaviors she feels could be inappropriate regarding the employment-at-will doctrine as well as some liabilities with the employer. She has brought this up only because she feels obligated to report the behaviors’ in which she has witnessed and wants to ensure she won’t be held liable for not informing the management team (LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). Jennifer identified four categories of questionable behavior which are 1) skills, competence and abilities, 2) management, behavior, and performance, 3) labor laws, and 4) policies and procedures. The each of the four categories mentioned above will be discussed in how they apply to the Employment-At-Will Doctrine as well as the liability of the employer. Skills, Competence, and Abilities In the first scenario, the employee isn’t able to learn the necessary computer applications for the job in which she was hired even after a few months of training and support. When the supervisor tries to find out what the problem is, the employee consistently tells her boss that she is â€Å"a good worker and a genius† and she goes on to say that â€Å"he does not â€Å"appreciate her† (LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). A legal and binding doctrine known as the Employment-At-Will Doctrine gives the company grounds to terminate this employee. The Employment-At-Will Doctrine allows companies a broad spectrum to terminate employees â€Å"for a good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all† (Halbert, T. , & Ingulli, E. , p46, 2012). The same doctrine provides the employee the freedom to leave the job without notice, for any reason, good or bad. The employee doesn’t have to have a reason at all to leave the position in which they were hired for, they can just leave under the same doctrine. We could even change the scenario slightly in stating this particular employee could actually be doing a good job or maybe the employee could argue they were doing no better or worse than other people who had the same job responsibilities therefore resulting in a reasonable person coming to the conclusion the supervisor or management was picking on that particular employee but even considering those sight changes to the scenario, the company would still be in their rights to terminate the employee under the Employment-At-Will Doctrine (Zins, 2012). The issue at hand here is the employee in question is not performing in the way the company had hoped and there has been sufficient time provided in the employer’s mind for the individual to learn and become proficient in the necessary tasks. Management, Behavior and Performance In this particular situation the employee occasionally burst into a rage when criticized or questioned concerning the behavior of frequent tardiness. When her boss and other staff members identify this behavior and verify it’s a regular occurrence they attempt to address the issue and remind her of the company’s late policy. The employee’s response is that she â€Å"knows her rights and what to do† if she is wrongfully discharged. She also goes on to say she â€Å"took a business law class in undergrad school and it taught her everything she needed to know about exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine and wrongful discharge in violation of public policy† (LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). In this scenario it almost seems like the employee was trying to belittle her supervisors or threaten them to not pursue the tardiness issue. It’s believed by this author, she was trying to draw attention away from the inappropriate behavior of being late which is what preempted the discussion in the first place. As identified in first scenario, the Employment-At-Will Doctrine gives the company the ability to terminate the employee for any reason. The company would be able to ensure a quick processing of this particular termination if they could show that all the times this particular employee was late, was documented in writing. This should always be done in any given case of tardiness or un-authorized absence. The Employment-At-Will Doctrine means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except when the reason was illegal or for no reason without incurring legal liability (At-will employment – overview, 2013). Under the doctrine, the employer can change the terms of the employee’s employment with no notice and the company would still have the right to terminate the employee. An example, although it may seem unfair would be if the employee was hired at a certain amount and the employer wanted to reduce that amount, the employer could legally do so without violating any law or rights of the employee. Once the employer reduced the pay, they could still terminate the employee and not be in risk of breaking any laws or violating anyone rights (At-will employment – overview, 2013). Labor and Laws In this scenario the employee takes an un-authorized day off from work to observe her religious holiday. This holiday falls on a day that is during â€Å"tax season† and the day off occurred during an incredibly busy period for the company. Prior to this time frame the company announced to all of its employees they were not allowed to take off during this time-frame unless they had prior management approval. Also, there is no labor union for accountants so the union helping the employee in this matter would not have done any good. Another issue with this employee is she talks to her co-workers during lunch breaks and sometimes during regular work hours, encouraging them to organize and form a union to â€Å"protect themselves† (LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). The company has to be careful in this situation because an employee does have the right to observe religious holidays. The behavioral issue here is the blatant disregard for the company and fellow colleagues. The management team announced that any time off during this period would require prior approval from the management and due to the fact the employee used the religious holiday as her excuse to justify her actions, the actions went against management direction so at a minimum the employee should be reprimanded and written-up. More than likely if she had used the direction recommended by the company if they needed time off during this time, the management team would have more than likely approved her request and then all would have been fine but it appeared the employee intentionally disobeyed the policy and used her religion as a justifiable excuse. As far as the discussion she’s making with other employee’s concerning the union implementation as long as she’s having these iscussions during non-paid breaks, during non-paid lunch or after working hours she is not in violation of any policies, laws or regulations. In fact, in 1935 workers were guaranteed the right to organize and form unions and they could not be terminated as punishment for doing so but at the same time workers should respect the employer enough to not have these discussions during the times when work is needing to be done (Halbert, T. , & Ingulli, E. , p49, 2012). New state labor legislation was enacted in 2012 that reports the most active areas of state legislation. Those areas reported came from child labor, equal employment opportunity, human trafficking, immigration legislation, independent contractors, wages paid, time off, unfair labor practices, and worker privacy. The factual information involving the areas mentioned above along with 20 additional areas was the result of the new enactment and there are additional guidelines that businesses can turn to regarding some of those areas (Fitzpatrick J. Jr. , & Perine, J. L. , 2013). Policies and Procedures This last scenario involved a consensual relationship between an employee and a supervisor where the employee’s supervisor consistently asks the employee out on dates; and initially the employee refuses but later accepts the offer after talking to a girlfriend about the situation whereas the employee is encouraged by the friend to accept the offers. The employee identifies that during her â€Å"New Employee Orientation†, the facilitator informed the entire group of new employees, of the company policy which prohibited employees from dating supervisors. The employee also remembers being given an employee handbook with the written policies which also forbid such behavior but never-the-less, the employee and her supervisor still continued with their consensual relationship (LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). In this type of behavior the company has every right to terminate both the employee and the supervisor which is exactly what should be done. The Employment-At-Will Doctrine gives the company the authority to do so and if a large number of company personnel are aware of the relationship it will look bad on the company if they don’t handle the situation in that way. It could lead employees into believing that company supervisors are above the law and are not required to answer to the same policies that other employees are required to adhere to. The appropriate measures were given to prevent this type of behavior from happening; the employees were given the policy during the New Employee Orientation as well as each employee was also given a copy of the policy by receiving an employee handbook. If the supervisor had conducted the behavior intentionally to get the employee terminated then the employee would have a legitimate argument to appeal if the supervisor wasn’t terminated as well. This would be one of the exceptions to the Employment-At-Will Doctrine. The behavior on the part of the employee and the supervisor in this case was unacceptable and the appropriate action the company would need to take would be to terminate both employees’ (At-will employment – overview, 2013). Conclusion Employment-at-will basically means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason and doesn’t have to justify their actions unless the action were illegal or the reason feel under one of the common law exceptions. There are three common law exceptions which are public policy, implied contract and covenant of good faith. Public policy is the most widely recognized common law exception, and it protects employees against adverse employment actions that violate a public interest. Examples of some of these might be 1) to refuse to commit perjury in a trial, 2) reporting an employer’s fraudulent accounting practices and 3) joining the National Guard or performing jury duty (At-will employment – overview, 2013). An implied contract may be legitimate just from a supervisor making an oral statement or an employer representative. An employer representative can be anyone who is known to be knowledgeable about the company and its employment history. An example could be if someone stated, â€Å"We need good people around here, you’ve got a job for life! † or â€Å"We don’t dismiss employees without giving them a chance to correct their behavior†. These are some examples where an exception to the Employment-At-Will Doctrine might apply (At-will employment – overview, 2013). An implied covenant of good faith has varied from requiring just cause for termination to prohibiting terminations that are made in bad faith or motivated with intent to cause harm. An example of bad faith terminations might include an employer firing an older employee so the company wouldn’t have pay that employee retirement benefits or terminating a salesman just before they would be eligible for a large commission (At-will employment – overview, 2013).

Atticus Finch †To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

Throughout chapters 1-17 in To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is shown as a very courageous and non-judgemental person. At times in the book he is also a very caring father but he can be strict at times. His name, Atticus is also a very polite man and always shows courtesy to the people he meets. Many people that live in Maycomb know Atticus is a gentleman and is very polite. He also has a conscience when he says that if he didn’t defend a Negro then he would be ashamed and wouldn’t be able to hold his head up in town. Harper Lee portrayed Atticus as a very courageous man. Atticus is courageous because he takes up a case no one else dares to take, the Tom Robinson case. He was willing to risk his honour and dignity to help the poorly accused black man. Although he gets a lot of abuse from various people, for example Mrs Dubose when she says, â€Å"Atticus is a nigger-lover†, he still doesn’t step down from the case and ignores people. He even put his Children in the way when Scout nearly gets in to a fight against Cecil Jacobs when Cecil Jacobs says that â€Å"Scout Finch’s daddy defends niggers†. Scout even takes abuse from her own family when her cousin, Francis, says that Atticus is a â€Å"nigger-lover† which really puts Scout on edge and she starts a fight with Francis. Atticus is also a very non-judgemental person and will always look at things from both sides of the story. In chapter 3 Atticus says, â€Å"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it†. Here, Atticus is saying that you can’t judge something until you see things from their point of view, until you see what they’re experiencing. Atticus is a very caring father but a strict one too. He is very caring when Scout comes home from her first day in school and complains that Miss Caroline (the teacher) doesn’t want Atticus and Scout reading together any more. Atticus decides to make a deal with Scout, â€Å"If you’ll concede the necessity of going to school, we’ll go on reading every night just as we always have†. This shows that he cares about Scout concerns and decides to make a deal to make her happy. Although caring he is also a strict father and when Jem loses her cool and destroys Mrs Dubose’s flowers he makes Jem go back and apologies. To do something like this to a sick lady is inexcusable. I strongly advise you to go down and have a talk with Mrs Dubose†. As well as a good father he is also a very polite and well-mannered man. For example, in the court trial with Mayella, Atticus wouldn’t call her Mayella but Miss Mayella but Mayella took it like Atticus was mocking her. Judge Taylor had to calm her down by saying, â€Å"Mr Finch is always courteous to everybody†. This is saying that Atticus is always polite and courteous to everyone he meets. He is also very polite to Mrs Dubose even though Mrs Dubose shout insults to him every time he walks by. Atticus would sweep off his hat, wave gallantly to her and say, ‘Good evening, Mrs Dubose! You look like a picture this evening. ’† This shows that even though Mrs Dubose is horrid to him, he still says hello and is polite to her. Atticus is also very aware of his own reputation and tries to be morally good as much as he can be. He does this by helping Tom Robinson in a case they would probably lose. Scout asks him why he is defending Tom Robinson and Atticus replies, â€Å"The main one is that if I didn’t, I couldn’t hold my head up in town†. This shows he has morals that he follows so that he can have respect not for others but himself as well. Throughout chapters 1-17 Atticus is shown as a courageous person. As well as being courageous he is non-judgemental especially when he says, â€Å"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it†. Atticus is also portrayed as a caring father when Scout is having trouble at school; Atticus is there to support her. Harper Lee has overall made Atticus a very polite, wise and respected man in To Kill A Mockingbird.