Information Technology logical security Essay

Logical data security is the guarding of information against unauthorized access while at the same time making sure that their integrity is guaranteed. If logical security is laid down in a shoddy way, then it would cause risks and its vulnerability may lead to the compromise of the data. System intrusion is one of the vulnerabilities for logical IT security. Software bugs may not all be eliminated by system administrators or programmers (Perry, 2006). The intruders therefore use the bugs to find holes and hack into system computers or server computers. These bugs can be in the form of buffer overflows, unconsidered inputs, and race conditions. Buffer overflows attack is extra information that can overwrite the actual data in the buffer and this data could be degrading the data integrity of the actual data. Race conditions attack is multiple processes access and use same data concurrently and end result is that one process may lose copying correct data since the other process may have changed the data. A system configuration is another issue that normally forms another form of system intrusion. Most systems have default manufacturers configurations. Customers find it easy to use since root/administrator passwords are usually empty/blank. If administrators overlook re-configuration of access controls, then the system can be intruded into even through the network. With the advent of technologies that can eavesdrop at the moving traffic, there has been the creation of sniffer software which are use to monitor the traffic. Sniffing unsecured traffic is poison for logical security. A sniffer can also be used legitimately or illegitimately to capture data transmitted on a network. It can be illegitimately used when the network router reads data packets then determining its intended destination in the network. A router may have a sniffer program that reads data in the packet and can see its source and destination then sends it to unintended destinations due to intrusion mechanisms in the network such as use of software bugs. Control on key directories for data should be factored in access standards to avoid unauthorized access. Limiting or eliminating access to everyone is important therefore restricting use of removable media such as flash disks and floppy disks for confidential information (Cole, & Krutz, 2005). Data integrity should be observed to ensure information stored is as original especially through performing synchronization from time to time to take care of bugs such as race conditions. Confidential information should be encrypted especially that which is sensitive and so done appropriately. Forgetting to back-up and store data on a regular schedule would run organization into crisis especially if the computer system breaks down, especially if the hard disk holding the crucial data crashes. Output devices such as scanners and printers on the network assigned for confidential information should at all time be under monitoring by use of monitoring utility software. Software for local systems should be legal. Vendors face the risk of software piracy for example illegal copying of their software. Organizations should ensure that they install software that has been licensed. Licensed software is beneficial since their updates and patches could easily be attained from the Internet (Perry, 2006). Open source software give users advantage of using them at their own disposal since they are freeware and don’t require license to install them. Their safety is questionable and may not be guaranteed, they could be prone to bugs as they are easily customizable. Pirated operating systems which access the Internet are dangerous and pose danger to the applications installed on it. Such systems can be in risk of being virus infected or may acquire worms and Trojans. Therefore organizations should ensure licenses bought are used for the OS and renewal of the licenses done at end of term for each license, this then will allow recommended updates and patches for the operating system (Cole, & Krutz, 2005). Building security levels on user data is crucial since it ensures confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data. The different levels would be such as access to workstations and desktop applications, access to computer servers and data, access to business bespoke applications. Access built only for authenticated persons using password and ID’s. Password policies should be in place such as allowing strong passwords of more than six characters, allow changing password on regularly basis say after 3 months, one password per one user ID. Password sharing among employees could cause malicious use of a user’s account by another user and this will be untraceable and unsuitable, users should therefore be formally notified their role in user ID and password protection for their user accounts. Web security attack is common in the cyber cafes and computer systems always accessing the Internet. Some of the HTTP (Hyper Text Transport protocol) vulnerabilities include cross-site scripting attacker gains control of the scripts location header and redirects the scripts. The second HTTP vulnerability is the web cache poisoning that allows attack websites visited by many users (Contos, Crowell, Derodeff, & Cole, 2007). The attacker redirects the URL of the website to the IP address of his computer. Web vulnerability is the cross-user defacement attacks where a website maybe seen defaced by a user and at this time attacker is stealing or resetting cookies sessions. Network infrastructure laid without software firewalls spell doom for logical security in the network. This is so because intruders can use software for maliciousness such as phishing where the attacker or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and to the recipient the site appears as genuine but then the attacker will then manipulate or steal recipient’s credentials such as login details or financial information. This kind of masquerade is also called spoofing (Hoffer, Prescott, & McFadden, 2008). Local systems that have their firewalls disabled on system services provided by Operating systems such as Microsoft windows is a threat to security. All the time, firewalls should be set to enabled state and exceptions created for required software applications in the network. Viruses are programs or codes that can alter other programs functionality or render another program useless. Inadvertently leaving virus infected computer systems still connected on the network pose danger of infecting other computer systems in the same network through self-propagating viruses or Trojans or worms. Viruses can also be attained through e-mails. Some chain e-mails sent to users have attachments that have viruses attached to them. They infect a computer system once they are opened or downloaded to the computer hard disk. Distribution of such viruses could also be through the same network and media devices such as external hard disks and flash disks. Repudiation is the situation where one is able to deny being partisan to information manipulation. This is vulnerable for the data confidentiality and integrity of information. The best way to guarantee perpetrators don’t walk scot free is by ensuring data access controls are well defined such as event logs for applications and strong holding policies such as one user password per one user ID, remote monitoring the network activities and data sent and received and saving security logs for local system among other policies very important for non-repudiation.

Green Organization

Green organization and its recruitment policies Introduction If the recruiters are thinking of creating a congruent and authentic employment brand which can help your organization attract, retain and repel employees, there comes the relevance of the word â€Å"green recruiting†. Recruiting, the most important function of HR, which entails attracting the right person for the right job at the right time, is changing its color. Organizations are trying to tap every bit of opportunity, wanting to look different and make a good impression, so that the right candidates with the environment friendly bent of mind apply for jobs. Companies large and small are seeing a significant increase in the ROI of their recruitment and retention programs by creating an employment brand. One deliverable of a significant employment brand is green recruiting practices. This is not a â€Å"flavor of the month† or a new concept. Fortune 500 companies have been doing it for years. Continuously hearing words like eco-friendly, green, environment etc for the past few years, even the young generation has also attracted towards this concept. So they are also looking for an organization which is environment friendly. In June, 2007 Dr John Sullivan wrote, â€Å"While candidates of all generations have begun evaluating potential employers based on their â€Å"greenness† few in recruiting have leveraged this hot topic in recruitment communication and activities†. He goes on to say, â€Å"Individual recruiters need to make the firm’s environmental stance a critical element of their sales pitch to potential applications and candidates†. The time has come for all employers to assess the degree of ‘greenness’ in which they operate. So, all the companies now a days are trying to portray themselves as eco friendly companies. Organizations like Google and Timberland have made concerted efforts in portraying themselves as environment friendly organizations, having programs that support environment issues. Such programs include: extending $5,000 subsidies for employees who buy hybrid cars, dining facilities that serve organic food, charitable contributions to organizations that fight global warming, on- site composting of food waste and using fuel and solar power etc. Wipro have made concerted efforts in portraying themselves as environment friendly organizations, having programs like launching a new range of eco-friendly desktops and laptops. The Wipro Greenware range is compliant with RoHS (Restriction of hazardous substances) directive, thereby reducing e-waste. Why green recruiting? It’s good to be Green. That's what a lot of companies are finding, as they integrate environmentalism and sustainability into their corporate culture. Not only is environmentalism good for the community and the planet, it can help employees reduce waste and operate more efficiently. Companies tout their environmental initiatives in annual reports, core values, community activities and even advertising. Yet, companies often fail to leverage their environmental efforts in one key area: and that's recruiting, meaning they are missing a key opportunity – as studies show a commitment to environmentalism and sustainability can be a factor the most desirable candidates weigh when choosing an employer. ? Studies have shown that many Gen Y and college grads are concerned, or at least conscious, about how their behavior impacts the environment. What they consume, how it is packaged, what they drive and where they live are conscious choices that are made every day. In the context of employment branding, green information should be positioned appropriately on the company website, career page or in a recruitment video. This approach can be a significant differentiator for a company that is interested in attracting top talent. There is no argument that the demand for sustainable practices is increasing. †¢ 80% of current employees want to work for a â€Å"good company† (one that has a good reputation for environmental responsibility) and this percentage is expected to grow to 90% in the next 10 years. (Corporate Environmental Behavior and the Impact on Brand Values – Tandberg, 2007. †¢ 77% of recent MBA graduates would forego some income to work for a firm with a credible sustainability strategy. (Stanford Graduate School Study, 2007). †¢ Companies that use sustainable business practices are approximately 3% more profitable than those that don’t. (empirical analysis 2007 – Innovest Strategic Advisors. ) ? College graduates are increasingly seeking a company that is environment friendly. According to the survey commissioned by Maynard, mass based on-line board’s decision for college students, 80% of them opined that they are interested in a job that has a strong and positive influence on the environment. Many institutes now offer a dedicated discipline, called â€Å"sustainability†, in the US in order to cater to the needs of student’s overarching demand for fusing business with environment. Things have to a point where jaw- dropping salaries are banished to the back burner and â€Å"going green† has soared in importance, while graduates figure out their employers to be. ? Global candidates are deeply fascinated about it. Countries like Germany, Australia, and Finland are very much attached to the eco- friendly concept. So, if the companies want to recruit global candidates, they must do much more to reach the expectation of these students when it comes to environment. ? Company’s reputation can be increased by being eco friendly. People would prefer to buy the products sold by socially responsible company. Suppliers may prefer doing business with such companies. New alliances and partnerships they can make with other organization to reduce pollution and to protect the Mother Nature. Greenest companies in India A survey conducted by BT- AC Nielsen ORG-MARG, ranked Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) the greenest company followed by Reliance Industries. Overall, the oil and petroleum sector was considered the greenest sector in India. BPCL, Castrol India and HPCL are other companies in this sector that were rated green companies in the survey. The private sector companies were in a majority (13 out of 20) in the list of Top 20 greenest companies in India. India’s software companies are also considered green companies. IT companies are allowed to set up their offices within the city limits. This is because they do not harm the environment. Johnson and Johnson Ltd. , Chillibreeze, IBM, LG Electronics, PNB, Tata Motors and Hero Honda Motors are some of the other green companies in India. These companies not only emphasized upon one another the importance of adopting green technologies, but also of addressing the issues of safety, health, environment and social obligations. So, to implement all these green practices companies should train their employees properly. Through training, to some extend they can make their employees follow go green slogan. But if they don’t have real interest in this concept, these companies can’t make it a great success. That is the reason why they should give more importance to green recruiting which will enable them to obtain right kind of a person for right job and for right organization. Steps to Implement Green Recruiting ? Identify candidate decision criteria: Start by holding focus groups at industry conferences to identify what â€Å"green† factors would be important to individuals seeking new jobs. Next, ask candidates during interviews and on the Web site to list their decision criteria. During orientation, ask those who accepted jobs what criteria they used to make the decision. Finally, contact those who rejected your offers three to six months down the line to identify positives and negatives. Use this information to modify your recruiting processes and focus. Benchmark: Search the Web, benchmark with college recruiters and work with recruiting consultants to identify the best practices of other firms. Use this competitive analysis to gauge your success and to plan your future actions. ? Your Web site: Make sure that both â€Å"what you do† and the results of those efforts are prominent on your corporate careers Web site. Include your recycling statistics, as well as whether you are carbon neutral, limit greenhouse gases or win environmental awards. Include narrative or video profiles of your environmentally conscious employees. If your company policies allow, link your corporate jobs site on major (but primarily nonpolitical) environmental Web sites. ? Be talked about. If you have a strong environmental record, it's important to get â€Å"written up† in business, professional and industry publications as well as in newspapers and on TV. Work with the PR department to identify which of your practices are most likely to be appealing to the media and designate an individual to be available for interviews. ? Recruitment advertising. Advertise in magazines that candidates who are sensitive to the environment are likely to read. Highlight in your recruitment ads a few â€Å"eye-catching† facts and any environmental awards you might have won. If you use brochures or paper recruiting materials, make sure they're from recyclable stock and that it says so on the document. ? Job descriptions. Make sure that, where possible, job descriptions for high-volume hiring positions include responsibilities for minimizing negative environmental impacts. This is critical because if job seekers don't see being environmentally friendly integrated into â€Å"every job† at the company, they might see your â€Å"green recruiting† as merely a PR effort. If you're really serious, include knowledge of environmental impacts under the skills-required section of your job descriptions. ? Interviews. Provide managers with â€Å"green† fact sheets to use during interviews. If you are really aggressive, provide candidates with a side-by-side comparison showing how your firm's environmental record is superior to other firms they might be considering. ? Sourcing. One of the best ways to strengthen your environmental image is to hire lots of environmentally friendly employees who can spread your â€Å"green† story through word of mouth. Have your recruiting team identify the sources that produce the highest-quality environmentally friendly candidates. Source at environmental organizations (i. e. , Sierra Club). Also, recruit at environmental events and use subscription lists from green publications for e-mail and direct-mail recruiting. ? Employer referrals. Having your employees spreading the word will help both recruiting and product sales. If you have the resources, proactively seek out employees who are highly visible in environmental circles and ask them specifically to talk up your firm, to seek out candidates and to provide you with names. Awards. Winning awards for excellence is always a major element of building an employment brand, so obviously winning â€Å"environmental† awards should be a major element of your strategy. ? Advisory group. Ask the advice of six to eight environmentally friendly employees about measuring the quality of the message you are sending and how to reach and convince more a pplicants of your strong â€Å"green† record. ? Products. Obviously, applicants want to know that the products they are helping to produce are environmentally friendly. This means putting pressure on product advertising and marketing to include in your product ads and packaging the fact that your products are eco-friendly. In some industries, how you treat vendors and outsourced work can be important (i. e. , Starbucks, Nike). ? Value statements. Make sure that your corporate goals, values and even corporate business objectives include environmental elements. ? Annual report. Because some applicants take the time to read your annual report, make sure it includes sections that highlight your environmental record and the fact that you recruit environmentally friendly employees. If your firm uses bio-diesel fuel, pays fair market value to suppliers, is energy-efficient or if it buys â€Å"carbon offsets,† highlight these selling points. ? Employee benefits. Consider adding holistic health options, paid time to volunteer for environmental causes, matching donations to green causes, and support for alternative transportation options to your benefit package. ? Reward criteria. Include this factor in the performance-appraisal system for all employees. Obviously, use it as a hiring criterion, but also use it as a critical element in promotions, bonuses and pay increases. Develop metrics and rewards. Because whatever you measure improves and adding rewards to the equation makes the behavior improve even faster, your green-recruiting effort must have metrics and rewards tied to it. Some of the metrics you want to include are the percentage of candidates aware of your strong environmental record, the number who rejects offers because of a poor record and the percentage of new hires who say your environmental record was one of their top-five reasons for accepting the offer. Hold post-exit interviews with your top performers to identify whether environmental factors contributed to their exit. Benefits†¦ When your employees volunteer an environmental clean up effort, getting their picture in the local media serves a dual purpose. Employees receive a form of public recognition for their efforts, and it creates a positive public image. This will also add to the company’s corporate social responsibility practices. Retention efforts can be improved by including creative benefits that specifically address green concerns. Some examples include holistic health benefits, paid time to volunteer for environmental issues, financial support for alternative transportation options such as bus passes or rebates for purchasing hybrid cars, organic snack options in the employee break area, and matching employee contributions to environmental causes. By doing so, company can achieve goodwill as well as can retain and attract employees through its unique benefits offered to them. Conclusion Employees are searching for an authentic work experience where their personal values are in alignment with the organization’s values. Companies that do not give consideration to being green, or just provide â€Å"green washing† lip service may be passed over by potential candidates who don’t wish to be associated with that kind of an organization. To know, whether your company is exactly working on so called ‘green atmosphere’, following questions need to be answered: †¢ Do you have an environmental policy? Is it posted your career site? †¢ Do you have a recycling program? If so are you tracking (and communicating) the amount of money you save and landfill space you have freed up? Are you using recyclable stock on your recruiting materials? †¢ Is sustainability one of our core organizational values? If so, is it listed on your website? †¢ Have you built in any environmental accountability into your performance appraisal system? †¢ Do you incentivize employees in any way to support your environmental policies? †¢ If your company has a reward system involving r edeemable points, do you offer a green option, such as pledged donations to an earth friendly cause? It is necessary for HR Managers to include firm’s eco-friendly messages with the firm’s recruitment process and employer brand. If your business can brag about its environmental savvy, be sure to tell applicants. And don’t just rely on your Web site. Get quoted in articles about environmental initiatives, Use word-of-mouth, asking employees to spread the environmental message, Place job advertisements in magazines read by your target applicants, Provide environmental talking points to emphasize during the interview process, Win environmental awards and attend environmental conferences. Green recruiting helps the company to have its on identity in its recruitment practices when compared to all the other companies. Finally, just as with other goals, the only way to know the long term effects of going green on the company’s employment brand is to review appropriate HR metrics including effects on recruitment, retention, employee satisfaction, and productivity. Reference: 1. Bauer N Talya, Smith Aiman Lynda (1996). Green Career choices: The influence of ecological stance on recruiting, Journal of Business and Psychology. Retrieved July 14, 2010 from http://www. springerlink. com/content/p7716gg4715017j0/ Felton O Brien (2007). Debating Green Recruiting. HR Executive online. Retrieved July 22, 2010 from http://www. hreonline. com/HRE/story. jsp? storyId=46706256 Huff Charlotte (2007). Green Recruiting Helps Bring in Top Talent. Workforce Management Online. Retrieved July 20,2010 from http:// www. workforce. com/section/06/feature/25/06/24/index. html Huff Charlotte (2007). Highlighting your Green. Workforce Management Online. Retrieved July 22,2010 from https://www. orkforce. com/section/06/feature/25/06/24/250626. html 5. Lizz pellet (2008). Green Recruiting: Cashing in on the Green to Enhance Your Employer branding efforts. Best practice institute. Retrieved July 15, 2010 from https://bestpracticeinstitute. org/public/doc/GreenRecruiting-CashinginontheGreentoEnhanceYourEmploymentBrandingEfforts. pdf Steere Vicki (2009). Employment brand goes green. Jobing foundation. Retrieved July 25,2010 from http ://jobingfoundation. org/2009/07/ 7. Sullivan John (2007). Steps to Implement Green Recruiting. HR Executive Online. Retrieved July 15, 2010 from http://www. hrexecutive. com/HRE/story. jsp? storyId=26541280 8. Sullivan John (2007). Green Recruiting: Building Your Environmental Employment Brand. HR Executive Online. Retieved July 17,2010 from – http://www. ere. net/2007/06/04/green-recruiting-building-your-environmental-employment-brand/ 9. http://www. careerxroads. com/news/updates/0209. asp. Retrieved July25, 2010 10. http://www. qualigence. com/Yaffe/newsletter/articles/tt/tt_121707. html. Retrieved July27, 2010

Hardware Components Essay

There are several types of hardware storage devices invented and designed to facilitate encoded and retrieved data storage in computers. Some of the examples of these storage devices include the ff. : the hard disk, floppy disk, RAM, CD ROM, and tape. Furthermore, these storage devices together with hardware component of clock speed play their distinct roles to determine the speed and speed rate of a computer (MSD, 2006). Body First, introduced in 1956 and developed during 1973, by the IBM company, the hard disk, or â€Å"hard disk drive† as mentioned, is one example of a stable and reliable secondary hardware storage device that efficiently facilitates speed. It functions as some kind of an optimal and purposeful storeroom which saves accumulated and encoded numeric and digital data, and it is also appropriate for running application programs on spinning magnet-plated platters that is performed by execution and command by the user. Hard disk drives were created for personal computer usage. It has features like audio playing, video gaming, video recording, etc (MSD, 2006). Second, the role of hard disks in determining the speed of a computer is very significant because with the use of hard disk, it can makes the access of files easier and faster as it runs or rotates. The bigger the platters or dishes used by the hard disk to run, the faster its speed and the smaller the platters, the lower the capacity of the computer to run, work, or access files faster. The number of disks in a specific computer may vary at a minimum number of 3 disks to a maximum number of 5 running disks revolving 60 per second. Most hard disk drives make use of removable cartridges while some do not. Most people create back up from the files they saved from the disk since the recent hard disk is created with such a sensitive feature. It can store data from 20 M up to 40 M (MSD, 2006). Third, a floppy disk coming in two sizes: 5 ? and 3 ? inches, is a detachable or unfixed storage device which is already obsolete. It is secondary as compared to the huge capacity of hard disk when it comes to data storage memory. The uses of floppy disks though, become popular for it is much cheaper than the cost of a hard disk. Moreover, it is more convenient to carry floppy disks wherever you go and save data for the use of backup purposes. Moreover, floppy disks make use of the delicate, magnetic and bendable disk which is film-like in color and enclosed in a protective plastic shield or case. The roles of floppy disks portray no role in determining the speed of a computer—speed is determined by the Central Processing unit and its memory rather. For practical reasons, hard disks are favored over floppy disks especially when the cost of the first (hard disks) becomes more inexpensive than the latter. Further, floppy disks are really essentially slower and more sensitive than hard disk that is why it is more prone to damage (MSD, 2006). Fourth, random access memory (RAM) is the primarily appropriate for storage of data that occurs in the computer’s memory and is stored directly at the computer’s Central Processing Unit (CPU). The two types of RAM are the SRAM and the DRAM. SRAM stands for Static RAM and the latter meaning, Dynamic RAM (DRAM). With the use of RAM, user can program the CPU to read, write, and locate data. The role of RAM is to carry out and execute calculations at high speed which is made possible by the said feature of RAM or computer memory that operates random to locate items or applications in the computer system (MC, 2008). Fifth, with the use of compact disks, the CD-ROM operates and exemplifies the use of read-only memory for sharing and sending applications like music files, games, and other multimedia files and desktop applications. The capacity of CD-ROM when it comes to data storage is up to 650 M. Recently, CD-ROMs tend to be much cheaper than other storage devices. CD-ROM is appropriate for expansion of one’s personalized computer system. In addition, CD-ROM does not play a role in determining the speed of a computer. In fact, user retrieves data slower than any other available data computer storage device in the market if the computer is not supported by CD-ROM’s â€Å"data transfer speed (MSD, 2006). † Sixth, tape is a thin strip of plastic, magnetic coated device used mainly for recording and it is known to be appropriate for secondary data storage or backup. Moreover, this tape is most appropriate for the purpose of calculations or â€Å"personal computing. † There is a no role that a tape plays in order to determine speed in a particular computer; further, data access is slower than expected together with its inconvenience for the required retrieval of data in orderly and chronological manner (MSD, 2006). Lastly, clock speed—as measured in megahertz (MHz), is the â€Å"speed of the internal clock of microprocessor. † Clock speed is appropriate for functioning in operation in the internal processing of a computer. The clock speed plays an important role in determining the speed of a computer and it affects the overall performance of the computer (MSD, 2006). Conclusion Several types of hardware storage devices are invented for data storage in computers: the hard disk, floppy disk, RAM, CD ROM, and tape. All mediums except for the floppy disks, CD-ROM, and tape play a role in determining the speed of a computer. These devices except for the other three are hardware components that determine the speed and performance of a computer.

Energy Transfer in electrical circuits Research Paper

Energy Transfer in electrical circuits - Research Paper Example Home appliances and industries transform energy into other forms to a desired form. Electric circuits are utilized for these operations. Energy is not in the form of matter that can be saved. â€Å"Energy can neither be created nor it can be destroyed, it can be changed from one form to another form† (Moan & Smith, 2007). The phrase â€Å"source of energy† or â€Å"sources of energy† is a wrong phrase as energy is impossible to create. We can only alter it from one form to another form. Battery converts chemical energy to electrical energy. Battery does not generate energy. A power plant converts chemical energy of fuel to electrical energy. Fossil fuels had converted solar energy to chemical energy (Moan & Smith, 2007). An ideal energy conversion system is that that has no losses. One form or energy is converted to the other desired form without any losses. The efficacy of such a system is 100%. It means that the ratio of inputs and outputs equal 1. Practically it is impossible to have an ideal system. A practical energy conversion system does have some losses and thus the desired output is always less than the input. In power generation, internal combustion engine are only 40% efficient. 60% of the input energy is wasted as heat energy that is undesired. If a combined cyclic plant is utilized to convert energy, 80% efficiency can be achieved, as a carefully designed heat recovery system recovers most of the thermal energy that goes to waste. In the similar manner, an electric motor does not convert all the input energy to mechanical energy, some of the energy is dissipated as heat and bearing losses. An electric bulb wastes about 95% of energy, which is dissipated in the form of heat and converts only 5% of the energy to light energy (Bbc.co.uk, 2014). There is much difference in energy and power. Energy yields power. Electrical energy is the product of electrical power and time. If electrical energy is denoted

Critical analysis of client care practices , innovation and pathways Research Paper

Critical analysis of client care practices , innovation and pathways for rewarding healthy and productive behaviour among senior - Research Paper Example This will assist to recommend possible improvement strategies which will energize the employees to achieve the organizational target. Introduction In modern organizations, worker motivation is an issue of significant concern to the human resource managers due to its close association with employee satisfaction. Consequently, global research has considerably paid attention to employee satisfaction strategies in different organizations (Aizcorbe, Moylan & Robbins, 2009: Arthur, 2000). The reason why worker motivation has garnered a lot of interest is because research has proven that satisfied workers are productive workers (Braganza, Awazu, & Desouza, 2009). Since employees form the labour resources in a business environment, there is need to seek optimal utilization of their skills and knowledge towards the development of organizational goals (Borzaga & Tortia, 2006). Different organizations adopt different employee reward strategies but the common objective is to align the employees to the business goals and objectives (Carl & Patton, 2001). In the health sector, employee satisfaction is important due to the great sacrifice that this sector requires given the existing shortage of working personnel in this sector (Damanpour, 1991: Hong Lu, While, & Barriball, 2005). Hence, rewarding productive staff, both junior and senior, would significantly increase their contribution to client service. The aim of this research is to investigate the staff reward strategies that Ghana university hospitals have employed to maintain a high morale among their staff. Both qualitative and quantitative surveys will be conducted to examine for this research to come up with research based conclusions and recommendations. Problem statement Lack of effective employee reward schemes in organizations limits the utilization of the labour resource in a business (Commongood Careers, 2008). Poorly motivated employees work for money and have their goals misaligned with the organizational goals . The shortage of medical personnel in the health sector requires that the few be optimally utilized to increase ensure that service delivery is efficient (Greene, 2009 : Gruneberg, 2001). Therefore, there is a need to employ innovative and dynamic motivational strategies in the health sector in order to ensure that employees drive both short term and long term goals of the organization to a success (Heskett, Sasser, & Schesinger, 1997). In Ghana, the ration of the patients to doctor ratio is high and hence efficient services can only be achieved if the employees are adequately motivated. The essence of this research paper is to evaluate the policies that have been put forward in Ghana University hospitals, and to provide recommendations to improve these policies. Objectives Main objectives To evaluate the innovation and pathways that public university hospitals of Ghana employ to reward healthy and productive behavior among senior and junior staff. Specific objectives To examine th e different criteria used to assess the productivity of a staff in Ghana university Hospitals. To examine the staff-reward mechanism that is used to reward productive employees in these hospitals. To examine the degree of employee satisfaction that has been achieved in these public hospitals. To establish the quality of service that has been ach

Dissertation progress report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dissertation progress report - Essay Example One may assume that the topic that I have chosen for undertaking research studies is a pretty simple one and that anyone could simply refer a few editorials in the newspapers and journals and come up with the requisite dissertation. In fact, I strongly believed that this was a good way to conduct my research as I had access to excellent library and archive facilities in the University in addition to being under the able guidance of my supervisors, who have always been extremely supportive and understanding at all times and have acted as true guides at all times. But, as the rest of this report will go to show, I am of the firm belief that opinions and the actual facts will never be highlighted in either newspapers or journals. I have strongly understood over the years that the facts and information presented in the newspapers are merely the opinions of the writers, at least in a majority of whatever gets printed in the form of articles and that the real facts are largely subdued or remain unheard. Therefore, I felt the need that something concrete had to be done in order to get to the real facts and upon analysis, I came to the conclusion that rather than rely solely on literary sources, it would be better for me to get to the people who have been feeling this hatred against the west. I strongly believed that getting to know them, the conditions and events that have come to characterize their lives over these years and the reasons for them to blame the west for all this. The undertaking of any such activity in this regard, especially in the form of a public survey really seemed as if it would bolster the quality of my research even though I knew that I would have to travel to countries that are considered to be dangerous and unsafe especially for people from western countries.But, before I proceeded with any such activity, I needed to make sure that I was on the right path and this required me to do a lot of groundwork so as to allow myself to generate an action plan for my research activities. This, I felt could be done by attending seminars and conferences, which I had not done before due to personal reasons. Therefore, I made it a point to attend all such conferences that discussed about the topic of 'Anti westernism' in detail. Due to my inability to be able to shift to Paris owing to personal reasons, I had made arrangements with my supervisors to work on a part-time basis. But, even then, the thought of my new approach propelled me up and I have been on it over the last few months.Primarily, I began to attend th e conferences and seminars that were conducted regularly at SOAS, which stands for- 'The School of Oriental and African Studies'. The various seminars and conferences that have helped me design a road plan for my research are listed below: "Attitudes towards Reform and Western Integration: Comparing Late 19th-Century lema and Early 21st-Century Kemalists" by Mr. Zafer Yoruk. "The Justice and Development Party: Still Searching for Security and Legitimacy" by Prof. Ihsan Dagi. 'Turkey's Accession Process' by Ambassador Michael Lake, Former EU Ambassador in Turkey (1991-98). "The Prospects for Cyprus post-Annan and Turkey's Accession Decisi' by Andrew Dismore, MP From the subjects of the seminars that have been listed above, I can say conclusively that I got a fair idea of the major

Leadership Profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Leadership Profile - Essay Example Later in 1978 he received a doctorate degree in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University Texas. Worked in the Royal Thai Police Department for 14 years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1987. His last position was Deputy Superintendent of the Policy and Planning Sub-division, General Staff Division, Metropolitan Police Bureau. After resigning from Royal Thai Police and with several failed business ventures in 1987 Mr. Thaksin started his own business Shinawatra Computer and Communications Group. Mr. Thaksin later resigned from the post of Chairman of the Board of Directors, Shinawatra Computer and Communications Public Company Limited Thaksin entered politics in late 1994 under the invitation of Chamlong Srimuang, the leader of Palang Dharma Party and in 1995 he became the leader of Palang Dharma. Mr. Thaksin held the position of deputy prime minister twice; being appointed Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Bangkok traffic in 1995 and again in 1997 Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. It was in 1998 that he founded the Thai Rak Thai Party and became the party leader. Received the "Outstanding Criminal Justice Alumnus Award" from the Criminal Justice Center, Sam Houston State University and, later on October 25, 1996, the "Distinguished Alumni Award" from the same University As it stands Mr. Received the Honorary Award from the Mass Media Photographer Association of Thailand (MPA) as the Outstanding Politician who has contributed significantly to the society As it stands Mr. Thaksin was an extremely popular political leader. His dynamic entrepreneurial vision allowed him to establish a huge transnational business conglomerate and in ten years become one of the wealthiest individuals in Southeast Asia and the world. He twice won landslide elections - in 2001 and 2005 - with his party performing better than any in history. In fact, he is the only Thai prime minister to have completed a full four-year term after an election. Thaksin's distinctive economic, public health, education, energy, drugs and international relations policies made him the first elected Prime Minister in Thai history to complete his term in office, and helped him win a landslide re-election in 2005. (New York Times, 2006) After the creation of Thai Rak Thai, it was his enormous financial resources that allowed him to attract many accomplished and popular local politicians to his party. With a belief of populism and a strong emphasis on directing more funds to rural areas and communities, Thai Rak Thai developed a strong rural base in Thailand. The populist economic policy which was also termed "Thaksinomics." included novel programs such as "One Tambol, One Product," a highly successful program aimed to encourage each sub-district to develop a product in which it had a singular competitive advantage and

Learning Theory and Simulation Applications for Aviation Training Essay

Learning Theory and Simulation Applications for Aviation Training - Essay Example The use of simulation training in the preparation of military and civilian pilots cannot be ignored and this is mainly used because training based on actual equipment in the real world can be prohibitively expensive and dangerous. "In fact, the military and the commercial aviation industry are probably the biggest investors in simulation-based training. These simulations range in cost, fidelity, and functionality. Many simulation systems have the ability to mimic detailed terrain, equipment failures, motion, vibration, and visual cues about a situation." (Salas and Cannon-Bowers, 2001, p 471). In the training of military and civilian pilots, three essential learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism are employed. One of the major concepts which guide the design of flight training simulators today is that "transfer of training is highest when similarity of the training and transfer situations is the highest . . . this is the governing principle for most simu lators that are built." ( Adams, 1979). Therefore, simulation training can be comprehended as one of the most effective and practical methods of aviation training which corresponds to the utility of learning theories in the training of civil and military training. Simulation training reflects the most advantageous outcomes

Cross-Culture Management - the Breakdown of Industrial Relations at HM Term Paper

Cross-Culture Management - the Breakdown of Industrial Relations at HMSI and HRM Strategy - Term Paper Example This outcome resulted due to the malfunction of both management as well as the workers. The ultimate effect was on the breakdown of the Industrial Relations. The failure of the company stemmed from a breakdown of strategic sustenance. The environment on the shop floor was made harsh by the behaviour of the top executives. For instance, the VP from Japan kicked off a worker in his leg, another worker was not allowed to go to the toilet. These instances show the failure of following the HR strategies which was to have respect for each worker stemmed from equality, trust and initiative. The strategy was to avoid partiality on workers but the scenario was formed as such that it violated the norms of this strategy (Saini, â€Å"People Management Fiasco in Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd.†). Among the three joys that the company provided, the most important one was the joy of producing high-quality products. Along with these joys, an extension was made to its mission and that was the joy of creating which was to help workers obtain happiness in their daily work. Somewhere justice was not provided to the workers due to the prevalence of cross-cultural issues (Saini, â€Å"People Management Fiasco in Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd.†). Management of the above cross-cultural issues is essential to a firm’s success but the most important trait of an organizational success is the communication portrayed at the right time in the right form. The communication approach leads to a reduction of trade union violence within the  companies.  

Movie Review Shawshank Redemption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Movie Review Shawshank Redemption - Essay Example He accepts the punishment with dignity, not bothering about the social stigma associated, for he knows he is innocent. The Shawshank Prison reflects the drudgery and slowness of prison life, as is visible in most prison movie. The striking difference however, is the portrayal of Andy’s free and hopeful spirit, and how one free spirit can bring about a radical change in the environment. Andy has his shares of troubles in prison. The Shawshank prison reflects some of the rawest forms of human rights’ violation including â€Å"the Sisters† attempting to get Andy to perform oral sex for them. The movie is about a determined, hopeful human being with an unbending spirit breaking free from the shackles of misery. Andy, slowly but steadily, inches his way through the walls using a rock-hammer over a period of decades until he finally breaks free. Even during his stay in prison, Andy improves the quality of life of his inmates by helping establish a small prison library. His knowledge of Banking and Taxation help him to initially work with the corrupt warden, finally expose his misdeeds in public and leading him to commit suicide in the end. The movie perhaps trudges along a trifle slowly in the middle. That could well be a reflection of the leaden passage of time, the years of redemption one has to undergo before achieving salvation and experiencing freedom. The cinematography is near excellent. The damp blue, green, and grey walls, which at times seem like shades of black and white, reflect the characteristic dullness of prison life. The Shawshank Redemption is also a story of friendship between two souls – Andy and Red (Morgan Freeman). It is a story of how two individuals from contrasting backgrounds – one guilty of murder and the other innocent, come together to help each other. While Red, â€Å"the man who can get you anything in prison,† helps him get hold of a rock-hammer – the tool that helps him achieve his goal of

Being friends before lovers can lead to a succesful relationship Research Paper

Being friends before lovers can lead to a succesful relationship - Research Paper Example â€Å"The commitment to marry is perhaps the most important and most complex decision made by individuals irrespective of geography or cultural background† (Srinivasan). The financial, emotional, and psychological implications of breakup from marriage in the life of the partners are immense. Therefore, many people want to benefit from others’ experiences and know whether friendship or love is a stronger predictor of success in marriage so that they can select the right partner for marriage. Different people hold different views regarding the strength of the role of friendship in making a marriage successful relative to that of love and vice versa, thus providing the topic ground for debate. There is no clear interface between friendship and love. Many feelings and emotions are common between friendship and love, including care, empathy, respect, sincerity, expectations, and honesty. The enormity of these similar factors incorporates subjectivity in people’s judgm ent of whether it was friendship or love that made the marriage of a particular couple successful. Therefore, there is no robust basis of people’s support for either friendship or love as the determinant of successful marriage. One thing that fundamentally differentiates between friendship and love is that friendship does not need a physical relationship to grow whereas physical relationship is a fundamental element in the growth of love between marital partners. Since sexual health of individuals may deteriorate over the time, something more important than love is required to sustain the marriages. Friendship between two people is a stronger predictor of success in their marriage than love. It is hard to mark a strict boundary between friendship and love since the two often overlap in several areas. Both friendship and love lay the basis of every successful relationship, be that a marriage, the relationship of a mother and a daughter, or any other kind of relationship. Peopl e make friends with individuals they can place confidence in and share their feelings, emotions, and secrets with and the same holds true for love. Like love, friendship removes the barriers people normally place between themselves and others to keep them from learning about their secrets. People make friends because they like each other’s personalities and characters, and accept each other along with all of their strengths and weaknesses. Love also demands pretty much the same. The most important factor that differentiates between friendship and love is sex. Sex between the marital partners is a fundamental cause and effect of love between them. When two people enter the contract of marriage because of their love for each other, the marriage is just as healthy as the physical relationship between the two. â€Å"[F]riends may engage in casual sex, but may also become involved romantically† (Barry and Madsen 1). One of the most important reasons why certain friends get married to each other is that they want to make love to each other in a way that is legitimate both in the eyes of the religion and the culture. â€Å"Marriage is a natural institution whereby a man and a woman give themselves to each other for life in a sexual relationship that is open to procreation –

The Illustrated Man Essay Example for Free

The Illustrated Man Essay Ray Bradbury wrote The Illustrated Man in 1951. The general context of that time in the USA had a powerful impact on the themes he chose to base his book on. The Second World War had seen horrific crimes against humanity, dictatorship and a change in family life which was due to both the huge number of dead fathers and the great technological development. Women started working more and more in jobs previously seen as exclusively male and appliances such as the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner cleared more time for the typical housewife. Affected and inspired by these circumstances, Bradbury wrote his 18 different stories in the book, exploring family life, technology implications and politics from extreme points of view. The stories chosen here to be discussed in a comparative and contrasting manner are The Veldt, The Rocket, Zero Hour, The Fox and the Forest and The Other Foot. The main reason for choosing these is their outstanding figurative representation and artistic input. Family life takes a new turn, as Bradbury presents in The Veldt, and it isnt positive. The father-son relationship deteriorates as we can see from their conversations. Even though the parents have done their best to fulfil all their childrens wishes, the final effect is a tense family relationship, mainly characterised by the childrens selfishness. Peter, the son, regards his father as nothing more than a sort of institution to fight against, rather than anything close to his heart. Whats wrong with Africa, Father? calling him Father, on multiple occasions after initially calling him Dad, Also, there is some verbal violence between them, as suggested I dont think youd better consider it any more, Father, I wont have any threats from my son! However, The Rocket provides a completely different picture. Although poor, all members of the family get along and support each other with respect. I go to Mars! He danced wildly. Thank you, Father!' The children are grateful for everything and love their parents. In opposition to Peter and Wendy from The Veldt, the children here are selfless. Another heavy element in Bradburys view of the future is the power of imagination. Once more, this is portrayed as evil or heavenly. In The Veldt the children end up killing their parents through the sole mean of imagination fuelled by the nursery. A similar scenario is suggested in Zero Hour where aliens abuse childrens rich potential for imagination to invade the perfectly defended Earth. A brighter story from this point of view is The Rocket, because the father uses the power of imagination and simulation to offer his children an amazing experience which would have been impossible to achieve in their materially limited reality. The technology bloom in the 1950s influenced Bradbury to magnify his vision of the future in terms of the way homes looked and worked, as well as space travel and time travel. The parents in The Veldt buy a Happy Home which does everything for them: cooks, cleans and rocks them to bed. This seems amazing at first, but they end up wishing they could leave their perfect home behind and start fresh in a regular house, Youre beginning to feel unnecessary, too, says Lydia. Bradbury uses figures of speech to represent this, emphasizing on personification of dead objects And although their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldnt be rocked to sleep for another hour, Also, it appears that children come to replace their parents with the nursery, I wish you were dead! We were, for a long while, The father realises that he and his wife havent spent enough time with their children, making them feel more attached to machinery, That sounds dreadful! Would I have to tie my own shoes instead of letting the shoe tier do it? The language Bradbury uses to describe the nursery is very effective. He uses the senses to emphasize the powerful reproduction of the African veldt, The hot straw smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of animals, the smell of dust like a red paprika in the hot air, The simile dust like a red paprika and the repetition smell give a good impression of the veldt, the heat and the strong odours in the air. Another technological vision present in Bradburys writings is space travel. In The Rocket, rich people are able to travel and live in space. This is shown as a part of their daily routine, as Bodoni watches the rockets every night and his children have rocket toys. Also, he is able to buy a ticket next day, emphasizing on the ease with which people travel in space. In The Fox and the Forest people are able to travel in the past, anywhere, Travel in Time, Inc., can costume you, put you in a crowd during the assassination of Lincoln or Caesar! This shows the extent to which Bradbury sees the technology rise. Perhaps the most horrifying element of the stories is war within the context of dictatorship and dystopia. A well-portrayed story from this point of view is The Fox and the Forest. Mexico is celebrating during WW2, Everything was good and sweet, the air was that blend of the dead and the living, of the rains and the dusts, of the incense from the church, and the brass smell of the tubas on the bandstand which pulsed out vast rhythms of La Paloma, The atmosphere in Mexico contrasts with the one in the future in the year 2155. The use of language here portrays a horrible world of war and dictatorship, A world that was like a great black ship pulling away from the shore of sanity and civilization, roaring its black horn in the night, taking two billion people with it, whether they wanted to go or not, to death, to fall over the edge of the earth and the sea into radioactive flame and madness, The repetition of the word black in black ship and black thorn signifies death, nothingness and everything evil; the simile A world [] like a great black ship pulling away from [] civilization, shows how the world has shrunk all its possibilities into a black vessel that no one can get out of. The world has lost all its spirit and joy, and all that remained was a continuous chain of destruction and manslaughter. This is a great way of representing dystopia. The political and social elements present in Bradburys The Illustrated Man reflect warnings to humanity, a potential Third World War and its imminence. In The Other Foot there is a strong reference to the racism experienced by black people during the 20th century. You remember how they hung my father on Knockwood Hill and shot my mother? Despite this, the story ends in a positive tone, reflecting Bradburys hope for the future, even in the event that most of it is destroyed. Now everythings even. We can start all over again, on the same level, Bradburys views of the future contrast on all levels, peace and war, wealth and poverty, good families and bad families. In his dark visions there is always a spark of light and in his most utopic views there is a pinch of evil.

Strategic Development of Starbucks

Strategic Development of Starbucks STARBUCKS INTRODUCTION The Starbucks coffee company was founded in the year 1971. The starbucks headquarter is situated in Seattle, Washington (USA) Starbucks operates a chain of branded coffee shops in around more than 35 countries of the world. The outlets offer hot and cold coffee drinks and few food items such as beans, coffee accessories and teas. The Starbucks owns 7100 of outlets which located more than 10 countries but most of the stores situated in USA. The major process of enlargement of starbucks started from 1982 when Howard Schultz joined the company in order to see the marketing and the retailing activities. Since then Starbucks has evolved from a modest $0.5 million business to a whopping $6.4 billion of turnover. In this assignment the time frame of 5-25 years and analyze development of Starbucks along with strategies applied and the present scenario of the organization with the help of Porters five competitive forces, SWOT analysis and value chain analysis. The future recommendations to Starbucks would also be included in this assignment. 1 ANALYSIS OF THE PAST THE STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE STARBUCKS In 1971 Starbucks was settle in Seattle (USA) In 1984 Mr. Howard Schultz join Starbucks to boost up marketing and retailing Starbucks acquire 5 stores in San Franciscos peet coffee and Tea chain in 1984 In 1985 Starbucks start the espresso bar concept in their store In 1986 Schultz left Starbucks In 1987 Starbucks expands in the American market by starting its outlets in British Columbia and Chicago In 1992 Starbucks get listed with its first public stock offering with 165 business comprise outlets In 1996 Starbucks open its branch in Tokyo (JAPAN) In 2003 Starbucks continues to open branches all over the world and reached 6400 0utlets worldwide In 2008 the global recession hits Starbucks badly, due loss in business Starbucks shuts 600 outlets all over the world In 2009 Starbucks released a public long-term growth strategy that included meeting customer need for quality and value as key goal 1.2 THE STRATEGIES APPLIED BY STARBUCKS Integrate horizontally Starbucks has gone for acquisition of a large number of companies in abroad market, and expanded their outlets whole over the world. This strategy gave Starbucks a chance to reach customers whole over the world. For instance Starbucks acquired Seattles Best, Torrefazione Italia and Coffee People. Penetrate the market To increase the market share, Starbucks has differentiated itself in providing a unique experience to its customers by giving specific themes in stores. The product mix consists of different beverages to suit peoples needs. Starbucks have also tied up boost up company profitability with other beverage companies such as Pepsi co and Kraft food. Developing the market Starbucks has developed the market for specialty coffee industry for America. In this context, Starbucks has created brand awareness and demand for coffee stores amongst American population. This is enabled by better market penetration through apt store locations and standardized services offered all through the world. Diversification strategy To gain higher market share, Starbucks has provided a diversified product mix. To move forward starbucks produced new product linked with beverage business. This strategy helps Starbucks to grow both on the base of the operations and overall proportion of services. They have developed unique products and at the same time acquired companies like Ethos water. The product differentiation has been its core competence all through since its inception. Alliances strategy The Starbucks also applied alliance strategy to became player in the leisure and service industry, and not only a specialty restaurant business, Starbucks has tied up with companies like i-Tunes to create the Hear Music campaign and XM Studios to offer customized music services for Starbucks customer, which has helped Starbucks to attain a level of niche over a period of time where even the nations where its presence is still at a nascent stage. CSR strategy Starbucks have also applied the CSR strategy to enhance the brand image and they also funded non-governmental organization to improve the level of literacy amongst the educationally backward communities. Starbucks also run the Green Store campaign to reduce the usage of paper cups. A 10% discount was given to customers who brought their own mugs to the store. Its latest campaign of Fair- trade coffee has spread on a subtle yet widespread manner. 1.3 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR STARBUCKS The important factors that helped Starbucks to associate with success in the initial years of its operations are as follows: Market Research The factor market research helps Starbucks to apply the strategy to move forward their business through expansion. In year 1980 Starbucks expanded to Chicago. This helped management to learn how to expand business over the country. In the years 1991 Starbucks moved to California. This was a major strategic decision that came in after a lot of market research. Employee Motivation and Rewards One of the major success factors of Starbucks has been its employee motivation and giving time to time performance base incentives. One of the major steps taken by Starbucks to retain their employees was to increase the health and safety benefits for employees who worked more than twenty hours in a week. The top management to select the right employee for the right job in the store in order to reduce employee turnover ratio. First Movers Advantage In the year 1987 under the supervision of Howard Schultz Starbucks open 150 store in the first 5 years. Being the only player in the market Starbucks profits were huge enough to allow them invest in their expansion plans all over the world. Catalogue Retailing In the early years of the companys operations, Starbucks started the process of catalogue retailing. This played a major role in determining the location of stores for Starbucks. Starbucks had a catalogue which comprised of a range of packed coffee beans with their prices. Consumers from along the world ordered them and looking at the zonal preferences the store locations were decided. 2. ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SCENARIO AS starbucks is a popular coffee company so we look at a scenario of the period around 2008 and 2009. In this section we will look at the strategies of Starbucks through SWOT analysis, Porters 5 forces analysis 2.1 SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTHS Strong Brand Image Starbucks has been ranked amongst the top 100 brands in the world consistently over the last ten years. Innovative marketing strategies and its cost effective campaigns Starbucks have created brand awareness among the American population. High visibility of store in the market helps Starbucks to attract more customers and make company more profitable. Starbucks has maintained a high level of service through which it has achieved a consistent level of customer satisfaction with strong relationship with its supplier. The global presence of the Starbucks with quality based services of food and beverage, at the same time entertained their customer with music and internet in their stores. Starbucks is applying the innovative strategy to provide unique themes in their store to make their customer loyal to brand. One of the strong strength of Starbuck is his CEO Mr. Howard Schultz. Due to efficient HRM strategy to motivate and time to time performance based incentive and giving proper training to staff according to job specification. WEAKNESSES The one of the weakness of Starbucks is lack of internal focus and too much think to expand their business. Increasing number of the competitor in the growing market such as Dunkin Donuts, Nestle and Tim Horton (Bramhall). The dependency of Starbucks in US market, Starbucks company earn its more than 70% of revenue only from the US market however they have presence more 35 country in the world and market cannibalization. The weak financial position in the market due to the recent global recession in the 2008. Starbucks has loss in the share price and they have shut more than 600 stores. OPPORTUNITIES The continuously expand their store globally with expansion into the retail market and advancement of technology by using different kind of coffee machine in their store. Emerging international market specially BRIC nation Brazil, Russia India and China to plan to expand in these countries. Starbucks also continue to expand in the rural area of US and also segment the high populated area of the city. Brand expansion through selling T- shirt and coffee mug to their customer in their store on discounted rates. THREATS Competition in the market (restaurant, street cart, supermarket, other competitor such as McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts. The chain such as Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds do not serve coffee is a core product but they give food as well to their customer in cheap prices than Starbucks. US market saturation and coffee prices volatility in developing coffee producing country such as Brazil, India etc. US consumer trends towards more health ways and away from caffeine. The current economic recession is a major threat for Starbucks since they had to close down a large number of stores around 600 stores leading to declining profits and large level of unemployment. Large size of the Starbucks Corporation cause in decrease in quality of customer services. 2.2 STARBUCKS VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS All firms consists of activities that links together to develop the value of business, Starbuck main activity includes in the value chain human resource management, marketing and retailing operations. In this section of assignment the value chain can be used to analyze the different competencies of Starbucks and then competencies will be discussed in later section. The core competencies of the Starbucks lie in its human resource management, marketing and retailing activities. Infrastructure In this activity includes planning of store locations, controlling such as financing, accounting and corporate strategy etc (lynch 2003). Human Resource Management Due to the global expansion the Starbucks faces a lot of problems in the management human resources. Starbucks have faced the problem of high level of employee turnover, but deploying right human resource still remains one of their key competencies. The company still believes that employees are its biggest assets. Starbucks continues to maintain a high level of corporate culture due to above industry standard employee benefit plans and employee stock exchange and ownership plans. Procurement The procurement relates to purchasing the material that is necessary for Starbucks. Efficient procurement of the starbucks is about buying highest quality coffee on lowest prices form developing countries. Marketing Marketing of Starbucks play a vital role to boost up profitability globally as Starbucks is strong coffee brand. Most of the advertising campaigns include, online advertising and store advertising. Retail Sales Starbucks is mainly focus on store retailing around 80% Starbucks sales come from store sales. Consistent upgradation of service levels by hiring the right people for right job in store through efficient HRM practices. 2.3 ANALYSIS OF THE STARBUCKS USING PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODEL COMPETITIVE RIVALRY The Starbuck faces strong competition from small domestic coffee players and large competitors in the market. The high price factor leads to decrease in sales compared to other coffee player all over the world. BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS The overcrowded market of the US is the main cause of to increase the barraging power of supplier because most of the farmers growing coffee beans are now united together to sell coffee beans. They started certified coffee beans through the fair trade policy in the US. BARGAINING POWER OF CUSTOMER High pricing is the main reason for decrease in sales. The low switching cost in the industry plays a negative factor to the companys growth by increasing the bargaining power of buyer. THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS The specialty coffee industry does not put a high premium on economies of scale. Most players in the specialty coffee industry have developed their own distribution channels in their own countries, thereby gaining greater economies of scale and reducing cost. The low cost imposes an entry barrier for new players who want to set up an international chain, thus reducing their threat. The high differentiation within the specialty coffee industry made possible to establish brand that could act as barrier to entry. The specialty coffee retail store may switch high cost to new player, cost such as ambience and skilled employee in the store giving complimentary drink or any food to make customer loyalty. Therefore it may become difficult for new player to set business in the specialty coffee. So threats from the new entrants relatively low. THREAT OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS The primary substitutes to the specialty coffee company such as Starbucks from the beverage companies make caffeinated soft drinks such as Pepsi and Coca Cola, which has the caffeine inherent in the specialty coffee; at significantly lower prices.(Quelch 2006) The tea is also a substitutes in some country such as UK, the English people like different kind of tea instead of coffee 2.4 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF STARBUCKS In year 2008 Starbucks hit by the loss in share prices because of world economic recession and net income down by 70% and the figure 1.4 show that how badly Starbucks affected in the world economic recession hence the chairmen announce the report of decline share prices to $ 9.33 of Starbucks Corporation. Starbucks is well positioned company to challenge any economic recession with strong cash flow and solid balance sheet. The year 2008 strongly hurt Starbucks with shutting down 600 store, loss of 6700 job and $ 500mn operating cost saving for 2009. Mr. Schultz cut in their salary $1.2mn to $ 10000. Here in the figure 2.5 show that clearly result operation with the information of net revenue, balance sheet of between 2004-08 and also shown that the stores information in the percentage and store opened in the between 2004-08. 2.5 ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE OF STARBUCKS CORPORATION Finance Marketing CEO Howard Schultz HOW Deputy Legal Compliance CFO Administrator Board of Directors Global Coffee Procurement Legal Global Logistic Supply Chain Operation Partner Resource (Hr) Us Retail, Human Resource Development Greater China Public Affairs International Development Consumer Food Services Consumer insight Support US development Global beverages Global Development Marketing Seattle Best Coffee France International EMEA Retail Japan China Starbucks Coffee Us Asia pacific CIO And Digital Ventures North East/Atlantic North West / Mountain South East/ plain Western Pacific 3. FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS Strategic future recommendation to overcome from the declining profits of the Starbucks would be mentioned below. 3.1 EXPAND INTERNATIONALLY Expand internationally is one of major strategy starbucks has applied to become most profitable specialty coffee company. The one of the major problem Starbucks face continuous declined in the sale of in stores. The main reason for this is Starbucks is self cannibalizing its own business in the United States. Cannibalization is the negative impact of a companys new product on the sales performance ofÂÂ  its existing related products. Therefore Starbucks should focus more on opening stores in growing economies such as BRICK nation where the product purchase power is high among the people of India and the Middle Eastern countries, Brazil and Russia rather than on just concentrating on US market. Starbucks should have to think about international expansion primarily for two reasons. The first reason being that because many developing economies lack the penetration of specialty coffee chains. For many countries Starbucks can adopt the Market Development strategy to strengthen their brand, gain more market share and minimize their risks. Second reason for international expansion is that, migrating to different countries would give Starbucks a chance for product innovation. For example Tazo tea was first tested and tried in the Japanese market and then it was introduced in US market. 3.2 FRANCHISING Starbucks should have concentrate on the franchising model like McDonalds is doing in to expand whole over the world. Most of the Starbucks stores are company owned company operated stores. This strategy is good but not good to survive long term profitability this increases the cost of control, it he case of franchising they can minimize control and concentrate more on building up their quality and maintain their high brand image, something similar to what McDonalds, pizza hut and Dominos have done over the years in US market and globally. The practice of expansion through franchising would also help Starbucks in entering potential markets such as India and speared in the Middle East country. In India, the foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions allow only 49% investment of paid up capital by any foreign retailer. This restriction is playing a major role in Starbucks entry to the country. Franchising would allow Starbucks overcome such problems. 3.3 INTRODUCE LOYALTY CARDS To make any company profitable the loyalty of customer may plays a vital for the Starbucks. It has been observe Howard Schultz has envisioned selling coffee at a lower price in order to attract new customers. According to my view the overall price cut would tarnish Starbucks brand image in the eyes of the loyal customers, who have been committed with the company due to strong brand image. However the price cutting policy should not be left away completely. It should be practice at certain places where the demographic income is low, in other places discount should be introduced customer loyalty card and point reward system for instance retail companies Tesco, Sainsbury, and Mark Spencer. With every purchase made at a Starbucks store points will be added to the customers loyalty cards. The customers will have schemes to redeem these points at specific time to get price discounts or extra quantity of product. 3.4 CORPORATE THEME STORES Starbucks can come up with a new theme of stores which is the corporate theme stores specially to keep in mind corporate people. In this theme, Starbucks should remodel store to keep in mind the interest of corporate people. Starbucks store should have to be situated in the commercial business places such as Westminster, Holborn in London and if look at the US Manhattan in New York. The facility should include free Wi-Fi internet, corporate business Magazine and financial times Newspaper availability in the morning. There should be any specific area in stores for corporate meeting to make extra revenue for the company. 3.5 LEISURE THEME STORES Starbucks should also have stores with leisure theme that should have a comfortable and lively ambience that encourages people to come to the stores for a peaceful time. These stores should have facilities such as soft music, instant digital photography for taking snaps and arranging get-togethers like parties and official meetings. Many pubs and bars have pictures of their regular customers and special events. Similarly, Starbucks can also have a wall dedicated to pictures of local customers or memorable events in the store. This will help Starbucks to maintain a close relationship with its customers and will attract potential customers. 3.6 CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF THEIR PROCESSES A recent survey conducted in the year 2008 showed that people prefer more of McDonalds coffee than Starbucks. Starbucks recently has failed to deliver newer exotic range of flavours. Variety is missing in their menu. Hence from time to time the company must review its coffee making process and consider renovating their equipments and technology from time to time. 3.7 EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND MOTIVATION The most important asset for any company is their employees, as Starbucks is expand already in more 35 countries in whole over the world with strong brand name; with the closure of large number of stores and lay off of over 6000 staffs, Starbucks have lost a considerable amount of its employees. So to keep in mind the starbucks should have review on their recruitment processes and give them proper training regarding to their work area. For the job satisfaction and to motivate team member company should have give performance based incentive and paid holidays. It should hence now identify new leaders for the future, from the existing sales team members. The company should have give the chance of cross training in other department of the company and according to the performance company should have to give internal job promotion. 3.8 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) For food and beverage company should also have to keep in mind environmental issue and minimize wait. Now days all service company are using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as strategy and its work for brand awareness among domestic people. Starbucks should also invest more in developing products and services that are more eco friendly and would also enhance the companys brand image. For instance they should use porcelain and glass mugs in the stores rather than paper cups. This would minimize the usage of paper. Also they should encourage customers to use recycle bins in stores that would allow recycling of food waste. REFERENCES Larson.C.Ryan; 17/4/2008; Starbucks a Strategic Analysis Anders, George, Starbucks brews a new strategy; Fast Company; July 2001; Issue 49:144. Datamonitor Report Starbucks Corporation, May 2006; www.datamonitor.com Adamy, J. (2007, November 15), At Starbucks, Too Many, Too Quick, Wall Street Journal. 2008, January 7 McDonalds takes on Starbucks; http://online.wsj.com/article/sb119967000012871311.html 2008, February 22; Starbucks Cuts 600 positions, http://online.wsj.com/article/sb120362397558983703.html http://www.starbucks.com

How To Motivate Students Education Essay

How To Motivate Students Education Essay What is physical education? What do people nowadays know about the importance of health fitness? Physical education is a course taken in primary and secondary education which involves physically learning and psychomotor learning. People nowadays take everything for granted; they take their own health for granted. They dont really care about fitness and psychomotor learning. This is why physical education not treated seriously in every educational institute. Based on some researches, there is a survey has been conducted by Singapore sports council in 2001 shows that most of the students does not exercise regularly. Besides, there is another survey on the new intake of 800 students conducted in ITE East (Yishun) in 2001 showed that up to 94% did not like PE and never exercised regularly. ( adapted from innovative ways in motivating students in physical education class- HUSSAIN KADIR (SH/PE/YS) TAN MENG HUAY (SH/PE/MP)). Our education system is concentrates more on academics instead on students physical development. Schools in Malaysia rather to say neglected the importance of physical education. Based on the timetable in every school, physical education class seems likely to be once a week and 40 minutes. Students get demotivated and lost their interest in physical education class. Based on a teacher who mentioned that People did, and maybe still do, think of physical education as recess time, said Shelley Randall, a P.E. teacher at Obsidian Middle School and a member of the Oregon Department of Education committee developing the standards. ( Adapted from Taylor, Ted. (December 4, 2000). The Bulletin. Bend, Oregon.). This shows that people still in their conservatives mind which academic ways too important than anything else that they neglected that physical education plays an important role in academic as well. According to an article, Judith Young, executive director of the National Association of Sports and Physical Education, said she wasnt sure P.E. ever had a major academic role. But frankly, we are seeing a need for it now because our lifestyles are getting increasingly sedentary, she said, citing many young people who would rather play a football game on a computer than go outside and toss the pigskin around with friends. ( Adapted from Taylor, Ted. (December 4, 2000). The Bulletin. Bend, Oregon.). These are the evidences show that physical education wasnt really treated seriously in school that is why demotivates students in their physical education class. Why students werent interested in physical educations class? The whole worldwide is encouraging that in reinforce the education system by emphasize the importance in physical education. As we know that physical education not just only helps to improves health but skill development, which allows for enjoyable participation in any physical activities in a proper appropriate techniques. But, why students nowadays werent interested in physical education class? Many factor either from internal or external bring huge impacts on the school kids interest in school. Firstly, the school plays an important role in taking care of students academic performances. The school concerns their students academic performances and their school well built reputation. This is the reason how the school pushes the students and teachers so hard to maintain their performances in such a stressful situation. The class timetable consisted 9 periods a day, and each period is 40 minutes. Apparently, the whole day in school was sedentary activities instead of having any physical activities. Students were all day packed with lectures in class and stuck on the chair almost half a day non-stop. The only thing they will move their body is when they have to attend to the washroom or their 20 minutes recess times which they will just sit and eat. Initially, school cut down the physical education class into 2 periods once in a week for each class. Basically, once a week the s tudents have their physical education class or the entire one and a half hours. The time schedules for physical education is simply unfair, either they arranges the class to after recess time or 2 periods before the school end. In the morning session, some physical education class arranges after recess time or in the middle of 3rd or 4th period right before the recess time. This odd timing discourage students interest in participate themselves in the class. Students need times to get change and took up half of the time that affected the teaching process in the class. Besides, some teacher who might took up the extra times after the bell rang, and this is one of the issues that affected the physical education class. Thus, students have insufficient time to get change and gather at the gym or school field. P.E teacher always faces this kind of problems, insufficient times to finish her teaching syllabus. Plus, students hates to get change again and again for that one hour plus. They think it was really troublesome especially for girls. Students need to wait in a long line to get change back to pinafore under the sweaty, uncomfortable situation. Girls especially who have menses problem will try their very best to avoid participate in P.E class. Schools environment also is an issue in discouraging students participates in P.E class. The school environment such as the washrooms, the location for P.E class, and so on. School that have insufficient washrooms may affect the students learning mood and enthusiastic in learning. If the washroom is too small or insufficient, students face problems in waiting in a long line to get change. Maybe there are 20-25 girls in a class and they might need some times to get change and wait in a line. This will affect the time management in P.E class, and the whole teaching procedure. Besides, if the washrooms condition was unhygienic is such a turn off for students to go in and change into their P.E suits. Students will find excuses such as left their suits at home, or not feeling well just to avoid get change and join the class. Moreover, some school doesnt possess with full equipment such as spacious field, equipment room, basic games courts. Students and teacher always cracks their head loo king for places to have their class. Students will feel tired and demotivated and get bored easily. Incomplete equipment such as insufficient of balls and so on might affected the teaching activities and students will get distracted because have to wait for their turn to play the game. Next, the teacher and students parents think that physical education wasnt a real subject. But, the fact is vital. On the school field, there are 30 over students surrounding their P.E teacher. But, when the teacher carries out an activity with the students the responds from the students are so direct and clear that whether they are enjoying the class. We can see that there are a lot of kids standing around and socializing or waiting in line or watching other children play. This proves that the basic lesson plan wasnt really well prepared. Besides, experts have determined whats wrong is that in most schools, the P.E. teachers are undertrained. In my opinion, I doubted that Malaysia do have sufficient trained P.E teachers. Malaysias schools system considered rather odd, they simply offer the P.E class to some teachers who are not trained in this field. So, is really common that mathematics teacher or maybe English teacher who are teaching P.E as well. Those untrained teacher definitel y conducted the class by using the textbook and ball games werent really teaching the correct and accurate techniques and skills to the students. That is why lesson plan wasnt really well planned and prepared, and situation such as students wandering around, socializing with one another, rather stares at the grass, lack of interest in participating in the class occurs. The main reason is the class is boring and not well managed. Parents on the other hand, who thinks academics are highly important that determined their childrens future. In fact, when a real trained P.E teacher was conducting the class parents should come in and see that theres real instruction going on. Quality physical education is not roll out the ball and play. Parents always thinks that eat healthier will improve health. Although they knows that exercise regularly is the best way to keep healthy and fitness, deep down in their mind was that such a waste of time for their kids to run along and roll with the balls. Physical education not just educates students but parents as well. According to Welscher from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, They need to know that what its going to teach is things that are going to make them live longer, a whole lot happier, protect them from a lot of negative behaviors, improve their mental health and this is at least as important as many of the other subjects. Parents should have encourages their children participate in P.E class. As a parent, it is important for them to maintain involvement in childrens education so that can ensure he or she attains the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to lead a healthy, active and productive life. How to motivate students to take part in physical educations class? There are few tips that show that benefits in taking part in physical activities, such as it helps to improves health. Regular exercises helps to circulate our blood circulation and our joints wont turn to rusty. It helps to prevent heart diseases, counteracts with the risk in obesity, diseases, inactivity and hypertension. With 20 minutes walk can help to circulate the blood circulation around our heart and enhance the function of our heart in healthy condition. Obesity and hypertension can prevented with 30 minutes jogs. After some physical activities, it helps to refresh a persons mind. After discussing the benefits of regular physical activity and all the factors that demotivated students participating in P.E class, there are ways in motivates them in the class. How to encourage and motivate students take part in their P.E class? There are many ways in motivate students take part in the class. Of course we opted for long term solutions instead of short term solutions. Short term solutions such as bribes the students by using extravaganzas prizes or maybe cashes to allure the students in taking part in the class. This will never work out. They are temporally attracted students for a short time and the objectives will never achieve. The school, teachers, students and parents have the responsibility to overcome this problem. The school should try to see this as serious matter by not just emphasizes in academic performance. School should have tried to work out some programs to encourage students take part in physical education class. They should have planned to have their sports day during the weekdays as attendance is compulsory. Many schools normally have their sports day during weekend. Weekends supposed to be non school day, this is the main reason that students will never turned up and shows the initiative t o participate in any sports programs. Even the teachers were lack of motivation to conduct the event or activity in a proper manner. In my opinion, the school should organize some sports programs or activities for the whole week. In the whole week, half of the day students are occupied with all sorts of programs. Such as interclass games competition, some in charge of having healthy and fitness mini seminar. The school can invite professionals to give talks or seminars to the students. This whole physical education week should organize consistently, is meaningful and education purposes. Besides, students felt bored in P.E class is because of the teacher is untrained and wasnt specialized in this field. This may cause confusion to the students. The best thing that can do is, have the teachers attend the workshop in physical education. A productive and knowledgeable teacher is a successful educator. Teacher who are specialized or not in this field should educate themselves more in this field, they should prepares themselves in any situation such as teaching the subject that they may not familiar with. Teacher should prepare interesting lesson plan and activities in order to let learning progress takes place. Teacher should be willing to learn and gain more Knowledge: As a physical education teacher have to learn about new activities and games, and apply them into their lesson plans. P.E teachers should learn new games and bring them into class. By bringing in new games it will not only broaden students knowledge of new skills, but they will also have fun learning new and different skills. The teachers attitude is also very important in teaching. Teacher should know how to handle classroom management so that students will respect he/her and take things seriously in physical education. Teachers should always possesses with positives attitude, always encourage students, never give up easily, and should influence the students in what is meant to be good for them. The most important thing is get to know them, understand them, and get to know what their needs are. Caring is always the most effective ways in teaching progress. Next, parents and schools bond with each other in an indirect way. Parents play an important role in this issue. Most of the parents thought that P.E class is such a waste of time, and a burden to a child for bringing extra clothes to school. Most parents have irrational thoughts such as, a lot of laundry to do if bringing extra P.E suits and so on. Parents should have encourage their children how important P.E is and should participate fully in the class. Besides, parents should often exposed P.E activity to their children since young or daily. It is a necessity to expose physical activity to children daily so that they will keep it as a habit. While the school environment also important in solving this problem. School should concern and take this seriously in improving the facilities in school. Such as, the sports field, the equipment room and etc. Especially the field, school authority should take care of the field as in trim the grass or mend the holes on the ground. This can reduce the risk of injury among the students. With a well cared field, students will love the field and willing to stretch their joints in any conditions. The equipment room should always updates. Balls especially always a problem for every school, insufficient amounts of balls always create havoc in P.E class. The school person in charge should check the remaining stocks consistently. Replace those equipments which are dysfunctions with new, add in better equipment in order to enhance the quality in teaching. The school environment such as renovates the toilet into spacious space for students able to get change or built in sports shower room for st udents to take a shower before they continue their next class. Besides, government should take this seriously as in promoting how important P.E is and encourages the society starts to concentrate in P.E activity. The government should promote scholarship schemes or better offer in sports academy for every student who contributes in sports or P.E class. The government should encourage each school to have a certified certificates to show attributes to all the students who did well in their P.E class. This will encourages and motivates the P.E culture in Malaysia soon. The best P.E. class and program will keep students in mind that this knowledge can last for a lifetime. ( Adapted from article: I hate P.E)

Scripture Analysis :: Religion

Scripture Analysis "It is finished!" John 19:30. What Christ is referring to here is the accomplished salvation of the people. What that means is that when we are saved, we do not have to put out burnt saccrifices up to Him. It is no longer needed because Christ died for us, which took away the iniquities of our sin. He did this out of great love for us. This is exemplified in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son that who so ever belief in him shall have eternall life!". That verse is very important to us, or should be, because in a way, one could base his/her relationship with the Lord upon it. The reason is because God loved us so much that he did that for us so that is the least that we could do. In Genesis 3:15 it says that we will be punished for our sins. Yes, that is true, but God will forgive and forget them if we repent. You see this is not possible without Jesus dying for our sins. In Romans 5:6-8 it says that Christ died for all of us. Even the bad ones, ALL. This is a sign of the Victory that Christ had won a victory here. The reason is because of all of the lives that he saved and will later be saved. In Romans 5 it says that Jesus died for All Sinners! We are all sinners so his death was for all. When Jesus says that "It is finished", he can also be reffering to the older predictions of Christs' life. There is one in particular that it might have been talking about in Isaiah. That is the one in which Isaiah talks of the life of Jesus and the crucifiction, in very short and brief detail. The suffering in which Jesus took for us lasted all through the night, and then in the morning the thrusted a sword into His side to see if he was alive. After the water poored out of His side, you can say that it is officially over. In my heart it is not completely over, just that of that era. Jesus will always live in my heart and not until the very end times is it over in my heart. When the life of Jesus was over, at the same exact time God tore the

Descriptive Essay - The City Dock :: Descriptive Essay, Descriptive Writing

The perfect place in the city is one that is incredibly versatile – it may be bustling with activity one minute and nearly deserted the next. The city dock has been a mainstay of the city for as long as anyone can remember, and it has a different effect on everyone. Everyone can appreciate the dock for his or her own reasons. One of the best aspects of the city dock is the amount of activity that can almost always be found if you know where to look. Every year the Great Dock Canoe Race – an event in which teams of two people race a canoe across the bay - is held at the dock, and you’re guaranteed to find many teams racing their canoes in the bay. Hundreds of people crowd the dock to watch and then move next door to the Dock restaurant to celebrate with the winning team. Right off the dock is a tiny stretch of restaurants and quaint shops, and then of course there are the boats. Of the dozens of boats - from sailboats to houseboats to leisure ships, from red to white to yellow - that are anchored at the city dock, you’re sure to strike up a conversation with one of the friendly people who live here, and it’s a great place for casual parties with friends. On the last Fourth of July, my friends and I gathered on the top deck of my father’s houseboat to watch the fireworks d isplay that lit the sky. It offered an amazing vantage point from which we could see across town. The city dock, however, can also be a solitary place. When you sit on the top deck of a boat, it seems like you are all by yourself in the world. From that height, you have a birds’ eye view of the dock and the bay, and though there may be people around the dock below you, you are removed from their action. It’s the best way to take a break from the stress and activity of the day.