The negative and positive effects of outsourcing to developing Essay

The negative and positive effects of outsourcing to developing countries - Essay Example Outsourcing can be taken to refer to the downsizing of an organization's workforce, whereby those tasks previously performed by these individuals are alternatively performed by automation or the tasks are exported to another base for completion especially overseas where the tasks can be completed cheaply For instance, India and china are known to provide the largest pool of labour in the manufacturing industry, most notably the clothing industry. For the purpose of this report, however, outsourcing is defined as the provision of domestic tasks or assignments from internal production to an external organization particularly in the area of fashion (Eriksen, 2005). This definition can be supported by Ross (2004) who argues that many immigrants, especially from developing countries work in the apparel industry toiling in sweatshops where the violation of laws governing their wages, safety and child labour is rife (Ross, 2004). According to him, there are about a quarter million sweatshop workers in the United States all employing immigrants from the third world, hence producing a competitive race to the bottom among low-wage countries. Since its inception, therefore, outsourcing has become a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm (Haynes, 1999). Accordingly, it has brought about the growth of information technology, assisted globalization thereby generating multinational societies that have necessitated certain situations where stiff competition tends to take control of our lives (Eriksen, 2005). A manifestation of this cut- throat competition is witnessed in the frenzy with which research and development are occurring in business and most notable in fashion where trade mark names in the clothing industry are the order of the day. Take for instance labels like Van-Heusen, Marks and Spencer, Nike and Adidas just to mention but only a few. You are not fashionable if you don't don any of these household names (Rosen, 2002). Other areas where outsourcing is taking centre stage include computer programming positions, administrative works and production assignments, with third world countries such as India and China ending up being the highest end-users for this outsourced work (Haynes, 1999). The same competition is also found in the efforts shown by companies in cutting expenditure and attempting to offer the best of services ever, which has finally catapulted itself into outsourcing. This situation is becoming more frightening each waking day because more and more companies are emulating their rivals in business (Eriksen, 2005). On the other hand, outsourcing is considered by majority of business people as a win-win state of affairs but regrettably has not been always the case. In fact it is associated with plenty of shortcomings that are beyond the understanding of most people. The current major disadvantage of outsourcing is that the first world nations have policies in place governing outsourcing that are too inclined to one side to be able to offer a level playing ground for big and small companies alike, thus leaving the only alternative open for them to outsource (Haynes, 1999). Given that outsourcing generally leads to lowering of the prices for products and services, then most organisations are forced to outsource so as to remain in business. This outsourcing makes sure that products and services that are produced are both cheaper and of high quality and at the same time get better sales than those with only quality but costing a fortune, consequently making profits sky rocket (Haynes, 1999). Evidence available indicates that for the previous couple of years, the United States economy has emerged as a budding economy, significantly and irretrievably impacting strongly on the global market (Haynes, 1999). One of the most momentous impacts of this robust economy lies in the area of outsourcing to foreign countries. That is why the developed

Life as a Teenager in 2014 Essay Example for Free

Life as a Teenager in 2014 Essay When I was younger, I always thought my parents knew everything and were never wrong. I believed that they never made mistakes, they were too old and wise. The same went for my teachers, older members of our extended family and just adults in general. I felt so safe, comforted by the fact that they knew and were in control, so I didn’t have to be. The older I became, the more I realized how faulty my ideas were. I never did become any wiser as I grew up; I had information and data that bombarded my brain and knowledge on how I must act to be socially accepted. I was told what I could do and what I mustn’t do. Perhaps I do know more about life and the world, but I don’t understand it; perhaps that is for the better. I remember when I first heard the song ‘Teenagers’ by My Chemical Romance, and I began to think about the meaning behind it. ‘Theyre gonna clean up your looks†¨With all the lies in the books†¨To make a citizen out of you†¨Because they sleep with a gun†¨And keep an eye on you, son†¨So they can watch all the things you do Because the drugs never work†¨Theyre gonna give you a smirk†¨Cause they’ve got methods of keeping you clean†¨Theyre gonna rip up your heads†¨Your aspirations to shreds†¨Another cog in the murder machine They say that teenagers scare the living s*** out of me†¨They could care less as long as someonell bleed†¨So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose†¨Maybe theyll leave you alone, but not me The boys and girls in the clique†¨The awful names that they stick†¨Youre never gonna fit in much, kid†¨But if youre troubled and hurt†¨What you got under your shirt†¨Well make them pay for the things that they did’ The song did change my view on how teenagers are seen by society, but not in a way that I expected. I think that the singer, Gerard Way, is exploring how society wants to change teenagers to make them do as they are told and fit in and do well at school. However, the more they do this, the more teenagers rebel. In the chorus, Way expresses his fear of teenagers, of their tendency to perhaps be unpredictable and violent. ‘So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me’ I  think he is trying to put forward the idea that society might ignore them or leave them alone if they act threatening and imposing, but as he is an adult, he is expected to stay in line and meet the expectations of society. I think it’s difficult being a teenager. People don’t seem to realize or might have even forgotten. I am at the age where I am too old to rely on others and make mistakes but not old enough to take control of my life and look after myself. This time in my life that makes up my teenage years is important, and I want to make the most of that but I find myself overwhelmed by set backs and a severe lack of control. There are so many aspects of my life the government wants to control. They want to cram so many exams and so much work into these few short years of our lives that we find ourselves snowed under it all. It seems that these years of our lives are the most important. They define us and decide what our future holds. The pressure is on: if you fail your science G.C.S.E then you won’t be able to take it for A level. If you can’t take it for A level, you won’t be able to study it at university, or get a PHD, or ever become a doctor. The government has decided that exams mean everything. An A and an A* could mean the difference between your dream job and being unhappy for the rest of your life, stuck with a boring job that perhaps pays decently, becoming miserable and dying a failure. It’s too much. This has to be the reason why we find that more and more teenagers each year are turning to drugs, self harm, eating disorders and depression. Why does everyone question the rise in the number of these cases? Is it not obvious? Iâ€℠¢m sure it also has something to with the rise of the internet and everything that we are being exposed to. Quite frankly, we can’t cope with it. It seems that no one understands but teenagers themselves. Of course, it’s all quite a cliche to say that no one understands teenagers, but it does seem to be true. I wouldn’t say that all teenagers can’t cope and I realize that some cope better than others, but I know that our system isn’t working. Not the corrupt government with its exams and heavy pressure on students, and the not the corrupted internet with its social networking sites and pornographic images that seem to be everywhere. The adverts that tell us what a perfect person looks like are crushing and I find them insulting. There is a silent reminder that lingers in the air telling us to be normal, a clone of everyone else and to fit in. Some people come to a point in their life when they decide that enough  is enough and they wear what they want and act how they like. I have a theory that people are like sling shots: the more they are pulled back and restrained, the further they go when they are let go. They get to a point where they cannot be pulled back any further. This is when people pierce and tattoo their bodies or wear socially unacceptable clothing to show the world that they are not going to be told what to do. There are also the quiet ones who starve themselves to be in control, take drugs to take away the pain or self harm to prove that the pain they are feeling is not just in their heads, its real and they can control it. There are even people who work themselves sick to be in control of their future. What I find interesting is that every generation is different: each has its own pressures that differ from the last. Not long ago, I would have been expected to get married not too soon from now and raise a family, possibly with a man I didn’t even love. Only recently has homosexuality become socially and legally acceptable. So before, teenagers would have had trouble fitting in, or would have had to pretend to be heterosexual. We as teenagers never really have been in control and with a personality like mine, that can be extremely overwhelming. It seems now we are finding our voice and are able to express ourselves. I can see that there are positive aspects about being a teenager in this day and age: some of us turn to positive hobbies to take our minds off the stress of exams. More and more teenagers are relying on their great passion in life and developing it to take their mind off their diffic ulties. This might be music, cooking, writing, designing, drawing or sport. I still remember the first time I played the drums and I’ve never looked back. They made me love music even more and I started playing the guitar as well. I wrote songs and started to sing. Music became my obsession and it is one aspect of my life that I can control. I can do it myself without having to listen to the people who tell me what I should be listening to, what I should be playing or what I should be writing. I do believe that if nothing is going to change, then we all need something to turn to in life that reminds us we can cope. I know that it wouldn’t work for everyone, but perhaps people who take drugs could start drawing or painting. Instead of people focussing on their body weight they could start to cook their own food and be in control of that instead. People who self harm could write down their feelings or express it through music, or even go out and run off  their sadness. I think people need to remind themselves what makes them happy and if nothing does then they should find something. I know nothing will change for some time, but in the meantime we need to find a way to make the most of our teenage years.

Netflix Marketing Plan and SWOT Analysis

Netflix Marketing Plan and SWOT Analysis Brand or Company Description   Netflix is subscription service on the internet that offers a variety of TV shows and movies. Netflix is a forerunner in the internet delivery of TV shows and movies, launching its streaming service in 2007. Since this time, the company has developed a wide variety of internet-connected devices and has licensed increasing amounts of content that enable consumers to enjoy their favorite TV shows and movies no matter where they are at because they can access this content on their TVs, computers or mobile devices. As a result of these efforts, Netflix has experienced growing consumer acceptance of and interest in the delivery of TV shows and movies directly over the Internet (Netflix, 2018). Core Products or Services   Subscribers can watch unlimited TV shows and movies instantly. Content can be streamed over the Internet to their TVs, computers and mobile devices and, in the United States, subscribers can also receive standard definition DVDs, as well as Blu-ray discs, delivered  directly to their homes. Netflix markets its service through various channels, including online advertising, broad-based media, such as television and radio, as well as various strategic partnerships. In addition to various marketing strategies, the company offers free-trial memberships to new and rejoining members. According to Netflix, rejoining members are an important source of subscriber additions (Netflix, 2018). A Brief History   Netflix is an American entertainment company founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph  on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California. The company expanded into film in 2016 as well as television production and online distribution. The company is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. As of January 2016, Netflix is operating in over 190 countries and has greatly expanded the production of both film and television series. Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films in 2016, more than any other network or cable channel. As of January 2018, Netflix had 117.58 million paying subscribers worldwide, including 54.75 million in the United States (Netflix, 2018). Key current competitors   The market for entertainment video is competitive and changes rapidly. Competitors  have the ability to launch new businesses at relatively low costs. Many consumers maintain subscriptions to multiple entertainment video providers at once and can easily shift from one provider to another. Netflix competitors include multichannel video programming distributors with free TV everywhere and video-on-demand content including cable providers, such as Time Warner and Comcast. Direct broadcast satellite providers, such as DIRECTV and EchoStar, as well as telecommunication providers such as AT&T and Verizon, are also key competitors for Netflix. Internet movie and TV content providers, such as Apple’s iTunes, Amazon.com, Hulu.com and Google’s YouTube are also sources of competition.  DVD rental outlets such as Blockbuster and Red-box also are also included in the list of key competitors that Netflix faces (Netflix, 2018).  Ã‚   SWOT Analysis   SWOT Analysis: Strengths   1.  Brand Name   After ten years, Netflix has become the sole brand name for online streaming content with a share price increase of over 6000% since 2007 (Bradshaw  & Bond, 2017). Often consumers are much more likely to go with a brand name they know and trust than an off-brand that may or may not be a better value for their money. This is one way Netflix can capitalize and grow their business. Being the known familiar service provider puts them at a greater advantage of not only keeping their customers but attaining new ones. 2.  Large customer base Through serving 190 countries, Netflix has access to over 100 million subscribers. This strength gives the company bargaining power when in talks with studios to secure exclusive content (Bradshaw  & Bond, 2017).  The popularity and convenience of Netflix is one of its greatest strengths. This makes them able to accommodate and appeal to a very large customer base and has the ability to further expand and develop in more areas, including partnerships and expansions in various areas and with various companies in a variety of countries. Growth will likely continue as the company goes forward and continues to expand. Customers are opting for the convenience of consuming entertainment online and Netflix continues to expand internationally. 3.Original content Through careful acquisitions, Netflix have secured numerous original shows that have appealed to audiences. In 2017, two Netflix shows are so popular they have pushed subscribers from 83m to over 100m in one quarter (Bradshaw & Bond, 2017). The House of Cards was a game changer for Netflix. All episodes of the first season of the show were released at the same time, and the response of the critics was overwhelmingly positive. The House of Cards not only attracted many new users but also proved that the key to their customers’ loyalty is a unique and abundant content library. The company continues to working on adding new shows such as 30 kids’ shows, ten new feature films, 12 documentaries, and ten stand-up comedy specials (Netflix, 2018). SWOT Analysis: Weaknesses   1.  Cost of original content While its original content creates a competitive advantage for the company, the cost continues to grow  in order to  support this content. In 2017, it is expected for Netflix to invest $2.5 billion  solely on securing original content rights.  To keep prices competitively low, Netflix  will need  to find a balance between maintaining good relationships with the distributors and aggressively negotiating content licensing costs with them. This type of dependence can result in a vulnerability that could prove to be very costly (Bradshaw, 2017). 2.  Lack of rights to original content   Unlike many traditional television studios, Netflix does not own most of their original programming. Due to this, rights usually expire after a year and the original content can be shown on rival services (Bradshaw, 2017). This is an area that serves as a potential weakness especially related to retaining customers and keeping costs low. 3.  Environmental cost   Netflix has been ranked poorly in terms of environmental awareness. This has given them bad publicity for the company as rival competitors such as Amazon and Facebook use over 40% renewable energy with their services (Lewis, 2016). SWOT Analysis: Threats   1.  Increased competition Facebook is the latest to try and take on traditional media by launching its own original content. Amazon, Hulu, HBO, and YouTube are all competing for audiences to subscribe to their platforms. For Netflix, this will continue to develop as more companies seek to buy the latest original content exclusively for their platform (Bradshaw, 2017). 2.  Digital Piracy For more than 30 content providers, including Netflix, piracy has led to 5.4 billion  downloads of media content in 2016 alone. This threatens Netflixs business model and ability to fund content in the future (Opam, 2017). The ability for viewers to get the same content basically for free is a huge potential threat for Netflixs bottom line and ability to continue to dominate the market. SWOT Analysis: Opportunities   1.  Expansion into China Difficulties with licensing has left Netflix unable to enter China through traditional means. The company must find a joint-venture to capitalize on the 500 million  Chinese users who currently stream media content (Russell, 2017). 2.  Partnerships in Europe   To meet new European laws, Netflix can partner with the BBC and Canal Plus to gain access to a wealth of native-language European content and grow customers in local markets (Murgia & Bond, 2017). 3.  Growth of technology With the growth of streaming content, Netflix must continue to come up with new ways to allow customers to access their content and provide further competitive advantages. A growing market for content is foreign-language programming. Partnerships with local-language content will help Netflix to be able to be a rival for local streaming services and help them to be a leader among this (Mintel, 2016). Marketing Plan Focus   Based on my SWOT analysis, I believe there is an opportunity to expand internationally by partnering with telecommunications companies such as Samsung to make the application readily available for customers on their devices in overseas markets. For this marketing plan, I’ve come up with an idea to incorporate the Netflix application into Android devices. This would target a particular demographic, and could help to begin to solve the issues Netflix faces internationally. The app would have early childhood development movies and songs that would help little children and as well the already existing list of unending movie for all ages. Segmentation Approach   For this marketing plan, I’ve opted for a straightforward demographic approach to segmenting the market given my desire to target a specific age group. I considered a behavioral approach based on past purchase history as captured via use of the McDonald’s app. However, the app was only introduced in late 2015 and age is not captured in the registration process (unless a social media log ­in is used). Furthermore, I don’t want to limit my audience to just existing customers. Given the broad appeal of the McDonald’s concept and its national footprint, I did not feel geographic targeting or formal psychographic targeting was needed. Target Definition   My target for the Netflix K is families with young children and adolescents ranging from the age of 2 to 12 years old. An interest in learning and technology would allow for further media targeting. Positioning Statement   Netflix K A time for parents to have quality moments with their children while watching them learn, grow and excel academically in the privacy and comfort of home. Marketing Mix Discussion   Marketing Mix: Product This marketing plan is centered around education and the benefit of families coming together and sharing quality moments with the thrill of old favorites and new exciting learning opportunities. The core idea is to use advertisement to create awareness in between episodes and popups advertisement when the application is not in use or in between episodes when in use.   With the already exiting approach of having it available to Android devices it would help market itself by being readily available Marketing Mix: Price   Netflix strategy would be to retain its already existing customer base by offering 10% discounts on yearly subscriptions and 15% discount to customers that have been a Netflix member for more than 3 years. Included in the price new series would be offered at a 50% off rate compared to its competitors such as Hulu.com and Amazon Prime in order to be able to win and secure future customers. This is characterized as skimming as they are trying to take business from their competitors by offering the same service at a reduced rate. Marketing Mix: Promotion   In addition to the promotional pricing deal discussed above, there would be an opportunity to redeem a promotion code to save money on a family night out package based on local available retailers. This would be a way for Netflix to partner with local companies in order to help them gain acceptance internationally. Marketing Mix: Place   I would make use of a dedicated Netflix K microsite where customers could go to learn more about the promotion and app and to have the possibility to win promotion codes and save additional money on family nights out as well as the possibility of earning months free towards their Netflix subscription. This would also encourage additional downloads of the Netflix K app and promotion of a larger and growing customer base. Potential Success Metrics   Customer Satisfaction Knowing if people are actually satisfied with the service or product is very important.   Customer satisfaction can be a helpful metric in guiding a marketing campaign. Getting feedback directly from customer is an easy way to measure satisfaction. One way to do this would be to add a standard Google consumer survey to the app or site for free. With a few simple questions, you can find if  your customers are satisfied with the app or site, what they dont like about the app or site, and whether or not they will continue using the app. User Engagement   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tracking visits and signups is important, but focusing on how much time a user spends on your website or app is important as well. This has the ability to provide a realistic view and can base future success around this consideration. Progress It is always important to keep moving forward and having a forward momentum. If a company is making strong progress on a day to day basis, then it will likely be creating new opportunities and growing the business overall. This will allow the company to accomplish its overall goal and keep them on track. International Considerations   Netflix faces the challenge of being able to make their international segment profitable. Netflix will need to invest in local content and better streaming quality over low bandwidth connections in order to attract subscribers. Netflix will have to expand this base quickly in order to be able to recover the associated costs. Netflix will also have to consider the competition of other providers such as Amazon and YouTube who are also looking to capture this segment of the market. Another challenge Netflix faces related to international markets such as India, is lower internet penetration and existing connections with low bandwidth. These factors limit its target consumers in these countries to the small section of the population that have access to high speed internet. Viewing preferences is another consideration that will have to be addressed as these differ from country to country and even between different regions of the same country. In order to attract subscribers, Netflix needs to have a broad content library catering to the preferences of the diverse audience (Bradshaw & Bond, 2017). Conclusion   The Netflix K marketing plan should be approved for funding because it has the opportunity to generate a great deal of business and success in entering many foreign markets not previously entered in. Associating Netflix with current technology such as Samsung and then appealing to a customer base of families with children has the possibility of building a strong business base in this target population and areas abroad. This will also help build affinity and rapport with local businesses in foreign destinations helping Netflix to become a top international company not just a top American company. References Bradshaw, T. (2017) Netflix boosted as viewers outside the US tune in.  Financial Times.  Retrieved from   https://www.ft.com/content/e8c742f2-6b34-11e7-b9c7-15af748b60d0. Bradshaw, T., and Bond, S. (2017). Netflix looks to become worlds entertainer as it hits   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   milestone.  Financial Times.  Retrieved from   https://www.ft.com/content/06b55bb8-6d0c-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa. Lewis, D. (2016). Will the internet of things sacrifice or save the environment?  Guardian   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Business.  Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/dec/12/will-the-internet-of-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   things-sacrifice-or-save-the-environment. Mintel, J.  (2016). Music and Video Streaming-UK-April 2016.  Mintel Academic.  Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from  http://academic.mintel.com/display/770307/. Murgia, M., and Bond, D. (2017). Netflix seeks European crown in local content push.  Financial   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Times.  Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/c286c25e-04d5-11e7-aa5b-6bb07f5c8e12. Netflix Inc. business description. (2018).  CSIMarket.com.  Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from  https://csimarket.com/stocks/NFLX-Business-Description.html. Opam, K. (2017). HBO, Netflix, other Hollywood companies join forces to fight piracy.  The Verge.  Retreived from  https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15791688/hbo-netflix-hollywood-ace-fight-piracy. Russell, J. (2017). Netflix enters China via licensing deal with top video streaming service iQiyi.  Tech Crunch.  Retrieved from  https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/netflix-china-iqiyi/.

Essays --

Yiwu (China Commodity City) is located in the central area of Zhejiang province with a total land area of 1,105 square kilometers. The whole city governs 8 towns and 5 subdistricts, has a population of 670,000 registered as local domiciliary and 600,000 as external temporary Observation: †¢ Even after being such a big market, it was so well organized †¢ This was the main advantage for all the people requiring so many quantities at wholesale price †¢ This should be a learning for us B.2.8 KEQIAO TEXTILE MARKET: Shaoxing Keqiao textile town, known as China textile town Observation: †¢ It wasn’t a great experience for us †¢ And all the students were not happy as we were not expecting something like this CANTON TRADE FAIR: The Canton Fair is a trade fair held in the spring and autumn seasons each year since the spring of 1957 in Canton (Guangzhou, China). The Fair is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and People's Government of Guangdong Province, and organized by China Foreign Trade Centre. There are three phases per session; two sessions per year. Spring session: April 1...

Quick Books Essay

.Rissy Montoya Acct 31 Information Technology (IT) is a foundation for conducting business today. It plays a critical role in increasing productivity of firms and entire nation. It is proven that firms who invested in IT have experienced continued growth in productivity and efficiency. Many companies' survival and even existence without use of IT is unimaginable. IT has become the largest component of capital investment for companies in the United States and many other countries. Accounting/Finance application systems and QuickBooks let you manage your business with a little or no experience.All three application systems allow the users to manage the companies' capital including bookkeeping, inventory, non-inventory & service items, sales orders, purchase orders, and reports. It allows the companies to keep tracking of the financial assets and at the same time have the information the accountant needs. Using the accounting/finance application system, makes it easier to enter and proc ess the data rather than manually enter and process the data.. QuickBooks is an accounting software package which is developed by Intuit, Inc. It was launched in the 90's and since than it is one of the market leaders in accounting software.The software was designed to help the small business owners who had no formal accounting training. Very shortly after the introduction, there was no doubt that the product is going to be a hit. With a deep focus for the non-accountant, and a lower price than the competitor's products, it outsmarted its competitions. Intuit states that the company's mission is to create new ways to manage personal finances and small businesses that are so profound and simple, customers cannot Imagine going back to the old way QuickBooks created an application that is most commonly used accounting product for small businesses QuickBooks ProThe world today is in the computer age. Almost everyone now has a computer or access to a computer. Now that almost everyone kn ows how to use a computer, almost every business has one. Business’s before had to rely on people to do all the accounting by hand, and doing the accounting for a business used to take a lot of man-hours to complete. Business’s slowly moved into letting computers do a lot of the work for them, but they still had people to check on the computers because the applications that they were using would sometimes screw up and cause a lot of confusion or even loss of money.With the latest application QuickBooks Pro 2011, there is little need for any backup measures. This application does everything that the business needs to do, manage your business, track time, do payroll, develop estimates, and much more. QuickBooks Pro 2011 quickly finds the reports you need with the Report Finder, shows you critical information about your business at a glance with Company and Customer Centers, and track Features of QuickBooks that will help the company implement sound internal control polic ies and procedures; Access to accounting records should be limited to designated individuals.Once a transaction has been entered, the ability to change or delete it entirely should be limited to some other individual, preferably an accounting manager. Financial statements should be prepared monthly, with gross profit percentage and expense percentages, so that management can question apparent errors or omissions. The monthly financial statements should be comparative, i. e. show last year’s figures alongside this year’s, preferably with percentages as well as dollar amounts, to make apparent any significant variations in revenue or expense items that should be investigated for possible error or even fraud.Budgets should be prepared, and variances between actual and budgeted figures should be shown on budgetary income statements each month. The deficiencies with this program for internal control starts when you initially set up your accounts, you enter in your beginning account balance amounts (unless you are a brand new company with no activity). The problem is that if you do not input an amount, or input an amount correctly, the difference will go to Opening Balance Equity.If it is not fixed, it will stay there indefinitely. QuickBooks will allow you to enter a transaction for any date that you wish. While this is convenient for purposes of making projections, it can have bad consequences if you go backwards. QuickBooks retains every transaction you enter from the day you started using it. While this is useful to get historical information, on a practical basis, the file sizes can easily get large enough to be unmanageable and slow your computer. Conclucion

New Strongly Robust DWT Based Watermarking Algorithm Computer Science Essay

Abstract- In this paper we have presented two watermarking algorithms. First one is a new strongly robust strategy for right of first publication protection. This strategy is based on ‘Discrete Wavelet Transform ‘ , by implanting scrambled water line in HL subband at degree 3. Direct burdening factor is used in water line embedding and extraction procedure. This scheme consequences in exact recovery of water line with standard database images of size 512Ãâ€"512, giving Correlation Factor peers to 1. The Correlation Factor for different onslaughts like Noise add-on, Filtering, Rotation and Compression ranges from 0.90 to 0.95. The PSNR with burdening factor 0.02 is up to 48.53 dubnium. This is nonblind and embeds binary water line of 64Ãâ€"64 size. The 2nd technique is traditional method of watermarking. We besides tried to compare advanced strategy of first type with traditional method and recommended our advanced strategy. Keywords-DWT, Scrambling, Arnold Transform, Copyright.IntroductionIt has become a day-to-day demand to make transcript, transmit and distribute digital informations as a portion of widespread usage of multimedia engineering in cyberspace epoch. Hence right of first publication protection has become indispensable to avoid unauthorised reproduction job. Digital image watermarking provides right of first publication protection to image by concealing appropriate information in original image to declare rightful ownership [ 1 ] . Robustness, Perceptual transparence, capacity and Blind watermarking are four indispensable factors to find quality of watermarking strategy [ 4 ] [ 5 ] . Watermarking algorithms are loosely categorized as Spatial Domain Watermarking and Transformed domain watermarking. In spacial sphere, water line is embedded by straight modifying pel values of screen image. Least Significant Bit interpolation is illustration of spacial sphere watermarking. In Transform sphere, water line is inserted into transformed coefficients of image giving more information concealment capacity and more hardiness against watermarking onslaughts because information can be spread out to full image [ 1 ] . Watermarking utilizing Discrete Wavelet Transform, Discrete Cosine Transform, CDMA based Spread Spectrum Watermarking are illustrations of Transform Domain Watermarking. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section II focuses on study of bing digital image watermarking algorithms. Section III focuses on importance of Discrete Wavelet Transform. In subdivision IV, we have presented two watermarking strategies: In first strategy a new strongly robust DWT based algorithm is presented and 2nd strategy is traditional technique. Section V shows Experimental consequences after execution and Testing for both strategies. In subdivision VI, we have concluded and urge our foremost DWT based strategy.SurveyIn traditional watermarking attack some LSB based every bit good as watermarking methods with pseudo random generator are proposed [ 3 ] . In transform sphere methods, watermarking utilizing CWT, merely DWT, merely DCT or combined attack of DWT-DCT are proposed. In CWT, Calculating ripple coefficients at every possible graduated table is immense sum of work, and it generates a batch of informations. There is extremely excess information every bit per as the Reconstruction of the signal is concerned. Due to the attractive characteristics of Discrete Wavelet Transform, researches have been focused on DWT [ 15 ] . Wang Hongjun, Li Na have proposed a DWT based method [ 14 ] in which water line was embedded in in-between frequence coefficient utilizing I ± as flexing factor with I ± =I? |m| , where m is average value of all coefficients watermarking embedded. But this method does n't supply adequate security. The method proposed in [ 14 ] utilizing DWT was extended in [ 15 ] to heighten security of algorithm by utilizing Arnold ‘s Tran sform pretreatment for water line. But this method can be extended to better PSNR and security degrees. As given in [ 16 ] , two stage water line implanting procedure was carried out utilizing DWT. Phase 1: Visible water line logo embedding, Phase 2: Feature extracted water line logo implanting. The algorithm was based on Texture Based Watermarking. A Integer Wavelet Transform with Bit Plane complexness Segmentation is used with more informations concealment capacity. [ 2 ] . But this method needs separate processing for R, G and B constituents of colour image. As given in [ 17 ] utilizing DWT, host image is decomposed into 3 degrees recursively. In flat one we get 4 sub sets. In degree 2, each subband of degree 1 is divided to 4 bomber sets to give entire 16 bomber sets. Finally, each subband of degree 2 is once more divided into 4 sub sets each to give entire 64 bomber sets. Then ‘ Generic algorithm ‘ was applied to happen the best subband for water line implanting to supply perceptual transparence and hardiness. But the procedure is excessively drawn-out and clip consuming. The common job with DCT watermarking is block based grading of water line image alterations scaling factors block by block and consequences in ocular discontinuity. [ 1 ] [ 6 ] . As given in [ 13 ] , J. Cox et. Al had presented ‘Spread spectrum based watermarking strategies ‘ , Chris Shoemaker has developed.DISCRETE WAVELET TRANSFORMDWT has become research workers focus for watermarking as DWT is really similar to theoretical theoretical account of Human Visual System ( HVS ) . ISO has developed and generalized still image compaction criterion JPEG2000 which substitutes DWT for DCT. DWT offers mutiresolution representation of a image and DWT gives perfect Reconstruction of decomposed image. Discrete ripple can be represented as ( 1 ) For dyadic ripples a0 =2 and b0 =1, Hence we have, J, K ( 2 ) Image itself is considered as two dimensional signal. When image is passed through series of low base on balls and high base on balls filters, DWT decomposes the image into sub sets of different declarations [ 11 ] [ 12 ] . Decompositions can be done at different DWT degrees. Fig 1: Three Level Image Decomposition At degree 1, DWT decomposes image into four nonoverlapping multiresolution bomber sets: LLx ( Approximate sub set ) , HLx ( Horizontal subband ) , LHx ( Vertical subband ) and HHx ( Diagonal Subband ) . Here, LLx is low frequence constituent whereas HLx, LHx and HHx are high frequence ( item ) constituents [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] .To obtain following coarser graduated table of ripple coefficients after degree 1, the subband LL1 is further processed until concluding N graduated table reached. When N is reached, we have 3N+1 subbands with LLx ( Approximate Components. ) and HLx, LHx, HHx ( Detail constituents ) where ten scopes from 1 to N. Three degree image decomposition is shown in Fig:1. Implanting water line in low frequence coefficients can increase hardiness significantly but maximal energy of most of the natural images is concentrated in approximate ( LLx ) subband. Hence alteration in this low frequence subband will do terrible and unacceptable image debasement. Hence water line is non be embedded in LLx subband. The good countries for water line embedding are high frequence subbands ( HLx, LHx and HHx ) , because human bare eyes are non sensitive to these subbands. They yield effectual watermarking without being perceived by human eyes. But HHx subband includes borders and textures of the image. Hence HHx is besides excluded. Most of the watermarking algorithms have been failed to accomplish perceptual transparence and hardiness at the same time because these two demands are conflicting to each other. The remainder options are HLx and LHx. But Human Visual System ( HVS ) is more sensitive in horizontal than perpendicular. Hence Watermarking done in HLxOUR WATERMARKING METHODOLOGIESScheme-1This strategy is betterment of algorithm presented in 2008 by Na Li et. Al, given in [ 15 ] utilizing Discrete Wavelet Transform with Arnold Transform. The betterment is made in following facets: The security degree is increased by presenting â€Å" PN Sequence ‘ depe nding on Arnold cyclicity and depending on threshold value absolute difference of Arnold Transformed-Watermark-images is embedded. Alternatively of ciphering flexing factor related to intend value of coefficients of water line image, here straight appropriate weighting factor is selected. The Image decomposition is done with ‘Haar ‘ which is simple, symmetric and extraneous ripple. Watermark Scrambling: Watermark Scrambling is carried out through many stairss to better security degrees. Different methods can be used for image scrambling such as Fass Curve, Gray Code, Arnold Transform, Magic square etc. Here Arnold Transform is used. The particular belongings of Arnold Transform is that image comes to it ‘s original province after certain figure of loops. These ‘number of loops ‘ are called ‘Arnold Period ‘ or ‘Periodicity of Arnold Transform ‘ . The Arnold Transform of image is ( 3 ) Where, ( x, y ) = { 0,1, †¦ ..N } are pixel co-ordinates from original image. ( , ) : corresponding consequences after Arnold Transform. Cyclicity of Arnold Transform: The cyclicity of Arnold Transform ( P ) , is dependent on size of given image. From equation: 3 we have, ( 4 ) ( 5 ) If ( mod ( , N ) ==1 & A ; & A ; mod ( , N ) ==1 ) so P=N ( 6 ) Implanting Algorithm: Measure 1: Decompose the screen image utilizing simple ‘Haar ‘ Wavelet into four nonoverlapping multiresolution coefficient sets: LL1, HL1, LH1 and HH1. Measure 2: Perform 2nd degree DWT on LL1 to give 4 coefficients: LL2, HL2, LH2 and HH2. Measure 3: Repeat decomposition for LL2 to give following degree constituents: LL3, HL3, LH3 and HH3 as shown in fig 1. Measure 4: Find Arnold cyclicity ‘P ‘ of water line utilizing equation 6. Measure 5: Determine ‘KEY ‘ where. Then bring forth PN Sequence depending on ‘KEY ‘ and happen the amount of random sequence say SUM. Measure 6: If SUM & gt ; T where, T is some predefined Threshold value, so happen two scrambled images using Arnold Transform with KEY1 and KEY2, where, ,, .Now, Take absolute difference of two scrambled images to give ‘Final Scrambled image ‘ . Measure 7: If SUM & lt ; T, so use Arnold Transform straight to watermark image with ‘KEY ‘ to acquire ‘Final Scrambled image ‘ . Measure 8: Add ‘Final Scrambled image ‘ to HL3 coefficients of screen image as follows: ( 7 ) Where, K1 is burdening factor, New_HL3 ( I, J ) is freshly calculated coefficients of level3, Watermark ( I, J ) is ‘Final Scrambled image ‘ . Measure 9: Take IDWT at Level3, Level2 and Level1 consecutive to acquire ‘Watermarked Image. Extraction Algorithm: The proposed method is nonblind. Hence the original image is required for extraction procedure. The simple algorithmic stairss are applied are given below. Measure 1: Decompose Cover image utilizing ‘Haar ‘ ripple up to 3 degrees to acquire HL3 Coefficients. Measure 2: Decompose ‘Watermarked Image ‘ utilizing ‘Haar ‘ ripple up to 3 degrees to acquire HL3 ‘ . Measure 3: Apply Extraction expression as follows: ( 8 ) If Otherwise Measure 4: Perform ‘Image Scrambling ‘ utilizing ‘Arnold Transform ‘ with ‘ KEY ‘ that we had used in implanting procedure to retrieve the Watermark. Figure: 2 Watermark Embedding Figure: 3 Watermark ExtractionScheme-2This spacial sphere, watermarking is traditional strategy of watermarking. Here water line is embedded by straight modifying pel values of screen image as given below. Watermark Embedding Measure 1. Read grey scale Cover Image and Watermark. Step2.Consider double star of pel values of Cover Image and do it ‘s n Least Significant Bits 0 e.g. For n=4, Binary of 143= & gt ; 10001111 and Making 4 LSB 0 = & gt ; 10000000= & gt ; 128 is denary equivalent. Measure: 3 Consider double star of pel values of Watermark and right displacement by K spots where k=8-n. For n=4, K will be 4. Binary of 36= & gt ; 100100 and after right displacement by 4: 000010= & gt ; 2 is denary equivalent Measure 4: Add consequence of measure 1 and step 2 to give watermarked image. E.g. Add 128+2= & gt ; 130. This gives pixel value of watermarked image= & gt ; 10000010 Figure: 4 Pixel of Cover image ( Original Image ) , Watermark, Watermarked Image and Extracted Watermark Watermark Extraction: Take pels of watermarked Image and left displacement by K spots where k=8-n. e.g. Left displacement by 4= & gt ; 00100000 = & gt ; 32. This gives pels of Extracted Watermark. The sample values of Pixel of Cover image, Watermark, Watermarked_Image and Extracted Watermark are shown in fig.4.EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AFTER IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTINGConsequences of Scheme- 1: The undertaking is implemented in Matlab and standard database images with 512Ãâ€"512 sizes as screen image and 64Ãâ€"64 size binary water line images are used for proving. The public presentation Evaluation is done by two public presentation rating prosodies: Perceptual transparence and Robustness. Perceptual transparence means sensed quality of image should non be destroyed by presence of water line. The quality of watermarked image is measured by PSNR. Bigger is PSNR, better is quality of watermarked image. PSNR for image with size M x N is given by: ( 9 ) Where, degree Fahrenheit ( one, J ) is pixel grey values of original image. degree Fahrenheit ‘ ( I, J ) is pixel grey values of watermarked image. MaxI is the maximal pixel value of image which is equal to 255 for grey graduated table image where pels are represented with 8 spots. Robustness is step of unsusceptibility of water line against efforts to take or destruct it by image alteration and use like compaction, filtering, rotary motion, grading, hit onslaughts, resizing, cropping etc. It is measured in footings of correlativity factor. The correlativity factor measures the similarity and difference between original ‘watermark and extracted water line. It ‘ value is by and large 0 to 1. Ideally it should be 1 but the value 0.75 is acceptable. Robustness is given by: ( 10 ) Where, N is figure of pels in water line, wi is original water line, Wisconsin ‘ is extracted water line. Fig 5 ( a ) Cover Image ( B ) Watermarked Image ( degree Celsius ) Recovered Watermark Here, we are acquiring PSNR 48.53 dubnium and =1, for burdening factor K1=0.02. The PSNR and for ‘standard database images ‘ with coeresponding trial image and recovered water lines are shown in Table 1. The grey scale ‘lena ‘ image is tested for assorted onslaughts given in Table 2. Here, we are acquiring within scope of 0.90-0.95 for assorted onslaughts. This shows that ‘watermark recovery ‘ is satisfactory under different onslaughts. Table 1: Experimental consequences for standard database images with size 512Ãâ€"512 Table 2: Experimental consequences for assorted onslaughts with K1=0.07, ‘Lena ‘ image, size 512Ãâ€"512 Consequences of Scheme- 2: This algorithm has simple execution logic. We have tested with PSNR less than 23 for different onslaughts as shown in figure 6. Figure: 6: Experimental consequences with PSNR for Noise Attacks with assorted strengths.CONCLUSION.First strategy presented here is a new strongly robust ‘Digital Image Watermarking ‘ with increased security degrees and bring forthing exact recovery of original water line for standard image database, giving correlativity factor peers to 1 and PSNR up to 48.53 dubnium. Experimental consequences have demonstrated that, this technique is really effectual back uping more security. As per ISO ‘s norms, the still Image Compression criterion JPEG2000 has replaced Discrete Cosine Transform by Discrete Wavelet Transform. This is the ground why more research workers are concentrating on DWT, which we have used for execution. The presented ‘Digital Image Watermarking ‘ methodological analysis can be extended for ‘color images and pictures ‘ for hallmark and right of first publication protection. Hence we are strongly urging our DWT based strategy which is presented here.RecognitionWe are grateful to BCUD, Un iversity of Pune for supplying ‘Research Grant ‘ for the undertaking â€Å" Transformed based strongly Robust Digital Image Watermarking † in academic twelvemonth 2010-2011.

Labeling Theory Essays - Criminology, Social Philosophy, Free Essays

Labeling Theory Essays - Criminology, Social Philosophy, Free Essays Labeling Theory Labeling Theory Labeling theory is associated with Howard Becket and was introduced in 1963. Labeling theory is the theory of deviance that views deviance as a label assigned to behavior and individuals by particular figures of authority. That means that no one is actually a deviant and no action is deviant unless specified by society. The acts that are considered deviant today, may be acceptable or even normal tomorrow or in another part of the world. This theory doesnt plausibly explain Nevet and Begonias behavior. Strain Theory French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858 1917) used the term anomie to describe a state of normlessness in society, when many people are unclear as to the expectations others have of them (Durkheim, 1951). The importance of Durkheims study for an understanding of deviance is his focus on the way a society can actually create strains in the lives of its individual members. Anomie theory in essence states that deviant behavior is encouraged by strains builkt into the very fabric or society. Durkheims concept was borrowed from American sociologist Robert Merton in his study of deviance. Merton (1956) analyzed societal strains by pointing out the variety of ways that people might respond to such strain. As the strains occur in all walks of life so too do the (often-deviant) adaptations. The rebellion response to strain explains Nevet and Begonias action by offering that they were encouraged to act deviantly because there was so much strain of them to be perfect

Dissertation Paper

Dissertation Paper Dissertation Paper Dissertation Paper University students sometimes feel lost and frustrated when they face the necessity of writing a dissertation paper. Really, this task is a complicated one; it takes a lot of time and effort to write a dissertation. Anyway, you have no other way out except of start work. Do not give up, as you are well prepared to take the challenge. In this paper you will find some useful tips on how to start work. Choose your topic According to the Asian saying, the first step is half of the way. For you this first step, choosing your topic, is genuinely important. It depends on your choice whether your work will be interesting for you or boring, whether it will be easy or difficult to find data for your dissertation paper, and, finally, whether the staff will be willing to help you. You will perhaps need to have some preliminary reading around your topic before you make your choice. But do not waste your time, it is no use skipping from one topic to another. When you think th at you have found what you need, consult the staff. It is very important to find a supervisor, having a deep knowledge of the subject, who will be willing to help you. Make a rough timetable of your work It might be not very easy to plan the work on your dissertation paper, which will last for months. Students sometimes rush to start their work, but they do not know where to go. That is why they may, for example, spend lots of time gathering evidence, but they will be extremely short of time when it comes to bibliography. Still, it is better to prepare your timetable at the very beginning of your work, as it will protect you from sleepless nights before the final deadline. Consult your supervisor You know that your dissertation paper is assigned to you to provide you with the opportunity to develop your intellectual skills. Some students think that they can work absolutely independently. Others just do not know how to cope with this task and do not do anything. Both of them ar e wrong, as avoiding the supervisor is a very big mistake. If you want your dissertation paper to bring you the highest possible mark, consult your supervisor whenever you need professional help. Well, we hope that creating a dissertation paper will be the most interesting and fruitful experience in your studies.

A Definite Difference of Opinions Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

A Definite Difference of Opinions During the development of the young country of the United States of America, everyone had the ability to include their opinions on any subject. But many times, only a few voices were actually listened to. In this case Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, and Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist, were two of the most prominent people in the production of this government. Although disagreement was very common with these two, their contradictions definitely attributed to the development of America. During the first term of presidency Alexander Hamilton had the advantage over Jefferson since he was a great ally with the president George Washington. At this time Hamilton was chosen as the Secretary of Treasury, which was an important job. Hamilton created financial plans that would supposedly clear the debt of the United States. During one situation, Hamilton produced a deal with Jefferson and his Republican friends that moved the nations capitol to Philadelphia. But that was one of the very few agreements between the two. One very popular debate occurred soon after the nations capitol moved. It is referred to as the debate between a "broad" and a "strict" construction of the new Constitution. Hamilton came up with a bank proposal that would produce banks around the country. Hamiltons idea was to keep the current of commerce flowing, and to keep business leaders happy by building a bank capitol. Thomas Jefferson was in great opposition to this idea. He and his friends explained that they did not want a country fill with cities, mills, mines, and factories; they would much rather see the farming production prosper in this country. Jefferson and his colleagues had bent their ideas with the national and state debts, but in no way would they receive the bank proposal lying down. They complained that the Constitution did not give Congress power to build banks; therefore, they should not be permitted. Hamilton, on the hand, explained that the Constitution stated that the government would pr! oduce a proper way of managing money, which the bank was for. George Washington believed arguments by both Hamilton and Jefferson, but he decided to sign the bill. As a result, economy was greatly affected in Americas development. Another great disagreement between the two was the whole idea of foreign affairs. The Federalists, led by Hamilton, supposedly believed that they should have never broken from the great empire. In times of war they repeatedly showed favoritism to Great Britain, the supposed enemies. The Republicans, led by Jefferson and Madison, favored the country of France and the common citizens of the country. They influenced the common people of France to overthrow the French Nobility. A third difference of opinion centered around life styles of the American people. Basically Jefferson despised the idea of a New York City kind of country, he believed it would bring crime and other consequences. Jefferson wanted a more of a Wisconsin type of country, where everyone owned their own land and had their own type of freedom. Hamilton and the Federalists had totally different beliefs, wanting cities and factories in the country. After the election of John Adams in 1796 differences between the ideas of Jefferson and Hamilton grew larger. The acts produced by the Federalist party deeply troubled Jefferson and the Republicans. Although a little harsh, the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, produced a way for the Federalists to revolt against Republican opposition and to increase power for themselves. These acts did not permit anyone to criticize the government at all, through writing, or any other way. It also extended the time to become an American citizen, since the Federalists believed that most of the foreigners would become Republicans. This deeply troubled Jefferson and Madison, but they had to find a way to fight back for the Republicans. Jefferson reacted with the production of the Kentucky Resolutions, which permitted states the power to judge a bill or law, unconstitutional, or invalid. This allowed the states to control the laws that would circulate their area. This, and other reactions ! by the Republicans contradicted the acts produced by the Federalists and almost equalized power on both sides. As you can see, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson argued about many subjects to

Conflict and Ethical Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conflict and Ethical Issues - Essay Example The federal agency approaches banks, telecom agencies etc. to go to the bottom of the plans. And thus the process of further investigation begins. Now there's one very crucial issue which gets overlooked in this episode. The conspiring guys could be just a small group of people and the federal agency ends up with huge personal data of thousands/ millions. For the sake of argument we can even think that at the leisure time federal agency people would start monitoring the intimate bedtime telephonic conversation/ net-chatting between two renowned Hollywood actors/ actresses or two well known republicans/ congressmen. This conversation could then be recorded and next morning the tabloids would be full of hot stories. Well, the federal agency would never come out with assurances that they won't allow this to happen and maintain the privacy of all such 'monitored' people, for the simple reason that they will never admit of having any such data.

Analysis of Existentialist Philosophy by Sartre Literature review

Analysis of Existentialist Philosophy by Sartre - Literature review Example This is the responsibility of authenticity, realizing one's being and acting in good faith (Brown, 1948). These three propositions are reflected in Frank O'Connor's "Guests of the Nation" and Albert Camus' "The Guest." O'Connor and Camus highlight the absurdity of the universe and show how the failure to make choices which reflect authentic being, leads to existentialist suffering. The titles of both short stories express the theme of absurdity. In O'Connor's story, the two Englishmen are war hostages, the prisoners of the Irish soldiers, Donovan, Noble and Bonaparte and certainly not "guests of the nation." In Albert Camus' "The Guest," the reader questions the identity of the guest. Is it Daru, the European who has no other home than Algeria; Balducci, the military police officer who personifies French authority and colonial power; or is it the Arab, for whom Algeria is the home of his ancestors and his homeland. By making readers question the nature of the guest, host, enemy, friend relationship, both O'Connor and Camus draw attention to the absurdity of allowing politics, rather than our nature, to dictate our relationship with others. The absurdity of trying to impose political meaning on relationships is highlighted in "Guests of the Nation." Belcher and Hawkins, officially war hostages, were, however, treated as guests and as friends, a fact which makes their execution all the more absurd horrendous. As Bonaparte says, "after the first day or two we gave up all pretense of keeping a close eye on them." (Reference) They did not need to keep a close eye on Belcher and Hawkins because they had become part of the surroundings and had integrated into the community. They were not, on the human and interpersonal level, enemies. The absurdity of war had made them enemies and when they were able to leave the war behind them, even if temporarily, they became friends. This makes their execution all the more absurd because, at the end of the day, there is no reason for executing these two men. It is not the senselessness of the act which incites the existential suffering in the Irish soldiers because existentialist philosophy is premised upon an acknowledgment of the inherent absurdity of life. Instead, suffering is an outcome of the fact that their participation in the execution was not something which agreed with them. At some deep, internal level, the soldiers objected to the executions but carried them out, thereby failing to act authentically. The futility of existence and the absurdist nature of the universe are further reflected in the theme of senseless deaths. Camus's "The Guest" is set in Algeria but of the three main characters, only the Arab is Algerian.  

Engineering drawings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Were West Memphis Three Innocent Research Paper

Were West Memphis Three Innocent - Research Paper Example The initial attempts to find the boys were halfhearted and hasty at best and nothing was located on the first day. The search was continued in the morning the next day and the bodies of the three young boys were found around midday on May 6, 1993 naked, hogtied and dumped in a ditch. One of them had had his genital mutilated; all three had been victims to knife wounds and other lacerations. Further examination of the bodies showed that the boys had been subjected to mutilation before they were killed. Cause of death was determined to be mutilation and drowning. The prosecuting party said that the murders had been committed for a satanic ritual and that Echols was the ring leader. The satanic spin given to the case by the prosecution served to really sensationalize the case in public forums and among the people in general. Echols was subsequently sentenced to the death penalty and Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences. The ‘West Memphis Three’ spent close to tw o decades in jail before a judge finally accepted their Alford plea and set them free by which time they had spent most of their youth serving behind bars for a crime they did not commit (Sharon 2012; BBC News 2011). When presented with the raw facts, how, one may ask, were three people convicted for such a heinous crime set free just like that almost two decades later? There are actually many possible concrete reasons which emerged in these 20 years and enabled Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin to walk out of the courtroom as free men in 2011. And these are precisely the reasons that I think these men were innocent. And for this reason I will further elaborate upon them in the paper below (BBC News 2011). If the evidence against the ‘West Memphis Three’ is looked at thoroughly and from all the different angles and perspectives, it can be seen that there was a severe lack of concrete physical evidence linking the three men with the three gruesome murders. DNA testing wasnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t an option back then so the police couldn’t possibly have any solid connection between the victims and the men convicted for the murders. It is also to be noted that no personal belongings, blood, skin or hair specimens from the convicted men were found on the victims and furthermore there were no eye witnesses to the crime itself. These three kids were at best fairly inexperienced rookies and would have left behind clues linking them to the murder without a doubt had they committed this crime. This level of scrupulousness in the crime where no clue was left behind indicated the work of an expert criminal, one who knew what they were doing and how to go about doing it. Somebody like that would have left no clues behind, but somebody like that did not fit the description or demographical criteria of these young men (CNN Blog 2011; Elizebath 2011). A defense attorney for the three men said that another reason the blame was pinned on Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin could have been because they were considerably effortless targets. Another reason that is very closely linked with the first one is that during the initial investigations in 1993 these three young men were the best suspects, and for the police to be able to convict them would make a neat little ending to a horrific murder case. Moreover these men were by far the police’s best suspects to pin this crime on. Also, during initial investigations the case was handled in a hasty and disinterested manner where a lot of details were overlooked in the smoked fuelled by the fire of

Taylors Law and the Right to Strike by Public Employees Research Paper

Taylors Law and the Right to Strike by Public Employees - Research Paper Example The law states that the public employers should negotiate and enter into agreements with the unions regarding the terms and conditions of employing their employees. The law highlights the procedures to resolute collective bargaining disputes as well as defines and prohibits any improper practices conducted by public employers and union. Taylor Law strictly prohibits strikes by public employees and establishes a state agency known as the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) that is responsible for administering the law (PERB 2013). While the statements which are asserted are not conclusive regarding the existence of such a right, there is an immediate need to inquire and determine whether a right to strike exists or not. Discussion Right to Strike by Public Employees Strikes are collective actions which are taken by workers as a means of safeguarding their interest (Swiatkowski 2005, 285). Over the last six decades, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has recognized that th ere is a positive right to strike by public employees that are inextricably interlinked to and an unavoidable consequence of the right to freedom of association (Bellace 2013, 2). According to Samuelsen (2012), the right of public employee unions to bargain collectively is being challenged aggressively by Conservative politicians and media. In the United States of America, both the Republican and Democratic Government have collectively supported the regulations (bills) that put restrictions on what unions can bargain for and have bludgeoned public workers into massive cuts. Under the impression of the freedom of association, it was witnessed quite frequently that workers joined together to demand better terms of employment from their employers. If the employer refrained from agreeing to their demands then workers usually resorted to some form of industrial actions such as strikes, boycotts or picketing in order to put pressure on the employee to meet their demands (Bellace 2013, 6-7 ). Every public employee does deserve the right to strike in order to prevent themselves from being exploited by their superior or employer. It is of utmost importance to demonstrate disagreement in situations where excessive domination is done by the employers (Lacampagne 1983, 510). Milne (2011) explains that there are five reasons why public service workers have the right to strike. The author explains that the government is trying to exploit the employees by trying to make most pay more and work longer for less even after the month’s modest concessions. The author explained that this practice is being done by the government not to fund pensions because people are living longer, but to help bail out banks by paying the deficit when an economic crisis is triggered.

Engineering drawings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Engineering drawings - Essay Example These manuscripts speak about the science of mechanics, laws of movement. The manuscripts give details about how Leonardo understood each small components individually that goes into the making of big machines. When he studied screws, he studied its varied forms and methods to fabricate them. In this list are the components such as hoists, rollers, pulleys, flywheel, winches and many more. It is his remarkable understanding of these components in those days that made it possible for him to create many functional machine designs. War Machines Leonardo developed many war machines when he was in the long service of Lodoviko Sforza, a duke at Milan. He displayed his abilities as a civil and mechanical engineer designing many useful devices. Some of the devices such as cannons, a giant wheel were developed by him as his military activities during the time. Leonardo developed a drawing of a bridge as a civil engineering project that spanned 240 meter. Though its real construction never mat erialized, it continued to inspire engineers that followed him. His note books spoke about war machines that included a tank that could be operated through crank shafts. The design and mechanics though were not fully developed – perhaps his intention was not to allow it to fall in the hands of wrong people. He developed cannons that would spew small pebbles on the enemy to prevent them inflicting a frontal attack. A Device Resembling Flywheel Leonardo designed an engine kind device that is currently known as flywheel and crank. It is important to note here that when James Watt developed a steam engine, he never made use of flywheel – a wheel that provides high angular momentum. It was much later that a design expert added flywheel to achieve steadiness in the shaft operation. A Device for Lifting Loads Lifting loads has been always a most cherished requirement of humans since time immemorial. No wonder than that Leonard worked on a system to lift heavy loads. What he d esigned in those days is known as the worm gear in current parlance. The device employed an endless screw that is turned by a crank to mesh with the teeth of a gear rotating and raising the load. His device provides more safety that usually a single tooth gear design lacks. Worm gear as prevalent in current times came into existence much later. That shows Leonardo’s genius in designing a device that has hundreds of application in the modern machines including analog clocks. Bicycle Design One of the vehicle designs that he has drawn is a two-wheeled vehicle with spokes. Two wheels are joined by a single rod gives an indication that his vehicle takes a shape of a bicycle for an easy movement by humans. Rear wheel is attached to a cogged-wheel through a chain and cogged-wheel has pedals as found in the modern bicycles in current times. Flying Design He studied motion and movements in depth. While building canals and locks he tried to understand the water flow and whirlpools. In the same way, he tried to understand the flying of birds – the operations and anatomy of the wing. That helped him to build flying designs. Many of the Leonardo's drawings present theoretical understandings or initial intuitions before an idea takes some concrete shape. One of the design looks like a helicopter provided with a huge spiral. It is not understood what idea he had in his mind to

Taylors Law and the Right to Strike by Public Employees Research Paper

Taylors Law and the Right to Strike by Public Employees - Research Paper Example The law states that the public employers should negotiate and enter into agreements with the unions regarding the terms and conditions of employing their employees. The law highlights the procedures to resolute collective bargaining disputes as well as defines and prohibits any improper practices conducted by public employers and union. Taylor Law strictly prohibits strikes by public employees and establishes a state agency known as the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) that is responsible for administering the law (PERB 2013). While the statements which are asserted are not conclusive regarding the existence of such a right, there is an immediate need to inquire and determine whether a right to strike exists or not. Discussion Right to Strike by Public Employees Strikes are collective actions which are taken by workers as a means of safeguarding their interest (Swiatkowski 2005, 285). Over the last six decades, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has recognized that th ere is a positive right to strike by public employees that are inextricably interlinked to and an unavoidable consequence of the right to freedom of association (Bellace 2013, 2). According to Samuelsen (2012), the right of public employee unions to bargain collectively is being challenged aggressively by Conservative politicians and media. In the United States of America, both the Republican and Democratic Government have collectively supported the regulations (bills) that put restrictions on what unions can bargain for and have bludgeoned public workers into massive cuts. Under the impression of the freedom of association, it was witnessed quite frequently that workers joined together to demand better terms of employment from their employers. If the employer refrained from agreeing to their demands then workers usually resorted to some form of industrial actions such as strikes, boycotts or picketing in order to put pressure on the employee to meet their demands (Bellace 2013, 6-7 ). Every public employee does deserve the right to strike in order to prevent themselves from being exploited by their superior or employer. It is of utmost importance to demonstrate disagreement in situations where excessive domination is done by the employers (Lacampagne 1983, 510). Milne (2011) explains that there are five reasons why public service workers have the right to strike. The author explains that the government is trying to exploit the employees by trying to make most pay more and work longer for less even after the month’s modest concessions. The author explained that this practice is being done by the government not to fund pensions because people are living longer, but to help bail out banks by paying the deficit when an economic crisis is triggered.

Human Resources Management in Business Essay Example for Free

Human Resources Management in Business Essay Human resources department is a part of business that deals with its staff. The department is seen as part of strategic management, in the effort to achieve the goals of the business, and is crucial to the businesss success. Some of the human resources departments responsibilities include recruitment, retention, selection, job enlargement/enrichment, motivation and leadership, job role allocations, training, and payroll appraisals. The departments decisions are influenced by, however, internal issues for workforce planning. One of the issues could be the cost of its operations. The business would want to minimize cost, so any decisions made by Human resources should be cost-effective. Another issue could be the companys business strategy, for example when the company want to expand, the Human resources department would have to recruit more employees; if the company wants to cut costs and increase profit, the department would have to consider reducing the number of staff. It is also responsible for training current employees for any new equipments. There are also external factors that affect how workforce planning is carried out. These external factors include government actions that affect the business environment. For example, the government can impose new minimum wages that would increase the Human resources departments spending on wages payment. The education situation of the country can also affect Human resources, as education is the means that workers gain their skills; without proper education, Human resources wouldnt be able to recruit highly skilled workers without paying large salaries or recruit foreign nationals. An important external factor is the economic situation of the economy. If unemployment rates are high, Human resources would be able to recruit new employees much easier and cheaper than when the economy is in boom, which makes labour more expensive. The age ranges of the labour force can affect Human resources decisions, since they dont want to recruit too old of employees who are going to retire soon. The business often want more young employees who can potentially contribute to the company for a long period of time, and can also be more innovative. Another external factor is technology advancements, as this may result in the introduction of new equipments into the company. The Human resources department would then have to organise training for their current staff to enable them to work with the newly acquired machineries. There are many benefits to Human Resources planning. One of the most important purpose of the Human Resources department is to motivate staff. This can be done by means of promotions, training, and rewards. Another benefit is that Human Resources help import important skills into the business through the process of recruitment. Human Resources would compose a recruitment process that selects the right people for the business. Without a Human Resources department, a firm cannot efficiently recruit employees that they need. Also, the department helps the business plan the right number of workers. They make sure that there are no redundancy or shortages of labour in the company, and if there is any, Human Resources would fix this either by cutting or recruiting staff. Human Resources department also ensures smooth operations in regards to labour management. This means they make sure that employees arrive when they are needed, and are allocated to the right tasks, and that each workers know their role within the business. In addition, they resolve whatever arguments that may arise between the workers and company management, making sure that the employees are clear of company regulations, and that management are clear of their workers conditions. Finally, the Human Resources department ensures that no laws are broken in regards to labour employment. For example, the recruitment process must not violate discrimination laws. All necessary laws are briefed to staff to ensure no illegal activities are conducted within the company. Before selecting staff for any position, key skills needed for that particular job need to be identified, creating a list of criteria for candidate selection. British Sugar is one of the largest provider of sugar products in the UK. Their Human Resources department has been directed to recruit three new production managers, as part of the companys expansion project in China. The Human Resources department has identified the key skills for a potential production manager: Confidence: the manager needs to be confident in handling large responsibilities, whether it be meeting production deadlines, ensuring worker safety etc. They need confidence to be able to make decisive actions, taking the initiative without too much dependence on higher directives. As they direct the production process, confidence is also needed for negotiating with suppliers, making the best deals for the factory. Technical skills: a production manager has to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the production technology of their factory, to be able to understand and resolve technical problems should they arise. Technical knowledge of a manager does not have to be detailed, but must be sufficient to issue correct directives to the factorys engineer force. High technical skills is preferred, as the manager will be more likely to be innovative in improving production methods of the firm. Communication skills: a good production manager is able to communicate to all different divisions of the company. They are quick to absorb information from different levels of the company, whether it be top management or floor workers, and then provide quick and effective feedback. Communication skills are crucial in a manager, as it helps him ensure the coordination between different elements of the company. Problem-solving skills: the production manager should be able to independently deal with problems within their factory. They will be extremely resourceful in coordinating factory or company-level efforts to solve problems. This requires an intelligent person that can improvise upon their resources to damage-control and reverse the problem and put the factory back onto its original course. Motivating staff is an important part of company operation, as it ensure the employees do their best and be productive while working for the company. There is a variety of reasons why employees would want to work harder in their working environment. Such reasons could be money, bonuses, power, working with friends, social aspects of work, the need to provide for family, promotion, team work, and promotion. Frederick Taylor’s theory of motivation simply stated that all workers are worked by money. This means that in order to better motivate employees, the employer simply just has to raise their pay, and this would make them work harder. Taylor introduced the Theory of Scientific Management, which said that workers are naturally lazy and need close supervisions and control. The theory also says that managers should break down work to the simplest tasks to their employees. Workers also need adequate training and equipment to perform their simple tasks as efficiently as possible, then they would be paid according to the amount of products they had produced. The theory is often applied in mass production lines which involves repetitive tasks. Elton Mayo later introduced a new theory of motivation of his own. He believed that money is only part of the worker’s concern, and social needs are more important in motivating workers at their work place. Mayo published the Human Relation school of thought, which encourage managers to focus more on social interactions between workers. Mayo went further in his studies and conducted his own experiment at the Hawthorne factory in Chicago. From these series of experiments, he concluded that although physical conditions worsened, they do not affect the productivity of the Hawthorne workers. Instead, social factors such as better communication between workers and managers, better involvement in employees’ lives from their manager, and team work was what improved productivity levels. In the 1950s, Abraham Maslow introduced the Neo-Human Relation school of thought. This new theory focus on the employee’s psychological needs, which are structured into five different levels of needs. The theory says that once a lower level of needs is satisfied, would then the worker could be motivated by an upper level of needs. These levels of needs in lower to higher order are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualisation respectively. Managers also need to realise that each worker moves up this ladder at a different pace, and therefore might need different sets of incentives from worker to worker. In financial-related type of motivations, the most common motivation is salaries and wages. Salaries are what permanent employees are paid monthly or annually. Wages, on the other hand, is what is paid to workers per hour they have worked. These can motivate the employees, for the harder they work, the more they would earn. A piece rate system is when an employee is paid a fixed rate for each unit of production; In other words, they are paid by results, which motivate them to achieve better results. Commission and fees are similarly dependent on the results of the workers. Commission is a percentage of the sale revenue, and fees are fixed amounts that are earned after sale. The more the employee sells, the more commission or fees they get, motivating them to sell more. Fringe benefits are any non-wage payment or benefit such as pension plans, profit-sharing programs, vacation pay, and company-paid life, health, and unemployment insurance. Having these extra benefit with their jobs can make the employees feel more secure and work harder. Performance-related pay or pay by performance is money paid relating to how well the employee works. This would motivate them by giving them knowledge that the better they perform in their field, the better their assessment would be and the more they would be paid. Profit sharing is another way of motivating staff, it consists of a plan that gives employees a share in the profit of the company. Each employee receives a percentage of those profit based on the companys earnings. This makes staff work harder, knowing the more their company earns, the more they would get in shared profit. Share ownership is when employees who have worked in the company for a long time are given part of the business as shares. These shares would give the employees power, and they get to take part deciding how the company is run. Other than financial motivations, there are non-financial ones that could boost motivation while costing minimal for the business. Job redesign involves restructuring the elements including tasks, duties and responsibilities of a specific job in order to make it more encouraging and inspiring for the employees. Job enlargement is basically increasing the employees work load, so that they feel more responsible and work harder. Job rotation is when employees are moved between two or more jobs in a planned manner. The purpose of this is to expose the employees to different experiences and wider variety of skills to enhance job satisfaction and to cross-train them. Job enrichment is a variation of job enlargement. Job enrichment adds new sources of job satisfaction by giving the employee additional authority, autonomy, and control over the way the job is accomplished. Team work is a Cooperative effort by the members of a group or team to achieve a common goal. Working in a team may motivate employees to do better to fulfill their part on the team. External link for employees motivating can be found here: http://www. forbes. com/sites/glennllopis/2012/06/04/top-9-things-that-ultimately-motivate-employees-to-achieve/ The fundamental method which British Sugar would use to motivate their staff is to make them feel safe. Feeling safe would clear the employees minds from external worries, helping them to focus more on their tasks and try harder to achieve. This method would include providing their employees with adequate facilities to work in. This means that British Sugars factories and offices would to the most basic safety regulations such as fire safety, electrical safety, and protection from hazardous conditions inside their factories. British Sugar would also make sure that their facilities have appropriate security measures to protect employees and their possessions safe. This method of motivation is one of the most basic levels of Maslows hierarchy of needs. Another method that British Sugar uses is providing extra employee benefits beside their regular salaries and wages. They would give company cars for manager and directors, along with free O2 mobile phones. British Sugar also looks after their employees by providing them with free healthcare in the form of free check-ups with company nurse, eyesight tests and glasses, and subsidised scheme with AXA. Families of employees can also enjoy company benefits with provided child vouchers and team meals for spouses. British Sugar’s factory workers are also provided with free safety work wear. There are numerous other benefits that employees can enjoy working for British Sugar, which includes sports clubs, gym facilities, free parking†¦etc. A popular method of motivation from Taylor’s school of thought is recognition. British Sugar would give out tokens of appreciation and to recognise employees/teams that have made a significant contribution over and above that reasonably expected. Company managers would award their employees with vouchers, meals, bouquet of flowers, or bottles of wine to boost their work morale. Long Service Awards are given to employees with significant length of service. Annual bonuses of ? 400, ? 600, ? 800, and ? 900 are given to employees who have served 20, 30, 40, or 45 years in the company respectively. British Sugar also use chances of promotion to encourage their employees. This is a process known as internal recruitment. When a position is open, employees are often promoted to fill the position instead of recruiting new people externally. This keeps the employees motivated to work harder, knowing there are chances of future promotion. Another method of motivation used by British Sugar is performance management. Performance management is a proactive and continuous process of communicating and clarifying role responsibilities, performance expectations and priorities in order to ensure mutual understanding between managers and employees. To ensure the proper functioning of the business, British Sugar would have to maintain a high level of cooperation and satisfaction in its employees. Making employees cooperate would increase productivity, reduce labour turnover, and make sure that they can maintain the quantity and quality of work they are capable of. One of the methods of doing this is by communication. This method involves staying in touch with the staff to make sure they are updated with company information. When staff have the information that they need for their job, they will be more likely to be oriented towards their tasks, and be able to do it correctly and more efficiently. Communication with employees can be done by many means. It includes emails, which are quick, efficient, and reliable. Face-to-face communication is an important form of communication, often in the form of meetings; however it has time and distance limitations , for example a manager might not have the time to see all of his employees to talk about new policies, while he could just send them all an email. There are other methods such as telephone calls, which can be made easily over long distance or face-time technology that allows employees to communicate despite the long distance. Another way of improving employees cooperation and commitment in the business is making them more involved in it. In British sugar, this is know as the â€Å"quality circle†. British Sugar would engage its employees group discussions, where groups of workers meet and discuss the good and bad side of the issues that they face. The employees would try to resolve their problems together, and discuss ways to improve how they work and how the company works. This method generates a feeling of involvement, employees would feel that they are a contributing part of a team, and therefore view their work more positively and become more inclined to cooperate with other employees as well as the company managers. Clear employment contracts also help boost staff cooperation and commitment. A clear contract would have to explicitly explain the details of the job, such as explaining the roles and duties that the employee is expected to carry out, along with the hours of work required. The business would also need clearly identified procedures such as disciplinary policies or grievance policies. A clear pay structure that explains basic time as well as overtime is essential. All of these will reduce arguments in the company, enabling more efficiency and cooperation within the business. Motivational methods are a way of getting more cooperation from staff. Motivated employees would perform better while feeling better about their prospects than demotivated ones, therefore cooperating more in their work. Similarly, training and charity links should also be used to boost the morale of workers. Training would increase the employees motivation and performance, as well as charitable activities such as helping out the local community. A well-motivated workforce with high morale is more likely to cooperate with the company and to each other. The culture of the business itself will also affect how its employees cooperate. If the company has a culture of cooperation and an atmosphere of teamwork, then the employees are more likely to have more cooperation in their work. Training in a large organisation such as British Sugar is carried out extensively. An example of British Sugars training operation is their Graduate scheme, a scheme in which British Sugar finds apprentice in universities. The company would offer university graduates a period of vocational training, with the assurance of a job at the end of their training, in addition to have year-long job placements for engineering students. British Sugar also organises over 1000 training courses every year involves all levels from senior managers to new apprentices and our seasonal workers. The company encourages its sites to play an active role in local communities through media visits, schools activities, agricultural and environmental events. British Sugar have regular dialogues with leading and local non-government organisations. They also organise sponsorships and charitable funds, allocated to their employee fundraising activities through a Supporting YOU to support others programme. Measuring the workforce can be done by a number of ways. This is generally looking at the key indicators in the business workforce such as labour productivity, health and safety, labour turnover and absenteeism. Labour productivity is how much the workers produce in terms of goods and services per hour worked. In the business, it can be measured by looking at the efficiency of individual or teams. However, this method should be used with cation, because there are factors that could affect labour productivity such as the age of machinery, type of sector that the business is in or whether production is automated or labour-intensive. If machineries are old, they wouldnt be able to produce as much, therefore being the cause of low labour productivity. A business in the secondary sector would be more productive than one in the tertiary sector since manufacturing makes more products than service. Similarly, a business that has automated production will be much more productive than one with labour-intensive production, since machines are able to mass produce more products than individual workers. A business can try to improve labour productivity by using motivational tools such as bonuses. Training can also be used to add productivity to workers, and business plans help staff work more efficiently. The business can also buy new equipments to improve productivity of their workers. Another measurement is health and safety. As it is one of the motivational factor, the quality of health and safety at the workplace can affect the staff. The better the health and safety standard, the better the staff will perform. The business must consider the possible causes of poor health and safety, such as poor equipment, dangerous environment and also the poor training in the matter. Labour turnover can also be used to measure a companys workforce. Labour turnover is the proportion of staff leaving the business over a period of time, usually each year. A company can lose their staff due to de-motivation, retirement, social factors, better opportunity elsewhere ,or that the employee wants to start their won business. Staff leaving can also be involuntarily as their positions become redundant or they are fired due to performance. A high labour turnover is generally not good because it spawns many problems such as the loss of productive capacity, the costs and the time taken to recruit new staff, and the extra training and induction programmes to new employees. However, new staff can bring benefits such as introduction of new ideas to the business, or more efficient workers. Absenteeism is another measurement to the companys workforce, as it tells managers how much their staff go on break from work. This can be a substantial problem for the business, because production output will suffer if employees are absent, projects will run into delays, and the quality of products affected due to the lack of staff. There are many other costs associated with absent staff, such as sick pay, and temporary staff pay, which is often expensive. Absenteeism also cause de-motivation in the business, as other employees will have to take the work load of the absent employees. To lower the level of absenteeism, the business can issue fines to absent staff, improve the safety of the work environment so staff would want to be at work, and improve their motivational methods. British Sugar uses a range of performance indicators to evaluate and improve their performance. SMART targets are a set of criteria that are based on the specific words: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-specific. These criteria are applied in the process of making goals and objectives, to maximise the business chances of obtaining them. Punctuality is the characteristic of being able to complete a required task or fulfill an obligation before or at a previously designated time. Attendance is the frequency with which a person is present. An appraisal system, or performance management, is a proactive and continuous process of communicating and clarifying role responsibilities, performance expectations and priorities in order to ensure mutual understanding between managers and employees. It is very useful as it is both a motivational strategy and a review system where mangers can assess their employees. The appraisal system would fulfill the employees social and recognition needs according Maslow theories, motivating to work harder to achieve more and be more recognised. The system is not without flaws, however. The appraisal system can be very costly, requiring a lot of administrative work, and is time-consuming. It is also exposed to favouritism. Managers can tend to trust and praise some employees more than others, causing distrust discontentment among team members.