Pediatric Acute Otitismedia Aom Health And Social Care Essay

Pediatric ague otitismedia ( AOM ) is a prevailing medical status that affects many persons. This status is treated by prescription antibiotics, which have contributedto the addition in antibiotic immune bacterium. There has been some grounds to demo that antibiotic intervention is non ever necessary for the declaration of symptoms and the remedy of the status. We propose to find the effectivity of 10-day Amoxil versus placebo in intervention of AOM. The survey design will be a randomised, dual blind, placebo controlled clinical test at paediatric and otolaryngology patterns in the Greater Philadelphia country. A sum of 400 Children between the ages of 6 months and 7 old ages will be recruited for this test. 200 participants will have antibiotic intervention, the other 200 will have placebo. The test will besides specifically evaluate intervention result in vulnerable populations, in this instance, kids less than 2 old ages of age.Specific AimsAcute otitis media is one of the most fr equent unwellnesss of early babyhood and childhood, therefore one of the most common grounds for kids to see a doctor. ( Sarrell, et al.2003 ) . A In the United States, 93 % of all kids have had at least one episode of AOM by age seven. ( Sarrell, et al.2003 ) . Antibiotics are presently the intervention of pick for AOM in about all states. A In malice of this standard intervention, grounds of their effectivity remains limited in footings of clinical betterment ( Damoiseaux, et Al. 2000 ) . In fact, several surveies have demonstrated that AOM in kids can be managed without antibiotics ( Siegel, et Al. 2003 ) . Furthermore, in past research, there have been disagreements among decisions about the effectivity of intervention with antibiotics for different age groups. A One survey stated that there was no difference between interventions in kids under the age of two compared to kids under the age of six ( LeSaux, et Al. 2005 ) . A Another survey showed age was an of import determiner o f antibiotic effectivity ( Cohen et al. , 1998 ) . These tests have found a 10-day class of Amoxil was more effectual in the intervention of kids less than two old ages of age compared to kids two old ages and older ( Cohen, et Al. 1998 ) . A Aside from incompatibilities sing optimum age for intervention, the literature is missing in surveies comparing antibiotic interventions with placebo for AOM ( McCormick, et Al. 2010 ) . The end of this survey is to turn to the deficiency of grounds sing the efficaciousness of antibiotics for intervention of AOM and the incompatibilities in literature environing the issue of optimum age for intervention. A We propose to carry on a randomized controlled test comparing the effectivity of Amoxil usage for 10 yearss compared to placebo for intervention of AOM in kids between the ages of six months and six old ages. A The undermentioned research inquiries will be addressed: 1 ) What are the differences in intervention results of aten twenty-four hours class of Amoxil compared to placebo in kids with AOM between six months and six old ages of age? A To turn to this, the PCP will prove kids at twenty-four hours two, five, and 10 of the antibiotic or placebo intervention class utilizing the standardised diagnosing tools oftympanometry and otoscopic observationA Hypothesis 1: Both the Amoxil arm and the placebo arm will bring forth the same consequences at the completion of the 10 twenty-four hours intervention period. The differences between results will be undistinguished. 2 ) What are the differences in attach toing symptoms ( febrility and hurting ) in kids utilizing antibiotics versus those utilizing placebo intervention? A This will be addressed by giving the parents journals in which they must enter the kid ‘s temperature ( A.M. and P.M. measurings ) and the disposal of anodynes throughout the twenty-four hours. A The journal will besides incorporate the FLACC hurting graduated table which is to be used before the kid goes to bed. 3 ) Do younger kids respond otherwise to antibiotics intervention than older kids? To turn to this inquiry we will statistically prove for an age class ( six months-two old ages vs. two-six old ages ) by intervention group interaction consequence. It is our long-run end to get a criterion of diagnosing for AOM research. intervention, and outcomes that will let for farther, more specific surveies in the attention for AOM.BackgroundAccuteOtitis Media ( AOM ) , otherwise known as the common otalgia, is a cardinal subscriber to pediatric health care loads and the most common ground for kids to see a doctor. The standard intervention of attention is a class of antibiotics, therefore doing AOM a outstanding subscriber to antibiotic immune bacteriums ( O'Neil ) . The in-between ear is connected to the nasopharynx by the Eustachian tubing. One of the maps of the Eustachian tubing is to run out the secernments of the interior ear into the nasopharynx ( Maxson,1996 ) . When the Eustachian tubing becomes compromised, accretion of in-between ear fluid creates an ideal environment for bacteriums growing ( Maxon, 1996 ) . As a consequence, kids suffer through the colonisation and reproduction of bacteriums, doing much hurting and annoyance. The most outstanding causative bacteriums lending to AOM are: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemopheliusinfluenzae, and Moraxellacatarrhalis ( Gould & A ; Marx, 2010 ) . Therefore, the current criterion of intervention for AOM is through antibiotic therapy ( Cohen ) . In the United States entirely, 93 % of all kids see a instance of AOM by age 3 ( Sarrel et al. , 2003 ) . This per centum does non account for reoccurring instances. The complete use of antibiotics in intervention of AOM has greatly contributed to the addition in the sum of anti-biotic immune bacteriums ( Grevers,2010 ) . The addition in antibiotic opposition has put kids at intensified hazards because there is a possibility that farther intervention with antibiotics will non bring forth a healed result ( Grevers,2010 ) . A A A A A A Otitis media is one of the most frequent diseases of early babyhood and childhood and one of the most common grounds for kids to see a doctor. A AOM is the most normally treated bacterial infection in kids ( Siegel et al.,2010 ) A Siegel references that several probes show that there is small benefit to utilizing antibiotics in most kids with AOM. A Despite ample research ( eg.McCormick et al.,2005 ; Damoieseaux et al 2000 ; Le Saux et al. , 2005 ) attending on the intervention effectivity and results of antibiotics is missing standardisation. A Though there are many research articles on the topic of Pediatric AOM, the literature fails in its consistence. A In being is an array of clinical tests that investigate different fluctuations of antibiotic use ( eg. Leach et al.,2008 ; Sarrell et al. , 2003 ; Roark & A ; Berman, 1997 ) but deficiency of survey reproduction has failed to verify the information gathered in the surveies. A Regardless, intervention of this infection accounts for & gt ; 50 % of paediatric antibiotic prescriptions and every bit much as $ 5 billion yearly in costs ( Siegel et al.,2003 ) . A Pediatric AOM affects such a legion population, that it is merely good to society of farther look into the effectivity of antibiotic usage in AOM. A A A A A A A Confounding information in the presented literature of Pediatric AOM has made it hard to sum up research in the most good and effectual intervention. A bulk of the literature compares antibiotic use to either a placebo or alternate therapy.A A part of this literature considers immediate antibiotic use versus placebo ( a representation of â€Å" alert waiting † ) ( eg.A Damoiseaux et Al. 2000 ; Siegel et Al, .2003 ; McCormick et al. , 2005 ; LeSaux et al.,2005 ) . A Other tests are presented with the focal point of high dosage antibiotic usage versus low dose antibiotic usage ( eg.Roark & A ; Berman, 1997 ) and alternate intervention use ( such as naturopathic intervention of AOM with Naturopathic Herbal Extract Ear Drops ) ( Sarrell et al.,2003 ) .A A Our literature hunt besides presented tests that investigated the differences in intervention result between different ages ( eg.Cohen et al.,1998 ; Leach et al.,2008 ) A A A A A A A A A A A Even with an array of published literature on paediatric AOM, there is a deficiency of standardisation in antibiotic dose for this medical problem.A A A Through our literature hunt, we have found that different surveies use different doses as the â€Å" current criterion of attention † .A In a aggregation of surveies, the criterion of intervention was given at assortment of doses which included: 40mg/kg/day, 50mg/kg/day, 60 mg/kg/day, 80 mg/kg/day, 90mg/kg/day ( Damoiseaux et al.,2000 ; Cohen et al.,1998 ; LeSaux et al.,2005 ; Leach et al.,2008, McCormick et al.,2005 ) .A A This makes it highly hard to compare the effectivity of intervention result between multiple surveies. A A A A A Our proposed research aims to look into and specify the difference in intervention result between antibiotic usage and no intervention in paediatric AOM. A Recently, there has been turning concern over prescription antibiotics and opposition of common bacteriums to antibiotics ( Siegal et al. , 2003 ) . A Block et al. , demonstrated that the pnuemococcal isolates from in-between ear fluids were 16 % comparatively immune and 15 % extremely immune to penicillin in kids who antecedently had AOM ( 1995 ) . A The literature is missing in research that investigates the long-run effects of early paediatric antibiotic usage. A It would be good to the paediatric population to restrict the sum of antibiotics administered in order to forestall the addition in the figure of antibiotic immune bacteriums. A A Literature Specific to Antibiotic Use There is more than one current theory for the intervention of AOM.A The first theory provinces that there is a difference between the doses of Amoxil prescribed to kids with AOM.A The high versus low dose intervention suggests that low dose intervention is merely every bit effectual as high dosage intervention ( Roark et al. , 1997 ) .A A The following theory for the best intervention of AOM is antibiotic intervention versus no intervention or placebo.A The research shows that there is more than one scheme in the attack to this theory.A The SNAP ( Safety Net Antibiotic Prescription ) attack is based on a compulsory 2 twenty-four hours waiting period before intervention ( either antibiotics or placebo ) ( Siegal et al. , 2003 ) .A The other attack is a standard antibiotic intervention versus placebo ( Le Saux et al. , 2005 ; McCormick et al. , 2005 ) .A Most research indicates that there is no difference between placebo and antibiotics ( Le Saux et al. , 2005 ; McCormick et al. , 2005 ; Siegal et al. , 2003 ) .A The concluding theory is based on the bad population, which is correlated to age.A There is a consensus that antibiotic intervention is more effectual in bad populations, largely patients under the age of two old ages old ( Cohen et al. , 1998 ; Leach et al. , 2008 ) . A Our hypothesis will try to clear up the disagreements between the current theories in order to develop a standard intervention for AOM.A The survey will include variables that deal with age, antibiotics, and placebo in order to happen a standard treatment.ATheoretical ModelMost medical intervention for paediatric AOM is given as antibiotics. LeSaux ‘s survey further explains how antibiotic therapy is debated by comparing it to watchful waiting and detecting the declaration of AOM symptoms.Watchful waiting may set kids with AOM at addition hazard for major complications, particularly for kids under 2 old ages of age ( Damoiseaux et al, 2000 ) . However, LeSaux and Damoiseaux agree t hat abuse or overexploitation of antibiotics may take to antibiotic immune bacteriums. On the other manus, their research surveies raise inquiries because of their little sample size usage to understand how Amoxil and placebo affect kids with AOM. The usage of antibiotics besides involves an fiscal position therefore, in our survey we hope to happen a standard intervention of attention in our survey. LeSaux and Damoiseaux besides discuss how their research can assist extinguish prejudices by including elaborate descriptions of their topics, applied individual clinical definition and minimized different result of the survey ( 2005,2000 ) . A A Antibiotic therapy is widely used by doctors across the universe to handle AOM, but research lacks to efficaciously mensurate reoccurrence AOM. Therefore, this federal grant will assist distinguish the antibiotic therapy attack by discoursing their disadvantages and extinguishing prejudice from old research. Alternatively of concentrating on narrow age scope and individual dose of Amoxil, we will concentrate on the differences of intervention result between kids above and under the age of 2 old ages. Finally, the primary informations gathered through the grant will lend to the standardisation of intervention for attention of AOM for different age groups. It is possible for future research to develop alternate hypothesis based on the consequences that are to be found through this clinical test. Future research will be able to spread out the theory of â€Å" alert waiting † in many age groups and prove the â€Å" standard intervention of attention † from this survey. It is our hope from the information obtained from this survey to better the intervention procedure for AOM by placing the most efficient intervention sing factors that include short-run and long-run effects, antibiotic opposition and socio-economic well being.MethodsSubject Selection & A ; Diagnostic Procedure Childs who are diagnosed with AOM in between the ages of 6 months to 7 old ages will be eligible to take part in this randomised test. The kids were determined to hold AOM by 2 processs: 1 ) tympanometry 2 ) otoscopicexamination. The undermentioned exclusion standards will be applied: Child could hold undergone antibiotic intervention during the old four hebdomads, allergic reaction to amoxicillin, compromised unsusceptibility, craniofacial defects, the tympanic membrane is non integral, and another instance of AOM within the old three months. Study Procedure If the kid met the inclusion standards, the PCP will exhaustively depict the survey process to the patient ‘s parent or defender. A At that clip the PCP will besides obtain written informed consent from the parent. A A After informed consent is assented by the parent, they will have a package with a questionnaire sing general patient information ( see appendix a ) . A The package will besides include a digital thermometer ( Lumiscope 2210-214 Quick-Read Digital Thermometer ) for which the parent must mensurate the patient ‘s organic structure temperature twice daily, one reading in the forenoon and one at dark. The temperature values will be recorded in the journal that is included in the package. A The diary entries ( see appendix B ) will incorporate a subdivision to enter organic structure temperature values, a subdivision to enter analgetic disposal, a subdivision to enter hurting degrees in the eventide, and a subdivision to notice in an open-ended mode on any import ant symptoms associated with AOM. A A TheA 10-dayA trialA ofA amoxicillinA orA placebo will be administered and started on twenty-four hours of diagnosing. A The parents are expected to maintain an adequate and up to day of the month journal of the kid ‘s intervention class. A Follow up visits will be required on yearss two, five, and 10 of the test with the kid ‘s well-thought-of PCP. A A The PCP will measure the same measurings taken at the baseline visit ( tympanometry and otoscopic observation ) . A The household will be rewarded $ 20, $ 30, and $ 50 for each follow up visit, severally. A On the 10th twenty-four hours of the test at the follow up visit, the journal will be collected and the parents will be asked to make full out a intervention class contemplation ( appendix degree Celsius ) . A Parents or guardiansA can reach the survey central office or their referred PCP office anytime with inquiries sing the survey or to describe any terrible inauspicious event ( s ) , such as concern, febrility, sickn ess, hurting, or any other types of status. A On twenty-four hours 10, they will turn in the package including the parent journal to the PCP. Data Collection Instruments In the diagnostic and follow up stage of this test, tympanometry and otoscopic rating will be used to corroborate the presence of AOM and to follow its patterned advance through out the intervention class. Otoscopic rating will attach to tympanometry in the diagnostic processeand follow up steps. Otoscopic scrutiny will be the first measure in the diagnosing procedure. The scrutiny allows the PCP to visually corroborate the presence of AOM. The PCP will be looking for purulent in-between ear gush. In order to corroborate AOM quanitavelytympanogram steps will be used. Tympanometry is the noninvasive procedure of mensurating the comparative air force per unit area of the in-between ear. It is able to mensurate the squeezability of the air in the in-between ear ( Johansen ) . If the squeezability is minimum, it is assumed that the in-between ear pit is filled with fluid. Babies and little kids can present as a challenge when seeking to accurtely name due to rapid motions and shouting. D espite this, Palmu identifies the cogency of utilizing the tympanometry trial through his survey that showed that tympanometric measuring was successful in 94 % of babies that were tested ( 1999 ) . The parent journals will incorporate the FLACC ( Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consulibility ) ( Appendix C ) pain scale to be filled out day-to-day before anodynes are administered. FLACC is an experimental tool to quantify hurting. Each of the 5 symptoms is graded on a graduated table of 0-2, with a entire possible mark runing from 0-10. Manworren ‘s survey confirmed that the FLACC hurting graduated table is appropriate for mensurating preverbal kids in hurting from diseases ( 2003 ) . Voepel ‘s survey confirmed the cogency of the FLACC hurting graduated table by demoing distinguishable differences mark differences in pre/post analgetic disposal. The survey besides showed first-class dependability through exact understanding and kappa statistics ( 2010 ) . Data Management At the initial visit and all following visits to the physician ‘s office, an employee will come in the patient information into the on-line database. The information from the parent journals will all be transferred into the on-line database after entry at the terminal of the test. All informations entered into the on-line database will merely be accessible to those who have a user login and watchword to the plan. All informations that is handled by the PCP or our research squad will be kept confidential. It is to the parent ‘s arrested development to find how confidential they will maintain the journals during the intervention class.Statistical AnalysisIn order to analyse our information we will utilize the PSAW statistical plan, version 18.A This is the most up to day of the month version of the former SPSS program.A This plan includes the statistical trials that are relevant to our analysis. A A To measure the information we will utilize a qi square trial with a logisti c regression.A The qi square trial is an appropriate trial because the information that will be used is at the nominal degree, which is nonparametric.A Besides, our informations is reciprocally sole, in that each patient will be assigned to merely one group. We will measure with a 2Ãâ€"2 eventuality tabular array, comparing treated and non treated to antibiotic intervention and placebo with a 95 % assurance interval.A The logistic arrested development will be used to find if the age of the patient will impact the result of the treatment.A It will demo the most likely anticipation of a group.A This will unclutter up any disagreement if placebo or antibiotics are the best intervention option between patients less 30 months of age and 30-72 months.A AResearch TimelineThis survey does non hold a definite length due to our end to widen the survey until 400 survey participants are involved in the test. We will end the test at 5 old ages irrespective of the achieved participant survey pop ulation. In order to maintain standardisation amongst take parting PCP ‘s, we will keep quarterly visits to verify that the PCPs are following protocol. Once an person is enrolled in this survey ; it will necessitate 10 yearss of engagement. The participant will get down the intervention on twenty-four hours of registration and diagnosing. On the 2nd, 5th, and 10th twenty-four hours of the test, the participants must describe for a cheque in. If the participant suffers from any inauspicious events after the completion of the test, we encourage the parent to describe them.DecisionAfter the completion of the research survey we will anticipate to happen no important difference between antibiotic and placebo intervention of AOM.A These findings will lend to regenerating intervention criterions for the AOM. By extinguishing the demand of antibiotics in certain populations, it will assist to diminish the turning figure of antibiotic resistantbacteria. These findings will besides ext inguish some health care costs by eliminating the demand to buy antibiotics.A These findings will assist specify a criterion of pattern for doctors and other attention suppliers which will lend to the well-being of society.

Charlemagne The Undisputed Ruler of Western Europe

Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, became the undisputed ruler of Western Europe. As Western Europe was deteriorating Charlemagne was crowned the privilege of being joint king of the Franks in 768 A.D. People of Western Europe, excluding the church followers, had all but forgotten the great gifts of education and arts that they had possessed at one time. Charlemagne solidly defeated barbarians and kings in identical fashion during his reign. Using the re-establishment of education and order, Charlemagne was able to save many political rights and restore culture in Western Europe. Charlemagne was born in 742 A.D., to a very famous and well-known family. Charlemagne’s grandfather was Charles Martel, the man who was responsible for the defeat of the Saracens. Charlemagne was also the eldest son of Bertrade (also known as Bertha Greatfoot) and Pepin the Short, the first to become king of the Franks. With the almost full extinction of schools in the 8th century, many historians say that Charlemagne received very little education, but did learn the art of reading from Bertrade. The one thing that kept Charlemagne motivated throughout his entire life was his deep devotion to the church. Charlemagne was a tall young man with light blond hair, and was described by his secretary as stately and dignified. Charlemagne had great wit, but was stern at times. He had simple and moderate tastes; he enjoyed hunting, riding and swimming. Charlemagne had a large wardrobe with many Frankish dresses, linen shirts and breeches, silk-fringed tunics, hoses wrapped with bands, and for the winter he had coats made of otter or marten skins. Charlemagne asked his people to improve their lifestyles, but he divorced two of his four fives without any given cause. In 768 A.D., Charlemagne at the age of 26, along with his brother Carloman inherited the kingdom of Franks. However, in 771 A.D. Carloman died, making Charlemagne the sole ruler of the kingdom. At this time the northern part of Europe was out of order and unruly. In the south, the Roman Catholic Church was asserting itself alongside the Lombard kingdom in Italy. While in Charlemagne’s own kingdom, the people were becoming and acting as barbarians and neglecting education and faith. But Charlemagne was determined to make his kingdom as strong as possible. In 772 A.D., Charlemagne put forth a 30-year campaign to conquer and Christianize the extremely mighty Saxons in the north. He charged over the Avars, a large tribe on the Danube. He forced the Bavarians to surrender to him. When possible Charlemagne attempted to settle his conflicts peacefully. However, he was forced to use brute in some situations. For instance, Charlemagne offered to pay Desiderius for the return of lands to the pope, but after Desiderius refused, Charlemagne seized the kingdom of Desiderius and restored the Papal States. The most important aspect of Charlemagne’s conquests was his uncanny ability to organize. Charlemagne sent out more than 50 military missions during his time in power and he led the missions as commander more than half of the time. He was able to lead his troops through vast lands in unprecedented times, but his every move was planned ahead of time. Before every crusade, he informed all those involved the number of men needed, the weapons required, and he even went as far as to tell what should be in the supply wagons. These tactics were later studied and used by another great man, Napoleon. One of the smallest campaigns undertaken by Charlemagne became on of the most well known. In 778 A.D., Charlemagne led his troops into Spain and laid an attack on Saragossa. The movement failed and upon their recoil they were attacked from the rear and Count Roland one of the leaders of the group was killed in that battle. Roland went on to become a hero in medieval songs. By 800 A.D. Charlemagne was the sole ruler of Western Europe. His immense kingdom included what are now France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It also covered half of present-day Italy and Germany, part of Austria, and the Spanish March. This Spanish March stretched to the Ebro River. Through his establishment of a single government over the entire Western Europe, Charlemagne re-established much of the old Roman Empire, which paved the way for the progress of present-day Europe. It was on Christmas Day in 800 A.D. that while praying in St. Peter’s in Rome, Pope Leo III approached Charlemagne with a golden crown and placed it on the head of the king. Charlemagne was a very noble man and he had great compassion for the peasant people and had a belief that that government was in place to benefit those that it governed. When Charlemagne came into power many of the people working under him were very careless and sometimes unfair. To change the ways of these people Charlemagne expanded their work, wrote down everything they did and forced them to work in groups of people. This helped those lacking in their work effort to restore some law and order. Two times a year Charlemagne would summon the leading man in the kingdom to talk about the happenings going around. Charlemagne always had the final word in everything including church matters. Charlemagne was determined in establishing improvement in lives of his people. By setting up money values he encouraged trade, he attempted to build a Rhine-Danube canal, and gave advice on different farming techniques. Charlemagne preached the most on education and Christianity to his people. He was responsible for the restoration of Palace School at Aachen, his capital. He also set up other schools for noble boys as well as peasants. Charlemagne was very devoted to education and he never stopped studying himself. He brought in scholars of many languages to his courts. He learned to read in Latin, some Greek, however, he was not too keen of mastering writing. During his dinners, he preferred to have men reading books to him rather than having jesters performing. For his churches, Charlemagne sent his monks to Rome to learn to sing. For his art collections, Charlemagne brought some valuable pieces from Italy. In the cathedral at Aachen there is a large monument, which stands in loyalty to Charlemagne for his religious devotion. Charlemagne built and was buried in the cathedral in Aachen. At the time of Charlemagne’s death in 814 A.D. only one of his three sons, Louis, was alive. Louis had a weak ruling after his father, which brought on many civil wars and rebellions. Charlemagne brought back order to Western Europe; he led his people to many victories and was responsible for the rise of Western Europe

Abstracts 4 Articles Decision Making

Reading 1. 3 Jackall, R. (1988) Theories of decision-making process deliver to managers many essential tools such as risk and cost/benefits analysis, etc. which in tern routinizes administration. These tools cannot be used appropriately to manage of incalculable entities. The functional rationality approach is when activities precisely planned and estimated to reach some goal. This method is unlikely to be used by top managers because another important factors are involved such as ego or personal altitude.If there is no special procedure for a particular problem, manager should focus on how to turn a situation into the right way in accordance with expectations from their boss. Some managerial people cannot make their own judgments. Instead, they are looking up and looking around for someone else’s opinion and finally they rely on it because of personal fears or inexperience. Another example of it is the mid-level decision-making paralysis in many American companies when a mana ger is trying to avoid of making a decision. In the case of inevitable decision, he or she would engage as many colleagues as possible for self-protection.Many examples of recent administrative and economic problems within American companies have showed the tendency that managers are oriented to the short-term period when making decisions. This is due to the fact that MBA programs provide tools which are focuses mostly on a short-term attitude. The second reason would be that managers are under pressure for annual, quarterly, monthly and daily results and these factors push they out of thinking about the future, even though they realise that today’s minor difficulties could be tomorrow’s big crises.Managers are also aware of blame time and when things go wrong it is necessary to be protected from consequences. This is the reason why they gravitate towards this fear being punished rather than reflecting critically. Bureaucracy disrupts working processes into parts and t he results of the work therefore disconnected with the decisions, which had been made. Manager’s productivity depends on the position within management circle or their supervisors. There is no codes or systems for tracking personal responsibilities to be established.To be successful manager means to move quickly within the levels of managerial hierarchy. It protects from going into problems too deeply at every level. Example I worked for four years as an instrument engineer in the Natural gas industry in Russia. I was involved into the decision making process associated with planning resources and finances for further projects and discussions about engineering-related difficulties. Firstly, when the question was complicated and involves financial resources, I checked the parameters of equipment many times and sent the results to my boss.When I received the confirmation from him, I printed it out and managed the necessary signatures on it. I did not want to be responsible for any inconvenience because my boss has to carry out this kind of responsibility. It was extremely important for me as a lower-level manager to have the document that proves that all things are done in time and approved by middle-level manager. In case of inconveniences such as the late commissioning phase of facilities I showed the documents that all the steps were completed by me on time. Reading 4. 2 Â  Reason, J. (1990)The general view on accident’s causes within complex technological systems includes theoretical framework which is not only provides the data on how dangerous factors could be combined themselves, but also where and how to predict these tendencies and take necessary measures beforehand. There are many elements of production, which are also involved into accident causation. Fallible high-level manager’s decisions are a major contributing factor to an increase in risk, followed by the lack of line management, which in turn causes dangerous preconditions and unsafe acts (intended and unintended).The latter are based on human’s psychological characteristics and conditions and are described as a combination of both potential hazards and errors, which could cause injury or damage. Likewise, a trajectory of an opportunity includes all these factors plus safeguards and productive events. Each of these has a window of opportunity in terms of an accident incidence. Therefore damage is highly possible when this trajectory is crossing all the windows at all the stages of production. The safe operation control consists of two features – feedback and response.The theory points out that the most successful approach to manage the safety is by taken into consideration the failure types rather than the failure tokens. According to Westrum (1988) there are three groups of auctions – denial, repair and reform. The successful organization is taken actions in responding to safely data from the reform (bottom level). The fundament al distribution error relates to a personal incompetence of employee while on the other hand the fundamental surprise error is the situation when personal observation differs to a reality.Thus, taken into consideration these terms and experience from the past major accidents such as Chernobyl, the nature of a malfunction has to be considered not only as pure technical but also as socio-technical. The people’s contribution to accidents is dominating the machine failure risk. Example I investigated many serious accidents related to the natural gas transportation process. For instance, one emergency stop of the 3. 2-megawatt gas turbine was caused by the malfunction of a frequency meter. After an analysis of reports I concluded that technical maintenance of this device was conducted improperly.A responsible worker forgot to finish one procedure related to the metrology accuracy of this piece of equipment. Another example is when other gas turbine was stopped by alarm during norm al working cycle. The reason for that was unplanned and uncoordinated upgrade of its automatic control system (ACS). From my point of view, the modern technology is very reliable and ACS is highly faultness but social factors as well as poor decision making are of the major reasons for emergency situations. For instance, social factors in Russia are included a low salary and the lack of a proper education. Reading 6. Beach (1993) A descriptive Image theory focuses on people’s individual decisions rather than group ones, and it is directly opposite to prescriptive classical theory of making decisions. There are also three decision-related images (structures), which have to be possessed by a decision maker. The value image is based on personal principles, behavior and beliefs. These are the source for generating goals. Thus, the ultimate criteria for this is when the decision maker consider the values to be relevant. Therefore potential goals and actions, if they are inconsiste nt with the relevant principles, will be refused.The second image, which is called the trajectory image, includes potential goals, which have to be set and the third one, the strategic image, focuses on actions and plans that have to be performed for achieving targets. The important parts of the third image are tactic and forecast, which would be a crucial factors for monitoring a realisation progress of a particular goal. Decision-making process consists of two types of decisions such as adoption and progress which include the implementation of the compatibility and profitability tests.The compatibility test is based on both types of decisions and compares candidates to three images, whereas in contrast the profitability test relates to the adoption decision only and uses the outcome after performing the compatibility test. For instance, the compatibility test selects few candidates, who successfully crossed through a selection criteria and the profitability test therefore chooses the best candidate from the previous sorting. Another important part of the Image theory is the process of framing decisions which is the action when the goal is identified and the plan is alled back if one exists. The data from the practical research suggests that it is unlikely that the decision maker tend to change the selection criteria without changes in principles, goals and plans. Example I was involved into the process of interviewing new workers within the Natural gas industry. I had to employ personnel with sufficient technical knowledge and skills because they have to work within hazardous areas and on potentially dangerous equipment. As a team leader I was hoping to find highly qualified workers with extensive experience for an average amount of salary.After performing several meetings and consultations with potential staff within this salary category I concluded that no one was able to pass the criteria and possess theoretical knowledge and practical achievements from p revious work experience. Because of that I decided to change the working images by changing the criteria. Therefore, I focused on workers who possess theoretical knowledge with engineering ideas in complex. Although they did not have extensive experience, they satisfied basic criteria and were able to perform tasks within their role (maintenance and repair).And after this correction of principles I recruited staff for my team successfully. Reading 7. 3Â  Janis (1971) Groupthink is a way of thinking when members behave with a high level of concurrence and tend to adopt a soft line of criticism on colleague’s ideas or even on every critical issue. This is why they make inhumane decisions easily with serious consequences such as the huge number of people’s deaths. The more cohesive the group, the more the risk that the decision will be proposed without the deep analysis of other choices.There are eight major symptoms of groupthink such as invulnerability, irrationality, ignorance of moral principles, stereotyped and unrealistic positions, group pressure against any critical views, member’s self-censorship, unanimity tendency within a group and the mind guard which is to protect the decision from any kind of the feedback. These indicators are typical for a bad decision making process which in tern may results the inhumane decision with serious consequences. Several steps could be adopted to prevent any group from group thinking.In this case criticism should be accepted not only by members but also by a leader. Wide range of alternatives should also be taken into account as possible options. In a case of vital decisions several groups with different leaders should be established to work on the same problem. Before the final decision is made each member should discuss considerations in its unit of organisation and then provide a final response to the group. An outside expert should be invited to all meetings. One decision-maker within the group should criticise a position of the majority.In the case of consensus the group should organise the final meeting for listening and discussing any doubts against the final decision. Although these actions have also drawbacks. For instance, when growing crisis requests an immediate solution there is no time for discussions and implementing many steps for decision making. Another example might be that the risk of the leakage of vital information would significantly increases when outside specialists are involved. All in all, it seems to be clear that top priority should be given in the prevention of any policymaking unit from the group thinking.Behavioral scientists should also be involved into these processes. Example During my work in Russia a groupthink was played a crucial role because of many factors. Firstly, my colleagues were really close to each other and the company’s social policy was developed for this purpose. Therefore, we spent some days playing games and sports altogether. This resulted in the number of small close-connected teams within the group. Another point is that my boss had a top role during all the process of discussion. Therefore, I had een many examples of bad decision-making. For instance, the only criticism from experienced and old colleagues was taken into account despite obvious things that were given by young professionals. Another factor is that the small teams did know how to play games within this environment and how to speculate. From my point of view, taking into consideration the long-term period, most of the final decisions were satisfactory but insufficient. It means that the projects were performed according to the rules and practices within timelines.But it can be clearly seen that due to the lack of criticism, for example, the total cost of the projects was increased. This way if the rules and steps of good decision practice were implemented, the cost and efficiency would significantly increase. Reading 8. 2Â  C allon (1987) The development of the technology has been explained by many social scientists using different available methods but they have not taken into account the point that the issue of the technology itself can also be represented as a sociological tool for an analysis. This also leads to the changes in understanding the dynamics of technology.There are two sociological views on the dynamic of consumption, which were developed by sociologists Touraine and Bourdieu. Touraine showed that French consumers’ behavior mostly dictated by large monopolies and industry, whereas in contrast Bourdieu pointed out that competition between social classes within French society taken the first place in terms of consumption of goods and services. Therefore these theories were shown by battle between engineers of two powerful French companies in the early 1970s: Electricite de France (EDF) and Renault.Despite the fact that both of them successfully proposed the concept of an electric car (VEL), the EDF’s theory failed because of unsolved technological difficulties related to the area of science and economy of the VEL, but the Renault did survive in the market because it focuses on not only the technological factors but also on rational views. This is the controversial result, because from the sociological point of view Renault’ specialists won this battle by a chance nor by implementing genius technological ideas.This experience of engineers-sociologists is possible to use as a new methodological tool for exploring large sections of society as well as researching within the value of role of social movements in the progress of consumption. There is also a helpful tool which is named the actor network. It is the case when company’s technological strategy supported by many sections of society. It describes the dynamics of society in completely different way without using sociological explanations.Firstly, in the case of implications of radical inn ovations within a technological sector engineers must mix technical and scientific analysis with sociology. Secondly, the actors network approach is efficient because it takes into account outside factors, which are related to common concepts of systems. Example I was responsible for implementing the concept of using compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel for private cars and municipal buses instead of regular petrol. I was focused on the public transport such as buses because of the potential reduction of pollutions as well as the decrease of the total cost of fuel consumption.Moreover, it was easier to install the necessary equipment on buses because the government agreed to subsidise the cost of these modifications. Whereas in contrast I concluded that private car owners would not agree with this idea because the Siberian region in Russia is a large area and the number of CNG filing stations was limited to only 7. Thus, it was clear for me that using CNG fuel people could not trave l between major cities which is crucial factor. This approach was based on social behavior of people and their habits. Therefore, the main target for our new policy was a municipal transport within major cities.

Public relations Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public relations - Research Paper Example Effective PR is crucial in today’s culture, especially given the media saturation. Public opinion and image now account for a lot in the increasingly influential social media realm. PR is the art of making organizations look good. Professionals normally work in the background with research on public opinion, courting of journalists, and sending press releases (Gregory 2). This is done to position their employers as ethical, concerned, and positive role models. I recently talked to Tatiana Soprano, the PR manager at Ritz Carlton in Biscayne, Florida. She clarified that, while it is difficult to separate advertising from public relations, advertisers seek to sell products and PR focuses on shaping the image of that product. â€Å"Whereas marketing uses targeted communication and research to attain their desired action,† she says, â€Å"PR professionals seek to get unpaid for publicity in the media†. By cultivating relationships with journalists and reporters, PR ca n be used as an effective marketing tool although it has a disadvantage in that it does not complete the information process. This paper will cover the work of a professional PR manager and the way they handle the press. One question, which I asked Miss Tatiana, was what exactly a PR professional does. She intimated that PR professionals actually work in order to access free publicity for their client. Earlier on, this was handled by sending a press release to journalists that included information required in writing a story on the hotel in a positive way. This was easy since the local media were always looking for story ideas with a human twist in them. In this connection, the PR professional would craft a press release that would make a compelling story for the news. When she came to work at Ritz Carlton, she spent time cultivating a relationship with local journalists after seeking out those who wrote about the hotel industry. She called up some of them to discover more about wha t type of stories he or she was searching for, as well as how they preferred to receive their story pitches. A journalist is always more likely to consider a release that is timely, fresh, from a solid source, and specifically targeting their interests (Gregory 20). As PR manager, she also had to create a media kit, since journalists could request a press kit to follow up the press release. The kit is inclusive of all details that the journalist could require to understand the hotel’s business and vision. These include photos, quick facts, executive profiles and recent press releases. While in a perfect world, the hotel never makes mistakes and the media never comes asking for information, instances when they do leave Miss Tatiana and her department as the banner men at the front of the battle. She joked that all she spent her time doing was craving the attention of the media during the good times, but when things went south, she tried to escape the media as much as possible. This is where the aforementioned crisis management plan comes into play. In cases where the media misrepresents the hotel, such as when the Ritz’s rooms were claimed to be meeting points for drug lords, Tatiana used an Op-ED piece to tell the hotels side and submitted it to the newspapers. Thankfully, her contacts ran the story. â€Å"If they had failed, then I would have had to write an advertorial and pay for it,† she intimated. However, this would have made them look guilty, especially given that most papers in the region insist on titling advertorials as â€Å"Advertisements†. This led me to an important question regarding the importance of technology to PR professionals. Tatiana admits that while the email made things easy for sending releases to many journalists just by the click of a button, this had led to a rise in spam (Kitchen 43). This meant that most journalists simply clicked delete before even reading the press release. Yet another technological advance that had an impact on the profession was the web. Websites are a good way of

Nine Circles of Dante's Inferno Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nine Circles of Dante's Inferno - Essay Example Franke (2009) is of the opinion that Dante’s Inferno is conceived primarily as an expansion of the ancient epic motif of the katabasis or â€Å"going down† of the protagonist to the underworld for a revelation of his destiny from beyond the threshold of death. The poet’s contemporary political and literary circles criticized the work by viewing it as the reflection of Dante’s hatred for his political opponents. In addition, the journey also portrays the tales he had listened to from his elders and religious mentors, which describes the pains and sufferings inflicted upon the individuals who, according to his view, led a life of deviancy and sin on the earth by breaking the law o religion and morality. It is because of his adherence and commitment with the same faith that Dante demonstrates feelings of sympathies and remorse for some sinful individuals burning into the flames of Inferno, while he is delighted on finding a few of them on finding them at such a horrible dwelling. Similarly, Dante also takes pity on a group of people because of their miserable plight by stating them as not the guilty of the sins they are being punished. For instance, during his visit of the first inferno, he laments over the pitiable plight of renowned poet Virgil, who appeared to be undergoing punishment in the first circle of inferno along with other non believers. Since Virgil belonged to the era before Christ, he could not develop faith in Jesus. As a result, he was kept in the first circle attributed to the non-believers (Canto I, lines 79-130). Hence, having no belief in Jesus Christ is a minor in Dante’s eyes. Surprisingly, the holy personalities, including Adam, Noah, Abraham and others are also seen in that very circle by Dante, which were bless with salvation and pardon by Jesus Christ (Lines 55-57). The purported visionary Dante found debauchers and adulterers in the second inferno; because of the sinful life they spent while their stay on the earth. Since the kings, queens and other people associated with the royal family or court remained in revelry making with or without the consent of the other. Consequently, both adulterers and rapists fall in this category of sinners being inflicted with pains and sufferings in the hell. Colossians (3:5-6) also condemns in these words: â€Å"put to death whatever in your nature is rooted in earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires and that lust which is idolatry. These are sins which provoke God's wrath.† Dante finds gluttonous and voracious people in the third and fourth circles of inferno; since the poet had found his political rivals as greedy and ravenous, he personally attacked the rivals including Cisco, the politicians belonging to the Black Guelph party, and others and vehemently condemned their lust and greed. Consequently, he views greed as more heinous sin than fornication. Similarly, he finds the offenders of observing anger and heresy as in fifth and sixth circles of the hell, because of displaying cruelty upon others as well as declaring the mortal world as the end of life respectively. Furthermore, violence, chaos and ruthlessness are greater sins in the eyes of Dante. The poet has included the oppressors, seizers of the wealth and properties of others and homosexuals in this very category. He is of the

Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation Research Paper

Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation - Research Paper Example Martin Luther, the German monk, initiated reformatory ideas into the context of Christian faith in Europe. One can see that the Lutheran Reformation or Protestant Reformation provided ample importance to the concept of salvation and individual faith in god. On the other side, the Christian church considered that donating money to the Church as a proof of one’s faith can help one to attain salvation. These differences between the Christian Church and Lutheran ideas related to faith and salvation eventually led to Lutheran Reformation. To be specific, Martin Luther was not ready to agree with the concept of the sale of indulgences as the source of revenue to the Church. Instead, his aim was to inculcate innovation to Christian faith in Europe. Thesis statement: The Lutheran Reformation unveiled the difference between individual faith and religious salvation, it bridged the wide gap between the believers and the Christian Church, and it is important because it’s socio-poli tical, religious and cultural impact unleashed the possibilities of individual faith in god, especially in Christianity. Martin Luther and Lutheran Reformation One can see that Martin Luther’s influence is not limited to the sphere of religious reformation because it extends to other fields like education, culture and literature. His deep knowledge in Latin was helpful to translate works in Latin to German language. Luther’s graduation and post-graduation were at the University of Erfurt. Later, he decided to study law, but lost interest in the same and joined a monastery in Erfurt. But he was not ready to give up his education and became a professor of Theology. John Scott makes clear that, â€Å"The one is, that his learning, genius, and capacity, were of the first magnitude: the other, that his life was without blemish.†1 While he was serving as a professor, he became interested in the idea of salvation and faith in Christianity. Besides, Luther made use of his acceptability as a professor to spread his ideas among the mass. Alister E. McGrath states that, â€Å"The Lutheran Reformation was initially an academic mo vement, concerned primarily with reforming the teaching of theology at the University of Wittenberg.†2 For instance, in the year 1517, Luther declared his opinion on the difference between salvation and faith in Christianity. The Lutheran interpretation of faith in God was entirely different from the interpretation of same by the Christian Church in Germany. This difference in interpretation of faith forced Luther to undergo excommunication from the Pope (say, in the year 1521) and disagreement from the Emperor Karl V. All these factors eventually led to the initiation of Lutheran Reformation as an attempt to reform the Protestant Church in Germany. Martin Luther’s role as a religious reformer Martin Luther’

Human Resource Management Company Changes Essay

Human Resource Management Company Changes - Essay Example The unstructured interview is the most used interview for selecting employees although this is most likely to change, as there is increasing evidence that the other two kinds of interview are a lot better at identifying applicants who are likely to do well on the job. The 'reliability and validity', which Wysocki (2000) refers to, are two standards that are used in the selection process. When an organization is trying to separate the best candidate out of a group of candidates, some sort of rating scale is needed, the people selecting the new employee need to be able rate each candidate numerically, the best way would be to give them a score for each selection method used. When all the candidates have been scored, their scores can be compared and decisions made about who is the best person for the job. "Five generic standards that should be met by any selection method are, (1) reliability, (2) validity, (3) generalisability, (4) utility and (5) legality." (De Cieri H, Kramar R, et al, 2003, p 196) The scores that are given to each candidate need to be reliable, that is free from random error. Reliability is defined by De Cieri and Kramar (2003) as 'the degree to which a measure is free from random error' . ... De Cieri and Kramar (2003), define validity 'as the extent to which performance on the measure is related to performance on the job.' This basically means that the scores of candidates need to be linked to how well they will perform on the job. The closer the link, the more valid the score. Generalisability is defined as "the degree to which the validity of a selection method established in one context extends to other contexts. Utility is the degree to which the information provided by selection methods enhances the bottom-line effectiveness of the organization." (De Cieri H, Kramar R, et al, 2003, p 205). "The final standard that any selection method should adhere to is legality. All selection methods should conform to existing laws and existing legal precedents."(De Cieri H, Kramar R, et al, 2003, p 207). Structured interviews usually have the highest reliability and validity scores when compared with unstructured or semi-structured interviews, making the structured interview the better choice of interview for the organization to use as a selection method. Schmidt and Hunter (1998) created a table rating the validity of different selection methods; the structured interview had a validity of 0.51 whilst the unstructured interview had a validity of 0.38. These numbers are correlation coefficients; a correlation coefficient is "a statistic that measures the degree to which two sets of numbers are related to each other."(De Cieri, H. & Kramar, R., 2003, p 197). This means that the structured interview is better than an unstructured interview at predicting how well a candidate will perform on the job. Other selection methods, which have also improved over the years, are used along with the selection interview, they include; "References, physical ability

White-collar crimes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

White-collar crimes - Research Paper Example The entities that have been given the mandate to investigate the occurrence of white-collar crimes include the Securities and Exchange Commissions and the FBI. The most common white-collar crimes include embezzlement, fraud, money laundering, and corporate fraud. It is of increased importance to comprehend the different forms of white-collar crimes so as to understand how they fit in this crime category. Embezzlement is described as misuse of funds while fraud is the misrepresentation of financial investment information. Additionally, money laundering is one of the most serious crimes and is described as giving a legitimate source to funds that have been obtained through means such as embezzlement implying that these crimes can at times be connected. Lastly, corporate fraud can be said to be illegal and dishonest crimes that may be committed by an executive or a company employee mostly dealing with money. This therefore explains how white-collar crimes are not related to violence and that the main individuals committing them are those holding respectable positions and those who have high social status (Gottschalk, 2010). The term white-col lar crime was coined to relate this crime to the individuals who commit it. It is committed by individuals holding the white-collar employment positions. Some of the white-collar crimes are not easy to prosecute due to the difficulties presented by the individuals who committed them with respect to using sophisticated means to hide the traces of their crimes. These crimes cause countries to lose huge sums of money, which is mostly discovered if some of the disbursed funds cannot be accounted for. It can also be suspicious when the sum of money allocated for a specific project is unreasonably high as compared to the size of the project financially. Such suspicions usually lead to white-collar crime investigation and prosecution mostly of the individuals holding the positions

HCM387-0802A-01 Management Principles in Health Care - Phase 1 Essay

HCM387-0802A-01 Management Principles in Health Care - Phase 1 Discussion Board - Essay Example t a diverse group of people fosters an environment conducive to creativity, productivity and high performance that affords each individual the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Proper facilitation and administration provides leverage to the diversity of a healthcare organizations as a competitive advantage in the global aspect that they face and to make the country a better place to live and prosper for immigrants such as the Irish. Healthcare organizations want to promote the development of growth and diversity by strengthening our existing relationships and building new collaborative relationships between the existing immigrant workforce and the diverse community that they serve. These relationships between immigrants and nationals will position their country as a country of choice as they continuously expand their business and industries and foster an environment where the indifferences of the people are appreciated and utilized to the advantage of the nation as a whole. Valuing diversity is implicit in some healthcare organizations’ reputation as an advocate of democracy to the extent that they live up to this advocacy and treat each individual fairly, progressively, responsively, and respectfully. Americans help their nation become the country of choice. There are so many dimensions to diversity, both visible and invisible, that makes some companies fundamentally unique, and yet alike, and the employees are different in age, education, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity, physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status. These are just few examples of the dimensions that Americans differ. Just as many threads create a fabric, many dimensions create diversity. The fabric of diversity in healthcare organizations has many threads- many dimensions. At the same time, they carry within themselves certain cultural or artistic traditions, experiences, family customs and life lessons that contribute to who they are,

Topics Discussed in Class - My Participation in Class Assignment

Topics Discussed in Class - My Participation in Class - Assignment Example The lessons included identifying the dimensions of culture from the presenters’ and students’ national origin and to determine the validity of sharing or manifesting the dimensions noted, according to Hofstede’s framework. Presentation of topic (3): Convergence and Divergence in Consumer Behavior. The presenters included concepts that expounded on convergence and divergence through provision of specific consumer purchasing behavior; where apparently the behavior could be evaluated and reviewed on a macro perspective. Likewise, the concept was further explained with the assistance of delving in describing homogeneous and heterogeneous economies or that which measures a country’s level of wealth. Presentation of topic (4): Domestic Consumer Predispositions: Ethnocentrisms and Disidentification. The presenters used the theoretical concepts of ethnocentrism and concepts of consumer disidentification to make students aware of how these concerns impact global ma rketing. How One Contributed A relevant topic (1) that was presented focused on Paradoxes in Global Marketing. ... Value paradoxes are part of people’s systems; they reflect the desirable versus the desired in life† (De Mooij, 2005, p. 2). The reading therefore presented relevant concepts pertaining to paradoxes in global marketing especially in the following topics: the global-local paradox, technology paradox, media paradox, and explicitly explained paradoxes in marketing theory. Therefore, one’s contribution in this module would be in terms of relaying one of the global paradoxes learned from De Mooij which could include paradoxes in consumer trends or the global advertising paradox (De Mooij, 2005). On the topic (2) of Dimensions of Culture, one contributed through likewise determining the dimensions from one’s cultural orientation. As verified and supported from the information using online link, for instance for Saudi Arabia as the country of origin, one found information that supports one’s cultural practices and norms (Anon., n.d.). Thus, to make the disc ussion more interesting, the same online link provides options to compare the cultural dimensions in one’s country of origin to that of another. For instance, the dimensions of culture in Saudi Arabia’s country could be compared with the dimensions of culture in the United States. The results revealed that these countries manifested significant disparities in the dimension of individualism and power distance; while both countries seem to be on equal footing in the dimension of masculinity (Anon., n.d.). One’s contribution for topic (3), Convergence and Divergence in Consumer Behavior stems from the reading of (De Mooij, 2003). From the article, it was learned that â€Å"effectiveness in marketing means adapting to cultural values†¦ Countries can now be compared by means of

WaterAid UK. Operational Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

WaterAid UK. Operational Management - Essay Example The global strategy for WaterAid is to offer strategic perspective for building on this experience and integrating equity, as well as, inclusion in all areas of operation The company implemented the global strategy, with four significant aims of carrying out effective business to address sanitation and water crisis. One of the main objectives is to ensure that more than 25 millions of people across the globe have access to safe and clean water. They also focus on hygiene improvements, sanitation objective and also influencing government policies and practices in order to reach more than 100 million people globally. The organizational mission is transforming lives of people across the areas where they operate. The crucial services emphasizes human development and transform lives; thus enabling people to overcome poverty, as well as, enable them to access their human right effectively. The organization operates in more than 23 countries and the company offer support to their local part nership organizations. This is crucial because they aim to deliver sustainable water and services to all areas; thus improving sanitation. They also operate alongside their partners in order to influence effective decision making vital for improving investments and delivery of sanitation and water services to the population living under poverty level; therefore, to achieve their objectives, the company focuses to a wider context impacting sanitation and water services including marginalized communities, urbanization, unpredictable climatic changes, and political instabilities, as well as, stressed water resources. The company operates in unique way by focusing the challenges they face; thus finds solution of overcoming them through offering effective service delivery. They also have unique ways of developing and monitoring performance level. This strategy has been implemented through detailed operational plans and monitored with an aim of increasing effective performance. The human resource manager of the organization has made significant efforts of implementing a sustainability framework, which was piloted through the 2011 to 2012 post-implementation studies. Bratton and Gold (2010. P. 34) reveal the significance roles that manager play in an organization including training, encouraging teamwork, communicating effective and effective listening; thus contributing to successful performance of the company. Therefore, the WaterAid human resource manager has made significant efforts of partnering with others in creating an efficient operational management team in order to deliver sustainable services. Staff and volunteer management The company has varied staff workers and other volunteer groups who work together as a team to deliver effective services. Subba and Kumar (2010, p. 23) argue that working together as team in the management of resources of company activities can contribute to effective business performance. This is crucial because it has enabled the com pany to deliver equitable services across the regions where they operate. Moreover, the current company manager, Jeremy Pelczer employs unique leadership styles of managing both tangible and intangible resources of the company. Gold (2010, p. 102) argue that successful leaders should employee effective leadership styles that can enable them to deliver valuable services. They also have the board of directors who offer great opportunities and the shareholders also played key significant roles of supporting the company towards achieving the organizational mission. In addition, they have volunteer groups of people including the

Theoretical Framework for Hr Thesis Essay Example for Free

Theoretical Framework for Hr Thesis Essay 1. Definition of Motivation and Employee Motivation 1. Definition of Motivation Many contemporary authors have also defined the concept of motivation. Motivation has been defined as: the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedeian, 1993). According to John R. Schermerhorn (2010), the term motivation is used in management theory to describe forces within the individual that account for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expended at work. Motivation can be defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behaviors. In its simplest definition, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a person does something. (Cherry, 2011). An individuals motivation is influenced by biological, intellectual, social and emotional factors. As such, motivation is a complex, not easily defined, intrinsic driving force that can also be influenced by external factors. Every employee has activities, events, people, and goals in his or her life that he or she finds motivating. Generally speaking , for this thesis, motivation is operationally defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Motivation is an employees intrinsic enthusiasm about and drive to accomplish activities related to work. Motivation is that internal drive that causes an individual to decide to take action. So, motivation about some aspect of life exists in each persons consciousness and actions. 2. Definition of Employee Motivation The trick for employers is to figure out how to inspire employee motivation at work. To create a work environment in which an employee is motivated about work, involves both intrinsically satisfying and extrinsically encouraging factors. Employee motivation is the combination of fulfilling the employees needs and expectations from work and the workplace factors that enable employee motivation or not. These variables make motivating employees challenging. Employers understand that they need to provide a work environment that creates motivation in people. But, many employers fail to understand the significance of motivation in accomplishing their mission and vision. Even when they understand the importance of motivation, they lack the skill and knowledge to provide a work environment that fosters employee motivation. From Rick Pitino’s point of view, The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why theyre working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different. Employee motivation can be approached in many ways with different definitions. With Twyla Dell, The heart of motivation is to give people what they really want most from work. The more you are able to provide what they want, the more you should expect what you really want, namely: productivity, quality, and service. (Dell, 1988). G. Jones and J. George from the book Contemporary Management†, defined motivation as Psychological forces that determine the direction of a persons behavior in an organization, a persons level of effort and a persons level of persistence. And this approach is used as the employee motivation definition in the thesis 2. Motivation theories There are many theories that refer to motivate people such as ERG theory by Clayton Alderfer, Acquired Needs theory by David McClelland, Expectancy theory by Victor Vroom, etc. In this thesis, the author applied Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two – Factors Theory as the theoretical framework for the thesis 1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs The theory of human needs developed by Abraham Maslow was introduced in this part as an important theoretical framework for the thesis. Psychologist Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation and his subsequent book Motivation and Personality. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs. This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep, and warmth. Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security. As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need for love, friendship, and intimacy become important. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority. Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potential [pic] There are five different levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Physiological needs: the most basic needs for human to survival, (such as air, water, food, sex, sleep, etc). In working environment, it can be rest and refreshment breaks, physical comfort on the job or reasonable work hours. According to Maslow, if these needs are not satisfied, the human body can not function properly, and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are supposed to be the most important and should be met first. Safety needs: After the physiological needs are satisfied, people’s attention turn to safety and security. Social needs: the first level of higher level needs is social needs. Social needs are those related to interact with others which includes: friendship, belonging to a group, giving and receiving love Esteem needs: Esteem needs can be categorized as external motivators such as recognition, attention, and social status. While internal motivators include accomplishment and self – respect. Self actualisation needs:This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others and interested fulfilling their potential. (Cherry, 2011) 2. The theory Herzberg’s Two – Factor The Two – Factor theory by Herzberg is one of the most influential studies on motivation which describes needs in terms of satisfaction and disatisfaction. Herzberg found that the factors causing job satisfaction were different from those causing job dissatisfaction. He developed the motivation – hygiene theory to explain these results. He called the satisfiers â€Å"motivators† and the dissatisfiers â€Å"hygiene factors†, using the term â€Å"hygiene† in the sense that they are considered maintenance factors that are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but that by themselves do not provide satisfaction. [pic] 1. Motivation factors Herzberg explains that motivation factors are related to â€Å"what people do† on the job or â€Å"job content† Motivation factors include such things as a sense of responsibility, feelings of recognition, a sense of achievement,  feelings of personal growth, the opportunity for advancement and work itself. Presence of motivation factors influences job satisfaction levels Responsibility: A duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task (assigned by someone, or created by ones own promise or circumstances) that one must fulfill, and which has a consequent penalty for failure. Recognition: Recognition is identifying something you learned previously and is therefore stored in some manner in memory. The employees should be praised and recognized for their accomplishments by the managers. Achievement: The definition of achievement also includes its opposite, the failure or the absence of achievement. Success put into this category consists of the followings: successful completion of a job, solutions to problems, vindication, and seeing the results of one’s work. (Herzberg, 2008, p.45 -143) Personal growth: There must be growth and advancement opportunities in an organization to motivate the employees to perform well. Advancement: Advancement is an actual change in the status or position of the person in the company. In situation in which an individual transfers from one part of the company to another without any change in status but increases opportunities for responsible work, the change is considered an increased responsibility, but not formally an advancement. (Herzberg, 2008, p.46) Work itself ( Job – itself interesting and fulfilling work): The work itself should be meaningful, interesting and challenging for the employee to perform and to get motivated. 2. Hygiene factors According to Herzberg, hygiene factors influence directly on job  dissatisfaction. The hygiene factors are found in the job context and include such things as working conditions, interpersonal relations, base wage or salary, and technical quality of supervision. By improving them, such as by implemetenting a no – smooking policy, can make people less dissatisfied at work. However, it will not increase job satisfaction. Hygiene factors include: Working condition: The working conditions should be safe, clean and hygienic. The work equipments should be updated and well-maintained. Interpersonal relations: The relationship of the employees with his peers, superiors and subordinates should be appropriate and acceptable. There should be no conflict or humiliation element present. Base wage and salary: The pay or salary structure should be appropriate and reasonable. It must be equal and competitive to those in the same industry in the same domain. Supervision – technical : This category refers to the competence or incompetence; fairness or unfairness of the supervisor; supervisor’s willingness or unwillingness to delegate responsibility, to teach subordinates. (Herzberg, 2008, p.47) 3. The combination of Motivation factor and Hygiene factor The combination of hygiene and motivation factors can result in 4 conditions: 1. High Hygiene/High Motivation: The ideal situation where employees are highly motivated and have few problems. 2. High Hygiene/Low Motivation: Employees have few problems but are not highly motivated. 3. Low Hygiene/High Motivation: Employees are motivated but have a lot of problems. 4. Low Hygiene/Low Motivation: The worst situation. Unmotivated employees with lots of problems. Herzberg’s theories can be summarized by his quote, â€Å"If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do.† The two factor theory is useful because job context  and content are major issues in the business world today.

A reflective analysis | Learning with ICT

A reflective analysis | Learning with ICT This part of the assignment is a reflective analysis of my learning with ICT on this module. I am going to review my experience in collaborative learning on this module drawing my attention to the learning experience from the face to face sessions on the unit compared to the classroom sessions. Collaborative Learning Experience There are many ways that people learn in their everyday lives. Learning can take place anywhere at any time wherever you may be. Joel (2003) stated that Learning is a change in behaviour that results from the learners interaction with the environment. Joels statement is linked into the two environments experienced on this module. This module the teaching and learning consisted of face-to-face classroom sessions and online VLE discussions held on a weekly basis for one hour. The topics that were covered in this module are the way you can learn in different ways. Students participated in these discussions about various experiences and reinforced the information to promote further discussion. These discussions were mostly set in groups where we had to work together to complete various tasks. This type of collaborative learning is when two or more people are in a situation to learn something together Dillenbourg (1999). This occurred on two occasions in this module, one was creating a mi ndmap (online) and one was marking a past assignment (face-to-face). Both were instances of learning something new and we were in groups of more than one. Harding (1993) also suggested that collaborative learning usually works when students group together to create a knowledge and understanding of a certain situation. This in my understanding is communication amongst the group. Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a concept within collaborative learning where it uses technology in the learning environment to facilitate group interactions Mitnik (2009). In my understanding on this module collaborative learning is the completion of any given project or task. According to Miller (1998) successful collaborative tasks have characteristics such as the problem being solved are example of the types of problems found in normal everyday life. Millers statement here links in with the past and current experiences of all students on the course where they have discussed the topic i n hand relating them to their own personal experiences. Miller (1998) also went onto explain that the problem can be solved by a small number of students who have not got the current knowledge and understanding to solve the problem alone but can contribute to it amongst a team. When working with my peers on the collaborative learning tasks I firstly felt as I am the youngest I wont know as much knowledge as the rest of them. However it gave me the opportunity to develop a higher level thinking skill to show my peers I am interested in the subject that we are going to discuss. The task was a positive learning experience which was very active, involved and insightful. When the mind map task was being developed I found that I was learning mostly from the facilities of the software that were available to me. Thanasis (2009) said that the role of the computer is to support users to communicate and structure the learning activity. This was the case in the collaborative task I completed in this module and the use of collaboration here is the idea of learning taking place when peers interact to achieve task outcomes (Thanasis 2009). This collaboration activity of the module was a challenging task as many of us had different ideas. However I felt that we all put our ideas together to find the best outcome. Smith (1992) suggested that this sort of collaborative learning process is not beginning with facts and ideas and then finding out the problem but it begins with the problem to find out the facts and ideas in the first place. We as a group didnt meet up altogether initially but I discussed the task before hand to a member of my peer and just went over what we would want to do. This pre-process helped as I went away and did my own research to find out some ideas I could share. By working in this environment we could cover more ground and get the task done at a quicker pace than doing it individually in which can help by sharing resources and ideas. With my teaching ex perience in my previous school, students working in smaller groups enable them to increase their knowledge and widen their understanding of the task in hand. The task which is given to the students is structured in a way to accomplish the learning objectives set. Giving students individual responsibilities gives a lively and energetic vibe to the classroom and the thought of competition amongst other students seemed common. Stahl (2002) suggested that when using technology to support collaborative learning it enhances peer interaction and facilitates the distribution of knowledge and expertise amongst the group. The different collaborative Learning strategies I used in the classroom were that I created different tasks and activities that were necessary for the group to work together and be dependent on each other. If certain individuals do really well and shine through, it created a more motivated establishment in the group. Communities of practise My experiences of group interaction relates to the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger Communities of Practise (CoP) which we covered in our module. Wenger (1991) defines CoP as a passion of learning something and sharing it amongst a group of people and then establishing how it was done. This is a way of promoting new ideas, developing social means, facilitating and spreading knowledge within a group (Wenger 1991). Wengers definition relates to the module task we worked on. The process of social learning that occurred when a group of students came together to discuss a task was something that we were interested in and collaborated with. Wenger went onto explaining that CoP had 3 main components to it which were domain, community and practice. A domain of interest is a specific subject area, which in our case the multiple intelligence theories. The community is where students gathered together and shared ideas and information about Gardner in the module. The practise is members of t he group who are already helpful in the resources and give common experience encountered. These components were explored more in Part 1 Websipration unit on Microworlds. Effective classroom interaction needs to be managed to help student generate a deeper understanding of the lesson. Harry (1993) describes Moores theory (1984) that this type of management involving three types of learning. Interaction with resources, teachers and peers. With the face to face sessions we encountered on the course I learnt to work with different types of people from different backgrounds. During our lecturers the small group discussions allowed us to reflect and act upon discussions and responses when certain questions were raised by the tutor. These small group interactions on a weekly basis allowed us to have a better understanding on our peers point of view. Downes (1998) states the idea is that learning is not paced so much by the teacher, as it is by the students own capacity to acquire the mater ial. Downes statement is exactly how our module is routined. The tutor has a certain role in the classroom but it is up to the student to obtain and research the necessary information to be prepared enough for the upcoming discussions. This collaboration experience in the classroom and online allowed different students give different responses and established a range of different perspectives on the topic discussed. In MacGregors view he states that Knowledge is shaped, over time, by successive conversations MacGregor (1990). The ability to relate to other students in the face to face session is helpful for other students who find it difficult to communicate in front of others and can benefit their own social skills. However the same goes for the online learning sessions on the module where the learning is catered to individual students and their different learning styles (Downes 1998). As Downes suggested the student can adapt the materials and discussions thrown at them and can re spond in a learning style that suits them. These different learning styles online without seeing peoples faces becomes a centre of excitement and motivation that we all can feel throught the discussions. Maslows theory of motivation describes how human actions are directed toward goal attainment. The esteem needs from Maslows hierarchical pyramid shows a link to the online learning sessions that as students we need the confidence, self-esteem and achievement when working and expressing our views online. To add to this experience it has a deeper impact on me when I answer a question and others respond to it. This built my own self esteem which is described by Maslows theory of motivation as the others were responding to my ideas and encouraged me to give more to the discussion. At times from the online session it was hard getting the topic discussion together as many in the small group didnt want to manage the talk. Gunawardena (1995) suggested that online learning lacks social inter action between students and teachers, as well as within peer groups themselves. I agree with Gunawardenas statement here because it was hard getting everyone to agree with a certain responsibility which slowed down the discussion process. It is difficult to recognise that our group needs a little help and guidance in our conversation but this is not established by the tutor as they are mainly floating between group discussions. I also found that in many of our discussions even though we had a small group, 1 or 2 members would not say anything at all. This then leaves the discussion on 2 people who are the most dominating of characters end up having a conversation between themselves and others are simply sitting and reading. With the online discussions weekly discussions are uploaded on the VLE before the group get together. If the online conversation becomes slow and undirected, I tend to look at a group discussion they placed on the VLE and give my own options on it. This tends to gear the conversation back up and others tend to join in. These posts at times gives me ideas that I hadnt thought of and enables me to respond to their posts so the other students know that other students have acknowledged them. Through the experiences on the online chats I have noticed that this type of interaction allows the opportunity for students to share their own reflections, give critical feedback and comment openly about the topic. If a question is asked from the tutor in lesson its apparent that the same 3 or 4 confident students (including me) will raise their hands and continually answer. The answers are spontaneous commonly on the spot with limited time that we have to discuss. However on the online environment, if the same question is answered its opens a new dimension of read, review and respond method that we have encountered on the course. This VLE learning and online discussions encourage the use of other resources such as internet links, course materials, discuss ions boards at my convenience to help elaborate group discussions. Evaluation ICT has changed dramatically from when ICT as an A level in my experience was simply reading, copying out of a book and then taking the exam. This module has developed my understanding of the intensity of ICT and how ICT can be differentiated in many ways through the range of different virtual worlds software packages. The different activities we entailed in the module were across the board where as I discussed before even different students from different backgrounds could explore. Calongne (2008) explains in his article that Virtual worlds support different learning styles and give students opportunities to explore, discover, and express their understanding of the subject. However the tools capabilities do not guarantee a great learning experience. This was the case on the module, even though there were different virtual softwares we experimented with some were not interesting at all. Only the software I felt I learned the most from were described in part 1 of this report even thou gh most of the software activities were similar to each other. I have learnt a lot about the resources available that I didnt know about and how it can be used in Learning. Applying for my Masters I was worried that I would not have the confidence or techniques to stand up in the classroom again however this module has given me more resources to help me in the future to enhance my lessons using different learning materials. I have always been interested in ICT choosing it at GCSE and A LEVEL and then following it through into my degree and PGCE course. ICT has impacted learning so much that everything is now based around PCs. The online lecturers which were part of the module were accessed at any convenient time and place. This enabled students in the UK and abroad to approach the module without any limitation and express ideas at a pace convenient to them. Online learning as experienced on this module has brought a new dimension to learning and allows the student to engage with oth er members of my class outside the university environment which helps build confidence amongst the group when we got together. The flexibility of not writing quick short hand notes in lecturers but the detail of discussion remains and I can easily read back anything I may have missed. The tutor in this instant can be seen as a guide to the discussions and gives us students the opportunity to express our opinions and comments on other comments. The classroom interactions are more for the students who prefer to gain more knowledge from other people but also establishing new friendships amongst the group and direct contact with the tutor. Within the learning environment from face to face sessions which are rather brief in my experience however it becomes at times a great ice breaker for those who tend to be the much shy students. Our tutor being the certain point in both the face to face and online sessions gives them plenty of experience to help avoid any future drawbacks from these s essions. This enables tutors to grip the potential of collaborative learning and pull together information from the module evaluations to improve the course as a whole. Conclusion Online learning can always have its advantages and disadvantages but technology is there as a tool for learning which is combined with the different teaching methods. It is the way the students respond, review and reflect which was a key aspect of learning in this module. Students explore education in many different ways and the course has allowed us to do this online and face to face. These are only 2 types of learning but more technology will be introduced and more ways of learning will be introduced. This can change how we learn today through the use of student social collaboration methods. As cited in Gibson (2007) Visions without action is a dream; action without vision, nightmare. If only there was a virtual simulation that can visualise the future of education and how a learning environment would look like which could give us an indication of how rapidly technology is changing.

Six Sigma Lean Production Systems

Six Sigma Lean Production Systems Nowadays, the development of industrial core intrinsic technologies is more and more important due to the dynamic competition in the global market. Companies have to keep and continuously upgrade their intrinsic technologies in the professional field to gain the sustainable competitive advantage. However, they also have to continuously upgrade their management technologies, and keep sensitive to the latest issues as well as their integration with companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s current system. Otherwise, they still cannot survive in the market even though their intrinsic technologies are advanced. No matter how the management technologies be developed, they must emphasize their contribution to business performance, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement of the products or services. Moreover, the integration of different systems is an important issue today and tomorrow. This research will focus on à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Six Sigmaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Lean Production Systemà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? to discuss their integration based on the background and thoughts mentioned above. Six Sigma is one of the most popular quality initiatives recently. Lean Production System is the world famous production system developed and practiced by Toyota mobile company for a long time. It based on two concepts: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Just-In-Timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Jidohkaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Both are based on the variation in thinking in order to improve business process, enhance quality, production and competitive position. Besides, the integration of them is viewed as a new trend in the next management wave. Moreover, regarding the industry characteristics, service industry is quite different from manufacturing industry. Even though there are more wastes and improvement opportunities, the application of Six Sigma, Lean Production System or their integration in service industry is quite few neither in literatures nor practice. This research proposes the Lean Six Sigma integration model based on the research gap and the practical need, and then adapt it for service industry. The model is named as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Lean Six Sigma for Service (LS3)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? in this research. It balances the viewpoints of internal and external customers, and gives consideration to the Lean speed as well as Six Sigma high quality. Also, this research tries to contribute to the enhancement of management technologies. 2. LITERATURES REVIEW 2.1. Introduction to Six Sigma Six Sigma is the major focus of many companies for its powerful breakthrough performance demonstrated in GE, Motorola etc. recently. Six Sigma can help companies to reduce cost, increase profits, keep current customers and create new customers. In brief, Six Sigma is a methodology to reduce the variation of every process and their interfaces to achieve a very high quality level. In statistical theory, six sigma is an ideal target value, and expressed as: 6à Ã†â€™. It means when the process or product we observed under a normal distribution, the probability of a specific attribute value shifts from the mean about positive or negative six standard deviation would be 0.002 part per million (ppm). Motorola company found a phenomenon that the process mean would shift around the center point of specifications in a long-term processing, and the shifting range would be about positive or negative 1.5 standard deviations from the center point of specifications. Hence, Motorola company modified the statistical meaning of six sigma. The definition can allow the sample mean shifts from the center of the population, and the observed process or product would out lie the six sigma limits only 3.4 times per million operations under the original specifications. In addition, the sigma performance can also be expressed by à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Defect Per Million Operations (DPMO)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? shown as Table 1. Table 1. DPMO and Sigma Performance Yield DPMO Shift from Mean Popular Age 6.68 % 933200  ± 0à Ã†â€™ 30.9 % 690000  ± 1à Ã†â€™ 69.2 % 308000  ± 2à Ã†â€™ 1970s 93.3 % 66800  ± 3à Ã†â€™ 1980s 99.4 % 6210  ± 4à Ã†â€™ Early 1990s 99.98 % 320  ± 5à Ã†â€™ Mid 1990s 99.9997 % 3.4  ± 6à Ã†â€™ 2000s Six Sigma means the world leading quality level. More and more companies understand to use Six Sigma to improve the process quality so as to achieve the business dramatic performance. This is because Six Sigma requires the quantitative measurements and analyses of the core business processes as well as suppliersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ involved processes. Originally, Six Sigma methodology is applied to manufacturing industries. However, the applications of Six Sigma are no longer be limited in manufacturing processes today. Keim (2001) demonstrated Six Sigma is very suitable to improve the service performance by two real cases. Paul (2001) pointed that the recent trends in Six Sigma are: emphasis on cycle time reduction, smaller business deployment, and integration with other initiatives. As the Six Sigma market grows, so does the availability of organizations to assist in deployment and integration. This availability of technical expertise allows smaller businesses realistically consider Six Sigma deployment with minimal economic investment. Besides, due to the central concern of Six Sigma is to pursue the customer satisfaction and business performance, we can view Six Sigma a main structure while integrating with other initiatives. As for the integrating initiatives such as Lean Production System, Total Quality Management or Quality Costs etc. depend on the different requirements of each company. 2.2. Introduction to Lean Production System Lean Production System (also called Toyota Production System) is the world famous production system developed and practiced by Toyota mobile company for a long time. It based on two concepts: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Just-In-Timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Jidohkaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. This kind of production system is very flexible to the dynamic change of market demands, and Lean Production System is established by many small group improvement activities to eliminate all kinds of wastes in the business. An important literature written by Spear and Bowen (1999) published in Harvard Business Review pointed that, the Toyota Production System and the scientific method that underpins it were not imposed on Toyota à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" they were not even chosen consciously. The system grew naturally out of the workings of the company over five decades. As a result, it has never been written down, and Toyotaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s workers often are not able to articulate it. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s why ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s so hard for outsiders to grasp. In the article, Spear and Bowen attempted to lay out how Toyotaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s system works. They tried to make explicit what is implicit. Finally, they described four principles à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" three rules of design, which show how Toyota sets up all its operations as experiments, and one rule of improvement, which describes how Toyota teaches the scientific method to workers at every level of the organization. It is these rules à ¢Ã¢â€ š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"and not the specific practices and tools that people observe during their plant visits à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" that in their opinion form the essence of Toyotaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s system. Hence the two authors called the rules as the DNA of the Toyota Production System. These rules guided the design, operation, and improvement of every activity, connection, and pathway for every product and service. The rules are as follows: Rule 1: All work shall be highly specified as to content, sequence, timing, and outcome. Rule 2: Every customer-supplier connection must be direct, and there must be an unambiguous yes-or-no way to send requests and receive responses. Rule 3: The pathway for every product and service must be simple and direct. Rule 4: Any improvement must be made in accordance with the scientific method, under the guidance of a teacher, at the lowest possible level in the organization. All the rules require that activities, connections, and flow paths have built-in tests to signal problems automatically. It is the continual response to problems that makes this seemingly rigid system so flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances. 2.3. Four Characteristics of Service Industry Recently, due to the economic and international trading environmental change, the structures of many companies are also changed. The growth of service industries rapidly chases the growth of manufacturing industries. Especially for the current situation in Taiwan, many factories are moving to mainland China. Hence, the needs for service industries to fill in the space of economic activities become very huge. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s why service industries play an important role in the economic development recently. This research concludes the four characteristics of service industries based on the literatures written by Kotler (1997), Regan (1963) and Zeithmal, Parasur Berry (1985) as follows: Intangibility: It means that services can be consumed and perceived, but they cannot easy to be objective measured like the manufactured products. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s why there is usually a perception gap between the service provider and consumer. Variability: It means that services are delivered by people, so the service quality may change depending on different time, people and consumer perception. That is, the variability of services. Perishability: Unlike the tangible manufactured products, services cannot be inventoried. They are delivered simultaneously while the demands from consumers appear. Once the demands disappear, the services perish. Inseparability: Since the delivery and consumption of services almost be done simultaneously. Hence the interactions between servers and consumers play an important role on the evaluation of service quality. Consumers evaluate the service quality on the moment of consuming the service. That is, the inseparability of services. 3. MODEL CONSTRUCTION This research proposes an integration model of Six Sigma and Lean Production System for service industry called as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Lean Six Sigma for Service (LS3)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In practice, the first stage is to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Leadà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? the process improvement project by hearing the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Voice of Customer (VOC)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. The project identification and its scope must be clarified so as to serve the customers more efficiently and effectively by the improvement. The à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Leadà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? stage provides the project team a well-defined scope of the problem they are faced. Hence the major mission of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Studyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? stage is to measure the current status or level by quantitative data, and then to analyze how the problem affects the process. By the collection of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Voice of Process (VOP)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, the project team can try to converge the problem and begin to find out its root causes. Moreover, no matter what the process indicators are, the project team has to well define them first, and to explain the purpose as well as the use of each indicator. Most important of all, the performance indicatorsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ definition and their evaluation methods must be agreed and confirmed by the people involved. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s very important to detail record the performance levels and action results for the further enhancement of service processes. After studying and analyzing the current status of the service process targeted, the third stage is to draw up problem solving countermeasures. The countermeasures must be transformed to the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Voice of Server (VOS)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? so as to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Smoothà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? the whole service process. It is hoped to reduce the defects and speed up the service delivery by the verification of performance indicators. Therefore, the project team will propose some education and training plans for the coming countermeasuresà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ conduction. The project team can measure if the project target achieved or not by the proposed countermeasures so as to continuously monitor and control the better results. At this time, the project team has to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Sustainà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? the operating stability of the service process. Therefore, the purpose of this stage is to confirm the result, the effectiveness of the countermeasures and if there is any side effect. Once these things are confirmed feasible, the project team can view the knowledge and experiences as the base of knowledge management and technology accumulation. Finally, the knowledge and experiences must be diffused and deployed throughout the organization so as to be the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Voice of Business (VOB)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. The LS3 operating model proposed by this research shown as follows: Figure 1. Structure of Implementing LS3 The key points and tools of implementing LS3 are concluded by this research and shown as Table 2. Moreover, the tools of LS3 are also shown as Figure 2. Table 2. Key Points and Tools of Implementing LS3 LS3 Activities Tools Lead Lead the process improvement projects by hearing the voice of customer (VOC) Identify the process improvement project Define the project performance indicators Select the project team members Accomplish the project charter and job assignments Market survey Project charter Annual police deployment Quality function deployment Value stream analysis Study Study and analyze the current status of targeted process to get the voice of process (VOP) Observe the actual process, and measure the baseline Analyze the collected data to understand the present situation Confirm the problem and critical-to-quality Process mapping Measurement system analysis Motion and time study Multi-vari analysis Cause and effect matrix Process capability analysis Time value analysis Smooth Propose the countermeasures, and transform them into the voice of server (VOS) to smooth the service process Draw up the improvement countermeasures Implement the countermeasures to accelerate the service delivery Confirm the results by performance indicators 5S Operation balancing Rapid operation switching Visual management Eliminate, combine, rearrangement, simplify Process reengineering Failure mode and effect analysis Sustain Sustain and control the project results, and spread out the organization to be the Voice of Business (VOB) Standardize the effective countermeasures to sustain the results Continuous control the improvement level Design the job value of employees in the service process Knowledge diffusion and application Control chart Check list Process standardization Error proofing Education and training Figure 2. Tools of Implementing LS3 4. CONCLUSION Due to the limitation of practical resources, the LS3 model demonstration by a real case could not be included in this research. Therefore, this research used the questionnaire survey to verify the theoretical logic and feasibility of LS3 structure. We interviewed several Lean Production and Six Sigma experts and consultants, and we expect to provide a base of verification by their experiences and knowledge. Finally, we conclude the agreements and suggestions of the experts as follows: All the experts and consultants agreed the theoretical structure of the proposed model by this research, and expressed the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“very much agreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? level on the logic, implementing steps and their contents. All the experts and consultants expressed the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“very agreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? level on the proposed model with PDCA management cycle. All the experts and consultants expressed at least the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“agreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? level on the fitness for use of the proposed tools. Some experts considered that the names of some tools originally be applied in manufacturing industry should be changed to be well understood in service industry. In addition, all the experts and consultants considered that the tools mostly applied in manufacturing industry should also be applied to service industry. This is because there are huge demands and expectations of these tools in service industry based on their experiences and observations. Hence they deeply agreed the proposed model by this research contains the tools for reference. All the experts and consultants expressed the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“very agreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? level on the proposed model really integrated the principles of Six Sigma and Lean Production System. Some experts suggested we could emphasize the principles of Lean Production System a little more. All the experts and consultants expressed the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“very agreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? level on the feasibility of applying this model to the service industry. All the experts and consultants expressed the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“very agreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? level on the practical value of this proposed model, and they also expressed that they will refer the structure to demonstrate it if there is any suitable opportunity in the near future. Therefore, we conclude the agreements and suggestions by the experts as follows: all the experts agreed the proposed model by this research on the whole structure, implementing steps and tools planned. They also expressed the practical value and operational feasibility of this model is very high. Moreover, all the experts agreed this model on the fitness for use in the service industry, and they will refer this model to demonstrate it when there is any opportunity in the near future.