Thursday, October 31, 2019
EMBA 555 Executive coaching discussion 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
EMBA 555 Executive coaching discussion 1 - Essay Example Just as the Week 1 lecture stated, other people reinforced what we thought we should be in our lives by repetition and instilling strong emotions in us, but these may have actually distracted us from the aspirations we had for ourselves and for which we should have strived. One of the obstacles that hinders us from discovering ourselves is other people’s opinions which are dispensed as truth or wisdom, and which affect us well into adulthood. Some parents tend to be quite hard on their kids in an attempt to mold them into good adults. Such discipline is good in some sense when it inspires children to strive harder and realize their capabilities. But when those people we look up to – parents, guardians, and role models – provide the wrong kind of influence or pressure, although they harbor the best of intentions, they are unaware that the young minds they seek to mold are actually hindered from discovering their true selves (Del Toro, 2009). Del Toro, M S (2009) Parental Discipline Styles: A Study of Its Effects on the Development of Young Adults at the University Level. Retrieved 25 March 2013 from
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Dominant designs Essay Example for Free
Dominant designs Essay Dominant designs tend to help everybody. Good ones reduce production costs, benefiting suppliers and competitors as research and development costs are reduced to near-zero. They also greatly improve the situation for complementors, who are able to produce a wide variety of easily standardized, low-cost complementary products. Consumers benefit too, as costs are driven down by fierce competition to produce the dominant design at lowest cost. The process at its best can be seen in one of the most commonly used and least commonly thought-about products in the world: the lightbulb. There are thousands of brands of lightbulbs produced using a standard design, yet they are entirely indistinguishable. Lightbulbs from China, from Korea, Vietnam, and even America are all produced at roughly the same cost to exactly the same standards. The main variability between them, wattage, is clearly marked and well-understood. Costs are low, and innovation survives. The dominant design in the lightbulb consists of the screwing-in part and the wattages. However, lightbulbs can be developed at all shapes and sizes, and with different color filters. Key innovations, like compact florescent bulbs and floodlights, were seamlessly integrated into the existing system. Even exotic designs, including LEDs and blacklights, were developed using the dominant design. And, of course, the number of available lamps to house them is enormous and standardized. You can even get one with a fan. Computer operating systems, on the other hand, represent a failure of the dominant design. Because each OS behaves differently, a dominant platform like Windows forces programmers to develop their programs either exclusively for Windows or invest lots of time and effort rewriting the program. But since the platform is proprietary, it leads to a powerful monopoly on operating-system technology that creates excessive costs and relatively poor performance, since there are no direct competitors. However, I believe this situation is rare.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
The Role of the Farm Assurance Scheme in Food Safety
The Role of the Farm Assurance Scheme in Food Safety Name: Huan Yu Farm assurance In the UK, farm assurance schemes provide consumers and businesses with guarantees that food has been produced to particular standards. Farm assurance aims at certification for agricultural products and emphasises the principles of quality assurance. All farm assurance schemes are mainly to ensure high standards of animal welfare, and it may include standards and certification for traceability, production methods, transport as well as supplies in order to monitor the agricultural food from farm to pack. This protocol is necessary to certify that all farm foods reach required standard for food safety (Gov.uk, 2012). A typical example is the UK’s Red Tractor scheme, which was started by the UK farmers, food producers and retailers and was launched in 2000. The Red Tractor is a food assurance scheme which covers production standards developed by experts on safety, hygiene, animal welfare and the environment amongst other factors. All suppliers in the red tractor food chain are inspected and certified by an independent professional body. The red tractor certifies that food has been produced to these independently inspected standards right across the food chain-from farm to pack. The Red Tractor logo on the pack means the food or drink has met these responsible production standards and is fully traceable back to independently inspected farms in the UK (Assured Food Standards, 2015). Other schemes that are affiliated to the red tractor include soil association, quality British turkey and quality meat Scotland. Herd health plan Many organisations such as soil association and RSPCA Freedom Food develop, describe and use the herd health plan as an individual farm management tool to identify and control the particular health problems of an individual farm. Thus, improving and maintaining animal welfare, gain financial as well as increase farm efficacy (Anon, 2015). Herd health plan in farm assurance schemes includes designing plan of housing, feeding and pasture management, bio-security, health recording and monitoring as well as control measures of disease. Farmers set the health plan and it is advised to get the veterinarian involved in the elaboration as a team, and as a live document it will cover a series of record keeping policies and protocols to reduce the incidences of sickness and to make a more prolific herd. Brief summary / outline of the minimum required content of the farm assurance scheme and dairy herd health plan Minimum requirements for RTA dairy herd health plan T covers as a general three important aspects: A. Routine Preventive Measures; Treatment Plans and Management Procedures B. Health and Performance Monitoring C. Health and Performance Review The minimum set standard under the farm assurance as well as keeping an update herd held plan are as follow: Plans and procedures in place to ensure safe and legal food production Staff training with on-going courses on animal handling, welfare, hygiene etc. Clear identification of livestock to deliver food chain traceability Effective and responsible control of birds, rodents, insects and other animals to prevent contamination and food safety risk. Sick or injured animals should have good management Feed and water management with a good feeding programme adequate access to clean drinking water. Records of mixing formulas should be kept to ensure that the foodstuff was acquired from another assured source Safe, comfortable and hygienic housing for all livestock, including young animals as well as new birth animals and stocking density should suitable Appropriate and well maintained facilities, conditions are available for animals Effective bio-security measures to prevent the spread of disease and protect food safety and animal health Responsible use of medicines and veterinary treatment, prevent food contamination Livestock transport with adequate vehicles to maintain the welfare during transport, prevents spread of diseases Environmental impact evaluation and protection management of waste, to make sure no contamination, pollution or spread of disease. (Anon, 2015) Outline of where the farm assurance scheme and herd health plan sits in the food chain (pre-farm; farm; post farm) They aim to ensure that each step in the supply chain for farm production, such as meat and dairy, are food safety assured, furthermore, they provide safely produced farm food products means much lower chances of zoonotic agents present in the product when consumers purchase them. First, the aspect of agricultural supply sector (drugs, residues and hormones) attracts consumer concerns about the food they eat. Second, with on-farm, the production process (free range, organic), slaughter method, food safety aspects, such as farm bio-security measures, proper housing space etc are the role of assurance to provide information and satisfy consumers. Red Tactor assurance have a range of post-farm schemes that provide effective assurance to recognised standards and a fundamental link in an integrated chain of assurance in the food chain from farms to supermarkets. It covers legislative requirements, scientific evidence, and good practice in the industry and consumer concern, such as proper vehicles, certification requirement, keep records for traceability as well as maintain sanitary conditions (Assured Food Standards, 2015). Highlight aspects of the farm assurance scheme particularly associated with food safety. The farm assurance scheme has made a great contribution to food safety and protected public health from food-borne diseases. Simultaneously, it has raised the confidence of customers on agricultural production and the awareness to monitor the safety of food. The dairy industry takes food safety seriously, pasteurization is an essential tool for ensuring that milk and dairy products are safe. Moreover, every tank load of milk entering dairy processing plants is strictly tested for animal residues. Cleanliness of farm; quality of farm flooring and walls are also the consideration factors based on the schemes ensures food safety. Highlight aspects of the health plan particularly associated with food safety Food safety is also ensured via some parts of the herd health plan by preventing disease occurrence and spread via vaccination and treatment. Salmonella and E. coli, have caused incidences of food poisoning and infected humans from food animals. Thus, increasing control on farm there is a reduced risk of contamination of farm products. Moreover, isolation facility to reduce spread of potentially zoonotic infectious diseases. Bio-security reduces the likely introduction of potentially zoonotic infectious diseases. Named antibiotics for use in common conditions and, therefore, increases discussion with vet of use of antibiotics in food production. DHHPs also help assess risks for both zoonotic and non-infectious diseases, as every herd at a farm has a chance of obtaining a disease. This helps VPH issues as it gives farmers and veterinarians. Furthermore, this also ensures that when the cattle reach abattoirs and food industries, the chances of them being infected with zoonotic agents is lowered. Highlight some limitations of the scheme The scheme require close cooperation between farmers, government, industry and other relevant sectors, in order to find a solution which can minimize the negative public health impact whilst ensuring safe and effective food-producing animals. -Difficulty in certifying compliance beyond the annual inspection -Reluctance in farmers and vets to engage the program with genuine intentions beyond a bureaucratic paper exercise The relationship between credibility of quality signals and reductions in consumer’ quality discovery costs still needs to be considered Concluding paragraph and personal opinion on the role of the scheme and the herd health plan Farm assurance and herd health plan are the most effective measures for supervision to provide safe agricultural production to public and simultaneously the limitations are the goals that the farm assurance scheme needs to improve and achieve. Because they reduce the incidence and impact of food-borne diseases by ensuring that food reaching the consumers is safe, health, of food quality while ensuring protection of animal welfare. Therefore, they can boost consumer confidence on the farmers and food products and adherence to the scheme should be strictly enforced. References Assured Food Standards, (2015)About us Assured Food Standards [online]Available at: http://www.redtractor.org.uk/about-us[Accessed 12 May 2015] Anon, (2015)[online] Available at: http://orgprints.org/13406/1/13406.pdf[Accessed 12 May 2015] Anon, (2015) [online] Available at: http://www.assuredfood.co.uk/resources/000/965/981/DAIRY_standards_ONLINE.pdf [Accessed 25 May 2015] Gov.uk, (2012)Food certification and assurance schemes Detailed guidance GOV.UK[online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/kitemarks-in-farmed-meat-and-produce[Accessed 12 May 2015]
Friday, October 25, 2019
Society, Class, and Conflict the Social Criticism of Virginia Woolf Ess
Virginia Woolf offers interesting analysis of social pressure and social class in Mrs. Dalloway and The Years. Understanding Woolf’s message about society demands a certain amount of sensitivity and decoding on behalf of her reader. Her social criticism in both texts can be easily overlooked because she keeps it subtle and implicit, hidden in the patterns and courses of her characters’ trains of thoughts. Yet upon such close reading, the essential importance of conflict between the individual and society in Woolf’s work becomes clear. While Mrs. Dalloway critiques the mental consequences of socialization, self-restraint, and the subsequent regret, The Years examines the relationship between the upper classes and the lower classes and the physical consequences of their respective places in society. Virginia Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness style of narration is essential to her method of providing social criticism. Instead of forcing extreme physical situations or conflicts into her text, Woolf instead offers nuanced observations through her characters’ patterns and trains of thought. Virginia Woolf said of Mrs. Dalloway, â€Å"I want to criticise the social system, and to show it at work, at its most intense†(Zwerdling), a statement that may surprise some readers. However, allowing the reader to witness each individual thought of the characters as they are linked together helps provide insight into how the social system influences their thoughts, memories, and ultimately their identities. The strength of Woolf’s social criticism comes from her ability to infer judgment in this fashion and presents interesting perspectives on class conflict, socialization self-restraint, regret, and coming to terms (or rejecting) with the conditions ... ...s assuming particular identities and suppressing their desires. Through Rose, Woolf shows us that rebellion against this social order comes at a cost. Meanwhile, through Clarissa the reader learns of the the regret that must accompany assuming a social role for the sake of material success. Instead of focusing on the technological and economic progress of her time, Woolf highlights the psychological consequences of social change. As societies grow more complicated and intense with their development, her stream-of-consciousness style provides her readers with insight into the individual costs that we all must pay. Works Cited Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 1981. Print. Woolf, Virginia. The Years. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1937. Print. Zwerdling, Alex. "Mrs. Dalloway and the Social System." PMLA 92.1 (1977): 69-82. Print.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Human Resources Group and Individual Incentive Plans Essay
There have been many discussions in business regarding the relative merits or offering group or individual incentive plans. Research shows each option has its merits and drawbacks. Group incentive plans Advantages                                                              Disadvantages Group bonuses encourage collective effort. 1) Disadvantage the hardest worker Boosts worker morale 2) Can lead to individual resentment Raises lowest worker production levels 3) Reduces production to average levels Encourages teamwork 4) Discourages individual flair Easier to calculate rewards 5) Financial disadvantage for dedication Individual incentive plans Advantages                                                              Disadvantages Directly impacts on worker pay. 1) Tends to discourage teamwork Individual talent recognized 2) Can cause friction in the workplace Rewards commensurate with effort 3) Creates inequality Improves chances of career advancement 4) difficult to control production Envisaging a position where I will become the owner of a Dance Club, my personal choice of incentive plan would be for the individual method. The reason for this is that in my view the personal and business sides of the human character respond best to a competitive situation. We set ourselves targets to better ourselves, and thus the expectation is that we will be rewarded for this. We strive to be better than others to be the best in our chosen role, and we expect for this to be recognized. Whilst being a team player is important, being recognized for achievement is extremely important. A good example of this can be seen in sport, where soccer players play as a team, but like to be recognized and appreciated for their individual talents.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Harlequin
Harlequin is the largest distributed of romance series novels but is faced with a slow growth in series novels. Harlequin needs to decide whether they should expand Into title-by-title books and how they will position themselves If they chose to do so. Analysis Harlequin is faced with the decision of how they should Increase their unit sales and Increase their overall revenues. By continuing In series novels, Harlequin will not be able to see growth in their company as unit sales are decreasing for series novels.Their profit margin Is also a concern as single title books are more expensive than series novels. Harlequin has tried In the past to produce single title books but was not successful because they did not target a specific market and tried to succeed In too many genres. One option for Harlequin to see growth is to approach best selling authors that worked with Harlequin in the past. Harlequin can ask these authors to write single title books for them, which will be beneficial as they are using established authors who have already developed a connection with readers.However, this is a very risky and expensive option for Harlequin as it is costly and authors may not be willing to do this. Best selling authors have already established new relationships with producers and distributors so they may not be willing to forfeit that and go back to a company that is developing themselves in single series. In addition, it is extremely expensive to acquire a best-selling author, as the advance is more than Harlequin can afford. Where Harlequin is now, they cannot afford a best-selling author even if the royalties are greater.Harlequin does have a large basilisk collection of books and using them could be a successful option for Harlequin. Although this would involve them to continue with their series novels, the novels would be work from current best selling artists. Harlequin has already created a brand image in series novels so they are supporting their image, whi ch will help persuade customers. While they are doing this, Harlequin's current authors that write series novels can work on single title books while they are gaining profits and sales through their basilisk collections.This gives hem time to think of their long-term plan such as their marketing plan, advertising and their distribution. Recommendation Once Harlequin gains capital by Investing In their basilisk collection, they can eventually use bestseller authors, but at this time, they do not have the time and resources. Ultimately, Harlequin can slowly Introduce different genres for their single title novels by focusing on women's fiction romance novels first as they already established themselves in this genre and are extremely successful. By being patient, Harlequin wall De slowly De addle to see success In themselves.
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