Importance of Understanding Cultural, Ethnic, and Gender Differences Essay

The United States is and will continue to be a very diverse place. More than 8 million legal immigrants came to the U. S. between 1981 and 1990, and an undetermined number of undocumented immigrants enter the United States each year. In addition, the United States includes people of many religions, languages, economic groups, and other cultural groups. In order to be a successful manager in today’s very diverse society a manager needs to be open and understanding of cultural differences, different ethnicities, and gender differences among employees. Diversity is the presence of people from a wide range of backgrounds all possessing different traits. Some possible contributors to diversity include but are not limited to differences in age, race, ethnic origin, culture, physical abilities, religion and sexual orientation. As the text book states, ‘bringing diverse workers into an organization is seldom a seamless transition. ’ People tend to prejudge and place stereotypes or generalized beliefs that all members of a group possess the same characteristics from different cultures, race, or sex; this must be overcome. To be effective, managers and employees need to recognize, respect, and capitalize on each other’s differences. By being diverse in its employees, a business has a better opportunity for new ideas and growth potential. As discussed this week in class, when the department head turned down the Jamaican friend for the position, even though he seemed better qualified, it showed stereotyping and prejudices can have a negative effect in the workplace. The situation made for an uncomfortable, even negative environment in the workplace. By the department head’s negative behavior it caused a barrier for productivity and potentially harmed working relationships. It is essential in today’s business world for managers and professionals to understand the importance of cultural, ethnical and gender differences to make a positive work environment possible. While performing the ball and sock experiment, I was put outside of my comfort zone and was forced to see what it was like in someone else’s shoes. I found the lefty experiment to be awkward and difficult. I started in the early morning as I was getting ready for work. The seemingly thoughtless tasks that I completed every morning such as showering, brushing my teeth and hair, and eating breakfast now became hard and tedious. I continued the experiment when I returned home from work. Preparing dinner as a lefty was virtually impossible and almost dangerous. Most tasks as a lefty were manageable after some time and practice, but operating a knife was not. I am sure that with a little time and patience these tasks could have become easier to me. I can see how it could be frustrating living as a lefty in a right handed world. This is the same concept as being from a different culture, ethnicity, and gender then those in your workplace. Although the transition into a new company can be difficult, with time and some adjustment it is possible. I can relate the ball in the sock experiment to the importance of understanding cultural, ethnic, and gender differences in the work place because adjusting to something that we are not accustomed to can be challenging. It is important to understand that people we come into contact with everyday come from a background that we may not know much about. It can be difficult to adjust when meeting new people or entering a new work environment. I believe an organizations success can be attributed to its ability to embrace diversity and appreciate the benefits. A workplace who supports diversity can supply an assortment of solutions to problems. A diverse workplace can facilitate a broader service range. It can allow a company to provide their service to those all around the world. I think the most significant benefit to supporting diversity in the workplace is the inspiration it gives to all of its employees to perform to their greatest capacity. Diversity allows employees to come together to accomplish a common goal as a team. Employees will feel comfortable to share their viewpoints and ideas to execute a goal or solve a problem. I believe diversity opens the door for workplaces to achieve higher productivity, result in higher profits, and benefit the community. Diversity may not be something that people are familiar with and may even have a difficult time adjusting to, which is similar to trying to using your opposite hand in daily tasks. I believe understanding diversity will show employees the importance of it in the workplace and how it can enhance the quality of work.

How Humanitarian Logistics Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Supply Chains

Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics How Humanitarian Logistics Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Supply Chains: A View from the Field Michael Howden Humanitarian Consultant michael. [email  protected] com ABSTRACT Humanitarian logistics represents a broad range of activities taking place within humanitarian organizations, the bulk of these activities are also components of a broader humanitarian supply chain – the network involved with providing physical aid to beneficiaries.Humanitarian logistics information systems improve information flows, which integrates logistics units more efficiently with non-logistics units within the humanitarian supply chains and provides better feedback to donors, ensuring more effective operations. Humanitarian logistics activities occur across the disaster management cycle. Humanitarian logistics information systems not only improve logistics activities in each phase, but can improve the continuity of h umanitarian operations by sharing information throughout the transition of different disaster management cycle phases.Through collaboration between organizations, humanitarian logistics information systems also have the potential to reduce corruption and the market distortion which can occur during humanitarian operations. Keywords Humanitarian Operations, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Information Systems, Disasters, Disaster Management AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY Michael Howden completed a Bachelor of Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Auckland and originally worked as a software engineer in New Zealand.He has worked for International Rescue Committee in Indonesia, Pakistan and Uganda developing and implementing their global logistics database ProLogs and for Save the Children US in Indonesia, developing logistics software and systems which were components of a broader supply chain management system. INTRODUCTION Within humanitarian operations logistics is requ ired to procure, store and distribute supplies for the assistance of beneficiaries. In order to function effectively humanitarian logistics must coordinate with other actors and be considered throughout the lifespan of humanitarian operations.This paper will explore how humanitarian logistics information systems can: 1. Integrate logistics units into the broader humanitarian supply chain throughout the organization. 2. Enhance logistics activities and provide continuous support across the preparedness, response, transition, recovery and mitigation phases of disaster management cycle. 3. Create new possibilities for collaboration between humanitarian organizations. In these ways humanitarian logistics information systems can also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian operations.HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN THE HUMANIATARIAN SUPPLY CHAIN Humanitarian Logistics Humanitarian organizations can include government agencies such as United States Agency fo r International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), multilateral agencies such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP), non-government organizations (NGOs) such as Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and members of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.Many humanitarian Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics organizations will engage in long term development activities as well as disaster management activities supporting people affected by disasters. This paper will only discuss humanitarian logistics as it is applied in disaster management. Humanitarian organizations usually include logistic units which can have different functions depending on the organizations or even the disaster and can include: Procurement †¢ Warehousing †¢ Fleet Management †¢ Transportation (of both supplies and people) †¢ Asset Management †¢ Building Management †¢ Security †¢ Information Technology (IT) †¢ Radio Communications Humanitarian operations consist of a diverse range of activities, therefore logistics in this context can have a broader scope than in the commercial sector. Areas such as security and IT may be considered under logistics due to respective military or technical experience of logisticians, either currently or historically within an organization.Humanitarian Supply Chains In this paper a humanitarian supply chain refers to the network created through the flow of supplies, services, finances and information between donors, beneficiaries, suppliers and different units of humanitarian organizations for the purpose of providing physical aid to beneficiaries (Mentzer et al. 2001). Humanitarian supply chains include functionalities whic h do not typically fall into the field of humanitarian logistics.Managing relationships with donors, performing needs assessments, planning for supplies required and monitoring and evaluating the impact of distributed supplies, are usually the responsibility of non-logistics program units. Figure 1 presents a summary of the major flows within both humanitarian supply chains and humanitarian logistics. Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics Figure 1.Humanitarian Logistics and Humanitarian Supply Chain Flows This paper will focus on the value of information systems for logistic units of NGOs within the humanitarian supply chain. Integrating Logistics into Supply Chain Management With the exception of organizations which specialize in disaster response or distribution, such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and World Food Program (WFP) res pectively, the core business of humanitarian organizations tend towards health, education, protection and economic development.Logistics units are only considered as a function to support these activities of humanitarian organizations. Logistics units have traditionally been marginalized within organizations (Rickard, 2003) and logisticians have been â€Å"pigeonholed† in the field, making it hard to move into management positions (Chaikin, 2003). This has contributed to a silo mentality in regards to logistics within humanitarian organizations. Better integrating logistics with other units within the organization will form stronger humanitarian supply chains.In order to integrate logistics into broader humanitarian supply chains, a clear distinction is required between the two. In Indonesia, one major NGO moved all logistics functionality into a supply chain management unit. In the terms logistics and supply chain management are used interchangeably (Rickard, 2006) and perso nal discussions with humanitarian professional have revealed the there is not a clear distinction between the terms logistics and supply change management, and some have regarded any differences are semantics.In literature on humanitarian organizations there is a shift from logistics to supply chain management (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005) Humanitarian supply chains include units implementing programs, managing grants with donors, controlling budgets and monitoring activities which must coordinate with logistics units. Humanitarian supply chains cannot be built by solely increasing the capacity or responsibility of individual units, but are formed by Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. HowdenHow Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics the creation of stronger links between units within the supply chain. Humanitarian logistics information systems can improve the flow of information with other units, in a mutually constructive manner, improving the effectiveness of the humanitarian supply chain. Humanitarian logistics information systems can: †¢ Enhance needs assessments by ensuring that field staff know what supplies are available for beneficiaries, either in local warehouses, pre-positioned emergency stocks or from local and international markets. Share lists of supplies available in both local and international markets, including prices and lead times, logisticians to empower program staff to better plan their procurement activities. †¢ Keep program staff informed of procurement activities will help to develop an understanding of the constraints within logistics and create trust. †¢ Provide budget holder more accurate financial information regarding funds which are committed within the procurement process, to avoid the over or under spending of budgets. †¢Provide warehouse inventory reports to program staff to allow them to take more responsib ility for their supplies, and ensure that they are utilized effectively. †¢ Share information on the distribution of supplies to allow program staff to better monitor and evaluate activities and avoid the need for duplicate record keeping between logistics and programs. †¢ More accurately divide logistics overhead costs such as warehouse rental, transportation and logistic staff wages into program budgets according to the activities logistics is supporting.Information empowers program units to become more engaged consumers of logistic services. In this way information systems can integrate logistics into humanitarian supply chains and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian operations. The improved information flow from humanitarian logistics information systems will also contribute to the overall effectiveness of the humanitarian operation. The Value of Information in the Humanitarian Supply Chain Information plays a significant role in humanitarian suppl y chains.In humanitarian supply chains is that the end recipient of aid (the beneficiary) is decoupled from the commercial transaction and has no direct influence over what supplies they receive (Gray and Oloruntob, 2006). The key decision makers within the humanitarian supply chain are the donors who are funding the operation and many NGOs regard the donor as the customer in the humanitarian supply chain (Beamon and Balcik, 2006). In commercial supply chains, the end recipient decides what supplies they require, and fulfillment can be easily evaluated by monitoring the receipt of these supplies.In humanitarian operations as supplies are determined by external assessments of the needs of the beneficiary, evaluating fulfillment become more difficult, as additional analysis must be done to determine if these needs have been met by the supplies. Figure 2. Donors, Humanitarian Organizations and Beneficiaries within the Humanitarian Supply Chain Humanitarian logistics information systems can provide accurate and timely information on what supplies are required, what supplies have been delivered to beneficiaries and in which locations.With this information Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics evaluation units should be able to determine if those supplies have met the needs of the beneficiary. This feedback ensures that donors and humanitarian organizations are engaged and responsive to the beneficiaries, and supporting aid according to the beneficiaries needs.HUMANITARIAN LOGISITCS IN THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT CYCLE Response, Transition, Recovery, Mitigation and Preparedness The operations of humanitarian organizations in disaster management can be separated into four major phases: response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness (Haddow and Bullock, 2004). During humanitarian operations there will be overlap between act ivities from different phases, and a separate transition phase can be considered between the response and recovery phase (Asian Development Bank, 2004).Humanitarian supply chains must provide supplies to beneficiaries in each of these phases (Kovacs and Spens, 2007) and these activities require logistic support (Perry, 2007), although the volume, variety of supplies and urgency will change according to the phase. Humanitarian logistics information systems improve the effectiveness of logistics units throughout the disaster management cycle and can provide continuity throughout the phases. Figure 3. Disaster Management Cycle (Haddow and Bullock, 2004). PreparednessThe preparedness phase involves building the capacity to respond to a disaster, such as working with communities to ensure they know evacuation options, pre-positioning emergency response supplies and building organizational capacity to respond to disasters. These activities are ongoing and are implemented prior to the onse t of a crisis. Pre-positioned emergency response supplies tend to be less varied, as they are specific life supporting items, such as food, medical supplies, water and sanitation equipment, shelter, household kits, etc.The necessities of life are less dependent on the social, cultural or economic context of the disaster, therefore it is easier to standardize the supplies required. Also, because it is not known if these supplies will be available in local markets, or if markets may be disrupted by the disasters, they will need to be procured internationally. Both Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Red Cross have standard catalogues of items for emergency response. These items can be procured internationally, with pre-existing arrangements with vendors, and are also pre-positioned in warehouses globally, ready to be deployed. Chomilier, Samii van Wassenhove, 2003; Coyne, 2006). Organizationally NGOs need to ensure that they not only have staff trained to respond to emergencies, but that they have the systems and process in place to support these staff. 80% of the disaster response phase consists of Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics logistics activities (Kovacs and Spens, 2007) therefore in the preparedness phase organizations should focus on building the capacity of logistics units. ResponseThe response phase occurs immediately after the disaster, and activities are focused primarily on saving lives and preventing further damage. Humanitarian operations are most reliant on logistics during the response phase as they distribute food, medical supplies and other necessities of life to affected populations, and lives will be dependent on the speed of logistics activities. The response phase may last from days to months, depending on the scale of the disaster. While the humanitarian logistics is most significant durin g the response phase, it is important to consider its role throughout the entire disaster management phase.Transition During the transition phase NGOs begin to look at providing ongoing assistance, such as temporary shelter and revitalizing basic social services (ref ADB). NGOs will also plan strategically to transition from implementing response activities to longer term recovery and mitigation programs. Logistics activities, such as identifying suppliers to in either local or international markets to provide supplies for longer term programs, ensure a smooth transition. Recovery The recovery phase involves aiding communities to return to their conditions prior to the disaster.These activities may include training people and distributing supplies for livelihood building, reconstructing houses, buildings and infrastructure and may be carried out over a period of months to years. Across both the recovery and following mitigation phases the supplies are no longer essential for the liv es of affected population and are therefore no longer required at such a high rate or with such short lead times. The activities across these phases are largely dependent on the social, cultural, economic and geographical conditions of the affected communities. These may vary hugely between different disasters.Humanitarian organizations supported fishermen affected by 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami by distributing new boats and fishing equipment whereas the needs of landlocked communities recovering from 2005 Kashmir Earthquake were quite different. Humanitarian organizations will also attempt to procure supplies locally in order to support local communities and avoid flooding local markets through the influx of external supplies. The recovery phase represents a significant proportion of the duration and funding of a humanitarian operation and may last from 5-10 years (ADB reference).In April 2005 the Government of Indonesia established a 5 year time frame for reconstruction after the In dian Ocean Tsunami, and activities are still ongoing at the start of 2009, indicating the long duration of the recovery phase. Recovery phase activities such as reconstruction and distributing supplies are essential for restoring the lives of affected people and require significant logistic support. Mitigation Mitigation involves increasing the resilience of communities to natural hazards to reduce the impact of disasters they cause. According to the specific vulnerability of the community these activities may include lanting mangroves to protect coastlines against cyclones, constructing dams and reinforcing buildings. Humanitarian organizations implementing these activities will require logistics support, although not typically at as large a scale as in the other phases. Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics Summary Phase Preparedness Response Transition Recovery Mitigation Period Long Term Continuous Days – Months Months – Years Long Term Continuous Logistics Volume Low High Medium Low SuppliesRequired Specific standard supplies prepositioned for disaster response Specific standard supplies: Food, medical supplies, water and sanitation equipment, shelter, household kits, etc. Varied supplies depending on the context of the disaster: reconstruction material, livelihoods equipment Varied supplies Urgency Low High: Lead times for supplies can make the difference between life and death. Medium: There may be government and donor pressure to complete recovery activities Low Procurement of Supplies Local International Local-International Local Table 1. Humanitarian Logistics Throughout the Disaster Management CycleHumanitarian organizations are required to provide physical aid to beneficiary throughout the disaster management cycle. Although these activities differ in volume, variety of supplies and urge ncy, there is enough commonality that standard processes and systems can be used by logistics units throughout the disaster management cycle. This avoids the overhead of developing multiple standards and implementing new systems when transitioning between phases. It is therefore important to consider humanitarian logistics as operating in each of the phases of the disaster management cycle. Humanitarian Logistics beyond the Response PhaseA large amount of literature on humanitarian logistics and supply chain management focuses on the response phase of a disaster and pre-positioning of supplies done in the preparedness phase (Beamon, 2004; Beamon and Balcik, 2008; Maspero and Ittman, 2008; Oloruntoba, 2007; Rodman, 2004; Thomas, 2003; Thomas et al, 2005). This could be influenced by a number of factors: †¢ This is the phase in which logistics plays the largest role in proportion to the humanitarian operation. †¢ The key focus of the response phase is the preservation of liv es therefore improved logistics can be directly linked to lives saved.During other phases of disaster management, the outputs become more varied, such as providing trainings to teachers and medical professionals. Therefore impacts, such as better education levels and healthcare in communities harder to measure. †¢ The disaster response is the phase that creates the most media coverage, therefore may be the phase which experts outside of the humanitarian domain get the most exposure to and are most familiar with. Media coverage could also create a perception of more status with disaster response. This paper has shown that the field of humanitarian logistics is more broadly focused than just disaster response.More focus needs to be placed on the role of humanitarian logistics in the transition, recovery and mitigation phases of disaster management. It could be argued that humanitarian organizations already have a higher capacity for disaster response than for disaster recovery. I n Indonesia the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) claimed that in the response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: â€Å"No one died of starvation, there were no deaths due to a lack of medical care or disease, law and order was maintained and major infrastructure—including telecommunications and electricity—was restored within a few weeks time. In contrast during the recovery phase there have been delays, underperformance and corruption. Humanitarian logistics information systems can improve logistics activities in each of the phases of disaster management and also help to provide continuity to logistics operations throughout the disaster management cycle. Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian LogisticsHumanitarian Logistics Information Systems across the Disaster Management Cycle Humanitarian logistics information sys tems must be able to operate across the entire disaster management cycle. In order to be applicable for all phases, they must be scalable to manage the large volumes of supplies during the response phase, as well as the high diversity of supplies across the recovery and mitigation phases and manage the flow of information from the preparedness phase to the response phase, and during the transition phase.A single humanitarian logistics information system which integrates information from all phases within the disaster management cycle will assist an organization in the complex task of transitioning their activities between the different phases. Preparedness NGOs prepare for disasters by pre-positioning emergency response supplies. It is equally important to implement humanitarian logistics information systems which can be utilized by logisticians responding to disasters.Logisticians must be trained to use these information systems and simulations should be run in preparation for thei r use in disaster response. Humanitarian logistics information systems should also be used to record what emergency response supplies are available at the onset of the disaster. In response to Cyclone Nagris in Myanmar one major NGO was better able to more efficiently send air shipment of emergency prepositioned supplies by having maintained records of the their volume and weight.This allowed the logistician to arrange the optimal charter flights required to transport the supplies. Response Humanitarian logistics information systems can eliminate the need for duplicate data entry and offer more timely and accurate information during the response phase (Lee and Zbinden, 2003). This not only increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the disaster response, but also assists in later phases of the disaster management cycle. After the response to the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake one NGO had a number of emergency response supplies remaining.However, due to a lack of proper information syste ms, it was unknown which donor funded the items, and what the donor’s regulations were regarding their use. As a result, they were unable to be distributed in response to flooding in Pakistan the following year. Where warehouse inventory reports are not maintained, it is common for surplus stock from emergency response not to be utilized and to go to waste. Transition Once the response phase is complete, humanitarian logistics information systems will enable organizations to know what supplies have been distributed, and what supplies are remaining.This will allow them to utilize surplus supplies in recovery activities or return them to pre-positioned stock and know what supplies were required, to better plan for the next disaster response. The transition phase will also typically involve the replacement of short term emergency response teams with longer term staff. If information regarding what supplies are currently stored in warehouses is not recorded, it may be forgotten a s staff leave, and the supplies may remain unutilized.Humanitarian logistics information systems can ensure that new staff are aware of what supplies are currently available, so they are able to utilize them. Recovery The recovery phase takes place over a period of years, which offers enough time for conditions to stabilize, and also the availability of funding, for humanitarian organizations to plan strategically and develop information systems. During disaster response humanitarian logistics operate in a realm of uncertainties and rapidly changing conditions. This is not an appropriate environment to develop, test or implement new systems.There are already enough unknown variables present, without introducing new systems or software, which may contain bugs or functionality which needs refining. Implementing new systems requires the investment of time and resources, and doing this during a disaster response will detract from the primary goal of the humanitarian operation – s aving lives. Developing humanitarian logistics information systems during the recovery phase provides the opportunity to involve the staff of the organization, which is essential, as the solution will be more appropriate to their needs and they will have ownership over it.New systems can be implemented through trainings and simulations, however it is more effective as having systems which have implemented within the operations of the organization and socialized with staff in the field. In this respect the recovery phase can offer a suitable environment to develop and test new information systems for humanitarian logistics which can then be applied to disaster response activities. In 2007 one major NGO developed a warehouse database in Indonesia to support their recovery activities following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.In September 2007, they were able to deploy the same database in Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Land gren and S. Jul, eds. Howden How Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics response to an earthquake in Indonesia. A staff member who was already using the database to manage supplies for the tsunami recovery effort was then easily able to use it to manage the distribution of emergency supplies in the area due to their familiarity with the system. MitigationAlthough logistics activities occur at a lower scale during the mitigation phase such as the procurement of supplies to reinforce buildings, it is important to ensure that humanitarian logistics information systems are still utilized by organizations, to ensure that they become standard practice with logistics units. This continuous use will institutionalize the systems within the organization and ensure the sustainability of their use across the disaster management cycle. HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS INFORMATION SYSTEMS BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONSHumanitarian supply chains could be viewed more widely to include the multiple org anizations providing physical aid to beneficiaries in the same region. Humanitarian logistics information systems have the potential to enable better information sharing between organizations which can enhance the overall humanitarian operation (King, 2005). One area which could be improved by information systems is local procurement. Procurement is vulnerable to corruption through collusion between organization staff and vendors and the payment of bribes to choose specific vendors.Analysis of procurement data is capable of revealing trends and irregularities, indicative of corruption, such as consistently purchasing from specific vendors or certain purchasers always receiving higher than average quotes. This analysis would be more effective using procurement data from different humanitarian organizations in the same region, as comparisons could be made between prices, to monitor if one organization is paying significant more for similar items, which could indicate corruption within that organization.Humanitarian organizations often rely on local markets to provide supplies, however the large amount of purchasing activity following a disaster can often lead to inflation over supply and stock-outs. Complex analysis of purchasing trends from multiple humanitarian organizations, and improved information sharing with local vendors, could mitigate this, by spreading requirements over multiple vendors and informing them of expected demand. This could also allow humanitarian organizations to sustainably support and stimulate local markets.Although there are many challenges in encouraging collaboration between humanitarian organizations, better humanitarian logistics information systems could facilitate collaboration by creating more incentives to do so. CONCLUSION Humanitarian logistics units are actors in a broader humanitarian supply chain and information systems can help to build logistics capacity of while also building better links with other units, better integ rating logistics in the humanitarian supply chain.Humanitarian logistics information systems can improve the effectiveness of humanitarian supply chains by providing timely and accurate information regarding what supplies are required and have been delivered, enabling donors to be more responsive to the needs of beneficiaries. Humanitarian logistics operates across the disaster management cycle. Humanitarian logistics information systems can improve logistics activities in each of the phases and also help to provide continuity to humanitarian operations throughout the entire cycle.Humanitarian logistics information systems could also provide opportunities for better corruption prevention and market control through collaboration between different humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian logistics information systems can strengthen logistics units and integrate them with other units and across to the disaster management cycle to create more efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian supply chains REFERENCES 1. Asian Development Bank (2004) Disaster and Emergency Assistance Policy, At: http://www. adb. rg/Documents/Policies/Disaster_Emergency/Disaster_Emergency. pdf, accessed 20 February 2009 2. Beamon, B. M. (2004), Humanitarian relief chains: issues and challenges, Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering, San Francisco, CA. 3. Beamon, B. M. and Balcik, B. (2008) Performance measurement in humanitarian relief chains, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 21, 1, 4-25 Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds. HowdenHow Information Systems Can Improve Humanitarian Logistics 4. Chomilier, B. , Samii, R. and van Wassenhove, L. (2003) The central role of supply chain management at IFRC, Forced Migration Review, 18, 18-19. 5. Coyne, J. (2006) Humanitarian Logistics: Musing Aloud, Monday Developments, 24, 20, 12-13. 6. Gray, R a nd Oloruntoba, R (2006) Humanitarian aid: an agile supply chain? , Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 11, 2, 115–120 7. Haddow, G. D. and Bullock J. A. (2004) Introduction to Emergency Management, ButterworthHeinemann, Amsterdam 8. King, D. 2005), Humanitarian Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the Second International ISCRAM Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 1-6 9. Kovacs, G. and Spens, K. M. (2007) Humanitarian logistics in disaster relief operations, International Journal of Physical, 37, 2, 99-114 10. Maspero, E. L. and Ittman, H. W. (2008) The rise of humanitarian logistics, 27th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 2008, South Africa. 11. Mentzer, J. T. , DeWitt, W. , Keebler, J. S. , Min, S. , Nix, N. W. Smith, C. D. and Zacharia, Z. G. (2001) Defining Supply Chain Management, Journal of Business Logistics 22,2 12.Oloruntoba, R (2007) Bringing Order Out Of Disorder: Exploring Complexity in Relief Supply Chains, Proceedings 2nd International Confe rence on Operations and Supply Chain Management: Regional and Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Bangkok, Thailand. 13. Perry , M. (2007) Natural disaster management planning A study of logistics managers responding to the tsunami, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 37, 5, 409-433 14. Rickard, J. (2003) A logistician’s plea, Forced Migration Review, 18, 9. 15. Rickard, J. (2006) Humanitarian Logistics: Musing Aloud, Monday Developments, 24, 20, 6-7. 6. Rodman, W. K. (2004) Supply Chain Management in Humanitarian Relief Logistics, Thesis, Department of Operational Sciences, Air Force Institute of Technology, Air University 17. Thomas, A. (2003). Humanitarian Logistics: Enabling Disaster Response, The Fritz Institute. 18. Thomas, A. and Kopczak, L. (2005) From Logistics to Supply Chain Management: The path forward in the humanitarian sector, Technical Report, Fritz Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA. Proceedings of the 6th Internati onal ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009 J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds.

Case Of Organizational Behavior Samples

In a very broad sense, organizational behavior refers to the study of how human individuals interact or behave within a group. These studies are conducted extensively to understand how to better integrate the employees and run a business more efficiently. At the core of this field of study lies the idea that scientific approach can benefit an organization through better managing the workers and, thus, making sure the individuals work more cohesively and as a single unit. Organizational behavior may be loosely described as the process of understanding and predicting of human behavior as a group member or as an individual in order to manage and maximize their output within an organization. Organizational behavior also studies the behavioral traits or patterns individuals show to one another within the organizational sphere. The effects of these interactions are also studied in depth. Organizational behavior is the study of every behavioral aspects of an individual who is a part of a bi gger organization, the interface of two or more individuals, or between the individual and the organization or of the organization itself. Organizational culture is the single most important aspect and parameter that decides how will the performance of the employees be as individuals or a whole group. Moreover, organizational culture is the conglomerating bundle of the assumptions, values, ethical considerations, ideologies and other organizational parameters that decide how would an individual or a group within the organization behave while their interactions and interfaces between themselves and the organization or amongst themselves (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). These parameters all have important and extensive influences upon individuals and modulate their behavioral patterns, dictate how they dress or act as a member or part of the organization. Organizational culture also often sets the bar that decides and measures how will the performance of the individual and the group is (Alvesson 2016). Every single organization has distinct and visible organizational culture that varies from each other and are unique in i ts nature. These organizational culture are developed over days and are maintained tirelessly to uphold the organizational reputation within the industry. This reputation is one of the biggest attributes for ensuring a successful business (Ehrhart and Kuenzi 2017). Organizational culture is primarily a very basic but overall guideline or boundaries as to how should the employees behave while representing the company. Organizational culture is the unification of the values, ethics and behavioral pattern of the employees that make up the unique environment for each organization (Ostroff and Schulte 2014). While these behaviors are often up-front and are very visible, it is also often the case that these are embedded psychologically. The very core beliefs and values are personified by the behavior of the organization and, in some cases, the employees as well. The managing authorities are the ones who decide how would the employees behave within the organization. Organization culture fl ows down from the senior authorities to the employees and not the other way around (Ashkanasy and Dorris 2017).    Also termed â€Å"corporate culture†, organizational culture is reflected through a few basic functions of the company. It is the guidelines and broad paths through which an organization functions and operates its business: how does the organization treats and interacts with its customers and employees as well as how does it serve or helps the wider social communities (Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese 2015). Organizational culture decides upon how much freedom is given to the employees to have inputs about the operations of the company and what contributions do they have in the decision making process, providing new ideas for development and benefit of the organization or how much leniency is tolerated for p3ersonal expression. The hierarchical construction, the flow of power and how free flowing is information within the organization are all decided by the organizational culture and work ethics(Barbera 2014). The organizational goals and purposes demand the employees to believe and be committed to them and organizational culture plays a pivotal and decisive role in this: the organization must be able to make the employees feel welcomed and a valuable part of the organization so that they want to work for the employers and help them to fulfil the objectives that were set out with in the first place of starting the company (Glisson 2015). If the employees are made to feel they are important and they understand that the company is taking their care, they will themselves take care of the customers. The whole functioning of the company will be much smoother and the higher authority need not be directly involved in the interaction with the customers, rather, they can be focused more on other more pressing issues. Customer care and services, post sales services, product quality are all results and/or shaped by organizational culture (Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014). Another very important aspect of running a business in the modern world is the environmental s ide of it. Every business, industry or organization must abide by the rules and requirements to protect the environment and reduce the process of global warming. A strong and ethical organizational culture helps to make sure that organizations keep this in mind and not cause any harm to the planet (Dubey et al. 2017). Virtually every single step of the operations of an organization is impacted by the organizational culture: how will the idea of a new product or service be conceived and shaped, how will the marketing tactics be planned, how to reach the potential customers and how to penetrate the market (Uzkurt et al. 2013). Organizational culture takes a lot of time to achieve and once established, it is so involved in every operation of the organization that it becomes almost impossible to change. That is why organizations must be very careful from the very beginning, having a concise and cohesive idea about what they want to achieve through the business, i.e. the motives of the company (Kangas et al. 2016). Employees and customers have to be able to identify with the organizational business operations or goals if they either want to work there or buy the products or the services of a particular company. Organizational culture is defined as an â€Å"emergence† of a state within an organization that is highly complex and is incalculable. This state results from a few very simple ingredients, though the final outcome is different for every organization. There are three parameters within an organization that can be controlled, moderated and managed: the employees, the work and the customers. These are the three basic pillars of any organization and every single operation is executed and planned with focus on any, or all, three of these. Organizational culture is almost always highly influenced by regional cultures (Modaff, Butler and DeWine 2016). The beliefs and ideals of different social community shape how an organization will behave, treat its customers and employees. These beliefs and values are deep inside the collective social mentality, and it is only natural that these will be some of the primary things to decide what will be the operations of the organization. The creation of any organizational culture is dependent upon the beliefs and values of its leaders. Workplace culture is entirely created by the leaders as they are the ones with a proper idea about what is to be done band the true motives of the organization (Asgary and Li 2016). However, it is not the final deciding factor: while most of the times leaders do shape the organizational culture, there are also times when organizational culture also decides what kind of a leadership is possible, or how will the leaders behave him/herself. An established culture influences and shapes a leader just as much as it being influenced by the leader (Fullan 2014). An effective organizational culture decides and governs the mentality and behavior of the employees and the authority that will ensure the employees reaching their goals while adhering to the collective motivations. When an employee feels that she or he is being assisted and helped by the leader to fulfil their personal goal, job satis faction also gets better and this, in turn, pushes the employees to work even harder. While a strong organizational culture will help the employees in the process of achieving its goals and grow together, a weak one will have disruptions in the work and functions of the organization. However, if individual employees are seen as to be more important than the organization itself, sustaining the operations and striving towards the organizational goals may become difficult as the company will be having a tough time trying to balance the priorities (Goetsch and Davis 2014). The market orientation and culture of an organization must be focused at generating a profit and should revolve around results. Competition within an industry must be kept up with, if the organization wishes to stay in the game and keep generating a profit. Having an adaptive culture can help organizations immensely. This means an inclusive work culture where all the employees are included in the decision making process of the company. An adaptive or inclusive work culture ensures that the company y will survive through time, simply because it will have all the employees looking after its interests. A flexible work culture is dynamic in nature and are focused upon risk-taking and innovation (Glisso n 2015). Power culture within an organization decides how would information flow within the organization among the different departments. It also determines the hierarchy of the organization and the power structure. This kind of work culture is spearheaded by a single leader who takes all the decisions on behalf of the entire organization and controls the marketing and other strategies of the company. A role culture is where the employees all know their specific jobs and roles in the organization and report to their seniors. Efficiency and accuracy are paramount in a work culture like this one. There are some basic characteristics of organizational culture, despite being unique to every organization. Some of them are elaborated below: The organizational culture is a self-sustaining pattern that gives an idea about how things are to be done in the organization. Organizational culture is mostly instinctive and repetitive and cannot be easily categorized or labelled. Corporate culture is always evolving: slowly, but surely (Katzenbach, Oelschlegel and Thomas 2016). While it is almost impossible to change the entire established work culture, it is possible to control certain emotional aspects of it to control the performance and outcome of some of the functions. Cultural inputs and catalysts help companies to make changes that last longer and have more positive impact on the performance of the employees (Modaff, Butler and DeWine 2016). There are some basic principles of the organizational culture that help companies to achieve long term success. These can be defined as follows: Now that a rough but cohesive idea about the basic tenets of organizational culture has been comprehended, further discussion would try to establish the same as an important of business running. To achieve this, three case studies are looked into in greater detail and discussed how did they manage to be so successful despite such fierce competition in the sector and what role did organizational culture had to play in it. It is not unknown that Google has a very strong work culture that is also the biggest reason behind it being recognized as one of the most sought after companies to work at. Even pictures from inside Google’s offices make people chart their education and career plans so that one day they can achieve that. A company does not achieve such a status just like that. The very essence of the core ideals and beliefs of the company is forged within the organizational culture of the organization, that prompts its actions and every other strategy (Wei, Samiee and Lee 2014). The company has teams who are solely focused towards keeping the employees happy and making sure that productivity is consistent and regular. While it may seem intrusive to many, it is also true that great visions are often misjudged and/or frowned upon. It is understandable if some companies are weary of the organizational culture simply based on the fact that the industry of Google are absolutely different. While di fferent sectors do demand different work cultures, it is also true that some basic ideas can be used by every sector or organization within it. It has already been elaborated in the previous section about how can a greater employee integration help an organization to achieve higher degrees of success can happier employee circle ensure higher performance. This section will look into the different ways through which Google tries to achieve this aspect of organizational culture and, in turn, attain success. Google firmly believes in the fact that it is the employees behind the success of the organization. There are innumerable applications to work for the company and every single one of them are reviewed. The employee integration process begins at the very first step of hiring a person as an employee. In the interview process, the applicants are faced with odd situational questions and are asked to provide answers. The answers are not expected to be correct, rather the company tries to see which of the applicants have an aptitude for imagination and can come up with innovative ideas under pressure. This gives the organization an insight about the inner capacity of each individual at the very beginning. Human resource department relies solely on scientific research and data analysis to understand an d measure the performance of each individual employee properly. Extensive application of algorithm based formulae help the company to predict when will an employee leave the organization; optimal size of tables is also assessed using scientific methods. Google discovered that female employees take twice as many leaves as the male counterparts and this led the company to revamp the entire leave plans, giving the female employees paid maternity leaves. All of these steps taken provided the company with employees who were happier. Retention of the employees was achieved through providing them with higher perks and better paid leave plans. Google gives its employees a lot of perks including the advantages of bringing the children to the office and availing day care right there, sleep pods, free food throughout the day and many more which make the employees want to stay at the company. Studies have also shown that the employees perform better as well under these conditions. Google has clearly written guidelines about what are the ideals and organizational values. These ten grounding premises serve at the very core of the company and help the applicants properly understand what the organization expects them to do, which skills to possess and what are expected of them should they be selected to work for the company. Google shares all of its information with all of its employees. This makes the operations of the organization clear and transparent. The company also takes care to resolve any questions an employee may have regarding the organization. This assures the employees with a sense of security and makes them understand the operations of the company properly and enables them to work for the company in a clearer and proper fashion. Keeping the employees informed and enlightened about which direction the company is headed enables them be aligned with the objectives of the company and cohesively work towards the collective goals. Every employee is given recognition for however small an achievement may it be, encouraging them to work harder so that they can achieve even more credit for their work. At the same time, failure on the part of any employee or team is also highlighted. This type of clear and open appreciation of their efforts make the employees want to improve their performance and ensu res an office culture which is fearless. Google encourages its employees to socialize even outside of office so that a sense of a bigger society can be formed where everyone knows each other. This gives the employees a level of comfort to be working among the people they know, and being relaxed they can work with better concentration. This case study reveals that Google uses some basic and very normal ideas to form an organizational culture through employee appeasing, based on the very core idea that happy employees guarantee happy customers. Another very important aspect of Google’s work culture is that; it is never stagnated. The company is always changing and evolving its work culture, making sure any new aspect that would make the employees happier is not ignored. The company policy on employees is one of the most important things that ensure the employees’ higher performance rate and establishes the organizational dominance in the overall industry. Google is evidently highly successful in being able to use organizational culture by means of integrating the employees within itself and making themselves a successful company. All of these steps have helped Adobe to become the successful company that they are today and enjoy a great market share. Companies and organizations invests billions of dollars and uncounted amount of hours only to ensure that innovation and creativity are boosted. To stay ahead of the curve, to ensure organizational leadership in the industry and grabbing maximum market share, there is no substitution for innovation. Creativity helps every organization to come up with new ideas that help to create a new product or develop on an already existing product and innovate something. The aspiration to do something, to create something new is a great driver for motivation to work harder. This improves performance by a huge margin and often boosts the overall company performance as a whole. To ensure that the employees are going to work hard, Adobe looks into the fact that their employees are having fun at work. The organization firmly believes in the fact that innovation and creativity can be ushered through relaxation, where pressure is not an issue. Culture is the conglomeration of ideas, customs, beliefs, values and behavior of a particular person or of group as a whole. Adobe, above all encourages the employees to creative and tries to establish a work culture within the company that will itself evoke creativity. It is an observed fact that the companies that take these steps can see higher growth rate as well as better revenue. Adobe is one of the biggest software companies on the planet and also one of the most lucrative places to work at. Creativity has helped the company to stay ahead of its competition simply by making sure their products offer something extra that the other products do not. Adobe believes that creativity is something that should start at the top and should be reflected through the behavior and the working of the senior authorities. The people at the top are expected to lead the way by displaying innovative thinking themselves. If the leaders fail to behave in the company’s desired way, the employees would also fall short of their tasks. The leaders in the company are bestowed with the responsibility to unleash the creative capabilities of the employees. â€Å"KickBox† is a unique concept of the company that allows every employee to bring their imaginations and ideas through life using the company’s own resources. These are funded by the organization themselves to encourage the employees to develop new ideas. The employees are not expected to submit any proposals for it: they just go ahead with the plans. Adobe has a corporate culture that embraces risk taking rather than shunning it away. Risk aversion is believed to be, by the company, the single biggest threat to innovation. Adobe gives out its employees the signal that they are open to new ideas and new interpretations of existing products so that they are encouraged to take risks. If the risks are worthy, the organization rewards the employees and credit is given elaborately. This is another way through which the company ushers in new ideas for products. The leaders again play a pivotal role here: they have to make the employees understand that risk taking is awarded and not something that would land them in trouble. The training and development program of Apple is very well planned and organized. The employees of Apple are treated as one of the key advantages in the departments of the research and development as well as marketing. In order to attract and retain skilled and competent employees the Apple Inc. provides effective training and development program (Shafie, Siti-Nabiha and Tan 2014). These employees will improve the ability and benefit of the company. To meet its transformational challenges, the company needs to train new and current staffs. The ways in which the employees learn and achieve reflect as well as transform how the company does its business. Thus, they engage the employees to work responsively and improve the products. On the other hand, they raise awareness about the employees’ rights. To Apple it is not enough only to find and correct problems. Apple’s training programs are specially designed to educate employers about laws, rights, health and safety of the workers as well as suppliers (Cornelissen and Cornelissen 2017). Verità © and the Fair Labor Association — two organizations recognized internationally, dedicated to human rights have worked with Apple to figure out the quality of the company’s social responsibility training. It shows that the knowledge and awareness of the rights of the employees has been increased through Apple’s mandated training. They train supervisors and managers on their responsibilities, direct hire processes and even onsite management of foreign workers. Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program has been launched by Apple to enhance professional development opportunities. Here, the classes on finance, computer skills, and the English language are offered. The company also made a partnership with Chinese universities to allow workers to achieve associate degrees. Over 60,000 workers participated in their first pilot program in 2011 and came up with higher morale are promoted more often than other employees (Myers and Fellow 2014). Their final suppliers have onsite e-learning centers. In order to follow up and compute the employee’s performance Apple audits. In 2011 the company conducted training sessions to prevent underage labor. This year, no cases of underage labor could be found in their audits. While the organization is encouraged by these results, Apple claims that they will continue regular audits and go deeper into their supply chain to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier (Asgary and Li 2016). The company has decided to continue regular audits to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier. Apple has made their training and development program intensively dedicated in order to bring out and sustain the competitive advantage. Apple frequently produces new products like computers, music devices, media sales, and telephones that require skill in completely different industries. Therefore, the expertise of its employees needs to change faster than at almost any other tech firm. Apple feels that the employees must be self-reliant. The reason behind it is that in a fast-changing environment, employee self-reliance gets weaken for providing target competencies and prescribing training. In order to develop the required skills, the employees need to learn continuously which employee ownership of development encourages. Instead of giving training how to sell a product, the employees are empowered which will shape them according to the company’s requirement as well as the customer’s. Apple’s team environment helps to build cohesion within team. The cohesion strengthens when the different development teams work competitively. This healthy competition helps in their development and they learn from each other. Apple’s effective training and development programs motivate and encourage innovation and creativity of the employees. Apple has compensation policies and packages which is structured and prepared by a committee. The compensation committee prepares, review, and modify the incentive programs and policies. The board set the committee members and empower them to take external or internal counseling, advice and ask for any employee. Apple provides very good benefits like health and life insurance, Short- and long-term disability coverage, flexible Spending Accounts, disability coverage and employee stock exchange plans. As found in the official website of Apple, the company has built plenty of flexibility for the employees and their families. Apple’s executive compensation aims to attract and retain the executives with genius, creativity and entrepreneurial skill. To the company, the employees are their assets. It is the executives who are responsible to transform the company and bring success in the international market. The Compensation Committee examines the compensation program and determines the compensation for the executives. The distributes annual performance-based cash bonus program for the employees and follows pay system based on performance. Every executive is awarded with cash bonus equal to 100% of his basic salary. The compensation committee compensates fairly and adequately. In today’s weak economy, Apple has taken advantage of job demand and provided a good ambience to work. It faces no difficulty to replace the employees who have resigned. Apple maintains a healthy work culture that helps the company to flourish and prosper internationally. From the above discussion and a good look into the cases of the three organizations, it can firmly have concluded that organizational culture does help an organization to be successful. Organizational culture has been seen to be one of the most important aspects of business running which can make pivotal differences between a successful organization and one that is not. A strong work culture is something that would enable companies to make its strategies in a way that would help them to achieve the collective organizational goals and would also enable to establish a strong sense of bond within the company as well. A strong organizational culture makes sure that the environment within the company is cordial and a homely atmosphere prevails. This is one of the most important things to make the employees feel relaxed, enabling them to work even better. The companies with a good organizational culture makes the employees feel welcomed and an integral part of the company. This sense boost s them to try and work better. Recognizing the employees’ efforts and rewarding risk taking capabilities also ensure enhanced performance. Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015.  Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge. Alvesson, M. ed., 2016.  Organizational culture. Sage. Asgary, N. and Li, G., 2016. Corporate social responsibility: Its economic impact and link to the bullwhip effect.  Journal of Business Ethics,  135(4), pp.665-681. Ashkanasy, N.M. and Dorris, A.B., 2017. Organizational culture and climate. Barbera, K.M., 2014.  The Oxford handbook of organizational climate and culture. Oxford University Press. Bortolotti, T., Boscari, S. and Danese, P., 2015. Successful lean implementation: Organizational culture and soft lean practices.  International Journal of Production Economics,  160, pp.182-201. Cornelissen, J. and Cornelissen, J.P., 2017.  Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage. Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Helo, P., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J. and Sahay, B.S., 2017. Explaining the impact of reconfigurable manufacturing systems on environmental performance: The role of top management and organizational culture.  Journal of Cleaner Production,  141, pp.56-66. Ehrhart, M.G. and Kuenzi, M., 2017. The Impact of Organizational Climate and Culture on Employee Turnover.  The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Recruitment, Selection and Employee Retention, pp.494-512. Fullan, M., 2014.  Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John Wiley & Sons. Glisson, C., 2015. The role of organizational culture and climate in innovation and effectiveness.  Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance,  39(4), pp.245-250. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.  Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014. Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model.  Journal of Business Research,  67(8), pp.1609-1621. Kangas, M., Kaptein, M., Huhtala, M., Là ¤msà ¤, A.M., Pihlajasaari, P. and Feldt, T., 2016. Why Do Managers Leave Their Organization? Investigating the Role of Ethical Organizational Culture in Managerial Turnover.  Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-17. Katzenbach, J., Oelschlegel, C. and Thomas, J., 2016. 10 principles of organizational culture.  Strategy+ Business,  82(Spring), pp.1-7. 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School Health Plan - Essay Example If for example, a student was experiencing pain from an infection they contracted, then he/she may not be able to concentrate in class or while doing personal reading consequently bringing about failure. It is important to remember that health does not simply cover physical issues; it encompasses the social and mental realm as well. Students can only be considered healthy if the whole body is functioning in order. Is a student feels left out and isolated, he's/her social needs are neglected and he/she cannot function at full capacity. Students, who may be taking harmful substances, mess up their mental abilities and hinder their own development. All the above aspects must be put into consideration when coming up with a comprehensive school health plan. In a recent study done among adolescents in Michigan, it was found that risky behavior is still prevalent among youth. There is a decline but that does not mean that the problem has been eliminated completely. It is therefore important to focus on those regions when coming up with a school health plan. It is quite crucial to ensure that these areas are dealt with otherwise these issues could disable students or in severe cases. These issues could cause death. Some of these risky behaviors include; Some research has been done by the Division of adolescent and school health and also by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention on the prevalence of these behaviors among adolescents. (Centre for Disease Control and prevention, 2000) It was found that seventy two percent of the students in Michigan schools do not attend classes in physical education. Alongside this, majority of children between the ages of six and nineteen in the United States are overweight or suffer from obesity. This is an alarming statistic especially when assessing the health status of children in America. It is quite dangerous to ignore this problem because obesity causes psychological and physical trauma for the children suffering from this disorder. First of all, they are usually isolated from the rest of the school community. Other students look at them as abnormal and may not want to associate with them. This causes a lot of disturbance in the minds of these young ones. Obesity impairs children from fully participating in sports and other social activities because they cannot bear their weight or may be ashamed of displaying it. In addition, it brings a number of diseases associated with poor blood circulation, heart performance and c holesterol. These include heart failure or stroke, fluctuating blood sugar and high blood pressure. All these conditions are a very serious threat to achieving full academic potential. Research was done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration in the year 2001. They found out that there are about four thousand American children that try taking tobacco everyday. This means that there are a very high number of students who are hooked to the habit. Tobacco use is an issue that must be addressed as soon as possible. There are a number of damages that arise from this risky behavior, first of all students ruin their respiratory system. They could develop a number of diseases like asthma, tuberculosis and even lung cancer at an early age. These health problems would

Purchasing Development Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Purchasing Development - Assignment Example For instance, a general purpose purchasing system might procure materials the way we want it to but doesn’t give us a receipt of each individual transaction (assuming we need receipts for each and every transaction). Design systems on the other hand are specifically designed from business to business and provide all functionalities that are needed for a successful purchasing function. It is necessary that procurement systems be integrated in all processes and departments of an organization. This would save the organization a lot of time and money as whenever anyone would require something, all he needs to do is send a procurement request to the purchasing department rather than waiting for the purchasing department to figure out for itself when inventory count goes down and wait for them to reorder. Sometimes there might be commercial issues arising as a result of change in organizational business plans. For instance our organization might aim to cut down on its costs as a way to maximize profits. It might plan to do so by purchasing raw materials and other supplies at a lower cost than usual. The procurement system here would need to consider whether switching suppliers to one offering a lower cost would still mean that the supplies are of the same quality. It would also need to consider whether the supplier would be able to deliver on time and not back out at the very last moment and leave us doomed. Such decisions need to be taken by the procurement department bearing the risk that a risk that a new supplier might default at any time! James (2009) in his book Buying Complex Systems stresses how it is very necessary to properly define the objectives of the purchasing operations and make sure they support the strategic objectives of the company as a whole. For instance if an organization aims to differentiate its product by offering high quality products and on the other hand the purchasing operation aims to save on money and therefore purchases low qua lity raw material then then definitely the overall aim of delivering high quality products won’t be met. The objectives of the purchasing operations need to be in line with the organization’s strategy if the organization wants to prosper. Evaluate the current and future effectiveness of an identified purchasing operational system I’m going to discuss the purchase operational system of the Agha’s Supermarket. The mart is located in the posh locality of Clifton and caters to thousands of people on a daily basis. The store is divided into many sections like crockery and cutlery, food items, vegetables etc. The purchase manager is responsible for making purchases on an overall basis. The purchase manager has a team of people, each of whom is sent out by him to different sections of the market to see the stock requirements. The team surveys the section heads every second day and pens down the stock requirement on a piece of paper. The entire team meets the pur chase operations manager the next and report to him about the stock requirement. The purchasing manager then places purchase orders and goods are obtained by the company the very next day. The current system isn’t ideal enough to deal with unexpected demand fluctuations. Miscalculations might be made by section heads while ordering stock and in the meanwhile stock outs may be experienced leading to nil sales and loss of

Introduction to Banking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Introduction to Banking - Essay Example Despite the fact that the borrower was pursuing a professional course which needed the inputs of expensive photographic equipments; the borrower had never ever approached the bank even for a student loan. (ii) A prime factor responsible for the borrower not approaching the bank for even a student loan is the financial resourcefulness and entrepreneurship skills exhibited by the borrower as a freelance photographer even while she was a student. She was able to sell her work as a freelancer. This implies that she had developed substantial trade contacts over all these years which are now going to stand in good stead for the sale of photographs from her current project. Case facts go on to reveal that she is on the threshold of some category of fame in photography circles. Her entrepreneurial abilities provide further comfort to the banker. (iii) Case facts reveal that her parents are generous and thereby affluent () and have supported their daughter liberally in the past. They have been cited as one of the reasons that she was not required to obtain loan during her student days. For the purpose of the present project it may be good idea to accept collateral securities from such parents. They can also be utilized as guarantors for the present loan. Her background check thus reveals no factor which would be an inhibiting factor in extending her the loan. However following specific questions may be asked to her during her loan interview to complete the appraisal process: (a) She may be asked to furnish a firm and complete itinerary of her project in Africa. She may be asked to indicate clearly the number of days she intends to stay in Africa, the number of locations she would visit, her boarding and lodging arrangements at each such location, her local conveyance and other expenditures. Case facts reveal that borrower has sought the loan for air tickets and photographic equipment; it is apparent that most of the above expenditure she wishes to put in through her own sources as margin. It is important to estimate this margin available with her as otherwise rest of the project and bank lent funds would be of no specific use. Thus bank must estimate all such expenditures and probe her sources and their availability at the project start date. These sources could include her own savings, her parents support, support from any other photograpy association, magazine or institution or even any grant or fellowship. (b) The next pertinent set of questions would be on specific items she is seeking loan for viz.air tickets and photographic equipment and accessories. Borrower may be asked to furnish the names of the specific airlines she would be traveling on to Africa along with her assistant. In case enquiries reveal that the airlines she proposes to use is expensive or that other airlines are offering more economical round tickets then the borrower would be asked the reason for preferring the chosen airlines. She may also be advised to avail of the cheaper airlines. Coming to her other need viz of photographic equipment and accessories queries may be framed on the specific equipment she proposes to buy for her project and why she thinks that such equipment is more suitable both in terms of price and performance, from amongst other same genre equipment. The banker may like the borrower to show the process of narrowing down

Theories of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes Essay Example for Free

Theories of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes Essay The concept of social contract theory is that in the beginning man lived in the state of nature. They had no government and there was no law to regulate them. There were hardships and oppression on the sections of the society. To overcome from these hardships they entered into two agreements which are:- 1. Ç ²Pactum UnionisÇ ³; and 2. Ç ²Pactum SubjectionisÇ ³. By the first pact of unionis, people sought protection of their lives and property. As, a result of it a society was formed where people undertook to respect each other and live in peace and harmony. By the second pact of subjectionis, people united together and pledged to obey an authority and surrendered the whole or part of their freedom and rights to an authority. The authority guaranteed everyone protection of life, property and to a certain extent liberty. Thus, they must agree to establish society by collectively and reciprocally renouncing the rights they had against one another in the State of Nature and they must imbue some one person or assembly of persons with the authority and power to enforce the initial contract. In other words, to ensure their escape from the State of Nature, they must both agree to live together under common laws, and create an enforcement mechanism for the social contract and the laws that constitute it. Thus, the authority or the government or the sovereign or the state came into being because of the two agreements. Analysis of the theory of Social Contract by Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes theory of Social Contract appeared for the first time in Leviathan published in the year 1651 during the Civil War in Britain. Thomas HobbesÇ ¯ legal theory is based on Ç ²Social contractÇ ³. According to him, prior to Social Contract, man lived in the State of Nature. ManÇ ¯s life in the State of NATURE was one of fear and selfishness. Man lived in chaotic condition of constant fear. Life in the State of Nature was Ç ®solitaryÇ ¯, Ç ®poorÇ ¯, Ç ®nastyÇ ¯, Ç ®brutishÇ ¯, and Ç ®shortÇ ¯. Man has a natural desire for security and order. In order to secure self- protection and self-preservation, and to avoid misery and pain, man entered   into a contract. This idea of self-preservation and self-protection are inherent in manÇ ¯s nature and in order to achieve this, they voluntarily surrendered all their rights and freedoms to some authority by this contract who must command obedience. As a result of this contract, the mightiest authority is to protect and preserve their lives and property. This led to the emergence of the institution of the Ç ²rulerÇ ³ or Ç ²monarchÇ ³, who shall be the absolute head. Subjects had no rights against the absolute authority or the sovereign and he is to be obeyed in all situations however bad or unworthy he might be. However, Hobbes placed moral obligations on the sovereign who shall be bound by natural law. Hence, it can be deduced that, Hobbes was the supporter of absolutism. In the opinion of Hobbes, Ç ²law is dependent upon the sanction of the sovereign and the Government without sword are but words and of no strength to secure a man at allÇ ³. He therefore, reiterated that civil law is the re al law because it is commanded and enforced by the sovereign. Thus, he upheld the principle of Ç ²Might is always RightÇ ³. Hobbes thus infers from his mechanistic theory of human nature that humans are necessarily and exclusively self-interested. All men pursue only what they perceive to be in their own individually considered best interests. They respond mechanistically by being drawn to that which they desire and repelled by that to which they are averse. In addition to being exclusively self-interested, Hobbes also argues that human beings are reasonable. They have in them the rational capacity to pursue their desires as efficiently and maximally as possible. From these premises of human nature, Hobbes goes on to construct a provocative and compelling argument for which they ought to be willing to submit themselves to political authority. He did this by imagining persons in a situation prior to the establishment of society, the State of Nature. Hobbes impels subjects to surrender all their rights and vest all liberties in the sovereign for preservation of peace, life and prosperity of the subjects. It is in this way the natural law became a moral guide or directive to the sovereign for preservation of the natural rights of the subjects. For Hobbes all law is dependent upon the sanction of the sovereign. All real law is civil law, the law commanded and Page 3 of 7 enforced by the sovereign and are brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the natural liberty of particular men, in such a manner, as they might not hurt but to assist one another and join together against a common enemy. He advocated for an established order. Hence, Individualism, materialism, utilitarianism and absolutions are inter-woven in the theory of Hobbes. Analysis of the theory of Social Contract by John Locke John Locke theory of Social Contract is different than that of Hobbes. According to him, man lived in the State of Nature, but his concept of the State of Nature is different as contemplated by Hobbesian theory. LockeÇ ¯s view about the state of nature is not as miserable as that of Hobbes. It was reasonably good and enjoyable, but the property was not secure. He considered State of Nature as a Ç ²Golden AgeÇ ³. It was a stat e of Ç ²peace, goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservationÇ ³. In that state of nature, men had all the rights which nature could give them. Locke justifies this by saying that in the State of Nature, the natural condition of mankind was a state of perfect and complete liberty to conduct oneÇ ¯s life as one best sees fit. It was free from the interference of others. In that state of nature, all were equal and independent. This does not mean, however, that it was a state of license. It was one not free to do anything at all one pleases, or even anything that one judges to be in oneÇ ¯s interest. The State of Nature, although a state wherein there was no civil authority or government to punish people for transgressions against laws, was not a state without morality. The State of Nature was pre-political, but it was not pre- moral. Persons are assumed to be equal to one another in such a state, and therefore equally capable of discovering and being bound by the Law of Nature. So, the State of Nature was a Ç ®state of libertyÇ ¯, where persons are free to pursue their own interests and plans, free from interference and, because of the Law of Nature and the restrictions that it imposes upon persons, it is relatively peaceful. Property plays an essential role in LockeÇ ¯s argument for civil government and the contract that establishes it. According to Locke, private property is created when a person mix es his labour with the raw materials of nature. Given the implications of the Law of Nature, there are limits as to how much property one can own: one is not   allowed to take so more from nature than oneself can use, thereby leaving others without enough for themselves, because nature is given to all of mankind for its common subsistence. One cannot take more than his own fair share. Property is the linchpin of LockeÇ ¯s argument for the social contract and civil government because it is the protection of their property, including their property in their own bodies, that men seek when they decide to abandon the State of Nature. John Locke considered property in the State of Nature as insecure because of three conditions; they are:- 1. Absence of established law; 2. Absence of impartial Judge; and 3. Absence of natural power to execute natural laws. Thus, man in the State of Nature felt need to protect their property and for the purpose of protection of their property, men entered into the Ç ²Social ContractÇ ³. Under the contract, man did not surrender all their rights to one single individual, but they surrendered only the right to preserve / maintain order and enforce the law of nature. The individual retained with them the other rights, i.e., right to life, liberty and estate because these rights were considered natural and inalienable rights of men.   Having created a political society and government through their consent, men then gained three things which they lacked in the State of Nature: laws, judges to adjudicate laws, and the executive power necessary to enforce these laws. Each man therefore gives over the power to protect himself and punish transgressors of the Law of Nature to the government that he has created through the compact. According to Locke, the purpose of the Government and law is to uphold and protect the natural rights of men. So long as the Government fulfils this purpose, the laws given by it are valid and binding but, when it ceases to fulfil it, then the laws would have no validity and the Government can be thrown out of power. In Lockes view, unlimited sovereignty is contrary to natural law. Hence, John Locke advocated the principle of -Ç ²a state of liberty; not of licenseÇ ³. Locke advocated a state for the general good of people. He pleaded for a constitutionally limited government.   Locke, in fact made life, liberty and property, his three cardinal rights, which greatly dominated and influenced the Declaration of American Independence, 1776. Analysis of the theory of Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau was a French philosopher who gave a new interpretation to the theory of Social Contract in his work The Social Contract and Emile. According to him, social contract is not a historical fact but a hypothetical construction of reason. Prior to the Social Contract, the life in the State of Nature was happy and there was equality among men. As time passed, however, humanity faced certain changes. As the overall population increased, the means by which people could satisfy their needs had to change. People slowly began to live together in small families, and then in small communities. Divisions of labour were introduced, both within and between families, and discoveries and inventions made life easier, giving rise to leisure time. Such leisure time inevitably led people to make comparisons between themselves and others, resulting in public values, leading to shame and envy, pride and contempt. Most importantly however, according to Rousseau, was the invention of private property, which constituted the pivotal moment in humanityÇ ¯s evolution out of a simple, pure state into one, characterized by greed, competition, vanity, inequality, and vice. For Rousseau the invention of property constitutes humanityÇ ¯s Ç ®fall from graceÇ ¯ out of the State of Nature. For this purpose, they surrendered their rights not to a sing le individual but to the community as a whole which Rousseau termed as Ç ®general willÇ ¯. According to Rousseau, the original Ç ®freedom, happiness, equality and libertyÇ ¯ which existed in primitive societies prior to the social contract was lost in the modern civilisation. Through Social Contract, a new form of social organisation- the state was formed to assure and guarantee rights, liberties freedom and equality. The essence of the RousseauÇ ¯s theory of General Will is that State and Law were the product of General Will of the people. State and the Laws are made by it and if the government and laws do not conform to Ç ®general willÇ ¯, they would be discarded. While the individual parts with his natural rights, in return he gets civil liberties such as freedom of speech, equality, assembly, etc. The Ç ²General WillÇ ³, therefore, for all purposes, was the will of majority citizens to which blind obedience was to be given. The majority was accepted on the belief that majority view is right than minority view. Each individual is not subject to any other individu al but to the Ç ®general willÇ ¯ and to obey this is to obey himself. His sovereignty is infallible, indivisible, unrepresentable and illimitable. Thus, Rousseau favoured peoples sovereignty. His natural law theory is confined to the freedom and liberty of the individual. For him, State, law, sovereignty, general will, etc. are interchangeable terms. RousseauÇ ¯s theory inspired French and American revolutions and given impetus to nationalism. He based his theory of social contract on the principle of Ç ²Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chainsÇ ³. COMPARISION OF THE THEORY OF SOCIAL CONTRACT OF THOMAS HOBBES, JOHN LOCKE AND JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 1. Hobbes asserts that without subjection to a common power of their rights and freedoms, men are necessarily at war. Locke and Rousseau, on the contrary, set forth the view that the state exists to preserve and protect the natural rights of its citizens. When governments fail in that task, citizens have the right and sometimes the duty to withdraw their support and even to rebel. 2. Hobbes view was that whatever the state does is just. All of society is a direct creation of the state, and a reflection of the will of the ruler. According to Locke, the only important role of the state is to ensure that justice is seen to be done. While Rousseau view is that the State must in all circumstance ensure freedom and liberty of individuals. 3. Hobbes theory of Social Contract supports absolute sovereign without giving any value to individuals, while Locke and Rousseau supports individual than the state or the government. 4. To Hobbes, the sovereign and the government are identical but Rousseau makes a distinction between the two. He rules out a representative form of government. But, Locke does not make any such distinction. Page 7 of 7 5. RousseauÇ ¯s view of sovereignty was a compromise between the constitutionalism of Locke and absolutism of Hobbes. CRITICAL APPREHENTION 1. Rousseau propounded that state, law and the government are interchangeable, but this in present senerio is different. Even though government can be overthrown but not the state. A state exists even there is no government. 2. Hobbes concept of absolutism is totally a vague concept in present scenario. Democracy is the need and examples may be taken from Burma and other nations. 3. According to Hobbes, the sovereign should have absolute authority. This is against the rule of law because absolute power in one authority brings arbitrariness. 4. Locke concept of State of nature is vague as any conflict with regard to property always leads to havoc in any society. Hence, there cannot be a society in peace if they have been conflict with regard to property. 5. Locke concept of laissez-faire is not of welfare oriented. Now in present scenario, every state undertake steps to form a welfare state.