Instagram as Tool for Social Science Research

Instagram as Tool for Social Science Research In the recent decades, advancements in technologies have dramatically changed the research process across all disciplines. Some of these innovations have revolutionized research with titanic and far-reaching implications. The internet, for instance, has made it easy to access information and communicate across long distances. Some of these innovations are slightly less revolutionary but with tremendous impacts on research.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Instagram as Tool for Social Science Research specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Online social media platforms are examples of modest innovations whose impact on research-related tasks can only be felt cumulatively through daily interactions. With a base of 90 million active users monthly and over 40 million photos posted each day, Instagram is a powerful tool for social science research (Titlow, 2013). The innovation uses hash tags to allow users share similar informa tion. A researcher can visit those hash tags to get vivid graphical results on a research topic. This paper will demonstrate that despite its shortcomings as a source of social problems, Instagram is a powerful research tool on virtually all social sciences disciplines. Kevin Systrom and Michel Krieger, a Brazilian, developed Instagram in the beginning of 2010 (How did it Impact Society? –Instagram, n.d., par 3).The innovation got a financial boast from venture fund investment in March 2010. One year later, Instagram discovered hash tag, afeature that allows users to share and discover similar information and photos. Like-minded Instagrammers create specific hash tags to help them discover each other. Instagram became very popular and hit over million users in 2010. With invention of the hash tag feature, this number rose to 10 million in 2011. By August 2012, the innovation had over 100 million photos uploaded on its service. This number surpassed one billion in 2012. Each s econd, Instagram receives fifty-eightphotos and one new user on its service. Renowned personalities and celebrities have created Instagram profiles. This allows them to share photos and videos with their followers and fans. The innovation, though modest, has exceedingly many users on its platform. It is in recognition of the growth that Times listed it as the Best Android Application for 2013. Instagram has gigantic impacts on research, some positive and others negative. To start with, the innovation provides a platform for expression of opinions through photos. Images are very powerful in sharing opinion especially in a world saturated with text. Instagram users post captivating images on their profiles. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words (Prives, n.d., par 4).Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Social activists, opinion shapers, and commentators p ost photographs that capture issues affecting their worlds. It is thus easy for a researcher to discover people’s opinions on different aspects of life. It is also a powerful tool for social and political mobilization. In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Indonesia, people used Instagram photographs to highlight the humanitarian crisis in the country. Through these images, it was possible to appeal to people’s emotions and mobilize help. A researcher can therefore find Instagram extremely useful in such areas.  Instagram allows users to interact with people they would never have contacted before. By sharing pictures, people miles away stay connected. Through hash tags, like-minded people interact with one another as they share ideas, jokes, and exchange pictures. The more people share and interact, the more societies build social and political ties. A social researcher interested in studying the influence of celebrities on teenagers can use Instagram. A ph oto of a celebrity dressed in a certain fashion can attract many young people to dress in the same way and share their photos. Another benefit of Instagram as a research tool is the ease in access to vast amounts of information. The innovation has made it possible to access readily available resources at a click of a mouse. Researchers do not have to read volumes of newspaper or sit down for hours watching or listening to news. Instead, they can search for a relevant hash tag and get all relevant information. For instance, a search on the â€Å"#fiscalcliff† hash tag generates in excess of five thousand pictures. A search on the hash tag â€Å"#new† has more than three hundred thousand images. Instagram as a tool for research in social sciences is therefore convenient, fast, and highly resourceful. In spite of being resourceful and convenient as a research tool, Instagram has several negative consequences on users. To start with, the innovation has led to emergence of narcissistic stars of social media platform. Rinosa (2013)reports that the hash tag â€Å"#me† is the third in popularity in Instagram. Through this hash tag, young people share explicit self-images. Additionally, young users upload too much personal details on this platform. They spend most of their time on cellphones sharing where they visit, what they eat, among other details. This leads to social awkwardness as young people are detached from the real world. It is impossible to regulate what people share on Instagram. The platform therefore contributes to erosion of moral fabric and cyber bullying.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Instagram as Tool for Social Science Research specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Personally, I have been an Instagrammer since 2010. I signed up to the invention under influence from friends when I was in high school. The invention has had many effects on my personal life and as a c ollege student. At a personal level, I interact with friends and share photos. I also get information on what is happening around the globe. It had never occurred to me that Instagram is a powerful research tool until I ran out of information while explaining something to friends. We decided to search for the information on a particular hash tag on Instagram. We were overwhelmed by the amount of readily available information on the hash tag. We got many images that helped us to understand our topic better. Since then, I realized the truism in the statement that a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Whenever I need information on something, I simply search for the particular hash tag. I did the same during the Halloween and the photos that came up inundated me. In conclusion, technology will play a big role in future research. Instagram, for instance, has plans to have a video-sharing feature on its service. By using this feature, it will be possible to share and watch video s online. For researchers, this is an opportunity for clear evidence in the course of research. With the recent acquisition by Facebook Inc., Instagram has obtained financial muzzle to develop more features (Titlow, 2013). Instagram has several shortcomings including social awkwardness and rise of narcissistic online stars. However, this does not negate the invention’s power as a social science tool. With ninety million monthly users and an even higher photo sharing capability, researchers cannot ignore this vital tool. Rather thanincur high expenditure on other tools, researchers can exploit the convenience offered by Instagram as research tool in social science subjects. References How did it Impact Society? Instagram. (n.d.). Web.Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Prives, G. (n.d.). Instagram and its Impact on the World of Photography. Digital Photography School Instagram and its Impact on the World of Photography Comments. Web. Rinosa, M. (2013). 4 Ways Instagram Has Redefined Teen Culture. Web. Titlow, J. (2013). #Me: Instagram Narcissism And The Scourge Of The  Selfie. Web.

Poem and Story Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Poem and Story Analysis - Essay Example The poem clearly shows the lack of trust for males as they’re presented as the merciless cop who is always willing, in fact ready to destroy anything which comes in its path. Like Adrienne Rich presented Men in her poem, Susan Glaspell presents this half of the society very similarly in her story ‘Jury of Her Peers’. The story basically revolves around a woman and her husband who is a sheriff (just like Adrienne Rich, who presented men as cops in her poem) and is presented as an authoritative and a proud person who gives no value to women in his life. The sheriff is presented as a person who treats women as a third class member of the society and treats them wrong, both morally and ethically. Just like in the poem described above, women are again presented as a victim of this brutality and are mainly innocent. Both, the story and the poem presented one of the major problems of our society which is women being ill treated by men in many societies and cultures around the world. The writers in both the writings have presented men as cops which showed them in an authoritative position where they were able to do anything and everything, whereas women on the other hand were presented as the ones who have been suffering all the time. Both the pieces of writings are great indeed as they raised a question on our so called advanced society and pointed out the places where we still need

An investigation in to the effect of oil and gas to Qatar's economy Essay

An investigation in to the effect of oil and gas to Qatar's economy - Essay Example Apart from earning substantial revenues from exporting various products, every industrial giant within these nations consume 25 barrels of oil per person annually in order to maintain smooth functionality in the operations and thus contribute to the overall economic development of the nations (The World Bank 103). In terms of Qatar’s economic condition and position, recent reports project that the nation experiences a real growth rate of about 5.5 % and is ranked 44th position in terms of world ranking. The per capita income of this nation was $102,100 in terms of world ranking until the year 2013. Observably, the nations is ranked 3rd in terms of gross national savings, 19th in terms of crude oil production and 6th in terms of natural gas production (Central Intelligence Agency, â€Å"The World Factbook† ). By taking into concern the findings of this particular study, the null hypothesis to be tested in this study will be, â€Å"The oil and gas industry has no considerable impact on Qatar’s economy has been validated†. This claim has been validated from the perspective of Qatar’s officials who provided the reason behind the lack of impact on that country’s economy. Although oil comprises 58% of Qatar’s economy as well as 59% of that country’s exports as of 2012, the officials maintained that the country’s growth would slow to 5% during the 2014 financial year. The economy would not realize considerable impact because Qatar’s exports are expected to go down as the country plans to invest heavily on its infrastructure as it prepares for 2022 World Cup tournaments (Bakr and Dokoupil). The information accumulated from the research work certainly helps in determining the validity of the above-depicted null hypothesis. It can be affirmed that the research question is mainly structured with the intention of understanding that how oil and gas sector being the primary sector in the Qatari economy impose extensive impact specifically on the

Wal Mart organizational change management analysis

Wal Mart organizational change management analysis Organizational Change Management encompasses all activities aimed at helping an organization successfully accept and adopt new technologies and new ways to serve its customers. Effective change management enables the transformation of strategy, processes, technology, and people to enhance performance and ensure continuous improvement in an ever-changing environment. A comprehensive and structured approach to organizational change management is critical to the success of any project that will bring about significant change. Organizational change is a reality of the modern world, and that reality isnt likely to change anytime soon Organizational change is the implementation of new procedures or technologies intended to realign an organization with the changing demands of its business environment or to capitalize on business opportunities. Organizational change typically encompasses the introduction of new and perhaps unfamiliar processes, procedures, and technologies, which represent a departure from what affected individuals generally view as the established, practical, and familiar ways of doing their work. Thus, at the individual level, change can engender emotions and reactions that range from optimism to fear, including anxiety, challenge, resistance, ambiguity, energy, enthusiasm, helplessness, dread, motivation, and pessimism. Organizational change management is the process of recognizing, guiding, and managing these human emotions and reactions in a way that minimizes the inevitable drop in productivity that accompanies change. WAL-MART AT A GLANCE Wal-Mart, founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is one of the world largest companies by market capitalization and number of people employed and touching millions of customers everyday. There are more than 7,800 Wal-Mart stores and Sams Club locations in 16 markets worldwide and there are more than 2 million associates serving more than 100 million customers per year (About Us, n.d.) It is the largest grocery retailer in the United States with an estimated market share of around 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business. To be able to efficiently operate such a complex operation at such a large and do it consistently would only be possible by the huge effort by Wal-Marts associates as its employees are called. Companys Principle Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart) has enjoyed success by adhering to three basic principles since its founding in 1962. The first principle is the concept of providing value and service to our customers by offering quality merchandise at low prices every day. Wal-Mart has built the relationship with its customers on this basis, and we believe it is a fundamental reason for the Companys rapid growth and success. The second principle is corporate dedication to a partnership between the Companys associates (employees), ownership and management. This concept is extended to Wal-Marts Vendor Partners who have increased their business as Wal-Mart has grown. The third principle is a commitment by Wal-Mart to the United States and the communities in which stores and distribution centers are located. Wal-Mart strives to conduct its business in a manner that reflects these three basic principles and the resultant fundamental values. Each of our Vendor Partners, including our Vendor Partners outs ide the United States, are expected to conform to those principles and values and to assure compliance in all contracting, subcontracting or other relationships. Saving people money to help them live better was the goal that Sam Walton envisioned when he opened the doors to the first Walmart more than 40 years ago. Today, this mission is more important than ever to our customers and members around the world. Companys Profile: Wal-Mart: the worlds leading supermarkets. Founded in 1962 by the Walton brothers, former employees of Ben Franklin supermarket, Wal-Mart is now the leading supermarket group in the world. With what has become a real empire of more than 5,300 superstores, supermarkets and stores, Wal-Mart distributes every product we need in life (from food to beauty products, together with clothes, electronics, domestic appliances, sports equipment and so on) whether it be under the Wal-Mart name or under that of SAMs Club, a members-only store dedicated to SMEs and the general public, or that of ASDA in Great Britain. Not to mention its on-line sales service. Originally aiming to set up stores in medium-sized towns in the United States, Wal-Mart has since taken on the international market, from Mexico, Brazil, and Canada to Great Britain, as well as Japan with the 2002 take-over of Seyu, the fifth-placed Japanese supermarket chain, without forgetting Europe with the Great-Britain and the Germany. Companys Mission Through careful search, I have established that Wal-Mart does not officially have a mission statement. In retrospect, the mission statement is its slogan, Always low prices, always! The CEO of the company has said that people are not concerned with their mission statement as much as they are their prices. Companys Structure Sometimes I find myself reading through the court documents for lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart. Usually those documents are filled with a bunch of garbage posing as factual information. Occasionally, though, some interesting information is found. Below is a description of Wal-Marts operating structure which was published in a court document in 2003. The only advantage to reading the text here is that I removed all of the legal cross references and footnotes to make the text readable. The following should be taken with a grain of salt in that this information was produced from an anti-Wal-Mart lawsuit and does not come from the companys official filings. There are a total of 41 regions: 35 Wal-Mart regions and six Sams Club regions. Each region is supervised by a Regional Vice President (RVP), who is based in Bentonville and travels for three weeks out of each month to the region. Because the regional management is based in Bentonville, Wal-Mart has an unusually high concentration of executives and managers based in the Home Office. Each region, in turn, contains approximately eleven districts; each district contains approximately six to eight stores. Each district is run by a District Manager, who lives in the field. The highest level hourly manager at Wal-Mart is Support Manager. The next step up is to management trainee, a four-to-five month program which prepares employees for positions as Assistant Managers. The first salaried management position is Assistant Manager. Each store has several Assistant Managers, varying with the size of the store. The next level is Co-Manager, a position used only in larger stores. The top store p osition is Store Manager, called General Manager in Sams Clubs. The stores contain 40-50 different departments. Companys Vision SAFETY EYEWEAR PROGRAM An estimated 1,000 eye injuries occur in American workplaces every day, caused by employees not wearing eye protection or wearing the wrong kind of eye protection for the job. Flying particles, flying or falling objects, or objects swinging from a fixed or attached position (like tree limbs, ropes, chains or tools) are just some of the hazards that lead to accidents. Most people dont realize that an eye can be destroyed in a fraction of a second. The smartest and most effective safeguard against these risks is always wearing suitable eye protection. Many workplaces today are required by OSHA to ensure their employees wear safety glasses meeting the new ANSI Z87.1-2003 standard for personal protective eyewear. OPTI- DIRECT VISION PROGRAM Discover a simple, cost-effective way for your company to provide vision benefits for your employees without the complexities of an insurance vision plan. The Opti-Direct program can mean an average savings of more than $70 per year, per employee in comparison to a traditional vision insurance plan. Companys Characteristics Wal-Mart is almost certainly not an example of pure competition. Pure competition is characterized by a very large number of sellers each with an almost infinitesimally small market share selling a non-differentiated product. Wal-Marts market share is immense (as you stated) and they differentiate their product through branding measures that include everyday low prices, convenient hours, etc. There can be tough competition in every market structure (except monopoly) but that does not mean that the market meets the definition of pure competition. Company Products Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., like most large retail and grocery chains, offers store brands, commonly referred to as house brands or generic brands, which are low-priced alternatives to name brand products. Wal-Mart has numerous store brands, each catering to a different consumer need or desire. Almost all products offered under Wal-Mart brands are private label products, and can be found in almost every category at Wal-Mart. Major Names: Sams Choice: Sams Choice originally introduced as Sams American Choice in 1991, is premium retail brand in food and selected hard goods. Named for Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, Sams Choice forms the premium tier of Wal-Marts two-tiered core corporate grocery branding strategy that also includes the larger Great Value brand of discount-priced staple items. Most Sams Choice beverage products (excluding Grapette and Orangette) are manufactured for Wal-Mart by Cott Beverages. Other products in the line, including cookies, snack items, frozen meals, and similar grocery items are made by a variety of agricultural and food manufacturers. Great Value: Great Value was launched in 1993 and forms the second tier, or national brand equivalent (NBE), of Wal-Marts grocery branding strategy. Products offered at Walmart through the Great Value brand are claimed to be as good as national brand offerings, but are typically sold at a lower price because of minimal marketing and advertising expense. As a house or generic brand, the Great Value line does not consist of goods produced by Wal-Mart, but is a labeling system for items manufactured and packaged by a number of agricultural and food corporations, such as ConAgra, which, in addition to releasing products under its own brands and for Wal-Mart, also manufactures and brands foodstuffs for a variety of other supermarket chains. As Wal-Marts most extensively developed retail brand, covering hundreds of household consumable items, the Great Value line includes sliced bread, frozen vegetables, frozen dinners, canned foods, light bulbs, trash bags, and many other traditional groc ery store products. The wide range of items marketed under the Great Value banner makes it Wal-Marts top-selling retail brand. The new redesign also includes over 80 new items including thin crust pizza, fat free caramel swirl ice cream, strawberry yogurt, organic cage-free eggs, double stuffed sandwich cookies, and teriyaki beef jerky. Walmart changed the formulas for 750 items including: breakfast cereal, cookies, yogurt, laundry detergent, and paper towels. The new brand was tested by over 2,700 people.[1] Other retailers are following suit with their private label packaging as well. MARKETING ENVIRONMENT The Wal-Mart and all of the other actors operate in a larger macro environment of forces that shape opportunities and pose threats to the company. There are six major forces Demographic Environment Demography is the study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, sex, race, occupation, and other statistics. It is of major interest to marketers because it involves people and people make up markets. Demographic trends are constantly changing. Economic Environment The economic environment of Wal-Mart are those factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns Natural Environment The natural environment involves natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities. During the past two decades environmental concerns have steadily grown. Some trend analysts labeled the specific areas of concern were: Shortages of raw materials. Staples such as air, water, and wood products have been seriously damaged and non-renewable such as oil, coal, and various minerals have been seriously depleted during industrial expansion. Increased pollution is a worldwide problem. Industrial damage to the environment is very serious Government intervention in natural resource management has caused environmental concerns to be more practical and necessary in business and industry. Leadership, not punishment, seems to be the best policy for long-term results. Instead of opposing regulation, marketers should help develop solutions to the material and energy problems facing the world. Technological Environment The technological environment includes forces that create new technologies, creating new product and market opportunities. Political Environment The political environment includes laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a given society. Various forms of legislation regulate business. Marketing Strategy of Wal-Mart Wal-Marts marketing strategies are based upon a set of two main objectives that have guided the firm through their growth years. The customer is featured in the first objective; Customers would be provided what they want, when they want it, all at a value. Team spirit was emphasized in the second objective, Treating each other as we would hope to be treated acknowledging our total dependency on our associate partners to sustain our success. I agree with Wal-Marts two main objectives. The customer objective includes giving the customer what they want at a reasonable value. The second objective covers the foundation of the company; its employees. Employees are the basis for success of the company and drive the day-to-day operations. Wal-Marts employees, feeling like associate partners, gives them a feeling of empowerment and pride that drives the companys culture. Wal-Mart has launched successful marketing strategies that considered factors like social and environmental causes.. CHANGE PROCESS IN THE ORGANIZATION Change is a complex process, and also included with a time of anxiety and uncertainty for the workforce. Organizations need to clearly articulate the merits of change and present a clear process for achieving change, if they are to win the commitment and enthusiasm of people. Wide involvement in and communication of the change project can assist with employee understanding of the what and how of change. ORGANIZATION LIFE CYCLE Before planning a management strategy is important to carry out organizational life cycle to identified in which stages the organization are. After analyzing it if identified that Wal-Mart are in Elaboration of structure phase because it ensures Managers seek ways to streamline any excess bureaucracy that has cropped up during the previous phase. Decisionmaking becomes de-centralised, allowing individual departments to get organised along specific product/services lines or projects. Often the need at this phase is to revitalise the organisation. Innovation Fig: 1: The Organizational Life Cycle of Wal-Mart BUSINESS PROCESS TRANSFORMATION MODEL Business process modeling is a technology aimed at modelling business processes and analyzing them with the objective of using the analyses to drive process transformations. Business process modeling tools have underlying capabilities such as simulation that helps business analysts to understand and quantify the impact of different process transformations on process Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Even though business process modeling is widely used, analytic capabilities such as simulation are used to a much lesser degree because developing and running simulation models and interpreting their results is seen as a complicated activity by a majority of business analysts. As a result, many business analysts consider such tools as only suitable for experts in the field and are hampered in unlocking the full potential of business process modelling for identifying and assessing business process transformation options. Hence, there is a need for researching approaches that enable busine ss analysts to use quantitative analysis methods easily towards the overall objective of business process transformation.. Business process transformation is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed Business process Transformation is a top-down approach. It is not about projects carried out in isolation to examine a specific activity. Business process transformation is about looking at entire processes, rather than at specific activities or functions. It also needs to be customer-centric and look at the chain of activities leading to the customer output (whether that is service or product). Wal-marts mission statement: Wal-mart mission is to enhance and integrate our supplier diversity programs into all of our procurement practices and to be an advocate for minority- and women-owned businesses. To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people BEHAVIOURS THAT NEEDED FOR ACHIEVE THE MISSION AND AIM Optimize resource capacities This pattern results in potential reduction of operating costs, by reducing resource capacities in different roles. Optimize resource scheduling policies This pattern results in potential improvement in service and reduction in cost, by refining the scheduling policies governing the allocation of resources to different activities. Combine roles This pattern results in potential reduction in operational costs, by creating new roles in the process, by aggregating multiple existing roles. Change branching probability This pattern results in potential operational improvements, by modifying the probability that a specific branch is chosen by a token. The change in probability may in turn be realized by different means, such as employing improved technologies for managing flows, etc. Introduce business integration solutions, IT (InformationTechnology) systems This pattern results in potential improvement in operating costs, by automating the process using business integration and other information technology STAKE HOLDER ANALYSIS The purpose of stakeholder analysis is to inform the Project Board and Project Manager who should contribute to the project, where barriers might be and the actions that need to be taken before detailed project planning. Key stakeholders of Wal-Mart A Key stakeholder is a stakeholder whose interest in the project must be recognised if the project is to be successful. In particular, those who may be positively or negatively affected during the project or upon successful completion of the project Shareholders The management authority of the BPL Employees Physicians / Doctors Related banks Participants The retailer The distributor Supplier The non key stakeholder A Non-key stakeholder is a stakeholder who does not need to be recognised in order for the project to be successful, but will be identified as s result of the process of identifying all stakeholders Pressure group Taxation authority The Standard testing Institute Local community Political influences International policy SYSTEM MODELING The 7-S-Model The 7-S-Model is better known as McKinsey 7-S. This is because the two persons who developed this model, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, have been consultants at McKinsey Co at that time. Thy published their 7-S-Model in their article Structure Is Not Organization (1980) and in their books The Art of Japanese Management (1981) and In Search of Excellence (1982). The model starts on the premise that an organization is not just Structure, but consists of seven elements: Strategy Actions a company plans in response to or anticipation of changes in its external environment. Structure Basis for specialization and co-ordination influenced primarily by strategy and by organization size and diversity. Systems Formal and informal procedures that support the strategy and structure. Style / Culture The culture of the organization, consisting of two components: Organizational Culture: the dominant values and beliefs, and norms, which develop over time and become relatively enduring features of organizational life. Staff The people/human resource management processes used to develop managers, socialization processes, ways of shaping basic values of management cadre, ways of introducing young recruits to the company, ways of helping to manage the careers of employees Skills The distinctive competences what the company does best, ways of expanding or shifting competences Super ordinate goals These represent the aspirations of the organisation, the beliefs, the principles and aims which should pull it towards success. A shared view of this within the organisation is a powerful competitive advantage for an organisation to develop Resources: Recourses needed for achieving the new markets Established a new plant for production Ensure better quality Set up new marketing channel specially for the international markets New management and trained staff Finance Political support Marketing environment IMPLEMENTATION Implementing the Change A practical understanding of how people and organizations respond to change. This is received by a exporters to understanding how change unfolds helps reduce the amount of unproductive behavior that may accompany the implementation of a new technical solution by reducing the amount of uncertainty involved in change. Reduced uncertainty alleviates surprises and better equips people to focus time and energy on the technical solution. The manner in which change unfolds can be broadly grouped into seven key concept areas. These areas are: Nature. The impact of change on the individual. Process. The typical flow of change. Roles. The positions that are central to change. Resistance. The reactions that accompany change. Commitment. The process by which individuals and organizations align with change. Culture. The organizations past and present ways of doing things and the influence of these behaviours on the change. Synergy. The impact of teamwork on the change. Making Good Decisions Decisions are the alignment of an organizations current and planned changes with the resources available for implementing the initiatives. For an organization to be successful in implementing change, it must ensure that the demands created by its change initiatives do not exceed the organizations capacity for executing the changes. When change demands exceed the organizations capacity for change, key resources become overwhelmed by the number of changes competing for their time. The result is an increase in dysfunctional behavior that detracts energy from the implementation effort and, in many cases, impedes its process. Ensuring adequate capacity for existing and planned change demands generally involves: Inventorying current and planned changes and evaluating them to determine their potential value, impact, and resource requirements. Prioritizing changes according to this evaluation. Determining current capacity to implement changes. Trimming current and planned changes as necessary according to capacity limits. Developing and implementing strategies to increase overall change capacity to expand organizational adaptability. Structured Implementation Architecture: The structured plan for achieving the desired goals through implementation of the perceived change solution. Following a structured, yet flexible, implementation framework reduces errors and oversights and allows a team to proactively address issues that are routinely associated with the failure of organizational changes. Such a structured framework consists of seven phases which, when applied as a system, facilitate successful implementation of an initiative. The seven phases are: Clarification. Development of a comprehensive vision and measurable outcomes that are wholly shared by key leaders. Announcement. Development and execution of a detailed communication plan. Diagnosis. Assessment of critical risks and key levers associated with the change. Planning. Development of comprehensive strategies to mitigate risks and use levers identified in the diagnosis phase. Execution. Implementation of developed strategies. Monitoring. Continuous assessment and augmentation of an implementation sequence. Evaluation. Assessment of a complete implementation sequence, and documentation and transfer of key learnings. Recommendations I feel that Wal-Marts most challenging issue involves the publics resentment. Wal-Mart has wiped out numerous retail establishments (too many to count) and will continue to do so unless stopped. So far, some big box opponents have stopped Wal-Mart from specific expansions but Wal-Mart is definitely fighting back. From Wal-Marts point of view, I think more focus should be spent on global expansion. If specific areas are so against having a Wal-Mart that they pass laws to stop Wal-Mart from building in their area, I think Wal-Mart should stay away. For example, Wal-Mart would have a terrible time expanding into Oakland. I would assume that with the laws that were passed, a great deal of negative press also took place. The time and effort to get a Wal-Mart built in Oakland may not be worth the trouble. This is one of the reasons I feel Wal-Mart should focus on international expansion. There were 1,355 international Wal-Marts in 2004. I definitely feel that expanding this number sounds l ike it could be very lucrative. Another issue facing Wal-Mart is the federal lawsuit regarding sex discrimination. From the numbers quoted in the case study, it sounds as though Wal-Mart is clearly discriminating against females. This is somewhat surprising but will hopefully be fixed. Wal-Mart is very thorough in their strategy, maybe they need to be more thorough and/or detailed in their compensation and incentive policies. Wal-Mart definitely needs to end the discrimination. In order to avoid future discrimination, monitoring of wages and salaries should be established. This is especially true for upper management employees, where females are paid significantly less than males in similar positions. Last, I feel that the compensation and benefits offered to Wal-Mart employees are somewhat of an issue. If only about 60 percent of employees have health coverage (compared to 72 percent in the retail industry as a whole), I think their benefit package needs to be revaluated. The case study claims that the reason many employees did not sign up for health coverage is because they obtained it through a member of their household. Im sure that is the case for some, but not all. Furthermore, Wal-Mart does not pay any health care costs for retirees. I feel that both examples are methods Wal-Mart uses to cut costs and both need to be reconsidered. CONCLUSION Management change in the organization is the key to adopting with new technologies. Though it a complex and continuous process but every organization should practice this new techniques to manage and operate he organization successfully.

Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Two Faces of Gatsby’s Parties   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the 1920’s, everyone is making easy money off the stock market and lives their lives to the fullest potential. The decade, also known as the Jazz Age, brings a lot of glamour into many households; one of which belongs to Jay Gatsby. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby shows his wealth by arranging humongous parties every so often. At these parties most of the people who are in attendance are uninvited, but at the same time are also very rich. Although Gatsby’s parties and the wealth they represent are initially portrayed as alluring and glamorous, in Chapter 3 Fitzgerald subtly undercuts the apparent allure and glamour of both through specific words and images he uses to describe the party scene and the behavior of the partygoers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The scene appears alluring and glamorous, yet there is a subtext, an undercurrent of negative images and commentary running through much of Fitzgerald’s description which undercuts the apparent allure and glamour, suggesting the destructive side of wealth. Both, the positive and the negative images are represented when the servants, the setting and the entertainment are being described in the chapter. Behind the scenes of a beautiful party, there are those that do not have much fun; they are the hard working servants. These servants work long before the party starts to get it set up and during the party to keep everyone happy. Before the party starts the servants have the job of driving people over to the Gatsby’s house, and it is described in a following manner, â€Å"On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city†¦while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains.† From th e impression, it seems like a normal preparation for the party which actually makes it sound very courteous, but a closer look at the description also reveals the hard work that the servants do in order to keep these parties on track. They are like a â€Å"brisk yellow bug† in a way that they give it their all to get their job done, but at the same time they are unappreciated and can be squashed like a â€Å"bug† when their services are not required anymore. During the preparations for the party and the clean up from the old one, there is another huge example of the mistreatment of the servants, â€Å"[servants] toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.

Is Prostitution Deviant? Essay

Prostitution viewed through the social-conflict paradigm, a â€Å"framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change† (Macionis-Society), would be that the act of prostitution is a result of an unequal distribution of money, power, education, and social prominence. Prostitution is deviant, in that it is an action that is outside the norm of the accepted standards of our society. However, whether prostitution is deviant or not is not the starting place of the social-conflict paradigm. The social-conflict theorist would make no judgment but instead ask why. The social-conflict paradigm would analyze the social structure the individual was raised in, such as the education level and thus the opportunities available for the individual to gain skills necessary to accomplish success in society. It would then cast blame on the social factors rather than poor choices or lack of vision of the person. In essence, a prostitute woul d just be a victim of things out of his or her control. Prostitution would be viewed as a necessary bread of inopportunity rather than immorality. A strength of the social-conflict paradigm in viewing conflict is that in order to change the pattern of prostitution or any negative matter of society we must look at what forms the problem in order to prevent it. However one viewpoint gives us a narrow solution for a vast number of problems and other issues besides social inopportunity, like morals, values and a persons character must also be addressed in ordered to wholly fix any problem. Though we live in a world that expresses moral relativism, there is still objective truth and there are still things which are right and wrong. Though prostitution may have been forced upon some as a means of survival, it is still wrong and destructive. The consequences medically are huge for this kind of wide spread behavior. Though we can feel for those who have found themselves in this kind of life style, we must teach them new ways of living as well as helping provide new opportunities.

Financial Statements Industry Comparison - 1557 Words

Financial Statements: Industry Comparison University of Phoenix BSA 500: Business Systems I Instructor: May 28, 2007 Financial Statements: Industry Comparison More often managers are exposed to financial data and the need exists to develop knowledge and understanding of financial accounting concepts and principals. Nearly all companies prepare financial statements of some type and the complexity of those statements will vary. The analysis and interpretations of financial statements is made easier by the preparation of financial reports that can be produced daily, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. The following paper is intended to be a comparative financial analysis of four publicly traded companies within the same†¦show more content†¦The interest coverage ratio for this company indicates there relatively solvent and will be able to generate future revenues and meet long-term obligations. Gross margin is a good measure of a company s efficiency in producing and distributing its products (1999). The three year measurements indicate that the need to investigate their efficiency in production or distribution as the numbers have decre ased since 2004. The operating margin ratio measures the quality of a company s operations (1999). The three year span of measurement indicates a decreased operating margin and they may be losing out to their competitors. The next analysis is a company in the same industry as Huffman Trucking and the company chosen was Landstar System Incorporated, Table 4. Using the same balance sheet ratios the current ratio shows that there was some fluctuation in the current assets and their current liabilities however this shows a slight overall increase. No acid test ratio was available due to no inventory shown on the balance sheet. The working capital also fluctuated during this time frame but still represents an overall increase from 2004. 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