Narration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Narration - Essay Example Try though it might, the flower could not determine from any of the sunbeams arriving outside its door when this ‘summer’ should arrive. In the way that nature speaks to itself, the sunlight sang a welcome to the flower until it opened itself up completely, revealing the special green stripes on white petals that made it unique, but not too proud. The sunbeam celebrated the arrival of the flower because it was the first and therefore symbolized the earliest beginning of summer, but quickly told the flower about the dreams of the summer and the many companion flowers it would have then. This enthusiastic welcome and sense of singularity gave the flower a psychological boost that gave it the fortitude to continue standing when the sunlight disappeared behind a cloud and the wind and weather returned. As had the sunlight, the words of the children again provided the flower with a psychological boost. This boost was so touching that the pain of being broken at the stem did not register in its awareness. Any residual pain it might have felt was erased by the warm hands and the pressing of soft lips against its petals. There was a young girl of indeterminate age living in the house who decided upon a specific boy to be her summer romance. However, this boy was engaged in his studies far away. To convey to him her feelings, the girl wrapped the flower up in some pieces of wood fiber on which were written several verses presumably of romantic sentiment. The flower experienced the darkness as if it was again within the seed. This was not an agreeable experience for the flower as it traversed through the postal system, but the journey was not long and soon, the letter in which the flower was enclosed was opened by the boy. The next time the flower saw the light of day, the boy was no longer happy but was angry. He grabbed up the verses that had enclosed the flower and burned them. The flower could not understand why it

Cellular Respiration Essay Example for Free

Cellular Respiration Essay Answer the following questions: Cellular respiration: †¢ What is cellular respiration and what are its three stages? Cellular respiration is a way cells store food and energy, a catabolic pathway for the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The cellular respiration happens in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. The three stages are Glycolysis, Citric cycle, and electron transport. †¢ What is the role of glycolysis? Include the reactants and the products. Where does it occur? Glycolysis splits the sugar that goes in to the cell. Then in converts in to energy the cell need. It does not need oxygen to occur. †¢ What is the role of the citric acid cycle? Include the reactants and the products. Where does it occur? Citric acid occurs after glycolysis process, high energy electrons are produced. It occurs only when oxygen is present but does not always use it. †¢ What is the role of the electron transport system? Include the reactants and the products. Where does it occur? Electron transportation system requires oxygen. It’s a series of electrons carriers in the membrane of the mitochondria. Photosynthesis: †¢ What is the overall goal of photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is a process whereby plants, algae and bacteria convert light energy in to chemical energy, using carbon dioxide and water. †¢ Because photosynthesis only occurs in plants, why is it essential to animal life? Photosynthesis is important for animals because the plants produce the sugar they need as a vital nutrient for the animals. †¢ What is the role of the light reactions? Include the reactants and the products. Where does it occur? The reactants of light-dependent reactions in photosynthesis are H20 (water), ADP, and NADP+. The products of light-dependent pathways of photosynthesis are Oxygen, ATP, and NADPH. The reactants of light-independent reactions are ATP, NADPH, and Carbon Dioxide. The main purpose of the light independent reaction is to produce glucose. Rate This Answer What is the role of the Calvin cycle? Include the reactants and the products. Where does it occur? Summary: †¢ Explain how photosynthesis and cellular respiration are linked within ecosystems. The link between photosynthesis and cellular respiration is an inverse relationship; both are opposites of each other. Photosynthesis is the process by which carbon dioxide is converted into organic compounds from sunlight. The most frequent compound is sugar. †¢ Visit the NASA website (http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/) and research global temperature changes. How has global warming affected overall temperatures? What effects do cellular respiration and photosynthesis have on global warming? References. 1. http://www.biolib.cz/en/main 2. UnversityofPhoenix(2011)Photosentisys.p109

Starbucks Recruitment and Selection Process

Starbucks Recruitment and Selection Process Starbucks is a speciality coffee house which originated in Seattle. Today the organisation has over 15,000 outlets worldwide. It sells a range of hot and cold drinks, food items and accessories. Its philosophy is to create an experience for the customer and a human connection. With the introduction of the Starbucks Card purchasing drinks, food etc. from the outlets has now been made a lot easier. Customers can top up their cards and use them as a method of payment. Starbucks products are also available from supermarkets. Some of the range includes packets of coffee, coffee makers, gift sets etc. Starbucks is constantly innovating its offer to keep up to date with competition from McDonalds, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee etc. You are required to answer the following questions making reference to Starbucks. Task 1 – Recruitment, Selection and Retention A Barista at Starbucks must have a number of personal characteristics and skills which will enable them to carry out their role. These skills and characteristics are likely to include friendliness, attention to detail, a commitment to providing customer service and an ability to work in a fast-paced environment. Pilbeam and Coridge indicate that successful resourcing is as much to do with good organisational fit as it is to do with HRM best practice, and therefore the first stage of recruitment should be to undertake a role or person specification in order to establish the skills and attributes necessary for the role. Phillips and Gully suggest that successful recruitment, selection and retention should also be aligned to the strategic objectives of the firm and therefore care and consideration should be given to the most suitable recruitment and selection methods in order to ensure they will attract the best potential candidates and also that the entire process will result in long t erm employee retention. Bratton and Gold state that recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organisation. Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements. Accordingly, Torrington et al observe that there are a number of alternative recruitment and selection strategies including interview, assessment centre, and psychological testing. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and therefore it is not uncommon for multiple approaches to be used in combination depending on the seniority of the role in question. However, before recruitment and selection can commence it is necessary to determine a suitable specification for the role. Thus the suggested specification for a Barista at Starbucks is given below:- Figure 1: Personal Specification Template for a Barista at Starbucks (Source, Author) Requirement Essential or Desirable? Qualifications / Education / Training: No essential qualifications required, food safety or food hygiene would be desirable Desirable Experience: Customer service, food handling, retail Essential Knowledge: Some retail knowledge would be desirable, along with a knowledge of various coffees Desirable Skills Competencies: attention to detail; ability to work in a high pressure environment, customer-centric Essential Personal Attributes: open friendly, keen to provide an exceptional customer experience Essential Other: Prepared to go the extra mile to offer exceptional service and use own initiative when necessary in order to promote the brand and concept Desirable The specification is not exhaustive and further attributes may be considered such as an ability to communicate in more than one language, especially if the location of the outlet is such that overseas tourists regularly visit (eg parts of London).   The most cost-effective form of recruitment and selection process for Baristas would be CV and subsequent interview as managers in Starbucks at a local level have a clear idea of their local customer demographic and demand and thus potential applications who submit a CV can be easily screened for desirable and essential skills and attributes. The manager can then interview potential applications before making a decision on selection. An interview has further benefits as it allows the manager to identify the personal attributes and characteristics of the application in order to assess how the application would fit within the existing team, as much of the Starbucks ethos and working model requires a high level of teamwork. Potential questions which might be asked at interview for the Barista would include asking the application to describe their retail experiences to date and getting them to explain how these experiences have relevance at Starbucks. This would test for depth of experience and also organisational fit in terms of focus on the customer experience. Other technical questions might relate to Food safety and handling in order to ensure that the application understands the critical importance of this when delivering an exceptional customer experience. From a regulatory perspective the manager conducting the interview must be sure not to inadvertently discriminate against any potential applications during any stage of the recruitment and selection process. Therefore all applications must be asked identical questions and none should relate to issues of gender, age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. In short, Starbucks is proud of its heritage as an equal opportunities employer. During the recruitment process potential applications must be offered full opportunity to ask their own questions in order to ensure that they fully appreciate the nature of the role which they may be committing to. Task 2 – Building Winning Teams One of the foremost scholars of team building, Meredith Belbin, identified that in order to function effectively an organisational team requires members with different skills and attributes. In her research she identified that there are nine alternative team roles as she described them (see Appendix for full details). Belbin observed that the most effective teams possessed at least 5 and ideally 7 of the roles, and that an individual member within a team was capable of fulfilling more than one role, but rarely more than two. Tuckman established that when people are first brought together in a team they experience various stages of team development, popularly referred to as forming, norming, storming and performing. This concept is reflected in Figure 2 overleaf. In short, the theory holds that as employee are brought together in a group they experience an evolutionary process whereby they come to understand and appreciate one anothers skills and strengths and then utilise these compl ementary skills for the best advantage of the team as a whole. History has shown that Tuckmans theory has almost universal application, however, when used in combination with Belbins theory it becomes even more powerful as it becomes possible to identify in advance whether or not a group I likely to succeed based on the unique skills and attributes of each team member. For example, if there are too many plants within a group then it is likely that the group will be highly creative but the ideas will rarely be translated into action. Similarly, too many co-ordinations is likely to result in arguments as the co-ordinator role is known to be quite stubborn and even manipulative. When applying these theories and concepts to teams at Starbucks it can be observed that different skills are required for different parts of the operation. Holistic observation of a team working at Starbucks demonstrates the power of team working. Each person has a defined role which they focus upon in order to ensure maximum efficiency and quality of output. For example in any Starbucks outlet one person focuses on taking orders and payments, another one or two (depending on the size of the outlet) focus on making the orders and a further team members is constantly ensuring that the outlet is clean and tidy and well stocked. It can be suggested that this requires a high level of group communication and co-ordination and also a high level of trust as those baristas making the coffee must take on trust the orders given to them by their colleagues. Similarly because two Baristas can work on the same order simultaneously there must be complete understanding and uniformity to the order p roduction process such that they can interchange their roles at any point. Under Tuckmans model it is clear that a team in Starbucks is at the very least in the norming stage of the model and most probably at the performing stage. The concept of team work within organisations has gained increasing prominence in recent years and with good reason as highly effective teams are more efficient and productive. Furthermore, Armstrong identifies the benefits of empowering team members within a role so that they feel more engaged with the organisation and therefore more committed to delivering the best possible experience for the customer or client. At Starbucks one means of achieving this would be to ensure that every team member is fully cross-functional and that they are given stretch performance targets which require them to work as a team. Full cross-functionality means that each team member has an appreciation for other roles and therefore they tend to be more considerate of outcomes. Moreover, a cross -functional team which has accountability for its own results will typically find more effective means of delivering a service in order to reach targets.  Armstrong also discusses how increased responsibility and accountability increase engagement which in turn increases motivation. Some HRM scholars regard the relationship between engagement and motivation as symbiotic, but there is little doubt that engagement and motivation are strong indicators of a high performance team that is committed to exceed expectation and delivering exceptional service. Furthermore, research by Saunders demonstrates that highly engaged teams have lower levels of staff churn. This point is useful as it is closely correlated to the previously discussed matter of recruitment and retention, and thus if the right people are brought into the organisation and they are motivated to stay because they feel the business (for whatever reason) is a good fit for them, then there is reduced churn, increased engagement and greater productivity. In summation, engaged team members are more profitable for the business and thus it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship. Task 3 – Leadership Motivation There is a vast amount of literature and research which embraces the topic of leadership; furthermore, leadership theories have experienced a considerable amount of transition over time as societal perceptions of leadership have changed. Leadership has been defined by Mcquire and Molbherg as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Theories of leadership range for discussions as to the traits of leaders their styles of leadership and transactional and transformational theories of leadership. One of the most popular theories used to explain leadership style is the Managerial Grid as developed by Blake and Mouton and shown in figure 3 below:- As can be seen in the figure, the Managerial Grid examines the prevailing managerial technique of leaders within an organisation in order to identify their preferred style. In ideal circumstances Blake and Mouton believe that a manager and leader should adopt a team style which is participative and empowering and allows the employees of the organisation to make their own decisions within the remit of the organisations objectives. It can be suggested that the concepts of the Managerial Grid share some parallels with the discussions as to transformational and transactional leadership whereby Burns argues that in the longer term transformation leadership is far more effective because it empowers employees to deliver the best possible performance as they have accountability for their own daily working lives. It is evident that there are close linkages between leadership and motivation insofar as good leaders motivate their employees and team members to succeed through a combination of techniques such as engagement, empowerment and delegation of power. Armstrong and Cheese et al believe that the use of these techniques in conjunction with other factors such as employee voice ensure that individual employees align their personal aims and objectives with those of the organisation and therefore voluntarily strive to ensure that the service provided by the organisation is a success. It should also be acknowledge that several scholars perceive there is a difference between a manager and a leader within an organisation. The distinction is subtle and relates to the fact that managers generally focus on day to day operational tasks and leaders tend to occupy a more strategic role. However the distinction is certainly not clear cut and considerable debate still centres on this division of roles. Furthermore a leader can also be a manager by dint of their role within the organisation, and thus leadership tends to be regarded as a personality trait as opposed to an organisational position. In short, a leader tends to be more effective at motivating and inspiring employees because of their ability to engage them and encourage them to strive for enhanced performance. In times of change and development, and also in times of difficult circumstances such as recession, leadership and talent management skills are highly valued. In application to Starbucks it should be observed that in times of recession when consumers tend to cut back on luxuries such as coffee from coffee shops, Starbucks must strive to offer improved service to customers in order to retain them. The managers (and ideally leaders) of Starbucks must also continually strive to motivate Baristas to deliver exceptional service even when customers become more demanding. This concept is closely correlated with that change management and goal setting whereby engaging Baristas with the process can ensure that they feel empowered to respond to the challenge and that they have responsibility for it. At a local level this may mean running small promotions which would suit the customer demographic in order to attract and retain more customers. Furthermore, if Starbucks wish to retain their emplo yees it is prudent to continue to invest in training and development in order to ensure that they are highly skilled and capable of responding rapidly to changes in customer demand. This might include job exchanges with Baristas from other retail outlets in order to share best practice, or creating a forum where Baristas can put forward their suggestions for improvement. Although these are relatively small steps they can help individual Baristas to progress within Starbucks and this ensures that Starbucks generates a reputation as an employer of choice which fosters home grown talent and treats employees with fairness and respect.  Research into the prevailing management style at Starbucks reveals that they have a relatively flat hierarchy which ensures that it is easy to disseminate information widely and effectively within the organisation. Starbucks has a clear mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time and this is fully evidenced in their training policies and ethos. The structure and leadership style of Starbucks also ensures that the business can be responsive to customer needs because the baristas are in direct contact with customers every single day and also have the necessary mechanisms to ensure that they can provide valid and timely feedback to their managers in order to improve the customer experience. Task 4 – Work and Development Needs and Performance Management Armstrong defines performance management as a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved. It is important to observe that from a HRM perspective performance management is not solely concerned with disciplinary procedures, but rather it is concerned with ensuring that each and every employee has the necessary support to achieve their objectives and potential. Thus, performance management is often closely correlated with learning and development as in order to achieve to their maximum potential employees must continue to expand their skills and to develop their capabilities. Furthermore, scholars such as Benson et al have observed a link between training and development and employee retention, which as previously identified, helps to ensure increased engagement and reduced employee churn. However in order to monitor and improve employee performance it is first necessary to set suitable objectives and targets and to apply metrics and benchmarks to these objectives and targets in order to objectively assess employee performance and development. At Starbucks there are two core elements which form the basis of employee performance; these are technical capability that is to say the ability to consistently produce a high quality cup of coffee, and secondly the ability to interact with other stakeholders including team colleagues and customers. The former can be objectively assessed by observation against agreed performance metrics such as speed of production and consistency of taste. This has benefit to individual employees and Starbucks as a whole because it ensures consistency of service and product quality across the network of franchises meaning that the reputation of Starbucks is maintained and also that Baristas are employable across a range of franchises that they ma y be prepared to travel to, thus increasing their value to the company. The second performance metric to assess is more intangible and pertains to perceived service level and customer and colleague interaction. In terms of colleague interaction this can be assessed through a variety of measures such as 360 degree feedback, line manager observation and self-reflection during a performance review. Research has shown that generally speaking individual employees are reasonably self-aware of their skills and capabilities and it is rare that a performance review highlights anything that the employee was not at least already aware of at some level. However the benefit of performance review is that it can demonstrate to individual employees specific areas where they could improve or would benefit from training to enhance their skills set. For example a food safety certificate to help ensure that an individual franchise was fully compliant with legislation, or perhaps rudimentary book-keeping skills to help ensure that the cash is managed accurately in each store . In terms of assessing Barista performance when interacting with customers this can be achieved through feedback forms and customer incentives. For example it is becoming increasingly common that receipts from retailers encourage customers to provide feedback about their service online. This has the dual benefit of helping the organisation to become more engaged with customers and response more rapidly to customer feedback. It can also be used to gather individual barista feedback if specific questions in the feedback questionnaire relate to performance and service such as speed and friendliness and helpfulness of the Barista. The information gathered from feedback surveys can be fed back to each barista in regular performance reviews in order to help them identify areas of development and subsequently improve performance. As noted at the outset of this section, performance management techniques should not be designed with the sole intention of discipline employees, although it is alm ost inevitable that at some stage a form of discipline may be required for certain employee. However, best practice makes it clear that regular performance reviews can help to forestall any such issues as if they are held regularly and reasonably frequently it should be possible to forestall any problems before they become issues of concern. Finally it is necessary to consider how Starbucks applies principles of delegation in order to motivate Baristas. As discussed previously in this review, Starbucks encourages team working and the creation of stretch targets to help Baristas develop and to take responsibility for their own areas of production. This approach is closely linked to effective performance management because empowering Baristas to set and achieve their own targets helps to motivate them to achieve as they feel in control of their targets and daily responsibilities. Targets can be used to monitor and evaluate Barista performance and at each performance review they can be revised as necessary in order to help the Barista improve. For example in the early days of a baristas employment this could be to improve the speed of production and to obtain a certain customer service rating. In due course this could progress to internal training courses in advanced customer service management and customer experience. This holistic process also helps Baristas to appreciate that they are valued and therefore this leads to them becoming more engaged and motivated and delivering improved performance. References Armstrong, M. (2009) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (11th Edition) – Kogan Page, London  Beardwell, J. Claydon, T. (2007) Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach (5th Edition) – Pearson Education, London  Belbin, R.M. (2010) Management teams: why they succeed or fail. 3rd ed. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.  Benson, G. S., Finegold, D., Mohrman, S. A. (2004) You paid for the skills, now keep them: Tuition-reimbursement and voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3): 315–331.  Blake, R.; Mouton, J. (1985). The Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.  Bloisi, W. 2007. Management and organisational behaviour. 2nd ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.  Boddy, D (2008) Management: An Introduction (4th Edition) – Prentice Hall, London  Bratton, J. Gold (2007). Work and organizational behaviour. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.  Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row Publishers Inc..  Cheese, P., Thomas, R.J. and Craig, E. (2008) The talent powered organization: strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. London: Kogan Page.  Foti, R.J., Hauenstein, N.M.A. (2007). Pattern and variable approaches in leadership emergence and effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 347-355.  Govaerts, Natalie, et al. (2010) Influence of learning and working climate on the retention of talented employees, Journal of Workplace Learning 23:1.  Harrison R (2009) Learning and Development, London, CIPD  Hoque, K Noon, M (2004) Equal Opportunities Policy and Practice in Britain in Work, Employment Society vol.18 no.3 pp.481-506  Huczynski A, Buchanan D (2003) Organisational Behaviour: An Introductory Text – Pearson Higher Education, London  Mcquire, D., Molbherg J. K., (2011) Human Resource Development Theory Practice London: Sage.  Murphy, N. (2009) Talent managements role in a time of recession. IRS Employment Review. No 927, 13 August. 5pp.  Phillips and Gully (2009) Strategic Staffing Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, pp12-35  Pilbeam, S. Corbridge, M. (2010) People Resourcing: Contemporary HRM in practice. 4th ed. London: Prentice Hall International. Ch 2  Saunders, M.N.K., (2011) Trust and strategic change: an organisational justice perspective in R Searle and D Skinner (eds) Trust and Human Resource Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  Starbucks (2012) Search and Apply [online] available at http://careers.starbucks.co.uk/job-search-and-apply retrieved 3rd Feb 2012  Starbucks (2012) Mission Statement [online] available at http://starbucks.co.uk/about-us/company-information/mission-statement retrieved 3rd Feb 2012  Torrington, D. Hall, L. Taylor S (2007) Human Resource Management (7th Edition) – Prentice Hall, London  Zaccaro, S. J., Gulick, L.M.V. Khare, V.P. (2008). Personality and leadership. In C. J. Hoyt, G. R. Goethals D. R. Forsyth (Eds.), Leadership at the crossroads (Vol 1) (pp. 13-29). Westport, CT: Praege

The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Essay -- Bridges Engineering

The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the most notorious failure in the world of engineering. It collapsed on November 7, 1940 just months after its opening on July 1, 1940. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff and at its time it was the third largest suspension bridge in the world with a center span of over half a mile long. The bridge was very narrow and sleek giving it a look of grace, but this design made it very flexible in the wind. Nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie," because of its undulating behavior, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge drew the attention of motorists seeking a cheap thrill. Drivers felt that they were driving on a roller coaster, as they would disappear from sight in the trough of the wave. On the last day of the bridge's existence it gave fair warning that its destruction was eminent. Not only did it oscillate up and down, but twisted side to side in a cork screw motion. After hours of this violent motion with wind speeds reaching forty and fifty miles per hour, the bridge collapsed. With such a catastrophic failure, many people ask why such an apparently well thought out plan could have failed so badly?(This rhetorical question clearly sets up a position of inquiry-which iniates all research.) The reason for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is still controversial, but three theories reveal the basis of an engineering explanation. (Jason then directly asserts what he found to be a possible answer to his question.) The bridge was designed at a time when America was moving toward streamline products, this included the design of bridges. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a sleek, graceful looking suspension bridge. Suspension bridges consist of many cables anchored... ... suspension bridges (pp. 13-102). Seattle: University of Washington Press French, C. & Lorentz, T. (1995). Corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete: Effects of materials, mix composition, and cracking. ACI Materials Journal, 92, 181-190. Koughan,J. (1996, August 1). The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, evaluation of its demise, and the effects of the disaster of succeeding bridge designs [Online] Available: http://www.me.utexas.edu/~uer/papers/paper_jk.html O'Connor, C. (1971). Designs of superstructures. New York: Wiley and Sons Petroski, H. (1992). To engineer is human. New York: Vintage Books Troitsky, M. S. (1994). Planning and design of bridges. New York: Wiley and Sons Washington State Department of Transportation. (1999). A short history of "galloping gertie" [Online]. Available: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/solve16/history.html The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Essay -- Bridges Engineering The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the most notorious failure in the world of engineering. It collapsed on November 7, 1940 just months after its opening on July 1, 1940. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff and at its time it was the third largest suspension bridge in the world with a center span of over half a mile long. The bridge was very narrow and sleek giving it a look of grace, but this design made it very flexible in the wind. Nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie," because of its undulating behavior, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge drew the attention of motorists seeking a cheap thrill. Drivers felt that they were driving on a roller coaster, as they would disappear from sight in the trough of the wave. On the last day of the bridge's existence it gave fair warning that its destruction was eminent. Not only did it oscillate up and down, but twisted side to side in a cork screw motion. After hours of this violent motion with wind speeds reaching forty and fifty miles per hour, the bridge collapsed. With such a catastrophic failure, many people ask why such an apparently well thought out plan could have failed so badly?(This rhetorical question clearly sets up a position of inquiry-which iniates all research.) The reason for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is still controversial, but three theories reveal the basis of an engineering explanation. (Jason then directly asserts what he found to be a possible answer to his question.) The bridge was designed at a time when America was moving toward streamline products, this included the design of bridges. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a sleek, graceful looking suspension bridge. Suspension bridges consist of many cables anchored... ... suspension bridges (pp. 13-102). Seattle: University of Washington Press French, C. & Lorentz, T. (1995). Corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete: Effects of materials, mix composition, and cracking. ACI Materials Journal, 92, 181-190. Koughan,J. (1996, August 1). The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, evaluation of its demise, and the effects of the disaster of succeeding bridge designs [Online] Available: http://www.me.utexas.edu/~uer/papers/paper_jk.html O'Connor, C. (1971). Designs of superstructures. New York: Wiley and Sons Petroski, H. (1992). To engineer is human. New York: Vintage Books Troitsky, M. S. (1994). Planning and design of bridges. New York: Wiley and Sons Washington State Department of Transportation. (1999). A short history of "galloping gertie" [Online]. Available: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/solve16/history.html

IT Planning at Modmeters Essay

Introduction This paper discusses the various aspects of IT planning at Modmeters Company which has two strategies of expanding globally and providing direct-to-customer sales. The role of IT is important in the expansion initiatives of Modmeters. The executives of various departments held a meeting to identify the budget requirements for the expansion. The plan is to establish new plants in Asia and Eastern Europe where the infrastructure facilities are not sufficient required for the operations at Modemeters. Brian Smith, CIO of Modmeters is worried about these two initiatives as the IT funding was very poor. The company has never invested in reengineering the existing systems, instead, they always introduced new systems on top of the other. John Johnson, CEO wanted to change the name of the company as MM for this updated strategy. The current budget levels at the company are not going support the expansion initiatives. Surprisingly, only 2% of the revenue was allocated to IT. According to Brian, 80% of the IT budget was fixed for running the existing systems and fixing errors. The remaining 20% was allotted based on ROI, where majority of the budget was used by manufacturing department, Human resources and marketing departments having minor share. Brian believed that this kind of budgeting is not effective for their new business strategies (McKeen & Smith, 2012). Brian explains the need to implement flexible systems to support the updated strategies. He stresses on the budget requirements to buy new infrastructure and problems with the existing systems. The systems are not integrated and use different terminologies in different divisions. IT needs investment for infrastructure, underlying processes and to manage the information. However, the outcomes of the budget meeting after having a long discussion were to prioritize the IT projects depending up on their contribution to the key objectives of the company and also how each of them is adding value to the Modmeters. To develop the direct-to-customer sales, the marketing department needs more investment to get the resources. Hence, to implement the new strategic  initiatives at Modemeters, the budget allocated to IT and marketing plays a key role. Recommendations An IT planning process needs to be developed to meet the demands of the new projects. First of all, the IT architecture has to be changed such that the systems are flexible to use. All the divisions should use similar terminology to manage the information and communicate with other divisions. A data dictionary need to be developed to address the terminology issues. IT should be involved in decision making at Modmeters. An enterprise architecture need to be developed to get the best out of IT. Though, I accept that IT projects should be measured in terms of ROI, the current situation at Modmeters is different. The systems are never reengineered and the communication between the systems look like a spaghetti, where failure of each system may lead to a complete failure. There is a need to invest on improving the architecture considering long term advantages of the investment. The IT and business should have a common goals and objectives in developing the existing business. The needs of the manufacturing, marketing, R&D and HR need to be understood and allocate the budget accordingly. Identify the core competencies of IT and a cost-benefit analysis should be made for the projects. The business employees’ opinions should be taken in using technologies. The key business staff needs to be identified and made account managers. They should present their findings to the top management so that, the governance body can look for interoperability of the systems. In the IT vision, guiding principles should be developed which links the business strategies. Meanwhile, existing business requirements and operations should be addressed as a continuous process. A departmental approach should be taken while prioritizing the projects. This approach focuses on improving the business by expanding globally, enabling direct-to-customer sales, satisfying Stan’s auditing needs, making use of existing projects and improving the infrastructure. Account managers should analyze how the proposed project would benefit their respective departments. The IT and business people should work closely while developing strategies. A SWOT analysis should be made while developing the plan. IT should be given enough budget and team work is essential to implement new strategies. The people need to be trained by allocating budget required to HR department.  The resources should be used effectively for the global expansion. A centralized IT structure is essential for Modmeters to share the information between the divisions. Fred, VP of manufacturing should understand the value of IT. At Modmeters, business needs should be understood by IT to deliver the best technology meanwhile, business people should provide necessary funding to IT. Apart from the ROI, Customer satisfaction, greater efficiency, product quality, cash savings and other intangible benefits need to be considered while assessing the business value of a project (Ferris, 2012). The marketing department funding needs to be increased. It is important to enable smooth transition while expanding and change should be managed carefully to be successful. Also, the policies and procedures in the IT plan should comply with the regulations. To conclude, IT and business collaboration is important in strategic IT planning. IT value should be understood by business and business needs should be understood by IT. At Modmeters, reengineering the existing systems, taking a departmental approach, satisfying the departmental needs and funding sufficiently will help to implement the two strategic initiatives. References Mckeen, J. D., & Smith, H. (2012). Delivering Value with IT (2nd ed). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Ferris, B. (2012, June 12). How to Measure the Business Value of a Project. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://cobaltpm.com/measuring-business-value-of-a-project/

Killer Angels review essays

Killer Angels review essays The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, is a historical novel that describes the three days of fighting at Gettysburg in the summer of 1863. The book illustrates the horrors of brother fighting brother, friend fighting friend, and the brutality of this devastating war that left 50,000 Americans dead. Although the book is a work of fiction, Shaara is very accurate in his depictions and characterizations. It is the humanity and personality that he infuses into the book that makes the reader feel a personal bond with the characters. Shaara revives this legendary battle from historical obscurity and breaths new life into the characters. The reader will be unable to put the book down. Many people believe that the Civil War was not based solely on slavery but it was. Without the uprising of John Brown and the election of an abolitionist president who got less than 40% of the national vote, secession would not have occurred. Or at least it would have been seriously delayed. The Northerners truly believed that the slaves deserved to be free, and their desire to set slaves free was the cause of the Civil War. Just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Chamberlin of the 20th Maine gave a speech to a group of mutineers. He told them that the war in which they were fighting was unlike any war in history. The war in which they were fighting was not for money, property, or power. It was a war to set other men free. The South, however was against freeing the slaves. The entire Civil War, whether the people were for or against the idea of slavery, soldiers fought for their sense of freedom. Shaara takes the reader into the minds and tents of most of the key strategists at Gettysburg, the southern Pennsylvania town where the war turned and the south began its lengthy retreat. Prior to Gettysburg the South had won most major battles. At Gettysburg, however, the North gained its first major victory. From then ...