Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards - Essay Example Different companies have diverse issues that need to be dealt with in order to ensure that employees are up to the level that is required for enhanced motivation and productivity. It requires that a company develop the right strategies to enhance performance of a respective organization. Every department in an organization is unique and therefore, requires different motivational strategies to enhance performance (Cooper et al, 2009). Kroger is an established pharmacy that deals with a wide range of drug substances. It has a number of customers both locally and internationally. In the local set up, the company receives many customers at different intervals within a day. It, therefore, requires that every department work round the clock to ensure that the customers are well served and their expectations met as appropriate. On the hand, the employees are vital to the wellbeing of the company. Case in point is that the technicians are very essential components of the company. It has been argued that the technicians in the company are the most motivated and productive in the company. There are a number of issues that enhance the motivation and productivity of the company. A technician at the pharmacy has a wide range of duties in the company. Case in point is that the technician is in charge of all the issues that related to the technical issues in the company. One of the duties of the technician is to ensure that there are no faults in any department within the organization. The technician is in charge of every department in terms of technical issues. At the Kroger pharmacy the technician is charged with the responsibility of supplying the drugs to the patients either on prescription or at the counter. Consequently, the technician is charged with the responsibility of assembling the different drugs for the purpose of prescribing. On the other hand, the

Social Promlem project on Internet Addiction Essay

Social Promlem project on Internet Addiction - Essay Example Moving further, we will look into various types of internet addiction. After this, we will be exploring the effect of gender difference on the internet addiction. Furthermore, the discussion would be led to the causes and the development of the internet addiction. Last, but not the least, we will be looking over various treatment options for the internet addiction. So we can say, in general terms, that addiction is the process of getting habitual to the use of something. In the same connection, internet addiction is, in layman terms, the habitual use of internet or being compulsively occupied with the use of internet. "Technical addictions... non-chemical (behavioral) addictions which involve human-machine interaction. They can either be passive (e.g. television) or active, (e.g. computer games) and usually contain inducing and reinforcing features which may contribute to the promotion of addictive tendencies". (Griffths, 2000) Various experts have also called it cyber addiction. "Cyberspace Addiction: an addiction to virtual realms of experience created through computer engineering... Some cyberspace addictions are game and competition oriented, some fulfill more social needs, some simply may be an extension of workaholicism". (Suler, 1999) All in all, internet addiction, with whatever term it may be referred, is the excessive use of internet to the extent that a person become compulsively engaged in using the internet. Types of Internet Addiction The internet addiction can be classified into a number of typologies. However, the most commonly used typology among the scholarly circles is that based on the usage. On this basis, the internet addiction can be divided into following types: Addiction for Internet Sex Addiction for Games over Internet Addiction for Making Money over Internet Addiction for Chat Addiction for Web Surfing This typology has been adapted from the works of Young (et al. 1999) and Davis (2001). Addiction for Internet Sex According to some estimates, the total worth of the online sex industry is somewhere between 1 and 5 billion US Dollars. Moreover, the sex industry over internet has become one of the major contributors among the total revenue generated through the paid websites (McDonald, 2001). There are also some estimates that the highest search queries on various search engines, such as Google and Yahoo etc, are related to pornography, especially among teens. The internet is heavily with the sex related material. That includes, sex related text (stories), images, video, audio stories and entire DVD format full length

African American History Paper Essay Example for Free

African American History Paper Essay Dr. Hardy’s view is that if you really want to understand slavery and know its full legacy and meaning you have to work with blacks. Dr. Hardy felt that even though slavery was so long ago we still feel the suffering and sorrow psychologically. According to Hardy, â€Å"talking about slavery may evoke feelings of shame and humiliation or anguish and rage in African Americans, while it tends to bring up shame, guilt, and denial in White people.† Dr. Hardy believes that even though slavery happened so long ago today both black and whites have negative feelings when the topic of slavery is brought up. The documentary that we watched in class called Africans in America: the terrible transformation is about slowly but surely piece by piece African Americans became enslaved in the US. Now to tie these together is very difficult. They are similar yet different subjects. The major topic that ties them together is slavery. What is most critical to understand especially when we consider the video Africans in America: a terrible transformation is that the Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery in America were invented to pull poor people, black and white people apart to keep them fighting one another making blacks and whites begin resent each other. I agree with Dr. Donald H. Matthews when he pointed out, in his book Slavery was â€Å"a violation of one of the greatest achievements of Western Civilization, namely, that one should never treat a subject as an object.† When we watched the PBS documentary Africans in America: the terrible transformation I learned about how slowly America was evolving into a country of slavery. Before life wasn’t perfect but it was decent not everyone was equal neither. Even not all white people were equal the classes were rich and poor. The blacks and the poor whites were on the same level/class and they began to fight though like I said earlier. There aren’t many differences between the documentary and the book that Dr. Hardy wrote but I can name a couple. The documentary looks at the past and how it evolved. While the book looks at the future/present and how we are affected now. Even though these very different they bring together the same idea that slavery has a big effect.

The History Of Extreme Programming

The History Of Extreme Programming Extreme Programming (XP) is a software engineering methodology that has been formulated in 1996 by Kent Beck. It is a lightweight development methodology, XP is one of several popular agile processes. XP has received fair media attention, and is most renowned for its practices that are sometimes regarded as controversial, such as pair programming and test-driven development. It has already been proven to be very successful because it reaches to the customer satisfaction. Instead of delivering everything at the same time the XP focus on some date far in the future, this process delivers the software you need as you need it, in other words Extreme Programming empowers the developers to confidently respond to changing customer requirements, even late in the project development life cycle. The philosophy of Extreme Programming is teamwork, in other words Managers, Customers and Developers are all equal partners in a collaborative team. The implement is simple regarding Extreme Programmin g, yet effective environment enabling teams to become productive. XP is built on four values: Communication: Extreme programmers constantly communicate with their customers and fellow programmers. Simplicity: The keep their design simple and clean. Feedback: They get feedback by testing their software starting on day one Courage/ Respect: They deliver the system to the customers as early as possible and implement changes as suggested. Every small success deepens their respect for the unique contributions of each and every team member. The main differences with Extreme Programming is that it accepts that humans are imperfect and builds a process that not only accepts progressive elaboration, but makes this reality a central theme to all of its other practices. There is also recognition that the proscribed practices in the real world can be very challenging, to overcome this difficulty the practices interlock and complement each other. With this tools that have been mention the Extreme Programming are able to courageously respond to changing requirements and technology. Figure1: Extreme Programming Overview [1] http://www.extremeprogramming.org/ 12 practices of Kent Beck used in an XP project: There are strong relationships between XP and its practices. Without practices its not XP, and without practicing the practices of XP it cannot deliver benefits. Figure2: Dependencies between the 12 practices of XP 1) Planning Game: This is focused on determining requirements details. The customers and developers are both part of this. In a planning game the customers and the developers sit in a room together. They make plans for software releases and iterations together, identifying each role clearly. Planning game involves the making of story cards from each users point of view and splitting each story into task cards for individual developers then they make plans that take into consideration the volume of work and the schedule based on these cards. 2) Small Releases: In small releases developers put quickly a simple system into production, and then release new versions in a very short time. 3) Metaphor: In metaphor, developers in the team share story or understandings about how their programs work. 4) Simple Design: The system should be designed as simply as possible at any given moment. Keep code simple and extra complexity is removed as soon as it is discovered. Always keep in mind the principle of YAGNI (You arent going to need it). 5) Testing Programmers continually write unit tests, which must run flawlessly for development to continue. Customers define test cases for system releases. 6) Refactoring: Without changing their behavior, improve the internal structures of programs. 7) Pair Programming: Production code which is actually used in the final product, is written with the celebration of two programmers at same machine. 8) Collective Ownership: Programming code is the property of few programmers it owned by the team collectively, and anyone can change code anywhere and at anytime. 9) Continuous Integration: Integrate and build the system many times in a day, every time a task is implemented. 10) 40-hour Week: This is the rule of XP that no work more than 40 hours. Never work overtime a second week in a row. 11) On-site Customer: In whole project include a real, live user on the team who is available fulltime on site to answer questions. 12) Coding Standards: Programmers write common rules to standardize coding styles in the team. XP has 4 basic activities, coding, testing, listening and designing, which are conducted by five major roles, programmer, customer, tester, tracker, and coach. Iteration is a key concept in XP. The time constant in the different iterations range from seconds to months. Figure3: Planning/feedback loops in XP [2][3] http://www.acis.org.co/fileadmin/Curso_Memorias/Curso_CMMI_Sep06/Modulo%202%20-%20Product%20Engineering%20/xp_rup.pdf (Article: Analysis of the Interaction between Practices for Introducing XP Effectivel by Osamu Kobayashi and Mitsuyoshi Kawabata) Comparing two methodologies: Comparing two methodologies requires some form of empirical studies, The framework used is a combination of 2 established frameworks, one is Zachmans which consists of the 6 categories what, how, where, who, when and why and the 2nd one is Checklands framework is called CATWOE and has six other categories. CATWOE is the abbreviation of Client, Actor, Transformation, World view, Owner, Environment. In the following table I combine the frameworks an an order to utilize the strengths of both: zechman Checkland what Transformation why? World view when where? Environment how? who? Client, Actor, Owner 1) What? The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an iterative software development process framework created by the Rational Software Corporation. The Rational Software Corporation was acquired by IBM in 2003. RUP is a thick methodology; the whole software design process is described with high detail. RUP has evolved in conjunction with the Unified Modeling Language (UML). RUP is designed for large software projects. On the other hand XP has its origins in practical applications in projects during the 1990s; it is formulated by Kent Beck. XP is a lightweight methodology and used for small to medium sized software development teams. XP is intended to meet the demands of a context with unclear and volatile requirements. XP is not a commercial methodology unlike RUP. The origin of RUP and XP are similar. Both methodologies based on experience from software engineering and are evolved during the same decade, although RUP is bit older in age. There are two different underlying philosophies behind RUP and XP. RUP takes to a large extent a technical management perspective while XP is uses in development staff. RUP describes the whole software design process with high detail; RUP is a very complex methodology and is difficult to comprehend for both project managers and project members. Therefore, it is not the most appropriate software design methodology for most small projects. While XP is originally designed for small to medium sized projects, The distribution of the methodologies is different; RUP is a commercial product, no open or free standard. Before RUP can be used, the RUP has to be bought from IBM as an electronic software and documentation package while XP is freeware methodology and every one can use it freely. 2)Why? I analyze advantages and disadvantages of RUP and XP from different perspectives like what is the financial, technical and social aspect of these methodologies on each other. 2.1) Financial: Financial issues of both RUP and XP are different. Rup is a commercial product not open or free standard and owned by IBM, one should buy RUP from IBM as an electronic software and documentation package then it is available to use while XP offers the freeware solution and open to use for everyone, which is financially an advantage. 2.2) Technical perspective When we compare these 2 methodologies from technical perspective, RUP provides the organization a large amount of development tools and documents. It is delivered online via the web, and updated in new releases, all information about the software development methodology is available at the project members fingertips. Also, the newest version of RUP is always present on the computer of each team member. On the other hand XP leads to simplicity it is more user friendly, it is not specific to a single tool but its depends on the user choice that which tool he wants to use and which to reject. 2.3) Social perspective: The social perspective of RUP and XP are also related to the commercial versus freeware discussion. The selection on of methodology is depends on the software development company requirements and needs. Small and medium size software development companies like to use XP because of its free availability on the other hand larger software development companies take interest to buying software licenses, and hence buying licenses for methodology is quite natural. Extent RUP includes a large amount of formal process paperwork, role description and documentation etc it is also because of these properties called heavy weight or thick methodology while XP is very lightweight or thin methodology, both in its presentation and in the practical applications. The following table shows the difference in extent of the RUP and XP, there all the roles of an XP project are presented, with their counterparts in RUP, constituting a small subset of the RUP roles. In total, RUP comprises more than 80 major artifacts, 150 activities and 40 roles. Team XP roles RUP roles Customer team Customer Requirements specifier System analyst Project manager Tracker Tester Test analyst Tester Test system administrator Development team Programmer Implementer Designer Integrator System administrator Coach In summary, RUP is a much more extensive methodology than XP, for good and for bad. [2]http://www.acis.org.co/fileadmin/Curso_Memorias/Curso_CMMI_Sep06/Modulo%202%20-%20Product%20Engineering%20/xp_rup.pdf Project drivers RUP is use case driven, i.e. descriptions of use of the system are implemented, and continuously integrated and tested. XP applies test-driven design, i.e. test case are derived and implemented before the code is written. XP has user stories to guide what to implement. These user stories are less extensive descriptions, compared to the RUP use cases, where the complete scenario for the interaction between the user and the system is defined. Regarding planning, both methodologies agree on that a complete project cannot be planned in detail. RUP proclaims continuous changes in the plans, while XP advocates planning only the very near future in detail.

National Debt :: Argumentative Economy Economics Papers

National Debt I disagree with the resolution presented. I believe that the time has come for thegovernment to start taking some more drastic actions in order to alleviate the problem of theNational Debt. This resolution might have worked back when the dabt wasn't so massive, but at this point, I think that the only thing that will have any great effect is to start making some cuts. One of the biggest problems in dealing with the debt, by way of the budget, comes in theform of entitlements. Entitlements, the biggest of which beign Social Security, make up a majorportion of the national budget, and are completely left alone when it comes to discussing whereto make budget cuts. But it's very difficult to make cuts in Social Security, due to powerful lobbying groups such as the AARP. Many politicians don't want to anger such groups, becausethey make up a major portion of their constituency. Another problem area is charitable donationsmade by the government. There are many charities which recieve federal funding, and all of them feel that they should be exempt from cuts. But the government needs to take a stand andstart cutting from some fo these groups. One possibility could be taking an equal percentage from each group. So I oppose this resolution and favor other plans of attack, such as the Concord Coalition's "Zero Deficit Plan". The Zero Deficit Plan calls for cuts in entitlements, but not cuts in entitlements to those families who have an economic need for them. According to one of the Coalition's web page (http://www.texas.net/users/andyn/deficit/zdpent.html), "About one-fifth of entitlement benefits are provided according to economic need. These benefits should not be the target of deficit reduction.

Agricultural Genetic Engineering Essay -- Genes Farming Science Agricu

Agricultural Genetic Engineering The ability to directly modify living organisms is a novel human technology. Since the discovery of the DNA molecule the field of genetics has grown at an astounding rate. We now have the ability to alter organisms to fit our needs. This prospect offers the possibility of solving problems that have plagued humanity for thousands of years. In recent years genetically modified organisms have found many practical applications, particularly in the agricultural sector. Genetically modified organisms in this area, called transgenic crops (TC) are already being implemented on a considerably large scale. The possible benefits of utilizing TC has caused us avoid addressing important moral and ethical issues; commercialization of genetic technology is allowing premature mainstream adoption. It is imperative that we ask ourselves, is it ethical to implement TCs? Background: Some foundational understanding of the technology underlying TC production is necessary to adequately consider the issues at hand. To modify crops biologist use recombinant DNA (rDNA). This consists of extracting a gene producing a desirable trait from one organism and inserting it into the organism to be modified. Taking a gene for a desirable trait from a plant and amplifying its effect is also a method of genetic engineering using rDNA. The sources of genetic material to insert are almost boundless, crossing bounds between species and even forms of life. (1) Production of TC is similar to the practice of hybridization by selective breeding. This method of selecting desirable crop traits has been practiced since the domestication of plants to improve yields. (15p62) TC is a significantly more efficient way to achieve a s... .... Accepts Labeling Rules" Wall Street Journal 10/8/2001 <http://www.biotech-info.net/lift_moratorium.html> (12) "FDA'S Policy for Foods Developed by Biotechnology ", U. S. Food and Drug Administration, 1995 <http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/biopolcy.html#label> (13a) " Monsant vs Schmeiser" 5/22/2002 <http://www.percyschmeiser.com/> (13b) Court Transcript , "Monsanto Canada inc. and Monsanto Company vs Percy schmeiser and Schmeiser enterprises Ltd." 2001 <http://www.percyschmeiser.com/T1593-98-%20Decision.pdf> (14) Lambrecht, Bill , Dinner At the New Gene Cafe St. Martins Press, 2001 (15) McHughen, Alean, Pandora's Picnic Basket Ocford University Press, 2000 (p1)<http://www.colostate.edu/programs/lifesciences/TransgenicCrops/animation.html> (p2)<http://www.colostate.edu/programs/lifesciences/TransgenicCrops/images/cotton.jpg>

Beliefs And Social And Political Influences That Have Shaped Contemporary Service Provision

This essay will give information about different pieces of legislation including Education Act (1944), The Mary Warnock Report (1978), and ‘Every Child Matters’ (2003). The essay is also going to discuss The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 2007. In May 1940 Britain had been at war and shortly after Neville Chamberlain who was conservative Prime Minister was forced to resign due to the lack of confidence in his party. He was later replaced by Winston Churchill.In October 1940 Herwald Ramsbotham who was president of the Board of Education, met with senior officers to discuss the Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s ideal of; â€Å"establishing a state of society where the advantages and privileges which hitherto have been enjoyed only by the few, shall be far more widely shared by the men and youth of the nation as a whole† (Taylor (1977) cited in Gillard, 2011, p2). After discussions with Winston Churchill the board’s proposals became known as the à ¢â‚¬ËœGreen Book’ this was then formed a piece of legislation which is now known as The Education Act 1944.It was later discussed that there should be three stages of education which would be primary, secondary and further. Which is still in place in today’s society (Gillard, 2011). This is good because children are now taught through stages however it is also a bad idea because not all children develop through the stages, some children will understand one topic more than another or there may be a child who was to have a learning difficulty and then this would mean that the child will develop when they are ready and it may not be in stages they may take longer or they miss a stage and jumping to the next stage .Once this was brought out they then ended the existing differentiation between elementary and secondary (Gillard 2011). In 1941 Rab Butler who was president board of education introduced free secondary education which happened for the first time in the UK (Parli ament UK, 2012). Since the 1944 act has been brought out this has been reviewed three times since and there are now three Education Acts in place. Before the war there was no free secondary school education you had to pay and only the upper class families were able to pay for the facilities (Aldrich, 2002).However after the war the society had changed and the government wanted to try and make life better for everybody (Lowe, 1988). They did this by introducing free secondary education, and they also introduced council houses so that the lower class families were able to have a stable home for themselves and their children. The government also introduced free health care, so that if the children or adults needed any medical attention they were able to get this free of charge. At this time, the government introduced the 11 plus test.Most of the time the children who came from a richer background ended up in the private fee paid schools, and the children that were in the lower class fa milies ended up in the less advantaged schools (Lowe, 1988). The 1944 Act recognised that children’s education should be based on their age, talent and ability. However, as Childs ( 2006) points out: â€Å"the 11 plus came to be seen as a test that discriminated strongly, if not deliberately, against the working class† (p. 93) From discussing the Children Act this essay is now going to go on to discussing the Warnock Report.Mary Warnock was involved in Special Educational Needs (SEN). She is now known as Baroness Warnock. The Warnock report looked at the statementing of children and also looked at whether children with a SEN could be taught in mainstream schools. Putting this in place made it so that there was small specialist school provision available. This report highlighted that children who had a special education need, were more likely to be bullied in a mainstream school. However this isn’t always the case as not all children with an educational need will get bullied in a mainstream school.If the child had behavioural difficulties then there is a longer time for the statement process. However when the report was renewed in 2005, Baroness Warnock stated that statements aren’t a good idea and should only be retained as a safety net (Douglas Silas Solicitors, 2012). From discussing the Mary Warnock Report this essay is now going to talk about the Green Paper Act which is also known as ‘Every Child Matters’. Every Child Matters Green paper (2003) was published shortly after the death of Victoria Climbie and was put in place to change children’s services.This legislation has five key outcomes that will help children in child hood through to later life. The five key outcomes are making sure children: stay safe, enjoy and achieve, be healthy, achieve economic well-being and making a positive contribution. The framework made sure that the multi-agency partnerships such as health visitors and social services were p ut into place so that it gave children the best opportunity to succeed to their full potential and bring out the best in children. From the Every Child Matters Green Paper legislation this then led to the creation of Common Assessment Framework which is also known as (CAF).By bringing this in it made sure that all of the agencies working with children understand the individual needs for the children. CAF forms led to meetings which brought together the agencies which made sure the Ever Child Matters plan is met and followed (Department for Education, 2012a). Following on from the Green Paper this essay is now going to start discussing the Early Years foundation stage. The Early Years Foundation Stage was introduced in 2007 and was made compulsory from 1st September 2008.This was then revised in 2012. The aim was to set the standards for learning, development and care for children from the ages of birth to five years. This piece of legislation is in place to help children achieve the five ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes which were listed above. The EYFS does this by setting the standards and making sure that all children are achieving whilst they are in the care of the setting and makes sure that the children make progress and that no child gets left behind (Department for Education, 2012b).The EYFS addresses equal opportunities by making sure that every child is included and not left out because of their: ethnicity, culture or religion, gender, home language or family background and any learning difficulties the child may have or their ability. The EYFS aims to create the framework for partnership working. They do this by working with the children’s parents and professionals and they pass on information between the settings that the child attends.The EYFS also improved the quality and consistency for children by getting rid of the existing frameworks, and providing the basis for the inspection and regulation regime. Finally they laid a secur e foundation for future learning, this meant that the child care practitioners were planning to meet the individual needs of the children. They also carried out regular observations on the children so that they were able to recognise if there are any changes in the child’s development. It could be suggested that these outcomes have a big impact on the way the setting is run.Without these outcomes the nursery setting wouldn’t know where they are at with assessments. However it could be argued that there is some degree of difference between settings and practitioners as to how well the planning and assessments are carried out. The EYFS is a central part of a ten year childcare strategy that was bought out in 2007. This shows that legislation isn’t always going to work and sometimes will need reviewing so that it can be made better and more up to date. However sometimes they don’t change anything it is just a review to make sure that everything is still bein g run the same.Within the EYFS the work for all practitioners are grouped into four distinct but complementary themes which are: a unique child, making sure the children have positive relationships, having enabling environments which means that the nursery has to have bright displays up and look welcoming and also making sure that the children are learning and developing at the right stage of their development. Since the Early Years foundation stage has been introduced it is now known that children enjoy and learn more when learning through play (Pramling-Samuelsson and Fleer, 2009).It is important that the children are able to make their own choices and left to explore by themselves as long as they are safe this is how most observations are done, during the child’s natural free flow play. By this you are then able to see how the child interacts with other children, what they enjoy doing, the way in which they explore and also what they found out from playing/exploring. From this the practitioner is then able to plan and implement from this to encourage the children to learn.â€Å"A good free play session offers a rich play and learning experience for children. It allows each child to progress at his/her own pace, it gives children practice in choosing, and in dealing with the consequences of choice, and it encourages a more flexible and open-ended use of the group’s resources. Like all genuine freedom, however, it takes a lot of effort† (Henderson 2010, cited in Lewis, 2011, p 1). However some children are more advanced and would prefer learn at a faster speed doing written work rather plan playing.On the other hand it is good because it does give children chance to explore and learn at their own stage rather than them feeling like they are being rushed along. Which means the child will learn to be strong and independent which will be learnt through loving and secure relationships with parents/carers. Children also look at displays within the setting to support their development This essay discusses how The Education Act (1944) has made an influence on today’s society. The Education Act brought in the three stages of education; primary, secondary and higher.These are still in place in today’s society, it also brought in free education and changed the way children learn. The children went from not going to school unless they could afford to pay to now being able to go to school free of charge. In today’s society they don’t take into account your welfare and background which is a good thing as children don’t have anything in the way which could affect them from learning. In 1978 The Mary Warnock report was introduced which influenced on how children with a special educational need was assessed and it was then later reviewed in 2005.Another piece of legislation that has been discussed within the essay is Every Child Matters this piece of legislation looks at all frameworks working tog ether so that children; stay safe, enjoy and achieve, be healthy, achieve economic well-being and making a positive contribution. Finally this essay has talked about The Early Years Foundation Stage which was brought out in 2007, and made compulsory in 2008. It is still in place in today’s society and has been revised in 2012.