OMD Project Management Essay

Background Information: OMD Project Management is a consultancy that provides construction project management for its clients. OMD Project Management was set up approximately eighteen months ago and has a staff of three. They have access to a large skill base, which may be called upon as required to satisfy project conditions. This helps to reduce overheads and increase profit ability. The works include the following services: * measured surveys, * Schedule of condition (report on the state of the building, identifying any areas that will incur rectification at the clients cost. * Lease appraisal (review legal documents on clients behalf) * Cost estimate of works. * Tender works to specialist contractors * Manage projects * Agree final costs of the project with contractors on behalf of client * Ensure statutory regulations are complied with (planning approvals building regulations and disabled discrimination act) Although OMD Project management is a small company it has a large client base. These vary from large multi-national companies to small private businesses. They specialise with the retail sector where they have at least twenty years of experience Problem: A current issue that the company has is invoicing. Invoicing currently can take up to an hour to complete. Invoicing is currently done by hand and on paper, this is not a very efficient way of doing this job because it takes up too much time and human error is often an issue. These errors can include charging too much or too little money. By providing an invoice system it would save the company large amounts of time an effort. It would also reduce the amount of human error and increase the accuracy of the invoice. Current Invoice System: OMD project management currently do all of their invoicing on paper. This means that the consultant will remember his hours his expenses and his hourly rate in his head and when it comes around to invoicing the client he will type all of these things up on to Microsoft word, print it off and give it to the client so the are able to pay the company. As you could gather this is a very inefficient way of invoicing the client. This can also lead to large amount of errors during the invoicing process, for example a client may be under charged or over charged. End User Skills: The main user of the document that I will create is of the older generation. He prefers to do things the ‘old fashioned’ way, this means that he likes to do his invoicing on paper using a calculator and a pen and it would currently take him longer to create an invoice on the computer than it would for him to do it on paper, however he is not total computer illiterate and he is able to use most word processing and spread sheet programmes. OMD Project Management would like to me to create an invoice system that is simple yet effective so that he is able to save time by moving his invoice system onto computer and they would also like me to create a system that is able to be used by everyone in the company. Requirements: General: * The invoice must be in Lucida sans console. * The text must be black in colour * The program must be user friendly * The company logo must be at the top of the invoice * The client’s address must be at the top left of the page but lower than the logo. * The invoice number should be on the left hand side of the page and below the address. * A breakdown of the invoice should be in the middle of the page just below the invoice number. * The total, in bold, will go underneath the invoice breakdown. * The company address will go at the bottom of the page. * It must look professional. Qualitative: * The program must be able to hold all of the different types of expenses. * The program must be able to hold different types of jobs. * The program must double up as an estimating system. * The program must produce an accurate invoice. * The program must hold different client addresses Quantitative: * From start to finish the invoice must only take 15 minutes. * The invoice must be able to hold 3 different types of jobs * The program must be able to hold at least 20 different client addresses Hardware and Software: There is a currently a huge amount of hardware available on the market. You can buy many different types of computer each one suitable for a different purpose, for example laptops are portable and can be taken anywhere, this can be very convenient as the user is able to do his work anywhere and also with the invention of wireless technology the user can connect to the internet anywhere that wireless internet is available. Another type of PC that is available is desktop PC. This is a PC that stays stationary. This type of PC gives you a lot more room to type etc and also has a mouse as standard, these can be permanently linked up to a printer and/or the internet. The current system that OMD Project management runs is a Compaq Presario with an Intel Pentium 4 processor. OMD Project Management feels that there is no need to purchase a new system because they feel that their current system is sufficient and suitable for the job in hand. There are many different types of software that is suitable for this project. I believe that the most appropriate is a spreadsheet package. This is because you are able to use the program to calculate lots of different things. With a bit of self teaching you are able to use the program to do lots of different processes. OMD Project Management already has Microsoft office XP installed on their system and they feel that I should use Microsoft Excel to create their invoice system. This is so that it is compatible with their system. I believe that this is a good choice as Excel is more than adequate for the task in hand. Input: Enter the job type code Enter all the things to with the amount of work done: * The number of days worked. * Enter the correct code that corresponds to the appropriate price paid per day Enter all the relevant expenses details: * The number of miles travelled and the number of nights stayed in a hotel. Enter the code for the desired client address Enter the client addresses. * Code number * Address line 1 * Address line 2 * postcode * contact number Process: Lookup the type of job according to the code and multiply the rate of pay by the number of days worked. Calculate the amount of expenses owed for travelling. Calculate the amount of expenses owed for staying in hotels. Calculate sub-total, VAT and the final total. Output: A full invoice with the amount owed for work done and the amount owed for expenses with sub-totals, VAT added and the final total at the end. It should also display the company logo, company address, company logo and the client address. It should look professional. Test Strategy: I will test my program in three different ways. I will ask my end user to use my new system and ask them to give me feedback on it so I am able to adjust it to their liking. Also I will devise tests that will be conducted during and after the implementation stage this will allow me to improve my system greatly and identify any errors that are in my system. Test Number Test Test Data Expected Outcome Actual Outcome Corrective Action 1a b c Check date Validation rule. Normal 10/08/05 Extreme 32/08/05 Erroneous 374hcbsi Will accept Data. Won’t accept the date. Should not accept this As expected As expected As expected 2 Check that the formula has worked to calculate the sub-total. N/A The sum of the total money owed for work and expenses. As expected 3 Check that the formula for working out the VAT works. N/A The product of the sub-total multiplied by 17.5%. As expected 4 Check that the formula for working out the total works. N/A The sum of the sub-total and the VAT. As expected 5 a b c Check the lookup function works for the job type code number. Normal 2 Extreme 4 Erroneous 224hsdnsg It should return à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½315.00. It comes up with an error message It should come up with an error message. As expected It comes up with à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½275 which is the value for 3 As expected Put a validation rule on it so that no number higher than 3 can be entered. 6 Check that the formula for working out the total amount of money owed for work done works. N/A The product of the price paid per day and the number of days worked. As expected 7 Check that formula for calculating travel expenses works. N/A The product of the price per mile and the number of miles travelled. As expected 8 Check that formula for calculating the amount of money owed for staying in hotels. N/A The product of the price paid per night and the number of nights stayed. As expected 9 Check that formula for calculating the total expenses owed for works. N/A The sum of the amount owed for travelling and the amount owed for hotels As expected 10 Check that the summary page macro button works. N/A The button takes you to the summary page. As expected 11 Check that the breakdown page macro button works. N/A The button takes you to the breakdown page. As expected 12 Check that the job type page macro button works. N/A The button takes you to the job type page. As expected 13 Check that the client address page macro button works. N/A The button takes you to client address page As expected 14 Check that the clear invoice/summary macro button works. N/A The button clears all of the entries that are on the invoice. As expected 15 Check that clear breakdown macro button works. N/A The button will clear all of the entries that are on the summary sheet. As expected 16 Check that the back to main menu macro button on the breakdown sheet works. N/A The button will take you back to the main menu page. As expected 17 Check that the back to main menu macro button on the job type sheet works. N/A The button will take you back to the main menu page. As expected 18 a b c Check data validation for D2:D14 on breakdown sheet to allow numbers only. Normal 30 Extreme D Erroneous dn8949 The program allows entry. It shows an error message to explain that no letters are allowed. As above. As expected As expected As expected 19 a b Test the lookup function for the client addresses Normal 3 Extreme 51 Erroneous 73hdhb. It will look up the client address with that code number. It shows N/A in the cell meaning there is an error in the formula. As above. As expected It comes up with zero As expected I will put a validation rule on the cell so that it will only allow numbers below 51. 20 Check that the back to main menu macro button on the client details sheet works. N/A The button will take you back to the main menu page. As expected 21 Give the program to OMD project Management for them to test it Implementation Log 17/11/05 The first stage of my implementation was to insert two worksheets. I then renamed my worksheets for easy reference; the sheets will be named Main Menu, Summary, Breakdown, Job Type and Client Details. Here I have entered all of the column headings for the client details addresses Here I have highlighted cells A1:F51 this allows the user to enter up to 50 different addresses as stated in the requirements. I then named the table Address. Here I have entered all the data for the different types of jobs. And here I have formatted the cells to currency so that the data in these cells is displayed as a currency. I highlighted cells B2:D5 and inserted a name. The table name is now jobs. Here I have entered all of the headings for this table and I have then highlighted cells A1:F15 and named them Breakdown. Here I have entered the vlookup formula, that will lookup the different rates that correspond to the code No. entered and put them onto this sheet. As you can see the vlookup formula has worked as it has entered the rate of pay. I have also put in the formula to workout amount of money owed. I have entered the formula to calculate the amount of money owed for travelling. Here I have entered the formulae to work out the total amount of money owed for expenses and to work out the money owed for staying in hotels. I have also formatted all the cells containing monetary values to currency. As you can see here I have entered all the text onto the summary sheet. Here I have entered a validation rule to the date cell on the invoice which only allows a date to be entered in the format 00/00/00 and it must be greater than 01/01/2000. I also added my own error message to inform the user of what the need to enter. Here I have entered the vlookup formula which will lookup each part of the address that corresponds to the code and the transfer them onto this sheet. I entered the same formula for the 4 cells below but each time increasing the column index number by one. This is the formula that copies the amount of money owed for work from the breakdown sheet onto the summary sheet. This formula is the same as above except that it copies the total amount of expenses owed instead of the amount of money owed for work Here is the formula to calculate the sub-total. And here is the formula to work out the VAT to be added. And finally the formula that will work out the total amount of money owed. This is me recording the macro that will take you from the main menu page to the breakdown page. I will do the same for each macro that is used for navigation. To create the macro button I used the forms toolbar and clicked on the button icon and I drew the button. I then right clicked it and assigned the appropriate macro to it. So now whenever I click the button it will take me to the specified page. Here I am assigning the macro to the macro button. I have recorded a macro that deletes all the entries that have been entered into the invoice breakdown sheet. This macro button clears all the information, on the invoice summary page, that changes. And for the addresses it changes the code so that a line is displayed instead of the client address. I did this each time I recorded a new macro and just chose a new name for it.

From slavery to freedom Essay

Ironically, Fredrick Douglas all but snatched the Emancipation Proclamation from Abraham Lincoln’s hands to make of its flat rhetoric a sharpened call for freedom and equality. Douglass had never regarded the ending of slavery as enough, either for himself or for his people; it had to be the beginning of an embrace of the black individual’s fullness as a person, a beginning that would point straight toward an end, within quick reach. â€Å"For Douglass, each gain in the struggle, and the Emancipation Proclamation decidedly was one of the greatest, simply meant that America must move on to the next gain. † (Mcfeely, 1991) Douglass’s commitment to abolitionism, black elevation, and women’s rights outstripped his commitment to other social reforms. His major social reform passions — black liberation and women’s liberation — underscored his egalitarian humanism. The logic and motivation for his social reform odyssey derived essentially from his quest for morality, order, and progress. Even though his interrelated social reform enthusiasms were integral to his vision of a moral, orderly, and progressive civilization, he nonetheless evinced a keen sense of the need for priorities among them. (Martin, 1984) In retelling his journey from slavery to freedom in the middle of the decade, less than a year after the Cleveland emigration convention, Douglass was responding implicitly to the arguments of Delany and other pro-immigration supporters that in the foreseeable future blacks would remain slaves, or de facto slaves, in the United States — arguments that would appear to have gained added currency with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Central to Douglass’s continued hopefulness about blacks’ prospects in the United States, despite such obviously negative developments, was a renewed commitment following his 1851 break with Garrison to the informing ideals of the nation’s original revolutionary documents. In many ways during this period, Frederick Douglass became the prototypical American success: a peerless self-made man and symbol of success; a fearless and tireless spokesman; a thoroughgoing humanist. The most striking and enduring aspect of Douglass’s heroic legacy in his day — its classic, even archetypical aura — has persisted down to the present. Although often viewed and used differently by others, the heroic and legendary Douglass clearly personifies the American success ethic. The key to his eminently evocative essence is twofold. Douglass’s influence had a far reaching affect. In April 1855, Uriah Boston, a prominent figure in the black community of Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote a letter to Douglass in reference to his newspaper. Boston expressed concern over the increasingly separatist tone of prominent black abolitionists like William J. Wilson and James McCune Smith. Responding to pieces they had written in the black press, Boston criticized the two for â€Å"urging the colored people to preserve their identity with the African race. † He feared that any claim of distinct national identity on the part of black people might lend credence to â€Å"the propriety and necessity of African colonization†Ã¢â‚¬â€the dreaded scheme of the American Colonization Society. For Boston, blacks could never constitute a nation within the nation. â€Å"You cannot mix nationalities,† he wrote. â€Å"No man is a proper citizen of one certain country while he claims at the same time to be a citizen of any other country. †

Pink is for Girls, Blue is for Boys

Pink is for Girls, Blue is for Boys: The Cultural Change in Gender Throughout HistoryThis essay will address the issue of culture, the media and gender and how they affects us in today’s society. â€Å"The generally accepted rule is pink for boys, and blue for the girls,† noted an article published in the Ladies Home Journal in 1918. Society, the media and gender role socialization have changed since the early part of the twentieth century. Gender differences have influenced men and women’s behaviours, thoughts and feelings since the early 1900s.A large part of this is because of how the media tells us we should act. Girls, for example, are traditionally seen as emotional nurturers and boys are seen as rough or tough providers and the breadwinner for the family. Since the moment of birth in the hospital, we are thrust into these gender roles – pink blankets for baby girls and blue blankets for baby boys. The constant changing ways of our society and the me dia is fascinating. The media provides us with an outline of how we should go about things in our daily lives. It also influences us on just about everything that we deal with on a day to day basis.Our social interactions, for example, our beliefs, and our influences on others are all shaped to some degree by society and the social pressures we feel. Media and gender roles have appeared for a long time in our society and that people follow them because they are comfortable with them and it is what we know. It’s unfortunate because so much of society abides by certain rules that the small population of us that do not follow those rules, get judged and shunned by the rest of society because they are different – most of us view that if something is â€Å"different† it is wrong.Gender roles, in turn, provide us with a sense of who we are, what we should do and how we should go about doing it. They also provide us with a false sense of reality. The more and more our society and culture changes, the more and more â€Å"traditional† views are pushed aside. For instance, not all women are effeminate and not all men conform to traditional concepts of masculinity. The stereotypical portrayals of gender roles on television and in the media, have gradually changed over the years, although not to the extent that society still sees as practical. Although women are beginning to berepresented in more occupations, men are rarely represented in ‘traditional' female roles, such as the nurturing child care provider or attending to the housework; this is still seen as a women‘s job. However, with society changing more and more every day, we see more women in the workplace, more men taking on a role in the home, and women (and men) spending more time in school to get a higher education in order to provide for their families. All of these factors lead to changes in our gender roles and it goes to show how quickly our culture and society consis tently change.Although the media has improved greatly in the past few years. Signorielli, a professor at the University of Delaware, argues that â€Å"[t]elevision can still be seen, therefore, as representing a distorted view of society, which the perceptive minds of children may pick up with ease† (70). This quote proves the fact that from the beginning of childhood, children can pick up on social intimation and gender socialization. It starts in early childhood with children’s toys, the girls are encouraged to play with Barbie and the boys encouraged to play with trucks, and more masculine equipment.Overall, what matters the most here is that men and women are still misrepresented as their traditional stereotypes in the majority of mass media. This stereotype becomes rooted in our minds, and is passed on from generation to generation as an ample view of male and female gender roles. Although women are slowly gaining respect and equality in today‘s society, it is not uncommon to see men and women illustrated as equals, working along side each other in an evenly challenging setting. This is especially true in the workforce.

Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business - Assignment Example For example, many people might think that The Walt Disney Company's mission is to run theme parks. But, Disney's mission is always moving toward an expanded view. Disney provides entertainment. "Disney's overriding objective is to create shareholder value by continuing to be the world's premier entertainment company from a creative, strategic, and financial standpoint." You might also think that Revlon's mission is to make cosmetics. Yet, Revlon provides glamour, excitement and innovation. Charles Revson, Revlon's founder understood the importance of mission. He said "In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope." Microsoft's early vision statement was "A Computer on Every Desk and In Every Home." (At approximately the same time, President John Akers said IBM's goal was to become a $100 billion company by then end of the century. At that time IBM sales were $50 billion.) Ideally the vision should be presented in a language that reaches out and grabs people, creates a vivid image in their heads and provokes motivation and

Chipotle food company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Chipotle food company - Essay Example it governance risk indicators which makes the company have low risks in its board, audit and compensation and a medium risk in shareholders’ rights. With the high rate of quarterly revenue growth of 24.50% against 8.90% of the industry, the company has experienced a steady growth in its branch network. Moreover, it is among the top companies in terms of market capitalization with a ROE of 23.64%, which guarantees investors of a good return. For the company to enjoy high performance, it should restructure its employment policies to word off concerns by investors due to the audits concerning immigrant workers (Schriftenreihe & Buchholz , 2008). 2. Review of the company and its business Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc is among the top service provision companies in the restaurant industry with a market capitalization of 7.75 B US dollars. It competes directly with companies such as Panda Restaurant Group, Inc, Taco Bell Corporation and Odoba Restaurant Corporation which are privately owned companies. Nevertheless, the company has indirect competitors such as Whitebread PLC, Mitchells & Butlers PLC and McDonald Corp whose market capitalization is higher. Over the years, this company has continued to spread its tentacles and has managed to establish a large network in US in 33 states. The expansion has made it find new ways of serving its large clientele through product innovations and appealing selling propositions Key product lines Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc has a wide range of products made up of dishes and beverages. These include burritos, selected beer, salads, salsas, lettuce, tacos, fruit drinks, burrito bowls, cheese, margaritas, a variety of meat types and guacamole. These gives the company a leverage as the customers have a wide variety to choose from. The extensive branch network in the 33 states in United States which are augmented by other branches in UK and Canada makes the company and its subsidiary serve a wide geographical area. The company lev erages its products by using natural ingredients which makes the products unique and appealing to many customers. This is manifested by the long queues especially during lunch times (Wylie, 2009). Strengths The competitive advantage over other business competitors is dependent on the goals and vision as well as mission thereof. The prudential guidelines make a company be able to offer quality products and efficient services to its customers. Moreover, a company gets the motivation to expand its network in a wide geographical area as its products and services get a high demand. The strengths of a company therefore, put a company in a good position to do business and be able to make profits even when others are counting losses. These key driving forces can be product innovations, strong financial postings, efficient and competent workforce, diversified business operations, competent management, conducive working environment as well as better terms of pay and compensation, and well tho ught and articulated financial and business operation policies. This is also boosted by establishment of clear

The Distribution of Primary Goods by Nozick and Rawls Essay

The Distribution of Primary Goods by Nozick and Rawls - Essay Example He contends that if individuals have acquired their share in the distribution in a fair manner, without violating the rights of other people, then the distribution is just. Since such acquisitions are made using the natural talents that individuals possess, he argues that injustice cannot contend in the allocation and use of natural talents. The system whereby such distributions have resulted are the result of gifts or acquisitions made on the basis of individual initiative, which is just, as a result, the distribution resulting out of it is also just. Rawls, however, offers a different view on the distribution of primary assets, viewing it on the basis of its end outcome. He contends that since the outcome is an unjust distribution of primary assets in society, it is morally repugnant and must be redressed through the input from social and legal establishments by providing equality in opportunity for access to those resources to all individuals. Nozick’s theory of justice is based upon the â€Å"entitlement theory of holdings†, wherein the question of justice in acquisition is determined by the manner in which the property is acquired rather than the final outcome itself. Property may be transferred either through gift giving or by free exchange selling. Both these methods are undertaken voluntarily and there is no coercion at all that is involved in one person passing on a property to another. (Nozick, 151). He argues that when land does not belong to anyone at first, then a just acquisition process would allow someone to own it legitimately and claim it as theirs, so long as they do not make anyone else worse off in the process. Nozick’s theory of justice is, therefore, a system of pure procedural justice, where the important aspect to be considered is the process and system by which distributions are made, rather than the final outcome of that distribution.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & ABSTRACT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & ABSTRACT - Essay Example Lastly, I am deeply grateful to my brother, who patiently assisted me and helped me succeed in completing this project. The cost of non-renewable energy is increasingly rapidly over time. In addition to increasing costs, non-renewable energy sources are also damaging to the environment and risk depleting precious resources. It appears that batteries may be a good alternative providing that their source is renewable. In addition, batteries can be used as a power source in areas where traditional power sources are not accessible. In many isolated areas of the countryside, lead-acid batteries have become a popular and dependable source of energy for many people due to the lack of efficient power grids used in urban areas. Lead-acid batteries are often used as secondary power sources, although some people, particularly in rural areas, use them as the main source of power. Due to this need for more accessible, dependable power sources in rural areas, I am developing an affordable, multipurpose lead-acid battery charger. This battery charger is being designed with the specific needs of people in isolated r ural areas in mind and to be used particularly in outdoor situations. This lead-acid battery charger circuit design is ideal for 6-12v batteries and will be able to charge lead-acid batteries during the sunlight hours by utilizing solar power, a renewable power source. This circuit battery charger will utilize a regulator and a comparator to control the power that travels between the solar cell panel and the battery unit, which promotes efficient charging. In whole-battery operations, the circuit battery charger will charge the battery to full capacity while at the same time limiting over-charging and increasing battery life. The second unit informs the user of the charging status of the battery, and consists of four LEDs. Simulation of

Toyota Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Toyota - Essay Example However, the suppliers’ competency is one of the current long term objectives of the Toyota (â€Å"Helping Suppliers Compete†). The TMC believes that the steady and long term relationship with suppliers would be beneficial for the company to spawn mutual benefits through mutual trust. The company has also formulated specific strategies to augment the competitiveness of its suppliers in the auto-manufacturing marketplace. For instance, as reported (in â€Å"Helping suppliers compete†), the company’s annual purchasing policy sets certain annual performance expectations for customers in some specific areas such as quality, delivery, cost, and supplier diversity; and in addition, the company dispatches experts to work with suppliers when they struggle to meet their annual expectations. Mitigation of environmental impact of automobiles is another long term objective of the company (â€Å"our stance on biofuels†). Nowadays, consumers are increasingly conc erned about the issues like global warming and green gas emissions. It has been identified that fuel combustion in vehicles contributes to environmental issues. Therefore, the company has made certain sets of environmental leadership core principles with intent to amplify the future growth.

Investments in Computer Integrated Manufacturing Technology Essay

Investments in Computer Integrated Manufacturing Technology - Essay Example By thoroughly realizing and examining these questions that need to be addressed, then we will be able to come to a much more informed and understanding viewpoint on this subject matter at hand, and as well we will be able to thus come up with new and innovative strategies in regards to what methods and means should be taken in order to put a more positive spin on this matter overall. This is what will be dissertated in the following. There are truly many different benefits when we speak of the term CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing) issues, and what CIM really is needs to be properly understood before any further measures can be taken in this regards. In all actuality, CIM is "a manufacturing philosophy in which the functions for the organization, from product definition to the disposition of the final product, are achieved using computer, communication, and information technologies" (Wikipedia, 2007). There are basically three different components that are considered and known as being essential in regards to the implementation of flexible design and manufacturing in this regards, and this includes that of the following three components: the means for data storage, retrieval, manipulation and presentation; the mechanisms by which to sense state and modify substance; and lastly, the methodologies by which to unite them. The CIM phase is the phase which is "used to describe the complete automation of a manufacturing plant, with all processes functioning under computer control and digital information tying them together" (Rockford Consulting Group, 1999). Basically then the CIM phase is without a doubt one of the most crucial, and there are quite obviously many different benefits that are gained from CIM overall. Why Might DCF Methods not Take These Benefits Into Consideration When Evaluating CIM Investments There are actually again quite a few answers when it comes to the reasoning as to why DCF methods may not take the benefits that are concluded as being from CIM processes into consideration when they are evaluating CIM investments; first we must understand what the DCF really is, in order to understand better. The DCF (discounted cash flow) is a means in this regards which uses certain methods of analysis which have both in the past and recently come under certain criticism. It really began in the 1980s when the use of these DCF methods began coming under this criticism, and in particular they were found to be especially deficient when they were being used to evaluate investments in CIM technologies, as many critics claimed and pressed to argue the fact that these DCF methods of analys

Novel reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Novel reflection - Essay Example Krakauer demystifies the enigmatic Everest as well as points out that the climbers were like any other normal human beings with their share of heroism and courage, fear and failure. Just as he draws an account of the successful expeditions of the legendary climbers he would speak of the gruesome instances of failures, death and the struggles of survival. Krakauer being a passionate climber his story narrates first hand experiences. It is his understanding and knowledge of climbing that seems to give him an insight into the nature of the expedition and make his interpretation meaningful. The Lhotse Face episode reveals a disturbing picture of the state of the climbers who were completely demoralized and were suffering from a multitude of ailments related to high altitude. The stark reality of ego tussles and pride stand out amid the impending natural catastrophe that once again exposes the vulnerable nature of human beings. The utter lack of cooperation from the climbers of the other expedition teams and the climbing strategies that sometimes compelled one to be insensitive seem to question the ethical values of our society that are flouted on the mountains. A reading of his book Into Thin Air helps one to conceptualize the various intentions of those people who have willingly opted to undertake the hazardous journey to scale the Everest. It is astonishing for lay persons to conceive of the madness of spending some $70,000 dollars to climb Mt. Everest. It is all the more disturbing to find out that a large number of climbers though rich are not qualified climbers. As Krakauer points out that there were people from different walks of life be it the wealthy doctor Beck Weathers or the rich socialite Sandy Hill Pittman. It appears that all of those climbers have their individual reasons to ‘summit’ (Krakauer, 1997) the Everest. For some reaching the top of the Everest is a dream fulfillment and something of a trophy for a

Descartes and David Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Descartes and David - Essay Example Researcher and philosopher would have to decide whether to go where with which type of inquiry method. Empirical method of inquiry to which Mr. David Hume belongs is basically the research which is based on the direct experiences and observations made. This method is adopted usually to test a hypothesis drawn for a research. Hypothesis is the assessment of association of variables and phenomenon gathered and drawn out of past studies. The word empirical itself means facts collected after direct experiences and observations. The paper â€Å"Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion† by David Hume is portraying the beliefs and knowledge gathering based on empirical method. David believes that knowledge comes from evidential base, so whether the religion beliefs are right or wrong, and you can say rational or not. By applying empirical method technique, David has to analyze whether there are enough proofs and valid arguments regarding existence of God or it is just about a person born with a particular religion. Another benefit comes from empirical studies that you have to ask directly the related population of your research about the concerns of objectives. Empirical studies are basically divided into two main broad categories. They are Qualitative methods and Quantitative methods. Qualitative research is an analysis by interpretation of facts and information gathered from interviews and questionnaires filled in by the population sample. The analysis made is without the involvement of any number and quantifiable material or aspect. Qualitative research is based on directly interacting with the people and asking about the views and belief for specific object. Quantitative research on the other hand is totally based on the measurements of facts, relations significance, number involvements etc. the phenomenon and all the collected facts are gathered in the way that they can be measured and quantified. Checking in the strengths of empirical method in this paper let us discuss the methodology Hume adopted for the collection of religion beliefs facts. He did not ask if he could rationally prove that God exist. Rather all should come to the conclusions demonstrating God’s nature. For the sake, he described three characteristics of different point of views; Cleanthes, Demea and Philo. Interactions among the researchers and believers enabled the information to give fruitful and reliable results of topics. Quantitative methods are strongly beneficial for the discovery of facts related to measurable research like finance, economic integrations, and scientific facts. But this method cannot work efficiently in the research of human beliefs and views about a real truth. For this purpose of exploration about people thoughts and beliefs on universal truth direct interactions, interviews focus group discussions and arguments are best ways to analyze. This method is called Qualitative method as discussed above. Empirical studies give best results in the research of economic and finance related topics through quantitative methods. And political science, philosophies, universal truths etc tends to come out more beneficial through Qualitative methods. Understanding and gathering of knowledge comes from researching each fact and figure related to them. And research expertise comes from holding complete command on the methods of research e.g. metaphysical method of inquiry, empirical methods of inquiry etc. These techniques help a lot in

Explosion Essay Example for Free

Explosion Essay Topic Sentence Imo the Norwegian Ship should be blamed most for this incident, for being in too much of hurry, not following sea rules, and the stubbornness of the ship’s captain. EvidenceProof/Quote/Fact/Research| Explain the relevance of this evidence to your thesis statement. How does it support your overall argument? | SOURCE CITATION(Where did you get itfrom? )| Twice the captain of the ship of the Imo Avoided other vessels by passing there starboard side (wrong side). | The captain is already not following the rules of the sea, how do we know it was not completely the Norwegian ships fault. http://thecanadian encyclopedia. com/featured/the-Halifax-explosions | The Imo was 18 hours behind Schedule and Mont Blanc was aSitting duck outside, and Pilot Mont Blanc was astonished to see the Imo advancing at high speeds. | The ship was in a rush to get tothe destination and was speedingon purpose so it could arrive quickerbut the plan had backfired when they saw the other ship in the path they had been taking. | â€Å"Halifax Explosion1917. † Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online school edition. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. , 2013. Web 1 Apr. 2013lt;http://school. eb. om/eb/Article-94438247gt;| There was a flurry of whistles Between the two ships the Norwegian ship did not changeDirection until final moments. | This caused the accident because if they weren’t going the wrong way and wrong speed we could have prevented this from happening And losing so many lives. | http://thecanadian encyclopedia. com/featured/the-Halifax-explosions| ARGUMENT # 2 Topic Sentence

The Disavantages Of Education

The Disavantages Of Education Educational disadvantage refers to situation where some individuals derive less benefit from education system than their peers. The Education Act 1998 defines educational disadvantage as impediments to education arising from social or economic disadvantage which prevent students from deriving appropriate benefit from education in schools. Educational disadvantage is demonstrated in many ways, most often in poor levels of participation and achievement in formal education system. (Matheson, 2000, 7) Many fundamental changes that have occurred within British economy, have called for structural changes to be made to education system. These include 1944 Education Act, which made secondary education compulsory, and introduced tri-partite system of schooling, as well as introduction of National Curriculum in 1988. Although These measures appear to have brought about à Ã‚ ° rise in overall attainment levels and made an impact on social gap in schools and wider society, official statistics and sociological research indicates that class-based inequalities in educational attainment have shown no tendency to decline (Phillips, 2001). In face of this remarkable resilience of class inequalities, educational reforms seem powerless (Health, 1989, quoted in Bilton, 1996, p359). Equal Opportunities Education should provide equal opportunities for all pupils to reach Their fullest potential, regardless of Their race, gender, ethnicity, class, or ability. However, Social class continues be one of main causes of educational disadvantage in schools and in society. The Liberal Democrats spokesman Paul Willis claims that, when it comes to educational achievement social class is still strongest indicator of success (http//education.co.uk/schools/story/html). For example, in 1993 over 70% of children whos parents were from professional backgrounds obtained 5+ GCSEs passes at grade A C, whereas only à Ã‚ ° mere 14% of children of working class parents obtained 5+ GCSE passes (http//education.co.uk/schools/story/html). However, contrary to this, not all pupils from working class backgrounds are educationally disadvantaged, some do just as well as children from middle class backgrounds if not better. In this respect, one could argue that education can also be seen as à Ã‚ ° pathway f or upward mobility and à Ã‚ ° means of reducing structural inequalities in society. So what is role and function of education? Section 1 -Educational Disadvantage One perspective is that of functionalists, They have often viewed education system as offering opportunities for mobility of individuals. However, conflict ories have, by and large, argued that role of education is to maintain à Ã‚ ° system of structured inequalities (Bilton, 1996). Despite fact that current education system is seen by many politicians and functionalists as being à Ã‚ ° means of combating or even reducing inequalities within society, many children who are born into working class homes still fail to achieve educationally as well as middle or upper class children. In à Ã‚ ° recent article published by The Observer Newspaper, it was found that in todays society à Ã‚ ° bright child born into à Ã‚ ° poor working class family, will do worse at school than à Ã‚ ° child with low intelligence but rich middle class parents (article from The Observer, Bright, 2002). According to this perspective, one could argue that education system acts as an agency of selection within society and determines type of schooling received, and hence ones future position in society. This type of socialisation is achieved by means of Hidden Curriculum, serving to control level of social mobility from one generation to next. Sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, claims that role of education is to hand on cultural values and behaviour patterns of society to its young (Bilton, 1996). Many aspects of hidden curriculum can be seen as being embodied in social system of School and These reflect interests of society as à Ã‚ ° whole. It is believed that Schools and Teachers unintentionally treat and label children differently according to Their ability or social background (Kyriacou, C. 1997). This can be seen as having à Ã‚ ° powerful influence on way in which pupils see mselves and consequently what They learn. Thereby Teachers perception of à Ã‚ ° pupils ability strongly a ffects how that pupil progresses (http://www.harland64.freeserve.co.uk). Another manner in which schools reinforce social inequalities, thus disadvantaging working class pupils, is through system of streaming pupils into different ability groups. Sociologists Lacey and Hargreves studied effects of streaming in schools and found that children from working class backgrounds were more likely to be placed in lower ability streams (Bilton, 1996). This form of streaming of pupils can be seen as mirroring hierarchical social class divisions in society, allocating people to different positions within economic system. Therefore it could be argued that aspects of hidden curriculum, such as teachers perception and streaming of pupils can all be seen as à Ã‚ ° powerful means of social control. I would argue that it is consequently important, if not imperative, that teachers and schools have high expectations of Their pupils and do not limit horizon of any child. Even though Education should provide à Ã‚ ° pathway out of poverty and disadvantage, too many children are failing to take advantage of opportunities available to Them. Evidence of this can be found in statistics that demonstrate that early leaving is worst among socially disadvantaged, which in turn becomes à Ã‚ ° primary source of social disadvantage in future. For example Halsey, Health and Ridges (1980) study Origins and Destinations found that those from higher social backgrounds were much more likely to stay in education past minimum leaving age, than those from working class backgrounds (Halsey, Health and Ridge in Bilton, 1996). As à Ã‚ ° result They are not getting education or skills They need for adult life. However for those who do stay on in education, class-based inequality continues to disadvantage Them, higher They move up educational ladder. Estelle Morris quoted in Observer (2002), in relation to class based inequalities within schooling system stated It gets worse as you go through school. (Estelle Morris quoted in Observer, 2002). However, Bowles and Gintis (1976), argue that inequality and disadvantage faced by working class pupils in school correspond to disadvantage They will face in world of work in à Ã‚ ° capitalist society, workings of school system being seen to be tied to and reflecting workings of capitalism. Bowles and Gintis argue, that experience of schooling differs according to level, and that These differences are related to particular point of entry into labour force for which They prepare (Ball, 1986, p 39). They go on to explain that variations in social relationships and social structures are in turn related to social class of students, supporting Their position with historical and statistical data to demonstrate that social background of pupils is primary determinant of Their attainment at school (Ball, 1986, p 40). Clearly Then schools could be said to be preparing pupils for Their future class based role and function within society. The Governments Education White Paper states that social class gap amongst those entering university remains too wide, accordingly government states that Their priority is to reach out and include those from groups that have been under-represented in higher education, These including young people from semi-skilled or unskilled family backgrounds and certain minority ethnic groups. Although government strategies such as Education Bursaries and Sure Start are specifically aimed at lifting educational achievement of disadvantaged, one could argue that o r polices seem to work against These policies and initiatives. For example recent introduction of top up tuition fees for universities will only serve to extend exclusion of working class pupils. The fear now is that if university costs rise any more, They will deter all but wealthiest students (Bright, 2002). This argument is pursued by cultural deprivation ory, stating that those at bottom of classroom are deprived or deficient in certain values, attitudes and skills essential for educational success and its affects are cumulative. However it does face considerable criticisms as people question whe r values and attitudes of different classes are actually that different. For example Rutter M and Madge N in cycles of disadvantage (1976) argue that although children from poor backgrounds were more likely to underachieve at schools, cycles of disadvantage do not exist. Bourdieu P (1977) takes à Ã‚ ° Marxist view and has developed his own distinctive cultural explanation for achievement and suggests that There is an element of cultural capital in society. Thus higher à Ã‚ ° persons position in class system, greater amount of dominant culture They are likely to have. Culture is regarded generally as superior as those at top define it as such. Thus it becomes highly sought after and highly valued and consequently it forms basis of educational system. Thus because middle class culture is closer to that of school culture They refore are more likely to succeed. Evidence of this has already been discussed through Bernsteins studies. One theory suggests that chief reason why à Ã‚ ° students family life affects his/her education is based on size of family. More specifically, it suggests that those coming from à Ã‚ ° family with fewer children perform better academically than those coming from à Ã‚ ° family with many children. One main reason for this is attributed to dilution of familial resources available to children in large families and à Ã‚ ° concentration of such resources in small ones (Blake 11). For example, in families with many children parents have less time, less emotional and physical energy, less attention to give, and less ability to interact with children as individuals (Blake 11). Another reason that attention may be diluted is because of many siblings. Often mother is pregnant or recovering from pregnancy, which lessens her ability to care for children. In addition, money is also often diluted. Blake says of that: This type of dilution involves not only parents treatment of individual childrenability to provide personal living space, cultural advantages such as travel, specialized instruction such as music lessons, specialized medical or dental care, as well as continuous and advanced schoolingbut, as well, to provide settings advantages of which are not divisible: living in à Ã‚ ° desirable neighborhood, or having à Ã‚ ° wide range of excellent reading material or recorded music in house. (11) This suggests that children coming from à Ã‚ ° poor background are already at an educational disadvantage, possibly even before any formal schooling occurs. Travel enables à Ã‚ ° child to become à Ã‚ ° more cosmopolitan person and teaches children about different cultures of world. Music teaches dedication and helps with memorization skills. Other problems are associated with large families as well. A study by Lori Heise and Jane Roberts showed that children from large families dont interact with others outside family group as much as those in à Ã‚ ° smaller family, which can limit their understanding of certain social roles (Blake 11). It also places them at à Ã‚ ° disadvantage in school, where they make not have many friends or feel left out. This can lead to poor grades. This is so because child may become depressed and find it hard to focus on schoolwork. Without friends to greet them, many times child chooses not to even go to school. In addition, in families where lots of children are around, intellectual level may be more childlike, so kids arent exposed to adult conversation, vocabulary, and interests (Blake 11). The children spend most of their time playing with other children. In à Ã‚ ° family with one or few children, child often has no other choice than to play with their parent/s. Similarly, older siblings may often baby-sit or be treated as adult figure, meaning that parents are not as involved. The older children are often expected to help take care of his or her brothers or sisters. The parents are not home as often when à Ã‚ ° babysitter is available. Having à Ã‚ ° large family can also lead to financial burden and in turn à Ã‚ ° burden on childs academic success. It is often thought that income does not affect ones education until college; after all, education until that point is free. Studies have shown otherwise. It was found that only-child boys were twice as likely to graduate from high school as boys from families of seven or more, and same holds true for girls (Blake 41). Of graduates, there is again à Ã‚ ° large gap between two groups for college attendance (meaning that children without siblings are much more likely to attend college than those from large families). However, distinction is not as large as in high school graduation rates. Once in college, family size has à Ã‚ ° relatively small effect on number of years of college schooling à Ã‚ ° student receives (Blake 45). This indicates that higher level of schooling, less family size is influential. Blake suggests that this is due to many from large families who drop out of school and who are retained multiple times (Blake 45). Section 2 Schools Efforts The influence of what happens in school is also à Ã‚ ° major factor. For example bullying, pressure of exams and more commonly just plain boredom. School truancy is one of most common outcomes of bullying. Bullied children prefer to risk getting caught out of school than to get caught by bullies. One research study reports that one third of girls and one quarter of boys described being afraid of going to school at some time because of bullying (Balding, Young people in 1995, 1996). Bullying is very often due to racism, which in general terms consists of conduct or words or practices which disadvantage or advantage people because of Their colour, culture or ethnic origin (The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry). As we have seen, There are many reasons and causes for truancy and unfortunately, several cases of persistent truancy result in exclusion from school. A department for education report showed that permanent exclusion represents 0.4% of primary school pupils, 0.34% for secondary and 0.54% for special needs schools. OFSTED research highlights poor acquisition of basic skills, particularly literacy, limited aspirations and opportunities, poverty and poor relationships with pupils, parents and teachers. Excluded pupils generally experience considerable disadvantage with high levels of family stress, including unemployment, low income and family disruption. Most excluded pupils are white, male, young teenagers but à Ã‚ ° number of groups are disproportionately likely to be excluded. Children with special needs are 6 times more likely than o rs to be excluded (Dfee, Permanent exclusions from schools). Children in care are 10 times more likely to be excluded according to à Ã‚ ° National Foster Care report (National Foster Care Association). Perhaps as may as 30% of children in care are out of mainstream education (Sinclair et al). Students from lower-income families suffer other disadvantages as well. Economic hardship and stress have been known to affect relationship between parent and child. In addition, if socioeconomic status of student is low, amount of parental support, control, and consistency is often low as well. A study by Saucier and Ambert revealed, Adolescents from intact families have been found to be more optimistic about future than those from homes in which there has been à Ã‚ ° separation, divorce, or parental death (Brantlinger 154). The amount of parental involvement with education was also found to vary with income. Most students studied claim that their parents attended conferences and activities in elementary school, but there became à Ã‚ ° gap during junior high and high school. High-income students say their parents still attended, while low-income students parents did not. Additionally, high-income adolescents parents were much more likely to receive help with schoolwork, such as editing written assignments, than were low-income parents. This could be à Ã‚ ° result of education parents had received. After all, low-income parents had often dropped out of school prior to graduation, while high-income parents had high-levels of educational attainment (Brantlinger 156). A study by Carlos Torres and Theodore Mitchell showed that powerful more affluent parents played à Ã‚ ° significant role in maintaining à Ã‚ ° hierarchical track structure for their child. These parents ensured that their children did w ell in school. This was made achievable possibly through extra help, tutoring, and increasing pressure placed on child to do well (163). Family size and parenting techniques can be related to wealth differences. For example, smaller family, higher proportion of income can be spent on child(ren). Those with better parenting techniques also have à Ã‚ ° higher economic standing than other parents. Better parenting methods can be linked to parents having received à Ã‚ ° higher education. In turn, they often have more money. While it was found that family size and parenting techniques affect ones education, it is merely because of wealth. For example, it is not actual number of people in family, but amount of money family has because of number of members. Economics are key factor as to why ones family life affects ones education, and its à Ã‚ ° cycle. Children often grow up to be in same economic class as family he came from. Therefore, if à Ã‚ ° parent didnt attend college, student is less likely to (Shumow 37). So what can we do about this problem? How can we give economically disadvantaged children à Ã‚ ° good education? There are several options: For one state funding for poorer schools could be increased. Also, if poor communities applied for grants, they could use them to fund their schools. There are also programs out there to help poor schools. The SETA Head Start Program and Equity in Education Project were developed for purpose of improving lives of low-income children by providing quality, comprehensive, child development services that are family focused, including education, health, nutrition, and mental health (Head Start Home Page Screen 1.) By getting communities involved and educated about programs such as these it is very possible to prevent educational disadvantages like coming from à Ã‚ ° low-income household or neighborhood. No matter how many elected school officials declare that poverty is not an excuse for poor school performance, fact remains that children in poverty do not achieve well in school. In à Ã‚ ° study by Abt Associates, researchers examined performance of children in high- and low-poverty schools. High-poverty schools were defined as those with 76% or more of student body eligible for free or reduced-price lunches; low-poverty schools had 20% or less of student body eligible for federally subsidized lunches. The researchers first divided students into categories A, B, C, or Ddepending on what grade they commonly took home on their report cards. Then they looked at performance on achievement tests. Students in low-poverty schools who got As on their report cards scored as one would expect: 87th percentile in math, 81st in reading. Students in high-poverty schools who got As scored higher than their classmates who got lower grades, but they attained only 36th percentile in reading and 35t h in math (Cirasulo 44). One can only imagine sledgehammer that will hit these students when they have to compete with students from more affluent schools.National targets to reduce level of exclusions are all very well, but this will not work unless schools are given resources and support They need to tackle growing number of pupils who ruin education of Their fellow students. Section 3 Analysis Several scholars (Pring (1996), Hamilton (1996), Elliot (1996), White and Barber (1997)) have been critical of research in IS, and responses have provided researchers SE (Sammons et al, 1996; Mortimore and Sammons, 1997, Mortimore and Whitty, 1997). The criticism has focused on three main issues. The first is that IS research has claimed too much for their conclusions, and this is a view with which we have any sympathy and I return. The second charge is that it inevitably focuses on the limited cognitive learning outcomes and ignores the many other aspects that are important. With this view we have little sympathy. We do not understand the nature of current research that relates below. The third charge against SE research is that it has helped in the process of governmental centralization and control of education and professional education. Both agree and disagree with this! We disagree because they do not accept that SE researchers as a group have consciously supported such government actions, but would be willing to admit that some people involved in the SE may be guilty. However, we agree that the government and parastatals have cherry picked what is to be used to help legitimize their policies. There is no shortage of particular examples. Many threads of research have been quoted out of context For example, work on reading Ofsted (Ofsted, 1996) has tried to justify some questionable investigation by appealing to aspects of the literature (Mortimore and Goldstein, 1996) and the report task force produced for literacy Labour Party tried to justify his comparisons between primary schools by references questionable consumption settings (Goldstein, 1997). Some causes of minorities not being able to achieve same educational level as White Americans is because they have many obstacles in front of them. Some obstacles include not being able to speak language properly, desegregation, and discrimination. Some minorities start off only speaking their native language. So when they come to states they automatically have to face obstacle of learning native language, which is English. It is very difficult for those children whose parents do not have to learn English. When children come home from school they dont get to practice what they learned because they have to speak their native language to communicate with their parents. It is much easier for those whose parents are learning language because they can practice together and help each other out. Another barrier minorities have to cross is desegregation. They are automatically desegregated because they dont have same education level as average white American. Most of them immigrated here wit h no schooling what so ever. So when they arrive they not only have to learn language but start from scratch. Because they have no schooling behind them they are considered educationally handicapped and placed in à Ã‚ ° different class to start learning language and basics. Also then they are not expected to do as well as average white American because teachers show pity for their hardship. So when they dont do so well on à Ã‚ ° test teacher is not as tough on them as they would be on an average student because they are considered educationally handicapped. Another factor they face is discrimination. Most average Americans do not believe that minorities are as smart as they are so they put them down. Minorities are easy targets so white Americans take advantage of situation. Most minorities have problems speaking language so they dont feel comfortable making friends. Then it only makes it harder when they are made fun of or put down. They loose their confidence and tend to give up. There still is à Ã‚ ° lot of concern because minority enrollment percentages still lag behind that of white-students in American colleges, report concludes. While nearly 42 percent of white high school graduates attend college in 1993, only 33 percent of African-American high school graduates and 36 percent of Hispanics enrolled. And 82 percent of minorities go to public universities, and compared with 63 percent of white students. The gap in college participation between whites and minorities is cause for continuing concern, says Robert Atwell, president of ACE. We have à Ã‚ ° long way to go before we can claim to have achieved equality of educational opportunity and achievement. In conclusion, it is not easy to define social class in itself, as it is à Ã‚ ° many-stranded notion and in modern society people do not always easily fit into social class categories. There are many factors that account for educational disadvantage, one of which is clearly Social Class. However, it also important to be aware that it is but one factor that influences educational achievement, as social class is also à Ã‚ ° contributory factor to o r forms of inequality, which may also impact upon educational attainment of children. That said, it is clear that social divisions in society do in fact mirror educational disadvantage, its existence being defined for à Ã‚ ° variety of reasons, based upon oretical standpoint of commenter. Similarly, the earliest study of Mortimore et al (1988) in primary schools, twelve key characteristics of effective schools were illustrated: 1. Purposeful leadership of the staff by the head-teacher 2. The involvement of the deputy head-teacher 3. The involvement of teachers 4. Consistency among teachers 5. Structured lessons 6. Intellectually challenging teaching 7. Work-centered environment 8. Limited focus within sessions 9. Maximum communication between teachers and students 10. Record keeping 11. Parental involvement 12. Positive climate The knowledge and experience of schooling in society seems to reinforce à Ã‚ ° particular view of world, which in turn serves interests of particular groups in society. Never less, Education system appears to be key to counteracting inequality, despite present education system having quite opposite effect. The discussion within this paper would suggest that education system continues vicious cycle of disadvantage and social exclusion between generations. What is clear is that Education should not be seen in à Ã‚ ° vacuum, it visibly reflects society in which child lives, learns, plays and will later grow to work. Conclusion The problem with minority and their education is à Ã‚ ° huge problem in today society. There are different aspects of problems in educational system that needs work. I believe there are many solutions to this problem. First, schools need to be all equally funded. Some school districts receive more money then others and they need to receive same so that they can have proper funding for teachers and necessary equipment. They need to provide grants to institutions of higher education, either directly or through area wide planning organizations or States, for purpose of providing assistance to economically disadvantaged and minority students who participate in community development work-study programs and are enrolled in full-time graduate programs in community and economic development, community planning or community management. Another solution that could help this problem is to have fund razors among each minority so they can go ahead and help there own heritage. They can help them with such things as scholarships or helpful things such as educational programs and places they can go to broaden their horizons. They can have communities that help out there children with hardest things to cope with in united states especially coming from à Ã‚ ° different country that will tell them how to prepare to live in united states and get ahead in life. Education is very important and it will get you à Ã‚ ° lot of what you want and as bible says Moses was educated in all wisdom of Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action

Different approaches to HRM

Different approaches to HRM (Business strategy, p-3)The meaning and nature of HRM has aggravated much debate (for an overview see Legge, 1995).Sisson (1990) Distinguished HRM by explaining four distinguishing features, that is the assimilation of personnel policies with business planning; responsibility From specialists to line managers responsibility has to be shifted; uniqueness in the management of employee relations and an emphasis on securing employee dedication and initiative. Guest (1992, p.42) argues that HRM is designed to produce, Strategic integration, high commitment, high quality and flexibility and that, Strategic integration refers to the ability of the organisation to integrate HRM issues into its strategic plans, to ensure that the various aspects of HRM cohere and for line managers to fit in an HRM perspective into their decision-making. Hendry and Pettigrew (1986) contrast that strategic HRM is featured by four fundamentals: the use of planning; the design by a coherent approach and management of workforce systems underpinned by some philosophy; business approach is coordinated with the HRM actions and policy; and considering the people of the organisation as strategic resources in the accomplishment of competitive strategy. Human resource requires in an organisation will vary at different stages in the business life cycle and so HR policy choices need to be personalized to the appropriate stage (Kochan and Barocci,1985; Lengnick-Hall and Lengnick-Hall, 1988). Sisson (1994) suggests that it was the pursuit of competitive advantage in the.There is a number of different approaches in HRM to aid the development of business strategy. It can be professed as social ethics, reminding the senior management about their social responsibilities.HRM department spent most of time functioning on personal welfare problems. The main concern of HRM is the control of personnel as well as reduces the absent rate of employee, work force budgeting and headcount. In other way of HRM helps to develop the business, likewise, to adapt the company with the change and strives to have positive influences by using social science applications to man agreement problems by via job redesign, job satisfaction scheme and techniques of communication. Sometimes HRM deals with job recruitment, transfer and termination by the request from manager. Moreover, human resource management concerned strategic business planning, developing long-term human resources plan and industrial relation strategy. HR planning and acquisition Organisation design structure Organisations strategy Training development Compensation Management Organisation Performance Management Management of employee relations HR mobility management HR toolbox management Figure: Human Resource Management system The key success of any business organisation is human resource. So HRM use these human resources effectively to meet the strategic business objectives of the organisation. 2. Necessity of alignment between organisations corporate strategy and objectives and its human resource strategy: P-133,134.In perfect world, the business and strategic organisational plan are the translated form of organisational mission and goals. According to the principle of alignment, to achieve corporate goals in every aspects of an organisations activities have to be incorporated and pull together. The performance of the people within the organisation depends on the achievement of strategy and vision which in turn calls for high level of motivation and dedication among employees. The organisational mission, goals and values is reflected by the performance of the employees and their excellent performance relies on the opportunities how much they are getting from the business. P-75.In an organisation different functional area like: marketing, manufacturing and human resource, after formulating corporate and business level strategy managers need to translate strategic precedence into these areas. This contains all the different aspects of business but predominantly have to be comprehensible between the requirements of organisations strategy and HR policy. There are two types of fit that HR policy and practices require to attain: a) Internal alignment b) External alignment Internal Alignment: In internal alignment managers must have to make sure that their HR practices are all associated with one another within the organisations to set up a formation that is reinforced mutually. From organisations point of view the whole variety of HR practices-job design, training, staffing, performance appraisal and compensation must have to be focused on the same personnel objectives. External Alignment: The link between business strategies and key initiatives in human resource are mainly focused by external alignment. 3. The processes required in order to assess the effectiveness of human resource strategy and its impact on overall corporate strategy: Diagram: Typical strategic recruitment process Dynamic Environment Recruitment requisition Position analysis Vision Position description Strategic business plan Human resource strategy Human resource plans and policy Recruitment process Position evaluation Key stakeholders Budget check sourcing Dynamic Environment Pool of applicants Selection process Source: Nankervis A, Compton, R, Braid, M, 2005, Strategic Human Resource Management (6th edition), Cengage, South Melbourne. Recruitment: A major concern is a recruitment and retention of staff; especially where the pool of availability of workforce is limited. However, due to the requirement of high skill personnel, a shortage of prospective recruits exists in an organisation. [Business .s 2.ref].The decision of staffing has been formalised by the HRM department at head office. Organisation [Managing people: fresh perspectives By Bates Bronwynne, p-214] provide work for people in different position to achieve their own goals. Most of the organisations have vacancy at different time around the year and they need to be filled them on time to continue their work effectively. For recruit and select the best person for the vacancy organisations have to follow certain processes. The personnel decision process helps the organisation to make a decision about the person to who is going to appoint. It makes sure that it will be fairly treated with all the individuals who are going to apply for the post. All the candidates are evaluated on the basis of related skills and behaviours. The outputs of every decision affect the working lives of employees, whose requirements must be met. The organisational productivity increasingly depends on these employees because of hiring right person for the job. The human resources decisions based on the following seven steps: 1. Getting job oriented information through job analysis. The process of identifying tasks, duties and responsibilities is job analysis. Once it has been completed, job analysis leads to identify the knowledge, abilities and skills required to do the job that is job description. After that, organisations will continue through job specification. 2. Identify the measures of job success: There is way of measuring job success called criteria and that is measured through organisational psychologist. 3. Identify predictors and measures 4. Determining the relationship between and predictors job success 5. Developing a recruitment strategy 6. Implementing the selection process 7. Determining the worth of selection system An organisation basically follows two strategies for recruiting suitable qualified individuals. These are- Internal recruitment An Organisation first tries to fill an open position internally through current employees inside the organisation by advertising. External recruitment There are wide range of strategies for recruiting people from outside the organisation like-giving advertisement at newspaper by providing information about job requirements, job duties and responsibilities. The other way of recruiting is through internet. It will create problems for them who dont have the access the internet. Large organisations visit campuses of universities of technologies to recruit their candidates is known as campus recruitment. Sometimes organisations employ human resources recruitment agencies and their services are to provide the whole recruitment process. These are not on low-cost. The least costly external recruitment technique is employee referrals technique. This is a technique by which ask to someone in current employees about they have someone who is interested for this open position. The main advantages of external recruitment are that helps to get new ideas and skills into the organisation. Sometimes it does create problems for them because they dont have knowledge about the new environment and culture. Employees need to spend more time on that. Selection: The process of choosing appropriate candidates for the organisation when it has received applications for open jobs is known as selection. This is the final steps of recruitment process. It is the combinations of eight basic steps. Recruiting candidates Carrying out application form Screening test Checking of reference Arrangement of psychological test Arrange interview for selection Medical check up Making an offer to successful candidates There are some additional terms which used by the organisational psychologist during the process of selection. This are-job selection ratio, realistic preview of job and cut-off. Retention: It is very important and ongoing issue. Its a serious problem when an organisation will have to face continuously for the estimated future. An organisation always wants to retain employees in short of supply and they want to have alternatives. Organisations always keep going on developing their own plan to retain employees by conveying responsibility. The main base of retention job description, recruitment, selection and orientation. (Keeping your valuable employees: retention strategies for your organizations most important resource, By Suzanne Dibble, p-27, 31).Mainly retention focus on job satisfaction and fit with the organisational culture and the strategies based on this should focus on maximising three types of satisfaction. These are personal, professional and social. If organisation fails to recruit right person for the right track then organisations has to suffer and employees has to suffer as well. For example; hidden cost incurred by the management to fix that problems. F or that reason organisation has to loss their productivity. From the employees point of view-they have to face problems due to not having proper skills in specified job. They have to spent more time and energy on finding new position. Overall they become frustrated. Communication, recognition and future orientation are the key attributes for successful strategies for retention. There are different types of retention strategies based on organisational situations-strategies based on compensation, strategies based on work environment and strategies based on career orientation(Strategies for managing IS/IT personnel,Magid Igbaria, Conrad Shayo,Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2004 Business HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0 Economics,p-13). Strategy based on compensation: There are some organisation focuses on compensation such as IT firms. Strategies based on work environment: Most of the organisations focus on internal environment of the organisation or the culture of the organisation. Strategies based on career development: some companies focus on retention strategies through career development. Training, Learning and Development: Training plays an important role for the development of all employees which responds to individuals and helps to achieve organisational requirements by improving performance and understanding (Armstrong, 1992).Considering with the strategic direction, how the organisations core competencies of employees can be identified and advantages taken from environmental factors. From the training and development terms, this can implement the classical training cycle and business planning come close to determining training needs (Mayo and Pickard, 1998). [Human resource development: learning training for individuals organizations By John P. Wilson, p-88] Organisation objective Planning Evaluating Delivering Figure: Business objectives within the training life cycle (Winter, 1995). The training strategy is a system that determines the competencies required for the organization in the future and how it can be achieved. Organisations need these training strategies for different perspectives like- -To increase the productivity through expenditure on capital improvements -To increase the productivity through spending on developing human capital (http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Develop-a-Training-Strategyid=1608871; How to Develop a Training Strategy-By Janine Sergay; 18.08; 2.50pm). Different methods of training for people: Generally there are two types of training methods. a) On-site training methods 1) On the job training: In this training method, trainees get training under the direction of someone and encouraging them to gain knowledge and observe more and more from the existing experienced employees. Though its formal training so every employee get some initial knowledge from it. 2) Job rotation: This training method allows people to move in different department of the organisations. Through this job rotation employees develop skills in different section more than they would get from staying in one department. 3) Apprenticeship: Apprenticeship is a particular form on the job training though which a particular level employees used to get information about skilled trade (Goldstein Ford, 2002).For example; different company like:-electrician,plumber,carpenter,pipefitter,sheet metal worker etc. Is used this approach. b) Off-site training methods 1) Classroom lectures: Its one of the common methods of job training. It can provide large number of information at a time and easy to deliver it to the large no of trainees at a time. 2) Instruction in the form written material or forms based on computer. 3) Computer based training (CBT): Its a way training by which trainees can communicate and transfer and get information from instructor through computer, television etc. (Goldstein Ford, 2002).Its distance learning.( Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology By Frank J. Landy, Jeffrey M. Conte,p:331-334) Development of HR: Human Resource is the framework for employees can develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, abilities. Human resource development include; employee training, employee career, development, performance management and development, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, key employee identification. oclock, 23 March, 2010) Understand the organizational needs and future demand as well as future capability, and know what talent it has available to it. And prove, as far possible, a career challenge to individuals that helps them to meet their aspirations. In developing the organization, personal development also important for the organizational improvement, because a individual persons are the set of organizational power mean resources. In bellow there the method of development: Individual Support- Organizational Interest- Dialogue Accreditation Organizational Mapping Performance Management Career-counselling Succession planning Appraisal discussion Career-planning Secondments Career discussion Personal plans Manpower/skills planning Development centres Mentoring Training prioritisation Vacancy management Learning resource centres Retention Strategies Self-managed learning 360 degree feedback Potential assessment Managerial coaching External coaching High-flyer development Flexible working Training facilities getting to grips with the requirements of a job quickly, and by improving the knowledge and skill of worker it allows the employee better quality, and enhance of skill based on the employee could lead to their job enrichment with benefits to both the individual and the organization. Motivational impact of training in a manifest when staff feel a sense of reorganization when sent on training course, and after been trained they are motivated to acquire new skills, particularly when rewards follow the acquisition and use of skills. Identification with organization could be fostered when a better understanding of mission statements and corporate objectives is achieved through training. (Graham, H T, Bennet, R. (1995). Human resource Management (ME Book).Eight Editions. Singapore: PWD Redmond) Strategies for positive employee relation: (Employee relations: how to build strong relationships with your employees By Laurie Dicker, p-2) Employees are the stake holder of the organisation and cant be compared with task, functions, process or products. Emotional support and personal considerations are required for them to understand them. Its very complicated to draw up employees inventory and arrange them in warehouse in a systematic way. Any decisions regarding this will attempt a negative impact on them and may cause a break down in operations. So it is very important for the organisation to identify and value those differences and always give importance on the achieving positive and fruitful employee relations. The main concern of employee relations strategy: -How to minimise the conflict by maintaining employee relations through building stable and cooperative relationships. -How to achieve employee commitment though involvement of employee involvement and communication processes. -How to develop interest in employees towards the achievement of organisational goals. Strategic direction. ( Strategic human resource management: a guide to action By Michael Armstrong) The approaches of human resource management towards employee relations: -To drive them for commitment: To get all the employees with the organisations by winning their heart and minds and make sure a fruitful return on training and development. -A emphasizing on mutuality: getting the letter across that we are all together in this. -A shifting of collective bargaining in the organisation to individual. -By using of employee involvement techniques. -Through applying total quality management (TQM) -To use human resources more effectively sometimes increase flexibility in working environment, including multi skilling -By giving more importance on team work (Human Resource Management- By Derek Torrington, Laura Hall, Stephen Taylor,p-453)Once organisation has established it is very difficult to change the organisations culture, this means to change the employee relationships culture is also difficult. The organisation will become more successful when senior management think employee relationship strategically in employee perception rather than rival organisations. It can be achieved simply by aiming to recruit and retain more effectively and by developing employee relationship strategies to increase the overall satisfaction of employees though chances (like feeling interest in job, job security, positive completion, and influence them performance) and decrease the dissatisfaction. Performance management: Performance in an organisation cannot be defined but it can be measured. Its measurement of muti-dimentional construct depending on variety of factors (Bates and Holton, 1995). Bernadin el al (1995) concerned that Outcomes of work should be defined as performance because it creates a strong linkage with organisational goals, customer satisfactions and economic contributions. It is about managing of the organisation in the perspective of internal and external environment. There are different stages of performance management showed in figure 2.1: High performance Improved performance Low performance Start year Agreement of performance During year Monitoring and review against agreement End year Review of main performance Figure 2.1: Different stages of performance management Performance management involves continuous review of performance against organisational objectives, requirements and plans and the performance agreement, enhancement by implementation and developments line-up for the next. Business strategy, employee development and total quality management (TQM) are main processes in the business that should be linked with the performance management for achieving business performance (Hartle, 1995). Basically the force for vertical and horizontal integration is performance management. Vertical integration: Vertically It can be achieved in two ways. Firstly, it facilitates the coalition of strategies and plans of the business with individuals and teams. There targeted aims are those that support the success of corporate goals.secondly, the organisational core values and capabilities should take place through vertical integration as well as values adopted and the level of potential achieved by individuals. Horizontal integration: It is the association of performance management and human resource strategies that deals with valuing, paying, relating and developing people. Organisations effectiveness can be increased through the impact of performance management. The effectiveness of the organisations can be improved by adopting with various processes of managing, motivating and developing people through successful integration with performance management (Performance management: key strategies and practical guidelines Michael Armstrong Kogan Page Publishers, 2000 259 pages, P-2-10). It shows in figure 1.3: Figure 1.3: Performance management as a central point for integrated HR activities Reward: Reward management: a handbook of remuneration strategy and practice Michael ArmstrongHelen MurlisHay Group Kogan Page Publishers, 2007 Business HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0 Economics 722 pages The main purpose of reward is to increase job performance, productivity, meet the customer expectation and to hold recognition. In other way- -To achieve the goal -To accomplish the task on time -To take out boring from work place -To promote the employee to work -To meet the higher and lower order needs Strategies for reward: All employees are in the reward strategy for example: line managers, stake holders. All the employees work hard with skills and effort in return they get salary and other performance bonus from employers. Its also good relationships developed between employees and employers through good working environment and excellent communication. In broader sense strategic aims include: -To introduce a more incorporated approach to reward management and encouraging the employees through continuous personal development. -To develop flexible approach. -To reward people according to employees contribution. -To make a clear specification about what behaviour will be rewarded and why. Reward management: a handbook of remuneration strategy and practice Michael Armstrong, Helen Murlis, Hay Group Kogan Page Publishers, 2007 Business HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0 Economics 722 pages; p-35, 39 According to Contingency theory applied to reward: -Different reward strategies are required for organisational diversity and cultures. -Different reward strategies and its usefulness vary according the organisations policies and practices. Business strategies may take forward the business strategy inside the organisation. The interrelationship between the employees and managers will influence the strategies at different levels in the organisations. -performance related pay should depends on the way motivation of employees Employee reward Michael Armstrong; CIPD Publishing, 2002 Business HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0 Economics 528 pages; p-91, 94, 95 Initiatives for specific rewards: It depends on the examination of present circumstances in the organisation and need of evaluation of the business and its employees. Examples of some possible initiatives: 1) The establishment of contribution pay scheme through replacing of present methods of contingent pay 2) The initialisation of new grades and pay structure 3) The substitution job evaluation scheme with more clarified scheme that shows values and needs of the organisation. 4) The improvement of flexible benefit system 5) The arrangement of announcement and training programmes to tell all the employees about the reward policies and practices. Development of Reward strategy: Development of strategy: In todays organisation is facing fast changing economic environment, technological advancement and globalisation. Organisations have to cope up with these changes. The close fit between business strategy and HR strategy actually help to reach their desired target. Aligning human resources and business strategy Linda Holbeche Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009 Business HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0HYPERLINK http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbs=bks:1,bkv:atbo=pq=+subject:Business++Economicssource=gbs_ge_summary_rcad=0 Economics 498 pages From the business point of view, it has to take account on trend such as concentration on core business, market segments, get maximum values from reward system, and give more importance on flexibility. They have to change the old system with the best practices to meet these requirements. The design of reward system must need to be fair and need to operate consistently to recognize individuals needs. There are many steps for developing strategies: Determine the main issues for business strategy that affects the reward and policy To find out crucial success factors for the business and need to think implications for human resource and reward strategies. Need to keep in eye on old reward strategies and identify any change require for that to adapt that with new changes of the organisations. To identify the implications for HR plans to establish future needs. Discuss with the consultant about how to develop reward strategies Consider external factors like policies of government, income tax regulations, peoples pay and pressure from local or international.

A Reflection Upon My Writing Essay -- Reflection Essay

â€Å"As a student, I write for multiple purposes. Purpose is the key for how my thoughts are dictated on this blank white sheet.† After writing this in my in-class journal discussing my transition from five-paragraph writing to actual formation of thoughts without a specific format, I realized that this process was a larger undertaking than I originally thought. Through endless amounts of essay writing the personal academic improvements that have taken place this quarter are indescribable in comparison to any other academic feat made in my brief but fulfilling college career. As a writer, I realized coming into college that my writing was not necessarily bad by any means, but instead extremely uninteresting. After leaving the public secondary education system, I though that I had a strong foundation in writing, which I did, but it did not hit me until my first week of my writing class that I was a â€Å"formulaic† writer. I would follow the typical five paragraph essay format that I had been given since eighth grade and wring it out until it was dry. After getting every last drop of the benefits of a typical five paragraph essay, I panicked after stepping into college and thought that my writing process would only have to change by suspending my thoughts over time and sentences, allowing single thoughts to melt onto the page line after line. For some reason, I thought that I could distract my professors from my weakness, but this ploy eventually ruined me, and if anything, this suspension of my thought did nothing but accentuate my faults. As a serious academic, admitting defeat was hard, but I needed to bite the bullet and ask for assistance. After coming into my writing class and attending my first peer editing workshop, I felt li... ... about a reflection of a moment of our lives? The redundant nature of the writing began to get to me. You would think that the same prompt of â€Å"reflection† would make me care less about the assignments, but instead I would worry more about keeping my writing fresh and exciting. If anything, I felt like my writing was part of the film Inception. Instead of a dream, within a dream, within a dream, I had an essay, about an essay, within an essay. Through the duration of this writing course and the work put in academically, I feel the growth illuminating the keystrokes as I type this essay. I feel as though I am able to tackle more complex prompts and allow myself to stay much more open minded through the academic writing process. As I learn more styles of writing and continue to gain experience as an author and an academic, the process will only be that much easier.

The Economic Systems Essay -- Economics Economy Essays

The Economic Systems Within the overall umbrella of the word "economy", one speaks today of the market economy, the formal economy, the informal economy, the underground economy, the productive economy and perhaps even the reproductive economy, the post-industrial or post-modern economy and the global economy. Thus while the concept of an economy is not fixed but arbitrary, and may have strayed rather far from the management of household resources, it is nonetheless spoken of in official circles as if there were genuine agreement (sometimes almost as if it were tangible, as "we must get the economy back on track"). The official economic paradigm operative in Canada is that of the market economy -- or the formal economy. This is what is being measured, analysed and reported on. An economy is said to work within a framework reflecting the values of the society in which it is embedded. Traditionally, three models of an economy have been used: the traditional or feudal, the command economy (where the state determines resource decisions) and the market economy which is the model in use in USA and in most industrialized Western countries. Indeed, even within the market economy, there are different models; for example, the Scandinavian model of social democracy, the Asian corporatist mode, and the capitalist model of North America. Each model has been seen and judged both from inside and outside its parameters. Individual freedom is one of the hallmarks of the market economy -- each person is free to choose how they wish to put their income to use. Adam Smith, hailed as the founder of classical economics, suggested that the sum of individual's self-interest would produce results that corresponded to the overall good of society. The Economic systems: There are three types of economies: traditional (also known as subsistence), command (also known as planned) and market (commercial). Traditional Economy In a traditional economy, goods and services are produced by a family for their personal consumption. There is little surplus and little exchange of goods. There is only a limited need for markets (places to buy and sell goods and services). This is the type of economy found in less developed nations of the world, usually in rural areas. Most less developed nations today are a mix of traditional and either market or command economies. Command Econ... ...ts worship of competition it is amoral. On the other hand, the Soviet experience clearly demonstrated that state socialism and a centralized economy can be mishandled. Perhaps it is human nature, not political organization that lies at the root of inequality in both North America and Eastern Europe. Bibliography  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Aghion, Philippe and Olivier Blanchard and Robin Burgess, The Behavior of State Firms in Eastern Europe, Pre-Privatization  ¨European Economic Review 38: 1994, pp1327-1349.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Belozertsev, Alexander and Jerry W Markham, Commodity Exchanges and the Privatization of the Agricultural Sector in the Commonwealth of Independent States Needed Steps in Creating a Market Economy  ¨Law and Contemporary Problems 55: (4), Aut 1992, pp119-155  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cunningham, Frank Understanding Marxism Progress Books Toronto: 1977.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dyker, David Restructuring the Soviet Economy Routledge New York: 1992  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nove, Alec An Economic History of the USSR, 1917-1991 3rd Ed Penguin Books, London: 1992  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lane, David Soviet Society under Perestroike Routledge London: 1992  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yarolavsky, E Landmarks in the Life of Stalin Lawrence & Wishart Ltd London: 1942