Wednesday, July 31, 2019

A Comparison of Nurses Essay

A Comparison of Nurses Educated at the Associate-Degree Level versus the Baccalaureate-Degree Level A career in nursing has many possibilities and depending on where one is employed there may be different educational requirements. There are many nurses in the workforce with only their associate’s degree in nursing, but as time passes it seems that the baccalaureate degree is becoming more of an expectation. This brings up the question- is there a difference in the competency of the associate-level nurse from the baccalaureate-level nurse? Studies are showing that there is a difference and patient outcomes are affected by this difference. Differences between the Associate Degree in Nursing and the Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing In order to compare the competencies between nurses prepared at the associate-degree level versus the baccalaureate-degree level, one must first compare the requirements to obtain these degrees. The Associate’s Degree in Nursing, abbreviated ADN, is a two-year degree usually earned through a community college. It requires 60 credit hours to complete and upon completion the graduate can apply for licensure through the state in which they will practice. The Bachelors of Science in Nursing, also called BSN, is a four-year degree obtained at a university. It includes the same areas of study and has the same license upon completion of the NCLEX as the ADN nurse, but delves further into nursing theory as well as pathophysiology and technical skills. Many employers require the bachelor’s degree for higher positions in nursing such as clinical managers and nurse specialists. Differences in competencies between nurses prepared at the associate-degree level versus the baccalaureate-degree level As explained above the bachelor’s degree in nursing requires two more years of education and a much deeper study of nursing theory and pathophysiology than the associate’s degree. The question is does this extra education and focus on nursing theory make a BSN nurse more competent than an ADN nurse. Research suggests there is a significant effect of nurse experience and a significant effect of the percentage of BSN nurses in each hospital (Kendall-Gallagher, Aiken, Sloane &Cimiotti, 2011) in regards to better patient outcomes. To understand the difference one must look at the basic nursing process and how knowledge of nursing theory and pathophysiology affects it. The basic process taught in nursing school in providing patient care is assessment, plan, intervention and evaluation. Assessment is one the first things a nursing student learns. The associate-level and bachelor-level nurse will both have learned this skill in the very first days of nursing school. Both nurses will also be competent with the last step, evaluation of the interventions. The advantage a BSN nurse will have lies in the middle two steps- plan and intervention. The plan and interventions a nurse provides is affected by their decision-making skills and this is based on their education. Plan and Intervention. To determine a patient’s plan of care, one looks at the abnormal assessments and then uses their knowledge of pathophysiology to determine the plan of care. While the BSN nurse will not necessarily have more clinical hours in assessing the patient, they will have taken more classes in pathophysiology than the ADN nurse and therefore may notice a disease process more readily than the ADN nurse. This is where the interventions will occur. Interventions are determined by the nurse based on their decision-making skills. Decision-Making Skills Nursing is a field in which one is given a great amount of autonomy. Therefore much of a patient’s care is affected by a nurse’s decision-making skills. One’s ability to make decisions is affected by many things including past experiences, environment and education. The focus here is education and how the additional study for the BSN affects nurses’ decision-making skills. The BSN nurse will have studied pathophysiology and nursing theory in greater depth than the ADN nurse. This extra knowledge is then applied to the decisions a nurse makes for their patient. These decisions have a great impact on patient outcomes and recent studies have indicated that there is decreased morbidity, mortality, and failure-to-rescue rates in hospitals that employ larger percentages of baccalaureate prepared nurses (Altman, 2011). Effect of baccalaureate-degree level nurses on patient outcomes In the acute situation the BSN nurse can use their knowledge of pathophysiology in addition to their decision-making skills to decrease morbidity and mortality. Taking into account the greater picture, a more holistic approach based on the BSN nurse’s familiarity with nursing theory, will improve patient outcomes. For example let’s look at a hospital admission for a congestive heart failure exacerbation. Both the ADN and BSN nurse will assess the patient and notice classic signs like shortness of breath and edema. Both nurses will plan on diuresis and paying close attention to respiratory status. The difference will come with the holistic approach that a BSN nurse is more likely to take. The emphasis on the nursing theories that a BSN nurse has studied will allow them to look at the patient as a whole, rather than dealing with only stabilization of symptoms. The knowledge of nursing theory the BSN nurse has will allow them to delve further into why this patient admitted and what they can do to prevent a readmission. The BSN nurse asks questions as to what caused the exacerbation. It may be that the patient needs more teaching on diet and medication compliance. They will ask the patient about their home situation. It’s possible the patient is having financial burdens that have kept them from filling their prescriptions. The BSN nurse is more likely to look at the home situation. The patient may have depression with the diagnosis and need some resources for social support. In regards to King’s theory, nursing’s central goal is to help individuals maintain their health so that they can function in their roles (Creasia, 180). By helping the patient function in their role, the nurse empowers the patient to lead a healthier life. The patient is sent home educated with the resources needed to lead a healthy life and therefore reduces unnecessary hospital admissions. This in turn allows the space available for hospital admissions that are necessary and leads to a healthier community. REFERENCES Altmann, Tanya K. (2011). Registered nurses returning to school for a  bachelors degree in nursing: Issues emerging from a meta-analysis of the research. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 39, (2): 256-72. Creasia, J; Friberg, E. (2011). Conceptual Foundations: The Bridge to Professional Nursing Practice. (5th Edition). St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby, Inc. , an affiliate of Elsevier Inc. Kendall-Gallagher, Deborah; Aiken, Linda H. ; Sloane, Douglas M. ; Cimiotti, Jeannie P. (2011). Nurse Specialty Certification, Inpatient Mortality, and Failure to Rescue. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 43, 188-94.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Theories of Crime Causation

American Intercontinental University Unit 1 Individual Project CRJS 105 – Theories of Crime Causation November 11th, 2010 Abstract The following will examine the differences between criminalists, criminologists and forensic psychologists. It will then transition into how what exactly is a white collar crime and a blue collar crime. Lastly the paper will discuss the differences between index-one and index-two crimes as defined by the UCR. Media Portrayal of Crime Introduction With the prevalence of crime being portrayed in the media world, it can be difficult for the modern American to decipher all the aspects of crime. Criminology, the study of crime and its causes, is a excellent way to find out just what makes a criminals mind tick. Although it may be hard to know just what makes a person commit a crime, having a better understanding of the base of criminal justice aspects may be of assistance. Criminologists, Criminalists, and Forensic Psychologists With a plethora of jobs out there relating to the field of criminal justice, it may become overwhelming to try and decide who does what and how they do it. To have a better understanding of such fields one must know exactly what each field does separately from the other. A criminologist uses sociological theories and methods to study criminal behavior and how societies respond to crime (Hall, 2010). This means the criminologist seeks to find out the mentality behind a crime and how that thinking affects the society as a whole. By creating theories as to why of how this crime was committed the criminologist can form a wide array of possible answers for the crime. A criminologist would most likely be in an office but regularly would attend a crime scene to interview witnesses and others to gather sociological data about the crime. A criminalist examines physical evidence using investigative skills and practical experience. A criminalist is forced to look at nothing but the physical evidence of a crime without prejudice of the person or persons involved. This type of crime evaluation allows for an individual to make findings based on what is physically presented before them. In way you can say that evidence doesn’t lie so the criminalist should not be able to either as they are required to follow the evidence. A criminalist would be most commonly found at the site of the crime collecting physical evidence related to the crime. After the collection a criminalist would be typically found at a crime laboratory, analyzing the collected evidence. Forensic Psychology is the application of the science and profession of psychology to questions and issues relating to law and the legal system (abfp. com, 2010). This side of the criminal justice world refers to strictly the legal side of a crime. In this profession and individual would focus primarily on the criminal/person/persons on trial, as well as any other individual as it related to the case and would be required to provide an expert opinion on topics such as sanity, and competency. The psychologist enters the mind of the individual through a series of interviews and allows a better understanding of the person beneath what we see on the surface. Criminologists are typically found at interviews and trials related to the crime. This would typically be at the police station of in a courtroom. Misconceptions of such fields With constant development of new television shows relating to police work, as well as media portrayal of the criminal justice field, there can often be misconceptions placed upon these fields of work. A common misconception related to the field of criminology (criminologist) is that they live a life of danger and unpredictability. While the criminal mind can be unpredictable criminologists often stay low key and behind the scenes as they are analyzing the criminal mind and would not want to compromise that by running around in the field. In the life of a criminalist, the most common misconception has been brought on by the onslaught of television shows such as CSI and all its spin offs. The typical criminalist doesn’t run around shooting at bad guys in the newest designer jeans, or analyzing evidence in seconds. A criminalist is usually in a decontaminated suit and gloves doing nothing but collecting evidence. They are not there to fight crime nor solve it, they are there specifically for evidence collection (Criminalist, 2009). And as for the seconds long analysis, it’s more like weeks for a result to be returned, sorry to burst your bubble! Finally, a forensic psychologist may look like a cool job on the television show Profiler, but in actuality, there is much more to it than what is portrayed. While criminal profiling is one aspect of this field, there are many more unseen. They work in a wide variety of settings connected to law, depending on their prominence in forensic psychology. Clinical psychologists in the forensic field, for example, may work in a mental health center, a hospital, a prison, or a private agency. Developmental psychologists are found in both medical and academic settings, as well as give consults in court in regards to the behavior or testimony of children. So as you can see the media skews our view of what these individuals actually do and are responsible for. White Collar Crime vs. Blue Collar Crime When you first hear the terms white collar crime and blue collar crime, you may think, â€Å"People who commit crime are classified by the color of their collars? † On the contrary that is not the case. The terms White Collar and Blue Collar refer to the class of society in which a crime is committed. Blue collar crime typically refers to such crimes that are most likely committed by individuals in a lower class of society. Crimes of this nature are typically unplanned, spontaneous and sometimes involve direct harm to a person or property of others. An example of a blue collar crime would be an armed robbery of a bank of store by a person who is desperate. On the contrary, white collar crime is usually found among a higher class in society and consists of corporate, state and high tech crimes (Mojolaw. com, 2010). A good example of white collar crimes would be things such as Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and the Enron debacle. White collar crimes are most often planned and well thought out as they take a lot of attention to commit. Often the person/persons involved have a lot of money to provide a defense for themselves if caught. For this student, who watches media quite regularly it is hard to make a determination as to which type of crime is more prevalent. You constantly hear of more and more people desperate for money in these hard times so, blue collar crimes are being committed more. But it can also be argued that the white collar side is hurting to so there are more stories of fraud and schemes taking place. This student would have to say though, blue collar crime tends to be more focused on because it usually involves a form of violence which the media seems to gravitate towards. Index-One vs. Index-Two Crime As defined by the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook of 2004, Index-One crimes are considered to be the most heinous. The crimes include but are not limited to, Criminal Homicide, Forcible Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault. It can be assumed that all serious felonies will fall under an index-one crime. Index-Two crimes are all other crimes that do not constitute a classification in Index-One. These crimes consist of less serious offenses such as fraud, vandalism, disorderly conduct, and DUI. These would be all arrestable offenses that are reported to the FBI’s statistics center. These crime indexes have no fine line, as there is a huge difference between the two. Index one crimes often involve physical harm to an individual whereas index two crimes are typically considered petty. When making a judgment as to which crimes that fall under Index one are violent or not, that can be left up to ones interpretation of violence. You have to consider each situation differently because, although motor vehicle theft in of itself is not violent, if aggravated assault occurs than that theft becomes violent. This student would have to conclude that in most cases all crimes listed under Index one offenses, they would be considered violent. Conclusion The media will continue to skew the aspects of crime, and that has been happening for years. It is up to the public to want to obtain the truth about what a specific job or career actually entails. If a person lives their life believing everything they hear from someone else, then they are simply uninformed of the truth. Crime will always be a hot topic throughout society, so society must become educated in all facets of the criminal world (without committing crime itself). References The Differences Between Criminology and Forensic Science (2010). Hall, Shane. Retrieved on 11-Nov-2010 from http://www. ehow. com/list_6109148_differences-criminology-_amp_-forensic-science. html Criminalist. Criminal Justice USA (2009). Retrieved on 10-Nov-2010 from http://www. criminaljusticeusa. com/criminalist. html ABFP Brochure. Forensic Psychology. (2010). American Board of Forensic Psychology. Retrieved on 11-Nov-2010 from http://www. abfp. com/brochure. asp Forensic Psychology – Myths and Truths. (2010). All Star Directories, Inc.. Retrieved on 09-Nov-2010 from http://www. allpsychologyschools. com/psychology-careers/community/forensic-psychology-myths Mojo Law. (2010). Blue Collar and White Collar Crime, Mojolaw. com. Retrieved on 13-Nov-2010 from http://www. mojolaw. com/info/cl020 Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook. (2004). Federal Bureau of Investigations. , Retrieved on 09-Nov-2010 from http://www. fbi. gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/ucr_handbook. pdf

Monday, July 29, 2019

Human Resources Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human Resources Questions - Essay Example Instead of a bell curve, individual performance takes on a â€Å"power-law† – also known as the Paretian distribution wherein there are only few of the best performers can carry out most of the production output and business success (Aguinis; Miller). According to O'Boyle and Aguinis, individual performance should follow a ski jump-shaped Paretian distribution. Since only few employees are responsible for the success of the business, O'Boyle and Aguinis strongly suggest the idea that the modern HR managers should take time to re-evaluate the old strategy used in measuring employee performance (Miller; O'Boyle and Aguinis). In most cases, this can be done by carefully identifying responsible people and compensate them well for their outstanding work performances. A power-law or Paretian distribution is characterized by an â€Å"unstable mean, infinite variance, and a greater number of extreme events† (West and Deering). ... Given that a business organization is very much oriented with regards to each employee’s production output, the company should consider the importance of implementing a pay-for-performance system (McPhie and Sapin). In line with this, the HR manager should be able to tailor its pay-for-performance system based on the company’s desired level of individual work performances. For example, the individual work performance of employee A is represented by â€Å"point A†, therefore, her pay level should be at â€Å"pay A†. Assuming that most employees’ individual work performance is at â€Å"point B†, then, their individual pay level should be at â€Å"pay B†. In case an employee’s individual work performance is at â€Å"point C†, then, her individual pay level should be at â€Å"pay C†, and so on. 2. After a lot of thinking, you decide to take a risk. You quit your job in human resources management after gaining experienc e in life and career planning. You open up your own advisory and coaching practice. Your very first client, Rashid, is a 35 year old engineer who has worked for a construction firm since graduating from college but has discovered, â€Å"I really hate being an engineer now but I am not sure what I want to do. And I know I want more than a job†¦I want a calling and something that really interests me yet I don’t want to waste my skills.†What assessment instruments do you recommend for your very first client, Rashid? Be sure to fully explain why you selected the recommended instruments. The case of Rashid is a good example of a person who does not know what he wants in life. To be able to suggest the type of job suitable for Rashid, the HR manager should be able to assess

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Employee Compensation and Benefits Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employee Compensation and Benefits - Assignment Example In this case, subordinates like a secretary earns within the lower range. The wages will be paid every Sunday of every week and the amount of wages per worker will be reviewed annually based on the prevailing inflation rates of the country, performance measures and amount of profits earned in the company (Trani, 2003). Bonus payments will be paid to employees who perform exceptionally. The secretary will therefore earn a bonus if customers provide a positive feedback about her. Performance management system of the company will appraise the performance of the secretary annually and provide bonuses based on the performance rankings and ratings. The bonus will be provided in cash basis determined as a percentage of salary. The bonus is paid based on appraisal of the employee’s performance in terms of the speed of performing tasks, level of organisation during employee training, and how the secretary treats applicants when they come for interview. The employee benefits of the secretary will include healthcare benefits, disability insurance and retirement benefits, and will be paid to the secretary just like any other employee of the organization. 2.5 percent of secretary’s weekly wages will be deducted to cover for monthly premium of the employee’s healthcare and the remaining amount of monthly premium is paid by the business to cover for the secretary’s healthcare benefits (Goldman et al, 2005). If the secretary is not able to work on a short term basis due to disability, the business provides 50% of income (pre-disability wages) as part of her benefits package. This is based on the requirement of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ fixed percentage earnings which requires 50%-70% of employee’s predetermined salary to be paid as disability insurance (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). This will be paid every

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Dangers of texting and driving Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dangers of texting and driving - Essay Example The basis for the risk in texting while driving is distraction of drivers’ attention from focusing on the road. The few seconds when a driver types some text on their phone is equal to driving for the exact number of seconds while blindfolded. There are real dangers involved in this with loss of human life being the ultimate risk. This act is unacceptable by its very nature of posing a risk human life. Klauer et al, conducted a study on the risks of a crash or near crash for both novice and experienced drivers when their attention is distracted yielded a positive relationship between number of distractions from secondary tasks while driving and risk of crash or near-crash. It was established that the risk increased at a significant rate among novice drivers than among experienced drivers. The secondary task distractions considered included picking a mobile phone, replying to a text or email and reading the same. However, the research did not include browsing the internet while driving (Klauer, et al., 2014). This gives a clear indication that texting while driving poses a real danger of an accident or a near- accident regardless of a driver’s competence. This act not only poses danger to the driver but also the pedestrians walking by the roadside (Rumschlag, et al., 2015). Consequences of this act reverberate across several areas of the society which include medical servic es sector, motor vehicle insurance sector as well as the country’s labor force.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Impacts of Outdoor Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Impacts of Outdoor Learning - Essay Example Most educators in the field of education mostly prefer experimental learning over other learning methods, like the lecture method which they claim to be more of teacher centred than student centred. Studies indicate that lessons that are designed to meet the demands of the learners, especially through discovery are more inclined to yield more results than lessons that are more concerned with the tutors (Martin, 2006). Marg (2008) indicates that outdoor learning is that which is organized to fit the learners in the outdoor, with the environment manipulated to fit the needs of the learners. The main learning resource, in this case, is the environment, that allows for learning via action as well as reflection of concepts being taught in the classroom. Reflection, in this case, takes place through use of role play, learner games and narratives amongst others. Through these learning tools, the educators are able to learners tend to change their way of thinking on the manner in which they view the concepts being taught. Of more weight, is the argument by Geoff (2008) who indicates that the kind of knowledge that was confined in the classroom is no longer applicable in contemporary learning environment. Teachers must come up with systems that allow the learners be active in the learning environment, an aspect that allows them interact one on one with the real life environment. If the teachers assume the role of ‘preachers’ in the classroom, chances are that the learners will result to rote learners who will assume education as a part time. Teachers must the source of experience givers, and make the learning environment as constructive as possible. 2.0. Body 2.1. Literature review According to Bilton (2010), outdoor learning is a channel in which the educator opens innovative opportunities for learners to grasp the concepts being taught in the classroom. Experimental learning is a practical method of teaching and learning that allows the learners venture i nto milieus that they had not been conversant with prior to subjection to the concept being taught in the learning environment. Through outdoor learning, the monotony of the classroom environment and the normal lectures and group discussions are evaded by the learners. Of essence, the learners are given the opportunity to ankle new discoveries in the environment that are relation to the concepts being educated in schools. As much as some critics’ dispute that outdoor learning may give minimal results during learning, the direct point of discussion is that a difference is noted, regardless of how tiny it may sound. This leads to the definition of the learning process, which indicates any form of change that is experienced in the learners after imposition of any form of instruction (Bunting, 2006). In this case, therefore, it would be justified to make the assumption that no matter how minute, outdoor learning has created a lot of changes in the learners. Additionally, research conducted by Sampson & Adelsberger (2008) indicates that outdoor learning has made exceptional changes in the field of education. With time, learners have been seen to develop a positive attitude towards discovery of concepts on their own, which has produced tremendous outcomes on the performance of the learners, a concept which Weaver& Bodzin (2010) refer to as active students. It is evident that

Macroeconomic Theory ECON302 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macroeconomic Theory ECON302 - Essay Example The effects of government intervention, primarily in the form of fiscal policy, works towards stabilizing the business cycle, through government spending (G) or flat rate tax (t). This helps to avert the effect of either recession or inflation. According to The Keynesian Income Model, the effect of government spending (G), is to stimulate economic activities through increasing the money available in circulation, which enhances the purchase of goods offered by businesses and thus uplifts the business cycle from recession back to boom (Salant, 69). On the other hand, the effect of a flat rate tax (t) is to reduce the rate of inflation, through the government reducing the money that is in circulation. This serves to reduce the prices charged for goods, since there is not much money circulating in the economy. The marginal propensity to import (f) is yet another factor that can play a role in correcting the imbalance on the business cycle. While there is much income within an income, an increased marginal propensity to import takes away income from the domestic economy to a different country, thus reducing the income. Alternatively, where there is low monetary circulation within an economy, a reduced propensity to import will serve to reduce e the money moved out of the economy, and thus increases the money circulating domestically (Carbaugh, 204). Question 2 The concept of short analysis refers to the economic aspect of analyzing the likely outcome of the production decisions by a firm in the near future, with the intention of explaining the likely future firm supply and its implications (Salant, 63). This analysis is pitched fundamentally on the law of diminishing marginal returns, where a firm experiences a decrease in marginal returns, on the event that variable inputs are added in larger amounts to a fixed variable (Carbaugh, 144). In this case, a short run analysis can take the form of assessing the impact of adding large amounts of variable inputs such as la bor, which can be added to a fixed variable such as capital. The effect is that the productivity of that firm will continue increasing as the quantity of labor is increased, until after a certain level of productivity, when any additional unit of labor to the fixed capital will result to corresponding reduced production units (Carbaugh, 236). The effect of expansionary fiscal and monetary policy is to increase the money that is circulating in the economy. Thus, the Impact of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policy in the SR under a closed economy is to lower the interest rates, increase the money supply and thus increase the quantity of goods and services demanded at a given price (Salant, 79). Question 3: The relationship between Balance of payments (BOP) and the foreign exchange markets There exists a relationship between the Balance of payments (BOP) and the foreign exchange markets in that; it is the foreign exchange rates that affect the prices at which a country trades its commodities (Carbaugh, 491). The Balance of payments accounts for the transactions that are made between a country and the rest of the world. The exports that a country makes to the rest of the world form the credit of the BOP, since they increase the mone

Thursday, July 25, 2019

The Dismantling of White Supremacy in the United States Essay - 1

The Dismantling of White Supremacy in the United States - Essay Example The awakening of the African-American community enhanced in the 1930s due to the economic crisis of 1929, which gave the opportunity for blacks to join whites inviting social reforms. During the 1930s, the NAACP organized a fierce legal battle against discrimination including segregation in public education. The Second World War was the occasion of major changes in the national and racial politics as whites were made ​​more aware of the danger of racist ideas. At the beginning of the war, the threat of a march in Washington by blacks, forced President Roosevelt to issue an executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industries and government. The first step was taken against segregation in the northern states after the Second World War (considering the war effort of African Americans in the military).Racial segregation was fought by peace and non- peace activists for the civil rights of African Americans from the end of the Second World War until the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The initiation was done by a lady named â€Å"Rosa Parks†. She became famous when on 1 December 1955, in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to obey bus driver who asked her to leave her seat to a white and go sit in the back of the bus. She was arrested by the police, convicted but appealed the judgment (this is the famous case of the bus). She just gave a decisive impetus to the civil rights movement that will reveal a new leader. Martin Luther, while unknown, was launching a campaign of protest and boycott against the bus company would last more than one year. Federal courts finally declared segregation in transport as illegal: this victory was gained through non-violence activism and support of white liberals. Martin Luther King was one of the greatest orators and politicians and became the spokesman of the African-American community in the U.S. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, United

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Marketing Plan -marketing stratgy-target customer Essay

Marketing Plan -marketing stratgy-target customer - Essay Example The first step is conducting a market research for the smart home control system (Brethauer, 9). It is important to know who is using the product, who will be interested in the product, as well as the actual people who will purchase the product, and to whom the control systems will benefit. Likewise, an adjustment should be done based on the market results. Moreover, an investigation should be conducted on the competitors of the smart home control systems. It is necessary to evaluate how the new product differs as compared to the competitors’ products. Furthermore, test the new product with focus groups to determine their feedback to the promotions. The use of other marketing platforms to advertise the control system is vital. For example, the use of online promotions on social media like Facebook and twitter, using television spots, the use of out of home advertising is also necessary. The use of website is the most efficient way of advertising because the word today depends on technology. Most people use the internet, a visitor may land into the smart home website, and they will be able to learn more about the new product. It is also necessary to create a public relation program where the press is allowed to review the product, then writing articles to send to the public media, providing interviews to the smart homeowners and allowing them to provide detailed information about the new product. It is also important to hold a launch event. During the launch event, many opportunities are available to present the product to target market. This will bring about brand awareness and people may be interested to purchase the product. Additionally, to evaluate the readiness of the launch to ensure that the timing is coordinated and the product is readily available after its announcement. Also, the smart home control owners should create a marketing plan tracker that will aid in doing regular follow-ups to ensure that all involved persons is informed on the

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster - Essay Example The disastrous meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant after the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 frightened numerous people, not only in Japan, but also around the world. The roughly four-decade-old reactors needed electric pumps for reserve energy to expel water to activate the fuel rods in an emergency. Unfortunately, these mechanisms failed during the massive earthquake and tsunami (Cahill 48). The technologically advanced nuclear plants hoard water in the reactor containment basin, in an emergency that water would pour without outside power onto the worked up mechanism to cool it up for several days. They can also spontaneously expel water with heated air. Fukushima nuclear power plant was plagued with operator, mechanical, and construction errors. Several months prior to the earthquake, personnel on one of the six reactors erroneously performed procedures for the wrong reactor. A line regulating the cooling mechanism was taken out mistakenly, an error that was only found out weeks after (Noggerath, Geller, & Gusiakov 39). The tsunami aggravated the situation when electric power stopped working at four reactors. Heat accumulated in the reactors and in basins designed to prevent the overheating of worked up fuel rods. A few weeks after, power had not been brought back to the cooling mechanisms and to the hubs of the two reactors. The plant operators at last revealed in May that there had been a reactor breakdown (Noggerath et al. 39). The Fukushima Dai-ichi was made up of six units, with each of them having its own nuclear reactor. These units were built from 1967 to 1979 and were administered by the Tokyo Power and Electric Company (TEPCO). During the earthquake the three units were running and the remaining three were not functioning and under regular maintenance (Samuels 13). After the earthquake struck the three running units were stopped, in accordance to mandated protocols. Emergency generators were turned on to get rid of the spent heat from the reactors. But the 14-meter tsunami worsened the situation because the power plants were built to resist or hold out only a 6.5-meter tsunami (Perrow 2011, 46). The tsunami brought about extensive flooding in the whole expanse of Fukushima and also impaired the generators that run the emergency cooling mechanisms of the nuclear power plants. The available emergency cooling system was run by batteries, which expired after several hours. Lacking sufficient cooling, the water trapped inside the reactors created more heat, which consequently caused the reactors to overheat. This prompted the opening of the relief valves which then released the radioactive steam. A basic rule of nuclear power plant construction is ‘defense in depth’ (Cooper 10). This rule pushes engineers to build a plant that can survive extreme calamities, even as some mechanisms stopped working. A massive tsunami that incapacitates the diesel generators simultaneously is an example, but the 2 011 tsunami was too severe, even unimaginable. To endure such a catastrophe, engineers constructed a backup resistance by placing the entire system into a containment unit that is constructed to protect the system. As soon as the diesel generators stopped working after the tsunami, the operators shifted to emergency battery power. But the batteries only lasted for roughly eight hours (Cooper 10-11). The plant operat

Monday, July 22, 2019

Gender Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Gender Discrimination Essay Gender discrimination is an important issue in the workplace in today’s world. Female employees are facing gender discrimination in the form of different dimensions. This discrimination is disturbing their performance. The main aim of this study is to see the effect of these gender discrimination dimensions which include glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the productivity of female employees with the mediating effect of job commitment and job satisfaction. The research is focused on the private education sector. The population frame is the female teachers in the private education institutes. A sample of 130 female teachers is collected for this study. The framework is developed for our study for checking the impact of glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the productivity of female employees. The hypotheses are developed and after the data analysis some of the hypothesis are rejected and some of the hypothesis are not rejected. The hypotheses that the glass ceiling, discrimination in facilities and salary gap has negative impact on employee productivity is accepted which made us to conclude that these discrimination has a big impact on employee productivity and ultimately organizational performance. This study will give some guidelines to the managers and policy makers in any organization that how to reduce these discriminations. Key words: Gender discrimination, Glass ceiling, Employee productivity, salary gap, discrimination in facilities, job satisfaction, job commitment, Paper type: Research Paper 1. Introduction 1.1 Significance/Rationales of study The study came up with the solutions to the problem of gender discrimination at work place. This study will help the people to be aware of this dominating problem of gender discrimination and its reasons. This study can also identify the positive and negative effects of discrimination on the world of business and personal lives of people. Gender discrimination is a wide phenomenon which is affecting every political, social and economic life. In this era where everyone think that there should be equal rights for men and women, there are some occurrences of people who are being discriminated because of their gender. It is not an issue, which one can easily tolerate or ignore. Gender discrimination is understood as the unequal treatment against people of either sex, but statistics shows that women are the one who are more discriminated just being a female (Lila Adhikari, 2008). Gender issues were first pointed out in 1950s, but it’s been highlighted in organization and management studies in between 1980s and 1990s. In this duration many studies on effect of gender discrimination on employees were conducted. One study shows that gender discrimination is inversely proportional to job commitment and satisfaction which means it reduces the employee’s productivity which ultimately affects the organizational productivity (Zahid Ali Channar, 2011). Many factors have been identified which are responsible for gender discrimination in work place, which are education, promotion, marriage and child bearing and environment. If we look in context of promotion, a wide practice used is glass ceiling, a process by which women are not promoted to high level of jobs (Bell, 2002). Last year report issued by a commission of glass ceiling that shows that there are only 7 to 9 percent of managers that are in senior positions are women at fortune 1000 (kom and catalyst, 2012). 81 % employers dislike to hire a female. 49 % not carefully planning their careers to benefit women and above of all a survey tells that only 1 percent CEOs or even less than 1 percent take it as first concern, the development of women (Mauricio, 2012). 1.2 Problem Statement HRM in any organization is related to staffing, motivating and maintaining the organization (Decenzo, 1998). 50 years ago, due to homogeneity of work force the HRM was very simple, but now-a-days the workforce is heterogeneous. Managing this heterogeneity required such a staff that can create an equitable environment so that no group has any kind of advantage or disadvantage on other group (Wayne, 1995). Heterogeneity in workplace gave birth to gender discrimination, which has become an intense situation in Pakistan and affecting the employee’s productivity (Qaiser Abbas, 2011). An employee perform difficult tasks for the survival and improvement of organization but gender discrimination reduces the employee’s satisfaction, commitment and enthusiasm and increases the stress level which ultimately affects the productivity of an employee (Zahid Ali Channar, 2011). These studies did not discuss that how dimensions of gender discrimination effect the productivity of employee. The dimensions of gender discrimination include discrimination in promotions, discrimination in salary and discrimination in facilities provided. So there is a need to explore the effect of different dimensions of gender discrimination on the productivity of employee. 1.3 Aim of the study This study investigates that how different dimensions of gender discrimination effect the employee productivity. It would be helpful for any organization in the process of policy making which will ultimately increase the productivity of an organization. 1.4 Research Objectives 1) To identify that whether gender discrimination has an effect on productivity of employees in private educational institutes. 2) To explore how the productivity of employees is affected by gender discrimination in promotion, salary and facilities provided in private educational institutes. 3) To examine the results of the survey. 4) To recommend some reformed measures to the policy makers for the future. 1.5 Research Questions 1) What is relation between the employee productivity and gender discrimination? 2) What is effect of gender discrimination in promotion, salary and facilities on the performance of an employee? 2. Literature Review This literature view is based on the evaluation of gender discrimination on employee’s productivity. The gender discrimination now exist most of the organization around the world. Gender discrimination may exist in different dimensions like discrimination in promotions, facilities and Salaries. In simple words gender discrimination can be defined as the unfair treatment or behavior based on gender. It is said to occur when an individual’s decision is based on gender. Gender discrimination was attempted to define by no law. If we look in the perspective of employment, it is giving more advantage to a particular group (Wayne, 1995). This thing results in the decreased productivity of employees. 2.1 Gender Discrimination in Global Perspective The first form of discrimination was found by the universal declaration of human rights (1948). Gender discrimination is now a social disease which is destroying the lives of women around the world. Sen (1991) shows us that if equal treatment and opportunities were given then there should be more 100 million females than are presently alive. Many steps were taken to eliminate the gender discrimination but none of them was proved to be effective. The Beijing conference that documented 12 most prominent areas of discrimination was a big step in eliminating the gender discrimination (UNFPA, 2005). It is proved from the studies that gender discrimination has an influence on the employee productivity. A study shows that if there is a proper policy of gender discrimination there will be a change in employee’s productivity (Naqi Abbas, 2010). 2.2 Glass Ceiling Women in workplace face a wide practice called glass ceiling. This is a practice in which women are ignored when making a promotion policy or promoting an employee. We can see that in every organization the executive posts are held by males. According to a study only 3 percent of the most paid executives are female and these posts are disproportionately held by men (Healy and Zukka, 2004). Women are mostly entrusted in small projects not the big one. They are being kept deprived from international assignment which is keeping away from their promotions. Nick (1991) had conducted the study on international careers of women. His study clearly shows that there is a glass ceiling effect. Women are not being encouraged to do new projects on new markets and they are being kept at junior manager positions. Gender discrimination is not directly related to productivity. The relation of employee productivity and gender discrimination is mediated by job satisfaction and job commitment. Employees who faces policies and practices of gender discrimination show less satisfaction with their job (Ensher et al, 2001). When individuals’ face gender discrimination in workplace they show a low level of job commitment so gender discrimination has a negative relation with job commitment and job satisfaction (Sharon Foley, 2005). Gender discrimination creates tension and reduces the satisfaction of people and it is the study of 139 Hispanic male and female (Sanchez, 1996). The productivity of a happy worker is higher than an unhappy worker (Rabins, 1999,). Employee satisfaction plays a vital role in its productivity and there is a significant relation of job satisfaction with employee productivity (Pushpakumari, 2008). Job satisfaction lead to organizational responsibility, mental health and finally employee productivity (Coomber, 2007). Another study shows us that the organizations who perceive greater gender discrimination report less satisfaction and commitment (Ellen A. Ensher, 2001). The hypotheses are given below: 1) Glass ceiling has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Glass ceiling is negatively related with employee productivity. 3) Job Satisfaction is positively related with employee productivity. 4) Job satisfaction mediates the relation between gender discrimination in promotions and employee productivity. 2.3 Discrimination in facilities In a workplace an employee is provided with many facilities which helps them to complete their task which include computers, air conditioners, assistant and transport facilities etc. If on a work place if such kind of facilities are provided to a male employee and not provided to a female employee of a same post. The female employee will start to think that the upper management don’t care about them which will increase their stress level and the satisfaction level of that employee cold be decreased which will affect the employee’s productivity. The hypotheses are given below: 1) Gender discrimination in facilities has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Gender discrimination in facilities is negatively related with job satisfaction. 3) Job Satisfaction mediates the relationship between gender discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. 2.4 Salary Gap Another dimension of discrimination is the Salary gap. Women usually get low pay then men in any job they are appointed. Ashraf and Ashraf (1993) study shows that there is a gap of 63.27 percent in salary in 1979, and in 1986 it decreases to 33.09 percent. This was the decline in every province. Discrimination is not the phenomenon of one or two countries, it exist in most of the developed countries like USA. A study showed that women dietitians in USA earn 45,258 dollars per year while men earn 50,250 dollars per year (Pollard, 2007). Managers at top level in organization mostly prefer their own interest rather than others. They think that superiors who have power on their careers will support them. According to Susan et al (1998) mostly top managers in any organization are the people who are more biased against females and these people save interest of their own. The study shows that job commitment is significant related with productivity, there exist high degree of correlation between commitment and productivity. Individuals that are highly committed proved to be more productive and have higher satisfaction and have no intention to leave the job rather than employee with low job commitment (Varsha, 2012). The hypotheses are given below: 1) Salary gap has negative impact on employee productivity. 2) Salary gap is negatively related with job commitment 3) Job Commitment is positively related with employee productivity 4) Job Commitment mediates the relation between salary gap and employee productivity. 2.5 Gender discrimination in Pakistan Pakistan is also one of the countries where gender discrimination is seen in most of the organizations. We all know Pakistan is a male dominating society and women are being treated unfairly in every field of profession. Gender discrimination has spread its root from public organizations to private organizations. Women are being kept at low level jobs and they are not promoted to high posts due to biasness of top level managers and policy makers. A study by Ghizala Kazi (2011) shows us that no women in the public organizations are in the scale of 20 or more. There are very few women above scale 15. Most of the women are under 15th scale, which shows the situation of discrimination in Pakistan. Many factors for this situation were identified like education, promotion, environment, child bearing and discrimination. If such kinds of discrimination is eliminated than the productivity of these women employees could be increased. There are evidences that the promotion of gender equality leads to a better performance and improved economy of concerned society. The societies who have greater female employment opportunities are less corrupt and have better governance (Klasen, 2006). This is not the end of discriminations in Pakistan. A women employee is also discriminated in Salary, which is a basic right of an employee that he should get compensated according to his work and post. In Pakistan you will see men and women working on same job level but different pay. In the report of poverty in Pakistan it is clearly proved that majority of women are concentrated in low paid jobs with very few opportunity for moving upward (Shah et al, 2004). If we look in the export industries of Pakistan which is a backbone in measurement of economy of Pakistan we will see the similar situation of discrimination. The study of Siddique (2006) surveyed the industries of export that are in Karachi, Sialkot and Faisalabad. The results from this study confirms the gender discrimination and shows that men were getting 20 percent more than then women working at the same post. It was also concluded that adjustment policies and change in labor market has a negative impact on females. To have maximum output from women employee the organizational culture of discrimination should be changed. Organizational culture affects the performance of employee. Organizational environment and culture can make the workplace attractive and supportive for a female employee. Attitudes of peers and support from family are also very significant for the female employee (Irfan, 2009). Many studies have discussed the gender discrimination as a general term but there is need to explore the discrimination in different dimensions and how these dimensions affect the productivity of employees. Gender discrimination has three dimensions which include discrimination in promotions, salary and facilities provided. So this study will be based on exploring the effect of dimensions of gender discrimination on productivity of employees. 3. Conceptual framework In the literature review of this topic the framework has been defined which show the relationship between the variables. Correlation is basically run to analyze the relationship between two or more variable. It also measure that how two variables move in relation to each other. It measures the strength and direction of linear relationship between two variables with respect to each other. The sign of the value shows the direction that whether it is negative or positive. Positive sign shows that the variables are moving in same direction means if one variable is increasing the other variable is also increasing and negative sign shows that if one variable is increasing then other variable is decreasing. The magnitude shows the intensity between variable. If the value is between 0.1 and 0.5 then the variables are weakly correlated. If the value is between 0.5 and 0.7 then the variables are moderately correlated. If the value is between 0.7 and 0.99 then the variables are strongly correlated. The value 1 shows the perfect correlation between variables. Table 5 shows the intensity and the direction of any two variables. Highest value of correlation is 0.753 which is between gender discrimination in facilities and glass ceiling. So the correlation between discrimination in facilities and glass ceiling is positive and strongly correlated. The relationship between DF and EP, and DF and JS, and JC and SG is negative. So it means that if you have more salary gap than your commitment to job will be less but its value is less than any else two variables, so we can say that job commitment will be less but with very small value, and if you have more discrimination in facilities then your productivity will be less. The remaining variables have positive relation with each other. The relationship is significant at 1% which means there are 99% chances that the relationship between all two variables will remain the same if the sample is changes and sample size and population remains same as shown in the table given below. 5.7 Regression This research is to check the effect of gender discrimination dimensions which are glass ceiling, salary gap and discrimination in facilities on the employee productivity. This research also includes two mediating variables job satisfaction and job commitment. Job satisfaction is mediating between glass ceiling and employee productivity and also discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. Job commitment is mediating between salary gap and employee productivity. For this 9 hypothesis were developed. For the purpose of checking the impact regression has been applied. The model has only one dependent variable so there will be one model of regression equation. There will be separate equation for mediating variable to check the mediating effect of variables between independent and dependent variable. In first model we run the regression equation between EP, GC, DF, SG, JC and Job satisfaction. 5.7.1 Regression Equation EP = 4.66 0.38GC 0.86DF 0.26SG + 0.017JC + 0.167JS The Above equation shows that if all the other variables remain unchanged or have value of zero then the productivity of employee remains at 14.66. It is the fixed value of employee productivity. The coefficient values tell the per unit change in the employee productivity so if we increase the value of GC, SG and DF then the value of employee productivity will decrease by 0.38, 0.86 and 0.26 respectively. If the value of job commitment increases by one then the value of employee productivity will increase by 0.017. The hypotheses of glass ceiling, discrimination in facilities and job satisfaction are accepted. If the value of job satisfaction is increased then the value of employee productivity will increase by 5.10 Kruskal Wallis Test The non-parametric test will be used that is kruskal-Wallis test. Whenever the assumption of levene test is not fulfilled the non-parametric test i.e. kruskal-Wallis test is used. So kruskal-Wallis test is applied to check the level of job commitment in the females who are earning less than 30,000 between 30,000 and 40,000 and more than 40,000. The table given below shows that the asymptotic value is greater than 0.05so test is insignificant. So there is no difference in the average of glass ceiling in all three populations. So we can conclude that there is no significant difference between the mean of all three population p = 0.509, with a mean rank of 73.45 for below 30,000, 65.20 for 30,000 to 40,000 and 73.00 for above 40,000. 6. Discussion This study is conducted to check the impact of gender discrimination on the productivity of employees. The study included three dimensions of gender discrimination that is discrimination in promotions, discrimination in facilities and discrimination in salary. With the help of previous studies it is found that all these discriminations have negative impact on employee productivity which is mention in literature view. The hypotheses were developed for this study. There are 12 hypotheses that are developed. First hypothesis is that glass ceiling has negative impact on employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked after entering the data into SPSS. He results show that glass ceiling does have negative impact on employee productivity. If women are not being promoted to higher job positions and if there is no such policies related to gender discrimination then the productivity of female employee decreases. Second hypothesis was that the glass ceiling is negatively related with job satisfaction. this hypothesis is checked through the correlation. The table 5 of correlation clearly shows that glass ceiling is negatively related with the job satisfaction and result is also significant so this hypothesis is supported. Third hypothesis is that the job satisfaction is positively related with the employee productivity. The table of correlation shows the positive relation between the two variables. So employee productivity increases as the job satisfactions continues to increase and if job satisfaction decreases the employee productivity also decreases. Fourth hypothesis is that the job satisfaction is mediating between glass ceiling and employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked through the mediation test which consists of four steps. This test did not support the hypothesis so this hypothesis is rejected. Fifth hypothesis is that the discrimination in facilities has negative impact on the employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked by regression. Discrimination in facilities has the negative impact on the employee productivity and it is also significant. So this hypothesis is also supported. The sixth hypothesis is that discrimination in facilities is negatively related with the job satisfaction. This hypothesis is supported because the correlation between them is negative in the table 5. So the discrimination in facilities increases then the satisfaction with the job decreases. The next hypothesis is that the job satisfaction plays the mediating role between the discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. This hypothesis is also checked by the mediation test the result is shown in the table 8 which shows that this hypothesis is not supported. It means that job satisfaction is not mediating between discrimination in facilities and employee productivity. The eights hypothesis that was developed is that salary gap has negative impact on the employee productivity. The hypothesis is not supported as it is checked by regression test which is shown in the table 6. It has negative impact but it is not significant means that if gap is more in salary then employee productivity decreases but not significantly. The ninth hypothesis is that salary gap is negatively related with job commitment. The hypothesis is checked with the correlation which is shown in the table 5 of correlation which shows that the relation between these two variables is negative. So salary gap reduces the job commitment of female employees. The next hypothesis that is developed is that the job commitment is positively related with the employee productivity. The relation is checked with the correlation and hypothesis is supported because results show that there is positive relation between salary gap and job commitment and it is significant. It means more job commitment the more employee productivity. The next hypothesis is that job commitment mediated the relation between the salary gap and employee productivity. This hypothesis is checked by the mediation test and it is not supported. The results show that job commitment does not play a mediating role between salary gap and employee productivity. The t test is also applied to check that whether the level of variables is also applicable on the population. The results are shown in the table 9. This table shows that all the values of p are significant so the level is also the same as the population. The level of job commitment is also checked in the three population related to different income groups that is below 30,000, 30,000-40,000 and more than 40,000. For this purpose the ANOVA is applied but for ANOVA the assumption of levene test should be fulfilled that is its value should be insignificant. The table 10 shows that levene test assumption is not fulfilled so the non-parametric test is used. The non-parametric test is the Kruskal-Willis test. This test is applied and the hypothesis is rejected as its asymptotic value is not significant. So it means that the there is no significant difference between the job commitment of females who are earning less than 30000, 30000-40000 and more than 40000. 7. Implication Through this study the impact of gender discrimination is checked on the employee productivity. The productivity of an employee is much important for an organization. So the management should consider the issue of gender discrimination as it is shown that the gender discrimination has negative impact on the employee productivity. As our sector for this research is the private education institutes which are very important sector for a developing countries so the management should consider reforming its policies. The management should make transparent, merit based recruitment and selection, it should also provide the training for better performance of female employee so that they can be promoted, they could be provided similarly facilities and different incentive so that they compete economically with the men as all these discriminations are effecting their productivity. 8. Limitation This study was only focused to the three dimensions of gender discrimination and employee productivity is the only variable that is measured that effect the productivity of organization. This research was only examining the education sector and the data was collected only from private institutions. The data was also 140 and it was collected only from the schools that are in the city area the educations institutes in the village was not collected so therefore the ability of generalizability of our findings were restricted and this can lead us to the biasness of respondents (Paul et al., 2003). 9. Conclusion This study provided an insight that how the dimensions of gender discrimination affect the productivity of employee. The data has been collected from different private education institutes through questionnaire. After the analysis that we have done on SPSS we can conclude that gender discrimination has a negative impact on the employee productivity which ultimately affect the performance of employee. The result of impact of salary gap on the employee productivity is not significant. So if the organizations want to perform well then they should keep the gender discrimination out of their organizations in order to make their female employees perform well which will be beneficial for the organization. 10. References Channar, Z. A. (2011). Gender Discrimination in Workforce and its Impact. Pak. J. Commer. Soc. Sci, Vol. 5, pp. 177-191. Dixit, V. (2012). A Study about Employee Commitment and its impact. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Vol. 1, pp. 34-51. Abbas, S. M. (2010). Gender Based Wage Discrimination and Its Impact on Performance of Blue Collar Workers: Evidence. KASBIT Business Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 45-63. Hiau, Joo. Kee. (2008) Glass ceiling or sticky floor exploring the Australian gender pay gap. The Economic Record, Vol. 82, No.59, pp. 408-427. Foley, S. (2005). Perceptions of Discrimination and Justice: Are there Gender Differences in Outcomes? Group Organization Management, Vol. 30, pp. 421-452. Ashraf, J, and B. Ashraf (1993) Estimating the Gender Wage Gap in Rawalpindi City. Journal of Development Studies 29:2. Ensher, E. A., Grant-Vallone, E. J., Donalson, S. I. (2001). Effects of perceived discrimination on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and grievances. Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 12, pp. 53-72. Prudence Pollard, Maxine Taylor and Noba Daher, Health Care Manager; Jan-Mar2007, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p52-63, 12p, 4 charts Ensher, E. A. (2011). Effects of Perceived discrimination on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour and grievances. Human resource development quarterly, Vol. 1. Coomber B, Barriball KL. 2007†Impact of job satisfactions on intent to leave and turnover for hospital based nurses: a review of the research literature†, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Vol. 44, pp. 297-314. Joanne Healy and Zucca J. Linda Mid-American Journal of Business; Spring2004, Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp. 55-62. Sen, Amartya, 1999, Assessing Human Development Special Contribution Human Development Report 1999 (New York: UNDP). Shah, Parveen. Memon, Rajab. A. (2004). Socio-economic and demographic status of rural women in Sindh. Proceedings of the international conference on social sciences: endangered and engendered, Fatima Jinnah women university, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, pp. 98-113. Nick, Foster. (1999) another ‘glass ceiling’? The experiences of women professionals and managers on international assignments, Gender, Work and Organization, Blackwell publisher’s ltd., Vol. 6, no. 2, pp.79-89. United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), 2004, Programme of Action: Adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo 1994 Wayne, F. Casico, (1995) Managing Human Resource, Productivity, Quality of work life, Profits, McGraw hill Internationals, 4th ed. pp. 61-116. Susan, Trentham. Laurie, Larwood, (1998) Gender discrimination and the workplace: an examination of rational bias theory, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Jan, 1998, pp. 1-22. Sanchez, J. I., Brock, P. (1996). Outcomes of perceived discrimination among Hispanic employees: Is diversity management a luxury or a necessity? Academy of Management Journal, 39 (3), 704–719. 11. Appendices Questionnaire We are students of B.sc (Hons) Accounting Finance, currently doing a research project on gender discrimination and its Impact on employee’s performance for which the questionnaire is being distributed to collect empirical data. Therefore you are kindly requested to fill this questionnaire. The information will be kept confidential and will be used for only academic Purpose it will take 15-20 min to complete the data. Thank you in anticipation (Strongly Disagree = 1, Strongly Agree = 5) Employee Productivity

Evolution Of Photography Over The Centuries

Evolution Of Photography Over The Centuries Presentation: To my view photography it s a way to describe things, a way to express yourself and to show to the people how you feel and also to show things that you can see with your eyes at a certain moment. It s so interesting to grasp an idea in an image. This work was initially meant to tackle on the photography of the 20th century, but this approch would be too limited and even unfair. Therefore, i ve decided to go back to the roots of photography and highlight the evolution it has gone through over the centuries. The first part of this paper is dedicated to the 19th century and it s focused on the evolution of photography from a tecnical point of view. It was an intensive period characterized by revolutionary inventions and tecniques. To my point of view it s necessary or at least advisable to know the technical proceses of how a phtography comes into being because this way you can get a better understanding of your camera and of what it could do for you. Definately photography is more than pressing a botton and the efforts people put in developing tecniques and in getting every time better pictures reflect their struggle to fight against the cruel passing of time and the transitory nature of things. Taking a photograph is like an attempt to touch eternity, to make time stand still for a moment. But this is only one point of view out of many philosophical thoughts that shaped the concept of photography. The second part of the work deals with photography in the 20th century, a period where photography reached new levels of technical developments and new missions. The 20th century was marked by tragic events, such as the two world wars and photography played an important part in building our historical legacy and in shaping our conscience as human beings. The word photography comes from the Greek fos which means light and grapho which means to write. The word was coined by Sir john Herschel who made revolutionary contributions and set up the basis to the way photography was being processed in the 19th century. Photography has come into being through a long series of discoveries which have taken place along the centuries. The first idea of photography was embodied by the camera obscura box which was one of the first steps that led to photography. But while the camera obscura was more a device of exploring physical laws, the first permanent photograph, close to the modern concept we have today about photography, was taken in 1826 by Nic phore Ni pce. The photo was called View from the Window at Le Gras and it was the result of 8 hour-exposure while the sun illuminated the buildings on both sides. Your browser may not support display of this image. View from the Window at Le Gras by Nic phore Ni pce. 19th Century To understand the modern photography of 20th century, it s important to explain the different photographic process of 19th century . The first one it s called daguerreotype (1839). I ts a process which was invented by Daguerre using silver on a copper plate. The French government bought the patent and immediately made it public domain. Although this process results to be the predecessor of the actual photography called Polaroid. Your browser may not support display of this image. Camera of daguerreotype. Your browser may not support display of this image. Boulevard du Temple by Daguerre. The second one is the calotype process which was invented by William Fox Talbot in 1840. He coated paper smeets with silver chloride* to create and intermediate negative image. But the calotype gabe an image which was not very precise (it hasn t the sharpness of the daguerreotype). Your browser may not support display of this image. Camera of calotype. Your browser may not support display of this image. Paris by William Fox Talbot. The third one it s called wet plate and it was invented by Frederick Scott Archer* and Gustave Le Gray in 1850. Despite it s disadvantage, wet plate collodion became enormously popular. It was used for portraiture. Landscape wprk, architectural pphotography and art photography. This new process it s called like this because the plaque had to stay wet during all the process of making and revealed of images. Your browser may not support display of this image. Process of wet plate. Your browser may not support display of this image. Camera wet plate. Your browser may not support display of this image. Sea by Frederick Scott Archer. The last one is gelatine bromide, this is a new process invented by R.L.Maddox in 1871 and improved in 1878 thanks to the researches of Charles E.Benett*. Your browser may not support display of this image. Relater to coating photographic plates or paper with gelatine emulsion. The emulsion is run into a trough A containing a metal roller B, which revolves in the emulsion. One end of a scraper C rests against this roller and takes off the emulsion, which it delivers on to the plates P. The plates are carried forward by an endless band F, and delivered to a second endless band L which passes through a chamber M cooled by ice. This second hand travels at a greater speed than the first so as to separate the plates. Below the plates is another endless hand J which washes the plates. Your browser may not support display of this image. Kodak. 20th Century At the beginings of the 20th century photography is no longer a mere subject of technical improvements. It turned to be one of the most flourishing and richest periods in which photography became a powerful and unconventional expression of the modern consicousness. It was at the early 20th century when photography gained the recognized status of an art form with a well-defined aesthetic roles and trends. Lively debates as whether the photographer s imagination was chiefly at work before or after the shutter was pressed envisioned and actualized a completely new understanding of photographys strengths. One of the trends of the time, the straight photography, it was defined as a medium as capable of artistic expression as painting or sculpture. Avant-garde artists, commercial illustrators, and journalists turned to photography as if seeking to discover through its mechanisms and materials a new artistic vehicle that captured best the soul of those times. The artist and theorist L szl Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) gave a new aesthetic role to photography, described as a new vision rooted in the technological culture of the twentieth century. It seems that the philosophical ideas the governed at that time the fragmented sense of self, the rapid pace of modern life, the burst of subconsciuoness had a powerful influence on the way photography was perceived and produced. Abstract photograms, photomontages composed of fragmented images, the combination of photographs with modern typography and graphic design in posters and magazine pages were unconventional techniques that modernized photography. In France, Surrealism was the gravitational center for avant-garde photography between the wars. Launched in 1924 by the poet Andr Breton, the Surrealist movement aimed at the psychic and social transformation of the individual through the replacing of bourgeois conventions with new values of spiritual adventure, poetry, and eroticism. Essentially a philosophical and literary movement, Surrealism was greatly indebted to the techniques of psychoanalysis, and Freuds research into free association and dream imagery. Surrealist photographers made use of such techniques as double exposure, combination printing, and reversed tonality to evoke the union of dream and reality. During the 1920s, the mass media grew particularly in Germany, which had more illustrated periodicals, with greater circulation, than any other country in the world. In addition, hundreds of newspapers and magazines catered to special interests. There were fashion journals, various magazines promoting health and sport. As the number of new illustrated magazines increased, competition among publications grew keener and editors began to experiment with more dynamic designs and page layouts. To close this period I would like to tell two artists of this 20s because i think that their works are very interesting: Hans Bellmer: (March 13, 1902 February 23, 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Your browser may not support display of this image. In this work, Bellmer explicitly sexualized the doll as a young girl. On the other hand, the doll incorporated the principle of ball joint , which was inspired by a pair of sixteenth-century articulated wooden dolls in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum. Man Ray: (August 27, 1890 November 18, 1976), was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Your browser may not support display of this image. He was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography. From the 30s the word documentary takes on a moral and politician connotations , highly positive, associated with the conquest of truth. For the frist time in history appears the photojournalism. It is a kind of photography that delivers events through a photo, that spreads facts of reality throughout the world but it also carries a message. The posibility of print photographs next to the text in the newspaper and magazines was invetigate durint the 19th century through different poribilities like the lithograph or woodcut. But the photojournalism face technical problems (in the photographic capture), as the emulsions still had very low sensitivities then to take a night phtograph or to take it in an interior force you to use a flash which was of magnesium in that time. This must be added that large format cameras and the constant need of a tripod made the journalist was very limited to work in the documentary photographic discourse. In 1929 in USA took place the Wall Street Crash that triggered the Great Depression. With this crash the peasants were in a huge poorness while drought was putting things more difficult, then the goverment establish a department about photography-press (which was called Farm Security Administration) to document this. To end with this project and continuing with the structure of the work in the 20s I m going to explain some important artists of th is period: Your browser may not support display of this image. Eug ne Atget:(February 12, 1857 August 4, 1927) was a French photographer noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris. Your browser may not support display of this image. Bernice Abbott: (July 17, 1898 December 9, 1991), was an American photographer. She wanted to make the same as Atget in Paris, but she in New York. She introduced some changes because she didn t want only to photographed buildings that they were going to disappeared. She wanted to explained also the continuing changes of a city like NY. Abott asked for scholarships to take the project to end, and finally the state gave her and put to her disposition documentary filmmakers and a team of historians to complete her photos. Your browser may not support display of this image. August Sander: (November17, 1876 April 20, 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. He was one of the most important photographers of the 20th century. Is above its principle of neutrality which will take a lot of importance to the end of the decade of the 20s. This effect of impersonality is gived by: sharpness, frontal, senzill frames and the rigid pose of the models. Your browser may not support display of this image. Jacob Riis: (May 3, 1849 May 26, 1914), was a Danish American social reformer, and a great photographer. He got his photos with flash, because for him the flash was a way to come to places that normally the camera without the help of it couldn t do it. He wanted his photos to aware people of the poorness. Your browser may not support display of this image. Lewis Hine: (September 26, 1874 November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and photographer. Between 1904 and 1905 he photographed the arrival of many immigrants at Ellis Island from southern and eastern Europe. There were a lot of xenophobia towards these immigrants. And in 1906 he made a new project about the problem of child labor. Your browser may not support display of this image. Dorothea Lange: (May 26, 1895 October 11, 1965) was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Langes photographs humanized the tragic consequences of the Great Depression and profoundly influenced the development of documentary photography. Your browser may not support display of this image. Walker Evans: (November 3, 1903 April 10, 1975) was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evanss work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 810-inch camera. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are literate, authoritative, transcendent.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Light Touch Management Style Information Technology Essay

Light Touch Management Style Information Technology Essay Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. A project is a predetermined effort (having specific start and completion dates) undertaken to create a unique product or service which brings about beneficial change or added value. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve the project goals and objectives while honouring the project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time and budget. The secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. (L. Ireland) 2. Introduction Traditional project management methodologies grew out of a need to control ever-larger development projects, and the difficulties of estimating and managing these efforts to reliably deliver results. These methodologies based on the Waterfall Model (Refer Appendix) process drew heavily on the principles from engineering such as construction management, where the team needs to determine requirements, design and plan for the entire building in order to understand the full scope of the effort and maintain them in an orderly sequence (Hass K.B., 2007). The inadequacy of this process is that in real world situation the activities rarely follow a sequential order; clients find it difficult to complete certain processes completely at an early stage and then move on. A need arises to identify, track and maintain close relationships with stakeholders and customers to not only overcome pressures of unprecedented change, global competition, time to-market compression and rapidly changing technologies but also to create and deliver customer value. Augustine (2006) defines Agile Project Management as the work of energizing, empowering and enabling project teams to rapidly and reliably deliver business value by engaging customers and continuously learning and adapting to their changing needs and environments. For example Infosys, by using agile approach it has successfully integrated and standardized desktops to provide one technology foundation for the merged business of Promina group of companies and Suncorp. The project was achieved in short time with regular checking process to ensure the project remained on track. 33. BENIFITS AND CHALLENGES OF APM: Boehm H. et.al. (2005) identified three critical challenging areas that affect the software managers of large scale organisations: 3.1 DEVELOPMENT CONFLICT: Traditional project life cycles require adjustments to the agile process the reason being traditional activities are focussed on optimising development over a period of time controversial to agility which believes in delivering immediate operational results. Agile requirements being primarily functional and reasonably informal they may or may not work in any systems engineering verification of validation approach. 3.2 BUSINESS CONFLICT Todays business processes and infrastructure require almost accurate prediction of future difficult-to-estimate responsibilities. The main problem is that agile does not support the certifications like ISO, CMMI etc because of this organization rating is affected. 3.3PEOPLE CONFLICT Agile team members will perform multitasking so it is difficult for the managers to assign specific roles to the members. Agile teams must be assembled in agile workspace which demands pair-programming stations, walls for status chart for the team to coordinate and share ideas. Stakeholders may play a different role which is key for the organisation as agile requires onsite customers, customer feedback and interaction, and customer input for acceptance testing. 4. Agile Project Management The agile development methodologies deal with rapid changes include eXtreme Programming (XP),Crystal, Scrum, Adaptive Software Development (ASD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) and Feature-Driven Development (FDD) (Abrahamsson P., 2003).Generally agile methods promote a project management process that mainly focuses on frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. There are many specific agile development methods. Most promote development iterations, teamwork, collaboration, and process adaptability throughout the life-cycle of the project. Agile methods break tasks into small increments with minimal planning, and dont directly involve long-term planning. Iterations are short time frames that typically last from one to f our weeks. Iteration is worked on by a team through a full software development cycle, including planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing when a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders. This helps minimize overall risk, and lets the project adapt to changes quickly. Stakeholders produce documentation as required.. Agile methods are sometimes characterized as being at the opposite end of the spectrum from plan-driven or disciplined methods. This distinction is misleading, as it implies that agile methods are unplanned or undisciplined. A more accurate distinction is that methods exist on a continuum from adaptive to predictive. (Turner, 2004). 4.1 Agile Management Agile management technically is used mainly in IT projects or projects which use software programmes as their base. Its been well known now that software plays an important part in the Project Management practises of now a day, as it plays an important role, agile project management is also becoming an integral part of it. There are various software techniques that management teams are now employing for their Project Management needs, such as CAS (Complex Adaptive System). CAS based agile project management framework is established that prescribes six practises for managing agile development projects. These practises not only help to manage teams as complex adaptive systems but also provide with a freedom to overlay personal leadership styles. For example consider an ant colony which is an example for CAS. Individually, ants have primitive brains yet collectively run surprisingly sophisticated and efficient operations. Using a few simple rules of logic without central direction, they find food, build and maintain their nests, tend to their young, and respond to attacks (G. Anthes). Keeping the principles in mind, the project manager can tune the following practices to match their unique project situation. 4.1.1 Guiding Vision According to Margaret Wheatley, A project vision translated into a simple statement of project purpose and communicated to all team members has a powerful effect on individual member behaviour.. It is essential for the agile project managers to promote team ownership of the vision by facilitating group discussions that would eventually help the team through difficult decisions about business value and would help them focus and inspired on the ultimate goal. Agile managers guide their teams by defining, disseminating, and sustaining a vision that influences the internal models of individual agents. The Agile Manifesto (www.agilemanifesto.org) created in 2001 by the proponents of these methodologies articulated a core set of values useful in steering this vision. 4.1.2 Team Organising Agile project managers need to pay lot of attention to set up and organize a agile team to operate within the larger enterprise. Agile project managers need to seek a redundancy of function and posses generalized specialists with skills not only in their specialty areas, but in other areas as well. This would then help in organic team composition and enable adaptability to changing external conditions. If a project demands larger team size, the agile manger needs to organize the project into several small organic sub teams to work in parallel to scale up in size. Organizing a project into organic teams implies a minor interaction penalty in terms of communication and coordination overhead (De Marco). Positive collaboration can be achieved by means of the time-honoured kick-off group lunch, training sessions by sharing personal and professional information and by understanding individual team members signals. Also it is vital for agile manager to ensure that the team maintains optimal internal channels of communication while minimizing the effect of an interaction penalty. 4.1.3 Simple Rules Agile project managers should establish a set of simple, generative process rules for the team. Methodologies usually carry processes, templates, deliverables and rules along with them. These rules become so burden that they are not followed at all. Some heavier processes enforce rule compliance by auditing, resulting in being counterproductive. Team members on APM projects should follow simple rules with their interactions resulting in complex behaviour emerging from the bottom up over time. Throughout a project, the manager identifies practices that arent being followed, seeks to understand why theyre not, and removes obstacles to their implementation. For example consider Birds in a group they follow basic rules such as avoiding objects, keeping pace and staying close to other birds .By following these simple rules, group of birds exhibit complex, collective behaviour by flying for long distances and adapting to changing conditions along the way (Augustine, 2006).Also XP practices do not restrict the autonomy and creativity of individuals by providing a simple set of rules. 4.1.4 Free and Open Information To adapt an agile team information must be open and free flowing. In agile project management information flows freely and team members benefit from the power of knowledge no matter what its source. In the agile arena, information is freed to leverage its power. Collective code ownership encourages everyone to contribute to the project. For instance, Trimble Navigation New Zealand implemented XP practices as fully as possible, as these practices promote open access to information and benefited of working with an accessible in-house customer who was able to be part of the project team. 4.1.5 Light Touch Management Style In Traditional project management everything is viewed through the prism of control of change, risk and people control (Augustine, 2006).Elaborate methodologies, tools, and practices have evolved to manage an out of control world. But tools fail when linear task breakdowns cannot accommodate cyclical processes and neat schedule demand frequent updating to reflect changing circumstances. So agile managers need to manage their teams with a light touch management style that allows team autonomy and flexibility and a customer value focus without sacrificing control. Skilled professionals dont adapt well to micromanagement, and tools and techniques quickly reach their limits when not used appropriately. Managers realize that increased control doesnt yield increased order, accepting their own inability to know everything in advance while relinquishing some control to achieve greater order. 4.1.6 Adaptive Leadership (Agile Vigilance) Adaptive leadership employs systems thinking to understand a projects internal forces. For example, events are understood in terms of their patterns, or the common elements that persist in diverse circumstances. The agile manager understands the effects of the mutual interactions among a projects various parts and steers them in the direction of continuous learning and adaptation (Sanjiv et al., 2005). Double-loop Learning enable agile managers to lead teams adaptively that involves continuous observing and assessing of the effect of the practices on the project and adapting the practices such as getting Plus-Delta feedback and conducting scenario planning for maximum impact and desired results 4.2 Agile Framework Scott Amblers Agile Modelling framework provides a broader framework for creating agile processes applied to software projects. Higher level Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD) best practices came into existence when AMDD lifecycle began to combine to describe when modelling occurs on projects such as Architectural envisioning and Requirements envisioning at the beginning of the project or model storming on a Just-In-Time (JIT) basis throughout the project(Ambler,2002). Project managers and senior managers should strive to keep modelling approach as collaborative and simple as possible, by adopting as many of the principles and practises of AM to ease it gradually 4.3 Principles of Agile Management Agile methods are a family of development processes, not a single approach to software development. Some of the principles of Agile Project Management are:- Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months) Even late changes in requirements are welcomed Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (Co-location) Regular adaptation to changing circumstances Simplicity Self Organising Teams. 5. Example of Agile Project Management 5.1 Executive Summary In 2002, Agile competency has started within Mahindra Satyam. It had a strong team of over a 100 consultants who were well trained in diverse skill sets to address various dimensions of Agile product implementation, support and maintenance services. The main focus was on customer delight and success. There are many challenges that an established software organization faces when shifting to Agile. While there is a wealth of information and literature on the topic, much of it is most applicable to small teams working on Greenfield projects. But when contending with several teams, multiple projects and a mix of work new products, existing products, and maintenance there is an art to figuring out how to adapt Agile so that it works for the business. The consultants are well trained in diverse sets to address the different dimensions of agile and the team is trained in various product versions including 8.5, 9x and agile e6. 5.2 Overview Mahindra Satyam is a leading global business consulting and IT services company established in June, 1987. Leveraging deep industry functional expertise, leading technology practices, and an advanced, global delivery model, we enable companies to unlock their business potential. It provides various services and solutions using agile methodology. Satyam has developed agile methodology to track costs associated in gathering and analysing the requirements, which are the primary cause for a software project to fail. Electronic Training Record (ETR) is a solution developed in agile to maintain and track the training requirements of users in pharmacy industries. Today Satyam is a part of the $6.3 billion Mahindra Group, a global industrial conglomerate and one of the top 10 industrial firms based in India. 5.3 Applying Agile Agile requires a great deal of discipline. To succeed, you need to have sound engineering practices and tooling, said Maples. Almost immediately, Agile exposes those areas that need greater attention. And how you deploy and structure your data will determine the accuracy and scale of your project. The first step was to define standards for data descriptions uniform definitions for different activities and assets across the organization. A single definition for goal story, requirement, user story. This helped to make it easier for teams to understand each others work, and allow them to manage dependencies across teams. Next, Satyam made Team Focus the standard management console for all of its delivery projects. Team Focus sits on top of all the various ALM tools and repositories for delivery organization and provides a single Agile dashboard. This enabled the teams to immediately begin adopting agile practices without making significant changes to tool support. 5.4 Agile Planning To drive alignment between its Agile teams, marketing and product management organizations, and ensure that the work that is happening sprint by sprint maps back to business goals, it relies on the connection between Team Focus and its core products to link strategic goals and plan items directly to the requirements, user stories, tasks, and test cases. Agile projects emphasize on working software, which is quite different from traditional software. Traditionally, the success of a project is measured by the functional milestone. In agile projects, however, working software is the final measurement of project status. At the end of each short iteration, a working product is produced and available for review. The main advantage of this is it provides enough time to fix any mistake during the execution of a project before it affects adversely on the project 5.5 Agile Quality 5.6 Result 100% increase in number of product releases per year Reduced administrative and planning overhead by an average of 15 hours per 3 week sprint Eliminated 6 days a month of vice president and director time spent reporting per product group Increased customer satisfaction by including minor features in maintenance releases Increased product quality, reducing issues open from release to release by 50% Increased team productivity through enhanced morale (Source: www.mahindrasatyam.com) 6. Conclusion The lack of guidance for project managers of agile development projects has been a gaping hole in the software development community over the past several years. The contrast between the world of agile software development and traditional project management has left many managers wondering what their role should be. By viewing the agile development team as a complex adaptive system and the manager as an integral part of that system, we have begun to develop a framework for managers. This framework of practices is meant to overlay the practices of existing agile methodologies such as XP, and provide clear guidelines for the visionary leadership of projects that use them. The servant-leader concept introduced by Robert Greenleaf is the most appropriate way of thinking of the agile project manager. The project can be modified as and when the process moves and can be guided to create the desired outcomes. Despite of being simple agile is a costly process. It needs an organisation with a quality team capable of working independent from the organisation coupled with desired skills and experience and a fully engaged product power;then the project will be lead in a great way. 7. References: Abrahamsson, P., Warsta, J., Siponen, M., Ronkainen, J. (2003). New directions in agile methods:Comparative analysis. In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Software Engineering,pp 244-254. Alleman G.B. (2002). Agile Project Management Methods for IT Projects, The Story of Managing Projects: A Global, Cross- Disciplinary Collection of Perspectives. Greenwood Press / Quorum Books Augustine S., Payne B., Sencindiver F., Woodcock, S. (2005). Agile Project Management: Steering From the Edges.(Vol. 48). Communications of the ACM. Issue. 12. pp. 85-89. Augustine, S. (2006). Managing Agile Projects. Printice Hall PTR. David I. Cleland, Roland Gareis (2006). Global project management handbook. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. ISBN 0071460454. p.1-4: Project management was formally recognized in the 1950s as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline. DeMarco, T. The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management. Dorset House, New York, 1997. Hass K.B. (2007). The Blending of Traditional and Agile Project Management. (Vol. IX).PM World Today. Issue. V. Lewis R. Ireland (2006) Project Management. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. Sanjiv et al., Communication of the ACM, December 2005/ Vol.48, No. 12 Scott W. Ambler (2002). Agile Modelling. Published by John Wiley Sons , Inc., New York Anthes, G. Ant colony IT. Computerworld (2001); http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/61394/Ant_Colony_IT accessed on 15-04-2010 http://www.mahindrasatyam.com/services/erp/Agile.asp 8. Appendix Appendix-1 Model storming Active Stakeholder participation Test-driven design (TDD) Prioritized Requirements Iteration modeling Requirements Envisioning Architecture Envisioning Executable Specifications Just barely good enough Document late Multiple models Model a bit ahead Single source information AGILEMODELING Source -Ambler (2002) Appendix-2 Source: http://www.fivelakes.org/images/projectstages.png Appendix-3 Source: Hass K.B. (2007)