Human Resource Management Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Human Resource Management Strategy - Essay Example man Capital is perhaps the most powerful and high-valued asset of an organization since people within an organization not only depend on their own productivity and performance but also of all other resources like technology, materials, process etc. No process, system or organizational activity can work well unless there are right people for that and they are managed for the same. If people perform well, all other resources in the organization can be utilized up to a maximum extent. Therefore, managing the human resources effectively and with a view to make them high performers is extremely critical to the organizational success. In order to achieve sustainable competitive advantages, human resources management have recently designed, developed and concentrated on various managerial strategies. High Performance Working is one of such strategies. ... Industry analysis with help of Porter’s five forces analysis will be given to help understand the business environment and competitive rivalry of the business. Based on literature review on high performance working and HR strategies that lead the organization to high performing, this paper illustrates the importance, relevance and overall benefits of implementing the high performance strategy. British Airways: Company Profile and Industry Analysis British Airways Plc is UK’s largest international airline. As a member of the royal family of European Airlines, British Airways carries passengers and cargoes to a large numbers of airports in more than 150 countries. The company provides airline services through around 240 aircraft (Hoovers, 2011). British Airways has emerged to be a highly successful competitor in the market and thus has been labeled the world’s first airline that took part in a scheme to reduce green house gas emission (Strategic Report, 2009). With customer focus and some other useful business strategies, the company has been able to achieve company’s specific goals. Out of its strategic perspectives, the company has perceived long haul premium customers as the key to profitability, delivered outstanding quality service for customers, grew its presence in most global cities, built a leading position in London and met customers needs (British Airways, 2009). Porter’s Five Forces Analysis Michael Porter’s Five Force analysis is a tool that can be used for comparing and contrasting the competitive environment and analyze the operational efficiencies. The five force analysis can also be used as a tool to evaluate how effective were the business strategies and how far these

Financial management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Financial management - Essay Example Additionally, share of both companies Aguia and Pomba if traded in a perfect market, investors get significant choices to make preferred investment plans. Moreover, the capital structure of Aguia, which compose of both equity and debts and Pomba of all equity finance, will significantly affect the decisions of the investor prior to investing the share of any of these two companies. In the general context, stock investor’s takes there investment priority based on the strong fundamental aspects and strong balance sheet of the company. Moreover, the strength of the balance sheet will be evaluated not only based on the working capital adequacy or the positioning of asset but also the capital structure. Capital structure also plays a fundamental role. Additionally, the capital structure of the company will provide signal to the investors regarding the valuation of the company in the marketplace. For instance, company readily makes the decision to exchange part of debt in respect of the equity. This will likely increase the value of the firm and reduce the possibility of risk, as it will provide the signal in the market that the firm debt capacity have significantly increased. Furthermore, in the context it can be affirmed that the leveraged and unleveraged firm have different feature, characteristics, advantage, and disadvantages. For instance, having capital structure with debts involves obligations to payback interest. On the other hand, equity involves high cost and return to satisfy the shareholders. Moreover, in the case of perfect market investor’s will be in a position to analyze the market and the share prices with the available information. This can be done with the assistance of various technical analytical tools to identify the risk and return trade off in taking investment decision (Masulis, 1980). Correspondingly, if share of Aguia and Pomba is

Plato and Mill on the relationship between individual and society Essay Example for Free

Plato and Mill on the relationship between individual and society Essay Plato was born around 428-7 BC, he lived for the most part of his life in Athens, and had much to say about Athenian democracy. Mill was born much later in London in 1806, but although over two thousand years of political philosophy divide the two, much of the same issues and concerns arise in both their work though often with very different outlooks. Despite their differing opinions Plato and Mill are both antithetical, or in other words believe that the tyranny of the majority is to be feared. Plato believes that individuals are selfish and pursue their own self-interests at the expense of the rest of the population, and follow their own moral path. The philosopher individual is epitomised by the Gadfly. The gadfly is referred to by Plato in the Apology, to describe Socrates relationship with the Athenian political scene. Socrates believed he irritated for the purpose of leading people closer to the truth to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth. The gadfly describes a person who upsets the status quo by posing lots of questions. Plato states that while the gadfly is easy to swat, the cost to society of silencing an individual simply because of his irritancy could be extremely high. This seems to contradict some of what he has to say on his republic, as he stifles the lower class citizens in the Kallipolis, counting their opinions as obsolete in comparison to the philosophers. The gadfly is also mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Jeremiah also relating to political influence Egypt is a very fair heifer; the gadfly cometh, it cometh from the North. Plato believes that Democracy fosters the wrong kind of individual, hence the Kallipolis, which is the inverse of Democracy, designed to bring about the right way of living. In Platos view, an individual is fulfilled by the contribution that he or she makes to the overall functioning of the community, and the Kallipolis is designed to make this possible for everyone. Platos state also respects the individuality of its members and treats them equally. In Platos republic, the state limits the freedom of its individuals, but only to ensure that all the members receive the same amount of freedom. In effect, Plato believes that the repression of individual freedom results in equal freedom for the society as a whole. This is contrasted to Mill, whose view is that, excluding children, the individual is sovereign over himself, his body and his mind. Interference in an individuals beliefs or actions is wrong. Unless it is known that one is inflicting harm upon another, interference is not justified. Mill has three liberties that are the hallmark of a free society- the first is the freedom of thoughts and sentiment on all subjects, including freedom of expression and publication. The second liberty is the freedom of taste; the fact that others may disapprove of an individuals actions or beliefs, is not justified by Mill as the basis of interference, for example homosexuality. The third and final liberty necessary for a free society is the freedom of individuals to unite as long as the resulting union does not lead to others being harmed as a result. Mill forbids coercion and deception within the union, as he believes it is unjustified to have a direct negative impact on the utility of others (this does not involve doing something which someone else does not agree with). Mill encourages individualism and self-development or human flourishing as he believes that it will only benefit society, as the individuals will be able to contribute more if they reach their full potential and are allowed to develop their own ideals and opinions. Mill has concerns over the limits of which power can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. Safeguards are necessary to ensure that the majority does not suppress the minority. Mankind would be no more justified in silencing one person, than that one person; if he had the power would be justified in silencing mankind. Plato believes that false opinions could be dangerous to society, whereas Mill would say they were necessary in order to help obtain the truth, something that we as humans so desperately strive to obtain. Plato believes that satisfying our desires is something scarcely worth caring about, whereas Mill would encourage us to do so as long as it brings utility rather than harm. Free discussion in Mills opinion will only aid us in getting closer to the truth, as who is to decide what is true if there is no proof? A combination of views, questions and opinions are better than one view or opinion that is decided to be true, and not questioned. There are always people who will disagree with something that others agree with, so who is right? Plato believes that in order to have a productive and harmonious society, conditioning or training is necessary to ensure that the members actual desires coincide as far as possible with their real desires, thus reducing conflict. Mill would argue that this is in a sense brainwashing the individuals to believe that they are happy and that they are fulfilling desires, when in fact they are only fulfilling what the Philosopher Kings have told them they desire. Plato believes in critical freedom, which the Kallipolis is intended to provide to its members as much as their nature permits, Mill however believes in actual freedom in which all is permitted but harm (The Harm Principle). Mills rejection of social contracts is accompanied with the acceptance of certain rules of conduct in our dealing with others in return for the protection we receive from society. For example, we are bound to observe and respect the rights of others and according to him As soon as any part of a persons conduct affects prejudicially the interests of others, society has jurisdiction over it. Otherwise Mill states that foolish actions do not deserve penalties, and that mature individuals should be left to develop and coagulate their own views and act on their own impulses. All society can do is help educate its members as to what is moral and immoral before they reach the state of maturity and therefore the freedom they have a right to. Platos similes are used to demonstrate the negative aspects of democracy and Athenian politicians. The simile of the cave is used to show how politicians will conceal the truth from the people (represented by the prisoners). The people are ignorant and do not possess the knowledge that they deserve. The prisoners are bound and only have a view of the wall in front of them, there is a fire behind them, between them and the wall is nothing. All that the prisoners can see are shadows of themselves, and of the objects behind them. The prisoners naively believe that the shadows are real as they have nothing else upon which to base their knowledge. One of the prisoners manages to escape from the cave, and in the light of the sun sees the real world for the first time. He realises that all this time he was deceived by shadows. This man, if according to Plato is in possession of the capacity for knowledge and wisdom will feel it is his duty to go back to the cave, release his fellow prisoners and enlighten them. The other prisoners are hard to persuade however, as his exposure to the sunlight renders him unable to see the shadows as clearly as before, and so the prisoners just think that he is less intelligent than when he was trapped. Plato justifies the Philosopher Kings lying to the people in order to protect them. Plato argues the necessity of a structured organised society separate from the outside world in which every individual reaches their maximum potential and has a fundamental part to play in contributing all they can to their community as a whole. Education is available to all members of the Kallipolis regardless of gender. Mill states in his introductory chapter to On Liberty that the struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature. Mill developed a principle to counteract what he calls the interference of collective opinion on an individuals independence, this principle was called the Liberty principle. Mill and Plato have different styles of communicating their points, Mill expresses his ideas in the form of discursive arguments, Plato however expresses his ideas in the form of dialogue, something which Mill praises Plato for regardless of their conflicting conclusions. Platos Kallipolis, or utopia is designed as a hierarchical state consisting of three different classes, the Producers, the Auxiliaries, and the Guardians. These three different classes will have very different experiences of life, and which one they will lead depends on their capacity for knowledge. The three classes experience different upbringings, and receive different levels of education. Plato contradicts himself, he says that all people in the Kallipolis should be friends and equals yet he also unashamedly states that the Producers will not be able to choose how they wish to live their lives, and that their opinions are the least worthy. The Producers are in effect not free, but rather slaves to their senior ranking class, the Guardians. The Producers are thought to be the least intelligent mass of the population, and they are therefore expected to trust and believe their rulers. This is justified by Plato because it is better for them to be under the control of divine wisdom something that the minority of the population possess, and what makes those that do worthy to rule over all others. Platos belief is that if these less intelligent people are allowed to think freely, then they will make the wrong choices, and an individual is only worth what they contribute to their community as a whole. This means that personal desires are not as important as the overall functioning of the community, which is immaculately ruled by the Philosopher Kings who have the ability to learn and retain the knowledge leaded to rule and guide the citizens of the Kallipolis. Mills views contradict these of Platos; his liberalist view is that the individual is important in creating the desired environment within the state and is worthy of reaching their full potential in all areas. Mill considers freedoms of opinion and of actions necessary, and his Harm Principle was made to help protect other individuals from being hurt. Mill believes that individuals have a fundamental right to discover and develop their knowledge to their maximum capacity with the absence of a priori constraints. Platos view on the freedom of individual development of knowledge is that it is the despotism of custom. Mill prioritises the freedom of thought and expression; he believes that unless we push an argument to its absolute limit, then we cannot claim to fully understand it. Mill says that we must listen to everyone, even those that offend us, or those who we believe to be irrelevant. Mills justification for this is that if one person speaks out against an otherwise unanimous society about a certain topic, and they are right, then they could enlighten the mass to the truth. If they speak out and are found to be wrong, then they have simply helped the mass come closer to the truth by falsely opposing it. Platos analogy of the Beast shows how politicians will keep society happy in the short term, while not regarding what is best for them in the long term. It works on the basis of keeping the people satisfied rather than truly doing what is best for them (according to Plato). The keeper of the Beast manipulates it with what is wants at the time by giving it treats, with no regards for its health. It is made clear however that the Beast is manipulating the keeper too, by getting what it currently desires out of him. For this reason Plato says that freedom to do what one wants when ignoring the absolute truth, or the long term real effects of certain action or decision can be damaging to the inward domain of consciousness. Similarly, his analogy of the Ship of State depicts his attitude on Athenian democracy. The captain of the ship is stronger than any of the crew, but he lacks the skill of working on and handling the boat. The crew argue over who should be in control, and beg the captain to allow them to take control of the ship. Those who succeed turn the voyage into a drunken pleasure cruise. The true navigator or star-gazer is overlooked by his fellow men although he is the only one skilled enough to actually guide the ship, he possesses the art of navigation, and seamanship. He is unable to gain the control needed to steer the ship to safety. The captain represents Athenian citizens responsive only to the rhetoric of the crew, the crew represent the politicians, they are manipulative and are not concerned with the truth, but rather power. Plato says that eventually the crew will ask the navigator for help, sacrificing their freedom and control for their safety and social benefit. The navigator is capable of using his knowledge of astronomy (knowledge of Being) to help guide the ship and those on it through a world of constantly changing and sometimes-dangerous weather conditions (the world of Becoming). The crew must surrender to the navigator, as he possesses not opinions or beliefs, but facts. The crew have to recognise his superior knowledge and therefore his authority, although they would fail to do so if it did not ultimately benefit them. Mill would argue that this analogy is incomplete, for the crew are able to be taught the skill of navigation themselves and do not need to rely solely on the star-gazer, wouldnt a crew of capable navigators be better than just one? Mill would argue that it is vital for the well being of the state to be able to argue against the truth. He argues the positive value of blasphemy as it challenges assumptions that are established as being right or wrong. We can criticise Mill for assuming that all individuals are capable of being rational and having rational thoughts and discussions. Equally, Plato fails to recognise the need for questioning and testing and assumes that people will accept sacrificing their freedom because he tells them too. If the tyranny of the majority is to be feared then why would Plato put the minority in power, and deprive the majority of control over their lives and the lives of their children? Mill and Plato hold the same or similar views on the issue of gender. Plato says that all citizens of the Republic, male or female will have access to equal education, as gender is obsolete when knowledge is the main focus, although a woman could never become a Philosopher Ruler. In 1869 Mill wrote The Subjection of Women, in which he encouraged and supported equal rights for both genders. Mill encouraged the equal rights for women on the basis of utility. He argued that we could not criticise women for being less skilled than men if we did not give them equal opportunity to try. He also said that society could not be at its best when half the population could contribute nothing to society outside of the home. Plato had a number of conditions that he says will help maximise the usefulness of all members of society, the stories which children are told must be authorised, and there is the censorship of music and the restriction of meat and fish unless it is roasted. Children are to be removed from their parents and are not to know who their parents are and visa versa. They are to call all males old enough father and all females mother, the purpose of this was to minimise private possessive emotions therefore reinforcing their focus on their relationship with their community. Deformed children and children of inferior breeding will be put away in some mysterious unknown place as they ought to be. The works of Homer and Hesiod, two of the earliest Greek poets are banned, as they encourage their readers to fear death, and depict the heavens as being filled with the inextinguishable laughter of the blessed Gods. Plato on the other hand banned loud laughter. Mill would argue that this repression is an infringement of basic human rights, and the suppression of individual development and human flourishing will do nothing but hinder the development and progression of mankind. How can society benefit if most individuals are at a disadvantage as to developing their own unique skills? Plato classifies people in three groups, as gold, the best members of society fit to be guardians, as silver members fit to be soldiers, and the common herd of brass and iron, fit only to be the producers. This is what Plato describes as the one royal lie used to deceive both the rulers, and the rest of the city, if he can justify lying about Gods creation of the three differing classes of people then why is he justified in choosing which one they belong to? Breeding is organised with the strongest members of society used simply to keep the population constant and as best bred as they can be. The strongest of sires are allowed to have the most children and the weaker ones less. The fundamental difference between Mill and Plato is that while Plato wished to radically change the structure of society in order to condition and force the people to behave and think in a certain way, Mill would leave the people to develop naturally, yet offer them all the education and teaching needed to steer them away from negative things and intervene only when one is inflicting harm upon another. Mills two main criticisms of Platos republic are that the proper function of the state is to regulate behaviour, not to encourage one or anothers set of belief or values. The second is that tolerance should be restricted to cases where it does not undermine the moral foundations of the community. He would argue that social bigotry should be restrained for the sake of encouraging freedom of thought and expression. Mill endorses Grotes admiration of Athenian tolerance, as tolerance is a necessity and encourages genius as a society may have persons of talentbut genius in such a soil is fatally stunted in its growth. Plato on the other hand criticises Athenian tolerance on the basis that the maintenance of public emotions requires repression by both law and by non-legal sanctions. He held the belief that Athenian tolerance undermines civic spirit required for the furtherance of the tolerant society itself. Aristotle, a student of Platos born in 384BC stated that it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. It is interesting that somebody taught by Plato would recognise the need for the self-development of opinion, something that Mill believes to be essential for a progressive society. Mill states that his father taught him to value Plato and his contributions to philosophy, and he says that he does just that. He called himself a pioneer when he began his translations of Platos work. Perhaps this was because he believed that the time that separated the two philosophers had made way for changes albeit dramatic, to Platos ideas that would concur with the modern world. Mill criticised Plato for trying to show that virtue is in the individuals interest, but also for attempting to give justification that virtue should be preferred at all. Neither Plato nor Mills work is flawless, so criticisms can be made on their errors and self-contradictions, yet both of these men helped advance philosophy immensely, and provided the basis of much discussion and debate. For Mill, freedom is necessary and desirable by both the individual and society. For Plato however freedom is not of fundamental concern; it is far more important to live according to the eternal and immutable truths. Herein lays the biggest contrast in the works of these two influential philosophers as regards the relationship between the individual and society.

Amazons New Store Utility Computing Information Technology Essay

Amazons New Store Utility Computing Information Technology Essay With the leadership of the dynamic, young chief executive and co-founder Jeff Bezos known as the king of cyber commerce, who started a business with selling books from his house basement in a Bellevue garage to creating Seattles biggest Internet venture, Amazon made the first sale on the cyber and crossed the borders with its invention that gave millions of people the opportunity to sell and buy online with ease and freedom. Amazon the worlds largest online retailer was probably the first truly worldwide community that was built online with allowing average consumers to create online product reviews and gave them the opportunity to research them before buying. (Frey, Cook, 2008) Since its toddler years, Amazon creation was based on new and invented ideas which no one has made before, first by adopting the explosion of cyber era and creating the first online store which gave consumers easy access to products they never seen before with a feasible price they will not find in the retail stores, then Amazon astonished the public by providing the first online community that allows consumers to create product reviews and gave them a chance to closely know and research the products before they buy them. In despite of losses that exceeded a billion dollar in its early years, Amazon didnt stop its continuous improvements and revolutionary products and services with introducing new concepts and technologies which are completely new inventions no one made before which have an extensive advantage and promise in the advancement of the whole world. One of Amazons recent great inventions in the cyber is cloud computing, also known as on-demand computing or utility computing which will be our main concern in the discussion of this case study and to discover how Amazon which is not known as a technology company exceeded its reputation as a retailer and possessed an infrastructure considered by many to be among the most robust in the world and getting ahead of technology companies like IBM, HP, and Sun Microsystems with offering utility computing without requiring service-level agreements. (Laudon, 2010) Also among our study of Amazons cloud computing, we will compare other suppliers of utility computing and exhibit the services they provide, their availability promise, payment model, and their target clients in comparison to new services offered by Amazons utility computing. Furthermore, I will go through some of the IT infrastructure hardware and software components which are explained in chapter five of the Laudon, K. C., Laudon J. P., Management Information Systems textbook and discuss their relevant to Amazons case; also we will describe how these components fit into Amazons Web services and/or the customers that subscribe to these services. In the last part of our discussion, I will try to discuss an idea of a Web-based startup business and explain how this business could utilize Amazons S3 and EC2 services which should give us a practical example of a real live scenario. Cloud Computing: What Is It Really? There has been a huge amount of Hype around the term Cloud Computing, with people wanting to move Applications on the Cloud, or Security on the Cloud and now even talks of an OS on the Cloud. The question for folks who have just heard of the term typically is, what really is Cloud Computing and How is it going to change things in IT? (Raghupathi, 2009) So lets first explain in more detail the concept of cloud computing and what it does, so we can understand the whole story and discover its pros and cons. Well Cloud Computing has recently emerged as one of the very hot technology trends and is quickly turning into a game changing trend given the significant implications that it can have on all of IT and IT driven businesses. Cloud Computing as the term indicates implies using the Cloud Infrastructure or Internet Based Shared Infrastructure to host and access critical business and personal applications. Typically it involves hosting applications and their corresponding data on shared servers on the Internet and accesses the applications through a browser. (Raghupathi, 2009) Today Cloud Computing changed the way of IS with complete shift from a desktop based model. Most applications have been installed on desktops and are used locally and typically needs to be installed on each desktop that needs to access that specific application or data. With the Cloud computing model, applications are Web Based hosted on a Cloud Server and users can access their applications and data from any machine which has a browser and Internet access. Also Cloud Computing change the way of hosting Applications and services. Today most businesses own and operate their own servers within their network firewalls and host and maintain their application and servers. This typically adds an additional overhead for companies to maintain their infrastructure and is typically sub optimal in terms of utilization of resources. Moving the Cloud model involves businesses hosting their applications and services on third party servers using shared resources. (Raghupathi, 2009) Amazons Technology Services Amazon provides cloud computing, also known as on-demand computing or utility computing. Similar to other utility providers like electric, water, and natural gas, Amazon provides computing capacity to businesses that want to pay only for what they use. (IT Infrastructure, 2009) Amazon can generate extra revenue from other businesses by offering its excess capacity to those that need it. Like most companies, Amazon used only a small portion of it total computing capacity at any one time. Its infrastructure is considered by many to be among the most robust in the world. (Laudon, 2010) Subscribers to the Simple Storage Service (S3) can use only what they need without having to purchase their own hardware and software. That reduces the total cost of ownership for small and medium-size businesses. The system is scalable and reliable for both Amazon and subscribers. The Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service enables businesses to utilize Amazons servers for computing tasks without having the overhead costs. Risks associated with incorporating the technology are minimal for businesses-Amazon takes most of the risks. Companies may want to go with more established names in computing; Amazon is not known as a technology company-its reputation is more as a retailer. Its combating this perception by not requiring service contracts. However, its competitors like IBM, HP, and Sun Microsystems may follow Amazons lead and offer utility computing without requiring service-level agreements. Some companies are wary of using a supplier that doesnt offer SLAs which guarantee the availability of services in terms of time. The growth of Amazon Web Services (AWS) could be harmful to its Web services line as well as its retail line if the company doesnt position itself to handle a dramatic increase in demand on its infrastructure. (Laudon, 2010) Customers may experience outages in the service and not have any recompense since there are no service level agreements-only Amazons word that it will maintain 99.9 percent availability. (IT Infrastructure, 2009) Businesses, large and small, can benefit from using AWS. The service relieves small business from the TCO of having its own systems. AWS creates the opportunity for others to work at Web scale without making the mistakes that Amazon has already made and learned from. Large businesses can use AWS as an auxiliary unit without having to increase their hardware and associated TCO. (Laudon, 2010) In my perspective, Amazon made a great shift in the IT field with the introduction of Cloud Computing services. Having the ability to run many applications on many different operating systems and storing your data through a web browser for a fraction of a dollar with no need to multiple devices or operating systems is really awesome. In using Amazons services, individuals and especially developers have more advantage than mid-size or large businesses because they cant afford to have many devices or systems if they want to try different applications or operating systems but with using Amazons services everyone will have the opportunity. To learn how Amazon Web Services enables you to achieve your goals with great flexibility, go to Amazon Web Services site and sign up to free account and explore the potentials of Cloud Computing Figure Home Page Of Amazon Web Services Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ Capacity planning, scalability, and TCO Amazon must provide hardware capacity planning and scalability for not just its own needs but for all its subscribers. Overestimates will create a drain on Amazons financial assets. Underestimating capacity and scalability will create shortages for its own business and its subscribers. Too many instances of non-availability will create the impression that Amazon cant manage the service. Estimating scalability for such a large, diverse number of users without breaking down is a huge task. Amazon must bear the total TCO of its services, all the while ensuring it can profit from it. The services subscribers benefit from not having to worry about these issues and not bearing the brunt of TCO issues. (IT Infrastructure, 2009) I think Amazon should pay a serious attention to the capacity and scalability issues because these two factors may lead to the demise of Amazon. Amazon should plan a head to increase its capacity due to the proliferation of its AWS and the growing number of subscribers to its cloud computing services. Utility Computing Suppliers There are many different suppliers of utility computing and everyone provide different services with different prices and variety of targeted clients, even though Amazon is considered to be the cheapest utility computing supplier which made it possible to everyone to have a chance of trying and implementing this new trend of technology. In the table below we will compare Amazon to other two suppliers based on different criteria. Criteria Amazon Sun Microsystems Hewlett-Packard HP Available Services Amazon provides cloud computing through Web Services, Simple Storage System (S3), and Compute Cloud (EC2) offers utility computing through grid computing provides utility computing for PCs, server storage, mail and messaging, print, and centralized data center infrastructure through its distributed grid technology. Target Clients Serve start-up businesses because it has been geared towards small and medium sized businesses since its inception. It doesnt bring the same baggage to the table as the larger, more diverse companies do It provides platforms for its target users in computational mathematics, computer aided engineering, electronic design automation, financial services, life sciences computing tasks. Software developers It targets small, medium and large sized companies for a variety of computing services Price 15 cents per 1 gigabyte of stored data per month and charge 10 cents per CPU hour It charges $1 per CPU hour Costs were not available on its web site Availability It promises 99.9 percent availability It promises 99.9 percent availability 99.9 percent If I decide to launch a start-up web business, I will definitely choose Amazon for my web services and needs, also I believe most of us will be in the same track as I did because Amazon is the cheapest supplier and it has been geared towards small and medium sized businesses since its inception and It promises 99.9 percent availability. Furthermore, everyone when starts a business especially online will always look for efficient and affordable services. Amazons IT infrastructure Amazons Web services use the following hardware components: (IT Infrastructure, 2009) client/server architecture as the server grid computing distributed processing storage area networks virtualization multi-core processors Customers using Amazons Web services utilize the following hardware components: (IT Infrastructure, 2009) client/server architecture as the client distributed processing storage area networks Amazons Web services use the following software components: (IT Infrastructure, 2009) Linux and Unix operating system software Java, Ajax, and HTML as the provider XML Software as a Service (Saas) as the software provider Customers using Amazons Web services utilize the following software components: (IT Infrastructure, 2009) Windows operating system or Mac OS Java, Ajax, and HTML as the recipient Software as a Service (Saas) as the software user Mashups, widgets, cloud computing could be used by customers Startup Business Utilizing Amazons Utility Computing Every student knows how expensive is buying text books directly from the college/university book store which most of us sometimes cannot afford if want to graduate without a heavy load of student loans. My startup business idea will be based on this issue in which I will try to give students an affordable source for buying textbooks and then selling them back at the end of the semester. My startup business will be an e-commerce website the give the users the ability to buy or sell textbooks online or give them an option to buy electronic version of the text book they need which is in common more affordable than buying a hard copy. Every new user will sign up for a free account and provide his/her Name, Address, DOB, University/College, School Year, Major, and Last Semester. Then based on this information which the user just entered, I will add his university, major, and current term to my database of universities, their majors, terms, and related courses with the required text books. The users will have three options: buy a used book which is available and offered by another user, list his/her book for sale, or buy an electronic version of the text book. The users will have the freedom to put the prices they want to sell their text books for, in case they want to buy a text book they are free to accept the listed price or to negotiate with the seller to further reduce the price, the last option will be a fixed price for the electronic version of the text book which I will get from other providers and add a three dollars as a profit. When users sell their text books, they will pay three dollars for listing fee. This startup business will utilize the following Amazons web services: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud which delivers scalable, pay-as-you-go compute capacity in the cloud. (Amazon Web Services. 2010) Amazon SimpleDB which works in conjunction with Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 to run queries on structured data in real time. (Amazon Web Services. 2010) Amazon Simple Storage Service that provides a fully redundant data storage infrastructure for storing and retrieving any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the Web. (Amazon Web Services. 2010) Utilized EC2 and S3 of the proposed system Our e-commerce website which will provide students with affordable text books will have the below EC2 and S3features: Instance type is a Standard Instance and this family of instances is well suited for most applications. At the start up of the business we will choose Small Instance (Default) 1.7 GB of memory, 1 EC2 Compute Unit (1 virtual core with 1 EC2 Compute Unit), 160 GB of local instance storage, 32-bit platform which will be more than enough at the first year of launce. Operating System: we will run the website on the Amazon Linux AMI Databases: we will run the website on Oracle Database Management System which is the most reliable and famous among DBMS. (Amazon Web Services. 2010) In the first year of the business launch, we will run the website utilizing EC2 and S3 by choosing the basic plans which are cost effective because at this time our online book store will still unknown and in its early stage and we need to focus our attention on marketing and promoting the website. At this stage, we will not consume a huge amount of data storage or data transfer bandwidth, so choosing basic plans of EC2 and S3 will be more than enough to run our business for its first year of launch. After the first or second year of the launch, if we notice the website is getting well known and we have thousands of users and sales transactions, we can decide and make a plan of expanding our EC2 CPU instance and S3 data storage which can be implemented easily in Amazon AWS without even service interruption. Figure Snapshot of Proposed EC2 Implementation Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ Figure Snapshot of Proposed Amazon S3 Features Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ Figure Snapshot of Proposed Amazon SimpleDB Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ Costs Associated With Utilizing EC2 and S3 Services The total implementation cost of our proposed business based on the selected plans of EC2, S3, and Amazon Simple DB is depicted in the figures below using Amazon AWS Simple Monthly Calculator Figure Estimates of Implementation Costs Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ Figure Costs of S3 Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ Conclusion Today Cloud Computing changed the way of IS with a complete shift from a desktop based model. The term Cloud Computing implies using the Cloud Infrastructure or Internet Based Shared Infrastructure to host and access critical business and personal applications. Typically it involves hosting applications and their corresponding data on shared servers on the Internet and accesses the applications through a browser. (Raghupathi, 2009) Amazon was smart to bet early and bet big on the cloud computing opportunity and has transformed the computing landscape and nurtured what is generically known as the cloud computing industry. By turning expensive storage and computing hardware into a billable service, it has opened up new vistas for entrepreneurs and made corporations rethink how they build and use their computing and storage resources. (Malik, 2010) Amazon gave the opportunity to thousands of individuals to have an affordable access to their full line of computing and web services with pay-as-you-go rule and without any contracts or agreements. Also costs are billed per consumption, so no one get charged while not using Amazons web services. Amazon has twelve AWS product lines, EC2 and S3 are the most services that compete in this subcategory. AWS essentially rents out IT infrastructure to companies that seek to outsource IT needs such as Application Hosting, Web Hosting, High Performance Computing, Storage, E-Commerce, and more. (Malik, 2010) Utilizing some of Amazons web services and cloud computing technologies we can manage to start up a effective and powerful business with an affordable monthly payment without a need to an expensive startup costs which result from buying PCs, servers, and other software applications which are critical components required for the operation of any new business. Figure Amazons Web Services Infrastructure awsplatformexplained.gif

Analysis of The Open Boat by Stephen Crane Essay -- The Open Boat Step

Analysis of The Open Boat by Stephen Crane Story: â€Å"The Open Boat,† 1897 Author: Stephen Crane (1871-1900) Central Character: There is no real central character in this story. All the men on the boat are spoken about more or less equally and no prominent character jumps out at the reader as being the central character. Although more emphasis is put onto the correspondent, and Billie the oiler. Other Character: The cook: bails water from boat. Billie the oiler: steers and rows boat, is the only of the men that does not make it alive to land. The correspondent: Also helps steer and row boat. Injured captain: gives commands to the crew as he lies against the water-jar speaking with a low and calm voice. Unnamed people on land: Coat swinger, naked man, etc. Setting: A 10 foot dinghy floats upon a rowdy ocean near the coast of Florida in January in the late 1800’s. It seems that everything on the sea is grey weighing heavily on the feeling of the men. There is a tired and frustrated feelings among the men as they want to leave the boat and return to land, although, Billie and the cook provide some humor when referring to the blasted oars and to pie. Narrator: The author, 3rd person, omniscient point of view. Events in summary: (1) Four men have survived from a sunken steamer and are stuck in a 10 ft steamer out at sea some where near the coast of Florida.(2)The Injured captain lay over the water-jar giving orders to the correspondent and Billie the oiler letting them know how to steer and row the boat. The crew makes its way to Mosquito Inlet light where they believe that there will be a house of refuge. (3) Seagulls taunt the crew, one in particular trying to land on the captain’s head. This kills the crew’s optimism about the wind blowing ashore. The oiler and the correspondent continue to row switching off when the other is tired. (4) The captain then spots a lighthouse on the horizon, like a small dot. The captain decides to use his jacket and an oar to make a sail to let the men rest. No one spots the boat and they find it curious, assuming that no one must be looking out the window out to the sea. They deicide to got back to sea to avoid the risky surf. (5) The wind d ies down and the men spot some more people on the shore. There is a van or a boat of some sort, and a man that is swinging his coat. They don’t actually try to help the crew they just ... ... sit comfortably in groups on the water while the sea tries to attack the men. The shark finds no use for the men, the correspondent views the windmill as a symbol of nature in that it is neutral and unconcerned by the men’s destiny sitting on the lonely shore. The characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. The correspondent remembers a rhyme from his childhood, and he feels pity for the dying soldier mentioned in that verse. This verse never seemed important to him before, but now being menaced my nature and being alone in the cruel world he understands the soldiers situation. Evaluation: I enjoyed this story, because it had many different kinds of criticism that could be applied to it. Especially that of biographical criticism because it based off at true story that actually happened to the author himself. It was also nice to see the characters grow, as friends and as men. I also really enjoyed the style of writing and the use of similes, imagery, and detail. These really painted a picture in my head. Works Cited Crane, Stephen. â€Å"The Open Boat.† An Introduction to Fiction. X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. New York: Longman 2005.215-233.

Quality of Work Life Essay

Employees at any level many time experience a sense of frustration because low level of wages, poor working conditions, unfavourable terms of employment, inhuman treatement by their superiors & the like whereas managerial personnel feel frustrated because of alienation over their condition of employment , interpersonal conflicts, role conflicts, Job pressure , lack of freedom , absence of challenging work, etc. QWL means different things to different people, J. Richard & J. Loy define QWL as † the degree to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy mportant personnel needs through their experience in the organization. † In the search for improved productivity, manager & executives alike are discovering the important contribution of QWL. Hackman & suttle describe QWL from varied viewpoints. From a professional view point , it refers to industrial democracy, increase workewrs participation in corporate decision making , or culmination of the goals of human realations. In terms of management perspective, it relates to a variety of efforts to improve productivity through improvements in the human , rather than he capital or technological inputs of production. From standpoint of the characteristics of individual workers , it refers to the degree to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy important personal needs through their experience in the organization. From the unions, perspective , it is a more equitable sharing of the income and resources of the work of organization, and more human & healthier working conditions. DIMENSIONS OF STUDY : Quality of work life improvement are defined as any activity which takes place at very level of organization which seeks greater organizational effectiveness through enhancement of human dignity and growth a process through which the stockholders in the organization management, union and employees- learn how to work together to better to determine for themselves what actions, changes & improvements are desirable and workable in order to achive twin & simultaneous goals of an improve quality of life at work for all members of organization & greater effectiveness for the company and unions. Trade union claim that they are responsible for the improvements in various facilities to workers hereas management takes credit for improved salaries, benefits & facilities. However, HR manager has identified specific issues in QWL. Klott Mundick& Schuster suggested major QWL issues. They are: (1) Pay & Employment on permanent basis: Good pay still dominates most of the other factors in employee satisfaction. Various alternative means for providing wages should be developed in view of increase in cost of living index , increase in levels & rates of income tax & profession tax. QWL must be build around an equitable pay programs . in uture more workers may want to participate in the profits of the firm. Employment of workers on casual, temporary, probationary basis gives them sense of insecurity. On the other hand , employment on the other basis gives them security & leads to higher order QWL. (2) Occupational Stress : Stress is a condition of strain on one’s emotions, thought process ; physical condition . stress is determined by the worker’s abilities & nature and match with the Job requirements. Stress is cause due irritability, offering prestigious designation to the Jobs, providing well furnish amp; decent work places, offering membership in clubs or association , providing vehicles, offering vacation trips, or means to recognize the employees hyper- excitation or depression unstable behaviour, fatigue, stuttering, trembling psychometric pains, heavy smoking & drug abuse. Stress adversely effects on employee’s productivity. The HR manager, in order to minimize the stress has to identifiy, prevent ; tackle the problem. He may arrange the treatment of problem with the health unit or provide some stress buster activities during the hectic work schedule. 3) Organizational Health programs : Organizational health programs aim at educating employees about health problems means of maintaining ; improving health etc. These programme covers drinking and smoking cessation ( if it is affecting the productivity of employee ) , hypertension control , other forms of cardiovascular risk reduction, family planning etc. Effective implementation of these progrme results in reduction in absenteeism, hospitalization ,disability, excessive Job turnover ; premature death. It should also covers relaxation, physical exercise , diet control etc. 4) Alternative work schedule : Alternative work schedule including work at home , flexible working hours, staggered hours , and reduced work week, part time employment which may be introduced for the convenience ; comfort of the workers as the work schedule which offers the individual the leisure time , flexible hours of work is preferred. 5) Participative Management ; control of work : Trade unions and workers participation in management and decision making improves QWL . workers also feel that they have control their work, use their skills ; make a real contribution to the Job if they re allowed to participate in creative and decision making process. (6) Recognition : recognizing the employee as a human being rather than as a labourer increases the QWL . Participative management , awarding the rewarding systems , congratulating the employees for their achievement , Job enrichment, offering prestigious designation to the Jobs, providing well furnish and decent work places,offering membership in club or associations , providing vehicles , offering vacation trips, or some means to recognize the employees . (7) Congenial Worker- supervisor Relation : Harmonious supervisor- worker relations give the worker essence of social association , belongingness, achievement of worker results etc. This in turn led to better QWL. 8) Grievance procedure : workers have a sence of fair treatement when the company gives them opportunity to ventilate their grievances and represent their case succinctly rather than settling the problems arbitrarily. (9) Adequacy of resources : Resources should match with stated objective ; otherwise , employee will not be able to attain them . This results in the employee dissatisfaction and lower QWL. 10) Seniority ; meri t in promotions : seniority is generally taken as the basis of promotion in case of operating employees . Merit is considered as the basis for advancement for managerial people whereas seniority cum- merit is preferred for promotion of ministerial employees. The promotional policies ; activities should be fair 7 Just in order to ensure higher QWL. (11) Welfare Benefits : Since workers are now better organized , educated ; vociferous, they demand social security ; welfare benefits as a matter of right which were once considered a part of bargaining process.

Critique for the Potentials, Network, Motivations, and Barriers: Steps Towards Participation in Social Movements

Critique for the Potentials, Network, Motivations, and Barriers: Steps towards participation in social movements. The four factors to form social movement are mobilization potentials, forming and activating recruiting networks, raising the motivation to participate and overcome the barriers of participation. Becoming a participant also required four different steps: becoming part of the mobilization potential, becoming target of the mobilization attempts, becoming motivated to participated and overcome the barriers to participate.To define the mobilization potential, the term referred to the people who take a positive attitude to the social movement. Attitudes consist of means and goals toward the movement. With the respect toward means, the term is related to the willingness to become engaged in conventional forms of political behavior, the protest potential in abbreviation. With the respect toward the goals, the concept is related to manifest political potential which means a group of people with a common identity and sharing the common goals. People who are not involved in the mobilization potential won’t consider participating in the movement activities.To explain the recruitment network and the mobilization attempts. Despite the mobilizing consensus and the mobilization potential, if these factors can’t be linked to the recruitment network, the mobilization won’t be realized. The networks identifies whether the people became the target of mobilization attempts. People can be target by the mobilization attempts by media, mail, relationships with organizations and friends. Different routes get a different influence on people. The significance of friendships reaching potential participants has been emphasized in many researches.The third factor is the motivation to participate. The motivation is defined as the function of the perceived costs and the benefits of participation. Two different kinds of incentives are identified as the collect ive incentives and the selective incentives. With the respect to the collective incentives, a multiplicative relationship is assumed between the value of the collective goods and the expectancy of the success. With the respect of the collective incentives, the soft or social incentives are important in determining the willingness to participate while the effect of the hard or nonsocial incentives is ambiguous.Such incentives appeared different effects in different environment. Since the movements must communicate to the potential participants to which extent the incentives are controlled by the movement, the mobilization of consensus is also a key part of this stage. The fourth factor is the barriers to participation. Motivation and barriers interact to active participation. The more people are motivated, the higher barrier they can overcome. Maintaining or increasing motivation or removing barriers are the two strategies for the movement.The paper gave the data on all the four step s of the mobilization campaign for the peace demonstration in The Hague in 1983 which is the largest demonstration the Netherlands had ever experienced. The authors conducted surveys before and after the demonstration in sake to analyze the participation behavior. In the survey, the mobilization potential, mobilization target, motivations, participation, attitudes, incentives, participation barriers, leftism of party vote and demographics of the participant have been measured. In each of the process toward the final demonstration considerable amount of people drop out.Not being the target of the mobilization attempts, unable to overcome the barriers, could not arouse the motivation to participate lead to the drop out situation. The author analyzes those factors carefully in the paper to explain the result. The first step is the mobilization potential. Authors compared the age, gender, education, vote behavior, and attitudinal factors to analyze the people whether belong to the mobil ization or not. With the respect to the demographics, olds and people who votes for the right party tend not belong to the mobilization potential.People from the mobilization potential were more concern about and fight against about the missile deployment and sign a petition to against the deployment. The two groups show no difference on the possibility to control the arms race no matter in which way this would be achieved. The political preference is also a factor influence the motivation potential. People who stay outside the mobilization potential of movement against the missile were mostly from the right wing. The entire left wing of the Dutch society was the part of the motivation potential.The author also found that the people who did not belong to the motivation potential got higher education level which is contradict to previous study. In conclusion, the mobilization potential of the movement covered a wide range of social categories rather than restricted to categories thou ght to be typical of the mobilization potentials of new social movements like new middle class, well-educated professionals and youth. The second step is to become the target of the mobilization attempts. Whether a person has formal or informal links with local peace movement is used to test whether person have been the target of mobilization attempt.Most of the mobilization potentials were reached by mobilization attempts by formal networks like visit peace stand, reading newspapers or reached by organizations. Individual with several or even many acquaintances who tend to go to the demonstration are defined as have an informal recruitment network to the movement. Only 30% of the respondent got several informal links. The ratio of the mobilization potential has no link, formal link or informal link with the peace movement networks are quite the same at around 20%. 40% of the people got both kinds of link to the movement.This indicates that people who belonged to the mobilization po tential had been as frequently targets of mobilization attempts as people outside the mobilization potential. People outside the potential have more formal links than the people within the potential. But with fewer informal links doesn’t prevent the government organization to approach these people. Gender factors have no independent effect on the links to government networks. Highly educated people appeared to create new mobilization potentials because they connected to the social network engaged in recruitment more.Informal networks are far more important than the formal ones in arousal of the motivation to participate. The third step is the motivation to participate. The motivation depends on the specific blend of costs and benefits perceived. With the respect of the collective incentives, in this demonstration, none of the respondent was optimistic about the outcome. In this protection, the potential participants estimated the number of participants more than the nonpartic ipant did, this is contradict to the finding that people tend to participate more if they expect others will do so as well.But in certain conditions, people tend to participate less when they believe other people will. With the respect of the selective cost and benefit, knowing more people will increase the tendency one goes to the demonstration. The nonsocial cost of the demonstration is low. In the regression analysis, the result shows that the collective incentives were more important than the selective incentives in determining the motivation to participate. Due to the small sample size, the stage of overcome the barriers to participate cannot be explain.Previous papers have explained the nonparticipation in many points of views. Free rider problem has been used to explain the nonparticipation phenomena. In some past research, free rider theory has been used to explain the non-participation. In this research, the author explains the non-participation by the four steps towards th e participation. This paper also reveals that the attitudes toward to goal were important determinant of willingness to participate.The network and ideological incentives are another important factor affect peoples’ participation decision. In this paper, the author gives four stages to explain why people would like to participate in social movement or not. The issue the author does not mention a lot is the institutional factors. How the institution can courage people to participate the movement and how they can control the movement can be studied. The problem in the paper is the sample size may be a little too small. This may cause some statistical problem during the research.