Problem Solving In Mathematics Essay Sample free essay sample

Learning job resolution is neer a witness game. The scholars have to be actively involved if any meaningful acquisition has to take topographic point. Different instructors use different schemes and techniques. In learning contents. the instructor has no option but to get the hang schemes and accomplishments that will animate scholars to go motivated and really bask larning. ( Leamson. R. 2000 ) . Besides learners must be taught intensively and extensively the schemes. The scholars â€Å"†¦ must do what they learn portion of themselves. † ( Chickening. A. W. A ; Gamson. Z. F. 1987 ) . The instructor should endeavor to trip intrinsic motive in the scholars. as this is likely to do them win. Poor masterly of schemes deny pupils the power to be flexible as they lack attack options to take from in work outing jobs. When scholars know a assortment of techniques. they do non give up at the first failure. they tend to use different attacks until they get it right ( continuity ) . We will write a custom essay sample on Problem Solving In Mathematics Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When they get it right. they get motivated and larn to be flexible and relentless alternatively of giving up. Most pupils at the class between 7-12 have a disfavor for mathematics. Poor masterly of techniques has been held perpetrator for this. In the effort to enable the scholars between 7-12 classs develop continuity and flexibleness in mathematics. a figure of job work outing schemes and techniques can be instrumental and they include: 1 ) . Work Backward Strategy Problem: Cleo got his wage on Wednesday. on Thursday he spent $ 1. 50 at the hotel. On Friday. Ben paid Cleo the $ 1. 00 he owed him. If Cleo now has $ 2. 00. how much is his salary? Understanding the job How much money did Cleo hold on Friday? ( $ 2. 00 ) How much money did Cleo spent in the hotel? ( $ 1. 50 ) How much money was given on top of his wage? ( $ 1. 00 ) Planing a solution Had Cleo got Ben’s $ 1. 00 on Thursday dark? ( No ) How much money did Cleo hold at the terminal of Thursday? ( $ 2. 00- $ 1. 00= $ 1. 00 ) How much money did Cleo hold before he spent $ 1. 50 on Tuesday? ( 2. 50 ) Finding the reply Start with $ 2. 00 Subtract $ 1. 00 Add $ 1. 50 End with $2. 50 Extension of job This scheme can be applied in work outing all jobs that deal with disbursement. For case. John spend ? of his gas on twenty-four hours 1. and 2/3 of the staying on the 2nd twenty-four hours. if the staying was one litre. what capacity was his gas before usage? 2 ) Make a tabular array scheme Cleo and Tom began reading a novel the same twenty-four hours. If Cleo reads 5 pages each twenty-four hours and Tom 3 pages each twenty-four hours. what page will Tom be when Cleo will be reading page 20? Fig. 1 Understanding the job How many pages does Cleo read each twenty-four hours? ( 5 ) Tom? ( 3 ) . Did they start reading their books on the same twenty-four hours? ( Yes ) Planing a solution How many pages hadeachread at the terminal of the twenty-four hours 1? Cleo ( 5 ) Tom ( 3 ) Find the figure of pages read for the first 3 yearss. 5. 10. 15 Finding the solution Fig 1 shows that. Tom will be reading page 12 when Cleo is reading page 20 Problem extension Cleo digs 10 Hectors a twenty-four hours. Tom digs 8 while Ben digs 6. what Hector will Tom and Ben be delving when Cleo will be delving his 50ThursdayHector? Using the tabular array the pupil will be able to work it. Materials:the pupil will necessitate 10 beans. a cup. pencil and a apparent paper. Aim: Not many pupils are abstract minds. The beans painted on one side with a colour like white and black on the other side to stand for positive and negative isa concrete mention for the construct of whole numbers.This will stand for a positive and a negative side in an activity such as ( +2 ) – ( -1 ) = +3 Activities and process: the students’ brace up and make up ones mind on which colour is negative and which represents positive. Each pupil tosses the beans and records the result. for case. ( +3 ) + ( -2 ) = +1. As the game continues. the pupils internalize the regulations of working with signed Numberss and the regulation can be extended to division and generation Extension:they learn the existent life application. For illustration I received $ 6. I owe Tom $ 4. What does my history read? ( +6 ) + ( -4 ) = +2 4 ) Guess and cheque technique This scheme arrives at a verifiable reply through thinking possible replies and look intoing to see which reply fits the job. Students should predetermine a likely starting point and work in the right way to work out the job. The best pupil achieves this by extinguishing every bit many Numberss as possible with every conjecture. Examples:Caleb has 40 balls. If he had 10 more white types than the black type. how many of each ball did he hold? Understanding the job. There are more 10 white balls than black balls so white ball +10. Black balls –10. Half of 40 = 20 so if there were 20 black the white would be 30 ( 20+10 ) hence non right. So the figure of black is less than 20. Half the difference between the 2 entire s and subtract from old conjecture different is 10 half = 5 hence the black balls are 20-5 = 15. White ball = 25 so that 15+25 = 40. The 2nd conjecture is right 5 ) . Solve a simpler job Some jobs are excessively complex to work out in one measure. The scholar should split it into instances and work outing each individually. Example ;how many palindromes are at that place between 0-1000? The pupil can work out this by get downing at how many of the Numberss 1-9 are palindromes? All the nine are palindromes. How many of the figure 10-99 are palindromes? 11 22 33 y = 9 . . 111 212 †¦ . 919 121 222 †¦ . 929 †¦ . †¦ . †¦ 191 292 †¦ . 999 Working out 9 columns?10 palindromes=90 90 palindromes from 100-999 The reply is ( 90+9+9 ) =108 The above techniques and others must be accompanied withoriginativejob fluctuation. such as altering context/setting. It is merely after pupils have mastered assorted techniques to work out similar or varied jobs that they can develop flexibleness and continuity. So the instructor should aptly learn the application of assorted schemes. The scholars should cognize how to choose appropriate techniques for each job and how to warrant their solutions utilizing different attacks. When pupils develop flexibleness and continuity. they learn to see the trouble of complex mathematical probes as a challenge instead than a fuss. When they solve a job successfully. they experience a feeling of achievement. This motivates them to try harder jobs. Remember theextensionof jobs help ingeneralisation of jobsand makes the scholar to be originative. do value judgement andincorporate other subdivisionsof mathematics. In decision. techniques for work outing different jobs coupled with plentifulness of illustrations. actuating exercisings that build accomplishments and assurance. visually appealing artworks presented in merriment. and extremely piquant mode should wholly be used to assist scholars develop flexibleness and continuity in work outing jobs. Mentions Charles. R. L. . Mason. R. . P. . Nofsinger. J. M. A ; White. C. A. ( 1985 ) . problem-solving experiences in mathematics. Addison: Wesley publication company. Leamson. R. ( 2000 ) . Algebra in simplest footings. From World Wide Web. scholar. org/resources/series66htm as retrieved on Nov 1 2007. 19:43:52. GMT Polya. G. ( 1973 ) . How to work out it. Princeton: Princeton university imperativeness.

Transistors essays

Transistors essays Semiconductors have an electrical resistivity that is in between those of good conductors and those of good insulators. Both silicon and germanium, which are the two basic semiconductors, have four electrons in the outermost electron subshell. In formation of the lattice structure of the silicon or germanium, all the valence electrons are involved in the bonding, so the material should be an insulator. However, an unusually small amount of energy is needed to break one of the bonds and set an electron free to roam around the lattice. This energy is approximately 1ev. This energy corresponds to the energy gap between the valence and conduction bands. In an insulator, this energy gap is very high to approximately 5ev. No electron can naturally attain 5ev. At room temperature, a substantial number of electrons are dislocated from their parent atom in a semiconductor. This number increases with increasing temperature so we can say that semiconductors have higher conductivity at higher temperatures. When an electron is removed from a covalent bond, it leaves a hole and this hole can travel through the lattice and serve as an additional current carrier. The current mostly comes from the electrons that are out of the lattice structure. A hole behaves like a positively charged particle. In a pure semiconductor, holes and electrons are always present in equal numbers. Devices such as transistors and diodes are fabricated using impurity semiconductors prepared by adding small quantities of foreign atoms, such as arsenic or gallium, to an intrinsic semiconductor. The added foreign atom only accounts for a few part per million. The process of this is known as doping. This process produces two distinct kinds of systems. When silicon is doped with a five valence electron atom as arsenic, the fifth electron is not locked in place so it does not fit and can move around freely within the crystal. These electrons stay in an e...

The Effect of Caffeine on Water Re-absorption in Kidney Lab Report

The Effect of Caffeine on Water Re-absorption in Kidney - Lab Report Example "ADH acts on the kidneys, concentrating the urine by promoting the re-absorption of water from the cortical collecting duct. Peptide hormones are a class of peptides that are secreted into the blood stream and have endocrine functions in living animals. ..." (Anti diuretic hormone, 8 October 2008). The activation process of ADH is done by water receptors and these water receptors are located in extracellular fluid as well as intracellular fluid. It is very important to maintain water homeostasis and this is done by controlling two things namely, the osomolality and the intravascular blood volume. In the body of a human being water is lost by various activities such as breathing, which contributes the maximum in loss of water in a human body other activities include sweating, urination etc. "While several of these processes occur autonomic in healthy individuals, body water homeostasis is tightly controlled by regulating both water intake (drinking) and urinary water excretion. Changes in intravascular blood volume are sensed by vascular volume- and baroreceptors, which regulate the release of the anti diuretic hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP)." (Physiology, 8 October 2008) Caffeine is a diuretic; a diuretic is a drug which elevat... Re-absorption of water increases blood volume and concentrates the urine." (ADH, 8 October 2008). As discussed earlier in the paper that hypothalamus maintains a balance in the body and this is exactly where hypothalamus comes into effect, when hypothalamus detects a decrease in water level in blood, ADH is secreted, and the same is secreted by the posterior pituitary. ADH mainly targets the kidneys because the ultimate role of kidneys is to make sure that there is a good balance of the fluids in the body. The main function of ADH is to concentrate the urine and make sure that there is less of amount of water loss which is taking place in the body, it reduces the urine volume and prevents water loss from the body. Caffeine is responsible for reducing the vasopressin secretion, "Vasopressin is secreted from the posterior pituitary gland in response to reductions in plasma volume and in response to increases in the plasma osomolality" (Vasopressin, 8 October 2008). When caffeine is in took, it results in the reduction of vasopressin secretion, which ultimately means that the water re absorption gets reduced in the body and the output of urine becomes very frequent. The same can be understood with the help of an example, if we consume more coffee which has high levels of caffeine in it, we tend to become restless and the anxiety level in our body tend s to rise to an alarmingly high level, all this happens because of the presence of caffeine in coffee, the ultimate result of consuming more coffee will be dehydration because of the levels of caffeine present in the same. Caffeine causes the body to lose excessive amount of water and if coffee is consumed excessively, dehydration becomes inevitable. It is very easy to

Housing Services Delivery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Housing Services Delivery - Essay Example The change of social housing organizations was hastened by a number of political, economical, and social factors. The first group of political accelerators comprises of governmental policies and regulations aimed at the increase of private housing in the UK. In the post-WWII period the housing policy of the UK government was focused on rebuilding, and providing new homes for the population. However, three reasons were hindering rebuilding processes: first, the government could only spend on housing what the country could afford; second, governmental investments in housing policy required better targeting on the neediest classes of population; and third, the efficient use of public spending were ought to be achieved through drawing in private funding (Collier and Luther, 2002). Thatcher's conservative policy on housing included two main phases: the extension of home ownership and the privatisation of rented housing. Through the increase of private housing among the population the gove rnment was able to focus on social groups, which could not afford to buy a house. Tax incentives, efficiency agenda, and right to buy policy was the next step to increase home ownership among the population: "The rights of council tenants and, later some housing association tenants, to buy their homes under the Right to Buy and Right to Acquire policies has enabled significant numbers of people (over 2 million) become owner occupiers" (Shelter, 2005). Nevertheless it had a negative impact on the supply of affordable housing for rent in many UK regions, "where the provision of new affordable homes has failed to keep pace with the numbers being lost through sales" (Shelter, 2005). The new problem has arisen: in 2002 Britain saw the lowest number of new houses built(measured in starts) since the end of World War II (Cameron, 2003). The housing supply was short, but moreover it mismatched the demand in the cities and regions. Thus, along with the stimulation of private housing governmental policies have created several obstacles on the development of UK housing marke t. Economic Factors Economical factors that lead to the shift from the welfare to contractual resource management in the housing industry identified in the literature are connected to further development of globalization. The success of Western economy, and the spread of the US way of life has entailed the rapid development of private sector in housing. It also has another effect. World Trade Organisation not only reduces barriers to international trade, but also increases the commercial exploitation of public services, including social housing. Pollock and Price (2000) indicate that market-orientated policies including privatisation of public service infrastructure through public-private partnerships is a part of a larger trend of privatization, and redefining of public goods as private responsibilities. The hopes of WTO are concerned with the commercial exploitation of public funding streams, and promoting the commercial interests of transnational corporations. Promotion of privatisation leads to the increase of competition among housing organisations as transatlantic players enter the housing market of the UK (Pollock and Price, 2000). On the one side it allows government to reduce funding to minimal, allowing private owners

Qualitative Research Methodology Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Qualitative Methodology - Research Paper Example While computer technology offers a plethora of benefits in its application to police administration, I assume that it would be met with resistance from management, employees, personnel, and other parties involved. The police administration has been using their old routines and systems for the past decades; abandoning those old routines in exchange of new technologies may pose difficulty for some people. It would take a lot of effort for the people involved to unlearn what they have been doing for the longest time, and then learn and adopt a new system that would eventually replace the old system. Those difficulties, challenges, and resistances must be properly addressed in order for the new system to survive and become successful. Finally, the behavior and attitude of people toward computer technology is mediated by the meanings and experiences they have with it. People possess both positive and negative opinions about using computers in police administration. In addition, the role o f computer technology in their lives is determined by their age, gender, class, and an entire system of values and beliefs. These values and beliefs, when uncovered, would yield a better understanding of their perspective and lead to the development of an E-Administration that is specifically tailored to suit their needs. Considering the abovementioned assumptions, a methodology that would allow me to gain a deep understanding of the subjects being studied is necessary. A methodology that would reveal the insights, beliefs, and experiences of the people would work best for my study. Among all the qualitative research methodologies available, ethnography is what I consider the most proper methodology that would yield the necessary data for my study. 2. Ethnography In a nut shell, ethnography tells the beliefs, values, and attitudes of a certain group of people or culture about something. Primarily applied in anthropology and sociology, the application of ethnography has been extended in the areas of market research, business, and practically any group of people or culture where an understanding of their beliefs, experiences, and attitudes is needed. Using ethnography would uncover the perception and opinion of the RAK Police about using computer technology in their administration. It would also reveal the meanings they hold about technology, which, in turn, influences their attitude towards computers. This would allow me to identify the probable reasons they have in avoiding or accepting the new system. Ethnography would allow me to see patterns of behavior that can be understood rationally and intuitively in a real world context. Their behavior towards the old system would expose the underlying problems and limitations. Understanding the problems of the old system is useful in designing the structure of the new system. Their behavior towards the new system, on the other hand, would serve as a measure of their readiness to accept E-Administration. Ethnography, in addition, would reveal the prevailing norms that shape the perception of the police administration about computer technology. Norms refer to the beliefs and values that a society hold about something. With ethnography, the challenges and resistances which are rooted in the

Overview Of Motivation And Its Theories Business Essay

Overview Of Motivation And Its Theories Business Essay Motivation has been a complex concept to define, because there are many theoretical approach towards the nature of human beings and about what can be known about people (Pinder 1998, p. 11). There are different perceptions and definitions of motivation. Sims (2002, p.55), defined motivation as the satisfying of the inner needs through actions and behaviours. According to him, motivation includes various mental and physical drives, combined with the proper environment that guides people to act in a certain way. According to Robbins and Coulter (1998), motivation may be defined as the willingness to put forward high levels of effort toward need. From this theory, Mullins (1996) has come up with the definition where he assumes that every person is unique and this uniqueness is demonstrated in one way or another via the various theories which influence workers control and behaviours towards a particular goal. He also identifies two factors about what gets people activated (arousal) and secondly, and what drives people to engage in the desires behaviour or choice of behaviour. The set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behaviour towards attaining some goal. (Greenberg Barron, 2003, p. 190) On the other hand, Rabey (2000) defined motivation as a reciprocal process. We will give you something you want if you give us something we want. From the above definitions, it can be observed that every author has defined motivation from different viewpoint but they all have tried conveying the same message, that is, the individuals drive to do something at a particular time. Halepota (2005, p. 16) defines motivation as a persons active participation and commitment to achieve the prescribed results. From this theory, there is no single strategy that can generate guaranteed positive results all the time, since different strategies produce different outcomes at different times. It can be concluded from the above definitions that, motivation in general, is more or less mainly concerned with the different aspects that moves, leads, and drives human action or inaction over a given period of time. In other words, there is an invisible force that drives people to do something in return. Evolution of Motivation Theories The theories about employee motivation have greatly varied over the past century, from scientific management through the human relations movement, to the human resource approach. Scientific management: According to the scientific management theory workers see work as a pain and money is their main concern. Thus, it assumes that people will work hard and behave sensibly to gain their own personal objectives, that is, to maximise their own income first, rather than putting their effort towards the organisational objectives as priority. Human relations movement: According to this school of thought, managers should take into consideration the social aspect in the working environment because employees value social belongingness much more than money. Bendix (1956, p. 294), summarised this revolution by taking into consideration that failure to treat workers as human beings is regarded as the main cause of low morale, lack of interest and confusion. Thus, the Human relations model to this problem has come up with creating opportunities for teamwork and nurturing closer relations between management and employees. Human resource approach: This approach assumes that the Human Resource department plays an important role in the implementation of different types of rewards system in an organisation inorder to maintain the employee and organisation morale. According to Steer et al. (1996), the human resource model, human beings are motivated by a set of complex factors, including, money, need for affiliation, need for achievement, and desire for meaningful work. Therefore, it is the managements responsibility to learn how to tap such resources as employees are the reservoirs of potential talent. Scientific Management As per the Scientific Management theory (1911) which was proposed by Gilbreth and Taylor, the relationship between worker and the management is based on the low trust. However, he believed that higher salaries may contribute to cooperation between them. However this form of management is no longer as scientific as Taylor first suggested. Today workers are considered much more as humans than as commodities, as new management approaches focus on the human side of employment relations. Mayo and Hawthorne Studies According to the Mayo and the Hawthorne studies (1927-1932), human relations approach to management has become the main focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993). It was concluded that employees exert greater effort at work when they were not bossed by or being closely supervised by anyone. As such workers developed an increased sense of responsibility by themselves rather than expecting management imposing their set of discipline on workers. Moreover, interpersonal relationships and informal work groups greatly influence output, in the sense that workers felt themselves to be contributing freely and without force. Mayos conclusions were that money was a less influential factor and that group influences extensively affect individual behaviour towards output. In addition to this, workers were better motivated when they were having their social needs met at work (Robbins, 1998). Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor (1960) had further contributed to the study of work motivation with his opposing motivational theories as Theory X and Theory Y. According to the theory X (McGregor 1989, p. 315), it is the management responsibility to set elements of rewards in order to motivate people and modifying their behaviours to fit the needs of the organisation. Thus, without the interference of management people would be be passive-even resistant- to organisational needs. Thus, workers must be persuaded, rewarded, punished, and their activities should be controlled. Conversely, the Maslows Hierarchy of needs emphasises towards the fulfilment of workers needs. Such an example is that Theory X may use a salary cut to motivate employees rather an increase in the salary. On the other hand, Theory Y postulates that people like to work; they are self-directed and they do not have to be threatened to work and they seek more responsibilities. In the framework of Maslows theory, Theory Y presume that , it is the social, esteem, and self-actualisation needs which are the driving forces that motivate employees. Given that traditional Theory X orientation is far more negativistic, Theory Y is rather widely used and accepted nowadays. Hackman and Oldham Hackman and Oldman (1980) put forward their Job Characteristics Theory as a three-stage model, in which a set of core job characteristics impact a number of critical psychological states, which can motivate the workers. The worker must have knowledge of the ultimate results of their work, experience responsibility for the work results and consider the work as important, as something which is generally valuable. As such the job itself must be designed accordingly to promote all the three psychological states. (Hackman and Oldham, 1980, p.81) suggested that the work should include five characteristics skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback, as shown in Figure, where the presence of certain job attribute motivates workers. Figure. The job characteristics model Source: web.njit.edu/~rotter/courses/hrm301/lecturenotes/hrm301-11. The job characteristic model identifies that adding certain elements to the jobs may alter peoples psychological state in a manner that boosts their work effectiveness (Greenberg and Barron, 2000). Thus, there is the need to redesign jobs through job enlargement, by increasing the number and variety of activities performed, while at the same time, redesign the jobs by increasing the employees level of responsibility and control. What can be deduced till now is that, the first theories of motivation have focused on the financial aspect as being the motivator. On the other hand, more recent theories such as Hackman and Oldmans Job Characteristics Model, has laid more emphasis on the content of work as a motivator. Content Theories of Motivation In this section, there are four prominent content theories of work motivation which will be analysed. The first two theories Maslows hierarchy of needs and Alderfers existence-relatedness-growth (ERG). Abraham Maslow is a humanistic psychologist that developed a theory of personality, which is valuable in the field of employee motivation. Then, there is the Herzbergs motivation-hygiene and Mc Clellands needs theory. Maslows Need Hierarchy Theory Maslows (1954) theory of motivation is one of the most well-known motivation theories called the Hierarchy of Needs (fig..). Robins and Coulter (1998) mentioned that Maslow envisages the workers needs in relation to a pyramid whereby people progress up the hierarchy as they successively gratify each level of need. The five basic kinds of needs are: psychological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualisation needs. Thus, it is understood from this theory that managers must attempt to identify individual employee needs and promote satisfaction. If they do so, employees will progress toward self-actualization, permitting the organisation to be all that it can be (Sims 2002). Marchington Wilkinson (1995) argued that money act as a motivating factor for those at the lower level of the hierarchy, since these workers are low income earners. On the other hand, those already earning a higher income and have been able to satisfy their lower level needs can therefore proceed to the high order needs. However, this theory has been criticised for being vague and without ability to predict human behaviour. It also views individual needs as stagnant rather than dynamic. An example is, needs can change unexpectedly when subject to undesirable factors such as the effect of job loss on aesthetic needs. Figure.Applying Maslows Hierarchy on Needs Source: http://www.wiziq.com/tutorial/122744-Organization-Management-models-and-diagrams-for-presentations Alderfers Existence-Relatedness-Growth Theory (ERG) This theory of needs for existence, relatedness and growth by Alderfer (1972) is much simpler than the Maslows approach. According to Greenberg and Baron (2003, p.192), the five needs identified by Maslow corresponds with the three needs of Alderfers ERG theory. Alderfer specifies that there exist three main needs but these needs are not necessarily activated in any specific order. In fact, Alderfer claims that any need may be activated at any time (Greenberg and Baron, 2000).However, this theory has a frustration regression element which suggest that if a higher order need is frustrated, an individual will increase his level of desire for a lower level need. Such an example is, an individual is unable to meet the growth need, perhaps due to a restrictive work environment, thus, his desire for rewards such as money is likely to increase. Therefore the above two need theories, namely Maslows need hierarchy and Alderfers ERG theory, do not agree completely. However, they do agree that satisfying human needs is a vital part in motivating employees. Need Theories: A comparison Source: e-learning.mfu.ac.th/mflu/1203141/chapter7.html Herzberg Motivation Hygiene Theory Frederick Herzberg (1923) had close links with Maslow and believed in a two- factor theory of motivation. He identified hygiene factors which do not motivate but cause dissatisfaction in the employee and the other one are called the motivators which lead to satisfaction, comparable to Maslows higher needs (Jones and Jordan, 1982). Hygiene factors are all extrinsic factors found in the external environment, while motivators are all intrinsic factors which the employees attribute to themselves and to a certain extent, these factors correlate to Maslows esteem needs. According to Mc Kenna (1996), hygiene factors vary from motivators in the sense that a lack of adequate job hygiene will cause dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the hygiene factors are correct, and the manager should manipulate the motivators by attending to job-content issues, like job enrichment (Johnson and Gill, 1993). Job enrichment entails redesigning jobs to make them more exciting and challe nging by allowing requirements to be made for increased responsibility and creativity. According to Adair (1990), the phrase job satisfaction arose from the work of Herzberg. In identifying a set of motivational factors, Herzberg made a distinction between long-term and temporary motivation levels. The motivators are long-term satisfaction and they are essential to intrinsic motivation (Deci and Ryan, 1985), which are also very similar to the Maslows esteem needs. On the other hand, the hygiene factors contribute to more life dissatisfaction and money cannot buy happiness (Kasser, 2002). They found that the lowest ranked motivator was an increase in salary because money do fulfil the requirement of the hygiene factor, but overtime are poor motivators. Since the hygiene issues are not the source of satisfaction, these issues must be in order to create a conducive atmosphere in which employee satisfaction and motivation are possible. However most practical studies with distinction made by Herzberg, show that salary, recognition and responsibility, for instance, have been seen both as motivators and hygiene factors (Maidani, 1991). Mc Clleland Theory of Needs David Mc Clelland proposed the three-needs theory: affiliation, power, and achievement, which serve as motivators in organisations (Robbins Stuart-Kotze, 1990). The first need is the need for affiliation which is same as to the Maslows social needs. This need gives rise to the desire of friendship; prefer to keep good relationship instead of competitive environment (Robbins and Coulter, 1998). As such, individual with a strong need for affiliation is likely to take up jobs which is characterised by a desire to belong to a particular group, or a concern about interpersonal relationships at work, such as counselling, customer service, and public relation. The second need proposed is the need for power. The need for power is indicated by a persons desire to control and the ability to influence people and their actions. As such, Mc Clleland and Burnham (1976) find that the acquiring and maintaining of power is an essential motivating process in organisations. The third need is the need for achievement, which refers to the individuals desire to success and obtain excellent results. People are highly motivated by challenge and competitive work situation (Stoner, et al. 1995). In view of the last two needs of Mc Cllelands theory, the Maslows influence can be seen as it is similar to the Maslows esteem needs, with power and recognised achievement come self-confidence and prestige. However to study the need for achievement, Herzberg and Atkinson developed the Thematic Apperception Test which determines the individuals score for each of the needs of achievement, affiliation and power. For the high achievers, money is looked upon as a symbol of achievement rather than an intrinsic motivating factor. In this theory, people with a high need for achievement are eager to obtain feedback on their performance and exhibit moderate levels of risk taking (Wood 1992). Financial rewards are not the key motivator and money is a form of feedback and recognition to them. Conclusion of the need theories Table . shows the relationships among Maslows, Alderfers, and Herzbergs theories of motivation. Table Conclusion of Need-Based Approaches Source: http://e-learning.mfu.ac.th/mflu/1203141/chapter7.html. Despite the obvious differences between need theories discussed, there are several points at which the theories intersect. On the other hand, the need-based theories share an innate weakness. They do an adequate job of describing the factors that motivate behaviour, but they tell us very little about the actual processes of motivation (Moorhead Griffin, 1995) Process Theories of Motivation Process theories attempt to identify the relationships between variables which give rise to motivation. According to Mullins (1996), process theories provide a further contribution to our understanding of motivation. They focus on why people choose to behave in a certain manner in order to fulfil their needs and also how they evaluate their satisfaction level after they have attained their goals. Expectancy Theory The expectancy theory was developed by Victor Vroom in 1964 and it has been further developed by Lyman Porter and Edward Lawler in the 1968, where it is believed that there is a direct correlation between performance and outcome and the reward for that outcome is defined. Therefore, this theory is concerned with the internal processes that an individual undergoes in order to decide whether he/she wants to put in additional efforts towards a specific goal (Robbins Stuart-Kotze, 1990; Stueart Moran, 1993; Server Wescott, 1983). Vroom suggests that there should be a link between effort and performance for an individual to be motivated (Droar, 2006, p.  2). According to Vroom, the three factors that should be considered when determining the effort put forth by an individual are: valence, instrumentality, and expectancy (Holdford and Lovelace-Elmore, 2001). The first variable valence, refers to the desire that an individual has to achieve a goal or to fulfill a need. The second one is instrumentality, whereby there is the belief that performance is related to rewards such as bonuses, piece-rate incentive system or sales commission plans. As such, the merit system, which is referred as the pay-for-performance may be carefully implemented. The third element, expectancy refers to the belief that an individual has about the relationship between effort and performance. According to Armstrong Murlis (1994), this theory is the most relevant one to reward practice. However, this theory also recognises that people are motivated by other different things (Robbins Stuart-Kotze, 1990). Therefore, it can be seen that there is no one theory which can explain everyones motivation. According to Marchington Wilkinson (1998), what motivates people depends on their perception of the attractiveness of the goal and its attainability. Figure provides an overview of the Expectancy Theory. Expectancy Theory: An overview Source: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadhb_2.html#Vroom Equity Theory The Equity theory was developed in 1963 by John Stacy Adams and states that people will be motivated if people are treated fairly and equitably, and they would be demotivated if they are treated unfairly and inequitably. Employees evaluate their own input/output ratios based on their comparison with the input/outcome ratios of other employees (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978). That is, they will compare the ratio of what they put in (e.g. experience and effort) and what they get out of the job (e.g. salary and promotion) with what others are getting in a similar job. If an employee notices that another person is getting more recognition and rewards for their contributions, even when both have done the same amount and quality of work, then dissatisfaction will occur. As such, the employees will behave in ways to enforce equity (Cheung, 1997). Therefore employees will seek to reduce it, either by increasing performance to output when the perception is that of being over-rewarded or decreasi ng performance when they feel they are being under-rewarded or even leave the organization (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978). In light of the equity theory, it can be said that employees should be rewarded based on their performance and hard work, rather than on their seniority, for example. For instance, instead of receiving a bonus at the end of the year, the increase in salary should rather be based upon the employees performance so that employees may feel they are being treated equitably. As such, it is believed that employees contributing more to the organisation , should receive higher rewards. This belief is called the equity norm. Employees are the passive observers and they are aware of what is happening at their workplace. If they feel they are being exploited or treated unfairly, they might take the initiative to go on a strike or retaliate in other ways. On the other hand, when employees are being paid more than what they deserve, and they are actually receiving this higher pay, they tend to lower their work level to normal (Greenberg and Barron, 2000). Goal Theory The Goal theory or the goal-setting theory was initially developed by Latham and Locke (Locke Latham, 1990, 2002). According to Goldstein (1993), goal provides a sense of direction and purpose. Goal setting is simply defined as a specific outcome that an individual is striving to achieve (Alderman, 1999). Seijts et al. (2004), found that people with a specific high learning goal is effective in increasing a persons performance. That is, the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance expected. Feedback also help to identify the difference between what an individual has done and what they want to do and thus guide them as to how well they are moving ahead towards their goals. Also, according to Moorhead and Griffin (1995), when employees are given the opportunity to participate in setting their own goal, their efforts in achieving them will be greater when compared to the goals being assigned to them. Therefore the control tend to restrain motivation, while the individuals involvement in their own goal-setting task, creates a more productive environment (Kennish, 1994). In general, Locke and Lathams model of goal setting has been supported by several studies which suggests, it is a valuable approach concerning how the goal-setting process works. Reinforcement Theory Reinforcement theory was proposed by BF Skinner (1975), whereby he states that individuals behaviour is a function of its consequences. This theory emphasises on re-designing the external environment should be made suitable to the individuals and that punishment will actually lead to frustration and de-motivation. This approach explains the role of rewards in greater detail as they cause the behaviour to change or remain the same. Positive reinforcement refers to rewarding a desirable behaviour as this may increase the probability of outstanding behaviour occurring again. Praise and recognition are appropriate examples of positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is another way to influence behaviour, but the aim is to prevent an a negative action from being repeated in the future. Such an example may be negative feedback or reprimands. According to Skinner, a third way to influence behaviour is punishment, which decreases the probability of the behaviour from being repeated. Punishment is something unpleasant that an individual tend to avoid, and as a result, employees would be motivated to behave in the right behaviour. The last method of behaviour modification is lack of reinforcement. The idea behind this concept is that, if behaviour is not reinforced, it will decrease and soon be forgotten by the individual (Stueart Moran, 1993). Section 2 Performance Management Introduction According to Gilley and Maycunich (2000), performance management helps organisations maintain and improve performance, encourage greater consistency in performance appraisal and provide high quality feedback. Motivational approaches tend to boost up the workforce in order to attain the likely job performance. (Byham and Moyer, 2005). Referring to above theories which has been discussed above, it can be assumed that some theories do consider ways to increase motivation aiming at improving employees performance which will contribute to organisational goals. A motivated team and hard-working employees is essential to the success of the company. This is because performance will certainly suffer if workers lack motivation, resulting in poor productivity. Furthermore, job satisfaction has an important role in the improved performance of an employee. In other words, high employee job satisfaction implies improved performance of the organisation. Thus, this statement signifies that improvement may be achieved by providing people rewards and the chance to perform (Armstrong, 2003, p. 240). However, according to some experts, people consider work as a less significant aspect due to the fact that the new generation of the highly educated workforce want more prospect for development, autonomy, flexibility and work experiences (Hammett, 1984).They want to contribute fully in the work environment and respond unfavourably to rigid hierarchies. Thus, performance management is declared to be part of human resource management which can make the utmost impact on organisational performance (Philpott Sheppard, 1992). Creating and sustaining a high performance organisation Organisations go into business to create long term performance and values. According to Keith Owen et al. (2001), the ability of an organisation to maintain the delivery of quality products and services is essential to its long-term success. And this ability is a learnable organisational competence. From Performance appraisal to Performance management Performance appraisal and reward systems are based on the supposition that employees performance and motivation can be enhanced by establishing a clear link between efforts and reward through formalised and particular individual targets (Latham et al. 2005). As companies move towards the complex business environment, they will have to develop approaches to tackle various threats, challenges, internal and external problems and explore new opportunities simultaneously. Thus, these companies have to invest in the most vital element the performers. On the other hand, Sims (2002), has relate both performance management and the performance appraisal systems through the HRM systems. According to Sims (2002), performance appraisal is a process by which an employees contribution to the company during a particular period of time is evaluated. Performance appraisal acts both as an evaluation and a development tool. Moreover, it is a legal document which contain , both positive actions as well as deficiency and plans for the future development. However, the main disadvantage of performance appraisal system is that there is no mutually agreed goal since job description and performance appraisal does not correlate, arising the issue of unclear evaluation criterion (Grote and Grote, 2002). As such employees are reluctant to support this system because it fails to consider the human touch and employees job expectation diminishes. The organisations culture and empowerment Nowadays organisational culture has become popular compared to earlier times due to increased competition, globalisation and diversified workforce (Schein, 1992).According to Sammuto and OConnor (1992), culture is a vital factor which contributes to the success or failure of an organisation. Organisational culture is the sharing of values, thoughts and experiences with others Cummings and Worley (2001). As such, the shared culture encourages a certain level of stability among the members of the organisation. Organisational culture basically include the values, beliefs and ideas on what the organisation is all about, how its workforce should behave and how it defines itself in relation to its external environment. On the other hand, Leach, Wall and Jackson (2003) defined empowerment as a motivational state which comprises of having a personal choice over work behaviours and processes. Empowering employees may develop feelings that may help increase work motivation. Thus, workers may develop a can do attitude that reflects a feeling of confidence within themselves (Geller, 2001). However, empowerment is often misinterpreted and feared by traditional managers, because they may lose control and respect by sharing their power and authority (Kahnweiler, 1991). Pay and Motivation Pay is an important factor which encourages motivation, as individuals utilise it to satisfy their needs and wants. It also acts as a recompense for employees diligence and commitment. According to Cooke (1999) and Fisher (2005), money is the key motivator for employees. This statement concurs with that of Crystal (1970) who further asserted that money can be a motivating factor, but little money may have no effect. The use of monetary or other financial incentives in the classic work performance paradigm is based on the reinforcement theory. Performance-based pay is a compensation paid which varies with the individual, team or organisational performance, such as the merit pay, team incentives and profit sharing (Milkovich Newman, 2002). However, studies have shown that pay does not seem to boost productivity levels in the long term and money does not improve performance (Whitley, 2002).Instead, this can deteriorate employees attitude in which they work merely in the interest of high pay. Therefore, it can be said that pay is not the only main reinforcement as other non-financial factors such as rewards, social recognition and performance feedbacks are also found to be positive motivational factors (Smith Rupp, 2003). The job itself and motivation According to Redmond (2010), a well designed job is one which is appealing to the person performing the task, that is, it should be interesting, motivating and meaningful. Well designed task will obviously lead to a higher employee satisfaction which encourages the workforce to be more productive and help to meet business goals (Schermerhorn et al, 2005). Conversely, poorly designed jobs that lack adequate attention to the needs of the workers are known as the arbitrary groupings of activities (Campion Thayer, 1987, p. 78). Thus, in order to motivate employees, it is important to implement a flexible task system to provide job satisfaction (Redmond, 2010, p.2). Nevertheless, there are two major theories which have considered this approach to motivation. Firstly, the Herzberg theory, which has addressed to the design of individual jobs as a two-factor theory, on the basis that motivation, arises from the nature of the job itself, and not from the job situation or external rewards (Garg Rastogi, 2006). Secondly, Hackman and Oldman (1976) come up with the job characteristics model, which main focus was on the content and nature of jobs. Training and motivation Losyk (1997) considers training as a key motivator. Training is a way to learn new skill and behaviour and employees look upon training as a strong element of their career development as it makes them more marketable (Niemiec, 2000). The expectancy theory presents a framework for assessing, interpreting and evaluating employees behaviour in learning, decision-making, formation and motivation (Chen Lou, 2002). According to McCloy Wise (2002), learning is a vital factor which helps in contributing to both individuals and organisational performance.

The 1994 Stanley Cup Champion New York Rangers :: Hockey History Winning Sports Essays

The 1994 Stanley Cup Champion New York Rangers It is the dream of every child that has ever played hockey to one day be able to hold hockey’s most prized possession over his or her head. The glory, honor, and prestige that goes along with this trophy is by far the most elite in any sport. It is amazing to me how many years and the amount of effort these players put in just to hold this cup over their heads. Why is there such a drive and how did this trophy come to mean so much to so many people? This trophy has such humble beginnings. Originating in Canada, Hockey was taken very seriously. There was a lot of rivalry going on throughout the country, especially in the Amateur Hockey Association, as to who had the best hockey team. It was in response to this that Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor of Central-Canada, decided to present a trophy to the team that won the championship. He said, â€Å"I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion (of Canada)† (Nhl.com). Lord Stanley purchased a cup-like trophy for the equivalent of only $50.00, and from then on, it was presented to the winning team. â€Å"The Stanley Cup—today the symbol of the hockey championship of the world, oldest professional sports trophy in North America, glittering prize of a multi-million dollar industry, was then for amateurs†(McFarlane 14). The cup wa s first awarded in 1893 and the names of each member on the team were engraved on it. As the years went on, they were forced to add more rings around the cup to make room for all of the champion’s names. The cup started as a challenger’s cup, meaning whoever won had possession of it, but any other team could challenge them at any time for their chance at the cup. â€Å"Over the years the Stanley Cup has grown in size and importance† (McFarlane xi). The New York Rangers, who entered into the National Hockey League in the 1926-27 season, quickly became aware of what it was like to rise to the top of the league and to hold the Stanley Cup over their heads. Lead by Lester Patrick, the head coach and Bill Cook, who won the scoring title that year, the Rangers finished at the top of the league.

Why Did Pizza Hut in China Quit Franchise

Why did Pizza Hut Quit Franchise Team 9 1. Introduction: In 1993, Pizza Hut made a 10-year agency contract with Hong Kong’s famous agent, Jardine Matheson. It gave power of agency and its market expansion business in southern part of China to Jardine, which became the only agent of Pizza Hut in China. And from then on, Pizza Hut went on a hard way of expansion.However, in late May, 2004, Yum Brands declared that they had taken back the management and administrative powers of all 130 branch canteens of Pizza Hut in China, and from then on, Pizza Hut would be managed and operated by Yum Brands directly instead of taking the pattern of franchise . 1. 1 Research question: Why did Pizza Hut quit franchising in China? 1. 2 Sub-questions: (1) What is the explanation given by Yum Brands and what are other guesses of why Pizza Hut quit franchise? (2) What are the changes of Pizza Hut after it quit franchise? (3) Why did Pizza Hut quit franchise in China but still continues franchise ab road? 4) Are there similarities between Pizza Hut and other firms quitting franchise? 1. 3 Motivate: Since the franchisor can use franchise to expand the scale of his firm with lower cost than using directly management, franchise becomes the most popular business model among catering services. And thus, it’s such a strange and rare adverse action that Pizza Hut quit franchise. What caused it to do so? Is it problem of franchisee, Jardine Matheson or the problem of the franchise pattern itself? And what does it want to do? We want to find out the answer. 2. Theoretical framework: 2. Explanation of Porter’s 5 Force Model. Porter’s five-force framework is an important tool for ensuring systematically using these principles to assess the current status and likely evolution of an industry. The five-force model contains internal rivalry, entry, substitutes, supplier power and buyer power, which is presented as following: Also, the model has some shortcomings. It doesn ’t take the environment into consideration, which means that it lacks the role of demand and government. And the emphasis of the model is on the competition between firms while recent trend is towards cooperation between firms.What’s more, the model is primarily an analysis of industry rather than analysis for a particular firm. 2. 2 The Forces will be used in our Case Analysis of the model must begin with market definition. When defining the market, we must be sure to include all firms that constrain each other’s strategic decision marking and pay attention to both the product market and geographic market definitions. Some of the five forces we use include: (1) Internal rivalry For most industries, the intensity of internal rivalry is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry.Internal rivalry refers to the jockeying for share by firms within a market. (2) Entry Entry is the beginning of production and sales by a new firm in a market. Entry er odes incumbents’ profits in two ways. First, entrants divide marker demand among more sellers. Second, entrants decrease market concentration and heat up internal rivalry. (3)Supplier Power Supplier power takes the point of view of a downstream industry and examines the ability of that industry’s upstream input suppliers to command prices that extract industry profits.Also, we will analyze our case by explaining the influence of the government, which is a shortcoming of the model. 2. 3 Application of the Model to our research question: We will choose to apply the principles of internal rival, entry, and supplier power to our answers of the research question. We think that after Pizza Hut quit franchise, it can choose price competition and benefit leadership, which will affect its rivals and entrants. Also, it has more power when purchasing inputs, which links with supplier power. And the government plays a significant role in our case, too. We will analyze them in deta il later. 3. Data and Methodology: 3. Data: We searched the data from (1) the official website of Pizza Hut China to get the number of canteens it reported; (2) the menus of Pizza Hut in different years to get the price of a pizza; (3) some questionnaires made by others to find customers’ degree of satisfaction; (4) Suning’s annual statements in 2006 and 2008; (5) Some essays 3. 2 Methodology We made broken line graphs and pie charts to make the data we collected easier to analyze. We also list other data in form of tables to make it more clearly. 4. Results & Analysis: 4. 1 The number of canteens is an important index reflecting the expanding speed of Pizza Hut.So we show the following figure. (Pizza Hut has recently declared that it will invest 0. 7 billion RMB to open another 150 canteens only in the year 2012. ) Figure3. 2. 1 shows that the curve of Pizza Hut’s growth rose slowly in the first 13 years, just about the time before Pizza Hut quit franchise. How ever, the curve jumped sharply almost after Pizza Hut quit franchise As we know, by franchise a firm can expand quickly with lower cost, we have thought that the expanding speed would decline after Pizza Hut quit franchise and expand it by itself, because of larger cost. However, what the Figure3. 2. shows to us is opposite. There is a fact that Jardine Matheson only opened 15 canteens in southern China after it gained the agency right, which of course, would disappoint Pizza Hut. So it must be that Jardine lacked the ability of expanding canteens, so Pizza Hut didn’t let it agent any longer. And since Jardine is the best agent in China,(It ranked 319th in the world 500 strong enterprises by †Fortune†. ), Pizza Hut can’t think of a better agent, so it quit franchise and just to expand by itself. . 4. 2 The price of a product shows whether a firm can have competitive advantages in price competition.So we collect the data. Figure3. 2. 2 (2) Annual Inflation r ate of China Figure3. 2. 2 shows that the price went down after quitting franchise in 2004, and came to the minimum in 2005 and 2006, then it rises later. So we can see that before Pizza Hut quit franchise, the average cost of a pizza in southern China in 2003, which is still managed by Jardine, is 60 RMB. It’s reported by manager Luo of Pizza Hut China that its price is 15% higher than any other part of China. That was because Jardine positioned the canteen as the high grade canteen, while Pizza Hut positions its canteen as middle-high grade canteen.So after Pizza Hut quit franchise in2004, as manager Luo said, its price would go down by 15%. We can check it in the figure3. 2. 2 that in 2005, the average price of a pizza decrease to 50, approximately by 15%. However, after the year 2006, the average price of a pizza grows up again, which we will ignore because by calculation (Figure3. 2. 2 (2) shows the annual inflation rate of China from 2003 to 2009), we can make a conclus ion that it happened mainly due to inflation.. 4. 3 Then we think of the brand image, here is the information we found. Figure3. 2. 3 shows overall satisfaction of Pizza Hut’s consumers in 2006.Only 20% of consumers were very satisfied with Pizza Hut and only 30% of consumers were satisfied with Pizza Hut. However, another 30% of consumers thought Pizza Hut is just so-so. Figure3. 2. 4 shows overall satisfaction of Pizza Hut’s consumers in 2010. Consumers who were satisfied with Pizza Hut grew to 50%, the those felt very satisfied with Pizza Hut grew too, although only a little, 1. 43%. The consumers thinking that Pizza Hut was just so-so fell to 21. 43%. Since Pizza Hut said that they quit franchise in order to promote its brand image, we want to see whether or not it would really do so and whether or not it has had an effect.We can see from the results the customers are more satisfied with Pizza Hut in 2010 compared to 2006. So Pizza Hut must have done a lot of work to improve its brand image. And after 4 years efforts, it really has improved its image in people’s minds. It’s comprehensive that it’s easy for Pizza Hut to improve its brand image by itself than by its agent, Jardine Matheson, because the principal and the agent may have some different views. And it’s a bit difficult for Pizza Hut to manage what his agent does 4. 4 Figure3. 2. 6 mainly shows profits in 2006 and 2008 of Suning, which quit franchise in 2007.We can see that its gross profit, year growth, net profit and total assets all grow up. According to Yantai daily newspaper’s report, the Quality Inspection Department found many unqualified products of Supor, a firm owned Suning. The unqualified products were produced by the franchisee of Suning. However, certainly it would do harm to the brand image of Suning. The customers were very upset about the incident. Franchisors depend on franchise to enlarge themselves since the expanding cost is low , but many of them didn’t take care of the quality of the franchisee, they just expand the scale without destination, just as Suning in those years.So the franchisee may take different actions against the principle in order to improve their own profits. Some products franchisees make are not eligible, but the principle can’t notice them. It’s the errors of the franchisee, but franchisors will suffer most because their brand image will be damaged. So quitting franchise must be wise strategy for Suning. As we can see in the figure, it really contributed to higher profits. 5. Discussion: Before applying the theoretical framework to our case, we will discuss the market definition first: Production market:Pizza Hut sells not only pizza and Italian noodles, but rice as well since it’s in Chinese market. So any canteen sells no matter eastern or western food around Pizza Hut must be its rivals. So we define the market as the western-style food market. Geographic market: It’s obviously that most consumers strongly prefer to choose the nearby canteen to have a meal. So we consider the geographic market is a certain area around Pizza Hut’s canteens, which is within the consideration of consumers when they choose a canteen to eat.Then we will answer each sub-question by the tool of theoretical framework: Sub-question 1: What is the explanation given by Yum Brands and what are other guesses of why Pizza Hut quit franchise? Only by knowing the explanation and guesses can we find the possible reasons. Then we can select the right ones. The explanation given by Pizza Hut: Some media reported that Yum Brands wasn’t satisfied with the expanding speed of the franchisee, Jardine Matheson, for it lagged the speed of development of those chain canteens.Also Jardine didn’t obey the ideas and strategies of the Yum Brands thoroughly. Direct at this statement, Shao Xiaowei, the member of public affairs section of Yum Brands, deni ed completely and told Economy Times News that since Pizza Hut chain canteens entered in Chinese market in 1990, all of them had been run by themselves until 1993 when they signed a 10-year contract with HK agent Jardine Matheson to pass franchise authority and the task of marketing extension in South China to it. And Jardine Methoson also became the only franchisee of Pizza Hut in China inland market.Pizza Hut wasn’t unsatisfied with the speed of expansion, instead, they thought Jardine did pretty well and Pizza Hut absorbed lots of experience from it. all in all, compared with other districts in China, South China market has its own specific features. Meanwhile, according to Wanqun, director of public affair of Yum Brand. , Pizza Hut hadn't reached economics of scale and it would impose great risks in franchise. He added that Pizza Hut wasn't mature enough in China, but it didn't mean that franchise door would be closed forever.With support and experience from Yum Brands, P izza Hut would open its franchise door again after the brand name becoming mature enough. In conclusion, Yum Brands arose three reasons for quitting franchise as followings (1) The routes and positions in the market of Yum Brands and Jardine Matheson to develop Pizza Hut are quite different (2) Since Pizza Hut hasn’t reached the economics of scale, it had to quit franchise to avoid risk (3) Since the market of Pizza Hut isn’t mature enough, the risk of having a large scale of franchise is really high.The above-mentioned parts are the reason given by Yum Brands. We don’t know whether it’s exactly the true ones. We also collect other people’s guess as following: (1) Yum Brands wasn’t satisfied with the expanding speed of the franchisee, Jardine Matheson, for it lagged the speed of development of those chain canteens. (2) Pizza hut wants to enhance its brand image so that it will be easy to expand later. Sub-question 2: What are the changes of Pizza Hut after it quit franchise? We want to find out whether quitting franchise is good for Pizza Hut, which can be reflected by the changes. 1)Its open canteens measure the expanding speed of Pizza Hut. From Figure 3. 2. 1, we can see that it opened approximately more and more canteens in one year, which means that its expanding speed became faster and faster. We can apply entrants to the above. According to the principles of entry of theoretical framework, locations can be barriers to entrants. As we know, most consumers have specific geographic preferences when choosing a canteen to have a meal. Then Pizza Hut would lose geographic market if it continued franchise, because the expanding of canteens by Jardine is too slow.So Pizza Hut quit franchise to expand by itself, carrying on a faster expanding speed to get more geographic market. By doing so, it can build barriers to new entrants. (2)Its price first went down immediately after quit franchise. We can apply supplier power, internal rivalry, and entry to explain this condition. According to theoretical framework, the suppliers in a competitive market will have indirect power on downstream firms because they can sell their goods to the highest bidder.We know that Pizza Hut have many rivals when buying inputs, Papa John, KFC and any firms sell similar food because they need similar raw materials. So if Pizza Hut wants to purchase good raw materials, the transaction cost will be high to the franchised canteens. However, when it quit franchise to become vertical integrated firm, it can depend on its parent company, Yum. Because Yum has a network of 1000 firms to provide raw materials, it can reduce the threat of supplier power so that the cost fell and so did the price.And through vertical integration, Pizza Hut has superior access to inputs with the help of Yum as mentioned before, which is also a type of impediments to imitation, a group of isolating mechanism. That will help Pizza Hut to protect its com petitive advantage by preventing other firms from replicating its success. When Pizza Hut reduced the price, it can also have an advantage in price competition with its internal rivals. According to the theoretical framework, price erodes profits by driving down price-cost. And it’s more efficient than nonprice competition though more difficult.There is high price elasticity of demand in food industry because most kinds of food have many substitutes, so when Pizza Hut reduce its price, its rivals’ profits will suffer. And Pizza Hut can also deter entry by limit pricing to build strategic barriers to entry. Limit pricing is that the incumbent sets the price sufficiently low to discourage entrants before entry occurs. When Pizza Hut quit franchise and it lowered the price, it can also lower the expectation of potential entrants. If entrant infers that post-entry price will be low, entry may not be likely.When Pizza Hut quit franchise and become vertically integration, al l of its daily issues are decided by Yum rather than the franchisees. As we know, Yum is a strong company full of management experience and network advantages, so Pizza Hut has new advantages. The established relationships with Yum and its suppliers and customers is not easy to replicate. And because of learning curve effects, Yum has competitive advantages in the market. These can also be entry barriers. (3)From Figure3. 2. 3-3. 2. 4, is brand image was improved, which links with internal rivalry.According to Porter’s Five Forces Model, internal rivals may compete on a number of price and nonprice dimensions. Nonprice competition erodes profits by driving up fixed costs and marginal costs. To the extent that firms can pass cost increases along to consumers in the form of higher prices, non price competition is less likely to erode profits that price competition. So in fact, many firms choose nonprice competition to enjoy solid profits over an extended period of time. And the y are often engaged in vigorous by improving the quality of their products. We can apply this proposal to Pizza Hut.And by franchise, Pizza Hut can also have benefit leadership to keep its competitive advantage. Benefit leadership creates a large value by achieving a higher maximum willingness to pay than its rivals. Since Pizza Hut’s products, pizza and rice, etc, are experience goods, (i. e. quality of the good is only known after purchase and when it’s used for a while) it’s suitable for Pizza Hut to choose benefit leadership to outperform its rivals, because a benefit advantage could be based on image, reputation or credibility, which are more difficult to imitate or neutralize.And for experience goods, a firm’s reputation for quality provides a significant advantage also because consumers who have had a positive experience with a firm’s brand will be reluctant to switch to competing brands if there is a chance that the competing products will not work. It’s known as reputation and buyer uncertainty, a type of early mover advantages, which will help Pizza Hut to sustain its competitive advantages. So it’s very important for Pizza Hut to quit franchise and concentrate on brand improving.Pizza Hut thought its brand image was not so good in South China before 2004 since Jardine had different views in managing the canteen. So it quit franchise and started to operate the canteen by itself and has been focusing on its brand value. It has improved its products’ quality, its service, its environment of canteens and so on, in order to make the overall satisfaction of canteens go up. By doing so, it has advantages in the competition. And improving brand image also links with entry.According to theoretical framework, there are some entry barriers, one of which is that consumers highly value reputation, which means that consumers are brand loyal. Entrants must invest heavily to establish a strong reputation and b rand awareness. Diversifying entrants using a brand umbrella may be more successful than entirely new entrants. It’s reported that in 2003, Saizeriya, a canteen also sells pizzas entered Chinese market because its manager found that the price of Pizza Hut’s pizzas was so high while the quality of that didn’t catch up with the price, which made people not so satisfied with Pizza Hut.And with the same reason Barbera was opened in China, too. So that’s another reason why Pizza Hut quit franchise to establish a strong reputation and brand awareness. By using a brand umbrella it will be successful from protecting itself from stealing its market share by new entrants. Sub-question 3: Why did Pizza Hut quit franchise home but still continues franchise abroad? It’s often the case a kind of business pattern isn’t always useful in every situation, so we want to find whether or not Chinese market is suitable for franchise.There is a prominent phenomeno n that foreign firms would not like to adopt franchise in China. Besides Pizza Hut, its brother firm, KFC is also slow in franchise. Only 40 of 1000 canteens are franchised, and most of them are in small cities. Pizza Hut and KFC developed quickly by franchise, why they become cautious when they enter Chinese market? We think the following reasons can explain it. (1)The government in the firm environment can be an important cause. Porter’s Five Forces Model doesn’t have explicit role for the government.But according to Porter Diamond, the government plays an important role in influencing the firm’s strategy. Franchise took place in China in early 1990’s. And China government cancelled all limitation on franchise into Chinese market in 2002 when China entered into WTO. So by 2004, the time when Pizza Hut quit franchise, some related departments, professional service institutions, and policies and regulations still needed improving. At that time, adopt fran chise would take the firm into trouble. (2)The market for franchise is not mature enough.Since the success of a firm’s organization and strategy depends on the characteristics of the firm, the market, and the environment. So we must take the market into consideration when analyzing the firm’s strategy. Since it’s too short for franchise to improve in Chinese market, related departments, professional service institutions, franchisors and franchisees, potential investors and professional employees have large differences in understanding franchise. They also have few preparations and lack the abilities of franchise.However, the two reasons above don’t happen abroad because franchise happened early in foreign countries. It originates from the United States in 1851. The time is long enough for the market of franchise to become mature. (3) Franchisors lack confidence in franchisees. Pizza Hut has tried hard to seek out franchisee. One of the strategies the firm has chosen to make its franchise more attractive to franchisees is to make all canteens uniform. Pizza Hut became a part of the Yum’s franchise group. Other restaurants such as Taco Bell, KFC and Long John Silvers are lso part of this network. This grouping together of franchises has allowed franchisees to increase their potential for income by having both Pizza Hut and Taco Bell items for sale in a canteen. Yum is one of the world’s largest franchisors, and around 76% of the 325,000 Pizza Hut’s canteens around the world are franchised. It believes in focusing on its competition advantages in market and product development, and complementing these advantages with the expertise of its franchise partners in the areas of customer service and restaurant operations.This combined expertise of Yum and franchisee ownership is the key driver in achieving global growth. An analyst explained that by franchise, franchisor might lose control of some resources and become too dependent on franchisees, and the quality of products and services couldn't reach a uniform standard, while uniformity was crucial to enterprises such as KFC. A KFC staff told the journalist in private that in fact, KFC didn't have the courage to open its franchised canteens to a large scale since it didn't have sufficient confidence in most of the franchisees.Also the cost to run well a franchised outlet is really high, the minimum financial requirement to open a Pizza Hut franchise in the United States is $700,000 Net Worth and $350,000 in liquid assets [Figure 3. 2. 5], and to make the business profitable will make much pressure. Sub-question4: Are there similarities between Pizza Hut and other firms quitting franchise? Now we will compare pizza hut with other firms also quitting franchise to analyze the case. First, since Pizza Hut is in middle high level in catering service. So we choose some other firms in the same level as Pizza Hut in their own industry to do the comparison .Although they have some differences, it will be convictive to put them in their market and analyze the reason to give support to pizza hut, because we think the level will affect the strategy of choosing franchise or not. We choose Suning and Masha to do the analysis. Suning is a famous brand in China, mainly concentrating in electric appliance. In the beginning of the foundation, it expanded its scale fast and got many profits by franchise. It defeated Gome and became one of the leading electric appliance enterprises in China. But in 2007, it quit franchise because it wasn’t satisfied with its franchisee because the price hey produced didn’t meet the standard of quality as mentioned before. Another example is Masha department store, the biggest transnational retail group in England, who adopts directly management in China. The firm thought it is easier to control the management and keep their company’s future distinguishing. There are only 6 branches in China. Related to pizza hut’s direct management mentioned above, we can see franchise is not always favorable to the firm. Besides the quality and brand image problems, we have other reasons, the higher agent cost and the leak of private knowledge.Now we apply the framework to analyze these two reasons as followings. First, franchise can lead to high agency cost. Agency problems arise when the objectives of the principal and the agent are different and the actions taken and the information possessed by the agent is not observable by the principal, just as Suning and its agent, and maybe Pizza Hut and Jardine. The principle can’t have a very comprehensive control over the franchisees. As the firm becomes larger, it is harder for the principal to coordinate the work of different franchisees, thus the agency cost will be higher.And the principle should give more power to the franchisees so that they can have enough flexibility to react to the changes of the market. But if the p ower is too much, it may lead to decentralized organizations. The decision making authority will be dispersed. Agency problems may lead to coordination opportunities to be missed in decentralized organizations, which results in agency costs. As the organization becomes large, the coordination problems become more severe. Second, franchise will lead to the leak of the private information.As the franchisees work with the principal, they can learn more business management of the firm, learn the corporation culture, even the core technology, e. g. the special know-how. So the private information may be leaked. And once the franchisees quit cooperation, there will be a great threat to the principle and maybe its market share will get down. So we can see that if a firm is in middle high level or high level, or in other words, if a firm requires a lot in the quality of its product, they will possibly choose the pattern of vertical integration instead of franchise. Conclusion:We think the r easons why Pizza Hut quit franchise are as followings: (1) Yum Brands wasn’t satisfied with its franchisee, Jardine Matheson in expanding speed though Yum denied it. And so far it can’t find a better franchisee. (2) Pizza Hut wants to enhance its brand image so that it will be easy to expand later. (3) Since the market for franchise isn’t mature enough as in other developed foreign countries, the risk of having a large scale of franchise is really high. Our suggestions: (1) Since Chinese market for franchise isn’t mature enough, Pizza Hut can still be vertically integrated and concentrate on brand improving. 2) When Chinese market for franchise is mature and Pizza Hut’s brand is deeply loved by customers, Pizza Hut can reconsider franchise strategy to expand quickly with lower cost. (3) If Pizza Hut reconsiders franchise strategy, it must choose an experienced and high-quality franchisee. (4) It’s also good for Pizza Hut to adopt directly ma nagement as the main while franchise as the supplementary. (words:4435) Chen Yingying 2011123868 [email  protected] com Sherry 2011123870 [email  protected] com Kally 2011123826 [email  protected] com References & Bibiography:Economics of Strategy (David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark Shanley) http://www. pizzahut. com. cn/phdi/index. aspx#! handler/home. ashx? &tagid=&proid= http://bbs. gxsky. com/thread-595855-1-1. html http://zhidao. baidu. com/q? ct=17&pn=0&tn=ikaslist&rn=10&word http://www. sojump. com/publicsurveys. aspx? keyword=%E5%BF%85%E8%83%9C%E5%AE%A2 http://www. cfi. net. cn/newspage. aspx? id=20060830001759 http://www. cnstock. com/paper_new/html/2009-04/29/content_69247463. htm http://pizzahutfranchise. com/the-investment-pizza-franchise-opportunities. php http://www. gmw. cn/03pindao/2004-04/30/content_20233. htm

Odd

Odd Old Man And The Sea II Out of every single book that is in the ninth grade curriculum there is only one that is worth keeping. This one novel is The Old Man and the Sea. Other books students have read throughout the course of the year include; Death Be Not Proud, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Romeo and Juliet, and finally The Odyssey. These books were extremely tedious, hard to follow, and most of the time something students see as a "chore." Reading should not be a "chore" in the mind of the student. When a student goes to read a book assigned by his teacher he or she should want to pick up the book because they find it interesting. The only book that made a student want to pick it up was The Old Man and The Sea because of its reference to religion, its deep relationship between certain characters, and, because of its intensity in most events.Original book cover

The long history of puppetry Essay Example

The long history of puppetry Essay Example The long history of puppetry Paper The long history of puppetry Paper Prehistoric miniature stone figures have been excavated in many places. We can only guess what they may have been used for. Scholars try to attach cultural or mystical significance to these finds. Storytelling and play acting with dolls are invented spontaneously by children the world over. The making of miniature figures is basic to human nature. It is a fair guess that the main use is simply entertainment. In the fifth century BC Herodotus writes about ancient figures operated by strings. Xenophon of Athens refers to a travelling Greek showman putting on a puppet show. These men did not discover something new, they were just early-published writers, and they wrote about what was happening. A 12th century woodcut shows two youngsters playing with figures of armed knights on strings. In a 14th century illuminated manuscript we see three girls watching a puppet show. It looks a lot like Punch and Judy. Theatrical scripts have often made fun of authority and the injustices of life. In societies where the authorities had more power than we nowadays give them they often reacted angrily to deserved ridicule. The Commedia dellarte was an improvised popular comedy in Italian theatres of the 16th to 18th century. It was frequently banned and was often performed on the streets. The characters Harlequin, Columbine and Pulcinella originated here. Italian performers exported their art throughout Europe and further afield. In the French language Pulcinella became Polichinelle, in Russian Petroushka, and in English Punch. They also invented the slapstick, a stick that has two small paddles at the end of it or is divided at one or both ends to make a noise when it hits anything. This is where we get the term slapstick comedy. Polichinelle was playing in France by 1630. Samuel Pepys was a civil servant who kept a diary. He wrote it for himself in his own private code but it was published after his death. It gives a fascinating personal view of 17th century England. In 1662 this diary records the first English mention of open-air puppet performances. Pepys writes that he watched the puppets a few times, once he stopped for a show in Hyde Park and it made him late for an appointment with the king. First known as Punch and Joan, the puppets became a popular diversion on beaches and in parks. The performers were often itinerants and were often mentioned in literature. As readers of Dickens the Old Curiosity Shop will know they were sometimes of not too respectable personality. Henry Fielding wrote his brilliantly satirical novel Tom Jones in the 18th century. There were concerns about violence in puppetry then as now. Tom Jones meets a travelling Punch and Judy man who claims to have cleaned up his show and made it into a moral and refined spectacle. The entertainer enjoys a couple of mugs of beer with the patrons of a wayside tavern and then physically assaults his assistant. Fielding has his hero comment that he much preferred the show in its old form. George Cruikshank, who made a name for himself by illustrating the writings of Charles Dickens was involved in the production of a book that preserved a street performance of a Punch and Judy show. Cruikshank and publisher John Payne Collier hired an Italian performer, Signor Piccini, to put on a private show in the Kings Arms, a tavern in Drury Lane, London. The show was stopped frequently so that Cruikshank could make drawings and Collier could record the dialogue. Both of these illustrations are by Cruikshank. Piccini may or may not have been an Italian. Then, as now, entertainers sometimes invented exotic names and backgrounds for themselves. He was a great puppeteer. He could have one of his puppets take off his hat with one hand, throw it to the other hand, and put it back on his head. Punch and Judy proliferated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Shows were seen everywhere and some of the performers became prosperous.

Corporate Culture and Performance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Corporate Culture and Performance - Assignment Example The present paper has identified that values also control how the different stakeholders of a company interact with each other and how they think and feel about the problems of each other as well as of the entire organization. Culture is variable and can change as per the wishes of its managers or key members. The organization in which I have previously worked is â€Å"ACME† its organizational structure is based on the vertical functional approach. Hence proving that people in departments are grouped according to their skills, expertise and resource use. This is the most basic form of organizational structure which works for the company and helps them achieve greater efficiency through economies of scale. â€Å"ACME† has a tall structure and comparatively a narrow span of control which means that the overall management has been spread along the same level. It has five major departments. 1. Human capital 2. Production 3. Industrial relations 4. Sales and marketing 5. Fin ance and accounting Human capital department are basically responsible for hiring capable workers who match the kind of work profile required. It also deals with providing the employees the benefits, perks, and privileges so that they remain satisfied with the company and remain loyal to it. it also makes an effort to train employees so that they fit the criteria of the newly developing procedures in the company. The human capital department also puts forward the amount of pay and financial resources to be spent on training and so on to the finance department which is then approved by them. The production department is responsible for the overall production of the product. Because ACME is a multinational company, the production facilities are distributed amongst various countries so as to cut the costs. Bottles are usually manufactured in Singapore and delivered across the globe. There are a total of 8 plants in different parts of the country. They are located comparatively close to the major markets like and the central hubs so as to reduce the transportation costs. The industrial relations department is responsible for handling the problems related to the employees. As such problems in the country can have a major impact on the overall production of the company. This includes the problems to deal with labor unions, strikes, and wage issues. Basically, it deals with the problems related to industry so that the production process runs smoothly and more efficiently. The sales and marketing department deals with making the product available in the market and letting people know about it through advertising. It also deals with promotional deals, price cut offers and analyzing the competition from the competitors in the market and responding accordingly. The department also is responsible for making the product or ads culturally sensitive so as to fit in the environment of the country. For example, reducing the price during the festivities season so that its avail able to more people and hence increase sales. The finance and accounting department deals with actual pricing of the product and also on the working out of the cost of production.  

Australian accounting standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Australian accounting standards - Essay Example Several international legal systems are based on approaches derived from principles. Practically, the FRC supported the adoption process because of the indication towards lessening of information costs. Following the accounting processes under International Accounting Standards is accompanied by the cost reduction. Adoption of the international standards would also enhance efficiency within the Australian capital market through capital flow into the market. Enhancement of market efficiency would be possible because through the adoption, the nations would be able to set internationally accepted, competent quality, equivalent and apparent standards of accounting. Although there are considerable benefits associated with the adoption of international standards of accounting, there are also various potential barriers that hinder proper implementation of the International Accounting Standards all around the world. Cultural factor is also among those potential barriers to the standards’ adoption. The propensity to restrict the implementation primarily prevails among the businesses which are conducted locally inclusive of the small and medium enterprises. This is due to the existence of strong cultural and regional values among the people within the firms. For completely implementing the international accounting standards, it is the most significant to educate the firm’s auditors and accountants about the processes to be followed. Due to the cultural resistance to international adoption, the entire implementation process gets hampered. Cultural barriers impact the way that the financial statements are overviewed. Adoption of internati onal standards would require evaluation of financials based on concepts. Pertaining to the cultural beliefs, a massive expense incurred due to a day-off because of regional program might not be considered to be harmful. A number of day-offs would at times lead to prevalence of huge imbalance in financial statements (Sawani, 2006). Answer to Question No 1 b From January 1, 2005, the units operating under the Corporations Act (2001) of Australia were required to frame and present their respective financial statements as per the standards being followed in the International Accounting Standards Board. Although Australia was boosting up towards harmonizing its standards as per the international ones, after the comprehensive adoption, the transformation process would make various business aspects to change. As regards to the practices within financial reporting, reported results of the Australian firms had to be presented in a changed way and also the adoption affected compensation based on performance. Apart from these general transitions, the acknowledgment and measurements of the firms’ assets and liabilities also were affected. To name a few, various financial instruments were to be recorded within the financial statements as per their fair values. This change even resulted in classification of instruments as debts which were previously classified as equities. Amortisation of goodwill