Analysis Of The Book Face Of An Angel - 930 Words

Women are just as responsible as men for the sexist â€Å"macho† culture present in Latin families due to different reasons: women continue to educate their children with these same sexist ideas that they disagree with, they are also afraid to go against what the patriarchal society says, and they limit themselves to accept their sexist female roles and continue living under their â€Å"man’s† rules. The book Face of an Angel shows how Chavez gives her female perspective about the sexist environment in which females have lived in for several years. Even though the patriarchal model is present in many other cultures, the idea of a â€Å"macho† society is most often related to Latin American families. The basic idea of machismo comes from the patriarchal model which states that males are responsible for bringing the food to the table and females are left at home to take care of the children. This is just the beginning of a series of problems and abuses suffe red by many females in Latin America. It is important to clarify that women’s rights exist, the only problem is the lack of willingness to change. One of the main problems of a macho society is that males have extra benefits in contrast to females. For example: a man can drink in excess and come home late, also have multiple sexual partners, and work in any field they want without being scrutinized in the same fashion as their counterparts. Their goal is to seduce as many different women as possible in order to attain one and perhapsShow MoreRelatedDante Alighieri s Inferno, And The Book Of Revelation1584 Words   |  7 PagesDante Alighieri’s epic poem, Inferno, and the Book of Revelation as told by John in the Bible each regale the natural curiosity of humans involving manifestations of endings and possibilities of new beginnings in the afterlife. The purpose of informing God’s people of these manifestations and possibilities is mutual and key to the prepared ness of humans for life after death. Still, justice is surely delivered appropriately in Inferno and Revelation, due to God’s brilliant arrangements. DivergenceRead MoreFallen Angels Chacter analysis1133 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Character Analysis in Fallen Angels During war, many people change physically, mentally, and socially. War itself is disturbing to the mind. In Walter Dean Meyer’s Fallen Angels, the characters undergo many changes as they learn the true meaning of war. Perry, Peewee and Johnson all change in the sense of their personalities and their outlooks on life. In the beginning of the novel all the characters have very distinct characteristics. As the story progresses they start to see how war can haveRead MoreEssay on Satan, the Core of Milton ´s Paradise Lost1308 Words   |  6 Pageswritten in the classics. A literary criterion that is based on a protagonist, who undergoes conflict on the outside and from within and is prevented by a specific flaw to accomplish their main goal, creates an epic Hero. In Paradise Lost, God does not face conflict because he is perfect and all-knowing, and Adam’s conflict is not presented from the very start, Satan’s is. Because Satan is the main character of the work an d possesses qualities that would deem him heroic, such as his determination againstRead MoreReview Of The Better Angels Of Our Nature By Steven Pinker1262 Words   |  6 PagesMary Kaldor. In combination, these approaches provide a general summary of the major strains of â€Å"declinist† literature and demonstrate the challenges of assessing the changing political violence and armed conflict after the Cold War. In â€Å"The Better Angels of our Nature†, Steven Pinker claims that the decline of war since the 1990s is a continuation of a broader trend of declining violence since neolithic times. Accordingly, he claims that we are living in the â€Å"the most peaceable era in our species’Read More Analysis of Pauline Puyat’s Tracks ­ Essay583 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of Pauline Puyat’s Tracks ­ One of the most striking characteristics of Pauline Puyat is her devout Catholicism and her desire to be disconnected from the Ojibwa people. Throughout Tracks, she openly chooses Catholicism over her native religion and abandons her native ways almost completely. When Pauline tries to help Fleur prevent a miscarriage, she is literally held back by her conscious separation from the Ojibwa culture. There are many things that Pauline fails toRead MoreSummary Of The Triptych Melencome, And Knight, Death And The Devil1537 Words   |  7 Pagesto the skull and hourglass, the object’s presence generates an atmosphere of ominous danger- pertaining to judgement day, from the rainbow’s pairing, in the book of revelations: â€Å"I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven†¦ with a rainbow over his head2: St. Jerome also represents an aspect of the last judgment, listening to an angel trumpeting the decree. The foreground (physical world), is cluttered with equipment for alchemy, geometry and carpentry which appear unused, around the broodingRead MoreA World Of Calamity, By Ross Gay883 Words   |  4 PagesRoss Gay’s book Against Which, portrays his poetry to readers allowing them to gain understanding of the cruel world that one lives in. Moreover, the unusual brutalities that people are inevitable confronted with in life. The common denom inators within Gay’s poems such as violence, love, fear, and loss allows the reader to visualize characters’ transformation within his poems. In a world of calamity, Gay has created poems that portray the corporal conforming to gender and sex but also human developmentRead MoreEssay about The Voice of the Chimney Sweepers1180 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Blake (1757-1827) led a relatively happy life. At an early age, he claimed that he could see God, Angels, and other important Italian figures. Blake’s parents encouraged him to keep a record of all the masters he claimed to keep in contact with. Blake’s father, James Blake, gave him casts and engravings to keep this record. At the age of ten, Blake started at a drawing school named Henry Pars’ Drawing School. Three years later, he was apprenticed to a Master Engraver, James Basire. BlakeRead MoreReading Like A Writer By Francine Prose880 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Like most – maybe all – writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books† - Francine Prose, Reading Like A Writer. In the New York Times bestseller Reading Like A Writer, Acclaimed American Author Francine Prose returns with potent insight and the works of the most superlative writers of our time, in this guide to mastering the art of writing through reading. Prose graduated from Radcliffe College in 1868 but had received most of her training through avidlyRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne1422 Words   |  6 PagesThe Scarlet Letter, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and an abundant array of other books and short stories. The stories that are mentioned contain a copious amount of symbolism throughout the entirety of each book. All the stories that he ever wrote have an underlying meaning and the symbolism was hidden within in the names, characters, places, and actions that happened in the books and helped the readers to have a greater understanding about the Puritan lifestyle and the Bible.

Gay Marriage Is Not The Only Issue Involving Marriage

Divorce is not the only issue involving marriage in America. There are still reservations about same sex couples being given the privilege to marry each other. With American morality, values, religion, and culture being questioned, this is one of the heaviest debates of our time. America was founded on the belief of freedom for all, and the gender of your partner should not matter. A question that some may ask is, what exactly is gay marriage? Gay marriage or same-sex marriage is the legal and social recognition that a joining (marriage) between two persons of the same social gender or biological sex takes place (Quick). As of February 9, 2015, gay marriage has been legalized in 37 American states and the district of Columbia(Marriage). While the remaining states have gay marriage bans through laws, constitutional amendments, or both. Proponents argue that same-sex couples ought to have access to the same marriage benefits and public acceptance enjoyed by heterosexual couples, and that prohibiting gay marriage is unconstitutional discrimination. Opponents argue that altering the traditional definition of marriage between a man and a woman will further weaken a threatened institution. They believe that legalizing gay marriage is a slippery slope that will lead to polygamous relationships. Gay marriage has come a long way from the 1980 s when only few Americans ever thought of marrying someone of the same sex(Wood). Same-sex couples have a history of fighting for theirShow MoreRelatedSame-Sex Marriage Essay1633 Words   |  7 PagesWhile the issue of homosexuality is relatively new to our country, the fight for rights started almost immediately, and people today are still struggling to earn civil liberties, like same-sex marriage. If some change isn’t made now, their struggle for rights could last even longer than other minorities have endured. Since there is no national ruling made to abolish same-sex marriage, each state sets its own laws regarding ga y marriage. Currently in the US, five states allow same-sex marriage, severalRead MoreCommon Ground : Same Sex Marriage956 Words   |  4 PagesCommon Ground: Same-Sex Marriage Same-sex marriage, a controversial social issue in the U.S. for several decades, is constantly evolving. When viewed historically, great change has happened in a short period of time, in the movement for same-sex marriage, given that until recently, no society in thousands of years has ever allowed it. Futurist John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends, has studied the change in the public’s perspective on gay marriage. Naisbitt asserts: â€Å"In just my lifetime, weRead MoreGay Marriage Essay1335 Words   |  6 PagesGay Marriage People should be able to marry whomever they want and they shouldnt have the fear to be judged and have the same rights of everybody else becasue they are people just like us. Gay marriage has affected the country in many ways. It was legalized just two years ago by the Supreme Court ruling it (www.theatlantic.com). I chose this topic because people should do what they want and marry who they want so they have the same rights as everybody else. There was 14 states that did not allowRead MoreGay Marriage Should Not Be Condemned1108 Words   |  5 Pagesbeen heated debate’s concerning gay marriage’s in the world. Some people support gay marriage while others do not. Gay marriage is a marital union that involves two adults of the same gender. For instance, a woman and another or marriage involving two men would constitute a gay marriage. Generally, this issue has been prevalent in the developed countries such as the United States; but it is a fact those kinds of marriages exist in other countries in the world over, only that the participants do notRead More Equal Rights for All Essays918 Words   |  4 PagesEqual Rights for All Gay marriage has always been a subject of great controversy. Andrew Sullivan addresses this issue in his persuasive essay entitled â€Å"Let Gays Marry.† Sullivan’s essay appeared in Newsweek in June of 1996. Through his problem/solution structure of this essay, Sullivan uses rhetorical appeals to try and persuade the audience to accept gay marriage as a natural part of life. Sullivan, an editor of The New Republic, also wrote Virtually Normal: An ArgumentRead More Let Gays Marry and Leave Marriage Alone Essay1278 Words   |  6 Pageswill summarize some of the key points from the essay, Let Gays Marry, by Andrew Sullivan, and the essay, Leave Marriage Alone, by William Bennett. Some of these main points are taken from mutual beliefs of both authors and others are derived from the opposing opinions of the two. The first summary of Andrew Sullivan’s essay is a reflection of Andrew Sullivan’s stance of the issue. The original essay was in favor of allowing same sex marriage in America. My summary will dictate some of the argumentsRead MoreThe Fundamental Right to Same-Sex Marriage Essay718 Words   |  3 PagesThe legalization of same-sex marriage has been a controversial issue for years. Arguments have risen between political and religious point of views over the controversial topic. While many believe it is morally and ethically wrong, there are others who believe it is emotionally and socially acceptable. More than half the country legally denies the right to marry between lesbian or gay couples. When denying same-sex couples to marry, the government is degrading the rights of citizens and is encouragingRead MoreReligion And The Civil Rights Movement954 Words   |  4 Pagesobtain gay and civil rights has been directly influenced by religion, either in a positive or ne gative way. More specifically, religion has served as a disadvantage to achieving gay rights and an advantage to those that participated in the civil rights movement. Contrary to the recent successes of the gay rights movement, there have been a lot of obstacles along the way and most of them have been due to religious beliefs and practices. Religion opposes gay rights, especially gay marriage on the basisRead MoreThe Issue of Gay Marriages918 Words   |  4 PagesGay marriage has come to be a pressing topic in the contemporary society as more and more individuals get actively involved in discussing it. Individuals who oppose same-sex marriage are typically inclined to bring on a deontological argument or to say that legalizing the act might bring on other issues. In contrast, people who support gay marriages focus on matters related to human rights and justice. The arguments generated by each of the sides are certainly thought-provoking and it is very difficultRead MoreGay Marriag e Should Be Legal1684 Words   |  7 PagesGay marriage In discussions of gay marriage one controversial issue has been whether or not it should be legalized. On the one hand, some people argue that gay marriage should not be accepted in our society. On the other hand, some people believe that gay marriage should be legalized. Others even maintain that gay marriage is not a problem, and we should respect the preferences of everyone. My personal view is that gay marriage is not a big issue because we are in a free country, where everyone

The reasons why costs need to be controlled to a budget free essay sample

Analyse the reasons why costs need to be controlled to a budget. Give at least 4 examples of the negative effects of exceeding financial budgets and how it affects the business. By chloe_smith M4-Analyse the reasons why costs need to be controlled to a budget. Give at least 4 examples of the negative effects of exceeding financial budgets and how it affects the business. Example of costs Variances and whether they are adverse (A) or favourable(F) over the three months (Nov, Dec, Jan) Identify the possible reasons for these variances Materials On budget Petrol 20 Adverse Petrol prices went up. Wages Advertising 1 50 Adverse The person in control of advertising didnt budget effectively and anticipated the prices wrong or they took out a marketing campaign that was substantially higher than they expected. Insurance 300 Adverse They couldVe renewed their insurance but if this is the case then they shouldVe known how much the insurance was going to cost. We will write a custom essay sample on The reasons why costs need to be controlled to a budget or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Alternatively they couldVe had a claim within the 3 months. Factory rental The landlord the company are renting their land from may have put up his rental prices or perhaps they slightly expanded their factory within the 3 months. Bank loan payment 75 Adverse The interest rate may have increased and they werent aware of this. Equally in previous months they could have paid less to the bank and therefore had to catch up during these 3 months and paid more. Van Payment 60 Favourable An adverse variance in petrol would arise the problem ot trying to limi t the amount you transport. They can do this by comparing the petrol prices of local petrol stations and then using the cheapest proven one. An adverse in advertising would cause a problem as the company may need to decrease how much they advertise, which ould cause the business to become less known or they could limit their advertising to only market their product at prime times. In order to do this they could predominantly advertise their product before Christmas or if their product is predominantly seasonal then advertise it during peak times e. g. in summer or winter. A 300 adverse variance for insurance as this means they have less money to spend on liabilities and will need to ensure they arent going to make any claims as this will increase the insurance further. In order to do this they will need to improve their ealth and safety around their offices and stores and also the regularly check the maintenance of any vehicles they own. If the landlord has decided to increase the factories rent then there is nothing the company can predominantly do help this, whereas if the business has expanded the factory then this shouldnt become problematic for the company as they should be producing more and therefore increasing sales to bring in more revenue for their expenses. The problem the business has with an adverse on bank loans is that the interest can go up and will not decrease Just because they are unable to pay the substantial amount one month he payments should be paid consistently and at the same price every month as they are a debt that should be cleared as soon as possible. D3- As a result of these adverse variances I am writing a report about the problems caused when you dont check your costs and budgets and when you are spending more than you have. If a business is unable to manage their costs and budgets they then become incapable of paying their expenses, for example electricity, gas and other bills. Alternatively spending money the business hasnt got results in the business owing debts. If you ont manage your finances you can have outstanding debts, from external sources like banks. When a business takes out a loan from the bank they agree in a contract to the terms and conditions the bank set. These standards are expected to be met even if you find your company struggling to keep up with payments. The business will also be expected to pay interest on the loan, small businesses will pay a different amount of interest on the loan than bigger businesses and these interest rates will be determined by the circumstances of the business. A bank could impose a legal inding covenant before a loan is issued. If this condition is breached, the bank can order the business to repay the loan immediately. The staff can also be affected by the lack of control on a companys finances. This can cause the staff members to feel unappreciated and can result in them becoming demotivated and not producing a high standard of work, in severe circumstances the staff can strike. Moreover the suppliers wont continue to supply the goods required to operate and without the goods the customers wont be able to buy the products, from the company, this could ead to the customers starting to go to competitors as they will have to look elsewhere. In addition to this the shareholders wont get the right amount of money required from the profits, resulting in disputes and legal cases within the business. Other shareholders will then not want to continue investing in the business and give the business a bad reputation. Overall when a business does not manage their costs to a budget they damage their business, mostly the three main elements; statt, suppliers and customers which is the most important parts of criteria when successfully running a business.

The Imf And The Bretton Woods Agreements Essay Example For Students

The Imf And The Bretton Woods Agreements Essay The international financial system has been radically altered since the worldwide depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. This change is due in large part to the inception of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its subsequent control over the international financial system. In this paper I will examine the extensive role of the Bretton Woods system of exchange rates and the gold standard. Additionally, I will examine the role that the IMF has taken on since the demise of the gold standard. To begin, we must examine the circumstances that surround the creation of the IMF, who the actors are and what each of their roles are as member countries. The IMF was created as a result of the worldwide market collapse that took place initially in October of 1929. The domino effect that took place when the first market crashed was seen to be a situation so severe that world powers felt that drastic measures needed to be taken to ensure that this was the last global financial crisis that the world would face. Its creation in 1944 was the beginning of a new era for the international financial system. We will write a custom essay on The Imf And The Bretton Woods Agreements specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The creation of the IMF occurred at Bretton Woods along with the World Bank and the system of fixed exchange rates and the gold standard for currency. Under this system, the US dollar was tied to gold by a United States government commitment to buy it at $35.00 and ounce and sell to central banks at the same price (excluding handling and other charges). Other participating countries maintained the exchange values of their currencies at prices which were almost fixed in terms of the dollar (the values fluctuate normally not more than one percent on either side of their parities), with the result that exchange rates were almost universally fixed. Other governments carried out their commitments by selling internationally acceptable liquid resources when there was an excess demand for foreign currencies in terms of their own currencies, and by buying liquid resources when there was an excess supply. What constituted internationally acceptable resources for this purpose were gold, and oth er liquid assets denominated in ?key? or reserve currencies, principally US dollars or UK pounds sterling. The IMF was to ensure that these standards were being followed as well as being the lender for temporary deficits, and balance of payment problems. Each member country contributed a predefined amount, or quotas, of national currencies and gold. This quota also determines the voting power on the IMF and the amount of resources that they may draw on from the Fund. Designed to foster monetary cooperation, the IMF sought to enforce strict rules of behaviour in a world based on the gold standard and fixed currency-exchange rates. The Fund had, in theory, strict rules regarding how much to lend and when it was to be repaid. In reality, however, the Fund had discretion to waive any normal limitations. In 1961 with the advent of the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), the Fund increased its ability to lend through arrangements to borrow from 10 major industrial countries. At the time, these agreements had enabled the IMF to have and additional $6 billion at its disposal. The Gold Standard, in theory, functioned to limit the ability of governments to issue currency at will, hence decreasing the purchasing power of money. It existed before the Bretton Woods agreement, but was suspended for reasons that we will see later. If, for example, the US dollar were defined as equal to 1/20 of an ounce of gold, then the number of dollars that the United States could issue would be constrained by its holdings of gold reserves. Moreover, if the UK defined its currency, the pound sterling, as 5/20 of an ounce of gold, the fixed exchange rate between the US and the UK, quite obviously would be $5 USD=?1 sterling. One specific problem with specie standards (that is a currency convertible into a standardised unit of a non-monetary commodity) is that the value of money is only as valuable as the specie backing it. When worldwide gold production was low in the 1870s and 1880s, the money supply grew slowly, leading to a general deflation. This situation changed radically in the 1890s following the discovery of gold in Alaska and in South Africa. The result was rapid money growth and inflation up until the outbreak of World War I. Furthermore, linking currencies to gold did not totally restrain governments from manipulating the value of their currencies. First, in order to finance expenditures by printing money, governments would frequently suspend the gold standard during times of war. Second, even without officially abandoning gold, some nations periodically redefined the value of their currencies in terms of gold. Instead of allowing for gold or foreign reserves to be consistently depleted, the countries would choose instead to devalue their currencies. It might seem, by this previous line of argument that countries had no real restrictions on their behaviour when it came to currencies, since they could devalue them at will. However, there was a serious price to pay for devaluation. Should a country threaten to devalue its currency, a speculative attack on that countrys currency would surely follow as investors attempted to rid themselves of that currency. Such countries would ultimately lose large amounts of reserves. This is exactly what occurred in the UK in 1966 and 1967. Confidence in the value of the pound sterling crashed and the subsequent loss of gold reserves amounted to 28 million ounces. In one day alone (November 17, 1967) the British government lost reserves valued at over $1 billion. On August 15, 1971, in the midst of a major international monetary crisis, President Richard M. Nixon announced a new policy suspending indefinitely the U.S.s commitment to redeem gold for dollars. This commitment was the lynchpin of the international monetary system in which the U.S. dollar served as the key currency by which the value of other currencies would be determined. Nixons decision to break the link between the dollar and gold effectively pulled the rug out from under the other world currencies, forcing them to re-determine their values, and thus forcing devaluation of the dollar. This event is generally regarded as marking the demise of the system of fixed exchange rates. The fall of the Bretton Woods system represents an important transitional stage in the history of international economic relations. It represents a change from a hegemonic system dominated by the U.S. intended to lay the foundation for an open, competitive world economy to the current system of floating exchange rates and expanding global capitalism. The Fall of the Bretton Woods System President Nixons announcement in 1971 and then the subsequent collapse of the system in 1973 were hardly spontaneous occurrences. The fall of Bretton Woods was simply the culmination of a chain of economic and political developments that were quite predictable. From flaws in the design of the system that made it inherently unstable, to the spin-off of international capital markets that exploited its weaknesses, the collapse of Bretton Woods was inevitable. Because of the U.S. pledge to back dollars with gold, the stability of the system was based on the ratio of foreign-held dollars to the value of gold held by the United States. If the amount of foreign dollars exceeded the amount of U.S. gold, the U.S. could not pay all of its claimants without changing the price of gold. So as the ratio of foreign dollars to U.S. gold increased, so did pressure to devalue the dollar. As such, the stability of the system was gauged by the U.S. balance of payments. Considering this, confidence in the dollar became an essential element of the Bretton Woods system. The decade following the signing Bretton Woods agreement would see the U.S. balance of payments shift from surplus to deficit, producing new pressures on the system. From 1948 to 1958, several new and significant features surfaced in the international system. These features included development of new institutions for economic cooperation, dramatic economic growth in Europe, rising U.S. military spending, U.S. foreign aid to the Third World, and the emergence of U.S.-based multinational corporations (MNCs). These new additions to the international landscape helped to generate the stability and prosperity that gave nations the confidence to participate in this liberal system. But at the same time, each factor contributed to an outflow of dollars, pushing the U.S. balance of payments in the direction of larger deficits, meaning more do llars abroad and more potential claimants on U.S. gold, thereby destabilizing the system. The balance of payments difficulties posed a unique problem for the United States. As the hegemon of the system, the U.S. had an obligation to provide economic and military security for itself, its allies, and the system. In the 1960s U.S. leaders faced the dilemma of trying to solve the balance of payments problem while still fulfilling the countrys responsibilities as hegemon. The initial deficits of the 1950s, which were created through military and economic aid, were actually seen as beneficial at the time in that they helped close the gap with the still economically weak Europeans. By the end of the 1950s, Europe had recovered and the deficit became a problem. Before 1958 and 1959, large surpluses in goods and services and investment income had helped to offset the costs of providing foreign aid, military expenditures abroad, and private overseas investment. When the U.S. surpluses suddenl y shrank, the payments deficit became even wider. Clearly the burden of hegemony was taking its toll on the United States. One of President John F. Kennedys economic advisers warned, will not be able to sustain in the 1960s a world position without solving the balance of payments problem. This assessment proved to be accurate as U.S. efforts to meet its global responsibilities further damaged its balance of payments, undermining its ability to act as hegemon. The increase in U.S. deficits meant money was leaving the country and as such, it had to go somewhere. This is evidenced by the surpluses experienced by Japan and Western European countries, such as West Germany, which were growing rapidly. The surpluses, combined with the U.S. deficit, meant decreasing liquidity in the world economy, as the U.S., in its role as central banker to the world, had supplied much of the liquidity from its reserve assets, mainly gold. To remedy this situation, a devaluation of the dollar would have been seemingly appropriate. However, the U.S. could not devalue the dollar without horribly upsetting the other currencies of the world. Another way to help correct the disequilibrium in world payments would have been to have surplus countries like Germany and Japan revalue their currencies, effectively devaluing the dollar in the process. Because these countries were persistently reluctant to change their own rates, the payments imbalances increased until a breaking point was reached in 1971. The fact that the surplus countries did not wish to revalue their currencies emphasizes an important flaw in the design of the Bretton Woods system. Orin Kirshner writes, It was becoming uncomfortably clear that a system of fixed exchange rates, in which gold and the dollarwere the main components, was rather asymmetrical in its pressures for adjustment. The deficit countries were under pressure to adjust when they ran out of reserves and had to go to the or to the central bankers for aid; bu t there were no similar pressures on the creditors to reduce their surpluses. Another interesting development that played a large part in the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system is the Eurodollar phenomenon. The Eurodollar, or Eurocurrency (other currencies were also involved), market was a by-product of the large-scale accumulation of dollars in foreign banks following the shift from a dollar shortage (U.S. payment surplus) to a dollar surplus (U.S. payments deficit) in 1957-1958. It was then that London bankers decided to lend these dollars out, rather than return them to the U.S. (which would have helped to stabilize the situation by improving the U.S. balance of payments). Thus, Lairson says, was born the Eurodollarmarket essentially an unregulated money supply. When the U.S. government acted in 1963 to address this problem by enacting the interest equalization tax to slow the outflow of dollars for loans, U.S. banks then opened overseas branches to continue their foreign len ding. Lairson writes, because no single state could regulate it effectively and because of the unceasing U.S. payments deficits, a Euromarket system developed consisting of the dollar and other currencies, a system of bank credit, and a Eurobond market (bonds denominated in dollars floated outside the United States). A massive volume of funds emerged that, without much restriction, could move across borders in search of the highest yields available on a global basis. The emergence of this new, unregulated concentration of capital made even more difficult than before for the U.S. to get a handle on the system. .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc , .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .postImageUrl , .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc , .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:hover , .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:visited , .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:active { border:0!important; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:active , .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ucce7d2ada0122332a26f75ee04450ccc:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: GutierrezS Analysis Of Book Of Job EssayLairson suggests that two main reasons can be identified for the decline and fall of the Bretton Woods system. First, he writes, the system was inherently unstable because the mechanisms for adjustment of exchange rates were so inflexible. He states the economic relations that developed after 1948 were structured by these fixed values even as the shift from U.S. surplus to deficit increasingly demanded adjustment of exchange rates. He continues, the world of 1971 was significantly different from the world of 1945-1950, but the Bretton Woods system made few accommodations to that reality. Lairsons second reason, which he regards as pe rhaps most reflective of those changes, was the massive growth of the market power of international capital and its impact on fixed rates. The transnational actors who emerged over the years reflect this notion. By 1973, the Eurocurrency market had grown to nine times the size of U.S. reserves. Such an immense collection of resources, he says, was capable of overwhelming even concerted government action. The immense pressure these forces put on the dollar and the fixed-rate system itself finally led to an international monetary crisis, forcing Nixon to temporarily take the dollar off the gold standard. Then on March 19, 1973, the system collapsed entirely, even while major efforts to reform the system were in progress. By this time, the powerful new transnational actors collectively lost confidence in the fixed-rate system and in the ability of governments to create any viable system. Finally, Kirshner states, financial officials of the main industrial countries, including the Unite d States, found it preferable, and inevitable, to let their exchange rates float. The Bretton Woods system was at an end. In hindsight, it becomes apparent that the Bretton Woods system, by the 1970s, had served its purpose and the time had come for it to give way to a system better suited to the realities of the time. The Bretton Woods agreements and institutions were designed to stabilize the world economy in the aftermath of World War II, so that countries could eventually interact, grow, and compete as equals in a world of open markets. This system, which was dependent on U.S. hegemony for its success, had progressed to the point where the distribution of economic and political power had become more widespread among other countries. This process can be viewed as a maturation of the international system as U.S. hegemony was no longer practical in the monetary system, and, as we would later see, it was becoming less necessary in other aspects of the international system. The move to floating exchange rates in Western economies forced the IMF to end its role as traffic cop of the world monetary system and to concentrate instead on providing advice and information to its members, which in 1998 numbered 182 countries. That role was key in helping nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Central Europe restructure their economies following the 1982 debt crisis. Here, we will focus on the effects of the debt crisis on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although much focus has been given to the effects of the 1982 debt crisis in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the effects on Africa have nonetheless been strongly felt, and the consequences of that period linger on today. In Mexico the crisis was solved in 1987 through the Baker plan, funded by the Japanese and private creditors. The plan was targeted towards the commercial debt of the countries to which the banks were most exposed-middle income countries. As a result of this initiative, commercial activity was no longer at risk and the threat of the Latin American countries forming a debt cartel was assuaged. In SSA, however, the effects of the crisis have not yet been addressed as wholly as the Baker plan did for the Latin American countries. Some questions have arisen regarding the role of the IMFs lending practices in the SSA region. Whether or not the IMF has focused enough on LDCs development and growth as their main objectives. While this was not the purpose for the creation of the IMF, many have sought to make it so. Later the IMF sought a more ambitious role as an international lender of last resort to the world economy. The lender of last resort is an institution that will lend during times of financial crisis that will allow the market to return to equilibrium through its lending practices. Allan Meltzer has established five criteria that a lender of last resort at the domestic level must adhere to. We will use the analysis of Stanley Fisher, an important figure with the IMF to determine how these characteristics apply to the international case later on. .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f , .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .postImageUrl , .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f , .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:hover , .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:visited , .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:active { border:0!important; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:active , .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u0eadbed49306b0707a20503acc838e7f:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Racial Prejudices EssayThe first is that the central bank is the only lender of last resort in a monetary system such as that of the United States. Second, to prevent illiquid organizations from closing, the central bank should lend on any collateral that is marketable in the ordinary course of business when there is no panic. It should not restrict lending to paper eligible for discount at the central bank in normal periods. Third, the lenders loans, or advances, should be made in large amounts, on demand, at a rate of interest above the market rate. This discourages borrowing by those who can obtain accommodation in the market. Fourth, the above three principles should b e stated in advance and followed in a crisis. Finally, insolvent financial institutions should be sold at the market price or liquidated if there are no bids for the firm as an integrated unit. The losses should be borne by owners equity, subordinated debentures, and debt, uninsured depositors, and the deposit insurance corporations as in any bankruptcy. The argument for the need of an international lender of last resort rests not only on the volatility of capital markets but on the inherent financial panics that ensue from them. The importance of regulating these volatile markets was seen at Bretton Woods through the controls over capital inflows, yet it could not regulate the capital outflows. Fisher argues that not only does there need to be an international lender of last resort, but that increasingly the IMF has been playing that role since it first assumed that position in the international bailout of Mexico in 1995. Fisher proceeds to dismiss the argument that the lender of last resort need necessarily be a central bank. He divides the category of lender into two when financial crisis occurs. On the one hand, there are crisis lenders, who could be central banks. Fisher argues that there exists no requirement for them to be central banks. The only requirement is that enough liquidity exists within a particular institution such that it is able to supply the loans necessary to return the market to equilibrium. On the other hand we have crisis managers who are responsible for directly managing to whom the loans are given, and how best to deal with the crisis at hand. Fisher argues that in terms of international crises the IMF is perfectly suited to deal with such crises both as a crisis lender and as a crisis manager. Clearly the role of the IMF as international lender of last resort has presented itself, initially Mexico and as we will see the structure has been established for these activities to continue. In return for the imposition of an economic austerity plan in Mexico, the fund, along with the U.S. and other major industrial countries central banks, provided credit lines and other facilities totalling $47.8 billion. Although the assistance gave rise to criticism that the IMF was bailing out international investors and not the Mexican economy, the fund in 1997 and 1998 increased the amount each member contributed and expanded its lending activities further by establishing a $47 billion line of creditcalled the New Arrangements to Borrowwith two dozen countries. The increase in borrowing authority would allow troubled IMF members to draw well in excess of what would normally be allowed, a move that was well timed. In the 1990s capital had flooded into emerging economiessuch as Thailand, Indonesia, and South Koreawith little attention to borrowers creditworthiness. When economic problems started to occur, foreign and domestic investors alike rushed to get their money out of those countries. In the ensuing panic, currencies and stock and bond markets imploded, cutting off financing and swiftly throwing entire economies into recession. The crisis persisted, even amid billions of dollars in IMF and Western loan commitments. With the IMF estimating that world economic growth was only 2.2% in 1998, half what it had forecast in late 1997, it became apparent that more forceful moves woul d be required. Along with the IMFs fortified capital base and widened lending authority, it still was unclear whether widening the disclosure of emerging economies foreign-currency reserve levels, publicizing their growth estimates, and announcing capital inflows and outflows would help forestall the next crisismuch less put a decisive end to the one that drew headlines in 1998. This was because the entire face of international finance had changed since the IMF was created. Financial flows were once controlled by a handful of major banks that could be easily corralled into restructuring problem loans in cooperation with relatively modest IMF assistance. In the late 1990s, however, flows were dominated by thousands of banks; securities firms; and mutual, pension, and hedge funds that could move capital in and out of countries with a click of a computer mouse. The number of countries seeking international investment, meanwhile, had proliferated, as had the diversity of debt, equity, a nd other financial instruments. This array of investors and instruments made coordinating any response to financial crises extremely difficult, concluded Moodys Investors Service Inc., a major global credit-rating agency. The IMF, meanwhile, continued to face criticism that it was secretive in its dealings, undemocratic in its makeup, and unresponsive to the needs of poorer members. Many critics noted that the economic austerity programs that were typically attached to any IMF assistance were not always appropriate. In some cases spending cuts only deepened local recessions and made the task of necessary financial and industrial restructurings all the more difficult. Some economists, including Jeffrey D. Sachs, the director of the Harvard Institute for International Development, believed the IMF should permit countries to essentially go bankrupt, imposing formal suspensions of loan payments while creditors and debtors negotiated the value of the loans and determined whether any loan s could be exchanged for equity. During the negotiations a troubled country could continue to obtain new financing and exporters could conduct business, selling their goods and earning foreign currencies vital to a countrys economic revival. Suggestions such as these, if they were accepted, might require years to be put into practice. If the crisis of 1998 had one lesson, it was that nothing short of a cooperative effort by the entire world community is needed to repair the major shortcomings in the global system, according to IMF chair Camdessus . The question was whether the repairs would be performed quickly enough to enable the IMF and its backers to cope with the next financial implosion. BibliographyBibliography1. Haan, Roelf L., Special Drawing Rights and DevelopmentH.E. Stenfert Kroese N.V., Leiden, Netherlands, 19712. Simha, S.L.N., Gold and the International Monetary SystemRao and Raghavan, Mysore, India, 19693. Sharma, K.K., International Monetary SystemMeenakshi Prakashan, Meerut, India, 19834. Kenen, Peter B. et al, The International Monetary SystemCambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 19945. Hellmann, Rainer, Gold, the Dollar, and the European Currency SystemsPraeger Publishers, New York, USA, 1979Economics Essays

Organizational Knowledge Essays

Organizational Knowledge Essays Organizational Knowledge Essay Organizational Knowledge Essay We live in an information economy in which the major source of wealth and prosperity is the production and distribution of information and knowledge.An era in which the key economic resource is knowledge is startlingly different from an era in which the key resources were capital, raw materials, land and labor. Emerging service economy trend lead many organizations towards the information base strategies to face and fight with the current business competitions. In that case knowledge plays a major role in every organization. In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. (Harvard Business Review) Therefore an organization? s most valuable assets are the people it employs.The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an individual may be worth more to an organization. In this case, Knowledge can be recognized as an important weapon for sustaining competitive advantage in organizations and many companies are beginning to manage organizational knowledge. Any organization that dynamically deals with a changing environment ought not only to process information efficiently but also create information and knowledge. (Lee Choi, 2003) 3 Organizational Knowledge It is often said that an organization? s most valuable assets are the people it employs.The ideas, experiences, expertise and knowledge contained in the mind of an individual may be worth more to an organization than can be quantified with respect to how that knowledge is applied each day to save time, reduce costs, and advance the organization? s initiatives. How can an organization capitalize on individual knowledge? How do individuals contribute to subunits or groups within the organization to build and perpetuate group knowledge? How does individual and group knowledge become organizational knowledge that can be captured, reused, and applied to achieve measurable positive effects for the organization?When might extraorganizational knowledge be used to further increase or enhance the capabilities of an organization? In line with the topic; Organizational knowledge, we have to explores these questions, first by defining each knowledge ty pe, then by examining how knowledge moves through an organization and becomes valuable organizational intellectual capital. Defining Knowledge Knowledge is a cognitive, a spiritual, event that take place inside people? s heads. There are two primary definitions of the knowledge as the Tacit Knowledge and the Explicit Knowledge.In simply knowledge residing in the minds of employees that has not been documented is called tacit knowledge, whereas knowledge that has been documented is called explicit knowledge. Tacit Knowledge Tacit Knowledge can be defined as knowledge that has not yet been codified from the outside the individual? s mind. On another words, knowledge that comes from experience and is difficult or impossible to communicate. It is intangible and consists of knowledge which is difficult to express and to communicate to other people.Also it is more difficult to transmit than codified knowledge and hard to formalize due to belonged personal qualities. Examples for tacit kno wledge are; Awareness Mental models Wisdom Skills Expertise Corporate memory 4 Explicit Knowledge Explicit knowledge, in contrast, is the knowledge that can be codified and is transmittable in formal systematic language. (Nonaka 1994) It consists of knowledge which can be expressed in symbols, and which can be communicated through these symbols to other people. Knowledge can reside in e-mail, unstructured documents, hand books, manuals can be listed under this category.Examples for explicit knowledge are; Databases, statistics, collections Books, publications, reports, documents, correspondence Photographs, diagrams, illustrations Computer code, expert systems, decision support systems Presentations, speeches, lectures Recorded experiences, stories Materials for education, teaching and training Laws, regulations, procedures, rules, policies Individual Knowledge Individual knowledge can be defined simply as knowledge possessed by the individual. This knowledge is most often tacit unless the individual possesses explicit knowledge that is not shared with anyone or any organization other than the individual.A private journal or private blog might be considered explicit individual knowledge. Individual knowledge can be acquired through experiences, and at times it can be acquired without language. When an individual is acquiring knowledge from observing another person? s actions, and once the individual applies his or her own experiences and background to what is learned it becomes individual knowledge. The creation of new „individual? knowledge derived from observation, imitation and practice is called socialization, or tacit to tacit knowledge sharing. Individual knowledge can certainly develop from explicit knowledge.What a person reads, for example, can contribute to new thoughts and ideas in the mind of the individual. This method of knowledge creation is referred to as internalization – turning explicit knowledge into 5 tacit knowledge. By re ading or acquiring explicit knowledge, independent thought and analysis can develop into new, individual knowledge. An individual can make a greater contribution to the knowledge sharing and creation process by allowing their knowledge to be internalized by others or socializing their knowledge with others, which leads to the creation of group knowledge. Group KnowledgeGroup knowledge might be defined as individual knowledge that multiple individuals rely upon as truth, share and understand. Group knowledge is broadcast information (Correa da Silva Cullell, 56), but is not necessarily information shared „publicly? (i. e. common knowledge). Group knowledge can be generated and disseminated through socialization and often results in the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, or externalization. When groups come together and exchange ideas, individual knowledge is synthesized to arrive at group knowledge, which eventually becomes routing at the organizational level.Thus, the transformation of individual knowledge into organizational routines leads to complex and embodied organizational knowledge. When group knowledge from several subunits or groups is combined and used to create new knowledge, the resulting tacit and explicit knowledge can be called organizational knowledge. 6 Important Dimensions of Knowledge Knowledge is a firm asset Knowledge is an intangible asset. Knowledge is not subject to the law of diminishing returns as physical assets, but its value increases as more people share it.Knowledge has different forms Knowledge can be either tacit or explicit (codified) Knowledge involves know-how, craft and skill Knowledge involves knowing how to follow procedures Knowledge has a location Knowledge is a cognitive event involving mental models and maps of individuals There is both a social and an individual basis of knowledge Knowledge is sticky, situated, and contextual Knowledge is situational Knowledge is conditional: Knowing wh en to apply a procedure is just as important as knowing the procedure Knowledge is related to contextSOURCE: Laudon and Laudon, 2008. Management Information Systems Knowledge Creation New knowledge always begins with the individual. Making personal knowledge available to others is the central activity of the knowledge creating company. It takes place continuously and at all levels of the organization. Organizational knowledge creation may be explicated by the interchange between tacit and explicit knowledge. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or to share with others.Subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches fall into this category of knowledge. On the other 7 hand, explicit knowledge is more easily transmitted as it is characteristically codified. As such, explicit knowledge is more easily processed and shared with others. According to the theory, the process of knowledge conversion proceeds through four different modes: 1. Socialization (the conversion of tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge) 2. Combination (the conversion of explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge) 3. Externalization (the conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge) and 4.Internalization (the conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge) Socialization During the socialization mode, tacit knowledge is transferred through interactions between individuals, which may also be accomplished in the absence of language; individuals may learn and gain a sense of competence by observing behavior modeled by others. For example, mentoring and apprenticeships instruct tacitly through observation, imitation, and practice. Combination The combination mode of knowledge conversion embodies the aggregation of multiple examples of explicit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994).Explicit knowledge may be exchanged during meetings or conferences in which a diversity of knowledge sources combines to shape a new and enhanced conceptio n. Externalization The externalization mode of the knowledge conversion spiral references the translation of tacit knowledge into explicit. Metaphors are recommended as a way to facilitate this translation (Nonaka, 1994). Metaphors assist individuals in explaining concealed (i. e. , tacit) concepts that are otherwise difficult to articulate by assisting individuals in forming impressions based on imagination and intuitive learning through symbols.Internalization The conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge, i. e. , the internalization mode occurs through a series of iterations in which concepts become concrete and ultimately absorbed as an integral 8 belief or value. Where externalization utilizes metaphors to facilitate knowledge conversion, internalization represents an active process of learning. Nonaka (1994) describes this as participants†¦.. sharing explicit knowledge that is gradually translated, through interaction and a process of trial-and-error, into different aspec ts of tacit knowledge.It is found most commonly at highly successful Japanese companies such as Honda, Canon, Matushita and Sharp are in focusing to the knowledge creation. Managers in these companies recognize that creating new knowledge is not simply a matter of mechanistically Processing objective information. The knowledge creation process The mutual exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge that describes the knowledge creation process is initiated at the level of the individual employee or organizational member. Because individuals are an integral component of this conversion process, their commitment to knowledge creation is critical.According to Nonaka (1994), knowledge creation may be activated when organizational members have freedom and sufficient purpose to pursue new knowledge. A continuous process of questioning and reconsidering existing premises by individual members of the organization fosters organizational knowledge creation (Nonaka Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge Mana gement For hundreds of years, owners of family businesses have passed their commercial wisdom on to their children, master artificer have taught their trades to followers, and workers have exchanged their knowledge on the job.Therefore knowledge management is nothing new, but until the 1990s that managers were not talking about knowledge management. (Harvard Business Review) When the industrialized economies have shifted from natural resources to intellectual assets, managers have been constrained to censor the knowledge underlying their businesses and how that knowledge is used. At that same time rice of technological devices using; mainly computers has made it possible to codify, store, and share certain kind of knowledge more easily than ever. In current business environment, Knowledge management has become an important theme at many large business firms as managers realize that much of their firm? s value depends on firm? s ability to create and manage knowledge. (Laudon Laudon ). Studies have found that a substantial part of a firm? s stock market value is related to its intangible assets, of which knowledge is one important component, along with brands, reputations, and unique business processes (Gu and Lev, 2001).Well executed knowledge-based projects have been known to produce extra ordinary returns on investment, although knowledge-based investments are difficult to measure (Blair and Wallman, 2001). Knowledge Management is the process of leveraging organizational knowledge to deliver longterm advantage to a business. This, in turn, requires technology to capture, codify, store, disseminate and reuse the knowledge. Any organization, before framing a strategy, should analyze the industry and should understand all relevant parameters of industry growth.This analysis would yield results on the industry parameters like growth/ recession buyer/supplier power leading to determining the attractiveness of competition. The competitor analysis would reveal the strategy adopted by the competitors and identify the possible future movements of the competitors and to predict the strategies that are likely to be adopted by them. An organization can gain competitive advantage and sustain it only if it is able to understand the needs of the customer and track the changes in the customer needs.In this context, the analysis of the needs of customer gains importance. An organization should assess the resources and capabilities, before formulating a strategy, since the resources and capabilities should aid the operationalization of the chosen strategy. The right combination of resources and capabilities in the context of a strategy can be discovered through the process of knowledge management. Knowledge Management Value Chain Knowledge management increases the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes.Knowledge value is very difficult to measure and it is extracted when knowled ge is used. Knowledge sharing increases the value of knowledge with abundance. Knowledge management value chain is a sequence of intellectual tasks by which knowledge workers build their employer? s unique competitive advantage and social and environmental benefits. There are four main value adding steps in the knowledge 10 management value chain; each stage adds value to raw data and information as they are transformed into usable knowledge. Acquisition Storage Dissemination ApplicationFigure 02: Knowledge Management value chain Knowledge acquisition Organizations acquire knowledge in a number of ways, depending on the type of knowledge they seek. In a way, organizations acquire knowledge by developing online expert networks so that employees can find the expert in the company who has the knowledge in his or her head. Other than that firms have to create new knowledge by discovering patterns in corporate data or by using knowledge work stations where engineers can discover new know ledge. A coherent and organized knowledge system also requires systematic data from the firm? transaction processing systems (sales, payments, inventory, customers etc. ), news feeds, industry reports, legal opinions, scientific research and government statistics as well. Knowledge storage Knowledge storage generally involves the creation of a database. Expert systems also help corporations preserve the knowledge that is acquired by incorporating that knowledge into organizational process and culture. Management must support the development of planned knowledge storage systems to update and store documents properly. 11 Knowledge DisseminationPortal, e-mail, instant messaging and search engine technology have added to the existing technologies for sharing documents, data and graphics. Training programmes, informal networks and shared management experience communicated through a supportive culture help managers focus their attention on the important knowledge and information which is really important for their decisions and their work. Knowledge Application Knowledge that is not shared and applied to the practical problems facing firms and managers does not add business value.To provide a return on investment, organizational knowledge must become a systematic part of management decision making and become situated in decision support systems. An organizations can do this is to build online information databases that employees can access which works as an online knowledge bank. Other than this some knowledge management experts have suggest that organizations create communities of practice, which are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in that area by interacting on an ongoing basis.Out of the four steps in knowledge management value chain, knowledge sharing is considered to be the most important one, and it is said Knowledge sharing is the power instead of Knowledge is the Power. In order to do this an organization must have a knowledge supporting culture, that management can support the knowledge creation and sharing. In line with that perfect human resource management is a prior functional area in an organization. Top management provides employees with a sense of direction by setting the standards for justifying the value of knowledge that is constantly being developed by the organization? members. Deciding which efforts to support and develop is a strategic task. (Harvard business review on Knowledge management, 2008) 12 Knowledge Applications in the Technological Aspect Business Problems ? ? ? Monitor service levels and costs Develop document access rules Management ? Document intensive business Fragmented information in legacy systems and manual processes ? ? ? Coordinate Documents and maintenance data Develop Document Access procedures Revise repair and maintenance procedures Organization Information systems Business solution ? ? Reduce time Red use cost ? ? ? ?Implement oracle database Deploy laptops Technology Immediately access Equipment maintenance information Figure 03: Use of Technology in Knowledge Management Process The diagram shows how organizations can use technology in solving business problems and how an organization can reduce the time consumption and the cost by using information systems. These information systems would include transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision support systems, expert systems and intelligent systems etc. Knowledge Management Strategies There are mainly two types of knowledge management strategies.In some companies, the strategy centered on the computer. In that c knowledge is carefully codified and stored in databases, where it can be easily accessed and used by anyone in the company. This is called Codification Strategy. 13 Codification Strategy Codification strategy implies the theme; people to documents, pointing to develop an electronic document syst em that codifies, stores, disseminates, and allows reuse of knowledge. The companies that follow codification strategy rely on the economics of reuse. Once an organization invests in knowledge asset; they can reuse it many times.The reuse of knowledge saves work, reduces communication costs and allows a company to take on more projects. And the strategy focuses on generating large overall revenues. And also the organizations always think in the point of human resource management to hire new graduates who are suited to reuse knowledge and the implementation of solutions, to train people in groups and through computer based learning, to reward people for using and contributing to document databases. Earnest Young is an organization which uses this strategy as their knowledge management strategy.In other companies, knowledge is closely bounded to the person who developed it and is shared mainly through direct person to person contacts. In those companies main purpose of the computers is to help people to communicate knowledge, not to store it. This is called Personalization Strategy. Personalization Strategy And this strategy implies that person to person fact which points to develop networks for linking people so that tacit knowledge can be shared. In contrast to the codification strategy, the personalization strategy relies on the logic of expert economics.It focuses on maintaining high profit margins. But on the other hand the process of sharing deep knowledge is time consuming, expensive and slow. It can? t be made much efficient. The companies that applied this strategy as their knowledge management strategy; wish to hire people who like problem solving and can tolerate ambiguity and to reward people for directly sharing knowledge with others. Choosing the knowledge management strategy is not an arbitrary thing, it depends on the economics of the company, the way it serves its clients and the people it hires.Experts believe that the choice between codificat ion and personalization is the central one facing virtually all 14 companies in the era of knowledge management. However an organization? s strategy for knowledge management reflects its competitive strategy; it creates value for customers; how that value support for customers; how that value supports an economic model and how the company? s people deliver on the value, because it is the leading fact and the base of all other functional areas in the organization for gaining the competitive advantage in the dynamic economy. Types of Knowledge Management systems in an OrganizationThere are essentially three major types of knowledge management systems namely; enterprisewide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems and intelligent techniques. Figure 3 shows the knowledge management system applications for each of these major categories. Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge Work Systems Intelligent Techniques Structured knowledge systems Semi structured kn owledge systems Knowledge network systems Computer aided design (CAD) Data mining 3 D Visualization Virtual reality -Neural networks Expert systems Intelligent Agents 1. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are general purpose firm wide efforts to collect, store, distribute and apply digital content and knowledge. They provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured and unstructured documents and other knowledge objects for locating employees with expertise in a particular area including web based tools for collaboration and communication. Structured knowledge systems: These systems perform the function of implementing the tagging, interface with corporate databases where the documents are stored and 15 reating an enterprise portal environment for employees to use when searching for corporate knowledge. Semi structured knowledge systems: These systems track, store and organize semi structured documents (folders, messages, proposals, e mails, slide pr esentations etc) Knowledge network systems: Knowledge network system addresses the problem that arises when the appropriate knowledge is tacit knowledge residing in the memory of expert individuals in the firm. Because such knowledge cannot be conveniently found, employees expend significant resources rediscovering knowledge.Knowledge network systems provide an online directory of corporate experts in well-defined knowledge domains and use communication technologies to make it easy for employees to find the appropriate expert in a company. 02. Knowledge work systems (KWS) are specialized systems built for professionals and other knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge for an organization. The development of powerful networked work stations and software in the discovery of new knowledge has led to the creation of knowledge work systems. 03.Intelligent techniques have different objectives from a focus on discovering knowledge (through data mining and neur al networks) to distilling knowledge (through expert systems and fuzzy logic) in the form of rules for a computer programme in order to discover optimal solutions for problems. Knowledge Portals Many organizations have integrated their content and document management capabilities with powerful portals and these will provide access to external sources of information, such as news feeds and research, as well as to internal knowledge resources along with capabilities for e mail, chat, discussion groups and video conferencing.Organizations are now using blogs, wikis and social book marking for internal use to facilitate the exchange of information between individuals and teams within organizations. 16 A learning Organization In more recent times, managers seem to be searching for new approaches to management. Fuelling this search is a range of new issues that modern managers face but that their historical counterparts did not. These issues include a concern about the competitive decline of western firms, the accelerating pace of technological change, the sophistication of customers, and an increasing emphasize on globalization.A new approach to management that is evolving to handle this new range of issues can e called as the learning organization approach. Organizational learning means the process of improving actions through better knowledge and understanding. Therefore under the organizational knowledge title organizational learning is another important fact which can be identified as a supportive term for the organizational knowledge. A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.Learning organizations emphasize systematic problem solving, experimentation, learning from their own experience and past history, transferring knowledge. These activities leading the organizations towards the fact of gaining competitive advantage by relying on t he scientific method and data rather than assumptions, searching for and testing of new knowledge, reviewing their successes and failures, learning from others; specially from immediate environment, and spreading the knowledge throughout the organization quickly and efficiently.Actually the most important thing is that the using and sharing the knowledge which has collected. Otherwise there is no any created benefit from the knowledge to the organization, peculiarly learning from others and spreading the knowledge throughout the organization is become more important in this case. Learning occurs in two forms, those are single-loop and double-loop. Single loop learning asks a one dimensional question to expose one dimensional answer. Double loop learning takes an additional step or several additional steps.It might also ask why the current setting was chosen at the first place. In other words, it asks questions not only about objective facts but also reasons behind those facts. 17 A learning organization is focusing to create, acquire and transfer knowledge continuously from the environment and there by modify its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights. This involves mainly three areas. An organization has to follow ongoing programmes, designed to produce incremental gains in knowledge.An example to indicate that an organization can import new ideas from outside and apply it to daily operations; a case study, General Electric’s impact program originally sent manufacturing managers to Japan to study factory innovations, such as quality circles and kanban cards, and then apply them in their own organizations. This program was one of the major reasons that General Electric recorded productivity gains averaging nearly 5 % over the last four years. (Harvard business review on Knowledge Management, 2008) Successful ongoing programmes also require an incentive system that favors risk taking.Employees must feel that the benefits of experimentation exceed s the costs; if not they will not participate. This is challenging for managers, since they must maintain accountability and control over experiments without stifling creativity by unduly penalizing employees for failures. Companies must learn from past experiences and should review their successes and failures, assess them systematically and record the lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible. 18 Learning and the Knowledge Management The knowledge continuum shows the process of transforming data in to knowledge and wisdom.The knowledge continuum In this continuous process organizations acquire knowledge throughout its life cycle. Therefore learning plays very important role in the knowledge management process. Its probably appropriate to develop some perspective regarding this stuff called knowledge, which there seems to be such a desire to manage, really is. Consider this as a basis for thought relating to the following diagram. ? ? ? ? A collection of data is not information. A collection of information is not knowledge. A collection of knowledge is not wisdom.A collection of wisdom is not truth. The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own. 19 8 Average Time (Hours) 4 6 Learning curve 2 10 20 quantity 60 30 40 120 180 240 Figure 07 – Learning Curve 20 Conclusion Organizations can achieve competitive advantage by focusing their knowledge Management efforts in harnessing their assets and competences in their core areas of operation, which can be identified by the value chain analysis approach.An organization progressively discover that value creating activities change over a period of time, and helps to identify value-creating activities faster thereby providing a strategic direction. As organizations evolve into more effective and efficient knowledge creators and knowledge consumers, the effects of knowled ge management efforts should be measurable as knowledge management itself requires an investment of time, resources and manpower.Perhaps organizations will continue to create their own frameworks for valuation or be able to rely on a common methodology for such measurement regardless of the type of organization doing the evaluating. On the other hand, any organization, before framing a strategy, should analyze the industry and should understand all relevant parameters of industry growth. This analysis would yield results on the industry parameters like growth/ recession buyer/supplier power leading to determining the attractiveness of competition.The competitor analysis would reveal the strategy adopted by the competitors and identify the possible future movements of the competitors and to predict the strategies that are likely to be adopted by them. An organization can gain competitive advantage and sustain it only if it is able to understand the needs of the customer and track the changes in the customer needs. In this context, the analysis of the needs of customer gains importance. An organization should assess the resources and capabilities, before formulating a strategy, since the resources and capabilities should aid the operationalization of the chosen strategy.The right combination of resources and capabilities in the context of a strategy can be discovered through the process of knowledge management. In short, today? s organizations act with the theme of Knowledge sharing is the power instead of Knowledge is the Power, in order gain competitive advantages, by keeping a knowledge supporting culture, that management can support the knowledge creation and sharing, maintaining a perfect human resource policy which lead to minimize the employee turnover for the purpose of securing organizational memory in the organization.

Bicamerilism essays

Bicamerilism essays In 1787, a pattern of government started to form in the colonies. A king chose a governor to serve as an advisory body and chief executive, which became the upper house of the colonial legislature. The lower house was elected by the colonist who owned property and were eligible to vote. This provided our founding nation of a bicameral legislation. However, critics of bicameralism didnt want it included into the constitution because they thought of the Senate as undemocratic. They would make an argument about how much larger regions with less population had the same number of representatives in the Senate, compared to a smaller region with a much larger population. The purpose of the Senate was to have equal number of representatives to prevent the most populated regions from dominating the Congress. Bicameralism provided for equal representation for each state in the Senate, and for the House of Representative to be elected based on their respective populations. Currently, a legislature is made up of two chambers that is supported the system of checks and balances. Either house is able to block legislation approved by the other. The two houses have to cooperate with each other and compromise on the differences in writing the nations laws. Although the House and Senate share similar powers and can be considered equal, the two houses differ in a numerous ways. The House of Representatives has 435 members, with each member elected from each congressional district. The Senate however has only 100 members, two from every state. Because of the Houses larger size, the House is more formal and stricter than the Senate. A member of the House has to be recognized in order to speak during a debate for a short time period. The Houses own members choose a longtime member that has influentially contributed over the years to be the Speaker. The Speaker is then the acknowledged leader of its majority party. If the Sp...

International Business Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Business Finance - Essay Example The different structures of currency (fixed, pegged, etc.) also influence the risk. Fluctuations in forex rates have a direct impact on the sales revenues, and thus the profits of importers and exporters. This impact can be at all the three levels; short-run, inter-mediate term, and the long run. There are 4 factors that influence the fluctuation of forex rates: It is defined as the elasticity of the real domestic currency value of Assets and Liabilities, appearing in the financial statements to unanticipated changes in exchange rates. This value serves as a standard to evaluate discounted cash-flow evaluation. It is used for income tax purposes and for legal obligation to combine financial statements. Accounting exposure cannot be managed. Selection of valuation technique is immaterial as the choice doesn't affect any real cash flow except for taxes; the only correct method is economic value anyway. For simplicity and a consistent method current rate method is used. It is defined as the elasticity of the real domestic currency value of Assets and Liabilities, when assets and liabilities are liquidated with respect to unexpected changes in exchange rates for exporting, importing, or import-substituting firms. As the name suggests, it is the exposure that rises due to trading of goods and services, borrowing and lending funds, etc. Forex transaction exposure can be dealt by with the usage of contractual, operating, and financial hedges. Contractual hedges employ the forward, futures, money and options market. Operating and financial hedges employ the use of risk-sharing agreements, some types of financial derivative, and other strategies. In this part, we focus on contractual hedges. Hedging implies replacement of an unlock future exchange risk with a presently known exchange rate where alternatives such as Forward/Future Market Hedge, Money Market Hedge, Risk shifting (price all products in home currency), Pricing Decisions, or Currency Risk Sha ring can be used. Operating Exposure: It is defined as the elasticity of the real domestic currency value of Assets and Liabilities, or future operating incomes to unforeseen changes in exchange rates. They are based on the extent to which the value of the firm - as measured by the present value of its expected cash flows. Scenario I: Closed Economy Internal costs and prices are unaffected by exchange rate changes, therefore no exports or imports. Scenario 2: Open Economy Small, open economy and an international price for all goods and factors increase by 45%. Then, except for contractual exposure effects. There are two widespread misunderstandings about forex as follows: a) Only organizations having international operations are exposed to it b) Quoting prices for trade in local currency would eliminate the exposure. The true assumption that can be concluded from the two concepts is the fact that the structure is fairly static; however, it is not so. Competition from a foreign firm or exports may eventually cause problems for

Project Manager Being an effective project manager Essay

Project Manager Being an effective project manager - Essay Example Indeed, we managed to implement the system but this was not an easy task given that there were so many problems that were encountered right from the project initiation process up to the end. However, I realised that the success of such a project mainly depends with the leader’s capability to deal with people involved in the project in a positive manner. It is not very easy to convince people to buy the idea of a new project without explaining to them the main idea behind such an initiative. When confronted with such a situation, an effective leader ought to engage all the people who will be involved in the project so as to be in a position to gain their support towards the idea. According to Fox (2008), the most important thing when initiating a project is to ensure that there is agreement and consensus among all the stakeholders who will be involved in such a project. People often view the same thing in different ways and their opinions differ as a result of various factors. However, I realised that in order to become an effective project manager, there is need to involve all members who will execute the project so that they can be in a position to express their views and ideas freely. Mutual understanding can be created if all members of the team share the same ideas towards something. In our case, we only managed to reach consensus when we discussed the idea as a team given that some of the employees were against the idea in the first place. An idea that is shared by the majority of people in a group is likely to succeed and project leaders should be accommodative to different views suggested by other people. When the project idea has been approved and an agreement has been reached, the project manager should take a leading role in the execution of that project. However, being a leader does not mean to say that a project manager has the autonomy to dictate everything to other members involved in the project. An effective project manager is always on t he ground to monitor all tasks and activities being performed by different members of the team. The manager should also be in a position to get feedback from the team members so as to be in a position to make necessary adjustments to different aspects of the work being undertaken. As a leader, I noticed that it is essential to interact with different team members so that all people involved share the same vision as stated in the project plan. All project phases have to be implemented according to schedule so as to ensure that the set goals are attainable. Effective managers carefully consider all aspects of a project and they make sure that all activities are performed according to set plans. Another very important element that determines the effectiveness of project managers is related to team communication. It is quite impossible for any project to be a success without proper communication in place. Kritzinger, Bowler & Goliath (2003) suggest that there is no project which can be a success without a good communication system in place. Basically, communication ought to be timely and it should be effective so that all people involved in the project share the same vision towards the project goals. An effective manager in this case has the responsibility of coordinating all communication initiatives and he should also make sure that open communication channels are put it place in order to ensure that he can get

Management Evolution Essay Example for Free

Management Evolution Essay The evolution of management can be traced back to the start of the Industrial Revolution. â€Å"Management and leadership abilities were not thought of as learnable skills but derived from one’s heredity. There did not exist the need for a theory of management: leaders were born, not made. † (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 14). This belief ignored the need for a written theory of management and focused on the practice itself. As industrialization increased and spread, problems related to the factory system began to appear. Large numbers of workers were needed to keep up with the rapid economic expansion. Many of these workers were immigrant, unskilled, and non-English speaking. Managers did not know how to train these employees. This led to a scientific study of management and to what is today known as management theory. Classical School of Management The first management theory, Scientific Management, arose because of a need to increase worker efficiency and productivity. Emphasis of this approach was placed on the best way to get the most work accomplished. Focus was on examining the work process and developing the skills of the workforce. The classical school owes its origins to several contributors; including Frederick Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Henry Gantt, and Mary Parker Follet. Frederick Taylor is often referred to as the â€Å"father of scientific management†. He believed that organizations should study and gain an understanding of work and develop precise procedures to complete it. â€Å"Taylor believed that economic prosperity could only be achieved by maximal worker productivity, which in turn, would be the product of making workers more efficient† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 5). By analyzing every job through scientific observations, he felt there was only one best way of doing a job. He believed managers should study each job and determine the minimum necessary steps needed to complete it. Individuals step would be analyzed to determine the most efficient way of performing it. Managers would then total the time of each individual task to determine the optimum amount of time necessary to complete the entire task. Workers would then follow the precise instructions of management. If tasks were not completed in the optimal amount of given, workers were removed from the job. He believed this system gave managers power over workers. Workers could no longer resist management demands. Managers possessed the knowledge and workers performed their detailed steps. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were a husband and wife team that studied job motions. â€Å"The Gilbreths are considered pioneers in making use of motion studies to improve worker efficiency† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 16). Frank analyzed worker actions to determine the best possible method of performing a given job. When he understood all the motions, he would seek to improve the efficiency of each action and reduce the number of motions required to accomplish the job–a process called job simplification† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 16). Managers would then select, train, and develop workers with devised procedures. Lillian extended this theory into the home in an effort to determine the ideal way to complete household tasks. Henry Gantt developed the Gantt chart; a work scheduling chart that measures planned and completed work along throughout each stage of completion. The Gantt chart is a powerful planning and evaluation tool used by managers. He believed inefficiency was a result of management unrealistic production standards. According to Gantt, â€Å"work standards should be determined by scientific observation and measurement, and only then may realistic work standards be set† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 17). Gantt also believed that workers should be rewarded for good work through a bonus system. He felt that workers would be more productive and achieve higher levels of production if there was an incentive. To motivate workers to go beyond the daily production quotas, he pioneered the use of a production bonus (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 18). Gantt also focused on the importance of quality leadership and management skills and their relationship to building effective industrial organizations. Mary Parker Follet is often referred to as the â€Å"mother of conflict resolution†. â€Å"Her research and writings pointed to a collaborative approach to problem solving that advocated compromise† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 17). Follet focused on the importance of establishing and developing common goals within the workplace. She believed workers should be allowed to participate in the decision making process. She believed workers could and would comply and follow management’s logical requests without being given too many orders; workers should not be micromanaged. â€Å"The classical approach to management theory had asserted that the key to worker efficiency and organizational productivity was efficient job design, use of appropriate incentives, and effective managerial functioning† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 23). This approach emphasized the work elements and eliminated the human dimensions. Behavioral School of Management The behavioral approach stresses that effective management will come from an understanding of the worker† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 23). Emphasis of this approach is based on the belief that every human being has social and physiological needs which affect performance and motivation. Focus was on improving the self-esteem and self-confidence of the workforce. Contributors to the behavioral school include Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, and Douglas McGregor. Elton Mayo was the founder of the human relations movement. â€Å"Mayo concluded that factors other than the physical aspects of work had the power of improving production. These factors related to the interrelationships between workers and individual psychology† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 25). Mayo believed that if workers were treated with respect and their needs were being met, they would be more productive and their work would be more efficient; therefore both the employee and management would benefit. Mayo is known for his work conducted at the Western Electric Company in Chicago; known as the Hawthorne Experiments. He was able to prove that the relationship that employees have with management directly affects productivity. He concluded that management needed to be more directly involved with employees. Chester Barnard developed the acceptance theory of management, which focuses managerial authority. He believed that employees themselves determined if managerial order is legitimate and acceptable. He felt that in order for employees to accept that managers have legitimate authority to act, they must first understand the communication they receive from management. Employees must also feel that the communication that is received is consistent with the organization’s purpose. Bernard believed that managers needed to share a common purpose and express a willingness to cooperate with the employees. â€Å"Douglas McGregor, in distinguishing between the pessimistic Theory X view of employees and the optimistic Theory Y, had a dramatic impact on management theory and practice† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 27). Theory X which characterized the views of Taylor is based on the assumption that the average human being dislikes work and that because of this dislike they must be threatened and controlled before they will work. Theory X also assumes that the average person desires security and prefers being directed. Average people dislike responsibility and have little ambition. Theory Y which characterized the views of Mayo is based on the assumption that if a job is satisfying and the working conditions are good, then the worker will be committed to the organization. Theory Y also assumes that if the average worker is committed, then they will not only accept, but seek responsibility. McGregor believed that managers should operate with the belief that workers will contribute more to an organization if they feel valued and are treated responsibly. The behavioral approach to management theory focused on the workforce and their needs; the human element of the organization. This approach emphasized work as a group activity and aimed at increasing work productivity through collaboration. Production Operations Management (POM) Approach The Production Operation Management Approach to management was developed in response to increasingly difficult operational problems and a rapidly changing environment. The concepts of the POM Approach were based on the belief that the scientific method was the solution to problem solving. Herbert Simon was a major contributor to the POM Approach. â€Å"Herbert Simon is best known for his research in decision-making and information processing but also made contributions to cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, philosophy of science, and artificial intelligence† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 29). Simon coined the term satisficing which was based on the belief that executives rarely had access to perfect information. They were more apt to accept data acquired early in a search and seek solutions or accept choices that are deemed good enough for their purposes. He believed that seeking the maximal solution or result expended resources. â€Å"Production operations management stresses a systems approach that views the total operating system and analyzes a problem within that system. The problem is seen to exist as it relates to the total system, and any proposed solution is evaluated as it relates to the same system† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 30). The POM approach focused more on production and less on the human factor. Contingency Approach The contingency approach to management is the most recent school of thought about management. It combines the ideas of the other three approaches and states that there is no one universal set of management principles or one best way by which to manage an organization. This approach is based on the belief that to effective, planning, organizing, leading and controlling must be contingent on the circumstances in which an organization operates. Different problems require different solutions. â€Å"This approach arose out of the observation that the three earlier approaches to management–the classical, the behavioral, and productions operations research–did not always lead to an acceptable solution† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 1). The contingency approach applies to all areas of management, not just organizing and leading. This approach takes into consideration both the internal and external environments of the organization. Conclusion â€Å"The foundations of the various approaches to schools of management theory are found in a variety of disciplines, inclu ding economics, psychology, sociology, mathematics, philosophy, and industrial engineering. But management theory, even though it makes use of other scholarly areas and the observations of the practicing manager, has emerged as a separate area of study since the 1940’s† (Montana Charnov, 2008, p. 4). The thoughts and ideas of the classical school have been analyzed and developed over the years; however the basic concepts are still in practice today. Relation to Work Environment I believe that the contingency approach to management is the most effective. The classical, the behavioral, and productions operations research approaches all are based on a universal approach, one best way, of management that applies the same techniques to every organization. As a manager I have come to realize that not all people and every situation should be handled identically. I believe managerial decisions and actions are contingent upon a given situation. Managerial styles and techniques must vary according to the circumstances of the situation. To be effective, managers must determine which factors are relevant in what situation. I believe the most important aspect of the contingency theory is that it accounts for the human factor. As the Dining Services Director at Miles Community College, I am required to make daily decisions concerning both my department and the organization as a whole. I believe that to be an effective manager it is necessary to evaluate each and every situation to come up with the appropriate decisions and actions. I understand that each and every situation is unique and requires a situational analysis. I also believe that every decision I make affects the organization therefore my decisions are based on the goals and values of the organization as a whole. I believe that the contingency theory best fits my management style.