Langston Hughes Essays (488 words) - Jazz Poetry, Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes Doorknobs Langston Hughes is considered by many readers to be the most significant black poet of the twentieth century. Except for a few examples, all his poems are about social injustice in America. The somber tone of his writing often reflected his mood. Race relations were present in almost his whole career, following him from his first poem to his last. The poem Doorknobs was written in 1961 after his subpoena to appear before Senator McCarthy for subversive activities. Although many other poems by Hughes deal with prejudice, race, or politics, Doorknobs deals with life itself. Hughes anger over the political attacks are seen on many of his poems. Hughes Doorknob describes a child who seems to be afraid of life and afraid of the adults in his life By the end of the poem this child is now an adult himself who appears to be insecure, and perhaps, afraid of life itself. This man portrays a sad, non-confident, scared life as we can see on the lines 1 to 3. We experience first hand the lack of control, the terrorizing feelings this door holds for this child: The simple silly terror of a doorknob on a door that turns to let in life From lines 4 to 10, we can assume that we are reading of a child who is terrorized of the grownups that live with him; perhaps he is an abused child: on two feet standing, walking, talking, wearing dress or trousers, maybe drunk or maybe sober, maybe smiling, laughing, happy, maybe tangled in the terror of a yesterday past grandpa Lines 11 to 15 reinforce the terror this child is feeling and carrying with him. It is apparent that the child is experiencing some kind of abuse, either mental or physical: when the door from out there opened into here where I, antenna, recipient of your coming, received the talking image of the simple silly terror From lines 16-25 Hughes repeats the first stanza of the poem with minor changes to the order of t the words; this perhaps is now when the child is now remembering his past. Another interpretation is that when the child became a grownup instead of being afraid of the adults in his life, he is afraid now of life itself, and death. of a door that opens at the turning of a knob to let in life walking, talking, standing wearing dress or trousers, drunk or maybe sober, smiling, laughing, happy, or tangled in the terror of a yesterday past grandpa not of our own doing. Doorknobs is a sad poem; the poem deals with the struggle and search for identity, and a struggle of the individual vs. the Universe. The mood is fear, and perhaps terror of his surroundings. At the end, we are left with the feeling that the child went on living his life in terror and afraid of everything that surrounded him even after becoming an adult.

Being a Member of a Family Presents Numerous Challenges Essay Example

Being a Member of a Family Presents Numerous Challenges Essay Example Being a Member of a Family Presents Numerous Challenges Essay Being a Member of a Family Presents Numerous Challenges Essay Introduction: Hook In the human society, a family is a group of persons conglomerated through consanguinity, affinity through marriage or co-residence. Having a good family is an important part of living as it provides persons with moral, social and financial support among others. Directions of Argument Today, balancing between work and family has become an immense challenge among numerous families. Due to the increased economic challenges in todays society, most parents are mandated to work for long hours to achieve their financial objectives. Thesis Statement This essay is a discussion of why being a member of a family presents numerous challenges today due to the increased need to work for long hours to satisfy the family day-to-day financial demands. Argument 1#: Topic Sentence The escalating cost of essential services such as education and healthcare services in U.S. has increased significantly over the last decade. Point 1: This has resulted to numerous couples working in different jobs for long hours in an effort to afford such amenities for their families. Proof: According to the United States Bureau of Statistics, in numerous married couple relations, both spouses work (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). In 2000, approximately 53.2 percent of married spouses were employed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). Explanation As a result, most couples find it a challenge to balance between their demanding professions and their families. Point 2: Today, the roles of men and women in the American society has reversed. Proof: According to an article published in the New York Times, 4 in every 10 households with children under 18 includes a mother who is either the primary or the sole breadwinner in the homestead (Rampbell, 2013). Explanation This is because unlike in the past, more women today have taken up various roles in the society that were previously reserved for men. Such roles include leadership positions, formal employments, army and management positions among others. In reference to such jobs, some of the professions that women engage in can be very demanding. For instance, a soldier woman can go for months without being in a position to see her family. Point 3: The evolution of organized childcare managed support services for working mothers in the U.S. has also hampered the ability of persons to be with their families. Proof: In the U.S., one-third of all children belonging to employed mothers attain managed care services in organized facilities like the day care centers (CHUSA, 2014). Explanation For this reason, a significant number of parents prefer to leave their young children in managed care centers and then use their time to perform other economic functions. In most cases, such functions entail working for long hours to earn some income. Conclusion: Restatement of Thesis Today, being a member of the family has become a big challenge to most parents due to the need to work for long hours so as to satisfy the family day-to-day financial demands. Direction of Arguments #1). The need to work for long hours has been facilitated by the increased costs of essential services such as education and healthcare services in the nation. #2). The role of women in the American society has also changed and today, a large proportion of women are working for long hours in professions that were previously reserved for the men. #3). The emergence of management childcare services has enabled women to work for long hours in the fields of career. Final Thought It is evident that most persons in the American society find it a challenge to be with their families. This is because most of them work for long hours in an effort to fulfill the financial obligations for their family members. Nevertheless, it is important for every person to be part of a family unit. This is because it aids in their successful growth as well as development. References Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2002). Both spouses work in most married-couple families. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from The Bureau of Labor Statistics: bls.gov/opub/ted/2001/apr/wk4/art02.htm CHUSA. (2014). Parental Employment and Child Care. Retrieved November 23, 2016, from Child Health USA 2014: http://mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa14/population-characteristics/parental-employment-child-care.html Rampbell, C. (2013, May 29). U.S. Women on the Rise as Family Breadwinner. Retrieved November 23, 2016, from The New York Times: nytimes.com/2013/05/30/business/economy/women-as-family-breadwinner-on-the-rise-study-says.html

Key facts Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Key facts - Assignment Example The second step is to determine the key elements of the cause of action that is raised by the facts of case. The third step is to outline all the facts of the case that are important to the elements of action raised in the second step. The fourth and final step is to outline which of the facts listed satisfy the key elements of the cause of action to be discussed in a court of law. There are three steps used in indentifying the facts in a court opinion. The first step involves reading the entire case having in mind what was decided in regards to what facts of the case were. The second step is to read and analyze the holding of the case. This helps to understand how the court answered the legal questions raised on the facts of the case. The last step is analyzing the key facts used to make the holding of the case (Albright & Putman, 2013). Police in Burbank initiated surveillance on Leon after receiving confidential information that they were selling cocaine and investigation earlier showed that he stored a stash of methaqualone in his house. After a search Leon was indicted by a grand jury in California and charged with drug trafficking. The court granted a motion to suppress evidence arguing it was defective due to the warrant and lack of probable cause. On Appeal, the government argued that the police acted on good faith when using the defective warrant. The court of appeal affirmed trial court decision and declined the government argument of good faith. Reasoning: The exclusionary rule was a judicial act not a constitutional right that safeguards the Fourth Amendment. It deters police from misconduct and abuse. However, a police who acts with a defective warrant in good faith cannot be held for misconduct. There lacks basis when evidence is suppressed when they relied in good faith using a defective search

External and Internal Environmental Analysis - Apple Research Paper

External and Internal Environmental Analysis - Apple - Research Paper Example The current business environment is volatile and changing. In order to survive and thrive in this competitive environment, firms will have to monitor and analyze the internal and external environment conditions before taking any business decision. In the present research paper, an external and internal environment analysis of Apple has been done. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT External environment can be described as the factors, entities, conditions and events surrounding a firm, which influence its choices and activities. In a multinational organization, external environment analysis is essential. Apple is a global organization operating worldwide. Thus, external factors surrounding the parent company and the subsidiaries and branches will have an effect on the overall decision making process. An external environment is also known as an operating environment. Apple Corporation falls in the consumer electronics sector and is involved in designing and manufacturing of computer hardware, softwa re and other computer related operations. The major external factors which influence the decision making process and the computer industry are: 1. Rising price competition 2. Rapid changes in technology 3. Changing consumer preference Slow market growth and growing competition from local brands are the major reason for the rise in price wars (Knox, 2004). The majority of emerging countries have witnessed a host of local brands, selling brands and variants akin to iPhones and smart phones. They are sold at low prices, and there is an increasing pressure among bigger brands to decrease their price. In case of developed countries, price competition arises because of availability of a large number of variants from the same brand. Thus, competitors such as Samsung, IBM, HP, etc. launch more versions in developed counties, thereby intensifying competition. Rapid changes in technology have decreased the shelf life of electronic goods. More and more companies are now able to replicate the a vailable technologies. By adding a few features in those technologies, these brands gain a competitive advantage. Apple faces major competition in personal computers and mobile laptops. Apart from that, a slow market and product similarities among most of its product categories have also resulted in an increased competition. Changing consumer preferences is another external operating condition, which impacts the decision making process of Apple. Consumers have become more conscious as a result of the recent economic downturn. As a result, the sale of high-end smart phones and laptops has decreased, especially in emerging nations. Considering that emerging nations are the highest growth contributors for companies such as Apple, monitoring and establishing proper strategies will be crucial for a sustainable future growth. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Innovation and creativity have always been the internal strengths for Apple (Rufat-Latre, Muller, & Jones, 2010). Designing and developing most distinctive products and capturing a market share on the basis of innovation has made Apple one of the most renowned computer software companies of the world. However, with the advancement of technology and modern capabilities, it is not taking much time for other brands to imitate Apple’s design and launch in the market with added features. Apart from that, it is very difficult to patent each and every design which Apple produces. Technology and human resource can be described as the most important and crucial

The Effects of an Extended Day and Extended Year Elementary Schools on Dissertation

The Effects of an Extended Day and Extended Year Elementary Schools on Academic Achievement - Dissertation Example Curriculum, teachers, staffs, transportation and other developmental facilities are the other resources that are required for managing schools. Due to the scarcity of resources, members of the education department should ensure that time is best allocated in order to receive the highest benefits by incurring lesser costs. Thus, schools must focus on effective strategies for providing their basic objective of teaching children. However, apart from teaching, schools help to provide enhanced quality of education that enables people to interact communally and value ways to practice safe and healthy behaviors. Furthermore, effective schooling also helps in contributing reliably and ethically towards family, friends and community and to acquire basic knowledge about values and habits that are expected from an individual (Greenberg, Weissberg, Brien, Zins, Fredericks, Resnik & Elias, 2003). The essay will discuss the effects of an Extended Day and Extended Year Elementary Schools on the aca demic achievements of students. Moreover, it will discuss the different laws and school timings that differ from state to state or from country to country. The essay will also help to evaluate the various factors present in other countries whose students are believed to have the highest performance rates comparatively. Theory and current research using ALT Extended Learning Time (ELT) has evolved as an optional policy over the past periods, with increased interests in the future among various educational organizations. Extended learning is defined as lengthening of the school timing or period for all students studying in a particular school for enhancing the knowledge and skills by providing quality education to ensure students’ success. According to Farbman & Kaplan (2005), a research conducted by Massachusetts 2020 revealed that the continuous underperformance of primary and secondary public schools in the United States (US) prompted members of educational institutions to i ntroduce programmes for enhancing the performances of the students. Thus, ELT has been one of the preferred options for various institutional organizations which help students in gaining additional knowledge during non-schooling hours (Farbman & Kaplan, 2005). A research conducted by Chalkboard Project (2008) has revealed that ELT is beneficial to students who have various disadvantages or physical disabilities compared to children belonging to middle or high class societies. Moreover, the research suggested that ELT programs have been effectual during primary and secondary classes compared to middle schools. The report also revealed that ELT when compared to Extended School Year (ESY) is more cost-effective in providing quality education to students. However, in implementing ELT programmes successfully in institutional organizations, certain factors should be considered. The factors, such as having a bold leadership style, an environment that includes teachers’ commitment ef fective leadership, the programmes should be evidence based with sufficient data, engage support of parents, communities and partners along with providing focus on fundamental academics and improvement activities which are associated with other objectives and developments (Chalkboard Project, 2008). Thus, it can be stated that ELT programmes are effective, when implementing with consideration to the factors and addressing certain findings by the schools or

Production Planning Incorporate with Job Rotation and Work

Production Planning Incorporate with Job Rotation and Work Thesis/Project Title: Production Planning Incorporate with Job rotation and Work Injury by  Multi-Objective Criteria Courses Taken/Grades: Course Name Grade ME 460 Automation and Robotics in Manufacturing 84 ME 887 Introduction to Microsystems 85 ME 886 Advanced Engineering Design Methodology 88 BIOE 898 Special Topic 88 STAT 845 Statistical Methods for Research 90 GSR 960 Introduction to Ethics and Integrity CR Average Grade to Date:87% ME 990 Seminar:January 27th, 2016 Expected Completion Date:December, 2016 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1. Background and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2. Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 LITERATURE REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.1 Production Planning and Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2 HUMAN FACTOR IN PRODUCTION PLANNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.2.1. Human Scheduling in Technical System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.2.2. Human Work Related Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.2.3. Leading Factors for Work Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2.4. How We Reduce Work Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.3 QUALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3.1. Manufacturing Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3.2. Dimensions of Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4 JOB ROTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4.1. Importance of Job Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.4.2. Outcomes of Job Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.4.3. Job Rotation as a Cost Effective Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.5 WORK FORCE AGING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.1. Aging Effect Worker Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.2. Workforce Aging Effect on Production Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and Motivation In the last few years, the question of human well-being at the working place has come afore as a key issues in production planning and scheduling. The manufacturing productivity is affected by both the human and machine factors. However, much of the previous research has been focused on the machine aspect but the human aspect. The previous work considers not only the productivity but also the production cost, worker safety and machine utilization. Particularly, (Xu, 2015) demonstrated the significance of work injury to the total production cost. His work also showed that the effect of work injury can be reduced by designing a production system. Due to the increasing cost of work injuries as well as concern of health work place, both the government and industry have made an effort on preventing work injury occurrences. In 2005, the government of Canada paid approximately $6.8 billion dollars in benefits through its Workersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ Compensation Boards (WCBs) organization. It is being realized that the cost incurred by work injuries contributes a large portion to the total production cost, and strategies are urgently required to tackle the problem of work injury. In 2000 to 2012 period, the total costs of occupational injuries to the Canadian economy was estimated to be more than $19 billion annually. The factors other than the production system design, which lead to work injury, are: employee boredom, fatigue, lack of motivation, lack of training, and mismatch of job and workforce age. Besides design of production systems, to remove or solve the issues related to work injury, there are three kinds of techniques: Engineering solutions, Administrative solutions and Personal safety equipment (Tayyari Smith, 1997). Job rotation comes in the category of administrative solution. It is about the rotation of workers among a number of non-similar workstations, where each worker requires different skills or techniques and responsibilities to do job (Azizi, Zolfaghari Liang, 2010). It enables operators to become multi-skilled by providing them with a greater ability to handle increased demand and large product variability (Michalos et al., 2010). When many jobs of different requirements and workers of different capabilities are involved, the job rotation problem becomes very complex. Due to the complexity of job rotation, there are implications of job rotation as well. If not done properly job rotation can increase the cost of production and also reduce the quality of the manufacturing system. Cost is a factor which is widely understood and studied but Quality is one of the most important but the least understood attribute of a system. Without quality, a system cannot comply with required goals and standards. Conventionally, production planning is mainly about materials resource planning. The materials include both the material for products and the machine tools for production of the products (Krajewski et al., 2005). Many techniques have been established to improve the effectiveness of production planning, to make a plan which meets the customer demand, satisfaction and cost with other features such as continuity and resilience of a system as referred to by Zhang and Lin (2010). Zhang defines resilience as a systems post-damage property i.e. the systems ability to recover its function from some damage. In the context of enterprises, Guelfi et al. (2008) defined the resilience as the capacity of a business process to recover and reinforce itself when facing changes. This calls for a scientific approach to solving this problem. 1.2 Research Questions The following questions come up: Question 1: How may job rotation significantly affect the cost of production especially with its connection to work injury (particularly related to the worker aging)? Question 2: How to define and model the quality of the operation of a manufacturing or production system particularly in terms of resilience or system disruption? Question 3: How to define and model job rotation in production planning and scheduling so as to make a balanced improvement in terms of the cost and resilience? 2. Objectives and Scope Objective 1 To model the job rotation for incorporating them into the production planning and scheduling. The model should consider the influence of job rotation to work injury (due to aging). Objective 2 To develop a model for the resilience of a production system with planning and scheduling in place. The resilience may simply refer to operation disruption. It is assumed that by meeting the customer requirement for products or jobs, the quality of a production system is guaranteed. It is also assumed that the product delivery time is satisfied by an effective production plan and schedule. Objective 3 To develop a production planning model for achieving the lowest cost and highest resilience. In this model, besides the decision variables such as production quantity, the variable for job rotation will be included. 3. Literature Review 3.1 Production Planning and Scheduling Production planning is a planning of production and manufacturing modules in any organization or industry. It utilizes the allocation of resources (employees, material and machines) in order to achieve the organizational goals. On the other hand production scheduling differs from production planning in that a schedule includes the information such as what system components (machines and/or humans) do what jobs at what times. Ideally, one may want to be the best for all the foregoing goals but in reality this is not possible as there may be conflicts among them. For instance, low cost production may likely lead to poor product quality. Nevertheless, an optimal trade-off among these elements does make sense. In fact, from a mathematical point of view, the problem is inherently a multi-objective optimisation problem. In practice, the multi-objective optimization problem is modeled as a single objective optimization problem while the rest of elements are considered as constraints or only implicitly assumed. For instance, often the quality is assumed to be fine as long as the production meets the quantity, and the time is implicitly represented in a way that the customer demand for a period of time say T is divided into a series of time segments (ti), and then on each time segment (ti), there will be the product quantity say di. Based on the foregoing discussion, the quality, quantity, and time are modelled. This research will further consider cost and resilience. The cost goal is conventional in the mathematical model for production planning and scheduling (Cramer, 2011). Elements that incur the cost are: material cost, machine utilization cost, human cost, human work injury cost, inventory cost, penalty cost, overhead cost, and so forth (Phruksaphanrat, Ohsato Yenradee, 2006; Swamidass, 2000; Gallego, 2001; Xu, 2015; Sule, 2008). The resilience goal is less known to the literature especially a joint consideration of the cost goal and resilience goal. There are some works on job rotation, which are categorized into the human factors in planning and scheduling, and will be discussed later in this document. Broadly, according to (Laperrià ¨re et al., 2014) Production planning does not work alone, it normally approaches with other production activities (Fig. 1) such as aggregate production planning, production scheduling and production control. Aggregate Production Planning (APP) determines what, when and how much the work force levels, inventory status and production rate required to achieve the market or customer demand. APP falls between the broad decisions of long-range planning and the highly specific and detailed short-range planning decisions (Chakrabortty Hasin, 2013).Production Scheduling determines the sequence of production for planned products on daily and weekly basis (Pinedo, 2005); see also the previous discussion. Production Controldeals with the real time information from the processes such as workforce and inventory level to take decisions to remove or avoid the system from disruption (Pinedo, 2005). In this thesis research, the scope is production planning and schedu ling. 3.2 Human factors in production planning Technological developments in the production system allowed the automation of the manufacturing processes and assembly lines, but employees or human operators still remain a serious factor in every production system (Chryssolouris, 2006). Employees or workers are the most important resources of any organization. The way in which workers are allocated to tasks can meaningfully affect a companys performance or productivity (Tharmmaphornphilas Norman, 2007). Therefore non-compatibility or mismatch of humans to technical systems may even cause injuries in the humans, which is the main concern of human factor engineering in production planning. To solve this problem, job rotation is the best technique to overcome this issue and it helps to increase the production efficiency or productivity (McKay Wiers, 2006). 3.2.1 Human Scheduling in Technical System Presently, industries assign tasks to employees according to their competence, skills or experience. This method helps to increase the system productivity and quality but it can results in worker to be assigned same task every time (Tharmmaphornphilas Norman, 2007). Performing the repetitive tasks may reason for musculoskeletal disorders, accrue stress, induce boredom, create fatigue and may lead to occupational illness and injury (Hagberg et al. 1995). 3.2.2 Human Work Related Injuries The behavior of a worker can be affected by several factors such as: (Digiesi, et al. 2009). Work Environment: (physical: microclimate, ergonomics, noise; social: human relationships, communication among the group). Nature of the Task: (discrete vs. continuous, repetitive vs. non-repetitive, motor vs. cognitive). Personal factors: (psycho-physical attitude, personal skill, age, sex). 3.2.3 Leading Factors for Work Injuries It has been noticed that there are some major factors which contributes to work injuries are: Employee Boredom: It can be related with performance reduction, general dissatisfaction, and accidents (Azizi, Zolfaghari Liang, 2010). Fatigue: Accumulation of fatigue causesmusculoskeletal disorders(Asensio-Cuesta et al., 2012) Repetitive Motions: Monotonous repetitive work has been identified as a major cause of work load related disorders (Michalos et al., 2010) Workforce Aging: In very repetitive short cycle operations, work-related musculoskeletal disorders tend to be more dominant in workers aged from 40 to 60 (Boenzi, et al., 2015). 3.2.4 How We Reduce Work Injuries There are three ways to reduce or overcome the work injuries (Tayyari Smith, 1997) .These are as follows: Engineering Solutions: It includes to redesign the work place, redesign tools and redesign job. Administrative Solutions: It includes the reconsideration of work schedules, workers rotation and career changes. Personal Protective Equipment:It includes safety shoes, hats, safety glasses and safety clothes. 3.3 Quality Quality is important property of any systems and usually refers to the degree to which a system lives up to the expectation of satisfying its requirements (Ivan et al. 2014). The definition of quality, standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) in 1978, is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs. This definition suggests that we must be able to identify the features and characteristics of products and services that determine customer satisfaction and form the basis for measurement and control. 3.3.1 Manufacturing Quality In terms of manufacturing based quality, (Crosby, 1979) defined manufacturing quality as quality is about conformance to requirement. 3.3.2 Dimensions of Quality Garvin (1988) and Grady (1992) described the dimensions for quality analysis in their book are: Performance, Reliability, Conformance, Durability, Serviceability, Usability, Functionality and Supportability. Quality is often characterized in terms of attributes for system quality such as modifiability, durability, predictability (Ivan et al., 2014). 3.4 Job Rotation Job rotation is about the rotation of workers among a number of non-similar workstations where each worker requires different skills or techniques and responsibilities to do job (Azizi, Zolfaghari Liang, 2010). In other words job rotation can be defined as working at different operations or in different positions for particular set periods of time in a planned way (Jorgensen, 2005). 3.4.1 The Importance of Job Rotation Implementing Job Rotation as a manufacturing method is beneficial to increase production efficiency, operator satisfaction and helps to reduce Work-related musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) and labor cost (Cramer, 2011). Job rotation using lateral transfers allows employees to gain a wide range of knowledge, skills and competencies (Jorgensen, 2005). It provides a benefit or increase the firms ability to deal with change (Kher et al., 1999). As a benefit of job rotation to workers, it may increase workers job satisfaction (Cunningham and Eberle, 1990). Job rotation also yields such benefits to workers as reducing the injuries due to performing repetitive tasks as well as the workers fatigue especially if the worker is exposed to various muscular loads during task operation in manufacturing (Hinnen et al., 1992; Henderson, 1992). Carnahan et al. (2000) studied several methods to integrate the safety criteria into scheduling algorithms to produce job rotation schedules that reduce the potential for work injury. Job design related applications began to take shape with a scientific management approach in the 1900s. The study of management scientists such as Taylor and Gilbreth on the subject of job design becomes a foundation for scientific management. Further, many models were developed, which are associated with job design, social information processing and job characteristics approach by Hackman and Oldman in 1976 (Hackman Oldham, 1976) and these models have enormously important effects on increasing the productivity of human resources. Job rotation prevents musculoskeletal disorders, eliminates boredom and increases job satisfaction and morale. As a result, an organization gains a skilled and motivated workforce, which leads to increases in productivity, employee loyalty and decreases in employee turnover (Asensio-Cuesta et al., 2012). Job rotation is considered as an appropriate organizational strategy to reduce physical workload (Paul et al., 1999; Boenzi et al., 2015) in human-based production systems and it is the most wide spread labor flexibility instrument in the case of repetitive assembly tasks (Paul et al., 1999). 3.4.2 Outcome of Job Rotation 3.4.3 Job Rotation as a Cost Effective Tool There are several appealing factors for job rotation but one major factor is the relatively low implementation cost. Job rotation policy is very effective tool to overcome or minimize the work injuries cost or helpful in reduction of repetitive tasks, which leads to work injuries. Job rotation itself cost effective to apply in any organization the cost which only related to job rotation is training cost. 3.5 Work Force Aging The phenomenon of population aging affects the ageing of work force which determines work force availability. Industrial and academic research are required to investigate the influence of workforce aging in formulating new working time models and job rotation planning solutions. Field investigations on the effect of workers aging on production performance were carried out at the BMW plant in Dingolfing, Bavaria (Loch CH et al., 2010). 3.5.1 Aging Effects on Worker According to (Tokarski, 2011) aging affects the workers performance in three aspects are: Physically: (physiological, perceptual and motor processes, and declines in abilities, such as dexterity, strength and endurance. Cognitive: (Decision making Skills, Learning skills and forgetting phenomena) Emotions:(Boredom, fatigue and lack of motivation) 3.5.2 Workforce Aging Effect on Production Performance Changes in workforce age structure may have an impact on production system performance or productivity. According to Sà ¼lzenbrà ¼ck et al. (2010) age-related impairments have a negative effect on working capacity and productivity. In assembly lines the higher the average age of the assemblers, the higher the risk they cannot meet all the requirements (Buck Dworschak, 2003). The effects of ageing on employees physical and cognitive performances negatively affects the flexibility of human based production system (Boenzi et al., 2015). The factors which may affect the performance of a worker with respect to ageing are: Muscular Strength. Dynamics Actions. Endurance (Aerobic Capacity). Reaction Time (Responses). Awkward Postures (Flexibility). 4. Proposed Methodology A mathematical model will be developed in terms of Production cost. Components of production cost will be work injury cost, work injury prevention cost, inventory cost and conventional production cost. Different Scenarios will be developed considering workers of different age groups and how they can be rotated between job positions, when there is a work related injury to one of them. When scenarios are made, mathematical model formulated in the earlier step will be applied on the scenarios. The mathematical model for each scenario will form the basis for the use of Multi Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA). This Aggregate production planning problem emphases on developing a Multi objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) method to find the optimum production plan for meeting forecasted customer demand by controlling the work injury during the production. Multi objective function will be inserted along with its constraints. A general description of steps for implementing MOGA are as follows: Step 1: Generate random population of n chromosomes (suitable solutions for the problem) Step 2: Evaluate simultaneously the Multiple fitness f(x) of each chromosome x in the population Step 3: Create a new population by repeating four steps (Selection, Crossover, Mutation and Acceptation) until the new population is complete. Step 4: Use new generated population for a further run of algorithm Step 5: If the stopping condition is satisfied, stop, and return the best solution in current population Step 6: If the stopping condition is not satisfied then go to step 2 follow loop. MOGA parameters will then be inserted. Assumptions No worker is working on full capacity. It is assumed that a worker only utilizes 60 percent of his/her work capacity to fulfil the job requirement. Material is always available during production. Trivial solutions will be ignored. No hiring and lay off during the planning horizon. It is assumed that age is not a contributing factor towards work injury. 5. Conclusion There has been some work done on the concept of production planning in terms of work injury cost. But upon doing literature review, I realized that there has been no work done when it comes to applying work injury cost and job rotation to make a production plan. My work will focus on developing a production model by considering work injury cost and job rotation. There are quite a few benefits of this approach. Firstly, it will give us a model where workers of different age can be used in an optimized way in a production based environment. Secondly, in case of any absentee or injuries, an organization can develop a plan in such a way that workers of older age (above 50) are minimally exposed to physically intensive work. Furthermore, a model for job rotation will be made considering age of the workers so as to reduce work injury by minimal exposure of aged work force to physically demanding work. Lastly, due to application of work injury and job rotation, a cost effective way to model and run a production line (in terms of manual labor) will be done. 6. Timeline MONTH ACTIVITY January (2016) Preparation of set of research objectives and scope. Literature review. Presentation preparation for Seminar ME 990. February (2016) Identification of appropriate decision variables and constraints for model. March (2016) Completion of research proposal. April- September (2016) Advisory committee Formulation of model. Validation of model. October-November (2016) Compiling the final results. Thesis preparation. December (2016) Defence of thesis 7. References Buck, H., Dworschak. B., (2003) Ageing and work in Europe. Strategies at company level and public policies in selected European countries, in: Demography and employment, IRB, DE. Carnahan, B.J., Redfern, M.S., Norman, B.A., 2000. Designing safe job rotation schedules using optimization and heuristic search. Ergonomics 43, 543-560. Chakrabortty, R., Hasin, M. (2013). Solving an aggregate production planning problem by using multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) approach. International Journal of Industrial Engineering Computations, 4(1), 1-12. Chryssolouris G (2006) Manufacturing Systems: Theory and Practice. Second edition. Cramer, Scott Douglas, Increased production capabilities by job rotation through simulation. (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 287. Cunningham, B.J., Eberle, T., 1990. A guide to job enrichment and redesign. Personnel, pp. 56-61. David A. Garvin, (1988). Managing Quality. The Free press. F. Boenzi, S. Digiesi, G. Mossa, G. Mummolo, V.A. Romano, Modelling Workforce Aging in Job Rotation Problems, IFAC-PapersOnLine, Volume 48, Issue 3, 2015, Pages 604-609, Frazer, M.B., Norman, R.W., Wells, R.P., Neumann, W.P. (2003): The effects of job rotation on the risk of reporting low back pain. In: Ergonomics, (2003), vol. 46, no. 9, 904 919. Gallego, G. (2001). IEOR 4000, Production Management, Lecture 5. Columbia University. George Michalos, Sotiris Makris, Loukas Rentzos George Chryssolouris., (2010). Dynamic job rotation for workload balancing in human based assembly systems. CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology 2 (2010) 153-160. Gert Zà ¼lch, Wolfgang J. Braun, Emmerich F. Schiller, Analytical approach of determining job division in manual assembly systems, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 51, Issues 1-2, 15 August 1997, Pages 123-134, Guelfi, N., et al., 2008. SERENE08: Proceedings of the 2008 RISE/EFTS Joint International Workshop on Software Engineering for Resilient Systems, 17-19 November 2008, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. New York, NY, USA: ACM. Hackman, J. R., Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior Human Performance, 16(2), 250-279. Hagberg, M., Silverstein, B., Wells, R., Smith, M. J., Hendrick, H. W., Carayon, P., Pà ©russe, M. (1995). Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs): a reference book for prevention. London: Taylor Francis. Hinnen, U., Laubli, T., Guggenbuhl, U., Krueger, H., 1992. Design of check- out systems including laser scanners for sitting work posture. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health 18, 186-194. Ivo Tokarski, (2011). Health of ageing staff on success of job rotation strategy. J. Jà ³zefowska, A. Zimniak, (2008) Optimization tool for short-term production planning and scheduling, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 112, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 109-120. Jian-Hung Chen, Shinn-Ying Ho,(2005) A novel approach to production planning of flexible manufacturing systems using an efficient multi-objective genetic algorithm, International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, Volume 45, Issues 7-8, Pages 949-957, Jorgensen, M. (2005): Characteristics of job rotation in the Midwest US manufacturing sector: Ergonomics, 48(15), 1721-1733. Kher, H.V., Malhotra, M.K., Philipoom, P.R., Fry, T.D., 1999. Modelling simultaneous worker learning and forgetting in dual resource constrained systems. European Journal of Operational Research 115, 158-172. Kurtulus Kaymaza. (2010): The Effects of Job Rotation Practices on Motivation: A Research on Managers in the Automotive Organizations: Journal of Business and Economic Research: Vol 1, No 3, pp. 69-85. Laperrià ¨re, L., Reinhart, G., the International Academy for Production Engineering. (2014). CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering, Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Loch CH, Sting FJ, Bauer N, Mauermann H (March, 2010) How BMW is defusing the demographic time bomb. Harward Bus Rev 88(3):99-104. McKay, N. K., Wiers, C. S. V. (2006). The human factor in planning and scheduling. Handbook of production scheduling, Springer US, 23-57. Mistrik, Ivan Bahsoon, Rami Eeles, Peter Roshandel, Roshanak Stal, Michael. (2014). Relating system quality and software architecture.Books24x7 version. Nader Azizi a, Saeed Zolfaghari b, Ming Liang a., (2010). Mode

Utilizing Leadership and Communication in Management

Communication and effective leadership are widely considered to be the major challenges facing managers in the 20th century in their respective workplace. It is crucial in any management scenario for an effective leader to be a fluent, competent and expert communicator. In essence, this can be applied to all leadership scenarios whether it is organisational, recreational or even military based. If not utilised properly, the situation of a manager who is lacking key communication qualities can easily lead to the downfall of the organisation.It therefore gives credence to the idea that a successful organisation is one who utilises the methods of upright leadership and effective communication in their internal and external management. The process of communication is defined as â€Å"an interpersonal process of sending and receiving symbols with messages attached to them† (Schermerhorn 2011, p. 457). This in a practical sense is the ability to convey a person’s verbal or no n-verbal messages to achieve an understanding of what they require (Brown & Cliquet 2008).This can be in the form of verbal conversation stating tasks that a person is required to do or in the non-verbal form which is usually in the system of body language to emphasise certain verbal directions. In terms of a business organisation, the manager must be effective in their communication otherwise their directions will be lost to either the employee, stakeholders or even the customers (Schermerhorn, 2011). This would lead to the fact that manager’s passing of information is only successful when they are actively telling the employee in regards to a task that they have to undertake.This can be in the form of active listening sessions or improving the means of communication. This can be through improving communication techniques in technology or closing barriers which are hindering effective communication (Schermerhorn 2011 p. 460 – 467). This theory must be applied to many businesses and organisations around the world because without the necessary effective communication, information cannot be passed on therefore leading to a stagnation of possibly crucial material (Bratton et. l, 2007). Senior Professor at the University of Auckland Peter Boxall suggests that in regards to communication with human resources across transnational corporations that: â€Å"[Communication] is the attempt to build ‘constructive’ relationships with trade unions†¦broad ranging discussion are held with extensive information provided to the unions on a whole range of discussions. Emphasis is also placed on techniques designed to enhance individual employee commitment to the firm† (Boxall, 1995 p. 6-57). This quote suggests that to maintain a successful relationship between transnational trade unions, you must have apt communication from the executives to the workers otherwise the flow of material will become stagnant and the information will not be pas sed (Boxall, 1995). An example poor communication can be attributed to Michelle Smeby’s case study of a fortune 100 company named Holistic Change Ltd.They had neglected to tell the stakeholders of potential changes in the information technology section of the workplace which would vastly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the workplace (Schermerhorn 2011), (Smeby 2011). Holistic Change Ltd. could have handled the situation better if they had planned the change; including informing the stakeholders so they could make a formative assessment on whether it would be beneficial to the company (Smeby 2011).It proved to be a hindrance to the company which led to a reduction to their share price. This was due to the shareholders not possessing a full access of all the information that the company was retaining leading to an uncertainty of future projections and profits (Smeby 2011). Many businesses fail to implement effective communication techniques due to the fact that the training initiatives and education could become very expensive and is usually regarded an unimportant part of the daily management of a company (Bratton, 2007).This does not just apply from the managers to the employees of an organisation, but it also applies with the organisations communication skills with the customer (Peterson, 2006 p. 36). It is stating that it is necessary in an organisation without proper communication with the customers, it will unable to either sell its goods or services. The ‘Business Source Complete’ journal article reflections are identical to the statements regarding the importance of effective communication with customer by suggesting that in the approach of seeking ew customers, the organisation has to undertake four key tactics. These include media relations, speaking opportunities, media partnerships and special events (Weber & Chadwick, 2004). Because the organisation is actively seeking out ways to express their company through methods of communication, it will most likely succeed in the objective of gaining new customers to improve revenue (Business Source Complete, 2004). This therefore gives credence to the fact that effective communication is necessary in the success of an organisation.In response to effective communication with to employees, it is crucial to apply with the effective and efficient communication skills which are stated by Schermerhorn as â€Å"the intended meaning of the source and the perceived meaning of the receiver are identical [which] occurs at minimum cost† (Schermerhorn 2011, p. 458). This therefore leads on to suggest that effective communication is derived from profound leadership due to the fact that if someone in a position of power can effectively delegate tasks they must be able to motivate, leading and be able to reduce the barriers of effective communication.Leadership is defined by Schermerhorn (2011) as the process of arousing enthusiasm and directing efforts towards o rganisational goals. Therefore, without proper communication skills, a manager will not be able to convey their instructions and therefore, makes the development of a leader stagnant. Claire Oldfield states her journal article that â€Å"[Leadership] unites people, develops opportunities and, crucially in these difficult times, ensures survival† (Oldfield C 2008, p. 69).This suggests that it is not only a way of future monetary successes, but a way to ensure that the organisation will survive during turbulent financial times (Oldfield 2008). Chadwick (2006) in ‘Leadership in Business Development’ states that â€Å"Successful business development leaders have a passion for their mission, and it generally shows in almost everything they do. By their positive attitude, intellectual quickness and exemplary work ethic, they inspire and lead the folks around them† (Chadwick 2006, p. 1) This shows that a leader must show some inspiration to the team in order for them to perform the tasks well.If the leader is able to communicate their vision in such a way that the employee’s will commit their resources into achieving an idealic solution for the manager, this will result in effective and efficient leadership (Schermerhorn 2011, p. 340). It also suggests that a leader must have the mental capacity to be able to inspire through motivation due to the fact that they are striving for the same result as the employee. Gage (2008) states in his journal article that the necessary leadership is one which strives on the use of reward and legitimate power (Gage 2008, p. ) (Schermerhorn 2011, p. 341). Schermerhorn (2011) defines reward power as â€Å"the capacity to offer something of value as a way of influencing them†. This is a practical sense is the ability to make an employee work to the managers standards by the use of offering an incentive (Schermerhorn 2011). This can be in the form of offering them an award or a salary bonus. Scher merhorn (2011) defines the use of legitimate power as the â€Å"capacity to influence other people by virtue of formal authority, or rights of office† (Schermerhorn 2011, p. 341).If the manager was able to exert his power by utilising these methods, there is no doubt that the workers of the organisation will work more effectively and efficiently because of the incentive which is offered for their services. There is evidence to suggest that leadership is helpful in any management scenario, but Peter Boxall states that â€Å"It takes strong executive leadership to bring about positive patterns of employment relations. In the end, it is the senior leadership of companies that should be responsible for the quality of employment relations† (Boxall 1995 p. 303).This quote by management professor Peter Boxall gives credence to the fact that it is necessary that without proper leadership, there will be no guidance for the rest of the team concluding to an inability to perform the tasks which are needed (Boxall 1995, p. 303). This will only hinder the process of management and can possibly lead to the termination of the organisation (Schermerhorn, 2011). In conclusion, communication and effective leadership considered to be the major challenges facing managers in the 20thcentury. It is crucial in any management scenario for an effective leader to be a fluent, competent and expert communicator.In essence, this can be applied to all leadership scenarios, but if not utilised properly can easily lead to the downfall of the organisation. A manager needs to also be a motivator through their leadership and communication skills because this is proven to the most effective way of getting the most efficient results from the employees. It therefore gives credence to the idea that a successful organisation is one who utilises the ideas of leadership and communication in their internal and external management effectively. Reference ListBoxall, P 1997, ‘The Chall enge of Human Resource Management’, Longman Paul Ltd. , Auckland, NZ Bratton, J & Gold, J 2007, ‘Human Resource Management Theory and Practice’, Palgrave Macmillanm New York, NY Brown, R & Cliquet F 2008, ‘Communication of Business Process Models’, BP Trends, Vol. 10, No. 9, accessed 3 October 2011, Business Source Complete Chadwick, S 2006, ‘Leadership in Business Development’, Printing Impressions, Vol. 49, No. 5, p. 114-115, accessed 3 October 2011, Business Source Complete Oldfield, C 2008, ‘Leadership’, Director. co. uk, Vol. 62, No. 4, p. 9, accessed 3 October 2011, Business Source Complete Peterson, K 2004, ‘Effective Communication promotes Business’, Kitchen and Bath Design News, Vol. 16, No. 12, accessed 3 October, Business Source Complete Ritchie, M 2008, ‘Leadership for Business’, Manitoba Business, Vol. 30, No. 1, p. 5, accessed 3 October 2011, Business Source Complete Schermerhorn et. a l 2011, ‘Management’, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, QLD Weber & Chadwick Hong Kong 2004, ‘Product & Promotion – Marketing Communications: Business’, Media, Vol. 62, No. 21, accessed 3 October, Business Source Complete

Health Governance in Bangladesh Essay

The main aim of this assignment is to uncover the dynamics of politics in the agenda setting of the health governance of Bangladesh through investigation of the role of deferent actors. In every policy process politics play an important role in idea generation, formulation and implementation. Policy reform in health sector is not different from other policy reforms. In the process of health policy making of any country, different actors try to bring the governance in their favor through playing significant role. This interaction of deferent actors in governance is known as politics of public policy. In the complex political process of health sector reform viability of special agenda, type of changes in policy reform, vision of national politics play an important role. In Bangladesh, health is one of the most important sectors since good health ensure more social and economic production and good quality of life. Beyond debate, priority of the health sector is forefront in the development discourse, even though, ‘health sector’ it is associated with multi sectoral factors and actors. Thus, making implementation of health sector policy requires interplay of actors and factors from different sectors and levels: local, national, regional and international. Health situation in Bangladesh Till today, health situation in Bangladesh is not quite satisfactory. Lack of broad national health policy or policy vacuum, lack of policy priority setting, discontinuity of policy, lack of policy ownership, lack of resource allocation and lack of proper uses of resources due to lack institutional arrangement and elite dominated health sector are the main characteristics of health sector in Bangladesh. These characteristics create hindrance in the process of achievement of national and international goals and ultimately health situation of common people remains vulnerable. Bangladesh, being a country with small land size of 144,000 sq. km, has the burden of a huge population of 140 million. Still, with low per capita income and low literacy. Though Bangladesh has one of the strongest networks for delivering countrywide health services among developing countries, still the quality of services are not up to the mark and the services are neither client focused nor need based. In the following tables we demonstrated the trends of basic health indicators of Bangladesh Indicators1970s (1978-80)1980s (1990)1990s (1996-972000s (2003)2007 Population growth rate2. 72. 101. 741. 54NA Infant mortality rate(per 1000)150116776652 Maternal mortality rate105. 74. 13NA Delivery care by trained2581218 Under 5 mortality rate(per 1000)2991101169465 Table 3. 1: Trends of Basic Health Indicators of Bangladesh Heath governance system The government driven healthcare service has a network in all over the country from the centre to the extreme periphery, having two wings, one concerned with Population and Family Planning and the other concerned with Health in total. The service network has three approaches with primary care at upazilla level; secondary care at district level; and tertiary care at divisional level. To administer administrative activities the country has six administrative divisions and 64 districts and furthermore the districts are divided into upazilas (476 in number) and upazilas into unions (4,770). It is estimated that each of the union consist of 25,000 people in most cases each of the unions are again divided into nine villages. The upazila health complexes (463) acts as the first referral centers for primary health care along with one district levels hospitals at all districts (64) and most of the specialized hospitals resides at tertiary levels, mostly in Dhaka – the capital of Bangladesh. There is a standard setup for health services in an upazilla consisting of one upazilla health complex, one union health & family welfare center (UHFWC) at union level (4062) and community clinics at village levels for every 6000 populations. It is mentionable that the community clinics were established under the Health and Population Sector Program (HPSP) – a donor driven mega program – were not functioning till now and being revitalized in recent periods (from the regime of interim caretaker government to present AL government) Apart from general health services other services i. e. minimal reproductive, maternal, and child health care services get provided by these centers for the local people free of cost. The ratio of physicians and registered nurses to population is 241 and 136 respectively per million people and the number of hospitals available for a million people is 10, while the availability of hospital beds is one for about 4000 people. Non government organizations (NGO) and private sectors also play an important role to provide health services for the country. Numbers of NGOs have targeted projects, program and facilities to provide antenatal care (ANC) and safe delivery care. Besides in urban areas the number of private service delivery centers and private physicians are also on the rise. Thought the private clinics get operated privately, most of the doctors working in public hospitals work there on part time basis. These clinics have high charges and operate on commercial basis and people living in highest quintiles prefers such clinics for good quality service, which sometimes is not available in public sectors, as per the wealthiest quintiles perception. Recent politics in policy making Like many other developing country the lifetime of a public policy in Bangladesh depends on the change of political power and health policy is no exception. Visions and directions of all health policies got changed with the change of ruling government. Likewise the NHP 2000 was also interrupted as the government changed. After that two attempts were made to revise the policy till 2008. This instigated disruption in policy implementation rather than bringing any positive change. Many arguments took place in favor of policy reversal by the policyactors but the decision remained absolutely political. The following subsection illustrates the policy vulnerability of NHP 2000 as reflected in its reversal and formulation of NHP 2006 and 2008 and the political dynamics behind it (BHW, 2010). The first and fully operational national health policy was initiated in 1988 during the autocratic regime. In 2000 the democratic government promulgated a national health policy with five goals and objectives, in October 2001 after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led coalition government came to power. This new government deviated from NHP 2000 and got engaged in redrafting a new health policy, without rejecting the existing one in its entirety. This NHP 2000 was to some extent rejected when two of its essential components related to structural transformation were made dysfunctional. The issues were i) unification of health and FP wings ii) the issue of community clinic. Key policy actors (both politicians and bureaucrats) had staid uncertainties about the outcome of these two major reforms and believed that these two issues introduction had been politically motivated by Awami League (AL), which finally resulted in non-implementation. The following segments give an outline of how two major reforms proposed by the policy faced rejection. Integration or unification of health and FP wings – the ornerstone of the NHP 2000 – was formally approved earlier through the HPSS and HPSP (1998-2003), did not experience smooth implementation even during the AL arena. This unification was intended to provide health and FP services in a package for improved service efficiency by minimizing duplication and overlapping of service delivery, which did not take place due to bureaucracy. During the era of 2001-2006, reversal of NHP 2000 became the interior of a whirlpool of conflicts, delays, and difference among policy players, including the bureaucrats, politicians, medical professionals and donors. At the early stage of BNP regime, the system of government held substantial power over the execution of NHP 2000. And the final decision on reversing unification was taken by the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister. The new senior level bureaucrats during this period contrasted the amalgamation and community clinics. The bureaucrats believed that incorporation would marginalize the FP section of the health sector, when it was decisive to uphold the responsibilities and sovereignty of the FP workers. The ruling BNP leaders were rigid to renounce the NHP 2000 since it was formulated by the previous AL government. And political leaders played a fundamental part in the policy implications during 2001-2006. It has been observed that the harmonization between the medical professionals and political leaders led to dealings with the bureaucrats and other forces and exercise more power (BHW 2010). The partial refusal of NHP 2000 can be accredited to the customs of confrontational politics and prejudice that permeates every level of the polity, rather than ideological dissimilarity often political parties. There was little ideological difference between the BNP and AL governments, as demonstrated in similar policy proposals of the two respective health policy documents. Interest group & policy issues According to the views presented by the study respondents, numerous problems were highlighted by different levels of organizations and individuals. More than 160 organizations and individuals have submitted written demand to the Program Support Office (PSO), HNPSP, MoHFW more prior to the preparation of the final draft. All of these demands reflected personal or professional interests. The written comments covered about 70 issues and a significant number of NGO participation was seen. All the policy issues were not dominant. Weight of the problems and proper evidence and strategy to highlight the problems play important role to catch attention of the policy makers. Among the policy issues, following were more dominant compared to others. State policy in health governance State actors and non-state actors play their role in the policy process. During the time of agenda setting interest groups try to influence the policy makers to consider their preferable issues. Like other policy process, different actors and factors impacted the generation of ideas in health policy. Till today, health situation of Bangladesh is not satisfactory in term of ‘equity and justice’. In the literature of policy ownership, source of ideas/visions is treated as one of the major indicator to measure the ownership of policy (Osman, 2006). In public policy process ‘agenda setting’ is a stage where owner of ideas/vision and promoter of the ideas adopt different strategy to draw the attention of the policy makers. In public policy making ‘ownership’ can be measured with participation of different actors in policy process. In this connection role of the different actors were investigated in this study. According to Jhon Kingdon’s Garbage Can Model, an issue becomes agenda with three confluence â€Å"streams†. Different actors play their role from their own perspective in these steams. In this study it was found that three steams emerged at the same time and opened a window. In problem stream evidence production and dissemination were highly supportive for highlighting the problems of community health issues as policy agenda. In proposal stream national and international policy coherences, international and national good practices and positive attitude of donors were among other factors that supported the community clinic issues as policy proposal. Also, political support of the ruling party (AL) was also positive to highlight the community clinic and community health issues. These problems were highlighted in different documents of governments, NGOs and donors. Moreover, these problems were recognized by bureaucrats, politicians, media people, donors and NGOs. Apart from evidences, ordinary people through experiences and observations also recognized these problems. Thus, all stakeholders had good faith about these evidences. It can be said that three confluence streams emerged and opened a policy window to take a decision for establishing community clinic for solving the community health problems in Bangladesh. In every stream, different actors and factors played vital role to highlight the issue. Evidence is crucial to guide improvements in health systems and develop new initiatives. In this connection state actors and non-sate actors create evidence for highlighting the importance of a policy problem or issues. In this study effort has been made to analyze the system of evidence creation and evidence dissemination. From the systems perspective, it is important to understand how research and knowledge from various sources are produced and synthesized. In addition, effort has also been made to investigate how the research findings were highlighted to strengthen the demand of good health services for community people. These evidences revealed that maternal health situation and services have not reached to the satisfaction level. Situation of child health is still in an alarming condition for attaining national and international goals. Till now population problem is a big challenge for development of Bangladesh but evidence showed that there are human resource gaps in community level to offer proper services to the community people. Cost of health services, absenteeism and distribution of health service providers in the community level were dominant factors which played vital role to highlight the community health situation as a problem. It was found that about 160 organizations and individuals took part in the agenda setting process of the health policy. Among the participants, NGOs presence was significant considering their number. A one may wonder why a significant number of NGOs took part in the agenda setting process. The answer is a large number of NGOs are working in health sectors of Bangladesh whose mission is to highlight the common peoples’ rights and external support for doing policy advocacy. Majority of the participants’ expressed their personal, organizational or professional interest.. Health professionals from government side played significant role while creating evidences. In the absence of wide ranging government sponsored research these professional remained engaged in writing articles in journals and news papers. Due to contracting system of evidence creation, bureaucrats were guided or assisted y a number of consultants and their influences are decreasing nowadays. Apart from the findings of the present study many previous studies showed that during unification of two wings of MoHFW (family planning and health) IMED created evidence to analyze the context. Research findings showed that bureaucrats who were influential during the period of 1996-2001 did not able to exert influence after 2000. It is mentioned that successive health secretaries were either explicitly against or remained passive over the unification process and community clinic program, resulting weak bureaucratic leadership within the ministry. Among the professionals who are involved with party politics, DAB (Doctors Association Bangladesh, aligned with the BNP) and SCP (Shawdhinata Chikitshak Parishad, aligned with the Awami League) played influential roles in agenda setting health issues. In this study it is found that these members who are affiliated with SCP remained vocal from the very beginning of the policy process when Health Advisor of immediate past caretaker government (2008-09) initiated the process of health policy formulation. Historical evidences showed that DAB had great influence in the agenda setting during the draft preparation in 2006. In case of NHP 2010, SCP played an important role in community related agenda setting since they are well connected with the Prime Minister and Health Minister. Medical professionals, particularly physicians, were in favor of the implementation of major reforms under the NHP 2000. Previous researchers found that support of the professionals for the two major elements of the NHP 2000 was reflected in the policy document prepared by the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) (BHW, 2010). Donors provide financial supports during evidence creation. While offering financial support, donors imposed some conditions including methodology finalization and indicators setting which ultimately, influenced the process of making evidence based policy. In addition, donors suggested government to include NGOs in this process on the ground of GO-NGO collaboration or public-private partnerships. In the community health related evidence creation USAID, UNICEF and WHO played leading role since 2000. Thus, it can be said that donors had great influence in evidence creations about community health issues. Of course, this is not new in the health sector of Bangladesh. In case of evidence creation for Sector Wide Approach introduction donor community provide guidance and financial supports for evidence creation. When compared to equivalent government operations, NGO services generally run more efficiently and cheaply keeping closer ties with communities. For this reason, donors often favor them as entry points to accessing communities in Bangladesh, especially since the 1980s. In other words, NGOs become powerful and influential, especially because of their external sources of financial support, cooperation, and advocacy. In this regards, NGOs are considered as spokesman of donors. Civil society/NGOs are potential actors to highlight health rights and social welfare goals through mobilization of citizen demand. Through different activities NGOs emphasized on the decentralization as a means of localizing policy-making, bringing decision- making closer to disadvantaged groups, and encouraging local participation. Also NGOs are playing roles of academics and professionals by monitoring and analyzing contextual factors. In this study we found that NGOs remained more or less equivalent in the creation of evidences. Bangladesh health watch was in the leading position to provide evidence for policy making Present Government and Health Strategy: According to the majority portion of respondent, the present government consists with a number of health professionals and they were very much enthusiastic to promote the health facilities issues for ensuring the health rights of community people of Bangladesh. Also as a political party AL has commitment to the people to provide health services for the betterment of common people. Election Manifesto of AL in Election 2008 highlighted the health issues in the following way – â€Å"In order to ensure health facilities to every citizen of the country, the health policy of the erstwhile Awami League government will be reevaluated and adjusted according to the demands of the time. In the light of this policy, 18000 community clinics, established during Awami League rule, will be commissioned. † [Source: Election Manifesto of AL in Election 2008] Conclusion It can be said that proper evidence for highlighting the problem, stakeholders support in the solutions and strong political support highlighted the community health issues as issues to be considered in government actions. In evidence creation and conducting advocacy, NGOs who backed by the donors remained vocal. Top level bureaucrats also played their role with the help of consultants who were generally recommended by the donors. Finally, recognition of ruling political party played an important role in this regard.

Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad (manufacturing company) Essays

Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad (manufacturing company) Essays Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad (manufacturing company) Essay Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad (manufacturing company) Essay As for the manufacturing company, the business risk may arise whether the company able to control the output prices. If the company has ability to adjust output prices when there are changes input costs, such as raw material, the lower the degree of business risk. Manufacturing company has the authorities to increase the selling prices of its products, when the raw material costs increases, subsequently company would not bear extra losses. Alternatively, company could not raise the selling prices when the raw material costs increases, the profit of the company will be reduce. Hence, company bears the business risk. For instance, there was a significant decreased in Wonderful Wire Cable Berhads sales which may due to unexpected and unprecedented escalating prices of copper and aluminium which seriously hurt the earnings of cable manufacturers in the country. On the other hand, retailing company, Hai-O Enterprise Berhad does not face this problem as the company does not incurred raw material costs as the manufacturing company. Retailing company get the final goods from the manufacturer and sell off the goods through branches, therefore retailing company does not have significant problem on this. The price of final goods that purchased from the manufacture is more stable. Furthermore, for the manufacturing company such as Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad, will need more finance in order finance its fixed assets. Due to its nature, manufacturing company need more assets to produce their products, so company need more fund to get assets and maintain the assets. Company may have not enough cash or fund to finance; in order to get more fund, short-term borrowings and long-term borrowings will be adopted. Therefore, the gearing of the manufacturing company will be higher than the retailing company. In 2007, Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad has negative financial gearing which mean the company has very high accumulated losses. This is caused by the increased prices in copper and aluminium. Companys equity unable to cover the borrowings, this could lead company into difficulties. However, retailing company such as Hai-O Enterprise Berhad has high operating gearing might be due to the large inventory that the company need to keep in the warehouse. The inventory that kept in the warehouse need to be guard by security or managed by the staff, this may incurred more extra expenses. As we know that, operating expenses is the ratio of the companys fixed cost to its total costs. Therefore, the Hai-O Enterprise Berhad has higher operating costs compare to financial gearing. Company have low financial gearing which mean company does not rely much on borrowings. This gearing indicates that this company is safe for investment. In conclusion, Hai-O Enterprise Berhad and Wonderful Wire Cable Berhad does not represent all the retailing and manufacturing industry. But, it has indicates that the companies need a good risk management to reduce their risk into an acceptable level. Thus, this could ensure the company able to run their operations smoothly without liquidation problems.

Marnie essays

Marnie essays Marnie can be said to be at the forefront of pioneering a psychological thriller. Many of Hitchcocks films deal with a similar aspect, but none require the viewer to pay the amount of attention that this film calls for. It is in patience and careful observation that one can begin to see the complex problems that plague Marnie every day of her life. In this observation that re can find repeating symbols such as color and animals. It is these symbols, which fuels her deceptive lifestyle ultimately leading to her breakdown, and with that breakdown letting decades of frustration and anguish as well. Color, in this film, is a direct indicator of what Marnie feels at the moment of whatever is going on. Two colors stand out as prominent, these being yellow and red. At the beginning of the film, we see Marnies bag contrasting greatly with its surroundings at the train station. Accompanying the suitcase, the pencils and paper in the combination drawer are yellow as well as Marks sleepwear. Though these do ring important, the fact that Marnies hair color is blonde is a major indication of what importance this color has on not only her world but the how the viewer sees her as well. As her identities change, so do her hair color, but what lies underneath the dyes is the true hair color, blonde. Typically, the color yellow is associated with signs of warning and caution and the comparison here cannot be any more fitting. The lifestyle Marnie lives is one of extreme danger and risk, usually ending in apprehension and extreme punishment. And as the viewer begins to find out why Marnie i s bothered so greatly, they also realize the warning signals that Marnie might not see. It is as if subconsciously she knows shes in trouble or close to it, but cannot break out of the life she lives. Yellow is also associated with cowardly behavior, almost hinting at the idea of Marnies reluctance to ...

Kant's Metaphysics of Morals, the Importance of Duty Essay

Kant's Metaphysics of Morals, the Importance of Duty - Essay Example All of which were important aspects in the moral determination of the will that would contrue an act as moral or ethical. Kant’s normative ethics posits that the best way to act morally is to act from duty with the consideration of the highest good. That is, acting through the moral determination of the will. Kant’s acting through the moral determination of will meant that the motivation of one’s action must be pursued with the good without condition which is intrinsically good by itself. He formulated his deontological ethics in a categorical imperative of doing good for the sake of good regardless of its consequence. The three propositions of moral determination of the will are as follows; Universal Law formulation which is to act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. This means that if one is to act good, that will should not be subjected to any condition or any physical constraints. Humanity or E nd in Itself formulation which posits to act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end. This meant the free will is a source of rational action. And that humanity, is not just a result of an action but also the motivation of such action and how the action is carried out. A logical free will should therefore be an end itself because an end is subjective that they needed to be pursued whereas, the rationale action is objective and therefore must be categorically pursued. Kingdom of Ends formulation is the integration of the first two laws that says all maxims as proceeding from our own [hypothetical] making of law ought to harmonize with a possible kingdom of ends. This meant an autonomous will is not subject to anything but it must bind itself to the first two laws to make it applicable to everybody that people by themselves are both a means and an end. In sum, Kingdom of Ends formulation meant that the end and the means must be harmonized to be good and this is applicable to all circumstances without exemption. Kant explained the etymology of the expression of his deontological ethics. According to Kant, imperatives imply what they just meant which are commands such as â€Å"wake up early†. Often they are hypothetical imperative because they only serve a specific objective or purpose such as â€Å"wake up early so you will not be later for work†. This imperative or command becomes categorical when it is applied universally and that the actions and decisions of individuals are to be judged solely by their motivations and that the consequences do not matter morally (as in the case of hypothetical imperative) neither the intended consequences nor the actual consequences matter morally; only the principle or rule we follow if we do the action matters morally. In simpler terms, this meant doing what is good regardless of consequ ence and that by doing is an end by itself. Thus, actions themselves become an end and this action should be a rational result in the exercise of freewill. In the example stated, categorical imperative dictates to â€Å"wake up† early because it is good to wake up early even without considering one’s need not to be late for work. Consistent to this, Kant’s categorical imperative states that every person has the duty to use and exercise his goodness/humanity as a means to an end. The application of Kant’s second law of categorical imper

Proposal purpose and hypothesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Proposal purpose and hypothesis - Essay Example Their costs are relatively afforded. Besides, the quality of such facilities in health care provision is laudable. This comes from the attention and close interaction that patients have. This is according to assertions fronted by Caruson and MacManus in 2007. Surgeon (2006) also highlights the benefit of the facilities in providing health care reforms. The medication provided by the care centers is incomparable to conventional ways. These are according to O’Carroll (2002). The rationale behind the study is that Patient Center Medical Homes is that it offers a quality and a less costly form of health care. In doing this, the facilities used must conform to the unique requirements of the patients admitted in such centers (Miller & Moore, 1999). Health care is a mundane aspect of human existence. It is through it that humanity seeks to address the health care problems that it faces. Over the years, humanity has sought advanced ways of handling its social as well as health issues. The advent of PCMH provides a suitable way of addressing the needs of individuals. Besides, it has a unique aspect since every patient is accorded special attention. Besides, it is cheap and costly. This is what forms the rationale behind the study. The following study would be a qualitative one. The frequency of medical conditions warranting care in such facilities will be the dependent variable in the study (Chatterjee & Hevner, 2010). The time taken by patients at the facility will be the independent variable. Caruson, K., & MacManus, S.S. (2007). Protecting vulnerable populations: local government   interactions with public & private agencies serving immobile citizens. Paper presented   at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Chicago, IL.  Chatterjee, S., & Hevner, A. (2010). Design Research in Information Systems: Theory and Practice. Berlin: Springer US. Spurgeon, K.,