The Perfect Class :: essays research papers

If you could design any class, anyway you wanted; do you know what you would do? Whether it is reclining chairs or nap time you want. You get to decide whether you want, one or the other or both. You get to design the class any way you want. If I could design the perfect class it would have to have†¦ The perfect class would have to have air conditioning. This would keep us cool and refreshed. Most students would concentrate better because they’re not distracted thinking about how hot and sticky they are. It would also help stu-dents and staff with asthma to breathe easier because air conditioning takes the humidity out of the air. Considering all these reasons I think air conditioning would further better our educational wellness. The perfect class would have to allow students to chew gum. This would satisfy the students so they are not constantly complaining. Chewing gum during a test could increase test scores up to 35%. It is a proven fact that chewing gum improves long and short term memory up to 15%. All these statistics not only prove that chewing gum satisfies the students, but that it increases our chances a higher education. The perfect class would have to have shorter lessons. Some teachers will teach a key lesson in a short time period because they think it’s best to teach it all at once. I think that they should break important lessons into 2 or 3 smaller more comprehendible lessons. This would give teachers more time to make sure that stu-dents thoroughly understand each individual concept of the lesson. Some students are so overwhelmed and confused by one element of the lesson that they are focus-ing only on that element that the miss the rest of the lesson. This is basic modifi-cation in

Essay example --

Lynn Armstrong Composition II Illustration Essay 11 March, 2014 O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman was a 19th century American poet who changed the rules for writing poetry. He is one of my favorite poets because he was bold enough to openly talk about sexuality and same sex couples in his works during a time where such things were looked down upon and even banned. He also aided the nation to understand and face the grief they felt after the loss of a respectable and loved authority figure. With O Captain My Captain, Walt Whitman captures the contrasting duality of the times; both triumphant and mournful in nature. Of all of his colorful, imaginative poems this one in particular resonates with me because the poet's heartbreak is so real and apparent in the poem's somber and pleading tone. This poem begins energetically, in the first couplet although it does not introduce you directly to the subject of the poem. What we know is that a ship commanded by an unnamed captain has come back from a voyage, which has apparently been dreadful. (Terrinino) I can perfectly imagine the ship being meant to symbolize America during the Civil War and the damage caused by it. Also, the prize that was won is obviously the victory of the Civil War. While in the second couplet, "The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:". This passage comes off particularly enjoyable to me because it talks about the men finally coming home from the war and the enthusiasm that awaits them when they get home. It has been a long, perilous journey for the soldiers. I don't have to try to imagine that they are excited about finally being able to be reunited with their families because ... ...es the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! The arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

The Causes of the Collapse of the Bretton Woods System

When U. S. President Richard Nixon formally ended the backing of U. S. currency by the gold standard system in 1971, the noble attempts of the Bretton Woods delegates finally ended. . This paper will examine the causes of the death of the Bretton Woods System: Some have blamed it on the changing situation of the international economic system; others blamed it on the failure of the System itself. We will explore the Bretton Woods System, its ideals and contradictions, in an attempt to discern what indeed went wrong.Fixing the exchange rate between the U. S.  dollar and other currencies was doomed to failure because of various principles of macroeconomics which will be analyzed herein. However, in spite of its failures, the Bretton Woods System played a crucial role in the economic development of Europe and Japan in the decades immediately after World War II.Its original purpose was the economic rehabilitation of Europe and Japan, and in this, the Bretton Woods System was indeed succ essful. The collapse of the Bretton Woods System in 1971 could be traced to a number of reasons. The most important of these was the increasing trade imbalance of the U.S. economy. The Cold War between the United States and the USSR drained the U. S. Treasury, leading to deficit spending, and a surge in imports.In particular, the Vietnam War became a veritable black hole of runaway spending. Furthermore, the rehabilitated economies of Europe and Japan soon made up for lost ground, and caught up to the United States’ economy. The U. S. economy, booming throughout the Fifties and Sixties, finally reached the point of deficit in the early 1970s. At this time, the U. S. started to experience massive cash outflow to the rest of the world.This was certainly instrumental in the collapse of the Bretton Woods System, but not the only reason. A second reason for the end of the Bretton Woods System was the lack of autonomy to maintain its workings. As the U. S. currency came to a crisis in the early 1970s, the System collapsed. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the authority to control the currency exchange rate, had no power to stop the System from collapsing, and the System subsequently spiraled out of control.The powerlessness of the IMF was due to the lack of autonomy of the U.S. currency dominance based on the gold standard. In this paper, we will show that these reasons were the main causes of the end of the Bretton Woods System, by analyzing the economic data and considering the economists’ and historians’ arguments. The origin of the Bretton Woods System will be explored to clarify the theory behind the System. Additionally, we will review the world economy of the 1950s, when the Bretton Woods System was working effectively, and compare it to the world economy of the 1960s, when the System began to lose effectiveness.The comparison is necessary to answer to the question why the Bretton Woods System became ineffective although it was func tional at the beginning. This paper will also analyze the structure of the International Monetary Fund, to see how that too was instrumental in bringing the Bretton Woods System to its close. It is important to understand how the IMF had been trying to standardize the currency until 1973, the year in which the world transferred to the exchange currency system from a pegged exchange rates system.The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, better known as the Bretton Woods Conference, was a meeting among 730 delegates representing the 45 Allied nations of the Second World War. The conference was held at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference followed the conclusion of the Second World War and convened from July 1 to July 22, 1945. The purpose of the delegates at this Conference was to establish a new global economic order following the trauma of the war, not simply a re-hash of the world economic system of the 1930s.Most economists agreed that that system had not been efficient during the period between world wars. Depression hit the United States in 1929, and recession gripped the world economy in the thirties. While some nations let their currencies float, others set a policy of pegging their currency to gold or other currency. This system had outbreaks of â€Å"competitive devaluation†. In order to keep their reserve at a high level, governments introduced exchange control, restricted the use of foreign currency and imposed higher tariffs barriers to limit the volume of imports.World trade declined because of these restrictions, and the world faced very slow economic recovery in the 1930s. Delegates at the Bretton Woods Conference worked to revamp these short-sighted, restrictive policies. They felt the need to establish economic institutions which would transform the world economy into a well-oiled machine, one which promoted international trade for all countries..The delegates created three major structur es: the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) or the World Bank; and the International Trade Organization (ITO). However, in 1950, the U.S. Congress nixed the formation of the ITO, and it never got off the ground. In place of the ITO, a treaty was agreed upon by most of the world economic powers and the rest of the world.The treaty was commonly known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which took over the ITO ideology. The other two institutions, IMF and the World Bank, were to take responsibility of being the bi-pillar system of the Post-Second World War global economy. The purpose of the World Bank was to promote development, and that of the International Monetary Fund was to maintain order in the international monetary system.The delegates of the Bretton Woods Conference based the new global economic structure on a code of what they felt to be economic fairness. This code related to a global regime of fixed but adjustable exchange rates. This system of adjustable rates was designed to implement equity on a world economic scale. The adjustable fixed rate provided exchange rate stability in the short run, just like the gold standard system. At the same time, it also allowed the possibility to adjust the exchange rate when a national balance of payment is in a crucial state of disequilibrium.However, the weakness of this adjustable exchange system was that it lacked the stability, the certainty of the gold standard and the flexibility of the flexed exchange rate regime. Despite the demerits of this currency exchange mechanism, the Bretton Woods System worked fairly well in the 1950s and early 1960s. The adjustable-fixed exchange was successful in increasing international trade and supporting the recovery of the economy in Europe and Japan.The system resulted in the per rate system, under which currencies of the member countries were fixed within 1% of the value of the U.S. dollar, which was pegged to the value of gold. With this system, the IMF was successful between 1946 and 1966, although it had its kinks. The Bretton Woods delegates hastened the integration of the world economy, but they could not so easily achieve a smooth currency exchange system, because the destruction of the Second World War was too massive to recover without unilateral action such as discarding the pegged exchange rate system. Some nations set up their own restrictions on trade and currency exchange so that the IMF could not get those countries into the world currency system.Moreover, the ruined European nations requested massive funding from the IMF until 1950. In spite of IMF mistakes, the global economy progressed after 1951. The Fund successfully spread its economic activities to all members, not just to the fund users. However, after 1966, the world economy changed substantially once again. The problems inherent in the Bretton Woods System started to be exposed gradually in the mid-1960s. Richard N. Cooper, in his book The International Monetary System, listed the features of the Bretton Woods System as well its contradictions..The first characteristic of the system was that member countries of the Bretton Woods System would determine their own domestic economic policies. This permitted autonomy of domestic economies, enabling nations to pursue their own internal economic objectives, such as assuring low inflation or achieving the â€Å"natural† unemployment rate. The second feature of the Bretton Woods System, according to Cooper, was that the U. S. currency be pegged to gold. The third feature was that other nations adopted the adjustable-exchange rates system.Cooper argues that these three features of the Bretton Woods System contradicted each other:: Countries could not frame their national economic policies independently and still maintain fixed exchange rates and currency convertibility except by luck and coincidence. That potential conflict w as recognized by the Bretton Woods architects†¦ Cooper suggests that to fix these contradictions, the creators of the system, the delegates, added two elements. One was the establishment of the IMF, and the other was altering exchange rates under the condition that a nation comes to a severe economic imbalance.According to Cooper, the Bretton Woods System architects assumed that new gold production coming into monetary reserves would be an ample supply to fuel adequate growth. The US dollar, they further assumed, would be able to provide for the required liquidity to keep the exchange rate at the fixed level. However, until the 1970s, growth in the global gold demand had been increasing faster than new gold production. World monetary reserves outside the United States increased by $54 billion, a 4. 5 per cent per annum growth rate.United States gold reserves departed to other countries to the tune of $9 billion, while only $4 billion came from new gold production. Foreign excha nge, which was overwhelmingly in dollars as the medium of choice, supplied $30 billion of the growth in reserves. Additionally, the IMF started, in 1970, to provide Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which is the new type of international reserve assets generally called â€Å"paper dollars†. U. S. gold reserves declined dramatically during this period because its stock of gold had gone to much of the rest of the world.The reasons for this exodus of American capital were complicated and controversial. Military expenditures involved with the Cold War and the Vietnam War predominate. As the result of heightened expenditures, the United States tried to increase its money supply regardless of being able to back it up with gold reserves. The rest of the world accumulated these lost U. S. reserves until the beginning of the 1970s, which caused uncertainty in the value of the US dollar itself. The second reason for the exodus of U. S. capital was that the European and Japanese economies had caught up to the United States’ economy.Due to the increased economic clout of revived nations, the United States began suffering from the trade deficit. European nations and Japan were taking advantage of the underestimated price of their currency, enabling them to increase the volume of their exports. The United States suffered because of the high price of the dollar relative to other currencies. After accumulation of the wealth, European countries and Japan embarked on converting reserve surpluses into dollar reserves. They practiced this policy because of the interest that could be earned on U. S. dollars.Moreover, if it ever became necessary the U. S. dollar could be converted to gold. These were miscalculations of the International Monetary Fund creators.. In these ways, the Bretton Woods economic structure was undermined, as the nominal price and real value of U. S. currency came into conflict. In 1970, in order to restore the system, the IMF introduced a new inter national reserve asset. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were expected to supplement the other components of global reserves, i. e. U. S. dollars and gold. The need for liquidity in the international monetary system was the reason for the creation of SDRs.In 1970, when the SDRs were first allocated, the United States had the largest share, totaling about $867 million, followed by the United Kingdom, at $410 million. According to Acheson, â€Å"A problem†¦ is the prospect of conflict over the amount of SDRs to be created. † The development of the new asset system was eventually unsuccessful. Richard Harper argues that the failure of IMF came from a fundamental problem within the system itself. The problem, he says, is that a fixed exchange-rate system requires national governments to arrange their monetary policy in problematic ways.If, for instance, one nation has continuously higher inflation rate than others’, it cannot compete in the world market, and its citizens would be buying more expensive imported products, leading to trade deficits. Therefore, the government has to be adjusting to its trading partners all the time. Harper goes on to say that under the pre-1914 gold standard system, there would no such problem because the inflation rate would spill over to the countries around it and achieve a convergence. By contrast, under the par value system, the mechanism of self-converging is missing.Harper summarizes his thoughts about monetary cooperation between nations: Lack of co-ordination of monetary policies and, in particular, the implementation of inappropriate policies by any individual member, resulted in the countries in question facing runs on their currency when there was perceived to be an imbalance between their internal monetary policies and external exchange rates. He argues that this systematic flaw was closely related to the ultimate obsolescence of the Bretton Woods System. Instability of the System came to a head, and it co llapsed, like a house of cards.The real signal of its death was in 1971, when U. S. officials declared suspending the convertibility between dollars and gold, making other nations’ currency float. The fixed exchange rates between U. S. dollars and other world currencies disappeared, and the Bretton Woods System went the way of the dinosaurs—extinction. After its collapse, on March 19, 1973, the central banks of the world economic powers gave up their commitment to stabilize exchange rates between their currencies and the dollar.After suspending the convertibility from dollars to gold, the fixed exchange rates between U. S. currency and others began to disappear, even though many nations insisted on keeping the pegged exchange rates of the Bretton Woods System. Riccardo says: It now seems clear that the really essential characteristic of Bretton Woods was not the maintenance of party but the convertibility of the dollar†¦ After March 1973, the central banks rapidly discovered that it was simply not possible to abandon exchange rates to market forces completely. In this way, the Bretton Woods System lost its key component—convertibility from dollars to gold–in 1971, then an ancillary key component—adjustable-fixed exchange rates in 1973.Henceforth, currency valuations were determined according to market fluctuations. The IMF lost the function of setting exchange rates.. Conclusion The Bretton Woods System came to an end in 1973, almost three decades after the Conference. The System contained contradictions and flaws since its foundation in 1945. Some economists argue that the system’s defects were negligible, and that the problem lay in the changing world economy, not the Bretton Woods System itself. However, it is undeniable that the mechanisms of the Bretton Woods System were not flexible enough to adjust to a changing world economy.Adaptability is the key to survivability, and in this sense, the Bretton Woods Sys tem was doomed to failure. The revivals of European nations and Japan were predictable, given the scope of international policy to revive these moribund economies. More than thirty years have passed since the collapse of the Bretton Woods System. Some economists say that Bretton Woods II is emerging in the world today.. The fact that China pegs its currency to the US dollar seems similar to the situation at the Bretton Woods Conference of yesteryear.Because of the fixed exchange rate system between the Chinese Renminbi and the U. S. dollar, the United States suffers a huge trade deficit with China today. . Matthias Kaelberer argues that Bretton Woods II would be different from the classic one, for the Bretton Woods System from 1944 to 1973 was agreed upon by its members, while the emerging system of today comes from Chinese de facto unilateral behavior pegging its currency to the U. S. currency. However, he also emphasizes that, no matter what their origin, reviewing the classic Bre tton Woods System will be helpful and important to predict the consequences of the Chinese-American fixed exchange rates relationship.The Bretton Woods Conference helped ease the world’s economy through a tumultuous period after the Second World War. Although the economic solutions they espoused seem anachronistic today, we should also thank the architects for playing a vital role in restoring some semblance of equilibrium to a world in tatters.BibliographyAcheson A. L. K. , Chant, J. F. and Prachowny M. F. J. Bretton Woods Revisited: Evaluations of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Papers Delivered at a Conference at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.Toronto, On, Canada: University of Toronto Press. 1972.Chacholiades, Miltiades. International Monetary Theory and Policy. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1978.Cooper, Richard N. The International Monetary System: Essays in World Economics. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. 1987. Harper, Richard. Inside the IMF: Ethnography of Documents, Technology, and Organizational Action. San Diego: Academic Press. 1998.Parboni, Riccardo. The Dollar & its Rivals. London, England: Verso. 1981. Witteveen, H. J and Szabo-Pelsoczi, Miklos (ed. ).Fifty Years after Bretton Woods: The New Challenge of East-West Partnership for Economic Progress. Brookfield, Vt. , USA: Avebury. 1996Stone, Randall. Lending Credibility: The International Monetary Fund and the Post-communist Transition. Princeton University Press, 2002 Matthias Kaelberer. â€Å"Structural Power and the Politics of International Monetary Relations. † The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies. Washington: Fall 2005. Vol. 30, Iss. 3;http://proquest. umi. com. myaccess. library. utoronto. ca/pqdlink? Ver=1&Exp=04-03-2012&FMT=7&DID=911841951&RQT=309 Accessed on April 3, 2007. Via ProQuest.

Case Study – Ford Motor Company

Introduction Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 by Henry Ford and eleven business associates. The company was responsible for the innovation of the moving assembly line where employees would remain in the same place while performing the same task on each automobile that move along the assembly line. Ford Motor Company has been a prominent car producer for over 100-years – an icon of U. S. manufacturing. However, the company has reached a pivotal impasse where timely planning has become crucial. Hence, to reestablish the brand and Henry Ford’s original vision to produce â€Å"cars that were affordable to the masses† (What Would You Do? Ford Motor Company, n. d. p. 1). This case study will examine four options; the first option is whether to close down older plants in an effort to realign production and sales. The second option is to re-engineer the company to produce smaller cars eliminating or sharply reducing the SUV and truck lines. The third option is to take the unprecedented step of dramatically reducing North American presence and focus the company efforts on international markets where the company has been very successful. The fourth option is to sell the entire Premier Automotive Group (PAG). To determine what the criterion for the Ford Motor Company four options are, Ford’s management team should collectively utilize the rational-decision making model that is define as â€Å"a systematic process in which managers define problems, evaluate alternatives, and choose optimal solutions that provide the maximum benefits to their organizations† (Williams, 2010, p. 85). In addition, management should utilize the SWOT (acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, to identify their internal strengths and weaknesses and their external opportunities and threats. Ford can use the SWOT analysis for assessing their strategic position in its internal and external environments. Rational decision-making and the SWOT analysis will allow Ford to obtain and ascertain key issues to determine what strategic plans to implement. The case outlines four strategic options Ford is pursuing to increase its profitability. Describe each of the four options. For each option list two criteria, you would use to evaluate the option. Option number one recommends closing older plants to realign production and sales. Closing the older plants managers would have to evaluate how these closures will affect their internal environment, employees will lose their jobs; the company will be obligated to buy out each employee. In addition, the company has to evaluate their external challenges; how will the closure of these plants affect the community. The plants are currently producing more cars (supply) than the consumers are purchasing (demand). Therefore, Ford Motor Company’s has to create and implement a tactical plan that denotes how the internal threat of buying out the employee’s will occur, hence buying out the employees will reduce Ford Motor Company’s operation expense and maximize their internal opportunity because there will be more resources (cash) to invest in other areas of the business. In addition, the company could sell their supply to employees at a discounted price and offer the consumers in the community this same discount at a point lower to achieve goodwill in the community, thus minimizing their external challenges. Option number two is eliminating or sharply reducing the SUV and truck lines and concentrating on the production of smaller cars. The company managers should determine the strength of this option, the company would need to evaluate the following: can fuel economy be realized in these particular vehicle lines without significant cost being passed on to the consumer; will there be a continuing market for SUVs and how will reducing or eliminating truck lines affect overall sales. Therefore, to evaluate these challenges I propose managers review their industry forces that address the question; how should Ford Motor Company compete in the SUV and truck line industry. According to Harvard professor Michal Porter (as cited in Williams, 2010), â€Å"five industry forces determine and industry’s overall attractiveness and potential for long-term profitability† (p. 107). The company can determine if this is a feasible market for the company to continue participating in by assessing their positioning strategies. Option number three requires reducing Ford’s North American presence and focus the company’s efforts on international markets where the company has been very successful, particularly in Europe, South America, and China. Again, it is imperative that managers utilize the rational decision-making process to determine; what is the sustainability of the Ford brand in the international market, how will reducing or removing North American presence affect the overall brand, and which plants in North America should be closed for short periods to allow the demand to catch up with the supply. In addition, Ford should implement an aggressive marketing strategy in Europe, South American and China to gain a sustainable competitive edge in a market that is receptive. Option number four is to sell the entire PAG. The PAG group is part of Fords portfolio strategy that did not align with Ford’s vision. Therefore, retrenchment strategy should be applied for this option, sell the entire line because it is not part of Ford’s original vision – â€Å"production of cars that were affordable to the masses† (What Would You Do, Ford Motor Company, n. . p. 1). According to the Boston Consulting Group, BGC matrix, â€Å"is a portfolio strategy that managers use to categorize their corporation’s business growth and relative market share, helping them decide how to invest corporate funds† (Williams, 2010, p. 103). The PAG group can be defined as a dog; a company that â€Å"have a small share of a slow-growth market† (Williams, 2010, p. 104). I n addition, the hand-built PAG automobiles do not fit Ford’s innovation of the assembly line. In light of the possibility that market conditions can and do change, discuss at least three examples of how the company should build-in flexibility to back-up it decision-making process. Ford Motor Company should implement flexible back-up plans and one plan or method is the option based planning that is the goal â€Å"to keep all options open and acquiring small investments in alternative plans† (Williams, 2010, p. 81). Therefore, when one or several of the alternative plans flourish Ford would invest more in those plans, while reducing investments in other, for example, the North American plants. The second plan for the company to build in flexibility would be its slack resources that are people, money or production. Hence, the partial closing of the North American plant, slack resources would enable Ford to adjust, when demand increases there will be resources available to accommodate these changes. In addition, for any plan to work well, management has to keep communication open with all members of the team to develop and encourage commitment. List at least three steps that make-up a workable plan and explain why each is important. To determine and execute strategies for the four options managers at For Ford Motor Company have to be aware of the essentials steps in preparing a workable plan. Therefore, step number one to prepare a workable plan is setting specific goals, using the S. M. A. R. T. guidelines that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. This is important because it directs behavior and increase efforts when the plan stipulates specific goals. Step number two is developing commitment. Goal commitment â€Å"is the determination to achieve a goal† (Williams, 2010, p. 80). Therefore, both managers and employees should collectively set goals to encourage commitment; setting goals collectively encourages employees to intensify their efforts. The third step is developing an effective action plan that list the specific steps, how the options will be carry out, which employees will perform each task, and what resources are going to be needed and how long it will take to accomplish the goal. The fourth step is tracking progress this will allow you to track your short-term (proximal) and long-term (distal) goals. In addition, the company managers should use a Gantt chart that will aid them in tracking this progress and keeping projects on task. When you know where you are going, how you getting there, who is assisting and how long it will take allows you to be flexible when conditions change. Discuss the option or combination of options you selected as the best course of actions for Ford Motor Company and detail your reasons for selecting that option or combination of options. I recommend Ford Motor Company put into operation, option number three, to take the unprecedented step to dramatically reduce their North American presence and focus their efforts on international markets where they have been successful. Ford Motor Company also should elect option number four, to sell the entire PAG group. To maximize Ford’s profits, it is clear that North American factories are not doing well and are the major sources of losses. Ford has lost a substantial amount of market share to its competitors. Ford does not want to produce more cars than they sell. Therefore, by reducing production in this market will provide them with slack resources to fund their European market. In addition, operation expense for their North American operations is expensive due to unionization. The United Auto Workers (UAW) â€Å"represents most of the company’s production employees and the contract terms over the years have been designed to provide significant long-term support to those employees† (What Would You Do? Ford Motor Company, n. d. , p. 1), and these generous benefits are weighing down the company operations and liquidity; therefore, Ford Motor Company should pay out the severance package to these employees and this will free up those monies to reinvest in the markets that are doing well or to repair older plants. In addition, due to the general environment changes – the economy, the company should negotiate new compensation packages with UAW to decrease their operational expenses. Additionally, Ford Motor Company should sell PAG because they are not in the luxury car business and refocus their attention to what they do best — producing cars that are affordable to masses. ? References Williams, C. (2010). Management. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Criminal Justice System Essay

The duties of the police are: enforcing the law, investigating crimes, and apprehending the offenders. They are also responsible for crime prevention and reduction, maintaining order in the public, and ensuring that their communities are kept safe. They are often called upon to assist in emergency situations as well as provide community service. Once the division of police has done its part, everything is turned over to the court system. The court system is now responsible for overseeing the trials and keeping them fair and impartial. The criminal cases are decided in the courts and are given due process. The ultimate responsibility of the court is to determine whether the accused is innocent or guilty of the accusations imposed. Once that verdict has been determined, the court must uphold the law with fairness while protecting the rights of the accused. The division of corrections is responsible for carrying out the sentences that are handed down by the courts. Inside of the correction facilities, the offenders must be provided with a safe and humane environment. This division must provide rehabilitation and reformation so that the convicted can be reintegrated back into society. While in corrections’ custody, the human and legal rights of the convicted must always be respected. The criminal justice process is as follows: Investigation and arrest, pretrial activities, trial, sentencing and corrections. During the investigation and arrest, a warrant is issued by a judicial officer and the local authorities conduct the arrest and booking into the jail. Next comes the pretrial activities, which includes the first appearance, preliminary hearing, indictment

Individual report 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Individual report 1 - Essay Example I also looked at the systems for supporting decision making, and in particular, I looked the DSS system and how it is used in the company. This information was retrieved from prior reviewed books and from the internet. The main challenge faced throughout the research period is getting time to go through the books in order to get the information. With the tight schedule at the University, it was somewhat challenging to go through all the available books that are related to this study. This would have further improved on the report. Another challenge that I faced when writing the report is; not knowing where to begin from. This is because, there is a lot of information on the topic and picking out the most crucial and relevant information was giving me some challenges. It was crucial that I do not lose focus in the specific area of attention in order to make sure that the whole report has a clear flow of ideas so that the readers do not get confused. In future I plan to reduce and even overcome these challenges by taking a number of steps. To begin with, proper planning will be crucial in the success of any future project. This is by allocating a time in a day to complete a section at a time. This will help me be able to balance all my class assignments. The second step of overcoming the challenges is to read and understand the requirements of an assignment. This will make sure that when I gather information, I do so with an aim of getting certain information. This will save on time and will reduce the risk of getting confused. This is because, instead of gathering a pool of general information about a topic, I will be able to only gather information that is relevant to the question asked under a topic. Finally, time management will be crucial; this is by starting on an assignment immediately other than assuming that there is plenty of time to do it. This will help me deal with any unexpected issue that may arise while working o n a paper. This

Investigation in how inequality of promotions affects employee Dissertation

Investigation in how inequality of promotions affects employee attitude and their effect on businesses Glass Ceiling effect - Dissertation Example Since historical times, women and minorities continue to lag behind in career advancement as their male counterparts take almost all management and chief executive jobs. Despite the fact that the population of women and men in the world do not vary much, this trend is not replicated at the workplace, where top echelons seem to be a preserve for men. The artificial barriers that are placed in the path of women and minorities so that they do not climb the corporate ladder is generally referred to as the glass ceiling effect. This paper explores the concept of the glass ceiling effect with regards to its implications on employee attitude, pay gap, rewards, job satisfaction and performance. Importantly, the effects of the glass ceiling on the overall performance and operations of business are explored. In the end, several recommendations have been outlined. Examples of these recommendations are training and education for improved skills, knowledge, competencies and potentials and awarene ss about and fighting for one’s values and rights. The paper aims to advise policymakers, government and professional agencies, theorists, researchers and individual employees on the implications of the glass ceiling effect and how it may be addressed. Table of Content 1. Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Literature review 4. Findings 5. Discussion/Analysis and implications 6. Recommendations 7. Conclusions 8. References 9. Appendix Introduction In modern day workplace, minority groups continue to suffer institutionalized as well as other forms of discrimination in their daily work life. The most common ways in which work place discrimination manifests is via human resources related activities such as task assignment, deployment, transfers, job description and evaluation and promotions among others (Baker et al., 1995). However, promotion discrimination ranks among the most widespread forms of discrimination at the work place. Consequently, vulnerable and minority groups such as women, the disabled and minority ethnic and racial groups are largely underrepresented at the top echelons of employment (Tomaskovic-Devey, 2003). This scenario prevails despite the huge strides made in the last three decades to reverses the trend in which women and people from minority races and ethnicities are discriminated in job promotion (Lehmann & Lang, 2010). This apparently widespread discrimination calls for further researches into its causes, effects and the interventions by which it could be effectively, efficiently and permanently reversed (Francine & Kahn, 1996). It is for this reason that this research has been proposed and designed; to unearth the effects of inequality in promotion, otherwise referred to as ‘the glass ceiling effect’, on employee attitudes and business as a whole entity (Ghosh & Waldman, 2010). Because of the social, economic, cultural and health implications of this discriminatory trend on businesses as well as individual employees, thi s papercovers the socioeconomic and cultural effects of the glass ceiling effect on individuals and businesses. The importance of this paper lies in the fact that it would be really effective if a business owner understood the detrimental effects of glass ceiling not only on his or her workers but also on the business performance. Hence, from the highlighted effects, a business owner and manager would be best placed to implement strategies and practices that would promote fairness and