Gun Control In America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gun Control In America - Essay Example However, it has also been viewed that most of the people living within the country prefers keeping gun as a safety measure to avoid any such critical situations, which directly relates with the life of people (World Health Organization, 2002). Thesis Statement The main objective of this essay is to provide a valid argument regarding Gun control in America. This paper intends to describe about the implementation of gun policies within America to control the rising crime resulting from possession of gun by the common people within the country. Additionally, the paper also contains supporting statement made by many critics. Discussion In-favor The topic of gun control has been in debate amongst many critics, as it has been viewed that the crime rate resulting from possession of gun has risen to a great extent. The violence resulting from possession of firearms in the United States is considerably high, as compare to other developed countries. However, the recent increase in the crime ra te has force the government to implement new laws that restricts certain categories of individuals from possessing firearm as a safety measure. ... rior to the mass shooting on August 5, 2012, a 40 years old individual who worked with the U.S army was found entering a Sikh temple and committed a mass shooting resulting in death of 6 people and 3 critically wounded. Furthermore, it has been mentioned that one of the individual whom the offender allegedly shot several times was a police officer. Later, it was found that Wade Page the offender legally bought the guns from a registered ammunition shop located in West Allis, Wisconsin through cash payment (Krouse, 2012). Against Although, it has been observed that there exist many situations, where the use of gun has been illegally used causing harm to the general public. But in a country were crime rates are increasing at a rapid speed, it has been ascertained that people prefer keeping gun as a safety measure as it helps them to be secured in situations such as robbery, theft and rape among others. For instance, according to a survey conducted in 1993 amid 4977 families showed that 0.5% of the total number of people used gun for defensing themselves. They also stated that using gun was needed; otherwise they would have been killed by the offender. Additionally, on the basis of another survey being conducted in the year 1994, it was revealed that the people generally use gun to frighten away invaders who breaks into their houses almost 498,000 times per year. Furthermore, it has been estimated that in the year 2009, the country had a total population of 307 million people out of which almost 300 million of the civilians owned firearms within the country (Peaceful Americans against War, Violence and Gun Proliferation PAC, 2010). The aforementioned facts and figures contradict the control of arms and ammunition by the common people within U.S.A. Three to Four Pieces of

Systems development life cycle.

Systems development life cycle. SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE. Business Dilemma There is no potential issue as unique employee identification is important to any business that wants to provide security to its organization and its employees, thus is also convenient. The issue here is that tracking employee hours worked based on their last name is not suitable as employees might have similar last names. Therefore might be convenient for it to be based on their employee identification as the identification card will have a unique pin number for each employee. The issue here is that the employees should be given options regarding discretion for working hours since some of the employees might not have the necessary to work 8 hours due to some reason that should be made known at the beginning of employment. The main potential issue here is that there shouldnt be a standard rate and that double time and time and a half rates should be taken into consideration. Managers should be scheduled to work morning and evening shifts. In other words they should be their throughout the day to oversee the running smoothly of the business. Also, when unseen circumstances arise managers are there to offer support, help and make the necessary decisions. The issue here is that employees might have to attend to unforeseen circumstances so therefore the 8 hours of working time might be a lot for some of the employees because emergencies can occur at any given moment. Server s should be allowed to work all three shifts as it will provide them with options. There is no issue here as managers are in charge of who to hire and therefore should also be allowed to delete and change employees from the system. MAKING BUSINESS DECISION 1 1. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING AN EMPLOYEE TO BUILD A CUSTOM SYSTEM. ADVANTAGES An employee building the custom system will be cheaper than it being purchased. It will be easier for employees to use and understand as it is build by one of their own colleagues. There will be less time for training. (Explain) DISADVANTAGES It will take valuable business time for the employee to build the custom system. The business might have to hire a professional to look at the new system hence will be costly for the business. The new system might be prone to error which will contribute to the expense of the business as they will have to refer to professional help. ADVANTAGES COTS allow for just purchasing of the components and putting it together which will be cheap for the business instead of developing a new system. It will include a description of the software functions; hence will be documented to good commercial standards as it will give the names of the resources needed to run the software. Decreases the development time for new products. The components will be readily available, comprehensive functionality and therefore potentially frequent upgrades. DISADVANTAGES The initial cost of purchasing the COTS components might be costly for the business. The components would be limited to only certain functionalities. It might cause potential unreliability. There might also be difficulty in the integration procedures. The older employees will have competency issues because they will have to learn to adjust to the new system as education will become a primary focus. There will be resistance to change by the older employees as a new system might cause insecurity of jobs. Therefore, to ensure a smooth transition training must be offered to the older employees and also ensuring that jobs are not at risk. MAKING BUSINESS DECISION 2 From reviewing the employees testimony, it is most obvious that the payroll system is functioned manually beginning from their payroll manager John Tahoe who collect the timesheets, calculates regular , overtime and holiday hours and then sends it for approval by the manager. Finally he adds the staff members commissions. From John the payments are sent to Mary Jane the tax manager for the coffee shop. Her task is to calculate city, state and federal taxes; she has to correct the incorrect check amounts issued, employees who have gone pass their sick and vacation time must be tracked by her and lastly she has to generate checks for the salaried employees. Ted Whitetaker is the store manager for the coffee shop. He is the person who signs off on all the time sheets, he checks the staff members schedule so as to validate the times on the employees timesheets, tracks vacation and sick time, thus when employees go pass the sick and vacation time when quitting he will sign a form detailin g that they have to pay back all negative vacation or sick time. Adding on, the payroll department must be finding it very time consuming and error prone when most if not all of their tasks are done manually. Firstly, the payroll manager John Tahoe is in need of a system that automatically tracks sick and vacation time and also a system that calculates regular, overtime and holiday hours that will validate the time sheet. If a new system is to be implemented than it would have to be very capable in that it is easy to use and understand. I think it would be wise to put in place a system that calculates working hours on a timesheet that is done by employees and in that they can clock in and clock it when work is done. Hence, at the end of the day John just has to check with the system. The issue here is that the employees are honest in when they clock in and clock out. Mary Jane the tax manager needs a system that automatically determines taxes and does quarterly tax filing statements, performs audits and allows for employees to perform direct deposits. The main issue here is that even if a system can automatically calculate the taxes at the end of the day it is dependent on the input of the payroll department so as to determine the right tax amount. Thus, the payroll department will have to be very thorough in their input in that it is accurate. A question that should be asked is if there is a system that performs quarterly tax auditing automatically. Additionally the input will still have to be done manually so consistency and accuracy is vital. In the case of the direct deposits, the business can just directly deposit the employees salary straight to their bank accounts but some of the employees might prefer receiving their salary from their managers on their pay day which can become an issue for the coffee shop. Lastly, Ted Whitetaker the store manager requires a system that calculates commissions, handles sales forecast and what if analysis on staff commissions rates and also a system that could design promotions for their best customers, repeat customer and customers who have never used their coffee club cards before. The main issue here is a system handling sales forecast in the sense that it is accurate and gives attainable methods of forecasting. A question that should be asked in this scenario is if there is such a system that could design promotions for customers so as to increase sales. Ted I assume will have to do this without using a system; he may have to do some research to find ways in which he can do promotions that will attract customers such as advertising. In conclusion, the three employees list of requirements for systems they want seem reasonable in that there are systems that can help them with the work but some of their need will just have to be done manually. Furthermore even with systems that could make their jobs easier, the system itself will be dependent on the input of the employees and while introducing a new system an issue that should be considered is the cost the business will have to pay in relation to time and money. Employees in the payroll department need to be accurate and precise with the data that is input into the system so as to get the best reliable and relevant information that is needed and must get the best training possible so as to use the new payroll system if implemented. APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE To involve all relevant stakeholders i.e. 1 from the Management, 1 representative from the IT department and a representative from the user. It is vital to get the system implemented with input from all perspective, mostly the users. This, system specification, is the most important aspect of system implementation. Risk Management can just implement the system without getting feedback and approval from users and other representatives in the company. It is important to interact with users in all stages of implementation, design, testing and ‘go-live. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURES BUSINESS DILEMMA The difficulty in determining the rate of return of components in the enterprise architecture is that components are sometimes not used in the business until circumstances arise when they have to be used. Especially in a small coffee shop where components are used when serving customers are said to fetch a high rate of return on investment but during an emergency then items such as a fire extinguisher can be useful and thus will have a high rate of return as it prevented destruction to the business. For example, coffee cups when purchased are used to serve customers can be said to have a return on investment for the business, thus when not in use can cause a low rate of return on investment for the business. Therefore it is difficult to determine rate of return on investments as it will depend on the structure of the business and when components are in use. Also, damaged components will bring a low rate of investment or no rate of investment at all and components that are always in use will bring a high rate of return on investment. To determine the cost vs. benefit of the proposed dishwasher, keyboard and mouse, the business will have to look at costs such as how much these three components are, will it need regular maintenance (dishwasher), whether the components are a necessity to the business or not. The benefits can be determined by how much the business will make out of this components, how long it will last the business, the rate of return on the investment of this three components, the ease of use, training is easy to dictate to employees on how to use the tree components and finally if it makes work easier and faster. MAKING BUSINESS DECISIONS 1 BENEFITS OF DEPLOYING A NEW, UNPROVEN TECHNOLOGY This will increase revenue for the coffee shop. Broadway Cafà © can have a general rule of space occupation that the customer has to buy a product. Most customers are technology savvy and they need access to internet from time to time throughout the day. It can increase productivity in that customers will be attracted to the coffee shop especially since it will offer customers the chance to access the internet from their shop via a power line. There will be advancement in communicating such as in emails, thus messages can be received instantly. CONS OF DEPLOYING A NEW AND UNPROVEN TECHNOLOGY Introducing a new system maybe costly for the business to implement, and especially in this case an unproven technology. The management team will have to perform a cost and benefit analysis and whether introducing a new technology will be an advantage or not. Regular maintenance may have to be performed which can be costly to the business. Setting up of a new technology might be time consuming for the business and thus might result in unexpected costs. Based on my findings I wouldnt implement BPL. The reason being is that it is dependent on power lines that can cause interference for other users. Also, a small coffee shop doesnt really need an internet access since it will be very costly to the business. Furthermore, BPL might not have a competitive advantage as there are other technologies that can perform better and faster than BPL. MAKING BUSINESS DECISION 2 Some of the strategies that can be used to backup a computer in case of data loss are: To make regular data security backups of data used in the business and to have it kept away safe in a remote place. Make a backup of the hard disk if a new software is being installed hence it will ensure business to get back on track in case the hard disk fails or is corrupted. All transaction and records should be well documented and kept in a safe remote place. The first third party utility that could be used is called Norton Ghost 15 Symantec New PC Backup win 7/Vista/XP. Features Protects the PCs application, settings, folders and files. It has advanced backup and recovery. Provides powerful protection such as offsite backups and Symantec. Offers incremental backups and enhanced compression that help reduce the amount of required storage, thus helps keep everything safe. It works well with most storage devices including external hard drives, networked drives and recordable and rewriteable CDs and DVDs. The price of this is in US dollars cost $29.95 converted to Fiji dollars is $53.95 excluding transportation costs to ship it from the US to Fiji. (http://www.metasearch.com/www2search.cgi?p=third+party+utilities+that+perform+backup%2Crestore+and+ghostingl=20s=o) Another third party utility is Norton Ghost 15 Backup win 7/ XP/Vista. Features It creates full system and file backups. Recovers system and data even when computer cannot be restarted. Enables convenient, secure offsite backups. Lets you decide what is backed up and when to customize backups based on how you use the computer. The cost of purchasing Norton Ghost 15 Backup is USD 25.98 (FJD $46.19). The exchange rate used for this conversion is 0.555. The cost of purchasing this software in US dollars is $25.98 and so when converted to Fiji dollars will accumulate to $46.19. (http://www.metasearch.com/www2search.cgi?p=third+party+utilities+that+perform+backup%2Crestore+and+ghostingl=20s=o) The final third party utility that can be used is the New Norton Ghost 15 Symantec, Backup Restore, and X/Vista/7. Features It has multiple storage options that offer backup to almost any media. Backups your file to network attached storage devices. It has a full system backup thats back up everything on a hard drive. Incremental and differential backups. Backups only files that have changed. In US dollars the utility would cost $25.95 and so in Fiji dollars would be $46.13. These charges are without the transportation and other costs included in getting it to Fiji. (http://www.metasearch.com/www2search.cgi?p=third+party+utilities+that+perform+backup%2Crestore+and+ghostingl=20s=o)

Alzheimers Disease Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Essays

Alzheimer’s Disease   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease that attacks the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is the lost of thinking, remembering and reasoning so bad it screws up ability to do daily functions and eventually resolves in death. Dr. Alois Alzheimer’s first discovered the disease in 1906. Since then research has developed a deeper understanding of the changes in the brain. Warning sign’s of Alzheimer's are memory loss that affects home and job skills, problem in speaking, poor judgment, and difficulty in learning. The last stage of Alzheimer's disease is when you’re unable to take care of yourself. The disease can last from 3 to 20 years from the time of onset of symptoms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alzheimer’s disease affects as many as 4 million Americans. It can affect almost any age but still is more common in the ederly. As age ing population continues to increase, so does the disease. Today, 3% of the people ages 65 to 75 have alzheimer’s, 10% of those aged 75 to 85 have alzheimer’s and half the age 85 may have it to. Without a new cure it is estimated that alzheimers will affect over 14 million people by 2050. The elderly are the most infected with the disease and its still spreading. Other disease in common with Alzheimer’s is multi-infract dementia, Huntington’s disease, Pick’s disease, and Parkinson disease. People wonder if Alzheimer is genetic â€Å"meaning runs in families† the answer is the evidence isn't clear. Doctors and Physicians say if you have a by blood family member with Alzheimer's there's a slightly greater chance of getting or having the Alzheimer's disease. Many wonder if memory loss is a natural part of aging. The answer is yes and no, everyone has forgotten where he or she parked their car or the name of an acquaintance a one time or another . And many healthy individuals are less able to remember certain kinds of information as they get older. The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are much more severe than simple memory lapses. This chart will kinda help you understand the difference. Activity   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A person with Alzheimer’s Disease  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Age- associated memory loss Forgets  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Whole experiences  Ã‚  Ã‚  &... ... for home repairs or products they don’t need. 6.Problems with abstract thinking, balancing a checkbook may be hard when the task is more complicated than usual. Someone with Alzheimer’s disease could forget completely what the numbers are and what needs to be done with them. 7.Misplacing things, anyone can temporarily misplace a wallet or key. A person with Alzheimer’s disease may put things in unusual places: an iron in the freezer, a wristwatch in the sugar bowl, or a sandwich under the sofa. 8.Changes in mood or behavior, everyone can become sad or moody from time to time. Someone with Alzheimer’s disease can show rapid mood swings-from calm to tears to anger-for no apparent reason. 9.Changes in personality, people’s personalities ordinarily change somewhat with age. But a person with Alzheimer’s disease can change a lot, becoming extremely confused, suspicious, fearful, or dependent on a family member. 10.Loss of initiative, itâ€⠄¢s normal to tire of housework, business activities, or social obligations at times. The person with Alzheimer’s disease may be very passive, sitting in front of the television for hours, sleeping more than usual, or not wanting to do usual activities. Alzheimer's Disease Essay -- Alzheimer's Disease Essays Alzheimer’s Disease   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease that attacks the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is the lost of thinking, remembering and reasoning so bad it screws up ability to do daily functions and eventually resolves in death. Dr. Alois Alzheimer’s first discovered the disease in 1906. Since then research has developed a deeper understanding of the changes in the brain. Warning sign’s of Alzheimer's are memory loss that affects home and job skills, problem in speaking, poor judgment, and difficulty in learning. The last stage of Alzheimer's disease is when you’re unable to take care of yourself. The disease can last from 3 to 20 years from the time of onset of symptoms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alzheimer’s disease affects as many as 4 million Americans. It can affect almost any age but still is more common in the ederly. As age ing population continues to increase, so does the disease. Today, 3% of the people ages 65 to 75 have alzheimer’s, 10% of those aged 75 to 85 have alzheimer’s and half the age 85 may have it to. Without a new cure it is estimated that alzheimers will affect over 14 million people by 2050. The elderly are the most infected with the disease and its still spreading. Other disease in common with Alzheimer’s is multi-infract dementia, Huntington’s disease, Pick’s disease, and Parkinson disease. People wonder if Alzheimer is genetic â€Å"meaning runs in families† the answer is the evidence isn't clear. Doctors and Physicians say if you have a by blood family member with Alzheimer's there's a slightly greater chance of getting or having the Alzheimer's disease. Many wonder if memory loss is a natural part of aging. The answer is yes and no, everyone has forgotten where he or she parked their car or the name of an acquaintance a one time or another . And many healthy individuals are less able to remember certain kinds of information as they get older. The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are much more severe than simple memory lapses. This chart will kinda help you understand the difference. Activity   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A person with Alzheimer’s Disease  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Age- associated memory loss Forgets  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Whole experiences  Ã‚  Ã‚  &... ... for home repairs or products they don’t need. 6.Problems with abstract thinking, balancing a checkbook may be hard when the task is more complicated than usual. Someone with Alzheimer’s disease could forget completely what the numbers are and what needs to be done with them. 7.Misplacing things, anyone can temporarily misplace a wallet or key. A person with Alzheimer’s disease may put things in unusual places: an iron in the freezer, a wristwatch in the sugar bowl, or a sandwich under the sofa. 8.Changes in mood or behavior, everyone can become sad or moody from time to time. Someone with Alzheimer’s disease can show rapid mood swings-from calm to tears to anger-for no apparent reason. 9.Changes in personality, people’s personalities ordinarily change somewhat with age. But a person with Alzheimer’s disease can change a lot, becoming extremely confused, suspicious, fearful, or dependent on a family member. 10.Loss of initiative, itâ€⠄¢s normal to tire of housework, business activities, or social obligations at times. The person with Alzheimer’s disease may be very passive, sitting in front of the television for hours, sleeping more than usual, or not wanting to do usual activities.

Organizational Culture: Present Trends Essay

Organizational culture has been defined as â€Å"the set of shared values and norms that control organizational members’ interactions with each other and with suppliers, customers, and other people outside the organization† (Jones, 2004). Just as an organization’s structure can be used to achieve competitive advantage and promote stakeholder interests, an organization’s culture can be used to increase organizational effectiveness. This is because organizational culture controls the way members make decisions, the way they interpret and manage the organization’s environment, what they do with information, and how they behave. Culture thus affects an organization’s competitive position. As culture is discussed in terms of the values and norms that influence its members’ behavior, it usually determines how members of a firm interpret the environment, bond its members to the organization, and give it a competitive advantage. Recent advances that develop organizational theories that deals with culture in organizations have been instituted. These are developing high performance teams, managing organizational identity and managing diversity. Organizational culture exercises a potent form of control over the interactions of organizational members with each other and with outsiders. By supplying people with a toolbox of values, norms, and rules that tell them how to behave, organizational culture is instrumental in determining how they interpret and react to a situation. In developing concepts that enhance organization’s culture would literally translate success and competitive advantage in organizations. High Performance Teams  When working with a group or a company, one should be a team player in order for your tasks to be accomplished successfully. To quote, â€Å"Someone may be great at his or her job, maybe even the best there ever was. But what counts at work is the organization’s success, not personal success. After all, if your organization fails, it does not matter how great you were; you are just as unemployed as everyone else† (Johnson, Kantner & Kikora, 1990). In the work environment, teams materialize to focus on tasks or solve problems that are beyond the capacity of one individual. With this type of set-up that allow creative and innovative juices to flow through the constant sharing of information, people could appropriate division of labor among the members of the team can lead to more effective, more efficient and less stressful workplace. Their high levels of performance with regards to quantity, quality, and timeliness of work results can contribute to their sense of satisfaction, addressing a psychological and motivational need. With incessant exposure to each other, team members and their superiors could ascertain whether they have a team that can continue working together with synergy or their togetherness poses a detrimental effect on their output and interrelationships. In traditional organizational structures, teams were introduced and experimented on to see what works and what does not. While employees have already formed their own social groups for their personal interaction with other employees, management devised ways to re-group them and build teams that would be more productive for the organization. The old hierarchies were replaced with cross-functional structures that were both flat and self-directed. The emergence of the concept of High Performance Teams evolved. To date, organizations and businesses have shifted to this kind of paradigm. They are depicted as flexible but difficult to put together, expensive but worth every cent. To build a high performance team requires a lot of work, time, effort and money. The team leader can serve to be the conduit between the team and the management or other external organizations. Coordination of the team’s activities is also the responsibility of the team leader. Any team leader should be able to ensure that the team maintains the ethical standards of the organization. What’s important is for team members to be consistently coached by management or external agencies hired by management to continually trust, respect and support each other and the organization. Coaching coupled with their guidelines will keep in check their members’ behavior and enhance their decision making skills. Empowerment is a key for the advancement of these skills. To be empowered, the team needs to have information and resources. It also needs the management’s trust that they won’t abuse the information or the resources they are given, which is often curtailed by the guidelines they have set for themselves. This empowerment leads them to become cross-functional. They are then given a wider perspective of the processes and a detailed coverage of the activities that occur and address what needs improvement in the organization. In developing work environments, more corporations are now staunch in their support for diversity. Dealing with diversity in a way that makes it a strength has come to be known as â€Å"managing† diversity. According to Sharon Nelton: Managing diversity meant, and still means, fostering an environment in which workers of all kinds—men, women, white, disabled, homosexual, straight, elderly—can flourish and, given opportunities to reach their full potential and contribute at the highest level, can give top performance to a company (p. 19). When we refer to â€Å"diversity†, this could mean cultural, demographic, organizational or psychological and encompasses ethnicity, religion, gender, age, personality, values, attitudes, occupations, status, or job tenure. By working together in well-supervised teams that include women and men, young and old, minorities and non-minorities, employees can learn how to realize the full potential of diversity. According to Goetsch & Davis (2004), diversity in teamwork can be promoted by applying the following strategies: †¢ Continually assessing circumstances. Is communication among diverse team members positive? Do bias and stereotyping exist among team members? Do minorities and non-minorities with comparable jobs and qualifications earn comparable wages? Factors that might undermine harmonious teamwork should be anticipated, identified, and handled. Giving team members opportunities to learn. Humans naturally tend to distrust people who are different, whether the differences are attributed to gender, culture, age, race, or any other factor. Just working with people who are different can help overcome this unfortunate but natural human tendency. However, it usually takes more than just working together to break down barriers and turn a diverse group of employees into a mutually supportive, complementary team in which the effectiveness of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. With regards to compensation, there should be an implementation of an appropriate compensation system. In other words, if you want teamwork to work, make it pay. This does not mean that employees are no longer compensated as individuals. Rather, the most successful compensation systems combine both individual and team pay. In Anne Schauber’s study (2001), it found that if a team’s performance is duly rewarded by the organization, a culturally diverse organization â€Å"may be more economical in the long run† and â€Å"will result in better service to a changing clientele†. It enhances the creativity and problem-solving capabilities of the organization† in such a way that the â€Å"previously untapped talent and energy will be focused on achieving organizational goals† (Schauber, 2001). Thus, diversity has become a positive contributing factor to the achievement of the goals of a high performance team. Moreover, De Vries and Manfred (2005) recently used the idea of Zen Buddhism in leadership group coaching to develop high performance teams. De Vries and Manfred (2005) said that Zen Buddhism has as its fundamental purpose the awakening of the mind and the individual attainment of spiritual enlightenment. A Zen teacher is concerned with self-help and helping others with wisdom and compassion. Given this mindset, Zen teachers can be seen as forerunners of leadership coaches. Like Zen teachers, such management coaches provide learning opportunities by giving constructive and balanced feedback. They serve as sparring partners. They help their clients reflect on their own actions. As a way of clarifying and enhancing consciousness, coaching has become the Zen for executives. With executives finally realizing the value of coaching, the coaching market—now a multi-billion-dollar enterprise—is ballooning. Originally carried out by â€Å"one-person bands,† leadership coaching has become a major activity for many large consulting firms. As corporations are constantly seeking methods to improve their own workplace effectiveness and efficiency, individual and group performance had to be measured. Work teams transform to become empowered to make decisions and improve performance; there is also an increased need for accountability. Virtually, all organizations with work teams need a means for measuring their teams’ performance. Indeed, high performance teams coupled with diversity could spell the success of any organization or corporation in our fast changing global environment. Managing Organizational Identity Organizational identity differs, most sharply, from organizational culture because of the prominent role of transference phenomena. The nature of emotional attachments and connectedness, or disconnectedness, is the footing of organizational life and the essence of organizational identity. The centrality of this emotional substructure is especially crucial when there is demand for organizational change and development. Change depends on members’ willingness to assume responsibility for their actions and to depart from the status quo. But this willingness is the result of mutual understanding of shared emotions between superordinates and subordinates, and often among peers in organizations, and is the outcome of their recognition of unconscious expectations and desires. Helping members to become aware of the structure of organizational identity and their place in it is a precondition for freeing them up for organizational change that is strategically sound and productive (Diamond, 1993, p. 7). Ravasi and Schultz (2006) had presented a recent longitudinal study of organizational responses to environmental changes that induce members to question aspects of their organization’s identity. Their findings highlight the role of organizational culture as a source of cues supporting â€Å"sensemaking† action carried out by leaders as they reevaluate their conceptualization of their organization, and as a platform for â€Å"sensegiving† actions aimed at affecting internal perceptions. Ravasi and Schultz (2006) explored organizational responses to environmental changes and shifting external representations that induced members to reflect on their organization’s recent and prospective courses of action and ask themselves, â€Å"What is this organization really about? † Although past research has documented the impact of desired images on organizational responses to environmental changes, they deemed that the influence of organizational culture—and in particular, the influence of its manifestations—on the redefinition of members’ collective self-perceptions. They found organizational culture became the central construct in understanding the evolution of organizational identities in the face of environmental changes, suggesting that collective history, organizational symbols, and consolidated practices provide cues that help members make new sense of what their organization is really about and give that new sense to others. Furthermore, the role of culture in preserving a sense of distinctiveness and continuity as organizational identity is subjected to explicit reevaluation. The findings suggest that the roles external images and organizational culture play in affecting organizational responses to identity threats may be more complementary than the current literature on organizational identity would suggest (Ravasi & Schultz, 2006). Building on evidence from their research, they developed a theoretical framework for understanding how the interplay of construed images and organizational culture shapes changes in institutional claims and shared understandings about the identity of an organization.

Bahram Ahmadi

A programme of work for the implementation of a strategy is a large set of coherent guidelines that include several activities in the program so as to achieve certain objectives. It involves several processes including organising, coordination, developing, designing, training, building, developing, growing, closing, etc. In any program strategy for a project, the objectives of the organisation play a very important role.The project program strategy gives importance to the manager that would be responsible for carrying out the operations of the project, the timing and the nature of the activities, and the dealing with specific tastes of the customers. Project program strategy is highly specific to a project. However, there may be more than one strategy to be employed to meet the objectives of the project. During the planning stages, the managers would sit down to develop a strategy.These strategies are developed so as to be appropriate with the characteristics of the organisation, hum an resources, geographical location, social features, politics, etc (Walter, 1999). For each project in an organisation, the program of work (workflow as such) is managed independently. The project manager would be looking at several limitations in the resources, including time, money and the scope.A project may fail due to several reasons (including deficiency of resources, lack of goals, conflict issues, problems with the customers, etc), and the manager would have to anticipate these problems right during the initiation of the project and ensure that a problem-solving process is enabled. Each project manager would be determining the ongoing processes in the project through monitoring and evaluation of the performances.The project manager would have to adopt different strategies so that the organisation could achieve certain objectives and hence reach a desired goal (Brentani, 2003, Walter, 1999, University of Texas, 2007 & Rad, 2006). The process of developing a strategy for the project is very simple. The managers would have to sit down and decide the various objectives that need to be achieved by the project. The means of achieving such objectives need to be discussed. The manager should involve other parties including the administration, the portfolio manager and the stakeholders.It may be very difficult to come to a consensus if too many people are involved in the process. This is because several people may have different values, outlines and approaches. The process of setting up the objectives, determining the goals and the ways of achieving them is very tedious and could take a long time. The manager should associate the strategy needed to achieve the objectives. During the final stages, the manager would have to also ensure that the strategy/ies adopted help to meet the objectives (Walter, 1999)On the other hand, portfolio of the project management is an approach in which various projects in an organisation are treated as smaller portions of a much l arger venture (with respect to investment and resource allocations). The project portfolio management would be functional right from the initiation of the project to the very completion. Certain instruments are utilised in the portfolio project management to help the managers (including planning, allocation of resources, evaluation, monitoring, analysing, standardization, etc).This can be considered as a centralised instrument required to effectively handle several projects in an organisation and to study the performance of several projects that may run in an organisation. It can be utilised to compare and contrast various projects. One very important feature of project portfolio management is to determine the costs, expenditure, benefits, investments and other features of the project. In recent years portfolio management has turned out to be a very important aspect of planning, especially in IT firms.IT companies would be managing several projects and programs running in various pa rts of the world through an effective portfolio management system. Studies conducted in the past have demonstrated a little less than half of the IT companies are unable to meet their targets due to inefficient portfolio management (Oracle, 2007, Stanford University, 2007 & UMT Consulting Services, 2007). The portfolio manager mix of projects should be such that the resources of the organisation are utilised effectively.They should be selected in such a way that the risks are significantly reduced. The portfolio manager is in a good position to priortize the projects and accordingly allocates the resources. He should be able to select the project based on their ability to fulfil certain criteria (Crow, 2004 & Oracle, 2007). A portfolio management system would be much broader and would include several other processes such as defining the opportunities, bringing those projects into the focus that would be able to achieve some objectives, monitoring of the projects, etc.Portfolio manag ement should be considered to be an art rather than a science. Frequently, portfolio managers would have to work with the fund managers of the organisation, so that there is effective use of the money. Portfolio management is frequently utilised in several developed, and slowly developing nations are moving towards effective portfolio management (Crow, 2004, Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). A portfolio management system is often utilised by an organisation to bring about success in the project (as many projects could be effectively be handled simultaneously).A portfolio may be funds or resources and can be utilised by the organisation to increase returns over a very short period of time. An organisation would observe that the resources available at any point of time would be less than the amount of resources required by a particular project. Hence, one of the main objectives of the portfolio managers would be to effectively manage the resources of several ongoing projects. The managemen t of the organisation needs to sit and figure out what the commitment of the organisation would actually be.As management of an organisation is a dynamic process, this exercise has to be done from time to time. Besides, actually managing several resources including human resources, logistics, IT, support systems, etc, time also needs to be handled. The management should be very much interested in ensuring that the portfolio management processes are enabled properly. The organisation should ensure that the interests of each and every protject are enabled. If a project is not performing properly, the ideal plan would be to discontinue it, if the organisation does not have the resources to handle it.A proper flow of information of the project should exist so that the process of monitoring is effective. It is very important that the projects be managed in a formal and official manner. The data that would be flowing would be much more accurate and effective in ensuring the objectives of the organisation are met. There should be a clear flow of data between the programs, projects and the portfolios (Brentani, 2003, Walter, 1999, & Rad, 2006). In the portfolio management, all the projects that are ongoing in the organisation are chosen and a standardised fashion of evaluating them is utilised.Portfolio management is very much required for the production, development and the utilisation of ideas and intellectual property in various projects in an organisation. The portfolio manager would be performing various tasks such as reallocating and promoting the staff members (as per their characteristics) in various projects. Thus it can be seen that if an organisation has a very good portfolio manager, he would be using the human resources very efficiently (UMT Consulting Group, 2007). The entire framework of portfolio management involves three steps, namely creating, selecting and managing.The goals and the strategies to be adopted in the portfolio management are made keepi ng in mind the characteristics of the organisation. Accordingly, new opportunities that are present should be identified and resources allocated. The objectives have to be prioritised and the tasks and activities that are to be done are selected. Finally, it is also important that the project be managed in the most efficient and organised manner (UMT Consulting Group, 2007). Many organisations do not have any portfolio management process running.Only the companies that feel that research frequently perform it and development is vital for the well being of the company. Only about 10 % of all organisations in the industry do have a strong portfolio management system in place. If a portfolio management system were not in place, then all the projects in the organisation would be given equal amount of importance or authorisation. This would result in all the projects that are going on in the organisation are given equal amount of resources (Rad, 2006).In an organisation, the project or t he program manager would ensure that the project could achieve its objectives. On the other hand, the portfolio manager would ensure that the operational activities and the maintenance programs in the organisation are smooth and functional. The team leader and the middle scale managers usually do the project management. On the other hand, the higher staff members including the administration do the portfolio management.The higher management of the organisation would be concentrating on the portfolio, rather than the functioning of each individual project (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). In a project or a program management, the team leaders and the manager would ensure that the staff members meet the specific goals of the project. The organisations main aim would be to deliver quality products or services. The portfolio manager would instead be ensuring that the goals of each and every project are in tune with that of the organisation.In the project management, a lot of importance is g iven to completing the tasks on time and ensuring that costs are limited. On the other hand, the portfolio management would be concentrating to a very less extent on fulfilling completion tasks on time and using the minimal amount of resources. The members of the portfolio management team would include the leader, the stakeholder, advocates, project managers and the office managers (Brentani, 2003, Stanford University, 2007 & Rad, 2006). The project or the program management should work in coordination with the portfolio management.Several processes in the project such as selection of the resources, prioritisation of the targets of the project, and the resource allocation should be performed in the most appropriate manner. The decision-making of the project needs to be very active and dynamic in nature. Informed decision-making and resource allocation is very important for the project to function properly. The project or program manager has to ensure that certain structures or a fra mework in the organisation is in place before the functional activities can be carried out.The project environment should be such that the objectives kept in mind can be achieved. The program manager and the portfolio manager should ensure that an environment is created that would be conducive to achieving the objectives of the organisation. The project members should function as a team so that the objectives are met. The team working on the project should have the skill, experience, knowledge and the competence to carry out the tasks of the project.One of the main reasons why projects do not succeed is because they may take long time to produce the results or may consume a lot of the resources. To ensure the project is effective (to ensure completion of the tasks) and efficient (completion of the tasks with appropriate use of the resources) in its objectives, it is very much needed that both the project management and the portfolio management work in close coordination with each ot her (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). The management activities of the portfolio management would be repetitive in nature.On the other hand, the management activities of the project management would be cyclic in nature. If the portfolio manager can take care of the functioning of all the projects, then the organisation can be considered to be very competitive. If a project does well, it would have an impact on the functioning of the organisation, but also on other projects (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). Portfolio management would definitely help the organisation to grow, expand and develop. The wealth of the organisation would increase with an effective portfolio management strategy.The portfolio manager would be bringing in various assets (including infrastructure, support systems, financial resources, human resources, logistics, etc) and securities into the organisation. He would be considering investing in various ways including growth stock investing and value stock investing. From t ime to time, the objectives of the organisation would vary and hence, it is the duty of the portfolio managers to vary the investment pattern in the organisation. A greater amount of flexibility would be required.The management style of the portfolio managers should also vary depending on the needs (Brentani, 2003). A portfolio manager and the program/project manager would be concentrating on different characteristics of the project. The portfolio manager would be using the PPM (project portfolio management) tools, whereas the project manager would be using the single-project management tools. The PPM tools would ensure that the functioning becomes more and more efficient, the costs are effectively distributed and the profits of the organisation are increased.It also ensures that the organisation is following a particular framework whilst managing the projects (Brentani, 2003 & UMT, 2007). Each project has to be carefully planned and implemented in the organisation. The entire proje ct management should be done in phases. The project management tools would ensure that the staff members make effective use of the resources in the organisation and ensure completion of the targets that are required within the project. The project manager would have to motivate the staff so that the work is improved in quality and the project is able to achieve its targets.Only if the management practises of the project are appropriate, could it be able to achieve its objectives (Free Management Library, 2007, Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). The program strategy would be concerning a greater amount of internal issues with relation to the project, whereas the project portfolio management would be concerning the external issues. It is necessary that the portfolio mangers align their objectives as per the strategic objectives of each program.The portfolio processes should be customised to suit other management processes that would be functional in the organisation, simultaneously. Both pr ogram strategy management and portfolio management involve interacting with the clients, and hence demonstrate the importance of clients with respect to management and its processes (Stanford University, 2007). References: Brentani, C. 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