Baskin Robbins Executive Summary

BR is a global chain of ice cream parlors founded in Glendale, California by Burton Baskin and Irvine Robbins, ice cream enthusiast brothers-in-law, whose passion inspired what is now the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty shops. What was once a selection of 31 flavors—Baskin-Robbins â€Å"31 ®Ã¢â‚¬  stands for a different ice cream flavor for each day of the month—has grown to more than 1,000 in its flavor library. â€Å"We sell fun, not ice cream. Today, Baskin-Robbins is the world’s largest chain of ice cream specialty stores, serving over 150 million customers worldwide, but the brand is still guided by the same credos and innovative thinking as its founders. Baskin-Robbins has historically led the industry with innovations such as hand-packed quarts of ice cream, a unique flavor ribbon technique and the use of traditional ingredients such as apple pie and cheesecake. And, Baskin-Robbins continues to introduce new creations that surprise and delight customers – in 2008 the brand launched Soft Serve, making it the largest national chain to offer both Soft Serve and hand scooped ice cream. Additional products include layered sundaes, signature ice cream cakes and a growing line of beverages, including Fruit Blasts, Fruit Blast Smoothies, Cappuccino Blast ® and shakes. Dunkin' Donuts, BR and Togo's, formerly branded together as Allied Domecq Quick Service Restaurants (ADQSR), now are known as Dunkin' Brands, Inc. The new name comes with a tagline: â€Å"eat. drink. hink. † that headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts. In December, Dunkin' Brands was acquired by a U. S. investment group of Bain Capital, Thomas Lee Partners and the Carlyle Group. They have leveraged the brand equity and success of Dunkin' Donuts to create a name that clearly identifies their business and provides immediate recognition in the global marketplace. The re-branding has created renewed motivation from the teams of talented people involved with each brand and the organization, providing the resources to drive strategic market expansion both nationally and internationally.

Financial Analysis of I.T Ltd.

Company background I. T Limited (0999. HK) is an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was listed on the main board of The Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 4-March-2005. The company offers a wide range of apparel products. It sells its products as well as offers a variety of national and international brands through its network of retail stores. As of February 28, 2011, it operated 392 stores in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Objective To undertake a comprehensive analysis on the financial performance of I. T. Limited. Detailed financial ratio analysis will be performed.An estimation of the firm’s cost of equity capital and weighted average cost of capital will also be provided. Horizon of analysis We will focus on its performance in the latest 5 fiscal years. A) Detail financial analysis The financial analysis will be conducted in two ways. First, the major accounts on financial statements will be inspected in order to derive a general picture on the healthiness of the business. Second, PERL (Performance, Efficiency, Risk, Liquidity) framework will be used to further analyze the financial performance of the company. I.Going through the financial statements We can get a glimpse of the healthiness of the business by looking into the trend of accounting items in income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement respectively. Consolidated income statement (Referring to appendix A – table 1 and 2) 2008/09 was a special year, financial tsunami happened. Therefore there was a huge profitability impact in that year, resulting in a large decrease in operating profit. And since the market recovered in 2009/2010, the profitability suddenly increased a lot in that fiscal year. Other than these wo special years, the overall growth trend in sales turnover, costs, and profit is healthy. (Referring to appendix A – table 3) Standardizing the income statement can extract extra information. All the accounts are expressed as a percentage of turnov er. The company has done a good job in cost controlling, since the cost of sales as a percentage of turnover is in a decreasing trend, hence the gross profit margin is in an increasing trend. On the other hand operating expenses fluctuates at about 50-51% of turnover, but since cost of sales has a greater decrease, the net effect is operating profit is in an increasing trend.Consolidated balance sheet (Referring to appendix A – table 4) In general, total assets experience an increasing trend. This is reasonable since the business is at a growing stage. One notable point is the growth of non-current assets look greater than current assets, especially property, furniture and equipment has a very significant increase in 2010/11, this is probably due to the rapid expansion of retails stores in Hong Kong and China. And as a result, there is a significant increase in inventories in 2010/11 too. (Referring to appendix A – table 5)Similar conclusions can be drawn by viewing th e same accounts in a standardized balance sheet (all items are standardized by total asset value in the fiscal year). Property, furniture and equipment, and inventories make up most of the total assets. (Referring to appendix A – table 6) Liabilities also grow a lot with total assets as the business expands. Notably there is a significant increase in both short-term and long term bank borrowings. In addition the payable accounts also increased more than 100%, meaning that the company bought stocks or services from suppliers on credit more than before.This growth of liabilities is fine as long as the company can generate consistent operating cash flows, as we will see in the next section. (Referring to appendix A – table 7) Similar conclusions can be drawn at standardized balance sheet, bank borrowings and payables increased significantly, especially for longer term bank borrowings. (Referring to appendix A – table 8) The growth of the business was mainly funded by growing liabilities, as we can see that the growth of equity is not so significant, the company has not issued new shares to get funding. The company has simply retained some of the profit in each year into reserves.Consolidated cash flow statement (Referring to appendix A – table 9) The company has improved its cash flow generation as its business grew. The profitability of the company increased, and so as the cash generated from operation. And since the company has increased in size, it has increased its ability to finance from banks, therefore it also increased its cash generated from financing activities. Although the company has increased investment in fixed assets and hence the cash outflow from investment, this is offset by the increase in cash flow from operation and financing.II. PERL (Performance, Efficiency, Risk, Liquidity) analysis (Referring to appendix B and C) 1) Performance Profit margins (Gross, operating, net) Gross profit margin keeps increasing. The la test figure is 63. 35%, which is a very high margin. This is probably due to the increased brand image of the company, hence the company can increase the selling price of the products. Also, the company shifted the focus on selling products of its own brands more than imported brands, this also increased the gross profit margin.Both operating and net profit margin are also in an increasing trend (despite year 2008/09, a special year which financial crisis happened). But it is worth noting that the current margins are 12. 08% and 10. 12% respectively, which show a great difference from gross profit margin. This indicate the operating expenses are very high, eating up more than 50% of profit margin. The company should think ways to further reduce operating costs. Return on Equity (ROE) The company has increased its ROE along the years despite the special year 2008/09. The latest ROE is actually a high return, 21. 6%. So what are the main drivers of such high return? By utilizing DuPon t analysis, the reason for return growth can be found: ROE = Net Profit Margin x Asset Turnover x Financial Leverage The net profit margin is increasing throughout the years. At the same time, since the financing ability of the company has increased, the financial leverage also increased. These two factors drove the ROE up, offsetting the diminishing effect on ROE by asset turnover. The asset turnover actually decreased in last two fiscal years, indicating the efficiency of turning asset to revenue decreased.It is a bit worry to see the ratio decreased from 1. 6 to 1. 17 in these 2 years. It may indicate that the asset size of the firm is too large, further expansion may not bring further increase in revenue. This may be an indicator of the firm has passed its optimum point and management must take extra care in evaluating whether the company should invest in expanding more retail stores or not. Extended DuPont analysis breaks down net profit margin into tax burden, interest burden, and EBIT margin. Tax burden of the company is actually increasing, i. e. it has to pay more effective tax hence impacting the net profit margin.But it’s still fine as the effective tax rate is still at about 20%, which should be quite low when compared to effective tax rate outside Hong Kong and China. Interest burden also experiences an increasing trend. This is reasonable since the company has increased financing ability and financed through more bank loans. EBIT margin is increasing, offsetting the negative effect of tax burden and interest burden. 2) Efficiency Fixed asset Fixed asset turnover is in a decreasing trend (from 16. 08 to 7. 98 in last five years). This indicates the efficiency of generating sales revenue from fixed assets investment is lowering.This confirms with the decreasing asset turnover ratio mentioned above. However the ratio is still at a high level, the management should still invest in fixed asset and expand the business, but extra care should be t aken to determine the amount and scale to be invested. Inventory Inventory turnover is decreasing (from 3. 72 to 2. 48 in last five years). This indicates that in general, the speed of stocks selling has slowed down as the business expands. When this ratio is converted to days of inventory on hand, the meaning can even be clearer. The days increased from about 98 days to 147 days in these 5 years.Overstocking, importing or producing products which are not popular, or insufficient marketing efforts are all possible reasons to this decreasing efficiency. Receivables Receivables turnover is decreasing. To get a clearer meaning, the ratio is converted to days of sales outstanding, and this ratio is increasing (from 1. 97 to 11. 49). This ratio means on average how many days the company’s customers who buy on credit will pay their bills. This increasing ratio means that it takes more time to collect the bill from customers, meaning that capital has to be tied up for longer period. However the number actually is not large, it’s about 12 days and therefore an acceptable value. Payables Payables turnover decreased from 11. 14 to 5. 51. The ratio can be converted to number of days of payable. This ratio increased from 32. 76 to 66. 23. This ratio is the average amount of time it takes to pay its bills. The time has increased significantly. It showed the advantage of the growth of the company, i. e. when the company went listed and expanded, the ability to pay on credit increased. This increased time to pay bills increases the flexibility to manage working capital and hence benefits the operation of the company.Working capital The effectiveness of the company in using working capital has increased since the working capital turnover increased from 2. 72 to 4. 46 in last five years. This means that more sales revenue is generated for each dollar of working capital which funded the sales. This is probably due to increased size of the company, so that the compa ny can get more funding by short-term bank loans, and increase its payables to different creditors. These increased funding are used to purchase inventories to generate sales revenue. 3) Risk Gearing All debt-to-equity, debt-to-asset and financial leverage ratios are in an increasing trend.As the company grows, more funding is needed. Financing by debt issuance is better than equity issuance since the required return by debt is lower, and there is possible tax advantage on debt payment. These three ratios are still in a healthy range and further increase in the ratio is still possible. Debt-to-common equity ratio is 0. 32 and debt-to-asset ratio is 0. 18, these two numbers are fairly low. This indicates that the company has a considerable capacity in debt financing if needed. Coverage Interest coverage ratio maintains at a high level (159. at 2010/11), although the company has increased financing by bank loans. That means the operating profit is more than enough to cover the interes t expense and indicate that the business is healthy. Cash flow coverage ratio is also at adequate level despite it has fallen a bit (50. 54 at 2010/11). This is also a healthy signal because net cash flow is positive and adequate. 4) Liquidity Cash conversion cycle Cash conversion cycle is the days the company takes to convert its investment in inventories back into cash. The company has an increased cash conversion cycle, due to the increase in days on inventory on hand.This is still an acceptable length (92. 15 days), but the company should try to lower the days in inventory on hand as mentioned above. Current and acid test ratio Both current and acid test ratio are decreasing, but they are still at a healthy level. Current ratio is at 1. 85, meaning the current assets are 1. 85 times of current liabilities, which is sufficient for its short-term obligations. Acid test ratio is 1. 12, meaning the cash-like current assets are 1. 12 times of current liabilities, indicating that it i s sufficient to cover its short-term liabilities by short-term cash.Operating cash flow to maturing obligations This is also a measure of the company’s ability to meet short term liabilities from cash flow. Although the overall cash flow has improved, the current liabilities has also increased considerably, therefore this ratio is not at a high level (0. 44). The major cash outflow is from purchasing fixed assets and repayment of bank loans. Management should control the cash outflow in these two areas in order to improve the overall liquidity. III. Summary The company has a healthy business. It has an increasing net profit and positive cash flow.The ROE and profit margin are at good levels. It utilized bank loans to further expand its business, while the leverage ratios are still in a healthy range. There is no liquidity problem associated with the company as seen in liquidity ratios. However the management should focus on improving the efficiency of the company while expand ing the business. The major concern here is reducing days of inventory on hand, in order to reduce the length of cash conversion cycle. To sum up, this is a company with good financial performance, and therefore it is worth to invest in this company.B) Cost of equity capital Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is used to determine the cost of equity capital. There are three major inputs in CAPM equation: risk-free rate, beta of the company stock to a benchmark market, and equity risk premium of the benchmark market. Since I. T. Limited is a Hong Kong based company, therefore the input parameters mentioned above should come from Hong Kong. Risk-free rate Hong Kong government do not issue bill or bond (despite the newly launched ibond, but that is a floating rate bond which its purpose is for general public to protect inflation).Therefore risk-free rate should be the yield on Exchange Fund Bills issued by Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Risk-free rate should be the yield on short-term bi ll, therefore the yield on one-month bill is selected, which is 0. 05%. Stock beta Hang Seng Index (HSI) is the benchmark index in Hong Kong. 5 years of monthly return stock of I. T. Limited and HSI were obtained. Stock Beta of I. T. to HSI can be calculated by using Slope function of Excel, or regressing both return series. The estimated beta is 1. 399, meaning that the stock of I. T.Limited is more volatile than the index. R2 coefficient is 0. 2261, meaning that about 22. 61% of the variability of the stock returns can be explained by variability in the index. Equity risk premium According to Zhu & Zhu (2010), the equity risk premium of Hong Kong is 8. 19%. Applying CAPM: Cost of equity capital = (0. 05 + 1. 399*8. 19)% = 11. 51%. C) Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) The company has not issued any debt. The â€Å"debt† of the company is in the form of bank borrowings, so the effective interest rate of borrowing will be treated as cost of debt.In the latest annual repo rt, the effective interest rate is 1. 4% (from notes 23 of annual report). Total bank borrowings is HKD594. 145M, total equity is HKD1846. 961M, therefore: WACC = 594. 145 / (594. 145 + 1846. 961)*1. 4% + 1846. 961 / (594. 145 + 1846. 961)*11. 51% = 9. 049% References: Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Exchange Fund Bills and Notes fixing (http://www. info. gov. hk/hkma/eng/press/index_efbn. htm) Zhu & Zhu (2010) – Estimating the Equity Risk Premium: the Case of Greater China, Jie Zhu, Xiaoneng Zhu (http://citeseerx. ist. psu. edu/viewdoc/download? doi=10. . 1. 175. 7333&rep=rep1&type=pdf) Appendix A – Selected figures from financial statements Table 1 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated income statement 201120102009200820072006 HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000 Turnover3,834,422 2,995,952 2,733,256 2,021,283 1,530,763 1,314,443 Cost of sales(1,405,482)(1,176,707)(1,121,570)(819,423)(640,442)(540,243) Gross profit2,428,940 1,819,245 1,611,686 1,201,860 8 90,321 774,200 Other income – incentive income0 13,200 0 0 Other (loss)/gain(7,544)3,791 (11,123)1,900 (4,395)(273) Impariment of goodwill0 (4,217)(59,569)0Operating expenses(1,958,255)(1,524,760)(1,468,877)(1,002,046)(749,898)(642,553) Operating profit463,141 307,259 72,117 201,714 136,028 131,374 Table 2 – Growth trend of turnover, costs and profit, calculated based on consolidated income statement 20112010200920082007 Increase/Decrease (%) Turnover27. 99%9. 61%35. 22%32. 04%16. 46% Cost of sales19. 44%4. 92%36. 87%27. 95%18. 55% Gross profit33. 51%12. 88%34. 10%34. 99%15. 00% Operating expenses28. 43%3. 80%46. 59%33. 62%16. 71% Operating profit50. 73%326. 06%-64. 25%48. 29%3. 54% Table 3 – Excerpt from summarized and standardized consolidated income statement 01120102009200820072006 Turnover100. 00%100. 00%100. 00%100. 00%100. 00%100. 00% Cost of sales-36. 65%-39. 28%-41. 03%-40. 54%-41. 84%-41. 10% Gross profit63. 35%60. 72%58. 97%59. 46%58. 16%58. 90% Other income – incentive income0. 00%0. 44%0. 00%0. 00%0. 00%0. 00% Other (loss)/gain-0. 20%0. 13%-0. 41%0. 09%-0. 29%-0. 02% Impairment of goodwill0. 00%-0. 14%-2. 18%0. 00%0. 00%0. 00% Operating expenses-51. 07%-50. 89%-53. 74%-49. 57%-48. 99%-48. 88% Operating profit12. 08%10. 26%2. 64%9. 98%8. 89%9. 99% Table 4 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000 ASSETS Non-current assets Property, furniture and equipment727,022 233,395 229,124 179,850 93,191 Current assets Inventories736,717 394,520 411,145 323,724 196,299 Table 5 – Excerpt from summarized and standardized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 ASSETS Non-current assets Property, furniture and equipment22. 13%11. 83%13. 44%11. 59%9. 38% Current assets Inventories22. 42%20. 00%24. 12%20. 85%19. 77% Table 6 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 LIABILITIES Current liabilities Bank borrowings (214,911)(47,400)(47,400)(10,000)0Trade and bill payables(360,545)(149,488)(155,993)(121,840)(66,805) Accruals and other payables(349,524)(178,245)(135,677)(140,200)(71,648) Non-current liabilities Bank borrowings(379,234)(35,200)(82,600)0 0 Table 7 – Excerpt from summarized and standardized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 LIABILITIES Current liabilities Bank borrowings-6. 54%-2. 40%-2. 78%-0. 64%0. 00% Trade and bill payables-10. 97%-7. 58%-9. 15%-7. 85%-6. 73% Accruals and other payables-10. 64%-9. 04%-7. 96%-9. 03%-7. 21% Non-current liabilities Bank borrowings-11. 54%-1. 78%-4. 85%0. 00%0. 00%Table 8 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 EQUITY Capital and reserves Share capital119,725 115,504 115,504 115,468 103,950 Reserves1,727,236 1,362,219 1,096,205 1,105,369 722,803 Non-controlling interests(3,749)0 0 0 0 Total equity1,843,212 1,477,723 1,211,709 1,220,837 826,753 Table 9 – Excerpt from summarized con solidated cash flow statements 20112010200920082007 HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000 Net cash generated from operating activities450,446 366,025 135,589 243,939 91,589 Net cash used in investing activities(508,347)(137,011)(156,242)(110,300)(101,843) Net cash generated from/ used in) financing activities204,453 (47,400)22,668 (76,497)(49,807) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents146,552 181,614 2,015 57,142 (60,061) Appendix B – Ratio formula Performance Profit margins Gross profit margin = Gross Profit / Turnover Operating profit margin = Operating Profit / Turnover Net profit margin = Net Profit for the year / turnover Return ratio Return of equity (ROE) = Net Profit for the year / Averageyear, year-1 (Share capital + Reserves) Decomposition of ROE ROA = Net Profit for the year / Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) ROE = ROA x Financial Leverage DuPont Decomposition of ROEAsset turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) Financial leverage = Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) / Averageyear, year-1 (Share capital + Reserves) ROE = Net profit margin x Asset turnover x Financial leverage Extended DuPont Decomposition of ROE Tax burden = Net profit for the year / Profit before income tax Interest burden = Profit before income tax / (Operating Profit + Share of profit of jointly controlled entities) EBIT margin = (Operating Profit + Share of profit of jointly controlled entities) / Turnover ROE = Tax burden x Interest burden x EBIT margin x Asset turnover x Financial leverageEfficiency Fixed asset turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Property, furniture and equipment) Inventory turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Inventories) Days of inventory on hand = 365 / Inventory turnover Receivables turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Trade and other receivables) Days of sales outstanding = 365 / Receivables turnover Payables turnover = Cost of sales / Averageyear, year-1 (Trade and bill payables) Number of days of payable = 36 5 / Payables turnoverWorking capital turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Net current assets) Risk Debt-to-common equity ratio = (Short term + Long term bank borrowings) / (Share capital + Reserves) Debt-to-asset ratio = (Short term + Long term bank borrowings) / Total assets Financial leverage = Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) / Averageyear, year-1 (Share capital + Reserves) Interest coverage ratio = Operating profit / Interest expense Cash flow coverage ratio = Net increase in cash / Interest expense LiquidityCash conversion cycle = Days of sales outstanding + Days of inventory on hand – Number of days of payable Current ratio = Current assets / Current liabilities Acid test ratio = (Current assets – Inventories) / Current liabilities Operating cash flow to maturing obligations = Operating cash flow / Current liabilities Appendix C – Calculated ratios 20112010200920082007 Performance Profit margins Gross profit margin63. 35%60. 72%58. 97%59. 46%58. 16 % Operating profit margin12. 08%10. 26%2. 64%9. 98%8. 89% Net profit margin10. 12%8. 77%1. 56%8. 46%8. 0% Return ratios ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% Decompsition of ROE ROA14. 76%14. 29%2. 61%13. 43%13. 05% ROA*Financial Leverage = ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% DuPont decompistion of ROE Asset turnover1. 46 1. 63 1. 68 1. 59 1. 63 Financial Leverage1. 58 1. 37 1. 34 1. 24 1. 19 Net profit margin*Asset turnover*Financial Leverage = ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% Extended DuPont decomposition of ROE Tax burden80. 65%83. 29%53. 97%81. 23%82. 63% Interest burden100. 46%100. 86%103. 66%106. 90%112. 12% EBIT Margin12. 49%10. 44%2. 8%9. 74%8. 63% Tax burden*Interest burden*EBIT Margin*Asset turnover*Financial Leverage = ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% Efficiency Fixed asset turnover7. 98 12. 95 13. 37 14. 81 16. 08 Inventory turnover2. 48 2. 92 3. 05 3. 15 3. 72 Days of inventory on hand146. 89 124. 95 119. 58 115. 82 98. 19 Receivables turnover31. 76 31. 98 5 1. 12 81. 59 185. 10 Days of sales outstanding11. 49 11. 41 7. 14 4. 47 1. 97 Payables turnover5. 51 7. 70 8. 07 8. 69 11. 14 Number of days of payable66. 23 47. 38 45. 21 42. 01 32. 76 Working capital turnover4. 6 3. 91 4. 24 3. 39 2. 72 Risk Debt-to-common equity ratio0. 32 0. 06 0. 11 0. 01 0. 00 Debt-to-asset ratio0. 18 0. 04 0. 08 0. 01 0. 00 Financial Leverage1. 58 1. 37 1. 34 1. 24 1. 19 Interest coverage ratio159. 70 119. 70 29. 64 646. 52 45342. 67 Cash flow coverage ratio50. 54 70. 75 0. 83 183. 15 (20020. 33) Liquidity Cash conversion cycle92. 15 88. 99 81. 51 78. 28 67. 40 Current ratio1. 85 3. 00 2. 80 2. 93 4. 66 Acid test ratio1. 12 2. 08 1. 70 1. 91 3. 42 Operating cash flow to maturing obligations0. 44 0. 85 0. 36 0. 77 0. 58

Master Of Accounting Reflection And Personal Development Essay Education Essay

Competences are underlying features that lead to superior public presentation in an person. They include qualities, accomplishments, properties and traits that help people to be successful. Competences are capable of being developed in people instead than being fixed. This competence development is largely developed through Personal & A ; Professional Skills. Personal & A ; Professional Development is basically an avenue of learning professionals how to develop their professional accomplishments, concentrating on what we do and how we do them. Personal and Professional Development is critical for the development professional abilities in every person and I am non an exclusion. This is because in professional development, a individual ‘s security does non lie in the occupation or administration they work for but in the accomplishments, cognition and experiences that they have within themselves ( Megginson & A ; Whitaker 2007 ) . This shows the necessity to increase one ‘s cognition through specialised and consistent instruction in one ‘s profession. This work will demo how the faculty Personal and Professional Development has affected my professional accomplishments. In making that, we shall discourse briefly how the five competences have affected my professional accomplishments but there will be in-depth account on ego development competences. The grounds for taking ego development competence are due to its importance in the development of my professional accomplishments and because I noticed after the survey of the faculty that I need so much betterment in the competence. In my acquisition analysis, I will critically analyze the faculty and demo how it has impacted on me positively or otherwise, identifies my countries of strengths and failings and develops action programs to better on my strengths and make off or at least better on my failing and thenceforth conclude.Analysis OF MY LEARNING ON THE MODULEBefore the analysis of my acquisition in this faculty, I will briefly define acquisition. Learning is an acquisition of cognition or accomplishment that enables us to gain something new, or be able to make something we have n't done earlier ( Diana Winstanley, 2005 ) . Learning is geting facts, accomplishments and methods ( Saljo 1979 ) and it is the procedure whereby cognition is created through the transmutation of experience ( Kolb 1984 ) . Harmonizing to Honey and Mumford ( 1986 ) , there are four different larning manners ( militant, pragmatist, reflector and theoretician ) . Learning is besides reassigning cognition into action- it is about deve loping competency and being able to set the cognition into pattern. I will besides foreground what is expected in all the five competences and associate it to my acquisition in the faculty.SELF-MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIESUnder this competence, we have larning penchants, perceptual experience, values, pull offing emphasis and personal resiliency. In larning penchant we mean how do you desire to larn best: hearing, reading on your ain or other agencies. Perception merely means the manner you see things. Valuess harmonizing to Rokeach, 1973 are desirable, trans-situational ends that vary in importance as steering rules in people ‘s lives. Personal resiliency is our ability to resile back, or even turn, in the face of force per unit areas and menaces. Stress is defined as â€Å" the mental and physical status that consequences from a sensed menace or demand that can non be dealt with readily † ( Furnham 2005 ) .INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCIESInterpersonal competence is the ability t o associate and understand others. Here scholars try to see things from other people ‘s point of position in order to understand how they think and feel. An interpersonal competent individual attempts to keep peace in group scenes and promote co-operation. An interpersonal competent individual is Self-assured, self-asserting, Influence and persuade others, grips emotions and struggles really good and above is a squad builder.SELF DEVELOPMENT COMPETENCIESWhen we talk of ego development competence, we mean competence in developing one ego. Some of the things that come to mind there are puting accomplishable ends, having feedback, motive, self revelation and brooding thought.Personal LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIESHere we talk about what is in a individual that make him or her a good leader. Its competences include power ie power to take, influence and trust ( Being able and prepared to follow a figure of ways to derive support and influence diverse parties, with the purpose of procuring betterments ) , empowerment ( endeavoring to ease others ‘ parts and to portion leading, fostering capableness and long-run development of others ) , emotional intelligence ( ‘the subset of societal intelligence that involves the ability to supervise one ‘s ain feelings and others ‘ feelings and emotions, to know apart among them and to utilize this information to steer one ‘s thought and actions ‘ ( Salovey and Mayer 1990, pp.5 ) ) and leading manner.ENGAGING WITH OTHERS COMPETENCIESIn prosecuting with others competences, we have valuing diverseness which made me gain that people are different. Valuing diverseness is of import, because the increasing globalisation in the universe requires more interaction among people from diverse civilizations, beliefs, and backgrounds than of all time before. Besides cultural consciousness comes to mind as civilization is a major beginning of single differences, which consequences in different personalities. P rofessionalism and moralss are competences that a professional can non play with. The merely means Department of State and don'ts in the profession, this faculty shows me that what keeps me in the profession aside my personal cognition and interaction, developing self, taking good is to cognize when I am either making short of what is expected of me or when I am over making it. This faculty at first seemed meaningless to me, the lone ground why I listened was that I was funny and that it is portion of my faculty, though I questioned its usefulness. But as clip goes on, it started droping, started going interesting, I started going aware of my developmental demands. The first category I attended was really deadening ab initio, but when category activity on larning penchants was given, I realise that I needed self-development and personal alteration ; which means that I had been in stage 1 of my personal and professional development ( being unconscious and unqualified ; Straangard, 1981 ) . Nevertheless, I instantly chose to develop myself because deep inside me I was motivated to larn and win ( Megginson et al. 2007 ) . In the class of my acquisition, I discovered so many things about myself that I did non cognize before. Typical illustrations are that I now know how to utilize feedback to develop myself efficaciously. I besides now know what it means to put a realizable end within realizable clip frame. Furthermore, my engagement in group work every bit far as I know has now made me whole by doing me cognize how to work in a squad with different people as the faculty boosted my assurance. The faculty has helped me to cognize my larning penchants as a reflector ( good hearer, thoughtful and analytical, adopts a low profile and likes to stall ) which I discovered after taking the trial on ‘knowing your acquisition manners ‘ . The benefit of cognizing this my acquisition manner is that â€Å" aˆÂ ¦it shifts the accent towards promoting a balanced attack to acquisition and, possibly more significantly, an expressed consciousness of the scope of attacks available to me the scholar † ( CIPD 2006 ) . What I have achieved in the manner I see things after this faculty can non be underestimated. The faculty has taught me how to see things non merely from my point of position but other people ‘s ain excessively. In footings of values, my value systems have changed. In the faculty, I saw what Kohlberg ( 1981 ) came up with as three types of personal values viz. ; Pre-conventional values -punishment, obeisance and opportunism ; Conventional values- ou tlooks and conformance ; and Post-conventional values -universal ethical rules. I besides improved on emphasis direction either my personal or people ‘s emphasis after analysing its definition by Ivancevich et Al. ( 1990 ) . They defined stress direction as â€Å" Any activity, plan or chance initiated by an organisation, which focuses on cut downing the presence of work-related stressors or on helping persons to minimise the negative results of exposure to these stressors. † As respects my interpersonal accomplishments, the group work in this faculty improved my ego assurance. We were given group work on single differences and to my extreme surprise ; my group chose to stand for the group. At first, I shivered and even said no, but after encouragement from the group members, I summoned bravery and represented. The feedback I got was really encouraging positive and I picked up from at that place. Thereafter, I have been able to speak or stand for other groups in the category in many occasions. The group work I have involved in this faculty has made me to cognize that I am non self-asserting plenty even when I know it all. It made me to understand clearly what averment ( saying clearly what I mean ) means as against entry or aggression ( coercing ) . I like taking a looking place, and this is one country I need to better on. As respects influence and persuasion, I noticed that I am non a really influential individual, I merely do my things my ain manner, b ut the faculty made me to understand that as a professional I need small of influence to win. Ironically, the faculty brought to fore my ability to manage emotion and struggle. During our category treatment on single differences, one of my group members was emotionally touch when he was told to be excessively aggressive ; I was thorough and careful to understand his emotion in other to decide his emotion. My attempt to command his emotion showed me my ability to manage emotion and struggle. In constructing my squad accomplishments, I listen carefully and avoid disrupting others. Sing the category activity on ‘Team function, self-perception Inventory ‘ , utilizing Belbin, ( 1981, 2007 ) construct of squad functions I discovered that I am a squad worker -co-operative, mild, listens, perceptive and diplomatic but indecisive in crunch state of affairss. This faculty ‘s first category group work activity made me to reflect on my squad accomplishments. I sat back and car efully listened and I merely made impact after careful consideration of other people ‘ side of concluding. One country of teamwork that gives me concern after the faculty is that I am loath to depute. This faculty has really opened my eyes on how to make squad work. As a consequence, my squad accomplishments have improved and feedback from friends and schoolmates have confirmed it. I need to work more on my end scene because it is really of import to my success in anything I do. It is truly an country of failing for me. The first group work activity in category on this faculty made me gain that. We were given a clip frame which I about missed because the end I set was non within the clip frame. Notwithstanding, I chose to develop my end scene and I set marks for accomplishment. Besides, there is demand for betterment on feedback. This is discussed in item below. The survey of PPD faculty has impacted on me how to utilize my power. My category group that I spoke for group proves that. Before that group work, I barely stand in forepart of people, non to speak of taking a treatment. Interestingly, I found out that my influential power is nil. The faculty besides gave me an penetration about my empowerment capablenesss. I found out that I have involvement in long-run development of others. My emotional intelligence ability was brought into bow with the survey of this class as could be seen in our group when person was hurt for being branded aggressive. This faculty made me cognizant of the construct of leading and I decided to cognize my leading manner by taking a leading trial online ( ‘what is your Leadership Style ‘ ) . I found out that my leading manner is participative and non-assertive. What I do is to listen more from the people I lead and speak less. My leading competence and accomplishments lies on my ability to transport everyone along by leting anybody that wants to lend to make so before I arrive at a decision. During our category treatment on attitudes and values, I was carefully and exhaustively elaborate our group points of position before my presentation. Valuing diverseness made realise that people are different when we were given group assignment. I encourage other people ‘s position, is non great surprise to me working together with my group on category treatment with careful and thoughtful mode in subject we are meant to discourse, I use the chance to set everybody together although we are from different background and civilization besides portion some similarities.COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT: SELF DEVELOPMENT COMPETENCIESThis competence is selected because of its importance in professional accomplishment development and I have needed to develop more here. Harmonizing to Wikipedia, personal/self development refers to activities that improve self cognition and individuality, develops cognition and potencies build human capital and employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realisation of dreams and aspiration. When we talk of this competence, the things that come to our head are puting chiseled and realistic personal ends ; exposing a high degree of inaugural, attempt, and committedness towards finishing assignments in a timely mode ; works with minimum supervising ; is motivated to accomplish and demonstrates responsible behavior. Goal scene is a powerful technique that appears to work by supplying a way for our attempts, concentrating our attending, advancing continuity and increasing our assurance ( supplying we achieve the ends we set ) . Puting ends as my scheme for self- development is worthwhile and that is why I chose this competency. Before this faculty, I usually set ends which I noticed were non accomplishable, with completion of this faculty, I realised that my ends need to be SMART in order to be accomplishable. The SMART method assumes that ends should be Specific ; Measurable ; Attainable ; Relevant and Time edge. This faculty has made me to cognize that I can put ambitious marks and has helped me to demo finding to run into the ends as set. With the SMART method, I now take necessary actions to run into my ends ; place and use steps to track and quantify accomplishment, overcome obstructions to accomplishing ends and even utilize failure as an chance to larn. Self awareness/disclosure: This is ability to self-reflect and be cognizant of one ‘s interior province of being like interior feelings, dreams, relationships with others, strengths and failings. McCarthy & A ; Garavan ( 1999 ) defines Self-awareness as, â€Å" the image that an person has about him/herself and whether or non that image is accurate in comparing with how others perceive that single † . It involves self-efficacy, self-actualisation and self-concept. Self-efficacy is the extent to which a individual believes he/she can execute the behavior required in any given state of affairs ( Arnold et al. , 1991 ; Bandura, 1989 ) , self-actualisation is an active nisus for personal development which might affect researching one ‘s endowments, educating oneself and/or honing physical accomplishments ( Rogers,1961 ) and Self-concept, as defined by Hayes ( 1994 ) is the rating that persons make about their traits and personalities and the image that they have of the mselves. My research in the faculty showed me what it means for an person to develop an image of him/herself and certain nucleus facets of it as explained by Whetten & A ; Cameron ( 2007 ) . The self revelation accomplishments I learnt from the faculty include: Acknowledging ain strengths and failings, reflecting and analysing oneself, consciousness of interior feelings, desires and dreams, measuring thought forms, concluding with oneself, A understanding function in relationship to others. However, my larning on self-awareness, prompted me to utilize the johari window by ( Luft & A ; Ingham 1955 ) to cognize more about my personality by acquiring feedback from friends. The feedback about my blind ego was flooring to me because I ne'er imagined any of them ; nevertheless, it gave me penetrations on some of my strengths and failings. I truly found out that I need to work on myself revelation after having the feedback. Receiving feedback: A PersonA who has this competence seeks feedback on strengths and failings and initiates activities to increase or heighten cognition, accomplishments, and competency in order to execute more efficaciously or heighten calling. The individual receives feedback in a constructive mode, investigations for concrete illustrations and suggestions to better ain public presentation. The individual spends clip larning new information or thoughts and using them efficaciously, keeps up to day of the month in cognition and accomplishments and learns from successes and failures Receiving feedback include confer withing relevant beginnings ( e.g. , assessments, studies, pictures, client feedback ) to acquire insight into ain public presentation. Feedback is necessary because it is a moderator of end effects in that the combination of ends ( Bandura & A ; Cervone, 1983 ; Becker, 1978 ; Erez, 1977 ; Strang, et Al. ( 1978 ) . With this faculty, I found out that I need to make much more on having feedback. Before the faculty, I ask for feedback without cognizing the strengths in having it. Completion of the faculty demo me how I can efficaciously do usage received feedback in the undermentioned ways: I will larn from both successes and failures, Initiates project debriefs to clear up learnings-both what worked good and what could be done more efficaciously in the hereafter, Seeks both formal and informal development chances, Demonstrates a desire to execute above and beyond the demands of my place, Coaches others to concentrate on self-development, builds a civilization that encourages larning and uninterrupted betterment and self-critical by placing both my strong and weak points.Brooding thought:Brooding thought involves personal consideration of one ‘s ain acquisition. It considers personal accomplishments and failures and asks what worked, what did n't, and what needs betterment ( Given, 2002 ) . It is a portion of the critical thought procedure mentioning specifically to the procedures of analysing, measuring, and doing judgements about what has happened. The faculty made me to happen out that this property was about missing in me. I of course set ends, ask for feedback and is even motivated, but this faculty made me understand that most of my failures are because of absence of contemplation. If you non sit down to analyse what went incorrect you keep on doing same errors. With completion of this faculty, I now have effectual tool of uniting contemplation with feedback to acquire my extreme consequence. Motivation harmonizing to Robbins and Judge, ( 2009 ) is a procedure that history for an person ‘s strength, way and continuity of attempt towards achieving a end. Motivation Shows finding to accomplish ends over clip ; resists any force per unit area to be deflected from this attainment. Takes calculated hazards, based on acquisition and experience, to accomplish longer-term service betterments.DecisionThe importance of this faculty to my professional development can non be underestimated. It is like an oculus opener. It shows me what to make and what non to make as a professional, It shows me where to better my accomplishments to be great in my profession. In fact, I now understand that the route to professional success is non merely based on cognizing what to make, but cognizing how best to make it to acquire extreme consequence. I am peculiarly happy about my nowadays and likely hereafter betterment on myself based on what I now know about end scene, self awareness, feedback, motive and contemplation. Conclusively, with the class in general, I am now more equipt for the challenge in front non as a pupil but as a professional.

Issues in Global Business and Strategic Concepts Essay - 3

Issues in Global Business and Strategic Concepts - Essay Example 132). Nonetheless, Australia has been a leading producer of mineral globally. It has sense been known to producing nearly 19 minerals that are associated to nearly 400 operating mines. Australia must take mining serious since it is the country’s economic backbone (Wild, and HAN, 2003; Pg. 17). Nearly all the states in the Australia have minerals. Despite the availability of several minerals, this essay aims at addressing the economic effects of coal as one of the Australia’s mineral (Cavusgil, Knight, and Riesenberger, 2008; Pg. 102). Such effects are to be analyzed domestically and internationally. It is worth noting that minerals form nearly 7 percent of the Australia’s GDP. Notably, according to the Australia’s bureau of statistics, the mining industries have directly employed over 263 thousand people. Other than the domestic advantages, Australia’s minerals are also exported (Beattie, 2002). Some of the mineral exported from Australia include oi l and gas that were exported in the year 2011 and 2012 at a tune of $164 billion (Daniels, Radebaugh, and Sullivan, 2009). These figures accounted for nearly 52 percent of the Australia’s total exports. The same translated to nearly 62 percent of the merchandise exports (Villas-Bo?AS, and Beinhoff, 2002). It worth noting that Australian market specifically it mining industries usually enjoys free global economies including free global markets where they export their products in large scale (Haldar, 2013). Some of the major international markets for the Australia’s mineral products include Japan, India, South Korea, and China. According to the international ranking, Australia is usually considered as the top global mineral producer and it has the largest inventory resources that form the fundamental mineral commodities (Mintzberg and Lampel, 2009; Pg. 92). However, it does not lead in the production of all mineral commodities; therefore, there are opportunities in miner al that it produces in small scale particularly when it raises it scale of production on the same. Coal is among lowly exploited mineral by Australia; hence, it is vital to determine whether how Australia can raise its game in the production of coal towards boosting its domestic and international markets on the same product. In the Australia’s list of major export categories, Coal among other minerals including aluminum and copper fall fifth (Mintzberg and Lampel, 2005). Coal is used for different purposes; therefore, to boost its sales, Australia needs to intensify its marketing research on coal and its demand with different global economies towards increasing its sales in these countries. Introduction Mineral coal is a natural resource that only needs proper and effective equipment and labor to exploit effectively. Notably, Australia has an intense comparative advantage in the mineral commodities production. This emanates from its rich and diverse endowment of minerals as w ell as high quality and scaled regional information geoscience (Mintzberg and Lampel, 2009; Pg. 281). The intense understanding of geoscience reduces risks of exploitation of mineral in Australia. Additionally, Australian mineral exploiting industries are also enjoying advance exploration techniques that ensure that maximum exploitation. They also have advance mining and processing technologies with highly skilled labor that has intensive experience (De Wit and Meyer, 2010; Pg. 133). Additionally, the mineral exploration physical conditions are

Weekly questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Weekly questions - Assignment Example Apparently, US companies are tending towards outsourcing their customer service functions to companies that hire staff capable of communicating fluently in Spanish or English. While majority of international US companies have staff that is multi-lingual, most of them would still prefer to hire companies that possess a similar cultural affinity (Cromie & Zott, 2014). Therefore, they will tend to be more likely to outsource functions to locations that share a similar culture, thus preferring near-shoring. Although American companies have benefited immensely from offshore outsourcing in the past, the increasing investments in customer service has made them aware of the costs of miscommunication on their overall business. The US, as of 2013, had several trade sanctions and embargoes against several countries, including imposing embargoes on arms-related exports, financial restrictions, economic assistance restrictions, and dual-use exports controls. The embargo against Cuba is one example, which involves financial, economic, and commercial restrictions first imposed in 1960 and further extended in 1962 to cover almost all forms of imports (Coy, 2012). An arms-trade embargo has been in force since 1958 when Cuban rebels headed by Fidel Castro seized American properties and nationalized them. In addition, further actions to nationalize all privately-owned companies led to an embargo on all Cuban brown sugar imports. The US government responded to Castro’s Cold War alignment with the USSR by widening the scope of trade embargo restrictions, especially after Cuba hosted USSR missiles on their territory (Coy, 2012). This resulted in freezing of Cuban assets in the US and consolidation of all existing restrictions. Finally, in the wake of the shooting of unarmed US planes that killed four US citizens in 1992, the Helms-Burton Act restricted trafficking of property confiscated by the Cuban government

This I believe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

This I believe - Essay Example It was at this juncture that the girl entered his life. In his eagerness to make her feel the best, he gave up everything he had----devoted himself completely to her and took care of her even if it meant going completely out of his way. He couldn't strike a balance between his reluagr life and his personal one. He spent very little time with his family anf friends, and spent every possible minute with her. Today, he was alone. She had betrayed his trust and his utmost devotion, for no reason at all. How he wished he could erase this part of his life. Yes, he would. He was going to breathe his last tonight. Suicide, they say, was an act of a coward. But Mike thought otherwise. He simply couldn't think of a life without her. He ahd given her all he had and much more. Why did she do this to him He strained to blank his mind out and listened to the radio, to keep those frightful thoughts at bay. The radio was his companion these days, sicne he could no longer remained his extroverted self. He hated facing everyone.

Discuss Hurricanes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Discuss Hurricanes - Research Paper Example The paper will also give a recommendation of the possible mitigation measures that can be taken into account in order to address these concerns. Hurricanes are responsible for a myriad of environmental effects in the area that they occur. They can cause cataclysmic impairment to coastlines and numerous hundred miles inland (Hemming & McCallum, 2006). This means that any property or any life that is within that area can be potentially destroyed. A hurricane can yield winds that surpass 155 miles per hour. These are very strong winds that can equally destroy both life and property in the region that the hurricane occurs. They hurricane can also generate storm improvements along the coast and lead to wide-ranging destruction from hefty rainfall (Hanfling, Lawrence & Powell, 2012). This frequently hints to inundations as well as soaring debris which are accountable for more disparaging consequences. The unwarranted flood or rainfall can prompt mudslides or even landslides. Research shows that mudslides and landslides equally contribute to the destruction of property and the loss of lives (Heitmuller & Perez, 2005). It is also po ssible to experience situations of vicious flash flooding. The four significant elements most expected to cause severe environmental effects from a chief hurricane are entrenched tornadoes, dominant winds, hefty rains and a storm increase (Heming & McCallum, 2006). The length of the storm bearing is dependent on how enormous the hurricane is. For example in the case of hurricane Katrina, it is assessed that it was ten meters long (Heitmuller & Perez, 2005). The floods and storm leads to widespread destruction to the property and trees, more especially those which are near the coastal region of the place that the hurricane has taken place. The storm surge is instigated by the onshore blast of the water that comes with the hurricane and is largely due

Frankenstein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Frankenstein - Essay Example He said, â€Å"the passion caused by the great and sublime in nature is astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.† In other words, rather than being exclusively something that can be considered beautiful beyond description, Burke suggests that it is instead that element that fills the mind so compellingly with the object under consideration that the mind cannot consider any other ideas or thoughts, nor can it come to any adequate conclusions regarding the object that it the main subject of consideration. Working on Burke’s concepts of the sublime, one can quickly recognize it within Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, particularly in Chapter 10 where Shelley explores both the Romantic conception of the sublime as overwhelming beauty as seen in nature and Burke’s idea of the sublime as something so overwhelming to the mind that it results in a horror that cannot be overcome by rational thought. The chapter begins with Victor’s escape into nature as a means of attempting to overcome his depression and guilt regarding Justine’s death. In this escape, Shelley uses the Romantic conceptions of the sublime as an overwhelming sense of beauty and universal connection through the forces of nature. While this is still imbued with a sense of greatness beyond the understanding of the human mind, this is not necessarily the direct and immediate experience of horror depicted by Burke. Shelley describes the scene thus: â€Å"The abrupt sides of vast mountains were before me; the icy wall of the glacier overhung me; a few shattered pines were scattered around; and the solemn silence of this glorious presence-chamber of imperial Nature was broken only by the brawling waves, or the fall of some vast fragment, the thunder sound of the avalanche, or the cracking reverberated along the mountains of the accumulated ice, which, through the silent working of immutable

Events Management Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Events Management Law - Essay Example Also the overall situation while reviewing the terms of the contract. But it would not be wrong to mention that, in this case, the requirements of the audience were not considered during such previous deliberations. The main questions that arise is this: Are the basic needs of the audience, viewed in the light of shows conducted by highly acclaimed and successful divas as the present one, subservient to such demands and is it necessary to bend rules and conduct to suit individual requirements, much to the detriment of common health and safety norms. The laws relating to law of tort could be applied in this particular instance which could hold the organising groups responsible for deficiencies in public services by not providing basic amenities to the viewing public. There are also elements of lack of car or imputed negligence which could become cause for later action. It needs to be reaffirmed that in such events, the onus of proving that standards of care were maintained would lie on the organisers who have take up the responsibility for stage managing this concert. It would be first of all, necessary to take up aspects of health and safety laws since providing for necessary air- conditioning would come primarily under public safety standards. Apparently, there has been a deficiency in service, and audience comprising of around 12,000 people had to endure 90 F heat and resultant health detriment. It is quite possible that the section of audience who have suffered health loss could file suits against event management organisers for reparation of health damages due to exposure to excessive heat and related hazards. The organisers could seek remedies under insurance coverage schemes, or exclusion clause. The main idea behind exclusion clauses is to limit or exempt the extent of liability in the event of any problem relating to performance of agreed contract. The conditions for the enforcement of the exclusion clause

Long Term Effects of Social Media And Its Impact On Children's Research Paper

Long Term Effects of Social Media And Its Impact On Children's Behavioral And Mental Health - Research Paper Example It has been suggested that on average children use almost 11 hours a day using the entertainment media and as such while using other forms of entertainment i.e. TV, children also engage into activities like texting while watching TV. This however, result into division of attention and may have an impact on the learning and cognitive abilities of the children. A study on the cognitive abilities of the person suggested that those participants who were good at multi-tasking while using media performed badly as compared to the persons who could not perform better at doing multi-tasking while using the media. The study concluded that those who are quick at media multitasking can actually get distracted very easily. (Kirkorian, Wartella and Anderson) Some studies suggest that too much of the hypertexting through social media websites and use of multimedia contents can actually result into a fundamental change in the way our brains work. The hyper texting as well as the use of multimedia re sults into limited attention span in children besides child also experience poor focus, low level of comprehension as well as depression and long term memory damage. (Conley) The above study clearly identifies that a sustained use of social media and even other entertainment tools can actually damage the cognitive and behavioral abilities of the children. It is also because of this reason that new guidelines are emerging which focus on restricting the use of electronics within the rooms of the children. It is now suggested that laptops as well as smartphones shall be removed from the rooms of children especially during night time. By restricting the access of children to electronics in general actually can help reduce the number of hours children actually... This paper approves that it is also important to note that some studies have also suggested that the use of Facebook improves the verbal ability of the children. Checking the status of friends on Facebook and other activities actually result into better spelling, working memory as well as an improved verbal ability. This study however, suggested that students using Facebook only shows such improved ability as compared to the use of YouTube. This suggests that the extensive use of multi-media contents specially may further damage the verbal as well as other capabilities of the children whereas checking messages and statuses on Facebook may improve the verbal ability of children. This study however, is relatively different in nature and suggests that children using Facebook for more than one year actually show an improved performance on some of the tests however, exposure to multimedia contents may have a negative impact. This report makes a conclusion that long term use of social media may have negative as well as positive impacts on the psychological as well as mental abilities of the children. A sustained long term use of social media may result into more aggressive behavior in children including anti-social behaviors, mania as well as memory loss. Studies however, also suggest that use of Facebook may also result into improved verbal abilities. However, this advantage may not be available if children are using websites like YouTube suggesting that exposure to the multimedia contents can have further damaging effect on the children and their mental abilities.

Wireless compatibility with information systems Essay

Wireless compatibility with information systems - Essay Example Our subject devices may be GPRS/EDGE or 3G connected computers or alternately Wi-Fi connected smart phones. There are compatibility issues at the network, operating system, and application levels.There are compatibility issues at the network, operating system, and application levels (Intermec, Nortel). These issues are currently being addressed with the objective of achieving a convergent information network that transparently supports all applications using any terminal device.GSM wireless networks carried IP packets over GPRS (45 Kbps), and EDGE (180 Kbps). These protocols are modem based and are slower and less reliable than current digital data transmission technologies. Current versions of TCP assume a reliable high rate link and therefore its congestion control algorithms are tuned to handle traffic driven congestion. Wireless links are slower and incur higher error rates. Several options related to fast error recovery have resulted in the development of "Wireless Profiled TCP. "UMTS, a GSM and CDMA successor, is a 3G technology whose development is carried through into 4G, relies on W-CDMA and supports up to 21 Mbps with HSDPA. Users can expect at best uplink rates of 284 Kbps and downlink of 7.2 Mbps. When IP is carried over UMTS, ATM is typically the link layer, with SS7 being the signaling protocol. The later has a different addressing scheme from IP, so two new protocols were developed to carry SS7 over IP. Real time and streaming oriented transport protocols are also being developed in replacement to TCP. It is unfair to even attempt to treat all network issues involved in this short paper. An excellent and complete coverage of the subject is provided in (Bannister et Al., 2004). The practical conclusion is that there are many standards and operator related issues that would have to be resolved before one can think of actual convergence at the network level. On another hand, wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) technology seems to be the more suited for short and medium term mobile application support since the wireless part involved has local significance and was designed to interwork with IP routers, just like an Ethernet port plugged into the router. 1.2 Operating System compatibility There are as of now far more mobile operating systems than there are "stable" PC ones: Windows Mobile, Symbian, Google's Android, Blackberry's RIM, and Apple's iPhone OS are the most known (Wikipedia.org). Operating systems impact the way the network's physical media is accessed (the air interface) and the way client applications communicate with servers (protocols). One can find disparate solutions being developed like enabling MS Exchange access from Windows Mobile or IBM's Lotus notes and Citrix access from Apple's iPhone; but there is long and intense way to go before assuming smooth client-server applications. This is a major hinder since portable wireless devices are intended to run thin client applications and rely on servers for heavier processing and storage. Middleware is being developed to translate between mobile systems and servers, such as Omni Technology's GroupWise caching client. 1.3 Applications There are issues with the development and testing platforms used to design wireless applications, which have to be developed on a PC or workstation and

Public Meeting Paper Essay Example for Free

Public Meeting Paper Essay The public meeting I went to was at the City Hall chambers building located in downtown El Paso at two civic center plaza drive. It was a regular City Hall Council meeting where voting sessions were conducted. City Council members and mayors of El Paso do these meetings to resolve problems and improve their city through funding, spreading awareness, and implementing laws. City Hall Council meetings are from Monday through Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm. City Hall Council meetings allow and encourage public attendance and participation. The City Hall Council meeting I went to was Tuesday March 15th. It was three hours long, but I attended the first hour of the meeting from 8:30am to 9:30 am. At the beginning of the meeting there was a Spanish interpreter provided for Spanish speaking El Pasoans. There was also a sign language interpreter provided for people with special needs. Then there was a prayer thanking God’s grace for safety and prosperity and mentioning the devastating natural disaster in Japan, and asking God to have mercy on Japan and protect the U.S. from similar disasters. After that people were asked to stand in respect for the Pledge of Allegiance which was read by City Council members. Mayor Ann Morgan Lilly announced Mayor’s proclamations. First guest was Miss Shanaya Fastje Day who is an 11 year old girl. She spoke to kids about bullying and its impact and effect on kids. She discussed ways to prevent or at least reduce the cases of bullying. She also mentioned the ways on how kids should deal with bullying and who to reach to incase of such incidents. Mayors thanked her efforts especially Mayor Beto O’Rouke. Her father spoke about his daughter’s efforts and asked the city of El Paso to assist and help her to make her cause and efforts influential and effective. Mayor Pro Tempore Emma Acosta thanked her and asked to applause her. The second mayor proclamation was Franklin Mountain Poppies Preservation Day. Jody spoke about it and asked people to attend a celebration in the Northeast area of El Paso. The celebration was open to the public and is done every year near the Museum of Archaeology of El Paso. From what I understood it’s to preserve and breed poppies. Then a group kids identified as girl scouts but had no recognition. They greeted the City Council members as everyone does. The reason they came is in the hope to be inspired and to become City Council members or mayors themselves one day. Kids identified themselves by saying their names and then were thanked and left. Mayor’s proclamations continued and the following was National Brain Injury Awareness Month. This awareness month was March 2011 as approved by Mayor John Cook. The speaker was Nancy Peters who is the director of marketing for Mentis Neuro Rehab center for Brain Injury, and she is also the facilitator of El Paso Brain Injury Support Group. She spoke in general about brain injuries and mentioned statistics and the common ages for brain injuries which were kids from birth to four and from nine to fifteen. Then she allowed some of their patients to share their stories and testimonies. Most of the survivors stories were soldiers of Fort Bliss and veterans of the Iraq war and one of them was a victim of a car accident. They shared their stories and thanked Mentis for their efforts and help for them. Afterwards there was a call to the public where six members signed to talk. Their names are William Hart, Jerry Fade, Lisa Turner, Jorge Artalejo, Lynn Fitzgerald, and Manny Hinojosa. First was William Hart who spoke about anti immigration laws and how unjust they are. He compared anti immigration laws to slavery and segregation laws who were unjust, cruel, and inhumane. He also mentioned that being laws doesn’t make them good, because there are unjust laws being supported by lobbyists who pay money to law makers in the United States. He asked to get rid of such laws and to emphasize justice and compassion. He also mentioned that the United States is an immigrant country and that the founding fathers had values of freedom, equality, and justice. Also mentioned that most the immigrants come at a young age and know nothing and love nothing but the United States. The next speaker Jerry Fade was absent, so the third speaker was called. The third speaker was Lisa Turner who spoke about rolling blackouts of electricity and water. She blamed El Paso Electric Company and PSP. She said that they failed to do their jobs and that there was no excuse not to operate in cold weather as the generators and machines are made to operate in all climates. She complained about them not paying attention to their equipment and generators that are supposed to pump water and air to generate electricity. She questioned them spending enough money on maintenance and renewing their equipment and generators. She also said that an Ice storm in New Mexico affects El Paso because of no generator capacity. The fourth speaker was Jorge Artalejo and his topic was â€Å"the wind of change blows through the desert of El Paso†. He spoke about utilities are supposed to operate in different conditions. He also spoke about the city of El Paso elections. The fifth speaker was Lynn Fitzgerald and his topic was â€Å"Frank Buckles buried in Arlington National Semetary†. He complained about not having enough memorials in the United States to honor World War 1 veterans. He asked for a memorial in El Paso for all female soldiers who fought in The United States wars. He thanked all service men who fought for the United States and asked to honor them. Before he left he wanted to a share with everybody a picture that depicted the disastrous effect of the natural disaster in Japan. Final speaker was Manny Hinojosa and his topic was â€Å"Transparency†. He requested more transparency from the city of El Paso in matters such as money spending, electric company to be accountable, city’s help for the elderly, and computers ships planted in trash cans and their cost and benefit. He also asked them to improve their web site to be ahead of newspapers on what’s going on in El Paso. He also asked them to answer their emails, be clear or transparent, and to post issues or news on their web site as soon as possible. After the call to the public ended, there was the Consent Agenda where members of the audience can vote, and items that are not called are approved. Representative Robertson corrected things and asked questions. He also asked to delete incorrect postings and postpone discussions. Introductions for voting sessions began with item numbers and codes about specific cases. Most of the motions passed unanimously, some of which were about city elections, construction, and health. This was my first City Hall public meeting and it was a new experience to me. I liked the fact that I had the chance to witness how governments operate even if it was on a small scale such as cities. I think that the meeting was productive and positive and continued as expected without disturbances or shortcomings. The most important issue to be questioned during this meeting was about questioning El Paso Electric Company reliability and professionalism. I was there for the first hour of the three hours meeting, which I think is enough time to discuss and get things done.

Hrm Practices In Hotel Industry In Australia Management Essay

Hrm Practices In Hotel Industry In Australia Management Essay There has been widening recognition that human resource management strategies (HRM) impact organisational performance and overall effectiveness particularly in the service industry where strategic HR practices can contribute to competitive edge (Cheng Brown, 1998). The hospitality and tourism industry essentially comprises a service and production sector and with the immense emphasis on service quality, people essentially represent the entire industry. The success of the industry is dependant on the calibre of its employees and how they are managed in order to help the organisation achieve its objectives. HRM practices in smaller organisations are given comparatively a lower priority with larger hospitality organisations. (Kelliher Johnson, 1987)have recorded studies to suggest that even larger hotels have not yet developed a model for HRM but is moving away from personnel management in the past two decades. The major challenges faced by the hospitality industry and organisations w ithin this industry are that the industry is known for poor pay and employment conditions and a low take-up of HR practices. It is also generally believed that the industry has relied extensively on low-cost, numerically flexible and disposable workforce. Within the Australian context, there has been controversy regarding the extent to which organisations are moving away from a low wage, low-road approach to HRM exemplified by high levels of contingent labour towards a more systematic high commitment approach consistent with functionally flexible, enabling work practices (Angela Knox Walsh, 2005). The key issues that have central implications for strategic HRM are the casualisation of the workforce and high employee turnover within the industry and human resource managers need to utilise practices that enable them to have flexibility with respect to employment contracts and casual labour and also have strategic objectives to reduce the high employee turnover. This report attempts t o identify the key issues within the Hospitality and tourism industry like casualisation of the workforce, employee turnover and its implications for strategic human resource management. The report also discusses the case of Marriott International Inc., a large hotel chain operating within Australia and world over and attempts to identify if there are trends of best practices within its HR department which can be applicable to the entire industry. 2. HRM practices in Hotel industry in Australia (Lockyer Scholaris, 2004)conducted a survey that revealed that there was a lack of systematic selection procedures in the hotel industry particularly the small hotels and the larger hotel chains were having difficulties meeting the demands imposed by the labour market and other recruitment constraints. HR practitioners must have a tacit knowledge of a hotels local labour market and customer base to be able to make strategic selection procedures. Recruiting and selecting staff members is essential to an organisation and since the hospitality industry is largely a service industry, the employees should also be considered as assets. Hiring practices in Australia have moved from traditional methods (advertising, walk-ins, selection interviews, reference checking, etc.) to more strategic approaches like networking, internal labour market, behavioural interviewing, targeted selection, etc. Australian hospitality industry trends suggest that there is more internal recruitment within organi sations and internal recruitment is inclusive of transfers and promotions of casual and part time staff. Recruiting methods in Australia are seen to be predominantly strategic but less innovative. Australian hotels place high emphasis on the recruitment and selection process to attempt to reduce employee turnover and there is a large number of casual labour hired especially amongst the young because of the ease of entry. Consequently it can also be recognised that effective training and development practices within the service industries is imperative to providing a unique and differentiating standard of service, enabling increased profitability and bottom line results. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), the hospitality and tourism industry is the largest sector and effective HR practices like training and remuneration and will benefit the organisation succinctly through their implementation (Taylor Davies, 2004). Australian hotels use a number of methods to identify the training needs of the employees by usually analysing guest comment cards, consultation sessions amongst employees etc. The industry being highly labour intensive poses a major task for the management of this labour as the product delivery is conversely based on the effectiveness and manner in which service is delivered within the industry. The hotel industry is associated with long, unsociable hours and poor working conditions highlights the poor pay, low skills and lack of career opportunities as characteristics that influence the attraction, development and retention of managers.(OLeary Deegan, 2005), (G. Martin Woldring, 2001). Therefore a high emphasis must also be laid on the development of managers. (Brophy Keily, 2002) developed a competency framework for middle level hotel managers by mapping these to the key results areas of customer care, quality and standards, managing staff, achieving profitability and growing the business. They highlight the importance of operational activities for middle managers, concurring with the finding of (Watson McCracken, 2002)and (Watson, McCracken, Hughes, 2004) Another area of importance is performance management and most hotels practice procedures like the performance development plan (PDP) which involves employee feedback and input and are integrated into the performance appraisal plan (Cheng Brown, 1998). The practices adopted in Austrlian hospitality firms are a combination of self appraisal in conjunction with supervisor subordinate evaluation. This practice has been widely adopted by a number of Australian firms because it is perceived to be a more balanced assessment of the employees but a strategic and functional practice which can be adopted is the 360 degree feedback because this is a service oriented industry and the feedback from customers and peers would certainly benefit the evaluation of an employees performance. There is also an underlying practice amongst Australian hotel industry employers regarding employment relations and they engage directly in firm-level bargaining with trade unions. The Australian hotel industry was characterised by poor union participation but in recent years, evidence from (Angie Knox Nickson, 2007) suggests that this is not the case especially in larger firms. The union representation of this industry approximates about 37 percent density according to Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. Wages and employment conditions are regulated by legally enforceable awards and Australian hotels are regulated by a combination of federal awards and collective agreements (Angie Knox Nickson, 2007). This in turn has a cascading effect on the type of employment relationship in existence and also introduces the issues pertaining to the hiring of causal labour, part time employment of majority of the entry level service jobs and also the prominent problem of employee retention. The most significant challenge faced by HR practioners is to work effectively with other function managers within the hotel to create integrative plans that help the firms achieve their business objectives and to link the strategic goals of the Human Resource function to that of the other departments and the organisation as a whole (Tracey Charpentier, 2004). This involves intensive practices of Corporate Social Responsibility implemented by the HR function but aligned with the organisational objectives. The interest in business ethics in Australia has also increased with significant research being conducted not only on the role of the HR function but also its ethical implementation. There is a low consensus among HR managers in translating ethical principles into organisational practice and strategic HRM helps to implement these principles and minimise the deficit in transfer of knowledge. Business ethics and the role of HRM is significant here as it includes the concept of product ivity, profitability, efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the organizations basic purposes, comply with legal requirements, or, alternatively, that they succeed in avoiding legal threats and to improve quality of work life, to ensure fairness in policies, and to foster harmonious relationships between management and workers. Therefore strategic HRM is important to achieve organisational goals and therefore achieve better firm performance (A. Martin, Mactaggart, Bowden, 2006). This sort of Strategic HRM practices can be seen in the case analysed below of Marriott International Inc. which is a large international hotel chain also operating within Australia. 3. Marriott International Inc. The case of Marriott International Inc. illustrates some best practice principles which have resulted in the organisation being awarded the employer of choice awards a number of times and placed 50th in a leading newspaper as the Best Company to Work For. Marriott uses its employees as a brand differentiation strategy as revealed by their surveys with employees which was the outstanding service qualities delivered by the employees. Marriott International Inc. has an organisational culture of spirit to serve whereby they use a three stage approach to implementing these strategies. Training programs lasting five days are conducted on a periodic basis for their leaders and managers and have a map of customer expectations created and a plan to exceed those predicted expectations. Managers are given techniques to improve self motivation and that of their team through positive attitude including visualisation, writing goals down, and positive vocabulary. They are also equipped with culture change to drive their business. They also deliver 15 minute training sessions that cover major aspects of job quality and also have a daily basics training that covers on one of the basics to deliver good products. Marriott has recognised that the only way to deliver the brand is through their people (Anonymous, 2003). Marriott is committed to fair treatment of associates and to providing training and advancement opportunities to all employees. Diversity is also an important policy in Marriott. The company believes that this is the way they attract, develop and retain talent people. Such diversity is not only within group, but also applies to suppliers, customers, owners and so on. Marriott states that one of major efforts are devoted to recognize associate hard work, provide health care, and create opportunity for growth and career development. The company is trying to build an associate-centered environment. Therefore, it provides a total compensation package which include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Medical, Dental, Life, and Disability Insurance à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Annual Salary Increases à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Continuing Education/Tuition Reimbursement à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Hotel Room and Food Beverage Discounts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Ongoing Training and Career Development Marriott International Inc has a formal corporate culture; there are also holistically planned HR policies, although there are different emphases between those formal corporate culture and HR policies (Fu Liu, 2005). Marriott award their employees with the highest award, which is the J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence and the selection is made from over 300,000 employees (Anonymous, 1996). The company also awards employees on their excellence towards corporate social responsibility with the Alice S. Marriott Award for Community Service which goes to show their efforts towards building an ethical and socially responsible organisation through their spirit to serve our community efforts (Anonymous, 2003). Marriott International Inc., also has programs with its low-skilled, low-wage workers to offer them opportunities with day care, English classes, and other social services for loyalty, enthusiasm, and a low turnover rate. Employee stock options are also part of the package. This is one instance where the self-interest of low-skilled, low-wage employees coincides with the self-interest of their employer (Bethesda, 2009). It can clearly be noted here that considering the levels of the casual workforce in Australia, Marriott has made arrangements to attract and retain even these types of employees. Since, Marriott, have recognised that the hospitality industry is a labour-intensive service industry, depending for its success on the social and technical skills of its personnel, their ingenuity and hard work, their commitment and attitude, they have created a conducive environment to treat their internal customers with priority and it permeates to all the HR functions. 4. Casualisation of the workforce in Australia The Australian context of the tourism and hospitality industry has been characterised by casual employment which has been permitted under labour regulation with concerns of it being precarious (Campbell Brosnan). (Wooden Warren, 2004) also emphasises that this is one of the distinctive features of the Austrlian labour market and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data suggest that just over 27 percent of all employees were employed on a casual basis. Australian Employment law Guide reports that this percentage has been progressively increasing in the past 5 years as shown in Appendix 1 in terms of the number of labour hours worked. Milman suggests that 51.3 percent of teens are employed on a casual basis within the hospitality tourism and retail industries which is a significantly large number of casual workers. On the other hand (Angela Knox Walsh, 2005) suggests that research shows that a number of managers are employing temporary and casual workers and, to a lesser exten t, part-time employees, as well as female, ethnic minority and immigrant labour. The increased number of casual employees is largely filled by young workers especially in the Food and Beverage outlets, Banquets and Housekeeping. There is almost no qualification required for these entry level positions and employees are usually trained on the job. The employment of temporary and casual workers is shaped by fluctuations in customer demand and the size and number of extra events and functions that are scheduled during the day and tight labour cost-control practices are considered to be a key characteristic of HRM in the Australian hotel industry. These characteristics have been the primary reason for the employment of causal and temporary workers based on demand. This form of employment can be seen as employment that falls under Total Quality Management, where employment is on the basis of production, or in this case service demands. As labour regulation has developed, casual employment has come to be firmly embedded in labour regulation. Casual employment has a number of characteristics irrespective of the industry being examined and this can be further reiterated by the laws that provide for casual and temporary employment. The Australian Employment Guide says that it is important to distinguish casual contracts from continuing contracts because by definition casual contracts impose no obligation on either party to continue the relationship. Each period of hiring is distinct and severable and any continuing relationship does not mean in law a continuing contract. In casual contracts, therefore, there is a work/pay bargain that: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ provides no continuity of employment, and consequently no obligation on the employer to provide, or continue to provide, work; and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ directly ties work, output or time spent to the rate of pay. This is so whether the nature of the payment is on a piece-work or time-rate basis. The issues here that develop as a direct consequence of this kind of employment include but are not limited to greater job insecurity, low pay, limited opportunities for career progression, unsatisfactory working hours, low levels of access to work-related training and low levels of union representation. Even though the union membership has increased significantly over the past few years within the hospitality industry, the union membership for casual employees is virtually non existent. Wooden conducted research which provides conclusive evidence that although there are negative attributes of casual employment, it is extremely misleading to characterise non-standard jobs as sub-standard jobs. It thus follows that initiatives intended to inhibit the diversity of employment options that are available to employers will often not result in changes in working arrangements that will be unambiguously preferred by employees. If Australia wishes to develop a committed, highly skilled workforce, it must offer jobs which are secure and where the employees receive benefits commensurate with their skills and experience; in other words the many holes in the legislative and administrative framework need to be tightened up so that casual work is not abused. The practices used by Marriott International Inc. as described earlier have been very useful in preserving the ethical integrity of casual employment within the hospitality industry in Australia and even hotels like Hilton offer its employees a work at home option to improve both company as well as employee growth and performance. The research findings of (Angela Knox Walsh, 2005) also suggest that a number of recent studies have challenged the notion that the hotel industry takes an unequivocally low-road approach to employment and HRM matters and this reflects insights from research studies on the hotel industry that suggest that differences in employer po licy and practice may well reflect variations in organisational size and market position. As in the case of Marriott which is a large company with 300, 000 employees and with percentage of net profit to be 14.4 percent (appendix 2), the company size and market position have allowed it to take the high road and utilise the HRM function as a source of competitive advantage and align it consistently with the business strategy, goals and objectives. 5. Staff retention and high turnover The Australian hospitality and tourism industry not unlike the rest of the world is notably a highly labour intensive industry with employees often taking on varying degrees of work load and pressure within the service construct. Employees, especially entry level, casual, part time and temporary employees are often faced with high pressure work systems where performance is given considerable importance which has direct impacts on firm performance on the whole. Most leading hotel chains even have regulations on grooming standards and codes of conduct of employees and employees can be dismissed based on those grounds. This puts added pressure on the workers which can lead to an increased percentage of staff turnovers. The prominent issue that arises from high staff turnover is naturally increased personnel costs incurred because of recruiting and training new replacements, but the turnover analysis is often ignored within the Australian hospitality industry as it is seen as a hidden cost and is considered a normality within the industry itself (Cheng Brown, 1998) (Dibble, 1999) suggests that turnover may be caused by personal or personality factors, family issues, work, team relations, as well as organisational structure and strategic human resource practices. (Cheng Brown, 1998)Cheng and brown here suggest that HR practices should pervade every HR function and the organisation itself to reduce the turnover within the industry. Organisations that employ more flexible HR practices have a greater probability to induce low employee turnover. (Davies, Taylor, Savery, 2001) conducted research in hotels in western Australia that enlightened the fact that although researchers have long spoken about the numerous HR functions like training, performance appraisal, remuneration, employee development and their effect in reducing turnover, the most prominent function that indicates an improvement in quality, productivity and reduced employee turnover is the training function. Employees feel empowered and committed to the organisation for the training re ceived by them. The kind of training within the hotel industry can be skills acquisition, performance management training, leadership and development etc. Although the current economic crisis has increased the availability of talented labour for the hospitality it is still imperative to integrate HRM functions to retain employees within the organisation. 6. Recommendations The HRM department of Australian hospitality and tourism industry although strategic in their approach towards their function, needs to adapt to the increasing demands of the industry and the high increase in casual work force. HR managers need to conduct substanstiative training and development activities to empower even their casual staff to reduce turnover and utilise employees as a source of competitive advantage for firms. They need to align their strategy with the goals and objectives of the organisation itself so as to be able to recruit and select appropriate employees whether it is causal, part time or full time employees. Increasing the benefits and compensation given to employees also reduces the turnover in the industry as clearly indicated by the Marriott case. Providing low cost benefits for casual employees and training reduces the annual turnover and increases firm performance. 7. Conclusion The Australian hotel industry is highly dynamic and has various attributes to it; most significant of those are the casualisation of the workforce and high turnover. The recommendations put to practice certainly aides organisations perform better and reduces the negative implications for the HR department within these organisations. Taking a High road approach and focussing on delivery of quality helps the HR managers to focus on training and development of the employees and to increase higher commitment from them. The areas of significant change likely within the hospitality industry are technology, power paradigms, training and development, compensation programs, employee relations and family, social and work life balance. These areas need to be facilitated by the Human resource managers by integrating their practices to ensure high firm performance and low turnover by empowering employees.

How Emotional Intelligence Contributes To Leadership

How Emotional Intelligence Contributes To Leadership The purpose of this report is to examine how emotional intelligence significantly contributes to effective leadership. Given the dimensions of emotional intelligence, the focus is made on how the current management can utilize the knowledge of emotional intelligence to steer organizations to sustainable growth. This is motivated by the fact that through emotional intelligence, leaders inspire and attract positive change by making people believe in them. When people believe in leaders, this is the departure for successful management. Motivation can give encouragement to everyone for their task. It also helps to motive peoples life that they can be active and enthusiastic that they can lead with their members as a leader who has a responsibility. Empathy describes a deep understanding according to emotional reaction of other people so they share their mind for others to understand as a leader who consider and care of members. Social skills are included in communication which indicates relationship with others so people can share their common ground and build their familiarity in society. It is clear that emotional intelligence has an effect in leadership. Emotional intelligence has five components to get benefits in leadership. Every dimension is based on peoples mind that leadership can be used with true mind of leader like self-awareness, self-management, motivation, empathy and social skills. Those components have different abilities which can lead others. Leadership is a way of harmony of organization. It is not forced and not passive. This paper has examined the role of emotional intelligence in shaping leadership and it is recommended that; good leaders know how to read and use their emotions positively to mentor and motivate employees. Table Contents Executive Summary 1 1.0 Introduction 3 1.2 Aim 4 1.3 Scope 4 2.0 Self- a weakness 4 3.0 Self-management 5 4.0 Self-motivation 5 4.1 Advantage and Disadvantage of motivation 5 4.2 Example of effect ion 5 5.0 Empathy Social skill 6 5.1 Way of ability 6 5.2 Understanding of mind 6 5.3 Benefits of social skill 6 5.4 Relation between social skill and motivation 6 6.0 Conclusions 6 7.0 Recommendations 7 Reference 7 1.0 Introduction The nature of the organization leadership plays a critical role in shaping the performance and sustainable growth of employees. Many schools of thought have therefore argued that leaders are born and made while others argue that leaders are only born and not made. However, looking at leadership in a holistic view, the concept of emotional intelligence comes into the fore (Payne and Huffman, 2005). The ability of one to be able to read and positively use the emotional attachments to influence, motivate and nurture people. The inherent character to attract people and command authority using feeling- is what defines leadership through emotional intelligence. In an attempt to examine the role of leadership through emotional intelligence, the paper will extensively assess the extent at leadership through emotional intelligence correlates with daily management issues and human resource development. 1.1 Background information Leadership is always a challenging role both at personal level and organization level. That why in major cases; intensive training to develop the acquired skills of stress management, sociology, and counselling is very vital. However, more importantly, it has been observed that naturally there are people who were born with very unique inherent traits that favour one to lead. These traits include but not limited to motivation, empathy, considerate, calmness, humility, command of authority among others (Goleman, McKee Boyatzis, 2002). Interestingly, these so called soft skills are centralized within the concept of Emotional intelligence. By example; one is said to be emotionally intelligent when is able to refrain from hunger when confronted; refrain from violence when confronted to; refrain from abusive language when pushed to- but instead in these entire scenarios act in a manner that will instead win the favour of the opponent. This is the nature of leadership that the world is urg ently in need for. Most organizations are very keen to acquire emotionally intelligent leaders. Leadership by emotional intelligence is the most desirable due to its key components of self-awareness, motivation, self-management as well as the social skills. These are key ingredients in attracting partners, managing people, skilful in decision making and ability to impact to the larger community as well as conflict resolution in work set up. 1.2 Aim The major aim of this paper is to report on how the traits of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self- management, self-control, social awareness and empathy) significantly contribute to effective leadership in organizations. Noting that it imperative to appreciate the role and coexistence of an entire management team, it is the leaders who coordinates the team efforts to bear results. Through emotional intelligence leaders are able to balance between personal interest and conflicts with organizational objectives and draw rational objective decision that favour both parties. Additionally, this report will also recommend the best mode to shape individuals in developing emotional intelligence leadership (Mintzberg and Gosling, 2002). 1.3 Scope Leadership touches on almost all the areas of our lives. More importantly, is the question of whether there is deep entrenchment of emotional intelligence in the key decisions made. Management of organizations presents a key challenge to the real application of emotional intelligence leadership. As a leader (CEO) of a company, self awareness and social control is very applicable is achieving successful leadership. Touching on personal life is equally important aspect of achieving self-awareness, and self management. Socialization both within the organization and public fora is among the key ingredients that shape ones ability to develop emotional intelligence. 2.0 Self- a weakness This is the most important aspect of leadership since it is undoubtedly expected one should lead by example. It motivating employees and team to follow a particular management dimension, one is expected to be well versed and able to undertake the same. By example, most of corporate leaders take part in corporate social responsibility such as sports, giving day, donation programmes so that through that awareness leaders are able to motivate and attract people. If one is high tempered, the realization of the fact that he/she cannot withstand confrontation is a key step in managing ones emotions and thereby avoiding conflicts or practicing to be calm under confrontation (Raelin, 2004). This is a key step toward self- a weakness. If one realizes that through emotional speech, people respond and win over then this is key steps toward self- a weakness hence drive towards emotional intelligence leadership. 3.0 Self-management Leaders are expected to be organized and directive in their own life. Managers for example are expected to be neat, well dressed as a reflection of self ethic and organization. In this case, directing employees to adopt particular directive will be an additional motivation hence easy to execute. Is a leader able to manage time? For managers who report early in their workplace, it is a clear motivation among the junior staff to equally come earlier and automatically adopts the leadership style without formal enforcement. In simple terms, as a leader, the extent of self management attracts, motivates and nurture people around you. This is what emotional intelligence leadership is all about. 4.0 Self-motivation 4.1 Advantage and Disadvantage of motivation Motivation can lead leaders to expect better results than working without motivation because they can make an effort when they have their selected goal. By having a motivation, people expect their achievement when they go through conflicts and difficulties so it can be positive behaviour for them. 4.2 Example of effect ion If leaders are in negative mood, they will not be able to manage others, for example, people who just care of task which just assigned from others and just follow other people. They are lack of motivation because they do not practice spontaneously. If they get motivation, they will challenge for aiming to get their achievement. Anand (2010) states this factor is related to self-awareness because when leaders they realise their own personality they can recognize what they really need that motivation can be found in this situation. As condition of leader, capable leadership regards as the most important component. Clarke (2010) states emotional intelligence indicates some relationship with leadership. This ability can encourage others to achieve in their field. It also can adjust balance of mood. Well-managed performance can be influenced in task and it can enhance ability that it makes rational outcome so it causes effective mood and emotion at work. 5.0 Empathy Social skill 5.1 Way of ability Empathy is the ability to share their mind that can be done with deep understanding. Understanding other peoples mind will be concerned as a way of management. It is an important point to be a leader. 5.2 Understanding of mind Leadership is to lead others that they should realise thoroughly. They also should be enthusiastic and active because they can encourage and give energy when they feel positive, for example, sharing the true mind is important to sense how others are feeling. It is beneficial both of them. They can see what they need. Empathy is likely to be helpful for someone who feels sad and has negative idea. When other people cannot concentrate on work because of other problem, leaders can adjust their problem by handling together with them but leaders should not control whole thing because they cannot solve the problem independently. They will rely on leaders without any enthusiasm about their work. These all emotional intelligences are related to ability of leadership. 5.3 Benefits of social skill Social skills will be likely to get motivation. Social skill is based on communication because people can look for their result by discussion with others. In this process, communication will be allowed to use. Clarke (2010) states this social skill helps leaders to prepare for management so they can notice what they have to prepare by talking with others and they can lead others in appropriate way, for example, making friends is helpful for each one in society. People can share what they think. 5.4 Relation between social skill and motivation They can handle emotional reactions from others and can lead others to get effectiveness. If they do not have connection each other, they cannot be a good leader even though managers are outstanding and diligent because they have personality which is not good at social skill. Components of emotional intelligence are necessary for leadership effectiveness. 6.0 Conclusions In the ability of leadership, leaders need to manage and encourage others so emotional intelligence describes about five components which help leaders to prepare themselves. Self-awareness is the understanding of mind by people. Leaders can manage when they are completely able to recognise themselves. They also can realise the needs of requirement. Self-management is also related to self-awareness but management is the ability to control their mood that they can regulate themselves. Motivation is ultimately necessary for leadership because people usually think of their objective that if they select their goal they will focus on successful achievement. Ability of empathy is helpful to someone face with difficulties. Uncomfortable feeling prevent peoples task so leaders need to provide empathic mind to others for encouragement. Social skills are one of the important components. People usually open their mind when they think they have common senses and they are close. To solve this prob lem, managing and building relationship is important to understand others for leaders. 7.0 Recommendations The entire report has extensively reflected on the role of emotional intelligence enhances effective leadership. Given the nature of diverse leadership exposure within organizations, it is recommending that; In an effort to develop strong management team, organizations should invest in training and retraining of employees to ensure they acquire the additional skills such as financial risk management skills, information management technology so as to be able to adapt to the ever emerging challenges in organizations. Self expression is very important is shaping ones emotional intelligence. It is therefore important that senior leaders nurture future leaders (junior staff) through allowing self expression and socialization.