Hawthorne effect Essay Example for Free

Hawthorne effect Essay In today’s competitive climate lots of business owners are trying to get more from their workforce at the same time however their employees are trying to get more from their jobs. Reward and recognition programmes are one way that employers can motivate their staff into changing their key behaviors and work habits, thus benefitting the business. At the same time these schemes can also give the employee that little bit extra they are looking for from job. Motivation and reward are closely linked and there have been many credible theories written on the subject. It is widely recognised that human beings have a need to feel valued, both in their home lives and in the work place. To keep people motivated they need to be encouraged, rewarded (where appropriate) or recognised in their endeavors. One of the most valued of the motivation theories was written by Abraham Maslow from the USA back in the 1950’s. As part of his study into motivation Maslow developed a five tiered hierarchy of needs. He argued that the way to motivate individuals in the workplace and indeed in life is to satisfy the need sets one by one and in order. The first of the need sets and the most basic are the biological and physiological needs. These are survival requirements ingrained into us and evolved with mankind for tens of thousands of years, things such as food, shelter, warmth etc. In Maslow’s model it’s these needs that need to be satisfied before anything else, for example there is little point offering status as a motivator, when the individual has not yet satisfied basic requirements such as achieving a livable wage in order to eat, secure shelter etc. Reward Systems Peformance at Mark-it-Down Co Ltd is not what it should be and it has been decided between senior mangement and the Human Resources department that the introduction of a reward scheme is whats required to motivate the workforce and improve performance overall. The team in charge of deciding on the reward system to implement have come up up with the following suggestions: Variable Pay/Bonus Scheme A scheme of variable pay is one possible solution for the supermarket. In this scheme a portion of the employee’s pay would be considered at risk. This portion of the wage will be rewarded according to the performance of the company as a whole, on the basis of personal acheivement or based on the results of a department or team (this would probably be the most effective for this type of commercial business) Targets will be set at the beginning of a specified period (per annum is the common period) at the end of this period depending on the how well the targets have been met, a percentage or full quantity of the â€Å"at risk† part of their pay will be paid to the individual. This payment could take a few different forms, possibly a cash bonus, a quantity of stock or shares in the business. Whilst monetary reward has been proven to be effective and can encourage hard work amongst a team or individually, it has the disadvantage of impacting on profit made by the supermarket, for example if the grocery team meet their target for keeping the produce displays replenished to a defined level, then the whole grocery team will have earnt the bonus which must be paid from the profits. You also may have a situation where part of the workforce become demotivated, if their team or they personally have missed out on a bonus. Bonus and pay based rewards are considered differently depending on which motivation theory you study. For example in Maslows hierachy of needs, financial remuneration is only mentioned within the first tier of the hierachy which covers the most basic and obvious survival needs (physiological needs) Money was not considered by Maslow be a long term motivator. Frederick Herzberg considered financial reward to be amongst his â€Å"hygiene factors† that is that money in itself is not a motivator but actually will only act as a â€Å"dissatisfier† if the individual feels that their financial expectations and requirements of the role are not being met. In contrast to Maslow and Herzberg, John Stacey Adams might have argued that bonus schemes and pay related rewards can indeed be effective motivators. If the individual percieves that they are gettting a fair input to output balance in comparison to their peers eg, works hard (input) for a pay bonus (output) However that motivation through financial reward might not last. If the individual learns that a colleague or peer is benefiting from a better input to output ratio (eg doesn’t work as hard, but gets paid more) then the individual can quickly become dissatisfied. Promotion The introduction of a promotion programme could be a viable option. If the employee’s are aware that there is a realistic opportunity for them to progress within Mark It Down Co then they will likely feel motivated towards improving their standard of work in the hope that they will be one of the employee’s chosen for promotion. Maslow’s heierachy of needs supports promotion as a motivator, however depending on the person promotion/status as a form of motivation might be quite high up on the tiers and as such it would only work if the tiers below have already been satisfied. There could be several downsides to this however; often with promotion comes a rise in salary for the individual, which will of course impact on any profit made by the supermarket. There might also be a risk of a culture developing within the company whereby individuals take the attitude that they are â€Å"out for themselves† Employee of the Month One of the suggested recognition programmes is an employee of the month scheme. The idea is that all employee’s and managers are provided with a brief form to be used to nominate an employee that they believe deserves recognition (they should also explain the reasons behind there nomination) Due to the nominations for employee of the month being business wide not only is the playing field for recognition level, but there is the scope for recognising excellance in all of the different area’s of the organisation. This reward system could be as low or high cost as Mark it Down Co directors see fit. There is support for this type of recognition reward in Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne Effect theory. Following his studies of workplace behaviour at the Hawthorne Plant Chicago in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s Mayo deduced that emotional factors acted as far better motivators than economical ones, as such a reward scheme of this nature could be very effective indeed, not to mention low cost. On the downside employee of the mon th schemes can have a tendancy to be considered a little cheesy and may require a little effort on the part of the programme managers in order to keep all of the staff motivated to particiate by completing the nomination slips. Pass on Praise Something as simple as passing on positive comments you have heard about an employee direct to the individual can have an extremely motivational effect. Again the hawthorne effect supports this belief. The praise could passed on by way of email, copying in managers or even with a visit to a senior managers office in order to receive thanks directly. The main advantage of this idea is that it costs nothing and is extremely easy to implement, however it may not be enough on its own, I would suggest that this tactic be used in conjunction with one of the other employee recognition schemes. All of the afore mentioned reward options have the potential to be effective, however the success of the chosen scheme could have a lot to do with the indviduals in nbeed of motivation. For instance in McGregors theory, the two employee types, X and Y differ greatly. What might motivate a Y employee (someone that is naturally happy to take on repsponsibilty and excepts work as part of life) might have the opposite effect on an employee of the X variety (someone that’s avoids repsonsibility and needs to be heavily supervised. The type of employee’s to be motivated should be considered before a motivation and reward scheme is decided upon. Monitoring Performance There are various ways to monitor the performance of your workforce. In the supermarket setting of Mark it Down Co, these could be; Physical: the number of sales made, the number of employee’s served, punctuality or attendance. There can be no disputing these types of performance indicators they are unambiguous and offer a realistic insight into the performance of a team or individual. Qualiative: these indicators are based on opinions and judgements (the view of a supervisor or the such like). These indicators are just as important as physical ones but managers should be careful to ensure that any measures of performance are considered fair by both the employees and employers. Goals and Targets Performance measurement can also be linked to the companies appraisal system, that is performance can be measured by assessing progress made on targets and goals agreed at the previous review. Appraisals are valuable in this respect. In order to effectively monitor performance in this way it is important to ensure that your employees are aware of the difference between target and goal. Goals: These are long term ambitions that should relate to the individual aims for progressing within the company. Targets: These are the steps taken in order to achieve the goal. There is an acronym that can act as a guide for the criteria that any targets should adhere to. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. There is little point setting targets outside of these parameters. Monitoring progress towards identified goals and objectives as a way of determining who deserves reward does have its pros and cons though. On the one hand it can be considered an easily measurable method of monitoring performance, but on the other (particularly when the goals and targets have been set for a team or group) it could be argued that the fact that a company/team or individual is achieving its set goals and targets is not a true indication of who has made the most effort towards making that happen and as such is not an effective method for identifying who should qualify for reward. This is an important thing to consider when applying motivation and reward schemes, as an incorrect or ill managed monitoring technique could be costly to a business. For example a company will not want to be handing out cash bonuses to a whole team for reaching a set goal if it transpires that 3 out of 5 team members have made no improvement to their work output and had nothing to do with the team’s progress or achievement! When considering target setting as a way of monitoring progress and establishing where reward, praise or recognition should be given, serious thought should be given to how the company plans on pinpointing exactly who has been responsible for progress, both positive and negative. Benchmarking Another way to monitor company performance is to measure its successes and failures against those of other businesses in the same market. For example Mark it Down Co could measure its sales figures against one of its competitors, Lidl for instance. This method is known as bench marking and it’s all about taking the best practices of the highest achieving businesses in the same market and applying them back in the business in question. Job Evaluation Its has been brought to management attention that one of the employee’s at Mark it Down Co believes that he is receiving less salary for the same work as one of his peers. The following two methods can be used to evaluate the jobs of the individuals in question in order to assess whether theses concerns are justified or not. Job Ranking Job ranking is one of the simplest methods of job evaluation. Its considers the job as a whole and ranks it against another whole job within the organisation. This is usually carried out by the raters comparing the jobs using their general knowledge of the roles themselves. The jobs are ranked in order of the difficulty of the job itself or the importance of the role to the company. The procedure is followed for each department and then a comparison of jobs at all levels is made and jobs are given grade levels which define salary groups. The job ranking method is easily understood by all employees and simple to administer, however it does have its disadvantages, this technique is not really suitable for large organisations with complex structures where its is much harder to gain familiarity with all of the job roles. With this in mind it is probably not the solution that should be used at Mark it Down Co Ltd. Point Factor Method The point factor method establishes job values by assigning points to each area within a group of defined factors, below are some examples but there any many different factors that could be defined further and given points in order to be used for job evaluation; Skill: Within this group there might be points available for, experience or training. Effort: The points available for effort might be divided between mental and physical effort. In this method each job is rated using the defined points system. The points are totaled to form the final score for that particular role. From there jobs are grouped into salary grades (jobs with similar points ratings would be placed together in the same salary grade) This method can be tailored to meet the needs of specific companies and is suitable for use within larger organisations where there are a large number of jobs to evaluate. It’s an easy model to work with once it’s in place but can be very expensive and time consuming to develop in the first instance. In my opinion the point factor method would be a the better job evaluation model to use for Mark it Down Co. Job ranking is just too simplistic to cope with the amount of individuals roles at this organisation. The factors I think should be used to develop the point system are as follows; Skill – Experience, Training, Ability, Education Responsibilities – Monetary, Supervisory, Reporting Effort – Mental, Physical Environment – Job Location, Hazard’s In order to establish if the employee in question has a case for querying the wage he is on in comparison to his colleague. His overall score for the above factors should be calculated in order to establish his pay bracket. If the pay grade is the same as that of his colleague then his concerns are justified and his wage should be brought into line. If it is not and he is in a lower wage group then there is no case for a wage increase. Equally if the individuals wage bracket is determined to be higher than that of his colleagues then his wage should be adjusted to reflect as much.

Friction Experiment: Design and Results

Friction Experiment: Design and Results EXPERIMENT 37 Friction I. Introduction Whatever action you do whether it is walking, driving, or when any two surfaces meet there is friction between them. Friction opposes the applied force to an object and opposes the motion of an object. In many of the labs in this course we try to minimize it or neglect it in the lab, but it is there. When we use the air track, the friction is dramatically reduced due to the air cushion under the air car so the car stays in motion for an extended period of time, but it still stops. Or in the case of an oscillating object, we ignore the slowing of the oscillation, but it still slows down and stops. The actual cause of friction is complex atomic interaction but, the simple idea of friction is atoms rubbing against each other, adsorbing energy from the motion. Friction is a force; it prevents an object from moving or changes the motion of an object. This lab will cover two types of friction, static friction and kinetic friction. Static friction is a force that resists motion so that the surfaces are not in motion relative to each other. The maximum amount of force applied to the block, at the instant before the block moves, is referred to as the maximum static friction force, f S Max. One example of this type of friction is walking. Once enough force is applied to the system to overcome the static friction force, it starts to move. When the block is moving against the surface, then the friction force is called the kinetic friction force, f k. Kinetic friction appears when the two surfaces are sliding relative to each other. One example of this type of friction is pushing a file cabinet across the floor. In this lab you will pull a weighted block across the table and measure the force it takes to start moving the block (just an instant before it moves) and while the block is moving across the table. The forces in this lab are many, the block exerts a force on the table, the table exerts a force on the block ( fN ). And the earth exerts a force on the block (mg) and the block exerts a force on the earth. This experiment will consider the room and table as stationary objects and therefore having no accelerating force on them, then the net force on the stationary block is fnet = 0 (1). The force of the block on the table is equal to the force of the block on the earth, weight or mg, mg fN = fNet (2) thus mg = fN (3). Figure 1: Diagram of two blocks one stationary and one moving. The stationary object is held back by static fraction, while the moving object is acted on by friction and a  pulling force. The static friction force acts equal and opposite to the pulling force, as the pulling force increases the static friction force increases, resulting in no motion. Sometimes the pulling force will increases and it will exceed the static friction and the block will begin to move. The point of maximum force is called maximum static force, f SMax. An observation about static friction is that maximum static friction f SMax is proportional to the normal force, fN, through a constant  µs, f SMax =  µs fN. (4) The  µs term is referred to as the coefficient of static friction. This means as the normal force ( fN ) increases, the maximum force needed to move the block increases in a proportional amount. The coefficient of static friction is dependent on the two surfaces in contact so different surfaces will have different coefficients of friction. A second observation about friction is that friction is independent of the size of the contact area between the two solid surfaces, which means the same force spread over different areas still would have the same force of friction. Kinetic friction like static friction is a retarding force exerted on a sliding object in contact with a surface. When the object is sliding with a constant velocity the force of friction is equal to the pulling force. It follows the same equation as static friction but the relationship between kinetic friction and the normal force has a different coefficient. The coefficient is referred to as the kinetic coefficient of friction  µk. fk =  µk fN. (5) Kinetic friction also does not change when the surface area of the two surfaces changes. You will be measuring both static and kinetic friction forces in this lab and you should find that the kinetic friction is usually lower that the maximum static friction. II. Equipment and Procedure IIa. Equipment: Force sensor, block, motion sensor, laptop PC, 750 interface, friction surface aka table, string, pulley, weights and weight hanger. Figure 2: Equipment setup of the friction experiment. The hanging mass will pull the force sensor with a mass, while the motion sensor will measure the displacement of the force sensor. Once the hanging mass force exceeds the friction force, the force sensor will move, and the motion sensor will measure the displacement. The moving force sensor will have a velocity measured by the computer, and the net force on the force sensor will be measured. IIb. Procedure: The mass of the block and force sensor needs to be measured so that the total mass of the block/force sensor on the table can be determined. Hook the motion sensor and the force sensor to the 750 interface box and hook the interface box to the laptop. The force sensor is measuring the force exerted on the block while the motion sensor will measure the change in distance of the block. Turn on the computer and 750 interface, start the Data Studio program and create an experiment. Select a digital port and add the motion sensor to the experiment. Double click on the motion sensor to open the settings of the motion sensor, set the frequency rate to 25 Hz and close the window. Drag the motion sensor icon in the upper left to the graph icon in the lower left. Go to an analog port on the 750 interface box and add the force sensor to the experiment, double click on the force sensor to open the sensor settings, set the frequency to a minimum of 500 Hz. Drag the force sensor icon in the upper left to the lower left graph icon. One reminder is to hit the tare button every time before you run an experiment. This action resets the for ce sensor to zero Newtons before each run. Static Friction Experiment: part one Start the experiment, tare the force sensor. Add the hanger and add weight incrementally. As you try more runs use smaller masses for your increment. Keep adding weight until the block starts to move. Once the mass moves, stop the experiment. Repeat the experiment 6 times to get an average value and perform standard deviation (SD) on your values. Kinetic Friction Experiment: part two Start the experiment, tare the force sensor. Pull the force sensor using the string to make the block move. Once the block is moving at a constant velocity, this will indicate what force is needed to match the kinetic friction. Plot the displacement vs. time from the motion sensor. Fit the curve to a linear function to show that the block has a uniform velocity. Repeat the experiment 6 times to get an average value and perform SD error analysis. Kinetic Friction Experiment: part three Start the experiment and tare the force sensor. Add the mass required to move the block with 100 grams extra. The block will start to move with an accelerating velocity, if not add an extra 50 grams until it does. The plot of the position vs. time will determine if the block is accelerating. Question: What should the plot look like if the block is accelerating? Once a run is complete with the block accelerating along the table, stop the experiment. Plot the displacement vs. time from the motion sensor. Fit the curve to a quadratic function to find the acceleration of the block. Repeat the experiment 6 times to get an average value and perform SD error analysis. III. Data The graph of the force vs. time or determines the maximum value of the force. The maximum force is the static friction force. In part two (kinetic friction), drag the block at a uniform velocity. The plot of time vs. displacement will clearly identify the linear motion. Use a linear formula to fit the curve if necessary. Measure the force on the block when it is moving. In part three (kinetic friction), drag the block with an accelerating force and generate a plot time vs. displacement in a graph. Fit the curve to a quadratic formula and determine the acceleration of the block. The acceleration of the block is used to determine the net force on the block. The net force on the block is the difference between the force of the mass hanging down and the force of friction holding it back. One reminder is the displacement of a moving object is related to the acceleration through equation (6). = (6) IV. Results Calculate the coefficient of static friction of the block, from the force exerted on the block and the mass and force of the block on the table. Calculate the SD from the values obtained in the experiment. Calculate the kinetic friction force from the two different methods. First: calculate the kinetic friction from the constant velocity of the moving block. The force need to move the block at a constant velocity is equal to the kinetic friction force. Calculate the SD from the values obtained in the experiment. Second: calculate the kinetic friction difference from the accelerating block from the hanging force and the resultant force on the block. The mass of the block is known and the acceleration of the block is measured from the curve fit. The net force on the block can then be determined. The hanging force is known from mass times gravity (mg) and from that the force of kinetic friction can be calculated. V. Discussion What are values of the static and kinetic friction? Are the two values of kinetic friction similar? Are the kinetic friction values within the standard deviation? What happens when a sliding object has the pulling force reduced below the kinetic fiction force? How much force will it take to get it moving again? Is there a there large distribution in the values of static and kinetic friction? If so why? What would happen to the value of friction if the mass of the block is doubled? Is a wheel rolling, static or kinetic friction? Why can’t static friction be less that kinetic friction? Discuss the implication of this.

Hallucinogen Essay example -- essays research papers

Hallucinogen While many drugs speed up or depress the central nervous system, there is a class of drugs that distorts how we feel, hear, see, smell, taste, and think. Called hallucinogens because users often hallucinate, or experience nonexistent sensations, these drugs are also known as psychedelic, or mind-bending, drugs. Some hallucinogens come from natural sources; others are made in laboratories. Examples of natural hallucinogens are mescaline, psilocybin, DMT, and marijuana. Mescaline, which has been used by American Indians in religious ceremonies, comes from the peyote cactus. Psilocybin, also used by the Indians and believed to have supernatural powers, is found in about 20 varieties of mushrooms. Once ingested, psilocybin is converted to psilocin, which is responsible for the drug's hallucinogenic sensations. DMT (dimethyltryptamine) is a short-acting hallucinogen found in the seeds of certain West Indian and South American plants. In the form of snuff, called cohoba, it has been used in religious ceremonies in Haiti. Marijuana is a plant belonging to the hemp family . The active principle responsible for the drug's effects is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), obtained from the amber-colored resin of the flowering tops and leaves of the plant. Hashish is also made from this resin. Of all drugs, synthetic and natural, the most powerful is LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide. Twenty micrograms, an almost infinitesimal amount, is sufficient to produce a hallucinogenic effect; just 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) could induce a reaction in all the inhabitants of New York City and London. This extraordinary potency makes LSD especially dangerous since it is usually impossible to determine how much is contained in doses offered by drug dealers. LSD is chemically derived from ergot, a parasitic fungus that grows on rye and other grains. An odorless, colorless, and tasteless substance, LSD is sold on the street in tablets, capsules, and sometimes liquid form. It is usually taken by mouth but can be injected. Often LSD is placed on a blotter or other absorbent paper and marked into small squares, each representing one dose. Synthetic hallucinogens with effects resembling those of LSD include DET (diethyltryptamine), a synthetic compound similar to DMT, and DOM (2,5- dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine), a compound that combines some of the properties of mescaline and amphet... ...ects of hallucinogens are dilated pupils, raised body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. The long-term effects are less certain. LSD users may experience involuntary flashbacks during which the drug's effects reappear without warning. Such flashbacks can occur days, months, or even years after the drug was last used. Some LSD users develop organic brain damage, manifested by impaired memory and attention span, mental confusion, and difficulty with abstract thinking. It is still unclear whether such damage can be reversed when LSD use is halted. Although hallucinogens can pose a threat to health when used indiscriminately, they may also have therapeutic uses in medicine when administered under controlled circumstances. A synthetic form of THC, the active principle in marijuana, has been approved for prescription use by persons who suffer from the severe nausea that often accompanies cancer chemotherapy and for whom other antinausea drugs are unsuitable or ineffective. LSD was once used to treat persons with certain mental disorders, but such use was abandoned because of the drug's harmful effects.

Comparing William Blakes The Tyger and The Lamb Essay -- The Tyger Th

Comparing William Blake's â€Å"The Tyger† and â€Å"The Lamb† William Blake is referred to as many things, including poet, engraver, painter and mystic, but he is probably most famous for his poetry. Blake began writing the poems below in about 1790 whilst living in Lambeth, London. His poetry has a wide range of styles but his most famous poems are those from â€Å"Songs of Innocence† and Song of Experience†. The two sets of poems are designed to show different states or ways of seeing. They are Blake's way of representing the different ways in which people actually experience the world. In â€Å"Songs of Innocence† the language is simple and repetitive, the lines are kept short and the rhymes are obvious. A childlike vision is conveyed through Blake's clever use of voices with their varying perspectives and questions. The poems reveal particular states of being and ways of seeing which the author is not saying are the whole truth. The poems have a joyful quality but they contain a subtle awareness of sorrow. â€Å"Songs of Experience† contrasts strongly with the softness of â€Å"Songs of Innocence†. These poems show how horrible and cruel the world really is under the surface of what we see. Blake has many themes represented in his poems from Song of Experience and Songs of Innocence but they mainly centre on his childhood, the aspects of rural and urban life, his protest against the horrible way of life and a strong disliking to the way the Church was run. These points will be discussed in the next poem analyses. â€Å"The Tyger† and â€Å"The Lamb† are often 2 poems paired together and I think that was Blakes intention, for example line 20 of â€Å"The Tyger† it says â€Å"Did he who made the Lamb make thee?† So these will be the first t... ...oem. There are many harsh words such as â€Å"cold† used to describe the church as it is but when he describes what he wants it to be the feeling of the poem becomes warmer, like that of a poem in Song of Innocence. From these poems I believed that what Blake means by â€Å"Innocence† is that of a simple life where you don’t know about the troubles around you and blissfully go along with life as it hits you. And from this, â€Å"Experience† is what life is really life, it concentrates on the negative sides of things and shows that there is always an improvement to be made. I personally find Blake's poems rather intriguing. At first when you look at one of two poems it is hard to understand the ideas that blake puts forward but after many poem analyses it becomes clear of the difference between Innocence and Experience. Blake must have been a very conscious man.

Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues - Should Same-Sex Marriage Allowed ? :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Should Gay Couples Be Allowed to Marry?      Ã‚   Only in the states of Vermont and California are gay couples allowed to marry.   Same-sex marriage is very important with gay couples and activists in today's society.   On January 1, 2002, a bill became effective to give members of registered same-sex and opposite-sex couples the right to adopt a partner's child.   A reason why the Vermont same-sex union battle received so much nation press is because legislators were responding to a court order, while some ended up losing their jobs to same-sex unions.   Religious, government, and social groups have debated this issue and it is taking a long time for it to be resolved.   Same-sex marriage has some very distinct facts and values important to one's religion, morals, or even what his or her family thinks of the gay lifestyle.   Many Mormons oppose gay marriage because they believe offends everything religion stands for. Also, making love to another man betrays everything that is masculine and that people fear that gay people might recruit straight people to the gay lifestyle.   Many people are in favor of equal rights for homosexuals.   "They say that yes, gays should have the same rights in housing, jobs, public accommodations, and should have equal access to government benefits, equal protection of the law, etc" (Bidstrup).   Focusing more on this issue can help accelerate the outcome of recognizing same-sex marriage.   Same-sex marriages should be legalized and recognized because our government guarantees equal rights for all citizens. The government says that every citizen of the United States shall receive equal rights.   But, why did they pass the Defense of Marriage Act?   The Defense of Marriage Act prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages; in my opinion this act is immoral and unjust because it restricts the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. The authors of Gays, Lesbians, and Family Values, Elizabeth A. Say and mark R. Kowalewski, are distinguished writers on the subject of gays and lesbians.   They both are very conservative and believe in religious rights when it comes to sexual preference.   "On September 10, 1996, the U.S. Senate passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and allows individual states to refrain from recognizing them.

How to Read Literature like a Professor Notes

Conventions In stones: Types of characters Plot rhythms Chapter structures Point-of-view limitations Chapter 1: Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It's Not) The reason for a quest Is always self-knowledge The stated reason is never the actual reason to go on a quest, the real reason for a quest is self-knowledge. Most of the time, when a piece of literature involves someone going somewhere and doing something, it is a quest. Chapter 2: Nice to Eat You: Acts of Communion Whenever people eat or drink together, it's communionSharing a meal Is a very personal thing (you wouldn't have a meal someone you hated). Food Is a universal thing that we as humans share. In Cathedral a man who hated people with disabilities bonded to a man who was blind over food. Chapter 5: Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature All authors pull inspiration from previous works. In Going After Cacciatore, Tim O'Brien pulls inspiration from Lewis Carol's Ali ce In Wonderland when he has his character saying that they have to fall up to get out, onto Vetting tunnel.Authors also use historical Inspiration. O'Brien models the main character's lover interest after Showcases (a brown-skinned young women guiding a group of mostly white men, speaking a language they don't know, knowing where to go, where to find food, and taking them west) There is only one story. Chapter 9: It's All Greek to Me Myth Is the body of story that matters Greek and Roman myths are so Ingrained Into our consciousness that we don't realize how apparent they are. Like in William Carols Williams painting Landscape with Fall of Cirrus.Without the legs sticking out of the water in that making the painting that much less popular. Chapter 12: Is That A Symbol If it's not symbolism, it's allegory Symbols are personal things We want It to mean one thing, but Is Impossible because then the novel ceases to be what it is, â€Å"a network of meanings and signification. † Meaning doesn't lie of the surface of the novel. Authors may have the same object mean a variety of things. Pay attention to how you feel about the text. It probably means something. Interlude: Does He Mean That?

Optimizing Operations at United Parcel Service Essay

United Parcel Service (UPS) is the world’s largest air and ground package-distribution company, with annual sales of about $34 billion. It is also a leading provider of specialized transportation and logistics services. Following its nearly 100-year promise of the â€Å"best service and lowest rates,† this company currently delivers over 13. 6 million parcels and documents every business day within the United States and in over 200 other countries and territories. UPS’s primary business is timedefinite delivery of packages and documents worldwide. It has established a global transportation infrastructure and comprehensive set of guaranteed delivery services, including integrated supply chain solutions for major companies. UPS is the industry leader in the delivery of goods purchased over the Internet. UPS operates a ground fleet of more than 88,000 vehicles, including its famous brown delivery trucks and large tractors and trailers. In the United States, UPS manages 27 large package operating facilities as well as over 1,000 additional smaller package operating facilities. The smaller facilities have vehicles and drivers stationed for the pickup of packages and for the sorting, transfer, and delivery of packages. UPS owns or leases nearly 600 facilities to support its international package operations and over 750 facilities that support nonpackage operations. This vast ground delivery system is integrated with express air services that use 600 airplanes. UPS operates the ninth largest airline in North America and the eleventh largest in the world. UPS aircraft operate in a hub and spokes pattern in the United States with a primary air hub in Louisville, Kentucky, nd six other regional air hubs in various cities throughout the United States. These hubs house facilities for the sorting, transfer, and delivery of packages. UPS estimates that this integrated door-to-door delivery system carries goods worth more than 2 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). The company faces relentless competition from such other organizations as FedEx, DHL Worldwide Express, the United States Postal Service, Deutsche Post, and TNT Post Group. Although UPS is the overall leader, the company is not number one in every way. For example, FedEx, with about $34 billion in annual sales, leads the market in overnight deliveries, whereas DHL is the leader in cross-border (international) express deliveries. To meet competitors head on, UPS long ago started investing heavily in advanced information systems. Technology powers virtually every service the company offers and every operation it performs. UPS offers many choices: overnight air versus low-cost ground delivery, simple shipping or a panoply of supply chain and warehousing services. Customers can choose the delivery option or service that is most cost-effective and appropriate for their requirements. UPS has been using its automated package-tracking system to monitor all packages throughout the delivery process, collecting electronic data on 93 percent of the packages that move through U. S. systems each day. Its customers can track their own parcels and letters using the UPS Web site, and many customers can also track their items on their own computers using a UPS system that the customers embed into their own Web sites. However, UPS’s competition now uses much of this same tracking technology and is moving into areas where UPS has been dominant. FedEx, for instance, is trying to become a player in ground palletized-freight and international shipping. It wants to funnel package data from all of its operations into a single transparent system. Fierce competition has stimulated UPS to find even more innovative ways of servicing customers while also reducing its own costs. UPS management believes the company is still a leader in reliable package delivery and that its unmatched integrated air and ground network provide it with a level of service quality and economies of scale that differentiate it from competitors. The company’s strategy emphasizes increasing core domestic revenues by cross-selling its existing and new services to a large and diverse customer base. It hopes to grow its package business by offering services for synchronized commerce, elping customers manage the flow of goods, information, and funds throughout their supply chains. For example, UPS developed Web-based software for DaimlerChrysler AG to manage centrally all parts moving to and from more than 4,500 dealerships. While expanding these services, UPS hopes to limit the rate at which expenses are growing. It is counting on information technology–driven efficiencies to increase its operating profit. In 2003, UPS announced plans to invest $600 million to simplify and optimize its package-sorting and delivery systems. Management believes that this systems investment will produce significant gains in efficiency, reliability, and flexibility. Once fully deployed in 2007 in over 1,000 UPS package-sorting facilities, these systems are expected to reduce operating costs by approximately $600 million each year. In 2003, UPS domestic operating profit declined $304 million, caused by both slow growth in revenue coupled with higher operating expenses. Higher costs for fuel and higher rents both played major roles in expense increases.