Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design

A conflict in any organization occurs when there is an involvement of many parties in duty performance. This happens because the parties concerned have different goals and interests to accomplish. In many organizational structures, different conflicts may arise such as fund allocation, terms of employment, retrenchments and promotions.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This mostly occurs when one business is liable to another, such as the government or business partners. The directors and stakeholders of the firm are in charge of decision-making. The employees implement the decision with the help of supervisors or departmental heads. This usually depends on the organizational structure of the individual entity. The structure divides the firm into elements of similar abilities and skills. These elements may include accounts, h uman resource, and production departments. Firms must always avoid conflict of interest since they cause operational problems (Learmonth, 2006). A conflict may arise when a given department performs better than the others in service delivery to their customers regardless of the underlying drivers. The management will put more effort into this department, and allocate more funds to improve its performance. This creates a conflict of resource allocation since more reflects towards the most delivering department and management may overstate the allocations. More personnel shift to this department and may bring about the conflict among the employees and management, caused by allocation through relations and nepotism. Employees expect the management to give promotions to personnel within the organization. Conflicts arise when a person from outside the business entity takes a position at top management levels (Ury Fisher, 1998). Businesses also lay off employees in order to decrease expe nses. A conflict arises as to which employees to send off. Conflicts of interest also arise from the employee and management duties, where each of them requires jobs to meet deadlines as well as fairness to the employee, so as not to overload them and maintain timing. The organization at which I work is the Carolina Center for Behavioral Health. This institution has conflicts between physicians and clients because it is necessary for numerous interactions to occur between the patient and doctor for better service delivery. This, in turn, causes conflicts to arise from differences in personal expectations, responsibilities and insufficient resources, which are scarce.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Conflicts in this institution also arise from among the physicians, the management team and physicians and between other professionals and the physicians (Hellriegel Slocum, 2010). There arises competition for the scarce resources in the entity, and as to whether personal physicians can act as referrals or which would be the best source of their decision-making. This deteriorates the trust among physicians in resource allocation since the most salient issues is not aligned. Conflict resolution occurs through the correction of differences between the parties involved. A conflict may be positive or negative. Negotiation as a method of conflict resolution involves creating a gap between people and the problem, generation of ideas that give options, following interests, laying out of goals and objectives, and using gains to define success. An integrative approach allows the discovery of mutual gains and fair standards for decision making on challenging issues. It uses several stages to resolve conflict between the parties. First, the parties lay down their similar goals that led to the conflict. They then remove the personalization of the problem and make it professional as per the situation. A study on the driving factor occurs in the demand brought in by an interest. The parties then use creativity to bring mutual gain options that bring satisfaction to all that improves the situation. This happens using the facts and data analysis as the nature of the physician profession (Hellriegel Slocum, 2010). In order to implement the negotiation strategy to resolve a conflict, the physicians have to put into consideration various factors. The committee formed has to be free of conflicts by ensuring that all members are aware of their roles and to whom the decision-making role lays. The parties whom the conflict concerns should be the sole members of the committee and it should involve physicians with rich information on the issue at hand.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In any me dical institution, Evidence based management should be instituted since it deals with facts for decision-making. This arose since there are many differences between physicians such as culture and decision making processes used. Managers and students in health care institutions receive education on evidence based management practices. Managers are diverse and dynamic because of their wide scope of knowledge that enables them to be reliable in making judgments. Evidence based management requires careful and thorough analysis of data used for decision-making that staff record on the organizational functioning. It requires managers to share and record problems through a wide range of research and experiments before making decisions. This gives them time to discuss the problem related facts and a choice on the best research analysis by managers and employees. Evidence based management should be instituted at all levels of the organization structure. All new and old members of staff shoul d be trained on how to use massive research to come up with decisions. This will ensure that the whole institution at large embraces the use of evidence-based management. Physicians should use facts from previous research to administer drugs to their patients and make new experiments before giving prescriptions on new cases. This will boost the overall credibility of the institution to its clients and stakeholders. The staff in the organization move into the community of concern for their patients come from and collects data on issues affecting them. This can be conducted using cheap experiments that the organization can afford. It also requires that the institution acquire a license granting it permission to collect public data. The management should be flexible to accept junior staff facts that will assist the institution to deliver quality services to its clients. When a decision takes position, experiments occur to prove the decision’s efficiency to work. This practice en sures that decisions made are effective and that only the best methods used in conducting a given activity.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It also removes the use of believers to administer professional services and reduces the risk of drawbacks from work done by the use of latest experiment results. Physicians should ensure that the cure to a given problem is appropriate and that it has minimal side effects (Hellriegel Slocum, 2010). The management should institute evidence-based management by demanding evidence from the physicians on decisions made. The physicians should be discouraged from using experience knowledge to administer drugs and prescriptions to patients. This goes hand in hand with the use of personal information from own ideologies that emanate from own experiences or those of close relatives. The staff and management should also eliminate their personal preferences that market drugs from companies believed to be the best. The experiments should prove which drugs are best for a given ailment. The market forces of demand and supply should neither be a factor in making a choice in the administration of s ervices nor the desire to follow known professional’s decisions. The managers should embrace originality from all staff members regardless of their rank. This ensures that promotions rewarded to personnel create equality, thus promoting equity in the firm and preventing conflict opportunities. Creative decision-making involves selection of an action plan from many alternatives to arrive at a solution through generation of many ideas. It makes use of critical thinking, open mindedness and the desire to explore new discoveries from any source. It involves laying out objectives systematically, evaluation of alternative course of action and selection of the best action plan. It prevents the management from bias by their personal interests in a given issue that physicians are handling. This process is difficult since it is time consuming to come up with a solution. This may cause the managerial team not to exhaust all the merits and demerits of the proposed solutions thus, the bes t alternative is implemented. Creative decision-making process involves a series of processes. The first step is lying out of goals and objectives. This presents a focus on the expected outcome to the managerial team. The institution secretary makes the records in the minutes of the meeting. The decision makers then gather data through collection methods such as questionnaires, observation and sampling. This involves using supervisors and departmental heads to issue out the questionnaires or observes the employees, depending on the preferred data collection method chosen. The third step involves bringing the collected data together. Solutions emanate from the data to increase the scope from which to choose. An analysis of each solution and the merits and demerits of each follows. In the next step, the managers choose the solution that has the most merits and lay off those that have more demerits than merits. The management thus makes a decision follow the best alternative. An action takes place through implementing the chosen solution into the problem. It involves communication of the procedures to follow to the members of staff, directions and guidelines. The management then observes the effect of implementing the chosen solution through demanding of reports from the members of staff (Cummings, 2009). Creative decision-making involves the use of several methods to arrive at the solution. The consensus method uses group work to project the most preferred solution to an organizational problem. It is the best fit for use by institutions and organizations. The systematic method involves the detailed evaluation of all possible action plans one at a time to arrive at the best. The individualistic method of decision-making occurs when only an individual comes up with the solution. The limited procrastination method uses time to sharpen its facts. The decision occurs after a long time has expired, so that all facts pop out and the situation analyzed for effective dec ision-making. The intuitive method of making decisions occurs immediately after problem identification. Professions such as physicians use it in development of an immediate and urgent solution. The health institution environment does not have a highly competitive market for being a private firm. The private firm values its customers by providing the best services to them in exchange of high profit returns. This ensures that there is a stable environment to the market forces from competitors and suppliers. The customers’ needs and availability of resources to cater for the will influence the organization structure. The best structure to the health institution would be formal, since flexibility limits occur through the physician’s responsibility to the client. A more horizontal organization design or matrix structure would be useful according to the health institutional business strategy. This is because the staff in the health center divides according to the skills they have to tackle their clients. References Cummings, T. (2009). Organization Development and Change. London: Routledge. Hellriegel, D., Slocum, J. W. (2007). Organizational behavior. New York: Cengage Learning. Learmonth M. (2006). Evidence-Based Management: The very idea. Journal of Public  Administration. 84 (2), 245- 266. Ury, W. Fisher, R. (1998). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.  New York: Penguin Books. This case study on Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design was written and submitted by user Brady W. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Research Paper on Skateboarding

Research Paper on Skateboarding Life is full of adventures and surprises. Being able to find out what you do best is very exciting. Many people work at jobs they hate, and some people live the life of their dreams. Considering that I don’t want to become a person doing something that they dislike for the rest of their lives, I have already found what I love to do and what I will do for the rest of my life. Skateboarding is very challenging, and I always like a challenge. Whether it’s learning a new trick or doing a trick over an obstacle, it’s all challenging. Trying to learn new tricks is hard, but in the end, it is never regretted. Landing new tricks was the most fun; however, it took lots of patience and work. After landing tricks, or just skating around, you start to make new friends. A lot of people notice you if you land a big trick, and then you start to get noticed. Even if you don’t skate big obstacles, you still make friends. Every time I go skate, I prepare myself for the new challenges, tricks, and friends to meet because skateboarding is a way of life. Skating alone is very hard; furthermore, making friends helps a lot. Making friends is a must, and it is very easy. Everybody is pretty much friends with everybody. Age doesn’t matter, because we all have one thing in common, which is skateboarding. No one has to be the same age to have fun with someone else doing the same thing. I have friends that are 7 years old to 30 years old, and neither one is more important than the other; however, sometimes the older skaters can drive you around to other skate spots, but that still does not make anybody more valuable than another. I can just film somebody else, help somebody else, or applause for someone when they land a trick, and a friend is made. Skateboarding brings a lot of people together. Just riding around on your skateboard is fun; however, learning to do some tricks is a lot more fun. That is exactly what I do everyday when I go skating. This makes skating so much more fun. Learning new tricks can be hard, but in the end, it’s very much worth it. When I first started skateboarding, I learned an ollie, which is the very first trick you learn because it is the most basic and is used to learn every other trick. From there, I would just watch skateboard videos and try to learn from the pros. Until I could do a trick, trying to figure out how they did it was the hard part, but when I finally found out how it was done I would become excited and try to land it for hours. Whenever I would land the trick, I’d become very proud of myself and practice the trick more. When you land a trick you have never done before, it forces you to want to learn more. After you learn a trick you can show it to friends and show off if you wanted to. It’s just so much fun to learn new tricks. New tricks can be made up or you can just learn tricks that have already been made. Skateboarding has an endless possibility of tricks to be made. There are just so many variations of one trick, or sometimes you can mix two or more tricks together and you just go crazy with it. When you learn new tricks, you can bring those tricks to new obstacles which make skateboarding even more fun. While learning new tricks, of course, there are harder ones and easy ones. That is what makes skateboarding challenging. Once you learn a trick, you usually will take it up a notch and try it down a bigger stair set, or try a bigger handrail. When you have friends around it helps to get you pumped up; however, sometimes you can get nervous if too many people are around because you don’t want to fall and embarrass yourself, but its all part of skateboarding. I love to try new tricks on new obstacles, because when you land it, feel like you are the best and you can learn anything. The challenge makes it harder; moreover, also makes it more worth it when you land it. If there was no challenge, then it would get boring For instance, once you learn a kickflip, you will be happy that you can land it on the flat ground. Later on, it will get boring, and also get very easy, so then you would try it down maybe a 4 stair. That makes it harder because you have to catch the trick in midai r and keep it underneath your feet. When you land, the impact is much greater; furthermore, you will need more balance when you land and you have to be ready to absorb the impact. Just picking myself up and trying to land the trick over and over makes you want to land it more and when you do, the feeling is indescribable. Anything is possible in skateboarding. I always keep these words in me, â€Å"Where there is a will, there is a way†; because it helps me realize that you can overcome any challenge that is blocking your way. Trying to become the best of your ability is the most fun, yet is also the hardest challenge there is. Just being able to keep making skateboarding harder and giving yourself a challenge once in a while is fun. Discovering skateboarding was the best thing that has ever happened to me. I started skateboarding, because I loved it, and that’s how you progress, loving what you’re doing. The days that I don’t skate I am preparing myself for the effort it takes to pick myself up and try a trick over and over again till I land it. I think when you land a trick, that is what keeps you going in skateboarding; likewise, makes you want to go pro, or make you want to go even further in skateboarding. It makes you go beyond your natural abilities and make friends along the way. Just being able to jump on your board, make new friends, do whatever you want to do, no one telling you what to do or when to do it, and knowing when you land a new trick, you conquered your board, your board didn’t conquer you.

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 15

Human Resource Management - Essay Example Once a top executive realises that no matter how hard he struggles for his organisation, all he will receive is his fixed salary, the performance levels of the executive will begin to recede. The removal of incentive is effectively the removal of motivation on the job for such positions. It must also be realised that when such executives join office their primary motivation is the challenge posed by the new position. Once an executive figures out how to manage the new position, the real motivation begins to disappear from the job. In order to keep motivation on the job to a high level, it would be desirable to use a fixed and variable pay structure to serve as the executive’s motivation. On another note, this pay structure aids in ensuring that the executive treats his job more seriously than before because his financial stakes are involved with the performance of the organisation. While it may be considered as cumbersome by some top executives but this model ensures that the organisation pays the executive back in proportion to their

Helen Levitt's Images of Urban Space in the 30s and 40s Essay

Helen Levitt's Images of Urban Space in the 30s and 40s - Essay Example In what way do challenge that tradition? Helen Levitt was a renowned photographer in New York that was especially famous for her interest in street photography that specifically focused on children. Her focus on children developed while she was an art teacher back in 1937 and she had close interaction with the transition children experienced while in the New York streets. Due to her closeness and sometimes working relationship with some other highly rated photographers, Levitt was mentored by photographers such as Walker Evans, and some traits of her work seem to be borrowed from some of her mentors. This first section of the paper will look at one of Levitt’s best-known and appreciated untitled photographic work that would be referred to as Children in New York City for purposes of reference (Levitt, 3). The photograph Children in New York City represents three children, notably two boys and one girl at the doorway of what is believed to be their household. The masks they ado rn depict that it is Halloween time, a tradition observed on 31st October on the night preceding All Saints’ Day. At the bottom stair to the doorway is a boy adorning a jacket, a pair of shorts and with a relaxed stance of crossed legs while holding the staircase rail. He is masked and looks out on the street. The child in the middle is also a masked boy that has his legs on two different levels of the stairs, one where the bottom boy is and one where the other child stands. This boy is wearing long pants with seemingly a matching top. At the top is a girl with a dress trying to put on her mask in a bid to join the others. The building is made of brick evidenced by the appearance on the right of the viewer, with a glass-paneled door seeming to reflect the opposite side of the streets. Superficially, this photograph could be dismissed off as simply showing children that were getting ready for a possible trick or treat practice during the Halloween celebrations. However, there is more of the photograph than appears to the eye. This is one aspect of photography that Levitt seems to have borrowed from one of her greatest mentor, Walker Evans, who thrived to do photography that was educative, inspiring and authoritative. A deeper look and interpretation could derive more than what meets the eye of Levitt’s photography. In as much as the tone of the attire reflected an innocent desire of the awaiting excitement, rather exuberance, for the three children, the positioning of the kids on the stairs and the state of their masking shows a transition that would pass by many viewers. Only a portrait of the awaiting fun moment would pass most minds. However, this is still a fundamental depiction that reflected the enthusiasm that existed in the late 1930s during such festivals. The other perspective of the photograph depicts how isolation of kids at a young age would lead them astray in the absence of the responsible caretakers. Exposure of the children to var ious grown aspects of life might have taught them already too much than their age limits allow. The various steps down the doorway could reveal the various stages the children undergo in their transition from innocent life to a completely dishonest life most adults led. The furthest child from the doorway indicates complete alienation from the caretakers or rather parents and his composure with fully worn masks depicts acceptance into a deceitful world. The cunning look towards the

Nursing research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 53

Nursing research - Essay Example Consequently, this approach of conducting shifts handover, and the eventual participation of students in their care improved patients’ satisfaction in the care provided in my work place.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Communication is a crucial component in the contemporary society. In an organizational setting, programs cannot succeed without proper communication among the people involved in working to implement the programs. In line with this, it is essential for hospital leaders to ensure that they provided an environment that enhanced effective communication in order to ensure that the programs were implemented in a seamless approach. Importantly, it should be noted that communication involves many factors with feedback being an critical component of communication. In this case, feedback helps the two people communicating understand whether the message was passed effectively, which should be reflected in the way that the activity is

Does Class Size Matter?

Does Class Size Matter? Does class size affect a students performance in school? Both sides could be argued upon, but neither would win without the proper evidence defending their side. Here is the evidence to put this debate to rest, class size does affect academic performance. Smaller class for a student as well as for teachers are a good thing. Research supports the common-sense notion that children learn more and teachers are more effective in smaller classes. (General OneFile) Its common sense that smaller class are more effective for students to learn and teachers to help their students. The larger the class, the least likely it is for the teacher of the class to give every student the help they need. For a student to be able to succeed the teacher has to be able to help them until they understand on their own enough to handle it by themselves. The more the teacher is able to help, the more they learn and the more they learn, the more they will achieve in their futures. Studies have shown that small classes have a beneficial effect on the academic achievement of children from low-income families and those learning English as a second language (ESL). These are the students that the majority of educators are increasingly dealing with. Not only were small classes studied, but large ones as well. The findings show that overcrowded classrooms are associated with lower student achievement as confirmed by reading and mathematics competency tests. (Robert J. Rios) Test scores show that smaller classes are effective at bettering achievements of low income and minority students. Smaller classes help low-income and minority students learn better as well as faster. Larger classes are could be very harmful to students both educationally and financially. The evidence suggests that increasing class size will harm not only childrens test scores in the short run, but also their long run human capital formation. Money saved today by increasing class sizes will result in more substantial social and educational costs in the future. (Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach) Raising the size of a class will effect a students test scores as well as hurting them in the long run money wise. Saving money now by increasing class size now will hurt the student in the long run. Its not good for the schools to cut cost now by making class sizes bigger, to effect the student later by having to spend more money to get where they needed to be in the first place. Class size is an important determinant of student outcomes, and one that can be directly determined by policy. All else being equal, increasing class sizes will harm student outcomes. (Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach) Incr eased student numbers in universities coupled with reduced resources have often resulted in larger class sizes, thus encouraging a reversion of the traditional style of delivery and a reduction in small group and tutorial contact in short, less interactive teaching and learning. (William Duncan Papo) By increasing student class sizes in schools to reduce resource use has often resulted in the reduction of interactive teaching and learning,ÂÂ   you would be decreasing the time that the students could possibly need with the teacher, but not being able to have because there would be too many students to get that opportunity. Raising class size could potentially hurt a students outcomes of achievement educationally. [If you use endnotes, they should be on a separate page, at the end of your text and preceding the list of works cited. If you use footnotes, consult your professor for preferred format.] Class Size Change From Elementary to High School Average Class Sizes: Elementary Class Size Middle School Class Size High School Class Size Average Class 21 16 17 Source: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/tables/sass1112_2013314_t1s_007.aspAs you see class size greatly effects a student academically as well as capitally. Policymakers should take into account the facts that students learn better and fast in smaller classes where the teacher can get to all her students. Works Cited Bonesronning, Hans. Class Size Effects on Student Achievement in Norway: Patterns and Explanations. Southern Economic Journal 69.4 (2003): 952. General OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2017. Class-Size Reduction: Better Than You Think. PRWeb Newswire 18 Feb. 2014: n. pag. General OneFile. Web. 7 Feb. 2017. Guillemette, Yvan. School Class Size: Smaller Isnt Better. C.D. Howe Institute Commentary 15 Aug. 2005: n. pag. General OneFile. Web. 7 Feb. 2017. Johnson, Laurene. Does Class Size Really Matter? District Administration Oct. 2011: 104. General OneFile. Web. 6 Feb. 2017. PAPO, WILLIAM DUNCAN. LARGE CLASS TEACHING: IS IT A PROBLEM TO STUDENTS? College Student Journal 33.3 (1999): 354. General OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2017. Rios, Robert J. School of Education at Johns Hopkins University-Class Size: Does It Really Matter? Does It Really Matter? N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2017. Schanzenbach, Diane W., Professor. Does Class Size Matter? National Education Policy Center. N.p., Feb. 2014. Web. 07 Feb. 2017. Table 7.Average Class Size in Public Primary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, and Schools with Combined Grades, by Classroom Type and State: 2011-12. Table 7.Average Class Size in Public Primary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, and Schools with Combined Grades, by Classroom Type and State: 2011-12. Schools and Staffing Survey, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2017. Is Education the Best Solution to Poverty? Is Education the Best Solution to Poverty? For majority of African children, education represents the only solution of a life of rooted poverty. Across the continent, a large number of children currently survive on less than one dollar a day. Children who can read, write and do some arithmetic can hope to get better paid job in future. But school is much more than just job skills. It plays an increasingly important role helping children protect themselves against the diseases which can destroy poor communities. Simple information on day-to-day hygiene and prevention saves lives and keeps the families together. Finally,ÂÂ  school builds cohesiveness, community and confidence. Educated children are less chance to become victims of violence and abuse. They are more likely to invest in improving their community when they are grown. And the follow-on effects of even basic education quickly multiply, as children who have benefited from schooling themselves strive to secure even better opportunities for their own families. In Africa, its common for schools be shut down because of wars and political turmoil. Genocide in Darfur, civil war in Liberia, war in Cote dIvoire and economic strife in Zimbabwe have all shut down schools and disadvantaged students. Schools in many countries in Africa are plagued with corruption, cheating and violence. Schools are also short on teachers and supplies. Even though education is free, compulsory until age 15 and schools also provide a nutrition and HIV/AIDS awareness program still education is interrupted by violence in many African countries.ÂÂ  In order to improve the education systems throughout Africa, efforts have to be made to stop the violence and wars by implementing economic sanctions and arms embargos. The financial crisis had halted improvements in education for children in impoverished countries. If education budgets are not protected from the ravages of the financial crisis all the progress could be jeopardized and generations will be condemned to poverty. ÂÂ  More than $4 billion annually would be lost from education budgets in sub-Saharan Africa due to the impact of the global economic crisis which accounts to around 15% drop in resources for each primary school student. Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation in Africa. Usually it is a child under the age of 5. Poverty hits children the hardest. While a severe lack of goods and services hurts every human, it is most threatening to childrens rights: survival, health and nutrition, education, participation, and protection from harm and exploitation. It creates an environment that is damaging to childrens development in every way mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.ÂÂ  More than 1 billion children are deprived of at least one of the essential goods and services they require to survive, grow and develop. They have no access to sanitation facilities and not even safe water which causes about 4000 deaths per day. Efforts should be made to provide safe water and helps displaced communities replace or find new water resources and build latrines. There should be awareness and monitoring of the issues likeÂÂ  risk of abduction, sexual violence and exploitation of children, struggle fo r shelter, education etc. and tougher laws for child exploiters. Population Explosion is another factor which compels to provide more stress on education in Africa. The underlying cause for prevailing problems such as population increase, poverty and high mortality rates is low or no education for women in Africa. There would be no development advancement unless women received education. In impoverished areas of Africa, it is still a practice to place priority on boys schooling, while girls are expected to help with housework or farming. Women who have no or little chance of receiving an education are usually forced to marry at a young age, which often leads to multiple childbirths in uncertain conditions and often end up with no knowledge of how to save themselves from the risk of infection or HIV. So ultimately it makes more difficult for mothers to give due consideration to the nutrition, health and hygiene of their babies. Family planning to control the population explosion and improvement in health systems facilities are needed in those impov erished areas. Educated Women are likely to marry late and have healthy babies. They would be more fruitful to family in financially and health wise. All these challenges emphasize the need to provide quality education which will be cost effective and will encompass all masses. Use of latest technological innovations can make this possible. Use of technologies like Distance education and language translation can provide students with education in their language and at their own pace. Making use of Unified Software engine using Software Stability Model will help in designing and building systems that are stable, scalable and long lasting. Also using these technologies the requirement for large infrastructures is largely reduced thereby reducing their cost. As imparting education using advanced technologies does not require the presence of instructor on the site, students can avail seamless education at their own convenience. This will reduce their dependency on presence of a trained facilitator. Using graphical and visual tools the quality of education received by these deprived masses can be greatly enhanced. As rapid growth in te chnological development, more and more tools and innovations can be utilized to improve quality of education distribution. To deal with the challenges faced by students in Africa we need to follow few measures to overcome them which are as follows: 1. Distance Education Distance education is a technology that aims to deliver education to students who are physically not present at the educational site. It helps students to gain access to learning material even if the educator or learning material and the learner are separated by time or distance or both. This technology is being widely used across the world by many universities and educational institutions. It provides students the freedom to study from home and study at their own convenient time. Studies prove that due to prevalent economic crisis in many countries in the African continent there is a substantial decrease in budget devoted to development of educational systems. These countries have to manage their scarce budgets to provide quality education to students. This emphasizes the need to develop educational systems that require less cost to develop and maintain but at the same time do not compromise on the quality of education. Use of technologies like Distance education which require less cost and still provide good quality of education are the key. Distance education technology will help in reaching the deprived students in Africa who either cannot attend schools due to poverty or they are living very far away from school or educational center. Schools that have substantial funds can invest in providing facilities required for distance learning like computers and internet connection. Distance education makes use of material reuse and the material can be stored for long duration so distance education does not need much infrastructure to maintain and reduce the cost of the whole educational system. Different classes of women who are otherwise deprived of any form of formal education can benefit largely from distance education facilities. Women who are housewives are required to be at home all the time can sit at home and study without causing any disturbance in their marriage and keep on taking care of their children while studying. Another group of women who are denied education because it requires face to face interaction with facilitators will greatly benefit from distance education as they can pursue education by keeping safe distance from the instructors and still access quality education. Women who are uneducated but working to provide for their family can benefit from learning at their own convenience and time. It will increase their self- esteem and also help them to enhance their career through education. This project will provide students with a website accessing which students can register and create user accounts .They can log in to these accounts and register for courses they are interested in. They can access the material that they require online and also log in to attend online classes provided on the site. The University Of South Africa (UNISA) is one such institution that provides boost to higher education. It is one of the largest institutions in the world that boasts over 120,000 registered students studying for qualifications, through the doctoral level. 2. Language Translation Languages play an important role in learning process. Many of the African countries that are multilingual are unable to access technology because of the language barrier. The language of propagation of technology is different from their native language. Hence they cannot use the services provided by these technologies. Language translation tools are tools that can be used to convert learning materials, documents and also web pages from English language into some other language of interest. If the educational and other important content available on the internet is not provided in local language then it is of no use of this information. Extensive use of any particular language in importance correspondences like government notices, tenders, and official invitations can cause ignorance about their rights among people. Language here is not only a means of communication but also has social impact. Use of language translation tools to convert learning material into native languages can remove the need for students to study a number of foreign languages. Progress of students will also be faster as the material in their native language will be easy to understand than any foreign language. Thus poor people who have very less opportunities for gaining education can make most of it. This will speed up their learning process and increase their chances of availing higher education and consequently earn better living. Uneducated population of women is one of the causes leading to population explosion in Africa. When a woman is educated she can take care of whole family and herself. Women need to be educated about day-to-day hygiene requirements and health concerns. They should be able to understand the need for proper care of babies which will help decrease infant mortality rate. Education facilities are made available to women in their native languages through use of Language Translation tools. Learning about important issues through their own mother tongue can have lasting effect on these women even if they are not very educated. This project will provide facility to translate available material in selected languages. Registered users can submit the document that they wish to get translated in any of the language available. They can then access the material in the language they are comfortable with. Among a number of organizations that provide language translation, web-lingo is one such organization based in South Africa. This organization offers both technical as well as nontechnical translation solutions to web development and software companies to translate their content into and from about 85 languages. One of their projects includes a program that runs on top of standard Microsoft Office Software. 3. Seamless Education: Seamless Education system as one that represents an integrated concept of education that stretches from early childhood through a four-year college degree .It breaks down between high school and college, academics and career/technical education and public education and the workplace. The purpose of seamless education is to prepare capable citizens, whether or not they attend school or college. So teachers align courses and create interdisciplinary projects. It is an effort to increase high school completion rates, test scores, school/college enrollment, job placements, economic conditions, family support. The key to economic development is an educated workforce. If Africans have to lead a better life they must equip their children and grandchildren with the skills needed to be educated and employed. A seamless system of education will ensure that we have an educated and prepared workforce to overcome all the challenges hindering their growth and development. Education is key to all issues. If our next generation is educated they can be employed and will work at well-paid jobs. If finance is there economic conditions, health conditions, sanitation, poverty all will certainly improve. The major challenge is to make education easily accessible to everyone in the continent. This can be very well accomplished with seamless education system. Teachers from all over world should be invited to map out which concepts should be taught and when will those be taught. The basic classes such as English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies should be must. To start with preschoolers should be encouraged. Women Education should be encouraged. Educational authorities envision a seamless education system starting with early childhood progressing through general education and training, higher and adult education. Another issue is that a large number of students enroll in fields of commerce and health science. This creates a major imbalance between arts and humanities on one hand and technology and science on the other hand. The output of graduates in fields of science and technology should increase to balance the ratio between technical and university students. It is believed that seamless education will help in improving the balance to a significant extent. Health Conditions can also improve by providing education in fields of medicine. Access to quality medicines are needed to improve health conditions. So access to get quality treatment should be in range of affordability, acceptability and physical availability. Proper training to workforce is needed to coordinate medicines management from doctor level to patient level. Unfortunately pharmacists and pharmacy support personnel are very few in Africa. Trainings are also provided but at insufficient scale. So the fundamental solution to scale up health conditions is to increase number of qualified pharmacists via higher education via seamless education system. Some of the major goals of a Seamless System can be as: Smoothing student transitions from one level of learning to the next. Closing the achievement gap between white and minority students. Balancing the ratio of technical and human science students. Strengthening relationships between families and schools. Creating a wider range of learning experiences and opportunities for students in the final two years of high school. Improving institutes readiness and success. 4. Animations and Visualizations: The challenge to provide education to students is how to educate them to have a solid impact in their learning. In layman terms, Animations, a type of optical illusion, are graphical displays that evolve overtime. ÂÂ  It could be drawing, objects, or people in various positions of additive movement. However, when played, it produces a stream of unbroken motion of images. Consisting of a series of drawings or photographs on paper, animation can be viewed with a mechanical device or flipping through hand-held sequence of images. Animations could be seen on films, video, or computers. Visualizations on other hand include static display of graphical images. Visualizations can absorb a lot of information and display in a manner so that it memorizes. ÂÂ  AnimationÂÂ  has a place in learning and instructional applications .Programs that use animations or visualizations attract student interest and offer feedback that can enhance different learning styles. Animation is a great classroom activity, allowing teachers and students to explore and develop a more creative time table in Math, Science, English and many topic areas. Being fun, creative and hands-on learning, animation encourages both teachers and students as they use simple IT practice, and is uniquely suited to all classrooms. The online centers website will be been designed to share examples, resources, ideas and approaches to animation in education. All the animation films featured will be available to students and teachers to enhance the learning process. Animation can used to provide extra help where it is needed. Content related graphics (both static and animation) and video can help improve student attitudes and motivation in certain subjects, mainly mathematics and science. Technical Feasibility of the project : All the above technologies proposed that will be used in the building of the project are available in the market. Labor requirements for the project: The project will require Senior level management including Project manager and Professional staff including Software developers and Analysts. Office staff is required to manage the centers. Physical location of the project: It will require a center where students can visit. The center must be located in Africa. Technology Requirements: Computer Hardware and Software: The project will require computer systems with latest configurations and software. A database server and networking technology to connect client and server machines is required. Also some basic systems that can be used by students to access the material and information is needed. Internet connection: High speed internet connection is required. Commercial feasibility: Funds will be acquired from Education committees that work towards development of education in Africa as well as from other developed countries that allot funds in their budgets to help educational systems in Africa. Technical Challenges: Selecting location of the education center in Africa. If no internet facility is available in remote areas, then towers will be needed for providing internet connection. Commercial Potential : The investment done in the project will help to provide quality education to students in Africa. Although there will be no tangible profit the return on our investment will be obtained by achieving development of African countries through spread of education

Hafford furniture Essay

A Crisis at Hafford Furniture: Cloud Computing Case study MMBA 507 Student ID: 300333323 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION Hafford Furniture was a furniture manufacturer since 1970, supplying to furniture retailers, wholesalers and occasionally one-time bulk purchasers across the United States. Hafford relied on a Business Information System (BIS) to handle all the internal business processes. The BIS was seamlessly connected to a VAN-based EDI system, which served as the customer’s interface for making orders. In 2008, Hafford’s entire IT infrastructure and data storage were destroyed by a massive hurricane. Hafford was able to restore the company data with its disaster recovery plan, but not all its IT function. In March 2009, VP of IT proposed in a management meeting to adopt SaaS cloud solution to restore the IT function. Hafford could access to the same BIS without having to worry about the cost to rebuild another IT data centre. He projected that the IT staff strength could be halved, as the cloud vendor would take care of the management of the software’s platform and its infrastructure. The next day, the president of Hafford ignored the internal decision-making protocol and contracted their disaster recovery vendor, PFI Services for that same cloud service. In January 2010, Hafford was faced with appalling sales report for the year before, mostly caused by bottlenecks in the ordering system supported by PFI. Not only was the cloud capability insufficient, PFI was also filing for bankruptcy and undergoing liquidation. Hafford once again fell into a desperate situation. REVIEW OF KEY ISSUES Management issues Lack of Corporate governance The weak corporate governance in Hafford is especially notable in the fundamental change process. While there was an internal policy for creating a fundamental change in Hafford (Fig 1), Feckle, the President, had ignored it by entering into a cloud contract without consulting any of his top management, just one day after the premature proposal was shared with him. It was extremely risky to make such a significant business decision without sufficient knowledge in the service that he engaged. To make a well-informed decision, Feckle should have adhered to the corporate policy and trusted the IT professionals to evaluate and recommend a suitable vendor. Figure 1 Fundamental change policy 2. Failure to think critically during decision-making It is understood that Hafford used to adopt a VAN-based EDI-system specifically due to its security, despite it being slower and more costly. In Norris’ proposal for using cloud, he altered the company’s priority by pushing for an internet-based EDI-system, without providing solid justification. Questions like â€Å"will the internet-based EDI change the business in any way?† or â€Å"will it compromise customers’ security? † were not asked. The management seemed to have accepted this change too easily, without understanding its impacts. This concern should have been analysed more thoroughly before concluding to transit to an internet-based EDI-system. 3. Poor understanding of business needs The IT obj ective was not fully aligned with the business objectives. For example, in 2009, while the company was expecting a 30-35% increase in sales due to the efforts in a series of product improvements, the IT team was preparing a cloud proposal to the company basing only on the old IT functions. It had missed out on considering how it could support an explosive sales surge. Furthermore, Hafford was switching its VAN-based EDI to an internet-based EDI, which could potentially allow Hafford to widen its reach to attract a new group of SME customers. This could play a part in increasing their sales. However, Hafford did not foresee these changes, likely due to lack of communication between departments within Hafford. IT issues 1. Lack of thorough analysis in cloud computing The IT team failed to conduct due diligence in exploring all possible solutions that could meet its needs. While cloud offered great advantages for the company, it might have been too hasty to consider only private cloud as the final solution. In fact, public, private or hybrid cloud offered different potentials and could achieve the goal within competitive cost as well. The IT team should also have analysed each cloud model against its business needs before determining if software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or a combination of services would work best. 2. Lack of on-going management While cloud is said to be flexible, it demands some level of active management to harness the most of it after implementation. The IT team should be able to react quickly to resolve problems like the order bottleneck or a data lock-in. Besides, the IT team should have been more vigilant in ensuring business continuity for the company. RECOMMENDATION The key failure observed in the case was the lack of understanding in cloud computing and the lack of communication in the company. Like any other business decisions, the management should have exercised prudence by developing clear objectives and analysing the opportunities and threats before arriving at its conclusion. In this section, a recommended methodology to approach Hafford’s IT restoral problem is presented. Step 1. To develop business objectives The most important step is to approach a business problem with a clear business objective. It will be necessary for the management to look at the restoral of the IT centre as a collaborative business problem. Communication within the organisation is crucial in aligning all the stakeholders’ goals. With effective teamwork, the IT will appreciate the business values better and be able to analyse the suitability of various options. Step 2. To compare various viable options The IT team should research on what the available solutions are, before zeroing into a particular infrastructure option. While the restoral of a physical data centre may be expensive, there may be payment structures that could help reduce the impact. On the other hand, cloud computing may appear cheaper but it inextricably exposes users to a range of risks, especially in the aspect of security. Also, there are hybrid options that can minimise risk while offering cost benefit. In short, the IT team should fully understand the merits and shortcomings of the following options before selecting the IT infrastructure. 1. Public cloud 2. Hybrid cloud 3. Private cloud 4. Public cloud – Physical data centre 5. Physical data centre Step 3. To choose the suitable cloud service model There are three common service models in cloud computing. It is important to evaluate each model’s attributes and determine which cloud model would be more suitable for the business needs. 1. Software as a service (SaaS) To understand threats and opportunities of cloud computing Cloud computing offers the following powerful advantages but also opens a gateway to a wide range of threats. 1. Elasticity – Usage-based pricing model, charging users only for the capacity used – Scalability in terms of network and speed depending on demand 2. Simplicity – Setting up and maintaining a data centre can take significant manpower. Cloud computing offers convenient and economical business solutions to clients, while taking advantage of the economy of scale by taking care of one specialised area in bulk. 3. Cost-efficiency – No capital cost required. Companies benefit from the transference of risk (of over-provisioning and under-provisioning) of investing in a private data centre. While accepting these benefits from cloud, users should also exercise due diligence by being aware of all the possible problems cloud computing brings. Some of the crucial problems are outlined as follows. 1. Business continuity There is always a risk with placing valuable business information with a single third party. As such, the best way to go about is to even out the risk by employing multiple cloud providers and devising a business continuity strategy should any of them fail. Data lock-in It would be risky for a company to be unable to easily extract their data and programmes from one cloud provider to another due to compatibility issues of the programme and data from one cloud provider. In order to mitigate this risk, SaaS developer could use standardised API so that the business can remain flexible and mobile. 3. Data security While most cloud providers invest a considerable amount of attention on managing security, users should assess the security standards adopted by the cloud provider against their requirements before engaging it. 4. Insufficient capacity Although it is said that cloud is scalable, in rare occasions, businesses may experience traffic surges beyond what their contracted cloud can offer. Hence, it is important to strategize carefully before deciding on the cloud service. Step 5. Choosing the cloud vendor After thorough analysis and establishing a clear description for the cloud service needed, the user will have to evaluate the following factors to arrive at the most suitable vendor. 1. Pricing structure While cloud vendors typically follow a pay-as-you-use pricing model, pricing structure varies. For example, Google AppEngine charges users by the cycles used while AWS charges by the hour for the number of instances the user occupied. 2. Security Users need to look at a cloud service’s physical as well as network security. This refers to the physical location the cloud provider houses its equipment and network security measures like firewall and data encryption. Also, a cloud provider should be compliant to government standards specific to your business. In the case of Hafford Furniture, it was an auditing requirement for Hafford to ensure the cloud vendor is compliant with Statement on Auditing Standard No.70. 3. Other factors A clean record does not promise anything, it would be beneficial to also look at the vendor’s track record against available benchmark systems. Also, it would be helpful to have a vendor that can provide reasonably good service. Hence, it is important to know about the extent of customer support services, the setting up process and the ser vicing response and resolution time. Step 6. Engagement of cloud vendor and getting started During cloud rollout, especially from a different sort of data management, it would be common to face various teething problems. Cloud vendor should try to achieve seamless implementation, and companies might need to prepare their staff and/or customers should it affect their routine jobs significantly. Step 7. On-going active management of the cloud service Internal IT team should be continuously vigilant towards possible threats to ensure that the cloud service adopted by the company is safe and secure. Active backups of data must not be neglected. Also, internal feedback reviews could help the IT team understand the possible difficulties faced by the users, and also stay up to date with the company’s business initiatives.