Sam Houston Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sam Houston - Essay Example Sam Houston was born in the year 1793 in their plantation, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. During his boyhood, he acquired elementary education by attending a local school for a period less than six months. He migrated with his mother together with other siblings to Blount County in Tennessee when his father died in the year 1807. He joined a nearby academy and continued with his education reading more of classical literature. He refused his brothers attempts to work on the farm and in the store, in Maryville. The mother was a farmer, and they relied majorly on family labor since they could spend time on the farm during weekends and in the evenings after school. It is at this time that he ran away from home in 1809 and lived among the Cherokees. He joined the Army in the United States in the year 1813, and within a period of less than a year, he became promoted to the post of a third lieutenant. It was at this instance that he embarked on his career growth in the public sector before moving to Texas, where he ventured into politics. There is no doubt that Sam Houston had an immense contribution to the politics and laws of Texas. He moved into Texas in the year 1832, and this is where he began his leadership and political career. He served as a delegate at the Convention of 1833 under the leadership of Wharton H. William. He pursued a law practice while in Nacogdoches.... He became later elected as the President of Texas, defeating Austin F. Stephen. During his tenure in office, he effectively guided the state through many tribulations and trials. During his first term, he founded the town of Houston in 1836 which would be used as the capital city during his administration. He also put up various infrastructural facilities such as roads, schools and health facilities to improve the lives of people. He sought to demilitarize the republic of Texas by carefully furloughing the army. He also ensured that there was no trouble between the Indians and the white settlers. After leaving the office as Texas President after the first term, he served as a congressman in the House of Representatives from 1839 to 1841(Randolph 103). He opposed President Lamar’s expansionist tendencies and cruel measures toward the Indians. Houston succeeded President Lamar for his second term in office, in December 1841. He stressed financial transparency and considerably re duced offices and salaries for all government employees. This would be aimed at getting enough money to provide social amenities to the people. He established peace and unity with the Indian people by making several treaties. He also managed to avoid war with the people of Mexico. While serving as a Senator between the year1846 to 1859, Houston distinguished himself as a political leader who cared for humanity irrespective of race and the religion. He voted against slavery since he believed it was an ardent injustice to mankind. Sam Houston was an outstanding leader. He proved to be an intelligent and decisive leader who assisted Texas to secure independence. He also contributed in ensuring that the

Website Design for McBride Financial Essay Example for Free

Website Design for McBride Financial Essay Business Goals The main reason behind the development and implementation of a new system should be the value that it adds to the organization. No system, no matter how advanced or how many bells and whistles, is worth the cost in time and resources if it does not add value to the organization beyond the costs. For this reason, one business goal associated with this project is to increase the amount of website return traffic between 15-30% over the previous website. Adherence to the concepts of Coherence, Complexity, Legibility, and Mystery in the design of the website will be essential to accomplishing this goal (Rosen Purinton, 2004). The second business goal associated with this project will be to increase revenue between 20-25%. Information Technology Goals One goal with this project is to have a strong security backbone. Information Technology is advancing and growing by the minute. Without encryption, credentials sent can be easily intercepted and read by hackers, causing irreparable damage to the user and the website owners reputation (Eugene Teo, senior manager of security response at security software firm Symantec Singapore, 2014). Security will include monitoring internet  behavior, login and log on password rules, software update, and privacy of information. The other goal is to manage the website content. Managing the amount content on the website will create a visual and financial foundation which will be beneficial for the customer and owner. Elements of design and graphic which includes color, number of words per line, tastefully images, animation and/audio, images, and etc. Also music, color and lighting can influence the shopper to spend time and money (e.g., Herrington and Louis, 1994). These elements will attract customers to purchase items from the website. Attracted customers will be profitable for the company. Scope (Scope of the proposed information system to include functions that will be included in the project.) Potential Operational Problem One potential operational concern associated with this project would be the accuracy of information regarding the measurements. Customer surveys are certainly not suited to the type of real-time analysis that would be required to measure impressions and traffic generated through the website. This potential problem is however easily mitigated by the integration and utilization of analytic software in association with the redesigned website. Google Analytics can easily be integrated with the website and will provide complex reporting on the precise metrics we need to measure in regards to the business goals associated with this project. Site traffic is analyzed and aggregated to produce reports useful for comparing current traffic and past traffic. These reports can also track user impressions for various pages within the website and track the conversion rate for revenue generation (The Plymouth Evening Herald, 2014, para. 5-6). Potential Technical Problem Volume of information and data could become an issue during implementation. Developers are afraid to take out elements after piling elements over elements (Hamilton, 1999). Information overload should not result in the implementation. The design should be appealing to the customer and have an eye-catching affect. If the website is appealing, this could create a slower load of information for the customer. If there is a slow  load, the chances of luring customer on the site will be very low. Frustration is a major turnoff with customer. Conclusion. References Rosen, D.E., Purinton, E. (2004, July). Website design: Viewing the web as a cognitive landscape. Journal of Business Research, 57(7), 787-794. doi:10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00353-3 The importance of good website performance. (2014, Feb 05). The Plymouth Evening Herald Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1494524391?accountid=458 Herrington D, Louis M. Capella practical applications of music in service settings. J Serv Mark . 1994;8(3):50– 66 Hamilton, J. (1999,September 27), Clearing up web-site clutter. BusinessWeek e.biz 1999:e.biz EB88– EB90.

Tesco is biggest supermarket

Tesco is biggest supermarket INTRODUCTION Tesco is biggest supermarket chain in the U.K. it has more than 1700 stores in the U.K alone and has about 2318 stores in the whole world. It also sells its products through online Tesco.com. Tesco is the U.Ks largest retailers which operate through its branches under the name of Extra, Metro, superstore and Express. Political and other conditions of UK and European union has very much influence on the Tesco performance. Tesco employs a large number of students and disable people and elderly people and pays them in most cases lower wages. Consumers are getting to know about health issues and their approach in choosing the food product is increasingly changing. (Ivythesis, 2009) Tesco has serving more than 40,000 food products including non food items and clothing to its customers. The companys own products which contribute about 50% of its sales are categorized in three different types Value, normal and finest. As a convenience produce most of Tesco store have gas store and filling stations. It is becoming one of U.K biggest independent filling outlets. Tesco is operating others business as well which includes retail banking, Tesco insurance, Tesco mobile as well. (bized, 2009) The company is also the first in U.K which allows their customer to pay or cash their cheques at the tills. Tesco has been employing a large number of British people and it facilitating it by allowing the new branded product into Tesco which helps the new companies to grow and employ more people. But recently company realized to look for some other products which are not available in U.K market. Recently Tesco has been facing stiff competitions from Sainsbury and Asda food giants. The goal of Tesco management is to focus on competitive advantage by adding more value in its products like Tesco has starts giving delivery services to its customers as well. The business and organizational strategy applied by Tesco has helps the organization to make its core business which is in the UK more strong. It also helps the company to expand its business internationally. These services includes providing the financial services like offering Credit cards, loans, insurance and banking services. There is also a strategy to find the potential market to enhance the market share of the company in Asia, Europe and in United States. The strategy to explore new market has started in 1997and it has been the foundation of success of Tesco business. There has been a huge expansion in its expansion of operations with the opening of thousands of store for the past12 years has been made possible with the implementation of this strategy, they are having competitive edge over other businesses and are profitable. In fact Tesco is market leader not even in U.K but also outside the U.K as well. (tesco plc, 2009) 1) STRATEGY OF TESCO: Tesco has been doing business in the stock exchange since 1947 and it was having share price 27 pence in the beginning. It has been keeping on growing and has become a popular name on the High street of the UK. Tesco has a strategy which is describes as Pile it high and sell it cheap but with time as people attitude has been changed and there become a trend in the better interior of stores, Tesco has made huge investments in the refurbishments of its stores and make them very attractive to shop for customers. It has added many value added service and product in its operations. It has start selling petrol and customer gets discount when they buy from Tesco and then they spend money to buy petrol. It has made a huge investment on the implementing of Tesco loyalty card scheme. 1.1 STRATEGY: Tesco has done well by successfully implementing the four parts of its business strategy. A strong UK core business , Non food Retailing services International The objectives of this strategy are: To be a successful retailers in the world. To grow the core UK business. To be as strong in the non-food items as in food items. To develop retailing services- such as Tesco personal Finance, Telecoms and Tesco.com. To put the community in the heart whatever we do. Tesco has taken considerable steps to attract customer with advent of Tesco Extra, Tesco Metro, Tesco Super stores and Tesco Express at town with filling stations. These stores provide all essentials food and non food items at very competitive prices. These stores give a direct challenge to other stores like ASDA, Sainsbury etc. Tesco has introduced a loyalty club card. Customer gets points from every purchase they made and then they can get product with these points. For Tesco this thing help to get a value data about customer, what is customers buying behavior and how they respond to the sales promotions carried on in the store. Apart from the product it sells it has worked on the other services as well. It has start providing the Loans, credit cards and online sale of products. Tesco has taken to expand in other countries like India, Japan, and U.S.A and in Europe as well. It has continuing working on the improvements of services to its customers. In USA it has made a partnership with Safeway Group. (articlebase,2009) 2) ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS: 2.1 PESTEL FRAMEWORK: 2.1.1 Political Factors: Tesco has stores worldwide and its main business is in UK. These countries includes many European countries. It also has stores in Taiwan, Japan and India as well. Political and other environmental factors of UK and European are having a too much influence on the Tesco performance. These legislations advise to these stores to hire people for different position in the company. These people include the students, disables and senior citizens as well. As local business in the Tesco suffers heavily because of competitions, in order to survive these local stores cuts the jobs so Tesco has hire a large number of People to accommodate them. Tesco usually pays them low wages. 2.1.2 Economical Factors: Tesco is very much concern to the economic factors because prices and demand gets affected with this. Goods and services are heavily affected if the economic conditions of people is not good and many people are unemployed and it influence the people purchasing capacity so demand for the goods and services will be affected. Tesco is heavily dependant on UK market, Although international business are growing but Tesco is still dependent on the U.K food market and if the demand for UK food market get slow down then it will badly affect the Tesco performance. 2.1.3 Social/Cultural Factors: Currently the U.K people trend shows that they prefer to go at that store from where they could get everything. There has been huge demographics changes in the UK population happened i-e ageing people, increase in the number of female workers and declining in the preparations of food in the home, which has force Tesco to sell supporting products and services as well. Customers demands of services and products are created by the change of their social and cultural changes, their beliefs. People are recognizing the hygienic problems. Tesco is adopting a product mix in order to meet the demand of organic products. It has start mentioning the product with labels on it for people who strictly want to use product which are free from animals ingredients. U.K has a diverse population from different cultural background people. Areas which are densely populated with Asian people prefer to go for their traditional foods so keep this thing in mind Tesco management have introduced mostly those products which are in demand in those areas. (321books, 2009) 2.1.4 Technological factors: Technological improvement has benefited both the company and customers. Goods are readily available in the store which has increased the customer satisfaction and it has become easier to manage the ordering system. Customers get served more quickly than before. Tesco stores are utilizing the following technologies in their outlets: Wireless devices Intelligent scale Electronic shelves labeling Self check out machine Radio frequency identification. By the use of electronic tills and fast fund transferring machine and new scanner has increased the operational activities of the Tesco which has improve the image of the Tesco further. (Finch, 2004). 2.1.5 Environmental factors: Starting from 2003, managers were under great pressure to look into society issues and adopt policy which benefits for both the society and for the company. (Lind green and Hingley, 2003). In order to prove that company care about society, they need to clearly work about environmental issues. By recognizing this trend Tesco has been working on the environmental issue to prove that it is a socially responsible organization which cares about the environment. Government has introduced new policies which aim to reduce the waste pollution and encourage the companies to take steps to reduce the pollution. Recently a new legislation has been created in which a heavy tax has been imposed on those products which are not environment friendly. This tax has been directly affecting the Tescos products and damaging the relations with suppliers and customers. 2.1.6 Legislative factors: Tesco performance has been affected by various government policies and legislation. Tesco is bound by law no to take payments from supplier to take order for goods and any such kind of activities. The existence of strong competitors has created a demand of stiff competitions in prices of branded products and a strong demand for product diversification. Government policies to control the monopoly and reduction of buyers powers can reduce the chances to enter in this sector with such controls. (Mintel Report, 2004: Myers, 2004). Tesco has been giving discount on buying the petrol to its customers based on amount it spends on the purchase of groceries at the stores. Tescos keep the prices on the promotions low while it increase the prices on other products in the store in order to compensate. 3) PORTERS FIVE FORCES FRAMEWORK: 3.1 Threats of new entrants: There is four big supermarket which are Tesco, Sainsbury, ASDA, Liddell which makes 75% of total market and Waitrose, Somerfield and Budgens makes about 10% percent of total market. The trend in people of UK has been changed to one stop shopping and they want to get everything at one place so majority of grocery stores has transformed into one stop supermarket. These big supermarkets heavily affects the surrounding butcher and food shops. These big supermarket does not let any new business to come into their area as they give very stiff competitions and starting business in those area are more difficult because of huge capital investment. In order to make a solid position in the UK market, Tesco has been spending a huge amount of money on the development of existing infrastructure. 3.2 Bargaining Power of Supplier: Suppliers power of bargaining get affected from big store as the supplier fear that if they put their own conditions of bargaining then they might lose it client and will not be able to operate their business. Tesco always negotiate with suppliers to get the best competitive prices and get a better price as compared to small food chains. The UK small food chains also threatened from this big supermarket as they get cheap goods from abroad for their promotional activities. So the relations with the suppliers can have affects on the freedom and margin of the company. (321books, 2009) 3.3 Bargaining Power of Customers: Tesco club card scheme is very successful in order to retain the customers with Tesco which has increase the profit margin of the Tesco significantly. In order to fulfill the customers needs, the customized services such as lower prices, better choices, constant flow of promotional products and availability of all the product which customers demands enables Tesco to retain its customers. In recent years a huge changes has occurred in the food chain stores due to a change of behavior of customers, So Tesco has started keeping more non food items as well in its stores. It has also provides a strategic expansion of its business into new markets such as retail banking, pharmacies, phone shops. 3.4 Threats of substitutes: A demand for a particular product can be reduce due to a general substitution because there is always a threat that customer will switch to alternatives (Porter, 1980). Substitute for needs and product for product has been observed in the grocery industry. It is more affected with the new trend. Small stores are opening up in the industry. In this case supermarket like Tesco is trying to taking over the small stores and opening up big stores in town centers. (Ritz, 2005). 3.5 Bargaining Power of Competitors: Tesco is getting lot of customer information through its loyalty club card and trying to improve its relations with the consumers. In UK food industry, because of high competitive expansions, most of these big stores are taking further steps by investing more money in the information system of the business. 4) CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS: By doing an evaluation of Tesco industry it has become an important to identify the success factors to consider the effectiveness of Tesco. 4.1 Branding and Reputation: The company is expanding rapidly by working hard on its packaging and spending every penny on promotions which contribute to the environment as well. Tesco is doing well in the information system applications. By introducing loyalty club card system which has helped the Tesco to get a valuable data about customers behaviors about their spending, choices and etc. 4.2 IT integration: Tesco is always step ahead in applying the new technology and it has become a necessity rather luxury in Tescos operations. A system that controls stocks, helping to serves the customers; keeping valuable record of customers transactions and ordering system is the lifeline of the Tesco. 4.3 Supplier Management: To have a competitive position in the market Tesco also get most of its products from oversee countries which are cheaper as compared to UK. Tesco has been supporting British companies for its branded products but recently it has start importing products which are not manufacturing in the UK. To keep a better communication to get its products on time Tesco has adopted a advance communication system which enables the suppliers to delivers products on time. 5) MARKET OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTATIONS: Tesco has plan to introduce two types of strategies, first one will going to focus to explore the market and find new customer with its new products and second one is on the diversifications of products. 5.1 Joint development and joint ventures: Tescos has a long term strategy to focus on the Japan market. In making possible Tesco is making partnerships with local business to enter into the market. By doing joint ventures Tesco will have a economy of scale and has made a good image of its brand name. (Andrew, 2009) By the entering into partnership with the local businesses in the foreign countries, Tesco will get the necessary skill in order to penetrate in the market. So in future it will be easy for Tesco to operate its operations independently. By doing joint venture with the international companies Tesco will improve its operational skills as well. 5.2 Product Diversification: UK is diverse population which comprises of different ethnic people from different countries. Tesco can do more development expansion by opening up new stores in those areas where people strictly go for their traditional food, so Tesco can add whole range of products which is in demand in these areas. 6) CRITICAL EVALUATION: Ro have a sustainable competitive advantage Tesco should apply following strategies: Firstly Tesco should adopt a strategy of cost leadership by offering goods and services to its customers at low prices in a broad market. This strategy will help the Tesco to reduce its cost, Tesco will be able to sell its products competitively and thus generate huge profit. If Tesco has to adopt another strategy then, It has to offers it products and services with a unique features which customers value it. Then Tesco has to gives some other value added services in technology, competitive price, special features and customer service improvements. Last strategy of niche is from either cost leadership strategy or product differentiation but focus on narrow market. In order to perform cost leadership strategy Tesco has to work on internal efficiencies that will help Tesco to cope with external pressure. As these both strategies are aimed at broader market, it may be possible than Tesco focus on small market or with a limited range of product. In other words, Tesco may be pursuing the strategy to be a leader in cost and keeping a huge variety in product. This can be done with a specific product in a market or by selecting a specific market for its products. The problem which many of organizations have that these organization implement all these strategies one time and most of them stuck in middle. But Tesco is very careful when it select a market, they have a clear strategy regarding it. (Wringley, 1988) 7) CONCLUSION Tesco is a very well established organization in the UK. Tesco apply different strategy in the organization to make the business grows. Its primary focus is to attract the customers and keep the loyal customers attached with the organization. In order to evaluate the customers it has apply different technology process in order to know the customers needs, their attitude and likes and dislikes. It has a specific layout which has been applied in all its branches. Tesco is investing a lot money on its information technology improvement which has helped it to improve its sales and get a competitive advantage over its competitors. 8) REFERENCES Publications from the Tesco preliminary result.2004. [online]. [Accessed on 2 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: . Publications from the Tesco web site. Tesco plc.2009. [online]. [Accessed 2 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.tescoplc.com/plc/about_us/strategy. Publications from 321books web site. Porters five forces model.2009. [online]. [Accessed 5 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.321books.co.uk/catalog/tesco/porters-five-forces.htm. Andrew.2007. Article base web site. [online]. [Accessed 5 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/success-of-tesco-in-great-britain-163894.html. Publications from a article from web site.2006. [online]. [Accessed 8 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/08/tesco-strategic-analysis.html. WRINGLEY, N. 1988. Store choice, store location and market analysis. NY (USA). T.J press. [Accessed on 8 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xbYOAAAAQAAJpg=PA106dq=tesco+analysisei=xkZDS7naLqXczQTRkZDtDgcd=1#v=onepageq=tesco%20analysisf=false. PANDELETON, D. 2004. Tescos Steering Wheel Strategy. [online]. [Accessed on 9 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy/BSTR187.htm.

Essay --

Samantha Rangel Professor Soma de Bourbon FYS 156/Technology and Society 15 November 2013 Serial Killer Everyone has heard or read about serial killers at one point in their lifetime. Serial killers are known to be dangerous psychotic people who enjoy killing. They are not known for being loveable towards their victims, they are brutal and have no regrets to what they do. One serial killer in particular was very brutal and has had a lot of fame around the world. Whenever someone hears the name Jack The Ripper, they wince at the thought of knowing what he did. Now a days they even have shows portraying Jack The Ripper. He is a widely known serial killer for the killing of five women. The police never identified Jack The Ripper, so no one has any idea who Jack The Ripper is. Jack murdered five women, prostitutes, and he horribly mutilated them between August 31- November 9, 1888 in Whitechapel, England (East End London). The investigators of the case believed that Jack might have had surgical knowledge due to the fact that three of the five women had their internal organs removed. Throu ghout Jacks killings there were hundreds of letters sent to the police and many of those letters hinted that they were Jack The Ripper or they were suggestions for ways to catch the Ripper. The police always disregarded those letters because they thought it was a waste of time reading over silly letters until one day three letters stood out of the bunch. The police believed that Jack The Ripper wrote them himself because they had specific details on how the women were being killed and they even said things like, â€Å" Yours truly, Jack The Ripper, Don’t mind me giving the trade name.† (casebook.org/ripper_letters) The three letters were â€Å"Dear Boss† (Sept... ...Most serial killers do have OCD which is obsessive compulsive disorder which is when you have to have things go a specific way or else you think everything is going wrong, so organized serial killers will most likely have this disorder. Having multiple personality disorder is when you have two personalities; one is your normal self which serial killers most likely use to cover up the fact that they are killers. Depression, anxiety, and panic attacks are triggered by the kind of things the serial killer goes through, so for depression the serial killer could get it from having a non-loving family, Anxiety can come from the struggles that the serial killer faces. Panic attacks can come from having too much anxiety. Serial killers are dangerous and very sick people. Most of them don’t realize they are doing something wrong because they could be severely mentally sick.

High Performance Working Systems Essay

High Performance Working Systems (HPWS) are defined as those in which management adopts a coherent set of practices that provide employees with; a) The opportunity to influence operational decisions. b) The skills and abilities to effectively participate in these decisions and c) The incentives to motivate discretionary effort. (Applebaum et al. , 1998) Smarter working- or high performance working is a distinctive approach to managing people at work that raises productivity and at the same time improves the well being of employees. Achieving high performance poses a major challenge for private and public sector organisations as they face ever increasing competition and more demanding performance targets. Its main rationale is that the way in which the people in the organisation are managed offers perhaps the best route to gaining performance improvement and competitive advantage. High performance working conventionally contains three core components that address the opportunity to contribute, competence and motivation of the work force. High performance working requires a workforce that possesses the appropriate level of knowledge and skills. If resources such as technology are to be considered, then it is likely that workers will need high level knowledge and skills. They must be able to work with new technologies, make complex deals or offer sophisticated services. Secondly, any competitive environment is evolving the capacity to innovate requires a workforce that not only possesses the requisite knowledge and skills but is also willing and able to continue to acquire new knowledge and skills. One of the key distinctive features of high performance working is that it should be viewed as a system. In other words, it is not enough to consider competence or motivation in isolation. Logically, there is no advantage in having highly competent workers who are demotivated or under utilised. Equally there are dangers in highly motivated but incompetent workers or high commitment in workers who are neither competent nor motivated. The challenge is to manage all four elements at once. No one has consistently defined, or even uniformly named High Performance Work Systems (HPWS). They have been called â€Å"high performance work practices†, â€Å"alternative work practices and â€Å"flexible work practices†. Despite the variances, many of these programs share common elements including selection procedures, vigorous recruitment and incentives based upon performance and extensive training programs focused on the needs of the business. Essentially High Performance Working Systems, require heavy investment in human capital. This is intended to enhance employee knowledge, skill, flexibility and motivation, with the expectation that the employer is providing employees the ability and the opportunity to provide input into workplace decisions. (Val Buren & Werner, 1996). Companies expect this empowerment to enable employees to adapt readily and quickly to rapidly changing product and labour market conditions, and to improve operational efficiency and firm performance. Although high performance work systems have often been seen as being good for both employers and employees, these practices require significant investments in human capital through training, coordination of initiatives, and time for managerial and employee input. Because of the large investment in human capital the value of these practices may be lost if the investment does not result in increased efficiency and effectiveness. High Performance Working Systems are usually associated with increased productivity. However, examining only productivity effects businesses ignores the cost side of the equation. Despite this caution, numerous studies also find a strong relationship between HPWS and firm performance. These studies consider both costs and the benefits of HPWS. (Huselid, 1995, Baker 1999). Performance of business can be measured on four dimensions: marketing, market share, profitability and sales growth. It is often argued that human resources have an important role to play in facilitating innovation. HPWS are focused upon such objectives as enabling people to think for themselves and to manage their work. High Performance Working Systems can increase innovation by: encouraging team practices that allow learning to go through increased multidisciplinary knowledge, decentralising management in order to allow employees to discover and use knowledge; encouraging team practices that allow learning to go through increased multi-disciplinary knowledge; and putting that knowledge to good use. (Laursen, 2002). High Performance Working Systems systematically try to create organic organisations by moving decision-making downward. If for instance the organisational objective is efficiency, more effective Human Resource Management (HRM) systems are likely to increase firm performance because HPWS effectiveness focuses on better production or service delivery system. In contrast when a firm pursue innovative activities they are more likely to benefit from HPWS since they move the level of decision making downward, making the organisation better able to respond to environmental changes. (Capelli and Neumark 1999) More extensive use of HPWS is positively associated with increased organisational innovation since they are done in a holistic, meaningful and effective manner. It matters how a firm employs its organisational capabilities and its ability to manage human resources because resources or practices do not produce on their own. (Russo and Fouts, 1997). Traditional Human Resource Management systems concentrate on an efficiency objective, offer stable procedures and protocols with set processes for dealing with routing employment problems such as discipline, absenteeism and discharge. These systems also establish procedures, and rules that promote consistency and fairness throughout the organisation. Thus an effective HRM system should enhance the firm’s ability to attract and retain qualified employees and promote efficiency. However, effective Human Resource Management practices most likely lack flexibility of High Performance Working Systems. If a firm is pursuing an innovation objective then effective HRM practices may interfere with this goal by focusing on routines and rules that do not provide an environment conducive for stimulating innovation. Furthermore, organisations that are structured to deal with stable routing tasks are less able to adapt to uncertain, dynamic environments. Many organisations today face complex environments. Firms’ management strategies must adjust and conform to the existing business environment. The present business environment demands that firms respond to change and, at the same time, promote efficiency. Thus firms that can combine effectiveness and flexibility objectives may be put in the optimal strategic position whether they are pursuing objectives of innovation or market performance. More extensive use of High Performance work systems with HRM effectiveness is positively associated with organisational innovation. The banking industry for example has become a highly competitive environment because of banking industry deregulation. The regulatory changes coincide with such technological advances as telephone banking, ATMS, pc-based banking and information system advances. The industry responded to the changes by a significant wave of consolidation that has reduced the number of banks. Regulations essentially prevented firms from implementing the full range of strategic choices. Deregulation frees financial institutions to exercise strategic choice. Since deregulation, many banks have introduced new products and services that do not fit the traditional margin-maximing scheme where margin is the difference between the loan rate and the deposit rate. Instead fee income such as origination fees from corporate cash management accounts, home mortgages and letter of credit have become an increasing important source of bank revenues. Hence, the proportion of total income generated by these alternative fee based products and services represents an important measure of banking innovation. (Pfeffer, 1994). HPWS universally benefit all employers. High investments in training and employees pay off in terms of employee commitment and work effort. However, these HPWS do not come cheaply, firms either need to offset these expenses with productivity increases or operate in an innovate environment that can absorb these costs. This makes HPWS less compatible with firms pursuing efficiency objectives and more compatible with firms whose success is more dependent on innovation as opposed to efficiency. A major benefit of High Performance Working Systems is to move the level of decision making downward to reduce the need for formal supervision so that employees are to think for themselves. These objectives may be of great importance for employers seeking to innovate or provide a responsive service but may be problematic for employers pursuing efficiency objectives. Employers who have highly developed hierarchical and formal structures that follow an evolved model of scientific management may not benefit from HPWS. These employers have designed formal roles and procedures specifically to avoid employees thinking for themselves. Thus it can be argued that employers with innovation objectives would benefit more from HPWS than would employer seeking a marketing efficiency objective (Capelli & Neumark 1999). There are three main set of potential benefits of high performance working system; organisational performance, the worker well being and labour turn over and retention. The major reviews that have been conducted in North America, Europe and elsewhere consistently show a clear association between application of high performance working and organisational performance. These reviews are cross sectional and therefore cannot establish clear cause and effect. It is therefore possible that the more successful organisations have the capacity to introduce high performance working. The ability to retain staff is an important feature of a high performance work system and is a key reason why commitment to the organisation can be considered as a core dimension. The presence of High Performance Working Systems is likely to encourage more people to stay with the organisation. This will help to justify the investment in higher performance working and will also feed into other performance outcomes in the sense that experienced staff who understand the business and its products can contribute to higher productivity and to a higher quality of goods and services. For some managers a concern for worker well-being may appear to be an outcome of marginal interest. Well being is usually defined as a combination of job satisfaction, mental and physical health and broader life satisfaction. Work related well being can be narrowed down to the first two but should extend to include work-life balance. There is evidence that workers who experience high performance work practices report higher job satisfaction. They are also more likely to participate in a range of extra activities and to report both better general health and better mental health reflected in less anxiety and depression. The only downside is some suggestion that under high performance working staff may experience greater work-related stress. This could be through highly committed workers tending to choose to work longer hours and to accept more responsibility. High performance working systems have received the endorsement of many governments and organisations. These include Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Chartered Management Institute and Lisbon European Council for more and better jobs. HPWS face challenges and barriers. The skills for Business Employer Survey published in August 2006 shows some recent progress has been made in raising the uptake of individual high performance practices. However, one of the most reliable sources of evidence, the workplace Employment Relations surveys, show that in 1998, there was at best only modest application of these practices in workplaces across the UK and the 2004 survey shows that there has been very little if any further progress with implementation since then. There is evidence that levels of autonomy in jobs have actually been declining suggesting that managers are tending to assert greater control rather than trust in the competence and commitment of staff. Three factors prevent a stronger adoption of High Performance Working Systems. These can be summarised as ignorance, inability and doubts about the case. Some people especially managers have doubts about the benefits of high performance working. These doubts operate at a number of levels. First there is scepticism about the claim that people- or at least the current work force is the key basis for competitive advantage, allied to belief that priorities for performance ought to be directed elsewhere. Secondly managers are unwilling to take the risk of giving workers greater autonomy and control. There is evidence about a trend to reduce worker autonomy and reveals a generally low trust dynamic. Thirdly, there is doubt about the specific pay-offs and more particularly, whether they would generalise to their own work setting. Given these constrains, should we give up and leave High Performance working Systems to those few organisations that have managed to adopt it successfully and are reaping benefits? If relatively few firms are adopting HPWS working and it does bring benefits, then there is a strong case for gaining a lead on competitors. At the individual level, there is good evidence that workers benefit from being part of an organisation that engages in high performance working systems. Furthermore, job design aimed at enhancing levels of autonomy and control is likely to be associated with higher levels of well being. It will be associated with greater commitment and less likelihood of wanting to move on.

Dell Mission Statement Evaluation

Dell Mission Statement Evaluation Customers: (8/10)@ – Delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve. – Flexible customization capability Products Services: (7/10)@ -Highest quality -Best-in-class service and support Markets: (9/10)@ – Competitive pricing – Dell has acquired a large amount of the U. S market and it has now penetrated into the Asian markets leaving a competitive edge. – Products are now also sold in Wal-Mart, Staples, and other retail outlets. Growth: (8/10)@ * 2012 Total Revenue : USD$ 63. 7 billion Profitability: (9/10)@ – Financial stability – Dell reportedly earned $1 million per day in revenue from transmitting messages about sales and discounts to its Twitter followers. Employees: (9/10)@ – 103,300 employees – Individual and company accountability Public Image: (8/10)@ – Superior corporate citizenship – To build customer intimacy and loyalty, Dell leverages its customers' knowledge of their own unmet needs. Dell's brand image was and is shaped by customer feedback. Technology: (7/10)@ -Leading technology Dell strives to produce the most technologically advanced products to make life and work easier and more enjoyable. Philosophy: (9/10)@ * We started the company by building to the customer's order†¦ we didn't do it because we saw some massive paradigm in the future. Basically, we just didn't have any capital. – Sometimes you just have to belly up to the bar and take a chance. We made some mistakes, but we also had the strength to work our way out. – It's customers that made Dell great in the first place if we're smart enough and quick enough to listen to customer needs, we'll succeed.