FAA - Before and After free essay sample

This paper takes a look at the FAA and its role before and after the Sept 11th attacks This paper provides a detailed look at the FAA and its role in the Sept 11th terrorist attack aftermath. It gives a history of the establishment of this institution and asks how it will have to change to cope with the post Sept 11th reality. From the paper: According to James Q. Wilson, ?War is the greatest test of a bureaucratic organization.? (Wilson, 1989, p. 45). He was of course speaking of the difficulties of leading soldiers into battle, but on September 11, airline pilots, air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation Administration were on the front lines of a new kind of war. This essay will consider the FAA under this time of stress and rapid change.

Progressive Stuff essays

Progressive Stuff essays TRUTH AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE PROFESSIONS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF `TRUTH IN ADVERTISING' AND `TRUE AND FAIR' FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA DURING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA Both advertisers and auditors wrestled with the truth of their text during the Progressive Era (1880-1940). Although in North America, advertisers adopted "truth in advertising" as a theme, auditors rejected "true and fair" as a description of financial statements. Auditors instead adopted the weaker statement that financial statements were "consistent with accepted accounting principles." It is paradoxical that auditors compared with advertisers made the greatest progress toward professionalization during this era. This article documents debates about the concept of "truth" in each profession during the Progressive Era and examines the professional and legal consequences of each profession's engagement with truth. The Progressive Era, roughly the period from the depression of the late 1880s through to the late 1930s, represents a period of institutional, technical, and social innovation. During this period, most developed economies made the transition from rural to urban and from agrarian to manufacturing economies. It is a period when sectional interests, including many of the modern professions, developed. The Progressive Era is particularly marked by the conjunction of scientific knowledge and traditional values. It is a period when science and technology were thought capable of providing for the material wants of all and that the issue of social justice could be resolved through knowledge. This conjunction provides the setting in which "truth" is seen as an achievable state. The modern professions emerged from this milieu as occupations concerned with the moral and technical mysteries of life. The exemplars of the professional model were medicine, the law, and teaching. The successful professions lay claim to areas of expertise that were used to defin...

Culture and International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Culture and International Business - Essay Example Yet, McDonalds own brand also gave the company problem that is more pronounced than any other american brands. Perhaps there are no other American brands which had been patently labeled and stereotyped as a symbol of American imperialism than that of McDonalds. This issue is magnified by the fact McDonalds typically becomes a target (usually by vandalism) everytime there are protests against the American government abroad. The irony of it is that perhaps there are no other fast food chain in the market that exerts that much effort than McDonalds to assimilate with the local culture where it operates. Its franchises outside of North America are not even run by Americans but by the locals who took pains to customize its offerings just to cater to the local preference. But no matter what it does, McDonalds will always be associated with American imperialism. This misconception about McDonalds is not only limited to cultural labeling but extends to social status as well. Section II: McDo nalds, cheap yet classy? McDonalds is also having a social stratification issue on how it should position itself in the market. Shall it serve the mid section and upper section or the upper section of the market? Market response is ambivalent that it proves difficult to categorize which market should McDonals concentrate. In emerging markets such as Russia, China, even including South Asia, McDonalds is considered to be a restaurant that is a class above the rest and highly esteemed as a brand. Eating at McDonalds can even be considered as a status symbol. Yet in its major market in the United States and Europe where it derives two thirds of its revenue, the fast food chain is considered to be a cheap food, something to be eaten just to survive not to mention unhealthy. As a food, McDonalds does not have the respect in its major market compared to the esteemed it have in emerging markets. In UK, it even came to a point that McDonalds will be taxed alleging that it is damaging people ’s health and costs the health care substantial amount. In the United States, parents are even suing the company for misleading them over its nutritional value. These ambivalence of market’s reaction towards McDonalds makes it difficult for the company to adopt a universal market strategy to penetrate the global market. What it does is to constantly adapt to the eccentricities of its local market whose magnitude of its assimilation may have already changed the company itself. Section 3. Who influences who with McDonalds? In its effort to assimilate with the preferences of its local markets, McDonalds customizes its menu in a myriad of ways to the point of departure to its original menu. In Germany, McDonalds can be served with beer. In Israel, McDonald’s burgers does not have cheese. In India, its patties are not made of beef. In UK, traditional supersize meals are no longer welcome and is replaced by healthy offerings. The list goes on and on with the changes M cDonalds have implemented just to cater to the differing taste preference of its local market. These change is not only limited to McDonald’s food offerings but also extends to its suppliers. Along with the changing menu is also the change of suppliers to make such change in menu possible. These change in suppliers makes it patently un-McDonald because a

The United Nations Involvement in Rwanda during the Genocide Research Paper

The United Nations Involvement in Rwanda during the Genocide - Research Paper Example According to the research paper "The United Nations involvement in Rwanda during the genocide" findings, since the second half of the twentieth century, the bleak nature of precedents in regard to the implementation of the Genocide Convention exposes a grim account of the stance taken by the international community to crack the whip on the perpetration of such heinous acts (Verdeja 37-54). This has left experts at loggerheads concerning whether prominent cases that justify the description â€Å"genocide† passed the legal thresholds. In the current world, the wheels of justice at different levels of jurisdiction such as international tribunals and internal trial courts are slowly elaborating definitional uncertainties and raising their flag, though hesitantly, that perpetrators of genocide may be tried and jailed or executed depending on their level of culpability (Barta, Finzsch, and Stannard 111-133). Yet, the very realities that trial chambers are seeking justice for perpetr ators of genocide-related crimes stand as an apparent proof of a deeper rot, which probably led to the Rwandan genocide (Verdeja 37-54). The key perpetrator of the Rwandan massacres had not seen a serious court that would try the perpetrators of such grave crimes. The United Nations established the United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda (UNAMIR) on 5th October 1993 to provide the security within Rwandan capital Kigali. Other responsibilities of the UNAMIR included watching the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

Sodor Oil Terminal Project Management

Sodor Oil Terminal Project Management The initiation phase of the Sodor project involved the formation of the project team and the nomination of the project manager. Group 12 is made up of 4 Nigerians and 1 Vietnamese which reflects a multicultural team with each nationality possessing peculiar personality traits. The objective of the first meeting was to nominate a Project Manager and to define and agree on ground rules for project team meetings. To ensure equal participation of all team members, it was agreed that the rotational project manager system will be adopted whereby each individual in the group would serve as the project manager for 1 week each throughout the 5 week duration of the Sodor project. It was agreed that meetings will be scheduled 3 times a week by the project manager lasting no more than 2 hours each. At each meeting, specific tasks is assigned to each team member to be submitted at the next meeting day. CONTRACTOR SELECTION CRITERIA The contractor selection criteria adopted by the team is the Trade-off technique. This technique uses a scoring system to quantify specific attributes of the various contractors and provides a numerical output, the highest of which represents the best contractor choice. The use of this technique provided the best possible contractors to manage the various stages of this project. CONSTRUCTION AND CLOSE OUT The close out process involved a review of the final Sodor terminal project plan to confirm scope, cost and schedule deadlines have been met. The lesson learned document was then prepared which showed the various conflicts that occurred throughout the project and how they where managed by the team in order to provide lessons for the future. The final project plan was then presented to the project sponsor and the Group 12 team was deformed by the project manager. We were able to arrive at a final project cost of  £7,356,123 and at a time of completion of 90.93 weeks. This can be mainly attributed to the fact that we used the TRADE OFF technique for contractor selection. The trade off technique provided an objective way of selecting contractors using a set of rank scores. INTRODUCTION Teamwork has been found to be an essential ingredient responsible for the success or failure of projects. The effective use and management of teams for projects has been noted to be a key determinant for how successful a project will be; however, the effectiveness of a team depends on the ability of the team members to interact appropriately with one another to produce a common output. DEFINITION Hoegl (2004) defined teams as a social interaction between two or more people within an organization who share a common task. Teams have also been described as a group of people who hold themselves mutually accountable to each other and who work together to achieve a common purpose(Scholtes et al,2003). The above definitions take into account the fact that for a team to exist, certain basic ingredients need to be in place which include; mutual accountability, constancy of purpose, and a shared responsibility for success or failure. The benefits of teamwork in project management cannot be overemphasized. Teams help in the mobilization of diverse resources to a project as compared to that achieved by a single individual. Church(1998) also noted that teams provide the flexibility to use the mobilized resources thus helping to continue with the project in the event of a particular individual being indisposed. Perhaps the greatest value of teams in managing projects rests with the ability of teams to provide a synergy of the efforts of the individual team members whereby the results achieved is greater than the arithmetic sum of the contributions of the individual members to the team. FACTORS THAT AFFECTED TEAM EFFECTIVENESS OF SODOR OIL TERMINAL PROJECT PLANNING AND DESIGN The need to have a plan for the management of the Sodor oil terminal cannot be overemphasized. Grachev et al(2006) using 3M corporation as a case study proposed that a key benefit of planning upfront for a project is the creation of well defined project goals. The goals help to give direction to a teams project. Other benefits of planning include; it helps the team members in the coordination of individual tasks by providing clearly stated assignments. Furthermore, the project plan also enables the team to have an overview of the project schedule, costs and constraints which the team can then use as a baseline to measure actual project progress. The planning and design of the Sodor oil terminal started with the identification of the Cost, Schedule and Scope goals from the data derived from the Project Sponsor. These goals where then integrated into a sequential structure by the use of the MS Project ® to produce the Sodor oil terminal preliminary Gantt chart. The final Sodor oil terminal plan is a comprehensive document showing the actual budget, time of completion, scope of the project, and the approved contractors selected for the project. Christina(2009) proposed that key factors that affect team success at the planning and design phase include; A. Well-Defined Goals: The definition of clear project deliverables has been shown to improve the success rate of project teams. Pinto and Slevin(1988) proposed that clearly defined and structured goals is a significant factor that determines the effectiveness of teams and hence the success rate of projects. Zander(1980) postulated that teams with clear and measurable goals perform better than teams with fuzzy goals. This is as a result of the use of clear goals by teams as a baseline through which team results can be measured. Furthermore, the use of clear and concise goals also helps the team in planning for what they can achieve within a particular timeframe.The goals of the Group 12 team where clearly stated and well defined at the onset of the project which was to deliver a project plan within 98 weeks at no more than the stated project budget provided by the project sponsor. B. Management Support: Pinto and Slevin(1988) suggested that the support upper management gives a team helps in facilitating team success. This occurs by facilitating the release of resources to the project team hence ensuring their efficiency and helping to remove administrative bottle necks. Group 12 received the support of the project sponsor in the designing of the sodor plan especially with respect to weekly review meetings to assess the current status of the project plan and proffer ways to bring the plan back on track. C. Cross-Cultural teams: The importance of having multiple individuals from differentcultures in a team has been proposed to impact positively on team results(Earley and Mosakowski,2000). Ochieng and Price(2009) also suggested that the effective use of proper communication techniques to handle cultural differences in a team helps in promoting project success. Multiple cultures in a team brings together people with different skills, competencies, and personal attributes dedicated to a common purpose. The multicultural environment of Group 12 provided a pool of diverse ideas derived via brainstorming from which the best possible solution was agreed on and translated into the Sodor project plan. D. Team experience and continuity: Pinto and Slevin(1988) suggested that the inclusion of individuals with specific project experience into a team helps in promoting its success. This is because this individuals already have a knowledge of the critical factors needed to ensure the success of the particular project from the lessons learned from past projects managed by them. Scott-Young(2009) suggested that the stability of a team throughout the project lifecycle helps in ensuring team success. Stable teams have been shown to maintain the consistency of ideas generation and are not susceptible to the distraction that tends to occur from a team member joining or leaving the team(Akgun and Lynn,2000). The use of team members with a wide range of experience managing projects like healthcare, education, and engineering played a key role in the results of Group 12. This is due to the diverse nature of the knowledge pool available for planning the project. The stability of the Group 12 team throughout the project lifecycle also played a key role in the design of the sodor project plan. CONSTRUCTION AND CLOSEOUT A. Handling Conflicts: The absence of conflicts in a team has been proposed to be a pointer to the failure of the team(Saj-Nicole and Damon,2009). The presence of conflicts and how the conflicts are managed indicates how successful the project team will be. The nature of the conflicts i.e. conflicts relevant to the project scope, serves to provoke a generation of ideas from the project team on the best way to manage the crises. Several conflicts arose during the management of Group 12; an example will be the, Who to choose as the project manager? The way it was managed was to have a face to face meeting with the project team, everybody laying their individual ideas on the table, then arriving at a decision mutually beneficial to everyone which is to have a rotational project manager system with each member of the project team having a taste of the pie of being the project manager for 1 week each. This solution helped during the construction phase of the plan because all the team memb ers felt a sense of belonging and making a positive contribution to the team. B. Leadership Continuity: The proposal by Akgun and Lynn(2000) on the positive benefits of leadership continuity to the project team success is largely not applicable to the Group 12 project team. This is because the use of a single leader throughout the project lifecycle will have led to the presence of domineering tendencies being shown by the individual chosen which may affect certain decisions made during the formulation of the construction plan. It will also have led to project team members being made to feel they are not a part of the team. Hence in a bid to avoid this scenario, the rotational project manager system was proposed and adopted. C. Resource availability: The availability of resources plays a major role in the ability of a team to produce results. Peters and OConnors(1980) postulated that the availability of specific resources can either promote or interfere with a team effectiveness. The resources needed by a team to be effective varies depending on the project scope. It may include financial, Human, and Environmental resources. D. Reward and Recognition: The relationship between appropriate reward structures and team effectiveness cannot be overemphasized(Bullock and Lawler,1984). Developing a reward system that focuses on the entire team rather than individuals help in improving team motivation and hence its effectiveness. It is a fact that people are motivated to achieve results if they feel that the results provide value to the organization and this value is acknowledged by the organization. E. Lessons-learned documentation: The preparation of the lessons learned document is an essential part of the project team closure phase(PMI,2008). The lessons learned document captures the lessons learned at various milestones in the planning of the project. The final meeting of the Group 12 team was a brainstorming session to identify various challenges we had during the creation of the Sodor project plan and how the challenges where managed. CONCLUSION This paper details how the Group 12 team managed the Sodor project from design to the closeout phase. It explains in detail the various factors responsible for the success of the team in arriving at the final project plan; and also the various challenges Group 12 team had and how those challenges where managed to produce positive results. The paper sheds light on the key factors that affected various stages of the project and how they where harnessed and utilized positively by the Group 12 team.

Tesco Case Study

Tesco’s main activities: -Retailing -Financial services It’s a major global retailer 1) Retail activity 5 store formats: * Tesco extra * Tesco superstore * Tesco metro * Tesco express * One stop Non-food ventures: -Tesco Homeplus – Dobbies Since 2005, they have opened a member of non-food outlets: Tesco Homeplus, Dobbies( garden centres) 2) Banking activity Tesco Bank A will to extend their involvement in the financial services Service: credit cards/ loans/ mortgages/ saving accounts/ insurance It’s run separately from the rest of the businessIt was a 50/50 joint venture with RBS( Royal Bank of Scotland) But the 28 of July 2008, Tesco bought out the shares of RBS . Internet: tesco. com .Telecom: Tesco mobile, it’s a joint venture with O2 The scale of its operation: 1994: First move into Central Europe 1998: First move into South East Asia 2007: First move in California 2008: First wholly owned Tesco opened in Guangzhou, China China/ Czech Republic/ Hungry/ Republic of Ireland/ Japan/ Malaysia/ Poland/ Slovakia/ South Korea/ Thailand/ Turkey/ Uk/ US They entered the US grocery market in 2007 Through the opening of a new chain: Fresh & EasyOver the past 10 years, the profits per year have constantly increased Tesco’s business strategy: â€Å"At the core of Tesco’s business model is a focus on trying to improve what we do for customers† .To create value for customers: In such way that â€Å"if the business is performing well in the eyes of the customers, then it will also be performing well for other stakeholders† Strategy in the UK: Growth is sought through expansion into markets such as financial services, non-food and telecom Strategy outside the UK: Growth is sought by entry into locations, most recently China, India and in the USTargets are defined under: Five prospective of the steering wheel -community -operations -people -finance -customer To increase the customer loyalty is the single most imp ortant driver of long term financial performance Tesco’s corporate culture: â€Å"Customer is king† . a customer centric company . a customer focused company Maintaining a global staff retention The average longevity within the Tesco management is around 14 years e. g. : the CEO Sir Terence Leahy joined Tesco in 1979 after graduation It’s one of the KPI ( Key Performance Indicator) â€Å"everyone feel accountable for the company’s success†Every little helps A relatively flat grade structure Five levels Whereas 470,000 employees e. g. : top grade 200 people The company’s values: .We treat people how we like to be treated * work as a team * trust and respect each other * listen, support and say thank you * share knowledge and experience No on tries harder for customers * understand customers * be first to meet their needs * act responsibly for our communities Tesco has a rather unique approach of risk management * diversification both geograph ically and in areas * risk devolvement at thedepartment level * absence of overall risk management

Agile Methodologies vs. Traditional lifecycle

Agile methodology and traditional lifecycle refers to the way in which software is developed. However, agile development develops software in a way that is different from the traditional method. Agile philosophy allows frequent inspection and adaptation of the project while the traditional methodology is a sequential method that splits the project into parts that are supposed to be fulfilled.However, it lacks adaptability and flexibility in ensuring the requirements of the project are fulfilled (Baker 2006, pp. 34).In traditional methodologies when a glitch occurs and plans are made, such as changing the software, nears impossibility which means that the software needs to go to the beginning with the development of a new code. This happens as long as there is no further glitch in the development process.On the other hand, agile methodology has a low risk level when developing the software. This means that it emphasizes the values and principles rather than traditional method of proce sses. Hence, agile methodology supports working in cycles and at the end of each cycle the priorities of the project are re-evaluated to check whether it conforms to the requirements.In most cases the Traditional lifecycle and the agile methodologies allows cutting down the total software or picture into puzzle size bits such as coding, designing and testing.However, when it comes to specific methodology in understanding the breaking down of the project, there are some variations that are evident. In the traditional lifecycle, when a stage is completed it remains like that because it is hard to manipulate according to time and user needs (Clammer 2007, pp. 56).This means that the process should start from designing a completely new system. Agile methodology is flexible and allows for change at the end of each stage depending on new ideas that may arise. It enables changes to the project without the entire project been rewritten. Hence, such approach reduces overhead costs and provid es a flexible way in which upgrade of programs can be commissioned.In the case of agile methodology, the project can be launched at the end of each tested stage. This means that it is an opportunity that ensures that bugs are traced and eliminated at the development level and it is further double tested to ensure that the first bug is eliminated.However, on the view of the traditional methodology, this capability is not provided, but the project is tested at the very end of it. It means that if bugs are found the entire program needs to be re-written (Eberle 2006, pp. 90 – 91).Another point is the customer satisfaction and object oriented designers and programmers. The modular nature of agile ensures that the right people are employed for the stage for timely release even if it does not match with the entire customer specifications.While, on the traditional methodologies it supports one main release and any problems such as delays or fulfillment of the customers specification s results into highly dissatisfied customers (Melton 2007, pp. 70).Both methodologies allows for departmentalization administration. The traditional methodology allows departmentalization at each stage while in the case of agile methodology the coding module of each stage can be delegated to separate players.Hence, allows many parts or stages to be fulfilled at the same time. However, the level of departmentalization differs; in the case of agile it is more pronounced than in the case of traditional methodology (Eberle 2006, pp. 94).The two software methodologies have diverse means in the ways that are supposed to fulfill the requirements of software development. Scalability, adaptability and flexibility in addition to customer satisfaction are the main features that set these two methodologies apart.BibliographyBaker, F. 2006, Traditional Software Development: Waterfall, McGraw Hill, New York.Clammer, L. 2007, Software Methodologies: An Introduction, Jakarta, Prentice Hall of Jakar ta.Eberle, J. 2006, Introduction to Software Development, New York Publishers, New York.Hawthorne, F. 2005, Software Development Methodologies, Oxford University Press, London.Melton, Z. 2007, Extreme Programming: Agile Software Development, Cambridge University Press, Singapore.