Thursday, October 31, 2019

Motivation and Work Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Motivation and Work Design - Essay Example This paper discusses the motivators’ significance and outline ways by which employers can design job roles to take account of individual motivations. Many motivational theories exist that offer bases for understanding effects of motivational factors and strategies for moderating the effects as well as ways for monitoring effects of the factors. Theory X and theory Y, as McGregor offers, is one of such theories. The theory establishes assumptions on human behavior to develop a framework for understanding people in a work environment and to influence actions and behavior of the people towards desired outcomes. Theory X assumes that people are not willing to conform to expectations and calls for managers and organizations’ control of people for achievement of objectives. It therefore suggests guidelines that can be attained through push factors such as punitive measures for failure to comply. Theory Y however argues for responsible behavior and actions in which people can align themselves to set goals in their organizations and work towards realization of the goals (Saiyadain 2009, p. 167). According to Theory X, people do not like work and this means that external influence is necessary to influence completion of desired works. The theory also assumes that people are less ambitious and do not like responsibilities. Instead, they prefer to work under control. In addition, people lack creativity into completing tasks and generating solutions into problems to support the postulate of necessity of external influence. In recognition of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Theory X assumes that people are motivated at â€Å"physiological and safety levels† (Saiyadain 2009, p. 167). Intimidation is further necessary on people in order to ensure achievement or objectives. A consideration of Theory Y assumptions however recognizes people’s willingness to work provided that suitable conditions exist. Contrary to external pressure to influencing organizational

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

PreCalc PARAMETRIC PROJECT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PreCalc PARAMETRIC PROJECT - Essay Example hand, each of the hyperbolas of parametric curves (5), (6), and (7) consists of two regions that reflect each other’s opposite courses of motion (clockwise and counter-clockwise). Apparently, a parametric motion is governed by equations where a third variable ‘t’, known as the parameter, is introduced. One discovers and comprehends that, in dealing with problems involving parametric motion, the concept of working with parametric equations is quite impressive in the sense that these equations are plotted as a single graph designed to illustrate movement along the ‘x’ and movement along the ‘y’ (Dawkins). To this extent, there emerges clearer understanding of the motion of a point particle as it occurs in two dimensions simultaneously. No wonder parametric motion has been applied widely in kinematics or in other similar fields that require the scheme of observing point particles in terms of their displacements, velocities, and elapsed time (t) of travel. As such, a typical kinematic problem is parametrically characterized by a projectile whose parabolic (or semi-elliptical) trajectory depicts the object’s velocity a nd displacement (on 2-D xy-plane) as a function of

Sunday, October 27, 2019

SanGrafix Video Game Company Business Process

SanGrafix Video Game Company Business Process The BMI was part of analyzing and selecting vital areas of SanGrafix Video Game Company. It was prepared on March 22, 2017. Regardless of how well the company plans for downtime errors, there is a chance that this will happen and the main point of consideration is how fast the company is able to recover from such errors. Purpose The purpose of this document is to identify and prioritize various system components in line with business processes that the system supports. It has the following parts: Determining business processes and the areas that require critical recovery Identifying resource requirements as per their urgency within the company Identifying recovery priorities for system resources based on the urgency of required production (Gadir et al., 2015). 2. System Description SanGrafix is a video game company of the 21st century that endeavors to create a scintillating experience with each video game they create. They are known to take the gaming experience to the next level as they aim to create a gaming experience that completely assimilates the real life experience. The company has a majority of its first-hand market in America. It offers a great variety of games from car racing to combat games all of which are the state of the art quality. The company works under the principles of getting better and making the customer experience better and improved with each new product that is launched to the market. The company is highly reliant on top notch technology which drives the innovation behind each of their amazing products and hence its competitiveness is highly dependent on its ability to ensure they minimize errors or enhance their capability to recover from such errors within the shortest time (Master, 2014). The company is setting its footprints in an industry where the competition from other companies is fierce, and the chance of being kicked out and rendered irrelevant are beyond high. The company has a huge basement of employees all performing different specialized tasks aimed at ensuring continuous provision of services to its clients. There are the technical engineers who are in charge of developing and maintain the companys system performing at optimal levels which include the network infrastructure, the hardwar e and software components. They are also in charge of creating the gaming programs that the company uses. The company as well has developers who come up with the games as well as constantly improving on them now and then according to developments in the market. The business has a vibrant marketing department which is always at the forefront of letting the consumers aware of any new products. The marketing team is as well in charge of creating and coming up with news ways through which the company can increase its reach to the market. The marketing team has been using the online platform as the main channel of marketing. 3. BIA Data Collection The company as earlier mentioned uses the online platform as the main tool of marketing. The majority of the sales are recorded through the online shop while other sales are through and online catalogs. Calls can also be made to the head of the department where assistance is offered regarding sales or any other queries that the clients might have. 3.1 Determine Process and System Criticality E-commerce processes are the heart and soul of SanGrafix Company since a huge percentage of the sales are recorded through the e-commerce platform. The majority of the clients do not even have the idea of where the company is located physically their interaction with the company is mostly limited to the e-commerce platform. As a result, the e-commerce processes are quintessential to the firm. The e-commerce processes of online payments include the transfer of funds from the buyers account to the banks accounts. The majority of companies in the gaming industry is set on creating profits and so does SanGrafix and among the key supporters in the gaming profit generators is the E-mail based communications and the network that allows for multi-player support over a network for the company. Far away clients reach the company through emails where they place their orders waiting for delivery or response through the emails. The same emails are highly used within the company structure to pass information from one source to another every time it is deemed necessary to pass information around. The same email communication platform is highly utilized to get information about customers reaction towards certain products as the company has made it their traditions to seek the feelings of the customers towards services delivery and product performance. The customers are encouraged to use the email services more than the telephone mode to let the company know their reactions. The company is practically in existence due to its online presence more than the physical presence. As a result, the Marketing and public relations sector are as well critically dependent on the online platform. The company conducts most of its marketing through its website as well as another host of social media pages it operates. The company has a lot of followers across the various social platforms who keep on increasing every so time. The followers are always keen and eager to learn of new products or any new information regarding their favorite product while at the same time there is a team of dedicated personnel who is always ready to feed the market with any form of information deemed necessary. Through this continuous exchange, the company can expand its market while at the same time maintain a high level of public relations with the clients. Other departments that require the online presence within the company but at a lowered rate include the Research and development activities where research on how to improve on the current products is carried out. A team of developers who work on flexible working durations requires the online platform to expand the creativity into making the video games of the future. Customer service handling can be carried out through the online platform as well as through the telephone channels. Mission/Business Process Description e-commerce processes processes through which the company accepts payments for products Marketing and public relations Mechanism through which the company markets its products to the market Research and development activities Process of coming up with new products and improving existing ones Customer service handling Might require both online and telephone lines 3.1.1 Identify Outage Impacts and Estimated Downtime Some of the potential outages that face the company include power outages which are normally rare and far in between. Nonetheless, the company is well equipped with a secondary source of energy that automatically reconnects as soon as a power outage is experienced which narrows the downtime experienced as the switch the second source of energy is almost immediate. A server crash also negatively affects the operations of the company since most of their online activities would be brought to a halt. Nonetheless, the downtime experienced in this is short since it would only take a few moments to get hosting from other servers while a repair is being done to the companys server. A website hack would also be catastrophic to the company since lots of business is done through the website. The downtime in this would be long since tracking hacking activities could be tedious and long to trace (Cordero et al., 2011). Outage Impacts Severe = a lot of money and time Moderate = low fees and limited time Minimal = limited cost and time If of a power outage the company suffers minimal impact since business is barely affected by the power outage given the time lapse between switching the secondary power source is almost immediately. As a result power outage is a minimal impact outage to the company. Server crash carries the medium impact since getting another web to host the company is both costly and could take some moments hence negatively affecting the business. A hacking problem could have severe impact on the business since the amount of time and data lost in the process is a lot and could compromise the integrity and public confidence of the company besides violating the federation laws of protecting the client information and this could be followed by unending lawsuits that could push SanGrafix out of the gaming industry business (Wiggins, 2008). Estimated Downtime Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD) by the company is the least time possible to get the business functioning again at the least cost Recovery Time Objective (RTO) allocated to a power outage as well as server crash is minimal while the RTO for hacking could be extended. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for the company is daily hence it will lose a days data which is not so devastating for business. Mission/Business Process MTD RTO RPO Power outage Less than 1 hour Less than 1 hour Less than 1 hour Server crash 6 hours 4 hours 12 hours Hacking 72 hours 48 hours 12 hours 3.2 Identify Recovery Priorities for System Resources The recovery time required for several outages is variant from each other. Priority System Resource/Component Recovery Time Objective Power outage Electricity Almost immediately to rebuild Server crash Optiplex GX280 Less than 12 hours to get another host Hacking Optiplex GX280 Less than 72 hours to reconstruct References Master, L. L. (2014). Assessing threats and setting priorities for conservation. Conservation of networks, 5(4), 559-563 Cordero, A., Gonzalez, N., Chen, Z., Campos, R., Polanco, A., Melfi, D., Ouchaou, M. (2011). U.S. Patent Application No. 09/789,834. Gadir, O. M., Subbanna, K., Vayyala, A. R., Shanmugam, H., Bodas, A. P., Tripathy, T. K., Rao, K. H. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 6,944,785. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Wiggins, C. (2008). U.S. Patent No. 5,717,604. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Bright Side of Regret Essay -- Literary Analysis

â€Å"There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse,† wisely summates Lucius Annaeus Seneca 1st century Roman philosopher (qtd. in ThinkExist.com Quotations). Effectively illustrating this idea as a concise confessional, the short story, â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing,† is written in an autobiographical style by Tillie Olsen, contrasting the festering damage that unresolved internal remorse creates with the reassuring serenity that unconditional acceptance generates. Regretfully, this stark reality often becomes the harrowing plight of the nescient parent. That having been said, taking a closer look into Olsen’s story will undeniably prove that a conflicting introspective battle between regret and contentment can only be resolved through the emancipation of unconditional acceptance. When experiencing regret, a person has the tendency to repeatedly replay the details of whatever caused that emotion. However, recounting past events is only the first step in the healing process, but it is not the end solution. This is abundantly evident in Olsen’s story which begins with the narrator’s rapid emotional descent into regret. This happens when, as she has probably done a thousand times before, an unnamed third party questions the mother about her eldest daughter, Emily, asking how they can â€Å"help† and â€Å"understand her† better (Olsen 607), for surely she would know. Unfortunately, the answer to this request sends the mother helplessly down memory lane into regret valley. With Olsen’s strong symbolism, the reader becomes more keenly aware of the inner â€Å"torment† she feels while reminiscing about her callow method of raising Emily. Consequently, as the mother â€Å"moves†¦ back and forth† emotionally, ... ...ot have to automatically mean something negative. Therefore, though deep emotions are involved in the healing process, we now know love and acceptance, not guilt and sadness releases us from wasting precious energy on negative thinking and opens up a completely new opportunity, being able to enjoy the bright side of regret. Works Cited Page Kathryn Schulz. â€Å"Don't Regret Regret.† 2011. Video. TED Conferences, LLC, New York. Web. 24 Apr 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/kathryn_schulz_don_t_regret_regret.html Olsen, Tillie. â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing.† Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. 607- 612. Print. ThinkExist.com Quotations. â€Å"Seneca quotes.† ThinkExist.com Quotations Online. 1 Mar. 2012. Web 23 Apr. 2012. http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/seneca/

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Is the Game Theory, the Right Game Essay

Yes, indeed the game theory is the right game. Business is not about winning and losing nor is it about how well you play the game. The essence of business success lies in making sure you’re playing the right game. The challenge for us is to make sure we’re playing the right game. There are times in our life that we think we are in the right game but suddenly we realize that it is not the game we should play. For example, the course that you choose in college, you enrolled in accounting because your parents said so or because you don’t have any choice yet but you don’t possess the passion, attitude and skills an accountant must have. That is an evidence that you are in the wrong course, the remedy is to change your course into the course you love and possess the skills and passion for. To every action, there is a reaction. You have to look forward into the game and then reason backward to figure out which of today’s actions will lead you to where you want to end up. In order to succeed we need to go beyond the threats and opportunities that might occur and what we what to become in the future but we need also to be realistic and not too imaginary. Thus, after looking forward we make the action that will lead us to where we what to be. The decisions and actions you make today will affect our future career. So make the right actions and decisions. You cannot take away from the game more than you bring to it. You cannot take away more than your added value. Don’t remove something that contribute to your strengths, keep and maintain them. The main focus is allocentrism. It is the importance of focusing on others. You have to put yourself in the shoes and even in the heads of other players. You have to ask not what other players can bring to you but what you can bring to other players. It’s changing our mind-set into other players mind-set because if you know what and how they think it’s easy for you to discern what they need and what to the betterment of the company. Successful business strategy is about actively shaping the game you play, not just playing the game you find. It’s true that we should actively shape the game we play. It means that finding a continuous improvement and not just be stagnant in where you are now. We should find a way to increase and improve to the next level as years pass by. Understanding other players can help find new strategies for changing the game or new applications of existing strategies. In changing the game we should understand the players, added value, rules, tactics and scope. There is nothing permanent in this world we should actively change into better. The world is constantly changing and we need to adapt to it for us not to be left behind. In conclusion I agree that we should be a game maker than a game taker. We should have a coopetition mind-set and to be an allocentric. I believe that in business and even in our own lives there is no end to the game of changing the game. It is always an on going process that we should adapt and be flexible to it. We should be alert and wise to make decisions and actions because our decisions and actions today will change and have an effect to our future career.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Pepsico Diversification Essay

PepsiCo’s Diversification Strategy in 2008 PepsiCo was the world’s largest snack and beverage company, with 2007 net revenues of approximately $39. 5 billion. The company’s portfolio of businesses in 2008 included Frito-Lay salty snacks, Quaker Chewy granola bars, Pepsi soft drink products, Tropicana orange juice, Lipton Brisk tea, Gatorade, Propel, SoBe, Quaker Oatmeal, Cap’n Crunch, Aquafina, Rice-A-Roni, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, and many other regularly consumed products. Company History PepsiCo Inc. was established in 1965 when Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay shareholders agreed to a merger between the salty snack icon and soft drink giant. The new company was founded with annual revenues of $510 million and such well-known brands as Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Fritos, Lay’s, Cheetos, Ruffles, and Rold Gold. PepsiCo’s roots can be traced to 1898 when New Bern, North Carolina, pharmacist Caleb Bradham created the formula for a carbonated beverage he named Pepsi-Cola. The company’s salty-snack business began in 1932 when Elmer Doolin of San Antonio, Texas, began manufacturing and marketing Fritos corn chips and Herman Lay started started a potato chip distribution business in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1961, Doolin and Lay agreed to a merger between their businesses to establish the Frito-Lay Company. There are also so many other products and companies that merger with PepsiCo throughout the years. Once Quaker Oats’ food, snack and beverage brand merged with PepsiCo companies in the United States and internationally broadened it portfolio of the brands. Internationally Pepsi brought countries like the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Brazil and Canada. Marketing From the 1930s through the late ’50s, â€Å"Pepsi-Cola Hits The Spot† was the most commonly used slogan in the days of old radio, classic motion pictures, and later television. Its jingle (conceived in the days when Pepsi cost only five cents) was used in many different forms with different lyrics. With the rise of television, Pepsi utilized the services of a young, up-and-coming actress named Polly Bergento promote products, oftentimes lending her singing talents to the classic â€Å"†¦ Hits The Spot† jingle. Some of these Bergen spots can be seen on ClassicTVAds. com. Through the intervening decades, there have been many different Pepsi theme songs sung on television by a variety of artists, from Joanie Summersto The Jacksonsto Britney Spears. See Slogans) In 1975, Pepsi introduced the Pepsi Challengemarketing campaign where PepsiCo set up a blind tasting between Pepsi-Cola and rival Coca-Cola. During these blind taste tests the majority of participants picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks. PepsiCo took great advantage of the campaign with television commercialsreporting the results to the public. In late 2008, Pepsi overh auled their entire brand, simultaneously introducing a new logo and a minimalistlabel design. The redesign was comparable to Coca-Cola’s earlier simplification of their can and bottle designs. Also in 2008 Pepsi teamed up with Google/YouTube to produce the first daily entertainment show on Youtube, Poptub. This daily show deals with pop culture, internet viral videos, and celebrity gossip. Poptub is updated daily from Pepsi. In 2009, â€Å"Bring Home the Cup,† changed to â€Å"Team Up and Bring Home the Cup. † The new installment of the campaign asks for team involvement and an advocate to submit content on behalf of their team for the chance to have the Stanley Cupdelivered to the team’s hometown by Mark Messier. Pepsi has official sponsorship deals with three of the four major North American professional sports leagues: the National Football League, National Hockey Leagueand Major League Baseball. Pepsi also sponsors Major League Soccer. Pepsi also has sponsorship deals in international cricketteams. The Pakistan cricket teamis one of the teams that the brand sponsors. The team wears the Pepsi logo on the front of their test and ODI test match clothing. On July 6, 2009, Pepsi announced it would make a $1 billion investment in Russia over three years, bringing the total Pepsi investment in the country to $4 billion. In July 2009, Shag-me started marketing itself as Pepsi in Argentinain response to its name being mispronounced by 25% of the population and as a way to connect more with all of the population. In October 2008, Pepsi announced that it would be redesigning its logo and re-branding many of its products by early 2009. In 2009, Pepsi, Diet Pepsiand Pepsi Maxbegan using all lower-case fonts for name brands, and Diet Pepsi Max was re-branded as Pepsi Max. The brand’s blue and red globe trademarkbecame a series of â€Å"smiles,† with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product until 2010. Pepsi released this logo in U. S. in late 2008, and later it was released in 2009 in Canada(the first country outside of the United States for Pepsi’s new logo), Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Australia; in the rest of the world the new logo has been released in 2010, meaning the old logo has been phased out entirely (most recently, Franceand Mexicoswitched to Pepsi’s current logo). The UK started to use the new Pepsi logo on cans in an order different from the US can. In mid-2010, all Pepsi variants, regular, diet, and Pepsi Max, have started using only the medium-sized â€Å"smile† Pepsi Globe. Pepsi and Pepsi Max cans and bottles in Australia now carry the localized version of the new Pepsi Logo. The word Pepsi and the logo are in the new style, while the word â€Å"Max† is still in the previous style. Pepsi Wild Cherryfinally received the 2008 Pepsi design in March 2010. PepsiCo and it’s THREAT According to Consumer Reports, in the 1970s, the rivalry continued to heat up the market. Pepsi conducted blind taste testsin stores, in what was called the â€Å"Pepsi Challenge†. These tests suggested that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi (which is believed to have more lemonoil, less orangeoil, and uses vanillinrather than vanilla) to Coke. The sales of Pepsi started to climb, and Pepsi kicked off the â€Å"Challenge† across the nation. This became known as the â€Å"Cola Wars†. In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company, amid much publicity, changed its formula. The theory has been advanced that New Coke, as the reformulated drink came to be known, was invented specifically in response to the Pepsi Challenge. However, a consumer backlash led to Coca-Cola quickly reintroducing the original formula as Coke â€Å"Classic†. According to Beverage Digest’2008 report on carbonated soft drinks, PepsiCo’s U. S. market share is 30. 8 percent, while The Coca-Cola Company’s is 42. 7 percent. Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi in most parts of the U. S. , notable exceptions being central Appalachia, North Dakota, and Utah. In the city of Buffalo, New York, Pepsi outsells Coca-Cola by a two-to-one margin. Overall, Coca-Cola continues to outsell Pepsi in almost all areas of the world. However, exceptions include India; Saudi Arabia; Pakistan(Pepsi has been a dominant sponsor of the Pakistan cricket teamsince the 1990s); the Dominican Republic; Guatemalathe Canadian provincesof Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island; and Northern Ontario.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

History of the Apple Macintosh

History of the Apple Macintosh In December of 1983, Apple Computers ran its famous 1984 Macintosh television commercial on a small unknown station solely to make the commercial eligible for awards. The commercial cost $1.5 million and only ran once in 1983, but news and talk shows everywhere replayed it, making TV history. The next month, Apple Computer ran the same ad during the Super Bowl and millions of viewers saw their first glimpse of the Macintosh computer. The commercial was directed by Ridley Scott, and the Orwellian scene depicted the IBM world being destroyed by a new machine called the Macintosh. Could we expect anything less from a company that was once run by the former president of Pepsi-Cola?  Steve Jobs, co-founder of  Apple Computers  had been trying to hire Pepsis John Sculley since early 1983. While he eventually succeeded, Jobs soon discovered that he did not get along with Sculley who, after becoming CEO of Apple Computers, ended up booting him off Apple’s Lisa project. The Lisa was the first consumer computer with a graphical user interface or GUI. Steve Jobs and the Macintosh Computer Jobs then switched over to managing the Apple Macintosh project that was started by Jeff Raskin. Jobs was determined that the new Macintosh was going to have a graphical user interface like the Lisa, but at a considerably lower cost. The early Mac team members (1979) consisted of Jeff Raskin, Brian Howard, Marc LeBrun, Burrell Smith, Joanna Hoffman and Bud Tribble. Others began working working on the Mac at later dates. Seventy-four days after the introduction of the Macintosh, the company was only able to sell 50,000 units. At the time, Apple refused to license the OS or the hardware, the 128k memory was not enough and the onboard floppy drive was difficult to use. The Macintosh did have Lisas user friendly GUI, but was missing some of the more powerful features of the Lisa, such as multitasking and the 1 MB of memory. Jobs compensated by making sure developers created software for the new Macintosh, Jobs figured that software was the way to win the consumer over and in 1985, the Macintosh computer line received a big sales boost with the introduction of the LaserWriter printer and Aldus PageMaker, which made home desktop publishing possible. That was also the year that the original founders of Apple left the company. Power Struggle at Apple Computers Steve Wozniak  returned to college and Steve Jobs was fired as his difficulties with John Sculley came to a head. Jobs had decided to regain control of the company from Sculley by scheduling a business meeting in China for Sculley and so that Jobs could carry out a corporate takeover while Sculley was absent. Word of Jobs true motives reached Sculley before the China trip and he confronted Jobs and asked Apples Board of Directors to vote on the issue. Everyone voted for Sculley and so, in lieu of being fired, Jobs quit. Jobs later rejoined Apple in 1996 and has happily worked there ever since. Sculley was eventually replaced as CEO of Apple.