Different parts of the oriental world

Different parts of the oriental world have been mentioned as the probable locality of the first appearance of the plague or pestilence known as the â€Å"black death,† but its origin is most generally referred to China, where, at all events, it raged violently about 1333, when it was accompanied at its outbreak by terrestrial and atmospheric phenomena of a destructive character, such as are said to have attended the first appearance of Asiatic cholera and other spreading and deadly diseases; from which it has been conjectured that through these convulsions deleterious foreign substances may have been projected into the atmosphere.But while for centuries the nature and causes of the black death have been subjects of medical inquiry in all countries, it remained for our own time to discover a more scientific explanation than those previously advanced. The malady is now identified by pathologists with the bubonic plague, which at intervals still afflicts India and other oriental lands, and has in recent years been a cause of apprehension at more than one American seaport. It is called bubonic – from the Greek boubon (â€Å"groin†) – because it attacks the lymphatic glands of the groins, armpits, neck, and other parts of the body.Among its leading symptoms are headache, fever, vertigo, vomiting, prostration, etc. , with dark purple spots or a mottled appearance upon the skin. Death in severe cases usually occurs within forty-eight hours. Bacteriologists are now generally agreed that the disorder is due to a bacillus identified by investigators both in India and in western countries. The first historic appearance of the black death in Europe was at Constantinople, A. D. 543. But far more widespread and terrible were its ravages in the fourteenth century, when they were almost world-wide. Of the dreadful visitation in Europe then, we are fortunate to have the striking account of Dr. Hecker, which follows.The name â€Å"black death† was given to the disease in the more northern parts of Europe – from the dark spots on the skin above mentioned – while in Italy it was called la mortalega grande (â€Å"the great mortality†). From Italy came almost the only credible accounts of the manner of living, and of the ruin caused among the people in their more private life, during the pestilence; and the subjoined account of what was seen in Florence is of special interest as being from no less an eye-witness than Boccaccio.Text The nature of the first plague in China is unknown. We have no certain intelligence of the disease until it entered the western countries of Asia. Here it showed itself as the oriental plague with inflammation of the lungs; in which form it probably also may have begun in China – that is to say, as a malady which spreads, more than any other, by contagion; a contagion that in ordinary pestilences requires immediate contact, and only under unfavorable circumstances of rar e occurrence is communicated by the mere approach to the sick.The share which this cause had in the spreading of the plague over the whole earth was certainly very great; and the opinion that the black death might have been excluded from Western Europe, by good regulations, similar to those which are now in use, would have all the support of modern experience, provided it could be proved that this plague had been actually imported from the East; or that the oriental plague in general, whenever it appears in Europe, has its origin in Asia or Egypt.Such a proof, however, can by no means be produced so as to enforce conviction. The plague was, however, known in Europe before nations were united by the bonds of commerce and social intercourse; hence there is ground for supposing that it sprung up spontaneously, in consequence of the rude manner of living and the uncultivated state of the earth; influences which peculiarly favor the origin of severe diseases.We need not go back to the ea rlier centuries, for the fourteenth itself, before it had half expired, was visited by five or six pestilences. If, therefore, we consider the peculiar property of the plague, that in countries which it has once visited it remains for a long time in a milder form, and that the epidemic influences of 1342, when it had appeared for the last time, were particularly favorable to its unperceived continuance, till 1348, we come to the notion that in this eventful year also, the germs of plague existed in Southern Europe, which might be vivified by atmospherical deteriorations. Thus, at least in part, the black plague may have originated in Europe itself.The corruption of the atmosphere came from the East; but the disease itself came not upon the wings of the wind, but was only excited and increased by the atmosphere where it had previously existed. This source of the black plague was not, however, the only one; for, far more powerful than the excitement of the latent elements of the plagu e by atmospheric influences was the effect of the contagion communicated from one people to another, on the great roads, and in the harbors of the Mediterranean.From China, the route of the caravans lay to the north of the Caspian Sea, through Central Asia to Tauris. Here ships were ready to take the produce of the East to Constantinople, the capital of commerce and the medium of connection between Asia, Europe, and Africa. Other caravans went from India to Asia Minor, and touched at the cities south of the Caspian Sea, and lastly from Bagdad, through Arabia to Egypt; also the maritime communication on the Red Sea, from India to Arabia and Egypt, was not inconsiderable. In all these directions contagion made its way; and doubtless Constantinople and the harbors of Asia Minor are to be regarded as the foci of infection; whence it radiated to the most distant seaports and islands. To Constantinople the plague had been brought from the northern coast of the Black Sea, after it had depo pulated the countries between those routes of commerce and appeared as early as 1347, in Cyprus, Sicily, Marseilles, and some of the seaports of Italy.The remaining islands of the Mediterranean, particularly Sardinia, Corsica, and Majorca, were visited in succession. Foci of contagion existed also in full activity along the whole southern coast of Europe; when, in January, 1348, the plague appeared in Avignon, and in other cities in the South of France and North of Italy, as well as in Spain.The precise days of its eruption in the individual towns are no longer to be ascertained; but it was not simultaneous; for in Florence the disease appeared in the beginning of April; in Cesena, the 1st of June; and place after place was attacked throughout the whole year; so that the plague, after it had passed through the whole of France and Germany, where, however, it did not make its ravages until the following year, did not break out till August in England; where it advanced so gradually tha t a period of three months elapsed before it reached London. The northern kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349; Sweden, indeed, not until November of that year, almost two years after its eruption in Avignon. Poland received the plague in 1349, probably from Germany, if not from the northern countries; but in Russia it did not make its appearance until 1351, more than three years after it had broken out in Constantinople.Instead of advancing in a northwesterly direction from Tauris and from the Caspian Sea, it had thus made the great circuit of the Black Sea, by way of Constantinople, Southern and Central Europe, England, the northern kingdoms and Poland, before it reached the Russian territories; a phenomenon which has not again occurred with respect to more recent pestilences originating in Asia. We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of the black plague. Let us go back for a moment to the fourteenth century.He not only protected the Jews at Avignon, as far as lay in his power, but also issued two bulls in which he declared them innocent, and he admonished all Christians, though without success, to cease from such groundless persecutions. The emperor Charles IV was also favorable to them, and sought to avert their destruction wherever he could; but he dared not draw the sword of justice, and even found himself obliged to yield to the selfishness of the Bohemian nobles, who were unwilling to forego so favorable an opportunity of releasing themselves from their Jewish creditors, under favor of an imperial mandate.Duke Albert of Austria burned and pillaged those of his cities which had persecuted the Jews – a vain and inhuman proceeding which, moreover, is not exempt from the suspicion of covetousness; yet he was unable, in his own fortress of Kyberg, to protect some hundreds of Jews, who had been received there, from being barbarously burned by the inhabitants. Several other princes and counts, among whom was Ruprecht of the Palatin ate, took the Jews under their protection, on the payment of large sums; in consequence of which they were called â€Å"Jew-masters,† and were in danger of being attacked by the populace and by their powerful neighbors. These persecuted and ill-used people – except, indeed, where h

On the Subway Essay

â€Å"On the Subway† is a poem by Sharon Olds that unfolds â€Å"to convey a sense of fear, ambiguity, inequality, and inner city tension. The situation is set by the title, and this makes all that follows clear as far as its meaning is concerned.†(para. 1). Ms. Olds tells the story through the narrator who while riding the train observes that she is alone with a young black boy. â€Å"While nothing really happens beyond the two observing each other, the poem still manages to shed light to inequality, prejudice, and stereotypes.†(para 1). The poem begins with the narrator telling the story of the two of them alone on the subway train through her observations and predisposed prejudices. There are many Symbolic references about class, race, and inequality made throughout the story. As the story begins the first symbolic reference unfolds as the narrator describes the boy’s feet and his shoes. As she goes on to further describe the boy’s shoe laces we get the sense of the imbalance of equality of the races. While the sneakers themselves are black it is the laces that are white and form a complex pattern which is referred to as intentional scars. The author uses the white laces to symbolize the imbalance of power that the young boy has had have more power to face as a minority. They also suggest that since the laces keep the shoes on or together that they. The laces could also be symbolic of the markings left on the boys’ ancestors back in the day when they were slaves and had received a beating thus bearing the scars of the beating. The woman also uses the boy’s clothing to further symbolize the stereotypes and the injustices between the races. She is fearful of the boy because of the type of clothing that he wears. She feels that because he is dressed in clothing that is considered to be more urban and open that he was dressed like someone who would be a mugger. The woman who was clothed in fur was covered. The woman is fearful of being attacked because she is more affluent and therefore more of a target. Both the boy and the woman are sizing each other and without really knowing one another they both have their own feelings about each other. The boy knows that since the woman is a white woman she is covered in fur and therefore she has more affluence and power. The woman is truly fearful of the boy because of her own preconceived thoughts about race. She cannot look passed what the boy looks like woman is uncertain of the boy. She looks at him with fear that he can attack her at any moment because of he r affluence. The author continues to discuss the separation of races by discussing how much easier it is to be a White person than it is to be an African American. The poem indicates that being white offers privileges that being African American does not. It is the color of her skin that has provided her with better opportunity and separated her from the boy on the train. This poem is relevant today as it exemplifies stereotypes and inequalities that are still present in our society. The woman on the train represents wealth and power. The boy represents missed opportunity and poverty. The woman on the train feared that she was going to be attacked by the boy on the train simply because of past experiences and making judgments on someone simply based on the color of his skin and how he was dressed. Chances are that had the boy on the train been white the woman on the train would not have the same fear or feel the same way. Even in our society today we have people who are still quick to make rash judgments while not having all the facts or making a decision based on past experience. I also think the poem does reference some compassion between the boy and the woman by the end of the poem as the woman mentions that both races can be misunderstood and that both of them can get hurt or be harmed by being judged. They each have struggles that they have to overcome.

The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 31. Talented

â€Å"What is the werewolves' part in this?† Tanya asked then, eyeing Jacob. Jacob spoke before Edward could answer. â€Å"If the Volturi won't stop to listen about Nessie, I mean Renesmee,† he corrected himself, remembering that Tanya would not understand his stupid nickname, â€Å"we will stop them.† â€Å"Very brave, child, but that would be impossible for more experienced fighters than you are.† â€Å"You don't know what we can do.† Tanya shrugged. â€Å"It is your own life, certainly, to spend as you choose.† Jacob's eyes flickered to Renesmee – still in Carmen's arms with Kate hovering over them – and it was easy to read the longing in them. â€Å"She is special, that little one,† Tanya mused. â€Å"Hard to resist.† â€Å"A very talented family,† Eleazar murmured as he paced. His tempo was increasing; he flashed from the door to Carmen and back again every second. â€Å"A mind reader for a father, a shield for a mother, and then whatever magic this extraordinary child has bewitched us with. I wonder if there is a name for what she does, or if it is the norm for a vampire hybrid. As if such a thing could ever be considered normal! A vampire hybrid, indeed!† â€Å"Excuse me,† Edward said in a stunned voice. He reached out and caught Eleazar's shoulder as he was about to turn again for the door. â€Å"What did you just call my wife?† Eleazar looked at Edward curiously, his manic pacing forgotten for the moment. â€Å"A shield, I think. She's blocking me now, so I can't be sure.† I stared at Eleazar, my brows furrowing in confusion. Shield? What did he mean about my blocking him? I was standing right here beside him, not defensive in any way. â€Å"A shield?† Edward repeated, bewildered. â€Å"Come now, Edward! If I can't get a read on her, I doubt you can, either. Can you hear her thoughts right now?† Eleazar asked. â€Å"No,† Edward murmured. â€Å"But I've never been able to do that. Even when she was human.† â€Å"Never?† Eleazar blinked. â€Å"Interesting. That would indicate a rather powerful latent talent, if it was manifesting so clearly even before the transformation. I can't feel a way through her shield to get a sense of it at all. Yet she must be raw still – she's only a few months old.† The look he gave Edward now was almost exasperated. â€Å"And apparently completely unaware of what she's doing. Totally unconscious. Ironic. Aro sent me all over the world searching for such anomalies, and you simply stumble across it by accident and don't even realize what you have.† Eleazar shook his head in disbelief. I frowned. â€Å"What are you talking about? How can I be a shield? What does that even mean?† All I could picture in my head was a ridiculous medieval suit of armor. Eleazar leaned his head to one side as he examined me. â€Å"I suppose we were overly formal about it in the guard. In truth, categorizing talents is a subjective, haphazard business; every talent is unique, never exactly the same thing twice. But you, Bella, are fairly easy to classify. Talents that are purely defensive, that protect some aspect of the bearer, are always called shields. Have you ever tested your abilities? Blocked anyone besides me and your mate?† It took me few seconds, despite how quickly my new brain worked, to organize my answer. â€Å"It only works with certain things,† I told him. â€Å"My head is sort of†¦ private. But it doesn't stop Jasper from being able to mess with my mood or Alice from seeing my future.† â€Å"Purely a mental defense.† Eleazar nodded to himself. â€Å"Limited, but strong.† â€Å"Aro couldn't hear her,† Edward interjected. â€Å"Though she was human when they met.† Eleazar's eyes widened. â€Å"Jane tried to hurt me, but she couldn't,† I said. â€Å"Edward thinks Demetri can't find me, and that Alec can't bother me, either. Is that good?† Eleazar, still gaping, nodded. â€Å"Quite.† â€Å"A shield!† Edward said, deep satisfaction saturating his tone. â€Å"I never thought of it that way. The only one I've ever met before was Renata, and what she did was so different.† Eleazar had recovered slightly. â€Å"Yes, no talent ever manifests in precisely the same way, because no one ever thinks in exactly the same way.† â€Å"Who's Renata? What does she do?† I asked. Renesmee was interested, too, leaning away from Carmen so that she could see around Kate. â€Å"Renata is Aro's personal bodyguard,† Eleazar told me. â€Å"A very practical kind of shield, and a very strong one.† I vaguely remembered a small crowd of vampires hovering close to Aro in his macabre tower, some male, some female. I couldn't remember the women's faces in the uncomfortable, terrifying memory. One must have been Renata. â€Å"I wonder†¦,† Eleazar mused. â€Å"You see, Renata is a powerful shield against a physical attack. If someone approaches her – or Aro, as she is always close beside him in a hostile situation – they find themselves†¦ diverted. There's a force around her that repels, though it's almost unnoticeable. You simply find yourself going a different direction than you planned, with a confused memory as to why you wanted to go that other way in the first place. She can project her shield several meters out from herself. She also protects Caius and Marcus, too, when they have a need, but Aro is her priority. â€Å"What she does isn't actually physical, though. Like the vast majority of our gifts, it takes place inside the mind. If she tried to keep you back, I wonder who would win?† He shook his head. â€Å"I've never heard of Aro's or Jane's gifts being thwarted.† â€Å"Momma, you're special,† Renesmee told me without any surprise, like she was commenting on the color of my clothes. I felt disoriented. Didn't I already know my gift? I had my super-self-control that had allowed me to skip right over the horrifying newborn year. Vampires only had one extra ability at most, right? Or had Edward been correct in the beginning? Before Carlisle had suggested that my self-control could be something beyond the natural, Edward had thought my restraint was just a product of good preparation – focus and attitude,he'd declared. Which one had been right? Was there more I could do? A name and a category for what I was? â€Å"Can you project?† Kate asked interestedly. â€Å"Project?† I asked. â€Å"Push it out from yourself,† Kate explained. â€Å"Shield someone besides yourself.† â€Å"I don't know. I've never tried. I didn't know I should do that.† â€Å"Oh, you might not be able to,† Kate said quickly. â€Å"Heavens knows I've been working on it for centuries and the best I can do is run a current over my skin.† I stared at her, mystified. â€Å"Kate's got an offensive skill,† Edward said. â€Å"Sort of like Jane.† I flinched away from Kate automatically, and she laughed. â€Å"I'm not sadistic about it,† she assured me. â€Å"It's just something that comes in handy during a fight.† Kate's words were sinking in, beginning to make connections in my mind. Shield someone besides yourself she'd said. As if there were some way for me to include another person in my strange, quirky silent head. I remembered Edward cringing on the ancient stones of the Volturi castle turret. Though this was a human memory, it was sharper, more painful than most of the others – like it had been branded into the tissues of my brain. What if I could stop that from happening ever again? What if I could protect him? Protect Renesmee? What if there was even the faintest glimmer of a possibility that I could shield them, too? â€Å"You have to teach me what to do!† I insisted, unthinkingly grabbing Kate's arm. â€Å"You have to show me how!† Kate winced at my grip. â€Å"Maybe – if you stop trying to crush my radius.† â€Å"Oops! Sorry!† â€Å"You're shielding, all right,† Kate said. â€Å"That move should have about shocked your arm off. You didn't feel anything just now?† â€Å"That wasn't really necessary, Kate. She didn't mean any harm,† Edward muttered under his breath. Neither of us paid attention to him. â€Å"No, I didn't feel anything. Were you doing your electric current thing?† â€Å"I was. Hmm. I've never met anyone who couldn't feel it, immortal or otherwise.† â€Å"You said you project it? On your skin?† Kate nodded. â€Å"It used to be just in my palms. Kind of like Aro.† â€Å"Or Renesmee,† Edward interjected. â€Å"But after a lot of practice, I can radiate the current all over my body. It's a good defense. Anyone who tries to touch me drops like a human that's been Tasered. It only downs him for a second, but that's long enough.† I was only half-listening to Kate, my thoughts racing around the idea that I might be able to protect my little family if I could just learn fast enough. I wished fervently that I might be good at this projecting thing, too, like I was somehow mysteriously good at all the other aspects of being a vampire. My human life had not prepared me for things that came naturally, and I couldn't make myself trust this aptitude to last. It felt like I had never wanted anything so badly before this; to be able to protect what I loved. Because I was so preoccupied, I didn't notice the silent exchange going on between Edward and Eleazar until it became a spoken conversation. â€Å"Can you think of even one exception, though?† Edward asked. I looked over to make sense of his comment and realized that everyone else was already staring at the two men. They were leaning toward each other intently, Edward's expression tight with suspicion, Eleazar's unhappy and reluctant. â€Å"I don't want to think of them that way,† Eleazar said through his teeth. I was surprised at the sudden change in the atmosphere. â€Å"If you're right – ,† Eleazar began again. Edward cut him off. â€Å"The thought was yours, not mine.† â€Å"If I'm right†¦ I can't even grasp what that would mean. It would change everything about the world we've created. It would change the meaning of my life. What I have been a part of.† â€Å"Your intentions were always the best, Eleazar.† â€Å"Would that even matter? What have I done? How many lives †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tanya put her hand on Eleazar's shoulder in a comforting gesture. â€Å"What did we miss, my friend? I want to know so that I can argue with these thoughts. You've never done anything worth castigating yourself this way.† â€Å"Oh, haven't I?† Eleazar muttered. Then he shrugged out from under her hand and began his pacing again, faster even than before. Tanya watched him for half a second and then focused on Edward. â€Å"Explain.† Edward nodded, his tense eyes following Eleazar as he spoke. â€Å"He was trying to understand why so many of the Volturi would come to punish us. It's not the way they do things. Certainly, we are the biggest mature coven they've dealt with, but in the past other covens have joined to protect themselves, and they never presented much of a challenge despite their numbers. We are more closely bonded, and that's a factor, but not a huge one. â€Å"He was remembering other times that covens have been punished, for one thing or the other, and a pattern occurred to him. It was a pattern that the rest of the guard would never have noticed, since Eleazar was the one passing the pertinent intelligence privately to Aro. A pattern that only repeated every other century or so.† â€Å"What was this pattern?† Carmen asked, watching Eleazar as Edward was. â€Å"Aro does not often personally attend a punishing expedition,† Edward said. â€Å"But in the past, when Aro wanted something in particular, it was never long before evidence turned up proving that this coven or that coven had committed some unpardonable crime. The ancients would decide to go along to watch the guard administer justice. And then, once the coven was all but destroyed, Aro would grant a pardon to one member whose thoughts, he would claim, were particularly repentant. Always, it would turn out that this vampire had the gift Aro had admired. Always, this person was given a place with the guard. The gifted vampire was won over quickly, always so grateful for the honor. There were no exceptions.† â€Å"It must be a heady thing to be chosen,† Kate suggested. â€Å"Ha!† Eleazar snarled, still in motion. â€Å"There is one among the guard,† Edward said, explaining Eleazar's angry reaction. â€Å"Her name is Chelsea. She has influence over the emotional ties between people. She can both loosen and secure these ties. She could make someone feel bonded to the Volturi, to want to belong, to want to please them___† Eleazar came to an abrupt halt. â€Å"We all understood why Chelsea was important. In a fight, if we could separate allegiances between allied covens, we could defeat them that much more easily. If we could distance the innocent members of a coven emotionally from the guilty, justice could be done without unnecessary brutality – the guilty could be punished without interference, and the innocent could be spared. Otherwise, it was impossible to keep the coven from fighting as a whole. So Chelsea would break the ties that bound them together. It seemed a great kindness to me, evidence of Aro's mercy. I did suspect that Chelsea kept our own band more tightly knit, but that, too, was a good thing. It made us more effective. It helped us coexist more easily.† This clarified old memories for me. It had not made sense to me before how the guard obeyed their masters so gladly, with almost lover-like devotion. â€Å"How strong is her gift?† Tanya asked with an edge to her voice. Her gaze quickly touched on each member of her family. Eleazar shrugged. â€Å"I was able to leave with Carmen.† And then he shook his head. â€Å"But anything weaker than the bond between partners is in danger. In a normal coven, at least. Those are weaker bonds than those in our family, though. Abstaining from human blood makes us more civilized – lets us form true bonds of love. I doubt she could turn our allegiances, Tanya.† Tanya nodded, seeming reassured, while Eleazar continued with his analysis. â€Å"I could only think that the reason Aro had decided to come himself, to bring so many with him, is because his goal is not punishment but acquisition,† Eleazar said. â€Å"He needs to be there to control the situation. But he needs the entire guard for protection from such a large, gifted coven. On the other hand, that leaves the other ancients unprotected in Volterra. Too risky – someone might try to take advantage. So they all come together. How else could he be sure to preserve the gifts that he wants? He must want them very badly,† Eleazar mused. Edward's voice was low as a breath. â€Å"From what I saw of his thoughts last spring, Aro's never wanted anything more than he wants Alice.† I felt my mouth fall open, remembering the nightmarish pictures I had imagined long ago: Edward and Alice in black cloaks with bloodred eyes, their faces cold and remote as they stood close as shadows, Aro's hands on theirs†¦. Had Alice seen this more recently? Had she seen Chelsea trying to strip away her love for us, to bind her to Aro and Caius and Marcus? â€Å"Is that why Alice left?† I asked, my voice breaking on her name. Edward put his hand against my cheek. â€Å"I think it must be. To keep Aro from gaining the thing he wants most of all. To keep her power out of his hands.† I heard Tanya and Kate murmuring in disturbed voices and remembered that they hadn't known about Alice. â€Å"He wants you, too,† I whispered. Edward shrugged, his face suddenly a little too composed. â€Å"Not nearly as much. I can't really give him anything more than he already has. And of course that's dependent on his finding a way to force me to do his will. He knows me, and he knows how unlikely that is.† He raised one eyebrow sardonically. Eleazar frowned at Edward's nonchalance. â€Å"He also knows your weaknesses,† Eleazar pointed out, and then he looked at me. â€Å"It's nothing we need to discuss now,† Edward said quickly. Eleazar ignored the hint and continued. â€Å"He probably wants your mate, too, regardless. He must have been intrigued by a talent that could defy him in its human incarnation.† Edward was uncomfortable with this topic. I didn't like it, either. If Aro wanted me to do something – anything – all he had to do was threaten Edward and I would comply. And vice versa. Was death the lesser concern? Was it really capture we should fear? Edward changed the subject. â€Å"I think the Volturi were waiting for this – for some pretext. They couldn't know what form their excuse would come in, but the plan was already in place for when it did come. That's why Alice saw their decision before Irina triggered it. The decision was already made, just waiting for the pretense of a justification.† â€Å"If the Volturi are abusing the trust all immortals have placed in them†¦,† Carmen murmured. â€Å"Does it matter?† Eleazar asked. â€Å"Who would believe it? And even if others could be convinced that the Volturi are exploiting their power, how would it make any difference? No one can stand against them.† â€Å"Though some of us are apparently insane enough to try,† Kate muttered. Edward shook his head. â€Å"You're only here to witness, Kate. Whatever Aro's goal, I don't think he's ready to tarnish the Volturi's reputation for it. If we can take away his argument against us, he'll be forced to leave us in peace.† â€Å"Of course,† Tanya murmured. No one looked convinced. For a few long minutes, nobody said anything. Then Iheard the sound of tires turning off the highway pavement onto the Cullens' dirt drive. â€Å"Oh crap, Charlie,† I muttered. â€Å"Maybe the Denalis could hang out upstairs until – â€Å" â€Å"No,† Edward said in a distant voice. His eyes were far away, staring blankly at the door. â€Å"It's not your father.† His gaze focused on me. â€Å"Alice sent Peter and Charlotte, afterall. Time to get ready for the next round.†

The changing interaction of finance information and technology Essay

The changing interaction of finance information and technology - Essay Example The test life cycle of the system is divided in different scenarios from 1 through 11. The significant feature of the system is that it validates the data at every step. The process is completed by following scenarios which are defined below (Dan Lemus, April 13, 2011): Scenario 1 starts by creating a new project or working on the existing project. System assigns a unique user name for the user and stored it in the database of the system for later validation. To start a project we first define a project and system assigns a unique project code following with the details of Project principal, description and initiator of the project. When the project is formally initiated we move to Scenario 2. This phase of system is wholly related to the transfers funding for the project initiated. In this phase all accounting credentials are added against project initiated. Accounting information includes the accounting numbers â€Å"From Accounting Number† from which the fund will be transferred and the â€Å"To Account Number†. In this phase an important feature is also available to import accounting line information from a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file. Then final step is to submit the eDoc of transfer fund for routing to get approvals from the concerned. While proceeding to Scenario 3 the approvals will see the eDoc routed in their â€Å"Action List†. The approvers can approve/reject the document. They can leave remarks, if needed. When all the approvers have approved the eDoc the initiator will be able to see the Final status of the document in â€Å"Document Search† option at the top of the page. In Scenario 4 we can check the General Ledger Balance to see the current balance of the company. This detail can further be evaluated to monthly financial information. This information can help the managers to have a bigger picture of the funds available that could be consumed for a project. Next scenario (Scenario 5) is to make disbursement voucher in

Change at Faslane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Change at Faslane - Essay Example According to the study conducted Faslane was entirely operating under the watch of the Ministry of Defense and the Royal Navy. Due to need for minimizing its expenditure and cut costs, but retain its at the top of the base’s interest, Faslane introduced strategic change that witnessed the company decide to establish a partnering program with an independent entity that would help reduce the cost of expenditure and at the same time provide the most effective services to their client. As a matter of course, Faslane collaborated with Babcock, a subsidiary branch of Babcock International. The UK’s Ministry of Defense signed a five-year contract with Babcock Marine in 2002. This evolutional change came in the face of John Howie’s charge that had to make sure that Babcock meets the set targets and delivers a total savings cost of $76 million without negatively affecting any activities or services provided to the UK Navy. The strategic change that Faslane incorporated me asures that managed their strategies with absolute efficiency since it was necessary for Babcock to cut costs as the cut costs would come to them in form of profits. Furthermore, introduction of Babcock Marine would positively transform Faslnane because Babcock would make sure delivery of their services was effective and of high quality at a lower cost. In addition, Faslane is a huge firm with a large number of employees depicting that the cost of running its operations and the cost of maintaining its staff is always high. Therefore, when Babcock Marine Company came on board, Faslane relieved part of its expenditure in view of cutting costs by seconding to Babcock close to 300 Royal Navy personnel together with over 1’700 civil servants posts (The Stationery Office, 2010:7). It also left the remaining number of civil servants within the site, the police, Royal Marines, and sailors under the management of Babcock Marine. With reduced number of employees, Faslane had transforme d and approached an easier system of managing the company operations at a cost effective procedure. Furthermore, the strategy Faslane used to manage change was competent since its transformation styles resulted in the company’s transition of mindset under John Howie’s directive leadership model. This is because; collaborating with Babcock would ensure that Babcock changed the mindset of all the previous employees present at the site. As elaborated, these employees were mostly civilians who worked at the site for quite a long time and had established empires. This deterred them from seeing the importance of delivering service to the Royal Navy, which is their customer (Gapes, 2010:114). Hence, for Babcock to achieve its set goals and objectives, it was necessary to change the mindset of these employees who guarded the submarines as well as the ships. Changing the mindset would incorporate means of delivering service at the lowest possible expenditure. This means that, e ven if Babcock did not wish to renew its contract upon expiry, Faslane employees would still have the knowhow of cutting costs and ensuring effectiveness at the same time. Thus, strategic management of change at Faslane is long-term figurative due to John Howie’s educating and coaching system. Previously, if there were any changes at Faslane, they would take 56 days for them to reach

Research proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 4

Research proposal - Essay Example panies in processing of data into information but also in using the information in doing business analysis, as well as in taking critical business decisions regarding future investment opportunities. Using MIS, companies can retrieve information in the form of well-documented reports that contain information about all technicalities and aspects that can influence the business at some point in future. Along with this, MIS also helps companies in setting and achieving short-term and long-term strategic goals and objectives (Earl 1998). Because of these benefits, production and manufacturing companies have started to use Management Information Systems to manage information about inventory and other business processes. However, there exist some challenges that need to be addressed in order to make an efficient use of this technology. According to Oz (2009, p.9), information is the lifeblood of any organization†. Without having significant amount of information, a company can never operate efficiently in today’s world of competition because information is the base for every successful business move. In general, management information system refers to processing of data into information in such a way that it can be used by organizations to administer different business activities. According to Abel (2008), Management Information System is an important software application that deals with the use of information technology tools to help managers and employees in performing different tasks associated with information processing and management. Management information systems perform all the tasks related to information management which include collection of data, editing of data, processing of data into required information, and generating relevant reports based on the stored data. As Dawn (2009) states, â€Å"management information systems are used by organizations to track, store, manipulate and distribute information to the appropriate people†. A management

Reading notes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Reading notes - Essay Example From around 1932, the military always received awards depending on the number of killings in battle. A military group stands to oppose this mode of awarding and recognition, arguing that it completely disregards the aspect of honor and respect to the military. The country faces a financial crisis that has averted her economy for the worse. The bailout outcomes have caused Americans to suffer under the hands of the government. From this we can see the Afghan Goatherds in place, which defines that people do not always get what they want. Such events may bring about the subject of moral dilemma: In this Plato’s perception is to overlook prejudgment and focus on the right virtues. Utilitarianism is explained in the argument of overall happiness. Utilitarianism is defined through two objections. One which argues whether it is right to take a harmful action in the interest of another action and the argument which sees the benefits of the chosen action. Libertarianism is used to question whether we own ourselves and our decisions or whether we are subject to a superior figure that controls us. Thus, it creates a minimal state of the two sides. Three policies fall under this minimal state; number of moral legislation, paternalisms and wealth. Also, the concept of â€Å"Free-Market† spans out indicatively on the issue of economic inequality. Take for instance Michael Jordan’s money being taxed. The extra taxation is explained as an intention to help other people with the money collected. However, from a libertarian perspective, choice of voluntary action gets violated. There is the question of morals and markets. In this, people may get hired for a particular task but end up doing two or more tasks that may have not featured in the agreement. Putting into consideration the libertarian and utilitarian reasoning, high effectiveness could be observed in a case of a volunteer army as compared to any other. Still under this scenario, surrogacy features

SE Asia Basin History project (South China Sea Platform and South Essay

SE Asia Basin History project (South China Sea Platform and South China Ocean Basin) - Essay Example Geologically, the nearly 3.5 million square kilometers area is primarily surrounded by a series of sedimentary successions which are highly rich in petroleum resources (IHO, 1998). According to many experts, South China Sea platform and ocean basin has a complex geologic structure comprised of folded fundament dating back to the pre-Cambrian period, Indo-china period and Herynina periods. The rhomboid shaped marine basin is largely confined by crustal structure fractures, lithospheres as well as massive tectonic belts. This paper presents the history of the South China Sea basin including its stratigraphic columns and dissects as well as the history of its deposition. South China Sea basin is locacated at a junction of three major tectonics namely; the Eurasian,Pacific-philippine and the India-Australian plates. The basin lies on top of a continental self that was drowned during the ice age. According to many experts, the oceanic as well as the stretched continental crusts that are presently underlying the South China Sea basin have always experienced a series of tectonic movements since the Cenzoic times. The basin is located within the juncture area of the Indo-Australian, Eurasian and Pacific plates and the Regional Plate Tectonic events have played crucial roles to control the formation plus evolution of continental marginal basins. It is widely speculated that the basin may have been formed by underlain by continental crust before it was affected by rifting and subsequently overprinted by forearc structural setting after the initiation of subduction. For example, the evolution of the region may have been as a result of a collusion of the Eurasian and Indian plates, the northward drifting of the Australian plate as well as the westward subdution of the Pacific continental plate during the Cenozoic period as shown in figure 1 below. With regard to its crustal structure, the basement of the basin

Thinking Through Religions. Humans and the Sacred Essay

Thinking Through Religions. Humans and the Sacred - Essay Example The paper will discuss two of those places and discuss how union is attained through uniting the exterior state and an individual’s interior state. The Golden Earth as the middle place Native Americans attach all their wealth or richness to the earth and the earth remains Golden to them – the greatest treasure. For instance, the most respected myths, Cibola’s seven villages are located at the middle pace of the earth- a place where natives entered completely into a relationship with the earth – land, (Bauer 45). The attachment to the earth-soil as source of nurture forms a theme very crucial to spirituality of Native Americans. To respect and honor the earth with the whole of an individual’s sense is central to the theology of Amerindians grounded in the concrete and sensate world. Additionally, an individual’s relation to the land is a way of making subtle linkage with the holy and one’s consciousness with the world is prevalent Nativ e Americans culture as a way of uniting the interior state and the exterior state (Lane 73-94). The sweat lodge This is an individual’s vision place; it is a symbolic location set aside for having close contact with sacred and a place designed to invite the holy, for instance, a ceremonial Hogan or a Pueblo – sacred places for soliciting totemic spirits presence. The significance of the sweat lodge is to have a godly encounter because they are restricted and dark. In these places, the spirits of the living things are unified; - the purifying water, fire, and earth qualities join to provide new visions and life to the people entering the places. People associate with the lodge the sacred place, which forms a crucial dreams landscape and people perform various rituals such as dances to connect to the supernatural, (Versluis 12). 2. Heaven and earth are threads of one loom This means that all spatial relationships and normal experiences would turn out to be sacramental ma king an extensive and increasingly powerful reality. For instance, the geographical configuration of various villages of Shaker with many families, structures, and main meeting places would indicate an order inspired from beyond and shapes, angle and colors all shows an apocalyptic vision. All structures and actions are just allusions to the archetypal reality in their midst, for instance, the meetinghouse was painted white with heavenly blue interior trim. Similarly, the house was covered with a roof of gambrel, its sloppy edges indicating heaven dome. There are various thoughts in support of Shakers spiritual correspondence theory, for instance, the Swedenborgian and Puritan spiritual correspondence idea has a great influence. In their school of thoughts, the reciprocal spiritual and natural world overlaps would be analyzed. The theology of Puritan with the focus on the New England commonwealth as an Old Testament typology fulfillment had focused on this aspect as divine represent ative or emblematic, archetypal event. The transcendentalists like his friends and Emerson furthered this notion and argued that each world piece is able of being fitted to various spheres. His nature contemplation led to a universal awareness of being, just as Plotinus has discovered in himself the correspondence images to the distant constellations, (Walters 96). Swedenborg also focused on human instrument divine inspiration through the second coming reality and had envisaged himself persistently existing between the natural and spiritual experience worlds. Generally, Shakes idea serves to draw a connection between the two experiences – the natural and spiritual world. For instance, they argue that the light established in invisible universe is highly linked to the earth’

Marketing plan for Computer Village Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Marketing plan for Computer Village - Essay Example Village is a retail and sales company focusing on the IT industry selling used and new computers and accessories along with providing necessary services such as network administration, assembly maintenance and system analysis. The company began its operations in 1988 and is based in San Dimas, Los Angeles. The company is owned and operated by a Certified Microsoft Systems Engineer who serves as an expert in the IT industry. Computer Village is an IT based retailers and service provider that has developed partnership with its client to provide technical assistance in form of affordable products, their servicing and other IT related services. The company has developed business partnership with leading technological corporation such as Microsoft, Apple, Dell, HP etc. to better serve its clients and their business needs (Computer Village, 2013). Industry Information The computer retail and service industry is a booming industry not just in California but around the entire globe. This is because the need for computers and even their servicing and repair has increased significantly in the last few decades. The IT industry and specifically the computer industry is enjoyed a growth phase in today’s world. With the increase in the number of sales of computers worldwide, the computer retail and service industry also enjoys a phase of growth (Franchise Help, 2013). The computer retail industry, while a growing industry, faces competition from three sides. It faces the biggest competition from computer manufactures who directly sell to the end consumers. Consumers, at times, prefer to buy directly from the computer manufacturers and eliminate the middle men. The second competition that the computer retail industry faces is from wholesale companies. Retail chains such as Wal-Mart and Sears offer computers and other accessories to the consumers at discounted range while providing a wide range of selection to choose from. The industry faces its third competition from c omputer retail companies like itself that develop a one-on-one relationship with the end consumer, thereby having a loyal customer base. Small retail computer companies, while selling computers, also provide a wide range of services to their customers. These services include repair and maintenance; network support services; IT services and internet services. In the recent years, there has been a strong demand for computer repair and maintenance services. This is because of the fact that consumers prefer to repair or even change parts rather than investing in buying a new product. The recent recession has rather positively impacted the company as businesses and users would

Anticoagulation Therapy for Stroke Prevention Case Study

Anticoagulation Therapy for Stroke Prevention - Case Study Example Most anticoagulants are associated with adverse drug reactions, concerns for their duration of action, bleeding risk, and the need to carry out monitoring while adjusting dosages during the treatment period. Therefore, selection of appropriate anticoagulant for preventing Atrial Fibrillation must ensure that the practitioner considers these factors. From a therapeutic perspective, reports show that Warfarin is the first line anticoagulant for patients with Atrial Fibrillation (Nice guideline 2012), especially when the condition is primary or severe because it curbs the development of stroke. Besides, reports show that oral administration has had long-term safety for the past 50 years (AABB, 2014). In addition to that, its effect can be reversed with vitamin k antidote in case of bleeding (AABB, 2014). Moreover, warfarin has reduced rates of major gastrointestinal bleeding and myocardial infarction comparing with the novel oral anticoagulants (NHS Information Centre, 2014). Despite it s complete absorption after oral administration, Warfarin is slow acting anticoagulant with a long half-life. Its two active enantiomers (R and S forms) have different therapeutic potency, metabolism, and clearance pathways (Hirsh, 2003). Besides, it has a delayed anticoagulant effect from two to 3 days while its duration of action continues for 2 to 5 days after a single dose administration. However, dosing of Warfarin can be described as complicated; this is due to its interaction with some foods containing vitamin K.

Motorcycle Inustry Essay Example for Free

Motorcycle Inustry Essay Hero Honda launched CBZ 156cc motorcycle . Bajaj launched Kawasaki, Boxer AT CT . Royal enfield launched machismo A350 and lightning 535 . Kinetic engineering ltd launched Brat and kinetic challenger . 2000: There was a entry of new companies like TVS , Yamaha , (Lohia Motors) . Hero Honda launched Joy, Passion , and a remodeled Street. Bajaj launched KB Eliminator , KB Caliber Chroma , KB Aspire and KB Acer . LML came up with Adreno and Energy . Escorts Yamaha launched Crux and TVS Group launched Fiero . 2001: Bajaj launched the Pulsar range . TVS launched Victor 110cc . Yamaha upgraded the Crux version with Crux R. Kinetic engineering launched the GF125 and GF150. Background note:- Indian two wheeler market is divided into three major segments :- India is the 2nd largest user and 3rd largest manufacturer of two wheelers in the world. Bajaj Auto laid the foundation of the Indian two wheelers industry in 1948 by trading in imported Vespa scooters. Change in the Trend: Scooters dominated the Indian market till 1990. Thus till 1990 Bajaj was the undisputed leader in scooter market followed by LML Kinetic . After the Liberalisation , privatization and globalization , many companies entered into joint ventures and technical collaborations with foreign companies lke Honda , Suzuki , Yamaha etc. Due to introduction of 100-cc motorcycles an intersegment shift began to start which resulted in the decline in the sales of the motorcycles. Due to delayed launch of new and advanced scooter models , four stroke scooters prone to skidding risk and vibrations etc the demand for motorcycled went up. This demand was mainly driven by rural and semi-urban comsumers. In 2000 , the motorcycle market was characterized by the presence of sub segments based on price :- The Motorcycle Story:- In 1980’s factors namely high running and maintenance cost , perception that motorcycle is more suitable for rural roads , high price of motorcycle in comparison with mopeds or scooters and the availability of fairly new models of scooter led to a sharp decline in the growth of motorcycle segment. De-licensing in the motorcycle industry in mid-1980’s came to their rescue , and hence there was a healthy growth in the sales figure. In 1990 , motorcycle industry witnessed recession because of rising fuel prices , high input cost and reduced purchasing power due to significant rise in general price level and liquidity crisis in comsumer financing. In 1992 companies suffered big time . Entry of new players in the motorcycle market led to losses or fall in profits. In 1993, launch of 100-cc motorcycles led to a inter-segment shift began to take place and motorcycles sales began to grow as a result of flag in the recession. In 1999 , there was a big shift from demand of scooters to the demand of Motorcycles. This shift was mainly attributed tpo the change in customer’s preference towards fuel-efficient and appealing models, delay in launch of new scooters etc. PESTLE ANALYSIS :- Pestle analysis is a tool that can aid the organization in making strategies which will help them understand the external environment in which they operate now and will operate in the future. PESTLE FLOWCHART PESTLE Political/Legal:- 1. Restrictive policy of the govt. towards the car industry in the pre liberalization era . This indirectly helped the motorcycle industry to develop . 2. Delicensing of the automobile sector in mid 1980’s . This led to the entry of foreign players in the automobile industry 3. Break up of the joint venture between -Escorts Yamaha -TVS Suzuki -Hero Motors Honda Motors Due to these break ups Indian Companies were forced to invest in R D for manufacturing indigenously develop models Economical:- 1. High running and maintenance cost . High price of motorcycles in comparison with scooters or mopeds. Due to this companies had to reduce either the quality or had to increase the price of the motorcycles and this resulted in fall in the sales 2. Rise in fuel price high input , reduced purchasing power. This led to increase in the price level and gradually recession. Sociocultural:- 1. Rise in demand for personal transport. This created a demand for two wheelers in the industry 2. Inefficiency of public transportation system made people dissatisfied with it and they demanded some vehicle that could be economical and cater to their needs. 3. Perception that motorcycle were more suitable for the rural roads Availability of fairly new models of scooters. This led to sharp decline in growth of motorcycles . Technological:- 1. Due to Launch of 100-cc motorcycles there was a Intersegment shift and growth of sales figures of motorcycles. 2. Factors like delayed launch of advance scooter models fear of four stroke scooters being prone to increased skidding risks and vibration contributed in the decline in the demand of scooters.

How To Develop An Effective Relationship With Your Co-Worker

How To Develop An Effective Relationship With Your Co-Worker You can submarine your career and work relationships by the actions you take and the behaviors you exhibit at work. No matter your education, your experience, or your title, if you cant play well with others, you will never accomplish your work mission Effective work relationships form the cornerstone for success and satisfaction with your job and your career. How important are effective work relationships? Effective work relationships form the basis for promotion, pay increases, goal accomplishment, and job satisfaction. A supervisor in a several hundred person company quickly earned a reputation for not playing well with others. He collected data and used the data to find fault, place blame, and make other employees look bad. He enjoyed identifying problems but rarely suggested solutions. He bugged his supervisor weekly for a bigger title and more money so he could tell other employees what to do. When he announced he was job hunting, not a single employee suggested that the company take action to convince him to stay. He had burned his bridges. These are the top seven ways you can play well with others at work. They form the basis for effective work relationships. These are the actions you want to take to create a positive, empowering, motivational work environment for people. Bring suggested solutions with the problems to the meeting table. Some employees spend an inordinate amount of time identifying problems. Honestly? Thats the easy part. Thoughtful solutions are the challenge that will earn respect and admiration from coworkers and bosses Dont ever play the blame game. You alienate coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff. Yes, you may need to identify who was involved in a problem. You may even ask the Deming question: what about the work system caused the employee to fail? But, not my fault and publicly identifying and blaming others for failures will earn enemies. These enemies will, in turn, help you to fail. You do need allies at work. Your verbal and nonverbal communication matters. If you talk down to another employee, use sarcasm, or sound nasty, the other employee hears you. We are all radar machines that constantly scope out our environment.In one organization a high level manager said to me, I know you dont think I should scream at my employees. But, sometimes, they make me so mad. When is it appropriate for me to scream at the employees? Answer? Never, of course, if respect for people is a hallmark of your organization. Never blind side a coworker, boss, or reporting staff person. If the first time a coworker hears about a problem is in a staff meeting or from an email sent to his supervisor, you have blind sided the coworker. Always discuss problems, first, with the people directly involved who own the work system. Also called lynching or ambushing your coworkers, you will never build effective work alliances unless your coworkers trust you. And, without alliances, you never accomplish the most important goals. Keep your commitments. In an organization, work is interconnected. If you fail to meet deadlines and commitments, you affect the work of other employees. Always keep commitments, and if you cant, make sure all affected employees know what happened. Provide a new due date and make every possible effort to honor the new deadline. Share credit for accomplishments, ideas, and contributions. How often do you accomplish a goal or complete a project with no help from others? If you are a manager, how many of the great ideas you promote were contributed by staff members? Take the time, and expend the energy, to thank, reward, recognize and specify contributions of the people who help you succeed. This is a no-fail approach to building effective work relationships. Help other employees find their greatness. Every employee in your organization has talents, skills, and experience. If you can help fellow employees harness their best abilities, you benefit the organization immeasurably. The growth of individual employees benefits the whole. Compliment, recognize, praise, and notice contributions. You dont have to be a manager to help create a positive, motivating environment for employees. In this environment, employees do find and contribute their greatness. If you regularly carry out these seven actions, you will play well with others and develop effective work relationships. Coworkers will value you as a colleague. Bosses will believe you play on the right team. Youll accomplish your work goals, and you may even experience fun, recognition, and personal motivation. Work cant get any better than that. How To Develop An Effective Relationship With Your Boss These steps will help you develop a positive, ongoing, supportive relationship with your boss a relationship that serves you well, your manager well, and, as a consequence, your organization well. The first step in managing up is to develop a positive relationship with your boss. Relationships are based on trust. Do what you say youll do. Keep timeline commitments. Never blind side your manager with surprises that you could have predicted or prevented. Keep her informed about your projects and interactions with the rest of the organization. Tell the boss when youve made an error or one of your reporting staff has made a mistake. Cover-ups dont contribute to an effective relationship. Lies or efforts to mislead always result in further stress for you as you worry about getting caught or somehow slipping up in the consistency of your story. Communicate daily or weekly to build the relationship. Get to know your manager as a person she is one, after all. She shares the human experience, just as you do, with all of its joys and sorrows. Recognize that success at work is not all about you; put your bosss needs at the center of your universe. Identify your bosss areas of weakness or greatest challenges and ask what you can do to help. What are your bosss biggest worries; how can your contribution mitigate these concerns? Understand your bosss goals and priorities. Place emphasis in your work to match her priorities. Think in terms of the overall success of your department and company, not just about your more narrow world at work. Look for and focus on the best parts of your boss; just about every boss has both good points and bad. When youre negative about your boss, the tendency is to focus on his worst traits and failings. This is neither positive for your work happiness nor your prospects for success in your organization. Instead, compliment your boss on something he does well. Provide positive recognition for contributions to your success. Make your boss feel valued. Isnt this what you want from him for you? Your boss is unlikely to change; she can choose to change, but the person who shows up to work every day has taken years and years of effort on her part to create. And, who your boss is has worked for her in the past and reinforced her actions and beliefs. Instead of trying to change your boss, focus instead, on trying to understand your bosss work style.Identify what she values in an employee. Does she like frequent communication, autonomous employees, requests in writing in advance of meeting, or informal conversation as you pass in the hallway. Your bosss preferences are important and the better you understand them, the better you will work with her. Learning how to read your bosss moods and reactions is also a helpful approach to communicate more effectively with him. There are times when you dont want to introduce new ideas; if he is preoccupied with making this months numbers, your idea for a six month improvement may not be timely. Problems at home or a relative in failing health affect each of your workplace behaviors and openness to an improvement discussion. Additionally, if your boss regularly reacts in the same way to similar ideas, explore what he fundamentally likes or dislikes about your proposals. Learn from your boss. Although some days it may not feel like it, your boss has much to teach you. Appreciate that she was promoted because your organization found aspects of her work, actions, and/or management style worthwhile. Promotions are usually the result of effective work and successful contributions. So, ask questions to learn and listen more than you speak to develop an effective relationship with your boss. Ask your boss for feedback. Let the boss play the role of coach and mentor. Remember that your boss cant read your mind. Enable him to offer you recognition for your excellent performance. Make sure he knows what you have accomplished. Create a space in your conversation for him to praise and thank you. Value your bosss time. Try to schedule, at least, a weekly meeting during which you are prepared with a list of what you need and your questions. This allows him to accomplish work without regular interruption. Tie your work, your requests, and your project direction to your bosss and the companys overarching goals. When making proposals to your boss, try to see the larger picture. There are many reasons why your suggestion may not be adopted: resources, time, goals, and vision. Maintain strict confidentiality. In your relationship with your boss you will sometimes disagree and occasionally experience an emotional reaction. Dont hold grudges. Dont make threats about leaving. Disagreement is fine; discord is not. Get over it. You need to come to terms with the fact that your boss has more authority and power than you do. You are unlikely to always get your way. Employee Relations Strategic Plan your definition of employee relations what kind of industry youre in how many employees your company has whether or not you have a union if not, how big is the threat of unionization what your turnover rate is what your pay rates and benefits plans are compared to competing (not just competing for your products but also competing for your employees) industries in your region how big your HR department is what your reasons are for deciding you need a strategic employee relations plan and probably a whole lot more stuff but this would be a start anyway. What Are Micro Inequities? The veiled putdown, the sarcastic tone, as well as nonverbal transgressions such as rolling the eyes and turning your back toward someone in conversation may seem like piddling things to fret about. Small slights can generate big problems. Employees might be willing to blow off one or even a few such rude gestures. But if a boss, manager or project teammate habitually treats colleagues disrespectfully, they will feel demoralized. Perhaps that will lead to attitude problems and increased absenteeism. Say a supervisor asks for suggestions on a project. An employee perks up with a thoughtful solution. As if tone-deaf, the supervisor then asks, Okay, whod like to get things started here? Or, the supervisor embraces the idea but only after someone else mentions it. Next time the supervisor asks for recommendations, the unappreciated employee remains tight-lipped. Maybe co-workers also button up. Result: Valuable ideas never get aired, and productivity suffers. A worst-case scenario, the disrespected employees leave. And in a worst-worst-case scenario, they may end up suing you for these unwelcome gestures. At least thats what is starting to occur, according to one San Francisco law firm that defends management in conflicts with employees. In todays ultra-competitive business climate, your small enterprise cant afford to lose valuable workers. Thats especially true with an expected major labour shortage on the horizon. Who knows, the offended employees might have been your companys next rainmakers. So How Do You Stop These Micro Inequities? First, understand what they are. Thats easier said than done, because many such offenses are committed subconsciously. A boss might not even be aware he is botching the pronunciation on a colleagues name. Or that he is glancing at his watch during an employees presentation. According to experts, were sending dozens of powerful micromessages every time we speak, gesture or even do nothing. Those communications may vary somewhat from culture to culture and even organization to organization. But the point is, were sending a message even when we dont think were sending a message. A number of organizations are playing closer attention to this workplace behaviour. They are paying for training sessions attended by their managers and rank and file. Short of taking training exercises, small companies can take several actions to prevent microinequities. Supervisors might bring up the topic at staff meetings to demonstrate their awareness. Or, the subject might be broached in company emails, newsletters or attitude surveys. Going forward, pay closer attention to all your employees, not just your stars or those you are most comfortable with. Consider engaging in nonbusiness conversations so you can develop rapport, respect and trust. Solicit suggestions from them. Maybe ask what they are working on and then pose follow-up questions. And, very important: Give direct eye contact and listen attentively to them. In group settings, Young suggests, be sensitive to how you greet or treat a colleague youre close with, so it appears youre not playing favorites. When possible, give public credit to owners of good ideas. And encourage participation from everyone

Health and Safety in the Production Plant Environment

Health and Safety in the Production Plant Environment 4.1  INTRODUCTION Environmental and safety are the aspects that need to be considered in any production plant as these aspects could affect the production process, human health, and environment. Raw materials, product, by-product, and equipment are the most important elements included in safety measurement of production plant. In this chapter, every element that could be hazard to human and environment are discussed for example how raw materials and equipment could be a threat to human and how by-product could be a threat to environment. This chapter will be discussed on how to apply and implement Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control (HIRARC) according to designated plant. Enforcing the law of Occupational Safety and Health, HIRARC are greatest important. 4.2  SAFETY CONSIDERATION In order to maintain optimum productivity of plant production, employee and employers have to work together to ensure a safe work place for manpower activities. Plus, the need of safe work place environment and safety consideration to protect people from any hazard are utmost important. Efficient method to identify the risk involving process and implement the most practical and applicable measure to reduce and manage the risk is by implementing Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control (HIRARC). 4.2.1 Objective of Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control (HIRARC) HIRARC is a fundamental of basic risk management in management, operation, and practice of planning of a business. The purposes of HIRARC are as follows To identify any element that could be hazard to employee and others To consider the chances of any harms to be hazard in the circumstances of a particular case and possible severity obtained from those harms To enable employee planning an optimum safety measures to ensure the risks are controlled all the time 4.2.2.1 Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) MSDS is list of information on the hazards, safety and emergency measures related to specific products. All the information about the product and by product will be list in this sheet and the hazard of the product will also be identified. 4.2.2.2 Hazard Identifications Hazard identification means the identification of unwanted events that brings to materialisation of the hazard and the mechanism by which those unwanted events could occur. In other word, to identify hazard that can cause injury exist around the plant which can be separate into three main groups, health hazards, safety hazards, and environmental hazards. Therefore, it can be simplified that there are three types of common accident based on the past study. The utmost accident that happened in chemical plants is fire, followed by explosions and toxic release. 4.2.3 Chemical Hazard and Risks in the Workplace In chemical safety term, â€Å"hazard† refers to the inherent hazardous properties of a chemical or chemical operation, while â€Å"risk† generally means the likelihood of the hazardous properties of a chemical that may cause harm to the people surrounding and the severity of that harm. The risk dealing with chemical or in a chemical operation depends on the inherent hazard, the working environment, physical form of the chemical involved and the method of handling and lastly the operating procedures. 4.2.4 Chemical Hazards of Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) VAM is a flammable, reactive, colourless liquid that is partly soluble in water. At higher levels, VAM odour could be sharp and irritating while it has fruity smell when at lower levels. Flammability VAM is a flammable liquid with flash point is below 37 °C. It form flammable vapour when mix with air at room temperature. Plus, its vapours are heavier than air and may travel a long distance to an ignition source such as a flame or electric spark and then flash back. Reactivity VAM is a reactive molecule and it could polymerize uncontrollably if did not handled or stored properly. Prolonged or intense exposure to heat, sunlight, ultraviolet light or x-rays may result in polymerization. Furthermore, spontaneous polymerization may also result from exposure to amines, strong acids, alkalis, silica, alumina, oxidizing agents. However, hydrolysation in water not considered as hazardous reaction. Health Effects VAM is irritating to the upper respiratory tract, skin and eyes. Potential hazard to eyes are irritation, redness and swelling but cause a low acute toxicity by all routes of exposure. Report based on lab experiment stated that high level inhalation exposure to VAM in animal results in deaths from pulmonary edema. Moreover, lifetime drinking water or inhalation exposure to VAM shown cancer effects in laboratory animals which tumor reported localize directly to attached part with VAM. Tumor observed at high exposure concentrations are not considered to be relevant to humans exposed to low concentrations under typical use conditions. Environmental Effects VAM tends to stay in the air where it is rapidly degraded by photochemical pathways. It has 0.6 days atmospheric half-life and 7 days hydrolytic half-life at pH 7 and 25 °C. Volatilization of VAM could occur once it is released to soil or water. In case of effect of VAM to water, VAM partitions mostly to the water where it undergoes hydrolysis and it is readily biodegraded by either anaerobic or aerobic mechanisms. Plus, VAM is considered to be moderately toxic to aquatic organisms. In conclusion, VAM considered non-harmful to environment. 4.2.5 Chemical Hazards of Acetic Acid At temperature above 16.7  °C, acetic acid is described as clear, colourless, combustible liquid with a pungent odour which is smell like vinegar. Flammability Acetic acid has a flash point of 39  °C. Autoignition’s temperature of acetic acid is at 427  °C and dilute acetic acid solutions are not combustible. Fire involving acetic acid should be fought upwind and from the maximum distance possible. Moreover, vapour explosion of acetic acid may occur indoors, outdoors, or maybe in sewer. Vapour travel to a source of ignition and flash back. Reactivity Overall, acetic acid is unstable at heating and freezing temperature. The vapour of acetic acid will form explosive mixtures with air. Plus, reaction of acetic acid with chromic acid, ammonium nitrate, sodium peroxide, nitric acid, phosphorus trichloride, or other oxidizers could cause fires or explosions. In case of hazardous decomposition, toxic gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide may be released as acetic acid heated to decomposition. In concentrated form, acetid acid is highly corrosives. Health Effects Exposure to acetic acid may occur through inhalation, ingestion, skin contact and absorption through the skin. Based on lab experiment, glacial acetic acid is corrosive to tissues while concentrated acetic acid can cause moderate to severe burns. In addition, vapour acetic acid also can cause eye, skin, mucous membrane, and upper respiratory tract irritation upon exposure. In case of effect on humans, acetic acid may irritate eyes, mucous membrane, upper respiratory tract and skin. Environmental Effects Acetic acid environmental effects depend on the concentration and duration of exposure. It can be a threat to plants, animals, and aquatic as it comes in high concentration. Acetic acid exposed to environment as a vapour and it also soluble in water but it degrades rapidly into harmless substance once releases to environment. 4.2.6 Chemical Hazard of Ethylene Ethylene is a gaseous with boiling point of -104  °C at atmospheric pressure and it is stored in the liquid state under high pressure or at low temperature. Plus, it has solubility in water of 131 mg/l at 20  °C. Flammability Ethylene gas is highly flammable and explosive. Reactivity Ethylene is reactive substances because of double bond structure present in the alkenes. Due to its high reactivity, ethylene may undergo a lot different reactions such as oxidation, halogenation, alkylation, hydration, and polymerisation. Human Health Ethylene has low toxic level and risk to human health is minimal. It is identified from occupational exposure, general public exposure, and directly or indirectly exposure to environment but exposure to the gas can cause dizziness, lightheaded, and perhaps pass out. However lab experiment stated that ethylene is metabolised to ethylene oxide which can cause cancer from carcinogenic and mutagenic effect. Environmental Effect Due to its physical and chemical properties, ethylene is released mainly into the atmospheric compartment. About three quarters of atmospheric ethylene originates from natural sources, while one quarter is from anthropogenic sources. The main anthropogenic release is from burning of hydrocarbons and biomass. 4.2.7 Chemical Hazard of Oxygen Oxygen is an odourless, colourless, non-flammable gas. It is an oxidizing gas and could accelerates combustion. Oxygen is stored in cylinders at high pressure. Flammability Oxygen is a non-flammable gas Reactivity Oxygen vigorously accelerates combustion. Some non-combustible materials could burn with presence of an oxygen enrich atmosphere which is greater than 23%. Oxygen may form explosive compounds as exposed to combustible materials such as oil, grease, and other hydrocarbon material. Plus, heat applied on a container with oxygen can cause pressure increase hence cause container rupture. Human Health If oxygen is inhaled as much as 80% or above at atmospheric pressure for more than a few hours, it may cause nasal stuffiness, cough, sore throat, chest pain, and breathing difficulty. Moreover, breathing pure oxygen under pressure may cause lung damage and also central nervous system effects which cause dizziness, poor coordination, tingling sensation, visual and hearing disturbances, muscular twitching, unconsciousness and convulsions. Environmental Effect Highly concentrated sources of oxygen promote rapid combustion and therefore are fire and explosion hazards in the presence of fuels. 4.2.9 Personal Protective Equipment PPE is equipment that will protect the user against safety at work. By this, that person will be protected against one or more risks arising from chemical or chemical operation to the person’s health or safety. OSHA 1910.132 requires employers to determine the proper personal protective equipment for each hazard and to train any employees the guidelines how and when to wear safety protective equipment. Example of personal protective equipment listed for the use of handling of chemicals can be classified into following categories such as protective clothing, hand and foot protective gears, eye and face protective equipment and last but not least the respiratory protective equipment. This protective equipment may save your life in any danger situation. 4.2.9.1 Protective Clothing Protective clothing may refer which gear that literally can protect body or personal clothing from contact with dangerous chemical or any spread of contamination in workplace. This may include gowns, aprons and overalls. This chemical resistance that may affect the quality of the protective clothing are the resistance to degradation of the chemical due to the spread of chemical and the permeability of the chemical. Proper selection of protective clothing may result in a better in safety and health such as any dangerous chemical operations depends on the risks involved. Suitable material of protective clothing should be in good quality and appropriate form in order to provide protective if any danger occurred. Handling of chemical is a risk that may happen if not handled it properly, protection can be achieved by the personal clothing such as gowns and overalls made of synthetic material based of terylene or nylon with a water repellent finish. 4.2.9.2 Hand Protective Gears Hand protective gears may protect the hand and arm from any spills of the chemical and by prevent the spread of contamination. Generally gears are gloves used in industry. The selection of gloves usually must be based on the hazard occurred in the industry. In production of plant typically involved dangerous chemical when operating the process. In consideration, reference should be considered in order to categorise based on the chemical resistance properties and physical characteristic of the glove. The Chemical resistance, thermal protection and mechanical strength should be considered when in any different path of industry. Chemical resistance of the protection level depends on the glove material itself, the method of construction and thickness of the gloves. It should be aware that chemical resistance property of gloves may be adversely affected by abrasion and heat. For thermal protection gloves may made from neoprene which can be used for handling oils at low temperatures and co tton gloves can operate against moderate heat level. 4.2.9.3 Foot Protection Gears Foot protective gears protect the foot and leg from any dangerous chemical and to prevent the spread of contamination. Foot protection gears are shoes or boots. The footwear is selected based on the hazard involved and from the working environment. Mostly in plant, it is best to wear a safety boots, in order to prevent any unsafe accident occur. The type of injury should be related to the risk of the injury, the foot should at least be protected by well-made shoes. In cases it depends on the risk of the parts of the body being injured as example of ankle, knee or thigh. 4.2.9.4 Eyes and Face Protection Equipment In process of chemical operation, eye or face might be need a protective equipment in order to prevent any hazard of splashes of hot or any dangerous liquid chemicals, flying object as example of bursting containers, any dust or vapour that might be harmful to eye and face and lastly the intense light from the radiation emitted to the chemical process. By that, safety goggles should be wearing during the process operation. Other than that, face shield with adjustable head harness that may protect the face but not fully at the ayes area. Besides, eye and face protective equipment is also available in tints and shades for the protection of radiation or intense light from the chemical operation. 4.2.9.5 Respiratory Protective Equipment The potential of exposure in MEK plant may achieve 200 ppm, therefore the use of respiratory protective equipment is important in order to prevent the harmful of gas through the respiratory system. Respiratory protective system equipment also used to provide breathing air when working in any dangerous chemical environment where the presence of chemicals in air at high concentration. Be sure to consider all potential exposures when working in place where dangerous chemical exposure occurred. Combination of filters, prefilters or cartridges to protect against different types of form such as mist, vapour, dust and other chemical mixtures must be relates. Exposure of 3000 ppm and above, the situation is absolutely dangerous to life and health. The range of exposure must be less than 3000 ppm and if possible use a NIOSH approved self-contained breathing apparatus just to make sure the better quality and protection approved by the NIOSH. 4.3  RISK ASSESSMENT Risk analysis that is most effective is one that uses likelihood and severity in qualitative method. The result are present in a risk matrix is very effective method of communicating the distribution of the risk at the plant area workplace. The likelihood of an event occurring range from â€Å"most likely† to â€Å"inconceivable† are where the value came from. As shown in the table below of likelihood using the following values: Table 4.1: Likelihood Source: DOSH HIRARC Guideline The severity is categories into five elements. The increasing level of severity to an individual’s health, property and environment that is present in the table below: Table 4.2: Severity Source: DOSH HIRARC Guideline Table 4.3: Likelihood vs Severity Source: DOSH HIRARC Guideline The priority is determined based on the following risk category for necessary actions . Table 4.4: Risk Category Source: DOSH HIRARC Guideline 4.4  RISK CONTROL PREVENTIVE MEASURE HIRARC last step process is risk control. The assessed hazard will be assigned by risk control step for every control needed. Suitable control requires proper evaluating and selecting long and short term controls. The short-term measures to protect workers are implementing and the long term controls can be put in place when reasonably applicable. The five type of control started from elimination, substitution, engineering control, administrative control and last defences is personal protective equipment (PPE) which used when controls measure practicable and where additional protection is needed. The hierarchy of control to be applied is shown below. Figure 4.1: Hierarchy of Control (Source: DOSH HIRARC Guideline) 4.4.1 Elimination Elimination is the most effective hazard control which the step is by eliminating the hazard or in other words, physically removing it. Taking example when an employee is doing a job high above the ground, the hazard can be eliminatedby moving the piece they are working on to ground level to eliminate the need to work at heights. 4.4.2 Substitution Substitution is a preventive step involves replacing some task that might produces hazard with something that might not. This step quite similar to elimination but it required replaced task for the eliminated task. Taking example of process of replacing lead based paint with acrylic paint. 4.4.3 Engineering Controls The main objective of engineering controls is rather isolates people from hazards than eliminate the hazards. Capital costs of engineered controls tend to be higher than less effective controls in the hierarchy. However they may reduce future costs. For example, building a work platform is a chosen step rather than purchase, replace, and maintain  fall arrest  equipment. Plus, isolation could create a physical barrier between person and hazard. For example, using a remote control is much safer than manually control. 4.4.4 Administrative Controls Definition of administration controls is changing the way people work. This control types need an organization that could handle all the employees. The examples of its steps are including procedure changes, employee training, and installation of signs and warning labels. Administrative controls do not remove hazards, but limit or prevent peoples exposure to the hazards, such as completing road construction  at night when fewer people are driving. 4.4.5Personal Protective Equipment Personal protective equipment  (PPE) includes gloves,  respirators, hard hats,  safety glasses,  high-visibility clothing, and safety footwear. PPE is the least effective means of controlling hazards because of the high potential for damage to render PPE ineffective. Moreover, some PPE, such as respirators, increase physiological effort to complete a task and, therefore, may require medical examinations to ensure workers can use the PPE without risking their health 4.5  RELEVANT OSH LEGISLATION AND REGULATION The legislation and regulation for occupational, safety and health need to be obey for every processing plant. The act and regulations ensuring both employer and employees to take safety and health issue in working area seriously. Safety and health objective is to provide a good safe working condition and to control plant or factory operation with respect to the safety, health and welfare of the employer and employee. The regulations need to be follow which is The Factory Act 1948 and Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazard (CIMA) 1996. Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989. As stated under OSHA 1994 regulation is Employer’s Safety and Health General Policy Statement 1995, Control of Industrial Major Accidents Hazards 1996, Safety and Health Committee 1996, Classification, Packaging and Labelling of Hazardous Chemical 1997, Safety and Health Officer 1997 and Use and Standards of Exposure of Chemical Hazardous to Health 2000. Duty to implement s afety and health act are under responsible of both employer and employees and Occupational Safety and Health Act OSHA 1994 summarized the duties of employer and employees as below. Duties of Employer: Provide and maintain safe plant and system of work Make arrangement for safe use operation, handling, storage, and transportation of plant and substances. Provide instruction, information, training and supervision. Provide and maintain safe pace of work and means of access to and egress from any place of work. Provide and maintain safe and Healthy working environment and adequate welfare facilities. Duties of Employees: Reasonable care for safety and health him/herself and others. Co-operate with employer and others. Wear and use PPE. 4.6  MAJOR EQUIPMENT AND POTENTIAL INCIDENT IN PROCESS PLANT Table 4.5: HIRARC Major Equipment in Process Plant Table 4.6: HIRARC Potential Incident in Process Plant Hazard Identification Risk Analysis Risk Control No Hazard Identifies Potential Accident Accident Consequent Types of injury Likelihood Severity Risk (Likelihood x Severity) Preventive Control measure Person in charge 1 Piping Leakage, Rupture Explosion Fatalities 4 4 16 (High) Detector Preventive Maintenance Installation, Operation and Maintenance

Vallejo and Estanislao Essay -- Biography

In some accounts of California’s history, the state’s native people were pastoral pacifists who led an idyllic communal existence before the arrival of the Spanish. This view of history suggests that the native population meekly submitted to the missionaries; active resistance (or at least, violent resistance) was a trait learned from the Spanish over several generations of contact. This misreading of history, perhaps motivated by the ideology of the teller, may have at its root the fact that resistance to the Spanish occupation was not, at first, organized resistance. Unlike native groupings on the American East Coast or in central Mexico, the aboriginal population of California did not politically organize themselves into tribes or â€Å"nations† that spanned multiple settlements. The â€Å"tribal† names assigned to California’s native groups result from modern ethnological investigation rather than being something recognized by the natives themselves. For the most part, these modern names represent linguistic groups, along with reconstructed village names or other geographic names. For instance, the Shasta people are named for the mountain, rather than the mountain being named for the â€Å"tribe.† The mountain itself gets its name from the trapper Peter Skene Ogden, who called a southern Oregon summit â€Å"Sastise† in honor of a native guide. In 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition mistakenly applied the name to the California volcano. Despite their lack of a cohesive political structure, some of California’s native people actively resisted the imposition of the mission system from the start. The first uprising occurred only six years after the founding of the first mission at San Diego. In the autumn of 1775, several neà ³fitos—disconte... ..., the raiding never stopped entirely, and after 1835, the remaining natives were again engaged in banditry. The Valley’s natives continued to plague the ranchos until they, too, were swept away by the Gold Rush. Estanislao left the Valley on 24 August 1834 and returned to the Mission San Josà ©. He prospered there, teaching others the Yokut language and culture, until his death on 31 July 1838. The Stanislaus River and Stanislaus County were named in his honor. According to legend, Estanislao raids were sudden, usually involving a trap, and ended with no loss of life. To authenticate his handiwork, he would sometimes use his sword to cut his initial—â€Å"S.† In this manner, Estanislao may have served as partial inspiration for the fictional character Zorro, an outlaw who defends the people against tyrannical officials, created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley.

The Federal Government and Medicinal Marijuana :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs should be commended for its report, "Marijuana: Its HealthHazards and Therapeutic Potential." Not only does the report outline evidence of marijuana's potential harms, but it distinguishes this concern from the legitimate issue of marijuana's important medical benefits. All too often the hysteria that attends public debate over marijuana's social abuse compromises a clear appreciation for this critical distinction. Since 1978, 32 states have abandoned the federal prohibition to recognize legislatively marijuana's important medical properties. Federal law, however, continues to define marijuana as a drug "with no accepted medical use," and federal agencies continue to prohibit physician-patient access to marijuana. This outdated federal prohibition is corrupting the intent of the state laws and depriving thousands of glaucoma and cancer patients of the medical care promised them by their state legislatures. This is an excerpt from a letter written in 1982 to the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Its author was a citizen concerned about the complete lack of rationality exhibited time and time again in the Federal Government's attempts to justify its ban on the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. It was no burnt-out ex-hippie who penned the letter. The concerned citizen was none other than the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. He was co-sponsoring a bill intended to end the Federal prohibition on marijuana as medicine. He has since abandoned support for such initiatives and begun to deal in the sort of hypocrisy and misinformation that is typical of the federal government's policy toward medicinal marijuana. Gingrich's bill failed despite overwhelming support from both the public and the facts. Legislators, pandering to a vocal minority, struck it down. Fourteen years later, the silent majority spoke. In a move that must have had Nixon spinning in his gr ave, the silent majority, it turns out, supports this drug use. In the Fall of 1996, two states passed referendums legalizing marijuana. Both California's "Compassionate Use Act" and Arizona's "Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act" passed wit h convincing margins despite well-funded opposition. Support for medical marijuana extends far beyond the traditionally libertarian Southwest. A recent survey of the American public by the American Civil Liberties Union showed that 85% of the American p ublic favors making marijuana legally available to the seriously ill. Unwilling to let the people have the final say, the Clinton Administration quickly moved to impose a de facto veto on these referendums.

Downsizing: Layoff and Employees

A Project Report on: Corporate Downsizing in the Indian context TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Objective3 2. Introduction4 3. Why do Firms Downsize? 6 4. Downsizing – Indian Perspective10 5. Effect of downsizing on organizations13 6. Survey Analysis and Results18 7. Process of Downsizing24 8. Suggestions to improve the morale of survivors post downsizing27 9. Conclusion29 10. References30 1. Objective Corporate downsizing is very common in the US corporate sector but it has till recently not been adopted by many Indian companies. This is changing nowadays, with many Indian companies going in for downsizing as an organizational strategy to cut costs or get rid of non-performing employees. Our objective in this project is to analyze some of the reasons why firms are taking up downsizing. We have studied the effects of downsizing at the organization level, the managerial level and the survivor level. As part of our project, we conducted a survey on survivors of downsizing from Indian companies which have conducted mass or individual layoffs in the recent past. Since downsizing is still relatively new in the Indian context and in most cases, the survivors do not wish to delve further on this topic, our responses were limited in number but they were sufficient to give us an idea of downsizing in the Indian context. Apart from this, we have also studied the actual downsizing process in companies and how it is carried out. We have given some recommendations on steps to be followed by organizations to make sure that they do not acquire a negative image post downsizing. Also, steps to boost the survivors’ morale have also been suggested. If this is not done, downsizing typically leads to increased turnover among high performers in the organization. Downsizing may be unavoidable in some organizations to cut costs – however the HR departments and managers should handle this issue with utmost sensitivity – to avoid any long-term negative effects to the organization. 2. Introduction Layoffs, frequently called downsizing, describe the process in which companies remove temporarily or permanently a number of employees from their payroll. The general purpose of this practice is to reduce the organization’s burden of excess labor costs when human resources cannot be used effectively. Charles Handy first predicted that the technological revolution, which was beginning to make its force felt back in the mid-1970s, would transform the lives of millions of individuals through a process he termed . down-sizing. Downsizing is not a new phenomenon. Downsizing came into prominence as a topic of both scholarly and practical concern in the 1980s. It became a management mantra. (Lecky, 1998) in the 1990s which subsequently became known as the downsizing decade (Dolan, Belout, & Balkin, 2000). In the early 1990s, CEOs and executive management were being targeted more and more by the shareholders. The merger wave of the 1980s taught executives that any company trading at price-earnings multiple lower than the industry-wide multiple was considered undervalued, or a poor-performer, and ripe for a takeover, or messy shareholder law suits. CEOs used to be concerned with optimizing production and cutting costs, which they hoped would engender profits and therefore shareholder wealth. The focus moved on to convince the market of the upward potential in their stock prices. In other terms, it doesn’t matter whether you really have good project or potential to grow but what matters is whether the stock market believes that ou have such strength. To handle such pressure many CEO’s looked for the quick fixes which would reflect immediately in the profit margins of the organizations. Instead of focusing on the long terms planning, short terms goals were set which to project good picture of company’s status. And the easiest way to go around it was to cut down labor cos t as it has a significant contribution to the expenses incurred by the company. Executives looked at the balance sheet to trim the fat, and viewed cutting labor as a necessary and relatively painless method to boost profit margins. The economy was experiencing the sort of growth that made both skilled and unskilled labor more and more superfluous. At the low end of the wage and skill scale, advanced automation in machinery and assembly were enabling workers to become more productive, and reduced the amount of workers necessary for a given level of profit. At the middle end, rapid advances in information technology reduced the need for a large layer of middle management to process and interpret data and feed it to higher management. Additionally, trimming the payroll liability seemed an easier way to increase profits in the short term. The payroll is basically a current liability, and to the extent that workers are not engaged in long-term contracts (or to the extent that a long-term contract with a substantial number of employees is soon to expire), the firm has a certain flexibility in determining the amount of labor it uses in the short run. A move to adjust employment might be a relatively painless way to boost cash flow, when compared to selling land or equipment to obtain cash. A buyer might not be readily available, and the purchase price would not be certain. At first, firms that were lagging their competitors in terms of accounting earnings and price-earnings multiples decided to downsize. As these firms began to catch up to the rest of their industry in terms of profitability, firms that were performing quite well also began to turn to downsizing as a way to convince the market that they were worthy of a substantial jump in market capitalization. From 1993 to 1996, there was a sentiment in the market that smaller up-start companies were going to overtake the larger, blue chip corporations, which were perceived to be bloated with superfluous workers and internal red tape. Although these rumors of diseconomies of scale were widely exaggerated, many large corporations slashed their labor force in a move to maintain an aura of competitiveness. Downsizing is not specific to any industry, it has occurred across the industries. While manufacturing, retail, and service have accounted for the highest levels of downsizing, it is evident that downsizing took place in both the private and public sectors. 3. Why do Firms Downsize? During periods of economic uncertainty, increased costs and declining sales, business owners are sometimes forced to evaluate cost-cutting options including downsizing and layoffs. When a business is in a cost-cutting mode, downsizing and layoffs can take different forms:   †¢ Reduction in force—this is when an employer decides that its labor costs are too much, so they reduce the number of positions. †¢ Position elimination—this is when an employer determines that the position skill-set requirements have changed, the market and competition have changed or sometimes the position simply goes away. Restructuring—while disruptive, some employers find it necessary to restructure their organization. Basically, companies restructure in order to reassess strategies and improve operations. Individual layoffs It is recognized that an employee's commitment to an organization can be expressed in three particular ways: affective, continuance, and normative. Affec tive commitment is focused on an emotional attachment to the organization. On the other hand, continuance commitment is when an employee stays with an organization based on a perceived cost of leaving. In this case, the employee is staying because he/she thinks it will cost more to go find work elsewhere. Lastly, normative commitment refers to an employee's moral obligation to stay with the organization. This can arise due to the employee feeling that the organization has treated him/her well and therefore, he/she owes the organization a continued period of employment. In one sense, each type of commitment somewhat ties the individual to the organization; however, each impacts differently on the manner in which the employee conducts him/herself in the workplace. For example, an employee with an affective commitment will often go above and beyond what is required of his/her position in order to assist the organization in meeting its goals. Employees with high affective commitment tend to be absent from work less frequently and display a higher work motivation and organizational citizenship. Continuance commitment, however, is negatively related to performance whereby employees tend to do simply what is required, have higher rates of absenteeism, and low motivation. An individual can become a threat to the company by engaging in activities which are against company’s norms. These activities may include coming late for the meetings and for work, intentionally working slowly, wasting resources, gossiping and spreading rumors or some serious misconduct such as stealing from company or colleague, verbal abuse, insubordination, sabotage, sexual harassment etc. His behavior in the organization can adversely affect the productivity of other members of organization. And sometimes the situation can be so serious that it can hamper the image of the organization. And if he can influence coworkers to indulge in such activities then it becomes serious problem for the organization. The best approach to handle such situations is to consult that particular individual and convince him from engaging in such activities. But even if with the repeated warnings, he refuses to change his deviant behavior then it is necessary to get rid of such person. Mass Layoffs †'Mass layoff†' implies laying off a large number of workers. Mass layoff constitutes a set of activities, undertaken on the part of the management of an organization, designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. It represents a strategy implemented by managers that affects the size of the firm's workforce and the work processes used. The reasons given for the mass layoffs are: Changing market conditions The market determines the lifecycle of a business, and the organizations must stay in touch with changing market conditions in order to keep up the pace of growth. The business climate these days has become enormously more competitive. Global markets have contributed new competitors that can offer goods and services at a much lower cost. Market shifts and the introduction of new technology can make a business become obsolete almost overnight. As many times it is not possible to make the suitable adjustments immediately, and to remain competitive companies often go for the downsizing. Mergers and Acquisitions A merger is a tool used by companies for the purpose of expanding their operations often aiming at an increase of their long term profitability. An acquisition, also known as a takeover, is the buying of one company by another. When this happens, many positions gets replicated or become redundant. For the efficient operation of the organization, it becomes necessary to cut off these jobs. Closure of business unit Due to ever changing technology, development of new products, a company might decide to take out a particular product from the market and close that business unit. If it not possible to accommodate released workforce in the production of the goods then only option remains is that of lay off. Poor financial forecast If the performance of the company is not up to the mark in the recent years and the gloomy picture is supposed to remain for later period also, then it becomes absolutely necessary to cut the costs in some way or other. This may lead the managers to takes decisions of mass layoffs. Overstaffing Organizations hire employees by forecasting their human resource requirement in near future. This forecasting is based on the company’s current position, state of the economy, growth in the industry, ongoing deals with the clients, company’s growth plans etc. The predictions made during this analysis may go wrong for several reasons and organization may end up in hiring the employees beyond its requirement. It is not possible for all the organizations to keep these employees on the payroll due to economic constraints or space constraints. In this case manager often take a decision to layoff the extra resources. Meeting the goals Each company decides and declares the targets for the current fiscal year. But as the end of the year comes nearer, company’s realizes that these goals cannot be achieved by current pace of production. Since there is high pressure from the upper management to meet these goals, managers look for the softer targets such as reducing cost by the mass layoffs. Unprecedented disaster Any unpredicted disaster like sharp fall in stock market, natural calamity, or accidents can plunge organizations in huge losses. So a business owner has a no choice but restructuring his business which often involves downsizing. 4. Downsizing – Indian Perspective Before Indian companies felt the effects of the economic reforms, lifetime employment was often standard practice. Job seekers would get their foot in the door at their favorite companies with the aim of settling down permanently within the organization. Perhaps the main reason for this reluctance to hand out pink slips was cultural – there simply was no knowledge of the concept of â€Å"downsizing. † India’s integration into the global marketplace has changed the rules of the ame significantly. As the economy and the technology industry have slowed to sustainable growth levels, various companies have been forced to downsize in order to remain competitive. Although corporate downsizing in India increasingly resembles downsizing in Western countries, there is residual reluctance to laying people off. A broad selection of com panies operating in India, from shabby state-run enterprises to lean and efficient high-tech multinationals prefer to use of voluntary retirement schemes to trim their numbers in tough times. Some larger companies also elect to downsize through other methods, including deferred recruitments, â€Å"benching† people, and using employees for internal or community service projects. This institutional squeamishness toward layoffs, while understandable from a social perspective, has had some negative effects. State-owned enterprises as well as some private companies are still overstaffed as a result of an unwillingness to lay off employees. Layoff practices in US: ? A generic reduction in force, of undetermined method. ? An Involuntary Reduction in Force – The employee(s) didn't voluntarily choose to leave the company. A Voluntary Reduction in Force – The employee(s) did play a role in choosing to leave the company, most likely through resignation or retirement. ? Layoff notice by email. Following are common practices followed by Indian organizations for downsizing: Deferred recruitments: This is not actual downsizing but one of the ways to bring down the s trength of company for a short term. In this case the recruitment process is deferred, so that by the time the new recruits have joined the company, the company is out of the crisis which is the cause for downsizing. This process is mainly followed in IT companies, where most of them recruit high number of students who are in final year of their graduation. Usually, these companies take into consideration that the next year market will be at the same pace, but there have been considerable variations in market during the last decade. The students who were recruited will join the company as soon as the company has found out ways to come out of the crisis. For example, many students who were recruited in 2006 by many IT services companies have joined in 2008. So, effectively the company saves the costs on those employees. Following this method, the company doesn’t need to layoff any of the existing staff. Benching people: Bench strength is defined as the finding the perfect pool of employees who will be substitutes for existing employees incase of employee turnover. These people are trained for those positions so that they can hit the deck running. But this essence of bench strength is lost in case of Indian companies where, Bench refers to the buffer of employees not assigned to a particular project. As the company works towards improving utilization rates while keeping a tight rein on employee additions, its bench strength would come down. In some cases, employees are on bench for a long period. This is a signal that these employees are just in job because they were previously recruited but not because of the work the company has. So employees who are benched have no work to do. They get bored of not doing any productive work and so try to find out a job where they can really work, instead of just coming to office everyday and passing their time. In this way Indian companies don’t layoff anyone but create circumstances where the employee doesn’t have any option but to leave the company. Using employees for internal and community projects: Internal projects are the projects which are done by the company to increase efficiency within the organization. Usually these projects have no dead lines or have a specific plan. They are just conducted as there is more of man power. This is one of the first steps an Indian company takes when they want to downsize. They put the excess workforce in any one of the internal or community projects. Some of these projects are created so as to accommodate all the excess employees. Employees in these projects will be outcast as the internal projects will not produce any output. Also, employees in these projects do not get enough incentives for their performance. This decreases the employee morale and employees tend to quit the organization. This also serves a signal to employees that the next step is to put them on bench. Bottom performers’ layoffs: This is the only case in which Indian companies hand over pink slips to the employees. Every company has a policy of reviewing the work done by an employee in last few months. After the review, employees who are not performing well are sent for special training. Luckily, if the review period and the time at which the company decides to downsize coincide, company uses this opportunity to layoff the extra employees by not giving them a chance which they used to provide earlier. 5. Effect of downsizing on organizations Even though downsizing is primarily done as a positive action to turn around an organization, the main casualty of the process is the way in which people affected are dealt with. Majority of the research on organizational downsizing has been carried out to study the consequences of downsizing at the employee level and the organizational level. At the employee level, research is carried out from a psychological and behavioral viewpoint with a focus on the survivors (employees who remain in the organization after downsizing), victims (employees who are asked to leave) and implementers (managers involved in implementing downsizing, including asking employees to leave). In our study, we have restricted our focus to the survivors and implementers. We have not focused on the effects of downsizing on the actual victims since they are outside the scope of the organization. Effect on survivors An organization’s post-layoff success depends upon the reactions of people in its surviving workforce. Researchers have identified a number of negative symptoms exhibited by survivors during and after downsizing. The most common of these include: Survivor syndrome: A set of emotions, behaviors and attitudes exhibited by surviving employees. This is mainly manifested by lowered morale, initial upsurge in productivity followed by depression and lethargy, increased stress as a result of increased level of uncertainty and ambiguity, threat of job loss, denial or psychological distancing from the perceived threat, lower commitment, increased absenteeism, turnover, decreased loyalty to the organization, fear of future cutbacks and diminishing expectations regarding future prospects in the organization. Survivor guilt: Feeling of responsibility or remorse and is expressed in terms of depression, fear and anger. Survivors may perceive that traditional attributes, such as loyalty, individual competence, and diligence are no longer valued since their co-workers, who had displayed such traits, were themselves victims of downsizing. Survivor guilt mainly occurs when survivors perceive that their own performance merited no better treatment, than that accorded the downsized victims. Survivor envy: Feeling of envy towards the victims. Survivors presume that victims are able to obtain special retirement packages, financially lucrative incentives, and new jobs with more attractive compensation. In most cases, downsizing fails to address the ‘people factor’ effectively whereby the needs of the surviving employees are paid due attention. In many organizations, employees form social groups to fulfill their needs for affiliation. When any member of this social group is laid off, the remaining members see the procedure as unjust, even if the laid-off employee was incompetent for the job. This triggers the feeling of survivor guilt and resentment against the organization. In some cases, the survivors are asked to take broader and unfamiliar responsibilities as a part of efforts to cover the tasks previously performed by those who leave the company. This can lead to burnout, frustration, decline in creativity and trauma – all symptoms of the survivor syndrome. Survivors are reluctant to take up projects from which their peers or friends were laid off, since they feel that working on that project increases their chances of getting laid off as well. Survivor envy occurs when the victims get very generous rehabilitation packages from the organization. In this case, survivors see this as an unnecessary expenditure on behalf of the organization. Also, if victims manage to find new high-paying jobs in other organizations, survivors feel a sense of envy towards the victims. Psychological contract has been defined as â€Å"an individual’s belief in mutual obligations between that person and another party such as an employer†. Survivors of downsizing hold the organization responsible for breaking the psychological contract with the victims. Perceived violation of psychological contract might lead to a decrease in the employees’ organizational commitment and enhance their intention to quit their jobs and to look for alternative employment. On the other hand, some researchers have also found positive effects on survivors post downsizing. Survivors who feel that the top management has carried out the downsizing process justly, feel an increased sense of self-esteem at being retained by the organization and hence their motivation to work increases. These survivors do not view the process as threatening. If the reasons for downsizing are communicated beforehand, survivors tend to see the process as transparent and fair. Also, empowerment and job redesign gives survivors the confidence in their individual capacity to cope with the threat of downsizing and hence result in their exhibiting more progressive responses. Effect on implementers Consider the case of survivors in managerial position, who are the ‘implementers’ or ‘executors’ of the downsizing process. Studies have shown that their job performance and organizational commitment of managers suffers significantly following downsizing. Managers feel responsible for violating the ‘psychological contract’ with their subordinates. In some cases, the managers feel responsible for not providing enough training opportunities to the laid-off employees and hold themselves personally accountable for not guiding their subordinates correctly and not being able to avoid the layoffs. This is more likely to occur in Asian nations, where the feeling of ‘collectivism’ is high, as compared to western nations, where the feeling of ‘individualism’ reigns higher. The feeling of personal responsibility causes huge stress in the implementers of the downsizing process. To overcome this feeling and project an image of being just, most implementers start looking for options in other organizations. Alternately, managers try to rationalize their actions by devaluing and blaming the employees who were laid off. In some cases, the downsizing process implementation creates so much stress on managers that they tend to become hyper effective. They tend to think that all the roles that they should be playing are important and try to perform effectively in all dimensions. This normally results in burnout since the behavior cannot be sustained on a long term. Managers who are optimistic, have high future success expectancy, a high tolerance for ambiguity and a greater openness towards change are less negatively affected by downsizing than those who lack these emotional resources. In times of crisis like organizational change, ‘toxic handlers’ – managers who shoulder organizational pain by helping their co-workers deal with their workplace frustrations, sadness and bitterness, are better handled to act as implementers of downsizing. Negative reactions to psychological contract violation perceptions in implementers might be mitigated to some extent through good working relationships with co-workers, making conservative promises to new recruits which the organization can live up to, clear explanation with rationale for the downsizing decision, extensive and transparent communication with employees regarding the exact scope of the changed contract, evenhandedness in dealing with both survivors and victims, and encouraging cohesiveness and team spirit among employees. Thus, the actual downsizing procedure should be carried out only by those managers who have a high emotional quotient, to handle the various psychological effects and stress arising out of the implementation. Effects on organization Organizations report both positive and negative effects of downsizing. In many organizations, the anticipated economic benefits like lower expenses, higher profits, increased returns on investments and higher stock prices do not occur as expected. Also, other anticipated organizational benefits like lower overheads, smoother communication and increased productivity do not develop. On the contrary, downsizing causes increased turnover among the survivors as well. Hence, the organization also ends up losing valuable organizational memory, knowledge base and experience. In case of mass layoffs, downsizing leads to the loss of key talents and disappearance of crucial skills. Survivors who take over the jobs of their laid-off colleagues start feeling perceptions of job overload and lack of job clarity. When organizations downsize in response to decline in growth rather than a strategy to boost performance, the most competent employees quit voluntarily since they do not see any growth prospects in the organization and the relatively incompetent and inefficient employees get left behind. This further hastens the organizations decline. Organizations that carry out downsizing along with a reduction of assets show higher financial performance than other firms. So downsizing should be part of an overall restructuring package rather than a one-point solution to reduce organizational costs. Downsizing alone cannot ensure an improvement in a firm’s performance. The manner in which it is carried out plays an important role in the financial and operating performance improvement of the organization. 6. Survey Analysis and Results We conducted a survey of 100 people across various organizations varying from manufacturing to services and from public sector to private sector. We got varied responses with respect to our survey. We are presenting the analysis of the survey through different perspectives and are representing them through various charts. In the survey 34% of the respondents reported that the layoff they have seen in their professional life was mass layoff, whereas 64% reported cases of individual layoffs. [pic] The cases of individual layoffs were due to various reasons ranging from technical incompetence to distrust in the organizations core mission and its values. More than 40% of the individual layoffs were due to technical incompetence and 30% were the cases where there was distrust between the employee and his boss. In 10% of the cases, the employees were found to be engaged in anti organizational practices. In 10% of the cases the employees laid off were victims of politics in the organization. In some of these cases, they were part of the lobby that was working against the will of the ruling coalition, these were the employees who were holding important positions and were bottle neck in the process of decision taken by the department heads. The cases of mass layoff happened during the period of recession and due to major change in the technology. These cases happen when the industry was in a smooth phase and the company they were engaged was a middle level company and the company was unable to sustain the market pressures, these were the reasons that were given by the HR department of those organizations while laying off the employees. One of the questions in survey was regarding the effect of downsizing on the productivity and motivation of the remaining employees. 52% of the respondents reported that it did effect the employees productivity and motivation which led to increased absenteeism. The employees lacked focus while working atleast during the next month and a half, they had a notion that a similar thing can happen to them as well. They were psychologically effected when one of their close friends, who was among the employees who were laid off. [pic] Even after the mass layoff took place there were rumors in the organization regarding further such layoffs that can happen in future. Several employees tried to relocate to other organizations, some of them were ready even to join at less salary and perks in other organization. 0% of employees who felt demotivated after the layoff were those who some how felt that they are less technically competent or they lacked some of the basic skills such as communications. When respondents were asked whether they thought of quitting their job soon after the individual or a major layoff, the response varied. Some of them thought of quitting the job immediately and choose the next best possible option they had in hand. 52% of them were somehow indifferent to the recent layoff, they didn’t think about leaving the organizations due to mal effects of layoff. Some of the employees amongst them who held important positions in the organization, they were in positions of decision making or were close to the people who were decision makers. [pic] A high 18% of the respondents felt like leaving the organization within a month while 21% of them thought of biding their time and believing that will improve. They thought of leaving the organization in the next six months duration if the situation doesn’t improve. % of respondents plan to leave within three months. Almost 40% of these respondents actually left the job since they believe that this organization is not worthy enough to put their efforts in, as they felt that loyalty is not the virtue of praise in their respective organization. Among the respondents who planned to leave within a month, 60% of them have seen mass layoff. Hence, mass layoff is perceived as more of a breach of psychological contract between organization and the employees. [pic] The query posed to respondents was regarding whether the notice period was served to the outgoing employees or not. 21% of them replied no to the question. The outgoing employees felt the breach of psychological contract by the company, the same was felt by rest of the employees as well. Every employee seems to be of an opinion that the organization should have atleast given a one month’s notice to the employees. The HR department on the other hand felt that sometimes its inevitable to give notice period. There are several reasons for that, primarily they stressed high absenteeism by the employees and unethical behavior and practices including sexual harassment and other such personal inclinations. [pic] 12% of the respondents reported that the outgoing employee faced embarrassing moment while he was laid off. It includes being escorted by the security personal, personal abuses by the immediate boss and comments by the colleagues. Almost 30% of these employees were charge sheeted treated on the grounds of unethical behavior and 90% of these cases happened during individual layoffs. pic] One of the important area that needs to be addressed whether or not the company has taken due action to keep up the morale of the remaining employees and sideline the side effects of the layoff. 45% of the respondents responded that the due course of action was not taken by the organization. This somehow made them feel to plan to quit the organization. They somehow felt ignored and indifferent in the e yes of the management. Out of these 45% cases, 30% happened during the individual layoffs. The course of remedial action is expected from the organization especially in cases of mass layoff as it turns down the morale of the remaining employees and it further affects the productivity, absenteeism factor and the turn over ratio of the organization. 7. Process of Downsizing The most prominent reason for failure of downsizing is lack of preparations for this process. A successful downsizing process requires planning that begins long before the formal announcement. Downsizing project consists of four stages. These are 1. Making the decision to downsize, . Planning the downsizing, 3. Making the announcement, 4. Implementing the downsizing. [pic] Fig: The Stages in downsizing process. 1. Making the decision to downsize: The first step in the process of downsizing is making the decision to downsize. But, before making that hard decision, it is important to investigate all possible alternatives and use downsizing as a last resort. Various alternatives, such as: freezing hiring, ov ertime restriction, freezing salary, pay cuts, elimination of bonuses, shortening workweeks, unpaid vacations, etc. hould be tried before taking the decision. If the company considers all possible alternatives and find that they could not help to achieve company's goals, it should consider forced layoffs and make the decision to downsize. The reasons for downsizing need to be clearly defined by management. Also, the decision to downsize should never be a short-term solution. It must be integrated into company's vision that makes clear how downsizing will create a competitive advantage. The vision will help employees to understand why downsizing is necessary. It also helps employees to see a real future for themselves in the company. 2. Planning the downsizing: Before making the announcement of downsizing it is very important to make implementation plan. Some of the issues which have to be considered within planning the downsizing include the focus of the downsizing strategy, who should implement the downsizing process, how should the leavers be identified, what compensation will leavers receive and when will they receive it, how and when will the stayers` jobs be reorganized, what training will be necessary. In order to do this stage successfully, it is necessary to do activities such as: a) Form a cross- functional team: The team which will plan and implement the downsizing project should consist of many specialists who come from many functions: human resource, operations, finance, public relation, etc. The team should represent the interests of all members. Also, the team members should divide up the responsibility for communication to stakeholders. b) Identify all constituents: One of the first tasks of the team is to identify constituents who are affected by downsizing and to include their interests in implementation plan. The constituencies include: employees who will be laid off, survivors, shareholders, the community, etc. c) Use expert if it is needed: If there are some areas about which the team does not have enough information or knowledge (job retraining, financial counseling, etc. ) it will be necessary to engage experts from the outside. Outplacement companies can help employees to find new job quickly. d) Provide training for managers: By providing training for managers, they become able to communicate the downsizing convincingly, gain skills to deal with emotions of laid off workers, etc. ) Supply information about the business: By sharing information about the business employees will have full knowledge of the company's finance and its activity and downsizing will become less a crisis and more an expected solution. Also, sharing sensitive financial or competitive data ensures employees that they can trust the management to be open and honest. 3. Making the announcement: The key activities t o be taken care of while making the announcement of downsizing are, explaining business rationale, announcing the decision and notifying benefits. The management should explain the reasons for downsizing and the implementation process. By explaining the necessity of downsizing management can help employees see that downsizing is not caused by their contribution. The company should make the announcement simultaneously to all constituencies. Announcement should give information about downsizing benefits, separation process and the benefits and services for those who will be laid off. Also, at this stage it is important to communicate the company's vision so that the employees who stay will know how downsizing will help the recovery of the company and to see themselves in companies` future. 4. Implementing the downsizing: The first three stages are very important for the effective downsizing, but the fourth stage is where former preparation and promises are to be realized. The key areas in the implementation stage are communication and employee involvement. At this stage it is important to tell the employees the truth about all their concerns and needs. The best is face-to-face communication. By honest answering, the management builds trust and the sense of necessity. A well implemented downsizing process requires the employees involvement, too. Remaining employees often have good ideas about restructuring their jobs and improving internal processes, so they should be involved in implementation phase. 8. Suggestions to improve the morale of survivors post downsizing The morale of the survivors post downsizing would be very low and the management should take enough care to improve the employee morale post downsizing. This can be achieved by proper planning, communicating and by maintaining an environment of trust. Some of the suggestions to improve the morale of the survivors post downsizing are: 1. Plan: The plan should be made by reviewing prior changes, analyzing how the changes were made and making corrections based on their assessment. This plan should include: redefined tasks and responsibilities; strategies to assist managers in helping surviving employees adjust to organizational changes; communications on why changes are necessary and how roles will change. 2. Communicate concisely, clearly and frequently: For both managers and â€Å"survivors† layoffs are emotionally draining experiences. It is often difficult for managers to know what to say and how to say it properly to those who are still with the corporation. Experts agree that it is better to communicate bad news when it is known than keep it waiting for a more appropriate time. At the same time the manager needs to communicate with the survivors how the organization plans to recover, the employees’ role in that recovery and why the changes are necessary. 3. Apply emphatic listening: Often managers are required to console or counsel with survivors of downsized organizations. Managers with strong Emotional Quotient (EQ) may naturally be able to empathize with and consol survivors. However, many managers may require some points on the importance of â€Å"listening emphatically†. Listening is trying to understand the ideas and feelings expressed by others. Good listeners use silence effectively. They postpone judgment about the other person’s feelings, attitudes and concerns until after they have completely heard the person. 4. Maintain an environment of trust: Managers must reinforce the trust factor since many survivors may feel emotionally disappointed. Employees must understand that the charge of the manager is to ensure the organization survives and must trust him to make and communicate the right decisions. 5. Keep Employees Grateful and Humble: The survivors should also be reminded that they should be thankful to have a job. By not filling those vacant positions there's less competition for eventual promotions 6. Avoid Negative Feelings through Positive Motivation: The confused and vulnerable employees should be reassured that a change of job or an out-of-state position is the new learning curve they've probably needed. 7. Separate the Transitionally Displaced: Create a transition center for the dispirited who no longer have a job (but are still on payroll) that removes them from the rest of the company. Without distractions, these isolates will focus expeditiously on their future career plans. 8. Disinformation about restructuring: The information about the restructuring has to be kept as vague and inconsistent as possible. In fact, the more disinformation the better. A certain amount of uncertainty heightens group competition and, hopefully, will disorient your best people and/or intimidate them from leaving. 9. Create Social Diversions: Some diversionary event for should be planned for the beleaguered, â€Å"survivor shock† employees. 9. Conclusion It has to be noted that downsizing or any dramatic change will be met with an emotional response that will be as intense as the situation is threatening. In many cases people will feel victimized and will need to mourn their losses before they can move on. They should be handled properly and if possible, professional counseling should be given to them. 10. References †¢ Learning from the past – Downsizing Lessons for Managers, Franco Gandolfi †¢ Organizational Downsizing: From Concepts to Practices, Sanghamitra Bhattacharya and Leena Chatterjee †¢ Network Destruction: The Structural Implications of Downsizing, Priti Pradhan Shah