Smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Smoking - Essay Example This fact has been firmly established by the more than a hundred years of experience of the consequences of smoking. Concern in society on the implications of smoking has led to public policy towards controlling the decision of the teenagers to start smoking and cessation of smoking strategies in the adult population (Sloan, Smith & Taylor, 2003). Smoking in the United Kingdom The early twentieth century witnessed smoking becoming a mass phenomenon in the United Kingdom, riding on the smoking being the â€Å"in† thing in society. Almost 13 million of the population in the United Kingdom continues as smokers. Estimates suggest that half of the smoking population will have premature deaths, as a consequence of diseases caused by smoking, losing a minimum of eight years in their life span. The prevalence of smoking peaked in the 1940s in men and the 1960s women. Since then there has been a decline in the prevalence in smoking. However, two features stand out in this decline in th e prevalence of smoking in the United Kingdom, with the decline being not so marked among the socio-economic backward classes and among young adults (Edwards, 2004). Smoking surveys in Britain started in 1948 and the prevalence of smoking among men was put at 85%. ... Current estimates suggest that around10 million people continue to smoke in Britain (Cancer Research UK, 2011). Reasons for the Prevalence of Smoking Several key factors have contributed to this decline in the prevalence of smoking to its lowest levels in Britain and demonstrating that Britain has more effectively tackled the smoking menace than many of the other developed countries. The first such key factor is the information campaign against smoking, highlighting the dangers associated with smoking that has been carried out in Britain for several decades (Meikle, 2011). The socio-economic backward classes have been a high risk population for smoking. Reduction in the inequalities in the society in Britain has reduced the proportion of socio-economic backward classes in UK (Alder et al, 2009). Education levels have been rising in Britain. The higher education levels the better the awareness and assimilation of the dangers associated with smoking, which has a negative impact on an i ndividual taking to smoking or continuing to smoke (Bittoun & Browning, 2005). The price of tobacco products has an impact on the prevalence of smoking. The higher the prices of the prices of tobacco products are the lower the levels of smoking. Government action through a taxation policy has kept the prices of tobacco at higher levels (Hayes, 2007). Reasons for Continued Smoking Cigarette smoking starts as an adolescent. These children may look upon smoking as the right way to approach adulthood or they may succumb to peer-pressure and start smoking. Another possible reason for teenagers taking to smoking may be an attempt to demonstrate their rebellion against society. Whatever be

Research Assignment Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assignment - Research Paper Example The US import of oats is almost 80% of the total world imports. World production is on constant decline from 55.9 million tonnes in 1960-61 to about 23.0 million tonnes in 2010-2011. Russia is the largest producer of oats in the world but does not export any as most of the oats is consumed domestically. (OATS: SITUATION AND OUTLOOK 2010) Trade of various good including agricultural commodities between Canada and US is governed by the free trade agreement signed by them in the year 1988. Objective of this treaty was to eliminate barriers to trade in services and goods. The agreement facilitates and provides for a fair competition within the free trade area. Oats get benefit of this treaty and Canada being a surplus producer of oats became a largest exporter to US for last several years. The article 408 of this agreement states that there will not be any extra tax, duty or any charge on the export of any good. Moreover, article 603of this agreement also establishes that there will be no disguised barriers to trade. (Canada - United States Free Trade Agreement, 1988) In European Union, the Scandinavian countries such as Finland and Sweden are the principal oat producers and exporters too. These two exporters cater to the needs of other EU importing countries. Germany and Spain are the major importers of oat and trades among them are governed as per EU regulations (Europa 2011). Finland and Sweden joined the EU during 1995 and since then they were provided with oat export subsidies until 2006. Major objective for providing subsidy was to prevent those acres getting converted to other crop such as barley. Between 1995 and 2006, EU export to US averaged at 0.4 MT of oats per year; however with the withdrawal of the EU subsidy export to the US plummeted to just 0.04MT. Trade among the EU member countries does not attract any levy, or duties. That is the reason most of the oats produced in Finland and Sweden gets consumed in European Union only. Raw

Fiery Nationalism Essay Example for Free

Fiery Nationalism Essay For more than five centuries it has been, and remains, the world’s â€Å"most powerful idea†. Nationalism is a key characteristic of traditional global politics. Despite its strength however, nationalism is not as dominant a political identity as it once was. Nationalism had existed throughout human civilization; it became a major political movement, in large part because of centuries of imperialism. As countries expanded their borders through warfare and colonialism, the map of the world was completely redrawn. Geographic lines were shifted to create political entities based on the â€Å"winners† and â€Å"losers† of conflicts rather than based on ethnic lines of indigenous populations. Nationalism is a doctrine invented in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It pretends to supply a criterion for the determination of the unit of population proper to enjoy a government exclusively its own, for the legitimate exercise of power in the state, and for the right organization of a society of states. Briefly, the doctrine holds that humanity is naturally divided into nations, that nations are known by certain characteristics which can be ascertained, and that the only legitimate type of government is national self-government. Another definitions of nationalism are: devotion and loyalty to one’s own nation; excessive patriotism; the desire for national advancement or independence; the policy or doctrine of asserting interest of one’s own nation, viewed as separate from the interest of other nations or the common interest of all nations. Referring to the period 1900-1920, the positive part about nationalism as a political movement was that it allowed them to come together and overthrow imperialism. By the beginning of the twentieth century, nationalist movements threatened to tear apart the established empires and the world order the empires had created. On the other hand, the negative part was that it led to colonial wars for independence and civil wars within countries comprised of multiple nations. The problem for nationalist was that it was often difficult to determine exactly where some ethnics group began and others ended, which led to conflict between nationalities living together within a country. It’s true that imperialism and militarism were factors in WWI, but both were byproducts of nationalist governments. The alliance system also would not have caused war if it were not for nationalism. Serbian seeking to gain territory at Austria-Hungary’s expense, and members of a secret society collaborated together to kill the Austrian heir to the throne. This was the spark plug, nationalism, for the war. Nationalist-driven violence was certainly nothing new in the Balkans and what was left of the Ottoman Empire, so it was somewhat surprising that a politically motivated assassination in the region could lead to such large-scale warfare. No one thought it would take much longer than six months to wrap up, because each believed its alliance was clearly superior to other. Instead, the violence dragged into one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. From the period 1921-1945, the Interwar years from 1919 to 1939, it is a period that the conflict was not ended. Nationalism was negative. The frustrated nationalism created by the Treaty of Versailles, the social effects of the Great Depression and ongoing investment in military technology were the road for the next war WWII. In 1929, the Wall Street Market crash and hit Germany hard because the economy was built on mostly loans from America and was dependent on trade, so when the loans needed to be paid and there was no trade, Germany’s industrialism stopped; German workers were laid off, banks failed so saving and accounts were wiped out, inflation made it difficult to purchases necessities. Hitler decided that he needed to do everything at a political level, so that he will be seen as a legitimate leader and not someone associated with violence and bad things; he wanted to highlight the failings of other political parties. Hitler’s inflamed sense of nationalism encouraged him to share his beliefs and values with his fellow countrymen. His strong dependence on his beliefs gave him the reassurance he needed to do whatever he could to further his cause, no matter what people thought about him. Depression really took hold of Germany, and Germany had to repay the debt created by the Young Plan; Hitler tried to defeat the Young plan and this campaign made him a political force throughout the country; in his campaigning he turned down his Jewish hatred and promised to get rid of Communists and â€Å"other enemies† and to reunite Germany and other German speaking parts of Europe. Extremist were losing popularity because stability was returning; German Nationalist party made him respectable asking for him to help campaign against the Young plan’s repayment arrangements; Nazi party won 18.3% of the vote in September 1930. German nationalism made German citizens sympathize with one another, and the thought of more or worse poverty because of the repayments to America worried them all. Hitler, although not the most popular politician in the works at the time, definitely was able to wiggle his foot in the door because of the small amount of doubt in the minds of the people. Hitler was trying to create a sense of nationalism in German people, to the point where they felt they were better than any person of any other race. By creating a clear separation, Hitler was able to set the German’s apart from others living in the same area. Hitler felt that the only way Germany would return to order was through the Nazi regime. By combining Chancellor and President, he ensured that he would be at the head of the government and could spread his fiery nationalism to his people. German citizens may not marry or have sex with Jews in order to keep the blood pure (punishment of hard labor); Jews are not allowed to employ female German citizens under 45 as domestic workers (punishment of imprisonment or hard labor). Hitler really began to try to drive a wedge between Germans and Jews so that nationalism was felt very differently by the two different groups. In encouraging the nationalism and superiority in the German citizens, he made them feel better and feel against the Jews. Hitler formally ends obedience to the Treaty of Versailles; German warplanes attack a Spanish town, and this becomes the first air bombardment of an undefended town in history. Hitler outlines plans for a future war, confiding in his general of his intent to destroy Czechoslovakia; this was the beginning of Hitler’s process of beginning war. Nationalism flexes its muscles here, as the Germans show their new might in their air force and their defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, hereby raising confidence of the German people in their own government and fear of Germany for other countries. The German people were ready for a war. They believed because their leader had taught them to, that the only way to improve their situation was to fight for it. Nationalism prepared them for a war, and not only were they ready for the act, but they were ready to accept the consequences. Their need for stability as a country transcended other needs, and they were ready to do what it took to achieve their goals. WWII was the result of Fascism, and fascism involved nationalism. It is about returning one’s nation glory days. Hitler and Mussolini both sought to take lands that they felt were those of their nation. Hitler wanted the land Germany had lost in war, and much more. Some of the most horrific parts of WWII, such as Holocaust, were direct products of nationalism. Jews were considered to be a different nation by Germans and thus, the government tried to eliminate them, along with others who they felt were not real Germans. From the period 1946-1999 people have been promised self-determination and were frustrated when the political leaders they trusted to deliver it had failed to do so. This period nationalism was in some part positive. This time they would fight for independence and create their own identities through civil war, political revolutions, and migration. With ongoing nationalistic-driven, postcolonial, and identity-related violence marking almost every region of the world and a â€Å"cold war† prevailing on a global level, the structure for the latter half of the twentieth century was established. The Cold war was an ideological conflict in which is side use its growing military technology and alliances systems to stop the spread of the opposing ideology. Because no one wanted a nuclear holocaust, the superpowers relied on others (proxies) to engage in battles for them. The process of decolonization was the final death toll of the imperial system that structured the world until the mid-twentieth century. And because it took place in the midst of a Cold war rivalry with two superpowers vying for ideological control, the process was fraught with violence. Nationalist sought independence from foreign domination. The most violent example how the Cold war affected decolonization was the civil war in Vietnam. The fifteen-year military conflict funded by the United States, the USSR and the PRC showed the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America what decolonization could lead to during the competitive Cold War, and it certainly was not independence. Arab nationalism rose up against centuries of Western imperialism; Islam took on Judaism and Christianity; and ethnic and religious groups fought over territory each claimed legal and history rights to. Also we see, Africa nationalist movement demanded independence some came peacefully, other not. Ghana was a peaceful transition under Kwame Nkrumah, and for Kenya was a violent transition under Jomo Kenyatta. India had been a British colony for many years, the movement led by Mohandas Gandhi pushed for independence, he used a peaceful way not violent- methods to get independence. In conclusion, in my opinion, nationalism has been a positive force, but it has also brought despair and destruction to the world. One side of positive nationalism: which I defined as the proper love of one’s country and the respect which is due to every culture and nation. The other side, the negative nationalism: an unhealthy form of nationalism, which teaches contempt for other nations or cultures and seeks to advance the well-being of one’s own nation at the expense of others.

Modernisation of the Royal Mail

Modernisation of the Royal Mail This report has been conducted to investigate and critically evaluate the modernisation of the Royal Mail. In doing so it will analyze the organisations activities and conduct using theory to discuss its impacts. 2.0 Objectives Investigate how modernisation was planned and implemented and evaluate its effectiveness Identify and deal with resistance factors to the change Clarify how to establish when the planned change has been completed and how its effectiveness should be measured 3.0 Introduction Organizational change Significant organizational change occurs, for example, when an organization changes its overall strategy for success, adds or removes a major section or practice, and/or wants to change the very nature by which it operates. It also occurs when an organization evolves through various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve through life cycles. For organizations to develop, they often must undergo significant change at various points in their development. Thats why the topic of organizational change and development has become widespread in communications about business, organizations, leadership and management (McNamara, 2010). This is confirmed by Richard Whittington and Michael Mayer (2002) argument that adaptive reorganization, the ability to redesign structures frequently, is now critical to organizational performance. Organisational change has three models (Jawad, 2010): Incremental Change Model The Incremental change model states that individual parts of an organisation deal incrementally and separately with one problem and one goal at a time (Burnes 2009). (Jawad, 2010:19) Punctuated equilibrium Tushman and Romanelli (1985, cited in Passmore Woodman, 2005, p207) state this model assumes that fundamental organizational change occurs in short periods of discontinuous, revolutionary change , which punctuates long eras of relative stability typified by incremental, convergent changes (Tushman Romanelli, 1985) (Jawad, 2010:20) Continuous Transformation model of change Only by continuous change and adaption will organisations be able to be aligned with their environment and thus survive (Burnes, 2009:354) (Jawad, 2010:21) History of the Royal Mail The Royal Mail was reorganised in the 1930s and again in the 1960s. Eventually it became a public corporation in 1969. Restructuring continued in the 1980s and 1990s, with the separate telecommunications section being privatised in 1984. In 2001 the Post Office became a public limited company (PLC), named Consignia which was replaced by the Royal Mail brand in late 2002 (Royalmailgroup.com, 2010). The company primarily operates in the UK. It is headquartered in London, the UK and employs 193,000 people. The group recorded revenues of  £9,179 million during the fiscal year ended March 2007, an increase of 1.4% over 2006. The operating loss of the company was  £10 million during fiscal year 2007, as compared to the operating profit of  £145 million in 2006. The net profit was  £286 million in fiscal year 2007, a decrease of 27.6% as compared to 2006 (Datamonitor, 2008). 4.0 Reasons for change Transportation costs Paul Bateson, Royal Mails managing director, logistics, said: There is a marked difference between the price we believe we should be paying for rail services and that which was on the table. Quite simply, other forms of transport can give us the same benefits, in terms of flexibility and quality, but at a lower cost (Independent.co.uk, 2003). Inefficiency The Royal Mail is the third most inefficient postal service operating in the UK with an estimate of 40% less efficiency . The European couriers already have automatically sequencing machines which sort 90% of the letters they deliver at operates at a lower costs whilst the Royal mail operate a walk-sorting and walk-sequencing procedure which only sorts 70%. (Hopper et al 2008:47). Competition The Royal mail faces competition from the digital media. The royal mail reported losses of  £500 million in 2007-08 (Hooper et al 2008:48) Technology This has led to reduced volume of sales (Hooper et al 2008). The way in which customers communicate has altered to online, email, mobile telephony, text messaging and digital broadcasting as they have low marginal costs, flexible and faster. It is estimated that the substitution from postal to alternative digital media reduced its operating profits by  £500 million in 2007/8 (Hooper et al 2008:48) (Hooper et al, 2008:9) Pension Deficit Royal Mail  has a found a  £10bn black hole in its retirement postbag, the biggest pension deficit in UK corporate history (guardian.co.uk, 2009). (Hooper et al 2008:55) Universal service The universal service is important to the UKs economy as it enables trade (Hooper et al 2008:3) in 2008 Royal Mail reported that the universal service had made an operating loss of  £100 million. Strained relations In 2007 over 67,000 employee days were lost as a result of industrial action (Hooper et al 2008:56). The consequence of this was the loss of contracts including Amazon (Guardian.co.uk, 2009). Working practises The organizations working practises are outdated, as a result act as a barrier to their efficiency (Hooper et al 2008:51). The employees are able to finish their morning rounds up to three hours early (Hooper et al 2008:51) and continue to be paid until the end of their shift. 5.0 Lewins group dynamics Lewin research in this area has been cited as one of his best-known research topics.  In this study Lewin, along with Ronald Lippitt, looked at the effects of democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire methods/styles of leadership on group structure and the behaviour of group members.  Results showed numerous insights into group structure.  Also groups with efficient change that occurred in democratic ways lead to superior group results.  Ã‚  Superior results were found with the basis that as all individuals can participate and become an identifiable part of the group, change is more easily accepted (Kariel, 1956). Groups that contained more authoritarian structures were found to be more rigid, hindered creativity and lead to dysfunctional decision making processes.  Groups that contained laissez-faire styles were found to be very inefficient and unproductive (Daniels, 2003). Overall results of these three leadership styles showed that democratic leadership styles lead friendliness, conscientiousness for group members, and more originality than the other leadership styles (Buchanan et al, 2004).  Ã‚  Autocratic and laissez-faire groups showed significantly greater amounts of discontent, hostility, scapegoating, and aggression than the democratic leadership style. Lewin concluded that changes resulted not from individual differences but from group dynamics.  Ã‚  He also emphasized need to facilitate and guide change, as autocracy is imposed on individuals, but democracy is learned (Smith 2001).   With the Royal Mail being under the control of the UK Government it can be argued that they are subjected to a more authoritarian leadership structure. Unlike a corporate business organization where decisions are made by senior management, in the Royal mail decisions must be made in consideration of the UK budget, strategies and actions are all subject to parliament, leaving management in the Royal Mail with lesser powers to do their job. 6.0 Planned Emergent change Lewins (1951) three-stage model of unfreezing, movement, and refreezing often underlies planned change. This planned approach to change is long established and held to be highly effective by many (Burns, 2004), but it has been criticized at least since the early 1980s (Kanter, Stein Jick, 1992). Firstly it tends to ignore that environmental factors in which an organization is situated may be inconsistent with planned change initiatives, apparently assuming that organizations can move in a pre-planned manner from one stable state to another (Bamford Forrester, 2003) in ways that are not strongly impacted by outside factors. Royal Mails initial efforts to implement change were of a planned nature, Weick (1999) suggests that organization change is a more open-ended and continuous process than a set of pre-identified self-contained events. Emergent change emphasizes that change should not be perceived as a series of planned linear events within a given period of time. Rather, it is best viewed as a continuous, open-ended process of adaption to change circumstances and conditions (Burns, 2004). 7.0 Resistance to change Where change is incremental and aims only at organisational realignment, it can be viewed as adaptive. Where such incremental change is more punctuated, but still aiming at organisational realignment, it is known as reconstruction. The process of reconstruction is more likely to result in employee resistance than adaptation because such significant changes in business processes could negatively impact upon the roles of some employees. However, unlike transformational change, whether this happens incrementally or in a punctuated fashion, adaptation and reconstruction are less likely to have either an organisation wide impact on employees or require a paradigm shift in thinking. Evolution and revolution, on the other hand, do require such a shift because they can involve significant shifts in organisational culture and may also have deep impact on job roles and even redundancies (Balogun and Hailey, 2004). The change plan suggested by the Independent Review of the Royal Mail involves the political separation of the Royal Mail to provide it will commercial confidence, the separation of the Royal Mail from the Post Office, the transfer of the Royal Mail Groups pension risk to the government, a strategic investment in modernisation, and the use of a strategic partnership between the Royal Mail and a private sector firm to help bring about the change process. This is clearly indicative of revolutionary change, such that it is no surprise that not only are the forces for and against very strong, but they are equally matched between those desiring changing (management) and those opposing it (employees and their representatives). To effectively manage employee resistance to change at the Royal Mail, a number of solutions can be suggested. In presenting these solutions, it should be emphasized that management at the Royal is required to manage through revolutionary change. Here, the speed of t he change process adds to the impact that the change initial will have on the firm, also creating greater levels of fear, suspicion, uncertainty, and ultimately, resistance. First, effective leadership is a critical component of effectively implementing change that the Royal Mail. According to Bennis and Nanus (2003): The new leader is one who commits people to action, who converts followers into leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change (p.3). In this respect, effective leaders are not only visionary in their motives and actions (Nanus, 1992; Collins, 2001), but also they are the ultimate agents of change. Here, emotions play a central role. As Boyatzis and McKee (2005) state: Even if they get everything else just right, if leaders fail in this primal task of driving emotions in the right direction, nothing they do will work as well as it could or should (p.3). This can be especially important during periods of transformational change, and especially the revolutionary change proposed at the Royal Mail. Here, leaders not only need to have personal competence in the form of emotional competences such as transparency, but also social compe tences such as empathy and organizational awareness (social awareness competences), but also conflict management and bond building (relationship management competences) (Goleman et al., 2002). As Boyatzis and McKee (2005) state: Great leaders face the uncertainty of todays world with hope: they inspire through clarity of vision, optimism, and a profound belief in their and their peoples ability to turn dreams into reality. Great leaders face sacrifice, difficulties, and challenges, as well as opportunities, with empathy and compassion for the people they lead and those they serve. Whilst the current predicament for employees is stark, a visionary, inspirational leader will be able to communicate the long-term, optimistic view of the Royal Mail; that is, an organisation where employee pensions will have been secured by the Government, a more efficient work environment and organizational structure that will enable employees to develop through greater investment and innovation by man agement, as well as greater job security for those that remain. Whilst this does nothing to quell the resistance amongst those that believe they will not be chosen to remain, the Independent Review clearly highlights that the change has to happen or the Royal Mail Group will not be able to continue in its current format. Leadership has to emphasize how it can help get the company and its employees through a bad situation in the best possible way. Second, change agents can be particularly effective in helping to overcome employee resistance. The change agent starts out where the strategist left off. They are charged with making change programmes a success at the implementation stage. With information scarcity and poor communication being a central factor causing employee resistance to change, the change agent is an important part of the communication process between management and employees. The use of change agents can have a particularly strong effect because of their impact on relationships. As Tierney (1999) states: Strong relationships between supervisors and employees, and among employees and their team members, is associated with employees perceiving that they work in a context characterised by risk-taking and departure from the status quo, open communication, trust, operational freedom, and employee development, five of the necessary conditions for the emergence of individual and organisational change (p.129). Change a gents therefore play an important role in building a psychological climate that is conductive to change (Schneider and Reichers, 1983; Porras and Hoffer, 1986; Tierney, 1999). As a general rule, internal change agents are no more successful in implementing change than their external counterparts. The appropriateness of choosing one over the other depends on the nature of the change, the change outcome, and specific organizational circumstances. An external change agent may benefit the firm by providing experience and advice based on knowledge developed during other change processes that the firm itself is not privy to. The external change agent is also an appropriate choice where employees do not trust management. Alternately, the internal agent may be more sensitive to and knowledge about local conditions within the firm, helping the agent to communicate in a more appropriate manner. This may help in convincing employees that would not be prepared to listen to external change agent s that have no vested interested in them as individuals (Balogun and Hailey, 2004). In the case of the Royal Mail, the problem is that management and employees have a very bad relationship, with employees having a stronger relationship with their unions. As such, unions may be one of the best potential agents for change, even though these have been one of the biggest problems impeding innovation and change in the past. Finally, it has often been suggested that change management is more successful when a pilot of the proposed change is carried out in order to assess the potential problems that could be faced, enabling the organization to re-engineer how the change process is rolled out (Balogun and Hailey, 2004). However, this would be difficult for the Royal Mail because the change it is facing is revolutionary. Such change provides little time to test out different change scenarios. 8.0 Force field analysis Figure 1 is a force field analysis to illustrate why Royal Mail employees may resist change. This highlights not only how difficult it will be to achieve change without significant employee resistance, but also the reasons why relative tensions exist. The rationale for employee resistance is based on the potential for significant job losses, the loss of union power following a restructuring, and the potential costs and disruption that this may cause to employees and customers. Significant job losses anticipated: The transformational changes made to date, which are slight in comparison to what is needed, have resulted in over 40,000 job losses. The proposed change in the Independent Review would mean a significant number of additional job losses, most of which would happen in the Royal Mail, not the Post Office. With the power of the major unions in the postal sector, such job losses will be met with fierce resistance and most likely some industrial action. As such, it has a 5 rating. Weaker union position because of restructuring: The relationship between the unions and the management at the Royal Mail Group is extremely poor, not only because of the power of the unions and their propensity for industrial action and heavily resisting almost any form of management change, but also because of the ability of unions to take their complaints straight to Minister, circumventing management at the Royal Mail Group. The transformation would break up this arrangement and provide the Royal Mail with the autonomy and commercial confidence it needs, but it would also significantly weaken the position of the unions. 5. Cost and disruption could reduce customer numbers: The Royal Mail is relied upon to process and deliver 99% of the UKs post. The level of transformation required, the loss of staff, the inevitable industrial action that will be taken, and so forth will not only be costly but will also damage the Royal Mails reputation and potentially reduce customer needs. 3. Plan: Strategic partnership  between Royal Mail  and private sector  companies to help  bring about change   Political separation of  Royal Mail Transfer pension risk  to government Separation of Royal  Mail and Post Office Strategic investment  in modernisation Massive pension  deficit needs to  be resolved Structural decline  in major product  markets Inefficient structure  and poor labour  relations Significant jobs  losses anticipated   Weaker union  position because  of restructuring Cost and disruption  could reduce  customers numbers Forces for Change Forces against Change Employee resistance is not only reflected in the forces against change, but also the overall pressure of the forces in each direction. In this case, the score for forces against change is 13 whilst the forces for change also scores 13. Out of a possible score of 15, therefore, not only are there considerable forces against change, but employees are also being heavily resisted by the firm, which is pushing equally strongly for change. This increases the overall levels of employee resistance. 9.0 Securing effective change A professor at Harvard Business School and world-renowned change expert, Kotter introduced his eight-step change process in his 1995 book, Leading Change  (Buchanan et al, 2004). Establish a sense of urgency Form a guiding coalition Create a vision Communicate the vision Empower people to act on the vision Create short term wins Consolidate improvements to produce further change Institutionalize new approaches Other models in management literature include Ulrich (1998) seven-steps, Eccles (1994) four step and Collins (1998) n-step guides, all of which echo the same principles as Kotter, vision, leadership, communication and involvement. (Buchanan et al, 2004) What is imperative to carry out the model effectively is a change leader. Change leaders can be thought of as persons who create enough disconfirmation in the organisation to arouse motivation to change (Bennis, Nanus, 1985). Change leaders should therefore have three characteristics if they are to arouse motivation to change and learn: Credibility whatever they say must be believed Clarity of vision Whatever they say must be clear and make sense Ability to articulate the vision They must be able to state verbally and in writing what it is they perceive and what the implications are for the future of the organization (Schein, 1999). In implementing Kotters (1995) 8 steps to change the Royal Mail can follow these actions. 1. Examine opportunities that should be, or could be, exploited. Identify potential threats, and develop scenarios showing what could happen in the future. Start honest discussions, and give dynamic and convincing reasons to get people talking and thinking. Request support from customers, outside stakeholders and industry people to strengthen the argument 2. Identify the true leaders in the organization.   Ask for an emotional commitment from these key people.   Work on team building within the change coalition.   Check the team for weak areas, and ensure that there is a good mix of people from different departments and different levels within the company. 3. Determine the values that are central to the change.   Develop a short summary that captures what is seen as the future of the organization.   Create a strategy to execute that vision.   Ensure that the change coalition can describe the vision. 4. Communicate the change vision. Openly and honestly address peoples concerns and anxieties. Apply the vision to all aspects of operations from training to performance reviews. Tie everything back to the vision.   Lead by example. 5. Identify, or hire, change leaders whose main roles are to deliver the change.   Look at the organizational structure, job descriptions, and performance and compensation systems to ensure theyre in line with the vision.   Recognize and reward people for making change happen.   Identify people who are resisting the change, and help them see whats needed.   Take action to quickly remove barriers. 6. Look for sure-fire projects that can be implemented without help from any strong critics of the change.  Ã‚   Thoroughly analyze the potential pros and cons of the targets.    Reward the people who help the organization meet the targets. 7. After every win, analyze what went right and what needs improving.   Set goals to continue building on the momentum achieved.   Learn about  kaizen, the idea of continuous improvement.   Keep ideas fresh by bringing in new change agents and leaders for the change coalition. 8. Communicate the progress at every opportunity. Tell success stories about the change process.   Include the change ideals and values when hiring and training new staff. Publicly recognize key members of the original change coalition, and make sure the rest of the staff new and old remembers their contributions.   Create plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. This will help ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten. Conclusion The Royal Mail is in a position where change is a necessity to survive, and it must do so quickly. The organization requires better communication from its leaders to enable a joint commitment of its managers and workforce. To enable this it must separate from political leadership. It is essential that a new change strategy is formulated which fits the circumstances. Progress has been show through the Communication Unions (2010) agreement which will help defuse employee resistance. Basic pay will rise by a minimum of 6.9 per cent   Further payments will accompany the phased introduction of change in the workplace   The CWU will play a full part in the introduction, deployment and review of change   The working week will reduce by one hour with no loss of pay   Royal Mail will remain a 75 per cent full-time industry   Existing job security will be further enhanced   Further steps must now be taken to implement modernisation around the agreement, implementation of Kotters 8 steps of change can solidify plans which will help take Royal Mail into modernisation past the 3 year agreement.

The Peoples Republic of China :: China Essays

One country that has a rich cultural history, a large population and some of the grandest mountain ranges in the world is China. This country is the third largest one and contains the world's largest population. It is also home to one of the very first recorded civilizations. Thanks to its large mountains it is rich in natural resources that had come up from the earth. China produces a large variety of things from steel, to cameras and synthetic materials. Electricity generation is one of the largest in the world. It's government is one of the oldest on earth starting in 1726. All of these things make up China, so let’s go into more detail by starting with geography.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China is officially the People's Republic of China and is located in eastern Asia. To it's north are several countries including Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. It shares borders to the west with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and India. To the south is Bhutan, Myanmar, Veitnam, and Laos. Almost the entire east side of China is bordered by water. There are over 3,400 offshore islands, with Hainan in the South China Sea as being the largest of them all. China is about 3,696,100 square miles large not including the Republic of China. China is a very mountainous country with 43% of all land is classed as mountainous terrain. Also China has some of the largest mountains in the world, including Mt. Everest and K2. All the mountains have enclosed numerous plateaus and basins. Those areas are rich in water and mineral resources.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China’s population is made up of mostly people under 30. The government wanted to try to control the population but was unable to. Thus China has the largest population in the world and is very crowded. Most of the people are distingueshed not by racial characteristics but by religion or language. The current population is 1,306,000,000 and increasing at an incredible rate. China speaks a language called Putongua and is known to most by Mandarin. China is trying to modify its written language to simplify it. China has two main religions: (1) Christianity (2) Buddhist. Both of these religions practice their religion openly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Because of China’s land diversity, it is rich in mineral resources and has an ample amount of nearly any resource known to man. It has about 20 billion metric tons of petroleum and 11 trillion metric tons of Steel.

physics lab speed of sound in air :: essays research papers

Physics Waves Lab SL Introduction:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This lab will investigate the properties of mechanical waves such as a longitudinal wave, focusing on the question: Does a change in the frequency of a wave result in a significant and convincing change in the speed of the wave? Hypothesis: Changing the frequency of the wave will not result in a change in speed because the wavelength will change proportionally as in theory. Student Designed Investigation Procedure/ Planning Procedure: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Three students would get into a group. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A Slinky would be spread along a table or along the floor and set up as it shows on the diagram above for about 4 meters. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For proper data, the length of the floor was measured and marked with a tape. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A student would make small waves, while another would time it with a stopwatch until it reaches the other side. This step would be repeated, however the wave would be bigger or smaller, in order to find out if changing the frequency, the speed would change. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With the data recoded for many different waves, the velocity would be compared for all of them. Materials: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Slinky 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Role-up meter stick 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stopwatch 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tape 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pen/Pencil 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Three Lab partners Proposal (diagram) of each Trial: Trial 1:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Trial 2:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trial 3: Trial 4: Trial 5: Planning: According to theory, as frequency changes, the wavelength will change proportionally; therefore, speed will remain the same. By following the procedure that our student design recommends, it will successfully control the variables that should not be changed, such as the slinky, its stretch distance, and the temperature, in order to prove the theory above. The independent variable would be the frequency of the wave, which would change in every trial, while the dependent would be time, which would later be used to find the speed of the traveling wave. In order to collect data, two students would hold the slinky while on would make waves, and a third person would measure the time. A table similar to this should be done after collecting data: Trial  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Frequency  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Time  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Speed. 1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An estimation of the number of waves over time.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The time it took for the first wave to reach the end.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Speed=distance/time 2†¦(more trials) 5 recommended  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Data  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Data  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Data Calculations: The student should fill the table above, and compare the results. After collection the speed of each wave, a graph should be drawn where the y axis is the speed, and the x axis should be the frequency. Uncertainty: The uncertainty of this lab would be based on the timing of the student, and the distance that was measured for the slinky.

Bowling Alone

This essay deals with the correlation between a healthy, progressive society and one that is engaged civilly with sociological matters and ties. The statistics expressed in Putnam's essay show a rather rapid decline in our societies' civil engagement in the last quarter century. Putnam emphasizes the valiant importance of a strong and active society for growth and development in a democracy. Without further social development Americans could deteriorate their once strong, socially engaged society down to a individualistic democracy that would shatter our national image.Putnam's essay is titled, â€Å"Bowling Alone†, he gives emphasis, and depth to this title in several different ways throughout his article. Perhaps, the most interesting and whimsical piece of information that he shares though is a bowling statistic. More contemporary Americans are bowling than ever before in history, although, bowling in organized leagues has plummeted in the last decade. Between 1980 and 1993 the total number of bowlers in America increased by 10 percent, while league bowling decreased by 40 percent.This statistic, that shows the rise of solo bowling threatens the very, livelihood of bowling business proprietors because many of those people who bowl as members of leagues consume three times as much beer and pizza. Common knowledge then comes into play, the profit money in bowling does not derive from the balls and shoes but rather the other expenditures such as, beer and pizza. The broader social significance, in this matter though, however lies in the social communication and conversations that can derive from beer and pizza, as compared to solo bowlers.Putnam offers other information that supports his claim, besides bowling statistics. In some parts of the essay, he shares that organizational groups, as a whole have experienced a massive decline in new membership, over the last quarter century. Church-related groups are the most common type of organization joined by A mericans, women especially. Other examples of popular organizations frequently joined by Americans are, school service groups, sports groups, professional societies, literary groups, labor unions, fraternal groups, and veterans' groups. All of these organizational groups share one common trait, a decline in new membership.There are consequences that ensue after a society begins, to lose it civilly engaged citizens, for private, less trusting ones. In a survey done, over 35 countries, it shows that social trust and civic engagement are strongly correlated. The greater the amount of associational membership in a society, the more trusting its citizens, are likely to be. Trust and engagement are two components of the same underlying factor, social capital. America is still ranked relatively high by cross-national standards in both areas of social capital; and its citizens are more trusting and more engaged than people in most other parts of the world, still.What, these trends show in t he past quarter- century, however, have placed United States significantly lower in the international rankings of social capital. An alarming possibility that this information provides is in another quarter-century at this rate of change, America could be roughly equivalent to South Korea, Belgium, or Estonia today. Two generations' decline at the same rate would leave the United States at the level of today's Chile, Portugal, and Slovenia. Putnam does not offer any concrete solutions to these current trends, but he shares his advice and wisdom on such a complex problem.Giving more responsibility to the institutions that raise our children could be the answer. Perhaps finding new ways to reach younger generations at a more significant point in childhood could curve this trend. For example, instituting more programs and organizations rather than the typical sports or academic activities, offered. Reshaping the classroom and offering more social progressive classes could play a signif icant role in instilling a strong social reinforcing importance to a young person. Another possibility for a helpful change in this current trend could be given in a representative media source, for the people, by the people.There is no doubt that our current media today seems to be a giant circus that focuses only on irrelevant issues and seeks only high ratings. Perhaps, a media source that actually is not focused on getting ratings or pushing certain agendas on Americans could be the answer. Most news sources today seem to disinterest many Americans with blown up stories, and each stations political ideologies. Creating a station with no bias, giving direct information to the people about real issues in this country could generate more interest in our country's politics.Television has the ability to reach more people than any other source in the world, why not use it to reach the social outcry in America? and be a solution rather than the problem. In conclusion, Putnam's essay of fers a non-bias factual account of a growing problem that future generations may face. There is no clear solution to this debate, what is clear though, however, is the significance of this issue. To solve this, it will take many solutions and variables. Counter trends have shown what lies ahead, new social groups must take the supremacy and give it power.