Abstract of Chapter 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Abstract of Chapter 8 - Essay Example Using the case of Health Net for the above elaborations, managers of most organizations in the present world realize that a long-run success needs a focus on the cost, service, and quality. The above three components comprise the competitive edge of the entity. Therefore, Health Net uses such management control system in achieving such focus. Health Net as one of the prevalent managed health-care organization in the United States. It has about 7,500 employees and a revenue of about $12 billion in the year 2011, have an excellent management control system that has placed it above its competitors. The organization offers coverage up to 5.6 million health plan members (Gitman, Zutter, In Mukherjee, In Battista, Gitman & Zutter, 2013). To compete effectively in the market, Health Net commenced a critical information systems development programs known as â€Å"fourth generation medical management.† The control regulator is for the creation of a greater opportunity for growing the overall quality as the costs decreased by managing the patient care in the electronic link. The system provides physicians and other health care providers an instant user-friendly electronic access to comprehensive information about the medical history of various patients as well as the best clinic treatment recommended. Therefore, a faster and a pre approved a referral to the best clinical resource whether specialist or an emergency room. The above measure ultimately satisfies the customers, and as a bonus, helps in the reduction of costs (Gitman, Zutter, In Mukherjee, In Battista, Gitman & Zutter, 2013). A balanced scorecard applies where there is a need to strike a balance between the financial and the nonfinancial measures during the performance measurement process. It therefore, links performance to rewards and, therefore, gives the explicit recognition of the relationship between the organizational

Strategic Positioning of Southwest Airlines Assignment - 1

Strategic Positioning of Southwest Airlines - Assignment Example The world of the 21st century presents a global scenario which is powered by rapid change, ever-evolving business environment and high productivity of the masses.   The fast evolution and penetration of the internet in various corners of the globe along with the speedy acceptance of various kinds of sophisticated technological gadgets by the global masses has brought in a tremendous change in the nature and means of communication all over the world. The highly advanced level of development along the lines of communication has transformed the planet Earth into a single and highly connected entity. It is important to mention the fact that because of tremendous connectivity, the spreading and diffusion of various kinds of global trends which are emerging in various advanced and established markets are happening at a much faster rate. The fast diffusion of global trends is creating a steady demand among the consumers located in various parts of the world, which is automatically paving the way for the emergence of many new markets from various corners of the world. While studying the trend of emergence of new markets, it has been realized that majority of the new markets are emerging from young and growing economies, which are spread all over the world. Trend analysis and subsequent research have pointed out the fact that the new markets that are emerging from the developing economies will be the center point of future growth. As a result, there has been a growing trend which highlighted the fact that the businesses organizations, that are located in both the developing as well as developed economies are aggressively trying to enter into many new markets for the purpose of generating significant competitive advantage as well as solidify their future growth prospects.  

Pesticide Use and Environmental Change in Rachel Carson's The Research Paper

Pesticide Use and Environmental Change in Rachel Carson's The Obligation to Endure - Research Paper Example Specifically, in The Obligation to Endure, Rachel Carson cites some destructive human activities that cause environmental change. For one, Carson emphasized that the use of pesticide to increase agricultural productivity inflicts more harm to nature than benefits. In the article, Carson’s arguments on environmental change and pesticide use are interesting, considering that these delve on the distinct relationship between human beings and their environment. Accordingly, this paper attempts to fulfill threefold goals in relation to Carson’s article. First is the identification of the existing environmental changes today; second is the analysis of the role of human beings concerning those environmental changes; third is the discussion of the long-term and short term effects of pesticide use, and lastly, the identification of possible solutions that may help recover the vitality of the environment. To attain those objectives, this research also makes use of existing scholar ly articles concerning the topic to support its arguments; books and web articles are used to attain further background about Rachel Carson and her environmental advocacies. Article Overview Rachel Carson, one of America’s most prominent marine biologists, may be considered the most influential woman in the field of environmental studies and ecological policy. Doell mentions that her contribution to the field of science and politics, although indirectly, is attributable to her write-ups in Silent Spring, particularly about the â€Å"aggressive backlash from the agricultural chemical industry† (113). Silent Spring is a collection of essays about industrialization, human activity, and its influence on the changing features of the environment, particularly on the â€Å"war on weeds† (Paull 37). Specifically, in The Obligation to Endure, Carson highlights that pesticide use is the most environmentally damaging of all human activities; she also discusses the existing environmental policies on pesticide use. Aside from this, Carson also discusses the temporary and permanent impact of pesticide use on both humanity and the environment. In reading the article, one can say that Carson’s argument on genetic flexibility and adaptability is the most interesting topics in the article. With those two topics, Carson was able to explain the long-term and short term effects of pesticide use on the physiological features of humans, insects, and other organisms. In the article, Carson explains how the synthetic, toxic chemicals contained in pesticides alter the natural genetic makeup of human beings and insects, which also drives further changes in the environment. Although Carson posits, in the last paragraphs of the article, that she does not intend to discourage the use of pesticides, she also contends that human beings should be more watchful when using products that are based on synthetic chemicals. She emphasized the necessity of knowing the imp act of chemical-based products while putting the responsibility of educating the public on biologically damaging products on the hands of government officials and the private sector. Consequently, the article may be considered a parable of human existence and a warning to the people,

Recycling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Recycling - Essay Example ce and prevent waste of materials that are useful, minimizes the usage of new raw material minimizes energy usage, air pollution and water pollution and reduced green house effect in comparison to the production of plastic. The key component of the modern waste elimination is recycling (PORTER, 1985). Recycling of glass is the process by which waste glass are turned into some usable products. The waste glass is separated by different chemical compositions. These may also be sorted into various colors. Often recyclers gather glass of different colors separately as glass has a tendency to retain its original color even after being recycled. The glass mostly used for consumer containers include green glass, brown glass and colorless glass (PORTER, 1985). Glass is in very huge amount in industrial and household waste because of its high density and weight. The components of glass in these wastes are usually broken glassware, bottles, bulbs and many more items. A very huge amount of this waste is due to the manual ways of making glass object that has a very high defect rate. Recycling of glass uses lower energy than making glass either from lime, sand or soda (PORTER, 1985). In a home renovation, the effective management of waste infrastructure is needed for treatment and collection where it can be used as a raw material. If we want to renovate our home, so we will first think about what infrastructures can be modified or not; and about glass and wood in the house. Each year in Europe about 1.2 million glass waste tones is producing by renovation and demolition of the buildings. Glass amounts to 0.66% of demolition and construction of the continent of Europe. Either you can dispose the glass off or renovate it. Dismantling is the procedure when glass is taken away from the home and taken away by its kind as per the planned end use. Cullet processing is the time when incomplete quantities of Demolition and Construction glass are used as in there is not a standardized

The Importance of Renewable Energy Sources Usage in London Essay

The Importance of Renewable Energy Sources Usage in London - Essay Example The essay "The Importance of Renewable Energy Sources Usage in London" talks about the effectiveness of energy sources usage in London area and the factors affecting the availability of fuels. The most important issue affecting the availability of fuels is the change in the climate and the global warming. Fears from the environmental changes tend to hinder the exploration processes of fuels. Controlling the usage of fuel energy has increased, leading to the inadequate availability of the same. Moreover, economic constraints are also prevalent from the fact that the fuels are often available at larger distances difficult for consumers to reach. Another factor that might affect the availability and usage of fuels is any kind of instability in the political environment. London has its energy policy that includes developmental planning to capitalize on the available efficiency of the energy sources and minimize the emission of carbon contents in the air. The energy plan of the city focuses on the use of combined heat and power (CHP) and renewable energy in order to make efficient use of the available sources. Several applications on the strategic planning of energy usage have been approved over the years that are based on addressing the issues of climate changes, reduction of energy usage, saving energy, and other relevant factors. Thermodynamics deals with the study of energy and the transformation processes of such energy. According to the first law of thermodynamics, it is possible to conserve the energy and its usage. Thus this law is also known as the law of conservation of energy. The law focuses on the internal energy changes and the effects that occur as a result of transfer of heat (Potter, 61). Several engineers and scientists who contribut ed in the formulation of the above mentioned law include eminent personalities like James Joule, James Watt, Benjamin Thompson and others. For the particular study a biological sketch of Sir James Watt has been obtained and his contribution in the first law of thermodynamics has also been studied. James Watt: James Watt was born in Scotland in the year 1736. He became interested in mathematical instruments when he was 17 years old followed by his interests in the functioning of the steam engines required to pump water. By the time he was 29 years old, the mechanical engineer was involved in the formation of condensers for steam engines after he thoroughly conducted studies on the features and applications of steam engines. Further in the year 1767, the engineer aided in the vision at long distances with his creation of telescopes. Moving on, Watt was concerned and focused his work on

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions - Research Paper Example The above practice would help in enhancing the applicability of the human resources practices to help in meeting the needs of the personnel employed in different multinational organizations. The cultural dimensions as generated by the cultural scientist, Geert Hofstede are generated based on the cultural dimensions model which is elucidated as follows. The parameter of individualism or collectivism as generated by Hofstede evaluates the culture of a region based on individualistic and collectivist attributes. People dwelling in regions governed by collectivist approaches operate in a close cultural setting that reflects mutual care and understanding for each other. The collectivist countries also reflect honor for the existing cultural and social norms. On the other hand the regions governed or based on individualistic cultures reflect individuals that tend to take decisions in an independent fashion by not taking into consideration the needs and views of other members in a social group. Thus, decisions though taken by individuals based on social norms are loosely knit to each other thereby affecting the existing social fabric (Piepenburg, 2011). Uncertainty Avoidance tends to be the second dimension of culture as identified by Hofstede. This dimension tends to evaluate the level to which the individuals or groups relating to a specific region avoid the emergence of unforeseen events and unidentified situations. In that a certain level of risk or feelings of being threatened by the upcoming changes requires the individuals to operate based on specific code of conduct that would help in demarcating and governing their actions to achieve stated objectives. Thus, countries reflecting high uncertainty avoidance fail to considerably explore to identify new dimensions or areas of growth and opportunity (The Hofstede Centre , n.d. ). The Power Distance (PD) is identified as the third dimension in the cultural

What colleges should teach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What colleges should teach - Essay Example Burke-Vigeland concluded that the current fixed forward step-sitting arrangement of lecture halls is unsuitable for interactive learning as it prevents students from expressing their individuality. He advocates for a flexible classroom which allows professors and students to restructure the classroom to allow team discussions, reversible writing on the walls, incorporation of technology that enables communication with other students around the world, and adaptation of the room for different course work (Burke-Vigeland, n. p.). In the article, What Should Colleges Teach? Stanley Fish raises concern regarding a recent trend whereby college courses are increasingly diverting from their main discipline of focus into other unrelated disciplines. He focuses on the discipline which he teaches, literature, and points out an observation he made whereby writing courses in colleges nowadays tend to focus on analysis of various social issues such as globalization, racism, and sexism instead of f ocusing on writing. As a result, few students taking writing courses in college are able to write a clean English sentence. The author asserts that writing courses should focus exclusively on writing and teach nothing other than grammar and rhetoric (Fish, n. p.). In the article, Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught, Emily Hanford asserts that the traditional method of teaching in colleges whereby students learn through non-interactive lectures is no longer effective since most students are not able to absorb most of the information that is usually disseminated in a single lecture. The author advocates for the peer-instruction method of teaching in colleges and provides proof of its effectiveness by referring to the success of a number of professors who use this method to teach their students. These include Joe Redish, a physics professor at the University of Maryland, Brian Lukoff, a researcher in education at Harvard University, and Eric Mazur, a professor of physics at Harvard University (Hanford, n. p.). In Rethinking the Way Colleges Teach Critical Thinking, Scott Johnson laments the way through which colleges teach critical thinking. He asserts that current practices whereby students are taught through lectures to memorize information is not achieving one of its aims of developing student critical thinking skills. He uses his specialty discipline of instruction, Earth Science, as an example to demonstrate how students can be taught facts while simultaneously gaining crucial critical thinking skills. Johnson asserts that the best way to achieve this purpose is to dedicate a significant portion of the course teaching students how the factual information of the course was gathered through logical and critical evaluation of available information (Johnson, n. p.). In the article, Colleges Should Teach Intellectual Virtues, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe underline the importance of helping college students develop intellectual virtues in addition to the traditional roles of teaching them the skills of their discipline, literacy skills, and critical thinking. The authors assert that colleges should help students develop intellectual virtues so as to mold them into all-rounded human beings (Schwartz and Sharpe, n. p.). From the five articles analyzed, it is evident that the education students acquire in colleges does not completely suit their needs and requirements for both professional and personal development. Technology and globalization have