Organisation Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Organisation Behaviour - Essay Example According to Rahmati and Fard (2012) and Sease (2013), metaphors refer to a form of speaking where one thing would be expressed in the light of another so as to describe the character of the subject. They play an important role in understanding and interpreting organisations. To bring this into perspective in this paper, two metaphors borrowed from Images of Organisation, namely, organisation as an organism and political organisation will be used to describe Apple Inc., as the chosen case organisation. Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is a multinational corporation with its headquarters in Cupertino, California dealing with designing, developing and selling personal computers, computer software and consumer electronics. The American company known for its hardware products such as Mac computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers and iPod music players and software such as iTunes media browser and Safari web browser among others was founded by Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs in 1976 and in corporated in the following year. In the first year of its incorporation, the firm released the first Apple computer, Apple I. Today, Fortune 500 Magazine (2012) documents Apple Inc. as the second largest information technology company globally, after Samsung Electronics, by revenue and has been ranked third largest as a mobile phone maker. In 2008 through 2012, it was documented by Fortune 500 Magazine as the most admired firm in America and globally. Going by market capitalisation, it ranks second among the largest publicly traded corporations globally with its value as of January 2013 estimated at USD 414 billion. Its 2012 annual revenue was USD 156 billion as retrieved from its website (http://www.apple.com/). The Late Steve Jobs has been widely accredited for the success that Apple Inc. enjoys today. Together with Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computers Inc. in 1976, having both dropped out of college (Mittan, 2010). Following the success of their computers in the market, Steve Jobs and the then president, Michael Scott got entangled in power struggle. Though Scot resigned in 1981, tension continued to escalate causing Jobs to quit the company he had co-founded in 1985. NeXT, the company consequently formed by Jobs was purchased by Apple in 1996 seeing the re-entry of Jobs who later in 1997 became the CEO, steering the firm to greater achievements. In 2011, Tim Cook took up Jobs’ roles after his resignation from being the Chief Executive so as to have ample time to concentrate on his deteriorating health, but died later in the same year. Cook has since steered forward the corporation in its operations. Analysis of Apple using Morgan’s Metaphors Apple as an organism Morgan (2006) uses this organism metaphor of organisations to describe their survival through varied environments. According to Black (2003), this metaphor makes humans to view organisations as living units or organisms which must adapt to the changing environment in order to survive. In this case, Apple Inc. considered as an organism would be pegged on its evolution through varied business environments over time. On its inception in 1976, the firm started as a company dealing purely in computers. With time and due to demand, the company

Enviroment issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Enviroment issues - Essay Example Exhaust gasses that are emitted from factories and transportations can affect human health and life negatively. When these pollutant gasses are dispatched in the air sphere and inhaled by humans, the conditions sprout. When human beings inhale these pollutant gases, dire consequences arise, more so in the lungs. Gas pollution has also been known to result from smoking of cigarettes. Another environmental issue is water pollution. Waste plants that are produced by factories and the oil spills from industrial ships can cause water pollution. Indeed, the water becomes dirty and dangerous for human consumption. Water pollution can also arise from people littering the beach environments through such indecent behaviors as throwing trash in the water. Lastly, in this paper, there is noise pollution. Noise pollution can be caused by transportation systems. It is easily noticed in big and crowded cities such as New York, Los Angles and California. Human health is mainly affected by noise as it can cause stress, lack of sleep, headaches amongst other health related issues. Â   This paper has classified the pollution into three types; air, water, and noise. The issue of pollution is pertinent in the world, as it tends to pull people away from an ideal environment. In order to reduce the noise, air and water pollution the government needs to create laws for factories and different type of transportation systems. A good example is forcing them to put refinery on the exhaust products in factories and vehicle transmission systems. In addition, the government should create laws for factories, industrial ships and people that forbid them from throwing trash or polluting the water. Contravening of these laws by any of these groups should result in serious consequences. Â   I believe that the people can play an effective role in improving and protecting the environment. In fact, people can grow trees and plants in their backyards, especially

The Art of Grilling Essay Example for Free

The Art of Grilling Essay After coming home from a long day of going to classes and studying there is one thing that I especially look forward to. Some people may want to go grab a beer or turn on the T. V and lounge around, but my vision of a perfect evening is one spent in front of a grill, cooking whatever it is Ive chosen for dinner. Im not sure why I like to grill so much but my guess would be because my dad loves to. Im from Tampa so it was never to cold to grill and a day rarely passed, rain or shine, that my dad wasnt out grilling something. I actually thought it was normal to grill everything, and I mean everything, until I was about 13. Fruits, vegetables, meat, you name it, my dad grilled it. Because I enjoy grilling so much I have decided to let you know exactly what the art of grilling is. Today Im going to discuss three topics, types of grills, types of food to grill, and to finish it off, some basic grilling techniques. The definition of grilling is cooking an ingredient over high heat, on a metal grill. On the grill food is cooked quickly because of the heat coming from a gas, electric, charcoal, or wood heat source. The first way to grill I will discuss is by using the wood grill. Wood grills are the oldest and most primitive way of cooking. Today wood grills are obviously more advanced than the one used by people hundreds of years ago, but the heat source is still the same, burning wood. Although charcoal and gas grills are more commonly used these days, wood grills are still thought of as a great heat source because it perfumes the grilled item with a smoky flavor. Experienced wood grillers' advice is to make sure to let the wood burn down in to embers before cooking, because grilling on an open flame will easily burn the food. According to the Culinary Education Center website, The best kind of wood to use when using a wood grill is hardwoods, such as fruit wood, hickory, or mesquite. The next types of grill I will be talking about are electric and gas grills. These two are usually grouped together because they are the easiest to use. Lighting them is as simple as pushing a button or flipping a switch. Also, unlike wood and charcoal grills, these grills keep a steady heat across the grilling surface. In the past, gas grills were always used more because of the electric grills inability to reach a high heat. Within the last couple years electric grills popularity has risen because of their new ability to reach and sustain a high heat and because they are considered safer in a home environment. These two types of grills are definitely the quickest way to cook dinner. The last type of grill I want to tell you about is the charcoal grill. Charcoal grills used to be the most common grill used in family homes, but as the electric and gas grills became more popular charcoal grills are now mostly used on camping trips or picnics. In addition to the other grills being safer, there is also a hassle in lighting charcoal grills. According to an article on the website of Learning the Art of Grilling at Home, charcoal grilling is cheaper but more troublesome to light and keep at a steady temperature. It takes 30- 45 minutes after lighting the charcoal until you can actually cook on it. Personally, charcoal grilling is my favorite because in my opinion it makes the food taste better. Unfortunately, because of the hassle that goes along with a charcoal grill, they are now a dying trend. Now that we have the three types of grills out of the way lets move on to what you can actually cook on them. The best types of foods to cook on a grill are red meat, poultry, vegetables, fish, and fruit. When choosing a red meat to grill you should try to get the most tender cut of meat, such as a filet or strip because on a grill there isnt enough time for the meat to tenderize by themselves. Another type of food to cook on the grill is chicken. Chicken is the most grilled items in households across the US. When cooking chicken, leaving the skin on will prevent the chicken from drying out and will also taste great when its finished. If you are cooking a skinless chicken breast you will need to be more careful because it is very easy to overcook them and dry the piece out. The same goes for fish. Fish tastes great on the grill but overcooking it will cause it to be dry and not taste very good. Vegetables such as squash, mushrooms, and peppers are also great. After a dip in oil, and some salt and pepper you will be amazed at how good they taste right off the grill. The last food that I will suggest cooking may surprise you. Fruits such as apples and pears are great after being thrown on the grill. All they need is just a little warm-up on the grill and it will completely enhance the flavors of the fruit. The taste will really surprise you. Ok, the last thing Im going tell you about today are some basic grilling techniques. First, you want to turn the grill on and turn the temperature to high, make sure the grill is hot. The Culinary Education Center says if the grill is not hot, it will be hard to develop the caramelized, smoky flavors of a properly grilled meat. Also, if the grill isnt hot the food youre cooking will stick to the grilling surface. After making sure the grill is hot you will want to clean off the grill surface with a wire brush. This cleans off any old pieces of food left on the grill. Finally you can now toss the food of your choice on. Barbeque N on the Internet says the goal of perfect grilling is to give the item delicious, brown grill marks on both sides, while making sure the item comes off the grill at jus the right amount of doneness. Today I hope I taught you a little bit about grilling that you didnt know before. I also hope you can now understand my weird obsession with grilling. An article I read in The Sun Valley Guide for Grilling said it best, food cooked over a fire, simply tastes better.

The labour cost advantage and china

The labour cost advantage and china Introduction China has an emerging economy and therefore, produces many products. On the European market, there is a large demand for these products. China has relatively low production costs, which makes China an interesting country to import from. Chinese wages have risen sharply with globalization, average wages in China have increased every year since 1978. The average wage in urban areas was 21.000 Yuan in 2006, which is four times higher than the average wage in 1995. How will the wages develop in China? The question for this research is: Has China the labour cost advantage? Content Has China the labour cost advantage? 1 Introduction 2 Content 2 Offshoring in general 3 Why are companies outsourcing to China? 3 Employment in China 4 What was Chinas economic reason to enter the WTO? 4 How have wages been developed in China? 6 Wages by Ownership 7 Wages by Region 9 Wages by Sector 10 Wages compared with other countries in Asia 11 Has China the labour cost advantage? 12 Bibliography 13 Offshoring in general Offshoring is defined as the movement of a business process done at a company in one country to the same, or another company, in another country. Most of the movements to lower-costs destinations take place in the own management. Outsourcing is the movement of an internal business process to an external company in the same country and the movement of an internal business process to an external company in another country. Offshore outsourcing occurs most often.  [1]   Why are companies outsourcing to China? There are different reasons why companies outsource to China, but some of these reasons are similar. Several reasons for outsourcing to China are  [2]  : Cheap Labour: China offers savings up to five times compared to the U.S. The labour costs in China are 50 percent lower than in India. Labialization of laws and government policies: Government has passed laws which protect private ownership and intellectual property in the country. It has also embraced public/private partnerships and domestic/foreign partnerships. Existence of offshore manufacturing and physical proximity to major markets: China is the manufacturing plant of the world, which provides sound base for outsourcing, strengthened by risk mitigation and greater stability. Employment in China Although China is still a developing country with a relatively low average income, it has a tremendous economic growth since the seventies (9.1 percent in 2004). This can be related to a great extent of an economic liberalising policy. The Gross National Product raised with 400 percent between 1978 and 1998 and the international investments grew tremendous during the nineties. The agriculture is by far the most important sector. Figures of 2007 show that 41 percent of the total population of China is employed in this sector. Nevertheless, the agricultural land limits to around 11 percent of the total Chinese land surface. Since the seventies, the agriculture is privatised, which yield a tremendous production growth. Figure 1: Economic growth, percentage per year  [1]  4 What was Chinas economic reason to enter the WTO? Joining the WTO is a very important event for the development of China at the beginning of the 21st century. WTO membership opens up Chinas market for more international trade and investment, and opens up the world economy for Chinas exports. Some researchers see it as a positive force for Chinas economic development while others are concerned that the competition of foreign imports and foreign enterprises in China might destroy important domestic enterprises in Chinas agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors. The main motivation of Premier Zhu Rongji in promoting Chinas entry into the WTO was to use foreign competition to speed up economic reform in both the industrial and service sectors. In the late 1990s, reform in both sectors was slow due to the inertia coming from vested interests of a group of formerly appointed managers holding on their positions.  [3]   How have wages been developed in China? Average wages have increased every year since 1978. In 2006, the average wage in urban areas in was 21.000 Yuan, which is four times higher than the average wage in 1995. However, as wage levels increased, so did discrepancies between different sectors, types of ownership and regions. In general, average wages were higher in share-holding, foreign-owned and state-owned enterprises, and were lowest in locally funded enterprises, with wages in enterprises owned by Hong Kong and Taiwanese businesses in the middle. A more significant gap emerged between different occupations and industrial sectors, and especially between low-skilled and high-skilled workers.   In 2006, the average wage of employees in primary industries was only 786 Yuan, which is a quarter of the average wage of employees working in financial services (3.273 Yuan) and one-fifth of those working in the computer industry (3.730 Yuan). Wages by Ownership Between 1995 and 2007, the average annual wage for employees grew more than four times, from 5.600 Yuan to 22.700 Yuan. Figure 2 shows the average annual wages of staff and workers by type of ownership from 1995 until 2007. In China, there were three periods of wage reform. The first period of reform started around 1985. Before this year the average wage growth was around 4.9 percent per year. In the period 1986 until 1997, employment in jointly owned enterprises experienced a tremendous growth. The average wage growth per year was still quite low, with an average of 3.9 percent, which was partly due to a negative growth in 1988 and 1989 (because of inflation and political upheaval). The third period was from 1997 until 2007. From 1999 on, the average wages were rising rapidly with an average of 14 percent per year. This could be because of Chinas preparation for getting into the WTO, as well as the restructuring of state-owned enterprises which started in 1998. Wages in the state sector began to increase in the late 1990s, reaching 14.358 Yuan in 2003, surpassing private sector wages by a narrow margin for the first time since reform began. By 2007, the average wage in the state sector was about 11 percent higher than in the private sector. The state-owned sector has been restructured in the 1990s. In the planned economy, they had low productivity, disguised unemployment (because of Chinas political function of maintaining low unemployment) and limited profits. They had a wage system which was dependent on seniority. In the 1990s, the Chinese government would not include the losses of their enterprises. This is why they began with restructuring. They started by allowing privatisation of small and medium state-owned companies. After that, the government started with a more aggressive restructuring. The objective was to shut down loss-making companies and establish modern forms of corporate governance. These reforms led to many layoffs in state-owned companies. From 1996 to 2002, around 40 million employees were laid off. As can be seen in figure 3, the Chinese government succeeded in downsizing the employees and the productivity in the state-owned sector increased. Figure 2: Annual wages of staff and workers by type of ownership in thousand Yuan Source: China Statistical Yearbook Figure 3: Employment share and labour productivity for state owned enterprises Source: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/workingpapers.cfm?pdf=E-0024-07-WP Wages by Region Figure 4 shows the annual wage of employees divided in different regions in China. The 30 provinces are divided by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in six regions: Bohai (Beijing and surrounding provinces), Southeast (including Shanghai, Guangdong and other coastal provinces), Northeast, Central, Southwest and Northwest China. Tibet is not listed, since there is limited information about this region. Figure 3 presents the real annual wage of employees across the six regions in China, showing the different wage patterns. During the first period of reform, the average wages were grouped. Later on, the wages in the South-eastern and Bohai regions began to rise. As can be seen in figure 4, the wages in the South-eastern and the Bohai regions now have the highest average wages. The difference between these two regions and the other four regions is around 30 to 40 percent. The highest growth in the past 20 years has occurred in the South-eastern and the Bohai regions, the coastal areas where cities as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen are located. Figure 4: Annual wages by Region in thousand Yuan (Source: China Statistical Yearbook) Wages by Sector The wages by sector have about the same pattern as the wages by regions. In figure 5 the wages across sectors are showed. Remarkable is that the wages across sectors stayed clustered until 1993. After 1993, the average wages for Banking Insurance, Scientific research Polytechnic service increased rapidly. These two sectors are both sectors with skill intensive labour. To make a comparison between the skill intensive sectors and the other sectors (unskilled sectors), the average wage in the construction sector was 5.729 Yuan in 1990, about 14 percent higher than the average wage for the banking Insurance sector. In 2007, the Banking Insurance sector had an average wage of 50.000 Yuan, around 265 percent higher than the wages in the Construction sector. People believed that manufacturing wages grew the fastest because of the increasing volume of exports in China. Actually, these wages grew even below the national average, although manufactured products counted for more than 90 percent of Chinas export. Figure 5: Annual wages by sector in thousand Yuan (Source: China Statistical Yearbook) Wages compared with other countries in Asia Figure 6 shows the manufacturing wages of different Asian countries from 1979 to 2007. The wages of China are comparable with the Philippines and Thailand, plausible is that the wages of Malaysia are much higher than the other countries listed. Figure 6: Annual Manufacturing wages between several Asian countries in USD Source: International Labour Organization Has China the labour cost advantage? Wages have been developed. However, there are differences between skilled and unskilled labour. The wages for skilled labour increased rapidly the past decade. (see page 10)Wages for unskilled labour still remains quite low compared to the skilled intensive sectors. Reasons for the wage growth of unskilled workers are the GDP growth of more than 10 percent per year, and the export growth of almost 30 percent per year since China became part of the WTO in 2001. In contrast to this, employment in manufacturing has increased with 3 percent in recent years. Compared to other developing countries in Asia, China still have the lowest wages on average. However, wages in China have developed rapidly since the late 1990s. Another factor is the large supply of graduated students over the past several years. Due to an increasing demand in skilled labour, the Chinese government expanded the enrolment of students in the late 1990s. In 1998, the total number of admitted students was around 1.08 million, a number that increased to 2.68 million in 2001. This could prevent a rapid increase of the wages in the future.

Images of Life and Death in Bavarian Gentians Essay -- Bavarian Gentia

Images of Life and Death in Bavarian Gentians    As the last few days of summer fade away, and September's end brings promises of a cold, sad autumn, the feast of Michaelmas has come and gone, and one can not help but be reminded of D. H. Lawrence's "Bavarian Gentians," a poem that commences by reminiscing of the sad days at the end of September, when summer has finally departed along with its intoxicating and life-giving breath.   Like the days that separate summer from autumn, Lawrence's poem, one of his last, is a sad and dreamy read.   It seduces audiences with its slow dance with blue death.   It speaks to students with its melancholic passion.   It breathes life into the last days before death. A death that comes from tuberculosis is never sudden.   The disease progresses slowly until it gradually overcomes its victim, who must wait with a tragic patience for that final moment.   At the end of The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann speaks parting words to his protagonist that speak for the ravages of TB and its almost inevitable force, "The wicked dance in which you are caught up will last many a sinful year yet, and we would not wager much that you will come out whole."  Ã‚   As a longtime sufferer of TB, Lawrence too was caught up in a "wicked dance," one that must have caused him, like the speaker in the poem, to feel like he was guiding himself "...with the blue, forked torch of this flower / down the darker and darker stairs..." until he finally reached his destination, the "sightless realm where darkness is awake upon dark."   Ã‚  The poem itself is a complex web, a trance like dream that suggests both a gravitation toward death and a transcendence beyond it.   The speaker speaks of "the halls of Dis" and of travelling down where ... ...Chapter 7:   Prosperine - Glaucus and Scylla."   Oct. 2001. http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull7.html   Ã‚   Ferris, T.   "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence."   Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm Lawrence, line 16.    Lawrence lines 17-18.    Lawrence, line 14, line 2.    Lawrence, line 13.    Lawrence, line 11.    This portion of the later version, along with the second stanza, can be found at: Ferris, T.   "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence."   Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm. The complete poem, however, can not be found there.   Ã‚   Ferris, T.   "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence."   Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm.   Ã‚   Ferris, T.   "Bavarian Gentians by D.H. Lawrence."   Oct. 2001. http://home.earthlink.net/~rudedog2/bavarianpoem.htm.

Antigone :: essays research papers

In our society today, movies and television shows are being broadcast all over the world to many genders, races, and ages. Some of these shows involve many violent topics and situations. For example, the news qualifies as a violent shows because three fourths of every broadcast involves a violent situation. The next generation of adults is exposed to this violence everyday, thinking it’s cool or acceptable. I think that if teenagers witness the violent actions in person they would react differently than seeing them on TV. The violent scenes in Antigone are much like crimes that occur everyday. For example, a gang related crime can be compared to one of the many deaths in Antigone. The public views these crimes as normal. Most often violence in the news is ignored or called normal. If more people witnessed violence then maybe more actions would be taken to stop it from happening. I think the violence told in Antigone was very low-key compared to the things we see today on the news. Today, our society likes to take time off to relax and watch a movie. Do you think it’s relaxing to watch people die and constantly be injured? Well most of the movies out today are violent. Even thought here are strict rating rules put on these movies, children are still seeing them. For example, The Power Rangers Movie. In this movie, five teenagers take on the roles of fighters. When kids view this PG rated movie they see how cool it is to kill other creatures and human beings. About three weeks after this movie was released in Chicago, two kids were playing power rangers; they decided to take the game a step further by involving pencils used as swords. This game ended with one of the two kids with serious incisions from the pencil. This situation could have easily been avoided if some of these movies were not so violently oriented.

Software Development Outsourcing

Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided in-house. Nowadays, outsourcing is a trend in a competitive software development and it is expanding all over the world. Software development is very much suitable for the better working of a company. This means that another company is hired to do the task of software development. Outsourcing the software development projects can be advantageous, but sometimes if it is incorrectly executed, it can result to unusable projects. In this article, let's see some of its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of Software Development Outsourcing: Cost efficiency – companies don't have to worry about buying expensive software and hardware. Software development technology indulge it. Lower Training cost – it is very expensive thing to give trainings to the new employees. Normally, three or more days are consumed. So, by hiring services from a software outsourcing company, the time and efforts are saved. Time – due to strict time line of some software projects, it is become required to outsource a component of software development projects in order to meet the time demand of the projects. Software companies take credit of immediate pool of skilled developers. Skills – in a situation like software companies outsource, sometimes need a skilled personnel for software development technologies. The disadvantages of Software Development Outsourcing: Disappointment – companies can produce code of a poor quality. It involves here who will be the responsible for maintaining the code or project. Need of Constant Management – one of the main reason why projects fail because there is no good manager. A leader who is in constant communication to the clients and also understands the needs or requirements of the clients. Testing is more difficult – generally, testing phase is the most difficult stage in system's development life cycle. You will undergo more testing cases. If you test a piece of software that was developed in an offshore in-house and find a problem, so there's a need to communicate to the offshore vendor. This could cause problems because the offshore vendor might not be able to propagate the problem. It could possibly easy to fix the problem if they could see the machine. Or maybe the problem is not properly communicated. These are the different advantages and disadvantages of software development outsourcing.