Managed health care future for the disabled and poor Essay

Managed health care future for the disabled and poor - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is managed health care as delivering health care in an integrated system and in an organized manner. The main goals of managed health care are to enhance the clinical quality of the medical services, to enhance the client and social service element of health care, and to minimize the costs of distributing quality health care. Managed care is a structured approach to purchasing and getting the right service for a particular health need. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and physician hospital organizations (PHOs) are forms of managed care. Managed care and in particular, the health maintenance organizations became popular as a way of enhancing care and minimizing unnecessary services. However, towards the end of 1990s, the consumer backlash resulted in the abandonment of the firmly controlled care management systems. Quality is â€Å"now the watchword for 21st century healthcare as the institutions and individuals who pay for services begin to focus on what they are getting for their money†. In other words, individuals demand for quality health care because they are paying for it. There is still no consensus as to who should be accountable for the provision and financing of the health care services in the United States. This has resulted in a patchwork system in which the individuals, employers, and the government all assist in covering up the expenses. For a while, the government has assumed the mandate of providing health insurance to particular deserving populations (such as some poor people, children, disabled, and other older persons) but it has generally shunned financing care for the working adults (Earp, French, and Gilkey, 2008). Instead, majority of the working adults get insurance either through buying coverage on their own or through their employers, or they go without the cover. It is important to note that there is no single unifying system offering the system s. The health services are offered directly by private providers, organizations supported by state or federal funding, and governmental organizations (like the public health). Health care services are provided by both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations (Earp, French, and Gilkey, 2008). Managed care imposes quality measurement, accountability, controls, and organization in the delivery of health care to attain the buyer’s aims for access to cost of care, effectiveness of care, care, and quality of care. The introduction and growth of managed care strategies have influenced the general health care organization. They have begun to alter the delivery of publicly and privately health care (National Research Council, 1997). Provider Contracting The aim of a managed care organization is to offer or organize for the health care services provision. Majority of the managed care organizations like the preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and the health maintenance organizati ons (HMOs) offer their services through agreements with medical groups, individual physicians, hospitals, individual practice associations (IPAs) and other kinds of health care facilities and

Gothic Style Architecture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gothic Style Architecture - Research Paper Example (White, 1993) The style is considered to be classical to some extent because it is prominent before the renaissance period came in. At the same time, it originated and had several modifications that were derived from the Romanesque Architecture. (Athena Publications, 1996) This style flourished during the Middle Ages, also known as Dark Ages. The most prominent and influential powers are the Church and the King. Feudal System flourished as well. In most cases, religion has a strong say about what happens in the society back then. However, Gothic period is also reflective of the low status of art during those times. (Thomas, 2000) Most of the Tribes of Goths, Vandals and the like had an intention of eliminating the Greco-Roman culture. (Thomas, 2000) Gothic Architecture was preceded by the Romanesque Architectural which also had arches and several huge domes. To some perspective, the Romanesque style influenced the way Gothic architecture presented itself in history. Mostly, the Roman esque Architecture had its traditions and conventions derived from the Greco-Roman Architectural style. (Athena Publications, 1996) Given that case, we cannot fully consider Gothic art and architecture as something that is highly valued. It’s dark stigma and stereotype manifests the dark period where it is confined and existed. However, despite of its depreciation from the people during that period, specifically the tribes, this downfall period is reflective of the exchange of light and dark art periods: Classical to Renaissance then to Baroque. (Thomas, 2000) Classical is more of dark, emotional themes and style in contrast to Renaissance which is more humanist and scientific. The Baroque which also values shadow and emotions are somehow related to the dark style the perpetrated the Classical or Gothic art and architecture period. What ultimately constitutes the conventions and technical aspects of the Gothic Architectural design? The Gothic Architecture is commonly known to have â€Å"specific structural elements, such as ribbed vaults, pointed arches, and the flying buttress.† (Kidson, 2011) Ribbed Vaults showed the ceiling structure that is somehow seen like a dome on the inside with intricate designs that are supported by the columns. (Athena Publications, 1996) These vaults provided a spacious ceiling that made the Gothic buildings spacious and huge not just outside but also inside. The pointed arches, on the other hand, are viewed on the external of these buildings. On the bare minimum, these arches contributed to the spacious appearance that is working in unison with the vaulted arches on the inside. At the same the arches also reflected the extravagance of the Gothic architecture. The flying buttresses have provided a different role in the existence of the Gothic Architecture. They are actually supporting the other structures of the Gothic Church, mainly the vault. (Athena Publications, 1996) They are usually attached to walls and act as a support to the vaults of the Gothic buildings. To some extent, they provide more spacious ceiling appearance. Even if Gothic Architecture has a certain specific style, several styles of it emanated depending on a specific geographical domain. All of them are relatively the same, however, the French, Italian and English Gothic Architectural design asserted their own identity. France is considered to be the birthplace of this architectural movement. At the same time, there was a strong

Saudi Arabia's political future in the region Research Paper

Saudi Arabia's political future in the region - Research Paper Example There have been a number of uprisings which in actual fact led to the brining down of 3 Arab leaders, whereas others have been threatened and introduced to a whole new historic period of transformation (Agence France Press 56). These events painted one of the significant features of modern Arab societies which include their huge and growing youth populations. Studies have been undertaken from time to time, indicating the extent which the youth in Arab countries influence the political, social and economic future of the Arab countries (Alexander 87). This is what forms basis in this paper, Saudi Arabia’s Political future in the region. On the other hand, the events of the precedent historical developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Morocco and even Oman highlight the advancing position of the youth in shaping the future of this region (Alexander 96). It is therefore evident that Saudi Arabia is facing the Arab Awakening which is strong enough to shift the regions political central force from an old generation of dictators to a new and young generation of democratic leaders. And without warning, the youth of Saudi Arabia are in the fore front more than willing to shape and change the political future of their own country. It is evident that the young people and the entire population of old people in Saudi express a lot of patriotism for King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz for the reason that he is largely perceived as a religious, compassionately and a person who has good interests for the people of Saudi at heart (Schanzer 111). A large number of King Abdulaziz subjects show admiration to his reformist standpoint for instance in various fields like education and the rights of women. Whereas the good regards may not go further than to everybody in the administrative royal family, the political framework of Saudi obtains prevalent and well known authority among Saudis which includes the youth. In March 2011, a call on social media for Saudiâ⠂¬â„¢s â€Å"Day of Rage† was evident. As a matter of fact, this occurred several weeks subsequent to the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had been thrown out and anxiety in the region was becoming apparent (Alexander 96). However, on the day that the rage was to take center stage, journalists in Riyadh were able to capture only one protestor in the town of five million people. In the real sense there are a number of reasons behind this evident change of mind or lack of interest in the rage anymore. Firstly, there was an intensive police presence which entailed use of helicopters in the Riyadh streets that particular day. Secondly, the government is known to deal severely with those who resist its injunctions or go against/criticize its rules further subjecting them to illogical arrest and long-serving detention (Lynch 43). For instance the â€Å"Day of Rage’s single protester, a forty year old teacher Khalid Al Johani was put to detention moments subsequent to his pu blic declaration to journalists that Saudi Arabia is a â€Å"police state†. Several months soon after, Al Johani was jailed with no charges 4 months (Lynch 43). On the other hand a cluster of a dozen reformist and activists in Jeddah who were deliberating on coming up with a political party, that is prohibited in the Kingdom, were lately sentenced to long serving prison terms of up to thirty years subsequent to undisclosed trial charges,

Key Elements Of Information System Information Technology Essay

Key Elements Of Information System Information Technology Essay The task has been assigned to me by my college which is the ABP awarding body certification requirement. I have completed the assignment after a thorough study of various sources such as books, journals and websites. OBJECTIVES: Describe the concept of Information Based System in organization. Describe how Information System works in organization. Describe the various types of Information Systems by breath of support. Identify the major Informational Systems that support each organisational level. Literature Review: 1) Information: Any raw data that is organized and verified to be accurate and timely for any purpose and presented within a context that gave it meaning and relevance and it leads to increase in understanding and decrease uncertainty. 1.1) Information System: When people utilize information or organizations by using technologies gather, process, store, use and disseminate information uses. Information System (IS) is a system that gave the information necessary for managers and management to run an organization effectively. IS and the information it gives are essential components of reasonable business decisions. Information industries help in providing growth in most economies of business. Every organization achieved it success on the bases of there information system. Due to change in technology and globalization of markets many industries are now trying to develop and improve there information system because they emphasizes on there information. Information system is not just a computer system but information and communication technology play a vital role in helping the organization to fulfill it needs. Information system refers to the system of people, data and activities both computer-based and manual that effectively gathers, process store and disseminate organization information. It is important to maintain the information system in organization and adopt new approaches for improvement in the development, use and reviews of IS system with in the organization must be an ongoing process of both bank management and OCC examiners. Every IS have clearly defined framework of guidelines, procedures policies and standards for different organizations. It should be fallowed by any organization for the development of its system and also to maintain and use all information where it necessary. Information System is used and viewed by all Management Levels. It helps the organization and supports them in long term strategic goals and objectives. It helps in financial accounting systems that are used to maintained control on all financial record keeping activities. Every organization should designed there Information System to achieve the following goals. Improve communication among employees. Deliver all complex and important material through out the institution. Provide a system for recording and processing information. Reduce all expanses related to labor, material and other activities. Help in achieving organization strategic goals and objective and provide direction. Organization a) Customers b) Retailers c) Employers Technology Websites Internets Collaborative Planning softwareà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s Management a) Develop growth b) Strategy c) Monitor services d) Level and cost Information System a) Customize Products b) Interact with customer c) Exchange ideas and reports d) Coordinate production with sales Business Solutions Increase customer services Increase revenues Reduce cost Business Challenges Mature Industry Inefficient Process Information System provides help and facts for decision making which support and improves overall decision making process. Information System also improves job performance through out the organization. It also provides help to all level of management. It gives the data and information and helps the management in making strategic decisions. It helps the organization in all activities to monitor, control and distributes information to all employees, customers. Effective Information system gives up-to-date presentation formats and time frames required by all management levels. Information System can be maintained manual or automated or both combine. Effective deliveries of an organization products and services are supported by Information system. These systems be accessible and used at all level of management and organization. Information System is also helpful in over all risk management strategy. Information system also help the organization to keep control, measure, monitor, recognize and manages all the activates, risk and Limits. Risk Management has four key elements. Policies or practices. Operational Processes Staff Management. Feed back Devices. Information system should be both operational and informational. So that management can use it to measure performance, manage resources and help organization with regulatory requirements. Information system also used to provide effective risk control which helps to maintain proper management and minimize risk through the organization. it also help the organization to make new policies help in practicing these policies provide up to date information in all operational process also help in making assignments duties and responsibilities for staff and managers. Data used in organization come from many finical records and transaction systems and proper control procedures must be setup to help in gathering relevant data and also help in correction of data. Information system organized and the data is gathered from different equipments i.e mainframes, microcomputer, minicomputer. Processing control help the system on smaller computer and pre defined and also effective as those commonly found on the larger mainframe system. The OCC fully endorses and supports placing these principles in writing to improve effective communications throughout the organization. Improving Weakness of Information System Risk. 1.2) Key Elements of Information System: To work properly and effectively the five key elements should be checked and functioned are: time lines, accuracy, consistency, completeness and relevance. Timeliness: Information system should be capable of providing distributing information to right users. Information system is capable of providing short and long reports of information. Information system also helps in processing, collecting and producing results from data. It also help in making correction, adjustments in errors found in data. Accuracy: Information System provides control checks in editing balancing. All the external internal audit programs done by organization provides the adequacy of internal control. Consistency: All the data should be process consistently and uniformly. Variations in data be collected and reported to information analyst. Because data collection and reporting process change over time management must establish procedures to allow systems changes. All the procedures should be documented, willdefind and clearly communicated to all related employees and should include proper effective monitoring system. Completeness: All the data and information provided by information system to management level should be complete and checked by all accepts. Relevance: All the information must be relevant to organization objectives and strategies. Information that is unnecessary or too detailed should be sorted out. 2) Information System as Bridge: Information system provides us bridge between management information science and computer science. Computer science provides information technology software. Information system brings all human activities and information technology to one place and it provides communication link between these two worlds. The system well serves the people and organization by using all the IT capabilities. To run this system properly it requires specialist people having knowledge of both computer world and organization and the people who using these systems. All the system should work with in the contexts of organization, management and the information society. To build a bridge like this between the information organization and people we need skills in programming, computer architecture and networks. Also we need techniques for information system analysis design by using all advance data base design methods and related professional and legal knowledge. 3) Level Types of Information Systems: Every business has different information system needs. It also depends upon different levels in organization. Three key information systems are Transaction processing system Management Information System Decision Support Systems The importance of information is different on different level of management. The information can categorise as strategic, managerial and operational information. The information used by senior management for decision making is Strategic information. The lower levels in the organization do not require this information. The information systems that gave information for decision is known as Decision Support Systems. Figure Relation of information systems to levels of organization The information used by the middle line of management is known as managerial information. The information used by middle line management help in making short-term decisions and plans for the organization. Information likes sales analysis or production details for the whole year. Information system is now days the necessity of all organizations to fulfil all the managerial activates. Due to its Importance, most of the big organizations have separate IS departments. Whose duty is to watch the use and proper functioning of the system. For daily and short term information we need third level of information. It help the operational level to carry out day to day operational activates. it also help in attendance record of employees. Information System gives information for processing transaction of the organization, that type of information system is known as Transaction Processing System or Data Processing System. For example information provided by such systems are processing of orders, evaluating overdue purchaser orders of marketing and sales departments.. 3. a) Transaction Processing Systems: Transaction Processing System the organization in there business transaction process. Any activity of the organizations can be called Transaction. Every organization has different transaction. For example, take a airline reservation system. Booking, cancelling, etc are all transactions. However, there are some transactions, which are common to almost all organizations. These include calculation, storage and retrieval. Speed and accuracy, can be achieved by TPS and can be programmed to follow routines functions of the organization. 3. b) Information System: Management takes help in solving problems and making decisions from it. They use transaction processing information and all relevant information also. It process queries as quickly as they arrive. An important element of IS is database. A database is a collection of data items that can be processed through application programs and available to many users. 3. c) Decision Support System: These systems help senior management in making long term decisions. With the help of this systems we can handle unstructured or semi structured both decisions. A decision will be unstructured if there are no clear procedures for making the decision. A decision support system must be easy to operate and also it should be flexible for all users so that they can produce reports by giving data and it should be format according to the situation explained. 4) Level of Management System: 4 .a) Operational-level Management System: This system helps the operational managers by keeping track of the all necessary activities and transactions of the organization. This system is answerable for the routine questions. It provides help in sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions, and flow of materials. 4 .b) Knowledge-level Management System: Support knowledge and data workers in an organisation. The reason of these systems is to help the organisation discover, organise and integrate new and existing knowledge in to the business, and to help control the flow of paperwork. These systems, especially in the form of collaboration tools, workstations, and office systems, are the fastest growing applications in business today. 4 .c) Management-level Systems: At this level it helps in monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities of middle managers. We can get periodic reports rather then information on operation. it also helps in non-routine decision-making, focusing on less-structured decisions for which information requirements are not always clear. 4 .d) Strategic-level Management System: Help senior management how to keep control and tack actions on strategic issues and long-term trends, wither it in the organization or related to external environment. Main reason is to use organisational capability with the changes, and opportunities, occurring in the medium to long term in the external environment. An organisation must have operational, knowledge, management and strategic level systems for each functional area within the organisation. This would be based on the management model adopted by the organisation, so, while the most commonly-adopted systems structure would simply follow the standard functional model, structures reflecting bureaucratic, product and matrix models are also possible. As identified before, enterprise level information systems attempt to encompass the whole organisation in one system. Type of systems Executive support System (ESS) Strategic- Level System 5 years Sales trend forecasting 5 years Operation Plan 5 years Budget forecasting Profit Planning Man power Planning Management Information system (MIS) Decision Support System (DSS) Management Level System Sales Management Inventory control Annual Budgeting Capital investment Analysis Relocation analysis Salas region Analysis Production Scheduling Cost analysis Pricing/Profitability Analysis Contract cost Analysing Knowledge work system (KWS) Office Automation System (OAS) Knowledge Level System Engineering Workstation Graphic work station Managerial Workstation Word Processing Document Imaging Electronic Calendar Transaction processing System (TPS) Operation Level System Machine Control Security Trading Payroll Compensation Order Tracking Plant Scheduling Acc Payable Training Development Order Processing Material Movement Control Cash Management Acc Receivable Employee record Keeping Sales marketing Manufacturing Finance Accounting Human Resource Characteristic Of Information Processing System Type of System Information Inputs Processing Information Outputs Users ESS Aggregate data: Internal, external Graphics; simulations; interactive Projections; responses to queries Senior managers DSS Low Volume data or massive database optimised for data analysis; analytic models and data tools Interactive; simulations, analysis Special reports; decision analysis response to queries Professionals; staff Manager MIS Summary transaction data; high-volume data; simple models Routine reports; Simple models; low-level analysis Summary exception reports Middle managers KWS Design specifications Knowledge base Modelling; simulations Models; graphics Professionals Technical staff OAS Documents Schedules |Document management; Scheduling Communication Documents; schedules; mails Clerical Workers TPS Transactions events Sorting; Listing; Merging; Updating Detailed reports; lists; summaries Operations personnel supervisors 5) Working of Management Systems 5.a) Operational-level Management Transaction-Processing Systems: Basic business system Perform daily routine transactions necessary for business functions. All the tasks, resources and goals are highly structured at operational level. Generally, five functional categories are identified, as shown in the diagram. Type of TPS System Sales/Marketing System Manufacturing/Production Systems Finance/Accounting system Human Resource System Other Types(e.g. , University) Major Functions of System Sales Management Market research Promotion Pricing New Products Scheduling Purchasing Shipping/receiving Engineering Operations Budgeting General Ledger Billing Cost accounting Personal records Benefits Compensation Labour relations Training Admissions Grade records Course records Alumni Major application Systems Sales order information system Market research system Pricing system Materials resource Planning systems Purchase order Control Systems Engineering Systems Quality Control System General ledger Acc Receivables/Payable Budgeting Funds management systems Payroll Employee records Benefit system Career Path system Registration System, Student Transcript System, Curriculum Class control System, Alumni benefactor system 5 .b) Knowledge-level Management Office Automation Systems: Targeted at meeting the knowledge needs of data workers within the organisation Data workers tend to process rather than create information. Primarily involved in information use, manipulation or dissemination. Typical OAS handle and manage documents, scheduling and communication. Knowledge Work Systems: Targeted at meeting the knowledge needs of knowledge workers within the organisation In general, knowledge workers hold degree-level professional qualifications (e.g. engineers, scientists, lawyers), their jobs consist primarily in creating new information and knowledge 5 .c) Management-level Systems Management Information Systems: Typically these systems focus entirely on internal events, providing the information for short-term planning and decision making. MIS summarise and report on the basic operations of the organisation, dependent on the underlying TPS for their data. Transaction Processing System Order file Production Master File Accounting File Order processing System Material resource planning system Genera Ledger System Management Information System Manager MIS Files Sales Data Unit Product Cost |Data Product Change Data Expanses Data MIS Report 5 .d) Strategic-level Management Decision-Support Systems: As MIS, these serve the needs of the management level of the organisation Focus on helping managers make decisions that are semi-structured, unique, or rapidly changing, and not easily specified in advance Use internal information from TPS and MIS, but also information from external sources Must provide user-friendly, interactive tools. Fuel consumption cost file Port Expenses File Ship Charter Hire History Cost File Port distance Restriction File Ship File (e.g speed capacity) Analytical Model Data Base PC Graphics Reports Executive Support Information Systems: Serve the strategic level of the organisation It provides generalised computing and communications environment, rather than providing any fixed application or specific capability. Such systems are not designed to solve specific problems, but to tackle a changing array of problems It is structured to incorporate data about external events, such as new tax laws or competitors, and also draw summarised information from internal MIS and DSS These systems filter, compress, and track critical data, emphasising the reduction of time and effort required to obtain information useful to executive management It employ advanced graphics software to provide highly visual and easy-to-use representations of complex information and current trends, but they tend not to provide analytical models Knowledge System (KW|S OAS) Management System (MIS) Transaction Processing System (TPS) Management System (DSS) Executive Support System (ESS) Inter-relationships and inter-dependencies between IS types Success Story of one of organization (Air Asia) Using Information System Air Asia Airline Company that entered a formerly hunting market with great success. Ticket less travel Automation with IT Reduced costs Improved service Air Asia developed open skies software to automate ticket handling to Avoids travel agents and their fees Uses reservation agents who work from home using VoIP Encourages internet flight booking by customers Maintenance information system used to log airplane parts and time cycles for replacement Air Asia used innovative technique for routing airplanes Does not use hub and spokes method only point to point. Takes most profitable route between cities. Keeping flight manuals on laptop computers allows for paperless cockpits. Saves pre-flight time associated with calculating weight of plane (annual savings of 4800 hours). Information System Helps Air Asia offer Better Services. Safety First: Partnering with worldà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s most renowned maintenance providers and complying with the world airline operations. High Aircraft Utilization: Implementing the regions fastest turn around time at only 25 minutes, assuring lower costs and higher productivity. Low Fare, No Frills: Providing guests with the choice of customizing services without compromising on quality and services. Streamline operations: Making sure that processes are as simple as possible. Point-to-Point Network: Applying the point-to-point network keeps operations simple and cost low. 7) Conclusions: Every organization run on it strategies. And strategies make by management on the basis of the information they have. So I think if the organization have strong information system and it have up-to-date information then the strategies which they are going to make for future will be perfect and it will gave the organization competitive edge in market and on it competitors

Norma Rae Essays -- Labor Analysis Film Movie Rae Essays

Norma Rae   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This film is based on the real life story of Crystal Lee Sutton and her involvement with Ruben Warshovsky and the organization of the textile workers at the J.P. Stevens Company in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina (Labor Films). Sally Field plays the lead role of Norma Rae (Crystal Lee Sutton) fighting poor working conditions at O. P. Henley Company in 1978. This company is a southern textile mill, working with a union organizer to overcome pressure from management, implied dangers, and the struggle to organize her fellow employees. Although, the film is very entertaining, there are many examples of labor and management interactions including unfair labor practices by management, unfair labor practices by the union, and the procedural process of unionization process.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Norma Rae a loom operator in the weaving room is an outspoken individual and is very out spoken about her poor working conditions such as excessive noise, long hours with short breaks, physical stress from standing for long periods and abnormally high temperatures in the work areas. Added to all this is management ¡Ã‚ ¦s apathy for the working conditions, as seen when her mother looses her hearing temporarily with little or no sentiment from the company doctor, who knows this is a common problem for the workers. With this setting, the film progresses through most of the stages for employee organization. While management tries to get the workers support to keep the union out, and labor struggles to get a foothold to develop worker unity and get the union elected as the official bargaining agent both sides violate federal laws or come precariously close. First the Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) of the union will be examined.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After reviewing the film a rather short list of union ULP ¡Ã‚ ¦s, but they are potentially damaging and could be used by management to contest the outcome of the election if so desired. One committed by labor representative, the other by Norma Rae and are summarized as follows. During an authorized plant inspection by Ruben Warshovsky, part of the unionization campaign, the union representative would stop and address employees  ¡Ã‚ §Hello, I am Ruben Warshovsky from the United Textiles Workers Union of America, ¡Ã‚ ¨ or some other greeting identifying himself as a union representative while traveling through the plant. Management threatened to get an injunc... ...in the film the results were announced immediately and the union had won. After the votes are counted either labor or management could file to have the results overturned based on violations of the other party or challenges the vote count due to ineligible voters. Barrick  ¡V 7   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion there were violations of the Unfair Labor Practice laws committed by both parties during the organization process, which were identified in the film. I have identified two committed by labor representatives, not particularly grievous, but significant enough that ULP ¡Ã‚ ¦ violations could be filed. Based on the violations committed by labor, I do not think there would be any ruling by the NLRB that would affect the election results. If the election had gone the other way I could not say the same for the violations that were committed by management. The film depicted many aspects of the union organization process including the interactions of all parties involved. The organization process is more detailed than what was shown, but the general ideas of most of the major steps were accurate. Those steps that were not shown were invisible to the film but not the formal organizational process.

PEST Analysis (Political, Economic, Social & Technical Analysis) Essay

PEST Analysis (Political, Economic, Social & Technical Analysis) A PEST analysis (also sometimes called STEP, STEEP or PESTLE analysis) looks at the external business environment. In fact, it would be better to call this kind of analysis a business environmental analysis but the acronym PEST is easy to remember and so has stuck. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Sociocultural and Technological. (Technological factors in this case, include ecological and environmental aspects - the second E in STEEP and PESTLE, while the L in PESTLE stands for legal). The analysis examines the impact of each of these factors (and their interplay with each other) on the business. The results can then be used to take advantage of opportunities and to make contingency plans for threats when preparing business and strategic plans. You need to consider each PEST factor as they all play a part in determining your overall business environment. Thus, when looking at political factors you should consider the impact of any political or legislative changes that could affect your business. If you are operating in more than one country then you will need to look at each country in turn. Political factors include aspects such as laws on maternity rights, data protection and even environmental policy: these three examples alone have an on impact employment terms, information access, product specification and business processes in many businesses globally. Obviously politicians don't operate in a vacuum...

Dijkstra Paper

(A Look Back at) Go To Statement Considered Harmful Edsger Dijkstra wrote a Letter to the Editor of Communications in 1968, criticizing the excessive use of the go to statement in programming languages. Instead, he encouraged his fellow computer scientists to consider structured programming. The letter, originally entitled â€Å"A Case Against the Goto Statement,† was published in the March 1968 issue under the headline â€Å"Go To Statement Considered Harmful. † It would become the most legendary CACM â€Å"Letter† of all time; â€Å"Considered Harmful† would develop into an iconic catch-all.Dijkstra’s comments sparked an editorial debate that spanned these pages for over 20 years. In honor of the occasion, we republish here the original letter that started it all. Editor: For a number of years I have been familiar with the observation that the quality of programmers is a decreasing function of the density of go to statements in the programs they p roduce. More recently I discovered why the use of the go to statement has such disastrous effects, and I became convinced that the go to statement should be abolished from all â€Å"higher level† programming languages (i. e. verything except, perhaps, plain machine code). At that time I did not attach too much importance to this discovery; I now submit my considerations for publication because in very recent discussions in which the subject turned up, I have been urged to do so. My first remark is that, although the programmer’s activity ends when he has constructed a correct program, the process taking place under control of his program is the true subject matter of his activity, for it is this process that has to accomplish the desired effect; it is this process that in its dynamic behavior has to satisfy the desired specifications.Yet, once the program has been made, the â€Å"making† of the corresponding process is delegated to the machine. My second remark is that our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For that reason we should do (as wise programmers aware of our limitations) our utmost to shorten the conceptual gap between the static program and the dynamic process, to make the correspondence between the program (spread out in text space) and the process (spread out in time) as trivial as possible.Let us now consider how we can characterize the progress of a process. (You may think about this question in a very concrete manner: suppose that a process, considered as a time succession of actions, is stopped after an arbitrary action, what data do we have to fix in order that we can redo the process until the very same point? ) If the program text is a pure concatenation of, say, assignment statements (for the purpose of this discussion regarded as the descriptions of single actions) it is sufficient to point in th e program text to a point between two successive action descriptions. In the absence of go to statements I can permit myself the syntactic ambiguity in the last three words of the previous sentence: if we parse them as â€Å"successive (action descriptions) â€Å"we mean successive in text space; if we parse as â€Å"(successive action) descriptions† we mean successive in time. ) Let us 7 PAUL WATSON COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM January 2008/Vol. 51, No. 1 Forum call such a pointer to a suitable place in the text a â€Å"textual index. † When we include conditional clauses (if B then A), alternative clauses (if B then A1 else A2), choice clauses as introduced by C.A. R. Hoare (case[i] of (A1, A2, †¦ , An)), or conditional expressions as introduced by J. McCarthy (B1__ >E1, B2 __ E2, †¦ , Bn __ > > En), the fact remains that the progress of the process remains characterized by a single textual index. As soon as we include in our language procedures we must admi t that a single textual index is no longer sufficient. In the case that a textual index points to the interior of a procedure body the dynamic progress is only characterized when we also give to which call of the procedure we refer.With the inclusion of procedures we can characterize the progress of the process via a sequence of textual indices, the length of this sequence being equal to the dynamic depth of procedure calling. Let us now consider repetition clauses (like, while B repeat A or repeat A until B). Logically speaking, such clauses are now superfluous, because we can express repetition with the aid of recursive procedures. For reasons of realism I don’t wish to exclude them: on the one hand, repetition clauses can be implemented quite comfortably with present day finite equipment; on the other hand, the reasoning pattern known as â€Å"induction† makes us well quipped to retain our intellectual grasp on the processes generated by repetition clauses. With the inclusion of the repetition clauses 8 textual indices are no longer sufficient to describe the dynamic progress of the process. With each entry into a repetition clause, however, we can associate a socalled â€Å"dynamic index,† inexorably counting the ordinal number of the corresponding current repetition. As repetition clauses (just as procedure calls) may be applied nestedly, we find that now the progress of the process can always be uniquely characterized by a (mixed) sequence of textual and/or dynamic indices.The main point is that the values of these indices are outside programmer’s control; they are generated (either by the write-up of his program or by the dynamic evolution of the process) whether he wishes or not. They provide independent coordinates in which to describe the progress of the process. Why do we need such independent coordinates? The reason is—and this seems to be inherent to sequential processes—that we can interpret the value of a variable only with respect to the progress of the process.If we wish to count the number, n say, of people in an initially empty room, we can achieve this by increasing n by one whenever we see someone entering the room. In the inbetween moment that we have observed someone entering the room but have not yet performed the subsequent increase of n, its value equals the number of people in the room minus one! The unbridled use of the go to statement has an immediate consequence that it becomes terribly hard to find a meaningful set of coordinates in which to describe he process progress. Usually, people take into account as well the values of some well chosen variables, but this is out of the question because it is relative to the progress that the meaning of these values is to be understood! With the go to statement one can, of course, still describe the progress uniquely by a counter counting the number of actions performed since program start (viz. a kind of normalized clock). Th e difficulty is that such a coordinate, although unique, is utterly unhelpful.In such a coordinate system it becomes an extremely complicated affair to define all those points of progress where, say, n equals the number of persons in the room minus one! The go to statement as it stands is just too primitive; it is too much an invitation to make a mess of one’s program. One can regard and appreciate the clauses considered as bridling its use. I do not claim that the clauses mentioned are exhaustive in the sense that they will satisfy all needs, but whatever clauses are suggested (e. g. bortion clauses) they should satisfy the requirement that a programmer independent coordinate system can be maintained to describe the process in a helpful and manageable way. It is hard to end this with a fair acknowledgment. Am I to judge by whom my thinking has been influenced? It is fairly obvious that I am not uninfluenced by Peter Landin and Christopher Strachey. Finally I should like to r ecord (as I remember it quite distinctly) how Heinz Zemanek at the pre-ALGOL meeting in early 1959 in Copenhagen quite explic- January 2008/Vol. 1, No. 1 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM itly expressed his doubts whether the go to statement should be treated on equal syntactic footing with the assignment statement. To a modest extent I blame myself for not having then drawn the consequences of his remark. The remark about the undesirability of the go to statement is far from new. I remember having read the explicit recommendation to restrict the use of the go to statement to alarm exits, but I have not been able to trace it; presumably, it has been made by C. A. R. Hoare. In [1, Sec. 3. . 1. ] Wirth and Hoare together make a remark in the same direction in motivating the case construction: â€Å"Like the conditional, it mirrors the dynamic structure of a program more clearly than go to statements and switches, and it eliminates the need for introducing a large number of labels in the prog ram. † In [2] Guiseppe Jacopini seems to have proved the (logical) superfluousness of the go to statement. The exercise to translate an arbitrary flow diagram more or less mechanically into a jumpless one, however, is not to be recommended.Then the resulting flow diagram cannot be expected to be more transparent than the original one. REFERENCES 1. Wirth, Niklaus, and Hoare, C. A. R. A contribution to the development of ALGOL. Comm. ACM 9 (June 1966), 413–432. 2. Bohn, Corrado, and Jacopini, Guiseppe. Flow Diagrams, Turing machines and languages with only two formation rules. Comm. ACM 9 (May 1966) 366–371. Coming Next Month in COMMUNICATIONS Alternate Reality Gaming IT Diffusion in Developing Countries Are People Biased in their Use of Search Engines?The Factors that Affect Knowledge-Sharing Behavior Alternative Scenarios to the â€Å"Banner† Years Municipal Broadband Wireless Networks The Myths and Truths about Wireless Security Managing Large Collection s of Data Mining Models Women and Men in IT: Alike or Different? EDSGER W. DIJKSTRA Technological University Eindhoven, The Netherlands Communications of the ACM March 1968, Vol. 11, No. 3, pg 147 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM January 2008/Vol. 51, No. 1 9