Balanced Scorecard Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words

Balanced Scorecard - Dissertation Example If you can't measure something, you can't understand it. If you can't understand it, you can't control it. If you can't control it, you can't improve it† by H. James Harrington is justified in every aspects of a business environment (USACE, 2005). Measuring performance in an organizational perspective is equally important as its business operations. An organization running its operations without having performance measurement tools can be like a CEO functioning without formulating a strategic plan or an aeroplane flying without its compass. Therefore it can be portrayed that the primary intentions behind measuring performance is to get an idea of how the organization is performing and looking after the possibilities of further development. Performance management enables organizations to measure, plan and control activities in accordance with the predefined strategies. In simple words it facilitates organizations to achieve their desired goals (Johnson, 2007, p.1-2). Some of the major performance measurement tools that are being used in current business scenario include Balanced Scorecard, Economic Value Added (EVA), Activity Based Costing and Management, Performance Prism and Quality Management. However among the aforementioned tools, importance and usage of balanced scorecard will be principally highlighted through the entire report. While the saying ‘balanced scorecard was coined in the early 1990s’, the origin of this approach however is believed to be deep, and also embrace radical work of General Electric (GE) during the early 1950s. The work was basically based on reporting of performance measurement. Apart from this French process engineers have also contributed immensely towards the development of performance management tools. There work was during the early 20th century. In this context the engineers literally developed a â€Å"dashboard† in order to monitor performance levels in a simplified and efficient way. Despite of its early conception, it was originally developed at Harvard business school by Dr. David Norton and Dr. Robert Kaplan in the year 1992. During the initial phases after the development of balanced scorecard, it was merely used as the performance measurement tool or a performance measurement agenda. Nevertheless slowly with the passage of time balanced scorecard has been able to gain much more importance in the professional field. A number of companies incorporated balanced scorecard into their system of operation in order to facilitate effective and well-organized performance measurement system. Nowadays balanced scorecard is considered as a valuable strategic planning tool. It helps an organization to transform its strategic plan from

Autobiography of a Classroom Essay Example for Free

Autobiography of a Classroom Essay I am a very big classroom in a well-known public school. I cater to needs of the kindergarten class of the school, accommodating I think about eighty five children, a big number isn’t it? I understand that I am the best looking room in the school as, the very small children study here. I am very attractively decorated so that the little ones like to come here every day. The room that is me – is decorated with beautiful coloured pictures. The walls are a blend of some colours I do not know the names of. The furniture that is placed in the length and breadth of the room consists of small round tables to seat four children on each table, and the chairs are also tiny. That is not all, all the furniture is a mixture of many colours. When the children come inside the class they almost fight to sit on certain chairs. That makes me understand that they like the colours and fight for their favourite colours to sit on. At the top two ends of the length of the classroom there are two bigger tables and full size chairs for the teachers to sit. Since there are so many children there are two teachers while in other classes there is only one each. I am a treat for everyone to see. My pleasure knows no bounds when everyone who comes inside the class, admires me, appreciates my get up and the colours that don me. I have the twin advantage of being the most beautiful room in the school and also having the cutest of children coming to spend their time with me. Thus, my life is full of beauty, colour, noise and laughter and at times of course also crying and howling of the children. At times some new entrants to the school come to me with their mothers and, cry as if they had come to the slaughter house to be butchered. At such moments even by heart cries for the little ones and I wonder why man makes these little children come to study if they do not want to. I of course do not know how important studies are for human children, I only feel sad seeing the children cry. My life is full of a very busy schedule though very interesting. The routine of my daily life is so busy that, I do not get any relief for quite long hours. In the morning as early as 6 a. m. wo sweepers come open the lock of my room or rather me, and off they start working on me. They sweep my floor, squab it, dust each and every piece of the furniture in me. Thus, I get alerted as soon the room is unlocked. It is not even 8 a. m. when the little brats start pouring inside my body’s doors. At times they enter with so much noise that my whole body feels the rattle of it all. Their movements are so loud that now, I cannot even think of any rest. School bags get flung, tiffin boxes are strewn all about, water bottles are kept just anywhere and there is a lot of commotion all over. Soon the maid enters the room and keeps everything in order and my appearance at once improves and I look tidy and well kept. For these small ones the school hours are just three from, 8 a. m. to 11 a. m. These three hours is my duty time, and just is the time when I also get the day’s entertainment. Being a classroom for the Kindergarten children I get a great chance of hearing conversations between the teachers and the parents. Since this is the first time their children have entered school, parents devote a lot of time to talking about the school and its standards. At times I find that some parents are just too critical and, inspite of getting all the best in this school they always seem to be unhappy and dissatisfied with something or the other in the school. Such parents keep lecturing about things missing in the classroom, the school or even in the playground. When I hear such complaints, my heart sinks and I wonder if they will allow or not allow their children to come to me any more,. For such conversations I have understood that, these days parents pamper the children too much, and it seems that they can never yes, never be satisfied. I am quite surprised to see the vast difference in opinions. While on the one hand I, and also many parents think that I am very beautiful, well kept, and decorated, others of the same clan are always complaining of many defects in my appearance. This gives me a feeling of depression and I do wonder if I can do anything in the matter. After some thinking bouts, I realize that, I can do nothing to satisfy these unhappy parents. I am just here in the hands of the school authorities and stand here as and how they keep me. My working hours are just six, from 6 a. m. when sweepers enter to say 12 noon when I am locked after all children go. After my duty hours I just relax but also feel lonely. No matter what is said about me, I am thoroughly enjoying my life in the cute company of little children. Their company makes me also feel young though now I am quite old. Every summer vacation I am painted afresh, my furniture is painted, and, I am ready to welcome my little friends, new and old with a new look, new enthusiasm and renewed vigour. I pray that my life is forever allowed to remain so interesting and so relaxed. I just love all the children and teachers who come here to me, to work and play in the restricted area within my four walls.

Human Resource Planning in Healthcare

Human Resource Planning in Healthcare The most important resources in healthcare is the human beings. Equipment such as machines and devices are essential parts in healthcare. However, it requires the expertise and commitment of a human being to fully utilize their features in the delivery of care. This is the reason why human resource planning is vital in the provision to any healthcare establishments. The human resource policy has many objectives: to entice, hire, retain and improve proficient employees and develop a constant healthcare learning organisation. The main focus of all healthcare personnel is the client or the patient itself. There are many personnel involve in the process of providing the best healthcare services. In the medical aspects: physicians, nurses, healthcare assistant, med-techs, pharmacists, and resident doctors are the direct provider of outpatient and ward care for patients. While the admin, public staffs, laundry, food caterers, electricians, and other maintenance personnel are also involve in the success in providing safety in delivering care to the clients. Planning is indeed an important thing to do for all these personnel for them to work effectively on rendering best service towards their patients. These are the three ways on how to improve human resources: Work system: The goal of a work system is to obtain cooperation and collaboration among all employees. Healthcare personnel seek for a better system so that their deeds will have favorable outcome without wasting much time on activities. Employees may feel important as they participate on such activities. On the other hand, tasks or activities that are forcedly delegated to them can build doubt as they believe of not owning it. In order to be a part of the system, employees must participate actively in the planning. This will create efficiency on the workforce as they work together regardless of what department. These are some examples of an effective work system: Organize a team either short-term or long-term. Examples would be the infection control, waste management, and quality control team. Encourage further higher education, offer staffs greater responsibilities and help them to determine trainings that they need. Rotation of nursing and nursing attendants to avoid boredom in work. Also emphasize the importance of multi-tasking. Management in performance system: each employee must work according to their job description. The performance of each employee is evaluated towards their target in a timely manner; this helps employees to achieve their targets annually. Reward practices: the reward system is either monetary or non-monetary. An example of monetary rewards are promotion of the position, special increase in the salary, and long service awards. Non-monetary awards are given through formal or informal letter or a simple gesture of tapping the back of an employee in front of other employee as a sign of a job well done. Proper communication: a sense of unity in an organisation is present among workers who have proper communication on their superiors and subordinates. Recruiting and selective hiring of new staffs: during the recruitment process, the hospital or the company must identify the work requirement and at the same time during the interview, attitude and aptitude survey of the applicants must be completed. Moreover, there should be a transparent explanation to the applicant about his future growth upon staying in the organisation. Lastly, an induction process must be handed to the new employee of the working environment in order to have familiarity of the situation. Employee development through training and education: there must be a continuity in learning and development process for employees. Employees are trained with the following aspects: technical (proper handling of equipment and devices), managerial (the ability to handle work environment), and behavioral (the proper attitude in a given situation). The training program has two goals: the short-term and the long-term; the former aims on achieving client’s satisfaction and reducing time cycle while the latter is aimed on having a more efficient technology. These trainings are provided to achieve the ultimate goal of healthcare, to provide safe and best service to patients and family members. There are various trainings provided for the staffs in the Kindly Residential healthcare. Physicians, nurses, and technicians are offered with a continuous medical education. This is to render effective health teachings to their patients. Also, healthcare assistants are trained on proper waste disposal, oxygen therapy, and proper use of HOIST. The training programs provided by the company is not enough to measure the effectiveness on the performance of employees. In order to determine the effectiveness of the training program, there must be an evaluation process. During evaluation, factors that are monitored closely must have a direct link with the well-being of the client. Factors like the rate of occurrence of illness and death, feedback of the client and family members, quantity of re-admission having the same medical problem and most of all is to retain the trust and confidence of the client towards the healthcare. The well-being and satisfaction of the workers: the satisfaction of employee is vital to the motivation on the whole organisation. The following aspects make a big contribution on the satisfaction of employees: The work environment: The working environment is one of the essential aspect in providing satisfaction for the workers. A safety environment by enforcing precautions creates a healthy environment. Employees may work freely because they know they are safe and they have the proper gadgets or devices to protect them as they carry-out their tasks. Such precautions are: emphasis on proper waste disposal, compulsory annual check-ups and vaccination should be done, and continuous research on unsafe practices. The work climate: Awareness programs and accessible facilities are provided for workers by the company in order for them to feel proud because they are taken good care by the organisation as they render service to their clients. These are some programs that improve the work climate: health awareness program, awareness of AIDS program, mess hall, fitness gym, education and library access. The satisfaction of an employee: the satisfaction of an individual worker is difficult to achieve. There are only few hospitals who are successful on making their employees satisfied. The human mind is very dynamic; people may not be contented on what they achieve because of the belief that they can do more. Therefore, expecting an employee to become satisfied on the company’s facility is far from the truth. However, the organisation collects feedbacks by doing a formal or informal assessment process and correlate these results on determining improvement priorities. Through this action, it makes the worker feel that the organisation or management is very sincere regarding their concerns.

Recent Studies Concerning Violent Tendencies and the Confusion that Arises :: Violence Murder Papers

Recent Studies Concerning Violent Tendencies and the Confusion that Arises "It was an urge. . . . . A strong urge, and the longer I let it go the stronger it got, to where I was taking risks to go out and kill people-risks that normally, according to my little rules of operation, I wouldn't take because they could lead to arrest." -Edmund Kemper (6) Ted Bundy. Charles Manson. Timothy McVeigh. Bundy murdered pretty women. Manson had followers who killed on his command. McVeigh is responsible for one of the most horrendous terrorist attacks on America, the Oklahoma State bombing. While these three serial killers had different methods for their acts, the one thing they have in common is that they are killers. Murderers who took a number of innocent lives. Perhaps to not the same extent, but sadly enough the world is full of Charles Manson's and Ted Bundy's. Violence has become a common and prevalent occurrence in society today. Everyday on the news one hears stories of crimes-murder, robbery, rape, assault, extortion, kidnapping, homicide, an endless list. Law enforcement works day and night protecting neighborhoods and cities from crimes and violence, but the truth of the matter is that crime still exists and all one can do is ask himself why. Why do such treacherous violent acts exist in society? In essence, one must ask himself whether or not these violent tendencies have any biological relation whatsoever. Do violent tendencies occur as an affect of disruptions or damage to the brain? Is there a genetic correlation? Is violence brought about by some other factor, such as economic difficulties or social or cultural differences? All these questions remain unanswered. But one even significant, broader question that one must cons ider is whether or not these factors, biologically related and non, effect the occurrence of violent tendencies in individuals. In 1848, a railroad worker, Phineas Gage, was working when an explosion caused an iron rod to impale his skull, damaging the front part of his brain. Although Gage miraculously survived, his behavior severely changed in that the intelligent and respectful man everyone knew suddenly because fitful, impulsive, and rude (2). This is one of the first dated cases insinuating that violence may be related to some kind of damage or abnormality in the brain.

Operation Essay

Southern Fire-fighters, New Zealand Railways, Speights Brewery, Otago Hospital Board, and Cadburys. They limited membership to employees and their families in each case. In 1986, due to growth, the (renamed) Fletcher Challenge Employees (Otago) and the Southern Fire-fighters Credit Unions co-operated in the sharing of office facilities. They purchased a site on a main thoroughfare in Dunedin, just down from the central business district, and erected a modern single story office with street frontage, and provided service to members on a full time basis. Methods for financial transactions varied from manual to different types of computer operated systems. The mid to late 1980s saw great change in the New Zealand economy and society, with the introduction of (new right) `Rogernomics’ policies. The Labour Government deregulated the financial services sector, resulting in the entrance and proliferation of foreign owned banks, and other types of financial service providers, and conversion of building societies to banks, many of them seeking a share of the basic business of credit union, viz personal loans, with a consequential significant increase in competition. However, the banks introduction of sophisticated technological services, in the shape of ATM, and Eftpos, made rural banking relatively expensive, resulting in branch closures. In addition the then Labour Government sold the old Postbank to the ANZ bank. Unemployment increased significantly in the country, and compounded the rural problem, as organisations downsized in a massive way, particularly in the public sector. Questions for Discussion 1. Suggest a possible strategy(s) for the survival of the credit unions in Otago. Phase Two: (1987-95) Otago, in order to take advantage of economies of scale, and thus compete more favourably in the market place. The industrial credit unions had flourished over the period, but the directors realised that their individual sites once saturated, provided little potential for membership growth, particularly in the face of major downsizing. At this point the Railways and Speights credit unions had merged with Fletcher Challenge Employees Each credit union received sufficient support from their respective memberships for amalgamation. The regulator for the credit union industry, the Registrar for Friendly Societies and Credit Unions (Registrar), approved the merger, such that the newly named Credit Union Otago (CUO) opened for business in November 1987 at its Dunedin premises, and functioned with four full time professional staff working a fiveday week. Becoming a community based credit union meant opening up membership to anyone resident in Otago, which has a population of about one hundred and forty thousand. As the first region in New Zealand to undergo this process, Otago provided the model for others to follow.

America’s New Free Trade Agreement Essay Example

America’s New Free Trade Agreement Essay Example America’s New Free Trade Agreement Essay America’s New Free Trade Agreement Essay The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), implemented in the year 1994, is meant to remove barriers to trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. An important component of this free trade agreement is the member countries’ concern for environmental as well as labor issues, which must be worked on and agreed upon by the member countries. Yet another significant component of NAFTA is that of conflict resolution between the member nations. For this, the free trade agreement outlines procedures (Topulos).Since the time that it was first implemented, NAFTA has proved to be a positive experience for all member countries. In Mexico after NAFTA, poverty rates were reduced, and the real income increased, despite the economic crisis that the country went through during 1994-1995. Experts believe that the free trade agreement has the potential to reduce the poverty of Mexico even further. Trade among member nations has already increased tremendously. Goods produced in the United States, Canada or Mexico, are now distributed simultaneously in all three member countries. Moreover, the Mexican factories that process imported raw materials into finished goods for export have seen a dramatic increase in their income. Trade in other sectors of the Mexican economy has also increased. In the area of agriculture, Mexico has witnessed a steady increase in exports every year since the inception of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreeme nt). Undoubtedly, NAFTA is expected to benefit Mexico also in the future, just as the benefits of the agreement are being realized more fully today by the United States and Canada. The latter are expected to still increase their benefits of NAFTA with Mexico’s economic development.Given the benefits of NAFTA to the economies of the member countries, and the faith of the United States that it should have firm economic relationships with its neighbors – in December 2003, the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua completed their negotiations on the newest free trade agreement in the region: the Central American Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA (Promoting Trade With Central America And The Dominican Republic). The United States and Costa Rica agreed on the latter’s participation in the new free trade agreement in January 2004. Two months later, the United States concluded negotiations also with the Dominican Republic to integrate the latter int o the CAFTA. This changed the name of CAFTA to DR-CAFTA, or the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (Costa Rica).The goal of DR-CAFTA was the establishment of a free trade zone, which would be similar to the NAFTA. Thus, the DR-CAFTA removes tarrifs on approximately 80 percent of the U.S. exports to the other member countries (Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement). By so doing, the new free trade agreement makes it especially beneficial for member countries that are economically weak to buy high quality U.S. products and thereby raise their standards of living. What is more, the agreement allows for easy access of goods from member countries into the United States market. Once again, the economically weak member countries are bound to benefit substantially through the new agreement, seeing that they may now have the gigantic U.S. market to sell their products to (Runyon).Other provisions of the DR-CAFTA include: (1) a promise made by the govern ments of all member countries that foreign investment is guaranteed in their respective nations; (2) a gradual removal of all barriers to trade that were initially meant to protect domestic production; (3) no duties on the import of agricultural goods; (4) subsidies on all agricultural goods, except sugar, must be eliminated; (5) intellectual property rights must be maintained; (6) a gradual removal of protectionist barriers in all sectors; (7) national monopolies must be dismantled so as to allow foreign investments to compete equally with the domestic organizations; (8) transnational companies would be given the right to resolve conflicts in private international courts; (9) the environment must be respected, and environmental laws abided by; (10) the major labor standards of the International Labor Organization must be enforced in all member countries; and (11) government corruption must be reduced and eventually eliminated in all member countries, especially the economically wea k ones where corruption is rampant (Dominican Republic).The United States’ economy would benefit by selling tariff-free goods to the member countries of the DR-CAFTA. The DR-CAFTA states would be able to purchase more U.S. goods than before, seeing as the tariffs would have been lifted. It is worthy of note, however, that the combined GDP of the DR-CAFTA states is only 0.5 percent of the GDP of the United States. The quantity of U.S. goods that the DR-CAFTA states would be able to purchase would be limited but naturally. Still, the benefits that these states achieve in the long run through the DR-CAFTA are expected to be greater than the benefits that the United States would be able to realize. This is because the DR-CAFTA states are all economically weaker than the U.S. Thus, positive changes manifested in the economically weak states would appear to be much greater in extent (Runyon).Although the effects of the new free trade agreement between the United States, Dominican R epublic, and five Central American countries, have not been documented as yet, it is believed that once the DR-CAFTA has been fully implemented, the United States would be able to increase its exports to the member countries by approximately 15 percent. U.S. imports are similarly expected to increase by around 12 percent, while the effect on the aggregate output as well as employment in the United States is expected to be little. Hornbeck states: These estimates are in line with expectations made prior to the negotiations that the marginal effects of the DR-CAFTA would be small, but positive for the U.S. economy as a whole, given the DR-CAFTA countries had small and already largely open economies.Once again, the overall benefits of DR-CAFTA would be more clearly visible in the DR-CAFTA states in the long run, just as the case of Mexico and NAFTA reveals greater interest in the benefits of NAFTA to Mexico. Just as NAFTA reduced poverty rates in Mexico, increased trade in the DR-CAFTA nations is expected to reduce poverty rates in these nations. However, it may take a while before the full benefits of DR-CAFTA are realized in these nations. Molly Runyon explains why the full range of benefits of DR-CAFTA would not be immediately visible in the economically weak nations: 1. Costa Rica. Retrieved from ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Reports_Publications/2004/2004_National_Trade_Estimate/2004_NTE_Report/asset_upload_file462_4745.pdf. (7 April 2007).2. Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Wikipedia (2007). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/. (7 April 2007).3. Hornbeck, J. F. The Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). Congressional Research Service (2005, July 6). Retrieved from http://price.house.gov/UploadedFiles/CAFTA%207.6.05.pdf. (7 April 2007).4. North American Free Trade Agreement. Wikipedia (2007). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement. (7 April 2007 ).5. Promoting Trade With Central America And The Dominican Republic. The White House. Retrieved from whitehouse.gov/index.html. (7 April 2007).6. Runyon, Molly. Free Trade in Weak States: The Case of DR-CAFTA in Nicaragua. Retrieved from http://fletcher.tufts.edu/research/2006/Runyon.pdf. (7 April 2007).7. Topulos, Katherine. NAFTA. Duke University School of Law (2007). Retrieved from law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/pdf/nafta.pdf. (7 April 2007).

Learning to Listen

Learning to Listen Free Online Research Papers Listening, the process of taking in what we hear and mentally organizing it to make sense of it, is invaluable component of the communication process. Listening is an essential skill for those who want to be successful in work and in life ( Janasz, 2006, p138 ). Especially for us international students, listening plays an irreplaceable role in our daily life. If our listening is poor, we can not understand what locals are talking about, and we won’t know what is going on, just like we are living in a world with noise, not with language. So the first step is to practice and improve our basic listening skills. Listening to the radio may be an effective way to improve listening. It will provide us information about the local events, local culture, and most importantly the local accent. It is a fact that we Chinese students are much more familiar with American English than British English, because we have been learning American English and American sound since secondary school, and in one time I was a little confused about British sound. Now I am in Australia, the same thing happens again. The very first word I heard from the local was â€Å"Today†, which made me feel like he was saying â€Å"to die†. This astonished me at first, but later on, I felt free to hear that â€Å"die† sound. Another way to improve listening I think is to talk with locals as much as possible. If we only practice listening over the radio, we never talk to it, and the radio never gives a feedback. However, things are different when we make conversations with locals. We learn their ways of expression, their accent, and even their ways of thinking. It is true that we eastern people think differently from the western people, because of the different cultural and educational background. So it is necessary for us to be aware of the western ways of thinking and their customs. Talking with local people will provide us good opportunity to get all the useful information, and our listening is improved meanwhile. When the basic listening skills are improved, we go to the next step, to be a good listener. We need to pay attention to the tone of voice, body language, and other nonverbal messages. These will help us understand what is being said. The final step is active listening, and in active listening, it is common for the listener to be an active participant in the conversation, asking and probing for details in such a way that the speaker feels both supported and encouraged to share more information about a situation. Enhancing both the speaker’s and listener’s understanding of what is taking place ( Janasz, 2006, p139 ). It will be a little hard for me to be an active listener, because English is my second language, but I will try to take part in the conversations and not to be a passive listener. I think by the end of this semester I will make some progress in my listening, and be an active listener by practicing the basic listening skills. Research Papers on Learning to ListenThree Concepts of PsychodynamicStandardized TestingMind TravelAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaHip-Hop is ArtComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThe Spring and AutumnInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductPETSTEL analysis of India