Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial Essay - 3

Scientific Management was the product of 19th Century industrial practices and has no relevance to the present day. Discuss - Essay Example This term was also used to refer to any organizational system that precisely brought out the functions of groups and individuals. Further, scientific management can be used to describe situations where jobs are categorized and people perform recurring tasks. Background of Taylorism In the 19th century, there were widespread unplanned companies, decentralized management, casual relations among workers and employers, and informally defined job assignments in factory systems. By the end of this century, increased completion, new technologies, demands from regimes and labor agencies, and a developing consciousness by the elites had motivated attempts to advance business and management. All these developments were aimed at initiating cautiously defined processes and risks, which were later referred to by historians as â€Å"systematic management† since they involved a careful study of individuals at work (Cumo 77). The key figure behind this innovation was an engineer based in Amer ica, who was also a management theorist and a discoverer, Fredrick W. Taylor. Taylor was born in 1856 in a Philadelphia family. He began his career in a machine shop in a steel Company in 1878 where he quickly gained experience and started initiating new methods. After approximately ten years, he invented several technical and organizational innovations such as a technique of timing employees with a stopwatch to work out best times. By the 1890s, Taylor had been recognized as the most determined and dynamic advocate of systematic management. He further introduced accounting systems that he became a consultant of the same. This system allowed the use of operating records by managers with greater efficiency, which later became production systems that enlightened managers more accurately on what was happening in the factory, control workers and their tasks, piece-rate models to motivate following of instructions by workers, and various other advancements. A couple of inventions played a big role in the creation of the scientific management theory. The invention of high-speed-steel enhanced the performance of metal-cutting tools, and attempts to initiate systematic techniques resulted in an incorporated view of innovation in management. By 1901, Taylor had styled systematic management to scientific management (Cumo 78). From the actions of Taylor’s career, it is evident that systematic management was closely related to scientific management. They shared origins, liked by similar people, and shared objectives. The distinctions between them also were clear. Systematic management was distributive and practical, some isolated approaches that did not make a larger whole (Sapru 92). On the other hand, scientific management contributed important details and an understandable point of view. Taylor decided to promote the two systems in 1902 when he got out of Bethlehem. The American Society journal first published Taylor’s first documentation on his vocation, â€Å"shop management† in 1903, which was ranked as an inclusive collection of systematic management techniques. In the year 1910, Traylor was involved in scandals with rough enemies of scientific management. In response to the controversies, Taylor came up with a new approach to his system, which he named â€Å"The Principles of Scientific Management.† In this account, he really embraced the term â€Å"Scientific Management† as used it to symbolize the whole system. He argued

SWOT analysis of the borders company

SWOT analysis of the borders company According to the article Borders Group, Inc.; Borders Raises $25 Million Through Equity Financing to Support Key Financial and Strategic Initiatives (2010), Borders Group sold $25 million equity finances to financier Bennett LeBow in May 2009 so it could solve a company liquidity problem. This new capital budget will strengthen Borders balance sheet which recorded liabilities as $1.3 billion and stockholders equities as $262 million (Borders group, Inc., 2010). Moreover, Borders could provide capital to help fund the transformation of the Borders brand. These include improving the store network to increase profitability and productivity and maximizing the digital opportunity, including growing Borders.com. Launched eBook store to digital approach To compete with other company, Borders launched its eBook store with more than 1.5 million titles, including thousands of free titles, available in a variety of formats, including ePub, mobile and PDF (Borders opens, 2010). In addition, a company launched the Kobo eReader and Aluratek Libre eReader on Borders.com. Both devices, which are value-priced at under $150, have surpassed sales expectations. Moreover, to provide additional value around its digital offerings, Borders also offers free books to customers download Borders application (Borders offers, 2010). From its variety digital approach, Borders can achieve customer satisfaction. Weakness: Net losses in Waldenbooks Specialty Retail stores Borders had 468 Waldenbooks Specialty Retail stores in 2008 summer (Milliot, 2009). However, in 2009, Borders Waldenbooks Specialty Retail stores revenues decreased 8.5% (Borders Group Q4, 2010). It, moreover, is lesser consumers to go to shopping in shopping mall (Industry profile: Bookstores, 2010) so Borders has continually closed Waldenbooks stores since 2001 (Milliot, 2009). In addition, Borders closed 186 Waldenbooks Specialty Retail locations in the fourth quarter of 2009. The total 212 Waldenbooks stores were closed in 2009 fiscal year (Milliot, 2010). It seems that Waldenbooks stores are still a problem for Borders to burden net losses in several years. Missing multi-media approach Multi-media were the most significant impact in sales of the book industry because multi-media categories are low margin categories, such as music and video. Although Borders has already expanded their DVD movies section since 2006, Borders decided to decrease their multi-media section and more focused on book selling instead. As this result, in the second quarter of 2009, Borderss music sales were declined 51% and DVD sales were declined 48% (Borders Group, Inc. Q2, 2009). In fact, excluding multi-media, Borderss superstore comps declined by 13%. The sales of books are around 67% of the total sales in 2008 and 2009 (Milliot, 2010). Opportunities Strong growing in on-line retailing market The online retailing industry is increasing very fast because internet is becoming more and more popular. The data from Forester shows that the online retail sales reached $141 billion in 2008, which was an 11% increase. In the 2009, online retail sales reached $141 billion, which was a 13% increase, even faster increase than previous year (Reuters Research Inc., 2010). Borders internet service acquired a lot of experience in the past two years and the eBook is a new service which will be provided by borders in July 2, 2010. In this case, new strategies include online store and eBook which are using by Borders may help borders catch this opportunity. Increasing Book Industry The book market which Borders involves in is growing steadys because internet sales and many new assistant technologies like e-book are helping people to acquire and read books easily and conveniently. According to the report book industry trend (2009), book industrys net income would increase 4.4% to $37.3billion in 2008 from $35.7billion in 2009. Bensinger (2010) states that U.S. book sales will rise 5.8 percent from 2010 to 2015 and most of increasing are online book selling. This data clearly shows that book industry will become larger, especially the online book market, which is a great opportunity for borders to use digital strategies such as Borders.com and eBook to change the depression in the past 5 years. Threats The increasing minimum wages in US According to the article Tables calculators by subject (2010), the federal minimum wage rate increased $5.15 per hour in 1997 to reach $6.55 per hour in July, 2008 and it kept going to $8.55 per hour in 2009, and remains same in 2010. All of those increases were caused by a voter begins in 1998 relative with increased inflation rate and cost did not rise in that year (High paying, 2010). The increased minimum wages makes borders face a more serious environment. The higher cost of wages will increase burden of Borders since borders has approximately 25,000. The sharp decrease in revenue which caused by intense competition and increased cost of labors will further decrease the net income of Borders. The decrease of consumers in shopping malls of US The consumers gradually adapt to shop online and the traffic of shopping mall is gradually decreasing in US. Decreased mall consumers in US have made many retailers into trouble. Sales performance of malls in the U.S also becomes worse and excepted to remain in the same situation in the nearly future. Connolly (2009) states that Mall tenant sales declined to10.3% in Jan 2009, which is a slightly better performance than in November and December in 2008. In this case, Borders is a bookstore company which has physical stores and the companys Waldenbooks which is a brand based on mall. In this case, Borders consumer traffic also will be affected by the decrease of consumers in shopping malls and it is clearly that the profit of Borders also will be affected.

The Kitchen Gods Wife and The Bingo Palace :: comparison compare contrast essays

Mythology, Luck, and Fate in The Kitchen God's Wife and The Bingo Palace  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   In Amy Tan's novel, The Kitchen God's Wife, the author weaves Chinese mythology and beliefs through a woman's struggle to explain and come to terms with her harrowing past, to her American daughter, Pearl. Aside from the horror invoked by Winnie's tale of her life in Pre-Communist/Feudal China, the thing that struck me the most about this book was how often the themes of luck and fate crop up in the story. I often found that Winnie reminded me of the character Lipsha from Louise Erdrich's novel, The Bingo Palace in that both characters seemed to believe that their lives were controlled more by luck/fate than by their own will. While the similarities between the two books do exist, they are very different stories dealing with two cultures far removed from each other in location, beliefs and ways of life. I decided that for this paper, it would be interesting to look at how the ideas of mythology, luck and fate pertain to the culture of the Chinese and Native Americans in these two books. I would also like to look at how Asian Americans and Native Americans assimilate and change their cultural beliefs and practices into the larger "culture" of the United States. The Oxford Dictionary defines fate as: "1 a power regarded as predetermining events unalterably. 2 a the future regarded as determined by such a power. b an individual's appointed lot. C the ultimate condition or end of a person or thing (that sealed our fate)". The aspect of the story that especially stood out for me was the way in which Winnie chalked up everything that happened to her, good and bad, to the state of her luck at the time. It seems as if Winnie believed that she was fated to have bad luck from beginning of her life because of her mother. She tells of her mother marrying into a family where she became the "double second wife" which means she replaced the first "second" wife who had died. Replacing a dead wife was believed to put a woman into a bad-luck position, so perhaps Winnie believed she had inherited her bad luck from her mother and was "doomed" from birth. Winnie even attributes her horrible marriage to Wen Fu as a result of her bad luck.

In What Ways Have Large Business Organizations Changed Essay

In what ways have large business organizations changed in recent decades? Large business organizations have changed in recent decades in a few ways. Some of this ways are that are not always a conventional bureaucracy, they are more open and flexible, the technology used, and the political and economic trends are always changing. Plus there are others, but I’m going to elaborate on the one I had mentioned. In the past organizations had use a conventional bureaucracy approach (the pyramid), where it is a top-down flow. The upper level manager would give instructions to be carried out, and the lower level workers would carry out the instructions. But now days it is a more open and flexible place to work; where instructions are carried out by all members of the organization. And unlike the bureaucracy approach, the open and flexible approach gives the decision making to most or all members of the organization. There has defiantly been a significantly change in the department of technology over the decades. The technology used in the past was files, records, telephones, and fax machines. Now we use computers, the Internet and Web, e-mails, and mobile devices. The connection to the Internet and the Web has even changed over the years since we started to use them. Instead of being a steady passed organization and society that we once was we have quickened are pass to our now fast past world on the go at ever moment. The trends of economy and politics play a role in the organization’s environment, such as the outside factors of an organization that can affect the operation of business. This would include the current events, available workforce, technology, and other organizations. And as the times change, the resources changes with it. Couple decades ago the times where good for what it was, but now days, with the recession times are good for some and not good for others. The recent layoffs, foreclosures, and natural disastrous, in the past few years has not helped a lot, but we are coming back together.

Creative Ads Motivates People to Drink Water

Creative Ads Motivates People to Drink Water Creative Ads Motivates People to Drink Water It is well known that water is one of the most essential elements for all organisms, especially human beings. However, even though people realize how important water is for them they do not drink their daily-recommended amount of water. Therefore, organizations form water campaigns to encourage people to drink 8 to 12 glasses per day, which maintains the body’s hydration.Nevertheless, most people believe that water campaigns are uninteresting, which makes them ineffective. Evian and Nestle are water companies that try to market their products through their ads that motivate people to drink more water so that they live young and healthy. Furthermore, the commercials grab people’s attention by using creative and artistic ideas that send to customers the same message that the water campaigns but in a fast and creative way, which convince people to buy bottled water even though they ca n consume it for free.Nestle is one of the world’s largest food companies that also sells mineral water marketed by an inspired advertisement. This Nestle Pure life water TV commercial starts with a picture of the Nestle bottle of water and the question  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Why does your body need 8 glasses a day of Nestle Pure Life†. The background of the advertisement is both blue and white which matches the nestle bottle of water. Although water is colorless, the Nestle Company probably chose blue because it is used almost always to represent the purity of water (Kalyan Meola, 2005).The background includes a large picture of the number 8, which represents the number of glasses of water people should drink daily, and it is illustrated in an artistic way since it is also blue and include reflections on the number’s edges. The question â€Å"Why does your body need 8 glasses a day of Nestle Pure Life† is answered by a short video that explains the importance of hydra tion. The second part of the advertisement starts with a brunette model who seems to be in her thirties.The model’s skin color and facial features do not indicate a particular nationality, which allows this ad to be shown in different countries that can relate to it. In the third part of the advertisement the model starts to drink the water and takes us on a tour that demonstrates the model’s respiratory and digestive system in a creative way. Additionally, the Nestle water becomes an image of a waterfall in a tropical jungle.I believe that using a forest in this ad sends a message to customers that the Nestle water company products are natural. Besides that, the ad includes a family playing in the waterfall, and that is a way to motivate and attract people, especially young children, to live healthy and drink Nestle Pure Water. What grabbed my attention is that the waterfall is circulating around numerous kinds of red and pink flowers that are arranged in the shape of the human heart.Using pink flowers for the heart will convince people that drinking 8 glasses of water is necessary for the body’s health. Moreover, while watching the video ad I discovered that it creates an illusion of a human body out of nature such as the body’s lungs, which are represented by various tropical plants, and the intestine, which is created from a waterfall. Finally, the model turns out to be a mother with a healthy body shape standing with her son and husband in a green mountain range area.The Mother is wearing a purple top with a bright pink 3-quarter trouser, which suits the layout of the advertisement. Furthermore, both the father and his son are wearing shorts only that show us their healthy figure that means that Nestle Pure Water keeps the body healthy. Obviously, Evian is a brand of mineral water that uses creativity in order to market its pure water. The ‘Live Young’ Evian water advertisement shows many people wearing a t-shirt t hat creates the illusion that these models have the body of an infant.Although the phrase ‘Live Young’ usually refers to being adventurous, using this illusion sends the message that bottled water companies try to achieve which is the purity of their products. Babies, as newborns, are pure because most of them lack diseases and stress. Looking at the layout of the advertisement, the white background makes the advertisement very positive as it represents calmness and purity; besides, it makes the models’ white T-shirts fade into the light background, which makes the baby bodies seem real.Furthermore, the advertisement’s models are of various ethnicities, which allow more people to relate to it, and help the ad become globally well known since it can be displayed in any country. Besides that, most models are young, yet others are older, which motivates older customers to buy Evian water too. Furthermore, what grabbed my attention is that all of the models ha ve healthy looking bodies, which suggests that drinking Evian Pure Water will keep you not only young but also healthy. The song â€Å"Wordy Rappinghood† is used to form a high-spirited mood as the models move to the beat.Additionally, the models in the commercial are active, and doing different things like drinking water, looking at their shirts, laughing and playing with their hair. All in all, water has always been the source of life for humans. However, people do not actually drink the amount water needed for their body. Therefore, the water companies try to break the routine of water campaigns by creating new artistic commercials that motivate people to become healthier by drinking water and to by their pure bottled water rather than drinking free tap water.Nestle Pure Water and Evian Water Company commercials are great examples since they both market their products and influence people to live a healthy life. References Duncan. (2011, April 20). Evian Babies Are Back to Live Young. Retrieved from http://theinspirationroom. com/daily/2011/evian-babies-are-back-to-live-young/ Meola, K. V. (2005). The Psychology of Color. Hohonu , 3, 2. Nestle Pure Life Natural Spring Water. (n. d. ). Retrieved May 27, 2011, from http://www. nestle-waters. ca/en/ourbrands/pure_life. htm