10 Argon Facts - Ar or Atomic Number 18

Argon is atomic number 18 on the periodic table, with the element symbol Ar. Here is a collection of useful and interesting argon element facts. 10 Argon Facts Argon is a colorless, flavorless, odorless noble gas. Unlike some other gases, it remains colorless even in liquid and solid form. It is nonflammable and nontoxic. However, since argon is 38% more dense than air, it present an asphyxiation risk because it can displace oxygenated air in enclosed spaces.The element symbol for argon used to be A. In 1957, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) changed argons symbol to Ar and mendeleviums symbol from Mv to Md.Argon was the first discovered noble gas. Henry Cavendish had suspected the elements existence in 1785 from his examination of samples of air.  Independent research by H.F. Newall and W.N. Hartley in 1882 revealed a spectral line that could not be assigned to any known element.  The element was isolated and officially discovered in air by Lord Rayleigh and William Ramsay in 1894. Rayleigh and Ramsay removed the nitrogen, oxygen, water, and carbon dioxide and examined the remaining gas. Although other eleme nts were present in the residue of air, they accounted for very little of the total mass of the sample.The element name argon comes from the Greek word argos, which means inactive. This refers to the elements resistance to forming chemical bonds.Argon is considered to be chemically inert at room temperature and pressure.Most of the argon on Earth comes from the radioactive decay of potassium-40 into argon-40. Over 99% of the argon on earth consists of the isotope Ar-40.The most abundant isotope of argon in the universe is argon-36, which is made when stars with a mass about 11 times greater than the Sun are in their silicon-burning phase. In this phase, an alpha particle (helium nucleus) is added to a silicon-32 nucleus to make sulfur-34, which adds an alpha particle to become argon-36. Some of the argon-36 adds an alpha particle to become calcium-40. In the universe, argon is quite rare.Argon is the most abundant noble gas. It accounts for about 0.94% of the Earths atmosphere and a bout 1.6% of the Martian atmosphere. The thin atmosphere of the planet Mercury is about 70% argon.  Not counting water vapor, argon is the third most abundant gas in the Earths atmosphere, after nitrogen and oxygen. It is produced from fractional distillation of liquid air. In all cases, the most abundant isotope of argon on the planets is Ar-40.Argon has many uses. Its found in laser, plasma balls, light bulbs, rocket propellant, and glow tubes. Its used as a protective gas for welding, storing sensitive chemicals, and protecting materials. Sometimes pressurized argon is used as a propellant in aerosol cans. Argon-39 radioisotope dating is used to date the age of ground water and ice core samples. Liquid argon is used in cryosurgery, to destroy cancerous tissue. Argon plasma beams and laser beams are also used in medicine. Argon may be used to make a breathing mix called Argox to help remove dissolved nitrogen from the blood during decompression, as from deep-sea diving. Liquid a rgon is used in scientific experiments, including neutrino experiments and dark matter searches. Although argon is an abundant element, it has no known biological functions.Argon emits a blue-violet glow when it is excited. Argon lasers exhibit a characteristic blue-green glow.Because noble gas atoms have a complete valence electron shell, they are not very reactive. Argon does not readily form compounds. No stable compounds are known at room temperature and pressure, although argon fluorohydride (HArF) has been observed at temperatures below 17K. Argon forms clathrates with water. Ions, such as ArH, and complexes in the excited state, such as ArF, have been seen. Scientists predict stable argon compounds should exist, although they have not yet been synthesized. Argon Atomic Data Name Argon Symbol Ar Atomic Number 18 Atomic Mass 39.948 Melting Point 83.81 K (189.34 C, 308.81 F) Boiling Point 87.302 K (185.848 C, 302.526 F) Density 1.784 grams per cubic centimeter Phase gas Element Group noble gas, group 18 Element Period 3 Oxidation Number 0 Approximate Cost 50 cents for 100 grams Electron Configuration 1s22s22p63s23p6 Crystal Structure face-entered cubic (fcc) Phase at STP gas Oxidation State 0 Electronegativity no value on the Pauling scale Bonus Argon Joke Why dont I tell chemistry jokes? All the good ones argon!

Internship Report on Citi Bank - 11361 Words

INTERNSHIP REPORT CITI BANK LIMITED [pic] SUBMITTED TO: Head of internship committee. Department Of Business Administration Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan Sub Campus Sahiwal SUBMITTED BY: Muhammad Umair Waqas BBA(Hons.) 6th semester Roll no: BBS-06 Department Of Business Administration Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan Sub Campus Sahiwal PREFACE Banking sector owes a pivotal importance in the economy of any country through its vibrant functions. That is why being a banking and finance student it was necessary†¦show more content†¦And in order to fulfill our global corporate responsibilities, we are committed to providing programs and solutions that meet the needs of communities across Pakistan. We take our responsibility towards our community very seriously. Therefore, we remain committed to fulfilling our corporate responsibilities through initiating programs that meet the needs of communities across the country. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction to city bank Early history Citi bank Pakistan Citi bank’s world Global consumer bank Global corporate and investment bank Milestones Commercial banking Corporate banking Work done by me Financial analysis Latest news about Citi bank Bibliography INTRODUCTION TO CITI BANK Citibank is a major international bank, founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York. Citibank is now the consumer and corporate banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup, one of the largest companies in the world. As of March 2007, it is the largest bank in the United States by holdings. Citibank has operations in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. More than half of its 1,400 offices are in the United States, mostly in the New York City, Chicago, Miami, and Washington DC metropolitan areas, as well as in California. 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Critical Analysis of Recruitment and Selection Process of HRM

Questions: SG Cowen: New Recruits Chip Rae, director of recruiting at SG Cowen, looked out the conference room window at the falling flakes and wondered how fast the snow was accumulating. Most of the firms bankers had come in from Connecticut or Westchester to participate in the Super Saturday recruiting event, and he knew they were anxious to get home before the weather deteriorated and made travel dangerous. The interviews had finished at noon, and the candidates from various graduate schools had left for their flights right away. Now, the bankers were eating lunch, discussing interview results and making decisions. They were sitting in Giants Stadium, the banks largest conference room, and Rae had set the tables up in a U-shape so that he could stand in the front and still communicate with all 30 bankers. He posted placards with all the candidate names on the bulletin board and moved them around as they came up for discussion. The hiring meeting had moved rapidly through a number of candidates. The decision makers had agreed on candidates who were firm yeses and some other clear nos. Now was the tricky part: there were four candidates still left. Each person had some strong support among their interviewers but had also raised some questions. To reach the ideal class size after factoring in expected yield, Rae wanted to give out only two more offers. Investment Banking Industry in 2001 Consolidation in the investment banking industry was widespread, as major firms bought small banks, bought retail brokers, and considered partnering with commercial banks. Mergers and acquisitions (MA) and equities remained the highest-margin businesses but also very volatile, as deal volume and initial public offering (IPO) issuances could dry up very quickly in a downturn. In a down market, fixed incomes more stable revenue stream was especially welcome. Integrated banking groups such as Citigroup or JP Morgan Chase were sometimes able to win investment banking business away from the traditional bulge-bracket firms because of their ability to offer loans and other commercial banking capabilities. Some strategists believed the lending business was the wave of the future, while others targeted the custody business. The custody business, which involved holding and processing the buying and selling of securities for investors, was a low-risk fee-based business that was considered munda ne but offered regular opportunities for interaction and service to potential clients. Several investment banks reported declining profits, and some laid off staff to cut costs. The biggest expense on Wall Street was compensation costs, averaging 50% of revenue.1 In the prosperous years on Wall Street in the late 1990s, some firms had salary and bonus costs upwards of 60%, since firms signed multiyear contracts promising fixed bonus payouts to keep talent and also signed separate profit-sharing agreements with individual business groups to prevent them from spinning out on their own. Investment banks were also under increased scrutiny from regulators and the public, who were concerned about conflict of interest. Many new equity issues, especially in technology, had been supported by research analysts, particularly at the firms that had executed the IPOs. This loyalty to the banking clients came at the expense of the investors who followed analyst recommendations and bought stock in companies that often continued to decline. Firms were now developing better guidelines for keeping research teams independent from bankers and their clients. Investment banks fought for talent with firms in venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, consulting, and, for the last few years, tech companies. Banks were reassured to see students return to the fold, as they exhibited much more interest in established brand-name companies for secure jobs. However, the interest level had gone from one extreme to the other. Where banks had once feared they were only seeing second-tier candidates, now they had recruiting yields much higher than expected and struggled with how to handle all the new recruits as business slowed down. SG Cowen SG Cowen was born when Socit Gnrale purchased Cowen and Company in July 1998. Socit Gnrale was an international bank based in France, founded in 1864, nationalized in 1945, and privatized in 1987. By 2000, it was one of the worlds largest banks, with assets of over $430 billion as of December 2000. Like many European banks, it wanted a foothold in investment banking in the United States. Many of these banks had tried to create a beachhead in the U.S. but had not succeeded. Socit Gnrale had flirted with buying one of the CHARM banks for the past five years and decided Cowen was the best match culturally.2 By 2000, Socit Gnrales $600 million purchase of Cowen had started to pay off: SG Cowen went from an operating loss of $75 million in 1999 to an operating profit of $34 million the following year. Cowen began business as a bond brokerage house in 1918 and grew into a firm known for top-tier research and strong equity sales and trading capabilities. It was now also focused on building up its investment banking and MA advisory services. The new entity SG Cowen, numbering 1,500 professionals, planned to remain a boutique-sized firm but had access to the parent firms balance sheet. SG Cowens investment bankers focused on emerging growth companies in two volatile but highly profitable areas, health care and technology. This focused approach to banking depended on deep knowledge collected through its equity research team, highly regarded for its coverage of both health care and technology. Kim Fennebresque, president and CEO of SG Cowen, often described research as the edge of a wedge that created inroads with new clients. The firm had strong roots in Boston but had now opened several other offices, as far apart as San Francisco, Dallas, and London. This raised concerns about making sure employees in smaller offices were not isolated and also that they had full knowledge of and access to the resources of the global firm. As the firm grew, there were concerns that groups should make sure there were frequent interactions and that people should know about one anothers deals and proposals and make sure they coordinated their client activity. Fennebresque believed that SG Cowen should continue to grow geographically but stay industry focused: We will, under all circumstances, remain an emerging growth investment bank. Our geographical reach will extend to Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world, but we will not stray from that focused sectoral agenda. We have in our midst, and will continue to attract, the highest-quality professionals who believe in that business model. The Hiring Process Like most firms on Wall Street, SG Cowen made hiring decisions in the early winter and spring of each year to fill a new class of associates who would begin that summer. Some associates had previously been employed by SG Cowen as analysts and were promoted to first-year associate at the end of their third year with the firm without going to business school.3 Other associates started out as interns in the summer between their first and second year of business school and subsequently were offered full-time employment at the end of their internship commencing the following summer. The hiring process for new outside associate hires began in the fall, when SG Cowen would make company presentations at its core business schools, where it participated in the on-campus recruiting programs. These schools were NYU, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, USC, Washington University, Notre Dame, and Berkeley. SG Cowen would also accept resumes from students at noncore schools, where it was not partici pating in the on-campus program. Often SG Cowen professionals would conduct informational interviews with students in the office in advance of official first-round interviews. These interviews, which were not part of the formal process, were a chance for SG Cowen to gauge how serious and enthusiastic the candidates were and a chance for candidates to learn more about the firm and the industry before the interview in which they would be actually evaluated. Rae assigned team captains to every school at which SG Cowen recruited on campus so that students had a constant and familiar point of contact. Ideally, these team captains were banking professionals and not human resource professionals, and as often as possible, Rae would try to match up alumni with their own school. Gregg Schoenberg was team captain at the Johnson School of Business at Cornell, the school that currently provided SG Cowens highest recruiting yield. Schoenberg had joined the firm in August 1998 and now worked in the Equity Capital Markets Group. He became actively involved in recruiting at Cornell upon joining for two reasons. First was that he believed SG Cowen would benefit from the high quality of candidates at Cornell. Second was that he wanted to make it easier for Cornell grads to obtain investment banking positions on Wall Street. Schoenberg averred: In the bull market years, the Goldmans of the world would back up the recruiting truck to places like Harvard and invite slews of students to climb aboard. It was tougher for us because we didnt have the alumni base in New York. We came down here on our own nickel and really pounded the pavement. But you can turn a negative into a positive. Because Cornell students who do want to do banking have to show more initiative and be more focused, generally this makes them great hires. When Schoenberg had been hired, Cornell was not a core school, and Schoenberg described SG Cowen at the time as so-so receptive to people from noncore schools, mostly because the lack of an on-campus round made for disproportionate hassles to pin bankers down to do interviews and set up individual interview times in the middle of a regular workday. Coming from a nontraditional background in politics, Schoenberg felt SG Cowens interest in him really gained momentum once they knew he had been called back for second rounds at Lazard Freres. When Schoenberg recruited for SG Cowen, he said he always told candidates, It doesnt matter what you did before, what matters is that you have demonstrated a pattern of success. But he also said candidates had to be realistic about their fit, as he himself was. I couldnt outmodel a former Morgan Stanley analyst, he said. He moved to Equity Capital Markets from MA within his first few months because it played to my interests in the markets and my pers onality. People need to be fast learners, he said, because Wall Street doesnt have the patience to allow someone to develop slowly. Raes Strategy Schoenbergs advocacy for making Cornell a core school converged perfectly with Raes new strategy for choosing core business schools. We used to go to the top 10, Rae said, but at some of the top schools we were getting people in the middle of the class. Paying more attention to the next 15 schools in the top 25 was Raes new strategy. Rae, who graduated from Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, had originally been a banker himself at JP Morgan before moving into recruiting positions there and at Merrill, Smith Barney, and then SG Cowen. His previous employers were giants on the top 10 campuses, with huge recruiting budgets, recognized brand names, and, most importantly, much larger hiring needs, which meant that they received immediate student interest. At schools such as Emory and USC, SG Cowen could be a relatively bigger player and attract more attention from the best students. There was resistance initially from senior management, as this was viewed as going downstream. But Rae said, Senior managers eventually saw the wisdom. We were hiring at the top of the class, and these students also tended to be more loyal. We were not missing much by not going to the top schools. At each of the core schools, Rae scheduled a company presentation in advance of the interview dates. At the presentation, Rae guided the team captains to make sure they answered four questions quickly: who are we, what do we do, what distinguishes us from competitors, and what are the next steps. SG Cowen promoted the advantages of a boutique firm, arguing that there was less bureaucracy than at larger banks, that people could move much faster in their careers than at other banks, where they would be hired and promoted lockstep as part of a large class. Team captains talked about the advantages of small deal teams, which allowed for more exposure to clients, more responsibilities, and more entrepreneurship. Rae encouraged team captains to make a very short formal presentation and then allow a substantial amount of time to informally talk and answer questions. At schools like NYU, SG Cowen would be represented by an MD, who made the presentation, and then perhaps 20 alumni who could then have fairly substantial interaction with the expected 100 students who would show up. Some team captains like Schoenberg would tell students they could call him or come and see him (at their own expense) for informational interviews. This would help self-select students who really wanted to be prepared for first-round interviews by knowing more about the firm and also establishing a relationship with him. However, he admitted there was a fine line between helping students who were self-starters and giving them unfair advantage in the process. Some team captains put in a lot of time and effort, while some put in less. SG Cowen did not directly compensate or reward bankers for being involved in recruiting activities, but recruiting was included on the performance reviews leading to year-end bonuses. On-Campus Round At every core school, SG Cowen had two or three schedules comprising at least one open one, whereby students signed up based on interest, and the rest closed, whereby SG Cowen selected among previously submitted resumes. Rae said, In the past, Ive found as many good people on the open as the closed list. In the first rounds, interviewers tried to focus on which of these candidates could make it through Super Saturday. Schoenberg said, When I go up to interview, Im tough on candidates because I dont want to embarrass myself later on by endorsing weak candidates. Interviewers knew they would be held liable for the quality of candidates they brought back for Super Saturday, and their own reputation was diminished if they wasted the time of senior bankers at the firm interviewing candidates at Super Saturday who were clearly not appropriate. At the same time, Schoenberg said, When I see people who are prepared and have the eagerness, I fight very hard for them. While some bankers were especially tough, others were especially easy and wanted to be generous in their assessments of all the candidates. Rae said, This is where you see the beauty of writing comments down. At the end of a day of first-round interviews, the two or three people who had been interviewing would discuss whom they had seen. Rae tried to make detailed notes on resumes or on the evaluation sheets he had created, and he encouraged the bankers to do the same so they could recollect specific details about each candidate (see Exhibit 1 for a sample of Raes notes from past interviews). Most often there were two schedules, which would amount to 24 candidates. They would then try to narrow the list to six candidates and quickly have a second round, even that same night, on campus in order to cut half and invite the other half to Super Saturday. Rae said the firm usually wanted associates or senior associates to conduct first-round interviews: Were not aggressive about sending our most senior people out; we want to downstream the identification of talent and upstream the responsibility of closing on offers to senior people. Rae felt that often the senior-most people were removed from day-to-day concerns and tended not to be as demanding about the basic skills an associate needed, whereas those just a few years ahead of a first- year associate would be much more rigorous about assessing skills. He made sure senior bankers would be at Super Saturday, however, to judge whether potential associates also had the makings of a good long-term banker. In Raes view, long-term success did not come from building models, it came from loving the work, loving to teach and sell, and loving the hunt. The successful bankers had to feel the excitement of serving clients and the excitement of competing at the highest level. In this first round, he also instructed interviewers to test for culture fit. This could be as simple as asking someone whose work and education experience was entirely in the Midwest, Are you comfortable living and working in New York? Rae said, Sometimes they might be a diamond in the rough and they can make the transition, but cultural fit is important. Other bankers at SG Cowen agreed. One banker, Ryan Daws, pointed out, Its important having Chip in the process because there are only so many personality types in the world, and hes seen a lot more than we have. Daws said, HR at every bank has to earn credibility with bankers, but when you have someone like Chip who used to be a banker, it makes it easier. He also said, Certain types fail to succeed once they get here, which colors the interviewing process. For Daws, alarm signals went off when people did not dress appropriately, or when they asked questions like, Are the hours really as bad as they say? He acknowledged there was some ego involved on the interviewing side. No ones ever as good as I thought I was, he joked. Super Saturday Super Saturday in fact began on Friday afternoon, when candidates arrived from their various schools and convened with many of the interviewers for dinner and cocktails in the wine cellar of an elegant midtown restaurant. Fennebresque spoke at dinner, and, because he was a great speaker and because it was rare to get the attention of a CEO during recruiting, candidates were usually visibly impressed. On Saturday morning, interviews began at nine, and each interviewer and each candidate had five half-hour sessions with short breaks. Rae tried to keep these interviews moving and spent a lot of time gently tapping and then firmly knocking on bankers doors when they lost track of time. Super Saturday was exhausting for the interviewers as well as the interviewees, and Rae wanted to make sure the bankers saved some energy for the collective decision making. Thirty candidates had attended, which meant Rae had commandeered 30 bankers to come to Super Saturday. Rae said, Theyre giving up a S aturday, and they want to get out of here as fast as they can. But they get to make the decisions, and that brings them in here every year. Rae estimated from previous years that he should make 20 offers if his target was 15 acceptances. There were already eight hires from the summer associate program, and seven third-year analysts were being promoted, so this would achieve his objective of a full associate class of 30. Successful candidates received offers to join investment banking. Those who accepted returned for an orientation in April to meet with the banking groups that interested them most. By the time the training program started, each new associate was assigned to a group. The hiring meeting started as the bankers ate their lunch. The bankers usually felt very confident that they could whip through the list of candidates quickly, as they often assumed that others would have shared their view on the interviews they conducted. Bankers were always surprised at these meetings to find out how strong the disagreement could be. One managing director might be turned off by a candidate for being too salesy, I thought he was trying to snow me, and that same candidate could have appealed to another director for having great attitude, eager to contribute. Rae had to figure out how to let everyone weigh in and then build consensus around a decision. Building a Culture through Hiring Rae said, I try to get people to act and behave like a firm. He wanted to make sure bankers were not overly partial to candidates from their own alma maters and also that bankers did not hire people who would only succeed in their own group. At the same time he wanted to make sure that bankers did not relax standards and hire a candidate whom they thought of as good enough for the firm but not good enough for my group. Sometimes he would try to push a banker to a conclusion by saying, If you could only take one new associate to the CEOs office with you, which one would it be? Or at the other extreme, If I cant place her, shes going to be yours, how do you feel about that? One HR manager at SG Cowen commented: People on Wall Street are too hard on people who took some time to figure out what they want to do. But look at Kim Fennebresque, our CEO. He started out as a lawyer, and hes been incredibly successful in banking. But when people are hiring, they dont think of that. Personally, I think anyone who tells you in an interview that they wanted to be an investment banker since age 12 has led an incredibly dull life. Fennebresque said, We want to make sure people who are attracted to a place like this understand what this is. We want to ferret out people who love technology, who love emerging growth. Making the firm more visible to both potential clients and potential employees was one reason Fennebresque agreed to frequent appearances on CNBC and business segments on other news shows. So many people come to Wall Street for the wrong reasons, he said. Theyre dazzled by dough and dazzled by stature. People should figure out what they like to do, it matters even more than what theyre good at. I was perfectly good at law, but I sat in that law library at night and I thought the librarian was the Marquis de Sade torturing me. If you dont like what youre doing, even if youre good at it, eventually you and God are going to figure it out. Fennebresque spoke fondly of having started out in banking at First Boston in the 1980s during the firms heyday and in close view of the rise of Joe Perella and Bruce Wasserstein. Fennebresque said, I used to believe culture was an overrated Harvard buzzword, but First Boston made him realize how much culture mattered. We were young punks trying to elbow in on the big boys, and it worked, he said proudly. He was trying to bring some of that dynamism to SG Cowen. Because the investment bankers had all been hired from different firms to build SG Cowens banking platform, Fennebresque often used the metaphor of Ellis Island to exhort his bankers to come together and create a unified new culture. He also wanted to make sure they felt they had the support they needed to get their work done, and Fennebresque tried to give bankers as much autonomy and decision- making power as possible. Fennebresques involvement in recruiting events and his visibility with new and young employees stemmed from this desire to provide support. The most important clients are inside, not outside. I really believe that, he said. Hiring Criteria Rae tried to formalize the criteria by using grid sheets for the bankers to fill out and having them vote and make a case on behalf of their candidate. There were definitely bankers who resisted any kind of science in this process. Bill Buchanan, HBS 86, was head of Equity Capital Markets and had also come to SG Cowen from First Boston, like Fennebresque. The type of person who does well here doesnt want to be told what to do. He or she is far less regimented. This is not the Navy. We want the self-starter. Buchanan said he did put a lot of stock in resumes: It makes a big difference if they have been an entrepreneur. Most important, though, he hired for fit. He was even known to change the structure for fit, in that he had created jobs for people he thought SG Cowen should hire. As Buchanan put it, We can stretch for personality, and we can stretch for sparkle. Especially in ECM, Buchanan said, The human element, especially our creativity and energy, is why a company chooses us as f inancial advisor in the first place, especially on commoditized products. Were very hands on and high touch. Were not the volume leader, but we are a service leader. Candidates for Hiring The bankers assembled had assigned almost all the magnetic placards representing the applicants into decision groups. They had two spots remaining and four people in the maybe category from whom to choose.4 Natalya Godlewska Natalya Godlewska was an MBA student at Cornell and had earned an undergraduate degree in finance at an eastern European university. As an undergraduate, she had been the student with the highest grade point average (GPA) in the finance department, and she went on to serve as a graduate teaching assistant in the finance program at Cornells business school. She was originally from Poland and had moved to the U.S. at the age of 22. She spoke fluent Russian, Polish, and German and some French. Prior to business school, she had worked for four years for CommScan, a company that developed MA modeling software used by many major Wall Street firms. She had gone to the SG Cowen presentation at Cornell, called the bankers she had met to have informational interviews, and then had been one of the top candidates from Cornell sent on to Super Saturday. At Super Saturday, her interviews had mostly gone well, although there was some hesitation from two interviewers. Everyone was uniformly impressed with her finance background, her analytical knowledge, and her understanding of the financial markets. When one of the bankers had telephoned her references, her previous supervisor had responded positively about Godlewskas skills and also commented, This is the person I would want to bring to a tough negotiation. She seemed very determined, ambitious, and ready to work hard. But one associate and one managing director each expressed strong reservations for different reasons. The associate felt that Godlewska might not be a good culture fit with the other associates and that she had seemed stiff and uncomfortable during small talk at the opening of the interview and also at dinner the night before. The managing director felt that some bankers might lose patience with Godlewskas less-than- perfect English and that this would affect her ability to work smoothly with her managers. Other people on her interview schedule spoke up in her defense. Associates should be made to deal with people with different backgrounds, and it was all too easy to use culture as an excuse. One banker said he thought Godlewska would be a hit with clients because she was a go-getter and radiated positive energy and a can-do attitude. He said that though it might be an issue with impatient bankers on her team, her language skill would definitely not be an issue with clients because most of our clients think Wall Street types speak too fast anyway. Martin Street Martin Street was a second-year Wharton MBA who had previously served four years in the military. He had no business experience, but he had substantial leadership experience, most notably having led a rescue operation in war-torn Bosnia. He was president of his section at Wharton and also of the Running Club, having completed two marathons and one triathlon in the past year. All of his interviewers agreed that he came across as a dynamic personality and that he was confident and articulate. SG Cowen came to Wharton toward the middle of the recruiting period, so as one banker said, People either really want SG Cowen, or they didnt get offers from other firms. Street had told them he was taking several finance courses, but SG Cowen was not allowed to ask him about his grades because that was forbidden under Wharton recruiting rules. Cowen had difficulty scheduling Street for Super Saturday because he was always involved in recruiting events at other firms. He had said that he liked smaller firms and liked SG Cowens areas of specialization, but they still were unsure what the likelihood was that Street would accept the offer if it was extended. They were also wary of whether he would play firms against one another in terms of wanting additional time to interview and consider offers, which might prevent SG Cowen from being able to fill that slot with another top-choice candidate. One professional in recruiting said, If a person doesnt sign and accept the offer letter right away, weve made a mistake. Ken Goldstein Ken Goldstein was a second-year MBA at Berkeley who had previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for five years. He had quickly risen to be a manager at PWC, managing multiple audit teams simultaneously, drawing up budgets and pricing for projects, making presentations to win business, and resolving technical accounting issues for clients. When SG Cowen called his reference at PWC, he confirmed, Kens performance appraisals put him in the top 5% of the firm. Everyone who had interviewed Goldstein liked him and thought he would represent SG Cowen well. In fact, when Rae looked over the written comments on all the evaluation forms, they were uniformly positive. Why hadnt Goldstein been an immediate yes, why was he one of the maybes that warranted this discussion? One banker said, I can tell you what everyones afraid to say. Ken is married and has two sons, a newborn and a two-year-old. Whatever he did at PWC, we cant tell at this stage of his life whether he really will be willing to work 24/7 like the rest of the associates. One of the senior associates said, Its hard on the other first years if we make allowances for Ken to pick up his kids at daycare or not work on a weekend when his wifes away. None of the first years expect to have a life, so what happens when they see Ken having a life? Some interviewers said Goldstein had openly talked about his intention to be able to balance a family with being a banker. One of his interviewers sa id, I commend him for trying, but I break promises to my kids all the time, to take them to the first day of school, to get home for a game. Another banker said, Its weird to say this, because we always say were looking for maturity, but I almost think Kens too mature. If he were on my team, I wonder if he would do what I tell him to do, or if hell dislike taking orders. Hes used to having a lot of responsibility and being in charge. Andy Sanchez Andy Sanchez was a second-year MBA at the University of Southern California and had completed his undergraduate degree in economics at UCLA. Sanchez had found early success as an entrepreneur, having started his own business during his first year of college, a Kaplan- style tutoring business to prepare students in Los Angeles for high school achievement tests and the SATs in both English and Spanish. After college, he ran the business full time for three years and then continued to run it while he enrolled in business school. Last year, his business had served 4,000 students at an average price of $500 per course, resulting in $2 million in revenue and clearing $400,000 in profits divided between himself and an equity provider. Sanchezs interviewers all found him enthusiastic and personable. He had talked to a lot of people at SG Cowen and had stopped into the New York office to have informational interviews or talk to other associates on several occasions when he was in the city for other meetings. He always sent follow-up e-mails and notes to everyone he spoke to, was friendly to the other candidates at Super Saturday, and was great at making people relax. He was well informed about the firm, telephoned other alumni from USC to talk to them about their banking experiences, and seemed as though he had been reading up on investment banking, speaking very cogently about recent landmark deals in some of his interviews. When asked whether he was sure he wanted to leave his business, he said he was ready for new challenges and that his younger brother was going to run it in his absence. The biggest concern interviewers had with Sanchez was from his resume, which listed a 2.8 for his undergraduate GPA. When asked about his business school GPA, Sanchez had said it was a 3.1. At a time when most schools including USC had a fair amount of grade inflation, SG Cowen bankers were concerned that he had had so many Cs on his record over the years. Were not looking for rocket scientists, but a 2.8 really sticks out, one banker said. Sanchez had pointed out to one of his interviewers that his SATs and GMATs were quite high and that his low grades only reflected the amount of work he was putting into running his business. Rae looked over the other resumes of the Super Saturday candidates, and Sanchez had a very competitive SAT score and one of the highest GMAT scores. Sanchez had told one of his interviewers, There was a lot of demand for our services, so we got excited and grew the business pretty fast, and I also needed to make enough money to put myself through school and th en put my two brothers through school. Unfortunately, that left me little time for studying. Decision Time The bankers were having a hard time deciding among the four candidates, and they were running out of energy. The snow was coming down faster, and most of the food was gone, the bankers now going back to the buffet for a second sandwich or some lukewarm pasta. They had made good progress, but choosing these last two candidates was not turning out to be an easy task. Rae remembered Fennebresques admonition to make the hiring process our most important priority. One banker spoke up, Chip, lets keep this meeting moving. The roads look bad, and its my anniversary tonight. If I dont get home soon, Im in deep trouble. Answer the following two questions. 1. Which two candidates would you select if you were a member of the recruiting committee?2. Evaluate SG Cowens recruitment and selection processes. Offer your recommendations to improve the processes. Answers: 1. The process of recruitment and selection can be considered as a very significant part of the human resource management. Principally the purpose of recruitment is prior to the process of selection. The process of recruitment comprises of the entire process of looking for possible candidates in order to fill up the actual or the probable or upcoming vacancies and hence it can be considered as a connecting link which brings together the people who are seeking jobs and who are ready to render jobs and opportunities to people (Zand et al., 2004). The primary objective is to recognize the suitable individual who would meet the requirements of the jobs and the specifications of the job. Keeping in mind these criteria of recruitment and selection procedure, the selection of the candidates needs to be done. Before choosing any particular candidate it is necessary to analyse the pros and cons of all the candidates. With regard to the first candidate, the things that should be noted were firstly the fact that she had received the highest grade point. Further she had good analytical knowledge, was determined, ambitious and hard working. However, she was stiff and reserved. The second candidate was confident, articulate with a dynamic personality and good leadership skills. But he did not have any business skills. The third candidate had good experience of working in a PricewaterhouseCoopers for five years. Nonetheless, the problem with him was that he was a family man and hence it can be construed that his productivity in work would be comparatively less and would also tend to have an adverse effect on the other young employers. The fourth candidate was an entrepreneur a nd also very friendly and well-informed. The problem with this candidate was that he had a very low GPA. Considering all the good qualities of the candidates present for the interview, an analysis needs to be made as to the two candidates who would finally be the most beneficial for the company. Firstly, it must be remembered that when recruiting the people as appropriate candidates there should always be a balance with regard to experienced candidates and young candidates. Hence if one candidate chosen is experienced the other candidate chosen should be more energetic and young and talented. Keeping in mind, these criteria, the first candidate that I would prefer to chose would be Ken Goldstein. This is because this candidate is more experienced than others and has also worked in a very reputed organization. Even though he is a family man, having worked in a reputed organization, he would be accustomed to deal with work pressures and also balance family and work at the same time. The other candidate that I would have chosen for the job would be Andy Sanchez. This candidate is chosen since he is a very good blend of experience, energy and enthusiasm. Even though his grades are less, it must be noted that he has a very good practical experience since he has previously been an entrepreneur. His practical experience along with his energetic attitude would be a good blend with Ken Goldstein and together according to me they would make a good input to the company. 2. Scholar Flippo had stated about the recruitment process that this process is primarily for searching for probable employees and ones who stimulate them to apply for the jobs in those organizations. Further according to another scholar Yoder, the process of recruitment mainly discovers the various sources of man power for meeting the requirements of the schedule of staffs and to input appropriate measures in order to attract manpower in proper manner and make smooth selection of an exact workforce (ijimt, 2010). Hence recruitment is one extremely important function that is mainly carried out by the administration department. On the other side selection is another important criteria that secures the right information given regarding the applicant (Zand et al., 2004). The purpose of the selection process is to identify whether the potential candidate has enough qualification that is required for the specific job and in most cases it is observed that this is a very lengthy process. This entire process starts with the interview and concludes with the contract of employment. The company of SG Cowen is an extremely well known organization that has found a very good base in its area of expertise. With regard to the hiring decisions of the company, it has been observed that the company has a firm procedure for recruitment. The hiring decisions of the company are generally made during the early winter and also during spring every year. During this time mainly the new class of associates are filled who would begin work during summer. Some of the associates who had previously been employed by the company presently work as analysts and after the end of the third year they are promoted to the level of first year associates. The hiring process of the firm for the entirely new and fresh associates generally commence with the fall season. An examination of the hiring procedures of the company depicts that the company is not very strict with the removal of the senior employees. The idea is primarily to decrease the recognition of talent and increase the responsibilities relating to closing of the offers for the senior people. In the case of senior employees, the general method that is followed is that these employees are shifted from the day to day concerns of the company and are placed in the not so demanding works and skills. In those places of the senior associates the first year associates would be placed who would be more precise with regard to the assessment of skills. The principle that the company follows consid ering the hiring process is that it is the long term success that the company aims at and such a good association would be possible only when all the associates love the entire process of work that they do that includes the teaching, selling etc. As we have understood with regard to this process of recruitment and selection, that is process is extremely essential for the smooth running of any organization. For any recruitment procedure, the human resource management of the organization has to stress on the selection of the right person and in order to maintain that they should be hired from campus placements, job portals and data banks (Taylor, 2008). With regard to the given company, the organization has referred to the campus placements and data banks. However, not much has been stated about the job portals. This particular sphere has been probably missed by the recruitment team. One recommendation to the organization would be to include the job portals for the process of hiring. In most cases the selection is done by evaluating the skills of the candidates along with the knowledge and abilities that is an essential requirement in most organizations (Taylor, 2007). One more criteria that are extremely significant is the motivation of the employees. It needs to be mentioned that in this regard the company has maintained a good reputation. This organization takes good care of the seniors as well as the new employees who are generally trying to give their best possible efforts in the company. In order to improve this enthusiasm it is necessary provide them with good offers and incentives in both ways monetary and non-monetary. These existing recruitment and selection procedures are required to be followed so that the company is able to give good returns (Government of UK, 2011). Further another suggestion would be that the company should give more significance to the existing external sources such as the agencies or the references or the data banks so that they get the desired and appropriate candidates. Additionally while recruiting it must be kept in mind that there should be a good balance of experienced as well as fresh and young candidates for the company to have a smooth run. References Government of UK, (2011).A qualitative study exploring employers recruitment behaviour and decisions: small and medium enterprises. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214529/rrep754.pdf [Accessed 25 Feb. 2015]. ijimt, (2010).Recruitment and Selection Process. [online] Available at: https://www.ijimt.org/papers/77-M469.pdf [Accessed 25 Feb. 2015]. Taylor, I. (2007).A practical guide to assessment centres and selection methods. London: Kogan Page Ltd. Taylor, I. (2008).The assessment and selection handbook. London: Kogan Page. Zand, D., Thomson, N., Dugan, M., Braun, J., Holterman-Hommes, P. and Hunter, P. (2004). The Recruitment Process.Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 3(2), pp.43-54.

Understanding While the Auto Waits free essay sample

Parkenstacker, has been coming to this very park for quite some time following this same maiden. The mystery woman goes into great detail about her life, her millions†¦as if she is so discontent and drawn overly bored with the statures and stipulations of the upper class. She almost makes it seem as if she is in a class above that of which is consider â€Å"upper†, as if almost a royal figure by the mentioning of â€Å"the Drake and the Prince†. She makes mention of this figures of royalty when the young man questions if she will truly be able to fall in love with just a common man. By never offering her name to Mr. Parkenstacker she has left so much to be desired for in this short play, so much more you want to initially know about her. I start imagining if she is the heir to a textile fortune, possibly from a wealthy family with a rich history in banking on the most supreme of levels. We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding While the Auto Waits or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Early on you do not even realize that Parkenstacker is doing just the same as the young lady is. They are both putting on airs as they say, each wanting to unknowingly trade shoes for a day or for an eternity even. Mr. Parkenstacker is portraying to a commoner who has not true idea of having financial authority but claiming to consider he somewhat a connoisseur of the rich and well-to-do class. He begins by attempting to summarize up what her life is like which leads to her expounding more on her alleged lifestyle. The young lady almost seems as if she wants out of this dreaded long life of balls, dinners, plays, operas, and being around other people only drawn to her by her financial status or monetary circles. She is living in a world where your name is so powerful she feels as if she cannot dare give him that small piece of information for he will surely know just who he is talking with on this park bench. Then we have a break in the play when the waitress from the restaurant across the street enters the park, evidently looking for this young lady whom we now address as Mary-Jane Parker. Claiming that she is tired of her pulling off these shenanigans and being late for work a third time and the owner being furious. The waitress is the vital part of this play for if not for her we would have left off thinking Mr. Parkenstacker was a poor common man and the aforementioned unknown lady was of the wealthy class. As the chauffer finally approaches Mr. Parkenstacker and the end and asks him shall he cancel the dinner reservations, then and only then do we see what has transpired. Mr. Parkenstacker is actually the wealthy one and he has been attempting to ask this lady, Mary-Jane Parker out on a date for quite some time but the one time he has had the courage to approach her she has been called out in scandal. The 10-minute play â€Å"While the Auto Waits† by O. Henry sticks the guildine of such a work defined by the Kennedy Center based on the fact it uses two main characters, it exposes a plot almost immediately, and it brings a story full circle in such a short period of time without a change of scenes.

Local authorities are better placed to respond to crises and disasters

Local authorities are better placed to respond to crises and disasters Introduction Local and central governments have different roles to play in the response and management of disasters. In this context, disaster means a â€Å"sudden catastrophic event that brings any enormous destruction, damage, loss and/or devastation of property and life† (Taylor 1986, ‘Coordination for Disasters’ p.12).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Local authorities are better placed to respond to crises and disasters specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The damages so referred are immeasurable and vary in magnitudes depending on the inflicted region’s geographical location, climatic conditions and earth’s surface degree of vulnerability. During the occurrence of disasters, the social systems of emergency responses remain more often than not rendered disrupted and malfunctioned. Any hazard that causes immense human suffering amounts to a disaster if it is unpredictable occurring in a large enough speed to out power the response systems, characterized by uncertainty, urgency and the posing of intense threat. For any disaster to take place, people must be living in hazardous places for instance near volcanoes that are active, slopes susceptible to slides, or in regions likely to flood. In addition, the hazardous phenomenon must take place, whether it is human or naturally instigated. Finally the occurrence of the â€Å"disastrous phenomenon must cause immeasurable extensive damages especially where preventive measures have not been taken† (Taylor 1986, ‘The Context of British Politics’ p.57). Therefore, as the paper unveils, disasters do not include single incidents of human life losses such as a plane crush but rather entangle widespread human sufferings such as an intense earthquake, financial, outbreak of certain infectious diseases, flooding, or even human instigated disasters such as Chernobyl or sea express spill among others. The essa y will look at the roles of the central government in control and management of disasters as contrasted from the local government’s roles and finally evaluate the combined hands of both governance levels to draw a conclusion on which governance level is best placed to cope with disasters management. However, as is exposes, the reverse of the proposition is the case. Overview of the history and practice of civil defense Various theoretical perspectives have been formulated by different nations to cope with disasters. For instance, in 1991 â€Å"†¦the UK government launched a review of disasters preparations in the nation† (Alexander 2000, p.71). A national aim geared towards enhancement of nationwide emergencies planning agendas was published in 2003.Advertising Looking for essay on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The agenda focused on putting into place resilience measures fo r the nation to respond to aftermaths of disruptive challenges as opposed to measures of risks reduction via anticipation or alternatively redundancy measures. According to Comfort (1994, p 157), such an approach makes an assumption of â€Å"†¦a capacity to reorganize resources and action to respond to actual danger, after it occurs†. Resilience here entangles specialized protections, which are standardized and centralized methodologies of hazards prediction. According to the civil contingencies bill, all the above mentioned resilient measure are all duties of local governments with an exception of centralization which is a mandate of central governments. â€Å"The general requirement of the bill, as an embodiment of current government thinking, seem to make it clear that central government’s desire is to distance itself from response to local disasters whilst trying to ensure adequate local preparation† (Lupton 1999, p.83). Crucial to note is that disaster s idiosyncrasies are not ardently necessary addressed by putting in place formal ways of disasters preparations. According to Comfort (1994), some of the idiosyncrasies include â€Å"need to be flexible in response and to be prepared to innovate† (p.158). Armed with these idiosyncrasies, any form of disaster response system can be sure to respond to the specific requirement of any new moment. As result â€Å"Central government desires to remain detached from local emergencies can be justified in the context and remains consistent with a theme of appropriate decentralization† (Taylor 1986, ‘The Context of British Politics’ p.56). Historically, differences exist in the manner in which decentralized and centralized nations handle disasters. The centralized governments have â€Å"fewer decision takers and that they are placed at a higher level in the response hierarchy† (Alexander 2000, p.164). The hierarchical and centralized models designed to handle disaster have received enormous critics since they have been perceived as having the capacity to hinder free information flow and consequently posing a tragedy in decision-making.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Local authorities are better placed to respond to crises and disasters specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Modern trends however, are based on coming up with remote structures that are adaptable to specific incidents and which posses amicable familiarity with appropriate responding services. As Penning-Roswell (1996) observes, â€Å"†¦at least in the case of natural hazard, although there is tendency to focus disaster response at local level, because of the intimate knowledge of the environment in which the emergency is occurring† (p.123) a broader disciplinary and geographical perspectives makes better insights be realized. Whether the disaster response is well established at local level as opposed to central level of governance is subject to essential requirements such the generic role of the government and the ability to have appropriate leadership during, before and after the occurrence of any disaster both at national and at local levels. Local and central government Leadership and disasters response Leadership encompasses willingness and the availability of good will to act in an appropriate way. Leadership, Prior to occurrence of any disaster, is essential despite the fact that more often than not, it is not easily recognizable. Under normal circumstances, deferring traits are demanded from those occupying authority positions during times of emergencies. Leave alone at local level, the capacity of the leaders at central government level to provide appropriate directive in times of disasters is subject to critics as for example during the hurricane Katrina disaster. Penning-Roswell (1996) noted that â€Å"Mismanagement and lack of preparation in relief effort in respons e to hurricane Katrina and its aftermath: specifically delayed response by federal flood protection to the flooding of New Orleans, Louisiana was attributed to leadership gaps that occurred on occurrence of the disaster† (p.142). This poses a big question on the credibility of the leaders to provide quick directions in times of emergency. Despite the fact that the state and local authorities have primarily responsibility to play in response to disasters with consequences of pointing the finger of blame on governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin, the central government slow response was particularly to be to be noted.Advertising Looking for essay on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The central government has all the essential resources that can be mobilized for quick response to disasters but the beaurocracy to be followed such as the requirement of the financial and assessment of the damages caused before the actual release of state resources to deal with the disasters compounds the problem. Even though the local authorities may be well familiar with the environmental conditions of their localities and hence well positioned to determine the rescue services required much quickly, some disasters exceed their financial allocations or rescue equipments wealth. In most situations, those who are responsible for making urgent decisions on behave of a state are normally at the top hierarchical leadership levels. However, it takes some remarkable time before these leaders are acquainted with magnitude of damages due to the hierarchical established information flow channels with a repercussion of delayed rescue missions. If the local governments were conferred with, th e requisite ability to make quick decisions that can enable them to divert funds that were initially intended for other local government functions to the response of the disasters. It should be noted, â€Å"†¦if a consistently effective response to disasters is to be approved at the local level the realizable approach to the leadership role in time of crises is required† (Penning-Roswell 1996, p.151). According to the work of De Waal (2005) â€Å" rises tend to produce responses that require swift decisions to be made by relatively small groups of senior managers in order to deal with short term threats and that administrative and organizational centralization is a byproduct of this initial response† (Para 7). Small group of decision makers as a result has a capacity to make quick decisions In the event of crisis. Such a scenario is typically to be found in the at local government level if at all they have all the necessary resources to mobilize. A critic to this line of view would argue that, an assumption that the leaders in the central government would assume their acquaintance with unfamiliar environment and release funds to cater for disasters is anticipated. Another obstacle in arguing that the local governments are well positioned to deal with disasters than central governments is their skill-level of diversification required which in most cases not possible. Alexander (2000) says that, â€Å"relying entirely on local lead in the response to a disaster requires that a very substantial number of seniors and middle management officers are appropriately selected and trained for the role, one that might never occur in their careers† (p.88). With the increased pressure on resources allocation, issues confining the local authorities to particular mechanism of arriving at decisions raises questions about local governments ability to make rescue plans independently and if at all they are given this opportunity, would such plans be up t o date and available at the time of disaster occurrence? Research conducted by Pitt (2007, Para. 2) called upon the â€Å"government to show leadership and urgently set out the process and timescale for improving resilience in UK†. In his report, he identified the central government being at the best possible position to solve disastrous problems since it is the one, which has the capacity to make appropriate nationwide binding policies to help curb disasters. Considering two alternatives, for disasters to be dealt with appropriately at local level, some randomness in training of staff is essential. The other way out is to deploy specialists of different disaster response skills management to all local authorities. This evidently is not possible since the nature of disasters is normally random and characterized by infrequent events. An example of such an encounter is the Exxon Valdez oil spillage in Alaska disaster. The communities in Alaska have experienced distinctive histo ric disasters. As Browning and Shetler (1992) note, â€Å"three major disasters have occurred in this region during the twentieth century, each the largest of its kind in north America: Katmai eruption of 1912, the great Alaskan earthquake of 1964 and the Exxon Valdez oil spillage† (p.477). With occurrence of disasters in the same region, local communities acquired noble skills in disaster management accompanied by organizational skills. Browning and Shetler noted in their study of Exxon Valdez oil spillage disaster that, â€Å"†¦creativity, knowledge, energy and organization of local communities are sources that are not adequately tapped under the current contingency planning process† (p.480). However, were the skills reflected in the Exxon Valdez oil spillage, how much did local authorities contribute to the disaster management? From the rapid and swift movement of the central government to contain the Katmai eruption in 1912, it clearly indicates that the centr al government, through appropriate leadership has a better position to contain disasters. This remains possible by provision of funds urgently to aid in the evacuation, resettlement and provision of essential humanitarian services to the victims: what the local governments despite having adequate local environmental knowledge lack. The generic role of the central and local governments The central government has a historic generic responsibility to protect and manage its society to ensure maximum welfare and services delivery. Disaster management is one of such indigenous societal responsibilities that the central government must play. However, in an attempt to save money, it diverts the responsibility to the local authorities while not considering the effectiveness and efficiency of the response. The generic responsibility of the central government to cope with big disasters within a nations surfaces evidently in Pitt’s work on the report of flooding disaster in the united ki ngdom. He pointed out that â€Å"the government should provide local resilience forums with the inundation maps of reservoirs to enable them to assess risks and plan for contingency, warning and evacuation† (Pitt 2007, Para. 5). The local government thus functions under the directives of the central government. It can thus be argued that in case the central government does not respond sufficiently to provide the right and within the right time, the necessary strides that need to be taken by the local authorities to respond to certain disasters, then the whole response process may end up being slowed or unsuccessful altogether. The government must act first in an attempt to lay out the foundation of the response process by ensuring that â€Å"critical infrastructure is as resilient as possible, whilst essential services providers should become considerably more active in local and national emergency preparedness and response† (Pitt 2007, Para. 6). Furthermore, the envir onmental agencies are more often than not under the control of the central government. As a result according to Cabinet Office Strategy Unit (2002), the environment agencies responsibility to â€Å" play their part by providing infrastructure operators with a specialized site-specific flood warning service, offering longer lead times to enable defenses to be set up in time†(p.79) depend on the central government willingness to take up its generic roles. Foucault argues, â€Å"†¦the neo-liberalist tradition of developed western nations shies away from too much state intervention and instead champions individual freedom and rights† (Lupton 1999, p.86). It is now that the local governments should come in, despite their limited capacity to cope with certain disasters sufficiently to aid the central government. According to Pitt (2007), the local governments should play a significant responsibility to facilitate management of risks of local flood by â€Å"taking the l ead in tackling local problems of flooding and co-coordinating all relevant agencies† (Para. 7). He further adds, â€Å"Upper tier authorities should establish oversight and scrutiny committees to review the work undertaken to reduce flood risks and publish annual updates on the work undertaken† (Pitt 2007, Para. 11). However, this is a single noble role of the local government as identified by Pitt, which for its success must depend to large extent on the central government’s responsibility to make and implement facilitating policies. On the other hand, disasters do not just present danger moments but rather the danger process. Managing the entire process is a mandate of the central government as part of its generic roles. Comfort (1994) was to the opinion that â€Å"a good deal of political decision making is now about managing risks-risks which do not originate in the political sphere. Yet have to be politically managed† (p.161). The largest political d ecisions with nationwide impacts are generally more affiliated to the central government than it is to the local governments. The central government via the established political systems has the noble role to ensure political decisions are arrived to such that they contribute to the overall welfare of the society nationally. From a different perspective, politics evolution and the associated impacts on central government generic duties are in a manner that translates the task of risks management to a serious issue that deserves more of central government address than the local government. The central government can be able to adjust certain provisions so that disasters can be managed in a humane way without interfering with the individuals’ stakes. Take for example, the flooding disaster. The central government is capable of relocating flood victims to some certain selected land acquired through revocation of ownership of lands since in many countries; the central government is mandated to regulate and control use of public land by the constitution. On the other hand, the local government only utilizes the land as stipulated by the central government. Responses by local government to disasters are normally received with critics. For instance, the response of sea express spill in UK resulted to the establishment of joint response centre (JRC) to address the problem. As Alexander (2000) notes â€Å" the conflict of normal services versus preparation for major incident manifested itself here in that the planning process that supported the JRC had not taken into account the effects of local government organizations†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p.121). Again, the express disaster resulted to existence of multiple cells of operation, which were clearly not integrated and lacked robust and clear coordination process. The ability of the local governments to go beyond local issues either at political or operational level remains questionable. Conclusion The essay has made ef forts to show that coordination, leadership and the generic responsibilities attributed to local and the central governments coupled with flexibility and innovation are essential elements of disaster management. These elements draw much of their necessary inputs from the central government so that they become robust and evenly distributed within jurisdiction borders without attracting contrasting or parallelism ideologies and stands. A singly established national disaster response agency cannot pragmatically deal with multiple and widely spread disasters alone. The local governments must thus take up, play ardently their anticipated roles, and support the local communities in times of disasters occurrence. However, a question arises on how reconciliation of numerous established local disasters response agencies routine operational imperatives can be harmonized to ensure a common, efficient and effective effort designed to ensure central objectives of public, environment and society protection from escalation of harm emanating from disastrous occurrences. As a result, central government stands up high being at a better position to respond to crisis and disasters than local governments. References Alexander, C., 2000. Comforting Catastrophe. Harpenden: Terra publishing. Browning, L., Shetler, J., 1992. Communications in Crisis, Communication in Recovery: A Postmodern Commentary on the Exxon Valdez Disaster. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 10 (3), pp. 477-498. Cabinet Office Strategy Unit., 2002. Risk: Improving Government’s Capability to Handle Risk And Uncertainty. London: Cabinet office. Comfort, L., 1994. Risk Resilience: Inter-Organizational Learning Following the Northridge Earthquake of 17 January 1994. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 2 (3), pp. 157-170. De Waal, A., 2005. An Imperfect Storm: Narratives of Calamity in a Liberal-Technocratic Age. Web. Lupton, D., 1999. Risks. London: Routledge. Penning-Roswe ll, E., 1996. Criteria for the Design of Hazards Mitigation Institutions. (eds). Christopher hood David K.C. Jones. In Accident Design; Contemporary Debates in Risk Management. London: UCL press. Pitt, M., 2007. Learning Lessons from 2007 Floods. Available at https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100605032704/http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/pittreview/thepittreview.html . Taylor, A., 1986. Coordination for Disasters. In Disasters, 10(1), pp. 12-45. Taylor, A., 1986. The Context of British Politics. (ed). Jane Franklin. In The Politics of Risk Society. Cambridge: Policy press.

How to Conjugate Organiser (to Organize) in French

How to Conjugate Organiser (to Organize) in French Can you guess what the French verb  organiser  means? If you answered to organize, youre correct. Yet, to use it properly in a sentence, the verb must be conjugated. A quick lesson will show you how to do that and form the French equivalents to organized and organizing. The Basic Conjugations of  Organiser Organiser is a regular -er verb and that makes this lesson a little easier than most. Thats because its part of the largest family of French verbs, all of which share the same conjugation patterns. If you have previously studied similar verbs, you can apply what you already know to this one. The indicative mood is the best place to begin with any conjugation. This includes the basic present, future, and imperfect past tenses which you will use most often in French conversations. Using the chart, find the corresponding conjugation for the subject pronoun and the tense you wish to use  organiser  in. This will help you identify which ending was applied to the verb stem (organis-). For instance, an  e  ending forms that present tense  jorganise  (I am organizing) and -ions  forms the imperfect  nous organisions  (we organized). Present Future Imperfect j organise organiserai organisais tu organises organiseras organisais il organise organisera organisait nous organisons organiserons organisions vous organisez organiserez organisiez ils organisent organiseront organisaient The Present Participle of  Organiser An -ant ending is always added to regular -er and -re verbs to form the present participle. For organiser, that produces the word organisant. Organiser  in the Compound Past Tense The  passà © composà ©Ã‚  is the French compound past tense and it requires two parts. The first is the present tense conjugate of the auxiliary verb  avoir  and the second is the  past participle  organisà ©. The two come together to form phrases such as  jai organisà ©Ã‚  (I organized) and  nous avons organisà ©Ã‚  (we organized). More Simple Conjugations of  Organiser As your vocabulary grows and youre more comfortable with French conversation, you will find a few more simple conjugations useful.  The subjunctive, for instance, helps you imply some degree of uncertainty to the act of organizing. In a similar fashion,  the conditional  allows you to state that its dependent on certain conditions. Though they are used less frequently, and most often in written French, it is a good idea to know  the passà © simple  and  imperfect subjunctive  forms of  organiser  as well. Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j organise organiserais organisai organisasse tu organises organiserais organisas organisasses il organise organiserait organisa organist nous organisions organiserions organismes organisassions vous organisiez organiseriez organistes organisassiez ils organisent organiseraient organisrent organisassent You can skip the subject pronoun when using organiser in the imperative. These direct statements are often short and forceful, so all formality is dropped and you can simply say organise. Imperative (tu) organise (nous) organisons (vous) organisez

How to shop online Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

How to shop online - Essay Example This often involves computer systems, mobile phones, among other devices that can connect to the internet. It also involves stores and sellers that operate online. Even though the online shopping process appears to be simple, potential online buyers must be careful to consider their environment while undertaking their shopping over the internet. This involves evaluation of, and high level of sensitivity to the online environment that involves risks. These consequently define appropriate practices to ensure a safe online shopping (Get, n.d.). Online shopping ventures are for instance full of fraudulent activities that aim at getting a customer’s money without the intended delivery. Hackers particularly exist who intercept communication and misguide consumers into making payments to wrong accounts, or establish websites through which the potential customers can unknowingly make payments to wrong destinations. The result is single way transaction in which the fraudster receives payments but the potential customer does not obtain the desired products. There also exist fake websites that do not actually offer products as they claim to. They however disseminate false information on their location, communication links and inventory that may not really exist. A buyer therefore looses advanced payments to such cheats. Another threat to online shopping is in delivery of products that do not match the expected descriptions. While a consumer can have the situation corrected if such deliveries are not intentional, intentional false delivery results into losses because the alleged seller will never make the right delivery after receiving the targeted money (Get, n.d.). Safe shopping is however defined by a number of characteristics. A potential buyer should conduct a thorough search on alleged online sellers before initiating a transaction. Such a search should determine existence and validity the seller’s address and phone contacts for

Faculty of Business Environment and Society Essay - 9

Faculty of Business Environment and Society - Essay Example This level implies a situation whereby a consumer’s personal definition is influenced by many personal possessions. Some of the possession include clothing, cars, jewellery and others. In this case, the clothes, cars and jewellery one uses are a reflection of their own identity. This is the second part of the extended self and involves a consumer’s possession which are regarded as belonging to the family and therefore, they are taken as symbolic of the entire family. Such possession include furnishings and the residence. In this case, this extended self-concept holds that the home we live in is a huge indicator of who we are. This level explains the extended self in terms of the large society in which a consumer lives in. As such, consumers in this case identify themselves with the town, locality or neighbourhood they live in. this level if very important to residents who relate closely in a community such as farm families. This level seeks to explain he association of a consumer with a particular social groupings. In this case, a consumer seeks an attachment to a group as it is viewed as part of their social groups. As such, such social aspects as sport teams, church associations or landmarks form part of that consumer’s extended self. There are a number of theories that try to explain the link between consumer buying behaviour and the concept of extended self. Such theories concentrate on personality and behaviour of the consumer in order to understand their motivation in making consumption decisions. Some of the theories of consumer behaviour theories include the following. This theory forms a framework for explaining why some consumers choose to buy the products they use. The notion is that the consumption behaviour is not a mystery. According to Kotler (2005), this concept can be explained using a Stimulus Response Model whereby the mind is a ‘black-box’ inside the model. The

Unconstitutional Book Banning Essay Example for Free

Unconstitutional Book Banning Essay Imagine you’re in graduate school and you’re doing your doctorate on a controversial issue. You’ve done most of the research however there’s one book that has specific information that you need, and you can only find it in that particular book. You’ve looked on the online database and find out that the book is in your universities library. You go to the library and ask for some help finding the book you need, however the librarian informs you that the book was recently banned. How is it that in a country that prides itself in freedom of speech and self expression, a book on a controversial issue has been banned? Does it not contradict what the founding fathers fought so hard for in the Revolutionary war? In today’s society the biggest reason for book banning is based on protecting moral values set in place in the home. Well meaning teacher, parents, and other would be censors worry that by exposing the nation’s youth to concepts such as sex, drugs, and alcohol they will start experimenting with these things. Ultimately they fear the breakdown of the moral values emphasized in the home. This is especially true for conservative Christians, in the past ten years books such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials have caused a great deal of controversy among conservative Christians. The idea of magic, alternate and parallel universes is not a popular one among Conservative Christians. But does this really warrant all out banning books such as these? Most would say no, the ideals of a certain group should not determine what the rest of the population reads. The ideals of a minority should not determine what books are left on the shelves of libraries. It’s one thing if the private institutions chose not to stock certain books in their libraries, but it is a different matter entirely when they want to take books out of the public libraries where they are put for the enjoyment of the public. Banning books violates one of the fundamental rites the US was built on, freedom of speech and freedom of press. The freedom to read and write freely is fundamentally American. It allows citizens to express themselves without fearing repercussions from the government, or fellow citizens. It allows readers to read freely and make their own decisions. Book banning would create a narrow minded population, who don’t know how to reason for themselves. Thinking again of the argument of preserving family values, it must be taken into consideration the kind of television that is currently airing. In many ways TV is more graphic, and explicit. Yet it is tolerated, whereas even just crude language is apparently cause enough to ban a book. Parents are also worried about when their children who are reading above grade level are assigned books intended for students three to four grades above them. This can expose younger readers to seemingly inappropriate material. However there are other options, parents can talk to teachers and ask for more age appropriate books for their younger readers. Banning books violates the rites that our founding fathers fought so hard for in the Revolutionary War. Works Cited  Beatserfield, Suzanne M. â€Å"Parental Concerns About Book Content Should Not Be Dismissed. † English Journal 97. 3 (2008). Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. Connelly, Deborah S. To Read Or Not To Read: Understanding Book Censorship. Community Junior College Libraries 15. 2 (2009): 83-90. ERIC. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. Gallo, Don. â€Å"Teens Need Bold Books. † English Journal 97. 3 (2008). Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. Manning, Erin. â€Å"Parents Must Protect Children from Offensive Material in Books. † MercatorNet. (2009). Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.

The Black Cat: Deranged Narrator :: essays research papers

The Black Cat: Deranged Narrator Throughout the opening paragraph of "The Black Cat," the reader is introduced to a narrator who, because of his grotesque actions, has become mentally deranged and very untrustworthy, " . . . my very senses reject their own evidence." The narration of this story is in the first person, which would lead you to believe the narrator could be trusted to relate to you the true events of the story, but this is false. The narrator in this story is unreliable due to his horrid state of mind and body. The narrator cannot be relied upon to show the reader the true events of the story, these events have to be interpreted and the reader must come to his own conclusion as to what really happened. The reader is shown in the opening paragraph that he should not trust the narrator to deliver the true events of the story. The narrator admits throughout the story that his bad habits, namely alcoholism, lead to his irrational state of mind. His alcoholism was the root of his downfall. While intoxicated, the narrator mutilated his favourite pet, Pluto, causing the cat to become terrified of his master. The alienation of his cat gave the narrator even more cause to become mentally unstable. The hanging of his cat shows how the narrator has become obsessed with doing evil things for the sake of their evilness. This evilness is linked to his alcoholism. The narrator was most-likely in a drunken state when he hung his cat, which only infuriated his temper. This separation of friends had a huge effect on the narrator's deadly temper. His temper is such that anything that slightly annoyed him caused him to go into fits of rage. The fits of rage which occupy the narrator for much of the story are all linked to his pet cats. He points out that he was an animal lover in his younger days and the feeling was carried through into his maturity. His love for animals ended here. His alcoholism had driven him to avoid his animals or, when he encountered them, to physically harm them for the reason that they were there. The narrator's pet cat's were the exceptions. He held his temper back from his cats because of his love for them. This feeling disappears after time and the cats become the subject of his worst fits of rage. After each violent act upon his cats, the narrator did feel remorse at his actions. This feeling also disappears over time and, as it disappeared, his rage grew. The Black Cat: Deranged Narrator :: essays research papers The Black Cat: Deranged Narrator Throughout the opening paragraph of "The Black Cat," the reader is introduced to a narrator who, because of his grotesque actions, has become mentally deranged and very untrustworthy, " . . . my very senses reject their own evidence." The narration of this story is in the first person, which would lead you to believe the narrator could be trusted to relate to you the true events of the story, but this is false. The narrator in this story is unreliable due to his horrid state of mind and body. The narrator cannot be relied upon to show the reader the true events of the story, these events have to be interpreted and the reader must come to his own conclusion as to what really happened. The reader is shown in the opening paragraph that he should not trust the narrator to deliver the true events of the story. The narrator admits throughout the story that his bad habits, namely alcoholism, lead to his irrational state of mind. His alcoholism was the root of his downfall. While intoxicated, the narrator mutilated his favourite pet, Pluto, causing the cat to become terrified of his master. The alienation of his cat gave the narrator even more cause to become mentally unstable. The hanging of his cat shows how the narrator has become obsessed with doing evil things for the sake of their evilness. This evilness is linked to his alcoholism. The narrator was most-likely in a drunken state when he hung his cat, which only infuriated his temper. This separation of friends had a huge effect on the narrator's deadly temper. His temper is such that anything that slightly annoyed him caused him to go into fits of rage. The fits of rage which occupy the narrator for much of the story are all linked to his pet cats. He points out that he was an animal lover in his younger days and the feeling was carried through into his maturity. His love for animals ended here. His alcoholism had driven him to avoid his animals or, when he encountered them, to physically harm them for the reason that they were there. The narrator's pet cat's were the exceptions. He held his temper back from his cats because of his love for them. This feeling disappears after time and the cats become the subject of his worst fits of rage. After each violent act upon his cats, the narrator did feel remorse at his actions. This feeling also disappears over time and, as it disappeared, his rage grew.

Jollibee Case Study Essay

1. Introduction Anil K. Gupta and Vijay Govindarajan argue in their article, â€Å"Knowledge flows and the structure of control within multinational corporations†, that mainly all previous research on strategic control within multinational companies (MNCs) has paid attention to why these choose to go abroad. They instead argue that for successful offshore business, one must understand how communication flows within the different sub-units of the organization. As Jollibee Foods Corporation considers whether they should establish a fourth store in Hong Kong, it faces several challenges. One of the main challenges regards knowledge transfer between its Filipino facilities and the newly established ones abroad. It is therefore relevant to look at the following research question: What consequences does the current â€Å"strategic control over its subsidiaries† have on the knowledge transfer between the Jollibee headquarters on the Philippines and the offshore Jollibee Food plants in Hong Kong? In answering the research question, we will start by explaining the framework of Gupta & Govindarajan’s (1991) on different kinds of subsidiaries, with attention paid to knowledge transfer and their related control instruments. Further we will examine what kind of challenges Jollibee Foods Corporation is facing with its expansion to Hong Kong. Finally, the above analysis will provide us with information about the existing opportunities on the Chinese market and will enable us to suggest a reconstruction of the offshore business in Hong Kong to make it more successful. Jollibee meets several tasks in their offshoring project, but due to space limitation there will in this paper only be focus on two selected challenges, the challenges of adjusting to Chinese taste and their management structure. 2. Jollibee Foods Construction and its strategic control over its subsidiary in Hong-Kong Gupta and Govindarajan (1991) proposed that there exists a certain association between different types of subsidiary units and the strategic corporate control of that subsidiary. They defined four ideal types as; Implementor, Global innovator, Integrated Player and Local Innovator, based on the amount of knowledge that flows and the direction of this knowledge, between the subsidiary and the rest of the MNC. Upon Tingzon ´s arrival the main strategy of the offshore business has been â€Å"flag planting†. Flag planting aims at establishing a presence in each market before competitors, and so, emphasizing at implementing customer expectation, influencing taste and building brand (case p. 11). The initial plan in Hong Kong has been to become one of the major players in the market fast. The previous international strategy meant that the subsidiaries in Hong Kong functioned as implementors. An implementor is characterized by a high degree of knowledge inflow from the headquarters but with a low degree of knowledge outflow; hence mainly applying the strategy used in the parent company without any local adaption (Gupta and Govindarajan 1991). Functioning as an implementor has meant that the established Hong Kong stores have not been engaged in any knowledge creation, but simply followed instructions from the Filipino headquarters. Furthermore one can argue that Jollibee’s approach to Hong Kong has been to primarily implement the already existing practices from the Philippines. For example, the menu offered in Hong Kong is almost the same as the Filipino one, knowledge of what to sell has simply been brought in from headquarter (case page. 12) Further evidence arguing for that the Hong Kong subsidiary has been operating like an implementor can be seen in the management transfer of the CEO’s brother-in-law, from the parent company to the Hong Kong subsidiary (case page 12). In addition, the store-level managers were all Filipino while little crew were Chinese and staffing problems consequently grew. To solve the problem the Manila based Franchise Service Manager worked continuously with Hong Kong for more than six months, without success. In 1997 a dispute over discipline between the four Chinese Managers, and the five Filipino Managers, resulted in the Chinese Managers leaving Jollibee with only Filipino crew left (page 12). This points towards the subsidiaries in Hong Kong adapting the characteristic of an implementor, e.g. pure inflow of knowledge from the parent company and little outflow of knowledge from the Hong Kong subsidiary. Furthermore is the overall â€Å"flag planting† strategy of Jollibee very i ndicative of the skewed power balance between Jollibee and its subsidiaries. 3. Organizational Challenges Jollibee experienced the internal challenges of organizational culture clash between its implemented Filipino workers and the Chinese staff. Furthermore the implementation of the international menu was not as successful as expected (case p. 13). The strategy of focusing on Filipino expatriates in new markets, might has helped Jollibee’s entry to the Hong-Kong market, since they already had a distinguished costumer group of Filipinos. But as Tingzon asks in the case â€Å"might we risk boxing ourselves into a Filipino niche that prevents us from growing enough to support operations in each country?† (case p. 11). We found that the expatriate-led strategy have prevented further expansion of the company on the Hong Kong market. This is due to the local knowledge that resides in Chinese workers and managers are not exploited when only employing Filipino managers. As stated above, in the early entry into the Hong Kong market, Jollibee did also employ Chinese managers but due to their sole implementation of inflows from headquarters, clashes arose between the Chinese and the Filipino managers. Furthermore one major challenge to successfully establish a fourth store and gain more market share is to adapt the prevailing menu to the Chinese taste. The main challenge for Jollibee now is how to realize, and best use, the knowledge that resides in Chinese workers. 4. Altering the Strategy for the Hong Kong Subsidiary From the above section we can conclude that there exists several challenges of how the subsidiary in Hong Kong has previously been structured, for example has one of the sub-franchisees tried to suggest changes to the menu. To be able to attract more local costumers he proposed low fat chicken and Chinese tea, as he sensed a demand for these products among the Chinese people (case p. 12). He has tried to implement these changes for several of months but has not yet received a go-ahead from the headquarters. This indicates that Jollibee mainly sees its subsidiaries as implementors, without any outflow of local knowledge to the other subsidiaries. But for Jollibee to succeed in opening a fourth store and increase its market share on the Hong Kong market, reconstruction and adaption to the local market is crucial. The top management saw a high profit potential in Hong Kong, and therefore urged Tingzon to open the fourth store. But as the profit potential is high, the competition in Hong Kong for similar food companies, such as McDonalds, is also very intense. Jollibee Food Construction does not have the competitive advantage of a first mover and is not alone on the market. For example has their main competitor, McDonald’s, both stronger brand recognition in the Hong Kong market and they are stronger financially. Hence Jollibee has to take on a different subsidiary strategy than the â€Å"implementor†, in order to success (Hymer p. 61). With this in mind the strategy of the Hong Kong sub-division can become a successful sub-division if it adapts the characteristics of a local innovator instead of trying to be an implementor, with both low inflow and outflow of knowledge. One main challenge for Jollibee is to attract more local employees and as Gupta and Govindarajan’s proposition 3 states; under norms and administrative rationality will the composition of the top-management for the specific subsidiary consist of mainly locals if the division acts as a local innovator (Gupta and Govindarajan 1991). As an implementor has the possibility for autonomous initiative been low while it as a local innovator exists space to adapt to the local environment, e.g. for Jollibee to take on a more Chinese menu. 5. Conclusion In conclusion, as Jollibee decide whether or not to establish one more store in Hong Kong, they have to look over their strategic control over its subsidiaries. As examined above, the company has mainly viewed their subsidiaries as implementors. We found this international strategy insufficient, and that it hindered them to fully exploit the market potential in Hong Kong. The prevailing challenges for Jollibee now is how to realize and best use the knowledge that resides in Chinese workers. Due to limitations of the paper, it is only a fraction of possible explanations that have been highlighted and these revolve primarily around the importance of increasing the local engagement in the Hong Kong subsidiary, and increase the local innovation towards more local taste. Hence we argue for Jollibee’s subsidiaries in Hong Kong to adapt towards a local innovator role. 6. Bibliography Case: Bartlett, C. A. (2001). Jollibee Foods Corporation (A): International Expansion. Harvard Business School Gupta, A.K.,Govindarajan, V. (1991). Knowledge flows and the structure of control within multinational corporations. Academy of Management, Review 16(4) 768-792 Gupta, A.K., Govindarajan, V. (2000). Knowledge flows within multinational corporations. Strategic Management Journal 21, pp. 473-496. letto-Gilles, G. (2005). â€Å"Hymer ´s seminal work†, in Part III Modern Theories in Transnational Corporations and International Production. Academic Books, Copenhagen Business School. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. Schlegelmilch, B., Ambos, B., Chini, T. (2003/4). Are you ready to learn from your offshore affiliates? European Business Forum, 16