Revising Messages Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Revising Messages - Assignment Example We assure you that we’ll make sure that our airline personnel become more careful next time. Kindly mail us back with a detailed list of items you lost by completing the following questionnaire, to enable us process your compensation. We apologize for making you wait for a long time; we had a lot of resumes to go through. We are however pleased to inform you that you made it to the final 10 candidates who have been shortlisted for an interview. The interview has been scheduled for June 15 at 3:00 p.m. Kindly inform us before the end of the workweek if you will be able to attend as this is our busy season. We use over a ton of paper every year out of which, much of it goes to waste creating more environmental waste. It is because of this that, beginning on Monday, white plastic bins will be placed outside the elevator on every floor to recycle the paper and minimize pollution. d. In today’s meeting, we were privileged to welcome Paul Eccelson, who reviewed the shopping cart function on our website and offered some great advice. Feel free to call for any inquiries concerning the new forms. c. Kindly call our hotline at 1-800-555-8765 to schedule an appointment with one of our knowledgeable mortgage specialists in your area, as well as ask more questions about mortgage rates, closing procedures or any other aspect of the mortgage process. Remember, we’re here to make the home-buying experience as painless as

I project 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

I project 1 - Essay Example Besides, iProject would allow me to gain practical knowledge in the field of technology marketing, develop understanding on importance of documentation and in turn generate a high quality report. With the advent of Smart Phone technology, a number of apps are being released on daily basis with a sole aim of gaining more business (Audely, 2011) and to provide customers with better after sales services in a way to facilitate them in gaining access to required information, saving time and ensure customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (Owen, 2010). iProject attempts to highlight the significance of the Smart Phone Applications in the developing the market strategy by illustrating the new creative application technology which is Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) in this website asmaalghafis.wix.com/asma. The project is aimed and planned for completion with minimum cost and resources. iProject has two main phases i.e., short term and medium term plan. For this purpose, project has been divided into two phases where phase 1 corresponds to short term career goals and phase 2 corresponds to medium term goals. Figure below shows the short term plan The main purpose of short term plan is to develop understanding of project management and planning, real world application of the knowledge and learning gained through formal courses that would help to comprehend the main essence of the topic of the assignment. I, Asma Ibrahim Al Ghafis would be managing the entire project and the website would be www.asmaalghafis.wix.com/asma. In this project, I would be assisted by Mr. Waqas Jeral, who has extensive knowledge and experience in marking as he has been working with a number of firms as a marketing consultant. He has extensive interest in techniques and method that circumference the online marketing strategy and building online, the personality identity. We

Comparison of Different Asian Capital Markets

Comparison of Different Asian Capital Markets Capital market is like an investment funds such as bonds, equities and mortgages are traded in the market. Then, capital market can be defined as a market of securities or equities or debt, where a company as well as government can raise a long-term fund. The market of money is provided longer than a year. If it is the raising of short term funds, then it will be taking place on other markets that is money market. In this assignment, we are given the title of Asian Market Capital. There are many countries of Asian, so we have chosen few countries to further details on it. There countries include Japan, Indonesia as well as Hong Kong. Among the countries, we have gone further deeper on the country from Japan about their background as well as history. We would further search for the information on the market capital happen in Japan. Moreover, we going to compare the different investor will be having in market capital field. In addition, we will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of going initial public offering for a firm. The example and details of cases will be further explained in this assignment. Background In this assignment, we will be discussing about the Asians capital market. Among the countries, we choose to go in deep about the capital market in Japan. In Japan, the Japanese venture capital funds managers always to select either direct managerial monitoring or portfolio diversification to manage their firms investment risks (Gorman and Sahlam, 1989). However, in recent years of 2004, JVCs have used a mix of different strategies, including direct managerial monitoring. This change in industry practice provides an opportunity to test the applicability of agency theory in the JVC industry. There will be some background history about market capital happened in Japan in the past years. The graph above shown that the increase of land in Japan has affected the stock price. The price of the land goes to the peak in the year of 1991. However, the peak area for the stocks price is in the year between 1989 and 1990. Moreover, the both prices started to fell when the year of 2000, and it is affected to both prices of land as well as stocks. This shown that the total loan outstanding and real estate loans outstanding held by all Japanese banks in year 1980 to 2000. From the year 1980 to 1990, the both total of loans and real estate loans increased substantially. When the total loans levelled off in year 1990, the real estate loans is continued to increase until the year 1998. Furthermore, there were a happened that Japan faced problem in the year of 1998 that bank failure resulted from excessive real estate lending. For example, the company of Nippon Credit Bank, there were only 25% real estate loan comprised up of the total loans, and it was failed in 1998.( Kentaro Iwatsubo, 2005) Literature Review There are many countries in Asian, and in this assignment we have choose few countries as comparison. That is Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Vietnam about their countrys capital market. JAPAN The business firms from Japan have relationships with commercial main banks. The main banks may hold the equity interests in their credit clients in turn, including investment banks. We study the impact of the relationships between firms, main banks as well as investment banks in Japans initial public offering (IPO) underwriting market. By issuing firms can choose whether to engage an investment bank that is related, by virtue of sharing the same main bank, or to engage a non-related investment bank. There are one of the literature concerns on the effects of banking relationships on access to credit and the cost of raising capital. First, the banking relationships and access to credit according to Stiglitz and Weiss (1981) observe that market frictions related information asymmetry can restrict the flow of the capital to investments. However, Petersen and Rajan (1994) hypothesize that by producing information about firms and using the information in their decisions can be partially solving the problem of market friction to the creditors. There are small effect on the cost of credit if ties with creditors, but the available of credits financing is more for firms with ties. Secondly, there are the concerns about commercial bank integration into investment banking. Based on Rajan (1992) models the borrowers choice between informed bank debt and arms length public debt as an aspect of the firms effort to offset the benefits of the related lenders ongoing monitoring against the lenders bargaining power. If banking relationships yield information advantages, then integration of commercial banking and investment banking may enhance a lenders bargaining power. In addition, a lender that is integrated is faced with a conflict of interest, in that the proceeds of capital market financing may be used inappropriately to extinguish risky bank debt. Thirdly, the concern about choice of organizational structure. It is given the tension between information cost savings and conflict of interest, the structure of banking organizations can be expected to reflect efforts to realize information cost savings while lessen the conflicts. From Kroszner and Rajan (1997), he use pre-Glass-Steagall data to investigate that how integration affects issue of quality and pricing. They have concluded that market pressures induced commercial bank to address conflicts by choosing levels of integration into investment banking thats is separately incorporated affiliates versus integrated investment banking departments. Indonesia According to Fisman, (2001), the valuable resources for many firms are political connections, however, the connections impact firms strategies and their long-run financial performance are only a handful of studies that document (Faccio, 2002; Johnson and Mitton, 2003). The study shows that the consequences of political ties are a particular interest because these ties are often inconsistent with other value-creating business strategies. By taking the benefit at face value, it is difficult to understand why only a minority of companies access foreign capital markets. Domestic opportunities significantly reduce the net benefits of foreign securities for some firms are a core idea. For instance, the firm with political ties often receive low price loan from state-owned banks (Faccio, 2002; Wiwattanakantang et al., 2006), so they do not need to tap into foreign capital markets. It is also possible that global financing imposes extra costs on closely connected firms because the decision t o cross-list shares on foreign exchanges often forces firms to adapt to the regulations that govern these markets (Coffee, 2002; Reese and Weisbach, 2002; Siegel, 2005). If only minority of shareholders are better protected abroad, then the foreign securities issue will becoming expensive for controlling owners accustomed to exploiting domestic investors. Equally, the international business press and foreign analysts will only pay attention on the firms with foreign securities (Baker et al., 2002; Lang et al., 2003). However, the political favours that often dubious legality is difficult to be reconciled by the high levels of public scrutiny. Hong Kong Steen, P. Carey (2006) said that the relationship between hot issues markets and under pricing is well documented in IPO literature. Hot issues markets are characterized by a large number of offerings, concentration of new issues in particular industries, preponderance of smaller issues, frequent over subscription and abnormally high initial returns, Ibbotson and Jaffe (1975). Steen, P. Carey (2006) wrote that Hong Kong IPO market given the size and importance of Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE). That is Hong Kong Stock Exchange Market play an important role in the economy in Hong Kong. We can see Hong Kong economy by viewing it stock exchange market; by this we can also know the capital of the country. Several market conditions have been considered in the context of examining initial under pricing within the papers that have been written. Dawson and Hiraki (1985) in their research of the Hong Kong IPO market between 1979 and 1984 note that under pricing appeared to be superior during growing markets than declining markets. Steen. P. Carey (2006) state that their study predates the unification of the four Hong Kong stock exchanges in April 1986 into one central exchange (HKSE). McGuinness (1992), find out that the Hong Kong IPO market from year 1980 to 1986 that reports under pricing was completely linked with the state of market giving support to the sugge stion of Beatty and Ritter (1986) that under pricing increases during the raising market period and decreases during the diminishing markets. In the stage of under assessment, Asian financial markets suffered one of the most severe and protected reversals of the post war period. Steen, P. Carey (2006). The collision of market situation on IPO under pricing was likely moderated in Hong Kong by the fundamental stability and formation of financial system. Miller (1998 p.277) said that Hong Kong was able to avoid devaluation because it has a monetary and foreign exchange system that is fundamentally different from that of the rest of Southeast Asia. Hong Kong has a exchange board but no central bank, and as Miller show that the resident of Hong Kong have the confidence in the exchange board. An additional resource of potency is that the financial stability and transparency of Hong Kong companies had extensively privileged interest coverage and return on equity than those in other Asian countries. Jaggi (1997) also found out that the performance and strength of Hong Kong companies is consistent because the company used the comp any information to monitor it. In year 1997 there is a financial crisis occurred in Hong Kong when Hong Kong is beyond dispute. Chowdry and Goyal (2000) propose that the characteristic to define a country that experiences financial crisis will face a huge falling in its traded equity prices. In general, research investigating the impact of market condition on IPO underpricing has a well defined event which is recognized with the conversion from hot to cold. Steen, P. Carey (2006), found out that the year 1997 provides a unique measurement challenge as two significant events affected Hong Kong in that year; the 27 October stock market correction and the political return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule on June 30. When the Hong Kong is tender to Chinese, this historical event has a huge impact on Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The political handover was an exclusive event and many people celebrate for it, it was connected with a period of hesitation and was followed soon after by the October 27 stock market correction. This uncertainty happens because the investor is unsure about the post handover economic and monetary performance of Hong Kong. Sub theory In capital market, there will be variety of investors for a company or firms who are wanted to expand their business. Moreover, there are some of the firms who need the investors not because to expand their business, but also to support their businesses start up. Angel Investor Individual investors who buy equity in small private firms are called angel investors. Mostly, the first round of outside private equity financing is often obtained from angels. These investors included friends or acquaintances of the entrepreneur. The business receives a sizeable equity share for their funds because their capital investment is often large relative to the amount of capital already in place at the firm. Thus, these investors may have substantial influence in the business decisions of the firm. Besides that, angels may also bring expertise to firm that the entrepreneur lacks. There is a difficulty on finding angels since it is a function how well a firm connected the entrepreneur is in the local community. Venture Capital Firms Venture capital is a limited partnership specializes in raising money to invest in the private equity of young firms. Moreover, venture capitalist is defined as a person or investment firms that makes venture investment. Besides that, they are also expected to bring managerial and technical expertise and capital to their investment. Furthermore, venture capital is fascinated to the fresh company with the limited operating history which is too small to raise capital to the public market. This is because they are yet to reach the levels that are able to secure a bank loan as well as debt offering. The differentiation between Angel Investor and Venture Capital There are different between angel investor and venture capital. Angel investors are always the provider of risk capital to the small or private firms. In addition, the providers are not from the intermediary of other company, but they are wealth people. Moreover, angels are always as the second round of financing start-up goes through, before the firm looks for venture capital partnership, but it is after they has exhausted of all their family and friends money. On the other hand, venture capital is the investors who invest their capital to a firm as part of the companys partners. So, the company will be the part of the partnership, and they are allowed to vote and make decision. Then, angels investors are only waiting for the return earns from company to them, and they are never go learn deeper to the company. Furthermore, they are not vote or make decision as part of the firm they had invested. However, the venture investors will be planning and finding the way on how much their in vestment will earn them the amount of returns. Initial Public Offering (IPO) IPO  is an acronym for Initial  Public Offering. An IPO is the first sale of shares in a company to the public. When IPO occurs, a company will be listed in Bursa Malaysia, and shares will begin to trade immediately. The IPO market goes in cycles depending upon the appetite of investors for new issues. Often the share price will increase quickly after an IPO, so purchasing shares at the IPO price may be a coveted  investment  opportunity. When management says it plans to take a company public, it means that an eventual IPO is planned. A successful IPO can raise  a large amount of capital for the newly  public company  and create substantial wealth for insiders who owned shares prior to the IPO. The differences between public and private is that public company can offer its stock to the public in huge amount, while private company is restricted to only friends and family members. Going public is important for those company which want to raise their capital. There are some pro and cons for going public. The Advantages of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) The public offering increased the company stock and value this is so call increased in capitalization of the business. The stock can be used for various activities for instance: currency for mergers and acquisitions, as stock option to help maintain key personnel, they may also sell their shares in the open market. The company will have the better access to the stock markets for future capital inflow. In general terms, the companys valuation and debt to equity ratio will perk up after going public. Company is able to receive much better terms from lenders. The company which going public is easier to promote compare to the company that are private. We can view the achievement of the public company in Bursa Malaysia and thus it had a higher recognition than private company. This benefit raises the public relation images and identifies the stability of a public company. IPO can provide the company with a chance to implement share options schemes for its workforce. This scheme is competent to enhance employee morale, maintain the loyalty of staff to company, and catch the attention of first rate employees. In long term, this can raise the employees productivity and increase the profitability of a company. The Disadvantages of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) For a company which going public need higher reporting requirements, it means further obligations and reporting requirements as public companies have to fulfill the range of regulatory necessities and meet accepted standards of corporate governance. For example, listed companies need an auditor to audit their account and report the financial statement and publish the annual report in the Bursa Malaysia. As the annual report is going to publish in the Bursa Malaysia annually, the company is said to be losing it privacy. The company needs to disclose the report honestly to the public. They cannot hide any details regarding stock option plans, details of lease agreements, gross profit, net income and its borrowing. The others disadvantages is when a company go public, they have to offer the shares to the public or in other word which means that the business owners will have to share it ownership with other investor, and shareholders can affect the company operations; they can voice out their opinion and decisions. Conclusion As a conclusion, each country has different experience about the economic growth and the capital markets. Every country applies different style, for Hong Kong they do not have central bank and for Japan they have many commercial banks that they call as main bank. The capital market of the country can be view by the venture capital in the market or the listed company in the stock exchange market. The listed company in the stock exchange market show that the investment of the public to the achievement of the capital market in the country. It reveals how much wealth the country has and how good was the economics of the country.

Control In Lord Of The Flies :: essays papers

Control In Lord Of The Flies Throughout William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies there is an ever-present conflict between two characters. Ralph's character combines common sense with a strong desire for civilized life. Jack, however, is an antagonist with savage instincts, which he cannot control. Ralph's goals to achieve a team unit with organization are destroyed by Jack's actions and words that are openly displayed to the boys. The two leaders try to convince the boys that their way of survival is correct. They continue this desire for control while turning down each other's decisions and ideas. The back and forth conflicts of opinion are what makes life chaos on the island. These conflicts are illustrated in two fashions; the dialog between the boys, and the authors narration. Assuming that the boys are philistines, their language is therefore not very articulate. They are trying to appear important and popular with the group. The boys have a feeling of wanting to belong, which is the basis of all philistines' actions. The author's narration makes up for this. The narrator has a more realistic view of what is happening on the island, and says to the reader what the boy's language fails to do. The boys are drawn away from a civilized way of living. Comments made by Ralph and Jack show the boys that Jack is resorting to savagery. Ralph and Jack both agree in the beginning while they are reasoning in a civil manner. Throughout the novel the two leaders stray from one another because of differences in motivation. Jack told the boys "We've got to decide about being rescued" (Golding 20). This statement illustrates Jack's civilized concern for the whole group. Jack seems to put the group before him. This unselfish concern soon dissolves as the internal beast prevails over the civil Jack. "I ought to be chief because I'm chapter chorister and I can sing C sharp" (Golding, 21), displays Jacks own arrogance. However, the narrator has more insight into this power struggle, "This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch" (Golding 21). The narrator sees this act of voting through the boy's eyes. The narrator implies the boy's failure to understand the importance of a leader. After the boys accept Ralph as chief, Ralph gives power over the choir boys to Jack.

Analysis of the Macro and Micro Environment at British Airways Essay

British Airways is the largest international scheduled airline in the UK. The company was founded in 1919, and has continued to grow and expand since privatisation in 1987, until the global recession hit in 2008. On 23rd January 2009 the UK was officially declared to be in recession following two consecutive quarters in 2008 during which economic growth dropped (BBC, 2009). Many businesses, including British Airways, have found it increasingly difficult to survive in the resulting testing macroeconomic environment. The Recession  A recession will often occur when inflation grows rapidly; goods become more expensive at a time when consumers have less money to spend. As consumers spend less money, supply begins to exceed demand within the markets. This causes businesses to produce less of their goods, and so require less staff. The unemployment that results from this creates a situation whereby people do not trust the markets and have less money, so stop spending, thus creating a vicious circle. UK unemployment figures up to March 2010 show that unemployment has risen to 8%, the highest figure since 1996. For many people, air travel is a luxury good. This means that in times of hardship, where the consumer is reducing their spending, air travel will be an area that is very hard hit, as many people are not taking holidays. For some consumers, air travel is for business purposes, as opposed to recreational. This area of the market has not been hit as hard, although many people are now flying in economy class, where they might previously have flown in business or first class. Business and first class passengers have played a large part in BA’s profitability, as they account for a large proportion of the company’s profit. Low-cost, budget airlines such as Ryan Air have done comparatively well, producing profits in a market where very few businesses have been able to. Budget airlines are supplying an â€Å"inferior good†. This means that as consumer income decreases, a demand for the service will increase as the service is seen to be more affordable. Production Costs Over recent years the cost of fuel has increased dramatically, and as each airport has only one fuel supplier, BA is working within a limited market, where there is a lack of price competition to drive the price of fuel down. With demand continuing to exceed the supply of fuel the equilibrium point of the supply and demand curve is continually changing, this allows the fuel suppliers to increase their costs. As demand for air travel has dropped and production costs have increased, BA has found that an increasing number of flights are running with too few passengers to make the flight profitable. However, if BA were to decrease the number of flights they would risk losing their slots at the major airports, which would be disastrous when the market begins to pick up and demand for flights increases again. Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA, believes that a compromise must be found between surviving throughout this difficult climate, and growing the business so that it can prosper once the economy has recovered. Iberia Merger BA has recently signed a merger with Spain’s Iberian Airlines. This will promote the business to being one of the largest international providers of air travel. It is predicted that the merger will allow the two companies to save around ? 50 million per year, which will greatly benefit shareholders as the profit will be seen to increase, and also benefit customers as the synergy between the routes and aircraft used should offer more choice at a more competitive price (Price, 2010). Government Policy As a result of the recent recession, the government has taken steps to increase consumer spending. Increased consumer spending is necessary in order to increase the UK’s GDP (gross domestic product) and so ensure that the recovery from the recent recessi on will continue. Some of these policy responses from the government included lowering VAT from 17. 5% to 15% as of December 1st 2008 (Finch, 2008). This was a move which was aimed at lowering the price of goods and so encouraging the public to spend more. This would start to regain consumer trust, and also start to put money back into the market. The major downside to this policy change is that due to a lower governmental income from VAT, the government has been forced to increase the UK’s national debt and run a larger budget deficit in order to keep national services running. There has been considerable debate as to how much this policy actually helped to bring the UK out of the recession, but it did encourage consumers to have more faith in the government and the economy and to spend more money. By encouraging a higher rate of consumer spending, the economy is starting to recover; this is a positive sign for British Airways as it means that customers are beginning to increase again. As the consumer is regaining faith in the economy they are becoming more likely to pre-book a holiday as they have more money available to them. This cut in VAT has also allowed companies such as BA to either increase their profit margins slightly or lower their prices slightly (BBC, 2009). The Bank of England Since the start of the recent recession, the pound has weakened considerably. With the UK economy struggling and consumers having borrowed heavily before the recession, currency traders have flooded the market with sterling, resulting in the pound dropping in value. In an attempt to maintain monetary stability the Bank of England dropped the national interest rates from 5% down to as low as 0. 5% (Bank of England, no date). This also caused currency traders to attempt to trade their sterling to a currency returning a higher profitability, such as the Euro (Bank of England, 2010). However, this move was needed in order to attempt to keep inflation low and encourage banks to continue to supply loans, overdrafts and mortgages. This was a move which was needed in order to try and maintain consumer trust, but the weakening pound has made business increasingly difficult for international companies as importing goods needed to provide their surface has increased thus increasing their production costs, although it does make the service cheaper for foreign consumers. Leadership Theories Willie Walsh became CEO of British Airways in 2005; since then he has faced numerous challenges as the global economy has been hit hard by the recent recession. Walsh was brought in by British Airways as CEO following his success as CEO of Aer Lingus, where he helped to bring the company out of the financial difficulty that it suffered as a result of the terrorist attacks in 2001, by cutting 2000 jobs and finding new ways to cut costs (Saunders, 2008). In the current economic climate, where the industry has been severely hit by the recent recession, a leader is needed who is able to react to an ever-changing dynamic environment. Walsh has proved his ability to do this, and has been quick to react with BA by cutting many jobs as the recession hit, and working out new ways in which the company can be run more efficiently, such as by reducing the number of aircraft and raising the efficiency of staff. This style of leadership is known as transformational leadership; it relies upon a leader who has a concept of the direction he wishes the business to take, and has the ability to motivate and inspire his employees in order to attain this goal. Motivation – Content and Process Theories Motivation theories have been developed so that leaders and managers can understand the theory behind the different methods of motivating their workforce and thus work out the most productive and efficient of these methods. It is a common belief that leaders are born and not made; this is supported to some extent by motivation theories as the best leaders will be more perceptive as to how change is affecting his workforce, and the areas in which improvements could be made, as they will have a natural empathy. The best leaders will also be able to use this to the advantage of their company; they will be able to motivate their workforce to a higher work capacity level and so promote productivity. Motivation theories work on the basis that employees carry out work for a variety of reasons, which are weighted in terms of their importance. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need (shown in the diagram below) suggests that there are 5 levels at which a person must be fulfilled before they will perform at their optimal capacity, with the lower levels being the first to be fulfilled and the most important. BA has recently asked its employees to consider working unpaid for up to one month, in a bid to keep the company afloat. Many employees have resisted this change, with only 800 out of 40,000 staff asked agreeing to this. Other options were also put forward to staff, including the option to take unpaid leave or to work part-time; these proved more popular with employees. A reduction in salary would affect employees at the bottom two levels on Maslow’s Hierarchy as with reduced income some may struggle to provide for their physiological needs. This in turn will affect the employee at several levels up the hierarchy; they will feel less secure within their job and society, and consequently on a higher more emotional level. Content theories of motivation suggest that there are three main components which motivate people; these are direction (what they want), intensity (how much they want it) and persistence (how far they will go to attain this). Following on from his, it is assumed that people will work for rewards. These rewards can then be split into two main areas; intrinsic and extrinsic. Content theories place a higher emphasis upon the intrinsic factors, such as the internal drives which motivate people to work. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need is one example of this, and Herzberg’s 2-factor theory is another. Herzberg’s theory relies upon hygiene (extrinsic) and motivators (intrinsic) and suggests that extrinsic factors are important in preventing job dissatisfaction, whereas intrinsic factors are more concerned with self-respect and achievement, thus promoting job satisfaction. Process theories such as J Stacy Adam’s Equity theory, suggest that people are more productive when they perceive that they are receiving fair treatment, and will tend to act if they believe they are being unfairly treated when they compare themselves to others within their social network. Vroom’s Expectancy theory also works upon a basis of fair treatment, but focuses upon the worker’s belief that if they put more effort in, their performance will improve, and their manager will reward them fairly, with a reward that is of value to the individual worker. Managers must therefore identify the rewards that workers will place a high value upon, and attempt to minimise any undesirable outcomes. British Airways needs to focus more upon employee satisfaction, particularly within this economic climate, as this will encourage workers to perform at a higher capacity and thus increase efficiency of the company. Threat of future redundancies is a big motivating factor for many employees; if process theory is applied, so that employees believe increased effort will lead to fair reward (ie. keeping their job) they may be more likely to perform better. Management of Change Theories regarding management of change focus on minimising resistance to change, as this is more likely to make the proposed change viable. Force field analysis requires managers to assess the pro’s and con’s of change, and the movement that will be needed to effect this change. For example, with BA’s pay freeze and request for unpaid work, there will be resistance to this change, based upon a fear of lower income, but, for some, the fear of redundancies and dismissal will outweigh the risk of a month unpaid (BBC, 2009). Resistance to change is often natural due to a fear of the unknown; employees often fear that if they work at a higher capacity this will become the expected normality, which may be difficult to sustain, and can encourage workers to thus work at a lower performance level. Lewin’s 3-step change process identifies unfreezing (where the status quo is disturbed), movement (where new behaviour is adopted) and refreezing (where the new patterns are established as normal) as the three stages. Unfreezing is perceived to be the most difficult to implement, as this is where a fear of the unknown will have the greatest impact. For managers to overcome this they must show empathy, communication and participation. Willie Walsh shows an example of this as he has ensured that all BA employees are kept well informed of all plans towards cost-cutting and voluntarily agreed to work for July without receiving his ? 61,000 monthly salary in a bid to encourage workers to do the same. This also uses process theories of motivation, as it encourages workers to feel that they are receiving fair treatment. Unfortunately for BA, many employees feel that they are being treated unfairly, leading to numerous recent strikes, which have caused massive further losses to the company.

Tok Reflection

TOK Reflection One the first lesson of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), we got a booklet called ‘The Nature of knowledge’. This booklet talked about how knowers know, how knowers we should consider a piece of information we get. The booklet suggested that when we get a piece of information we have to judge it on whether it is the truth and whether we should believe it. Just believing in the piece of information is not enough because you need a justification. Second-hand knowledge, cultural tradition, school, Internet, and expert opinion can obtain the justification.Further continuing the studies of TOK, we found out more about the subject, starting with the ways of knowing. The four types of ways of knowing are reason and logic, emotion, sense perception, and language. For the first quarter we have focused on Sense Perception. In sense perception we focused on the 6 senses, which are: touch, sight, smell, hearing, taste, proprioception. During one of these lessons, we conducte d an interesting survey of which sense would you as a person would be willing to live without. The results show that most of the class would be willing to live without the sense of smell.In relation to the topic of what people believe in, we made a list of things people believe to be true. Using this list we made a ranking of how many people would have to see it for you to believe in it as well or you would actually have to see it for yourself before you believe it. We have watched quite a few documentaries in the quarter. In my opinion the documentary about the guy using echolocation to ride a bike, was one of the most fascinating things I have seen. I find this interesting because even with his disadvantage of being blind, he has somehow found an alternative method to move about and do normal things in life.This video relates to the topic we were currently studying which was sense perception. It shows us how important our senses are and that there are people who can live without o ne of their senses. People can use one of their alternative senses instead when they can’t use one of their senses. I think the sense of sight is one of the most important senses because you need sight to do almost everything and the fact that this guy can live without it amazes me. Another documentary that we watched, was when they tried out an experiment on a few willing people.The experiment was to block out the sense of sight for a certain amount of time and monitor the reactions of people over a certain period of time. At the same time, another group of willing people were chosen to have blocked out the sense of touch, sight, and sound. From this experiment I learned that many people get agitated very easily because they have don’t have a sense. The people with the sense of sight, touch, and sound just remained lying on the bed as they couldn’t feel anything therefore they did not know where they would be going if they moved.One of the first documentaries w e watched was about optical illusions. The questions we were focusing on were ‘Under what circumstances should I trust my senses’ and ‘under what circumstances should I doubt my senses’. From that video I learned that the circumstances when we should trust our senses is to think whether foo is rotten or not, whether or not to use your eyes to navigate, and touching hot or sharp objects. The circumstances that you should doubt your senses is when there are mirages, optical illusions, during a magic show, under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.The latest documentary that we watched was about the new topic that we started for quarter 2 which is Language. This documentary talked about all the different signs and actions that people do in various cultures and what they mean. For example, one of the actions that Indian people are prone to do is the shaking of the head from side to side. This action means a yes in the Indian culture but to people who have nev er seen this actions before it look like a mixture of a yes and a no, like a maybe sign.This video was interesting because some of the normal signs we show such as the good luck sign, with the thumb pointing outwards, mean different things in different areas and cultures in the world. The many documentaries we watched helped me learn better and I think I have learned the most out of them mostly because I am a visual learner. On lessons when we didn’t watched movies, we had a lot of discussions within the class. These discussions were about how to know what were are seeing is true, and how to believe what to see.During one of the lessons we had a note taking session about sense perception. This was a slideshow that talked to us about what sense perception is and how it is influenced. I learned that sense perception is influenced by past experiences, which can condition you to expect certain things. Since it is influence by the past you may than see what you expect to see, rath er than what is really there. Your sense perception can be influenced by your social and cultural conditioning, which may give you certain prejudices.I can also be influenced by you spatial awareness, which will try to relate shapes to patterns with which you’re already familiar. It is influence by your biological limitations, which prevent you from hearing certain sounds or tasting certain chemicals. It can also be influenced by what you already know and how your brain already works. Perception may make you see what is not there and is affected when the brain filters out signals in order to prevent overload. Perception is affect by your self-perception, which makes you interpret information in relation to your self-image.I don’t think this presentation helped me learn that much, as it didn’t give me any examples and was more of information that we need to learn. The last thing that we did was the presentation. This presentation was on a topic of our choice and we had create a Knowledge issue, research about a real life situation and come up with economical, educational, moral, religious, and social views about our topic. This presentation is really helpful because it will be similar to the final one we do to gain the 3 bonus points in IB.