California Pizza Kitchen

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN TUI University Instructor: MGT599 Module 1 Case Study The purpose of this report is to identify and give feedback on the company’s current mission and vision statements as well as its values and goals as stated (or not) by the founders and management. The need to have a clear vision and a real mission statement is fundamental and vital for all businesses. The values that make the company what it is and the end state or goals that it wishes to achieve are equally important. In looking at these factors I will identify the following where possible: What is California Pizza Kitchen’s vision statement and is it relevant? What is CPK’s mission statement and is it effective? What are the values and short and long term goals and what is the company doing to clarify and refine them on a continuous basis? Hildy Gottleib of the Community-Driven Institute has an excellent way of differentiating and explaining what vision and mission statements are. She says the simplest way of doing it is using three little letters and they are â€Å"ARY. Used in this way, Vision and Mission look quite different and are much easier to understand. (Gottleib) She goes on to say that written in this way it is easy to understand that when someone is a visionary they are able to see what it is they want to do and as a missionary they are able to execute their vision. She used the analogy of Jesus. He was the visionary and his disciples were the missionaries. (Gottleib) A good majority of organizations have websites like CPK’s. On these websites most companies will give their mission statement if you will. This statement is important for many reasons. It is stated so that potential clients and or investors can learn what the company is about when it comes to business. This is what helps draw people to the business. When people have a clear understanding as to what a company does or wishes to do in regards to customer service, it causes them to take stock of the company and determine if the company is a right for their consumer needs. My research of the company shows that the company has no mission statement as of publication of this report. The closest mission statement (if one were to call it that) that I could potentially identify was â€Å"CPK’s strong brand awareness has been developed primarily through full service restaurants and through the expansion of our high quality fast-casual, CPK/ASAP concept†. (Smith) I believe another way of saying this is that it is California Pizza Kitchen’s mission to be a â€Å"leader in authentic California-style cuisine† (all the while) being widely known for diverse and innovative menu items. This is no clear mission statement as given by the company but rather this person’s interpretation. If you read their website you will not find much of anything except their personal story. Although this is nice, it tells neither the customer nor the potential investor anything as to what the company is striving towards in clear language. It does nothing to spark or draw interest to the company. California Pizza Kitchen has no clear or discernable mission statement and their vision statement is just as absent. On their company website is stated the founders intent but not their vision â€Å"Having always wanted to get into the restaurant business; they traded in their legal pads to serve hearth-baked pizzas. (California Pizza kithen) Their unspoken business vision was to create pizzas that were an interpretation or a culmination of food with an international flair on a global level. Their pizzas include such creations as a Jamaican Jerk, Thai, and shrimp pizza. This flair has served the company well. Although the company has gone through a rough patch while under the ownership of PepsiCo which nearly ran the business aground due to what some may say was an overly aggressive business model , the company is now back on track with the original founders put back in control of the company. This has allowed CPK to right itself and grow at a more realistic pace. The founders have been allowed to lead the company as they intended at the start and the brand name is flourishing. It is because of this vision that the company is again succeeding. So, it is fair to say that the company has a vision but that vision is shallow and has no clear long term ambition other than serving specialty pizza. I have made numerous inquiries both by email and phone calls to the main office and other places within the company to clearly state their values and goals. I finally received a reply from a Mr. Locksley who is a member of their marketing and relations department. My request to him was simple; tell me what you understand the company’s values and goals to be. He simply regurgitated in an email his company’s web page statement. This is not good. Either he is unable to clearly communicate the company’s values statement as well as their goals or, there are none. It is my findings that the company has no values or goals statements. The company is simply operating on a loose configuration of statements given on a webpage or in an employee handbook. The company touts respect, opportunity, communication, and kindness (R. O. C. K) for all just like all other companies but, there is nothing that I could locate in my search for the employees to get behind other than that. (California Pizza kithen) The company has not given its employees a set of values that all can get on the same page with or real sustenance and purpose. There is an employee handbook but it is more like a generic/vanilla document that covers employee benefits, requirements for uniform standards, and other HR issues. No wonder the employees have no clue. You can’t enforce company standards or values if you don’t ensure that all have access to them in order to read and comply. This is totally unsatisfactory. Goals, the company has no clear or identifiable set of goals in its current state. While under PepsiCo the company had a goal to grow at a stated pace over so many years, while under the current leadership they are focused solely on repairing the damage to the brand name caused by PepsiCo. This could be a goal of sorts but it does or says nothing to the effect of what the company’s future overall end state is. The company must look at its current situation and develop a set of goals that will enable it to better move forward and grow. Although the company will either continue to survive or eventually wither and fail, a good set of goals will enable everyone to work smarter and more effectively toward success. This aspect is of great importance to company shareholders in that it affects their profits. If the company can’t define a clear goal for the company in regards to profits then the stakeholders in the company suffer and will eventually sell out. Stakeholders want to make money as in any organization and if they don’t, they will revolt on management until it responds. Some things that I would recommend to the company in general are: 1. work aggressively to develop a short and long term vision for your company. 2. After you have your vision identified, develop a team of individuals to recognize your mission and then implement it by sending company leadership out to the employees to articulate it. Once everyone knows what it is the company wants it can begin to implement that vision by working to achieve it. . Take a consensus from across the entire work force in what it deems is or is appropriate values that you want the company to follow. This can be done by online employee surveys or management at each store location polling workers on site. You can gather results either way and decide on those values that are important to all workers at every level and exemplify the very best traits and characteristics of your busine ss. This will allow workers to feel good about where they work and give customers a more positive attitude about the business they are frequenting. . Develop a goal for your business. You can have a goal for employees in regards to customer service and one for the future growth and development of CPK franchises. Both will reap huge rewards for you business. I recommend that you place your vision, mission, values, and goals in high visibility locations throughout the organization. This allows everyone to read and understand what it is they are working towards. Place them in the company board room so that the CEO and board of directors can see it every time they meet. Use them as a gauge to see if the senior leaders are using them to make decisions which support your various statements. If their not then either replace them or hold them accountable for their failures by withholding bonuses or other perks. In conclusion, the company has no set vision, mission, or values statements. There are no clear and defined goals for the organization. The company must do the following in order to begin the process of changing: 1. Develop a vision statement in order to allow everyone to understand what it is the company wants or intends to do. 2. Develop a mission statement that supports that vision. Then, with the vision, begin to work aggressively to realize that vision. 3. Access your company as a whole and determine those values that will support your vision and mission from those that are within your employee base. Tweak and revise constantly in order to ensure that your company reflects the very best and important aspects of your employee base and that they genuinely feel like a part of the team effort. Your employees are your business and the most important part at that. Without them you are out of business. Hold management (CEO, Board of Directors) accountable in ensuring that they make decisions based off of various established statements. 4. Lastly, strongly impart to everyone what the overall goal(s) are for the organization and give them the tools and support to achieve it/them. The company must ensure that it effectively incorporates and uses the first three legs of the support (vision, mission, values) to realize the final result or goal. A goal is nothing without the latter three. With these recommendations you will find that the organization will function and flow far more efficiently than before. It will take determination and real effort on the part of California Pizza Kitchen to achieve the recommendations as laid out in this Summary. I thank you for your attention to this assessment summary. Works Cited California Pizza kithen. California Pizza Kitchen. November 2010. 30 November 2010 . Gottleib, Hildy. 3 Statements That Can Change the World: Mission/Vision/Values. 2007. Creating the Future. 28 November 2010 . Smith, Richard M. Rolling In Dough. 25th June 2007. Harmon Newsweek LLC. 30 November 2010 . California Pizza Kitchen CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN TUI University Instructor: MGT599 Module 1 Case Study The purpose of this report is to identify and give feedback on the company’s current mission and vision statements as well as its values and goals as stated (or not) by the founders and management. The need to have a clear vision and a real mission statement is fundamental and vital for all businesses. The values that make the company what it is and the end state or goals that it wishes to achieve are equally important. In looking at these factors I will identify the following where possible: What is California Pizza Kitchen’s vision statement and is it relevant? What is CPK’s mission statement and is it effective? What are the values and short and long term goals and what is the company doing to clarify and refine them on a continuous basis? Hildy Gottleib of the Community-Driven Institute has an excellent way of differentiating and explaining what vision and mission statements are. She says the simplest way of doing it is using three little letters and they are â€Å"ARY. Used in this way, Vision and Mission look quite different and are much easier to understand. (Gottleib) She goes on to say that written in this way it is easy to understand that when someone is a visionary they are able to see what it is they want to do and as a missionary they are able to execute their vision. She used the analogy of Jesus. He was the visionary and his disciples were the missionaries. (Gottleib) A good majority of organizations have websites like CPK’s. On these websites most companies will give their mission statement if you will. This statement is important for many reasons. It is stated so that potential clients and or investors can learn what the company is about when it comes to business. This is what helps draw people to the business. When people have a clear understanding as to what a company does or wishes to do in regards to customer service, it causes them to take stock of the company and determine if the company is a right for their consumer needs. My research of the company shows that the company has no mission statement as of publication of this report. The closest mission statement (if one were to call it that) that I could potentially identify was â€Å"CPK’s strong brand awareness has been developed primarily through full service restaurants and through the expansion of our high quality fast-casual, CPK/ASAP concept†. (Smith) I believe another way of saying this is that it is California Pizza Kitchen’s mission to be a â€Å"leader in authentic California-style cuisine† (all the while) being widely known for diverse and innovative menu items. This is no clear mission statement as given by the company but rather this person’s interpretation. If you read their website you will not find much of anything except their personal story. Although this is nice, it tells neither the customer nor the potential investor anything as to what the company is striving towards in clear language. It does nothing to spark or draw interest to the company. California Pizza Kitchen has no clear or discernable mission statement and their vision statement is just as absent. On their company website is stated the founders intent but not their vision â€Å"Having always wanted to get into the restaurant business; they traded in their legal pads to serve hearth-baked pizzas. (California Pizza kithen) Their unspoken business vision was to create pizzas that were an interpretation or a culmination of food with an international flair on a global level. Their pizzas include such creations as a Jamaican Jerk, Thai, and shrimp pizza. This flair has served the company well. Although the company has gone through a rough patch while under the ownership of PepsiCo which nearly ran the business aground due to what some may say was an overly aggressive business model , the company is now back on track with the original founders put back in control of the company. This has allowed CPK to right itself and grow at a more realistic pace. The founders have been allowed to lead the company as they intended at the start and the brand name is flourishing. It is because of this vision that the company is again succeeding. So, it is fair to say that the company has a vision but that vision is shallow and has no clear long term ambition other than serving specialty pizza. I have made numerous inquiries both by email and phone calls to the main office and other places within the company to clearly state their values and goals. I finally received a reply from a Mr. Locksley who is a member of their marketing and relations department. My request to him was simple; tell me what you understand the company’s values and goals to be. He simply regurgitated in an email his company’s web page statement. This is not good. Either he is unable to clearly communicate the company’s values statement as well as their goals or, there are none. It is my findings that the company has no values or goals statements. The company is simply operating on a loose configuration of statements given on a webpage or in an employee handbook. The company touts respect, opportunity, communication, and kindness (R. O. C. K) for all just like all other companies but, there is nothing that I could locate in my search for the employees to get behind other than that. (California Pizza kithen) The company has not given its employees a set of values that all can get on the same page with or real sustenance and purpose. There is an employee handbook but it is more like a generic/vanilla document that covers employee benefits, requirements for uniform standards, and other HR issues. No wonder the employees have no clue. You can’t enforce company standards or values if you don’t ensure that all have access to them in order to read and comply. This is totally unsatisfactory. Goals, the company has no clear or identifiable set of goals in its current state. While under PepsiCo the company had a goal to grow at a stated pace over so many years, while under the current leadership they are focused solely on repairing the damage to the brand name caused by PepsiCo. This could be a goal of sorts but it does or says nothing to the effect of what the company’s future overall end state is. The company must look at its current situation and develop a set of goals that will enable it to better move forward and grow. Although the company will either continue to survive or eventually wither and fail, a good set of goals will enable everyone to work smarter and more effectively toward success. This aspect is of great importance to company shareholders in that it affects their profits. If the company can’t define a clear goal for the company in regards to profits then the stakeholders in the company suffer and will eventually sell out. Stakeholders want to make money as in any organization and if they don’t, they will revolt on management until it responds. Some things that I would recommend to the company in general are: 1. work aggressively to develop a short and long term vision for your company. 2. After you have your vision identified, develop a team of individuals to recognize your mission and then implement it by sending company leadership out to the employees to articulate it. Once everyone knows what it is the company wants it can begin to implement that vision by working to achieve it. . Take a consensus from across the entire work force in what it deems is or is appropriate values that you want the company to follow. This can be done by online employee surveys or management at each store location polling workers on site. You can gather results either way and decide on those values that are important to all workers at every level and exemplify the very best traits and characteristics of your busine ss. This will allow workers to feel good about where they work and give customers a more positive attitude about the business they are frequenting. . Develop a goal for your business. You can have a goal for employees in regards to customer service and one for the future growth and development of CPK franchises. Both will reap huge rewards for you business. I recommend that you place your vision, mission, values, and goals in high visibility locations throughout the organization. This allows everyone to read and understand what it is they are working towards. Place them in the company board room so that the CEO and board of directors can see it every time they meet. Use them as a gauge to see if the senior leaders are using them to make decisions which support your various statements. If their not then either replace them or hold them accountable for their failures by withholding bonuses or other perks. In conclusion, the company has no set vision, mission, or values statements. There are no clear and defined goals for the organization. The company must do the following in order to begin the process of changing: 1. Develop a vision statement in order to allow everyone to understand what it is the company wants or intends to do. 2. Develop a mission statement that supports that vision. Then, with the vision, begin to work aggressively to realize that vision. 3. Access your company as a whole and determine those values that will support your vision and mission from those that are within your employee base. Tweak and revise constantly in order to ensure that your company reflects the very best and important aspects of your employee base and that they genuinely feel like a part of the team effort. Your employees are your business and the most important part at that. Without them you are out of business. Hold management (CEO, Board of Directors) accountable in ensuring that they make decisions based off of various established statements. 4. Lastly, strongly impart to everyone what the overall goal(s) are for the organization and give them the tools and support to achieve it/them. The company must ensure that it effectively incorporates and uses the first three legs of the support (vision, mission, values) to realize the final result or goal. A goal is nothing without the latter three. With these recommendations you will find that the organization will function and flow far more efficiently than before. It will take determination and real effort on the part of California Pizza Kitchen to achieve the recommendations as laid out in this Summary. I thank you for your attention to this assessment summary. Works Cited California Pizza kithen. California Pizza Kitchen. November 2010. 30 November 2010 . Gottleib, Hildy. 3 Statements That Can Change the World: Mission/Vision/Values. 2007. Creating the Future. 28 November 2010 . Smith, Richard M. Rolling In Dough. 25th June 2007. Harmon Newsweek LLC. 30 November 2010 .

Richard Cory and God’s Work

People can suffer in silence and suddenly they either shock us by doing something drastic or they emerge as heroes who win our admiration. † a) Briefly outline what happens in â€Å"Richard Cory† and â€Å"God’s Work†. Richard Cory, the subject of the poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, is a man who is highly favored in his community. The working class citizens, one of which is the narrator of the poem, are always admiring his sophistication and his regal attitude. They also have high regards for his humanity, wealth as well as his status in education.The people think that Richard Cory is everything; they begin to cut back on the things they do in hope to achieve a similar lifestyle to the one that Richard Cory lives. However, without any identified reason, Richard kills himself, bringing surprise to the ones who admire him together with the reader. In the poem â€Å"God’s Work† by Ian McDonald, death also occurs, however, being of a different s tate to that of â€Å"Richard Cory†. The poet respects the main character, Mister Edwards, who is his gardener, handyman and a good friend.Mister Edwards is a strong man, both physically and mentally, and a handsome man too. However, he is ill and is experiencing the factors of death. Although Mister Edwards suffers a slow and excruciating death, he shows his great appreciation for the things he experiences. He believes that whatever happens, whether it may be pleasing or dissatisfying, it is God’s work and it happens for a reason. Coming on to the end of the poem, the poet describes the pain that Mister Edwards endures, and how many people believe that he has a strong heart.Finally, he dies, and the persona cynically cries out â€Å"God’s Work†. b) How does the statement above apply to each poem? After reading the poems â€Å"Richard Cory† and â€Å"God’s Work,† it is clearly recognized that the statement is applied in both poems. In the poems, the two main characters suffer silently, however, in â€Å"Richard Cory,† his death shocks the reader and in â€Å"God’s Work†, Mister Edwards’ strength allowed him to become admirable to the reader. The first half of the poem that states, â€Å"People suffer in silence and suddenly they either hock us by doing something drastic,† is in relation to the poem â€Å"Richard Cory†. The way in which Richard lives his life and carries himself is admired by the narrators, who continually describe his characteristics throughout most of the poem. This may be evident where they describe him as being, â€Å"Clean favored, and imperially slim. † The working class also tries their utmost best to become an individual such as Richard, evident in the lines, â€Å"In fine, we thought he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place.So on we worked, and waited for the light, and went without the meat, and cursed the bread. † Through this way of thinking, Richard Cory creates an extreme shock to the reader, by killing himself on â€Å"one calm summer night†. â€Å"God’s Work† relates to the second half of the statement which says that the people who suffer in silence, â€Å"they emerge as heroes who win our admiration. † It is evident throughout the poem that Mister Edwards is suffering from a painful illness. The poet describes Mister Edwards’ suffering; the â€Å"spasms† he experiences â€Å"crumpling up his face. However, he tries to maintain his dignity even during death through â€Å"the effort to hold back the gut contracting cry†. Obviously, Mister Edwards is a man of good faith in God. He accepts that even the worst that can happen is a part of â€Å"God’s Work† as well as the death that he is experiencing. Mister Edwards’ struggle reveals his strength of character and his heroism allowing him to become such an admiration t o the reader. c) In each case, what poetic device does the poet use to make us feel shock or admiration?The poetic device that the poets use in both poems is that of situational irony, so as to make us feel shock or admiration. In â€Å"Richard Cory†, by the way in which the citizens speak about Richard Cory’s wealth, education and his general way of living, the reader is made to believe that he is contented with his life. This may be evident in his royality; him being â€Å"a gentleman from sole to crown, clean favored, and imperially slim. † Further, it is also obvious in the way Richard Cory â€Å"glittered when he walked,† and how rich and â€Å"admirably schooled† he is.The citizens long to become as successful as Richard Cory is and â€Å"waited for the light†. However, at the end of the poem, the situational irony shocks the reader, as the narrators reveal that Richard Cory kills himself. This occurs since the reader did not expect su ch a humble and pleasant man, who seems to have everything, to do something that drastic. For the poem â€Å"God’s Work† many situations of irony occur. However, the ironic situation that allows the reader to evoke feelings of admiration is the situation where Mister Edwards accepts death as the actions of God despite the nature of the event.Although many would think that â€Å"God’s Work† is just about the blooming flowers and the rising sun, Mister Edwards believes that harsh storms and floods are also â€Å"God’s Work†, evident where the persona says, â€Å"’God’s work’, he would say when the rain pelted down and floods rushed in rivers and storms lashed the tree-tops†. The reader may wonder why such an agonizing death is experienced by someone who is said to be of good character, as he is described by the persona in the second stanza, but Mister Edwards has faith in God, believing that he allows suffering for there is a reason behind it.

Drainflow Repairing Jobs That Fail to Satisfy Essay

William Assemiah, 12021643 Irene Aidoo, 12021610 Sroda Adzo Apam, 12021626 Asare Ohenedwira Thomas, 12021639 Dorothy Dede Aklerh Asamoah, 12021634 Sampson Abbey Armah, 12021630 Arthur Sherifa, 12021631 Amadu Waliu, 12021617 Report Summary 1. Executive Summary DrainFlow, a plumbing maintenance firm in the USA, has been losing its customers to competitors due to poor services. Job motivation and satisfaction among employees is declining across various job categories within the firm. This dissatisfaction has been attributed to the overspecialization of some job functions in the company. The report attempts to assist DrainFlow improve in three key areas: job structure and design, incentive policies, and recruitment practices. It will go further to analyze the causes of the woes being faced by DrainFlow and provide a constructive recommendation on how to overcome them The main contents include an introduction to the problems DrainFlow is encountering, analyses of the current business, and recommendations on how DrainFlow can overcome these issues to foster a long-term competitive advantage. 2. Introduction Research shows that a happy worker is a productive employee. Satisfied employees tend to be better at their workplaces. Many of the individual behaviors at the workplace are affected by job satisfaction The main contents include an introduction to the problems DrainFlow is encountering, analyses of the current business, and recommendations on how DrainFlow can overcome these issues to foster a long-term competitive advantage. The goal of this proposal is to provide recommendations for a new job structure, a new incentive structure, and new hiring practices. The job structure recommendations will allow for more cross training between office workers and service providers. This will enrich all jobs at DrainFlow by adding different tasks, autonomy, and feedback. The new incentive structure will allow for flexible benefits and recognition. This is designed to motivate  employees and improve customer service. Lastly, the new hiring practices will provide a repeatable solution for finding a cohesive set of new employees. The report consists of five (5) parts: Executive Summary, Introduction, Motivation and Job Structure Analysis, Recommendations and Implementation. 3. Motivation and Job Structure Analysis 3.1. Job Design Research shows that there is a moderate relationship between job satisfaction and job performance as well as customer satisfaction. Satisfied employees perform better at their jobs and provide better customer service. Employees of DrainFlow are dissatisfied and that is the root cause of their present situation. Generally, specialization results in cost effectiveness and delivering of core competencies among employees when jobs are complex and require years of experience and learning for mastery. It becomes an albatross when jobs have few tasks and require little skill. The bottom line is, jobs have different effects on efficiency and motivation. The current job structure of DrainFlow due to its specialization has contributed to job dissatisfaction among employees and in 25% cases, turning employees away from the company. Work groups are dissatisfied with each other’s output. The current job structure only assigned tasks without considering the interdependency of those tasks. Due to this, problems such as assigning a plumber assistant on a job meant for a plumber, and vice versa, and poor customer service have plagued DrainFlow. DrainFlow should adopt Hackman’s Job Characteristic Model to describe current jobs in the firm. The JCM has five core dimensions which include skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. Skill variety is the use of different skills and talents to complete a variety of work activities. The current job- tasks in DrainFlow are very narrow and do not allow employees that skill variety. Task identity is the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or identifiable piece. This will help communicate the interdependence of work from one group and the other through the order to bill process. Task significance is the degree to which the job affects the organization and society. There no feedback channels in the firm at present and as such it’s difficult to measure customer satisfaction. Autonomy will provide the freedom, independence and discretion in scheduling  work and determining the procedure to be used in accomplishing it. DrainFlow has a preplanned and stringent procedure to follow. Feedback will provide employees with direct and clear information about their own performance. DrainFlow’s employees haven’t that information to assess their performance. 3.2 Incentive Scheme DrainFlow has no incentive scheme in place that will motivate employees to put any extra effort on the job. The present reward system is based on skill and qualification. Plumbers are rewarded the most as compared to the others because of their level of skill and not on performance. Generally, reward systems tend to motivate employees better when they are:   linked to performance; the rewards are important, when team rewards are used for interdependent jobs and those rewards are valuable. Lee’s attempt to salvage DrainFlow by introducing the reward system is laudable but it will need a few modifications. 3.3. Recruitment Practices The current recruitment processes by DrainFlow are based on unstructured interviews by different managers thereby creating a higher level of inconsistencies in the choices of selection of employees. The use of shortcuts for judgment such as selective perception (tendency to selectively interpret what one sees based on one’s interests, background, experience and attitudes), or stereotyping (judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs) are prevalent. Although the shortcuts may aide accurate perceptions and hence predictions, they are not full proof and may result in perception inaccuracies. Research indicates that impressions are formed within a tenth of a second, based on a first glance. Wrong perceptions may result in employees that are unqualified for the position and/or dissatisfied with work. The current situation at DrainFlow was aggravated by these perceptional recruitment inefficiencies. Most employees lack training in customer service, organizational behavior and are anxious about speaking with customers. Order processors do not have  sufficient knowledge or skill to explain the customer’s situation to DrainFlow Plumbers or Plumber Assistants. Billing representatives must deal with the negative reactions of dissatisfied customers; however, Bill processors are only involved at the end of the job process and unaware of any job details. DrainFlow plumbers are sometimes reluctant to deliver bad news of an unexpectedly high bill to customers. Furthermore, it is clear that a majority of order processors do not know any more about plumbing than customers calling in. These deficiencies have resulted in a direct negative impact on the revenue and cost savings, which were to be achieved by dividing assignments and specializing job responsibilities. 4.0 Recommendations A. Job Redesign DrainFlow work units have been overspecialized and there is little or no coordination among employees of different functional units. Therefore, we recommend a radical redesign of the job structure and business processes to achieve dramatic performance improvements and motivation. Order and Bill Processing be merged into one work unit under a job title. This will enable employees to have a first-time touch with customers. Cross training programs should be organized to enhance their knowledge of plumbing and plumbing-related activities. Feedbacks on customer satisfaction can easily be tracked. Plumbing assistants, besides performing less technical plumbing works, should be given the opportunity to do rotational job activities in Order and Bill Processing unit. This will foster a better relationship among employees, enhance skill variety, cross training; reduce boredom and increase motivation and job satisfaction. Plumbers should organize training sessions on plumbing for worker in Order and Bill Processing Unit and continue to do complex plumbing works. The training should be interactive and focus on providing skill on how to respond to plumbing problems. This is to add a variety to plumbers’ activities. B. Incentive Scheme There is no current incentive scheme in place that is capable of providing employee satisfaction and motivation. DrainFlow should introduce an incentive scheme geared towards increasing employee satisfaction. This scheme should be both intrinsic and extrinsic; it should be both skill-oriented and performancebased.   Skills in customer service, plumbing and work attitude should be considered in the scheme. Performance-based will reward employees who create and maintain high customer retention rates. At the end of any job, a customer satisfaction survey should be conducted to assess level of customer satisfaction. Results from the survey should be the bases for implementing Lee’s reward scheme. Rewarding performance should be an ongoing managerial and not just periodic. Therefore, extrinsic rewards such as performance pay should be consistent with overall management objectives, used to reinforce a motivational in which nonmonetary rewards exist such as employee recognition. C. Recruitment Practices Based on the problem analysis concerning recruitment practices in DrainFlow, we recommend that management should design a consistent recruitment procedure that is capable of finding and hiring individuals who have the skill and experience to function well on the job. The recruitment policy procedure should emphasize on: ï‚ · A brief summary judgment about the applicant’s strength and weaknesses ï‚ · Interpreting facts as they appear on resume and make judgments; highlight and comment on experience and skills only as they apply to the needs of DrainFlow ï‚ · Identifying personality  traits (such as Agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion, and emotional stability) that will improve customer service and emotional labor 4. Implementation This is probably the hardest part of it all. DrainFlow’s challenges of improving employee and customer satisfaction whiles increasing profit levels through cost containment and job performance is contingent on implementing our recommendations. However, any successful implementation of these recommendations will require support from toplevel management. The objectives of the changes should be clearly communicated to employees. DrainFlow should not do any radical changes; they should introduce the changes gradually in order of importance. Redesigning the job structure is essentially the first change management should introduce. The focus is on combining order and billing work responsibilities into a single work unit. This should be followed by cross training and weekly job rotational activities. Workers of the newly created Order and Billing Unit should be given the opportunity to clone a plumber or plumber assistant to learn the basic concepts of plumbing. This will equip them with the necessary competencies in executing order and bill processing. DrainFlow needs to implement a new incentive scheme that is capable of boosting employee satisfaction to put in more effort in their work. The proposed incentive scheme should include a financial reward system, as proposed by Lee, and an intrinsic, employee recognition program. Research has shown that financial rewards are mostly effective and deliver good results  only in the short-run. Employee loyalty and long-term motivational needs are triggered by non-financial rewards such as recognition. 5. Conclusion This report summarized recommendations on how DrainFlow will gain a competitive advantage by improving three key knobs: job structure and design, incentive scheme and recruitment practices. The recommendations are clear and understandable and should be technically easy and financially cost effective to implement. The report proposes combining some job units,  encouraging a weekly job rotational activities, cross training by utilizing the current talents available within the organization, etc. A new incentive scheme will create job satisfaction through job motivation; this will boost productivity, performance and customer retention. The new recruitment policy entails finding and training employees that fit and share the dreams and aspirations of DrainFlow. Consequently, DrainFlow will see positive changes in employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and retention, motivation, loyalty, performance, productivity and profitability.

Disucssion question about teaching ELL learners in their own langauge, Essay

Disucssion question about teaching ELL learners in their own langauge, and do i - Essay Example In practice, this is a complicated question. Too often, students are taught exclusively in their native language, and never encouraged to learn the new language. Research bears out, it takes years to develop an understanding of a new language, so it is beneficial for the student to continue learning in their home language and allow time to solidify knowledge in the new language. One has to ask, does bi-lingual education mean teaching all ELL learners in predominant ELL language of the geographical area? If not, then how could students of more obscure languages find adequate instruction; surely, not all public schools can accommodate Vietnamese or Russian students without greatly sacrificing the quality of instruction. In theory, I don’t think there should be a question of whether it’s necessary. A democratic society doesn’t have to ask if it â€Å"believes† in multi-culturalism, as pluralism is inherent in the very foundation of our republic. What I know, is that by not encouraging bi-lingualism and progressively defined education, our nation will distinguish the flame of creativity that has carried America to international prominence over the last two

Art Institute Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Art Institute - Assignment Example It was not just a picture of women crying, but also had lots of expressions on it. The overall experience was great, although there were certain areas that really put me off. For instance, the employees who worked there did not seem to be very friendly. In addition, flash photography was not permitted inside the museum and, therefore, one could not really experience the fun of walking around the museum. I took interest in a medieval painting of a child being held by the parent. This child looked like a miniature adult and that is one common thing from the painting of the medieval times. However, neither the name of the artist nor the school of art has been provided for this particular painting (Gardner et al. 126). I particularly enjoyed various works of sculptures, but there is mostly one that caught my attention. This was a work done by Richmond Barthe of ‘The boxer’. The piece of art depicts African Americans. In the year 1942, the boxer corresponded to the period of time where boxers, especially the blacks like Joe Louis, used to fight with their white rivals and ended up beating them. It meant a huge step for the African Americans and on the basis of equality at least while boxing (Gardner et al. 99). In the institute there is a widely known arms and armor collection that have been put on a special display. There are half and full suits, cannons, pole arms, a knight mounted on a horse that if fully arrayed and a shield in the company of two swords. There are ceiling which are high enough to allow for the Baroque tapestries and Renaissance to be included along with a sculpture. In addition, some paintings and objects imply a wide range of settings. The installation looks at the close association between the arms and armor and the contemporary art and style hence demonstrating the different ways hose objects put emphasis on the social status of the owner (Gardner et al. 226). There is a

Managing Finance - short- term debts and liabilities Essay

Managing Finance - short- term debts and liabilities - Essay Example And that's when it is said that this particular business is having cash-flow problems. The daily operations working capital is used to manage include, stock purchases, salaries and wages, heating and lighting expenses, funding of credit sales etc. (McKosker, Philip, March 1, 2000) Components of working capital include all those things that form part of the definition of working capital since working capital equals current assets less current liabilities, all those things that are categorized under these two things can be called a component of working capital. The three main components namely are, inventory, payables and receivables. Inventory here includes all the stock, opening plus closing. (Managing Working Capital, n.d.) Inventory also includes raw materials,work-in-progress stock of goods and even finished stock of goods. These all are categorized under the assets portion on a business balance sheet. (Inventory, 2008) Inventory payables refers to a business's creditors who are those people or institutions from where you borrow loans or buy good/stock from on credit. A creditor is hence an organization or person who gives out credit to other businesses. A business pays these people at the end of a term or after a set time period as arranged or agreed upon through a contract. (Creditor, 2008) Receivables, on the other hand are those people or organizations that owe the business rather. ... Hence, they are termed as debtors. Just like creditors, businesses form a contract with them too which states how much money ahs been given, for how long, for what and when will it have to be repaid etc. (Money You are Owed, 2004). There are sources of working capital. These are called parts of working capital of a business. These are: cash held in reserve in the business, band OD (over-draft), remaining or retained profits, loans, credit attained from creditors, and long-term loans. (Managing Working Capital, n.d.) 'Control of working capital has always been thought to be the most important factor in the short-term financial management of companies' This statement, I believe is very much true for businesses working today. These days as competition amongst companies has been soaring up almost perpetually, it is highly important for these companies to manage their working capital well. It does not just depend or vary from one economic situation to another, rather on he basic fact that these companies all need to survive first and foremost. Hence, managers or financial executives or anyone who has the work of managing cash flows for a business aims to maximize working capital and get more value for money generally. Another way to say this is through acquiring more worth for short-term cash or cash as a business' current asset. (Bauer, Dennis, 2007). It is highly imperative for these managers to handle each component of working capital efficiently. These components have already been discussed above. (Working Capital, n.d.) It is often said that working capital is the lifeblood of an organization. It holds so much information that it is sometimes claimed

Car spring suspension Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Car spring suspension - Essay Example In high speed applications, for instance, Indy 500 racing competitors have taken steps such as limiting the suspension travel to compensate for the behavior of independent suspension. (Staniforth, 104) An alternative system that offers several possible advantages has been developed and patented by car engineer that is called the positive linked suspension system (PLSS), it is the product of several years of hard work and several false stars for engineering companies. Now it forms the heart of Tech-Engineering‘s kit vehicle, a Honda-powered tricycle. (Fred, 60) The PLSS is a totally mechanical system with natural dynamic stability. In its simplest form, it consists of two stub axles, two body-mounted pivots, two shackles or links, and a leaf spring. The two axles support vehicle weight through the pivot points, which allow the axles to rotate freely. (Fred, 64) A leaf spring rigidly attached to on e axle is linked to other via the shackles. The shackles compensate for changes in spring length when it bends. In this configuration, the vertical position, motion and load of one wheel is transmitted to the spring, which bends, and then to the other wheel. As a result, as one wheel moves up the opposite wheel tries to move up also. Another way to look at it is that as one wheel accepts load the opposite wheel give up loading trying to keep the theoretical line between the pivot points parallel to the road. (Valkenburgh, 205) Because the system is naturally stable and does not allow rotational momentum to develop in the vehicles’ body, mechanical engineers are yet to find a case where shock absorbers would be required. Vertical disturbances are self-damped by out of phase load inputs to the leaf spring. The spring acts as a mechanical interrupter and the rate and amplitude of the system’s response is controlled by adjusting the spring rate and the system’s geometry. Because