Monday, September 30, 2019

Consultant’s Skills Essay

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the corporate world, there is always a need to structure the best possible process of production. In this integral approach, a consultant’s skills can be utilized in order to provide a different or better insight about the needs of the company as well as to guide it for a better path of development.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A consultant is someone who has gained expertise about a particular field of study, research or work. He provides an advice in order to proceed with a particular action (Wikipedia, 2007). In this aspect, consultants are invited in most company functions to share his thoughts and assumptions about a certain business dilemma. Of course, these assumptions do not always reflect that of an enterprise solution but can also be used for some research and development principles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are several responsibilities that a consultant needs to accomplish for a company. First, he needs to provide the most effective ways of dealing with a problem to the fullest of his knowledge. Second, he should communicate in the best possible way, probably in layman’s terms, what he thinks is the best approach in getting a resolution for a particular concern. Third, he must have quite a number of credible materials or resources that he can present to support his claims. Of course, there should be minimal questions about his skills since the company has hired him to become a consultant. But in order to gain a wider perspective of his talents, supporting materials must be available.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a general classification of consultants, the internal and external ones. The main difference between the two can be identified on the way their skills are used for the company processes. It may be thought that external consultants work as freelancers who may then be regarded as a â€Å"contractor† (Friedl) while the internal counterpart is an in-house consultant engaged in direct company decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the aspect of contributions, there might be a slight difference between the two categories. Internal consultants are more exposed to company operations which is of great advantage in sending information efficiently and in a faster way. They can utilize the core skills needed for a resolution (Robertson). On the other hand, external consultants may also provide the same quality of logical problem solving but it would probably take longer since he needs to first see the big picture of the problem before coming up with a solution. References Friedl, S. N.D. â€Å"So you want to be a consultant?† Unixwiz. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html. Robertson, S. N.D. Experiences in Growing Internal Consultants with Object-oriented Skills. The Atlantic Systems Guild. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/SQR/internal_Consultants.html. Wikipedia. 2007. Consultant. Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Adolph Hitler’s Leadership Ethics Essay

About 18 months ago, the Council of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf) appointed a Study Panel of eminent scientists to examine and collate the most relevant and reliable evidence on the influences of nutrition on human immunity, particularly in respect of HIV infection and active tuberculosis in South Africa. The decision to focus on this topic was sparked by the prevailing debates and public uncertainty in South Africa regarding the role of nutrition and nutritional supplements such as vitamins and minerals in the management of HIV infection. The Study Panel report released a few weeks ago under the title ‘HIV/AIDS, TB and Nutrition’ observes that South Africa is currently in the throes of three distinct epidemics – malnutrition, HIV infection and TB. The prevalence of each is sufficiently high that the same communities may be affected by all three epidemics in a purely mathematical overlap, but there is also prima facie evidence from observational studies that the three epidemics are in fact often linked in a synergistic relationship in which they mutually reinforce and facilitate one another. The report provides up-to-date and in-depth epidemiological summaries of each. This editorial will however largely concern itself with nutrition and HIV infection. Why nutrition is important for the immune system The body defends itself against microbial invasion by activating its quite complex immune system, and mobilising what the report dubs the ‘flamethrowers’ or respiratory burst whose central role is the intracellular killing of pathogenic organisms by oxidation or ‘burning’. This in turn relies on the availability of energy stored in energy-yielding fuels such as carbohydrates and fats to fuel the ‘respiratory burst’. Largely for this reason, the resting energy expenditure in HIV-infected individuals is increased by at least 10% compared with noninfected persons. This critical chain of complex defensive mechanisms (involving regulatory hormones, neuropeptides, cytokines and neurotransmitters) is obviously undermined if the infected person is not kept supplied with adequate energyladen macronutrients such as carbohydrates and fats. Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are equally important as part of the nutritional landscape for the optimal functioning of the immune system. For example, the vitamin B complex – thiamine, riboflavin and niacin – has a critical role in the Krebs cycle via which the required energy is generated. However, oxidants are indiscriminate warriors that will attack and destroy both invader and host cells alike. For this reason, there is a need for ‘fire extinguishers’, and micronutrients fulfil the parallel and important role of serving as antioxidants whose function is to limit and contain the destructive effects of oxidants on the host cells. HIV infection and nutrition HIV infection is associated with weight loss and wasting, both of which are independent contributors to poor clinical outcome. The reasons for the weight loss and wasting are multifactorial, and include the increased resting energy expenditure, food scarcity, and decreased absorption of ingested food due to gastrointestinal disease or viral disruption of the intestinal mucosa. Although a 10% or greater loss of body weight over a year is not uncommon in HIV, there is in fact a high degree of variability in the extent of weight loss and wasting which, not infrequently, is causally associated with secondary infection. Whole-body protein turnover may be as high as 25% in untreated HIV sufferers, leading to cachexia. Also, as already mentioned, resting energy expenditure is increased by 10% in HIV-infected people. It would therefore appear to stand to reason that nutritional intervention in people with HIV infection will improve survival and/or quality of life, but hard evidence to this effect is woefully lacking. Very few randomised, placebo-controlled trials have been conducted in this regard. There is preliminary evidence, however, that specific dietary supplements such as amino acid mixtures increase body weight and reduce HIV viral load. Supplementation with medium-chain triglycerides reduces HIV-associated intestinal dysfunction and fat malabsorption. And ready-to-use therapeutic food improves nutritional status in severely malnourished children. Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are essential to immune function, and deficiencies may therefore act as cofactors in HIV transmission and progression. Micronutrient deficiencies are common in HIV-infected people. Multivitamin supplementation has been shown in observational studies to result in a 40 – 48% slower progression to AIDS and a 40 – 60% reduction in the risk of death after 8 years of follow-up. But here again, there is an unhappy lack of sufficiently powered randomised controlled trials to confirm these benefits. The World Health Organization, the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and the Department of Health have all published guidelines for nutrition in HIV/AIDS that have been collated in the ASSAf report. But the report also identifies gaps in our knowledge regarding HIV and nutrition, and recommends areas and topics that ought to be prioritised for research. Daniel J Ncayiyana Editor ‘HIV/AIDS, TB and Nutrition’ – ASSAf Report SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL – FIRST PUBLISHED JANUARY 1884 October 2007, Vol. 97, No. 10 SAMJ 893

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Critical Discourse Analysis

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF AN EDITORIAL NOTE In this text, I am going to analyze an editorial column which is called â€Å"Improcedente paralizacion en el SML†, written by Diario La Tercera. I am going to analyze it taking into account three dimensions of analysis. First, I am going to analyze textual practice, follow by the discourse practice, and finally the social and ideological practice. Textual practice: According to this dimension, I could say that it is not a co-operatively constructed because it is not representing any conversation but it is constructed by three paragraphs which are connecting the text.Besides, I could mention that the author follows a rule of politeness because it is written in an academic and formal way. Although, the image of the author is not represented in any features in the text, the author's attitude itself is expressed in the text because the author expresses her/him opinion about the mobilization of Servicio Medico Legal, this is respres ented by this phrase: â€Å"Lo ocurrido en este caso es inaceptable†. The meaning is being affected by syntactic structures and lexical choice.They help readers to understand the meaning and the purpose of the editorial note. The syntactic structures are â€Å"se genero un desacato a la autoridad y el incumplimiento de una orden emanada de un tribunal† resulta muy grave que escudandose en demandas laborales, los funcionarios del servicio descuiden la delicada labor que cumplen. Those phrases provide the reasons of the author to mention: â€Å"Lo ocurrido en este caso es inaceptable†.Also, the lexical choice is represented for these words: provoco, paralizacion, movilizaciones, genero, causo, tardanza, afecta, peritajes, among others. Moreover, it is important to include that there are some paradigms the first one is about strike: paralizacion, movilizaciones, paro de actividades. The second one is about social authorities: Servicio Medico Legal de Santiago, orga nismo publico, Carabineros, tribunal, director de la entidad, ministro de Justicia.And the third one is about people: familiares, funcionario, trabajadores, perito, miembros del servicio. Following with this analysis, I could mention that some expressions used by the author to characterize the text are â€Å"Improcedente paralizacion en el SML† this sentence is the title of the editorial column, so at the beginning the author is characterized the text as an editorial which is a text of opinion because with the word IMPROCEDENTE, he/she is exposing his/her stance about the problem.Discourse Practice According to this dimension of analysis, I consider that this text is conventional first because it is referring to a current event and likewise it is not the first time that a Chilean public entity performs a stoppage of its activities. This editorial note remind me others mobilizations that have occurred in Chile for example when the public institutions, like hospitals, kindergar tens, among others, went on strikes during this year.Moreover, this text represents an editorial note because the author is expressing his/her opinion about a current social event. This text is more accessible to different kinds of readers because it is represented an current news so it is not necessary for the readers to read between lines because the text is clear and direct, and it is representing the stance of the author. Also, I could mention that the text is presupposing that the readers know this event and therefore they are going to understand the stance of the author.It could be reflected by this expression: â€Å"Se trata de hechos que no deben repetirse, tal como se comprometio el director de la entidad†. Finishing this dimension. I can say that the producer is the Diario La Tercera and the intended receivers are the people who read this newspaper that could be characterized as people from middle class. Social practice According to this dimension, I can say that th e social identities that the author represents are Diario la Tercera, and also the families affected by this issue.The relationship between the social identities that the author represents is that both parts the newspaper and the families believe that it is a painful issue and it cannot happen again, it could be representative with this expression: â€Å"El paro de actividades causo la tardanza en la entrega de varios cuerpos a sus familiares, prolongando innecesariamente ese doloroso momento† . n addition, I can say that the newspaper is exerting power through the language on the readers, because the newspaper is in charge of selecting the editorial note published and with this kind of editorial column the newspaper is trying to persuade the reader. On the other side, the social goal of the text is to demonstrate that this social problem and create conscious about the topic for this reason the text is mportant to accomplish the goal because without it the reader would not un derstand the meaning of the text. The social situation that the editorial note is produced is a today? s event. It happened a week ago and every day this fact is being showed as regrettable news. Besides, it is a very conventional as I mentioned before because it is a controversial topic which remind us it is not the first time that a public institution goes on strike neglecting their duties and triggering problems to society.It is a fact to say that the author appeals that this event is a serious incident and it has not happened again for that reason he/she claims expression like these: â€Å"Lo ocurrido en este caso es inaceptable†¦se genero un desacato a la autoridad y el incumplimiento de una orden emanada de un tribunal†¦Asimismo, resulta muy grave que escudandose en demandas laborales, los funcionarios del servicio descuiden la delicada labor que cumplen†¦ Se trata de hechos que no deben repetirse†.Finally, the social consequences of the text are to persu ade readers that this incident cannot happen again in a country that claims to be developed. Another social consequence can elicit a response from readers to the public health institutions in order to avoid that these facts do not continue to happen.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Hong Kong Hotel Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Hong Kong Hotel Industry - Essay Example If we are to compare this with China, Most of the hotels there are operating on an approach that is friendly to the environment. Most of the hotels there prefer to operate on traditional basis in which they are somewhat using primitive gadgets and the likes which lessens the use of energy while delivering the same output they want to see. This paper aims to find out if environment friendly practices can affect the economic performance in Hotel industries in Hong Kong. This paper also want to establish that if in Mainland China and some places in Asia, the practice of environment-friendly Hotel industries is possible, then it is not impossible that Hong Kong can adopt that certain method. Also this will also tackle on why Hong Kong needs to adopt environment friendly practices to uplift the revenues of the aforementioned industries and why is it important to adopt these schemes. This paper will focus on the importance of adopting the environment-friendly practices of the company to ensure the economic performance of the Hotel industries in Hong Kong. ... The use of these literatures will help us solve puzzle on How Hong Kong Hotel Industries can adapt to environment friendly schemes and at the same time, helps them in achieving competitiveness. For example, this paper will derive articles on flight Magazines of different Airline companies such as the Mabuhay of Philippine Airlines. In one of its issue, an environment friendly practice was featured when people from the province of Pampanga in the Philippines managed to use the ashes and sulfuric dusts of Mt Pinatubo as a source of thermal massage in which the said practice is now known to the world. In most of the Hotels in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, the waste management are executed well thus earned them the distinction as the cleanest spot in South East Asia and these practices earned them so much. Different business and nature magazines gave this citation to them. In this case, the study is not limited to Hong Kong but is focused on the aforementioned area in order to use di fferent schemes that help save the environment. These environmental practices in the aforementioned areas really helped them in achieving their distinction as provider of Hospitality services that is beneficial to both the industry and in nature. These environmental practices will serve as basis as to whether it is applicable to Hotel Industries in Hong Kong and how the said industry in Hong Kong will gain competitive advantage if such industries would embrace the practice. Medical journals, business journals and the likes would be a big help in achieving the goal of this paper. These references will also determine the potential of Hong Kong through comparison with other places. Interview method and survey s will also be conducted in Hong Kong if the

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Extended propsal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Extended propsal - Essay Example During the summit, the importance of access to credit by low income classes, women, and other vulnerable groups, was emphasized. In 1997, the movement gained another boost with the holding of the World Micro-Credit Summit in February 1997 in Washington, DC. During the summit, a countdown was announced, to the year 2005, for the eradication of poverty among 100 million of the world’s poorest families, targeting women in particular with micro-credit aimed at self improvement (Dhar, 2005). In the last 20 years, microfinance has proven to be a vital development tool capable of addressing the needs of vast number of poor people, in particular poor women, with a means of sustainable financial support for their livelihoods. In the 2005 State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, microfinancial institutions were reported to have reached more than 92 million clients, in the process benefiting as many as 333 million family members. Poor people are no longer seen as charity recipients but customers to be attended to and served; of these, women comprise 83% - roughly 66 million – of reported microfinance clients. And not only are they better clients than men, being better repayers, but they also act as key drivers of development, channelling their extra income directly to the benefit of the family (McCarter, 2006). Even prior to its being called â€Å"micro-finance†, forms of small-scale financing have already been afforded to very poor families in developing countries such as India. However, with the advent of the term â€Å"micro-finance†, there appears to be a paradigm shift in the perception of people to the new facility. The old concept encompassed providing credit, at subsidized rates of credit, to poor families residing in rural and semi-urban areas, through public and government financial institutions (Dhar, 2005). Under the new concept, the target is rural and urban poor

Easyjet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Easyjet - Essay Example However, there are several areas that may be pointed out where the aim and objective behind provision of this site is not being satisfied and its full potential is not being harnassed, thereby undermining the potential market that exists for easyjet services. One of the first aspects that easyjet needs to look into is the fact that its B2B link is not clearly visible on the home page. The home page is crammed with several links, of which the B2B link is so small that older viewers who need glasses or those with any kind of visual disability may completely miss the access point. As Jakob Nielsen (1999) points out in his book on designing a good website, simplicity is one of the most vital aspects of designing a website, because the design of a page forms the most visible part of the webpage (p 2). He recommends splitting the material into several pages, but ensuring that each page provides a solid amount of content in a simple, easily viewable form. From this perspective, if easyjet is targeting the business community through its website, then one of its first priorities should be to separate out some of the information on the home page into other pages. For example, the information on airport parking or To/from airport can be included within other pages. There are too many navigation links on this one home page, but the one relevant to the business company is in a very small font and is lost among the other links. Moreover this link is not bolstered with any kind of graphic enhancement at all, therefore first of all the access point must be made more visible and included in a larger font. If it is to stand out on the page, then the link must be bold and highlighted and can be placed separately on one side of the page. Another aspect that must be borne in mind when opening such a cluttered page is the fact that download time will be much more because there are so many links on the one page. This is why simplicity in the page design is of utmost

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

E-mail Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

E-mail Communication - Essay Example The e-mail content should be brief and concise and should address the subject content. The subject message should also be able to inform recipients of what the e-mail is about. It is recommended to indicate the response that receiver should take and senders should state their contact details to allow receivers to respond with ease. For formal e-mails, it is good to make a habit of using spell checkers before hitting the 'send' button and double-checking the e-mails are being sent to the correct recipient. When sending attachments, it is good to inform recipients when the file size is very large as this takes up a lot of space and may cause other e-mails to bounce back or result in errors in sending. Files should also be sent in a format that the recipient is able to open. Users must refrain from mass forwarding e-mails because chances are, these will be filtered and end up in the junk folder. Spam e-mails can also flood the recipient's inbox unnecessarily.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

American histroy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American histroy - Essay Example am had introduced a bill that was meant to (a) prohibit the Parliament from taxing the colonies, (b) offer recognition to the Congress, and (c) seek assistance from the Congress on matters pertaining to the provision of revenue to the North American defense and the reduction of the national debt (Gerstle et al. 151). In 1775, North took a step that led to the start of the war. He gave orders for troops to be sent to the Concord, terminate the arms kept there and arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The orders were executed by Gage. After sending the troops, he introduced the Conciliatory Proposition. A pledge was made by the Parliament not to tax any colony that met the cost of the imperial defense and to pay proper salaries to the royal officials. Britain was allowed to use force on any reluctant colonies (Gerstle et al. 151). North introduced the New England Restraining Act to reassure the hardliners that he was still committed to what he was doing. The act blocked the New Englanders from having any commerce between them and any other place with the exception of British West Indies and Britain. It also barred them from the Atlantic fisheries. Boston knew of the expedition as soon as the order was released and thus made careful preparations to make it known to the whole countryside. As the British troops neared Lexington Green, they found militia men ready to face them. The militia began to withdraw because they were outnumbered by the British. A shot was fired and this became the Battle of Lexington. The British opened fire without any orders and 8 people were killed and 9 injured (Gerstle et al. 155). Subsequent wars followed later on. In 1781, the Articles of Confederation was established under the leadership of Madison. It was established as a league of friendship by the 13 independent and foreign states after the Revolution. The articles according to Madison could not fulfill their purpose. The weak government at that period could not effectively work

Monday, September 23, 2019

Rome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rome - Essay Example Plagues and floods took their toll. More crucially, the aqueducts which had formed the backbone of the efficient and complex water supply system that served most of Rome fell into disrepair after barbarian raids, leading to the population shrinking towards the river Tiber and around the Campus Martius, and falling to less than 50,000 people. Into this situation the popes of Rome stepped in, creating a serviceable network of churches and ecclesiastical institutions in order to govern the city. The city was thus introduced to Christianity and soon laid claims to being the most important Christian spiritual center. But the Church was not alone in wanting to govern Rome. By 552CE, Rome came to be occupied by the Byzantine empire, and thus began a conflict of interest between the church and the Byzantine regime that was to last for the next few centuries. Under the Byzantine rule, trade, commerce and administration deteriorated, and Rome became a shadow of its former self. The Byzantine emperor Constans II visited Rome in 663 CE, only to strip the city of all its metal from buildings and statues in order to make armaments. The Byzantine city of Constantinople soon emerged to usurp all the commercial successes of Rome, and its former influence in trade in Europe and Asia. With the decimation of the aristocratic class of Rome, a huge market of luxurious goods eventually disappeared taking away prosperity from the common people of Rome, many of whom had found jobs in the trade or manufacture of luxury items. A lot of the famous Roman skills in artisanship also disappeared due this lack of market. More and more people began leaving Rome. Trade in Rome also suffered due to insecure road and maritime travel at the mercy of Germanic and barbarian tribes in what was left of the mighty Roman empire. After Pope Gregory I took over in the 6th century and began to exert more influence than the Byzantine imperial exarchs, the populace of Rome got divided into the clergy, nobility, soldiers, and the lowest class, thus introducing a sphere of Christian influence in socio-political scenario in Rome. But the Church and its members that wanted to govern Rome along with the Byzantian empire were more interested in self-aggrandizement than in the benefit of the city itself, having become too used to the luxurious ways of the erstwhile Roman elite. Even before the fall of Rome, the popes had concentrated their energies in developing their own domain at the eastern edge of the city far away from other Roman habitations, called the Lateran. It is to Lateran that the church limited most of its activities in Rome largely ignoring the disrepair to which the city gradually fell. The pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Peter, where the saint's holy remains were supposed to have been interred, became a sort of commercial activity around which a suburb developed after a fashion, but even the visiting pilgrims who came to pay their homage failed to make any difference to the state of Rome and its gradual decline. Even after the suzerainty of Rome to the Byzantine empire was formally over in the 800CE with the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, the papacy was not able to consolidate its hold over the city, and the Arabs sacked

Sunday, September 22, 2019

A World Affected by Pollution and Global Warming Essay Example for Free

A World Affected by Pollution and Global Warming Essay Roy M. Harrison.(2001) Pollution:Cause, Effects and Control. Royal society of chemistry. This author concentrates mainly chemical and radioactive pollution. The book speaks of the sources of pollutants and their effects on both living and non livings especially human. It also shows how chemical pollution can also cause of water, air and land pollution. Agarwal S.K. Water pollution. APH publishing(Jan.1 2005) The author bases the book on recent views, ideas and contribution of various leading ecologist information of water pollution. It show how to use waste water and its treatments. Irina Gray (2008). Pollution effects on humans, animals, plants and the environment. The writer shows the various types and causes of pollution and its effects on the environment. It shows the effect on human ranging mild discomfort to serious diseases. It also how the effect destroy animal life and the atmosphere. Credit: www.Tropical-Rainforest-Animals.com Margaret A. Wheatley(1996). Social and cultural impact of mercury pollution on Aboriginal people in Canada. Neurotox 17(1), 251-256 The writer explores the link between mercury pollution and social cultural disruption in Canadian aboriginal communities. It shows the difficulties in communication that contribute to the social and cultural impacts and their health effects.Credit: V. Ramanathan and G. Carmichael(2008). Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon.Nature Geoscience 221-221. The writers express how black carbon becomes air pollution and how it affects both the climate and the environment. This book said that the pollution affect different regions and the black carbon in soot is the dominant absorber of visible solar radiation in the atmosphere. Credit: www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v1/n4/full/ngeo/56.html S.Fred Singer.(1968) Global Effects of environmental pollution. Science 13 vol. 162 no 3859. The author talks the pollution effects on humans, animals, plants and the environment. It expresses the cause of pollution and how it causes the extinction of animals and plants species which is a grave loss for mankind. It shows how the advancement in technology aids the improvement of a well being of mankind but also its consequences. Credit: books.google.com/books Clive Glifford (2006). Planet under pressure:pollution. Rain-tree ISBN-13: 9781844439 744. The book examines how pollution has become a global issue and looks at the debate over possible solution. It shows how pollution whether air, water, radioactive or terrestrial affect the lives of a lot of people causing disease and contributing to the global warming. Credit: www.booksdirect.com.au/books/?isbn=9781844439744 Green StudentU. Pollution. This is a encyclopedia entry which speaks of how toxic chemicals from factories pollute the land, air and water. It explains what pollution is and why there are different types . Of the types, It takes of their sources and how to prevent them. It gives link to environment protection agency website if to be involved in prevention of pollution. It also gives the statistics of the people affected by pollution and other. Credit: www.greenstudentu.com/encyclopedia/pollution

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Leadership Styles in Knowledge Management

Leadership Styles in Knowledge Management This research paper aims to study the three basic leadership styles widely practiced in the organizations as well as the emerging concept of knowledge management and examine individually the relationship of these leadership roles on the knowledge management. The three leadership styles under focus are: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. The purpose of this research is to identify which leadership style is more effective in relation with the knowledge management. Hence, to help organizations make the best use of this phenomenon and increase their knowledge sharing among different hierarchical levels to exercise maximum levels of learning and innovation in their work environment. It will also enable corporations to gain the competitive advantage with respect to their human capital and. When it is discovered that which managerial style has the positive impact on the knowledge management, it will result into employee empowerment and motivation. Among the important finding s are that effective knowledge management or knowledge sharing processes lead to a competent work environment and the employees get more involved with their jobs as they feel that their ideas are valued. Moreover, they tend to get more creative and challenging, but these behaviors are majorly dependent upon the managers attitude and whether he or she encourages such contributions or interferences from the subordinates and is flexible and open to change and innovation. In the outcomes, transformational leadership has proved to positive relationship with knowledge management and that of the laissez-faire has a negative effect on it. This paper has derived findings through extensive study of literature reviews on these main concepts which is based on theoretical researches. Keywords: Knowledge management, Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership, laissez-faire, Communication. Introduction: Background of study: In this research we are going to study the various factors affecting the issue of Knowledge Management among employees and how can it become most useful for the growth of an organization. The concept of Knowledge Management basically is about the knowledge an individual possesses about anything and this particular kind is referred to as tacit knowledge which is usually gained through personal observation, experience, values and beliefs. Such form of knowledge is usually exhibited in informal settings and could not be formally written or documented into a proposal to the manager. As it is something that can cross an employees mind instantaneously but he or she might not feel confident to share their idea openly in the given atmosphere, where they might think it would sound insignificant or absurd to others. To sum up, the purpose of knowledge management is to provide strategies, processes and technology to amplify the overall organizations learning (Satyadas et al., 2001). Moreover, s ystem oriented view is highly being emphasized and companies are installing technology applications ranging from traditional data-processing areas to expert networks enabling expert-to-expert communication. These systems are designed to store and make profit from the existing explicit, implicit as well as tacit knowledge of organizations. Hence, they facilitate the flow of knowledge in the processes and also record the information that which employee has put in the knowledge and how its implementation could help the organization, so that the right person should get the reward fairly and it is done as an act of encouragement for others. In todays world of immense market competition and rivalry among brands, there is an increasing need of formulating progressive organizational strategies constantly for a companys survival. There organizations are now paying most attention to the notion of innovation, which is majorly generated from the employees. Hence, it is highly important for an o rganization to have a culture that is flexible, open to new ideas, adaptive to change and appreciative of contribution of knowledge. Hence if the sharing of knowledge from individuals is encouraged and valued, it can enable a company to be competitive and help in achieving its goals, provided it is in relevance with the problem. (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011) Moreover, if that knowledge is used and followed through, it gives a sense of recognition, achievement and personal satisfaction as well as a sense of belonging. It matters most especially to the senior employees who do not much care about the other lower components of the Maslows motivation theory of hierarchy, as those needs are already fulfilled at this stage. Leadership Styles are at the center of Knowledge Management importance and approaches that have caught the attention of researchers and scholars for long periods. Overly technical view of Knowledge Management seems to downplay the importance of soft factors that impact the Knowledge Management phenomena. Significance of study: Managing knowledge and intellectual capital has become the key drivers of new knowledge and new ideas to the innovation process, to new innovative products, services and solutions. It helps in better achieving and even exceeding the objectives. (Knowledge Management in Health Science Libraries, 2007) The purpose of knowledge management should not be to become just knowledgeable but to be able to create, transfer and apply knowledge with aim of better achieving the objectives. Problem Statement: The current competitive setting of organizations and the changing management paradigm has highlighted the importance of Leadership Styles on Knowledge Management. Identifying Leadership Styles that promote concept and practice of Knowledge Management is crucial as the growth and competitiveness of organizations in new-age economy. Research Question: What are the different leadership styles that affect knowledge management in organization? What are the ways in which different leadership styles affect knowledge management? Purpose of study: The purpose of this study is to examine the different roles of leadership in the knowledge management and how this has an impact on the overall organization. Research objectives: To identify and evaluate different roles of leadership To examine the impact of these different roles of leadership on knowledge management Delimitation: Only few educational institutes are surveyed for the primary research from Rawalpindi and Islamabad only. Literature Review: Knowledge management has been identified as one of the most important resources that contribute to the competitive advantage of an organization. Behavioral and interpersonal skills are most often known as the essentials for successful knowledge management. Knowledge can be within individuals or within the relationships between the individuals groups or sub groups. Without verbal or even the non verbal communication the only way to organize knowledge transfer would be to move around people holding the relevant knowledge. (Ferenc, 2003) For many years it had not been studied despite its importance in this information age; only recently leadership theories and researches have addressed the role of leadership in knowledge management. Researchers (Beron et al. 2006), (Viitala, 2004) suggested that the design and building management information system is one way in which leaders at the top of a corporate have an impact on organizational performance. Recent development in the organizational knowledge literature stresses the importance of knowledge management to building a sustainable competitive advantage. (Bogner and Bansal, 2007) and to the importance of leadership for the success of knowledge management. Recently the growing information systems and knowledge management have continuously stressed the lack of leadership support for the failure of many knowledge management projects. (Davenport et al. 1998), (Chandrashekhar, 2009). It has been found that 42 percent of an organizations knowledge resides in the minds of the employees (Clark and Rollo, 2001); therefore it is dependent upon the leaders how to make the best use of it. Furthermore, as discovered by Doppelt (2003) that in order to achieve sustainability in a corporation, leadership is the key, because a competent and committed leader encourages dialogue which as a result leads to change and so barriers such as sticking to old ideas and cultural frameworks, past practices, tunnel vision and such approaches tha t come in the way to draw new progressive visions for the future. According to the researchers Jong and Hartog (2007) and Aragon-Correa (2007) every leadership style has its own pros and cons; but transformational leadership is more attentive and engaging with the sub-ordinates and encourages them to be creative and focuses on the firms learning and innovation. Whereas, Bass (1985) presented that transactional leaders are not much involved with the subordinates work unless there is a need when a problem arises. On the other hand, he also stated that transformational leaders motivate their workforce, rouses their intellectual skills and acts as role models for them. Moreover, they also have the quality of inspiring the employees into acquiring goal accomplishing skills and improve their performance in achieving the corporate vision (Nemanich and Kellar, 2007). Also, they train, encourage and support their subordinates keenly and optimistically and promote individual and team spirit a mong them. Consequently, it is paid back in the form of boosting employees performance in their tasks and bringing high returns from them (Yulk, 2006; Boerner et al, 2007). Information management: Information as now a day includes both physical and electronic information. Now its the organizations and its structures that must be capable of managing that information throughout the information lifecycle regardless of its sources and formats. Thus the focus on information management is the ability of organization to capture, manage, preserve, store and deliver the right information to right people at right time. Information management becomes the corporate responsibility that needs to be addressed and followed from the senior level management to the front line management. Information is the key asset for an organization and thus should be treated as corporate asset. (Information Management) And it must be made available to everyone and must be shared. People management: Knowledge is the main driver for organizations performance. It affects performance by making it possible for people to perform well. So the instrument by which knowledge affects the performance is through people. So knowledge management must be people focused (Wiig, 2004) (Corral, 1999) Cindy Johnson, Director of Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing at Texas Instruments states: Knowledge management is really about recognizing that regardless of what business you are in, you are competing based on the knowledge of your employees. They way of making knowledge available has evolved over time. It started with family clans where knowledge was passed from father to son by the process of learning. With the new ideas of working in teams, groups, and as institutions, people work closer to benefit from the knowledge of each other. Process Management: Knowledge management is considered as an approach where the employees of the companies would leverage from the buried knowledge that was held closely to them. This enabled the evolution of the term learning organizations where knowledge is always evolving and is being made assessable to all the employees who are eager to attain it and apply it. The focus on improving, re-engineering and managing business process is considered as corporate assets. The companies are taking charge of how they will deliver value to their customers by focusing on process effectiveness and efficiency. While KM and process engineering was evolving at the same time, there were no efforts to combine them in the same architecture. KM has always been focusing on the best practices and proven practices but it had failed to understand how valuable the fusion of process and knowledge can be. So process management gives the ability to view, manage, evaluate, and adapt the business activities, applications, and peop le in organizations to achieve goals. And to achieve these goals there is a need for the management of knowledge where people get an easy access to share and create knowledge (Records, September 2005). Leadership and knowledge management: There is no doubt about it that leaders are the ones who set the standards for others in the organizations and they are one of the biggest driving forces who inspire and motivate them to achieve what they meant to achieve so leaders have direct impact on how organizations should see and deal with knowledge management but if knowledge management is not being conducted on all levels in the organization starting from the top then it would not be as effective as expected (Singh S. K., 2008) Leaders have vital role to play on every level to manage the knowledge but particularly CEO should take part in this process because if he would take it seriously and feel that there is really a need of managing this thing like other practices in the organization then the rest of the people also take it seriously. Organizations with strong cultures and promising compensation programs will not succeed without committed and responsible managers. According to Singh it is the major responsibility of top executives of the organizations to make such strategies and create such values in the organizations which encourage employees to share, create and value knowledge and leaders should provide them with the opportunities to do so and then afterwards measures should be taken to evaluate employees behaviors, attitudes and productivity that are required for effective knowledge management (Singh S. K., 2008) Four broad approaches were studied to understand the leaders and leadership through the trait approach, the contingency approach, the behavior approach and the transformational approach and some of the approaches does have a role in knowledge management but they are not enough to understand knowledge management systematically. The trait approach does have impact on knowledge management and considers it important thing for leaders, contingency and behavior approach also considers knowledge management vital for effective leaders. The transformational approach also support this phenomena that information creation, keeping and sharing facilitates in obtaining shared vision and values in the organization (Lakshman, 2007). Leaders self realization of importance of knowledge management really matters in the effectiveness of knowledge managements practices in the organization and realization is needed in two dimensions, one internal other external. Internally it is achieved by establishing technological and socio-cognitive ways of managing knowledge and externally it is by realization of valuing customer focused knowledge management (lakshman, 2009). Information revolution changes way of doing things in the corporate context, it enhanced the value of time and customers need quick Reponses with relevant and useful knowledge of the products and services so that transformed the process of leadership too by speeding up the inputs, requirement of quick and customized information regarding product and its functions which further builds competition in the business environment. Likewise he emphasizes the need for knowledge managers to achieve and maintain equilibrium between motivating team members with urgency and providing them with time and space to reflect. To become the knowledge sharing and managing organization, leaders have to take the responsibility and have to choose the appropriate leadership style to lead the organization effectively. (Viitala, 2004) Transformational leadership: A framework was established to implement quality management within an organization actually a system of profound knowledge .While implementing it leadership and knowledge management were measured and it was found that in order to implement such system leaders required should be participative, collaborative and inspiring (Gapp, 2002) Transformational leadership have potential to effect employees perceptions through the returns that organization get in the form of human capital benefits and these leaders also have potential to make those benefits greater by adding them in the knowledge management processes, encouraging inter personal communication among employees and creating organizational culture. (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011) It is possible for transformational leadership to enhance organizational innovation through creating a participative environment or culture and it can do so directly or indirectly by changing organizations culture which encourages knowledge sharing and management in the organization. It is in the control of transformational leadership to promote such culture so the employees have autonomy to speak about their experiences and knowledge. (Nguyen Mohamed, 2011) There is relation between magnitude of knowledge acquisitions and transformational leadership. In todays challenging world organizational culture should be more empowered and that is achieved by transformational leadership which encourage people to be open about their choices and decisions. (D.Politis, 2001) He encouraged the role of participative leadership, it is this leadership style which relies heavily on the leader functioning as a facilitator rather than simply a leader who orders and wants his assignments done in time. Employee would not be comfortable in sharing knowledge unless employee knows that he/she would be supported by their leaders. Finally, (C.B.Crawford, 2005) argued that there is a clear relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge management in organizations. Crawfords research is pre empirical and made the point very clearly that empirical testing is needed to understand the relationship of transformational leadership and organizational knowledge constructs. Crawfords research provides some basis from which to speculate that transformational leadership might be a causative factor influencing greater knowledge management skills. Transformational leadership and personal innovation are linked. It was found that transformational leaders are more innovative than transactional and laisse-faire leaders. Innovation is considered to be the key factor for knowledge leaders; innovation is the name of managing and creating information and knowledge through different ways. Transactional Leadership: The second variable we are studying in this research, affecting the knowledge management in organizations is the transactional leadership style. This style of leadership is influenced by the concept of reward and punishment; such leaders believe that the employees performance is mainly dependent upon these two factors. That means that when there is an incentive the workers put in their best effort and the reward is in monetary terms in most of the cases; while when they fail to achieve the set target they ought to be punished. (Oshagbemi Ocholi, 2006) Similarly, transactional leaders impose their authority on their followers to take work from them and clearly state what they want and also give employees the opportunity to get detailed information and guidance before they accept an assignment. Such leaders emphasize on present issues; they do not get involved with the employees tasks unless a need arises and in the beginning of a project they provide the workers with all the resource s needed for its completion and after that the task becomes totally the responsibility of the workers (Bass, Cacioppe, Gronn, Hughes.et.al, Popper, Zakkai, 2002).Transactional leadership has two major components, contingent reward and management by exception (MBE). Here, contingent reward means the reward that an employee is promised by the manager, to be acquired if the required target is achieved by him or her and the MBE approach is used to make sure that one should never fail to achieve the desired result due to the resource constraint. Leaders must be clear in explaining what they actually expect and the organizational goal is achieved they must give the recognition. It was also extracted from that manual that MBE is of two types, passive and active. In MBE active, the leader clarifies the standards to be followed and also defines the unacceptable standards of work and are likely to punish if they are not followed. In this strategy, mistakes and errors are identified and steps are taken to correct them. While, in MBE passive, the leader plays a passive role who does not clarify the standards or the requirements to be met by the employees, but only gets involved when there is an obvious issue. Hence, in this case passive style is not considered to be un systematic in correcting the negative issues. (Ogunlana, 2008) Transactional leaders pay more attention to physical and security needs of the employees. The relationship between the leader and the subordinates mainly revolves around the attraction of reward system as a return for their efforts. It is also said that in transactional leadership one person takes the initiative to make a contact with others in order to make a contract of exchanging functions for the benefit of the organization (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011). Laissez-faire: Whereas, the third variable in this study is the laissez-faire leadership style, in which the leader gives complete freedom to the employees to make decisions regarding the completion of a task while answering their questions wherever they find problems and the workers are provided with all the necessary resources and tools for that by the leader. Apart from that only little guidance is provided by the leaders and the followers are expected to solve problems on their own (C.B. Crawford, 2005). This strategy is successful in case the workforce is highly experienced, skilled and capable of their jobs, otherwise if the labor lacks these expertise, the researchers recommend it to be an ineffective and the weakest form of leadership which yields poor productivity for the organization, as there are some workers which are unable to solve problems and meet deadlines on their own. Although, in such situations the work environment is quite relaxed, free of work pressure and without interferenc e from the manager, but still it brings frustration and demonization among the teams when they are unable to produce the desired results, without the required feedback and assistance from the manager. But laissez-faire strategy contributes to the employee empowerment and it gives a visionary worker the opportunity to perform according to his or her own will. Lassiz- faire is a leader who always runs away when there is a need to make an important decision or when there is a serious problem (Ogunlana, 2008). The phenomenon of knowledge management is applicable on the whole organizational structure, taking into all the levels of hierarchy. While studied empirically it was discovered that the relationship between the different components of knowledge management and transformational leadership, transactional leadership and self-management have a link with the accomplishment of knowledge forms. Moreover the leaders should be able to give an empowering environment to the employees. Although according to the empirical findings, which are quite limited in this aspect, as well as the theoretical assumptions of a number of authors, there is a need for participative collaborative leadership style in order to facilitate the flow of knowledge. Hence it was pointed out that empirical testing of the knowledge attributes in an organization should be carried out, to find out the relationship between the management of knowledge and transactional leadership in a firm. (C.B. Crawford, 2005) The researcher selected a sample of 1,046 males and females enrolled in liberal classes who were side by side employed in different economic sectors. In the first round they were asked to answer the questions based on the behavioral aspects of knowledge management in which the questions taken from the Barth (2003) typology of personal knowledge management categories. In the round they were asked to fill in the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5-S (MLQ) derived from Bass (1985) which comprised of scales measuring the attributes of the three leadership styles: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. The scales ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree and as a measure for superior performance or as a self-report measure. But he used the MLQ as a self-report of transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership characteristics. Finally, in the last round, the respondents were asked about their demographics considered important for the research including se x, age, years of employment, education, career type, position at work and use of technology. While conducting the analysis, only the position variable was used that described the respondents as senior managers or executive, supervisors and at entry level. Though the basic purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the knowledge management attributes and the transformational leadership style. In the end various correlations were found that determined the degree of the relationship between the knowledge management behaviors and transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership. Eventually, the outcome of the investigation concluded that the variables leadership and knowledge management are significantly related, both in the organizational setting as well as in theoretical context. The most important results included that there exists a strong relationship between knowledge management and transformational leadership. Moreover, transactional leadership, i t was discovered that as knowledge management is technical in nature, the more effective management style would be transactional. Furthermore, transactional leaders are more goal oriented and not much concerned about the personal development of the sub-ordinates. In addition, another finding was that transactional leadership had strong correlations with knowledge management and contingent reward and it had considerable negative correlation with management by exception. On the other hand, it was analyzed that laissez-faire came out to have a negative effect on knowledge management, which indicates that a leaders role is very essential in managing knowledge behaviors in corporate. Consequently, the negative correlation between the two components indicated an inverse relationship, which means that when knowledge management behavior increases, the extent of laissez-faire decreases (C.B. Crawford, 2005) Additionally that investigation also showed that the hierarchical position an employee has in a company also has a link with the knowledge management, as people handing more information are expected to possess more skill and grip on building knowledge management capabilities. Likewise, leadership attributes are practiced and exerted most according to the position an individual holds; the more the responsibility, the greater the actions of a leader exhibited, to succeed in following an aim or achieving a goal. As a result, there were higher levels of transformational leadership witnessed as the position in a corporate increased, whereas transactional and laissez faire got less. Hence, the position in the hierarchy is also crucial in examining the relationship between knowledge management and leadership attributes; and that variable proved to be predictive of knowledge management, just like transformational leadership. Only transformational leadership style, not transactional or laisse z-faire was related to the impact of position on knowledge management. In that investigation, it was concluded that transformational strategies worked best even where the most technical skills were required, in modern corporate environments as compared to transactional or laissez-faire and are more successful in other organizational constructs too because of their person-centered approach. Whereas, transactional strategies did not enhance knowledge management behavior and laissez-faire leadership slowed it to a significant extent. Furthermore, the higher the positions got in a corporate for individuals; they dealt with knowledge more effectively, because they then adopted more of transformational strategies. But in the significance, leadership is of much greater value than the position variable, effecting knowledge management. (C.B. Crawford, 2005) Laissez-faire as leadership style exhibits ineffectiveness, unproductiveness and dissatisfaction. These leaders avoid interfering in the followers jobs and stay away from taking the responsibility their position demands and also avoid developing a relationship with the subordinates. (Ogunlana, 2008) Proposed Methodology: The sampling method that we will use is purposive sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique. Subjects would be selected because of we will be able to select people of interest and exclude who do not suit the purpose of research. The sector chosen for this study is educational sector, coordinators and head of departments would be researchers respondents. Total sample will be 100 individuals.

Friday, September 20, 2019

History KFC Holdings MBhd First

History KFC Holdings MBhd First After a successful restructuring exercise, KFCH has emerged as a strong player in the Malaysian corporate world with a high reputation for excellent products, efficient friendly service and financial strength. Indeed, KFCH is the only KFC restaurant operator in the world whose Western Quick Service Restaurant market share is greater than that of McDonalds. KFCH is part of QSR Brands Bhd (QSR Brands) .QSR brands is a leading and fully-integrated quick-service restaurant enterprise and the local franchisee and operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants. QSR Brands is a subsidiary of Kulim (Malaysia) Berhad which conglomerated focusing mainly on palm oil operations, oleochemicals, biodiesel production and quick service restaurants. Besides that, Kulim (Malaysia) Berhad is under Johor Corporation as well. The first KFC restaurant in Malaysia was opened on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1973. The Company was operating 475 restaurants across Malaysia, 77 stores in Singapore, 9 restaurants in Brunei and 72 restaurants in India as of December 31, 2009,. The Company had a total of 43 RasaMas restaurants in Malaysia and Brunei and 35 Kedai Ayamas stores across Malaysia in 2009. On December 15, 2009, the Company had acquired the entire issued and paid-up capital of Rasamas Terminal Larkin Sdn Bhd and Rasamas Melaka Sdn Bhd. When KFC Holdings (M) Bhd is going successful in fast food industry, it now is more concern toward to charity and community program. In year 1995, KFCH initially launched a Projek Penyayang but now already become a part of Tabung Penyayang. There are more than 66 charitable homes and institutions get the benefit from their fund around Malaysia. In that year, the company also implemented a special programme that each home will be given a meal treat of the finger licking good fried chicken every quarter of the year. The Tabung Penyayang which launched in year 1997 helped a lot of orphans, disabled, homeless and needy children around Malaysia. They get fund from the companys revenue from the collection of 10 cents from the sale every of Chicky Meals Tabung Penyayang KFC Collection Box as an extension to the Tabung Penyayang KFC programme in August 1999. Collection boxes are placed at all KFC restaurants so that customers can contribute and be part of this charitable effort. Tabung Penya yang has helped strengthen even more our relationship with the Malaysian public in the charity program. Financial Performance of KFC Holdings (M) Bhd According to the RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd on 23 June 2010 of Corporate Highlight about the share split, bonus and warrant issue information, the major shareholder is QSR Venture with holding 50.30% share. The second major shareholder is Lembaga Tabung Hasil with 24.80% while Airsaig Asean Fund also holds 6.9% of share. The share price of KFC (3492) in KLSE is RM10.50 and the volume is 294,000 in last update on 13 August 2010 at time17:10:13. KFC Holdings gained RM167 million and make the profit of RM320, 000 until 30th September 2009. There have a rise of 6% in fast food restaurants profit if compare to previous years profit. The KFC Company reported revenues of RM2, 179.79 million during the fiscal year ended December 2008, and an increase of 25.97% over 2007. The operating profit of the company was RM 175.02 million during the fiscal year 2008, an increase of 8.08% over 2007. The net profit of the company was RM 118.54 million during the fiscal year 2008, an increase of 13.68% over year 2007. The total asset either current asset or non- current asset are increasing from year 2008 to 2009. For the equity part, the retain earning of company increasing RM40, 513 to year 2009. The company still keeps it as reserve for emergency use. The short term loan had been decrease RM20, 000 from year 2008 to 2009. It is a good sign to reduce of borrow loan. But the total equity and liabilities increase from RM603, 539 in year 2008 to RM626, 232 in year 2009. There is an increase of RM22, 873 within one year. KFC Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd. has announced that the company will give a final dividend of RM 0.16 less 25% Malaysian income tax per share for the year ended 31 December 2009. The dividend paid on 27 May 2010.   In next year , the KFC Holdings Malaysia Bhd plans to invest RM 45 million to expand at least 20 new outlets in 2011 .Of the 20 outlets nationwide, 12 outlets will be under the drive-thru concept. In this year, KFC also will launch a new menu- Hot Spicy menu in Kuala Lumpur in coming 3 August. The company was expecting has about increase 10 % sales On the new Hot Spicy Shrimp menu, the company was expecting to drive its during the promotion period from 3 August to 30 September 2010. Besides that, KFC Holding wishes to expand the sausage capacity as it Port Klang plant to double digits sales growth at the end of year 2010 from the currently 500 tonnes to 1000 tonnes. Task 1 KFC Holdings (M) BHD has expanded their business aggressively in these few years. There are lots of new branches being set up in Malaysia. Therefore, the management team also exposed to several new challenges in managing or maintaining their profit level. After viewing the information about the company, we found out that the company has well utilized its labor force, machinery, and managerial skill in expanding their business. There is no doubt that they have implemented their plan very well in managing the company because it is easily for us to see that their outlets have been built up in a very fast rate. However, we also found out that there is an unfavorable issue that has occurred in the company which is, the profit of the company is declining slightly in the last few years. This reduction in the net profit is a big deal that the company should pay more attention in solving it in order to place the company in a well situation. But, what is the main reason that caused a company w ith a very nice performance and a well management team to encounter with such problem? Since the management team of KFC Holdings (M) BHD is well managing, they should have an increasing net profit instead of a decreasing net profit throughout the years. However, after a deep consideration on this unfavorable matter, we have concluded that the company should reduce its cost in order to shift away from this situation and thus, increase their profitability. So, we should primarily focus on the cost issue to help the company to overcome this problem. So, we suggest the company to invest in a new asset which can eventually help the company to save their cost. Since the cash flow of the KFC is tighten up by its cash flow, a high-tech machine likes ice cream maker, which require a large amount of fund for the initial investment is definitely not suitable for the company. We should create a product that can help the company to save up their cost and which will not become a burden for the company. After a discussion, we suggest that the new asset that the company should invest in is a new design of sauces container which can be a replacement for the bottle of sauces that the company is currently used. As we know, the KFC Holdings (M) BHD normally served the customers with two kinds of chili sauces and tomato sauce. So, what is the problem with their sauces? Normally, they will serve the customer with their sauces, either chili sauce or tomato sauce in the original bottle of their supplier. Apart from the problem of cost, as the compan y serves the sauces in the form of bottle, it will actually bring a lot of inconveniences to the company. It is because each bottle of sauces requires the firm to leave out a space to keep the sauces in a safety place which will cause the firm to spend a portion of fund to acquire a store. The money that the company used in maintains the condition of store will increase the cost of the company indirectly. So, back to the main reason of our problem, the bottle that the supplier used in filling up the sauces actually will cost the company more due to its high cost in producing it. As we know, the purpose that the supplier use a glass bottle to fill in the sauces is to longer the expired date of their product. However, it will also increase the cost of firm to acquire such product because the material, which is the glass bottle that being used by the firm to produce it is very high. So, we suggest the company to invest in a new design of sauce container which can eliminate the use of the glass bottle in their retail shops. They can actually save a lot of money from using the well-designed container. The design of the container of the sauces allowed the firm to fill up the sauce in it without using any bottles, which can eventually reduce the cost of the firm. We will design the container in a very creative shape and it will require the customers to squeeze on the plastic form container in order to get the sauces. It will not only save the cost but also increase the customers favorable over this new product. Furthermore, the cost to invest in this new asset will not be very high because it is being created in the high quality plastic form. However, we will require a steel stand to support three of the sauces plastic containers. Although the container is in the plastic form, but each of the containers can fill in about ____ml of sauces which require a stable stand to support its heavy weights. Not forget to mention again, the company will serve the customers with three kinds of sauces which mean there will have three containers being supported by the steel stand. Well, we also know that the cost of obtaining a stand that is made up by steel is not that cheap. However, it will also help the company to save a lot of cost in a long term view. Besides that as the container can be refill for many times, the company can require the supplier to provide the sauces in a plastic form which can eventually eliminate the higher cost of obtaining it in a glass bottle form. Moreover, by obtaining the sauces in plastic form from the supplier, the staff can refill it into the new designed sauce containers easily. Frankly, the cost of obtaining the sauces which is packaging in plastic is definitely lower than the cost to obtain the sauce which is packaging in a bottle. Well, we know that the supplier of the sauce, LIFE brand sauce is a _____ with the company which has already provided the sauce to KFC in a lower price. However, the reduction in the cost of packaging the sauce will then reduce the cost for KFC to obtain the sauce. The KFC Holdings (M) BHD can still get the sauces from its supplier in a rate that is far lower than before. Besides that, with the creativity in the design of the container, the company can actually attract more customers into it indirectly. We have confidence that the creative design of the container will attract the attention of customer, especially kids. This is one of the ways to increase the sales and to ensure that the customers will consume in KFC again. Furthermore, we can see that the stolen case can be happened easily if the company served the sauce in a bo ttle because the customers can get it easily without noticing by the workers. Customers who have the incentive in stealing it will find that it is not hard to be done if the sauces are being served in a glass bottle because they can just put it in their hand bag after dining in the retail shop. So, the stolen cases can be prevented if the company served the sauces in the well design container because the customers do not have a container to fill in the sauces. Thereby, increase the profitability of the company. Replacement Asset Installed cost per outlet Cost of new asset (380+10950) 11,330 Installation cost 100 Total installed cost 11,430 After tax from sale of old asset 27,375 Change in net working capital Current asset 39,570.53 Current liabilities 3,867.37 Total changes 35,703.16 Initial investment 19,758.16 Installed cost per 475 outlets Cost of new asset (11,330 x 475) 5,381,750 Installation cost 47,500 Total installed cost (11,430 x 475) 5,429,250 After tax from sale of old asset (27,375 x 475) 13,003,125 Change in net working capital Current asset 18,796,000 Current liabilities 1,837,000 Total changes 16,959,000 Initial investment 9,385,125 Analysis of Replacement Asset The price for a bottle of sauces either chili sauce or tomato sauce will be RM2.50. We assume that a KFC outlet will used up ten bottles per day which cost RM75 (3 x RM2.50 x 10). Therefore, it will cost RM27375 per annually for the company to acquire the sauces from the supplier. For 475 outlets in Malaysia, it cost up RM13003125. However, by replacing the bottle with sauces container it will only cost the firm with the total amount of RM11430 per year which means RM5429250 for 475 outlets. From the RM11430, it consists of RM380 of three containers for sauces, RM10950 for the sauces which is packaging in a more cost efficiency way, and the RM100 of the installation cost for the containers. Assuming a package of sauce will cost the firm RM3 and the firm will consume ten packages per day for a year. Based on the annual report of KFC Holdings (M) BHD, the changes in net working capital is RM16959. With the entire figure above, we can generate the initial investment of RM 19758.16 per o utlet and RM 9,385,125 for 475 outlets. Operating Cash Flow (Present) 2010 2011 2012 Revenue 77635000 85710000 88801300 Expenses 3327300+13003125 16757925 16900425 (16330425) 61304575 68952075 71900875 (Proposed) 2010 2011 2012 Revenue 77635000 85710000 88801300 Expenses 8756550 9184050 9326550 68878450 76525950 79474750 With present asset 2010 2011 2012 Revenue 77635000 85710000 88801300 Expenses 16330425 16757925 16900425 EBIT 61304575 68952075 71900875 Taxes (40%) 24521830 27580830 28760350 NOPAT 36782745 41371245 43140525 Operating cash inflow 36782745 41371245 43140525 With proposed asset 2010 2011 2012 Revenue 77635000 85710000 88801300 Expenses 8756550 9184050 9326550 EBIT 68878450 76525950 79474750 Taxes (40%) 27551380 30610380 31789900 NOPAT 41327070 45915570 47684850 Operating cash inflow 41327070 45915570 47684850 Initial investment RM 9,385,125 Cost of capital 11 % Cash flow Year 1 RM7573875 Year 2 RM7621375 Year 3 RM7621375 NPV RM 9196548.45 IRR 61.87 % Cost of debt 50% from retained earning ( RM4700000) 50% lending from bank (RM 9,385,125 4700000) RM 4685125 Cost of retained earnings 30%, weighted 0.50 Cost of debt, 61.81% (similar with IRR), weighted 0.50 WACC = (cost of retained earnings x weighted) + (cost of debt x weighted) = ( 30% x 0.50) = (61.81% x 0.50) = 15% + 30.91% = 45.91% IRR > WACC, accept the asset 61. 81% > 45.91% Financial leverage Total dividend to shareholders : RM32715000 Total dividend to common stockholders : RM23793000 Total dividend to preferred stockholders : RM8922000 Number of shareholder: 178,275,000 Income statement Of Leverage (RM000) sales revenue 77,365 Less: cost of good sold Gross Profit 77,365 Plus: Other income 35,598 Less: operating expenses 33,273 Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) 79,690 Less:Interest Net profit before taxes 79,690 Less: Financial cost 1,805 Profit before tax 77,885 Less:Taxes 4,669 Net profit after taxes 73,216 Less: Preferred stock dividends 8,922 Earnings available for common stockholders 64,294 Earnings per share (EPS) 32. 43 Income statement Of Leverage (RM000) sales revenue 77,365 Less: cost of good sold Gross Profit 77,365 Plus: Other income 35,598 Less: operating expenses 33,273 Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) 79,690 Less:Interest Net profit before taxes 79,690 Less: Financial cost 6,490.125 Profit before tax 73,199.875 Less:Taxes 4,388.333 Net profit after taxes 68,811.542 Less: Preferred stock dividends 8,922.000 Earnings available for common stockholders 59,889.542 Earnings per share (EPS) 33. 59 Task 2 Merging Benefit of merging Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad is the company that we choose to merge together with KFC Holdings (M) Berhad. The reasons that we want to merge this two companies together are because this merger will provide a lot of benefits to both of the companies. However, we will discuss about the type of mergers that we used in merging this two companies together first. As what we know, there are four types of mergers which are horizontal merger, vertical merger, congeneric merger and conglomerate merger. After a deep consideration about the condition of these two companies, we have suggested both of the companies to merge through vertical merger. So, what does a vertical merger means? It is a merger in which a firm acquires a supplier or a customer. It is normally happened between two companies that producing different goods and services for one specified finished product. Since the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad is a company that mainly produces natural and nutritious products tha t people are pursuing nowadays. So, we hope that the merger between these two companies can bring out a new product that is primarily focus on the health of the people. So, we will discuss the product that these two companies will produce in more details after the successful of the merger between them. Firstly, KFC Holdings (M) Berhad which is a fast food restaurant will acquire the natural and nutritious products such as milks or yogurts from Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad . After that, it will introduce a new combo set which comes together with the healthy products that is provided by Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad. This idea comes out from our minds because we know that people are showing their great concerns on the problem of healthy nowadays. Normally people will think that having fast food will affect our healthy and adults will inhibit their children from eating fast food as a result. This effect will definitely affect the sales of KFC Holdings (M) Berhad indirectly. So, we must discuss a method to solve this problem upside down. After configuring the factor that caused this problem to arise, which is the peoples mind set of fast food will bring negative effect to our health, we have also come out with a well solution. The solution is that we will acquire the healthy products from Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad and combine with the products of KFC Holdings (M) Berhad which can reflect a good image that the combo set is something good to our health. Furthermore, we have think of two kind of new combo sets after the merger which one is mainly focus on adults and another set is focus on kids. Firstly, we will acquire the package milks from the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad and combine it with the kid meals. Apart from that, we will acquire the milks not only in one flavor but in three different flavors which are original, strawberry and chocolate. It is because we know that the kids nowadays might have different demands on the drink choices. Some of them might show preferences over strawberry flavor and some others might show their preferences on chocolate. So, it is good to have more choices for them to choose in order to prevent any unwanted consequences. As what we know, milks are the best nutrition that everyone needs to maintain their health. So, the parents might not be so aggressive in inhibiting their children from eating the fast foods if we combine it with milks. Then, the sales in KFC Holdings (M) Berhad will boo st up greatly as a result too. Besides that, we will also combine the three flavors of milks with the normal sets in KFC Holdings (M) Berhad. However, we will also provide the yoghurts as a dessert in the combo set. There are so many flavors of yoghurts that are provided by Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad such as aloe Vera, blackberry, strawberry or mix fruits. Yogurts has provided a lot of benefits to people such as preventing yeast infection, strengthening immune system, enhancing digest system and relieving ulcers. Furthermore, people are showing their great concerns on their weight nowadays, especially girl. So, having a yogurt right after their meals can enhance their digestion system which can help them to maintain their weight and health indirectly. So, we have confident that this combination of normal set with yogurt will bring out a good response from the customers. Well, we will discuss in details about the benefits that come along with the vertical merger between this two companies. The benefits from the merger are: Increased managerial skill or technology Increased the competitiveness in the market Growth or diversification Synergy 1. Increased managerial skill or technology A proper merger can enhance the performance of the company when a target company can provide the managerial personnel or technical expertise needed by the acquire company in expanding their business. Sometimes, a firm might fail to participate in a great opportunity in expanding their business due to the deficiencies in certain areas of management or an absence of needed product or production technology. As in our suggestion, the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad will provide some healthy products such as milks and yogurts to the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad which will then produce a nice healthy image to the public. Besides that, the merger of two companies can improves their ability in research and development as both of them can spend a huge amount of money in such process. This will eventually improve the quality of products for the customers and increase the profit for both companies. Both of the companies can actually cooperate in carrying out a research in how to enhance the qua lity of foods that are expected by the customers. After the merger, they can carry out the research together at a cost far more lowly than other individual company. This is the benefit for a merged company as they can keep improving their products and gain sales from it. Furthermore, by acquiring the managerial skills from both of the companies, they can actually share their opinions or suggestion on how to improve the quality of products and boost up the sales indirectly. Normally, different people will have a different view on something, thus, both of the companies can gain different suggestions and think of a best way to deal with the problem. Thereby, the problem that faces by the company can be solved faster and easier. There is no doubt that a merged company will have a better managerial personnel or technical expertise in managing the company. 2. Increased the competitiveness in the market We can easily see that a merged company can increase their competitiveness in the market when compare to their competitor. It is because that the merged company can gain the asset, skill, technology of the target market which will increase their potential in gaining benefit over their competitor. Besides that, their market value will also increase significantly as a result. As in our example, the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad can gain benefit from the healthy image which is being created by the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad. People will change their mind concept towards the fast food due to the healthy image of those natural and nutritious products provided by the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad. Furthermore, Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad can also gain the benefit of the increasing in their sales. Apart from that, they can provide customers with a wide range of services by merging. Nowadays, people are looking for a company that can provide them better services just like what the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad do, such as provide them a product which exceeds what they expected the company can provide. Therefore, the merge company can gain advantages over other company which will help them to hold existing customers and attract new customers into their company. 3. Growth and diversification A proper merge between two companies can help both of them to fulfill a desire rapid growth in size or market share or diversification in the range of their products. Normally, a company will need to pay its supplier the cost to acquire the materials such as the cost of materials or any other extra charges that being charged by the supplier in processing the transaction. Sometimes, the cost for acquiring the materials can be a big burden for the company as it will reduce the revenue of the company. In our example, after the merged, the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad is free to get the products at the base cost and does not have to pay any extra charges to the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad who is currently looking to make a profit from the sale. This allows the company to have less money tied up in production of a good and will increase their revenue. Besides that, the money that being saved up from the cost of material can actually use by the company in expanding their business or ac quiring another asset that is useful to the operation of the company. The company should use the money that is saved from the materials wisely in order to achieve the target of the company which is fulfilling a desire growth. Moreover, the merged company can actually fulfill the target if they invest the money in a profitable investment or use it to extend or expand its product line. By doing so, they can actually experience a rapid growth in their sales and increase the total revenue and net income. Besides that, the growth of the business after merging might remove or scare a potential competitor off. Therefore, the merged company can sustain in that industry with its powerful strength in the future. 4. Synergy The synergy can be considered as the economies of scale that results from the merged companys lower overhead. The economies of scale achieved from lowering the combined overhead increase the earning of the merged company to a level greater than the sum of the earning of each of the independent company. So, what does economies of scale means? An economy of scale is a common thing that applies to most of the company in the market. All of the companies will try their best to strive for economies of scale which is, the average cost incurred in manufacturing a product can be reduced if the company requires a large investment and output. So, when two companies are being merged together, the total output increases can benefit them through economies of scale. When raw materials are purchased in large amount or quantities, the merged company can actually get a huge discount on their purchase. As in our example, after the merger, the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad will acquire the products such as mi lks and yoghurt from the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad and comes out with a new combo set. The product demanded from KFC Holdings (M) Berhad can actually increase the sales of the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad. Therefore, they need to produce the milks and yoghurt in an even large quantity than before in order to produce sufficient quantities that are required by the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad. So, have to get more raw materials in processing the products and they will experience the benefit gained from the economies of scale in the end. Lastly, actually both of the merged company can gain benefit from such merger because the KFC Holdings (M) Berhad can acquire the products at a cost that is far lower than original and the Dutch Lady  Milk Industries Berhad can experience a significant increase in their sales. It has shown that a proper merger will benefits both company and increase their profitability.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls - Eva Smiths Diary :: English Literature

AN INSPECTOR CALLS Wonderful day today. Went down to Birling and Company to be one of the workers and I got the job. I am so excited. I'm starting in two days and I'm seriously looking forward to it. At least I hope it would be more exciting than the last one I tried. Mum was very excited and so am I as you can tell. I'm already thinking about that break I will have next summer. Go to Blackpool, lie on the beach. By that time I'm sure I would have saved up enough money to do all this because they told me the money wasn't that much but it was better than nothing. I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad - probably twenty-six shilling or something like that because the job looked pretty hard. 6/October/1909 Working this few weeks is much better. At least now I'm used to the machines and places. I was wondering the other day if Mr Birling would ever come around because I've never seen him and I think it's quite silly when you think of it. I'm working under a man I've never seen. They say he's very pompous, and hardly comes down to see anybody. All he cares about is what has been done and what is needed. He has children too and his wife is cold hearted I hear - but come to think of it all upper class people are all so pompous-the question is "why?" I guess nobody is going to be able to answer that question. Even if there was going to be an answer, they'd probably say "Because we are trying to put you working class in your place" I heard Mr Grainger one of the men who worked there say that the other day to one of the girls. 11/November/1909 Everyone is selfish with what they have; nobody wants to share their fortune, everybody has to walk their way through poverty. Do people ever think how the future is going to be? Are we all going to suffer till God comes and takes us away? Will our generation suffer like this? Before I have my children, I hope to have some one who loves me and maybe I would have saved more money then so my children don't go through so much. - the walk to the factory is going to be a long way today because the normal short cut has been blocked for some reason so now I have to take the long way around. Round the market which is about 10minutes and then to the factory which will take me 15minutes

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Lead And The Environment :: essays research papers

Lead and The Environment Some materials are so commonplace that we take them for granted. One of those materials is a grayish metal that has been with us for thousands of years. That metal is lead, still one of the world's most useful substances, and one that never ceases to find a role in human society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lead has the atomic symbol of Pb (for plumbum, lead in Latin). The atomic number for lead is 82 and the atomic mass is 207.19 AMU. It melts at about 327.502 oC and boils at 1740 oC. Lead is a heavy, ductile, soft, gray solid. It is soluble in nitric acid and insoluble in water. It is found in North, Central and South America, Australia, Africa and Europe. In modern times, lead has found a wide range of uses, and world demand for lead and its products has steadily increased. Lead's usefulness stems from the metal's many desirable properties: softness, high density, low melting point, ability to block radiation, resistance to corrosion, readiness to form alloys and chemical compounds, and ease of recycling. Its versatility, as well as its physical and chemical properties, accounted for its extensive use. Lead can be rolled into sheets which can be made into rods and pipes. It can also be molded into containers and mixed with other metallic elements.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lead was used in ancient times for making coinage, art objects and water pipes. One of the first known toxic substances, lead was used by the Romans for lining aqueducts and in glazes on containers used for food and wine storage; and it is suspected to have resulted in widespread lead poisoning. Members of the famous Franklin Expedition to the Northwest Passage in the mid-1840s met a similar fate, being poisoned from lead in solder, widely used at the time to seal tins used to store foods. Until recently, one of the most significant uses was an anti-knock additive in gasoline. In the 1970s and 1980s, steps were taken to reduce the use of leaded gas. By 1990, these actions had virtually eliminated the use of lead in gasoline. Lead is also one of the best and earliest examples of recycling about 55 percent of the lead used in Canada comes from recycled material.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One particular category of toxic tort is injury caused by exposure to lead-based paint. The hazards of lead-based paint have been known since the early 1900s, when the use of lead in the manufacture of paint was banned in Australia. The lead mining and lead pigment industries in the United States were able, however, to forestall the banning the use of lead in the manufacture of

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Case Manager Interview Essay

The interview with a case manager took place in Kevin on October 25, 2013 at 11:00am and it was done approximately at 12:15pm. What we will be evaluating in this interview using the questionnaire as a guide to better understand case management. The questionnaire or survey used for this interview has twenty-four question related to case management, which we will explore one question at a time. The first part of the survey address different function of case management. Kevin was ask based on his own experience in the department of Mental Health, would he eliminate any functions from the list given that included: Client identification and outreach, Intake, Psychosocial assessment, Goal setting, Resource identification and indexing, Getting general agreement by community agencies, Direct treatment (Therapy), Service planning, Counseling, Linking clients to needed services and supports, Monitoring service delivery, Reassessment, Advocacy, and Client evaluation? Kevin said, â€Å"He said that this is a sum of what they do but they go even further by engagement with the community, partnering with different non-profit and faith base organizations and integrating different resources to create a more comprehensive services for their clients.† According to Kevin the engagement with the community, different non-profit and faith base organization is what needed to be added to the function list for assisting clients with his or her needs. Also Kevin stated, â€Å"I would not change the chronological order because this is just a format† but he clarified by saying, â€Å"The way the chronological order is makes a guide but each client has unique needs, which can cause a change of the chronological order given to meet the most pressing needs at a time. The second question Kevin was asked, â€Å"Do You preform this function as part of your case management role?† Kevin response to the question, â€Å"Yes, let me explain to you how we do our process.’ ‘I have twenty-seven staff working for me and each staff has his  or her own expertise.’ ‘The different staff, which includes ten case managers, psychologist, house specialist, therapist, psychoactive nurses, all has goals in assisting indiv idual clients; making it a team effort.’ ‘So the functions for each client is done through shared responsibility.† He also explained that the staff have regular meeting to determine if goals of clients is being properly carried out and if not what can be done to achieve his or her clients plan. Kevin also said the only one thing that hinders his team from performing his or her function is lack of resources and policies can restrict how he can serve his clients. In addition, Kevin told me that in order to be refer to his department there has to be some kind of psychological problem but with the psychological problem there can be other condition present such as: drugs use, homelessness and criminal activities; making serving these individual more complex. The time spent of each function during a typical week depends on the individual and different people and as stated before these function are achieve with many different professional with his or her own expertise working together to serve his or her client. The next question asked Kevin was, â€Å"Where he would like to devote more time to a given function and why?† He stated, â€Å"As a agency he feels they are always on a consistent bases putting out fires and he would like to spend more time in engagement and worki ng with individual with long term goals.† Kevin also said that different crisis, which needed immediate attention is what keeps his organization from devoting more time to engagement and working with individual with long term goals. Kevin told me he works full time and that his case manager spends about eighty percent of his or her time doing case management. When ask if the work done at the agency was his own or a team or group basis he restated what he said earlier about team effort but also added it was also one his own because each team member has a part in the process where he or she focuses on; so to answer the question he said both individual and team effort. The next question for Kevin was, â€Å"What does he think is required for effective case management to occur?† Kevin says that empathy is important when working effectively as a case manager, resources and communication. He also said the way they determine family involvement in a clients is by first assessin g the clinical risk, is this relationship with family a healthy one that will assist his clients to achieve his or her personal goals. The question that followed  the last question asked was, â€Å"What has been the most successful part of your experience as a case manager?† He shared a story how when he first started working for the agency that he would see patients who had psychotic episodes during his or her intake and it was rewarding when he saw these patients at the end of his or her treatment functioning relatively normal, which demonstrated progression. He went on to explain to me that the ultimate goal of a case manager is to help improve lives and that this type of field is investing in the betterment of others. Moreover, Kevin said the attribute to his success is a collaboration of clients, agency team effort, families and the community. The next question in the interview was, â€Å"Is there something distinctive about Stanislaus County that gives case management a unique form here?† Kevin response was base on what he stated earlier about how his organization engagement makes his agency un ique. He stress by working with different non-profit and faith base organization the agency was working outside the box. He also told me that his agency has also works with other city such as: San Francisco, San Jose, Bakersfield and as far as Redding to provide service for his clients collaborating with different organization throughout Northern California. Kevin told me my working with different organization has broadened the agency resources causing them not to be limited to a geographical area making their approach different and unique. The next question in the interview was, â€Å"What are some of the main problems you face in doing case management?† Kevin stated resources is the main problem as a practitioner; not enough resources to assist all of his clients. Also Kevin said motivation of his clients is an issue to even recognize he or she has a problem, which needs to be address. Kevin also told me that with some clients basic needs are not being met and his clients cannot focus on assistance because of this problem. He went on to state the lack of understanding of both family and community is a problem, which his agency is trying to address through educating both family and community. He told me these have specific programs for family member to help educate them and they are actively involved with many events in the community. Also according to Mr. Panyanovong service gaps he encounters can be either lack of resources or policy issue where an individual cannot meet requirement to qualify for a certain pr ogram. He also told me that lack of insurance and state funding can be a problem in service gaps or lack of  space where the program and facility is overcrowded. The next question I asked Kevin was, â€Å"When there is a service gap, are there any things as an organization they can do?† He said that as an organization they work hard to remove barriers, discover new resources, change policies and try to determine how to get from point â€Å"A† to point â€Å"B†. He said with his team they work together talking about how can we expedite the process and continue to say his organization does not see it as just them but working with other resources. Then Kevin was asked, â€Å"What problems do you have with service providers, particularly agencies in the community that are essential to your clients?† He said he was not sure if he had a problem with a particular provider but with the physical he stated there could be disconnect because many of clients have Medicare a nd Medicaid, which has limitations. According to Kevin many of his clients have health issue, which can be a major problem in the care of his clients. The interviewer went on to ask, â€Å"What administrative problems do you encounter in your daily work?† He said that Medicaid has been a problem and there are many regulations that the organization needs to follow, which can make it difficult in servicing his clients. However, as a program Kevin explain to me they do what they can to serve their client despite Medicaid regulations and many times it has resulted in loss in revenue. The next question in the interview was, â€Å"What are some crisis situations you typically face with clients?† Kevin responded by saying, â€Å"Medication emergencies, client becomes suicidal, homicidal†, he goes on to say we do crisis assessments, evaluation and place clients in the hospital all the time, which answered the next question, â€Å"What are some things you typically do when these crises arise?† The question in the interview that followed that last question is a close end question where the interviewer asked Kevin, â€Å"Can you generally handle these situations in an adequate way?† Kevin answered the question by saying, â€Å"Yes†. As the interview continues the interviewer ask Kevin, â€Å"How could you be enabled to deal with crisis situations more adequately?† Kevin answered was again resources and working with different organizations. The next question is base on a scenario and it is, â€Å"A board-and-care home calls you to state a client of yours in this category is having hallucinations that are causing behaviors threatening to other clients. What do you consider your most therapeutic intervention, given no limitation on  resources?† The first thing Kevin said, â€Å"Is that he needs to assess is this an immediate crisis, which it sounds like it is?† He asses if this particular person is a risk to self or the community and if so he has the authority to put this client on a seventy two hours hold, placing them in a hospital for the individual safety and the safety of the community. The other thing Kevin mention is by assessing he can determine if this is an ongoing issue and nothing ever happens; than he may set up a meeting with this client. Kevin said because it is their client it is important to look into the history, which can shed light to what is causing him or her to act this way. The second part of the question for this scenario, â€Å"If the patient were living at home with family would you do anything differently?† Kevin said yes they would involve the family members more, which is ideal because now the client has support that he feel could be a benefit to the client. Also the family member could help with administration of medication and to determine if something is not right in their family member who needs special assistance. He went on to say the majority of his clients do not have that family support. The question the interviewer asked Kevin next was, â€Å"What can case managers do to optimize maintaining hard to handle patients in board -and-care facilities or with their families?† Meeting with client and working with him or her to remain medication compliant, forming good partnership with board-and-care facilities or family members. Kevin went on to say it would be better to treat the individual early before it becomes a crisis. The following question Kevin is asked is, â€Å"What recommendations would you make to strengthen the case management process and program in the Department?† Kevin states resources and also changing policies of organizations, which creates barriers in his clients being place in their respect program. Kevin continue on and said, that practitioners need to set healthy boundaries but at the same time have empathy for their clients and being able to connect with a client at a human level. He also stated that strengthen the commitment of clients to the goals that has been set and for the clients to acknowledge that there is an issue. When it comes to families and informal support networks, Kevin said, communication is key when working with them and education to assist them in helping the needs of the individual client. The interviewer than asked, â€Å"Since you started working in this program, have you initiated any major changes in the  way you do things or in the procedures?† Kevin says, â€Å"Yes† and that he has been in this program for over seventeen years and that the biggest shift according to Kevin is community oriente d, which is forming different partnership that the organization did not use in the past. This forming of partnership is done to increase the natural support system for clients in working with outside agencies. He went on to explain to me that when he first started the mentality was in the organization that they were the only agency. Also as a case manager they as an organization has heighten the awareness that the problem with mental health is a community issue; that everyone needs to be involve in supporting these type of individuals. Kevin continue by saying that they invited community partnerships, they invited faith base, invited community leaders to come to the table and have a conversation of how they could work together to make the problem of mental health better in their city. Kevin said this is accomplished through a town hall meeting to address all these concerns. Also Kevin said this change is adopted by his organization because it is a team effort and they have to work together for the benefit of their clients. The next question interviewer presented to Kevin was, â€Å"If you could design a case management program from scratch, based on your experience here, what changes would you make?† Kevin said many of the things they are currently doing is a direction that is offering more assistance for their clients by adding resources through many different organizations. The last question the interviewer asked, Kevin was, â€Å"What advice would you give to a new case manager coming into this agency?† Kevin said he would tell them to know their resources and that they are in the business of helping people, which requires them to have empathy towards their clients and to work as a team with colleague to give the best situation for his or her clients needs. The interview came to a conclusion and the interviewer thank Kevin for taking the time out of schedule to meet with him. The interviewer also ask if in the future if he has similar projects would it be alright for him to contact him again, which he said if his schedule permits he does not mind and he told me he tries to make time for these type of interviews because he feels it is part of educating the community and that he has not only met with college student but high school students to do similar interviews. Than, the interviewer said his final thank you and told Kevin to have a good weeke nd.