Government and the public Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Government and the public - Essay Example This is an attempt to find out how effectively the US constitutional doctrine of keeping the public sphere and state apparatus out of the influence of a particular (often dominant) religion has succeeded. It is argued that the public sphere, state and judiciary in the US have only partially succeeded in keeping dominant religion at an arm’s length. This paper is specifically about the institutional biases that exist in the society in favor of dominant religion even as constitutionally, equality and separation of religion from the state is guaranteed. The separation of church and state has been a subject of interest for many social observers and authors. Wald and Calhoun-Brown (2014) have given a nearly comprehensive account of this conflict in their book titled, Religion and Politics in the United States. The book in its first chapter itself, has articulated that â€Å"religion remains an important political factor in the United States† (Wald and Calhoun-Brown, 2014, p.1). Wald and Calhoun-Brown (2014) further in chapter 4 of their book have given a nuanced account of how tricky the business of dealing with religion can be for state. The different ways of defining the possible conflict areas between church and state, namely, the â€Å"†boundary† problem†, â€Å"†the wall of separation† between church and state† and â€Å"the â€Å"free exercise† controversy† (Wald and Calhoun-Brown, 2014) point towards the grey areas that exist. By citing examples and history of the Unit ed States of America as coming of age as an organized state, Wald and Calhoun-Brown (2014) in this chapter have revealed how the growing democratic and equality based principles of state molded the secular nature of the same. They (Wald and Calhoun-Brown, 2014) also have demonstrated how state as a political entity needed to distance itself from religion so that a coherent nation could come to being. What Wald and Calhoun-Brown (2014) have concluded in this chapter is that

The Effects Of Welfare Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Effects Of Welfare Reform - Essay Example Welfare reform are a great source of assistance for many individuals who are unable to earn their living for any of reason and depends on the social welfare programs to get their share of livelihood. This dependence on the welfare programs may be attributed to their some physical or mental disability, natural calamity or age factor. The large number of dependents in our society requires a comprehensive mechanism to address the issues pertaining to their requirements and needs. Additionally, some other facets of the society who require some economic enabling assistance may get the benefits of the reforms. Taxpayers are also the legitimate beneficiaries of the system. The social response to these needs shapes into the welfare systems arranged, managed and run by individuals, state, social security groups and societies, state owned welfare schemes like Medicaid and Medicare or similar services. Welfare of these needy and dependants is not a simple task, enormous spending are required to keep these programs running and a huge managerial effort is required address the issue in a befitting manner. Moreover the coordination among various social welfare programs and scheme is of core importance to avoid wastage of hard generated resources. More recently there is an increased awareness among masses to ensure that their contributions in these social welfare programs are used purposefully for the wellbeing of the targeted populations.

Leadership & HR (Succession) (mod 3) case Essay

Leadership & HR (Succession) (mod 3) case - Essay Example The selection of the new CEO may be from the options available to the Board of Directors which is either internal or external to the organization. However, the success of the succession to the position of CEO is influenced by several social and psychological factors. These concepts of CEO succession and leadership are also applicable for Apple Inc when the CEO succession to Steve Jobs occurred with the appointment of Tim Cook as the new CEO of Apple Inc. Tim Cook is a US business executive who has been appointed as the CEO of Apple Inc. Tim Cook spent his childhood in Robertsdale in Alabama. His father was a worker in the US shipyard while his mother used to work at a pharmacy. After graduating from Robertsdale High School, Cook went on to complete B.S in Industrial Engineering and then post-graduated as Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Management in 1988. Before joining Apple in 1998, Tim Cook worked in the business of personal computers of IBM where he also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the reseller department of Intelligent Electronics in the later stages. He also worked in Compaq for a short stint of six months. Since 1998, Tim Cook held important positions in the post of senior vice-president for worldwide operations. In his path of advancement to the post of CEO, Tim Cook has worked as Executive Vice President in the department of worldwide sales of the company. Tim Cook was then appointed as the Chief Operating Officer before he was finally appointed as the CEO of the company in the year of 2011. Tim Cook joined Apple Inc. in 1998 when the company started to transform itself into an electronics and software giant under the inspirational leadership and passion of Steve Jobs. Time Cook who already had a long stint with IBM in the personal computers section had rich experience of running the worldwide operations of a

Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 4

Strategic Management - Essay Example This paper discusses the relevance of strategic management and its implications particularly to the hospitality industry. Strategic management is the process of specifying an organizations objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources so as to implement the plans. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually performed by the companys top leaders particularly the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team. It provides an overall direction to the whole organization. An organization’s strategy must be best suited for its resources, circumstances, and to achieve its objectives. The process involves matching the companys strategic advantages to the business environment the organization faces. One aim of an overall corporate strategy is to put the organization into a position to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently. A good corporate strategy should integrate an organization’s goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole (Wikipedia, 2006). â€Å"There are a few major forces driving change in the remote and immediate environments of the organization. These forces are often referred to as trends, create opportunities and pose threats to the firm. They shape and force change in both predictable and unpredictable patterns. Hence the success often comes from the choice of competitive methods used by the firm to take advantage of the threats and opportunities in the business environment. These methods should also provide the firm with sustainable competitive advantage. Above all the most important area of management in an organization is the effective and efficient allocation of the firm’s resources.† (Olsen, et al. 1998). Corporate strategy can be described as an organizations sense of purpose - a guiding purpose or policy, a focus/mission statement, even a philosophy,

One page sammary Quality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

One page sammary Quality - Essay Example Customer Focus - This category deals with how the organization captures and holds on to its customers for long-term success. The strategies for this category include how the organization creates a customer-focused environment, and how the organization listens to the needs of their customers. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management - The focus of this category is how the organization selects, gathers, analyzes, manages, and improves upon its current data and information. It also delves into how an organization implements reviews into their practices to improve its performances. Workforce Focus - The purpose of this category is to examine how the organization develops the workforce to make use of its full potential in regard to the overall mission and strategy of the organization. The goal is to have a workforce environment that is working on its highest performance. Process Management - This category looks at how the organization designs its work systems and how it manages and improves the key processes for executing these work systems to benefit customer value and to obtain organizational success. Results - This category looks at every aspect of the organization’s performance and improvement, from product outcomes and customer-focused outcomes, to financial and workforce-focused outcomes. Performance levels are taken into consideration and examined in regard to those of

Essay on Machiavellis The Prince Essay Example for Free

Essay on Machiavellis The Prince Essay Since the beginning of civilization man has continually been faced with the complexity of creating a peaceful and unified existence for all, without resistance or violence. People have been trying to develop a system of how to rule effectively while acting ethically and morally to avoid chaos and destruction. However, as history has shown us this has not been an easy endeavor and very few rulers have been able to accomplish this. This leads us to a question that is in dispute: Is it better to be loved than feared, or vice versa? (Machiavelli, 51) An effective ruler would be one that relies upon fear without hatred, rather than love, as described by Niccolo Machiavelli in his book The Prince. In a perfect world all people would be good-hearted, all would treat each other equally, and all would follow and respect the rules of society. Machiavelli points out that people tend to focus how the world should be rather than how it is. Let us leave to one side, then, all discussion of imaginary rulers and talk about practical realities. (Machiavelli, 48) It is easier to complain about problems and society than it is to become a leader and produce positive change. All individuals have different perceptions of what it takes to keep order in a world where not all is good and not everyone gets along. It is easy for one to discuss ideals of how things ought to be, and to use reality to form a dream of something different that we believe would be better than the current state of affairs. Dreams though can not be actualized without action, and all the discussion in the world will accomplish nothing if everyone sits idly by. We all want peace, and in order to have peace there must be structure and in order to have structure you must have an effective leader that you trust to design the framework of how things will work. Ideally all would want a leader that is trustworthy, just, intelligent, compassionate, giving, and loyal to the people while at the same time having the ability to protect society from harm. Now I know everyone will agree that if a ruler could have all the good qualities I have listed and none of the bad ones, then this would be an excellent state of affairs. But one can not have all the good qualities, nor always act in a praiseworthy fashion, for we do not live in an ideal world. (Machiavelli, 48) Unfortunately in reality we can not have a leader that stands on a platform of extreme love or extreme hatred, if we expect to  remain safe and unharmed from the rest of the world. You need someone that is tough, and has the ability to enforce and maintain order upon people who are not always good and reliable, people who are selfish and have their own interests above all else. In reality people do not act responsibly out of love and consideration for others, but of fear what will happen if they do not act accordingly. It is important to keep in mind that to be feared is different than being hated. But fear restrains men because they are afraid of punishment, and this fear never leaves them. Still, a ruler should make himself feared in such a way that, if he does not inspire love, at least he does not provoke hatred. For it is perfectly possible to be feared and not hated. (Machiavelli, 52) If there were no consequences for bad behavior, people would have no reason to act any differently. It is not that punishment in itself creates hatred, but it is how the people are punished that will determine the fear or the hatred they have for their ruler. For example if one is caught stealing and then punished by having to serve some time in jail, that would cause them to fear you and to abide by the law. On the other hand if the punishment were death it would cause the people to hate the ruler for being so un-just and immoral. When a ruler becomes hated they lose all respect and control over the people, for they will reach a point that they can no longer endure the cruelty and rise against you. Indeed, one of the most effective defenses a ruler has against conspiracies is to make sure he is not generally hated. For conspirators always believe the assassination of the ruler will be approved by the people. (Machiavelli, 57) When people feel as they have been oppressed and abused for to long they will revolt and not think twice about getting rid of the ruler they are discontented with. For once the people have become determined to over throw their ruler, they have already lost all faith and feel there is nothing else to lose whether they are successful or not. It is not enough for a Ruler to be strictly feared, but to also appear to have some compassion and respect for the people that he oversees. It is imperative that an effective ruler is one that can balance fear, goodness, authority, respect, and compassion if he wishes to maintain harmonious  control. So it is necessary for a ruler, if he wants to hold on to power, to learn how not to be good, and to know when it is and when it is not necessary to use this knowledge. (Machiavelli, 48) The point Machiavelli makes here is that it is not enough to be completely good or completely evil, but to know when to do bad things in order to create good. Power is ultimately based on violence, and sometimes in order to preserve sovereignty and authoritative command, a ruler must engage in what society deems as immoral acts such as lying, betrayal, and even murder. So the conclusion is: If you take control of a state, you should make a list of all the crimes you have to commit and do them all at once. That way you will not have to commit new atrocities every day, and you will be able, by not repeating your evil deeds, to reassure your subjects and to win their support by treating them well. He, who acts otherwise, either out of squeamishness or out of bad judgment, has to hold a bloody knife in his hand all the time. A hated, thus unsuccessful ruler would be one that would not know his limits, and continue to use violence to obtain desired results. A wise ruler would be one who could look ahead and see when it is necessary to do harm so that he can know exactly what needs to be done, how to do it, and when to do it. Most importantly the ruler must have the ability to stop once what he has set out to do is accomplished. Violence and evil doing must be used sparingly to prevent the populous from hating you. A powerful leader needs the ability to equally rely upon intelligence and brute force, he must be able to discern when to use the different characteristics and be able to step into the role of either the lion or the fox at any moment. Since a ruler, then, needs to know how to make good use of beastly qualities, he should take as his models among the animals both the fox and the lion, for the lion does not know how to avoid traps, and the fox is easily overpowered by wolves. So you must be a fox when it comes to suspecting a trap and a lion when it comes to making the wolves turn tail. (Machiavelli, 54) Machiavelli is referring to the symbolism of the lion over the monarch power in England. The lion represented courage, strength, and  leadership; it was seen as being the dominant animal that could wipe out smaller animals. A fox on the other hand is timid, reserved, and clever; it thinks before it acts. There are only two ways to obtain power, either lawfully or un-lawfully. To do it lawfully is to be considered human and to do it un-lawfully by inciting violence is to be considered animalistic, so when stepping outside the law a ruler must choose whether to be lion and exercise brute force or to be the fox and exercise the mind. Nevertheless, you should be careful how you assess the situation and should think twice before you act. Do not be afraid of your own shadow. Employ policies that are moderated by prudence and sympathy. Avoid excessive self-confidence, which leads to carelessness, and avoid excessive timidity, which will make you insupportable. Machiavelli is reinforcing the significance of a ruler to have the ability to know when to act like a man and when to act like an animal. A feared but not hated ruler is one that does not act upon impulse but carefully calculates his moves in order to do what is necessary for the people, even if it means acting outside of the law. This essay began with the notion that if one wishes to be a successful ruler he or she must induce fear among the people to gain their respect as opposed to loving and being loved. How a ruler treats the people and how the people treat the ruler is the determining factor of how successful society will be. We have to look at the relationship between the people and the ruler as we would the relationship between a child and a parent. To be an effective parent you can not inflict harm upon your child, but you can inflict fear by imposing consequences to their negative behavior. If a child does something wrong we do not physically abuse him or her, but make them sit in time out or perhaps take away a privilege like playing video games. The child may be upset with you for a short time, but will not hate you and will respect your authority enough to abide by the rules in the future. On the other hand though, if you play the role of the best friend and consequences for negative behavior are non-existent then the child will go about doing what they please without regard for anyone else. Once the child realizes that he  or she will not be punished they have the ability to over power the parent. Religion also uses fear in order to enhance positive behavior and love among the people. No matter which religion one chooses to believe, he or she does not always willingly act with morals and ethics because in their heart they believe its right, but do so because they fear what will happen to their soul if they dont. People fear negative consequences whether it is timeout, prison, or even hell and will most always act how they are told in order to avoid such punishments. Ruling with fear to create stability and harmony can be used in many everyday situations whether running the country, the household, the office, or the church. Bibliography Wootton, David, ed. The Prince. Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1995.

Skodas Marketing Turn Around

Skodas Marketing Turn Around How did Skoda manage this major turnaround in the public perception of the company? Analyse the changes that have taken place [55 marks]. In your analysis, you should use knowledge of management strategies and approaches that you have gained from the module or further study [40 marks]. Please make sure that you give clear and complete references to the sources of any of the concepts or information on the company that you include. In the early 1990s Skoda was a struggling company, faced with a shortage of skilled labour, low productivity, high debts and low sales (North, 2009). Skoda was producing out-dated and unreliable cars, causing its brand to be synonymous with unreliability. VW turned around its fortunes with changes in technology, management practice and marketing. Key to its product offering was the utilisation of VWs common platform approach, another cornerstone was the recognition that the brand required a complete overhaul. Skoda is now a successful part of the VW Company and for the large part has seen strong sales and profit. More recently, tough market conditions have made business difficult with most competitors suffering. Skoda however, has found itself in a stronger position than many; an astonishing achievement considering its poor market position only 20 years ago. Skodas roots are based in early 19th Century Czechoslovakia when Và ¡clav Laurin  and Và ¡clav Klement began to produce their own bicycles. This progressed quickly to motorcycles and eventually automobiles in 1905. It was not until the 1920s when Laurin and Klement became partners with Skoda Works, the conglomerate arms manufacturer and the origin of the enduring name. After the global depression in the early 1930s, Skoda successfully exported models such as the Popular until the break out of World War 2 and the German occupation. During this time the Nazi occupation directed industry efforts towards arms and munitions and hence production in this period sharply fell. Post World War 2, Czechoslovakia fell behind the iron curtain and became part of the centrally planned communist soviet government. Designs were overhauled and updated models were still being developed through until the 1960s. However, at this point western technological advancements overtook that of Skoda and the i nherent inefficiency within the centrally planned economy began to take an effect. Towards the end of the communist regime Skoda were still producing models based on those from the 60s and subsequently became the basis of ridicule for poor reliability and quality (North, 2009). This is essentially the basis of the tarnished brand that had to be rebuilt in order to achieve its current position in the market. Skoda was producing cars that were poor compared to its competition and using technology that was hopelessly out of date (Edmondson, 2007). Ailing Skoda was bought by VW and began to turn Skoda around, largely by integrating it into its own highly successful business model the part and eventual complete sale by the Czechoslovakian government to VW represented an innovation in government foreign business policy (Lengyel Cadil, 2009). In order to compete in western markets in which capacity for cars exceeded demand resulting in a buyers market. In order to survive from competition, it needed to assess its product offering and brand image in the pursuit of market perceived value. In order to address Skodas issues VW re-aligned Company objectives to produce a quality value car and a strong brand image. In order to increase the efficiency and quality of the Skoda production, VW began to train employees in its management methods. Management across different businesses require consideration for organisational culture especially when working within an international setting (Naylor, 2004 pg120-121). The VW management had to deal with differences in business culture. Initially VW training did not improve the productivity of the Czech production plants, as the Czech engineers had adopted a very flexible improvisatory way of working. VW employed strict control on methods and made use lean production methods such as the just in time (JIT) management. Although it is generally more efficient and cost effective (Naylor, 2004, pg 510-511), JIT can involve short delays or pauses whilst waiting for the correct parts to arrive to maintain quality. This contrasted with the Skoda improvisatory style of working. VW took on more of a Human relations approach to its management, and by understanding and respecting Skodas business culture it was able to break down inflexible aspects of the old Skoda culture whilst working with other parts such as their vast and varied experience in order to bring about successful change. The management adapted their management style from a very directive role to include aspects of behaviour in order to deal with the cultural differences and more effectively manage the new workforce (Naylor, 2004 pg 10-11). The management also introduced novel methods to achieve Total Quality Management (TQM), this reduces the number of errors on the production by making everyone responsible for quality control as opposed to only checking for faults at the final stage of the production line and therefore increasing productivity (Naylor, 2004 pg 510-511). To achieve this VW introduced the Red Button which halted the production line when a fault was spotted by a member of staff. This introduction encouraged personal responsibility for fault checking. The knowledge that anyone could halt the assembly line and highlight individual errors combined with the fact that more errors were spotted and corrected before reaching the end of the assembly line resulted in less errors reducing the number of defects. After making changes to the management and workforce to deal with VWs culture, VW began to work with Skoda on its new vehicles, based on the VW common platform approach. The common platform approach allowed many cars to share the structure. This allowed Skoda to immediately take advantage of the latest advancements of VW technology, massively reducing the cost required to produce a new model. The common platform approach allows for innovation at the visible customer-facing parts of the vehicle. Creating a flexible management and employing VWs methodology worked well for Skoda. The result was the creation of cars which were as if not more reliable than VW badged counterparts. The Octavia beat its VW counterpart the Golf in endurance tests (North, 2009). The result of combining VW management and technology with Skoda know-how had resulted in cars that were more reliable than VW was producing on its own. Skoda now produces quality vehicles winning awards across Europe and the world (appendix 2.) including Car of the Year in India 2009 (Skoda, 2009). This high quality production also resulted in high customer satisfaction scoring Skoda highly in independent customer satisfaction surveys. In the 2007 European consumer satisfaction and quality studies, it ranked top ten in France and Germany and in Britain ranked 2nd (Edmondson, 2007). From internal customer research Skoda discovered that 98% of its customers would recommend Skoda to a friend (The Times Online). From the outset and throughout the introduction of the new VW based Skoda models, the branding of Skoda was overhauled. From the outset It was clear initially that Skodas brand was poor in most of Europe, Skoda was associated with cheap poor quality and unreliability and VW spend a large amount of money to Decontaminate the brand image adverts admitted flaws of the past 548 changes and Its a Skoda honest (North, 2009). In 2006 Skoda reviewed its market position and conducted a SWOT analysis. It was clear that the brand was still within a Niche Market an assessment of its brand suggested that although Skoda had been successful at disassociating itself with low-budget and low quality it still had a weak and neutral image compared with its competitors. (The Times Online) It was also clear that Skoda owners were happy about owning a Skoda and. Skoda decided once again to reposition its brand to gain market share in the mainstream car market. Skoda responded with a new marketing strategy, again leaving behind its successful brand defensive tactics. Its new market strategy was based around the happiness of its owners as shown in satisfaction surveys with the confident slogan the manufacturer of happy drivers. Promotion centred on this emotional draw with adverts such as the Cake during the advert the actual car is not shown at any point (The Times Online) This flexible management, commitment to quality and brand recognition gave Skoda the over-haul it needed. Since VWs take 20 years ago, Skoda sales have quadrupled to 650,000 cars and are responsible for 25% of VWs profits. Skoda product positioning was competing with other upmarket brands such as VW and Audi not only on price but also on quality (North, 2009). Skodas success followed the introduction of the Octavia and the Fabia, these were based on VW platforms this allowed the underlying chassis to be based on underlying modern, tried and tested technology. The Octavia beat its upmarket rival the Golf in endurance tests proving that management organisational and cultural changes at Skoda had allowed for the culmination of VW management and Skoda experience had produced a product even better than VW alone. In 2005 Skoda moved to diversify its brand by expanding its range into new and growth markets segments such as MPVs and SUVs allowing it to diversify and increase the size of its target market these also sold well. Similarities with Skoda can be found in Rover. Rover founded in 1877was nationalised in 1970 caused by labour strikes and financial difficulties. It was then privatised and passed around to various parent companies. Its issues with an out-dated and un-reliable product, with poor brand image and financial instabilities were never resolved and resulted in MG Rover declaring bankruptcy in 2004. Skoda was a struggling company, turned around by VW. Key to its success were VWs management strategies combining directive and organisation approach to management VW was able to aid Skoda in producing a competitive product and a strong brand image. Skoda is poised for future growth within both western and emerging markets (Edmondson, 2007). Bibliography (n.d.). Retrieved 03 1, 2011, from The Times Online: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/skoda/skoda_13_full.pdf Edmondson, G. (2007). Skoda: Volkswagens Hot Growth Engine. Bloombery Businessweek, sep 14 2007. Lengyel, B., Cadil, V. (2009). Innovation Policy Challenges in Transition Countries: Foreign Business RD in the Czech Republic and Hungary. HUMAN CAPITAL, INNOVATION, KNOWLEDGE, Volume 16, Number 1, 174-188. Naylor, J. (2004). Management Second Edition. Prentice Hall. North, P. (2009). The Rise of Skoda . Engineering Automotive, pg 25-26. Skoda. (2009). Skoda Annual Report . Appendix 1. Laurin Klement is the original brand name used by the founders of the bicylcle company they started in 1895 which became Skoda, named after the company founders Và ¡clav Laurin and Và ¡clav Klement. As at the end of 2009, Ã…Â  koda Auto Groups worldwide workforce comprised 26,153 employees including 1,986 temporary employees and 1,336 people employed by subsidiaries of Skoda Auto Group. In 2009 Skoda Auto Groups injury rate was 1.6 injuries per one million hours worked. In 2008 Skoda Auto Group achieved 200,182 million CZK from sales and 10,818 million CZK in profit after tax. In 2009 Skoda Auto Group achieved 187,858 million CZK from sales and 3,462 million CZK in profit after tax Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Skoda, Seat and Scania are all part of the Volkswagen group. Source: Skoda Annual Report, 2009