The attitudes and behaviour of the parents Essay Example for Free

The attitudes and behaviour of the parents Essay An Assignment showing appreciation of social and Historical Influences,  and Cultural Contexts  The Attitudes and Behaviour of the parents (and parental figures) in Romeo and  Juliet were normal in their time but may be considered unacceptable today.  Discuss. To what degree are they responsible for the eventual tragedy? Romeo and Juliet tells the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers and the circumstances under which the meet their death. The play expresses strong ideas of life and the responsibilities and roles we take on as it progresses. One of the roles and influential themes of the play undertaken by both Lord and Lady Capulet, and Lord and Lady Montague is parenthood. Although they are Romeo and Juliets biological parents, there is also the nurse, surrogate mother to Juliet, and Friar Lawrence, surrogate father and confident to both Romeo and Juliet. Where as modern parents take part in all aspects of a childs upbringing and welfare, to a degree, parents of the 16th century hired nurses to care for their children. With this absence of interaction between parents and children from a young age, it is not surprising Lady Capulet felt uncomfortable talking to Juliet in Act1 Scene3, to the extent she even had to call the nurse back in the room after asking her to leave. This is the matter. Nurse, leave us awhile,  We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again;  This lack of emotional connection between mother and daughter is also apparent in the way Juliet addresses her mother.  Madam, I am here, what is your will?  This suggests they do not have the balanced relationship we have come to expect today, in which each party has an even say depending on the circumstances regardless of age. However at the time of Romeo and Juliet, dominant Parental and Fatherly, in particular, figures were not uncommon, although have virtually disappeared now. Time has altered the role of the father, he now has one primal objective, to provide for his family. A womans role in the family has also changed. Noble women of the 16th century were in a vulnerable position, without a man they held little or no power. They were uneducated intellectual matters and those of a servant woman, such as cooking and cleaning.  Lord Capulet exhibits a prime example of fatherly dominance in his rage, when Juliet refuses to marry Count Paris, treating Juliet as an object to increase his status;  And you be mine, Ill give you to my friend. Throughout the play we see Lord Capulet change his feelings towards his daughter. When Juliet refuses to marry Count Paris a great rage erupts inside Lord Capulet. In his anger he displays a side of himself that today would cause outrage. He insults and wounds Juliet emotionally with insults such as;  Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch,  This shows Lord Capulets disregard for Juliets feelings as if they were a burden. He also talks o Juliet as a curse;  And that we have a curse having her. However, initially Lord Capulet shows compassion towards Juliet, reluctant at first to marry her off to Count Paris.  But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,  This is natural protective behaviour, and is perfectly acceptable in todays society. With this he introduced the quite modern concept of bridal choice and consent;  My will to her consent is but a part;  And she agreed, within her scope of choice  Lies my consent and fair according voice.

An overview of project management

An overview of project management Project management is an essential component of the organizational structure and its use is built into the organization’s work flow process. An effective project management will influence the organizational outcomes. The project means a temporary effort undertaken to produce a unique product (PMI, 2004). On the project, it can be divided into several phases which include project conception and initiation, project definition and planning, project execution, project performance and control, and project close. The project usually has an objective to meet specific requirements of the organization and has a specific time to accomplish it either long time or a short time. A project is temporary which has a beginning and has the end in a specific time, and therefore defined scope and resources. According to Gaddis (1959), a project is an organization unit dedicated to the attainment of a goal. It is generally the successful completion of a developmental product at point in time, with in the cost estimate, and in conformance with prearranged performance specifications. A project is fundamentally an approach of working, an approach of organizing people, and an approach to manage tasks. A project starts at a defined point of time, ends at specific in time and, is complete when the outcome is completed (Newton, 2005). Hurricanes (2002) stated that a project is an impermanent in nature that has specific start and finish. Other than that, project is a unique, one time undertaking. It can be said like that because the project cannot be done exactly in the same approach by the same project manager and within the same environment The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques are important to project management, which enables project activities meet the project requirements. Its a strategic competency for organizations, which enable to organize to get project results which to fulfill the business goals. The project management involves the process of directing and controlling a project from start to finish. The purpose of project management is to predict as many risks and problems as possible besides planning, organizing and controlling the activities. So, the project is completed as successfully as possible in spite of all the risks. Project Management is formal discipline that has been developed to manage projects (Newton, 2005). There are many activities that can benefit from project management like building a ship, construct a house, launching new products, information technology systems project and many more. Project Management is the process of guiding a project from its beginning through its performance to its end (Portny, 2006). There are includes three basic operations in project management, which are planning, organizing and controlling the project. Project management knowledge draws on nine areas. Figure 1 below illustrates the project management knowledge area: In project management, there is a key element that is included in a project management framework like project stakeholder. The stakeholders are the people who involved in the project activities. The stakeholder in project management can include the project manager, project sponsor, the project team, support staff, suppliers, opponents, client, users and many more. In this paper, the project manager roles and skills will be discussed in depth. The project manager cooperates closely with the other stakeholders. So this paper will discuss in depth the project manager roles and skills in the project management process. Project manager (PM) is generally taken to be the person accountable for delivering a project which runs smoothly on the designated period, within the cost plan and to the preferred performance or quality standards determined by the client (Sommerville, Craig Hendry, 2010). Project Manager is one of the stakeholders in any project management in the organization. Project Manager is responsible for delivering all the components of the project. Project Manager can be full time or the role of project manager given by the condition. Steyn (2008) stated that the project manager is the bonding medium holding the project together. The project manager’s influence the achievement the project, either success or fail. Project Manager should cooperate closely with the stakeholders, especially the sponsor and project team to meet the expectation of the project. The Project manager is the person ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the project (Heerkens, 2002). The project m anager can be called as team leader in a group. Project managers often are considered the direct leadership component essential to project success. The project manager is the element of project success in the company or organization. The project manager is responsible for managing the project’s scope, project schedule, and project cost to support the client or customer expectations for the successful completion of the project. The success or failure of a project is influenced by the project manager’s appointment. Petty (2009) indicates the project’s managers has the capability to connect between the organization which able to perform and serve the project. It is a critical factor of project success in the organization. The work of project manager does vary from project to project. The Project manager is responsible for scoping out the work, planning it and determining what resources are required, getting the resources allocated, and then managing the completion of the task required and ensuring any problems that may cause the completion of the tasks to be delayed. A project manager works according to project management approach. A project manager is the person responsible for leading a project from its initiation to complete. This includes planning, execution and managing the people, resources and goals of the project. Project Management, it is important to have project manager which is acting as manager. 97% of successful projects was led by qualified project managers which is who can often help to affect success factors (Schwalbe, 2006). As project manager, they can have many job description based on the organization and also based on the project. Although it is based on the organization and the project, there are similar tasks that project manager perform. There are several job categories for project manager which includes: Project Manager for a Consulting firm Project Manager should plans, schedule, and controls activities to fulfill the objectives of the project by applying technical, theoretical and managerial skills. Those skills are to meet the project requirements. Apart from that, the project manager should coordinate and integrates team and build a good relationship with the clients and associates to make sure the project is successful. Information Technology Project Manager for a financial services firm Project Manager should manage, prioritizes, develops, and implement information technology solutions to meet business needs. For example, project manager prepares and executes project plans using project management software in accordance with the standards. It is vital to have plans which are built a Gantt chart in order to make sure the project could finish at the specific time. Information technology project Manager for a nonprofit consulting firm. The project manager responsibilities include business analysis, project requirement gathering and project planning, budget estimating, project development, project testing, project implementation, and many more. For nonprofit consulting firm, project manager should work with various resource providers to ensure the development or project completed on specific times, high quality and cost effective for the project. Project Manager Roles are very important and more challenging other than the typical functional manager. Project Manager. The project manager roles are a success factor for project management in organizing. Project Manager is an individual that in charge of developing, in conjunction with the Project Sponsor. The Project Manager then makes sure that the project is delivered on time, within the budget and to the specific quality standard. Project Manager also ensures that the project is effectively resourced and manages relationships with a wide range of groups including all the project stakeholders. The Project Manager is also responsible for managing the work of consultants, allocate and utilize all the project resources in a professional manner and maintaining a cooperative, motivated and successful team. Project managers are professed to be leading a various set of people with direct control over the team members (Baker, Murphy Fisher, 2008). A number of roles are identified for the project manager such as planned all the activities, tasks, schedules and budgets. Other than that, he or she is organizing, selecting and placing the project team. The project manager is leading the project team and control all the activities and schedules. Besides that, the project manager also is able to select and develop a project team and give a motivation to the team members. Apart from that, the project manager also should always communicate with the project team and all stakeholders. The project manager also is the person who able to solve the problem, make a decision. A project managers responsibilities include overall management The project manager plays their role from the beginning of the project until the end of the project. Below is the roles should be required of a project manager. Manager Project Manager must oversee and manages the work and the employees Facilitator Project Manager must ensure that all resources are available when it’s needed as well can solve any problems. Communicator Project Manager must effectively communicate with top management, customer, project team, and the other stakeholders. The project manager must frequently communicate with the stakeholders in order to manage the works and all the work can be done by all the participants in the project. Politician Project Manager must act as a politician, which is able to influence the people and able to make a decision. Project Manager should know how to get things done, how to operate with the system, how to get people to collaborate and how to influence the people Negotiator Project Manager must act as negotiator which able negotiates with the stakeholders. The Negotiator is the skilled at getting what is needed for the project to be successful. For example, a Project Manager negotiates with senior management for more resources, negotiate with functional managers to get a particular project team member or to use a functional resource, negotiate with vendors for shorter lead time, negotiate with clients about project goal changes and others. Project Manager also has responsibility in project management as follows: Defining the scope Planning the scope Activity and resource planning Developing schedules and timescales Cost estimating Budgeting Completing documentation Risk analysis Risk management Progress monitoring Team Management Business Partnering Scalability and portability analysis Quality control To be a good project manager, it is important to possess several skills in order to manage the project in the organization. Project managers need to have a wide variety of skills which can help them to do the best in project management. All the skills that possess by the project manager is determinant of the success of the project in project management. It is to fulfill the responsibilities as the project manager. There are several major knowledge and skill categories for project manager. Skills requirement of the project manager divided into four categories (Heerkens, 2002). Below are the four major knowledge and skills categories of the project manager. Project management process skills Project Management process skills are the knowledge and skills related to the mechanism of project management. The project manager should be knowledgeable about tools, techniques and process technology in project management as well able to apply them in real situations. For instance, the project manager should know how to develop a complete customer document, build a network diagram, and build a work breakdown structure. With all these skills, the project manager will able to facilitate and organize the project plan. Project Manager also can encounter all the problems during the project management activities and will get respect from all the team members and other stakeholder. Interpersonal and behavioral skills Interpersonal skills are the tools of people used to interact and communicate with other people in the organization. Interpersonal communication skills has seven main areas that required by the project manager, including verbal communication skills, nonverbal communication skills, listening skills, negotiation skills, problem solving skills, decision making skills and assertiveness. Project Manger skills in dealing with the people are immeasurable valued. Besides the interpersonal skills, project manager also needs to have behavioral skills like personal conduct, style and approach. Technology management skills As we know, most of the project is surrounded with the technology. It is referring to the process areas at the core of the project that used information technology infrastructure. The technology skills required might include software and hardware in order to do the task. The ability of the project manager to coordinate the application of technology is the key success as project manager. It is important to project manager to have adequate knowledge and skills that embedded with the technology. There are several technology management required by project manager such as proficiency in project core technology, proficiency in the supporting technology area, industry knowledge, patent knowledge, design skills, and many more. The project manager should familiar with the technology applied in the project. The project manager must able effective in the use of technology. Desired personal traits To be a successful project manager, a personal trait is most important. Personal traits means is the action, attitudes and behavior should project manager have. Possessing personal traits will become a good project manager and be able to performing the duties as a project manager. The desirable traits should possess by project manager such as honesty and has integrity. Other than that, project manager should thinks like a generalist, has high tolerance with other people, and process-oriented, self-aware, open and accessible, politically, and decisive. The manager’s leadership role is of great importance in motivating people and creating an effective working environment in order for the project team to encounter greater challenges in today’s environment. The characteristics of a project manager to indicate the type of leader and leadership style that the project manager applies during the management of projects. All project managers need to demonstrate leadership skills and managerial skills. Leadership and management are terms often used in managing the organization or company. The project manager must be a leader and manager. A leader focuses on long term objectives and give inspiration to people to achieve the project management the goals in the organization (Schwalbe, 2011). Meanwhile, a manager deals with day-to-day project activities in order to achieve the goals. The leadership skills of project manager are very important to lead the project to success. Leadership can be defined as a style of behavior designed to integrate both the organizational requirements and personal interests in the pursuit of some objectives. Managers hold a leadership responsibility. Project managers are often selected or not selected because of their leadership styles (Kerzner, 2001). The leadership role is crucial to facilitating various project success factors that contribute to project execution. According to Anantatmula (2010), the project manager’s leadership roles and responsibilities influence the project deliverables and the project performance. Besides that People skills are essential when a project manager become. People skills are leadership circles of leaders that are encouraged to share the vision and team members are encouraged to be service oriented. The leader also has good relationships with customers or vendors. Barnard (1938) suggested the functions of a leader are needed to have both managerial and emotional functions. Managerial and emotional functions are called as cognitive and cathe ctic. Cognitive functions are managerial functions which involve directing, guiding the people, and constraining choices and actions, meanwhile cathectic functions are emotional functions which include motivational as well emotional aspects towards the objectives of the project and increasing trust and commitment to a larger moral purpose. Leadership and People skills are very important for a project manager to manage the project in the organization from the beginning until the end. All the skills are crucial in order to facilitate the project and make sure the project run smoothly within the time, scope and the cost. The project manager that is trusted by the team and gets the team to work together will communicate successfully. Project team members need to collaborate, share, collaborate and integrate information and knowledge to meet project objectives. A project manager does not communicate with language only, but also with character, which includes attitude, behavior and personality. Project manager with characteristics will allow team members to take responsibility for their work, developing trust, collaboration and teamwork; and sharing the vision will apply during the execution of a project. Besides acting as manager, project manager also act as a facilitator and also as a communicator. He or she must ensure that all resources and work are available when needed and that any problems are resolved. The project manager also must effectively communicate with top management, customer, project team, and other participants in project management. Other than that, the project manager should act as a politician and also negotiator. When they act as a politician, the project manager able to influence the others and have a great influence in decision making. It is important for a project manager to be a negotiator because they need to negotiate with all the stakeholders in managing all the process in the project management activities. The factor which may cause the project management to fail is by assigning the wrong person as project manager. Responsibilities of a Project Manager are to ensure successful completion of a project within a specific time and within the budget allocation. However, it involves many other stages in project management. Project manager plays a key role in helping projects and organization success. The project manager must perform a variety of job duties and have many skills. It is to develop skills in project management, general management, and also their application area such as in the information technology area. To be a successful project manager, they must care about everything and responsible in broad areas including for a project, company, project team members and also the project manager itself. To be a successful project manager, it should be somebody who consistently completes the project and meet the organization goals and also project management goals. The project must getting deliverables completed and handed over. When the project is completed, it can see the business profit increasing and leaves the customer with smiles on their faces. In the nutshell, it can be said that project manager gives big influence to the project management which involve in all the activities of the project management. 1

Overview Of It Infrastructure And Emerging Technologies Information Technology Essay

Overview Of It Infrastructure And Emerging Technologies Information Technology Essay IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate entire enterprises. But IT infrastructure is also a set of firm wide services budgeted by management and comprising of both human and technical capabilities. These services include the following: Computing platform used to provide computing services that connect employees, customers and suppliers into a coherent digital environment, including large mainframes, desktop, and laptop computers, and personal digital assistance and internal appliances. IT management services that plan and develop the infrastructure, coordinate with the business units for IT services, manage accounting for the IT expenditure, and provide project management services. IT standard services that provide the firm and its business units with policy to determine when, how and which information technology will be used. IT education services which provide training in system use to employees and offer managerial training on how to plan for and manage IT investment. IT research and development services that provide the firm with research on potential future IT project and investments that could help the firm differentiate itself in the market place. This service platform perspective makes it easier to understand the business value provided by infrastructure investment. For instance, in the US, the real business value of a fully loaded personal computer operating at 3 gigahertz that costs about $ 1000 or a high speed internet connection is hard to understand without knowing who will use it and how it will be used. Define IT infrastructure from both a technology and a services perspective. Technical perspective: Defined as the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firms specific information system applications. It consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate within the entire enterprise. Service perspective: Defined as providing the foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business processes. In this sense, IT infrastructure focuses on the services provided by all the hardware and software. IT infrastructure is a set of firm-wide services budgeted by management and comprising of both human and technical capabilities. Information technology infrastructure has the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firms specific information system applications. IT infrastructure includes investment in hardware, software and services such as consulting education, and training that are shared across the entire firm or across business units in the firm. An IT infrastructure firm provides the foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business processes. Stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution Technology drivers of IT infrastructure evaluation The changes in IT infrastructure describes the result in development of computer processing, memory chips, storage devices, telecommunication and networking hardware and software design that have exponentially increased computing power while reducing costs. The term hardware, software and firmware occur frequently in any literature concerned with computer. It is important at the outset to have some understanding of their meanings. Hardware: Physical components in computer circuits, keyboards, disk drivers, disk and printers are all examples of pieces of hardware. Software is a set of instructions, written in specialized language, the execution of which controls the operation of the computer programmes. Firmware Is the permanent storage of programme instruction in hardware. It is usually used to refer to a set of instructions that is permanently encoded on micro-chips. The term firmware is used because it is the inseparable combination of hardware and software. (Business information system by Graham Curtis and David Cobham 6th edition 2008). List each of the eras in IT infrastructure evolution and describe its distinguishing characteristics. Five stages of IT infrastructure evolution include: General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era (1959 to present): Personal computer era (1981 to present): Client/server era (1983 to present): Enterprise computing era (1992 to present): Evaluation of infrastructure The IT infrastructure in organisations today is an outgrowth of over fifty years of evolution in computing plate forms. There have been five stages in this evolution, each representing a different configuration of computing power and infrastructure elements. The five eras are general purpose mainframe and minicomputer computing, personal computer, client/server networks, enterprise computing and cloud computing. Infrastructure components IT infrastructure today is composed of 7 major components. These components constitute investment that must be coordinated with one another to provide the firm with a coherent infrastructure. Describe the evolving mobile platform, grid computing, and cloud computing. Mobile platform: more and more business computing is moving from PCs and desktop machines to mobile devices like cell phones and smart phones. Data transmissions, Web surfing, e-mail and instant messaging, digital content displays, and data exchanges with internal corporate systems are all available through a mobile digital platform. Net books, small low-cost lightweight subnotebooks that are optimized for wireless communication and Internet access, are included. The emerging mobile digital platform As computing increasingly take place over the network, new mobile digital computing platform has emerging communication devices such as cell phone and smart phone, the blackberry and iphone, taking on many functions of hand held computers, including transmission of data, surfing the web, transmitting email and instant messages, displaying digital content, and exchanging data with internal cooperated system. The new mobile platform also includes small low cost light weight sub note books called net books optimized for wireless communication and internet access, with core computing function such as a word processing, and digital e book readers such as amazon, kindle with some web access capabilities. More and more business computing is moving from PCs and desktop machines to these mobile devices; managers are increasingly using these devices to coordinate work and communicate with employees. GRID computing Grid computing: connects geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the grid. Grid computing takes advantage of the fact that most computers in the United States use their central processing units on average only 25% of the time for the work they have been assigned, leaving these idle resources available for other processing tasks. Grid computing was impossible until high speed internet connection enabled forms to connect remote machines economically and move enormous quantities of data. Grid computing requires software programmes to control and allocate resources on the grid. Client software communicates with a server software application. The server software breaks data and application code into chunks that are than parcelled out to the grids machines. The client machine can perform their traditional task while running grid application in the background. The business case for using grid computing involves cost saving speed of computation agility. For example, Royal Dutch/Shell group is using a scalable grid computing platform that improves the accuracy and the speed of its scientific modelling applications to find the best oil reservoirs. Cloud computing Cloud computing: a model of computing where firms and individuals obtain computing power and software applications over the Internet, rather than purchasing their own hardware and software. Data are stored on powerful servers in massive data centres, and can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection and standard Web browser. The growing bandwidth power of the internet has pushed the client/server model one step further, towards what is called the cloud computing model . Cloud computing refers to a model of computing where firms and individuals obtain computing power and software application over the internet, rather than purchasing their own hardware and software. Currently cloud computing is the fastest growing form of computing, with an estimated market size in 2009 of $8 billion, and a projected size of $160 billion 2012. In Cloud computing hardware and software capabilities are provided as services on the internet. Data is permanently stored in remote servers in massive data centre and accessed and updated over the internet using clients that include desktop, notebook, entertainment centre net book and mobile devices. For example, google application provides common business application online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and user data are stored on the server. Since organisations using cloud computing generally do not own the infrastructure, they do not have to make large investments in their own hardware and software. Instead, they purchase their computing services from remote providers and pay only for the amount of computing power that is actually used. Some analysts believed that cloud computing represents a sea change in the way computing will be performed by corporations, as business computing shift out of private data centres into the cloud computing is more immediately appealing to small and medium size business that lack resources to purchase and own their own hardware and software. However large corporations have huge investment complex proprietary systems supporting unique business process, some of which give them strategic advantages. The most likely is a hybrid computing model where firms will use their own infrastructure for their most essential core activities and adopt cloud computing for a less critical system. Cloud computing will gradually shift firm from having a fixed infrastructure capacity toward a more flexible infrastructure, some of it owned by the firm and some of it rented from joint computing centres owned by computer hardware winders. Current trends in computer hardware platforms? Computer hardware platform In 2008,285 million PCs were shifted worldwide, with a market value or $253 billion. There were Investments of more than US$ 18 billion in hardware manufacturing in India including telecoms hardware. This has stoked expectations of a hardware boom. These components include client machines (desktop PCs, mobile computing devices such as I-phones and blackberrys, and laptops)and server machine. The server market is more complex, using mostly Intel or AMD process in the form of blade servers on racks. Blade servers are ultrathin computers consisting of a circuit board with a processor, memory and network connection that are store in a rack. The supply of computer hardware has increasingly become concentrated in top firms such as IBM, HP, DELL, SUNMICRO system, three chip producers, Intel AMD and IBM. The industry has collectively settled on Intel as the standard processer, with major exceptions in the server market for Unix and Linux machine, which might use sun or IBM Unix processer. Businesses can benefit from autonomic computing, virtualization, and multicore processors. Autonomic computing Benefits of autonomic computing include systems that automatically do the following: Configure themselves Optimize and tune themselves Heal themselves when broken Protect themselves from outside intruders and self-destruction Reduce maintenance costs Reduce downtime from system crashes Virtualization Benefits of server virtualization include: Run more than one operating system at the same time on a single machine. Increase server utilization rates to 70 percent or higher. Reduce hardware expenditures. Higher utilization rates translate into fewer computers required to process the same amount of work. Mask server resources from server users. Reduce power expenditures. Run legacy applications on older versions of an operating system on the same server as newer applications. Facilitate centralization of hardware administration. Multicore processors Benefits of multi-core processors: Cost savings by reducing power requirements and hardware sprawl Less costly to maintain as fewer systems need to be monitored. Performance and productivity benefits beyond the capabilities of todays single-core processors. Handle the exponential growth of digital data and the globalization of the Internet. Meet the demands of sophisticated software applications under development. Run applications more efficiently than single-core processors giving users the ability to keep working even while running the most processor intensive task in the background. Increase performance in areas such as data mining, mathematical analysis, and Web serving. Current trends in software platforms Define and describe open source software and Linux and explain their business benefits. Open-source software provides all computer users with free access to the program code so they can modify the code, fix errors in it, or make improvements. Open-source software is not owned by any company or individual. A global network of programmers and users manage and modify the software. By definition, open-source software is not restricted to any specific operating system or hardware technology. Several large software companies are converting some of their commercial programs to open source. Linux is the most well-known open-source software. Its a UNIX-like operating system that can be downloaded from the Internet, free of charge, or purchased for a small fee from companies that provide additional tools for the software. It is reliable, compactly designed, and capable of running on many different hardware platforms, including servers, handheld computers, and consumer electronics. Linux has become popular during the past few years as a robust low-cost alternative to UNIX and the Windows operating system. Thousands of open-source programs are available from hundreds of Web sites. Businesses can choose from a range of open-source software including operating systems, office suites, Web browsers, and games. Open-source software allows businesses to reduce the total cost of ownership. It provides more robust software thats often more secure than proprietary software. Declining communications costs and the internet. A fourth technology driver transforming IT infrastructure is the rapid decline in the costs of communication and exponential growth in the size of the internet. An estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide now have internet access. The exponentially declining cost of communication both over the internet and over telephone network (which increasingly are based on the internet). As communication costs falls towards very small numbers and approach zero, utilization of communication and computing facilities explodes. To take advantage of the business value associated with the internet, firms must greatly expand the power of their clients/server networks, desktop clients, and mobile computing devices. There is every reason to believe these trends will continue. One reason for the growth in the internet population is the rapid decline in internet connection and overall communication cost. The cost per kilo bits of internet access has fallen exponentially since 1995. Digital subscriber line DS L and cable modems now deliver kilobits of communication for a retail price of around two cents. Standards and network effects Todays enterprise infrastructure and internet computing would be impossible both now and in the future-without agreements among manufacturers and widespread consumer acceptance of technology standards. Technology standards are specifications that establish the compatibility of product and the ability to communicate in a network. Technology standard unleashing powerful economy of scale and resulting in price declines has resulted in manufacturers focussing on the product built to a single standard. Without these economies of scale, computing of any sort would be far more expensive than currently is the case. In the 1990s, corporations started moving towards standard computing and communication plate forms. Windows PC with the windows operating system and micro soft office desktop productivity applications became the standard desktop and mobile client computing platform. Widespread adoption of the UNIX has made possible the replacement of proprietary and expensive main frame infrastructure. In telecommunications, the Ethernet standard enabled PCs to connect together in small local area network, and TCP/IP standard enable these LANs to be connected into firm-wide networks, and ultimately, to the internet.

Personal Narrative- The Real Me :: Personal Perspective Essays

Personal Narrative- The Real Me I was sitting, waiting impatiently for Adam. All of a sudden, this red Toyota Tacoma flew into my driveway, screech. â€Å"Hey sweetie! Are you ready to go and eat?† he screamed out of his fire red truck. In the mean time, I was sitting there, glaring out the window, talking to myself like a harebrained would do, asking the stupidest questions, â€Å"Is he going to like my disturbed family? What is he going to think of my annoying redneck relatives? I hope he likes fish. Am I too dressed up for dinner?† W arrived at my grandmothers’ house around 5:30, at once my aunt Gaye grabs me by the arms, â€Å"Hey girl! Give your favorite Aunt Gaye a hug!† pulling me under her arm. I yanked my head away, but I already got disillusioned by the smell of month old gym clothes. â€Å"And who is this fine young boy behind you?† I was so red by this point that I just took him to the kitchen, introduced him to the rest of my family, that was there. While introducing Adam to Casey and Ben, Gracie, my three year old cousin, ran into me, knocked me off my feet, while giving me the biggest bear hug ever. She rapidly ran away just after noticing Adam; she is very shy. Adam and I began to laugh as Gracie ran into the wall. Lacey, my five year old cousin also Gracie’s big sister, runs straight up to Adam and gives him a hug; she is very sweet. Finally, after Adam met everyone but my parents, they showed up. â€Å"Hey mom and dad, this is Adam. He has met the rest of the family and it smells like dinner is ready. Shall we eat?† I rushed along so there wouldn’t be any embarrassment. On the table, my grandmother arranged the food, placing each dish in its assigned place. The table was crawling with fried food: a huge pan of 100 crispy, crunchy fish, squishy hush puppies, and black tatter-tots, a bowl of bright green, grassy coleslaw, with a cottage cheese texture. Gross! Piling food onto ours plates, Adam and I rushed outside to sit in front of the television in hopes for the game to be on. While eating I noticed that Adam was throwing away the fish tails, â€Å"Adam! What are you doing? You are supposed to eat the fish tail! Here let me show you.

The Spanish Revolution :: essays research papers

Ever since the fall of 1930 when the Spanish Revolution began there has been no surcease of the struggle in Spain. For a long time there was a deadlock of forces, an equilibrium in the tug of war between the property holders and the destitute. Now the equilibrium is being definitely broken. The issue before Spain is either Communism or Fascism. The matter is being fought out not with ballots but with bullets and ruthless civil war. Slowly the political revolution is being definitively turned into a social revolution. From the very beginning, the mass of workers of Spain, both in the city and in the country were the decisive elements. When the students rioted before the universities in 1930 it was only when the workers joined them with a vast general strike that the regime of the military dictator, Primo de Rivera, fell and the temporary regime of General Berenguer set up. When General Berenguer tried to hold fake elections without extending the franchise to all, it was another general strike that overthrew the regime, compelled new elections, forced the king to flee and established the republic in April 1931. At this point the Syndicalist and Anarchist workers began to miscalculate their forces. Syndicalism and Anarchism, in spite of their revolutionary phraseology were able only to overthrow the old regime and to allow the new democratic republic to be set up; but these movements could not go forward to the positive constructive tasks of setting up the rule of the workers. These antiquated movements were good enough to accomplish the negative and critical tasks of overthrowing an antiquated monarchy; they did not know how to deal with a modern bourgeois republic. In the course of the revolutionary movement there was set up what in fact amounts to a dual power, the masses respecting the authority of the unions and the revolutionary organizations, the government being forced at times to yield to the opinions of these mass organizations on vital questions. At one time the bourgeois government was even forced to declare that Spain was a workers republic and to feign friendliness toward the Soviet Union. The leaders of the toilers' organizations, however, did not know what to do with their power. The lending groups were composed of four principal elements: the Anarchists, the Syndicalists, the Socialists and the Communists. The Anarchists were powerful enough within the trade union movement to exercise decisive influence for a time upon the whole situation.

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Andrea Beverly Professor McClendon ENGL 1301.A002 17 March 2014 Cause and Effect of Human Trafficking: Sexual Exploitation Cause and Effect Essay On the news and all over the world you hear the term human trafficking. What exactly is human trafficking? â€Å"Human trafficking is essentially modern-day slave trading, which ensnares millions of people in debt bondage or forced conditions.† (Siddharth).As many know today human trafficking has become a phenomenon all over the country. Human Trafficking is a global activity where women and young girls are being traded and used as sexual exploitation. As Siddharth stated that human trafficking is slowly becoming one of the most involved criminal activities all over the world. Two causes and two effects on how strongly our human beings are encouraged to take action. One cause of human trafficking is vulnerability of grieved criminals.(cite). Most grieving criminals are vulnerable, because of their living conditions. When they see how easy it is to be a trafficker makes this issue much more horrifying for women and young girls to be manipulated...

Leadership and Management in Nursing Essay

Nursing is a very demanding and dedicated profession and the current shortage is a serious problem at all levels of nursing and is the dearth of leaders among nurses. Leadership and management are essential skills for all qualified healthcare professionals and have a pivotal role in ensuring a delivery of high standards of care. Developing future nurse leaders is one of the greatest challenges faced by the nursing profession, (Mahoney, 2001). The author is currently working as a midwife in one of the big hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The average deliveries per month are 500-600. There are 22 midwives in this unit and there are eight vacant posts for midwives . Due to the shortage of midwives, these professional staffs are subjected to personal and work related stress. Preston et, al. (1981) defined stress as an adaptive response, mediated by individual characteristics or psychological processes. The negative effects of stress could be evident in staff absenteeism, hostility, and aggression. This will impair the provision of quality care and the effective functioning of the organization. (Healy & McKay, 1999). The adverse effect of workload and stress in the author’s placement has lead to an alarming high staff turnover. Apparently, the increased workload has affected the staff performances and the quality of nursing care. When the staff feel that they are not cared for, then they find it difficult to care for patients ( Atwater & Bass 1994, Lancaster 1999). In this assignment, the author will explore the various leadership styles and their theories and also distinguish the functions between leadership and management. The author will also critically explore the manager’s leadership practice in labor and delivery suite, thus creating a culture of reducing stress. The link of leadership style from the aspect of work, environment, communication, empowerment, delegation, implications, conclusion and recommendations will be discussed further. Leaders are not someone who holds top position but also able to give assistance to others, (Mahoney, 2001). Whereas in my placement, the head nurse, who is the leader, never gives a helping hand during the deliveries. She anticipates the midwives to conduct and manage the deliveries, even though there’s shortage of staff. The nurse manager has to prepare the correct number of staff on each shift with the credentials to do the job and must be aware of the policies regarding overtime, floating from one unit to another. She must form a competent team and manage them to carry out the plan for reaching the goal of excellent patient care. Effective leaders are not merely someone who is skillful but they must acquire good attitudes, (Cook, 2001). The nurse manager must understand the factors surrounding the current situation in the unit and have the knowledge of various approaches to leadership that will help to understand and determine the best leadership approach to create a positive work environment to reduce stress. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence, inspire and motivate a group of people towards the achievement of its goal, (Yuki, 2002). Management is a process of getting things done effectively through planning and organization of services which is one of the basic function of management whereas the leader is an intermediary between work group and the top management, (Marquis and Huston, 2006). The manager uses a formal and rational method whilst the leader uses passions and stirs emotions. Without enabling and empowering nursing leadership, efforts to improve the quality and safety of healthcare will be limited and short-lived, as said by Kelly (2008). For a leader to achieve the goal, she must have the three essential things which are power, authority and influence to act in a way that will stimulate a positive respond from the staff (Tomey, 2009). Leaders will emerge when nurses feel valued and inspired to strive for excellence. They aim to improve patient care via a cohesive work force by focusing on interpersonal relationships between leaders and subordinates, (Malby 1997). A nursing leader should have a distinctive set of personal qualities, integrity, courage, initiative, ability to handle stress, think critically, able to resolve problems without conflicts, skillful communication and must be empathetic. They are not those who control others but they act as visionaries who help staff to plan, lead, control and organize their activities, (Jooste,2004). There are many types of leadership. Autocratic type of leaders are those who make all decisions and expect others to follow without questioning and never seek advice from others, (Sullivan & Decker 2005). This situation had made some of the midwives to leave for greener pastures. The current health system has advanced in technology and improved in care giving services (Cook, 2001). The author feels that this leadership style is no longer tenable and fits into the contemporary nursing practice and a consumer responsive culture. Democratic leaders encourage the participant of staff and use a consensus for decision making, (Sullivan & Decker 2005) whereas bureaucratic leadership occurs when a leader rigidly adheres to rules, regulations and policies of the organization, (Jenkins and Henderson, 1984). Instead of providing sufficient support and consideration, my nurse manager demonstrates these leadership qualities because she uses rules and policies thus expecting strict compliance from the midwives. . By following the organizational hierarchy’s influence, she puts herself in a high position but never use her power constructively (Masquis & Huston, 2006). Due to top management instructions, she adheres to the current policies, making no changes in them but gives verbal instruction and changing policies to her likes and dislikes. This swifts away trust and open communications between the manager and the midwives. Due to unvented stress and high expectations from the nurse manager, the midwives burnout level have been exacerbated . Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment, as said by Maslach &Jackson (1981). Reports have proved that in this kind of environment, patient’s safety is at risk (Institute of Medicine, 2004). Participative leadership allows staff to participate in decision making and actively seek out the participation of those involved. This type of leadership allows staff to feel more committed to the goals they were involved (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). The author feels that the head nurse should have these qualities so that the unit will run smoothly, and the staff will be appreciated and acknowledged so that good nursing care can be rendered. Transformational leadership is especially well suited for today’s fast changing healthcare environment where adaptation is extremely important (Welford,2002). It starts with the development of a vision that will excite and convert potential followers, (Outhwaite, 2003). To achieve organizational success, this style advocates for strong leadership qualities and these leaders use motivation in their approach than use rewards and punishment as said by Kouzes & Posner (2002). In the author’s point of view, this leadership is proposed as empowering leadership style which well suits in my unit and to be recognized by the nurse manager. According to Bowles & Bowels (2002), transformational leaders create a leadership culture for all team members nurturing empowerment, increase their autonomy and open communication for inclusive decision making. The nurse manager takes responsibilities for discussing care related matters with the midwives which makes them to be motivated and work more effectively to contribute to the development and provision of the unit, (Murphy. 2005). The ability of the leader to articulate a shared vision is an important aspect of transformational leadership (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). Another leadership style is transactional leadership which focuses on providing day to day care between leaders and their employee. It aims to maintain equilibrium and harmony by using incentives to enhance staff loyalty and performance (Bass and Riggio, 2006). Laissez faire leadership is another style that leaves the staff alone to work with no directions or facilitations and is a highly risky form of leadership, (Sullivan & Decker 2005). Since the author’s placement is labor and delivery, it’s not advisable to have this kind of leader in this unit as it will increase the mortality rate. The high level of burnout and increased workload due to shortage of midwives and less rest days has resulted them to leave. This disequilibrium may trigger the risk of physical and mental health of these midwives. The manager has depleted the nurses basic psychological needs which are rest and sleep and at the same time reducing their self- esteem, as said in Maslow’s theory of human motivation. The leader should explore barriers and identify conflicts when they arise and collaborate with the team and be able to understand the employee’s perspective (Outhwaite,2003). A more effective form of leadership maybe situational leadership where the leader switches the style depending upon the situation at hand and upon the competence of the staff, (Faugier & Woolnough, 2002). The nurse manager must be good clinician and have judgment skills to handle any problem that cannot be handled by the staff. By doing so, the staff will listen to her as she guides them. Communication also plays a vital role as this can prevent conflict and smoothes the progress of team building in the unit Calpin-Davies, (2000). A good communicator gives the staff detailed instructions to perform tasks that are necessary to reach the goal. The nurse manager uses a communication book to provide important information to all the staff in the unit, as supported by Sullivan & Decker (2005). By reading and acknowledging with a signature, she assures the message has been reached effectively. As a leader, the nurse manager has to be a good listener. It provides the opportunity to receive valuable feedback that is used to avert some problems and resolve others and also giving greater understanding of the issues being discussed. When there are incidences in the unit, the nurse manager gives a listening ear to the staff and tries to solve the problems. She puts aside preconceived ideas or prejudices when listening to staff. Being a leader, the nurse manager delegates some of the tasks to the staff to focus on more complex aspects of running the unit. She delegates the right task to the right person, for example sending and collecting of narcotics by the midwife as these drugs used are cautioned in Saudi Arabia. A good leader fosters a congenial work environment by coaching, praising and training the staff to perform an excellent job and also by conducting continuous nursing education. Supervision goes in the observation of staff and to evaluate in the yearly performance appraisal. The author would recommend that the nurse manager in this unit has to change her leadership style to She should resources for proper quality care Conclusion Today, healthcare environment requires leaders to be skillful and knowledgeable and have strong inspirational leadership qualities across the health care organization. In this millennium, nursing must make a dedicated effort to nurture its young nurses to grow into effective and motivating leaders.