Team Based Organizations Essay -- GCSE Business Management

Team Based Organizations Introduction A team is a small group of people with complementary skills who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable. In today’s society, there can be several different factors that are associated for a group of people to become a high performance team. For a team to achieve great performance, and deliver real benefits to the organization, they have to be able to distinguish their strengths and weaknesses. All teams need members who believe in team goals and are motivated to work with others actively to accomplish important tasks. A commitment to teamwork is found in the willingness of every member to listen and respond constructively to views expressed by others. High performance team has to give others the benefit of the doubt, provide support, and recognize the interests and achievements of others. These things are very essential for a team to be a high performance team in today’s competitive and changing business environment. High Performance Teams It takes a lot of work for a group of people to become a high performance team. High performance teams have special characteristics that allow them to excel at teamwork and achieve special performance advantages. A team that is going to be a high performance team has to consist of strong core values that help guide their attitudes and behaviors in directions consistent with the team’s purpose. Another thing that a high performance teams do is to turn general sense of purpose into specific performance objectives. Whereas a shared sense of purpose gives general direction to a team, commitment to specific performance results makes this purpose truly meaningful. Moreover, members of high performance teams should have the right mix of skills, including technical skills, problem solving and decision making skills, and interpersonal skills. Lastly, anyone can easily ague that for a team to be a high performance team they have to be creative. In the new workplace, teams must use their creativity to assist organizations in continuous improvement of operations and in continuous development of new products, services, and markets. Diversity Climate Improving the diversity climate of an organization is through the implementation of teams. To conceive a better perspective of how diversity climate applies to organizing... ...s the group can gain from the complementarities among the skills of its members. Second, different skills of team members have to be relevant to one another. For example, complimenting someone may not occur, if the skills of one team member are not relevant to the productivity of a teammate. Third, good communication is necessary for any team members to perform the relevant joint tasks and engage in a knowledgeable process to be productive Conclusion Teams are the major forces behind today’s revolutionary changes in organizations. Team based organizations are becoming the management system of the future in today’s competitive business environment. To be a high performance team the proper skills need to be present. When it regards to teams being diverse, one must take into consideration the differences and use them to their advantage. In order to be able to successful run a business, there needs to be the distinction of what group of people is qualified and capable of doing what is right for the organization to succeed. References Katherine C. Naff, Richard C. Thompson. The Impact of Teams on the Climate for diversity in Government. http://www.hf.faa.gov. July 10, 2005.

Antony and Cleopatra Essay

This scene presents the readers with a brief preface to the universally known love story of Antony, the ‘triple power of this world’, and Cleopatra, his ‘wrangling strumpet’. The scene opens with two Romans, Philo and Demetrius, discussing the incredible power Cleopatra has over Antony and the remarkable change they can perceive in Antony’s character. Through Philo’s opening speech we are told that Antony’s former qualities included those of a strong-minded ruler and a valiant warrior, including physical prowess and military skill. However, the Romans now see him as a changed man who is no longer behaving like a ruler; instead of fulfilling the duties of a leader and returning to Rome, he is being ruled by a â€Å"tawny gypsy†. Thus, before meeting the lovers themselves, we are presented with the Roman attitude towards the relationship; responsibility and allegiance has been abandoned for love. We sense that Antony must be debating in his mind whether to pursue his passion or perform his duty, and those around him are anxiously waiting for him to embrace his role as a leader again and return to his former self. On observing the interaction between the two characters, I found myself accepting Philo’s objections to the relationship and his observations on Antony’s altered state, and studying the evident infatuation that is blinding Antony as he loses his sense of responsibility. Cleopatra is his self-indulgence, and he cannot entirely understand his great sexual passion for her. We know that his overindulgence leads to a loss of reason and control later in the play, and the disregard he expresses in this first scene towards his obligations makes us aware of the great power his passion has. â€Å"Let the Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch/of their love. † His indifference towards the news from Rome again illustrates how he is shirking his duties in Rome when under the spell of the exotic, mysterious eastern monarch. From the first scene, we learn of Cleopatra’s ‘tawny front’, entrapment of a great general and her ‘gypsy lust’. Her entrance is a grand one, accompanied by Antony, ‘her Ladies, the train, with Eunuchs fanning her’. Her authority and command as a ruler are emphasized, and as we then witness in the dialogue between the lovers, her power over Antony mirrors her political power. In this first scene, we see Cleopatra as both dominant and skeptical. ‘If it be love indeed’, she taunts Antony, ‘tell me how much. ‘ Antony, the ‘triple pillar of the world’ is ‘transform’d /Into a strumpet’s fool’ as he prepares to renounce all his power in exchange for Cleopatra. Cleopatra seems to love these assertions of love, as she is wary of the fact that she stands on loose ground, even though she is a seductress of the best abilities. Antony is married to Fulvia, and Cleopatra questions his love for his wife†¦ is it greater than the love he holds for her? We see here that her love for Antony is possessive, yet she too depends on it. Although she dominates Antony in the opening exchanges, her first line ‘If it be love indeed, tell me how much’ points to the ever searching, questing, explorative nature of her personality. She teases, wrangles and resists the definite, whilst playing on Antony’s weak spots, reminding him of his wife and public responsibilities. Thus, I feel the strongest aspect of the relationship that Shakespeare conveys here is highlighted when Antony tells Cleopatra ‘There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch/Without some pleasure now’: all is to be reduced and sacrificed for the sensuous, intense pleasure of the moment – hedonism is to predominate over duty and responsibility.

Cover Girl Advertisement

When thinking of advertisements, for some odd reason, I immediately will think of Cover Girl makeup ads that are often found in almost every woman’s magazine. However, this particular advertisement features country music superstar Taylor Swift and very similar to all of their distinctive ads focuses mostly on her face. This ad is for their new â€Å"natureluxe silk foundation- luxury touched by nature. † From this relatively simple ad, as it only contains a close up of Taylor Swift as well as text, it allows for the discussion of it’s unique aesthetics. The first thing that I would like to discuss is the colors that are used within this advertisement. The advertisement finds balance by using a soft and light yet trendy green for their top lettering of Cover Girl, some pop out lettering under the image all to match the color of the actual foundation bottle. The advertisement becomes more appealing to the eye as Cover Girl is attempting to create an earthy yet â€Å"simple is beautiful† feel for their audience. Also, the actual colors of Taylor Swift herself are very fair and soft as it looks as if she is not wearing any foundations. In addition, she is wearing a pale pink ruffled dress adding to the light, fluffy and earthy feel of the advertisement as a whole. However, the majority of the wording is a dark black with some of the font in bold and different sizes. It is evident that the advertisers are attempting to bring their audience’s attention down from Taylor Swift to what they actually have to say about the product by using opposing colors and bold text. In addition to the colors that were used, the actual wording that was used is particularly interesting. The advertisement uses many different sizes and colors within the whole image. The top Cover Girl is in the light green color reflecting back to the idea of softness and it is the vantage point for a person’s eyes. It is very bold and automatically draws attention to the top half of the advertisement. Also, the different very black and dark bold text at the bottom of the page seems intriguing for a few reasons. First, the different font types and sizes attempt to make you really see the first three lines very clearly and get an understanding of what the product is. However, the work â€Å"new† happens to be in green followed by â€Å"natureluxe silk foundation† with â€Å"luxe† being bolded, suggesting that this product is truly â€Å"luxury touched by nature;† which is in very small print right below that as well. In addition, I find it interesting that the two black bolded lines both have the word â€Å"air† in them and also soft, air-like words, such as â€Å"fresh† and â€Å"breath. To me this is suggesting that even though the text may be dark and bold, this product is still going to make the user feel fresh and lightweight. Therefore, this brings me to the last topic of the lighting that is used within the image as well as the text. With the text having a dark and bold at the top, it slowly becomes lighter and smaller and even throws in come light green text in there as well, suggesting that it almost has a elegant, luxurious feel to the text just as much as the makeup is going to have on a person’s face. Also, the lighting within the image is very bright and the backdrop of a complete white again is keeping the theme of lightweight and airy flowing throughout the entire advertisement. In addition, the bright, artificial white lighting is also used on Taylor Swift’s face as well as arm to suggest that she is feeling fresh and clean when wearing this foundation.

Bloom Research and Response Paper Essay

Larkin and Burton’s abstract preface the Joint Commission’s directive for effective communication among caregivers during handoff to ensure patient safety (Larkin & Burton, 2008, p. 360). The case study reviews the lack of handoff practice and its effect on continuum of care provided to â€Å"Ms. C, a 64-year-old woman, presented to the ambulatory surgery center for an open cholecystectomy† (p. 390), and the subsequent workshop utilizing Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education Objectives to educate and change clinical practice among the staff members. From this reader’s vantage Ms. C’s respiratory de-compensation was a result of the nurses’ failure to communicate patients medical history and critical findings during unit-to-unit transfer and shift report, inadequate nurse to patient ratio along with incomplete charting, failure to recognize early signs and symptoms of respiratory compromise, and lack of critical thinking skills. Evidenced by the case study’s assertions, Ms. C required oxygen in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) but was transferred without it. Second, the PACU nurse did not communicate to the patient’s need for oxygen to the receiving nurse during handoff report. It is unclear if the surgeon wrote vital sign parameters and pulmonary toilet orders, or if there were standard protocols for this post operative unit. Ms. C’s incomplete graphic record indicate she was placed on four liters of oxygen within two hours of her arrival to the unit at 1630; however, fail to adequately trend abnormal vital signs such as low grade temperature and tachycardia (Larkin & Burton, 2008, p. 392). The record does not document any nurse-initiated interventions or call to the doctor requesting a chest x-ray or recommending a respiratory therapy consult for breathing treatment and incentive spirometer. On post-op day two Ms. C’s respiratory status declined requiring a non-rebreather mask, rapid response team consult, and a transfer to the intensive care unit for a diagnosis of respiratory distress (p. 392). There were multiply factors that contributed to the above scenario; Larkin and Burton writes that â€Å"after this near-miss, failure to rescue incident† (p. 94) a task force consisting of management, clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and unit educator convened to discuss the event. The task force concluded that the nursing staff members were ineffectual in critically evaluating the patient’s signs and symptoms. The CNS chose a framework that utilized â€Å"Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives†, that provided measurable outcomes to the ed ucational activity and enabled the nursing team to optimize their critical skill levels. A workshop to assist staff to navigate through the case study in a realistic manner was implemented (Larkin & Burton, 2008, p. 95). The cognitive domain contains six intellectual skills that measure: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information received. The affective domain contains five emotional factors: receiving, responding, valuing, organizing, also conceptualizing and characterizing by value concept. It is during this phase that individual buy-in occurs or not. Finally, the psychomotor domain contains five motor skills functions of imitation, manipulation, precision, articulation, and naturalization. The individual learn to adapt his or her movements intuitively to a given situation (Larkin & Burton, 2008, p. 395). The key component of continued nursing education is to advance and apply evidenced based practice at the bedside. The use of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives as the framework promote the transfer of evidence based information, in a setting that allow the nurse educators to evaluate and measure the learner’s: cognitive, affective and psychomotor processes. It allows the learner (nurse) to assess his or her level of application within each domain. Both the educator and the nurse can reinforce successes and target learning opportunities to areas of inefficiency. References Blais, K. K. , & Hayes, J. S. (2011). Professional Nursing Practice Concepts and Perspective (6th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Bouchard, G. J. (2011, November). In Full Bloom: Helping Students Grow Using the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The Journal of Physican Assistance Education, 22(4), 44-46. Larkin, B. G. , & Burton, K. J. (2008, September). Evaluating a Case Study Using Blooms Taxonomy of Education. AORN, 88(3), 390-402.

Formal Lab Report Essay

Human reaction times vary person to person and often increase with age. This change in reaction time can have little impact on a person’s daily life, such as when answering a ringing telephone. But this change can also have a dramatic impact when driving, working in dangerous environments, and negotiating busy streets and sidewalks. Literature Search â€Å"Reaction time has been used as a psychological test since the mid-19th century (Deary, 1). † Several studies have been conducted dealing with reaction time and the factors that can affect it. In their study titled â€Å"Validation of reaction time as a measure of cognitive function and quality of life in healthy subjects and patients†, Jakobsen, Sorensen, et al studied and reported findings regarding diminished reaction times and the effect that poor health had on those times. Findings were conclusive that the healthier the individual, the better their responses. Hypothesis Individual’s reaction time with their dominant hand is faster than those with their non-dominant hand. Conversely, there may be no statistically valid difference in the reaction time from one hand to the other. Experiment To test the variance in reaction time from dominant hand to non-dominant hand we set up an experiment using a simple reaction time test found in the free marketplace on an Android telephone. This application required the user to touch one of four colored stars that match the color of an identified star in the upper right hand corner. The subject was asked to repeat this response 20 times and the total time was scored as the reaction time. If a subject made an incorrect â€Å"touch† then their time would continue until the correctly touched 20 stars. The subject would then be ask to repeat this test with their non-dominant hand. To standardize the testing instructions were provided by my team mates and it was decided that the subject would place the device on a flat surface in front of them and use the index finger on first their dominant hand and then their non-dominant hand. Data was collected for 30 random subjects and analysis performed. Data Analysis Data collected from the 30 random subjects was input and the following summary statistics were produced. Dominant Hand Mean Reaction Time (D)| | | 18. 865 sec. | Median Reaction Time (D)| | | 17. 264 sec. | Variance (D)| | | 28. 235 sec. | Standard Deviation (D)| | | 5. 314 sec. | Non-dominant Hand Mean Reaction Time (N)| | | 17. 734 sec. | Median Reaction Time (N)| | 16. 412 sec. | Variance (N)| | | 16. 130 sec. | Standard Deviation (N)| | | 4. 016 sec. | The graphs below illustrate the mean for each hand as well as error with in plus or minus one standard deviation. Conclusion After conducting this experiment and reviewing the data, a few things became clear. One is that age of the subject had a significant impact on results with both hands. This is presumed to be the result of the interaction with a new technology. Younger subjects seemed to grasp the concept of what they were expected to do more quickly. Second, in this case, familiarity did not breed contempt, but it did breed faster reaction times. As subjects became more comfortable with the application they were using, their response times decreased. The later of these two factors had a more global effect on our outcomes, thus disproving our hypothesis in this case. I do not believe these results to be conclusive or authoritative and simply put, more research is needed. References Deary, I. J. , Liewald, D. & Nissan, J. (2011) A free, easy-to-use, computer-based simple and four-choice reaction time programme: The dearly-liewald reaction time task. Behavior Research Methods (Online), 43(1), 258-268. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/920259801? accountid=39001 Jakobsen, L. H. , Sorensen, J. M. , Rask, I. K. , Jensen, B. S. , & Kondrup, J. (2011). Validation of reaction time as a measure of cognitive function and quality of life in healthy subjects and patients. Nutrition, 27(5), 561-570. Doi: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1016/j. nut. 2010. 08. 003 Norman, Celia (2011). General Biology 111: Laboratory Manual. Denver, CO: Department of Biology, Arapahoe Community College.

The French Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

The French Revolution - Essay Example Lasting from 1789 to 1799, the French Revolution was an era of profound social and political turbulence that not only shaped the French, but also the entire trajectory of modern history. That is, the French Revolution was marked by great and revolutionary events that left a permanent mark on the history of the French and modern history; the most outstanding events of the French Revolution are the fall of powerful monarchies and churches as well as the rise of both democracy as well as nationalism. Successive years of poor harvest coupled by a serious economic crisis following a two years long war lead to the rise of deep resentment for the advantaged position of the clergy and the Aristocracy, thereby fuelling the demands for change (Eye witness to history, 2007). Enlightenment ideals were held in high esteem in this period, leading to the meeting of the Estates-General in 1989 and the announcement of the Tennis Court Oath by members of the Third Estate in the same year. These events were later followed by the assault on Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, as well as the march on Versailles, eventualities which many contemporaries consider to have set the revolution in motion. In the following years, after the rise of the revolution, different liberal assemblies were in constant struggles with right-wing supporters of the Monarch whose intent was to frustrate the reform movement; following the declaration of a republic in 1892, King Louis XVI was put to death a year later. The trajectory of the revolution was greatly influenced by a series of external threats as marked by the numerous conquests featured in the revolutionary wars including the conquest of the Italian Peninsula as well as other low lying countries and territories on the west of Rhine. Popular agitations in France eventually climaxed with the rise of

Listening Strategies Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Listening Strategies - Literature review Example Language learners were normally expected to develop their listening skills without any assistance, while the other three skills of reading, writing and speaking are given the necessary attention (Mendelsohn 1984; Oxford 1993). Second language learners were expected to listen to the target language all day and then expected to improvements in their ability to comprehend. This approach was described as the osmosis approach (Mendelson 1984) The arguments in relation to the importance of listening were initially voiced in the middle of the 1960’s. Rivers (1966) indicated that speaking can only be described as communication when it is understood by someone else and so teaching learners how to comprehend spoken words is paramount in importance if the aim of communicating is to be achieved. Thus, Hedge (2000) indicates that the literature relating to ELT has emphasised the point that listening skill has been taken for granted over the years. In fact, a number of second language teach ers have refused to pay attention to the significance of listening in facilitating the acquisition of a second language (Luchini and Arguello 2009). However, Nunan (1999) points out that listening has been treated as relatively important as it is the means by which the skill of speaking is attained. The incorporation of listening into a more modern set of guidelines, including functional language and approaches to communication was the main focus of the 1980’s (Morley 2001). This attention increased significantly in the 1990’s and this has continued into the decade of the 2000’s. Even though listening is now regarded as a critical aspect of language learning, it continues to be the least understood of all the processes (Osada 2004). Thus, Luchini and Arguello (2009) states that allowing students to answer questions after listening to tape-recorded material is not a means of teaching them to listen. In this regard, Hedge (2000) points out that the aim of answerin g questions after listening to recorded material is only for administering tests and not teaching second language learners to listen. This practice was found to have a negative impact on the ability of second language learners to communicate well in the target language. In relation to the neglect of listening comprehension in both research and practice, Osada (2004) indicates that even up to recently there has been insufficient research in this area. In fact, Nunan (1997) referred to listening as a Cinderella skill because it has been ignored in preference for other skills such as speaking. Listening is important in order to facilitate language learning as it facilitates a better understanding of the inputs. Osada (2004) also emphasised the complexity of the listening comprehension process. Anything that is said has to be understood at the same time as it is heard and so knowledge and skills necessary for doing so has to he used at the same time. In order to process the speech the c omprehension of the text has to take place at the same as the listening. Additionally, it has to be retained in order to have a better understanding of the speech that follows. Furthermore, it requires continuous adjustment based on previous knowledge and incoming information. This poses a problem for listeners as the space available to process the information is limited. Osada