Issues of Politcs and Pubic Administration Dichotomy

Issues of Political Dichotomy and Public Administration Genyne Coleman South University Online Patricia Wright Kelly, J. , & Wanna, J. (2000). New public management and the politics of government budgeting. International Public Management Review, 1(1), 33-54. Retrieved from http://www3. imp. unisg. ch/org/idt/†¦ /IPMR_1_1_BUDGETING. pdf The article examines the New Public Management (NPM) to address government budget conflicts using the guardian-spender framework of political scientist Aaron Wildavsky’s.Wildavsky explains traditional budgetary politics as missing structure and formal procedure of financial control which resulted in the the dichotomous relationship of guardians and spenders. The guardian and spender relationship is examined under NPM that suggest they are forced to perform together rather than separate which makes for a streamline budget process. (Kelly & Wanna, 2000, â€Å"successful budgeting is portrayed as a product of ongoing guardian and spender rel ations: both roles are legitimate and necessary in resolving budget decisions.Dividing functions and responsibilities between spenders and guardians enables specialization, increases predictability and, therefore, reduces complexity in budget decision-making (p. 34)†. The article describes the current usefulness of guardian and spender as an effective evaluation tool The research used in this article encompasses different budgeting conflicts and strategies used by parliament and government.The relevance of the article to the research of dichotomy in politics and public administration is important as it examines the history of budgetary practices, conflicts, and its evolvement. The author presents an insightful and well drafted interpretation of forward thinking budgetary processes. Hildebrand, D. (2008). public administration as pragmatic, democratic,and objective. Public Administration Review, 222-229. Retrieved from http://www. academia. edu/597816/Public_administration_as_p ragmatic_democratic_

Leadership Role

Leadership RoleIntroductionâ€Å"Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people to ward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment (â€Å"What are leaderships? http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/leadership.html )†.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Leaders are born, not made, once a leader, Is always a leader (â€Å"Leaderships: What is it? http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffile)†.Leadership is applicable to all facets of your life: competencies that you can learn to expand your perspective, set the context of a goal, understands the dynamics of human behavior and take the initiative to get to where you want to beA leader is the possession of the inborn characteristics desirable in leader plus the learned skills, knowledge and techniques which bring this potential to realization.One of the most important daily tasks of a leader is to develop leaders.  Leader development for many is a challenge.  It requires you to trust others.  It requi res you to allow others to perhaps fail in order to learn.This Paper will deal about the real experience encountered by an individual and proved to himself that he is a significant leader to his family and to all the people in his community. Here is a short story telling us how he becomes a good leader in his own way.Being a leader is a gift from God, not all of us in this world has a talent to become a leader. And this man who migrated from Peru to United States with his family proved that he is a significant leader. In United States, he is the first to learned English and is adjusted into American life quickly; he served as tutor to his parents to adjust the environment. He becomes the official translator in their household. Even helping his mother to read foods and medicines labels. He is the one find initiative in convincing the landlord to help his father to fill out their residency applications. At the early age his parents are totally dependent on him and it helps him how to become a mature minded person.In United States, he witnesses the sacrifices of his parents adjusting themselves for a new life just to provide him better future. They struggled hard working 20 hours a day to meet their dreams in America. Being a good leader, seeing the sacrifices of his parents he study hard and become an excellent student.Throughout the years, hi is a model to his little sisters, and members of his extended family who admire him for all of his accomplishments. He is also very fortunate to travel many places which make him learn and speak different languages like: Japanese, French, German, English and Spanish. During his High School days he becomes a member of the Rotary International Scholar who sent him to Japan.This leader was also the first in the family who graduated from an American University, which makes him so special for all the members in the family. And based on his qualifications he is hired and have good jobs with powerful corporations and government e ntities.Based on his accomplishments, his family admires him so much and looks him as a role model and a significant leader in the family, and they are the one who help me push himself to be successful in his chosen career, and in return push them to follow his footsteps by leading all of them to their way to success.He believed that his family was depending on him, because he knows that being an immigrant to a new place they can’t rely to no one else. And he knows that being a leader to his family and members of his extended family is the most significant role that God has putting on his shoulder. And he also knows that without his family he can’t be what he is now at this time.ConclusionGenerally, in order to become a good leader is to become a good follower and to empower others, you have to trust and be willing to take a risk.  You have to get to know your employees and find what makes them tick.Leadership is not just for people at the top.   Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and  practicing the law of reciprocity. And leadership is applicable to all facets of your life and competencies that you can learn to expand your perspective, to set the context of a goal, and to understand the dynamics of human behavior, and take the initiative to get to where you want to beSuccess lies in being who we are and in the choices we are willing to make for ourselves, not in the fear of what  you should do or be.   Fear is the only thing that holds people back from achieving  personal success. And the goal of our leadership   is to help people pay attention to their intentions and get to where they want to be.References:â€Å"What are leaderships? Retrieved December 19, 2006 from http:// www.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/leadership.html)†.Leaderships Roles, Retrieved December 19, 2006 from http://www.kbc.org.au/htdocs/leaderroles.htmLeaders Empower, Retrieved December 19, 2006 from http://www.leadernotes.com/topics/Effective-Leadership.html?gclid=CL2rofionokCFRFmYQodVV97Mg

Demonstrate where you have advocated on behalp of a service user with Essay

Demonstrate where you have advocated on behalp of a service user with any disabilities - Essay Example It advocates a support system that empowers the people with disability with informed choice so that they can opt for best possible care that meets their individual requirement. These are critical imperatives that are greatly facilitated by the intervention of social workers who become major linkages for the people with disability to access the facilities. Healthcare providers like nurse, physicians and their assistants, social service professionals assess client’s life in detail for correct diagnosis, line of treatment, type of intervention etc. for best service delivery. Appropriate linkages are provided to the client to meet his/her assessed need. Social workers for advocacy are common linkages that help recipients to help personalize their care. Advocacy for the case would be discussed. The client X was a refugee who was bed ridden after a car accident in which her lower part of body had got paralyzed. She was from different ethnic group and neither spoke nor understood English. The client wished for direct payments as she was dissatisfied with the current level of services as provided by the council and social work department. She had identified one of her friend as her personal assistant. As a social work student, currently on placement at a local council, I have advocated on behalf of client X. As I am dealing with the direct payment and personal budget, her case comes under my purview and, therefore, I have volunteered to advocate her case. Advocacy is a vital concept in social work. It promotes understanding for the requisite physical and emotional support, intrinsic to the welfare of the disabled person. As advocate, it was hugely important for me to empower my client with relevant information regarding direct payment and for employing a personal assistant of her choice. Hence, my work as advocate/facilitator involved myriad functions conforming under the strict guidelines and processes of

International Business - Cultural Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Business - Cultural Issues - Essay Example Culture is the mix of behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, symbols, and artifacts that are conveyed to people throughout an organization over time. Culture may include a belief about desired employee conduct. Keep communication channels open. Because an organization requires the cooperation of its members for survival, managers should encourage employee communication of its members for survival, managers should encourage employee communication. Committees, conferences and networks can all lay an important role in effective communication in organizations (Yvonne, 2000, p- 119). "A socially inherited body of sanctions and directives which define (he 'proper' and 'improper' ways of behavior" could help to highlight on one hand the complex environment to which one has to adjust; on the other, being assimilated by the individual, it functions part of the super-ego and conditions his tendency to autonomy." (Yvonne, 2000, p- 87) The important global pressures impacting International business practices in MNCs have grown in number, variety and complexity in recent times- thanks to the changes in information technology, dismantling of tariffs, differentiated labor laws, cultural and language barriers, bargaining practices etc. getting the right people with requisite skills, motivating them to accept the challenges in a foreign locale and extending family support through cultural orientation, language training and education assistance have become truly demanding. Any systematic study of a new geographic market requires a combination of tough mindedness and generosity. The appreciation of another way of life cannot develop when one is defensive about one's own way of life; it is necessary to be secure in one's own convictions and traditions. In additions, generosity is required to appreciate the integrity and value of other ways of life and points of view-to overcome the prejudices that are natural result of the human tendency toward ethnocentricity. When people from other countries like Chinese are haughty, patronizing, or arrogant, home-country ethnocentricity is probably contributing to the problem. Global marketers need to develop an objective standpoint that recognizes diversity and seeks to understand its origins. There are many paths to the same end in life. The successful global marketer knows this and rejoices in life's rich diversity. 4. High and low context cultures In a low-context culture, messages are explicit; word carries most of the information. In a high context culture, less information is contained in the verbal part of the message. Much more information resides in the context of communication, including the background, associations, and basic values of the communicators. In general, high context cultures function with much less legal paperwork than is deemed essential in low context cultures. Japan, Saudi Arabia, and other high context cultures place a great deal of emphasis on a person's value and

Advanced Entrepreneurship Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Advanced Entrepreneurship - Research Paper Example This will add value to the stakeholders. This new brand will broaden the cash flows of the company and reduce the risk of failure due to diversified income sources. The project might consume an average of 50 million dollars for it to run effectively. The full implementation could take an average of 1 year. The new product will be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) (Taylor, 2009). The product is planned to include next generation technology that will help create a high demand for the admissions. This will help increase the quality and pricing of the classes. The company also expects support from NGOs and the government. School fees shall include operating expenses plus profit for the company. The main cash flow target will be school fees, library subscriptions and sale of projects done in the school by continuing/completing students. Most academic institutions all over the world will normally teach students the basics to the area of study and leave them to explore real life applications for themselves. This means that employers will need to hire experienced workers or first train their own through internships, internal training colleges, internal online colleges, extended probations and contracts. If Triangle solutions could train their own software developers, employers would highly appreciate the relief and demand such students. Students would also be very willing to learn from the actual developers of software. Triangle Solutions would have the opportunity of hiring the best and/or the most talented students as their staff. It would also be an opportunity for extended research and skill on software development products. The students will help the company develop its products and introduce new products. The opportunity will also help the company to increase its staff and regularly train the current staff in a cheap way. Most companies will not prefer purchasing ready-made software, but they

Changing Water Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Changing Water Cycle - Essay Example According to the argument on reducing water levels, the regions indicated will suffer profusely in the agricultural and energy aspects. The consequential outcome of the challenges will further affect the society’s welfare at the advent of insufficient commercial production of specialty crops, recreation, and the general amenities. The figure shows that the southwest states’ water levels reduced by 14% from the beginning of the millennium to the present period, and the anomaly will remain at 84% until 2035. Further, the states’ water resources will dwindle to 66% and 43% between the ranges of 2041-2070 and 2070-2099 respectively. Therefore, it is certain that the south and west states along the US-Mexico border would be vulnerable to the consequences borne from the drastic climatic changes. The figure indicates that the water levels reduction process is imminent to the current societal practices. The region’s dependence in hydroelectric energy should cease as continuation of the practice risks the society’s welfare with the current prospects, which indicate a rapid rate of population increase in the agriculture-dependent area. Therefore, the concerned authorities should invest in geothermal, wind, and solar energy production projects as the alternative and eco-friendly sources to adapt to the changes. Secondly, the economic dependence on irrigation-based agricultural practices would flourish after the region’s reconsideration of constructing alternative water reservoirs and boreholes for use in the projects over the stream water sources. Apparently, the practice is a sustainable measure to ascertaining growth in the farming industry in the absence of water scarcity. The municipal water supply systems should conform to the measures of sustainability by reviewing the water distribution systems’ to match the environmental changes. Lastly, the

James m. mcpherson crossroads of freedom antietam Essay

James m. mcpherson crossroads of freedom antietam - Essay Example McPherson lay out a chronological account of this battle starting with the events that prompted the war, how the battle was fought, and its aftermath. This paper seeks to explore how the battle of Antietam changed the course of America’s Civil War in accordance with McPherson views. The battle of Antietam is indeed remembered as the deadliest and bloodiest day in America’s history. However, this day also has a lot of significance in civil war since it changed the course of the war completely as pointed out by McPherson (2). This is seen right from the first chapter where McPherson lays out shifting fortunes witnessed during the early years before the conflict. Here, McPherson reveals how both the Union and Confederate and European powers were affected by the events of the first years of the battle. In this regard, McPherson Juxtaposes the success of Union forces in the early months of the conflict to Lincoln government’s poor handling of ‘Trent Affairâ€⠄¢ and failure of Union forces to conquer the Southern Army. Reflecting the failed Union efforts in the ‘Trent Affair’, McPherson argues that the failure of Confederates to use King Cotton to mount a blockage marked the turning point of the war in its early years of 1862. This is because it gave the Union soldiers the opportunity to repel the Confederate invasion of the north. In this regard, McPherson mentions the usual sources, which included Mary Boykin Chesnut, John B. Jones, Charles Francis Adams, and Elizabeth Blair Lee (McPherson 6). Chapter two of the book gives accounts of the increasing southern fortunes and the tensions that resulted thereof. McPherson titled this ‘Taking off the Kid Gloves, June-July of 1862’ (McPherson 17). In this regard, McPherson gives an account of how growing support for the views of Confederates among European powers turned the course of the battle. McPherson argues that failure of Federals to succeed increased the commit ment level of Union forces to wage a different war. This is because the failure by the Federals pointed the weakness of the confederates thereby increasing the morale of the Union forces to continue waging a strong battle, according to McPherson (19). In fact, McPherson noted that the battle of Antietam gave signs of Union’s victory in the war with many Confederate forces perishing in the war. McPherson argues that the battle of Antietam also changed the course of the war since it marked the point where the European powers began seeking for diplomatic recognition, which later resulted in a negotiated settlement leading to the recognition of independence. McPherson also argued that the victory of the Union soldiers in the battle of Antietam also changed the course of the war in the sense that it resulted to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln, which changed the war into a war against slavery (McPherson 26). According to McPherson, Emancipation Pr oclamation increased the need to re-ignite Northern enthusiasm through radicalization the war. In fact, McPherson argues that the establishment of an army under Union General John Pope was a move towards a total battle on the interest of the Southern, particularly property. McPherson noted that this entirely changed the course of the civil war to war against slavery and property (McPherson 41). McPherson explains this giving an account of the events that took place in the

Employee relations in the public sector have generally been conflict Essay

Employee relations in the public sector have generally been conflict ridden for some time. Discuss the reasons for this and what - Essay Example Privatization, organizational changes, and subsequent withdrawal of trade unions from the public sector further complicate the situation. Conflicts between employees and public sector employers reflect the growing complexity of their relations and reduced role of the trade union support in collective bargaining issues. Given that relatively little is known about public sector employee behaviors and their decisions, a deeper analysis of their conflicts and situations needs to be performed. The development of partnerships between public sector employees and trade unions, and the use of integrative management approaches to organizational change must guarantee active involvement of the public sector employees in the processes and decisions that influence the terms and conditions of their workplace performance. Employment relations in the public sector: Conflicts and underlying reasons That employee relations in public sector have been conflict ridden for some time is a well-known fact. C averley, Cunningham and Mitchell (2006) are correct in that any conflicts in employee relations illustrate and expose a wide range of difficulties, many of which reflect employee resistance to organizational and other changes in work. Such resistance is relevant for all public sector employees, irrespective of the issues and conflicts that affect their performance. The latter may range from a disagreement over benefits and pays to the issues in scheduling in the workplace (Caverley, Cunningham & Mitchell 2006). In these situations, different parties take different positions and argue, make concessions, and reach a consensus (Caverley, Cunningham & Mitchell 2006). Unfortunately, public sector employees often fail to achieve such an agreement with their employees and external parties. For this reason, conflicts are becoming a definitive feature of employment relations in the public sector. The reasons of such conflicts are numerous and varied. Objectively, that the relations between e mployees and employers in the public sector are characterized by a number of peculiar features. First, the state is no longer a silent, neutral representative of the public employee interest but exemplifies a self-interested party in the employee relations field (Beaumont 1992). Second, the state is no longer a mechanism of reacting to the civil society pressures but an autonomous organism, which becomes even more autonomous during the major economic shakes (Beaumont 1992). Third, the growing autonomy of the state is directly associated with increased probability of inter-role conflicts in the public sector, when employees and employers either fail to understand or are not willing to accept the distribution of functions proposed by the state (Beaumont 1992). Ultimately, these are governments’ macroeconomic decisions and policies that usually lead to the growing discontent in public sector employees – therefore, political environment has far-reaching implications for th e quality and stability of industrial relationships in the public sector (Beaumont 1992). In the 20th century, the state in Great Britain used to be the principal provider and, simultaneously, the key employer in numerous public sectors, including health, education, and social services (Prowse & Prowse 2007). As a result, the state was also the key player in the development of

Case study about business law Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

About business law - Case Study Example The other tactic was using the illegalities of other investors – to silence them over the infringement of their intellectual property rights. That was the case with Sony, where BYD challenged the validity of their patents in Japan. Another tactic was the careful copying of patents to ensure that they did not match all design patents, like the case was with the F3. Another tactic was the illegal acquisition of the trade secrets of other companies, for example, that was the case with the documents retrieved from the systems of Foxconn (Li et al. a 3-5). The learning-by-hiring strategy is unlawful, as it offers a highway through which the patent rights of employers are transferred to rival employers or businesses. Due to its unlawful nature, an aggressive assertion and protection of patent rights can reduce the departure of these skilled workers. The tactic of adopting the intellectual property of others and hiding behind their illegality in the area of rights protection is illeg al, but cannot be proved, especially in the cases where the property’s patent ownership cannot be proved. That was the case with Sony, where their patent ownership in Japan was challenged. ... of trade secrets through the unlawful efforts of insider aides at victim companies is unlawful – as the practice amounts to trade secret theft (espionage) therefore BYD could be prosecuted for this action, if it is that they committed the crime (Li et al. a 5). The management practices at Foxconn, which have contributed to the strategy of BYD include that the company should have engaged in continual monitoring of the market, to ensure that the infringement of its Intellectual property was reported before it caused damage. The company’s greatest loss of trade secrets was caused by its lack of a system to restrict access to trade secrets and information. For example, the company could ensure that non-complete business agreements and non-disclosure were addressed fully and effectively, as it was the cause for the shift of its experts to BYD. Proper information security measures could also have been developed to secure vital information – to ensure that their trade s ecrets and vital information were safe (Stender et al. 30). Part 2 The options available to Foxconn include IP management strategies and litigation options. The strengths and weaknesses of the strategy of the administrative system used by Foxconn include the following: it requires less load of evidence, it is cost effective and the process is faster. The weaknesses include that low penalties are offered – which does not stop repeat offenders. Further, the raids conducted may not be authentic – which may allow the items seized to reach the market. The use of the judicial system presents the strengths that they would get damages for infringement and intense pressure would be exerted on the infringers. The weaknesses of the process include that it may cost the company high litigation costs, it may

Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Advertising - Essay Example An advertisement has three chief types of copy; that is, the headline, body copy, and slogans (Bovee et al, 2007). The headline is the most significant and is usually positioned at the top in broad letters. This is because 80% of readers read the headlines only (Bovee et al, 2007). A typical American comes across more than 500 advertisements daily (Fowles, 2007). Therefore, copywriters must acquire the aptitude to appeal to reason, that is Logos, since the headlines must begin with pieces of evidence, and be able to draw conclusions from the evidence in the headline. The headline must have Ethical appeal, Ethos. This is a key element for consideration in an advertisement as it examines the integrity of the advertisement. The headline must depict respect to races, religion and the society itself; therefore a copywriter must consider Ethos when designing the headline. It brings the demand for affiliation (Fowles, 2007). Individuals need the feeling of friendship; thus copywriters ensure people feel that they need a product to be accepted in the society. The headline must have pathos, which is the appeal to emotions. This is the need to aggress (Fowles, 2007). When a reader reads an advertisement with a headline that assures to make them even with their foes, they fall for the product. The body copy is the second main element of an advertisement, and is graphical; since too many words bore the readers and too little words confuse readers (Bovee, 2007). They are catchy, colourful and complement the headline. The body of the advertisement must appeal to reason (Logos) that is, the reader must remember the picture he/she saw because it has to be reasonable. This is the requirement for aesthetic sensations, like pictures of landscapes and art (Fowles, 2007). The graphic picture must be ethical that is the argument appeal Ethos. Pictures that are disturbing or those that makes the populace uncomfortable should be shunned. These pictures evoke the feeling of

Project Management Essay Example for Free

Project Management Essay Due to the rapid changes in the working world and the business environment, organizations have been forced to transform as a way of surviving in the ever-changing business environment. According to Gardiner (2005), most organizations Have adopted projects as their means of implementing change within the organization. The adoption of a project oriented a approach, with its associated management framework, is sufficient to ensure greater success in the implementation of change within an organization. While use of best practices in project management may not guarantee success in the change of an organization, the presence of projects increases the opportunity for success. Studies have shown that, where a project manager is well equipped with the skills and knowledge of project management, projects work as the best tools for implementing change within the organization. The Concept on Project Management Project management refers to the discipline managing, planning and organizing resources to achieve successful completion of specific project objectives and goals. A project is in nature a finite endeavor, that specifies the date as to when it should begin, and the time when it should end, this is done in order to create a unique service or product that brings about added value, or beneficial change in a company. The finite character of the project is different from operations or processes of an organization, some of which may be permanent or functional work, that are used to repeated operations, with the aim of producing similar goods or services. Management of the two systems is always complex and difficult. There is therefore need to employ distinct technical skills and adopt separate philosophy of management, that would enable the implementation of the best project that can bring beneficial returns to the company. messages. Application of Project Management in Organizational Change According to Gray Larson (2006), in the regime where implementation for change is the motto for most organizations, projects are the best vehicles for implementing change. The aspect of project management has in fact become more significant than ever. In any company that needs to change its organizational structure so as to change with the improving technology, or in order to meet the needs and wants of the consumers, projects are used as the vehicles for implementing the required change, and managing the related change. It is however important to possess the ability to sustain and build project management in order to succeed in the implementation of change. The importance of project management has been illustrated by the efforts of Swiss Re organization by using all its business operations to meet the requirements of e-business. Projects were used as the main vehicles for implementing this change. Great concern has however been expressed in the way most projects once began fail to deliver, or get stopped while they are underway. According to a research carried out by Levine (2005), most of the Information technology projects implemented were discouraging with 90% of the projects being late to deliver change in the organizations. It has been shown that, 50% of the projects are never completed at the right time, while 30% of the projects began are stopped while still underway. Project management allows the implementation of change in an organization in a more organized manner likely to realize success. The major challenge of any form of project management is to attain the objectives and goals put in place, while at the same time adhering to project constraints which are usually in the form of time factor, budget and scope. The more ambitious and secondary challenge is the optimization of integration and allocation of inputs that may be necessary to meet the goals and objectives. The success of a project management is associated with the nature the project itself. Projects involve most of the key players in an organization, both the managers and the workers at the lowest level. Projects also involve the entire organizational participation. For instance, it involves people, money, provisions, motivation, communication and space, in order to achieve the project objectives and goals. With the contribution of all these elements, an organization is able to identify and make use of the best resources as a means of attaining the best results. Gray Larson (2006), have emphasized that the managers can easily identify the talented workers and most potential factors in the organization, and allocate them where they can give a maximum contribution towards the achievement of the company. Management of a project is often the key responsibility and province of a specific individual project manager. The manager however does not participate directly, but instead strives to maintain progress and motivate other factors involved in the process, so as to achieve the objectives. The aim of the project manager also involves striving to achieve productive mutual interaction of the active parties, in a way that the entire risk of failure is reduced. Studies have shown that, where a project manager is well equipped with the skills and knowledge of project management, projects work as the best tool for implementing change within the organization. The project manager should be well equipped with the vision and mission of the organization, so as to direct the process of the project in the right direction, failure to which the project may fail to deliver, be late to achieve its goals, or get stopped while underway due to discouragements. The project manager represents the interests of clients and has to implement, as well as determine the specific needs and requirements of the clients, based on the understanding of the organization they are representing. Gray Larson (2006), have expressed that the capability to adopt the available internal systems of the contracting organization, and to establish close links among the nominated representatives, is an important step to ensure that the major issues of quality, time, and cost among others are attained with the main aim of client satisfaction. A successful and focused manager should be in a position to envision the whole project from the beginning to the end, and should have the skills and ability to ensure that the vision is realized in order to achieve successful change within an organization. In order to attain successful change by use of a project, there is need for the project manager to consider the three key factors that include human resources, time and finance. If an organization is in need of achieving change in the shortest time possible, there is need to employ more people and resources towards the problem. Though this may increase the cost of the project, it may be the best way of achieving an organizational change in the shortest time possible. Doing the task quicker in fact helps to reduce the cost of the project, the organization may end up spending the same amount it may have spent if it was to carry the same project in a prolonged period. Researchers have established that, there is no single way of implementing a project within an organization due to the fact that each each enterprise is unique, has different characteristics, and different financial capability. It is therefore important for the project managers to consider the features that are appropriate and important within any organization. Consideration of the important factors guide the project managers to come up with appropriate and accurate projects that can easily realize the vision of a specific organization. Cultural Factors Considered in the Implementation of project Management According to Dye Pennypacker (1999), some of the important cultural organizational factors considered while implementing a project include the history of the previous enterprise implementations, record of failures or success of the company is looked into, as this provides an insight into what should be done to achieve success in the project. A consideration is also done on the types of operational work and projects to be managed, organizations that are able to clearly prioritize and identify their projects end up with rigorous features of a project from the initial stages to the end, unlike organizations that do not identify and prioritize their projects at the first stages of implementation. The number of departments involved within the organization are also considered. This directs the planners to consider if the project is meant to satisfy a small number of users, or whether the project should expand in the process, if other departments will be incorporate as time goes by, or whether all the departments will be involved from the begging, thus requiring the project to satisfy a large number of users from the on-set stage. The expectation and support of the senior leadership is considered as a very important factor, because their involvement drive acceptance, and appropriate expectation. This is important for the success and realization of the changes expected within the organization. The value to the end user and management is absolutely important to ensure that the change implemented through the use of the project satisfy the needs and expectations of all parties involved in the process. According to Levine (2005), organizations also consider the maturity of the desired project management discipline. The 2007 project server is often used as it contains important features for managing projects. Where an organization is considering the application of project management for the first time, it is not easy to incorporate all the capabilities at the first instance. Studies have established that, staging the first features in project management implementation help to establish both the short term and long term changes effected in an organization. Any changes that are likely to take place are considered due to the fact that, if too much changes takes place, the chances of implementation reduce, with most of the people within the organization becoming resistant to the change. Resistant to change is one of the human characteristics. Critique of Project Management Approach Researchers have however established that there still exist discomfort in the use of projects. While project management is preferred as the most efficient way of implementing change within an organization, use of too many projects may fail to deliver the desired results. Researchers have asserted that, most projects in organizations fail to deliver due to the use of poor project management practices, whose importance has been ignored by managers over a long period of time (Balogun, Hailey, 2004). Grundy, Brown (2002), have argued that the approach of organizational management is not effective on its own in the field of information technology, because they assume that IT solutions are developed by a technical team. The potential solution for organizations dealing with IT has been stated to be misaligned with the important characteristics of an organization like incentives or culture. Combining the management of projects in IT and organizational change management as it has been argued, cannot produce the desired results for the organizational change. Conclusion From the above analysis, studies have shown that, where a project manager is well equipped with the skills and knowledge of project management, projects work as the best tool for implementing change within the organization. Senior managers spend a lot of efforts and time promoting and formulating their strategy, but most of the time, they realize very little changes within the organization. The strategy may not yield the results expected, somehow the original goals are dissipated in the process of moving the strategy to implement the change, and the initial momentum may be lost before the anticipated benefits are achieved. Failure to implement change occurs as a result of the senior management trying to make use of the the existing structures and systems within the organization, the status quo, to change the same status quo. The adoption of a project oriented a approach with its associated management framework, is sufficient to ensure greater success in the implementation of change within an organization.

Conclusions And Future Scope Engineering Essay

Conclusions And Future Scope Engineering Essay In the integrated circuit industry, the ceaseless effort to decrease critical transistor dimensions in each new technology guarantees that the prominence of electrostatic discharge will continue to grow. Devising ways to protect electronic devices against ESD is just as important as determining how to process and manufacture them because a product with susceptibility to damage will not be accepted. As a result of increasing susceptibility of devices to ESD because of miniaturization, the problem of ESD is now being dealt by most IC manufacturers and electronic system designers at several levels, from designing on-chip protection circuits to off chip protection design for systems. Once an IC is packaged and shipped to a customer, however, the in-built, on-chip protection circuit is the only means of defense against ESD damage. At the system level, the on-chip protection may not be sufficient to handle the system level ESD exposure. So off-chip or on-board protection devices are necess ary to protect the system from real world ESD. While circuit designers have successfully created robust ESD protection for past technologies, a lack of understanding of effects of ESD on various devices, circuits and systems; the mechanisms underlying ESD damage makes the susceptibility of electronic components to ESD still a hot topic of research. Mathematical analysis and estimation to calculate the induced transient voltages in shielded and unshielded cables is presented. This enables us to find the induced voltage and its rise time appearing at the terminals of the electrical equipment which are connected to such cables. This enables the designers to design protection circuits at the front-end of the equipment. The effect of ESD on logic gates, analog circuits, digital circuits, microcontrollers and complex electronics are presented. This chapter presents the contributions of this thesis toward implementing a methodology of characterization of the effects of indirect and direct ESD on various electronic components. Also the implementation of the board design and protection circuits on a custom designed microcontroller board based on an understanding of the ESD failure mechanisms of various devices and circuits is presented. This chapter covers the future scope on the research work carried out on ESD. The following results and conclusions have been arrived upon. 8.1 Overall Conclusions Mathematical equations have been developed and are implemented in MATLAB by which the coupled and induced voltages in unshielded and shielded cables can be calculated. The values of the induced voltages obtained agree with the published results by different authors. For contact discharge ESD, higher induced voltages are observed upto 10 MHz for CSD, upto 2.5 MHz for air discharge and in the 20 to 100 MHz range for all the three terminations resistive, RC shunt and CMOS device. The induced voltages are higher in the case of contact discharge compared to air discharge or CSD. The induced voltage in an unshielded cable increases with the decrease in the rise time and distance, and increase in the peak amplitude and the damping factor for the CSD current model. The peak value of the induced voltage due to IEC contact discharge ESD at 8 kV for resistive termination is 625V and 7.8 mV for RC shunt termination. The peak value of the induced voltage due to IEC air discharge ESD at 16 kV is 6.25 V and 3.25 mV for RC shunt termination. The peak value of the induced voltage at the input of a CMOS device is 14 V for contact discharge and 0.6 V for air discharge. It can be inferred that RC shunt terminations are preferred compared to the resistive or CMOS device termination as the induced voltages are in mV range. In case of shielded cable, a generic program in Visual C++ to compute the induced voltages for varying parameters of the current waveform, length, height of the cable and angle of incidence has been implemented. This can also be used to calculate induced voltages for different cable configurations. Using MATLAB, the data imported from Visual C++ is used to calculate induced voltages. The equations developed give the voltages induced whose values are in close agreement with those published by other authors. The induced voltages are investigated for braided and unbraided shielded cables. The induced voltage and current in the center conductor is larger for a braided cable compared to a non-braided cable. This analysis estimates the transient voltages appearing at the input of the system connected to the shielded cable. This estimate can be used to develop appropriate mitigation techniques to protect the sensitive system that is connected to the shielded cable. It has been calculated by simulation that in shielded cables, the voltages induced due to radiated ESD is negligible thereby reinforcing the theory that shielded cables can protect equipment from high frequency radiated fields due to ESD. The effect of variation of the parameters such the cable length, height of the cable above the ground plane and the angle of incidence of the ESD pulse has been discussed. The peak amplitude of the cable sheath current decreases correspondingly with decrease in the length of the cable. This change in the occurrence of the peak is due to smaller value of inductance in case of shorter cables as compared to long cables. The peak amplitude of the cable sheath current correspondingly decreases with increase in the height of the cable. The sheath current decreases with the increase in angle of incidence, as the induced current is function of cos  Ã‚ ±i. The induced voltage in turn depends upon sheath current and surface transfer impedance of the cable. The induced voltages for a shielded cable of length 1m, height 0.1m and angle of incidence 30o are 1.4-10-8V for braided and 6.6-10-16V for non braided cable as presented in Table 3.3. Mathematical analysis is used to model the response of Very High Frequency amplifier to ESD generated radiated EM fields. Using MATLAB the effect of the radiated fields on the induced voltages in a VHF amplifier for various distances from the ESD source is calculated. It is observed that a greater part of the energy due to ESD simulation currents has frequency components in the range of 200 to 400 MHz extending to the VHF and UHF bands. So the VHF amplifier is susceptible to ESD events in this frequency range. If the distance between the ESD generator and the pickup antenna is decreased, the peak magnitude of the voltage coupled to the amplifier input terminals increases. The amplitude of the fields at antenna terminals, open circuit voltage at antenna input terminals, voltage at the input and output of the amplifier decreases sharply with increase in distance from ESD source. It has been observed that the induced voltages at the amplifier input terminals can be as high as 7.446 V with a rise time of approximately 1 ns for a distance of 0.5 m between the ESD generator and the pickup antenna as given in Table 4.1. This can cause malfunction of the electronic circuitry inside the amplifier. The spice circuit modeling with transient analysis concurs with the experimental results for air discharge on analog circuits. The zero crossing detector built with an opamp is more susceptible to ESD when compared to the RC phase shift oscillator built with discrete components. It is experimentally verified and the modeling also revealed that the oscillator circuit using discrete components took some time to come back to its initial working condition after the ESD discharge due to the slow discharge of the charges accumulated. In the indirect discharge it is seen that the ESD effect depends on both distance and discharge voltage. Higher discharge voltage and shorter distances produce larger transients and distortions in analog circuits. Direct air discharge of 15kV at the ZCD input damaged the opamp but the oscillator recovered after 750 µs. Direct air discharge of 15kV at oscillator output affects the output of oscillator for 1.4ms. The ZCD output remains high till the sine wave output of oscillator circuit recovers. The spice modeling also give the same results for discharge at oscillator output. In the radiative coupling the transient appearing on the ZCD output could be due to differential mode and the common mode could not be investigated. In the direct air discharge conducted at the input point of the ZCD circuit, there could be two types of coupling the direct capacitor coupling to circuit and near field coupling for the common mode. In this case also the common mode was not investigated, so the transients shown are only differential mode. In the direct air discharge at oscillator output, the differential mode and common mode transients were seen. But the voltage probes and current probes of high voltage and low rise time of 1ns range with an accuracy of less than 5% were not available. Hence the initial rise time and the maximum amplitude of the transient could not be measured experimentally with good accuracy. The digital switching circuit without decoupling capacitors at Vcc malfunctioned when an ESD event occurred at a distance of 35 cm from the circuit. The transient affected only the data stream and the circuit stopped functioning. Post discharge analysis revealed that Binary counter IC SN74LS393N had failed functionally (all output pins were malfunctioning). The importance of adding decoupling capacitors to the supply point of each of the ICs is verified. Experiments carried out to study the response of data to ESD in a digital switching circuit with decoupling capacitors at Vcc reveal that the effect of ESD on the data and clock depends on the position of trigger and also the plane of coupling. During discharge onto the horizontal coupling plane (HCP), the instance of occurrence of the discharge (when Data and Clock are High or Low) played an important role on the effect of ESD on the output data stream. When both data and clock are High, increase in data amplitude or data inversion occurs and also there is increase in the amplitude of clock. The distance at which the pulse is discharged onto the HCP reflects on the amplitude of the transient. During discharge onto the vertical coupling plane (VCP) there is a loss of data and transient with more than 50V peak amplitude is introduced. The discharge to VCP affected the digital data more than the discharge to HCP. Experiments are also carried out by varying the values of decoupling capacitors in the digital switching circuit and it is observed that smaller the value of decoupling capacitor, the more susceptible the circuit becomes to ESD. The decoupling capacitor with higher value of capacitance (0.47 µF) offered better immunity to ESD in our digital circuit because of its ability to pass only lower frequencies thereby rejecting the high frequency ESD transients. Experimental investigations of the TTL and CMOS logic gates reveal that CMOS devices are more susceptible to ESD than TTL devices due to the presence of a dielectric media in CMOS devices which can easily breakdown at high voltages. The output of CMOS logic gates deteriorated after ESD stress and did not recover after reset. It is verified experimentally that the susceptibility of a circuit to ESD in the mixed mode circuit can be greatly reduced by properly grounding it. In the mixed mode circuit used, the data is affected more by transients of various voltages based on the discharge voltage given when the analog and digital grounds are common. This reiterates the fact, when the analog and digital grounds are common the high frequency return paths from the digital ground (astable multivibrator circuit using 555 Timer) reach the analog ground (inverting amplifier using opamp) and affect the output. In the mixed mode circuit used when the analog and digital grounds are separated there are no transients due to ESD in the analog output. Hence separate analog and digital grounds are recommended. Direct air discharge of 12 kV twice on the GPIO pin of the custom designed 8 bit microcontroller diagnostic circuit resulted in the impedance of the board becoming very low implying there is a dead short between the VDD and the VSS rails of the microcontroller. The microcontroller shut itself down by enabling the thermal shutdown feature. The failure of all the three designed diagnostic tests involving digital ports, UART and PWM channels are observed. It is observed that the failure in the 8-bit microcontroller is through the Vcc and Ground pins when the ESD event was closer to these pins. This may be because of the capacitor across Vcc and Ground discharging into these pins due to the ESD event. For the ESD event at other pins, mostly malfunction was observed. The MSP430 launchPad with 16 bit microcontroller is quite immune to ESD owing to its inbuilt design and ESD considerations. This is confirmed experimentally by performing indirect and direct ESD tests at specified standard voltages. However direct contact discharge of 8kV given to the Tx-Rx pins of the jumper array resulted in the damage of the communication port of the 16 bit microcontroller MSP 430G2231 IC. The microcontroller MSP 430G2231 is found to be not communicating with the software and the program is not executable. The communication port (Rx-Tx pins) needs protection in the form of TVS diodes. The 8 bit microcontroller system configured to do a diagnostic check of its functioning during an ESD event had no extra on-board protection devices other than the on- chip protection. The 8 bit microcontroller did not withstand the IEC recommended up to 15kV air discharge perhaps because it was designed on a two layer PCB board. The MSP 430 launch pad with the 16 bit microcontroller on a four layer PCB was designed keeping in mind the ESD considerations. The 16 bit microcontroller also did not withstand the IEC recommended upto 8kV contact discharge at the communication port perhaps because of lack of extra protection. Continuous discharges on 8 bit microcontroller led to its thermal shutdown. But the continuous discharges on the 16 bit and 32 bit did not result in thermal shutdown perhaps because it was designed on four layer boards. All the observations from the previous tests and conclusions are put to use in the custom designed four layer board with 32 bit microcontroller interfaced with various components like the UART, audio interface, USB, LCD display and key matrix. All the standard design rules for PCB design are followed in the custom designed microcontroller test boards one populated with components having in-built on-chip protection and another board with extra off-chip on-board protection devices. In the custom designed 32 bit microcontroller system on four layer board it is observed that the placement of components on the board and board design played an important role in the systems sturdiness to ESD. The adherence to standard design rules such as split ground and power planes; proper component placement to minimize loop area; power supply decoupling using ferrite beads and decoupling capacitors; placement of connectors, user interfaces and output devices at the edges of the board; separating analog and digital sections has made the microcontroller boards quite rigid against ESD. Also the on-board protection devices at strategic locations such as the input/output, data and power points, communication port and at the input points of the interfaces in the custom designed 32 bit microcontroller system plays a vital role in the robustness of the system. The adherence to standard design rules has made the microcontroller board with components having in-built on-chip protection also quite rigid against ESD. The board with on-chip protection is affected by ESD with problems like malfunction or reset on power on with a damaged LCD interface module. The other board has extra on-board protection devices like ferrite bead used to isolate the noisy digital section from the analog section, decoupling capacitors for power supply decoupling, schottky diode used for ESD protection of USB and TVS diodes used at input points of microcontroller, LCD display, audio amplifier, UART and USB. The board with extra on-board protection devices has only temporary resets and is hardly affected by ESD, and the interface modules are also functioning normally. So experimentally it has been concluded that with adherence to board design and just in-built, on-chip protection the damages are mitigated but malfunctions occur which only recover on hard reset on pow er ON whereas with extra on-board protection devices included, the damages are completely eliminated, malfunctions are reduced and only temporary reset occurs. It can be concluded that not only standard board design rules need to be implemented it is also necessary to provide on-board protection against ESD by choosing appropriate protection devices and placing them at appropriate and strategic locations like the input pins and supply pins of the device. Experiments of direct air discharge are conducted on the insulators in FPGA/CPLD kit like seven segment LED display, LCD and FRC, and contact discharge conducted on the metal points like the switches, pins and the mounting screws. An air discharge of 8 kV on Liquid Crystal Display distorts the data but resets with power ON and an air discharge of 15kV damages the data on the LCD which cannot be restored on reset. An air discharge of 2kV and 4kV had no effect whereas an air discharge of 8 kV and 15 kV distorted the output on seven segment LED display but the display reset to normal with power ON. A contact discharge of 2 kV and 4kV on the HEX keys feeding the data to seven segment display had no effect but a contact discharge of 8 kV shorted the keys which in turn displayed wrong display data. All these devices had only on-chip protection by the manufacturer and these devices needed off-chip, on-board protection devices to make them less susceptible to ESD. Huge transients are observed when air discharge is carried out on the FRC cables connected to the DAC module. When a contact discharge of 2 kV is given on the input pin 187 of the mother baseboard the DAC output voltage reduces. FPGA 3s50 IC is affected during this contact discharge on the input pin. The DAC ICs are affected during the ESD discharge one due to direct ESD effects and the other due to indirect ESD effects. CPLD 9572 IC is also affected by ESD. Because of the ESD discharge in the surrounding and on the input pin of the FPGA/CPLD kit, the ceramic capacitor in the SMPS power supply connected to the kit has shorted and found to be damaged. This is an after-effect observed after the ESD test. The damaged capacitor has been instrumental in contributing to the damage of the FPGA and CPLD ICs. Decapping of the FPGA and CPLD ICs confirmed the failure of these ICs due to ESD. The input/output pin bond pad and the metatop layer of FPGA 3s50 IC is damaged and there is dielectric breakdown observed in CPLD 9572 IC which makes these devices highly susceptible to ESD. Future Scope Much effort has been put into characterizing the effect and impact of ESD on individual ICs, on different designed circuits and few systems such as FPGA/CPLD kit, microcontroller units with various interfaces. However, less time has been spent in modeling all of these circuits/systems and to observe their behavior towards ESD using simulation tools. An effort in mathematical modeling and simulation has however been done with susceptibility of electronic system and cables due to radiated ESD fields. Also circuit modeling has been done for the analog circuits. The experimental based conducted susceptibility tests on various electronic components have resulted in some new results. Some of these results have reiterated some of the known facts and some results have given rise to new thoughts in implementing ESD protected circuit/system. ESD threat level variation to electronic components depends on the discharge voltage of ESD source, discharge point, structure and design of the component. ESD threat to components mounted in systems may significantly vary from the threat to unmounted, individual components. New models need to be designed to predict the condition while the device is working in the system and using the computer simulations it is necessary to predict the ESD voltage, power and energy threats to system-mounted component. This is one area where the experimental results can be compared with the simulated results and the source of the threat, the point of discharge and its impact on the system can be confirmed. Also new protection schemes can be adapted to make the system less susceptible to ESD. Another area of interest where ESD tests can be conducted is in the area of high speed radio frequency (RF) circuits and systems. As the demand for wireless (RF) and high-speed mixed-signal systems continues to increase rapidly, providing sufficient ESD protection for these systems poses a major design and reliability challenge. This is due to the fact that in applying ESD protection to these systems, the protection system must be transparent the protection circuit must not affect the signal under normal operating conditions. A poorly designed protection system can generate impedance mismatches, causing reflections of signals, corruption of signal integrity, and inefficient power transfer between the signal pin and the core circuit. Broadband RF system protection because of ESD parasitic capacitance poses a greater challenge; alternate protection schemes may be necessary. This necessitates us to first understand effect of ESD on these high speed RF systems. However, there is little published information that provides performance analysis of RF circuits with various ESD protection design options scheme, which is attractive for operations in the multi-GHz regime.

Overview Of The Firstbank Nigeria Plc

Overview Of The Firstbank Nigeria Plc FIRSTBANK Nigeria Plc is one of the oldest financial institutions and indeed the largest retail lender in Nigeria, its the 1st bank to be established in West Africa. The bank was incorporated in Liverpool as a Limited Liability company in March 1894 with the name Bank of British West Africa. The bank was listed on the Nigerian Stock exchange (NSE) in March 1971 after which it acquired its name First Bank of Nigeria in 1979. Following the CBN induced industry-wide consolidation in 2005 the bank acquired its merchant banking subsidiary, FBN Merchant Banker ltd and MBC intl Bank Plc. FirstBank maintains a subsidiary in United Kingdom which has a branch in Paris, the bank also has representative offices in South Africa, China and Dubai through which it offers offshore financial services. Presently the Banks assets are in excess of N100billion. 1.2 THE NATURE AND SIZE FIRSTBANK as a leading commercial bank has the largest network of branches in the country, over the years the bank has continually reviewed its organizational structure and corporate identity in line with changing financial environment. Known for its uniqueness for being dependably dynamic and stability, 1st Bank has made for its self a name, a brand goodwill associated with fidelity and safety of funds. Being a key player in the nations financial-banking sector, Firstbank delivers a wide range of financial services to its numerous customers; the bank is well known for innovative changes in technological device and service delivery. Being the first bank to introduce a Biometric ATM i.e. an ATM machine that uses both pin no selection and finger prints to identify transaction buttresses this point. The bank through its acquired subsidiaries also provide other financial services and they include, insurance policies, housing schemes, asset portfolio management. 1.3 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FIRSTBANK offers a wide range of wholesale, retail and consumer banking products and services in ensuring that it keeps true to its name as the 1st bank of choice in the country,. Our products include: Æ’ËÅ" CONSUMER BANKING: Generic Savings Account, Current Account, First Premium Term Deposit, First Savings Plus Account, First Hifi (Children) Account, First Current Plus Current Account(with zero COT), FIRST Current Business Account, First Dom Account, First Instant Savings Account. All accounts have the flexibility of over the counter withdrawals given the new CBN policy, ATM cards, Dividend warrants lodgment and access to E-Banking services. . Æ’ËÅ" WHOLESALE BANKING: The services and products therein are further divided into ASSET PRODUCTS: They include- Term loans, Overdraft, Oil and Gas contract finance(OGCF), Bankers Acceptance, Commercial Papers, Bills Discounting, Project Finance, Equipment Leasing etc, INTERNATIONAL TRADE FINACE: Includes but not limited to- Import finance, Export Finance, Clean lineconfirmation, Letters of Credit, Bills for Collection, Forex Trading Invisible RemittancesPayment for Services. Æ’ËÅ" E- BANKING: First Online which allows you to transact business online at the comfort or your home or offices. First Alert-Instant notification on your account First Mobile-Access to your account through you phone, it includes buying of airtime and payment of utility bills. First Pay and First Collect-effect payment and several collection to and from your merchants. FIRST CARDS : Debit and Credit cards which include- MasterCard, FirstBank Naira MasterCard, First Cash Card, Visa Card (Gold, Classic and Infinite), Visa Credit Card. Notice that all cards issued by the bank comes with FIRSTBANK brand name- FIRST FIGURE 1C:UsersDanielDesktopCYNTHIAFirstBank MasterCard.jpg C:UsersDanielDesktopCYNTHIAVISA_GOLD2.gif C:UsersDanielDesktopCYNTHIAFirstCash Card.jpg Æ’ËÅ" MONEY TRANSFER: FIRSTBANK offers funds transfer services locally and internationally through mediums like- First Domestic Transfer, Western Union, Money Gram and RIA. Æ’ËÅ" OTHER SERVICES: Other services rendered by the bank includes- Agricultural Financing, FIRST Diaspora banking services for Nigerians in Diaspora and Bills Payment for prompt settlement of utility bills(e.g. PHCN, Water and DSTV) 1.4 VISION, MISSION AND ESSENCE Vision: To be the clear leader and Nigerias bank of first choice Mission: To remain true to our name by providing the best financial services possible Essence: The DNA of the FirstBank brand lies in its strength, size and dependability, typified by its brand icon, the African Elephant. Our brand essence is therefore Dependably Dynamic which is a holistic representation of our past, present and the future of FirstBank. 1.5 CORE VALUES The core values of FirstBank are coined in an acronym for quick recall and living by the guiding principle TELL SPIC Team Work Everyday a better way, the team spirit is embedded in our culture as the best possible way to work. Ethics The good will of the bank is to be maintained as you deal with both internal and external customers, ensuring that the client leaves your office satisfied. Loyalty the essence of brand name and its very existence evolves in loyalty to our customers, Firstbank has been in existence for generations and loyalty to our customers is what makes us tick. Superior Performance To strengthen the banks brand, leverage and upscale the customers experience through delivery of excellent services. Professionalism To revolutionize the Banks operations in line with the dynamics of the operating environment while ensuring that we provide the best financial services unmatched. Integrity Adopt high ethical values to guide the conduct of all banking business and transactions in conformity with all relevant regulatory requirements. Customer Centricity The customer is the king and the reason we are in business, their demands should be met in line with banks policy 1.6 OUR BRAND PILLARS LEADERSHIP Our statusability as truly the 1st and No1 SAFETYSECURITY- Security of fundsInvestments, job security, Integrity. ENTERPRISE Resourcefulness, Tenacity SERVICE EXCELLENCE Efficiency, Performance focused, Reliability, Accessibility 2.0 PLANNING This chapter focuses on goal setting, study plan, expected difficulties to be encountered in data collection and plan to overcome these challenges. 2.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE ORGANISATIONAL ANALYSIS The objective of the organizational analysis is to specifically examine the current state of the Banks operational and structural framework, analyse the functional units and the interface relations and also recommend ways of improving the interface relations. 2.2 GOAL SETTING Goals setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-framed (S.M.A.R.T ) target by an individual or organization. Goal focuses attention towards goal-relevant activities, revealing the objectives and strategies in which the goals can be met. Figure 1 below is the structured project plan for the organisational analysis. Activity Timeline 20-Jun-12 22-Jun-12 24-Jun-12 26-Jun-12 28-Jun-12 30-Jun-12 2-July-12 4-July-12 8-July-12 10-July-12 12-July-12 14-July-12 16-July-12 18-July-12 22-July-12 Review of BSN course material Data Gathering Data compilation Report writing Draft Report Review Sub-set meeting Review Update report Draft submission to set adviser Correction and final submission Figure 2: Project Plan 2.3 PROJECT PLAN Reviewing of the BSN course materials and EBSCO database to understand theory on organisational structures, data collection method and research report writing style. The internet (Google search and Wikipedia) comes in very handy in enhancing project plan. The objective of the data collection stage of the project is to gather relevant and accurate information, to obtain the participation and co-operation of the appropriate target population and to facilitate the collection and analysis of data. The targeted populations are staff of the functional units, staff of hub branches, heads of the functional units (department) and some strategic business units and staff of Human Capital Management- Head Office. The medium to achieve this includes- Informal Interviews, telephone survey, one-on-one chats with some members of the targeted population e.g. the heads of departments and staff of the Human Capital management because of their exigent duties. All perceived sensitive questions would be handled through interviews (which are not formal) and not written questionnaires. The FirstBank Intranet and internet website will be used extensively to gather information on functional units and organizational structure while personal visits to the Head Office and hub branches will be utilized to objectively gather information on functions of various departments, interface relations and recommendations for improvement of the interface relations. Data compilation stage will include analyzing data collected and reviewing information from subset meetings and research report writing. Report writing stage would involve applying the reviewed data gained from the various materials and extraction of relevant information from FIRSTBANK intranet and periodic publications. Data structuring and report preparation will also be done at this stage. Reviewed responses from telephone calls and outcomes of informal interviews Discussed challenges with Set Advisor at subset meeting and via phone calls. Update and revised document with necessary corrections. 2.4 DIFFICULTIES TO BE ENCOUNTERED IN DATA COLLECTION Questionnaires could not be used because of the banks policy on bulk mails or questionnaires related to work and business environment hence adequate data collection seemed impossible. Network challenges when accessing both the internet and the Banks intranet. Time constraint and the busy schedule of visited staff will also be a limitation. Insufficient time due to researchers official duties. 2.5 PLAN TO OVERCOME THESE DIFFICULTIES All perceived sensitive questions would be handled through interviews and not written questionnaires. Extra hours to be dedicated for accessing the Banks intranet while a substitute internet modem was purchased to curb congestion or delays on web hosts. Personal interviews will be conducted for staff with busy schedule, telephone calls and communication chat applications were also utilized for other staff Ensure proper time management. 3.0 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE This chapter focuses on the theories of organisational structure and organisational culture. 3.1 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE Organisations exist to achieve goals; these goals are broken down into tasks as the basis for jobs. The term organisational structure therefore refers to the formal configuration between individuals and groups regarding the allocation of tasks, responsibilities, and authority within the organization (Galbraith, 1987; Greenberg, 2011). Said differently, The framework, typically hierarchical, within which an organization arranges its lines of authority and communications, and allocates rights and duties. Organizational structure determines the manner and extent to which roles, power, and responsibilities are delegated, controlled, and coordinated, and how information flows between levels of management. (Business Dictionary-Google). The structure of the organization can be defined simply as the sum total of ways in which its labour is divided into distinct tasks and the its coordination is achieved among these tasks /(Mintzberg 1983a) Very early organizational structures were often based either on product or function (Oliveira Takahashi, 2012). Others moved beyond these early approaches and examined the relationship between organizational strategy and structure (Brickley, Smith, Zimmerman, Willett, 2002). This approach began with the landmark work of Alfred Chandler (1962, 2003), who traced the historical development of some companies, He concluded from his study that an organizations strategy tends to influence its structure. He suggests that strategy indirectly determines such variables as the organizations tasks technology, and environments, and each of these influences the structure of the organization. More recently, social scientists have augmented Chandlers thesis by contending that an organizations strategy determines its environment, technology, and tasks. These variables, coupled with growth rates and power distribution, affect organisational structure. The Organisational structure as argued by Alfred Chandler can be seen in FIRSTBANK structure which was changed recently to suit the Banks intended strategy. The Bank in Oct 2010 had embarked on a re-structuring of its entire operational system and workforce, we can therefore deduce that Strategy determines organizational structure. A critical review of Mintzberg definition shows that it is not against the aforementioned, the design of every superstructure ends up as a compromise between the objective factors of work flow, process and scale interdependency, and the subjective factors of personality and social need. Organisations may be conceived on paper, but they must function with flesh-and-blood human beings. (Mintzberg, 1983). Hence for a critical analysis of FirstBank OA, the Mintzberg theory will be adopted. 3.1.1 ORGANISATIONAL CONFIGURATION Mintzberg claims that organisations are composed of five basic elements, or groups of individuals, any of which may predominate in an organisation. The design parameters determine individual positions (examples will be shown using FirstBank configuration) Operating Core: Staff or employees who perform the basic work related to an organisations product or service e.g.- Tellers, Customer Service Officer, Foreign Operations Staff Strategic Apex: Top-Management responsible for running an entire organisation. The Executive Directors and Executive Vice President of the bank sit at the Strategic Apex Middle Line: Managers who stand in a direct line relationship between the strategic apex and the operating core. They include the Group Heads, RegionalArea Office Managers. Techno structure: Organisational specialists responsible for standardising various aspects of an organisations activities eg- Internal Control and Audit, Compliance, Credit Risk Management(CRM) AND MANCO Support Staff: Individuals who provide support to an organisation outside its operating workflow.(I.T support, Security personnels) Mintzberg identified five organisational configurations, they however depend some contingency factors which include Age of the organization, Size Technical System, Environment and Power factors: Æ’ËÅ" Simple Structure is characterized by loose division of labor, relies on direct supervision and finds its key part at the strategic apex Æ’ËÅ" Machine Bureaucracy which relies on standardisation of work process, relatively centralized power for decision making; with its key part in the techno structure where the planners of the organisation reside. Professional Bureaucracy which deals with standardisation of skills and has the operating core as its key part. Divisionalised form -each division has its own structure, it centers on standardisation of outputs. Autonomous units are created to deal with entire product lines, allowing top management to focus on large-scale, strategic decision. The middle line is key part of the organisation. Adhocracy, a highly informal, strong presence of mutual adjustment, organic organisation in which specialists work in teams, coordinating with each other on various projects. FIRSTBANKS structure like most large corporations is characterized by the divisionalised form of Mintzbergs configuration as various divisions (departments) are created by their product lines or end products. The techno structure is located at Head Office to provide services to all divisions; support staffs are located within each division like we have the IT support for each area and marketing assistants who are support staff assigned to each branch. Most of the operational activities are conducted by the middle line managers, department heads or unit heads and they all operate with some form of independence and centralization within their units. They coordinate the output, acting between the strategic apex and the operating core. They also oversee the activities of the operating core and are expected to report back to strategic apex. The typical operational structure in a FIRSTBANK branch is divided into two divisions- i. The Operations Unit who are in charge of the everyday running of branch and attending to customers demand. The head of this unit is called The Branch Operations Manager. ii. The Retail or marketing unit who are in charge of increasing the market size and credit portfolio of the branch. The Business Manager heads this unit of the branch. Each of these units runs independently of each other with separate reporting lines even though they are situated in the same complex ant they form part of the whole group. Given the Banks ever evolving strategy in line with changes in market dynamics and technological advancement, the structure design is determined by the strategic planning and corporate transformation unit through the HCM department, stating unit and individual key responsibilities and the reporting lines. The final structure is then approved by the strategic apex and the statutory regulatory authority (Central Bank of Nigeria). Usually the bank makes the policies available on its local INTRANET and other periodic publications or circulars as organisational changes are initiated. 3.1.2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE EFFECTIVENESS EFFICIENCY Effectiveness of a system is about doing the right things. Its about producing the intended or expected result, In measuring organisational effectiveness, the relevant question would be: is the organisational system doing the right thing for its survival?, is it focusing its drive on opportunities to produce revenue? Is it producing the output it needs if it is to survive? Efficiency of a system, on the other hand is about the inputs the system uses in order to produce outputs that is doing things right, accomplishing your tasks with a minimum of time and resource, It centers on performance and cost reduction. To thoroughly examine organizational success, both measures should be considered because productivity is a function of inputs to outputs which is the theme of efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency should always be the servant of effectiveness.(BSN Phase 1, module IX, p 575) Looking at the Banks history and evolutions, one can boldly say that FIRSTBANK has achieved some level of efficiency and effectiveness. The total assets of the Bank as at Dec 2011 as published equals N,2463,543, total equity was N373,572 while the total Customer Deposits was N1,783,777,(figures are in millions).however there is room and need for improvement, the Bank lacks behind in mobilization of current account deposits and booking of credit facilities. These lapses deny the bank of some benefits which include increase in customer base and collection of float income from these deposits. The FIRST Instant savings account was introduced by the Bank to bridge this gap on deposit mobilization, this product however has not recorded much success because of the strict requirements, the deployment of FINACLE 10 Banking solution which is scheduled to kick off this year July is an Efficiency measure in order to reduce turnaround time, this I believe is coming rather too late. The strategic Apex of the Bank needs to review these points afore mentioned and reach a favorable conclusion so that the Bank can edge forward. 3.1.3 DESIGN PARAMETERS Mintzberg identified nine design parameters. By using these parameters the organisational designer can influence the way individuals are positioned in the organisation and the way groups or departments are formed. The design parameters are Job specialisation; Behavior formation; Training and indoctrination; Unit grouping; size; Planning and control systems; Liaison devices; Vertical and horizontal decentralization. The design parameters predominant in FIRSTBANK are: Job Specialisation: In FIRSTBANK, all job titles are specified, the roles to be performed, the job description, key competences and reporting lines are well explained for staff to understand. Job Specification for each job title is easily accessible on the intranet, it is the banks believe that job specialization increases employee productivity. Æ’ËÅ" Training and indoctrination: In order to carry out task, employees need to possess particular skills and knowledge.(BSN Phase 1 Course Notes, pg 584). In FirstBank its a trend to continuously train staff on a need to know and improvement basis, this exercise forms part of appraisal marks to be awarded during year end performance rating. The heads of branches or departments recommend staff for training if a knowledge gap or improvement need is identified. Educational and career advancement is also encouraged. The Human Capital Management Development anchors this aspect of the bank. Given the ever increasing need for the aforementioned, the Bank has rebranded its HCMD training arm to be called FIRST ACADEMY. The essence is to inculcate the banks values, ensuring that their staffs are well grounded and ever ahead of industry trends. Indoctrination are done upon recruitment of staff be it new or experienced hirees in order to imbibe the banks culture and values into them. The unit grouping is an important design parameter in FIRSTBANK because it creates a system of supervision in which there is a reporting line, departmental, unit or group head for all strategic units of the bank, this encourages standardization of outputs. Firstbank adopts functional grouping Vertical decentralisation: Mintzberg (1983a, p.99) defines vertical decentralisation as the dispersal of formal power down the chain of line authority. FISTBANK adopts limited vertical decentralization. Heads of departments/units are delegated the power to control most of the decisions concerning their line units and such decisions are cascaded down to their subordinates, however they have their reporting lines and various limits. 3.2 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Culture refers to the underlying values, beliefs and codes of practice that makes an organisation what It is. The customs of an organisation, the self image of its members, the things that make it different from others are its culture. Culture is symbolic; Culture is unifying and refers to the processes that bind the organization together. Culture is rooted deep in unconscious sources but is represented in superficial practices and behavior codes. Deal and Kennedy (1982) argue that culture is the single most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations. They identified four key dimensions of culture: Values the beliefs that lie at the heart of the corporate culture. Heroes the people who embody values. Rites and rituals routines of interaction that have strong symbolic qualities. The culture network the informal communication system or hidden hierarchy of power in the organization. Peters and Waterman (1982) suggest a psychological theory of the link between organizational culture and business performance. Culture can be looked upon as a reward of work; we sacrifice much to the organization and culture is a form of return on effort. Schein (1992) says that organisational culture is developed over time as people in the organisation learn to deal successfully with problems of external adaptation and internal integration. It becomes the common language and the common background. Employee values are measured against organizational values to predict employee intentions to stay, and predict turnover. This is done through instrument like Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) to measure employee commitment (OReilly, ChatmanCaldwell 1991). However Daniel Denisons model (1990) asserts that organizational culture can be described by four general dimensions: Mission Strategic Direction and Intent, Goals and Objectives and Vision Adaptability Creating Change, Customer Focus and Organizational Learning Involvement Empowerment, Team Orientation and Capability Development Consistency Core Values, Agreement, Coordination/Integration Denisons model also allows cultures to be described broadly as externally or internally focused as well as flexible versus stable. The model has been typically used to diagnose cultural problems in organizations. 3.2.1 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ORGANISATIONS CULTURE (FIRSTBANK) According to Schein (1992), the two main reasons why cultures develop in organizations is due to external adaptation and internal integration. External adaptation reflects an evolutionary approach to organizational culture and suggests that cultures develop and persist because they help an organization to survive and flourish. If the culture is valuable, then it holds the potential for generating sustained competitive advantages. Additionally, internal integration is an important function since social structures are required for organizations to exist. Organizational practices are learned through socialization at the workplace. Work environments reinforce culture on a daily basis by encouraging employees to exercise cultural values. Organisational culture is shaped by multiple factors, including the following: External environment Industry Size and nature of the organizations workforce Technologies the organization uses The organizations history and ownership The external environment to FirstBank includes the ever emerging competitors, the realization of this pushes the Banks management is forge ahead and be innovative. The increasing number of banks offering same products that Firstbank had exclusivity to buttress this point, exceptional service delivery and brand value/positioning are the keys to have an edge over others. Other aspects of FirstBanks external environment include the legal or statutory regulations which the Bank must conform with, the political, socio-economic dynamics of Nigeria. The workforce of the bank is considerably large in comparism to other banks being the bank with the largest number of branch network and emerging diaspora banking through its subsidiaries. Prior to the rebranding of the Banks workforce, 1stBank had a culture of mostly old staff and few young staff, in 2008 the bank retrenched over 900 staff especially those who had spent over 25 years in service, the management immediately embarked on recruitment of new and experienced hirees who were relatively young, in addition to this, salaries were increased to suit the modern banker status. A new culture in that aspect had been achieved as 1stbankers were no longer distinguished by long suits and old staff. 3.2.2 FIRSTBANK CULTURE FIRSTBANK possesses a strong culture which is continually being improved. In the light of Daniel Denisons model of culture dimensions, FirstBanks mission strategic direction, goals and objectives, are clearly understood by members of staff. The Bank strives to make its staff live by its core values and this has so far helped the bank in terms of durability and goodwill. For the importance of the afore mentioned, FirstBank carries periodic mystery shopping exercise and branch spot checks to ensure that we live what we preach, hence staff are enjoined to move with the train. FirstBank adapts quickly to industry changes and are quick to identify a market opportunity hence they are most often the fore most bank for some products or innovations in the banking industry. Its the bank policy for staff to stick to a particular dress code, have the banks premises painted in a particular way and colour, have a products and services delivered to customers with the brand name FIRST and a unique way of service delivery. All this distinguishes the Bank and a Firstbanker from every other bank or person. The Elephant is also a historic symbol of FirstBanks culture which represents stability and strength, like Peters and Waterman (1982) suggests, the strong culture of the bank has positively enhanced its good will and market share, however things can get better. There exist an area of improvement in the Banks culture as it is normally being discussed within its members that staff are not been sufficiently motivated, the slow promotion process is a major aspect of this. A review of the Banks choice to downsize its work force recently by way of retiring (and firing) staff (although with mouth watering incentives) buttresses this point. Firing on the base of culture Usually pointed as a source of creating family like environment, the notion of corporate culture is also used for firing, with this practice started from shoe company Zappos, which granted its fired employees with huge compensations afterwards.(Google- Wikipedia .As the corporate culture may mean almost everything, firing on the base of culture means the employer does not accept and desire to be inclusive for the culture of the employee and thus the employee does not fit in corporate culture, although this may fall in the ground of discrimination, there is still not law or case law resolving or addressing the question making this practice possible and available for businesses for now. Firing on corporate culture is a recent practice, from 2008. 3.2.3 CULTURAL TYPES Handy (1985) identified four(4) types of organizational culture and they include: Power culture: Entrepreneurial in nature, central control, quick to response, built on trust flexible. Role culture: Roles are more important than persons, functional, rule and procedure driven Task Culture: Cross functional, based on jobs and projects, networked, coordinationcombination of jobs around tasks. Person Culture: People are the central focus, controls are only possible where members agree. FIRSTBANK adopts the role culture, this is because the roles are seen before the persons behind it, and the workforce is also driven by rule (policies) and procedure. 3.2.4 THE PROCESSUAL APPROACH The processual approach is a translation model in which movements of ideas or objects reside in the sense maki

Virginia V. Sebelius Essay example -- Health Care, US Government

Health care has been a much needed but problematic institution for the United States over the last several decades. Particularly private companies have been the main cause of high premiums and the denial of coverage for the previously ill. In attempts to remedy these issues, Congress in conjunction with the President of the United States Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The PPACA is a federal state that focused on the reformation of the private health insurance market, provide better coverage for those with existing conditions, and improve the conditions of Medicare. Within this statute there is the section 1501 mandate, the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision, which requires every citizen, besides the exempt, to maintain a minimum level of health care by 2012. Those choosing not to participate will be subject to a momentary tax with their annual income tax returns. Since its creation, this particular mandate has caused a great deal of cont roversy. In early 2010, the Commonwealth of Virginia passed into law, a statute that forbade any type of mandate that would force citizens to purchase health insurance. They believed such a mandate would cause an immediate and continuing burden of the State and its citizens. Although it was created months before the PPACA statute it is clear the Virginia statute come in direct conflict with the federal mandate. It is the responsibility of the courts to solve this conflict between the two parties, Virginia and Kathleen Sebelius. The Commonwealth of Virginia has lodge a complaint with the about the constitutionality of the PPACA statute. Through the state’s Attorney General, it challenges the enforcement of the statute due on part to section 1501 of th... ...only a choice between participation or retaliation. In New York v. U.S., the courts found that Congress cannot directly force states to legislate is accordance to their scheme. Forcing a state to participation or penalty is coercive in nature. This would counter the federalist structure outlined in the tenth amendment. In closing the constitutionality of this mandate is a minimum sketchy and often steps over the delicate boundaries allotted to Congress. Although there are a multitude of precedents to rule in favor of the defendant, doing so could leave a means in which to bring Congress unrestricted powers. Our goal is not to create a police State where the federalist structure becomes miniscule to the greater good of the poor, sick, and unfortunate. Although, the court supports the intentions of the PPACA statute the means of accomplishing them cannot be backed.

Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Meursault as Christ

Meursault as Christ in The Stranger (The Outsider)  Ã‚     In one of his later interviews, Camus made the somewhat irritated comment that Meursault is the â€Å"only Christ we deserve.† While this seem to be a pithy, witty comment, we need to figure out how Meursault is like Christ. Christ taught his disciples and had them go and teach others, yet Meursault has no disciples and chooses to say little. Meursault murders while Christ brings a man back from the dead. Most drastically, Christ †died for our sins† in order to make all those who follow free from original sin. Meursault just dies. So it is hard to see the link. If, however, we are to take Camus seriously, we need to push hard on this comparison. Christ lived his life along an orchestrated plan. At the garden of Gethsimede, Christ looks to heaven and asks that â€Å"this cup be taken from me.† Later, he recants and continues along his preordained path to crucifixion. Meursault never gets that chance. Instead of the hand of God or Fate pushing him inexorably forward, he chooses Chance. Chance put him on the floor with ...

Essay --

Effects Of Smoking In Women Until fairly recent times, smoking was considered to be exclusive to men. They were seen smoking at parties, in public places, in offices and even in their homes while their female counterparts watched them indulge themselves. However this is not the case anymore for the last few decades have seen a rapid increase in the rate of female smokers. Figures show that in the year 2000 there were about 25 % and 21 % male and female smokers respectively. Needless to say this has resulted in some serious health problems for women as studies show that over 165,000 women die of diseases that are an outcome of heavy smoking, which includes heart attacks emphysema and breast and ovarian cancers. The fact of the matter is that just as smoking results in dire consequences for men, it produces equally horrific results for women. Most women are however unaware of the fact that smoking can pose health problems such as various different cancers. Not only this but also it can produce bad breath and yellow teeth and nails, which is not a health problem but does add to the overall negative effects of smoking. The following section of the essay will thus take into account the adverse health effects that smoking has on women i.e. breast and ovarian cancer. Studies have shown that smoking advertisements have begun to focus on teenage girls in a bid to increase their sales, while reinforcing the trend in adult female smokers. Experts point out that doing so will result in getting the teenagers hooked on to the habit with the result that they will turn into life-long smokers. It is a commonly known fact that the earlier one begins to smoke; the harder it becomes to quit later on. Thus teenage girls find themselves attracted to t... ...skin to age i.e. the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles are common and the skin begins to sag and loses its elasticity. Thus all those botox injections and plastic surgeries are likely to wield no results if a woman does not quit the habit. As mentioned earlier it also causes the nails and the teeth to become yellow and the smoker develops a particularly bad breath, which can be embarrassing if one is in public. Thus the above discussion shows that smoking in women causes a number of health problems such as heart diseases, cancers, osteoporosis and reproductive problems thereby minimizing her chances of conception. References Greaves, Lorraine. Smoke Screen: Women's Smoking and Social Control. New York: Scarlet Press, 1996. Author unavailable.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Smoking.† Available online at: http://www.ivillagehealth.com/library/nwh/content/0,4482,215912_227354,00.html 2000.

B. Will the Economy Falter? Essay

The U. S. is now in its fifth straight year of economic growth. (There was a brief recession back in 2001. ) It has been observed over the last 60 years economic that recoveries on average last only five years. Once the five-year mark is reached, an economy typically runs into trouble. Cracks and strains start to appear. Inflation pressures build, interest rates move higher, housing weakens and business inventories begin to swell. On the media pundits utter the â€Å"R† word (recession) more frequently at this juncture. So the obvious question is: If the present recovery is five years old, is this economy now in jeopardy? The answer, fortunately, is no. Some sectors, like housing, are showing signs of tiring. Even the pace of job creation has been slowing the last four months. However, when diagnosing the health of an economy, it is vital to differentiate between an economy that is merely slowing to a more moderate and sustainable pace — from one where fundamentals have so deteriorated that a recession is all but inevitable. All evidence this time points to the former, namely that the economy remains in sound health with the business cycle far from over. The economy has indeed performed very well so far in 2006. Growth surged an estimated 4. 5% annual pace in the first half — despite high energy prices and rising interest rates. Inflation, though slightly higher than what the Federal Reserve prefers, is still quite benign. Companies continue to focus on operating more efficiently and raising productivity levels. Job creation, which has been disappointing recently, is still running at an average of nearly 150,000 a month, very near the level of 165,000 per month seen in 2005. S&P 500 earnings are expected to increase by 11% in the second quarter, after a 15% jump in the first three months (Baumohl).