Importance of Teamwork

Discuss the Importance of Teamwork for the Systems Analyst A systems analyst is in charge of the operating system and associated subsystems. In addition, he is responsible for identifying alternatives for optimizing computer resources. This necessitates a joint action with other persons, whether they are internal clients or external. If the system analyst carries out efficient teamwork, and harmonizes the contributions of all clients towards an agreed objective, his efficiency will be far greater than individual accomplishment. Teamwork refers to the mutual effort by a group of persons for achieving a common goal.On the other hand the system analyst designs new IT systems to ameliorate business efficiency and productivity. The systems analyst need to present their designs to clients and once the design is approved; they work closely with the user team to launch the solution. To achieve this, the systems analyst needs to work closely with the customers, examine the business model bein g currently used by the business and the flow of information in the organization. His findings are discussed again with the customer team and he devises an apposite improved IT based solution.During his work, the system analyst also draws up the outline of the new system, finds out and estimates the cost and specifies how the client will use the information. At each of these steps the systems analyst is required to team up with the potential users and use such a teamwork behavior that will lead to better performance (U. S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). The systems analyst usually has to evaluate and study the organizational culture of the client, he has to assess and understand the preferences of the team members of the client and review the current circumstances of the client organization.This is important for the systems analyst to liaison widely with the external or internal clients. For example, the systems analyst may have to liaison with the systems de alers to get the cost estimate correct and he has to liaison with the company managers to assess their needs correctly. The systems analyst has to translate client requirements into highly complex and detailed project briefs. This effort would not be possible unless he collaborated extensively with the users. This requires teamwork. Teamwork is also important because the systems analyst is often required to draw up proposals for modified or replacement systems.In addition, he is required to create logical and innovative solutions to complex problems. What the systems analyst is required to do is to identify options for potential solutions and evaluating them for both technical and business suitability. To draw up proposals for modified or replacement systems, teamwork is required to ascertain the preferences of the user team members. Further, to come up with logical and innovative solutions, the systems analyst must be able to get feedback from people outside the team.In short the s ystems analyst must be able to join forces with outside and inside people to successfully complete his project. While dealing with the client, the systems analyst must be able to get a wide range of views from the staff, peer groups, customers and senior management of the client organization, He must be able to take a wide outlook when he is setting behavioral goals for themselves. The systems analyst should improve the quality of these goals by joining forces the users and developers so that there is technical compatibility as well as client satisfaction.This co-ordination role of the systems analyst requires a high degree of teamwork. It is the responsibility of the systems analyst to ensure that the budgets are not exceeded and the deadlines are adhered to. In order to achieve these goals the systems analyst needs to identify and manage conflicting expectations of different person and even groups. For instance, he must be able to manage the conflict between the user requirements and budgetary constraints. In addition, he must be able to initiate and harmonize the dialogues between different groups, for example the client management and developers (U. S.Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). In practice the systems analyst needs to research, plan, maintain, troubleshoot, configure, install and upgrade operating systems. In addition, in several organizations he is required to troubleshoot, maintain, install, plan and upgrade hardware and software interfaces with the operating system. For this he needs to analyze and interpret the current or planned business procedures or problems. The system analyst needs to work independently as well as work towards the team goals of maintaining the operating systems as well as the systems in excellent condition.Moreover, he needs to understand the goals of the system users and meet their expectation. The users of the system should feel a sense of ownership towards the systems that they are using. They should feel committed to the systems that they have helped to create. This feeling can only be created if there is teamwork between the systems analyst and the users. The users of the system should collaborate with the systems analyst to use their abilities and knowledge to contribute to the success of the system. There are a number of routine tasks that a systems analyst needs to perform in the due course of his work.For example, he has to work with technical staff, such as networking to put into operation connectivity and compatibility among systems. Even for these tasks teamwork is very important. Moreover, teamwork is required of the systems analyst for assisting personnel of other departments in matters related to information technology, training new recruits in the use of computer resources and providing information technology orientation to new recruits. The systems analyst must gain the trust of all the users he is dealing with; only then will they express their opinion, conflicti ng views and enquiries.A systems analyst must make a sincere effort to be upright, truthful and honest. He should have active listening skills. He should aim towards participative decision-making and resolve problems constructively. Teamwork has become an important part of the job specification of a systems analyst and many organizations evaluate the teamwork skills when recruiting a systems analyst. Most systems analysts realize that teamwork is important because either the system is sufficiently complex that it takes a team with multiple skills to design, and a better system will result when a team approach is adopted.In short it is important that systems analysts learn to work in a team environment so that they will have teamwork skills so important for their jobs. To sum teamwork is very important for the systems analyst. He is required to regularly collect information, examine and evaluate current or planned systems. Each of these actions requires interaction with individuals a nd teaming up with diverse individuals. Even in his regular and mechanical responsibilities he needs to meet with people and get them involved in the IT process. Finally, even in case of multifarious support duties that are assigned to him, collaboration is essential.

The Ripple Effect of Smoking

The Ripple Effect of Smoking It has become common knowledge that smoking is bad for people’s health, nonetheless people continue to smoke. To be honest, that is fine. If people want to endanger themselves by smoking then I wish them a swift and peaceful end (though most smokers die a slow and agonizing death). What is not acceptable is the effect that smoke has on non-smokers who have almost no way of getting away from smoke unless they want to stay in their house. Smokers affect everyone around them for the worse. Smoking should be restricted or banned from all public places because the health of non-smokers should not be jeopardized by secondhand smoke. As stated before, almost everyone knows and accepts the fact that smoking is unhealthy. For those who don’t know, Phillip Morris, one of the leading tobacco manufacturers, must tell them that very fact. As part of a settlement agreement with the government, Philip Morris must publish that they â€Å"agrees with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema (where the lungs basically break down), and other serious diseases inn smokers† (Philip Morris U. S. A. 1). Yet some don’t know how bad smoking actually is for people, both for the smokers and non-smokers alike. According to Michele Late, author for The Nation’s Health, published by the American Public Health Association, â€Å"A new report by the U. S. urgeon general found that smoking causes disease in almost every organ of the human body. † So aside from common knowledge that smoking causes lung cancer as well as other respiratory problems and diseases, people need to know that it also causes cancer in almost every other part of the body. Among those diseases are, â€Å"leukemia, cataracts, and pneumonia as well as cancers of th e pancreas, cervix, and kidneys† (Late). According to the surgeon general’s report, â€Å"Other complications linked to smoking included diabetes complications, hip fractures and reproductive complications† (Late). Why anyone would want to smoke with the knowledge that smoking causes these problems is beyond reason. Ultimately though, it is a person’s choice as to whether they want to cause harm to themselves by smoking or not. Although people may choose to smoke, it is unfair of them to inflict the consequences of their choice upon others. The smoke that smokers put out into the air is nearly as harmful as what they take in to their own systems. When non- smokers happen to be in the vicinity of a smoker they inhale what the smoker puts out. This is called secondhand smoke. A definition from Philip Morris U. S. A. ’s website states that, â€Å"Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke or ETS, is a combination of the smoke coming from the lit end of a cigarette plus the smoke exhaled by a person smoking† (Philip Morris U. S. A2). Secondhand smoke is almost as harmful to the non-smoker as the firsthand smoke is to the smoker. According to William V. Corr, the executive director of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, â€Å"Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals and 69 known carcinogens, including formaldehyde, cyanide, arsenic, carbon monoxide, methane, benzene, and radioactive polonium 210. With all these known cancer causing products in secondhand smoke, it is not surprising that, â€Å"secondhand smoke is proven to cause lung cancer and serious respiratory illnesses† (Corr). Secondhand smoke also causes, â€Å"asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheeze, otitis media (middle ear infection) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome,† (Philip Mor ris U. S. A. 2) in children. According to Donna Halvorsen, writer for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, â€Å"The CDC (The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention) estimates that 3,000 nonsmokers die of lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke each year. An additional 35,000 die of heart disease also from secondhand smoke†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It is unfair to make those who choose not to smoke be damaged by the secondhand smoke of a smoker. What is the solution to this problem? The most effective solution is to ban smoking in all public places. If people who want to smoke then they can do so in the privacy of their own homes, where they can only hurt themselves and their loved ones. California has taken the first step by banning smoking in most indoor establishments. Yet more has to be done. It needs to be banned outdoors in public as well. Though the theory that outdoors smoke dissipates has some validity, if you are within 20 feet of a smoker, you are still affected. Other atmospheric conditions can cause you to be affected from farther away. There will be arguments against this solution, the main one being personal freedom. Opponents will say that their personal freedom to smoke is being violated. Though right now, smokers are violating millions of people’s rights. A non-smoker’s right to live in an uncontaminated and healthy environment is being violated by the smoker who chooses to engage in this repulsive habit. A non-smoker’s right to a longer, pain free life is being taken away by the diseases they get from inhaling secondhand smoke. This solution, though the most effective, is also the most extreme. Until we reach an ideal society where smoking is nonexistent, there are ways to help alleviate the problems posed by secondhand smoke. One is to have separate rooms in public places with high quality air filters. They have started doing this in airports. A new renovation is smokeless cigarettes. A U. S. company that makes this product is Longherb Health Products, Inc. According to them, â€Å"This smokeless product, which consists of a menthol or cinnamon-flavored filter material – like that used in a cigarette filter – looks and feels like a cigarette, but contains no tobacco or nicotine, and does not burn. The smokers simply draw or inhale on Smoker's Option Cigarettes whenever they have the desire to smoke cigarettes. † Unfortunately there is the problem that cigarettes are addictive. Some who are addicted to cigarettes need one every hour. An addiction causes physical pain when you don’t have your addictive substance. To help people quit there are many different solutions. They range from patches, to gum, to medication. Philip Morris U. S. A. has links on their website that can help you quit smoking, one being QuitAssistâ„ ¢. The information for quit assist was written by and is maintained by Cheryl K. Olson, Sc. D. of Harvard Medical School, as well as a review board. Secondhand smoke is a problem that must be dealt with. There are alternatives to smoking and ways to deal with secondhand smoke. Smoking must be banned or severely restricted in public for the well being of the multitudes of innocent non-smokers.

Reading response Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 10

Reading response - Assignment Example However, due to the cultural difference the plan of making the daughter a Shirley Temple seems to be failing. The mother is also focused on making the daughter do different tests every night. The tests are seemingly unrelated since they are from different magazines and the continued daughter’s failures to get the correct answers brings great disappointment to both of them. These failures can be attributed to cultural differences that cause different likes. However, after a rebellion from the daughter who wants to do music, the mother allows her and hires a piano teacher. Nonetheless, the performance is still relatively poor prompting the girl to stop attending the piano classes. The daughter is in between two string cultures and due to the cultural conflict does not seem to fit perfectly at one place. Although unaware, efforts to fit in the two cultures are the main reason for her continued failures in the different activities. Maggie is portrayed as humble and innocent girl with great enthusiasm for her heritage and tradition. Unlike Dee, Maggie is shy and has seemingly no courage to face difficult life situations thereby provoking sympathy. Conversely, Dee is seemingly absorbed in a different culture and has always had great interest in reading and achieving a different lifestyle. Although she is not very bright, she struggles and brings forth great effort. This is a show of determination just as she was determined to court Jimmy T by reading to him although he took off to marry a â€Å"cheap city girl†. Additionally, Dee is bold and has great courage to face any situation even the seemingly difficult ones. However, Dee seems to know little about her heritage as compared to Maggie. In fact, the seemingly few cultural things she knows and likes are wrongly placed. For example, she wants the butter churn curved by her uncle only for decoration purposes rather than

Assighment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assighment - Essay Example All this will indeed be a challenge for me but utilizing the gained knowledge will help me overcome the challenges and make the store a profit center. Discussion What are the most significant challenges facing you as manager of this store? For me as the manager, the most significant challenges can be enumerated as follows: Low volume of Sales: As the manager of the store, the most important thing for me to keep the store afloat would be the finances. The store cannot operate at a loss and to ensure that it is not at a loss, sales are the most important criteria. The store will have certain fixed overheads and certain variables. Fixed overheads include salaries, electricity, rent, telephone expenses etc. These are the costs the store has to bear even if there is no sale. These components are discounted by the profit which is generated out of sales. In the event of no or low sale, the fixed expenses stand as it is and proves heavy for the store. Variable expenses also are a part of exp enses which are incurred in case of sale. Suppose freight charges for delivery of products etc. So this cost is only incurred if there are sales and is directly proportionate to sales. So in case, there is low sale, my store will have to bear the fixed overheads at least. There needs to be a minimum amount of sale to cover the fixed costs and be at zero profit at least(Berman, 2007). Manpower issue: Since the store is not doing well, the manpower cannot be more due to their costs. The plus point here is that the store has a good blend of experienced and fresh manpower. So to utilize maximum potential from them, the experienced ones should provide some training to the fresh ones and always back them up during sales. The attrition rate also has to come down to save on training time and cost. Branding and Advertising: Since the store once enjoyed loyalty of customers in neighborhood, the goodwill re-building would not be so difficult. I should focus on how I can harness the goodwill al ready built among certain groups of people to attract them to be our customers at the shopping mall and to promise them that the quality of products and services are same irrespective of change of hands of the store. What steps would you take during the first 90 days as manager to address these challenges? In the first 90 days, the steps I would take have been described below: Since the employees include high school and college students, I would harness their contacts to boost my sales. I would plan an incentive for each employee if they give me a minimum amount of business. Example: An employee will be offered x% of the sales value if they give a minimum of x amount of business. Since they are college students, offering only a small amount will be enough to motivate them to bring in business. This will be done keeping in mind the profitability of business. Once we have customers, they can be converted to repeated customers later on through schemes and good service. Specifically aim ed promotion: The store needs to be promoted in such a way that the people who were already loyal customers can connect to the promotion activities and believe that the store is still the same as they liked it even after change of hands. The erstwhile loyal customers will be the first ones whom I would like to be my customers as they will be easy to convince. Once they are back, word-of-mouth will play

Reflective Journal Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reflective Journal Assignment - Essay Example The success of this stage in growth leads to the virtue of hope which often goes a long way in determining how a person would view the world and/or tackle real life crises and problems that are ever existent. Being of a middle age compared to the other of our siblings, I was never accorded the utmost care that the others had and this I believed strengthened my resolve greatly. I become more independent and assertive and this enabled me too to recognize my abilities and skills. Taking part in groups, organizing class events at schools, sorting out fellow children quarrels and disagreements enabled me to recognize my special talent in counseling at a tender age. Ages 10-20, regarded by most scholars as the age bracket that makes or breaks an individual were rather hectic for me. This is where self actualization occurs when one starts to learn the roles he would want to play as an adult. At an adolescent age, I got to learn a lot about myself and the surrounding. This is the age where I got to re-examine my identity and who I really was both in our family and to the society at large. This period came to pass with a lot of challenges that defined who I became. I decided to set myself on a career path and developed a greater sense of fidelity and tolerance. My later advanced ages presented to me the worst times I ever had. Before making any considerations on the need and motives, I decided to have a partner in my early 20’s. As described in the eight stages of development by Erikson, this is the period in the lifespan of an individual when one yeans for intimacy and a certain level of commitment. I got married at a comparatively younger age and this came with its share of problems. I had a marital relationship that that took turns at every face of difficulty and disagreements. This stage gave me a lot of insight into the issues that couples face on a daily basis and opened me up more to the counseling profession. At the

What is my position on drug testing welfare recipients to receive Research Paper

What is my position on drug testing welfare recipients to receive their benefits - Research Paper Example Also this topic affects those who are and are not on welfare. Smith, Phillip.  Welfare. Digital image.  Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Prohibition. N.p., 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. In my research I have found to be two sides to this argument â€Å"Proponents say testing would help the recipients and protect taxpayers. Opponents argue that the practice is unconstitutional and mean-spirited.† (Vitter 141) Both parties make really convincing arguments and surely drove me crazy trying to choose a side â€Å"The proponents of drug testing welfare argue that it is irresponsible for any government to fund people who they know are using drugs† (Chelsea 2). It is true that there are drug addicts everywhere but let us faces the facts; they buy their drugs with their own money and do not depend on any government to finance their addiction. It is therefore illogical for any person on welfare to be addicted to any sort of drugs since they cannot even fend for the mselves and instead depend on welfare funds. Governments provide unemployed people with some amount of money to enable them take care of themselves as well as their children. However, it is common that most people on welfare do not use this money well and instead use it on drugs and other activities that are not beneficial at all. Statistics from the Temporary Assistance for the Needy says that around 50% of all people on welfare programs are addicted to drugs. â€Å"The results suggested that, contrary to popular opinion, most welfare recipients were not alcohol- or other drugdependent.† (Chelsea 2) it is also shown that out of this population, 75% cannot fend for themselves because of their dependency on drugs. ... This means that it is because of drugs that almost 40% of all people in welfare programs are on this programs. â€Å"It is therefore illogical for governments and other nongovernmental organizations to give out money to these same people to continue with their lifestyle† (Debate club 11). This is the reason why most people propose that before anyone enters a welfare program, they need to be tested to ensure that we are not funding drug addicts to continue with their addiction problems. Most politicians and other stakeholders argue that if this system is put in place, not only will most of the drug addicts stop due to financial constraints, they will have to so that they can get a chance to get into the program. This is therefore a long-term strategy to reduce drug abuse in the US. Debate club, â€Å"a meeting of the sharpest minds on the days most important topics†, 6 Match . 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2013 When this matter got to the senate, it was an arguable issue and most p roponents argued that aid has to be provided based on reciprocal obligation. Reaction to the result from tested prisoners which showed that â€Å"Welfare-receiving arrestees were more likely to test positive for benzodiazepines (16 percent vs. 7 percent,/? < 0.01) and opiates (13 percent vs. 6 percent, p < 0.05)† (Yacoubian, 143)This was aThis means that whenever aid is given, there has to be some obligation by the person receiving this kind of help. â€Å"In West Virginia, delegate CraigBlair wants all welfare recipients to undergo drug testing as a condition of receiving welfare, unemployment compensation,† (Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly 1)This has to apply

Labour law and labour market regulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Labour law and labour market regulation - Essay Example In the case of Wiltshire County Council v NATFHE and Guy, the court was faced with the question of determining whether a part-time contract was for a fixed period or not. It involved Ms Guy who was employed at s a teacher and attended some teaching lessons but later the course was removed due to reasons such as under subscription amongst others leaving her without employment. When her contract was not renewed she complained of being dismissed unfairly claiming that she was protected by the Employment Protection Act 1978 which in its strict interpretation envisaged that hers was a fixed term contract The appeal court held that her contract was for a fixed term and the contract subsisted even if she had been technically dismissed. Stating that a fixed contract is one in which there was a defined beginning and end. Therefore, basing on the Wiltshire case, Joe can claim unfair dismissal on grounds of discrimination after which the case will be taken to a tribunal for determination This therefore means that there are certain provisions that must be met that include giving the employee the mandatory notice period required in order to terminate the contract and the steps to be followed in the termination process. 2 The employer can only terminate the contract for reasons amongst them non-performance of duties, job elimination and misrepresentation amongst other reasons and must be written in a statement to the employee.3 The employer is therefore required to pay their employees there severance pay or any other form of financial consideration that may be entitled to the employee. The termination of the employment of Joe must not be based on discriminatory reasons and therefore in any sort of remedy sought; the courts of law will determine the reasons for the termination of the employment. If Joe had an individual contract with his employer or was covered by a collective bargaining agreement, his remedies and compensation will be covered under the stipulations of t hat agreement that subsisted before the termination of the contract. In a jurisdiction such as that of the United Kingdom, the courts or the tribunals can hear the cases brought for wrongful termination of the contract of employment. If proven that the contract of employment between Joe and that of his employer was wrongfully terminated, the court has remedies that it can give Joe.4 One remedy available to Joe is that he can be reinstated back to the position or job he held previously before termination of the employment. The courts may also order for monetary compensation to Joe for the wrongful dismissal that will be calculated commensurate with what he previously earned.5 Question 1 (b) Dismissing an employee who has had a long-term history of illness or sickness is one of the major difficult decisions employers have to make when considering terminating the employment of a sick employee in the United Kingdom.6 An employer is entitled to dismiss but fairly an employee who is absen t from duty due to sickness that may be long-term in nature but there is a caveat that they must demonstrate that they have acted in a fair, sensitive manner.7 This means that

Translation theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Translation theories - Essay Example zes, and utilizes translation principles to arrive at three main translation categories that are translation theories founded on source-oriented perspectives, linguistic translation theories, and recent translations. While source-oriented translation approaches developed from the 2nd century B.C to the 20th century A.D., the linguistic translation theories began during the second decade of the 20th century and lasted for 50 years. However, the last three decades of the 20th century led to the birth of the descriptive branch of translation that was subdivided into process-oriented, function-oriented, and product-oriented translations. The recent translation includes the target-oriented approach to translation that includes Toury’s norms in translation (Venuti, 2000, p. 198). Different translation theories are used in different translation purposes. This paper evaluates the differences between Gideon Toury’s Norms in translation theory and Lawrence Venuti’s translator’s invisibility theory. The comparison begins by placing the norms in translation theory in wider context, offers a description of the translator’s invisibility theory, compares the two theories, and finally, performs an assessment and evaluation of the implication of the two theories for practical translation. At the start of the present translation period was the descriptive translation branch in Israel since 1970s. During this period, Israeli researchers affiliated with descriptive research used the polysystem theory by Even-Zohar in 1990, and the aspect of norms established by Gideon Toury in 1995 (Benjamins, 2008, p. 64). Since Israeli is a multilingual and multicultural state, translation of other languages into Hebrew was committed to a target-oriented approach. The polysystem theory of literature and culture involves all cultural, literary, linguistic, and social aspect, but did not account for single-text translations. Instead, polysystem viewed single-texts as a system operating

Scholarly Paper on Adult Learning Theory Research

Scholarly on Adult Learning Theory - Research Paper Example It contrasts to this, it is being further noted that with the growing age people are likely to face problems associated with neuroscientific perspective. In addition, this particular perspective also affects the behavior of the adults and is further associated with functioning of the brain. This in turn also signifies a similar kind of fact that reveals the existence of difference in learning at different stage of adulthood respectively. From this study, the major problem identified is that the difference in culture is another vital factor that is likely to influence the learning environment as well as behaviour of the adults (Knowles, 2012; Vygotsky, n.d.). In this regard, the primary purpose of the paper is to evaluate the theories associated with adult learning and further analyze the impact of the cultural factor on the learning environment of the adults.DiscussionThe key points highlighted in the introduction section respectively are associated with the adult learning theory and environment. The theory proposed by Malcolm Knowles states different assumption related to adult learning. From the concerned theory, it has been evaluated that learning environment within the classroom is the most vital factor that is likely to influence the behavior of the adults in a particular stage respectively. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the interest, as well as needs of the adult learners, is another crucial factor that is likely to influence the overall learning process respectively. Â  

Macbeth as Tragedy Essay Example for Free

Macbeth as Tragedy Essay Shakespeare’s Macbeth is often considered one of literature’s greatest tragedies and is said to reveal much about human nature. Do you agree or disagree that the play conveys much about humanity or about the human experience? What, if anything, does the work suggest about human beings or society? Support your views with textual details and analysis. In your response, address how Macbeth’s subject matter, themes, form, or other literary elements might (or might not) be characteristic of tragedy. How do tragic qualities of the play contribute (or not) to the story’s larger message(s)? Macbeth has always been a play of interest in any age groups. I remember this play in my high school but then which school does not get involved with this play. I do agree with the statement that Macbeth reveals much about human nature. Macbeth reveals the dark side of human nature; ambition, hunger for control and power, it shows us the aftermath that it leaves behind. The play suggests the dark tendencies that lives within many of the human beings in our society; the need to succeed and annihilate their obstacles at any cost: human beings are opportunistic. Macbeth shows us how far a person will go to in order to realize their own ambitions; even to commit a killing. Free will exists in humanity and everyone has the potential for good and the commit evil deeds. The Macbeths lust for power and greed ends up in grim tragedy. Macbeth starts off as a hero; a brave warrior in the battlefield, standing behind his king and protecting his land. This is what makes Macbeth a tragic hero. Tragic hero: A main character who acts with courage but falls from high standing into catastrophic circumstances because of a weakness of character or serious misjudgment. (Clugston, 2010, page. 4. 4, para. 3). Lady Macbeth is willing to lose her soul in order to push her husbands faith to be king a reality and sooner; she asks the gods to remove all compassion and femininity and replace with cold and ruthless qualities; this symbolizes the darkness of human nature. The Macbeths had it all but failed to recognize it due to having their dark ambitions take over them; consuming them and this is the tragedy. The literary elements are the motifs, they are the hallucinations and violence; these motifs lead to tragedy end of the Macbeths.

Human Capital Development in Malaysia

Human Capital Development in Malaysia The study intends to look into the Human Capital Development in Malaysia: Challenges and Prospects. In 10th Malaysia Plan, Federal Government is more focus on non- physical development (Human Capital Development). It shows that the ratio of allocation on non- physical projects and physical projects has changed from 22:78 during the 9th Malaysia Plan to 40:60 in the 10th Malaysia Plan. Due to the shift in allocation, we will evaluate the past performance of the 9th Malaysia Plan to the development of human capital development and whether the past performance can affect the sudden shift to the non- physical projects in 10th Malaysia Plan. After that, we will discuss further about the challenges facing by human capital development and its possible solutions. Moreover, we are also focus on the policies implemented, the impacts and also the future directions due to the increment of the human capital development. Keywords: Human Capital Development, Challenges and Prospects, Past Performance of Human Capital Development, Policies, Impacts, Future Directions. 2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT Human capitals refer to the processes that related to the education, training and other professional initiatives in order to improve or increase the level of knowledge, skills, abilities, values and social assets. Non- physical projects are referring to the human capital development or skills development. Examples of non- physical projects are initiatives to enhance profession attractiveness and improve teacher performance, RD investments, skill and re-skilling programmed, venture funding geared and nurturing of technopreneurs. Human capital development is getting wider attention due to the globalization. Developing country is more emphasis on the development of human capital towards accelerating the economic growth by putting more efforts on it. Thus, human capital development is playing a very important role in Malaysian economy. Malaysia appears to be stuck in the middle income trap. It is going to be a challenge for Malaysia to achieve its Vision 2020 by the target year. One of the reason for Malaysia failed to escape from the trap is Malaysia unable to compete with other country such as Taiwan and South Korea. For Taiwan, it has been identified as one of the fastest growing economies for the past 50 years and its improvement also has been honored as economic miracle. Taiwan is well known for its high technology industries over the past two decades. It has been identified has the fourth largest information hardware and semiconductor industries in the world presently. Moreover, the high quality and innovative products that make from Taiwan are sold worldwide. The other reasons are Malaysia is lack of skilled workers. We are unable to attract skilled foreigners to our country while skilled Malaysians are leaving. If we compared with those advanced countries such as Norway and Switzerland, both of these countries are more focus on nurturing highly skilled human resources rather than expensive mega projects. However, the development of human capital in Malaysia is not as well-established as these countries. Why does this phenomenon occur? This might happened because of some of the reasons such as the previous administration are more focus on the expensive mega projects that causes the human resource development scheme failed to develop. Moreover, Malaysia is lack of skilled workforce and Malaysia hope can be more productive and innovative. As a result, it can explain that why the government will sudden shift the allocation for non- physical projects from the ratio of 22:78 during 9th Malaysia Plan to 40:60 during 10th Malaysia Plan. 3.0 OBJECTIVES We are going to discuss the six main objectives in our research paper. First of all, we are going to evaluate the past performance of the 9th Malaysia Plan to the development of human capital. It is to ensure that whether the commitment, outputs and the expected outcomes during the 9th Malaysia Plan can affect the shift in allocation for the non- physical projects (human capital development). Besides, we want to determine the factors that cause the increment allocation for the non- physical projects. We know that from the previous administration in which the government is more focus on the expensive mega projects, but our country is still stuck in the middle income. We are now in the critical juncture; the government soon realizes that to transform Malaysia into a high income and develop country, the development of the human capital is playing a very important role. Other than that, we want to identify the challenges facing by human capital development. We are either remaining in the middle- income group or advance to a high- income economy. To doing so, we need to change and seek solutions in addressing the global economic challenges and find its possible solutions. Moreover, the study is going to find out the policies implemented for the development of human capital. Strategy must be come out and implement to improve the human capital development in Malaysia. Finally, the study is aim to find out the impacts due to the increment of the human capital development to the growth of Malaysian economy and it is also want to identify the future directions of the development of human capital in Malaysia. 4.0 METHODOLOGY In our research, we referred to Secondary Data. Our data had been taken in statistics for skilled human capital, journals, articles and internet sources. One of the example of the materials we referred are the statistics of the skilled human capital during the 9th Malaysia Plan by Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource, Ministry of Youth and Sports and Construction Industry Development Board. Moreover, we are also referred to the Nine Malaysian Plan (2006-2010) and Tenth Malaysian Plan (2011-2015). 5.0 Literature Review In Malaysia, starting from Ninth Malaysia Plan, innovation capability was given attention. The development of human capital is very important in generating the economic performance in one country. There is a positive linkage between development of human capital and growth of Malaysia. Many studies had found that human capital affects many aspects at all level. Dension (1962) and Schultz (1961) state that human capital can increase an individuals wages, firms productivity and hence increase the growth of national economy. Besides that, Vinokur et al., (2000) also point out that the employment rate will increase due to the development of human capital. Lepak and Snell (1999) find that firm can strengthen core competence and comparative advantages through development of human capital. Aurora Teixeira Natercia Fortuna (2003) also confirm that human capital and indigenous innovation efforts are enormously important to the process of Portuguese economic growth during the period 1960-2001, through the R D. On the other hand, indirectly, through creative and innovation capability, showing that development of human capital is important to enable a country to gain the benefits. Rob A. Wilson and Geoff Briscoe (2004) in their report on vocational training research in Europ e: A review of the impact of human capital on economic growth focus on increase of investment in education training will lead to higher productivity. The relation between the investment in human capital and economic performance are reviewed through human resource management and so on. In our research paper, we will review on the challenges and prospect of the development of human capital. Besides that, we also will focus on the impact of the development of human capital on the short term and long term growth of Malaysia. We admit that there are some challenges in the future, but overall, the impact on investment in education and training on economic growth is positive and significant. Some policies are drawn to achieve the goal. The direction for future also predicted. 6.0 INTRODUCTION Human capitals refer to the processes that related to the education, training and other professional initiatives in order to improve or increase the level of knowledge, skills, abilities, values and social assets. Since independent in 1957, the economic activities of the country depended on the products such as rubber and tin in which it is playing an important role for the economic growth of the country. Under the twenty years plan which starts from 1970-1990, the economic of the country showed a stable growth from being an agriculture-based economy in1970s to industrial-based economy in 1980s. Due to the industrialization, the government soon realizes that human capitals in the industrial sector are the main driving factor for the countrys economic growth. As a result, the government began to develop the human resources in order to maintain economic growth and remain the competition in the global market. Human capital is getting emphasis since from the 1st Malaysia Plan until the 10th Malaysia Plan which is the most recent start from 2011-2015. For example, Malaysias Eighth Development Plan emphasizes on shifting the growth of the economy from the input driven economy towards knowledge driven economy. Moreover, it is also focusing on increasing the productivity and efficiency through human resources development, increasing RD as well as utilizing the latest technologies especially information communication technologies (ICT). Furthermore, Ninth Malaysia Plan has placed investments in human capital as the main thrust of its strategy. The aim of the 9th Malaysia Plan is in order to develop the efficiency and talented workforce thus can enhance the national productivity and growth. Although the government is putting emphasis on the development of human capital, Malaysia still cannot advance to a high-income economy. Malaysia still stuck in the middle-income trap and it is going to be a challenge for Malaysia its Vision 2020 by the target year. Under the 9th Malaysia Plan, 78% of the allocation was set aside for the physical development versus to just 60% for 10th Malaysia Plan. As a result, federal government realized the importance of human development and the improvement in the living standards thus it is more focus on the non-physical projects (human capital development) in the 10th Malaysia Plan. It shows that the ratio of allocation on non-physical projects is 40% versus to just 22% in the 9th Malaysia Plan. Examples of non-physical projects are initiatives to enhance profession attractiveness and improve teacher performance, skill and re-skilling programmes, RD investment, nurturing of technopreneurs and also venture funding geared. In the recent budget 2011 that announced by our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia needs to move from the middle-income to transform into an inclusive and sustainable high-income developed country by 2020 which emphasizing the high-skilled human capital, efficient public services and also the equal opportunity for all Malaysians. Highly skilled labor especially scientists and engineers are important in order to support the further development of the economy growth. Thus, the government needs to implement the policies in order to enhance the productivity as well as attracting more high-skilled labor from abroad. 7.0 MID-TERM REVIEW OF THE 9th MALAYSIA PLAN(2006-2010)-DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL. During the first half of the 9th Malaysia Plan, the stable development was made in moving up the economy of Malaysia. There is a lot of evolutions were made in the new growth areas of service sector such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), telecommunication, tourism, Islamic finance and shared service and outsourcing (SSO). Service sector was trying to transforms to the skilled intensive and high technology activities with the support by research and development (RD). The policy and strategy framework for the mid-term review of 9th Malaysia Plan is actually based on the five thrusts. Two among the five thrusts are related to human capital development. Thrust1: To move the economy up the value chain. In thrust 1, government is focus on enhancing productivity and competitiveness of the human capital. The supply of proficient workers with the necessary skills especially in Islamic banking finance, agriculture biotechnology will be increased due to the demand of the labor market. Besides, government will increase the intakes into skill training institutes as well as expand the offering of the specialized courses. Not only that, the linkages between university and industry will be enhanced by improving the curriculum design in order to produce graduates with the relevant knowledge and skills that required by industry. Thrust 2: To raise the capacity for knowledge and innovation and nurture first class mentality. In thrust 2, government putting a lot of effort in order to develop the human capital and it basically based on the five strategic. The first one is enhancing education quality, followed by making national school as the preferred choice, creating tertiary education institutions of international standing, developing quality RD and improving scientific innovative ability. Evaluation about the human capital development during 9th Malaysia Plan From the chart 1, we can know that the amount of skilled labor during 9th Malaysia Plan is increasing and the skilled labor in public sector is actually more than the private sector. In year 2005, there are total 76027 skilled labor in Malaysia while in year 2007, the total amount of skilled labor in Malaysia is 83202. Government was expected that the skilled labor in year 2010 will probably reach to 112745 peoples. Chart 2 shows that the share of labor force with high skill is always high in advanced countries. There are only 25% of the total workforce in Malaysia composed of highly skilled workers in year 2007, compared to significantly higher proportion in Singapore, Taiwan and Korea. Singapore is only a small country without the support of natural resources. However the skilled labor in Singapore is much higher than Malaysia. There are 49% of them are skilled labor in Singapore while for Taiwan and Korea, there are 33% and 35% respectively of them are skilled labor. Therefore, we can conclude that even though the skilled workers in Malaysia during 9th Malaysia Plan is increasing but it is only increase in a very little amount. Malaysia still cannot compete with others developed countries. The transformation to becomes a knowledge-based economy have increased the demand for knowledge workers. Thus, a lot of effort is needed in order to achieve high income nation and also Vision 2020. 8.0 FACTORS THAT CAUSES SHIFT IN ALLOCATION Previous administration focusing on building infrastructure In the previous administration, the government is more focus on building infrastructures, while various human resource developments failed to transform Malaysia into a high-income and develop country. This can prove during the Mahathir era which was characterized by expensive mega projects such as a $2.4 billion Bakun Dam hydroelectric project; Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) that cost a $2.36 billion; an $8.1 billion for the building infrastructure of the new administrative capital (Putrajaya); and the $752 million PETRONAS Twin Towers. The Bakun Dam is the second largest dam in the world, after the Three Gorges in China. In the process of built this dam, there are about 69,640 hectares of forest ecosystem being completely destroyed when the water is impounded behind the dam. For Mahathir, this kind of expensive mega projects can serve as a catalyst for the economic growth. For us, we will feel that, instead of building such dam that can harm the environment, the government should focus more on the human resources development. For example, government can invest more money in education or skill training programmes. This will be much better because a countrys economic growth is highly depends on a better allocation of human resources. During the Budget 2011 Plan that announced few weeks ago, our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak proposed to build a 100-storey mega tower along with other mega projects. This mega tower is cost about RM 5 billion in which it is a huge of money. The building, named Warisan Merdeka or Heritage of Independence would be the tallest in Malaysia compare with the PETRONAS Twin Towers that completed in 1998. After our Prime Minister announced the plan during the Budget 2011, many people are voice out against the building of the mega tower. The citizens think that the project as being more detrimental to Malaysia rather than beneficial. If compared with other high income advanced countries such as Norway and Switzerland, both of these countries are much focus on nurturing highly skilled resources rather than all these kinds of building infrastructures. Based on the chart 3, we can see that the shift in allocation for the non-physical projects and physical projects under the 9th Malaysia Plan and 10th Malaysia Plan. From the pie chart, we can see that during the 9th Malaysia Plan, physical projects are putting emphasis which is 78% versus 60% in the 10th Malaysia Plan. While in the 10th Malaysia Plan, non-physical projects are getting more important which included 40% if compare with 22% under the 9th Malaysia Plan. Lacking of skilled workforce Highly skilled labor is required to support the further development of the economy. The Star Online, 6th August 2010 stated that only 23% of Malaysias 11 million workforces are skilled, including those with higher education degrees. This make Malaysia as one of the country with the least qualified workers in the region. Besides, Singapore has more than 40% of the skilled labors while the country likes Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, its skilled labors are over around 40%. In the Western Europe, the percentage of the skilled labors is even higher than 70%. The Star Online, 6th August 2010 also stated that the Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Maznah Mazlan said that the lacking of the skilled and qualified workers in Malaysia can slowdown the economic growth and the economic progress within the country. Moreover, the low number of the qualified workers would not attract so much foreign direct investment (FDI), thus, it may be challenges for Malaysia to transform into a high inc ome and develop country by its target year. Other than that, the Minister of the Human Resources also hopes that by the end of the 10th Malaysia Plan, the countrys percentage of skilled workers must increase to 37%. In addition, the government is also plan to increase the salary because with highly skilled it must met with the higher salaries. To move the economy to high value chain, it is important to develop the potential to innovate and create new technology as well as design much more new products. Our Science and technology and Research and Development were partly constrained by the short of scientists and engineers. The number of scientists and engineers per million populations in year 1998 was 500 compared with 2600 for the country like Singapore and Korea. In addition, during 2004, Malaysia had only 21 research scientists and engineers for every 10,000 workforce. In the 9th Malaysia Plan, the target was set to achieve 50 per 10,000 workforces by the year 2010. Due to this, the government had implemented the National Brain Gain Programmes, it is aim to attract scientists and engineers worldwide to conduct research and development (RD) in Malaysia. Policies are also very important in order to increase the ability of the education system to enhance the mobility of the workers as well as attracting more highly-skilled labors from abroad. Malaysia wants to be driven by productivity, innovation and no longer by factor accumulation Productivity and innovation are needed to drive the economy. To achieve the Vision 2020, Malaysians need to be more productive and innovative. The Vision 2020 sets new and higher goals for the national aspiration and changed the way Malaysians behave. Factor accumulation here is refer to the labor and capital that will produce goods and services in the economy and in the long run, it will produce output thus can increase the economic growth. When the labors are driven by productivity and innovative, it can directly make them to be more productive in order to use the capital and technology more efficiently. Eventually, this will improve their performance towards their jobs. When the labors are become more productive, eventually it can enhance the competitiveness between the firms. Hence, it can stimulate the economic of our country. 9.0 CHALLENGES SOLUTIONS The Government of Malaysia is committed to develop the human capital; however, it is still a long journey to go. Malaysia still stands at the starting point of the development of human capital. Malaysia in the way transforming to knowledge based economy, believes that developing the human capital is compelling. Concomitant with development of human capital, there are some challenges have emerged. The first one is inappropriate of the education system. The education system did not meet with the expectations and demand of the job market. It causes the rising unemployment among graduates. There are total 70% graduates unemployed. Table 1 shows the statistic of the unemployment among university graduates (include foreign graduates). The statistic shows that there are total 20thousand graduates are unemployed. There are 16.2% are from the University of Technologi Mara, which is double to the second highest one, 7.6% from University Utara Malaysia. Only 0.2% is from the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. From the data, we can know that the skills they learn are mismatch with the demand of the market. Malaysia education system is a cap with memorizing without critical thinking and practical or analytic skills to improve creativity. It does not make any sense to the demand of the job market. To face this challenge, it is compulsory to review the school curriculum to generate creativity. Curriculum should be designed to ensure graduates equipped with relevant knowledge and skills that meet the requirement of job markets. Life-long learning should be promoted. Students can gain extra knowledge not only from the school but also from other sources. Habit of study should not be encourages in schooling hours only, but have to maintain among the whole life. Teacher also can use interactive multimedia technology to promote teaching. Second challenge is the brain drain problem. There were about 700,000 talented Malaysians working abroad. Below are the statistics about the emigration of employed person. Table 2 shows that the number and percentage distribution of employed persons by migration status, Malaysia, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007. At year 1992, there are 7,047,800 of Malaysians are employed with 0.8% are migrant abroad and at the year of 2007, there are 0.5% of Malaysia are emigrate from the total of 10,538,100 people. Instead, this phenomenon is due to pull factor such as high wages from overseas and push factor such as unfair problem in Malaysia. Malaysia brain drains problem appears to be picking up speed. According to recent report, 140,000 after the country and this figure more than doubled to 350,000 between 2008 and 2009. We are now losing talented people and one of the main problems is the flight of graduates. To take over the challenge, Dato Sri Najib Tun Razak had announced and formulates policies to encourage highly-educated immigrants to go back, which is Malaysia Talent Corporation. This policy also aimed to seize the countrys growing brain drain problem. Malaysia Talent Corporation is to find out the reason that can make them to consider going back to Malaysia and at the same time generate more business prospects and pay them higher wages than global wages. Besides that, government of Malaysia also can invest in other potential talented people to expand countrys capacity to generate p eople skilled in enabling technologies that drive the knowledge economy, either in domestic or from foreign. The third and also the last challenge are workers attitude and mindset toward their job. It found that it is easy for the worker to enhance the skills, but not the attitude. Workers are mainly not committed to the job, not full attendance and traditional thinking. Furthermore, the worst is the employees are found that they are lack commitment in learning and training. To overcome this challenge, first of all, workers have to change their mindset and attitude. The company also can deal the challenge through empowerment. Corporations can humanize the work environment so that management and employees can work together to enhance the productivity and achieve greater personal and professional success. Through the empowerment, it can involve employees in taking responsibility for improve them and encouraging employees to play more active role in their work. 10.0 POLICIES STRATEGIES To achieve vision 2020 associated with high income nation, there need some policies and strategies to achieve the outcomes. Malaysia First Human Capital Development Report launched by Ministry of Science, Technology Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp) and global research house Frost Sullivan to access development of human capital in field of life science and biotech. This Malaysia First Human Capital Development Report targeted to access the needs of the biotech industry in order to meet the qualified and talented Malaysians in biotechnology. The report is an instrumental to move Malaysia forward. The first important step to move it forward is the continued expansion coactions in lab, universities, companies and so on in domestic or international. Besides that, through the report, it can provide the excellent platform for bridge the skills gap in the biotechnology sector. It also can facilitate the professionals through nurturing local talents or sourcing them outside from Malaysia. The report shows the result with evident that there was an increase demand of job in bio technology sectors. Jobstreet shows a list that 41,000 of people had successful being employed under biotechnology industry. The increased requirement of professionals is the successful of the implementation policies and strategies. The other policies and strategies that had implemented is National Key Result Area (NKRA). NKRA is introduced by our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Abdul Razak to improve Malaysians lives. The education NKRAs is targeted at improving student outcomes and is anchored upon four areas: (i) Pre-school enrolments rates, (ii) High performing schools, (iii) Literacy and Numeracy Screening (LINUS) programme, and (iv) New deal for head teachers and principals. To this end, High Performing Schools (HPS) and the School Improvement Programme (SIP) are two strategies that have been adopted in the part of the NKRA. High Performing Schools is improvement of the learning environment. Through HPS, a well-designed school with adequate facilities will built to perform at a highest level, truly enhance the performance and make the learning become more fun and enjoyable. While School Improvement Programme also aimed to increase the performance of school to international level associated with HPS. Beside s that, student outcome can be improving through a quality education such as Government Transformation Programme. There are four imperatives to to improving student outcome, which is ensure every child succeeds, hold schools accountable for changes in student outcomes, invest in great leaders for every school and attract and develop top teachers. Research has found that an improvement in the performance of the school lead to a positive impact on student outcomes. 11.0 IMPACTS Malaysia manage to achieve Vision 2020 on the target year Malaysia is a country which is really very rich in natural resources. However the wealth in natural resources was not sufficient to cause Malaysia to achieve a developed nation status. Vision 2020 will successfully achieve if human resource development is being given top priority by the government of Malaysia. No one could ever deny that investment in human capital is an essential requirement for Malaysia to achieve the status of industrialization. The high educational level of the citizens is one of the characteristics of developed nations. Every child is a national treasure and future leader to our country, despite of which races they are. Therefore, human capital development that is start from childhood is very important in order to raise the children with good values and knowledge. The national education system which is focus on philosophy skills, personality building, creativity, innovation and competitiveness can nurture the citizens who are excellent in morality and qualified in physical and mental. In addition, Malaysia is also not suppose to forget that to put more effort in build more schools, hostels, facilities and equipment modernization, as well as maintain the quality of the teaching profession. If we really could make it, Malaysia can really be a united nation by 2020, with a confident Malaysian society, imbued with strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that is democratic, broadminded, compassionate, and in full ownership of the economy, competitive, self-motivated, trustworthy and sustainable. Malaysia moving towards high quality human capital In this increasingly competitive world, most of the nations are putting their attention on the knowledge, talents and skills of the populace. In 10th Malaysia Plan, the allocation for non-physical infrastructure will be increased to 40%, compared with 21.8% in 9th Malaysia Plan. From that we can know that there is a lot of effort which is putting by the government in order to develop the non-physical projects such as skills development and strong innovation capabilities. As to ensure the workers to own the necessary relevant skills and be able to adapt to a speedily and continuously changing global technological and business environment, Malaysia is starting to focus on retraining and upgrading of skills of both employees and employers. Thus, there are more skilled and knowledge-based workers in Malaysia by year 2020. Private sector was also been encouraged to invest in non-physical infrastructure and provide skill training services to their workers. They will emphasis on build a wor kforce which expertise in technology, management and have entrepreneurial potential. By this, the development of non-physical project will be more efficient since private sector and government work hard together to fulfill the goal to becoming a high quality human capital nation. Skilled labor is an important asset to enhance nations competitiveness in the global market. According to the latest IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2010 Report, Malaysia was at 10th position. It was higher than China which was only ranking 18th. This was really a great achievement for Malaysia to motivate the citizens for moving forward and remain competitive on the global front. Improvement in RD sector RD is important especially in science and technology sector. For example, if the world wants to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel that causing the global warming, scientists need to find some clean and cheap alternative that require little energy to replace the reliance of the fossil fuel. All of these need a lot of research and experiment to make it a success. The European Commission reported in 1997 that even though Malaysia is the worlds third largest exporter of EE products, but then Malaysias RD intensity was relatively low and the amount of scientists and engineers

The True Ending :: essays research papers

The True Ending This is the actual ending to Romeo and Juliet. It wasn’t a happy love story like you might have thought. No it was a horrible tragedy that didn’t really make sense but happened any way. The truth is that only Romeo and Juliet survive, well sort of.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story starts off at night in a rain storm that doesn’t cease, right after Romeo has slain Paris. Romeo believes that Juliet is dead and goes to see her and kill him if it proves to be true. Romeo never got the friars message and hurry’s to see Juliet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Romeo enters the tomb he finds that it is empty. He thinks to himself where could Juliet have gone and is glad that she is not dead. When he leaves the tomb Lord Capulet confronts him. Lord Capulet accuses Romeo of tomb raiding and says that Romeo has stolen Juliet’s Corpse is some sick scheme. They duel and Romeo slays Lord Capulet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Romeo goes to see the friar and ask for help. The friar says he has none to offer and tells Romeo to leave at once. When Romeo leaves the friar takes a flask of him most potent poison and drinks it. Romeo returns to ask the friar something else and see him die. Romeo runs away in horror. The friar’s page comes with Romeo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While this is all going on Juliet has wondered into an alley and is surprised bye a rogue of great skill. He offers to help Juliet because he knows what’s going on. He shows Juliet to where Romeo and the page are getting horses ready. Before Juliet can ask him his name or thank him he is gone. Juliet runs to embrace Romeo in her elegant arms arms.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Romeo goes to ask his parents for help, and tells Juliet to stay on here horse and ride away far away if anything goes wrong. When Romeo enters his house and tells his parent everything his father attacks him. Romeo can’t bring himself to slaying his father so he leaves as quickly as he can. He and Juliet ride off but not before passing the Juliet’s nurse. Romeo and Juliet leave the page behind for he is not used to traveling on horseback.

Aristotle :: essays research papers

Aristotelian Ethics & Distributive Justice Concern with material equality as the central form of distributive justice is a very modern idea. Distributive justice for Aristotle and many other writers for millennia after him was a matter of distributing what each ought to get from merit or desert in some sense. The idea of equality was arguably anathema to Aristotle and most other theorists, including Catholic philosophers, until modern times, indeed until the nineteenth century. A common view was that social hierarchy and its attendant inequality was natural. This inference was likely little more than a naturalistic fallacy of deriving ought from is, but it seemed compelling to most writers. In the seventeenth century, the Levellers in England pushed for equality as essentially a Christian requirement. But theirs was an odd voice in the history of concern with justice before the recent era. David Hume, writing about 1751, saw distributive justice in the modern sense as pernicious. He attributed concern with such an abstract principle to writers who argued from pure reason with no attention to the possibilities of their actual world and to such religious fanatics as the Levellers (discussed further below). Although he may have had a lingering commitment to arguments from merit, his actual statement of the problems with egalitarian distribution could hardly be more modern in its arguments. He wrote that: ideas of perfect equality . . .are really, at bottom, impracticable; and were they not so, would be extremely pernicious to human society. Render possessions ever so equal, men’s different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community. The most rigorous inquisiti on too is requisite to watch every inequality on its first appearance; and the most severe jurisdiction, to punish and redress it. But besides, that so much authority must soon degenerate into tyranny, and be exerted with great partialities; who can possibly be possessed of it, in such a situation as here supposed? Perfect equality of possessions, destroying all subordination, weakens extremely the authority of the magistracy, and must reduce all power nearly to a level, as well as property. (Hume 1975, p. 194) In this passage, Hume raises three of the standard arguments against equality, which can be stated in contemporary vocabulary as follows.

The Female Entrepreneurial Role in James M Cains Mildred Pierce :: Mildred Pierce Essays

The Female Entrepreneurial Role in James M Cain's Mildred Pierce A woman's place in the post-depression era is usually one where a woman would commonly be known to have a role in the economy; only to be waiting in her kitchen to cook for the "money-making husband." It was often rare to encounter one woman who had the ability to take her inner interests and turn them into an entrepreneurial role in society. Yet, through this novel by James M. Cain, one will encounter Mildred Pierce, in which Mildred uses her inner talent, and cooking. To redeem the long lost woman's role in the economy and the workforce. This inner interest of cooking was not kept inside the household as it has with millions of other woman in the United States; it was instead expanded into a successful capitalistic venture for Mildred. Gorgeous legs, great cook, and friendly disposition. Mildred used these attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. Yet Mildred also had a weakness, one being that she has failed to Veda’s standards. Mildred Pierce tries her best in order to please her daughter. She charts the rise and fall of a woman who makes and markets pies. When her husband loses his livelihood as a result of the Wall Street crash, Mildred takes work "as a waitress"(Mildred Pierce) in a diner. "Recognizing that she can produce better pies than the business currently has to offer, she rapidly becomes its supplier."(1,dirks) Then she opens a restaurant of her own, which leads to openings of several others. Mildred, a mother of two daughters, was left alone because of her husband, Bert. Mildred, capable of cooking meals as to a fancy restaurant she decides to utilize these techniques in opening her Own restaurant. Wally, a friend of Mildred's husband helps in organizing a place to build the new restaurant." For the first time in her life, Mildred felt the quick excitement of a conspiratorial deal. She comprehended the credit aspect of it, once Wally explained it, and she didn't need to be told how perfect the place was for her purposes."(93,Cain) Mildred able to use the abandon Pierce Model home she renovates, and turns it into a restaurant. She decided on a name, "Mildred Pierce" in which she only serves chicken and waffles and pies on the side.

Poverty and Children in the United States Essay

Poverty is the classification of people that fall under a certain income bracket set by the government. Poverty is broken down in to two groups relative and absolute. Relative poverty is in relation to some people have more where as absolute poverty is considered life-threatening. Poverty affects people of age, race and ethnicity, and gender and family patterns. Each group that is affected typically carries the pattern from one generation the next generation making the social status difficult to change (Macionis, 2006). Although poverty can affect many different types of people those most affected by poverty are the children and women which make up 55 percent of the poor population. There continues to be blame on why people are poor and why they cannot change their lives to do better. Some people believe that it is an endless battle and once poor always poor and it is too difficult to change living situations. Poverty affects children in many ways health, food, shelter, education and exposure to violence. The cause of poverty to children is directly related to poverty in women. The beliefs of the causes of poverty according to the Encyclopedia of Women and Gender (2001), â€Å"Individualistic beliefs focus on personality attributes. These beliefs include irresponsibility, lack of discipline and effort, or lower ability and talent. Structuralistic beliefs incorporate the larger socioeconomic system such as low wages for some jobs, poor schools, prejudice, discrimination, and job availability. Fatalistic beliefs as to the reasons for a person’s poverty status focus on such things as bad luck, chance, and fate.† Most poverty that affects women are those that are single mothers although these women worked they made too much for public  assistance but not enough to be able to take care of themselves and their children with proper housing, food, clothing and health care. The lack of health care directly relates to the health of children. When a mother cannot afford health care for herself during pregnancy, health issues are passed to the child. The child is then born with health issues that will continue to go untreated due to lack of health care. The single mother that makes too much to qualify for pub lic assistance, does not make enough to purchase medical coverage for herself and her family (Encyclopedia of Women and Gender (2001). In 1996, policies to the welfare system were changed greatly. Agencies could cut assistance to families without notice. Only women with a child under that age of one were able to get assistance without much red tape. Most states allowed people to be on assistance for a maximum of two years. There were programs designed to help women get jobs and off welfare but federal minimum wage is not enough to support a family. Without welfare assistance women and their children fall back into poverty (Encyclopedia of Women and Gender (2001). According to Duncan, G., Yeung, W., Brooks-Gunn, J., and Smith, J. (1998), there are many factors the most significant is the relation to the paternal social economic status and how it effects to the child’s and adults achievements. Most that is in a poor social status tend to be poorly educated and have children out of marriage which add an extra strain to the families which can result in physical harm to the child. Adults with children that struggle to feed, clothe and house their children are easily stressed and at times react in extreme punishment to the children blaming the child for the situation that the family is currently in. Once children are exposed to domestic violence and violence upon themselves then the cycle usually cont inues from generation to generation. Not being able to break the cycle can be a factor of poor education. Poor education is part of living in poor cities urban and rural. Families that are poor are only accepted by those that are like them, poor. So families that are in these communities seem to be stuck in the social status and cycle. Not knowing how to get out or afraid to get out of that status. If that status is something a person has always known some will not think anything different than that status being a normal way of life. According to Fantuzzo, J., Fusco, R., Mohr, W., & Perry, M. (2007), during violence witnessed by children the perpetrators were more likely to be  arrested then times when children were not present. The police officers were concern that it was of great importance to send a message the violence is wrong. When it comes to domestic violence children are likely to have serious issue with development. These children tend to be more withdrawn from others and have poor social skills. There are many agencies that help assist the children in cases where the children are in danger from others. Such agencies are child protected services (CPS). Services such as CPS assist in placing child in home that will help to protect them from violence and neglect. With all of the research that has been done on how violence affects children in poverty there is no accuracy to the full impact of violence and children. According to Koch (2000), â€Å"The child poverty rate has declined slowly since 1993, and the rate of black child poverty is the lowest in history. But 13.5 million American children still live in poverty — the highest rate of any industrialized country. Conservatives attribute the decline to welfare reform, which forced millions of single welfare mothers to go to work. But child advocates like the Children’s Defense Fund say that progress in reducing child poverty has slowed markedly and that cuts in social service programs made the poorest families poorer.† Today the rich still get richer and it seems that the poor continue to get poorer and the children of these poor families are the ones that are suffering the most. Most of the child poverty is in inner cities (urban areas). Families move to urban areas for better opportunities for themselves and their families but it has not improved these families quality of life. These families want to give their children a better chance to succeed by moving to these urban areas but that idea seems to be failing. Some will say that these families suffer from being dependent on welfare dependency but in truth these child suffer because wages are to low and housing is too high for t heir parents to be able to make ends meet and try to get ahead of the system. With welfare assistance these children would not have food to eat and medical care. Welfare assistance assists the parents to help provide for the child when their financial income does not adequately provide for the child (Koch, 2000). The United States is supposed to have the most wealth but with that wealth the United States also has the highest child poverty as illustrated in the above chart (Koch, 2000). Most families that fall in to the poverty level make minimum wage jobs and will never be able  to get out of the poverty level. With these families they are usually poor educated which greatly impacts their earnings. Since some families work more than one job to try to make ends meet there is not time to try to better educate them. The children of these families learn from example and will continue to develop the habits of their parents. Working low paying jobs to provide food, clothing and shelter from their children will continue to be the pattern and education will be far down on the list (Koch, 2000). There has been some change to welfare reform law called Charitable Choice, this changes has made it easier for the government to be able to contract religious groups to provide social services to the poor. Many programs have come from this reform like Big Brothers/Big Sisters which is a mentoring program that helps children see a different way of life and have a positive role model to help encourage these poor children to stay in school, go to college and understand that though they may come from poor families does not mean that they have to continue in the path of their parents. These programs help children to gain confidence in the child. These programs also cut first time drug use by half and violent acts by a third. Although faith based organizations cannot replace the government programs faith based organization over lap government programs by 75 percent which include medical aid, housing, help pay bills for heating and water and educational programs to help those get back on their feet to help better provide for their families (Koch, 2000). Poverty affects everyone not just the people living in poverty. The group that is most affected by poverty is the child. Without proper care and basic needs taken care of these children of poverty will become ill and some of these children die. These children have poor education and many do not stay in school to get there high school diploma. The children of poverty usually drop out of school to help provide for those that are in the home assisting their parents in paying the bills and providing food. These jobs are once again low paying jobs and the cycle continues. Without proper education the pattern will never end, with government assistance and faith based organizations to help these families and mentor their children will help for these children to get out of the poor status and has a chance to get off government assistance in the future. Everyone needs to be aware that although the United States is considered a wealthy country, there is poverty in the United States and the people need  to work together to break the cycle and make sure that the child are taken care of, so they can live a productive, healthy and happy life. References Duncan, G., Yeung, W., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Smith, J. (1998). How much does childhood poverty affect the life chances of children? American Sociological Review, 63(3), 406-423. Retrieved April 4, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Complete. (Document ID: 30936057). Fantuzzo, J., Fusco, R., Mohr, W., & Perry, M. (2007). Domestic Violence and Children’s Presence: A Population-based Study of Law Enforcement Surveillance of Domestic Violence. Journal of Family Violence, 22(6), 331-340. doi:10.1007/s10896-007-9080-4. Koch, K. (2000, April 7). Child poverty. CQ Researcher, 10, 281-304. Retrieved April 4, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2000040700. Macionis, J.J. (2006) Society: The Basics Eighth Edition, Published by Prentice-Hall Poverty and Women in the United States. (2001). In Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/estwomen/poverty_and_women_in_the_united_stat es

Aramco Supply Chain Managment

Table of Contents Page Number Introduction3 Background of the Company8 The Dilemma in Saudi Aramco Supply Chain Management10 Analysis of the operation of the Company’s Supply Chain Management12 Conclusion16 References17 Introduction: Several company managers are continuously searching for the best possible way of reducing cost and utilizing their inventories so that the company can implement cost reduction strategy. With all prices of prime commodities are accelerating for increases to maintain the business, the challenge for manufacturing companies nowadays is to come up with a management strategy that could lessen the burden of imposing additional prices to the consumer’s purchases. Yet seemingly, it seems impossible to achieve due to the domino effect in the market offering. Starting from the raw materials to the manufacturing plant then to the manufacturing plant to its distribution centers and from the distribution centers to the consumers, the process entails expenditures either from the supplier or from the manufacturing plant. Once transporting raw materials is affected by the movement in the prices of gasoline and oil, salary increases of its work force and additional price for the vehicle’s spare parts suppliers cannot but face the reality that they must charge additional cost to their buyers. So goes the trend. The usual thinking about a supply chain is a vertical flow of the entire materials for production that is fully integrated because it is owned by a single firm although its channels are operating independently. Hence, an efficient coordination among the managers of its channels is demanded for the success of the supply chain. However, a supply chain need not only be limited to a single ownership of the entire process. By its definition, according to the paper of B. B. Arntzen, G. G. Brown, T. P. Harrison, and L. Trafton (1993) a supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution alternatives that begins from the procurement of materials, converting the materials into mid-way and finished products, then the distribution of the products to customers. Supply chain is not limited to manufacturing alone but also in the service industry. There may also be expected difficulties along the entire chain due to the varying approaches from industry to industry or from firm to firm but the process proceeds as planned. Company A Company B DistributorCustomers Raw Materials manufacturing plant Finished Product Company This may sound simple but a realistic supply chain actually embraces several finished products with shared components, facilities, and capacities. Materials flow does not come only from one single network but from other networks also. At times, different modes of transportation are considered and usually the bills of materials for the finished products are both costly and enormous. R. H. Ballou, (1992) believes that traditional supply chain still operate along this pattern but on this case the supply chain deviates from the old practice of supply chain and paved the way to another model of creating an effective cost reduction strategy. In the supply chain, according to M. C. Cooper and L. M. Ellram (1993) the main focus lies on the mistake of materials, unnecessary information and unpredictable finances as they move from their supplier, to the respective manufacturer then to the wholesaler passed on the retailer before finally reaching the consumer. However, another view was presented by J. B. Houlihan (1985) because his notion of supply chain is involved in coordinating and integrating these flows for inside the company and its relation with other companies. The ultimate goal of all effective supply chain management is to reduce inventory but available when needed hence, minimize the cost of production. The product flow consists of the progress of goods from supplier to customer. Information flow is the transmittal of orders and keeping posted the status of the delivery. The financial flow covers the credit terms, payment schedules, and consignment title of ownership arrangement. As Cohen, et al. (1989) noted supply chain also consists of strategic decisions and operational decision levels. Strategic decisions usually entail longer time to observe its effect on the company. It requires close monitoring of the corporate strategy, but oftentimes, in many companies, it is already the firm’s business strategy. Setting aside, operational level decisions are shorter period and concentrates mainly on the day to day basis of inventory, production, and packaging. The main objective on this level is maintaining an effective and efficient product flow from the strategically planned supply chain. Houlihan (1985) reiterates that supply chain management operates according to four major decision areas namely; business location, production input and output, materials inventory, and distribution including transportation and channels. It should be noted that on these decision areas the elements of strategic planning and operational procedures are inclusive. It is because strategic decisions include what products to produce, and which plants to produce them in, allocation of suppliers to plants, plants to Distribution Channels, and Distribution Channels to customer markets Business location refers to the place where production facilities, warehouse, and source point are easily accessible both by the suppliers and other stakeholders of the company. Location facilities cover an assurance of resources for a longer period due to the long term plan of the business. Considered also for an effective supply chain location are the size, number, and the possible paths by which the product flows through to the customers. This decision is important because it represents the main strategy for accessing customer markets which definitely have effect on revenue, cost, and level of service. It is determined by employing a routine check on production costs, taxes, duties and duty drawback, tariff, local content, distribution costs, production limitation and many others. Production decision is also a critical concern in supply chain management because it entails the capacity of the manufacturing facilities to handle the production process. It is focused on detailed production scheduling. It includes the construction of the master production plan, time table on the machines, and maintenance of equipments. The elements of workload balancing and quality control that are being measured on this facility are seriously considered. Materials inventory are managed properly in the supply chain management levels of decision. Inventories could either be raw materials, semi-finished or already finished merchandize. These materials may also be in the process between locations or in other place as in the case of outsourcing activity. The purpose of managing the inventories is to safeguard against any uncertainties that might exists in the supply chain. Holding inventories can cost as much as one half of the product’s value. Too much inventories of raw materials means slow return of investment and large inventories of finished products can cause lower prices due to overflowing supplies. The aspect of transportation viewed according to the context of H. L. Lee and C. Billington (1992) is also another element in the supply chain management issues because it is closely associated with the inventory due to its mode of moving the raw materials or the finished products. The best mode of trading off the cost is to transport with the indirect cost of inventory associated with the type of transportation. While using air is fast, reliable, and warrant lesser safety stock, it is very expensive. Shipping by sea or by train may be cheaper but they take longer time and consumed large amount of inventories to buffer against the uncertainties associated with it. Hence, shipment sizes, routing, and scheduling of equipments are the main factors operating in the Supply Chain Management. Another point was raised by J. M. Masters, (1993) as he discussed on the process of supply chain management and the level of decisions that have to be made on these models are enormous and require considerable amount of data. Due to the huge data requirement and the broad scope of decisions, each supply chain decision models provide approximate solutions. The operational decisions, meanwhile, address the day to day operation of the supply chain. Therefore the models that describe them are often very specific in nature. Due to their narrow perspective, these models often consider great detail and provide very good, if not optimal, solutions to the operational decisions. As a solution for successful supply chain management, Saudi Aramco employed a sophisticated software systems, with Web interfaces and has already been in competition with the Web-based Service Application Providers or the SAP, that provide part or all of the SCM service for the company. Saudi Aramco must have been blest to be able to implement supply chain management on its production process and updated it with the use of modern day Information Technology. In spite of the global financial problem that oil producing countries are suffering at present, Saudi Aramco still stands tall amidst financial chaos. Supply chain management is at its best at Saudi Aramco that is why there is less worry even if the prices of oil and crude went down in the global landscape. At Saudi Aramco, the corporate policies guide the supply chain to a particular and specific objective that the firm hopes to achieve (http://www. saudiaramco. com. sa/html/). 11. Background of the Company State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) is the king of oil. It is the world's number one oil producer, supplying more than 10% of the world's oil demand. The company controls proved oil reserves of about 259. 8 billion barrels. It extracts 9. 1 million barrels a day, operates refineries, markets oil internationally, and distributes it domestically. Saudi Aramco owns a fleet of oil tankers and invests in refineries and distribution networks in other countries; it also owns 239. 5 trillion cu. ft. of natural gas reserves. The company dates back to 1933, when Saudi Arabia agreed to open up a large area for exploration by Standard Oil of California now known as Chevron. From its headquarters in Dhahran on the eastern shores of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Aramco manages virtually all of Saudi Arabia's enormous hydrocarbon enterprise. From the giant Ghawar and Safaniya oil fields, the world's largest onshore and offshore fields, to the leading-edge technology at the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center, and from one of the largest and most modern fleets of supertankers to refining and marketing joint ventures around the globe, Saudi Aramco is positioned to continue to play its leading role in meeting the world's demand for oil. Saudi Aramco revenue is estimated between 150 billion and 350 billion dollars. It varies greatly year to year due to high dependency upon hydrocarbon prices. Saudi Aramco is responsible for 99 percent of the Kingdom's proven crude oil reserves of 259 billion barrels (41. 2 1010m? ) about a quarter of the world's total. That is more than double the total of Iraq, the country with the world's second largest reserves, and nearly 12 times the reserves of the United States. Saudi Aramco produces and exports more crude oil than any other company. Recent production has averaged some 8 million barrels (1,300,000 m? ) per day. That is more than twice the output of the next highest producer and nearly five times greater than the largest U. S. oil company. Saudi Aramco maintains a maximum sustained crude production capacity of 8. 5 million barrels per day. Saudi Aramco ranks among the top ten companies in gas production worldwide. The company is also a leader in both the production and export of natural gas liquids (NGL), and a major producer of refined products. The company produces natural gas in association with crude oil and non associated gas from deep, independent gas fields. This gas is used as fuel and feedstock for the Kingdom's backbone industries and utilities, and for export and domestic consumption as NGL. A vigorous program is currently under way to expand gas production and processing capabilities to meet increasing demand for gas at home to power the Kingdom's robust domestic economic growth. Saudi Aramco's oil operations encompass the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Totaling more than 1. 5 million square kilometers, this area is larger than the combined areas of Texas, California, Oklahoma and Utah, or of France, Spain and Germany. Most production comes from fields in the coastal plains of the Eastern Province in an area extending 300 kilometers north and south of Dhahran. Saudi Aramco VP announced Aramco's plans to build projects worth about 487. 5 billion Saudi Riyals (US $130 billion) in the next 5 years. Due to the unprecedented global demand for oil, Aramco announced that the number of its oil rigs will double by the end of 2006 (http://www. saudiaramco. om) Governed with its vision and holistic mission, the company is striving to make perfect its management concept and practices in order to build solid human resource foundation and company culture that would serve its competitive against other banking institutions in the entire Kingdom within the next couple of years (http://www. saudiaramco. com. sa/html/). 111. The Dilemma in Saudi Aramc o Supply Chain Management Saudi Aramco is the world leader in the oil industry and it possesses the huge deposit of oil and mineral resources. It built strong and reliable ties with its market all over the world while continuously harnessing its rogressive communication with its entire supplier from manpower, facilities, equipments, construction, development projects, and community services. At present Saudi Aramco remains stable and assured of the relentless efforts of its entire people in making the company a world leader in the oil industry and a good example to follow. The entire materials and needed machineries for the oil drilling, processing, plant treatment, transportation and distribution of petroleum are provided by the supply chain from all private industrial suppliers around the Kingdom belonging to the Saudi nationals. No imported materials are used aside from those that are not available in the kingdom. The ongoing calls for localization of Aramco’s production materials are contained in the company’s oath to support local industries and private industrial businesses in the Kingdom. One particular project that the company listed on an indefinite postponement is the envisioned 40 hectares plant facilities and accommodations at Rastanura. In the middle of 2008, Saudi Aramco invited bidders and quotations from several constructing firm around the Kingdom and to some well known companies the Gulf. Toward the end of year, the project was awarded to Foster Wheeler Group of Companies Middle East. The said project was divided into four phases and phase one would start by March 2009. However, Foster Wheeler received a notice from the company on mid February 2009 stating that the Rastanura project would be postponed indefinitely. Foster Wheeler through its resources found out that the main reason for the postponement is the company supplier and sub contractors were heavily affected by the global financial crisis (Thajudeen, 2009). Saudi Aramco suppliers of equipments and high quality standard materials could not meet the requirements needed by the company for the construction of its project. The cost of delivering the materials to Saudi Arabia from the place of origin almost tripled. The high price of raw materials plus low supply prompted Aramco suppliers to increase its prices too but since everything was stipulated in the contract, Saudi Aramco would not accept the new price schedule. The problem begins. Due to the company’s adherence to the Saudization program an option to change suppliers and seek foreign assistance cannot be implemented. France and Great Britain are rich suppliers of equipments needed to continue the construction of drilling plants and community accommodations of its people. The prospect of getting from these countries will destroy the supply chain which Aramco have been protecting and preserving all those years. Japan’s Sumimoto Industry’s offered Saudi Aramco well defined and structured supply chain that could even generate a healthy foreign relation between the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the people of Japan. The offer was shelved temporarily and for further consideration and study. While the present economic crisis continuously spreading in some major industries in the Kingdom, Saudi Aramco remains financially firm and liquid. There is no question whether the company can provide the necessary funds for the completion of the project. There is also no doubt in the capacity of Foster Wheeler to deliver the project on time. It is only a matter of the availability of supplies that Saudi Aramco encountered some critical problems. 1V. Analysis of the operation of the Company’s Supply Chain Management For the past several years, Saudi Aramco perfectly managed its supply chain and it can be proven by the smooth development and completion of all existing projects the company have ever made. The fact is that starting 2008 up to the present the global financial crunch created havocs and collapsed of several industries in the world. Included in this chaotic situation are some suppliers of Saudi Aramco. The law of supply and demands in Economics is pretty much at work at this time. There seems to be a blank solution to this perennial problem at present. If this is the case, the postponement of Saudi Aramco project in Rastanura would be justified. On the second thought, there could be another better solution that could be worked on without jeopardizing the effort exerted by Foster Wheeler to win the project. An excerpt from the speech of Abdallah S. Jum'ah, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco (2002), he said â€Å"The greatest share of our investments as oil and gas producers goes to assuring that we maintain the ability to supply our products without interruption. While such costs are burdensome, they nevertheless are critical to the sustainability of energy supply. No one can long afford to be without this lifeline. † This was also reiterated in the speech delivered by Ali I. Al-Naimi (2002), Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, in Washington D. C. as he claimed â€Å"we have invested billions of dollars to build production capacity and to construct diverse export routes. The importance of the excess production capacity of Saudi Arabia has been demonstrated in more than one supply crisis in the past two decades such as the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979, the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the supply infrastructure crisis of 2000†. Granted that the chain of supply has a domino effect and a disruption in one unit of the chain may result to the interruption of operation of the entire system, Saudi Aramco with its huge resources could help solve the problem in terms of loan assistance to the ailing unit of the chain. Saudi Aramco management could serve as mediator between suppliers of materials to the members of its supply chain to retain its old price schedule which would be compensated by Saudi Aramco in terms of supply of oil with no extra charges and at its lowest price. The problem is rooted in the availability of funds and not on mismanagement of the supply chain. The remedy to this kind of situation is by capital assistance. Another possible option to maintain the flow of the supply chain is by acquisition of the units in the chain that is experiencing a hard blow from the economic crisis. Aramco could temporarily take over the financing of its production so that the unit may continue to operate and the employee would not lose their jobs. Unemployment would create additional burden to the ongoing financial crisis. Saudi Aramco has the capacity to generate production of its supply chain unless it is willing to suspend indefinitely its project with Foster Wheeler. The movement of Saudi Aramco supply is vital to its operation in distribution and expansion in order to accommodate the growing demand for oil in the world. Saudi Aramco is also part of another supply chain and the disruption on its supply would create stoppage of production to it end user. In the same manner, the stoppage of supply from the company supply chain might also result to a decease or worst, stoppage of the company production in the long run. For as long there is still the chance to save the continuous decline of financially able company in the supply chain of Saudi Aramco, it is the best opportunity for Aramco to show its goodwill to all its allies and to the world in general. The management team of Saudi Aramco is determined to continue to play its role in meeting the world's demand for oil exploration & producing, refining, distribution, shipping, marketing as the leading producer of the energy that powers the world's economies and empowers its people, committed to fulfill the kingdom development goals including developing the Kingdom’s industrial base and diversifying economy, helping creates jobs for Saudi nationals and maximizing the value of the Kingdom’s natural resources. Much more so, the Company cannot afford to create possible problems in its supply chain. Saudi Aramco is a government owned company and it does not depend on any political pressures or compromises from any person in the country except to the King due to the monarchial form of government that Saudi Arabia has. The company structure of Aramco is bureaucratic and hierarchical that is why there is absence of threat coming from the labor sector or any human rights advocates in the international scene. Saudi Arabia law is based on Shari’ a law and its legal implications. In this case, the Company has the power to take control temporarily of its suppliers who are experiencing financial downturn. At Saudi Aramco, there is no other power aside from the monarch and the top management level of the company. Stakeholders are not a major threat nor can they pose any threat at all. Aramco’s investment is more of partnership with other big oil producing countries and not on the individual share of investments. What can be considered to have power over the company is the presence of foreign partners as distributors and international oil producing companies that accepted Aramco’s partnership strategy in producing enough supply of world’s fuel and oil needs. Saudi Aramco also uses Management Information and Decision Support System that delivers information to support many of its day-to-day management’s decision-making needs and supply chain operation processes. Reports, display, and responses produced by such systems provide wide range of information that the Aramco management has specified in advance to meet adequately their information needs. Such predefined information satisfies the need for awareness and updated situation of the organization in relation to its supply chain performance, financial situation and production apabilities (http://www. saudiaramco. com. sa). Saudi Aramco MIDSS provides the needed information to the Aramco’s decision makers at the operational and tactical level of the organization. Based on the data generated from the program Saudi Aramco management can determine how and when to entertain an increase of oil production, price, cost of operation, wages and purchasing ability of the company. The in formation takes the form of periodic, exception, and demand reports and immediate responses to inquiry. Saudi Aramco’s web browsers, application programs, and data-base-management-software provide access to information in the intranet and other operational database of the organization. These databases are maintained by transaction processing system. The data about the business environment are gathered from the Internet or intranet when necessary and when greatly demanded. (http://www. aramco. com) Based on this technological competencies, the company is able to secure all the necessary information its suppliers might be needed at the moment so as to continue their production. V. Conclusion The plight of Saudi Aramco supply chain management definitely lies on the hand of the company. We have learned from Saudi Aramco that the company’s supply chain has been operating perfectly without interruption. The company was able to manage its supplier’s time scheduling, processing, manufacturing, delivering, and stocking. There were minor problems along the way especially in transporting the supplies needed by the company but the problem was resolved immediately before it can cause damage to the company’s oil production. By becoming the world leader in the oil industry the company’s long term plan must not sacrificed due to financial difficulties of its suppliers. Small problem that is left unattended became big and too difficult to solve in the near future. The same occurrence is happening to the supply chain process of the Saudi Aramco high quality materials and equipments for its development and expansionary project at Rastanura. The delay in the start of the project would lead to the extension of its completion, late performance, and finally slow production which would be advantageous to competitors. Supply chain management assures the end ompany an uninterrupted production and a continuous flow of resources from the suppliers’ supplier to the manufacturer to the consumer then back to the supplier’s supplier. The cycle goes on and on for as long as the chain remains consistent and stable. Saudi Aramco with vast resources and technological capabilities can easily detect any di sruptive factor along its supply chain. Now is the time for Saudi Aramco to divert momentarily a portion of its focus to the financial status of its suppliers. V1. References: Al-Naimi, A. I. (2002) Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Washington, D. C. April 22. http://www. saudiaramco. com/html/speeches (access June 5, 2009) Al-Naimi, A. I. (2002) Saudi Arabia's Approach to Oil Market Stability and Energy Security, Expanding Energy Frontiers – The Institute of Energy Economics of Japan, Osaka, Japan http://www. saudiaramco. com/html/speeches (access June 5, 2009) Arntzen, B. C. , G. G. Brown, T. P. Harrison, and L. Trafton (1995) Global Supply Chain Management at Digital Equipment Corporation, Interfaces, Journal of Operation Management, No. 231, p. 112 Ballou, R. H. (1992) Business Logistics Management, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, p. 1 – 23 Cohen, M. A. and H. L. Lee (1989) Resource Deployment Analysis of Global Manufactu ring and Distribution Networks, Journal of Manufacturing and Operations Management, No. 7, pp. 81-84 Cooper, M. C. , and L. M. Ellram (1993) Characteristics of Supply Chain Management and the Implications for Purchasing and Logistics Strategy. The International Journal of Logistics Management, No. 23 pp. 4, 2, 13-24. Jum'ah, A. S. (2002) President and CEO Saudi Aramco, Calgary, Canada, June 11. http://www. saudiaramco. com/html/speeches (access June 5, 2009) Lee, H. L. , and C. Billington (1992) Supply Chain Management: Pitfalls and Opportunities, Sloan Management Review, No. 33, Spring, pp. 65-73. Lee, H. L. , and C. Billington (1993) Material Management in Decentralized Supply Chains, Operations Research, No. 41 pp. 35-47 Masters, J. M. (1993) Determination of Near-Optimal Stock Levels for Multi-Echelon Distribution Inventories, Journal of Business Logistics, No. 14, pp. 165-195. Thajudeen, S. M. (2009) Foster Wheeler Group of Companies Middle East Region, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, February 15. http://www. saudiaramco. com. sa/homepage/projects (access June 5, 2009)