What Is It about 20-Somethings by Robin Marantz Henig Essay

What Is It about 20-Somethings by Robin Marantz Henig - Essay Example Instead of following a course of life in stages, people are beginning to find confusion in the fact that stability cannot be defined during adulthood anymore, in fact, increasing number of people are going back to school regardless of the age. According to different views, the problems of the 20-somethings can mirror the problematic state of the society such as lack of good jobs that can support new and young families. In fact, people in their twenties often change jobs before reaching adulthood (Par 1-6). There are different studies related to the 20-somethings. One of the said studies was undertaken by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett of the Clark University in Worcester, the 20s should be considered as a â€Å"distinct life stage† referred to as emerging adulthood. He compared the need for the new stage in the recognition of the stage of adolescence a century ago. People ages 18 to late 20s have similar actions of continuously seeking for their own niche in the socio-cultural structure in terms of job, personal relationships and livelihood. Exploration of â€Å"a sense of possibility† summarizes the different components of the psychological profile of the 20-somethings prior to age 30 which is considered as the deadline. It would be helpful to understand the said stage by segregating it but the said action can also result in repercussions not only for policymakers but for the young and emerging adult themselves (Par. 7-12). Arnett faces criticism and contradictions with regards t o his point of view but using his 10-year research to make his case, he was able to get the attention of some developmental psychology experts (Par.13-21).  

Budgets at the Federal, State, Local and Agency Levels Term Paper

Budgets at the Federal, State, Local and Agency Levels - Term Paper Example All of them collect revenue, usually through the form of taxes and make necessary expenditures for the operation of the various departments that comprise their role as provider to the people. With the exception of salaries and other operational expenses, their primary responsibilities are to provide services, programs and funding to various segments of the population. Federal, state, local and agency levels all have their own various programs, offices and duties that contribute to the intricate workings of the national economy as a whole. They are though each inherently individual decision-making bodies. Thornhill summarizes the most important features of a public budget as follows: †¢ The budget, after its approval by the legislative authority, is enforceable. †¢ The results of most of the objectives to be realized by the budget are not quantifiable. †¢ The budget brings together a variety of considerations. †¢ As the objectives of action taken by public institut ion differ widely from those of private organizations, the processes for determining the content of a public budget are therefore unique. †¢ Authorities do not always adapt their expenditure to fit their available revenue. (check citation from original Thornbill, 1984) . Budgets at the Federal, State, Local and Agency Levels Faced with the past decade of national deficits, the recession, and other difficult situations, the United States government has had to set forth a plan to reduce debt, cut spending and increase revenues. In the news as of late because of our enormous debt and the need to raise the debt ceiling or face negative ramifications by defaulting on our loans from the World Bank. Paying higher interest rates and a reduced credit rating that would cost the US a substantial amount in interest would also have increased our debt rather than alleviate it. The government therefore has had to arrive at a budget for the coming year that would substantially cut spending to stave off further economic decline. In efforts to balance the budget, President Obama has focused on reducing military spending by reducing the number of troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq, minimal cuts in other government programs and increasing revenue with more uniform tax rates for all citizens coupled with fewer loop holes for corporations and other businesses. The nations budget is characterized by largely proportionate amounts set forth for areas of prime importance. Defense at roughly 30% , Health care at 21.5% , Social Security, 20%, Income Security at 14% and although considerably lower at 8.5% for education and job training. Other areas such as NASA and scientific discovery, Natural Resources, Immigration and Immigration Law Enforcement are all set at nearly 1- 2% and comprise the remaining 15%. In the political climate of today it is essential to spend on matters of defense and the US as leaders in promoting democracy and assisting our neighbors in need has come to the forefront since the beginning of the century. Social Security, Healthcare and Income Security, in total amount to roughly 55% is a huge sum of the budget assigned to taking care of the nation’s people. President Obama firmly believes that the road to recovery is in educating the nation’s youth and enhanced job training, so that we can advance with the times and better prepare ourselves to grow as leaders in the highly competitive world. He specifically points to areas of medicine, technology and science. 8.5% for education and job training. President Obama also hopes to increase our Gross Domestic Product with an increase in exports and foreign investments. By creating a greater demand globally and enhancing foreign trade relations. In

Addictiveness of Video Games

Addictiveness of Video Games Tingting Song Are Internet Video Games Addictive? Yes, They Are. Video games have already became an indispensable part of our lives especially through the Internet as a medium to link the virtual space and real people in the worldwide. It is worth mentioning that Internet video games are more popular among teenagers, and their spare time is occupied by a variety of video games instead of doing something creative, imaginative and innovative. Therefore, they have a greater chance of video game addiction than other groups of players. Susan Orlean (n.d.) who is an American journalist states, â€Å"I’ve always been afraid of video games – not afraid that I wouldn’t like them, but that I would like them too much, and that after mere seconds in front of any particularly bright and absorbing game, I would abandon all ambition, turn into a mouth – breathing zombie, and develop a wide, sofa-shaped rear end.† The speaker points out the emotions of most players in the face of the video game. Video games excites, annoys the p layers, and even lets them hard to give up playing. Also, playing video games is a good escapist channel and the best way to kill time for players. In my position paper, I believed internet video games are addictive particularly for groups of adolescents. I will discuss the reasons, the causes, and the possible effects of being addicted to the games in detail with evidence. There is no doubt that video games addiction is a quiet killer that is threatening the study habits and the lives of teenagers. Game addiction is a sign of teenagers who have an excessive dependence on a game. First of all, video games have addictive triggers to attract and to lure the players to become addicted to the game. In order to draw more players to play the games, game designers tend to make different types of games which meet different individual needs. a) Video games are usually divided into the following several types such as Action, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing (MMORPG), Strategy, Simulation, and Driving etc. Players can always find the games for their needs in such various categories. b) You will find that there have no specific pre-defined ends for most of these different video games. Players completes every task to have a new discover and those unpredictable factors always inspires players’ curiosity to continue playing the games all the time. c) The game set different reward for the character of the level up. When character have a new start in a new game, the character’s attributes are initialization settings in the game. If players want to finis h the advanced task, to upgrade character’s attributes and to get more skills, they must make their roles from the initial level up to full level soon. With the level of ascension, players have to spend more and more time to challenge more difficult tasks. The process by characters to level up is sustainable and it cannot be sustained for a long time. Games designers build various rewards patterns for players to earn, which also causes addiction. d) Meanwhile, in-game currencies are increased by spending more time playing and more tasks are completed, which leads to more seductive pursuits to achieve. Cumulative gaming time or login in the game on time to complete the task will accumulate more wealth such as gold coins, credits, and energy which increase players’ purchasing power. In-game currencies can buy game props to help players easy to complete the task, and buy the virtual clothes to dress up the character, etc. (Loder Natasha, 2014). Actually, the virtual wealt h were drove by players’ vanity. Sometimes, parts of crops in the game can sell for business in real life between players. That’s why parts for players play so hard that update their items for selling to get a good price. e) Moreover, the designers prefer to set the randomly time-schedule of in-game rewards. Sometimes, players will get a big reward after finishing several tasks, but there are still have several parts of players will get a huge rewards when they only complete one task. Game designers make the factors of uncertainty to let the players never know when they can be rewarded through the tasks, but players always would like to wait the reward until as long as they play long enough. Designers are so smart that always structure a different target to pursue players for different period of gaming time. That’s why players will always have the game to play with innovation. There is no doubt that video games addiction should be categorized as a mental disorde r, however, the addiction is caused by video games’ design, which attracts more players to spend large amount of time to play it (John Hopson, 2001). In the second place, video games provide a fully realized virtual world for players to â€Å"escape† from the reality of the physical world. For gamers, the virtual world are more appealing than real life. a) Those kind of people with social phobias, and lose motivation to communicate with people more likely to addict in the internet video games. The success of the game gives them confidence and give them affirmation to prove their personal ability. Because the desire for interpersonal communication, these groups of players would like to build friendships in virtual space. Players can play together with other game users in a group randomly, and enjoy the feeling of teamwork to accomplish their common task. Also, in the network game, players based on reality condition of the real world or personal expectations of themselves to create the character in any status to finish career goal, to make friends, and to build the family with other users in the game. A lot of players put the ir own emotions to the games like the SIMS, and gradually lose themselves and indulge in games (Romeo Vitelli, 2013). Furthermore, b) people who have huge pressure in real life, sitting in front of the computer, logging in the video games and into the game, they will no longer remember their own ambitions and worry about the difficulties that happen in the life. They will only remember the games’ tasks, the monsters are killed, or another beautiful magic world. Players love the feeling of playing games without any restriction force in real life so video games become their spirit of places gradually (Jack Flanagan, 2014). Thirdly, video games have a strong psychological basis that can lead to an addiction for the players. For instance a) players get hysterical symptoms in the process to play racing games. Usually, this kind of psychology similar with the feedback after playing extreme sports. However, extreme sports have a high level of danger. People who keen to play extreme sports are willing to challenge the nature, and in the case of high danger coefficient to reach high excited state of mind. The metamorphosis of video game also create an immerse experiences for players, such as racing games. In addition, video games do not have physical risk. In the game, players should have quick reaction to avoid â€Å"hit† and elude oncoming vehicles. Mental shocking is a part of fun. Players are almost die but they are alive no matter in the process of extreme sports or such process of violate racing games (Jagodzinski Jan, 2006). All at once, b) violent video game provides the stimulus and brings mor e exciting pleasure for players. You cannot shooting in the street with a gun, it is illegal. However, violent games don’t break the low and have the restrictions for players. Virtual experiences are very real not only the first-Hand Role in killing process but also the vivid graphics. The pleasure of this kind of game is the reason of the players cannot extricate themselves (Xu Zhengchuan, 2012). The last but not the least, Neuroimaging studies have begun to study the changes of brain activity when players play the games and recorded the changes with documents. The evidence shows that there have changes in brain activity during on-line play. Response to video game addiction in players is similar with drug-induced substance dependence. â€Å"These brain regions include the dorsolateral perfrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, nucleus accumbens, thalamus and caudate mucleus.† (Bavelier Daphne, 2011). In addition, unlike drug addiction, Video game addiction will not cause physical damage to human body. However, damage of nervous system are the common reason for the players become problem gamblers. There is no doubt that video games are addictive, and to produce special devastating on the nervous system of the brain. Simultaneously, it is important to note that games addiction is a process of accumulation results (Bavelier Daphne, 2011). As well, add ictive triggers is the important reason for the players spend a large amount of time to play internet video games and lead to cause changes in the brain. Then the fantasy world in the games make them feel better. As an example, one of the easiest operation video games called Farm Game which connects the players with their friends through the Internet. When the player starts to play the game, they will have six lands to sowing crops. Mature crops generally lasted six to seven hours. Players had to harvest their crops on time to avoid their game friends to steal their crops. Players with crops to sell more, they will acquire more coins to buy more land and more expensive crops. At the same time, their level of farms will up with more crops they sold. Players had to check the time, log in the game every day and harvest crops on time in order to avoid other players to steal their crops. I doubts even the players whether cannot help thinking of the picture, content and so on in the game or not. Actually, for most game players, they do often remind of the game and can’t wait to play the game. Video-game designers structure unpredictable and unexpected factors to attract players’ curio sity and desire, so they would like to spend more time to complete the goal in the games. Compared to drug addiction with physical damage, video games are more inclined to spiritual enjoyment and satisfaction. It seems that video game addiction is harmless, but Bakker says video games addiction can ruin lives (Sherry Rauh, 2006). Players don’t think they are in trouble with games addiction who are ignoring the problems and making addiction worse. At an addiction treatment center in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands (Sherry Rauh, 2006), players particularly are groups of adolescent who seriously addicted to internet video games and come to this center to quit addiction on video games. Keith Bakker (Sherry Rauh, 2006) is a director of this addiction consultants said in recent years, they received more and more patients who addicted especially for playing online role-playing games. In the process of broking dependence, if the players does not get more actions such as playing video g ames, they will become agitated, irate, violent and miserable because their fantasy world was interrupted by us. They are in low depression even do not willing to eat, sleep and alive. Otherwise, video game addicts will let players stay away from social development that affect socialize relationships; they will become more isolated with others. As well, students won’t have energy to learning because they are hard to concentrate on learning. And, with the grades become poor, they are tend to dropout and give up other interests and hobbies. In conclusion, I totally believed that it is possible to become addicted to internet video games. Video games addiction has become the mainstream problem in society. This addiction strongly causes problems for individual such as emotional problems, health problems and social problems. There are mainly four arguments’ points to explain the reason of internet video games addiction in this position paper. Such as video game have addictive triggers to attract players dependent on it and won’t stop playing. Play the game online in order to stay away the real digital world and video games offers strong psychological pressure to players. Lastly, there have changes in brain activity during on-line play. Video game gives pleasure to the players at the same time brings negative sides. In my opinion, video games addiction must be aware from parents and society because it is enough to destroy an adolescent life. Work Citation: Susan Orlean. BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2014. Retrieved April 5, 2014,  from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/citation/quotes/quotes/s/susanorlea494668.html#GxqS5W5rQEVom45A.99 Loder, N. â€Å"What Makes Video Games Addictive? : Electronic Entertainment.† The  Economist Newspaper NA, Inc. Feb 18, 2014. Web. April 5, 2014, from  http://search.proquest.com/docview/1500529138?accountid=28041 John Hopson. â€Å"Behavioral Game Design. GAMASUTRA: The Art Business  of Making Games†. UBM Tech. April 27, 2001. Web. April 5, 2014, from  http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3085/behavioral_game_design.php?print=1 Romeo Vitelli, ph.D. â€Å"Are Video Games Addictive?† Psychology Today, 19 August,  2013. Web. 5 April 2014, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201308/are-video-games-addictive Jack Flanagan. â€Å"The Psychology of Video Game Addiction.† The Week, 5 Feb, 2014.  Web. 5 April 2014, from http://theweek.com/article/index/255964/the-psychology-of-video-game-addiction Jagodzinski, Jan. â€Å"Video Game Cybersubjects, The Ethics of Violence and Addiction:  A Psychoanalytic Approach.† Psychoanalysis, Culture Society 11.3  (Dec 2006): 282-303. ProQuest Psychology Journals. Web. 5 April 2014  from http://services.lib.mtu.edu:3960/docview/216517632/485C5DD715AC4523PQ/3?accountid=28041 Xu, Zhengchuan, et. al. â€Å"Online Game Addiction Among Adolescents: Motivation and Prevention Factors.† European Journal of Information Systems 21.3 (May 2012):  312-340. ProQuest Business Collection. Web. 5 April 2014 from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1010849335?accountid=28041 Babelier, Daphne, et. al. â€Å"Brains On Cideo Games.† Nature Reviews. Neuroscience  12.12 (Dec 2011): 763-8. ProQuest Psychology Journals. Web. 5 April 2014  from http://search.proquest.com/docview/905093857?accountid=28041 Sherry Rauh. â€Å"Detox For Video Game Addiction?† CBS Interactive Inc. July 3, 2006.  Web. 5 April 2014, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/detox-for-video-game-addiction/

The Imposter Phenomenon :: Women Imposter Phenomenon Essays

The Imposter Phenomenon The Imposter Phenomenon – as defined by the â€Å"Women’s Studies Encyclopedia – Revised and Expanded Edition† ed. Helen Tierney, 1999 "The Imposter Phenomenon is an internal experience of intellectual phoniness that seems to be prevalent among high-achieving persons, with particularly deleterious effects on women†¦ It is an emotionally debilitating condition characterized by persistent and unwarranted anxiety about achievement, dread of evaluation, fear of failure and exposure, inability to internalize success, and lack of enjoyment of accomplishment and achievement." Nestled between the stacks on the 8th floor of Uris Library, I am King of the Hill. Through the window my realm is expansive: I can see Libe Slope stretching below me fringed with the solid, quiet beauty of the gothics. Beyond this, Cayuga Lake glimmers in the afternoon sun. I feel so powerful. Here I am at an Ivy League university with every resource and opportunity waiting to be discovered. I am so fortunate to be here. I look at my fellow students trudging purposefully up and down the slope. They are so small. Yet even from this distance I can see the confidence in their steps, their grace and determination, and the skillful way they carry the demands of an academic upon their shoulders. They are true knights of our university, fighting for understanding and mastery of their fields. In the light of their glory, my crown fades. Who am I to call myself King? I may be a knight but I am pretending. My armor is made of aluminum foil, my shield is cardboard. Even high in this tower, I am small. After hearing about the imposter syndrome for the first time, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was something I identified with but had never put a name to. How many times have I questioned myself and my abilities? I figured that it is a normal part of growing up, a personal insecurity as I try to discover who I am and where I fit in the web of life. I didn’t necessarily see it as a bad thing. But when I started doing research and saw how intelligent, capable, and talented adults are dealing with these same issues I began to see it as a pervasive problem. Especially when these professionals are turning down promotions because they feel they aren’t good enough, or are unhappy in life because they aren’t happy with themselves.

BPR and TQM in Commercial Construction Industry

The commercial construction industry is the largest component of construction industry in United States. The business started to gain popularity in the 1990’s as the strong economic growth lead to strong demand toward the services in the industry. Companies worked within the industry vary from small contractors who have annual revenue of $1 million, until the multinational corporations whose profits exceeded $1 billion each year. The industry is a little different with other components in the construction industry.For example, commercial construction cannot rely on shrinking interest rates to prevent the downside of an economic surge in the early 21st century. As people started spend less on new construction works, the industry degraded. Commercial construction is a competitive industry. Contractors generally employ sub-contractors, which can be divided into two types, â€Å"group-up work† subcontractors and finish-out work† subcontractors. With stricter regulatio ns and more specific demands from the consumers, business becomes more challenging for everyone.Projects become more complex and time constraints become more demanding. All of which lead to considerably smaller profit margin in the end. Dealing with these challenges, players in the commercial construction industry are desperate for a radical solution, one that will deliver them competitive advantages to survive the all the challenging demands. In this paper, I am providing two alternatives of solution for the commercial construction industry. The first alternative is Total Quality Management (TQM) and the second is Business Process Reengineering (BPR).Both of these alternatives are worldwide known managerial concepts designed to improve the quality of corporate processes. II. Challenges in Commercial Construction Industry Before we discuss how TQM and BPR could help companies improve their processes, I will elaborate some of the challenges in commercial construction industry that ne ed to be addressed. II. 1. Highly Cyclical Demands The commercial construction business is highly affected by the health of US economy. Surges and downturns have direct contribution toward the increase or decrease in revenues, expenses and profits.Economic trends also define the direction of the business. Some commercial construction companies try to tackle the issue by developing multiple specialties. However, the fixed cost invested in all of the specialties is nevertheless burdening the business. Furthermore, by having multiple specialties, companies have to manage costs more carefully to maintain profit in each one. II. 2. Uneven Revenues and Expenses Contractors of commercial construction are demanded to have considerable amount of working capital at their disposal at all times. This is important due to two reasons. First, the price of raw materials fluctuates constantly.Second, clients of the business could decide to pay at random intervals, without considerations of contracto rs’ requirements. In large projects, the cash flow is even larger and thus created the need for careful cost management. II. 3. Availability of Skilled Personnel Personnel availability has always been an issue in the construction industry. This is due to the poor image of construction workers all over the globe. Nevertheless, with the increasing complexities of construction work and the need for more skilful construction workers, the issue of personnel availability has never been so important.Management cannot afford to use unskilled labor to fulfill complex demands from clients. Thus, training periods and becoming more important and also cost management to perform quality training sessions. II. 4. Consolidation of Projects With the increasingly high competitive pressure, many contractors decide to submit to consolidation process, and other contractors fall into the role of sub-contractors. This created an unexpected risk. As construction contracts becomes fewer and larger, c ash flow management of each project becomes a lot harder to manage and financial risks of each project also increases.Today, many commercial construction companies depend of only several annual contracts for most portions of their revenues. II. 5. High Insurance Costs The commercial construction business is characterized by high insurance cost. Contractors are demanded to pay high premiums for many insurance policies, including general liability, workers insurance, etc. This insurance problem is worsen by the material and installation defects issues and unqualified workers. Thus management cannot afford to have poor bookkeeping and cost management. II. 6. Investment in TechnologyTo serve the increasing demand for unique and modern feature of constructions, contractors in the commercial construction business must invest more heavily in high technology. This poses as another challenge for contractors because prices of equipment are also become more expensive and more vary. Contractors would need to make more capital investment management more diligently and more carefully. (â€Å"Industry Overview†, 2006) III. Total Quality Management Total Quality Management is a company-wide approach to quality improvement in corporate processes and activities.The concept has become a way of doing business for companies in various industries all over the globe to improve the quality of corporate processes in all departments and functional areas. Despite to the large nature of differences in corporate processes in different industries, Total Quality Management defines several functions that have become common features of all managerial structure. These defined corporate functions will then become the focus of process improvements. The common functions that become the center of attention in TQM are: 1. Serving customersThe focus of all companies whether they are manufacturing or services companies is to aim for their customers’ satisfaction. In the basis of this pr inciple, management must understand that categorizing business into manufacturing and service are actually senseless. The more important thing to achieve is clearly identifying specific customers of the corporation and also their needs and preferences. TQM invites corporate managers to revitalize focus on this particular activity through market researches, surveys and other studies. Management must constantly learn about their customers 2.Top Management Role in Quality Improvement All business reforms started with the top managers and can only be maintained by constant and sufficient participation from the top managers. This includes quality management efforts. Top managers have the key function of providing direction and motivation for their subordinates. Employees will only participate when they already understand the importance of performing improvements. TQM invites managers to understand the crucial nature of their actions in quality improvements and thus, making the necessary adjustments to achieve the defined targets.3. Employee Participation After ensuring top management are doing their part in the quality improvement process, TQM takes us to focus on employees and how they have participate in support of the effort. Employees are the final station where products and services are still in the organization’s control. Thus, if they have sufficient commitment not to allow the spread of poor quality products and services, then there would be little chances that customers will ever discover unsatisfied products or services delivered to them. 4. Identifying Quality Issues and Developing SolutionsEvery company has a system designed to discover poor quality. The system is generally built from a cross section of various functions within the organizations so that their combined attention will be able to identify quality defects more diligently and furthermore, suggest possible solutions. TQM invites managers to take advantage of the system and focus on dev eloping their potential into maximum. In the new quality system, top management must also take part in defining quality defects, discovering existing opportunities for improvements and formulate possible solutions. 5.Employee Training and Employee Management Even the most highly automated companies require skilful and highly motivated employees to run their processes. TQM bring focus on employee management processes to increase the quality of corporate operations as a whole. First, management should develop their employee training process as corporate targets changes. Second, organizations should provide continuous educational support even to the longer-time employees. Third, organizations should design a working environment where employees would have a sense of pride when they are doing a good job.Fourth, management must ensure that the compensation system is bringing sufficient motivation to attract creativity and fresh ideas from employees. (Hammer, 1993) The perspectives of TQM elaborated above will assist managers within the Commercial Construction business to deal with the challenges of their environment. For instance: ? The first perspective of customer service can realign managers’ perspective in the commercial construction business in how to do their job. Managers of the commercial construction business could begin to see that all their construction work are but means to satisfy clients.Thus, they will begin to involve client more actively in their decision making processes. ? The second perspective of TQM, which is improving top management involvement in business processes, can develop managerial sensitivity on employees’ workload. If managers can understand their employees better, they will be more considerate in making consolidation decisions and technology investments ? The third perspective of TQM will help managers in the commercial construction industry to better integrate with their employees in performing business processes.Empl oyees must be informed of the corporate targets and goals so they can be more motivated in performing their work, knowing that they will make meaningful contribution for the organization as a whole. ? The fourth perspective or TQM can help management in discovering cost reduction opportunities in the midst of the more demanding business environments, especially when consolidation projects are extensively performed. ? The fifth perspective of TQM aligns perfectly with managerial sentiments of the commercial construction business to enhance training and education to ensure that each process is managed by highly qualified personnel.As complexity level enhances, this focus becomes more vital. IV. Business Process Reengineering IV. 1. Definition Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a quality improvement system, the same as Total Quality Management (TQM). It is a management approach to improve the quality of processes by focusing on efficiency and effectiveness of the process that exis t across the organization. Many find difficulties in differentiating between TQM and BPR, but in most articles regarding BPR, it is always elaborated that BPR has a more radical view about business processes and its core necessities.According to BPR, business should define their core processes and focus solely on those activities. Other activities that do not add value to products or services being produced are considered waste. IV. 2. The need for BPR Oneil (1999) identified that there are actually three kinds of BPR causes. These causes can be explained by the conditions in which the organization finds itself: ? First, companies invite BPR concept and its implementation because they have no choice.These companies find themselves in deep trouble and they have no choice but to design changes in a depth and magnitude level that some would call radical. This is why the concept is referred to as Business Process Reengineering. ? Second, companies are not in trouble yet but they perceiv ed clearly that the future would be problematic. ? Third, the company is actually in its peak position, but they see opportunities to develop a competitive edge over their competitors III. 3. Implementation of BPR A short model of implementing BPR will be described in this subchapter: 2.Define mission and vision statement that contains the unique value of the organization in comparison with others 3. Build clear business strategy based on this mission and vision statement thus generating project objectives 4. Define core processes that will help the organization in achieving these project objectives 5. Producing key performance measures to measure cost-benefit relationship of the processes 6. Improving effectiveness and efficiency of the processes using the performance measures At a glance, these steps seem to be similar to other process development stages.In BPR however, the strong focus is on how to radically improve effectiveness and efficiency by driving out all costs and activi ties that do not constitute the vital necessities of the processes (Chan, 1997). III. 4. Role of Information Technology in BPR BPR experts argued that BRP is different then TQM and other process improvement concepts because of its strong focus over the efficiency of the core processes. One of the well-known sentiments of BPR is that information technology should not be used unless it produces efficiency improvement toward corporate processes.BPR experts stated that in the midst of modern business environment, organizations sometimes implement IT system because of its popularity, failing to recognize the advantages produced by the IT system for organizational processes. BPR fight against those practices in the modern business environment (Davenport, 1990) III. 5. Critics In some literatures, BPR is also criticized due to its radical nature. For instance, most of the companies implementing BPR are discovered performing massive layoffs to enhance their process efficiencies.Observers be lieved that implementing BPR without other balancing concepts will lead to only short term benefits because BPR focus mostly on the financial factor of value production. The use of other concepts like the Balance Score Card should enhance BPR’s benefits toward organizations. III. 6. Benefits for Commercial Construction Business The use of BPR is perceived to be very much suitable for the construction industry due to the ‘hard’ and highly competitive nature of the environment. Furthermore, it has been stated that the BRP concept is suitable for organizations in desperate need for radical cost reduction and process development.One of the supporting factors is that the construction industry usually employs workers on the basis of short term contract. Thus, using the BRP concept, managers could increase the efficiency of their processes without having to worry about laying-off long-term employees. The construction industry is also complex with hundreds of types of ma terial and service costs that can be evaluated through the BPR concept. With the recent development of consolidations and usage of Information Technology, BPR will also assist managers in evaluating which costs are really beneficial and which should be considered waste.V. Conclusion The commercial construction business is the most competitive sector of the construction industry. Lately, the business sector is faced with serious challenges that require management’s attention. These challenges threaten the survival of organizations within the business sector. In order to face those challenges, we suggest that companies within the sector turn to Total Quality Management and Business Process Engineering. These are quality improvement concepts designed to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of organizational processes throughout the organization.TQM and BPR are rooted from the same idea, but they focus on different pressure points. BPR has a more urgent sense within it steps. It is a concept practiced by companies in need of a radical change in their business processes, in order to survive upcoming challenges. It focuses on the financial aspect of core business processes and driving-out costs other than vital ones. Some believed the concept to be harsh and insensitive to other aspects like maintaining pleasant working environment, etc. Nevertheless, its contribution is undeniable to modern companies today.TQM on the other hand, is a concept developed by the Japanese, along with the JIT and kaizen concept. It focuses on continuous process improvements which stronger sense of long-term orientations. Applied together, these concepts will assist managers of the commercial construction business in improving their operational processes and facing their challenges in the form of increasing business complexities. Bibliography Chan, S. L. , C. F. Choi, 1997. â€Å"A conceptual and analytical framework for business process reengineering†, International Journal Production Economics, vol.50, p. 211 – 223. Davenport, Thomas & Short, J. (1990), The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign, in: Sloan Management Review, Summer 1990, pp 11-27 Hammer, Carter, Usry. 1994. ‘Cost Accounting’. SouthWestern. ‘Industry Overview’. 2006. MSG. Retrieved August 12, 2008 from http://www. msgcpa. com/general. php? category=Industry+Library&headline=Construction+-+Commercial O’Neill, P. , and A. S. Sohal, 1999. â€Å"Business Process Reengineering A review of recent literature†, Technovation, vol. 19, p. 571–581.

Planning for the Chevy Volt Essay

What does the Chevy Volt case tell you about the nature of strategic decision making at a large complex organization like GM? From the Chevy Volt case, we can see that GM is a large complex organization and has a lot of processes to make any decision in changing their strategic plan. Moreover, they sticked to the past failure that they had experienced. Therefore, they moved too slow and missed the opportunity to change or adapt themselves to the external trend or a better opportunity. What trends in the external environment favored the pursuit of the Chevy Volt project? -Gas price was increasing sharply because of growing demand in developed countries including China and India -Global Warming become a significant concern so people trend to use the car which produce less Carbon Dioxide. -The cost of Manufacturing lithium ion batteries was falling and new technology make them more powerful -Demand for fuel efficient car like Prius (Toyota) that utilize new battery technology What impediments to pursuing this project do you think existed within GM? -GM already spent a huge investment in developing fuel cells -Many decision makers in GM didn’t want to suddenly switch gears and focus on lithium ion batteries instead -Technology in a large lithium ion battery production was difficult -Failure in the past was the experience that GM still remembered and was afraid to invest in new project What does this tell you about the nature of strategic plans? Chevy Volt project which is partly based on the assumption of fuels prices is rather skeptical. Plan outlay in context of rising oil prices, and environment sustainability only does not in a sense constitute total business plan layout. External environment analysis such as the macro and micro-economic factors also should have been focused, so that an alternative plan layout to develop new innovation for its benchmark cars model that run on fuel and that which should meet the tighter regulation in the future. How do falling oil prices affect the Chevy Volt project? The Chevy Volt project strategic plan was based on factor that kept rising oil prices in contention to market its electric car model for profitability. Falling oil prices can affect Chevy Volt project in terms of profitability directly from the sale of electric cars. Do you think oil prices will remain low? The demand for oil increases, prices also is also likely to surge accordingly. Besides there are no substitute product 5. What will it take for the Chevy Volt to be a successful car ? in light of your analysis, how risky do you think this venture is for GM? What are the costs of failure? What are the costs of not pursuing the project? I think it wills success for the following factors Its new models have cutting-edge designs that sell well, and its quality rankings and fuel economy rise, If every new model has dramatically better gas mileage in government testing than its predecessor, Proper advertising is done like GM products are appearing in hit movies, music videos, TV shows and other media. Cost of not pursuing the†¦