Mis Assignment free essay sample

The purpose of this assignment is to examine a case study on a private or public company and suggest suitable improvements to the current Business Information Systems used for their business processes supporting the findings with data analysis. The organisation that has been chosen to be analysed is HMV, it is part of HMV Retail Ltd formerly known as HMV Group PLC. Company Background HMV specialises in the sale of home entertainment goods mainly music, DVD and computer videogames, currently they have also ventured into portable technology with the sales of headphones and tablets (HMV, 1921). HMV stands for His Master’s Voice and has a recognisable logo of a dog and a trumpet. Sir Edward Elgar opened the first HMV in 1921; the flagship store is on Oxford Street it mainly sold goods from HMV at the beginning of its inception (HMV, 1921). However by the late 1950’s – early 60’s with the advent of rock and roll and new recording formats HMV began expanding its operations to other major cities of the UK (HMV, 1921). To keep in tune with the times, HMV invested heavily in purchasing thousands of titles by different artists for each of their stores. HMV came out as the top dog in music retail as they were meeting the high consumer demands and the change in home entertainment. HMV’s strategy to change its products based on changes in home entertainment continues to this day. It is one of UK’s specialist retailers in music, DVD and computer games. It has over 140 stores in the UK and has many stores in North America, Europe and Asia pacific (HMV, 1921). Presently HMV is facing tough competition from online retailers like Amazon who are able to offer lower prices owing to Amazon having lower staff cost, property cost, inventory cost and operating costs (Phelan, 2013). Operations, inputs and outputs of HMV The operations of HMV are supply management, stock management, customer relations, staff/personnel management, sales, advertising, international operations and joint ventures (HMV, 2013, pp. 8). Supply management operation is the procedure of buying and managing resources for the business needs and processes of an organisation (Business Dictionary, n. d. d). In the case of HMV it is the purchasing of inventory goods to be sold as products in their retail process and the management of said goods, staff, budget and information (HMV, 1921). Stock management operation is the supervision of the inventory of a business ensuring it meets consumer demands (Business Dictionary, n. d. c); in HMV’s case it is maintaining the stock levels of products to be sold. Customer relations operation is the way a company can build a rapport with their customer, manage the relations made and ensure the loyalty of the customer (Business Dictionary, n. d. a). HMV uses their purehmv incentive program to ensure the loyalty and return of customers (HMV, 1921). Personnel management operations is the recruiting and investing in employees in order o retain said employees and make them important to the business (Business Dictionary, n. d. c). For HMV this would be the hiring and development of staff within. International operations for HMV is the management and development of their international stores and profile, they have stores in North America and Asia pacific. Joint venture operations for HMV is the 50% investment in 7digital an online retailer of digital music (HMV, 2013, pp. 8). The sales operation for HMV is the way in which they sell and manage the sales of products. Advertising operations is how HMV manages and develops marketing of products. The inputs that HMV receives are: * Products: Music, Videogames, Films and TV, Tech * Staff * Customers * Profit/Money * Information The outputs of HMV that they receive after operations are: * sales they make from products * service they provide to customers * the purehmv incentive program * advertising * better qualified staff * Business Processes of HMV HMV has many business processes for each of their operations. For supply management the processes include shipping, re-ordering and notifying supplier. For stock management the processes are storage, measuring stock levels and ensuring quality of stock. The processes for customer relations are customer service, returns, refunds and technical support. Business processes for the personnel management operation are recruitment, selection, manpower planning, training and development. For sales operation the processes are order management, payment handling, delivery and counter service. The processes for advertising are advertising strategy, market research and medium strategy. For international operations all of the above fall under it including the processes. The business processes of the joint venture operations are purchasing music rights, managing investment and managing infrastructure. There are many more business processes for each operation only a few have been mentioned. Counter service within the sales operation is important for HMV as currently that is the only service they offer (HMV, 1921). This process involves the customer coming to the store, picking an item and taking it to the counter to be ringed up on the (Transaction Processing System) TPS. The TPS will ask for payment type, customer will pay in either cash or card. The TPS will record the purchase and print out a receipt for the customer. Also the business process called delivery which is part of the sales operation is a joint process with the counter service. Customers can come in to the store and make an order for a product at the counter. A member of staff will take the order and put it through the order processing system and TPS. The customer will be given a receipt from the TPS and an order number will be given to the customer and dispatched to the warehouse. A date and time will also be given to the customer to inform them when the delivery will be available to pick up form the store. Structured Decision making Structured Decision making is essential at operation levels in order for HMV Retail Ltd to find out which products are selling well and also to find out where to set targets for day to day retail activities, the table below can be used for this purpose. Semi-structured decision making Semi-structured decisions are on a short to medium term basis and are tactical decisions. The table below can be used by managers to make decisions regarding finance management, inventory control, sales targeting and supplier management. Unstructured decision making Unstructured decisions are used to focus on the long term and to forecast future trends within the organisation. These decisions are made by senior management such as the area manager or the head retail manager. They can use this information as a way of forecasting future profits as well as determining which of their products produced the most revenue. This chart can be used to identify the margins between costs of products purchased, the revenue generated from the sale of products and the total profit after cost has been deducted from revenue. This chart can be used to identify and compare the amount of stock sold, stock bought and the amount of stock left for each item category. Strategic radar plotting technique The strategic radar plotting technique can be used to identify an area in which HMV is doing well in and the area in which they are weak in. From the radar below HMV is doing well in 2 sales categories videogames and technology. These 2 are producing the most sales therefore they are the area in which HMV has much strength. The other 2 sales categories Music and Films amp; TV are producing the least amount of sales therefore the conclusion is these are the weak areas of HMV. Identifying the following areas will now allow HMV to develop new sales strategies in order to boost the weak areas and strengthen the areas in which they already have a strong presence. Goal setting analysis and what if analysis What if we want to make ? 1000 on this product rather than ? 780? How much stock needs to be sold in order to reach the amount? The what if analysis does the calculation and informs us that to gain ? 1000 for this product 50 must be sold.

Social Work and the Arts-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Discuss about the Social Work and the Arts. Answer: Art is a good source to convey messages to the art lovers and to those who understand art works. The world has seen many famous artists and painters who have dedicated their life in portraying different images of social facts through their imagination. Such names are Picasso and William Segar. The different kinds of art works portray the description of different social issues or messages in brief. The messages are not understandable to the naked eyes unless it is being read by some knowledge on the art works. A particular art conveys a particular message (Trndle Tschacher, 2012). In this paper, the Ermine Portrait of Elizabeth I of England has been chosen to understand the social messages that the art conveys to the human being especially to the women. The main purpose of this assignment is to understand the message that the art work conveys with the help of different sociology theories such as empowerment, oppression and feminism. The chosen art work for the assignment is The Ermine Portrait of Elizabeth I of England. The art work is painted by William Segar in the year 1585. The work is currently located in Hatfield House in the United Kingdom (Tittler, 2013). Figure 1: The Ermine Portrait of Elizabeth I of England by William Segar Source: (Tittler, 2013) This portrait of Elizabeth portrays the power, which is rarely observed in women. There have been only few women in this world who have proved them as powerful women. They had authorities in their hands. They taught the world especially to the women group that power is not confined just to a group. It is rather a characteristic of every single creature in this world who have dares to go against the odds. This particular portrait depicts the radiation of power, which is visible in most parts of the art. The piercing stare of Elizabeth I and her long dress certainly makes this art an eye catching. The theme behind the work is to portray the importance of power to women. In the ancient times, women had no justice for their rights. They were not allowed to share common places at the different social gathering places. They had no status neither they had any choices for their kind of lives. Sati Pratha in India is a very good example of such art works. Women according to sati pratha had no rights to live in this world after the death of their husbands (Watson, 2015). The chosen art works can be understood with the help of some popular social theories such as feminism, empowerment and oppression. The theory of empowerment suggests the self-determination in people. The theory suggests the feeling to live the life on the self-determination and the self-authority. This is to make people realize the importance of ways to overcome their feeling of powerlessness (Kiraly, 2014). There are numbers of women who have no realization about the power, which they could inhibit in them as well. The art works rightly suggest the importance of power for women as well. The contemporary world is changing now, but it has not yet proved its uniform behavior with women. According to the theory of feminism, women are not compensated with fair wage payment for their works. Feminism concept is very important for a social cause, which has investigated in lowering the authority of women. Feminism along with empowerment is two very important sociology theories, which advocat es the right to justice for women (Donovan, 2012). The contemporary world is being popularized as a world, which gives equal rights to women. However, biasness in paying wages to women workers is highly observable across the globe. The problem is continuously expanding with the passage of days. The chosen art work does clearly speak about the possibilities of high status for women as well. Elizabeth I in the art work have been shown wearing a very expensive dress. The highly expensive dress up and a confident staring do clearly suggest the possibilities of self-determined and equal rights for women. The theory of oppression investigates the ways in which women are oppressed. It is very much related to both the sociology theories such as empowerment and feminism. When a woman is not empowered she is oppressed. The social lives of women have remained affected from a complex thinking of the society. They have suffered in the past. They are still suffering; however, the definition of su ffering has been shifted from a social boycott when they were divorced to an unjustified social life. Theories of empowerment, feminism and oppression do investigate the lost power in women. These theories thus try to communicate a changed way to live their life. The life where they would feel like such as the character of Elizabeth I depicted in the art works (Vogel, 2013). The chosen art represent a vital social issue, which still persist in various developed and developing countries. An unfair behavior with the female employees at the workplace is a significant concern for the social lives across the globe. The male employees are paid high wages for the same nature of works; however, women are paid less than them (Goldin, 2014). The particular issue is validating the points of feminism concept of sociology. The piece of work represents aspect of human experience, which has concerns for various social works. The women were burnt alive on the debris of husband just because of sati pratha in India. Women had no rights of living their own lives. They were treated as if they were any slave of their husband, which is why they were burnt alive with their husbands. In the contemporary world, unfair wage payment to male and female staffs is another social concern, which the art work is degrading. The art work has shown a self-determined queen, who is well dres sed up with some highly expensive clothing. The way the queen Elizabeth I dares is simply a message to the entire such women who are yet to consider a self-determined life. They would supervise such lives. It is a big social concern, which still persists in the contemporary world. Women have freedom to work in most of the places; however, their freedom is not accustomed with the equal rights as well. They are not paid fair wages for a same nature of work as done by the male workers. The chosen art conveys very limiting but powerful messages, which is yet to be realized entirely in the contemporary world. The unjustified distribution of wages among male and female workers is not only the social problem, which the contemporary women have today. In addition to this, they are also being utilized from the higher officials at the workplace. They are not believed to be a partner worker but rather they are believed to be a partner of sexual relationships (Koellinger, Minniti Schade, 2013). The art work does very well illustrate the courage to stand against the hardships. The way Elizabeth I dares and the way she has dressed in represents a gutsy image of a woman who knows no boundary for her self-determination. The art work supports the courage to stand against any hardship (Davies, 2015). Hardship can be in any form such as the dominating character of male people at the different social places. The women are still living in a male dominated world. They are less preferred for a work. The social inequalities are a concern for the social workers. The world has seen some renowned social workers such as Mother Teresa who herself represent the importance of a self-determined life where women would live freely without the dominion of male people. The contemporary they face at the different stages in their lives. The art work on the Elizabeth I of England indirectly conveys a message that a large population of women has still not considered the lifestyle that the queen had portrayed in the art. The way Elizabeth has been shown through the art work shows the other part of women, which is hardly seen in the contemporary world. The ancient world had more problems; however, the contemporary world is not much different. The only difference lies in the definition of injustice to women. A high population of women were socially tortured in past in some places such as in India in the name of blind faiths. The contemporary women group is not much different. They are tortured at the different social places; however, they verbally support the equalities for men and women. In reality women are tortured for physical needs. They are used at some places as well. Nevertheless, they are promoted to some higher position just to use them for physical needs (Okechukwu et al., 2014). The theme in this art piece is important for social works because a large segment of women across the globe are living an unjustified and powerless life. The contemporary world might give some examples of women leaders at the top position such as the Britain Prime Minister Theresa May. However, there are high inequalities in the ratio of population of male and female. There are high differences in their qualification and professional lives. For example, weight lifting is good for health. However, women are mostly disallowed by their male partner for physical exercises such as weight lifting. If both the groups have equal rights then why a healthy life is not a concern for women as well. The theme of the art work is very important for various social workers across the globe to raise the awareness regarding the highlighted issues. This is very important for a peaceful social life. Nevertheless, women are raped because they are treated as a resource to fulfill the wrong desire. If they have equal rights then they would have been asked at every instance of rape cases about their consent for the same. The chosen art is just to attract social workers more seriously towards the subject matter. The art work conveys a message that women can be powerful leaders who would have no external restrictions on their wills (Ibarra, Ely Kolb, 2013). My personal reaction to this piece of art is very familiar to what have been mentioned above. According to me, women should get equal rights. They should be treated equally at the different platforms of life. There should not be any bias behavior while choosing the leader. A leader should be elected based on his or her expertise. A leader should never be selected on the gender preferences. The unequal distribution of wages should be eliminated at the workplaces. The women participation at the different managerial positions should be encouraged. There should be a balance in between women and men in terms of sharing the power and authority. However, I also believe that hard physical works should not be assigned to women. They are not made for such things. The leadership position is my point of concern. Women should be encouraged and trained to be a leader. Social works are a good source to raise general awareness regarding a social issue. The chosen works for the assignment makes a highly hidden fact visible to the entire world especially to the social workers. The contemporary world has mostly forgotten the importance of women. The contemporary world has tried to attract women participation at the workplaces but they have not favored their chances at the leadership position. This is due to such reasons women are not paid equally for their equal works as that of men. They are not encouraged for the rarest of thing such as physical exercises at the leisure gyms across the globe. They are considered at some places but those are negligible in comparison to the level of injustice done to them. The ancient world has seen the worst of behaviors with women such as in the name of sati pratha. The contemporary world is not any different to the ancient world. The condition of women is slightly improved but there is still a long way to go to impl ement a uniform living style for both men and women. References Davies, S. (2015).The philosophy of art(Vol. 5). John Wiley Sons. Donovan, J. (2012).Feminist theory: The intellectual traditions. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. Goldin, C. (2014). A pollution theory of discrimination: male and female differences in occupations and earnings. InHuman capital in history: The American record(pp. 313-348). University of Chicago Press. Ibarra, H., Ely, R., Kolb, D. (2013). Women rising: The unseen barriers.Harvard business review,91(9), 60-66. Kiraly, D. (2014).A social constructivist approach to translator education: Empowerment from theory to practice. Routledge. Koellinger, P., Minniti, M., Schade, C. (2013). Gender differences in entrepreneurial propensity.Oxford bulletin of economics and statistics,75(2), 213-234. Okechukwu, C. A., Souza, K., Davis, K. D., de Castro, A. B. (2014). Discrimination, harassment, abuse, and bullying in the workplace: Contribution of workplace injustice to occupational health disparities.American journal of industrial medicine,57(5), 573-586. Tittler, R. (2013).Portraits, Painters, and Publics in Provincial England 1540-1640. Oxford University Press on Demand. Trndle, M., Tschacher, W. (2012). The physiology of phenomenology: The effects of artworks.Empirical Studies of the Arts,30(1), 75-113. Vogel, L. (2013).Marxism and the oppression of women: Toward a unitary theory. Brill. Watson, A. D. (2015). Design Thinking for Life.Art Education,68(3), 12-18.

Terrorism Essays (702 words) - Terrorism, Violence, Crime

Terrorism Terrorism Why do people resort to such violent acts as bombing, assassinations, and hi-jacking? How do individuals and organizations justify these acts of terror. These acts can be described as terrorist actions. Terrorism is an growing international problem. During the last twenty years, new terrorist groups have sprung up al lover the world. Governments have had little success in their attempts to resolve issues in which terrorism is used. A major problem in discussing terrorism is establishing a generally accepted definition. Terrorism can be described as the unlawful use of fear or force to achieve certain political, economical, or social aims. Because it is so hard to define, organizations like the United Nations have had great difficulty drawing up policies against terrorism. Terrorist actions may be committed by a single individual, a certain group, or even governments. Most terrorists, unlike criminals, claim to be dedicated to higher causes, and do not believe in personal gain. The methods used in terrorism include threats, bombings, the destruction of property, kidnapping, the taking of hostages, executions, and assassinations. There are many reasons why political groups attempt to bring about radical change through terrorism. People are often frustrated with their position in society. They may in some way feel persecuted or oppressed because or their race, religion, or they feel exploited by a government. Any group that uses terrorist actions have very complex and powerful reasons to engage in those activities. The use of terror to achieve goals is not a new idea in history. One early terrorist group, the assassins, flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. The assassins used murder to dispose of their enemies, and their name has come to be used for one who kills for political or religious reasons. Government terrorism dates at least from immediately after the French Revolution, in 1789. During this period, known as the "Reign of Terror," the French Revolutionary executed thousands of its citizens who were considered enemies of its rule. Acts of terrorism have been committed by individuals, or groups who seek national independence. One such act was the assassination of the Arch Duke of France in 1914. The assassination had sought to win Bosnia form Austrian rule, but failed and led to the outbreak of World War I. Kings and government officials are often the targets of terrorism. Czar Alexander of Russia was assassinated in 1881 by members of a terrorist group that wanted to overthrow the government. Other famous people who were assassinated because of their beliefs were Martin Luther King Jr., and Pope John Paul II, who was shot, but survived. While many groups have engaged in terrorism throughout history, the Anarchist political groups in the 19th century are most remembered. These groups were especially strong in Italy, France, Spain, and the United Sates, but their roots lie within the Russian peoples will movement. Anarchists believe that by nature people are good, and that in the right circumstances people can leave in peace. They oppose all centralized state and think it is an oppressive force that prevents people from cooperating with one another. Modern Terrorism retains some elements of terrorism in the past. At the same time it differs because it has a wider extent in many of its methods. Today, terrorism poses a threat to innocent people, and is a serious threat to democratic fomrs of government. One of the characteristics of modern terrorists is their practice of taking hostages in order to force their demands upon a particular government. If demands are not met, the hostages face the threat of death. Hi-jacking commercial airlines and holding their passengers and crews hostage has become a favored method among terrorist today. Many people believe that terrorism became global in its extent in the late 1960's. In 1970 over 300 acts of terrorism were recorded worldwide. By 1979the number of terrorist incidents for one year increased to 3,700. Politically unstable countries offer frequent opportunities for terrorism. Lebanon, which has been torn by years of Civil War, has been the sight of numerous terrorist attacks. In addition to terrorist groups, governments today also engage in terrorism. Countries sometimes use terrorism as a substitute for traditional warfare by providing money, training, and weapons to terrorist groups whose activities serve their national aims. Governments may also plan and carry out terrorist actions themselves, although they usually deny responsibility for them. It is unlikely that we will ever see and end to terrorism. Terrorists are not born, but created as todays issues of today develop into the conflicts of tommorow.

Free Essays on The Man

Free Essays on The Man Thou hast learned to love a manly man, Your love is stronger than the raging wind. You don’t think your love can stand; it can. When troubles come just remember to mend. Your man is strong and devout as can be; He comes from afar and knows the land. He will never ever cease to displease thee, Look in your corner the post is manned. Your think you are number one in his life, Don’t be disappointed because you are. He’ll be with you in trouble and strife, Where ever you are he will not be far. Remember this man was very hard to find, Whatever you do keep him on your mind....

Week 1 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 1 - Coursework Example Most of these eligibility cases rise because of immigration status, citizenship and income. Only the immigrants legally in the country can buy the health insurance through the exchanges, these include the refugees, people on workers and the student’s visas, and the immigrants with green cards (Goodnough, 2014, p.13). The article provides a national perspective as its focus the immigrants in the United States and their failure to provide legal documents. The article states that the issue about eligibility is mainly in Florida and Texas that happen to have the largest number of immigrants. The information in the article affects many people living in the United States as it slows down the process of acquiring the health insurance. The immigrants face a greater problem as according to the administration most of these cases arise from the provision of wrong information by the immigrants. By 5th September, the immigrants should submit their documents failure to which they will lose the health care insurance. The provision of fraudulent information and the carelessness of the administration results to the cases of eligibility, these in turn affects all the citizens of the United States in the process of acquiring the health insurance. The article provides solutions for the immigrants to avoid losing their health insurance; these include the provision of immigration and citizenship documents by the immigrants. All immigrants in the country should provide the required legit information in order to avoid losing their health insurance (Goodnough, 2014,

Gender in Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Gender in Organizations - Essay Example As a result, women remain different from men in that they put in more time and effort at the workplace and do more unpaid housework than their male partners. This is the main point raised by Ilene Philipson (2002) and David Schweingruber (2007), whose papers were selected as the two centerpieces of research for this essay because they capture the essence of the topic we want to discuss: that is, gender equality as it unfolds at work and at home today remains meaningless for the most part because of what both Philipson and Schweingruber call the "second shift," with Phillipson adding another factor called "familism." The first part of the main body discusses the dynamics of these two factors as to how they effectively distort the meaning of gender equality in the workplace. To illustrate the point, the last part of the essay's body looks into an actual case study of a married woman doing second shift work, tying this up to conditions in New Zealand, which is currently headed by a woma n president and where the women's movement is going great guns. ... Second Shift & Familism The dramatic increase in the labor force participation of women gave rise to the perception that we have finally entered an era that puts men and women on equal footing and makes no distinction between their sex and interests (Philipson, 2002). Women now hold jobs previously confined to men, such that there are now women police and soldiers, pilots, miners and even steel mill workers. Research since the 1960s shows that women's time spent on housework has been cut by nearly half while men doubled their time (Mickelson, et al., 2006). However, a closer look reveals that married women continue to suffer from gender inequality in the amount of work they do both at the workplace and at the house. In households with two wage earners, the women who enter the labor force continue to do more housework than men (Schweingruber, 2007). Women suffer from the same disadvantage at their paid job outside the home largely because of the mothering instinct that they bring to the workplace and creates special problems for their claim to gender equality (Fletcher, 2002). Even as a wage gap between working women and men persists, there is also a "leisure gap" between them at home (Bartley, et al., 2005). This crack in the otherwise greatly improved gender relations is traced to the "second shift" phenomenon, which is described by Philipson (2002) as the two work shifts of women: their unpaid job at home and paid job outside. Schweingruber (2007) defines the condition in more or less the same terms, relating it to the load of housework that married women perform on top of their shift of work outside the home. An important aspect of the second shift phenomenon is the way women develop an emotional attachment to their jobs and

Quality of Care in a Rural Population Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quality of Care in a Rural Population - Essay Example Rural adults, according to research, state five times more often than urban adults to feel fair or poor about their health status. Most of these rural residents prefer to get their care locally and may not get specialty care because of their reluctance to go elsewhere (Pierce, Foley, Clark, 2006). There are also many other cited barriers to care. Those include lack of financial resources, distance to care, lack of transportation, and a shortage of healthcare professionals that varies by profession, region, and state (Merwin, et.al. 2006). Rates of those healthcare professionals continue to decline in rural areas. There is also difficulty getting appropriate supplies and provides problems for services like home health care and meals on wheels. There are many strategies that have been contemplated for use in improving this rural healthcare problem. It is much more studied now than in the past, with the information given in the Healthy People 2010 study. In the rural communities in Oregon, there is an effort to solve this problem. There are several very rural hospitals in Oregon which are Critical Access Hospitals.