UK Food Labelling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

UK Food Labelling - Essay Example In a nation where consumers want to know more and more about what they are putting into their shopping carts, the way towards a more healthy diet and wider awareness of how eating and shopping habits affect the rest of the country and the world on the whole, more information is needed for each food item and the answer seems to be a label that is ever increasing in size. This essay examines the current guidelines of British food labelling, where Europe feels the guidelines should go and in particular how the elements of the 2006 Conference on Food Labelling might be implemented into UK directives. With reference to stakeholders, current label requirements, necessary information and consumer understanding, the role of the label is ascertained both on its own and in conjunction with other information media now and in the near future. Foods that are sold in the United Kingdom are subject to the legislation of the Food Standards Agency; internally speaking this means that any produce sold, or any packaged foods sold in grocery stores must meet certain standards (Cartwright 1999). Meat, for example, must be traceable to the farm they were raised on so that if any health risks are discovered it will be possible to track down any other potentially harmful produce quickly and efficiently (Fine 1998). Packaged foods must not exceed certain amounts of salt or contain substances not deemed suitable for consumption (Foodlaw; General Guidance for Food Business Operators). In terms of the European Union and food trade agreements, these guidelines have not been imposed strictly on EU nations and so it becomes difficult to legislate on imported produce. This means that the FSA must deal with the concerns of its British population in terms of foreign food standards, plus it must deal with internal pressure to understand the fu ll nutritional value of foods sold locally (FSA; Food Law Enforceement). The FSA is run by an appointed board whose members have recently lobbied for the removal of commercials aimed at children that promote the consumption of unhealthy food items containing high amounts of sugar, salt and fat. The organisation is responsible foremost for the health of British consumers and in this capacity it has taken on many challenges in recent years. The FSA is currently under pressure to establish a new labelling system that might incorporate organic and free range status as well as to stamp each item or ingredient with a place of origin (Mansfield 2004). Consumers want to know that their food is not only healthy for them, but healthy for the environment and that any live animals consumed were treated well before their slaughter (Goldstein and Goldstein 2002). Certainly it is beginning to seem as if there is no end to the information being demanded on each food label, however one must consider whether a person can be expected to eat something that is of questionabl e origin and quality. A traffic-light system has been recently backed by the FSA in terms of categorising several packaged foods by level of nutritional value. A green mark will indicate healthy food to be eaten regularly, yellow indicates moderation and red will indicate a food that should only be eaten on occasion (FSA; Agency's new traffic-light TV ad launched). After

How video game effect our live Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How video game effect our live - Research Paper Example I went through different books, searched online for information and finally ended up with something I think is important from both sociological and cultural point of views. The topic I have chosen for my research project is ‘How video games affect our lives’. This research would be useful for all kinds of people, those who are addicted to video games, those who play video games occasionally and those who don’t play video games at all. The structure of my research project would be simple, clear and linear. Starting from a historical point of view, I would first describe some of the pioneers and early days of video games. Then I would move on to their development, an era in which video games started to gain some fame but only in the elite class of the society and they were a big attraction for the kids in that class (Weiss). Moving on to the invention of some video games of the late 20th century for example, Atari, Nintendo, Sega and home computer which were the only gaming devices at that time and many games such as Sonic, Mario bros, Contra 4, the helicopter and fighting jet games, Street fighter and tekken were introduced on these gaming stations. The modern 21st century video games have taken the level of video games to a next level. The inventions of Playstation and Xbox360 with PSP (playstation portable) have opened the doors for a totally new generation of games such as GTA, Call of Duty, Prince of Persia, Assassins and millions of other games. These games are both graphically and technologically advance and take the gamer inside the characters they are playing with and Now to increase the experience 3D games are being introduced (Rowlands). After the history and development, I would choose a social and psychological perspective of gaming. I would describe the affects that they have on our mind and body. Starting with the main affect, playing too many games has led our children to stick inside their homes and decreased their outdoor physical

Planning and Organizing Meetings Essay Example for Free

Planning and Organizing Meetings Essay Planning ahead of time is one virtue of Christian leaders. There are a lot of pointers that you need to remind yourself when planning and organizing meetings for your organization. There are details that you need to check because planning a meeting is not just calling people to come together and talking with each other without anything in mind to accomplish. First Things First Prayer is an important discipline for Christian leaders especially in terms of planning and organizing. This is the first and foremost thing that you should do. You should ask the wisdom of God and ask Him to let you know the tasks that are at hand in the organization. This is the time when you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and to let you possess strength that you need. Secondly, set your objectives. As said earlier, calling a meeting is not just getting people in to meet and talk at certain place and time. You should set your objectives even before you call people to come. What do you want to achieve after the meeting is done? Be sure that your objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable and time-bound. Part of your objectives is planning for the agenda. Setting the agenda means that you need to identify the most important things to go first and the least important to take the lower priority. Thirdly, identify the people that you want to be in the meeting. Will there be people from other organization? Do you need a committee to help you out in contacting people? As a Christian organizing a meeting, it is necessary that you consult people according to their availability so won’t be missing out someone on the date that you will set. Also, identify the place where you will be holding the meeting. Is it conducive to the activities that are involved in the meeting? Do you need food as you talk together? The Important Things When planning, you should make sure that you get the important things under a checklist. Sometimes there are details that we think is important but are actually necessary. On the other hand, we may left out important things that are basically needed. Make a roster of the participants of the meeting. List the names of people and check or cross the name out when they already confirmed or not. List also the equipment that you need and check if they are available on the day and time of your meeting. What about the logistics and financial implications of the meeting? Make a budget and be sure that it is attainable and you will have it released in time for your use. After the Meeting Planning and organizing meeting do not end after the meeting is already done. Your responsibility as the organizer does not end when the meeting ends. During the meeting, you should have talked about a lot of important things that needs action or implementation thereafter. As such, do not lose your checklist. After the meeting you will need another again. Evaluate if your objectives were met, if not, what you can do after to meet them. After the meeting, be in gratitude to all those who attended. Your meeting is only the take off of another planning and organizing so you should plan well your starting point.

Development of an Operational Plan

Development of an Operational Plan BSBMGT517 THEORY Performance Criteria: Research, analyse and document resource requirements and develop an operational plan in consultation with relevant personnel, colleagues and specialist resource managers. Activity 1.1.1 What strategies can an organisation use to research, analyse and document resource requirements for the development of an operational plan? For the development of an operational plan, an organisation needs to be able to research, analyse and document the resources on the following points The duration of the project; when it will start and the aim of completion. This should include current and upcoming desired and clear goals. Timeframes should be set at the start with clear plans about the project. Financial resources; how much fund is currently available to sustain the project and any risk that may occur in the funding needs to be identified prior. It is important to be able to convince investors and suppliers about the plan and the resources needed to help achieve a profitable completion of the project. Human resource and other capacity requirements; evaluate the labour and the skills needed and available that are important to complete the project. It is important to consider where the human resources will come from and how many staff are required. This should include maintenance and servicing resources such as customer service. Identify the risk and evaluate mitigation strategy; what are these strategies and how to overcome if they were to arise. For instance, if there is a gap in resources, there need to be a plan to fill in the gap. So, all risks are evaluated and plans are devised to be prepared and also to minimise the occurrences of these risks. The ability to measure the performance to monitor improvements need to be available. Performance Criteria: Develop and/or implement consultation processes as an integral part of the operational planning process Activity 1.2.1 What strategies do you or could you use to consult with team members and other stakeholders to gain and utilise their input when planning a project? There are several ways available to consult with team members about their input on a project. Emails and intranet may be used as a quality assurance and a way to improve the process. It is also an efficient way to get the same message across the whole group, especially in big organisations. On the other hand, it is an approachable system to welcome any opportunities for the staff to respond and provide feedbacks. This will contribute to the planning process and goals. Also, newsletters may be used to provide the staff about the important information about the plan with open opportunities to revert back with feedbacks. Furthermore, the use of surveys, questionnaires and information sessions may help to encourage staff to respond by providing specific feedbacks about the project. Quantitative and qualitative data are gathered for the operational plan of the project. In addition, there can be meetings; formal or informal. While informal meetings can be held anytime and anywhere, formal meetings require a safe and controlled environment. Both ways aim to gather feedbacks. Another different way to consult teams members are through interviews. Structured interviews may help the management to get the feedbacks needed in regards to specific aspects of the operational plan. These are done through specific questions. A more open way to gather such feedbacks and information is through brainstorming sessions whereby new ideas and solutions are generated. These are analysed to further determine its importance. To make these sessions fruitful, it is important to always welcome and recognise the effort of all participants for bringing their input and feedbacks to the organisation. This is in order to encourage more   open participation. Performance Criteria: Ensure the operational plan includes key performance indicators to measure organisational performance Activity 1.3.1 Key performance indicators act as benchmarks against which organisational goals and performance can be measured. List several areas of a project which might have key performance indicators reflected in an operational plan? Key performance indications may be used in an operational project to build goals. Setting a realistic aim will not only help staff to work towards it but it can also be used to reflect the profit of the organisation with quantitative targets.  Ã‚   Areas of a project where key performance indicators are reflected are Targets; sales and services will all work towards reaching the target Measurement of the growth in the organisation; this can be through sales or profit Objectives to help improve the system Initiatives for growth and increase performance. Performance Criteria: Develop and implement contingency plans for the operational plan Activity 1.4.1 Contingency plans deal with unexpected events and/or occurrences, and/or when things go wrong.List several areas where contingency planning would be typical? Areas where contingency planning is important are: Outsourcing human resources/ labour to cut down the cost used mutil function or skills. Contracting out then help to get a person with special knowledge and skills to bring their input at a lower cost and some organisations may even look into this strategy when an internal department has ceased functioning. Diversification of outcomes may help towards an achievable and profitable end result when many departments help to contribute towards the final result. Since the target is spread over a larger area, increase productivity from human resources help to contribute towards a bigger outcome. Cheaper and lower quality products help to moderate the budget. Globalisation helps towards competition and cost effective strategies and therefore more profit. Increasing sales or productions will increase profit. It is important to cater needs and resources towards the customer service department providing adequate training programs. By reinforcing their skills, it will help to reach key performance indicators. Recycling and re-using is a strategy to raise the organisational social responsibility towards the environment. Many customers are more inclined to buy consciously to protect the environment from these organisations. Rental and hiring alternatives are better ways to get hold of cheap resources than buying them. Negotiation helps to save on cost on the procurement of these resources needed. Restructuring of organisation to reduce labour costs is necessary at time to reduce expenses. Sometimes, some organisations will downsize in the aim of focusing on profitable departments only. Other departments that do not sell as their service or products, are not in high demands anymore, will cease to operate. Risk identification, assessment and management processes. Unfortunately, a rise in injuries due to hazards and risks put financial stress on organisations. So in order to minimise the risks of this happening, risk assessments are performed to reduce the occurrences of injuries. Sometimes, feedbacks from staff help to work out better strategies to manage injuries and also raise awareness of the importance of staying safe. Seeking further funding is important especially when the budget available is not adequate to reach the targeted goal. Strategies for reducing costs, wastage, stock of consumable can be done by using another supplier with lower costs that is able to produce at a cheaper rate Succession planning is important to identity good potentials within the organisation who are able to fill in important roles. Performance Criteria: Ensure the development and presentation of proposals for resource requirements is supported by a variety of information sources and seek specialist advice as required Activity 1.5.1 Provide several examples of the type of information sources and or specialist that may be used or accessed in the development and presentation of proposals for resource requirements within your organisation or area of activity? Raising funds is very significant to help achieve the goal of the operational plan. Raising funds help to obtain resources such as human resources/labour, capital resources and financial resources. If more funds is needed, the organisation needs to work on further strategies to obtain such by influencing senior management and skateholders to invest in order to supply these resources and in turn, get a profitable return. Developing a business proposal is a strategic plan and needs to be appealing enough to stakeholders so they can invest in it. They need to believe in its success, hence, devising a proposal is important to demonstrate the potentials behind the project. A business proposal needs to be convincing and needs to primarily cater the needs of the stakeholders investing in it, at a higher benefit for the latter. Identifying strategic goals such as marketing strategy helps to increase the organisations market share, therefore promoting the productivity of the organisation. Human resource strategy can be used to improve staffing experiences and skills. Management strategy, through emotional intelligence, also contributes towards productivity. Similarly, technological strategy helps to improve production line. Specialist advice can come from many informative sources such as managers, marketing specialist, financial consultants, accountants, suppliers, internal and external customers and the sales team. Customers feedbacks are also important to cater better needs and improve on the product efficiency. Presentation is the key to selling a business operational plan. The use of graphs helps to visually demonstrate costs, contingency plans and risk management plans and strategies to fund the plan. The more the organisations goals and benefits are reiterated and are made believable, the more comfortable the stakeholders will feel about investing in it. Performance Criteria: Obtain approval for the plan from relevant parties and explain the plan to relevant work teams Activity 1.6.1 From whom within your organisation or area of activity would you need to gain agreement and or endorsement for the approval of the operational plan, and once approved how would this information be provided to work teams and other stakeholders? An operational plan needs to be presented to the executives of the hospital, the director of nursing and the Chief executive officer for approval. It is usually via a systematic approach where justification is provided for the required funding. Each ward managers get to present their ideas and plans and relevant funding is then distributed according to their priorities. The decision is mostly based on the values and missions of the hospital. For instance, if funding is required to improve something important on the ward that has direct impact on the safety of the customers, it is more likely to be granted. Any ideas that will help to improve the risk management strategies will be taken seriously. Henceforth, it is important for managers to present their case in such a way that their operational plan is considered in accordance with the hospitals goals. Generally, once approved, the information is then passed on to the staff in the form of informal meetings, generally held every Thursday and also by email, so that the same information is delivered to every employee of the department. Flyers and newsletters are also posted on the common notice boards so everyone gets acquainted with the approval of the operational plan. Performance Criteria: Develop and implement strategies to ensure that employees are recruited and/or inducted within the organisations human resources management policies, practices and procedures Activity 2.1.1 What strategies could you use to ensure team members are clear about their roles and responsibilities as well as the requirements of the operational plan? Firstly, the team member gets to be acquainted to the roles needed prior to applying for it. Jobs and roles are advertised with specified skills needed and the employee gets to apply in relation of the demands and skills they can offer to the organisation. A resume is sent to the organisation and a selection process is undertaken in the form of an interview. This first step through applying and being recruited give the team members a clear perception about their roles and the responsibilities that are expected from them. The second step whereby the team members get acquainted to their roles is through an acceptance offer, a contract. Through a contract, the employer, through the Human Resource department, get to elaborate in writing about the roles and responsibilities of the employee. This contract is dully signed and returned to the Human Resource department as an agreement and acceptance of the roles and responsibilities required. The contract or acceptance letter has descriptive information: The dynamics of the workplace The role description in accordance to the mission and the values The collective agreement under the fair work act The hours or work, the flexibility of work and the remuneration The position description and title The allowances The superannuation The leave entitlements The period of probation/ engagement The commitment to performance review The policies and procedures The employee conduct; professional behaviour and attitude Variation to the terms of employment Confidentiality of the workplace The property of the employer The third step whereby the employee gets acquainted to the expected roles and responsibilities is through an induction of the workplace. An orientation or supernumerary time allows them to understand the dynamics of their department and the goal of the operational plan. Performance Criteria: Develop and implement strategies to ensure that physical resources and services are acquired in accordance with the organisations policies, practices and procedures Activity 2.2.1 Provide several examples of the type of strategies which might be required to ensure specific resource needs policies, procedures and practices? Strategies are in place to ensure physical resources and services are gained in accordance with the organisations policies, practices and procedures. These are: Supplier relationship; a good framework to strengthen important relationships. Being able to understand, analyse and focus on suppliers relationships help to be productive, efficient and compete in the market. It is important to identify how the supplier has an impact on monetary outcomes. Points to be considered are; what the suppliers are looking in the relationship, the way the supplier is used by the organisation and how it affects the organisations relationships with other suppliers. Purchasing; the supplier is the expert on the product and hence knowledge can be used from them for decision making processes and increasing performance. Choices are between purchasing internally or externally. Transport; cost effective strategies to save on storing, delivering and suppling the goods. The operations strategies can be sought from the supplier to handle and improve key relationships Networking; available contacts and resources that can be relied on to either get information or improve productivity. Relationship costs; surviving the impact of globalisation. It is important to minimise the procurement costs such as transport and customer service. The relationship benefits; what the organisation needs, the cost it incurs for these needs e.g. equipments, labour and cost of the products and services determine the benefits for the organisation. Obviously, a low operational, production and administration cost is more favorable and incurs less expenses. Revenue is then higher and can in return meet the demands of the customers. Clear communication; clear and concise. This helps to make sure the supplier and the organisation both knows what is expected and they can both work towards the same goal. Honesty; a reliable team. This favours good managerial relationship and each party is then accountable to fulfill their duties and promises, in turn enhancing the relationship. Practices and procedures are also taken into account in order to incorporate The culture of the organisation The guidelines of the organisation which determines operational functions such as human and physical resources Operating procedures and policies Undocumented practices in line with the operations Clear purchase orders to prove reliability and efficiency. Performance Criteria: Recognise and incorporate requirements for intellectual property rights and responsibilities in recruitment and acquisition of resources and services Activity 2.3.1 Requirements and responsibilities for intellectual property rights is an important part of the business environment, an organisations are wise to take steps to protect their own intellectual property, and also to honour the intellectual property rights of organisations from whom they have acquired relevant resources. When acquiring resources and services, it is important to acquaint to the intellectual propertys rights and responsibilities. Non-compliance to the later may result in legal consequences. For instance, material obtained from the internet may involve serious copyright issues. These unlawful accesses involve breaching the intellectual property of the involved organisation. Intellectual property is usually protected by many policies, procedures to reinforce the rights of acquisition. Policies, procedures and information include licensing agreements, information to ensure copyright protection, licensing agreements, procedures to register intellectual property rights or assets. Many organisations have policy in place to govern and manage ownership of intellectual property in an effective, efficient and ethical manner. These policies may include an explanation of any terminology relating to the property, mention of the relevant legislation, the types of intellectual property, disclosure of the property, information about marketing, commercialisation or licensing of the intellectual property and information if infringement happens. Another way of protecting intellectual properties is by licensing agreements for instance, a licensing document. These are devised to allow the owner to agree to terms and conditions and the other party to comply with the agreement. The ownership is thus maintained and it is beneficial for both parties. A license can cover product development, the manufacture, the marketing and the sales. Another form of licensing is franchising whereby distribution of goods and services occur with agreed terms between the owner of the intellectual property and the party paying to access the rights over the intellectual properties. Copyright is another way of protecting intellectual property to maintain the initial creativity of an idea or concept, be it on paper or electronically. A copyright notice clarifies the ownership of the intellectual property restricting its reproduction without permission. Trade marks can also be used to protect intellectual property. Prior to applying for registrations, online database needs to be scrutinised to make sure there is no similar product. Once cleared, the trade mark is then published in the Official Journal of Trade Marks whereby opponents may dispute its originality. If no oppositions are made, the application will go forward. There are several ways to register intellectual property assets. For instance, designs can be registered through the Australia Official Journal of Designs, Patents through the Australian Official Journal of Patents; Trademarks through the Australian Official Journal of Trademarks and Plant breeders through the Official Journal of plant breeders rights. Performance Criteria: Develop, monitor and review performance systems and processes to assess progress in achieving profit and productivity plans and targets Activity 3.1.1 How can you monitor and review the outcomes and achievements of operational plan against intended benchmarks and KPIs? There are several ways of monitoring and reviewing the outcomes and achievements of operational plans against benchmarks and KPIs. These are Quality assessment; gathering collective data to measure and analyse performance such as   observing service delivery, focusing on client method, auditing individual records, reviewing the data from an information system, testing a group, health worker interview, patient interview. Devising a quality monitoring system; data and design monitoring tools. This is in order to see the trend in indicators and monitor progress. Data are also used to identify any problems in the system that may be the result of poor performance. Three ways data are used; placing them in tabs, analysing them and interpreting them. This is later used in managerial decisions. External evaluation; process by which an external body provide feedback about an organisation performance. This can be done via an audit of in health care; accreditation. Certification is then required to acknowledge the competence and legal requirements of a group or organisation. Performance appraisals; a way for the management and HR department to provide feedbacks about the performance of their employee. This is instantaneously undertaken whereby the real time reports are given to employee about their performance. Managers are able to assess if their employees have been competent in undertaking tasks or organisational requirements. This is a systematic approach to evaluate the standard of an employee and also help to determine any increase in pay or promotions. It also helps to identify professional developments needs and set future goals to work towards better productivity. Process appraisal; a way to assess the functional and operational resources. This is to identify the equipment that are failing or need improvements, the tasks that are time consuming and the risk and hazards of the workplace. For quality improvement and to enhance productivity, these resources are maintained on a regular basis to make sure it wont slow down the line of productivity. Cost and variations in the process of maintenance is also evaluated to assess how these factors   are significant in order to   achieve quality improvement. Performance Criteria: Analyse and interpret budget and actual financial information to monitor and review profit and productivity performance Activity 3.2.1 What role do you or would you play in the development of a budget for an operational your organisation or area of activity, and who has final approval of this budget? Once the budget is approved, it is important to keep all the financial decisions and information involved such as the: Budget; all the expenses incurred The ratio analysis The forecast about the future expenses The cash flow statements The profit and loss statement The balance sheets of crediting and debiting cash The investments and liability reports. There are several factors that may affect the budget and so, it is important to keep a record of these factors and variations such as the changes to legislative requirements and innovations. To be financially aware will help guard any unforeseen circumstances. Financial reports help to justify profit or loss statement that will show the trend in productivity or fraudulent transactions. Performance Criteria: Identify areas of under-performance, recommend solutions and take prompt action to rectify the situation Activity 3.3.1 What strategies could you use to ensure team members are clear about their roles and responsibilities and to address under-performance issues? To ensure team members are clear about their roles and responsibilities, it is often useful to methodically raise questions that will help them to evaluate possible issues and devise solutions themselves. This is done by action learning. It helps a team to conduct a project with continuous improvements, assistance where needed and ongoing feedbacks.   The team will have a definition of the actual issue and appropriate awareness and solutions. This helps to understand organisational change and understand throughout a work group culture. It brings along new ideas and skills beneficial for the organisation. The team develops values such as openness, trust, collaboration, team spirit and cultural diversity and respect. Action learning highlights that mistakes do occur and helps the team to tolerate and action them. Likewise, action learning can be used to identify under-performance issues. An effective and quick strategy is to make sure that any changes do not deviate from the actual operational and strategic plan. Action learning helps to identify and recognise these changes with appropriate solutions. However, problems do not always arise from the process. There are many external factors that may interrupt the dynamics of action learning such as attitude, conflicted understanding or another group with performance issues. Performance Criteria: Plan and implement systems to ensure that mentoring and coaching are provided to support individuals and teams to effectively, economically and safely use resources Activity 3.4.1 What strategies do you or could you use to implement systems which ensure that mentoring and coaching are provided to team members in a safe, productive and economical manner? External parties to coach staff may be time consuming and expensive. Sometimes, it is best to allocate a mentor in order to save on cost and time. The mentor may need to perform a skill gap analysis to spot any gaps in performance, devise and demonstrate the desired expectations of performance to meet goals and eliminate any gaps. In order to be productive, mentors need to focus on their team and support each individuals growth. The manager needs to also identify whether the problem comes from the unawareness of the team regarding the goals or whether it is from a specific individual performance. If the issue comes from performance, coaches should be used to teach the group. On the other hand, if the issue is from a behavioural standard such as lack of confidence, then a mentor must be allocated to cater the specific individual need to improve his performance. This is safe and productive as mentors have specific targets to improve the success and performance of an individual and coac hes deliver skills to tackle tasks, challenges and works expectations. Both coaches and mentors are usually selected from members within the organisation. This is because they already understand the dynamics of the workplace and have the skills required to change performance challenges. It is important for both mentors and coaches to provide ongoing feedback and support the staff members. Coaches are normally leaders that need to use their authority to make sure all workers comply with the expected standard of performance. Their coaching is rather task related and will expect the individual to perform at the required level to improve their knowledge, skills and abilities to perform a task. Performance Criteria: Negotiate recommendations for variations to operational plans and gain approval from designated persons/groups Activity 3.5.1 From what stakeholders within your organisation or area of activity would you need to gain agreement and or endorsement from for variations to operational plans? Prior to gaining agreement or endorsement for operational plans, it is important to consult the following team for approval The policy and procedure committee depending on its relevance Standards committee in association with the topic that is involved The workplace healthy and safety manager and advisor to maintain a safe environment while undertaking these variations in the operational plan The board of executives for approval: CEO, coordinators, director of nursing and managers The staff of the designated department to make sure the operational plans is well understood prior to commencement Performance Criteria: Develop and implement systems to ensure that procedures and records associated with documenting performance are managed in accordance with organisational requirements Activity 3.6.1 What sort of records an information are required for the operational plan for your organisation or area of activity? Documentation is the main form of records in our organisation. In the healthcare industry, it is important to maintain ongoing documentation. This applies in the human resource sector, the billing sector, the booking sector, the nursing department and others. Records of the improvement processes help to measure performance and also innovation. Documentation such as operational plans, strategic goals, contingency plans, job advertisement, quality improvements, staff appraisals, leaves approval and the care of patients are highly recommended. For every step, there are specific forms designated to assist the organisation in keep records. Once completed with the approval, these forms are kept as per the policy of the organisation and filed away. For instance, any medical records go through a system of scanning and software storage for an indefinite period. This is safe with an optimum level of security   which is electronically verified.   Future generations can access these document s anytime and some data may be important not only for improvements but raising awareness of previous mistakes, so history doesnt get repeated.

Conflict Induced Internal Displacement & The Shifting Gender Dynamics E

Internal displacement is an issue that affects regions around the world. Countries ravaged by civil wars, government oppression, human rights abuse or other internal conflicts produce the mass displacement of persons (referred to as IDPs) to other parts of the country seeking refuge (Knox and Marston,108-109, 2010). Within the context of Colombia this paper will first explore the economic challenges that IDPs must face and discuss how these challenges effect displaced women. It will then discuss how the gendered division of labor in the household impacts these geographies of displacement. Lastly, it will examine the link between the urban environment, and shifting gender dynamics within the context of internal displacement. Colombia provides a good case study from which to examine the issue of internal displacement, because Latin America is the world region with the second most severe IDP situations, Africa being number one (Knox and Marston,108-109, 2010). Colombia in particular has a dramatically high number of IDPs, accounting for up to 8.6% of Colombia’s total population (Carrillo,529, 2009). The capital city of Bogotà ¡ has the largest population of IDPs in the country, approximated to be 244,184 (Carrillo,530, 2009).These high numbers are a result of the Guerrillas and paramilitaries targeting rural civilians by way of â€Å"arbitrary killings, looting, and destruction of property† in order to take control of their land for economic and political benefit and in order to possess strategic territory (Knox and Marston,108-109, 2010). The civilians being targeted usually move from their homes in these war stricken rural areas to urban areas elsewhere in the country (usually determined by geograph... ...s, suppl. Displacement, 2009: 527-546. Eschenbà ¤cher, Jens-Hagen. "The Global Internal Displacement Crisis: Recent Developments and Perspectives for An Improved International Response." Refugee Survey Quarterly, 2005: 49-60. Escobar, Nora Segura. "Colombia: A New Century, an Old War, and More." International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2000: 107-127. Knox, Paul L, and Sallie A Marston. Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2010. Monserrat, Silvia Inà ©s , et al. "Values and attitudes towards women in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico." Employee Relations, 2009: 227-244. Mooney, Erin. "THE CONCEPT OF INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT." Refugee Survey Quarterly, 2005: 9-26. Winders, Jamie. August 31, 2011. GEO 171. Winders, Jamie. October 5, 2011. "Population Geographies: Migration". GEO 171.

Roman Pool Essay -- Architecture Structure History Essays

Roman Pool The private residence built by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in San Simeon, California is quite a site to behold. Originally named La Cuesta Encantada it is now often referred to as Hearst Castle. It is located on a hilltop overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the Santa Lucia Mountains. The estate took 28 years to build and includes the main house, guest houses, two pools, and acres of gardens, terraces and walkways. Its rooms and gardens are decorated with an impressive collection of antiques from around the world. One particularly interesting building is the Roman Pool. The Roman Pool at Hearst castle is a tiled indoor pool decorated with eight statues of Roman gods, goddesses and heroes. The pool appears to be styled after an ancient Roman bath such as the Baths of Caracalla in Rome c. 211-17 CE. The mosaic tiled patterns were inspired by mosaics found in the 5 C. Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy (Kastner, p. I-261.) They are also representative of traditional marine monster themes that can be found in ancient Roman baths (Strong, p. 124.) The statues are rough copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues. One such copy represents the "Apoxyomenos." Statuary was used on a considerable scale in the Baths of Caracalla (Strong, p. 124.) The pool and surrounding room, which were built from 1927-1934, can be compared to an ancient Roman bath. The pool, like the baths, is located indoors. Its water was heated as in a tepidarium. However, in Hearst's complex there were no hot or cold baths as there were in the ancient complex. The Roman Pool complex was designed to contain an exercise room, sweat baths, a handball court and dressing rooms (Cohn/Kastner p. I-258.) The Baths of Caracalla covere... ...ing fingers of the outstretched hand. We will never know what Hearst was thinking when he created his Roman Pool. Was he hoping to accurately depict an ancient Roman bath, or did he just like Roman art? Overall he kept to a romanticized 1930's version of the Roman theme, with decorations that span three centuries. Looking at the rest of his "castle" leads one to believe that Hearst combined whatever he thought was impressive. This pool is truly impressive. Works Cited: Boardman, John. Greek Art. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964. Cohn, Leslie and Kastner, Vicki. Roman Pool. (Information from Hearst Castle P.R. Department) Hutton, Edward. The Story of Ravenna. London: J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1926. Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1995. Strong, David. Roman Art. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, Ltd, 1976. Roman Pool Essay -- Architecture Structure History Essays Roman Pool The private residence built by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in San Simeon, California is quite a site to behold. Originally named La Cuesta Encantada it is now often referred to as Hearst Castle. It is located on a hilltop overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the Santa Lucia Mountains. The estate took 28 years to build and includes the main house, guest houses, two pools, and acres of gardens, terraces and walkways. Its rooms and gardens are decorated with an impressive collection of antiques from around the world. One particularly interesting building is the Roman Pool. The Roman Pool at Hearst castle is a tiled indoor pool decorated with eight statues of Roman gods, goddesses and heroes. The pool appears to be styled after an ancient Roman bath such as the Baths of Caracalla in Rome c. 211-17 CE. The mosaic tiled patterns were inspired by mosaics found in the 5 C. Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy (Kastner, p. I-261.) They are also representative of traditional marine monster themes that can be found in ancient Roman baths (Strong, p. 124.) The statues are rough copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues. One such copy represents the "Apoxyomenos." Statuary was used on a considerable scale in the Baths of Caracalla (Strong, p. 124.) The pool and surrounding room, which were built from 1927-1934, can be compared to an ancient Roman bath. The pool, like the baths, is located indoors. Its water was heated as in a tepidarium. However, in Hearst's complex there were no hot or cold baths as there were in the ancient complex. The Roman Pool complex was designed to contain an exercise room, sweat baths, a handball court and dressing rooms (Cohn/Kastner p. I-258.) The Baths of Caracalla covere... ...ing fingers of the outstretched hand. We will never know what Hearst was thinking when he created his Roman Pool. Was he hoping to accurately depict an ancient Roman bath, or did he just like Roman art? Overall he kept to a romanticized 1930's version of the Roman theme, with decorations that span three centuries. Looking at the rest of his "castle" leads one to believe that Hearst combined whatever he thought was impressive. This pool is truly impressive. Works Cited: Boardman, John. Greek Art. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964. Cohn, Leslie and Kastner, Vicki. Roman Pool. (Information from Hearst Castle P.R. Department) Hutton, Edward. The Story of Ravenna. London: J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1926. Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1995. Strong, David. Roman Art. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, Ltd, 1976.

British American Tobacco Implementation of SWOT Analysis

According to the economic theory (firm theory), a firm’s utmost objective is to maximize its profit. Hence during the initial stages of the enterprise growth, managers use financial metrics such as cash flows, revenue, and pre-tax profit to evaluate performance of their firm.However, these metrics only tell of past events and therefore can not be used for strategic management, with time the market conditions change. As a result, a firm will tend to invest more to develop capabilities and customer relationships on a long-term basis.Customer relationship is becoming critical for the firm and therefore as the firm embarks on the financial metrics; it must also add consumer satisfaction metrics for it to remain successful. Hence in this new environment over reliance on the financial metric is not enough in evaluating the path to be followed by companies to increase value through investing in employees, consumer, technology and innovation. In order to address the insufficiency of t hese metrics, business information consultants have put forward several strategic management tools and models.Some of these models and tools include the SWOT analysis, Balanced Scorecard (BSC) analysis etc. The BSC has four aspects namely, the customer perspective, internal business perspective, innovation and learning perspective and financial perspective.The SWOT analysis evaluates the weakness, strength, opportunities and threats involved in company's operations. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the firm and evaluate the internal capability while Opportunities and threats are out-offing business control and refer to how the business is affected by the external environment.Strengths refer to areas where the business can excel in, for example business's competence and resource utilization. Weaknesses is what the company cannot do and managers should consider areas which need improvements, areas which the company do poorly and what should be avoided.Opportunities refer to th e market attractiveness and threats are the potential challenges which hinder business operation. British American Tobacco’s (BAT) goal is to build a long-term shareholder value through development of new brands and products.The company has used the SWOT analysis to implement strategic management and performance evaluation to achieve this goal. BAT is multinational company that manufactures tobacco products and it has many branches around the world.The implementation of business management tools is aimed at shifting management from quality performance to corporate performance. Strengths The company manufactures markets and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products. By the end of year 2007 the company had more than 300 brands and a work force of about 53,907 employees both in UK and internationally.Its revenue base for the period stood at $ 20,054 million. It offers adult consumers products of high quality and also assists them to make sure that they choose their product ove r those of competitors.Continued improvements in productivity have helped the company develop more brands hence increase earnings: for instance it has introduced smokeless cigarettes aimed at reducing smoke related diseases. To remain competitive in the market, the British American tobacco has embarked on cost reducing strategies and complexities in its supply chain.In 2004 the company made the commitment to reduce overheads cost and other indirect costs by $ 200 million annually by the end of 2007 through implementation of a single procurement processes within its area of operation.The company also offers from time to time training to its workers so as to make them adapt to the changing business environment. Threats The company's operations have been affected by the tobacco regulation policies across the world. One of them is the suggestion by the World Health Organization to have all products packaging be plain or unbranded.Removing colors and trademarks familiar to consumers is a critical challenge because consumers will not able to differentiate cigarettes from BAT and those of its competitors or the genuine products and fake ones.The company has strongly opposed the idea of plain packages claiming that there is no evidence that suggest that plain packs would have effect on smoking by children. In addition restriction of corporate trademarks by any government is a breach of intellectual property rights in international trade.The issues of counterfeit product harm the company's revenue and there have been cases of trade in illicit tobacco globally. In order to reduce the cases of cigarette smuggling, the company has supported various governments, world custom organizations and world trade organization in seeking ways to eliminate illicit tobacco trade. WeaknessesThe main internal challenge that has faced the company is the inability to produce less harmful products. However, for some years now the company has embarked in search for less harmful products.Hig h overhead costs have been another threat to the market competitiveness of the company's product. Before the implementation of single procurement system in 2003, the indirect costs had been too high which resulted to high cost of its tobacco products.Opportunities British American tobacco has more that 30 branches across the world and about 180 markets and has opening new factories in more countries. The demand for tobacco products has been rising as more and more youths have started smoking.The company has utilized this opportunity provided by the market through development of more products to satisfy the market demand. The company has decentralized its factories across the globe to increase it market share and position their product for the consumer who have decided to buy tobacco products.Bibliography BAT, consumer and trade, retrieved on 13 December 2008, from http://www. bat. com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen. nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO6ZXMRV opendocument&SKN=1BAT, plain packaging, retriev ed on 13 December, 2008, from http://www. bat. com/group/sites/uk3mnfen. nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO7J7DCZ?Opendocument&SKN=1 Capgemini, ‘5-year procurement target at British American Tobacco,' 2003, retrieved on 13 December 2008, from www. at. capgemini. com/m/at/cs/ss_British_American_Tobacco. pdf.Dickson Vicky, Balance Score Card as strategic management tool, 2005, retrieved on 13 December 2008 from http://www. betterlocalization. com/index. php? itemid=44.