Compariing Three Versions of Chaucers Pardoners Tale :: Chaucer Pardoners Tale Canterbury Essays

Compariing Three Versions of Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale One of the interesting things about the works of Chaucer is the amount of difference one can find between the different manuscripts of his work. I thought it would be interesting to look at the difference between two manuscripts, using the transcriptions available in the Chaucer Society Specimens of all the Accessible Unprinted Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. I found a copy that has comparative versions of the manuscripts assigned to us, taking a look at the Pardoner's Tale. While we have not looked at that tale in class, and given that it was the only sample I could find in the scattered volumes of the Specimens, I felt it would be interesting to look at them, especially compared to the Riverside edition we are reading in class. Beginning with the Riverside edition, the introduction to the Pardoner?s tale begins with ?Heere endeth the Phisiciens Tale? and ?The woordes of the Hoost to the Phisicien and the Pardoner.? (Benson, 193) These introductory words, as well as the closing words for the previous tale, are not present in the Bodleian text. One could surmise that the transcriber of the text felt these to be perfunctory and unecessary, and though the reproduction I have does not reproduce it, it?s possible that there could be some other dividing point to break off one tale and begin another. The Additional MS has a conjunctive phrase, though it is different than that presented in the Riverside edition. ?here ende the Maister of phisikes tales? and ?Here bigynneth the prologe of the reheytyng of our hoost.? (Specimens 91, 2) It is interesting to not the difference of terminology here. The physician is ?Phisicien? in the Riverside text, yet the ?Master of phisikes? in the Additional MS. One wonders why one i s preferred over the other, and which is the more authoritative version. With only these three texts assigned, it is not for this author to speculate, and again, with a small sample, there can easily be isolated differences. One of the most interesting things to note in these differing manuscripts, I?ve found, is the variance and change that even identical passages can take, separated into various edition. Much like modern English, when you ask several different people to write the same thing, you can get many different variations base on how they?re transcribed.

Livvie Essay -- essays research papers

"Livvie", A Celebration of life Eudora Welty’s "Livvie", is a great story on how life should be celebrated. The story is about a young woman , who marries and old man, that in a since imprisons her. The young girl gets a second chance at life when a younger man (someone her own age) enters her life and the older man is about to die. The theme Welty is trying to get across is live life to the fullest. Welty shows the theme through the character, setting, and symbols. Characters played a big role in the story. First, Solomon who is the husband of young woman. His name kind of explains what type of man he is going to be in the story. Solomon was the king of Israel and in the story Welty provides information that Solomon is playing a king type role. Welty says Solomon had a bed "like a throne" (511). "Solomon had never let Livvie go any farther than the chicken house and the well. (515). Welty shows the control Solomon has over Livvie (the young girl). Another sign of control that Welty shows in the story is, "Solomon would not have let Livvie look at them, just as he would not let her look at a field hand or a field hand look at her" (512-513). He does not realize how unappreciative he is making Livvie. Livvie, her name too has a symbol. It means "life" or "live". "She is unable to live her life Watt 2 under Solomon’s strict rule (Sample Short Story Ana...

A Book That Has Had an Impact on Me Essay

During my fourth year of secondary school, I became acutely aware of the Women’s Rights Issue. I made an attempt to re-examine many of the cultural norms that I had previously accepted as just being â€Å"the natural order of things. † One of the paths I took to expand my awareness of the female psyche involved women’s literature. That is why I spent one weekend of my life in bed–crying, laughing, feeling sometimes confused, and often, incredibly angry and distraught. On that rainy Humboldt Friday night I had decided to read â€Å"The Women’s Room. The author, Marilyn Fridey, describes the lives of several women from the 1950’s to present. These women are nothing out of the ordinary. They either go to college and then get married, or they get married without bothering about the pretense of college–after all, they know that college is only a way to find more economically promising husbands. Myra, the main character whose life is traced throughout the book vaguely wonders why she is not content cooking pot roast, scraping shit from the baby’s diapers, and picking up her husband’s dry cleaning. See more: Strategic Management Process Essay Her only solace is the neighborhood of women who share concerns over coffee in the afternoons. They wonder why Katherine, a Catholic woman who has 9 children and an alcoholic husband, committed suicide. â€Å"She had a normal life, they thought, she just should have talked her husband into using birth control. † As for the rest of the women, including Myra, their lives, fears, disappointments and yearnings, were much more subtle, yet equally suicidal in their quiet desperation. Many years down the road, Myra’s life finally changes. Her husband has â€Å"made it†, the kids have grown, and life is easy economically. Myra has a nervous breakdown. Once recovered, she divorces, and becomes a graduate student at Yale. Though painful and difficult, it is here that she comes to terms with herself, realizes her potential, and learns to live with herself–not necessarily happily–but at least honestly. After I finished the story of Myras world that Sunday evening, I woke up in the middle of the night sobbing uncontrollably from a terrible nightmare. Though I couldn’t remember the dream, I came to a profound realization. Myra’s life was my mothers. Most of my life I had revered, respected and admired my father for going to college, being intelligent and worldly, having power and control. In short for being a man. My mother always seemed too â€Å"wishy-washy†, easily trodden upon, overly dependent because she had chosen the role of housewife, mother. I rebelled against the tradition, and feared wearing those chains someday. Consequently, I strove to be like my father. Until this book, I never realized how much more courage it took for a person to live within a stifled role, and find contentment by living through other people. During that night of crying I understood my mother for the first time–I respected her inner strength, compassion, gentleness. Ever since then, my relationship with my mother has evolved, and we are very close. I will probably never adopt the role in life that she chose to take, but I now respect her for her life, and understand the reasons why she made those choices. Reading of Myra’s evolution as a female changed the way I feel towards myself, my feelings and compassion for my mother, and provided me with a much more sensitive view towards the lives of many women in our society today.

Development in Moroccan Economy Essay

Economic Environment Development of the Moroccan Economy The Moroccan economy is known for its macroeconomic stability. Inflation rates have always been relatively low, mainly due to the country’s restrictive currency regime. Morocco has been characterised by moderate to high growth rates. The country has benefited from its low labour cost and strategic location near the European mainland. Morocco has experienced a stronger growth than usual since the year 2000, caused by improved weather conditions, a strong export growth and various liberalizing policies. These liberalizing policies have been introduced by King Mohammed VI in 2003. He came up with a number of economic reforms resulting in a growth of the small modern manufacturing sector and the development of the tourism industry. He has put his main focus on the European Union since the Free Trade Agreement in the year 2000. Morocco’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has steadily gone up since 2002. According to statistics of â€Å"Datamonitor 360† the GDP in 2002 was about 40 billion dollar, in 2010 the GDP had grown to approximately 60 billion dollar. That is a rise of 50% in only eight years time. The World Factbook from the CIA mentions that in 2010 Morocco ranked number 58 in the world when it comes to the GDP. The real GDP growth rate has not been negative since 2002. In 2010 Morocco ranked number 77 in the world of real GDP growth. The lowest growth rate was about 2,5% in 2005 and 2007 and peeked with 7,5% in 2006. This could have possibly been caused by the Free Trade Agreement with the United States of America, which was introduced in 2006. I will further explain the results of the Free Trade Agreement with the EU and the USA later on in this chapter. The three main sectors: industry, service and agriculture, all grew steadily the past ten years. In 2009 the service sector was the biggest sector and contributed 49,4% to the GDP, the industry sector came second with 31,3% followed by the agriculture with 19,2%. Morocco has a profitable industry sector, mainly because of its large amounts of phosphate. Tourism plays a big role in the service sector. The tourism industry has remained vibrant despite the Casablanca bombings in 2003 and 2007. Morocco’s external trade has also been increasing steadily, with only a slight decrease in 2009. However, the total external trade still grew from 25,7 billion dollars in 2002 to 77,6 billion dollars in 2009. This is a growth of 51,9 billion dollars, which is a growth percentage of approximately 202%. Even though Morocco’s economy has been doing well the past decade, the unemployment rate is still relatively high. During the period from 2002 to 2008 the unemployment rate was at least 11%. In 2007 a small decrease of unemployment of 300 thousand took place, still leaving 1,1 million people unemployed. By the end of 2008 the unemployment rate was 9,6%. In 2009 a total of 93,000 new jobs got created resulting in a decrease to 9,1% by the end of 2009. We can conclude that the overall Moroccan economy has shown a fairly good development, but there is still a lot more to improve. The government has been working on new reforms that should lead to better business conditions in the country. International Financial Crisis Morocco together with Algeria and Tunisia has been one of the least affected countries by the international financial crisis. The international financial crisis started with the credit crunch in the US. Morocco has not been affected by this so-called credit crunch, because Morocco does not have the kind of credit that caused the American credit crunch. Besides this Morocco had minimal exposure to foreign assets. Morocco did however get affected by the international financial crisis as soon as it hit Europe. The Western European crisis resulted in diminishing growth rates. The crisis in Europe did not only slow down Moroccan export rates, but also the tourism industry. As European unemployment rates increased, many Moroccans working abroad lost their jobs, causing a decline in remittances. Morocco has been able to keep the negative effects of the international financial crisis to a minimum due to its good macroeconomic policy, an open economy, clear trade policies and several investment opportunities with emerging countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Because of the effects the financial crisis has had in Europe and the US, Gulf investors are expected to invest in African countries and the Middle East. At the end of 2008 Gulf investors announced a 1,7 billion US dollar investment in real estate in Morocco. These investments and planned reforms will make sure the Moroccan economy will continue to grow in the future. Effects FTA US and EU Morocco’s economy has largely benefited from the free trade agreements it has made with the European Union and the United States. In 1996 Morocco signed an association agreement with the European Union. The association became effective on March 1, 2000. The free trade agreement with the EU is mainly applied on industrial products and hardly any agricultural products. The objective is to have completely free trade between Morocco and the EU by 2012. In 2010 the EU proposed a new trade deal with Morocco to include duty-free trade in agricultural, food and fisheries products. On June 15, 2004 Morocco also signed a free trade agreement with the USA, which became effective on January 1, 2006. For America this was the second Arab-US free trade agreement and the first African-US free trade agreement. During a video of the ‘Moroccan American Trade and Investment Council’ the counsellor to King Mohammed VI for financial and economic affairs says about the FTA with the US: â€Å"We want to put Morocco as a platform for business with Europe, with the US, with Asia, China, Africa, Middle East. It was part of a global vision of Morocco. † Mr. Hassan, the president of the Moroccan Business Association says during the same video â€Å"The Morocco – US free trade agreement is a great opportunity for the Moroccan economy. † Due to the free trade agreements many American and European businesses have opened establishments in Morocco. These businesses have employed thousands of Moroccans causing a decline in the unemployment rate of the country. Both free trade agreements have been a huge step in the right direction for Morocco. The country still has a lot of poverty and unemployment; much more is needed to solve the country’s issues. However, the country is one of the most stable African and Arab nations. Current Economic System Morocco has a relatively liberal market economy regulated by supply and demand. From 1993 onwards there has been a policy of privatization. The heritage foundation, a research and educational institution, has come up with an index of economic freedom. This index makes it possible to measure the economic freedom in countries around the world. The world average score on the index of 2011 is 59. 7 out of 100 points. Morocco’s overall score is 59. 6, only a tenth point under the world average. Morocco is the 93rd country on the 2011 world rank of economic freedom. The regional average of the Middle East and North Africa is 60. 6, which makes Morocco the 10th country on the list of 17 regional countries. The overall score is determined by ten economic freedoms. In figure below the ranking of all ten separate economic freedoms of Morocco compared to the world average is shown. The most important economic freedom for this specific country report is business freedom. The business freedom represents the procedures for setting up and registering a private enterprise and the possibilities of private investment and production. In figure you can clearly see the Moroccan business freedom compared to the Dutch business freedom. King Mohammed VI has come up with many economic and non-economic reforms over the years. The two largest current reforms are the â€Å"Plan Maroc Vert† (Green Plan) and the â€Å"Plan Emergence†.

Employee Retention

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. RAMZAN SUBMITTED BY: FAHAD KHALID (MSBA) MUHAMMA ASAD KHAN (MSBA) ADEEL JAVED (MBA) ZAIN SOHAIL (MBA) SUPERIOR UNIVERSITY LAHORE How the employee retention in educational institutions affects Organizational effectiveness Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to put forward a framework of employee retention in the educational institutions which enables them to work for longer time periods and less chance of leaving the place.It also discusses the factors that how the retention of employee affects the organizational effectiveness. Three different levels of schools have been chosen to collect the information from the employees to analyze the organizational effectiveness. The close-ended questionnaire has been established for this purpose. The sample size of 214 will be taken. The SPSS is used to analyze the data and findings of that are given in the context. The limitation of the study is time constraint. The data collection procedure becomes very muc h difficult.This study is only for the education sector in developing countries like Pakistan. Key words: Leadership style, Recognition, Motivation, educational institutions. Introduction This study is about producing and retaining human resource. Hence the research is about the study for the retention of employees in the educational sector. The educational sector is the source of producing human capital for the country which leads to economic development. The employees in that sector should be retained so that the organizational effectiveness is increased.The problem of academic staff retention is a global one which affects both developing and industrialized countries (wisdom 2006 p-11). The most critical for all; is the human resource factor. Without strengthening human resources and retaining critical skills and competencies with in any organization, other components stand to suffer. In academic institutions, the critical human capital includes academic, administrative and techni cal staff resources. The institutional governance, management and financial reforms undertaken as seen above will be more sustainable if there is stability in the area of human resource. Paschal B. Mihyo 2008 p-10) The issue of academic staff attrition and retention in developing countries has been less well documented in the literature. This is because the issue tends to be subsumed under the general category of ‘brain drain’, without particular attention being devoted to it. This subsumption reflects the close relationship between the brain drain and staff retention in many countries. (wisdom 2006 p-12). The employees who are not satisfied with the organizational retention policy they tend to leave the organization.Many research shows that the employees with the higher age are less tends to leave but the lower rank employees are more tends to leave the organization. There is always a certain amount of employee turnover due retirements, promotions and career developmen t; however specific industries and occupations experience attrition rates far greater than others. One business expert author identified ten primary reasons of the employee resigns (MacCann). * Basic financial needs not met. * Lack of competitive salary * Poor benefits * Poor communication * Negative work environment Lack of recognition * Unfair treatment * Lack of challenge in job * Lack of job security * Life conflicts (Gary S. Trulson p-12) There is a vast literature on the causes of voluntary employee turnover dating back to the 1950s. By developing multivariate models that combine a number of factors contributing to turnover and empirically testing the models researchers have sought to predict why individuals leave organizations. Many studies are based on only a small number of variables which often only explain a small amount of variability in turnover.Another criticism of turnover studies is that they do not adequately capture the complex psychological processes involved in i ndividual turnover decisions. Literature Review â€Å"An effective Employee Retention Program is a systematic effort to create and foster an environment that encourages employees to remain employed by having policies and practices in place that address their diverse needs. † (George C. Sinnott, Commissioner & George H. Madison, Director September 2002 p-2) Employee retention is perhaps the most frequently studied phenomenon in the organizational effectiveness.Most organizations find it difficult to measure and improve employee attitudes related to work. Most of the organizations are working on their retention plans for improving employee`s performance and employee`s satisfaction which leads to organizational effectiveness. Increasing employee satisfaction and thereby reducing employee turnover is critical. Long-tenured employees develop personal associations with customers. These relationships are the Groundwork for a reinforcing cycle of positive links between employees and customers. Employees who recognize relationships with customers provide better service.Customers who receive better service express fewer complaints and thereby create fewer problems for employees. Employees in turn react more constructively to tackle with customers. These reactions result in better service which again leads to privileged organizational revenues. Ultimately it is of importance in the educational institutions where teachers have develop direct relation with the students, if turnover of the teachers increases it will also decrease the satisfaction level of the students as well. So the organizations with the long term teachers have ultimately gain the good success in the market.Teaching staff: In the academia the teaching staff is main factor for improving the organizations effectiveness. The institutions with the satisfied and retained staff work more effectively than other. If teaching staff works for the longer period of time then it will be able to produce the desi red results for the students, if students are satisfied who are the customers and it will increase the reputation of organization in the market. â€Å"Teaching bright students and seeing their students develop are the positive aspects of teaching.The negative aspects relate to assessment, both of the amounts required of the students and that of the staff themselves. Administrative tasks and organizational change tend to be viewed as negative aspects of the job by most academics. Hours of work spent on administration have a negative effect on satisfaction with almost all dimensions of academics’ job satisfaction. † (Hilary Metcalf et al. Research Report RR658 p-xvi). Retention: Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employees stick to an organization for a longer period of time.The organization is completely at loss when the employees leave their job once they are fully trained. Employee retention takes into account the various mea sures taken so that an individual stays in an organization for the maximum period of time. The completely trained employees should be given more time to stay by contracting them for longer period. As the research shows, â€Å"About two-thirds of academics expected to remain in UK academia until retirement. This was higher in new universities. We would estimate that between three and six per cent would leave the sector in the year following interview.This comprised two to three per cent of those on permanent contracts and five to 11 per cent of those on fixed-term contracts. Forty-three per cent of those who thought they might leave the sector in the following year expected to move to another job; this was most commonly to a UK job outside research and teaching, to an academic job abroad or for fixed-term contracts staff, to a UK research job. Contract staff could be seen as being driven out of the sector due to insecurity: they tended to leave due to their contract ending, the desi re for a permanent job or pessimism about job opportunities in UK academia. (Hilary Metcalf et al. Research Report RR658 p- vii). Employee benefits: In the educational institutions employees are looking forward for monetary as well as non-monetary rewards. The organizations which develop the reward system for the employees are better able to reduce the employee turnover. These monetary and non-monetary rewards may include followings: according to (paschal B. Mihyo 2008 p-xiii) * Free or subsidized education facility provided to staff children. * Private pension fund and health insurance schemes should be developed. Reward and recognition system should be decentralized. * Loan guarantee schemes that can enable staff acquire respectable shelter and means of transport need to be developed. â€Å"Institutions should work towards a reasonable improvement in the working conditions (salary and non-salary) of staff, because this is likely to result in more than proportionate levels of job satisfaction. It is necessary to implement some system of differential rewards. This is inevitable, if certain academic fields are to attract and retain staff.Universities should maintain, or institute, non-salary benefits such as tuition waivers/remissions, preferential admission for staff and their families, and access to childcare and primary school facilities provided by their institutions. †(Wisdom J. Tettey 2006 p-4) Motivation of the staff: Employees who stay with a firm because of motivational reasons derive their satisfaction primarily from the work itself. An average of 75 percent of the respondents identified internal/motivational factors such as achievement, recognition, challenging work, and advancement prospects as the main reasons for staying. Matthew H. Sauber , Andrew G. Snyir & Mohsen Sharifi p-36). Motivation can increase the employee satisfaction and also its efficiency at work place. There is an old saying you can take a horse to the water but you cannot f orce it to drink; it will drink only if it's thirsty – so with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. The motivation can also have an impact on the job performance of employees. The job performance depends upon the ability and ability in turn depends on experience, education and ; training. On the other hand motivation can be improved quickly.There are many options and an uninitiated manager may not even know where to start. As a guideline, there are broadly seven strategies for motivation. The Present Study The aim of this study to investigate some factors that have an influence on employee retention. Based on the previous research and literature, both employee retention and organizational factors are taken into account. On the organization side it has to focus on the leadership style, motivation and reward system. On the employee side the age, experience and level of job had not given a clear conclusion. So there is no source of expectation from these variables.But other variables are leadership style, motivation and recognition are considered. It has been shown that the employees with higher age are less satisfied with the leadership role of their boss in the educational institutions. It has also shown that the employees with more experience got more recognition in the organization. But due to ineffective reward system they are less satisfied. Following research questions are established. RQ1. To what extent can retention be predicted by the variable â€Å"organization effectiveness†? RQ2 What is the relationship between selected employee variables (age, experience and level of job) with retention?RQ3 Is there a difference between different groups of employees (groups differing n seniority, level of education and whether or not being seen as High Potential) regarding their retention? MODEL RETENTION OF EMPLOYEE LEADERSHIP STYLE MOTIVATION AT WORK PLACE RECOGNITION ORGANIZATION EFFECTIVENESS Methodology Data col lection Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that was distributed on a voluntary basis in educational institutions and among employees, in hard-copy, in the year 2011. The study sample consists of 214 employees which will be in the categories of high level, middle level and low level employees.The high level employees consist of directors, principal and vice-principal of the institutions. The middle level employees include teachers and instructors. The low level employees will be as clerks, cashier, and front desk representatives. The data collected from the secondary schools and higher secondary schools. The participant’s 87. 4% is male and 12. 6 % is female. The majority of the employees (81%) worked full time and other worked part time (19%). gender | Frequency| Percent| Valid Percent| Cumulative Percent| Valid| male| 187| 87. 4| 87. 4| 87. 4| | female| 27| 12. | 12. 6| 100. 0| | Total| 214| 100. 0| 100. 0| | Instruments The questionnaire used for the study to c ollect data is designed with the help of expert researcher. The questionnaire consists of 13 items which would be categorized into three different variables used for analysis. Results and Analysis The first issue for data analysis was the presence of missing figures in the form of NR answers. The most frequent case of missing data was the use of N/A for items related to ‘‘leaders in this organization are role models†7 respondents choose N/R for one or the other.The responses are categorized as it is â€Å"strongly agree† =1 , â€Å"Agree†=†2† , â€Å"Neutral†=3, â€Å"Disagree†=4, â€Å"Strongly Disagree†=5. The value of Cronbach’s alpha is . 724 (72. 4%) which shows reliability of data. The correlation which shows that participation will have negative weak relation with the experience of employees with r=0. 01;0. 05 (5%) and value of correlation is (-. 255). The results also shows that as the age of employee in creases the less satisfied with the leadership style and the value of correlation is -. 285 with significance level 0. 01;0. 05(5%). The reward system of the organization has also n impact on employees and result shows that as the age of employee’s increases they are more satisfied with the reward system. Is reward system of the organization is adequate? age| Strongly agree=1| Agree=2| Neutral=3| Disagree=4| Strongly Disagree=5| 20-2526-3031-3536-40| 863017| 442111076| 00000| 55204887| 2070027| Does your employer make effort for employee's awareness about their work? Cross tabulation | | Does your employer make effort for employee's awareness about their work? | Total| | Strongly agree=1| Agree=2| Neutral=3| Disagree=4| Strongly disagree=5| Strongly agree| age| 20-25| 32| 63| | 30| 6| 131| 26-30| 13| 30| | 11| 0| 54| | 31-35| 7| 11| | 0| 0| 18| | 36-40| 4| 4| | 0| 0| 8| Total| 56| 108| | 41| 6| 211| This result also shows that if employer make awareness for the employees abou t their tasks and assignments at work place. The organizations with who gives the employees clear vision about their job description, the employees in that organizations work with greater efficiency. The educational institutions are more concerned about retaining their employee’s b providing them with clear idea about their vision. Conclusion and FindingsThe study shows that retention of employee in the educational sector has an impact on the organizational effectiveness. The retention depends on the reward system of the organization, motivation and recognition of employee at work place. Another useful focus for further work is a comparison of conditions of services between academic staff and their counterparts, with similar qualifications and experience, who are employed outside of universities. This will help determine, with substantive evidence, whether the views expressed by respondents in this study are indeed supported by the facts.It has been shown that higher potentia l employees are less satisfied with the leadership style and they get less recognition in organization. The educational institutions are the source of developing human resource for the economic development of a country. So importance has been given to that sector for improving and retaining employees in that sector. The age has also has an impact on the retention the employees with higher age are not willing to leave organization because they are now being able to get retirement benefits.The employees with lower age try to get the more and more and they are always trying to get good jobs, and are less dependent. The retention of employee has an impact on the organizational effectiveness. If the employees retained in the organization than the organization effectiveness increases by increase in revenues, increase in competency. It can also get a competitive edge in the market. So the organizations with better motivated employee are able to work better in this competitive world. Refere nces * http://www. managementstudyguide. com/employee-retention. tm * http://www. accel-team. com/motivation/index. html * (George C. Sinnott, Commissioner ; George H. Madison, Director September 2002 p-2) * Employee retention in the Joplin,Missouri public safety communication center (Gary S . Trulson) * NYS Department of Civil ServiceGeorge C. Sinnott, Commissioner * NYS Governor’s Office of Employee RelationsGeorge H. Madison, Director * George E. Pataki, GovernorSeptember(2002) * Leadership style, organizational culture and performance: empirical evidencefrom UK companies Emmanuel Ogbonna and Lloyd C. Harris Int. J. f Human Resource Management 11:4 August 2000 766–788 * The International Journal of Human Resource Management * ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online  © 2000 Taylor ; Francis Ltd * http://www. tandf. co. uk/journals * Roland T. Rust and Greg L. Stewart Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Heather Mi ller M/A/R/C Group, USA, and Debbie Pielack MBA Enterprise Corps, Lithuan * Natalie Govaerts and Eva Kyndt(Influence of learning and working Climate on the retention of alented employees) (-39_p-42) * www. emeraldinsight. com/1366-5626. htm

Managing in Mix Economy National Rail in the United Kingdom Essay

Managing in Mix Economy National Rail in the United Kingdom - Essay Example The organisation has the responsibility of the safety and well being of more than six million people travelling by railways from one part of the country to the other. The company mainly aims at keeping passengers safe and secure in their journey. This is also considered as the mission of the company. It strives hard to provide best possible services to the people of the United Kingdom who travel by train. It has been observed that the company has the vision of providing policing excellence in the country by doing the best possible work in their limit. It further believes that it is vital to have a safer environment so that people can move around freely without any fear (British Transport Company, 2013[2]). In this regard, the company engages highly trained officials who work for it 24X7 for the railway community and the millions of passengers all across the country. Moreover, the company also has certain values that it provides much importance. It has been learnt that all the passeng ers as well as the staff of the company are treated with high respect and provided equal opportunity with minimal partiality. The workers or the officers are provided with a considerably good working environment where they can perform to the utmost level of their capabilities (British Transport Company, 2013[3]). Apart from this aspect, the company is also quite strict to any kind of harassment, bullying or victimisation among their staffs and officers. It respects all communities and builds strong relationships with people of all kind irrespective of their origin and community. This enables it to get respect and trust from the people of all corners of the British society. The organisation aims to develop a workforce that can be able to depict the community they serve. It has been noticed that openness and honesty are the key aspects of the company and it strictly adheres to it (British Transport Company, 2013[4]). British Transport Police has certain strategic plans in order to ens ure that it delivers the best possible services to the people of the country. The objectives of the organisation change after every three years of its operations. For the year ranging from 2011 to 2014, the objective of the company is focused on helping the rail system of the country to run smoothly and in the safest possible environment. Continuous improvement in their operations is also among the major objectives of the company for the coming years. Apart from these, there are also certain policy plans of it that is developed every year. These policies depict its approach on how it would balance both the national as well as the local needs of the country. It has been noted that both the strategic and the policy plans of the organisation are its building blocks upon which it strives for its success. The workforce of the organisation comprises officers of different designations which include chief officers, specialists units and behind the scene support staff among others. Altogethe r the organisation has 2909 efficient officers who constantly provide effective performance for it

Brand Portfolio Project (advertising) Case Study

Brand Portfolio Project (advertising) - Case Study Example In 1964, the first year of its operation, the company sold about1300 pairs of shoes generating revenues of about $8000 dollars. The company acquired a full-time employee in 1965, with an annual turnover of close to $20000. With the increased sales volume and growth in stock, the company opened its first retail store in 3107 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California in 1966. Because of the rapid growth in revenues and demand for the company’s products, the company in 1967 expanded its operations to the East Coast in Wellesley, Massachusetts. As the relationship between Blue Ribbon Sports and Onitsuka Tiger approached its final stages in the year 1971, Blue Ribbon Sports was preparing to launch its new footwear designed by Carolyn Davidson (Frisch 6). In June 1971, Blue Ribbon Sports, branded as Nike first used the Swoosh designed footwear, subsequently registering for a trademark and patents of the products. Over time, the company has grown tremendously due to the extensive us e of television advertising for their products. Getting into a number of partnerships with different individuals such as John Brown and partners and Wilden+Kennedy, the later who has remained the official advertising agency for the company, Nike has successfully managed to transform its operations from a small company to a multi-billion dollar enterprise (Google finance Web). In the fiscal year 2012, Nike managed revenues in excess of US $24.1 billion. With the increase in product quality and focus on customer satisfaction, the once small distributor of athletics wear and apparel currently has a market value of approximately $10.7 billion (Nike Inc. web). This makes Nike the biggest company in the sports and athletics brands, ahead of companies such as adidas. Nike’s Mission The company’s mission statement drives its growth and success, making it a profitable and high performing organization in the sports business. This forms the ultimate goal of its operations, gearin g its management and employees to work in an enthusiastic way. According to Nike inc. (web), the company’s mission is, â€Å"To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.† Objectives and Strategies Although initially the company used TV as the dominant advertising strategy, in the recent past a number of strategies drives the advertising campaign of Nike. Among the most significant advertising methods forming the company’s current advertising strategy, include internet marketing, email management technologies and broadcast, methods that the company believes directly influences its target customers. The ability of the company to select reliable media to convey its messages and sell its products to the right people is the main reason for its success. Additionally, the company creatively uses these media forms to complement each other, creating a bigger impact in the market than any other sports company does. As the world started embracing adve rtising and corporations started using internet as an advertising tool, Nike too launched its website in the year 1997 in a bid to market its products. As the company took its products to the internet-advertising platform, it adopted an email management system called EchoMail that integrated its emails into one database center. In order to offer its loyal customers personalized services, the company decided to