Brief Management Analysis Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Brief Management Analysis - Term Paper Example Managed care organizations usually operate as business entities, to make sure that the limited resources are effectively utilized. The original aim of managed care was to stress on the safeguarding of health of the population instead of carrying out expensive interventions once the health of citizens had already been compromised (Risk, 2009). The expression ‘managed care’ speaks for a group of different arrangements that are still being amended and improved for the most part. Four factors are involved in the funding as well as delivery of health care options to the population. These include the suppliers of care, the consumers of the services, the procurer of the care, and the insurer who compensates for care. The expression ‘managed care’ may also be taken to mean preferred provider organizations (PPOs), health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and utilization review. The preferred provider organization (PPO), which works in league with healthcare providers , is responsible for providing covered services for a reasonable fee. Health care providers who operate under definite contracts are identified as ‘preferred providers’. ... The health maintenance organization also provides all the health-care services that are insured at a fixed price in the premium fee. The healthcare consumer has the option of adding co-payments when interested in making office visits as well as other healthcare services. HMOs are also in charge of delivering healthcare through the communication networks built formed among providers. Utilization review refers to the process of assessing the care that is supplied to individual consumers (Kongstvedt, 2009). Utilization review has been utilized broadly in prepaid health-care measures as well as fee-for-service indemnity. Its main objective is to reduce healthcare costs while also enhancing the quality of healthcare. Managed care organizations have historically included the implementation of different prevention initiatives (Risk, 2009). Many MNOs utilize quality improvement and internal performance-measurement systems like the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) to test and improve thei r services. Managed care organizations have become a principal source of health care for publicly funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid as well as the recipients of employer-funded care. In addition, MCOs stand for systems of organized care that usually concentrate on given social groups and are responsible for supporting objectives like prevention activities. The Managed Care Working Group has been at the fore front of proposing recommendations that can foster the integration into managed care of prevention practices. Cost Containment Cost containment proposals have an effect on health care systems through numerous ways. In the first place, cost containment can change the quality of care that

Sigmund Freud Essay Example for Free

Sigmund Freud Essay Consequently, Watson proposed that psychologist should confine themselves to studying behaviour, since only this was measurable by more than one person. For Watson the only way psychology could be taken seriously was to emulate the natural sciences and become objective. Watsons form of psychology was known as behaviourism. In 1913, Watson was working in the field of animal psychology and thought that the term animals could include humans. Watson was not interested in the mental processes. He saw no role for the mind and consciousness. Watson thought behaviour was observable and therefore scientific. The mind and its thought processes were abstract and unobservable and therefore unscientific. Behaviourism was defined by Watson as the study of the association between a stimulus and a response. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a Russian physiologist studying the digestion of dogs, when he found that the laboratory dogs could be conditioned to salivate without food. This learnt behaviour was called classical conditioning. Behaviourism began with the study of animals and experiments were taking over from simply watching them in their natural environment. Thorndike (1911) was interested in human behaviour although he used animals for his experiments for ethical reasons. Thorndike used a puzzle box with a complicated set of pegs and pulleys and watched as the animals attempted to escape. Eventually though trial and error, the animal would manage to open the door and it was rewarded with food. So escaping from the box had become desirable. The animal would then be placed in the box again and after several repetitions the animal preformed the necessary response to open the door more quickly. Thorndike argued that the animal had learnt how to escape because of the reward. Thorndike called this the law of effect. If we like the consequences of our actions then the actions are likely to be repeated. This kind of learning was known as operant conditioning and was studied in more detail by B. F Skinner (1874-1949) Skinner reiterated Thorndikes law of effect in his experiments with rats. Skinners approach to psychology was scientific. His views came from Darwins theories of evolution. Skinner focused on the environment as a cause for human behaviour. He did not think people acted for moral reasons; he thought they reacted in response to their environment. A person might do a good thing not for moral reasons, but for the rewards received for the act. For Skinner the mental process is irrelevant. There is a key difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves involuntary or innate behaviour such as salivating and fear responses. They can be elicited, which means you can do something that produces an involuntary response. Operant conditioning involves voluntary behaviours. Voluntary behaviours are those behaviours that cannot be made to happen. This means that you cannot get these behaviours until someone carries them out. Watson did a study in 1920 and it is a widely used example of how we learn. Albert was conditioned to show a fear response to rats that he initially liked and showed no fear. Watson used a hammer struck on a metal bar to make a loud noise. Albert showed a natural fear response to the loud noise. (Unconditional response) The bar was struck while Albert petted the rat. Eventually, Albert associated the loud noise with the rat and showed the fear response upon seeing the rat. (Conditional response) Watson claimed that emotional responses are learnt through conditioning. He concluded that environment shapes our personality and genetics play no part in our behaviour characteristics. There are ethical criticisms of the little Albert study, however the main criticism seem to be that when the data was examined it showed that it was quite difficult to condition Albert and the fear did not last long. They had to repeat the pairing often to strengthen the association between the loud noise and the rat. Although, the study suggests that it was easy to condition Albert, the data suggest that it was not that easy and not that clear cut. Social learning theory assumes that personality differences result from differences in the learning experiences. This includes learning from observing others in addition to operant and classical conditioning. For example in language acquisition, a child learns to talk by imitating the adults. For social learning to occur, one individual must acquire a new behaviour from another individual (the model) with no reinforcement required. For example, monkeys in the wild are afraid of snakes and display this fear with screeching and jumping up and down. Captive monkeys reared in a laboratory do not have this fear. Mineka and Cook (1988) studied how rhesus monkeys can learn this response. When lab reared monkeys observed the agitated behaviour of wild monkeys in response to a snake, they modified their behaviour to match the model. The monkeys seem to have learnt to display fear by watching the behaviour of other individuals. Bandura, Ross and Ross, (1961) set out to investigate whether children learnt, through observation to display aggression. Children aged between 3 and 6 years of age were split into two groups. One group were exposed to a non-aggressive adult model. The other group were exposed to an adult model behaving aggressively, both physically and verbally to a blow up Bobo doll. The model punched, kicked and hit the doll with a mallet while the children observed this behaviour. The children were then taken to a room containing non-aggressive toys such as crayons, cars, a farm set and aggressive toys such as a dart gun a mallet and a Bobo doll. The children imitated the model with verbal and physical aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo doll. The findings demonstrated that observation and imitation could account for the learning of specific acts without reinforcement. Classical conditioning can explain some of the aspects of human behaviour, especially natural fear responses. Taste aversion, phobias and Gulf War Syndrome can be explained this way. Classical conditioning has a wide range of applications in behaviour therapy and has been successful in treating phobias. However, it cannot explain the attainment of entirely new behaviours and it cannot explain all of human learning especially the diversity of human personality and characteristics. It does not take into account that humans are capable of insight learning and the results are achieved through reasoning, with no trial and error are present. Operant Conditioning can explain how children learn the sounds of words from adults. Nevertheless, it does not explain how children correct grammar, as parents do not reinforce grammar (Slobin 1975) Bibliography Brain C. (2000) Approaches and Methods. Nelson and Thornes Ltd. UK Jarvis M. (et el) (2000) Angles on Psychology. Stanley and Thornes Ltd. UK Atkinson R.L. (et el) An Introduction to Psychology. (1981) Harcourt Brace College Publishers. USA (Word count 2052) Beverley Fielden Access Psychology

Project Monitoring And Control Information Technology Essay

Project Monitoring And Control Information Technology Essay Project monitoring is the observation and supervision for those in the management team to detect and react appropriately to deviation and changes to a project plan. By monitoring the progress, the management teams are able to determine how far the project has proceeded and whether it has met the completion expectation or re-forecast the expectations originally set out in projects plan. One way to succeed in monitoring projects while maintain a positive progress of the project is the need to do a report detailing their observation. However, this report needs to be done in a frequency (continuously, regularly, logically, etc.) so that the management hierarchy can exercise their control without stepping on the responsibilities of other levels.1 Other than report, monitoring project can also be done through meetings with clients and parties involved in the project (contractor, supplier, etc.) at a regular basis to keep track of the progress. Monitoring alone, however, will not be effective in managing a project without control. With the combine effect of monitoring and control of a project, managing team will be able to move towards its final decision where corrective actions and decision will be made to pull the project back onto its original objective.1 Monitoring and control helps to make sure the projects position with respect to the nine functions of project management: Scope, cost, time, quality, risk, communications, procurements, human resources and integration. In short, if the project is off course, then control in the form of corrective action must be applied if possible corrective action can take the form of re-planning, reprogramming, or reallocating resources or changing the way project is managed and organized. Impact of Project Monitoring and Control: Project monitoring and control is a crucial system that is used widely by organizations. Monitoring and controls of a project with the nine functions scope, cost, time, quality, risk, communications, procurements, human resources and integration allows the management team to note the progress of the project whether they are in the original objectives. An organization operating without a project monitoring and control system is considered a risk that will eventually lead to its failure. In term of cost, if there are no proper monitoring and control, the company will be paying more for a resource compared to one that is carefully monitored and controlled because without control, the team might be paying more, when comparing prices from different contractors and make sure the prices are within project budget. Naturally without monitoring and control, time will be an aspect that cannot be avoided. Without monitoring and control, work may be repeated because of a fault or delay in the process, such as delayed in delivery by a contractor or a source that didnt pass quality control. Therefore they will consume more time to accomplish. Lack of Motivation. Motivation is defined as a pull and push forces, which result in unpredicted behavior of human directed towards their goals.2In the aviation industry, motivation is used to ensure employees have the intensity and direction of which is geared towards flight safety.   Aviation is a huge industry that involves huge number of employees of different department that have work for a different goal to each other but it will ultimately involves the safety of its passengers and pilots. Employees such as pilot, flight crew, engineer and technicians would have done the similar tasks repetitively and could claim they have enough experience to complete their task without fail yet under different circumstances; human factor will still play a role in maintaining the quality of the performance of all employees. The working environment plays a major role in effecting employee performance. 3In a working environment having a hot working environment will de-motivate employees performance. However, pilot faces a more serious environment factors as they need to take into account of flying in an aircraft loaded with technological environment. Be it the design of the equipment and flight control, displays/interface characteristics and task factors a pilot need to be very focus and well-motivated in order to maintain the quality of their performance in such a harsh environment. The condition of an employee is a common problem that almost all organizations face. This factor involves mental condition of the employee, which negatively affects performance of the task, such as mental fatigue, pernicious attitude. This is perhaps the most important factor because personal issues cannot be governed by their employers.   Impact of lack of Motivation. Employees are an organizations needs to function. An organization whose employees have not been motivated is vulnerable to both company and personal challenges because its employees are not pushing themselves further to maintain the stability which ultimately means they are underperforming. Therefore, lack of motivation equates to less work being accomplished. It does not however, mean there is no productivity coming from the employees; it can be said that they the productivity are transfer to aspects not related to their work. Simple things like internet surfing while at work and taking longer break time for lunch will cost the organization time and money. Low employee motivation due to unpleasant working environment can also impact how existing and potential clients/partners view on working with such an organization.3When employees are lacking motivation due to unpleasant working environment for instance a salary cut or no incentives. The consequences of such action would normally cause what we know as going on strike. When that happen, the organizations reputation to their clients/partners will plunge downward and the forces clients/partners to reconsider signing any contract with such an organization. This organization will suffer greatly in terms of the quality of work being produced and slowed production rate. Project Monitoring and Control, and Motivation Case: 4 On 3rd Oct 2006, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) announce the delay in the production of Airbus A380 Aircraft which will push back the delivery of this aircraft by 2 years. An estimated loss of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2.8 billion in pre-tax earnings between 2006 and 2010 has been revealed. In June 2006, Airbus acknowledges that they had underestimated the amount of work to be done to finish up the installation of the electrical harnesses into the forward and rear sections of the fuselage. The reason of this long delay was contributed by the complexity of the aircrafts electrical wiring system. The root cause was the fact that a new 3D digital mock-up, which facilitates the design of the electrical harnesses installation was implemented late as well as the people working on the aircraft was still in their learning curve, the problem arises when the internal wiring of the aircraft in the fuselage section which has been changed and reconfigure several times during its produc tion. The thousands of cables embedded inside the fuselage were wrongly configured and delivered. This case can been describe by 2 project failure factors: Project Monitoring and Control: The management team was at fault for this reason. During the installation process, there was no frequent inspection on the wiring configuration and only after installing thousands of wire then they realize the problem theyll be facing. If the management team had set up an inspection team to do a more frequent inspection on the installation the problem could have resolved earlier and minimizing losses. If monitoring and control has been properly managed, the risk of such an incident would have been minimized. Motivation: Human factor is ultimately related to motivation and one of the main problems with the wiring problem rise from those who are installing them in the aircraft be it the technician and engineer. In another report, it was explained by the chief executive Christian Streiff Beyond the complexity of the cable installation, the root cause of the problem is the fact that the 3D digital mock-up, which facilitates the design of the electrical harnesses installation, was implemented late and that the people working on it were in their learning curve. He stated clearly that the people working on it were in their learning curve. Knowing that they were in their learning curve, the people should be more aware that they are not experience in this new installation process and should be more aware that they need more supervision and review on this installation process. If worker are motivated enough, they wouldve seek the necessary assistance to advise them appropriately so that they will be able to c ontinue without any problem. Project Monitoring and Control Strategy: Earned Value Management System An established project management principles and techniques such as Earn Value Analysis (EVA) can be used to monitor and control a project.5 Earned value analysis is a method that measure performance that uses work in progress to forecast what will happen to the project in the future. In short, it is an early warning program/project management and suitable for project monitoring and control. Earned value analysiss aim is to use cost to determine a projects progress. Three quantities form the basis for the cost performance measurement using earned value management. They are Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) or Planned Value (PA), Budgeted Cost of Work Performed(BCWP) or Earned Value (EV) and Actual Cost of work Performed(ACWP) or Actual Cost(AC). From these three bases, managers can determine the projects budget as well as make a determination of schedule and cost performance and provide an estimated cost of the project at its completion. By cross referencing each of this data to a work breakdown structure, a network diagram, it can indicate how the project should be carried out and thus giving a sense of control to project leader. Cost performance index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) give an early warning to project leader using data from the 3 bases. Cost performance for instance is the ratio of cost of work performed (BCWP) to actual cost (ACWP). A CPI ration of 1.00 implies that the actual cost is within the estimated cost. Greater than 1.0 indicates work is accomplishes with less cost than what was expected. CPI below 1.0 indicates the project is currently over budget and require project leader to take control of the situation. Motivation Strategy: Motivation is a powerful tool that can help project members to perform better and produce higher quality of work, so project management team need to make a concerted effort at planning, establishing and maintaining a motivated team through recognition and rewards. There are 2 motivational theories which can be used to effective run a project team. Maslows Hierarchy: Motivational theories such as Maslows hierarchy, it explained that human beings are motived by unsatisfied needs, and that lower factors needs to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.6 According to Maslow, these deficiencies needs are explained: Physiological Motivation: Provide ample breaks for lunch and  recuperation and pay  salaries that allow workers to  buy lifes essentials. Safety Needs: Provide a working environment which is safe, relative job security, and freedom from threats. Social Needs:  Generate a feeling of acceptance, belonging, and community by reinforcing team dynamics. Esteem Motivators: Recognize achievements, assign important projects, and provide status to make employees feel valued and appreciated. Self-Actualization:  Offer challenging and meaningful work assignments which enable innovation, creativity, and progress according to long-term goals.7 When this deficiency is satisfied, only then can a person act unselfishly and they will be able to act independently and take responsibility of their actions. With such a team member, any organization will be able to run a project with high confidence and expect a higher quality of work produced. The Herzbergs Motivation-Hygiene Theory: Herzbergs motivation-hygiene theory , also known as a Two factor theory, explain that the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction are completely separate from the factors that motivate employees and they are known as the hygiene factors and motivating factors.7 Herzberg finding explain that by adding hygiene factors, it may decrease job dissatisfaction but it will not motivate employees. Employees are motivated only when they feel a sense of job satisfaction is in place. We can assume that with motivation factors in present, satisfied employees can generally be more productive. The picture below states what motivation and hygiene factors are. Figure 1. Monitor/Hygiene factors. Source: http://www.pmroadtrip.com/files/PMRoadTrip_V4Ch09.pdf Both Maslows Hierarchy and Herzbergs Motivation-Hygiene theory can be used in the same project team. Having the Maslows hierarchy theory, we are actually adding the 2 factors which are mention in Herzbergs Motivation-Hygiene Theory. In short, by combining the two theories, we increase the chances of having a motivated project team. By using this system, we can avoid having a demotivated team that can increase the chance of project failure due to human factor such as the one described in the case study above, costing both time and money to an organization. Through such a system, future organization can source a team of motivated members capable of increasing the quality of work done, at the same time allowing organization to have an increased profit gain with less time wastage which cost more to operate. When problem do rise, these team will be able to discuss and solve problem more quickly and effectively.

Essay --

Kelly Larson The Glass Castle Book Review The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is a fiction, memoir, usually recommended for young adults. It’s based on a true story, from the viewpoint of a young girl about the struggles of her childhood. Just like the book Half Broke Horse, it describes the hardships they faced as children, and how they beat the odds of following in their parents’ footsteps knowing that just because they had a bad childhood, didn’t mean they were going to have a bad life. The book starts off displaying that the parents show little interest in their kid’s safety and exposure to the world. They moved from town to town for as long as their Dad could hold a job. They lived anywhere from the dessert grounds, to abandon houses, and when they were really desperate, the Grandparents house. Their dad was a brilliant man who taught them everything from physics, math, and astronomy, to capturing their imagination and teaching them to live without fear. But, from his own childhood experiences, he had become an alcoholic and was hardly ever home. When they moved on ...

Hybrid Informative

Speech Assignment: Informative #2 Speech Goal: To inform the audience on hybrid cars. Opening: Hybrid cars are much more environmentally friendly than gas only vehicles. There are several different sorts of transportation that one would have never thought of as being hybrid. There are plenty of advantages of having a hybrid over gas only and electric only cars also. Body: 1. What is a hybrid? * 2 or more sources of power that can directly or indirectly provide power. * It usually is a vehicle that is both gasoline and battery powered 2. Types of hybrid’s? Mopeds * Combines power of gas engine with pedal power rider * Locomotives * Pulling trains are diesel-electric hybrids * Buses like Seattle are diesel-electric * They can draw electric power from overhead wires or run on diesel when they are away. * Mining trucks * Diesel-electric * Submarines * Some are nuclear-electric and then some are diesel-electric 3. Kind of hybrid’s? * Series hybrid * Does not have direct conn ection between the engine and the wheels. The engine drives a generator, and then provides electric power for either the batter or the motor. Cylinder to generator or fuel tank; generator to battery or motor; which then transmission * Parallel hybrid * Use electric motors to assist the engine in driving the wheels through the transmission. * Fuel tank supplies gas to the engine and battery that supplies power to the transmission. 4. Advantages? * Verses gas-only modes, hybrid cars gas efficiency double them which provides a significant amount saved * Less pollutant during use – burn less fuel – when being build they were conscious of environmental pollution so they make the vehicles much cleanerClosing Hybrid is the best way to go when you’re choosing a vehicle; it is the best of both gas only and electric only cars. They are even built better than the gas only cars that most of us have. When I get my next car I want a hybrid car for these exact reasons that I h ave stated. Resources/References: http://auto. howstuffworks. com/hybrid-car2. htm http://www. mgstech. net/hybrid-models-around-us-today http://www. wisegeek. com/what-is-a-hybrid-car. htm#

History on Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Essay

Cash-strapped Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, has said that it will soon commence importation of used cars into the country in a move to shore up its revenue profile. The company’s Managing Director, Dr. Haroun Aliyu, said at a news conference held at the ongoing Kaduna International Trade Fair that since Nigeria has a large market for second hand vehicles, there was nothing wrong if PAN imported and certified such vehicles for the use of Nigerians. Justifying the company’s new direction, the PAN boss said that the vehicles to be imported would be certified by the manufacturers, who would also make available the detailed history of the vehicles to prospective buyers, even as he argued that, even in Europe, people patronise used vehicles more than the brand new ones. â€Å"If ownership of Tokunbo cars is the problem of Nigerians, we have plans to bring what we call certified second hand vehicles. It is good as it is done globally and not the road-side Tokunbo market that we have where you do not have the history of the vehicle. â€Å"The certified second hand cars, which we are working on to see how we will launch it in Nigeria is for us to bring in cars that are used, but are recertified by the manufacturers, with a label. â€Å"If you buy a car with a label from any of the networks, it is as good as buying a new car because you have access to all the information as well as all the history of the vehicle and you can be supported by the brand,† he said. He also lamented that government had not been encouraging local automobile manufacturers.