Tactical Intelligence Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Intelligence Issues - Essay Example In military insight, data is consistently vulnerable to numerous understandings along these lines it needs cognizant control for legitimate thoughts of precognition1. The S-2s don't show painstakingness in dispersing data. This infers data doesn't arrive at the insight prerequisite. Carefulness however doesn't involve assurance and culmination of the last subtleties. Relating it to Major Gustafson, he contemplated data painstakingness before endeavoring to spare the other Major whose plane was going down. Major Gustafson realized that his airplane would be at serious risk while endeavoring to spare the companion; consequently he had the option to give exhaustive data to the individuals who were down to such an extent that when the airplane with the other pilot got down, measures to take the pilot to an emergency clinic were set up. Carefulness incorporates what is obscure and what the officials know. Therefore, chance taking assessment is anything but difficult to do2. Most S-2s don't give precise data with the end goal that, they give an estimation as opposed to solid data. This settles on dynamic for the other party hard. Considering the circumstance Major Gerald was in, he needs to give the most exact data concerning the whereabouts of the other pilot, in this manner by flying over the foe land; he settled on the best choice on the best course to follow. In this way, Major Gustafson had the option to safeguard the other pilot. In that impact, the realities that the major had, were to concur with the capacities of the adversary. Evaluation of astute originates from the unwavering quality of the data given. Most disregard the practicality of data they give out. To such an extent that the data that they give out doesn't contact the perfect individuals that require the data in time, this suggests dynamic of strategic choices is at the opportune time. S-2s should take note of that being dependable in giving the data is critical to maintain a strategic distance from the intense point. Therefore, data that is late is superfluous.

What is an Ellipsis

What is an Ellipsis What Is an Ellipsis? Circles are accentuation denotes that are valuable in scholarly composition, where there is at times a need to cite sources finally. This is on the grounds that circles demonstrate when something has been forgotten about from a statement, helping you to communicate briefly. In spite of this significant job, numerous individuals are uncertain about how and when to utilize circles. In that capacity, we’ve arranged this guide on the most proficient method to cite circularly. Outline: What Is an Ellipsis? As referenced over, an ellipsis is an accentuation mark showing an oversight from a citation, normally introduced as a lot of three periods ( †¦ ). An ellipsis would thus be able to be utilized to accentuate significant focuses while citing long entries by overlooking abundance detail: The fame of the owl †¦ comes from its structure for adapting to, and chasing in, the haziness. Colossal frontal eyes gaze out from cheek-like facial plates, and they have †¦ exceptionally evolved ears: Both are a piece of the owl’s hardware for homing in on subtle and ready prey. In the above section, extra subtleties have been evacuated to concentrate on two highlights (â€Å"enormous frontal eyes† and â€Å"highly created ears†). It is significant, nonetheless, that the changed content despite everything makes a total sentence, so read it back to yourself subsequent to making any oversights. Introduction The most widely recognized form of an ellipsis is the one utilized in the above entry (i.e., three dabs with a space when the ellipsis). In any case, shows contrast contingent upon the style direct utilized, so make sure to check whether your school indicates a style. Varieties you may see include: Three dabs without any spaces on either side (e.g., There is something†¦missing here.) Three dabs with spaces between them (e.g., There is something . . . missing here.) Three dabs encased inside square sections (e.g., There is something [†¦] missing here.) Ordinarily, as long as you utilize a reasonable and predictable style, the sort of ovals you use won't be a significant issue. Casual Writing You may likewise observe circles in less conventional composition, where they are regularly used†¦ sit tight for it†¦ to show an emotional or comic delay! In these cases there will now and then be no space before the ellipsis. In any case, there is normally a space a short time later to demonstrate the finish of the interruption. On the other hand, whenever utilized toward the finish of a sentence, an ellipsis can show an idea or expression trailing endlessly to nothing without a satisfying†¦

Extragram - Instagram At Its Best

Extragram - Instagram At Its Best Make Money Online Queries? Struggling To Get Traffic To Your Blog? Sign Up On (HBB) Forum Now!Extragram Instagram At Its BestUpdated On 25/11/2015Author : Pradeep KumarTopic : ReviewsShort URL : http://hbb.me/1LA57Ld CONNECT WITH HBB ON SOCIAL MEDIA Follow @HellBoundBlogAlmost all the iPhone users are aware about Instagram, a free App released only months ago for the Apple iPhone. It has broken records by gaining millions of users within a very short amount of time. What is the reason behind it? Well, the reason and answer for that is Simple.Flickr + Twitter = InstagramInstagram is a simple App that allows its users to snap a photo or choose one from their Albums, then apply one of the different filters, and quickly share it on Social Networks. As simple as that! They provide option to share across the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and Foursquare.Extragram Instagram At Its BestExtragram is a web client of this popular photo sharing iPhon e App. Extragram uses the Instagram API but is not endorsed or certified by Instagram.If you have used Extragram, then youll probably know why they called it Instagram at its best!!. You need to have an Instagram account to enjoy the benefits of Extragram. Below you can see some of their key features.Narayanan Hariharan, the PR Ninja says, Being avid users of Instagram, we realized that there wasnt a good and efficient way to view, share and like other photos. We just took it to the next level in helping new discovery. The next upgrade is due within the next couple of weeks providing for even more discovery options.READFacebook Co-Founder Launches Another Social Network For Social Good [Jumo]Features of ExtragramYou can browse your network feed as well as view popular images.It allows you to view images in grid, filmstrip or map view.It also gives you a better interface to view your photos, like them and also comment.It allows you to search users and hashtags and view the stream.You can post your photos on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr and many more.Viewing Your PhotosExtragram provides a clean web viewer for your Instagram photos. It gives you three options to view your photos.Grid view: Allows users to have a quick snapshot of the photos and well as like and comment if required.Filmstrip view: Allows users to view an enlarged image with comments and the ability to share the photos across social networks.Map view: Allows users to see where the photos where taken from or find photos around a location.Do tell your opinions about Extragram in the comments below. Do let us know your thoughts. Cheers. ??

Parental Consent Or Notification For Minors - 2346 Words

Minors and Contraception â€Å"Are you over the age of 18? Do you have a parent with you? I am sorry, but we cannot allow you to buy this without consent from your parents†. That conversation was a glimpse into the future, unless educated personnel puts a stop to it. Worldwide, minors are being threatened of having their privacy rights stripped away from them just like that. An issue has occurred where bits and pieces of the population have started to question a minor s legal capability to buy contraceptives without parental consent or notification. To create a barrier by requiring consent or notification for minors to buy contraception not only harms them and puts them at risk, but also has the possibility of having a lasting effect on their†¦show more content†¦Other contraceptive methods are available to students including a pepo provera shot, which protects against pregnancy for up to 14 weeks, and the plan-B, or morning- after pill† (Rosenberg 1). This show s that in some situations, teenagers do have access to contraception, however it comes with the price of having to acquire parental approval. That fact only speaks for one school, in one town, in one country. Minors access to contraception varies in every state and every country. Some minors draw the lucky number when they land in a state where consent is not required and others are not able to truthfully say the same. In the article, â€Å"State Policies in Brief†, readers are informed that twenty-five states allow to minors to consent in one or more circumstances, four states have no policy at all, and twenty-one states and the District of Columbia allow all minors to consent for contraceptives. The circumstances needed to obtain contraception in the twenty-five states includes being married, being a parent, being pregnant or had ever been pregnant, being a high school graduate, or being in the position of facing a health hazard if she is not provided with contraceptive se rvices. Does this effect the pregnancy rate? Without the ability to obtain contraceptives, do minors simply just not use them? In the article, â€Å"Fertility and Parental Consent for Minors to receive Contraception†, the author states, â€Å"The relative proportions of

Good, Evil and Ethics in J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the...

Good, Evil and Ethics in J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings Professor’s Comment: This student was very wise not to summarize Tolkiens Lord of the Rings. The student’s primary intention was to describe the ethical themes that can be found in the book. The first part of this essay describes Tolkiens view on the nature of good and evil, while the second part deals with his ethics of individuals. Excellent work! Introduction The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, has been called by some one of the greatest books of all time and has recently earned the claim of greatest book of the 20th century in a poll by Britains Channel 4 (Ohehir). Yet at the same time scholars have often dismissed The Lord of the Rings as a fanciful†¦show more content†¦It could be argued that there is nothing that does not fall outside the laws of nature. But this is not the perspective that Tolkien expresses. To him, living in England during the first and second World Wars, the use of technology as a tool of destruction and conquest was unnatural and evil. In his books, he embodies the idea of technology as magic. This magic or technology is ultimately evil, since its use, for good or malicious intent, always results in the disruption of the cycles of nature. For example, in Middle Earth (Tolkiens fictional world), the pinnacle of technology is reached in the creation of magic rings. These rings are designed to further the processes of nature, to bring great abundance and prosperity to the land. But nature must return to normal, and before the story ends, the power of these good rings is destroyed along with that of the evil One Ring. This brings up another important aspect of Tolkiens good and evil: once technology (or magic) is used to disrupt nature, only similar technology can be used to combat it. This creates an unfortunate cycle. Those whose have no technology must develop it in order to fight those who threaten them with it. Once a people have defeated their enemy by means of this technology, they have already disrupted the cycles of nature in doing so. Tolkien sees this as the reason behind the persistence of evil.Show MoreRelatedThe Lord Of The Rings1469 Words   |  6 PagesTodorov, the author of The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, defined fantasy as â€Å"the creation of a moment of hesitation between two worlds†(qtd. Kelly, Course Introduction 2). This description of the genre compliments J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy due to the author’s use of sub-creation to construct his alternate world. Tolkien believed that the way to create a believable , all-encompassing world was to combine fragments of reality, or the â€Å"primary world†, together to

Games Being The Blame Of Violence - 2459 Words

A third example of games being the blame of violence was the case of Adam Lanza. On 14 December 2012, he committed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, after which the first reports from media misidentified the shooter as his brother, Ryan Lanza. On Facebook Ryan had liked the ‘Mass Effect’ page which lead to an internet frenzy immediately launched at the page, dubbing the developes as â€Å"child killers.† After the error had been discovered that it was really Adam to blame, news stories jumped to link the games ‘Starcraft’ and ‘Dance Dance Revolution.’ Later a UK tabloid claimed that Adam Lanza had an obsession with ‘Call of Duty,’ which also got widespread coverage online. This in turn encouraged a small town near Sandy Hook set up an event to collect and burn the towns video games in exchange for a gift certificate. A CBS report alleged that anonymous law enforcement sources suggested a link to games, which was late r dismissed by the Connecticut police, quoted that it was â€Å"all speculation.† The game however did arouse a wave of effort against violent games. The twist here is that Adam s most favourite games were non-violent (Such as ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ (Which he played for hours regularly) and ‘Super Mario Brothers’). In court his mother was quoted as saying he played â€Å"zoned out† and â€Å"like a zombie.† The issue that video games may be to blame for creating violence problems exists because of some examples/events that the people involved had played games beforeShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Media On Young Children, Teenagers, And Adults1297 Words   |  6 Pagesoutraged by violence in the media. Whether in video games, books, radio, music, or television, there is always someone or something to blame for the violence. Violence is everywhere in the media , there is no disagreeing with that. Whether it be movies, television, video games, or music, there will always be violence, but blaming it on movies, television, video games, or music is not the answer. If blame needs to be placed why are the parent of the children who choose to commit acts of violence not Read MoreViolence in Television, Movies, and Video Games Should Not Be Censored1653 Words   |  7 PagesVIOLENCE IN TELEVISION, MOVIES, AND VIDEO GAMES SHOULD NOT BE CENSORED Television, movies, and video games have a great influence on the minds of todays youth. But, what exactly are the effects of such an influence? Certain people have exaggerated the effects that these media have on todays youth. Many people, including government officials, have singled out these three media sources as the cause of some types of violence simply because it is an easy target for laying the blame. The truth isRead MoreThe Effect of Violence in the Media on Children Essay1150 Words   |  5 PagesTelevision, movies, and video games are a big part of childrens lives in todays technologically advanced society. However, there is a big controversy questioning the effects of these media outlets on children. Much of society claims to have proof for the belief that media violence affects children negatively. However, I am skeptical of the evidence that is stated to prove that claim. I feel that society has placed the blame on these mediums for the violent acts, however serio us or trivial,Read More Violence in the Media is Not to Blame for the Effect on Children1158 Words   |  5 PagesThe Effect of Violence in the Media on Children Television, movies, and video games are a big part of children’s lives in today’s technologically advanced society. However, there is a big controversy questioning the effects of these media outlets on children. Much of society claims to have proof for the belief that media violence affects children negatively. However, I am skeptical of the evidence that is stated to prove that claim. I feel that society has placed the blame on these mediums forRead MoreShould We Blame Video Games For Violence1295 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Should We Blame Video Games for Violence† Video games; a pastime for many people across the world, a form of entertainment, and, of course, a way to destress yourself from the outside world. Video games have been around since October 18, 1958 and have been evolving rapidly through the years. â€Å" More than fifty years ago, before either arcades or home video games, visitors waited in line at Brookhaven National Laboratory to play â€Å"Tennis for Two,† an electronic tennis game that is unquestionably aRead MoreEssay about Do Video Games really Cause Violence?1028 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"No one is suggesting that [violent video games are] the only reason they went out and committed those horrific acts, but was it a tipping point? Was it something that pushed them over the edge? Was it a factor in that? Perhaps. That’s a really big deal,† This is a really controversial subject amongst gamers and parents, on whether violent video games cause real-life violence. Lots of people think they do, while l ots of people think they don’t. There is research that points both ways in the subjectRead MoreYouth Violence: Is the Media to Blame?1514 Words   |  7 PagesYouth Violence: Is the Media to Blame? COM/156 07/27/13 Mallory Dunkley Youth Violence: Is the Media to Blame? Not all children who watch violent programming get in trouble with the law; some feel that there is a strong direct link between the two. There is a good deal of compelling data that suggests that there is a direct link between the media and youth violence. Throughout our history, the media has and can influence people in different ways but the more obvious questionRead MoreMedia Studies : Video Games1360 Words   |  6 Pages- AS91254 Violence in Video Games In recent years there have been plenty of cases of music, people, games, etc, being used as scapegoats so authorities can jump to conclusions about violent events and blame these as the main reason for such an event to take place. To give people an answer that may not even have any supporting evidence. Nowadays violence in video games is up to the level of killing people as the norm with many popular titles having this apart of the game. In many games that is theRead MoreVideo Games and Their Role in Violence and Bullying Essay1374 Words   |  6 Pagesvideo games that the children play on their media device. However, many people say that there are other reasons that children show aggressive behavior and why they become bullies to other children. I believe that there are other reasons than video games that cause a child to become disobedient and unruly. There are many studies that show that video games are not the reason behind the youth’s behavior but other factors in their lives. Although the studies show that it is not video games to blame, mostRead MoreThe Media is not to Blame for the Violence in Society Essay698 Words   |  3 PagesThe Media is not to Blame for the Violence in Society People are quick to blame violence in our society on television, movies or video games because they are simple believable targets. We have to look beyond this disinformation and attack the real causes for the violence in our society. Violence in television programs, movies, or video games will not make a person kill someone else. People watch violent images all the time, and only a very small percent of them actually commit violent crimes

Searching for Evidence for Fish Oil- myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theSearching for Evidence for Fish Oil. Answer: Introduction This assignment is based on scenario one, Fish Oil. Peggy is an older lady aged 65 years old and has degenerative osteoarthritis in her knees. Her friend Edith has told her that fish oil is good for arthritis and wants to try it. The clinical question for this scenario is in older women with osteoarthritis is fish oil an effective treatment option? The assignment aims to describe the search for evidence using the PICO question. Apart from the keywords derived from the PICO/PICo question, alternative search terms will be introduced to increase the efficiency of the search and increase chances of getting the required resources. I will two nursing databases will be used to perform the search. Searching for evidence Evidence-based practice (EBP) offers nurses with an approach to use critically analysed and scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality health care to particular clients or populations (Majid, et al., 2011). Peggy requires scientifically proven evidence to determine whether fish oil would improve her condition. The first step is identifying the population, intervention, comparison and outcome. The PICO format is a helpful technique for summarising a research question that examines the effect of therapy (Riva, Malik, Burnie, Endicott, Busse, 2012). The PICO; P is older women with osteoarthritis, I is fish oil, and O is the effective treatment option. Hence, the search terms are older women, osteoarthritis, fish oil and treatment option. Alternative search terms are aged ladies, degenerative joint disease, and fish-liver oil. These search terms and phrases are sufficient to answer the PICO question and determine whether Peggy can use fish oil to treat osteoarthritis. The best two nursing databases that I would use to perform the search are CINAHL complete and Medline complete. These two databases have been chosen because they are authoritative, have peer reviewed journals and are simple to use. The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) is an effective source of primary studies for qualitative evidence synthesis. Besides, CINAHL provides distinct studies for systemic reviews (Wright, Golder, Lewis-Light, 2015). The thesaurus of CINAHL contains a variety of terms associated with research techniques such as action research, ethnographic research and naturalistic enquiry. Although CINAHL might seem better than MEDLINE Complete, they both have thousands of peer reviewed articles. A review conducted in 2015 showed that MEDLINE complete was the biggest companion to MEDLINE (Kaste, 2015). This database offers the full text of approximately 2500 medical journals. Additionally, most of the medical articles on MEDLINE Complete a re available to users with no restrictions. In fact, users can access the peer reviewed articles as soon as they are published on the database. Another benefit of MEDLINE complete is the scope of its content (Kaste, 2015). Searching for evidence in both CINAHL complete and MEDLINE complete adds significantly to the information need for systemic reviews. It is evident that both CINAHL complete and Medline complete are effective to search for evidence in the chosen case scenario. The table below demonstrates how I used the CINAHL complete to search for evidence utilising the table from the book by Richardson-Tench and colleagues. Actions Search mode Results Limiters (or expanders) S1 Older women Find all my search terms 19,498 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 S2 Osteoarthritis Find all my search terms 12,601 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 S3 Fish oil Find all my search terms 4,976 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 S4 Older women and Osteoarth* Find all search terms 174 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 S5 Degenerative joint disease and fish oil Find all my search terms 8 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 S6 Aged wom* and Osteoarthritis Find all my search terms 239 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 SI AND S2 AND S3 Find all my search terms 1 Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journals 2011-2017 Adapted from (Richardson-Tench, Taylor, Kermode, Roberts, 2016). The final results are related to the PICO/PICo since they offer more information on the use of fish oil to manage osteoarthritis in older women. Specifically, the results showed literature review on effectiveness, side effects and guidance on the use of fish oil for senior women with the degenerative joint disease. Further, the results of the search introduced the aspect of using fish oil as a dietary intervention for osteoarthritis. Since the search results are pertinent to the PICO/PICo questions, I can develop a report for Piggy on whether to use fish oil, how and appropriate quantities. The best two example journals from my final search are included in the reference list. Conclusion The field of nursing is evolving fast, and evidence-based practice is becoming indispensable. Nurse practitioners should increasingly rely on research to develop treatment plans for clients. Thus, nurses should consider improving their research competence to meet the current client needs. Conclusively, nurses should understand how to filter results of the search in various databases and especially how to get recently published evidence. References The best two example journals from my final search Chen, J., Hill, C., Lester, S., Ruediger, C., Battersby, R., Jones, G., ... March, L. (2016). Supplementation with omega-3 fish oil has no effect on bone mineral density in adults with knee osteoarthritis: a 2-year randomized controlled trial. Osteoporosis International, 27(5), 1897-1905. Davidson, R. K., Clark, I. M. (2015). Dietary intervention for osteoarthritis: Clinical trials after the ' Bone and Joint Decade'. Nutrition Bulletin, 40(3), 203-210. Other references Kaste, A. (2015). MEDLINE Complete. Journal of the Medical Library Association , 103 (1), 62-63. Majid, S., Foo, S., Luyt, B., Zhang, X., Theng, Y., Chang, Y., et al. (2011). Adopting evidence-based practice in clinical decision making: nurses' perceptions, knowledge, and barriers. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA , 99 (3), 229-236. Richardson-Tench, M., Taylor, B., Kermode, S., Roberts, K. (2016). Inquiry in health care. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning. Riva, J., Malik, K., Burnie, S., Endicott, A., Busse, J. (2012). What is your research question? An introduction to the PICOT format for clinicians. he Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association , 56 (3), 167-171. Wright, K., Golder, S., Lewis-Light, K. (2015). What value is the CINAHL database when searching for systematic reviews of qualitative studies? Systematic reviews , 4 (1), 104.

Goldcorp Strategic analysis Essay Example

Goldcorp Strategic analysis Essay Awake Nelson Parsonage Sang Tap Table of Contents Executive Summary The report contains the strategic plan for Colder to sustain their growth based on an in-depth analysis of their current situation and the industry in which they operating. Colder, one of the lowest cost and fastest growing gold producers in North America, is looking to find sustainable growth options that would Increase profits. They have a strong disciplined growth strategy, but there are three mines which are at the end of its lifestyle which would greatly impact the gold production rate and market supply. Competitors have begun to acquire the same targets of Colder. The Kiosk mine acquisition was lost to Gaining Eagle after an unsuccessful bidding process. Stakeholders have also begun to speculate suspicious activities within Colder that may put their reputation at risk. Recently, the company has been kicked out of Guatemala from overwhelming public protests about violations of local human rights. An unfavorable company image would create uncertainty in their stakeholders who may withdraw their funds from the company. Relations with the public have been well-executed due to community support programs that create jobs for the public. In addition to those who are hired, Colder manages the highest safety precautions for every employee to reach their operating goal of zero fatalities. Colder will implemental mill scats reprocessing project Into other mines to extract any excess steel that comes out of the gold explorations. We will write a custom essay sample on Goldcorp Strategic analysis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Goldcorp Strategic analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Goldcorp Strategic analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer They will be process and refined to create a new and strong source of revenue in the sale of these materials in as the current mines are reaching the end of their useful life. Gold output is an important statistic for the company and keeping it at its peak will be critical to the success in the industry. Another way to increase the gold production and mine expansion rate is to re-launch the Colder Challenge which was implemented 14 years ago. Properties with abundant gold reserves will be identified from remote locations all over the world at the lowest cost possible highest return on investment. Within the next 5 years, Colder will be at its most successful position in its history with increasing gold production and mine expansions. Progress reports will be done secularly to ensure the company is heading towards a prosperous future. Company Presentation Colder Inc. , headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of the lowest cost and fastest growing senior gold producers in North America. The company was founded in 1954 and employs more than 16,000 people (Colder, 2014). Colder is committed to responsible mining practices and developing sustained, industry leading growth and performance. The company is involved in the exploration, acquisition, and operation of gold properties in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America. In addition to gold, the Corporation also produces silver, copper, lead and zinc primarily from concentrate produced at the Pantsuit Mine and Lumbered Mine, which is sold to third party refineries. Goldenrods operating assets include four mines in Canada (Red Lake, Porcupine, Wharf Mushiest), one mine in the U. S. (Marigold), three mines in Mexico (Pantsuit, El Causal Los Fills), and three in Central and South America (Marlin, Lumbered, Pueblo Viejo). Along with these valuable assets, the success for company is well defined by its focus on five key attributes: growth, low cash costs, maintaining a throng balance sheet, operating in regions with low political risks and conducting business in a responsible manner. The companys strategy is to provide its shareholders, employees and business partners with sustainable prosperity with high quality assets. Colder is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: G) and the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company undergoes significant development projects some of which includes Cero Negro gold project in Argentina; the El ©Monroe and Connector gold projects in Canada; the El Morrow gold/copper project (70% interest) in Chile; and the Camino Roll gold/silver project in Mexico. On February 3, 2014, the Company announced that it had, in conjunction with its Joint venture partner, Barrack, entered into a definitive agreement to sell their respective interests in Marigold to Silver Standard Resources Inc. Internal Analysis Colder operates 11 mines throughout Canada, USA, Mexico, and South America. They produce 2. 6 million ounces of gold annually. The Red Lake Mine, Goldenrods top producer, produces over 2,400 tones per day. Despite a mid-year decrease in gold price in 2013, Colder was able to achieve its productions due to the Operating for Excellence program (Colder Inc, 2013). The program resulted in a significant efficiency and productivity gains, while maintaining a culture of safe and profitable production. Moreover, Goldenrods competitive advantage lies in the location of its mines. Goldenrods mines are exclusively located in Jurisdictions with low political risks mentioned in Appendix 2, Colder also has a strong relationship with local communities and are able to provide Jobs for them (Colder Inc, 2011). They understand the negative impacts of operating mines in the communities and were able to conduct their business that supports strong, vibrant and sustainable immunities. Colder received several accomplishments such as, safety awards in its Los Fills mine, being recognized as Canadas top 100 employers, and top 100 companies in the world in its sustainability practices (Colder Inc, 2014). One of Goldenrods strength is their disciplined growth strategy (Kramer-Miller, 2013). They have experienced a production growth of 10% per year. They further demonstrated their excellence in their growth strategy, with their development projects in Cero Negro and Lenore. These two projects are projected to increase Goldenrods production by 3. 5 million ounces annually. However, some of Goldenrods projects such as mines in Wharf, Marlin, and El Causal are nearing the end of their life cycle. They would have to address this by acquiring more assets to maintain its growth. On the other hand, Colder has a lack of stakeholder management. They received several human rights complaints in their mines in Mexico, and were kicked out of Guatemala for allegations including killings, attacks, and death threats against its opponents (Machinating Canada, 2010). Financially, Colder has a disciplined capital allocation strategy and has grown the value of its asset without assuming a lot of debt ($2. Billion in debt while having $20 billion in equity). However, Colder $2. Billion debt and a revolving credit facility of up to $2 billion has forced them to use a portion of its cash flow to service principal and interest on its debt, which limits their cash flow for other opportunities (Colder Inc, 2013). They also have a huge impairment at the Lumbered mine of over $276 million (Maintainer Index, 2014) due to changes in short term metal price assumptions. Along with declining gold prices, Colder incurred a net loss of $1. 1 billion in 2012. The analysis of the financia l statements shows that Colder had a difficult year. The large impairment that they recorded caused them to record a huge loss. While it is common for mining companies to use many estimates to determine assets, even without taking the impairment into account the financial are worse in 2013 as compared to 2012. The current ratio went down from above 2 to 1 . 1, although this shows that Colder can still pay off all its debt. In summation, Goldenrods financial while weakening are still strong enough to maintain their debt, and Colder looks to have a strong 2014 to counteract the weak results in 2013. External Analysis General Environment As mentioned in Appendix 3, in this environmental analysis of three regions, Canada, USA, and Latin America, we identified differences in the stability of governments between North America and Latin America. Refer to exhibit 1 for the full chart analysis. North America, a Senate and Congress operating under a democracy oversees Judgments made in fair and controlled environments, whereas Latin American governments are under heavy suspicions of corruption by third parties. All the regions have experienced a growth in economy; however, Canada lags behind in the end of 2012 with a disappointing growth rate of 1. Even with its title as the 10th largest economy in the world employing over 363,000 people in the mining zone known as the ring of fire. Therefore, the structure of the mines will greatly be affected and heightened safety precautions will take time and costs to deploy. Earthquake hazards will mostly affect the Western regions of the Americas, where weather patterns such as storms , droughts, and long winters will affect the working conditions. Technological developments play a big role in mining companies as they allocate a lot of resources, over $10 million into their RD departments. It is possible hat expenditures for RD will increase because the mining industry in Canada is the most technologically advanced sector. As Colder is a Canadian company, they will want to uphold their reputation and continue their innovation abilities. On the contrary, the United States focuses most on the retailing, space, and nuclear industry. Porters Five Forces As mentioned in Appendix 5, Colder is competing for dominance in the valuable metals and natural resources market. To participate in this industry, a very large amount of capital is required to operate mainly because of the technology and machinery needed. Human resource is also a big requirement to operate all the machinery and oversee the daily operations. Getting out of the industry is equally difficult because outstanding warranty or contracts must be honored. The sale of equipment or facilities which were purchased for long-term purposes might incur enormous losses if sold too soon. Competitors in the same industry generally attempt to effectively target the same clients as Colder. They are currently promoting their goods that attempt to provide higher value to gain market share. Colder has the abilities to support themselves as they are vertically integrated, supplying their own sources. This is crucial because controlling critical inputs affects a firms ability to compete and determines who will lead the industry. Colder can use strategic groups in an industry which can offer important insights to executives who can create unique strategies. Firms that follow the same strategies but differ in important ways from the members of other groups can change a firms ability to compete over time. One way of doing this is to borrow ideas from others to fit the company culture. Competitive Environment Analysis A full analysis of Goldenrods main competitors can be found in Appendix 6. We measured the process innovation, low cost structure, financial position, gold production, international expansion and location. Our analysis found that Colder Inc. Has competitive advantage in process innovation and low cost structure. Goldenrods strongest competitor is Barrack Gold. The analysis of the external environment and the factors within it shows that Colder Inc. Is fairly well suited to respond to the factors of the external environment. Appendix 6 shows an overall weighted score of 3. 91 . This illustrates an above average response rate to external factors. Matching (refer to Appendix 7 for SOOT Analysis) Goldenrods strong relationship with local communities creates local Jobs within the region. And as other miners retrench, Colder has the opportunity to acquire new mines. With this opportunity and their strength in community relations, Colder can take advantage of the community support to provide them with the HER needed for new mine acquisitions. Goldenrods disciplined capital allocation gives them the ability to spend up to $3. Billion for acquisition of new mines. This could be used to cost, and implement their innovative programs, such as the EWE. Currently, Goldenrods mines such as Wharf, Marlin, and El Causal are reaching the end of their life cycle. As gold prices are on the rise and with an opportunity to expand to foreign markets, Colder can expand to other foreign markets with large gold reserves to acqui re their new mines. Moreover, as demand for steel increases, they can implement Mill Scats Reprocessing Project (MSP) to extract steel from the mines at the end of their life cycle. This maximizes the utilization of these mines. Furthermore, Colder can use hedging strategy, to minimize the threat of gold price fluctuations. Also, as there has been an active competition in the acquisition market for lands with high reserves, re-launching the Colder challenge allows them to discover new mines with large reserves around the world. This creates new mines for the company to operate in while replacing the mines at the end of their life cycle. With the threat of tax and policy changes, Colder should acquire new mines that operate in low risk Jurisdiction to minimize these threats. Lastly, due to the lack of stakeholder management, managing stakeholder expectations about company growth and reference levels will allow stakeholders to continue to purchase stocks from Colder. Strategic Intent Goldenrods strategic intent is aimed at continuing to grow their company through increasing the efficiency of their gold production and acquiring new mines, while simultaneously maintaining the practice of gold mining responsibly and promoting the shareholder value and the health and well-being of its employees and host communities. Their mission is to be a low-cost gold producer with geographic diversification and low political risk while operating in a responsible manner with their neighbors, local communities, and the environment. In order to achieve its vision and mission, Colder has several strategic goals set to guide the company (Colder Inc, 2014): Develop meaningful and effective strategies for engaging with all stakeholders. Consult with local communities to identify effective and culturally appropriate development goals. Establish grievance mechanisms, based on international best practices. Partner with credible organizations, including non- governmental and civil society organizations. Identify and develop socio-economic opportunities that lead to sustainable prosperity in the communities and countries in which we operate. Integrate socio-economic, environmental, occupational health and safety, human rights, and governance best practices into our business processes. Make meaningful and sustainable contributions to the host countries and communities where we operate. Apart from the goals set by Colder, they also infuse several values to each individual within the organization: They believe in safe production, in which employees look out for one another in caring, acting, and thinking safely. They believe in a workplace with a safe environment and conditions for employees to work in. They believe in acting ethically, having integrity and treating people with respect, that discrimination, bribery and corruption are always wrong. They believe that doing the right thing starts from the ground up and is a state of mind not Just a set of rules. They believe in respecting all stakeholders, in building partnerships, being a team player, and treating people fairly. They believe in listening before acting, being a good neighbor, and open communication. They and taking straight from the heart. They believe in empowering others, leading by example, being a good mentor and a lifelong learner. They believe in innovation, in operating for excellence, questioning for possibilities, being resourceful, always looking for new and better ways of doing things. Leadership Colder believes in leading by example, mentoring, and taking responsibility. At Colder, although the main leadership role is played by the President and the CEO, Charles A. Jeanne, who has a broad experience in mining transactions, public and private financing, permitting and international regulations, the other senior level executives have well played the leadership role as well. Brent Burgeon, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, along with his team worked together with Winding catering, First Nations owned and operated business in the community, to build Windings capacity. With the increased capacity, Winding is now prospering and expanding in the other areas of the province. Also under the leadership of Brent Burgeon, the company partnered with several government organizations to help run a natural gas pipeline up to Airedale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This will make cleaner, more efficient natural gas energy available to the local communities. In order to achieve operational excellence, Colder operates numerous programs including technical skills training, safety and leadership training, and executive development. Under the leadership of Charles Jeanne, the company designed various programs to boost up the leadership skills of the supervisors and the managers while continuing their focus on public and environmental safety in 2013 Supervisory Leadership Development Program: Designed for supervisors to develop their leadership skills Creating Choices: Specifically designed to develop leadership and communication skills for women in our workforce. Safety Leadership Training: Designed for supervisory and management levels to develop leadership skills with a remarry focus on safety. To inform employees of what is happening within the company and to guide or direct them in order to achieve a common goal , each year Colder regularly conducts Town Hall Meetings in which the President and Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives communicate directly with employees. Colder Inc. Provides an excellent example that you dont need to be at a senior level to become a leader. The Porcupine Gold Mine team implemented a Mill Scats Reprocessing Project in order to lead changes for a better Colder (Colder, 2014). This project allowed Colder to urn reject materials into recovered or recycled steel. They identified an innovative solution to remove steel with magnet. This solution leads to an increase in the net revenue of 4. 9 million in 2013. The company is looking for opportunities to implement this project at their other mines as well. Governance Colder is governed by a board of directors whose principal objective is to generate acceptable returns to their security holders. The board is comprised of Business people and former ambassadors. The chairman of the board Ian Teller was appointed in 2006, previous to that he was the CEO for one year. Teller has 25 years f experience in the mining industry, working previously for as CEO of Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. Their corporate governance is in compliance with Canadian and US order to avoid any agency problems. Control Mechanisms Ownership concentration Colder is a publicly traded company and the top 5 institutional shareholders are (Mornings, 2014): Institutional Shareholder % Held Van Eek Associates Corp.. 6. 1 Arnold S. Policyholder Advisers, LLC 3. 88 Royal Bank of Canada 2. 75 Franklin Advisers Management Inc 2. 30 BOOM Capital Markets 2. 23 The large stakes give the shareholders a stronger incentive to monitor the management and make sure they are acting in their best interests. Incentive Based Pay In order to align the interests of the members of the board with the interests of the shareholders, Colder has adopted a director share ownership policy. The director mu st hold common shares at a value of 3 times their after tax compensation. The governance committee is in charge of reviewing the level of shareholder requirements. (Colder Inc, 2012) Strategic Alternatives Alternative 1: Status Quo Goldenrods current strategy has allowed the company to grow into one of the largest gold producers in the industry. This option maintains Goldenrods strategy to continue to grow the company through acquisitions. Currently, they are in a good financial position, however, in 2013, they had a loss in operating income, which shows inefficiency in some of their mine operations. SF: gold production, innovative culture, KIP: profit growth, increase sales growth from previous year Cost: N/A Alternative 2: Implement Mill Scats Reprocessing Project into Other Mines This option will allow Colder to implement Mill Scats Reprocessing Project, a project that will turn reject materials with large amount of steel into recovered or recycled tell. Up to now, this project has been carried out only in their Porcupine mine through which Colder recovered 4,100 ounces resulting in net revenue of $4. 9 million in 2013. Mines such as Wharf, Marlin, El Causal mines, are near the end of their life cycle. They would have significant amount of excess material in the form of steel accumulated at their location that needs to be disposed. SF: Training by Porcupine mine team, geological surveys, low cost structure KIP: Additional recovered steel in ounces, Increase in additional net revenue Cost: Salvaging and processing costs will be within $50,000 $200,000. Alternative 3: Acquisitions and to replace mines that are nearing the end of their life. Colder currently has $3. 6 billion dollars to spend on the acquisition of new mines. In this option Colder would spend that $3. 6 billion on new mines to increase their gold output and help sustain them in the future. SF: Sizeable reserves in new mine, Close to the start of production or already producing gold, Low production costs KIP: gold cost per oz. < 1000$/oz. , 500,0000z of gold production per year Cost: $3. 6 billion dollars (based on their budget) Alternative 4: Re-launch the Goldcorp Challenge: The Gold Rush Reborn2 This option ill allow Goldcorp to reintroduce the "Goldcorp Challenge" that would change Goldcorp's profitability for decades to come. Colder did implement this challenge in the year 2000 when former CEO Rob Mclean addressed the company concerns of low gold production. And now when some of their mines are reaching the end of its life cycle, it is a good idea to implement the competition again considering the huge success of it in the past. The results of this competition revealed an excess of 110 possible mine locations. 50% of these locations were previously unknown to Colder and over 80% yielded significant gold reserves. The Colder Challenge will gather people of all backgrounds from all over the world to extract possible gold mine locations. Colder can provide their geographical data to the public. It will also give rise to the new concept of effective business from a remote location. Discovery of mines will be cost effective even though the researchers did not physically need to visit the property. The ROI on this project will be very impressive because of the absence of unproductive exploratory drilling. The structure will be the same as the previous, but the prize money will be increased to $2 million to attract more analyst refashions to Join. SF: Superior marketing capabilities, effectiveness of the data provided to the contestants, effective planning and budgeting KIP: Return on investment, market growth, increase in gold production Cost: $2 million for prize money Alternative 5: Hedging Gold Price This option will allow Colder to enter into a hedge contract where the price at which the gold will be sold at the future delivery date will be determined earlier. Since the future is unpredictable, this will prevent Colder from the loss if the gold price is to drop in the future. The risk for this option is that Colder would have en better off without the hedge if the price of the gold rises. SF: In-depth analysis of gold price forecast, worldwide Jewelry and industrial demand, gold production KIP: increase in profit margin, increase in sales growth Cost: Depends on gold fluctuation. The loss incurred due to increase in gold price at the delivery date compared to the pre- determined price would be the cost of hedging Alternative 6: Manage Stakeholder Expectations Colder has been under scrutiny in the past for unethical acts and suspicions of breaking human rights legislation and even suspected of killing a high ranking officer peeping them calm and confident in Goldenrods projects is important. Quiet stakeholders such as fenders dont excerpt a lot of effort into decision making, but without looking after their interests, they may choose to withdraw their funds from Colder and take their investment somewhere else. Also it is necessary to make the local communities happy as without their support Colder cannot run their projects successfully. There should be a meeting every quarter with Goldenrods investors, shareholders and senior level managements to maintain constant communication twine the company and the stakeholder to avoid frustrations or concerns in the company operations. Investors and managers across the country could be connected via phone or other communication medium. Regular updates about Goldenrods financial health or project progress can increase the confidence levels of expecting positive results. Also in order to enhance engagement to build up relationships with communities and investors, Colder could organize a program called Community first. Through this program Colder can make significant investments in community infrastructure and provide scholarships to local students. SF: Community support in human rights initiatives, government support KIP: Increase in stakes sold, increase in community participation Cost: Between 1-3 million which can be covered by 1% of pre-tax earnings from operation set aside as donation fund Proposed Strategy Based on the decision criteria matrix shown in Appendix 9, we recommend Colder to implement alternatives 2, 3, 4 and 6. By combining these four strategies, Colder will be able to maximize the utilization of mines by extracting unrecorded metals, maintain their growth strategy through acquisition of mines and maximize the geographical search for new mines. In addition to this, Colder will enjoy a healthy stakeholder relationship which is crucial for the success of their business. Implementation The proposed strategy should be implemented between now to next five years. Since stakeholders support determines the success of the other strategies, Colder should first focus on meeting the stakeholders expectation. They should organize a meeting within a month where all the investors, senior level executives and managers meet and discuss the companys future plan and solve any queries. They would implement the Community First program right away to improve relationship with the community and to gain their support. The Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for People and Safety will be responsible for implementing this program. This program will again be done once a location is determined for the new mines. The effectiveness of this strategy will be determined based on feedbacks from the stakeholders. After gaining the support from stakeholders, Colder can implement the MSP project in their three mines starting with the one that is closer o the end of their life cycle. This strategy could be fully implemented in the three mines by 2016. Once Colder generates revenue from the recycle steel, they can hunt for new mines implementing the Colder Challenge by 2017. The CEO, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Exploration should work together on providing geographical data and other data to the participants to make the competition effective. The success for this strategy could be measured by benchmarking with the previous results of 2000 when they first equability studies for the potential mines, Premium Resources, Argonaut Gold, Allied Nevada Gold, and Tahoe Resources, that they are looking to acquire. They should gather the required resources and project the capacity of each mine. After performing these tasks, they should present these options to the board to get their approval. To determine what mines we would acquire a factor analysis was done on 4 mines and is shown below. Based upon our decision criteria, we have determined that the best course for Colder would be to acquire Allied Nevada Gold and Argonaut Gold by 2016. The total cost for acquiring these companies would be 1 billion dollars. With the remaining $2. 6 billion, Colder would pay off all of Novenas outstanding debt at roughly $700 million and then use $1. 3 billion to expand the mine to bring production from 240,000 oz. Of gold per year to 800,000 oz. Of gold per year by 2020. The remaining $600 million would go towards bringing Argonauts mine to the production stage within 3 years from its acquisition. Projected Kips The following are the projected Kepis to measure success once the four recommended strategies will be implemented by Colder: Increased profits so sasss operating refits will be positive Increased gold production Higher return on investment Increased revenue from sale of recycled steels Reduction in number of complaints from local communities Positive company image for stakeholders Appendices Appendix 1 General Environment Analysis (GASPED) Dimensions Factors Canada USA Latin America Global Increasing investment in construction and infrastructure lead to an 8% increase in global demand for products like steel Demographic Population $34. 88 million $313. 9 million $589 million Age Age distribution is even Young population is dominate Ethnic Mix

The Subjective Nature of Management Literature Review

The Subjective Nature of Management Literature Review Introduction Management practice is often assumed to be the execution of pre-set and pre-determined action plans which fall into place smoothly during actualisation. Managers are probably looked at as a group of professionals whose roles and responsibilities only mean turning strategies into reality.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Subjective Nature of Management: Literature Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Their work seems cut-out and only awaiting simple procedural implementation by those with the right technical know-how. However, in real life scenario, managers actually face more challenging tasks than simply executing what is written on paper. Organisations undergo a lot of challenges and obstacles, all of which seems to be conspiring to rebuff the attainment of such pre-set goals and objectives. This paper analyses in detail the subjective nature of management and explains how flexible the management role should be if any tangible results have to be attained. Role Transitions in Management Any managerial role or duty undergoes a transition or change because of numerous reasons. The transition cycle of a manager can be thus summarised into 4 easy phases: Preparation All managers must have prior preparations about their anticipations and targeted goals and objectives. This process involves extensive and comprehensive planning where a manager lays out a number of alternative strategies to aid him in execution. The alternative strategies come about as a result of anticipated problems which may affect the entire running of the organisation. The future is shrouded in a lot of uncertain situations and conditions and therefore managers must give room during their planning in order to accommodate such uncertain scenarios (Atkinson, 1984). Encounter During this phase, managers are emotionally concerned about the task or challenge that lies ahead. Practically, managers at this phase engag e in a lot of sense making activities in order to try and shape up and align the psychological state of their workers.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The understanding is that there are possibilities of encountering person-job misfit due to various reasons. It is not so obvious that a perfect match will be realised at 100 percent. There could be some individual shortcomings at the individual level which could limit their effectiveness and overall performance (Barley, 1989). Adjustment This phase directly builds from phase 2 which is encountering. The manager, after realising and noting misfits in his team, must make arrangements to correct the mistakes. Thus, adjustments will be done accordingly which will involve development of roles that perfectly matches personal capabilities such that any possibilities of misfit are addressed. The occurrence of an unanticipate d business situation must be addressed through a perfect readjustment of strategy because the company has to find a way out of the situation. Strategy readjustment is a very crucial stage because it could either make or break the organisation. If the adjustments are done in a perfect manner and in good time, the organisation will be able continue with operations without too much effect. However, delays in implementing readjustments may turn out to be costly to the firm even if the strategy itself is the best. Stabilisation The manager assumes that finally, the transition will attain stability where there is a perfect person-role fit. However, in actual sense, stabilisation is never permanent. It is a temporary state which managers should never sit back and enjoy. This is attributable to the fact that management is dynamic and is actually dictated with a lot of forces, some of which are external and the company has little control over. Therefore, as soon as things begin appearing sta bilised, the management should quickly think of restarting the entire process again because this is an endless life cycle. A stable condition, although is good and most preferred, must be constantly be observed to ensure deviations are not encountered. Transition challenges The transition process may not be an easy smooth ride for the manager as it may appear on paper. In some instances, the manager will face counter actions from the workers who do not approve or agree with the entire process. In some other instances, the transition could be taken positively which will ultimately result in a positive gain for both the worker and the organisation.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Subjective Nature of Management: Literature Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A worker who positively accepts the transition will often develop expectations that are positive and helpful. He will be more confident in coping with the expectations and enjoy in sense-making. Additionally, such a worker will target developing relations within the organisation through sustained trust, commitment, as well as effectiveness with tasks (Bauer Morrison Callister, 1998). On the other hand, workers who regard transition in bad light will often be fearful and express a lot of reluctance and lack of preparedness. During the encounter phase of the transition, managers will have a problem because such workers will always tend to be shocked. They feel dejected, and full of regrets. Trying to adjust such workers would only turn out to be disastrous as they will never fit in any role, they will generally be degraded and grieving. The imminent result of this scenario is failure to attain objectives as the worker may never reach the stabilisation stage (Coupland, 2002). Transition cycles and their implications The general understanding that success breeds success should be what governs managers in their roles to steer the organis ation towards objectives and roles. Individuals in organisations are more likely faced with the possibility of being ‘locked in’ in their own assumptions of transition cycles. It is, however, possible to break this pattern following the intervention of numerous factors. Managers who themselves suffered from a terrible career mistake could occasion a very difficult work role transitions. For instance, the preparation stage of a transition cycle is meant to be a time to develop anticipation through modelling expectations, feelings, and motives. However, erroneous expectations will cause a highly negative mismatch thus resulting into an encounter phase that will be more consistent with a transition cycle that is only but negative (Jones, 1986). The switch from either transition could occur at any particular stage although it is more likely that it be witnessed during the encounter stage. Thus, managers need to ask themselves whether they really understand whatever they are pursuing and whether the strategy they are planning to employ is the best suited.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Mistakes in management and decision making put the entire organisation at a very precarious position as it could mean loss of resources and time. Misapprehension right at the planning and preparation phase makes it difficult for the encounter stage to have any positive (Agyris Schon, 1978). Forming expectations Rousseau (2001) opines that workers in possession of high experiences in their roles and duties will most often have schemas that are more developed. Comparatively, experienced workers readily understand why they are working in a given organisation than fresh graduates from school. The latter care more about what it means for them to be employed in the organisation. Managers, on the other hand, determine a number of experiences which they consider as basic in helping with their decision making. These experiences build up right from childhood through to the time of making that actual decision. Managers who undertook responsibilities in their childhood, such as watching over s iblings, are more likely to draw their decisions from as far as such escapades. Influences to the manager in his or her early childhood life from role models, like teachers, also bear a lot of influence to their decision making process (Berger Luckmann, 1967). These experiences model the development of role schemas and self-schemas in managers. It is possible, therefore, that discernible experiences to the manager could be part of his decision making process. Decisions may also be affected by such variables as age, gender, and social class among many others (Hill, 2000). The proposals of these differences are not as a result of ‘individual difference’, such as traits or styles. Instead, their formation is based on commonality of experience which may result in individuals depicting similar schemas. A manager who has changed jobs has already undergone several transitions in terms of his occupation as well as in terms of organisational structure. Individuals who began wor k, changed organisations, got promoted, and studied for professional qualifications, for instance, can be grouped as experienced newcomers. Managers are poised to have high and elaborate schemata in as far as matters concerning their identity as professionals, as well as their roles are concerned. This will have a bearing on whatever work-role transition they undergo. Newcomers, on their part, will have their biographies and other past experiences influencing their initial experiences. It is of significant importance for both managers and organisations to give this issue a deeper thought. A new manager who has just joined the organisation may have different existing role schemas to those held by the workers in the organisation. Such a scenario is more likely to occur in cross-cultural management, where a manager from a different country may be posted to another country. Overly, representing the schemas’ content such that a mutual understanding of the organisation or individua l is realised could be a difficult thing (Mankiw, 1998). Issues for consideration by mangers during expectation A managerial role performance is inextricably connected with knowledge or understanding of how the organisation is set. Managers must understand the operations of an organisation for it to be able to attain desired results and objectives. Thus, managers should be fairly sophisticated in their field and also understand what the organisation’s construct and way of operation is. However, it is also thought that managers could be most useful at such a time of unfamiliarity. This is because they will look at the organisation and its existing workers in a different way. It thus makes it easier for them to question practices and operations that exist and change them for the getter (Louis, 1980). For managers, role expectation is a particularly challenging area because of the complexities that are involved. Organisations sometimes hire managers for the simple reason that th eir recruitment is against the grain of what exists in terms of individuals and organisational culture. The reason behind such hiring of new managers is to bring change I the organisation. It is important to point out, however, that such appointments often set the manager to a very complex work-role transition. It is common knowledge that all organisations would wish to have workers who will comfortably fit into the organisational structure. The presence of an ill-fitting individual, nonetheless, is done deliberately so that the individuals could encounter a tinge of discomfort. Encountering reality All organisations encounter a clash between their anticipations with what the real life situation offers. Such deviations are what enable managers to become aware of the real organisation environment. In other words, schemas will often be changed in such a way that they match the environment more accurately. Managers will find themselves in very unfamiliar position whenever their plans f ail to match the expectations. They are expected, in such a scenario, to get the organisation around the unfavourable condition or obstacle. Managing through such an unfavourable condition would call for introduction of drastic measures which are very different from the original ones that were being pursued by the organisation. The manager, therefore, has to spend time studying the unfavourable condition and determine what counter strategies could be more appropriate. This crisis planning is done within very limited time constraints as continued delay could further hurt the organisation’s prospects. A manager, therefore, has to revisit the transition cycle and rearrange it such that it would be possible for the results to reflect positively on the organisation. Planning should identify new aims and objectives that are different from the ones that existed before the uncertain condition occurred. Roles of the workers must also be swiftly rearranged depending on their individual strengths, experience, and capabilities. Workers must accurately be selected for their specific roles because the organisation has little time to gauge their performances. Although general theories about management could still be applied to help solve out the matter, the scenario becomes more subjective and requires that action be taken depending on what the challenge is like (Watson, 2001). Management knowledge and changing scenarios Management perspectives that were postulated by early scholars, including Marslow and Lewin, were never linearly related but rather recursive in nature. In other words, knowledge of management moves in different directions, allowing managers time and freedom to manipulate changes that could result in better performance. Management knowledge in itself is an epistemological chain of facts and thought. In pursuing the organisation’s goals and objectives, managers are free to use or even create tools that they deem relevant in the performance of th eir roles. They do this through transforming the complex epistemological theories that were postulated by early scholars, instead turning them into ontological heuristic that are more simplified (Rousseau, 1995). Paradoxically, the artifactual heuristics become atheoretical, where they are removed from the original theories that formulated them and applied by the managers. Managers must be able to derive independent constructs of a particular theory and employ its direct knowledge in order to enable him make proper judgement as pertains a realistic situation in his managerial duties. The key source of a manager’s next course of action when faced with a complex situation is a past experience. The selection process is also a key source of expectation which the manager relies on. The external forces upon which the organisation acts are continuous and managers should never sit back without thinking about how to react in case an unfavourable condition occurred. Currently, the glob al economic crisis continues to ravage economies across the world without basing on specific countries. The world economy is closely knitted and therefore whatever happens in one corner of the world is more likely to affect other areas either directly or indirectly. This realisation eliminates the need to focus on rigid frameworks because the organisation has to flexibly react on environmental changes. Some of the reactionary measures that managers undertake to mitigate the effects of the unsavoury situation includes laying workers off and cutting down on expenditure costs. These drastic measures means the organisation may not be within means of actualising the original objective or target of the organisation. However, it settles for a fallback objective that may overly not leave the organisation injured. When managers make drastic changes to the organisational goals and targets, their decision is mainly influenced by the firm’s profitability. Such expenditures as on workersà ¢â‚¬â„¢ salaries and other additional operations costs such as power and water bills are often targeted in ensuring that unnecessary spending is completely done away with. In dealing with the ongoing global economic crisis, some multinational firms have decided to close down their subsidiaries which are located in hard hit areas. Some other companies have shut down operations in their numerous divisions which seem to have low profitability levels while maintaining operations in divisions that are comparatively profitable enough (Chell, 1998). Career transition in management Expectations by managers transform over time as they gain experience in their performance. Managerial roles are intricate and the extensive work experience makes managers to have more elaborated schemas. The manager’s role, nonetheless, is shaped up by the numerous environmental mixes which, together, influence the activity and operations of organisation (Allen Meyer, 1990). Conclusion Organisations often identify their goals, aims, and objectives in advance before employing strategies that would enable the attainment of these set targets. Managers are charged with the responsibility of ensuring the organisation moves towards attaining these goals. Their knowledge and expertise is particularly very important in ensuring the organisation stays within course as it focuses on the goal. However, the environment within which organisations operate is not certain and a lot of factors affect the smooth running of the organisations thus making their initial targets unachievable. Managers are forced to readjust their actions in order to ensure that the targets could be achievable. One of the tools that managers use to try and realign the organisation is the transition cycle. This cycle enables managers to put plans across that the also anticipate changes along the way. Once the manager has planned, there needs to be an emotional and sense making process whose objective is to ensure all worker s within the organisation are perfectly arranged to perform roles. Where a mismatch may occur for one reason or the other, the manager needs to readjust his strategy so that it may fit within the objectives. Readjustment leads to stabilisation where the organisation maintains its performance within the parameters of the objective determine. This cycle is continuous and should never stop at any stage even if it appears as though the organisation is stable. List of References Agyris, C Schon, DA 1978, Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Allen, NJ Meyer, JP 1990, ‘Organizational socialization tactics: A longitudinal analysis of links to newcomers’ commitment and role orientation’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33, pp. 847-858. Atkinson, J 1984. ‘Managing strategies for flexible organizations’, Personnel Management, Vol. 16 No. 8, pp. 28-31. Barley, SR 1989, â€Å"Careers, Identities and Institut ions: The legacy of the Chicago School of Sociology†, In M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall B.S. Lawrence (Eds), Handbook of career theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Bauer, TN Morrison, EW, Callister, RR, 1998, ‘Organizational socialisation: A review and directions for future research’, Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, Vol. 16, pp. 149-214. Berger, PL Luckmann, T, 1967, The social construction of reality, London: Penguin. Chell, E 1998, â€Å"Critical incident technique,† In Symon, G. and Cassell, C. (eds), Qualitative methods in organizational analysis and research: a practical guide, Penguin, London Coupland, C 2002, ‘Graduate trainees’ career narrative: fractured or flexible?’ Proceedings of the British Psychological Society Occupational Psychology Conference. Hill, RC 2000, ‘The case of the missing organizations: Co-operatives and the textbooks’, Journal of Economic Education, Vol. 31 No.3, pp. 28 1-296. Jones, GR 1986, ‘Socialisation tactics, self-efficacy, and newcomers’ adjustment to organizations’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 29, pp. 262-279. Louis, MR 1980, ‘Surprise and sense making: What newcomers experience in entering unfamiliar organizational settings’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 25, pp. 226-251. Mankiw, NG 1998, ‘Rethinking economic principles: Critical essays on introductory textbooks’, Eastern Economic Journal, Vol. 24 No.1, pp. 117-120. Rousseau, DM 1995, Psychological contracts in organizations: understanding written and unwritten agreements, Sage, Newbury Park, CA Rousseau, DM 2001, ‘Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contract’, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 74 No.4, pp. 511-542. Watson, TJ 2001, ‘The emergent manager and processes of management pre-learning’, Management Learning, Vol. 32 No.2, pp. 221-2 35

Critically analyse how the concentration ratio has evolved, in recent Essay

Critically analyse how the concentration ratio has evolved, in recent years, in the following EU industry - Public Utilities.carefully consider the reasons for - Essay Example The initiative of the European Commission way back in 1969 is to coordinate the economic policies as well as to set a monetary integration among the European Union. In 2007, the goal European Commission has proven to be very successful. Having implemented the ‘Euro’ (â‚ ¬) currency back in 1999 is part of the strategy used by the European Union in achieving their purpose of making the inter-regional and inter-state trading much easier. The constantly growing economic activity within the European Union has resulted to a tight competition among the members of the EU banking and financial sector. In order to cope with the intensive competition within the industry, most of the small banks have decided to enter into a merger. The merger of the small and medium scale banks would enable them to maximize its resources through the use of economies of scale. services in order to attain a better and more competent economy. The ‘trade and investment relationship’ between the current EU members with a more profitable investment locations in Central and Eastern Europe is very promising. In fact, the ‘concept’ of inter-state trading and investments is being used by the EU commissioners to encourage more countries to become a member of the European Union.2 employment opportunity for the local people before globalization in 2001. Given the huge domestic market of the European Union, the members of EU is able to gain more strength that attracts many of the World Trade Organization (WTO) members to deal with the European Union.3 (See Table I below and Chart I on page 6) Notice that between years 1998 to 2000, the GDP of European Union has been constantly increasing. It means that the production output of the European Union was steadily growing. Normally, when the GDP is increasing, the unemployment is decreasing. Starting in 2001 when globalization became active,

The Vietnam War Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Vietnam War - Research Paper Example The war resulted in over 2 million civilian casualties and came to an end with the defeat of South Vietnam and (but) eventually the country was unified (Pillai). The roots of the war date back to the colonial rule of Vietnam by the French. During World War II, the Japanese defeated the French and took control of Vietnam after which despite several attempts the French failed to reimpose their colonial rule. After a 9 year struggle (from 1946 to 1954) of the Vietnamese Army for independence against the French colonial rule, the Geneva Accords of 1954 divided the country into North and South Vietnam. After the partition, North Vietnam was supported by China and The Soviet Union and South Vietnam was obviously supported by the United States. United States President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice-President Richard Nixon justified their support for the South Vietnam by putting forward the Domino Theory, which said that if one country falls to communism the others in the region would follow suit and then communism would spread rapidly across the world (Domino Theory). The war took off when a Pro-American Ngo Dinh Diem came to power in South Vietnam. He was anti-communist and was a perfect candidate to be supported by the United States for their plan to establish an anti-communist government in the South. Diem was popular amongst the Catholics in Vietnam but he faced serious resistance by the non-Christians Vietnamese. To keep Diem in power, the U.S started sending exorbitant amounts of military aid to protect Diem’s regime.... It was fought between the North Vietnam (Communist) and South Vietnam (United States). The war resulted in over 2 million civilian casualties and came to an end with the defeat of South Vietnam and (but) eventually the country was unified (Pillai). The roots of the war date back to the colonial rule of Vietnam by the French. During World War II, the Japanese defeated the French and took control of Vietnam after which despite several attempts the French failed to re-impose their colonial rule. After a 9 year struggle (from 1946 to 1954) of the Vietnamese Army for independence against the French colonial rule, the Geneva Accords of 1954 divided the country into North and South Vietnam. After the partition, North Vietnam was supported by China and Soviet Union and South Vietnam was obviously supported by the United States. United States President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice-President Richard Nixon justified their support for the South Vietnam by putting forward the Domino Theory, which s aid that if one country falls to communism the others in the region would follow suit and then communism would spread rapidly across the world (Domino Thory). The war took off when a Pro-American Ngo Dinh Diem came to power in South Vietnam. He was anti-communist and was a perfect candidate to be supported by United States for their plan to establish an anti-communist government in the South. Diem was popular amongst the Catholics in Vietnam but he faced serious resistance by the non-Christians Vietnamese. To keep Diem in power, the U.S started sending exorbitant amounts of military aid to protect Diem’s regime. This marked the American military presence in the region which increased dramatically over time. It is popular belief that Diem

The study of design research methodology Essay Example for Free

The study of design research methodology Essay Abstract Studies on design research methodology are infrequent, although there is a consensus that more e ort is needed for improving design research quality. Previous calls for exercising better research methodology have been unsuccessful. As numerous studies reveal, there is no single scienti c methodology that is exercised in science or in any other research practice. Rather, research methodologies are socially constructed. Since some constructions are better than others for di erent purposes, it becomes valuable to study di erent methodologies and their in uence on research practice and results. Proposals for such studies are overed. 1 The state of design research methodology In many disciplines, research methodology is seldom discussed by researchers. Such neglect may result from several attitudes towards research methodology including indi erence or ignorance. Researchers may be indi erent because their research is well received by the community therefore they need not change or worry about it; or researchers may perceive their practice as science and wish to adopt as their methodology what they perceive to be the methodology used by scientists, henceforth referred to as the received scienti c methodology. Roughly, the received scienti c methodology consists  of several steps: (1) observations or preliminary studies, (2) hypothesis formation, (3) hypothesis testing, (4) hypothesis evaluation, and (5) hypothesis acceptance or rejection. It is asserted that results of research discovered by this methodology lead to applied research and subsequently, to practical impact. In contrast to this assertion, it is proclaimed that the goal of this methodology is to advance knowledge for its own sake and not address practical needs nor be responsible for delivering practical results. Most researchers would rarely question this methodology, but since it is impossible to follow or even hard to approximate, researchers who would claim to have adopted it, would not practice it.  Indi erence may be caused by ignorance; often researchers are not familiar with the details  of, and the controversies about, the received scienti c methodology. They are unaware of the alternatives of this methodology that we brie y mention later, their practice, and consequences. In fact, most researchers interpret methodology as a fancy synonym for method, while methodology is (or attempts to approximate) a compatible collection of assumptions and goals underlying methods, the methods, and the way the results of carrying the methods out are interpreted and evaluated. The ability to validate the attainment of research assumptions and goals through the evaluations is a critical factor in making the above collection compatible. The di erence in meanings assigned to the term methodology can be illustrated through an example from structural optimization. One research method of structural design involves the development of optimization procedures and their testings on benchmark problems. Most researchers will call this method \research methodology. However, the assumptions underlying such work (e.g., that optimization is a good model of structural design) and its testing (e.g., that simple benchmark problems are representatives of the complex structural designs performed by designers), or the believe that such research advances practice (e.g., that designers use optimization programs developed in research and that designers practice bene ts from them), are rarely articulated thus  rarely validated. If these issues would be addressed, the conclusions would probably contradict those implicit assumptions. First, independent of any discipline, optimization is a very restricted view of design (even with respect to Simons (1981) restricted view). Second, results obtained on simple benchmark problems do not necessarily transfer to real design problems nor do they re ect performance on other benchmark problems (Haftka and Sobieski, 1992); simple benchmark comparisons provide little understanding of the relative merit of di erent optimization procedures (Burns, 1989). Third, practitioners are very reluctant to use optimization procedures (Adelman, 1992; Haftka and Sobieski, 1992). This reluctance contradicts the implicit or stated research goals of improving structural design practice. Indi erence or ignorance towards research methodology relieve researchers from addressing such contradictions or exercising informed choices between methodologies in their research. Many researchers simply follow the method of their close senior peers without questioning or even knowing the assumptions that underlie it. In most cases, only the method|the actual research activity|is transferred to research apprentices. Thus, driven by social proximity, research assumptions become part of the implicit unarticulated research culture. Infrequently, this state of a airs had called the attention of researchers. In 1987, two representative papers critical of the state of design research practice were published, one by Antonsson (1987) and the other by Dixon (1987). Both papers advocated adopting the scienti c methodology in design research either for improving research quality or for improving design practice. These and other related papers elicit almost no response from the research community. Since their publication, the state of design research methodology has remained virtually unchanged. Such reaction raises at least two questions: what may have caused this response and if this is an expected reaction, is the state of research methodology worth additional discussions? Two plausible answers that originate from two di erent interpretations of Dixon and Antonssons papers justify further discussions. First, Dixon and Antonssons positions may have been interpreted as criticizing the intellectual de ciency of research and demanding from researchers to exercise a methodology di erent from the one they actually use and one that requires additional e ort. In particular, the methodology Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  proposed demanded researchers to seriously test their hypotheses. It might have been expected that such requests would be opposed to or, worst, be ignored. Second, researchers who are familiar with current views in the philosophy of science may have treated Dixon or Antonssons positions as being too simpli ed if they interpreted these positions as advocating for the received scienti c view. Since the stated goal of science is creating knowledge for the sake of knowing, but not necessarily knowledge that is relevant to practice, the received scienti c methodology may hinder improving practice by detaching the products of research ( i.e., design theories) from actual practice (Argyris, 1980; Reich, 1992). According to this interpretation and its limitation, previous calls for improving research methodology could not have impacted design practice even if researchers had adopted them. If design practice is indeed a goal of design research, di erent methodologies may be needed to establish a connection between research and practice (Reich et al, 1992; Reich, 1994a; Reich, 1994b). These methodologies can evolve in various ways including studying researchers activities and the way these activities correlate with research progress, thereby identifying the relationships between di erent assumptions, methods, and consequences. I have no intention to select between these two interpretations or to develop others but to explain how to improve research practice without assuming a xed methodology. To start with, we must acknowledge that there are di ering views about scienti c methodology (Kourany, 1987). In addition, we must  acknowledge studies on science and technology demonstrating that scienti c progress is in uenced by social, cultural, and political factors. Researchers in various sciences are increasingly acknowledging that knowledge is socially constructed (Pickering, 1992), and knowledge of design, in particular (Konda et al, 1992; Monarch et al, 1993). Moreover, the social in uence on research practice includes aspects such as: shaping research goals according to available grants or unarticulated interests; publishing papers to receive tenure or to justify traveling to conferences; and fraud (Bell, 1992; Broadbent, 1981). The rst studies on the social dimensions of science analyzed the progress of the \hard sciences such as chemistry or physics (Feyerabend, 1975; Kuhn, 1962). More recently, historical or re ective studies in science and engineering have begun addressing the social aspects underlying research and the need for di erent methodologies if practical impact is sought. These disciplines include: management science (Argyris, 1980), education (Guba, 1990), public policy (Palumbo and Calista, 1990), information systems (Bjerknes et al, 1987), cell biology (Grinnell, 1982), design in general (Broadbent, 1981), structural design (Addis, 1990; Timoshenko, 1953), solid mechanics (Bucciarelli and Dworsky, 1980), and even mathematics (DeMillo et al, 1979). Moreover, the social aspects manifested themselves in unexpected circumstances and in resolving seemingly trivial issues such as the implementation of computer arithmetic (MacKenzie, 1993)|the most basic infrastructure for much engineering design re search and practice. The importance of the aforementioned studies is twofold. First, they reject the received scienti c view as the means for formulating theories and as a means for improving practice. Second, they acknowledge and demonstrate that research methodology is a subject of study and constant improvement, and that gaining insight into the procedures of doing research can improve research itself. Since science is a social enterprise, the study of research methodology is mandatory for providing guidance in the maze of methodologies and in monitoring the quality of research. In order to sustain credibility, researchers must use and demonstrate that the techniques they develop in design research have some relevance to practice. Moreover, since funding  agencies Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in  press researchers to work towards improving design practice (National Research Council, 1991), researchers need to understand what kinds of studies are useful in practice, how are such studies conducted within budget limits, and which factors account for the di usion of studies results into practical engineering. 2 Studying research methodology Researchers may nd it fruitful to study: the objectives or goals of engineering design research; how can these objectives be ful lled through research; how can progress towards research goals be tested; and how can this overall process be improved. Such study will evolve a repository of methods with their assumptions, interpretations, successes and failures. This is the essence of studying engineering design research methodology. This view does not advocate for nor lead to anarchy. Furthermore, the evolving nature of methodology does not empty the usefulness of some principles for evaluating scienti c theories (e.g., such as those acknowledged even by Kuhn, 1987), nor does it mean that methodology is merely an art (Beveridge, 1957) that is not amenable to systematic study. It only acknowledges that the assumptions underlying methodologies and their potential e ectiveness and drawbacks for conducting certain types of research projects must be studied. We now illustrate the study of research methodology by elaborating some issues related to Antonssons six-step methodology (1987, p. 154). Each of the steps raises issues that need further study. These issues are not startling; some are familiar while others are not. Unfortunately, most of them are neglected all too often. (1),(2) Propose/hypothesize that a set of rules for design can elucidate part of the design process and develop those rules. Several questions arise about the actual execution of this activity. What is a good source of such rules? Are (un)successful designs (Petroski, 1989; Suh, 1990), patents previously issued (Arciszewski, 1988) or design textbooks (Aguirre and Wallace, 1990) good sources? Is studying human designers useful (Subrahmanian, 1992)? The answer is obviously a rmative; nevertheless, rarely are these sources consulted. If studying human designers is useful, how do di erent ways of studying a ect the usefulness of the rules hypothesized? Inarguably, such studies bring to bear research methods from psychology and sociology into play in design research. For example, how are designers activities being coded in observational studies? Is the coding scheme tested for reliability by using at lease two coders? Are the results statistically valid? Which criteria may be used for selecting candidate hypotheses for further testing? Can the subjective bias in th is selection be reduced? Note that the above questions raise a related question. Consider trading the quality of the design rules proposed with the resources to nd them. What kind of information is needed for making a sensible trade o and how can this information be collected and organized? (3) Have novice designers learn the rules and apply them. How is the above learning process taking place? Are the designers being taught thus introducing teachers bias? Or do they learn the rules on their own, potentially by solving Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  other design problems, thereby excluding the exercise of some measure of control? How are problems selected such that novice designers can solve them yet such that they are relevant to real practice. For that matter, how relevant is any laboratory experiment to real design? This critical question leads researchers in other disciplines as well as in design to use different  methods such as ethnography and participatory research while studying designers. See (Reich et al, 1992; Subrahmanian, 1992; Reich, 1994a) for additional details. Are benchmark problems used by di erent researchers to allow for the replication of results? Is performance on benchmark problems indicative of performance on other problems or on real design? Is it possible to replicate results relevant to real design? Can rules for multidisciplinary design be hypothesized and tested in the same manner? If the common view of science is adopted, this study must be controlled to be valid. One minimal requirement is that another group of designers participate in the study, potentially novice designers that did not study the new design rules. Note, however, that since the rst group of novice designers are trained with the new rules, the second group must receive similar training with default or irrelevant rules. Furthermore, members of the groups must not know which group was trained with the new rules. A better study may also include two groups of expert designers, one that learns the rules and another that learns the default rules. The latter may prov ide better indication about the relative merit of the new design rules with respect to existing design practice. In contrast, if the study follows a di erent methodology such as participatory research (Reich et al, 1992; Whyte, 1991), the nature of the study would change signi cantly into long-term case studies where real design problems are addressed. Exercising common scienti c methods in this methodology may damage research (Blumberg and Pringle, 1983). (4) Measure the design productivity of the rules. How is productivity being measured? Which criteria are included in the measurement: quality of design, time to design, or revenue of manufacturer? Do the measures used adhere to the principles of measurement theory (Roberts, 1979; Reich, 1995), or are they ad hoc and meaningless? Do independent designers than those who created the designs, or do potential customers, participate in this measurement?  Can the quality of design be assessed without manufacturing it and subjecting it to actual use? How relevant will abstract measurements be to practical  design? Is the measurement quantitative or is qualitative information being gathered as well? (5) Evaluate the results to con rm or refute the hypothesis. How is the measured data evaluated? What are the criteria that determine whether a hypothesis was con rmed or refuted? Are these criteria general or context dependent? Note that most philosophers of science including Popper and Kuhn reject the existence of such criteria (Weimer, 1979). Are the criteria correlated with real design? That is, could not researchers nd designers successfully employing design rules that were refuted by researchers? For example, Fritts et al. (1990, p. 478) describe engineers using theories that produce erroneous results with respect to experiments but that have a pragmatic utility of di erentiating between candidate designs. Are hypotheses really refuted or con rmed or are di erent hypotheses found to be useful Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  in different contexts? When is it possible to disregard experimental evidence in favor of keeping a hypothesis (Agassi, 1975)? When can experiments be harmful to progress (Truesdell, 1982)? Does a failure of a hypothesis constitute a failure of a research project or can it provide useful information worth reporting? Will archival journals publish such a report? (6) Re ne the hypothesis. The comments on items (1) and (2) apply here. Moreover, How does one diagnose a faulty hypothesis to accommodate empirical testing? When is re nement insu cient to address the failure of a hypothesis and a new \worldview must be adopted? The above expansion of Antonssons proposal re ects the complexity, richness, and necessity of studying research methodology. It illustrates that the design of a research activity is complex and di cult. It hints that  some activities that lead to research successes may fail other research and that some activities may not be compatible with some methodologies. Furthermore, research failure s (OR SUCCESSES) can lead to practical successes (or failures). Therefore, it is critical to identify where methods fail or succeed and in relation to which assumptions. Summary Science does not progress according to a distinctive methodology, nor could engineering design research; especially not if the goal is advancing design practice and not some abstract `understanding. Di erent research scenarios consisting of di erent goals, disciplines, and cultural settings, may call for di erent research methodologies for attaining the stated goals. Research involves design and therefore design researchers must be re ective continuously. This paper illustrated how researchers can be re ective upon their research methodology. If researchers object to such re ection, they risk losing credibility and, more importantly, lose the chance of discovering whether their work is meaningful. Acknowledgments The ideas expressed in this paper bene ted from discussions with Suresh Konda, Sean Levy, Shoulamit Milch-Reich, Ira Monarch, and Eswaran Subrahmanian. This work was done partly while the author was with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC. and the Engineering Design Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. References Addis, W. (1990). Structural Engineering: The Nature of Theory and Design, Ellis Horwood, New York NY. Adelman, H. M. (1992). \Experimental validation of the utility of structural optimization. Structural Optimization, 5(1-2):3{11. Agassi, J. (1975). Sciene in Flux, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht. Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  Aguirre, G. J. and Wallace, K. M. (1990). \Evaluation of technical systems at the design stage. In Proceedings of The 1990 International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED-90 (Dubrovnik). Antonsson, E. K. (1987). \Development and testing of hypotheses in engineering design research. ASME Journal of Mechanisms, Transmissions, and Automation in Design, 109:153{154. Arciszewski, T. (1988). \ARIZ 77: An innovative design method. Design Methods and Theories, 22(2):796{ 820. Argyris, C. (1980). Inner Contradictions of Rigorous Research, Academic Press, New York, NY. Bell, R. (1992). Impure Science: Fraud, Compromise, and Political In uence in Scienti c Research, Wiley, New York, NY. Beveridge, W. I. B. (1957). The Art of Scienti c Investigation, Norton, New York, NY, Revised edition. Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P., and Kyng, M., editors (1987). Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge, Gower Press, Brook eld, VT. Blumberg, M. and Pringle, C. D. (1983). \How control groups can cause loss of control in action research: The case of Rushton Coal Mine. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 19(4):409{425. Broadbent, G. (1981). \The morality of designing. In Design: Science: Method, Proceedings of The 1980 Design Research Society Conference, pages 309{328, Westbury House, Guilford, England. Bucciarelli, L. L. and Dworsky, N. (1980). Sophie Germain: An Essay in the History of Elasticity, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland. Burns, S. A. (1989). \Graphical representations of design optimization processes. Computer-Aided Design, 21(1):21{24. DeMillo, R. A., Lipton, R. J., and Perlis, A. J. (1979). \Social processes and proofs of theorems and programs. Communication of the ACM, 22:271{280. Dixon, J. R. (1987). \On research methodology towards a scienti c theory of engineering design. 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The Structure of Scienti c Revolution, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Kuhn, T. S. (1987). \Objectivity, value judgment, and theory choice. In Kourany, J. A., editor, Scienti c Knowledge: Basic Issues in the Philosophy of Science, pages 197{207, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth. MacKenzie, D. (1993). \Negotiating arithmetic, constructing proof: The sociology of mathematics and information technology. Social Studies of Science, 23(1):37{65. Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  Monarch, I. A., Konda, S. L., Levy, S. N., Reich, Y., Subrahmanian, E., and Ulrich, C. (1993). \Shared memory in design: Theory and practice. In Proceedings of the Invitational Workshop on Social Science Research, Technical Systems and Cooperative Work (Paris, France), pages 227{241, Paris, France, Department Sciences Humaines et Sociales, CNRS. National Research Council (1991). 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(1994). \Layered models of research methodologies. Arti cial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing, 8(4):(in press). Reich, Y. (1994). \What is wrong with CAE and can it be xed. In Preprints of Bridging the Generations: An International Workshop on the Future Directions of Computer-Aided Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA, Department of Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University. Reich, Y. (1995). \Measuring the value of knowledge. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. (in press). Roberts, F. S. (1979). Measurement Theory with Applications to Decisionmaking, Utility, and the Social Sciences, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, Vol. 7, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA. Simon, H. A. (1981). The Sciences of The Arti cial, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2nd edition. Subrahmanian, E. (1992). \Notes on empirical studies of engineering tasks and environments, invited position paper. In NSF Workshop on Information Capture and Access in Engineering Design Environments (Ithaca, NY), pages 567{578. Suh, N. P. (1990). The Principles of Design, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Timoshenko, S. P. (1953). History of Strength of Materials: With a Brief Account of the History of Theory of Elasticity and Theory of Structures, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Truesdell, C. (1982). \The disastrous e ects of experiment upon the early development of thermodynamics. In Agassi, J. and Cohen, R. S., editors, Scienti c Philosophy Today: Essays in Honor of Mario Bunge, pages 415{423, Dordrecht, D. Reidel Publishing Company. Weimer, W. B. (1979). Notes on the Methodology of Scienti c Research, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ. Whyte, W. F., editor (1991). Participatory Action Research, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA. Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press