Tesco report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tesco report - Essay Example Indeed, Porter’s five forces model becomes highly relevant part of that dynamic strategic initiative which helps the companies to meet the challenges of changing times. Five force analysis In the contemporary business, the creative input and innovative approach greatly facilitates in providing the goods and services with unique differentiating elements so as to gain leverage in the industry. Tesco’s five forces analysis become crucial elements of competitive advantage and can be broadly described as: industry rivalry; bargaining power of suppliers; bargaining power of buyers; competition from substitute; and threat of entry (Porter, 1980). The industry rivalry amongst the supermarket chain is important criteria for introducing cutting edge differentiating element in the products to gain leverage. Tesco’s major rivals in the industry are Sainsbury, Morrison, Wal-Mart, Asda etc. in UK. Grant (2007) asserts that identification and analysis of changing preferences of the people is important factor for firms to maintain their market position. Tesco’s major strategic win has been its people centric policies. It continuously strives to customize its products as per the changing requirements of the people. At the same time, the various outlets have also introduced local products to cater to the local demand. Thus, Tesco has become the first food chain that has adopted global values in its operation and values. Tesco has greatly expanded its business formats and product line and provides quality and customized products at relatively low cost. It therefore, has been able to bargain with its customers. The quality and creative input within the product gives huge advantage to the suppliers and puts one in a bargaining position. The bargaining power of buyers is also reduced when there is short supply of quality goods which have great demand. In the case of Tesco, the buyers increasingly prefer them because of their quality products which are dis tinctly differentiated from their rival through variety, customization and personalized customer service. In the age of technology, the competition from substitute become highly likely and the company needs to adopt innovative approach to its marketing. Tesco has judiciously exploited technology to initiate e-commerce activities and home delivery system. It has also adapted dynamic strategies which facilitate customized products and services. It also thrives in introducing elements of surprise within the products as well within the marketing of the products and services. Interestingly the threat from new entrants is one of the most significant factors which necessitate flexibility in strategic decisions and innovation. Globalization has hugely facilitated openings for new entrants. The entry of foreign supermarket chain like Lidl of Germany in UK, has further stiffened the competition and gives more power to the customers. Thus, speed and flexibility in introducing new products beco me highly essential for the existing firms and must be incorporated within their core strategy. Tesco’s strategy is focused on the needs and requirements of the people and makes continuous efforts to update its products line with that of the changing public demands. The threat is also considerably reduced because it is able to satisfy its customers by having different types of stores like Express, Metro etc which cater to different customer segment and provide huge product line

Analyze a news paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analyze a news paper - Essay Example t consider the nature of the audience by asking who the articles are targeted for, what type of information are they offering based on the types of language being used. By examining an issue of a newspaper such as The Chronicle for evidence of the process, the motive and the audience, one can get a better idea of the newspaper’s quality. The process of a newspaper refers to the types of information the issue contains and what this reveals about the paper’s persuasion. A look through the titles of the articles suggests the paper carries a pro-institution persuasion as the main thrust of the issue explores the concept of for-profit college systems as the new wave for the future. Information offered in the most current issue of the newspaper includes titles such as â€Å"For-Profit Colleges Change Higher Education’s Landscape†, â€Å"Private Giving to Colleges Dropped Sharply in 2009†, â€Å"In a Booming California Suburb, Fertile Ground for For-Profit Colleges† and â€Å"In Cutting Programs, Universities Try to Swing the Ax Gently.† In these titles, there is enthusiasm for the for-profit concept and discouraging news for the non-profit sector. The Chronicle of Higher Education makes no attempt to disguise its affiliation with the institutions, however, so this persuasion is no t surprising. In the case of the article about cutting programs, for example, a great deal of information is provided regarding the extreme difficulties college boards are having in trying to tighten the budget while retaining as many programs as possible. This begins to introduce the question of the motive. Why would a newspaper have such a persuasion in their reporting? What are they hoping to achieve in reporting on these issues? Because the newspaper is strongly affiliated with the higher education institutions, it stands to reason that they would take a stance strongly supportive of the institutional viewpoint. Sympathetic to the difficulties being experienced by universities

Assessment of Students’ Satisfaction on the Restructured Essay Example for Free

Assessment of Students’ Satisfaction on the Restructured Essay 1.0 Introduction At the University of Ghana there are reports that rooms originally built to take two students, are now officially allocated to five students (after minor modifications), but unofficially occupied by as many as eight or nine – to the knowledge of the university authorities! Apart from the obvious hygiene and health hazards posed, what kind of ambience does this provide for study after classes? All of which have brought most African universities to a state of serious deterioration. This is evident not only to those who work or study in those universities but to even the most casual visitor. – (Association of African Universities, 2004) Housing is a basic human need in all societies and fundamental right of every individual. In advanced countries, housing is more accessible to all categories of people including the poor and the needy as a result of subsidies from the government. The situation is not the same in developing countries of the world. In Ghana, for example, accessibility to housing by the poor is quite a difficult situation which is worsened by the harsh economic conditions and poor enabling environment. Likewise, accessing housing facilities by Ghanaian students at the university is no exception, especially where such university happens to be the dream destination of most Ghanaians entering into tertiary institution. In tertiary institutions worldwide, the provision of accommodation to the students’ population takes different models. This includes; non-residential, where students source for their own accommodation. Residential, where the university houses all its students and dual-residential, where the university houses its student population for a period of time only, probably the first and final year, while the students during the remaining period source for their own accommodations. The experiences of students in tertiary institutions in sourcing and securing for their own accommodation around university communities are likely to be interesting and significant. However, it is worth noting that, University of Ghana, the nation’s premier university has gone through a series of development when it comes to how to accommodate its students, both undergraduates and postgraduates. 1.1 Research problem University of Ghana has undergone a series of reforms when it comes to the residential policy for its students. The ever increasing number of enrollees in the institution is what defines this restructuring of the policy governing students’ accommodation over time. In the past two years what the incumbent vice chancellor of the university term as â€Å"Decongestion† has taken place in anticipation to the fulfillment of the university achieving efficiency in its field of operation. The drive has also been fast tracked by his informal goal that the university should achieve a world-class status. Effective August, 2011, the university effectively implemented its decongestion policy allocating rooms to a maximum of three (3) students and four (4) students in the main halls and annexes respectively. This was done to address the problems of overcrowding that resulted in adverse effects of poor sanitation, pressure on residential utilities such as reading rooms and libraries, kitchen and washrooms, among other poor conditions for effective personal studies by students. Residential facilities have been increased to make the policy successful. Even though, the problem of inadequate accommodation for students is not entirely solved, the restructuring have been effective since its implementation, and it is worth investigating the effects of the new policy, whether it has achieved its goal or it is towards achieving its intended goal or otherwise. 1.2 Purpose of the study The main reason why this research is being conducted is to evaluate the satisfaction of students with the current students’ residential policy and its effects on their studies. 1.3 Objectives of the study Specific objectives of the study are as follows: 1. To assess students perception of sanitation in the halls/hostels now. 2. To assess students perception of security in the halls/hostels now. 3. To investigate students accessibility to some basic hall/hostel utilities. 1.4 Research Questions 1. What is students’ perception of sanitation in the halls/hostels now? 2. What is students’ perception of security and comfort in the halls/hostels now? 3. What is the accessibility status of students to basic halls/hostels utilities now? 1.5 Relevance of the study As a top university in Ghana and Africa and one which is striving to attain a world class status, adequate facilities should be provided and already existing ones improved, especially standards of services and facilities which include providing conducive on-campus student housing facility. The above research provides the grounding for this study and highlights the areas of new knowledge which are needed; to focus upon students’ satisfaction of residential facilities in University of Ghana. A key question is what is the level of students’ satisfaction with regards to the students housing facility (SHF) in the context of University of Ghana? The study contributes to a better understanding of SRS of UG. The results offer valuable feedback to the university authorities, facility managers and university hostel/hall administrators in terms of the present standards or the need for further improvement of the SHF through effective designs and management. The results will help to formulate guidelines in terms of allocation of rooms to students, maintenance and for future developments of student housing ensuring that the university is able to provide adequate and contemporary on-campus SHF. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Introduction This section reviews existing literature on the student residential facilities. It is mainly made up of previous studies, journals, articles, periodicals amongst other sources. They form the secondary source of data to the study. 2.2 The Concept of Student Residential Facility Student housing has long been regarded as an essential component of the facilities provided by the higher learning institutions in assisting students to expand their intellectual capabilities. According to Hassanain (2008), well planned student housing facilities (SHF) promote desirable educational outcomes and help to achieve the broader objectives such as social cohesion and responsible citizenship. An earlier study by Zahran (1972) reveals that a good student housing promotes interactions between roommates of different backgrounds and specializations; and thus broadens the students’ knowledge. Amole (2005) argues that facilities such as study areas or meeting places for academic discussions and social gatherings provided in the student housing will encourage informal intellectual activities outside the students’ own faculties. Price et al. (2003) related student interpersonal growth to adequate facilities and Fay (1981) highlighted the importance of students’ satisfaction in the SHF as a strategy to enhance student development. Despite the importance of SHF, little literature is available to evaluate student opinions of their housing facilities. Most studies on post-occupancy evaluation focus on family housing either public or private residences, investigating the interaction between owner-occupiers or tenants and their housing settings. Majority of these studies utilized the concept of housing satisfaction when evaluating the interactions between the residents and their physical environment (Amole, 2009b). Arguing that housing satisfaction can lead towards improving individual’s quality of life, Salleh (2008) investigates dwelling, housing services and neighbourhood factors that influence the residents of private low-cost housing in Malaysia. The study revealed that the residents are more satisfied with their dwelling units and housing services if compared to their neighbourhood facilities. Elsinga and Hoekstra (2005) study housing satisfaction among European communities and find out that except in Austria, homeowners are more satisfied than the tenants because homeownership provides security, freedom and financial benefits. In contrast, James (2008) analyses the influence of age and type of ownership on the level of satisfaction and establishes that tenant satisfaction increases with the age at a much faster rate than the type of homeownership. However, student housing and family housing are not the same. Student housing comprises of basic bedroom units with other shared facilities such as bathrooms, toilets, laundry, kitchens, common lounges and cafeterias located either per floor level, per block or for the whole student housing accommodation (Amole, 2009a). On the contrary, the basic unit for family housing is a house which includes bedrooms, bathrooms, toilets and a living area all as part of the unit with other housing facilities such as playground, shops and school at the neighbourhood (Parkes et al., 2002). In addition, student housing offers limited security of ownership and freedom if compared to family housing. Therefore, the above findings may not apply in the context of student housing. Studies on residential satisfaction (RS) from the student perspective are mostly focused on factors affecting RS; such as reasons for students to maintain their previous residence (Cleave, 1996) and predictors of student residential satisfaction (SRS) (Foubert et al., 1998; Khozaei et al., 2010b). There are also studies on student housing with narrower scopes such as the effects of floor height on over-crowding (Kaya and Erkip, 2001); students’ perceptions on indoor comfort (Dahlan et al., 2009); students’ sense of attachment with a particular student housing (Khozaei et al., 2010a); coping strategies for students staying in student housing (Amole, 2005) and the relationship between satisfaction and levels of environment (Amole, 2009b). These studies offer little guidance as to whether the students are satisfied with SHF provided. Among the limited studies on SRS are studies by Amole (2007, 2009a), Hassanain (2008) and Radder and Han (2009). Amole (2007, 2009a) investigates RS among students in Nigeria and the findings indicated a low satisfaction with the SHF provided. Radder and Han (2009) researched student satisfaction levels in South Africa and the findings indicated again a level of dissatisfaction with campus residences. Alternatively, Hassanain (2008) found that students in Saudi Arabia indicated a level of satisfaction with the SHF provided. However, the studies were conducted in countries where the culture and climate are different from that experienced in the Southeast Asia region, which is likely to affect the perceived environment of the built environment. Therefore, the results of the studies may not be applicable to the study context. 2.3 Evolution of the accommodation structure Originally, halls in the university were built to accommodate two students per room. This provision was adequate for students because not many people sought for higher education. However, as the population of Ghana increased and the need to seek higher education became prominent in the country, the number students enrolled each academic year increased rapidly as well. Residential facilities were increased and expanded to accommodate the ever increasing number of student intake which demanded restructuring of student residential policy given the limited resources the university had. In the midst of the reforms, beyond the expansion and modification of the original rooms to accommodate two persons at a time, the number increased to five (5) in a room officially, both in the main halls and the annexes. The continuous increase in the student intake amidst the unexpanded residential facilities meant that, not all students could be accommodated on campus, therefore, private hostels began to spring up to absorb the excess students who could not secure accommodation on campus. The private hostels motivation to make profit meant that they charge high prices which were unbearable by many students. This brought about one of the prominent terms that everyone who has passed through the four walls of the University of Ghana is popular with â€Å"Perching†. 2.4 The issue of â€Å"Perching† The word connotes students who illegally share residential facilities with official occupants of a room. This resulted in overcrowding in the halls, putting extreme pressure on washrooms, reading rooms, hall libraries, dry lines, among other facilities that were originally constructed for two people. This was happening who many reforms were going on. The two most popular reforms were the â€Å"in-out-out-in† and the â€Å"in-out-out-out† policies. The former meant that, all first year students were qualified for accommodation on campus, this qualification did not mean automatic allocation of rooms to freshmen but allocation was subject balloting for a â€Å"YES† or â€Å"NO† and second and third year students were to look for their own accommodation. Under this policy, final year students like first year students also qualified to be accommodated on campus; it is however, worth noting that, even for the final year students, because of the limited number of rooms available, allocation of rooms was also done via balloting a yes or no by students. The latter policy, in-out-out-out raised a lot of eyebrows as it meant that only first year students were offered accommodation on campus. And for this policy allocation to level 100 students was automatic and assured. With this policy in place the problem of â€Å"perching† worsened. The official number of occupants in a room almost doubled for almost all the halls of residence. The adverse effects of poor situation created a lot of problems; poor sanitation, insecurity, discomfort, which had direct impact on students’ health, hygiene, and efficiency. 2.5 The current residential policy â€Å"The University of Ghana Hostels with a capacity of 26000 beds, which was to be built at the University of Ghana, Legon, with partnership between the university and six banks was a dream come alive as long as finding a solution to the perennial problem of accommodation in our public universities is concerned† this was an assertion made by Professor C. N. B. Tagoe, Vice Chancellor of the university of Ghana (GhanaWeb, 2008). From the above statement I would to acknowledge the â€Å"Contingency theory† one of the prominent schools under the Open Systems perspective of Organizations. This theory as a branch of systems design emphasizes that design decisions are dependent on environmental conditions. Contingency theory is guided by the general orienting hypothesis that organizations whose internal features match the demands of their environments will achieve the best adaptation. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967), who coined the label â€Å"contingency theory†, argue that different environments place differing requirements on organizations. In a recent review article, Lawrence (1993) provides a partial list of factors that one or another theorist has considered important. They include size or scale, technology, geography, uncertainty, individual predispositions of participants, resource dependency, national or cultural differences, scope and organizational life cycle. With concentration on the resource dependency factor, it is indicative that, the adaptation and realization of the said solution was heavily contingent on the provision of financial resources by the six banks which are external to the organization. As the resources from the external environment was provided by the six banks, the expansion of the residential facilities have been a reality indeed, making it possible to establish four different hostels which accommodates about 7, 120 students. It is a combination of these factors that made it possible for the decongestion exercise in the five traditional halls feasible. Currently, some of the hostels have been restructured into halls and run as the traditional halls. The standard rooms accommodate four (4) persons as the annexes do. With other stringent measures put in place to control â€Å"perching† it is believed that, the purpose for which this restructuring was done is being worked towards. It must be stated categorically that, the main reason for this exercise is to improve students’ efficiency in the university. 2.6 Halls of Residence/Hostels The University believes in community living as an essential part of student life. It is therefore primarily residential, providing accommodation in Halls of Residence for both undergraduate and post-graduate students as well as flats and guest rooms for senior members and guests. There are five halls of residence (available to all students) and several Hostels. The present Halls and Hostels are as follows: Each Hall consists of junior members (students) and senior members (academic and senior administrative and professional staff), and is managed by a Council comprising members elected by persons belonging to the Hall. The Master (or Warden in the case of Volta Hall) is the Head of the Hall. Each Hall has Junior and Senior Common Rooms for students and Faculty, respectively. A tutorial system offers an opportunity for counseling students and ensuring their welfare at both academic and social levels. Students maintain interaction with each other and the wider community through recogni zed clubs and societies. Each Hall has a kitchen and a dining hall to cater for students feeding. Chapels and a mosque are also available for use by various religious denominations. A Chaplaincy Board co-ordinate the activities of religious groups. Social life on the campus is organised mainly by the Students Representative Council and the Junior Common Room Committees which provide various kinds of social programmes. LEGON HALL: Legon Hall was the first to be built on the permanent site of the University of Ghana at Legon and is, therefore, the Premier Hall of the University. Its foundation tablet was laid during the Michaelmas Term of 1951 and, in September 1952, the first undergraduates were accepted into residence. On Trinity Sunday, 31st May 1953, the first service was held in the Chapel and the first meal served in the Dining Hall. From these events, the Hall took Trinity Sunday every year as its birthday, celebrated by a common Feast for both its Junior and Senior Members. The Halls motto, Cui Datum (To whom much is given†¦), was selected from St. Lukes Gospel, in recognition of the special responsibility attached to the Halls seniority. Senior Members of the University may be assigned as Fellows of the Hall by the Vice Chancellor and they usually keep their Fellowship for as long as they remain with the University. Persons of academic distinction outside the University may be elected as Honorary Fellows at a General Meeting of Fellows. The rest of the membership of the Hall is made up of persons in statu pupillari. The governing body of the Hall is the Hall Council, members of which are Fellows of the Hall. The principal Hall Officers are: The Master, the Vice-Master, the President of the Senior Common Room, the Senior Tutor, and the Hall Bursar. AKUAFO HALL: Akuafo Hall was established with the appointment of Professor D.A. Taylor, a Master-designate and a Hall Council in 1953. The Hall Council in 1954 decided to name the Hall Akuafo to commemorate the generous gesture of the farmers of Ghana in giving money for the foundation of the University College. A crest which depicts a cocoa tree, an open book and a drum, designed by Professor W.J. McCallien, and a motto, laboremus et sapiamus, suggested by Professor L.H. Ofosu-Appiah, were adopted by the Council. A commemorative plaque with a Latin inscription composed by Professor L.H. Ofosu-Appiah was set up to show the gratitude of the Hall to the farmers of the country and to the British Government who gave the University College funds for the building of the Hall. The Hall was officially opened on 17 February, 1956, but the first students, numbering 131, came into residence on the 5th October, 1955. The Hall has its own statutes governing the election of officers and the administration of its affairs. Once a year, the Master has to convene a meeting of the Fellows, who form the governing body, to receive his annual report. The Senior Common Room is open to all Fellows and their guests, and the Senior Combination Room to all senior members of the University. Senior Members may also invite students to the Combination Room. COMMONWEALTH HALL: The first batch of students was admitted into residence in Commonwealth Hall at the beginning of the 1956-1957 academic year. In the Lent Term of that academic year, Ghana attained its independence from Great Britain, and the Hall, hitherto known as the Third Hall, was officially christened Commonwealth Hall to commemorate Ghanas admission into the Commonwealth of Nations. The official opening of the Hall was performed in March, 1957. It is, so far, the only all-male Hall of Residence in the University. The motto of the Hall, Truth Stands, was taken from a quotation from Satyre by John Donne (1572-1631): On a huge hill, cragged, and steep, Truth stands and hee that will Reach her, about must, and about must goe This motto combines both the physical situation of the Hall (on a hillside overlooking most of the University and beyond) and the proper pursuit of a University education, the search for truth. It is the only Hall of Residence in the University which has a theatre and Amphitheatre for lectures and plays. The Coat of Arms of the Hall depicts the strength and unity of purpose of members of the Hall deriving from the bonds of association enjoyed by the individual members of the Hall. High Commissioners of the Commonwealth countries in Ghana are accorded Honorary Membership of the Hall. There is a Hall Council which administers the affairs of the Hall, assisted by the Tutorial Board and the Senior Common Room Committee. VOLTA HALL: Volta Hall started as the Fourth Hall in the 1959-60 academic year, on 16th November, 1960. The University College Council, on the recommendation of the Hall Council, named it Volta Hall. The Hall consists of the main hall originally designed to accommodate 82 students, and an annex with an original capacity for accommodating 198 students, the occupation of which began in January 1966. The motto of the Hall, chosen during the Halls tenth anniversary celebrations, is in the Akan language and it is: Akokobere Nso Nyim Adekyee. This means that the secret or knowledge of life and nature is a gift to women as it is to men. The Hall has a governing Body which comprises all the Fellows assigned to it and those elected by the assigned Fellows. The government of the Hall rests with this body which delegates some of its powers to a Hall Council. The Hall Council consists of ten members, including the Warden, the Deputy Warden, the Senior Tutor and the Bursar who are ex-officio members. The day-to-day administration of the Hall is carried out by the Warden with the help of the Senior Tutor, who deals with all students affairs, and the Bursar. MENSAH SARBAH HALL: Mensah Sarbah Hall, the fifth Hall of the University, stands in the southern part of the campus. The Hall consists of a main Hall built around a quadrangle and a number of Annexes standing to the north and east. The last two south annexes are attached to the Hall. Until October 1991, Mensah Sarbah was the only co-ed Hall of Residence in the University, which made it quite unique among the Halls. The governing body of the Hall is the Council, which is responsible to the full body of Fellows who form the Senate. Students affairs are handled by students own elected government headed by a President, while the general administration of the Hall is under the Master who is assisted by the Senior Tutor and Tutors on the one hand and the Bursar on the other. Other Hall Officers are the Chaplain, who is responsible fo r the Roman Catholic Chapel, the Prayer Room Warden, who is responsible for the Protestant Chapel, and the Librarian. Senior Common Room affairs are managed by an elected committee under the President of the Senior Common Room. The Hall is named after the famous Ghanaian jurist, writer and statesman, John Mensah Sarbah of Cape Coast. It has been customary for the Hall to celebrate the birthday anniversary of this great man every year. This anniversary is known as Sarbah Day and is highlighted by a dinner and a get-together. The Hall has a crest designed to bring out the principal features of Mensah Sarbahs life. It consists of three elements: a pair of scales, a stool with a book resting upon it, and a hill surmounted by a castle. The scale signifies the legal profession, the stool and the book symbolise culture while the hill and the castle are intended to depict the familiar landscape of Cape Coast with its many hills and forts. At the same time, the castle is intended to symbolise strength and honour. The Halls motto is: Knowledge, Honour, Service three words which aptly summarise the guiding principles of Mensah Sarbahs life. VALCO TRUST HOSTELS: The idea to build a graduate hostel was first nurtured w hen Legon Hall Annex C was prepared exclusively for graduate students of the Hall. The quest for a suitable accommodation for graduate students gained attention when Valco Trust Fund offered to finance the construction of a graduate hostel. As a further boost to this course, Legon Hall Annex C was converted into an Annex of the Hostel. The Valco Trust Hostel, donated to the University by the Valco Trust Fund to ease pressure on student accommodation, is a block of purpose-built, self-contained flats for 190 students. The Hostel, which was completed in June 1997, is the University’s first hostel for graduate students. A second block with similar facilities was opened in January 2006. Located behind Mensah Sarbah Hall on the southern part of the campus, the flats are arranged in single and double study bedrooms with en suite shower and toilet. There is a shared kitchen for every twelve rooms. Facilities in the hostels include common rooms, washrooms and a restaurant. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ HOSTELS: The International Student’s Hostels are located on the southern part of the campus off the road to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research. For a long time, it had been the dream of the University of Ghana to create and strengthen links with other universities in order to enhance the international student presence on campus. The first phase was commissioned in June 1999 and the second in January 2006. The Hostels are co-educational and each has 43 single rooms and 85 double rooms. In addition, there are facilities such as a well-fortified security system, kitchenettes and restaurants. REFERENCES Amole, D. (2005),â€Å"Coping strategies for living in student residential facilities in Nigeria†, Environment and Behaviour, Vol. 37, pp. 201-19. Amole, D. (2009b),â€Å"Residential satisfaction in students’ housing†, Journal of Environment Psychology, Vol. 29, pp. 76-85. Association of African Universities (2004), â€Å"Challenges Facing African Universities: Selected Issues†, African Studies Review (2004) Vol. 47, No. 1, 1-59 Dahlan, N., Jones, P., Alexander, D., Salleh, E. and Alias, J. (2009),â€Å"Evidence base prioritization of indoor comfort perceptions in Malaysian typical multi-storey hostels†, Building and Environment, pp. 2158-65. Elsinga, M. and Hoekstra, J. (2005),â€Å"Homeownership and housing satisfaction†, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Vol. 20, pp. 401-24. Fay, G. (1981),â€Å"A model for reviewing growth environments†, Journal of College and University Student Housing, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 46-7. Foubert, J.D., Tepper, R. and Morrison, D.R. (1998),â€Å"Predictors of student satisfaction in university residence halls†, Journal of College and University Student Housing, Vol. 21No. 1, pp. 41-6. Hassanain, M.A. (2008),â€Å"On the performance evaluation of sustainable student housing facilities†, Journal of Facilities Management, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 212-25. James, R.N. (2008), â€Å"Residential satisfaction of elderly tenants in apartment housing†, Social Indicators Research, Vol. 89, pp. 421-37. James, R.N. (2008), â€Å"Residential satisfaction of elderly tenants in apartment housing†, Social Indicators Research, Vol. 89, pp. 421-37. Kaya, N. and Erkip, F. (2001), â€Å"Satisfaction in a dormitory building: the effects of floor height on the perception of room size and crowding†, Environment Behavior, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 35-53. Khozaei, F., Hassan, A.S. and Khozaei, Z. (2010a), â€Å"Undergraduate students’ satisfaction with hostel and sense of attachment to place: case study of â€Å"universiti sains Malaysia†, American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 516-20. Lawrence, Paul R. and Jay W. Lorsch. (1967)â€Å"Organization and environment† Boston; Harvard University, Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration. Parkes, A., Kearns, A. and Atkinson, R. (2002), â€Å"What makes people dissatisfied with their neighbourhoods?†, Urban Studies, Vol. 39 No. 13, pp. 2413-38. Price, I., Matzdorf, F., Smith, L. and Agahi, H. (2003),â€Å"The impact of facilities on student choice of university†, Facilities, Vol. 21 No. 10, pp. 212-22. Radder, L. and Han, X. (2009), â€Å"Service quality of on-campus student housing: a South African experience†, The International Business Economics Research Journal, Vol. 8 No. 11, pp. 107-19. Salleh, A.G. (2008),â€Å"Neighbourhood factors in private low-cost housing in Malaysia†, Habitat International, Vol. 32, pp. 485-93. www.ghanaweb.com, (Tuesday, 8th January, 2008) retrieved on 4th October, 2012. www.ug.edu.gh (2012) retrieved on 10th October, 2012 www.ug.edu.gh (2012) retrieved on 2nd November, 2012 www.ug.edu.gh (2012) retrieved on 5th November, 2012

Early Sunday Morning :: essays research papers

Early Sunday Morning, is a Dear America book. It's the Pearl Harbor diary of Amber Billows by Barry Denenberg. This book is about a girl whos father is a newspaper writer. They move almost every month. The reason for this is so he has something to write about. This time they were moving to Hawaii. The family hated moving and so did the dad but he didn't show how much he did. He hid it from his family. When Amber found this out she spent the next day at the library learning about Hawaii. The night before they left to Hawaii they had a dinner. Amber couldn't believe that her father was having a party the week before they left. All week Amber was hoping that her friend Allison didn't talk to her and she didn't. One night she was in her room reading a book when she looked up and there was Allison at the foot of her bed. Then Amber told her that she was moving to Hawaii. Allison just started to cry and then she said she would never find a better friend then her. Then Amber started to lau gh to cheer her up. She said she would write every week. They could be pen pals. The next day she said good bye to Washington and aloha to Hawaii.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This book is a turn pager because it's interesting to see what happens to Amber. They have to adapt to the beautiful place they are going to be in for awhile. They went down to the beach to see the surfers and Amber's little brother Andy said that the reason why there weren't many surfers is because the sharks ate them. Amber eventually had to go to school. She was so nervous. She thought that she wouldn't have any friends but she made one. Mr.Poole asked her if she liked to read and she said very much. He then gave her a booked called The Secret Garden. He told her she liked it as much as he did. After Thanksgiving Amber didn't know if they were going on a tour of Pearl Harbor with Lieutenant Lockhart because he had offered to take them. Andy, her dad, and Amber went on the tour. Andy was so excited. They got to see the ships on battleship row and after that they went to see the Lieutenant's ship called the USS Arizona.

Poetry Analysis: “Love is not all” Essay

Poetry reveals the emotions of the speaker. It will give happy thoughts if the speaker is happy but the opposite if the speaker is sad. Poems exist because of emotional certainties and uncertainties. That is why poems are more ideal and complex rather than other forms of literary pieces. The poem entitled â€Å"Love is not all† by Edna St. Vincent Millay discusses the meaning of love. The whole poem wants to say the truth about love – the destiny of people and how humans treat love at all. There are also different emerging figurative languages throughout the poem, which discusses the problems and dilemma of being in love. Therefore, the theme of this poem is love as it unravels the sadness and deepness of affection through metaphorical justification of the speaker’s emotions. The speaker of this poem wants to convey one thing – love is not perfect. He wants to justify his emotions through the different experiences in his life. Based on the message of the poem, the speaker is a man who wants to share his distress, defeat, and fall in loving his woman. The speaker compares love to a drink, meat, roof, floating spar, air, and medicine. These things symbolize many concepts that strengthen the idea and context of love. Drink and meat symbolize life, roof symbolizes shed or shelter, a floating par symbolizes life saver, air symbolizes breath, and medicine symbolizes cure. â€Å"Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink / Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; / Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink / And rise and sink and rise and sink again; (St. Vincent Millay, 1-4). † All these ideas give life to humans but the point of the speaker is not to strengthen the idea of love but stating that love is not about living but dying. The poem is an irony of love as a source of life and comfort. The speaker wants to share that love is not as ideal as it can be. It is not like giving all the good things to obtain happiness because the speaker feels that love is like facing to death. The speaker wants to shed tears as he describes his experiences in love but he could not. â€Å"Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, / Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; / Yet many a man is making friends with death (St. Vincent Millay, 5-7). † This part of the poem emphasizes the paradoxical concept of love where it could not provide life or saver to one’s body. Love is not selfless but selfish based on the description of the speaker. Therefore, it can be said that affection is not feeling like in heaven but almost in hell according to the speaker. Love gives you happiness when you fall in love but it gives you death when it breaks your heart. This is what the poem is from the beginning up to the end. â€Å"I might be driven to sell your love for peace, / Or trade the memory of this night for food. / It well may be. I do not think I would (St. Vincent Millay, 1-4). † However, in the end of the poem, the speaker himself accepts the fact that he could not fight against his love because his affection revolves around his woman. It only means that the speaker loves his woman so deeply that he could accept and endure the pain and sorrow but will not ever maker her suffer after almost killing the man by breaking his heart. In conclusion to this, the poem shows its main point in the beginning. In this case, the succeeding lines are only justifications of speaker’s emotions. In the end, the struggles and sufferings of the speaker still fades after feeling that he could not take any revenge against his woman because behind all the hatred and anguish against love, he still has his affection towards his love that no one could ever contain. Reference St. Vincent Millay, E. â€Å"Love is not all. †

Psychology Stress Coursework Essay

Stressed, unbalanced and permanently under pressure. This is how in the movie â€Å"Office Space† Peter, a programmer in a big software company, passes his days and therefore hates his bothersome job, his boss and his whole life. When seeking help in hypnosis the therapist dies suddenly and leaves him back in a state of total relaxation and casualness so that he neglects orders to do extra work at weekends, finds the courage to start dating the long admired girl next door, and surprisingly impresses some evaluation interviewers with his new coolness what ends up in unexpected promotion. In the new position he decides to strike back against his company by installing a virus-like software to invincibly transfer money from the company to their bank account together with his just fired friends Michael and Samir. By mistake, however, the plan gets totally out of control so that they fear their uncovering and decide to secretly return the money, which – after some confusion produced by mentally handicapped Milton who has been humiliated by the boss so far and therefore sets the whole office on fire – finally brings all of them to a happy life in relief, relaxation and harmony. But before that relaxation can ease his life, Peter is exposed to a variety of stressors (most of them having been discussed in our lesson) at the beginning of the movie. Most prominent are task-related job stressors. Peter is responsible for essential reports to fix millennium bugs in bank software and simultaneously works for eight bosses. This situation sets him under daily pressure when e.g. his boss asks him to deliver a report by the same day he didn’t even start working on by midday, or when he gets negative feedback from all his bosses for a single mistake. Together with high levels of monotony and the fact that he has almost no control on the type and amount of work he’s got to do within rigid deadlines, this situation is a constant source of psychological pressure and imbalance. Additional stress originates from physical stressors like the need to work in small and stuffed office boxes, disturbances by loud and annoying office equipment or by getting periodic calls from colleagues and bosses, like e.g. Milton, who permanently talks crab and even calls him on the phone for that. Further stressors can be identified as demanding and privacy-hostile working-time arrangements. When he for example tries hard to escape his boss on a Friday afternoon to not risk a â€Å"last-minute† weekend shift, but badly fails, one can imagine that the view of a boring and stressful Saturday at work is everything but relaxing. But even in his private life poor Peter is far from being relaxed and easygoing. When he for instance comes home to relax after a long day in the office, his neighbour can hear every single breath he does and they can talk to each other through the thin wall, which can be considered as a kind of social stressor within his own apartment. The same is true for his fear to talk to the waitress in his favourite lunch restaurant, who he always wants to invite for a date, but never finds enough courage to do so. All those stressors show obvious consequences and lead to clear symptoms of strain. While no real physiological strain in form of illness or injury is shown in the movie (although I’d be quite sure that he suffers from high blood pressure!), job-related and emotional signs of strain are heavily appearing. In his job, Peter reacts to raising stressors with lack of motivation and a clearly decreased satisfaction in both his professional and private life. Emotional strain can be identified in his general burnout symptoms and e.g. in dramatic loss of patience. The latter is nicely shown at the very beginning of the movie, when he is stuck in heavy traffic and tries to be faster by permanently changing lanes to the assumed faster one – which of course turns out to be a totally wrong strategy and makes him proceed even slower than an old and handicapped pedestrian on the sidewalk. To deal with his stressors, Peter applies several coping strategies in both problem-focussed and emotion-focussed manners. His activities to start work always late, to avoid real work as good as possible and to play computer games or surf in the internet instead, can all be classified as problem-focussed because they all are an attempt to change the stress producing conditions at work and make his daily routine more relaxed. The same is true for his regular and elongated coffee breaks with Michael and Samir, independently if there is the boss waiting or an urgent deadline approaching. On the other hand, his decision to undergo a hypnosis therapy is an emotion-focussed coping strategy, because it’s an internal process to change his attitude to stressful events, rather than changing the cause of stress itself. However, I believe those two categories of coping strategies are somewhat flexible and interfering, since a persons’ internal attitude towards a job can become a stressor itself by e.g. setting a person under additional pressure to fulfil certain tasks under high self-expectations. However, it was the hypnosis that finally brought substantial relief and relaxation in Peters life. Due to the – unplanned – fact that he stayed trapped in his hypnotized state, he managed to approach both his work and his private life in a very relaxed and cool way, and even when initially not expected by himself and his environment, led to an increase in his motivation, joy, brought him more credit in his professional evaluation and finally facilitated a relaxed and satisfied life. Even when the movie is clearly exaggerating at many points, the basic idea of how Peter is coping with the mentioned stressors is quite reasonable to me. In an office environment it is normally quite difficult to change tight work schedules, deadlines or an over demanding boss. For that reason, the attempt to minimize stress by e.g. keeping social contacts in coffee breaks or maintaining short resting phases during work seem to be helpful and applicable coping mechanisms. If by hypnosis or any other method, the relaxation of internal tension seems to be most reasonable to me. In real life changes will certainly never be as dramatic as shown in the movie, but reducing internal pressure can surely help to find a way back to a relaxed and balanced life, which doubtlessly can increase overall satisfaction, joy and motivation. This can by the way partially be supported by allowing aggressions against bothersome machines like the poor office printer in the movie†¦ I do believe that such behaviour can bring big relief sometimes!

Comparing Entrepreneurs from Different Industries essay part 2Essay Writing Service

Comparing Entrepreneurs from Different Industries essay part 2Essay Writing Service Comparing Entrepreneurs from Different Industries essay part 2 Comparing Entrepreneurs from Different Industries essay part 2Comparing Entrepreneurs from   Different Industries essay part  1Analyzing FindingsAccording to Meredith Belbin’s typology cited in Bornstein (2004), Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are distinct representatives of shapers. Shapers are motivators, inspirators, and bright charismatics who are able to lead people, to strike a spark with their brilliant ideas. If they are obsessed with some idea, they put their life on it. Thus, for example, Elon Musk believes it initially does not make sense to put unambitious tasks that have little impact on the fate of mankind (Storm, 2014). Indeed, what is more fascinating, the challenge to increase the company’s market share by 10% in 5 years or to build the first private spacecraft and learn how to make interplanetary flights? For example, the idea of PayPal was incredibly ambitious. As Pauline (2012) notes, the company’s founders dreamed that one day electronic money would completely replace the real one. Young businessmen of libertarian views were hoping with the help of their system once to break down the state’s monopoly on the production of money, which would make the world truly free, and every person in it independent. Today, this idea has not yet implemented, but PayPal is the most successful electronic payment system in the world, which in some countries has the official status of a bank or credit institution. In turn, Jeff Bezos is also a generator of ideas and can look at the usual things from a new angle. For example, Amazon was the first company to start selling books online, making it possible to access to a huge catalogue of books, as well as the first to launch a partnership program allowing other companies to post links to books from the Amazon database (Stone, 2014). Following Amazon, their competitors, who previously held a niche in the traditional segment of book sales, had to also enter the Internet market. The ability to change the laws of the market with their ideas characterizes these two entrepreneurs as true innovators.In particular, one of Elon Musk’s rules of life is not to think by analogies. Wickham’s (2006) survey shows that in most cases the businessmen are just trying to do something better instead of creating something new. Musk thinks in a fundamentally different way: if you want to create something, it is necessary to dissect the reality to its fundamental basis. Thus, for decades space seemed unapproachable for private business. Its development was dependent on huge budgets and remained the prerogative of governments. In turn, Musk was sure that the costs of creating and launching rockets could be reduced tenfold. However, in the beginning he completely reformulated the goal of spaceflights shifting the emphasis from simple delivery of astronauts and cargo into orbit to colonizing other planets, in particular creating a colony on Mars counting 80 000 people with the ticket price of $500,000. As a result, today his Falcon 9 Heavy is already the most powerful American launch vehicle after Saturn 5 apparatus which participated in the US Moon Mission in the 1960s and 1970s (Storm, 2014). Musk also still has many unrealized ideas that can change our lives to the ground. For example, Hyperloop public transport, a cross of Concord and a rail gun that can carry passengers and cargo twice as fast as an airplane, or technology of nuclear energy without nuclear waste, or the creation of a supersonic electric aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing that produces no harmful emissions (Elon Musk Official Website, 2014).Innovation leader in his sector, Jeff Bezos, on the contrary, rather belongs to entrepreneurs who are aimed at improving existing services. At the same time, Bezos often improves thins to the level they are perceived as absolutely different from what others offer, and this keeps Amazon.com among the most progressive companies in the world. A good example is the introduction of Kindle: Amazon’s boss was convinced that millions of people would want to have an e-reader that would download books directly from the Internet very quickly and without any problems with formats. A similar logic rests behind his decision to turn inside out the company’s computer infrastructure, allowing the world to use it for money. Engineers considered the idea insane, but now Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched in 2006 generate $1 billion of annual revenue and is going to double this figure in the near future. Among others, AWS users include NASA (Stone, 2014). During the mission to Saturn, Cassini spacecraft transmitted to Earth about 180 000 photos that were processed on Amazon’s servers in just five hours and for about $200. If NASA used its computing power, it would take 15 days. Moreover, Bezos has recently spent $775 million to acquire Kiva Systems, the manufacturer of small robots which are able to sort the items in a warehouse. According to Bezos, this will allow delivering orders even faster (Rossman, 2014).Thus, Musk and Bezos are not only innovators but also outstanding visionaries. For example, it is impossible to overestimate the advantages Amazon gained having been launched before major book chains appeared in the Internet. Users of that time were for the most part the very early adopters the first followers of the new technology every innovative company dreams of: they found Amazon.com, decided that it was good, and spread the news about it all over the Internet. And, basing on Rossman (2014), the fact that these interactive features would play a huge role in the future was predicted by Bezos back in 1996. At the same time Amazon started to restructure its â€Å"showcase† for each customer, displaying books in the genres the readers had showed interest earlier, or recommending publications on the basis of purchase history. As a result, Amazon from the very beginning was not jus t a store but a prototype of a social network for book lovers.In a similar attempt to get ahead of the competitors and foresee the future, Musk focused on mass production of electric vehicles affordable to everyone. However, in 2003, when Elon Musk together with a group of like-minded people founded the company Tesla Motors, no one treated seriously the plans of some daredevils to develop the market of electric vehicles. As Pauline (2012) states, at the time the existing electric cars were mostly low-power prototypes and single models that appeared in the sale but did not earn trust. Today, Tesla Model S has become the best-selling luxury sedan, ahead of, in particular, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series. Moreover, the strategy of Tesla Motors is not only in the release of really high-quality and environmentally-friendly electric vehicles, but also in the creation of the appropriate infrastructure for them, as well as the popularization of such vehicles in the world. At the pres entation of Model S, Musk categorically stated that twenty years later more than half of vehicles produced would be fully electric (Elon Musk Official Website, 2014).In addition, as truly successful entrepreneurs, Musk and Bezos are able to combine several functions. Bezos in his time used to personally package the books ordered on Amazon, and Musk is still working as the chief engineer at SpaceX. At the same time, while Elon Musk is aimed at the internal environment of the company, Bezos gives more attention to external communications. Relying on Storm (2014) arguments, the head of Tesla Motors, primarily claims high demands on employees, appreciates their professional qualities and to some extent treats people as functions. However, while most companies in Silicon Valley make kings of their engineers, Amazon persistently proves the possibility of a different model. So, Bezos woos 164 million consumers fiercer than 56,000 employees. For example, sometimes during meetings Bezos woul d intentionally leave one of the chairs empty, offering the audience to imagine that their client is sitting there, â€Å"the most important person in the room.† In general, the company evaluates its activities by 500 parameters, 80% of which are in one way or another tied to interaction with customers (Rossman, 2014). Algorithms developed by Amazon analyze consumer behavior of one customers turning them into recommendations for others, and the list of best-sellers on the site is updated every hour. Bezos shortly calls it the â€Å"culture of metrics,† and it covers the entire company. Users response to Amazon with mutual loyalty. Amazon has long been in the Top Ten companies by the consumer satisfaction ranking compiled by the University of Michigan (Stone, 2014).Another top priority for Amazon is the maximum savings. In his address to shareholders in 2009, Bezos declared war on muda, which is Japanese for â€Å"extra costs† (Stone, 2014). The better we optimiz e costs, the more attractive prices we can offer to consumer, he declared. The company managed to improve the utilization of space in its warehouses freeing about 2 million square meters. Economy is felt in the offices of Amazon as well in the form of a moratorium on the use of color printers and first class flights. None of the top managers receives more than $175,000 per year, and the salary of Bezos himself froze at the end of 1990’s at $82 000. The team that deals with experiments in Amazon includes the minimum possible number of people, as Bezos believes that the team requiring more than two pizzas is too big a team (Rossman, 2014). In Rossman (2014), we amy find that former employees often describe Bezos as fear inspiring despot issuing piles of orders that make subordinates start running like ants. On the other hand, the â€Å"two pizzas† rule allows Bezos start dozens of small innovative projects without spending significant resources.A similar approach is a to p-priority for Elon Musk’s companies. In particular, back at the beginning of work on Space X projects, Musk understood that raw material made 2% of the value of rockets produced in the US (Pauline, 2012). Having overcome bureaucracy of aerospace corporations, Musk produced the rocket 10 times cheaper than American counterparts. His work on the cost of the first electric vehicles is also exemplary: the two-seater sports electric car Tesla Roadster was planned to be sold for $92 thousand, but it turned out that only materials for its production cost $140 thousand. Having fired the co-founder Martin Eberhard along with almost a third of employees, closing the office in Detroit, and pushing as much as possible on suppliers to reduce costs, Musk started selling Roadster for $109 thousand (Storm, 2014). The retail price of Tesla Model S in the US is already $57.5 thousand, and the provided price of the BlueStar project ranges from $30 thousand (Elon Musk Official Website, 2014).Th us, these two entrepreneurs have common traits like farsightedness, commitment, and innovative approaches both in production and management of companies, which allows them to logically fit into the list of outstanding senior managers of their generation.ConclusionSumming up module outcomes, we should conclude that entrepreneurship is currently considered from different points of view: as a style of management, the process of organizing and carrying out activities in the market, as the interaction of market participants, etc. Analyzing the different points of view on this issue, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship is the realization of special abilities of an individual expressed in a rational combination of factors of production on the basis of innovative risk approach (Stokes et al., 2010, Bornstein, 2004, and Zimmerer Scarborough, 2005). Based on an innovative business idea, an entrepreneur uses the latest techniques and technology in the production, reorganizes the work, a nd manages differently, which leads to lower individual costs of production that determine the end price. Entrepreneur better defines the market to purchase the most advantageous means of production, or rather â€Å"guesses† what product at what time and in what segment of the market will have the most effective demand. As a result, the true entrepreneur gets more profit than ordinary businessmen. In addition, the entrepreneur does not avoid risk, and chooses it deliberately to get more income than others.Thus, it is appropriate to consider two basic elements in business:1) Pioneering innovation as entrepreneurial function;2) Actions of the entrepreneur as a carrier and implementer of this function.In this perspective, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are good examples of true entrepreneurs worthy of wide recognition. Firstly, like other creative geniuses, they literally merge with their work and inventions; self-expression becomes their passion. Secondly, intuitively feeling busines s prospects using analytical thinking in solving problems, they are intolerant towards common and traditional methods of doing business. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos give rise to thoughts of a rare type of people who are changing the world and are always looking over the horizon. As leaders and visionaries, they are able to attract with a grand idea and inspire to achieve ambitious goals. And if they believe in the realization of their dream, it will happen due to their insight, energy and desire to go forward. Chosen for a detailed analysis in this paper, they will become an indispensable source of experience and inspiration for our future entrepreneurial career.