Saturday, November 16, 2019
Trends and the Future of Public Service Essay Example for Free
Trends and the Future of Public Service Essay Introduction Public service organizations are the sectors that always receive considerable attention form the government. Beside their currently lower level of performance compare to private organizations, the attention is given due to governmental responsibilities is fulfilling demands of the people. Recently, the public service sector is evolving, partly due to the influence of a new management system called Outcome Based Management. In this paper, I am discussing the contents and philosophy of the Outcome Based management approach and how it influenced the public service sector in United States. Outcome Based Management II.1.    Emerging Trend Outcome based management (OBM) is the managerial framework that emphasizes more on forward looking activities. This managerial approach focuses on why are things done and what have actually been done. In a simple sentence, the term encourages managing for actual results. The term is often identified with the sentence: â€Å"better planning generates better outcomes†. The managerial framework first gained attention of public organization’s managers because of its commitment toward results. The public service is always known lo lag behind the private sector because of its weak commitment toward real achievements. This is reveled in various sectors of the public sector, including the environmental sector, health sector and even child-care. These sectors required a system that works based on real-hard results, and OBM’s characteristic that put forth alignment between services delivered and actual goal achievements is a dominant catalyst in the adoption of this concept into the public service sector.  II.2.    Elements of OBM There are several elements of OBM. The first is the outcome itself. Outcome is the impact, result or consequences for the organization of related parties. If the outcome of a particular project matched existing corporate objective, then the company have successfully performed the OBM. The second element of OBM is the services given. They are tools to achieve the outcomes determined earlier. The third element is the Key Performance Indicators. The performance indicators function as an analysis tool that determines whether the targeted outcomes are achieved or not. The traditional perspective perceived a company to perform three important activities, which are: planning, budgeting and reporting. According to the OBM perspective however, these activities can be explained further using a chain of detailed process, which includes: Formulation of corporate goals and strategic outcomes Formulation of mission statement and the strategic plan Formulation of budgets, including key performance indicator targets Delivery of services Performance reporting in annual reports Performance assessment Outcome Outcome is simply the reason why corporate activities are performed. There are actually three levels of outcomes, the first is corporate goals. It is the highest level of outcome and the most general one. The second is called strategic outcomes, which relate corporate goals into these parties: the people in general (community), the environment, the economy, the region and governance. Considerations of these factors brought to the finding of strategic outcomes. The third is called agency-level outcomes, which functions are to detail the general outcomes into more specific targets. The formulation of agency-level outcomes is the final step before performing the services Clearly defining corporate outcomes are important element of the OBM application. This is true because the outcome information will be used to direct the organization within its activities. For example, the outcome information is generally used by the corporate management to: trigger corrective actions like identifying problem areas that requires attention; identify best practices; motivate employees and to perform planning and budgeting activities. The outcome objective can also be used by external parties to: perform economic analysis, provide informed commentary, and perform benchmarking. Services      The next step in OBM after properly defining the right goals, strategic level outcomes and agency level outcomes is defining how each unit could contribute to the achievement of organizational goals. OBM stresses on the importance in finding the link between the desired outcome and the services delivered. This is necessary because according to the OBM resource should be allocated to any unit unless it can contribute to the achievement of organizational goals. Alignment between the goals and the service provided is a must because once such an alignment is achieved; the collection of costs and performance data is easier to perform. After defining the specific agendas of each unit of the organization, the next step within OBM is reviewing the service agendas. The common practice in OBM organizations is by developing a service checklist that will enable them to evaluate whether the services delivered are the right ones. Performance Indicators      The third step in the application of OBM is developing performance indicators. The presence of the right performance indicators will allow performances to be measured, evaluated, and improved. The general performance indicators in OBM are divided into two categories, which are: effectiveness indicators and efficiency indicators. The two categories should have at least three characteristics, which are: relevance, appropriateness and fair representative ness. Defining these indicators enables the organization to perform continuous improvement by identifying emerging issues and specify the best services to deal with the issues, and furthermore, improve organizational accountability.  II.3.    Expert’s Opinion about OBM            The ideal implementation of the OBM concept supposedly generates the following conditions: Encourages information sharing between employees and externally with clients, partners, etc Encourage communication of organizational achievements Easier and more effective reporting activities Increased flexibility and scalability Lead to effective use of available business information for analytical reporting, decision making and forecasting. Improve operational efficiency Increased profitability from relationship with partners and suppliers Drive operating staff toward the achievements of strategic results, etc Taking account of these achievements, the OBM concept is generally benefiting organizations as a whole, particularly the less committed public service organizations. There are however, obstacles that must be faced. In the process of defining outcomes and unit contribution to that outcome, there are individuals and parts of the organization that are reluctant to share data due to fear of inaccuracy or more often, unfavorable interpretation. The second challenge is caused by the tendency of people that have invested in their data collection to be unwilling to share the information due to the loss of credit in the work involved. The third challenge is cost oriented. Some data required to achieve accurate measurement are more expensive than others. The fourth challenge is simply caused by the fear of being judged for something that we cannot control. In many sectors, like the environmental and health sectors, there are often uncontrollable variables that considerably affect the achievements of organizational goals. Including these factors in the evaluation system will be inaccurate and furthermore, most likely become the source of discontent ness among employees.  II.4.    Identification of the Trend            Organizations and institutions that use OBM concepts generally have specific characteristics within them. The implementation of OBM is similar in various sectors despite the different services offered by the sectors. The implementation can be detected in the form of steps performed to identify goals and linking them to services performed. The amount of resources and time dedicated to each step might differ from one industry to the others depending on the difficulty of performing each step, but the steps that are performed are generally within the same order. For example, in the environmental public services, the amount of resources committed to define the desirable outcome is quite enormous and significantly larger than other sectors; This is due to the difficult nature of defining the suitable environmental targets to be achieved from environmental projects. In health care sector and child care sector on the other hand, identifying what services to perform in order to achieve identified goals are the most difficult step and the one requires most observations. These sectors however, are all performing similar elements of the OBM approach. Implications for the Public Service III.1.  Unique Sector            Public service is generally known as governmentally-run organizations which all resources are generated from the government and thus, from the public themselves. If we are to study the development of this sector however, it is necessary to reveal how the public service sector is rationally different from the private sector. The most basic difference is the fact that in the private sector, most activities started at the supply side. Technology, for instance, is known as a tremendous catalyst from the supply side of business in the private sector that generates dramatic changes in various industries.            In the public service sector on the other hand, the main intervention that leads to change originated from the demand side. Ironically, there are generally little chances to charge the public directly for the services they receive. Governmental taxes are the media that connects the payment between the public and the public sector workers. In addition of becoming a tool of delivering what the public needs, the public sector is also the tool to create a balance in the private sectors’ operations. In the transport and utilities sector for example, where networks grows and the element for natural monopoly is strong, public involvement is required to prevent market failures and the abuse of market positions (Franà §ois, 2003).            In the light of this unique structure, we can logically guest that the problem with public service sector is actually the presence of the government as an intermediary party itself. In the private sector, people are working for their customers and they gain payments from them as well. This trade between service and payments happens dynamically and each side can influence the trade. In other words, it is easier for the private sector workers to influence the amount of payment they will receive. In the public sector on the other hand, people are working for the government. Workers are not in direct trade of service and payments as the private sector. It is harder for them to influence the amount of payment they will receive (Glaeser, 2003).            In discussions of why productivity and efficiency in the public sector is often considered worse than the private sectors, many factors are mentioned, but the condition revealed above is one of the reasons often mentioned. The private sector workers are generally more motivated because in their frame of mind they have a way of influencing their own destiny. The public sector workers on the other hand, are working for different people than the one signing their checks. Knowing that the quality of their work will not influence their salaries, public sector workers are subject to a declining working motivation (Disney, 1998).  III.2.  Challenges            In addition to the general problem mentioned above, there are also other issues that are parts of the new development of the public service sector in United States. Political leaders indicated the need to recruit the next generation of public sector workers. It is believed that the public service sector environment today has already evolved into phases that are out of the older-generation’s league. The new system of management requires new workers with the ability to learn and adapt to the evolved conditions of the public service sector. Others however, believed that such a change will not be beneficial due to the similar image of the job. Workers at the public service sector are still viewed as a ‘public servant’, a phrase which are highly unpopular in American society. Despite the enhanced system of management, if the government is unable to maintain change this image, the new workers are still going to be the ‘new generation of public servants’, in the sense that they have minimum bargaining power over the services they provide and salaries they receive. Another issue in the public service sector, particularly in the United States is the ageing structure of the public service workers. Statistics indicated that with the reluctance of young people in entering the sector leave only old people within the sector. This will obviously mean a degradation of management quality within the public service sector. Another study indicated that information deficiency is significant problem in managing public services. The information regarding desired outcome are generally owned by the lowest people in the managerial chain, while the strategic decisions are made by the government which has little access to the information (‘Challenges’, 2008). III.3.  Implications of the OBM Approach III.3.1. New Systems            The application of the OBM approach to the public service sector might address several of the problems mentioned earlier. For example, the lack of motivation could be solved by better focus on actual results and linking organizational objectives directly to services performed. Successful application however, requires adaptation to the steps and elements of the OBM approach.            In the public service organization, the desired outcomes can be those specified in the annual budget statements or those identified in legislation and specified by the related authority. For example, the general outcome of a public sector could be: accessible, reliable and safe public transport system, or a fair and independent criminal prosecution service. In the public service organizations, these general outcomes can then be translated into the agency-level outcomes. Furthermore, the use of outcome information in the public service organizations, can internally improve the budget setting process, while externally it can improve agency control, make it easier for other agencies to make contributions to the organization (Hundley, 1991).            In the next step, OBM leads the public sector organization to specify agency-level services that are required to achieve the agency-level outcomes. This is generally performed by the making of a service checklist. The service checklist consist of questions like what service are delivered, what outcome are the services addressing, what results are the service addressing. Afterwards, the OBM approach takes the public service organization to developing performance indicators. For the public service organizations, cost efficiency indicators could be: cost per student graduated, cost per license issued, etc; productivity indicators include: students taught per teacher, cases resolved per officer, etc. Overall, the benefits brought by the new approach include: Greater public transparency Enhanced knowledge in identifying best practices Increased ability in assessing performance against target Increased ability in investigating reasons of failure in meeting specified targets (Hatry, 2003) III.3.2. New Skills Required            In light of the elements and process demanded by the OBM approach, the new skills required are: Sensitivity to new Information            To better perform the first step of the OBM approach, which is defining goals and outcomes, members of the public service organization need to be sensitive of the demands exist in the surrounding environment. This is related to the fact that public sector organizations exist to serve the public rather than to achieve organizational profit. Communicating information The people that are exposed to new information generally come from the lowest structure of the organization. Thus, the organization must design a system and furthermore, the skills to communicate information up to the highest level of management. Linking service activities to established goals Under the OBM approach workers at the public service organization are demanded to constantly see the linkage between the goals, outcome defined agency-level outcome and finally the service performed. This will provide them with clear logical frame of thinking, especially in decision making activities. Reference: ‘Challenges and Trends in Public Administration’. 2008. Retrieved January 2008 from unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/ public/documents/ASPA/UNPAN006965.pdf Disney, R., and Gosling, A. 1998, ‘Does it Pay to Work in the Public Sector?’, Fiscal Studies, 19(4), 347–74. Franà §ois, P. 2003, ‘Not-for-Profit Provision of Public Services’, The Economic Journal, 113(486), C53–61. Glaeser, E. L. 2003. ‘The Governance of Not-for-profit Organizations’. Chicago, IL, University of ChicagoPress. Hatry, H. P., Morley, E., Rossman, S. B. Wholey, J. S. 2003. ‘How Federal Programs Use Outcome Information: Opportunities for Federal Managers’. National Academy of Public Administration Hundley, G. 1991. ‘Public and Private-sector Occupational Pay Structures’, Industrial Relations, 30(3), 417–34.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Universalizability and Philippine Supreme Court Cases :: Criminal Justice
Universalizability and Philippine Supreme Court Cases ABSTRACT: The requirement that legal reasoning be universalizable is so unquestioned as a legal doctrine that it is practically axiomatic. Recently, two Philippine Supreme Court cases have been decided in a manner that apparently dispenses with this requirement. I discuss these two cases in the light of the requirement. I conclude that the requirement, rather than being diminished by the two cases, has actually maintained its axiomatic status on the basis that the reasoning in the two cases is deficient: the first either for inequality in treatment or for lack of clear guidance, and the second for the failure to appear impartial. The requirement that judicial reasoning be universalizable, that the justifying reasons for a decision are to be articulated or at least must be capable of being articulated in the form of a universal norm under which the facts of the case are to be subsumed so as to entail logically the decision, (1) is an acknowledged formal legal principle indispensable to any sound theory of adjudication. Recently, two Philippine Supreme Court Decisions, Alonzo v. IAC (2) and Marcos v. Manglapus, (3) challenged the very indispensability of such a requirement. This paper will discuss the interaction between and effects of these two decisions on the requirement of universalizability, by determining whether the requirement is indeed seriously challenged by the two cases and, conversely, by assessing and analyzing these two cases in terms of the requirement. These two decisions resolved the issues in the two cases by creating exceptions for the unique circumstances attendant to the cases, thus apparently dispensing with the requirement. In particular, the Alonzo case held: "In fact, and this should be clearly stressed, we ourselves are not abandoning the Cojenero and Buttle doctrines. What we are doing is adopting an exception to the general rule, in view of the particular circumstances of the case." (4) In the Marcos case, reference was made to the special circumstances involving President Marcos thus: "This case is unique. It should not create a precedent, for the case of a dictator forced out of office and into exile after causing twenty years of political, economic and social havoc in the country and within the short space of three years seeks to return, is in a class by itself." (5) In discussing the interaction between and effects of these two decisions on the requirement of universalizability, the paper will first briefly explain the rationale behind the requirement. Universalizability and Philippine Supreme Court Cases :: Criminal Justice Universalizability and Philippine Supreme Court Cases ABSTRACT: The requirement that legal reasoning be universalizable is so unquestioned as a legal doctrine that it is practically axiomatic. Recently, two Philippine Supreme Court cases have been decided in a manner that apparently dispenses with this requirement. I discuss these two cases in the light of the requirement. I conclude that the requirement, rather than being diminished by the two cases, has actually maintained its axiomatic status on the basis that the reasoning in the two cases is deficient: the first either for inequality in treatment or for lack of clear guidance, and the second for the failure to appear impartial. The requirement that judicial reasoning be universalizable, that the justifying reasons for a decision are to be articulated or at least must be capable of being articulated in the form of a universal norm under which the facts of the case are to be subsumed so as to entail logically the decision, (1) is an acknowledged formal legal principle indispensable to any sound theory of adjudication. Recently, two Philippine Supreme Court Decisions, Alonzo v. IAC (2) and Marcos v. Manglapus, (3) challenged the very indispensability of such a requirement. This paper will discuss the interaction between and effects of these two decisions on the requirement of universalizability, by determining whether the requirement is indeed seriously challenged by the two cases and, conversely, by assessing and analyzing these two cases in terms of the requirement. These two decisions resolved the issues in the two cases by creating exceptions for the unique circumstances attendant to the cases, thus apparently dispensing with the requirement. In particular, the Alonzo case held: "In fact, and this should be clearly stressed, we ourselves are not abandoning the Cojenero and Buttle doctrines. What we are doing is adopting an exception to the general rule, in view of the particular circumstances of the case." (4) In the Marcos case, reference was made to the special circumstances involving President Marcos thus: "This case is unique. It should not create a precedent, for the case of a dictator forced out of office and into exile after causing twenty years of political, economic and social havoc in the country and within the short space of three years seeks to return, is in a class by itself." (5) In discussing the interaction between and effects of these two decisions on the requirement of universalizability, the paper will first briefly explain the rationale behind the requirement.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Process Analysis and Capacity Management Essay
1. Dello is a world-class PC company. Management believes that they understand their products and customers better than any outsourcing company; therefore Dello should provide customer service in-house. Ideally, Dello’s customer service department wants to handle all the customer phone calls. During peak hours, however, Dello receives so many customer calls that they ask an outsourcing company, Telemate, to help handle incoming calls. Dello’s switchboard system is programmed in the following way; A customer calls Dello at its 1-800 number. If there are 14 or less callers in the system waiting to speak with one of the customer service representatives, then the call stays within Dello’s system and the customer inquiry will be answered by a Dello customer service representative. If, on the other hand, there are 15 or more calls waiting within Dello’s system, then the incoming call is forwarded to the outsourcer Telemate, and the call will be answered by a Tel emate agent. Draw the process flowchart for Dello’s customer service call handling process. [pic] 2. Getaway is another computer company known for mass customization. Its secret is to always maintain an inventory of base models, and to offer its customers add-on options. The process is as follows: The first step is receiving the order. After receiving an order, the order is checked for add-ons. If needed, add-ons are added to the base model. (Note that base models are held in inventory). Then the computer is packed, and finally shipped. Draw a process flow diagram for the above process. [pic] If you want to be stricter, you can have triangles for add-on parts inventory and work-in-process between packing and shipping. 3. Kate is managing his company’s production facility. Consider the following production process. Note: some triangles may be intentionally omitted. [pic] Raw materials go through machines A, B, and then C, to produce a final product. Capacity, or service rate, of each machine is as follows: Machine A: 200 units per hour Machine B: 180 units per hour Machine C: 120 units per hour (All these numbers are expressed in terms of units of final product.) a) Identify the bottleneck process. Is it A, B, or C? Explain briefly. Machine C, since it’s the slowest process of all. Kate sincerely believes that she must keep high utilization of machines. Every time she sees an operator idle, therefore, she orders the operator to go back to the machine and continue operating. b) What is she doing wrong? What is the most likely result if she manages the factory this way? She doesn’t seem to understand that the bottleneck process defines throughput of the entire system. In other words, the production facility can process just as fast as the bottleneck. If she tells every operator to produce all the time, most likely result is that she will have unnecessarily large WIP built-up between machines. 4. Eastern Coffee follows the flow chart below to serve its customers. Note that some triangles may be omitted intentionally. It takes a worker two minutes to take order and receive payment, two minutes to prepare coffee, and three minutes to clean equipment. Eastern Coffee has two workers: worker A takes order and prepares coffee, while worker B handles the cleaning. a) On average, 10 customers per hour show up and order coffee. What is the utilization rate of worker A? And what is the utilization rate of worker B? Capacity of worker A: 60/(2+2) = 15 customers/hour Capacity of worker B: 60/3 = 20 customers/hour Utilization of A: 10/15 = 0.666 or 66.6†¦% Utilization of B: 10/20 = 0.5 or 50% b) How many customers can Eastern Coffee serve per hour? From the above, Capacity of Eastern Coffee is 15 customers/hour Western Coffee follows the same flow chart above, and each activity takes the same amount of time as Eastern. Western Coffee also has two workers: worker C only takes order and payment, while worker D handles the coffee preparation and cleaning. c) How many customers can Western Coffee serve per hour? Capacity of worker C: 60/2 = 30 customers/hour Capacity of worker D: 60/(2+3) = 12 customers/hour Capacity of Western Coffee is 12 customers/hour d) The manager of Western Coffee notices that cleaning is not a critical activity in the sense that it can be delayed and be finished when there are fewer customers. Therefore, during the peak hour when many customers come in, workers can focus on serving customers and temporarily ignore the cleaning activity. Then how many customers can Western Coffee serve during the peak hour? Capacity of worker D during the peak hour: 60/2 = 30 customers/hour Capacity of Western Coffee is 30 customers/hour 5. At Spotted Cow Coffee Shop, one cashier can take 30 orders per hour and one skilled worker can prepare 20 orders per hour. Assume that the cashier and the worker are not cross-trained. a. Suppose that there are only one cashier and one worker in Spotted Cow. What is the capacity of Spotted Cow? And which resource is the bottleneck? Explain. The worker is the bottleneck as she pushes the smallest amount of job in an hour. The capacity of Spotted Cow is 20 orders per hour, which is decided by the bottleneck. b. Suppose that Spotted Cow hires one more skilled worker who can also prepare 20 orders per hour. What is the capacity of Spotted Cow? And which resource is the bottleneck? Explain. The cashier is the bottleneck as she can take at most 30 orders per hour. While the two workers can prepare in total 40 orders per hour. The capacity of Spotted Cow is 30 orders per hour, which is decided by the bottleneck. 6. Pavich’s Brick Oven Pizza is known for its speedy delivery time of piping hot pizza. Its secret is to always maintain an inventory of uncooked, assembled, cheese pizzas, and to offer its customers only cheese and pepperoni pizza. If a customer orders a cheese pizza, uncooked cheese pizza goes immediately into the oven. If a customer orders a pepperoni pizza, pepperoni is added to the cheese pizza, and then the pizza is cooked, and finally delivered. Draw the process flowchart diagram for Pavich’s Brick Oven Pizza. In your flowchart, use at least two inverted triangles. [pic] You can of course have an arrow from uncooked cheese pizza inventory to cooking process. 7. Campus Credit Union has 5 representatives, 2 of them specialized in business customers and 3 of them specialized in personal customers. On average, each business customer takes 15 minutes, and each personal customer takes 12 minutes to finish the service. During the 4-5pm rush hour, 10 business customers and 10 personal customers show up. a. Does the Credit Union have enough capacity during the rush hour? Each hour, a representative can serve 60/15=4 business customers and 60/12=5 personal customers. During the rush hour, the capacity for business customers is 4*2=810. The Credit Union will have enough capacity for all the customers. 8. The following flow chart describes a simple burger making process. [pic] One stove is available to cook patties. It can cook patties in 3 minutes and holds 40 patties at one time. On average, it takes 45 seconds for a worker to assemble a burger. There are 12 workers available to assemble. The time it takes to deliver can be omitted. Assume that one burger needs only one patty. a. What is the capacity of the cooking stage? What is the capacity of the assembly stage? What is the capacity of the entire process? The stove can cook 40*60/3 = 800 patties per hour. The workers can assemble 12 * 60 / 0.75 = 960 burgers per hour. The stove is the bottleneck. The capacity of the entire process is 800 burgers per hour. b. Suppose that on average 600 burgers per hour are ordered from customers. What is the utilization rate of the stove? What is the utilization rate of the worker, on average? Utilization rate of the stove: 600 per hour / 800 per hour = 75% Utilization rate of the workers, on average: 600 per hour / 960 per hour = 62.5%. 9. A small medical center would like to determine the capacity requirements for the next month. Currently there are 11 doctors working 8 hours a day and 5 days a week. They provide care for three types of patients: patients come for regular check-ups (type A), patients with minor problems (type B), and patients with serious problems (type C). The management had estimated the number of patients for the next four weeks as follows: | |Weekly numbers of patients | | |Week # 1 |Week # 2 |Week # 3 |Week # 4 | |Type A |250 |50 |100 |500 | |Type B |150 |300 |150 |300 | |Type C |200 |150 |250 |150 | All the doctors can provide care for all types of patients. Type A patients require 15 minutes of care, type B patients require 30 minutes of care, and type C patients require 60 minutes of care. a. What are the average utilization rates of the doctors for each of the next 4 weeks? Requirements in # hours | |Number of hours needed | | |Week # 1 |Week # 2 |Week # 3 |Week # 4 | |Type A |62.5 |12.5 |25 |125 | |Type B |75 |150 |75 |150 | |Type C |200 |150 |250 |150 | |Total |337.5 |312.5 |350 |425 | |Utilizations |76.7% |71.0% |79.5% |96.6% | Total available doctors time = 11*8*5 = 440 hours b. Does this medical center have enough capacity? Yes 10. A clothing company produces 5 types of shirts (A, B, C, D, and E). The final manufacturing steps in the shirt production process are to (a) attach a care label to every shirt, and (b) brand the company’s name on every shirt. The company has one machine for attaching care labels, and one machine for branding. For any shirt type, branding requires 8 minutes of processing on the machine. Due to differences between shirt designs, attaching care labels requires the following shirt-dependent processing times (in minutes): Shirt Type Processing Time A 4 B 10 C 5 D 6 E 8 The demand per day for the different shirt types is: Shirt Type Demand A 20 B 5 C 25 D 10 E 15 Assume each machine is available to work 8 hours per day. Does the company have the capacity to satisfy its demand? Explain your answer fully. The demand for the branding machine is: (20 + 5 + 25+ 10 + 15) * 8 = 600 minutes, or 600/60 = 10 hours. There is not enough capacity on the branding machine to satisfy demand. This machine is a bottleneck resource. The demand for the label attaching machine is: 20 * 4 + 5 * 10 + 25 * 5 + 10 * 6 + 15 * 8 = 435 minutes, or 435 / 60 = 7.25 hours. There is enough capacity on the label attaching machine to satisfy demand. 11. InnovB is a call center company. InnovB has a highly sophisticated switchboard system called Virtual Agent that takes customer calls. There are 20 telephone lines and therefore 20 Virtual Agents. Virtual Agent asks a caller some basic questions such as the caller’s preferred language, account number, etc. On average, a customer spends 3 minutes within Virtual Agent system. Depending on the nature of the transaction and customer’s account history, Virtual Agent puts a call through to either a high-skilled or a low-skilled customer service representative (CSR). Virtual Agent is programmed so that all difficult calls are handled by high-skilled CSRs, and all the easy calls are handled by low-skilled CSRs. It takes, on average, 6 minutes for a high-skilled CSR to process a difficult call, and it takes 4 minutes for a low-skilled CSR to take care of an easy call. There are 15 high-skilled and 20 low-skilled CSRs. At the end of the transaction, both difficult and easy cal ls are transferred to the company’s customer satisfaction survey system. It takes on average 2 minutes to take the survey. Since there are 20 telephone lines, there can be up to 20 callers taking the survey at one time. a. Draw the process flowchart diagram for InnovB. Use at least one inverted triangle. Use only one rectangle for the â€Å"survey†process. Use arrows, not lines. Yes No b. Can InnovB handle 125 difficult calls per hour? Explain. Capacity of Virtual Agent= 20*20 = 400 customers/hr Capacity of high skilled = 10*15 = 150 customers/hr Capacity of low skilled = 15*20 = 300 customers/hr Capacity of survey system = 30*20 = 600 customers/hr Yes, 125 is possible. (125
Saturday, November 9, 2019
The problem between students and the text exams.
The problem between students and the text exams is that, somehow exam sometimes makes the students which, they are taking the exam, make them nerves and they feel that, they are lost in the exam and they should looking for the successful and the easiest way to find their self and how to be the top one in the exam. This paper is about, the situation of taking exams and the advantages and disadvantages of text exams and quiz exams.However, It seems to be that, the only ay to differentiate between the clever students and the lazy one, and If you have a lot of students in one class, for example forty to fifty students in same class, is that, the students have to take the text exams or quiz exams, maybe this is how the teachers or principles think of it, or however, this is the only way to be clear for them which one is the best among them.As it show that If you were In a large class of say fifty students then I'm quite sure that you would use testing a lot, not only for speed but also be cause it's a way of controlling students, ND let's be honest, class control is a problem if you have fifty students in the class. So there are good reasons why teachers use tests, but we have to see that they cause more and more learning problems as the students get older (Interviews , 2003, paragraph 8, line 4). As the Interview go on to point out. His Is the only way to separate Clever and Lazy students, and that is all they have to do it. Whatever goes, it is not true to be said that all students are equal or they have the same ability, maybe some are so clever and some others are lazy. But in fact, why students are going to be lazy, I mean what is the reason behind this, maybe those students are not lazy as it seem to be, or they are not lazy In nature. But It must be something that makes some students good and some others bad.Here as It Is clear In the (Interview 1, 2003, paragraph 8, line 1)†But what has made the students lazy? They've learned to become compliant, depen dent and helpless†as we see it is so clear where are the problems of students being lazy. If you want to help the lazy students, the only way for that is that, starting from the age when they are about to learn things. What has to be said is that, they must be thinks by their own mind, not what they have been told to do, or how they learnt to thinking.However, they have to forget the teacher's Idea and began with themselves Idea. Paragraph 7, line 5. Moreover, mark is the only things that students tries to take, nothing more. If there are no marks for taking exams, then, there is nothing worth to take exams at all. All students are seeking how they can get more grades, not for learning things, not for developing, Just grades and how to be the top students. The Interview states that o get on with some real learning†¦. But my problem is that I think that what they are also learning are bad learning habits.Let's be honest here, they're only learning for the sake of the mark s, for the sake of the test. If you take the test away then I can guarantee that they'll not be bothered to learn as much. Here, as it is mentioned marks are all what students working for it, and that is worth to study for it. Together, this evidence suggests that, there are problems for the text exams for the teachers and students at all. The teachers are doing what the reminisces ordered to them, and the students follows what the teachers touts them.And in another hand which is the big problem is that, a huge number of students in one room or class. That is to say, the resolution or how to fix the problem is that, from the beginning of student's age should be starting how to be independent and thinking, and a huge numbers of students must be fixed with opening new class for them, and no more than twenty students. For the rules it should be there is a way how to fix it, the way that remove the pressure upon both teachers and students.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
90 Verbs Starting with Ex-
90 Verbs Starting with Ex- 90 Verbs Starting with â€Å"Ex-†90 Verbs Starting with â€Å"Ex-†By Mark Nichol Ex- marks the spot. Go beyond, go out on a limb, go outside your comfort zone. Get some extra excitement by using these vivid verbs starting with the syllable ex-: 1. Exacerbate: to make worse 2. Exact: to call for and obtain (â€Å"exact revenge†) 3. Exaggerate: to overemphasize or overstate 4. Exalt: to glorify or intensify 5. Examine: to inspect, investigate, or scrutinize 6. Exasperate: to aggravate or enrage 7. Excavate: to remove or expose by digging or as if by digging 8. Exceed: to be greater than or to go beyond a limit or normal boundary 9. Except: to keep out or to object 10. Excerpt: to take out or select, especially writing, for other use 11. Exchange: to trade 12. Excise: to remove by cutting or as if by cutting 13. Excite: to arouse or stimulate 14. Exclaim: to cry out passionately or vehemently 15. Exclude: to bar, or to prevent entrance or inclusion 16. Excogitate: to devise 17. Excommunicate: to bar from membership 18. Excoriate: to abrade or censure 19. Excrete: to discharge or eliminate 20. Excruciate: to torture 21. Exculpate: to clear of blame or fault 22. Excuse: to forgive or remove blame from or to justify or make an apology for 23. Execrate: to denounce 24. Execute: to carry out or perform 25. Exemplify: to embody or make an example of 26. Exempt: to set apart or release from a requirement 27. Exenterate: to disembowel 28. Exercise: to practice, train, or put to use 29. Exert: to put forth effort 30. Exfoliate: to cast off or remove 31. Exhale: to breathe out 32. Exhaust: to wear out 33. Exhibit: to show or demonstrate 34. Exhilarate: to refresh or stimulate 35. Exhort: to appeal to or to warn 36. Exhume: to disinter or to rectify neglect 37. Exile: to drive out 37. Exist: to continue to be or to have being 39. Exit: to go out 40. Exonerate: to reverse an accusation 41. Exorcise: to get rid of an evil spirit or something troublesome 42. Expand: to enlarge or spread 43. Expatiate: to wander, or to communicate at length 44. Expatriate: to banish, or to withdraw from residence or allegiance 45. Expect: to await or to suppose 46. Expectorate: to discharge or spit 47. Expedite: to cause to occur quickly, or to dispatch or issue 48. Expel: to eject 49. Expend: to spend, use up, or utilize 50. Experience: to learn or sense by direct participation or observation, or to undergo 51. Experiment: to test or try 52. Expiate: to absolve of guilt, or to make amends 53. Expire: to conclude or die, or to breath out 54. Explain: to make something known or understood or demonstrate knowledge or understanding 55. Explicate: to describe or analyze 56. Explode: to burst or give forth, or suddenly accelerate or increase 57. Exploit: to utilize, or to take advantage of knowledge 58. Explore: to analyze, investigate, or study, or to test or travel 59. Export: to carry, remove, or send 60. Expose: to make known, to show, or to subject to the elements or to view 61. Exposit: see expound 62. Expostulate: to discuss or examine 63. Expound: to argue, comment, or state 64. Express: to force out, to show, or to symbolize, or to offer feelings or opinions or to perform in order to demonstrate artistry and/or communicate creative material 65. Expropriate: to deprive of property or take another’s property for one’s own 66. Expulse: see expel 67. Expunge: to destroy or to strike out 68. Expurgate: to remove something objectionable 69. Exscind: to cut off or out 70. Exsert: to throw out 71. Exsiccate: to dry 72. Extemporize: to improvise 73. Extend: to put or send out 74. Extenuate: to mitigate or to reduce strength or effect 75. Exteriorize: to bring out from inside (as in surgery) 76. Exterminate: to get rid of or kill 77. Externalize: to rationalize, or to make manifest 78. Extinguish: to eclipse, nullify, or quench 79. Extirpate: to cut out, destroy, or uproot 80. Extol: to glorify or praise 81. Extort: to wring from, to obtain from by argument or intimidation 82. Extract: to draw out, remove, or select 83. Extradite: to deliver a fugitive from one jurisdiction to another 84. Extrapolate: to infer, expand on, or predict 85. Extravasate: to cause to escape, or to force out (as in surgery) 86. Extricate: to free or remove from difficulty, or to distinguish from 87. Extrude: to press or push out, or to shape 88. Exuberate: to demonstrate unrestrained joy 89. Exude: to diffuse or spread out, or to display obviously 90. Exult: to rejoice Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Grammar Mistakes You Should Avoid"Have" vs "Having" in Certain Expressions50 Words with Alternative Spellings
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Realigning Elections in American History
Realigning Elections in American History Since the stunning victory by Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States Presidential election, the discourse around words and phrases such as â€Å"political realignment†and â€Å"critical elections†have become more commonplace not only among political analysts but also in mainstream media. Political Realignments A political realignment occurs when a particular group or class of voters changes or in other words realigns with a political party or candidate who they vote for in a particular election – known as a critical election or this realignment may be spread out over a number of elections. On the other hand, â€Å"dealignment†occurs when a voter becomes disenfranchised with his or her current political party and either chooses not to vote or becomes an independent. These political realignments take place in elections involving the U.S. Presidency and the U.S. Congress and are signified by power changes of the Republican and Democratic parties that constitute ideological changes both issues and party leaders. Other important factors are legislative changes which affect campaign financing rules and voter eligibility. Central to realignment is that there is a change in voter’s behavior. 2016 Election Results In the 2016 election, although Trump is winning at the time of this writing the Electoral College by a margin of 290 to 228 votes; Clinton is winning the overall popular vote by more than 600,000 votes. In addition, in this election, American voters gave the Republican Party a clean power sweep – the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. One key to the Trump victory was that he won the popular vote in three of the so-called â€Å"Blue Wall†States: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Blue Wall States are those who have solidly supported the Democratic Party over past ten or so presidential elections. With respect to the electoral votes: Pennsylvania has 20, Wisconsin has 10, and Michigan has 16. Although these states were essential in propelling Trump to victory, it is important to note that his margin of victory from these three states totaled approximated 112,000 votes. If Clinton had won these three States, she would be the President-elect instead of Trump. In the ten Presidential elections prior to 2016, Wisconsin had only voted Republican on two occasions – 1980 and 1984; Michigan voters had voted Democrat in six straight Presidential elections prior to 2016; and as well, in the ten Presidential elections prior to 2016, Pennsylvania had only voted Republican on three occasions – 1980, 1984 and 1988. V. O. Key, Jr. and Realigning Elections American political scientist V.O. Key, Jr. is most well-known for his contributions to behavioral political science, with his major impact being on election studies. In his 1955 article A Theory of Critical Elections, Key explained how the Republican Party became dominant between 1860 and 1932; and then how this dominance shifted to the Democratic Party after 1932 by using empirical evidence to identify a number of election which Key termed as â€Å"critical,†or â€Å"realigning†which resulted in American voters changing their political party affiliations. While Key specifically starts with 1860 which was the year that Abraham Lincoln was elected, other scholars and political scientists have identified and/or recognized that there have been systematic patterns or cycles which have regularly taken place in the U.S. national elections.  While these scholars are not in agreement as to the duration of these patterns: periods that range from every 30 to 36 years as opposed to 50 to 60 years; it does appear that the patterns have some relationship with generational change. Election of 1800 The earliest election which scholars have identified as realigning was in 1800 when Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent John Adams. This election transferred power from George Washington and Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party to the Democratic-Republican Party which was led by Jefferson. Although some argue that this was the birth of the Democratic Party, in reality, the party was established in 1828 with the election of Andrew Jackson. Jackson defeated the incumbent, John Quincy Adams and resulted in the Southern States taking power from the original New England colonies. Election of 1860 As stated above, Key explained how the Republican Party became dominant starting in 1860 with the election of Lincoln. Although Lincoln was a member of the Whig Party during his early political career, as President he led the U.S. to abolish slavery as a member of the Republic Party. In addition, Lincoln and the Republic Party brought nationalism to the United States on the eve of what would become the American Civil War. Election of 1896 The overbuilding of railroads caused several of them, including the Reading Railroad, to go into receivership which caused hundreds of banks to fail; resulting in what was the first U.S. economic depression and is known as the Panic of 1893. This depression caused soup lines and public ire towards the present administration and made the Populist Party the favorite to take power in the 1896 Presidential election. In the 1896 Presidential election, William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan and while this election was not a true realignment or did it even meet the definition of a critical election; it did set the stage for how candidates would campaign for office in subsequent years. Bryan had been nominated by both the Populist and Democratic parties. He was opposed by the Republican McKinley who was backed by a very wealthy individual who used that wealth to conduct a campaign that was intended to make the populace fearful of what would happen if Bryan won. On the other hand, Bryan used the railroad to make a whistle-stop tour giving twenty to thirty speeches daily. These campaign methods have evolved into the modern day. Election of 1932 The 1932 election is widely considered as the most well-known realignment election in U.S. history. The country was in the middle of the Great Depression as a result of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Democratic candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal policies overwhelmingly defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover by a margin of 472 to 59 Electoral Vote. This critical election was the underpinnings of a massive overhaul of American politics. In addition, it changed the face of the Democratic Party. Election of 1980 The next critical election occurred in 1980 when Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeated the Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter by the tremendous margin of 489 to 49 Electoral Votes. At the time, approximately 60 American’s had been held hostage since November 4, 1979, after the U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been overrun by Iranian students. The Reagan election also marked a realignment of the Republican Party to being more conservative than ever before and also brought about Reaganomics which was designed to fix severe economic issues that confronted the country. In 1980, the Republicans also took control of the Senate, which marked the first time since 1954 that they had control of either house of Congress. (It would not be until 1994 before the Republican Party would have control of both the Senate and the House simultaneously.) Election of 2016 – Realigning Election? The real question with respect as to whether the 2016 election victory by Trump is a â€Å"political realignment†and/or a â€Å"critical election†is not easy to answer a week after the election. The United States is not experiencing internal financial distress or facing negative economic indicators such as high unemployment, inflation, or increasing interest rates. The country is not at war, although there are threats of foreign terrorism and social unrest due to racial issues. However, it does not appear that these were major issues or concerns during this election process. Instead, one could argue that neither Clinton or Trump were viewed by voters as being â€Å"Presidential†due to their own ethical and moral issues. In addition, since lack of honesty was a major hurdle which Clinton attempted to overcome throughout the campaign, it is quite plausible that out of fear of what Clinton would do if elected, voters chose to give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Domino's Pizza Media Crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Domino's Pizza Media Crisis - Research Paper Example The women holding the camera spoke the following vulgar words while filming the video: â€Å"We all have our secret ingredient....and in about five minutes they will be sent out on delivery where somebody will be eating these. Yes, eating em. And little did they know that cheese was in his nose and that there was some lethal gas that ended up on their salami. Now, that’s how we roll at Domino’s.†(Actual words of Kristie Hammonds). (Jacques 2009). What made matters worse was that both employees, the female holding the camera and the man performing various disgusting acts of contamination with the food, were in Domino’s uniform. The video was shot during working hours and the female employee repeatedly claimed that the contaminated food would soon reach innocent, unsuspecting customers. There were a total of five videos uploaded on YouTube by Kristie Hammond and they went viral within the span of a few minutes. One of the video was of 2.26 minutes duration and was named Domino’s Pizzas Special Ingredients, and showed Michael Setzer passing gas on salami and sticking pieces of cheese up his nose before inserting them into a sandwich. Meanwhile, Kristie joked consistently and claimed that food contamination occurs daily at Domino’s. The other videos were titled Sneeze Sticks, Poopie Dishes and Domino’s Pizza Burger. One of the videos also showed the name of the customer to which Kristie narrates, that the contaminated food would be delivered to. Later, the employees stated that the videos were a prank and none of the food they delivered was actually tempered with. However, the damage was done and the video was much talked about and many online conversations on Facebook and Twitter made it the foci of their attention and this was the primary reason why the issue became a social media crisis. By April 15, the first page offered on Google search for ‘Dominos’ contained at least five out of twelve reference s of the food tampering video on YouTube. (Jacques 2009). Objectives: For the first 24 hours, Domino’s executives did nothing in the hope that the issue would resolve by itself. However, when this did not happen, the executives were forced into action. The first objective in reversing the damage done to their Company was the identification and the subsequent dismissing of the two employees, Kristie Hammonds and Michael Setzer. The second objective was to contact the local authorities and issue a warrant for their arrest. The third objective was the removal of the food tampering video from YouTube and to contact the consumerist and goodasyou.org, two popular blog sites. The fourth objective was to call the local health department for the inspection of N.C. Domino’s store, where the video was filmed. The fifth objective was the issuance of a formal press release and the creation of an account on Twitter to issue responses to online conversations and to dedicate time in r eassuring customers about the fact that this was an isolated incidence and strict safety and cleanliness measures were followed at all Domino’s stores. The sixth objective was to launch an apology video on YouTube featuring the President of Domino’s. (Jaffe 2010). Programming: On 13 April, Domino’s headquarters was alerted for the first time about the disturbing videos posted on YouTube. The first person at Domino’s to learn about the videos on was the company’
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