Nursing in the Community Essay Example for Free

Nursing in the Community Essay In this assignment the topics discussed is a nursing problem related to a medical diagnosis taking from an example of a patient dealt with while the nursing student was out on clinical placement. For this assignment the patient has a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Kevin Brophy (pseudonym) is a 9 year old boy that had come into the Paediatric Unit. He is of the Roman Catholic religion. He lives with only his mother and she is educated about his disease of Diabetes. His mother’s sister is a nurse also and knew how to manage his Diabetes and looked after him if his mother was busy. The multidisciplinary team have been treating him for the condition for 4 years. He gets hospitalized often to regulate his blood sugar levels and monitor his insulin intake. The nursing problem associated with his diagnosis is related to his diet and nutritional status and being able to monitor these with caution and ease. The nurse had a form for filling out what had he eaten that day and what time this had happened at in the ‘end of bed’ chart which was with his other documentation such as his vital signs and also the fluid balance intake and output chat. There was also a section in this form for documenting what level his blood sugars were and was directed to take record of them after every meal. The nurse then had an idea  of what sort of food he was eating and also a report of his blood sugars which were monitored closely throughout the day. The nurses primary responsibility was to ensure this boy was eating correctly and following the dietary guidelines of a Diabetic patient. The model of assessment/care used to treat Kevin was devised from Roper, Logan and Tierney (1980). The Roper, Logan and Tierney’s’ activity of living (AL) model of nursing consists of twelve activities of living. According to Aggleton Chalmers (2000 P46), â€Å"Each AL specifies a relatively distinct type of human behaviour related to meeting a particular need.† Information was obtained from a booklet containing facts and advice on Diabetes and Healthy Eating from the Department of Health and Dietetics in Waterford Regional Hospital. This has described diabetes as a condition where the body is unable to control the amount of glucose i.e. sugar in the blood. Everyone’s blood has some glucose in it because your body needs glucose for energy. Normally your body breaks food down into glucose and sends it to the bloodstream. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps to get the glucose from the bloodstream into the cells to be used for energy. In people with Type 2 Diabetes, the pancreas is not making enough insulin or is unable to use the insulin properly, or both. In people with Type 1 Diabetes, the pancreas is unable to make insulin full stop. Without insulin in the body, the blood glucose rises (Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Waterford Regional Hospital 2006). To manage diabetes in paediatrics is primarily challenging and m uch more complicated than dealing with the diagnosis in adults with Diabetes (DH Diabetes Policy Team 2007, Christie et al 2009). Nurses have to educate and facilitate the self management of Diabetes and also introduce skills to gain the best possible control over the patient’s blood sugars i.e. glycaemic control. If these skills are not executed properly then diseases such as micro-vascular e.g. nephropathy or retinopathy or cardiovascular diseases (macro-vascular), which decreases the quality of life and a reduced life span (The Diabetes Control and Complications Study Group,1994). The nurses and patients responsibility is to monitor and control the intake of food and also be educated on what can have a negative or positive effect on the body. This is a major nursing problem associated with the Diabetic patient and  intervention by the nurse is necessary throughout. In doing so, the nurse must follow the Nursing Process in relation to their diet. Assessment Patients diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes are assessed for signs of Diabetic Ketoacidosis, including ketonuria, Kussmaul respirations, orthostatic hypotension, and lethargy. The patient is asked about symptoms of DKA, such as nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Laboratory results are monitored for metabolic acidosis (i.e. decreased pH and decreased bicarbonate level) and for electrolyte imbalance. If the patient exhibits signs and symptoms of DKA, the nursing care first focuses on treatment of these acute complications, as outlined earlier. Once these complications are resolving, nursing care then focuses on long-term management of diabetes. The patients emotional status is assessed by observing his or her general demeanour (e.g., withdrawn, anxious) and body language (e.g., avoids eye contact). The patient is asked about major concerns and fears about diabetes; this allows the nurse to assess for any misconceptions or misinformation regarding diabetes. The nurse is also assessing th e vital signs of the patient such as temperature, respiration, blood pressure etc. and develops a baseline of these results. In this case the patients normal vital signs were as follows : Temperature- 36.4ââ€" ¦, Blood Pressure- 114/70, Respiration rate- 18 breaths per minute. Nursing Diagnosis Based on the assessment data, the main diagnoses the nurse must adhere to are as following: Risk for fluid volume deficit in relation to polyuria and dehydration, imbalanced nutrition related to imbalance of insulin, food, and physical activity. The main ones that are focussed on in this essay are the imbalance of insulin and the patient’s diet. Planning The major goals for the patient may include maintenance of fluid and electrolyte balance, optimal control of blood glucose levels. The nurse would plan suitable charts and regimes for the patient to follow. Intake and  output are measured. IV fluids and electrolytes are administered as prescribed, and oral fluid intake is encouraged when it is permitted. Vital signs are monitored hourly for signs of dehydration (tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension) along with assessment of breath sounds, level of consciousness, presence of oedema, and cardiac status. If the patient agrees with the diet plan and increases his fruit and vegetable intake this can highly optimise nutritional health, promote a healthy image and reduce the chances of obesity (Lock et al., 2005). In Diabetes, diet is a chief obstacle in the control of the condition (Watson et. al 1997). The patient’s goals in agreeing with a healthy diet for their Diabetes are as follows: 1) To regulate and sustain lipid levels an d blood glucose back to their normal state. 2) To avoid fluctuations in their blood glucose levels during the day. 3) To manage and control a desirable body weight. 4) To prevent or hinder the growth or advancement of renal, neurological or cardiovascular difficulties (Watson et. al 1997). The nurse should introduce a dietary plan for the patient with the Diabetes. This controls the amount of calories that are needed for each day and the magnitude of these calories to be assigned to carbohydrate, protein and lipids. This is determined by a person’s age, weight, gender, activity and their dietary intake before they discovered the disease. In general, the amount of targeted calories allocated to each food type is in the region of 50-60% carbohydrate, 10-15% protein and under 30% of fat (Rees and Williams,1995). In the diet, the concentrated sugars should be strictly limited e.g. sweets, jam, cake, and should only represent a minute part of a meal to prevent rapid increase in the blood sugar levels. The unrefined carbohydrates such as whole-meal bread, fruit and vegetables, and also fibre-rich f oods, should be consumed as an alternative to the refined carbohydrates as mentioned before. Implementation Meal planning is put into practice, with the control of glucose as the primary goal. The nurse must consider factors before beginning to intervene such as the patients lifestyle, cultural background, activity level, and their food preferences. A suitable caloric intake allows the patient to achieve and maintain the desired body weight. The nurse would encourage the  patient to eat complete and wholesome meals including snacks that have been prescribed in the diet that the team has devised for Kevin. The nurse needs to take into consideration of the fluid intake and keeps records of IV and other fluid intake, also record urine output measurements. Hypoglycaemia is the most dreaded acute difficulty in the disease of Diabetes, and can be a major factor in the hindering of the metabolic control in the body. Night-time hypoglycaemia states, more common in the paediatric side of Diabetes, places an immense worry for the child themselves but also the parents, as it more likely to go unnot iced and care for (Nordfeldt S, Ludvigsson J 2005). Hypoglycaemia may occur if the patient skips or delays meals, does not follow the prescribed meal plan, or greatly increases the amount of exercise without modifying food intake and insulin. In addition, hospitalized patients or outpatients who fast in preparation for diagnostic testing are at risk for hypoglycaemia. Juice, milk, or glucose tablets are used for treatment of hypoglycaemia. The patient is encouraged to eat full meals and snacks as prescribed in the meal plan. If hypoglycaemia is a recurring problem, the whole dietary plan must be looked over and improved if needed. The risk of hypoglycaemia with rigorous insulin routines, it is of the utmost importance for the nurse to review with the patient the signs and symptoms, possible causes, and measures for prevention and treatment of hypoglycaemia. The nurse should emphasise to the patient and family the importance of having information on diabetes at home for reference. Evaluation After putting this plan into practice, the nurse found that it helped in the treatment and care of Kevin Brophy in managing and controlling his Diabetes. After following the Roper Logan and Tierney model of Nursing it helped understand his Activities of Daily Living and how the patient could work his new dietary plan into these ADL’s and control his blood glucose to prevent hypoglycaemia. Kevin will also be able to be knowledgeable of and carry out duties in a way to control his diabetes mellitus and also maintain adequate fluid volume in the body. He will be able to monitor his blood glucose periodically throughout the day, administer his own insulin, increase his own fluid balance and monitor his urine output. He should demonstrate a participation in activities that include having a proper diet, exercise and  lifestyle (Palandri, M.K. 1993). He also should be wary of and identify community, outpatient resources for obtaining further diabetes education. Conclusion To conclude, Kevin will need continuous assessment and advice on managing and controlling his Diabetes diagnosis. He will need support from his mother and also help from the multidisciplinary team that works with him and his mother in the hospital. In following the Roper Logan and Tierney model he will then be able to manage his ADL’s better and be more understanding with the condition of Diabetes. He will be able to control his dietary intake and follow a routine throughout life to deal with his diagnosis. References Aggleton, P., Chalmers, H. (2000)Nursing Models and Nursing Practice. (2nd edn). London: Macmillan. Lock, K., Pomerleau, J., Causer, L., Altmann, D.R. McKee, M. (2005) The global burden of disease attributable to low consumption of fruit and vegetables. Bull. World. Health. Organ. 83, 100–8. Nordfeldt S, Ludvigsson J. Fear and other disturbances of severe Hypoglycaemia in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes. J. Pediatr. Endocrinol. Metab. 2005; 18: 83–91. Palandri, M.K. and Sorrentino, C.R. (1993). Black and Matassarin – Jacobs, Pocket Companion for Luckmann and Sorensen’s Medical Surgical Nursing: A Psychophysiologic Approach. 4th Edition. W.B. Saunders. The Diabetes Control and complications Study Group (1994) Effect of intensive diabetes treatment on the development and progression of long-term complications in adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group. J. Pediatr. 125, 177–188. Waterford Regional Hospital (2006) Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Watson et. al (1997) Clinical Nursing and Related Sciences 5th edn. Bailliere Tindall, 24-28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DX. Patricia Power Sorcha Dineen Miriam Cass 20053881 Patricia Chesser Smyth Nursing in the Community Module Leaders

Marketing Strategies And The Positioning Of Hotels Tourism Essay

Marketing Strategies And The Positioning Of Hotels Tourism Essay A hotels positioning is a crucial determinant in developing its subsequent marketing strategies. Incorrect hotel positioning will lead to an unclear vision of the hotels development and eventually affect the profitability of the hotel (Ransley Ingram 2004, p.37). Our hotel has been positioned as a 3.5 start hotel that sits in the middle of the competition. This is a very strategic approach for our hotel to proceed with as it allows us to target upper-end of the market since our hotel has the resource and capability to do so and simultaneously attract other markets segments such as leisure and family holiday makers since our price and products are very competitive compared to other hotels in the same category. Hotels targeted market segments: Corporate Our hotel will continue to set company executives and business travellers as our priority of focus, since this market segment has always been a major proportion of the hotels business in terms of the number of rooms sold and incomes from the room sales. This market segment would also bring additional revenue to the hotel such as onsite dinning and purchase of other facilities. Therefore, meeting, business and conference related facilities needs to be developed to meet these customers needs. Leisure The city which our hotel is suited in is a destination of family and leisure vacations and our hotels location itself imposes a unique marketing advantage as it is located on the seafront and close to the main shopping centres. Therefore, with the competitive marketing advantage, if we could offer a mix of quality products and services, in fact, all of our hotels guests rooms are able to accommodate families and other services such as Pub and full service restaurant are integrated to deliver a desired level of convenience. Scale of economy is another critical element that attracts leisure and family holiday makers, however, simply reduce our room rate is not a strategic action to take. Therefore, special discount can be allowed for weekdays bookings in order to maintain the level of room occupancy rates and design various packages for the weekend in order to improve the sales of FB facilities. Tour Tourism has boomed in this region, there are various venues take place in the city throughout the year. This induces a great opportunity to improve our room occupancy rate and ultimately to increase our overall profitability. As tourists have similar features with leisure and family holiday makers in terms of scale of economy and convenience of hotels location. Our hotel should come up with different and differentiate packages to suit various venues so that our customers can receive and perceive added values from our hotel. For example, we can assist our customers in booking the tickets for some of venues such as the International Music Festival and International Dance Festival. Internally, we can offer special check-in and check-out channels for group tourists in order to diminish the hassles for them. Additionally, it is essential to have multi-lingual staff at the front desk as we expect group tourists from overseas. Weddings Frankly, we cannot host ant weddings prior to our conference facilities in place. Therefore, at this stage, with the available resources and capacities in terms of our rooms and restaurant, we can arrange Honeymoon specials for the new married couples. Once we obtain any honeymoon bookings, we can pre-decorate the rooms with romantic features and ambiences to provide a physical environment which allow those couples to have intimate times together. Additionally, we can also offer discount for new married couples to have dinner in our restaurant with the menu especially designed for the venue. FB Services It would pose a great impact on the operation of our FB department since the potential resignation of our Head Chef. However, we can take this opportunity to be innovative in terms of turning our restaurant into a completely different concept of dining. Nowadays, FB services are usually seen as an adhering service to the accommodation. However, the potential ability of FB services of generating revenue is significant. Therefore, providing we have sufficient financial founds, we can hire another Head Chef who is innovative in culinary arts and develop our restaurant as a dining destination of the region, it is implementable as the local population of over one million in the city ensures the demands of such service if we operate it successfully. Promotion: Promotion is a very vital element in the marketing mix (4Ps), as in it builds the hotels image and increases the hotels public awareness and helps the hotel to reach more markets (Kotler, Bowen Makens 2006, p.539). Our promotion mix will include a number of media such advertising, hotels website and join in marketing consortiums. Advertising: Our hotel will still adopt some of the traditional media such as newspaper, travelling magazines and advertising campaign on radio. These media can effectively reach a large group of audience even though involves costs and cannot receive instant response on the effectiveness until the guests actually come to our hotel. For that reason alone, our hotel should use on-line social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. These social networks has increasingly become the primary information sources for people especially for Gen Ys whose purchasing power has increased dramatically. The social networks allow us nearly zero-cost and can reach to more potential customers. Hotels website: Hotels website is the first impression we give to our potential guests when they intend to choose us as their hospitality provider. Therefore, a well-established, designed and managed website will effectively promote our hotel to those who are very likely to become our customers. Marketing consortium: Since we are an independent hotel and especially with limited budget, we are in a weak position in competing with those international chains in terms of spending money on marketing and promoting themselves. Therefore, join a marketing consortia is a strategic approach at this stage for our hotel. For example, The Leading Hotels of the world, will give us access to its worldwide reservation centre and they have more than 20 offices in the most important cities and this organization also participate in some of the most popular travel exhibitions and trades shows in the pursuit of promoting its members. However, it charges annual membership fees and additional shares for each room they have generated (The Leading Hotels of the World, 2010). Other marketing related strategies: Converting guests rooms into Conference facilities: Currently our hotel does not gain any business from this market segment due to the lack of conference facilities. Functions and banquets are very profitable to conduct as it requires intensive FB services which can generate significant profits and also impose the potential of room sales and long-term business relationships with the clients. Therefore, the next strategic projection for our hotel is to turn some of rooms into conference facilities (our average room occupancy rate was 20% which means 80% of the room inventory have not been generating profits, and hotel rooms are perishable products). This strategy will require additional financial founds to support, there will be risk involved, but it will be profitable in the long-haul. Merge to gain additional founds: Our hotel can merge with another non-hospitality establishment in order to get additional financial support as we are suffering for lack of funds. Although merge is not as fierce as acquisitions, it still poses a certain degree of risks to the management of the hotel in terms of the absolute authority and power over making business decisions (Beamish 2008, p.288). Budgeting for marketing department: There are two major areas that require enormous funds to complete. Projected Budget for Regency Hotel-Marketing Department Converting rooms into conferences facilities $1.5 million Advertising $2,000 per month Join marketing Consortia $200,000 per year Maintaining Website $1000 per year Labour costs $80,000 per year

The State of Being ‘Human’ in Kanes Blasted Essay -- Literary Analysi

â€Å"I’ve only ever written to escape from hell-and it’s never worked-but at the other end of it when you sit there and watch something and think that’s the most perfect expression of the hell that I felt then maybe it was worth it. (Sarah Kane, Royal Holloway College, London, 3 November 1998).† (Saunders. 2002: 1). Both representative and reflected in this statement made by the British playwright Sarah Kane (1971-1999) (Sierz. 2001: 90-91) is the state of being human. In its literal sense the state of being human could be illustrated as an expression of existence. That of the individual and characteristics and traits experienced through the life of mortal man. (Oxford English Dictionary. 2006: 61 & 366). In addition to this, the associated meaning with the word ‘tested’ suggests ‘a difficult situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something.’ (Oxford English Dictionary. 2006: 785). When defined in t hese terms, this then opens up the question to how an expression of human-existence is revealed under pressure in Sarah Kane’s play Blasted (1995). The twentieth century British playwright Sarah Kane’s (1971-1999) first and sensational drama Blasted opened in the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, in January 1995. (Saunders. 2002: 2). From the outset Kane’s play stirred much controversy within the media. The title itself had a great impact upon its audience, as blasted through its formed meaning and literal association is a term ‘expressing annoyance.’ (Oxford English Dictionary. 2006: 70). As stated by the British theatre critic Aleks Sierz, Kane’s Blasted is â€Å"a shocking play whose raw language and powerful images of rape, eye-gouging and cannibalism provoked critical outrage†¦Kane exploded theatri... ...tp://www.robertsilverstone.com/wp-content/articles/Art_of_Being_Human_Part1.pdf. [Accessed 21st April 2012] Stephens, S. (2010) Sarah Kane’s debut play Blasted returns. [On-line] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/oct/24/sarah-kane-blasted. [Accessed 21st April 2012] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, (2009) War. [On-line] Available from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/war. [Accessed 21st April 2012] The Guardian, (2005) ‘Suicide art? She’s better than that.’ [On-line] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/oct/12/theatre. [Accessed 21st April 2012] Wixson, C. (2005) â€Å"In Better Places†: Space, Identity, and Alienation in Sarah Kane’s Blasted. [On-line] Available from: http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.falmouth.ac.uk/journals/comparative_drama/summary/v039/39.1.wixson.html. [Accessed 19th April 2012]

Essay --

This essay explores the mutually beneficial commercial collaborations between the tobacco companies and major motion picture studios from the late 1920s through the 1940s. Smoking in movies is associated with adolescent and young adult smoking initiation. Public health efforts to eliminate smoking from films accessible to youth have been countered by defenders of the status quo, who associate tobacco imagery in â€Å"classic† movies with artistry and nostalgia. Both the entertainment and tobacco industries recognised the high value of promotion of tobacco through entertainment media. Each company hired aggressive product placement firms to represent its interests in Hollywood. These firms placed products and tobacco signage in positive situations that would encourage viewers to use tobacco and kept brands from being used in negative situations. Efforts were also made to place favourable articles relating to product use by actors in national print media and to encourage professional photographers to take pictures of actors smoking specific brands. The cigar industry started developing connections with the entertainment industry beginning in the 1980s and paid product placements were made in both movies and on television. This effort did not always require money payments from the tobacco industry to the entertainment industry, suggesting that simply looking for cash payoffs may miss other important ties between the tobacco and entertainment industries. So, therefore the tobacco industry understood the value of placing and encouraging tobacco use in films, and how to do it. While the industry claims to have ended this practice, smoking in motion pictures increased throughout the 1990s and remains a public health problem. The tobacco i... ...y has a long history of working to influence Hollywood. The power of film to promote the â€Å"social acceptability† and desirability of tobacco use, particularly among young people, is a continuing inducement for the tobacco industry to utilise this medium. The increase in tobacco use and the continuing appearance of specific brands in movies since 1990 may reflect continuing activities by the tobacco industry, despite the industry's voluntary restrictions on such practices. It may be that, as with provisions of the industry's voluntary advertising code that nominally restricts print marketing to children, the industry finds ways around its own rules. Until something is done to reduce and eliminate pro-tobacco images on film, motion pictures will remain one of the most powerful forces in the world promoting tobacco and serving the tobacco industry's financial interests.

The Battle of the Bulge :: World War II History

The Battle of the Bulge The purpose of this speech for the class is to gain better knowledge of one of the most tragic and devastating battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge. To Better understand The Battle of the Bulge I will explain to you the cause of the battle, location of the battle, when it took place, who was the battle fought between, the number of soldiers involved, and the number of casualties. The prelude to the Battle of the Bulge began on a winter day in mid-December of 1944. Three powerful German divisions, were the last German offensives in the west at that time during World War II. They began after the Normandy invasion in June 1944. Allied had forces swept rapidly through France but became stalled along the German border earlier that year in September. On December 16, 1944 taking advantage of the weather, which kept the Allied aircraft on the ground, the Germans launched a counteroffensive through the semi-mountainous and heavily-forested Ardennes region in Germany, and advanced 31 miles into Belgium and northern Luxembourg near the Meuse River. Their goal was to trap four allied armies, divide the Americans and the British to force negotiated peace along the western front, and retake the vital seaport of Antwerp in Belgium. Thinking the Ardennes was the least likely spot for a German offensive, American staff commander chose to keep the thin line, so that manpower m ight concentrate on offensives north and south of the Ardennes known as the "bulge" in the Allied lines. These American lines were thinly held by three divisions in the Allied Army and part of a forth division, while fifth division was making a local attack and the sixth division was in reserve. Division sectors were more than double the width of normal defensive fronts, therefore there were more men scattered along a larger area. The German advance was halted near the Meuse River in late December. Even though the German Offensive achieved total surprise, nowhere did the American troops give ground without a fight. Within three days, the determined American stand and the arrival of powerful reinforcements insured that the ambitious German goal was far beyond reach. In snow and sub-freezing temperatures the Germans fell short of their interim objective- to reach the rambling Meuse River on the edge of the Ardennes. But they managed to avoid being cut off by an Allied Pincer movement.

Business Studies Easter Project Essay

Introductinon As you probably already know Asda is one of the leading food superstores in Britain today. Asda is part of the Wal-Mart group however before this Asda was on its own. Asda has been part of the Wal-Mart retailers since 1999. Asda was formed in 1965 by a group of farmers from Yorkshire, today Asda has 245 stores, with 19 depots across the U.K. Asda’s aim is to sell its products 10-15% cheaper than its main competitors. Asda sells a variety of products including fresh food, grocery, clothing, home, leisure and entertainment goods. In my report I have gained my information form the Asda website and I also interviewed the store manager of the Asda store in Longsight. In my report I will discuss the following performance indicators: Labour Turnover, Labour Productivity, Absenteeism and the Morale of workers. Performance of Company Asda has recently been valued at being worth à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.3 billion, which includes all its assets. Anyway I think that it will be too complicated to discuss the performance indicators on such a large scale. This is why I am going to just concentrate on the performance of the Asda store in Longsight. When I asked Sue (the manager) if labour turnover was high, she replied by saying that it is an average level. (i.e. not too high and not too low). I then said to her that this must mean that staff must feel demotivated and therefore leave. She replied by saying that it was because they employed a lot of young students and this was the reason for a lot of people leaving because they couldn’t fit the shifts in with their work. I believe that this means that although labour turnover is high, it is not an extremely bad point. When we discussed the labour productivity of the workers, she said that the staff, work very hard in every department whether it is the deliveries, clothing, music or work on the checkout. Many products were sold in each department but obviously some were sold much more than others. The labour productivity really determines how many products are sold, as items are obviously not being produced at the store they are being sold there. She also mentioned that everyday there are at least 2 people who are around the store to just help customers or provide tasters of foods. I believe that this helps to increase productivity, because customers may feel more welcome and more sales may be made. I then asked what the turnover of the store was each day. Sue replied by saying that on the weekends they generally make more money and she said that last Saturday they had a turnover of approximately à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500,000. I believe that this clearly shows that labour productivity is high at the Asda store in Longsight. I then went on to talk about absenteeism. Sue said that this was generally low without any notice, and that there were hardly any people who didn’t give notice when they were going to have a day off. But she also said that absenteeism was a good point because it gives workers a change because they can swap shifts with one another. I agree and believe absenteeism with notice is not so bad. Sue said the the morale of workers was generally high. She said that staff were paid at a time rate starting from à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4.15 per hour. The following incentives could be motivating factors for the staff at Asda: Tell the team- putting your ideas across Stars- can be cashed in for gifts. ABCD- A certificate for dedicated workers. Bonus payments- for reaching certain targets Share plan Private Healthcare Discount on new cars Travel insurance Staff Discount Card I believe that the following incentives will make workers feel motivated. This is because it makes the workers feel that they are being recognised and that there work is appreciated. It is not only the financial incentives that are important for motivation. It is also for example the certificate for working hard which could motivate. And even the fact that workers can put their ideas across, which may make them feel a real part of the company. There are some improvements that could be made to the performance indicators. Firstly as we know labour turnover at the Longsight store is at an average level as many workers are students. We can solve this problem by allowing the shifts to fit in with the workers education, by offering them certain shifts. And then there is the labour productivity which is already very high, so I believe that this should just be kept at a constant level. And workers should just continue with the good work. Absenteeism is a problem when the workers don’t come into work without any notice. To solve this problem I believe that managers should phone up absent workers to see where they are. And if they persist in not coming into work then this must mean that they feel demotivated, so managers should try to find out what the problem is. I know that the incentives that Asda offers are very good, but I generally believe that managers should talk to their staff a little more and just give them general assurance that they are doing the job in the right way and to show that their work is appreciated. Conclusion I believe that as Asda is worth over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.3 billion this must mean that they are not going too wrong. And another fact that shows that Asda is doing well is that it was voted the best company to work for in the year 2000 by the Times Newspaper. And in 2001 it was also voted supermarket of the year.

Village Election and Corruption

Village election and Corruption in China Background (problem): In China,the election system refers to the election of deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels, which includes general local election and the election of deputies from the armed forces, in the special administrative regions. There are two kinds of election: direct election and indirect election. 1. Direct election means voters directly elect deputies to the people’s congresses by casting their votes.Direct elections are applicable to the election of deputies to the people’s congresses of the counties, districts, townships and towns, which China's authoritarian(the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) regime has allowed, encouraged, and required to be held at the village level,but not at higher levels. 2. Indirect election means deputies to the people’s congresses at the next higher level are elected by deputies to the people’s congresses at the next lower level. Indirect elections are applicable to the election of deputies to people’s congresses above the county level and deputies among the armed forces at the same level and deputies to the NPC(National People's Congress) elected from special administrative regions. In this essay, I will focus on the direct election(village election). Since the problem of corruption in the village election is very common in China,such as buying-votes, treating to dinner to persuade by promising private goods and so on. Mainly comes from the following aspects: 1. In a small electorate, campaigning is not an effective strategy to win an election.In contrast, vote buying—corruption—can easily be an effective means to win an election with a small electorate. A Chinese village is small enough a community for each villager to know all the other villagers in person as they interact with each other on a daily basis and voters may already know whether the candidate has the intention and ability to provide public goods, which could become the condition of perfect information, in other words,in a village election, voters and candidates know each other personally, and voters may easily acquire personal information about the candidates.Therefore, because under the conditions of perfect information, it is not costly for a candidate to seek office by treating a subset of the electorate to dinner or to give private goods to voters. On the other hand, it is relatively costly to attempt to sway voters by stating policy proposals that promise the provision of public goods for the whole electorate. 2.In China village elections, officials in the position of monitoring village elections do not have a strong incentive to regulate the elections because implementation of fair village elections is not considered an important criterion for the evaluation of local officials by higher authorities (Edin 2003; O‘Brien and Li 1999; but Kennedy 2007). 3. the cost of punishment for the corru pt act of buying votes is low in the case of China‘s village elections.Even with formal rules stipulating severe punishment, if people do not believe that cases of corruption are revealed and formal rules are enforced, the punishment will not be considered a cost of the illegal act and will not deter it (Tsebelis 1989). Therefore, it is not puzzling that candidates compete to buy votes by providing private goods in campaigns for Chinese village elections. Model setting: The model describes the electoral competition between two candidates as a noncooperative simultaneous-move game.In the model, two candidates compete to win an election,and at equilibriums, electoral competition would increase the probability of vote buying in electorate. In other words, electoral competition gives strong incentives for candidates to buy votes, but not to form an organization for mobilizing votes in a electorate. 1. The Candidates’ Choice of Strategies and Payoffs Assume: 1. If both candi dates adopt the same strategy, Candidate 1 will have a chance to win the election with the probability of p and Candidate 2 will have a chance to win the election with the probability of 1 – p (0 < p < 1).And we let 0 < p ? 0. 5,which means the candidate 1 is weaker. 2. if one candidate buys votes while the other candidate does not,the candidate that has bought votes will win. Utility: The utility of the candidate gaining from winning the election is denoted U (U > 0). Strategies: Each candidate has two strategies: buying votes (BV) and not buying votes (NBV). Cost of buying votes (C): the multiplication of the cost to buy one vote (? ) and the number of votes needed to buy (V). C= ?V suppose that C1>C2 (the cost of buying votes to win is higher as the candidate is weaker. ) Competitiveness:we can define the competitiveness of an election as the difficulty with which one can predict who will win, the election whose value of p is closer to 0. 5 will be considere d more competitive. candidate2 Buying votes candidate1 Buying votes Not buying votes (pU-C1), (1-p)U-C2 0, U-C2 Not buying votes U-C1, pU, 0 (1-p)U The matrix in shows the incentives affecting candidates in a village election. . Solution of the model Since assume that 0 < p? 0. 5 and assume without loss of generality that Candidate 1 is weaker. Candidates 1 and 2 must choose their strategies simultaneously. Thus, neither candidate is certain about which strategy the other candidate will take. (BV, BV) will be equilibrium if: U? C1/p (NBV, BV) will be equilibrium if: C1/p? U? C2/p (NBV, NBV) will be equilibrium if: U? C1/p (BV, NBV) can not be equilibrium, since we can not find any U that satisfies U? C1/(1-p) and U?C2/(1-p) as well. Because C1/(1-p)? C2/(1-p). As an election becomes more competitive(p is closer to 0. 5),the range where at least one candidate always buys votes,U? C2/p is larger. Moreover as p is larger,the range where neither candidate buy votes,U? C1/p is smaller . Overall, candidates are more likely to choose the strategy of buying votes as an election becomes more competitive. In the villages where each candidate's expected value of winning an election is high, the candidate is tempted to buy votes.Proposal: Would electoral competition prevent a corrupt candidate from being elected? From the model, we can see, candidates are more likely to choose the strategy of buying votes as an election becomes more competitive, which may generate the following new hypothesis: effective informal institutions would make it easier for villagers to reach a pre-electoral consensus, make a village election less competitive, and give candidates less incentive to promise the provision of private goods.How to reach a pre-electoral consensus? Since a Chinese village is enough small that could lead to kinship system in village. In multi-kinship villages, whether pre-electoral consensus is reached and hence an election is not corrupt would depend on the relationsh ip among kinship leaders.If the kinship leaders are in conflict, villagers would fail to reach pre-electoral consensus, an election would be competitive, vote buying would be more likely; meanwhile, if relations among kinship leaders are cooperative, the village would succeed in reaching pre-electoral consensus, an election would not be competitive, vote buying would be less likely, and public goods would be properly provided. Therefore,how to prevent a vote-buying candidate from getting elected is a major policy question for China's village elections.