361 Industry Overview Final Project

ECO/361 Industry Overview Final Project IntroductionOur team has chosen the healthcare industry, specifically medical laboratories, to write a Full Industry Overview. The purpose of this research analysis paper on the Full Industry Overview of the healthcare industry is to provide an overview of the industry that we have chosen, analyze Current Market Conditions, analyze Future Market Conditions, and also compile a list of final recommendations. The following it the results of our research analysis.Industry Overview: HealthcareLearning Team C chose the healthcare industry to research. In this Industry Overview Section, the team will discuss the history of the industry, the market in which it operates, the role of government regulations and the issues opportunities the industry faces.Representing about 20 percent of the US Gross Domestic Product and accounting for approximately $1.5 trillion in market revenue, the health care industry is the single largest market in the US today. In any business, especially one as prominen t and encompassing as healthcare, it is important and beneficial to understand its origins.World map showing countries by nominal GDP per cap...Although the healthcare industry is a commercial market today, it didn't start out that way. In fact, the origins of these plans resided with providers (doctors and hospitals) and their desire to protect and enhance revenues. Over the course of the twentieth century healthcare plans have evolved from being provider run, to adding plans that were employer run, to an all out commercial money making market.Continuous increases in the cost of health care, growing at rates far exceeding the rate of inflation in general, are overwhelming health consumers and payers of all types. Managed care providers continue to struggle to contain costs. Meanwhile, employers are hit hard by vast increases in the cost of providing coverage to employees and retirees. In 2005, employers saw health coverage cost increases of about 9.2%. This...

Jack Nelsons Problem Essays

Jack Nelsons Problem Essays Jack Nelsons Problem Essay Jack Nelsons Problem Essay Chapter 1Application Case: Jack Nelsons Problem 1. What do you think was causing some of the problems in the bank home office and branches? There is clearly aproblem with communication, and the effects are felt in the area of employee commitment. Additional contributingfactors include the lack of consistency in the policies and procedures of various locations. There is no cohesiveness tothe staffing activities of this organization. 2. Do you think setting up a HR unit in the main office would help? Of course we think it would! Since there are HR-related problems both in the home office and in the branches, it is clear that if a personnel office were set up, it wouldneed to help to coordinate the HR activities in the branches. 3. What specific functions should it carry out? What HR functions would then be carried out by supervisors andother line managers? What role should the Internet play in the new HR organization? There is room for quite abit of variation in the answers to this question. Our suggested organization would include: HR Unit: job analyses,planning labor needs and recruiting, providing advising and training in the selection process, orientation of newemployees, managing wage and salary administration, managing incentives and benefits, providing and managing theperformance appraisal process, organization-wide communications, and providing training developing services. Supervisors and Other Line Managers: interviewing and selection of job candidates, training new employees,appraising performance, departmental personal communications, and training development. Internet and HR: shiftsome activities to specialized online service portals and/or providers. Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company 1. Make a list of 5 specific HR problems you think Carter Cleaning will have to grapple with? Potential answers could include the following:1) Staffing the company with the right human capital by identifying the skills and competencies that arerequired to perform the jobs and the type of people that should be hired. Sourcing candidates andestablishing an efficient and effective recruiting and selection process will be an important first step. ) Planning and establishing operational goals and standards and developing rules and procedures tosupport business goals and strategies. Failure to do so will result in a lack of clarity around performanceexpectations down the line as each store becomes operational. 3) Implementing effective Performance Management through setting performance standards, highquality appraisal of performance, and providing ongoing p erformance coaching and feedback to developthe abilities of each person and support positive employee relations. ) Designing an effective compensation system that will give the company the ability to attract, retainand motivate a high quality workforce, providing appropriate wages, salaries, incentives and benefits. Apoorly designed system will result in difficulty in attracting candidates, turnover and low employeemorale. 5) Training and developing employees both at the management and employee level to be able toperform the job to meet the performance expectations. This should include a new hire orientationprogram as well as a program for ongoing training and development. Lack of attention to thiscomponent may result in errors, increase in operational costs, turnover, and morale problems. 2. What would you do first if you were Jennifer ? Answers will vary; however, probably the most important first step is to ensure that thestaffing process is well designed and targeting the right mix of skills and abilities neededamong candidates. A thorough job should be done in analyzing the requirements of each  job, developing a complete job description for each role, and sourcing candidates thatmeet those requirements. Significant time should be invested in the hiring process toensure that the candidates hired meet the requirements and possess the skills andabilities to do the job. Chapter 3 Application Case: Siemens Builds a StrateUntitled 1gy – Oriented HR System 1. Based on the information in this case, provide examples, for Siemens, of at least four strategically requiredorganizational outcomes, and four required workforce competencies and behaviors. Strategically requiredorganizational outcomes would be the following: 1) An employee selection and compensation system that attracts andretains the human talent necessary to support global diversification into high tech products and services 2) A â€Å"learningcompany† in which employees are able to learn on a continuing basis; 3) A culture of lobal teamwork which willdevelop and use all the potential of the firm’s human resources; 4) A climate of mutual respect in a global organization. Workforce competencies and behaviors could include 1) Openness to learning; 2) teamwork skills; 3) cross-culturalexperience; 4) openness, respect and appreciation for workforce diversity. 2. Identify at least four of the strategically relevant HR system policies and activites that Siemens hasinstitut ed in order to help HR contribute to achieving Siemens’ strategic goals. ) Training and development activities to support continuous learning through a system of combinedclassroom and hands-on apprenticeship training to support technical learning; 2) Continuing education andmanagement development to as developing skills necessary for global teamwork and appreciation for  cultural diversity; 3) Enhanced internal selection process which includes pre-requisites of cross-border andcross cultural experiences for career advancement; 4) Organizational development activities aimed atbuilding openness, transparency, fairness, and supporting diversity 3. Provide a brief illustrative outline of an HR scorecard for Siemens. Metrics could include things such as:1. Level of organizational learning:a. Number of hours of technical training per employee (class room and hands-on)b. Number of hours of education management development2. Level of cross cultural team worka. Number of employees assigned to roles including cross-border and cross-cultural experiencesb. Survey results measuring employee climate on dimensions of teamwork, openness,transparency, fairness, diversity3. Extent to which the employees can describe the company’s core values4. Effectiveness of selection process for identifying high quality candidates – number of qualifiedcandidates per position, turnover and retention statistics. Continuing Case: the Carter Cleaning Company 1. Would you recommend that the Carters expand their quality program? If so,specifically what form should it take? Most students will agree that there areopportunities to expand the quality program. The employee meeting approach is a good tart in terms of utilizing high involvement organizational practices. There are opportunitiesto maximize the overall quality of their human capital. For example, training seems to bean obvious area to focus in terms of educating and building awareness about basicstandards and procedures. 2. Assume the Carters want to institute a high performance work system as a testprogram in one of their stores. Write a one page outline summarizing what such aprogram would consist of . Students should include some of the following ideas in their  outline: Identify the types of HR practices they would implement to improve quality,productivity, financial performance; methods for job enrichment; strategies for implementand leverage a team-based organization; ways to implement and facilitate highcommitment work practices; employee development and skill building to foster increasedcompetency and capability in the workforce; a compensation program which providesincentives (for example profit sharing; pay for performance) for achieving major goals andfinancial targets. Chapter 4 Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company The Job Description 1. What should be the format and final form of the store manager’s job description? The format noted in figure 4-7 could be a reasonable format to use. Students mayrecommend that Jennifer include standards of performance section in the job description. This lists the standards the employee is expected to achieve under each of the jobdescription’s main duties and responsibilities, and would address the problem of  employees not understanding company policies, procedures, and expectations. Inaddition, students may recommend that Jennifer instead take a competency-basedapproach which describes the job in terms of the measurable, observable, behavioralcompetencies that an employee doing that job must exhibit. Because competencyanalysis focuses more on â€Å"how† the worker meets the job’s objectives or actuallyaccomplishes the work, it is more worker focused. 2. Was it practical to specify standards and procedures in the body of the jobdescription, or should these be kept separately? They do not need to be keptseparately, and in fact both Jennifer and the employees would be better served byincorporating standards and procedures into the body of the description. The exception tothis would be if the standards and procedures are so complex or involved that it becomesmore pragmatic to maintain a separate procedures manual. 3. How should Jennifer go about collecting the information required for the standards,procedures, and job description? She should first go about conducting the jobanalysis, collecting information about the work activities, human behaviors, machines,tools, equipment, and work aids, performance standards, job context, and humanrequirements. The best methods for collecting this information in this case are throughinterview, questionnaires, observation, diaries/logs maintained by employees, In addition,she should ensure that she is identifying the essential functions of the job, and that thedescriptions are ADA compliant

ANALYSIS OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, OFFICE OF FEDERAL Essay - 1

ANALYSIS OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, OFFICE OF FEDERAL PROCUREMENT POLICY PROPOSED POLICY FOR IN SOURCING WORK RESERVED FOR PERFORMANCE BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES - Essay Example In accordance to circular, its main purpose is to achieve economy and enhance productivity, retain governmental functions in-house, and rely on the commercial sector. Though it provides a structure to the government for outsourcing functions but did not provide clear guidance to the contractors. Government personnel the â€Å"inherently governmental† performing work in which policy and law functions in accordance to the â€Å"intimately related to the public interest†. Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act of 1998, legally defines the functions of the â€Å"inherently government†. The fact that differing between the work must be performed by government employees versus what type of work should be performed by government employees. In 2009, Congress noticed the lack of clarity over whether the functions should only be performed by government employees or can be performed by either government employees or contractors. In Obama’s administration, this debate over the â€Å"inherently governmental† has prioritized the contracting policy memorandum on 4 March, 2009 (Obama, 2009). The memorandum states: Government outsourcing for services also raises special concerns. For decades, the Federal Government has relied on the private sector for necessary commercial services used by the Government, such as transportation, food, and maintenance. Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, first issued in 1966, was based on the reasonable premise that while inherently governmental activities should be performed by Government employees, taxpayers may receive more value for their dollars if non-inherently governmental activities that can be provided commercially are subject to the forces of competition. (Obama, 2009) The line between inherently governmental activities has been defined inadequately. And as a result the contractors are performing as inherently governmental functions. In response to the debate, Office of

U08a1 Compensation & Benefits Assignment Template Essay

U08a1 Compensation & Benefits Assignment Template - Essay Example Legally mandated benefits involve guaranteed pay; these are monetary reward provided by an employer based on the relationship between employee and employer. In most cases, guaranteed pay is best presented in basic salary (Andrus, 2012). On the other hand, variable pay is an example of voluntary benefits paid by an organization to a worker that is based on management discretion, effectiveness or results realized. Usually, voluntary benefits are best represented in bonus forms and sales incentives. Benefit communication should involve offering employees the right information on the incentives they stand to gain and allowing them adequate time to make hard decisions, if any. The practice also involves helping them go about permanent conditions, which is usually easier to manage than awaiting the eleventh hour. Employees should be educated on behaviors like maintaining good health and refraining from drug use (Tacchino, & Littell, 2011). Compensation policies are often riddled with different problems. These include the challenge of hiring the right employee to a given position. Unfavorable Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental conditions hinder the implementation of better compensation policies (Szendrei, & Rodriguez, 2010). Pros. Formal pay structure is advantageous because an employee can make permanent plans based on it. Non-monetary compensation enables the employee to save monetary resources, and feels part of the organization. Cons. Monetary compensation can be easily wasted by the employee. Non-monetary compensation may sound a long-drawn burden to an employee, especially those who have access to better non-monetary compensation offered by an organization. Organizations carry out a cost benefit analysis to find out how effective, or how badly, an intended action will impact organizational goals. Even though, the analysis can be employed for almost any case, it is usually executed on

The Sound Systems Of Language English Language Essay

The Sound Systems Of Language English Language Essay Phonology is one of the core fields that compose the discipline of linguistics, which is defined as the scientific study of language structure. One way to understand what the subject matter of phonology is, to contrast it with other fields within linguistics. A very brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound structure in language, which is different from the study of sentence structure (syntax) or word structure (morphology), or how languages change over time (historical linguistics). A common characterization of the different between phonetics and phonology is that phonetics deals with actual physical sounds as they are manifested in human speech, and concentrates on acoustic waveforms, formant values, measurements of duration measured in milliseconds, of amplitude and frequency, or in the physical principles underlying the production of sounds. On the other hand, phonology is an abstract cognitive system dealing with rules in a mental grammar: principles of subconscious thought as they relate to language sound. CONCERNS OF PHONOLOGY: The most important to appreciate at this moment is that the sound which phonology is concerned with is symbolic sounds- there are cognitive abstractions which represent but are not the same as physical sounds THE SOUNDS OF A LANGUAGE: One expect of phonology considers what the sounds of a language are. We would want to take note in a description of the phonology of English that we lack a particular vowel that exists in German in words like schon beautiful, a vowel which is also found. In French (Spelled eu, as in jeune Young) or Norwegian (beer). Similarly, the consonant spelled the in English thing, path does exist in English as well as in Icelandic where it is spelled with the letter p, or Modern Greek where it is spelled with O, or Saami where it is spelled ) but his sound doesnt occur in German or French and it is not used in Latin American Spanish, although it does occur in continental Spanish in words such as cerveza beer, where by the spelling conventions of Spanish, the letters c and z represent the same sound as the one spelled the (in English) RULES FOR COMBINING SOUNDS: Another aspect of language sound which is phonological analysis would take account of is that in any given language, certain combinations of sounds are allowed, but other combinations are systematically impossible. The fact that English has the words brick, break, bridge, bread is a clear indication that there is no restriction against having words begin with the consonant sequence br; besides these words one can think of many more words beginning with br such as bribe, brow and so on. Similarly, there are many words which begin with bl, such as blue, blatant, blast, blend, blink, showing that there is no rule against words beginning with bl. It is also a fact that there is no words blink in English, even though the similar words blink, brick do exit. The nonexistence of blick is English is accidental, the exclusion from English of many other imaginable but nonexistent words is based on a principled restriction of the languages. VARATIONS IN PRONOUNCIAITON In addition to providing an account of possible versus impossible words in a language, a phonological analysis will explain other general patterns in the pronunciation of words. For example, there is a very general rule of English phonology which dictates that the plural suffix on nouns will be pronounced as (iz), represented in spelling as es, when the preceding consonant is one of the certain set of consonants including (S) spelled (sh) as in bushes, (c) (spelled as ch) as in churches, and (j) (spelled j, ge, dge) as in cages, bridge. This pattern of pronunciation is not limited to the plural, so despite the difference in spelling, the possessive suffix s2 is also subject to the same rules of pronunciation: thus, plural bushes is pronounced as same as the possessive bushs and plural churches is pronounced same as the possessive churchs. This is the sense in which phonology is about the sound of the language. From the phonological perspective, a sound is a specific unit which combin es with other such specific units and which represent physical sounds. PHONETICS Phonetics is about the concrete, instrumentally measurable physical properties and production of these cognitive speech sounds. The two basic aspects of speech sounds as there are studied in phonetics, namely acoustics which is the study of the properties of the physical sounds wave that we hear, and articulation, which is the study of how to modify the shape of vocal tract, thereby producing a certain acoustic output(sound) ACOUSTICS A sound is a complex pattern of rapid variation in air pressure, travelling from a sound source and striking the ear, which causes a series of neural signals to be received in the brain: this is true of speech, music and random noices. WAVEFORMS A concrete way to visually represent a sound is with an acoustic waveform. A number of computer programs allow one to record sounds into a file and display the results on the screen. This means one can visually inspect a representation of the physical pattern of the variation in air pressure since we are interested in the part which makes this two words sound different, we might get a clearer picture of the physical difference by expanding the scale and looking just at a part of the vowel. Vowels are periodic, which means that the pattern of their wave form repeats over time. A portion of the vowels from the middle of the words seed and Sid, involving around 30 milliseconds (ms) of each of the words. We can indeed see that there is a pattern which is repeated. Though there are visible differences between the waveforms, the basis for distinguishing these vowels remain unclear. SOUND SPECTRA: All sound waves are definably, namely in terms of three properties that characterize a sine wave familiar from trigonometry, namely frequency measure in cycles per second also known as Hertz (Hz), amplitude measure in decibels and phase measured in the angular measure radians. These characteristics suffice to define any sine wave, which is the analytic basis of sounds. The property phase, which describe how far into the infinite cycle of repetition a particular sine wave is, turns out to be unimportant for the study of speech sounds, so it can be ignored. Simple sine waves (termed pure tones when speaking of sounds) made up of a single frequency are not commonly encountered in the real worlds, but can be created by a tuning fork or by electronic equipment. Speech sounds (indeed all sounds) are complex wave forms which are virtually impossible to describe with intuitive description of what they look like. Fortunately, complex wave can be mathematically relate to a series of simple waves which have different amplitudes at different frequencies, so that we can say that complex wave from is build from asset of simple waves. Inaccuracy in spectral data has three main sources. Half of the information in the original signal, phase, has been discarded. Frequency information is only approximate and its related to how much speech is analyzed. Finally, a spectrum assumes that sound properties are constant during the period being analyzed. If too large a piece of speech is taking for analysis, a misrepresentative blending of a continuously changing signal results. SPECTROGRAM: The spectrogram shows both frequency and amplitude properties as they change over time, by adding a third dimension of information to the display. A spectrogram can be made by a mechanical spectrograph, which uses an adjustable filter to select different frequency ranges and display the changes in amplitude at each frequency ranges; or, it can be created by a computer program, which use fouler analysis to determine these component amplitudes. A spectrogram is a reasonably informative accurate display of properties of sound. It is less accurate than the spectrum at a single point. Spectrograms are created either by special machinery or specials computer programs, which are not always available. It is therefore quite impractical and also unnecessary to base the scientific study of languages sound systems exclusively on spectrograms. CONCLUSION: Phonetics and phonology both study language sounds. Phonology examines language sound as a mental unit, and encapsulated symbolically for example as (ae) or (g) and focus on how these unit function in grammars. Phonetics examines how symbolic sounds are manifested as a continuous physical object. The conversion from physically continues event to symbolic representation requires focusing on the information that is important, which is possible because not all physical properties of speech sounds are cognitively important. One of the goals of phonology is than to discover exactly what these cognately important properties are how they function in expressing Regularities about languages. CHAPTER TWO PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONS PREVIEW: This chapter gives an overview of phonetic transcriptions. It: Gives the important transcriptional symbols Introduces the two major schemes of phonetic transcriptions Present the main articulators classification of sounds Surveys the main variations in phonetic properties exploited by the languages Further develops the relevance of phonetics for the study of phonology INTRODUCTION: In phonetic transcription, speech is represented a small set of symbols with a standard interpretation. This chapter looks at the different systems for phonetic transcription. They are two major schemes, the informal American schemes used in especially North America, sometime known as APA (American Phonetic Alphabet), and the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) promulgated by the international Phonetics association. VOWELS: The first division in speech sound is made between vowels and consonants. Symbols for vowels will be considered first because they are fewer vowels than consonant. Some dialects English make no distinction in the pronunciation of the words cot and caught; even among speakers who distinguish the pronunciation of cot and caught, the precise pronunciation of the two vowels differs considerable. An important point is that the transcriptional symbols are approximations representing a range of similar values, and that symbols do not always have absolute universal phonetic values. CONSONANT: There are many more consonant than vowels, English only has a fraction of the full range of possible consonants, so illustration of many of these symbols involve more extensive consideration of languages other than English. Consonants symbols are treat as the place of articulation where the major constriction occurs as one axis, and treating properties such as voicing, being a continuant, or nasality as the other axis. Eleven places of articulation for consonants are usually recognized: bilabial, labiodentals, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal and laryngeal, and arrangement which proceeds from the furthest forward to furthest back points of the vocal tract. MANNER OF ARTICULATION: largely independent of the place where a consonant constriction is formed, the manner in which the constriction is formed can be manipulated in various ways. If a constriction is formed which completely blocks the flow of air, the resulting sound, such as t, is called a stop? A consonant can be produced by forming a narrow constriction which still allows air to pass through the vocal tract, resulting in noise in at the constriction, and such consonants, for example s and v are called fricatives. A combination of complete constriction followed by a period of partial constriction is termed an affricate. SYLLABICITY A phonetic property of consonants that may be transcribed is whether the consonant is syllabic. There is a phonetic difference between the n of American English cotton and that of con: the n of cotton is syllabi, where as the n of con is no syllabic. A syllabic consonant is indicated by placing a vertical tick under the consonant, so cotton is transcript (Ka? n) and con is transcribed (Kan). The main phonetic correlate of the distinction between syllabic and no syllabic consonant is duration, where syllabic consonants are generally longer than their no syllabic counterparts. Especially in tone languages, syllabic consonants can have distinctive tone. SYMMENTRY IN CONSONANTS The symmetrical universal table consonants were we to list all the consonants found in human languages. In some instances, the gap reflects physiological impossibility, such as the fact that one cannot produce a nasal pharyngeal, analogous to velar nasal but at a pharyngeal place of articulation. A nasal involves making a complete obstruction at a given point of articulation and also requires air to flow through the velum. In order to make a pharyngeal nasal, it would be necessary to make a complete constriction at the pharynx. But since the pharynx lies below the velum, no air can flow through the nasal passages if the pharynx is totally constricted. However a nasalized pharyngeal continuant, i.e. the consonant produced with simultaneous nasal airflow, would not be a physical impossibility, since that consonant doesnt not require complete constriction of the pharynx. In other cases the gap indicates that no such sound has been found, but there is no immutable physical reason for suc h a sound not to exist. Thus bilabial affricated not seem to be attested, nor to plain no affricated alvepalatal stops, nor do nasalized pharyngeal fricatives. Similarly, while pharyngeal zed consonant exist and rounded consonants exist, there are apparently no cased of consonants which are both rounded and pharyngeal zed, though such segments are not logically impossible. These lacunae may be an indication of a deeper constraint on sound systems however; it is also possible that these segments do exist in some languages which have not been studied yet, since there are many languages in the world which remain uninvestigated. PLACE OF ARTICULATION The place of articulation of consonants is divided into primarily place of articulation something that every consonant has and secondary place of articulation-something some consonants may add to primary place of articulation. LINGUAL CONSONANTS: The tip or blade of the tongue is the active articulators in the production of many consonants, including dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex and palatal consonants. These consonants form constrictions involving the tongue and an appropriate place on the teeth, or hard or soft palates. The contract is with the teeth in the case of dentals, on the hard palate behind the teeth in the case of alveolar, behind the alveolar ridge in the case of alveopalatals and retroflex consonants, and with the blade of the tongue at the boundary between the hard and soft palate in the case of palatals. In many traditional organization in segments, retroflex consonants are classified as a separate place of articulation from alveolar and alveopalatals. This traditional concept of place of articulation combines properties with both active articulators and a passive articulator- the target towards which an active articulator moves. What unifies that various kinds of retroflex consonants across langua ges is not the specific location of the constriction on the hard palate, but rather the manner in which just the tongue tip approaches the palate. SECONDARY ARTICULATIONS: Consonants may have more than one point of constriction: generally, one of these constrictions is the major (most radical) constriction and other constrictions are less radical more vowels like in nature. CONCLUSION: Phonology views speech sounds symbolically, knowledge of the system of symbols for representing speech is a prerequisite to doing a phonological analysis. It is also vital to know the phonetic parameters for describing the sounds of human languages which have been presented here. The main characteristic of vowels involve fronting of the tongue (front, central and back), rounding, and vowel height (high, mid and low, with tense and lax variant of high and mid vowels. Other properties of vowels include stress, tone and the phonation types creaky and breathy voice. Primary consonantal places of articulation include bilabial, labiodentals, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal and laryngeal. These may be supplemented by vowel like secondary articulations including palatalization, valorization, and pharyngealization and rounding. Consonant may be produced with a number of constrictions and release types, and is stops. Fricatives or nasals and stop consonant s may be unreleased or released, the later type allowing plain versus affricate release. Differences in the laryngeal component for consonants include voicing and aspiration. And the distinction between ejectives and implosives. Vowels and consonant may also exploit differences in nasalization and length.

Buckingham Palace: A Fascinationg Destination Essay -- Royal British M

Buckingham Palace, established in 1703, serves as the home of the royal British monarchy (the Queen and her extended family) and provides the perfect setting for special occasions such as weddings, tea parties, and the Changing of the Guard. One of the world’s most significant buildings is Buckingham Palace. This building has over 50,000 people visit each year for banquets and royal events (NWE 1). Representing the British Empire, the palace symbolizes the British royalty (NWE 1). They constructed it for the Duke of Buckingham (EBP 1). In 1761, George III wanted to buy the house for his wife, Queen Charlotte, to have a home close to St. James Palace. Here, many court occasions took place. Some of these court occasions included official receptions, royal marriages, and christenings. People referred to this house as The Queen’s House (History 1). In 1762, the king wanted the house remodeled according to strict requirements. Work started and they used the designs of Sir William Chambers. As work continued, the king’s decision took a turn. He wanted to transform the house into a grand palace. He did this with the help of John Nash (Palace 1). Many changes occurred in the palace. During the 1800s, they enlarged Buckingham palace. A bomb struck the building during World War 2, stricking a room that became the Queen’s Gallery in 1962 (EBP 1). During the 1820s, the name of the house officially became Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria, the first resident of the Palace in 1837, lived there during the time of her accession into the Palace (40 facts 1). Buckingham Palace, then, became London’s home of the kingdom in the City of Wesminster. The monarch uses it as a headquarters and for many special occasions. Buckingham... ...e over 20,000 sandwiches and 25,000 cups of tea (BH 2). The Changing of the Guards takes action at the forecourt, added to Buckingham Palace in 1911, along with gates and railings (40 facts 1). Changing of the Guard happens at 11:30 a.m. This ceremony occurs when the â€Å"New Guard† replaces soldiers that have been on duty at Buckingham Palace and St. James Palace (40 facts 3). The guards at Buckingham Palace may remain in battle gear for quite some time (U.S. WR 2). This ceremony also attracts very large crowds at Buckingham Palace (NWE 6). Described as a working building, Buckingham Palace serves as the centerpiece of the British monarchy (Palace 1) and as a home for the Queen. It also serves as an office for the Head of State. Over 800 staff members work at Buckingham Palace. Their jobs include housekeeping, catering, clockmaker, and flagman (40 facts 1).

Good Communication Drives Superior Financial Performance Essay

According to Watson Wyatt’s 2009-2010 Communication ROI Study, businesses that communicate with courage, innovation and discipline, particularly in tough economic times, are more successful at engaging employees and achieving desired business results. â€Å"Effective internal communication can keep employees engaged in the business and help companies retain key talent, provide consistent value to customers, and deliver superior financial performance to shareholders,† said the study, which included 328 organizations across the world. Watson Wyatt’s newest communications study, like its other ones, found that businesses that communicate effectively with their employees are also the top financial performers. A key finding of the study was that companies that are highly effective communicators had 47 percent higher total return to shareholders over the last five years, compared to firms that are the least-effective communicators. According to the study, the best companies invest in helping leaders and managers communicate with their employees. While the study points out that only three out of 10 organizations are training managers to deal openly with resistance to change, highly effective communicators are more than three times as likely to do this compared to the least-effective communicators. A survey developed by Accountemps ®, a Robert Half Company, points out another reason why good communication equals good business. The survey found that better and more frequent communication with staff members is perhaps the best way to raise employee morale. The survey was conducted by an independent research firm in 2008 and is based on interviews with 150 senior executives from the nation’s 1,000 largest companies. Nearly half of executives who participated in the survey said better communication is the best remedy for low morale. According to the survey, the absence of open and honest communication with staff tops the list of management missteps that can wear down employee morale.