Hammer Wines Business Report Essay Example for Free

Hammer Wines Business Report Essay Introduction Colin Hammer, after arranging an independent review, has found that many of his employees have been avoiding work and other responsibilities by searching the Internet for non-work related amusements. This act is known as cyber slacking and it is said to cost companies billions of dollars each year and often results in managers blocking or limiting access to certain websites. Concerned for productivity, this report will outline the current usage and array of sites potentially being used by the Hammer Wines employees. The sites include those for entertainment or work purposes, and restrictions based on these findings should be implemented. These restrictions must be forever changing and expanding, as each website has a different effect on the varying departments its respective employees. These modifications will also affect the productivity of Hammer Wines and will be discussed in the report by making an â€Å"internet use† policy. Findings Department Spending Most Time on the Internet Cyberslacking is a prominent occurrence amongst the Hammer Wines employees. However, of all employees, the Receptionists spent the longest time on the Internet throughout the one-week trial (see figure 1.0 below). This may or may not be detrimental to Hammer Wines. Often, receptionists complete their work before their set time, meaning that if they’re browsing the Internet, still answering their phone and have completed required work, productivity will remain normal. Studies also show productivity can increase when employees are less restricted with the Internet. This productivity can swing both ways. Negative productivity will be detrimental to Hammer Wines if the receptionist fails to multitask and therefore ineffectively completes required jobs. Internet Productivity and Cyberslacking From the array of websites (see figure 1.1 below) it is difficult to tell if Cyberslacking is present at Hammer Wines. This is because many websites, such as facebook.com and twitter.com, are huge social marketing websites, but can also used as a cost effective methods for company awareness and advertising. These sites, however, can also be misused for personal use. Unless the employee is caught directly misusing these sites, it is hard to tell weather they are cyberslacking or not. Facebook.com is one example of Cyberslacking. It is Hammer Wines’ second most visited Internet site, being used by Sales and Marketing, Reception, Manufacturing and Distribution, Human Resources @ Training and IT Services. Sales and Marketing are the only employees likely to need the site for work purposes. For all other departments, employees must use Facebook.com for personal interests. Websites, including deals.com are often used for both work and leisure. Reception, Human Resources @ Training, Manufacturing and Distribution, Sales and Marketing are all using this site. Assumptions cannot be made in relation to website use. Human Resources @ Training, Manufacturing and Distributing, and Sales and Marketing departments all have valid work-related grounds to use Deals.com, as it is great for promotional and comparative purposes. IT Services were found to be using Games.com. A total of 120 minutes was recorded throughout the week. This is a website purely dedicated to fun and games. This is the seventh most used website recorded. Although it is only a small fraction of the Internet usage, it is clear that productivity has decreased in the IT department, and through the given statistics, Cyberslacking is present. Similarly, Tatts.com was used by the Sales and Marketing department, for up to 80 minutes throughout the recorded week. Tatts.com is a betting website and has nothing to do with the Sales and Marketing of Hammer Wines. However, productivity can be increased in the workplace, with employees having some freedom on the Internet. The use of social media and other personal websites can release stress and tension, thus not wholly being to the determent of Hammer Wines. Conclusion Hammer Wines has a vast array of websites being used by employees for both personal and work use. Cyberslacking is present amongst all employees, with websites aimed at socialization and productivity which both highly used. This, however, is hard to monitor as some sites – such as Facebook.com or Deals.com are used in the companies Sales and Marketing department, but also used in recreational down time by most, if not all, other departments. It is important for Hammer Wines to implement a strategy to monitor all Internet usage. Receptionist work productivity remained high in correlation to time spent on internet, however, it was obvious the Cyberslacking was overruling the IT department, as they spent 120 hours over the duration of the week on a games and entertainment website. Solution Internet Use Policy Hammer Wines should enforce an â€Å"Internet User Policy† in the employees contract, defining the terms of use for recreational Internet. Any employee found misusing the Internet for purposes strictly other than work, may lead to disciplinary action, and their position at the company may be compromised. Blocking Sites Permanently blocking all Internet sites at Hammer Wines could result in a drop in productivity. Alternatively, a system that allows employees to have an allocated time throughout the day, to specifically visit sites such as Facebook.com and Twitter.com will allow staff members to have high productivity through compromise and strategy. One example of strategic blocking is unblocking all websites for 15 minutes every 3 hours, enabling employees to use restricted sites that coincide with structured break times (lunch, snack and end-of-day). A second option for Hammer Wines is to block all websites, only allowing those who hold a position of authority (manager) or employee that has spoken to someone in a position of authority, to get a specific code to access a blocked website. This code then unblocks all sites and remains unblocked until the page is exited. This could be implemented when departments wish to use sites such as Facebook.com for marketing or promotional purposes.

Ethical Selling Essay Example for Free

Ethical Selling Essay In this contemporary period, most consumers base their confidence concerning products and services on their popularity. Famous brands which are used by known and prominent celebrities and personalities are often patronized and trusted by the majority of the consumers (Bannister Bonnice, 1986). Yet the quality of these brands is not really known to the consumers unless they start using the product or once they avail the service. Nevertheless, known and widely-used brands of products or services, being patronized and recognized by most consumers, do not only go with the idea that they have to gain much profit. In deed, they have to ensure their customers and clients that their products or services are of high quality in order to ensure also that there would be a good profit that would come to them as exchange for maintaining superior and trusted quality of their products or services. Yet, not all consumers base their purchasing attitude solely on the quality of the product or service. They also consider the price. The cheaper the price of the product or service, the more the consumers are attracted to buy them. But this does not suggest that all consumers are after cheap prices. However, there are some consumers who neglect the quality of the product or service just to have them at cheaper and more affordable prices (Bannister Bonnice, 1986). For these reasons, the highlight of advertisement is not on the quality of the product or service but more on its price. And the quality that is supposed to be the thing that the manufacturer and the consumer should uphold is being neglected in a way that some manufacturers make fake demonstrations in advertisements just to market their products or service. Many of these products are often found in T. V Shopping advertisements in which the consumers cannot really test the durability, the quality, or the serviceability of the product. But because the advertisers are so good in making fake demonstrations, they easily deceive and attract consumers to buy their products (Cook, 2001). An example product that is being advertized at televisions as well as internets is a carpet cleaner named Bosun 12v Cordless Wet and Dry Vacuum. It is a handheld vacuum cleaner that can be used to clean wet and dry spills on carpets. A particular television station airs numerous advertisements of products and services. And one of the products that is being advertized in that television station is Bosun. Yet, the product is questioned for its quality when one of the costumers complained that Bosun has a low quality and that it only works for three to five weeks. Also, the costumer said that the product is defective in a sense that it does not really clean wet spills on carpet which is included in its advertisement as one of its unique function. However, the manufacturer of the product claimed that their product is not defective. Truly, deception in marketing is being employed by some manufacturers to gain much profit for their own sake. They do not realize that their function is to provide good and efficient products to the consumers and not to harm or deceive them just for their own interest (Cook, 2001). As claimed by the Utilitarian Principle, producing the greatest good or greatest happiness for the greatest number is the standard of what is right or wrong. If this principle would be used to evaluate the above scenario, the manufacturer of Bosun failed to act morally. Also, if the Kantian Ethics would be used to evaluate the given case, the manufacturers of Bosun would still be labeled as immoral for they failed to do their duty –that is providing good and efficient products for the consumers (Beauchamp Bowie, 2003). There are many reports about fraud advertisements, in televisions, radios, print materials, and internet (Cook, 2001). And truly, there are laws that condemn the act of it. Yet, many are still practicing fraud advertising for the sake of obtaining more money. They failed to follow the Categorical Imperative suggested by Kant that is to always treat human beings as ends and not merely means to an end. This entails that manufacturers and advertisers must respect the consumers’ rights and not use them for their own advantage (Beauchamp Bowie, 2003).

Most Important Cybersecurity Vulnerability Facing It Managers Computer Science Essay

Most Important Cybersecurity Vulnerability Facing It Managers Computer Science Essay Vulnerabilities to exploitation in modern computers are varied. They range from web server vulnerabilities that allow attackers to take over the web server to very sophisticated side channel exploits that use things like packet timing or instantaneous power consumption to glean confidential information from computers. Vulnerabilities appear in the client software that members of an organization use to get their jobs done. The conclusion of this paper is that unpatched client side software is the most important cybersecurity vulnerability facing the IT community today. Since all modern organizations (companies, non-profits or government entities) use computers and networks as part of everyday operations, this vulnerability is applicable to all of them. For this reason, this paper does not focus on a particular organization or industry. Vulnerability vs. Threat Cybersecurity vulnerability is defined as weakness in a computer hardware or software system that can be exploited. This is different than a threat. A threat is the way in which vulnerability is exploited. An example of a cybersecurity threat is spyware or malware being introduced into a computer. Vulnerability is the weakness in the computers systems that allowed the threat to succeed. This paper focuses on the vulnerabilities, not the threats. Vulnerabilities can be very expensive. The 2009 Computer Security Institute / Federal Bureau of Investigations Computer Crime and Security Survey reports that average losses per respondent were $234,244, although that number was down from the previous year (Peters, 2009). Cybersecurity vulnerabilities can be present in any part of a computer systems software or hardware. According to the SANS institute, the number of vulnerabilities discovered in software applications far outnumber those found in operating systems. (Top security risks-vulnera bility exploitation trends). This is because operating systems tend to be more long lived and therefore more tested than applications. Vulnerabilities can also be more sophisticated than the normal vulnerabilities we read about often. For example, one can determine what operands are being processed by a computer by monitoring it instantaneous power consumption. This, along with a knowledge of what algorithms are being processed can lead to the guessing of an encryption key (Brooks, 2010). Once the encryption key is guessed, files and communications involving that host could be decrypted. Another unusual vulnerability is the fact that keystrokes are sent across communications networks one at a time, so that if one captures the communications of an ssh session, the keystrokes can be guessed based on the time between them and the layout of a QWERTY keyboard (Brooks, 2010). The Origin of Vulnerabilities Most vulnerabilities occur because of programmer error. One of the most common errors that cause cybersecurity vulnerability is called buffer overflow. In buffer overflow, more data is provided as input than the program is expecting. This causes a corrupted stack and can allow an attacker to inject rouge code. The use of modern programming languages and proper coding techniques can eliminate the possibility of buffer overflow, but there is vast amount of software out there that has this vulnerability, Much work has gone into mitigating and preventing this type of vulnerability to exist in software, or if it exists, to not be exploited. Vulnerabilities that appear in software may not be the result of programmer error. They may be inserted into software applications intentionally by dishonest employees of software vendors. The fact that there is not much reporting of the discovery of such vulnerabilities does not mean they dont exist. Consider the factors that might prevent a software vendor from publicizing the discovery of deliberate malicious code in one of their products. There are liability issues and the companys reputation would suffer if such a thing became known (Franz, 2008). Human Vulnerabilties Vulnerabilities that allow malicious actions to take place on an organizations computer systems sometimes have nothing to do with hardware or software. An organizations personnel can be a large cybersecurity vulnerability as well. Since it is the organizations personnel who implement any cybersecurity measures that are dictated from the CIO staff, it is they that are the key to the cybersecurity plans effectiveness. If people are practicing dangerous activities on the organizations computers, then all the planning in the world wont prevent bad things from happening. There are factors that contribute to the cybersecurity vulnerabilities that personnel contribute to. One study divided these factors into nine areas, external influences, human error, management, organization, performance and resource management, policy issues, technology, and training (Kreamer, Carayon, Clem, 2009). The authors make the point that not all vulnerabilities are caused by bad programming. Personnel issues a re a big factor, also. Take, for example, the Stuxnet worm that infected the Iranian nuclear facilities and has reportedly caused lots of damage and has delayed the Iranian nuclear development. The cyberdefenses that the Iranian IT security staff put in place were circumvented by the actions of at least one employee. The worm was introduced via an infected flash drive (Paulson, 2010). All the perimeter defense in the world wont work if an insider does something wrong either intentionally or unintentionally. Impacts of Vulnerabilities on Organizations Some of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities faced by an organization largely depend on what type of business that organization is engaged in. For example, if an organization has a large presence in online commerce (Amazon, New Egg) it has more vulnerability to web based attacks than an organization that doesnt use the internet for commerce. An organization that possesses unique hardware, for instance an electric utility or a hospital, has vulnerabilities that most organizations dont face. Regardless of the type of business an organization engages in and the associated vulnerabilities that are unique to that type of business, a modern organizations day-to-day operations are performed on computers. Computers and networks are at the core of every process that a company uses to do business. Most managerial and technical employees of any organization have access to and use a computer for performing his or her work. There are internal web sites and email systems that allow communications between employees. Employees use these computers to do research and purchase products from web sites. This requires that these computers be connected to the internet. The Most Important Cybersecurity Vulnerability: Unpatched Client Software Because internet connected computers are ubiquitous in an organizational setting, these computers must be kept up to date with relevant security patches to prevent attacks against known vulnerabilities. For a large organization, this can be a daunting task. The fact that a patch exists for a vulnerability means that the vulnerability has been found and probably publicized. This means that the entire hacker community has access to the exploit and there is a good chance more attacks exploiting this vulnerability will be launched. This makes it imperative that the patch be put in place quickly. Failure to do this leaves an organization open to This is why the SANS institute ranked as the number one vulnerability facing organizations today (as of 2009) unpatched client side software (Top security risks executive summary, 2009). The number two ranked vulnerability was internet facing web sites. SANS also stated that on average, major organizations are taking at least twice as long to pat ch client side vulnerabilities than they are to patch operating systems (Top security risks executive summary, 2009). Because the unpatched client software vulnerability is not industry or business class dependent it is applicable to any company, non-profit organization or government entity. For this reason, the discussion of unpatched client side software does not focus on a particular class of organizations. Unpatched client side software can be exploited in many different ways. One of the more popular methods is by use of directed email attacks called spear phishing. In a spear phishing attack, a computer user is sent an email intended to entice the user into opening an attachment or clicking on a link that results in malware being installed on the users computer. When the user opens the attachment or clicks on the link, vulnerabilities in the client software on his or her computer are exploited to gain access to the users machine or the entire corporate network. The exploited vulnerabilities may be in any client software such as browsers, document readers, or image viewers. These types of attacks are a common method of gaining footholds into corporate networks (ICS-CERT, 2011) and were the method used to launch some well publicized attacks, like the Aurora attack against Google, Adobe and other tech companies (Zetter 2010). While the Aurora attack was not enabled by unpatched client so ftware (it used previously unknown, or zero day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer to enable the exploit), it is relevant to this discussion because the methods used in this attack have been published, making it easy for other attackers to replicate it. This makes it imperative that patches are applied in a timely manner to prevent it. There are two main problem areas that contribute to the large amount of unpatched client software that remains in use in an organization. The first is that the software vendors sometimes do not publish patches in a timely manner. The second is that once a patch is issued by a software vendor, the patch does not get deployed to the organizations computers for various reasons. As an example of software vendors not fixing vulnerabilities quickly enough, a company called TippingPoint (now a part of Hewlett Packard) recently released the details of 22 unpatched security vulnerabilities. Some of these vulnerabilities had been reported to their developers over two and half years ago (Keizer, 2011). TippingPoints Zero Day Initiative buys exploits from independent researchers. They also sponsor contests that reward the best exploits. They then provide their customers protection from these exploits and notify the developer of the targeted software of the existence of the vulnerability that all owed the exploit to work. When a patch is issued by a software vendor, it then has to be applied to an organizations infrastructure in order to be effective. The application of patches does not always happen quickly for several reasons. One reason is that the application of patches is disruptive to the organizations operation. The patches must be vetted by the security personnel and tested by the IT department. Testing patches prior to deployment is critical in avoiding incompatibility problems which would disrupt the organization even more. Another reason that patches dont get applied quickly is that they may not be compatible with in-house operating software. For instance, if Microsoft announces an upgraded browser that fixes many security holes, an organization may not be able to use it because internal software such as an accounting or HR system that they use is not compatible with it. How to Prevent Unpatched Client Software Vulnerabilities Organizations can deal with the problem of unpatched client software by being proactive in subscribing to a service that informs them of the existence of new vulnerabilities and in creating and implementing a patch management process. A patch management process is a multifaceted one. The following elements must be included in the patch management process (Gerace and Cavusoglu): Senior Executive Support. Without which this, no process can succeed. Dedicated Resources and Clearly Defined Responsibilities. If there is no staff assigned to the patch management process, it wont get done. Creating and Maintaining a Current Technology Inventory. This helps the patch management team determine which and how many systems need to be patched. Identification of Vulnerabilities and Patches. This allows the team to be aware of what patches are applicable to the organizations machines. Pre-deployment testing of patches. This should be done in a controlled environment to prevent adverse side effects. Post-deployment scanning and monitoring. This gives an indication of the effectiveness of the patch. As with any other business process, the patch management process must be audited by the use of measurements and metrics. Key metrics include severity/priority incidents associated with mission-critical application outages for inaccurate patching (Colville, 2010). Measuring the effectiveness of the patch management process then leads to modifications to it that improve the effectiveness. Conclusion Of the many different cybersecurity vulnerabilities that face organizations in todays world, unpatched client side software is the most dangerous. This is because this type of vulnerability threatens all organizations, regardless of the type activities they are engaged in. If they utilize computers, then this vulnerability must be addressed to prevent cybersecurity exploitation.

Interview with an Artist :: Essays Papers

Interview with an Artist The artist/illustrator I chose to contact was Mark McKee. He’s an illustrator/designer for World Industries, a skateboard and snowboard company. Some of his work has been very controversial and lawsuits have been filed on several occasions. Specifically for a board with a Winnie the Pooh look-alike and also for a design similar to a L. Ron Hubbard book. But I particularly liked his original work, specifically flame-boy and the smiley devil guy. Contacting him wasn’t too hard; I found the number for World Industries in a snowboard magazine. When I called I was given a new number, since they changed offices. The secretary put me right through to Mark McKee’s voice mail when I called the new number. I left a message and then realized I may not get a call back. Who wants to call someone to answer questions? So I figured I take a little more initiative and find out when he would be there so I could chat with him. After a second call to the secretary I found out I needed to call back in just about an hour and a half. I was put right through to Mark McKee on my third call to this number. He said he was more than happy to help me in any way possible. But after a few minutes of my interviewing he asked if "this was for real or was I just *censored*ing with him?" Apparently some friends of his like to play pranks and he thought this was one of them. I explained that this was a silly assignment, but it had to be done so that I could get my degree. A friend was the one who first got him interested in skateboard graphics, he first worked in the BMX industry after graduating with a design degree from UCLA. He was fortunate enough to not have to do any self-promotion after college and kind of "fell into" the job he has now. His official title is Art Director, according to him that’s what his card says. He over sees five other artists at World Industries that produce skateboard and snowboard graphics. He didn’t want to give any advice, he said "didn’t like doing it" and had nothing more to say about it.

Michael Jordan :: essays research papers

“Michael Jordan is the best ever. There shouldn’t be any question in anyone’s mind. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. He broke the mold. There is no one remotely close to him, Nate Thurmond says. Look at all the finals, he always carried his team. He willed them to another title each year. His greatness was well shown off and off the court. He follows up by saying it’s his mental approach more so than his physical talent. He’s been on top so long and he still goes out and does it every night (Thurmond, 61).'; He was the best player in the league for years and everyone respected his talent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “There’s no next Michael Jordan, says Magic Johnson. He continues saying, you can’t compare anyone to him, what he has done for the game can never be matched. Michael Jordan will always be Michael Jordan and no one better (Johnson, 61). He’s the greatest that ever played, in terms of doing things that Larry Bird and I never dreamed about.'; (62) Doug Collins says that, “Practice is what made him go. Every day he had this need to show who was the best. It’s like `I’m the best today and I’m going to show you and tomorrow I’m going to show you and the next day I’m going to show you again.’ That was how he competed. All the great geniuses of the world were like that. We’re talking about Einstein, Edison, and Roosevelt. These people came across something and worked to perfect it (Collins, 61).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “Michael Jordan is the most competitive human being I’ve ever met. I’ve met many CEO’s from fortune 500 companies. Michael is more competitive then all of them, David Faulk'; (Faulk, 62) He continues saying, “Michael Jordan would cheat to win, if he wasn’t winning, he would do anything to do so.';(63) Fread Lynch tells, “More than anything else, he was a sore loser. Just playing pick-up games, he’d get on his teammates all the time. He hasn’t changed that. What he always expected was everybody play the game as hard as he played it.'; (Lynch, 63)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michael Jordan’s father once said, “I think Michael got so good because Larry (his older brother) used to beat him all the time. He always took losing hard. He only began beating Larry once he started really to grow. It was almost like as if he willed himself to grow. Michael Jordan :: essays research papers “Michael Jordan is the best ever. There shouldn’t be any question in anyone’s mind. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. He broke the mold. There is no one remotely close to him, Nate Thurmond says. Look at all the finals, he always carried his team. He willed them to another title each year. His greatness was well shown off and off the court. He follows up by saying it’s his mental approach more so than his physical talent. He’s been on top so long and he still goes out and does it every night (Thurmond, 61).'; He was the best player in the league for years and everyone respected his talent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “There’s no next Michael Jordan, says Magic Johnson. He continues saying, you can’t compare anyone to him, what he has done for the game can never be matched. Michael Jordan will always be Michael Jordan and no one better (Johnson, 61). He’s the greatest that ever played, in terms of doing things that Larry Bird and I never dreamed about.'; (62) Doug Collins says that, “Practice is what made him go. Every day he had this need to show who was the best. It’s like `I’m the best today and I’m going to show you and tomorrow I’m going to show you and the next day I’m going to show you again.’ That was how he competed. All the great geniuses of the world were like that. We’re talking about Einstein, Edison, and Roosevelt. These people came across something and worked to perfect it (Collins, 61).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “Michael Jordan is the most competitive human being I’ve ever met. I’ve met many CEO’s from fortune 500 companies. Michael is more competitive then all of them, David Faulk'; (Faulk, 62) He continues saying, “Michael Jordan would cheat to win, if he wasn’t winning, he would do anything to do so.';(63) Fread Lynch tells, “More than anything else, he was a sore loser. Just playing pick-up games, he’d get on his teammates all the time. He hasn’t changed that. What he always expected was everybody play the game as hard as he played it.'; (Lynch, 63)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michael Jordan’s father once said, “I think Michael got so good because Larry (his older brother) used to beat him all the time. He always took losing hard. He only began beating Larry once he started really to grow. It was almost like as if he willed himself to grow.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Patient Care Essay -- Nursing, Health

The goal for nurses as a profession is not only to be â€Å"patient advocates† but also assist the patient to learn and gain the necessary skills to achieve the best level of functioning for the patient based on their current illness. In order to help a patient achieve their optimal level of functioning the nurse must work with the patient and the interdisciplinary team to create a collaborative plan that is logical for the patient. Through examining a musculoskeletal disorder case study #35 from Preusser (2008), one can create a critical pathway for the patient, S.P. a 75 year old female, with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and admitted to the orthopedic ward for a hip fracture status post fall (p. 183). Since the patient’s needs is unique and complex the nurse must tailor a plan with the patient which will include â€Å"†¦assessments, consultations, treatments, lifestyle changes, disease education†¦Ã¢â‚¬  in order for the patient have the most appropriat e evidence-based care and make informed decisions when it is necessary (Oliver, 2006, p. 28). The aim for the nurse caring for the S.P. is to help prepare the patient for an upcoming procedure and focus care to the patient by gathering necessary information about her while. Collaboration with the patient, family members, rehabilitation, medical and surgical team about the treatment plans can help us provide proper patient’s care by utilizing actions and interventions within the scope and standards of the nursing practice. This Preusser (2008) case study involves a 75 year old female, S.P., who fell at home and is admitted to the orthopedic ward for an intracapsular fracture of the hip at the femoral neck (p. 183). Assessment data includes her height is 5’3†, weight is 118 lbs, blood pressure... ...National Association of Orthopedic Nurses. (2009). Total hip replacement. Retrieved from http://www.orthonurse.org/ResearchandPractice/PatientEducation/tabid/490/Default.aspx    Oliver, S. (2006). Benefits of patient pathways in rheumatoid arthritis care. Nursing Times. 102 (16), 28-33. Retrieved from http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice-clinical-research/benefits-of-patient-pathways-in-rheumatoid-arthritis-care/203268.article Oliver, S. (2009). Understanding the needs of older people with rheumatoid arthritis: the role of the community nurse. Nursing Older People, 21(9), 30-38. Preusser, B. (2008). 4th Ed. Winningham and Preusser’s critical thinking in nursing: Medical-surgical, pediatric, maternity, and psychiatric case studies. New York: Elsevier/Mosby Inc. Wilkinson, J. M. (2011). 5th Ed.   The Nursing process and critical thinking. Prentice Hall.

Physical resources improve the performance of a business Essay

Explain how the management of human, physical and technological resources can improve the performance of Thorpe Park. In this task, I will be explaining how Thorpe Park manage their human, physical and technological resources and how good management of these resources improve their performance. 1. Good management of Thorpe Park’s physical resources Physical resources are the man-made tools or equipment needed for the day-to-day running of Thorpe Park. Basically, physical resources are anything that provides Thorpe Park with the means to perform its business processes. Thorpe Park’s rides are in good condition, are safe, are durable and are efficient and this demonstrates the high maintenance of their rides. Thorpe Park maintain their rides everyday (sometimes every 2 hours). This also demonstrates the high level of maintenance of their rides. Also, Thorpe Park have a team management team which monitor if there is a high standard of maintenance which creates high standards. The cleanliness and hygiene of Thorpe Park’s rides also demonstrates that the rides are being maintained well. How good management of physical resources improves Thorpe Park’s performance By Thorpe Park maintaining their physical resources to a very high standard, it increases the health and safety standards. This ensures customer needs a nd expectations are met and satisfied. Meeting customers’ needs and expectations ensures repeat business for Thorpe Park and more customers. More customers and repeat business will lead to an increase in ticket sales and more profit. Thorpe Park can then use this extra profit to re-invest into building new rides, maintaining existing ones. 2. Good management of Thorpe Park’s human resources Human resources is the set of individuals who make up the workforce of Thorpe Park. It also refers to the division of Thorpe Park that is focused on activities relating to employees. Thorpe Park can manage their human resources well and this can be done through various means. These means are by granting their employees free travel and food, discount on rides for family and friends, premium pay rates and other benefits from being an employee in Thorpe Park. By doing this, the employees of Thorpe Park are motivated to give their all to customers and be productive. Thorpe Park can manage their human resource well by training their employees. Training is  the ability to give employees skills and knowledge to do their job properly. They can provide this training for employees through the recruitment process. The process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate (from within or outside of an organization) for a job opening, in a timely and cost effective manner. They do this by identifying the need for a new employee, describing who you want through a person specification, describing what you want them to do through a job description, attracting potential employees, analysing candidates’ strengths and weaknesses and selecting the best person for the job. If the potential employee decides to take the job, Thorpe Park can then train the employee. However, if the potential employee decides to reject the job offer, they will have to start the recruitment process again which in the long run wastes time, money and reduces productivity. If the employee is recruited well, they will be able to meet the needs and expectations of customers. How good management of human resource can improve the performance of Thorpe Park By Thorpe Park are able to manage their human resources well, they will be meeting the needs and expectations of their customers. Thorpe Park meeting the needs and expectations allows them to build a good reputation and gives them more customers than their competitors such as Alton Towers, Chessington, Legoland or other any entertainment venues. This will allow Thorpe Park to expand as a business and increase their market share (A percentage of total sales volume in a market captured by a brand, product, or company) and the dema nd for their rides. 3. Good management of Thorpe Park’s technological resources Technological resources are resources such as software, designs, music, or text. These resources are owned like physical resources and are known as ‘intellectual property.’ Intellectual property laws allow people to own ideas and have rights over them. Thorpe Park can manage their technological resources well by constantly checking their programs and making sure they do not crash. They can manage technological resources by updating software regularly and making sure they run smoothly. Also, Thorpe Park have an IT team who specialize in ensuring programs are running smoothly and upgraded and updated regularly. Furthermore, the ticket collection system, the CCTV cameras, security systems, speaker systems, music and Wi-Fi all shows that  the technological resources in Thorpe Park are being managed well. How good management of technological resources can improve the performance of Thorpe Park By Thorpe Park managing their technological resources well, the customers’ experience is enhanced. This makes the customers of Thorpe Park happy, safe and satisfied because they are able to contact the outside world and enjoy their stay. This will result in repeat business for Thorpe Park and will allow Thorpe Park to attain more customers which will boost their sales, profit and reputation in the long run.