5 Disadvantages of Bad Time Management

5 Disadvantages of Bad Time Management Poor planning and bad time management are often part of the learning experience for many new students in college. For others, however, poor planning becomes a habit. The consequences of putting that paper off, not turning in your work on time, and missing key deadlines, however, can be much more of a problem than you might initially think. Things May Get Expensive If you miss housing deadlines, incur late registration fees, or apply too late to get priority when your school is allocating financial aid, things can quickly become even more expensive than normal. Having good time management skills can help you avoid costly mistakes later. Things Can Become Harder Logistically If you think studying for your Spanish final is a pain in the brain, wait until you see what happens if you dont pass it/sleep through it/generally dont plan for it. You May Miss out on Opportunities Because You're Too Late That amazing study abroad program, Spring Break trip, and summer internship all have deadlines for a reason. If you apply too late or dont have everything you need ready in time, youll miss out on what could have been the experience of a lifetime. You May Miss out on Opportunities Because People Notice Your Pattern of Lateness and Disorganization People who you think dont notice your frequent lack of planning and lateness may, in fact, notice more than you realize. When your favorite professor is trying to think of students for an awesome summer research gig, you might get passed over because she knows you wont have your stuff together when needed. Keeping your schedule balanced and your time managed may open doors you dont even realize are there. You Will Always Feel Behind Not sure if you have poor planning skills? Ask yourself to remember the last time you felt ahead of the game. If it wasnt recently, chances are youre constantly feeling behind- because you are. Bad time management skills mean you are always playing catch-up and experiencing stress. And with all thats going on in your college life, why add more stress to the mix?

Criminology....Ethnographic Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Criminology....Ethnographic Paper - Essay Example On the other hand however, media theories such as imperialism suggest that such imposition of the dominant society – the English – may not be welcome among the minority populations and there may be an emerging and ever urgent need among the less dominant population to cling to their cultural values in an effort to avoid a complete displacement of their cultural roots, norms and practices. For young British Asians, the struggle to shape and develop identity within a dominant white society is a challenging one. For young second generation Asians, the struggle to reconcile the cultural values and beliefs of their parents with the values of the society they live in and interact with is a Herculean task. This study examines whether the media in particular plays its role in shaping British Asian identity and whether the content of TV programs aid these young ethnic group to assimilate better into British society. The research question: Does the media influence the development of identity among young British Asians? Waters views globalization as a â€Å"social process† in which the limitations imposed by geography are receding (Waters, 1995: 3). According to the world theory of globalization, the world is a system that is comprised of â€Å"multiple cultural systems† (Wallerstein 1974: 390). According to Waters, these social exchanges of symbols, tastes and values are such that â€Å"material exchanges localize; political exchanges internationalize; and symbolic exchanges globalize.† (Waters 1995: 9). Therefore Waters sees a social transformation taking place. Critics of globalization argue that it leads to a homogenization or hybridization of cultures, so that the rich diversity of local culture and traditions may be irretrievably lost. (Nederveen Pieterse 1995; Robertson 1995). The imposition of one dominant culture upon another as a part of the globalization process is the cultural imperialism theory that emerged in the 1960’s - in

Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Wal-Mart - Essay Example This requires a benefit and wage package that accounts for the basic expenses and area-specific cost of living involved in supporting a family comfortably. By definition of their regions specific living wage standards are known to vary as compared to minimum wages offered by the federals. This is because the minimum wages do not begin to meet the family or the working people needs anywhere in the country; and on the contrary, it puts a child and parent below the poverty federal lines. This issue can effectively be addressed by the implementation of a more reasonable minimum and living wage at a local level that will not affect the family’s way of life. Our living wage standard like in many other municipal standards across the country combines some benefits with the wage standard to cater for employees and families that need it the most. The City of Washington, D.C government recently wanted to introduce a legislation that would ensure that large corporations running business i n the city would pay a "living wage" of $12.50 per hour to all employees hired in the city. Wal-Mart, one of the largest business corporations in the whole world responded by threatening to close stores in the city, and not to open planned stores because of the legislation. Such policies are meant to protect the public from exploitation by business companies and to ensure that employees are well remunerated. Is the living wage policy good? The question whether the policy is a good one can be argued from both ways, but on this paper, the argument will lean more on the positive aspects of the policy. This policy is good and its implementation would be beneficial for the employees, future employees, the families of the employees and ultimately the city of Washington, D.C. One advantage that can be achieved through its implementation is that the minimum income of the citizens would rise considerably. This will help in improving the lives of the employees and enable them meet their basic and secondary needs. In addition, it is also beneficial to women because over time they have been earning lower wages than the men have. The wage policy will ensure than women and men earn similar salaries that are based on their skills and work rather than gender. In this aspect, the policy would benefit most families of the employees. Through this, it can be regarded as an added benefit to the recovery of the economy as a whole from the family level. Others still view its implementation as an indirect form of justice for those affected by the economy crisis since within its implementation, there are dockets that would allow for effective compensations and responsibility mainly by the employers and managements and this would in effect protect the workers from any form of abuse. The policy is also beneficial to companies such as Wal-Mart because an increased wage will ensure that the employees are motivated to perform highly and yield more and high quality productivity. Due to thes e facts, it is clear that the policy is a good one. The people who support the implementation of the living wage policy state that all individuals should be provided with direct means of affording living costs in-terms of shelter, food, transport and usual basic needs, fiscal conservatives. On the other hand, those who do not support it refuse to uphold the idea of a minimum wage since according to them it makes it hard to determine the regional scale cost of labor appropriately. They adequately argue that the minimum wage increases the services and goods prices while also affecting disproportionally the minorities. Even with this argument and counter argument, it is still unfortunate that a major aspect is still not answered by this debate

The balance between cost and quality Essay Example for Free

The balance between cost and quality Essay Before we look closer into the subject, first we must look at exactly what is meant by quality and cost. Quality is the totality of the attributes of a good or service that meet the requirements of the buyer or customers. The materials which make up the product, the design and the engineering of the product, product performance, reliability and durability are all important characteristics of the quality package, which ultimately influence customers to buy a product and repeat-purchase It. (Pass 1995) Cost is the expenditure upon resources incurred by a firm in producing and selling its output, Each cost is a charge against revenues and profits for the use or consumption of resources during a trading period. Cost can be classified along the functional lines, distinguishing between production, selling, distribution, administration and finance costs. (Pass 1995) Quality is a term we use to signify excellence of a product or service. We think of a quality product, for example a B.M.W. motorcar. We know its well designed, well built and will therefore last a long time. If we think of car of being low quality, we think of something like a basic model type of Citroen or Fiat, with its flimsy panels, cheap components and low specifications. The quality hotel is denoted by the internationally recognised star rating system, i.e. a 1 star hotel will provide the most basic of comforts and low on hygiene, and a 5 star hotel will provide the most comforts and services. We can immediately recognise then, by simply looking at a hotels star rating how good it will be and how good of a time we will have if we stay at the hotel. Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organisational process that actively involves every function and every employee in satisfying customers needs, both internal and external. TQM works by continuously improving all aspect of work through structured control, improvement and planning activities that are carried out in concern with guiding principles that focuses on Quality  and Customer Satisfaction as the top priorities. TQM recognises that the Customer is at the centre of every activity. The customer may be external or internal. The key is to determine the gap between what the customer needs and what the system delivers. Once the gap is recognised, it would be systematically reduced and results in never-ending improvement in customer satisfaction at every level. The balance between cost and quality in purchasing is questioned when an organisation is looking to purchase the best for what they can get for their money. However, this is not always the case. One of the main considerations in the purchasing functions is that the quality in question is fit for purpose. Sometimes the overriding factor on the decision to purchase is that products are of the highest quality. E.g. luxury car manufacture Roll Royce will pride themselves on using the finest materials when manufacturing their cars. When at the ordering stage the emphasis will be on high quality rather then cost. Keeping cost to a minimum is an important factor for any business including companies like Roll Royce (to a certain degree). However, Roll Royce will not compromise their image of quality for the sake of cost. Often, a company has no choice but to use the most expensive materials or highest quality that money can buy. Sometimes safety is the overriding factor. If Rolls Royce is building an engine that is going to be mounted onto an aircraft, then titanium will be the preferred choice of material. Titanium is extremely expensive but will guarantee the utmost reliability in this situation. As mentioned above, purchasers have to take into consideration whether or not the quality is fit for purpose and what the product is going to be used for. The decisions that are made can be made personally for individual use or at corporate level. E.g. if a purchasing manager for a car manufacturer has to make a decision on the type radio to buy, then there is a combination of factors that will need to be considered. The price will have to suit his budget. The quality would have to be of a standard that one would expect from a car of that type from the company. The buyers final decision may well be to buy a radio system that he or she would never consider putting in their own car. But yet the decision made will mean that the system chosen will go into thousands of newly built cars. This is because the decision made was not personal; it was made of behalf of a company so it had to suit their needs. Many purchasing managers are under constant pressure to drive cost down. Even professionals have problems finding the balance between cost and quality when their budget is very low. If costs are too low then it seems inevitable that the quality will suffer. The Ford motor company has suffered the consequences of cutting costs too low. After rave reviews following introduction of the new Ford Focus into the US market, Ford decided to build the car using cheaper components in a bid to save money. The cheaper components included rear wheel bearings that would prematurely wear, causing noise and wheel instability. Not only does Ford now has to recall thousands of Ford Focuses, but it also has to deal with the fact the this decision has damaged their reputation even further. As people we are constantly trying to find the balance between costs and are own perception of quality on a daily basis. According to Juran, quality is: fitness for intended use. This definition basically says that quality is meeting or exceeding customer expectations. So according to this theory, we achieve quality when we buy a product that does what its supposed to do. If a purchasing manager is buying radios that he or she wouldnt use personally, this still ties in with Jurans definition of quality because the radios will meet the customers expectations, although is will not meet the buyers. When we shop we have to ask ourselves if the use of the product will justify the cost. E.g. when studying late at night, the natural choice of beverage for some students would be something like the caffeine boosting energy drink Red Bull at the cost of ?25. ?25 is far too much to pay (double) for a can of fizz pop. On this particular occasion, the beverage will not be used as a  thirst quencher or as a vodka mix, but used as an aid to keep the student awake through the studying session. The cost (?25) of the product is justified due to the products fitness for intended use. Deming states that the customers definition of quality is the only one that matters. This is true but I feel that the customer does not always get quality from what they perceive as quality. This is partly to do with the fact that some companies are very good at doing some things, but is not so good at others. Designer label brand Gucci is a prime example of this. If somebody buys a Gucci designer watch for the cost of ?0, there are a host of other things that the buyer will achieve like admiration, prestige and self-esteem. Gucci is not a watchmaker and does not have the same level of expertise of watch making as Rolex or Cartier. Although somebody who does not have knowledge of watches may perceive this watch as quality. Those with know-how or those in the industry would regard this watch as crap. Watches of this nature are purely soled through success of the brand. The watches are simply a spin-off from their designer clothesline and are made with very low quality and cheap components. According to Which magazine, the life expectancy for a Gucci watch is two three years. This is very low compared to Rolexs lifetime life expectancy. looking at Passs definition of quality, a Gucci watch does not carry vital characteristics such as, reliability and durability, which are key to the quality package. This brings us to Demings theory that the customers definition of quality is the only one that matters. I appreciate that the customers opinion is all that matters them, but whether or not the customer is actually receiving quality is another matter. If a product were purchased on the basis of the customer being happy with the product initially, then it would be very difficult to apply Demings theory of quality if the product has hidden defects. Similar to the phrase, things arent always what they seem. To achieve high quality, a company does not have to always have to pay the high costs. For example the cars produced by the Japanese used to be of low quality and unreliability was common. Things have changed now. Japaneses  cars are now built to an excellent standard and reliability is second to none. Not only are the Japanese building excellent cars, they are building them at a great speed. This is partly due to lean supply techniques that the Japanese have mastered. The whole area of purchasing and suppliers is streamlined to achieve minimum waste. Adopting these techniques cannot be done over night, but lean supply is an excellent step in the right direction in achieving a good balance between cost and quality long-term. Philip B. Crosby (1979) believed in the zero-defects program adopted by the US federal government defining quality as conformance to requirements. He emphasized prevention rather than inspection (audits) and promoted a definition of quality as meeting the customers requirements the first time and every time. His work is part of TQM. Crosbys (1979) philosophy on quality is driven solely by prevention of defects. It is expressed in a phrase he uses: Do it right the first time and every time. Crosby emphasizes zero defects, given that he believes there is only one level of quality. In other words, the presence of any flaw in the product deprives it of quality. He believes managements perception and attitude towards quality needs to be transformed if the organisation is going to succeed at delivering quality consistently. For example, Deming and many managers believe that error is inevitable and one only has to deal with it. Crosby believes it is self-defeating to plan and invest in strategies that deal with errors instead of investing in strategies and processes that prevent errors from occurring in the first place (Garvin and March, 1986). The Lean thinking method allows Japanese car manufactures have strong relationships with their suppliers and offer incentives for better quality. E.g. The supplier will carry out rigorous tests on their products before the buyer receives it to ensure reliability. Purchasing can improve quality by contributing to the competitive advantage of the undertaking by participating in the procurement of bought out items at the economical cost. It is important to ensure that quality is not confused with price and grade. Managers should be using their extensive knowledge and expertise to provide high quality to both internal and external customers of the purchasing function. To maximise quality, the purchasing departments responsibilities should meet with the requirements of BS/ EN and BS 7750 Keeping the balance between cost and quality in an important factor for any business. As mentioned above, it depends on what the buyer is trying to achieve overall. If high quality is the overriding factor for a company, then this will tie in with the companies high quality image. Whether it is no frills or impeccable quality, managers will try to find a reasonable balance where appropriate. Bibliography Lysons, K (2000) Purchasing and supply chain management. 5th edition. Prentice Hall Crosby, P. (1984) Quality without tears. 1st edition. Mc Graw Hall companies Crosby, P. (1995) Quality is still free. Mc Graw Hall companies Crosby, P. (1979) Quality is free. . Dutton signet Garvin, D.A. and A. March. (1984) A Note on Quality: The Views of Deming, Juran and Crosby. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Juran, J.M. (1988) Juran on Planning for Quality, New York: Free Press,. http://www.which.co.uk/

Its Time for Open Adoption Essay examples -- Argumentative Persuasive

It's Time for Open Adoption Based on statistics gathered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau, approximately 46,000 children found homes through the foster care system last year alone (Cumpston, 8b). It is hard to imagine that there is this unbelievable number of children adopted in just one year, and the process is still different for every family who goes through it. Only after much research, can one conclude that while handling an adoption, a process known as open adoption is the most beneficial for everyone alike. There are essentially two ways to adopt a child; one technique, known as an open adoption and one known as closed. Throughout the first quarter of the century, the latter of the two methods, also known as confidential adoption, was mainly used (Melina). This was an attempt to protect the birth mothers, as well as the child, from ruthless feelings toward them by the public. During the conception years of adoption, many people were not aware of how adoptions worked or why they were taking place, so they automatically assumed the worst of the situation and the people involved in it (Roszia). However, over the years, the society's comprehension of adoptions in general has changed from oblivious to increasingly aware about how the process works, therefore resulting in the acknowledgment and acceptance of open adoption. In an open adoption, the birth parents and the adoptive parents have continued interaction throughout the extent of the child's life. Open adoptions present the opportunity to take a potentially hazardous situation and turn it into a loving environment for the child. According to Sharon Kaplan Roszia, in her article title... ...ography Baran, Annette & Pannor, Reuben. "An Open Adoption Policy is Best." Opposing Viewpoints: Adoption. Harnack, Andrew, ed., Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego, CA., Pp. 228-237. Byrd, Dean. "A Sealed Adoption Policy is Best." Opposing Viewpoints: Adoption. Harnack, Andrew, ed., Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego, CA., Pp. 238-245. Cumpston, Lori. "Room for One More." The Daily Sentinel. November 23, 2000. Pp.8b Melina, Lois. "A Look at Open Adoption for Prospective Adopters. [Online], Available: http://www.raisingadoptedchildren.com/library/articles/open.html, Dec. 7, 2000. "Open Adoption." National Adoption Information Clearinghouse. [Online], Available: http://www.calib.com/naaic/pubs/s_open.htm, Roszia, Sharon. "From: The Open Adoption Experience." [Online], Available: http://www.adopting.org/silveroze/html/open_adoption.html, 1997.

Models for Interest Rate Risk Essay

Interest risk is the possibility of unexpected adverse changes in interest revenues and expenses. It can be shown that interest rate changes are unpredictable almost 100%. They depend on monetary policy; supply and demand, inflation etc. These in turn depend on many other factors. So how do financial institutions manage the risk of fluctuating interest rates give that they cannot predict it? The immunization of a portfolio against interest rate risk means that the portfolio will neither gain nor lose value if interest rates change. In this essay we will look at some of the different models used by financial institutions for managing interest rate risk. They are the re-pricing model, the maturity model and the duration model. We will describe them and evaluate the comparative advantages and disadvantages each model assumes. Firstly we consider the re-pricing model. It is a balance sheet where assets and liabilities are grouped according to the time periods in which the different assets and liabilities are rate sensitive. Assets or liabilities are rate sensitive within a given time period if the values of each are subject to receiving a different interest rate should market rates change. These groupings are referred to as ‘maturity buckets’. Then ‘Gap analysis’ is conducted where the rate sensitive liabilities are subtracted from rate sensitive assets for each maturity bucket. This is called the GAP. It can be shown that GAP * interest change = net interest income (or profit) change or the interest margin. We can also calculate the cumulative gap(CGAP) by adding up the gaps in the brackets over a period of time, for example 1 year.

Benefits of Cooperative Learning