Thursday, January 30, 2020

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Essay Example for Free

Ben Jerry’s Homemade Essay With four offers on the table, Ben Jerry’s had quite the decision to make. When it came down to it, they chose the most attractive offer which turned out to be with Unilever. As time passed, this was shown to ultimately be a very wise choice as the financial results would later show impressive results. These impressive results could be seen by looking at how the operating margins tripled and were able to maintain a 700M operating profit in succeeding years after the merger (starting in 2002), operations expanded into 13 new countries, and that their sales reached a notable 7. 9 million. Put this together with the fact that Unilever let Ben Jerry’s continue to operate as an independent subsidiary and continue a majority of their social agenda, this was a successful merger for Ben Jerry’s. From a Unilever’s perspective, it proved to be just as lucrative. Investors in Unilever has grown uneasy for some time with Unilever and had been pressuring them to grow. This was partly solved when Unilever finally acquired Ben Jerry’s (And around 20 other companies at that time) and was able to grow Ben Jerry’s internationally and increase its company’s value to its investors. All said and done, this was a very successful merger for both parties despite a few integration problems that will be discussed in the following analysis. First off it should be mentioned that Ben Jerry was able to continue their social contributions. They were able to stay in Vermont, continue to buy non-BGH diary goods from Vermont supplies, and continue to have their free cones day. Unilever even helped start a Ben Jerry’s foundation that would help fund businesses in low-income communities. All this was in the result of Ben Jerry’s company culture and the employee’s attitudes. One impact from this was that the employees were quite â€Å"playful.† This led to the first integration problem when Unilever implanted its own executive, Yves Couette, as CEO of Ben Jerry’s. He had the task of being able to switch from the more strict corporate culture at Unilever to Ben Jerry’s more laid back culture This led to him hiring a consultant who would teach financial issues to the employees at Ben Jerry’s in a playful matter. Another integration problem was that there were a couple duplicate processes that Ben Jerry’s and Unilever both had. These processes produced inefficiencies that took place in the production and distribution of Ben Jerry’s. Because of this, two Ben Jerry’s plants  were closed which resulted in 69 Ben Jerry employees being let go. Even though employees were let go, this was still the best route to go as a company wants to be as lean as possible. There was also a couple integration problems when it came down to corporate policy. Unilever had a policy which disallowed any partisan political actions. Ben Jerry’s didn’t formally have this in their policy. The problem occurred when some of Ben Jerry employees wanted to go to an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. on a bus emblazoned with the Ben Jerry’s name. Because it was against Unilever’s corporate policy, they were unable to go to the antiwar demonstration. When looking at the profit for Ben Jerry’s in the early 2000s, the merger has been quite successful. The impressive results can be seen from the operating margin and profit. The merger seemed to have come at a perfect time for Unilever, as their investors were looking to gain from expansion. A few integration problems arose from the merger. Inefficiencies were eliminated, which in turn caused the company to downsize. Unilever’s non-partisan policy conflicted with Ben Jerry’s socially aware company theme. Even though these problems arose, the merger between the two companies was successful.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Free Essays - The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

â€Å"†¦And the Home of the Greedy† As Matthew J. Bruccoli noted: â€Å"An essential aspect of the American-ness and the historicity of The Great Gatsby is that it is about money. The Land of Opportunity promised the chance for financial success.† (p. xi) The Great Gatsby is indeed about money, but it also explores its aftermath of greed. Fitzgerald detailed the corruption, deceit and illegality of life that soon pursued â€Å"the dream†. However, Fitzgerald entitles the reader to the freedom to decide whether or not the dream was ever free of corruption. Fitzgerald used several patterns to develop the theme surrounding the lost dream. One such pattern included the emergence corruption in relation to honesty. We first witness the symbolic aspects of this when we meet Jordan Baker. We learn through Nick that she is a golfer and he further indulges that â€Å"at her first big golf tournament there was a row that nearly reached the newspapers-a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round.†(p. 62) Golf is universally known as the game a truth, a game in which the players record their own performances and are trusted. Through this example we can interpret that all honesty has been destroyed, and cheating is now abundant. Also, it is learned that America’s pastime, baseball, was also corrupted. â€Å"Meyer Wolfshiem? He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.† (p. 78) This is significant because a game that was created in America, the land of the honest and th e free where the dream first came alive has been tainted. This notion suggests that even the simplest of realities and recreations have long lost their innocence.   Fitzgerald even implies that those who serve and protect us have also been corrupted. We learn that Tom has bribed the police. These same men who are known as the cities finest have also had their sincerity tarnished by the same greed that has tarnished the dream. Another pattern that is rather distinct is Fitzgerald’s suggestion that potential, life and beginnings have also been ruined. Our narrator’s last name, Caraway, is a seed, a symbol of life and beginnings. We also learn that Nick is from the West, which is where the dream originated. However, once Nick Caraway moves to the East he is soon caught up in the corruption and destruction associated with the region. Our setting, the Egg Islands, is also symbolic.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Motivation in management Essay

The study of motivation aims to facilitate understanding of what prompts employees to initiate action, what influences their choice of action and why they persist in such action over time. Motivation is important to business practitioners since it assists in seeking high performance within organisations. While effective employee motivation improves productivity, it also generates challenges for managers to channel motivation towards the accomplishment of organisational goal. This essay intends to examine several motivation theories with reference to the film the Devil wears Prada, and then discuss some challenges managers may face when attempting to motivate employees in the contemporary world of work. Following this introduction, three motivation theories including ERG theory, two-factor theory and reinforcement theory are exemplified by the film the Devil wears Prada in the findings part. Then, conclusions generating from findings as well as recommendations suggesting implications for managers will be given evolutionarily. Findings Motivation refers to the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action. The rationale behind theories of motivation is to provide a framework through which organisations can better influence their employees’ drive to work and increase their enthusiasm with their roles. Theories of motivation mainly contain content theories focusing on the underlying needs that motivate, process theories explaining the way employees select behavioural actions and reinforcement theories examining the relationship between behaviour and its consequence. Among so many theories concerning motivation, the ERG theory, two-factor theory and reinforcement theory are selected to be discussed in this essay. Besides, using film to simulate and examine organisational behaviours is considered to be an effective way to assist students in applying management theories, and even the primary instructional medium which can be incorporated into an organizational behaviour class as proposed by Gerald W. Smith. (Gerald, 2009) To illustrate motivation theory for further understanding, the Devil wears Prada is rather a good choice. Alderfer EGR Theory To some extent, Alderfer’s ERG theory can be considered as a condensate of famous Maslow’s five needs hierarchy theory. ERG theory considers the intrinsic factors that drive employees to behave more productively as well and Alderfer classified underlying human needs that generate motivation to three categories, containing existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. (Samson & Draft, 2012) Motivating employees through satisfying their intrinsic needs is an effective way to understand and accelerate motivation in workplace. In the devil wears Prada, Andy’s progress in her job as Miranda’s assistant is an excellent illustration to understand this theory. Existence needs include all material and physiological desires for physical wellbeing. When Andy initially takes the job in Runway and strives for being Miranda’s second assistant, she is identified to be motivated by her existence needs that affording living expenses in New York and getting career started after graduation from university. She considered ‘this stuff’ has nothing to do with her, indicating she felt unrelated with this workplace, unlike Emily who have great enthusiasm towards fashion industry and therefore are extremely motivated especially by strong needs for growth (chance to go Paris for Fashion week). Then, after being frustrated by failure to complete missions and Miranda’s reprimand, Andy gradually gets involved and emerges relatedness needs, which encompass external esteem and relationships with significant others like co-workers and employers. She seriously cares about her competence of this job and wants to be recognized in Runway. Being successfully motivated, Andy becomes most productive assistant and wins appreciation of Miranda on the basis of her capacity. Andy seems to have a bright future of career at that point. However, Andy chooses not to persist as she realizes that her growth needs, which represent internal esteem and self-actualization, can never be satisfied in Runway. She eventually decides to turn another way to pursue the job satisfying all her needs. Herzberg’s two-factor theory Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation considered satisfaction and dissatisfaction as two separate entities caused by quite different factors, which were named hygiene factors and motivators. Hygiene factors are characterised as extrinsic components of job design that contribute to employee dissatisfaction if they are not met, while motivators are intrinsic to the job itself and include achievement, recognition, responsibility and opportunity for growth. (Samson & Draft, 2012) Herzberg believed that hygiene factors work only in area of dissatisfaction, while employees are highly motivated just by the presence of motivators. It is the only motivational theory that splits out demotivating factors from true motivators. This two-factor theory seems to be illustrated in the Devil wears Prada as well. When Andy starts to work as Miranda’s second assistant, she is driven by several hygiene factors that generate job dissatisfaction, referring to working status, co-worker relationships, supervisory style and company administration. Andy has to deal with all of Miranda’s sudden requests no matter when and how difficult, indicating a terrible working status. She is not into Runway’s culture as well as her colleagues, and finally becomes frustrated about her job in Runway. However, after Andy gets involved in her job, motivators, referring mostly to Miranda’s recognition and her advancement at work, starts to continually burst Andy’s enthusiasm as well as productivity. At this stage, Andy’s capacity and even potency is successfully stimulated. Moreover, Adrian Furnham, Andreas Eracleous and Tomas Chamorro Premuzic (2008) stretched to further examine motivation in workplace based on combining two-factor theory with personality variables. For instance, they released that motivators were associated positively with extraversion, whilst high scores in the hygiene-related factor were negatively associated with extraversion. Andy, who concerns friends a lot and is recognised to be highly extroversive, also complies with this finding. It is interesting that she is so highly motivated by her recognition and advancement needs, that she even overcomes job dissatisfaction and gets used to her ‘mission impossible’ spontaneously, indicating her high degree of extraversion personality leads to more sensitively react to motivators than hygiene-related factors. Reinforcement Theory of Motivation While satisfying human needs are the key sources that drive employees to behave more productively, to the extent that managers understand employee needs, the organisation’s reward systems can be designed to meet them and reinforce employees for directing energies and priorities towards attainment of organisational goals. In the devil wears Prada, the main reinforcement tool utilized by Miranda to modify Andy’s behaviour at first she takes the job is recognised to be punishment, which mostly refers to reprimanding. Miranda berates Andy severely following her failure of getting the flight Miranda needs and actually succeeds in reducing the likelihood of the behaviour recurring under the circumstance in the film. However, it is worth noticing that Andy is totally frustrated and don’t know what her fault is when Miranda punishes her through reprimanding. This indicates the controversial use of punishment in organisation which is often criticised for failure to direct the correct behaviour. (Samson & Draft, 2012) Then Miranda’s reinforcement tool changes to avoidance learning, which stops ignoring Andy after Andy is into her position and shows her capacity. Miranda also encompass positive reinforcement that she offers ‘gifts’, such as cosmetics and bags, as well as higher level task indicating recognition (delivery of the mock-up book), and promotes Andy by replacing Emily. In contrast, Emily is given extinction reinforcement tool at this stage as her chance to go to Paris is withdrawn. Conclusion In the first 30 minutes of the film, it shows that motivation arising from satisfying existence needs only leads Andy to ‘deign to work’ and turns to be not enough to boost Andy’s productivity Miranda requires. Andy tends to just accomplish her tasks passively and evaluates her job requirements are not reasonable due to inadequate motivation. No extra, or even required passion or efforts is given spontaneously, which is described by Nigel as ‘not trying’. It indicates the inefficiency for organisations to drive employees to work only relying on payment. Besides, while the motivation from satisfying growth needs perfectly stimulates Emily to make every effort, the assistant job can never meet the growth needs of Andy, based on diverse aspirations of them two. It indicates one of the complexities faced by managers that identifying purpose derived from work for individuals is sophisticated, and meanwhile bound to motivate employees effectively as well as sustainably. Moreover, the film reveals the implication of two-factor theory for managers that poor hygiene factors will generate dissatisfaction, while recognition, achievement and opportunities for growth are powerful motivators that stimulate employees’ productivity. What’s fascinating about this is that even things like human relations training and job participation don’t intrinsically motivate people. They may charge a person’s battery, but it will run flat again at some point of no real motivation is instilled. Recommendation Although it is a special situation that employees with particular personality, like Andy, can be forced to get involved through experiencing failure, the lesson of motivation, that employees will emerge relatedness needs and then generate higher motivation once they concern and feel related to workplace, is rather a useful inspiration for managers to encompass enhancing employees’ involvement as motivation issues. To the extent manager generates employee’s involvement, they can initiatively get into organisational norms and makes additional efforts to behave towards management’s expectations. Besides, as motivation arises from within employees and typically differs for each employee, organisations should learn about employees’ living conditions as well as personality variables that contribute to their diverse needs, with the intention of increasing job satisfaction and performance. On the basis of such knowledge, motivators aim to accurately satisfy employees’ intrinsic needs and then burst their productivity to the greatest extent, can be established. Reference Adrian Furnham and Andreas Eracleous Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2008) Personality, motivation and job satisfaction: Hertzberg meets the Big Five, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 24 No. 8, 2009, pp. 765-779 Jennifer Kunz & Stefan Linder (2012) Organizational Control and Work Effort – Another Look at the Interplay of Rewards and Motivation, European Accounting Review, 21:3, 591-621 Samson, D. and Daft, R.L. (2012) Management (Fourth Asia Pacific Edition).Cengage Learning: South Melbourne Smith, G.W. (2009) Using Feature Films as the Primary Instructional Medium to Teach Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management Education, Vol. 23 No. 4 462-489

Monday, January 6, 2020

Neighborhood Watch - 1179 Words

Neighborhood Watch Proposal Neighborhood Watch Proposal Introduction A Neighborhood Watch Program is a community-implemented program that assists with preventing crime. This program was started in the 1970’s by the National Sheriff’s Association to encourage members of various communities to observe and report on suspicious activities within their neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Watch Program’s purpose is to improve safety within a neighborhood. Providing a study on communities that are utilizing the Neighborhood Watch Programs will give insight into a neighborhood that should be able to come together to fight against crime and attempt to retake their community from criminals. This proposal will promote some†¦show more content†¦Neighborhood watch meetings may be held in places such as a local high school gym, a community center, or even in a resident’s home. The Benefits of a Neighborhood Watch Program Resource programs implemented through a neighborhood watch would be beneficial to public safety and help to unite citizens with public safety officials. The two groups would have the opportunity to work together and combine their individual strengths and knowledge. This joining of the two would help to improve the lifestyle within the community and allow for issues occurring in these urban areas to be addressed. Assistance from the police department would also help the effectiveness of the program because law enforcement would build a partnership with the community’s members. Residents of the community will have more faith in the safety of their neighborhood as well as restore their faith in the police officers working with them. Other departments play an active role within the neighborhood watch programs; the department of transportation, the fire department, city council, and animal control departments. If these d epartments would unite and accept responsibility in eliminating and decreasing the crime issues within the community, residents’ fears would be reduced and they would aid in improving the quality of life significantly. The residents in the community will eventually start to view the city and public safety officers as beingShow MoreRelatedCommunity Policing And The Neighborhood Watch Program883 Words   |  4 Pagesis forming neighborhood watch programs which benefit both police and citizens. Citizens and police work together to discourage criminal behavior and find solutions to crime (Take Action, n.d.). Neighborhood watch entails educating members on security and suspicious behaviors such as a person screaming for help, strange noises, a person looking in cars widows, strangers in cars talking to children and property being taken out of a house when the resident is not home. Neighborhood watch members areRead MoreNeighborhood Watch1074 Words   |  5 PagesNeighborhood Watch: Let’s Partner with Law Enforcement: Let’s Be Vigilant: Let’s Legislate! By: Shelly Ray Date: 07/15/13 Over the weekend, the nation watched and listened as the â€Å"Not Guilty† verdict was read for second degree murder and manslaughter charges in the case of George Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman is the 29 year old neighborhood watchman man and man who fired the fatal shot of 17 year old Trayvon Martin on the evening of February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. The subject I will bringRead MoreThe Neighborhood Watch626 Words   |  3 PagesThe Neighborhood Watch Functions and Goals Stresses instruction and common sense to members Teaches people how to help themselves by identifying and reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods Provides people with the occasion to make their neighborhoods safer and advance the quality of life (The Role of Traditional Policing in Community Policing, 2008) Issues Addressed Focus on surveillance and awareness as a means of preventing crime Endorsing social interaction among members andRead MoreThe Shooting of Trayvon Martin at the Hands of George Zimmerman2018 Words   |  8 PagesTrayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. This was a polarizing trial for it pitted gun rights activists against gun-control activists and people who were generally against the new gun rhetoric that is in Florida. George Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch for the gated community and would always do his job diligently. 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After reviewing all of the new and old issues with the Cherry Hill community there has been a few new programs we would like to start in the community. The first program would be a Neighborhood Watch program which will have a community coordinator, watch coordinator as well as a block captain or street captain who will all work together on a common goal to get their community back the way it once was before the drugs moved into the community. All of these people willRead MoreAre Neighborhood Watch Programs That Effective?1699 Words   |  7 Pagesthis activity. This fact alone is what has made neighborhood watch programs so well-liked within the last couple decades. Due to participation in neighborhood watch programs the numbers has almost doubled over the past decade according to the crime survey that was taken in the UK. Regardless of the large number of neighborhood watch programs, there still has not been a drastic reduction in the crime rates. This poses the question: Are neig hborhood watch programs that effective? In order to answer this