Thursday, November 28, 2019

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Project To Report To The Project Board And Critical Reflections On The Role Of Being A Project Manager The WritePass Journal

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Project To Report To The Project Board And Critical Reflections On The Role Of Being A Project Manager Executive Summary Berlin Brandenburg Airport Project To Report To The Project Board And Critical Reflections On The Role Of Being A Project Manager )..   This will help to ensure that the project is implemented in light of the lessons which have been learnt far.   The most important lessons which have been learned so far should be considered at the next Project Board meeting.   These have been identified by reviewing the project’s progress to date (BBC, 2013; Local, 2013).   Therefore the lessons that need to be considered are: The importance of maintaining ongoing communication with all stakeholders (Wang and Huang, 2006). The importance of contingency planning (Anderson and Grude, 2009). The importance of feasibility studies and the appraisal of various management systems e.g. for fire safety or for baggage transportation (Kerzner, 2012) (based on BBC, 2013; Local, 2013). At the next Project Board meeting each of these three factors should be considered, as each one has had a detrimental effect on the project to date (BBC, 2013; Local, 2013). The Board should consider how ongoing communication is managed with stakeholders, as to date the project failures have been widely published (BBC, 2013; Local, 2013).   This has led to concerns being raised over the project’s implementation and the capabilities of the project team (BBC, 2013; Local, 2013).   Its well documented that stakeholder engagement is a key factor which may affect a project’s success or failure (see as an example; Phillips et.al. 2012; Wang and Huang, 2006; Yuan et.al. 2009).   Therefore, it is imperative that the Board considers the ongoing stakeholder engagement and seek to learn from our recent experiences. Additionally, another important factor that the Board should consider is the implementation of contingency planning for the remainder of the project.   To date, a number of technical issues have arisen, however due to the lack of contingency planning in the early stages of the project the costs have now risen and the delivery timeline has increased (BBC, 2013; Local, 2013).   If contingency planning was utilised in the early stages of this project it is more likely that it could have been delivered (Thamhain, 1986) in line with the programme and on budget with the required quality standards (Anderson and Grude, 2009). Furthermore, another important lesson that the Board should consider is the importance of undertaking feasibility studies (Soderlund, 2002) and the appraisal of various management systems e.g. for fire safety or for baggage transportation.   To date, the delays in this project have stemmed from critical systems failures (Kerzner, 2012).   The importance of undertaking meaningful feasibility studies to achieve project success is well documented (see as an example: Mackenzie and Cusworth, 2007; McNulty, 2004).   Therefore, to ensure that these problems do not arise again, it is imperative that the Project Board seeks to review and plan how feasibility studies will be conducted for the remaining duration of this project. Each of these factors and the impacts that they have had on the project’s implementation to date (BBC, 2013; Local, 2013) must be considered by the Project Board at their next meeting (Anderson and Grude, 2009).   If these issues are considered, discussed and plans are implemented to seek to redress these (in line with the recommendations that have been outlined for each one above) it is possible that the project will be delivered within the revised programme, to budget whilst meeting the quality standards that are necessary (Mackenzie and Cusworth, 2007; McNulty, 2004).   This is imperative to seek to ensure that no more delays are caused by the project team and to ensure that the costs and project programme do not need to be increased further (Thamhain, 1986), as this will have a detrimental impact on how our stakeholders view the project. 4. Critical Reflections of the Role of a Project Manager Project managers need to have a variety of skills in order to successfully implement projects in a variety of settings.   The key skills that are pertinent to them being able to attain success are as follows: Be organised (Frame, 1999) Be able to multi-task (Kerzner, 2013) Being able to prioritise (Atkinson, 1999) Be able to disseminate information clearly (El-Sabaa, 2001) Be a leader of people (Pinto and Trailer, 1998) Be able to foresee issues and seek to mitigate them (Kerzner, 2003) Be able to understand costs and predict when these may increase. Be able to plan a project and manage its programme (Brown, 2000) Be able to engage stakeholders positively (Verma, 1996) Understand and communicate priorities so that the project team delivers on time (El-Sabaa, 2001). Be aware of quality standards and ensured that they are adhered to throughout the project (Atkinson, 1999) Each of these factors affects the successful implementation of projects (Kerzner, 2013).   To date, many of these skills have been learnt from practically implementing projects, as project manager’s gain experience through undertaking these their skills improve (El-Sabaa, 2001).   Through my experience, I have already gained many of these skills.   However, it is necessary for me to improve my communication and engagement skills as most of the work that I have undertaken has been away from relevant stakeholders or insider my project team.   Therefore, it would be useful to engage with some external stakeholders so that I could enhance my communication and engagement skills in practice (Brown, 2000). 5.Conclusion In conclusion, this report was compiled to seek to inform the project board of how our stakeholders may be perceiving delays which have arisen during the Brandenburg Airport project (BBC, 2013).   A number of solutions have been provided for the Project Board to consider.   It is hoped that the implementation of these will enable the project to be completed to quality standards, on time and to budget. 6. References Andersen, E. S., Grude, K. (2009).  Goal directed project management: effective techniques and strategies. Kogan Page. Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria. International journal of project management,  17(6), 337-342. BBC (2013) Troubled Berlin airport opening delayed yet again.   Available from bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20936798.  Ã‚   (Accessed 05/05/2013) Bourne, L., Walker, D. H. (2005). Visualising and mapping stakeholder influence.  Management Decision,  43(5), 649-660. Bourne, L., Walker, D. H. (2008). Project relationship management and the Stakeholder Circleâ„ ¢.  International Journal of Managing Projects in Business,  1(1), 125-130. Brown, K. A. (2000). Developing project management skills: A service learning approach.  Project Management Journal,  31(4), 53-58. El-Sabaa, S. (2001). The skills and career path of an effective project manager.  International journal of project management,  19(1), 1-7. Frame, J. D. (1999).  Project management competence: Building key skills for individuals, teams, and organizations  (p. 232). Jossey-Bass. Hillman, A. J., Keim, G. D. (2001). Shareholder value, stakeholder management, and social issues: whats the bottom line?  Strategic management journal,  22(2), 125-139. Karlsen, J. T., Grà ¦e, K., Massaoud, M. J. (2008). Building trust in project-stakeholder relationships.  Baltic Journal of Management,  3(1), 7-22. Kerzner, H. (2003).  Advanced project management: Best practices on implementation. Wiley. Kerzner, H. (2012).  Project management case studies. Wiley. Kerzner, H. (2013).  Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Wiley. The Local (2013) Now Berlin Airport won’t open before 2015.   Available from thelocal.de/national/20130117-47393.html#.UYXds7WTiio (Accessed 05/05/2013) Mackenzie, W., Cusworth, N. (2007, June). The use and abuse of feasibility studies. In  Proceedings of the Project Evaluation Conference  (pp. 1-12). McNulty, T. P. (2004). Minimization of delays in plant start-ups. In  Improving and Optimizing Operations: Things That Actually Work! Plant Operators’ Forum 2004  (pp. 113-120). Neufville, R.D. Odoni, A.R., (2003). Airport systems, McGraw-Hill Professional. Phillips, J. J., Bothell, T. W., Snead, G. L. (2012).  The project management scorecard. Routledge. Rhoades, D.L., Jr, B.W. Young, S., (2000). Developing a quality index for US airports. Managing Service Quality, 10(4), 257 262. Sarkis, J., (2000). An analysis of the operational efficiency of major airports in the United States. Journal of Operations Management, 18(3), 335-351. Sarkis, J. Talluri, S., (2004). Performance based clustering for benchmarking of US airports. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 38(5), 329-346. Sà ¶derlund, J. (2004). Building theories of project management: past research, questions for the future.  International journal of project management,  22(3), 183-191. Thamhain, H. J., Wilemon, D. L. (1986). Criteria for controlling projects according to plan.  Project Management Journal. PN11. Drexcll Hill. PA. Upham, P.J., (2003). Towards sustainable aviation, Earthscan. Verma, V. (1996, January). The human aspects of project management: human resource skills for the project manager, volume two. Project Management Institute. Wang, X., Huang, J. (2006). The relationships between key stakeholders’ project performance and project success: Perceptions of Chinese construction supervising engineers.  International Journal of Project Management,  24(3), 253-260. Yuan, J., Skibniewski, M. J., Li, Q., Zheng, L. (2009). Performance objectives selection model in public-private partnership projects based on the perspective of stakeholders.  Journal of Management in Engineering, 26(2), 89-104.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Women in the Workplace essays

Women in the Workplace essays Women in the Workplace The emergence of an urban, industrialized society affected the lives of American women in the late nineteenth century. Women during this time were beginning to see that not only did they belong in the home, but they could also find a role in the workplace. Men, on the other hand, maintained their role in the job market. However, the jobs of both men and women in the nineteenth become more and more specialized in their nature. Women in the 1800s were searching for jobs that had typically been done by men. These jobs included office work and factory work. As women searching for work found, the jobs they wanted to obtain were not there. Men, or other women who had started the search earlier had already filled these jobs. However, with the reorganization of industrial society, more and more jobs would begin to become available. Adams 2 The increasing number of jobs meant there was more specialization in the workplace. Along with the specialization of industry came improved technology. This would prove to be a great way to get women into jobs. Technology, for example, led to the production of the typewriter. In the 1880s, also, the employment of women in offices begin to climb sharply.... This coincidence has led some analysts to conclude that the invention of the typewriter was basically responsible for the employment of women in offices in the United States (p68). The invention of the typewriter led to excellent jobs for women in the nineteenth century. Women could now hold clerical occupations. These clerical occupations included positions as stenographers and typists. For women, these were dream jobs. Now, women would not have to work in factories under extremely harsh conditions. Clerical work was generally seen as more desirable than industrial work, and this spurred women of working-class origins to seek clerical jobs (p71). In taking clerical positions, women would work fewer hour...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ethics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethics - Assignment Example Since Deborah is working as nursing practitioner at a private hospital, she forgets the very reality that private clinics and medical centers keep profit motif in priority while offering their services and pecuniary gains are of vital interest for them. Furthermore, the private health centers are run on the basis of self-reliance doctrine, the administration of such organizations has to device money generating schemes in order to keep the ball rolling. Though in the professions, other than health and medicines, the people do not pay much care to the mercenary motifs of the organizations, the healthcare centers are criticized and condemned for such avaricious purposes due to the very fact that they are expected to serve the humanity by saving their lives in one way or the other. Consequently, the tricks and crookedness observed by these organizations are looked down upon in society. The same is applied to the community hospital in which Deborah has been working as nurse. Deborah has t wo divergent moral obligations: one towards her organization, violating the rules of which may put her job at stake. However, her second obligation is towards her Lord and the humanity at large.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Legalization of marijuana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Legalization of marijuana - Essay Example This research will begin with the definition of marijuana as a dry, shredded combination of stems, seeds, leaves, and flowers of the hemp plant called Cannabis Sativa. Marijuana is generally smoked in a pipe or as a cigarette. It is the most common illegal drug abused in the United States. Marijuana abuse can lead to problems with learning, memory, and social behavior. The drug can interfere with activities linked with school, work, family, etc. Several scientific studies are testing the usefulness and safety of cannabis compounds for the treatment of certain ailments. Marijuana is a popular recreational drug in the United States, and it ranks third in popularity behind alcohol and tobacco. It is estimated that approximately 100 million Americans have used marijuana. According to the surveys conducted by the government, approximately 25 million of Americans have used marijuana in the last 12 months. It also estimated that nearly 14 million of people smoke it regularly despite the har sh laws prohibiting the use of marijuana. According to NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), marijuana is not as dangerous as tobacco or alcohol. Approximately 50,000 individuals die every year due to alcohol poisoning and more than 400,000 individuals die each year from tobacco smoking. In comparison with tobacco and alcohol, marijuana is not toxic and cannot cause death due to overdose. (NORML 1). History of Marijuana Use Human beings have used marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) for a long time. However, in the wake of the 20th century, it was classified by many countries as an illegal drug. In the past twenty years, there has been a continuous debate as to whether legalize marijuana specifically for medical purposes. The use of medical marijuana has increased in the District of Columbia and 16 states that have permitted its use. However, those who oppose the legalization of marijuana question its importance in the medical field (The New York Times 1). As stated above, the use of marijuana extends back over thousands of years (approximately 10,000 years). There is archaeological evidence that the Chinese used Cannabis Sativa. Archaeological evidence indicates that the first physical human requirements to be fulfilled by marijuana plant were the cloth making practice to offer protection from environmental hazards and climatic changes. Marijuana plant had other beneficial uses, such as important medicines (medicinal plant) and foods. Current Debate on Legalization of Marijuana Proponents of Marijuana Legalization Among the major proponents of marijuana legalization is the state of California. California has been at the forefront of marijuana policy reform (Kilmer et al. 1). The proponents of marijuana legalization state that the aim of legalization is not to make marijuana easily accessible, but rather to make the communities safer through the regulation of the substance. In other words, to take marijuana out of the underground markets, cont rol it and keep it away from the young people. In Colorado, medical marijuana is legal, and it has more than 88,000 Colorado residents who seek medical marijuana therapy (The New York Tim

Monday, November 18, 2019

Femail Trafficking Who Are Trafficked for Sexual Exploitation Research Paper

Femail Trafficking Who Are Trafficked for Sexual Exploitation - Research Paper Example As all such extreme crimes, the incidence of human trafficking is significantly high in the world, in both developed and developing countries. This exploitation of human beings, done by the powerful human beings to the comparatively weak and helpless people, occurs in many forms throughout the world, with thousands of victims falling prey to it every year. These forms include, â€Å"prostitution, sexual exploitation, slavery, child labor, organ transplant and other types of involuntary servitude† (UNODC, 2009). Human trafficking also includes the abduction of people and making them work under false promises of money, employment or other such benefits. The victims include men, women, as well as children, who find themselves victims of this crime both in their homelands as well as in foreign countries. Human trafficking bears a striking resemblance with the illegal practice of slavery, due to the conditions and exploitation that are subjected to its victims. One specific type of trafficking is sex trafficking of females, which is one of the most commonly found forms of this crime. Exploiters force women into prostitut ion due to debt-bonded agreements in this crime, and this has currently come to be the face of ‘modern slavery’, and a severe violation of human rights. Female trafficking is a practice, which leads to the compelling of the victimized female to perform sexually, for the exploiter’s financial gain (Hart, 2009). It is a growing business because of two reasons: it is profitable and it uses people who are not difficult to trap. The profitability of this crime is because there is a large market for the illegal trade of sex; a demand that female trafficking satisfies with its low prices and exploitation of helpless women. The helpless women are usually those from poor communities, who have been tricked into taking debts that they cannot afford to repay. They also include those women from families and communities, which are minorities in a country,

Friday, November 15, 2019

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck | Analysis

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck | Analysis John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, was first published in 1937. At the time, America was still suffering the grim aftermath of the depression and the itinerant workers who form the basis of the novel were very much within the consciousness of a nation separated by wealth yet driven by the idea of ‘the American dream’. Steinbeck’s novel is, however, essentially a tale of loneliness, of men struggling alone against a cold, uncaring and faceless destiny. The central protagonists, George and Lennie are, as they are proud to proclaim, different from the others because they have each other. They are an odd couple, George the shrewd, wiry yet ultimately caring protector of the ironically named Lennie Small, who is, in fact, a huge man who doesn’t know his own strength and is mentally incapable of making the smallest of decisions for himself; he relies on George completely but equally, George needs Lennie as he gives him a reason to keep going. Lennie, despite his lack of intellect, senses this because when he knows George feels guilty for being angry with him, he takes advantage of the moment to manipulate George into repeating the story of their ‘dream future’, especially the rabbits they intend to keep with which Lennie is obsessed. They are not related but Lennie’s aunt has brought up George and he has promised her that he will look after Lennie, now she has died. The secret dream they share, of building a life together on a ranch and ‘liv[ing] off the fatta the lan’ is central but the very title of the book, taken from Robert Burns’ poem ‘To a Mouse’ foreshadows the ultimate defeat of their dream, since it speaks of plans going wrong. The two men are en route for another in a series of ranch jobs, having been run out of Weed, the place where they previously lived and worked, because Lennie has been wrongly accused of attempted rape because of his innocent desire to touch the material of a girl’s skirt; again there is foreshadowing here of the tragic ending of the novel. Indeed, the whole of the book follows the circular movement established by the setting of the beginning of the novel and inverting descriptions used there in the ending which takes place in the same spot, where Lennie has been warned to return if anything goes wrong which inevitably it does. Upon arrival at the ranch, Steinbeck takes the opportunity to introduce the reader, via the newcomers, to a panoply of characters, all loners for one reason or another: the old, maimed and dispirited Candy, the black, crippled and isolated Crooks, the feisty and arrogant boss’s son, Curley, who is newly and unhappily married, his wife being what the others call a ‘tramp’, and the god-like Slim, to whom all the others look up and to whom they all look for an image to idolise. Steinbeck uses each of these in a different way to show facets of loneliness and isolation, with only Slim seeming beyond the idea that he is an object of pity. From the first, George is afraid that the aggressive boss’s son, Curley, will cause trouble for himself and Lennie because he is an amateur boxer who sees Lennie’s size as a challenge and is ‘handy’. However, when he is involved in a violent incident with Curley through no fault of his own, Lennie crushes his hand and Slim warns him that if anything is said about it, he will make Curley look a fool, the thing he knows Curley fears most. Indeed, Steinbeck perpetually uses Slim as his centre of consciousness in the novel, the man in whom George confides, in a carefully choreographed ‘confessional’ scene, for example, where even the lighting reflects the intense interrogative. Slim is also the only one of the men who appears to have any kind of relationship with Crooks. It is no coincidence, either, that it is Slim who comforts and consoles George at the end of the book, telling him ‘You hadda, George. I swear you hadda’ and leading him away. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Steinbeck’s novel is undoubtedly his portrayal of women. The only female character to have a real presence in the book is Curley’s wife, who appears to have married Curley on a whim, having been disappointed in her ludicrous ambition to become a film star, and is already clearly on the lookout for a better prospect. She flirts with the men, is clearly attracted to Slim, and abuses Crooks, emphasising as she does this the racial tensions of the time. The other references to women are to prostitutes and Lennie’s late aunt, rather oddly sharing a name with the local ‘madam’ of the brothel. Steinbeck here lays himself open to the charge of sexism, especially since in other works such as East of Eden, which he wrote in 1952, women are similarly portrayed as an entrapment to men, perhaps indicating a connective with difficulties in his personal life. In conclusion, however, it must be said that the enduring appeal of Steinbeck’s powerful novel remains intrinsically the moving realisation of the central relationship between George and Lennie and how their rather coincidental coming together becomes for both the defining emotion of their lives. Precisely because there are two of them, that someone, as George says, ‘gives a damn’, Steinbeck is able to highlight the loneliness of the itinerant drifters of whom he also writes movingly in The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The sharing of their dream with the desperate Candy is in a sense the beginning of the end because as it becomes almost a reality it is simultaneously broken by the intrusion of possibility symbolised by him. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck made a nationwide problem human and in doing so, he created characters who continue to both move and disturb. Bibliography: Cynthia Burkhead, Student Companion to John Steinbeck, (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT., 2002). Donald V. Coers, Paul D. Ruffin and Robert J. DeMott, eds., After the Grapes of Wrath: Essays on John Steinbeck in Honor of Tetsumaro Hayashi, (Ohio University Press, Athens, OH, 1995). Robert DeMott, Steinbecks Typewriter: Essays on His Art, (The Whitston Publishing Company Troy, New York 1997). Tetsumaro Hayashi, John Steinbeck: The Years of Greatness, 1936-1939, (University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL, 1993). Arthur Hobson Quinn and Appleton-Century-Crofts, The Literature of the American People: An Historical and Critical Survey, (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York 1951). Claudia Durst Johnson, Understanding of Mice and Men, the Red Pony, and the Pearl: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents, (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT., 1997). John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, (Longman, Harlow, 2000). John Steinbeck IV and Nancy Steinbeck, The Other Side of Eden: Life with John Steinbeck, (Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2001).

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Financing the Purchase of an Existing Website :: Sell Websites Buy Websites

Financing the Purchase of an Existing Website Reprinted with permission of VotanWeb.com If you're thinking about buying a website, you'll be pleased to learn that financing the purchase is generally quite easy. In fact, it's far simpler to get the money you need to buy an existing website than it is for a start up. Most people simply don't realize how to do it. Don't get the wrong idea: you're not going to buy a business, at least a good one, with no money down; that only happens in the infomercials on TV. Many prospective website buyers mistakenly believe that traditional lenders will welcome them with open arms when they present them with a website they're looking to acquire. Unfortunately, nothing can be farther from the truth. It still amazes me how the banks have got most people fooled. They run these great ad campaigns promoting themselves as business friendly but try to get them to lend you money to buy a website. It won't happen. It doesn't matter how experienced you are, or what your relationship is with them. Unless you're prepared to collateralize the loan 100% with personal liquid assets, they aren't going to give you a penny. So don't waste your time seeing them. With the terms they offer, it's just not worth it. The Small Business Administration does NOT lend money for people to buy businesses. The SBA guarantees loans made by lenders (up to a certain amount) for small business acquisitions. There are both good and bad points to an SBA loan. The good news is that there is money available; up to $1,300,000 The terms for repayment are favorable-up When a business passes the SBA qualifications, you can be fairly confident that it is a solid business If you do not have at least 25% equity in your home, you may not have to fully collateralize the loan. Typically, they will finance 70-80% of the deal. You may be thinking, if you can make the acquisition with 20% down, why would you even think about anything else? Here's why: Many small websites won't pass the SBA requirements The financial review is based upon the weakest of the past two or three year's tax returns You must have demonstrative experience in a business that is similar to the one you are considering