Occupational stress and its effects on overall performance within oil Essay - 1

Occupational stress and its effects on overall performance within oil and gas industry - Essay Example Extraction of oil and gas reserves for the off shore oil and gas industries with success in performance and productivity is vitally important for the economies of countries that possess these particular industries. However the industry is dangerous along with potentially of hazards. The work related to the offshore platform functions is regarded as an occupation that is widely stressful as the employees are exposed to stress associated with the onshore work as well as that of the tasks of the offshore. (Chen, Yu & Wong, 2009) The financial benefits gained by the oil and gas industries are associated with huge costs resulting from stress that are generally mismanaged. Various adverse incidents affect the employees as well as the organizations that are associated with these industries. Early retirement of the workers along with relations with the employees that are unsatisfying, with dissatisfaction among the workers regarding their job and hence poor productivity among them are some o f the adverse impacts suffered by the associates and the employees of the oil and gas industries. In addition to that the rate of accidents that are considerably increasing with more and more mechanization of the production techniques has been another contributing factor to the sufferings. Moreover cumulative stress trauma litigation is another increasing problem of this industry that is gaining attention with increased importance of stress reduction mechanisms. The restricted location in which the employees are forced to work for significant period of time in a continuous manner adds the potentiality of stress in these oil and gas industries. Hazardous duties in a confined environment with huge probability of incidents of escalations of hydrocarbons add to the level of stress and pressure associated with the industry’s functioning. These situations of optimal stress have its implication in turn on the productivity of these

Discussion Question week 10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion Question week 10 - Essay Example This site became approved after the US FDA audit at Jigani, which is another plant owned by Hikal Limited. The company promised to give all research contracts to Peter Nightingale, who owns Acoris Research Ltd, Pune, India. Nightingale is an expert in the pharmaceutical and other chemical sectors. By giving the research contract to this company, Hikal will offer many job opportunities to Indians. This is because Acoris Research Ltd will use Indians to carry out the research since they know their community well. Local people benefit from local job opportunities since they have strong relations with the communities where they live. When a manufacturing plant becomes established, local people become given first opportunities so that they can accommodate the activities, particularly, when they involve environmental pollution. 3 Some residents who lack enough competence end up working in new plants, since managers lower qualification levels to fill different job positions. Eventually, these employees enhance their job skills and confidence in their fields, which makes other local employers admire them. This, in turn, increases their wages and employability, in the long run. â€Å"Hikal to begin API manufacturing facility operations by June 2012.† Business Standard.com. Last modified November 3 2012.

‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck Essay Example for Free

‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck Essay ‘Of Mice and Men’ is written by John Steinbeck. The novel is set in the 1930s during the great depression in California. The two protagonist characters, George and Lennie are farm workers who have a dream of one-day owning their own ranch. They find work in a ranch near Soledad, after escaping from Weed because of George’s incident. They are met by different characters on the farm that all have a dream. To be lonely means to lack friends or companionship and to feel isolated. Most of the characters are lonely and the only thing that keeps them alive is their dreams. Some of the loneliest characters they meet are Candy, an old man with only one hand, Crooks, a black cripple and Curley’s Wife, a woman who has no identity, she is lonely even though she is married. Although they are all on the ranch together, they are lonely because of who they are and their history. ‘Of Mice and Men’ is an emotional story with many different themes and characters. Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as the only women in the ranch and because she doesn’t have a name it shows that she is not important and she is someone’s belonging. The first time you hear about Curley’s wife is when candy describes her to George. Candy uses expression such as â€Å"she got the eye† and goes on to describe her as looking at other man because of this they call her a â€Å"tart†. Through Candy’s words, we could develop an initial perception of Curley’s wife as Flirty and even promiscuous. This manipulates us by leading us into having a negative view of her. Her first appearance in the Novel focuses on her appearance. The way she acts, the way she looks and the way she speaks with others. The first sentence about her was â€Å"the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway cut off† this shows how she stands there to get attention and get noticed by the ranchers. This make us think as a reader in other way she stood in that certain place because she knows that they will look at her. Her physical appearance of â€Å"full†, â€Å"rough lips† and â€Å"wide-spaced eyes†,† Heavily made up† and â€Å"her fingernails were red† this shows how see got the natural shape on an actor. The â€Å"heavily made up† this shows that she want to make herself look attractive so the ranchers will look at her and feel love in her. The colour â€Å"red† shows that it’s a symbol of danger and on the other side the thick bright colours stands out from other things so this can make herself get noticed by others that is all she wanted. George seems to believe Candy he says to Lennie â€Å"don’t you even take a look at that bitch† this shows the feelings that George got towards Curley’s wife. She is lonely â€Å"stands there looking in† which shows she nothing to do and because of her loneliness she wanted to be loved by others so she acts like she is flirting. They say she is a â€Å"flirty† but it is the only way she knows how to get attention.

Easyjet: Business Model Analysis

Easyjet: Business Model Analysis Easyjet.com EasyJet.com is one of the top travel web sites on the Internet. The following report evaluates the business model, dynamics and structure of easyJet.com. It also outlines the factors responsible for the company’s success including business focus, target market, corporate structure and e-business model. In doing so, the author also hopes to find out what are some of the important aspects of e-business that differentiate and benefit corporations in setting up e-commerce sites such as easyJet.com. Online travel sites have flocked the Internet in the recent years making travel much easier than before. With the number of online visitors rising every year, the travel market in Europe is estimated to reach Euro 20 billion by 2006 (Europemedia 2002). Success in this market is inherent in deliberate strategic e-business and e-commerce modelling. This is evidence in the following report on easyJet.com. Building e-business focused web content requires deliberate business as well as technological considerations. These range from the site outlook to the usability and structure of the web site (Dietel, Dietel and Nieto 2001). easyJet.com in terms of an online travel resource is a comprehensive web site designed to deliver a host of services without redundant graphics or advertisements to distract its visitors. This is because easyJet.com knows its audience: online visitors living in the continent of Europe looking for cheap, comfortable and comprehensive real time travel related deals without the hassle of third party agents. To serve this type of audience easyJet.com has designed a web site that has all information easily available in all the dominant languages of the region and segmented under different tabs of accommodation, car rental, travel insurance, airport related transport and flight booking to allow the visitor to go directly to required service. It also has sub tabs for easy access to schedules, timetables and rates etc. in real time. Each of these sections and sub sections are governed by moderate graphics to represent the services easyJet.com has to offer and links to the different web pages within its web site. Moderate use of text eliminates time wastage yet at the same time conveys accurate message to the audience to guide them to various links based on logical visitorâ₠¬â„¢s usage. For example a visitor booking a flight will first insert the date of travel, destination, and check for its availability; then moves on to make the final booking/purchase. There is enough information on each page to support the requirement of the visitor without abstract marketing banners to detract real buyers. Unlike its competitors web sites like www.lastminute.com or www.bahn.de, easyJet.com concentrates on usability and reliability of information (Nielson 1994) rather than visibility and colourful display alone. However, this is not to say that the web site lacks colours. The use of orange colour throughout the web site is consistent with easyJets own corporate colour code so that clients can associate with easyJet the airline company, which is a critical aspect of web site development (Nielson 1994). easyJet is a no-frills airline and it targets at the business and the leisure consumers. Likewise, easyJet.com also targets the business and leisure consumers who are not interested in dealing with third party intermediaries. The target audience is keen on saving time and money. For the business and frequent fliers, easyJet.com provides easy access to booking, scheduling of flights, accommodation and transportation. Amenities like choice of airport lounges or airport parking are important in making the process of travel booking complete. Realizing corporate need for discounted and group travel easyJet.com has reserved a section of its website for B2B transactions which offers unique packages especially for the business to business customers. On the other hand for the leisure individual travellers, easyJet.com also serves them with daily flights, hotel, insurance, airport transportation and such services and at the same time updates them with offers of the week, seasonal packages, and weekend deals which the consumers may avail whenever they like. Based on these target audiences and the kind of services offered, easyJet.com could be considered to be an ideal re-intermediation where the manufacturer/service provider (easyJet) is in direct contact with the consumers communicated through an electronic medium (Internet). This form of intermediation reduces cost through agency intermediation, customer service, networks and help in transforming the business to e-business corporate structure. Consequently, the company uses technology mediation to sell its products and services and create business value. The purpose of setting up an online business is to ensure growth, efficiency, competitive advantage and leverage over competitors. More importantly an e-business structure helps in deciding the direction of the business. easyJet.com initially followed an â€Å"e-manufacturer† business model as it had been the provider of online airline ticketing for UK residents (EasyJet Profile 2003). A manufacturer business model in e-commerce sense refers service providers who may or may not be in direct contact with the consumers. Being an e-manufacturer meant that easyJet.com has been able to cut down its supply chain to deal with its consumers directly. This is evidence in the fact that easyJet had sold approximately 90% of its flights online (EasyJet Profile 2003). However, as the company evolved its e-business model also changed to have become a travel related service â€Å"merchant†. This is evidence from the expansionary steps taken to include hotel and apartment booking services, car rental, airport lounges as well as parking services which are out of bound of easyJet.coms core product category. By subletting services of hotels, car rental and the like easyJet.com has become the intermediary and has been able to generate more profits, add value to its product offering and target more customer base (Afuh and Tucci 2002). easyJet.coms success could be attributed to management understanding of its business model and its function to the organizational structure. Given the constantly evolving business environment of today, easyJet and other businesses need to understand the dynamic nature of their organization and anticipate future business needs. Understanding and adopting business models are critical endeavours that enable the business to develop competitive advantage and add value to products and services (Eckersley, Harris and Jackson 2003). Understanding ones business model helps in reducing inefficient functions, redundancies and untargeted markets. It helps in designing and adopting new business model(s) that may be more attuned to the requirement and needs of the market by creating niches or segmentation. Especially on the internet, business models need to be evaluated constantly to match with the consumer demands and business environment need to sustain competitive edge (Bloch, Pigneur and Segev 1996). A flexible company or entrepreneur would be able to understand the need in keeping its e-business model dynamic and be able to anticipate change management as and when required. In the authors opinion this is critical for the success of any business whether online or offline because change management is important. Organization today have to take into consideration transaction cost, budgets, organizational design and its implications as well as the impact of change on the organization (Jones 2003). Considerations to these aspects mean that the entrepreneur or the management of the company needs to be flexible enough to react and implement change as required not for the benefit of being flexible but also for profitability’s sake. For example easyJet.com initially started out as a no-frill airline at the domestic level but it has been fast in adapting to the new e-business model of merchant/retailer for travel related services without compromising its core product and service. Co nsequently, it has been able to gain competitive advantage in the no-frill airline business before other organizations have been able to forecast its emergence. Thus, in my opinion organizations that do not capitalize on opportunity cost inherent in flexibility lose out in competitive advantage and therefore fail to add value to the products and services that they have to offer. Ultimately, it will lose out in the competition. The above report reflects easyJet.coms dynamic strategy for its online business model. Through its web site, easyJet has been able to secure one of the top positions among travel related web sites. Not only this but the structure, design, usability and usefulness of the website have enabled it to secure leverage over its competitors. More importantly, easyJet.com has incorporated flexibility in its e-business model which enables it to foresee change and develop strategies to counteract accordingly. Consequently it has become one of the most successful web sites on the Internet. References Afuah, A. and Tucci, C. 2002, Internet Business Models and Strategies: Text and cases, 2nd edition, McGraw Hill Author not available, 2002, Europeans flock to online travel sites. Europemedia. Amsterdam: Feb 14, 2002 Issue. Author not available, 2003, EasyJet Profile, BizEd, Accessed on 7-11-2005 from: http://www.bized.ac.uk/compfact/easyjet/easyindex.htm> Bloch M, Pigneur Y, Segev A 1996, ‘Leveraging Electronic Commerce for Competitive Advantage: a Business Value Framework’ 9th International Conference on EDI-IOS Bled, Slovenia. Deitel, Deitel Nieto, 2001, e-Business and e-Commerce: How to program, Prentice Hall. easyJet Official Website, Accessed on 7-11-2005 from: www.easJet.com> Eckersley, P. M, Harris, L. and Jackson, P. 2003, E-Business Fundamentals: Managing Organisations in the Electronic Age. Routledge: New York. Jones, G. 2003, Organizational Theory, Design, and Change, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall. Nielson, J. 1994, Ten Usability Heuristics. In Nielsen, J., and Mack, R.L. (Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods, John Wiley Sons, New York, NY. Available at: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html Phillips P. 2003, E-Business Strategy, McGraw-Hill. www.bahn.de www.lastminute.com

animal activism Essay example -- essays research papers

Animals are dying on a daily basis or living out their lives being abused or neglected. Statistics show that more than five thousand animals are mistreated and neglected each year in Michigan#. This number is increasing rapidly due to lack of knowledge of animal care, also the number increases due to the lack of penalty for animal cruelty. I see a need to educate because of violence toward animals. I plan to educate children to successfully care for their four legged friends.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The issue of animal cruelty affects the world by crime related activities. For example dog or pit fighting is directly related to drug activity. This form of â€Å"sport† is well known in the illegal drug business and is often discovered when a drug bust occurs. Drug dealers train pit bulls using weaker animals like cats or small dogs which are nothing but a death wish for these defenseless animals#. These Pit Bulls are trained to fight to the death in the ring. These dogs are often starved and or beat to increase their aggressive nature.# When they get loose in a neighborhood, many children playing on the street are in danger.# The psychological effect of children that abused animals results in adults that commit violent crimes such as serial killers, like Ted Bundy and Jeff Dahmer# who were habitual animal abusers. The underlying factor of people that abuse, and neglect animals is a lack of compassion for living creatures. It’s this lack of compass ion that facilitate violent ...

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Henry Adams once wrote "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." This is so true, every teacher here has taught us much more than the textbook curriculum. Every teacher here tonight has given us students something we will use or remember for the rest of our lives. I really don't think people understand or appreciate the time and effort our teachers have put into us. So tonight I'm not going to give everyone advice on the future, I'm not going to tell you how life is a journey we've just begun, and I'm not going to brag about how great the class of 2006 is. Since we have eight outstanding Valedictorians this year, I'm sure all of those bases are already covered. So instead, I'm going to take a few minutes here to thank some of the teachers and staff that have made a difference in my own life, and by doing so I hope that everybody present tonight will see how important each and every teacher and staff member is at Amos High School. I'd like to start out by thanking Mr. Addington. Not only is he the Clay and Ceramics teacher at AHS, he is the wisest man I know. I have asked him so many questions this year, and he has always helped me figure things out, but instead of letting me be lazy and simply telling me his answers, he asks me the questions and makes me think it out. Mr. Bassett is the smartest man I know. He keeps the entire school district's computer network up and running, he created a computer program that lets kids and parents check their grades from their home computers, as well as another program that he sold to the government. While doing all this, he still made extra time to help me survive his Windows 2000 class since I hadn't taken the required prerequisites and was pretty lost. Mr.... ...already talked about, and the ones that I did not get a change to mention, but I don't have time. Parents and people of the community, please see what great people these teachers are, and remember how much of their lives they give freely to their students. Teachers, whether you know it or not, you have affected each of us so much. The people that I have talked about are only teachers on my own list of important people at Amos High School. Every single student in a cap and gown right now has their own list, every one of you has impacted someone's life, and we will never forget you. Without your time and effort, none of us would be where we are today, and none of us would have been the leaders that we will turn out to be. You have made our experience at Amos High School truly great, and it will be hard to say goodbye, but from the graduating class of 2006, thank you.

Existentialism and Film Noir

Existentialism and Film Noir Existentialism and its worldview are believed to have derived from Nietzsche’s provocative and controversial statement â€Å"God is dead†. The underlying meaning to Nietzsche’s controversial statement is that empirical natural science has replaced metaphysical explanations of the world. As a result of this, according to Nietzsche we no longer have any sense of who and what we are as human beings.He concludes that no foundation exists anymore for the meaning and value of things. Nietzsche’s philosophy shines light on what film noir is. That is, an artistic response to, or recognition of, this alteration in our understanding of the world. To emphasize the existentialist attitude in film noir, various stylistic and thematic techniques are used.Common techniques or characteristics of film noir that we see in both The Maltese Falcon and The Killers include: unconventional or non-classical narrative patterns, opposition of light and shadow, disorientation of the viewer, incoherent plot lines, inversion of traditional values and its corresponding moral ambivalence, non-chronological ordering of events, and characters whose actions are not motivated or understandable in any rational way.The similarities of characteristics between existentialism and film noir are prominent; for example, Siodmak and Huston distinguish the alienation and disorientation of a post-Nietzschean world, one without transcendent meaning or value. The constant opposition of light and shadow as seen in The Maltese Falcon and The Killers, helps communicate the dark characteristics of a post-Nietzschean world. For instance, when the swede peacefully awaits his assassins, we get a sense of estrangement and lack of sense and meaning.This lack of sense and meaning is further emphasized when the room goes dark and you see him from the neck down in light, but the face is in total shadow. A sense of despair is created through this camera technique b y showing that no one else is in the room, leaving him hopeless to escape. A common characteristic of film noir that we see in both The Maltese Falcon, and The Killers, is the use of unconventional or non-classical narrative patterns. The use of non-classical narrative patterns emphasizes the cynical characteristics of a post-Nietzschean world.For instance, in The Maltese Falcon, Miss Ruth Wonderly initially claims to Spade and Archer to be searching for her sister, however her true intentions were to implicate Thursby her unwanted accomplice by killing Archer. Miss Ruth Wonderly’s contemptuous behavior coincides with the pessimistic view about the nature and purpose of human life. Non-classical patterns are established through various stylistic techniques. Such as the non-chronological ordering of events, often achieved through flashbacks. An example of this technique is seen in The Killers, when flashbacks are used to tell the story leading up to Ole Andersen’s death .The use of flashbacks and complicated sometimes-incoherent plot lines, as in The Maltese Falcon, are examples of the stylistic techniques that are used in film noir to communicate the mood and sensibility. A final common technique that is used in film noir is portraying characters whose actions are not motivated or understandable in any rational way. For example, why does Miss Wonderly lie about her name and objective in the beginning of The Maltese Falcon when she is sure to get caught at some point? By portraying the characters in this manner, Huston leaves the viewer with unanswered questions, leading to the disorientation of the viewer.It has been argued that film noir cannot be defined, therefore has no essential characteristics. That being said, considering noir as a response to the death of god helps explain the commonality of elements that philosophers have recognized in noir films. Moreover, the directors of The Maltese Falcon and The Killers use of thematic and stylistic characteristics in their films make them two of the best examples of film noir. They clearly depict a world of the post-Nietzschean period in their films, that is one of despair, alienation, and paranoia, which is essentially an existential attitude towards life.