Quality and Systems Management in McDonalds

Quality and Systems Management in McDonalds McDonalds, as we all know is the worlds largest chain of fast food suppliers. The business began in 1940, with a small restaurant Bar B Que run by two brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in California. It was a drive way restaurant which served a limited menu of burgers, fries etc. Mr. Ray Kroc, a paper cup and multi-mixer salesman got an order of multi-mixer from the McDonald brothers. He was impressed by the organization of the restaurant and came up with the idea of McDonalds Corporation, which was founded in 1955 by Mr. Ray Kroc. The first McDonalds was opened on April 15, 1955 in Illinois. By 1960, he bought the exclusive rights to the name McDonalds. And by 1965, there were 700 restaurants throughout United States. It was the first time that McDonalds shares went public at $22.50 per share. McDonalds opened the first international restaurant in Canada in 1967. In 1974 McDonalds opened its first restaurant in the UK. Today, it has a chain of restaurants in 118 countries around the world. It celebrated its 50th anniversary on 15th April, 2005. Philosophy Mr. Kroc had the vision of creating a restaurant system, known for its consistency and quality of food. To achieve this, he needed his franchisees and suppliers to work with McDonalds and not for McDonalds. He promoted the slogan, In business for yourself, but not by yourself. He encouraged entrepreneurship as much as the commitment to his visions. This has led to the introduction of many new products into the supply chain, most of which were the contributions of franchisees. If I had a brick for every time Ive repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think Id probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them. -Ray Kroc. This very well illustrates the significance of these four aspects in the excellent execution of the restaurant services at McDonalds. The quality and cleanliness is unparalleled. But, what is unique in this restaurant chain that has travelled past 50 years and emerged as a market leader and promises to continue the same. Business Model McDonalds business runs on 3 pillars: The suppliers The franchisees The McDonalds corporation itself The business model that the organization follows is Franchisee Model. The company provides training to the prospective franchisees and operators regarding the ways a McDonalds is run. There is a Research and Development Lab that provides facilities for all trainees to experiment in cooking. McDonalds as a company owns only 15% of the restaurants. The remaining 85% are taken care by the franchisees. There are stringent policies of monitoring the franchisees to assure that they are adhering to the McDonalds promises of Quality, Cleanliness, Service and Value offered to its customers. The Product Consistency across all the outlets is guaranteed by a supplier networked operation and distribution system. This has resulted in consistency not only across the restaurants in a region but worldwide. The brand building mechanism of McDonalds is not to cater the needs of the current market demand, but also ensures the brand value in years to come. The organization ensures that the promises to the customers are not compromised which ensures repeat business. Operations Management It is considered to be the management of an organization capable of transforming an input to output. This transformation is performed by following a particular process. The transformation can be applied to different categories based on the nature of the business. The three main categories being materials, customers and information. Most of the organizations rely on a combination of these. However, in this particular example, the input is the raw materials going into the making of any of the eatables in the restaurant. The process is the conversion of these products to deliverables. These processes are repetitive throughout the organization except for the minor changes resulting due to an introduction of a new recipe which, at a later point of time, become repetitive. The output is the finished eatable that is been supplied to an end user, here the customer. Strategies of Operations Management Operations management plays a very significant role in the building up of any organization. The Operations, when put into place, help the organization achieve its basic goals. It is well established by the Potters value chain model. Value is the amount the byers are willing to pay for what an organization provides them . . . creating value for buyers that exceeds the cost of doing so is the goal of any generic strategy. Value, instead of cost, must be used in analyzing the competitive position. . . Potter M. (1985) According to Potters analysis, the value chains consist of basically two activities, viz. primary activities and support activities. The Primary activities are Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing and Sales Service The Support activities are Procurement Technology and Development Human Resource Management Organization Infrastructure Further, the operations management is not constrained to value addition task alone. It is a process of Planning, Organizing and Controlling of the operations to ensure that the customer satisfaction is achieved. Planning and Control Planning is the major step in Operations management. Planning helps serve many objectives that can contribute to the profit of an organization. Proper planning helps reduce the cost of the production. This is achieved because proper measures are taken to ensure availability of raw materials at reasonable cost even in bleak periods, hence avoiding a stall in the production scenario. Moreover, proper planning also takes care of measures to avoid excess production. There is a better control of the cash flow, which can be the expenses incurred and future investment of the profit earned. Moreover, the planning strategies will also help make proper use of available resources, raw materials as well as human resources. It also mitigates the causes of dissatisfaction among the employees at times of unexpected workload and among the customers at times of unexpected delay in the services. Any organization would perform to the best of its abilities when the planning is proper and the plans are put into action as well as process control systems are enforced to make sure that the system is running as per the planned schedule. The control can be implemented by system or manually monitored by people. It does not matter as long as the processes are being followed without fail. The process is monitored meticulously and the reports are created for every output produced. In the case of our example, the reports would be the profit and the customer feedbacks obtained. These reports are analyzed to detect the deviation from the expected outcome. If the deviations are trivial, corrective measures are taken at the franchisee level. If the deviations are significant, corrective measures are incorporated at an organizational level. The challenge for fast food joints like McDonalds in structuring their strategies are better ways to provide variety of end products to the consumers in large quantities, at the same time maintaining the quality and value of the product and keeping it cost effective. Performance Measures Since the fast food joint McDonalds has a global presence, the competitive priorities can be analyzed on the following parameters. Cost Quality Delivery Flexibility Service Cost Any customer of a fast food joint has various options to choose from. This leads to tuff competition for an organization. The cost is sometimes the major factor influencing a customer choice. The customer in most cases wont be able to distinguish the difference in the cost of the commodities put together to produce the end product. So, the organization needs to make sure that the cost of the end product is lucrative for any prospective customer. Quality The product quality also plays a significant role in customer satisfaction. Low cost ensures initial customer flow, but low cost put together with superior quality ensures repeat business. The quality of product is an impact of the quality in process. The process quality is significant as it takes care of delivering product to the customers worldwide having a uniform taste and quality. This is very important for fast food joints as their taste is expected by the customers at various geographic locations to be same. Delivery Another major significant priority is the speed of delivery. Most of the customers going to a fast food joint are expected to be short on time. Hence, they would prefer places which have the fastest customer service even at peak load times, like lunch time. But even with the best processes in place, there can be delays due to unanticipated circumstances. McDonalds has schemes in place to avoid customer dissatisfaction on such uncommon situations. They offer the ordered items for free in case of delay beyond a threshold time. Some joints provide additional items free of cost too. Flexibility Flexibility can be the variety of products provided to the customer. Since during a peak time, there would be far too many customers ordering a variety of items, the supply chain is well organized to cater to the requirement of each and every customer in the least time possible. Moreover, it also requires the organization to adapt to the changing demands of the customers, which may vary based on basically the geographical locations. McDonalds is dominantly a fast food joint which specializes in beef and pork varieties, but they have a wide range of menu for the Asian customers, where vegetarian and chicken recipes are more in demand. Service Since fast food joints are a service oriented industry where in business depends not only on the above mentioned factors, but to a large extend on the customer interaction. The customer service employees, who are responsible for interacting with the customers while taking orders and delivering them, undergo a proper training before being assigned the job. This gives an advantage over the competitors as customers tend to prefer joints having better customer services. Along with all of these strategies, the competitive nature of the global fast food market requires the organization to keep on innovating new products to lure various ranges of customers. McDonalds has in place various product packages that cater to the needs of customers of various age groups. The ranges include the inclusion of HappyMeal option for kids which include toys from the latest animation movies along with food for the kids. Quality Customer satisfaction is the key to success for any fast food joint. According to David Garvin of Harvard Business School, quality is defined as transcendent, product based, user based, manufacturing based or value based .Based on these five definitions, Garvin(1984) compiled together eight quality dimensions which are as follows . Performance Features Reliability Conformance Durability Serviceability Aesthetics Perceived Quality With respect to our example of fast food joint McDonalds, only a few of these are significant. They are as follows Conformance This is one of the major concerns of a product developed by any organization that it should conform to some pre defined standards that are expected for that particular range of product. The fast food joints are expected to conform to the food quality norms and nutritious value. Performance Performance is the measure of how efficient a product is to perform its intended purpose. In case of fast food, the objective is to relieve a customer of hunger and provide the necessary nutrition to the body. The better the performance of a food item in this respect, the more is the demand for that particular item. Features These are the additions to the product that can enhance its performance. The addition of accessories in electronic equipment can enhance its performance. Similarly, fast food joints provide a wide range of additional products like soft drinks, sweets, coffee etc. along with the burgers which fetch more revenue as well as result in the increased service quality and performance. Some of the food packages include additional items like toys etc. that further result in rich features. Reliability Reliability is the property of achieving customer trust. A customer should be able to rely on a product for its consistency across various geographic locations. This is crucial for fast food joints as a person travelling to an unknown place around the globe would be more tempted to walk in to a familiar food joint and hence would expect the same taste and quality that he is used to in his own country or region. This leads to an increase in global business by catering to regular customers. Aesthetics It is the biggest concern for any organization dealing with food and drink market. Its the subjective sensory characteristic. There are a lot of competitors in a fast food business. The customers along with the nutrition and value for money also care for the aesthetic value of the delivered products. These may be the taste, look and feel etc. This may also be the ambience in the fast food joint. The customer prefers a place where he finds a good combination of all the above concerns. A very nutritious burger in a shabby wrapping wont be popular among the customers on the contrary vice versa can be a market leader. The Sand Cone Model Cost Efficiency Speed Dependability Quality An Operations Management Competence Model Slack et al (2008) Quality improvement methodologies Improving the product quality is an evolving process in any business organization irrespective of the domain or range of product it deals with. A variety of norms and paradigms are in place to monitor the Quality improvement processes. Total Quality Control (TQC) Total Control Quality is the philosophy of continual improvement in the quality. Its based on the adherence to the 5 Ss that are a sequential process that organizations follow to ensure that result in high quality processes and in turn high quality products. According to Ramasamy(2005) The 5 Ss are Seiri This is the organization by getting rid of unnecessary items. These may include a wide range of objects. The cleaning up of the old files and records in one of them. The old machineries which no longer give optimal results can be discarded or replaced with new one. The machineries may include cutting instruments, baking ovens etc. The constraint for removing the machineries and tools is the once that have been unused for past 2 3 years. However, the organization can override these constraints based on their domain and requirements. Seiton Its the cleanliness as a result of performing a Seiri. In case of a fast food joint, keeping the area neat is extremely important as it concerns not only the aesthetics but also hygienic issues of prospective customers. Food outlets need to be well cleaned and maintained so. Seiso The equipment and plant where the production happens should be clean to avoid dirt and resultant obscure problems. In case of fast food joints, the plants where the raw materials for making the food items, the farms from where the vegetables and poultry are being used etc. must be scrutinized to make sure that there is no compromise on the quality of the products used. Moreover, the kitchen in which the food is made should be cleaned. The food items should not at any point of time be touched by bare hands unless it reaches the customer. All these ensure that the food is safe and free from any germs or disease carriers. Seiketsu Standardizing the locations of all the items is another way of enhancing quality. The places of raw material in the kitchen needs to be standardized in order to facilitate fast assembling of various items and hence reduce the time of delivery. Moreover, the cash counter has a well-organized cash box which facilitates easy and faster transactions as it becomes easier for the employees to return the change to the customers. Shetsuke It is the disciplined way in which the above four Ss are implemented and adhered to in any organizations. This doesnt only include the management to take care of the enforcement of these rules. The responsibility lies with each and every employee be actively involved in ensuring that the quality processes are followed. The three Universal Processes of Managing for Quality THE JURAN TRIOLOGY DIAGRAM Quality Planning Quality Control Quality Improvement Determine who are the customers Evaluate actual product performance Establish the infrastructure Determine the needs of the customer Compare actual performance to product goals Identify the improvement projects Develop product features that respond to customers needs Act on the difference Establish project teams Develop process able to produce the product features Provide the teams with resources, training and motivation to : Diagnose the cause Stimulate Remedies Establish controls to hold the gains Transfer the plans to the Operating force Copyright  © 1989 by Juran Institute Inc There are many standards in place to ensure that Quality norms are followed. But, these policies seem useless unless there is proper and timely audit for the same. The Quality audit processes would require a team of quality experts to evaluate each and every process for its quality. The above table gives an overview of all the quality planning, control and improvement strategies. According to Summers (2009), the various standards and criteria that exist globally to support effective quality management systems are: ISO 9000 International Organization for Standardization has representatives from the national standardization bodies of over 90 countries. The main objective is to satisfy customer by quality assurance and increase the level of confidence of a customer in an organization. A company can audit itself to gain this particular internal certification. The customers can audit an organization against the set of standards for second party certification. ISO 14000 This is an extension of ISO Standards regarding environmental issues. The organizations are evaluated for environment protection and pollution prevention. These are followed by organizations to reduce negative impact on the environment. The organizations can implement various strategies to achieve this. Like, providing bio degradable wrappers and glasses instead of using plastics. SIX SIGMA The goal of this process is to reduce the process variation to the point where there are only 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This is especially significant for industries whose business involves mass production. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBQNA) This is another evaluation process which was designed by consulting lots of experts. The main evaluation dimensions are The soundness of the system. The deployment of the system across the organization. The outcome of the deployment. Organizational Performance If you dont drive your business, you would be driven out of business. B. C. Forbes. This is the basic principle of business in todays world. The business world is very competitive and doesnt leave room for compromise on any of the aspects of business, be it, Quantity, Quality, Operations Management, Process Management etc. The responsibility of a successful business lies with each and every employee, as was the theory of Ray Kroc, which led him to implement the franchisee business model. But, implementing alone would not ensure adherence. Adherence can be assured only when measured. Measures literally mean dimensions or capacity of anything. For an organization, the performance has to be measured as well as recognized and rewarded. The performance can be measured for employees, processes, services, suppliers etc. Any parameter that plays a significant part of the organization needs to be measured against certain standards to ensure quality. Measures of good performance The performance of the processes in place can be measured on the basis of certain parameters like expenses, income, quality, throughput, delivery time, safety, cleanliness etc. In a fast food joint like McDonalds, the service time to the customer is a major concern. This can be ensured only if the production time for the food in the kitchen is well defined. Any delay in the production time would delay delivery to the customer hence violating the standards. So, standard time constraints need to be put in place. Moreover, the cleanliness is important as its a matter of hygiene. The quality of food depends a lot on the incoming raw materials like flour, vegetables, fruits, poultry, oils used etc. All these have to be of superior quality for the proper working of the organization. The organizational results performance measures are focused on the strategic interests of the organization. The results involve both the organization and customers equally. The customer satisfaction is one of the measures, which can be measured by the amount of repeat business and the number of customers per day. All satisfied customers tend to recommend the organization to their friends hence increasing the business. The performance measure with respect to the organization can be based on its annual financial results, quarterly financial results, deviation of these results from the predicted results, the profits etc. The organizational performance can be measured also by the brand value generated by the organization. The measures discussed so far were materialistic, but its the human resources that make a service oriented organization like McDonalds achieve its objectives. There are measures to monitor the efficiency and performance of these human resources. This can be done yearly or half yearly in the form of appraisals. The employees can be rated based on performance. The excellent performers should be rewarded to encourage them to keep up the work and also motivate the rest of the employees to perform better. The extremely poor performers should be given proper mentoring to help them perform better. The internal process measures are meant to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the plans and processes that are incorporated inside the organization. The Learning and Growth measures are focused on the growth and well being of the human resource i.e. the employees. It also encourages innovations, in case of McDonalds, the innovation of new recipes in the RD department by the franchisees. Financial measures are put in place to analyze the business progress of the organization world-wide in the context of the monetary gains or profits. These performance measures are used by the organization leaders to analyze and review the existing strategies, plans and processes, and make changes if necessary to improve the present conditions. The quality management systems and Six Sigma are used by organizations to ensure that the organization is moving towards progress in business by balancing the cost, quality and availability of products to the customer satisfaction. Conclusion For any fast food joint, in this case McDonalds, to be a success, the first principle should be Customer is the King. A service oriented industry can flourish only by providing the best customer service in the least possible time. But, service is not the only factor. The quality of the products delivered must be hygienic and nutritious so as to serve their purposes. The competition is fast food industry is on an all time high, so the cost along with the quality would be a deciding factor for the customer. An organizations success doesnt rest in the managements hands. The responsibility lies with each and every employee and franchisee. The employee has to work for the organization as their own. The process of the organization has to be adhered to. This measure of these adherences and changes in the organizational strategies according to the requirements would lead to better business. The organizational leaders should not only Implement policies but also incorporate performance measure exercises to ensure that the processes are being adhered to.

Important Event in Chinese History Essay

The May Fourth Movement (traditional Chinese: ä ºâ€Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ© â€¹Ã¥â€¹â€¢; simplified Chinese: ä ºâ€Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ¨ ¿ Ã¥Å  ¨; pinyin: WÇ”sà ¬ Yà ¹ndà ²ng) was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919, protesting the Chinese government’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially the Shandong Problem. These demonstrations sparked national protests and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization and away from cultural activities, and a move towards populist base rather than intellectual elites. The broader use of the term â€Å"May Fourth Movement† often refers to the period during 1915-1921 more often called the New Culture Movement. Backgrounds: Following the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown. This marked the end of thousands of years of powerful imperial rule, and theoretically ushered a new era in which political power rested with the people. However, the reality was that China was a fragmented nation dominated by warlords, who were more concerned with their own political powers and private armies than national interests. The Chinese Beiyang government was occupied with suppressing internal affairs, and did little to counter the influence exerted by imperialist foreign powers. The Beiyang government made various concessions to foreigners in order to gain monetary and military support against their rivals. Defeats by foreign powers and the presence of spheres of influence inflamed a sense of nationalism among the emerging middle class and cultural leaders. Leaders of the New Culture Movement believed that traditional Chinese values were responsible for the political weakness of the nation. This created a rather peculiar situation, in which Chinese nationalists called for a rejection of traditional values and the selective adoption of Western ideals of science and democracy. May fourth Movement (Chinese Students Protest) In 1989 there were growing economic hardship caused by high inflation set the ground for a large-scale protest movement by students intellectuals and other parts of a disaffected urban population. University students and other citizens in Beijing camped out at Tiananmen Square to protest against those who slowed reform. Protests also spread to many other cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou.Martial law was declared on May 20 1989, military units were deployed in Beijing. Demonstrators were suppressed brutally, most observers believe that casualties numbered in the hundreds.The entire world expressed horror at the brutal suppression of the demonstrators, the central government eliminated opposition, held in custody large numbers of protesters and urged for required political re-education not only for students but also for party cadre and government officials.

People Who Can Help You on Election Day

When voters walk into a busy polling place on election day, they see a vast array of people, most of them rushing around, doing lots of different things. Who are these people and what is their function in the election? Besides (hopefully) lots of other voters waiting to vote, youll see: Poll Workers These people are here to help you vote. They check voters in, making sure they are registered to vote and are at the correct polling place. They hand out ballots and show voters where to deposit their ballots after voting. Perhaps most importantly, poll workers can show voters how to use the particular type of voting device being used. If you have any problems using the voting machines or are not sure how to use the machine to complete your ballot, by all means, ask a poll worker. Poll workers either volunteer or are paid a very small stipend. They are not full-time government employees. They are people who are donating their time to help make sure elections are conducted fairly and efficiently. If you run into any problems while voting or waiting to vote, ask a poll worker to help you. If you make a mistake while filling out your ballot, let a poll worker know before you leave the polling place. The poll worker can give you a new ballot. Your old ballot will either be destroyed or placed in a separate ballot box for damaged or incorrectly marked ballots. Election judges At most polling places, there will be one or two election officials or election judges. Some states require one Republican and one Democratic election judge at each polling place. Election judges ensure that the election is conducted fairly. They settle disputes over voter qualification and identification, deal with damaged and incorrectly marked ballots and take care of any other issues involving interpretation and enforcement of election laws. In states that allow Election Day voter registration, election judges also register new voters on Election Day. Election judges officially open and close the polling place and are responsible for the safe and secure delivery of sealed ballot boxes to the vote counting facility after the polls close. As regulated by state laws, election judges are chosen by a board of elections, county official, city or town official, or state official. If an election judge appears to be â€Å"too young to vote† to you, 41 of 50 states allow high school students to serve as election judges or poll workers, even when the students are not yet old enough to vote. Laws in these states typically require that students selected as election judges or poll workers be at least 16 years of age and in good academic standing at their schools.   Other Voters Hopefully, you will see many other voters inside the polling place, waiting their turn to vote. Once inside the polling place, voters may not try to convince others how to vote. In some states, such politicking is prohibited both inside and outside within a certain distance of the doors of the polling place. Exit Poll Takers Especially at lager precincts, exit poll takers, usually representing the media, may ask people leaving the polling place which candidates they voted for. Voters are NOT required to respond to exit poll takers.

A Study Of Terrorism And The Terrorist - 2000 Words

The study of terrorism and the terrorist is not something belonging to any particular discipline. What does forensic psychology have to offer? In the present political climate terrorism is a grave and growing concern for the national security of many countries. While it is important to acknowledge that acts of terrorism date back through centuries of recorded history, it is nevertheless apparent that today, the threat of terrorism is as dire, if not more so, than ever before. Terrorism dominates public and media attention compared to other types of violent offending (Ruby, 2002b), and 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings have demonstrated the devastating capabilities attributable to successful terrorist acts. Thus, understanding terrorism and ‘what makes someone a terrorist’, with a view to predicting terrorist attacks and behaviour, is a concern shared by many domains, including forensic psychology (FP), criminology and political science. While Borum (2004) notes that FP does not provide the sole analytic framework with which to understand terrorism, it is important to recognise the contributions FP has made, and is still making, to the subject. Therefore, the present essay will discuss what FP has to offer in the study of terrorism with reference to past, present and potential directions for future research. Contributions of Forensic Psychology FP focuses on terrorism from an individual perspective. As Taylor points out: â€Å"individuals commit terrorist acts† (Taylor, 2012,Show MoreRelatedThe First Wave Of Terrorism1740 Words   |  7 Pagesdebate on the concept of â€Å"new† and ‘old’ terrorism, where ‘new’ terrorism phenomenon is predominately linked with ‘religious’ terrorism. David Rapoport, also known as one of the most well known founding figures of terrorism studies, joined UCLA in 1962 as a political theorist and later he became a founder and editor of Terrorism and Political Violence (UCLA). 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Physics Fundamentals ( Phys1001 ) - 1760 Words

Lab Report Module Name: Physics Fundamentals (PHYS1001) Experiment Name: Determination of Planck’s constant (h) Student P-number: P14177341 Lab Tutor : Dr Shashi Paul Date: 14/11/2014 Abstract The objective was to determine the value of Planck’s constant using LED’s. The value of Planck’s constant found in this experiment was 5.93x10-34Js, This is fairy close in comparison to the accepted value being 6.626x10-34Js. The Value of Planck’s constant was found with the use of LED’s, the provided wavelength was used to calculate the frequency, then the experiment allowed us to find the LED’s Turn on voltage. The findings were plotted to a graph where, start up voltage was on the Y axis and†¦show more content†¦the electrons crossing the junction are excited and return to their stable state, usually the ground state. When returning to the ground state or a lower state from which they were in, the electron emits light energy which is a high energy photon. The energy of the photon depends on how many energy states the electron drops. This particular voltage when the LED just starts to emit light is known as the threshold voltage. Once the threshold voltage is reached the current may increase but the voltage across the LED doesn t change significantly. The energy of the photon emitted can be calculated using the equation E = hf where h = the Planck’s constant f = the frequency of light From the equation it can be said that the energy emitted has a relationship with planck’s constant and the frequency of emitted radiation. We can use this equation to work out planck’s constant by combining it with another equation. This equation is E = QV where Q = the charge (1.6x10-19) V = threshold voltage hf=QV If you plot a graph of voltage against frequency, find the gradient and multiply it by the charge of an electron (1.6x10-19), you find the value of Planck’s constant. Experiment / Materials and Methods Apparatus: Circuit board LED’s blue to infrared Resistor in series on circuit board 100ÃŽ © Smartphone camera Procedure: Firstly set up apparatus, then connect the diodes one at a

Arendt And Freedman Political Freedom Free Essays

Political freedom is an ideal for both Arendt and Friedman. As political theorists they offer not only definitions to understand what political freedom is for them, but what necessary preconditions must exist in order for their ideal to be vitalized. Arendt explains political freedom as the right to be a participator in government. We will write a custom essay sample on Arendt And Freedman: Political Freedom or any similar topic only for you Order Now She implies that this means more than voting for a representative or having the opportunity to run for office. Arendt advocates that political freedom requires equal participation on behalf of all citizens and the involvement in politics is the most important part of an individual’s life. Friedman states that political freedom is the absence of coercion with the necessary precondition of economic freedom. Arendt and Friedman have different understandings of what political freedom is, but within their differences are similarities. Understanding what Arendt does not view as political freedom is essential in understanding what is political freedom because it helps in establishing the necessary means involved in obtaining political freedom. † should be no reason for us to mistake civil rights for political freedom, or to equate these preliminaries of civilized government with the very substance of a free republic. (Arendt P220) Arendt has established civil rights as something other than political freedom. Civil rights apply to liberation and not political freedom because civil rights do not necessarily assume the presence of freedom. Civil rights can be granted to a population under the rule of a tyrant in the form of a law, but when the population is not part of the formation of such a law then political freedom does not exist. According to Arendt, the presence of poverty does not permit the presence of political freedom. If individuals are forced to focus their efforts to fulfill biological needs such as food and shelter then they cannot possibly be political. Capitalism also prevents the existence of Arendt’s political freedom because capitalism is based on consumption. When the members of society are focused on obtaining goods and material possessions they become just as preoccupied as those in poverty. So capitalism creates greed and creates unnecessary needs and desires that inhibit political freedom. Political freedom requires an absence of as many social conditions as it does a presence of other conditions. Political freedom, as discussed in â€Å"The Revolutionary Tradition and Its Lost Treasure,† obliges the presence of a population who thinks in terms of â€Å"we† rather than â€Å"I. † When everyone in a society acts for a better community and thinks in terms of the community, they will be able to exist politically free. When the focus of the individual shifts from the private interests created under capitalism to a public interest necessary for political freedom, more will be done to benefit society as a whole as opposed to individuals in a private realm. Learning to escape the private realm and understand that of the public means to understand the possibility of a greater good found in working together rather than many separate smaller goods held by only certain individuals. When there are individuals with separate smaller goods there has to be individuals with their own separate failure and lack of essential good. Milton Friedman does not offer the same definition for political freedom, thus his means for obtaining political freedom are also separate from Arendt’s. Friedman presumes that economic freedom must exist in order for political freedom to exist, and the means to true economic freedom is through the capitalist free market. Friedman writes, â€Å"History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. † (P10) The free market should take care of it self, be free from forced government intervention, and thus establish an environment in which coercion does not rule. Friedman believes that it is the power instilled in Washington D. C. that is responsible for the current coercion through their economic power. The economic power of the government is derived through the process of taxation, a process of coercing the citizens of the state to fund an organization against their will to do the jobs that capitalism, when left to its own devices, will achieve. Friedman suggests that government should focus on military effort, and not issues unrelated. He says: This danger we cannot avoid. But we needlessly intensify it by continuing the widespread governmental intervention in areas unrelated to the military defense of the nation and by undertaking new governmental programs – from medical care for the aged to lunar exploration. Friedman P202) So Friedman believes that government intervention leads to the collapse of political freedom. He goes on to discuss his fear of intervention. I believe that we shall be able to preserve and extend freedom despite the size of the military programs and despite the economic powers already concentrated inWashington. But we shall be able to do so only if we awake to the threat that we face, only if we persuade our fellow men that free institutions offer a surer, if perhaps at times slower, route to the ends they seek than the coercive power of the state. Friedman P202) Political Freedom for Friedman is then merely the absence of government coercion and the presence of an economically free population that, through the free market, can actually take care and supervise themselves. Friedman is relying on the same factors to create political freedom that Arendt sees as inhibiting freedom. That is, he sees a capitalist free market as the necessary means to actually bring people voluntarily together, not coercively. Friedman says:Exchange can therefore bring about co-ordination without coercion. A working model of a society organized through voluntary exchange is a free private enterprise exchange economy – what we have been calling competitive capitalism. (Friedman P13)So Friedman is actually advocating that capitalism is not as competitive as it appears, and that it actually requires citizens to work together and thus benefit each other through their actions. This is similar to what Arendt signifies as thinking in terms of â€Å"we† rather than â€Å"I,† yet it is the exact ingredient that Arendt classifies as creating the â€Å"I. † It is peculiar that such contrasting opinions and explanation actually lead to the same ideal. Friedman and Arendt offer opposing means of obtaining political freedom, but there are similarities in what their means accomplish before the existence of political freedom. Both want a society in which individuals do something for each other, they work together for a greater good. The difference is that Arendt wants the cooperation to be based on politics while Friedman wants the cooperation based on free enterprise. Friedman wants less government involvement because he understands such involvement to be the basis of coercion. Friedman would rather have individuals voluntarily come together than be forced to come together. He sees political freedom as being free from the control of the state, free to evolve independent of government influence, and free to decide how to evolve. Friedman wants the government to have limited power because free enterprise will thrive in the absence of government intervention. Economic freedom will be created in the free enterprise and political freedom is the result. Another similarity between Arendt’s and Friedman’s differing views is the requirement of economic freedom. Although it is quite a major aspect for Friedman, Arendt does not focus directly on the topic. Arendt is just as much a supporter of economic freedom because she acknowledges that a state dealing with poverty and the fulfillment of basic needs cannot deal with political freedom. Economic freedom is the absence of such struggles and the presence of a means to be politically free. The similarity through presence of economic freedom is divided by the role of government. For Friedman political freedom is the absence of coercion, namely governmental coercion, not the presence of a highly involved government that Arendt advocates. Arendt’s political freedom is not the absence of government, merely the absence of representative government. She sees the concern of private life being too dominate under a representative system because, † the voter acts out of concern with his private life and well-being, and the residue of power he still holds in his hands resembles rather the reckless coercion with which a blackmailer forces his victim into obedience than the power that arises out of joint action and joint deliberation. (Arendt P 273) She is saying that representation leads to the problem of coercion, and it is coercion that Friedman sees necessary is not existing in the existence of political freedom. Without a direct democracy at the basis of a highly involved government political freedom is impossible because there is too much corrupt behavior and focus on private interests when the majority elects a minority to make the decisions for the state. Arendt envisions a society in which all of its members equally partake in the decision making of the government and they all work for the good of each other, not for a private good. Arendt establishes the aspects of life that have been private in the past as needing to be public in an effort to prevent corruption and maintain political freedom. Friedman does not advocate the same direct democracy that Arendt envisions. Instead, he expects the free market to essentially rule itself and take on the duties of Arendt’s government in the form of free enterprise. He sees the government as the cause of the coercion and presumes that the power should be taken out of the government. So this is an opposite response to Arendt’s view that the government should become larger, so large that all citizens are involved and have an equal say, thus preventing the possibility of coercion. Both Arendt and Friedman see coercion as preventing political freedom and both offer different means of ridding society of coercion. Political freedom is not an easily definable term. It is much like love, god, and friendship in that it has different meanings for different people at different times. Political freedom is about both the means of obtaining the ideal as well as the ideal itself. Friedman and Arendt present what they presume to be the means and the ends of political freedom, but neither is completely right or entirely wrong. It does not seem possible to create a set definition as to what political freedom is, much less what the appropriate means of obtaining political freedom are. It seems more important to try to distinguish certain common traits of what political freedom is rather than attempt to create a set definition. The common traits shared by Arendt and Friedman are that economic freedom and absence of coercion are necessary for political freedom. Political freedom, for both theorists, requires the action of a public community and not private individuals. They do not agree about the role of government, nor do they agree on the form government should take. Although it is important to distinguish what are and are not characteristics of political freedom, it is more important to understand that political freedom cannot be defined. Political freedom can be speculated about, but will not be truly comprehended until it is actualized. Only when political freedom exists will it be understood. How to cite Arendt And Freedman: Political Freedom, Essay examples

Involvement Management and Organizational Performance †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Involvement Management and Organizational Performance. Answer: Introduction The report is an overview of the how marketing manager is responsible for managing the firms requirements along with the human resource department. The report largely talks about the marketing strategies need to be followed and the recruitment and selection procedure. It is written with respect to the company of Singapore which deals with networking mainly recognized by its abbreviation as SingTel, Singapore Telecommunications Limited. The report presents the image of what are the duties and responsibilities of the marketing manager and what kind of demands this job makes so that it can meet the demands of the company effectively and efficiently. Singapore Telecommunications Limited particularly known as SingTel is a telecommunication company in Singapore. It was founded on 1879 in Singapore. The company provides mobile networks all over the country to millions of subscribers. The products offered by the company includes broadband and fixed-line internet services, fixed line and mobile telephony, digital, IT and network services. It has also widely expanded itself over the countries like Asia, Australia, and Africa. The Company is highly professional and has achieved heights (Buller McEvoy, 2012). The amount of profit generated by the company is near $3.853 billion. Since the company is quite large the number of employees working in the organization is more than 25,000. The Company provides services related to a network which has given company number of customers. This increased their chances of earning more of profit. The organization offers a number of job vacancies every year. This gives a chance to recruit new employees with extra skills and hard labor. Since the company runs on a large scale it expands its business by replacing the redesigned employees with professionals. The supervisory position presented in the report is of Marketing Manager (Jiang, Lepak, Hu Baer, 2012). A Market Manager is one who is responsible for managing the selling the products of profit and observing the requirements of the business in order to make a profit. A marketing manager is responsible for making a good strategy to increase the number of customers. This allows the company to make more and profit (Hlsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt Lang, 2013). The plans made by them must relate to consumer research. They are responsible for managing agencies of media and digital.The market plans made by them necessarily have to set the standards to outshine the other companies in the market. The major responsibility that they have to maintain the contacts with its internal and external partners. This is important as to measure the market positions of the company jointly. Their duty is to keep a check on the market budget and invest into the market accordingly. They are responsible for managing the website on social media in order to be aware and let others aware about the functioning of the business. They have to collect and analyze the data by preparing reports on a monthly basis as asked by the company. They are advised to look into every matter closely to ensure no chances of risk and failure (Lin, 2013). Job Specification Before hiring any person to work for the company, the company checks and evaluates whether the person has sufficient skill and knowledge or not, whether he is able to work for the company and is able to give good outputs or not. The company before hiring for the position of Marketing Manager demands minimum experience of 5 years in the related sector. He must know about the trading in the market through network i.e. he should have good experience of social media. He must have good communication skills as expected from the employee for a job like this. The applicant should have a degree in business administration and marketing. If the candidate comes from the same industry then he can easily understand the environment of the companys requirements. He should have a basic knowledge of computers like MS office, excel, access and PowerPoint. Interpersonal and strong written skills are required for appointing a new candidate in the company as an operation manager. They must understand the value of the position they will work for. Being a marketing manager of a company is not easy. One should acquire all such skills and abilities (Dulebohn, Bommer, Liden, Brouer Ferris, 2012). The human resource manager is responsible for designing the job for a company. The job designing is based on the actions such as motivation, efficiency, health and safety and intellectual capability of the employees. Job design at a company like SingTel is done with intellectuality. One has to work firmly and with full efficiency. Job design is the core and primary function of human resource management. It is a basic function of human resource management. It includes the different type of information, methods that need to be followed in the organization and employee relationship. This ensures the requirements of technology and organization. The requirements of the company also depend on social and personal wants and expectations of the employment. The HR department is responsible for appointing a candidate as an operation manager in the operation department; they have been discussed below (Bangerter, Roulin Knig, 2012). The job design of the company works on motivating the employees efficiently. The responsibility of motivating the employees of the company is fulfilled by the human resource department. They motivate them to work hard in order to make the company achieve its target effectively (Wood, Van Veldhoven, Croon de Menezes, 2012). The HR management observes the working of the employee. Employees of the company are advised to talk about the problem with the HR department. Every employee of the firm is advised to work potentially and effectively. They must not be burdened by any matter. They should be capable of working not only physically but also mentally (Tims, Bakker Derks, 2013). The marketing department of SingTel is also responsible for taking a good care of its employees. The very important thing to do is to maintain a proper record of the employees working in the firm. The marketing manager cannot take the risk of losing the very efficient employee. He has to be alert all the time about their health and safety. A good health of the employee will result in good outputs for the firm. The marketing manager is therefore responsible for managing these criteria with the help of human resource manager. He has to maintain a proper record of the employees safety and health. He is the one responsible for the care of such employees who work for their firm (Grant, 2012). Recruitment strategies The marketing department of SingTel knows very well about the type of strategies to make that can result in a good sale. The marketing manager is the one who is responsible for recruiting the applicants. He knows very well about the qualities needed to work as an employee of marketing. Before recruiting, the manager looks for the creativity level that the applicant posses. He chooses the applicant according to their skills and understanding. The human resource management of SingTel makes effective recruitment strategies in marketing sector as well to appoint a new candidate in the organization. Human resource department is responsible for answering the members and also works into job analyses. It is also answerable for recruiting and selecting the candidates for firms good future. (Treweek, Lockhart, Pitkethly, Cook, Kjeldstrm, Johansen Jones, 2013). The type of strategies followed by SingTel while recruiting has actually given good results to the company. The recruitment strategies planned by the human resource department is granting success to the company. The kind of environment developed at the firm makes it easier to work and maintain a proper discipline. Strategies made by human resource department are never questioned by SingTel. They very well know about the kind of strategies made for marketing. These strategies help the company in better functioning of the organization. A good plan makes the good functioning of the firm. The marketing strategies planned in order to recruit employees are full of creative ideas as needed in marketing. Employees put their efforts in order to get selected. The result of such efforts develops competition among employees which brings good to the company. (Aldao Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012). When the company requires a large number of employees in the organization it fills the vacant positions by recruiting the employees from the organization itself. This source of recruiting is called Internal Recruiting Source. The benefit of this source is that since the employees are hired from the same company they know about the rules and policies of the company. This saves time in explaining them and results in better output in a short run (Powell, Waltz, Chinman, Damschroder, Smith, Matthieu, Kirchner, 2015). External recruitment is that type of recruitment source where the company hires a candidate through job applications. The candidates are not from the existing staff. This gives the company a chance to meet new ideas and talents that can help the company in near future. The qualified candidates are hired to fill the vacancies (Peters-Lawrence, Bell, Hsu, Osunkwo, Seaman, Blackwood, Dampier, 2012). Selection strategies The selection process begins after the process of recruitment. The selected employees have to work on the project assigned to them. They work for the firm by completing the projects. Selection in telecommunication companies, like SingTel is done on the basis of the input they give an output that company receives. Their punctuality and their behavior depending on the career. They have to be polite with the other members of the society. The process of selection is dependent upon the qualification. The qualification of the candidate should fulfill the eligibility criteria to get selected. Since the job of marketing managers is to look into marketing criteria, therefore, they do their work of selecting the employees according to their creative level. The marketing manager usually works by collaborating with the supervisors in order to select the best employee from the applicants. The candidates are recommended to be confident. They should show their skills that they are good at and in fa vor of the company. He is advised to think about something new and something innovative (Karim Arif-Uz-Zaman, 2013). Implementation of selection strategies The selected employees have to make the most of the opportunity given at SingTel Company. The selection of the employees results in good outputs and better functioning. The employees are selected as professionals and work for the benefit of the company in an effective way. They are taught to maintain discipline in the environment of the company. Since the employees are taught and trained before working on any project, therefore, it becomes easy to deal with the problems. The selected candidates are advised to put their best efforts in making the project superficial. The employees are benefited for their quality of work. Hence they are provided with incentives and bonus. This keeps their interest ongoing (Roh, Hong Min, 2014). The benefits given to them include traveling packages, bonuses, promotion etc. This makes them work with passion and enthusiasm. The selected candidate is majorly taught to have communicative skills as the company major purpose is of telecommunication. The sele ction procedure should be effective. It must lead the companys growth towards marketing. The selection of the candidates for the department of marketing gives a new level of thinking in the company. The selected candidates have to work for the fulfillment of the marketing demands. The strategies made by the elected employees results in good output as they are trained before getting into the project. Also, along with the new employee's company also chooses to select a certain number of employees from the already existing employees. This also provides the advantage of saving time (Proctor, Powell McMillen, 2013). Conclusion On the above discussion, the report concludes by talking about the criteria followed by Singapore Telecommunications Limited while selecting the respective candidates to work for the company and its implementation. SingTel is widely known all over the country for providing access to large networks. Therefore, it becomes necessary for them to provide good services to the customers and to expand itself in the market. The report talks about each and everything that needs to be done by the marketing manager to take the company to heights. Through the report, it is clear that what strategies a company must follow to meet the demands of the market. The report makes it very clear how important it is to have an HR department in the company. In this way, it can be said that human resource department plays a vital role in every organization. References Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012). The influence of context on the implementation of adaptive emotion regulation strategies.Behaviour research and therapy,50(7), 493-501. Armstrong, M., Taylor, S. (2014).Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Bangerter, A., Roulin, N., Knig, C. J. (2012). 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