John Chambers (Cisco CEO) - The Role of Decisiveness and Decision Essay

John Chambers (Cisco CEO) - The Role of Decisiveness and Decision Making - Essay Example In October 2011, Cisco’s net income dropped by 8%, while earlier in august this year, the net income had dropped by 36%, although it later on rose by only a small margin of 3.3%. Shareholder value creation is one of the most important strategies in an organization, and should be a priority for a CEO; however, Chambers has failed tremendously. According to Rappaport (2006), executives should always make decisions that aim at maximizing value. In addition, at times, it is wiser to return the shareholders cash in dividend form, rather than using excess cash in investments that end up being destructive. Therefore, excess cash should be returned to shareholders when the value-creating opportunities are not available. In addition, an organization should focus on the activities that contribute to long-term value in the organization. Decisiveness is one of the major qualities of a successful chief executive officer; the act of being determined is evident in Chambers such that, despite the rise of Cisco from $1billion to $40 billion followed by the challenges in 2001, Chambers has continued to hang on in the company’s leadership. ... argues that the continuous recovery of Cisco can be attributed to the CEO’s leadership skills, as he is known as an effective communicator and motivator of employees. Literature Review John Chambers, the Cisco’s CEO, has faced both negative and positive remarks concerning his role in the company. The failure to persuade the public that the company’s future earnings are reliable is one of the existing critics. Chambers replaced the top-down decision-making process with the committees of executives. This strategy required most managers to spend their time in committees; this absurd system was later on abandoned. According to Geothals, Sorenson, and Burns (2004, p.319), the presence of the correct information leads to informed decisions, whilst decisiveness creates room for timely actions. Nevertheless, inconsistency and failure to fulfill promises in a CEO creates an atmosphere of mistrust from the employees and the customers. Therefore, an open management style co ntributes to the development of trust, improved communication skills, and listening skills as well. However, ineffective communication leads to poor teamwork due to lack of collaboration, decrease in productivity, and high levels of turnover. Decisive managers are aware that their decisions may not be effective; hence, they leave room for modification, and therefore, they do not hesitate to modify their decisions once they realize that their original decisions are not effective. This is evident in Chambers case; for instance, when chambers changed the company’s top-down decision-making process to manager’s committee strategy, the new strategy proved ineffective as managers spent most of their time in committees. However, Chambers reconsidered changing the strategy after discovering that it did not

Legislations health and social care Essay Example for Free

Legislations health and social care Essay Health and safety: It’s important for everyone to be in a safe environment so they can do daily tasks without feeling scared and uncomfortable of something will happen to them for certain so that’s why in every health care setting the health and safety at work act 1974 has been introduced so they can safe guard vulnerable patients in their care. Providers in health care settings need to provide some of the following services to ensure that the service users and the employees themselves are safe when working for example: They need to provide and maintain safety when using equipment’s Provide a safe place of employment Ensure equipment is used safely, stored and delivered from one place to another. Provide a safe place to feel safe and welcomed at all times Look after the health and safety of others. Food standard regulation: The food standard regulation is one of the most important legislation in a health care setting because most hospitals, care homes, schools etc all serve food and it needs to be in a good standard for the service users to eat it without becoming violently ill for example poor hygiene can result to abnormality of different foods compared to the others which can make the person ill. For the service uses to eat without becoming ill this legislations helps guide the workers to do some of the following The controls include: Premises are clean and in a good state of repair Good drainage, lighting and ventilation Sufficient waste disposal facilities Toilet facilities for staff Equipment is in good condition and kept clean Also another guideline they should follow would be the temperature of the food needs to be monitored in order for the food to be served without any  complications and here is the temperature guideline for the foods being stored in specific places: It is an offence to allow food to be kept at temperatures that would cause a risk to health, so you must make sure foods that need temperature control are kept at the right temperature. Foods that need to be kept hot should be kept at 63 °C or above Foods that need to be kept cold should be kept at 8 °C or below (preferably at 5 °C or below) Foods that need to be kept frozen should be kept between -18 °C to -24 °C Manual handling regulations Manual handling regulations is a legislation that was introduced in 1992 for the safety of the people who handle equipment for example people who work in an industry will carry equipment’s and for that reason this legislation was introduced so the people can handle equipment safely without injuring themselves. It was found by a survey that 3 out of 5 people suffered a common injury known as musculoskeletal injury which caused many people to hurt themselves badly and some still haven’t recovered from it. This legislation avoids people lifting something that their body is unable to do, also avoids hazardous manual handling. This is what the employees follow: Use equipment safely according to instructions and training, immediately reporting any defects to their line manager/supervisors. Check each item of manual handling equipment is in safe working order before use

Extracurricular Activities And Academic Success

Extracurricular Activities And Academic Success This research proposal is designed to determine if there is a correlation between extracurricular activities and academic success in college. It is hypothesized that there is a very strong positive correlation between involvement in extracurricular activities and academic success. School districts are worried that they are budgeting too much money for programs that do not directly influence academics. This study is important so that school districts will know where to adequately put money within their schools so that all people will benefit to the best of their ability. Activities and Academics 3 Is there a Correlation Between Extracurricular Activities and Academic Success in College? The purpose of this study is to measure the correlation between a college students involvement in extracurricular activities (i.e. sports, band, drama, cheerleading, and so on) and their grades compared to students who are not involved in any extracurricular activities. The main debate this association carries is whether extracurricular activities are actually beneficial or if they just force students to keep their academics up because of eligibility. Rachel Hollrah did a study in which she determined that extracurricular activities help students to receive better grades by teaching them character building lessons, teaching them lifelong skills, saving some at risk students who would possibly drop out of school, and helping students develop social skills. (Hollrah) All of these things are very vital to a human beings life and being able to function in the real world. One must have an education to be able to get a good job and make the money that is needed to support oneself or even a family. But as important as education, one also needs social skills and a very strong sense of character, morals, and ethics. Without these things, one can very quickly and easily lose sense of them and become someone they never were or wanted to be. One main thing that has been associated with success in general is self-esteem. When an individual succeeds, they usually automatically begin to feel Activities and Academics 4 better about their endeavors and about themselves as a person. Diana Grafford from the Department of Psychology at Missouri Western State University feels strongly about self-esteem associated with ones success. Self-esteem is affected by ones performance on the stage, on the football field, or by playing a musical instrument. A persons confidence in their ability to compete, perform, or satisfactorily complete a task can have a positive or negative effect, depending on the interpretation of success. (Grafford) Most individuals will begin to see themselves in a better light when they succeed and their self-esteem will begin to increase. This, then, will start to carry over into more parts of their life and help them to succeed in many other things rather than just one section. Some individuals, in contrast, view success in different ways and may not feel better about themselves but actually begin to feel worse. Some feel like they have to be at the top in everything they do or they are not successful at all. It all just depends on the particular person. Kimiko Fujita conducted a study in which he measured the correlation between academic success and extracurricular activities. Total extracurricular activity participation (TEAP), or participation in extracurricular activities in general, is associated with an improved grade point average, higher educational aspirations, increased college attendance, and reduced absenteeism. (Fujita) He also discovered that participation in some activities improves achievement, Activities and Academics 5 while participation in others diminishes achievement. (Fujita) The reason for the positive or negative change is different with each individual and it all just depends on each persons goals, character, determination, and willing to work as hard as they can to be successful. One important debate is whether colleges look at more than just grades and GPA when considering accepting someone into school. A lot of people think that a students involvement in extracurricular activities should also be considered when accepting students and handing out scholarships. Rank in class (RIC) in a study done by George Mason University (Podhajasky, 1997), was determined to be a strong predictor of success in college, but student environment was found to play a part in the eventual retention to graduation. It was found that students who became involved in extracurricular activities while in college enhanced their college experience and increased their future success. (Neal). Most research that I did had no emphasis on the difference between the involvement and the academic success between black students and white students. One study was done where they tested to see if there was any difference at all. The relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and academic achievement was examined. Black eighth graders and white eighth graders completed achievement tests and described school and nonschool activities. Amount of participation was positively related to academic Activities and Academics 6 achievement. The relationship was stronger for white students overall, and for school-related activities for both groups. (Gerber) One study showed that not only did extracurricular activities help students stay focused on academics but it also helped them to develop time management skills that were very crucial for later on in life. This study showed that the student is learns early how to juggle multiple tasks on a daily basis will be more prepared for adult life. These time management skills that are acquired keep the students organized and more able to get everything done within given time constraints. This ability, to organize time, is also very useful later in life. When students are done with school, they will be expected to juggle a job, a family, and many other things that require successful time management skills. Therefore, being involved with activities not only brings better grades, but it also promotes an easier transition into adult life. (Solinger) In most of the research I conducted, there was a clear consensus that there is a positive correlation between extracurricular activities and academic success. Usually students who stay involved and active have more motivation to hold their academics to a high standard for many reasons. Some of these reasons include eligibility, more time to devote to extracurricular activities, and both high academics and extracurricular activities look good when trying to get a job. There were a couple sources that showed no correlation between extracurricular activities and academic success but none that showed a negative Activities and Academics 7 correlation. The research that I conducted, for the most part, seemed to follow my assumptions. I have always believe that being involved and active definitely does help with academic success and helps students strive to do the best they can do when it comes to academics. Does ones participation in extracurricular activities (i.e. band, athletics, cheerleading, drama, and so on) have any effect on the students academic success? What would happen if a student who had been involved in extracurricular activities all of a sudden were not? Would more time devoted to schoolwork because of no extracurricular activities be a good thing for a students academics? In this study, the independent variable will be ones participation in extracurricular activities. The dependent variable we will name as a students academic success. It is hypothesized that there will be a very strong and positive correlation between extracurricular activities and academic success. Method The researcher plans to measure the correlation between extracurricular activities and academic success by using a questionnaire. The questionnaire will be handed out to an equal number of individuals involved in band, cheerleading, football, baseball, basketball, greek organizations, and drama. The questionnaire will also be given to the same amount of students who are not involved in anything other than classes. Activities and Academics 8 Analysis The researcher will use the correlation equation to analyze the data taken from the questionnaire.

Daimler Chrysler Merger Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Daimler Chrysler Merger Daimler Chrysler is the result of merging Daimler-Benz and the Chrysler Corporation in late 1998. The merger was to be one of the largest on record, and the beginning of a new wave of mergers sweeping through the automotive industry. Although the companies were manufacturing generally similar products, the differences between those products could not be wider. Chrysler was known for a product line consisting of mini-vans, light duty trucks, and four-wheel drive off-road vehicles; Daimler-Benz was known for its luxury brand of Mercedes-Benz vehicles and medium and heavy-duty over-the-road trucks. Merging the two companies entertained the idea of one entity possessing a product line covering nearly every type of wheeled vehicle. Daimler Chrysler’s strategy was to maintain separate brands and images, following its internal book, â€Å"Guidelines for Daimler Chrysler Brand Management.† This book outlined a strategy consistent with a clear separation of Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler brands. No sharing of common platforms, factories, or dealership networks was allowed. In effect, the two companies were to be run as separate entities; even the headquarters were to remain separate. It would appear a strategy consistent with these goals would severely limit any anticipated synergies of the merger. Upon completion of the merger, an industry wide overcapacity existed, and economic conditions suggested a further slowdown in auto sales on the horizon. Medium and heavy-duty truck sales were slowing down, Mercedes-Benz was facing stiff competition from the luxury Japanese car market, Chrysler was experiencing lackluster sales, and clearly, costs needed to be cut. The result was Daimler Chrysler’s announced layoffs of 26,000 employees and the idling of several assembly plants in North America. It became apparent to those outside the organization that the merger was more of a takeover by Daimler-Benz than a â€Å"merger of equals.† Clearly, Daimler-Benz emerged as the leading entity and named many of its executives to the board of directors. Chrysler’s management took a back seat, and the former Chrysler CEO was given a lesser role in the new organization. Since the completion of the merger, Daimler Chrysler stock (DCX) has suffered over a 55% decline. The fundamentals of the company trail i... ...strategic alliances with MMC and Hyundai should allow rapid penetration in the Asian market. The potential synergies, if realized, should allow increased production efficiencies while reducing costs. New product lead-time could be diminished sequentially, allowing an advantage over the competition, while incorporating Daimler-Benz’s engineering facilities with Chrysler should increase Chrysler’s perceived quality without sacrificing Mercedes-Benz’s brand image. Of late, the stock price has suffered more than its peers as investors recognize the lack of synergy if the entities are not combined in at least some capacity. Combining at least some portions of engineering, design, and manufacturing should be attempted, at least on an experimental basis, if any synergies are to be realized. Merging and acquiring companies without exploiting their comparative advantages offers little or no advantages. If Daimler Chrysler is to prosper in this very competitive industry, it should explore all potential comparative and strategic advantages to minimize costs while sharing its core competencies throughout the organization to increase market share and brand recognition.

From the journal of Edna Krouner :: Edna Krouner Journal short story

From the journal of Edna Krouner On September 17th, 1908, at the brisk hour of 6:30 a.m., Miss Edna Krouner of Wakefield Rhode Island boarded a train for Poughkeepsie, New York.. About to begin her sophomore year at Vassar college, Edna flirted with two central questions: How quickly could she fall back asleep, and would anyone notice the snag she had just made in her new grey skirt? The confident thunk of heavy luggage settles Edna into the train compartment. A small, exasperated groan issues from her round mouth. Edna was the type of girl who thought women should groan in public if they wished, only maybe in a more polite and refined fashion than those Yale boys she had to dance with on football weekends. Coat and baggage successfully arranged in the seat, Edna waits for the sharp, familiar shock of the whistle, the loud lurching of the wheel’s first revolutions, and then, the steady calm of motion through the hazy New England morning. Stretching into her train compartment, Edna wonders if maybe Muriel would arrive this morning, and then the two of them could walk downtown to "purchase furnishings and sundries" for their rooms, returning to a party of picture hanging and new gossip. "If only we didn't have to go to that wretched chapel all the time!" , Edna writes in her journal. A journal, mind you, not a diary. Diaries might do for flighty girls, but as a young lady off to college, Edna was determined to write in a journal. Thinking of chapel, Edna groans again. She knew that as soon as a cozy crowd had assembled in her room, they would all be called to procession. Besides, chapel only served to "keep us quiet and bored for a set period each day". As Edna writes many times, the simple fact persists that "chapel is stupid" annoyance suprs her eyes to wander, and Edna glances out the window to realize that the Hudson forms a smaller ribbon now, a fainter, delicate version of itself as the train clacks and clings aw ay, soothing her into the curl of almost sleeping. Edna had stayed last night with her cousin Anna in Palisades Park before heading on to Poughkeepisie. They talked in Anna's room until 1 in the morning, pondering "deep and exciting issues of the day", to quote Edna’s journal once again.

Book Review :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Facing Death, Finding Love: The Healing Power of Grief and Loss in One Family’s Life was written by Dawson Church. 1994. 140p. Aslan Publishing. Dawson Church is a publisher, editor and author. Previous books he has authored or co-authored include The Heart of the Healer and Communing with the Spirit of Your Unborn Child. He works as CEO of Atrium Publishers Group – a book distributor- and lives with his wife and two children in Lake County, California.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dawson Church starts out with his acknowledgments of appreciation to all the people that have supported him in the writing and publishing of this book. The introduction by Church’s editor, Hal Zina Bennett, Ph.D., reflects the truths revealed in the book’s contents as reminders that in opening our hearts and minds to the greatest mysteries of all – the vast mysteries of life and death – we discover a love that is as powerful in the receiving as in the giving, transcending all our deepest and most grievous emotions. Maybe the best way to describe and sum up the contents of Church’s book that readers are about to discover is as follow†¦   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"It is perhaps in grief that we discover the force that carried us once again into incarnation, the reason we incarnated in the first place. It is in the tearing open of heart that we discover how guarded our lives have become, how small a cage we have traded off for safe ground. We see how our work is to be more loving, to live more fully in an often confusing world.† Church uses nine chapters together with his afterword and appendix A: Grieving Rituals as well as appendix B: Connecting With the Soul to cover all the contents of this book.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter one – The Death – starts out with the vision that death can come very unexpectedly to anyone at anytime or any place when one least prepares for it. Death to Church and his wife as well as to many people in the world are hard to recognize and deal with. He keeps come up with questions such as â€Å"We felt him kicking just last night. What could have happened between then and now? We didn’t feel any struggle. Surely he would have alerted us if something were wrong? He could have communicated his distress, and we could have known and perhaps done something.† Church couldn’t get over the unexpected death of Montague because he thought that no way it could possibly be happened when he and his wife did not neglect any aspect of caring for the infant in the womb.

Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response in Schools Essay

The professional nurse uses clinical judgment and decision making skills to provide appropriate nursing care and collaborates with other health care professionals responding to the emergency or disaster. The purpose of this paper is to outline the professional nurse’s role and how the nurse works with other responding personnel as well as the community affected in the event of a tornado that affects a school. The Role of the Nurse A disaster is defined as any natural or human-made incident that causes disruption, destruction, and/or devastation requiring external assistance (Stanhope, 2012). Schools are generally considered a safe haven for the children attending, but various types of emergencies can occur within the school walls that impact the school and the surrounding community. Severe weather can be a natural disaster when it produces tornadoes. Tornadoes have proven to be large scale disasters, causing problems ranging from loss of power to major structural damage and resulting in physical injuries, including loss of life. Tornadoes outside of a school setting cause severe damage and casualties, but when the tornado hits a school it becomes a disaster setting for all school personnel and the school nurse. The school nurse immediately is looked at when there is any type of medical emergency. When there is an entire school that has been affected by destruction like a tornado, the school nurse is most definitely overwhelmed with patients. The nurse must be prepared and work closely with all responding personnel to ensure a timely response to all affected, inside the school and the parents affected outside the school. The school nurse is an expert in the nursing process and should utilize these steps in order to care for all involved in a disaster like this. The professional nurse, through her education, should be prepared to utilize the nursing process (assess, plan, implement, evaluate). It is critical the school nurse knows his/her role prior to the disaster. His/her role includes triage, coordination of the first aid response team, and direct hands-on care to the victims of the emergency. The school nurse also plays an important role in the mental health support for the students and faculty involved during the emergency and in the recovery phase of the emergency. The nurse must be able to identify with and be able to communicate with all responding healthcare personnel. The responding will include, but is not limited to, firefighters, both paid and volunteer, EMS personnel, Emergency Management Personnel, law enforcement, and local healthcare providers, such as physicians and nurses. The school board office will also have responding personnel to the scene as well. The main goal of the professional nurse is to communicate with all responding personnel and ensure that everyone involved in the response clearly knows their role and who they should report to. Nursing Strategies Every community can always improve in their response to emergencies and disasters. Planning before the disaster hits is the key. Preparations for a facility’s response to an emergency involving realistic training exercises, (O’Boye, 2006) can greatly reduce anxiety levels and increase the likelihood of more positive results. Some examples of emergency and disaster planning includes, but is not limited to, mock exercises, more interagency cooperation in the mock exercises, identifying how we, as a community, will respond, who would be in charge of communications, who would be in charge of logistics, and a list of every one’s role in the emergency response (Laureate, 2012). The school nurse is in a leadership position to provide continuous coordination and training of all school personnel as well as the communities involved as part of the school’s emergency plan. Implementing the National Incident Command system into the school’s emergency plan is vital. This system includes universal protocols and language (Stanhope, 2012). This system acknowledges the need for mutual aid response and allows for easy to understand communication and description of roles no matter what agency or community the responders come from. This system should be implemented in every school because when a disaster strikes, especially at a school, people come from all over the country to render aid and this system provides a framework that everyone can understand. Summary The school nurse’s assistance in community-wide planning groups is helpful in the facilitation of a rapid, coordinated, effective emergency response within the framework of the Incident Command System. This includes establishing standard emergency response plans and participating in skills, drills and exercises to evaluate the response capabilities of a school, as well as the effectiveness of the plan (NASN, 2013). Disasters occurring at schools create a larger scale disaster because not only is there the disaster inside the school, but there is also a disaster created outside the school from all of the parents wanting answers that sometimes takes hours to produce the answers to. Planning is the key and the school nurse is in the position to help in the planning of the response plan in these disasters.