Diversity Issues and Population Risk Example

Essays on Diversity Issues and Population Risk Article ï » ¿Diversity Issues and Population Risk Diversity refers to the commitment to recognizing and appreciating characteristics that makes one unique. It also entails the differences among people in the society. Diversities exist in different way e.g. culture, age, disability, gender, language, race, physical appearance, heath, political affiliations, and religious beliefs among others. Population on the other hand is the total number of people living within an area or a group of people with similar characteristics. The recent statistics have shown that the different diversities and population are at risk according to Ewijk (2011). These diversities according to Ewijk should be recognized and appreciated. Kenya for example has diverse ethnic, cultural political and religious groups. According to Kim (2011) it was found that ethnic diversities can contribute to the stability of a nation and in turn promote exchange if various ethnic groups recognize and appreciate each other. Ethnic diversity however has caused problems in different parts of the world notably the Ruanda’s genocide which was based on ethnic violence between the Hutus and the Tutsis. (Thompson 302). This ethnic disparity saw Kenya experiencing post election violence which was fought on the basis of ethnic and political affiliations. The ethnic violence experience in this two nations lead to many deaths and loss of property. This came due to failure by citizens of these two countries to appreciate the diversity of ethnic groups in their countries. Cultural and religious diversity has also been witnessed in various parts of the globe where one is either discriminated on the basis of his culture and religion. According to Taylor and Francis (2001) the Muslims minority have been discriminated against in Christian dominated countries. However, the study also shows that discrimination on religious disparity is high in Muslim dominated courtiers as opposed to the Christian dominated courtiers. The war between the Israel and Palestine is majorly based on religious disparity between Christians and the Muslims. These two nations have not appreciated the existence of different religious beliefs in the world. Diversity also exists in relation to health issues where in many countries, there has been tendencies where the disabled persons are stigmatized and sometimes shunned from the community (Global Report 8). Those suffering from HIV AID have also been subjected discrimination and stigmatization. However, this has lead to intense advocacy and education to enlighten people to appreciate the social status of every individual irrespective of his or her health status. Population has therefore been put at risk as a result of failure to recognize and appreciate the existence of diversity in the world. This has lead to frequent wars in many parts of the world as some nations consider others enemies based on their diverse cultures and religion. This has seen many Muslim nations in the world fighting which America on the basic of perception by America and its allies that Muslims are terrorists. Work Cited Ewijk, Van. â€Å"Diversity and diversity policy: diving into fundamental differences†. Journal of Organizational Change. 2011. Kim EH Johnson LR. â€Å"Ethnic Identity, Self-Efficacy, and Intercultural Attitudes in East African and the US†. Youth Journal. 2007. Thompson, Allan. The media and the Rwanda genocide. Oxford Publishers. 2007. Taylor Francis. Religious Discrimination against Muslim Minorities in Christian Majority Counties. Politics, Religion Ideology. 2011. Global Report. Equality at work: tackling the challenges. International Labour Office. 2007.

Where There’s a Will There’s a Way Free Essays

Alex Stough Prof. Minner English 1301 9 November 2012 Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way Many people who are physically challenged have accomplished a lot during their lifetime, proving that they are not â€Å"handicapped†. Bob Sampson and Steven hawking have created successful careers while being confined to a wheelchair. We will write a custom essay sample on Where There’s a Will There’s a Way or any similar topic only for you Order Now Sampson, despite having muscular dystrophy, has worked for United Airlines for more than thirty years, and has also earned a degree in law. Steven Hawking, most famous for his book A Brief History of Time, used a voice synthesizer to dictate his books and conduct public lectures because he was unable to speak. He was also a teacher of mathematics at Cambridge University. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ann Adams, and Itzhak Perlman all refused to let polio destroy their lives. Roosevelt and Adams were diagnosed with polio when they were adults; Itzhak, however, was diagnosed when he was just a mere child. President Roosevelt led the United States during two of the worst periods of its history; the great Depression and World War II. Reassured by his bombastic voice, Roosevelt inspired hope and determination in the American public. Ann Adams, who was talented in art before polio paralyzed her, retrained herself to draw with a pencil grasped in her teeth; she now produces sketches of children and pets that are turned into greeting cards. Itzhak Perlman was unable to play sports when he was a child; instead he studied the violin which inevitably made him into one of the greatest violinist of today. Like Perlman, many physically challenged individuals turn to the arts; perhaps the reason is because the joy of artistic achievements compensates for other pleasures that they cannot experience. Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Jose Feliciano, and Ronnie Milsap all express their music through their souls. For instances, a lot of Ray Charles’ songs are emotionally driven and have a lot of meaning behind them. Although they are unable to see physically, their music reveals truly how well they see. Although hearing impairment struck Ludwig van Beethoven and Marlee Matlin, it did not stop them from developing their talents as Artists. Already a successful composer, Beethoven’s most powerful pieces were written after he had become deaf. Similarly, Matlin has had excellent acting roles in movies, plays, and television programs; indeed she won an Oscar for the film Children of a Lesser God. She encourages others to develop their ability, and because of this many hearing-impaired actors have been inspired by her. Handicapped is a word used far too often to describe those who are physically challenged. As history has proven, many famous individuals have made great achievements in spite of their disabilities. People who are physically challenged should not automatically be labeled as â€Å"handicapped†. We as humans have the mental capability to overcome and adapt the challenges that we may face, even if that means making lifestyle changes. How to cite Where There’s a Will There’s a Way, Papers

Logistics And Operations Management British Petroleum

Question: Describe about the Outsourcing contract, Logic map of Outsourcing and analysis of decision making using the 5 performance objectives by British Petroleum? Answer: Executive Summary The reports the choice and results of the study conducted on three successive outsourcing by British Petroleum. The IT outsourcing helps the BP to explore its technological capabilities and to act as a broader initiative to reshape the department of IT. This study conducted defines the key notions of IT outsourcing and efficacy of its risk management and defines the various techniques adopted to assess the study. The report demonstrate the three significant IT outsourcing contracts by BP along with the assessment of distinctive levels of risks and decision logic map that assist in making effective decisions on outsourcing. Outsourcing contract by British Petroleum British Petroleum (BP) reputed as the worlds largest integrated oil and gas companies meet the growing demand of energy in a safe and responsible way (Alsouri et al. 2011). As the operations manager of British Petroleum, I have prioritized value over volume and it has always been the prime factor by actively managing the upstream and downstream portfolio and investment only where distinctive strengths, capabilities and technologies can be applied. Outsource contract of BPX The first major venture of BP that is decided to outsource is BPX contract. This project would cover the telecommunications, data center, management, systems development and maintenance. This has been decided for outsourcing, as the project encompass all the BP exploration offices across the globe, 42 businesses and 8 major sites. The major objective of this outsourcing arrangement decided is to ensure that suppliers would act as the single Virtual supplier with the focus to provide seamless services to customers (Bentounsi et al. 2012). In spite the area of expertise for each contractor, major business sites of BP would act as the key contractor and would coordinate services provided by the other two. BPCC outsourcing The next outsourcing would consider the BPs corporate center. This project is undertaken to outsource its data center management and telecommunications. The implementation of this outsourcing strategy involve negotiations with three suppliers i.e. One for its WAN services and two for its site services (Chen et al. 2013). The outsourcing decision and management of BPCC focus to build partnerships with the suppliers, facility management relationship and detailed analysis of the contract design that is common in outsourcing of IT. BP Global contract BP global contract is another outsourcing decisions made to besides the BPX and BPCC contract. This outsourcing arrangement was decided to replace the fragmented assortment of existing suppliers as well as regrouping of different contracts and all infrastructures. In this outsourcing plan, the supplier is anticipated to provide similar IT environments at all operating regions of BP (Cooper et al. 2012). This outsourcing contract is decided to envisage for five years. BPX, BPCC and BP global contract is the three successive IT outsourcing decide at the BP. The aforementioned outsourcing was further evaluated by using decision logic and risk analysis of the outsourcing contracts. Logic map of Outsourcing The decision of outsourcing is add significant value to the organizations bottom line in terms of increased efficiency, cost savings and enhanced services to customers. Outsourcing at BP is done to enhance the organizational performance, increase its competitive advantage and add value to customers (Dhar, 2012). Moreover, the decision logic of outsourcing presented here will acknowledge the BP business processes that are kept in-house and the ones that are safely outsourced. (Diagram is modified) Strategic alliance- This quadrant is high in strategic importance and has little contribution in operational performance. BP forms strategic alliance on its data center management. The company induces effort to retain control of the technology and ensure that tasks are done accurately, getting the expected quality, however, the outsource tasks are relatively insignificant in terms of effective operation and cost, hence it is not worth of in-house focus. Retention- BP retain its oil production processes and data that contains the mechanism of refining and processing crude oil into an usable product, that include chemicals and high quality items gasoline utilized in daily items. Tasks in this particular quadrant are of high strategic importance and considered to have significant impact on operational performance of BP (Ge, 2011). This particular task is kept in-house so that the company can gain maximum control. The production and refining process of oil should be retained in-house as it is strategically critical and constitute the core competency of organization. Moreover, in-house product planning process makes huge contribution to the effective performance of the company. Outsource- BPX, BPCC and BP global contract are the essential elements for successful operational performance; however, they are not strategically important. All of these three outsourced contracts include significant areas of IT management such as telecommunication, system development and maintenance, etc. On the other hand, the outsourcing of BPCC management emphasize on developing partnership with the suppliers and facility management relationships. Moreover, BP global outsourcing management was done to regroup the existing contracts, infrastructures and in focus to replace the fragment assortment of various in-house suppliers at BP (Isaksson et al. 2014). The IT management processes such as telecommunication, data center, system development and maintenance plays a significant part in improving the customer experience with the company. Outsourcing or working with an offshore supplier for IT or technical support allows the efficient use of resources, thus improving the overall services and th rough this BP achieve the ability to work with efficient experts in the field of non-core business operations. Eliminate- BP removed the several project co-ordination tasks from the BP project engineers. The removal of task freed up the BPs personnel, which in turn allows them the opportunity to become program managers so that they can engage in higher value work (Jain and Natarajan, 2011). At the higher level of BP business processes, elimination of coordination tasks helped the renowned oil company to improve its procurement of petrol stations. Analysis of decision making using the 5 performance objectives Cost- Services outsourcing to various countries that are comparatively cheaper in respect to UK leads to cost effective solutions for companies like BP. Countries like India, Philippines offers similar level of services with high quality, however the cost is comparatively less that UK. Thus BP focus to gain an overall cost advantage by outsourcing its IT management services and telecommunications to countries like India (Kumar et al. 2013).Outsourcing of data center management and call center services allows BP to save upto 60% of total cost on IT. Offshore outsourcing of IT services that cost $100 an hour in UK can be accomplished at the rate $20 an hour when done in cheaper countries like India or Beijing. Moreover, Outsourcing relief BP from the cost of maintaining IT infrastructure, this is essential for catering customer services (telecommunication) and data Center management. In addition, outsourcing the requirements of business to a trusted vendor help the company to reduce its capi tal expenditure thereby, minimize time and also reduce the extra effort and money spend on personnel (Lacity et al. 2014). Nonetheless, BP is no longer liable to invest on training its IT executives, investment in latest technologies or purchase the expensive software that is essential for telecommunication, system development and maintenance and data center management, is It is of no surprise that, outsourcing offers expert services at a cost effective rate. Dependability- The decision of outsourcing can be effective if the process is reliable and offers dependable delivery. Considering this particular determinant of performance objectives, it becomes difficult to rely and outsource the management of data center that contains valuable data and information of production and refining processes implemented by BP (Leeney et al. 2013). It holds the main privacy factor of BP and hence reliability on outsourcing is less. The third-party outsourcing on IT management offers seamless services at a reasonable cost. The outsourcing of telecommunication, call center activities, development of systems and its maintenance does not incur considerable risks with maintenance of privacy, uncertainty or hidden service costs. Quality- Quality of outsourced activities varies widely depending on the type of task outsourced. Data solutions involve cloud computing and highly relies on sharing of resources to achieve economies of scale and coherence. Moreover, cloud computing is a broader concept of sharing services and converged infrastructure. The quality of cloud computing to store, manage and process the production and refining mechanism is highly uncertain due to the security, privacy compliance and legal compliance (Mohr et al. 2011). It is undesirable to outsource the data management activity of BPs prime production due to the unpredicted costs, Lock Ins and incompatibility. As a result, the company seems to lose control and reliability on the suppliers that can negatively affect its organizational performance. Outsourcing of telecommunication activities and system development allows the opportunity to receive expert and skilled services. Functions that are outsourced may not be the core competency for BP but offers proficient services in areas of customer services and system development. After sales services by offering customer care services is an important aspect that brings that offers profit and productivity for long term. Speed- Outsourcing is incorporated with the typical objective to save cost and gain timely delivery of quality services executed by skilled professionals and experts. Speed is important in order to address customers in time. This attribute is viewed positively as the customers are likely to return with more business. Thus, the impact of speed has much to do with cost reduction of the operations (Pellegrini et al. 2012). Speed reduces the cost in two significant areas such as reduction in inventory and risks as well. In case of BP, faster throughput of information to customers will be effective in reducing the cost. However, the facility of inventory cost reduction due to fast throughput and short delivery lead-time is not considered in case of data center management, hence it is kept in-house. Flexibility- Flexibility allows the outsourcing operation to fit variety of products and services for its customers. The flexibility in volume and delivery allows the operations to adjust its level of output and procedure of delivery in order to cope with the unexpected changes in telecommunication and system development services to BP (Percy, 2013). Thus, it is decided to outsource its telecommunication and system development services as flexibility is associated with three significant benefits such as flexibility allows saving of time, flexibility maintain the dependability and flexibility speed up the response. Evaluation of risks involved in decision-making The risks involved in decision making of IT outsourcing in IT management of BP considers the following: Hidden cost Hidden cost of service was the major threat in this particular scenario. The hidden cost of services is expected to be high due to large extent of contract and the huge number of activities outsourced in the process (Ravi et al. 2011). The Outsourcing of IT management tasks include worldwide locations; hence, the cost rate fluctuates according to the changing economy of countries. Uncertainty Outsourcing of IT management is complex as the needs are likely to change anytime in future, being unsure of the needs, hence uncertainty was significantly high. However, the risk of uncertainty can be decreased significantly, if the outsourcing is decided on limited term contract. Thus, it allows the flexibility to alter technology solutions matching the needs of business within the reasonable period (Saunders, 2013). Moreover, the risk of uncertain needs in future can be mitigated by selecting suppliers with entrepreneurial and innovative abilities and by the adoption of best practices. Loss of competency Loss of organizational competencies is another significant risk associated with outsourcing. As BP decided to become the knowledge organization by proficient management of information, hence IT related activities are close to core competencies of organization. Outsourcing will result into loss of IT skills from the company (Shi, 2013). Moreover, the outsourced activity is an indication of high level of interdependence. To minimize the loss of expertise, BP evaluated its entire staff prior to transition and retained the skills it needed. The company hired single supplier to remain associated with the quality and skills of suppliers, their technology, and management services. Service debasement The risk of service debasement can materialize in three significant ways i.e. poor resolution of problems, slowdown of services and declination in staff skill of supplier. The risk factor associates with factors such as task complexity, lack of supplier expertise, interdependency and financial stability of supplier. The risk-mitigating tool considers deployment of more than one supplier and spreading of service between two or three outsourced company to mitigate the risk of service slowdown (Tanriverdi and Uysal, 2011). The interdependent characteristics of activities can be reduced by assignment of clear field of responsibilities. BP can mitigate the risk factors by asking one outsourcing supplier to take the key responsibility for problem solving activities at each of its site. 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Machiavelli, management and outsourcing: still on the learning curve.Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal,4(1), 5-12.