Trend in International Business Environment - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Trend in International Business Environment. Answer: Introduction The economic framework in the global framework, over the years, has experienced significant dynamics and modifications in the last few decades, which in turn can be attributed to the economic and global phenomena occurring in different corners of the world. The global economic environment, over the past decades has become more integrated and inclusive owing to economic phenomena like Globalization, Liberalization of economic environment of the major countries and increasing scopes of setting up commercial and political relations among the different countries across the world. This immense dynamics in the global economy have direct implications on the business and commercial environment across the world, which has also been subjected to immense modifications relating to the changing patterns of operations of businesses in different parts of the world. Over the years, the main incentive of doing business, globally, has remained the same, that is of acquiring maximum profit and economic prospects as well long term sustainability in their operations. However, the mode of operations in the business organizations and the work culture have significantly changes over the years, catering to the needs of the situations and facilitated by the inventions and development of technologies and provisions which makes the process of doing business easy, convenient, cost saving and time effective. The changes in the work culture and global business environment includes multi-dimensional domains like the way in which the employees interact, the communications among different participants in the businesses, production methods, management of businesses and others to name a few. With a more integrated international commercial environment and with increasing number of businesses going global, these changes have become inevitable and have been facilitate d by facilities like internet, which makes communication across the world extremely easy. Taking this aspect into consideration, many business organizations are undergoing radical changes in their workplace arrangements, which includes introduction of new practices like that of hot-desking, stand-up and corridor meetings, home offices and others to make their operations more dynamic and cost and time effective. The concerned report tries to discuss these new methods taken by the business organizations in the contemporary periods, in details. The report also emphasizes on analyzing the need for introduction of the same, the motivation behind the same and tries to analyze whether the companies, implementing such methods are getting added advantages and desired benefits over those who still stick to the conventional methods of doing business. For the purpose of doing the same the report tries to conduct an extensive review of the literatures and scholarly works which are present regarding aspects, thereby comparing and discussing the learned opinions prevailing across the wo rld regarding this aspect, taking into account the empirical evidences and examples relevant to the same. Dynamics in the Global Business Environment To understand the evolution and implementation of radical changes in the workplace operations by the different enterprises across the world, it is of immense importance to understand the trends prevailing in the global business environment and the evolution of the same over the years. There exists different opinions regarding the concept of the global business environment of which the one put forward by Wild, Wild and Han (2014), seems to be robust and inclusive. The authors define the concept of the international business environment as the open forum in which the commercial transactions (both public and private) takes places between the relevant organizations of different countries. Over the years, with the integration of the leading economies of the world, attributed to phenomena like Globalizations, Liberalizations, Free Trade Agreements and inter-country migration and usage of labor and other resources of production, there has been a significant increase in the number of enterpr ises and countries actively operating under the domain of international business environment. There are several contributing factors, according to the literary evidences to the expansion of operations in the global business environment, with more and more companies going global. The primary ones, as found to be asserted by different scholarly opinions are discussed in the following sections. Reasons behind the increase in operations of enterprises in international business Casson (2013) in his working paper briefly discussing about the evolution of the global business environment, elaborates about the primary reasons behind the continuously expanding domain of international business and inclusion of more organizations as participants in the same. The primary ones put forward by the author are as follows: Increasing innovations and progress in technological aspects, which facilitates in integrating the global economy and making overseas operations of businesses convenient and time saving Increase in easy transport globally and the fall in the cost of overseas travel has also facilitated commercial enterprises to increase their domain of operations in countries other than their home country With communication getting easier, mainly due to the invention and increased usage of internet, it becomes easier for the organizations to connect instantly with any corner of the world, which in turn helps them in controlling their business operations in different countries from a remote place of operations The views of Casson are strongly supported by many other authors including Verbeke (2013), who adds to the arguments by adding the aspects of change in consumption and life style patterns of people across the world. This in turn has changed the global consumption patterns massively, thereby making the business environment more inclusive as well as competitive. Given this situation and the ease of doing international business, more companies are expanding their domain of operations globally The arguments put forward by the authors in the above section, emphasizes on the fact that over the years the operational framework of the business organizations have changed massively, with most of them going global and venturing in more than one domain of operations, thereby making their production and supply of products and services multi-dimensional. This in turn, as argued by Putnam and Mumby (2013), indicates towards the need for change and improvisations in the modes of operations within these business enterprises, which also includes the workplace arrangements, such that the resources present with the companies can be optimally used and the production can be maximized. Changes in the workplace arrangements with time There are many opinions regarding the fact that over the years the commercial organizations have been modifying their workplace arrangements significantly and incorporating new means in doing the same, the changes being radical in many instances. Christensen and Schneider (2015), have argued in this aspect asserting that over the years the usual commercial workplaces have undergone considerable changes in the pattern of operating with the inclusion of new ways of working by the employees in these organizations. However, the authors have not elaborated on the measures and new age working methods which are being adopted by these organizations in this aspect and have only discussed about the evolution of business workplaces across the world over time. Coenen and Kok (2014), augments the arguments put forward by the former authors, regarding the evolution of commercial workplaces with time and the new arrangement adopted by them in the global scenario. According to the authors, to cater to the changes in the demand as well as supply patterns, the operations and production activities of the companies have been experiencing significant changes, which includes radical workplaces changes like implementation of work from home, hot-desking, corridor and stand-up meetings, space sharing, flexible work shifts and others. These new age workplace arrangements, as opined by different scholars, are put forward in the following sections. New Workplace Arrangements Over the last few decades, the conventional concept of workplace, that is of several people sitting in a room, at same place and working for a fixed duration daily, doing several pre-assigned jobs, has changed considerably. The businesses going global and multi-dimensional, the organizations are venturing in many industries and domain of operations, which in turn have led them to relax the conventional working norms and work cultures and implement flexibilities in the same to utilize the resources present with them as far as possible and find new channels to reap profits by finding new ways of utilizing their full capacities. The new changes, often implemented in the workplace arrangements are as follows: Work From Home One of the current workplace arrangement changes which are increasingly taken into account by the business organizations across the world, in many industries, is the practice of home office or working from home. Bloom (2014), elaborately discusses the concept of working from home as the method of operations, especially adopted by the different commercial organizations across different parts of the world, where the employees of the company can perform their professional activities without being present at the work location during the normal business timings. This implies that an employee can work independently from home, without staying electronically connected to the team or the employer, during the business hours. Motivations behind implementation of working from home Bridgman (2016), discusses the expected benefits of the implementation of working from home in the contemporary commercial scenario, which motivates the organizations to implement the same. These motivating reasons according to the author are as follows: The first benefit of introducing the practice of working from home, as per the assertions of the author, is that it is expected to increase the productivity of the employees by saving time and effort to travel to the workplace, this being especially true for those employees who stay far from their offices. Another argument in favor of the same is that this practice helps the employers to cut the overhead costs of making provisions for the employees within the office to a considerable level, thereby increasing the cost effectiveness in their production operations. Kruse (2018), puts forward another motivating factor behind the incorporation of work from home practices in the current business scenario across the world, which is the aspect of less distraction, less stressed environment and working in the quieter atmosphere, which is expected to increase the productivity of the employees, thereby benefitting the employers in the long run, in terms of profitability. Another crucial aspect of the need for implementing the working from home practices in the commercial domain, as put forward by Klein and Myrdal (2013), is that from the perspective of female workers. As has been rightly put forward by the authors and supported by many other scholarly evidences including that of Slaughter (2015), the work force participation of women have increased significantly over the years, with increasing scopes of education and skill development of women. However, in spite of their increasing participation in different commercial arena, across the world, the women workforce still faces the problem of trading off between their work and household responsibilities, especially after their marriage and child birth. According to the authors, this leads to immense lay-offs and resignation of the female employees in many organizations, thereby affecting the welfare of the employees as well as the profitability of the enterprises negatively. However, with the implementation of work from home practices, the authors argue that this problem can be combated to a considerable extent, as the female employees will no longer have to trade off between work and child rearing and can maintain a perfect work life balance. This may also help the male employees in the same aspects. This in turn can help the business organizations in terms of retaining their precious resources and increase in the overall productivity and cost effectiveness. Problems in working from home Thus, it can be seen that there exists significant positive arguments in favor of the implementation of the practice of working from home in the businesses in the contemporary periods. There are, however, several arguments put forward by scholars, against the concept of work from home. Sturges (2012), argues that often with the implementation of working from home practices, the productivity of employees decrease as they tend to pay less attention to work and there rises sincerity issues. The author also argues that there exists many industries and job roles where there remains no scope of implementing work from home option, thereby making the scope of implantation of the same restricted. His views are also supported by Clapperton (2018), who suggests that among the problems of working from home, the trust issues of the employers is not the primary issue. The main issues according to the author, are the problem of over-working of the employees, lack of colleague support, feeling of is olation and also the absence of proper infrastructure in the residences, the last problem being even more acute in the low developed countries. Case Study Bloom et al. (2014), conducted an experiment on the reputed Chinese travel company, CTrip, with 16,000 employees, where the call center support staffs who opted for work from home option showed a 13% increase in their performance. This led the company to roll out the same for all the employees, where the increase in the productivity of the company was as high as 22%, much due to the work satisfaction and convenience of the employees. Hot-Desking Another important change in the conventional arrangements in the workplaces, which have been increasingly adopted by the business organizations across the world, is the practice of hot-desking in the business organizations. According to Gilson et al. (2012), the term Hot-Desking, being a new concept in work-place arrangement, refers to the system, where more than one worker can work from one desk or work station, thereby having no fixed sitting arrangements and dynamic access to resources as per requirement of the workers. Given the dynamics which the business organizations face in the contemporary global scenario, there are several motivations, on part of the companies, which have been asserted by many scholars over time. Motivation behind implementing hot-desking in business enterprises Felstead (2012), in his elaborate research on the aspects of changing workplace dynamics in the current economic situations, emphasizing especially on the business enterprises operating in the United Kingdom, puts forward the motivations prevailing in the aspect of hot-desking, which are as follows: As per the author, hot-desking allows different employees to access the same working desk in an office, at different times, which reduces the cost of the companies significantly as they do not need to create a work station for each employee. This is especially beneficial in the ever integrating global business environment. The author argues that, with more businesses going global, the need for multi-shift working among the business organizations are increasing, which in turn, required the same to employ workers in different shifts to cater to their multi-national clientele. Hot-desking comes as an efficient workplace arrangement for such situations, as the same increases the productivity of each resource and decreases the cost of operations of the business organizations. Another argument, put forward in favor of the practice, by Strobbe et al. (2012), is that working in different work stations on different days, help the employees to work in the neighborhood of different people in the same office, which in turn helps in better communication, inflow of knowledge from different sections and expansion of the domain of expertise of the employees. This in turn, expectedly contributes positively in the long run productivity of the concerned companies. Brink, Van Meel and Nielsen (2014) augment the previous assertions by arguing that hot-desking not only encourages employees to reduce cumbersome clutters, but also make them feel more free to use the resources present in the office. Under this practice, each employee can use the infrastructures present in the office more efficiently, thereby making the production more cost effective. Problems in hot-desking Not all scholars agree to the positive implications of hot-desking in the business organizations. Baldry and Barnes (2012), argue in their elaborate and empirically supported research findings that there are several impacts of hot-desking, which contributes negatively in the productivity of the employees, thereby having negative implications for the companies in the long run. As per the authors, hot-desking often gives rise to a state of unorganized and inadequate accommodation for the employees, especially when employees are more in number. This forces the employees to waste time in finding a work station for themselves, thereby decreasing their productivity and the profitability of the organizations. The practice, according to the authors, also creates the problem of lack of focusing capabilities among the employees as they need to get accustomed to a new work desk and neighborhood every day (Den Dulk et al. 2013). Case Study The findings of Bull and Brown (2012), suggest that there are mixed implications of hot-desking in the contemporary commercial organizations. While there are evidences of positive implications of the same in the big Silicon Valley based companies like Amazon, Google and others, the evidences provided by Coenen and Kok (2014), show that many people in general do not support the idea as it detaches them from their team, thereby increasing their stress levels as they do not get their familiar peers and their support. Stand-Up or Corridor Meeting Susman (2018), in his article, discussed about another radical change which the workplaces are often implementing in their work culture, which is commonly known as stand-up meeting or corridor meeting. The practice involves the work related discussions and meetings among the attendees, but not in the conventional set-up, but while standing. Motivations to implement Stand-up Meeting According to the author the main benefits of stand-up meeting, which motivates the companies to take this method are as follows: The meetings are usually short and compact as they are done while standing, which creates discomfort if dragged for a long time. The meetings being short-spanned can be done in an informal way, on a regular basis, among teams, which in turn may help in understanding the progress of the same and may also help in creating more channels of communication among the employees. Problems in Corridor or Stand-Up Meetings However, there may also be several problems in conducting the meeting in this way. Brunelle, (2012), argues that this arrangement, due to the short span of meeting, only works when all the participants of the same are focused and clear about their objective of the meeting. Otherwise this may actually be a waste of time. Conclusion Apart from the above discussed changes in the arrangements, there have also been introduction of new work methods like that of virtual meetings, webinars and others, which is highly facilitated by the new age technologies and usage of internets. As the evidences shown above suggests, the implications of the same are mixed. While most of the companies, implementing these methods are benefitted in terms of cost effectiveness, time saving and team integration, there have also been evidences of negative effects of the same in some cases, in terms of inconvenience of some employees and management, which actually added to the loss of their productivity. Together the findings suggest that there are scopes and prospects of implementation of new age workplace arrangements, with the work patterns and operational dynamics considerably changing with time and with more and more companies expanding their domain of operations in other countries as well as in different industries, provided the arran gements are implemented keeping relevance to the structure of the concerned companies, the conveniences of the employers as well as the employees and also the feasibility and viability of the measures for the same. References Baldry, C. and Barnes, A., 2012. The open-plan academy: space, control and the undermining of professional identity.Work, employment and society,26(2), pp.228-245. Bloom, N., 2014. To raise productivity, let more employees work from home.Harvard business review,92(1/2), pp.28-29. Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J. and Ying, Z.J., 2014. Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment.The Quarterly Journal of Economics,130(1), pp.165-218. Bridgman, B., 2016. Home productivity.Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control,71, pp.60-76. Brink, R., Van Meel, J. and Nielsen, S.B., 2014. The shared building portfolio: an exploration and typology. InProceedings of CIB Facilities Management Conference 2014(pp. 154-165). Brunelle, E., 2012. Virtuality in work arrangements and affective organizational commitment.International Journal of Business and Social Science,3(2). Bull, M. and Brown, T., 2012. Change communication: the impact on satisfaction with alternative workplace strategies.Facilities,30(3/4), pp.135-151. Casson, M. ed., 2013.The Growth of International Business (RLE International Business). Routledge. Christensen, K. and Schneider, B. eds., 2015.Workplace flexibility: Realigning 20th-century jobs for a 21st-century workforce. Cornell University Press. Clapperton, G. (2018).Forbes Welcome.Forbes.com. Retrieved 9 January 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/guyclapperton/2014/05/16/home-working-three-real-problems-and-employer-trust-isnt-one-of-them/#5970236f54ab Coenen, M. and Kok, R.A., 2014. Workplace flexibility and new product development performance: The role of telework and flexible work schedules.European Management Journal,32(4), pp.564-576. Coenen, M. and Kok, R.A., 2014. Workplace flexibility and new product development performance: The role of telework and flexible work schedules.European Management Journal,32(4), pp.564-576. Den Dulk, L., Groeneveld, S., Ollier-Malaterre, A. and Valcour, M., 2013. National context in work-life research: A multi-level cross-national analysis of the adoption of workplace work-life arrangements in Europe.European Management Journal,31(5), pp.478-494. Felstead, A., 2012. Rapid change or slow evolution? Changing places of work and their consequences in the UK.Journal of Transport Geography,21, pp.31-38. Gilson, N.D., Suppini, A., Ryde, G.C., Brown, H.E. and Brown, W.J., 2012. Does the use of standing hotdesks change sedentary work time in an open plan office?.Preventive medicine,54(1), pp.65-67. Klein, V. and Myrdal, A., 2013.Women's two roles: Home and work. Routledge. Kruse, K. (2018).Forbes Welcome.Forbes.com. Retrieved 9 January 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/12/18/benefits-working-from-home/#7ef5f6871d4c Putnam, L.L. and Mumby, D.K. eds., 2013.The SAGE handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods. Sage Publications. Slaughter, A.M., 2015.Why women still can't have it all(p. 100). OneWorld. Strobbe, M., Van Laere, O., Ongenae, F., Dauwe, S., Dhoedt, B., De Turck, F., Demeester, P. and Luyten, K., 2012. Novel applications integrate location and context information.IEEE Pervasive Computing,11(2), pp.64-73. Sturges, J., 2012. Crafting a balance between work and home.Human Relations,65(12), pp.1539-1559. Susman, A. (2018).What's a Stand-Up Meeting and Why Is It Beneficial?. [online] HuffPost. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/aron-susman/whats-a-stand-up-meeting-_b_5915958.html [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018]. Verbeke, A., 2013.International business strategy. Cambridge University Press. Wild, J.J., Wild, K.L. and Han, J.C., 2014.International business. Pearson Education Limited.

It Project Management

Question: Discuss about the It Project Management. Answer Introduction: Project Methodology: The project management methodology refers to the complete process that includes initiation, planning, execution and closure (Kerzner, 2013). There are several methodologies from which a single one has to be chosen by the project manager. The chosen methodology serves as a model for the project. The selection of the methodology is based completely on the characteristics of the project. Role of Methodology in Project Management: The roles of the methodologies in the project management are as following. It allows the project managers to run the project systematically, effectively, efficiently and comprehensively (Schwalbe, 2015). It provides confidence to the clients, senior manager, partners and many others that large projects can be delivered with profit by the organization. Through following each step of the methodology the project manager can run any undertaken project successfully (Kerzner, 2013). The Project Management Methodologies: PMBOK: There are confusions that it is a true project management methodology. Though there are some organizations that make use of the PMBOK for managing the projects (Karaman, Kurt, 2015). The methodology consists of five stages such as initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. These groups are agreed upon by the Project Management Institute or PMI. Prince 2: It can be also said as the ProjectsinControlledEnvironments. This methodology is processed based. According to the Prince 2 methodology every project must contain some basic protocols such as a controlled and organized initiation, middle and end (Saad et al., 2014). SDLC: SDLC or software development life cycle is a process of altering or developing an application (Ahmed, Forster Dandekar, 2013). The methodology consists of some predefined planned actions. Waterfall: The model is the first one to be introduced in the industry. It can be also referred to as the linear-sequential life cycle model (Mahalakshmi Sundararajan, 2013). Before jumping on to the next phase the project manager must carefully complete the current process as there is no way to get back to the previous process. Agile: Agile is a software development life cycle model. The agile gives most priority to the requirements of the project (Ahmed, Forster Dandekar, 2013). If a project is being developed with the guidance of agile then any change of scope can be incorporated in the project. Waterfall Vs. Agile: Item Waterfall Agile Definition This is a sequential design process. It is an iterative as well as team-based development. Requirement gathering The requirements have to be collected at the planning phase (Balaji Murugaiyan, 2012). Supports change of requirements. One process to another 1. The project manager can go to the next process only if the current process is completed (Grogan Kennedy, 2013). 2 Going back to previous process are not possible. 1. The project manager can go back to the previous process as it supports change of requirements. Change of requirement Does not support this option. If found any change of requirement of scope then the project has to started from the beginning. Supports the change of scope or requirement (Balaji Murugaiyan, 2012). Domain Software development life cycle Software development life cycle Methodologies and Processes Relate to the Project Life Cycle: Waterfall Model: Figure 1: Waterfall Model Processes (Source: Grogan Kennedy, 2013) Requirement collecting and analysis: The potential requirements of the project have to be collected and documented in this project. The documentation is done in specific document, the requirement specification document. System Design: The system design is conducted on the basis of the requirements that have been collected in the previous phase (Grogan Kennedy, 2013). Implementation: According to the designed system small units of the project will be developed. The integration of the units will be carried out in the next stage. Integration and Testing: At first, the testing of the distinct units is done. After the units successfully pass the testing they are integrated (Balaji Murugaiyan, 2012). Deployment of system: After the completion of the functional and non-functional testing the deployment is done in the consumer environment. Maintenance: As the consumer can face issues after using the system, the maintenance is provided to make the system up and running all the time. Agile: Planning: In this phase the planning of the outline of the process is carried out. Requirement analysis: The functional and non-functional requirements are gathered and examined in this phase. Design: The design is designed according to the analyzed requirement (Grogan Kennedy, 2013). Development: The system is developed on the agreed upon requirements. Testing: Testing of the developed system is carried out. Deploying: The system is deployed to the consumer server. The processes are carried out after receiving new requirements. Each of the complete phase is called integration. References: Ahmed, Z., Helfrich-Forster, C., Dandekar, T. (2013). Integrating Formal UML Designs and HCI Patterns with Spiral SDLC in DroLIGHT Implementation.Recent Patents on Computer Science,6(2), 85-98. Balaji, S., Murugaiyan, M. S. (2012). Waterfall vs. V-Model vs. Agile: A comparative study on SDLC.International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management,2(1), 26-30. Drury-Grogan, M. L., Kennedy, D. M. (2013). Highlighting Communication Activities and Inefficiencies Between Agile vs. Waterfall Methods: An Agent Based Model of Knowledge Sharing. In8th Pre-ICIS International Research Workshop on Information Technology Project Management (IRWITPM 2013)(p. 46). Karaman, E., Kurt, M. (2015). Comparison of project management methodologies: prince 2 versus PMBOK for it projects.International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering Research,4(4), 572-579. Kerzner, H. R. (2013).Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Mahalakshmi, M., Sundararajan, M. (2013). Traditional SDLC Vs Scrum MethodologyA Comparative Study.International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering,3(6), 192-196. Saad, S., Ibrahim, A., Asma, O., Khan, M. S., Akhter, J. (2014). PRINCE2 MEthodology: AN INNovAtIvE WAy foR IMPRovINg PERfoRMANCE of MAlAysIAN AutoMotIvE INdustRy.The Journal of Technology Management and Technopreneurship (JTMT),1(1). Schwalbe, K. (2015).Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Span of Control free essay sample

Corporations often see a shift in executive teams throughout the course of their existence. Often times when during a company merger, acquisition, or a vote by the Board of Directors to replace the company’s leadership, a new style of management will emerge. Different leaders have various ideas on how the management of the company is to be handled. Some CEO’s like to have a small executive team, with separate areas of the business combined into segments and receive reporting through their direct reports, while others like to have a large executive team with a different leader for each business segment. With the number of different management styles out there, employees need to be able to adapt to these changes. In the example provided, the CEO of Fiat decided to flatten the management organization between Fiat and Chrysler. In doing so, the CEO increased the number of direct reports he had under his span of control. We will write a custom essay sample on Span of Control or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In reducing the number of management levels, each of his direct reports had a broad area of the business to control and be responsible for. The move to flatten the span of control allows the business to bring out its employees talents, skills, and strengths. A move like this can be a positive one for the employees as it boosts morale and gives power to the employees of the business to collaborate and be a part of the company’s success (Griffin, 2012). Giving everyone in the organization the feeling of having a voice is a good way to keep all employees engaged and passionate about the company’s success. The change in the management structure promotes the business to the workforce and provides an opportunity for the management team to build on the success of its employees. While a flat management structure has some positives, there are also some issues that leaders should keep a watchful eye out for to ensure the shit in control is successful. Managers in a flat structure need to be sure to share any research or information they may have with others and not keep it secretive. If a manager can be open and even a little vulnerable, the success rate in using a flat structure can be positive (Griffin, 2012). The flat structure does cause managers to end up with a heavier workload and can lead to confusion among its leaders about who is responsible for what roles Griffin, 2012). When so many people are reporting to one manager, a sense of distrust can be built among the reporting chain. This is why it is important to keep an open dialogue with employees to keep their trust. Flattening the management organization reduces the company’s complexity. The span of control is spread out and reduces the centralization of authority. The defined structure of every employee’s roles and responsibilities is less controlled and more open. This allows everyone to approach their jobs with the freedom to accomplish tasks in their own way as long as they work is getting done. Every organization needs to evaluate the business and determine what span of control provides the best return for the company. If the business is one where the jobs require specific skills to accomplish tasks, a tall management structure may be the best suited for continuing progress. Organizations with jobs that allow a less defined skill set, a flat management structure provides the ability to tap every employee’s skills and achieve their full potential.

Functions with the T-Distribution in Excel

Functions with the T-Distribution in Excel Microsoft’s Excel is useful in performing basic calculations in statistics. Sometimes it is helpful to know all of the functions that are available to work with a particular topic. Here we will consider the functions in Excel that are related to the Student’s t-distribution. In addition to doing direct calculations with the t-distribution, Excel can also calculate confidence intervals and perform hypothesis tests. Functions Concerning the T-Distribution There are several functions in Excel that work directly with the t-distribution. Given a value along the t-distribution, the following functions all return the proportion of the distribution that is in the specified tail. A proportion in the tail can also be interpreted as a probability. These tail probabilities can be used for p-values in hypothesis tests. The T.DIST function returns the left tail of Student’s t-distribution. This function can also be used to obtain the y-value for any point along the density curve.The T.DIST.RT function returns the right tail of Student’s t-distribution.The T.DIST.2T function returns both tails of Student’s t-distribution. These functions all have similar arguments. These arguments are, in order: The value x, which denotes where along the x axis we are along the distributionThe number of degrees of freedom.The T.DIST function has a third argument , which allows us to choose between a cumulative distribution (by entering a 1) or not (by entering a 0). If we enter a 1, then this function will return a p-value. If we enter a 0 then this function will return the y-value of the density curve for the given x. Inverse Functions All of the functions T.DIST, T.DIST.RT and T.DIST.2T share a common property. We see how all of these functions start with a value along the t-distribution and then return a proportion. There are occasions when we would like to reverse this process. We start with a proportion and wish to know the value of t that corresponds to this proportion. In this case we use the appropriate inverse function in Excel. The function T.INV returns the left tailed inverse of Student’s T-distribution.The function T.INV.2T returns the two tailed inverse of Student’s T-distribution. There are two arguments for each of these functions. The first is the probability or proportion of the distribution. The second is the number of degrees of freedom for the particular distribution that we are curious about. Example of T.INV We will see an example of both the T.INV and the T.INV.2T functions. Suppose we are working with a t-distribution with 12 degrees of freedom. If we want to know the point along the distribution that accounts for 10% of the area under the curve to the left of this point, then we enter T.INV(0.1,12) into an empty cell. Excel returns the value -1.356. If instead we use the T.INV.2T function, we see that entering T.INV.2T(0.1,12) will return the value 1.782. This means that 10% of the area under the graph of the distribution function is to the left of -1.782 and to the right of 1.782. In general, by the symmetry of the t-distribution, for a probability P and degrees of freedom d we have T.INV.2T(P, d) ABS(T.INV(P/2,d), where ABS is the absolute value function in Excel. Confidence Intervals One of the topics on inferential statistics involves estimation of a population parameter. This estimate takes the form of a confidence interval. For example the estimate of a population mean is a sample mean. The estimate also possesses a margin of error, which Excel will calculate. For this margin of error we must use the CONFIDENCE.T function. Excel’s documentation says that the function CONFIDENCE.T is said to return the confidence interval using Student’s t-distribution. This function does return the margin of error. The arguments for this function are, in the order that they must be entered: Alpha – this is the level of significance. Alpha is also 1 – C, where C denotes the confidence level. For example, if we want 95% confidence, then we must enter 0.05 for alpha.Standard deviation – this is the sample standard deviation from our data set.Sample size. The formula that Excel uses for this calculation is: M t*s/ √n Here M is for margin, t* is the critical value that corresponds to the level of confidence, s is the sample standard deviation and n is the sample size. Example of Confidence Interval Suppose that we have a simple random sample of 16 cookies and we weigh them. We find that their mean weight is 3 grams with a standard deviation of 0.25 grams. What is a 90% confidence interval for the mean weight of all cookies of this brand? Here we simply type the following into an empty cell: CONFIDENCE.T(0.1,0.25,16) Excel returns 0.109565647. This is the margin of error. We subtract and also add this to our sample mean, and so our confidence interval is 2.89 grams to 3.11 grams. Tests of Significance Excel will also perform hypothesis tests that are related to the t-distribution. The function T.TEST returns the p-value for several different tests of significance. The arguments for the T.TEST function are: Array 1, which gives the first   set of sample data.Array 2, which gives the second set of sample dataTails, in which we can enter either 1 or 2.Type - 1 denotes a paired t-test, 2 a two-sample test with the same population variance, and 3 a two-sample test with different population variances.

Auditory Attention Essay Example for Free

Auditory Attention Essay The ability to localize sound sources is of considerable importance to both humans and animals; it will determine the direction of objects to seek or to avoid as well as indicating the appropriate direction to direct visual attention. The precision of sound localization is remarkable, particularly for brief sounds or for those occurring in noisy or reverberant surroundings. While the most reliable cues used in the localization of sounds depend upon a comparison of the signals reaching the two ears, there are also phenomena of auditory space perception which result from monoaural processing of the signals. Localization refers to judgments of the direction and distance of a sound source. Like when headphones are worn, the sound image is located inside the head. Headphones allow precise control of interaural differences and eliminate effects related to room echoes. Using two ears we are able to selectively attend to sounds coming from a particular direction while effectively excluding other sounds. This ability is particularly important in noisy surroundings or when there are several sound sources competing for our attention. Our acuity in locating sounds is greatest in the horizontal dimension, fairly good in the vertical direction and least good in the depth dimension. Aside from this ability we are also able to judge the direction of a sound source and to some extent estimates its distance. Many everyday experiences indicate that auditory localization can be influenced by conflicting visual cues. At a cinema for example, the loudspeakers are usually placed behind the screen or in its center yet the sound still appears to come from the actor’s mouth as he moves about the screen. Similarly, the loudspeaker in a television set is located to one side of the screen but the sound does not appear to be detached from the visual image. Thus, it might be possible that exposure to conflicting auditory and visual cues for a period of time may lead to an after-effect in which the localization of sounds is systematically displaced. This may occur during experiments wherein sound may be generates from one area but a cue may say otherwise and given the effects of practice and priming, experiment results into auditory localization may not be valid. Early findings on the study of orienting pure auditory attention have yielded no significant change in performance. Posner (1980) did not find any advantage in the use of auditory pre- cueing of auditory targets. Others have failed to find a benefit for the detection of sounds coming from expected vs. unexpected locations (Scharf, Quigley, Aoki, Peachey and Reeves, 1987). Buchtel and Butter (1988) found that informative auditory cues provided a benefit in the detection of visual targets; however they failed to find a benefit from cues on auditory targets. Klein, Brennan and Gilani (1987) also found no benefit in the detection of auditory targets with the use of uninformative cues using both visual and auditory cues. However, the use of auditory and visual cues together on tasks has been promising. Previous researches on multisensory instruments have found that it can optimize performance rather than using one sensory modality. Recently Duncan, Martens and Ward (1997) found evidence of restricted attentional capacity within but not between sensory modalities. They presented streams of visual and or auditory inputs containing occasional targets to be identified and recalled, for two visual or two auditory streams they found that the identification of one target produced a sustained reduction in the ability to identify a second target. In contrast, when the streams were from both modalities, there was no such reduction in the identification of the second target. The results suggest a modality-specific restriction to concurrent attention and awareness. The results of this study have important implications for the design of complex human machine interface systems. Systems should be designed to take advantage of the spatial presentation of information to the human operator to enhance the detection rate of critical information (i. e. ; warnings). This findings support Rhodes (1987) earlier work on auditory attention where he reported that auditory attention has spatial constraints. He found that time linearly increased to localize a sound as a function of distance from the point of attention; he further proposed that even for sounds, localization is shifted through logical and topographical representations. Information presented in locations where spatial attention has been allocated has both faster and more accurate response in both visual and auditory modalities (Posner, 1980, Ward, 2000, Spence & driver, 1996, 1997a, 1997b). Moreover, even if there is a limited human attentional capacity the nature of spatial attention across modalities suggests that if one modality is overloaded the attentional capacity of other modalities are not adversely affected (Duncan, Martens & Ward, 1997). Thus, the best way to maximize this modality-specific restriction is to present information using both the visual and auditory modalities. Flanagan, McAnally, Martin, Meehan & Oldfield (1998) found evidence of the usefulness of using both modalities. In their study, they reported that visual search times were reduced when spatially informative auditory information was supplied. They used a spatial localization task in which the search for a visual target was aided by either a visual arrow or an auditory cue. They found both the visual and the auditory cues aided in significantly reducing the search times when compared to unaided search. It is however important that the visual and auditory information presented are detectable and localizable. Hence a signal should be localizable when information presented is critical (i. e. ; location of threats such as enemy fighters, missiles etc. ) and that information presented is expected in that location will improve response time and accuracy (Posner, 1980, Spence and Driver, 1996). Auditory Attention. (2017, May 20).

The Gay Pride Parade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Gay Pride Parade - Essay Example Thus, to commemorate the Stonewall riots, the LGBT community in New York organized for an annual event that would be held on every last Saturday of June, both in New York and also in different parts of the USA, as a reminder that the gay people also have their rights. The result of this initial LGBT initiative of 1969 has been the establishment and proliferation of the Gay Pride Parade worldwide, a movement that has become so big, that it has caught the attention of the world as the most attended and active rights advocacy events of the modern day (Eisenbach, 2006). Thus, while the Gay Pride Parades have managed to achieve the objectives of the LGBT community in a successful and highly unanticipated manner, the questions that this success raises is; what has been the function of the Gay Pride Parades in changing the public opinion? The fact that the Gay Pride Parades globally have turned out to be the most pompous and colorful events of the 21st century can no longer be doubted, while the fact that these events have attracted millions of people; both gay and non-gay members of the society is also unarguable (Alessandra, 2000). Thus, considering the fact that the gay community was treated with resentment, hostility and even contempt in the 1950s and the 1960s, there is no doubt that the public opinion on the LGBT community globally is changing. Additionally, the fact that the societal perception of the LGBT community has changed is easily demonstrated by the fact that the Gay Pride Parades have been held even in the most conservative parts of the world, where such events are unlikely to have any support, or at least to be even allowed. Uganda is a country in Africa that is known to be vocal in voicing its resistance against the gay rights, through establishing legislations that have offered strict punishment, s uch as death penalties, for the LGBT

Cyber Incident Response for Blue Moon Financial Term Paper

Cyber Incident Response for Blue Moon Financial - Term Paper Example The company has been faced with several challenges with respect to addressing the network intrusion attacks and cyber security issues because it is ill equipped to deal with such issues. This paper discusses how I will deal with the active network intrusion attack in the company under various sub-topics. The first steps to take in the current scenario are to identify the nature of attack. I am the only person who is qualified and well trained to deal with such issues. Therefore, before informing anyone else about it, I will first find out the type of the attack targeted towards the company. This will be the first step towards stopping the attack because further steps cannot be initiated if the type of attack is not known well. Secondly, I will localize the source. This means that I have to use firewall and IDS logs to try to find out where the attack is coming from to be able to know whether the attack is coming from a compromised host or from the outside world. This is also essential in ensuring that the attack can be stopped as soon as possible (Sharma, et.al, 2015). After this, the next step that I will take entails blocking the attack. Once it source and the nature of attack is clarified, I will take the necessary actions towards blocking it (Youssef, & Emam, 2011). These actions will include pulling the machines that have been attacked from the network, block the access to the network from that IP address if the attack is coming from outside. Depending on the type of the attack, I may have to use ISP if the attack is a DDoS attack. I will also backup the evidence of the attack by keeping the logs generated to ensure that I have a detailed account of the attack. I will also find other compromised machines and use appropriate tools to root out any other machines that have been attacked. The last aspect is to ensure that I do not