Asia Pacific Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Asia Pacific Business - Essay Example es in different countries to support the performance of their products or deal with the product development in that part of the world to ensure that they successfully control their industry and continue making sales (Jaussaud & Schaaper, 2007). The other industry that is much infested with many multinationals is the electronics field. The basic analysis reflects most of these companies with huge revenues and capital formations all over the world originate from the Asian community that has grown to control the world economy from the super powers of the past decades. The growth of the Asian community has much indicated from four major countries Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. The study is going to involve an analysis from the two sectors of business that is electronics and automotives, which have taken a huge share of interest from the Asian community. To substantiate this view, the analysis of the multinationals will consider the different aspects of the businesses that make them unique and worth interest of the international community. The aspects of strength that allow them to dominate in their country of origin and further dominate in the world platform. One of the most successful multinational of all time from Japan Nissan has developed to become a global commodity that influences many economies. The company in the automobile sector has set up in many other countries all over the world with many working as assembly points while others running fully as the original company (Elger & Smith, 2005). The major strategy that the company has employed in its multinational approach has majorly focused on the strategic partnerships that have allowed it make alliances with other huge manufacturers in the field of automotives to create a clear competitive advantage. A good example is the alliance formed between Nissan and Renault of 2013 has created a storm in the automobile sector in France. The French automotive Renault has created an added advantage for Nissan in

Monumental Architecture Essay Example for Free

Monumental Architecture Essay Monumental architecture is large man-made structure of stone or earth. I live in New York, one of the largest cities in the world. We have many examples of the monumental architectures. The top ten of them are the Statue of Liberty, Grant’s Tomb, Grand Army Plaza, Washington Square Arch, Columbus Circle Fountain, The Grand Army Plaza, Literary Walk, Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, 107th Infantry Memorial, and the 911 Memorial. I have been living in New York City for the last twenty years. On September 11, 2011, I arrived at work as usually fifteen minutes earlier and while I was parked my car I heard on the radio that one of the airplane struck the World Trade Tower. I came to my floor and told all my workers about it. Our building was located in the East part of New York; we could see the Twins Towers from our windows. From our windows, we saw how the second airplane struck the second tower. Panic struck everyone. In the Towers and the area surrounding, there were friends and relatives, we feared for their lives. We tried to reach them but the phone lines were over-flowing and we cannot reach them right away. From the windows in our offices we saw how the building collapsed. After that our director decided to close our office early in order for us to go be with our families. From work I went directly to school to pick up my daughter and on our way home I tried to explain to her what happening in the morning. My friends and relatives safely escape from the area of Twins Towers but many other lives were lost. As a tribute of remembrance and honor to the lives lost on September 11, 2001, a memorial was built by the name of the 911 Memorial. This memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers. The memorial contains two square pools in the center, where the Twin Towers once stood surrounded by the forest of trees. The design of memorial is thirty feet below street level which was started in the year of 2006. This design contains the footprints of the buildings that stood. On September 11, 2011, a dedication ceremony was held at the memorial. The memorial officially was opened to the public on September 12, 2011. The museum of this tragedy opened around September 11, 2012. Many people now visit the memorial to remember not only the lives lost but of the heroes who went into the buildings to save others. www.911memorial.org http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/29/us/new-york-911-memorial/ http://timeline.national911memorial.org http://www.nationalgeographic.com/remembering-9-11/place-of-remembrance/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44483977/ns/us_news-9_11_ten_years_later/t/memorial-plaza-nyc-opens-public/#.UP7cZ_JX-KI Rttp://gswho went into the firre

Identity, Intersubjectivity and Communicative Action :: Philosophy Hume Papers

Identity, Intersubjectivity and Communicative Action Traditionally, attempts to verify communications between individuals and cultures appeal to 'public' objects, essential structures of experience, or universal reason. Contemporary continental philosophy demonstrates that not only such appeals, but fortuitously also the very conception of isolated individuals and cultures whose communication such appeals were designed to insure, are problematic. Indeed we encounter and understand ourselves, and are also originally constituted, in relation to others. In view of this the traditional problem of communication is inverted and becomes that of how we are sufficiently differentiated from one another such that communication might appear problematic. Following Hume's recognition that we cannot in principle have any experience of an experience transcending objectivity as such, Husserl's Phenomenological Epoche (1) suspends judgement on whether or not such a realm of "things-in-themselves" exists. Thus our experiences of material objects and descriptions thereof can no more be shown to correspond to such an "objective" standard than can our experiences and descriptions of immaterial objects and conscious states. Consequently interpersonal and intercultural communications concerning the supposedly "public" objects etc. of the material world seem no less problematic than Wittgenstein (2) and others have shown communication concerning the "private" objects of the immaterial world (of fantasies, dreams etc.) to be. Accepting that we cannot establish the "objectivity" of our experiences' content, Kant nevertheless attempts to resist a slide into relativism by insisting that they are mediated by rationally delineated categories which supposedly insure the transcendental or universal nature of their form, thereby providing an absolute standard against which we might check the veridicality of our descriptions of, and communications concerning, them. However as a priori preconditions of the possibility of experience such categories are obviously inexperienceable in themselves, and consequently must also fall to the phenomenological reduction. (3) Nevertheless, a moments reflection will confirm that our experiences do indeed exhibit structure or form, and that we are able, even from within, or wholly upon the basis of, the (phenomenologically reduced) realm of, our experiences per se, to distinguish between the flux of constantly changing and interrupted subjective appearances, and the relatively unc hanging and continuously existing objects constituted therein. Husserl confirms: ... cognitive acts, more generally, any mental acts, are not isolated particulars, coming or going in the stream of consciousness without any interconnections. As they are ESSENTIALLY related to one another, they display a teleological coherence and corresponding connections ... And on these connections, which present an intelligible unity a great deal depends.

Essay --

In Antigone, death is a central theme that is consistently present throughout the entire play. In this particular passage, the chorus proclaims that man’s access to resources will allow him to continue to exist; however, as long as man exists, so will death – a fate that no amount of resources can help anyone escape. In this essay, I will explore the correlation and significance of this passage, and more specifically, the correlation and relation to death, with particular characters of the play. These particular characters each have a different relation and perspective of death, however, as the story progresses, I will discuss why their relation, perspective and the way that which they acknowledge death itself evolves and changes so drastically. In the first part of the passage, ‘speech and thought’ and ‘mind for law’ refer to the attributes of man; what it means to be human. The passage is directly praising man for all the wonders of the human race; man who has taught himself, built a shelter, a city and created a law, man’s capability and skills to become accustomed to the land, to the very earth and nature itself, the world that they have been put in, man’s capacity to learn to adjust and survive and live in the way that we see fit. Antigone making the choice to go against the king, because of what she believes to be right, attempting to give her brother Polynices what she believes he deserves – this thought, ‘quick as the wind’, including every action she carried out after, was effortless and came naturally to her. The set of principals and values that each individual has and what they choose to believe in become like instinct; to fight for what you believe in b ecomes as natural as to look for ‘shelter from the arrows of the f... ...tten that he is not divine like the gods are. He is a man with plenty resources, and although by the end of the play, Creon is still living - he hasn’t escaped death. In the passage, note that while the chorus is listing the wonders of man, the accomplishments of human beings; each accomplishment is paired with an element of nature, wind, frost, sky and rain – and each accomplishment is referring to man applying control over nature, mirroring the confliction in the entire story. Creon represents the city, a man made empire, while Antigone stands for the gods, nature and herself. When Creon loses all the people that he cares for, nature seems to be punishing Creon for his disrespect. It appears that each step onward as we progress, we further distance ourselves from where we started, making each of our achievements and the wonders of man just as bad as they are good.

Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences

Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS) Vol. 31, No. 1 (June 2011), pp. 185-199 Unions and Management: A Case Study of Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Muhammad Shaukat Malik Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan E-mail: [email  protected] edu. pk A. B. Basit Associate Professor of Economics, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Ahmad Kamal Qazi Assistant Manager-Marketing, PTCL, Multan Pakistan. E-mail: [email  protected] com Abstract Unions basically seek to advance the interest of their members.As a principal goal, unions exert a strong influence on individuals, organizations and upon the government to advance the economic and social positions of their constituents. Union play significant role by adopting positions on such public issues as unemployment, job security, opportunity for advancement, tariffs, health care, wages, social security etc. They try to influence the decisions of not only the administra tion of individual organization but also the state legislatures to improve labor laws on variety of issues for welfare of their employees.In addition, unions by performing their fraternal goals provide a sense of belonging for employees to give them a sense of identification and purpose. This paper first traces the historical development of unions with particular references to Pakistan, highlight their merit and demerit, current position in public and private organizations and challenge they are facing at present. Second it examines the role of unions in Pakistan's major institution like Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTCL).It is observed that over the time union is loosing their positions in the world as well as in Pakistan like in PTCL. After privatizations since 2006 the state of the affairs of unions at PTCL are very pathetic. Employees have lost all their hopes that the union will ever work for their well beings. Unions need to review themselves to be accepted by the e mployee and the leaders have to work beyond their personal interests. Unions need to demonstrate a larger social vision as well. Keywords: Unions; PTCL; Collective Bargaining Agent 186 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. Concept of union evolved in 18th century and within hundred years, unions in organization become so strong that they become the most critical variable to be managed by the organizational management. Unions represent the non managerial staff of an organization and work for their rights i-e salary rise, promotions, better working environment and employee safety etc. Sometimes the agenda of unions contradicts with the agenda of management due to which conflict generates and if this issue is not resolved in its early stage, it could result in strikes, shutdowns, police arrests etc.Numbers of international event are evident to this theory. This paper aims to explore union role in the organizations and how they performed in different regimes in different orga nizations of the world and in Pakistan like Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL). The paper is structured as follows: Following the introduction, section 2. 0 provides literature review about the union’s history, their merits and demerits, their role in public and private organization, their progress in the world and in Pakistan.Section 3 provides an overview of Pakistan Telecom Sector and PTCL. Section 4 provides the methodology used for the study. Section 5 discusses the results of the study in detail and section 6 presents the overall conclusions and our recommendations. I. Introduction II. Literature Review Farbar (2001) defined labor union as â€Å"It is an association of workers who bargain collectively with their employer regarding the terms and conditions of employment†. Akteruzzaman (2006) says that labor unions as â€Å"Labor unions re voluntary associations of workers to promote and protect their interest by collective endeavor and constitute an integr al part of the relationship between the employees and employers†. Whereas, Gomper (2009) has given more comprehensive definition in a way â€Å"that labor union is a group of workers who have organized in order to pursue common work-related goals, such as better wages and benefits, safer working conditions, and greater job security†.By concluding all definitions we can say that labor union is â€Å"Organization whose membership consists of workers and union leaders, and whose principal purposes are to negotiate wages and working condition terms, regulate relations between workers (its members) and the employer, take collective action to enforce the terms of collective bargaining, raise new demands on behalf of its members, and help settle their grievances†. The concept of combined effort by the workers to protect their rights was initiated in 18th century from Britain.According to Mohar (2007), union were initially started in great Britain in 1780 when workers un ited against the Combination Act implemented by the then Prime Minister William Pitt but they did not succeed and faced even more bitter laws like The Gagging Act (1817), Six Acts etc. Relief was started with the introduction of the Master and Servant Act (1867), the trade union act (1871), Conspiracy and property act of (1875), The Employer’s Liability Act (1880).However the unions got their real strength in 1913 after the implementation of Trade Union Act which gave the unions the right to have its subscriptions into a political and a social fund. The trend of unionism in Britain afterwards expanded to USA. Reynolds (2009) says that in Muhammad Shaukat Malik, A. B. Basit, Ahmad Kamal Qazi 187 1860’s political philosophy began to shift toward collectivism and national trade unions gains a real foothold. According to Perlman (1922) point of view, in USA, trade unions really exploded during the nineteenth century with the founding of the first national union, the Nation al Labor Union (NLU).It was created in 1866 and was not exclusive to any particular kind of worker. Next, the Knights of Labor was founded in 1869. Their membership peaked around 700,000 members, with some of their key issues being child labor opposition and demands for an eight-hour day. The most famous American union was probably the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers. Afterwards, according to Allen (2005) in contrast to the craft unionism of the AFL, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) founded in 1905. It used violence to promote the cause of unskilled workers.The IWW virtually disappeared after World War I. In 1930s, the strategy of industrial unionism was pushed by John L. Lewis' Committee for Industrial Organizations within the AFL. Founded in 1933, the committee split from the AFL in 1938 as the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Second Red Scare after World War II pushed the AFL and CIO into a 1955 merger as the AFL-CIO u nder Lewis' leadership. In Indo-Pak, as reported by Bawa and Hashmi (2010), the concept of collective labor was introduced by Malik Gokhale which was given legal identity through the introduction of Trade Union Act 1926.At that time, two most strong unions working under the influence of National Congress and Socialist Party were Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and Hindustan Mazdur Sabha (HMS). After the inception of Pakistan, the first trade union established in Pakistan was Pakistan Trade Union Federation (PTUF) having ties with INTUC and Mirza Ibrahim as its first President. Candland (2007) narrates the history of unions in Pakistan and say that up till 1952, no much developments were made in unions.In 1952, Pakistan Essential Services Act was promulgated which gave the government right to restrict any trade union and collective bargaining in any industry. First labor policy of government was announced on 15th August 1955, stating the workers to be the partners in industry, bu t no legislation was formulated in this regard. In 1958, General Ayub Khan imposed the martial law and abolished the first labor policy. On 4th February 1959, second labor policy namely Burki labor policy was announced which discouraged the labor unions and allowed the government to directly involves in the resolution of labor disputes.In 1969, labors started pressurizes the military government to get rights of forming trade unions with all powers, The government was ready to give the same rights but this policy could not overcome the unrest among the workers. This unrest among the workers was later cashed by Bhutto and he supported the union leaders. According to Shah (2010), Bhutto formulated the People Labor Federation for organizing the labor and through them he gained the powers which helped him lot to win election and become prime minister. After fall of 188 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. 1Bhutto government, in 1977 General Zia imposed the martial law and str ictly banned the union’s movement in Pakistan. This ban was partially lifted in the Junego government and later it was completely lifted by Benazir Bhutto in 1989 in her first tenure. Afterwards, more or less same policies were continued by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir in their respective regimes. General Musharraf right from beginning of his regime implemented several strict laws like Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002, Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance, 2000 and other anti labor laws to limit activities of unions.In present Gilani's regime, some reliefs have been given to employees in pursuance of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto policies by announcing Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance, Employees Old-Age Benefit Act, amended Industrial Relations Ordinance with enhanced protection of worker, imposing condition on the authority of employer to terminate workers job etc. These polices are intact till date. Donas(2005) says that unions adopt two means to fulfill their goals. First an d foremost is through collective bargaining with the employer being as a representative of the employees.The second way they adopt is through efforts to influence government legislation. Union’s are working both in public and private sector organizations to protect the rights of employees. According to Edward (1989), currently unions are very strong in public sector. They have greater membership from the public sector organization. Blacnchflower and Bryson (2007) compared the union influence on wage in public and private sector and found that the unions working in public sector are able to get increase in the wage premium for the public sector employees substantially.They are of the view that although union membership in the both public and private sectors has declined, but unions are still more powerful in public sector. In order to avoid the decline in the membership of the unions, now unions are trying different strategies. Hamilton and Anderson (1999) stated that recent t rend among unions is amalgamation. Unions are getting united in order to preserve the membership. According to Fernie and Metcalf (2005), with around 12% of privately employed workers as members, the future for private sector unionization looks black.According to Pantuosco (2008), private sector unionization has lost nearly 4 million members, while public sector unions have sustained the growth they accumulated in the late 1980s and 1990s. Figure 1 Public and Private Union Density 1983-2005 Source: Pantuosco (2008) PP 35 Muhammad Shaukat Malik, A. B. Basit, Ahmad Kamal Qazi 189 Edward (2010) tried to explain the reasons of decline of unions in private sector by stating that public agencies tend to be static in a way that once a union has organized a group of workers they tend to stay organized.By contrast, the private sector is dynamic, with businesses going bankrupt and new businesses arising all the time. Also many public sector organizations are enjoying the status of monopoly an d unions in public sector push for higher pay and higher government spending with little restraint. They do not care if the cost of government services goes up because the burden is borne by someone else. By contrast, private-sector unions are aware that higher costs for employers may result in lost sales and fewer union jobs.Figure 2 Union Member Shares of Employment Source: Edward C. (2010) PP 1 Unions help the employees in lot many ways. Belman and Voos (1993) are of the view that unions typically help employees in raising the wages of the employees they represent. They also help in reducing income inequality within the represented firm, by reducing differentials between low-paid and high-paid diversified work force. Another important benefit of union mentioned by Ghosh et al. (2009) is that it helps to improve job security, working environment and living conditions.According to Morris (2002), trade union act as the protecting sheets against the threats posed by the globalization on the employees. Since globalization require maximum utilization of the employees to compete in the market and in this case only unions will be protecting employees by negotiating the working hours and work load on the employees. Ghosh et al. (2009) says that unions are engaged in a number of welfare activities, such as providing housing and organizing cooperative societies to improve the quality of workers' lives.In short unions restrict management freedom of action, pressurize them for uniformity of treatment, improve personnel policies and provide one plate forum to the employees to deal with management. Unions have some demerits too. According to Sherk (2009), trades unions can cause wages to go above equilibrium through the threat of strikes etc. and trade unions only consider the needs of its members. They often ignore the plight of those excluded from the labor markets, e. g. the unemployed.Also if unions go on strike and work unproductively, it can lead to lost sales and o utput. Another major disadvantage of union is paying the union dues. Most collective 190 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. 1 bargaining agreements require all employees to support the union financially as a condition of their continued employment. Another important demerit identified by Levine (2001) is that unions generally interfere with efficiency, because they protect unproductive workers, raise costs, distort incentives, and frustrate entrepreneurship.Hunter (1999) is of the view that unionized workers lost their individuality. When a union is certified as the exclusive employee representative in a workplace, employees become members of an overall bargaining unit in which the majority rules. Spear (2003) says that the existence of a union in an industry can result in limited choices regarding hiring new employees or even limiting the potential for dismissal of a poorly performing worker. Though internationally union's role can be seen differently in different cou ntries but its main objectives remains the same i. the welfare of employees working in different organizations. Countries like China even are bowed to allow unions at the work place and unions role/importance is increasing there day by day (Metcalf and Li (2006); Prit, 2007, Ghosh et. al (2009). The effectiveness of union’s role in Pakistan, according to Irfan (2008), has declined over the period. Unions have lost their membership because they failed to protect the rights of the working class.In Pakistan, unions mostly exist in all public sector organizations like Postal Services, WAPDA, Railways, PTCL and other government institutions and are thought to be the major reason of inefficiencies of Pakistan public sector. In private sector though union are found in many organizations but their activities are to some extent limited. A summary of union’s status in Pakistan between 1990 to 2006 is given in Table 1. Table 1 Years Trade Unions membership and Industrial Dispute Total Registered Trader Unions 7080 7027 7185 7273 7426 7349 7355 7356 7382 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA Union Membership Total No. f Membership Registered of the Trade Unions reporting Reporting Unions 1763 359633 1441 288803 1834 415768 1685 374731 1718 325677 1718 337617 1594 293530 1534 296257 1478 305340 1493 301104 1356 301332 1260 275646 1201 247539 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA Industrial Disputes Number Numbers Number of of of Workers Mandays Disputes Involved Lost 99 65918 186726 94 116306 582694 40 73357 398128 28 17133 404564 25 15434 341196 24 10919 63626 30 18566 203323 30 7865 283342 20 6097 122519 6 3937 182151 4 225 667 4 711 7078 4 516 12160 1 407 0 19 1164 1020 NA NA NA NA NA NA 990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Source: Irfan. M. (2008), Pakistan’s wage structure, PP. 27 Muhammad Shaukat Malik, A. B. Basit, Ahmad Kamal Qazi 191 Decline in the popularity of unions in Pakistan is also witnessed by Rehman (2003). He says tha t in Pakistan, membership in unions is low due to the fear of victimization by employers and the inability to recognize any personal advantage from the unions. The leadership is not effective due to personal rivalries and lack of required skills.Also union movements in Pakistan do not have the due social and political support since the political market has been generally dominated by powerful industrialization elite. Ebbinghaus (2002) is of the view that trade union movements are confronting multiple challenges. The challenges faced by the unions in Pakistan are also very critical. Cunniah (2007), is of the view that neo-liberalism is the biggest challenge for trade unions in Pakistan and is alive even after the establishment of new democratic government.The employers have another weapon at their disposal, the displacement of workers by machinery. Ali (1994) observed that one of the laws that hinders trade union activity is the Essential Services Maintenance Act of 1952 (ESA) (which covers government services and state enterprises, such as energy production, power generation and transmission, the state-owned airline, and ports) and is usually invoked to limit or ban strikes, and is also used to severely curtail collective bargaining rights.Another challenge raised by Somavia (2008) is that Pakistani law is particularly hard on agricultural workers who are denied the right to form unions and are thus prevented from striking, bargaining collectively, or making any demands on their employers. Pakistan trade union membership is very weak at this time. Only 0. 6% of the total workers are organized in the trade unions. About 7392 trade unions are registered in Pakistan which are representing the 2,55,405 members throughout Pakistan.Table 2 Total number of the work force Total numbers of the work force is as follow: Sector Agriculture, Forestry, Hunting & Fishing Mining, Quarrying Manufacturing Electricity, Gas, Water Construction Whole sale & Retailed Trade, Restaur ant & Hotels Transport, Storage & Communication Financing, Insurance, Real Estate & Business Sector Community, Social & Personal Services TOTAL Source: http://www. pakistan. gov. pk/divisions/bstat. pdf Million 18. 35 0. 03 4. 35 0. 26 2. 19 5. 12 1. 91 0. 31 5. 38 37. 9 Percent 48. 42 0. 07 11. 48 0. 7 5. 78 13. 5 5. 03 0. 82 14. 2 100 III. Telecomm Sector of Pakistan and PTCLPakistan has well established telecom sector at present. In 1947, at the time of inception, Pakistan has just 7000 telephone lines. Over the time, under different regimes lots of developments have been taken place to bring this sector at par with world. Under the sectors reforms different companies are allowed to 192 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. 1 work in Pakistan and new services like ISDN, DSL, CDML, GPRS etc. are offered by PTCL and other mobile companies working in Pakistan. PTA (Pakistan Telecom Authority) since 1994 holds the responsibility to regulate the telecom sector in Pakistan.P TCL has been privatized by selling its 1. 3 billions shares with management rights to U. A. E based company Etisilat since 12th April, 2006. According to Akhtar (2009), Pakistan’s Telecom sector has been gearing up to secure its place in fast developing era of new technologies. The government has been able to foster competition by declaring the telecommunication sector as an industry since 2005. The drive towards competition widened the scope for private and foreign ownership further through the deregulation policy announced in July 2003.From the beginnings of Posts & Telegraph Department in 1947 and establishment of Pakistan Telephone & Telegraph Department in 1962, Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) took over operations and functions from Pakistan Telephone and Telegraph Department under Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Act 1991. Pursuing a progressive policy, the Government in 1991, announced its plans to privatize PTCL, and in 1994 issued six million vouch ers exchangeable into 600 million shares. Each had a par value of Rs. 10 per share. These vouchers were converted into PTCL shares in mid1996.In 1995, Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Ordinance formed the basis for PTCL monopoly over basic telephony in the country. The provisions of the Ordinance were lent permanence in October 1996 through Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act. In the same year, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was formed and listed on all stock exchanges of Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan sold 26% shares and control of the company to Etisalat in 2006. The Government of Pakistan retained 62% of the shares while the remaining 12% are held by the general ublic. Since privatization, PTCL profit is declined. Following are the financial highlights of PTCL since its privatization. Table 5 Financial Highlights of PTCL since it Privatization Unit Rs. (m) Rs. (m) Rs. (m) Rs. (m) 2010 57,175 14,281 9294 150768 2009 59,239 14021 9151 154048 2008 66,336 -4463 -2825 140104 2007 71,068 23744 15639 152821 2006 79,411 30974 20777 152240 2005 87,356 39296 26606 136078 Description Revenue Profit/Loss Before Tax Profit/Loss After Tax Total Assets Source: Annual reports of PTCL Currently PTCL has 19 registered unions..The union which is acting as CBA is â€Å"Pakistan Telecommunication employee union† whereas all other unions are non CBA unions. At the time of privatization about 57000 employees were serving PTCL. But after privatization, new management laid off 30,000 employees by giving Voluntarily Separation Scheme VSS. At present Multan Telecomm Region (MTR) covers area from Mian Channu to DG Khan and Rahim Yaar Khan. It is divided into two wings. One wing is of Regional General Manager wing which has 982 employees. Other wing is of GM Technical Multan which has 335 employees.Other than these wings another small wing is of SM Consumer Sales Multan which has 45 employees. So at present total numbers of employees work ing in all wings in Multan region are about 1362. PTCL is taken as case study because it could provide the glimpse of previously public sector organization and now as private sector organization. Unions are working in PTCL since long and had been very strong in past. They have also played crucial role at the time of privatization as well. 194 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. 1 IV. MethodologyA survey through questionnaires method was used to capture the primary data for this study. The research is done at Multan Region of PTCL. A sample size of 300 employees from different departments of PTCL of all its three wings has been selected by using the random sampling technique. The questionnaire was distributed to each participant in person. Firstly few open ended questions were included to enable participants to express their general opinions regarding PTCL management and union relations and then all close ended questions (Table 5) were asked to have specific answers. The response rate to the questions was 90%.The opinions of the participants are measured by obtaining the respondents extent of agreement with the questions. The extent of agreement was measured through Likert scale ranging from 5= strongly agreed to 1= strongly disagreed. The researchers have tried to find out the facts relating to following research questions. i. ii. iii. What role union played in Telecom Industry over the time (especially in PTCL)? What role union played in PTCL at the time of privatization of PTCL and then after? What is the current role of union in PTCL The questions wise results of the study are described below.Table 5 Summary of response to survey questions. No 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Statement Are you satisfied with the role of unions before privatization? Do you think that CBA at the time of Privatization has performed his role effectively? Are you satisfied with the role of union currently? Are you satisfied with the role of union to stop layoff of employees after pr ivatization? Does your union take effective actions against the rehiring of voluntarily separated employees? Do you think that the rehiring of voluntarily separated employees was in the best interest of PTCL?Do you think that the pre privatization PTCL was good as compared to Post Privatization PTCL? Do you think that union’s role for Agree% 80 52 75 32 20 30 68% 74% Neither% 10 10 5 16 10 0 5 6 Disagree 10 38% 52% 52% 70% 70% 27% 20% V. Results and Discussions Muhammad Shaukat Malik, A. B. Basit, Ahmad Kamal Qazi 195 10 employee’s job security was better before privatization of PTCL? Are you satisfied with the union’s role towards current working environment of PTCL? 26 10 64% It is evident from the above results that union role in PTCL is diminishing over the time.It played very effective role for welfare and betterment of employees in the past but currently the state of affairs is not very good. Majority of the employees are dissatisfied with their performanc e. At the time of privatization, the role of CBA and UAC (Union Action Committee was very midtrial. They were firstly against privatization and have been fighting for three months and then suddenly one day they accepted privatization deal on term and conditions of the government. Employees feel that monopolistic status of PTCL was in the best interest of customers.Employees are also not so happy with rehiring of employee previously laid off under voluntarily retirement schemes, as they feel that these rehired contractual employees are enjoying dual benefits i-e benefits of retirement and new contracts. They are of the opinion that new hiring if so necessary should be done from youngsters having new skills to manage latest equipment installed in PTCL. Employees also feel that union is not doing any thing for their job security. Job stress created through increased work load is another major problem employees are facing currently.Now lower level employees give more preference to the m anagement for the resolution of their issues instead of unions. Employees have lost their fate that unions would do something for their betterment. Now employees are avoiding joining unions and believe on direct relationship with its management. There was a time when union in PTCL was thought to be the true representative of employees and only way for their growth. But on the critical occasion of privatization of PTCL, VSS and rehiring of VSS opted employees, the betraying role of union and CBA has dissatisfied them lot.The Union has now lost trust of employees. The management is becoming strong day by day through different measures. Some of the union’s representatives either are suspended or transferred, waiting for posting etc. But the union leaders are not paying any attention to their problems. That’s why employee’s commitment with the union has also been reduced. The management has successfully neutralized the power of union by reducing the strength of empl oyees. By lying off about 30,000 employees, management successfully took away the real strength of unions.Now they are trying different tactics in order to create hindrances in the activities of union. These tactics involve dismissing the employees participating in union activities, proper check and balance on the attendance of employees and indulging every employee with high work load. Another recent step taken by management to weaken the unions is giving the non-management employees, the cadre of management. in BPS-17. This conversion of cadre has made almost 3000 196 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. 1 employees unable to talk part in union’s activities.Therefore, a tug of war is going on between the typical government culture already prevailing in PTCL and a corporate culture which the new management is trying to enforce in PTCL. VI. Conclusion & Recommendations Unions in any organization work for the benefits of the employees. The most important roles whic h unions are meant to play are to reduce income inequality, improve working conditions for employees, protecting the rights of the working class, ensure homogenous income to the workers by providing them employment opportunities etc.But over the period of time, unions failed to perform their roles effectively, therefore, they are facing decline in their popularity and membership. Internationally, the trend of unions in organization is diminishing. PTCL is taken as case study because it could provide the glimpse of previously public sector organization and now working as private sector organization. Unions is working in PTCL since long and had played crucial role in its privatization It could provide the perfect information about the unions involvement and recent trends in public and private organization. Now management has upheld the lower level of mployees from the union activities by giving them status of more significance within the organization. Internationally and in Pakistan t oo, unions are very strong in public sector organizations as compared to private sector companies. In Pakistan Telecom Sector, unions exist only in PTCL. In PTCL, union remained very powerful before privatization. But after privatization since 2006, the new management has cut down union power by implementing different polices. The present management has been able to divert unions away from interest of employees by facilitating the top level leaders for their own interests.This thing has sabotaged the image of unions among employees. The employees feel more confident now with the commitment of the management rather than union. Majority of employees of PTCL now feel that leaders are not sincere with them. Employees think that during privatization union did not play its effective role as was expected. They blame that only top leaders of unions have ripe the fruits of employees' efforts but no demand of employees is fulfilled in true sense during privatization process. So these things h ave created mistrust between employees and union.That mistrust was truly endorsed when union call strike for pay rise in 2009 and majority of employees did not participate. Similarly, in 2010 referendum, 30% of the total employees have not participated at all. The management through different tactics is making unions ineffective. Management is not taking direct steps to reduce union’s strength but with indirect measures and back channel diplomacy, they are meeting its ultimate objective to wipe away unions from PTCL. The way union is working on other side, it is not seen too far. Muhammad Shaukat Malik, A. B. Basit, Ahmad Kamal Qazi 197Conclusively saying, union image as the protector of working class has been affected when union leaders use the plate form of union to get the advantage for themselves. Union has made themselves worth less in PTCL due to their own acts. They may not be able to get any support from employees in future. They must have to change the current strate gies and the top leaders have to work beyond their personal interests to regain the powers. They will have to work for the welfare of the employees as past. Otherwise, unions will be simply wiped off from PTCL like it happened in some other organizations hich have been privatized like PTCL. References Akhtar, M. H. (2009). The Impact of Macroeconomic Factors and Policy Issues on Telecom Sector Performance in Pakistan: An Econometric Analysis, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences. 29(2), 163-174. Akteruzzaman, M. (2006). Globalization: issues and Challenges for Trader Union Movement. The Social Sciences, 1(I), 29-34. Ali, I. (1994). Structure of Telecommunications Sector in Pakistan. CMER Working Paper Series, Working Paper No 94-02, 1-25. Allen, W. C. (2005). History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the United States Capitol. The Architect of the Capit, 1-27.Bawa, and Hashmi, (2010). Labor Unionization in Pakistan – History ; Trends. Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies, 2(2), 78-82. Belman, D. L. and Voos P. B. (1993). Wage effects of increased union coverage: Methodological Considerations and new evidence. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 46(2), 368-380. Blanchflower, D. G. and Bryson A. (2007). The wage impact of trade unions in the UK public and private sectors. The Institute for the Study of Labor, Discussion Paper No 3055, 1-23. Candland, (2007). Labor, Democratization and Development in India and Pakistan. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 48(1), 1-13.Cunniah, D. (2007). The role of trade unions in workers’ education: The key to trade union capacity building. International Labor Office, 4, 1-42. Donas, B. (2006). Why Professional Unions Make Good Conflict Management Partners. Workplace Fairness Journal. Ebbinghaus, B. (2002). Trade unions’ changing role. EU Paper Series, 2-32. Edward, C. (2010). Public-Sector Unions. Tax ; Budget bulletin no 61. 198 Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 31, No. 1 Farbar , H. S. (2001). Notes on the Economics of Labor Unions. Princetion University Industrial Relations Section Working Paper # 452, 1-24.Fernie, S, Metcalf, D. (2005). Trade unions: resurgence or demise?. Centre Piece Summer Edition. Goerke, L. , Pannenberg, M. (2010). Trade Union Membership and Dismissals. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Discussion Paper No. 5222, 17-19. Gompers, S. (2009). Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of people most respected. South-Western/Cengage Learning, A 1-11. Ghosh, P. , Nandan, S. and Gupta, A. (2009). The Changing Role of Trade Union in India, A Case Study of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTCP), Unchahar. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 14(1), 3757.Govt defends privatization of PTCL amid protests, Press Article, Daily Times 14, 2005. Retrieved from http://www. dawn. com/2005/06/14/top7. htm. Hunter, R. P. (1999). Disadvantage of Union Representation. Hamilton, M. and Anderson, L. D. (1999). labor un ions and class actions: The union perspective on Collective litigation. American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law. Irfan, M. (2008). Pakistan’s Wage Structure. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, 1-47. Levine, P. (2001). The Legitimacy of Labor. Hofstra Labor ; employment Law Journal, 18, 527. Metcalf, L. (2006).Trade unions in China. Centre Piece Summer Magazine. Mohar, J. G. (2007). Trade unions and the law-history and a way forward?. Morris, R. L. (2002). Trade Unions and Globalization. International Labor Organization, 1-29. Pantuosco, L. J. (2008). The effect of public and private unions on state economic activity: evaluating the Benefits to organized workers, policymakers, and companies. Journal of Business ; Economics Research, 6(2), 27-40. Muhammad Shaukat Malik, A. B. Basit, Ahmad Kamal Qazi 199 Perlman, S. (1922). A History of Trade Unions in the United States. Social Science Text Book. Prit, M. (2007).Labor Unions, U. S. , History. Rehma n, S. (2003). Collective Bargaining and Wage Determination. Reynolds, M. (2009). A history of Labor Unions from Colonial Times. Mises Daily. Shah, S. K. (2010). Labor Policy 2010. Ministry of Labor and Manpower Pakistan. Sherk, J. (2009). What Unions Do: How Labor Unions Affect jobs and the Economy. Backgrounder, 2275, 1-17. Somavia, j (2008). Pakistan decent work country program. International labor office, web version. Spear, B. (2005). Negative Effects of labor unions. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/list_6683091_negative-effects-laborunions. html#ixzz0usiJ08Q7.

Binge Drinking essays

Binge Drinking essays Objective: Reduction in students engaging in binge drinking during the past two to four weeks. Binge drinking has long been associated with the American High School senior as well as early college students. Reasons for this association have been diagnosed as everything from a newfound sense of freedom to the inability to consistently attain alcohol, which increases the desire to consume alcohol in mass quantities when available. However, studies show that there are many more factors, which can contribute to this well documented problem. Some possible reasons are the overall view of alcohol by most Americans as an acceptable way to socialize. American youths are exposed to it in movies, television, music, and by many of their parents. It may be fair to even go as far as saying that Americans view alcohol as a stepping stone into adulthood, that perhaps it enables students to react to the problems of the world in much the same way millions of adults do. In theory adult America is undoubtedly responsible for all ideas directly or indirectly related to the ideals that American y outh represents which includes their views on alcohol and how they interpret acceptable consumption of it. This in conclusion to this topic, leads the writer to believe that the only way in which student binge drinking can cease or at least decline in number is for the adult world of the United States to eliminate their blatant hypocrisy towards massive alcohol consumption. American adults must accept their obvious responsibility for the lackadaisical attitude towards alcohol by the youth. They must face the reality of the situation, which is that early on, kids are blasted with billboards, commercials, and their own parents social activity which all points to alcohol as an accepted form of American behavior. Only to be contradicted by inaccurate portrayals of drinking by D.A.R.E programs and deceiving 21 means 21 ...

Social Media Images How To Make Them (With 128 Free Photos)

Social Media Images How To Make Them (With 128 Free Photos) The idea is pretty simple: Lets combine two of your favorite, top-performing tools- social media and imagery- to produce the best  social media images thatll engage your audience. Unfortunately,  while the idea is simple, the application can be quite challenging since  the visual options seem to be endless. But, today we have good news! With the correct sizes, best colors, awesome imagery types, and social image helpers in , youll be well on your way to a successful social media image that will extend far beyond its initial post life. How To Make The Best Social Media Images Step By Step (+ Free Photoshop Action)Get Your Free Social Media Images + Photoshop CC Action Are you ready to save hours of time!? Rather than designing custom images for each social network, simply use this Photoshop CC action that will size and save them all for  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+! Not only that, but use  the social media images infographic for every day reference, and enjoy these 14 images already sized for every single network! 1. Size Your Images For Optimal Attention The very first step to creating  the best social media images is by producing the correct size for each social network. You're  only given a limited space to capture your audience's attention, so you'll  want to use every pixel you're  given. This can get quite tricky when each network has different ratios and proportions, but if you know the posting sizes for each one, you'll be off to a great start! Below you'll find all of the recommended sizes for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ with the preferred size for  social posting. Keep in mind that all social platforms accept these three main file types: GIF, JPEG, and PNG. Alright, with that, here we go! Facebook Image Sizes Facebook is still the most popular social network today with over 1.6 billion active monthly users worldwide. With such a great audience, it's essential to optimize every single post for top engagement, especially for business. Facebook  image posts are known to get 39% more interaction  than that of a normal one, which is a perfectly great reason to start using social images for every single post. Plus, they've found that 87% of a Facebook Page's interaction comes solely from image posts, and that people remember the information better over a longer period of time. This study found that  information paired with an image  was 65% retained after a three day period. That's amazing! In recent news, Facebook now allows you to  post several images for one post, appearing as an album. There's been some discussion whether a single image or multiple images perform better, but  according to Convince and Convert, using multiple images can  increase clicks by 1,290%! Facebook's Three  Golden Rules: Use images in every single Facebook post and  multiple images whenever possible. Use the 1200 x 630px image dimensions. Post on the weekends at 12–1 p.m. for best performance. Facebook's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Photo: 180 x 180px Cover Photo: 828 x 315px Shared Image: 1200 px 630px Shared Link: 1200 x 630px Highlighted Image: 1200 x 717pxIncrease clicks by 1,290% when you use multiple images on #Facebook. #marketing Recommended Reading: 12 Effective Ways To Expand Your Facebook Engagement 10 Fundamental Ways To Boost Your Facebook Organic Reach By 193% Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One ( How To Build It) Twitter Image Sizes Twitter, one of my personal favorite networks,  sends out 500 million tweets per day. That's 6,000 tweets every second! Adding images to your tweets not only gets you 18% more clicks, but also 89% more favorites, and  150% more retweets.  Talk about an engagement boost! Plus, Twitter has kept their network posting consistent in proportion, so there's no question that a 440px by 220px image is the best size  to reach the most people. If you really want to make sure your resolution is clear, bump it up to 506 by 253px so desktop users have the highest clarity. Twitter's Three  Golden Rules: Use images in every  tweet. Use  images that are  506 x 253px for optimal resolution. Schedule your tweets for Wednesdays at  12–1 p.m. or 5–6 p.m. Twitter's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Photo: 400 x 400px Header Photo: 1500 x 500px In-Stream Photo: 506 x 253pxUse images on #Twitter  to  get 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, 150% more retweets. Recommended Reading: 15 Tactics To Boost Twitter Engagement Backed By Research How To Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free LinkedIn Image Sizes While LinkedIn is one of the older social networks, it has continued on throughout  the years and thrives  with its 414 million users. LinkedIn's focus on business professionals creates a perfect space for business-specific content to be seen and viewed across the world. Although, post with caution. According to Jeff Bullas, being 'too professional' without first creating a relationship can actually be a common mistake when using LinkedIn. This idea seems to  validate just how important using  images can be for establishing that desired connection and relatability. LinkedIn's Three Golden Rules: Make sure your images have a personal touch. Use  images that are 531px wide. Schedule your posts midweek at  or 5–6 p.m. LinkedIn's Recommended Image Sizes: Banner Image: 646 x 220px Standard Logo: 400 x 400px Square Logo: 60 x 60px Hero Photo: 974 x 330px Profile Picture: 400 x 400px Background Image: 1000 x 425px Regular Post Image: 531px wide Linked Image Post: 191 x 100px414 million #LinkedIn users engage best with images that are 531px wide.Pinterest Image Sizes The average time spent on Pinterest per visit is 14.2 minutes! Multiply that by the 110 million active  users, and you're looking at one very powerful source of information and inspiration. With all of that collective time spent on Pinterest, that also means it's one of the fastest growing websites, creating the  greatest opportunity  for your business to grow along with it. Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is  highly visual, but rather with an emphasis in sharing content with strangers and friends alike as 80% of pins are repins. In order to have the best Pinterest images, avoid using faces, use  red or orange, and rock a less distracting background. Pinterest's Three Golden Rules: Always link back to content on your blog or website wherever you can convert that traffic. Use  images that are 600 x 1102px for highest engagement. Schedule your pins on Saturday from 8–11 p.m. Pinterest's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Picture: 165 x 165px Pin Board Large Thumbnail: 222 x 150px Pin Board Small Thumbnail: 55 x 55px Pins On Main Page:  238px wide Pins Once Expanded: 600px wide Pins Enlarged Pin: 500px wide176 million Pinners spend 14.2 minutes a day on #Pinterest. Best image sizes here: Recommended Reading: How To Improve Your Pinterest Engagement With These 15 Tactics How To Get More Followers On Pinterest With 21+ Tactics That Will Grow Your Following The Ultimate Guide On How To Use Pinterest For Marketing Instagram Image Sizes Instagram is unique in that it solely allows photo-based posts. With an imagery-focused platform, it draws visual connections that make both a memorable and human impression. "Instagram’s per-follower engagement rate for top brands is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter," according to Forrester, which might be why 85% of top brands are adopting it to grow their business. Just recently, Instagram opened their strict square ratio image size up to a variety of landscape and portrait options in addition to  increasing their resolution to 1080px for top clarity! Surely,  Instagram  is a great place for both connection and business. Instagram's Three Golden Rules: Always include a link back to your content in your profile. Use  images that are 1080px wide for highest resolution. Schedule your Instagrams for Monday at  2–3 p.m. or 8–9 p.m. Tip: Did you know that now schedules Instagram posts? Now you can schedule Instagram alongside all of your other social media marketing, making you more strategic and better organized. Instagram's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Picture: 110 x 110px Photo Thumbnails: 161 x 161px Photo Size in App: 1080 x 1080px Instagram's engagement rate is 120x higher than Twitter. Best #Instagram image sizes here: Recommended Reading: How To Improve Your Instagram Engagement With 15 Tips How To Get Way More Instagram Followers With 20 Easy Tactics The Ultimate Guide On How To Use Instagram For Business Google+ Image Sizes While Google+  may very well be slowly disappearing, it still has a lot to offer if used correctly. After all, its partner in crime, Google, is our greatest source of information across the internet, one of the highest sources of revenue  for a lot of businesses, and one of the greatest companies worldwide. Your Google+ account is directly tied to the search engine so your business information is carried over into helping your SEO. Win-win. Everyone knows and loves Google. For that reason alone, it's no surprise that Google+ has 300 million active members. With that large of an audience, it's best that your images are set up for optimal performance. Google+'s Three Golden Rules: Use the .png image format rather than .jpg format for highest clarity. Use  images that are 426 x 255px. Schedule your posts on workdays from 9–11 a.m. Google+'s Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Picture: 250 x 250px Cover Image: 1080 x 608px Shared Image: 518px wide   Shared Link Thumbnail: 150 x 150pxMake perfect images for #Google+ to reach 375 million active users.There you have it! A complete guide to the best social image sizes, with the most important recommendations  for each and every network. Find the size you're looking for, and use that when you begin the creation process with your images. Simply choosing the correct size at the beginning, will save you so much time when you're ready to save and export your images for the world to see! Recommended Design Tools: Check out these awesome tools to help you create the best social media images with the perfect sizes- Canva, Piktochart, Visage, and more  free design tools. 2. Use The Best Colors To Increase Your Engagement While several factors go into making an image its very best, color is one of the most  essential ingredients. Color psychology has proven time and time again that we can convey emotions simply by using a particular color! In May of 2015, I did a two-month study on the popularity of a given color in 's graphics. Since we typically use a three-color palette for our blog graphics, I was able to give appropriate rankings to each of the three colors used  to see how they each performed. I quickly realized that certain colors might be performing better  simply because we use them more often, so I then compared the popularity percentage to the usage percentage  to find an overall color grade. Basically, I nerded out super hard and used data to see what colors performed the best. Use a graph like this to review and test your color schemes. At the end of my study, we found that blue and green were our highest performing colors! If we look at color psychology, both of these colors reflect a calm, clean, comforting presence which seems to  be the perfect match to the experience we want our readers to have, especially if they're new to the blog. Blue is also one of our brand colors. The other two top-performing colors were none other then red and orange. While blue and green provide a safe, calm place for our readers, orange and red are perfect complements because  they grab our audience's attention and spark their  interest. Blue and green and orange and red are a dynamic set of colors that will help you succeed. #colorPsychology tells us that red and orange represent passion, energy, and success.  I couldn't imagine a better pair for blue and green's calm, comforting presence than the passion and success of orange and red. Together, they seemed to make  a dynamic duo, so I tried using those color pairs over the past year... Out of our top 10 posts, 8  of them have either blue or green as the main color. The remaining two blog posts have orange as their main color. Absolutely none of our top performing posts contain any other  main colors! By understanding which colors performed better, we were able to help  increase our page views by  833.76%! You can do this, too! Simply follow the steps below to see which colors work best for your brand: Review your blog post header graphics and write down the primary, secondary, and third colors. Define  a ranking to the most prevalent 3 colors in your graphics. (i.e. 3 points for the primary color, 2 for the secondary color, and 1 for the third most-used color.) Look at the total shares each  post received during a set amount of time. For more than  x amount of  shares (at , we did per 100 shares), give each color that set amount of ranked points that you decided on above. (e.g. If the color blue was the primary color in a post that received 300 shares, blue  would have 9  total points, 3+3+3. If red was the second most-used color  in the post with 300 shares, it would have 6  points, 2+2+2.) At the end of each week, track the overall totals and see which colors perform the highest. After 8 solid weeks, you should start to see trends stick out, revealing your top-performing colors. While everyone has different colors that match  their brand and audience demographics, it's essential to test out the waters and find the colors that work best for you! But when in doubt... use blue or green. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media 3. Use The Types Of Social Media Images That Get The Most Attention Now that you know your target image size and top-performing colors, it's time to decide what type of image to  use. While almost anything can be an image- screenshots, illustrations, photos, quotes, GIFs- there are a few standout images you  can depend upon to receive the most engagement. Quotes Quotes come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe it's from a speaker, conference, or a book that you've recently read. Or, maybe it's from an article or blog  online.  No matter the  form or social network, quotes can be an excellent way to reach your audience with images. Simply find a quote you like and pair it with a color or simple background. The dynamic duo will allow your readers to ponder, identify with, and in return, share your quote. For example, at we started sharing quotes from our blog authors on Facebook, and we received 98% growth in engagements and 91% growth in clickthroughs. Facebook isn't alone! Here's another example from Twitter: 20 Ways To Be Creative When You Dont Feel Inspired https://t.co/JS5YcKZFoQ pic.twitter.com/hRaof4lPfV (@) January 16, 2016 This tweet received  2,107 impressions and 38 engagements because the quote had insight, intrigue, and direct application. It not only complemented the content topic of creativity, but gave further information that could be easily shared with their family and friends. Quote images are a perfect way to give something to your audience that they can share and be proud of, all the while giving your content more traction. Try them out! GIFs GIFs are one of the office's favorite things both in our work chats and on social media because they  perform well, all while bringing a smile. Even in challenging situations, GIFs can bring a delight to those who would rather be frustrated. Hook you audience, tell a story, and make their day. Here's an example: Uh, oh. #facebookdown In the meantime, enjoy a cat gif! pic.twitter.com/34o2LYk61a (@) September 28, 2015 By using a GIF and bringing a humorous moment to a normal circumstance, we received  15,953 impressions and 381 engagements! We've also found that tweets with GIFs tend to get 22.3% more engagement than tweets with plain images. Here's an example: Are You Excited? You Can Now Pin To Pinterest With https://t.co/014yRye9xG pic.twitter.com/uo6Kenojn6 (@) March 8, 2016 Just by turning a static image into a motion-filled GIF, the tweet received  1,328 impressions, 77 views, and 15 engagements! Plus, this tweet isn't alone! When tweets contain GIFs, they get 166.6% more clickthroughs. GIFs allow motion to make your social posts stand out, get even more attention, and bring delight. What are some of your favorite GIFs? Infographics At this point, it's no secret that infographics are one of the most popular and highest shared content types  in today's digital world. Not only do they get shared 3 times more often, but they're also 30 times more likely to be read than a purely textual article! If that  wasn't good enough, infographics are also the perfect pair for one of the top-performing visual bookmarking site: Pinterest. Infographics get a lot of attention on  Pinterest  because they tend to be longer in format, which fits Pinterest's 4:5 image ratio that receives 60% more Repins. Here's an example of our top-performing pin: Is it a surprise that it happens to be an infographic? I think not. Titles You  work really hard to find the perfect headline for your content. You  search for  keywords, words  filled with emotion,  then use the headline analyzer to find the precise, most-effective title. So why not take advantage of that in your social image? At , we reviewed some of our top-performing tweets, and found that they all included a title image.  Our top  tweet in March  received 5,043 impressions and 85 engagements, our top tweet in April  had 3,556 impressions and 35  engagements, and in May  our top tweet got a total of 7,951 impressions and 58  engagements all with title graphics. That's an average of 5,516  impressions and 59 engagements from using a title graphic within the tweet. March  Example:   How To Use The Right Content Marketing Tools For Every Job - https://t.co/TQesnglq9t pic.twitter.com/pX4UcGXKi5 (@) March 2, 2016 April Example: Want to write killer blog posts? Here is the ultimate process to awesome content. https://t.co/2HO8vmL4mA pic.twitter.com/OD0IGGccCI (@) March 30, 2016 May  Example: How to Triumph at Content Marketing On A Limited Budget https://t.co/nRe4lMv1jP pic.twitter.com/D6nlmVH2Q1 (@) May 8, 2016 As you can see, titles extend beyond the written context, and can certainly be effective within the graphic itself. Find the title of your blog, announcement, or event, and use that in the image to see the top performance. 4. Automate Your Images For Social Media To Save Time As the graphic designer on 's marketing team, I live and breathe images every, single, day, so although creating your graphics well is super important, so is making sure you're efficient when it comes to uploading  them to your social messages. After all, time is money, and money is time you could be spending on other projects. This is exactly where is a HUGE time saver for me. Let me introduce you to a magical thing called 'Social Helpers'. What Are Social Helpers in ? But First, I should probably back up and start with Social Templates. Social Templates is  a great way to reuse your social sharing schedule time and time again. That means that you can create a social campaign just one time (with the best times and right frequency), save it as a template, and then apply it to all other forms of content from there on out. Just one time! (That's hours of savings right there.) In case you'd like to see it in action, here's a live demo of social templates. If that wasn't awesome enough, there's three key components  of social templates that save  us even more time. Within each social template, you  can create an individual message 'template' using social helpers. Let me show you how it works: Within , Social Templates live to the left of your social campaign. 2. If you click on a Social Template, you can modify each and every single message within that template. This is a great way to personalize your messages for each network. 3. Do you see those blue things? Those are social helpers! There are text, image, and video helpers. 4. Here's where the magic comes in. Are you ready? You can add specific helpers to  your messages so whenever the template is applied, rather than writing that message 10x or uploading that same image 10x, you only have to do it once! Wherever that helper is located,  the content will auto-populate to all your messages at one time. What Does That Mean for Social Images? The brilliance of Social Image Helpers, is that I no longer have to upload images to every individual message for every piece of content. If your team is like ours, we have about 17 messages per piece of content, so before Social Image Helpers, I uploaded  the same image 17 times. That took a lot of time! Time spent I could be doing better things like image creation, design strategy, or connecting with our audience. With Social Helpers, I can now do what I had to do 17 times, just once. Once! This saves me so much time, and allows me to focus more time on what makes an image great, rather than worrying about how it'll publish across every single network. Social templates and social helpers take the guess-work out of it, and allow me to quickly place my images, moving onto the next thing. Now You Know How To Make Successful  Social Media Images From Beginning To End Social media images can take quite a few different forms, colors, and sizes- but with this data, you've found exactly what equation works best for each social network. If you happen to be in a rush or maybe you're just starting out, use a  2:1 ratio for your image size, incorporate blue or green with a pop of orange or red in your color scheme, stick to the four main image types: GIFs, quotes, titles, and infographics, and save time uploading with Social Image Helpers. Without much time at all, you'll be on your way to success! What colors, sizes, and image types have worked best for you? Share below! Social Media Images How To Make Them (With 128 Free Photos) The idea is pretty simple: Lets combine two of your favorite, top-performing tools- social media and imagery- to produce the best  social media images thatll engage your audience. Unfortunately,  while the idea is simple, the application can be quite challenging since  the visual options seem to be endless. But, today we have good news! With the correct sizes, best colors, awesome imagery types, and social image helpers in , youll be well on your way to a successful social media image that will extend far beyond its initial post life. How To Make The Best Social Media Images Step By Step (+ Free Photoshop Action)Get Your Free Social Media Images + Photoshop CC Action Are you ready to save hours of time!? Rather than designing custom images for each social network, simply use this Photoshop CC action that will size and save them all for  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+! Not only that, but use  the social media images infographic for every day reference, and enjoy these 14 images already sized for every single network! 1. Size Your Images For Optimal Attention The very first step to creating  the best social media images is by producing the correct size for each social network. You're  only given a limited space to capture your audience's attention, so you'll  want to use every pixel you're  given. This can get quite tricky when each network has different ratios and proportions, but if you know the posting sizes for each one, you'll be off to a great start! Below you'll find all of the recommended sizes for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ with the preferred size for  social posting. Keep in mind that all social platforms accept these three main file types: GIF, JPEG, and PNG. Alright, with that, here we go! Facebook Image Sizes Facebook is still the most popular social network today with over 1.6 billion active monthly users worldwide. With such a great audience, it's essential to optimize every single post for top engagement, especially for business. Facebook  image posts are known to get 39% more interaction  than that of a normal one, which is a perfectly great reason to start using social images for every single post. Plus, they've found that 87% of a Facebook Page's interaction comes solely from image posts, and that people remember the information better over a longer period of time. This study found that  information paired with an image  was 65% retained after a three day period. That's amazing! In recent news, Facebook now allows you to  post several images for one post, appearing as an album. There's been some discussion whether a single image or multiple images perform better, but  according to Convince and Convert, using multiple images can  increase clicks by 1,290%! Facebook's Three  Golden Rules: Use images in every single Facebook post and  multiple images whenever possible. Use the 1200 x 630px image dimensions. Post on the weekends at 12–1 p.m. for best performance. Facebook's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Photo: 180 x 180px Cover Photo: 828 x 315px Shared Image: 1200 px 630px Shared Link: 1200 x 630px Highlighted Image: 1200 x 717pxIncrease clicks by 1,290% when you use multiple images on #Facebook. #marketing Recommended Reading: 12 Effective Ways To Expand Your Facebook Engagement 10 Fundamental Ways To Boost Your Facebook Organic Reach By 193% Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One ( How To Build It) Twitter Image Sizes Twitter, one of my personal favorite networks,  sends out 500 million tweets per day. That's 6,000 tweets every second! Adding images to your tweets not only gets you 18% more clicks, but also 89% more favorites, and  150% more retweets.  Talk about an engagement boost! Plus, Twitter has kept their network posting consistent in proportion, so there's no question that a 440px by 220px image is the best size  to reach the most people. If you really want to make sure your resolution is clear, bump it up to 506 by 253px so desktop users have the highest clarity. Twitter's Three  Golden Rules: Use images in every  tweet. Use  images that are  506 x 253px for optimal resolution. Schedule your tweets for Wednesdays at  12–1 p.m. or 5–6 p.m. Twitter's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Photo: 400 x 400px Header Photo: 1500 x 500px In-Stream Photo: 506 x 253pxUse images on #Twitter  to  get 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, 150% more retweets. Recommended Reading: 15 Tactics To Boost Twitter Engagement Backed By Research How To Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free LinkedIn Image Sizes While LinkedIn is one of the older social networks, it has continued on throughout  the years and thrives  with its 414 million users. LinkedIn's focus on business professionals creates a perfect space for business-specific content to be seen and viewed across the world. Although, post with caution. According to Jeff Bullas, being 'too professional' without first creating a relationship can actually be a common mistake when using LinkedIn. This idea seems to  validate just how important using  images can be for establishing that desired connection and relatability. LinkedIn's Three Golden Rules: Make sure your images have a personal touch. Use  images that are 531px wide. Schedule your posts midweek at  or 5–6 p.m. LinkedIn's Recommended Image Sizes: Banner Image: 646 x 220px Standard Logo: 400 x 400px Square Logo: 60 x 60px Hero Photo: 974 x 330px Profile Picture: 400 x 400px Background Image: 1000 x 425px Regular Post Image: 531px wide Linked Image Post: 191 x 100px414 million #LinkedIn users engage best with images that are 531px wide.Pinterest Image Sizes The average time spent on Pinterest per visit is 14.2 minutes! Multiply that by the 110 million active  users, and you're looking at one very powerful source of information and inspiration. With all of that collective time spent on Pinterest, that also means it's one of the fastest growing websites, creating the  greatest opportunity  for your business to grow along with it. Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is  highly visual, but rather with an emphasis in sharing content with strangers and friends alike as 80% of pins are repins. In order to have the best Pinterest images, avoid using faces, use  red or orange, and rock a less distracting background. Pinterest's Three Golden Rules: Always link back to content on your blog or website wherever you can convert that traffic. Use  images that are 600 x 1102px for highest engagement. Schedule your pins on Saturday from 8–11 p.m. Pinterest's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Picture: 165 x 165px Pin Board Large Thumbnail: 222 x 150px Pin Board Small Thumbnail: 55 x 55px Pins On Main Page:  238px wide Pins Once Expanded: 600px wide Pins Enlarged Pin: 500px wide176 million Pinners spend 14.2 minutes a day on #Pinterest. Best image sizes here: Recommended Reading: How To Improve Your Pinterest Engagement With These 15 Tactics How To Get More Followers On Pinterest With 21+ Tactics That Will Grow Your Following The Ultimate Guide On How To Use Pinterest For Marketing Instagram Image Sizes Instagram is unique in that it solely allows photo-based posts. With an imagery-focused platform, it draws visual connections that make both a memorable and human impression. "Instagram’s per-follower engagement rate for top brands is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter," according to Forrester, which might be why 85% of top brands are adopting it to grow their business. Just recently, Instagram opened their strict square ratio image size up to a variety of landscape and portrait options in addition to  increasing their resolution to 1080px for top clarity! Surely,  Instagram  is a great place for both connection and business. Instagram's Three Golden Rules: Always include a link back to your content in your profile. Use  images that are 1080px wide for highest resolution. Schedule your Instagrams for Monday at  2–3 p.m. or 8–9 p.m. Tip: Did you know that now schedules Instagram posts? Now you can schedule Instagram alongside all of your other social media marketing, making you more strategic and better organized. Instagram's Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Picture: 110 x 110px Photo Thumbnails: 161 x 161px Photo Size in App: 1080 x 1080px Instagram's engagement rate is 120x higher than Twitter. Best #Instagram image sizes here: Recommended Reading: How To Improve Your Instagram Engagement With 15 Tips How To Get Way More Instagram Followers With 20 Easy Tactics The Ultimate Guide On How To Use Instagram For Business Google+ Image Sizes While Google+  may very well be slowly disappearing, it still has a lot to offer if used correctly. After all, its partner in crime, Google, is our greatest source of information across the internet, one of the highest sources of revenue  for a lot of businesses, and one of the greatest companies worldwide. Your Google+ account is directly tied to the search engine so your business information is carried over into helping your SEO. Win-win. Everyone knows and loves Google. For that reason alone, it's no surprise that Google+ has 300 million active members. With that large of an audience, it's best that your images are set up for optimal performance. Google+'s Three Golden Rules: Use the .png image format rather than .jpg format for highest clarity. Use  images that are 426 x 255px. Schedule your posts on workdays from 9–11 a.m. Google+'s Recommended Image Sizes: Profile Picture: 250 x 250px Cover Image: 1080 x 608px Shared Image: 518px wide   Shared Link Thumbnail: 150 x 150pxMake perfect images for #Google+ to reach 375 million active users.There you have it! A complete guide to the best social image sizes, with the most important recommendations  for each and every network. Find the size you're looking for, and use that when you begin the creation process with your images. Simply choosing the correct size at the beginning, will save you so much time when you're ready to save and export your images for the world to see! Recommended Design Tools: Check out these awesome tools to help you create the best social media images with the perfect sizes- Canva, Piktochart, Visage, and more  free design tools. 2. Use The Best Colors To Increase Your Engagement While several factors go into making an image its very best, color is one of the most  essential ingredients. Color psychology has proven time and time again that we can convey emotions simply by using a particular color! In May of 2015, I did a two-month study on the popularity of a given color in 's graphics. Since we typically use a three-color palette for our blog graphics, I was able to give appropriate rankings to each of the three colors used  to see how they each performed. I quickly realized that certain colors might be performing better  simply because we use them more often, so I then compared the popularity percentage to the usage percentage  to find an overall color grade. Basically, I nerded out super hard and used data to see what colors performed the best. Use a graph like this to review and test your color schemes. At the end of my study, we found that blue and green were our highest performing colors! If we look at color psychology, both of these colors reflect a calm, clean, comforting presence which seems to  be the perfect match to the experience we want our readers to have, especially if they're new to the blog. Blue is also one of our brand colors. The other two top-performing colors were none other then red and orange. While blue and green provide a safe, calm place for our readers, orange and red are perfect complements because  they grab our audience's attention and spark their  interest. Blue and green and orange and red are a dynamic set of colors that will help you succeed. #colorPsychology tells us that red and orange represent passion, energy, and success.  I couldn't imagine a better pair for blue and green's calm, comforting presence than the passion and success of orange and red. Together, they seemed to make  a dynamic duo, so I tried using those color pairs over the past year... Out of our top 10 posts, 8  of them have either blue or green as the main color. The remaining two blog posts have orange as their main color. Absolutely none of our top performing posts contain any other  main colors! By understanding which colors performed better, we were able to help  increase our page views by  833.76%! You can do this, too! Simply follow the steps below to see which colors work best for your brand: Review your blog post header graphics and write down the primary, secondary, and third colors. Define  a ranking to the most prevalent 3 colors in your graphics. (i.e. 3 points for the primary color, 2 for the secondary color, and 1 for the third most-used color.) Look at the total shares each  post received during a set amount of time. For more than  x amount of  shares (at , we did per 100 shares), give each color that set amount of ranked points that you decided on above. (e.g. If the color blue was the primary color in a post that received 300 shares, blue  would have 9  total points, 3+3+3. If red was the second most-used color  in the post with 300 shares, it would have 6  points, 2+2+2.) At the end of each week, track the overall totals and see which colors perform the highest. After 8 solid weeks, you should start to see trends stick out, revealing your top-performing colors. While everyone has different colors that match  their brand and audience demographics, it's essential to test out the waters and find the colors that work best for you! But when in doubt... use blue or green. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media 3. Use The Types Of Social Media Images That Get The Most Attention Now that you know your target image size and top-performing colors, it's time to decide what type of image to  use. While almost anything can be an image- screenshots, illustrations, photos, quotes, GIFs- there are a few standout images you  can depend upon to receive the most engagement. Quotes Quotes come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe it's from a speaker, conference, or a book that you've recently read. Or, maybe it's from an article or blog  online.  No matter the  form or social network, quotes can be an excellent way to reach your audience with images. Simply find a quote you like and pair it with a color or simple background. The dynamic duo will allow your readers to ponder, identify with, and in return, share your quote. For example, at we started sharing quotes from our blog authors on Facebook, and we received 98% growth in engagements and 91% growth in clickthroughs. Facebook isn't alone! Here's another example from Twitter: 20 Ways To Be Creative When You Dont Feel Inspired https://t.co/JS5YcKZFoQ pic.twitter.com/hRaof4lPfV (@) January 16, 2016 This tweet received  2,107 impressions and 38 engagements because the quote had insight, intrigue, and direct application. It not only complemented the content topic of creativity, but gave further information that could be easily shared with their family and friends. Quote images are a perfect way to give something to your audience that they can share and be proud of, all the while giving your content more traction. Try them out! GIFs GIFs are one of the office's favorite things both in our work chats and on social media because they  perform well, all while bringing a smile. Even in challenging situations, GIFs can bring a delight to those who would rather be frustrated. Hook you audience, tell a story, and make their day. Here's an example: Uh, oh. #facebookdown In the meantime, enjoy a cat gif! pic.twitter.com/34o2LYk61a (@) September 28, 2015 By using a GIF and bringing a humorous moment to a normal circumstance, we received  15,953 impressions and 381 engagements! We've also found that tweets with GIFs tend to get 22.3% more engagement than tweets with plain images. Here's an example: Are You Excited? You Can Now Pin To Pinterest With https://t.co/014yRye9xG pic.twitter.com/uo6Kenojn6 (@) March 8, 2016 Just by turning a static image into a motion-filled GIF, the tweet received  1,328 impressions, 77 views, and 15 engagements! Plus, this tweet isn't alone! When tweets contain GIFs, they get 166.6% more clickthroughs. GIFs allow motion to make your social posts stand out, get even more attention, and bring delight. What are some of your favorite GIFs? Infographics At this point, it's no secret that infographics are one of the most popular and highest shared content types  in today's digital world. Not only do they get shared 3 times more often, but they're also 30 times more likely to be read than a purely textual article! If that  wasn't good enough, infographics are also the perfect pair for one of the top-performing visual bookmarking site: Pinterest. Infographics get a lot of attention on  Pinterest  because they tend to be longer in format, which fits Pinterest's 4:5 image ratio that receives 60% more Repins. Here's an example of our top-performing pin: Is it a surprise that it happens to be an infographic? I think not. Titles You  work really hard to find the perfect headline for your content. You  search for  keywords, words  filled with emotion,  then use the headline analyzer to find the precise, most-effective title. So why not take advantage of that in your social image? At , we reviewed some of our top-performing tweets, and found that they all included a title image.  Our top  tweet in March  received 5,043 impressions and 85 engagements, our top tweet in April  had 3,556 impressions and 35  engagements, and in May  our top tweet got a total of 7,951 impressions and 58  engagements all with title graphics. That's an average of 5,516  impressions and 59 engagements from using a title graphic within the tweet. March  Example:   How To Use The Right Content Marketing Tools For Every Job - https://t.co/TQesnglq9t pic.twitter.com/pX4UcGXKi5 (@) March 2, 2016 April Example: Want to write killer blog posts? Here is the ultimate process to awesome content. https://t.co/2HO8vmL4mA pic.twitter.com/OD0IGGccCI (@) March 30, 2016 May  Example: How to Triumph at Content Marketing On A Limited Budget https://t.co/nRe4lMv1jP pic.twitter.com/D6nlmVH2Q1 (@) May 8, 2016 As you can see, titles extend beyond the written context, and can certainly be effective within the graphic itself. Find the title of your blog, announcement, or event, and use that in the image to see the top performance. 4. Automate Your Images For Social Media To Save Time As the graphic designer on 's marketing team, I live and breathe images every, single, day, so although creating your graphics well is super important, so is making sure you're efficient when it comes to uploading  them to your social messages. After all, time is money, and money is time you could be spending on other projects. This is exactly where is a HUGE time saver for me. Let me introduce you to a magical thing called 'Social Helpers'. What Are Social Helpers in ? But First, I should probably back up and start with Social Templates. Social Templates is  a great way to reuse your social sharing schedule time and time again. That means that you can create a social campaign just one time (with the best times and right frequency), save it as a template, and then apply it to all other forms of content from there on out. Just one time! (That's hours of savings right there.) In case you'd like to see it in action, here's a live demo of social templates. If that wasn't awesome enough, there's three key components  of social templates that save  us even more time. Within each social template, you  can create an individual message 'template' using social helpers. Let me show you how it works: Within , Social Templates live to the left of your social campaign. 2. If you click on a Social Template, you can modify each and every single message within that template. This is a great way to personalize your messages for each network. 3. Do you see those blue things? Those are social helpers! There are text, image, and video helpers. 4. Here's where the magic comes in. Are you ready? You can add specific helpers to  your messages so whenever the template is applied, rather than writing that message 10x or uploading that same image 10x, you only have to do it once! Wherever that helper is located,  the content will auto-populate to all your messages at one time. What Does That Mean for Social Images? The brilliance of Social Image Helpers, is that I no longer have to upload images to every individual message for every piece of content. If your team is like ours, we have about 17 messages per piece of content, so before Social Image Helpers, I uploaded  the same image 17 times. That took a lot of time! Time spent I could be doing better things like image creation, design strategy, or connecting with our audience. With Social Helpers, I can now do what I had to do 17 times, just once. Once! This saves me so much time, and allows me to focus more time on what makes an image great, rather than worrying about how it'll publish across every single network. Social templates and social helpers take the guess-work out of it, and allow me to quickly place my images, moving onto the next thing. Now You Know How To Make Successful  Social Media Images From Beginning To End Social media images can take quite a few different forms, colors, and sizes- but with this data, you've found exactly what equation works best for each social network. If you happen to be in a rush or maybe you're just starting out, use a  2:1 ratio for your image size, incorporate blue or green with a pop of orange or red in your color scheme, stick to the four main image types: GIFs, quotes, titles, and infographics, and save time uploading with Social Image Helpers. Without much time at all, you'll be on your way to success! What colors, sizes, and image types have worked best for you? Share below!

Is 268 Jefferson County School System Example

Is 268 Jefferson County School System Example Is 268 Jefferson County School System – Coursework Example Jefferson County School System Case Study Initially, software development involved programmers designing s to facilitate a procedure/program or to solve a problem. This however changed when systems became so big and complex for individual to develop and maintain them. Therefore, a team of specialists like programmers, architects, testers, analysts and users would work together to create and maintain a system. This new trend is what is referred to as System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and is what was adopted by the Jefferson County School. JCS abandoned their initial software in favor of SDLC to improve service delivery and also to reduce the cost of maintaining the system through cutting down on the number of system administrators/personnel. Though SDLC was thought of as the Magnus opus of the institution, the system turned out to be the opposite. In fact, the only advantages it had over the traditional system was that it was a bit faster and could support and process more informat ion. Aside from that, SDLC proved too complex for the normal users. This is despite the fact that the workers had been given two week training on the system prior to its use. It is worth noting that traditional systems were problem oriented, that is, once a problem is discovered a program is created to solve the problem. However, this is not the case with SDLC. Traditional systems allowed users to be in control of the problem solving process. SDLC on the other hand, are designed to be in control as they reduce the role of users to keying in specific instructions while the main instructions are specified during the development of the system.For instance, JCS personnel complained that the new system controlled everything to the point that it even rejected admitting students in classes with fewer students. Therefore, there were discrepancies in the number of students in each class, unlike in the previous system where everything was uniform. Due to its rigidity, SDLC model poses a serio us threat to a dynamic institution that constantly grows and changes. This is because remodeling, restructuring and recoding SDLC systems is hard and may take a long time, not putting into consideration the amount of money that would be used in the process. JCSS personnel were forced to adapt to this system due to the amount of money that the institution had put into the project.

Research methodology design and process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Research methodology design and process - Essay Example In this context, the need for research in nursing is no longer just driven by the epistemological requirement of the field, but it is also necessitated by the perceived need for policies that will enhance patient satisfaction. In this regard, this paper will look into research and research methodology as it is adopted in some studies within nursing. This paper will be divided in to six sections. The first part is the introduction. This section presents the focus of the paper as well as the structure of the entire study. The second segment deals with the identification of the area, which is to be researched or audited and the justification for the choice of the topic. This part will present the rationale behind the chosen topic for the research. The third part will be discussing the search strategy used in identifying sources of research. Continuing, the fourth part will deal with the research methods adopted by some studies within nursing regarding the issue of nursing led care in ca ncer health services. The fifth part will look into the impact of the selected studies to the field of nursing. Finally, the sixth section will present some research suggestions pertinent to the topic chosen. At the end of the paper, a better understanding of the rudiments of research and research methodology as it is adopted and applied in nursing is attained. 2. The Identification of the Topic and the Justification for the Choice As the field of nursing is wide and various issues are being raised, the researcher decided to look into the topic of nurse led care in cancer with focus on adult patient’s satisfaction. There are several reasons that prodded the researcher to prefer this topic over other concerns that are encountered in the field of nursing. These are (1) the researcher is working as an oncology nurse. This is the primary reason why the researcher has opted to work on the topic nurse led care among adult cancer patients and patient satisfaction. My experiences in work serve as a motivation to understand further the extent of patient satisfaction among adult cancer patients, especially when it is nurse led. (2) Another reason is that there is an increasing awareness among patients regarding the importance of their perception pertinent to their health care (Kleeberg et al., 2008; Williams and Healty 1998). Since, knowing patient satisfaction will help in developing approaches that will further improve their predicament. Patient satisfaction is crucial for cancer patients as they are vulnerated not only by the cancer, but they are made vulnerable byseveral psychological, emotional, and educational challenges (McClement and Hack, 1999; Stiefel and Rafazi 1994; van Gruenigen et al., 2006). Accordingly, there is a constant necessity to know cancer patients’ satisfaction in order to provide them with the appropriate health care they need as they deal with their illness. Finally, (3) recent developments in biomedicine have helped patients in gaining better chances in dealing with their cancer. However, the developments in biomedicine also carry with it increasing complexity. In this regard, there is a need to know patient satisfaction of adult cancer patients as they face not only their illness, but also the complex health care services they use (Lis et al., 2009). As there is a perceived necessity in apprehending patient satisf