Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 12

Research - Essay Example g is an issue that need to be tackled holistically by all people and the relevant authorities without blaming each other for the current worsening conditions. Technically, global warming is a problem that emanates from the presence of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This acts as a blanket which traps heat, thereby warming the planet. Other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide have the same effect. Therefore, burning of coal, oil, and natural gas for energy leads to accumulation of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. Scientific evidence indicate that an increase in global average temperature by 3.6 (F) poses a major risk to the natural systems and the existence of the human beings (Smith 18). Scientists have discovered that methane is mainly released by landfills and various agricultural practices such as use of nitrous oxide from fertilizers. In addition the gas is released through both industrial and refrigeration processes. Greenhouse gas emission is one of the major causes of global warming; global warming, thus, results from the greenhouse effect. The latter involves a process through which the emission and absorption of infrared radiation through the gases in the earth’s atmosphere, which warms the lower atmosphere and the surface of the earth (Smith 26). On the surface of the earth, the naturally occurring greenhouse gases have a mean warming effect of approximately 59˚F. Without the existence of the Earth’s atmosphere, the average temperature on the planet would be lowered to the freezing point. The major greenhouse gases exist in terms of water vapor that results in about 30-70% of the greenhouse effect, which leads to global warming. Scientists have pointed out that carbon dioxide causes 10-25%; methane causes 5-10%; and the ozone causes 3-8% of the greenhouse effects. Scientists have also pointed out that human activity that began during the times of Industrial Revolution in the United States and Western Europe increased the level

Edit research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Edit research paper - Essay Example Over the years, the country has established its supremacy in the global oil market. For the past decade, a mean yield of 10.26 million barrels per day has been produced by the country. Figure 1 shows that this is 12% of the total world supply. In 2011, the oil-based economy generated 11.8 million barrels per day, raising their production share to 13%. The world Saudi Arabia is followed by Russia, United States of America, and China with shares of 12%, 12% and 5% respectively (See Appendix Table A). The domestic production of the country grew by a yearly average of 3.6% from 1991 to 2011.This growth is helpful for the country’s export market and profitability making it beneficial for the overall development of the economy (Yizraeli, 2000). In terms of exports, Saudi Arabia also led the industry in 2009 with 8.2 million barrels a day. The country has captured 12.4% of the total world exports during the year. Russia placed second with 5.2 million followed by Iran with 2.8 billion. 20% of the country’s exports go to the United States of America. Japan and South Korea also imports significant portions of Saudi’s supply (US Energy Information Administration, 2010). On the other hand, despite the consistent boost in production of oil, the world demand for the commodity has been volatile. Figure 2 shows the instability in the world-wide demand for oil, these factors may have been influential to the export performance for crude oil. Figure 2 depicts the demand of the world, US, Japan and South Korea. The latter three mentioned were also included because these are significant importers from Saudi Arabia. The demand for oil has been volatile from the 1990s to early 2000 as reflected from the fluctuations in the graph. Near 2008, downward demand trends are manifested from the world, US, Japan and South Korea. Periodic drops in demand are apparent, and seem to relate to business cycles. During this

Pros And Cons Of Abortion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pros And Cons Of Abortion - Research Paper Example In most cases, abortion has been blamed for the increasing chances of miscarriages as well as increasing the individual’s risk to pelvic inflammatory diseases (Boyer, 2013). Furthermore, citizens who are the taxpayers are against using their taxes to fund abortion; thus abortion is morally unacceptable and unethical. For women who indulge in abortion, they are increasing their exposure to stress and psychological pain thus abortion impacts their view of life and also how the society view them (Pourreza & Batebi, 2011). In fact, societal rejection has been directed to women who have been identified to have aborted or terminated their pregnancy. Finally, abortion reduces the chance of giving birth in future as some of the methods may affect the entire reproductive system of the woman.Though abortion has always received negative perception from the public, there are some instances where it is necessary to terminate the pregnancy. For instance, cases where the mother’s life is at risk require the termination of the pregnancy so as to save the mother in case she cannot survive to deliver a healthy baby (Boyer, 2013). Conversely, there exist some cases when the mother's life become paramount to that of the unborn, and this is morally acceptable from all the perspectives. Nonetheless, abortion carried out through safe medical procedures is more acceptable since the life of the mother is protected. The implication is that the medical procedures have least risks and does not affect the mother's health.

Globalization and advancement in technology Essay Example for Free

Globalization and advancement in technology Essay Globalization and advancement in technology has resulted in the governments taking a back seat as regards shaping the destiny of its people. The increased capacities of individuals do not seem to provide any point of refuge. The most difficult thing from this situation is the fact that the new political agenda being championed for the millennium is not well documented for. The book China and Globalization presents an in-depth analysis of the political, economic and social transformations that the Chinese society and state went through over the past thirty years. The author argues that the rise of China throughout this period has been propelled through the dynamic geopolitical environment as a result of community building efforts that enhance economic cooperation CITATION Gut09 l 1033 (Guthrie, 2009). A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey aims to find out the goals of neoliberalism and presents a useful explanation on why neoliberal policies do not always follow neoliberal theory. Harvey simply considers this new form of political economy as a means through which the global economic elite reconstitutes the high class power CITATION Har05 l 1033 (Harvey, 2005). He states that elite power often takes precedence in the event of a conflict with the contemporary neoliberalism economic principles. Harvey’s book is a powerful tool for analyzing the accumulation by deficiency concept. Doug emphasizes that this has been the foundation to the facilitation and eventual institutionalization of China’s economic integration. This argument is quite a challenge of David Harvey’s neo liberal argument that the rises of neo liberal economies like the United States and capitalist China is the cornerstone of an intended project to restore the noble power. According to Doug, the rise of Chinese revolution is â€Å"the result of methodical and careful government policies† (p 8). The fundamental element basis of Doug’s argument lies in her view that the successful revolution of China was because it was gradual and was led by the state. She states that China’s propagation of bilateral PTA’s is a â€Å"necessary intermediate step toward a seamless integration into a pan regional framework† (Guthrie p.15). This argument, though quite an optimistic and bold claim by Doug Guthrie is in contrast to David Harvey who argues that the propag ation of bilateral PTAs is an emasculation to region building in Asia. David Harvey’s sanguine view is that most bilateral PTAs are merely destabilizing to regional cooperation owing to the fact that most bilateral PTAs are strategically or politically driven. The Chinese government led by Deng Xiaoping introduced reforms that allowed the actors of the economy to master the rules of capitalism rather than making assumptions and withdrawing perceptions based on intuitions CITATION Gut09 l 1033 (Guthrie, 2009). Incentives were stimulated by granting autonomy to the local government. Currently, foreign investors in China deal with provincial bureaucracy and build long term alliances rather than the central government. Guthrie points out that the crucial underlying mechanisms that boosted a much freer Chinese environment were the autonomy of individuals at the workplaces and the depletion of monitoring capacity of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Individuals no longer had to de pend on their superiors or work units despite the fact that there was a major rise in corruption among local officials. The results of such reforms were the evolution of an independent middle class that was economically secure. High rewards were offered to holders of foreign language skills and university degrees and the access to female education increased. Guthrie advocates for China to engage strongly with the United States in order to acquire grander external motivation as a way to overcome domestic hindrances. However, her assertion that a futurist state can better engineer changes from socialism raises questions as to whether or not developing countries can only grow by enforcing autocratic policies CITATION Gut09 l 1033 (Guthrie, 2009). David Harvey argues that while neoliberal economies may boast of allowing the free market to take its course, government intervention and regulation only comes into place when it is beneficial to economic elites. Thus from a neoliberal perspective, environmental and labor regulations by the government always lead to inefficiency by distorting free market price mechanisms CITATION Har05 l 1033 (Harvey, 2005). In his opinion, the main aim of neoliberalism was not wealth increase but wealth redistribution and uses statistics to explain this phenomenon. Harvey’s argument is supported by the decrease of real wages in the poorer sectors of neoliberal economies like the United States and the massive wealth increases of the economic elite. In his view, Harvey refers to this type of wealth distribution as accumulation by dispossession and goes on to state that this is how neoliberalism has managed to redistribute wealth and considers it a transition to the onset of capitalism. Among th e main aspects of this one sided wealth redistribution are monetization, privatization, state redistributions, commodification and the management by manipulation of crises. Harvey presents a brief history of neoliberalism where he point out that before its existence the political economy was dominated by embedded liberalism which was a form of capitalism. His assumption of neoliberalism is that it is quite extremist in its operation and if unchecked will be unruly because of socialism failure to develop a reliable model. The pretense by socialism as a means of management of the state and its people without any form of intervention of market forces results in social destruction CITATION Har05 l 1033 (Harvey, 2005). He is attached to this political tradition of democratic capitalism. His view is that of economic restructuring for the development of the people in general. To this effect, Harvey fails to understand why the way of doing things in neoliberal economies is more prominent across the globe even though they embrace democratic capitalism. The push and pull between the two ideologies of Guthrie and Harvey could be attributed to economic growth witnessed across the globe in this period. Harvey asserts in his writing that neoliberalism to some extent does not meet up its expectations by the people. The win by embedded neoliberalism according to him was not a stable environment to create a socially stable environment. Both authors present vague points at some point. Doug Guthrie believes that China is taking baby steps to becoming a capitalist nation and therefore the way to remain economically viable is through slow transition from a command to market economy. Guthrie in totality misses the whole idea that democracy and growth in newly industrialized countries have an inverse relationship. David Harvey on the other hand fails to clearly highlight the main economic policies of neoliberalism. From the review of the different aspects of the books by Harvey and Guthrie, it is indeed difficult to exactly point a celebration o f the past century with the misery related to the so many ideologies that have not been successful in the long run. The books depict a situation of melancholy with the authors coming to terms so late in agreeing with the disadvantages related to these ideologies and their lack of appreciation of the one ideology that has revealed the aspirations of human and has been able to change to the different circumstances of life as it is. References   Guthrie, D. (2009). China and Globalization: The Social, Economic and Political Transformation of Chinese Society. New York: Taylor Francis. Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Source document

Authority-responsibility relationships

Authority-responsibility relationships Modern organizations are constantly trying to incorporate a humanistic approach in order to keep their employees happy. Organizational behavior is greatly affected by changes that occur inside the company. One that is seen as most important is that of the changes in organizational structures. The old way of doing things with bureaucratic models have given way to modern models using project and matrix designs. Every organization has objectives and goals that it strives to achieve. In order to do so, the people in the organization must work together. The activities of each of these individuals are broken down by authority-responsibility relationships. These relationships are often formed on the basis of the job hierarchy (Organizational behavior and basics, n.d.). An organization is a group of individuals that are broken down into different levels of authority and segments based on specialty for the intention of achieving the goals and objectives that have been set by the organization. When objectives are established for these groups a process is used to identifying and group the work that is to be performed. Responsibility and authority roles are also defined and delegated while relationships are established for the purpose of enabling the people to work most effectively together (Organizational behavior and basics, n.d.). Administration of an effective organization determines the goals that the company as a whole strives towards. Organizations often evolve out of a need clear, well defined system or structure, that allows people to execute their work responsibilities. This structure helps employees to relate to each other, organize their activities, and achieve the goals or objectives that have been set by the organization. It helps to minimize confusion, maintain an ideal environment and maximizes effectiveness (Organizational behavior and basics, n.d.). Hewlett-Packard is an example of a company that uses modern organizational behavior in order to emphasize productivity and good employee relations. In 2000, Hewlett-Packard was one of five winners of the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership. This company was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard. Early on this company has a good philosophy that encouraged good employee relations. David Packard fashioned the concept of management by walking around as a means to achieve a high involvement and open work culture. HP has been both a leader in technology and in human resource management practices. As a leader in technology HP designed and produced the first handheld scientific calculator. As a management innovator HP introduced the radical notion of flexible work hours and removed time clocks as a way to show respect for and trust in its employees (Organizational Behavior in Changing Times, n.d.). HP is a $41-billion-a-year business that consists of seven major product lines and three service lines. HP products include computer desktops and workstations, mobile products, printing and digital imaging products, storage products, servers, networking products, and software. The services lines include e-services, personal services, and business services. HP has approximately 88,500 employees and was one of the first companies to formalize telecommuting policies for its employees. The company has more than 540 sales and support offices and distributorships in 120 countries worldwide (Organizational Behavior in Changing Times, n.d.). The Santa Rosa Systems Division of Hewlett Packard (SRSD) was created in 1992 in order to target a new systems integration opportunity in the ever growing communication business sector. In 1994 SRSD faced many challenges that threatened its success as well as that of its leadership team. Those in the organization saw the following things as major issues: There were two competing strategies that were threatening to divide the organization There were problems between two functions that were competing for common engineering resources. This problem was caused by a functional structure that had very poorly designed cross-functional business teams The cross-functional teams that were not effectively led or managed and did not produce any needed coordination There was a top team that was not effective. There was a general manager who was not confronting and resolving key strategic and organizational issues. There was low trust throughout the organization that prevented organizational problems from being discussed and managed. There was underperformance in the rate of growth and profitability as well as low morale and turnover of key technical people (Beer, 2002). In order to help address these issues HP used a technique know as Organizational Fitness Profiling (OFP). This process enabled the leadership team to bring these problems to the surface and make changes that allowed the business unit to capitalize on many market opportunities. The leadership team and many of the key managers in theSanta Rosadivision had grown up in Hewlett Packards traditional business environment. Fitness Profiling enabled the leadership team to have an honest organizational conversation about the behaviors that were silent killers and diagnose the root causes (Beer, 2002). HP is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries worldwide. They explore how technology and services can help people and companies address their problems and challenges while pursing their own possibilities, aspirations and dreams. They apply new thinking and ideas to create more simple, valuable and trusted experiences with technology. They are continuously improving the way that their customers live and work (Hewlett-Packard, 2009). Not many other companies offer as complete a technology product portfolio as HP does. They provide infrastructure and business offerings that range from handheld devices to some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. They offer consumers a wide range of products and services from digital photography to digital entertainment and from computing to home printing. This comprehensive portfolio helps them match the right products, services and solutions to their customers’ specific needs (Hewlett-Packard, 2009). Hewlett Packards motto for their employees consists of Stretch. Strive. Succeed. This is a standard that they demand not only from themselves but from their employees as well. When a person goes to work at HP, they are given every opportunity to stretch their talents, strive for new solutions and succeed beyond what they thought was possible. And when the employee does this they are recognized and rewarded as they grow with the company (Hewlett-Packard, 2009). This approach is what has made HP the worlds leading information Technology Company and keeps them moving in new and interesting directions. This is how they have been able to provide ideas that help people around the world connect, create and accomplish amazing things. Its why their people are experts in so many areas including marketing, finance, HR, sales, IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, business technology solutions, global services, and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises, and small and medium businesses. They believe that when you bring great minds together in over 170 countries, each person has a hand in driving the innovations that make the world a better place (Hewlett-Packard, 2009). The Sociotechnical system (STS) redesign process that was used by HP in order to chronicle the process as it actually occurs includes documenting how changes in managers’ and employees’ beliefs and behaviors as they are produced. STS redesign is not a new management trend but was first detailed by Eric Trist and his associates of the Tavistock Institute in 1963. Central to STS redesign are two principles. The first is that work is comprised of both social and technical components, while the second is that organizations are open systems. The second concept is composed of two important concepts. Organizations are open meaning that they are constantly interacting and negotiating with their environment. Just as significant is the character of their system. Real change occurs only with attention to all aspects of the organization. In order to implement STS redesign, top management must sponsor and demonstrate commitment to the change and the redesign team must be composed of employees from all levels of the organization. This is a change process designed by the workers whose work is being redesigned. Guiding principles include employee involvement, the reallocation of power and authority down the hierarchical ladder, open communications, and system wide transformation. Structurally, the result is an organization composed of self-managing teams (Besser, 1999).  

TQM and Business Process Re-engineering

TQM and Business Process Re-engineering Total Quality Management and Business Process Re-engineering Introduction This article going to discuss about Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) which are the most expressions of an increasing sophistication in management techniques and principles in recent years (Christian 1997). There are some ambiguous constructs between TQM and BPR. On the one hand, there are claimed that the management innovations might be restore competitiveness and back to traditional, such as bureaucratic organizations. On the other hand, TQM and BPR are normally concerned to only to the managerial common sense (Fisher 1994). This papers goals to explode the reasons and benefits relate with managers and workers around the BPR and TQM. Total Quality Management (TQM) Total Quality Management (TQM) has its roots in Japan, because of the original Japanese words Quality Control (QC) which means the development of quality improvement activities, due to the translation problems about QC from the original Japanese words(Boaden 1996). So, QC and TQM have same meaning, for example the principles were universally accepted as a means of continual improvement in quality overall organizational performance. Furthermore, there are aim of TQM which means for customer satisfaction, and improved flexibility (Ruth 1996). TQM often rely on a statistical base through mathematical foundation of quality control (Ruth 1996). At the begin , TQM started in 1950s and 1960s, it was attributed by Deming and Juran who promoted quality processes in Japan. Although the radical concepts of TQM were developed in US and Europe during 1980s and 1990s the growing international competition led many UK and other companies to adopt TQM, especially focus on quality by management gurus such as Peters and Waterman (Ruth 1996). There are some common quality principles of TQM, including customer orientation, substantial cultural change, top management leadership of the quality improvement process, focus on continuous improvement, respect for employees and their knowledge, and reduction of product and process variation with an emphasis on defect prevention rather than detection. Especially continuous improvement for example, it is often related with Kaizen which is one of the basic principles of TQM (Ruth 1996). The results of TQM processes generally are improvements in mistake rates, reduced time needed to save money, worker capital and increased efficiencies (Christian 1997). Another example of Customer orientation is one of soft systems of TQM. I t is usually flexible forms of work organization with the intensification and insecurity that come in its wake. TQM as an inclusive management practices that using methodology to set up models of organization and amplifies. Some aspects of TQM were obviously incorporated more easily than others. For instance, problem solving by teams, conferencing, and training. After finished the TQM training, managers were able to offer an intellectualized report of TQM (Chritian 1997). However, it was not mean that managers were understood of practical by their level, and they could sure what the elements exactly could mean in their working climate (Chritian 1997). For instance, senior managers might lose sight of the ball. They kick the ball into play, and when it has some problem or the ball is not working as fast as they think they would like change the way to find another job better than before (christian 1997). In addition, managers focused on the mechanisms- training, meetings. Because of TQM become a more efficient and modern company it was enabled managers could self-referential, especially in official company discourse (Christian 1997). And most of senior managers have had an opportunity to achieve a multitude of sometimes conflicting or objectives, who were choosed by consultants and management gurus. TQM principles, practices and techniques are have benefits to workers. Such as teamwork, group skills, continuous training and learning techniques as role clarification and group feedback (Christian 1997). For example, there are lots of quality management rules such as TQM, just-in-time, Quality Control systems are used by the operational workers in Denso Company, this are increasing and improving work efficiency and effectiveness. In spite of the benefits of TQM, there is failure paradigm of the Quality Management. For example, according to Kearney survey that there are 80% of the companies surveyed might not point to a dramatic improvement in implementation, and research from 1992 by Arthur D. who reported that TQM had a remarkable impact on their activities and habits are considered merely by the third of studied companies (Christian 1997). Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) The Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) replaced Total Quality Management (TQM) as the hottest topic of organizational processes and structures, always following the introduction of new information technologies into an organization. â€Å"BPR is the fundamental thinking and redesign of business processes, to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed† (Hammer Champy 1994). On the other hand, BPR is contrasted with process simplification that it is considered involved in fundamental change, led by a view, involving new frameworks and technology and changes in habits and attitudes. In addition BPR was developed as a radical concept for fundamental change in an organization, relied on total redesign of an organizations programmers, and taking into account the full power of modern technology (Ruth 1996). BPR could make the small change in each department for example in marketing sales department, but return the huge benefits for the organization. For instance, structure change related with people and technology, it plays a crucial role in organizing people, technology, decision-making, control, and management. Bad organizational structure can reduce the success of the redesigning effort. These might involve multi-functional teams, product teams, and the flattening of the management hierarchy (Delvin 2002). In the technology facts are pointed that it might includes the relationships and controls in various technologies. The main features of BPR includes simple to multi-tasked work, empowerment of employees, change of focus from management towards customer, flattening hierarchies and managements habits from supervising to coaching, and switch from functional department to process teams ( Grint 1994). BPR have benefits both of managers and workers, including a non-bureaucratic and informal management structure, a flat organizational structure, tight control of day to day works for example someone absence, and little management of authority. To achieve these might via the three fields, such as reengineering technology, organizational structure, and communication (Delvin 2002). Firstly, the advantage aspects of reengineering technology to managers are including standard managerial processes which trend to integration all the information: share databases, function, network, and improving quality in operational processes (William 1996). Such as, the most important processes in a manufacturing or service company and distinguish the following steps: order flow, strategic process, product, marketing or sales, services, accounting, personnel, and technology (Marta 1999). These could via information technologies systems to achieve them. Information technologies, namely, personal computers and internet communications allow workers to work far away from the office. Employees may work at home or other areas. Multimedia communication programmers, which receive email or messages, and review news and get information is very convenience and quick. And computer systems can integrate multi-functional of business processes, sharing data resources, internal and external information. These processes not only reduce cost and improving the accuracy of exchanging information, but also increasing work efficiency and effectiveness (Marta 1999). Such as Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) which is one of popular software systems, it is widely used in most of companies in recent years. Secondly, organizational structure which is really difficulties in redesigning procedures especially to managers, they might less autonomy due to the formal constraints and regulations of organization (James 2000). For example managers may less decision-making and flexibility. On the other hand, the hierarchical or bureaucratical of organization might become flat levels. And their changed the management habits and attitudes from supervising to coaching or training. As well as towards pay more attention to the customers instead of management. Organizational structure change to workers, the organization needs encouraged employees who accept changes, share, and motivate their new style of working processes. On one hand, the organization must in-depth training and motivation their employees, such as provide the team work knowledge and creative new type of jobs. On the other hand, the organization must encourage their workers via incentive systems and involvement in the decision-making process (Marta 1999). Lastly, communication issues to managers are more crucial in the organization. For example, in most of the companies, they employees are working for the company, it is not only for the better paid, but also really focus on the senior managers who are respect or take care them as a word or a gesture. While these are absolutely small changes to managers, but to workers are really more respects or thanks to managers, prompted them to performance well, these are without money issues, each worker needs esteems and trusts. Communication processes involved in all departments and people at all levels of the organization (Winklhofer 2002). People should be kept as open as possible to ensure success. It can help higher management transform information about the business and BPR progress across the organization and make workers more ensure and understand what exact their role in the change process (David 2005). It will be reduce resistance of change process and give feedbacks to the higher level managers, such as the training issues or promotions, employees cannot be controlled, they can be encouraging innovation, sharing information, and providing a change blueprint (David 2005). However, there were 70% of BPR projects failed (Ralph 2000). It had have many reasons about failure of BPR, including have â€Å"ill-defined scope and processes defined, inaccurate information and data, lack of executive commitment and sponsorship, limited guru to proceed and fast changing technologies† (Ralph 2000). One of the typical unsuccessful example of BPR in the organization, management risks involve operational problems such as lack of customer focus, transaction issues, and lack of time to execute the project. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper provides general theories and examples about Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). Although there are many critical articles about TQM and BPR, and the high rate of failure cases. While, it is not deny that BPR established on the TQM programmers, there are similarities both of them such as high quality, continuous improvement, and working efficiency. However, there are basic different between TQM and BPR. For example, TQM do not changing the existing processes, it is focus on continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. In contrast, BPR is changing the existing processes, reengineering the whole processes, set up the new processes instead of old one. References Boaden, R.J. (1996) What is TQM †¦and does it matter?, Total Quality Management (in press). Christina, D. C. (1997) TQM and BPR: Beyond the beyond myth Journal of Management Studies 34:5 September 1997 David, P., Ruey-Dang, C. (2005) The State of Business Process Reenineering: A Search for Success Factors. Total Quality Management Vol. 16, No.1, 121-133, January 2005 Delvin, G . (2002) A Wider View of Business Process Reengineering. February 2002/Vol.45, No.2 Fisher, L. (1994) Total quality: hit or myth? Accountancy, 50-1 Grint,K. (1994) Reengineering history: social resonances and business process reengineering. Organization,1, 179-201 Hammer, M. Champy, J. (1994) Reingenierla De La Empresa ( Redesign of the Business), Barcelona, Spain: Parram6n, 1994 James, Y.L., Thong., Chee-sing,Y., Kin-lee, S. (2000) Business Process Reengineering in the Public Sector: The Case of the Housing Development Board in Singapore. Journal of Management Information Systems. Summer 2000. Vol. 17, No.1, pp. 245-270 Marta, F, O. (1999) Information Technology in Business Process Reengineering March 16-23, 1999 Ruth, J. B. (1996) Is total quality management really unique? Total quality management, Vol, 7, No.5, 1996, pp553-570 Ralph, L. K. (2000) Risk management for business process reengineering projects pp71-73 William, J. K., James, T.C., Subashish, G. (1996) Inforamtion architectural design in business process reengineering Journal Information Technology (1996) 11, 27-27

paper :: essays research papers

Paper has a long history, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and continuing to the present day. For thousands of years, hand-made methods dominated and then, during the 19th century, paper production became industrialised. Originally intended purely for writing and printing purposes, a wide variety of paper grades and uses are now available to the consumer Of all the writing and drawing materials that people have employed down the ages, paper is the most widely used around the world. Its name derives from papyrus the material used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Papyrus, however, is only one of the predecessors of paper that together are known by the generic term ‘tapa’ and are mostly made from the inner bark of paper mulberry, fig and daphne. Tapa has been found extensively in nearly all cultures along the Equatorial belt and is made by what is possibly the oldest papermaking technique – one still practised in some parts of the Himalayas and South East Asia. Indeed, recent archaeological excavations in China have revealed some of the oldest ‘tapa’ paper ever found which shows that paper was being produced in China before western records began. The tapa technique involves cooked bast, which is flattened with a wooden hammer to form a thin, fibrous layer and then dissolved in a vat with water to make a pulp. A screen consisting of a wooden frame with a fabric base is then laid in a puddle or big basin and floats with the fabric just under the surface of the water. The papermaker then pours the quantity of pulp needed to make one sheet into this ‘floating mould’ and spreads it evenly, by hand, across the surface. The screen is then carefully lifted out of the water, allowed to drain off and a sheet of paper forms on the wire. Once the water has dripped off, the screen is placed in the sun or near a fire to dry. When dry, the sheet easily peels off and, apart from possible smoothing, requires no further treatment. This technique has two basic drawbacks. Firstly, a separate screen is needed for each new sheet, and is only available for use again after the last sheet has dried. And secondly, an increase in productio n can soon lead to a shortage of raw material, since fresh bast is not always available everywhere in the required quantity. The fibres normally used for textiles, like flax and hemp, also served as substitutes for bast.