Is knowledge management a fad? Essay

Abstract Knowledge management is a broad term that includes tools and theories from various fields. T.D. Wilson had been impeaching the need for knowledge management and he had come to the conclusion that knowledge management is just a fad started by consultancy companies and IT/ICT departments. This paper examines the righteousness of this proclamation and provides explanations and specifications of some conclusions that had T.D. Wilson provided in his work â€Å"The nonsense of ‘knowledge management’†. Is knowledge management a fad? 1 The need of KM in information society With the instantaneous global information sharing is arising the need of knowledge management. This is based on the evolution and transformation of society. Every year the amount of the whole human knowledge is doubled. The role of information in current organization has transferred from peripheral and incidental to central and fundamental. Management is no longer supervising their employees, but instead is prioritizing feedback from the employees and therefore the function of the manager has shifted from pure decision making to information processing (Brunet-Thorton, 2010). Information society is characterized by the interconnection of information sources, the ease of transferring categorizing and saving information with the help of applied use of data digitalization. In the definition of information society has the large importance the fact that inner telecommunication structures are more and more dependent on outer telecommunication systems. An example of this interconnectedness can be the internet, which is for our society nearly indispensable. And therefore is enabling the impressive growth of communicational and informational business organizations. With the beginning of the 21st century we can observe strong globalization tendencies – huge networks if users, which are able to communicate and share information without the presence of third persons. This way the volume and amount of knowledge information and data is astonishingly expanding. The communication infrastructure is slowly becoming the infrastructure used for knowledge sharing. The information society is indirectly enabling smaller companies and businesses to get involved in global trade market. For accomplishing their business objectives, these companies can get advantage in using new paths for trading such as on time production and delivery, online publishing, teleworking and network based virtual teams. The rapid evolution of information-globalized market is supporting the transformation to perfect market – from the economical perspective. New businesses opportunities are emerging form these technology shortcuts. Specific examples from the present can be Google or Facebook, which have so far used the information globalization most prospectively. Information society can bring new paths to advance the economy and contribute to increasing the number of highly skilled jobs, but at the expense of reducing the number of working positions with lower or no qualifications. A key factor is the role of education and retraining of unskilled workers, especially in government and public administration. This is closely related to other difficulties emerging from information society – safety and protection of information. You will need to modify the legislation together with the development and emergence of new information technologies. The fight against cyber-crimes, data protection, information privacy, i.e., to prevent fraud with the certification authorities and prevent the spread of malicious code should be a top priority in the developing information society. 2 Data, Information, Knowledge We can define data as a â€Å"crude facts relating to things and events that have not been processed or organised† (Thorton, 2010). An example can be database filled with numbers. Without knowing the context – what the abbreviations describing each column mean we cannot get any information from these data. Another example can be a text in a foreign language. Without knowing this language we are not able to transform data (characters) into any information (meaning of whole words and sentences) and consequently we are not able to obtain any knowledge from this text. Data become information, when they havebeen manipulated permitting its meaning to be understood. (Thorton, 2010) One of the tons of definitions of knowledge is: â€Å"Knowledge is directly related to understanding and is gained through the interpretation of information. Knowledge enables us to interpret information i.e. derive meaning from data. The interpretation of meaning is framed by the perceiver’s knowledge.â€Å" (Mark Sharratt & Abel Usoro, 2003, p.188). The definition of knowledge management becomes more interesting then definition of knowledge, because of the various views on this term as Wilson points out (Wilson, 2002, What is ‘knowledge management’?, para. 1). Despite the recent lack of agreement on what is meant by knowledge management, the definitions of knowledge management aim at three core components of knowledge management: knowledge/information repositories, communities and networks and experts and knowers. (Chatti & Jarke & Frosch-Wilke, 2007, page 406) 3 Tacit explicit and implicit knowledge Wilson has also raised the question about explicit knowledge. He is literally asking the reader â€Å"Does it make any difference to the argument if, in the diagram, we replace â€Å"tacit knowledge† with â€Å"knowledge† and â€Å"explicit knowledge† with â€Å"information†?† He is not answering his question, so it may seem unanswered, but while reading the whole paragraph, which is quite critical to the established distinction between explicit knowledge and information, I stopped looking for the answer, because it quite evident that this question is just rhetorical. Other authors are fairly more specific about the term of explicit knowledge. One of the views is offering Stenmark: The fact that routines, procedures, rules, manuals, books, blueprints, and all the other examples given above are useful does not make it knowledge. They all need knowledge to be decoded and are therefore not knowledge but information, albeit interwoven with the knowledge required to create it. Knowledge, which remains tacit, is also needed to interpret the information. Although some argue that â€Å"knowledge† may be embedded in a text (e.g., a balance sheet where columns and totals have predefined meanings), the reader cannot appreciate it without bringing the required personal knowledge (2002, page 6). As a conclusion I think a can say that the term explicit knowledge can be used synonymously with information. 4 Knowledge in VSE courses In order to show the importance and purport of knowledge management I am presenting here the syllabuses of few courses from The University of Economics, Prague that engaged with knowledge. 4IZ210 – Information and Knowledge Processing Aims of the course: To familiarize students with basic methods for both information storage and retrieval, as well as for acquisition and processing of formalized knowledge. Furthermore, the aim is to highlight the interrelationship of these areas and outline anticipated developments. Learning outcomes and competences: Find and process information about companies and present the processed information, especially for analysis of the competitive environment. The emphasis is put on working with electronic information resources. Apply the selected method for knowledge discovery in databases on a given data and publish acquired knowledge to an expert. The emphasis is put on working with association rules. Understand the basic methods selected for processing information and knowledge within presented subjects. Course contents: The method for storing and retrieving information, methods of obtaining and processing of formalized knowledge, solving practical problems. (4IZ210 syllabus, n.d.) This course is dealing with all free levels of intelligence produced by humans: data information and knowledge. Student should be able to distinguish between these three easily and they should also be capable of transforming one to another. 3MA661 – Management of Knowledge Workers Aims of the course:Introduce students to modern tools and methods of management convenient for management of knowledge workers. Demonstrate those tools and methods in real life corporate situations. Learning outcomes and competences: distinguish between tacit and explicit dimension of knowledge, use basic tools for work with explicit and tacit knowledge, identify knowledge workers in organization and classify them to groups in relation to their importance for organization and style of work, manage and develop knowledge workers in relation to their personality type, manage personal development of knowledge workers, initiate and manage process of knowledge sharing among knowledge workers, create visions and get the support of knowledge workers for them. Aims of the course:Explain importance of knowledge for business and management. Present key concepts and processes of knowledge management and demonstrate them on case studies. Explain the term tacit knowledge and teach students to work with it. (3MA661 syllabus, n.d.) This syllabus is quite unspecific about specifying knowledge management tools used for managing knowledge workers. It seems, just from the text of this syllabus that this course is overlapping with majority of the topics with the Knowledge management course. 4SA320 Information Management Basics Aims of the course: Course offers basic theoretical background as well as practical application of information management. It presents information management as multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary science, which integrates knowledge in three areas – modern management, system approach and informatics. The content of the course accents global overview of the information society, its development and presents main topics of managerial work in conditions of actual information society. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to know the legal frame of information society in conditions of the CR, work with components of Integrated Management System, actively know how to use basics of knowledge management in the area of enterprise informatics. (4SA320 syllabus, n.d.) I absolved this course last year. From the syllabus it seems that student will have to do lots of with knowledge. So thought I, and although I wasn’t really able to tell much difference between information and knowledge, my expectations were aimed on knowledge – from my today’s point of view. But this course is purely focused on Information management. It peeks more into technological and legal fields than in management of knowledge itself. And as the last I would like to present not a course of The University of Economics, Prague but a student’s site called vseborec.cz. It’s not primarily a knowledge management tool, but rather an information sharing site. But from simple sharing site for student’s notes to lectures it has developed to a ‘database of student knowledge’. It’s quite interesting that has expanded to today’s proportions thanks to the sharing and unselfish naturel of students on a school which aim is to teach its student to compete and not to share. You can find out what will be the professor and his lectures like even before enlisting in the course. 5 Web searches analyse To support or refuse the formulation of Wilson that knowledge management is just a fad (2001, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 1) I made an analyse of web searches on Google in the period of the last six years. If the term ‘knowledge management’ is in the business world used just as a synonym for the term ‘information management’ the total amount of searches for the term’ knowledge management’ should be increasing to the prejudice of the term ‘information management’. The absolute amount of web searches for both, the information and knowledge management, has been obviously decreasing in the period of the years 2004 and 2007. The drop of searches is simultaneous for both of the terms, therefore we cannot say that knowledge management is replacing information management, at least in the sphere of web searching. Among the most popular places around the world for searching the term knowledge management in the period of last 12 months is leading South Africa followed by Kenya Malaysia and India. But in the year 2004 in the top ten places for web searching ‘Knowledge management’ we can find countries such as United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. The shift of popularity from western countries to African and Asian areas is evident. (Google Insights, 2010) Graph 1 Web search worldwide (Google Insights, 2010) This is the conclusion that has T.D. Wilson come up with: â€Å"The inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the ‘knowledge management’ idea is that it is, in large part, a management fad, promulgated mainly by certain consultancy companies, and the probability is that it will fade away like previous fads.†(Wilson, 2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, para. 1). And according to my web searches analysis it really looks like that knowledge management is just a fad. The interest in knowledge management has been decreasing for the last six years. But I think that this is only due to the acceptance of knowledge management as such in western cultures and the simultaneous inception of knowledge management awareness not just in business world but also at universities and in a public sector. And due to this conclusion I presume that the growth of interest in knowledge management in South Africa, Kenya, India, Malaysia and other south Asian and African countries is because of the lack of general awareness about knowledge management and not because of the late arrival of â€Å"fashionable knowledge management† to less developed countries. 6 Reasons of knowledge management popularity rocketing Wilson presented in his paper five arguments, why he thinks that knowledge management has been experiencing such a boom in the past decade. Here are they: First, and largely because of a fixation on internal organizational data, the term ‘information’ has become almost synonymous with data in the minds of organizational heads. For example, I’ve been told that the National Electronic Library for Health uses the term ‘Knowledge’ because in the NHS information=data and a different term was needed. We have to lay this, I think, at the feet of the information systems profession whose focus for years was data and data definitions, etc. In fact, they dealt not with information systems but with data systems. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 2) This is, of course, misinterpretation of data and information. If is somebody using this terms incorrectly in one organization, that doesn’t mean that everybody else should take these terms as synonyms. Information systems are by definition â€Å"computerized tools that assist people in transforming data into information† (DiBiase, 2008) but data systems are just groups of facts presented in a specific order (pixels forming a picture, radio waves broadcasted at one frequency). Secondly, and opportunely for the software houses and IT firms, ‘km’ came along just as they were being hit by the wave of scepticism over the possibility of IT ever delivering more than problems – and certainly never likely to deliver productivity and performance. ‘Whoops, we’ve cracked it!’ cried the IBMs and MSofts of this world – ‘We should have been dealing with ‘knowledge’ all along, and now we are – Lotus Notes is no l onger groupware and personal information management, it’s KnowledgeWare!’ So they are happily marketing the same product under a new name. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 3) As I mentioned earlier, the term knowledge management is on its raise, not because of marketing strategy of IT/ICT companies, but because of its popularity increasing with the needs for better entitlement of the information society. Thirdly, the organization and management boys finally began to realise that all this text that people were creating on word-processors, etc., needed to be managed effectively and, indeed, organized, shared and disseminated more effectively, but they couldn’t use ‘information management’ because that was ‘information systems’ and data, wasn’t it? So it must be ‘knowledge’, right? If we can only get people to share their ‘knowledge’ performance must improve because it is the communication barriers that are preventing the free flow of ‘knowledge’ (i.e., information). So, now, every aspect of organization and management theory has to have a ‘knowledge’ dimension, other wise you aren’t in the game. In the literature, of course, this amounts to the token use of the term ‘knowledge management’ and the use of ‘knowledge’ as a synonym for ‘information’. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 4) Knowledge shouldn’t be used synonymously with information and I hope that this is not happening, at least at academic level. Also Wilson is not differentiating between data and information system which definitions are noted above. Fourthly, at the forefront of all this were the management consultancies – why? Because BPR and Organizational Learning were running out of steam. Amusingly, all organizational learning work appears to come under the heading of ‘km’ – more search and replace marketing. So, the consultancies grabbed at km in order to have something to sell at the end of the 90s. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 5) The consultancies are always looking for the needs of business market and therefore they should be reflecting the needs of this market, at least to some point, so this point might be valid on a small extent of a scale. Finally, most (or at least many) departments of information management or information science, and departments of information systems in academia, are somewhat low on the totem pole in most of their institutions, and each needs to differentiate itself from the other in order to try to work its way up that greasy pole, so both have seized on km as an aid in the struggle. I foresee turf-wars over which department, where there is one of each, has the right to run degrees in km. Where only one of the kind exists, it will seek to make km all-embracing of management, computer science, information systems, etc., etc. – because the logic leads nowhere else 🙂 ‘If we deal with knowledge – then how can anyone else presume to do so?’ (Wilson, 2001, pa. 6) The logic of Wilson leads nowhere else, because that is exactly what knowledge management is about: people, culture, technology, processes. The knowledge management is closer with its aim to the management and organization and the departments of information management are rising from IT/ICT fields so the need to go up should be also emerging from management places and not from information management departments. 7 Conclusion With the development of new technologies in information and communication sector the new term ‘knowledge management’ has begun to be used in business sector. The term as such is not useless and meaning less as suggested by Wilson in his research. Wilson is asking the readers in the conclusion of his paper:†If getting promotion, or holding your job, or finding a new one is based on the knowledge you possess – what incentive is there to reveal that knowledge and share it?†(2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 2). And my answer to this probably rhetorical question is: Your working experience, your social and cultural background and most importantly your education. From all of these you can predict the amount of knowledge one possesses. Although it cannot be evaluated by any empirical measures, the existing society is surviving without these accurate measurements and surprisingly she is doing quite well. This is not to say that enabling people to contribute effectively to the management of organizations is impossible and that sharing knowledge and enabling people to use their creativity in innovative ways in organizations is impossible – simply that it is very difficult, and that it does not reduce to some simplistic concept of ‘knowledge management’! It demands a change in business culture, from the macho Harvard Business School model, to something more thoughtful and understanding of what motivates human beings. Organizations need to learn to think about problems, rather than grab at proffered ‘solutions’ – which often turn out to be expensive side-tracks away from the main issues (Wilson, 2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 3). And that’s why knowledge management isn’t just a simplistic concept. It includes tools from various fields such as and uses them for improvement of knowledge culture within the organization. The slight decrease in popularity of knowledge management in the last six years shows not the recess of knowledge management as a fad, but it rather shows the wide acceptance of knowledge management in the western society. The views presented by Wilson are shocking and very easy to understand and that’s why I find this view presented by Wilson too simplistic and demagogic to some extent. References 3MA661 – Management of Knowledge Workers FPH – WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=68577 4SA320 – Information Management – Basic FIS – WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=68886 4IZ210 – Information and Knowledge Processing FIS WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=69183 Brunet-Thorton, R. (2010) Knowledge management. Presented at The University of Economics, Prague 3MA624 Knowledge Mangement lecture. 11th November Chatti, M.A. and Jarke, M. and Frosch-Wilke, D (2007) The future of e-learning: a shift to knowledge networking and social software. Int. J. Knowledge and Learning, Vol. 3, Nos. 4/5, 2007 Retrieved from: http://cites eerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.141.3202&rep=rep1&type=pdf DiBiase, D. (2008) Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Glossary. Retrieved from: http://www.pasda.psu.edu/tutorials%5Coutreachglossary.asp Google Insights (2010) Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=knowledge%20management%2Cinformation%20management&cmpt=q Sharratt, M and Usoro, A. (2003). Understanding Knowledge-Sharing in Online communities of Practice. Page 188. Retrieved from: http://www.thestep.gr/trainmor/dat/%7B7a8f15e0-b7eb-404e-864a-ef0eb1403751%7D/article.pdf Stenmark, D. (2002), Information vs. Knowledge: The Role of intranets in Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii

Reverse Osmosis for Wastewater Recycling Essay

Reusing treated wastewater for beneficial purposes, such as agricultural and landscape irrigation, industrial processes, toilet flushing, or groundwater basin replenishment, is growing in response to environmental and economic concerns. One of the key factors involved in recycling wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent for another use is the need to reduce total dissolved solids (TDS). This is often done by using a reverse osmosis (RO) system, which relies on pressure differential to force a solution (in this case, water) through a membrane that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side. While extremely effective on biologically treated wastewater, RO systems need to be coupled with an effective pretreatment system to avoid common issues that can result in system failure, including plugging, fouling, and scaling. One of the most effective pretreatment options for wastewater applications is membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology, in which a membrane process like ultrafiltration (UF) or microfiltration is combined with a suspended growth bioreactor. MBR provides high quality feed water to the RO, minimizes footprint and the cost of civil works, and reduces treatment plant downtime, thereby reducing operating costs. Koch Membrane Systems’ PURON ® submerged MBR technology has successfully been used as the pretreatment option for challenging industrial and municipal water reuse RO systems, and can help make water recycling technologies more cost-effective. Reverse Osmosis Systems Present Challenges for Water Reuse Pretreatment methods are critical when designing RO systems. For example, RO membranes used for most water reuse applications contain a brine spacer, typically made of low density polyethylene mesh netting. If there is a high level of suspended solids in the feed water, this brine spacer can become plugged. Another issue is the high levels of organics contained in many biologically treated wastewaters, which are rejected by the RO membrane and progressively concentrated as the water flows across the membranes. This concentration of organics can foul the membrane, especially towards the RO system outlet. Biofouling can also occur, because the organics in wastewater make an excellent food source for microorganisms. Also, some treated wastewaters contain high levels of bacteria, so biogrowth may occur quickly even if RO feed water is disinfected. Finally, calcium phosphate scaling can cause problems with RO systems operating on some wastewaters. The scaling can be mitigated by operating at lower water recovery, using acid or other antiscalant to minimize scaling, or modifying the operating conditions of the WWTP to reduce the amount of phosphate in the RO feed. These plugging, fouling, and scaling issues mean that the RO system needs to be operated at higher pressures, leading to increased power consumption, increased chemical costs for cleaning, and a shorter membrane life. How can these challenges be minimized and overall water reuse system lifecycle costs reduced? Effective pretreatment of the feedwater before it flows through the RO system is the answer, provided that the pretreatment steps are chosen carefully to ensure that the RO system can work as intended. Reverse Osmosis Pretreatment Options There are many different pretreatment options, and the best for a particular process depends on power, chemical, labor and land costs, wastewater source, and the existing wastewater treatment system. Conventional Pretreatment The conventional effluent pretreatment scheme might be primary treatment, biological treatment and, the most crucial part of the process, solids-liquid separation using secondary clarification. The conventional sedimentation process often doesn’t remove enough bacteria and suspended solids, so sand filtration may be added to improve the solids-liquid separation and provide higher quality water to feed the RO system. Using ferric chloride along with the sand filtration may enhance solids and organics removal. However, upsets in the secondary clarifier can lead to effluent with higher levels of TSS and BOD, causing plugging of the brine spacer with suspended solids and organic fouling. Also, power consumption for RO systems with this type of pretreatment tends to be high, and membrane life is often quite short. Lime-softening has been somewhat more successful in protecting the RO membranes, but this increases operating costs and does not totally prevent fouling of RO membranes. Ultrafiltration Improves Suspended Solids Removal As RO Pretreatment Many of today’s water reuse systems use an ultrafiltration (UF) pretreatment step to emove suspended solids. These systems typically use hollow fiber UF membranes, which do an excellent job of providing water with low suspended solids to feed the RO system. However, the UF system is an extra treatment step, requiring additional footprint, and adding to operating costs. The UF system may also be susceptible to upsets from a conventional WWTP, which can further increase its operating costs. Membrane Bioreactor As RO Pretreatment With an MBR, the UF membranes are submerged in the activated sludge to combine the biological step and the solid-liquid separation into a single process. The membrane acts as a barrier, which improves the effluent quality. The MBR eliminates the secondary clarifier and does not rely on gravity for liquid-solids separation and so allows the activated sludge to operate with a higher mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration. The increased MLSS concentration reduces bioreactor tank volume, saving footprint and capital construction costs. Overall, the MBR process reduces footprint significantly compared to the combination of conventional activated sludge followed by sand filtration or ultrafiltration. The footprint savings due to the wastewater treatment plant alone can be as much as 50 percent, along with additional footprint savings from eliminating other filtration steps. Using MBR technology also simplifies the overall treatment train, minimizing the number of unit operations. Benefits Of Koch Membrane Systems’ PURON MBR Technology Koch Membrane Systems’ PURON submerged hollow fiber UF module offers robust, cost effective solutions for RO pretreatment. The patented membrane module contains hollow fibers, the lower ends of which are fixed in a header. The upper ends are individually sealed and are free to move laterally, as shown in Figure 1. The PURON module is submerged in the mixed liquor. All solids and particulates remain on the outside of the fibers while permeate flows in an outside-in pattern by means of a vacuum that evacuates permeate through the inside of the hollow fiber. | The free moving fibers, combined with central air scour aeration, ensure stable filtration during plant operation, long membrane life, and lower operating costs due to reduced need for energy, cleaning and maintenance. PURON MBR has been used successfully as the pretreatment step for a number of challenging industrial wastewater systems. For example, a Belgian firm that manufactures chemicals for film processing and printing uses large amounts of fresh water for cleaning and production. The firm began reusing its wastewater to reduce its fresh water costs, and selected an RO system to produce water with the low salt and nitrogen content required for its process. The firm installed a PURON submerged hollow fiber MBR as the pretreatment step prior to the RO, and the system has been operating successfully since 2005. Another example is an Australian malt-producing company that sought to reduce its use of fresh water by recycling its wastewater. PURON MBR technology was selected as the pretreatment step for the RO system, since it provided the best quality water to feed the RO while minimizing overall operating costs. The MegaMagnum ® RO system recovers the MBR effluent as product water for reuse. The system has been running since 2006. In fact, the RO permeate quality is equal to or better than the local potable water supply. Space & Cost Considerations Treatment operation footprint is a primary consideration in developing the best treatment system. Since the PURON MBR system reduces the volume of the bioreactor tanks and eliminates the secondary clarifier, the footprint for an MBR process is much smaller than tertiary filtration steps with sand filtration or UF. If space is limited, MBR may be the only pretreatment choice that fits in the available space. Other considerations include costs of land, civil works, equipment, power, chemicals and labor, and the payback period used. High land and civil costs tend to favor MBR use. For large municipal treatment facilities requiring RO as a final treatment step, an MBR should compare favorably to conventional wastewater treatment as a pretreatment step prior to RO. In a 20-year analysis the municipality should realize savings in RO membrane replacement and power as a result of the MBR pretreatment step. For an industrial company looking at a short payback, the preference for conventional or MBR technology will depend on the relative cost of civil works and land versus the equipment cost. Conclusions Using RO systems to reclaim and recycle wastewater effluent is growing rapidly, and Koch Membrane System’s PURON MBR technology is now being considered as the pretreatment option for an increasing number of industrial and municipal reuse applications. The PURON submerged membrane modules provide high quality feed water to the RO, minimize footprint and the cost of civil works, and reduce the susceptibility of the RO treatment train to upsets. PURON is a trademark of Koch Membrane Systems GmbH and is registered in Austria, Benelux, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. MegaMagnum is a registered trademark of Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Wastewater Recycling for the Stone Fabrication Industry As a stone fabricator you’re looking for a wastewater treatment system that keeps you in compliance, but wouldn’t it be nice to save some money too? That’s where our wastewater recycling and treatment systems come in. These zero discharge, closed loop systems collect the water you use for polishing, cutting, and other processes; cleans it thoroughly, and recycles it so you can use it again. Your wastewater is never discharged into the public system during this process, so you have no chance of being out of compliance. Between the money you’ll save on non-compliance fees and the reduced cost of your water bill, the return on your investment will be substantial. And because we use the most durable, well-designed components on the market in each wastewater recycling system, you can be sure this system will run efficiently for as long as you need it to. We even design and manufacture some of those components in house, including: * Filter presses * Clarifier systems * Chlorine dioxide generators * Control panels * More The solid, smart construction of our zero discharge wastewater recycling systems results in a wide variety of beneficial features, including automation options, expandable filter presses that can accommodate your business as it grows, the ability to accommodate flow rates for 10 GPM – 200 GPM, the ability to filter solids water down to below 1 micron, and more.

Applied Principles for Responsible Business Practice

Human resource management is used to describe the management of the people within an organization. There are various responsibilities that fall under the human resource management , which creates an efficient workforce environment for the organization. Human resource management is a â€Å"resource† centred phenomenon that deals in monitoring, planning and control of the people associate with the organization (Punch,   2013). In this report, we analyse the Australia and New Zealand banking group (ANZ), which is the fourth largest banking in Australia and the largest bank in New Zealand. The human resource management program of the ANZ bank would be conducted in the report, with more stress on the labour practices and the approaches towards the social responsibility of the company. The report analyses various steps that are taken by the organization, and thereby helps the organization in achieving the goals of the organization of achieving an ethical framework. ANZ bank believes in the natural strengths of a vivacious, diverse and comprehensive team   where the background, aim and experiences of a particular person helps the organization to form a stable relationship with the customers of the company. it helps in making better decisions for the business. the labour practices of the ANZ organization can be divided s follows : Values – ANZ values ensures â€Å"doing the right things well† (Chien, 2012). Their values describe the position of the organization which implements the ideas of not willing to compromise in any situation with the customers, shareholders, community and with each other. Along with the code of conduct and ethics, the company helps in organizing the value guide that helps in taking efficient decisions. Their values are to do what is right, to connect and work in unity in order to fulfil the wants of the customers, to make their actions useful enough , value every choice and respect the customers and each other and to give their best at work . Approach to human rights – ANZ performs various approaches that guides the methods of treating its employees, promote culture and respect to the customers and suppliers ,and contributing the communities in which is persists (Executive Strategies | ANZ. (2016). They sign a mandatory un global compact that initiates the guidelines for the ethical conduct towards its employees. They have generated their standards available for the employees in five different languages. Diversity and inclusion – ANZ has maintained a diverse environment at workplace by following various approaches towards the employees. Numerous policies and plans are initiated in order to uplift the welfare of its employees such as   employment opportunity, plans against harassment and bullying, flexible working, accommodation for the staffs, parenting ,eldercare and childcare facilities. Various approaches have also been initiated dealing with discouraging gender bias at workforce, promoting cultural diversity , increasing accessibility and flexibility towards the workers (David & David 2016). It aims at providing all the facilities to its employees that would raise the productivity of each labour. Health and safety policies – ANZ provides its labour with various health, safety, security and wellbeing policies   that would help the labours of the organization. They have implemented a health and safety management system (HSMS) to identify and formulate the wellbeing of the employees, customers, contractors and visitors ad members of the organization. A special employee assistance problem has been initiated by ANZ bank which deals with a confidential counselling service providing professional guidance and support to the labours. A risk accreditation framework has been formed as a part of ANZ essentials that helps the labours to identify their specific roles and requirements for training. Training and development – ANZ has   a team of highly respecting banking professionals that aims at fostering the labour for longer term and a culture of continuous and self directed learning. They offer their labours with various formal and informal ways to learn ,develop and grow. They are in collaboration with some leading training institutes that help the organization in training their labour for producing quality efficient work. ANZ provides their labour with high opportunities to develop in their career (Oke ,2016). Employee relations – ANZ bank provides its employees with the work environment that encourage the employees to express their ideas, opinions and concerns towards the organization. They motivate their employees to participate in the policies and proposals of the bank which initiates a long term success of the company. The company conduct an annual employment engagement survey that is reported to the management board of the bank. They provide their employees with the freedom   to get associated with the decisions to be taken by the company (Jones,   McEvoy   & Barrett 2016). These commitments of the company are formulated by the freedom of association policy. ANZ aims at treating its employees with dignity and respect. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) have dedicated themselves in supervising the environmental impacts of their activities   Ã‚  and social responsibilities that would reduce both environmental impacts and costs incurred by the organization (Brammer, Jackson & Matten 2012).   In order to pertain an ideal situation towards its approach to social responsibility, ANZ has attempted to undertake various measures that would help the bank to achieve their target. The approaches could be listed as follows : Responsible business lending – the bank finances many social and environmental sensitive companies . The organization help their customers by providing them with aid in order to overcome their difficulties , minimise and manage their impacts. As stated by Mondy, & Martocchio (2016), the organization focuses on making balanced decisions that are fully informed, in order to help their customers to improve the management of environment, society, and governance risks. They have developed a number of processes such as social and environmental screening tool, reputation risk radar, early alert review committee and reputation risk committee. Climate change – ANZ is implementing   various plans n meeting the social, environmental and economic challenges posted by climate change. The organization has stated that they aim in   fulfilling the international agreement to limit the average global temperature , to not more than 2 °c  .   They have submitted a recent statement to the Australian parliamentary inquiry, which states the framework dealing with consistent information regarding the matters of carbon risk reporting. They have formed a carbon working group in acquisition with three other Australian banks (Murray, Davis,   Hewson   & McNamee, 2014). Managing footprints – the organization aims at reducing the environmental impact of the operations carried out by the bank, by formulating innovation and efficiency. There are some major environmental impacts that are as a result of the growth of digital banking services, which uses an expanded technological infrastructure (Mathis, et al., 2016).   The bank develops solutions in order to reduce these environmental impacts along with the view of reducing the costs. They have implemented various plans that designs sustainable branches and thereby reduces the need of natural resources (Hendry 2012). Supply chain -    ANZ bank is currently operating in 34 markets that utilises an extensive supply chain. As the bank knows, that their activities are directed towards having a social and environmental impact, and that their stakeholders expects to be managed accurately, the bank has formulated some approaches accordingly. They have a group sourcing policy to undermine the behaviour of everyone thereby ensuring a fairer and safe   conduct. A sustainability guidelines list is maintained for the bank in specific categories of the it sector, motor vehicle ease , legal services, print services and corporate wardrobe. ANZ has an extensive supplier code of practise (SCOP), which sets out various expectations of the suppliers (Stockport , et al., 2012). Energy and carbon emission – ANZ keeps a check on the performance of their 34 markets by operating through an online environmental reporting system.   They conduct video conferencing   other techniques in order to educate its employees regarding the   efficient consumption   of energy consumption. They meet the requirements of national greenhouse and energy reporting act 2007 and thereby helps to sustain the environment.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The code of conduct and ethics, helps in organizing the value guide that helps in taking efficient decisions for the company  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The company sign a mandatory un global compact that initiates the guidelines for the ethical conduct towards its employees  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Numerous policies and plans are initiated such as   employment opportunity, plans against harassment and bullying, flexible working, accommodation for the staffs, parenting ,eldercare and childcare facilities.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They have implemented a Health and Safety Management System (HSMS) to identify and formulate the wellbeing of the employees, customers, contractors and visitors ad members of the organization.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They are in collaboration with some leading training institutes that help the organization in training their labour for producing quality efficient work  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They have implemented a health and safety management system (HSMS) to identify and formulate the wellbeing of the employees, customers, contractors and visitors ad members of the organization.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They provide their employees with the freedom   to get associated with the decisions to be taken by the company.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The organization help their customers by providing them with aid in order to overcome their difficulties , minimise and manage their impacts.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The organization has stated that they aim in   fulfilling the international agreement to limit the average global temperature , to not more than 2 °C  .  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The bank develops solutions in order to reduce these environmental impacts along with the view of reducing the costs.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   They have a group sourcing policy to undermine the behaviour of everyone thereby ensuring a fairer and safe   conduct. A sustainability guidelines list is maintained for the bank in specific categories of the IT sector, motor vehicle ease , legal services, print services and corporate wardrobe.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ANZ keeps a check on the performance of their 34 markets by operating through an online environmental reporting system.    ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Company practices off shoring, that involves shifting of the business from one country to another.Weaknesses  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The bank has no job security schemes for its employees, hence it results in firing its workers without any notice.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Less funding for the training program.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   More optimization for   social benefits and include development strategies.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Supplier need to see that the public image of ANZ has not   been tarnished.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Delay in formulating the plan of carbon emission.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Environmental effects are more than the remedies installed. Human resource management provides the company with the scope of analysing a responsible environment   around the workplace. With the detail analyses conducted over the labour practices and approaches towards the social responsibility of Australia and New Zealand banking group . Information regarding the various approaches proposed and perceived by the company has been discussed, that provides a clear view of what are the strengths and weaknesses of the organization with regard to the two elements of the human resource management. Brammer, S., Jackson, G., & Matten, D. (2012). Corporate social responsibility and institutional theory: New perspectives on private governance.  Socio-Economic Review,  10(1), 3-28. Chien, I. L. C. (2012). A Study of Foreign Bank Acquisition Strategy-The Case of ANZ Bank. David, F., & David, F. R. (2016). Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases. Executive Strategies | ANZ. (2016). Anz.com. Retrieved 22 September 2016, from https://www.anz.com/corporate/markets/structured-investments/executive-strategies/ Hendry, C. (2012).  Human resource management. Routledge. Jones, T., McEvoy, D., & Barrett, G. (2016). 5 Labour intensive practices in the.  Employment, the Small Firm and the Labour Market, 172. Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., Valentine, S. R., & Meglich, P. (2016).  Human resource management. Nelson Education. Mondy, R., & Martocchio, J. J. (2016). Human resource management.  Human Resource Management, Global Edition. Murray, D., Davis, K., Hewson, C., & McNamee, B. (2014). Financial System Inquiry.  Final Report. Canberra, The Treasury of the Commonwealth of Australia. Oke, L. (2016). Human Resources Management.  International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹ ISSN 2356-5926,  1(4), 376-387. Punch, K. F. (2013).  Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Sage. Stockport, G. J., Godley, M., Guagliado, D., Leung, O., Mercer, B., Varma, G., & Wong, S. (2012). ANZ Bank: Building a strategy for Asia.  South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases,  1(1), 31-41.

Farm Credit System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Farm Credit System - Essay Example To present day, this system has continually serve the farmers and also prolonged its dominancy source in terms of long term farm debt. Statistics indicate that this dominant force has grown continually from 20 percent of real estate farm debt to 40 percent from a presided long period of time thus from 1960- 2006 (Bitter and Gordon 45). It is important to have knowledge of its consumer base which includes farmers, various producers of aquatic products, ranchers, select rural communications and energy companies, agricultural cooperatives, rural homeowners including other eligible entities as a whole. History The farm credit system can basically be described as a nationwide network of various cooperative banks including other associations that are capable of providing credit to farmers. They are also capable of attending agricultural concerns including various related business. It was created in 1916 by the United States parliament and the federal government supported it by funding it. This ensured that the American agriculture had at least a dependable source of revenue or credit. At the moment, it is now independent and self funding since it is owned by member borrower. The farm credit system has undergone several rounds changes in its structure that has dated back since its inception in Roosevelt era of administration. Trough creation of federal land banks in an estimated area of about 12 regions in the United States, the federal farm loan act developed a credit delivery system to the large agricultural sector. A kind of a fund chain was developed where the land banks provided funds to the regional banks including associations. The regional banks were then supposed to support farmers by providing them with long term mortgage thus financing them in their various projects. The farm credit act of 1933 born during the great depression period was imposed to booster agricultural production. This was by simply funneling short term credits thus by the 12 production cre dit associations incorporated by 13 bank capable of supporting agricultural cooperatives (Bitter and Gordon 48). The emergency farm mortgage act was mobilized to refund the FLBs to stand as a help package for farmers who were facing foreclosures including debt complications. In 1987, every credit agency existing was transformed to a farm credit administration. Economic Impact The farm credit system provides loans for a variety of purposes. This includes funding agricultural processing including other market activities, farm related businesses, rural housing initiatives, rural utilities including both foreign and domestic companies that are involved in the agricultural trade. It also provides access to various critically required rural areas where national including regional banks control. It has also abandoned it intended mission as it consolidates into one of the largest headquartered scores. This is through distancing itself from farmers including the ranchers they are supposed to primarily serve. In fact, the traditional notion of a cooperative which is member ran for the purpose of benefiting members gives away to one administration. This is through hired managers intends on structuring GSE empires as long as FCS associations continues to grow (Zachman 32). This empire building has led to the abandonment of the intended mission by the farm credit system instead led to a different direction of focusing on large borrowers. This is at the expense of serving YBS farmers thus termed as the little guy of the American culture. The farm system associations now consolidate a huge association which is directly more to their marketing efforts. This is intended towards making bigger and more profitable loans on large scale

No topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

No topic - Essay Example Princes saw a chance to secure authority at the expense of the Catholic Holy Roman emperor. The Catholic Church was unable to restore unity though much of the emperor remained under its power. Furthermore, there were protestant and catholic quarrels which led to a series of religious wars during 16thC and 17thC. When regarding politics, the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) pitted Swedish and German Protestants against the holy Roman emperor and Spain. For a full century German authority and prosperity did not recover. Rulers and cities were permitted by the peace settlement to choose their official religion. It also provided the protestant Netherlands independence from Spain (Hunt et al., 529). During the 17thC, religion was a significant issue in English civil strife, most Protestants gained toleration apart from Catholics. The European power balance and political structure was affected by the wars. France gained authority; England and Netherlands developed global trade while Spain lost supremacy. Some rulers benefited from the fall of papal power even though protestant theory encouraged parliamentary authority in some states. In general, popular attitudes changed as people became less probable to recognize a link between god and nature. Religion and day-to-day life were viewed as separate (Hunt et al., 576). Greater stress to family life; love among spouses was encouraged as religious changed. Nevertheless, when covenants were abolished by Protestants women had lesser alternatives if unmarried. Lastly, literacy spread more

Early Childhood Education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Early Childhood Education - Assignment Example A teacher who does not appreciate children of these ages may not have the patience to be effective and efficient. I do not think there were questions I would have worded differently. The questions were very direct. Based on her answers, the interviewee showed a very clear understanding of what was asked. She was able to tell me about her experience in teaching young children, how she coped up with their social and emotional needs, how she would manage a class smoothly and how she would incorporate cultural diversity in her classroom. I found her answers appropriate to the questions and informative about the type of educator she is. In this assignment, I was to act as a director who had to find suitable teachers for my very young impressionable students. As early childhood educators, I wanted to ensure the applicants were up to the task of shaping children at the most crucial stage of learning. The assignment was very rewarding because it made me realize how important our work is.

Taxation and growth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Taxation and growth - Essay Example widespread drop in spending or decrease in demand, and the economy faces a lot of inflation that is the general increase in the prices of all goods in the economy. This affects the level of growth in such an economy since most of the income is used on consumption and very little is spent on growth and development. Therefore, the level of growth declines significantly. This can be reversed during economic recovery by use of fiscal policy. This is where the government uses taxation or fiscal policy measures to be able to control the economy (Barro & Gordon, 1984). U.K experienced an economic recession between 1998 and 2012. This was stimulated by the worldwide inflation that was affecting the economy in terms of prices of goods. The government of U.K adopted the use of tax policies to be able to gain economic recovery and growth. Increasing demand is a tool for short-term recovery. This can be done through reduction of consumption taxes. In return, people will spend more hence; there will be an increase in demand, which will stimulate business in the economy. Hence, economic recovery in the short run will be achieved. Increasing the supply in the economy would stimulate long-term economic recovery. This can be done through reducing the taxes for inputs and raw materials that will make them cheaper to stimulate supply. This will therefore lead to increased supply in the economy since suppliers can be able to buy more goods to supply their goods to the market, which leads to economic growth through trade. Low-income earners have very little disposable income. If the government would reduce their taxes, the little income that would be saved would stimulate demand and hence help the economy recover from recession. This is because low-income earners have little to save and to invest meaning that most of their income is used to buy basic commodities. As a result, demand increases and the economy grows significantly. Consumption is a daily activity for every person.

Harassment Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Harassment Policy - Essay Example The protected categories include race, nationality, creed, color, sex (including sexual harassment and pregnancy), ancestry, marital status, mental or physical disability and also liability for military service. The law against discrimination forbids deliberate discrimination based on the mentioned characteristics. Deliberate discrimination may be in the form of conducts and statements that reveal discrimination bias or animus or differential treatment. Sexual Harassment This is an illegal behavior of a sexual nature that a person in power or authority uses to get sexual favors or any other physical harassment associated with sex. Anybody can be a harasser regardless of the position held within the organization, be it top most or junior employees. The organization has to devise some ways of curbing this menace so as to allow conducive environment for all employees. It has been known that sexual harassment denies people active economic and social participation and has cost a lot of mo ney in educating people to curb this menace (Paludi, 2008). This vice comes in different forms, e.g., sexual bribery, mainly called â€Å"something for something,† and hostile work place. It is worth knowing the circumstances that may gear the rise of the harassment at a place of work and possible ways in which the casualties are affected. For instance, few women at the work place and a poor mode of dressing are some of the ways that may promote sexual harassment. Sexual harassment has negative effects on the victim. It influences one’s psychological state of mind, stress and even makes one feel inferior. For this purpose, it is mandatory for all employees to be aware of the repercussions of this vice. The institution is governed by laws that should be followed. Any form of this vice is not tolerated at the work place. Any victim should report to the authority immediately stating the incident for an affirmative action to be taken. This is to remind you take note of the areas that may initiate the harassment and obey the work ethics. Severe punishment will be imposed on anybody found guilty. This will lead to imprisonment and loss of job. Wage and Salary Legislation According to the policy, salaries and wages are to be paid in monetary form with the consent of both the employer and employee. The payment can be deposited in the bank, cash or even through the bank cheques. The laws allow all employees to receive their payments accordingly to what they have labored for unless both the employer and employee agree otherwise. Therefore, it is wise to put such agreement in paper. Nevertheless, the policy does not state the frequency of payment for employees but depends on the agreement of employer and employee. For the wages, employees can request for any alteration in writing. If the employee requests his/her employer for payment, it should be done within two weeks from the day of receiving the notice. In summary: 1. Should the employee request for paym ent, the boss should conform. 2. Both the employee and employer should agree on the payment mode. 3. Should the employee disagree with the boss on the terms of payment, then the employee should be paid in money. 4. The employees are entitled to be paid their salaries and wages. The organization has put down legal procedures to follow in case of any complaint. Recruitment This is selecting, screening and attracting competent people to a job. The organization has put down legal procedures to undergo the process. They include analysis of the type of work

HR 499 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HR 499 - Article Example 1. What is beriberi? (Hint: see paragraph above and your notes from the PowerPoint slides). Beri-beri is a disease caused by a thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. Symptoms include weight loss, weakness, fatigue, muscle pain, nervous disorders, diarrhea, and irregular heart rate. 2. What was the health problem and when and where did it occur? During the year 1905 in the lunatic asylum of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a beri-beri epidemic broke out. 3. Describe the experiment in your own words. What year did the experiment start, how long did it last, who were the study subjects, what steps were taken during the experiment (methodology)? The experiment began on Dec. 5, 1905, and ended a little over a year later—Dec. 31, 1906. Patients at the lunatic asylum in Kuala Lumpur were randomly divided into two groups. After counting off, the odd numbered patients became the control group, and the even numbered patients became the experimental group. Both groups had identical housing, but they w ere separated from one another. Both groups also were given the same diets except for the type of rice. The control group continued to receive white (uncured) rice as the entire population of the asylum had been given in the past. The experimental group, however, received brown (cured rice). Both groups were tested for edema and their knee-jerk response at the outset of the experiment. 4.

Cultural struggle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cultural struggle - Essay Example Buy writing Mother Tongue, Amy Tan draws the readers’ attention by giving a reflection of people’s perception that the type and quality of English spoken by an individual represents one’s state of mind. She â€Å"†¦believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect† (Tan). Through her statements, readers get to understand that Tan used to look down on her mother due to the quality of English she was using. Further reading Mother Tongue reveals that Amy’s mom is an uneducated woman from China and does not comprehend Standard English. She used to request Amy to make phone calls on her behalf. Amy says that â€Å"she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she †¦ a call to her brokers in New York. I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, ‘This is Mrs. Tan.’. The mother as ked Amy to contact the stockbroker and pretend to be her. She, therefore, went ahead to talk to the stockbrokers by paraphrasing her mother’s jumbled sentences into understandable and meaningful statements, to the stockbrokers.Similar captivating information can be derived from the essay Two Kinds, by Amy Tan. In Two Kinds Amy Tan demonstrates that humans carry traumas of their past into their future by dredging them up either intentionally or unconsciously. She uses a Chinese narrator to bring out constant struggles that people go through while trying to find out better understanding and way of existence.

Abuse in the Novel Beloved Essay Example for Free

Abuse in the Novel Beloved Essay Many of the characters from the novel Beloved suffered extreme abuse. Sethe, an independent mother, was no exception to the abuse. Sethe survived through many different accounts of mistreatment. The school teacher’s nephews made Sethe suffer the cruelest oppression. They held her down against her will, while she was pregnant, and brutally stole the milk that her body was producing for her child. This is the worst pain for Sethe because, besides the obvious obtrusions, she feared she would not be able to provide for her baby after it was born. A mother’s worst fear is being unable to provide for her children and this is the fear they instilled in her. This was not the end of the violence toward Sethe from these[insert a word that means a group of abusers here]. When the school teacher founds out that Sethe tells of the mistreatment she suffered because of his nephews he orders them to whip her. Sethe is brutally beaten by this group of young men. The result of the merciless beaten is a form of large scars that shape a tree on Sethe’s back. The tree may be a symbol of a family tree, and in Sethe’s case an incomplete family tree. Sethe’s family tree is incomplete because she killed her daughter, Beloved. The ghost of Sethe’s murdered daughter, Beloved, haunts the house where Sethe and the rest of her family live. The ghost torments them enough to drives away Sethe’s two sons, Howard and Buglar. Sethe undergoes torment from almost every possible angle but she refuses to run away any more.

Behaviourist Learning Theory Directed Nursing Practice Nursing Essay

Behaviourist Learning Theory Directed Nursing Practice Nursing Essay According to professional standards of the College of Nursing of Ontario, the leadership expectation is not limited to nurses who are in formal leadership positions; all nurses, no matter of what kind the positions they are, have obligation to demonstrate leadership. Leadership requires knowledge to understand not only our own beliefs, values and behaviour affecting others, but also others beliefs, and values to build respect, trust, and integrity in a health care team. This course requires students choose a theoretical framework to guide developing a learning plan, and then applying the theory to a practice project for the purpose of expanding their perspective of nursing practice as an independent thinkers in the organizational or global level of hospital or community setting. My project report will review and analyze how behaviourist learning theory (BLT) directs my learning activities in clinical practice as an independent thinker to prepare myself in optimizing my future nursing practice. It includes two components: knowledge and application. The knowledge component will involve reviewing and comparing relevant content about the correlation between the generations of nursing workforce and choice of leadership style from five recent scholarly articles, identifying their strength and limitation, as well as guiding my nursing practice to achieve my learning goals. The application component includes how the acquired knowledge was utilized to guide my critical thinking process for figuring out the true reality of correlation in working setting between the generations of nursing workforce and choice of leadership style, as well as the challenges I have experienced. Knowledge Component BLT views learning as the product of the stimulant conditions and the response; its focus is mainly on what is directly observable. Behaviourist may closely observe responses and then manipulate the environment to triage more desired stimulus to bring the intended change (Bastable, 2008, p. 54). That is the inspiration I choose the stimulant conditions different choice of leadership style from different generation of nursing workforces in my questionnaire survey project, and the response my learning outcome from the project, as the core concept from BLT as literature research topic to acquire related knowledge and apply it to my project about the correlation between generational diversity and choice of leadership in my clinical placement setting. Literature Review / Five Relevant scholarly Articles In her article, Hahn (2009) clearly realized todays reality is that nursing workforce is made up of multigenerational staff. Nursing managers and their team members might hold different attitudes, beliefs, work ethics, and job expectations. The generation gap increases and creates more opportunities for misunderstanding and conflict. For both leaders and team members, the understanding generational differences would benefit in creating strength and opportunity or a source of stifling stress and conflict. How to deal with the challenge from the multigenerational diversity and develop a highly functioning and cohesive nursing team are current focuses for the nurse manager to be an effective leader. Although Hahn did not directly explain which leadership style would fit current workforce situation, the suggested strategies in her article for managers to effectively manage a multigenerational team indicate the transformational leadership to be the choice as an effective leader. Her argum ent was supported by previous researches done by Ulrich (2001), Zemke, Raines and Filipczak (2001). According to the research done by Cummings, MacGregor, Davey, Lee, Wong and Lo, et al (2010), some forms of leadership might be possible to lead to negative outcomes. They made their research from 10 electronic databases that include 53 published quantitative studies, then used content analysis to analyze these studies; 64 outcomes emerged from their analysis were classified into five categories: (1) work environment factors, (2) productivity and effectiveness, (3) staff relationships with work, (4) staff satisfaction with work, role and pay, and (5) staff health and wellbeing. Their research found the leadership styles that focused on people and relationships, such as transformational, resonant, supportive, and consideration, were reported in 24 studies, which were associated with higher nurse job satisfaction; whereas the leadership styles that focused on tasks, such as dissonant, instrumental and management by exception, were reported in 10 studies, which were associated with lowe r nurse job satisfaction. Therefore, they concluded that the leadership that focused on task completion alone is not sufficient to achieve optimum outcomes for the nursing workforce; transformational and relational leadership are needed to enhance nurse satisfaction, recruitment, retention, and healthy work environments, particularly in this current multigenerational workforce. Differently, Stanley (2008, 2010) argued that congruent leadership will be the one that can facilitate greater effectiveness when dealing with generational issues. Because this approach of leadership rests on the leaders values and beliefs that are demonstrated on leaders role modelling of their personal nursing / health care or organizational values; the actions of this leadership style are matched (or are congruent) with followers values and beliefs when dealing with multigenerational employees. Followers who have the same or similar values will support and follow these leaders because of their own values alignment. While realizing the difference of values and beliefs that are truly existed between the generational groups, Stanley emphasized that leaders core nursing / health care values are likely to offer significant common ground for this leadership approach to ensure it will be employed successfully. Kowalski, Bradley and Pappas research (2006) seems to be in a supportive posit ion to Stanleys argument. In her article, from the efficiency and positive outcome of management in a health care organization, Robbins and Davidhizar (2007) articulated there is a direct link between leadership style and staff retention, satisfaction and patient satisfaction. Currently, the changing faces in health care workforces pushes the management of nursing on the edge of the change in management strategy using effective and appropriate leadership to prompt greater success in gaining and maintaining staff satisfaction, staff retention, and then, in long run, improving patient satisfaction. Staff retention and satisfaction are the driving forces for achieving the patient satisfaction. Comparing with transactional leadership in leadership strategy, mission and vision, communication, relationship-building, they argued that transformational leadership is more effective in gaining and maintaining staff satisfaction, retention, and patient satisfaction in health care organizations. Poor leadership on a nursi ng unit leads to unhappy, unmotivated, and less dedicated staff. The underlying fundamental is that a transformational leader has the ability to effectively communicate the vision, mission, and empower nursing staff, which in turn build and promotes a healthy working environment for the entire team. Generally, Arsenault (2004) realized that todays workforce is more diverse than ever. There are many diverse issues. One of them is generational differences, which is created by a shared collective field of emotions, attitudes, preferences, and dispositions. Relatively, the differences in the unique attitudes, values, and beliefs of each generation determines how each generation views leadership, and ranks admired leadership characteristics, which correlates to their choice in leadership style and favourite leaders. He concluded that generational differences are a legitimate diversity issue that must be recognized and understood by organizations and needs to be addressed in developing current and future leaders. The leaders of organizations need to recognize and understand that a unique persona, which is developed from generational difference and already translated into a mind-set that demonstrated in different emotions, attitudes, beliefs, values, preferences, and embodied activitie s in working setting. Accordingly, this mind-set creates differences in leadership style how a person of a generation will lead or how they prefer to be led. In summary, five researches reached the common port, that is, the generational diversity is a current issue in workforce that organization and leaders must recognize and understand in designing effective and productive leadership strategy and style in creating a healthy working environment. However, for what is the correlation between generations and choice of leadership style, Stanley (2008, 2010)s articles reached his unique port; it argued the congruent leadership will be the one that can facilitate greater effectiveness when dealing with generational issues. The research done Cummings, MacGregor, Davey, Lee, Wong and Lo, et al (2010) clearly reached the conclusion that transformational and relational leadership styles will enhance nurse satisfaction, recruitment, retention, and healthy work environments in todays multigenerational workforce; because their research was based on extensive search of related database, so their conclusion derived from the evidence-based literature rev iew is highly credential and statistically significant. Also, Hahn (2009) and Robbins and Davidhizar (2007) generally articulated the nursing leaders should take transformational leadership as the core concept of their management, but their articles do not show strong evidence to support their argument. Arsenaults article emphasized the generational diversity of workforces and its impact on leadership, but he actually did not figure out which leadership could be the effective in current working environment. Summary of Behaviourist Learning Theory (BLT) According to Bastables book (2008, p.54-55), whether dealing with animals or people, BLT views the learning process as a relatively simple chain or cycle; the focus of BLT is mainly on the phenomenon that is directly observable stimulus conditions and the associations formed in the learning process; the learning process is understood as the product of the stimulus from the environment and the responses. In order to enhance the learning process leading to the desired result, behaviourists or learners can closely observe and manipulate the environment by utilizing operant conditioning techniques of positive or negative reinforcement (Skinner, 1974, 1989) to increase or decrease the stimulus, thus, to reinforce or decrease the responses to bring about the intended change. Plan of Implementation Based on my learning goal (see appendix A), I applied the acquired knowledge of BLT to my learning process through a survey project about the generational difference in the perceptive response in their admiring leadership style based on their different emotions, attitudes, beliefs, values, working ethics, preferences, and embodied activities in working setting. Each answer to the survey questionnaire is one of the stimuli for my learning process. What I learned form the project is the response of the learning process. I designed a survey questionnaire (see appendix B) about the correlation between generational difference and choice of leadership styles, randomly distributed to 55 staff in two medicine units of two hospitals, and 53 responses has been collected; the statistically valid representative sampling size is 96.36%. Statistical analysis on the response has been done (Table 1). Poster presentation (Appendix C) has been presented in my clinical placement unit for feedback. Application Component The Rationale of Choosing Behaviourist Learning Theory (BLT) BLT suggests the learning process is the product of the stimulus from the environment and the responses to the stimulus; it views the learning process as a reoccurring chain or cycle between stimulus and response through operant conditioning techniques of positively or negatively enhancing stimulus. Learning will occur while the stimulus is positively or negatively enhanced. Such a theoretic framework can be applied to health teaching process (Bastable, 2008, p. 54-60). The designation for students project from the course outline is about the learning from the project about a nursing issue in a global or organizational level of a hospital or community setting. Based on the acquired knowledge from BLT, my intention of my project design is to view the responses from the survey as stimulus for my learning about the choice on leadership style in a health care team staff would be either as a leader or a team member. Each response is one of the stimuli for my learning. More choice selecti vely occurred on one particular leadership style will become an enhanced stimulus for my learning that will give me the idea of which leadership is most admired in current health care team. In my future career, I would work as either a team member or a team leader; I have to prepare my self to be knowledgeable for these two roles. I am trying to apply BLT to my self teaching and self learning process. Actually, teaching and learning are the two phases of one process. Summary of the Process Involved in Applying BLT From the literature review, the generational difference in the perceptive response in their admiring leadership style based on their different emotions, attitudes, beliefs, values, working ethics, preferences, and embodied activities in working setting was found (Stanley, 2008, 2010; Arsenault, 2004; Weston, 2006; Kramer, 2010; Swearingen Liberman, 2004; Robbins and Davidhizar, 2007; Hahn, 2009; Cummings, MacGregor, Davey, Lee, Wong and Lo, et al, 2010). Based on this finding, my project designed a survey questionnaire to ask two questions: (1) what is your generation? (2) transactional or transformational leader: which one you would like to be or prefer? The answers to these two questions will give me two kinds of information: what is the content of current workforces and what kind of leadership style is admired more in the working setting. The answer for each respondent could be viewed as one of the stimuli for my response my learning result for my future choice of leadership in future career. 55 copies of questioner were randomly distributed to health care team of two medicine units of two hospitals, including nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, manager, nursing educators, and unit supervisors / coordinators, clinical instructor, and nursing students. 53 copies of responses have been collected. Data has been coded and statistically analysed. The percentage of each generation in the health care teams, and the percentage of selecting transactional or transformational leader from each generation, and from the total sampling were calculated. The finding demonstrates the transformational leadership style is admired most in current working setting. This finding has been supported from the literature review of this report above. Discussion of how Gained Knowledge was Integrated into Learning Process The major components of stimulus and response of BLT were used in my learning process. Before my project survey, I had qualitative idea about the generational difference in beliefs, values, employment expectation, working ethics and orientation, but no quantitative idea about such difference, and no idea about how much their difference was in choosing working sett leadership style. Through the survey, I get the idea about how much each generation constitutes the content of health care workforce in these two units: Veterans are retired, Baby Boomers is 19%, Generation X is 53%, and Generation Y is 28%; the generation X and Y already constitutes 81% of the workforces. Among 10 answers from Baby Boomers, 2 answers chose transactional leader (20% of the generation), 8 answers chose transformational leader (80% of the generation); among 28 answers from Generation X, 4 answers chose transactional leader (14.3% of the generation), 24 answers chose transformational leader (85.7% of the gener ation); among 15 answers from Generation Y, 1 answer chose transactional leader (6.7% of the generation), 14 answers chose transformational leader (93.3% of the generation). Among the total samplings, 86.8% of answers chose transformational leader, only 13.2% of answer chose transactional leader. The finding also shows a trend of the major choices from each generation on the leadership style: from Baby Boomers to Generation Y, the percentage of the responses decreases in choosing transactional leader, and percentage increases in choosing transformational leader. It clearly demonstrates the significant difference between generations in admiring leadership style based on their different emotions, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, and embodied activities in working setting. The information analysed and concluded from the survey is the wanted stimulus for my learning it gives me the idea which leadership style could be effective and productive in a health care working environment. The m ultiple kinds of information obtained from the survey like the enhanced stimulus positively manipulated by behaviourist to strengthen my response in advocating transformational leadership as the style I will choose to be my favourite one in working environment. Challenge Encountered and Related Management Because my project about learning process involves the questioner survey, the challenge comes from the design and implementation of the survey process. The first challenge is the survey of this project is not a formal and academic survey. It is an anonymous mock survey. It does not involve in any interesting conflict and retain any private information about responders name, exact age, and gender, etc. Its purpose is limited to get the true information about the leadership style choice from different generation in the real working setting for my personal clinical learning process. So, it was not submitted to university ethics committee to seek pre-approval. The management strategy is anonymous survey and keeping the survey result within the learning process of this course. The second challenge is the design of the questioner survey. As a student project, there is no funding for rewarding the participants. Staff are busying with daily assignment and dont have spare time and compassion to answer too complicated questioner. The management strategy is to simplify the questionnaire design as much as possible, but it is still remained in detail enough to collect enough information to meet my learning goal. The third challenge is the limitation of sampling size. As a student project, it is impossible to have adequate time and financial resource to take survey in multiple units of multiple health care facilities. The management strategy is to utilize the chance of my working unit at another hospital and clinical placement unit at St. Michaels hospital to take my survey so that the sampling process will be more statistically valid and the finding will be more statistically representative from the limited sampling size. Outcome of the Project and Evaluation The outcome of the project is the finding of my survey truly demonstrates the generational difference in choosing leadership style in real working environment, which is supported from the literature review. The outcome of the project also reached my learning goal of this project: it uncovers the reality of generational difference in choosing leadership style and future trend in real working environment; and the finding is strong enough as enhanced stimulus to my response in my learning process based on BLT. Evaluation Criteria of Self-Evaluation of Learning Plan and Planning Change In my learning plan, the criterion of self-evaluation for knowledge component was set up as: able to select a specific theoretical model of leadership style based on current nursing environment. To better reflecting the learning experience from the project, I will modify it as: able to select related scholarly publication and a particular theoretical framework of leadership style based on current nursing working environment for literature review to acquire knowledge in guiding my learning process and practice project. For application component, the criterion of self-evaluation was set up as: able to develop questionnaires of assessing staff nurses values, beliefs and expectation on their choice of leadership style. To better reflecting the learning experience from the project, I will modify it as: (1) able to develop questionnaires of assessing staff nurses values, beliefs and expectation on their choice of leadership style; and (2) able to analyze the survey result and figure out the significant finding. Personal Growth and Development Before this clinical placement, I did have general idea about the generational difference in emotions, attitudes, beliefs, values, preferences, and embodied activities in working setting. However, I did not have clear idea about the generational difference in choosing leadership style in real working environment. Through applying BLT to assess staffs values, beliefs, expectation, attitude about the employment and work-life quality, and expectation of each generation on their choice of leadership style within the multiple generational cohorts, I found (1) current health care workforces is a three generation cohort, not a four generation cohort that was articulated in most of previous literatures, because Veteran generation is retired already; (2) from Baby Boomers to generation X and Y, the percentage of staff who choose transactional leadership style is linearly decreasing, the percentage of staff who choose transformational leadership style is linearly increasing; (3) presently, gen eration X is the majority in health care workforce, and generation Y is in the second place; in these two generations, the percentage of staff who chose transformational leadership style is 86% and 93%, which releases a clear information that transformational leadership style will work better for them. Totally, the outcome of the project tells me that in my future career, either as a team member or a team leader, transformational leadership was the style I should choose to work comparatively in a team or lead a team effectively. Conclusion According to the learning objective and teaching strategy of this course, a learning plan and practice project plan were developed based on the chosen theoretic framework. The project of survey was implemented in two medicine units of two hospitals. The survey result was statistically analysed and poster presentation was presented in the clinical placement unit. This report summarizes the acquired knowledge through the reviewing of five scholarly articles and the chosen theoretic framework, discussed the rationale on theoretic framework choosing, and the major concepts of BLT stimulus and response, which have been applied in my learning process. Also, the outcome of the project, experienced challenges, possible personal growth and development obtained from the project are discussed.

Aqualisa Quartz Showers Market and Business Analysis

Aqualisa Quartz Showers Market and Business Analysis 1 Introduction/Case study analysis Aqualisa quartz shower, the top, state of the art product of the Aqualisa, was launched in May 2001. Quartz was the result of the intense market research, fantastic piece of technology and design. The compatibility, ease of installation and reliability were popular among the plumbers while the beautiful design, stability of temperature and good pressure made it ideal for the consumers. Unexpectedly, despite of the Quartzs fantastic features, it did not get the overwhelming success that Aqualisa expected. 2 Consumer Behaviour The consumer behaviour with regards to its purchase of shower in UK was somewhat complex and problematic. Only 60% homes had showers. Gravity-fed plumbing meant slow water pressure (3 to 4 litters per min). Varying temperature was also a problem. The individual consumer market had various priorities (see the table (a) below).44% of UK market for shower was replacement shower. So there was a demand for durability. Similarly the do-it-yourself consumer was keener on convenience as well as value of the product. Property developers wanted a product which they could use in their developing properties which should not only be cheap but stylish and long lasting as well. The plumbers played very important role in the selection of showers for the consumers. Individual consumer market fell into three pricing segments Segments Shop from Priorities Premium Showrooms Quality and design Standard Plumber recommendations Quality and durability Value Plumber selection Convenience and price Table a Do It Yourselfers proffered to buy showers from BQ style chains, which were easy to install, despite of being bulky, within a day without any help. The property developers needed stylish an attractive design, cheap and which would work in multiple setting. Showermax was designed for them which were very popular among them. The plumbers preferred the apparatus with which they were familiar to avoid repeat plumbing. The lack of trust in electric shower because of previous failure made them sceptical about electric showers. 2.1 Market Players their Strategies In the UK the main players in terms of market share were Triton, Mira, Gainsborough, Aqualisa and Masco with 545,500, 390,000, 203,500, 122,000 and 120,000 sold units respectively.* Tritons simple strategy was to create awareness at consumer level. This strategy gave them an edge and as a result more trust was developed in the product. They had range of all three kinds of shower e.g. electric shower, mixer shower and power showers, so targeting several segments. The distribution of the products of particularly Triton and Mira, in all distribution channels was exceptionally well. 2.2 Swot Analysis The following is the swat analysis of the Aqualisa Quarts. Strengths 5% to 10% market growth High tech products Showers with better water pressures than the competitors Brilliant, researched based designs Innovative products(e.g. Quartz) No 2 in mixing valve and 3 in over all UK market. Good service provider Popular in plumbers Elegant designs and Clever products Weakness 10% products still goes faulty Should be available in up to 90% of trade shop, show rooms and out lets. Weak marketing strategy for Quarts as the sale forces for Aqualisa spends 90% of time on maintaining existing account while the 10% on developing new customers Opportunities brand awareness Maximum sales and profits in case of Quartz success. Market leaders in innovative showers products Road to new inventions and ideas Leave the competitors behind Threats Other competitors catching up to Aqualisas product quality Perception of the product as overpriced Too much focus on innovation thus spending more money on inventions and ignoring core issues like providing basic service to customers.(10% items still goes faulty) 3 The Product development and launch process for Aqualisa Quartz Aqualisa was a respectable company with a 25% net return on sales and 5% to 10% growth in the market*. Despite the fact that the company was at the third position in the market as a whole and was considered respectable and reliable, it was feared by the company that the rivals may well beat them if they dont come up with something innovative and novel. The managing director Harry Rawlinson organised (RD) Research and Development team of Aqualisas sales and marketing Directors, market researchers, Cambridge scientists, and top industrial designers*. All the experts through brain storming and market research came up with the idea of the product which involved a small apparatus installed remotely in order to mix water. This idea was very powerful as the product installation wouldnt require excavation. After feedback from the 60 consumer field test sites and three years of development and expenditure of around  £5.8 million Quartz was developed. It cost the company from  £175 to $230 to make*. The Aqualisa was launched in the major showrooms like Bathroom Expo in London in May 2001 and was awarded fist prize. There were good and positive reviews about the product in the news papers. The fact that the product had good flow of water, very convenient and fast to install and accurate temperature control made it a popular product. Quartz was on the covers of major trade journals. There was a single time add run in news paper on Sunday too. 3.1 Positioning Strategies and Marketing mix The positioning strategy of the Aqualisa quarts was complicated. Following chart would show some pros and cons of the Positioning of the Quartz. Positioning Pros Cons 1 Targeting Consumer Directly If the consumers were targeted directly there was a good chance of the revitalization and an increase in the sale of the product once aware of the advantages of the product. Insist /influence the plumbers to use the Quartz. The advertisement would cost  £3 to  £4 million in two years 2 Targeting Do It Yourselfers Quartz was so easy to install that anybody could do it easily, so if advertised to d.i.y market could be beneficial. If advertised as premium value product the partner like BQ could help boost the advertising campaign too. If the item was associated with the d.i.y products it would never take its premium position. It was too good to take place of value product. 2 Targeting Developers Large- volume channel Developers would enforce more plumbers to install quarts so plumbers would get more confidence about Quartz Never accepted Aqualisa product even at 50% discount No guarantee that reducing price would defiantly attract them. Table c McCarthy (1999) classified the tools that constitute the Marketing mix, into four famous Ps Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. In case of Aqualisa Quartz as a Product it was a fantastic piece of technology and art. It was ticking all the boxes for what the consumer wanted. The plumbers regarded it as a wonderful product because of the ease of installation. It was innovative, state of art product. Quartz was premium Priced. The price was high because of the Quartz being innovative and state of the art product. It wouldnt be long when the competitors would be following the same route and may price their product even higher, so just because the Quartz did not get the overwhelming success in its first phase of launch, the price should not be reduced. Place; the Quartz was distributed to various channels e.g. trade shops and showrooms etc. There were a good number of plumbers working for Aqualisa who were also introduced to the product. They loved the ease of installation as it took half a day to install. In spite of that very few sale were made. Promotion; the product at the time of launch was exhibited in London in May 2001 at Bathroom expo. It was given first prise for being a fantastic product*. Similarly a single time add in the mail on Sunday magazine was run. Major news papers and trade magazines had it on its front pages. Still the promotion was not enough to make the product successful as it failed to target the potential buyer. 4 Reasons of Failure of Aqualisa Quartz in the initial phase There were many reasons to the failure of the product despite its fantastic qualities and innovations. Some of the reasons are listed below. The Quartz was an innovative and fantastic product but it was considered an expensive product. Although the price was high but the product deserved a higher price being so distinctive than traditional products in market. The twenty sales personal would spend mere 10% of time on gaining new customers while 90% on maintaining old customers. Obviously more than 10% of time was required to attain new customers. Reluctance of the Plumbers to accept electric showers due to previous failure of the electric shower so they were eager to try Quartz. Consumers often had to force the plumber to install the Quartz for them. But once they installed it they were converted and were convinced that it was a brilliant product. Weak positioning also created a vague image of the product as the plumbers were sceptical and the individual consumers were not fully aware of the advantages the product was offering. The Marketing mix of the product was also not perfectly well executed as the item was although available through main channels but little work was done on the promotion of the product. At the time of launch it was exhibited at the London Expo and it won the first prise and it was on the front pages of trade magazines, still it was not enough. Intense marketing at individual level was also required for the awareness and promotion of the product. 4.1 Strategies to revive the product Following strategies could revive Quartz. Segmenting the market and Targeting the independent plumbers which constituted the 54% of the UK market*, was of core importance. A vigorous marketing was needed to target them. The plumbers were sceptical of using the electric showers but once they used Quartz they were converted. Targeting 54% of the market could be really beneficial for the company. Following this strategy the Quartz could dominate as a successful product up to 90% of plumbers who made 100% of decision for 54% of market in the. change the perceptions of the consumers particularly property developing market which constituted 20% of the UK market (source Aqualisa). Once the independent plumbers were converted then that would eventually change the status of the product as a reliable and efficient. Availability of Quartz in max no Show rooms, Trade shops and D.I.Y sheds. According to the UK shower market in 2000, total electric shower units sold in show rooms was 55,000 *. It was important to make sure that the Quartz is present in max no of showrooms and. Similarly 330,000 electric units were sold by the trade shops and a good no of plumbers were working for these shops*. The presence of the product in the trade shops would mean better chances of exposure to the consumer. The D.I.Y sheds like BQ could promote the Quartz as a premium high quality product with the benefit to install independently. The sale of electric shower in UK at D.I.Y sheds in 2000 was the max i.e. 550,000*. If the product was placed in the D.I.Y sheds with the help of BQ promotions it could get the success it deserved. Launch an intense marketing campaign was vital to target the consumer directly. Once the product is successful the profit would cover the costs of marketing. Only one time add in magazine is not enough. Electronic media e.g. TV and radio should run advertisements for the product. Microsoft launched a massive $500 million marketing campaign, when it introduced the original Xbox, promoting the new product through in store merchandising, retailer incentives, events and sponsorship in addition to traditional advertising. (Alice z. 2004) Position Quartz as a family product. In the showrooms once the individuals with families had a look, they bought it as it was perfect and safe for all ages. Targeting the consumer directly through advertisement would let the families realised that the Quartz is a family need. Brand awareness would attract the families, plumbers, D.I.Yers and property developers as they would become aware of the product benefits. Justify high price by emphasising the qualities of the Quartz. Promotional low prices temporarily for the new buyers particularly the property developers. Once they plumbers used the product they were converted. So by low promotional prices would attract massive audience who could be converted as well. To increase the 20 person sales force. To increase from 10% to at least 50% of time to spend on new customers attainment. 5 Conclusion Aqualisa Quartz despite of the fact that it was a fantastic product, it failed to achieve the success it deserved in the beginning. The product was such an innovation that it should have made records of best selling product. The push button technology, ease of installation, stable temperature and ideal water pressure made it ideal shower. It was safe to use with children as well as with elderly. Aqualisa was expecting huge sales but the results were rather disappointing when there were only few sales in the first phase. Robert Lauterborn (1990) suggested that the sellers four Ps correspond to the customers four Cs. Four Ps Four Cs Product Customer solution Price Customer cost Place Convenience Promotion Communication. The Quartz was a fantastic Product and it was offering perfect customer solution. Similarly the price was just ok for the product as it was one in all products. And customer would pay high Price for an item if it is fit for purpose and providing the luxury at the same time. Thats when the Promotion comes in. But at the same time Quartz needed wright positioning and good marketing to attract the consumer. The product was available through trade shops, Showrooms and D.I.Y sheds. The plumbers working for the Aqualisa were also introduced to the product. Still more was needed. So if all the strategies listed above are tried, it should not take long when the Quartz would be on its way to success.