Mandatory Second Language Learning: An Excellent Idea Essay example --

It has become common knowledge that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world. Economically, Industrially, and educationally, the rest of the world pushes forward and welcomes change while the United States clings to what it has known for decades. One of the largest gaps between the US and the rest of the world is its policy about second languages, and it puts the US at a disadvantage. Those who oppose change believe the US can better itself without making secondary language learning mandatory; they argue that it will cost more money, â€Å"turn students off† to learning a second language entirely, and that the benefits are not worth the costs. Unless a change is made in the United States’ language education, the country will continue to fall behind. Making learning a second language mandatory not only helps students, but the country as a whole by â€Å"raising the bar† and improving the country’s competitiveness with the rest of the world. Many people against second language learning argue that learning a second language is meaningless because it is never used after learning it and is soon forgotten. The problem is the country’s secondary language education methods. Rather than teaching at a young age, which they should, they make it mandatory at the high school level. Making children learn a second language at a young age is a better method because the earliest years of childhood are a critical period and at a later time, the brain’s ability to learn a new language is greatly diminished (Richards). Another problem is that most often, there isn’t enough repetition of what is learned in order for it to â€Å"sink in† to the memory of students. If taught at a young age and maintained throughout that students’ academic career, not... ...proxy.gc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=23&sid= ce282cb3-71e8-42b2-9fbd- 3f5cd0565bc4%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JmxvZ2luLmFzcCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUm c2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=66695436>. Metis, Myriam. "A Cure For Monolingualism." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. . Richards, J. C., R. Anderson, D. W. Carroll, and A. Radford. "Language Acquisition." Ebscohost. 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. .

Discuss the Aphorism “Small Firm Growth Being the Only Measure of an Entrepreneur’s Success”.

INTRODUCTION Business growth is a good goal for most firms in general and is given great weight by the society. This could be seen with the list conjured up by the media, such as ‘Forbes Fast-Growing Companies’ and ‘Inc Fastest Growing Companies’ lists (Hupato 2011). The reason small firm growth has been prioritised by policy makers and the society is mainly due to its contribution to the economy (Bridge, O’Neill & Martin 2009). Small firm and entrepreneurship have so often been linked together, and it has become common to acknowledge that all small firms are established by entrepreneurs.Hence, the terms such as growth, success and performance are often linked in the research of entrepreneurial success (Reijonen & Komppula 2007). However, if entrepreneurship is defined as creation of new economic activity, the aspect of firm growth is already defined the moment the entrepreneur introduced new products or services (Davidsson, Achtenhagen & Naldi 2010). In other words, growth is not an aspect of entrepreneurship if growth is measured solely on volume expansion of existing products or through acquisitions of existing business.Schumpeter has also mentioned that one can be entrepreneurial without being self-employed and vice versa (Utsch, Rauch, Rothfufs & Frese 1999). Entrepreneurship remains an enigma till date and the assumption that all small firms are creations of an entrepreneur is arguable. Davidsson, Achtenhagen & Naldi (2010) has described, even a superficial reading on the complexity of small firm growth literature could easily leave the reader confused. Thus, the aphorism of small firm growth being the only measure of an entrepreneur’s success should be looked upon from different perspectives.The dimensions of small firm growth and also the perspectives of entrepreneurial success will be analysed to see the degree of its correlation and to judge how true the mentioned aphorism is. What is small firm growth? Generall y, growth of a business occurs in phases in a small business life cycle. A business venture would normally encounter three-stage development process, namely the ‘seed’ stage, the ‘start-up’ stage and the ‘expansion’ stage (Mukherjee 1992).The ‘seed’ stage brings a well-conceived idea into existence, while the ‘start-up’ stage included employment and accumulating business capital, and the ‘expansion’ stage involves manufacturing or service capacity increment (Mukherjee 1992). On the other hand, Bridge, O’Neill & Martin (2009) has suggested five stages of small firm growth, namely ‘existence’, ‘survival’, ‘success’, ‘take-off’ and ‘maturity’. Helms & Renfrow (1994) has supported the concept of the five stages of various developmental growth stages when they conducted a research in United States.Bridge, O’Neill & Martin (2009) defi ned the five stages as the following: the ‘existence’ stage is similar to the ‘seed’ stage explained previously, while the ‘survival’ stage involves customer familiarisation with the firm’s product or service. The ‘success’ stage is when there are options for further growth, thus the ‘take-off’ stage where the owner opted to grow the business larger. The business will reach the ‘maturity’ stage when it displays the characteristics of a large company.However, the mentioned researchers have concluded that it is difficult to clearly define the business development stages clearly during throughout the business cycle (Bridge, O’Neill & Martin 2009). Despite the challenging task to categorise growth, researchers would still generally use the small business growth as indicator of success since it is common parlance to suggest that success requires growth, to stand still is to die (Geneste & Weber 20 11). There are enormous literatures on theories of growth and are most commonly associated with generation of jobs.In the early years, entrepreneurship has been the main focus due to its significant employment opportunities that was created. This reason remained strong today thus gaining the attention from policy-makers in each country. In fact, the number of employees a firm has become an important factor for classifying a small firm (Helms & Renfrow 1994). Research shows that young high-growth firms (also commonly known as ‘gazelles’) generate a large share of all new net jobs (Roper 2012).Robbins, Pantuosco, Parker & Fuller (2000) has also confirmed in their research that a state with large quantity of small business has lower rates of unemployment compared to other states that has little quantity of small businesses. The reason employment rates are valuable in measuring growth is because each firm will grow until they reach the optimal size that corresponds to minim um average cost (Hart 2000). Thus, each firm will continue to employ during its growth stage until it reaches the efficient scale or natural decay.However, other research has proved that it is difficult to measure small firm performance by employee growth. This is due to moderating variables such as outsourcing activities, productivity changes and replacement of employees with capital investments (Fitzsimmons, Steffens & Douglas 2005). When business grow in this the rapid changing modem world, many production and service functions has been contracted out (Bridge, O’Neill & Martin 2009). In other words, a business can grow without having any increase in employment rate.Several academicians argued that sales precede other yardsticks for business growth, as pointed out that it is the increase in sales that necessitates the increase in the number of employees hired (Davidsson, Achtenhagen & Naldi 2010). Sales revenue performance is used as small firm’s growth because it mi rrors the consumer’s demand for the product or services provided by the firm (Fitzsimmons, Steffens & Douglas 2005). In this world of constant returns, the consumer’s demand for the product or services determines the limit on the firm’s growth.Sales figures easily reflect both short-term and long-term changes in the firm, hence measuring the growth and performance. However, there are two reasons that deviate sales as business growth yardstick. Firstly, the typical downward sloping demand curve is not applicable in practice. Just as a habitual entrepreneur starts more than one business, a firm can also have product differentiation (Hart 2000). Hence, it is difficult to determine the demand and cost curves in imperfect competition market condition.Secondly, sales are not an accountable measure during first few stages of the business cycle. During the seed and the start-up stage, employment and assets may grow more extensively before any significant sale has been d one (Fitzsimmons, Steffens & Douglas 2005). In this context, assets are in the form tangible ‘fixed’ assets and intangible assets such as of entrepreneur’s knowledge asset, the reputation of the firm (Bridge, O’Neill & Martin 2009) and quantity of registered patents. Hence, business growth could not be measured by sales alone.Looking from another dimension, a firm’s profitability could be suggested as an important measure of growth for the simple reason that a firm is unable to sustain without profits. The difference between maximised sales and maximised profit is that the marginal revenue is zero when sales are maximised but the marginal revenue is positive when profits are maximised (Hart 2000). A firm’s growth on profitability can be considered in term of the net profit margins, return on assets (Fitzsimmons, Steffens & Douglas 2005) or return on equity (Durguner & Katchova 2009).High profit margins, return on assets and return on equity p rovide more confidence for shareholders and potential investors to invest in the firm, enhancing business growth. However, growth rates are highly volatile over duration of time and research has shown that there is no evidence of a relationship between growth and profitability (Fitzsimmons, Steffens & Douglas 2005). In accordance, many articles have reached a conclusion that financial measures alone are not sufficient as business growth and performance measure for small firms (Reijonen & Komppula 2007).This is due to the fact that, just as entrepreneurship, small business sector is hardly homogeneous, and not all of these businesses are operating in the same direction. Some research has even shown that not all small firms are even capable or willing to grow (Papadanki & Chami 2002). What is entrepreneurial success? The capability and willingness to grow of small firms are directly influenced by the business owners’ intention to grow and their self-perception of success.In oth er words, the growth of small business is not a self-evident phenomenon, but it is actually driven by the business owner’s motivations and intentions (Morrison, Breen & Ali 2003). Most business decisions are made by owners, and their own personal judgement will impact on the business growth orientation (Geneste & Weber 2011). Consequently, it can be considered that the role of the entrepreneur should be emphasized as the dominant factor of growth (Reijonen & Komppula 2007). An entrepreneur’s motivation for business growth has to be complemented by his or her willingness to grow and assume risks.The risks involved are such as willingness to delegate control functions to others and the uncertainty to produce more output. The researchers found that due to the risks, small business owners are reluctant to grow and perceives profit-maximisation as only one of the motives for business growth (Papadanki & Chami 2002). This argument draws down to the psychological theories of motivation. The McClelland’s theory of needs defined ‘need for achievement’ as â€Å"the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, and to strive to succeed† (Robbins, Judge, Millet & Boyle 2011).Hence, characteristics of the business owners are linked to the business growth aspirations. In other words, each entrepreneur has their own perception of success depending on their own standard for ‘need for achievement’. To understand the business growth aspirations deeper, the owner’s clusters of traits and behaviours which affect the way they engage in their business activities are examined. The characteristic of the firm owner can be divided into three broad categories, namely ‘life-style’, ‘comfort-zone’ and ‘growth’ (Bridge, O’Neill & Martin 2009).The ‘life-style’ owners are defined to be those who establish the business to provide them a level of income and ha ve no intention for business growth. Geneste & Weber (2011) has identified owners that are not keen to expand their business due to deliberate ‘life-style’ choice, such as the small business atmosphere that engenders comradeship and job satisfaction. The ‘comfort-zone’ owners establish the business and focus on the benefits it can provide for the comfort he or she wants in life and the business growth will be stagnant once the desired comfort level has been achieved.The ‘growth’ owners are the almost ideal business person who maximises the earning potential and continue to grow the business further for the future. Clearly again, the intrinsic motivation of the owner should be examined further in order to understand what entrepreneurial success is. There are many studies that have been conducted to explore an entrepreneur’s intrinsic motivation for his or her business. One piece of research conducted was to compare the start-up motivation s and growth intentions between African-Americans (titled as ‘black’ by the researchers) and Americans (titled as ‘white’ by the researchers).Edelmen, Brush, Manolova & Greene (2010) has conducted a research to investigate new venture among black and white nascent entrepreneurs. In their research, they have discovered three important findings related to business growth. Firstly, nascent entrepreneurs do not associate business establishment outcomes with business growth intention. Secondly, entrepreneurs are motivated to start ventures to fulfil a need for self-realisation. Lastly, it is found that whites are more strongly motivated by the desire for financial success while blacks had higher levels of personal self-confidence.Hypothetically, the findings of this research suggested that blacks inherited the ‘life-style’ motivations while the whites are ‘comfort-zone’ motivated. This research has proved that expected financial outcome s are not as important as noneconomic concern in determining the entrepreneur’s attitude towards growth. The entrepreneurial success is not related to the growth of the firm but for intrinsic satisfaction instead; hence small firm growth should not be the only measure for the entrepreneur’s success.In another piece of research, (Utsch, Rauch, Rothfufs & Frese 1999) has investigated the rapid emergence of entrepreneurs and small firms in East Germany. During the research, the role of personality traits has been clarified and the researchers found an encouraging convergence result in two areas, namely the need for achievement and need for autonomy. In other words, entrepreneurs with high need for autonomy will be more motivated to begin small-scale business ventures and will develop the business further only if they have high need for achievement as well.In parallel to that, Lee & Tai (2010) has conducted a research to investigate the motivators and success of small busi ness in Kazakhstan. Empirical evidence has suggested the entrepreneurs are motivated to achieve financial independence and also to obtain social recognition. This is due to the fact that entrepreneurial endeavours are considered as honourable and also an upgrade on social-status activities. This theory is shows that entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan are more aligned towards the ‘comfort-zone’ characteristics.The mentioned researchers have also concluded that the success of some small firm growth is contributed by the creativity and commitment of all the entrepreneurs. From these two pieces of research, it is further confirmed that entrepreneurs have their own perceptions of success but each individual has different intrinsic motivation to achieve his or her goal, albeit from different geographic locations. Another aspect to consider on perception of entrepreneurial success should be the gender of the owner. Research shows that there are differences across entrepreneur’ s gender on perceptions of success.Male and females entrepreneurs differ in the way they measure their extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions. Previous study has verified that male entrepreneurs tend to emphasize on quantitative measures and economic values while female entrepreneurs emphasize on qualitative measures and social values (Justo, Cruz, de Castro & Coduras 2006). Hypothetically, male entrepreneurs describe success in term of achieving goals while female entrepreneurs define success in terms of doing something fulfilling. The research has also iscovered that the motivation for business success is moderated by the parental status of the entrepreneur. Female entrepreneurs are more motivated venturing into self-employment if they have dependent children under their care and perceived success when they are able to fulfil the need of independence. This hypothesis has been confirmed by Ahmad (2011) when he conducted a research on female entrepreneurs in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In this piece of research, female entrepreneurship has proved to be influenced by the female entrepreneur wanting to spend more quality family time.For these female entrepreneurs, the perception of success was when the desire for autonomy, independence, self-fulfilment and wealth has been achieved. In short, the gender status of the entrepreneur significantly impact on the perceptions of entrepreneurial success where female entrepreneurs depict more on social values as success. Conclusion In conclusion, the dimensions of small firm growth and the perspectives of entrepreneurial success have been discussed to judge how true the aphorism of entrepreneurial success can only be judged by small firm growth.The different stages of business cycle have been identified and the growth of the business occurs in almost all the phases in the five stages of small firm growth in their own way. Growth is included in many aspects, such as growth of the idea, or the growing numbers of customers, or gene rating more returns from the business. Generally, the measurement of growth is mainly based on quantitative values such as employment rate, business sales and profitability among other yardsticks. However, research shows that small firm growth could not be measured on financial and economical terms only.The rate of employment becomes insignificant as the business can grow without hiring any new employees, while sales do not account for the first couple stages of the business cycle and there might be owners who deviate from the main product or service line. Research has also shown that there are no relationship between profitability and growth. Therefore, the entrepreneur’s perception of success should be moderated to measure small firm success. Three types of small firm owner’s characteristics has been identified, namely the ‘life-style’, ‘comfort-zone’ and ‘growth’.From the few pieces of research that has been examined, most of t he entrepreneurs are found to be ‘life-style’ and ‘comfort-zone’ and rarely the ideal ‘growth’ motivated characteristics. The gender of the entrepreneur will also affect the measuring manner of small firm growth success. Each attribute shows the willingness and capability of each owner to further grow their business. Hence, the entrepreneur’s intrinsic motivation plays a vital role in judging and predicting the small firm success.In this context, the intrinsic motivations are such as the need for achievement, autonomy and self-realisation are more important than business growth intentions. In a nutshell, it can be concluded that small firm growth can be a way to measure entrepreneurial success, but it should be based on the standard or level that the entrepreneur has placed emphasis on instead of strictly on monetary values only. REFERENCES Ahmad, SZ 2011, ‘Evidence of the characteristics of women entrepreneurs in the Kingdom of Sa udi Arabia’, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 123-143.Bridge, S, O’Neill, K & Martin, F 2009, Understanding enterprise: entrepreneurship and small business, 3rd edn, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire. Davidsson, P, Achtenhagen, L & Naldi, L 2005, ‘Research on small firm growth: a review’, 35th EISB Conference, Barcelona. Durguner, S & Katchova, AL 2009, ‘Measure of small business financial performance from a lender and a borrower perspective’, The Business Review, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 24. Edelman, LF, Brush, CG, Manolova, TS & Greene, PG 2010, ‘Start-up motivations and growth intentions of minority nascent entrepreneurs’, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 8, no. 2, p. 174. Fitzsimmons, JR, Steffens, PR & Douglas, EJ 2005, ‘Growth and profitability in small and medium sized Australian firms’, AGSE Entrepreneurship Exchange, Melbourne. Geneste, L & Weber, P 2011, ‘Relatin g small business growth with success: some findings from the 2008 Western Australian small business benchmarks survey’, 8th AGSE International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Melbourne. Hart, PE 2000, ‘Theories of firms’ growth and the generation of jobs’, Review of Industrial Organization, vol. 17, no. 3, p. 229.Helms, MM & Renfrow TW 1994, ‘Expansionary process of the small business: a life cycle profile’, Management Decision, vol. 32, no. 9, p. 43. Hupalo, PI, TiE Islamabad, 2012, ‘Measuring success in small business and entrepreneurship’, TiE Islamabad, 12 October 2012,< https://islamabad. tie. org/article/24/measuring-success-small-business-and-entrepreneurship>. Justo, R, Cruz, C, de Castro, J & Coduras, A 2006, ‘Entrepreneurs’ perception of success: examining differences across gender and family status’, IE working paper, Instituto de Empresa Business School.Lee, JW & Tai SW 2010, ‘Motivators a nd inhibators of entrepreneurship and small business development in Kazakhstan’, World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, vol. 6, no, p. 61. Morrison, A, Breen, J & Ali, S 2003, ‘Small business growth: intention, ability and opportunity’, Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 41, no. 4, p. 417. Mukherjee, TK 1992, ‘Financing the three stages of the small business cycle: a survey’, Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 33.Papadanki, E & Chami, B, Industry Canada, 2012, ‘Growth determinants of micro-business in Canada’, Government of Canada Publications Ottawa, ON, viewed 12 October 2012, . Reijonen, H & Komppula R 2007, ‘Perception of success and its effect on small firm performance’, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 689-701. Robbins, DK, Pantuosco, LJ, Parker, DF & Fuller, BK 2000, ‘An empirical assessment of contribut ion of small business employment to U.S. state economic performance’, Small Business Economics, vol. 15, no. 4, p. 293. Robbins, SP, Judge, TA, Millet, B & Boyle, M 2011, Organisational Behaviour, 6th end, Pearson Australia, French Forest, NSW. Roper, Stephen 2012, Entrepreneurship : a global perspective, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY. Utsch, A, Rauch, A, Rothfus,R & Frese, M 1999, ‘Who becomes a small scale entrepreneur in a post-socialist environment: on the differences between entrepreneurs and managers in East Germany’, Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 37, no. 3, p. 31.

Hospitality Management Essay

Reflecting from my management shift, restaurant manager has many different kinds of important tasks and responsibilities in the restaurant. Restaurant manager plays an important role in the hospitality and food and beverage department as they can motivate the staff and maintain the high quality service which will help the business run successfully. Manager can provide appropriate ambiance in the restaurant which will provide warm and comfortable environment for the customer. Waiter station and dividing sections of tables should be fully allocated before the start of service shift which starts 10:00AM. After that, checking staff’s five equipment (waiters friend, lighter, handkerchief, pen and note pad), and their grooming (hair, ironing uniform, socks, belt and name badge). In the first briefing time, restaurant manager has to explain required table-set up and finding any problem such as students who are absent. When I was restaurant manager, one waiter called in sick so I had to rearrange the table booking slots to make it fit 12 waiters instead of 13. This can make the service flow more efficiently. If I left the booking slots thee way they were, waiters would have needed to pick up tables in 10 minute gap. A manager should manage and check every time whether staff are doing the right thing. After food briefing, manager should check that all staff are familiar with the menu and kitchen abbreviations as well as the price for each dish. Thus, restaurant manager should lead their team smoothly and know all situation and happening in restaurant including kitchen as well. (Food & Beverage Work Book, Feb 2013) Before doing the restaurant manager shift, I had confidence in myself because I prepared the table time slot sheet, linen order and table and station allocation the night before my shift. But once the service started, unexpected accidents happened such as waiter calling in sick. Also, because it was Thursday and nearly towards assessment night for many people, most of the staff was very tense and unmotivated. Trying to motivate the staff to work faster and efficiently was uneasy at first but I still liked having the responsibility and doing important roles that are unlike to the normal waiting staff, I believed I learned a lot of new knowledge and management skills. I also can confidently say if I become restaurant manager again I would be better than before. Effective duty allocation Restaurant manager: Joanne Suh Host: Pearl Douglas Role: Prepare butter, Prepare silver service cutlery and waiter clothes, Make sure the menu is correct and printed, Welcome the guests arrival, Book reservation for lunch and dinner service for guests. Cashier: Lucy Payne Role: Allocate waiter dockets, record the food and beverage orders on computer for each table and prepare the bill for each table, total and fill up the cash-up sheet and record any alcohol docket received each night. When it is signed by the lecturer, put the money envelop to front office. Room service: Jay Lee Role: Collect the sick list from front office, Prepare tray for room service, take room service order, deliver the food to the rooms, collect the tray back once the food is finished (Usually after 1 hour) which will be placed on the corridor. Bar team leader: Olivia Ann Role: Prepare the mocktail and cocktail of the day, make sure bar, coffee station, water jug, wine service and waiting area and linens are set up and ready for service. Provide drink to order during service including hot beverage. Come early in the morning 6:30am to order butter and milk and other needed items and order linens and others that need time to recover the night before the shift. Bar assistant: Dana Button Role: Help the Bar Team Leader set up the bar, coffee station, waiting area, water jug, and wine service. Provide the drink to order during service. Listen and follow the bar team leader’s instructions. Barista : Make hot beverages when you receive the order from the guest. Prepare the coffee work station neatly and correctly before service shift starts. Help and follow the bar team leader’s instructions when there are no orders. (Usually start of the shift. ) Staff meal: Guy Sinclair, Lit Wang Role: Prepare Breakfast, Take staff meal orders for service and management team, Set up staff meal, Clean up Taranaki Restaurant after shift. Help in the La Vista Restaurant when the jobs are finished. Waiter: Chloe Wang, Abbey Bowater, Noriko Fuji, Shannon Rochford, Marlee Mclaughlan, Nhung Tran, Ginger(Shanshan) Yong, Cindy (Xinshi) Yang, Chris (Trung Toan) Le, James Pitisopa, Hayden Woodbury, Krill This is the list for all staffs that had been worked in my team. Absent : Savneet Singh 2. 2Explain whether you think the allocation of the duties and tasks were helpful or destructive for the team and give your reasons why. I prepared most of the jobs that I should do on my management shift but what I had missed out on was plan what the â€Å"staff† should be doing on their service shift. I had to plan out which person will be doing which task on the spot. This has resulted me giving people jobs that they are not the best at. For example giving the vacuum job to a weak female staff. Also as the staff were allocated jobs that they do not like, they refused to do the jobs I ordered them to do or made excuses to do them later. This has slowed down the cleaning time of service. But because we were already in our 8th week of operation, most of the staff were already capable of doing jobs themselves without being told to do them. We finished a little later than my expected time at lunch shift which was 2:30pm. We finished at 2:40pm. This was due to customers dining in for a long time. We had three tables of industry placement interviewers. Delegation 3. 1 Making decision For the making decision, when I organised table planning I gave three tables for most people and four tables for a couple of people due to absent waiter on the floor. There were some tables already set up from the last dinner shift so I tried to allocate one set up table for each waiter to make them prepare and set up tables quicker and fair. Also I allocated the staff meal waiters to help the floor waiters when they finished preparing for staff meal to speed up the process and we can open the restaurant on time. Explain whether you think this was effective. Think about the theory. What could be done differently? When I allocated the jobs I asked people in a polite way with a soft tone of voice so the staff do not get to tense about the jobs that they have to do. I tried to be fair for example if someone did a hard job such as vacuuming La vista, I made them do an easy job afterwards like taking menu papers out from the menu. I also thanked the staff and especially the staff members who worked harder than others to acknowledge them their work. Overall I think my theory has worked out better than ordering them harshly what to do as it was my first time being the restaurant manager and staff are not used to it they might think it too personal if I order them to do jobs in a harsh way. But I think giving more volume to my voice and seriousness at time to time would have made the staff actually listen and do the jobs I allocated them efficiently. 3. 3 Identify shift outcomes and tasks. Describe how you achieved the outcomes required in this role. It very nice outcome after shift because I went to talk around with all customers. They told me that service was very good there were only few complaints about the food taste which the service team cannot control. Overall cleaning up was a little slow for lunch but everyone picked themselves up and dinner shift flowed through a lot faster than lunch. The staff members worked hard for both service and cleaning even though many staff members were stressed about the assessment week coming up and tired. I thank all the staff members and I think my first time being the restaurant manager, I did exceptionally well. Managing conflict 4. 1 Was there any conflict or disagreement in your team? Yes, between me and my bar team leader. Because bar team leader is also a type of manager as well as they manage the bar, I should have treated the bar team leader more like a manager and different from the floor staff but instead I ordered the bar team leader to do some jobs in the bar and that had made the bar team leader unpleased as the bar team leader obviously knew what sort of jobs needed to be done. But because I am still the restaurant manager for that day, I believe I had my part and reason to say the things I have said to the bar team leader. I didn’t want to make too much of a big fuss about this matter as whether or not there are customers in the restaurant it is still a working environment and restaurant manager should behave and look professional at all times or else staff and customers will look down on both me and the bar team leader. If yes, what was done to resolve this conflict? If not, why not? I resolved this problem by pretending to not hear anything that the bar team leader said behind my back. Because I thought if the bar team leader realise that I heard our relationship will become awkward. There was also dinner shift left and I really didn’t want to make any big deal out of this matter so I just pretended I heard nothing. This was a good resolution because afterwards she worked really hard and was a great bar team leader which made the service run more smoothly which was good for everyone and the restaurant possible. But later I talked in the briefing that if the restaurant manager tell you to do something do not ignore them or refuse and treat the managers like a real manager in a work place. 4. 2 What are some other options for dealing with the same situation? I believe motivating the staff and complimenting when the staffs finish their jobs can make the staff more willing to work and follow my orders. More motivated staff can give happy energy vibe to the workplace which will be transferred to the customer which will give warmer ambiance in the restaurant. 4. 3 Would you do thing differently next time you need to work with a team? For the next time that I have to work in a team, I would try to improve myself on delegating staff. I will make sure that everything in the restaurant such as preparations and second plans for times when something goes wrong again so I have a backup plan which will make me panic less. Also next time I will plan the job allocations for cleaning and preparations before service to be more efficient with time management as a manager. 5. 1 Identify a challenge or problem that occurred during your management shift. The biggest challenge I had faced was I had one waiter absent and I had 13 slots on my booking sheet that was made and finished last dinner shift. Waiters are supposed to serve each table with 20 minute gap. This made me very busy until the last minute of service and waiters were confused as their time for booking was all changed. It also confused both the waiters on floor and the management team. 5. 2 What was your response to this challenge? After ii had found out that one waiter on floor will not show up for service, I fixed the booking sheet and made the time slot 12 instead of 13. I put tables of two people together and called rooms to move the tables to a later time to make sure each waiter received 20 minute gap between each table so they had enough time to manage their tables on time efficiently. I had to reallocate some tables and stations to distribute the absent waiter’s tables and informed the staff. 5. 3 Analyse whether your reaction/response was effective and identify what you would do differently (if anything). I think in terms with the time I had, my decision was the most effective decision that was possible and best for my staff as well. If I gave tables in 10 minute break the staff will be more stressed about their time management and make mistakes on their sequence of service and have delays which will also be unpleasing to the customers as well. If I could change one thing I would make extra booking sheets for 11 waiters and 12 waiters even though I have 13 just to make sure and be safe. 5. 4 Have you identified any skills where you need to improve? What skill do you need to improve? I think I need to improve on leadership skills as I am not good at giving people commands and orders. Asking nicely could result staff refusing to follow my request. Also leading the team well so the staff are not lost and can reply on the manger is the kind of skill I need to improve on as well. Learning about yourself 6. 2What were your strengths leading the team? Figuring out solutions and making the service run fast and efficient as well as making the staff feel comfortable is my strengths in terms of leading the team. Because I found my way through problems fast and prepared for the service well, the staff trusted me and had felt comfortable. Even with extra barriers I still managed to make service flow fast. 6. 3Have you identified any areas where you need to improve? What areas do you need to improve? I think I need to improve how to be a good leader because I don’t think I have that quality just yet when I was a restaurant manager, Also I want to improve my eight management skill such as leadership, flexibility, adaptability, inventory management, conflict resolution, ability to work under to pressure, ability to multi-task, and organization skill. To be a successful manager, I need to improve all of this skill and learn from the mistake that I had got to achieve in the future. 6. 4Identify what remedial strategies you will put in place to develop the areas that are identified above. The eight management skill: leadership, flexibility, adaptability, inventory management, conflict resolution, ability to work under pressure, ability to multi-task, and organization skill and comunication. Statistic data At lunch shift, we had 126 customers coming to dine and our total food revenue was $1,962 and total beverage revenue was $2194 Hence, our average food check is $15.6 per person. It means that we sold entree and main food more than one person, which is good but it is not so good. Our team needed upselling skills at this moment. Thus, Total revenue should be $ but we received money only $ which means we lost $. The reason why this happen was that students did not pay properly and just left without paying, but it is very serious problem in real world and somebody should be to blame. That would be restaurant manager. Hence, I think that the statistic data show us how much money we make and can find the problems such as money stolen or not.

Setting IEP Goals for Reading Comprehension

Setting IEP Goals for Reading Comprehension When a student in your class is the subject of an Individual Education Plan (IEP), you will be called upon to join a team that will write goals for that student. These goals are important, as the students performance will be measured against them for the remainder of the IEP period, and their success can determine the kinds of support the school will provide. Below are guidelines for writing IEP goals that measure reading comprehension.   Writing Positive, Measurable Goals for IEPs For educators, its important to remember that IEP goals should be SMART. That is, they should be Specific, Measurable, use Action words, be Realistic and Time-limited. Goals should also be positive. A common pitfall in todays data-driven educational climate is the creation of goals that lean heavily on quantitative results. For example, a student may have a goal to summarize a passage or story, relating essential components with 70% accuracy. Theres nothing wishy-washy about that figure; it seems like a solid, measurable goal. But whats missing is any sense of where the child stands currently. Does 70% accuracy represent a realistic improvement? By what measure is the 70% to be calculated? SMART Goal Example Heres an example of how to set a SMART goal. Reading comprehension is the goal we are looking to set. Once thats identified, find a tool to measure it. For this example, the Gray Silent Reading Test (GSRT) may suffice. The student should be tested with this tool prior to IEP goal setting so that a reasonable improvement can be written into the plan. The resultant positive goal may read, Given the Gray Silent Reading Test, will score at grade level by March. Strategies to Develop Reading Comprehension Skills To meet the stated IEP goals in reading comprehension, teachers may employ a variety of strategies. Below are some suggestions: Provide engaging and motivating materials to retain the students interest. Be specific by naming the series, resources or books to be used.Highlight and underline key words and ideas.Teach the student about sentence and paragraph construction and how to focus on key points. Again, be very specific so that the goal is measurable.Provide information and clarification about how a text or resource is organized. The child should know the features of a text including the cover, the index, subtitles, bold titles, etc.Provide ample opportunities for the child to discuss written information.Develop summarization skills focusing on the beginning, middle and ending key points.Develop research skills and strategies.Provide opportunities for group learning, especially to respond to written information.Show how pictorial and context clues are used.Encourage the student to ask for clarification if she becomes confused.Provide one-on-one support frequently. Once the IEP is written, it is imperative that the student, to the best of his ability, understands the expectations. Help track their progress, and remember that including students in their IEP goals is a great way to provide a pathway to success.

Compare And Contrast Microsoft Dos With Unix essays

Compare And Contrast Microsoft Dos With Unix essays Compare And Contrast Microsoft Dos With Unix Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX Arthur Bennis Microcomputer Operating Systems CGS 1560 INTRODUCTION As is suggestive of its name, an operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that operate the personal computer (PC). Its primary purpose is to support programs that actually do the work one is interested in, and to allow competing programs to share the resources of the computer. However, the OS also controls the inner workings of the computer, acting as a traffic manager, which controls the flow of data through the system and initiates the starting and stopping processes, and as a means through which software can access the hardware and system software. In addition, it provides routines for device control, provides for the management, scheduling and interaction of tasks, and maintains system integrity. It also provides a facility called the user interface, which issues commands to the system software. Utilities are provided for managing files and documents created by users, development of programs and software, communicating between users with other computer systems and managing user requirements for programs, storage space and priority. There are a number of different types of operating systems with varying degrees of complexity. A system such as DOS can be relatively simple and minimalist, while others, like UNIX, can be somewhat more complicated. Some systems run only a single process at a time (DOS), while other systems run multiple processes at once (UNIX). In reality, it is not possible for a single processor to run multiple processes simultaneously. The processor of the computer runs one process for a short period of time, then is switched to the next process and so on. As the processor executes millions of instructions per second, ...

Tattoos in Greece and Rome Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tattoos in Greece and Rome - Term Paper Example Pictures of people who have their noses marked on both sides with the four tattooed historical lines were found on the Aveyron’s and Tarn’s prehistoric stones in France. â€Å"Drawings and figurines discovered in a Thracian burial mound near Philippopolis may depict tattooed people, but considering the complexity of the decorations it is more likely that these represent body painting or finely worked figurines† (Tattoo Temple, n.d.). People in Greece and Rome added their own cultural touches as they inherited the art of tattooing, thus taking it to the next level. Archeologists have readily found tattooed mummies from various parts of the world which suggests how common a practice it has been for a long time in history. Tattoos today are an insignia of fashion and style. The contemporary society has endorsed tattoos as a means of styling. The trend of under-skin inking has been around for thousands of years. This paper discusses the history of tattoos in ancient Greece and Rome. The history of tattooing in Europe commences with the ancient historians of Greek and Roman origin. The Greeks inherited the art of tattooing from the Persians, while the Romans gained it from the Greeks. In the early Greek time followed by the early Roman time, tattooing was a practice linked with the barbarians. According to Herodotus, tattoos were voluntarily associated by the Greeks with the barbarians, including the Thracian women known as the Maenads who assassinated Orpheus because of his homosexual concerns with their husbands. â€Å"Herodotus was the first to use the root â€Å"stig† as in the pejorative â€Å"stigma† to refer to tattoos as a mark (estichthai) or a â€Å"pricking†Ã¢â‚¬  (Random History, 2008). In the ancient times, tattooing was used as a tool to differentiate between the criminals and/or the slaves and the rest of the people of the society. Prisoners and slaves were tattooed the name of Xerxes. Occasionally, tattoos were also used to send secret messages across the lines of enemies. Criminals and slaves were tattooed so that they would have an irremovable mark on their skin to help others identify them as such. This was done intentionally to discourage the criminals and slaves from running away as attempts to escape were common among the two. Later, the Romans used tattoos to pick out deserters as the Roman army was chiefly composed of the mercenaries. The use of tattoos by the early Greek and Romans suggests that their chief use was punishment as has been mentioned by various authors of the Greek and the Roman origin. Tattoos have been discussed in a punitive sense by such Greek authors as Aristophanes, Xenophon, Herodus, Aeschines and Aelius Aristides (Jones, 2000). Plato was of the opinion that a temple robber should be tattooed on the forehead and the hands to have a trace of the offense while Bion of Borysthenes said that his father’s face was more of a document because of intense tattooing because o f his status of a slave. The process of tattooing has been recorded by the ancient Roman authors. Aetius is one such Roman physician who described the process of applying and removing a tattoo along with the formula for making the tattoo ink in his famous book; Medicae artis principles. At one point, Plato expressed the opinion that tattoos should be placed on people found guilty of sacrilege and thus, they should be expelled from the Republic. Likewise, â€Å"Suetone, a early writer reports that the degenerate and sadistic Roman Emperor, Caligula, amused himself by capriciously ordering

The Situation at the Credit Analysis Department of the Bank Case Study - 15

The Situation at the Credit Analysis Department of the Bank - Case Study Example While pursuing her post-graduate studies, Emily worked as a manager in a branch of a convenience store near her school. It is the only work experience she has but the Bank believed that she is very qualified to be the head of their Credit Analysis Department because of her educational background. Emily shared the same sentiment with the bank manager. Her subordinates, however, think otherwise. Arthur Craig, the supervisor of the department who worked with the same unit for two years now was disappointed about the bank’s decision to hire someone from outside instead of promoting someone from within the department. Arthur thought all the while that he will be the one appointed. All the other employees in the department were sympathetic to Arthur and believed that he was more qualified than Emily. This is the situation that Emily has to deal with starting from her first day of office. As days went by, Arthur and the other department employees refused to cooperate with Emily. They did not welcome the changes that Emily introduced in the department. Her subordinates feel that she does not have the necessary experience to lead them. Arthur and the other employees vowed to make life difficult for her. Questions for Discussion: 1. Do you think that the Bank was justified in hiring Emily as the Manager of the Credit Analysis Department? Why? 2.What steps should Emily take to gain the trust of her subordinates and prove to them that she is worthy of the position? 3.How should the Bank handle the situation at the Credit Analysis Department? 4. Are Arthur and the other employees of the Credit Analysis Department being reasonable in dealing with Emily? Why?