BUSINESS Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

BUSINESS Report - Essay Example Also we can observe that the management has redesigned the job of the workers. The hierarchical structure has been diminished and the teams hold more responsibility. Eventually, this will create new challenges for the members of the team. The jobs of the workers are enriched. The jobs of the team members are halved so that they can concentrate on the development of the team. Every fortnight the team members talk for 45 minutes to solve problems and to gather new ideas. The responsibility of the workers has been increased and the role played by the workers is changed. From mere assembly line work the job now involves various tasks such as planning, organizing, leading and directing. b) The management of BMW has taken the approach to motivate the employees as mentioned in theory Z. Theory Z mentions the major postulates of Japanese management practices and how these practices can be adopted to the environment of other countries. The major features of this theory are building trust, strong bond between the organization and employees, employee involvement and no formal structure. According to this approach, trust is the first primary factor for motivation. Trust between the members of the organization at various levels has to be built through integrity and transparency. At BMW, the work teams have been very effective in building the relationships between the employees across the organization. Another major aspect that has to be noted in this approach is the employee involvement. Any decision affecting the production practices is being done by the team members which increases the motivation of the members. Also this increases the commitment of the employees and gives due recognition to their role. Under this approach the formal structures in an organization are no longer adopted. Here, at BMW, the work teams resolve the issued irrespective of the formal hierarchical structures. The major advantages of

Theories and Performance Imperatives of Organizational Leadership Research Paper

Theories and Performance Imperatives of Organizational Leadership - Research Paper Example From this research it is clear that effective leaders support the optimal performance of a group of subordinates. They add great value to an organization. Highly effective executives who are also known as peak performers are noted to have productivity rates that are 25 to 50 percent higher than their average or poorly performing counterparts. Highly effective leadership is characterized by productivity, health, relational behaviour, or a combination of these factors, which result in performance at optimal level. The main goals of effective leadership are: facilitating organizational goal setting and helping to achieve them, promoting optimal levels of individual motivation, commitment and satisfaction, facilitating effective interactions among individuals within teams, helping employees to set high goals for themselves, and place the organization’s effectiveness above their own self-interests. The effective leader operates simultaneously on the performance as well as the peopl e of the organization or unit. Performance includes the process of how things get done, the length of time taken, as well as the outcome of productivity and quality. The aim of performance is productivity, and the aim for people is health. The effective leader operates both requirements successfully, emphasizing both productivity and health. Productivity is the ratio of input to output; and increased productivity has beneficial outcomes such as higher profits and market share. On the other hand, people encompasses the skills, talents, competencies and needs of the employees, leaders and other stakeholders involved with a particular corporation or organization. Health is similar to productivity in being a measure of outcome, and is manifest in both the individual as well as the corporation. For individuals, health includes physical and psychological well-being, job satisfaction, and other factors (Sperry, 2003). Thus, the fundamental premise regarding effective leadership is that it is a function of both productivity and health, and they are inter-connected. By realizing the importance of the people dimension, the effective leader ensures that employees’ levels of commitment and morale remain high, burnout does not occur, and

Child Labor is a form of abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Child Labor is a form of abuse - Essay Example o hazardous circumstances, prevents them from furthering their intellectual growth, and burdens them with responsibilities which are supposed to be undertaken by their parents. Child labor is a form of abuse as it exposes an individual into hazardous circumstances where his or her health and even entire life is at stake. Whenever we hear of child labor, what comes to mind is a picture is a thin and dirty child working long-hours in the factory. However, it has been found out that the agriculture sector employs the highest percentage of children who actively participates in activities like weeding, plowing, and taking care of farm animals. Both work places, whether in the manufacturing or agricultural industry, threaten the physical condition of the employed child. In a research conducted by Ashagrie in 1997, 9% of children in the manufacturing sector reports injury due to their lack of capacity in operating equipments. In the same study, the agricultural sector records a higher 12%. Edmonds and Pavcnik (2005: 208) identifies the hazards in agricultural work: â€Å"Agriculture can be hazardous to for children because of exposure to dangerous chemicals such as herbicides and insecticides, exposure to heat or weather, repetitive work injuries and threats posed by animals, reptiles, insects, parasites and some plants.† Child labor hampers children from furthering their intellectual growth by robbing them of time spend inside the classrooms to be educated. Childhood is a very significant period in the intellectual development in an individual. However, being tied in different chores hinders children from getting proper schooling. Even if it is argued that child labor equips children with some skills, empirical evidences emphasize that it significantly robs children the opportunity to be educated. Children who spend more time in work activities have less time to spare to attend their classes. Furthermore, â€Å"time spent working takes away from study, play, and sleep and

Assess How The Language Of Teenagers Has Changed Over Time Essay Example for Free

Assess How The Language Of Teenagers Has Changed Over Time Essay The language of teenagers has changed radically over time, the use of slang and clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s are now commonly used in everyday English Language, in particular amongst teenagers. For this essay I visited a local high school to gain evidence of how teenagers express themselves and converse with peers and adults, including adults in authority. I also observed an anger management session and listened to the language used in this setting and also at break times. The findings of these observations are on a tape recording enclosed. The language of teenagers is greatly affected by television and pop music and this contributes to the change in modern day English and the phrases and slang that teenagers use, for example in the high school I visited the teenage boys used a lot of phrases and words that are used in rap music, a boy referred to his friends as homies rather that mates of pals the word homies is used a lot within American rap music. This shows how teenagers are influenced and how these kinds of words become popular amongst teenagers. Swearing is also part of modern day language and is very common and has increased hugely over the years, swearing is now socially accepted amongst teenagers and their peers, swearing has always been frowned upon in the English Language but has increased drastically through the past ten years. The change in language is obvious amongst teenagers and adults, most of the teenagers in the school I visited said that they would never swear at parents and teachers and it is disrespectful, although they would not be as concerned about swearing at someone the same age as them as it is not offensive anymore to their generation. This is because when the teenagers parents and teachers were growing up, swearing was seen as very offensive and a sign of disrespect. Case studies I asked a 15-year-old girl to find the five euphemisms that she would use for the following: (a) to die, (b) to urinate (c) to be a drunk (d) to say hello to a friend. I also asked a 15-year-old boy to do the same exercise, these are my findings: Chloe To die: to pass away, to kick the bucket, to be no longer with us, to have slipped away, to have kiffed it. To urinate: to go for a wee, to do a number one, to have a piss, to wet the daisies, to relieve myself. To be drunk: pissed, bladdered, wasted, trollyed, out of it. To say Hello to a friend: alright, hi, hiya. Lee To die: to kiff it, kick the bucket, passed away, to have gone to the pearly gates, passed onto the other side. To urinate: to have a piss, to have a slash, to drain the main vain, to go the bog, to shake the snake. To be drunk: wasted, bladdered, pissed, out of if, wankered. To say hello to a friend: alright mate, alright, how do, hi, or a head nod with no speech. The findings show that gender influences teenagers speech slightly the girls language is slightly more polite than the boys and the boy used a lot of slang when referring to the above words and phrases, the most obvious ones were the words used when the male teenager refers to passing urine as shake the snake, and drain the main vain these sayings caused much amusement to Lees male and female peers. The teenagers are showing how they contribute to new meanings for words and linguistic change. Euphemisms are one of the most fertile sources of new meanings, things that were thought to be to nasty to talk about directly were given polite but roundabout expressions. An example of this is when indoor plumbing was first installed into houses in the eighteenth century the room were first called water closet, this was soon abbreviated to W.C and then replaced by toilet, which had previously meant dressing table. These words are still seen as crude by many people and other euphemisms have came into force such as toilet, bathroom. The teenagers regularly referred to the toilet as the loo and bog. Sex is another area where euphemisms flourish amongst teenagers, in the nineteenth century Jane Austin wrote in her novel they had no intercourse but what the commonest civility required , Jane Austin would of not of expected the effect that this sentence would have on the modern day reader, in her time the word intercourse meant dealings between people. In the twentieth century the phrase sexual intercourse arrived this was used as a delicate way to refer to sex. This has now been shortened to intercourse, and this sexual sense is now so common that the teenagers in the school I visited found it impossible to use the word intercourse in any other sense. They also have their own words for sexual intercourse these words are not seen as offensive and are common in teenagers language. This shows how teenagers influence the change in word meanings and euphemisms in society. The teenagers in the school I visited also use a lot of clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s which, again is another sign of language change in todays society, adults are also guilty of using clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s in modern day English, which is were the Influence could of came from for the teenagers to use clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s in their everday language, some of the most popular clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s I heard amongst the teenagers were at the end of the day, I hear what your saying and basically. The most common one was you know what I mean Another chacteristic of teenage language is rising intonation at the end of a sentence. This has long been noticed as a characteristic feature of Australian English, and is also favoured by some speakers of American English and is very popular within the language of teenagers, this was something that I noticed whilst speaking to the majority of the class. To me as a listener, a sentence ending on a rise sounds like a question as if the speaker is saying She comes from Sydney?, rather than making a declarative statement. But in the last ten years or so, the popularity of Australian soap operas among British teenagers has led to the widespread adoption of this feature among younger people in the UK. It is too early to say whether this is short-term or whether rising intonation will become standard practice for a significant number of British speakers and the teenagers will make it more popular the more they use it. The increasing popularity of the rising intonation can be traced back to a specific event: the arrival in the UK of Australian programmes like Neighbours and Home and Away. Teenagers are big fans of these type of soap operas mean exposure to repeated instances of this feature has had measurable effects on the linguistic behaviour of quite large numbers of British speakers of all ages. Music such as rapping also influences teenagers and many adopt this way of speech some of these words appear below with the translations taken from a book of slang words: Bluh slurred pronunciation of Blood, meaning homie or friend. Bredren meaning mate, or ones audience. It derives from the Jamaican ragga scene, not the German. Buggin Acting weird or upset. Same as acting bug. Herb spliff, bud, dodo, doja, ganja, weed, etc. Wack Awful, cheap, stupid, weak, etc. Rarely spelled whack. Only preceded by wiggedy by the tragically ancient. Murk Murder. Also leave, as in Im finna murk. Peace. Punk Coward or arsehole (not in the anatomical sense). Bling excessively showy or expensive jewellery, cars, etc. From the supposed sound made by light bouncing off diamonds. Its first known usage was in The Silvertones Bling Bling Christmas. (Fo) shizzle, my nizzle (For) sure, my nigger, or alternatively, yes, dear. -izzle is a standard suffix. So shizzle could also mean shit (meaning good), shoes, shirt or shed. (Slang a bluffers guide.1999.pg22) Wigga a white nigger, a wannabe. This way of speaking seems very common nowadays, but I suspect if we were to listen to teenagers from London we would hear a lot more of these words as Londons rap scene is a lot more popular than that of the North West. David Crystal says Its very recent, this new rhythm that comes from rapping, Until recently, people have spoken in the rhythms of Shakespeare: tum te tum te tum. But this new hip-hop accent is rat tat tat tat tat. Its more common than Received Pronunciation these days. Hardly anyone speaks traditional RP any more maybe one or two per cent. (The language revolution pg22) As the language of teenagers changes there will be many linguistic changes and different features introduced over time, as teenagers are very impressionable it is easy to see why these changes spread so quickly. Bibligraphy The language revolution. 2002. David Crystal(Cambridge: Polity Press), Flappers to rappers- American youth slang-.Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster / Springfield, Massachusetts. 1996.) Socialinguistics : Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski. Palgrave (1997)

The Corporate Culture Of Apple Inc Business Essay

The Corporate Culture Of Apple Inc Business Essay Apple incorporation is todays one of the biggest if not the biggest organisation culture change trend master, in the past few years apple as being in the light of it totally perceive genius ways of getting thing done with a different, however Apples corporate culture is constantly changing as a result of changes to its leadership/CEO from time to time. To gain an in-depth understanding of this we must dwell into apple historical background, it pros and cons, and the possibility of future management. Therefore the empirical question would be what is the culture of Apple? What is culture? Culture has been describe by many authors, school of thoughts, theories to mention a few in relation to its conceptual usage,it has been described for example as the dominant values espoused by an organisation, the commonly held and relatively stable set of beliefs, attitudes, values and norms that exit throughout an organisation the basic assumption and beliefs that are share by member of an organisation. In recent time culture has been refer to as the way things are done around here. Lynch (2006, p.37) culture refers to the shared understandings and meanings of that members have concerning an organisation. Rather as individuals have distinctive personalities organisation have their own particular culture. Some will be friendly, relaxed and informal while others will be highly formal aloof and hostile. Also Drenna(1992).in senior.B (1997).p101)says culture is what typical of the organisation, the habits the prevailing attitudes, the grown up pattern of accepted and expected behaviou r . The main feature of culture is that even though there are many organisational differences there seem to be share understandings within them. Culture tends to build gradually in rational thinking of groups with the system which later forms a sub/dominant culture. Using Handy (1993) cultural model, handy opine that A culture cannot be precisely define, for it is something that is perceived, something felt handy (p. 191).however he pointed out the four type of culture in organisation which are explain in fig1.1. Type Metaphor Characteristics Power Culture A web Control from centre; political and entrepreneurial ,personal power serves the figure-head and the leader Role Culture The Greek Temple Classical structure; bureaucratic; role identity position power predominate, serves the structure Task culture A net Valued individual expertise and contribution focus on completing the job, both personal and position powers are important; high level of collaboration base on group unity. Person culture A cluster or galaxy Combine of a lose collection of individuals-pursuing own goal but share common facility, power not necessary a focus because members are experts in their own field. This culture serves the individual. Fig1.1 The four culture type highlights how power and control are utilized by organisation and of whose interest are they serving? certainly theres an element of power culture at Apple inc, as noted in the case study, Steve Jobs entrepreneurship style had giving way for personal ideology and more-or-less gain control over the system, he is characterise as Apple itself, the span of control and politic is also associated with Steve upon returning back in late 1990s, when he changed the culture back to the way its use to be when he was at the apex Apple. Also the Role culture could be link with eras of sculley, and other leaders who try to formalize the structure by imposing their own rule, neglecting the important of project groups, which is central to the Task culture even though individual expertise at Apple is crucial to its innovation the only existing collaboration is based on secrecy. A typical reflection of Apple is the individual culture we may say is the Person culture as different g eeks work tiredly to bring about a unique invention based on their expertise. According to, Van backer(case study p.10), ( Backer)an analyst at Gartner inc, noted when Apple goes out to hire somebody, the no 1 criteria isnt how much experience you have or who you know .its whether they think you will fit into the culture. Nevertheless the culture seems unique but can it function without structure, the leadership, performance and strategy? Ideally, we can communicate this by a thorough analysis of the model below; take note that the model is a non linear model as all the elements are inter-related and interdependent. Fig1.2 a culture relation model Structure Noticeable in the case study is the commentators reference to Apple as a Unique culture, analysts argued that Steve jobs the CEO of Apple is the best marketer in the world, but his leadership style suggest a different view. For instance secrecy is the pinnacle of Apples strategic marketing culture. Apple was known to appreciate and value its employee, it worth noting that whereas motivational theories such as B.F Skinner (1974), Mintberg (1979), have highlighted the importance of reward and value as the ideological stimuli that motivate individual to work, in contrast, at Apple any universal concept of motivation might not work, because of how apple justifies its reward system with a do or die culture. More so the structure at Apple Inc is becoming complex as it evolves into a different pattern over the years. FIG2 Hierarchy and Flat structure The above is an illustration of a standardize structure of organisation formulated by many scholars over the year to explain organizational functionality; the flat is more prominent to entrepreneurship, with suitable element of informal, charismatic ,and informal leadership quality but grapevine in nature while the other is ideal for a larger organisation. However, of all the supportive research is the work of Canadian academic, Henry Mintzberg. According to Mintzberg (1979) an organisational structure is the sum total of the way in which it divides its labour into distinct tasks and then achieve coordination between them. also structure is define as the established pattern of relationship between the components parts of an organisation, out lining both communication control and authority patterns .supportive to this also is Wilson and Rosenfeld(1990) explained that structure distinguishes the parts of an organisation and delineates the relationship between them. This is supported by Apples trend in organisation structure which is more complex than initially perceived, for instance Apple is seen as the pioneer of work hard play hard ethic. Equally important is the frequent changes in culture as different leaders tried to adopt a different approach to reorganise the structure, it is interesting that analyst said Apple adopted a style that was not too far too formal or hierarchical and that the approach was more result-driven. In ugly circumstances as a reference to the case study, any poor performance at Apple will not be consistent with its culture; it is important to say that any change in culture will resort in change in structure, however if the structure cannot survive without the culture then where do we inject the leadership style to bring about ultimate performance? Apple structure is neither hierarchy nor flat we could say its more of a hybrid or matrix unlike hierarchy which is prone to bureaucracy=read further according to Webber (1947),in his analysis of organisation he had identified the principle of bureaucracy as a continuous organisation that is bound by rules. Webber outline the importance of ideal bureaucracy to an organisation as positive and rational unlike the other which he described as domination as charismatic authority and traditional authority .mention adocrasy=read further Fig 2.1 A representation of Apples organisation formation structure. AGENT OF TRANSFORMATION Leadership as a concept has been an interesting centre piece to different fields of thought, to the ordinary man; a leader is just a symbolic head, but as a supportive element by theorists and analysts a definite category of classification; it is said the most important type of leaderships are of the following: the charismatic, the traditional, the situational, the appointed, the functional and the principle centred leader for the purpose of this essay we will look at leadership from management perspective, according Cole(2004), leadership is define as the following: leadership at work is a dynamic process whereby one individual in a group is not only responsible for the group results but actively seeks the collaboration and commitment of all the group members in a achieving group goals in a particular context and against the background of a particular national culture INNOVATORS The leadership style of Apple is highly represented by their iconic CEO Steve job that is highly regarded for his innovative, creative and marketing strategies. Using classification of leadership his style could be linked as the transformational leader which is characterised by the transformation of organisation, creativity and innovation with the purpose to engender commitment. However the simplicity of his approach could resort in the downfall of his perceived personality and organisational performance, for instance if this was ideal for the organisational culture then the question would be the sited instances of global workforce revolting against the culture of secretary used by Apple as an accepted way to move the company forward. If apple is to maintain its status quo as the number one most valued company in the world then it needs to engage itself in some form of leadership re orientation as over the past decade different management/leaders have tied to change the culture of ap ple and its structure only to head back to the starting point which is where they are today, Steve job certainly must be doing some right, concrete evidence suggest that Steve job must have outperformed his expectation to the board of management as emphasized in the case study. CONSTRAINTS the ripple effect of change of leaders/managers at Apple inc emphasis the need for change in culture, however this changes also brought about change in structure as each leader tries to implement his/her own ideology, arguable is the internal problem that apple faces from its reorganisation, for instance the appointment of Sculley who was credit for making Apple one of the biggest and fastest-growing corporation in the US.(case study p.5 ).A series of failure in the early 90s again brought another power shift when the board decided it time for leadership change and Micheal spindler was appointed in 1993 to replace Sculley, Spinder also fail to perform as expected ,Amelio could have being the one man that brought the last drastic change into apple because of his focus on Apple product line and workforce reduction but fail follow Apples corporate culture, once more Steve was back in business to turn things Around. A key point to his transformational leadership style, nevertheless it wo uld appear that the board were more interested in performance rather than leadership quality or style; however performance cannot be divorced from leadership. THE ACHIEVER Performance, theres no generalised definition of performance; it has being said that performance cannot be easily defined as you cannot measure or manage it. However few management researchers have noted the core different of performance from other fields in comparison to management sectors. Performance is more adapted to performance management day in day out, therefore performance could be agreed to be of relevance to situational changes. Armstrong and Baron (1998) define performance management as a strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained success to organization by improving the performance of the people who work in them by developing the capability of team and individual who work in them.. Therefore, it provides avenue for knowledge on organizational objectives and goals and a spectrum to manage and train individual in order to achieve to such objectives Armstrong stress that performance is strategic because it is concern with broader issues facing organizational effectiveness. As evidence in the case study the market value of Apple against the backdrop of its financial performance over the years in Exhibit VIII, it is clear that in the past decade there being a major profit share in the company, more so recently Apple posted all time record revenue with increase earnings of 78 percent, as of July 2010. Apple posted record revenue of $15.7 billion and also quarterly profit of $3.25 billion,. Surely the share holders would be very pleased with the result. These results compare to workforce engagement and the strategy used to achieve result cannot be overlooked, Apple was known to appreciate its employees. It was consider a great place to work for people who are personate about what they did. (Case study p.3) also experts felt one of the key success to Apples performance is its ability to attract and retain key personnel in technical, marketing and staff positions Nevertheless financial performance in one comfort zone for the company identity externally but d oes this speak the same for the internal general audit of employee of Apple who work tirelessly for over 60hours to get this results out. Then how engaged are the staff of Apple incorporation. The unique culture of Apple which is base on the leadership style of one man approach: Steve jobs, can it survive after the exit of jobs. its plausible to say yes as jobs himself claim he had trained others to manage whenever he is no longer available, however the determination of each individual could result in systemic failure of the culture as every leader approach with a different goal setting. If the goal serve as the basis for motivation, and the goals are set by managers, industrial standard or base on negotiation, how then do you motivate individual, researchers noted that one can be motivated by target set against the others while you could be de-motivated by over pressured standard. levison(1972)highlights this in Asinine attitude towards motivation, in relation to reward or punishment to motivate workers, more so borrowing the work of Hygiene theory of motivation by Herzberg (1968),which he claim that the most important motivator or satisfier are Achievement Recognition Work itself Responsibility Advancement. While the following called hygiene factors or dissatisfies Company policy and administration. Supervision-the technical aspects. Salary. Interpersonal relations-supervision Working conditions. Herzberg pointed out that these factors were intrinsically related to the content of work, i.e. with intrinsic challenge, interest and the individual responses generated by them. If applied to Apple, how do we justify the working condition of staff who work for long hours to get the job done, or does the secrecy atmosphere bring about individual motivation or fear of punishment has whoever fail to comply to the culture is noticeably punished, the reward scheme in apple for those that come up with innovative technology like iphone, mac ipad could result in esteem of individual while the punishment approach on the other hand is detrimental to the public image of Apple as any failure leads to sacking individual or leakage of secret will automatically result in dismissal. Therefore we could say any universal concept of motivation might not work in Apple cooperate culture base on perceived punishment and reward of staff performance, thus Apple cooperate culture is zero experience and no stability of staff until now though it has worked for the company. Even though the strategy may be consider risky. Apple target young staff recruits with less commitment and more glory seeking rather than experience. However is worth saying the older generation are not mush expandable. This could be explain using Maslow (1956) Hierarchy of needs, which he associated the important of needs to motivate individual, starting from basic needs called physiological needs, follow by safety needs, then love needs, esteem needs, and self actualisation. He emphasis that as one needs is fulfil we move up to another. Goal setting (locke,shaw sari latham 1981)A change in goal will foreseen a better Apple as a company, for example Apple has always focus on improving on a previous product i.e. Iphone1,2,3..4.e.tc while not come up with something entirely different and innovative. Even though Apple came up with a micro palm device name ipad,it still relied entire on the old operating system which is gradually facing out as competition grows in the technology industry. Again the past ten years down the line Steve Jobs was back the in same job at the apex of the company after many failures of different managers at various stages of cultural development within Apple inc. even though Jobs is making money for apple for now the question is will same strategy that fails at the initial past decade in culture, work for the future? A do or die culture was Apples it it ideal for apple? For instance sculleyl tried for Apple for about five years, thus due to cultural strategy of sculley, the board got rid of him. At this juncture the answer would be it all depends on many factors conserving strategy culture and variable element to forecast the future.

Meaning Of Engineering Disaster

Meaning Of Engineering Disaster The duty of the engineer is to react to people need by building or creating something along an appropriate set of guidelines. Importantly, that device, plan or creation should perform its function without any failure. Everything, nonetheless, must eventually fail to perform its given function with a sought after level of performance. Hence, the engineer must struggle to design in such a way as to avoid failure which could result in loss of property, damage to the environment of the user of that technology, and possibly injury or loss of life. Through analysis and study of engineering disasters, modern engineering designers can learn what not to do and how to create designs with less of a chance of failure. (Leveson, 1993) The history of Chernobyl nuclear power plant Chernobyl is a small town in the Ukraine near the Belarus border, with a population of 45,000. The nuclear power station of Chernobyl lies 15 kilometers to the northwest of the actual Chernobyl town. In 1986, the USSR generated roughly 10% of the worlds nuclear power from only 43 operating reactors. Together they produced 27 thousand Mega Watts of electricity. By 1986, the year of the accident, four of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station were the most modern to date Soviet reactors, the RBMK-type. Two more of these reactors were still under construction at the station. (http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/data/introduction/location.html) Aim of this topic This research can be roughly divided into three parts as follows. Firstly, a variety of opinions and different perspectives of the survey would be discussed. Then, a discussion will include the information from other related sources and analyze the survey together. Finally, a conclusion will be drawn concerning the findings of the research project; recommendations will be made with regards to future research into the issue, and limitation on this report. Literature review Overview of engineering disaster The failure into an engineering disaster There are many factors that can cause engineering disaster and much of the reason why we consider an engineering failure to be an engineering disaster has to do with public perception of risk. For example, in 1992 roughly the same number of fatalities occurred (in the United States) in transportation accidents involving airplanes (775), trains (755), and bicycles (722). Yet the public perception of the risk associated with air travel is often much higher than that for trains and certainly for bicycles. (Matousek, 1976) This stems from two reasons: (1) the large loss of life resulting from a single air crash, and (2) the air passengers lack of control over their environment in the case of air or, to a lesser degree, rail accidents. Both of these reasons results in increased fear, and hence a higher degree of perceived risk. Principle cause of engineering disaster The primary causes of engineering disasters are usually considered to be Design error Standard of the plant (depending on cost) Operating error Human lack of knowledge and skill 1.2.3 Mechanical error Management tools (Preventive maintenance) (Bernhard, 1999) How Nuclear Physics works Nuclear Fission Nuclear fission is the process whereby large, unstable atoms are split up and as a result release large amounts of energy. The most common element used for this process is called uranium. Process of nuclear reactors Nuclear fission reactions occur inside the core, producing heat. The control rods control the system by absorbing stray neutrons which in turn slows down the rate of reactions. The heat from the core is transferred to the water through conduction, which then turns into steam with a temperature of 580Â °C. The pressure of the steam turns the turbine, powering the generator. The generator converts the turning motion of the turbine into electrical energy, which now can be injected into the national electricity grid. This steam is then cooled by water from the cooling lake which then causes the steam to condense back into water. The cycle then repeats. (Ben, 2008) Pros and cons of Nuclear power plant These days, there are a great number of alternative energy that human found and nuclear energy is one of the best choice of alternative energy. On the plus side, there are many benefits of nuclear power. To begin with, it is a clean energy; therefore, it would dramatically improve the environment. For example, smoke and carbon are not contributing to greenhouse effect and consequently protect the ozone. Furthermore, nuclear power is reliable because it is use only a little uranium to make nuclear reaction which cause a great number of energy. On the other hand, nuclear technology is problematic in some ways. One of the main drawbacks of nuclear energy is that radiation can harm cells of human body; hence, it can make humans sick or even cause death, and symptom illness can affect and kill people in follow years. Dangers of radiation When unstable atoms naturally break down (decay) they release they release radioactive particles. There are three types of particles: alpha ÃŽÂ ±, beta ÃŽÂ ² and gamma ÃŽÂ ³. They are considered dangerous as they are able to ionise. They are able to change the stucture of atoms by knocking off or dragging electrons away from the atom. In humans, animals and plants, this ionising effect alters the DNA code in cells causing cell mutation. Through this, the altered cells are reproduced through cell division which may then form cancerous growthsThis radiation isnt only sourced from the site of a nuclear disaster. Poising can occur through contaminated water which then infects soil and hence food supplies. To add more to this potential problem, radioactive particles can stay hazardous for thousands of years. (Ben, 2008) The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster The Accident The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that occurred on 26 April 1986 was the most serious accident ever to occur in the nuclear power industry. The reactor was destroyed in the accident and considerable amounts of radioactive material were released to the environment. The accident caused the deaths, within a few weeks, of 30 workers and radiation injuries to over a hundred others. In response, the authorities immediately evacuated, in 1986, about 116,000 people from areas surrounding the reactor and subsequently relocated, after 1986, about 220,000 people from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The accident caused serious social and psychological disruption in the lives of those affected and vast economic losses over the entire region. Large areas of the three countries were contaminated with radioactive elements, and radionuclides were measurable in all countries of the northern hemisphere. (Alexander, 1993) The Cause of the disaster There are several factors which cause Chernobyl nuclear power disaster. 1. Human error (Operator Over-Confidence) The operators felt they were an elite crew and they had become overconfident The operators did not think carefully enough about the effects on the reactor. The operators felt under pressure to complete the test this time. 2. Design error (Safety System Inadequacies) A fault in the control system also makes the emergency shutdown unable to function. The emergency shutdown desired effect relied on the reactor being operated correctly. There had to be at least 30 control rods in the core for the emergency shutdown to work to according to standard. The reactor could not be run at low power normally. (http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/) The Affected by the disaster One major result of the Chernobyl accident that would cause as much agony to the incident was the spread of radiation. A definite effect of the spread of the radiation was the damage it had on the Eastern European agriculture. The EC (European Community) immediately put a 90 day ban on agricultural goods from Eastern Europe. This was initially thought of as political strategy from the US as well as other Western countries. This caused the Soviet Union to take the responsibility to pay for all the damage done to the Eastern European agriculture. Post-Disaster The effects on health Chernobyl affected the health of many people throughout Russia. Altogether the total number of fatalities caused by Chernobyl stands at 31 officially. Around 600,000 however were classified as being significantly exposed and will have their health monitored their whole lives. Twenty-four people were disabled by the accident; some so severely they were left as invalids for the rest of their lives. Two-hundred thiry-eight people have suffered acute radiation syndrome. The total number of people that were in this classification is somewhere around 10,000. The official report on the number of cancer effects is as follows as prescribed by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) of the IAEA. (Vladimir, 1991) Environmental impact Besides the effects on humans, the Chernobyl disaster also dramatically affected the environment with 150 000 km2 of land contaminated with radioactive material. Mutations in both plants and animals were evident Leaves changed shape and some animals were born with deformities. Despite this, rare species of moose, birds, beavers, wolves and boars have returned in the absence of humans. (Vladimir, 1991)

Analysis of Hannibal: Enemy of Rome by Leonard Cottrell Essay -- Hanni

Analysis of Hannibal: Enemy of Rome by Leonard Cottrell   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author of Hannibal: Enemy of Rome, Mr. Leonard Cottrell, inspired by the book, The Histories of Polybius, translated by W. R. Paton. Mr. Cottrell, endeavored to recreate the journeys of Hannibal by traveling by car nearly the same route in 1959. Mr. Cottrell traveled by car the journey of Hannibal through northern Spain, the modern day Swiss Alps, and down into the Italian peninsula while constantly referring to Polybuis' writings. Mr. Cottrell describes Hannibal's motives, his journey, his battles to conquer the Roman Republic, his defeat, and his eventual withdrawal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mr. Cottrell describes Hannibal as an ambitious warrior from boyhood. He learned soldierly virtues and hatred for the Romans from his father at an early age. Hannibal was the son of Hamlicar, a distinguished leader and veteran of the first Punic War against Rome. Hannibal's motives derived from loyalty to his father, his lineage, and hate for the Roman Republic. Following the first Punic War, Sicily had been taken by Rome, Corsica and Sardina were lost, but Spain remained as a powerful Carthaginian settlement. By the efforts of his father, Hannibal was taken to an altar in Spain to witness the offerings; and laying his hands upon such, sweared an oath to prove himself to forever be an enemy of the Roman Empire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hannibal proved to be an excellent leader. He had the support of both his troops and of the government above him. This was ...