Types of Beam

Introduction to Structural Analysis Contents Introduction . †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3 Type of beam †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4, 5, 6 & 7 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦8 Introduction A beam is a structural member which carried load. These loads are most often perpendicular to its longitudinal axis, but they can be varying types. A beam supporting any load develops internal stresses to resist applied loads. The types of beam is determined by the kind of support the beam has at its ends or anywhere along its length. This is because each type of support generates of specific kind and combination of reactions.Types of beam A. Cantilever beam Used to create the floating or hovering effect. This is used to create of a bay window, balconies, and some bridges. The weight load is spread back to the main beams of the structure in the cantilever beams and allowing a portion of the structure to go beyond the supported perimeters of the structure foundation. Building in downtown area Cincinnati. Overhang in building is supported on variable depth cantilevers. Loading on the cantilevers primarily tip loading due to outside columns. (Cincinnati, Ohio) Entrance to stadium taken during construction.Roofing supported on variable depth glue-laminated cantilevers. Loading due to roof weight, wind, and snow. (Berne, Switzerland) World Trade Center. Further example of building overhang supported on variable depth cantilevers. Note that adjacent cantilevers have common tip displacement. (New York City) B. Steel I beam 1. B. Steel I Beam Very popular choice in the construction is no other than steel I-Beam. The I-Beam is also known as W shape. This is widely used in the steel construction. This I-Beam design is common fundamental beam design in commercial structures, but it can be used in the residential design also.Continuous steel plate beam bridge. This 3-span bri dge has a composite section consisting of the steel girder and the concrete roadway on top. The I-beams were fitted with shear keys as in the structure. (Near Lausanne, Switzerland) Quai Bridge. Variable depth continuous riveted steel I-beam highway bridge under construction. In addition to the vertical web reinforcement on the outside girder, note the compression web reinforcement on the inside of the left girder. (Zurich, Switzerland) Continuous I-section plate beam bridge. Detail of bridge showing hinged bearing on intermediate pier.This is the fixed point of the bridge for longitudinal temperature expansion. (Decatur, Illinois) C. Flitch beam Used for coating steel and wood to create a lightweight beam with adequate strength, so this beam design are composite beams. The addition of the wooden elements will allow the beam to be fixed to existing wooden structures. While maintaining the strict construction budget, this is used to support the heavy vertical loads. Flitch beam is ve ry useful when the additional load carrying capacity to an existing beam. Project that involved flitch beamD. Hip beam Project that involved hip beam The hip beam is one among the types of beam; it is very popular in roofing design. A hip beam will provide support for other load bearings beams branching off at symmetrical angles. This is more often used in the residential constructions. References http://nisee. berkeley. edu/godden/godden_a. html/ http://classof1. com/homework_answers/civil_engineering/types_of_beam/ https://www. google. com. my/search? q=type+of+beam&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org. mozilla:en-US:official&client

Organizational Behavior at Accenture Essay

1. Introduction This paper gives an overview of the organizational behavior (Organizational Structure, Culture, and Leadership) at Accenture– the last organization I worked with. Accenture is an international management consulting, technology services and outsourcing organization, with approximately 0.25 million people and clients in more than 120 countries. It has generated net revenue of US$ 27.9 billion for last fiscal year i.e. 31 st August 2012. (Accenture,2012) 2. Organizational Structure 2.1 Accenture’s Structure – At A Glance Organization’s structure divides the organizational activities and co-ordinates them to achieve the aim of the organization. Accenture is organized into various partially overlapping industry areas that allow the clients to choose from a variety of integrated consulting services. It upholds four global operations workforces: 1. Consulting 2. Servicing 3. Solutions 4. Enterprise Table 2.1 highlights five operating groups and their respective 19 industry groups within the organization. (Accenture Facts,2012) Financial services Banking Capital Market Insurance Health & Public Services Health Public Services Communications , Media & Technology Communication Electronics & High Tech Media & Entertainment Product Automotive Air, Freights & Travel Services Consumer Goods & Services Industrial Equipment Infrastructure & Transportation Resources Chemical Energy Natural Resources Utilities Table 2.1 The figure below displays the organizational chart of Accenture and explains how different sub-units interact with each other. Exam Number: B031449 Page 3 of 11 Figure 2.1 Accenture’s Organizational structure (Source: Official board, 2012) 2.2 Analyzing the Structure of Accenture Buchanan and Huczynski (2010) defined seven key elements of organizational structure and in this section, we will see how they relate to Accenture as an organization. It can be easily inferred from the organizational structure (Figure 2.1) and Work group division (Table 2.1) that Accenture is a large complex organization that requires its employees to be highly specialized in the tasks allocated to them to ensure that quality work is delivered. In order to make sure that all the employees are highly skilled with respect to their tasks, an intense induction takes place in the beginning of their journey in the organization. Accenture follows a tall organizational hierarchy structure due to its diverse workforce and workgroups where Span –of –Control for a Manager depends on the size of the project. Within the solutions workforce, in a single project, following hierarchy exists: Figure 2.2 Hierarchies in a project For example, Span of Control for the project in which I worked was a 96: Designation Programmers (10) Senior Programmers (8) Analyst Programmer (6) Team Lead (4) Manager Span of Control One Team lead , supervises 24 resources One Manager supervises 4 team-leads. So total Span of Control = 96 The tasks in each project in the Solutions workforce are departmentalized into different submodules i.e. Analysis, Design & Build, and Testing. Department of Analysis is responsible for creating business artifacts that detail out client’s requirement and proposed solution to achieve it. These artifacts are then passed to the Design & Build Team who create the high-level design documents and develops the products which client has asked for. Once the product is delivered, it is then passed on to the testing team to ensure that the final product is as per the business artifacts and there are no issues encountered. Accenture is highly formalized organization, where each project while working on a client’s requirement has to adhere to the policies, procedures and norms set by Accenture as well as the clients. This is one of the key approaches to gain the client’s trust. Since project managers have the authority to take decision related to their respective projects, we can call Accenture as highly centralized organization. 3. Organizational Culture Culture is embedded and reflected in every aspect of an organization. As stated by Ravasi, D., Schultz, M. (2006), organizational culture is a lay down of shared intellectual assumptions, which guide understanding and action in an organization by defining suitable behavior for diverse situations. Figure 3.1 is a three-layer model for organizational culture developed by Edgar Schein (2004). Figure 3.1: Schein’s three levels of culture – Source (Bohine, Markham, 2003) Insight on Accenture’s Culture 1. Schein’s three levels of Culture a) The first level i.e. Observable level is the most visible layer. Table 3.1 highlights few of the Surface manifestation of culture at Accenture Manifestation Ceremonials Course Norms Slogan Symbol Accenture Fun Fridays, sporting events, monthly birthday celebrations, quarterly awards Greenfield training for the new employees where the number of days varies from 1 week to 6 weeks depending on the employees Code of Business conduct led by multiple policies High Performance Delivered Accenture has six core values (Accenture Core Values) – Stewardship: Fulfilling our obligation of building a better, stronger and more durable company for future generations, protecting the Accenture brand, meeting our commitments to stakeholders, acting with an owner mentality, developing our people and helping improve communities and the global environment Best People: Attracting, developing and retaining the best talent for our business, challenging our people, demonstrating a â€Å"can-do† attitude and fostering a collaborative and mutually supportive environment Client Value Creation: Enabling clients to become high-performance businesses and creating long-term relationships by being responsive and relevant and by consistently delivering value. One Global Network: Leveraging the power of global insight, relationships, collaboration and learning to deliver exceptional service to clients wherever they do business Respect for Individual: Valuing diversity and unique contributions, fostering a trusting, open, and inclusive environment and treating each person in a manner that reflects Accenture’s values. Integrity: Being ethically unyielding and honest and inspiring trust by saying what we mean, matching our behaviors to our words and taking responsibility for our actions Rewards and Recognition in Accenture: Accenture has various ways of acknowledging an employee’s contribution towards achieving the â€Å"High Quality† work. In addition to promotion, few of the awards given by Accenture (specific to solutions domain) are: ACE Award – Accenture Celebrates Excellence is an award given on quarterly basis to the employees who show outstanding performance during a quarter in their respective industrial groups. The nominations for these awards are forwarded by the project manager along with the citation to justify the nominations. Innovator for the quarter – This category of award is held at different project levels and is awarded to an individual or group of people who have innovated something to either add value to the client or helped in increasing automated work to save on efforts. Star of the month – This category of award is also held at project level where the work of an employee performing extraordinary is acknowledged. Propel Awards – This category of award is held at industrial group level where the employees are awarded against different criteria’s e.g. Adding Value to Client, Organizing quality work and anticipating critical situations etc. Celebrating Performance – Celebrating performance is a tool through which Team leads and above acknowledges the work of an individual by giving them some points. These points can be redeemed via a shopping catalog holding a range of different things. c) The third level i.e. basic assumption is invisible layer. It is the perception held by individuals concerning human behavior. As mentioned earlier, this cannot be seen but felt by the individuals and hence is difficult to be described in words for any organization. 2. On analyzing Accenture based on different Cultural framework and Cultural typologies it can be said that Accenture falls into Role culture and Communal culture. The justification for this goes below: ï‚ § Accenture is very much driven by its policies, procedures, and rules, which makes it high on formalization aspect. Figure 2.1 clearly shows the level of hierarchy that Accenture has. Managers at top of the hierarchy work as per their roles and specializations that make Accenture a highly centralized organization and hence putting it into a Role culture. However, if we deep dive to the lowest division i.e. the Projects, the task to be achieved is allocated at the Managerial level and is then cascaded down to different team members based on their expertise. The aim of the team is to ensure the task is delivered on time and with a high quality. For example, in my projects, there were times when a task demanding high expertise on specific domain were assigned to the senior programmers instead of the team leads. This clearly displays that the project division is on to the Task culture i.e. high formalization, low centralization where people are acknowledged based on their expertise and not just position. ï‚ § Accenture has very strict entry criteria and employees who suit the working environment are selected. Once the employees are in the company, another level of assessment happens to check the skills to identify which project who the employee be best suited for. During an initial phase in the project, the employees are giving an intensive training about the core values of Accenture as well as the client that they are working for. The roles and goals for each individual are made clear right from the beginning and each employee is expected to have a degree of flexibility to switch the roles as and when required. All these characteristics make Accenture falls into the category of Communal culture i.e. High Sociability and high solidarity. 4. Leadership Walt Disney said, â€Å"You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality† (Disney, 2011) Accenture groups skills, competencies, and personality traits of effective leaders into three vital pillars (Accenture Leadership): Visionary Evangelist- They see possibilities and inspire others with their vision; they know where the company is headed and what its customers will value in the future. Relationship Builder-They enlist the support and capabilities of others by building loyalty, motivating and engaging. Manager of Execution- They provide structure, discipline and a sense of priorities to get things done. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (1998) described the concept of situational leadership. Situational leadership is an approach of identifying the most effective way of motivating, directing, and supporting employees to get the work done. Whether it is the leaders at the top of hierarchy (CEO) or the leaders at the lowest division (project managers), leadership style in Accenture varies depending upon the situation. Figure 4.1 Situational Leadership Model (Source: Davidmerzel, 2012) How Leadership style works in Accenture When an employee is new to a project or the organization, it is ensured that a counselor and a supervisor are assigned to him. It is supervisor’s responsibility to ensure that the employee understand the norms and the working culture of the project and Councilor helps the employee with the career aspirations and issues (if any) faced by him while working in the project. In other words, it can be said that supervisor acts as the coach and councilor supports the employee at the same time. Supervisor and the Councilor are not the same person and it is the councilor who remains the same throughout the journey in Accenture where as supervisors keep of changing as when an employee progresses. Once an employee displays the ability and the skills required to tasks assigned (i.e. generally at Analyst Programmer level), the work is then delegated where very few directions and support are required. At no point in Accenture, you would find a leader portraying the directive leadership. Support and mentoring is always provided until an employee is capable to work on his own. 5. Synopsis Accenture is an organization on the move, one that is engaged in a good range of projects in various locations. Its culture varies from one extreme to another depending on the client and the geographical location of the office in which one reside. Employees, working at the client site, particularly for extended periods, find themselves following client’s culture as well as Accenture’s. It has a youthful environment that helps in making contacts, which lasts as an employee moves from project to project. In spite of the youthful, work-hard/play-hard atmosphere, employees strictly adhere to Accenture’s high standards, which require dedication and discipline on behalf of the employees. People at Accenture genuinely respect and admire each other. Willingness to help others and strong interpersonal skills are more common that being self-centered. This can be easily seen by the prompt responses of peers in different cities and countries towards any technical query being raised at the company’s portal. To summaries, Accenture surely is a strong cultured and centralized organization where the core values of the organization and client’s both are kept in mind and at the same time its ensured that employee’s professional aspirations are also met. I would definitely say a great place to work! 6. References (Arranged alphabetically) 1. Accenture, 2012 – About Accenture Available at: http://www.accenture.com/gb-en/company/Pages/index.aspx Accessed on: 26th October 2012 2. Accenture Core Values: Living Accenture’s Core Values [online] Available at: http://careers.accenture.com/gben/working/overview/values/Pages/index.aspx Accessed on: 26th October 2012 3. Accenture Facts,2012 – Q4 Fiscal 2012 Available at: http://newsroom.accenture.com/fact+sheet/ Accessed on: 26th October 2012 4. Accenture Leadership: Why Leadership and Culture Matters [online] Available at: http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture_Why_Leadership_and _Culture_Matter.pdf Accessed on: 27th October 2012 5. Accenture Logo – Accenture UK Limited [online] Available at: http://www.enterprisemanagement360.com/company/accenture-uk-l imited/#.UIqNsm_Mjsw Accessed on: 26th October 2012 6. Bohine, Markham, 2003

Louis Armstrong and His Innovation

Louis Armstrong was known as one of the greatest artist in Jazz History. With his work and dedication to the Jazz music, He managed to connect diverse population of society using his music through his innovations; Blues, Improvisation, Singing, Repertory, and Rhythm.Louis Armstrong made an impact on BluesLouis Armstrong was mostly known as one of the greatest trumpet player in Jazz history, specifically Early New Orleans Jazz. In this case, Armstrong recognize the Blues; a type of jazz genre, as a founding foundation of Jazz. Blues Jazz has the important role in Jazz history. Blues originated during 19th century in Southern plantation. The founders of Blues were mostly slave and ex-slaves who sings as they pluck plants in the fields.†You got to like playing pretty things if you're ever going to be any good blowing your own horn.† With the help of Charles Black, Columbia law professor, Louis Armstrong would not have been recognize for this reasons. When Charles heard Armstrong performed lived, the experience he have with Armstrong during his live performance feels that it will have an effect about viewing the race. Louis Armstrong song, â€Å"Savoy Blues† made an impact on society. It shows tenderness of the sound and shows a little feelings behind the song. This song was considered as a sweet jazz, a sound that lacks improvisation and performed with a moderate tone. With the use of sweet jazz, other uprising black musicians started to use this kind of music genre. If Louis Armstrong did not use the sweet jazz, he would not inspired other inspiring artist and would not impact his music. The Idea of Louis Armstrong was to inspired young black musicians to embrace the sound of Jazz, specifically Sweet Jazz. In this case, a movement called Harlem Renaissance that supports the black achievements were introduced. In Conclusion, Armstrong recognizes blues as the founding foundation for Jazz because it leads to the rights of the black men during their years. Through his musical career, he shows to people that it is possible to have a strong feeling to blues. In this case, He influenced a lot of inspiring musicians to create a music that is similar to him, also known as sweet jazz. Improvisation led him to be KnownThrough his Improvisation, his goal is to have a connection to his verbal to the music. Armstrong describes his music as a approaching to improvisations in the terms of suggesting logic developments and through his progress. His music shows that his first chorus plays melody and his second chorus plays the same melody with another combination of melodies. As he plays his instrument, trumpet. He always stated that his trumpet always tells a story. In short, whenever he plays his trumpet he just need to go with the flow to feel the music in it. Armstrong develops his music through creating a story, according to Roy Eldridge, When Armstrong creates music, it's like connecting an idea of telling a story with syntactic and cumulative development. Every phase that Armstrong plays led to somewhere else, that links to other songs. In this case, Armstrong's motivation was to shows a attention to others, mostly through a nightclub. Armstrong's improvisation shows that his melodies were unique, creative, and shows emotions towards the songs. His Improvisation depends on an attractive tunes, His music structure must be elegant. Another approach with his improvisation is through harmony, through the chord progressions, the tune must be focused shifted from tune to harmony in order to create an abstract and a large scale creative sounds. Armstrong's Improvisation brought changes to his melody. His improvisation methis was to think what rhythm that is already created and what to add to it in order to be more creative rather than creating a new rhythm from the scratch. Armstrong's melodic tunes were considered as a free mode. His chord progressions was seen as a potential to create a harmonic improvisations, a related way of creating a new rhythm. With in that, People respect Louis Armstrong with his great composition on music because of the quality of the tune and his pitches, the mood within the song he made and it sound that is made has a relaxing tune for the listeners to like it. In summary, throughout his career, records shoes that his music was advancing, using improvisation, he managed to get a lot of attentions through his music. The main goal was to let everyone know the connection of his music and the other's music rather than listening to a music without knowing anything. With improvisation, he made jazz as music that shows individual expressions. Crystal Voice of Louis ArmstrongThrough his career, He also sings specifically scat-singing. Scat singing is type of singing that is using nonsense syllable instead of words. Throughout the Jazz history, male vocalist of jazz were musical performers originally and one of them was Louis Armstrong. With the use of his improvisation, he emphasized the music more with his scat singing. According to his singing, his trumpet and scat has a connection between in it. As he plays his trumpet, it is played by using a triplet pattern of eight notes and develops motif by the right ascending or descending tune of his melody. Same thing as his scat, the development of the motif of the trumpet somehow related to scat. As Armstrong sung, the sound that came out gives a â€Å"dynamic synergistic effect. It brings a thrilling tune when using voice that is like a trumpet instrument.When Armstrong sings, people described it as a â€Å"heart warming†, and â€Å"beautiful and nostalgic.†. Louis Armstrong has the same manners to sing as he did on trumpet. As being said, His singing and playing trumpet has the emphasize on a gracefully melodic, rhythms, and triadic extensions. With is singing, Louis made an impact on the other singers such as; Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Elvis Presley. Armstrong's scatting melody was considered as a powerful melody throughout his music, as well being said, some artist have been collaborated with him like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. In conclusion, Armstrong wouldn't been so recognized if he didn't introduce scat-singing to the public. As his use scat singing, he opened a door full of opportunity to the future aspiring. RepertoryAs Louis Armstrong considered as one of the most influential person in Jazz, His music has a potential to the listeners. Throughout his musical career, There were a lot of people that His music was not original, but just were being improvised. In fact, it is true; however, not all the hits he just improvised, some of them were written originally . As he composing his own song, there were some mistakes on it, over and over he changes some of his tunes in order to get the right tune. With his repertory, he sold a lot of albums. His repertory made an transformation through his career.As people believed that his repertory was low quality, his career suddenly fail to become popular. With his dedication to music, he started again to show different kinds of repertory that he has that ended up to have one of the best recordings in his period. His repertory showed variety of sound such as timbre. He also includes different techniques within his music such as inserting instruments' range. With his repertory, He created some of Tin Pan Alley songs into a masterpiece. In that case, Some of Louis Armstrong's musics became one of the standards of jazz. With his work, His music was introduced widely by the people such as his music, Memories of You, On the Sunny side of the street, and I got rhythm. After he was introduced by him music, another musicians were been also recognize with their innovations such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. Reverberating RhythmLouis Armstrong's Rhythm introduce to the world as a second nature to everyone. As critics says that some people considered Armstrong's music was disorganized, but most people recognizes his music has a perfect rhythm, harmony, pitch, and a flow. Theortically, people considered Armstrong's contributions to the people is to teach them to appreciate music.With the rhythm of Armstrong, he became more integrated to his language over time. When Armstrong create a new rhythm, he made it very seriously but when it is very complicated he intended to change the tune in to simple tune. However, Armstrong's rhythm made his music complicated. This complication in his music did not bother him, in fact, he began to recruit other singers specifically blue. As he recruits singers, he developed a habit playing a triad minor in his music. In some people's vision, Louis Armstrong's rhythm seems to lack something. He was also judge by having an old fashioned music. In order to correct this mistake, Armstrong changes some of his tune or re arrange it in order the listeners will be satisfied. With his popularity in repertory, he able to performed wonderfully in front of his audiences, the goal was to entertained the audience, it happened. In some of his music he change some of his phrases to a more triad. Based on his rhythm, he has this first eight bar that assembles his melody's pitch. As the critics says about his rhythm, â€Å"Armstrong has the right rhythm instinct and sense of time in ‘swinging around and away from the regular beat' as he expresses it. His rhythm made a huge impact on Early New Orleans Jazz, his skills on rhythm, he able to connect phases without any problem compared on other Early New Orleans Jazz such as dealing with complicated notes within music. Through his creativity, he was able to tell people that music may be hard to understand sometimes, it just need to be hear it carefully in order to understand what the song is trying to tell.

MREmpanada Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MREmpanada - Research Paper Example I. Fragmentation and/or Concentration As a player in the United States restaurant industry, Mr. Empanada is a fast casual industry and not a fast food company as most people take it. The U.S restaurant industry is characterized by countless actors. The industry has already entered the mature stage of the industry life cycle, as growth of the industry slows own. The united states restaurant industry is fragmented into various subsets, the most popular being the fast food, full service restaurants and the fast casual segments. In a fast food setting, food is prepared before being ordered while in a casual setting, food is prepared after the customer has ordered it. There are hundreds of fast food and fast casual joints in United States that offer products that are intractably similar in almost all aspects. Panera Bread Company is the renowned leader in the casual food subset while McDonald’s is the overall industry leader operating in the fast food segment. The yearly anticipate d growth for the restaurant industry is 1.9% from 2013 through 2018 (The University of Tampa, 2). The slow growth rate is attributable to reduction in consumer disposable income due to prolonged recession period in United States. Consumers opt to consume home cooked means or consumer lower priced items when eating out. This is hurting the growth in the various fragments of the restaurant industry. United States restaurant industry sales ($ billions) (Source: The University of Tampa, 1) II. Switching costs Switching costs are the negative costs that buyers incur due to changing products, brands or suppliers. Switching costs are mostly evaluated in terms of money value, but they may also be time-based, effort based and psychological switching costs. Switching costs may be associated to learning, finding alternatives, ambiguity costs, contractual costs and transaction costs. Switching costs is a control mechanism that exists in most markets (Sundelin, para 1). In the case of Mr. Empana da, there are little or no switching costs as substitutes are readily available. Providers of casual foods are such as the chipotle Mexican grill, Panera bread, Skyline Chili, Donatos Pizza, Freebirds among others, which are easy to locate. Customers who wish to change from Mr. Empanada products and consumer rival products do not incur significant costs. For illustration, learning and compatibility cost is almost zero since the Mr. Empanada and its rival’s products are undifferentiated. Therefore, customers do not have to look and learn new information with regard to rival products. As such, consumers easily change from one Mr. Empanada products to its rivals due to insignificant switching costs or no cost at all. III. Buyer inclination to substitute In the United States restaurant industry, competition is so rife and fierce. As stated earlier, most of the industry’s products are undifferentiated. Customers hardly notice the difference between competitors’ produ cts and this extremely heightens buyers’ inclination to substitute (Porter, 28). In regard to Mr. Empanada, buyer inclination to substitutes is indispensably high. The reason is that Mr. Empanada is not known to many people outside its headquarters in Tampa, Florida. In addition to limited popularity, Mr. Empanada offers few types of salads, beverages, sandwiches that

Pricing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pricing - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that price is the monetary value associated with the product and it is the driver of company revenues.† Charles W. Lamb, Joseph F. Hair and Carl McDaniel believe that price is something â€Å"which is given up in an exchange to acquire a good or service.† Price of a product or service is very important to both seller and customer. Usually, customers see the  price as the cost of product or service, whereas seller considers as the revenue. The logic is simple for the sellers – revenue increases with the increase in price or volume of sales. In reality, price remains vague as all the details related to it are never spelled out. Theoretically, the  price is one of the most important Ps among the four Ps of product marketing. The inclusion of the  price in the marketing mix (four Ps) signifies the importance of it in the world of marketing. The marketing process is incomplete without proper adoption and implementation of pricing strategy. Prices are established in order to cover the costs and make some profit which is the ultimate objective of any company. In other words, it can be said that price is very important because it brings the profit which is crucial for the survival of the company. It is often found that customers’ expectation regarding the quality of the product varies with the price. It is assumed that quality of the product increases with the increase in price. Marketers need to consider such assumption and give proper importance to the price aspect accordingly.

Commercial Marketing of Aloe Vera Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Commercial Marketing of Aloe Vera - Assignment Example [internet]). The two hundred plus phytonutrients are found in the gel inside the leaf. (Adams, Mike. How to Harvest Fresh Aloe Vera Gel. NaturalNews.com. [internet]). It is said that the hair can generally benefit from Aloe Vera. The plant cures the scalp from whatever it suffers by balancing the level of acidity, getting rid the pores of unclean elements and stops too much loss of hair, among others. Most of all, Aloe Vera reduces seborrhea. The rejuvenating and regenerating characteristics of Aloe Vera help make the skin constantly moist and hydrated. (Aloe Vera Plant History Uses and Benefits. DISABLED WORLD. [internet]). These are the elements which are likely the ones enhancing hair growth and rehabilitation. In an article, it is suggested that aloe juice be applied and massaged into the scalp for its good health every day before going to sleep. This must be done for a month and the application of the gel should be direct from the stem leaving the aloe on through the night. It m ay then be rinsed the next morning during shower. (Ni, Maoshing. Natural Tips for Gray Hair, Hair Loss, and Dandruff. Ask Dr. Mao. Dec 08, 2009. Yahoo! Health. [internet]). The observations seem to imply that the use of Aloe Vera as a healing medium should be in its fresh stage. This may be so because it is claimed that laboratory findings show that the ingredients of the plant no longer have beneficial effects after being processed. (Aloe Vera. Aloe Vera Guide. [internet]). It is also necessary to state here that there have been so many testimonials about the use of Aloe Vera having succeeded in re-growing hair but there is no scientific basis for this yet. (Aloe Vera. herbs at a glance. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. National Institutes of Health. [internet]). One account says that a grandmother told stories of Aloe Vera being used to treat split ends, dandruff and falling hair. (Aloe Vera Express.com. [internet]). Another article straightforwardly say s that it prevents hair loss. (Berry, Yulia. The Benefits of Aloe Vera and How to Use. Aloe Your Miracle Doctor. Aloe Vera and Handy Herbs. [internet].). There are theories that Aloe Vera helps hair growth because of what nature has provided for its contents. Aloe Vera gel naturally gives moisture and nutrients to the scalp healing it or making it healthier. The gel can be applied direct from the leaves or in commercial forms duly preserved. (Bradley, Charlie. Does Aloe Vera Help Hair to Grow Again. eHow. [internet]) The proposal in this feasibility study is the commercial marketing of Aloe Vera gel for hair care, restoration or rehabilitation. It is thus necessary that the fundamentals of the planned project are premised above. Presumptions This project feasibility study will cover the whole process from cultivating to selling. A farm of five hundred hectares for Aloe Vera will be established in the Philippines, a country in Southeast Asia and which has sufficient historical proof that Aloe Vera has been a native in the land as evidenced by folklores. (History of Aloe Vera. 21st Century Aloe Vera. [internet]). The place is chosen firstly because of its reasonable labour cost and land rentals. The second reason is its proximity to Hong Kong which will become the jump-off point for the delivery of the finished product to the United Kingdom, the final destination for marketing. Gathering

ENGINEERING PRODUCTS LTD (CASE STUDY) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

ENGINEERING PRODUCTS LTD (CASE STUDY) - Essay Example uman Resources (HR) department acquires an importance in the success or failure of the company’s international operations (Quintanilla and Ferner, 2003). The HR department adopts numerous ways in which they could attempt homogenization of the various practices that are being adopted in the Headquarter of the company so that the uniformity in the products with respect to the quality can be achieved, as it is the order of the day that the customers insist on the consistency in the product design and quality. Such consistency can be achieved only by integrating the practices throughout the organization. While the HR Management takes the efforts for integration, they are usually confronted with various issues of power and control which are outlined in this paper while analyzing the case of Engineering Products Limited. The paper also discusses the implications on the managers and non-managers of the organization as a result of such integration efforts. Engineering Products Limited with more than 33,000 workers undertook a restructuring and expansion plan out of which the company expanded globally with more than half of the employees work in their overseas locations. Having three distinct business areas in automotive components, defence and industrial services, the company’s automotive components division being the largest have its employees scattered in the European countries Germany, France and Spain. A smaller percentage of them are placed in UK as well as North America. With the major customers of the company insisting on the same specification of the components produced in all the company’s location, the HR Department of the company is in an attempt to transfer the ‘best practices’ of the company to all its locations. For that purpose they adopt the following methods: One of the key areas of attention of the Management at the Head Quarter of the company is to adopt various management structures that can possibly help the exchange of information among

Islamic religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Islamic religion - Essay Example Moreover, Islam, like Christianity and Judaism is a monotheistic faith; meaning that Muslims believe in but one God – Allah. A secondary and equally important factor of being a Muslim is the belief in and attribution of Mohammed as the Prophet of Allah. Muslims believe that the Prophet Mohammed is the last messenger of God’s truth on earth. In this way, all of the other representations that have come before, Noah, Moses, and even Jesus, are subject to the ultimate revelations that Mohammed as revealed through the Angel Gabriel. To be a Muslim requires one to follow the laws and directives lain out by Mohammed’s followers within the Holy Qur’an; Islam’s most holy text. Moreover, feasts should be celebrated, purity should be retained, apostasy abhorred, and refusal of certain unclean meats. Besides the following of the letter of the law laid out in the Qur’an it is also required that an individual, if they are physically or financially able must make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca within their

Pricing Strategies for FirstGroup PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Pricing Strategies for FirstGroup PLC - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the FirstGroup Company operates a wide range of transport services such as bus, coach, rail & tram, as well as, the yellow school bus. The headquarters of the company are at Aberdeen Scotland, with the company’s Chief Executive Officer and chairperson being Tim O’Toole and Martin Gilbert respectively. These two provide the company with a great insight and appropriate leadership necessary to achieve its goals and objectives. The incorporation of the company was in 1986 and has had tremendous growth over the years to expand its operations even to international markets. Currently, it is among the leading transport services company in the world, specializing in road and rail transport. This is evident from the revenue brought in by the company over the years, such as in March 2013, the company recorded net revenue of  £ 6,901 million. On the other hand, the operating income of the company for the same financial period was  £ 335 million, whil e the net income for the company during the same period was  £ 172 million. This shows how profitable the company is in its operations. the company provides employment opportunities to numerous jobless people across the markets in which it operates, with its number of employees by the end of a trading period of March 2013 being 120,000. In addition, the company has an online platform that enables its customers to enjoy convenience and efficiency while dealing with it, as well as, provide the company an opportunity to increase its market control and holding within the industry by gaining a competitive advantage over other market players. The FirstGroup PLC undertakes a number of transport services across various markets and routes within the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ireland and Denmark where it operates. In order to maximize its profits, the company has to adopt a pricing strategy that enables it to make a profit with every transaction. As such, it adopts a differ ent pricing strategy depending on the type of transport service it provides, such as by bus, train or tram, as well as, the route and distance in which it operates, considering the other factors if transportation such as traffic jams, calibre of passengers, as well as, the frequency of the routes they use.

Long Australian (New South Wales) contract law scenario Is Seymour Essay

Long Australian (New South Wales) contract law scenario Is Seymour bound to his contracts with Agnes and with Krustylu - Essay Example However section 52 provides a general prohibition against misleading or deceptive conduct in commercial activities. Whether the violation of contract might also be breach of section 52 is a significant issue. The basis of such argument is the consideration that contractual promises are obligations which contracting parties have undertaken to fulfil, and to enter in to a contractual undertaking and subsequently fail to adhere to it is misleading with in meaning of section 52. There have been several cases (FN2, FN3 and FN4) in which consideration has been given to the scope of section 52. However, if the agreement is signed without consideration of moral principles guided or defined as per Australian contract law there is a sufficient ground for the client to seek for the relaxation. As the Seymour Skinner was forced to sign the agreement or contract which is nothing but violating the legal principles of contract, he is not bound to the contract with Agnes and Krustylu Television Studios to full extent. It has to be assessed whether an unfulfilled contractual promise itself as opposed to a defect in the promise constitutes a breach of section 52. Several cases revealed that an unfulfilled promissory contractual term to be declared as misleading needs to be argued under long Australian contract law (FN5). ... Breach of this contract is recognized by the law and legal remedies can be provided.Once the legality of the contract is maintained, then any party who signed the contract have to obey the contract. The agreement between Seymour and Agnes and Krustylu Television Studios clearly violated the legality, hence it comes under illegality of Australian contract law. Any person involved intentionally under this contract may be punished and the person who was forced to sign will be given sufficient chance to represent his case. Once the judicial body finds sufficient ground in defence of client, it may reconsider or review the contract and may declare the contract as void. (2) This contract comes under violation of principle of performance and breach. Australian courts have not definitively established the non-fulfilment of a contractual promise as conduct itself being misleading with in section 52 (FN7). As long as the "conduct" definition (FN8 and FN9) is satisfied, the person violating or non-fulfilling contractual promise will be charged under misleading conduct. Other wise section 52 of Australian trade Practices act relaxes the condition for client. It will provide enough opportunity for client to represent his case and show sufficient proof of not meeting the definition of "conduct" by the other party under the contract. (3) This contract has not obeyed the principle of undue influence. Seymour has been put under pressure to sign the contract. Even though Seymour Skinner admits that his mother was behind his successful career, it is not proper to expect that Seymour should sign a trade contract in favour of his mother Agnes. As it is the responsibility of any mother to shape the career of her children it is not to be linked with trade

Banking Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Banking Comparison - Essay Example First, the institution to be picked must be able to guarantee safety of the deposits made. Further, it should ensure be able to provide both long term and short term investment opportunities. Moreover, with the increasing technological advancement, it must be able to provide online banking services at affordable rates. The choice taken must be able to guarantee ATM services within the area of residence and other locations as well. Interest should also be placed on the checking accounts and the fees that are associated with them. The institution should also be able to ensure access to the services internationally as well as a safe deposit box. The fees charged on the money transfers should also be a point of concern. Finally, the location of the institution should be convenient and the interest earned on the savings program should be considerate. Indeed, a financial institution that guarantees all these will be the best. The methodology that will be adopted in carrying out research to ascertain the most appropriate financial institution to join will include both primary and secondary. Secondary will involve searching the online information available regarding the institution including the website and other articles. Further, there will be primary approach where an in-depth interview will be carried out to ensure that adequate first hand information is gathered from the bank personnel. This will be done through the visiting of the banks as an individual and doing a face to face interview with the institution’s staff on the services offered. Finally, the data collected through both the primary and secondary approach will be compared with the individual needs in order to come up with the very best option. After carrying out research on Bank of America, CITI, and Chase bank, it was clear that the banks offer almost similar services of interest. Indeed, having visited the branches for in-depth interviews, it almost became difficult to

Upton Sinclair “The Jungle” Essay Example for Free

Upton Sinclair â€Å"The Jungle† Essay Upton Sinclair was a powerhouse of a writer, churning out 90 novels, 30 plays and countless articles, stories and pamphlets during his long life. In 1906, he gained fame and became a rich man after the publication of the muckraking The Jungle, a novel about the horrors of the Chicago meatpacking industry. The book helped convince Congress to pass the first Pure Food and Drug Act later that year. (Sinclair 1906) Nowadays people live in the world of economics and many people are thriving whereas many others are trying to dig through difficulties. Such struggle for survival was constant throughout the history of all societies. Sinclair’s novel â€Å"The Jungle† is one of the examples of such struggle penetrating into the conflicts of socialism, capitalism, natural selection and American dream. The novel involves readers into a journey of recent Lithuanian immigrants to America. It is seen that this journey opens anew world full of unexpected and awful events. (Sinclair 1906) Immigrants have to come to American â€Å"where in the early twentieth century it was said that any man willing to work an honest day would make a living and could support his family†. (Sinclair 1906) Sinclair telling his story stimulates reader to start symbolic war against capitalism. It is apparent that Sinclair really disguises the very idea of capitalism presenting his idea throughout the novel – from cover to cover. Capitalism in the novel is personified in the Jurgis’ desire to work, to earn more money as well as in the corruption of â€Å"the man† at the highest levels of society, etc. (Sinclair 1906) It is obvious that the symbols of capitalism and socialism are seen from the very start of the novel as they are constantly interrelated with the novel progression. Firstly, the author depicts the identity of Lithuanians considering they have the same values such as getting drunk and dancing. Sinclair makes to feel sympathy for those people as they try to preserve and follow traditions which they have brought with them from their native land. For example, everybody had his feeling of everything and strangers were always welcomed and warmly treated. In such a way the author introduces the concept of socialism meaning that everybody is equal in society. Actually the author tries to present socialism as the resolution to hi novel. Sinclair illustrates plight of the workers in Packingtown as the unfairness of capitalism. People were persuaded 5o join socialistic movement due to promised improvements in working conditions. When the main heroes – Jurgis and Ona – took a good luck for the first time, Jurgis said: â€Å"Tomorrow, I will go there and get a Job, and then we can have a place of our own†. (Sinclair 1906) Jurgis is the representative of capitalism: he is longing to work in the plant considering it is the only way to make decent living and his poverty is the main driving force. However, it bore no fruits. The next two ideas involved into novel are concepts of social Darwinism or natural selection and American dream. Upton Sinclair introduced the idea of natural selection into his novel illustrating that only the best suited were able to survive in that environment and weak had to die off. The example is the prevalence of corruption in the town. American Dream is simply ridiculed throughout the story. Sinclair provided the main hero with a strong character having good morals and willing to work hard for family survival. Actually American Dream is embodied in Jurgis – â€Å"I will work harder†. (Sinclair 1906) It is a matter of fact that capitalism is strongly criticized by Upton Sinclair throughout the novel. The author made an attempt to show the misery of capitalism leading immigrants through awful working conditions, unfair social attitude and treatment, impossibility to adapt to new world. It is apparent that Upton tried to open a door to new way of living – so-called socialism. The impact of the Sinclair’s novel on the public is strong and it is possible to suggest the novel’s function is to serve as the propaganda against capitalism. Upton Sinclair wanted people to have equal job opportunities and better living conditions. He understood the difficulties of poor people and thus he always criticized unfairness in society. References Sinclair, Upton (1906) The Jungle. New York: Doubleday, Page.

Puc18 Plasmid Engineering

Puc18 Plasmid Engineering Abstract The objective of the experiment was to engineer a pUC18 plasmid so that it contained a kanomycin resistance gene in its multiple cloning site and to transform it into cells. The kanomycin resistance gene was obtained from a pKAN plasmid. The desired plasmid was constructed by digesting pUC18 and pKAN with the same restriction enzymes,(BamHI and HindIII) and religating the products to give the engineered pUC18. The created plasmid was then transformed into E.coli strains DH5ÃŽ ±. The strains that contained the engineered plasmid were selected using two methods of selection. According to the indirect method of selection the percentage of competent cells transformed with the plasmids was 0.063% which is a low number. According to the direct method of selection on the other hand no cells were transformed. In conclusion even though some colonies with the engineered plasmids were obtained the percentage of cells transformed was very low. Also, the indirect method of selection gives better results for selection of desired strains. Introduction Bacteria can carry antibiotic resistance genes either in their chromosomes or extrachromosomally in phage or a plasmid(Hausner and de Jong 2010). B-galactosidase is an enzyme involved into the cleavage of lactose into glucose and galactose and is encoded by the lac Z gene of the lac operon.(Glick et al 2010) The lac operon is prevented from being transcribed through repression of the lac promoter. Activation of this promoter can be done by the addition of lactose or isopropyl-ÃŽ ²-D-thiogalactopyranoside(IPTG) to the medium. Lactose and IPTG simply prevent binding of the lac repressor(the product of the Lac I gene) to the promoter. (Glick et al 2010) In the following experiment plasmids pUC18 and pKAN are used to provide the genes to be transformed into bacteria. pUC18 is 2686 base pairs(bp) long and contains a bacterial origin of replication, an ampicillin resistance gene, a lacI gene, a segment of the lac Z gene encoding part of B-galactosidase(which breaks down X-gal) and a multiple cloning sequence(MCS) that is within the lac Z gene.(Glick et al 2010) The lac Z gene encoded by the plasmid is part of the B-galactosidase protein which complements a gene carried by the Escheria. coli chromosomally thus forming a functional B-galactosidase.(Glick et al 2010) If a DNA segment is cloned in the MCS then the lacZ gene will be interrupted and will not give rise to a functional protein. If that occurs then the Bacteria transformed with the plasmid will not break down5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-ÃŽ ²-D-ÃŽ ²-galactosidase( X-gal) present in the plates. When X-gal is broken down by ÃŽ ²-galactosidase it turns blue whereas when it is not bro ken down it stays white. This color differentiation is a way to tell if there has been any DNA incorporated in the MCS of pUC18. Finally in order for the ÃŽ ²-galactosidase in pUC18 to be transcribed, IPTG has to be present in the medium so that the lac operon can be induced.(Glick et al 2010) pKAN plasmids can serve as sources for the kanomycin resistance gene. In the following experiment the kanaomycin resistance gene will be inserted in the MCS of pUC18. pKAN contains an origin of replication, a kanomycin resistance gene and multiple restriction sites.(Hausner and de Jong 2010) More importantly it contains only one BamHI and HindIII recognition sites in the whole plasmid which flank the kanomycin resistance gene.(Hausner and de Jong) This allows researchers to cut out the antibiotic resistance gene by simply using BamHI and HindIII producing only two fragments of DNA: the gene and the rest of the plasmid. Once experimenters have inserted the pKAN gene into the MCS of pUC18 and transformed the E.coli strains they need a way to select for the desired plasmid. There are two methods to select for the desired those colonies: the direct method and the indirect method. The direct selection method involves spread plating transformed strains into plates containing both the antibiotic ampicillin and kanomycin. (Hausner and de Jong 2010) Since the pUC18 plasmid confers amplicillin resistance(Glick et al 2010) and the kan gene confers kanomycin resistance (Hausner and de Jong 2010) then only the cells that contain Puc18 with the kanomycin resistance gene should be able to grow in these plates. The indirect method on the other hand is a two step selection process. In the first step the transformed strains are plated onto LB plates containing ampicillin and X-gal.(Hausner and de Jong 2010) Only the cells that have up-taken pUC18 will grow since they will be resistant to ampicillin. Furthermore cell s that contain pUC18 with inserted DNA in the MCS will produce white colonies since they cant produce a functional ÃŽ ²-galactosidase. Cells that give rise to blue colonies will have up-taken pUC18 without any DNA inserted in their MCS since they are able to break down X-Gal. (Glick et al 2010) To select the cells with pUC18 containing the kanomycin resistance gene the white colonies are plated in plates containing kanomycin. Only the cells that have the kanomycin resistance gene in their pUC18 will grow.(Hausner and de Jong 2010) The objectives of the following experiment include the construction of a pUC18 plasmid containing the kanomycin resistance gene in the MCS, the transformation of that plasmid into the E.coli DH5ÃŽ ± cells and the selection of the cells containing the engineered plasmid. If both pUC18 and pKAN plasmids are digested with BamHI and HindIII and the digests are ligated then a plasmid which contains both kanomycin and ampicillin resistance genes should be produced; consequently cells transformed with the engineered plasmid should be resistant to both antibiotics. Materials and Methods Plasmid extraction and plasmid engineering pUC18 and pKAN plasmids were extracted from the DH5ÃŽ ± and MM294 E.coli strains respectively using a DNA isolation kit as described by (Hausner and de Jong 2010). Confirmation for proper extraction was done through agarose gel electrophoresis by running the extracted DNA in a 0.7% gel at 100V for 1 hour. The gene containing kanomycin resistance from pKAN was cloned into pUC18. The restriction digests to do the cloning were prepared as described in Table 2 in (Hausner and de Jong 2010). After plasmid digestion the kanomycin resistance gene was inserted into the multiple cloning sequence of pUC18 in a ligation reaction using the enzyme ligase and the reaction was allowed to go to completion for 24 hours at room temperature. The ligation reactions were set up according to table 3 in (Hausner and de Jong 2010) E.coli transformation and strain selection E.coli strain DH5ÃŽ ± was sub-cultured for 1 hour at 37Â °C. The cells were then made competent by washing them in 10mM CaCl. Next cells were transformed with three different combinations of plasmids. The set of cells in tube 1 was transformed with uncut pUC18 DNA. The set of cells in tube 2 was transformed with cut pUC18. Cells in tube 3 were transformed with pUC18 containing the cloned pKAN resistance and finally cells in tube 4 were transformed with just water as a negative control. The transformation procedure has been described in (Hausner and de Jong 2010). Transformed cells from all tubes were spread plated onto LB+carb+X-gal plates for indirect selection. Furthermore cells from tube 3 were plated onto LB+carb+ kan plates for direct selection of cells containing pUC18 with the insert from pKAN. To determine the density of competent cells cells dilutions of , and were prepared. The two highest dilutions were plated onto LB plates. All the plates were incubated at 37Â °C and they were allowed to grow for ~24 hours. After the colonies had grown on plates plate they were counted and their numbers were recorded. White and blue colonies from the LB+carb+X-gal plates were then streaked onto LB + kan plates to obtain the colonies that had the kanomycin resistance gene incorporated in the MCS. For more information on the procedure refer to Experiments in Biotechnology Laboratory Manual (Hausner and de Jong 2010) Results Extraction of plasmids from E.coli strains Figure 1 contains the image of the 0.7% agarose gel in which the isolated plasmids Puc18 and pKAN were run to check for product. As it can be seen in lane 1 a lot of Puc18 was extracted from the DH5ÃŽ ± strain. Less plasmid DNA was collected for pKAN from the MM294 strain since the band in lane 2 is of much weaker intensity. There is more than one band in lane two. The additional bands represent additional plasmids isolated from the bacteria. Calculation of Competent cell density Table 1 shows the dilutions performed on the competent cells in order to calculate their cell density. It also shows the number of colonies on the plates that were spread plated with dilution 2 and dilution 3. The results for the dilution were not used for cell density calculation since less than 30 colonies grew on the plate. Dilution was used to calculate the cell density because the number of colonies was between 30 and 300. Indirect method of selection Cells plated from tubes 2 and 3 were used to calculate the % of transformed cells. Every colony represents a single transformed cell since it can be assumed the every colony has arisen from a single cell. Furthermore for tube 3 since five plates were spread plated the percentage of the transformed cells was obtained by using the average amount of colonies for all five plates. Calculation the percentage of transformed cells in tube 2: %of transformed cells= x 100 =0.0045% of cells transformed Calculation of transformed cells in tube 3 Average for blue colonies: = 58.6 ≈ 59 blue colonies Average for white colonies = 11.4 ≈ 11colonies Total number of colonies = 59 blue colonies + 11 blue colonies = 70 colonies in total Both blue and white colonies from tube 3 represent transformed cells since they both up-took plasmid DNA whether it was just pUC18 or pUC18+kanomycin resistance gene. Therefore since every colony came from a single cell there were 70 cells in total that were transformed from 100Â µl of media spread plated in each plate. % of transformed cells in tube 3: %of transformed cells= x 100 =0.063% of cells transformed Direct selection of clones containing the kanomycin gene: No colonies grew on LB + carb + kan plates. That means that there were no cells that were transformed with the engineered plasmid. Furthermore an accurate number for % of transformed cell could not have been calculated even if cells had grown in these plates. That is because this selection method takes into account only the cells that were trasformend with pUC18 which contained the kanomycin resistance gene and not the cells that were transformed with only pUC18. Discussion Isolation of plasmids from cells The optimal results for the gel would have been to see one strong band at ~2.7 kb representing pUC18 and one strong band at 4.2 kb which represents pKAN. For the pKAN lane there is more than one band seen. Those bands represent different sized plasmids that were also isolated from the cell. Since there was no DNA ladder on the gel it cannot be concluded what plasmid the lanes represent but the only thing that can be concluded is that there was plasmid DNA isolated from both the DH5ÃŽ ± and the MM294 strains which most likely was pUC18 and pKAN. In order to conclude whether pUC18 and pKAN plasmids were isolated from the bacteria the students should be provided next time with a DNA ladder in order to determine the sizes of the lanes. Indirect selection method The cells from tube 1 were transformed with un-digested pUC18. The cells from this tube represented a positive control for transformation. The colonies in the plates were all blue and they were too many to count. The reason for the high number of colonies was that these cells were transformed with undigested plasmids which are all stable and all allow bacteria to carry information extrachromosomally, making the transformation percentage of competent cells very high. All the cells from tube 1 produce blue colonies. That is because they all had a functional B-galactisidase since no genes were cloned into the multiple cloning site located within the lacZ gene. The cells from tube 2 were transformed with digested pUC18 plasmid. The cells from this tube represented a negative control for kanomycin resistance gene cloning. Tube 2 gave rise to very few colonies in comparison to tube 1 because the cells in tube 2 were transformed with unstable DNA. pUC18 had been previously digested with HinDIII and BamHI and a lot of plasmid did not re-ligate and for that reason the DNA was unstable. Since the DNA was unstable it was not able to maintain the ampicillin resistance gene in bacteria and consequently the strains were not able to grow in carbonicillin plates. As a result the number of percent transformed cells was as low as 0.0045%. The cells from tube 4 were transformed with sterile water i.e no DNA. These cells represented the negative control for transformation. Because no DNA was inserted in them none of the cells contained the ampicillin resistance gene and as expected none grew in the plates containing carbomicillin. The cells from tube 3 were transformed using pUC18 that contained insertion on the MCS as well as pUC18 that didnt. All five plates that were spread plated with E.coli from tube 3 contained blue colonies as well as white ones. The reason for the color difference is that the blue colonies contained a functional ÃŽ ²-galactosidase whereas the white ones didnt. The functional ÃŽ ²-galactosidase in the blue colonies was due to the fact that no DNA was inserted in the MCS to interrupt the lacZ gene. The white colonies on the other hand did not contain a functional ÃŽ ²-galactosidase since they had a DNA insertion in their multiple cloning site, which interrupted the lacZ gene. Consequently they could not break down X-gal. However just because they had a DNA insertion in their MCS it did not mean that they contained the kanomycin resistance gene. They might have contained the rest of the pKAN plasmid. As a result the white colonies needed to be streaked into plates that selected for kanomy cin resistance. If the cells then grew on LB + Kan plates and they also originated from white colonies on LB + Carb + X-gal plates then they contained a Puc19 plasmid with a kanomycin resistance gene inserted in the MCS. The percentage of transformed cells was also not very high: 0.063%. A way to improve this would be to maybe increase the molarity of the CaCl solution to make the cells more competent. Direct selection method According to the direct method of selection there were no cells that were transformed. This is contradictory to the results obtained from the indirect method of selection. This error could have been produced because of either improper spread plating of plates or because of improper transformation procedure. Also the conditions in the LB + carb + kan plates could have been too harsh(two antibiotics) for the bacteria to pick up growth even if they were resistant to both antibiotics. In following experiments it is better to use the indirect selection method since it seems more successful in selecting desired strains. Comparison of direct VS indirect selection methods The direct and indirect selection methods have both advantages as well as disadvantages. The main disadvantage of indirect selection is that it takes longer since it contains two steps and each step takes at least a day for completion. The main advantage is that if done correctly, the indirect selection methods gives very accurate selection for the desired cells. The reason for that is that first it selects for colonies that just have an insertion in the MCS and this tells the researcher that some type of cloning has occurred in plasmids. The second step then selects for the colonies that contain pUC18 with the kanomycin resistance gene inserted in the MCS. Thus the criterion of indirect selection is that cells have both pUC18 with an inserted DNA in MCS and also have kanomycin resistance. The colonies that grow in the second step fulfill both the criteria. The main advantage of the direct method is that it takes a shorter time to complete and it also uses up less equipment which can also save researchers some money. The main disadvantage with this selection is that it has a higher chance of giving false positives. Direct selection does not select for strains that have DNA inserted in the MCS of Puc18 but only selects for strains that have ampicillin and kanomycin resistance. Therefore the strains that grow in LB + carb + kan plates might have both pUC18 and pKAN plasmids but not the kanomycin resistance gene inserted in the pUC18 MCS. Those strains would still be able to grow since they still have both ampicillin and kanomycin resistance. However the genes would on different plasmids and not on the engineered one. Therefore even though the indirect selection method is longer it is more accurate in selecting the desired strains for this experiment. In conclusion, according to the indirect selection the desired plasmid was engineered by digesting both pUC18 and pKAN with HindIII and BamHI. Also when selecting for cells transformed with pUC18 it is better to employ the indirect method of selection because it gives more accurate results. Question 1: Although both lanes contain plasmid DNA, why doesnt the DNA appear to be in the same location in both lanes? The DNA does not appear in the same location in both lanes because pUC18 and pKAN are of different sizes. pUC18 is 2686 base pais long whereas pKAN is 4194 base pairs long.(Hausner and de Jong 2010) Because pUC18 is of smaller size it will travel farther from the wells than pKAN. Question 2: How would you verify that the transformed cells actually contain the carb/kan plasmid that was used for transformation? One accurate way would be to isolate the plasmid DNA from the transformad cells and run it on an agarose gel. If the kanomycin resistance gene was inserted into pUC18 then on the gel one will be able to see a band of the size 4548 base pairs which is different from both the pUC18 and the pKAN plasmids. The size of the created plasmid was calculated the following way by obtaining the information from (Hausner and de Jong 2010): To find the size of kanomycin resistance gene inserted in pUC18, the number of base pairs from the origin or replication of HindIII was subtracted to the number of base pairs from the origin of replication of BamHI. This was done because pKAN was digested with HindIII and BamHI to obtain the kanomycin resistance gene: 2095 233 = 1862 base pairs The size of the insert was then added to the size of Puc18: 2686 + 1862 = 4548 base pairs

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation Chapter 1- Introduction Change comes from anywhere, and is the only constant. Propelled by the driving force of technology and globalization, the economic landscape continuously transform in a way that has come to undermine the relevance of received wisdom on how a firm should be managed and what underlies its success (Gregory Prastacos, et al., 2002). In this new millennium, it is more challenging for an organization to sustain its competency or even survive in the diversity market. When an organization is threatened by environmental changes such as crisis or competition, it results in the increasing needs for communication as technology develops rapidly and higher customer demands will be foreseen. Organizational change is not an option; it constitutes a fundamental necessity for success within the new competitive landscape (Hamel and Prahalad, 1996). An organization need to evaluate its performance and review its business strategies, corporate structure, operational process and HR policies to identify th e areas that need transformation. To maintain its competitive advantages,ÂÂ  an organization must make effort to implement changes accordingly. Usually changes to be made in an organization is for the seeking of extending the ability of the organization to achieve the strategic goals but sometime changes do not necessarily contribute to the improvement of the organization (Stroh, 2001). The expected result of the change might vary due to other unexpected factors, such as resistance to change. Resistance is a phenomenon that affects the change process, delaying or slowing down its beginning, obstructing or hindering its implementation, and increasing its costs (Ansoff, 1990). Effect of resistance of changes in organization will cause distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities, low motivation among the people and lack of creative response (Val, 2003). It is crucial for change initiators to deal with resistance for a successful change. Forasmuch as employees are the one who get the job done, and they the one who possess the knowledge, skills, tools and experiences, it is clear that organizational changes cannot be achieved without employees support and involvement. Employee acceptance and commitment are the key factors for successful changes. Effective change management should recognize the importance of its employees and the way to minimize the resistant from employees. Therefore, understand why it is caused, the forms of resistance and the factors determine employees reactions to change is significant. 1.1 Research Objective This research will study on the factors of resistance to change from employees prospective. The aim of this research is to review the factor and find out the correlates among the factors. By better understanding these which a shift in perception could occur, the paper hope to develop a framework to change initiators of how certain group of employees is the likely to react and behave to change that being unleashed by the value and perception, this knowledge will enable change initiators to design change plan and training programs which recognize the values of employees, and to interact with diverse others in order to optimize the expected change affect. The research attempt to explore the followings areas as a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project study: To identify the natural of employee resistance to change. To identify the symptoms of employee resistance to change. To identify the reasons of employee resistance to change To determine the various factors to effect employees resistance to changes. To evaluate the effect of these factors on organizations future development. 1.2 Chapter Summary Chapter 1 of Introduction has provided a background of the circumstances that force organization to change, and examined the inevitable resistance can undermined organizational change. By identifying the importance of employee in the organizational change, research objectives were generated to study on the resistance of change from employees perspectives and listed done the areas of the study to be explored on. The research was planned in a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project. Next chapter of this project will touch on a review of current literatures on the natural, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and factors affect employee resistance, followed by the research methodology, samples and limitation of the research. The subsequent chapter will be the questionnaire data analysis presentation and lastly the paper will conclude the findings and its implications for change initiators. The aim of this research is to review the factors that affect employee resistance and evaluate it thought the target samples. Chapter 2- Literature Review 2.1 Employee Resistance to Change 2.1.1 The nature Organizations can be confronted with incremental changes that focus on doing things better through a process of continuous tinkering, adaptation and modification or transformational changes that are regarded as revolutionary and break with the past.(John Hayes, 2010) Although the incremental changes rarely presented any abrupt challenges to the assumptions people make about how they related to the world (John Hayes, 2010), this is not always that case. People are not duplicate, the values, beliefs, assumption and knowledge of that person will be developed over the time, formed as a set of personal opinion, perceptions, views of the world to guide their behaviors (Hallie Preskill and Rosalie Torres, 1999). It is concerned with whether employees regards view change can bring present or future personal benefit and opportunities or change is a threat to their job, skills or any other interests. The implementation of changes inevitably involves the vital interests of various shareholders, and especially employees.Resistance occurs since most employees desire to be successful in their work environments due to they have basic needs which must be satisfied. To begin with, employees want to know their role and their responsibilities within the organization. In additional, employees want to be able to predict what they will face in the future (Appelbaum, S.H. et al, 1998). Even though old procedures that were initially regarded as cumbersome, costly or ineffective, after a prolonged recursive execution, employees become comfortable and are used to the ways things were done. Employee might fear in a changing organization, therefore change are frequently be seen as a threat to ones existence within an organization if upgrading or acquiring new skills are a problem because of time constraints , or the inability of the person to learn these new techniques. Change within an organizational setting usually poses several problems and challenged by the pressure in aspect of money , ego, and power for those who resist it. Employees resist change because they have learned to associate it negative feelings since their basic needs may now be threatened (Mealiea, 1978). Thus it is human nature that employees look at Change negatively, resistance thereby coming into play. 2.1.2 The symptoms Resistance, described by Kilian M. Bennebroek Gravenhorst (2003) is commonly considered to be standard or even natural in reaction to organizational change. It is described as an most inevitable psychological and organizational response that seems to apply to any kind of change, ranging from rather modest improvement to far-reaching change and organizational transformation. Symptoms are the specific behaviors exhibited when employee resistance to change (Albert F. Bolognese, 2002) According to Bhutan (1995), it is important to distinguish between the symptoms of resistance to change and the causes behind them. Symptoms can be reflected in varies of forms, which Marc Maltz (2008) categorized it into the two varieties: overt and covert. Overt resistance is concern with obvious opposition, disagreement, arguing, debating, etc., to any change effort. While, covert resistance comes in two forms: one is conscious covert which employees are concerned about the consequences of their actions that they apparently agreed but actually not following though or withhold information and avoid implementation. Secondly is the unconscious covert resistance, which is the most difficult to see symptoms among employees as employees are unaware their resistance. 2.1.3 The Reasons There are many causes attribute to employees resistance to change, such as Coch French (1948), studied the workers of a clothing manufacturer and find that lower employee participitation causing the mistrust of management and increase their resistance to change. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) identify four common reasons why people resist organizational change: people focus on their own interest and fear of losing something of value, it can be power and status, autonomy and control, or specific skills; Misunderstanding the change will cost them more than they will gain and lack of trust to the person who initiating change; Different assessment of the necessity and benefit of change situations; Low tolerance for change, sometimes people just resist to change emotionally even they understand the need for change. Several studies have acknowledged what Kotter and Schlesingers publication and enhance these categories with further researches, according to Prosci- A business process reengin eering directory and resource companys study (2003) in past six years in 288 organizations from 51 countries, result shows the top reasons employee resist to change is because of corporate history and culture, which the organizations past performance of change project failed or did not make much sense, employees are less interested to take initiatives to support the current change, they are not in the flavor the month , thus employee expected it go away like what happened in the past. Lorenzo (2000) also acknowledge that one attribute to employees resistance is that past failures leaves negative image for future changes. Another reason added on in Prosci (2003)s research is that employee often opposes to change because of the added job responsibilities, new processes or technologies. Changes with lower motivation to get employees involved and less consideration of employees interest and their emotional and perceptual perspectives thereby eliminate their initiatives and level of comm itment. Pardo Del Val, Manuela and Martinez Fuentes, Clara (2005) conclude above sources to employees resistance are most likely happen in change formulation stage, they further identify some reason rise resistance that consist of: (a) organizational values in relation to change values that cause a strong implementation climate to determine whether employee to accept or oppose to change; (b) departmental politics that form employees resistance. 2.2 Factors affect employees resistance to change Literatures have identified variety of factors affect employee resistance to change, the most cited views of the factors fall on the organizational level, for instance the communication process, employee participation, change facilitation procedures in change process (Ricky Griffin ,2008) to improve organizational effectiveness. Moreover, employee motivation (David Clarence and McClelland, 1987) and quality of leadership (Ken W. Parry, 1999) have been widely acknowledged to have influence on employees work initiatives, involvement and commitment, so that it can argues to be a significant factor to affect employees willingness to change. Above factors virtually are the ways to deal with the subtext of organizational humanity on the stage of change process. However, one must understand the root factors played to affect employees perception towards organizational change. Fail to understand the intrinsic factors govern employees values and beliefs guided behavior in the context of the way they were doing and expected in the future, and all the necessities organization attempt or should to do to implement and facilitate change is crucial. Therefore, the research will mainly explore on the personal factors played to affect employee resistance to change including age, gender, personality traits (Locus of control) and employee educational level as follows: 2.2.1Age Baby Boomers refer to people who are born between 1945-1964. This generation grew up in an era of unprecedented economic growth and stability, so as to be regarded as a generation that finds comfort with long term employment with one organization. This has provided them with a false sense of stability (Loomis, 2000).Their perceived working values emphasize on chain of command, teamwork, technically challenged, team work and loyal to employer As they born after War II, which they entered the economic boom era, Money and job security such as life time employment are definitely extremely important for them to sustain their living. In this regard, it is argued that Baby Boomers are easier to accept organizational change as their working value of chain of command which they tend to commit to the hierarchical order. Moreover, the inception of organization loyalty also attributes them to be more committed rather than resistant or any other negative reactions. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003) Another neuropsychological research held by (Stanford University professor Laura L. Carstensen et al. 2000) on the relationship between age and emotional experiences found that the periods of highly positive emotional experience were more likely to endure among older people and periods of highly negative emotional experience were less stable. With age, older adults report relatively low levels of worrying (Sandra Hunt, Patricia Wisocki and Julianne Yanko, 2003), experience less anger (Schieman,1999), and have lower levels of emotional distress after natural disasters (Bolin Klenow, 1982-1983). The implication of these findings are older employees have better capability to regulate their negative emotions with organizational change and adjust themselves to adapt the environment.Employees adaptability has been seen a key attribute to a successful organizational change (Heslin , 2005). Compared with Baby Boomers, Generation X refers to those people who were born between 1965 to 1980. This generation of employee tend to more independent, self-motivated and self-sufficient (Loomis, 2000). This is because most X generations did not have enough of their family attention as children because their parent may have been single or working parents. X generations therefore became adaptive at handling things on their own and in their own ways. Their work value is perceived more on personal satisfaction, and their attitudes towards work are focus on flexibility empowerment, loyal to skills. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003). Hence, when the change conflict with their own interest such as against what they used to do , their skills, or leave less empowerment to them, they will feel unmotivated towards to commit to the change. However, David J. OConnell, Eileen McNeely and Douglas (2004) argue that since Xers entered the workforce under the employment of deal, in which career planning and development are largely individual responsibilities and where the average worker can expect to make several changes during their working lives. In this regards, it seems like Xers are more adaptive to change. However, there are also many scholars debate the relationship between the age and the personal adaptability to change, such as Mirvis and Hall, 1996. Recent research held by OConell, McNeely and Hall, 2008 also support this assertion, reporting that age is limited measured as a categorical variable namely the characteristics about an individual . 2.2.2 Gender Although many literatures have acknowledged the impact of gender difference on the management practice, there had been little systematic attention focus on identifying the gender roles on effective change management relatively. Feminist perspectives have tended to highlight not only the impact of organizational change on womens relatively marginalized position but also the role of women in the change management (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Jamie L, Michael G and Homer Tolson (2005) research findings suggest that there is a difference between male and female executive of their emotional expressiveness, and women are regarded to process better skill at encoding and decoding emotions (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008). Emotions are intensive feelings that are directed at someone or something (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010). Goleman-the founder of emotional intelligence theory also mentioned that women are good at reading others feelings than men averagely in his book pub lished in 1995. The skills to encode and decode emotions generally have advantage to develop and maintain relationships (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008), because skilled encoders have ability to express their internal emotional state so that other people can decode their emotions more easily and accurately (Burgoon and Bacue, 2003). In this regard, the chances such as misunderstanding and conflict due to implicit or unclear message delivered or received prone to be decreased, the communication becomes more easily and effective. In many literatures, communication has been widely acknowledged as a useful approach to eliminate resistance to change. Therefore, women are deems to be more successfully engaged in change circumstances. Maddock (1999) added that Women focus on relational aspect of how to do things, while men tend to be expected to think what to do. It appears that women are emotionally discreet on how they are going to process the information, express and interpret their view points to react to change before making any decision. Combined with womens secondary position in labor market due to gender discrimination, especially in Confucian countries, in addition to their greater responsibilities in family and child care than men, which cause women are relatively powerless to challenge the situation (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Hence Melissa argues that women in change management appear to be positioned as performing an interpersonal function associated with safety; providing security in times of unexpected turbulence and anticipating. On the basis of these arguments, it seems that women tend to avoid conflict in working in this regard and to accept the change accordingly. 2.2.3 Personality Traits Some people are quiet and reserved, while others are aggressive and outgoing. Some people are trustworthy, some are not. People differ with each other in various dimensions as a result of different behavior and attitude towards things in personal life and working. The individuals differences are shaped by personalities (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010) Personality refers to the traits and characteristics that make individuals unique (Greenberg and Baron, 2002). The most frequent used definition of personality was produced by Gordon Allport nearly 70 years ago which he commented that personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Personality thus becomes an important reason mangers need to know to generate a view of employees likely behaviors and examine their coping reaction. Meselaar and Cozijnsen (1997) further highlighted the personality is a determinate of individ ual reaction to organizational change. Locus of control refers to the degree people believe their own behaviours determine what happens to them. People believes they have more control over their destiny are referred as internal, and people who believe they have less control over their life and the results are attributing to the will of God, or to the fortune of being born in the right social class or family are referred as external. At this point, it is suggested that people behave differently towards change. Wilson (1992) developed an approach referred as determinism to study change management portrays the manager and other organizational members as pawns affected by change rather than as agents who can initiate and secure change. Their ability to influence is limited because of the main determinates lie outside the organization. John Hayes (2010) argues that those who are overcommitted deterministic view of change may be inclined to believe that the locus of control is external to themselves and the organization and may therefore develop view that there is little they can do to influence events. Hence, people who think this way is less likely to attempt to adopt a proactive approach to the management of change than those who have more internal view about locus of control. 2.2.4 Educational Level Although there were not many literatures specifically emphasize the employees educational level to their resistance to organizational change, it is widely acknowledged (e.g.: George H. McCall, Karl E. Ristow and Daniel J. Cimini, 2004) that higher education improves employees personal management, time management, communication skills and problem solving skills. Higher education defined by Roberg (1987) refers to the instruction that was obtained at university or colleague. According to Thomas Kent Gaylor (2001)s research on 286 police officer from two North Texas Police department in 2001, result shows no significance relationship between the educational level and employees openness to change. However the limitation of his research was lack of variation in respondents education level. Nevertheless, the author believe that higher education of employees will be more likely to support and commit organization change with more positive thinking of why the change is needed, hence the resea rch intend to do further evaluation with different samples on the relationship of educational level to employee resistance to change since it is a logic factor that higher education equipped with employees more knowledge and broader thinking and believe, which reduce the tendency to be dogmatic and to be more creative. 2.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 2 of Literature Review has explored on the current literatures on employee resistance to change in terms of the natural, symptoms and reasons. The inevitable resistances from employee impulse the research to further find out the factors that affect employee resistance to change. The research noted many factors including communication process, employee participations, change facilitation process, employee motivation and quality of leadership, and lastly mainly reviewed the personal factors played consist of age, gender, personality traits (locus of control) and employee educational level influence various aspects from values and beliefs and emotions as a result of different behavior and levels of adaptability reacted to change After exposit the literature review of factors affect employees resistance to change, the paper will tackle the main objectives of this research. Starting with the description of research methodology, samples and limitation of the research, then paper will touch on the analysis part of the questionnaire, to examine the reflected results against with the literatures reviewed earlier on, so as to evaluate its universality of the factors in the sampling organization. Chapter 3- Research Methodology 3.1 Secondary Research The research was carried out at the beginning though a secondary research to review the current literatures on the areas of the study, which contains of the nature, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and the factors affect employee resistance to change from a more intrinsic view by looking at employee personal factors. The factors focus on the employees adaptability to change determined by age and gender, one dimension of personality traits -locus of control, and employee educational level. The information is collected from textbooks, journals and articles from reliable and creditable online Journal Publications, National Library and Campus Library. 3.2 Primary Research In order to evaluate the factors been presented in literature review, the research will primarily employ questionnaires as the main methodologies for information gathering. The questionnaire will be carried out with various employees working in a large organization. The methods allow directly and original information to be gathered from participants. Questionnaire results are to be consolidated, and will be analyzed using various questionnaire analyze techniques, to interpret the data. The main reason of using questionnaire and interview is because data is collected directly from specific target respondents. Interviewers have the ability to ask extra intensive questions of the respondent concerning survey responses. 3.2.1 Research Samples The research was conducted using data collected from a large size agribusiness organization located in Singapore, mainly doing palm oil plantation and trading. The reason of choosing this organization is because it is currently undergoing turbulence and change on merger with one small size palm oil trading company and one ship chartering company. And it also has experienced many merger and change in the past. Therefore the target samples of the questionnaire participants in the organization must have many varies views on organizational change to enable the research generate more practical reflections from employees perspective on organizational change and change effect on them, aims to evaluate the universality application of all those factors on employee resistance to change presented in literature on the target sampling. The questionnaire attempt to invite 150 employees in this organization from four departments who are affected by the merger plan, respectively 25 employee from IT department, 35 employees from logistic department, 25 employee from finance department and 65 employees from operation department. 3.2.2 Limitation of This Research During the research, data collected could be deviated due to limitation in the research methodology as follows: Data may not represent the entire population due to the limitation of sampling size As the four department employees may experience different kinds of minor changes in their department respectively, whether the change offend their interest or not might bring subjective bias towards their response to the questionnaire, hence the accuracy of data collected will be deviated. Respondent who experience the past organizational change may bring different perceptions towards new change. The choice of the question may limited respondents response. 3.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 3 presented the methodology of this research which employed on secondary research to review the current literatures on the area of the study, and also the primary research using questionnaires to collect data. Research Samples chosen was a large agribusiness organization who is experiencing turbulence and undergoing merger and work structural change. The limitations of the research were also discussed including the sample size, respondents bias, past organizational change experience as well as the choice of questions may also affect the accuracy of the survey result. Next chapter will touch on the research result analysis and discussion. Chapter 4- Result Analysis and Discussion The questionnaires were distributed to 150 employees in IT, Logistic, Finance and Operation department respectively as planned in Chapter 3, the responding rate is about 76%, namely 114 employees attend the questionnaire. Following are the result of each factors being tested. 4.1 Age The research finding on age factors shows that respondents in different age group perceived change differently and appears with different level of resistance. In contrary with literatures presented earlier on demonstrating age have negative relationship with organizational change where people are more emotional stable and adaptable to organizational change as they age. Instead, the result shows that in the age group of 20 to 65+, employees are more resistant to change as they age; an interesting finding is that for employees aged below 20, whom were surprisingly scored higher marks on resistance. Figure 4.1.2 shows details of scores on resistance in each age group. Figure 4.1.2- Age group vs Resist to change score The possible causes lead to this result might because when younger people firstly enter the workforce with no experience and lower educational background, they are uncertain about their skills and abilities. They may behave self-concerned and less flexible dealing with working matters, and not mature enough to regulate their emotions as they are undergoing a transition from childhood to adult, school life to working life with increased responsibilities, time is needed to help them accept such big changes and adapt themselves in the new environment. As they age and become more mature, they seek for competence, career movement and relationship, they are more flexible and motivated to change themselves in the organization to achieve their objectives. As time goes on, they feel tired and queried about what supposed to be. They are loyalty to their skills and fear losing it in the future. Stability, job security and sense of seniority may become the main values after they age 46. Hence th ey might act more resisting to change as demonstrated in below figure. Super (1980)s Life Stage Theory displayed some common characteristics against to the above analysis and assumptions, which the author would like to research further. 4.2 Gender Out of total 114 respondents, 78 are women, and 36 are men, most of men respond strongly agree that organizational change is necessary and beneficial, and express their willingness to take challenges. Although there is no strong evidence to show that women are more resistance to change, most of women strongly agreed with the statement that when things are not going as plan, they tend to feel stress and if there is significant change regarding the way things are done, they would probably feel stressed. At this point, the research result suggested that women tend to be trapped in stress situation more easily than men. Hellriegel, D. Slocom, J. W., and Woodman, R.W.(2001) has pointed out that organizational change can be viewed as greatest source of stress on job and perhaps employees life. Stress cause low morale, high desertion rate and consequently reduce in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The women research samples in this study reflect lower ability to regulate stre ss in working and life that affect their job performance. When organizational changes go against their interest, plan or principles, family life, it easily get women feel stress emotionally and potentially raise their resistance level which can be described as unconscious covert resistance (Marc Maltz, 2008) whereby employees are unaware of their resistance to change. Such symptom as mentioned in Chapter 2 is difficult to recognize and manage. The result urges the management to recognize gender-related problems in the organizational process. The implication of the result underlines the importance of evaluating and managing performance between women and men employees in implementing change. 4.3 Locus of Control Figure 4.3.1 shows the relationship between Locus of Control versus Resist to Change scale. The extent of Locus of Control are divided into 5 category based on the score respondents received on answering 10 specially designed question (Q7-Q16) catered to identify the individual level of locus of Control. For each correct answer that suggested Internal Locus of Control, the participant are give 1 point, the end results are totaled up with a formula (N/10)x100. The result are categ