The Pancreas :: essays research papers fc

The pancreas is located in the middle of the abdomen. It’s surrounded by the stomach, small intestine, liver and spleen. It’s about six inches long and shaped like a thin pear, wide at one end. It has three sections: wider right end is the head, the middle is the body and the left end is the tail.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The pancreas has two functions; to make enzymes that help digest fats and proteins and the other, to produce insulin that controls the blood sugar level called glucose. It consists of Islet cells (1 of 3 types), which are endocrine glands. This means the Islet cells secret the insulin directly into the blood stream. The pancreas contains many more of these Islet cells than the body needs to maintain a normal insulin level. Even when half of the pancreas is removed, the blood sugar level can still remain normal. The pancreas is also made up of exocrine glands, which produce enzymes for digestion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the blood sugar levels aren’t normal, it’s a disease called diabetes. Diabetes (diabetes mellitus) is a deficiency of the hormone insulin or the inhibition of its action with the cells. The insulin acts like a bridge between the glucose and the cells. In the US there are about 16 million people who suffer from diabetes. It is the seventh most common cause of all deaths. Diabetes is most common in Native American females over 45 years of age.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are two main types of diabetes. The firsts is insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). In IDDM the body either doesn’t produce diabetes or produces very small amounts. The symptoms usually occur in teenagers under 20, usually around puberty. Untreated IDDM affects the metabolism of fat. Since the body can’t convert glucose into energy, it is broken down into fat and stored for energy. This also increases the amounts of ketone bodies in the blood, which interfere with respiration. The second type is called is non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). This is when the body doesn’t make enough insulin or is unable to use it. NIDDM is the most common of all diabetes; it makes up 90 to 95 percent of all cases. Scientists believe that in some people weight gain or obesity is what triggers their diabetes because 80 percent of people with diabetes are over weight.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another problem people have with the pancreas is pancreatic cancer. Each year about 29,000 Americans and 3,000 Canadians are diagnosed with it.

Many People Have Different Learning Styles

Your role of organizing and delivering training tarts by identifying the learners' needs. Before the course starts, You need to carry out an initial assessment of all learners, by direct contact or through their training manager / unit manager. Planning Your responsibilities are: 1 . To ensure that once the syllabus is known, you prepare for the lesson and lesson plans generated 2. To ensure the course structure and timetable are developed 3. To ensure that resources are planned IEEE laptops, projectors etc 4. To ensure accommodation is suitable 5. To get to know our students and their needs 6.To ensure that our knowledge is up to date 7. Organization is number 1 priority in delivering a good lesson 8. To organize the class room layout to suit the group you are teaching. It is necessary to keep up to date with any changes in the training curriculum, especially in SST John Ambulance as things like first aid modifications / principals change frequently to keep up with modern changes in everyday lifestyle and delivering first aid or methods in teaching. Shoots Ambulance offer regular training days / evenings to keep up to date with any changes.Boundaries with Planning There are limitations with planning, in that a Teacher can only plan for what s known and there may be unexpected occurrences that have to be dealt with in the lesson. However, there also has to be an element of â€Å"expect the unexpected† Delivery Your responsibilities are 1. To ensure that delivery is clear and concise 2. That standards are maintained 3. That YOU deliver your lesson to a consistently high standard 4. That YOU deliver a differentiated lesson taking into account different learning styles, and a differentiated lesson to engage learners at different levels.

Conflict on a Trading Floor

Conflict on a Trading Floor The case describes the ethical dilemma occurred in FirstAmerica Bank. The sales department of the bank was preparing a 700 mln. USD loan contract for one of the bank’s former client: Poseidon Cruise Lines. Poseidon intended to order a large cruise ship for their fleet to a French shipyard, which required a contract to be signed for five years and in French francs. This in turn raised concerns in Poseidon management, related to the possible economic costs/losses related to dollar-franc exchange transaction risks, since the cash flow of Poseidon was in dollars. The contract elaboration was assigned to Linda, one of the top salespersons of the FirstAmerica bank and the author of article, as an assistant to her. Linda had a reputation of being volatile and hot tempered person, with aggrieve business style. She was particularly known for her prudence in receiving full credit for the good results of closed deals by her. Since Linda had personal relationships with the CFO and treasurer of Poseidon, she proposed to elaborate a structure, which will minimize the Poseidon costs and risks for those transactions. The elaborated scheme suggested that FirstAmerica provides francs to Poseidon in several tranches and receives the interest rates and loan principal in dollars, thus eliminating Poseidon’s franc obligations. In reality the scheme developed by Linda was offering much more profit for the bank and cost for Poseidon, than it was observed in terms of other usual transactions. This resulted in dilemma for the author, since a definite mismatch between his personal values, ethics and his expected behavior occurred. He knew that this transaction is not the best option for the client and the agreement was obtained in the result of deception from Linda’s side. The dilemma has different dimensions, such as prudential, economic and ethical. The prudential dimension exists, since (1) the author feels him owing to Linda, as she has played a great role in hiring the author by the bank, (2) he has a fear of losing a promising job and (3) he wants to show up as a good employee. The economic dimension of the dilemma was that he feels responsible for his job duties and wants to ensure good economic indicators for the bank, as well as they both will receive significant bonuses based on the volume of contract. The ethical aspect of the dilemma was that the author didn’t like lying and values honesty and has a fear of negative consequences. The alternatives that the author has are as follows: a) follow Linda and keep silence, b) speak with Linda, but state the problem in terms of consequences, c) refuse to collaborate with Linda, d) inform Poseidon on the problems, and e) inform higher level of management. By following Linda and keeping silence the author can satisfy his prudential and economic concerns but feel remorse and personal discrepancies in terms of personal ethics. Talking to Linda and stating the problem in terms of consequences can produce positive impact for all dimensions of the problem if she agrees and negative impact for all dimensions if she disagrees. By refusing to collaborate with Linda, the author will satisfy his ethical concerns, but is risking losing his job and sacrificing prudential and economic concerns. By informing Poseidon on deception the outcomes could be the same as with previous alternative, as well as can face legal concerns in terms of information secrecy. Informing higher level of management will produce a positive impact if the management agrees with the arguments, or will produce negative impact, if the management disagrees. The most important issue to consider, is that if the client learns about deception, then there will be no any positive outcomes from the alternatives, which consider continuation of deception. The probability of that to happen is very high, since the client was not yet fully convinced and probably will try its investigation further. Taking into consideration all above mentioned, the best solution appears to be speaking to Linda and if necessary to higher level management, but clearly state the possible consequences of the action and not just higher than usual profit of the bank. If the possible consequences are stated properly, there is higher probability of stakeholders to agree with arguments and arrive at the most desired outcome in this situation. If this doesn’t happen, than this bank is not the place to work.

Project Management: Project Failures Sydney Opera House

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: PROJECT FAILURES Sydney Opera House CONTENTS Introductionp. 3 Historyp. 3 – 4 Stakeholdersp. 4 – 7 Stakeholder classificationp. 5 Stakeholder Power/Interest Gridp. 7 Causes for project failurep. 8-10 Lack of risk managementp. 9 Unrealistic timescale and Cost escalationp. 10 Recommendationsp. 10 – 14 Risk Managementp. 11 Forecastingp. 11 – 12Stakeholder Engagementp. 12 – 14 Conclusionp. 14 Referencesp. 15 – 16 Introduction For this assignment the project chosen to critically analyse its failure is the Sydney Opera House. Critically analysing its failure and its consequences and identifying bad project management procedures made me look into this project intensively and evaluate it as a project failure with a â€Å"happy end†.This assignment will be divided in three main parts which are History where it will be explained what the Sydney Opera house is and what was the purpose of the project, a Stakeholders section whe re the key stakeholders will be identified and discussed, a Project Failure section identifying what bad management procedures were taken and for last there will be a Recommendations section recommending new procedures to avoid an over budget and over timed project, which this is part of.For the architect – Jorg Utzon – it is his â€Å"masterpiece†, to Australia as a country it is their representative monument as World Heritage (Design5 final report 2010). Although project manager and client are now â€Å"happy† with the final product it can still be considered as a project failure due to a huge overrun budget and over timed project with consequences that are still being repaired, almost 40 years later. History In 2003 Utzon is awarded with the Pritzker, the architecture’s â€Å"Nobel†.It was said of Sydney Opera House (from now on in this assignment also known as ‘SOH’) that it is one of the great iconic buildings of the twenti eth century (Murray, P. 2004). It all started in 1957 when Utzon were chosen to be the architect for this project. Everything was going according with the project but two years after the new elected government (not the one that agreed with Utzon’s project) was getting impatient.More and more companies were being put into the project (in the final more than 165 companies, suppliers included, contributed to this project) and the costs were being added and the new government was pressing Utzon as much as the media trying to cut in costs and speed up the project*. They also decided to change the previous project after its construction as started and now instead of 2 theatre rooms they wanted 4*.Utzon was losing control of the situation and had an undesirable pressure under him. The initial cost was (Aus) 7 million dollars and in the end it has cost (Aus) 102 million dollars and a total of 14 years to be constructed, 6 more than it should be*. The Arup, engineers contracted for th e engineering part stayed until the end of the project but Utzon left in the end , after designing the roof but not concluding.It was hard to keep two of the key stakeholders happy, the minister David Hughes and the SOHEC – Sydney Opera House Executive Committee so he decided to quit blaming the first of lack of cooperation but in fact even the acoustic consultants did not agree between each other (Murray, 2004 :66) and as a result of all these changes of plans and misunderstandings the Sydney Opera House – finished by three local architects – still did not had the proper acoustic, which was the first main factor that lead to a new opera house*.Nowadays the Sydney Opera House is already seen as profitable since its cost was already covered by the revenue made from customers (tourists mainly) but further improvements on accessing conditions were taken. Stakeholders Before going back to the subject it is needed to take into account that a failed project is a proje ct that is cancelled before completion, never implemented, or damaged in some way. Other reasons that why projects fail are an absence of commitment, a bad project organisation and planning, a bad time management, lack of managerial control, extra costs among other problems.Among all these reasons the Stakeholders play a big part in the projects that they are involved and sometimes a project can go wrong depending on decisions taken by these groups. To start this stage of the assignment it is essential to identify the stakeholders – all the users that directly or indirectly affect positively or negatively – the project. (Polychronakis, 2011) The analysis will be assisted from the article â€Å"Toward a theory of a stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of whom and what really counts†, determining which of the stakeholders hold which of its three attributes, one can identify stakeholders.Then Stakeholders can be analysed by its salience. Explaining briefly the three attributes power enables to act despite resistance of others, legitimacy is being seen as acting appropriately within context norms and urgency relates to time sensitivity and importance of the stakeholder (Mitchell 1997). Stakeholder Classification| | Power| Legitimate| Urgent| Type| Stakeholder Classification| | Power| Legitimate| Urgent| Type| | | | | | | NSW Government|   | x| x| x| Definitive| Public Works, David Hughes|   | x|   | x| Dangerous| Utzon|   | x|   | x| Dangerous| Arup|   | x| x|   | Dominant|SOHEC|   | x| x|   | Dominant| Design Team|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Engineer Team|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Consultants |   |   | x| x| Dependent| Suppliers |   |   | x| x| Dependent| Contractor|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Hall, Todd, Littlemore (Three architects hired)|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Construction Workers|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Public/Customers|   |   | x|   | Discretionary| Media|   | x| x  | x| Dangerous| There are 14 main stakeholders: NSW Government – Can be considered the client so its type is definitive, has the power to over ask and the project manager has to show urgency on keeping him happy.David Hughes – Having the role of Public Works minister for the new NSW government he has dealt directly with the project having the power to influence it and as a client’s representative has the same urgency status. Is considered Dangerous because although is not definitive (could be replaced for example) he affects directly the project as client representative (pressuring Utzon till he resigned) Utzon – Being the project manager and architect he presented the project and designed it so he has power on the project itself and on the staff.He has an urgent characteristic because he continuously needs to keep on track of the project’s milestones and delivery dates. Arup – as the engineers company they have some power on the project but no urgency at all since they work when it is told to but is legitimated to act within the norms but couldn’t deliberately change anything and was socially accepted. Is dominant because has a key role in the project. SOHEC – Although it has the power to demand certain characteristics and has legitimacy in the project it doesn’t have big urgency since it isn’t a client but a client’s influencer.Good to keep informed. Working staff (remaining stakeholders) – They don’t have great power but they are dependent on milestones so also they have the urgency to meet expectations. They also have their legitimateness since they depend on each other and need to coordinate their designed areas. Hall, Todd and Littlemore, the three architects that replaced Utzon don’t have any power since everything was planned and they only needed to re-design the roof in a way that could match the foundations.Public/Customers – Since the y are â€Å"watching† delays and over costs being paid from their taxes they are on the legitimate attribute because they are on the â€Å"socially accepted and expected behaviours† side (Mitchell 1997). Media – Has the indirect power of showing a project as a project success or failure. Meets the parameters of the legitimate attribute expecting behaviours and has the urgency of being time sensitive (generating news with the project delay). The main stakeholder was the architect, but Utzon was much more concerned with the design aspect rather than time and  costs objectives, which proved problematic.During the project, Utzon collaborated with Ove Arup, who was in charge of the structure and the engineering while subcontractors were in charge of mechanics, electrics, heating and ventilating, lighting and acoustics. There was no real project manager, but rather collaboration between Utzon and Arup. The other main stakeholder was the client, the state of New Sout h Wales (Australian government). A executive committee was created to provide project supervision but the members had no real technical skills.The government eventually became an obstacle to the project team by inhibiting changes during the progress of the operations  and thus contributed to cost overrun and delays. Finally, the public and media was an indirect stakeholder because they were concerned with the project’s success. Defining INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS. External stakeholders The external stakeholders can be considered as anyone outside the implementing organisations who could be affected by the project’s results.Internal Stakeholders Internal stakeholders are those associated with the process, typically members of the project team or the governance structure. After describing what internal and external stakeholders are, it can be specified what stakeholders need more attention, or in other words, need to be ‘more’ satisfied. It is know n that it’s impossible to keep all the stakeholders happy at the same time so the following picture will show that it was essential to keep NSW government and Mr.David Hughes happy (a reminder to say that the relationship between Utzon and David Hughes wasn’t good). The relationship with Arup should be stronger in order to have a better performance linking ‘departments’. As a result (of not doing it) the roof couldn’t match the foundations created by Arup (the roof was too heavy for the foundation’s material) and the amount of resources would not be so many times recalculated, it would have minimized the time spent and the money wasted. The relation with the media should also be managed better.The relationship between stakeholders was too ‘transparent’ and what was meant to be a huge partner advertising the project ended up pulling down the project in terms of future customer’s point of view (customers would be driven by t he media and associate the Sydney Opera House negatively). Also the relationship with the SOHEC could be better driven since it was the major beneficiated within the project. They did not pay for it (the government did) and they were represented by the ones that would use it the most but what was hope was turned into despair.   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | POWER|   | Keep| Satisfied|   | Manage| Closely|   |   |   | | | SOHEC|   |   |   | NSW Government |   |   |   | | | Arup|   |   |   | David Hughes |   |   |   | | | Media|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   | Monitor| Only|   |   | Keep| Informed|   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | | Design Team|   |   | Consultants|   |   |   | | Engineer Team|   |   | Suppliers |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   | Contractor|   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | |   | INTEREST|   | | | |   | Causes for project failure A project is a set of people and other resources temporarily assembled to reach a specified objective, normally with a fixed budget and with a fixed time period. Projects are generally associated with products or procedures that are being done for the first time or with known procedures that are being altered (Graham 1985).Sidney Opera house was meant to be the perfect construction that allied Utzon ’s genius and Arup’s structural expertise (Murray, P. 2004) but it is necessary to accept the fact that neither of them were a project manager, that just in the 70’s started to be another person rather than being an engineer or an architect (the project manager), so Utzon’s management skills were based on experience and knowledge in his sector rather than in project management itself (lack of planning and management skills), which changes perspectives.While Utzon had a masterpiece perspective, Arup had a task perspective. If they were project managers they would be more oriented to fulfil the stakeholder’s perspectives and the â€Å"business by project† perspective where they would focus on project investments and bene? ts, which include project results, project success, strategy, pro? t and bene? ts† (Bjorn Johs. Kolltvei, 2005). Another main point is the fact of the allowance for the project changes at any time. The Sydney Opera hous e was supposed to have 2 rooms but ended up having 4 rooms.So it can show some discrepancy between what was wanted (before and after the new government) and what was delivered. In this project particularly the Government has changed so it is hard to say that is someone’s fault but in fact it had an impact, always asking for changes and putting pressure in Utzon. This shows that the agreements between Utzon and the previous Australian Government did not have strong levels of engament with the internal stakeholders (government, Minister, SOHEC).According to the OGC – the UK Office of Government Commerce, it is essential to have â€Å"clear organisational boundaries† and â€Å"clear governance arrangements to ensure sustainability† and it did not happened in this project, where the pressure was horrendous on Utzon to be used as the responsible for this huge cost and time overrun (and he has his fault because of the massive fail when designing a roof not sust ained by its foundations and lack of cooperation with the Arup resulting on a bad choice of the materials for the roof) but Utzon can’t be blamed by the recurrent changes asked on the entrances (still eing re-arranged) and the halls, which had really poor acoustic quality. The Sydney Opera House was meant to be â€Å"one of the six best opera houses in the world†¦with a fine concert hall with perfect acoustics â€Å"(Murray, P. 2004) But at the same time Peter Murray also states that â€Å"(opera) however, was a minor interest. There were some local groups and the occasional tour from an Italian company but it was it†.This shows that a major stakeholder – the public – was not taken into consideration since the attraction was more international than national, but even there it failed(need to bear in mind that nowadays SOH is more profitable with huge concerts and museum and attraction because it was re-oriented for more than Opera concerts) . The (n ew concept) of the halls were against the musical competition rules (being put side by side) and the acoustic were really poor, so even thou the objectives were delivered they didn’t think properly about its benefits.Nowadays the Sydney Opera House had its changes especially in the access areas, parking and acoustics and now is used for the purpose of concerts and as a museum (tourist attraction). Lack of skills and proven approach to Project management and risk management As it is said, Project management was only developed in the 70’s and 80’s so the experience took place over the project management ‘science’ (not really developed during the 50’s) so it definitely lacked during the process. Error Margins completely wrong, years and millions more were used and that is the biggest signal of a Project that has failed, when its error margins do not apply.Fortunately the SOH was â€Å"re-used† in order to have â€Å"Return on Investmentà ¢â‚¬  but not delivering a project oriented to its benefits is definitely a signal of project failure. The pace of the project did not meet expectations, but those 14 years could have been less. Again the roof was the biggest problem. This has to be related with the lack of processes in place to ensure that all parties have a â€Å"clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and a shared understanding of desired outcomes, key terms and deadlines†( Office of Government Commerce, CP0015/01/05).Furthermore the integration of such a big supply chain and still Utzon couldn’t estimate the right amount of the right material for its foundations and roof (10%, 20% more resources on the overall budget is what it should be as part of the total budget and those 20% ‘extra’ would be used for any emergency) shows no scope and interaction with other participants (stakeholders). The entire novel cited before shows lack of understanding. Utzon designed a roof that couldn’t match with Arup’s foundations. Too many â€Å"tiers†, which goes against the prioritisation that is essential in a supply chain.So it crossed over three main causes for a project failure: Cost escalation, time escalation (error margins) and disturbance of the core processes (politics). Unrealistic timescale and Cost escalation? In the case of the Sydney Opera House incomplete plans, drawings and a lack of information about the material and the structure of its now-famous roof all added dramatically to the cost. The estimators (consultants, accountants, auditors) didn't make those errors; other members of the project team did (Utzon, Arup).When the construction started there was no clear  concept of how the roof might be constructed. It’s not that the estimates were wrong; it’s that there was nothing to base the estimates on in the first place. Much of the delay and cost overrun was caused by iteration on roof design and lack of Dat a, eventually landing on a solution that constructed the roof out of interlocking tiles, but this solution was only discovered after a lot of time and effort. PM effort is coordinated to reach a particular goal or perform some speci? c function. The ? eld demonstrates‘‘. . . means-end paradigm with a strong emphasis on discipline, goal seeking and end-item accomplishment’’ (Pollack, J. 2006) – this is why Utzon was a great architect and a bad project manager, because in this particular project he missed all these premises. Because of the time (the 50’s) some major knowledge can’t be used because it is unknown but it can be identified as lack of agile project management, a major failure to engage stakeholders, inappropriate leadership style (Utzon resigned before the project was completed), insufficient procedures (as it was said before relating cost and time escalation).Recommendations Field tells us that â€Å"projects fail too often because the project scope was not fully appreciated and/or user needs not fully understood. † The meaning of a project can be materialized in the Sidney Opera House, but although it was a project, it failed by several reasons. RISK MANAGEMENT The ‘‘. . . traditional thinking behind a project risk management (PRM) framework is essentially centrist, authoritarian. It . . . assumes that the central project manager knows best’’ (Williams 40, p. 219).Williams suggests that in Project Management participation and empowerment may actually increase risk by reducing centralised control. Without an agreement that could make Utzon stick on the project agreed before his risk management couldn’t fit in new perspectives from the client like more rooms (halls). Demanding more and asking to reduce time due to the existent delay that was not expected in Utzon’s margins based on the project’s milestones it shows that the pressure pretending to take power from Utzon (led to his resignation) ‘helped’ to make of this project a failure.So, Risk Management would be one of the main focuses if I was the Project Manager. Achieving milestones, regular monitoring, evaluating and updating risk management plans and risk registers and maintain risk management processes for the duration of the project. FORECASTING ; DEALING WITH EXTERNAL MOTIVES Essentially, projects are like organisations. They have project governance, internal management systems, a number of staff, external stakeholders, an external environment and goals, objectives and deliverables.However, project delivery in the construction industry comes with a higher degree of uncertainty due to Industrial factors, complexity and changing technologies and uniqueness of projects where time, cost and quality need to be managed, sometimes equally, sometimes differently. Time Quality Cost In this particular case I would set up a standard of quality and add 20% margin error on the budget for resources. With a focus on quality I would make sure that the project would stick on the agreed and every change emanded would have a new budget and time escalation so the Government would think twice before demanding. With a focus on quality and the cost already decided (with 20% for resources) the two main problems would be solved (the roof problem and the 50 million (AUS) dollars of cost overrun). Furthermore the time problem would be solved with an exact check point on milestones any delay would be due to external motives like a tropical catastrophe or any alteration decided by the government but they would know in advance the cost and time waste of their decisions straight away instead of ‘just’ demand alterations.STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Strategic approach Stakeholder Engagement is designed to take account of all the individuals and groups impacted by the proposed change and achieve a deeper understanding of their various interests. So, as a proje ct manager I would make sure that the 6 principles below would be the ‘foundations’ of my relation with the stakeholders. Significance: deal with issues of significance to stakeholders and the agency. Completeness: understand the concerns, views, needs and expectations.Responsiveness: respond coherently and appropriately Communication: open and effective Transparency: clear and agreed information and feedback processes. Collaboration: work to seek mutually beneficial outcomes where feasible. Inclusiveness: recognise, understand and involve stakeholders in the process. Integrity: conduct engagement in a manner that fosters mutual respect and trust. (Australian Handbook for citizenship, Stakeholder Engagement Section, Strategic Policy Group, Implementation and Stakeholder Engagement Branch, 2008).Identifying the project’s stakeholders, assessing them, and determining how they should be managed is a part of that process. When engaging stakeholder it is needed to ide ntify, prioritise, understand and plan communications with stakeholders. When engaging stakeholder it is needed to identify, prioritise, understand and plan communications with stakeholders. The first and second points are already done with the stakeholder identification and classification above and also the Interest/Power grid designed before. As a reminder, Walker states that, 2003, p. 261).Apart from the stakeholder groups identifiable by their more obvious connection with projects there are clear and major groups that are invisible but whose cooperation and support is vital for project success(2003, p. 261) so I would manage my ‘tiers’ (in supply chain for materials) having three (tiers) for different specific materials instead of dealing with hundreds. Understanding stakeholders would be another important thing to start from. Apart from forecasting I believe that is one of the best concepts that have to be incorporated in a project manager preparation to start a pr oject.Asking himself â€Å"what†, â€Å"who†, â€Å"when† is really important and the understanding of the project’s deliverables leads to a better understanding of stakeholder’s needs. That leads to a better collaboration between manager and stakeholders. Mitchell states that â€Å"making collaboration between influential stakeholders and the project manager happen depends on personal behaviour changes by knowledge workers to not only work collaboratively but also to share knowledge. (Mitchell 2002, p. 59). Understanding Stakeholders leads to good communications.Following its key concerns and follow the Power/Interest grid leads to a good understanding between stakeholders and project manager so all the four steps has to be co-related. Conclusion Sydney Opera House is considered a project failure, failing on the time scale and cost overrun and the quality of it is still being refurbished but it is an international attraction and no tourist wants to miss it when they go to Sydney. Utzon delivered his masterpiece but in a project manager’s point of view he had his limitations.Bad forecasting, bad planning skills and lack of stakeholder engagement were the main reasons for this project failure and I would have focused on milestones, identifying stakeholders, prioritising necessities and having a clear cost/time perspective and also having a clear risk assessment. References Mitchell, K. (2002), â€Å"Collaboration and information sharing: an ROI perspective? †, The Public Manager, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 59-62 Lock, D. , Project Management, 5th edn. Gower, 1992. Nicholas, J. M. , Management of Business and Engineering Projects. Prentice Hall, 1990.J. K Pinto, J. E Prescot, Variations in critical success factors over the stages in the project life cycle Journal of Management, 14 (1) (1988), pp. 5–18 Kerzner H. , In search of excellence in project management. Journal of Systems Management, 1987, 30–39 Davi d I. Cleland, Lewis R. Ireland (2006). Project Management: Strategic Design And Implementation. 5th edn. McGraw-Hill Professional. pp. 17-35. A RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT OUR EVOLVING UNDERSTANDING OF PROJECT SUCCESS Kam Jugdev; Ralf Muller Project Management Journal; Dec 2005; 36, 4; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 19 J.N Wright, Time and budget: the twin imperatives of a project sponsor. International Journal of Project Management, 15 3 (1997), pp. 181–186 Peter Murray (2004). The Saga Of Sydney Opera House: The Dramatic Story Of The Design And Construction Of The Icon Of Modern Australia. Bedford Park: Taylor ; Francis. p3-18. Bjorn Johs. Kolltveit et al. , Perspectives on project management, International Journal of Project Management (2006), doi:10. 1016/j. ijproman. 2005. 12. 002 Julien Pollack, The changing paradigms of project management, International Journal of Project Management (2006), doi:10. 016/j. ijproman. 2006. 08. 002 Williams T. Assessing and moving on from the dominant p roject management discourse in the light of project overruns. IEEE Trans Eng Manage 2005;52(4):497 Office of Government Commerce, CP0015/01/05, 2004 Field, Tom. (1997). â€Å"When bad things happen to good projects†, CIO magazine, Oct 15, 1997, Vol. 11, 2; pg. 54, 6 pgs. Lynda Bourne and Derek H. T. Walker Visualising and mapping stakeholder influence RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (2003) Project Management Lectures from week 2 (1st semester) to week 7 (as of 2nd semester)

Free Essays on Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1894 - 1961) Type of Work: Detective mystery novel Setting San Francisco; 1920s Principal Characters Sam Spade, a young hard-boiled detective Miles Archer, Spade's older partner Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a beautiful young woman (alias Miss Wonderly) Joel Cairo, an effeminate gangster-type Casper Gutman, a rotund, older man Iva Archer, Archer's wife and Spade's mistress Story Overview Effie Perine, secretary to private detective Sam Spade, opened his door to announce that a client, Miss Wonderly, was there to see him. A stunning young woman entered and shyly took a seat. She stammered and bit her lip as she tried to relate her story. Finally the detective assured her it would be best to begin at the beginning. Miss Wonderly said that she was concerned for her seventeen-year-old sister, who had run off with an older man named Thursby. She had arranged a meeting with Thursby for that evening, and now wanted to hire a detective to follow him from the meeting - straight to her sister, she hoped. Spade gave his partner, Miles Archer, the details of Miss Wonderly's case. She paid them two hundred dollars, and left with the agreement that Archer would tail Thursby that evening. That night Spade was awakened by a phone call: Archer had been murdered. Spaae rushed to the scene. According to the police ' Archer was shot with a British-made Webley revolver. Spade phoned his secretary and asked her to call Iva, his partner's wife, to break the bad news. Then he returned to his apartment. Sam had just "drunk his third glass Of Bicardi and was lighting his fifth cigarette" when the doorbell rang. It was the police; Lieutenants Dundy and Polhaus wanted to question Sam about the death of yet another man. Thursby, it turned out, had been shot outside his hotel shortly after Spade left the Archer murder scene. Considering the circumstances of Archer's death, the police reasoned Spade m... Free Essays on Maltese Falcon Free Essays on Maltese Falcon The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1894 - 1961) Type of Work: Detective mystery novel Setting San Francisco; 1920s Principal Characters Sam Spade, a young hard-boiled detective Miles Archer, Spade's older partner Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a beautiful young woman (alias Miss Wonderly) Joel Cairo, an effeminate gangster-type Casper Gutman, a rotund, older man Iva Archer, Archer's wife and Spade's mistress Story Overview Effie Perine, secretary to private detective Sam Spade, opened his door to announce that a client, Miss Wonderly, was there to see him. A stunning young woman entered and shyly took a seat. She stammered and bit her lip as she tried to relate her story. Finally the detective assured her it would be best to begin at the beginning. Miss Wonderly said that she was concerned for her seventeen-year-old sister, who had run off with an older man named Thursby. She had arranged a meeting with Thursby for that evening, and now wanted to hire a detective to follow him from the meeting - straight to her sister, she hoped. Spade gave his partner, Miles Archer, the details of Miss Wonderly's case. She paid them two hundred dollars, and left with the agreement that Archer would tail Thursby that evening. That night Spade was awakened by a phone call: Archer had been murdered. Spaae rushed to the scene. According to the police ' Archer was shot with a British-made Webley revolver. Spade phoned his secretary and asked her to call Iva, his partner's wife, to break the bad news. Then he returned to his apartment. Sam had just "drunk his third glass Of Bicardi and was lighting his fifth cigarette" when the doorbell rang. It was the police; Lieutenants Dundy and Polhaus wanted to question Sam about the death of yet another man. Thursby, it turned out, had been shot outside his hotel shortly after Spade left the Archer murder scene. Considering the circumstances of Archer's death, the police reasoned Spade m...

Centered Care Initiative Essays

Centered Care Initiative Essays Centered Care Initiative Paper Centered Care Initiative Paper The initiative can be implemented as soon as there is a consensus from the team to be committed to adapting a changed mindset in how the operations approach would take place. It would be when a commitment is done towards a vision of providing total quality health care through a family-centered initiative in the ICU. Within a time period of a couple of months or more, the leader together with the key players in the hospital would undergo a series of meetings and research regarding the family-centered-care initiatives in other hospitals and how it could be conducted in this institutions. The concerns of the staff members addressed during forums in the past before the initiative was approved would be considered and would be addressed in the said planning and research stages. During this stage, the educational materials that would be used in the seminars would be compiled. When the planning and research stage has been concluded, the staff can then launch at least a month long of announcement and scheduling regarding the introduction of the initiative as well as the posting of schedules for the seminars that would take place to equip the staff members regarding this implementation. This would also provide for ample time to reserve the venue as well as reproduce the educational materials to be used in the said seminars. Proper research should be done so the staff would be able to implement an evidence based approach. For four months or more, a series of seminars would be conducted with the educational materials designed to promote the importance of the perspective of the patients and the families in the care-giving process and how they are valued member of the staff. It would also provide for techniques and important considerations to inform the staff of their specific responsibilities as well as how they would efficiently relate to the families of the patients. They must learn from the other hospital who has adapted the same approach even it was in different units. During this time, the staff would also learn the rules they need to adhere to uphold the input of the families at the same time not compromise the quality of the medical practice in the ICU. Such seminars would change the staff’s perception about the patients (Conway et al. 2006). It would also make the staff aware of the current literature available as education always leads to better equipment for the staff (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center). By the end of such seminars for the medical staff, there would be a recognized need to develop a new culture to address more problems but until then, it is an unceasing process of adapting a culture until it has become the new normalcy. By the commitment of the staff into professing the significance of the patients and families as essential to the development of the health of the patients, this project can speed up its course. It would also lead to an eradication of misconceptions about the family-centered care approach and how it can be adaptable in the ICU (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center). The advantages and barriers would be set out and in that way, there would be contingency plans that that staff would be able to plan out before hand (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center). The team can now venture into inviting families to participate in the initiative. Initial seminars directly for families can give them confidence regarding the roles that they may play with this new program. It is important to include them because they are also stakeholders in the initiative as well as beneficiaries. The stage would be trust-building. This is very important and it can be done through dialogue with the leaders and with the patients and families themselves. It can be developed over time simultaneously as they are adapting the new system. Once the procedure of including the families gets practiced over and over again, the staff would have an easier time in providing a customer service approach in the process of the patients’ recovery. When the staff is able to enlist families into the program, seminars and training programs would then take place once again, this time for the family members involved in the collaboration (Conway et al. 2006). From such seminars, other family members from different units or hospitals who have already adapted such a system can actually share their experiences with a family-centered approach (Conway et al. 2006). With this, the family can be confident that such procedures could work, even in the ICU, in fact more so in the ICU. The stakeholders would be the patients, the families and the medical team. The medical team would to be the core group that adapts members of the families of the ICU patients and should facilitate the collaboration. This team includes the attending physicians, the nurses, the specialists and the unit manager. They have to be educated not only in the condition of the patients and the possible scenarios that would take place but in terms of addressing the needs of the families as well as empathizing with them in this critical time. When discussions and collaborations occur, it is imperative that at least the staff has already undergone trainings for it and has already accepted the shared vision for the initiative. Commitment is the top qualification for this initiative to be successful. The staff members who are not committed to the vision of the initiative must not join collaborations just yet because it may provide some negative energy in the mixed team of medical and non-medical team. Evaluation Process Overall Process. The process of shifting from a traditional culture into a new one can be very risky and fearsome for an organization to adapt. There are number of things to have to consider before actually implementing it. The number one consideration would be the reception of the people. When they are so used to an environment of control over the families and the patients, taking this control may lead to different things. However, the good overweighs the bad. It is also safe to remind the ICU staff that other units in the hospital have been commended for applying similar programs as seen with the feedbacks of the patients seen through the letters of gratitude the hospital receives from the patients. In the ICU, there is a need to address those that are suffering psychologically and the organization has been neglecting that. The choice must be made between maintaining what is familiar and adapting what is needed in order to develop into a better health care institutions. There must be a realization that all things that are gained hard are worth-having. Being able to connect with the families and providing them with a sense of purpose as well as seeing there significance in the process can open up a lot of opportunities for more change that brings about progress. It is similar to adapting a new pair of eyes and having new pairs of hands that help in the process in the person of accepting the families as part of the health care team. Staffing would not be a problem as much as before, if it ever was, because there are new members of the team and the patients came with them. Having to develop a common ground with the families and the staff was the hard part; compromise is not always an easy thing especially if both parties are accountable for something very important to them, for the patients, their family member’s welfare and for the medical teams, their profession. At the end of the day, the process of seeing eye to eye boils down to one thing, the patient’s well-being. It is important to practice ethical leadership and to recognize that both parties should not be against each other for power and control, but they should work together, collaborate for the highest possible quality of health care they can provide when they are in partnership. The realization that even if the medical staff, had done fine without the assistance of the families, they are given the chance to make their performance even better because of the new people in the team that has the same desires of providing good health to the patient under critical conditions. Evaluation of Procedures. Trainings and seminars are very effective in addressing the need for information for both families and the medical staff. It lays down the ground rules that are needed to establish a framework for a family-centered approach. It does not necessarily mean that the system would be perfect right away; one of the biggest barriers would be disappointments when things would not go smoothly when things start. Although, this is what the team should hope for, it should also be prepared by the barriers brought about by a lot of differences in terms of attitudes, education and perception. The practice of bouncing back from frustrating encounters must be developed (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). Leadership means having to cope with unpredictable circumstances (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). The high risk of operating in the intensive care unit heightens the stress of making mistakes. This is the reason why capabilities must be developed more in adapting to such instances. Empathy should also be developed (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). It could be started with the effort to heighten the sensitivity of the staff to the needs of the families, verbally and non-verbally communicated, the staff must always be aware of it (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). Adapting a shared vision is something that inspires the team to work together and to compromise for the sake of the good of the patient. A reminder of this concept always helps the team be of high spirits and be determined to work harder together. Changed Perceptions. The staff adapts a culture of safety that is translated in the availability of clinical information that is tools for an effective patient care (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). They see now the gravity of ineffective communication that lacks, this leads to miscoordination and vagueness in the procedures that families used to blindly permit to. They have adapted patient-centeredness that valued the families and promoted their adequacy in their roles for sharing the â€Å"decision-making, coordination and continuity of care, communication (ease of access to information, amount of information desired by patients and families, and timely disclosure of adverse events), timeliness of care, emotional and physical comfort, involvement of family as desired by the patient, and use of patient and family feedback to improve care† (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). This was seen as important before but highly neglected by the staff. The family also trusts in the system more and in their rights and abilities as family members in behalf of the patients. They have seen the effectiveness of the implementation as they have joined the team and have seen the efficiency due to better communication methods between them and the staff (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). There is also equity of health status for all populations served (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). The families need not to have medical degrees to have a valid say in the conditions of their family members. They have also gained confidence to be included in the collaboration as the trust that the staff and the family has developed became the bedrock for an effective operation (Sodomka 2006). They are respected and they are given the capability to respond to the knowledge and information given to them in a manner that they can understand. They also take part in the evaluation progress that could be for the further development of the procedure (Sodomka 2006). Feedback and focus group discussions were not the only way to improve the program anymore but a vital communication between the stakeholders (Sodomka 2006). There is also a realization that a change in the culture is actually possible in even in a high risk health care system (Sodomka 2006). There is lesser restriction, however things have become more progressive as patients and families exercise choices in the full extent and they are given more control, not only over their health providers but over the illness. Creative Leadership Practice Lessons from the Initiative. The initiative has taught a lot about being open-minded. It is alright to step out of the box. In a time of massive submissiveness, it is important to give people choices. Leaders are pioneers and they are the one who challenge the system and in this case the organizational culture (Kouzes 2003). More than choice, it is important to give people informed a choice as it empowers them. Leaders would want the people they reach to be empowered and be enabled to act on their own because of the influence of good leadership. The problem with traditional models is that they have been accepted for so long that changing them could mean deviation and that could translate into something unacceptable especially in a culture that involves very high risk. Leaders should empower their followers to take risks but he must also be ready to be accountable for the consequences (Kouzes 2003). To minimize the possibility of negative effects of certain changes, it is wise if the leader take the initiative to study and to research on the endeavor and to compare the circumstance and to make judgment from there. It is also important to talk to people and consider varying alternatives. It can be useful to watch out for avenues for this. Trainings and seminars are avenues that can provide massive opportunity to learn, to interact and to question. It must be vital for the organization to be teachable as well as for the leaders to be open to different alternatives as well. The perception of the families and the patients is given priority here. In a long time, their perception has been left in the dark and to actually open up new opportunities for them to voice out their concerns and to give them an active role gives the organization hope and empowers it to be better. However, the perception of the staff is also vital as they are the soldiers of the hospital. Leaders of change need to hear their concerns and empathize with their fears in order to make the change more feasible and more efficient (Cloud 2006). The initiative also pushed for a stronger character in terms of relating with different kinds of people. It is not only a communication on a minimal level anymore. It is intensive collaboration. The medical staff does not only communicate with medical people anymore in an in-depth level, they also do so with family members. Leadership Development. It is true that leaders should be visionaries, but in certain cases, realistic consideration must be done in order for the vision to be a reality (Kouzes 2003). There are cases wherein people would not give the responses that would be favorable for the initiative. However, this does not mean the initiative dies with one person disagreeing. It developed leadership in terms of actually having ownership over the project wherein the leader would do everything to protect it and to keep it afloat despite adversity and rejection (Cloud 2006). Accountability may be a big and scary word however it does develop the leader’s character. Planning and thinking things over has been the strongest training that can be taken out of this initiative as well as the ability to empathize with other people. It is always easier to assume how they are feeling but actually taking time to communicate changes the scenario a great deal (Institute for Family-Centered Care 2007). Leadership Perceptions. It is also a positive thing to be able to see your visions translate into realities as they become goals that are achievable. As the vision shifts into goals, it soon translates into something that is actually perceived and then implemented by the group. It starts with the time the leader took to care about the things that are not right and it is strengthened by determination, discernment, planning and encouragement from the staff and for the staff. This initiative has exemplified that concept of servant leadership wherein the passion for the vision would make the visionary serve the stakeholders in order for it to be a reality. The leader would go out of his comfort zone to talk to the different groups of stakeholders and empathize with them to actually know how they can be served better by this initiative and how the leader can make this initiative into a win-win situation. Leadership Credo. As a person who works for the health care industry, more than safety and proper implementation, empathy and compassion for the staff, the patients and the family’s tops should be a priority to truly serve the people around you and address their needs and to uphold the values of the organization, especially in the critical care unit of the ICU. References Cloud, H. (2006). Integrity. New York: HarperCollins. Conway, J. , Johnson, B. , Edgman-Levitan, S. , Schlucter, J. , Ford, D. , Sodomka, P. and Simmons, L. (2006). A Road Map for the Future. Institute for Family Centered Care. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (n. d). Facilitator’s Guide on Family Centered Rounds. Kouzes, J. (2003). Business leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Sodomka, P. (2006, August 20). Engaging patients families: A high leverage tool for health care leaders. Hospitals Health Networks (80)8. Stefano, S. Wasylyshyn, K. (2005). Integrity, courage, empathy (ICE): Three leadership essentials. Human Resource Plannin, (28)4, 5+.

Financial Accounting Regulation in the United Kingdom essays

Financial Accounting Regulation in the United Kingdom essays In the U.K., the  ¡statement of intent on accounting standards ¡Ã‚ ¯ was issued in 1969 by the council of the ICAEW. The statement announced that standards would be produced in the future, with four objectives. Firstly, to narrow the difference and variety in accounting principles. Secondly, to disclosure the accounting bases. The third one is the disclosure of departure from established standards and the finally, is the wider exposure for major new accounting proposals. To this end, the Accounting Standards Steering Committee ( ASSC ) [ Later the name was changed to the Accounting Standards Committee (ASC) ] was set up by the ICAW to improve accounting disclosure. Since 1971, recommendations from professional accounting bodies have been in the form of Statement of Standard Accounting Practice ( SSAPs). Edey points out that the standards that have been produced fall into four types. Type 1 standards is one that states companies must tell the user what they are doing, that states that companies must disclose their accounting policies. Type 2 standard seeks uniformity of presentation, for example, it is concerned with uniform treatment of associated companies. Type 3 standard relates to the disclosure of specific items, for example, extraordinary items and research and development expenditure. The need for this type of standard arises because the treatment of these items varied so much in the past. Type 4 standard relates to the problem of income meas urement and asset valuation. The current cost accounting standard clearly falls into this category. There are standards that in fact could be said to be of more than one type, for example, the extraordinary item standard. The advantage of dividing standards up according to their roles is that it becomes clear that some standards clearly satisfy their objectives while other standards do seem to fail on the grounds that could have been predicted by the critics of the standards ...