Green Mountain Case Essay

Introduction Green Mountain Resort is a small resort that gives people a choice to buy vacation homes with the added luxury of golf, tennis and skiing. With Gunter as the new owner, his main issues were the high turnover rate. In such a small operation and the type of industry, the opportunities for promotion were few and Gunter was faced with the irony that if he reduced the turnover, there would be even fewer openings for advancement (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). This was due to the type of industry and the fact that the resort was a rural area. Green Mountain Resort Change Images There are six change images; each Gunter, the hospitality literature and the consultant have been described by an image. Gunter is the director (during the beginning of the story), he is the owner of the resort and he is the one who wants to change the turnover rate. The assumption is that change is a strategic choice that mangers make and the survival and general well-being of the organization depends on them (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). As the story went on Gunter became a mentor and began to change with the help of the consultant to more of a coaching image. The hospitality literature falls under the navigator. In the navigator image, control is still seen as at the heart of the management action, although a variety of factors external to managers mean that while they may achieve some intended change outcome, others will occur over which they have little control (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). The literature played a role of navigator as it identified turnover as a chronic prob lem that the industry endures and made several suggestions on how one can help reduce the effects. Lastly the consultant, he played the role of the interpreter as he was able to interpret the problem of turnover and how he was able to change the perspective of Gunter in a way that dissolved the problem. Instead of a problem turnover instead, became a way that the resort could use as a way to recruit talent. Assumption -Turnover Problem Each of these assumptions influenced prescriptions for dealing with the turnover problem. For example, Gunter only seemed to make the problem worse when he played the director when he attempted to solve the turnover as a problem, but when he changed the way he looked at the issue he became the coach and turned the problem in to an advantage. The hospitality literature was the navigator as it defined turnover as a problem that was considered chronic and something that must be endured in the industry. It’s prescription for dealing with the turnover problem included streamlining training, simplifying jobs and making the HR process more efficient. The consultant seemed to make the allow Gunter to look at the ‘problem’ from a different perspective. He mentioned in that if you do not try, try and try again, but if at last you don’t succeed then try something different and that is exactly what Gunter had to do. Change Image- Turnover Problem Another image that can be applied to the turnover problem is the nurturer. Like a parent’s relationship with a child, future outcomes are nurtured or shaped, but the ability to produce intended outcomes at the end of the day is severely limited because of the impact of much wider, sometimes chaotic forces and influences (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). The turnover problem is something (like a child) that is not going away, especially in the hospitality industry. Gunter had to accept the issue and try and work with it rather than against it. With the new insights to advertise Green Mountain Resort as a company that they ‘recruit high-potential people, offering them promise of rapid career development’ helped bring new insight to the turnover problem (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). Conclusion Conclusions that I drew from the statement ‘if we only draw upon one particular frame, then this will take us away from thinking about what is going on from an alternative perspective?’ would be that a single structure can effectively make it impossible to come up with innovative solutions. The Green Mountain case showed that it is not enough to believe that a problem can have different solutions. Rather the problem can be enhanced rather than gone completely. Conclusion This case has changed the way I look at problems. You cannot always make a problem go away and there are times where you may need help and calling someone in to give the problem a fresh set of eyes to see what they suggest may be exactly what the problem needs. Gunter at first was looking at the high turnover rate as a problem and that he wanted to lower the rate. Being in the hospitality industry high turnover is almost a given. After calling in the consultant Gunter realized that he need to change how he handled the turnover rate. He did this by advertising his company and a company that hired well educated employees that were likely to advance their career quickly. By doing this he helped employee grow and always had applicants wanted to be hired so they could grow as well. References Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2009). Managing organization change. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Iran Contra Affair Essay

In 1979, an Iranian government supported terrorist group overtook the US embassy. They captured 52 people. In an order to obtain the release of the American hostages being held in Lebanon, The Reagan Administration secretly began to sell weapons to Iran. This went against an American ban on arms sales to Iran, which had been in affect since the embassy had been seized. (Corrigan 40-41) These deals were arranged through Robert McFarlane, who was the head of the National Security Council. One of McFarlane’s main staff members was Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. McFarlane gave North the responsibility of handling the details of the deal and told him not to send anything to Iran until the hostages had been released. North wanted to keep the deal going so he allowed Israel to ship the weapons before any hostages had been released. McFarlane criticized North, but North kept his job. McFarlane was replaced with Rear Admiral John M. Poindexter. North tried to convince Poindexter to continue the arms-for-hostage deal with Iran. North realized that there was a massive amount of money being made in this trade. He used some of this money made could be used to support an anti-communist organization in Central America. This organization, that was active in Nicaragua, was known as the Contras. The Contras were also highly supported by Reagan and his administration, seeing as we were in the Cold War against Communism. (Lawson 41-60) In the early 1980s, Congress passed a series of amendments known as the Boland Amendments. The Boland Amendments made it illegal for the U. S. military to further aid the Contras. (Cohen) The National Security Council was formed in 1947 to acquire secret information about the military plans of Russia throughout the Cold War. (Lawson 49) In 1985, North and McFarlane gave several letters to Congress, in which he lied about the questions that they had been asked about their involvement in supporting the Contras in Nicaragua. North lied again in a face-to-face meeting with Congress in 1986. North told the House Intelligence Committee he was involved neither in fundraising for, nor in providing military advice to, the Contras. In 1987 he was confronted with these accusations to which he admitted to misleading Congress with the answers he gave them. When the president later asked Attorney General to gather the relevant facts, North and Poindexter shredded and altered official documents on November 21, 1986. The destruction of these documents was a major loss to Congress, because they were now unable o use those destroyed documents against North in court. (http://icah. infobaselearning. com/pdocument. aspx? ID=129729&search=iran+contra+north) Further complicating the situation, Congress granted immunity to North and Poindexter so that they could eliminate the need for the testimony of President Reagan and Vice President Bush. Oliver North and Poindexter, while accused and under intense investigation were ultimately convicted. (http://icah. infobaselearning. com/pdocument. aspx? ID=110538&search=iran+contra+north) Lt.  Colonel Oliver North was criminally charged, prosecuted and convicted but later the convictions were overturned upon appeal due to the fact that he was granted immunity. North should have been convicted of his crimes and faced his time in jail for what he did. North burned legal documents containing crucial evidence for his trail, he lied to Congress about using the money from the Iran weapons sales to help the Contras, and by helping the Contra, he violated the Boland Amendments. On November 21, 1986, Oliver North shredded documents that were to be used in court as evidence. These documents were important legal information concerning his involvement in helping the Contras. His destruction of these documents led to Congress losing very valuable data to prove whether he was a scapegoat or a criminal. The fact that he destroyed the evidence made it clear that he wasn’t being honest and that led Congress to believe his other criminal charges. Oliver North violated many laws. The two most flagrant legal violations were the Boland Amendments and the American ban on arms sales to Iran. North continued to sell the weapons to Iran without any argument even though he knew it was against the law that was put in place by Congress. He went against the banned sales of guns with Iran, which was put in place to keep Iran from gaining powerful weaponry and putting American citizen’s lives in danger. His involvement and encouragement of continuing the illegal trade to aid the policies that he believed in should lead to his punishment. Also, the fact that he was also using federal money and weapons for the Contra agenda is a misappropriation of funds and of his position of power.

Understanding markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Understanding markets - Essay Example Using different methods, Marketing determines the size of the market that is being approached but this has to be a controlled exercise otherwise the effort will be aimless. Marketing is a highly misunderstood word. It is not tactics or methods of getting customers to buy a company’s product or services. That is advertisement or promotions. It is a conscious effort to analyze and understand what is needed and trying to fulfill this need. But above all, Marketing is all about customers. Their behavior and attitude towards buying a product is of paramount importance. Their needs and wants and their likes and dislikes are decisive factors and purchase decisions depend on these issues. It is the understanding of these factors that will develop a marketing strategy. Therefore Marketing is all about understanding the customers and of finding ways and means to for providing product or service as per his requirements. â€Å"Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders†. (AMA). This comprehensively calls for Market segmentation and results in two way satisfaction of both customer and the stakeholder. Markets are heterogeneous and are created by reasons of different values, needs wants, constraints, beliefs and incentives. Customers differ in their values and perceptions and want to purchase things that have value for them. Value is not just the monetary part, but also the usefulness and emotions that with go with it. The need and want play a great role in determining this value. The price actually determines the location from which this purchase will be made. Service and reliability are other important determining factors. Therefore a market segment is a set of customers that have a common approach to above questions and have a common desire to purchase a common set of goods and or services.

The Current Ukraine Situation and IR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Current Ukraine Situation and IR - Essay Example This paper bases on the current situation in Ukraine to show that power and self-interest are characteristic of International Relations today. The current situation in Ukraine shows the pursuit of Russia of its unification with Crimea. Russia takes advantage of its powerful nature to continue breaching set laws and treaties and further the Ukrainian conflict. In the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in part, as it was assured of the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council, including Russia, through diplomatic notes and memorandum. The ongoing Ukrainian conflict therefore, displays cynicism on the side of Russia and other permanent members of the UN Security Council. Russia and other four permanent members of the UN Security Council, being powerful, continue to witness breaching of the Budapest Memorandum, and this is unfair to the currently less powerful Ukraine. This paper has analyzed how the aspects of power and self-interest manifest in current international relations, basing on the Ukrainian conflict. Russia has been seen to capitalize on its higher power status to control the less powerful Ukraine. On the other hand, both Russia and Ukraine exhibit self-interest in the different ways they have acted in this conflict. Similarly, the UN and the US are considered to have greater authority to resolve various problems in international relations. Nevertheless, basing on the Ukrainian conflict, it is evident that power and self-interest major characteristics of IR.

Security audit assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Security audit - Assignment Example safeguards protect the confidentiality of information through enacting various policy regulations that must be followed by the organizational employees. First, the disposal policy provides that the records consisting of confidential information related to patients or any other stakeholder to the health institution should be disposed off immediately and in accordance with the information security procedures outlined. The information disposal procedures provides that; once the confidential information that has been dispensed with, the user should dispose the information through shredding the papers if the record was in print, or formatting the hard disc for computerized information. Disaster recovery has also been taken care of in the health institution. All important information are backed up in the back-up disks and stored in a lock-and-key safe, accessible only to the It manager of the hospital. Risk Management process is adequately implemented by the health institution. The risk management measure that is offered by the organization is the restriction on the information that should be posted online both regarding the employees or the clients to the health institution. Thus, the information security regulations have prohibited posting online information related to the social security number, driving license number, credit or debit card number, medical status, religious or sexual orientation information related to anyone. Facility security is adequately catered for in the health institution. The staff gate has a technology system that identifies the staff through their badges, and only then will the door open to allow entry or exit. On the main gate used by the public, physical security measures include personal identification through the personal ID, which is registered at the entry. The organizational regulation provides that employees are liable for disciplinary action, if they are involved in any breach of the policies and procedure guiding the protection of

Assignment s Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

S - Assignment Example Thus, it would be more convenient for the defendants and plaintiffs to attend the court hearing in either Greece or Cyprus. According to Lear, the doctrine of forum non conveniens is supposed to provide convenience to the parties above all else (1147). In Piper vs Reyno the fact that most of the evidence including the plane wreckage and witnesses could be found in Scotland or near Scotland was given as one of the grounds for granting forum non conveniens. Similarly, the plane wreckage is in Athens and since the flights took off from Cyprus, further evidence could be obtained from the ground crew there. Furthermore, some of the evidence is in Greek and Greek law will be applicable in some matters. In Piper vs Reyno, it was reasoned that an American jury will have a hard time understanding foreign laws. If the case is heard in the district court, Greek law would have to apply and it is in doubt if the jury would comprehend Greek law. In Piper vs Reyno, American courts were cautioned against adjudicating foreign matters as this would place unnecessary burden on the American court system. In the case, both the defendant and plaintiffs are foreign citizens therefore meaning the US has little public interest in deciding the matter. In this case, the plaintiffs favor the district court as here they would obtain ten times as much compensation and damages for the suit. However, in Piper vs Reyno it was ruled that plaintiff’s favored forum had little bearing on granting dismissal on grounds of forum non conveniens. If courts were to take plaintiffs choice of forums as weighty consideration then dismissal would be rare. Furthermore, in Yavuz vs 61 MM LTD it was help that claims do not have to be similar to those offered by the district courts for a foreign jurisdiction to be accessed as an adequate forum In addition, the change of forum would not change either party’s case as plaintiffs could still make claims of

Select an article from a magazine or newspaper that has something in Essay

Select an article from a magazine or newspaper that has something in it that pertains to biology - Essay Example Participants were later showed the same pictures as well as more new ones on a new day. The subjects who had taken the dose managed to identify the pictures that were similar. Other than this test, others were conducted and it was concluded that a certain dose of caffeine, say 200mg, needed to be observed in order to enhance the effect that caffeine had on consolidating the memory. Biology is mainly composed of natural science that is concerned mostly with the study of living things and life as well as their structures, functioning and their growth. Basically, biology is what surrounds us as human beings and the various activities we take part into. In biology, one learns about how the human body works and functions in order to keep one alive. It also introduces one to the most important body organs such as the brain, heart and the liver and how they function. The article on caffeine and long term memory boost relates to this course in that it provides some explanations based on researched work on how one’s memory can be enhanced. The brain is a core topic studied under biology, how it functions and coordinates all the activities in the human body. Biology also introduces students to important concepts in life. One, for example, learns about various hazards that may come as a result of substance abuse such as the hazards that may be brought about by abu sing drugs. The article also to some extent covers on the effects of caffeine related to biological concepts. A book by Harrison, Principles of Internal Medicine, provides relevant information on how the memory is essential in allowing humans not only to store, but also to retrieve information. It also provides information on how the human brain works and the various processes involved (Isselbacher & Harrison 98). This information enables one to understand the article on caffeine especially on the part