Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Internship Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Internship Report - Essay Example Summary 23 Works Cited 25 H. Appendix 27 1. Organization Chart 27 3. Financial Data 2011 28 A. Introduction The report states about my experiences gained from the internship period at Disney Vacation Club in Orlando, Florida. Furthermore, the paper also intends to specify the department in which my responsibilities had been assigned along with the skills and knowledge that I was able to gain from the internship in order to deal with the challenges while working in a corporate sector. Internship is a process of rendering on-the-job training to new recruits with the intention of grooming their skills and experiences which further helps the intern to act in accordance with the organizational requirements. In relation to this aspect it can be stated that internship has emerged as one of the essential factors for attaining higher career growth among the high school and university students along with the post-graduate adults. Furthermore, internship often acts as a platform for the student s where they can implement their gained knowledge and skills expanding their information with corporate data (Yafang & Gongyong, â€Å"A Study on Hospitality Students’ Satisfaction towards their Internship: a Case from Hang Zhou, China†). The report also intends to elaborate on the work culture of the organization in which I am completing my internship, i.e. Disney Vacation Club. ... It also signifies the developed skills and measures which are often considered by the internee towards improving the organizational performances while satisfying the customers’ demands. B. Descriptive Section 1. Company Profile Disney Vacation Club (DVC) was founded in the year to serve the national as well as international tourists with a place to spend holidays or vacations with families as well as friends. DVC’s operations are operated by its Walt Disney Company (WDC). DVC also provides its vast clientele with resort facilities in various destinations which include Florida, Hawaii and South Carolina. The governance system observed in DVC is principally controlled by the President Mr. Claire Bilby. DVC serves its customers with certain facilities which include travel & tourism related services, food and accommodation amenities along with special entertainment services for children among others. The operations of DVC are guided by its mission statement which states tha t â€Å"Treat customers like you want to be treated and they will become customers forever†. With references to the statement it can be affirmed that the organization intends to consider its customers as highly valuable with the intention to yield greater degree of satisfaction from customer rendering services and assistances as desired by individuals. This particular strategy is also believed to reward greater degree of customer loyalty thereby contributing to the long run sustainability of the organization (Disney Vacation Club, â€Å"Company Profile†). It is worth mentioning in this context that the company intends to frame simple strategies towards enhancing the performances of the entire workforce in order to serve its customers with efficient and effective services

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Benefits of Training Employees in an Organization

Benefits of Training Employees in an Organization The aim of this paper is to identify all there is to know about training, the impact it has on both firms and employees and then, the reason why, although it is beneficial provision to business growth, still some organisations and individuals are not willing to accept the idea of investing in training and development. In order to come to that claim, it is necessary to mention first the cost-effectiveness of training and development, by which methods it can be reinsured, and the involvement of training in an organisations prosperity and even more, when it has to do with the integration in a international market. To begin properly, it should be noticed that training at any level and in whatever form this can take, could have only positive aspect. Considering that, training means investing in people to enable them perform better and to empower them to make the best use of their natural abilities (Armstrong, 1996; 2003). Through the practice of a range of activities, it is believed that learning is an important clue here, as a means for developing a high performance culture and achieving businesss competitive advantage (Pieper, 1990, Salaman, 1992, Tyson, 1996). This appear clearly from the below definitions of training. According to Heevy and Noon (2001), training is the process of changing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge of employees with the purpose of improving their level of competence. It is a planned process, usually involving a series of stages where incremental improvements can be identified. It takes two main focus 1) on the job training whereby an employee observing the tasks, being guided through them by experts, and then practising them. 2) Off the job training whereby an employee is instructed away from the place of work, either in a training room on the premises or at a separate location. This training is more often theory based and might even take the form of self learning packages (Heevy and Noon, 2001). Furthermore, as Manpower Services Commission defined training in 1981, it is the following: A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the w ork situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current and future manpower needs of the organization. Seeing the definition of the training from the perspective of education as Smith put it: Development refers to the growth of realization of a persons ability, through conscious or unconscious education, where education is activities which aim at developing the knowledge, skills, moral values and understanding required in all aspects of life, rather than a knowledge and skill relating to only a limited field of activity (Smith, 1992). Besides the definition of training, the mention of the potential benefits for both employees and firms and from which methods these are derived, is essential in order to understand why training is so important for the business (Lonr, 1990, Murray, 2007). It is worthwhile to point that it cannot be any development without the training procedure. As it has already been mentioned, training aims to develop employees competences and to improve their performance but also, to reduce the learning time needed for employees starting in a new job on appointment, transfer or promotion and to ensure that they will become fully competent as quickly and economically as possible (J. Swart et al, 2005). When a training programme being used effectively, then the benefits for employees are numerous and are illustrated on firms performance. It also helps to manage changes and provide to employees the knowledge and skills they need to adjust with new situations and work demands, as well as to adopt new t echnologies and methods, to be innovative (Armstrong, 2003). In that way, employees motivation is increased and the same goes to efficiencies in processes resulting in firms financial gain while employees turnover is being reduced. Highly trained workforce provides higher levels of service to customers which enhance companys image (Mullins, 2007). The cost-effectiveness of training is a vital element because it can help the line manager to establish credibility, to reveal the value of the training by achieving both operational savings and increases in firms revenue; then, enforce the organization to look training more as an investment and less as a dispensable cost of operation. By training their employees, companies maximize the potential of this investment (Campbell, 1995). In order to improve the skills of its human resource, an organization can either train its existing employees or recruit pre-skilled labor forces that have been trained elsewhere (Booth, 1998; Jameson, 2000). The importance of investment in training and development is matter of whether a firm is treating its employees as a resource or as a cost (Tysson, 1996; Long, 1990; Jackson, 1989; Jameson, 2000). By exploiting the meaning of each word that consists Human Resource Management; human implies the workforce, resource implies investment, management implies development (Sisson, 1989). It is demonstrated that the consideration of human asset as investment for the firm through strategic development can maximize its potential, and the training is the tool that can provide it. So, companies with unwillingness to consider employees as investment, can simply be called not HRM practicing. In adverse, companies reluctant to invest in their human resources, rely on a short-term human asset, which, mainly, is low skilled training, less loyalty to its work and easy replaceable due to the lower cost of loss for the firm (Harzing, 1995; Jameson, 2000; Mullins, 2007). Most managers recognize the vital role that continuous learning plays in todays marketplace in order to maximize companys competitive advantage (Harzing, 1995; Gordon, 1991). However, some managers are reluctant to invest in their employees and train them. The reasons why is happening are variable. The market from its own, in which each company is doing business, deduct any potential training (Booth, 1994; Graven, 1998). More specific, the market is divided to the primary labour market, where jobs tend to be supplied by large, highly profitable firms with high capital to labour ratio and high productivity. Here, production is usually large scale with high investment in technology with more opportunities for training. The secondary labour market includes small firms with low capital to labour ratio, low productivity and small scale production. In these firms, wage and skill levels tend to be low, employment is unstable and training opportunities are usually limited. Significantly, small businesses experience problems in providing training for both owner-managers and workers. (Curran et al., 1996) Reasons for not providing such training are that companies do not believe in the effectiveness of training and they do not consider it as a big component for a better performance. Hence, when profits are under pressure or other developments are on stake, the most common reaction is to cut training fund. Also, recruiting skilled labor is more economical than practicing training and development policies. But they neglect that teamwork, employees initiatives, people talents are all part of the financial model and when these figures are maximized the same goes with the business economic growth (Bentley, 1991; Campell, 1995) Traditional styles of management based on authoritarian, non-participatory tenets of employees and managers who have grown up in a system like this, is unlikely to be ready to abandon familiar tried and trusted methods and be welcomed to a better trained, self reliant and questioning human force (Sisson, 1989). Some of them claim that there is limited time for the practice of training program. Indeed, a training program to be effective needs a lot of both employers and employees time and commitment, it also may take all employees job-life to be efficient. Job conditions change constantly in the business environment, so the continuous learning is required but nobody has the state or the emotional strength to be in a training position all the time. In that point, there are two categories that can be distinguished (Armstrong, 2003; Murray, 2007; Currie, 1997). Employers that do not believe in the importance of the process and employees that do not find interest to be trained, specifically if they have obtained a high image in the firm and they are known for their distinctive qualifications. Contrary to that, some employees want to develop their skills and knowledge whereby they will contribute to their companys success (Keep, 1989). They want training but their managers do not want to be confronted by this task, they are unwillingness to try, and simply they avoid it. From the perspective of the length of a training program, which could take weeks, months or even the entire career of the employees it can be a major expense especially for firms with traditionally high turnover. Besides, the common belief that is the responsibility of the school system to train people to be workers and is the workers responsibility to learn how to do a job so they can get hired is another reason why employers not practice their manpower (Collin, 2003). Government regulations, insurance coverages, and common sense dictate relevant training that should be given to every employee. Still, few employers do not find it significant to train their human force (Collin, 2003; Noon, 2001). A discouragement of not training is, also, the gap that arises when trainees are transferred from the training course to a job, to apply their knowledge and skills in practice. As long as they are in a training centre, they are sheltered from the realities of the rough and tumble workplace. For managers and team leaders, the problem of transferring from learning situation to the real conditions may be even more difficult because most of management training tends to deal with relatively abstract concepts like motivation and leadership, and the connection between what is being learned in the class room and what is really happening in work, may not always be apparent. That is why the training must always be compatible to employees needs (Armstrong, 2003, Noon, 2001). Another reason of not practicing training can be regarded the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of a training program. Measuring cost of training needs a lot of efforts from the senior manager because apart from training results are also other interacting variables such as administrative costs, relocation, course design and material costs that have to be taken into account. Therefore are different methods that can be used from the manager in order to derive an acceptable figure for the effectiveness of training course. Those methods vary from sector and companys size. Hence manager has to have the ability to choose the one, which fit to the business needs. Any failure to the accounting of training-cost can mislead to wrong results, to an ineffective training proposal and that will discourage the company to practice training (Murley, 2007; Belcour, 1995t; Gordon, 1991). Moreover, it can be said that firms are not invested in training because of the flexible working environment. They claim that investing in people can be a boomerang for their business competitive advantage, as it is likely employees will leave the company and transfer their knowledge into competitors firm. Despite the likelihood of this event, employers have to understand that the key for organizations success is the human factor. By investing in human asset training, they invest in employees commitment to the firm and more as the firm invests in the development of their skills (Armstrong, 2003; Craven 1994; Hall, 1991). It cannot be ignored the providence of the HRDF, a levy reimbursement scheme establishing in 1992. Under HRDF, employers pay a payroll contribution of one percent and are eligible to claim a portion of allowable training expenditures up to the limit of their total levy for any given year. The reimbursement rates vary by sector and type of training. Empirical analysis showed that firms least likely to claim from HRDF are small firms and firms providing no training or only informal training. Important factors that employers cite as inhibiting their training: the limited resources available for it, the use of mature technology with low skill requirements, the adequacy of skills provided by schools, and the availability of skilled workers who can be hired from other firms (Tan and Gill, 1998). Generally, levy schemes have led to an increase in quantity of training. In some countries levy schemes have had some impact on increasing training. A common feature of schemes in which training has increased has been the fact that an effective system is in place for administering the levy both for levy collection as well as administration of grants. On the other hand, there were very complicated rules governing training requirements for the levy and the criteria for approval, dissuade employers from investing in it (Edwards, 1997). Firms which may have otherwise invested more in training, tend to reduce their effort to the level required by law in order to receive the minimum rebate or tax credit. There is also some evidence which suggests that if firms are reluctant to train, they organize training which is not relevant to their needs in order to qualify for the rebate or tax credit. Additionally, smaller firms may be less likely to train their workers as they feel that costs are significant and the training which is provided may not be relevant to their needs. Even if training is provided, the bureaucracy involved in persuing reimbursements dissuades firms from submitting claims for reimbursements. (Herschbach, 1993). Concluding, this paper attempted to define the reasons why there are organizations that are reluctant to see their manpower as an important asset in business success and so invest on them and train them. Now, the interplay between the benefits that are derived from any form of training and the cost-effectiveness of training for the firms is seemed to be more clear. In general, companies which operate in the increasingly competitive international market were forced to attach training and development as equal to the vital acknowledgement that the training needs are more like an investment rather than a cost and that, partly due the cultural diversity that the international integration occurs and partly because of the rapid economic and technological growth. All these also reflect the companies outlook on how important is the quality of those they recruit, because a companys image is as good as is its personnel and it is vital to select and train the best. (Upton, 1987) Unfortunately, i n many cases this process is considered by many managers as meaningless, too time consuming, a bureaucratic exercise only, or even as something that intervene to their departments work. For some organizations, the maintenance and the wellbeing of the equipment and machinery seems more important than to make an effort to the wellbeing and development of their own employees (Sun, 2001). But as it has been already highlighted, the key for success, even profit, for any firm at any size is its human asset and to invest in them infer to business future (Hall, 1991, Armstrong, 2003).

Friday, October 25, 2019

Prions : The Infectious Protein Agent :: Biology Mad Cow Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease

missing graphs What causes Mad Cow Disease? Prions. Prions are also behind other neurodegenerative diseases such as the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease and some forms of fatal insomnia. These are all prions diseases that have been found to exist in humans. The prion disease for cattle is what we know as the Mad Cow Disease. Prions also exist in other animals such as sheep, mink, mule deer, elk, cats, and some others. So what's so special about prions? Unlike other neurodegenerative diseases that are caused by the misfolding of proteins, altered proteins, abnormal gene splicing, improper expression, or ineffective clearing of proteins which slowly leads to disease by accumulation, prions cause disease by acting as an infectious agent. One abnormal prion protein is enough to turn all the normal prion proteins present into itself. How do prions do that? Scientists are still unsure of how exactly one protein is capable of turning another protein into itself. Many experiments are conducted to help shed light on its mysterious capabilities. In this website, we hope to explain one of these experiments that involved the effect of pH on the structure of prion proteins. Wait...Prions? Prion Protein? Which is which? Prions is the name assigned to infectious protein agents. Prion protein (PrPC) is the normal cellular protein that can become an infectious agent. The Official Mad Cow Disease Home Page The prion is a newly discovered pathogen that is vastly different from the known pathogens of today; namely viruses and bacteria. Unlike the bacteria, no antibiotics can cure prions. They are not typical of a prokaryotic organism or a eukaryotic organism, all that is present in this pathogen is the protein PrPSc. This is the mutated form of the protein PrPC, which is encoded by a chromosomal gene. These two proteins differ in their spatial protein structures and their susceptibility to enzyme digestion. PrPC is completely destroyed in enzyme digestion, whereas PrPSc is resistant to any form of digestion.Viruses usually have nucleic acid, protein, and other constituents that aid in the creation of more progeny viruses. As far as prions are concerned, they multiply by infecting the PrPC protein and turning it into a complex such as itself, the PrPSc protein. Prions exist in multiple molecular forms whereas viruses exist in a single form with disti nct ultrastructural morphology.Another difference between the virus and the prion is that viruses almost always provoke an immune response in the host that it is infecting.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Contribution of Enterprise Systems Essay

What are enterprise systems? Provide examples of organizational functions supported by enterprise systems. One person wanted something that another person had, so they found a way to trade one thing for another. Right there, we can see the benefits of such a system. Each person involved had gotten involved out of free choice rather than being forced into it. And because each person was not forced into it, each was able to make the best choice that he could, and learn from any mistakes that he may have made. Enterprise systems (ES) are large-scale application software packages that support business processes, information flows, reporting, and data analytics in complex organizations. These systems are designed to manage large volumes of critical data. These systems are typically designed to provide high levels of transaction performance and data security. Vendors in this space include IBM, Oracle, HP and more. How does effectively implementing and using enterprise systems contribute to achieving operational excellence? Enterprise systems provide value both by increasing operational efficiency and by providing firm wide information to help managers make better decisions. Enterprise systems also help firms respond rapidly to customer requests for information or products. Because the system integrates order, manufacturing, and delivery data, manufacturing is better informed about producing only what customers have ordered, procuring exactly the right amount of components or raw materials to fill actual orders, staging production, and minimizing the time that components or finished products are in inventory. Organizations need to use enterprising systems effectively to achieve operational excellence. The enterprise systems need to be designed and setup correctly from the beginning. If the enterprise software does not support the organizations’ way of doing business it can be customize. However, enterprise software is complex and customization may degrade system performance and therefore may not maximize the benefits from the system. It is recommended to maximize benefits from the software, the business need to conform to the business processes in the software. What challenges are posed by enterprise applications? Enterprise applications is software that various businesses use in order to help solve certain enterprise problems or to streamline business operations. Things like email lists, payroll, client information, and so on are stored in enterprise applications. Because the software is used and shared across a large organization, one of the drawbacks of an enterprise application may have to do with the safety of the information that is stored. Some benefits of enterprise systems are increased business efficiency, information company-wide helps management make better decisions, and it forces uniformed practices throughout the businesses. However, there are some challenges to an enterprise system. The expenses of purchasing, installing and maintaining the hardware and software of an enterprise system are considered challenging. Systems are more complex today than before. Before most systems consist of hardware, operating system, database and storage application easily connected together in one system. Today a system configuration can consist of several separate mini systems with many separate storage area network, networking equipment.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Counselling Contract Essay

Part 1 1 Trainee and Setting contract 2 BACP, Ethical framework of Good Practice) 3 Confidentiality (Serious harm to self, harm to vulnerable adults, harm to children I may have to breach your confidentiality. Should you talk about Act of terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking legally bound to report to authorities) 4 Supervision once a month 5 Notes, locked away 6 Have you been to Counselling before? 7 The way in which I work is integrative with a person centered core which means you have the tools within you to move forward and I will help facilitate your growth in a non directive manner without offering advice. 8 Time 9 What brings you to Counselling today. Part 2 at end of first session 1 summarize 2 check safety 3 How do you feel about you and I working together 4 What would you like to gain from our work together 5 Day and time/ number of sessions 6 cancellation policy 7 See you out and about, would you like me to acknowledge you. Hope this is of help to your Supervisee and I can remember it and make it flow on Wednesday. Rachel Counselling contract Part 1 1 Trainee and Setting contract 2 BACP, Ethical framework of Good Practice) 3 Confidentiality (Serious harm to self, harm to vulnerable adults, harm to children I may have to breach your confidentiality. Should you talk about Act of terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking legally bound to report to authorities) 4 Supervision once a month 5 Notes, locked away 6 Have you been to Counselling before? 7 The way in which I work is integrative with a person centered core which means you have the tools within you to move forward and I will help facilitate your growth in a non directive manner without offering advice. 8 Time 9 What brings you to Counselling today. Part 2 at end of first session 1 summarize 2 check safety 3 How do you feel about you and I working together 4 What would you like to gain from our work together 5 Day and time/ number of sessions 6 cancellation policy 7 See you out and about, would you like me to acknowledge you.