Social Networking on Relationships Essay Example for Free

Social Networking on Relationships Essay Social networking sites have a negative influence on children, teenagers and adults. â€Å"A social networking site can be defined as an online service that is based around the building and reflecting of social relations among individuals with common interests or social ties,† . Social networking sites such as Facebook, Skype, and Twitter all vary slightly. They can enable users to create a profile and them to interact through email, IM and other integrated communication channels within the site. The popularity and growth of social networking sites over the past five years has been enormous. Today, there are more than 1 billion active users on face book and users spend over 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site. As the technology improves and advances, social networking sites have biggest impact on society and human relationships, both positive and negative. I’m going discuss the three main reasons why social networking sites bring many negative impacts pose on today’s media. One main reason social networking has an negative effect is because it ends relationships. One thing is for sure these sites are the breaking point of relationships in conversations amongst our friends and peers. Recent studies have shown that the use of social networks is a contributing factor to break ups of relationships and marriages. Studies show that the significant amount of time spent on these social networks engaged in contact with members of the opposite sex tends to create jealousy and a lack of trust which can lead to the relationship ending. â€Å"The internet makes it much easier to start a relationship, get caught and make a relationship come to an end. From what could be deemed inappropriate comments or postings, to friends of the opposite sex that stirs up feelings of jealousy and mistrust. Also, inboxes being â€Å"overly flirtatious†, lying and cheating. The second reason that social networking is bad for society is that it makes people lazy and overweight. About two decades ago, when people were bored, they would go outside and do something. Nowadays, many people just go on their phones and â€Å"tweet† about how bored they are or scroll through a friends new pictures and click the â€Å"like† button a few times. Sure, social networking might give you something â€Å"to do,† but really, you aren’t doing anything! People sit at computers and eat their self away. Children today don’t know how to communicate face to face with people. They would rather text or IM their friends than even think about having a verbal conversation with them. Children are going to school accessing the network over their phones instead of doing their work. For example, in my home town, a student saw that another student posted a status threatening to bomb the school. Everyone had to evacuate immediately. Another reason to be aware of is the illegal actions that can be performed, such as piracy, fraud, virtual shoplifting, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, sexual harassment, fake identities, or worse death. Can you imagine all of the kids approving a bunch of random people, they do not know being able to come in contact with them? Social Networks create an open access towards exposing individuals’ personal information. â€Å"This includes full name, date of birth, addresses, phone numbers, precise locations, emails, and more. † Exposed private information of adolescents causes them to be at risk with dangerous situations previous listed. Individuals attacked are highly exposed to having psychological problems, becoming afraid of outcomes, becoming depressed and using suicide as a method to stop attacks. Social networks have changed people by allowing them to befriend and contact more people more frequently and more efficiently. Unfortunately, they have also limited some face-to-face conversations with family and friends. Although social networking sites are efficient in providing ways to communicate, we need to limit our use of social networking sites in order to become stronger as individuals and to strengthen our relationships.

Different Types of Bridges Essay -- miscellaneous

Different Types of Bridges The quest for travel has always been one that man has tried to conquer. First, he traveled on foot, and then developed methods of transportation such as boats, but one of the first obstacles that he had to overcome was getting across rivers, waterways, and canals. Today, bridges have become a part of everyday life; hence without them, people would have a much more difficult time going from one place to another. In the United States alone, there are more than half a million bridges (History of Bridges 1). Although bridges have been in existence since ancient times, they were not first made by man. Nature actually made the first bridges by toppling logs across streams. This was considered the first beam bridge as the flat rocks were used to support the log. Then, the water eroded the rocks and eventually a stone bridge was formed. The ancient Romans built arched bridges because they needed roads and bridges to connect the sections of their empire. The original swing bridge, from which the suspension bridge was produced, was a simple vine that swung people over the water. From these beginnings, men created four main types of bridges. To begin with, beam bridges, also known as girder bridges, are one of the easiest and simplest types of bridges to build. In ancient times, people used to make these bridges out of granite. Beam bridges can be made by putting a wooden plank over an area needing to be crossed. To get across larger areas, piers or supports can be fabricated up from the river bed to hold up a couple of beams. The piers of the girder bridge have constant pressure on them. Therefore, the beams, which are usually made out of concrete or steel, have a lot of strength so they do not crumble due to the heavy load. Many beam bridges are made of pre-stressed concrete. This concrete has steel rods inside of it, which help resist tension. When the weight pushes down on a bridge, the top of the beams are pressed together creating compression, while the bottom edge is stretched and causes tension. Beam bridges are not practical in cities with a lot of high rises, because the bridge has very low clearance. The bigge st limitation of the girder bridge is its length. The farther apart the piers are, the weaker the bridge gets. Beam bridges are good to use on spans of up to two hundred feet ( How Bridges Work 1). A bridge of greater... ... long way (Bridges 3). A cable-stayed bridge is used to cross medium lengths, which are approximately five hundred feet to two thousand eight hundred feet (Bridges 3). The cable-stayed bridge requires less cable than a suspension bridge, and is much faster to build in comparison to suspension bridges. Cable stayed bridges are supported by stave towers. These towers are ‘A’ shaped, and absorb almost all of the bridge’s compression. Unlike suspension bridges, cable stayed bridges only have two towers and do not need any anchorages. Now that man has overcome the obstacle of getting across rivers, canals, and waterways efficiently, it is now time to perfect these human creations so no more mishaps happen. Even though people keep hearing about collapsing bridges, they still use them because it has become a part of their everyday life style. Without bridges, people would have a difficult time getting from one place to another. It could be done by means of a ferry or other boat, but that is time consuming and a real pain in the neck because once a person gets across the river or canal, they would have to walk everywhere. So, without bridges, things would not be the way they are today.

Performance Management & Reward System

Performance Management â€Å"How I get my people to do what I want them to do, in the way I want them to do it! † Performance management (PM): Organisations that take performance management seriously, manage a range of different but inter-related topics: †¢Mission †¢Vision †¢Strategy †¢Business plans †¢Values (how people should and should not behave) †¢Culture in which improving performance is valued and developed †¢Monitoring of performance – at individual, unit and Team levels †¢Feedback of that monitoring to staff †¢Clear goals †¢A set of competencies Appraisal discussions †¢Personal development (training, coaching, reading, sittings etc) †¢Management development †¢Good job design †¢Team working (interaction and mutual responsibility) †¢Extrinsic reward and recognition (basic pay, performance pay, awards, saying ‘well done’)†¢Intrinsic rewards (the satisfaction from doing a w orthwhile job reasonably well) †¢Effective remedies for under performers. Performance management levels: †¢Organisation †¢Department †¢Unit †¢Team †¢Individual Data collection for PM: Data is collected at four levels: Inputs: Staff time, budget, data, consumables, energy, and equipment †¢Processes: Support, sales, teaching, research, paperwork, IT, purchasing etc. †¢Outputs: Customers served, bills paid, items sold, students helped, degrees awarded, research written up †¢Outcomes: Profit in a commercial enterprise or service delivery in a service organisation (usually assessed through customer satisfaction).Rules for monitoring performance: (a) Objective: †¢Introduce monitoring as one part of a bigger drive to improve customer experience. (b) Positive: †¢Seek information to improve the customer experience and not to blame people. c) Involvement: †¢Involve responsible people to work on the monitoring, as a part of their driv e to improve the customer experience. †¢If you choose items to monitor and impose those, staff will probably be de-motivated and performance will drop. †¢Treat your staff as professional, responsible and motivated (d) Outcomes: †¢Measure outcomes in preference to outputs. (Governments are obsessed with outputs – numbers of patients treated, lengths of waiting lists, numbers of students receiving degrees, numbers of children who can read and write etc). (e)Tough: Challenge those who like the fuzziness of not knowing how they are doing. (f) Choosy: †¢Pick only the most important factors to monitor as too many measures will be Counterproductive. (g) Numbers: †¢Measure performance numerically, by getting the customer to grade them on a scale 0 to 5. (h) Benchmark: †¢Use the results as your baseline or benchmark, from where you can improve. (i) Communicate: †¢Make sure the targets are known, understood and accepted. (j) Reliable Use reliable sour ces of data. HIGH PERFORMANCE WORKING High performance working (HPW): The four elements of HPW are: )Employee autonomy and involvement in decision making †¢Develop flexibility of skills †¢Team working to give variety and responsibility. 2)Support for employee performance †¢Appropriate selection and recruitment processes (finding staff at all levels who will support a high performance culture) †¢Comprehensive induction programmes †¢Sophisticated and wide training†¢Integrated and wide ranging performance management †¢Emphasis upon work-life balance. 3)Rewards for performance †¢Offer a career not just a job †¢Harmonised terms and conditions †¢Pay that is competitive with other employers Rewards linked to individual and team performance 4)Learning †¢Plenty of effective communication †¢Quality improvement teams †¢Lean systems (this can be expanded upon at the workshop) †¢Spending on training. Details will vary from org anisation to organisation. Why HPW: Because if you are not driving up performance: †¢Staff motivation will be lost †¢Quality, quantity and innovation will decline †¢Pressure to reduce your prices will grow or †¢Customers may simply stop buying your goods or services altogether or †¢Competitors may take your work. What does this mean in practice?Employee autonomy and involvement †¢Develop flexibility of skills †¢Team working to give variety and responsibility Support for employee performance †¢Appropriate selection and recruitment processes (finding staff at all levels who will support a high performance culture) †¢Comprehensive induction programmes †¢Sophisticated and wide training †¢Integrated and wide ranging performance management †¢Emphasis upon work-life balance Rewards for performance †¢Offer a career not just a job †¢Harmonised terms and conditions †¢Pay that is competitive with other employers Rewards linked to individual and team performance. Learning †¢Plenty of effective communication †¢Quality improvement teams †¢Lean systems (this can be expanded upon at the workshop) †¢Spending on training. According to 2004 research, by the Engineering Employers’ Federation and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, effects of HPW are: †¢About 20% of increases in productivity and profit in manufacturing †¢Increased job satisfaction and commitment: quality, quantity and innovation †¢Employees more likely to say ‘a great place to work’ †¢Increased earnings potential for employeesImplementing high performance working Things that may need to be addressed are: †¢Getting top management’s commitment, particularly to resource, to communicate and to demonstrate the required behaviours. †¢Getting the resources HPW needs (both financial and risk taking e. g. new reward structures). †¢Carrying out team and in dividual appraisals that make a real difference. †¢Seeking and rewarding discretionary behaviour (Ability x Motivation x Opportunity = AMO). †¢Allowing employees to re-design jobs to maximise interest and challenge. †¢Changing existing strong cultures Increasing levels of trust between management and employees. †¢Getting staff to be understand about organisational performance †¢Involving employees in design and implementation of HPW. †¢Integrating initiatives, so they reinforce each other, therefore: ? Implementation is in bundles ?Staff understand it and show commitment ?Other organisations are used as benchmarks ?Continuous improvement is developed. THE CONTRASTING OBJECTIVES OF THE EMPLOYER AND THE EMPLOYEE †¢Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe employer wants as much productivity for as little cost as possible, whilst the employee wants as much money for as little effort as possible. †¢Life is more complex than this, but this is a useful start! This is the left win g pluralist approach. †¢The right wing unitarist approach is ‘Prosperous employers make prosperous employees. ’ What is the employer trying to get out of the employee?Principally, an employer wants three things from employees: †¢Quantity (productivity) †¢Quality (producing good work with low wastage) †¢Innovation (finding new and better ways to get the work done). But there are also management issues: †¢Cost †¢Control (of cost and of the employees) What do the elements of good performance look like? We now talk about ‘discretionary behaviour’ i. e. the voluntary effort people put in, over and above the bare minimum, below which they will get into trouble. †¢Employers seek discretionary behaviour and good organisations will establish performance management processes to generate it. It is normally expressed as: Discretionary behaviour = ability x motivation x opportunity †¢If the value of any component on the right is z ero there will be zero discretionary behaviour.†¢Ability is the assumption that people want to apply for jobs, have their attributes recognised and are willing to learn new skills. Motivation assumes that people can be motivated to use their ability in a productive manner. †¢Opportunity assumes people will perform well, engage in high-quality work and participate in wider activities, such as team initiatives or problem solving, if they are given the opportunity to do so. What are the employees’ objectives? This will vary from person to person. Work published by Guest and Conway (2001) on the psychological contract suggested the most common were: †¢A reasonably secure job †¢Fair pay for the work done†¢A career †¢Interesting work †¢Fair treatment by managers †¢Equality of treatment To be kept informed about changes affecting them †¢Involved and consulted about changes affecting them REWARD AND MOTIVATION †¢Motivation is concerne d with WHY people do or refrain from doing things. †¢A motive† is a need or a driving force within a person. The process of motivation involves choosing between alternative forms of action in order to achieve some desired end or goal. †¢As the following formula shows, goals can be tangible – such as higher earnings – or intangible – such as personal reputation or prestige. Motivation at work: We can divide motivation at work into internal and external motivation. a) Internal motivation†¢This is related to the work, where there is a close identity between the task itself and the human needs, e. g. where a cabinet-maker or motor-fitter derives satisfaction from a job well done. (b) External motivation †¢This is independent of the task i. e. the task is merely a means to an end; for instance, when a person works on an assembly line to get high wages. †¢Clashes of interest are resolved in the traditional manner by offering financial in centives and/or threatening the loss of employment – providing external motivation. This traditional â€Å"carrot and stick† idea still lingers – the carrot often being money and the stick, fear. Money: The â€Å"great motivator†. It is a fact that most people go to work because they get paid to do so. However, this basic need for money will only make a worker turn up and do the acceptable minimum. There are a range of other â€Å"carrots† – or positive incentives – offered as an incentive to work, or to particular types of performance, including welfare amenities, holidays, etc. Fear: The â€Å"big stick† theory is rather outdated now, but it is still occasionally appropriate to motivate people through fearIntrinsic and extrinsic motivators: †¢Intrinsic reinforcements of behaviour, which are â€Å"inside the individual† reward feelings, like finding work interesting, feeling appreciated, etc †¢Extrinsic reinfo rcements of behaviour, which are the outside influences and rewards such as money, extra holidays, company car, etc; Problems in work role: (a) Alienation: †¢Psychologists use this term to refer to the feelings of an individual when they are estranged from their situation at work. E. g. the salesperson forced to sell goods in which they have little belief or confidence. b) Anomie: (lack of the usual social or ethical standards) †¢The causes of anomie are to be found in the confusion that arises in large organisations. The individual may be faced with pressures and problems at work that they do not fully understand. (c) Status: †¢Social status refers to the amount of respect paid to an individual. A work role can confer prestige upon a person.Status may be perceived through the possession of symbols, e. g. salary, title of job, work surroundings, dress, company car, etc. †¢Many modern theorists are becoming convinced of the value of the Japanese approach of reduci ng status differences, e. g. veryone to wear the firm’s uniform; single canteen; parking and toilet facilities for all staff, etc. (d) Stress: †¢Psychologists define stress as strain experienced by an individual over a period of time, which impairs the ability of the individual to perform their role. †¢Stress can produce physical or mental symptoms and can be generated by pressures and problems in the work situation. Managers view of motivation: F W Taylor was an early proponent of the dictum that workers should share the same goals as those of the organisation, and the way to achieve this was through the application of scientific management principles.The basis of this approach lay in the following principles. †¢Planning †¢Time and motion study †¢Incentives †¢Working conditions †¢Training The essence of the practical application of the scientific approach is to try to reconcile the needs of the organisation and the needs of the individual. Individual and Organisational Needs: Factors that improve an employee’s level of job satisfaction are: †¢Responsibility †¢Challenge †¢Self-improvement and personal growth †¢Recognition †¢Sense of achievement NEED THEORIES OF MOTIVATION Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:Hierarchy of Needs D C McClelland’s theory: D C McClelland is another theorist who, from the early 1960s, was concerned with the analysis of human needs. He concentrated on three key needs: i)Need for affiliation: The need of human beings for friendship and meaningful relationships. ii)Need for power: Some people seek power in their work situations; they wish to make a strong impression on people and events. iii) Need to achieve: To many people, the sense of â€Å"getting on†, progressing or being promoted, is very important. Frederick Herzberg’s Two-factor Theory: Frederick Herzberg, writing in the late 1950s and early 1960s, identified two distinct sets of needs in individuals working in organisations: the need to avoid pain and discomfort and the need to develop psychologically as a person.Herzberg proposes several ways in which a higher level of motivation might be promoted: †¢Good quality training: the more a person can do, the more that person can be motivated. †¢Focus on quality of communications, rather than quantity: communication should be direct whenever possible. †¢Job rotation: improving the variety of tasks and responsibilities. †¢Job enlargement: making a person capable of more. Job enrichment: creating meaningful, interesting work. Herzberg believes that it is difficult or impossible to achieve if the job is basically dull, repetitive or uninteresting Douglas McGregor developed a typology of two opposed views about employee behaviour, related to Maslow’s categories of need and considered their implications for management and motivation.The two views are known as Theory X and Theory Y. (a)Theory X â⠂¬ ¢This traditional approach of management, which accepts the worker as a lazy, grasping individual, who must be bribed or coerced into working, McGregor called Theory X. It rests on the following assumptions: The average human being dislikes work. †¢The average human being will avoid work whenever possible. †¢Not only is the average employee lazy but they also lack ambition and do not wish to take on responsibilities. †¢Because of the above characteristics, employees must be strictly controlled and directed. †¢Control of employees must be backed by coercion and threats, if the objectives of the organisation are to be achieved. †¢The average person prefers to be directed and not to have to think deeply for themselves in the work situation. (b)Theory Y McGregor then put forward the set of assumptions that modern managers should act upon.He calls this Theory Y. †¢The physical and mental effort people put into work is a natural human response; it is simil ar to the effort individuals make in games and sport. Hence, work can be enjoyable. †¢Employees do not have to be controlled or threatened; they have reserves of self control and self-motivation †¢Given the opportunities and training, employees will not only take, but also desire and seek, responsibilities. †¢Employees have reservoirs of imagination, creativity and ingenuity and given the right environment and encouragement, they will use these to help solve problems in the work situation. In some modern organisations the potential of employees is not fully utilised; not only is a waste of resources, but it also causes frustration among the workforce. Hence, when workers do not co-operate to achieve organisational goals, the fault may lie in the structure of the organisation rather than in the workers. Ouchi’s Theory Z †¢William Ouchi agreed with the basic ideas put forward by McGregor’s Theory Y and related these to certain of the ideas he detected in Japanese organisations. †¢Ouchi’s theory argues that participation is a crucial motivator.Employees will be motivated to higher levels of performance if they are involved in meaningful participation in decision making in their organisation. PROCESS THEORIES OF MOTIVATION Difference between a content theory and a process theory: †¢Content or need theories suggest that there are universal needs that all humans have for example security, socialisation, self respect etc. †¢Process theories do not look at the content of the motivational package but at the mental processes that we go through when faced with a situation. Process theories Expectancy Theory:Expectancy Theory is a cognitively based motivational theory, put forward by Victor Vroom. According to this theory the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of our expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to us. Attrac tiveness †¢This is the importance we place on the potential outcome or reward that can be achieved on the job. This will consider the unsatisfied needs of the individual. Performance-reward linkage †¢This is the degree to which we believe that performing at a particular level will lead to a desired outcome.Effort-performance linkage †¢The probability that we perceive that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance. The theory can be expressed by the formula: †¢Motivational force (F) = Valency (V) ? Expectancy (E) †¢Valency is the value of the outcome to the person; expectancy is the perceived likelihood of the outcome. Porter and Lawler †¢Porter and Lawler developed expectancy theory in the 1970s. They suggest that the amount of effort (motivation and energy exerted) put into work depends on: †¢The eventual reward †¢The amount of effort necessary to achieve that reward †¢How probable it is that the reward will be forthcomi ng.Attribution theory Kelley’s attribution theory examines the way in which people explain success or failure and the impact on subsequent motivations. Four variables are frequently used: †¢Ability †¢Effort †¢Task difficulty †¢Luck Handy’s motivational calculus Handy looks at motivation as though when a person takes a decision, they give attention to three sets of factors: (a) The individual’s personal needs (b) The desired outcome or results (c)The E factors: Effort, Energy, Excitement in attaining the desired outcome, Enthusiasm, Emotion, Expenditure. The motivation decision will depend on: i) The strength of the person’s needs. (ii) The expectation that by contributing one of the Es, the individual will achieve one of the desired results. (iii) The extent to which the result will contribute to satisfying the person’s needs. Connection with the psychological contract A psychological contract is the perceived relationship betwe en the individual and the organisation and involves the various factors that bind the individual to the enterprise. Three examples of psychological contracts are: †¢A coercive psychological contract exists when a person works because they are forced to do so.They may be tied into the job because the salary and fringe benefits prevent them from moving elsewhere. †¢A remunerative psychological contract exists when a person works for the money. The person may tolerate the job to attain the lifestyle it provides. This differs from the coercive contract as the remunerative contract may bind the person in the short term, only to be severed if a better deal is available elsewhere. †¢A collaborative psychological contract is one in which the worker is bound to the organisation by a belief that personal objectives can best be attained by enabling the organisation to fulfil its objectives.From an employer’s point of view, this is more likely to result in having a highly motivated workforce. The person’s desire to achieve can facilitate the company’s performance objectives. EXCELLENCE THEORY AND MOTIVATION †¢Excellence theories originate in the works of writers in the early 1980s, principally based on the work of Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. †¢The nature of these ideas is essentially one of observing successes and failures in actual business scenarios and attempting to draw universal lessons that can then be applied elsewhere. †¢Peters and Waterman did not set out to rite specifically on motivation, but their work comments much on the ability of successful companies to get a high level of commitment from their workers.Among their conclusions were: †¢Original ideas and ingenuity are grossly under-utilised. Drucker’s idea of the â€Å"entrepreneur† (the original thinker and innovator) was extended to suggest that if such persons are employed, their gifts should be harnessed for the benefit of the orga nisation. †¢To motivate workers, it is necessary to get close to the workers and understand the issues affecting them as well as their drives and motivations. They believe that workers respond more positively when they feel more in control of their destiny. †¢In one control group experiment, two teams were given the task of proofreading some text material against a noisy background of a tape containing foreign speech, loud music and other distractions. One group had a button to cut off the noise whilst the other did not. †¢The group with the button made far less errors than the other group. It was found, however, that no one had pressed the button!The fact that the workers felt in control made them work more effectively. Peters and Waterman record a direct application of this in a Ford Motor Company plant whereby any worker could (temporarily) stop the assembly line. This had stunning results in terms of increased productivity and reduced defect rates. PERFORMANCE BAS ED REWARDING IN NOKIA Nokia provides employees with market competitive rewards through a flexible global structure, which can address diverse and changing business and employment environments, as well as specific individual preferences.Our Total Compensation Package is tailored for each country and typically consists of elements such as annual base salary, incentives, bonuses, possible stock options or performance shares, flexible Work-Life balance solutions, and other local benefits. Nokia rewards employees for good performance, competence development, and for overall company success. This creates a positive and encouraging environment with opportunities for employees to optimize their potential and be rewarded fairly. Higher erformance and contribution will lead to higher rewards. The Nokia global market competitive rewards structure addresses the need for flexibility, personalization, empowerment and commitment. The basic salary is set to meet market conditions, the demands of th e job and individual competence and performance. The variable part may consist of incentives or bonuses and other compensation, such as overtime pay and call-out pay. Bonus System Employees should have the opportunity to share in the success of Nokia.Short-term incentive programs such as individual, team, project/program incentives and the Nokia Connecting People Bonus allow Nokia to offer immediate rewards for employee and team achievements. The Stock Option Plan is a long-term reward that may allow employees to share in sustained company success. Eligibility for an incentive, bonus or stock option plans is defined by the content and nature of each individual's job. Local Benefits Additional local rewards and benefits are also developed to complement the global programs and to ensure that the local market conditions are met.Annual Reviews Nokia has implemented a global process, where the change in the pay level for each employee is based on the results of the annual performance rev iew. Health Nokia cares for its employees right throughout the cycle of their working life: from induction and training, through development and advancement, and on to retirement. Nokia's Work-Life balance solutions mean that health benefits and possible local retirement benefits are tailored to individual needs according to factors such as tenure, contribution, performance, roles and responsibilities.The environment in which we do business is evolving continuously. To succeed, we must have the passion and courage to look for new ideas beyond existing products, services and ways of working. Only with truly innovative ideas will we be able to define the future development of our industry and profoundly shape the way in which people understand and use our products and services in their everyday lives. Rewarding performance Nokia rewards employees competitively through a global reward framework designed to recognize individual contribution and achievement.Levels of compensation are det ermined by local labour markets and take into account both individual and company performance. Their reward programs – including bonuses – recognize performance based on individual, team and company results. We introduced changes to their incentive plans in 2007 to make the plans simpler, more consistent and able to deliver equal or higher payouts if target performance or above is achieved. A wide number of employees are eligible to join their equity programs, based on rewarding performance and retaining top employees.Their broad-based equity compensation programs include stock options and performance shares. Both are linked to the company’s performance over a number of years. We communicate with employees about the effect of business results on their incentives after each quarterly announcement, through articles and video messages on our intranet news channel, the News Hub. We also communicate through quarterly letters, blogs, webcasts and face-to-face meetings . In addition, information is available on the Know Your Business section of our intranet.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Service Oriented...

SOA ASSIGNMENT In this essay I will be discussing Service Oriented Architecture. As part of that I will write about the terms Web Service, Service Oriented Architecture and SOAP. I will list some advantages and disadvantages of SOA as well as the technology involved in using SOA and the standard syntax and operation employed in such a system. I will close this essay by writing about a company that could take advantage of the Service Oriented Architecture. Web Services The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international criteria organization for the World Wide Web. They set the standard for web mark-up languages and web services worldwide. W3C describe web services as a means for two electronic devices to communication via†¦show more content†¦This enables software to derive some of its functionality from other applications, hence being service-oriented applications. Properties of a service-oriented architecture: †¢ Self-contained web service: The client should contain no services itself and no additional software. The use of a programming language that can access a server should be enough. †¢ Self-describing web service: The data being handled should be self-describing. No additional software should be used to decode data being handled. The client only retrieves from the server. †¢ Follow strict standards: XML and HTTP being the most common basis for web services. †¢ Programmatic access to data: SOA provides data at the most simple level. No GUI should be provided. †¢ Language-independent web services: The client that is using the web services of a server do not have to be on the same platform or be using the same language. Standard transfer protocols are used to send and receive data. In order for a system to resourcefully use SOA, it must meet the following standards: †¢ In service oriented architecture, services are independent elements of functionality. †¢ Interoperability among different systems and programming languages that delivers the foundation for integration between applications on a diverse range of platforms through a communications protocol †¢ Clear-cut descriptive language. To use services from a provided system by clearly definedShow MoreRelatedFalcon Security Essay1544 Words   |  7 Pagesthe growing business of Falcon Security. The paper suggests Falcon adopt cloud Platform as a Services like Amazon RDS, storage services like Amazon S3, Software as a Services like Google Mail, office 365 and Microsoft CRM online. The paper is concluded comparing Service-Oriented-Architecture(SOA) and Cloud. Keywords: Platform as a Service(PaaS), Software as a Service(SaaS), Service Oriented Architecture(SOA), CRM, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3. 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Now a day mobile phone is a necessary part of the people’s life. There is continuously rising in a number of mobile Computing applications, centred on the people’s daily life. It allows accessing. It allows accessing several applications and services via the internet connection