Death Knocks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Death Knocks - Essay Example He has used puns and pratfalls heavily and carefully to channel succinctly a light and comical delineation of death. Putting it differently, he has successfully managed to manipulate death, such a serious issue into a funny and laughable matter. The play begins with a vivid description of Nat Ackerman’s house (Myers, 4). He stays in a two-storey building in Kew curtilage. The wall is covered completely with carpet. Inside the bedroom, there is a large divalent bed and a large dresser. The living room is richly furnished and colorful curtains all over. There are a number of pictures smartly arranged on the wall and an ugly likeable barometer. Just as the curtains are opened, soft music emerges from the background. It is at this time that Nat, who is a fifty-seven-years- old dressmaker with a baldhead is seen comfortably lying on bed reading a newspaper. At close to midnight, Nat hears a noise that startles him prompting him to stand by the window to lock at what is happening. Woody Allen portrays death as a funny and humorous character. In the way death acts out, he is seen as very friendly contrary to the real life situation. Both Nat and Death are equally humorous, when Nat confirms that he was not expecting Death, Death replies in a joking way by asking Nat if he was expecting Rock Hudson. Furthermore, in this play, Death does not have the full capacity and aggressiveness in executing his task. He willingly joins Nat in playing gin rummy game. There is an agreement that if Nat emerges the winner in the game, Death spares his life for extra 24 hours. On the other hand, if Nat loses the game, Death leaves with him instantly. Allen depicts Death as unthreatening and conversant by impersonating him as an ethnical image. That Nat can talk to Death, changes everything modifying death as approachable and less awful. When Nat borrows the idea

Manifest Destiny and the Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Manifest Destiny and the Civil War - Essay Example By 1787, slavery was recognized in the Constitution (General History of the United Sates Supreme Court, accessed 2011). Slavery was not regulated within States through Congress. Until 1808, only the movement of slaves into States, or between States up to that date, was taxed and hence regulated (US Constitution: Art. I Sec. 9 Para.1). Slavery was, then, accepted as a fact which existed within States, and the federal Government restricted its involvement in the affairs of individual States. States made their own decisions about whether they were â€Å"Free States†, or whether they would allow slavery, and Congress respected those decisions. This meant that as the United States expanded, new States were declared, and in fact could make their own decisions about whether slavery was to be allowed or not. In 1819, Missouri appealed to be included in the Confederation as a slave-owning State. This appeal was met by much resistance from the Northern States – in which Abolition ism was dominant – and the Midwestern States – where economies without slave labor would struggle against the slave-owning State economies. But Missouri entered the Confederation as a slave-owning State in 1819.

Literature Review of Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom

Literature Review of Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom 2.5 Why Knowledge management is so important? Knowledge as a resource causes huge misunderstanding for economists, because unlike the physical commodities, it is the only resource which increased returns as it is used rather than reduced or diminished over time (Clarke, T. 2001). Knowledge may be costly to generate but there is modest cost to diffusion. Massa, S. Testa, S. (2008) believed that the determinants of success of organizations, and nationwide economies as a total, is ever more dependent upon their efficiency in assembling and utilizing knowledge. Accordingly to Malhotra, Y. (2000) knowledge has turn into a key production factor; though the monetary accounts are still leading by conventional factors of production, including buildings and machinery. The idea of knowledge flowing to where it is most needed is the critical point and it should not flow only from the top down, but flow in all ways in an organization, (Davenport, T. Prusak, L. 2000). Davidson, C. Voss, P. (2004), Lin, L. Kwok, L. (2006) claimed that know ledge is no longer a source of power; it is knowledge sharing that counts in the knowledge economy but author like Kakabadse, N. et al., (2003), viewed knowledge itself is power. Creation and codification of knowledge do not necessarily lead to performance improvement or value creation. Value is generated only when knowledge is allocated all the way through in an organization and linked where it is needed (Chena, C Huang, J. 2007). It is not sufficient to have smart people in the organization. Instead, the key is to create systems that tap into the knowledge, experiences, and creativity of your staff, your customers, your suppliers, and even your competitors. Knowledge strategy needs to be concerned with the quality of information, not the quantity; and with the timeliness of information delivery, not its speed. Smart systems are excellent but smart people are superior. Despres, C. Chauvel, D. (1999) identified that knowledge management occurs on three ends: the individual, the team and the organizational. 2.6 Framework for knowledge approaches Knowledge management is linked to diverse business fields and it has always been entrenched in the individual behavior. It is not all about creating an index or register that detains the whole thing that anyone ever knew. Collison, C. Parcell, G. (2004) suggested that it is about maintaining track of those who know the procedure, techniques and fostering the culture and technology that will get them talking. It is challenging to understand the nature of knowledge and the way it is managed. Also the management approaches towards knowledge management is varied. Knowledge can be created from re-describing and re-labeling the past knowledge, it also created from connecting people (the relationships) and connecting technologies (networks). This might be flexible social or stiff technical networks. These discussions vibrate with the managerial paradox of developing organizational performance via rigid or free control systems and this was interpreted in the following model adopted from Arm istead, C. Meakins, M. (2002) for describing four approaches to knowledge management stand on whether it is in an organizational or an individual context, and whether knowledge management is imposed or empowered by managerial approaches. Armistead, C. Meakins, M. (2002) Figure No: 2.3 Framework for knowledge approaches Imposition is linked with bureaucracy, structured and controlled systems and attempts to codify all aspects of knowledge. It might expect such perceptions to be more inclined to explicit rather than tacit knowledge. In contrast, Empowerment recognized the potential in the social and individual for knowledge creation and sharing, in which the tacit as much as the explicit aspect of knowledge is engaged. The authors considered that managers are likely to be concerned with knowledge at an individual and organization level and with particular approaches to managing knowledge. Consequently they proposed a managerial framework which uses the constructs of imposed and empowered as one axis and the individual and the organization as the other. Prescribed recommends a official approach to knowledge and its management at an  organizational level. It might see technology set up widely to detain, store up and  guard knowledge. Compliance means individual engage in knowledge activities through contract and  regulation. Resources are distributed via prescribed performance management  processes. Adaptive engages with the informal within the social fabric of the organization in  the logic of communities of practice and the self-management of teams. Self-determination supports individuals to get responsibility for their part to  learning in the knowledge creation and sharing processes. From the above management paradox of how the knowledge is manage at an organizational and individual context. There is another well known model, called SECI or knowledge spiral model. The model did not only described that how the knowledge is managed but it also explained the overall knowledge creation process. 2.7 SECI Model In 1995, (Nonaka, I. Takeuchi, H. 1995) introduced their SECI model, which stands for Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization. The purpose of this model is to offer an understanding of how organizations create knowledge and formalize organization processes which are mostly tacit in nature. It further provides an understanding of knowledge sharing, its management and application at an organizational level. According to Nonaka, I. Takeuchi, H. (1995) knowledge is formed from the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge. These four knowledge conversion processes interconnected by moving from tacit to explicit knowledge as it moves from socialization to internalization then return to socialization to shape a spiral model of knowledge creation. Hiscock, J. (2004) stated that the first generation earlier to 1995, completely dependent on technologies in their daily task often known technocratic, but this is the second generation of knowledge management, whe re knowledge exchange is illustrated as a spiral a thing to be managed and something which can be made explicit. As the purpose of this research it is to look at the barriers to knowledge management thus the only focal point from this model is to observe overall knowledge creation process. Nonaka, I. Takeuchi, H. (1995) discussed that how tacit and explicit knowledge interrelate to successfully create knowledge in an organization via four conversion processes: 2.7.1 Socialization tacit to tacit Socialization is the process through which tacit knowledge is passed to others; it is directly related to the group processes and organizational culture. Tacit knowledge is often attained through sharing experiences, observations and the processes that arises without formal discussions and using language for instance face to face interaction. Interviewing and focus groups techniques are also creating tacit knowledge amongst people. 2.7.2 Externalization tacit to explicit Externalization of tacit knowledge is the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit. As tacit knowledge is embedded in the peoples mind and that is externalize or express by sharing of paradigms, metaphors and concepts through formal discussions. Nonaka, I Takeuchi, H. (1995) declared that we have conceptualized an image; we generally tend to express it in language. Externalization is developing notions which facilitate tacit knowledge to communicate. Redesign of existing information can escort to new knowledge in the shape of written statements. Wakefield, R. (2006) argued that when knowledge is externalized and turn into explicit it is in fact converted back into information or data. Both have values, but this cannot be out until the data and information is internalized again to form knowledge that is used for some productive purposes. 2.7.3 Combination explicit to explicit Combination is a process of systemizing concept into a knowledge system, at this level explicit knowledge merged with written reports and other strategic documents through formal discussions (i.e. meetings, documents etc.). This process includes gathering significant knowledge then sorting, editing and distributing it, which allows knowledge sharing within organization. Formal education and training are also comprise in this type of knowledge conversion. 2.7.4 Internalization explicit to tacit Internalization is a mechanism of altering explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. It is achieved through individual expression and learning by doing. Once the explicit knowledge shared with individuals to internalize what they have experienced and then their understanding becomes tacit knowledge in the form of shared intellectual models or technological know-how which further become a valuable asset for the organization. For example: customer complaint are recorded and then read by other team members. 2.8 key components and its related barriers to Knowledge Management DuPlessis, M. (2008) point out that knowledge management is a holistic solution integrating mixture of perspectives: people, process, technology and culture perspectives and every single one should hold equal influence. According to Gillingham, H. Roberts, B. (2006), people, process and technology (soft and hard aspects) reveals the most essential features engaged in capturing, disseminating and sharing knowledge. These elements require to be balanced to guarantee that the complete benefits of knowledge sharing are exploited. Of course, people, process, and technology (PPT) are intertwined and no organizations get very far benefits without having a basic competency in all. But the tougher challenge in knowledge management is how to built PPT into an organization. Collison, C. Parcell, G. (2004) suggested that involving people who knows, and the behaviors to ask, listen and share, some processes to make things easier for sharing, validation, distillation, and a familiar, reliable te chnology infrastructure to facilitate sharing. Knowledge management is all concerning the integration of people, process, technology but strategy and structure too (Armistead, C. Meakins, M. 2002). According to Quinn, F. (2008) the development of knowledge managements exposes many issues that firms claim to have solved completely. The issues for example related to business benefits, people and culture, technology and process. These issues reflect all the main areas of concern in a knowledge environment and can be produce the barriers or road block to achieving the corporate success that most of would wish to inhabit. 2.8.1 People The biggest misunderstanding that the Information Technology (IT) leaders composed is that the knowledge management is all about technology. Gillingham, H. Robert, B. (2006) confirmed that people are the most central and complex element in knowledge management. It is a people who create and share knowledge, Since, (tacit) knowledge is set aside in the individuals the most essential thing for knowledge management is the system to allow the conceal knowledge within an individual be spread to others in order for them to share, exploit, and then alter it into (explicit) knowledge within an organization (Yeh, Y. et al., 2006). Knowledge management helps us do what we do better and its connect information and people, and people and people. Call, D. (2005) suggested that people are not being able to gain knowledge in a minutes and hours but they learn over days or weeks and one of challenge is to detained knowledge from what people said and did as part of their everyday job and to build it reachable to rest in an organization. According to Gundry, J. Metes, G. (1996) people behaviors is often manipulated by their beliefs, values, attitudes, and the organization culture. Influencing what people believe should direct to changes in values, attitudes and behavior in which knowledge is shared behavior. Gillingham H. Robert, B. (2006) stated that it is complicated to get people to do things in a different way because people can simply fall back on defensive routines. A state of willingness require from individuals to get people to modify the way that they do things, it is central to manage those who are willing to create and share their knowledge (Yeh, Y. et al., 2006). According to the Abell, A. and Oxbrow, N. (2001) people ask numbers of question in organization towards knowledge management for example: What is in knowledge for me? How does it make my job easier? What appreciation will I get for sharing my knowledge? Etc. It is important to identify what knowledge peo ple need and what knowledge people already possess and how to link people and knowledge process. In any system where information or knowledge is accessible, there must be adequate security to ensure that only appropriate people are able to see what knowledge is held and by whom, in that case confidentiality is the barrier to crafting a knowledge sharing culture in the organization (DuPlessis, M. 2008). But from the organizational point of view, one can comprehend that it is in national interest that the particular knowledge stays confidential. In other word the right information and knowledge should distributed to the right people at the right time and right place. For example in defense sectors and utilities provider such as countries like South Africa where they have one and only major energy provider, their key knowledge and information would be exceptionally secret hence it should be strongly managed (Sutton, S. Leech, S. 2002). Employee often does not know what is the concept of knowledge management their perception about knowledge as resources in not clear as capital assets resources. In the view of McCann, J. Buckner, M. (2004) people do not include knowledge into their work process to make final products and services and even do not feel responsible for sharing their own knowledge with colleagues. Kols, A. (2004) submitted that people do not even realize that they have knowledge worth sharing. Employees viewed knowledge management as an additional job, processes and formal channel of communications which is not incorporated into their daily working environment (DuPlessis, M. 2008). Another potential factor; employed turnover, where experienced employees transferred, promoted, retired, or fired from the organization, both their tacit and explicit knowledge may be lost unless the organization makes a concerted effort to assure that it is shared. Knowledge management setup and implementations requires sufficient time which is often claimed constraint. Time can be a difficult area or barrier, where employees are considered on the hourly basis, for example; accountants, lawyers, solicitors and engineers. For them, time is wealth and it is hard to modify the view that knowledge management be able to make them work smarter and quicker, even if they do expend some time on it upfront (DuPlessis, M. 2008). When the organization was steady and developing smoothly, it would be feasible for people to take extra time and effort to get involved in such knowledge management activities. Once the circumstances changed, these practices would be easily gone down because they were peripheral to business operations (Lin, L. Kwok, L. 2006). 2.8.2 Process Armistead, C. Meakins, M. (2002) declared that knowledge management is a process rather than an asset, and hence to facilitate maximize its value an organization must have to form an environment that facilitates the flow of knowledge. The argument between technology and people is about the ways of managing knowledge processes. Barnes, P. (2007), Probst et al., (2000) categorizes knowledge management in six core processes; knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge expansion, knowledge sharing or distribution, knowledge exploitation and knowledge preservation. In order to share knowledge, one requires tools or processes: Expert locater systems, communities of practice (formal and informal), distance learning information-sharing tools, emergent expertise, storytelling, knowledge repositories, conferences/workshops/ seminars, e-learning applications and virtual communities are some of the methods organizations can use to disseminate knowledge. Abell, A. Oxbrow, N. (200 1) believed that people make process work, often through informal steps- how can these be formalized and how to build communities around business processes. Process must learn how to achieve the commitment of people to the learning process and how to integrate knowledge creation and utilization into business process. Processes need technology support- how to integrate business benefits and technology capability, it also require formal and informal communication between employees. Lack of communication, non-standardized processes and information systems and not knowing where to get knowledge. Gillingham, H. Roberts, B. (2006) stated that location and distance (geographical, legal, cultural and lingual) to access of vast organization knowledge can be a bottleneck Informal communication outlook as just chitchat or chatty activity, managers do not see the advantage of (tacit) knowledge process or transfer from one employee to another hence often employees are restricted to engage in discussing projects or ideas at meeting places such as near to water coolers or coffee machines (Webb, S. 1998). However organization confusion over the focus of the initiative often creates barriers to knowledge management: information or knowledge management; knowledge management or learning organization; which should lead human resources (HR) or information technology (IT). However there is danger in attempting to identify and collect everything available. According to Giannetto, K. Wheeler, A. (2000) if too much detail is gathered, it is impossible to distinguish what might be of value to employees and it will become a huge unmanageable, bureaucratic nightmare Organizations focus on collection not connection and attempt to capture all organization knowledge in repositories, often creating electronic bucket in place of physical filing cabinets also misunderstand the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge and treat it in the same way. 2.8.3 Technology The role of technology is significant; it is ultimately a facilitator of human knowledge in the organization. Technology or IS does not hold tacit knowledge, as it is held in the human brain (Rock, S. 1998), although it is transfer medium of tacit into explicit knowledge to some extend because tacit knowledge alters with each new experience and technology should be updated frequently. Armistead, C. Meakins, M. (2002) affirmed that information technology can enable speedy search, access and retrieval of information, and can support collaboration and communication between organizational members. In real meaning, it can undoubtedly play a variety of roles to support an organizations knowledge management processes. Technologies and knowledge management are strongly tied, because both assist the circulation of structured knowledge vertically and horizontally in the organization. (Yeh, Y. et al., 2006) argued that technology plays following roles in knowledge management: acquiring knowledge; classify, store, index, and tie knowledge related digital items; search and identify related content; and flexibly communicate the content based on the different utilization backgrounds. Knowledge management classifications are broadly defined technologies which improve and enable knowledge generation, codification and transfer. Peoples experiences and interpretations that add value, transforms into knowledge by using technologies. Knowledge management (technology) tools for instance: e-mail, document systems, groupware, the internet, intranet and video conferencing are all knowledge collaboration tools which can be use for gathering, organizing and sharing knowledge in the organizations (Gillingham, H. Roberts, B. 2006). Not everyone is computer literate and that sort of illiteracy become a cause which brake knowledge management processes also people finds that working with complex systems is not easy (DuPlessis, M. 2006). Sometimes it is more challenging for the organization to get people trained to using the KM tools (technologies) to facilitate knowledge sharing and retention. Holland, J. Johanson, U. 2003) recognized that organization consideration towards technological costs sometimes restrain in respect of installing knowledge management softwares and hardwares. Perhaps both are very expensive in terms of getting licenses for every member in a large organization. Since knowledge is an intangible asset, it is more complex for organization to calculate return on investment in hard form (cash), therefore step back from any initiative; however Collison, C Parcell, G. (2001) believed that knowledge benefits can be defined in qualitative and quantitative measures. Another barriers occur when technology is not up to date with the business processes as well as with the improvements in the technological world then knowledge and information might become rapidly old-fashioned and if maintenance and back-ups is not done regularly, knowledge can be vanished in a catastrophe situation, which is not only costly but also irretrievable. The advance type of communications for example; intranet if organizations only rely on this then it will be a huge barrier to the exchange of tacit knowledge. Davenport, T Prusak, L. (2000) suggest that knowledge sharing events happen when people connect via communities of practice and in person meetings. 2.8.4 Culture Chen, C. Huang, J. (2007) described organizational culture as shared value, beliefs, and work atmospheres that could have considerable impacts on the behaviors of employees. According to Yeh, Y. et al., (2006) culture is the combination of value, core belief, behavior model, and emblem. Culture is normally reflected in the form of organizations corporate structure, management and leadership style, learning from experience, norms, and practices, trust, rewards and recognition, networks and community of practices etc (DeLong, DW. Fahey, L. 2004, Al-Hawamdeh, S. 2003). Culture can play a role for organizational learning and every organizations culture is an independent entity different than any other organization. Alavi, M. Leidner, D. (2001) suggested that it is significant to comprehend that knowledge management is not as much of technical problem, but it is more of cultural problem. Culture is not only intangible and illusive, but it can also be observed at multiple levels in an o rganization. Trust and honesty are elements of culture sometime not clearly visible, Davenport, T. Prusak, L. (2000) confirmed that without these elements knowledge management would not function properly between individuals. Employees ask many questions themselves for instance; if I share knowledge will others misuse it, can I belief the knowledge that others created (Abell, A. Oxbrow, N. 2001). Another familiar barrier point out by Kols, A. (2004) knowledge as a source of power or authority and therefore hoarding it, similarly organizations are naturally unwilling to share their skills and know-how with rivals. Employees possibly will not willing to share their knowledge because they might lose control/power, they spotlight on continued existence in the organization rather than willingness to share knowledge (Clegg, S. Palmer, G. 1996). The following Chinese sayings depicting this philosophy with influences from such widespread beliefs, knowledge sharing becomes more complex. A good mastery of a single skill ensures a lifetime employment (Lin, L. Kwok, L. 2006). Internal divisions are general obstacle. Each department, field office, service delivery site, or project team tends to focus on its own problems, have limited contact with outsiders, and unaware of what other subdivisions are doing. Davenport, T. Prusak, L. (2000) stated that employee often assumes that the people in top of organizational hierarchy have greater knowledge and expertise and this difference amongst individual may be seen as a barrier. Employees on different hierarchical or designations frequently struggle to share knowledge between these levels, as they feel they may have much or more knowledge on a particular subject but not consulted or totally ignored because of their position in organization. Furthermore Webb, S. (1998) revealed that managers often try to avoid consult subordinates because they might fear for losing face. If skills are greatly diverse within professional areas and/or within ranks, it might obstruct the tools and practice through the knowledge is s hared between levels. Organization consists of multiple genders and seeking assistance from same gender whether the person is helpful or not is normal cause and may be a barrier. Bartram, S. (2005) stated that women in managerial position often seen as one of the cultural barrier. Also assorted age makes a differentiation at the point of exchanging knowledge. Webb S. (1998) believed that employees are unwilling to share knowledge if the future economic growth of organization is unstable and they strive to secure their position by retention of tacit knowledge as power. The overall organization instability may spoil social networks and reduce flow of knowledge from one corner to another in an organization (Lesser, E. Prusak, L. 2001). Management emphasis on individual rather than team, disincentive to knowledge sharing, competition between employees, motivational limitations, lack of acknowledging for the supplier of knowledge, sub-standard physical layout of work space, and fewer management commitments could be a constraint for knowledge sharing environment (Chase, R. 1997). 2.9 How the barriers of knowledge management can be managed? Knowledge management is a lengthy and iterative process and its related benefits realized over a period of time. There are no rapid fix solutions to counter these barriers. However to overcome these barriers an organizations require to undertake essential approaches and actions. According to Du Plessis, M. (2008) knowledge management barriers directly line up with organizational, national and personnel culture. Top and senior managements can play a significant role for instance by raising the awareness of knowledge management activities and its benefits into work place (Birkinshaw, J. 2001). At any level of knowledge management it is compulsory to make sure that employees trained on the basis of knowledge management, once the knew the insights of knowledge management they are enough able to see how its adds value into their routine jobs and how organization can create social and intangible capital. However if employees ignore or do not understand the notion of knowledge management th en they will not be capable to leverage it completely, even though organizations have elegant knowledge management plans and systems. Flexibilities between departments could span knowledge sharing boundaries. Employees should not reserve by position in a hierarchy and retain by resources. Davenport, T. Prusak, L. (2000) stated that the components of knowledge management: people, process and technology must be uniformly supplied in terms of time and money. The most powerful force in knowledge management is people because they can able to change their environment so trust in people is an extraordinary phenomenon in managing people and their knowledge. Milton, N. (nd) described two other ways to manage knowledge called connect and collect, however these terms are vastly similar to the Nonaka, I. Takeuchi, H. SECI model (see section 2.7). The S mean Socialization and it begins through the connecting people into social networks where they can able to talk, to share dialogues with other people where the other three boxes named Externalization, Combination and Internalization is all about revolving tacit knowledge into explicit into tacit knowledge. For example knowledge is documented, recorded into knowledge system or knowledge repository in an organized way thus the othe rs can access it. Organizational culture should abide for mistakes by recognizing and gratifying innovative errors, also there should be no fear of losing position from not knowing the entire thing (Gillingham, H. Robert, B. 2006). In the view of Barnes, P. (2007), decentralize structure gives opportunities to know where the decisive knowledge is located and able to make more accurate decisions. Incentive and reward systems not only influence members to support knowledge management activities but it also encourage their willingness to take part in the creation and sharing knowledge (Yeh, Y. et al., 2006). Lack of trust alters into culture of trust and confidence get by face to face interactions; its not only the way of transferring tacit knowledge between individuals but it allows to evaluating the trustworthiness of both the giver and the receiver. Use of technology in knowledge management stipulates user training and members should have skills available other than technical ones such as interpersonal skills. According to the Abell, A. Oxbrow, N. (2001) technologies should not be the driver and substitute of social interactions; neither should it be a barrier. 2.10 Summary Every organizations is a knowledge based and they possesses particular knowledge in various forms such as in human capital, structure capital, intellectual capital etc. and the issue of knowledge management is essential because organization lives in uncertain world. The above literature has been identified potential barriers to knowledge management which was categorized into organizational culture, people perceptions, ineffective processes and obsolete technologies. There is no cause to believe that those barriers will not impact on knowledge sharing to a more or fewer extent within an organization and between personnel. However the rationale of this study was not to classify an extensive organizational barrier profile but the principle was merely to recognize a set of commonly studied barriers in knowledge management which can be apparent in various means across an organization. When organizations managed and implement knowledge in a logical and structure way it can add value to bot h the employees and organizations effectiveness. The literature review also fascinated that knowledge management is a social activity or relies on social models, even though sharing of knowledge can be possible from technologies but recipient and sender of knowledge are still humans. Organizational culture, employees perceptions and their characteristics, sources of knowledge creation and the context in which knowledge is shared are key consideration in knowledge management.

Government Corruption Essay -- Corruption in Government

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Over the last few years, the issue of corruption--the abuse of public office for private gain--has attracted renewed interest, both among academics and policymakers. There are a number of reasons why this topic has come under recent inspection. Corruption scandals have toppled governments in both major industrial countries and developing countries. In the transition countries, the shift from command economies to free market economies has created massive opportunities for the appropriation of rents, excessive profits, and has often been accompanied by a change from a well-organized system of corruption to a more chaotic and deleterious one. With the end of the cold war, donor countries have placed less emphasis on political considerations in allocating foreign aid among developing countries and have paid more attention to cases in which aid funds have been misused and have not reached the poor. And slow economic growth has persisted in many countries with malfuncti oning institutions. This renewed interest has led to a new flurry of empirical research on the causes and consequences of corruption. Economists know quite a bit about the causes and consequences of corruption. An important body of knowledge was acquired through theoretical research done in the 1970s by Jagdish Bhagwati, Anne Krueger, and Susan Rose-Ackerman, among others. A key principle is that corruption can occur where rents exist--typically, as a result of government regulation--and public officials have discretion in allocating them. The classic example of a government restriction resulting in rents and rent-seeking behavior is that of an import quota and the associated licenses that civil servants give to those entrepreneurs willing to pay bribes. More recently, researchers have begun to test some of these long-established theoretical hypotheses using new cross-country data. Indices produced by private rating agencies grade countries on their levels of corruption, typically using the replies to standardized questionnaires by consultants living in those countries. The replies are subjective, but the correlation between indices produced by different rating agencies is very high, suggesting that most observers more or less agree on how corrupt countries seem to be. The high prices paid to the rating agencies by their customers (usually multinational companies a... ...e role of other forms of institutional inefficiency. Corruption is most prevalent where there are other forms of institutional inefficiency, such as political instability, bureaucratic red tape, and weak legislative and judicial systems. This raises the question of whether it can be established that corruption, rather than other factors correlated with it, is the cause of low economic growth. Regression analysis provides some evidence that if one controls for other forms of institutional inefficiency, such as political instability, corruption can still be shown to reduce growth. Nevertheless, it is hard to show conclusively that the cause of the problem is corruption alone, rather than the institutional weaknesses that are closely associated with it. The truth is that probably all of these weaknesses are intrinsically linked, in the sense that they feed upon each other (for example, red tape makes corruption possible, and corrupt bureaucrats may increase the extent of red tape so they can extract additional bribes) and that getting rid of corruption helps a country overcome other institutional weaknesses, just as reducing other institutional weaknesses helps it curb corruption.

Just about every aspect of sport which we find exciting today was present at the chariot races of ancient Rome Essay

I agree with this statement to an extent, some aspects of chariot racing are similar to that of today’s modern sport. In Ancient Rome’s chariot races there were four teams, red, white, green and blue. Every roman would support a team, and stay loyal to it. These teams became the focus of support among spectators. The Romans were always very loyal to which ever team they supported. Fights would sometimes breakout due to the supporting of different teams. There are lots of aspects that made these chariot races exciting for the Romans. By supporting a team they could feel more involved. Competitors from the same team / stable might work together / pull stunts and gang up on other teams to gain popularity, make the race more exciting. This is just like nowadays, in football, rugby, cricket and many more of our modern day sports resemble the Romans approach to their teams and their support for them. Most men nowadays support a football team and stay loyal and supporting that team. Going to a football match is a really exciting experience, everyone supporting the same team will be feeling in a similar way, the atmosphere and feeling that you are all there together supporting your team, taking part is a very exciting experience and one that both us and the Romans share. The anxiety of waiting what’s going to happen, is he going to push him off the track? Is he going to die? The excitement when someone does a trick. Is he going to score? Will they be able to score in time? Will he get the penalty? Will he get sent off? It unified people of all sorts of social ranks, and encourages them to socialise just like we have nowadays. Betting also would have been and exciting experience for the Romans, just like us and any human being they were money driven. So the prospect of wining some money would have been a very exciting experience, they could have won a lot of money. Just like nowadays when we place a bet on a team or a horse to win a race / match, it then gets us more involved in the match / race, we want the person / team who we have backed up to win so we win money in return, so you get very excited when maybe your charioteer does a very clever stunt and nocks someone of the track / they are battling it out for first position you almost feel as if you are taking part in the race. The structural features of the circus maximus would have also made it exciting for the Romans the seating meant that they could integrate with women, which they would not get to do often, there are several sources explaining the excitement the men had in checking the women out. Nowadays that would not really affect our excitement on the sport as we are much more integrated through daily life than the Romans would have been. Therefore these don’t really increase the enjoyment of our sport nowadays. The ‘spina’ would have also made the race very exciting for the Romans, especially the ‘metea’ or turning posts, these would have tested even the best charioteers to their limits, when the charioteers reached the metea they would try and cut in as close as possible to the metea as possible, this could have resulted in a very bad injury or death very easily, if they wear pushed into the metea or turned to closely into the metea, as the charioteers approached the metea the crowd would start to cheer more especially when stunts and tricks were pulled on other charioteers. The Romans also enjoyed the egg markers and dolphin markers; these would have shown them at what lap they were in the race, obviously it would have been important for the Romans to have been able to keep track of how many laps the charioteers were on. Every time a marker went down / up this would have signified it being closer to the end of the race, I think this would have made it more exciting for them because it is that time aspect for them, when time is applied to something it often means pressure, whether it be they only have so long to score a goal or to knock their component of the track / make them win. With every lap it would have made it more exciting for the Romans, as there would be less and less charioteers each time and the race would be getting more violent / heated. Although nowadays although we do have score boards to help us to keep up score I would not say it adds that much to the excitement , only really the time aspect that they have so long left to score / win this game. In the chariot racing most of the competitors would have been slaves, and of a low social status, they would get sold to other teams and made to compete in races. In a way the charioteers had their own status within charioteering – they had dual status’ if they were good charioteers they would start from nothing a built their way up the charioteers rank, and become well known every time a charioteer won in a race they would receive a percentage of the winnings the rest would go to the stables, they would receive quite a high pay.. This is sort of similar to what we have nowadays for example a footballer might start from nothing and is all of a sudden he is launched into a high status / idolised. In a way the footballers are owned like a slave would be the club / manager owns them and they are sold onto other teams. Just like the charioteers they also receive very high pays. This aspect of charioteering / modern day sport would have made it exciting because you could get to see well known really good charioteers, maybe that you idolised; it’s just like nowadays meeting a really famous footballer like David beck ham something that an average person would find really exciting, because they are iconic figures that people look up to, and you want to see them perform. With chariot racing there is a real danger aspect it seemed the Romans would do anything to try and make their sport more dangerous and exciting, teaching the charioteers to bash into each other, the crowd would cheer loudly if someone was Have a battle with another charioteer / killed them, the Romans were very blood thirsty. The got thrills out of seeing people hurt and pushing each other close to the edge. Nowadays I don’t think we share the Romans passion quite so much for fighting and death/ blood, although for instance in motor racing when the cars are racing and perhaps giving each other nudges I think we do find it exciting we like to see how far we can push things, and if some one crashed and it was quite a big one every one would sort of be talking about it – did you see that crash? Without realising we get a sort of buss out of it. I think now looking closely and examining this statement I do agree with it , most of the points I have brung up are connected to chariot racing we share that thrill and excitement the same as the Romans do maybe we just don’t realise it as much / it is a bit more toned down.

Deception Point Page 95

The communications device on the man's belt crackled. The voice coming out was robotic. â€Å"Delta-Three? Come in. I heard a shot.† The man made no move to answer. The device crackled again. â€Å"Delta-Three? Confirm. Do you need backup?† Almost immediately, a new voice crackled over the line. It was also robotic but distinguishable by the sound of a helicopter noise in the background. â€Å"This is Delta-One,† the pilot said. â€Å"I'm in pursuit of the departing vessel. Delta-Three, confirm. Are you down? Do you need backup?† Tolland pressed the bang-stick into the man's throat. â€Å"Tell the helicopter to back off that speedboat. If they kill my friend, you die.† The soldier winced in pain as he lifted his communication device to his lips. He looked directly at Tolland as he pressed the button and spoke. â€Å"Delta-Three, here. I'm fine. Destroy the departing vessel.† 115 Gabrielle Ashe returned to Sexton's private bathroom, preparing to climb back out of his office. Sexton'sphone call had left her feeling anxious. He had definitely hesitated when she told him she was in her office-as if he knew somehow she was lying. Either way, she'd failed to get into Sexton's computer and now was unsure of her next move. Sexton is waiting. As she climbed up onto the sink, getting ready to pull herself up, she heard something clatter to the tile floor. She looked down, irritated to see that she'd knocked off a pair of Sexton's cuff links that had apparently been sitting on the edge of the sink. Leave things exactly as you found them. Climbing back down Gabrielle picked up the cuff links and put them back on the sink. As she began to climb back up, she paused, glancing again at the cuff links. On any other night, Gabrielle would have ignored them, but tonight their monogram caught her attention. Like most of Sexton's monogrammed items, they had two intertwining letters. SS. Gabrielle flashed on Sexton's initial computer password-SSS. She pictured his calendar†¦ POTUS†¦ and the White House screensaver with its optimistic ticker tape crawling around the screen ad infinitum. President of the United States Sedgewick Sexton†¦ President of the United States Sedgewick Sexton†¦ President of the†¦ Gabrielle stood a moment and wondered. Could he be that confident? Knowing it would take only an instant to find out, she hurried back into Sexton's office, went to his computer, and typed in a seven-letter password. POTUSSS The screensaver evaporated instantly. She stared, incredulous. Never underestimate the ego of a politician. 116 Corky Marlinson was no longer at the helm of the Crestliner Phantom as it raced into the night. He knew the boat would travel in a straight line with or without him at the wheel. The path of least resistance†¦ Corky was in the back of the bouncing boat, trying to assess the damage to his leg. A bullet had entered the front part of his calf, just missing his shinbone. There was no exit wound on the back of his calf, so he knew the bullet must still be lodged in his leg. Foraging around for something to stem the bleeding, he found nothing-some fins, a snorkel, and a couple of life jackets. No first-aid kit. Frantically, Corky opened a small utility chest and found some tools, rags, duct tape, oil, and other maintenance items. He looked at his bloody leg and wondered how far he had to go to be out of shark territory. A hell of a lot farther than this. Delta-One kept the Kiowa chopper low over the ocean as he scanned the darkness for the departing Crestliner. Assuming the fleeing boat would head for shore and attempt to put as much distance as possible between itself and the Goya, Delta-One had followed the Crestliner's original trajectory away from the Goya. I should have overtaken him by now. Normally, tracking the fleeing boat would be a simple matter of using radar, but with the Kiowa's jamming systems transmitting an umbrella of thermal noise for several miles, his radar was worthless. Turning off the jamming system was not an option until he got word that everyone onboard the Goya was dead. No emergency phone calls would be leaving the Goya this evening. This meteorite secret dies. Right here. Right now. Fortunately, Delta-One had other means of tracking. Even against this bizarre backdrop of heated ocean, pinpointing a powerboat's thermal imprint was simple. He turned on his thermal scanner. The ocean around him registered a warm ninety-five degrees. Fortunately, the emissions of a racing 250 hp outboard engine were hundreds of degrees hotter. Corky Marlinson's leg and foot felt numb. Not knowing what else to do, he had wiped down his injured calf with the rag and wrapped the wound in layer after layer of duct tape. By the time the tape was gone, his entire calf, from ankle to knee, was enveloped in a tight silver sheath. The bleeding had stopped, although his clothing and hands were still covered with blood. Sitting on the floor of the runaway Crestliner, Corky felt confused about why the chopper hadn't found him yet. He looked out now, scanning the horizon behind him, expecting to see the distant Goya and incoming helicopter. Oddly, he saw neither. The lights of the Goya had disappeared. Certainly he hadn't come that far, had he? Corky suddenly felt hopeful he might escape. Maybe they had lost him in the dark. Maybe he could get to shore! It was then he noticed that the wake behind his boat was not straight. It seemed to curve gradually away from the back of his boat, as if he were traveling in an arc rather than a straight line. Confused by this, he turned his head to follow the wake's arc, extrapolating a giant curve across the ocean. An instant later, he saw it. The Goya was directly off his port side, less than a half mile away. In horror, Corky realized his mistake too late. With no one at the wheel, the Crestliner's bow had continuously realigned itself with the direction of the powerful current-the megaplume's circular water flow. I'm driving in a big friggin' circle! He had doubled back on himself. Knowing he was still inside the shark-filled megaplume, Corky recalled Tolland's grim words. Enhanced telencephalon olfactory lobes†¦ hammerheads can smell a droplet of blood a mile away. Corky looked at his bloody duct-taped leg and hands. The chopper would be on him soon. Ripping off his bloody clothing, Corky scrambled naked toward the stern. Knowing no sharks could possibly keep pace with the boat, he rinsed himself as best as he could in the powerful blast of the wake. A single droplet of blood†¦ As Corky stood up, fully exposed to the night, he knew there was only one thing left to do. He had learned once that animals marked their territory with urine because uric acid was the most potent-smelling fluid the human body made. More potent than blood, he hoped. Wishing he'd had a few more beers tonight, Corky heaved his injured leg up onto the gunwale and tried to urinate on the duct tape. Come on! He waited. Nothing like the pressure of having to piss all over yourself with a helicopter chasing you. Finally it came. Corky urinated all over the duct tape, soaking it fully. He used what little was left in his bladder to soak a rag, which he then swathed across his entire body. Very pleasant. In the dark sky overhead, a red laser beam appeared, slanting toward him like the shimmering blade of an enormous guillotine. The chopper appeared from an oblique angle, the pilot apparently confused that Corky had looped back toward the Goya. Quickly donning a high-float life vest, Corky moved to the rear of the speeding craft. On the boat's bloodstained floor, only five feet from where Corky was standing, a glowing red dot appeared. It was time. Onboard the Goya, Michael Tolland did not see his Crestliner Phantom 2100 erupt in flames and tumble through the air in a cartwheel of fire and smoke.

Thien Hau Temple, A Temple that is dedicated to Mazu

Thien Hau Temple, A Temple that is dedicated to Mazu Traditional Taoism is the oldest system that contained the past beliefs of the Chinese. During that period when this system was applicable when both the shamanism and pantheism were common. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Thien Hau Temple, A Temple that is dedicated to Mazu specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Some of the components that were in this system include the repeated occurrence of seasons, life and death of conscious human beings and their continuous generations. Another major component of this system was the mystery of the life origin. In the traditional Taoism, there were some scriptures like the I Ching where most essential readings appeared. This scripture was composed of 64 hexagrams with each one of it carrying six yang lines. In this scripture, the readings included images, solutions of some problems, and the interpretations of the readings. Due to the challenges of the ever-changing world, the people who were responsible in to providing solutions started seeking for unity and continuity among the people. High expectations of finding solutions in Tao were among the traditional thinkers. There were three known sources of Taoism in the traditional china, the first source was the ancestor whose name was the yellow Emperor who came up with the use of traditional Chinese medicine. His wife was also famous through her act of teaching other women on how to obtain silk from silk worms. Through yellow emperor and his wife, there was introduction of the first Chinese characters. The second source of Taoism is the book â€Å"Tao Te Ching† the old book that contained supernatural issues, and its author was Laozi. The third source was Chuang Tzu together with his book that was eponymous. Apart from these three major sources, other sources came up later introducing other traditional aspects to the system. Taoism has influenced the culture of china for long period. The influence of Taoi sm came in different forms for instance, by philosophy, literature, and at times use of arts. Taoism also made some emphasize on getting the freedom for the human kind, understanding the human nature, and tried to obtain human retirement from the social works. Advertising Looking for essay on religion theology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Taoism as well tried to bring the mystery and many questions relating to religious into light for everyone to understand. By use of arts, Taoism divided the life of the educated people into two groups such as social group and a private one. The life of the educated people made use of the arts during their free time to pass different messages to other people in the community. For instance, a person may volunteer to make use of calligraphy or paintings to express a certain idea to the illiterate people in the community. The use of poetry by these people was also common to interp ret or clarify a certain aspect of life to their fellow leaned Chinese. Some educated Chinese went to an extent of conducting some researches on medicine that was useful for human use, and later passing the findings to the others through use of arts. Between 1940 and 1982, Taoism faced many challenges in china whereby most of its operations remained stack for a long period. Most of their priests and other men who were working in church found themselves working in odd places as casual laborers without receiving any recognition as priests. There were mass destructions of the infrastructure that were using, together with their holy sites. In 1982, some leaders started recognizing the importance of this tradition religion, and some of its aspects began restoration. Some of the Taoism temples started their operation, and continued to preach peace and unity among the Chinese people as it was doing before. Up to date Taoism is still a common belief in china because it has more than one bil lion followers. Globally, it is the second largest religion. There was a major debate about the Taoism whether being a philosophy or a religion. Most of the people from western see Taoism as a philosophical aspect because Lao Tse and Zhuang Zi did not talk anything about worshipping or performing rituals, and they are the major people in Taoism. On the other hand, some people refer it as a religion because the work of Lao Zi involved some rituals, and mentioning of works of gods. The debate leaves the relationship between the Taoist religion and Taiost philosophy being hard to understand. In this debate some sense of religious practices are present, and some arguments of philosophy are there. However, most of the religious practices originate from the background of Taoism.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Thien Hau Temple, A Temple that is dedicated to Mazu specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Thien Hau Temple is among the most popular places of worship in china, it mostly devotes its worshipping activities to Mazu who is the goddess of the sea, and other cultures that relates to the sea like fishing or sailing in a boat. This temple was originally a church but later became a temple for celebrations, receiving blessings, and giving offerings as well as performing rituals. The religious activities of this temple are also devoted to Guan Yu who is the famous god of resolving conflicts, righteousness and promoting a good relationship among people. The other god that is involved in the Thien Hau Temple is Fu De who is the god responsible of the earthly materials like wealth and other beneficiaries. In this temple, the Buddhists have a site of worship. The management of this temple is under Camau Association of America although it receives some other support from East Asian communities. One of the most important celebrations done in the temple is the celebration of the Mazu birthday on March 23 of eve ry Lunar Calendar. Many believers from all over the world come together, to share the happiness of this important day. The day is marked with different types of foods, lion dances, and other interesting games. Birthdays of Fu De, Guan Yu, and Dizang are also performed in this temple but not as big as of that of Mazu. Another difference between the traditional Taoism temple and Thien Hau Temple are the activities that take place in each temple. In Thien Hau Temple, members from different societies meet in the temple to receive blessings as they perform some religious rituals. Many people gather to praise deities, while lion dancers perform continuously as a way of chasing evil spirits. There are representatives from over 25 families who are supposed to gather with the rest of the community to light the firecrackers at midnight as a sign of celebrating Chinese New Tear.Advertising Looking for essay on religion theology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Starting from the first day of the year to the fifteenth day, the ceremony continues out side the temple. Experts play drums and bells, as people specialize with vegetarian foods. On special days, people slaughters a big animal like a pig, roasted but they eat it away from the temple as a way of showing respect to the Buddhists. Once the first fifteen days are over, people from different communities come together again to show their money needs to Mazu, as they give her what they had promised towards the year-end. Thien Hau Temple hosts even other types of ghost festivals for the communities to celebrate. The honor given to Mazu in Thien Hau Temple is out of her silence, which came from the fact that she did not cry when she was born. Mazu was the seventh daughter in her family and her father and brothers were mostly fishermen. She was very courageous to take care of the fishing tools that her brothers were using. She used to guard even during the most risky moments. After her death , several fishermen and other sea workers decided to honor her acts. Her identification color is red, which she used to wear most of the time. During her celebrations in Thien Hau Temple, her courageous acts are an inspiration to many people within the community. Guan Yu is another god, a famous historical figure in East Asia, well known by his efforts during the civil war that resulted to the end of the Han Dynasty in china. His efforts and contributions assisted in setting up the kingdom of Shu. That is why people called him the god of war, and receives much respect as he showed loyalty and righteousness. His symbol is a warrior with long beard, and holding weapons with his face painted red as a sign of loyalty. His involvement in this royal fight did not lead to destruction of the kingdom but to the improvement of it. Some people expected the worst from this conflict but Guan Yu fought a fight of wisdom and full of righteousness. Many people honored him and that is why he is a celebrity in the Thien Hau Temple up to date. Fu De is a special earthly god worshipped by both the religion worshippers in the Thien Hau Temple and the Taoists. He is a god of wealth and riches and commonly found in every village to cater for the common affairs. The major challenges that faced most villagers were agricultural and weather related problems. Although his powers were minimal, villagers were nowhere to turn for help. During the hard times of drought and famine, Fu De was the only hope for the people within the community. To some extent, his powers saved people in several cases, and that is why people decided to be honoring his acts. Today his image is preserved in several altars, and house doors, where people go to beg him for wealth and their family wellbeing. His image portrays an elderly man, with white beard, executive hat, and a robe to show his administration aspects. The Taoism Temple devoted most of its activities to Laozi who was the known author of Tao Te Chi ng book. His popularity came because of the fact that his conception took place while her mother was looking at a falling star. Another extra ordinary fact about him is that people believe that he stayed in his mother’s womb for 62 years. There was also a super natural power during his birth as his mother was leaning against a tree. During that time, people knew him as a grown man, with grey hair and some physical appearances that showed his wisdom and ability to live long. Some people regarded this as being reborn. According to her famous traditional sources, he is referred as the keeper who took good care of the royal court records. Through keeping watch of this royal court, he learned a lot from the Yellow Emperor and other wise people. Although he was a man full of wisdom, he did not open a school but many people were seeking knowledge from him. He was a teacher to many students who were admiring his life, and wanted to be like him in their future lives. Even royal dis ciples followed him for some pieces of advice and knowledge. Laozi had a wife and a son who later became a famous soldier. Although a great debate took place over whether Laozi issues were true or force, he remained someone worth celebration. Most of people claimed that it was hard to prove his history, although some of his acts remained memorable up to date. Laozi is celebrated, as he was the founder of Daoism, a major religion that has many followers. During the time when Daoism became strong and gained some followers, people started recognizing his efforts and he became a god. A sector for Daoists that was performing religious rituals and worshipped god emerged through which the Daoist tradition grew and developed. It reached a place where people started seeing Laozi as a personification of Dao, but Laozi claimed to have gone through many challenges to reach to such a point. Despite all the arguments against Laozi, he became famous day after day especially because he founded th e Daoism. He is the major god in Daoism who these believers trust and solves much of their problems.

READ THIS Before You Enroll in KDP Select!

READ THIS Before You Enroll in KDP Select! READ THIS Before You Enroll in KDP Select! We get it: writing a book requires a lot of your time, effort, and money. Taking a book from inception to completion is intense work, and by the time you’re ready to publish you might find yourself referring to your manuscript as â€Å"my baby.†Of all the big decisions you have to make in your journey as a self-publishing author, one of the biggest is whether or not to enroll your ebook in Amazon's KDP Select: a program which offers authors bonus incentives in exchange for granting Amazon exclusivity.But going exclusive is a big deal. Are you sure you want to let Amazon put a ring on it before your book has had a chance to test out the other options? Is Amazon's Select program the right choice for you? That’s what we’ll answer in this post, covering all the points in the table of contents (to your left).Let’s get started with the basics. The great "KDP Select or not" debate: where do you stand? What is Kindle Direct Publishing?Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s ebook publishing unit, which allows authors to sell their books directly to Amazon’s readers. The Kindle and KDP were launched concurrently in 2007, laying the groundwork for Amazon’s ebook empire which now holds more than 80% of the market in the United States and United Kingdom.Success stories from authors self-publishing through Amazon KDP began to roll out around 2011, with the popularity of Andy Weir’s The Martian and Wool by Hugh Howey. But they’re not without company: in 2018, Jeff Bezos revealed that over 1,000 authors had earned over $100,000 through Kindle Direct Publishing.While numbers like these are not the norm for the average writer, KDP has become the heavily preferred route for self-publishing authors - many of whom also decide to enroll in Amazon's Select program. Speaking of which...What is KDP Select?KDP Select is a program available to all authors willi ng to grant Amazon exclusive rights to sell their ebook through the Kindle store only.By agreeing not to sell the digital file of their book through any other retailers, authors are given access to a variety of promotional tools - the most significant of which is Kindle Unlimited -   and the opportunity to earn higher royalties (in some cases, more on that later).The KDP Select program lasts 90 days, after which authors can either choose to opt out of the program, or auto-renew for another 90-day commitment.While digital copies of the book must only be sold through Amazon:A 10% sample of the book can be made available outside of the Kindle Store;Print (or any other non-digital) versions can be distributed elsewhere; andCopies of the book can be emailed to reviewers for editing purposes.So, a higher percentage of sales and additional book marketing tools: sounds pretty good, right? Why would an indie author not want those things? Well, the question of whether to grant Amazon exclu sivity or to â€Å"go wide† is a constant talking point amongst self-publishing authors, as both options come with their own sets of pros and cons. The biggest and most important pro of enrolling in Amazon's Select program is undoubtedly the access to Kindle Unlimited. So before we get too far into discussing pros and cons, let's quickly cover exactly what Kindle Unlimited is.What is Kindle Unlimited?Kindle Unlimited (KU) is an â€Å"all-you-can-read† service that allows subscribers to read as many ebooks as they’d like for $9.99 a month (if you’re thinking â€Å"Netflix for books,† you’re on the money). When authors enroll in Amazon's Select program, their books are automatically made available to readers on KU. (For a comprehensive guide to KU, check out our post right here.) With all of this in mind, remember that whether you decide to go with KDP Select or open publishing, you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you use KDP Select’s Countdown Deals or Free Promotions but don’t spend any time advertising your promotions, they won’t lead to much exposure - the whole point of these tools.If you decide to forgo the increased visibility that can come with Kindle Unlimited, make sure you spend time getting acquainted with the aggregators out there or developing various book marketing strategies - or else the benefits of going wide will end up falling flat.We hope this post has been helpful in considering the pros and cons of KDP Select vs. going wide, and that you feel more confident in leveraging the route you choose for your book’s success.Are you enrolled in KDP Select or considering it? Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below!

Ancient Remains †Fossil DNA of Former Life

Ancient Remains – Fossil DNA of Former Life News that scientists had recovered actual marrow from a dinosaur fossil aroused much amazement. But the achievement is not a surprise. In fact, it doesnt even set a new record for the oldest pieces of life. Most of us think of fossils as dead things that have been petrified, turned to stone. But that doesnt have to be. The actual bodies of once-living things can escape being petrified for a very long time under the right conditions. A fossil is defined as any evidence of life from the prehistoric or geologic past that is preserved in the Earths crust. A prejudice against preservation may have kept scientists from looking for meat in the ancient bones, but now we know better, and a race is on to find ever-older tissues. Creatures in Ice Ãâ€"tzi, the 5,000-year-old ice man found in an Alpine glacier in 1991, is the best-known example of a frozen fossil. Mammoths and other extinct polar animals are also known from permafrost. These fossils are not as pretty as the food in your freezer, as they undergo a kind of slow mummification in the frozen condition. Its a geologic version of freezer burn in which ice migrates out of the tissues into the surroundings. Frozen bison bones nearly 60,000 years old were analyzed in 2002, yielding DNA fragments and bone proteins that could be compared to existing species. Mammoth hair turns out to be even better than bones for preserving DNA. But Antarctica holds the record in this field, with microbes in deep ice that are 8 million years old. Dried Remains The desert preserves dead matter by desiccation. Ancient humans have been naturally mummified this way, such as the 9,000-year-old Nevadan known as Spirit Cave Man. Older material is preserved by various desert packrats, which have the habit of making piles of plant matter cemented into rock-hard bricks by their viscous urine. When preserved in dry caves, these packrat middens can last tens of thousands of years. The beauty of packrat middens is that they can yield deep environmental data about the American West during the late Pleistocene: vegetation, climate, even the cosmic radiation of the times. Similar middens are being studied in other parts of the world. Even the remains of extinct creatures still exist in dried form. Mammoths are most famous for their permafrost carcasses, but mammoth dung is known from desiccated specimens. Amber Of course Jurassic Park put amber in the public consciousness with its plot based on the idea of retrieving dinosaur DNA from blood-sucking insects trapped in amber. But progress toward that movies scenario is slow and possibly stopped. Lots of different creatures are documented from amber, from frogs and insects to bits of plants. But the published DNA retrievals have not yet been duplicated. Perfect Fossils In a few places plant matter has been preserved in sediment for many millions of years. The Clarkia beds of northern Idaho are between 15 and 20 million years old, putting their origin in the Miocene Epoch. Tree leaves can be split from these rocks still displaying their seasonal colors, green or red. Biochemicals including lignins, flavonoids,  and aliphatic polymers can be extracted from these fossils, and DNA fragments are known from fossil liquidambar, magnolias and tulip trees (Liriodendron). The current champions in this field are the Eocene dawn-redwood forests of Axel Heiberg Island, in the Canadian Arctic. For about 50 million years the stumps, logs, and foliage of these trees have been preserved almost totally unmineralized, thanks to swift burial in conditions that kept oxygen out. Today this fossil wood lies on the ground, ready to pick up and burn. Tourists and coal miners alike threaten this scientific treasure. Dinosaur Marrow Mary Schweitzer, the North Carolina State University professor who documented soft tissues  in Tyrannosaurus rex leg bones, has been exploring biomolecules in ancient fossils for several years. The presence of those in the 68-million-year-old bones was not the oldest of her finds, but actual tissues of this age are unprecedented. The discovery challenges our notions of how fossils form. Surely more examples will be found, perhaps in existing museum specimens. Salt Microbes A startling Nature paper in 2000 reported the revival of bacterial spores from a brine pocket in a salt crystal in a Permian salt bed in New Mexico, some 250 million years old. Naturally, the claim brought criticism: the laboratory or the salt bed was contaminated, and in any case, the DNA of the microbes (the genus Virgibacillus) was too close a match to more recent species. But the discoverers have defended their technique and raised other ​​scenarios  for the DNA evidence. And in the April 2005 Geology they published evidence from the salt itself, showing that it (1) matches what we know of Permian seawater and (2) appears to date from the time of the salts formation, not a later event. For now, this bacillus holds the title of Earths oldest living fossil.

Bestbuy's innovation opportunity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bestbuy's innovation opportunity - Essay Example For example Kodak, that invented the digital camera technology but failed to capitalize and now struggling with possible extinction. One of the most important opportunities created by innovation is in the resultant potential of a company’s private brand. Private brand here refers to a brand placed on products that larger manufacturers have made for the smaller retailers (p 23). With innovation, the quality of the products intended to the smaller retailers has improved immensely. The percentage market power associated with these high-valued products has therefore increased the brand’s potential (p 28). More demand for these brands and job creation has surge high with innovation. Innovation also has increased brands’ competitiveness in the market. It is, therefore, evident that with innovation our brand at Best Buy & Apos has increased immensely both competitively and in quality. Apart from brand potential, another opportunity of innovation is ease of market access by our company (p 32). Through incorporation internet in our business operation, our touch with most customers has increased immensely. Our products have therefore reached even markets that were otherwise unattainable (p 36). Finally yet importantly, innovation has opened opportunity for diversity of products we can now

Summarize Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Summarize - Essay Example This resulted in the issuance of Basel II by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which was set by the governors of the G10 countries. In the attempt of Basel II to increase the amount of capital held by banks, the concept of operational risk was introduced for the first time. Following this move, the Capital Requirements Directive was introduced in the EU, and shortly after the ICAAP was developed. The provisions of Basel II included the setting of the minimum capital to be held by banks, the risk types covered, the winding down requirement for businesses and company’s disclosure requirements. The application of Basel II started with the banks and insurers and then Asset management firms and brokerages. The approach towards the application of the Basel II by these institutions was determined by both the complexity and the size of the institutions. Thus, since 2000, the subject of risk management started to grow, and different approaches to the concept started to developed. The requirements of risk management are risk appetite, defined as how much risk a firm is ready to accept, the risk assessment process, KRI’s-the metric showing when a risk is about to occur, error management, risk technology and risk governance. Between 2002 and 2010 the setting up of risk management departments continued, while negative organizational culture also emerged as a big operational risk. The rise of operational risks was marked by noughties frauds valued at $22.31bn, followed by John Rusnak Allied Irish Bank fraud 2002 and then the Peter Young Morgan Grenfell trading fraud 1997. The collapse of the Lehman Brothers in 2008 continued the rogue trading and risk operational activities, causing a regulatory reaction by the EU, which pushed the limits on fund management higher. Subsequently, the Basel III, CRD 2 and 3 Solvency II were also developed to push up the industry understanding of the risk management. This was followed by

Law specialism Incorporated - legal firms and internships Essay - 1

Law specialism Incorporated - legal firms and internships - Essay Example Statistic from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development reveals that more than 20 percent of the employers have plans to hire interns between April and September 2010, this being an increase from the summer of 2009 where only 13 per cent of the employers in the market were willing to hire these interns. On the other hand, the government has supported internships through the Graduate Talent Pool initiative that was initiated in July 2009 that aims at providing additional opportunities to the graduates that have just concluded their studies and are struggling to find work in the recession period. Although there are employment regulations governing the conduct of the organizations that are willing to employ these interns, there are no requirements for the internships to be paid. An internship charter drawn up by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development voluntarily has codes of practice details a list of six principles upon which an internship should be based to advance t he interests of the intern as well as the hosting organization. It proposes that the recruitment of the interns should be done the same way employees are recruited and proper consideration placed upon the qualifications and skills they have best fit in with the roles they are expected to fill in the firm as well as the advertisement of the internship indicating the length of the internship period. The intern should be indicted into the firm and given the necessary support to integrate them into the firm, offer supervision to the intern, answer questions and provide feedback to the necessary issues they feel need assessment. A formal performance review should be conducted formally by the firm on the intern’s period and give an evaluation of both the firm and the intern. The employees as well as the interns should be treated with the same degree of professionalism as expected in the working environment and be allowed time off occasionally to attend job interviews or complete st udy requirements that come with the completion of the internship period. At the end of the internship period, the firm should be willing to give a certification or a reference letter to the interns with details of the roles undertaken as well as the results of the performance review conducted to help such an intern in his future career development. The Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organizations at any one time has 5 interns and roughly 30 staff engaged in a wide variety of responsibilities relating to research, lobbying, campaigning and press work,  including  drafting correspondence, articles and press releases, preparing policy briefings, and managing their own policy projects, (Acevo Policy Internships, 2013 p. 1). Under The Minimum Wage Act 1998, a worker is someone who has a contract of employment either oral or written with a firm to perform certain duties, services or work for another party that has to be expresses or implied in the stipulated contract and he must be paid a minimum wage unless they are subjected to some special exemptions. Hence it is not an outright assumption that an intern is a worker due to some internship characteristics to do with work experience, voluntary work or work shadowing schemes. In the general traditional approach, internship periods last six to

Nestle case study - Creating Shared Value in the Supply Chain

Nestle - Creating Shared Value in the Supply Chain - Case Study Example This paper outlines ways through which nestle creates shared value within the supply chain relating to the cocoa production. It also outlines the importance of applying corporate social responsibility principle in a business activity. The paper also outlines some of the key players in Nestle Cocoa supply chain and the factors that drive the Nestle supply chain. Finally, paper discusses the ways Nestle creates value and the challenges that come with that process. The Nestle Cocoa Plan Nestle has implemented this through creating greater values for the societies. This includes improvements of water, nutrition and rural development. The supply chain activity that is specified includes transforming the raw materials and other natural resources into finished goods consumed by the end consumers. The processes involved are linked to consumers, human rights and labor practices, employees, suppliers and customers and the environment. The consumers are the larger group that consumes the produc ts manufactured by Nestle. Every stage in the supply chain process adds value to the end product (Nestle Case Study). The major key players in this supply chain are farmers, cooperatives, processors or manufacturers, retailers and consumers. The cocoa farmers are tasked with the job of growing the crops that produce cocoa. The cooperatives represent the institutions that manage the sale of the crops by the farmers. They act like unions of farmers who form them to control the market for the crops. Nestle fall under the stage of manufacturers or processors. These are tasked with the production of products which are the end products from the raw materials. Nestle for instance manufactures chocolate and their equivalent from these raw materials. The retailers represent those channels that receive orders from nestle. These channels distribute the products to the end users or rather the consumers. The consumers, who are the last players in the supply chain represents the individuals who p urchase the end products (Nestle Case Study). The chart above represents the process of activities that are involved in the supply chain of the Cocoa plan. In order to coordinate the raw materials that Nestle uses to manufacture the end products, it has to coordinate the way farmers are handled in terms of the market and wages (Nestle Case Study). Factors Driving the Cocoa Supply Chain Shared value that is created by Nestle is based on a number of factors that majorly can be categorized under the corporate social responsibility. Nestle carries out its business based on the international laws and codes that define the conduct and the company business principles, as well as, compliance to environment sustainability regulations. The company, however, under the creating shared platform came up with other factors that would drive the supply chain. The principles that are set by international organizations such as the United Nations help in guiding the company in its value creation in the supply chain through its approach in the corporate social responsibility. An example of this according to the Nestle case study is the principles that incorporate the UN Global Principles. This relates to the Human rights, labor, corruption and environment (Nestle Case Study). The company, for instance, has helped the farmers to eliminate

Software SLP Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Software SLP - Assignment Example A login based access to the information resources, upload and download provisions, intuitive interface and concurrent information are some important functional requirements set as the core and most important milestones for the development of BSITM website. Dr Robert and Kim-Phuon (2005) obserseves that â€Å"functional requirements are those requirements that identify and prioritize the functions that users want on the site.† The website will have independent sections in order to meet the content requirements of students, instructors and guardians. A separate section will provide a blog and messaging functionalities to serve as a community center for all three major user groups. The home page will have most important contents including news and result sections. Schedules, handouts, assignments, results will serve as the essential contents of the students’ section. Similarly, the instructor section will enable uploads and download provisions whereas the guardians’ section will contain results and personalize reports on children. In order to meet these goals following list of contents and functional requirements is

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case Study Example This implies that older employees are of more importance to the organization. The firing of such employees must identify those resistant to change or those considered ineffective and offer them an effective retirement package. The plan for the changes thus begins with the study of the market. An extensive market research reveals new mechanisms of doing business and the changing trends in service delivery. This enables the management strategize and effective come back plan that will inform the subsequent decisions. After an effective audit of the market, the second step in implementing the change is a study of the organizational structure. This includes a study of the nature of service delivery and product design and distribution. A reconciliation of the two research reports reveal the discord thereby informing the necessary changes. Changes are often bold and begin by review the employee status in the firm thereby resulting in the firing of ineffective employees and hiring new ones. It also includes the installment of newer better technologies to aid the management process. This subsequently result in either the expansion or contraction of the organization. Either of which, presents a number of both challenges and opportunities. Question 2 One of the most important operational components is diversification. The original company failed to realize profits because of the resultant miscommunication between the company’s productions and the requirements of the market. While the market kept changing, the company stuck to previous means of doing business thereby resulting in the subsequent failure. The changes in the market should often dictate the changes in operations of an organization, one way of ensuring such is through diversification. By diversifying the products and services, the organization targets a wider market. Furthermore, the wide market provides an effective market research through monitoring sales. This way, the management observes the most pre ferred products and therefore strategies the production in accordance to the patterns in the sales of the specific products. Diversification often demand changes in the means of doing business. The organization must have a constant consultative nature of relationship with the market. This implores the need for constant market research in order to effect the necessary changes to meet the demands of the market. The new management of the organization carries out an audit of the company’s operations and the results show major discrepancies even in the new dispensation. The fact lack of grooming in the employees’ of the firm stifle the sales despite the extensive research. This implies that while the new management has carried out effective market research, it fails to carry out an audit of its internal structures in order to determine the best ways of conducting business in the new market in order to realize the profitability (Thomas & Michael, 2001). Question 3 Interperso nal skills refer to the human management skills. Managers plan, control, organize and motivate numerous employees depending on the size of the organization the managers must therefore have relational skills to enable them work effectively with their employees, such skills help determine the factors affecting their employees’ productivity thereby crafting the necessary cha

Software SLP Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Software SLP - Assignment Example A login based access to the information resources, upload and download provisions, intuitive interface and concurrent information are some important functional requirements set as the core and most important milestones for the development of BSITM website. Dr Robert and Kim-Phuon (2005) obserseves that â€Å"functional requirements are those requirements that identify and prioritize the functions that users want on the site.† The website will have independent sections in order to meet the content requirements of students, instructors and guardians. A separate section will provide a blog and messaging functionalities to serve as a community center for all three major user groups. The home page will have most important contents including news and result sections. Schedules, handouts, assignments, results will serve as the essential contents of the students’ section. Similarly, the instructor section will enable uploads and download provisions whereas the guardians’ section will contain results and personalize reports on children. In order to meet these goals following list of contents and functional requirements is

Victims and Legislative Solutions Essay Example for Free

Victims and Legislative Solutions Essay â€Å"knowing production, use or trafficking in counterfeit or unauthorized access devices such as any card, plate code, account number, electronic serial number personal identification number, that can be used to obtain money, goods, services, or any other thing of value, or that can be used to initiate a transfer of funds† (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Despite these measures in place, cybercrime is still a massive problem. This is due to the fact that hiring and retaining skilled investigators is a daunting task because private companies offer a higher salary and better benefits than the federal government (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Also, â€Å"staff rotation policies in place at certain law enforcement organizations† make it difficult for law enforcers to fully attend and address the situation properly (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Besides, it takes a year to train an investigator to be competent enough to handle his own case (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Individuals have to be trained because federal agencies lack resources to employ professional investigators (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). In addition, multiple jurisdictions in place makes the matter even more complicated to handle (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). â€Å"Law[s] used to address cybercrime differ across states and nations. For example, not all US states have anti-spam laws or anti-spyware laws Further, jurisdictional boundaries can limit the actions that federal, state, and local law enforcement can take to investigate cybercrime that crosses local, regional and national borders† (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Lastly, the complex nature of tracking an identify theft also poses a problem. â€Å"[C]ybercriminals can take steps to remain anonymous, making it difficult, if not impossible, to attribute a crime to them [this is because] [c]ybercriminals can be physically located in one nation or state, direct their crime through computers in multiple nations or states and store evidence for the crime on computers in yet another nation or state† (Cybercrime Public and Private Entities, 2007). Hence, cybercriminals are rarely caught and if they are apprehended, the â€Å"penalties are minimal Community service and parole are the usual sentence† (Identity Theft: How it Happens, 2000). Cybercriminals exist because engaging in identity theft enables them to acquire money and benefits such as material assets, medical insurance and tax returns without working conventionally to obtain them. Also, they are rarely caught because the system in place is disorganized and ineffective; that is why identity theft remains a big problem. A national and specialized agency should be set up to handle this situation. Resources should be allocated to this agency so that skilled investigators can be employed. This will speed the investigation process because individuals in the force do not have to be trained for a year to be able to effectively deal with cases. References: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. (2000, July 12). Identity Theft: How it Happens, Its Impact on Victims and Legislative Solutions. Retrieved January 20, 2008, from http://www.gao.gov/

What is churn? An overview

What is churn? An overview Churn is the phenomenon where a customer switches from one service to a competitors service (Tsai Chen, 2009:2). There are two main types of churn, namely voluntary churn and involuntary churn. Voluntary churn is when the customer initiated the service termination. Involuntary churn means the company suspended the customers service and this is usually because of non-payment or service abuse. Companies, in various industries, have recently started to realise that their client set is their most valuable asset. Retaining the existing clients is the best marketing strategy. Numerous studies have confirmed this by showing that it is more profitable to keep your existing clients satisfied than to constantly attract new clients (Van Den Poel Larivià ¨re, 2004:197; Coussement Van Den Poel, 2008:313). According to Van Den Poel and Larivià ¨re (2004:197) successful customer retention has more than just financial benefits: Successful customer retention programs free the organisation to focus on existing customers needs and the building of relationships. It lowers the need to find new customers with uncertain levels of risk. Long term customers tend to buy more and provide positive advertising through word-of-mouth. The company has better knowledge of long term customers and they are less expensive with lower uncertainty and risk. Customers with longer tenures are less likely to be influenced by competitive marketing strategies. Sales may decrease if customers churn, due to lost opportunities. These customers also need to be replaced, which can cost five to six times more than simply retaining the customer. 1.1.Growth in Fixed-line Markets According to Agrawal (2009) the high growth phase in the telecommunications market is over. In the future, wealth in the industry will be split between the companies. Revenues (of telecommunication companies) are declining around the world. Figure 2 shows Telkoms fixed-line customer base and customer growth rate for the previous seven years. The number of lines is used as an estimate for the number of fixed-line customers. Figure 2-Telkoms fixed-line annual customer base (Idea adopted from Ahn, Han Lee (2006:554)) With the lower customer growth worldwide, it is becoming vital to prevent customers from churning. 1.2.Preventing Customer Churn The two basic approaches to churn management are divided into untargeted and targeted approaches. Untargeted approaches rely on superior products and mass advertising to decrease churn (Neslin, Gupta, Kamakura, Lu Mason, 2004:3). Targeted approaches rely on identifying customers who are likely to churn and then customising a service plan or incentive to prevent it from happening. Targeted approaches can be further divided into proactive and reactive approaches. With a proactive approach the company identifies customers who are likely to churn at a future date. These customers are then targeted with incentives or special programs to attempt to retain them. In a reactive targeted approach the company waits until the customer cancels the account and then offers the customer an incentive (Neslin et al., 2004:4). A proactive targeted approach has the advantage of lower incentive costs (because the customer is not â€Å"bribed† at the last minute to stay with the company). It also prevents a culture where customers threaten to churn in order to negotiate a better deal with the company (Neslin et al., 2004:4). The proactive, targeted approach is dependent on a predictive statistical technique to predict churners with a high accuracy. Otherwise the companys funds may be wasted on unnecessary programs that incorrectly identified customers. 1.3.Main Churn Predictors According to Chu, Tsai and Ho (2007:704) the main contributors to churn in the telecommunications industry are; price, coverage, quality and customer service. Their contributions to churn can be seen from Figure 3. Figure 3 indicates that the primary reason for churn is price related (47% of the sample). The customer churns because a cheaper service or product is available, through no fault of the company. This means that a perfect retention strategy, based on customer satisfaction, can only prevent 53% of the churners (Chu et al., 2007:704). 1.4.Churn Management Framework Datta, Masand, Mani and Li (2001:486) proposed a five stage framework for customer churn management (Figure 4). The first stage is to identify suitable data for the modelling process. The quality of this data is extremely important. Poor data quality can cause large losses in money, time and opportunities (Olson, 2003:1). It is also important to determine if all the available historical data, or only the most recent data, is going to be used. The second stage consists of the data semantics problem. It has a direct link with the first stage. In order to complete the first stage successfully, a complete understanding of the data and the variables information are required. Data quality issues are linked to data semantics because it often influences data interpretation directly. It frequently leads to data misinterpretation (Dasu Johnson, 2003:100). Stage three handles feature selection. Cios, Pedrycz, Swiniarski and Kurgan (2007:207) define feature selection as â€Å"a process of finding a subset of features, from the original set of features forming patterns in a given data set†. It is important to select a sufficient number of diverse features for the modelling phase. Section 5.5.3 discusses some of the most important features found in the literature. Stage four is the predictive model development stage. There are many alternative methods available. Figure 5 shows the number of times a statistical technique was mentioned in the papers the author read. These methods are discussed in detail in Section 6. The final stage is the model validation process. The goal of this stage is to ensure that the model delivers accurate predictions. 5.5.1Stage one Identify data Usually a churn indicator flag must be derived in order to define churners. Currently, there exists no standard accepted definition for churn (Attaa, 2009). One of the popular definitions state that a customer is considered churned if the customer had no active products for three consecutive months (Attaa, 2009; Virgin Media, 2009; Orascom Telecom, 2008). Once a target variable is derived, the set of best features (variables) can be determined. 5.5.2Stage two Data semantics Data semantics is the process of understanding the context of the data. Certain variables are difficult to interpret and must be carefully studied. It is also important to use consistent data definitions in the database. Datta, et al. (2001) claims that this phase is extremely important. 5.5.3Stage three Feature selection Feature selection is another important stage. The variables selected here are used in the modelling stage. It consists of two phases. Firstly, an initial feature subset is determined. Secondly, the subset is evaluated based on a certain criterion. Ahn et al. (2006:554) describe four main types of determinants in churn. These determinants should be included in the initial feature subset. Customer dissatisfaction is the first determinant of churn mentioned. It is driven by network and call quality. Service failures have also been identified as â€Å"triggers† that accelerate churn. Customers who are unhappy can have an extended negative influence on a company. They can spread negative word-of-month and also appeal to third-party consumer affair bodies (Ahn et al., 2006:555). Cost of switching is the second main determinant. Customers maintain their relationships with a company based on one of two reasons: they â€Å"have to† stay (constraint) or they â€Å"want to† stay (loyalty). Companies can use loyalty programs or membership cards to encourage their customers to â€Å"want to† stay (Ahn et al., 2006:556). Service usage is the third main determinant. A customers service usage can broadly be described with minutes of use, frequency of use and total number of distinct numbers used. Service usage is one of the most popular predictors in churn models. It is still unclear if the correlation between churn and service usage is positive or negative (Ahn et al., 2006:556). The final main determinant is customer status. According to Ahn et al. (2006:556), customers seldom churn suddenly from a service provider. Customers are usually suspended for a while due to payment issues, or they decide not to use the service for a while, before they churn. Wei and Chiu (2002:105) use length of service and payment method as further possible predictors of churn. Customers with a longer service history are less likely to churn. Customers who authorise direct payment from their bank accounts are also expected to be less likely to churn. Qi, Zhang, Shu, Li and Ge (2004?:2) derived different growth rates and number of abnormal fluctuation variables to model churn. Customers with growing usage are less likely to churn and customers with a high abnormal fluctuation are more likely to churn. 5.5.4Stage four Model development It is clear from Figure 5 that decision tree models are the most frequently used models. The second most popular technique is logistic regression, followed closely by neural networks and survival analysis. The technique that featured in the least number of papers is discriminant analysis. Discriminant analysis is a multivariate technique that classifies observations into existing categories. A mathematical function is derived from a set of continuous variables that best discriminates among the set of categories (Meilgaard, Civille Carr, 1999:323). According to Cohen and Cohen (2002:485) discriminant analysis makes stronger modelling assumptions than logistic regression. These include that the predictor variables must be multivariate normally distributed and the within-group covariance matrix must be homogeneous. These assumptions are rarely met in practice. According to Harrell (2001:217) even if these assumptions are met, the results obtained from logistic regression are still as accurate as those obtained from discrimination analysis. Discriminant analysis will, therefore, not be considered. A neural network is a parallel data processing structure that possesses the ability to learn. The concept is roughly based on the human brain (Hadden, Tiwari, Roy Ruta, 2006:2). Most neural networks are based on the perceptron architecture where a weighted linear combination of inputs is sent through a nonlinear function. According to de Waal and du Toit (2006:1) neural networks have been known to offer accurate predictions with difficult interpretations. Understanding the drivers of churn is one of the main goals of churn modelling and, unfortunately, traditional neural networks provide limited understanding of the model. Yang and Chiu (2007:319) confirm this by stating that neural networks use an internal weight scheme that doesnt provide any insight into why the solution is valid. It is often called a black-box methodology and neural networks are, therefore, also not considered in this study. The statistical methodologies used in this study are decision trees, logistic regression and survival analysis. Decision tree modelling is discussed in Section 6.1, logistic regression in Sections 6.2 and 6.3 and survival analysis is discussed in Section 6.4. 5.5.5Stage five Validation of results Each modelling technique has its own, specific validation method. To compare the models, accuracy will be used. However, a high accuracy on the training and validation data sets does not automatically result in accurate predictions on the population dataset. It is important to take the impact of oversampling into account. Section 5.6 discusses oversampling and the adjustments that need to be made. 1.5.Adjustments for Target Level Imbalances From Telkoms data it is clear that churn is a rare event of great interest and great value (Gupta, Hanssens, Hardie, Kahn, Kumar, Lin Sriram, 2006:152). If the event is rare, using a sample with the same proportion of events and non-events as the population is not ideal. Assume a decision tree is developed from such a sample and the event rate (x%) is very low. A prediction model could obtain a high accuracy (1-x%) by simply assigning all the cases to the majority level (e.g. predict all customers are non-churners) (Wei Chiu, 2002:106). A sample with more balanced levels of the target is required. Basic sampling methods to decrease the level of class imbalances include under-sampling and over-sampling. Under-sampling eliminates some of the majority-class cases by randomly selecting a lower percentage of them for the sample. Over-sampling duplicates minority-class cases by including a randomly selected case more than once (Burez Van Den Poel, 2009:4630). Under-sampling has the drawback that potentially useful information is unused. Over-sampling has the drawback that it might lead to over-fitting because cases are duplicated. Studies have shown that over-sampling is ineffective at improving the recognition of the minority class (Drummond Holte, 2003:8). According to Chen, Liaw Breiman, (2004:2) under-sampling has an edge over over-sampling. However, if the probability of an event (target variable equals one) in the population differs from the probability of an event in the sample, it is necessary to make adjustments for the prior probabilities. Otherwise the probability of the event will be overestimated. This will lead to score graphs and statistics that are inaccurate or misleading (Georges, 2007:456). Therefore, decision-based statistics based on accuracy (or misclassification) misrepresent the model performance on the population. A model developed on this sample will identify more churners than there actually are (high false alarm rate). Without an adjustment for prior probabilities, the estimates for the event will be overestimated. According to Potts (2001:72) the accuracy can be adjusted with equation 1. It takes prior probabilities into account. With: : the population proportion of non-churners : the population proportion of churners : the sample proportion of non-churners : the sample proportion of churners : the number of true negatives (number of correctly predicted non- churners) : the number of true positives (number of correctly predicted churners) : the number of instances in the sample However, accuracy as a model efficiency measure trained on an under-sampled dataset is dependent on the threshold. This threshold is influenced by the class imbalance between the sample and the population (Burez Van Den Poel, 2009:4626).