The Increasing Collaboration in U.S. Military Essay

The Increasing Collaboration in U.S. Military - Essay Example The challenges that they encounters in their quest to transform and adapt to more collaborative strategies are discussed. Areas that the military has attained success during its collaborative endeavors have been mentioned. Further, a clear description of collaboration is presented, including those involved with the military, the objectives of military in collaborating and the present status as well as the success measures. Introduction In military warfare, the world is increasingly embracing collective and collaborative efforts in accomplishing the military activities and practices effectively. Collaborative efforts are practiced in military command relations, joint operations, strengthening personnel and equipment, training and tactics as well as in fostering cultural relations. Collaboration develops best in environments where relationships are mutual and well nurtured (Bushe, 2010). In military operations and practices, collaboration with other stakeholders is perceived as problem atic because the military forces are compelled to certain demands with the collaborative partners. The collaboration partners may be perceived with element of suspicion, leading to reluctance in sharing information on matters of national security out of fear. Consequently, collaborative work in military is more pervasive and complex. The United States military forces are working toward increased collaborative methods because of their understanding of how to improve collaborative work. Growing U.S. Military Collaboration Description of Collaboration Collaboration is the practice and concept of bringing appropriate individuals jointly in productive ways with proper information to establish genuine goals and strategies for tackling the common issues of the collaborative organizations or communities. This practice or concept is practiced because it helps to deal successfully with complex organizational or community issues. Collaboration strategies can be used as a means of building soci al capital, sustaining a democratic society and transforming the civic culture of communities or regions besides being used to address public concerns. Collaboration requires that the shared issues be addressed through engagement, dialogue, inclusion and power sharing. Mutual learning is a basic concept in collaborative working. The collaborating partners mutually benefit from the relationship to realize common goals and objectives through sharing responsibilities, accountability as well as authority for achieving the set results. Collaboration involves sharing of information and knowledge by the partners, and cooperation and coordination to help achieve the objectives (Chrislip, 2002). Involved Parties Multiple stakeholders are usually involved in collaborative work with the U.S. military personnel, depending on the desired goals and objectives to be accomplished. The U.S. military collaborates with civilian interagency, such as civilians from U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agen cy for International Development (USAID) among other organizations. The civilian interagency helps the U.S. military personnel in counterinsurgency operations and activities. The interagency for example, helped the U.S. military through collaboration in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to facilitate reconstruction and development of the nations and advising the military on how to reach out to the indigenous communities (Green, 2012). U.S. military col

Sexuality & bipolar Essay Example for Free

Sexuality bipolar Essay Sexuality as we know it has always been bipolar in its categories: the masculine and the feminine. People are then placed in these categories according to their anatomy, with pre-set expectations placed on them on how they would act and eventually mature. For example, it is unacceptable for women to smoke cigars, repair cars and wear moustache while men are not supposed to be doing housework, carry purses, wear nail polish and cry in public (Kunkel 283). Yet what we take for granted is our knowledge that sexuality is not bipolar and the practices that seem innocent yet oppressive, limiting and binding on our insights. For example, if one would look at a greeting card section, one will find that most of the cards are focused mainly on two categories, for mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers for the feminine category and fathers, grandfathers, uncles and brothers for the male. The only remotely gender neutral cards were for friends yet even they weren’t entirely neutral since their colors and design corresponds to what is viewed by society as acceptable for what males and females would like, i. e. , cards directed at women receivers tend to receive cards that are pink or pastel colored with a flowery or â€Å"cute† design. Male receivers on the other hand mostly receive blue and other masculine colors with a sporty motif. Most cards dealing with relationships depict heterosexual couples and labels such as husband and wife, girlfriend and boyfriend and such. On the other hand, depictions of homosexual couples are virtually invisible; a few cards brandishing love quotes are the only ones who are gender neutral. If a homosexual wishes to buy a card for his/her partner, his /her only option is to focus on the love section and a few of the romance. He/she would have to take care to choose the depictions on the cards as well. The reason for the invisibility of the other forms of sexuality is due to the fact that society views heterosexuality as the norm and homosexuality is deviant (Cruz 1012). Homosexuality is viewed as biologically abnormal, pathological, and anti-nature since its very principle clashes with the idea of pro-creation. Society has created labels and borders to prevent the homosexuals from being visible. One example is the categories of relationships with heterosexual anniversaries, marriages and such. In a marriage, there is a label of â€Å"husband† and â€Å"wife†, the male taking the former and the female the latter; same-sex marriages, while still being debated whether it should be legalized or not, possesses no such labels in the relationship. In contrast, the idea heteronormativity has labeled same-sex couples with derogatory names, to mark them as inappropriate behavior and be categorized as sexually deviant. (Kunkel 289). In effect, people tend to reject and persecute them, giving the deviants neither room nor niche to challenge the status quo. In one hour of television, commercials always show images of heterosexual couples in their respective niches in the crowd. Although homosexuals are portrayed in reality shows, there is no hint of their relationships with the other characters on screen. If there is a hint, it is usually downplayed and censored. Heterosexual couples however, are celebrated and objectified. There is virtually no same-sex couple that is depicted even if the media is one of the most influential driving forces in forwarding awareness of these same-sex couples. It is interesting to note that even if people are claiming that they are tolerant and accept same-sex couples, same-sex couples are still â€Å"invisible†. Heteronormativity is driven by gender roles that are imposed by society’s bipolar expectations. Its pervasiveness can be attributed to the fact that since a community is held together by unwritten laws such as norms and taboos, it is safe to assume that society is threatened by these sexually deviant individuals thus heteronormativity is more pronounced and enforced. Heterosexism, in a way, is a cord that binds our society together, yet in return it sets boundaries and insists that it is the norm. Heteronormativity itself does not empower heterosexuals and robs the power from same sex individuals; rather, it limits both parties and disempower them since they are stuck in their labels and categories, with no room to maneuver about. People believe that it is so since other forms of sexuality are invisible and are conditioned to think in the bipolar manner. Heteronormativity is everywhere since society has its own set rules and status quo that is hard to neither displace nor challenge and heteronormativity has been present ever since the formation of such communities. WORKS CITED Cruz, David B. â€Å"Disestablishing Sex and Gender. † California Law Review Vol. 90 (2002): 997-1086 Kunkel, Charlotte A. and Nielson, Joyce McCarl and Walden, Glenda. â€Å"Gendered Heteronormativity: Empirical Illustrations in Everyday Life. † The Sociological Quarterly. Vol. 41 (2000): 283-296

A Strategic Management In A Global Context Business Essay

A Strategic Management In A Global Context Business Essay Formal Strategic Planning is the process that involves an organisation in the defining of its strategy or direction and making the decisions on how its resources should be allocated in order to achieve this strategy. Formal strategic planning is affected by the macro-environment and this is the highest level layer in the framework, this consists of a wide range of environmental factors that impact to some extent on almost all organisations. The PESTEL framework can be used to identify how future trends in the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environment and Legal environments might affect an organisation. Pestel analysis provides the broad date from which key drivers to change can be identified. By using these key drivers organisations can envision scenarios for the future. Scenarios can be used to help organisations decide if change needs to happen depending on the different ways in which the business environment may change. It is important for managers to analyse these factors in the present and how they are likely to change in the future. By analysing these, managers will be able to draw out implications for the organisation. Pestel factors are sometimes linked together i.e. technological factors can impact on economic factors. It is necessary to identify the key drivers of change these are environmental factors that are likely to have a high impact on the success or failure of the strategy. Key drivers vary by industry i.e. Primark may be concerned by social changes that can change customer tastes and behaviours. The critical issues are the implications that are drawn from the understanding in guiding strategic decisions and choices. The next stage is drawn from the environmental analysis specifically strategic opportunities and threats for the organisation. Having the ability to identify these opportunities and threats is extremely valuable when thinking about strategic choices for the future. Opportunities and threats form one half of the SWOT analysis that shapes a companys formulation. The use of SWOT analysis can help summarise the key issues from the business environment and the strategic capability of an organisation that are most likely to impact on strategy development. Once the key issues have been identified an organisation can then assess if it is capable to deal with the changes taking place within the business environment. If the strategic capability is to be understood the business must remember that it is not absolute but relative to its competitors. SWOT analysis is only useful if it is comparative, that is it examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis should help focus discussion on the future choices and to what extent an organisation is capable of supporting these strategies. SWOT analysis should not be used a substitute for more in-depth analysis. In responding strategically to the environment the goal is to reduce identified threats and take advantages of the best opportunities. Peter Drucker, discussing the importance of business policy and strategic planning in his book the practice of management says we cannot be content with plans for a future that we can foresee. We must prepare for all possible and a good many impossible contingencies. We must have a workable solution for anything that may come up. http://www.alagse.com/strategy/s1.php By taking advantage of the strategic gap (which is an opportunity in the competitive environment that has not been fully exploited by competitors) organisations can manage threats and opportunities. http://turbo.kean.edu/~jmcgill/assess.pdf http://polisci2.ucsd.edu/snunnari/HBR_on_Strategy_23_41.pdf#page=25 Core competencies are a set of linked business processes that deliver superior value to the customer, when these are combined they create strategic value and can lead to competitive advantage. By using Porters five forces analysis which is a framework for organisations to analyse industry and business strategy, they can draw upon the five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Three of Porters five forces refer to competition from external sources and the other two are internal threats. This analysis is just one part of the complete Porter strategic model the others include the value chain (VC) and the generic strategies. http://hbr.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy/ar/1 According to Porter (2008) the job of a strategist is too understand and cope with competition; however managers define competition too narrowly as if it has occurred only among today direct competitors. Competition goes beyond profits to include competitive forces such as customers, suppliers, potential entrants and substitute products; the extended rivalry that results from all five forces defines an industrys structure and shapes the nature of competition within an industry. For example Apple are good at technology and innovation therefore they can take the opportunities that give them competitive advantage and makes them leaders compared to Samsung or Nokia. Porters says there are 5 forces that shape the competition: Threat of new entrants Bargaining power of customers powerful customers usually bargain for better services which involve cost and investment Bargaining power of suppliers may determine the cost of raw materials and other inputs effecting profitability Rivalry among competitors competition influences the pricing and other costs like advertising etc. Threats from substitutes where-ever substantial investments in RD is taking place, the threat of substitutes is large. It also affects profitability. Competitive advantage is the heart of strategy and for the strategy to succeed the organisation should have relevant competitive advantage. We can see an example of this with Toshiba who operate in electrical goods, through a flexible manufacturing system it manufactures different products / varieties of some products on the same assembly lines. At Ohme it assembles nine varieties of computers on the same line and on the adjacent line it assembles 20 varieties of lap top computers. It is able to switch from one product / variety to another instantly at low cost and makes profits on low volume runs too. This flexibility of Toshiba to respond quickly and easily to the fast changing market demand is definitely one of its competitive advantages. Whereas its competitors make profits only through long volume runs of a particular model. However, there are a lot of companies who are choosing not to invest due to the recession; however Lidl and Aldi are taking advantage of supplying cheaper products giving them competitive advantage over say Waitrose. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Bringing_discipline_to_strategy_1054 Benefits of Strategic Planning Effective strategic planning can positively improve the performance of an organisation and give them the ability to serve more clients, access additional resources or enhance the quality of service/product. It can also offer solutions to major organisational issues or challenges and gives stakeholders of the organisation an opportunity to develop harmonic solutions to long-term issues/challenges that have been affecting the organisation. Furthermore it allows for forward thinking, allowing an organisation the opportunity to pause and revisit the mission and create long-term vision. It allows clear future direction allowing stakeholders to look to the future, plan and respond to changes. Evaluation One of the major drawbacks of formal strategic planning is the uncertain dynamic environment, things change constantly and everything becomes shorter. The recession at the present time is making everything unpredictable and this is not good for strategic planning. According to Mintzberg 1994 strategic planning should be used to devise and implement the competitiveness of each business unit. Scientific management was pioneered by Fredrick Taylor and involved separating thinking from doing and thus creating a new function staffed by specialists. Planning systems were expected to produce the best strategies as well as step by step instructions on how to achieve this, but this never worked well. According to Mintzberg strategic planning is not strategic thinking, the most successful strategies are visions, not plans. When an organisation can differentiate between planning and strategic thinking they can then get back to what the strategy making process should be. Once a manger has the ability to learn from all sources around him, including personal experiences and market research and can integrate this into a vision of the direction that the business can then pursue. Mintzberg suggests that strategic planning is a misconception and rests upon three unsound arguments: that prediction is possible, thats strategists can be detached from the subjects of their strategies, and that the strategy-making process can be formalised. Strategic thinkers can apply lessons learned from Mintzberg (1994) three inherent fallacies of traditional planning: The Fallacy of Prediction is the assumption that we can actually control events through a formalised process that involves people engaged in creative or even routine work and can manage to stay on the predicted course. You need more than hard facts you need the personal touch. People are not objective, they are complex. The Fallacy of Detachment is the assumption we can separate the planning from the doing, if the system does the thinking, then strategies must be detached from the tactics. Formulation from implementation, thinkers from doers. One objective is to make sure senior managers receive relevant information without having to immense themselves in the details. One fact is innovation has never been institutionalised and systems have never been able to reproduce the synthesis created by the entrepreneur or the ordinary strategist and probably never will. The Fallacy of Formulisation suggests that systems could certainly process more information, at least hard information. However they could never internalise it, comprehend it, and put it all together. Such control is more a dream that a reality. Reality tells us that anomalies, the fickle behaviour of humans and the limitations of analysis play a huge factor in the organisational outcomes and to disregard them is risky and could lead to incomplete planning. What are the limitations of strategic planning when things are changing rapidly? http://www.globalfuture.com/planning1.htm The limitations of formal strategic planning can be seen if the future is uncertain and the expectations divert from the plan. There could also be internal resistance to formal strategic planning due to factors including: Information flows, decision making and power relationships could be unsettled Current operating problems may drive out long-term planning efforts There are risks and fears of failure New demands will be placed on managers and staff Conflicts with the organisation are exposed Planning is expensive in time and money Planning is difficult and hard work The completed plan limits choices and activities for the organisation in the future Nicholas ORegan, Abby Ghobadian, (2002) Formal strategic planning: The key to effective business process management?, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 8 Iss: 5, pp.416 429 http://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/fairholm3.pdf

Missionaries Are to Blame in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay

Missionaries Are to Blame in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart      Ã‚   The burden and calling to reach out and help others, enfold many people in society throughout the world. Rich or poor, young or old, black, red or white, the motive is helping those with a need. As Chinua Achebe points out in his book, Things Fall Apart, though there is the aspiration to lend a hand, it can sometimes become deadly, and even fatal to the lives of people. Although the missionaries try help convert the Ibo village of Umuofia to Christianity, their presence in Africa is harmful to the lives and culture of the Ibo.    The men that come to Umuofia destroy the cultural balance of faith and religion that encompasses the native people in Africa. People in Umuofia depend strongly on the ancestors and gods in their culture. It is their tradition and their beginning, from which they govern their lives. Even the priestess that serves the god Agbala, "...was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared" (16). Without the stronghold of customs and traditions, only chaos exists. Peace, trust, and knowledge are thrown off when the new religion of Christianity is introduced. When the missionary explains that:    "All the gods you have named are not gods at all. They are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children. There is only one true God and He has the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us" (121).    Decisions, opinions, and beliefs become uncertain and doubt appears. Cultural values, that ware held for generations, are pitted against the missionary's sermons. Although the missionaries come with the desire and intention to help the underdeveloped Ibo village reach its pote... ...e senseless and heartless government, which ruthlessly destroys the peaceful atmosphere in the villages. Africa will only reach its potential when everybody realizes the importance of preserving the cultural traditions.    Works Cited and Consulted: Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart.   London: Heinemann, 1958. Decheta, Buchi. European Imperialism. London: Heinemann, 1980. Evans, Jennifer. "Cultures and Resistance." African Literature Today.   Trenton, New Jersey: African World Press, 1987. pages  Ã‚   Hidoo, Rose.   Culture in Chains: Abandonment in the Work of Selected West African Writers.   Owerri, Nigeria: Black Academy, 1994. Nnolim, Charles E.   "The Missionaries." Approaches To the African People: Essays in Analysis. London: Saros International, 1992. Okonkwo, Juliet.   "The Cultural Rape of Africa." African Quarterly 15.1-2: pages.   

You Decide: Leonard Cooper Charter School Is a K-12 School

Print This Page Scenario Scenario Summary Leonard Cooper Charter School is a K-12 school with approximately 1,000 students. The school wants to develop a local area network that meets the needs of the school now and is scalable for the future. There have been numerous complaints about the speed and reliability of the network, especially since a new addition to the building was added a few years back. Your Role and Assignment You are the systems administrator contracted by Leonard Cooper to upgrade the local area network to meet the ever-increasing needs of the building's students and faculty members.Your first task is to interview key stakeholders to determine what the key areas of concern are. Activity The charter school's CEO has requested your help in updating the network to meet the demands of the building's faculty members and students. Your job is to interview the key stakeholders and to take action to remedy the issues that they have. Write a two to three page proposal address ing each of the stakeholder concerns. Use the technologies below for the areas of concern. All of the technologies listed below will not be used, so be careful with your choices.You must use one of the solutions below to address each area of concern. Be specific in your responses, and justify the use of each technology based upon the concern. Category 2 UTP 10Base – T Ethernet Cabling Category 5 UTP 100Base – T Ethernet Cabling Category 6 UTP 1000Base – T Ethernet Cabling Server Farm File Server Print Server 8 port hub 16 port hub 24 port hub 8 port switch 16 port switch 24 port switch Storage area network RAID Fiber 1000Based-F Domain controllers Bus topology Topology Microwave wireless media Infrared wireless media Radio wireless media K E Y P L A Y E R S Helen Ross, Network Technician, FemaleBack to top â€Å"I don't know who designed our old network or what they were thinking. You see, my job is to support the faculty in the building and to fix minor networ k issues. Well, we often have major issues in our building, and I'm hoping that you can make things better. Printing is a really problematic area for us. You see, we have over 50 networked printers in this building. Although we do need the printers, we need some way to consolidate the management of print jobs, as the queues on these printers often are filled. We also need to navigate to each printer individually to clear them.There has to be a better way because this is ridiculous. Collisions have become a problem for us as well since we started to add new computers a few years ago. In the morning when everyone gets in, network performance slows to a crawl because everyone is busy on the network with their morning attendance and checking e-mail. After performing a network analysis, I figured out that there were way too many collisions on the network. There has to be a way to fix this. † John Fischer, HVAC Tech, Male Back to top â€Å"You know, 20 years ago when I started in t his business, I never had to have discussions with the computer folks.My, how have times changed! Today, about 90% of my equipment located within the facility can be managed via my laptop and Web browser. Whenever I plug my laptop into the telephone looking jack in the wall, my operating system says that I'm now operating at 10 megabits. Then, whenever I browse to my equipment, I cannot retrieve any data. After going back and forth with the HVAC support techs, they determined that my connection needed to be 100 megabits. They said it must be my network because they were able to walk me through confirming my network card supported up to a 1 Gigabit connection.It would sure make my job a lot easier if I could manage this equipment via the Web. It would also be great to have the option of connecting to this equipment via a wireless connection of some sort. † Selena Daniels, Principal, Female Back to top â€Å"Thank goodness you are here to fix this mess. A few years ago, we adde d a new wing to the building. I'm glad we were able to fund the construction, but the network must have been underfunded. Each of the classroom areas does not have a live network connection port, and that has been a big problem for us because we cannot add additional network devices to the classroom.I asked the previous systems contractor about this, and she said that we have the ability to connect up to 7 classrooms, not 23. She said that's way too many. It's not too many when you have faculty members who now have desktops that are, basically, large paper weights. I need my people connected to the network in this wing, and that equipment needs to be used – bottom line. As for the seven classrooms I do have connected, the faculty there often complain that the connection from their area to the mail server at the other end of the building is often very slow. â€Å"Alfred Wingfield, IT Director, Male Back to top â€Å"This has been a long time coming. I told the contractors th at expanded our building a few years ago that we needed two things: just two simple things. One was and updated cable infrastructure that would enable us to integrate our voice over an I. P. system with our current data system. The other was that all of our backbone switches would be connected to each other with a high speed connection. What did I get? I got neither one of these request taken care of. I swear, I don't know how that crew left here with a pay check. Our voice over I.P. phones will not work because the vendor says we should be running at least a 1,000, 100 based network. As far as the backbone is concerned, after our last testing, I can honestly conclude that it is not running up to par. There is an extreme bottleneck, and communication from one end of the building to the other is sporadic at best. They gave us a twisted pair connection between our old wing backbone switch and the new wing backbone switch, which are about 120 meters apart. You have to have a better sol ution for us than this because this has been one frustrating ordeal! â€Å"

Agrarian Reform and Economic Development in Mexico essays

Agrarian Reform and Economic Development in Mexico essays Agrarian Reform and Economic Development in Mexico Many people in todays Third World society rely solely on farming in order to survive. However, most Third World agricultural areas are home to the worst conditions imaginable. These areas are often poverty stricken, despite the fact that the peasants supply a considerable share of the gross national product in many underdeveloped nations. The rural regions of Third World nations are often overcrowded and not sanitary, and many inhabitants are unlikely to possess many amenities that people from developed nations take for granted. Many countries, including Mexico, have taken steps toward agrarian reform. By returning power to the peasants, the nations are attempting to reconcile a system gone wrong. There are many reasons for agrarian reform to take place, such as needs for social justice, higher productivity, environmental preservation, political stability, and economic growth (Handelman 110-113). The five are intertwined with one another, each with its own level of importance, but economic development may be perhaps the most significant argument for agrarian reform. As the purchasing power (of workers) increases, they are able to utilize more national goods, thus encouraging economic growth (Handelman 113). Around the world, the poorest of the poor are the landless in rural areas, followed closely by the land-poor, or those whose poor quality plots are too small to support a family. They make up the bulk of the rural poor and starving, and it is in rural areas where the worst poverty and hunger are found. The development of agricultural production for export controlled by wealthy elites, who own the best lands, continually displaces the poor to ever more marginal areas for farming. They are forced to fell forests located on poor soils and to farm easily eroded soils on precipitous slopes as they fall deeper into distress, despite their comparativel...