That the environmental quality improves the further away from the CBD you go

That the environmental quality improves the further away from the CBD you go. Figure 6 shows how many penalty points each area scored for environmental quality. The Bewdley Road area had a good environmental quality; there was little noise, traffic or vandalism and easy access to the shops and schools. However because it is a terraced area there is very little open space or grassy area. Also across the road from the terraces there are several industrial premises as shown in Figure .All the residential squares scored between 6-15 points, which is good. Barnetts lane has an excellent environmental quality. The roads are lined with trees and grassed areas, the area is clean of undue noise or traffic and there is no sign of vandalism. There was a school in my study area, which showed the close proximity between the residential areas and the school. As you can see from the photos in Figures 30-33 the houses are part of the nice environment. Only one square gets any penalty points. Spennels as you would expect from an upmarket modern estate has an excellent environmental quality and gets absolutely no penalty points. The landscape is clean and well kept and there are plenty of grasses areas for recreational use or otherwise. The estate is self-contained with shops and a school shown in figures 16 and 17. In the corner of my study area there was a nature reserve that demonstrates the high quality environment in that area. Birchen coppice is not up to the standards of Spennels. The open spaces and grassed areas aren't as well kept and there are signs of litter and vandalism. There are shops and a school within the estate but nevertheless most of the area still scores 10 points from a possible 65, which isn't good for a residential area. This could be explained by the fact that it is an older council estate that isn't as well looked after and is also showing signs of ageing. This does support my hypothesis as the environmental quality does improve further away from the CBD, especially between Bewdley road and Spennels. I believe there is a link between environmental quality and age. More modern areas have been built to provide better environmental conditions so that people want to live there because otherwise nobody would want to live in a town now that there is good transport available to the masses. Older areas were built purely to house as many people as possible to work in their factories in the knowledge that people had to live there or they couldn't get to work. Hypothesis 2 That size and physical condition improve the further away from the CBD. The Bewdley road area was closest to the CBD and it also had the smallest buildings. It is all small terraced housing from the Victorian period. Many of the houses have been done up as development projects so they have a good physical condition. However due to the age of the buildings they aren't perfect and score between 5-8 points in the residential areas. The Barnetts lane area has larger semi-detached and detached houses in excellent physical condition. From the photos it is clear that the people who live here are prepared to spend a lot of money to maintain the physical condition of their properties. Spennels also has many large semi-detached and detached houses in excellent physical condition. The physical condition of the houses is very good as all the houses are modern and built to a high standard. The photos in Figures 14 and 15 show the range of houses on the estate and their high quality. Again no points are scored. However Birchen coppice wasn't in as good physical condition as Barnetts lane or Spennels. Again this can be explained by the fact that it is a council estate that was built a couple of decades ago and is quite old. It has an average score of 5 points for physical condition which isn't that bad. These results show the link between distance from the CBD and size effectively and support my hypothesis. There is also a general trend in the improvement of physical condition but it isn't as clearly defined as my other conclusions. There is also an obvious link between age and physical condition and that more modern buildings are in better physical condition. Hypothesis 3 That the CBD contains mainly commercial buildings. This is shown to be true in Figure 4, which clearly shows the dominant commercial sector. Figure 13 shows that 63% of the area is commercial. The other 37% is used for public buildings such as the town hall and doctors surgeries, open space for parking and there is currently a large area, almost 13%, which is vacant land being developed. This land is also being developed into more commercial properties including a large supermarket shown in Figure 40. Before the redevelopment there were large carpet factories on the land, almost in the very centre of the town, and this shows the shift in land use from industrial manufacturing to commercial. This demonstrates the successful redevelopment of brown field sites in favour of out of town green field sites. The vacant land isn't being turned into residential properties because it is too valuable as commercial land which companies will pay larger sums for. There is very little other vacant land in the centre for development so it is very sou ght after. My hypothesis is proved to be true. This is because commercial properties need to be in the centre of a settlement so their range and threshold is maximized and they have the largest possible sphere of influence. The constant flow of traffic around the centre and large numbers of pedestrians provide the huge potential markets that the commercial companies need to survive. Hypothesis 4 That the age of the buildings will decrease the further away from the CBD. The age of the buildings is not as clearly defined in figure 5 as I would have liked. The photos show the difference in age more clearly and it is obvious from them how much the ages vary. In the photos of Bewdley road there are plaques on which you can dates of when they were built, the house in the photo being 1986. These houses were all built in the Victorian era probably to house the workers that worked at the many carpet factories. The next furthest from the CBD is Barnetts lane which has a range of ages. Most are built inter-war or just after the Second World War. However there are also several very modern buildings from the nineties shown in Figure 33. Birchen coppice is a relatively old council estate built in the mid sixties. The photo in Figure 18 shows the basic semi detached houses typical of sixties estates. However it is far from the CBD. This could be explained by when it was built it may have been an out of town estate which has been amalgamated into the town as it has grown. Spennels is a modern estate built in the late eighties. The photos show the modern designs and styles and how similar they are across the range of properties. Today the estate is still growing slowly outwards. These results, except for Birchen coppice, support my hypothesis. Another possible explanation for the variation could be that Kidderminster spread faster southeastwards than southwestwards. Conclusion I believe that Kidderminster fits the nuclei model best, as there are distinctive land uses in small areas such as residential in the estates and industrial at Oldington. Kidderminster also takes ideas from the sector model in that it has residential and industrial sectors. However no town or city can exactly fit any model exactly, as they are just there to help us understand the world, not provide a definitive explanation. Models cannot account for every different physical factor of every different settlement. Land use in Kidderminster is changing drastically at the moment and there is huge urban redevelopment. Tesco and B&Q have both knocked down old industrial buildings and built huge superstores, as shown in Figures 38-41. Also a large commercial estate outside the CBD has been built which will draw people away from the CBD to shop in these larger developments. This shows how towns cannot possibly fit a model. Urban land use is a continuous process and I believe that Kidderminster is currently in a transition period from the old industrial past to the new commercial future.

Joeseph story Essay

A. List Joseph’s risk factors and create a brief summary of the information you have so far. Identify how his risk factors would affect cellular function. Joseph had a family history of vascular disease, his weight has been increasing as a result of poor diet and has hypertension. The cells have to use more energy (ATP) in order to move nutrients it needs for cells to live. B. Assuming Joseph’s heart has stopped, what cellular processes and membrane functions are going to be affected by the loss of oxygen, blood glucose, and waste removal? Cells become leaky, sodium leak into cells while potassium leaks out. Carbon Dioxide levels raise in cells and that drives down the pH making the cells acidic and begin to die. C. Which intracellular organelles have membranes as part of their structure? How would the breakdown of the membranes of these structures affect the function of Joseph’s heart cells? These membranes enable cell movement, growth, division, secretion, and alow the exchange of oxygen. When the breakdown happens, it prevents the oxygen from being able to move into the cell it needs to go to and the cell starts to die. D. Two important pieces of information – the instructions Joseph’s body needs to repair itself and his predisposition for vascular disease – are both contained within the cell on which structures? Both pieces of information are contained within the cell nucleus in the DNA. E. Joseph’s heart attack has caused the function of his cells to change. What types of proteins in the cell membrane were involved in the homeostatic imbalances of his heart cells? The fluid mosaic model is the structure consisting of a sea of fluid lipids with different proteins (phospholipids, cholesterol, and glycolipids). F. Why was reestablishing oxygen flow to Joseph’s body so important? What processes would be affected by lack of oxygen? Without oxygen flow, cell death occurs and is irreversible. Oxygen is required for ATP (the energy source of the cells) G. Consider once again Joseph’s health history and risk factors. What could you suggest to Joseph to reduce his risk for another heart attack? I would suggest to Joseph to lose weight, change his diet and try to reduce stress. H. Explain why Joseph’s heart failed based on what you have learned so far about the function of cells in the human body. Because of poor diet and fatty foods, there was probably a large amount of lipids in the plasma membrane. These block the normal process of exchanging chemicals and proteins. When the exchange is blocked, the cells are unable to provide oxygen to cells and the cells build up lactic acid and die.

A Rose for Emily: the Metaphor Like the Fallen Monument Essay

Emily Grierson is described as small and fat elderly women. She seems to be angry and confused. She’s always been a lonely person, she never went outside much. She is a very mysterious character. Colonel Sartorisis the former Mayor of Jefferson. His is very generous because after Emily’s father died he does not force her to pay taxes. Tobe is Emily’s servant. He is African American, his voice is rusty for the lack of use. For years he took care of her and her needs. After Emily dies, He leaves and never returns. Judge Stevens is the Mayor of Jefferson. He feels bad for Emily, and he does not nother her with the complaints. He just sprinkles lime on her yard at night. Homer Barron was known as a funny man in the town, He helped with the construction. The townspeople said he was not a man to marry, but he took Emily out on buggy rides on Sunday Afternoons. He is killed by Emily. Part two: 1. The metaphor used in the first paragraph to describe Miss Emily is â€Å"A fallen monument.† 2. The house is personified in the second paragraph by when the author describes it as coquettish. 3. In 1894, Colonel Sartoris told Miss Emily that she did not have to pay taxes because her father had given money to the town. 4. On the next year the new generation of town leaders mailed her tax bills. 5. In the sixth paragraph, Faulkner describes Emily has a short, fat elderly woman with a cane. He describes her as bloated and pale with coals as eyes. 6. At the beginning of Part two, Emily’s father had been dead for about 30 years. 7. The neighbors are complaining about a gruesome odor. Judge Stevens said its probably from a rat or snake her servant killed. 8. Miss Emily told her visitors after the day her father died, that he was still alive. 9. Homer Barron started to date Miss Emily. He was in town for construction. 10. The townspeople thought she was going out of her class dating Homer, but in a way they were happy to see her with someone. 11. Miss Emily purchased a silver toilet with his initials on it and a night gown to convince the townspeople they were getting married. 12. The last tie the townspeople saw Homer Barron was when he is seen entering her house on evening. 13. The men had sprinkled lime around her yard in part two because they intended to get rid of the odor and thought the acids would help if there was something decaying in the yard. 14. In the sealed room that no one has been in forty years, the townspeople find Homer Barron’s decomposing body and the room is frozen in time. 15. Miss Emily poisoned Homer Barron with Arsenic that she bought to â€Å"kill rats.† I believe the author decided to leave a second pillow with a strand of Emily’s hair on it to leave the reader thinking about how the hair got there.

Cognition, language, and brain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cognition, language, and brain - Essay Example As the brain develops, language skills are modified to a significant degree depending on particular outside influences. Therefore, â€Å"both genetic and environmental influences may contribute in varying degrees to the final shaping of the dyslexic brain† (Lishman, 2003). Dyslexia cannot be diagnosed or understood as a specific disorder which has led to misunderstandings within the scientific community and the public regarding the condition which this discussion attempts to clarify. An example of the non-specific nature of dyslexia centers on an argument regarding which part of the brain most affects the condition. Though it is widely accepted that the left hemisphere of the brain controls verbal functions and positron emission tomography scans have confirmed this assessment, others, such as Price et al (1998) hypothesize that â€Å"reading aloud involves a large number of cognitive processes including, at a minimum, visual and orthographic analysis, phonological retrieval, articulation, and hearing the sound of the spoken word† (Price et al, 1998, p. 305). Price went on to say deficits associated with dyslexia â€Å"might be the hallmarks of exclusive reliance on a right-hemisphere†¦the reading of dyslexics rely exclusively on a right-hemisphere† (Price et al, 1998, p. 305). Some type of right-hemisphere mechanism involving reading comprehension is necessary to be able to read aloud if any one of the left-sided functions such as processing s tages, orthographic, semantic or phonological functions is not capable of operating normally. That the emotional and creative side of the brain plays some type of role in reading comprehension can hardly be disputed. For example, if a child is upset or they prefer to draw animal figures from letters instead of pronouncing them, the ability to read coherently may be slowed somewhat as compared to classmates. Dyslexia concerns many facets of brain function. However, it

Discuss the balance between ludological (gameplay) elements and Essay

Discuss the balance between ludological (gameplay) elements and narratological (story) elements in games. Is one more important - Essay Example The ultimate goal of such analysis is to move from a taxonomy of elements to an understanding of how these elements are arranged in actual narratives, fictional and nonfictional.† [Pradl 1984] A typical application of narratological methodologies would include sociolinguistic studies of storytelling and in conversation analysis or discourse analysis that deal with narratives arising in the course of spontaneous verbal interaction. The study of narrative is particularly important since our ordering of time and space in narrative forms constitutes one of the primary ways we construct meaning in general. The narratological approach is characterised by its overriding concern with narrative structure, and the close attention it pays to the effects that this structure has on the shaping and unfolding of narratives. Literary theory and narratology have also been very helpful to understand cybertexts and videogames. Narratology theories are used to bring the aspect of storytelling, a s cenario, a scene, characters and a plot of which the user plays through and experiences and takes part in the story that unfolds. Rhetorically Narratological elements in games, especially in videogames, are somewhat makes them more stunning to public and to players. They somewhat brings the beauty inside the game. The players, sometimes, tend to spend more attention to the story of the game than to the gameplay or the environment of the game. Take along this RPG’s (role-playing games) for example, Star Wars the game, players tend to stay focused and tuned-in on the story than being focused on the interactivity of the game. In other words, they are having the willingness to complete the game mainly because they want to know what happens next in the story. They become eager to advance the game from one level to another for the next plot. Apparently, game designers tend to have their work based on books, epics, legends, myths, heroes, or even on films. By this, they attract play ers more. As far as Narratology is concerned and used in videogames and in cybertexts, here comes ludology - â€Å"the academic study of videogames† [Keats 2006]. Using narratological elements as framework in designing a game is indeed very useful, yet it cannot be the only framework to be applied. Ludology from the words ludus means game and logus study. It speaks of the gameplay of a game. It scrutinizes the interactivity of the game. The acts you will make in order to move inside the game, the graphics, the setting, colours, sizes and shapes, etc. It talks about how the game will appear on screen. Ludology is obviously widely used in games. It is where critiques site their comment. They would not say â€Å"This game sucks. It has a vague story.† The ludology perspective is useful and can stand alone than narratology is. It directly applies to some games. For example players do not play tetris for a story. They would not bother asking â€Å"Where is entertainment he re? Where is the story?† Also in popular games like Mario by Nintendo are better suited as a game and criticised on its gameplay and graphics rather than on the story. Most players tend to play a Mario game not to see if Mario meets Princess Peach but for each level’s design and other gameplay elements that make the game more exciting. Narratology and ludology are being opposed by most. However, these two adjacent and independent perspectives must be clearly understood to arrive on to a bigger

Nursing Practice. Roy Adaptation Model Research Paper

Nursing Practice. Roy Adaptation Model - Research Paper Example Adaptation is defined by RAM as the process and outcome, in which thinking and feeling of persons utilize conscious awareness to fashion integration between human perception and their environment. The paper explores the efficacy and application of Roy Adaptation Mode within the nursing practice. Roy Adaptation Model # 1a Summary of the Theory Roy’s adaptation model was advanced by Sr. Callista Roy and sums up as one of the broadly applied nursing models in nursing practice, education and research. The theory approaches nursing as the science that broadens adaptive abilities and promotes individual and environmental alteration. According to RAM, nursing goals pursue promotion of adaptation for persons and groups in four adaptive modes that contribute in the promotion of health, quality of life and dying with dignity (Clarke, Barone, Hanna & Senesac, 2011). Adaptation in this case is manifested by four interconnected modes of behavior: physiological, self-concept, role function and interdependence modes. RAM promotes nurse’s capabilities to enhance a person’s interaction with the environment to avail of an effective adaptation. According to RAM, an individual is described as an adaptive system capable of responding to diverse internal and external environment stimuli whether positively or negatively (Clarke, Barone, Hanna & Senesac, 2011). ... Roy adaptation model (RAM) is useful as it guides nursing practice and avails scientific knowledge for practice. The model has been essential in organizing nursing education, clinical assessment and intervention (Clarke, Barone, Hanna & Senesac, 2011). RAM comes out as an applicable, flexible and valuable model that can be employed in diverse aspects of nursing research. #1c Limitations of the Theory RAM has inspired the development of various middle range nursing theories. RAM arrangement of concepts is logical; however, the empirical precision of some terms and concepts is inadequate to mirror nursing disciplines. This may decrease the clarity of the model when employed in any specialized area of practice. The theory manifests explicit assumptions. These include the individual is mainly a bio-psycho-social being; the individual is in a continuous interaction with a changing environment; in order to cope with the changing world, individual usually employ both innate and acquired mec hanisms that are characteristically biological, psychological and social; health and illness are un avoidable dimensions in an individual’s life and in order to react positively to environmental changes, individuals must adapt (Clarke, Barone, Hanna & Senesac, 2011). # 2a Articles from the Nursing Literature that discusses RAM The application of RAM differs from one design to another depending on the predicted goals and the form of adaptation level required for monitoring. In the outlined studies, RAM plays a critical role in shaping research direction and the adaptation of participants. Huang, Carter & Guo (2004) study sought to estimate daytime sleepiness and measure factors unsettling the adaptation of sleep loss during the early postpartum

How would you reduce cost and overcrowding while maintaining a system Essay

How would you reduce cost and overcrowding while maintaining a system of justice Take into account faith-based prison ministrie - Essay Example A lot of prisoners remain inside the prison for years because they cannot afford lawyers to pursue the cases or because they leave prisons only to commit more crimes and re-enter the prison thus overcrowding it. Since â€Å"prison costs doubled to $24.6 billion over the past decade, and experts foresee substantial increases in the future† (Maginnis), it is important to build faith-based prisons where faith-based programs should be offered to the prisoners. This is not only beneficial for the purification of their souls leading to less recidivism when they leave prison, but is also helpful in reducing costs because faith-based programs tend to save the taxpayers millions of operating cost while ensuring frequent parole. Hence, building faith-based prisons and implementing faith-based rehabilitation programs will reduce costs while reducing overcrowding at the same time since the convicts will most probably be better human beings while leaving the prisons reducing the crime rate and hence reducing overcrowding in prisons.

Critical thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Critical thinking - Essay Example Similarly, developing critical thinking requires strategies towards an understanding of and integration with environmental factors. I concur with the article’s position on significance of critical thinking in exploiting personal potentials, existence of different stages of critical thinking potential, and strategies to developing critical thinking capacity. Critical thinking is an instrument to exploitation of potential as it offers rationale for understanding personal abilities and identification of the appropriate need for such potentials. Once a potential and its need are matched, there develops motivation for manifesting abilities, including critical thinking. Critical thinking is also a process that requires ability to engage cognitively. Developing such abilities must therefore be gradual to pass through stages, as the article suggests. Similarly, being a process, developing critical thinking ability is aided by strategies such as being conscious of the environment, being flexible in mind, being analytical and connecting with the environment. These strategic factors facilitate awareness towards crit ical thinking for informed decisions (Collison, p.

Theories of Employment Relations in SMEs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Theories of Employment Relations in SMEs - Essay Example The researcher of this essay discusses the opinions of researchers and scholars in organisation studies, that often see small firms as the major sources of innovation and the drivers of the major economic change. SMEs are generally believed to be the greatest contributors to national and international economic growth and create an impression of being increasingly beneficial and attractive to potential employees, due to their flexibility, informality, and family-friendly environments, which are impossible in large organisations. These benefits, generate significant criticism: informality and flexibility in employment relations in SMEs are not without their problems. While some theorists position flexibility and informality as the positive factors of employee commitment and labour productivity, others consider flexibility and family-friendly environments responsible for lower job security, lower wages, lower quality of professional training, unsociable hours and even health risks. In t his essay, employment relations in SMEs are mainly underresearched and require developing a systemic framework. The discussion of employment relations in SMEs usually goes along the three distinct lines: the impact of the NMW, the role of informality, and the place of flexibility and family-friendly environments in SMEs. In its current state, the theories of employment relations in SMEs are both interesting and contradictory, but they lay the foundation for the development of a single systemic framework of how employees and employers coordinate.

Enforcement mechanism Essay Example for Free

Enforcement mechanism Essay 1). In the absence of any legally binding enforcement mechanism, individual cartel producers may find it advantageous to cheat on the agreements and engage in secret price concessions. 2). When a promisor fails to put full effort into the performance of an agreement, yet the lack of effort is not independently verifiable, this lack of effort constitutes a 3). The Herfindahl-Hirschman index is a measure of ____. 4). In long-run equilibrium, all firms in a pure competition market situation operating under a condition of certainty will have identical costs even though they may use different production and operation techniques. 5). The distinctive characteristic of an oligopolistic market structure is that there are recognizable interdependencies among the decisions of the firms. 6). The Sherman Act prohibits: 7). Buying electricity off the freewheeling grid at one quarter til the hour for delivery on the hour illustrates: 8). Effective collusion generally is more difficult as the number of oligopolistic firms involved increases. 9). In pure competition: 10). An oligopoly is characterized by: 11). The kinked demand curve model was developed to help explain: 12). The profit-maximizing monopolist, faced with a negative-sloping demand curve, will always produce: 13). Capital expenditures: 14). Which of the following public policies has (have) the effect of restricting competition: 15). The cost of capital can be thought of as the rate of return required by investors in the firms securities. 16). ____ occur whenever a third party receives or bears costs arising from an economic transaction in which the individual (or group) is not a direct participant. 17). A firm in pure competition would shut down when: 18). The expected rate of return from a share of stock consists of: 19). In the purely competitive case, marginal revenue (MR) is equal to 20). In the  short-run for a purely competitive market, a manufacturer will stop production when: 21). Patents have been defended by some on the grounds that they stimulate inventive activity. Others have argued for changes in current patent laws because: 22). A monopoly will always produce less than a purely competitive industry, ceteris paribus. 23). The practice by telephone companies of charging lower long-distance rates at night than during the day is an example of: 24). When the cross elasticity of demand between one product and all other products is low, one is generally referring to a(n) ____ situation. 25). The decision by the Municipal Transit Authority to either refurbish existing buses, buy new large buses, or to supplement the existing fleet with mini-buses is an example of: 26). Which of the following statements is (are) true concerning a pure competition situation? 27). Which of the following are not approaches to resolving the principal-agent problem: 28). If a cartel seeks to maximize profits, the market share (or quota) for each firm should be set at a level such that the ____ of all firms is identical. 29). In the electric power industry, residential customers have relatively ____ demands for electricity compared with large industrial users and generally are charged ____ rates. 30). The largest problem faced in cartel pricing agreements such as OPEC is: 31). Non-redeployable durable assets that are dependent upon unique complementary and perfectly redeployable assets to achieve substantial value-added will typically be organized as 32). Governance mechanisms are designed 33). A(n) ____ is characterized by a relatively small number of firms producing a product. 34). The antitrust laws regulate all of the following business decisions except ____. 36). In the case of pure monopoly:

Change Affecting the Current Organization

Change Affecting the Current Organization Change affecting the current organization. 1.0 Change that exists in todays economy Change is prevalent in every countrys economy and this has enabled change in the organizations method of working. In general, economy is affected by the following factors, i.e. PEST Analysis Political Economic Social Technological A PEST analysis is an investigation of the important factors that are changing which influence a business from the outside. 1.1 Political The strategic decisions of the business are strongly affected because of the development of political and legal environments. Government legislation has significant effect in todays economy. Political environment has a very tremendous effect on business operation no matter what is its size, its area of operation; whether the company is domestic, national, international, large or small. Every company has to obey the rules and regulations of the country the company is operating. Every country has its own political system. A government controls and restricts a companys activities by encouraging and offering support or by discouraging and banning or restricting its activities depending on the government. The political condition changes from time to time, and so the company has to be able to adjust with the changing environment. In general, political change means a change in government or a government policy. 1.2 Economic It comprises all the factors and sub factors related to the economy of the country, and these factors have an impact on the business activities. Some types of business are favorably affected by the government policy; some are adversely, while it is neutral in case of some. Currency exchange rates, Employment rates, Wage rates, Government economic policies, Other countries economic policies, Lending policies of financial institution, Changes from public to private ownership etc also are strong background that affect change in organizations. It is related with the change in economy such as: rise in living standard, level of demand, rise or fall in interest rates, etc. 1.3 Social Human beings are social by nature, so they want to live in a society. Socio-cultural environment includes many aspects of society and its various constituents, such as beliefs, expectations, attitudes, demographic components, and customs. Demographic trends of customers and employees have significant effect on change. Due to globalization, migration throughout the whole world is taking place, especially from Asia. Social change is related with the change in lifestyles, for example: women going out to work, changes in buying habit, men taking care of their home and children. How we behave, our gender and ethnic group, education level, the conditions and communities in which we live, are all the elements of social environment. The socio-cultural factors, such as buying and consumption pattern of people, their language, benefits and values, customs and traditions, taste and preference, education and awareness are all factors that affect the business directly. 1.4 Technological Technological factors include the inventions and techniques which affect the way of doing things. A technological change is one which involves the practical application of scientific or other new ideas in a business or industrial context. Technological change is related with the development of new ideas and interventions. Technology is the most important influence upon society, it is autonomous, and causes social change. Latest technologies like: computer, internet, telephone, ATM, is used to manage and provide access to information easily and quickly. The technological environment is changing very rapidly and to compete in this competitive world the any organization has to adopt the latest technology to survive in the market. 2.0 Evaluating the strengths and weakness of bureaucratic organizations. In general, organization is viewed as group of people working together to achieve goals. Edgar Schein (1965) defines an organization as the rational coordination of the activities of a group of people with the aim of achieving an explicit goal or purpose. An organization normally achieves its purpose through the division of labour and function and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility. Organization could be simple or complex depending upon their purposes, size, technology or nature of activities. In 18th century, three streams of concepts, i.e. bureaucracy, administrative theory, and scientific management were developed. These concepts are popularly known as the classical concepts or classical theories of organization. Bureaucratic organization are such types of organizations which are based on efficiency, hierarchy, written rules of conduct, promotion based on achievement, and a specialised division of labour. â€Å"A system of law where leaders obtain their offices through legal procedures and the power to rule is vested in their positions rather than in themselves as individuals† (Weber, 1947). Max Weber describes an ideal approach to outline the characteristics of a fully developed bureaucratic form of organization. In general, bureaucracy has come to have a negative implication and many tended to ignore it, however, the features that characterize bureaucracy have become inevitable with the growing size and complexity in organizations, so there is need to understand and improve bureaucracy instead of ignoring it. 2.1 Strengths Some of the principle, prescriptive, normative functions that bureaucracies hold have significant impact to organizations. Whether and to what extent these positive features really obtain in an organization depends on actual practice. Some of the advantages of an ideal bureaucracy are as follows: The rules, regulations, training, specialization, and structure impart predictability and thereby ensure certainty and stability to an organization. Work is performed in accordance with organizational rules, this therefore leads to a standardised high quality product or service; rules are also used to ensure fairness and counter arbitrariness. Tasks are divided into specialised jobs, so that everyone becomes an expert in their area of work, and this results greater efficiency in the organization as employees know exactly what to do and how to do. Routine work is assigned with fixed responsibilities at various levels. Clear distinction between employers and employees with vertical communication channels and clear chain of command. Personnel structure with consistent patterns and recruitment. People are selected and promoted on the basis of merit and qualification, and this helps to increase efficiency as only the most able are selected and promoted. 2.2 Weakness Bureaucracies, particularly in large complex organizations, may have unintended consequences which are often referred to as disadvantages aspects of bureaucracy. The disadvantages of bureaucracy are as follows: Rules and regulations of bureaucracy are often rigid and inflexible encouraging status quo. It emphasizes on mechanical way of doing things, giving primacy to organizational rules and regulations rather than individuals needs and emotions. Organizational structure does not promote cooperation and participation. Organizational success (sustainability) and function of smart direction from top. The credit always goes to the top, main players are shadowed. Much paper and routine type work. 3.0 Comparing alternative forms of organizational development Todays organizations operate in a rapidly changing and competitive environment. As a result, one of the most important assets for an organization is the ability to manage change and for people to remain healthy and authentic. â€Å"Organization Development is a system-wide application of behavioural science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organizations effectiveness†, Cummings and Worley, Organization Development and Change, Sixth Edition, South-Western Publishing, 1997, p.2. (Free management library) OD involves working with the organization as a system to bring about the planned and controlled change of an organization in preferred direction, it also attempts to change the organization as a totality by changing the organizations structure, technology, people or task. It focuses on the interaction between the organization and its environment.