In this assignment, we would present our findings on whether Singaporeans are receptive to Telecommuting

In this assignment, we would present our findings on whether Singaporeans are receptive to Telecommuting. Telecommuting is the substitution of telecommunication for transportation, permitting work to be performed at a remote site anywhere except from the office. We conclude that Singaporeans are not very receptive to Telecommuting although Singapore is quite a technologically advanced country in Information Technology. A total of 20 respondents ( males and females) were asked to complete a survey form. Their age group was around 21-30 years of age. They were mainly made up of NUS students and system analysts. Among the 20 interviewees, 55% indicated that their current jobs do not require them to telecommute. Half of the 20 respondents spend on the average, 0-10 work-related hours in front of the computer every week. In addition, 90% of them feel that Telecommuting could not replace most of the jobs in Singapore. Below are the four highly topped responses that the interviewees made regarding their feelings towards Telecommuting in general. In the survey, 90% of those participating recognize that there is a loss in human touch while 85% of the interviewees feel that there is a loss in team cohesion. Telecommuting may cause a relative loss of synergy, because of reduced face-to-face contact, although electronic mail and on-line documentation can counterbalance this. Thus, Telecommuting results in less social interaction and reduced contact with the physical part of the organization (the office). This leads to isolation, loneliness and a reduced sense of identification with the organization and its members. The survey reported that 80% of the interviewees recognize that there is no need to commute with telecommuting. Telecommunication technology lets telecommuters transform almost any space into a workplace. Instead of going to work, telecommuters let work come to them. Time is saved too when the telecommuter does not have to travel to work. He beats the hassle of traveling to work and getting stuck in traffic jams. The time saved can be used to generating more output for his work. Moreover, 70% of those participating in the survey feel that they are able to spend more time with family and friends with Telecommuting. Telecommuting can help balance work and family demands. In this sense, Telecommuting can play a part in helping to bond the family together. When the parent does not have to leave home to go to work, he/she is able to spend more time at home with his family. The parent is able to show more concern for his children and spouse, as he/she knows what is going on in their lives. This will greatly improve the family cohesiveness. We found out that 65% of the interviewees think they are not able to work from home. This could be because Telecommuting requires unwavering self-discipline as telecommuters can make a choice between eight hours of work time or eight hours of web-surfing. The latter is of course more tempting. The reasons why Singaporeans are not receptive to Telecommuting might be due to three reasons. Singaporeans have a collectivistic culture and value team cohesion as well as membership. They are socialized to be emotionally dependent on organizations and institutions. As a result, Singaporeans are not used to the idea of Telecommuting. Firstly, the close proximity between family members due to Singapore's small physical size makes Telecommuting unfeasible. Secondly, the accessibility of Singapore due to its efficient transport network ensures that employees can commute between home and office quickly.

Comparison of Novel and Film Adaption and Philip K. Dicks Criticisms Essay Example

Comparison of Novel and Film Adaption and Philip K. Dicks Criticisms Essay Example Comparison of Novel and Film Adaption and Philip K. Dicks Criticisms Essay Comparison of Novel and Film Adaption and Philip K. Dicks Criticisms Essay Philip K. dick’s criticisms about the film adaption ‘Blade runner’ have been justified by the differences that have been shown. The theme of empathy throughout both texts has been shown through two different characters causing the effect to change. Rick Deckard has the hero sort of sign through human’s eyes throughout the novel whereas Roy Batty has the hero symbol in a replicants eyes throughout the film. The motivation for Deckard in the novel is to buy a real animal, playing on his want and needs, which is also a sign of empathy. Having this motive shows the selfish side of people and questions whether or not someone actually needs an animal to be happy. The idea is put across that killing for an animal (even if it is just killing an android) to be alright. Throughout the novel we watch Deckard’s development. Having only a glimpse of this development in the film adaption shown, the viewer won’t really understand that Deckard goes through a change. Ridley Scott has used a different way to put across the empathy by using a different character that was only a small part in the novel. Batty has been given the motive to find a way to live longer and be able to become more human. Batty became the super human figure with more intelligence and strength. However Dick wrote that androids died way before they could even begin to comprehend emotions, making sure they were as robotic as possible. Electric animals were just a little way from the bottom of the social ladder and having a real one puts you higher. Being able to take care of an animal shows the empathy that a human is able to have and not an android. The film adaption doesn’t revolve empathy around the animals like the novel does. A glimpse is seen through the wolf howls that Baty cries at the point when he feels so much pain and loss, again showing empathy through a replicant. Dick had that androids shut down at the moment they feel threatened towards their lives. Scott turns that around in the film adaption and has them fight back as shown with Pris as well as Baty. The minor characters in the novel have been taken out for the film adaption so this does change parts of the story. The novels characters contrasted with each other. Deckard had Iran to contrast with himself; he wanted to have an animal to keep his life meaningful whereas she had already given up. Irmgard shows the more gentle side of an android in contrast to Pris who is curious about how life works is still more violent to figuring it out â€Å"Restraining the spider with the edge of her hand. She was smiling. † This insinuates that she feeling some sort of emotion whether it be that it’s just that she trying to fake an emotion or she’s being sadistic. Having some of these contrasts cut out for the film adaption it’s hard to see what the character’s main intention is until later on in the film. Dick’s criticisms are justified in the way that the main parts of his story have been cut out. Some of the scenes make or break certain characters and not having them in the film adaption slows the story down in how it has been told. Characters even if they are minor are still relevant to the story and are used to put the point across. The film adaption does give a different point and is less straight forward than what Dick wrote ‘Do androids dream of electric sheep? ’

Essay analyzes of The Lover by Abraham B. Yehoshua

Essay analyzes of The Lover by Abraham B. Yehoshua "[She] starts to sort it out, to turn over the day, scraps, feelings, words and laughter, all are like a thin layer of rubbish that [she] gathers up and throws into the basket" (9). In A.B. Yehoshua's novel The Lover, Asya utilizes dreams to release her inner-tensions. Yehoshua employs Asya's dreams as symbolic, prophetic mechanisms that parallel the subtle, emotional conflicts within the characters and her self.Once Asya is deprived of her lover, Gabriel, she is consumed by his absence and immediately begins to dream about him. The first of Asya's dreams described in the novel reflects her unconscious desire to reunite with Gabriel and abandon her family. The dream places Asya within a military encampment as an educator on a fieldtrip, paralleling Gabriel's own military excursion (14). Like the dreamer, the reader is also unable to make the connection between the dream and Gabriel, because both are uncertain of Gabriel's military career at the novel's onset.English: Flag of Israel w ith the Mediterranean sea..."The faces of children from Dafi's class" that Asya encounters are analogous to the "young, boyish faced" men in Gabriel's platoon (14, 297). While Dafi's class attends compulsory education, the soldiers have been forced into military service. Dafi's class also creates a commentary on the Zionist movement. Though the Zionist movement recently catalyzed the creation of an Israeli state, the Israeli's must now defend their independence in the Yom Kippur War. The field trip in Asya's dream exposes the young children to war, corrupting their naivety and innocence. These children must be prepared; they must sacrifice their childhoods for war, because most Israelis believe their independence will continually be contested, regardless of the outcome of the Yom Kippur War.Like Gabriel, Asya is lost within the encampment; she does not understand her purpose, but eventually understands her position with the...

Analysis of the Public and Private Sports Industry

Analysis of the Public and Private Sports Industry Public, private and voluntary sectors in the sports industry, advantages and disadvantages of the leisure centre being in the public sector, how the local leisure centre can meet the aim of getting more local clubs to use its facilities. Introduction â€Å"Since the opportunity to participate in sport or recreation requires facilities, the central task of organisations, and associated individuals, is to provide a service which focuses on people and which satisfies that need.† [1] The sports industry has changed beyond all recognition since the beginning of the 1990’s in each of the public, private and voluntary sectors. The impetus has come from top level government policy with the creation of the UK Sports Council and the formation of the chief sporting bodies such as Sport England offering both funding and structure to the previously ad hoc nature of leisure and recreation in modern Britain. Moreover, the lure of professional sport has also irrevocably changed in tan dem with the structural changes in amateur sport with the result that there is, at the dawn of the twenty first century, more people are taking an active part in sport, which has further increased the pressure on local services such as leisure centres. There are though vast differences between the way that the public and private sector sports providers are run and funded as shall now become apparent. The Private Sector With regards to the sports industry, the private sector refers to those leisure services that are funded by private capital and open only to private membership. This can mean anything from specialist professional sports clubs to health and fitness clubs to local sports teams that have been established and sponsored by local and national businesses alike. The advantages of this kind of sporting industry are predominantly economic with the funding of private sports clubs historically far outstripping the economic resources available to equivalent public sector sports se rvices. Certainly in the 1970’s and 1980’s, private sector sports industries were far more popular and productive than their public sector counterparts mirrored in the elevated sporting achievements of private school sporting institutions as opposed to the relative failings of the same public (comprehensive) school sports bodies. There are, however, inherent disadvantages to sports and leisure services that rely exclusively on the private sector for funding. First and foremost, there are no guarantees that the source of that funding will remain constant for any fixed length of time. Benefactors are subject to the ups and downs of the free market economy, which can result in sharp reductions – as well as rises – in the level of funding provided. In addition, any leisure service that is inexorably tied to the private sector also inevitably suffers from the lack of community spirit that can only be adequately garnered through association with the local publi c authorities. Thus, while the advantages to sports services in the private sector appear on the surface to be all encompassing, the reality is that the lack of stability that characterises all facets of the private sector economy hampers the sustained growth and popularity.

2.Critically assess the proposition that it is essential to Essay

2.Critically assess the proposition that it is essential to distinguish between refugees and other migrants - Essay Example It is for this reason that immigrants into a country cannot be treated as a homogenous group. An important distinction between these two immigrant groups is their ability to return to their native country. While refugees are either unable or unwilling to return for fear of persecution, economic immigrants are free to return at their will. Another distinction is that refugees do not enjoy much social contacts in their home country and economic immigrants maintain social contacts in their home country on a permanent basis by visiting their relatives and friends. Studies have shown that refugees over time make earnings more than economic migrants do in the host country (Cortes, 2004). Refugees deserve protection by virtue of Article 1 A (2) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees which defines a refugee and prohibits their expulsion by Article 33 (1). A refugee is an asylum seeker initially and may or may not be taken in as a refugee. The obligation against expulsion s tems from international human rights law. For example, Articles 6 & 7 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prevents refugees from being returned in case of irreparable harm to them. Similarly, the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, prohibits return of asylum seekers in case of likelihood of torture being meted out to them in their home country (UNHCR, n.d.) . World Migration Report 2010 which lays down ten core areas for capacity-building to achieve migrant integration does not spell out special treatment for refugees vis-Ã  -vis other migrants. The report advocates a range of core area from strengthening economic participation by migrants to mainstreaming integration across government. It generalizes the status of migrants as being prone to poverty and social inclusion. Migrants are certainly better placed than refugees and

Quality and Performance Excellence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quality and Performance Excellence - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that Baldrige focuses on the performance excellence for all aspects of an organization in an overall management framework. Six Sigma deals with the internal quality with an aim of improving the standards and reducing the costs. Overall, they are all similar since they deal with quality improvement in the workplace.ISO 9000, on the other hand, pay more attention to the quality and conformity of the products and services according to the set guidelines to provide equity in the market. The system is more concerned with fixing the issue with the products and service non-conformity and quality system problems. For the Six Sigma, more emphasis is laid on measuring the quality of the products and working on process improvement design to reduce the overall costs. All these processes, however, are management-led, data-based, process focused and aims at helping the organization improve performance and increase customer satisfaction. The level of emphas is and how these processes of operations are carried out causes variation within an organization such as the quality of the processes policies instituted, and the review of these policies. TecSmart Electronics dwell on quality, service and to meet the customers’ expectations which in turn help the organization grow. The management of the company followed some of the quality and performance excellence models which help it maintain a clear focus. One of the quality and performance models the company has focused on is the Deming’s 14 points. Some of the plans instituted include framing company policies such as an emphasis on quality and services. Imparting skills to the employees and dissemination of the information; information gathering for quality control; analysis of the obtained data to assess the areas where to rectify; standardization of the products and services; quality assurance of the entire processes and having future plans about the organization.

Environmental, Health and Safety Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Environmental, Health and Safety - Term Paper Example The term paper "Environmental, Health and Safety" discusses job functions and EHS representative responsibilities related to environmental protection, Worker health and safety, and Environmental protection as seen at Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil and Gas. Both the companies discussed in this paper are incorporated in Texas, USA. Shell environmental job functions entail ongoing effort to uncover ways to help lessen the impact of trade actions all over the world. The company’s environmental professional works in tandem with their business contemporaries across various operations and projects. They also help to sustain the application and development of modern technologies and work together with external partners as well. The EHS representatives of Shell work to avert any incidents that may consequence in leakage of harmful and unsafe substances. The company’s policies have very strong foundations and it also recognizes that a significant oil spill disaster due to company†™s negligence should be dealt by Shell and its representatives. The company outlines prepares and practices disaster management policies in response to events that can create a negative impact on the environment or threaten public safety. Shell’s EHS representatives are committed to mitigating the consequences to the environment and people. The company is passionate about the safety standards both at sea and land. Shell has been working for about over a century in the business of governments, industry shipping bodies and other private stakeholders.