Evaluating Truth and Validity Essay Example for Free

Evaluating Truth and Validity Essay Truth and validity are two different concepts which should not be confused, although they are usually taken as synonyms in common language. In logic, it is said that the argument is valid when the conclusion follows deductively from the premises. While of the premises and the conclusion is that they are true or false, the arguments are said to be valid or invalid. The validity or invalidity of the argument does not depend on its conclusion to be true. According to Moss (2007) â€Å"Understanding Truth aims to illuminate the notion of truth, and the role it plays in our ordinary thought, as well as in our logical, philosophical, and scientific theories. The argument is valid, when you have consistency and sense. It has coherence because the premises do not contradict each other and correspond to the conclusion† (para.12). Therefore, we must distinguish between the concept of truth and validity. Truth is something that is preached propositions or statements. Validity is predicated of the arguments. Truth makes reference to the content, and the validity to the shape or structure of the arguments. This reading will address three scenarios in which it will evaluate each argument, using the 4-step process regarding truth and validity. The first scenario is â€Å"Power must be evil because it can corrupt people.† The first thing this paper will address is if the argument is stated fully and in a clear way. The statement has a hidden premise. The premise expressed of the statement can be view as Power is evil because it creates corruption. Therefore must powerful people are corrupt. The statement has errors affecting truth. From the statement we know that the statement is overgeneralizing its context because it is taking a valid point and it is extending it beyond the limits of reasonableness. Sometimes this statement can be true but we can’t assume all powerful people are evil. The fact that power corrupts all people is a negative statement. All throughout history there has been many of people that had power that were not evil. For Example, Nelson Mandela was a very powerful man in South Africa. According to Vallely (2003) â€Å"His life was an inspiration not just in South Africa but throughout the world, to all who are oppressed and deprived, and to all who  are opposed to oppression and deprivation. He was a model of faith, hope and charity† (para.11). In the other hand, there has been people corrupted that had power. For Example, Adolf Hitler and Napoleon were very powerful and corrupt individuals. According to Napoleon and Hitler (2010) â€Å"Both were heartless and cavalier about the lives of their men (Napoleon: A man like me cares little about losing the lives of a million men; Hitler: I can send the flower of German youth into the hell of war without the slightest pity). As for their legacies, Seward states that Napoleon began the irreversible destruction of the old hierarchical, Christian Europe and the Fuhrer completed it† (para.12). According Kivisto (2013) â€Å"Evil is an entity, person, place or thing that does not deserve compromise or negotiation. It must be destroyed. Dictionary. Reference.com describes it as the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin† (para.2) Also, not all corrupt people are evil. Mexico, for example, is full of corrupt leaders, but in the other hand, there are not evil. Another corrupt organization is the Federation International of Football Association, known as FIFA, but is not evil. How corrupt you have to be to be consider â€Å"Evil†. There are people who are corrupt, but are not in any way evil. In conclusion, it is found that this argument is so flawed that the only thing to do is to throw it out and embrace a different argument. It is found that power if used right ca n do so much good, and if power is in the wrong hands it can do enormous harm. The second scenario talks about â€Å"The credit card habit promotes careless spending, particularly among young people. Therefore, credit card companies should not be permitted to issue credit cards to anyone under age 21. This reading will evaluate truth and validity and also it will talk about the four step process in evaluating an argument. Not all young people are careless spenders. The statement â€Å"The credit card habit promotes careless spending, particularly among young people. Therefore, credit card companies should not be permitted to issue credit cards to anyone under age 21. Is not truth as it is written. From past experiences people came to the conclusion that in fact people under the age of 21 get into a lot of debt from credit cards, but not all the debt is form credit cards. Also, there is a lot of people that have credit card debt and over 21. This reading  notice that this argument is overgeneralizing its context. This statement could be truth at times. According to Herman (2008) â€Å"Credit card companies have been pursuing teenagers and designing credit cards so they can ‘learn’ about the credit system,† says Gary Herman, President of Consolidated Credit. â€Å"And although most teenagers don’t fully understand the repercussions of using a credit card and the impact it can have on their future financial situations, more teens are working and are spending their own money. Credit card companies believe they have hit the jackpot† (para.3). In the other hand, there have been many people who are filled with credit card debt and are over the age of 21. In the following step checking for validity errors, it is found that this statement is somewhat valid. Credit card companies don’t promote careless spending. It is the parent’s responsibilities to teach their kids of proper way s to manage their finances. The argument talks about credit cards are promoting careless spending in which is true, but there is a lot of people under the age of 21 who are responsible for owning a credit card. Not all young people under 21 are careless spenders. The final step is to validate errors, if found; the reading will revise the argument to eliminate them. The credit card habit promotes careless spending, particularly among young people. Therefore, credit card companies should run credit checks on all people applying for one. The third scenario talks about â€Å"Low grades on a college transcript are a handicap in the job market, so teachers who grade harshly are doing students a disservice. To make the expression complete, the reading will identify the premises that are hidden in this argument. Companies take into consideration a lot of factors when it comes to hiring personal, and one of those is how well they did in school to include grades. Employers want productive employees and ones that perform well. If an applicant with good grades apply for a position and another one with bad grades apply nine out of ten the one with the good grades will get the job. Teacher’s main job is to teach coach and mentor them towards their entrance in the job market and to make sure they meet all the requirements of a desired profession. Teachers who grade harshly are doing disserve to students by many different ways. Teachers may deduct points because of lack of participation or attendance, which it doesn’t means he is a bad student but in the other hand he might have job that intervenes with him being on time. This statement  contains an element of truth, yet it is not accurate. According to Belkin (2003) â€Å"The test, called the Collegiate Learning Assessment, provides an objective, benchmarked report card for critical thinking skills, said David Pate, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at St. John Fisher Colleg e, a small liberal-arts school near Rochester, N.Y. The students will be able to use it to go out and market themselves. The test is part of a movement to find new ways to assess the skills of graduates. Employers say grades can be misleading and that they have grown skeptical of college credentials†. (para.3). In the other hand according to McNicol (1999) â€Å"In the independent performance survey of the 25 colleges, Georgian had impressive results, including above-average scores for graduate placement and satisfaction, Georgian officials said. The survey was conducted as part of the accountability initiatives spearheaded by the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training. Called the key performance indicators (KPI) project, it found 90 per cent of 600 Georgian College grads surveyed found work within six months of graduation, slightly higher than the system- wide 89 per cent† (pg.2). In the final step, it will revise the argument to eliminate errors. The statement â€Å"Low grades on a college transcript are a handicap in the job market, so teachers who grade harshly are doing students a disservice† has errors. Not all companies look into college transcripts before they hired a future employee they are several other facts that come in play before the hiring process, for example past experiences, work history, military experience, resume, etc. In conclusion, validity is a property of forms or structures of deductive arguments. It does not mean that their proposals are always true. An invalid form means that even if the premises are true, the conclusion is not necessarily true. Therefore, there are deductive arguments that may be valid, but not true, and, therefore, not solid. References Moss, P. A. (2007). Reconstructing validity. Educational Researcher, 36(8), 470-476. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216903729?accountid=458 Vallely, P. (2013, Dec 07). Nelson Mandela. The Independent Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1465444822?accountid=458 NAPOLEON AND HITLER. (2010). Kirkus Reviews, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/915700909?accountid=458 Kivisto, P. (2013). Evil. Choice, 50(5), 976. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1312183109?accountid=458 Herman, G. (2008). Teenagers credit cards. Retrieved from www.consalidatedcredit.org: http://www.consolidatedcredit.org/credit-card-debt/teenagers-and-cards/#back Belkin, D. (2013, Aug 25). Are you ready for the post-college SAT?; employers say they dont trust grade-point averages. Wall Street Journal (Online) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1427661410?accountid=458 McNichol, P. (1999, Mar 11). Good grades for georgian: Most grads, employers happy with college courses. Sun Times Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/349164482?accountid=458

Death of a Tumor Essay -- Biology Cancer

Cell Background Animal cells are eukaryotic and have a very complex structure. A eukaryotic cell is composed of many membrane-enclosed organelles. Organelles are compartments that perform different functions inside the cell. An organelle called the nucleus contains the genetic material, or DNA, and is the most vital organelle of the cell because it is responsible for carrying the genes that make up the body. A cell's membrane is composed of two layers that regulate the flow of materials in and out of the cell. Along the membrane are several kinds of receptor proteins that detect foreign materials. A cell replicates by a process called mitosis. In this process the chromosomes pair up and when the cell divides and each cell is genetically identical. Any mistakes in this process can lead to cancer. If somewhere along the line, the normal regulation of mitosis is broken and the cell divides continuously and out of control. This is how tumors are created. There are many reasons for the mitotic cycle to break such as the loss of certain checkpoints, which make sure the cell is dividing normally. Without these checkpoints in the cycle of mitosis, the cell does not divide normally, and this usually leads to the growth of tumors. Tumor Prevention There are several ways to prevent cancer, but some of the time cancer is a genetic defect that cannot be prevented. Overexposure to sunlight or tanning salons may cause skin cancer. Clothing and sunscreen protects the skin from the sun and can decrease the chances of skin cancer. To decrease the risk of developing cancer, one should not smoke. Smoking increases the risk of developing cancer of the lung, mouth, throat, esophagus, panc... ...s showed that Raf-1 had indeed prevented angiogenesis from occurring by making apoptosis successful in destroying the tumor. TUNNEL had shown that the nearby dead blood vessels had self- destructed leaving behind signs of apoptosis in tumor cells. This supported what the scientists had confirmed that each blood vessel has the ability to support 50-100 tumor cells. When the blood vessel dies, so do the tumor cells, thus crumbling into a concentric ring. Resources & Links: [1]Cancer Research UK. Catrin Pritchard, Ed. University of Leicester. http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/research/loc/ leicester/leicester_univ/pritchardc/pritchardcover?version=1 Purves, William, Sadava, David, and H. Craig Heller, eds. The Science of Biology. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 2001. Signal Transduction. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology.

East Coast Yachts cash flows Essay

When looking at a statement of cash flow it’s essential to find out what resources are being used under the operations category. As our text states, operating cash flow is really the cash flow generated by business activities, including sales of goods and services. Under this category organizations can also calculate tax payments, but not financing, capital spending, or changes in net working capital (Ross, Westerfield, Jaffe, & Jordan, 2009). When examining the East Coast Yachts cash flow statement we can see operating costs are just high enough to finance the company’s purchase of fixed assets. Understanding what information is under each category is a key concept to understanding how the cash flow statement is set up. Which cash flows statement more accurately describes the cash flows at the company? The most accurate cash flow statement that describes the cash flows of East Coast Yachts would be the official accounting statement of cash flows. In this exercise there is only on cash flow statement so I would have to say this one would be the most useful when making business decisions. In light of your previous answers, comment on Larissa’s expansion plans. Overall, when and if Larissa plans an expansion for this company they must find a way to raise additional capital. Currently as it stands the company really doesn’t have the assets to make an expansion. They are barely covering their costs as is and the amount of money to expand is really not available to them at this time. Looking into  other investors to fund this expansion could be an option. Reference Ross A Stepehen, Westerfield W Randolph, Jaffe F Jeffrey, Jordan D Bradford. (2009). Corporate Finance, Core principles and applications. Second edition. McGraw-Hill & Ir

Mcdonalds Operating Strategy Essay

Introduction McDonald?  ¦s, first started by Ray Krov, is now one of the most popular fast food restaurants across the world. They proudly serve more than 46 million customers in 59 different countries and have more than 30,000 different locations domestically and internationally (Food Service). The fast food industry is booming at a rapid rate, especially the healthy trend, with this in mind, McDonald?  ¦s has strategically plan to stay on top of their competitors by providing consumers with more options of healthy meals, cheaper prices, and better service. McDonald? ¦s is competitive in many categories; examples are price, quality, management and employee training, other categories will be explained throughout the preceding sections. Consumers trust McDonald?  ¦s products because they use many of the same trusted brands that families buy at local grocery stores. The only difference is that their shopping cart is a whole lot bigger. OPERATIONS COMPETITIVE STRATEGY McDonald?  ¦s Corporation competes in a challenging market segment by providing need-satisfying products to customers. In this segment, ineffective competitors often fail without proper strategies . To sustain its viability, the McDonald?  ¦s corporation employs an effective competitive strategy to make it stand out against competitors such as other fast food restaurants. McDonald?  ¦s competes on several bases, including cost, speed, and nutrition, their strongest priority is ?  §making customers happy (?  §McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide 3). The company recently made drastic changes to its process by introducing the ?  §Made for You system (Chase). Competition Bases Speed McDonald?  ¦s competes on several bases mainly to ?  §make their customers happyby providing speedy, affordable, and nutritious foods. Through extensive market research and survey, the organization discovered that its customers desire speed as one of the restaurants?  ¦ top priorities. Therefore, McDonald?  ¦s vision aims to ?  §provide fast, friendly and accurate service (?  §McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide 5). McDonald?  ¦s realizes that specific targets are necessary to measure the performance of speed, and continuously takes relevant measurements to compare actual performance with desired targets (measurements are detailed later in this report in the ?  §Quality Managementsection). To achieve efficient service times, the company utilizes proven, standardized training processes for its employees and new drive-thru layouts to reduce service times. Along with speed, McDonald?  ¦s also competes by offering prices at a low cost. Cost To offer high quality products at low cost, requires efficient processes throughout the entire McDonald?  ¦s organization. Once again, this goal is built into their vision statement when they claim that ?  §We will be the most efficient provider so that we can be the best value to the most people (?  §McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide 5). McDonald? ¦s incorporates several avenues to provide great value to its customers: ? XOne strategy that the company has employed for many years is the value meal. The value meal allows customers to buy a sandwich, french fries, and beverage at a discount when purchased together. McDonald?  ¦s restaurants offer from seven to twelve value meals, both for their lunch menu and breakfast menu. ?XMore recently, McDonald?  ¦s began offering a value menu, consisting of many individual items costing only $1. 00 each. First tested in southern California, the value menu has proved to be very successful and has been since incorporated to the individual stores .? Some individual franchise owners choose to offer daily specials of special menu items, such as ?  §$0. 39 hamburger Wednesdays, or other similar specials. Big Mac Mondays are a popular regional promotion. Nutrition McDonald?  ¦s third main competitive base is nutrition. The organization understands that health trend is an increasingly popular trend therefore; the organization has recently focused extraordinary efforts to promote their new nutritious choices. Although not specifically built into the organization?  ¦s vision, McDonald?  ¦s has already introduced many options to achieve this goal: ? In the United States, ?  §Go-Active meals have been offered within the last few years. These meals include a salad, bottled water, and a ?  §step-o-meter to help customers keep track of how many steps they take a day. ?XOther countries have seen similar healthy options. The United Kingdom saw fresh fruit bags, containing apples and grapes, as an alternative to french fries (?  §McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide 12). ?XNot only does McDonald?  ¦s care about its customers, but it is also considerate of its employees?  ¦ health. In Europe, the organization worked with external nutritionists to develop an ? Employee Guidebookwhich contains tips and nutrition information for healthy lifestyles (?  §McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide 13). ?XMcDonald?  ¦s has assembled their Global Advisory Council on Balanced Lifestyles. This council consists of exercise & obesity specialists, environmentalists, and other professionals to ensure that McDonald?  ¦s takes appropriate steps in helping its customers achieve optimal health. ?XThe company is also utilizing technology to their advantage. The current McDonald?  ¦s website lets a user select any combination of menu items, place the items in the online bag, and conduct a nutritional analysis on their selections. The user can break down the analysis even further than a menu item, down individual condiments, including ketchup, pickles, etc. (?  §Bag a McMeal ). Not only has the company introduced many steps to ensure nutrition, but it will strive to continue the trend toward nutrition. McDonald?  ¦s plans to: add additional healthy menu options (fruits and vegetables); increase nutrition awareness among McDonald?  ¦s employees; conceive new ways to deliver nutrition information to its customers, and other actions (?  §McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide 13). Strongest Priority ? §At McDonald? ¦s, making customers happy is what our business is all about. And we know it takes a lot to make that happen. We work hard to provide every customer with a choice of meals and an experience that exceeds their expectations. The preceding statement is the quote which introduces McDonald?  ¦s Worldwide Corporate Social Responsibility Report (2004). Although the company strives to compete on several bases, their ambient goal is customer satisfactions. They reach this goal through a variety of efforts. McDonald?  ¦s visionary goal is to continually improve their organization. One example is the manager on duty task of completing a ?  §travel path every thirty minutes of his shift. During a travel path, the manager personally checks every aspect of the restaurant, including: the lobby area where customers eat; the restrooms; the grill area behind the counter; the walk-in refrigerators and freezers; the stock area; as well as the entire perimeter outside the restaurant (Phillips, Eddie). Through completing travel paths, management continuously checks every aspect of the restaurant throughout the day. In addition to short term continual improvement, McDonald?  ¦s organization also thinks ahead for long term improvement. To ensure that they serve 100% safe food, McDonald?  ¦s conducts food safety tests multiple times throughout the day. The corporation changes ?  §Food Safety book used by the managers several times a year, in efforts to think toward the future for the most appropriate variables to measure (food safety will be further illustrated in the ?  §Quality Management section). Along with internal improvement to the organization, McDonald?  ¦s also collects external information from its customers to discover which aspects the company performs well, and which aspects could be improved. The manager is supposed to talk to at least one customer during each travel path and the manager can immediately react to this direct face-to-face communication. On a larger scale, McDonald surveys its customers two times per year. To entice customers to submit feedback, the organization offers a free sandwich in return for a completed survey (Phillips, Kenny). In summary, McDonald?  ¦s strives to reach its goal of ?  §making customers happy through their normal competitive bases of speed, price, and nutrition, and they also ensure customer satisfaction through continual improvement of their operations. Strategy Changes Made for You McDonald?  ¦s organization recently underwent drastic strategy changes to better serve their customers. Under their ?  §old system, the company would make several sandwiches at once, and hold the sandwiches in a warming bin until purchased by a customer. Under this system, management had to precisely predict how much food had to be put on hold. Precise prediction had to be used because if there were not enough food placed on hold, this would create the problem of increase waiting times for customers, and too much food would cause waste of expired items. McDonald?  ¦s dramatically changed their strategy in order to stay competitive with other fast food organizations. In 1999, McDonald?  ¦s spent $181 million to introduce their ?  §Made for You system (Chase). Under this new system, standard food items are not held in a bin until they are sold. In the ?  §Made for You system, modern technology greatly assists McDonald?  ¦s operations. When a customer places an order, the sandwich items are immediately displayed on a computer monitor in the kitchen and a tone sounds to alert the kitchen staff. Upon a new order, an employee in the kitchen will toast the bun, and assemble the sandwich accordingly. Standard items simply list the name of the sandwich, while customized orders list the sandwich name and the desired condiments. Once the sandwich is assembled, it is presented to the food loading area, where a different staff person retrieves the sandwich and completes the order by adding french fries, desserts, etc. The system works the same for front counter orders as well as drive-thru orders (Phillips, Kenny). Unfortunately, the introduction of the ? Made for Yousystem did not come easily. McDonald?  ¦s watched its customer satisfaction drop for the three consecutive years beginning in 1999 (Chase). After further research, they realized that although the new system provided fresher food, it was not as quick as the previous system. Instead of reverting back to the old system, McDonald?  ¦s continues to fine tune ?  §Made for You and add new options to help the system work faster. Revitalization Plan In order to cope with the first ever quarterly loss that resulted from inefficient use of the Made for You system (Chase), McDonald? ¦s has devised a new plan to increase profits. Previously, the corporation emphasized adding more restaurants to increase sales, but the new plan places emphasis on increasing sales at existing restaurants. The new plan will reduce spending, to enable more cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases (Cantalupo). Specific goals of the revitalization plan are to: ? XAttract new customers ?XEncourage existing customers to visit more often ?XBuild brand loyalty ?XCreate enduring profitable growth The main goal is to increase sales by creating an exceptional customer experience. McDonald?  ¦s plans to achieve this goal by focusing on its people, products, places, prices, and promotions. Menu Along with changes in their process strategies, McDonald?  ¦s has flirted with menu changes as well. Last year, they offered a ?  §new taste menu, where they offered a new sandwich for one week. The purpose was to offer customers a variety of options to satisfy peoples?  ¦ desire for variety. However, the new taste menu proved to be ineffective. Some customers would fall in love with an item, but it would only last one week, and they would be frustrated that they couldn? ¦t purchase their new beloved favorite sandwich. More recent changes to the menu have proved effective. McDonald?  ¦s realized that many of today?  ¦s customers seek healthy food options, and the corporation has offered items accordingly. As mentioned under ?  §Competition Bases, McDonald?  ¦s now offers a wider variety of nutritious items and provides information to help its customers as well as employees make informed healthy choices. QUALITY MANAGEMENT McDonald?  ¦s Corporation incorporates many quality management factors in its business process. Some of the most important plans undertaken to ensure quality include speed measurements, the five P?  ¦s (People, Product, Price, Place, and Promotion), employee training, and other factors. Speed One of the major quality management control factors includes minimizing the time that processes are done; this ensures an effective and efficient operations. A lot of these processes are done through the use of the latest information technology, whether it was through calculating the time of the processes or even making a database to value and make improvement to their processes. For example, one measurement is called Total Time in Line (TTL) which calculates the total time customers spend in the McDonald?  ¦s line, from the time the customer begins ordering until the time they get their food. TTL measurements are calculated the same way, the target TTL differs because of the service provided through the drive through or inside the restaurant. McDonald?  ¦s considers the fact that drive through customers usually expects their order faster and therefore, the drive through target TTL is 90 seconds. The target is slightly higher for the in-the-store customers because of the extra time they are willing to spend in the store (Phillips, Eddie). Along with measuring TTLs, other programs are utilized to make the speed of the service more efficient. The ?  §Made For You system uses the Kitchen-Video-System (KVS) to support fulfilling speedy orders. The Made for You system allows the order taker to enter or delete the orders on a touch screen that lists sandwiches, as well as individual condiments, in a way that eases the data entry process for the worker. As soon as any food is ordered, from any register, the necessary food items are displayed on a computer monitor in the kitchen. The kitchen staff immediately begins to prepare the food, and then erases the orders from the screen as the food is finished. Similar to TTLs, the time is measured between when an item is first displayed on the monitor, to the time when it is served. McDonalds continuously monitors these kitchen times in order to ensure that the Made for You system is working as efficiently as planned (Phillips, Eddie). Technology not only measures performance values within the organization, but it also assists in the drive through area. When a drive through worker is taking an order, it is displayed automatically on a screen available to the customer outside, called the Customer Order Display (COD). The customer can review the COD and correct any mistakes, thus making the ordering process more precise. More precise orders eliminate time wasted from correcting mistakes (Phillips, Kenny). Maintaining the speed and accuracy of the processes in McDonald?  ¦s is also done through less technological techniques. McDonald?  ¦s uses different colored packages to help the employee recognize the different types of food; colored wrapped sandwiches makes it easier to distinguish what is wrapped beneath. For example, a cheese burger is wrapped in yellow colored paper and a fish fillet is wrapped in blue, while a hamburger is wrapped in white paper. Special ordered sandwiches without standard condiments come in red and white paper, with a paper receipt attached which details the items on the sandwich (Phillips, Eddie). Quality Inspections Food safety is one of McDonald?  ¦s top priorities. Every restaurant is required to check food temperatures, expiration dates, and other food safety hazards several times throughout each day of operation. The corporation sends a standardized Food Safety book to every store which includes a comprehensive list of every item that needs to be measured. Cooked food temperatures are measured to ensure that all food is cooked properly before served. Refrigerated and frozen foods are also checked to make certain that they do not get too warm and are not spoiled. Expiration dates are checked on foods frequently, if the item is expired than it is discarded. Equipment is also measured to ensure that it is functioning properly. Also included in the safety checks is the water temperature in the restroom sinks, workers must be caution because water that is too hot can burn customers. Food safety checks are performed throughout the day, often during one of the manager?  ¦s many travel paths, which were described earlier in this report under ?  §Competitive Strategy (Phillips, Eddie). Periodic corporate inspections are one of the major quality management controls at McDonald?  ¦s. The McDonald?  ¦s Corporation applies two major inspections on each restaurant per year. One is called Field Operations Review (FOR), and the second is called System Observation Review (SOR). Since the inspections are made periodically, restaurants have two opportunities to pass the test. If the store fails to pass the inspection the second time, corporate takes over the store and brings in better employees to ensure that the proper processes and equipment is being used properly. Both inspections are extraordinarily thorough and they are based on a point system, points can be taken off for many different reasons. For example, points can be reduced if the credit card system is too slow, the store? ¦s walls have cracks, or even if the restaurant performs processes that slows the serving time. Points will also be lost if employees are not dressed according to regulations, this includes wearing name tags (Phillips, Kenny). Mcdonald?  ¦s must also provide a food safety log of recorded entries to ensure that proper food testing is completed properly (Phillips, Eddie). The Five P?  ¦s Even though many of the quality management processes in McDonald?  ¦s are done through the use of information technology, other quality management factors such as maintaining the five P? ¦s forces (People, Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) are essential in any business. Consequently, McDonald?  ¦s Corporation uses these related forces in the sense that each P creates a chain affect on each other. The following is a list of methods using the P forces. The first force is the people working in the McDonald?  ¦s chains, which are represented by service, hospitality, and pride. The staff employed in McDonald?  ¦s are continuously trained and kept in the company to reduce the cost of training short-term inexperienced workers. Moreover, the training process has been improved to include online e-learning tools for the restaurant staff. Maintaining the workers in the company is very important to McDonald?  ¦s and the corporation rewards workers who do outstanding services. This form of incentive is motivational to the workers (Cantalupo 4). The second force is the products which include the quality, taste, and price of the goods sold. McDonald?  ¦s is trying to establish flexibility with the changing tastes and preferences in the market, Moreover, they are also seeing growing interest in premium product and wholesome food choices. The quality and safety of the food is a main entity in maintaining the quality of the food at McDonald?  ¦s (Cantalupo 4). The third force is place which is represented by the clean, relevant, and modern store environments. Whether it was in the main restaurant area, the kitchen, or even the restrooms, the company ensures the safety and comfort for the consumers and staff workers. The company intends on having the gold standards for cleanliness (Cantalupo 5). The fourth factor is price, which is presented in the productivity and value. The value of the product is increased when consumers gets high quality products for lower costs. Therefore, McDonald?  ¦s Corporation ensures that its customers receive the highest value of food for the price they pay (Cantalupo 5). The fifth factor is promotion which is presented in marketing, leadership, and trust. The company has already earned its reputation for good quality food so they just focus on customers cares. They do this through community involvement and their social responsible towards the environment. This process will gain the trust of loyal customers and keep them for life (Cantalupo 5). Training McDonald?  ¦s realizes that its employees must understand their duties in order to fulfill the organization? ¦s goals. To ensure that all employees properly perform their assigned duties, McDonald?  ¦s invests greatly in their training program. The company continues to receive prestigious awards for their leading-edge training, including the ?  §Employer of Choice Award from the Restaurant Business Magazine (?  §Restaurant Management ). New crew members go through a thorough orientation process consisting of several videos, followed by several days of direct one-on-one training by a trainer. After employees feel comfortable with the operations, they may be promoted to Crew Trainers. Crew Trainers undergo further training for specialized processes such as the grill area, front counter, drive-thru, and other areas. Shift supervisors are the next step in the organization, followed by Second Assistant Managers, followed by First Assistant Manager, and the top manager at each McDonald?  ¦s restaurant is the Restaurant Manager (Phillips, Eddie). Training never stops at McDonald?  ¦s, no matter which position an employee holds. Some current employees describe McDonald?  ¦s as the ?  §best training company in the world (Phillips, Kenny). To improve the Made for You system, McDonald? ¦s recently introduced a strategy called ?  §Shift into Overdrive,?  ¦ and this strategy focuses on helping shift managers work more efficiently. All McDonald?  ¦s restaurants are required to send at least one manager to participate in the new training program (Phillips, Kenny). This training mainly focuses on the human aspects of Made for You, this ensures that the system is being used as design. Since the new system requires seamless work from several people, the entire team must work together for the system to work quickly to provide food to customers. Finally, to ensure the quality of the operations, McDonald? ¦s does surveys periodically to get feedbacks from customers (Phillips, Eddie). As shown throughout this section, the McDonald?  ¦s Corporation has been doing a very good job at keeping the quality of its products and services, whether it was through using computerized equipment or to train their human resources. RAW MATERIALS The Arrival & Maintenance Through the intense process of choosing and manufacturing raw materials, McDonald?  ¦s customers can be assured of a quality product. Whether arriving via truck or train, raw materials are delivered fresh and ready to use everyday. To ensure that this freshness is passed onto the customer, each arriving package is personally inspected for damage during its travel. In addition, the condition of delivery trucks are also taken into account to make sure that meat was untainted due to a filthy meat cooler. The meat cooler should always be set at 10 degrees below zero and the meat should remain at a constant temperature of 34 to 38 degrees. While some inspections are known, others are random to ensure that quality is consistent from one delivery to the next. The promise of high quality for McDonald?  ¦s raw materials does not cease to end at the delivery trucks. Inside the restaurant, the temperatures of freezers and refrigerators are recorded twice a day to guarantee the highest grade of ingredient usage. These temperatures are recorded in a book which is required to stay on premise for 60 days. After such time span, the book is moved to a local record storage where all previous data information is held. Grade ?  §A Beef and Other Meats All beef cooked at McDonald?  ¦s is of Grade ?  §A quality and 80%-82% lean. McDonald?  ¦s not only supports humane slaughtering of animals and refuses to purchase dairy cows over 5 year old due to the toughness of their meat. Upon the arrival of meat, received from Otto & Sons, Inc. in Chicago, a two hour supply is taken directly to the grill side freezers which stand at a constant temperature of 0 degrees. Once placed on the grill, the meat is cooked at a specific temperature to assure the meat holds the proper internal temperature to meet the requirements of food safety and yet hot enough to hold its natural juices. Cooked hamburger patties and other meat products are stored in a humidity controlled cabinet until usage to ensure that patties remain hot and moist. The preparation time of a hamburger should not take longer than 90 seconds and only 35 seconds after the hamburger bun itself has been toasted. This allows each customer to receive his/her meal in the timeliest fashion. Produce It is a known fact that agronomists can spend up to two years assisting a farmer grow perfect russet potatoes, 6-inches long, that produces a finished fry which is appealing both in looks and taste. In addition many produce items, lettuce for example, have specifications that are two pages long. With this many guidelines in place, McDonald? ¦s can guarantee that they are delivering to their customer the best ingredients possible. The produce delivered from Condie?  ¦s in Salt Lake City to the Evans and Colorado McDonald?  ¦s restaurant arrives via railroad to ensure that freshness is maintained. Upon inspection, should any produce not meet the correct internal temperature, the refrigerator is either immediately altered or the items are discarded. Restaurant Inspection Since McDonald?  ¦s believes so strongly in high quality products, Licensees are expected to obtain their desired product needs directly from suppliers rather than the McDonald? ¦s Corporation. While this ensures that the best raw materials are purchased at a reasonable price, it often leaves the McDonald?  ¦s Corporation ?  §in the dark concerning the safety precautions and procedures of franchised restaurants. As a result, the McDonald?  ¦s Corporation makes both announced and unannounced visits to international McDonald?  ¦s restaurants to ensure that proper procedures are being followed. With each visit, the restaurant being inspected is graded on their proficiency and performance. Based on this grade, the corporation will determine eligibility for growth of new franchise locations. In addition, the failure to meet requirements can result in a default in your franchise agreement for the following term. FORECASTING Aspects of Forecasting McDonald?  ¦s has a continual means of receiving information from customers, employees, and the industry that effects short, medium, and long term decision making and forecasting. Different kinds of information are received from all levels of the corporation and are used to learn more about the market movement and advertisement structure, to basic everyday processes in production and packaging of goods for the targeted markets. Forecasting is done in large by the corporation, as part of their responsibility to the franchisee?  ¦s and McDonald?  ¦s shareholders. Through our interview with the owner, we learned a lot about the basics of McDonald?  ¦s business and hierarchy; we were not able to get more in-depth information that is used for their budgeting, marketing, advertising, forecasting, and innovations of new products to come because it contains confidential contents. This is due to the scrutiny from people looking for flaws, bad business conduct, and other degrading allocations of McDonald? ¦s. Everything that was recorded was cleared at the corporate level. Forecasts are vital to McDonald?  ¦s organization and significant management decisions. Forecasts provide the basis for budgetary planning, cost control, planning new products, process selection, capacity planning, and facility layout. Typically, McDonald?  ¦s uses a qualitative type of forecasting. The main information used in forecasting the stability and future growth of the corporation is by the number of customers going in and out the door and all voiced opinions. There are different medians of communication for customer to relay there ideas, opinions, concerns, and problems they have with McDonald?  ¦s. At the particular location, a customer has employees, managers, and owners to voice what?  ¦s on their mind and how they like what?  ¦s going on in the restaurant. Often, McDonald?  ¦s managers and owners use open ended questions to allow customers to expand on what they want to talk about. McDonald?  ¦s nationally offers an 800 number for customers to use when the corporation has fallen short of their expectations or when a location makes a mistake with their order. Internationally, McDonald?  ¦s has a website that is not only interactive and informative throughout the 59 nations they supply to, but is a place for customers to voice their opinions and complaints. And as an owner of the McDonald?  ¦s on the intersection of Evans Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, Ronald Lessnau exclaimed, ?  §We listen! At the corporate level, qualitative forecasting can be seen, even with limited information that was given. Market research department takes data from talking with customers to find out how they like or feel about a particular ad campaign or a specific commercial. And product development department uses input on developing a new product or changing how the new product is prepared, priced, or packaged. McDonald?  ¦s has been extremely accurate in forecasting trends or needs the customers want and request. Mr. Lessnau states, ?  §McDonald?  ¦s, in the past has helped customers deal with their changing lifestyles. An example of this is when the Egg McMuffin, the first hand held breakfast sandwich by Herb Peterson, was introduced for the first time. ? §It took 10 years for breakfast to be successful at McDonald?  ¦s and now McDonald?  ¦s cracks more farm fresh, grade ?  §A eggs daily than the largest institution in the United States, the US Military. As consumers, it is known that McDonald?  ¦s has gone through a lot and where not always correct in projections influenced by the greatest number of customers. Even with using a qualitative forecast, the future is not always so clear so see. 12 years ago, due to the strong focus group surveys responses to healthier products put into motion the making of McLean Burger. McDonald developed and marketed the McLean Burger. It had 7% fat and was the best low fat burger on the market, costing 53 cents a pound more then the normal beef. It did not sell! Customers later decided that the product was too expensive and did not taste as good as its?  ¦ fatty brother. And maybe decisions that are based on the idea that the history of occurrences over time can be used to predict the future, time series forecasting, can explain why McDonald?  ¦s is slow to react to the Atkins Diet trends. Ronald Lessnau also gave examples of when qualitative forecasting influences how he fixes errors of the passed business decisions at his establishment. Decisions he has made have been based on estimates and opinion from surveys, interviews, history of products, and questionnaires. That particular McDonald?  ¦s has extended their hours as a result of many comments. Also, years ago they reduced some of the seasoning in the chicken products in a test market, and based on interviews and focus groups they went back to the original product and did not take the change national. He also described that in Denver, Colorado locations went back to the 99-cent double cheese burgers years ago because of feedback they received in focus groups that were conducted as part of their normal market research. As Lessnau explained, ?  §Sometimes you can prevent a good idea from going bad by talking to those closest to the customer, your sales people. The data collected for these long terms and every day business decisions were from employees as well as customers. SUPPLY CHAIN Examination of Supply Chain. Food quality is the key at McDonald’s restaurant. That?  ¦s why they take pride in the foods they serve to their customers. They seek out fresh lettuce and tomatoes, quality buns and potatoes, pure ground beef, select poultry and fish and wholesome dairy products. McDonald?  ¦s ensures that their products are guaranteed to be the best quality before serving to their customers. McDonald?  ¦s has many suppliers in which each supplier plays a vital role in providing McDonald?  ¦s with their products. First, McDonald?  ¦s receives its raw.

Apply the Theoretical Approach to the Case Study Essays

Apply the Theoretical Approach to the Case Study Essays Apply the Theoretical Approach to the Case Study Essay Apply the Theoretical Approach to the Case Study Essay Use the Theoretical Approach to the Case Study Transference can be a powerful curative tool or a unsafe and counterproductive obstruction to fostering therapy. It is a procedure that triggers one’s memory to believe of a individual or clip period related to a individual in his/her life ( Woodhouse et. al. , 2003 ) . This trigger may take to projection, which can be defined as projecting the interaction between a known individual in one’s life onto another individual who is similar in facial look, voice or idiosyncrasies. In therapy, clients sometimes begin to associate to their healers as they did with person else in their lives ( Conner, 2001 ) . Counter-transference occurs when a healer treats the client as person that is or was familiar in the therapist’s personal life. Undetected, counter-transference can potentially be extremely damaging to the client’s wellbeing. Sometimes, healers may even respond to a client’s transference issues by reacting in counter-transference ( Shahar, 2004 ) . Many cases of transference and counter-transference are detected in the instance of Dr. Notcut and his clients, Arnold and Betty Celtic. It is interesting to first reference the sarcasm of Dr. Notcut’s reluctance to supply curative services to the Celtics, although he was non precisely certain why this was so. It appears, nevertheless, that Dr. Notcut felt that Mr. Celtic’s petition for therapy was slightly superficial and indefensible. However, it could besides be possible that it was due to Dr. Notcut’s subconscious sensing of possible counter-transference. This irony highlights the fact that the phenomena of transference and counter-transference can non be easy detected or predicted. It is a procedure that alternatively unravels in the procedure of therapy over clip. Although descriptions of Dr. Notcut’s relationship with her gramps was non discussed for some clip within the instance description, Dr. Notcut began doing elusive mentions to his gramps early on in his relationship with the Celtics. Dr. Notcut described the Celtics manner of dressing in what his gramps would name a â€Å"flat hat† and â€Å"bonnet† . Dr. Notcut identified a peculiar clip period of the clients’ lives to be comparative to his grandfather’s. This connexion to his gramps may hold been a elusive and benign one, peculiarly if it were an stray incident. However, it is observed that other possible issues of counter-transference occurred between Dr. Notcut and Mr. Celtic as therapy progressed. After seeing Arnold for some clip, Dr. Notcut had a dream. In the dream, Dr. Notcut experienced feelings of irritation and choler when Arnold was persistently laughed upon by others for acting a certain manner. The laughter was based on a gag initiated by Dr. Notcut. The events of the dream parallel really closely with Dr. Notcut’s described feelings of great fondness for but embarrassment toward his gramps. It is possible that counter-transference was happening as Dr. Notcut began to sympathize with and derive an apprehension of Arnold as he at the same time besides felt this empathy for his gramps. Therefore, he showed choler and perchance repent for roasting Arnold in his dream. Another country for possible counter-transference between Dr. Notcut and Arnold relates to similar parent-child relationships, in the sense that a relationship was basically non-existent between both work forces and their parents. Arnold’s parents, although present physically, were unavailable to him. As he stated, his male parent was an alcoholic, his female parent badly depressed. Dr. Notcut’s parents were besides physically present, based on his study that he visited them on a regular basis. However, as he stated, the relationship was superficial due to their dedication to their callings and deficiency of desire to raise a kid. Dr. Notcut mentioned during depth psychology that Arnold had â€Å"a deep-rooted fond regard to his father† . He added that Arnold’s ambivalency toward his male parent represented Arnold’s desire to both keep a valuable relationship with her male parent, but besides distance himself wholly. It is of import that Dr. Notcut expression within himself to detect his ain feelings toward his male parent ; and to besides screen out whether his reading is an integrating of his ain feelings and those of Arnold’s. Transference was besides detected between the Celtics. Betty mentioned that she was powerless since childhood due to her gender. Her household did non see her every bit to her male siblings, peculiarly her male parent. Therefore, Betty decided to recover control over her life as an grownup. This end to recover control was born out of her relationship with her household of beginning but was so applied to her matrimony. This determination surely led Betty to authorise herself and go a more self-asserting grownup. However, due to the transference that occurred, issues environing control in her matrimony appeared to be more hard to draw apart from household issues of control. It is besides interesting that Betty was one time the sensed â€Å"weak† individual in a relationship, and now taken complete control over state of affairss, even ruling them. Further, she even came to contemn failing and had great trouble associating to Arnold when he appeared to be weak. In her interactions with Arnold, it appears that she despises failing because it causes her to see her younger and â€Å"weaker† ego in Arnold’s minutes of failing. This transference is a contemplation of herself, but in a different clip in her life. Due to the complex nature of this signifier of transference, it can easy travel undetected and perpetuate a rhythm ; in this instance, a rhythm of control. Transference and counter-transference can be valuable tools in easing therapy and in the therapist self-reflecting sing his or her ain issues. However, these signifiers of processing may besides be damaging to the curative procedure. It is pertinent that clinicians continually self-reflect upon their ain purposes and connexions with a client’s personal narrative. Merely so can clients be served to the fullest potency. Mentions Conner, M.G. ( 2001 ) . Transference: Are you a biological clip machine? The Source. Shahar, Golan. ( 2004 ) . Transference–Countertransference: Where the ( political ) action is. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 14 ( 4 ) , 371-396. Woodhouse, S. , Schlosser, L.Z. , Crook, R. , .Ligiero, D. , A ; Gelso, C. J. ( 2003 ) . Client fond regard to therapist: Relations to transference and client remembrances of parental caregiving. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50 ( 4 ) , 395-408.

Brain Mechanisms Controlling Drug Addiction Reinforcement

Brain Mechanisms Controlling Drug Addiction Reinforcement Discuss how theories relate drug addiction to endogenous brain mechanisms controlling reinforcement, and look at how these theories may be used to improve the effectiveness of treatment of addiction In psycho-biological terms addiction is regarded as the perceived need for a drug or substance and the potential for the subsequent re-use of that substance often manifesting itself in a pattern of drug induced behaviour. This has indicated a connection between the behavioural pattern of a user and the biological cravings that are associated with this pattern of behaviour. Due to this relationship between dependent and abusive behaviour patterns and the biological and psychological cravings for the wanted substances, research has gone into establishing the effects of drug addiction and their basis in psychology resulting in many neurobiological models. In terms of patterns of behaviour, operant conditioning provides a convenient, easy and reliable way of adjusting any subject’s pa ttern of behaviour under the conditioning of a controlled and changeable environmental. This has been conducted in research in an easily observable manner that was then able to account for factors pertaining to addiction and the potential for abuse through accordance to a pre-devised model. Through the notions of positive regard, response and reward and through shaping behaviours this could then be adjusted to test any independent variable. This acts as a convenient methodology for observing the effects of drugs and was devised by early Psychopharmacological researchers in a bid to examine the relationship between drug use and behaviour patterns. One such piece of seminal research that incorporated this relationship was conducted by Dews (1953). In his founding study, Dew began a program of operant studies in an attempt to observe the behavioural effects of drugs to see how it could act as a precursor for addiction. His initial experiments on the behavioural patterns observed in ani mals led to the establishment that a schedule of reinforcement maintaining a pattern of behaviour could play a critical role in determining the effects of a drug (Dews, 1955). Through operant conditioning and behavioural observation he was able to discern that the dose-effects of the drugs used in his experiment varied in terms of performances that were maintained under two different schedules of reinforcement. However, he was also able to observe that there was a dose range in which the rate of behaviour would increase in one schedule condition, whilst it decreased in the other condition. This was an early indication that drug addiction depended upon the schedule as much as it did the dosage. Essentially, addiction was determined by patterns of behaviour as much as patterns of behaviour were determined by drug usage. In these early experiments, Dews was able to ascertain that stimulants would increase the probability of a pattern of behaviour as it pertained to the relevant classif ication of a drug. However, he was also able to note that the drug could decrease the probability of any given pattern of behaviour itself. This research indicated that there was a variety of concepts at play within the role of addiction, such as tolerance, abuse, dependency and reward. In contemporary research, we can see that these factors have been incorporated in an attempt to identify the mechanisms in the brain that lead to dependency, abuse and addiction through the parsing of reward. This was devised by Berridge et al (2003) as the investigation to find the neuro-pharmacological basis for three main psychological components essential to the parsing of reward and onset of addiction. These were the concepts of learning that included the explicit and implicit knowledge produced by associative conditioning and cognitive processes, an affect or emotion such as implicit ‘liking’ and conscious pleasure associated with the experience of the drug, and motivation; suggest ed as the implicit incentive salient ‘wanting’ and the accompanying cognitive incentive goals. Essentially, this three way split revealed that learning (Dews schedules of reinforcement), craving (the perceived effect of the drug) and habit (Dews patterns of behaviour) were the major contributing and operating factors in the role of addiction.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 3

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS - Essay Example According to the case study, China was an attractive location for Motorola company due to its large size, as such the company set out to enter the Chinese market through establishing an office for its products before the advent of mobile handsets. As mobile handsets began to gain popularity, Motorola concentrated on manufacturing the handsets and selling them in the Chinese market. This became a huge success amid China’s difficult social and political environment. Motorola became a market leader in the Chinese handset market by early 2000s. This success can be owed to the company’s understanding of the market as well as the needs of the people. However, due to high demand of mobile phones, other companies started to manufacture and sell mobile phones and as such reduced Motorola’s market share. This is why analysts showed scepticism in the continued dominance of Motorola in the Chinese market. Globalisation is the inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies in a way that is enables individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world further, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before (Griffin and Pustay, 2010). The main motivation behind Motorola’s entry in to the Chinese market in the late 1980’s was due to stiff competition the company was experiencing at home. There was need to look for business elsewhere other than America. The market had become saturated and the cost of production was going higher, therefore making less sales and profits. The best solution was to shift some of its manufacturing facility to China. This was an untapped market with a lot of potential for the products Motorola was manufacturing and selling. Motorola therefore established an office that represented its products in 1987 and employed over 600 people to sell the products. The case study says that later in early 1990’s, Motorola China electronics was opened as well