Children Join School

Question: What are the challenges that children face when they start school? Answer: Introduction Based on the article by Liz Bayram, chief executive at the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), this paper is about the school going children and the other related factors. Childs are more likely to suffer several risks so the article is about a statistical study based on students and their parents, where Liz claimed that 66% of the parents are anxious about going schools of children. Now-a-days maximum numbers of schools are providing support to children and anticipate social, emotional and communication skills to help them become enthusiastic in learning. But yet there are some salient features that children face in their earlier grades. To attain fun at schools and enjoy course structure, children generally depend on their close friends and mates. As they arise from various different social, economical and geographical backgrounds, all the students at first cant come forward to make new friends. In this paper the researcher tested the factors statistical ly that may affect childrens acceptability in a school( Plowmann Stephen, 2003). There are several issues relating to the attachment of large peer group, chances of resilience and risks that might affect a students satisfaction and the development of childrens thinking process at the beginning of middle childhood. Growing children like to allocate themselves in peer groups and try to put in more times in their area of preferences. Failure in connecting with satisfying peer may result susceptibility and emotional problems in children further. Generally it is seen that children have an exposure to mental health problems that are caused due to the risks and resilience faced by them in the early stages of school life. One of the key situations is there that he/she might get rejected from the peer. These types of problems can be taken care by teaching social skills to them. Parents must focus on their personal lives as well to feel his child safe and lovable. Keeping a stress-free atmos phere in home is always necessary for a budding child. They should be engaged in a routine life. Rough times will come and go, but in school and also in houses, teachers and parents must teach children about hoping, keeping faith and look the radiant part of every situations, even in future circumstances. The childcare development homes conduct sessions for the parents as well as the teachers to support the children in their early years of school life. It is the duty and responsibility of the parents to take care of the emotional problems of their children (OKeffee Clarke-Pearson, 2011) Attachment issues in peer groups Peer groups consist of the members of respective work places and social life. A neighbor, classmate or an acquaintance relate to this. Research shows that 74% of new school going children tend to be in reciprocal friendships with respective peers. The percentage increases with time as peer provides companionship, intimacy, friendship and self defence, satisfaction too. Researchers found significant evidences that children who are not directly or closely involved to their peers, lately they are more likely o show incarnating symptoms. Personalizing difficulties were not subjected to poor peer acceptance but due to some teachers underreporting, lack of peer acceptance indicated these type of difficulties, by reducing the chance of an association with other variables of interest. But in several scientific studies in recent times clearly justify that complication in peer group is not responsible for low-level self worth at that time point (Reitz et al, 2012). In a study of the children a ged between five to twelve years, results confirm both incarnating and personalizing problems do not contribute to any change in peer rejection. The children, who are prone to be problematic, unruly and intrusive, likely are separated from big peer group. Depressed children limit themselves to limited opportunities regarding the inclusion of large peer due to their gripe, weak social relation and lack of motivation in general child activities. So naturally childhood depression syndrome formulates less acceptance in peer. Friendships which are supportive play a critical role in childrens psychological arrangements as they provide positive affiliation, endurance and affection (Murname Steele, 2007). Close friendship works as an emotional stress-buster leading to better psychological outcomes. Children with the syndrome of adjustment problem are unable to maintain supportive friendship. A recent study based on the students from fourth to sixth grade, supported by FDS of UCLA has done to test these features. Childrens self reports, gradation about selected students psychological adjustment informed by teachers and respective peer acceptance has also been taken into account. Data generated from two different time sources (fourth and sixth grade) were tested with hypotheses statistically. A large number of students generally from Caucasian population along with their parents were chosen as sample. As a measure of peer acceptance and psychological arrangements show they are correlated cross-sectionally. The self-reports by students and teacher report variables, whereas, show a higher range of correlation, indicating potential bias. Longitudinal associations between relations with peer group and four measures of students personalized arrangements were studied through multiple regression analysis. The researchers plotted all relevant interactions and between predictors and gender differences separately and reported their findings (Leventhal Brook-gunn, 2000) Acceptance in peer and close friendship as should be tested in sync, multiple regression models similar to explained variables are built. Acceptance by peer groups beholds as a relevant predictor of psychological adjustments. Less peer show more incarnating and personalizing symptoms. Results also indicate peer acceptance minimally depend on gender, that is less peer acceptance predict poor cognitive arrangements for both boys and girls. Many past researchers have used teachers reports to draw a relation between childrens peer acceptance and psychological adjustments, which indicates awareness of teachers has been increased in recent times (Sharp 2002). Interruptions relating to social networks have a larger mark on females self-evaluations. The overall study reveals that peer acceptance in childhood period shorten the chance of maladjustments in future period. As well as, problems in adjustments are liable to forecast difficulties in relations. Close friends support is necessary for depressive students in maintaining social skills and related acceptance. Risks and resilience Some children have an exposure to mental health problems that are caused due to the risks and resilience faced by them in the early stages of school life. Many children do flourish in spite of the risks faced by them in school. The capacity to cope with the change is a major component of mental health of the children. Risk also results to poor outcomes at times. There are few predisposing factors in families that can have an effect on the children. Some parents are more anxious and nervous than their children and that have a negative impact on the life of the children. Parents need to be supportive to help their children flourish in their respective fields. When children start attending school, they face numerous problems that have a negative impact on their lives. The exposure to a completely new world (from home to school) can affect them hugely (Aron Loprest, 2012). They will have a completely different environment from that of home since there would be teachers and peers unknown to them. Sometimes the teachers may not be cooperative as they handle a number of students at a time and it becomes difficult for them to provide attention to individual students. They might face peer pressure, which can prevent them from attending school. This has an effect on their mental health and affects the process of learning. When parents themselves are caught in hostile, angry and tense battles with each other, it becomes very difficult for them to focus on the emotional needs of their children. Even the children get involved in the battles at times. They become very confused and frightened by the violence at their home. In these cases, the children become the victims of emotional abuse and it affects them mentally, which has a negative impact on their growth in school. The risks faced by the children can also be conquered only if proper care is taken (Berk 2012). Various foundations and childcare development homes can guide the parents as well as the teachers to help the children cope up with their difficulties. They can conduct different individual sessions with the parents as well as the teachers and guide them to tackle the children at home and school respectively. The development centers teach them to understand the child psychology in their early years and help them face their childhood problems (Blatchfort 2012). This will further help the children to cope up with the daily problems and support them to become successful individuals. Helping children in their foundation years can boost them to have better future. Parents should spend more time with their children and find out about their complaints and matters to worry. They should keep a check on their childrens progress and focus on the development and learning processes of their children. This can be of much help to the children who are going to start their school (Farrington, Piquero and Jennings 2013). They can overcome their weaknesses and carry on their daily school. We can point down the risk and resilience factors in the following way: Risk Resilience Cognitive deficits like vocabulary, Social skills, direction following. Parent and Cognitive skills training and Conducting Pre-school programs. Poor parental skills. Pre-natal parental training. Poor School Involvement . Effective education and behavioral management. Rejection faced from the peers. Teaching social skills. For example, when a child goes to the school for the first time, he is very nervous and tensed. He is afraid of leaving his parents behind and facing a new world full of strangers. He needs support from his parents to face the outer world or else he will suffer from mental health problems (Griffine, Burns Snow, 1998) Children in middle childhood Middle childhood usually brings numerous changes in a childs life. They are usually in the age group of 6-8 years. These years are the developmental milestones in their lives. By this time, the children know to dress themselves, tie their shoelaces and many more developments. Starting school has already taught them to deal with a larger world. Friendship becomes more important to them. The social, mental and physical skills develop swiftly in this period. They also develop confidence in different areas of their lives. They go through emotional and social changes (Heering, Rossion Maurer 2012). They might show independence from their family and parents. They might also start thinking about their future. They pay more attention to friends and want to be accepted by them in return. Children of these age groups might show excellent mental and developmental skills. They learn to deal with the worldly changes. They also learn better techniques and ways to express their feelings and though ts. They improve their communication skills and show confidence in every matter. Various advances in understanding and learning often mark this stage of growth in children. In this period, they acquire the fundamental skills like arithmetic and reading that are regarded to be important by their culture (Lee and Vagle 2012). Self-awareness skills also develop at this stage. They find new strategies to study and practice new and creative things. They become capable to retrieve information to solve and cope with new situations and problems. They begin to coordinate actions, plan consciously, evaluate and rate their progress as well as modify their strategies and plans to improve in their fields. They learn to differentiate between the perspectives of others and them. They understand peoples behavior and react accordingly. They gather knowledge from almost everywhere and implement them in their own ways. They interact with more people consulting on various matters. This helps them to gain more knowledge about the outer world (Turner et al, 2012). They are more exposed to their peers at this stage. This stage helps to increase their skills of reasoning and questioning. Children become more curious about every matter and demands reason for everything. They become self-dependent and smart as they feel that the y can deal with every problem they face. The middle childhood prevents children from spending time with their parents. They feel more comfortable under the supervision of the teachers and other coaches. The participation of the children in different formal and school programs exposes them to various ethnic and religious groups and broader personal styles. They watch and follow the adults performing different social roles and they start comparing themselves with the adults. They try to act like grown-ups and believe in solving their own problems. They try to judge everyone from their own perspective and take decisions (Trzaskowski et al, 2012). The major event that divides preschool and the middle childhood period is when a child enters into the level of elementary school. They experience individual freedom and are allowed to move around freely. Children are very optimistic while entering to the middle-childhood period. However, few factors affect their confidence level. Some of them face different situational problems that strives them to become more pessimistic. They become frustrated and hesitate to try out new experiments. When they lose confidence, they start neglecting their subjects of study. They might also face some problems from the peer groups that can have a negative impact to the course of development (Hornby 2011). For example, a child aged six years is very confident and enthusiastic about the various activities of school. However, when a problem arises in his or her daily course, it affects him or her very badly and this is when pessimism comes in. Summary As a summary analysis based on the above result we can say that these factors are important to look out while studying the challenges that children face in their early school days. Peer acceptance is the main criteria to take care of. Starting school for the children is very important relating so some factors. There are many homes and houses where there is not so much affectionate bond between father and mother (Thorell, Rydell Bohlin, 2012). In this context a child face problem staying home when his father yelling o his mother. The children should not be involved in the family battles as that have a negative impact on the minds of the children. This also reduces their confidence level. So they search for their respective peers where they can interact with the people of the same mindset of theirs. They can grow, generate and keep budding in this type of environment. So it is reasonable for parents to teach child how to make new friends. They are also advisable to feel his/her fellow mates pain, grief with a sense of sympathy. Parents must encourage children to be a friend in order to get friend. For all these, a strong family background and support has to be implemented. Children have soft hearts, and sometimes they are introvert. So they should be handled with care. Parents must try to listen to any of their disappointments or wishes (Alaimo, Olson and Frongillo, 2001). At school, isolation from classroom, friends can be dangerous for a child. Connection building power with new persons should be nurtured from school. Many risks and resilience are present for a new school comer. Cognitive risk deficits like vocabulary, Social skills, direction following need some parent and Cognitive skills training and Conducting Pre-school programs. Poor parental skills can be reduced or overcame by pre-natal parental training. Sometimes there are poor involvements in school. Effective education and behavioral management can be the solutions of facing these types of difficul ties. In some circumstances, a child may face some events which is painful. They should be helped by advising them to focus on the larger aspect and broad perspectives of that event. But some of them, are too immature and inexperienced that they are unable to acknowledge the brighter look by their own. In that case they should be assured that the bad incident is not constant and there is a future ahead of the ongoing situation and the future always have a good possibility ( Heering, Rossion, and Maurer, 2012). Conclusions In this particular essay, we have discussed about the psychology of children as well as of their parents and teachers when the children start going to school. We have also learnt about the risks of the children and their resiliencies to overcome the situations. When children join new schools, they face numerous problems and get disheartened at the very beginning. They fear peer pressure and exposure to a new world of strangers. It affects the mental health of the students and brings down their confidence level. They face more stress and refuse to attend school because of the peer pressure or non-cooperation from the teachers. However, these problems can be easily taken care of. The childcare development homes conduct sessions for the parents as well as the teachers to support the children in their early years of school life (Easterbrooks, Bureau, and Lyons-Ruth, 2012). It is the duty and responsibility of the parents to take care of the emotional problems of their children. They shou ld understand their problems and help them to overcome those. The children should not be involved in the family battles as that have a negative impact on the minds of the children. This also reduces their confidence level. Various community problems also arise that have a toxic effect on the children. The parents and the teachers should work collectively in shaping a childs future. It is the responsibility of the parents to have regular interactions with the teachers so that they are aware of the childs progress. Local forums of schools can bring together the teachers and the parents to discuss about the betterment of the children (Waters 2012). On the other hand, it has also come to notice that the children undergo numerous changes when they enter into the period of middle childhood. The transition from early childhood to middle childhood is vast and brings many changes in the lives of the children. The transition is both positive and negative (Wang et al, 2012). They learn to ques tion things and enquire about their existence. They develop new characteristics and try to participate in every discussion. It is very important for the schools to coordinate and collaborate with the providers of childcare to conduct out-of-school programs. The programs conducted outside school are very effective and contributes to the growth of the children. If the environmental and societal changes are considered accordingly, they can help the parents to shape their childrens future in a better way (McCuaig and Region, 2012). References Beck, L., Kumschick, I.R., Eid, M. and Klann-Delius, G., 2012. Relationship between language competence and emotional competence in middle childhood.Emotion,12(3), p.503. Blatchford, P., 2012.Social Life in School: Pupils' experiences of breaktime and recess from 7 to 16. Routledge. De Heering, A., Rossion, B. and Maurer, D., 2012. Developmental changes in face recognition during childhood: Evidence from upright and inverted faces.Cognitive Development,27(1), pp.17-27. Easterbrooks, M., Bureau, J.F. and Lyons-Ruth, K., 2012. Developmental correlates and predictors of emotional availability in motherchild interaction: A longitudinal study from infancy to middle childhood.Development and psychopathology,24(01), pp.65-78. Hill, N.E. and Taylor, L.C., 2004. Parental school involvement and children's academic achievement pragmatics and issues.Current directions in psychological science,13(4), pp.161-164. Hornby, G. 2011.Parental involvement in childhood education. New York: Springer. Hudson, J.L. and Dodd, H.F., 2012. Informing early intervention: Preschool predictors of anxiety disorders in middle childhood.PloS one,7(8), p.e42359. Kersten-Alvarez, L.E., Hosman, C.M., Riksen-Walraven, J.M., van Doesum, K.T., Smeekens, S. and Hoefnagels, C., 2012. Early school outcomes for children of postpartum depressed mothers: comparison with a community sample.Child Psychiatry Human Development,43(2), pp.201-218. Luby, J.L., Barch, D.M., Belden, A., Gaffrey, M.S., Tillman, R., Babb, C., Nishino, T., Suzuki, H. and Botteron, K.N., 2012. Maternal support in early childhood predicts larger hippocampal volumes at school age.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,109(8), pp.2854-2859. McCuaig, K. and Region, W., 2012. Early years study 3: Making decisions, taking action. Raver, C.C. and Knitzer, J., 2002. Ready to enter: What research tells policymakers about strategies to promote social and emotional school readiness among three-and four-year-old children. Thorell, L.B., Rydell, A.M. and Bohlin, G., 2012. Parentchild attachment and executive functioning in relation to ADHD symptoms in middle childhood.Attachment human development,14(5), pp.517-532. Trzaskowski, M., Zavos, H.M., Haworth, C.M., Plomin, R. and Eley, T.C., 2012. Stable genetic influence on anxiety-related behaviours across middle childhood.Journal of abnormal child psychology,40(1), pp.85-94. Turner, H.A., Finkelhor, D., Ormrod, R., Hamby, S., Leeb, R.T., Mercy, J.A. and Holt, M., 2012. Family context, victimization, and child trauma symptoms: variations in safe, stable, and nurturing relationships during early and middle childhood.American journal of orthopsychiatry,82(2), pp.209-219. Wang, Z., Deater-Deckard, K., Cutting, L., Thompson, L.A. and Petrill, S.A., 2012. Working memory and parent-rated components of attention in middle childhood: A behavioral genetic study.Behavior genetics,42(2), pp.199-208.

The other sister reflection free essay sample

This movie portrays how a family, who has a member with a disability, encountered and overcame adversities from within triggered by several environmental factors. The protagonist, Carla Tate, who has an intellectual disability, seeks freedom from her mother, acceptance from others, and attention/love from opposite sex. Eventually she got those as the story developed. This only means that a disability should never serve as a hindrance in achieving your dreams. On the other hand, it also gives us an idea that persons who have sibling/s with a disability are also crying out for their parents’ attention because they too have needs. I never had the chance to experience having a sibling but I wish I had one. Actually, I can’t even relate when my cousins/friends speak of â€Å"sibling rivalry†. The bottom line of this is parents should be fair with their children; there should be no room for favoritism because it can serve as the root of quarrels and divisions. One thing that really intrigues me a lot is its title. It made me think about why it is called The Other Sister. When I heard it (the title), I supposed that the protagonist is an illegitimate child. Then as I watch, I realized that I was wrong with my presumption and I ponder that its more far from but deeper than that. I remembered her lines, mies, I can if you will give me a chance, mother, which drew me to a fact that more often than not, our parents worry too much to the point of impeding our capacity to grow. For me, she struggles a lot of being alienated inside her family when she felt at first uncomfortable with hem, when they sent her away to a far special school, and when they still cant fully accept (in denial of) her disability. Alienation because they seem cant hear the voiceawhich cries aloud within her, cant feel the hunger in her heart and cant see the real her. They want to view her the person they want her to be. It might be because they still have in their minds the little Carla whom they can easily dictate or manipulate. She is hardly begging for a chance a chance not only to be independent but also to search for self-identity and to contemplate whom she wants o be despite of her disability. I can hardly bear how much it would be difficult for persons with disability to fght for their right to be heard. Given the fact that they have a disability, still we should not forget that they also have life and right to live it to the fullest. The best part for me is when finally her mother granted her that chance to explore and celebrate life. Though its hard in her part to give that but indeed it was the best decision she made for Carla. Admit it or not, we also undergo/ undergone that same process. To tell you the truth, even l, also experience unending expectations and it sometimes irritates me. Although its not bad for others to expect from you but when youre being bound with too much expectations, it can actually exhaust you, overrule you, and even destroy you. This might serves as a boundary in achieving your goals. Yes, others opinions, including your familys, matter but sometimes it hinders what and who you really want to be. Lesson: never allow others to dictate who you will be; at the end choice is yours. -Remigio, Czarine EFR1-3 the day, its still your lite, which means

Sample Essay Comparison Between Two Short Stories

Sample Essay Comparison Between Two Short StoriesSample essays comparing two short stories are an excellent way to compare two different writing styles. You should be able to spot a few common errors in both stories, and in addition, the comparison can help you find creative new ways to make your story stand out.A short stories comparison is one of the most important things you can do for a writing project. When you have an essay to write, the odds are that it will take several drafts and multiple revisions before you can complete the project. By comparing two short stories, you can avoid getting discouraged or frustrated with the first draft.I used an effective sample essay comparing two short stories to help me improve a story I had completed. It helped me learn about the different types of characters in the stories, the pacing of the stories, the structure of the story, the themes and many other points that you may not have considered.The types of characters in the short stories a re another important thing to consider when comparing two short stories. As mentioned above, a typical novel will contain a bunch of characters in different groups; however, most short stories only contain one character in a specific group. The best part about this is that you can try to use the same type of character for all three stories.You also want to think about the pacing of the short stories. In a novel, you might start a short story with a fast pace, then slow it down when the main character decides to be more adventurous in his/her adventures. However, if you compare two short stories, you need to make sure that the pace is different in each story.When compared by comparison, you can also learn about the structure of the short stories. In a novel, the structure is very similar; however, in a short story, the structure changes for each story. The structure of a short story is usually very different than a novel; the only similarity is that the hero usually goes through a cr isis at the end of each story.Finally, when compared by essay, you will also learn about the themes in short stories. Sometimes, authors will talk about a theme and write about it in different contexts throughout the story. You can also learn about these themes and how they are presented throughout the writing.These are just a few things to consider when comparing two short stories. Remember, the goal is to use a sample essay to help you understand what to change or add to your short stories. This sample essay will allow you to see how other people did the story.

Supply Chain Automotive Industry Essay Example

Supply Chain Automotive Industry Paper Abstract While sometimes characterized as â€Å"stable† the World automotive industry continues to experience dynamic change—change that sweeps across national borders. These changes have struck in particular, the U. S and the Japanese automotive industries. To succeed, auto manufacturers must manage large and complex supply chains, spanning many geographic regions, and pursue opportunities in diverse national markets. While national policies play an important role in shaping the environment for local manufacturing operations and resulting products, cost competition increasingly drives the industry toward global product offerings. This report explores several important dimensions of the forces of change facing the U. S. and the Japanese auto industry. We will present a comparison between the Asian and North American automobile manufacturing practices and in particular, the two companies, Ford and Honda Motors. A comparison will be made between the two markets on how each handles product varieties, their delivery methods from the factory to consumers, as well as the markets channels used. A comprehensive study is made to compare the automobile product varieties in the two regions and explain how customer choices and the effect of competition have led to this diversification in the products. The importance of marketing channels has gone largely unnoticed. For this purpose, marketing channel strategies will be discussed in detail. The relationships among suppliers, customers and logistics service providers will also be analyzed, in other words, the sourcing and the in-bound supply strategies. North America Asian ? Ford Motors â€Å"Ford Taurus† ?Honda Motor â€Å"Honda Accord† Table 1: North American and Asian automakers to be analyzed in this project These two models have been chosen based on the annual report posted at the corporate sites for both companies. Honda Corporate site shows that Honda Accord achieved its highest sales recently. The choice of Ford Taurus comes from the many similarities it has with Honda Accord concerning its size, price and de mands. iii 1. Introduction U. S. Sales of Honda Automobiles (by Model) We will write a custom essay sample on Supply Chain Automotive Industry specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Supply Chain Automotive Industry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Supply Chain Automotive Industry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Worldwide vehicle production ability is growing today more rapidly than it has in the last 20 or 30 years, and this has interesting implications for the world’s auto makers. Clearly most automobile manufacturers are very optimistic about the willingness of consumers to buy up this capacity. While environmental issues exist, they are not being factored into investment decisions about increases in car production capacity. At present, the world has the capability of producing 15 to 20 million more vehicles than it is currently buying. The last four years have been extraordinary for U. S. auto companies, earning them every year between 13 and 14 billion dollars. This is not bad financial performance for an industry that was viewed as dead in 1990, when both GM and Chrysler were on the verge of filing bankruptcy. This year again will be an outstanding year both for Ford and GM. In examining how the Japanese and U. S. auto industries have changed and adjusted to adversity, we find that the turnaround of the Japanese industry has had more to do with the value of the currency than it has had to do with fundamental change for several companies. While Japanese automobile companies have suffered fairly staggering losses over the last few years, both 2001 and 2002 showed improvement because of the stronger dollar. What happened to Japanese manufacturers during the bubble economy? First, all had huge, very unrealistic expectations about where the Japanese market was going. Japan is as saturated with motor vehicles as the United States, and yet during the last few years virtually every Japanese automaker built another factory to expand capacity and maintain market share. Companies rationalized this massive increase in capacity by believing that somehow their company’s market share would grow and another company’s market share would shrink. But that theory works only if there are other companies around willing to give up market share. This, of course, is no longer the case; the world has changed and it has changed very dramatically. ?1 In the case of the U. S. industry, however, substantial fundamental changes have occurred within the automobile companies themselves, allowing them to reduce excess capacity and in the process adjust their break-even points. Over the last decade and a half, for example, Ford has closed enough capacity and start to invade the Japanese markets. In terms of productivity in the factory, Japanese also have benefited from very close relationships with suppliers. In fact, they were able to get new cars on the market every four years, mainly because their suppliers were linked to the automobile company in familial relationships that entrusted the supplier to do a great deal of the engineering work for the manufacturer. In effect, the Japanese shifted a lot of their fixed costs onto their suppliers and became variable cost assemblers. That has been hard to replicate outside Japan because U. S. automobile companies were very highly vertically integrated. But companies such as GM and Ford are no longer as vertically integrated. The company is getting rid of this business, pushing the engineering responsibilities onto their suppliers. In sum, supplier relationships in the United States are firming up and look very much like the structure in Japan. Parts manufacturers now have specific expertise and technical capability to absorb engineering work from the auto companies. As a result, companies are now looking to five-year product cycles. Suddenly what factors things that have distinguished Japanese auto manufacturers in the past and enabled them to gain market share are being matched by U. S. and European companies. So what constitutes competitive advantage? For a long time the Japanese were able to offset their excess capacity at home with higher exports throughout the world but that export potential is no longer there, especially with regard to the developed markets of North America and Western Europe. And in most markets of the developing world, the growth of home auto industries has hampered the ability of Japanese manufacturers to shift surplus capacity away from Japan. Even though exports are up substantially this year because of the weak yen, they are no where near the levels of a few years ago and certainly not high enough to absorb the excess capacity. Another trend influencing the automotive industry is consumer preference for certain features. Consumers are choosing safety (e. g. , airbags, antilock brake systems) with amenities (e. g. air conditioners, powerful engines, power steering, and compact disc players) over vehicles whose primary appeal is size and interior space. Factors influencing customer choices are performance, suitability to personal needs, and family lifestyle, safety, comfort, and appearance. Consumers are showing a taste for the practical, as embodied in the Toyota Camry and the Ford Taurus, both top sellers in the medium price range. Japanese automaker s, however, have 2 increased market share in the United States through new â€Å"luxury† nameplates: Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura. In addition, previously â€Å"compact† models such as Toyota’s Camry and Honda’s Accord have become larger and more luxurious. One of the most critical issues for the automotive industry today is competitiveness in cost, quality, and product offerings. Companies cannot survive in today’s market if they neglect any of these areas. Since that time, differences between the United States and Japan in productivity and quality have shrunk and effectively disappeared in new product development lead time, pointing to a dramatic overall improvement in the competitive position. Trends in the practices of the foreign competitors show an important part of the overall picture. Japanese trends show a strong emphasis on total product quality (e. g. , Honda, Infiniti), perhaps at the expense of lead time and development productivity (total engineering hours per development project). However, in part because of the rise in the value of the yen, the pendulum between â€Å"cost is no object† quality and cost-effectiveness is rapidly swinging toward the latter. Nevertheless, the Japanese demonstrate a strong command of the link between product design and lean production. The automobile is one of the most complex consumer products in existence. The automotive manufacturing process serves as the â€Å"moment of truth† for the entire design, development, supply chain, and manufacturing process. If the parts do not fit when the manufacturer attempts to put them together, the system has a defect that must be tracked down and eliminated. Thus, auto companies focus a great deal of attention on understanding and improving the manufacturing process. Across the world auto industry, the differences in regional averages in quality, productivity, and diversity are declining. Within regions, however, the variance in performance is high, with large gaps between the best and worst plants. Quality performance trends are similar to those for productivity. Much of the quality gap between Japanese companies and their American and European competitors has been closed. However, the variation among plants in each regional group is large. The greatest improvement is shown by European plants and by Ford plants in North America. While this improvement closed much of the quality gap with Japanese competitors, Japanese plants improved in Japan and in North America. The North American transplants have eliminated any gap in quality performance with their sister plants in Japan. As far as talking about the flexibility in manufacturing, the strategic advantages (the ability to assemble multiple product lines in a single plant) have been widely discussed over the past 3 decade. Companies that are able to produce a variety of products in their manufacturing plants have a number of advantages. Such plants are an important resource for a company with a product development strategy of high variety. In addition, flexibility enables plants to respond more effectively to changes in their competitive environment. The manufacturing plants with the highest levels of product variety have typically been those that produce many different models for export— Japanese plants in Japan and European plants. Ford plants in North America have typically been dedicated to one or a few models. The Japanese transplants started their operations in North America with low product variety while they established their production system philosophy and have slowly increased variety over time. The Japanese and U. S. utomotive industries operate differently. Japanese manufacturers typically ask suppliers regardless of location or national origin-to assume more responsibility for engineering design. In many cases, the Japanese automakers do not own patent rights to the designs for the parts they use, so that the parts suppliers must be quite specific. By contrast, American automakers usually provide d etailed designs and ask suppliers to bid on a part. We come here to the most important point in our project; the supply chain policies. The world’s automotive manufacturing sector consists primarily of about 20 very large multinational corporations. The automotive supply sector, however, comprises thousands of firms ranging in size from a few employees to more than 100,000. Drawing conclusions about such a large and diverse sector is much more difficult than for the manufacturing sector. Best practice in automotive supply chain management involves close, trusting relationships with long-standing suppliers that are intimately involved with the development and production of the components and subsystems they provide. In the past five years, Chrysler has aggressively incorporated those findings into its modus operandi, GM has largely rejected that hilosophy, and Ford has settled somewhere in between. On the surface, the advice to improve partnerships along the supply chain, drawn largely from Japanese practices, seems to have significantly helped Ford on its return to growth and profitability. At the same time, Honda insists on exerting extreme price pressure on its suppliers and aggressively negotiating division of the returns to innovations in supplied parts and subsystems. Automotive distribution and retailing were once given little attention because they were viewed as adjunct to the core business of engineering and manufacturing vehicles. However, in the past several decades, the pressures on the industry to make its factories and product development processes more efficient have spilled over into the distribution and retailing (post manufacturing) sectors—cutting profit margins and causing significant restructuring in the 4 distribution and retail industry base. This restructuring, although quite significant, has attracted much less attention than the manufacturing sector’s changes because it involves no dramatic dislocation of people, jobs, or economic base. These downstream segments of the supply chain are experiencing a shift from being capital intensive (focused on inventory investment) and people intensive (sales forces) to being more information intensive (having the right vehicle in the right place at the right time). Due to greater flexibility of labor and capital in the post manufacturing markets, this conversion from physical logistics to information logistics is shifting the power and leverage in the supply chain toward economic agents that are highly entrepreneurial and flexible. These economic forces have reduced the number of dealers in the United States (now approximately 22,000) and are expected to continue doing so. More important than the absolute dealer count is the trend toward segmentation of the many industries that make up distribution. Unlike the small group of relatively tightly organized supply chains, the post manufacturing sector is a much looser collection of organizations that are not so centrally focused around the automaker. The combination of high national productivity and the relative decrease in value of the dollar against the yen and the deutsche mark has made the United States a more attractive manufacturing site for foreign automakers. This development has provided a new source of investment, jobs, and training for Americans. Moreover, the transplant assemblers are significantly influencing the U. S. automotive supply base, both by encouraging traditional Japanese and German suppliers to set up transplant operations and by inciting the traditional U. S. suppliers to become more competitive. These improvements to the supply base, driven in part by the Japanese transplants, in turn benefit the American automobile manufacturing companies. The Japanese-transplant assemblers in North America have continued to expand their production and are now approaching a volume of three million cars and light trucks per year. The transplants represent an enormous positive economic impact for the United States, compared with having that many vehicles imported from Japan, for example. These investments have helped the Japanese companies as well, which would be in far deeper trouble had they not diversified their manufacturing base outside the high-priced labor and parts markets in Japan. The displacement of the automobile manufacturing industries employment and production with transplant production is more difficult to assess. In the main, it has decreased the financial and market dominance of the American auto industry, although none are currently threatened with survival concerns. It has also affected the geography of automotive employment within the United States. The combination of high national productivity and the relative decrease in value of the dollar against the yen and the deutsche mark has made the United States a more attractive 5 manufacturing site for foreign automakers. This development has provided a new source of investment, jobs, and training for Americans. Moreover, the transplant assemblers are significantly influencing the U. S. automotive supply base, both by encouraging traditional Japanese and German suppliers to set up transplant operations and by inciting the traditional U. S. suppliers to become more competitive. Japanese companies have constructed manufacturing facilities in many industries in the United States, including the automobile and electronics industries in recent years. However, it is the automobile parts industry that is currently perceived as being under siege. Nearly 50 Japanese automotive parts suppliers have constructed facilities here since 1979, most of them clustered around new Japanese automobile assembly plants in California, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. Hundreds more suppliers are reportedly planning American plants in the next few years and local governments throughout the United States are competing vigorously for them. Local government officials view the Japanese plants as a major source of investment, employment, and tax revenues for their communities. However, despite the warm welcome given the Japanese parts manufacturers by local communitiesand especially by the unemployed in those communitiesthey are resented by some of their American competitors. A subgroup of American auto parts manufacturers feels it is being discriminated against by U. S. -based Japanese automakers that prefer to purchase some of their parts from Japanese suppliers. In short, the industry subgroup feels it is being discriminated against because it is American, not because it cannot produce auto parts as well as Japanese companies can. In America, Honda introduced just-in-time parts delivery and rolling-model changes, which allows production of the old model right up until production of the new model begins. This approach continues to put customers first. The truth is that the customers will not just drive Hondas – they will drive Honda with their expectations. Another Honda difference is their flexibility. Honda plants have always been able to build more than one model on the same line. Recently Honda implemented an even more flexible manufacturing system that increases the speed and efficiency when introducing new models. Honda’s New Manufacturing System does this by standardizing production capabilities among its plants worldwide. This makes the shift within a plant to new model production less complex and more cost efficient.

The Tiwanaku

The Tiwanaku and sacred public areas in the capital. Significantly, there were distinctly secular structures built at the top of the pyramid that Kolata interprets as domestic residences of an elite (117). Substantial quantities of domestic refuse were found in middens associated with these rectangular structures, which were built with finely cut stones and faced inward toward a patio area in a manner not unlike that of the much smaller and earlier buildings at Chiripa. Furthermore, the Akapana is interpreted as an artificial sacred mountain by Kolata (90). In conclusion, Kolata notes that there was a very dense population outsidee Tiwanaku's architectural core. Janusek's excavation, onehalf kilometer east of the architectural core in the area called AKE2, indicated dense residential structures that dated to his late Tiwanaku IV and Tiwanaku V (Kolata 78). These structures were on top of sterile, undisturbed strata, indicating that the first expansion of an urban nature in this area occurred in the Tiwanaku IV period, after Tiwanaku III or Qeya, and that the site was not occupied during the Upper Formative. However, the Tiwanaku IVV occupation was substantial. Overall, it seems that ethnohistorical,archaeological evidence is suggested t be the most reliable by Kolata.

Negotiation Skills for Managers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Negotiation Skills for Managers - Research Paper Example 2006, p.3). For example, a sales manager and his clients may have contrasting interests. Clients always like to get the job done as cheaply as possible whereas the manager would like to get that job for a price as higher as possible. A compromise is necessary between the manager and his client in order to protect mutual interests as much as possible and for that purpose negotiation is a must. Since sales is a profession in which negotiation takes place quiet frequently, I decided to interview a car salesman of a Toyota dealership in order to get more awareness about various aspects of business negotiations. This paper is written based on the interview I conducted with that Toyota car salesman. My own perspectives of negotiation In my opinion, various types of negotiations occur every day in our life. However, in business world, negotiation occurs between an organization and its clients, organization and its employees, organization and its suppliers, organization and communities in wh ich it operates. However, negotiations between the sellers and buyers are more common in the business world. The seller wants to sell his product for maximum prices whereas the buyer would like to purchase things for minimum prices. Since these two motives are traveling in opposite directions, negotiation is the only way to settle the issues between the sellers and buyers. In short, better deal is the major motive behind every business negotiation. It is not necessary that all negotiation process may end up in victories or failures. In certain cases, both the parties may sacrifice many of their interests to get the work done. Characteristics of business negotiations As per the opinions of the car salesman I interviewed, negotiations can be classified into two different groups; 1) Negotiations that end up in the victory of one party and the failure of the other party 2) Negotiations that end up in victory to both the parties. He has labeled these negotiations as distributive (win-los e) and integrative (win-win). He has pointed out that a win-win or integrative negotiation is always desirable as both the parties may get some benefits out of the negotiation process. Distributive or win-lose negotiations may end up in the victory of only one party at the expense of the other. I asked him about the type of negotiation usually he undertakes and the reasons for that. He has told me that majority of the times he will go for integrative negotiations and only at the unavoidable circumstances; he will go for the distributive type of bargaining. In his opinion, business concepts are changing rapidly. Business management principles in the past and at present are entirely different. Earlier, sales people concentrated more on selling the goods at any cost. They used all positive and negative tactics to sell the product in the past. In other words, the intentions of a salesman in the past were to conduct only distributive negotiations in which the ultimate winner would be the salesman. As a result of such distributive negotiations, many companies lost their customer base as cheated customers or the losing customers started to look for other options. He has mentioned that as per the modern business principles, retaining of the customers is as important as attracting a new customer and therefore

How to successfully implement technological change using Essay

How to successfully implement technological change using sociotechnical principles lessons from case studies - Essay Example The whole electric-power industry felt the consequences" (Strategos, 2008). The problems that occurred at Babcock and Wilcox were attributed to quite a few different factors, namely technological difficulties. The company had built a plant at Mt. Vernon on the Ohio River and had pre-sold an entire year of pressure vessels. Before long, they noticed that every single one of the pressure vessels they were manufacturing was behind schedule (Strategos, 2008). Other problems abounded at the Mt. Vernon plant. Labor shortages, malfunctioning machines, rigid standards, and added expenses plagued the company, causing unprecedented delays to take place. Critics of the company's management team also say that corporate arrogance played a role, as had the choice for the location of the plant in the first place (in an area where labor was short and people were very difficult to train). A lot of money had to be spent in vain training workers that only 33% stayed behind after training to actually work for the company. In addition to being short on labor, the company was also short on skilled labor. The company also had equipment problems. These led to even further delays in getting the pressure vessels out (Strategos, 2008). Its customers were so frustrated by the delays that they began to take partially-manufactured units out of the Mt. Vernon plant and have the company's competitors finish them. The costs associated with these customers waiting any longer were just too high (Strategos, 2008). Kaizen Event for NC Machining According to the case study for this particular machining company "A Kaizen Event helped a jobbing-type machine shop implement workcells and set the stage for dramatic improvements in inventory, delivery, productivity, and quality." In this particular case, the results were that, "In the three months after cell startup, the pump assembly line was never once stopped or inconvenienced by a parts shortage from this cell. WIP inventory went from three months to three days. Productivity improved by about 50%. Capacity was released for increased production demand. Quality improved" (Strategos, 2008). Mechanical Control Cables This case study tells about an older organization that had grown to be very successful, but as has often been the case, met up with technological times and hit a roadblock. Their traditional way of doing things had led to too much overhead. After 2-3 consultants spent a great deal of time at the company and "taught, learned, experimented, and cajoled" (Strategos, 2008). According to the case study for this particular company, "In the end, five workcells were in place and a macro layout showed the locations of remaining cells. Training was well along and teams were developing. Supervisors were learning to deal with the cell environment. Mechtrol carried on this work in the years that followed" (Strategos, 2008). Compare & Contrast The last two cases are similar in structure, but are completely different from the first case. In the first case, major problems are causing unforgivable delays that rocked an entire industry. In the second and third cases, a few relatively minor adjustments in cell layout needed to be made in order to maximize speed, efficiency, productivity, and overall profitability. The decisions were also better thought out in the second and third cases, and the management teams took things impressively slower