Red Pandas Essay Example

Red Pandas Paper RED. PANDAS Hello, boys and girls my name is Kira, and today Ill tell you about one of our greatest discoveries When most people see the word panda, they think of the Big, furry, black-and-white Giant Panda. But the Lesser-known Red Panda, three times smaller, is also in Danger. Today classified as vulnerable, its status could Quickly change to endangered. The red panda is a living fossil. It has no close surviving relatives, and most resembles raccoons and skunks, not giant pandas. The red Pandas live in the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. They primarily eat bamboo leaves and berries and Blossoms. Red Pandas mostly stay to themselves except During mating time that is during the day time. After about 134 days the red pandas give birth to one-four young. After Birth the red pandas mother cleans her cubs and recognizes Its by smell. Baby red pandas reach adult size about twelve Months. The babies are born in small holes in the trees. If The red pandas den is discovered more than once by a Human the mother eats her cubs. Their claws are partially Retractable. They have an extended bone which is like a thumb. Red pandas live up to twelve fourteen years. Over the winter they lose 15% f body weight. We will write a custom essay sample on Red Pandas specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Red Pandas specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Red Pandas specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Like the giant pandas it has a false thumb. That is an extension of the wrist bone. The red panda is slightly larger than a domestic cat. It has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail and a waddling due to its shorter legs. The red panda is the only living species of the genus Ailurus and the Family Ailuridae. Its also in the bear families and also not closely related to the giant pandas. The red pandas have excellent camouflage against its habitat of moss- and Lichen- covered trees. The Snow leopards and wild dogs are the predators. The red pandas are most active during the ay. Also the sad part about it that they only 2500 pandas left in the world. They are primarily hunt down the red panda because they use the fur to make hats and Jackets. That led their extinction for over years. FUN FACTS white pandas. They usually like to live alone, then in groups. Also red panda use their tongues to detect smell. Therefore, thats todays lesson before you take a break kids i need to ask everyone a question. What choice will you make when you leave here today? Will you help the Red Pandas, or will you go about your normal routine? By: Kira Checkley

Japanese Labor Unions essays

Japanese Labor Unions essays After the Japanese economic boom of the 1970s, many American companies imitated many Japanese management methods, often in ways that challenged union control. The idea developed that the Japanese did not have labor unions in the way American companies do. Actually, Japanese labor unions do exist and have an important role in the industrial life of the country, though the nature of these unions may differ from what is found in the Actually, Japan has more than 65,000 labor unions, but only one-fifth of the labor force belongs to a union. Most of these unions are organized not as addressing an industry-wide job specialty as would be true in America but as enterprise unions whose membership is restricted to regular, full-time employees working in a single company and its affiliates. These unions are embedded in larger organizations: An individual company's enterprise union generally belongs to an industry-wide union federation, one example being Un'yu Roren (All Japan Federation of Transport Workers' Unions), and that federation in turn usually belongs to a national, cross-industry labor federation. The largest of these is Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation). It was established in 1989, and claimed a membership of 6.83 million people in June 2002 ("Japan Fact This actually shows a decline given that union membership stood at 35 percent in 1975, with one reason given for the decline being "a fall-off in the percentage of workers in manufacturing and other industries that tend to be highly unionized, and, in part, to an increasing number of young employees who prefer to abstain from union membership" ("Japan Fact The labor unions date from the Occupation era after World War II, and the laws passed then remain in force with few changes. These laws legitimized unions as bargaining units on ...

How to Write a Graduation Speech as Valedictorian

How to Write a Graduation Speech as Valedictorian The valedictory speech usually is delivered at the graduation ceremony by the valedictorian, the student with the highest grades in the graduating class, although some colleges and high schools have abandoned the practice of naming a valedictorian. The terms valedictory and valedictorian come from the Latin valedicere, meaning a formal farewell. Understand the Goal The valedictory should fulfill two goals: It should convey a sending off message  to the members of a graduating class and inspire them to leave the comfort and security of their school ready to embark on an exciting new adventure. You have been chosen to deliver this speech because you proved you are an excellent student who can live up to adult responsibilities. Now its time to make every student in your class feel special. As you prepare your speech, think about your shared experiences with the class and the people with whom you shared them, including popular and quiet students, class clowns and brains, teachers, principals, professors, deans, and other school employees. Its important to make everyone feel as if they played an important role in this shared experience. If you have limited experience in certain aspects of school life, ask for help in collecting important names and events you might not know about. Are there clubs or teams that won prizes? Students who volunteered in the community? Compile a List of Highlights Make a list of highlights since freshman year, focusing on the current year. Here are examples of events you could describe: Who received awards or scholarships?Were any sports records broken?Is a teacher retiring after this year?Did your class have a reputation with teachers, good or bad?How many students remain from freshman year?Was there a dramatic event in the world this year?Was there a dramatic event in your school?Was there a funny moment? You might need to conduct personal interviews to learn about these benchmarks. Write the Speech Valedictory speeches often combine humorous and serious elements. Start by greeting your audience with a hook that grabs their attention. For example, you could say the senior year has been full of surprises, or were leaving the faculty with lots of interesting memories, or this senior class has set records in some unusual ways. Organize your speech into topics describing these elements. You might want to start with an event thats on everyones mind, such as a championship basketball season, a student featured on a television show, or a tragic event in the community. Then focus on the other highlights, putting them into context and explaining their importance. For example: This year, Jane Smith won a National Merit Scholarship. This may not seem like a big deal, but Jane overcame a year of illness to achieve this goal. Her strength and perseverance are an inspiration to our whole class. Use Anecdotes and Quotes Come up with anecdotes to illustrate your shared experiences. These brief stories can be funny or poignant. You could say, When the student newspaper printed a story about the family who lost their home to a fire, our classmates rallied and organized a series of fundraisers. Sprinkle in quotes from famous people. Quotes work best in the introduction or conclusion and should reflect the theme of your speech. For example: The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.- Charles DickensYou will find the key to success under the alarm clock.- Benjamin FranklinThere is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way.- Christopher Morley Plan for Time Be mindful of the appropriate length of your speech. Most people speak about 175 words per minute, so a 10-minute speech should contain about 1750 words. You can fit about 250 words onto a double-spaced page. That translates to seven pages of double-spaced text for 10 minutes of speaking time. Tips for Preparing to Speak Its important to practice your speech before giving it. This will help you troubleshoot problem spots, cut boring parts, and add elements if youre running short. You should: Practice reading your speech aloud to see how it sounds.Time yourself, but remember you may speak faster when youre nervous.Focus on remaining calm.Get plenty of sleep the night before your speech.Eat well before your speech.Don’t try to be funny if it feels unnatural.If youre going to talk about a tragic event your class experienced (it might be awkward not to address it), make sure you do so tactfully. Consult a teacher or adviser if you have any doubts or discomforts. If possible, practice your speech using the microphone in the location where youll be graduating. Your best chance might be just before the event. This will give you an opportunity to experience the sound of your magnified voice, figure out how to stand, and get past any butterflies in your stomach.

Middle Eastern Politics Political Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Middle Eastern Politics Political Science - Essay Example Initially the area was broken into three Mandates: Palestine under Britain, Mesopotamia under Britain, Syria under France. But in the 1920s Syria and Palestine were subdivided, Syria into the countries of Syria and Lebanon, Palestine into the countries of Jordan and Palestine. Also, Kuwait was kept separate from Mesopotamia. These incidences left the new Arab states weak and divided and further were the cause for subsequent conflict. â€Å"Under the Mandate system, conquered lands were placed into one of three categories (A, B, C) and were assigned to a victorious power to govern. The countries of the Arab world were declared to be Level A Mandates, meaning that they were at a very advanced stage of development and would have only a short period of British or French control. Level A Mandates were to be autonomous (self-governing) within a short time and were to choose their own leaders and shape their own destiny. (Mandates of the B and C levels were declared to be less advanced. Most of Africa was in the B category, some small islands in the Pacific were C, meaning that independence was unlikely in the foreseeable future). In 1922 Palestine (west of the Jordan River) became a Level A Mandate under British control† (umich.edu, 1993). â€Å"The period from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 to the granting of France's mandate over Syria by the League of Nations in 1922 was marked by a complicated sequence of events and power politics during which Syrians achieved a brief moment of independence† (Library of Congress Country Studies, 1987).

EBay in Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

EBay in Asia - Essay Example 22). EBay has been trying to make its way into the Asian markets. It has been noticed that the American companies have had to face some problems in making their ways into the Asian markets. However, Starbucks has been successfully working in Asian markets since many years. Cultures have an influence over the markets thus making them cultural markets and these are the main factors that are to be understood. EBay has been a failure in understanding the culture of Asian markets (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2005, p. 23). Gunaxi is the term that American companies should be familiar with. This explains the basic nature of dynamics involved in the personal network of influence and this concept runs in the Chinese society. This explains the dealing between two people in which one of the persons performs an act of service. EBay has failed to learn the fact that the Chinese, after the Africans, are corrupt people and bribery is a common factor in the Chinese society. To excel in the Chinese society, EBay has failed to make notice of the ways in which Chinese people could be handled so as to make ways in the markets. EBay had to make sure that right officials were bribed so as to make way into the markets (The University of California, 2006, p. 33). Marketing is an integrated communication based process wherein it is understood that the needs of the customers can be satisfied through proper communication. Marketing orientations play an important role in the marketing strategy. The product orientation is where the firm is concerned with the quality of the product. The sales orientation, customer orientation, production, marketing and organizational orientations are the main orientations that firms have to keep in mind. For proper marketing the four Ps are known to the marketing world. The four Ps are necessary to understand the basic requirements for international marketing. The four Ps are inclusive of the Product deals with specification related to the products as well as the needs of the customer. Pricing includes the prices as well as the discounts being offered on the products. Placement or distribution refers to the ways in which a product reaches the customer. Promotion is the way in which a product is marketed in the market so as to attract customers. These are the four main points that EBay has to keep in mind when reaching out to the international markets (Freeman and Bartels, 2004, p. 33). These are the four points which make up the marketing mix for any organization. Apart from these four points the other issues that should be kept in mind while reaching out to the international markets are the cultural differences with the other countries. These are the main errors that have been committed by EBay when making their ways into the international markets, especially Asian markets. In addition to this the expansion and entry into foreign markets can be achieved successfully by following the four mechanisms. Exporting is the mechanism by which an international market can be reached in a proper manner by selling the product in a foreign market. The property of the licensor for product production can be used by the mechanism of

Challenges Faced by Hr Management Essay Example for Free

Challenges Faced by Hr Management Essay Challenges faced by HR management when significant staff cutbacks occur and how they should be addressed Downsizing is never easy on the Human Resource department. In fact, if not handled properly, it could be detrimental to the overall organization. Here are some challenges that come along with downsizing: Addressing the shifting morale and needs of the surviving employees, maintaining the productivity and profitability of the organization, and retaining skilled, and qualified employees. Staff cutbacks can leave the surviving employees feeling demoralized, bitter, angry, and in shock. One role of Human Resource Management is to act as an employee advocate. In a time of workforce reduction, communicating with employees as well as acknowledging their concerns and fears, can work to rebuild the employee’s sense of security in the workplace and help him/her to reengage in the culture of the organization. Through strategic Human Resource Management and planning, the shared values and beliefs of the organization can be reinforced to its employees and the collective value of the capabilities, knowledge, skills, life experiences, and motivation of the organizational workforce can be retained. Once there has been a major reduction in force within an organization, productivity and profitability becomes a main target of Human Resource management. One HR strategy would be to give more hours and responsibility to existing workers. However, eventually employees will become overworked and productivity will suffer. Utilizing alternative tactics such as hiring contingent or temporary workers is a strategic HR plan to maintain productivity and profitability while not having to pay the cost of benefits. Reducing turnover of qualified and skilled employees is an ongoing effort of Human Resource Management. Employees who survive workforce cuts tend to disengage the culture of the organization because they have lost faith in the organization being a lifetime employer. When an organization goes through a massive layoff process, the employee retention efforts of Human Resource Management could intensify. Employee retention efforts may include, constantly communicating with employees, and paying attention to surviving employees. As an example of a strategic Human Resource plan to hold on to skilled employees, an alternative work arrangement such as telecommuting might be offered to a worker. The functionality of Human Resources is always changing to meet the ever evolving needs of an organization. For example, when Xerox decided to downsize, the function of Human Resources became environmental scanning strategic planning. The restructuring goal however, included more than just a reduction in force. It was determined that the Human Resource entity needed to be streamlined and become a more efficient part of the organization. As a result, the use of technology, and maintaining employee retention was the core that developed HR into a more strategic part of the Xerox organization. There are two purposes that HR technology serves in an organization. The first is to improve the efficiency of employee data and HR activities collection. At Xerox, the use of HR technology has been instrumental in making HR services more accessible to their workforce. The second purpose of HR technology is to capture a greater degree of informational data that enables HR planning and managerial decision making. Again, Xerox made use of this aspect by supplying intranet employee surveys and tracking employee views on the company and HR. The information gathered allowed HR and managers to address areas that received lower scores on the survey. These efforts by the company and the HR department have had an effect on employee retention at Xerox. As stated earlier, reducing turnover of qualified and skilled employees is an ongoing effort of Human Resource Management. Xerox has made retaining especially high-potential employees a priority. Organizations have found that keeping good employees can be a challenge. However, in an effort to keep skilled and or high performing employees engaged and embracing the organizational culture and HR values of an organization, some employers will offer incentives. Employers, such as Xerox, will invest in employee training and development. Although this can be a double edge sword by potentially making an employee more marketable for other organizations, employers have found that when they invest in employees through job training and or monetary compensation, employee job satisfaction increases and employees are more likely to stay. In addition, employees who are engaged in an organization are more likely to be top performers and miss fewer work days. In summation, both technology and employee retention are key in HR development because they both lend to the culture of an organization. 1. Technology by improving the administrative efficiency of HR, and the responsiveness of HR to employees and managers. 2. Employee retention by maintaining employees who through their experience and loyalty to the organization, becomes a core competency and perpetuates the values and cultures to newer employees.

Simon as Silent Prophet of Lord Of The Flies Essay -- Lord Flies Essay

Simon as Silent Prophet of Lord Of The Flies  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In Modern America, a prophet is a visionary, telling his people what they can become; in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfill their covenant with God. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, though, the prophet told his people nothing; he realized what they had already become, and he dared not tell them because he knew they would turn against him. Simon lived in knowledge and fear because his society denied the role of the prophet, and he did not fight it because he wanted so much to be part of that society.    The basic premise of Lord of the Flies is that humans naturally live in savagery and ignorance, without any idea of how to live together. It is the story of boys stranded on an island who must develop a government to survive. Every detail of the story holds symbolism. For example, each character represents an aspect of society : those who represent human nature survive, and those who are self-actualized--the scientists, the religious, the leaders--all die. The most terrifying death is that of Simon, who symbolizes the eyes of a blindfolded and stumbling people. He alone saw that the jungle, which represented freedom and the lack of civilization, was not to be feared but to be understood; he alone knew that the mythical Beast of the island, feared by all the boys, was in fact their own inherent savagery. (The title, Lord of the Flies, is in fact a translation of "Beelzebub," a name of the devil in the Judeo-Christian tradition).    In a vision, the Beast told Simon: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hu... ... his fear, his compatriots' savagery justifies that weakness. If his flaw was his desire to be accepted, then he was no different from any of the other boys. Simon was just as human as all the children on the island, abandoned to "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" (202). If the truth died with Simon, it died because human nature hates prophets, because humans naturally live in savagery and ignorance.    Works Cited Epstein, E.L. "Note on Lord of the Flies." Lord of the Flies. U.S.A.: Puntnum Publishing Group, 1954. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. U.S.A.: Puntnum Publishing Group, 1954. Golding, William. "Lord of the Flies as Fable." Readings on Lord of the Flies. Ed. Bruno Leone. Sand Diego: Green Haven Press, 1997. Riley, Carolyn, ed.   Vol. 1 of Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1973.   

Of Mice and Men †Themes And Issues Essay

In the book ‘Of Mice and Men’ the writer John Steinbeck keeps returning to the subject of loneliness. By doing this he is trying to put through to us how they (George and Lennie) must feel, with no money, scraps of food, no where to sleep until they do get a job in the Barn House. In there they still feel a little lonely with other barn workers there. They sit there in silence. â€Å"He fell morosely silent.† If George was to go out with other workers, Lennie would be left alone with no one to talk to, as an example of loneliness. Lennie would just walk around and in one case he goes to Crook’s bunk. â€Å"You got no right to come in my room† Crook’s says to Lennie, in this case it makes him a little lonelier, being not accepted because he would not know why he isn’t allowed in there. Another example of loneliness is Curley’s wife. She feels lonely and never has anyone to talk to. When the ‘boys’ go out one evening, Lennie is left alone in the barn house, where he is feeling lonely playing with a puppy that was new-born. He killed it like he kills all the mice. Curley’s wife enters the barn and sits by Lennie. They talk for a while about their lifestyles when Curley’s wife mentions â€Å"It’s ok for you, you’ve got the guys to talk to, I ain’t got no one to talk to.† (Page 85) â€Å"I get lonely.† Here John Steinbeck is explaining to us, the readers that there is a lot of loneliness in the barns. He does this to show how important George and Lennie’s relationship is because all the migrant workers do not have relationships. So this shows how important it really is, because they are a companionship which means they will always be there for one another, the workers will not. When Curley’s wife says she gets lonely, she is trying to get Lennie to listen to her. In the same conversation between Curley’s wife and Lennie she says â€Å"Why can’t I talk to you, all the guys got a tournament going on, they ain’t gonna leave that tenement. I get awfully lonely.† Once again John Steinbeck is telling us, how lonely Curley’s wife gets. She â€Å"Just wants someone to talk to, I can only talk to Curley and he gets boring,† she hints. Steinbeck really tries to get through to us readers explaining the loneliness and isolation in this book. Crooks and Candy are also very lonely. Crooks because he is Black and has to keep himself to himself and has no one to talk to because of his colour mainly. Candy would also be lonely because he also keeps himself to himself and only really has his dog. After his dog is shot he is extremely lonely, for example he lies on his bed and stares at the ceiling. In ‘Of Mice and Men’ there is also a threat of violence and lots of violence. Violence is hinted earlier in the story, in Weed where Lennie was feeling the girls dress and wouldn’t let go which made her very scared, and made him angry. Also, the mice that Lennie kills, because he strokes them to hard shows that he doesn’t realize his own strength. One main piece of violence may be when Lennie killed Curley’s wife, breaking her neck. The readers all know that Lennie did not mean it, he is harmless. But just a little too strong for his own good. Lennie likes to feel soft things and was feeling Curley’s wife’s hair when he started to shake her so she wouldn’t scream, Lennie shook her so hard that he that he broke her neck. Another piece of violence was when Lennie broke all the bones in Curley’s hand. He did this unintentionally too, but Curley was punching and swinging at Lennie so much, George shouted â€Å"Get ‘im Lennie,† and in self-defense, Lennie broke all Curley’s bones in his hand. A threat of violence, a main one was after Lennie had killed Curley’s wife. Curley was screaming and shouting â€Å"I’m gonna bust him up, I’m gonna shoot his guts out when I find him.† Curley is furious at Lennie for killing his wife, and is telling the boys when he finds him, he’s going to die. Curley in this book is probably the biggest threat of violence, maybe he likes a punch-up, or a fight, and he sure is hungry to kill Lennie. In conclusion, John Steinbeck writes this book well, and I think knows what we (the readers) want to read. I think he keeps repeating loneliness and violence because he doesn’t want anyone to experience it themselves. This book is very well written and is a good example of lots of things, i.e.: Prejudice, Violence and loneliness.

How to Teach Listening and Speaking in Mandarin Essay

Design a listening – speaking task. You need to clarify the level of the students (e.g. how many hours they have learnt Chinese, how many characters they have mastered, etc.), the purposes of the exercises, how you are going to operate these exercises and the reasons why you design and operate the task like this. In the teaching of spoken language, the views of listening went through different phases. Earlier views considered listening as the mastery of discrete skills such as recognizing cohesive structure in texts or identifying key words in a text etc. Later views introduced the notions of bottom-up and top-down processing and emphasized the importance of prior knowledge and schema in comprehension. At the same time, the understanding of the role of the listener developed into current views which encourages his/her active participation in listening, applying strategies to assist, monitor and evaluate his/her own listening. (J. C. Richards, 2008) Speaking takes place in real time, it’s produced in response to the speech of the person we talk to. This shows its contingent nature. In language teaching, speaking ability increases along with the learner’s other abilities in the foreign/second language such as vocabulary, listening skill, knowledge of culture etc. Mandarin is a spoken language, so its learning process is also in line with general rules of language learning/teaching. However, as Mandarin has unique features as a language system, which includes five tones and changing tones in certain circumstances, it’s important to take these features into consideration while designing a listening – speaking task. The following is a listening – speaking task I tried to design for Mandarin teaching. Listening – speaking Task Cover Sheet Time: 50 minutes (2 sessions) Class Level: Later Beginners to Lower Intermediate Main Aims: By the end of the lesson, the learners will be able to: 1. Grasp Location Words and Place Expressions. 2. Exercise listening to gist and details. 3. Ask for directions and ask questions politely. Subsidiary Aims 1. Improve reading skill. 2. Group/pair cooperation Assumptions: The learners already had knowledge of Location Words and Place Expressions from Lesson 8, which will help their comprehension of the listening material. Anticipated Problems 1. Students might be confused with the direction words. 2. Form: how to ask questions. 3. Pronunciation: tones and intonation of some words. Class Profile The students are 12 adults who come to study in the evening. They have one lesson every week which lasts 2 hours. Some of them travel to China for business trips. The text book they use is Contemporary Chinese I (2003). They’ve spent roughly 60 hours so far to learn Mandarin. They have a good command of 325 Chinese words and expressions, 244 Chinese characters, 22 grammar items and 23 communicative, thus have a basic command of Mandarin. Timetable Fit The students have learnt in lesson 8 about Direction Words and Places Expressions. This lesson intends to provide them a chance to use the words in real situations. After the lesson, students will be given a sketch map to practise at home by using these direction words to describe how to get from one place to another. In the next lesson, some students will tell the class about their homework. Materials 1. A self-designed conversation based on Lesson 8 of Contemporary Chinese I. 2. A live activity designed by the author. Exercise I: How can they get to the Summer Palace? Time: 20-30 minutes Purpose: Listening for gist and details. Review what the students learnt in Lesson 8 in the textbook about Location Words and Place Expressions. Preparation: A tape recorder with the following conversation. Ã¥ ¥ ³: 我ä » ¬Ã§Å½ °Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¥Å½ »Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¥  §Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ¥ ½Ã¥ â€"? ç” ·: Ã¥ ¥ ½Ã¥â€¢Å Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¿â€¡Ã¯ ¼Å'我ä ¸ Ã§Å¸ ¥Ã© â€œÃ¦â‚¬Å½Ã¤ ¹Ë†Ã¥Å½ »Ã©â€š £Ã¥â€ž ¿Ã¯ ¼Å'ä ½  Ã¥â€˜ ¢? Ã¥ ¥ ³: æÅ"‰ä º ºÃ¥â€˜Å Ã¨ ¯â€°Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥  ¯Ã¤ » ¥Ã¥  Ã¦ ± ½Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥Å½ »Ã¯ ¼Å'ä ½â€ Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ ¿ËœÃ¤ ºâ€ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¥ ¤Å¡Ã¥ °â€˜Ã¨ · ¯Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·: 我ä » ¬Ã©â€" ®Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸â€¹Ã¥  §Ã£â‚¬â€š (ä ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ ªÃ¨ · ¯Ã¤ º ºÃ¦ ­ £Ã¥ · §Ã§ » Ã¨ ¿â€¡) ç” ·: è ¯ ·Ã©â€" ®Ã¯ ¼Å'我ä » ¬Ã¨ ¦ Ã¥Å½ »Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ºâ€Ã¨ ¯ ¥Ã¥  Ã¥ ¤Å¡Ã¥ °â€˜Ã¨ · ¯Ã¨ ½ ¦? è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ½  Ã¤ »Å½Ã¨ ¿â„¢Ã¥â€ž ¿Ã¥ ¾â‚¬Ã¥  ³Ã¨ µ °Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥  379è · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥  Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ§ «â„¢Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¤ º ºÃ¦ °â€˜Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¥ ­ ¦Ã¤ ¸â€¹Ã¯ ¼Å'ç„ ¶Ã¥ Å½Ã¥ ¾â‚¬Ã¥ Å½Ã¨ µ °Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã§â€š ¹Ã¯ ¼Å'æ  ¢332è · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'ä ¸â‚¬Ã§â€º ´Ã¥  Ã¥Ë† °Ã¥ ¤ ´Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ° ±Ã¥Ë† °Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·:ä ¸â€¹Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥ Å½Ã¨ ¿ËœÃ¨ ¿Å"Ã¥ â€"? è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ¸ Ã¨ ¿Å"ï ¼Å'ä ½  Ã¤ ¸â€¹Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥ Å½Ã¥ ¾â‚¬Ã¥ · ¦Ã¦â€¹ Ã¯ ¼Å'è ¿â€¡Ã© © ¬Ã¨ · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ° ±Ã¨Æ' ½Ã§Å"‹è § Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¥ ¤ §Ã©â€" ¨Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·: Ã¥ ¦â€šÃ¦Å¾Å"é ªâ€˜Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥Å½ »Ã¯ ¼Å'è ¡Å'Ã¥ â€"? è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ¸ Ã¨ ¡Å'ï ¼Å'Ã¥ ¤ ªÃ¨ ¿Å"ä ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·: Ã¥ ¥ ½Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¯ ¼Å'è ° ¢Ã¨ ° ¢Ã£â‚¬â€š è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ¸ Ã¥ ® ¢Ã¦ °â€Ã£â‚¬â€š Procedure: 1. Give students an exercise sheet, with following questions. (A) True or false: tÄ mà ©n xiÇŽng zhÄ «dà  o zÄ•nme qà ¹ yà ­hà ©yuà ¡n a. ä »â€"ä » ¬Ã¦Æ' ³Ã§Å¸ ¥Ã© â€œÃ¦â‚¬Å½Ã¤ ¹Ë†Ã¥Å½ »Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­ () yà ­hà ©yuà ¡n bà ¹ yuÇŽn b. é ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¿Å" () (B) Answer the following questions: a. Can they get to the Summer Palace by taking bus 379? b. Which direction should they turn to get to the Summer Palace after leaving the bus? c. Why can’t they go to the Summer Palace by bike? 2. Explain to the students that the conversation is about asking for direction, and review the Location Words and Place Expressions of Lesson 8, provide the new vocabulary Summer Palace (é ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­). 3. Play the tape once, ask the students to do the exercise sheet. 4. Go through the questions, let the students discuss if their answers are different from each other. 5. Ask the students to pay more attention to some of the details related to their answers. Play the tape again. 6. Go through the questions again, give the right answers. 7. Tell the students that they are going to give details about the direction after the listening, so make notes if necessary. Play the tape for third time. 8. Ask students to work as a group to give details of direction so you can draw a map on the board to show how to get to the Summer Palace. 9. Check the answer by listening to the tape again. Reasons for the design and operation of this exercise: This exercise is designed to provide an opportunity for the students to use all-round skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing. By giving tasks in steps, students will gradually understand the listening material to a thorough extent. This will hopefully enable them to use what they learnt in a fluent way. Exercise II: Guest speaker (G White, 1998, P52) Time: 5 minutes in one session, 15-20 minutes in the next session Purpose: To listen for gist and details; to give the students the experience of listening as an audience. Preparation: 1. The teacher dresses up as a Guest speaker. 2. The Guest Speaker writes a brief note for the class, giving a few details about interesting places he has been to. The note can be completely fictitious to make it more fun. E.g. 2005 I went to the Moon for a holiday Procedure: 1. Hand out the copies of the note to the class, put the students in pairs, and ask each pair to think of one question they would like the Speaker to answer. Then the students choose the best 4 questions to be written down. The teacher/the Speaker should not know these questions. 2. Ask the students to think of a list of topics for the Speaker which will be most likely to produce the answers to the questions. Write the topics down. e.g. ‘transportation’, ‘places’ etc. 3. Give the list of topics to the Speaker. These will provide guidelines for him in preparing the talk. If the Speaker can prepare some photographs or slides during his talk, it’ll be more interesting. 4. With the students, practise polite ways of asking questions. Also review vocabulary related to touring and food etc. 5. In the next session, the Speaker gives his talk. The students should listen to see if their questions are answered. 6. If some of the questions have not been answered in the talk, the students could ask the Speaker in a question-and-answer session after the talk. 7. After the Q&A session, go through the questions with the students and check the answers. Reasons for the design and operation of this exercise: This exercise is designed with the intention to train the students to listen to a live talk, as well as speaking spontaneously. To help the students to achieve the best result from this exercise, in the pre-listening phase, the teacher prepares the students for both top-down and bottom-up processing through activities involving handing out the note, reviewing vocabulary, making predictions (preparing the list of topics) and familiarizing the polite ways of asking questions (so to create a more natural language environment). During the talk, students therefore can listen for comprehension by gist listening, selective listening, sequencing etc. In the post-listening phase, questions are asked by the students to elicit answers, and then answers are checked to ensure that students have good comprehension of the talk. This exercise also encourages the students to work together by discussing what questions they want to ask and how to decide the topics accordingly after deciding the questions. This provides a good chance for students to practise words and phrases they grasped so far, especially Direction Words and Places Expressions. Homework: At the end of lesson, give each student a sketch map with banks, post office, bus station, and a park on it. Divide students into three groups, each group will be given a task to describe how to get somewhere from a place. Next lesson, each group will have one student come to the front to tell the whole class. This is to encourage further use of Direction Words and Places Expressions. References J C Richards (2008), Teaching Listening and Speaking From Theory to Practice, Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/elt/teacher-support/pdf/Richards-Teaching-Listening-Speaking.pdf G. White (1998) Listening, Oxford University Press Zhongwei Wu (2003) Contemporary Chinese I, Sinolingua

Knowledge Management Strategy

Knowledge Management Strategy Free Online Research Papers Abstract: Companies’ management, organization and corporate strategy have changed considerably in recent years. These changes have manifested the transition from the industrial society to an era indicated by the concepts such as knowledge society. Hence, knowledge has become a critical resource of the economy. In order to transform an organization into a learning organization and ensure an effective knowledge management (KM) strategy, a knowledge audit should be conducted, which will provide a current state of knowledge capability of the organization and a direction of where and how to improve that capability in order to be competitive in this fast changing knowledge era. This paper assesses the adoption of the knowledge management concepts, using a systematic knowledge audit approach. A study on the Malaysian company Tekmark will contribute in conceptualizing the importance of KM audit. Meanwhile, serious consideration on the KM drivers, enablers and blockages is needed for an effective KM strategy. This paper extended the recommendation on the KM strategy in the organizations. 1. Introduction Many organizations are recognizing that to sustain in complex and dynamic environment, they should be efficient in managing knowledge. As far as knowledge society is concern, organizations nowadays engage in knowledge management in order to leverage knowledge both internally and externally to their stakeholders (Rubenstein-Montano et al., 2001). These stakeholders are not only the employees but also include the shareholders and customers. Organisational theorists such as Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) also highlighted the necessity to view knowledge as embedded in, and constructed from and through social relationships and interactions in a community or network of people. As a result of these exposure and perceived value-creating processes, there has been a popular development of the notion of knowledge management as a key to competitive advantage. Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined as the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination and leveraging of knowledge to achieve organizational objectives (Lee Yang, 2000). It includes the strategies and processes for identifying, capturing, sharing, and leveraging the knowledge required to sustain and compete effectively in the business environment (Gautschi, 1999). However, a majority of managers are facing several challenges in understanding the practical characteristic of knowledge management (Davenport et al., 1998). Christensen (2000) pointed out that KM might be considered a rational instrument implemented into the company and which has been institutionalized as a rational myth. Leveraging on organizational knowledge and learning to create new knowledge have become the critical strategic issue for organizations that capitalize on innovation. However, many KM programs failed because the organizations are lack of understanding of their knowledge needs (Guptara, 2000). A KM audit will provides sound investigation into an organization’s core information and knowledge needs and uses in an organization (Dalkir, 2005). The audit should also include an examination of organization’s strategy, leadership, collaborative, learning culture and technology infrastructure in its various knowledge processes. Hence, a knowledge audit should be conducted, which will provide a current state of knowledge capability of the organization and a direction of where and how to improve that capability in order to be competitive in this fast changing knowledge era. The aims of this paper are to assess the adoption of the knowledge management concepts, using a systematic knowledge audit approach. Firstly, a study on the Malaysian company Tekmark Sendirian (Sdn.) Berhad (Bhd.) will contribute in conceptualizing the importance of KM audit. The objectives are to study and develop a deeper understanding of organization existing knowledge communities and content. Second section explained the rational of the research process used. Subsequently, serious consideration on the KM drivers, enablers and blockages is needed for an effective KM strategy. This paper extended the recommendation on the KM strategy in the organizations and proposed the knowledge metric for effective KM. 2. Company Background Tekmark Sdn. Bhd. was formed as a trading company in Malaysia on the 22nd February 1994. Tekmark specializes in the test and measurement business. It provides measurement solution to the telecommunications, broadcast and semiconductor industries nationwide. Tekmark also provides comprehensive services such as pre-sale consultancy, full commissioning, testing, training and after-sales support. With the head office located in Kuala Lumpur, Tekmark has operations in Penang, Johor and Sarawak Internationally, Tekmark has been expanding to: Australia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand. TekMark vision is to be a reputable global company in measurement business and its mission carries the tagline of â€Å"total customer satisfaction†. Tekmark are dedicated to increase and enhance its competitiveness by delivering excellent quality products and excellent services. Meanwhile, Tekmark is to strive for continuous improvement and differentiating itself with continuous value innovation in ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. The test and measurement business segment provides standard test and customized solutions that were used in the design, development, manufacture, installation, deployment and operation of electronic equipment, systems and communications networks and services. These solutions included test and measurement instruments and systems, automated test equipment; communications network monitoring, management and optimization tools, software design tools and associated services. Tekmark existing major clients are Panasonic, Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM), TM, and Astro. Few of the main suppliers are Tektronix and PCTEL, Inc., both from United States of America (USA), and Topward from Taiwan. As a global player, Tekmark’s business environment has also been transformed by contemporary shifts in the global economy. With the intensifying of competition and market becoming more uncertain and complex, Tekmark has attempted to evolve their business structure through the use of KM. 3. Research Process The research utilized an exploratory methodology, which is well suited to assess Tekmark current state of KM activities. Exploratory research is characterized by flexibility and versatility, with respect to the methods, because formal research protocols and procedures are not employed (Malhotra, 1999). Casual interviews were conducted with Group Managing Director, Mr. Ralph Khor, and staffs from different regional offices. Interviews with Mr. Ralph Khor are extremely important in order to understand the commitment of KM at top management level. Staffs and researcher have undergone a series of analytic and feedback loops prior to the interviews. Despite of internal staffs, the research also utilized the interviews with industry experts (Winett, 1995). This includes interview with individual knowledgeable about the KM practices in Malaysia. Chief Information Officer of Senstech Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., En. Shamsul Azmal was invited for the interview . The purpose of interviewing expert is to assist in assessing key KM activities. Therefore, expert information is obtained by unstructured personal interview, without administering a formal questionnaire. 4. Findings The KM audit of Tekmark was conducted basing on the Wiig KM Cycle (Wiig, 1998). Factors concerning the use of knowledge, such as the blockages, enablers and drivers for KM initiatives were analyzed . 4.1 Tekmark KM Initiatives Drivers Tekmark considers knowledge, especially KM, to be a core capability for achieving competitive. Tekmark have spent more than 0.5 million Ringgit Malaysia (RM) on Information Technology (IT) to facilitate the KM system. Knowledge and intelligence that is drawn from the experiences of particular client projects, is one of the most crucial forms of knowledge for the company. Whereas previously this kind of knowledge may simply have been collected and added to a relatively static database, Tekmark now concentrates on more highly skilled and operationally experienced KM professionals interpreting, assessing and classifying this kind of knowledge. During the early days, KM had been sponsored and managed by service lines or geographic regions that resulted in a somewhat segregated approach (Smith, 1998). This meant that project teams might be contacted by a number of different KM groups from different regions, often seeking similar or related information. After a number of years of growth, the company soon realized that it had a large but relatively unwieldy set of databases and the next phase involved a long process of editing, refining and reclassifying the knowledge onto the knowledge exchange, such as the Tekmark E-Portal. The E-Portal is the heart of Tekmark KM program, covering more than 5,000 individual databases that are subdivided into various topics. The objective of the E-Portal was to help managers reduce planning time, minimize risk, and improve the quality of the client deliverable products. Harnessing and adding value to knowledge is one of the key areas where Tekmark’s KM initiative has attempted to develop new capabilities. According to the managers surveyed from Tekmark, the key to understanding the contemporary role of knowledge in businesses is to understand that it is relevant information that can be used to quickly act upon, in contrast to the more traditional methods of handling business information as a guarded secret that is stored and protected by regional system administrators. This also implies that the key KM is the rapid accessibility and timely availability of knowledge. The current KM model relies on everybody within the company, especially key project management individuals and corporate support manager, being prepared to make time to discuss their findings, experiences and insights and commit to contributing to knowledge databases. In order for this to work successfully, Tekmark needed to create a ‘knowledge sharing culture’ within the organization. In order to achieve a more developed utilization of knowledge, Tekmark continues to spend over RM 250,000 on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) while employing experience professionals who increasingly come from a consulting and industry background. Tekmark has been able to use fewer staff in these roles partly because technological improvements have meant that there is less need for manual intervention. Nevertheless, it was conceded that staffing this analytical KM function with experienced and relatively senior staff represented a major resource commitment by the company to KM. 4.2 Tekmark KM Blockages Despite Tekmark’s significant efforts and vast resources, the company was unable to effectively harness and transfer knowledge across its global business units. From the KM audit, it can be concur that the heart of the organization’s problem had little to do with the technology being used or the professionals involved, but rather can be traced to a few very critical elements that appeared to have been overlooked in the company’s global KM strategy. The company’s â€Å"one global firm† vision did not adequately address the cultural and motivational complexities associated with KM in a global context and failed to create the ‘knowledge sharing culture’ that would gave insured global participation required for this initiative to be completely successful. The exploratory research identified that the major shortcomings in Tekmark’s global KM practices can be broken down into three areas: Lack of appreciation for regional knowledge; Inadequate support for challenges at the local office; Insufficient allowances for local control. The most critical shortcoming in Tekmark’s managing of intellectual capital and knowledge is that the regional subsidiaries were never successfully integrated into the KM application, thus not becoming a part of the larger whole. One of the managers in Malaysia expressed this view when he wrote â€Å"knowledge management is a symbol of being one global firm†¦If Tekmark is one global firm, it would be represented in how we share knowledge across offices and regions†¦Otherwise, we are not a global company†. Tekmark had failed to effectively transcend global boundaries and created a unilateral flow of information from Australia and Singapore into Malaysia and Thailand. Malaysian managers frequently used the E-Portal but were hesitant to post submission and those that did never receive any feedback that their knowledge information was being utilized. Organizational culture plays a critical role in creating a learning atmosphere, which eventually proves to be highly instrumental in creating and disseminating knowledge (Senge, 1990). Tekmark’s global culture appeared to represent an assumption that all good management knowledge is generated only in certain countries, thus effectively alienating the company’s Malaysian counterparts. The Malaysian offices and subsequently Malaysian personnel operating in the region felt isolated due to a limited interaction with the company’s headquarter in Kuala Lumpur. The company did not monitor employee’s perceptions of equity and make sure that the employees believed that fairness was being delivered by the management on a global level. While the exact means employees may have intentionally used to restore equity may be difficult to determine, assuredly almost all are harmful to organization. Tekmark failed to establish effective cross global communication and faced cultural challenges at various local offices that were not adequately addressed. For example, in Singapore submissions to the E-Portal were frowned upon by employees as some sort of self-promotion and went against their concept of a team effort. While in Thailand many engineers felt knowledge sharing did not serve to benefit them personally and wondered why Australians contributed so openly. â€Å"Perhaps engineers in the Australia are more interested in contributing†¦others are in general not so interested in doing something that does not have a direct benefit for themselves†. Another blockage that hindered effective cross global communication was the language barrier because all submissions by the engineers into the E-Portal had to be translated into English, the official language of the company. Although most Asian engineers could converse in English, they were not proficient at translating lengthy documents nor did they have sufficient time during or between projects to submit the standardized forms. When the company urged an Asian colleague to submit a KM report on a project, a common response was, â€Å"Sorry, but my English is not very good†. The lack of available translational resources, to include sufficient time, made available to the Asian subsidiaries greatly hampered their contribution into the E-Portal. Tekmark’s focus on using technology to provide opportunities for person-to-person knowledge transfer relies heavily on open dialogue between all employees. Despite corporate-wide communication that required post-project contribution of all projects, there was some ambiguity among East Malaysia and Thailand employees and staff member over which projects required mandatory KM contribution. Without clear guidance within various regional offices, cooperate KM purpose was never made clear, allowing for a breakdown in responsibilities and regional disagreements in how the organization would function in regards to use and input of the company’s KM program. 5. Recommendation on KM Strategy Tacit and explicit knowledge is a vital item in any company (Kidwell, Karen, Linde Johnson 2000), and more in the companies like Tekmark; they should not rely just in the capacity and ability of their people to spread knowledge within the organization. Tekmark should focus primarily on both the codification and personalization of KM strategies (Hansen et al., 1999). Tekmark needs to implement strategies, processes and systems to keep that knowledge in the organization, ready to be distributed to all the members of the company. The SECI process given by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) depicts four modes of knowledge conversion with the underlying understanding that Tekmark could creates knowledge through the interactions between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge . 5.1 Processes The increasingly competitive environment and the imperative of many of the company’s clients and employees to be able to adapt and capitalize on ideas and innovations quickly, has made efficient and effective KM central to Tekmark continuing success as a knowledge organization. However, in the pursuit to create a â€Å"one global firm,† Tekmark must recognize the need to decentralize control as the KM program expands globally and by allowing for a natural development of workplace diversity. This would allow local managers leeway to address regional differences, such as motivational behavior and language, and build programs that provide incentives based on the cultural differences, thus adequately meeting the varying employee’s needs. 5.2 People The performance appraisal criteria for management should include ‘developing others’ and ‘knowledge contribution’ as key measures. These criteria’s can also used when assessing promotion candidates. For example, a Manager seeking promotion would have to demonstrate his or her own knowledge sharing behaviors as well as illustrating how he or she had encouraged or enabled others to develop knowledge sharing skills. Under these circumstances then, managers have a vested interest in contributing to knowledge sharing. Evidently this ensures significant support for the KM processes, knowledge sharing and associated training and development activities. Operational knowledge transfer between subsidiaries in international and intra-firm network is crucial (Ferdows, 1999). Tekmark should embark on the contingency relationship between the rate of change of operational knowledge, the extent to which it is codifiable, and the roles of facilities within Tekmark intra-firm network. 5.3 Culture In order for KM to successfully work, Tekmark has to develop a knowledge sharing culture within their organization. Davenport et al. (1998) hypothesized that one of the most important factors influencing KM were culture. The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization (Senge, 1990). One of the ways in which the company can build and reinforce this culture is to create a capability development plan. Capability development would include identifying the skills required in KM, what training is needed, how the knowledge base and expertise of staff should be built, how to provide feedback to employee’s that submit, and which subject matter experts can be brought in to advise on methods and tools to meet these goals. According to one Tekmark Australian engineer: â€Å"It is human nature to want to share what we know with those around us, howev er, it is important that the knowledge be applied with context and understanding†. 5.4 Technology The need to share information must be expanded throughout the company with full global participation in knowledge based vision. One way of encouraging participation would be through the advent of a positive feedback mechanism to track how submitted knowledge is being used by members within the organization, thus allowing submitters to observe how their knowledge input is being utilized. Staffs can embark on the existing E-Portal as the centralized KM system. By citing and promoting work from all regions with the organization, Tekmark will help influence a wider participation from engineers throughout the company. â€Å"If organizations are to be viewed from a holistic perspective, all their parts have to be considered as part of a system, rather than separate entities and factions† (Smith, 1998). In order to successfully implement these KM strategy, Tekmark should embark on a holistic framework such as the KM gap (Lin et al., 2005) to fully illustrate the management gaps that might occur during the implementation of KM activities. The KM gap would analyze the corporate knowledge needs, evaluate the implementation activities of KM and identify any inhibitors to success. 6. KM Metric Tekmark should embark on a clear action for where and how knowledge will be employed to generate business value. What is needed is a KM strategy and execution review that will reenergize the knowledge sharing process and use the right balanced scorecard metric. A balanced scorecard is generally used to clarify and update the business strategy, link the objectives of the organization to the annual budgets, allow organizational change, and increase the understanding of the company vision and mission statements across the organization. It is a methodology that translates the objectives of the organizations into measures, goals and initiatives in four different perspectives, namely financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). A balanced scorecard can be used to translate an organizations mission and vision statements into a broad set of objectives and performance measures that can be quantified and appraised, and measures whether management is achieving desired results. The model can contribute to the dynamic alignment issue. The scorecard can also aid the effective deployment of KM strategy and aligned performance measures through teams at lower levels developing scorecards consistent with the strategic scorecard. Thus, consistency of deployment, identified by Neely et al. (1994) as a key issue in alignment, can be preserved. 7. Conclusion As companies continue to transition from managing data to managing knowledge, it is important to keep abreast of the level of implementation. This study sought to discover what level of knowledge growth a selection of typical Tekmark managers believe their organization has and can attain. Many managers were very positive in their responses about the status and probably future of improving organizational knowledge processes that in turn will impact company performance. If the results of this study are a true indicator of understanding about the importance of knowledge management today, then there is hope that companies will continue to leverage their true assets. Knowledge is indeed power, and companies are now leveraging the power of what they know. It is no longer just the physical assets, financial accounts, and other traditional assets that organizations depend on. The knowledge in the minds of employees, knowledge system, and organizational culture are the most valuable assets. F uture studies should track the level of knowledge growth over time, to better measure the true level of KM awareness and usage. Therefore, this study is hopefully only a first step in an ongoing evaluation of the stages of knowledge growth in organizations today. 8. REFERENCES Christensen, K.S., Bang, H.K., (2003). â€Å"Knowledge management in a project-oriented organization: three perspectives†. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7 (3), pp. 116-128. Coleman, D. (1999), ‘‘Groupware: collaboration and knowledge sharing’’, in Liebowitz, J. (Ed.), Knowledge Management Handbook, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Dalkir, K. (2005), â€Å"Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice†. United States of America, Elsevier Butterwirth-Heinemann Davenport, T.H., De Long, D.W. and Beers, M.C. (1998), ‘‘Successful knowledge management projects’’, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 43-57. Davenport, T.H. and Prusak. L. (1998), â€Å"Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know†, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Ferdows, K. (1999), ‘‘Generating and sharing knowledge in global operations networks’’, Keynote address to VI EurOMA Conference, Venice, June. Guptara, P. (2000), â€Å"Why Knowledge Management Fails: How to Avoid the Common Pitfalls†, Knowledge Management Review, Issue 9, July/August; p. 26-29 Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T. (1999) â€Å"What’s your strategy for managing knowledge?† Harvard Business Review, Vol. 77, No. 2, pp.106–116. Lee, C. C. and Yang, J., (2000). â€Å"Knowledge Value Chain†. The Journal of Management Development, 19 (9), pp. 783-794. Malhotra, N.K, (1999), â€Å"Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation†, 2nd Ed., Prentice-Hall International, London Neely, A., Mills, J., Platts, K., Gregory, M., Richards, H. (1994), Realising strategy through measurement, International Journal of Operations Production Management, Vol. 14 No.3, pp.140-52. Kaplan, R.S and Norton, D.P (1996) â€Å"The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action (Hardcover†). United States of America, President and Fellows of Harvard College Kidwell, J, J, Karen, M, Linde, V Johnson, S, L 2000, Applying Corporate Knowledge Management Practices in Higher education, Educause Quarterly, no. 4. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995) â€Å"The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation†. Oxford University Press, New York. Senge, P.M. (1990). â€Å"The Fifth Discipline – The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation†. (pp. 83, 91-95). Random House Business Books, London. Smith, P.A.C. (1998), â€Å"Systemic Knowledge management: Managing Organisational Assets for Competitive Advantage†. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice 4, pp. 13-19. Wiig, K. (1998), The role of knowledge-based systems in knowledge management, Workshop on Knowledge Management and AI, Washington, DC. Tekmark Sdn. Bhd. (2006). Annual Report. Tekmark Sdn. Bhd. (2006). Tekmark: Business Plan 2007. Research Papers on Knowledge Management StrategyThe Project Managment Office SystemMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductOpen Architechture a white paperAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaStandardized TestingRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in Capital

List of French to English False Cognates

List of French to English False Cognates One of the great things about learning French or English is that many words have the same roots in the Romance languages and English. However, there are also a great many faux amis, or false cognates, which look similar but have different meanings. This is one of the biggest pitfalls for students of French. There are also semi-false cognates: words that can only sometimes be translated by the similar word in the other language.This alphabetical list (newest additions) includes hundreds of French-English false cognates, with explanations of what each word means and how it can be correctly translated into the other language. To avoid confusion due to the fact that some of the words are identical in the two languages, the French word is followed by (F) and the English word is followed by (E).Fabrique (F) vs Fabric (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fabrique (F) is a factory. De bonne fabrique means good workmanship.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fabric (E) is equivalent to tissu or à ©toffe. When speaking fi guratively, e.g., the fabric of society, the French word is structure. Facilità © (F) vs Facility (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Facilità © (F) means ease, easiness, ability, or aptitude.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Facility (E) is a semi-false cognate. It usually refers to a structure that serves a particular function, although it can mean easiness, aptitude, etc.Faà §on (F) vs Fashion (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Faà §on (F) means way, as in voil la faà §on dont il procà ¨de - this is the way he does it. It can be translated by fashion when it is synonymous with way or manner, as in ma faà §on - in my fashion / my way.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fashion (E) is a style or custom, usually in clothing: mode or vogue. For all of you apple pie eaters out there, now you know that la mode really means in fashion.Facteur (F) vs Factor (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Facteur (F) is a semi-false cognate. In addition to factor, it can mean postman, mailman, or maker - un facteur de pianos - piano maker.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Factor (E) un facteur, un à ©là ©ment, un indice.Fastidieux (F) vs F astidious (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fastidieux (F) means tedious, tiresome, or boring  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fastidious (E) means attentive to detail or exacting: minutieux, mà ©ticuleux, tatillon. Fendre (F) vs Fend (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fendre (F) means to split or to chop.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fend (E) is se dà ©brouiller, to fend off means parer or dà ©tourner.Figure (F) vs Figure (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Figure (F) is a semi-false cognate. It is the French word for face, but can also refer to an illustrated or mathematical figure.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Figure (E) refers to numbers chiffres as well as to the form of a persons body: forme, silhouette.File/Filer (F) vs File (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  File (F) is a line or queue. Filer (F) means to spin (e.g., cotton or thread) or to prolong.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  File (E) can refer to une lime (as well as the verb limer), un dossier, or un classeur (and the verb classer).Film (F) vs Film (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Film (F) refers to a movie.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Film (E) can mean un film as well as la pellicule.Finalement (F) vs Finally (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finalement (F) means eventually or in the end.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finally (E) is enf in or en dernier lieu.Flemme (F) vs Phlegm (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Flemme (F) is an informal word for laziness. Its commonly used in the expressions avoir la flemme (Jai la flemme dy aller - I cant be bothered to go) and tirer sa flemme - to loaf about.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Phlegm (E) la mucosità ©.Flirter (F) vs Flirt (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Flirter (F) may mean to flirt or to go out with/date someone.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Flirt (E) is flirter or, informally, draguer.Fluide (F) vs Fluid (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fluide (F) can be a noun: fluid, or an adjective: fluid, flowing, flexible. Il a du fluide - He has mysterious powers.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fluid (E) means fluide or liquide.Fond (F) vs Fond (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fond (F) is a noun: bottom or back.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fond (E) is an adjective: to be fond of - aimer beaucoup, avoir de laffection pour.Football (F) vs Football (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Football (F) or le foot, refers to soccer (in American English).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Football (E) le football amà ©ricain.Forcà ©ment (F) vs Forcefully (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forcà ©ment (F) means inevitably or necessarily.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forcefully (E) can be translated by avec force or avec vigueur.Forfait (F) vs Forfeit (E)  Ã ‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forfait (F) is a fixed, set, or all-inclusive price; a package deal; or, in sports, a withdrawal.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forfeit (E) as a noun indicates un prix, une peine, or un dà ©dit.Formation (F) vs Formation (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Formation (F) refers to training as well as formation/forming.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Formation (E) means formation or crà ©ation.Format (F) vs Format (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Format (F) means size.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Format (E) as a noun refers to prà ©sentation; as a verb it means formater or mettre en forme.Formel (F) vs Formal (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Formel (F) usually means categoric, strict, or definite, but may be translated by formal in linguistics, art, and philosophy.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Formal (E) officiel or cà ©rà ©monieux.Formidable (F) vs Formidable (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Formidable (F) is an interesting word, because it means great or terrific; almost the opposite of the English. Ce film est formidable  ! - This is a great movie!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Formidable (E) means dreadful or fearsome: The opposition is formidable - Lopposition est redoutable/effrayante.Fort (F) vs Fort (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fort (F) is an adjective: strong or loud as well as a noun - fort.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fort (E) refers to un fort or fortin.Four (F) v s Four (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Four (F) is an oven, kiln, or furnace.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Four (E) quatre.Fourniture (F) vs Furniture (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fourniture (F) means supplying or provision. Its from the verb fournir: to supply or provide.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Furniture (E) refers to meubles or moblier.Foyer (F) vs Foyer (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Foyer (F) can mean home, family, or fireplace as well as a foyer.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Foyer (E) is un foyer, un hall, or un vestibule.fraà ®che (F) vs fresh (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  fraà ®che (F) is the feminine form of the adjective frais, which means both fresh and cool. So this tends to be problem for native French speakers, who often translate boissons fraà ®ches as fresh drinks, when what they really mean is cool drinks.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  fresh (E) frais, rà ©cent, nouveau.Friction (F) vs Friction (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Friction (F) can refer to a massage in addition to friction.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Friction (E) la friction.Fronde (F) vs Frond (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fronde (F) is a sling, slingshot, or catapult; a revolt; or a frond.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Frond (E) une fronde or une feuille.Front (F) vs Front (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã ‚  Ã‚  Front (F) means front as well as forehead.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Front (E) le front or avant.Futile (F) vs Futile (E)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Futile (F) can mean futile but is more likely to be frivolous or trivial.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Futile (E) is nearly always translated by vain.

The Internet and the E-Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Internet and the E-Business - Assignment Example The best atmosphere to start electronic education could be suited in the library where most of the students go for extra studies. Here, students can gradually be able to adapt to E- learning and effectively be able to work with e-learning in computer science and business. Apparently, e- business at the University of Libya will ensure transactions takes place electronically. The internet and e-business will be used in the institution for four main purposes; to give strategy and direction with regard to e-business, to maintain cordial relationship between the stakeholders, and the institution’s community as a whole, to improve communication and information in learning, and other interactions, and to maintain process and culture of e-business for a good gain (Canzer 7). The kind of business transactions that are found at the University of Libya include; Business-to –Business (B-to-B), Business-to- Consumer (B-to-C), and Consumer-to-Consumer (C-to C). Through these business transactions, there is clear identification of business partners at hand (Canzer 20). Question 2 _ Advantages and Obstacles on Electronic Education The internet and the e-business are supposed to improve and enrich learning in the institution through electronic education. In essence, the e-business will serve the University with a digitized international platform which allows self-marketing in terms of services especially to the target market entailing local students who want to pursue various courses. Additionally, e-business will assist the institution in providing more information on its website and updates at all times. There will be reduced operational costs particularly in creating, processing and retrieving paper based information that is mostly used in learning. Moreover, communication between stake holders and the institution fraternity is reduced for cheaper and faster procurements. In light of this, business in the institution will be available and accessible to concerned parties at all times. Hence, there will be increased online students and learning processes raising the bar in terms of methods of delivery, conten t, and the quality of material (Canzer 11). Contrary to this, the e-business puts the institution at risk in terms of security due to lack of sufficient systems for security, and the increase rate of internet hacking being witnessed all over the world. The migration to digitals technology is very expensive especially in maintenance of technology, which keeps advancing constantly. Needless to mention that, stakeholders must be conversant with computers to fit in the world of technology. In general, internet and e-business tends to convert the institution into a ‘slave’ of technology as it must rely on the internet for every transaction (Canzer 11). Question 3 _ Security and Legislative Issues with Electronic Education The decision of the University of Libya to start E-Learning in the form of online learning facilities for local students is a bold step towards embracing the internet, and technology in full. Even so, it is important to note that the internet is one of the places where much security is needed due to continuous hacking that is been witnessed. In light of this, it is crucial that while transacting online, the identity of business partners and clients should be verified.