Featured Post

Strategic management of Adam Aircraft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Vital administration of Adam Aircraft - Essay Example In this paper, a SWOT investigation and the Five Porter Forces of Adam Aircraft wil...

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Ultimate axial bearing capacity of jacked pile in layered sand with Dissertation

Ultimate axial bearing capacity of jacked pile in layered sand with using Driven Program 1.0 - Dissertation Example The experiments are performed on three different water tables from dry level, cross-surface level and to the bottom of the 15m depth. Four different depths of steel and concrete piles are used for the experiment which is performed with the help of computing software Driven 1.2 providing all supposed calculation. Different depths of the surface are varying from medium sand to coarse sand with fine gravel. 8 tests were conducted for each of four piles making a series of tests manifesting the behaviors and measures of ultimate axial bearing capacity over the standards. A comparison of results manifests the consequences and derivations of the experiments as well as the supposed notions of the experiments. ... In fact, all the early eras of human faculty in constructions had been depending on pile engineering to provide them with the sufficient strength for lasting long enough. British Architecture and pile-engineering is considered to develop rapidly with the emergence of modern architecture techniques around the beginning of the eighteenth century which is also an era that brought new technologies to most of the Europe. A success of a civil work is always inherited in its performance over the forces of deformations. And the task of a foundation is obviously to provide the strength to the construction structure. Thus, the success of pile engineering resides in a toleration of all possible factors that deform the structure and lead to a failure. Therefore, pile engineering mostly circulates around the idea of toleration. The major mean of the piles is to provide a foundation that can tolerate the weight of the construction, deformation torques, and the supposed climatic and geographical ch anges expected to affect the construction during its life. In our current ongoing proceedings, we are setting up an experiment that will analyze the bearing capacity of two sets of piles. This experiment is performed to analyze particularly the ultimate bearing capacity of the jacked piles, as the jacking method is best usable for our supposed layered sand structure and is also very commonly used in most of the constructions popular today. We have chosen steel and concrete piles to be analyzed during the experiment. As a specimen of the behavior of the piles, this experiment manifests a comparative and analytical result that shows up the

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Dissertation plan, outline, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Dissertation plan, outline, - Essay Example Romanosky, S, Telang, R, & Acquisti, A 2011, Do data breach disclosure laws reduce identity theft?, Journal Of Policy Analysis & Management, 30, 2, pp. 256-286, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 November 2012. The study will cover the history of identity theft in cyber, and forms of these frauds. Some focus will be towards the public awareness about these forms of fraud and how to contain this. There will also be close examination on the effectiveness of the different techniques that have been employed in curbing these challenges. The climax of it all will be on how to educate public on use computing and network settings to avoid such frauds. Therefore most attention will be on educating the public the settings. First, I will do a background research to find out information of identity theft in the field of computing and networking. In this project, I will list down various techniques that can be used to avoid identity theft in this particular field. Secondly, Numerous testing will be carried out, mostly on electrical machines and internet such as computers, phones, iPads to find out major areas where identity theft is conducted. Lastly, I will then formulate techniques of preventing such occurrence and possibilities such as creating passwords and log in options in the machines. The proposed study does not entail ethical considerations since the research majors on finding out methods in computing and networking settings that assist an individual to avoid identity theft rather than promoting ethical manners in the field and society. 14. What study materials will you use? (Please give full details here of validated scales, bespoke questionnaires, interview schedules, focus group schedules etc and attach all materials to the application) 17. Declaration: The information supplied is, to the best of my knowledge and belief,

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Case Study: Patient With Asthma

Case Study: Patient With Asthma Patient RR is a 58 years old female with a weight of 55kg. Patient was admitted to hospital on 9th April 2009. Her presenting complaints were cough with sputum, pain when inhaling air at chest, breathless and unable to speak in full sentence. Her past medical histories were hypercholesterolemia, bronchial asthma and she has no known drug allergy. For her social history, she works as a security guard and is living with her husband. She is a non smoker as well as non alcoholic and she has no known family history. Patients drug history include metered dose inhaler (MDI) salbutamol 200mcg as required, MDI budesonide 400mcg twice daily, theophylline SR tablet 250mg once daily and lovastatin tablet 20mg once daily. Investigations Blood Test: 9th April 12th April WBC 10.9109/L 12.9109/L High (4-10.0) RBC 4.821012/L 4.91012/L High (3.8-4.8) MCV 78.7 fl/cell 78.6 fl/cell Low (83-101) MCH 26.5 pg/cell 25.3 pg/cell Low (27-32) ESR 24 mm/hr High (0-20) Blood HbA1c 7.2% Good control: 8.0% Renal Profile: 9th April 11th April Plasma K+ 2.8 mmol/L 2.5 mmol/L Low (3.5-5.1) Creatinine 100 ÃŽ ¼mol/L 79 ÃŽ ¼mol/L (58-96) Blood test indicated that the level of white blood cell and erythrocyte sedimentation rate is higher than normal which suggests the patient had an infection. The blood HbA1c showed adequate control of blood glucose. On the other hand, the renal test showed that the patient had low plasma potassium and the plasma creatinine level is normal. Clinical Progress On examination, the patient was alert with no pedal oedema. Her pulse rate was 120 beats per minute, blood pressure was 130/62 mmHg, and respiratory rate was 22 breaths per min. She was diagnosed with acute exacerbation bronchial asthma secondary to upper respiratory tract infection. The plan was to give intravenous (IV) hydrocortisone 200mg immediately then 100mg three times daily, IV Augmentin 1.2g three times daily, nebulizer atrovent: ventolin: normal saline (A:V:N) 2:1:2 every two hours and to continue SPO2 monitoring. On day 1, the patient was given MDI Budesonide 400mcg, nebulizer AVN, IV hydrocortisone 100mg three times daily, bromhexine tablet 8mg three times daily, erythromycin tablet 400mg twice daily, prednisolone tablet 40mg once daily, oxygen 3L/min and lovastatin tablet 20mg once daily. Theophylline were stopped. On day 3, patients blood pressure was 120/70 mmHg, respiratory rate was 26 breaths per minute and the SPO2 was 98%. She has cough with yellow sputum and the sputum culture showed that there are no pathogen isolated. The patient was to start on long acting beta agonist (LABA). Other medications that were given include potassium tablet 1.2g twice daily, Neb Combivent 4 hourly, IV Augmentin 1.2g three times daily, MIST expectorant 15mL three times daily. Hydrocortisone and bisolvon were stopped. On day 4, the patient had fever, cough with yellow sputum and difficulty in breathing. No new action was taken. On day 6, patient had no more fever but still had cough with yellow sputum. Her blood pressure was 122/80 mmHg and respiratory rate was 20 breaths per minute. The plan was to give MDI formoterol 9mcg once daily and augmentin tablet 625mg. Oxygen and prednisolone were stopped. On day 8, patient still had cough but the sputum turned white. Patient was given theophylline SR tablet 250mg twice daily and was ready to be discharged the next day. Medication Summary Drug Dose Frequency Indication T.Bisolvon 8mg tds(stop at day 3) Cough Mist Expectorant 15 mL tds (day3-day 6) Cough T.Erythromycin 400mg bd (stop on day 6) Infection KCl solution 20mL tds (stop on day 7) Hypokalaemia T.Prednisolone 40mg od (stop on day 6) Acute asthma T.Augmentin 625mg tds Infection T.Lovastatin 20mg od Hyperlipidaemia T.Nuelin SR 500mg bd Asthma OXIS inhaler (formoterol) 9mcg od Asthma MDI Budesonide 400mcg bd Asthma Salbutamol 200mcg when required Asthma Pharmaceutical Care Plan Care Plan Recommendation Desired Outcome 1. Monitor K+ level -high dose salbutamol and theophylline causes hypokalaemia K+ level should be monitored. K+ supplement should be given if K+ level is low. Maintain stable potassium level. 2. On day 4, patient had fever but not treated. Paracetamol should be given. To lower down patients temperature. 3. Concurrent use of oral prednisolone and IV hydrocortisone for acute treatment -If patient can tolerate orally, oral prednisolone should be adequate. -if cant, give IV hydrocortisone 100mg every 6 hour until conversion to oral is possible. 4. Combination inhaler can be given to patient Symbicort inhaler (1-2 puffs bd) can be given instead of OXIS and budesonide inhaler. Besides that, Symbicort can be also given as relief to replace Combivent. Less confusion and increases compliance. 5. Technique to use inhaler -Counsel patient on proper technique -advice on oral hygiene to avoid oral candidiasis. 6. Prophylaxis of asthma Counsel patient to avoid allergen that may trigger attack and avoid NSAIDs. Lowers risk of asthma attack 7. Compliance issue Advice patient on the importance to take control medication accordingly even if patient feels well. Lowers risk of asthma attack Disease Overview and Pharmacological Basis of Drug Therapy Asthma affects people of all ages, but it normally starts at childhood1. Asthma affects 5-8% of the population around the world2. A study done by World Health Organization (WHO) shows that there are 15 million disability-adjusted life years lost yearly because of asthma, displaying 1% of total disease burden worldwide3. The annual worldwide mortality caused by asthma is estimated to be 250,000. In Scotland, the incidence of clinical asthma is around 18.4% of the population3. Asthma is an inflammatory disease where there is frequent reversible airway obstruction1. The narrowing of the airway happens when people with asthma react strongly to certain substance they breathe in. These irritant stimuli are too weak to affect normal individuals1. The narrowing of airway is also caused by other factors which include mucosal swelling or inflammation caused by inflammatory mediators released by mast cell and basophil degranulation as well as mucus or phlegm production2. The causes of asthma include genetic factor, environmental factor and history of etopic disorder5. The most common symptoms of asthma are wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and sometimes cough, especially at night in younger people1, 4. The probability of asthma increased if symptoms worsen at night and early morning or in response to exercise, allergen and cold air5. Acute severe asthma may cause hypoxaemia and is not easily reversed. Therefore, the patient needs prompt treatment and hospitalization1. Patients with asthma have continuous and excessive T-helper cell type 2 (Th2)-dominated immune response and the Th1 which is responsible for structural and defensive status of the tissue is reduced4. The activated T-cells produce cytokines in the bronchial mucosa and this attract other inflammatory granulocytes especially eosinophils which produce cysteinyl leukotrienes along with granule protein to damage epithelium. The cytokines released also promotes IgE synthesis in some asthmatic patients which cause expression of IgE receptors on mast cell and eosinophils1, 4. The important mediators associated with asthma are leukotriene B4, cysteinyl leukotrienes (C4 and D4), interleukins IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 and tissure-damaging eosinophil proteins1. In atopic asthmatic patients, inhaled allergen caused cross-linking of IgE molecules on mast cells hence activating degranulation with histamine and leukotriene B4 release. These substances are powerful bronchoconstrictors thus causing acute exace rbation of asthma1. For diagnosis of asthma, spirometry is the preferred initial test5. It is a device to measure the functional lung volumes. Through the patients full force expiration into the device, the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and force vital capacity (FVC) are measured. Exhalation continues until there is no more breath to be exhaled. The FEV1/FVC ratio shows the severity of airflow obstruction and the normal ratio is 75-80%2. The ratio is less than 75% in asthma which indicates obstructive defect. There is normally more than 15% improvement in FEV1 after administration of B2 agonist or steroid trial in asthma patients2. Peak expiratory flow (PEF) is also another test for asthma though FEV1 uses lesser effort2. It is measured by the maximum forced expiratory through a peak flow meter and acts as an estimate of airway calibre. PEF is measured frequently to check response to treatment and disease control. PEF is used to test acute and chronic asthma with PEF decreases along with s everity2. Moderate acute asthma Severe acute asthma Life-threatening Able to talk, Respiratory rate (RR)50-75% Incomplete sentence, RR>25/min, SPO2110/min, PEF 33-50% Silent chest, cyanosis, exhaustion, confusion, feeble respiratory effort, SPO2

Friday, October 25, 2019

Service Learning :: Papers

For my psychology paper I chose to do Service Learning. I volunteered 20 hours at the Benton County Women's Shelter. I enjoyed the time that I served there. They really made me feel needed and welcome. I decided, however, that I would not be capable of a career in this field. Just in the small amount of time that I volunteered there my heart wrenched for the girls there. I felt helpless to do more for them. And yes, I even felt sorry for them. That is not to say that I am not going to continuing volunteering. I have arranged with the organization to volunteer two Saturday's a month. Perhaps it is me that is weak. I suppose to some degree we are all weak. But the women I encountered there had the confidence of a child just beginning to walk: determined, but shaky. I couldn't watch the inner conflict and pain these women endure on a daily basis. I have gained a respect and admiration for those who can. However, my chosen field of study is Public Relations and it is my ho pe to someday gain a position at a charitable organization and become a spokeswoman for a greater cause. The Benton County Women's Shelter is a non-profit organization, a corporation with an overall purpose to work towards alleviating the problems of family violence. They provide shelter, counseling and financial assistances to women in an effort to instill a sense of self-purpose and self-esteem. I learned within my first hours of service what a benefit this service is to the women there. Without it, several would have no where to go. However, through my volunteer work, I seemed to see the same pattern repeat itself over and over. The women had little or no self-esteem. Most came from poverty situations. All of the women I encountered had children. All seemed unsure of their ability to support themselves and their children. Alcohol reappeared over and over again. Aggression problems surfaced in both the women and their children. Mostly, all just seemed lost and were searching for a source of comfort and security. That is what we do at the Benton County Women's Shelter. We give the women a sense of self-worth. We teach them how to beat the cycle of abuse.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Han and Roman Dynasty View on Technology

After studying the provided documents (#1-8) its come to my understanding that both the Han and Roman empires thought of technology as useful and somewhat revolutionary, but both of them had somewhat different feelings of it. The Han dynasties attitude toward technology was that they thought it was very benefical, and they admired it. The reason this was because they though it to be very helpful in agriculture and construction purposes. Evidence of the positive effects of this can be seen in Document 4: History of the Early Han Dynasty which tells of a governer of Nanynay and as the very generous and loving person he was his policies also refelcted his personality. He had so much love for his people he wanted to lift weight of their shoulders and make their lives a little easier by inventing a water-powered blowing-engine which was enjoyed by eveyone adopted and spread his invention. The Roman empire however were not as positive about technology as the Hans. Even though they appreciated it to some extent the main viewpoint from the documents suggested that they thought of it was a bit demeaning also. Evidence can be found in Document 7, written by an upper-class Roman philospher and adviser which was saying that he did not believe that tools were created by â€Å"wise men† meaning a very developed mind, or someone who was thinking outside the box. He believe like the hammer for instance was created by a simple minded human, though its a very popular tool it was not advanced a tool as it could've been. Han and Romans both used technology for conservation and storage purposes of water in the environment. In Document 1 written by a Han goverment official. He wrote about the most efficent ways to ensure that flooding would be prevented. He thinks everyone should cooperate togther as a team, the high officals should patrol each side of the river and the common people should help in construction and repair. They welcome technology in this way because it will be saving the lives of people. In Document 8 written by a Roman general, governer of Britain, Frontinus, and water commissioner for city of Rome which basically brags about how great and sufficient their water system of distribution and compares it even to the great pyramids using the word ide meaning a waste of time, non functioning. By saying this you could imply how they looked down upon other structures that weren't their own, no matter how great. Saying that their construction is both useful and a marval and ts just something pretty to look at. The Roman empire and Han dynasty both needed technology to be able to help with their agricultural and structure building accuracy. In Document 6 written by Plutarch, Greek-born Roman citizen and high officals describe second-century B. C. E Roman political leader Gaius Gracchus, first century C. E. he is admired for his appliance[->0] of the condtion plan of the grace, beauty, detailed that he put into he design of the columns and the other monuments of Rome. In Document 3: New Discourses written by Hauan Tan an upper-class Han philopsher is saying how a mythological wise emperor Fuxi invented the pestle and mortar after it was imporved it thus notably increased the efficiency in China. These 2 documents show that technology was used profusely and was progressing. Document 2: written bu Huan Guan a han goverment offical, Discourses on Salt and Iron he describes how the salt and iron markets begin to manufacture backwards or useless tools. Previously these tools were quite excellent in quality but now that the state has monopolized the salt and iron trades most of the tools provided are hard to work with. This is a view by the Romans that demonsrtaes the more negative side of technlogy or how they were highly upset and unimpressed with the technology. In Document 5 written but Ciero and upper class political leader On Duty he finds that working in a workshop is not only degrading but he doesn't find it enlightening or in other words he thinks that it's useless. Ciero finds no use for technology, and that may be beacuse of his high placing in society he's not in touch with the world of craftsmen whatsoever so there is of course no use for it to him. Another example of a high class official having a negative view was in 7, like stated before Seneca believed that tools were useless he an adviser to Emperor Nero so that could be a reason why his views were different. The lower ranking people, or commoners can only use tools so that's why I believe that they were so grateful for the technology they were given ot provided with. The upper class people only use the finished poduct they don't know the importance of tools. The Roman and Han both found technoloy very useful and an everyday neccessary. Although the Han viewed the technology verey beneficial for their agriculture and praised the advanced tools and their inventors and well as their own work. The Romans only appreciated the product of technology and its design and craftmeship. Both civilizations technology was very imortant and helped to advance both that can still be seen in China today. [-;0] – /Dictionary/search? q=define+appliance=DTPDIA

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Managing Business Problems Essay

What are the causes of poor productivity within large organizations and how can we look at trying to improve this? Productivity is the degree of output achieved in relation to a certain level of input. For example, in a call centre environment, productivity would be seen as the number of telephone calls answered per hour by a certain number of staff. The telephone calls are the output and the staff available to take the calls are the input. In order to improve productivity, one of the following has to occur: The level of input is decreased however the level of output remains the same, or, the level of output increases but the level of input remains the same. In relation to the example of the call centre, this would mean reducing the number of staff available to answer the phone but yet the remaining staff would still have to answer the same number of calls, i.e. they would have to answer more calls each to compensate for the decrease in staff. Or the other way to increase productivity in a call centre would be to keep the same number to staff available to take customer calls but the number of calls being answered in total would have to increase. Productivity is a major issue within any organisation but especially call centres. Call centres do try to forecast the number of calls they expect everyday and allocate resources accordingly to deal with these pressures, however there are still thousands of calls abandoned (where the customer hangs up before even getting through to an advisor) each and every day, this is sometimes referred to as â€Å"call leakage†. This is a growing problem for call centres across the country and it is surprising the amount of customers who will take their business elsewhere simply because they cant get through on the phone as they see it as poor customer service. In many cases it isn’t feasible for staff numbers to be increased in order to cope with the call volumes that are being received and so the only solution to reducing the call leakage is to increase the productivity of the existing staff. Working in a call centre environment myself I appreciate that this is a very challenging task as call centre agents generally feel overworked and underpaid already and trying to get more work out of them will be difficult. However my research into call centre life has thrown up some issues surrounding the task of increasing staff performance in order for your business to work smarter. My research examines the possibility of reward systems as a means of increasing productivity, how call centre staff view their own roles and changes they would like to see in order to help them perform better During my research I searched the Emerald website to find relevant journal articles to assist my studies. I came across an interesting one called † An exploration of managerial issues in call centres† by Colin Armistead, Julia Kiely, Linda Hole and Jean Prescott. This paper consisted of two case studies carried out in two large organisations; these will be known as Case Study A and Case Study B. I found this article useful as it explores why people work in call centres, how they feel about their jobs and this research is spread over all levels from call centre agent to general manager. Case Study A provides a good background to call centre life and will aid understanding of what it is like to work in a call centre environment. In Case Study A, a total of fourteen staff members of all levels were interviewed, interviews lasted one hour and were all taped and transcribed. The interviews explored the initial decision to work for a call centre, the expectations they had before they started and the extent to which their jobs had lived up to those expectations. The authors also examined company statistics; they found evidence of high turnover in staff who had been employed for a few months then reducing to comparatively low turnover after they had been employed for more than six months. I found the findings from Case Study A to be very surprising having worked in a call centre myself and not having had very many positive experiences during my time there. The overall impression from those interviewed was that they felt very positive about their workplace. There were inevitable differences in how different levels of employees viewed certain issued but there were more similarities than differences. I was interested to see how employees had spoke about productivity and performance targets. It became apparent that performance targets were related to the number of calls answered, the time in which it took to answer the calls and also the levels of call leakage. It is very easy to monitor call centre agents against an array of time-related measures and staff felt under a lot of pressure at times due to this. I can relate to this, as this is exactly how I felt working as a call centre agent. One manager interviewed in Case Study A stated that the most important thing in managing call centre staff was â€Å"motivation, motivation, motivation†, yet the manager in question admitted he had little idea of how to motivate staff. I do agree that motivating staff to perform well is an issue and I appreciate that highly motivated staff will be more productive but I also think that if staff working in call centres had a better understanding of the bigger picture and knew how their actions impacted upon the business as a whole they may change their attitudes and automatically perform better and more efficiently. This is just my opinion from my experience of working in a British Gas call centre for almost three years I have been privileged enough to have been given an insight into the deeper realms of the business, something which frontline staff rarely come into contact with and I do feel this would be of benefit to them. As it stand now, staff are being thrown tough performance targets by management and expected to meet them without question, they have no understanding of why the business needs them to perform at a particular level and what the consequences will be if they don’t. I believe business awareness to be a vital part of representing a company to the public and the company I work for do offer a business awareness course, however this is e-learning based and has to be completed in your own time. Needless to say, there are not many staff who take advantage of this opportunity to understand the business they work for due to the above conditions and a lot of staff are probably unaware that the facility even exists. If British Gas were to allow the time for staff to complete this course during working hours or even to be paid overtime for the time they spend on it outside their scheduled hours, they would have a massive response and although this would be time consuming and possibly quite costly, I believe that the positive effects on how employees work would outweigh the costs. Productivity is very poor in the call centre I work in after reading relevant sections in a book called â€Å"Remuneration Policy† by Patrick McCauley I am under the impression that a successful reward system can help to improve productivity. McCauley defines motivation simply as â€Å"goal directed behaviour† and he makes it clear that employees will only be motivated to increase their performance by goals that are actually of interest to them, for example if a manager said to his team one day that the person with the highest productivity that day would be rewarded with a family ticket to the local pantomime then you would get Sandra, the mother with 2.4 children, husband and nice semi-detached house working her socks off, however, Matt, Gary and Emma, the three students on the team and Harold the grandad of the team who is six months off retirement would not be interested in the slightest by the managers offer of reward. McCauley states that the three key questions we need to consider when devising a successful reward system are: * What goals will employees actually pursue? * What factors will determine their success or failure in achieving these goals? * What will be the consequences of achievement or frustration for the employee and the organisation? As I have already mentioned, it is important to offer rewards that are of interest to the staff and that will actually motivate them to perform better and drive them towards goals which involve meeting productivity and performance targets on the way. It is important to offer generic rewards that are appealable to all or a choice of a few different rewards in order to cater for all the different ages, cultures etc. I have dome some research in to reward systems whilst working on a service excellence team in the British Gas call centre and the rewards that were constantly being requested by staff were things such as an extra days annual leave, high street vouchers, deputising for a higher level role for half a day as a development opportunity etc. These were things that the frontline staff were telling management would motivate them to work harder and to a higher standard, however management declined these requests as they saw them as too ambitious and they were especially against the extra holiday which unfortunately was the most popular suggestion. It was a shame these suggestions were declined as staff then felt that they were being ignored which in turn lowered morale and saw a drop in productivity for a short while, it would probably have been cheaper for the company to have allowed a small number of desired rewards which would have increased productivity for while and certainly wouldn’t have reduced it. Staff are already aware of what their targets are on a day to day basis and we need to remember that there will be a percentage of staff who do consistently meet these targets, therefore when setting criteria for a reward system we have to set it higher than daily performance targets to show that staff are being recognised for going above and beyond the call of duty and not just being coaxed into doing what is already expected of them. Staff will have to meet daily performance and productivity targets and then some before they can achieve a reward. If an employee successfully achieves a reward for their performance then not only will their productivity have had to increase to achieve the reward in the first place but as that desired behaviour has now been rewarded, the employee will be conditioned into repeating it in order to gain further rewards. If an employee either attempts and fails to reach the goal required to achieve a reward or doesn’t make the effort and sees his colleagues around him being rewarded for their increased effort and performance it will have one of the two following effects upon him: * He will become de-motivated as he is feeling left out or a failure as his efforts are not being recognised because he fails to reach the required standard and his performance will drop further. * He will become determined to work to the required level to achieve a reward to prove to himself and his managers that he too can perform well. If the latter of the consequences occurs then the reward systems is still being effective in all areas as even failures are being motivated to continue to strive for the reward on offer. However if the company begins to see individuals experiencing a drop in motivation and performance they may need to consider addressing this with a reward for example for the most improved productivity each month, therefore even those whose efforts don’t bring them above the required productivity level for a standard reward have a chance of recognition for their efforts alone. McCauley examines Vroom’s expectancy theory and this supports the issues raised above. Vroom does state though that the criteria that needs to be met in order to achieve a reward has to be very clear cut and communicated thoroughly to all levels of staff so as to avoid woolly areas where decisions to reward or not may be disputed. Throughout my research I have identified underlying issues surrounding the productivity of call centre staff and how to improve this by encouraging motivation amongst staff and providing them with personal goals that at the same time guide them towards achieving the productivity levels required by the business. I have come to the conclusion that productivity can only really be successfully increased in the long term by providing something for the individual to work towards, not just setting targets and expecting them to be met. I also think that increased business awareness amongst frontline staff would be beneficial to any call centre so then at least they know and understand why there are certain pressures placed upon them and they may be more welcoming to the challenge of attaining higher targets. Bibliography An exploration of managerial issues in call centres. (Journal Article) Colin Armistead, Julia Kiely, Linda Hole & Jean Prescott. Remuneration Policy