Knowledge Management Individual Assignment Essay

Knowledge Management Individual Assignment - Essay Example Knowledge Management is one of the hottest topics in the fields of management and information technology. Several activities are involved in the process of knowledge management. Out of the many, the most commonly cited and discussed knowledge management activity is knowledge sharing or transfer (Ford, et al., 2003). Knowledge sharing is observed to be critical towards the success of today’s business organisation (Davenport, and Prusak, 1998). This is so because it results in deployment of knowledge to certain organisational portions at a rapid rate which can prove to be highly beneficial for the organisation (Syed-Ikhsan, and Rowland, 2004). Knowledge management can thus be considered as a socio-technical system that includes different form of storage, generation, sharing and representation of knowledge. Specific functional features of knowledge management are found to be always based on certain assumptions that are inherent to the cultural backgrounds of the people who either create or manage them. However, if people having national or professional cultural backgrounds use these systems in a way that differs from those intended by its designers, it might actually result in inhibiting the process of knowledge sharing in organisations (Branch, 1997). This study entails about analysing the impact that organisational culture has on the knowledge sharing environment of the companies in general. Communities of Practice and Knowledge Management Communities of Practice (CoPs) have received renewed attention in the recent years mainly in the field of different ways of managing the social and human aspects of knowledge dissemination and creation within the firms. One can find various existing literature that are related to the discussion of CoPs in the knowledge management literature (Davenport, and Prusak, 1998; Wasko, and Faraj, 2000; Wenger, et al., 2002; Ardichvili, et al., 2003). Lave, and Wenger (1991) were the first to coin the term community of practice a nd it can be defined as a system of activity wherein the participants are involved in sharing their understanding related to their present activities performed in the organisation and how they are valued in their lives and the communities. One of the assumptions that is central to the concept of CoP is that community members who are adjudged to be less experienced are involved in a learning process received from the social interactions with the community members who are considered to be experts of a specific domain of knowledge (Lave, and Wenger, 1991). One of the most important benefits of CoP is its ability to generate or disseminate tacit knowledge. This type of knowledge cannot be communicated easily because most of the times it is either embedded in a particular context or is intuitive in nature (Nonaka, 1994). This type of tacit knowledge possessed by an organisation is believed to be critical towards the sustainable competitive advantage gained by the companies because others cannot easily copy or imitate it (Liedtka, 1999). Brown and Duguid (1991) have argued that internalising and sharing tacit knowledge needs

Human Resource Management Relations and Rewards Essay

Human Resource Management Relations and Rewards - Essay Example â€Å"Grievances are best dealt with at an early stage, informally, with the immediate line manager. However, organizations should have formal procedures in place to handle cases left unresolved. Having formal grievance procedures in place allows employers to give reasonable consideration to any issues which can't be resolved informally and to deal with them fairly and consistently†. The problems are solved in the grievance hearing meeting. The line manager will hear the complaint of the employee first and then it is taken a open discussion by the group about the issues. Disciplinary cases include poor performance or misconduct by the employee during his work .If an employee’s performance does not meet the set standards, the employer has to improve the performance through informal discussion with the employee. But if the employee continues his poor performance, the employer has to take disciplinary actions against him. Basic useful direction is given in the Acas Code of Practice on Grievance and Discipline issues. It provides a detailed guidance and advice for the employers and employees which will be useful to them in their current and future career. This code is adopted to help the employer and employee to handle the disciplinary and grievance issues in the working environment. â€Å"If the employer decides to a take disciplinary action or dismiss the employee, they should follow the procedures which are laid out in the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures†.

Ionic Liquid and Multicomponent Reaction Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ionic Liquid and Multicomponent Reaction - Thesis Example Among the many chemical species whose reactions can be catalyzed by variants of this method include ketones, and alcohols. Ionic liquids oxidize alcohols faster than conventional solvents, (7), (14) and are useful for both ÃŽ ±,ÃŽ ²-unsaturated ketones, (15) and diketone derivatives. (16), (17), (18)   , (19)  Ã‚   Of course, multi-component reactions involving these, or aldehydes, amines, carboxylic acids and isocyanides are typical of an Ugi reaction. The isocyanides themselves being critical to the four-component reaction. (20)   As well as being central to Passerini-type reactions. (4)   In addition, ionic liquids are useful for isomerizations, sugar acetylation, (21) the Baylis-Hillman reaction, (22) other high-temperature organic syntheses, given high thermal stability. (When dicationic) (23)   Within Ionic liquids, yields can be relatively high for stereochemistry-retained vinyl chalcogenides, (24) and N-substitution of alkyl halides, and various chlorides. (25)   Just a few of the reactions possible with ionic liquid multi-component processes are listed below: Alkylation, The Michael reaction, Knoevenagel condensation, and at least four others, not to mention both two-step, and multicomponent domino reactions, for a start. (13)   Ionic liquids are superior in the carbonylation of some halides. (26)   Several sources discuss these reactions in terms of efficiency, and the lessening of environmental impact. (16), (13).

Predicting Individual and Group Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Predicting Individual and Group Behavior - Essay Example ndividual and Group Behavior in Schools is vital, Principal Harris went the opposite direction, he should have established a prudent connection with Mrs. Harmon, the other faculty heads and staff in general immediately after noticing the negative vibe emanating from them and considered their alternative proposals closely. The last meeting would have given him an insight about Mrs. Harmon and the likes wants namely; additional pay for the extra task delegated to them and flexible time allocation that would facilitate the research hence improving the schools instructional platform (Senge, 2001). These were important connotations that Principal Harris would have taken care off at the first light to get a better result oriented scenario. Principal Harris lacked a proper time management platform in achieving instructional plan for the school amongst the available human resource at his disposal. He should have effectively delegated the tasks that involved the whole school fraternity; faculty, staff and community so as to be more thorough in obtaining the right information for best model formulation and in the process saving time, a very valuable tool in task execution in any organization. Instead he only gave the task to his immediate deputies Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Harmon leaving out the rest of the workforce and stakeholders. Task delegation scenario is put at risk here because of only entrusting a fraction of the entire workforce and interested parties like the parents and the community at large that supposedly the teachers were against. The internal environment of the school seemed to be discordant and not influential for best performance and productivity. A culture of uniformity in values and the school’s go als and objectives needs to be revisited and the faculty together with the staff trained either through workshops, seminars or webinars, the importance of uniformity in the school’s core value of always improving students’ performance in accordance with the

The Hypertension as High Blood Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Hypertension as High Blood Problem - Essay Example According to the paper as it is widely accepted that smoking may cause High Blood Pressure and heart disease, giving up smoking should be her first priority. There are a variety of methods to achieve this and she should be made aware of them. She will have to take measures in respect of her diet to reduce the amount of salt that she consumes and should be aware of the salt content of the packaged food she uses. The same care should be undertaken with her intake of fat. She should also be advised to reduce her alcohol consumption to an acceptable level. She should make get regular exercise to assist in the loss of weight which will also assist in the reduction of cholesterol and high blood pressure. Stress is a major factor in high blood pressure and she will have to make an undertaking to control her stress levels. Her physician will give her medications help in reducing her cholesterol and also Diuretics to reduce salt and fluid from her kidneys. She will need to have regular blood tests and have her blood pressure measured on a regular basis to ensure that all aspects of her disease are kept at acceptable levels.

Does Every Child Matter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Does Every Child Matter - Essay Example The aim of this assignment is to draw attention to the background strategy and scheme of the ‘Every Child Matters’ programme. The paper will discuss how the programme has been working locally by collecting and comparing data from families of locals and the asylum seeker families in order to evaluate ‘Does Every Child Really Matter? This paper makes a conclusion that the study will make sure to carry out every effort to evaluate the actual results of the study. It will prove the fact that for the best interests of the child, social services will need to adopt standard factors such as reasonable services provided in a timely and appropriate way for provision of services. It will demonstrate, how much social services have been successful in providing a sound material family environment, and a moral and intellectual environment for the children living currently in poverty. Immigrant and refugee parents, who are unable to provide these conditions as readily as other parents should be given more consideration, for example, many immigrant and refugee parents may have difficulty complying with social service agencies' instructions because of their limited English; others face financial instability because of their ambiguous legal status, while more will be coping with employment, housing insecurity, and legal troubles common to immigrants and refugees. ‘Every Child Matters’ do not consider the parents' legal status as a determining factor and social services mostly do not consider these typical conditions as more difficult for immigrant and refugee parents to provide.

America’s current policies Essay Example for Free

America’s current policies Essay Often, present generations, completely apathetic about their own sins, casts judgment upon the people who came before. This is not to say that, contrary to the prevailing wisdom currently choking our country, there are not absolute truths that were present during the inception of this country as well as in our present day. It is very unfortunate that some of our founding fathers held slaves; especially the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who held nearly two hundred slaves at one time on his plantation at Monticello. We do not like that the father of freedom in America could not find it in himself to free his slaves. Jefferson’s own cousin, as well as a number of fellow Virginians freed their slaves. From 1780 until 1800, the population of free blacks in Virginia rose from just over 2,000 to more than 30,000. (Burns, 1997) Where is Thomas Jefferson? However, did those who contributed to the Constitution yet held slaves, serve to invalidate the Constitution or their own individual contributions? It would have to seem that it does. However, not to the same degree as some of America’s current policies invalidates our ability to even cast judgment on other generations in the first place. People in glass houses should not throw stones. This is a famous saying which can be applied to every person or generation who judges another while being less than perfect themselves. America is the 21st century is a far cry from America at its birth. The population, in 1776, was just under three million people. (McCullough, 2007 pg. 26) Last fall, America’s population exceeded three hundred million people. Technology has certainly made the world a much different place and America is not only the richest country in the world, it is also the most powerful. The founding fathers could scarily fathom what this country would become in a little more than two hundred years. However, would they be proud of what had been accomplished? In some ways, the founding fathers would be glowing with joy and pride. In other ways, they could not help but feel a great deal of shame and embarrassment at what America had become. In the past thirty years, revisionist historians have tried to tell Americans that this country was formed, not out of the pursuit of religious freedom as the Mayflower Compact reads but rather to make money and to expand their wealth and land holdings. Also, that the founding fathers were not deeply religious men but rather Deists who seemed apathetic towards absolute truths. These assertions are fallible to the core and scarily a student of history can accept such tripe. However, even the deists and atheists were still very moral men who were led by principles and not by what was convenient as they were men of the Enlightenment. Therefore, the question which should also be asked in conjunction with this theme is: Does America stand on any moral ground to even pass judgment in the first place on any past generation. Did our forefathers risk their lives so that more than thirty million babies could be aborted since 1973 and 40% of all children are now born without a father living in the home? Did our forefathers risk their lives so that more than 20,000 people could be murdered each year for the pursuit of money to buy drugs? When the forefathers secured freedom of speech, did that mean that pornographic movies could be shown on the television or curse words spewed at a dizzying rapidity? In a time when gay marriage is being pressed so heavily upon our members of Congress, would our forefathers; individuals who regarded the act as so impure, that they would go out of their way to describe such actions in an indirect way in their writings and all believed to be a sin? There can be added to this list, more than a dozen modern examples and whether or not one agrees that the aforementioned are problems in this country or not, our forefathers could not help but see them as grave mistakes and impediments on our history. It seems unlikely that those individuals, such as John Adams and George Washington, to name only a few; so fervent in their religious convictions, that they freely invoked the word of God in their writings and speeches, could have consented to such depravity. More than 35% of all of the quotes of America’s forefathers came from the Bible. Does America’s hunger for relativism and humanism disallow us from even being able to even ask the question: Were the actions of the forefathers pure enough to even form a country in the first place? For every person who would say no, there would be two of the aforementioned society which would say the same about us. Now, this is not to say that slavery was not extremely immoral which served as a cancer on our society at that time and created a legacy of racial hatred and inequality which is still present today. Anyone who believes that this country is one of the greatest in the world, if not the entire world as I do, such apathy towards our forefathers own words, has to invoke a degree of annoyance towards men who are revered for what the gave to future generations in the formation of a democratic, capitalist and free society. One wonders why a clear consciousness was not worth simply paying their workers a modest wage instead of forcing involuntary servitude. What was going through the minds when Thomas Jefferson introduced legislation to end slavery during the Constitutional Convention? Historians have argued that if Jefferson provided a hard line against slavery, then his other policies would have been pushed to the side and perhaps never passed. This is probably true. However, what stopped Jefferson from freeing his own slaves at Monticello? These questions may never be answered. So in the end, it would seem best for Americans to tread carefully when dismissing an entire generation and their works because of a sin which was all too apparent in 18th century America. Slavery was wrong? There is no doubt about that. However, has America lost most of its moral authority, as well as the rest of the West? This is to be sure. As more and more people turn away from the ideas of absolute truths and towards relativism and humanism, preferring instead what is convenient and not what is right, problems which America is now suffering, is its natural result. If the incompatibility of the actions and words of the slave holding forefathers invalidates their work, then it should be placed a top a very long list of this country’s ironic measures which have grown at an exponential rate in recent decades. WORKS CITED Burns, Ken Thomas Jefferson New York: Thirteen Productions PBS 1997 McCullough, David 1776. New York: Scribners 2007