Fleet Planning Research Assignment Paper

Fleet Planning

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Fleet Planning
Project description
when considering an order for new aircraft” fleet commonality” is an element that planners consider. What are the main benefits of commonality between a new aircraft and the existing fleet? How significant are each of these? How long lasting?
some airlines seems to value these benefits highly and order aircraft from the same manufacturer as their existing fleet , with much commonality .Give at least two recent examples of this and give the likely rationale for their decisions, with references.
on the other hand some airlines seem to find on offer sufficient attractive to persuade them to forego the benefit of commonality with their existing fleet fleet. why might this be? Give at least two examples of this with likely rationale for their decisions, with references. How might the benefits be mitigated?
why might an airline order two different aircraft types from two different manufacturers with similar specifications, foregoing commonality benefits within the new fleets? with references.( HINT: Think of a Boeing and an Airbis with similar specs then Google each type- BXXX aircraft orders and Axxx aircraft orders . Having found an example , Google that airlines aircraft orders. This normally takes you to news items which may include the rationale.
what opportunities and issues do full or partial mergers between airlines raise in fleet decisions in terms of commonality? give at least one example with references.
Does joining an alliance offer similar benefits in terms of fleet acquisitions? Give your reasons.

SAMPLE ANSWER

Fleet Planning

Introduction

Fleet commonality is a factor that most airline companies are focusing on. Airlines have the opportunity to choose from different products when a new aircraft is being purchased. However, planners tend to opt for the aircraft that has commonality to the already existing products. This is because there are many benefits associated with this trend. On the contrary, research also shows that going for a new type of aircraft may be the best way to boost sales to a much higher level.

Benefits of Commonality between a New Aircraft and the Existing Fleet

This strategy has benefits in the operational perspective in that one pilot will still be able to operate the new aircraft. This is significant since in case of an emergency, one pilot can easily step in for the other. Therefore, the airline will not have to suffer losses from delayed or cancelled flights. Such occurrences result to loss of loyal customers as they can start to question the reliability of the airline. This benefit is long lasting because the pilots will always be able to step in for each other. Thus, when one pilot cannot be available for the flight, the other pilot or an assistant will still be qualified to handle the plan. When planes are delayed or cancelled, the airline usually suffers a great loss even in the long term because the customers lose trust in the company.

Second, the airline company will also be able to reduce costs associated with training new pilots, or transitioning a pilot to the new aircraft. When a new type of aircraft is purchased, these costs will be inevitable since the current pilots will not be equipped with the necessary skills to handle such a product. This benefit is short lasting because the costs will only be saved whenever a new aircraft is purchased.

Third, the staffing level, which may also change as a result of a new aircraft with no commonality, is also reduced. The more the staff, the more the costs associated with salaries. This may affect the financial stability of a company, especially when it is still new and growing. The airline company will be in a position to benefit from salary amounts that they are able to pay their staff without delay. Fourth, a new type also requires additional spares, a factor that may be avoided in case a common product is purchased. Although this is not of much significance, the airline may benefit from saved costs, which may have been influenced by the purchase of entirely new spares. Unfortunately, this amount is short lasting because whenever a spare is used, the airline company will still be forced to purchase another product.

Good examples of airlines with the above characteristics include Southwest and JetBlue airlines. JetBlue features the introduction of new types of aircrafts into its fleet. The main reason why this is so is that the company is trying to increase revenue by offering products that will meet all types of market demand. The products are supposed to satisfy the unmet needs of the customers. For instance, starting in the second quarter of 2014, this company will launch a refreshed version of core JetBlue Experience, as well as introduce another type that will enhance experience of passengers (Our Planes, 2014). On the contrary, Southwest airlines are strict on introducing a common aircraft to its fleet. This is because the costs associated with it will not be excessive; therefore, the company will still be able to manage the customer service offered (Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet, 2014). Here, the plane tickets are purchased at low price, and other services are offered for free.

Reasons why some Airlines Forego the Fleet Commonality Strategy

Although choosing fleet commonality may feel like the best option for airlines, it is also common to find some airlines giving up the commonality for a new type of aircraft. This is usually the case when an airline notices an opportunity to save more and still benefit to a certain level, when the new type of aircraft is purchased. The target market is the major factor that drives the creation of a product or service. Therefore, it closely affects the type of fleet planning decision made. Just like many other companies, market demand is what airlines try to meet. When a new aircraft has all the content that will make it capable of satisfying the needs of the target market, and the price offered for the product is fair, then an airline company will most certainly opt for it. Another reason why some companies choose to mix their aircraft is because they already know the advantages. At times, purchasing a new type of aircraft is usually more beneficial than going for the common type. This is in terms of the long term benefits associated with gaining the right fleet size.

The Southwest and JetBlue carriers can help demonstrate this occurrence. Southwest airline decided to go with the fleet commonality because the management noticed that there is so much at stake. This airline offers cheap services to its consumers, and this is the major method that they use to ensure that customers return for other services (Galletti, Lee & Kozman, 2010). JetBlue, on the other hand, is a company that is more focused on the market demand. Therefore, if they bring in new products to meet market demand, the company will benefit from more sales in future (Chunhua, Johnson & Smith, 2009). Currently, there is not much to lose if a new aircraft is introduced mainly because the tickets are sold at an expensive price. These benefits associated with each choice may be mitigated by ensuring that the airline company decides basing on qualitative research conducted on its system.

Commonality benefits can also be foregone when an airline opts to purchase two similar airline products from different producers. The main reason why this happens is as a result of product quality. Both companies that are producing similar products cannot have the same quality policies (Brüggen & Klose, 2010). Therefore, one aircraft may have better quality than the other. When the airline company has two airline products from different producers, the risk of suffering total loss is reduced. If one aircraft fails, the other one will probably still be functioning and bringing in sales. Another reason for ordering same product from different companies is so that the airline can enjoy the various benefits associated with each individual product. Although the resulting feel will be similar, such an airline will have taken a mixed fleet approach. Along with the benefits of having a mixed fleet, the airline will still be able to reduce costs for the new fleet (Treanor, Carter, Rogers & Simkins, 2013). With a similarity in products, pilots will be able to cater for the other product without problems since they are basically the same.

Opportunities and Issues that Mergers between Airlines Raise in Fleet Decisions in Terms of Commonality

Mergers in airline companies usually raise either opportunities or issues on the fleet decision for both full and partial situations. When an airline merges with another, it becomes difficult to make a decision without informing the other party. This usually results to great disputes since the two airlines both have their own leaders. Thus, it becomes unclear on who should have the final say. For example, American and US Airways recently merged officially to create one of the biggest airlines in the region (Rushe, 2013). These two airlines have opportunities to grow since each group will enjoy the increased sales. There is also a better opportunity to cut costs since the airline will now be treated as belonging to one specific airline. For instance, the American and US Airways merger was one way to help get the American airways out of its bankruptcy situation (Rushe, 2013). Therefore, any airline company hoping to reduce costs and increase growth should consider merging its aircraft with that of another company, which has promising results.

The Effect of Alliances in Fleet Acquisitions

Merging airlines, however, is also associated with various challenges that are worth considering before getting into the process. First, merging the staff and technology is usually very difficult as what worked for one company may not be what will work for both (Rushe, 2013). It takes time to find a balance in what works for both companies. The staff of the airlines may pose a challenge when they start resisting the change. This will require time and necessary management skill to help change the situation. For example, in 2010 United’s merger with Continental resulted to years of technology problems (Rushe, 2013). Therefore, in terms of commonality, issues will be present, and thus, the decision making process is made more difficult. This affects productivity because there are times when a decision is required as fast as possible.

The problem with a merger is that the decision to purchase an aircraft is greatly affected. Before a merger, each airline has the freedom to obtain an aircraft that will meet its customer’s needs. The customer needs of airlines are not same since their prices and pricing strategies are also different. Hence, fleet acquisition benefits will not be similar for both sides. Only one airline will eventually acquire the merged plane (Galletti, Lee & Kozman, 2010).

Conclusion

There are advantages for both choices on fleet commonality. Management should not choose to go for a common approach since what works for one airline will not work for all airlines. Instead, fleeting decisions need to be made based on the financial and operational states of the airline. The type of aircraft purchased needs to make the situation better by bringing in more sales and cutting costs. If the company notices that sales will be disturbed, and costs will be too much, then the choice in mind is probably not the best.

References

Brüggen, A., & Klose, L. (2010). How fleet commonality influences low-cost airline operating performance: Empirical evidence. Journal Of Air Transport Management, 16(6), 299-303. doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2010.02.006

Chunhua, G., Johnson, E., & Smith, B. (2009). Integrated Airline Fleet and Crew Robust Planning. Transportation Science, 43(1), 2-16.

Galletti, D. W., Lee, J., & Kozman, T. (2010). Competitive benchmarking for fleet cost management. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21(10), 1047-1056. doi:10.1080/14783363.2010.487709

Our Planes. (2014). Retrieved July 27, 2014, from JetBlue: www.jetblue.com/travel/planes/

Rushe, D. (2013, September Monday). American and US Airways officially merge to create world’s biggest airline. Retrieved July 27, 2014, from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/09/american-us-airways-merge-worlds-biggest-airlines

Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet. (2014). Retrieved July 27, 2014, from Southwest: http://www.swamedia.com/channels/Corporate-Fact-Sheet/pages/corporate-fact-sheet

Treanor, S. D., Carter, D. A., Rogers, D. A., & Simkins, B. J. (2013). Operational and Financial Hedging: Friend or Foe? Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry. Journal Of Accounting & Finance (2158-3625), 13(6), 64-91.

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Virgin Air Human Resource Management

How effective is Virgin Air Human Resource Management in ensuring good Customer Service?

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the topic is :

I chose Virgin Atlantic because it has a problem that is connected to Human Resource Management form the poor performance in customer service. There are over than 58 persons complained about the customer service of the employees (Dudovskiy, J. ,2012).. Firstly, it effect about their reputation among loyal customer. The first cause was about the few years ago on the quality of the employee was unprofessional with customers also this is because the following cases:
1- According to customer Anne on September 8, 2013, she complains about Virgin employees are unhelpful, ignoring customer, rude and arrogant.
2- In addition, there is anther customer complains about the bad services named Bianca’s which he faced a luggage delayed; with no reply about his complaining form the staff.
There are many causes leads to decrease on the customer services on Virgin. There are internal and external changes have direct and indirect relations in these changing for this purpose, the researcher has selected Virgin Atlantic Airline to develop of Virgin’s human resource strategies to promote quality and reliable customer service delivery. The proposed research work is focusing on understanding how airline industry’s human resource practices influence the quality of services provided to the customers.
My job on the report as consultant for Virgin Air’s which might help them to decrease some problems in their environment.

answer the below Questions and each point include in text reference

Executive Summary
1. Introduction:
1.1 Background:
1.2 What is the virgin issue?
1.3 The propose of the report

2. To what extent does Virgin’s HR Management support good customer service?
2.1 How does virgin’s HRM Support good customer service?
2.2 Academic theory might change HRM?
2.2.1 Maslow can be useful & analysis
2.2.2 Taylor theory of management analysis
2.3 How successful these theory on Virgin’s HRM?

3. HR Strategy
3.1 HRM & Virgin leadership forecast some improvements on the HR Management.
3.1.1 Leadership of truism
3.1.2 Leadership of customer services
3.1.2 leadership Recommendations
3.2 HRM & Motivation can change customer services track?
3.2.1 Motivation theories analysis
3.2.2 Motivation recommendations

4. Conclusion

SAMPLE ANSWER

Virgin Air Human Resource Management

How effective is Virgin Air Human Resource Management in ensuring good Customer Service?

Introduction

Virgin Air is an airline that has a global reputation for being a leader in customer service and most of its loyal customers can attest to this, but recently there have been increasing incidents of complaints by customers who have been treated badly by customer service representatives. These incidents have got the attention of the management who are concerned by the same given that this is a new trend that has not been witnessed in the past and may indicate a deeper human resource management problem that should be resolved before the brand loses its good reputation. The report seeks to unearth the underlying HRM problems if they do exist and propose solutions to the problems.
1.1 Background

Virgin Air is part of the Virgin Group of companies started by Sir Richard Branson under the Virgin brand, which is a popular global brand that is associated with values such as being innovative, prioritizing fun in all they do and above all putting their employees and clients first in everything they do (Virgin Atlantic., 2014). Therefore, the airline and the whole group of companies have thrived on their excellent customer service reputation in the extremely competitive airline industry and the events being reported of poor customer service must be investigated. Virgin Air is aware that any damage to its reputation as an airline that addresses and anticipates all the needs of its customers and attends to them promptly would cause irreparable damage to the airline and the brand in general, which is not acceptable.
1.2 What is the virgin issue?

The Virgin issue is that the whole group of Virgin companies is built on its endearing brand image and any issues that threaten the brand image do not just threaten Virgin Air, but rather such issues threaten the survival of the brand and all its affiliated companies. Therefore, this is not merely a human resource issues or a customer service issue, but it is a crucial issue about the future of the whole Virgin brand and should be treated with a lot of significance. It is also important to mention that the founder of the Virgin brand, Sir Richard Branson cannot allow such incidents to occur, not forgetting the Group CEO and the CEO of Virgin Air.
1.3 The purpose of the report

The main purpose of this report is to investigate the reported complaints about customer service so as to ascertain their validity, after which the report shall try to analyze whether these were isolated incidents or there is an emerging trend that needs to be stopped. If it is clear to the consultants that there is a deeper issue, which should be addressed, then the report shall provide appropriate recommendation on what steps the company should take to correct the problems. The report shall mainly focus on whether the problems identified relate to human resource management and advice the executive board and the HR director accordingly.

To what Extent does Virgin’s HR Management Support good Customer Service?

Virgin’s HR is built on the vision that happy employees will result in happy customers, which is what Richard Branson has always championed in all his companies and the group ensures that all their employees understand their customer service culture thoroughly. The HR culture at Virgin is visible through all its employees who go through a thorough recruitment process where the interviewers seek to hire only those employees who demonstrate that they have the personality traits that would fit in with Virgin’s culture. The recruitment process is where the company weeds out all those people who do not have the same values championed by the company and its founder Sir Richard Branson.
2.1 How does virgin’s HRM Support good customer service?

Another critical way in which Virgin’s HR supports good customer service is by engaging in constant conversation with its employees, especially customer-facing people who deliver the airline’s main product, which is excellent customer service. The HR department is always in direct constant contact with its call center where customers can report any complaints of inadequate or poor service as well as with its cabin crews and airports. Another important function of the HR department at Virgin Air is that it reports directly to the CEO and is directly involved in setting strategies at the company, which ensures that only the best HR practices in line with the company’s culture are implemented.
2.2 Academic theory might change HRM?

I do not believe that academic theories might change HRM at Virgin given that just as Sir Richard says, he has never read a HR book and that all the HR practices that he champions at Virgin are based on values that he believes define his company. I strongly think that no academic theories can change HRM at Virgin, but they can definitely help the company improve some of its HR practices given the depth of the HR function within Virgin. Academic theories can be vital in streamlining Virgin’s values and vision to adapt to the global aviation industry and the new challenges brought on by globalization. The increasing competition within the airline industry and the tough economic times can be handled through correct application of some academic theories.
2.2.1 Maslow can be useful & analysis

Maslow’s theory of human motivation based on his hierarchy of human needs can help Virgin motivate its staff in the right way to offer the best customer service in the industry by addressing all their needs as identified in the hierarchy (CoW, 2014; Schneider, 2004). The different people employed at Virgin have different needs that should all be addressed by the leaders in order for them to deliver excellent customer service. People with physiological and safety needs should be paid enough, given incentives and provided with a safe working environment (Methot, 2010; Tzafrir, & Gur, 2007). Employees who have belonging and self-esteem needs should be recognized, given responsibilities and should be involved in the decision-making process, especially for decision directly related to their work. Employees with self-actualization needs should be given interesting and challenging work, and should be offered training opportunities.

2.2.2 Taylor theory of management analysis

Taylor’s theory of scientific management was based on the principle that both workers and managers needed to relate well, which was unheard of at a time where managers rarely interacted with the workers under them (Mind Tools, 2014; Ueno,. 2012). Some of the core principles of his theory included matching the skills, capabilities, and motivations of workers to their jobs, using scientific methods to develop the most efficient ways of accomplishing tasks, monitoring the performance of workers on their jobs and instructing them on where they went wrong, and allocating work between workers and managers (Di Mascio, 2010, p.65). However, Taylor’s theory does not advocate for individual responsibility (Towler, Lezotte, & Burke, 2011, p.401).
2.3 How successful these theory on Virgin’s HRM?

Taylor’s theory is applicable to Virgin Air in the sense that it advocates for the matching of employees skills and abilities to their jobs, which is an important aspect of Virgin’s HRM strategy and has been crucial to the success of the airline. Maslow’s theory is relevant to Virgin as it advocates for the addressing of all the needs of employees, which is also part of Virgin’s HR policy as they always engage with their employees where they listen to the views of the employees and act on their suggestions.

HR Strategy

Virgin’s HR strategy focuses on finding the right employees with the relevant skills and above all the right spirit and personality that is in harmony with Virgin’s values of excellent customer service and innovation (Lebard, Rendleman, & Dolan, 2014). During recruitment, the right candidates are identified and then they undergo extensive training to learn Virgin’s culture and their role in perpetuating the culture. Once the recruits have been trained they join Virgin’s team, but the training never stops.
3.1 HRM & Virgin leadership forecast some improvements on the HR Management.

Virgin’s executive team acknowledges that more needs to be done so as to bring the standards of their customer services to match the brand image that promises excellent customer service to all customers (HC Online, 2003). Virgin’s leadership promises to improve on its overall leadership strategy in terms of leadership truism and more so in the leadership of the customer services department to prevent any further incidents of poor customer service.
3.1.1 Leadership of truism

Virgin’s leadership wants to adopt a leadership based on truisms such as the fact that the culture of the company is a direct reflection of the value of its leaders, and that the culture of an organization is reflected in the stories told by employees (Petrilli, 2011). These truisms are critical in reshaping the culture at Virgin Air to reflect the overall culture of the Virgin Group.
3.1.2 Leadership of customer services

The leadership of customer services will be given a chance to correct the wrong behaviors of employees within the department within a period of two weeks. The department leader should have identified and removed the employees who caused so much damage to the airline’s image given that their actions not only jeopardize the success of the airline, but that of the entire Virgin Group (Brady, 2012). If the customer service leaders do not take the appropriate measures recommended above, they will be removed and replaced with other more effective managers from within the organization.
3.1.2 Leadership Recommendations

It is my recommendation that Virgin Air’s board examines the conduct of all its top leaders it seems likely that they are not congruent with the values and culture of the Virgin Group. Any leaders who are found to have conducted themselves in a manner opposite to the culture of the group should be immediately removed from their positions and replaced with leaders who have proven that they understand and abide by the values of the Virgin Group (Crush, 2012).

3.2 HRM & Motivation can change customer services track?

I do believe that proper motivation and HRM is the key to implementing successful change within the customer services department at Virgin Air.
3.2.1 Motivation theories analysis

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is quite appropriate for Virgin Air as all people work to satisfy their needs and these needs are clearly stipulated by Maslow’s theory (CoW, 2014; Bowen, 1986). Frederick Herzberg’s theory is also appropriate as he clarifies that people will only do something in order to gain a benefit or to avoid incurring a loss. These two theories complement themselves in their application to Virgin Air and may lead to significant changes at Virgin Air.

3.2.2 Motivation recommendations

I recommend that Virgin Air should motivate its employees by satisfying all their needs according to Maslow’s theory and to ensure that their work with the airline results in the employees benefitting according to Herzberg’s theory. The airline should also adopt the general Virgin Group motivation strategies in their motivation programs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have found that the incidents of poor customer service at Virgin Air were not isolated and that the leadership was culpable in the emerging negative trends as reports by customers had indicated. Therefore, I have recommended that the leaders in charge of customer service be censured and given a chance to correct his mistakes or be removed from his position. I have also made recommendations on how the company can implement change throughout its ranks moving forward from this point. The airline should implement my recommendation for there to be lasting change in the organization and to save the brand image from irreparable damage by customer service agents.

References

Bowen, D. E. 1986, Managing Customers as Human Resources in Service Organizations. Human Resource Management. 25(3), 371-383.

Brady, J., 2012. HRD interview with Jill Brady-HR Director-Virgin Atlantic Airways. [Online] Available at: http://www.thehrdirector.com/hr-interviews/hrd-interview-with-jill-brady-director-of-hr-virgin-atlantic-airways/>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Call of the Wild., 2014. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs-how to motivate your staff. [Online] Available at: <http://www.callofthewild.co.uk/library/theory/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-how-to-motivate-your-staff/>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Crush, P., 2012. Exclusive: Sir Richard Branson talks to HR magazine about leadership. [Online] Available at: <http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/features/1018119/exclusive-sir-richard-branson-talks-hr-magazine-leadership>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Di Mascio, R. 2010, ‘The Service Models of Frontline Employees. Journal of Marketing 74(4), 63-80.

HC Online., 2003. Breaking in a new culture: The Virgin Blue Story. [Online] Available at: <http://www.hcamag.com/profiles/breaking-in-a-new-culture-the-virgin-blue-story-110539.aspx>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Lebard, P., Rendleman, K. and Dolan, K., 2014. Viewpoint: Delivering the brand promise through employees. [Online] Available at: <http://www.mmc.com/knowledgecenter/viewpoint/archive/lebard2006.php>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Methot, P. L., 2010. Motivation theories. [Online] Available at: <http://methotology.com/Motivation_Theories.html>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Mind Tools., 2014. Frederick Taylor and scientific management. [Online] Available at: <http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_Taylor.htm>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Petrilli, L., 2011. 5 truisms about leadership and corporate culture that leaders cannot ignore. [Online] Available at: <http://www.lisapetrilli.com/2011/03/07/five-truisms-about-leadership-corporate-culture/>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

Schneider, B. 2004, Welcome to the world of services management. Academy of Management Executive. 18(2), 144-150.

Towler, A., Lezotte, D. V., & Burke, M. J. 2011, ‘The service climate-firm performance chain: The role of customer retention. Human Resource Management, Vol. 50(3), 391-406.

Tzafrir, S. S. & Gur, A. B. A. 2007, HRM Practices and Perceived Service Quality: The Role of Trust as a Mediator. Research & Practice in Human Resource Management. 15(2), 1-16.

Ueno, A. 2012, Which HRM practices contribute to service culture? Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. 23(11/12), 1227-1239.

Virgin Altantic., 2014. Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited SWOT Analysis.Virgin Atlantic Airways SWOT Analysis. p1-8.

Virgin Atlantic., 2014. Who, what, where, when, why? [Online] Available at: <http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/allaboutus/ourstory/forstudents.jsp>. [Accessed 25 July 2014].

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Leadership taxonomy template Assignment

Leadership taxonomy Template

Order Instructions:

•Review this Module’s Learning Resources. Select four leadership theories for this Assignment. Search for additional peer-reviewed scholarly resources about your selected leadership theories. You should use both the articles in the Learning Resources and additional scholarly resources to develop your analysis. You must use proper paraphrasing techniques when completing your analysis. Avoid using direct quotes by paraphrasing as appropriate. Include proper APA citations. Submit your paper through Turnitin and Grammarly, and include your Grammarly results with your paper submission

•A 1-page taxonomy that follows the Leadership Theory Taxonomy Template available in this Module’s Learning Resources to the Assignment Part 1 – Module 2 link.
•A 4- to 6-page (not including cover page or references) Leadership Theory Taxonomy paper that explains in detail each theory listed in the taxonomy, by synthesizing multiple scholarly references and examples. This paper will be submitted to the Assignment Part 2 Turnitin – Module 2 link. Be sure to include the following in your paper:
•Five peer-reviewed scholarly resources in addition to those offered by the Learning Resources
•Specific examples of two of the four theories drawn from personal experiences or scholarly literature

SAMPLE ANSWER

Leadership taxonomy template

Trait theory (1930s-1940s)

Authors: Ralph Stogdill

Years: 1948

Description: It is based on the assumption that all good leaders have a specific set of personal characteristics or personality traits that make them good leaders. However, Stogdill concluded that the traits that one was born with were not the only requirement for good leadership, but rather that these traits must be relevant to the particular leadership situation for one to be an effective leader.

Behavioral theory (1940s-1950s)

Author: Kurt Levin

Years: 1939-1940s

Description: a framework for classification of leaders based on their actions, which divided leaders into three groups; these groups consisted of autocratic leaders, democratic leaders and laissez-faire leaders.

Contingency or situational theories (1960s)

Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory

Author: Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard

Years: 1970s

Description: It is based on four leadership styles that correspond to the four maturity levels of those being led.

Power and influence theories

French and Raven’s five forms of power

Authors: John French, Bertram Raven

Year: 1959

Description: clearly articulates the five forms of power that leaders execute, which are legitimate, coercive, reward, referent and expert power.

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Evaluation in Public Health Research

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The Evaluation Process

The CDC notes how program evaluation can be used to plan effective health interventions, improve existing programs, and demonstrate “the results of resource investments,” (CDC, 2001). In order to know what is working, it is essential to conduct an evaluation of a program, recognizing that different forms of evaluation provide different information. The readings this week discuss formative, process, and outcome evaluation and what each of these addresses. Each form of evaluation provides stakeholders and researchers with different information and are conducted at varying times throughout a program’s planning and implementation.

Post by Day 4 your response to the following:

Compare and contrast formative evaluation, process evaluation, and outcome evaluation in public health research and when each type of evaluation is most appropriate.

Describe how the results of an evaluation influence decision making in public health.

SAMPLE ANSWER

Evaluation in Public Health Research

Three types of evaluations can be used in public health research. Developmental or formative evaluation aims at ensuring that a program’s implementation is optimized to achieve success (Valente, 2002). Process evaluation is essential when assessing the context and course of a program. Finally, the impact or outcome evaluation is used when making attempts to attribute transformations in high-level outcomes (negative and positive, unintended and intended) to a certain intervention or program.

Formative evaluation aims at ensuring that a program is well-developed and well-formed. This is achieved through the use of information gathering methods and organizational development methods. The evaluation assessed the progress of program implementation and planning and if there are any challenges (Valente, 2002). Areas that are assessed include needs assessment, stakeholder consultation, collaborative group processes, and reviewing past experience and research literature. Unlike outcome evaluation, process evaluation focus on the achievement of high-level outcomes. Rather, it focuses on the happenings of the program’s details. Finally, outcome evaluation is very useful since it helps in determining if a program has made the intended difference.

Public health professionals are very keen on improving health. For them to attain this goal, they have to dedicate their will and skills to evaluating public health actions’ effects. The results obtained after an evaluation are very key in guiding the public health decision making process (McDavid et al., 2013). The evaluation gives an insight regarding if the project is progressing as planned. If not, decisions are made on resource redistribution, extending the period of the project, the changes that can be made so as to achieve the projected outcomes, and if more resources should be dedicated towards the course.

References

McDavid, J. C., Huse, I., Hawthorn, L. R. L., & McDavid, J. C. (2013). Program evaluation and performance measurement: An introduction to practice. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Valente, T. W. (2002). Evaluating Health Promotion Programs. Oxford University Press, USA.

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Qualitative Data Analysis Tools Paper

Identifying Themes and Patterns/Qualitative Data Analysis Tools

Order Instructions:

It is important to note that each section should have a separate reference list and most importantly it is critical to respond to all questions detail with credible scholarly sources not more than 5 years old. And it is important to note that for SECTION A, the PDF file for the article has to be attached with the final paper .The writer must follow proper instructions in completing this paper. It’s a total of 3 pages with 1.5 pages for each section.

SECTION A (1.5pages)
Identifying Themes and Patterns
Qualitative data analysis can be quite complex and time-consuming. Whether the research design is descriptive or uses a specific qualitative methodology such as phenomenology; the researcher will need to consider all the data that is generated from data gathering. Most qualitative data are gathered from interviews and the results examined for themes and patterns.
1. Please describe and discuss how themes and patterns emerge from the analysis of data.
2. Use the thematic findings from a credible qualitative nursing research study to demonstrate your description. Please attach the study with your final paper.
3. Provide at least three citations with full references to credible nursing scholarly articles supporting your definitions and discussion.

SECTION B (1.5pages)
Qualitative Data Analysis Tools
Because data analysis in qualitative research is such a tedious and time-consuming process; various electronic software programs have been created to support the swift and detailed analysis of large amounts of narrative data.
1. Please identify a specific qualitative research design and then choose the electronic data analysis software program you would use to examine the data generated from this research.
2. Describe the data analysis program and justify why you would use the particular program for the analysis of data.
3. Provide at least three citations with full references to credible nursing scholarly articles supporting your definitions and discussion.
Resources to consider for this paper.

Introduction to Nursing Research Incorporating Evidence-Based Practice
• Chapter 9: “Qualitative and Mixed Methods”
• Chapter 12: “Data Analysis”
• Chapter 13: “Research Critique Process”

Please retrieve and read the following journal articles
• Jacelon, C., & O’Dell, K. (2005). Demystifying nursing research. Analyzing qualitative data. Urologic Nursing, 25(3), 217–220.

• Jones, M. (2007). Using software to analyze qualitative data. Journal of Qualitative Research, 1(1), 64-76.

• Rothwell, E. (2010). Analyzing focus group data: content and interaction. Journal For Specialists In Pediatric Nursing, 15(2), 176–180.

• Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2: qualitative research. British Journal Of Nursing (BJN), 16(12), 738–744.

• Smith, J., & Firth, J. (2011). Qualitative data analysis: the framework approach. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 52–62.

Google the names of the following qualitative software programs to learn their potential for assisting researchers in their data analysis of qualitative data: QSR, Ethnograph, AnSWR, QUALRUS, MAXQDA

SAMPLE ANSWER

Identifying Themes and Patterns/Qualitative Data Analysis Tools

Section A

The data collection methods that are used in qualitative research results to ideas that can be comprehended better under the thematic analysis control. This encompasses a focus on the identifiable patterns and themes of behavior or way of life. The first step should involve data collection. Audiotapes should also be used. Using the transcribed conversations, experiences’ patterns can be listed. This emerges from paraphrasing common ideas. After this, all the data that is connected to already classified patterns should be identified. The identified patterns are then elaborated on (Tracy, 2013). All ideas related to a specific pattern are identified and put together with corresponding patterns. The related patterns are then combined and catalogued into sub-themes. Themes are then identified through bringing fragments or components of experiences or ideas together, that are normally meaningless if viewed personally. Themes and patterns arising from the stories of the informants are put together to create a detailed picture of the collective experience. As researchers gather sub-themes to gain detailed information view, he can easily see patterns emerging (Tracy, 2013).

When patterns emerge, the best thing the researcher should do is obtaining feedback from informants regarding the patterns. This may be accomplished as the interview is going on or by asking for feedback from the informants from transcribed conversations. Using the former, the researcher utilizes the feedback from the informants to establish the subsequent interview questions (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin, 2007). Using the latter, the researcher transcribes the session or interview, and asks the participants to offer feedback which is then included in the theme analysis. The researcher then builds valid arguments through choosing the themes. It is necessary for the researcher to refer to the literature again so as to make inferences. This permits formulation of theme statements and development of a story line.

In the qualitative study, ten semi-structured interviews were carried out. All these were audiotaped. Moreover, field notes were taken. The interviews were also transcribed verbatim and recordings were compared with transcriptions so as to promote accuracy and comprehensiveness when identifying themes and patterns. The participants were also given transcript copies for review so as to promote accuracy (Braun & Clarke, 2013). Following review, the participants had a chance to meet with the researchers for clarification of any issues that seemed vital. Interpretations were made regarding why nurses left the nursing practice. The researcher also used hermeneutics that permitted him to probe further into contextual meanings available in the interviews. Research colleagues shared interpretive analysis as a measure of promoting proper interpretation. As analysis was going on, major themes and ideas were identified. Like themes were paired and recorded accordingly, while supporting documentation was coded. Themes were also identified from the transcripts. If a new theme was identified, the previous transcripts underwent rereading to see if this theme had already been identified in the previous interviews. The research team was keen on identifying all possible meanings related to the theme so as to promote a thorough analysis (MacKusick & Minick, 2010).

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. London: SAGE

MacKusick, C. I., & Minick, P. (2010). Why Are Nurses Leaving? Findings from an Initial Qualitative Study on Nursing Attrition. MEDSURG Nursing, 19(6), 335- 340.

Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2: qualitative research. British Journal Of Nursing (BJN), 16(12), 738–744.

Tracy, S. J. (2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Section B

When using qualitative ethnography design, an electronic data analysis software program can be used. Qualitative social research depends on different approaches for organizing, systematizing, and analyzing the qualitative data. Presently, researchers increasingly use computer software for qualitative data analysis. Such software is known as a qualitative data analysis (QDA) software. Among the pioneer software programs, as far as qualitative data analysis is concerned, is MAXQDA (Rothwell, 2010).

MAXQDA is an acknowledged professional software that is commonly used for mixed methods and qualitative data analysis for Mac and Windows. The software has immense features that make data analysis very easy including coding and importing graphic files and PDF; Georeferencing, powerful multimedia features, and synchronization and transcription of text documents. By using this software, I would have an innovative, easy, and powerful ways of using analytical tools. This would greatly make my research projects successful (Smith & Firth, 2011). I can easily import data from spreadsheets, video and audio files, images, web pages, online surveys, focus groups, and interviews into the software. Consequently, the data is sorted into groups, which makes data analysis very easy.

The software offers insight into data sets while no interpretations are being suggested. Relying on content analysis, I can draw conclusions on the respective research objective. The software tool permits easy structuring, sorting, and analysis of huge data amounts. It also facilitates management of resulting evaluations and interpretations (Jones, 2007). Through the use of MAXQDA, this may be achieved through classifying materials into groups via a hierarchical coding system, assigning weights and colors to test segments, and defining variables. MAXQDA also permits different visual tools and easy analysis results’ access. The use of a QDA when dealing with qualitative research is extremely vital in fields such as educational science, medicine, political science, psychology, and sociology. In addition, it is very vital in market and businesses researches. In a nutshell, MAXQDA has been very effective in qualitative research studies (Jacelon & O’Dell, 2005). In fact, it has promoted the use of these kinds of research.

References

Jacelon, C., & O’Dell, K. (2005). Demystifying nursing research. Analyzing qualitative data. Urologic Nursing, 25(3), 217–220.

Jones, M. (2007). Using software to analyze qualitative data. Journal of Qualitative Research, 1(1), 64-76.

Rothwell, E. (2010). Analyzing focus group data: content and interaction. Journal For Specialists In Pediatric Nursing, 15(2), 176–180.

Smith, J., & Firth, J. (2011). Qualitative data analysis: the framework approach. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 52–62.

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Learnscape Case Study: Hospital Nightmare

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Include references

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Learnscape Case Study: Hospital Nightmare

Student’s name

Professor’s name

Course title

Date

Learnscape Case Study: Hospital Nightmare

A successful claim of negligence must establish the existence of duty of care, breach of duty, verification of injury and causation. A duty of care arises from a legal obligation of care, observance or performance imposed on a party to safeguard the rights of another. The hospital and its employees owed a duty of care to Mrs. Smith on ground that she sought the hospital’s medical services and was attended to by the hospital’s employees. The hospital breached its duty by not making sure that Mrs. Smith could not contract a staph infection or that she got attended to immediately she got the infection. As a result of complications of the infection, Mrs. Smith contracted an autoimmune disease. The staph infection was caused by the negligence of Dr. Patrow, the hospital’s employee, who failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the infection could not spread through contact such as changing gloves between each patient and washing clothes out of the room.

The doctrine of Respondeat Superior applies in this case. The hospital is liable for the wrongful acts of its employees due to the fact that it failed to ensure that there were adequate rules and procedures, that the rooms contained adequate gloves for every patient, that the physicians washed their hands out of the room, and that the staff members were properly trained on dealing with infections. Thus, the hospital is vicariously liable for the injury caused to Mrs. Smith by the negligence of its employees. Mrs. Smith is entitled to indemnification by the hospital for the injury. Mrs. Smith should be indemnified the costs incurred for treating the autoimmune disease.

Reference

Learnscape. (2012). Hospital Nightmare. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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Epidemiology and biostatistics Essay Paper

Epidemiology and biostatistics

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Epidemiology and biostatistics

Project description
please answer all questions thoroughly. Please give a detailed rational for all multiple choice answers selected. please show all work on the calculations. the second

part of the assignment is on SPSS but i changed it to excel to upload here. if there is an email i can send the original to let me know because the excel may not have

all the data needed. thank you

Assignment 2

This Assignment is formed of two sections.

The FIRST SECTION includes questions from “Grove: Statistics for Health Care Research: A practical Workbook, Graded Questions” and other sources.

SGrove, S. K. (2007). Statistics for Health Care Research: A Practical Workbook. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders. ISBN:
9781455709960

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/statistics-for-health-care-research-susan-k-grove/1100526452?cm_mmc=googlepla-_textbook_notinstock_26to75_pt108-_-q000000633-_9781416002260&cm_mmca2=pla&ean=9781416002260&isbn=9781416002260&r=1

== The SECOND SECTION includes questions related to analyzing and interpreting the data. Download and use the file “Sample_Data_Assignment2_Blackboard.sav”

This assignment includes 40 points and represents 20% of the course grade. Each question is one point.
Please write your name on the top of each page.

Section I: Grove: Statistics for Health Care Research
A practical Workbook
Instructions: For each exercise section – questions to be graded, in the book “statistics for health care research, a practical workbook”, answer only the specified questions written in bold. Show your calculations and provide rationale for your answers for full credit.
For example: for exercise 1, “questions to be graded”, you need to answer only questions 5 and 7.
Below are the list of the exercise numbers, title and the specific questions that you will need to answer. You need to read the sections in the workbook in order to answer the questions.
Exercise 1: Identifying Level of Measurement: Nominal
Answer questions: 5 and 7

5. What number and percentage of the 44 depressed subjects were treated with antidepressant medications? Do you think an adequate number received treatment with medication? Provide a rationale for your answer.

7. The researchers excluded persons from the study who had a history of psychiatric illness. Provide a rationale for excluding these persons.

Exercise 2: Identifying Level of Measurement: Ordinal
Answer questions: 2 and 7

2. What statistics were used to describe the demographic variable Estimated Yearly Family Income in this study? Were these appropriate?

7. Should the demographic variable Educational level be analyzed with parametric or non parametric statistical analysis techniques? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 3: Identifying Level of Measurement: Interval/Ratio
Answer question: 6, 9

6. Looking at Table II, what descriptive analysis techniques were performed on the interval/ratio data?

9. Are there significant differences between the intervention and the control groups for any of the variables in Table I? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 4: Understanding Percentages
Answer questions: 4 and 6

4. What number and percentage (%) of the total number of respondents had a current CRC test?

6. Explain why the number of total subjects’ data in Table 2 is for 859 subjects when the total sample for the study was 869 subjects.

Exercise 5: Frequency Distributions with Percentages
Answer questions: 4 and 10

4. What level of education achieved by the mothers is the mode for this variable? Document your answer as both a frequency and percentage.
10. Do you think that this study and its results can be generalized to the United States? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 6: Cumulative Percentages and Percentile Ranks
Answer questions: 5 and 9

5. What number and percentage of nurses documented a different pain score from the grimacing patient’s self-reported pain score of 8?

9. Is this study only applicable to the elderly population? Do you think younger patients’ self-reports of pain are believed and their pain appropriately treated?

Exercise 7: Interpreting Histograms
Answer question: 7, 9

7. In Figure 2, which variable is placed on the x-axis? Which variable is placed on the y-axis?

9. Examine Figures 1 and 2 and compare their distribution patterns. Are the distribution patterns similar? Provide a rationale for you answer.

Exercise 8: Interpreting Line Graphs
Answer questions: 6 and 10

6. The breastfeeding rate post-intervention was greater than the pre-intervention rate over the 12 months of the study. Is this statement true or false? Provide a rationale for your answer.

10. What implications for practice do you note from these study results?

Exercise 11: Using Statistics to Describe a Study Sample
Answer questions: 3 and 8

3. What other statistic could have been used to describe the length of labor? Provide a rationale for your answer.

8. Can the findings from this study be generalized to Black women? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 15: Measurement of Central Tendency: Mean, Median, and Mode
Answer questions: 1 and 9

1. The following list represents the number of nursing students enrolled in a particular nursing program between the years of 2001 and 2007, respectively: 563, 593,

606, 520, 563, 610, and 577. Determine the mean, median, and mode of the number of the nursing students enrolled in the above program between 2001 and 2007. Show your calculations.

9. Assuming that ? = 0.01, which nursing specialties demonstrated a significant change in popularity between the stages 1 and 2 of the research questionnaire administration? Provide a rationale for your response.

Exercise 16: Mean and Standard Deviation
Answer questions: 1, 4

1. The researchers analyzed the data they collected as though it were at what level of measurement?
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval/ratio
d. Experimental

4. Compare the mean baseline and posttest depression scores of the control group. Do these scores strengthen or weaken the validity of the research results? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 19: Determining Skewness of a Distribution
Answer questions: 1, 3

1. The age distribution of people diagnosed with cystic fibrosis is most likely to be:
a. negatively skewed.
b. normally distributed.
c. positively skewed.
d. bimodal.

3. Does a set of scores with most of its values above the mean have a negatively or positively skewed distribution? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 22: Scatterplot
Answer questions: 2 and 7

2. What type of relationship does Figure 22–2 illustrate? Provide a rationale for your answer.

7. Does Figure 1 from the Hitchings and Moynihan (1998) study have any outliers? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Exercise 23: Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient
Answer questions: 4 and 10

4. Without using numbers, describe the relationship between the Hamstring strength index 120°/s and the Triple hop index.

10. Consider the relationship reported for the Quadriceps strength index 120º/s and the Hop index (r = 0.744**, p = 0.000). What do these r and p values indicate

related to statistical significance and clinical importance? [alpha is set at 0.05].

Exercise 29: t-Test for Independent Groups I
Answer questions: 2 and 5

2. t = –3.15 describes the difference between women and men for what variable in this study? Is this value significant? Provide a rationale for your answer. [alpha is set at 0.05]

5. Consider t = –2.50 and t = –2.74. Which t ratio has the smaller p value? Provide a rationale for your answer. What does this result mean?

Exercise 36: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) I
Answer questions: 3 and 6

3. The researchers stated that the participants in the intervention group reported a reduction in mobility difficulty at week 12. Was this result statistically

significant, and if so at what probability?

6. Can ANOVA be used to test proposed relationships or predicted correlations between variables in a single group? Provide a rationale for your answer.

Section II: USING THE DATA SET DOWNLOADED FROM BLACKBOARD

“Sample_Data_Assignment2_Blackboard.sav”

1. Do frequency for the following variables and interpret the findings:
[1 POINT]

Age category, Gender, Bp (Blood pressure), Active (physically active), dhosp (died in hospital).

2. Do descriptive statistics and histogram with normal distribution and interpret the results for the following variables: [1 POINT]

Age (years), cost (total cost of hospitalization and rehabilitation), and log_COST (log transformed data to change it to normal distribution)

– Are these variables normally distributed?

3. Is there a difference between those who died in the hospital and those who did not die in the hospital in age (age at admission in years)? [1 POINT]

a. What statistical test you will use? Why?

b. Is there a statistically significant difference between the groups? Explain and interpret the finding

4. Is there a difference between the blood pressure groups in age (age at admission in years)? [1 POINT]

a. What statistical test you will use? Why?

b. Is there a statistically significant difference between the groups? Explain and interpret the finding

5. Is there a correlation between age (age at admission in years) and cost (total cost of hospitalization and rehabilitation)? [1 POINT]

a. Run correlation between the two variables and report the correlation coefficient (r) [direction and strength] and interpret the results.

6. Are there relationship between patient’s death in the hospital (dhosp) and the following variables: Bp (Blood pressure), Active (physically active). [DO

CROSS-TABLES] [1 POINT]

a. What statistical test you will use? Why?

b. Is there a statistically significant difference between the groups? Explain and interpret the finding

7. Write a summary report for the results of the study and its impact on nursing practice (i.e., summarize the findings from question 1 to 6) [Two POINTS]

SAMPLE ANSWER

Assignment on Epidemiology a7 Biostatistics

EXERCISE 1

5 What number and percentage of the 44 depressed subjects were treated with antidepressant, do you think adequate number received treatment medication

Of the 44 participants who were depressed subjects were treated with anti-depressants only 13% were reported to be using anti-depressants 37% were not being treated with any convectional interventions like exercise and herbal, which one would say was not significant enough to attribute antidepressants as an intervention strategy, also chi-square didnt attribute antidepressant as significant intervention strategy

The researcher excluded person from the study who had history of psychiatric illness

In a clinical trial, the investigators must specify Inclusion and exclusion criteria for participation in the study. Inclusion criteria are characteristics that the prospective subjects must have if they are to be included in the study, while exclusion criteria are those characteristics that disqualify prospective subjects from inclusion in the study. Inclusion and exclusion criteria may include factors such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, type and stage of disease, the subject’s previous treatment history, and the presence or absence (as in the case of the “healthy” or “control” subject) of other medical, psychosocial, or emotional conditions. One would say in this case

Exercise 2

What statistics were used to describe the demographic variable Estimated Year Family Income

Measure of central tendency, distribution and dispersion

7 should demographic variable education be analyzed with parametric or non parametric statistical technique

Education level here is ordinal variable therefore it will use non parametric statistical technique, Nonparametric methods are useful for analysis of nominal or ordinal data. They are also useful whenever questions occur concerning the underlying assumptions of a counterpart parametric procedure for interval or ratio data. In general, parametric procedures will have nonparametric counterparts, although the hypothesis tested will not always be exactly the same. For example, a parametric two-sample test for differences in means, may have a counterpart nonparametric test which is a two-sample test for differences in medians.

Exercise 3

Looking at Table 1, what descriptive analysis techniques were performed on interval and ratio data

The interval /ratio data was analysed using Descriptive statistics which analysis of data that helps to describe, show or summarize data in a meaningful way such that, for example, patterns might emerge from the data. Descriptive statistics do not, however, allow us to make conclusions beyond the data we have analysed or reach conclusions regarding any hypotheses we might have made. They are simply a way to describe our data., which consisted of Measures of central tendency: these are ways of describing the central position of a frequency distribution for a group of data. In this case, the frequency distribution is simply the distribution and pattern of marks scored by the 100 students from the lowest to the highest. We can describe this central position using a number of statistics, including the mode, median, and mean. You can read about measures of central tendency and Measures of spread: these are ways of summarizing a group of data by describing how spread out the scores are. Measures of spread help us to summarize how spread out these scores are. To describe this spread, a number of statistics are available to us, including the range, quartiles, absolute deviation, variance and standard deviation.

9.0 Are there significant difference between the intervention and the control groups of the variables

Chi square did not show any significance difference between the intervention and control group as the P<0.05 which rule out any significance difference

Exercise 4

what number or percentage(%) of the total number of respondents used CRT .

Each entry in the table contains the frequency or count of the occurrences of values within a particular group or interval, and in this way, the table summarizes the distribution of values in the sample. enerally the class interval or class width is the same for all classes. The classes all taken together must cover at least the distance from the lowest value (minimum) in the data set up to the highest (maximum) value, In case of our set of data the cumulative frequency and the percentage is 45% and the frequency is 24

6 Explain why the number of total subjects in Table 2 is for 859 subjects when the total subjects of the sample is stated as 869

Because of missing value and exclusion criteria

Exercise5

: Frequency Distributions w ith Percentages

Answer questions: 4 and 10

what level of educational achievement by the mother is the mode

We can easily the following formula is used to identify the modal group (the group with the highest frequency), which is 11 – 15 schooling years

Estimated Mode = L +	f_m − f_m-1	× w
	(f_m − f_m-1) + (f_m − f_m+1)

where:

L is the lower class boundary of the modal group
f_m-1 is the frequency of the group before the modal group
f_m is the frequency of the modal group
f_m+1 is the frequency of the group after the modal group
w is the group width

10 Do you think the sample can be generalized for the population of Whole of USA

Indeed NO s because the sample is not inclusive of all demographics although and seems not to include other races like Africa America, Hispanic among others also the sample too small

Exercise 6

Cumulative percentage and Percentile ranks

5.0 what number and percentage of nurses documented a different pain score from grimacing patients

25%

9.is this study only applicable to elderly population

The study is all inclusive and can be validly be used by elderly as well as younger patient

Exercise 7

In fig 2 which value is placed in Y axis and X axis

Y axis is the dependent variable while X axis is the independent variable

Examining figure 1 and 2 and compare their distribution patterns, are they similar in the pattern

Figure 1 shows a normally distributed data while Figure 2 show left skewed data, When you have a normally distributed sample you can legitimately use both the mean or the median as your measure of central tendency. In fact, in any symmetrical distribution the mean, median and mode are equal. However, in this situation, the mean is widely preferred as the best measure of central tendency as it is the measure that includes all the values in the data set for its calculation, and any change in any of the scores will affect the value of the mean. This is not the case with the median or mode.

Exercise 8

The breast feeding rate post intervention score were better than pre-intervention score as shown by the mean as well as standard deviation
The implications that it is necessary to advocate or promote breast feeding as post intervention as opposed to pre-intervention

Exercise 11

3 What other statistics could be used to determine length of labour

Mean, Mode, maximum, variance and Standard deviation

8.0

Can the findings from the study be generalized to include all black women

Yes, because the sample was adequate and it will be inclusive

Exercise 11

Determine mode, median and mean of the following nursing students enrolled in year 2001 to 2007

563, 593, 606, 520, 563, 610 and 577

Mean

To find the Mean, add up all the numbers, then divide by how many numbers there are:

563+593+606+520+563+610+577=576

Mode

To find the Mode, or modal value, place the numbers in value order then count how many of each number. The Mode is the number which appears most often (you can have more than one mode),in this case 563 appears twice

Median

To find the Median, place the numbers in value order and find the middle number (or the mean of the middle two numbers). In this case the mean of the 10^th and 11^th values:

563, 563,520, 577,593,606, 610

9 Assuming an alpha=0.01 which nursing specialty demonstrated a significant change in popularity between 1 and 2 in questionnaire administration, Cronbach’s alpha determines the internal consistency or average correlation of items in a survey instrument to gauge its reliability. Computation of alpha is based on the reliability of a test relative to other tests with same number of items, and measuring the same construct of interest Alpha coefficient ranges in value from 0 to 1 and may be used to describe the reliability

Exercise 16

The researchers analysed the data they collected as though it were at what level of measurement

Ordinal scale

4.- comparing the mean baseline and post test depression scores of control group, it is very clear that including the control group intervention strengthen the experiment because it give an opportunity to analyze the experiment holistically reducing bias in interpretation

Exercise 19 Skewness of a distribution

Bimodal

A histogram with two peaks is called “bimodal” since it has two values or data ranges that appear most often in the data. In a process that is repeated over time, we typically expect the data to appear in the familiar, bell-shaped curve of the normal distribution. Thus, the bimodal histogram can signal something out of the ordinary. When viewing this histogram, the data looks quite different – in fact, this second histogram almost seems to have a roughly normal distribution (or slightly skewed distribution) with a single peak

Negatively Skewed

negatively skewed distribution, the mode is higher than the median which is higher than the mean therefore in our case the data set has most of the score above the mean, meaning most of the 3rd moment about the mean is called skewness .In a negatively skewed distribution the tail of a distribution points toward the low scores

Exercise 22

The relationship is a positive significant relationship, where the dependent variable is influencing independent variable positively, increase in dependent variable leads to increase in independent variable

The figure 1 shows an extreme value, else called an outlier, which can be seen in the presence of a very large mean, and therefore interfering with normal distribution

Exercise 23 Pearson products-moment

There is a significant association between strength index 120/ s and triple hop index with p value less tha o.o5 The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient is a measure of the strength and direction of association that exists between two variables measured on at least an interval scale

10 The R is a measure of the correlation between the observed value and the predicted value of the criterion variable. R Square (R2) is the square of this measure of correlation and indicates the proportion of the variance in the criterion variable which is accounted for by our model. In essence, this is a measure of how good a prediction of the criterion variable we can make by knowing the predictor variables, in this case are indicate 66% of the association

Exercise 29 ttest for independent groups

3.0 The ttest of -3.15 is significant at p<0.05 indicating a statistical significant difference between women and men, first because it is lower than critical value of the study, For a two-tailed test if the calculated value of t exceeds the tabled value, then report the p value in the table. For a one-tailed test, the p value is divided by two. So ‘p < 0.05’ becomes ‘p < 0.025.”

The table should include values for p=0.1 so that a one-tailed test can be conducted at the p=0.05 level, Negative t-values: The sign of a t-value tells us the direction of the difference in sample means,

6.0

We do report t test value as an absolute value, so whether negative or positive does not matter here therefore test with absolute value 2.50 is smaller than 2.74. Case I represents the null hypothesis (H_O: µ₁ = µ₂) indicating that the mean of group one equals the mean of group two; both samples come from the same population. This would signify that the drug had no effect on blood pressure. The difference in the means is small, suggesting that they come from the same population. Case II represents the alternate hypothesis (H_A:µ₁≠ µ₂), indicating that the mean of group one does not equal the mean of group two; the two sample means are from different populations. The difference in the means is too large to come from one population in most cases. Hence the means are probably coming from two different populations. A t-test decides which of these hypotheses to accept.

Exercise 36 ANOVA

Participants in the intervention group reported a reduction in mobility difficulty at 12 weeks, ans this is significant as shown by P vale of <0.05

6.0 The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of three or more independent (unrelated) groups therefore not appropriate in the case of one group

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Bargaining Power Balance between the Host States and the IOCs

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See attached file for the assignment and all the instructions.

Coursework Assignment Brief

Semester:	Summer 2014
Module Code:	POG 220
Module Title:	Legal Aspects of Oil & Gas
Programme:	BSc (Hons) Oil and Gas Management
Level:	Level 5
Awarding Body:	University of Plymouth
Module Leader:	Vick Krishnan
Format:	An individually written assignment consisting of a written essay/report of 2,500 words.
Presentation:	Yes
Any special requirements:	All written work should be submitted on the Student Portal along with an acceptable Turnitin Report
Word Limit:	2,500 words YOUR WORK MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA THE STUDENT PORTAL. HARD COPY OR EMAIL SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE MARKED. Word Limit Penalty for task 1 10% under / excess No Reduction 20% under / excess 5% Reduction 30% under / excess 10% Reduction 40% under / excess 15% Reduction 50% under / excess 20% Reduction Over 50% under / excess Half the total marks
Deadline date for submission:	The deadline date for submission is 5.00 pm on Wednesday 13^th August 2014.
Learning outcomes to be examined in this assessment (please note that this is not the assessment task)	Demonstrate a good understanding of the substantive rules of international law applicable to the oil and gas industry Evaluate the key principles of contract formation in international commercial transactions and key international law principles and trends in the oil and gas sector Assess the effectiveness of international law in addressing the environmental impact of oil exploration and exploitation Demonstrate a critical understanding of the importance of oil and gas law as a distinct subject, studied in a practical and commercial context. Knowledge and understanding: Demonstration of detailed knowledge of the legal framework of oil and gas industry and the implications of national, regional and international law. Cognitive/intellectual skills: Ability to analyse a range of information and to synthesise ideas, selecting appropriate techniques of evaluation. Key/Transferable skills: Ability to manage information towards a given purpose and understand the relevance in the analysis of legal problems. Practical skills: Ability to apply given techniques to the solution of particular problems.
Percentage of marks awarded for module:	This assignment is worth 50% of the total marks for the module

	Assessment Task:		*An Individual Essay/Report* What bargaining powers exist between host states and international oil companies at the commencement stages of Exploration and Production. In this respect, critically evaluate the concept of “relative bargaining power” in the contractual relationship between host-governments and international oil companies. You must support your answer with relevant and appropriate examples.
Assessment criteria		Explanatory comments on the assessment criteria		Maximum marks for each section
Content, style, relevance and originality		Relevant, accurate content, demonstrating academic and literary research, as necessary and required by the Assessment Task.		50%
Format/Structure, Referencing and Bibliography		Full text referencing and bibliography using the Harvard citation method		10%
Constructive critical analysis, introduction, conclusion		Demonstrating the ability to critically analyse and/or evaluate the subject area. Emphasis will be placed on the ability to triangulate introduction, discussions and conclusion. Higher marks will be given to those that are able to introduce issues for further contextual exploration.		40%

General Guidance/Structure :-

You are required to develop a well presented and logically structured essay on the concept of ‘relative bargaining power’.

Basically you are evaluating the respective parties (Host States and IOC’s) bargaining powers and how the pre-contractual negotiations subsequently translate into a full blown E & P contract. Evaluate which party has more bargaining power and why is this so? Look at the following issues :-

(1) The asymmetry of information in the hands of the IOCs

(2) Their technical expertise, and

(3) They are financing the project development.

Compare this with concession agreements – how do these differ? Also look at royalty payments and returns, and see how these payments and returns affect the relative bargaining power of the parties.

You should aim to develop a number of competing arguments on the dynamics of the relationship between the host-governments and IOCs.

You are to provide a balanced view of the issues involved and whether contractual relationships are sustainable in the long-term in oil producing countries without strong legal frameworks for enforcing contracts.

A good structure and a coherent analysis which is supported with academic and literary evidence is very essential.

Marking Criteria for Task 1

Indicative Grade	UK% marks	Characteristics.
Distinction	70%+	Very high standard of critical analysis using appropriate conceptual frameworks. Excellent understanding and exposition of relevant issues. Clearly structured and logically developed arguments. Good awareness of nuances and complexities. Substantial evidence of well-executed independent research. Excellent evaluation and synthesis of source material. Relevant data and examples, all properly referenced.
Merit	69-60%	High standard of critical analysis using appropriate conceptual frameworks. Clear awareness and exposition of relevant issues. Clearly structured and logically developed argument. Awareness of nuances and complexities. Evidence of independent research. Good evaluation and synthesis of source material. Relevant data and examples, all properly referenced.
Pass	59-50%	Uses appropriate conceptual frameworks. Attempts analysis but includes some errors and /or omissions. Shows awareness of issues but no more than to be expected room attendance at classes. Arguments reasonably clear but underdeveloped. Insufficient evidence of independent research. Insufficient evaluation of source material. Some good use of relevant data and examples but incompletely referenced.
Pass	49-40%	Adequate understanding of appropriate conceptual frameworks. Answer too descriptive and or any attempt at analysis is superficial containing errors and omission. Shows limited awareness of issues but also some confusion. Arguments not particularly clear. Limited evidence of independent research and reliance on a superficial repeat of class notes. Relatively superficial use of relevant data sources and examples and poorly referenced.
	PASS MARK=40%
E	39-30%	Weak understanding of appropriate conceptual frameworks. Weak analysis and several errors and omissions. Establishes a few relevant points but superficial and confused exposition of issues. No evidence of independent research and poor understanding of class notes or no use of relevant data, sources and examples and no references.

It is recommended that you review the requirements of the assignment before submitting your work.

Students should conform to the conventions of the above assessment format in the preparation of their assignments. The relevant assessment criteria have been stated to enable and guide students in the preparation of their work. Achievement of the learning outcomes and the application of relevant theories to the assessment task should be demonstrated.

SAMPLE ANSWER

Bargaining Power Balance between the Host States and the IOCs

The discovery of the much coveted natural resources such as oil for most countries ignites extremely high national and personal dreams of riches and hopes of prosperous times. This is escalated by the recent dramatic increases in the prices of oil. However, the process of exploiting such prestigious resource is not without challenges to the host countries, most of which are developing (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). The challenges mostly involve overcoming commercial, legal, technical, and expertise requirements required in exploration and development (Guzman, 2010, p. 171). The key hurdles centre mostly on management issues leading to the need to invite international companies with expertise and resources to help in the exploitation and marketing of the energy resource. The major concern arises once the host countries find that the international oil companies (IOC) often possess superior financial resources, superior knowledge of the oil, and even more contract negotiating experience than them (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). For instance, some companies such as Exxon Mobil have more resources ($371 billion) than most of the countries they operate like Saudi Arabia whose entire GDP is $ 281 billion (Peacock, 2010, p. 131). As such, negotiation and maintaining of the contracts can be a heated affair.

Bargaining power is the relative ability of parties involved in a situation to exert influence over each other in which if both parties’ posses equal footing in the involvement, then they have equal bargaining power and unequal bargaining power if otherwise (Guzman, 2010, p. 171). As Rassel (2012, p. 797) notes, in negotiations, bargaining power can be conceptualized as the capacity of one party to dominate the other as a result of its power, size, status, or influence, or even through a combination of the different persuasion tactics. In most cases involving negotiations between host countries and IOCs, unequal bargaining power is manifested by one party, most often the IOCs.

Prospects of Relations between Host States and IOCs

The nature of the oil and gas industry is one in which large returns can be realized since the commodity value in the market above the cost for maintaining the factors of production and for earning profits. Conflicts between the host and the OIC more often emanate from the issue of returns sharing (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). Bargaining between the host and the IOC determine the division of the rents that each party in the agreement is to receive (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). Although there is a divergent between the goals of the host and those of the IOC, there is equally an array of complementarity and such a platform for each of the two sides to realize their targets through cooperation (Guzman, 2010, p. 171). However, the challenge arises, as a result, of the great discrepancy that exists in terms of resources; financial and expertise, between the two parties whereby more often the IOC are better established than the host countries.

During the negotiation stage, for instance, IOC is highly motivated (Peacock, 2010, p. 131). The companies are likely to overlook the high initial cost involved in the development and exploration even in the instance that they encounter several dry wells. They will, however, be keen to recover all these costs rapidly once they have embarked on a successful production (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). IOCs have a tendency of tailoring their negotiation style to suit their interpretations of the political environments in countries they operate. Having been accustomed to authoritarian regimes and civil strife in most of the countries they operate in, the oil companies will most likely bring a self-protective, uncompromising, feisty attitude towards negotiations (Guzman, 2010, p. 171). In such cases, the environmental and societal impacts of the projects are ignored during negotiations a result of which is conflicts and breaching of agreements in the after days. Oil contracts are the result of negotiations more so since they are varied and complex.

According to Rassel (2012, p. 797), investors seek and require legal and institutional stability especially in terms of political, societal inexperience in handling resources, and institutional conflicts. Although most companies would wish to avoid such situations, oil companies are more often forced by circumstances to operate in conflict zones since the resources are mostly fond in these countries (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). These emerging countries normally do not possess sufficient domestic know-how be it financial, legal, or technical, for the development, management, and implementation (Solimene, 2014, n.p). As a result, they have to seek skilled and independent negotiators from the private sector, which is seen as more lucrative and professionally challenging in order to counter this superior experience that IOCs bring to the table.

Types of Contracts used in Oil and Gas production Agreements

Host governments are normally faced with the dilemma of the type of contractual system to use in terms of the concession or license agreement, a joint venture, a PSC, or a service agreement (Solimene, 2014, n.p). In concessions, the contracts grant the IOC a right to explore, develop, and to export the oil extracted in a specific area for which the company has received the exclusive production rights for a prescribed time. Economic and financial advisers and lawyers are needed to structure the bidding system (Peacock, 2010, p. 131). The terms of license are drafted by the host government in compliance with the applicable law. PSCs are agreements signed by the government and the extraction company concerning how much of the resource extracted each will receive (Vivoda, 2009, p. 517). The main difference between concessions and PSCs is that in concessions, the degree of professional support and expertise required is not as extensive as in the case of PSCs. There are also different commercial results achieved by each of the two types of contracts; concession and PSAs. In PSAs, the host nation can earn a signing bonus (Rassel, 2012, p. 797).

The Production-sharing Contract recognizes that ownership of the resource rests with the citizens and not with private parties. Just like in the case of the licenses, the IOC develops, operate, and manage the oil field bearing all the operational and financial risks (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). In this type of contract, the host state has a number of benefits. For instance, depending on the period of depreciation, the host country can earn a greater share of oil proceeds early. The profits are shared according to the agreed percentages and the IOC is obliged to pay taxes (Vivoda, 2009, p. 517). However, this type of contract presents some challenges especially in developing countries with large number of issues to be addressed and the less reliable legal infrastructure. PSCs demand skilled negotiators and experts in legal, commercial, technical, financial, and environmental areas (Solimene, 2014, n.p). This is a daunting challenge for host countries with their dire lack of data and information than the IOCs. PCAs were introduced in Indonesia in 1966 and have since been adopted by over 40 countries across the globe like India and in Africa (Peacock, 2010, p. 131).

Rassel (2012, p. 797) postulates that a joint venture arises if parties wish to pursue a joint undertaking with agreements on profit sharing as well as operational, financial, and management risk allocations. Service agreements involve the contractor receiving a fixed payment independent of the discoveries or oil prices. Management decisions key to the process tend to remain within the government (Rassel, 2012, p. 797).

Across history the industry has been characterized by cyclical shifts in relation to the balance of power between the host countries and IOCs, a feature that is reflective of the cyclical nature of this industry (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). The host states were consequently able to earn larger shares of the economic rent. In addition, these periods were characterized by very low degrees of compatibility between the IOCs and the host countries. Besides, during the late 1980s and 1990s, the relationship was more of cooperative with falling market prices, which resulted in the balance of power shifting to the IOCs (Solimene, 2014, n.p). As a result, there was higher compatibility between the hosts and the IOCs and the balance of power now shifting to IOCs. In a nutshell, this implies that the larger the rents for division, the more intensive the bargaining relationship between the two parties becomes.

Arguing from the Vernon’s obsolescing bargaining model (OBM)’s perspective of the relationship between the host and the IOCs, it is clear that the changing nature of the bargaining relations is a function of resources, constraints, and goals on both sides (Pate, 2009, p. 347). As discussed earlier in this paper, the initial stages of bargaining are seen to favour the IOCs, a feature attributed to their established resource base when entering the relationship as opposed to the less versed hosts mostly the developing nations that lack the same (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). However, as the relationship proceeds the IOC’s assets are turned into captives with the bargaining power consequently shifting to the side of the host countries (Maniruzzaman, 2009, p. 79). Once the bargaining power is on the side of the host country, the government is at a position to impose more conditions on IOCs ranging from higher asset expropriation to taxes.

Notably, the relationship between the host countries and the IOCs has since changed from a confrontational one to a more cooperative (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). Besides, the shift in the way governments addressed the issue of contracts was followed by the deregulation, and less expropriation, and economic liberalization of the oil industry (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). Rassel, (2012, p. 797) notes that there is another emerging scenario in which the IOCs are seen as struggling to secure new oil reserves in the recent years, as a result, of increased competition.

Factors Affecting Bargaining Power between Host States and IOCs

Largely, several factors that are firm-specific affect the bargaining power of IOCs either as resources or constraints (Vivoda, 2009, p. 517). An IOC that has a reputable international presence is likely to command greater bargaining power that has the potential to achieving favourite investment terms in negotiations with the host state (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). Besides, companies with poor records on environmental conservation, as is the case with the infamous BP oil spill incident at the Gulf of Mexico, are less likely to attract good contracts to drill offshore areas particularly without very adequate regulation in place (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p).

An IOC’s reserve replacement acts s a key indicator of its bargaining power (Pate, 2009, p. 347). Reserve replacement is a good indicator to the ability of the company to sustain and expand their business in the coming days. As such it becomes an important measure of performance and a key factor in showing the value of the company in the financial markets since it measures the ability of the company to continue operating as a viable entity (Solimene, 2014, n.p). In this effect, if the IOC is unable to do stock replacement annually, then it would be perceived as performing poorly both in the market and in terms of its bargaining power (Maniruzzaman, 2009, p. 79). Alternatively, if they are to reproduce all their products and consequently secure access to additional reserves, then their bargaining power is enhanced (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). The five major companies were able to replace 99.7 percent of oil they produced between 1998 and 2002, seen as being at the break-even point while between 2003 and 2007 they were only able to replace 51.7 percent of the oil they produced (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p).

The country of origin of the IOC has a direct impact on their bargaining power relative to a given host country. This is so because of the different political, colonial, historical, and cultural factors. The political climate is likely more accepting for an IOC from a home country with stronger historical ties and greater cultural proximity (Vivoda, 2009, p. 517). Such ties are an important source of better perception of the reputation of the IOC by the host government because of the perceived closer fit between the management approaches of the company with what is common locally. The institutional distance has implications on the company’s legitimacy capacity in the host state (Maniruzzaman, 2009, p. 79). Institutional distance in this effect refers to the similarities or differences between the regulatory, normative and cognitive institutions of the two nations (Shaw and Cooper, 2009, n.p). When the institutional distance is high, the host government is likely to perceive of the IOC stereotypically, which is likely to affect the relationship between the two parties negatively making it difficult for them to reach a consensus (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). For example, in the case when the government of the U.S. engages in negotiations concerning American-based IOCs with host governments, the support tends to weaken the IOCs due to the high institutional distance in terms of the unfriendly anti-American cultural and political context of the host nations (Vivoda, 2009, p. 517).

Legal frameworks governing oil exploration are complex, multi-layered, and in most cases, contain components that are ambiguous. Contractual relationship between the host government and the IOCs is undoubtedly affected by the intertwinement and complexities of the various legal, institutional, constitutional, policy, and agency systems (Rassel, 2012, p. 797). The system of these prerequisite requirements that govern the oil and gas sector policy and exploration consequently impacts on its developement and implementation which entails several aspects and stages each of which has distinct with legislative and legal instruments (Maniruzzaman, 2009, p. 79). There exists a considerable degree of legal uncertainties, disparities, and ambiguities that lower the legal predictability in Oil and Gas contractual arrangements (Solimene, 2014, n.p). This has, in some cases, generated serious rifts and tension between the two parties as is the case in Iraq in 2008/9. The Iraqi oil and gas industry witnessed a period of changes of contracts with new elements in the legal and governing framework (Iraq Oil & Gas Report’ 2013, p. 45). The Iraqi service contracts form an important milestone in shaping future relationship between host countries and IOCs.

Conclusion

Most host states seek IOCs in order to access the managerial and technological skills they have to offer. The degree of managerial and technological skills that an IOC possesses vis-a-vis the host country can be taken as the key factor promoting their bargaining power. The main rationale behind this concept is that the superior and complex managerial and technological skills make it difficult for the hosts to engage with the IOCs because these developing countries have a shortage of the same (Maniruzzaman, 2009, p. 79). In this case, therefore, the host’s bargaining power is more when it has valuable natural resources desired by the IOCs. Notably, countries that have smaller reserves are less likely to attract a lot of IOCs. For instance, the more established IOCs may have more interest to invest in the more established countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia as compared with Egypt and Malaysia. The rationale in this argument is on the basis of reserve longevity and potential profitability

References

Guzman, AT 2010, ‘International Soft Law’, The Journal Of Legal Analysis, 2, p. 171

‘Iraq Oil & Gas Report’ 2013, Iraq Oil & Gas Report, 1, pp. 1-99

Maniruzzaman, Pm 2009, ‘The Issue Of Resource Nationalism: Risk Engineering And Dispute Management In The Oil And Gas Industry’, Texas Journal Of Oil, Gas, And Energy Law, 5, p. 79.

Pate, TJ 2009, ‘Evaluating Stabilization Clauses in Venezuela’s Strategic Association Agreements for Heavy-Crude Extraction in the Orinoco Belt: The Return of a Forgotten Contractual Risk Reduction Mechanism for the Petroleum Industry’, The University Of Miami Inter-American Law Review, 40, p. 347.

Peacock, B 2010, ”A virtual world government unto itself’: uncovering the rational-legal authority of the IOC in world politics’,Proceedings: International Symposium For Olympic Research, p. 318.

Rassel, S 2012, ‘The Necessity For National Federations To Stand Up For Themselves‘, Michigan State University Journal Of International Law, 20, p. 797.

Shaw, T, & Cooper, A 2009, The Diplomacies Of Small States : Between Vulnerability And Resilience, Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan.

Solimene, F 2014, ‘Political risk in the oil and gas industry and legal tools for mitigation’, International Energy Law Review, 2

Vivoda, V 2009, ‘Resource Nationalism, Bargaining and International Oil Companies: Challenges and Change in the New Millennium’, New Political Economy, 14, 4, p. 517.

Vivoda, V 2011, ‘Bargaining Model for the International Oil Industry’, Business & Politics, 13, 4, pp. 1-36

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The Energy Awareness Company Assignment

The Energy Awareness Company

Order Instructions:

See the attached file.

Assessment Task – Scenario –The Energy Awareness Company

You work as a Consultant for a hypothetical organisation named The Energy Awareness Company which specializes in providing presentations to increase awareness in relation to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products that are used in today’s society. There is a forthcoming energy event in which The Energy Awareness Company will be required to participate. You have first been requested to write a report which both shows an analysis of the impact of LCA on the environment and also provides strongly justified recommendations of how oil organisations (involved in upstream, mid-stream, and downstream activity) can use their understanding of LCA to lessen their impacts and also possibly encourage their consumers to also lessen their impacts. This report will be submitted to the organizers of the event. You will be required to do the following in your report:

Provide a critical analysis of the measures which an oil organisation involved in upstream, mid-stream, and downstream activity can put in place to show concern of environmental management and sustainability issues in relation to Life Cycle Assessment;

Assignment outline

Your work must be presented in a report format (2,000 words). It is important that your report is properly structured. Remember that this assignment account for 50% of your module assessment. Hence, poor performance will have a big impact on your overall module grade. An executive summary is not necessary in a report of this size.

Your report should include references to the appropriate environmental management for sustainability and development literature (textbooks, journals and websites) as well as appropriate sources related to the oil industry. Care should be taken when consulting websites, they are not all equally authoritative (for example Wikipedia is not peer-reviewed; therefore is not considered an academic reference website). A minimum of 5 different academic references must be cited, but a well-researched report is likely to cite many more.

You are advised to keep a back-up copy of the report until you receive your grade and regularly back-up your work on a computer storage (Dropbox and GoogleDrive are good examples). A disk crash is not an acceptable reason for late submission.

It is recommended that you review the requirements of the assignment before submitting your work.

Sections like the ones shown below should be included in your report. This is only a guideline so you may diverge as you see fit.

Title Page

A relevant specific title that reflects the main points of the report

Table of Contents

Introduction and Background

The case context and the company
What is the problem or the opportunity?
What is the purpose of the proposal?
What are your sources of information?

The Business Case – a critical analysis of the impacts of Life Cycle Assessment measures which oil companies have put in place to show concern of environmental management and sustainability issues relating to their business operation.

Recommendations

Bibliography

Appendices

Reflective Log – this should be 500 words in length and must address your reflection of your learning on the Environmental Management for Sustainable Development module. You should consider how your studies on this module has helped you with your academic progression (using the examples of skills which you have developed upon is suggested; please ensure that you use appropriate examples and reflect upon them). Your Reflective Log must be submitted separately from your assignment.

Instructions for the Reflective Log

When writing your reflection you must consider what you have experienced (for example, an academic skill), think about what happened (be clear about how this happened during the module), then detail what you have learned from the experience and how this improved skill will help with your continued studies.

Showing that you understand that of your self-improvement is very important for your reflective writing (self-improvement: learning from experiences and wanting to improve some area of your life).

Marking Scheme

Indicative Grade	UK% marks	Characteristics.
Distinction	70%+	Very high standard of critical analysis using appropriate conceptual frameworks. Excellent understanding and exposition of relevant issues. Clearly structured and logically developed arguments. Good awareness of nuances and complexities. Substantial evidence of well-executed independent research. Excellent evaluation and synthesis of source material. Relevant data and examples, all properly referenced.
Merit	69-60%	High standard of critical analysis using appropriate conceptual frameworks. Clear awareness and exposition of relevant issues. Clearly structured and logically developed argument. Awareness of nuances and complexities. Evidence of independent research. Good evaluation and synthesis of source material. Relevant data and examples, all properly referenced.
Pass	59-50%	Uses appropriate conceptual frameworks. Attempts analysis but includes some errors and /or omissions. Shows awareness of issues but no more than to be expected room attendance at classes. Arguments reasonably clear but underdeveloped. Insufficient evidence of independent research. Insufficient evaluation of source material. Some good use of relevant data and examples but incompletely referenced.
Pass	49-40%	Adequate understanding of appropriate conceptual frameworks. Answer too descriptive and or any attempt at analysis is superficial containing errors and omission. Shows limited awareness of issues but also some confusion. Arguments not particularly clear. Limited evidence of independent research and reliance on a superficial repeat of class notes. Relatively superficial use of relevant data sources and examples and poorly referenced.
	PASS MARK=40%
E	39-30%	Weak understanding of appropriate conceptual frameworks. Weak analysis and several errors and omissions. Establishes a few relevant points but superficial and confused exposition of issues. No evidence of independent research and poor understanding of class notes or no use of relevant data, sources and examples and no references.

Guidance on using TURNITIN Text matching software

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to provide a brief explanation for students on how to use Turnitin. Students are required to include a Turnitin report with all their coursework assignments before they are submitted for marking by their tutors. In order to produce a Turnitin report, students are required to understand and to utilise the Turnitin facility in the Student Portal.

Accessing Turnitin

To access Turnitin, students must have a unique user profile in the Student Portal. The user profile comprises a username and a password both generated by GSoM. To request your username and password, please just email portal@greenwich-college.ac.uk

To obtain a Turnitin report:

Visit – www.greenwich-college.ac.uk
Click on Students – Log in to the Student Portal
Enter your student username and password
Select MY STUDIES, TURNITIN – and choose the submission area for the subject/ module, assignment and lecturer
Click on the SUBMISSION AREA button and follow the instructions on screen
If you are in any doubt, contact the Portal Services team who will be only too happy to help you.
We also run seminars most Monday evenings during each semester to demonstrate how to use the Portal and TurnItIn.

A text match (Originality Report) will usually be produced within 24 hours.

Accessing the Originality Report

Login to the Student Portal as before
Click on MY STUDIES, TURNITIN

Again choose the submission area for the subject/ module, assignment and lecturer
Click on SUBMISSION HISTORY
Click on REPORT link against the top entry in the list. This is your latest TurnItIn report.

Now you have generated the originality report your submitted work should be showing on the left hand side with the matching websites on the right hand side.

Scroll through the work and review the highlighted areas.

The originality index will give you a percentage indication of the proportion of your work that matches others sources. If TURNITIN indicates a high percentage score overall, (for example 15% or higher) then you should consult your module leader or dissertation supervisor as appropriate. As a guide, matches against individual sources should not normally show more than 1%, unless, there are very good reasons for this practice, such as the need to keep the contents of the originating sources in their exact formats to meet the requirements of the assessment tasks.

If your text match is higher please see your respective module leader for precise guidance in preparing assignments.

SAMPLE ANSWER

The Energy Awareness Company

Table of Contents

Introduction and Background…………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

Purpose of the Report…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Importance of the Report……………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Scope of the Roport…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

The Business Case…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

The LCA Assessment…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Oil Exploitation LCA Assessment…………………………………………………………………………………. 6

Natural Gas Exploitation LCA Assessment…………………………………………………………………….. 7

Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11

The Energy Awareness Company Business Report Particularly of an Oil and Gas
Organisation and Their Impact on LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

Introduction and Background

Awareness of the significance of environmental concerns has become a key consideration to the operations of the oil industry and regulations in the last decades. There is a greater realization that sustainable exploitations can only be realized through environmental protection; as an integral part (Vallero, 2014, n.p). Gas companies should rely more on guidelines on environmental management across the field of oil exploration and production. The continued adoption of the best practices as well as the implementation of comprehensive and eco-friendly technologies and systems by oil companies and contractors is essential.

Purpose of the Report

The aim of the EcoFriedly Consultancy Company is working closely with other likeminded organizations like The Energy Awareness Company in addressing the issue of environment protection through identifying potential risks and remedies, developing appropriate mechanisms for improvements, and raising awareness on the same.

Importance of the Report

In recent times, the ecological side effects of oil exploration activities has been an area of concern attracting attention across the different stakeholders in the industry. In this regard, the Energy Awareness Company has been actively engaged in addressing the environment protection challenge through creation of awareness. The company recognizes the major issues faced by the oil companies as marine and freshwater discharges, oil spills, habitant protection and biodiversity, and soil and groundwater contamination.

The report used reports from the UNEP as a basis for integrating protection and regulation of environment issues that control the exploration of oil (Geraldes Castanheira et al., 2014, p.681). Deriving from the rich experience of UNEP in environmental issues concerning the oil industry, the information gained will be a good starting point in the improvement of programmes, policies, and regulations in minimizing the environmental impact of these activities (Carvalho et al., 2014, p. 37).

Scope of the Report

The purpose of this LCA impact analysis presentation is to evaluate the environmental impact of the entire production chain of oil and gas production. Firstly, the analysis presents the environment impact of the LCA and recommendations on how oil organisations can implement their understanding of LCA to minimize their impacts on the environment. The principal aim of the presentation is to raise awareness on the potential impacts of oil and gas companies on the environment as a foundation for informed decision making.

The Business Case

The LCA Assessment

Through the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) oil and gas companies would be better equipped in making more informed and sustainable decisions by better understanding of the environmental effects of exploitation processes and activities. LCA is an effective technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential implications associated with the process, product, or service. Such an outcome is achievable through establishing an inventory of relevant material and energy inputs in relation to their environmental releases (Führ et al., 2010, n.p). It also investigates the likely environmental implications associated with identified releases and inputs. In addition, it interprets the outcomes to assist companies in making more informed decisions. As such LCA is undertaken through a four-stage process involving goal and scope definition, inventory evaluation, impact assessment, and the interpretation. Companies stand to benefit greatly by incorporating environmental performance based on the LCA concept into their decision making process.

LCA analysis framework

(Adopted from Carvalho et al., 2014, p. 38).

LCA tools are wired to assess the ecological implications associated with certain processes and products. With development of technology and science, there are new demands from the society concerning company’s responsibilities with their activities (Ismail et al., 2013, p. 3401). As such, the algorithms used in every category must be verified for accuracy and data input improved. Assumptions, input data, and algorithms must be accountable enough to allow third-party user reviews. The proper role of LCA in the process of decision making ought to be out rightly defined and presented in a manner that is appropriate in environmental preservation. As such, the LCA technique is designed such that it adds crucial information on environmental impact in the oil industry. LCA comprehensively offers a system’s potential environmental impacts which include all inputs and outputs (Carvalho et al., 2014, p. 38).

Conventional liquid fuels exploitation technologies have previously been developed using the simple pathway averages in full-fuel-cycle models like the GHGenius and GREET models (Menten et al., 2013, p. 111). However, these models are seen as too coarse for the modern LCA applications. The unconventional fuels sources such as oil shale deposits in Utah and Colorado and the shale oil and gas resources of North America are important given the depleting trend of these resources.

The big question for the employees on the basis of the LCA tool is how to do operations and projects can be done sustainably. This is a key starting point for embedding sustainability in the company. Sustainability alternatives should be through investigations using life-time cost benefits to identify the most sustainable approaches that are also cost effective for the organization. It is important that companies adopt sophisticated information systems that deliver timely and accurate data such that they are capable of sharing information on accidents and incidents even globally. For companies in the oil industry to achieve social licenses to operate in ecologically sensitive areas then they must exhibit superb record of environment responsibility (Geraldes Castanheira et al., 2014, p.684).

LCA analysis has also identified that many oil projects get delayed as a result of adverse reaction from the local community. A ‘tick box’ approach to consultations with the community is a dangerous starting point for any company. The LCA recommends that early professional and well directed consultations with the community to achieve long-term positive outcome for the company (Menten et al., 2013, p. 112). The likelihood of hydrocarbons presence under the seabed is investigated using high-intensity sound.

Oil Exploitation LCA Assessment

During the drilling process, mud is normally circulated between the platform and the well through a riser pipe. Mud is also helpful in maintain well pressure and the stability of the wall, to lubricate and cool the drill, as well as to carry the chips generated during the drilling process. Through this drilling, two types of mud are produced; the water based muds and the oil based muds. Discharging the water based muds to the sea bed with their residual oily mud contamination has been found to cause changes to the seabed through a combination of smothering, toxic and organic enrichment effects and are not allowed.

The drilling process also generates large amounts of water recovered with the hydrocarbons (Carvalho et al., 2014, p. 38). Through stringent standards of cleaning, some of the water is re-injected to maintain reservoir pressure. However, the bulk of it is often discharged to sea. Notably, in the recent past has been characterized by maximum recovery of oil in the UK North Sea fields. With the low levels of oil produced water the overall amount of oil discharged with the water within UK will continue to rise in the next coming years despite the improvements in technology (Kelly et al., 2014, p. 190). In this context, there is an increased attention in terms of regulation in production water discharge. Attention in monitoring in the oil and gas industry is currently focused on detecting more subtle changes in contamination trends.

In risk management and safety for every project it is crucial that risk is identified, assessed, and managed from the very onset since this will direct the success of the same. LCA analysis has also identified that strong safety culture delivers greater efficiency and productivity. Besides, when standards are ignored, and less attention is paid to working safety, it is very likely that incidents and accidents start to be experienced. Maintaining high standards of safety requires discipline and reinforcement from all angles and at all times.

Natural Gas Exploitation LCA Assessment

LCA major environmental sustainability analysis findings in natural gas exploitation include air emissions, water missions, solid waste, energy requirements, and resource consumption. The basis for analysis chosen was the functional unit. In terms of air emissions, the gas emitted in greatest quantities is CO2 which accounts for 99wt% of the overall air emissions (Menten et al., 2013, p. 114). The overall level of greenhouse gases produced should be quantified to establish the global warming potential (GWP) of the exploitation processes. The GWP of the process is a combination of CO2, N2O, and CH4 emissions. CO2 remains the major contributor to GWP accounting for about 89.3% (Laurent et al., 2014, p. 580). In regard to resource consumption, fossil fuels, minerals, and metal are used in the exploitation process. Oil and natural gas are the main consumption requirements followed by iron, and limestone. LCA analysis places water emissions as small compared to other emissions. Water pollutants are primarily from the material manufacturing used for plant and pipeline construction. The solid waste from the system LCAs has been found to be the miscellaneous non-hazardous waste with total solid waste standing at 201.6lt/Kg gas (Al-Sarkal and Arafat, 2013, p. 56).

Recommendations

It is recommended that companies consider a process-based LCA method in assessing the environmental burdens of their life cycle assessment. In this approach, the company itemizes the inputs in terms of the materials and energy resources as well as the outputs in terms of the wastes and emissions to the environment. The main issue with the process-based LCA is in defining components of the analysis and that which will be excluded. Oil and gas companies should be proactive in evaluating and producing new engineering and operational techniques focused on pollution prevention (Menten et al., 2013, p. 124). Improved management and operational techniques well implemented would assist in preventing and reducing pollution.

References

Al-Sarkal, T, & Arafat, H 2013, ‘Ultrafiltration versus sedimentation-based pretreatment in Fujairah-1 RO plant: Environmental impact study’, Desalination, 317, pp. 55-66

Carvalho, A, Mimoso, A, Mendes, A, & Matos, H 2014, ‘Review: From a literature review to a framework for environmental process impact assessment index’, Journal Of Cleaner Production, 64, pp. 36-62

Führ, M., Lechner, S., & Kilian, B. (2010). The European Impact Assessment and the Environment. Heidelberg: Springer.

Geraldes Castanheira, É, Grisoli, R, Freire, F, Pecora, V, & Coelho, S 2014, ‘Environmental sustainability of biodiesel in Brazil’,Energy Policy, 65, pp. 680-691

Ismail, Z, Tai, J, Kong, K, Law, K, Shirazi, S, & Karim, R 2013, ‘Using data envelopment analysis in comparing the environmental performance and technical efficiency of selected companies in their global petroleum operations’, Measurement, 46, pp. 3401-3413

Kelly, K, Wilkey, J, Spinti, J, Ring, T, & Pershing, D 2014, ‘Oxyfiring with CO2 capture to meet low-carbon fuel standards for unconventional fuels from Utah’, International Journal Of Greenhouse Gas Control, 22, pp. 189-199

Laurent, A, Bakas, I, Clavreul, J, Bernstad, A, Niero, M, Gentil, E, Hauschild, M, & Christensen, T 2014, ‘Review: Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part I: Lessons learned and perspectives’, Waste Management, 34, pp. 573-588

‘Life Cycle Analysis Perspective on Greenhouse Gas Savings’ 2012, Credo Reference Collections

Menten, F, Chèze, B, Patouillard, L, & Bouvart, F 2013, ‘A review of LCA greenhouse gas emissions results for advanced biofuels: The use of meta-regression analysis’, Renewable And Sustainable Energy Reviews, 26, pp. 108-134

Vallero, D 2014, Environmental Impacts Of Energy Production, Distribution And Transport, n.p.

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Logistics and Operations Management

Logistics and Operations Management: Has the improvement in High St. Retail Logistics made us all more loyal Customers?

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Logistics and Operations Management

Table of Contents

Introduction. 3

Findings and Analysis. 4

Cross-functional Integration to Cross-Enterprise Integration. 4

Evolution of Market Mediation from Physical Efficiency. 5

Focusing on Demand instead of Supply. 5

Evolution of Collaborative Product, Process, and Supply Chain Design. 7

Breakthrough Business Models that Evolved from Cost Reduction. 8

Conclusions. 8

Recommendations. 9

Major benefits of IT systems. 10

References. 11

Bibliography. 12

APPENDICES. 13

Logistics and Operations Management: Has the improvement in High St. Retail Logistics made us all more loyal Customers?

Introduction

Improvements in High St. retail logistics has had a huge impact on consumers given the ease with which they can now access the products of multinational retail consumer chains that were once not that accessible. However, the question as to whether these improvements have made consumers more loyal begs a much deeper analysis of the supply chain management process, and its evolution over the past few years. Since the 1990s, supply chain management simply referred to ways in which a company could get their products to their consumers in time once they had placed their orders (Haug, 2013, P.628). Therefore, this process involved one company in its efforts to satisfy the demand for its products in the markets where it had a presence and was never thought of as incorporating other aspects of the company such as production, relationship with other business partners and timely product launches. However, in recent years, supply chain management has emerged as a crucial part of company operations and currently, the process of choosing a supply chain management system involves answering questions such as: how well do we embrace product variety? How effectively are we marketing our products, and are our business models innovative through supply chain management to give us a strategic advantage over our competitors (Lichocik, & Sadowski, 2013, p.121)? The improvements in High St retail logistics have created global retail giants, but now we assess the creating of their business model to study their strengths and weakness as we seek to finds out whether they have created a more loyal base of customers.

Findings and Analysis

Cross-functional Integration to Cross-Enterprise Integration

One of the new questions that have greatly transformed supply chain management relates to how the company coordinates functions across several companies and also across different departments within the same company so as to supply products to the market. Since the 1980s, companies have looked for ways to implement cross-enterprise integration such as the just-in-time systems that were implemented by many automakers during this period that contributed greatly to cross-enterprise integration (Trentin, 2011, p.1707). Other such initiatives include those pioneered by Dell Computer’s and Wal-Mart that saw the integration of their vendor management systems, but there were other initiatives such as ECR that were industry-wide or public initiatives within the fast-moving consumer goods industry (Chan, & Prakash, 2012, p.4675). These public initiatives revolutionized the respective industries where they were implemented, but they also levelled the playing field in that all the companies within the industry now had similar supply chain systems and they had no competitive advantage over each other in terms of supply chain management. For the smaller companies, this was a welcome situation as the larger companies had superior capacity and had superiority in terms of supply chain systems, but the integration efforts gave them equal access to the same systems as the large corporations. The implementation of industry-wide cross-enterprise integration increased the efficiency of supply operations for the smaller companies, but the larger companies may have not benefited significantly from the integration. However, the cross-enterprise integration spearheaded by individual companies for their vendors and trading partners are unique and have greatly distinguished companies such as Wal-Mart and eBay from their competitors and earned them customer loyalty.

Evolution of Market Mediation from Physical Efficiency

The evolution of market mediation was driven by the need to minimize supply costs and still meet demand while at the same time reducing the production and distribution costs. Initially most companies were focussing on physical efficiency where they strived to produce enough products to meet the demand from the market based on the fact that costs associated with this approach were easy to assess as they were in the control of the company. However, recent developments in technology have largely increased the mediation costs that are the costs involved in matching the supply of products to the market demand at any particular time. This is especially true for companies in the technology industry that have uncertain demand driven by a rapidly changing environment that requires them to keep innovating or lose their market share. For technology companies such as Sun Microsystems, they faced significant problems in meeting the demand for their products given that their complete solutions consisted of many different parts from various factories within the company and from other manufacturers. Sun’s initial approach was to assemble all the components from the different factories and manufacturers at a staging facility after which they were repackaged then delivered to the client as one system, but this usually resulted in high mediation costs. Therefore, Sun has decided to partner with logistics companies so that different components are assembled at different points while enroute to the customer, which has resulted in significant savings in mediation costs. Most industries require companies to pay attention to both their physical costs and mediation costs so as to minimize costs and increase efficiency (Haug, 2013, P.631).

Focusing on Demand instead of Supply

Companies are no longer just focusing on supplying the amount of products that the market demands, but they have shifted their attention to how they can affect the nature of demand by the market so as to match the demand to their supplies. As much as companies are still focused on improving their supply capability they have realized that they can manage demand better by coordinating with the sales and marketing departments so that they can get adequate information about demand and improve the supply management process. The first concern for supply chain managers is the bullwhip effect that is usually caused by demand variability across the supply chain, which causes the demand variability to increase at all levels of the supply chain including manufacturers and suppliers. Supply chain managers in most industries are struggling with this phenomenon where the final retailer has variable demand, but the variability increases as he places orders to his suppliers who then increase the variability as they place orders with the manufacturers. Companies are now focusing on mitigating the bullwhip effect within their supply chain by improving their pricing structures, the incentives offered and by restructuring the planning and ordering processes. Many companies are also investing in better ways of acquiring demand information so that they can easily detect shifts in customer demand and adjust their supply accordingly, but in order for this to work, the supply chain should be extremely reactive to changes in demand so as to adjust supply according to updated demand information. Companies such as Japan’s 7-eleven have adopted such systems and they have reaped significant rewards such as having a stock turnover of 55 times in a year (Iyer, Srivastava, & Rawwas, 2014, p.55). Another crucial strategy is the demand-based management system where the company’s marketing efforts and their demand-management systems are integrated with the supply chain activities. This strategy reduces costs drastically and causes a significant increase in the profits earned given that the products presented to the market are fully aligned with what the company can efficiently supply. The airline industry has effectively implemented this strategy through the yield-management approach where ticket prices are constantly adjusted to match the market demand.

Evolution of Collaborative Product, Process, and Supply Chain Design

Companies are now shifting their efforts from designing their own products to minimize product costs to how they can collaborate to design products, processes and supply chains in order to minimize their costs. This new design model is known as designing for the supply chain where marketers, designers and supply chain managers collaborate in the product design process so that supply chain management issues are identified and tackled during the early stages of the design process (Cannella & Ciancimino, 2010, p.6742). This strategy is particularly viable to high-clock-speed industries where there is extremely high speed of evolution in technology and production technologies coupled with extremely short product lives. In such industries, the development of new generations of products may require drastic changes in the technology used and the suppliers used by the company, which will definitely affect the structure of the supply chain given that the location of suppliers has a significant influence on the location of production facilities and lead times. The use of technology based systems that manage vertical and horizontal collaboration within industries is the key to enhancing collaboration in product development with examples of such software including Agile Software, which is mostly used in the electronics industry and the Freeborders software that is prominent within the apparel industry (Tse, et al., 2012, p.7185). The high-end retailer Dillard’s discovered that its products reached the market much faster when it started a collaboration program with some of its suppliers when designing its private-label clothing line, which was followed by a significant reduction in the shortage of Dillard’s products in the market. Technology companies have also implemented this strategy to significant reductions in costs, such companies include Hewlett-Packard that implemented postponement effectively to store generic safety stocks and protect future product supply.

Breakthrough Business Models that Evolved from Cost Reduction

The surest way to achieve success is when companies combine new supply chain management strategies with innovative marketing strategies to create a formidable market force. Companies such as Dell and IKEA are two companies that have implemented unique marketing and supply chain strategies to dominate their respective markets and become market leaders. Dell uses a build-to-order strategy where it does not keep inventory, but rather customers specify the properties of the unique products they require through the Dell website after which the products are made and delivered to the customers. This model has worked extremely well for Dell that has dominated the personal computer industry as compared to their competitors who use the build-to-stock supply chain system (Haug, 2013, P.628). On the other hand, IKEA uses the build-to-stock supply chain system in an industry where most of their competitors use the build-to-order system that is much slower, and IKEA faster system has made them market leaders. These changes in business models usually occur as a result of more collaboration and sharing of information within the supply chain system that causes the company to make changes as they adopt go-to-market strategies only to end up with breakthrough business models that are aligned with the market demand.

Conclusions

In the analysis above, it is clear that the improvements in High St. retail logistics did not automatically create more loyal customers, but increased the efficiency of supply operations and the ease and speed of meeting customer demand. Cross-functional and cross-enterprise integration was the first strategy to significantly benefit the customer who gained easy access to products from both large and small manufacturers and the increased coordination between companies must have led to better quality products for the customers. Market mediation also impacted the customer positively because as the companies minimized their mediation and physical costs the benefits eventually trickled down to the customer who was now paying less for the same products than he was paying in the past. The reduced mediation costs were also quite significant to the manufacturers who now had extra revenue to invest in further supply chain strategies and realize further reductions in costs. By focusing on the demand as opposed to focusing solely on supply, companies were able to predict customer demand much better in their forecasts and means that customers benefitted greatly because now there were less product shortages and the products they needed were always available in the market (Strozzi, Noè, & Zaldívar, 2012, p.2048). Companies also benefited from focusing on demand by mitigating the bullwhip effect and getting better demand information that drastically reduced mediation costs. The increased collaboration between companies in the design of new products greatly benefited the customers who were able to get new generations of products in time and companies also benefitted from postponement that significantly increased their profits. Lastly, the breakthrough business models implemented by companies ensured that customers got the exact products that they preferred tailored to their specifications and the companies became market leaders in their respective industries.

Recommendations

My topmost recommendation for these companies in future is that they should develop products tailored to specific groups of customers with unique needs or even start tailoring some of their products to individual customers. More companies should implement customer interface systems such as the one implemented by Dell where they can interact with their customers and address their unique needs. Companies should also integrate their Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) with their supply chain management systems so that they can offer customers with unique products specifically tailored to their needs. The future for these companies lies in collaborating more with suppliers and designers in their efforts to bring more tailored offerings to their customers.

Major benefits of IT systems

The major benefits of IT systems are weaved throughout the whole report. They are:

Dell and Wal-Mart used IT systems to integrate their vendor management systems to become market leaders in their respective industries (cross-functional integration). EBay uses IT systems for effective cross-enterprise integration.
Companies such as Japan’s 7-eleven have adopted IT systems that allow them to collect data about supply and customer demand and they have reaped significant rewards such as having a stock turnover of 55 times in a year (focusing on demand not supply). Airlines also use similar IT systems to regulate ticket prices.
Companies in the electronics industry use IT systems such as Agile Software to facilitate horizontal and vertical collaboration, while those in the textile industry use Freeborders.
Dell uses an IT system, its website, as a revolutionary marketing tool to tailor products to customers’ expectations.

References

Cannella S. & Ciancimino, E., 2010, ‘On the Bullwhip Avoidance Phase: supply chain collaboration and order smoothing.’ International Journal of Production Research, 48(22), 6739-6776.

Chan, F. T.S. & Prakash, A. 2012, ‘Inventory management in a lateral collaborative manufacturing supply chain: a simulation study.’ International Journal of Production Research, 50(16), 4670-4685.

Haug, A., 2013, ‘Improving the design phase through inter-organisational product knowledge models.’ International Journal of Production Research, 51(2), 626-639.

Iyer, K. N. S.. Srivastava, P. & Rawwas, MY. A., 2014, ‘Aligning Supply Chain Relational Strategy with the Market Environment: Implications for Operational Performance.’ Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, 22(1), 53-72.

Lichocik, G. & Sadowski, A., 2013, ‘Efficiency of supply chain management: strategic and operational approach.’ LogForum, 9(2), 119-125.

Strozzi, F., Noè, C., & Zaldívar, J., 2012, ‘Divergence control of a one-level supply chain replenishment rule.’ International Journal of Production Research, 50(7), 2046-2057.

Trentin, A., 2011, ‘Third-party logistics providers offering form postponement services: value propositions and organisational approaches.’ International Journal of Production Research, 49(6), 1685-1712.

Tse, Y.K.et al., 2012, ‘Improving postponement operation in warehouse: an intelligent pick-and-pack decision-support system.’ International Journal of Production Research, 50(24), 7181-7197.

Bibliography

Simangunsong, E. Hendry, L.C. & Stevenson, M. 2012, ‘Supply-chain uncertainty: a review and theoretical foundation for future research.’ International Journal of Production Research, 50(16), 4493-4523.

Das, K., 2012, ‘Integrating reverse logistics into the strategic planning of a supply chain.’ International Journal of Production Research, 50(5), 1438-1456.

APPENDICES

Wal-Mart Sales growth due to improvements in logistics and supply management

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