When bullet points are a bad choice

When bullet points are a bad choice Why bullets wont make your case Bullets are designed to call out key points and help the reader scan large amounts of information. Or at least, thats the idea. You can start out with good intentions when you use them – youre probably trying to make life easier for your readers. Perhaps youre trying to create a document thats snappy, easy to understand, and that looks clean and modern. Unfortunately, in practice, bullet points can do the exact opposite. Endless bullets can be tedious to read. Theyve been around since the 80s, so they no longer automatically make a document look particularly modern. And when theyre used in the wrong context, theyre anything but easy to understand. One way that using bullets can badly misfire is when the author uses them to present an argument. A bullet list does not an argument make The theory: When you have a complex argument or analysis to explain, bullet points are a great idea. By breaking your argument into separate bullet points, you can make it easy to understand. Your reader just takes in each idea, one by one. The reality: This often doesnt work, largely because of what psychologists call the illusion of transparency. The illusion of transparency is the mistaken idea that whatever is going on in our own heads is obvious to other people. A classic demonstration of this is for one person to tap out a familiar tune (like Happy birthday or their national anthem) with their finger and then ask another person to guess the song. Try it for yourself. Think of a famous tune and tap it out to a friend or colleague. You will be amazed at how few people can correctly guess the song youre tapping out – experiments find that listeners guess correctly only around 3 per cent of the time. To you, it seems utterly obvious that youre tapping out a well-known tune. But the listener can only hear disconnected taps. Disconnected points Bullet points do exactly the same thing in writing. If you dont explicitly draw the connections between the ideas in your writing, you cant rely on your readers spotting the connections for themselves. The illusion of transparency reminds us that this is usually the case even when the connections between your bullet points are obvious to you. Of course, you can draw connections in ordinary running text. Our language is full of connective words that show the relationships between ideas. These include words like but, and, so, because, or, either and instead. But while you can (and probably naturally would) use words like these in regular structured prose to link your ideas, bullet points strip all of them away. And without them, you cant say – unequivocally – how ideas relate to each other. You cant talk about how or why a particular point is important – or not. And you cant expect your reader to fill in the blanks between your bullet points, as theyll often miss the links that seem obvious to you. Assemble the pieces You may have seen whole reports, proposals or emails that are little more than a list of bullets. The fact is, sometimes we might reach for bullet points as an alternative to fully planning out what it is were trying to say. It can be tempting, especially under time pressure, to try to skip over this part of the process and leave our reader to put the pieces together. But simply laying out a list of facts in bullet points does not by itself constitute a document, or an analysis, or a summary – its just a shortcut to nowhere. Documents like that never do your expertise and analysis justice, and theyre very unlikely to leave the reader informed, persuaded or happy. Instead, you need to make sure you do the work to assemble your argument first. If you start by being clear in your own mind what the connections are, you can then make these clear to your reader – and be sure theyll get your point. This post is taken from a larger lesson about the perils of misused bullet points (and better alternatives) in our online-learning programme, Emphasis 360. The programme is designed to transform your writing step by step in practical, bite-sized lessons. You can try it out for free here. Image credit: hin255 / Shutterstock

Data Collection for Special Education

Data Collection for Special Education Data collection is a regular activity in the special education classroom. It requires assessing the student’s success on individual items in his or her goals on a regular basis, usually at least once a week. When a special education teacher creates the IEP goals, he or she should also create data sheets to record the student’s progress on individual goals, recording the number of correct responses as a percent of total responses. Create Measurable Goals When IEPs are written, it is important that goals are written in a way that they are  measurable ... that the IEP specifically names the sort of data and the sort of change that should be seen in a students behavior or academic performance. If it is a percent of probes completed independently, then data can be collected to provide evidence of how many tasks the child completed without prompting or supports. If the goal is measuring skills in a particular math operation, say addition, then a goal can be written to indicate a percent of probes or problems the student completes correctly. This is often known as an accuracy goal since it is based on the percent of correct responses.   Some school districts require that special educators record their progress monitoring on computer templates the district provides, and store them on shared computer drives where the building principal or the special education supervisor can check to be sure data are being kept. Unfortunately, as Marshall McLuhan wrote in the Medium is the Message, too often the medium, or in this case, the computer program shapes the sorts of data that are collected, which may actually create meaningless data which fits the program but not the IEP Goal or the behavior.   Types of Data Collection Different kinds of data measurement are important for different kinds of goals. Trial by Trial:  This measures the percent of correct trials against the total number of trials. This is used for discrete trials.   Duration:  Duration measures the lengths of behaviors, often paired with interventions to reduce undesirable behaviors, such as tantrums or out of seat behavior.​  Interval data collection is one means to measure duration, creating data that reflects either percent of intervals or percent of complete intervals. Frequency:  This is a simple measure that notes the frequency of either wanted or unwanted behaviors.  These are usually described in an operational way so they can be identified by a neutral observer.   Thorough data collection is an essential way of showing whether a student is or is not making progress on goals. It also documents how and when the instruction is being delivered to the child. If a teacher fails to keep good data, it makes the teacher and the district vulnerable to due process.

E-commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

E-commerce - Essay Example Although new e-commerce start-ups involve a lot of risk, extending a traditional business with e-commerce capabilities can still prove to be very profitable. Besides generating additional revenues, it can enhance brand name awareness and recognition for your business. Hence if a business is planning to move towards ecommerce, the article mentions some of the strategies that they should plan to follow. At the first step, a company needs to synchronize their strategies and make the ecommerce website fix in the overall strategic plan. They should make sure that the physical and electronic businesses complement each other rather than competing with each other. Secondly, a business needs to analyze its competitors and look at the kind of user interface and experience they are providing to their customers. The business also needs to focus on the customers and look into the experience they need to provide to the customers. Depending on whether it is a b2b or a b2c business, the business needs to provide an appropriate interface on the website so that it is easy for visitors to use the website. Personalization is an important concept in today’s ecommerce websites. The basic idea of personalization is to cater to the needs of every visitor individually and to make them feel. Besides this, the website should take appropriate measures to ensure safety and security on the website. Often companies who have outsourced the website development and maintenance to other companies have little or no knowledge about the underlying technologies. The article mentions that is important that companies have a knowhow of the software and hardware platforms, and t. It is not enough to create a website. The company also needs to promote it by publishing the website address on all its advertisement and notices. They also need to the search engine ranking of the website. Lastly, before

The Role of the School Curriculum and the Assessment of Childrens Essay

The Role of the School Curriculum and the Assessment of Childrens Learning - Essay Example This essay stresses that the school curriculum essentially answers two questions: what should be taught in schools and how it should be taught. Curriculum planners will typically establish a standard for teaching and learning and will determine expected outcomes and what should be taught and who teaching should be conducted in order to achieve expected outcomes. However, teachers are responsible for the implementation and development of the curriculum. All too often however, teachers have demonstrated a tendency to ignore the curriculum or make only a half-hearted attempt to fully implement the curriculum. This paper makes a conclusion that England’s school curriculum policy directs that all publically funded schools are required to develop a curriculum that is ‘balanced and broadly based’ and ‘promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society’. The school curriculum must also ‘prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life’. The national curriculum, which is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, ‘introduces’ student to the ‘best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement’. In this regard, the national curriculum outlines main areas of education that students are at liberty to enhance and incorporate in lessons for helping children learn and develop skills and knowledge in compliance with the school’s curriculum.

Impacts of Cultural Differences Essay Example for Free

Impacts of Cultural Differences Essay College Graduation Thesis Subject: Impacts of Cultural Differences on International Business Negotiation Name: Chen Xiujuan Student No. : 0 8 5 1 0 3 4 0 Specialty and Class: Business English, Class 3 Department: Department of Humanities and Arts Supervisor: Liu Mifan Date: 2011-3-02 Contents Introduction1 1. Types of Cultural Differences2 1. 1Value View2 1. 2. Negotiating Style2 1. 3. Thinking Model2 2. Impact Of Cultural Differences on International Business Negotiations4 . 1Impact of Value Views Differences on International Business Negotiations4 2. 1. 1Impact of Time View Difference on Negotiation. 4 2. 1. 2Impact of Equality View Difference on Negotiation. 5 2. 1. 3 Impact of Objectivity Difference on Negotiation. 6 2. 2 Impact of Negotiating Style Differences on International Business Negotiations. 7 2. 3 Impact of Thinking Model Differences on International Business Negotiation. 8 3. Coping Strategy Of Negotiating Across Cultures. 9 3. 1 Making Preparations before Negotiation. 9 3. 2 Overcoming Cultural Prejudice. 10 3. Conquering Communication Barriers. 10 Conclusion11 Bibliography12 Acknowledgements13 Abstract The business negotiations under different cultural conditions come to cross- cultural negotiations. With the economic globalization and the frequent business contacts, cultural differences seem to be very important; otherwise they could cause unnecessary misunderstanding, even affect the result of the business negotiations. This means it is very important to know the different culture in different countries and the ways to avoid the culture conflicts in the internat ional business negotiations. The article commences from the types of culture differences, then it explains the impacts of these culture differences on international business negotiation and finally it analyzes how to deal with the problem of the cultural differences correctly in negotiation process. Such a standpoint is emphasized: In the business negotiations between different countries, negotiators should accept the other party’s culture, and try to make him be accepted; then make a correct evaluation with the help of valid communication and discover their real benefits between them. Besides, we should know clearly and try to accept the culture differences as possible as we can. It is very important for the success of culture negotiations. Key words: Culture; Cultural differences; Business negotiation; Impact Introduction Along with the advancement globalization and China’s WTO entry, business enterprises in China have to face more and more business negotiations with foreign enterprises, especially with American enterprises. In these negotiations, Chinese negotiators sometimes feel uncomfortable, puzzled, lost, irritated and the alike, because of unfamiliar custom and behaviors demonstrated by American negotiators. Meanwhile, American negotiators confront the same situation. Cult rural differences between China and west countries could cause many problems. Therefore, understanding cultural differences and overcoming them is crucial in international business negotiations. Although the definition of culture is numerous and vague, it is commonly Recognized that culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, values, attitudes and expectations. Culture is a major determinant in business negotiation. So have a clear picture of culture differences if of great significance. . Types of Culture Differences The east countries and west countries have produced different cultures on the different continents. Among the different cultures, value views, negotiating style and thinking model appear more obvious. 1. 1Value View Value view is the standard that people use to asses objective things. It includes time view, equality view and objectivity. People may draw a different or even contradictory conclusion abo ut the same thing. Value view is one of the most important differences among the many factors. It can influence the attitude, needs and behavior of people. The value view varies from nation to nation, people know that the eastern person focus on collectivism, while the western people pay more attention to individualism. 1. 2. Negotiating Style Negotiating style refers to the tolerance and graces which the negotiator shows in the negotiation. The negotiators show their negotiating style through behavior, manners and the method of controlling negotiation process during the negotiation. The negotiator’s negotiating style has a bearing on their culture background. According to the culture differences, negotiating style falls into two types: the east negotiating style pattern and the west negotiating style pattern. 1. 3. Thinking Model Thinking model reflects the culture. Because of the influences of history background, continents, words and living method, different nations generate different thinking models. Surely, there is more than one thinking model of a nation, but one is more obvious compared with others. As a whole, east people, especially Chinese have strong comprehensive thinking, image thinking and curved thinking, while analytical thinking, abstract thinking and direct thinking are possessed by the west people. 2. Impact of Cultural Differences on International Business Negotiations With the rapid development of economy, we need to do business with businessmen under different culture background, so in order to reach trade agreement, it is necessary for us to study the impact of culture differences on international negotiation in global business activities. The impact of culture differences on international negotiation is extensive and deeply. Different cultures divide the people into different group and they are also the obstacles of people’s communication. Accordingly, it is required that the negotiator should accept the culture of each other. Furthermore, through culture differences, it is important that the negotiator reveal and understand the other party’s goal and behavior and make him or herself be accepted by the opponent to reach agreement finally 2. 1Impact of Value Views Differences on International Business Negotiations Value Views Differences on International Business Negotiations fall into three types: time view, negotiation style, thinking model. Each has big influences on business negotiation 2. 1. 1 Impact of Time View Difference on Negotiation. The time view which affects the negotiator’s behavior varies from east countries to west countries. The oriental or the Chinese negotiators are usually cautious and patient. They need to go through the phrases of coming up with proposes, bringing up objections and ending the trade which takes a longer time. And they hope to arrange rich time to go on a negotiation, thus knowing more about the opponent . They are good at long and continuous battle. While west people or we could say American people, consider time is precious. They tend to resolve problems swiftly. So, in business negotiation, American businessmen often complain about the delay and the lack of efficiency of negotiators from other countries, while these countries also make a complaint that the Americans lack patience. There is a popular saying among American negotiators and businessmen: It is prohibited to steal time. That shows the time view of Americans. To them, time means money. The time view of Chinese is cyclic. They use long-term and systematic viewpoints to value the importance of the topic. A famous people classify the time view into two kinds: straight-line time viewand cyclic time view. The former pay more attention to concentration and speed, and the later stress doing many things at one time. That they insist on different time view leads to different negotiating style and method. The American people represent the straight-line time view and they have a strong awareness of modern competition. They look for speed and efficiency. So they value time badly and consider time as a special commodity whose value could be assessed. They often use minute to calculate time . They hope to reduce negotiation time at every phrase and want to complete the negotiation quickly. But the Chinese time view is cyclic and they place emphasis on unity. Moreover, it is necessary to be punctual at negotiations. West people have a strong time view, if you don’t comply with the appointment time, they may give you a punishment and they will regard you as unreliable and irresponsible person. Being late for negotiation will give the west businessmen opportunities to exert pressure onyou, and then you will lose the status of being initiative. 2. 1. 2 Impact of Equality View Difference on Negotiation America went through the bourgeoisie revolution of striving for the equality and freedom, so they take equality into their heart. Americans stick to equality and fairness in business, and hope that both could gain benefit. When introducing the topic or situation, the west people would like to use concrete method, particularly data. Their negotiating method is that they will describe their viewpoint and propose at the beginning in order to get initiative. Under this principle, they would come up with a reasonable resolution which they think is very fair. In business relationship, the sellers from America regard the buyer as a counterpart. Americans are fairer than Japanese is sharing benefits. A lot of American managers think fair division of profits is more important than how much they could get. At this point, the east people are different. Because of the deeply influence of class view, they don’t pay much attention to equality. They usually adopt single-win strategy in business negotiations. When involving economic benefits they think much about their own benefits and profits and don’t give so much attention to the benefit of their partners. The market economic system of developed countries is quite mature, so west countries take win-win strategy more in negotiation; basically, they could take the benefits of both into consideration. 2. 1. 3 Impact of Objectivity Difference on Negotiation The objectivity in international business negotiation reflects the degree to which people treat any things. West people especially Americans have a strong objectivity on the understanding of issues. At negotiation table, Americans don’t care much about relationship between people. They don’t care if the status of the opponent is equal to theirs. They make decision based on facts and data, not people. The saying that public things use public ways is a reflection of American objectivity. Therefore,Americans emphasize that Businessmen should distinguish people and issues, what they are really interested in is the actual problems. But in the other parts of the world, it is impossible for them to distinguish people and issues. . 2 Impact of Negotiating Style Differences on International Business Negotiations The impacts of negotiating style differences on international business negotiation mainly exist in negotiating method and negotiating structure. Take the negotiation between America and China as a example, since the oriental care more about unity in thinking, they method they adopt in negotiation is from unity to parts, from the big to little, from the abstract to the concrete, that is to say they should each agreement on general terms, then begin to talk about the concrete terms. And usually not until the end of the negotiation do they make compromise and promise based on all the items, and then to reach agreement. The west people are influenced by analytic thinking, so pay more attention to logical relations between things. They consider more about concrete things than integrity. And they tend discuss the concrete items at the beginning of negotiation, so they often resolve the price, delivery and issuance respectively at first. And they may make compromise at every detail, so the final contract is the combination of many little agreements. The negotiating structure is linked with cultures. Negotiating structure mostly refers to the number of the participants. In business negotiation, the foreign delegation is usually composed by 3-5 people, while the Chinese one could be more 15 people. The foreign negotiators not only need to negotiate with their counterparts but also need to discuss with related person in charge or the government. When making the final decisions, the Chinese negotiators often discuss the results repeatedly from the workers to the board to avoid being decided by a single person. That results from the influence of collectivism. So they often said to their partners: Let us think about it. Let us discuss it. But the west negotiators could make the final decision without going back for discussion. That because their admire individualism and hard working. They have strong independence. They would carry on according to the best ways after knowing their goals. What’s more, most west people think that they have the ability to deal with the negotiation situation on their own. And truly, they are brave enough to take responsibility. 2. 3 Impact of Thinking Model Differences on International Business Negotiation The thinking model of Chinese tends to be comprehensive, concrete and curved, while the Americans are usually analytic, abstract and straight-line. We Chinese are accustomed to talking about general principles at first and then move onto details. To Chinese negotiators, the core is the general guideline, and the details are subject to the guideline. After figuring out the big picture, other problems are easier to resolve. It is the most obvious feature of Chinese negotiators. But west businessmen, especially Americans are likely to discuss the details first and try to avoid the principle. They value details very much and think noting about the unity. Accordingly, they want to discuss the details at the beginning of negotiation. They are direct and simple in negotiation. As a matter of fact, many facts show that General principles first have impact of constriction on the parts and details. For instance, our government insists on the principle that Hong Kong and Macao are undivided parts of China’s territory. In the important diplomatic negotiations such as Entering into relationship with America, Hong Kong’s and Macao’s Coming back into their motherland. It is under such principle that we established the tone of the negotiation and controlled the skeleton of the negotiation, thus we get the advantage and prompt the success of negotiation. 3. Coping Strategy of Negotiating across Cultures The culture differences in cross-cultural communication have various impacts on operation of enterprises. These differences will influence negotiation and management of transnational operation; what’s more, it may have bad effects on the harmonious relationship between our country and foreign countries. Maybe that will lead to the missing of market opportunities, the increase of trade cost and the low efficiency of company management. So, it is really necessary for us all to eliminate and avoid disadvantageous effects. 3. 1 Making Preparations before Negotiation. The negotiators must make good preparations if they want control the development of negotiation successfully in the complex situation. Only do they make good preparations can they make changes freely according to the situation of negotiation and avoid the happening of conflicts. Because the international business negotiation involves extensive aspects, more preparations are needed. The preparations often include the analysis of the negotiators themselves and the opponents; the constitution of negotiation group, elaborating the negotiating goal and strategy and going on imitation negotiation when necessary. When making preparations, you should try to know the opponents while you analyze yourselves. Analyzing yourselves mainly refers to studying if the project is feasible. To knowing about the opponents means understanding their strength such as credit status, the policy? business customs and regulations of their countries and the conditions of their negotiating members and so on. . 2 Overcoming Cultural Prejudice Tolerating different cultures and overcoming cultural prejudice contribute to better communicating with each other and understanding each other. West people often think that they are powerful, capable and experienced, so sometimes, we need to recognize then and give then some good comments. We should learn about the foreign cultures before negotiation a nd accept and understand their cultures in negotiation, because every country regard their own cultures as a matter of course and hope that their culture could be recognized and accepted. 3. Conquering Communication Barriers Two trains running at different railways in the opposite direction will collide with each other; maybe this is the best arrangement for trains. But to communication between people, there won’t be communications if people go ahead according to their own ways. Trains will collide with each other if they run on the same railway at the opposite direction. But if we measure by the objective of people’s communication, only we meet each other, can we have communication and friendship. In negotiation, sometimes we can’t make much progress although we have talked for long time. And sometimes both parties are not satisfied. After thinking, that is caused by communication barriers which happen easily in cross-cultural negotiation. We should make sure if there appear communication barriers, if so, we must overcome them. Generally speaking, we should pay more attention to the following three communication barriers in cross-cultural negotiation: the communication barriers caused by culture background of both; the ones caused by misunderstanding of the contents and information from the partner; the ones caused by not being willing to accept the opponent’s contents and ideas. Conclusion â€Å"Social Customs varies in different countries†. In a word, cross- cultural communication will meet the problem of culture differences surely. In turn, culture differences also influence all aspects of international business communication. To avoid or to resolve the culture differences is a huge task in international business negotiation. In order to step into the international market successfully, we must have the awareness of culture differences, acknowledge culture differences and understand different cultures. Try to know yourself and know them. What’s more, we should respect different behavior of businessmen under different culture background, and then we could reduce unnecessary conflicts resulting from not respecting the opponents. It is beneficial for both to form an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation, reduce culture differences and turn disadvantages into advantages and benefits. Thus, we could avoid conflicts and obstacles, then to promote communication and harmony in international business negotiation. Bibliography 1]George Yule. The study of Language[M]. Cambridge University Press,2000:202-209 [2]Harvey, Paul,,â€Å"The Oxford Companion to English Literature† [M]. London: Oxford University Press. 1978:23-25 [3]Philip R Harris, Managing Cultural Differences [M]. Gulf Publishing Company, 1987:234-260 [4]Wang Cheng fa. A Glimpse of Foreign Land [J]. Kaifeng: Henan Univesity Press, 2000:58-62 [5]. [M]. : ,2000:2-6 [6]  · —— [M]. : ,2004 [7].. [M] : ,2003:340-342 [8]. [M]. : ,2001 Acknowledgements As acknowledgements for my paper, only I — the writer is responsible for the shortcomings. I much acknowledges my thanks to all my teachers, especially to Miss Liu Mifan, my supervisor, who has provides me support, critical ideas and careful suggestions. I also want to thank my family who always give me time, encouragement and secretarial services, especially my parents. Finally, my classmate and friends, who provided thoughtful and thorough reviews of my paper, must be acknowledged.

The Effects of the Atomic Bomb :: essays research papers

The Atomic Bomb: Effects on Hiroshima and Mankind   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The nuclear bomb was the most devastating weapon ever created by man. It was developed between 1942 and 1945 during the second World War. The project to build the worlds first atomic weapon was called The Manhattan Project. The nuclear bomb was based on the idea of splitting an atom to create energy, this is called fission. Three bombs were created, â€Å"Trinity†, â€Å"Little Boy†, and â€Å"Fat Man†. â€Å"Trinity† was dropped on a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, proving the theories, engineering and mathematics of the bomb to be correct. Shortly after that, not more than 2 months, the U.S. performed the first actual nuclear attack in the history of war. The bomb â€Å"Little Boy† was dropped on the town of Hiroshima, instantly killing thousands. â€Å"Fat Man† was dropped shortly after on the town of Nagasaki. After the bombing almost all scientist involved with the creation of the bomb regretted its construc tion and spoke out against the abolishment of nuclear weapons.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Manhattan Project was led by American physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and directed by General Leslie Graves. The project employed over 130,000 people and the total cost by the end of production was nearly 2 billion dollars, 20 billion dollars in today’s currency. Oppenheimer’s early education was at the Ethnical Culture School in New York. He took classes in math and science and many languages such as Greek, Latin, French, and German. He learned Dutch in only six weeks to give a speech in the Netherlands. He was also interested in classic and eastern philosophy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1939 rumor came to the U.S. that Germans had split the atom. The threat of the Nazis developing a nuclear weapon prompted President Roosevelt to establish The Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer set up a research lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico and brought the best minds in physics to work on the problem of creating a nuclear weapon. Although most the research and development was done in Los Alamos, there were over 30 other research locations throughout the project. After watching the first nuclear bomb test Oppenheimer was quoted as saying simply â€Å"It works.†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now that the atomic bomb was proven to work the next question was where to drop it. Specialists in many fields were called on by the U.S. Army to help them decide on the best target for the atomic bomb. They considered many things while selecting the target such as the range the aircraft had to carry the bomb, the morale effect on the enemy, military importance of the target, and the geography of the target.

On-Time Package Delivery

Case 2: On-Time Package Delivery Michael Bushmann Erika Thompson Jocelyn Russell Katlin Eason Mark Hogan MKT 452- Sales Management November 14, 2012 Overall, we felt that Wayne Jacobson – Senior Vice President of Sales performed his responsibilities very well. Furthermore, it was good to see that he was so vested into figuring out the problems of the company. Ultimately, the negative effects that were found could be detrimental to the sales personnel, but further – his position and the company as a whole. Jacobson conducted an effective job analysis by conversing with: current employees/sales staff, managers, and customers.Additionally, Jacobson calling upon local district managers before calling sales representatives or KAM’s displays that he is truly a â€Å"team member. † Now we would like to go into the problems, one-by- one, along with what we feel are respectable solutions for On-Time Package Delivery. Competition On-Time Pack Delivery is a niche com pany OTPD delivery services are specific to documents and small packages to be delivered quickly, reliably, and cost effective. Being the first intracity package delivery service to maximize technology gives them a great advantage.OPTD targets a condensed Market of 4 districts: Eastern U. S. cities- New York, Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia. UPS, FedEx, and U. S. Postal Service are considered competition to an extent. However, OPTD markets towards a portion of their customers (legal and consulting firms). â€Å"OTPD has carved out a niche by focusing on express intracity package delivery. † The condensed region gives OTPD no reason for decline in salesSolution: Solution: Ron Young founded OTPD as a solution to a problem and generated a business model of highly trained â€Å"delivery specialist† .The trained specialist, improved technology services, and great customer service in the package delivery business is what yielded a loyal customer base. REMEMBER: These at tributes have helped establish OTPD as a company. OTPD sales forces needs to refocus on customer service considering these attributes are what initially established loyal customers. Being OTPD was the first company to enter the specific market of quick reliable delivery services, this gives them an advantage. The company needs to refocus on their customer service strategy to remain established before more competitors enter the market.Competition within OTPD? Setting higher sales standards within the company will provoke the sales force to compete amongst them selves. Lack of competition within the company. Stimulated from– OTPD targeting only a 4% sales growth, when the national average is 8%, Why? OTPD sales force are given cell phones (unlimited use), laptops, company cars, and outrageous salaries. OPTD needs to focus on exceeding their sales goals before smaller companies similar to Gold Package Delivery Services quickly come about take over the small niche market. Solutio n: OTPD should consider removing some of the sales forces privileges.While cell phones and laptops are necessities for the delivery services, outrageous salaries and a company car should not be. Taking away a a company car and lowering salaries would trigger sales competition within the company. A company car should only be awarded to those who- reach a certain sales growth percentage establish new customers maintain a certain level of customer service, i. e. quick and reliable Role Perceptions Role Conflict Judy Billings was accused of lacking customer service by Clark, Burton, and Bowers, one of their largest customers, but it was contributed to unreasonable demands by her DM Dan Gunther.This is placing Judy in a position of the â€Å"person in the middle† where she has conflicting expectations of her responsibility To solve this problem the job roles need to be laid out clearly for each employee to understand. There should be no confusion when it comes to taking care of cu stomers. Salespeople should also meet with their cliental on a regular basis. This will reduce role conflict Training will also be a huge factor in solving this issue Role Ambiguity Lynn Attaway made the mistake of making a client wait for more than five hours when their package was promised within two hoursThis was contributed to lack of information concerning the changes to the Package Expedite Form (PEF) which was sent through email for employees to see Solutions Better communication throughout the work place from management down through all levels Training Weekly/monthly meetings where employees can learn and have a better understanding of new technology they will be working with. Mike Wagner recently visited First Call Medical Centers where he heard that Gold Package Delivery Services was offering similar services for a lower costCould not give them an answer as to why OTPD’s costs were so much higher Felt he did not have adequate information on the competition Solutions Mentoring Someone else’s insight would have been beneficial in this instance just so he wouldn’t seem so uninformed when talking with clients On the job training Closer supervision This will reduce role ambiguity Work-Family Conflict Problem Role Conflict: Some employees may become unsure about how they want to spend most of their time and what is most important. Employers should be concerned about their employees plateauing.Carol Klein, Key Account Manager in Philadelphia, â€Å"I find myself being torn between doing an outstanding job at the OTPD and being a mom to Alice. † Solution Activities that bring the employee’s work and home lives closer. One step to a solution would be to no longer give Sales Representatives cars, and to save that luxury for the D and upper level personnel. Instead of cars, OTPD could give sales representatives a card to put gas on and maybe even a stipend for car maintenance. This not only saves OTPD money, but it also gives sales representatives another level of incentives to work to achieve.Instead of buying all those cars, OTPD could use the money saved to have more family event and functions. Another idea would also be to have an in-house daycare facility. By having these functions, OTPD will be more of a family-friendly environment. Employees would feel like their family life and their work life would be able to blend together more. Training Each level of employee (key account managers, sales reps and district managers) need to be trained individually. Some employees are making mistakes which are leading to key accounts being dissatisfied:Example: Lynn Attaway, Key Account Manager, made the mistake with the Strawn, Night and Squires (SNS) client regarding the Package Expited Form (PEF). This all happened because Attaway was emailed the changes to the Package Expedited Form. Attaway said that she receives hundreds of emails every day and must have missed the email. I suspect that many other employee s missed the email too. Attaway said, â€Å"I get dozens of emails every day and that one must have slipped by me†. Emailing is NOT the way to train and educate employees about changes in the business.When a change like this is made to the way packages are sent out, a meeting must be called to discuss and learn the new changes. Mike Wagner, Sales Representative in Washington D. C. District also made remarks that suggested more adequate training is required. When Jacobson asked if Wagner needed more information on the competition in order to respond to questions he replied, â€Å"Yes, I did not have a good understanding of how our products compared with Golf Package Delivery† On-Time Package Delivery should designate one morning every 12 weeks to educating their employees about the competition and how it has changed.This is essential in order to be able to tell clients why OTPD’s products and services are superior. With our current report, we hope that OTPD imple ments many of our solutions to become the company that we once were. OTPD customers will love doing business with us as we deliver by: maximizing our technology, high level of customer service, and new innovations will lead to more loyal clients and customers. Furthermore, we will become the premier intra-city package delivery company in the eastern United States and beyond!