Innovation, Change and Motivation at Nucor Corporation Essay

Innovation, Change and Motivation at Nucor Corporation - Essay Example Apart from these cultural values, none of the company’s employees is unionized. Nucor does not approve of unions, as it believes the culture is counterproductive, especially where building of a strong workforce whose objective is to serve the steel company’s interests is concerned. Nonetheless, the employees remain committed to quality of service and lay-offs are minimal. (a) Devolved Management system Nucor is heavily devolved in its operations, a culture that enables the employees to be innovative in their work and develop a feeling that they are owner-operators. In light of this, the company encourages most of the decisions about the business operations to be made at the lower level. In addition, Nucor’s claim that only 65 employees work at the headquarters is quite telling about the company’s lean culture. (b) Performance-driven rewards Nucor has established general rules of compensation which apply to all employees. The policies provide for a uniform compensation for individual employees who meet particular incentive-specific objectives. Apart from these common bonus plans, Nucor Corporation has periodically awarded extraordinary rewards to all employees, in the financial years when the company has made the highest amounts of profits. For instance, the company’s record sales of $23.6 billion in 2008, which was up from $4.6 billion in 2000 trickled down to the employees’ pockets, with the Chief Executive earning a whopping $ 5.24 million (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). The uniform treatment of employees has tremendously reduced the gaps between the earnings of senior executives and lower ranking employees. (c) Egalitarian perks The company’s senior executives are not guaranteed traditional high bonuses such as company cars, executive parking slots or executive dining rooms (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). Additionally, the publication of all the names of the company’s employees at the back of Nucor’s annual reports is a clear indication of the company’s egalitarian culture and inclusiveness of the decision-making processes. This is also a sign that the company values all of the employees, irrespective of their position within the organization. (d) Effective customer service Although, the text rarely mentions sound customer service at Nucor, it can be inferred. Effective customer service and quality can be explained by the simplicity and courtesy, which the Chief Executive cultivates. The culture of inclusivity, teamwork and appreciation of every person’s effort is a clear indication that all the stakeholders in the company are assured of respect and recognition. (e) Technology-driven culture Nucor Corporation is undeniably banking on the technological edge in its production of steel products. The process of using electric arc furnaces to liquefy scrap metal is the first of its kind in the twenty-first century (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Mat teson, 2007). Currently, Nucor’s association with two multinational steel companies in the running of the Crawfordsville facility, which specializes in the manufacture of sheet of steel from liquefied steel without necessarily deploying heavy, costly, and energy-inefficient rollers, is in itself a technological breakthrough that many steel companies have not yet adopted. Question # 2 Nucor has maintained the gap between executive pay and that of lower-ranking employees to the bare minimum as compared to other American companies. Since 1980s, the level of growth recorded by companies has been growing at almost the same pace as that of executive compensation (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). Globalization makes highly performing executives more likely to

Technology and Workers Rights Essay Example for Free

Technology and Workers Rights Essay Whether it is over a cup of coffee with friends at the local Starbucks, in a crowded lunch room at work, or on a coworker’s Facebook wall, employees are talking about their jobs, especially to one another. New trends in modern technology, such as the recent explosion and popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, continue to constantly change the way employees can engage, share, and voice their work related concerns. According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent government agency charged with mediating disputes between management and labor unions, this new trend has become an important reminder that sometimes harsh criticism by employees is protected by federal law at work, at home, and now on the Internet. Although social media provides another forum for employees to exercise their protected collective activities, such as share complaints or address concerns to improve working conditions and pay, employers must make sure newly developed social media policies give due consideration to employees’ rights that are protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The New York Times recently published that under the NLRA, â€Å"employees have the right to join together, with or without a union, to exercise their protected collective activities to share complaints, address concerns with employers, and negotiation to improve their working conditions and pay.† The NLRA also protects employees’ rights to discuss work-related issues with other employees that was first made into federal law back in 1935. Basically, criticism of an employer’s practices about wages, hours and working conditions is protected no matter how it is expressed, as long as it is ‘protected, concerted activity.’ The NLRA says that â€Å"protected† is any statement about wages, hours or working conditions, and â€Å"concerted† means the employee’s statements were engaged in with or on the authority of other employees. Workers need to be aware that statements made through this type of forum have to be directed to other employees or to the company on behalf of the employees – not just personal gripes. However, employers need to understand that it doesn’t matter where or even how the employee makes these statements as long as it is â€Å"protected† and â€Å"concerted†. As popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter continue to influence the way co-workers communicate on the job and outside the workplace, companies feel they do have the right to legally monitor their employees’ activities online, in order to ensure a most professional and lawsuit-proof workplace. â€Å"Bosses can penalize employees for what they deem as â€Å"inappropriate† post, videos and pictures on social-networking sites, even if a worker uses those sites during non-working hours†, states Lewis Maltby, author of the workplace rights book, Can They Do That? Though the most frequently cited justification for workplace monitoring is to prevent employee theft, sabotage, and violent incidents on the job, companies have also voiced concerns that they run huge risks with employees leaking â€Å"trade secrets† or other confidential and proprietary information about their people, products, and services to outside competitors online. In his book, The Naked Employee, author Frederick Lane, a workplace expert on the impact of technology and society, points out â€Å"employers are increasingly more interested in hiring employees who will not expose the company to additional costs and liability, while not hiring employees who will increase their cost through negligence, misconduct, and wrongdoing† (28). But the biggest threat companies are now beginning to fear is the line between an honest online discussion that may lead to defamation of a company, which can be blurry in certain situations, making it even more difficult to distinguish the truth. Although computers have revolutionized employees’ workplaces in ways that earlier generations could not have imagined, U. S. companies, such as retail giant Wal-Mart, may realize they are in catch-up mode with modern technology, due to new challenges brought on by the recent explosion of social media sites. The NLRB found that employers facing this growing trend need to establish social media policies that do not infringe on workers’ rights. For example, the NLRB learned that one company mandated it’s employees to stay away from controversial topics such as religion and politics, and adopt a professional tone in the use of their social media, while other companies had gone so far as to blatantly forbid their employees from posting anything potentially misleading about the company online, and even told their employees to be careful about â€Å"friending† other co-workers on Facebook. The Washington Times reported that in June of this year along, â€Å"the NLRB also found that six of the seven corporate social media policies it examined included provisions that failed to pass regulatory muster, proving to be too vague or intrusive on their workers’ rights to free expression online.† NLRB General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, cited other companies, including DIS H Network and Target, have also maintained similar corporate social media policies that at least partially violated provisions of the NLRA. This delicate balance became strikingly apparent in a recent case filed with the NLRB by a non-union employee fired from a non-unionized emergency medical response team. The employee filed a charge with the NLRB against the company for wrongful discharge after losing her job for posting negative comments about her boss on Facebook. According to the employer, the posting violated a company policy that prohibits employees from making negative remarks on the Internet about the company or its employees. However, the employee claimed that the policy and her discharge from the company violated the NLRA by denying employees their right to engage in the protected, concerted activity of sharing complaints about working conditions with fellow workers. The case settled before an actual hearing with the company agreeing to revise its policy to eliminate any social media restrictions on its employees that could be in violation of the NLRA. In the initial complaint against the company, the NLRB cl aimed the employer’s policy was overly broad and prohibited employees from writing personal personal depictions of the company online without permission or posting any disapproving comments. Cases such as these should serve as a reminder to every employer that the NLRA applies to unionized and non-unionized workers alike. But in this increasingly technologically savvy world, the larger questions looming for both employers and employees alike should be what are the boundaries of an employee’s privacy, and who is more entitled to draw that line. â€Å"Companies should protect themselves and their employees by setting clear expectations on proper social media use in the office,† says Dean Debnam, CEO of Workplace Options, a public policy polling company that surveys American workers. â€Å"However, employers must be cautious of how far they take these regulations. While social media polices are not a problem, survey results show that employees do not support any intrusive measures, such as demanding access to passwords.† As new avenues of self expression created by social media and newly developed technologies evolve, employees should definitely be mindful as to what constitutes a legitimate basis for termination. Companies’ rights to dismiss employees at will, unless that is some statute, like the Labor Act, prohibits a particular act of retaliation, should not be taken lightly. In this tough economy where companies feel that image is still everything, even applicants who have applied for jobs may find out later they have been denied employment, due to messages communicated to their friends on social networking sites they thought were private and password protected. The bigger notion that’s scary for some employees is that once you are hired, you may find that your employer has taken drastic steps to make sure that access to your privacy extends well beyond company working hours. Lane agrees that workplace monitoring is a major problem, because â€Å"technology makes it possible for employers to gather enormous amounts of data about employees, and often goes far beyond what is necessary to satisfy safety or productivity concerns (3-4). Few rights are as deeply treasured by American citizens as their freedom of speech. As the Internet and social media sites becomes more mainstream within the workplace, employers must find better ways to draft and implement employment policies that protect the company from things such as legal disputes and charges of discrimination, while at the same time making sure employee’s rights under the NLRA and other federal employment laws are protected and preserved. Works Cited Buddenberg, Roger. â€Å"Can Workers Vent on Facebook? – Lawyers’ Tips on Social Media for Workers.† Omaha World Herald (NE) 10 Oct. 2011. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Devaney, Tim. â€Å"Tweeting Workers ‘Friended’ by NLRB; Memo Warns of Restricting Rights.† Washington Times 26 June 2012. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Sep. 2012. Kim, Susanna. â€Å"NLRB Backs Workers Fired After Facebook Post Ripping Boss.† ABC News, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. Lane, Frederick S. The Naked Employee: How Technology is Compromising Workplace Privacy. New York: Amacom, 2003. Print. Petrecca, Laura. â€Å"More Employers Use Tech to Track Workers.† USA Today. USA Today, 17 March 2010. Web. 6 Sept. 2012.

Top Down Listening Activities

Top Down Listening Activities Listening skill is a part of learning English language you must practice for improving your listening over time. The teaching listening skill is the most difficult. because the students are acquired every time and lots of practice. It is not learning in my class. What is the best Strategies for learning Listening skills. There are many activities of listening for my students. I try to tell my students you should be more hearer and be able apply Strategies to listening skills such as, watching the news on the television, listening a news on the radio or listening news from an English radio station , talking about the news with a friend ,get a film and listen to speech . It is one way communication I cannot check all understanding. The two way communications are the students focus on a teacher or native speaker. I would like to suggest a teaching Listening Strategies because Listening Strategies are activities that help understand and remember of listening. I help my students develop a listening skill with a Bottom up and Top down strategies. Top-down listening activities Do you ever get your students to predict the content of a listening activity beforehand, maybe using information about the topic or situation, pictures, or key words? If so, you are already helping them to develop their top-down processing skills, by encouraging them to use their knowledge of the topic to help them understand the content. This is an essential skill given that, in a real-life listening situation, even advanced learners are likely to come across some unknown vocabulary. By using their knowledge of context and co-text, they should either be able to guess the meaning of the unknown word, or understand the general idea without getting distracted by it. Other examples of common top-down listening activities include putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in order, listening to conversations and identifying where they take place, reading information about a topic then listening to find whether or not the same points are mentioned, or inferring the relationships between the people involved. Mary Underwood (1989). In my opinion, it is the best way for teaching listening English skills. I teach a Top down listening skills which I produce the following pictures. The topic : so, what are you going to do now? Firstly, I give them a question. Then listening to the dialogues. After that choose the correct sentences. Finally, my students present in the classroom. The Effectiveness: The students have to be able to hear what the other person is saying and easy to understand in the listening because they try just on only the main idea that they want to know from the question I gave. Like, they have the purpose on listening in each topic. Summary, Listening is one is way in communicative so if we listen in the right way is the best way to understanding what we are hearing. Listening teaching is them very important for student so teach them how to listen in the correct method step by step I think it is a good activity for listening because it is a guide for listening. my student like Top-down listening activities. I teach a Top down listening skill with a song. I give the information to guide for the teaching. The teaching listening skill from a song .There are many thinks in the song for example, vocabulary ,tense and a sentence. It is a challenge for my teaching and this one need innovation and creative for my teaching English because it not boring There are four stages for teach of song. The first, the pre listening. I tell my students they dont worry that they understand every word they hare. In the sentence you must understand for some word and I make sure my students know what they are listening for before I start the song. First, I explain they should concentrate only information they need. Next, I give a question to check my student comprehension of the details. Then, I check for any word that my students may not know. Finally, I select a song it isnt a difficult and not a long. While listening. There are three stages. The first , I play the tape of the song wall in your heart for my students in two time. The second, I tell my student take to note about people or place and what is happening in the song and what, when, why, where and how that they hear. The third, I divide my students in pair. Give a fill in the blanks to complete the song and my student listen again check and share their answers. Post listening, I tell my students to write a meaning and to make a list a new vocabulary of the wall in your heart song and compare their answers and discuss what they understood in the song. and practice a song. I open the song again and tell my students to call out stop when they hear the answers. I and my student sing a song WALL IN YOUR HEART together. The Effectiveness. My students have to be able hear what the song ,understand and happiness with a teaching listening skills. Summary, I am very happy for a teaching listening skills from a song. I saw my students happy and like strategies teaching listening skills of the song. Bottom-up listening activities The emphasis in EFL listening materials in recent years has been on developing top-down listening processes. There are good reasons for this given that learners need to be able to listen effectively even when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or structures. However, if the learner understands very few words from the incoming signal, even knowledge about the context may not be sufficient for her to understand what is happening, and she can easily get lost. Of course, low-level learners may simply not have enough vocabulary or knowledge of the language yet, but most teachers will be familiar with the situation in which higher-level students fail to recognize known words in the stream of fast connected speech. Bottom-up listening activities can help learners to understand enough linguistic elements of what they hear to then be able to use their top-down skills to fill in the gaps. Underwood (1989). In my opinion, it is a one of a good strategies. I would like present a teaching for a bottom-up. Activity I I designed to help a remember the dividing between word an important bottom up a listening skill. I reads out number of a sentences and ark my students to write down how many words from a easy listening. A student asked to compare their answers in pairs before listening again to check. While listening they should write what they hear before remodeling the complete sentences. Some suitable sentences are : I am going to the market. What dose she do? What are you doing. Do you want some milk ? Can you tell me call? It is nice to meet you. May I help you. I paint picture of New York. They watch comedies He doesnt like it. What have you got ? Id better go soon. There isnt any coffee Let s have a party. The Effectiveness. My students have to be able hear what the listening are a sentence , understand and rebuilding a sentences. Summary, I think my students dont like a teaching listening skills from a bottom up strategies. Reflection Q1: How important is listening? My student just want to speak. My students give opinion Suprada said that : Listening is very important for learning language. When you unable listening you cannot success for conversation. Somchai said that : The listening is important in the learning. Q2: My student hate listening to recording. Is there an acceptable alternative such as reading the transcripts to them aloud. When I taught a listening skill. There are many problem to listening from the recording. I asks my students. Nattaveeranuch said that : I want to listen to the music. I like it because everybody enjoy with a song. Suriya said that : I like listen a news and a music from TV. Chanel Poramase said that : I like listen to native speaker. I like talking with AJ. David. I am very happy when he understand me. Q3: When I do a listening activity in class, the students get frustrated if they cant understand every word. How can discourage them from trying to do this? I would like to tell my student dont worry because it is the second language. You can try listen to a news or a music from radio for a few minute everyday. Q4: My students say that they like listening to songs, but I am not sure that this is a good idea. Should I let them, and, if so, is there an effective way of using song? There are many effective of using a song .My student know a new vocabulary and a sentence. Q5: My course book listening texts sound a bit stilted and unnatural. Is there a good reason for this, and is there a viable alternation? There are many alternation for example, Teaching from song , see the sound tact and a listen to native speaker. Q6: My student complain that they can understand recordings is the classroom, but that they have problems understanding real people when they talk to them. How can I help them with this? Active Listening Steps Make eye contact/Follow speaker Look the speaker in the eyes. When the speaker is addressing a large group (e.g., during a lecture or presentation), eye contact will not be possible. In this case, follow the speakers movements.   Summarize what the speaker is saying Summarize every few sentences by stating the main ideas. Take notes, if this is helpful. Make connections Link what you are hearing to what you already know. Ask and answer questions Check your understanding of what youre hearing by asking questions about what you are hearing. If you can answer the questions, you understand the material. If you cant answer the questions, you need to ask the speaker for help.

Billiards :: essays research papers

Billiards The history of billiards begins in the fourteenth century. The game was invented in Europe, but there was a conflict as to what country. The French believed that the English invented the game, but at the same time, the English thought the French did. In the end, a French billiards specialist found evidence that the game originated in France about the fourteenth century. The word "billiard" is derived from two French words, "billiart" and "bille". These two words mean "stick" and "ball". Put them together, and you get stick-ball or pool as it's called these days. At first the game was played outside, but during the winter it got too cold so the game was moved inside onto large tables. After a couple of years, green cloth was installed on the bed of the table to make an illusion of the grass outside. The sticks used at the time were large, and men used slightlycurved sticks while the women used straight, narrow ones. The sticks weren't used as they are today to hit the ball but rather to push the balls around the table, similar to the game of shuffle board. As the game got more popular, as it is today, the sticks got narrower and easier to use (Billiards, http). A few games today are similar to billiards, such as shuffleboard, and the same equipment - stick and balls. One of the most important tools to playing any game of this type is the table. In the fourteenth century, the length of the tables was much longer than today becuase they were used instead of playing outside. Today the sized of the tables varies all over the worl. The dimensions range anywhere from nine by four and a half feet to ten by five feet (â€Å"Billiards,† Colliers). Another tool used to play the game is the cue stick. The cue srick weighs in a range of twelve to twenty-two ounces, and the straighter the cue, the better. At the end of the cue is a leather tip, which is used to hit the ball with great accuracy. If the stick were to hit the ball with the leather tip chalked, then a better shot would be made rather than one without the chalked end. As most people now know, the chalk is used to give a better shot. The chalk is a blue color and comes in a little square inch type cube. Another item needed to play a game of billiards is the balls, fifteen object balls and one cue ball. The cue ball is the only ball that is to be hit

White Blood Cell and Marks

A differential count of white blood cells from a patient gave the bsolute number of lymphocytes as 8000 per mm3 and the total number of white blood cells as 12,000 per mm3. Calculate the percentage of lymphocytes in this sample of white blood cells. Is this a normal or abnormal percentage? Explain your answer. (4 Marks) Percentage of lymphocytes in WBC= 8000/12000 100=66. 67%, the normal values of lymphocytes in blood is 20%-40%. So this would be an abnormal percentage. 5. Describe the difference between a communicable disease and an inherited disease.Use examples you have studied in this exploration to support your description. (4 Marks) A communicable disease is a disease that is transmitted from person to person; for example, malaria. An inherited disease is a disease that is passed through genetics; for example, sickle cell anemia. 6. Why are white blood cells in a stained blood smear usually counted at low power under a microscope? Explain your answer. (2 Marks) They are counted at low power because they are much bigger than all other blood cells.If you try to count them on high power, you have to keep moving the slide and will likely lose count or get confused. On low power, the other cells are much less visible and you will get a broader picture of the white cells which it makes it easier to get an accurate count. 7. Why is the presence ofa larger than normal number of neutrophils indicative of an infection? Explain your answer. (2 Marks) 8. Why would you not expect to see tissue macrophages in a blood smear? Explain your answer. (4 Marks)

Free Essays on Public V. Private Schools

In today’s society, education is a necessity for anyone wanting to earn a decent living. Without a high school diploma, and more recently a college degree, a person will probably never be financially independent enough to enjoy most of life’s comforts. High school is a very important time in a student’s life. It is the time when a young person begins to think independently. It is also a time when teens are very impressionable and face tons of peer pressure. That is why the environment in which a young person attends high school plays a major role in who that person will develop into. Many parents are now choosing to send their children to private schools, as opposed to public schools, with the idea that their children will receive a better education and also have a greater chance of becoming successful. These ideas, however, are not always accurate. The following paper discusses the positive and negative attributes of public and private schools and include s my personal experience with a private parochial school. Public education has many perks to it. The greatest is probably the access to government funds. Some, if not most, public schools have state of the art computer labs, updated and renovated facilities, brand new uniforms for the athletic teams, and much more. Academically, public schools offer more classes and educational opportunities than private schools (with the exception of the upper class elite academies), largely in part to the financial resources available to them. It is believed that sending one’s child to a private school will insure that they receive a better education, which in turn will result in higher test scores on the ACT and SAT. This is not a true statement, however. Statistics have proven that the average scores of public high school students are higher than those of high school students attending private schools. Despite the numerous advantages of public schools, there are disa... Free Essays on Public V. Private Schools Free Essays on Public V. Private Schools In today’s society, education is a necessity for anyone wanting to earn a decent living. Without a high school diploma, and more recently a college degree, a person will probably never be financially independent enough to enjoy most of life’s comforts. High school is a very important time in a student’s life. It is the time when a young person begins to think independently. It is also a time when teens are very impressionable and face tons of peer pressure. That is why the environment in which a young person attends high school plays a major role in who that person will develop into. Many parents are now choosing to send their children to private schools, as opposed to public schools, with the idea that their children will receive a better education and also have a greater chance of becoming successful. These ideas, however, are not always accurate. The following paper discusses the positive and negative attributes of public and private schools and include s my personal experience with a private parochial school. Public education has many perks to it. The greatest is probably the access to government funds. Some, if not most, public schools have state of the art computer labs, updated and renovated facilities, brand new uniforms for the athletic teams, and much more. Academically, public schools offer more classes and educational opportunities than private schools (with the exception of the upper class elite academies), largely in part to the financial resources available to them. It is believed that sending one’s child to a private school will insure that they receive a better education, which in turn will result in higher test scores on the ACT and SAT. This is not a true statement, however. Statistics have proven that the average scores of public high school students are higher than those of high school students attending private schools. Despite the numerous advantages of public schools, there are disa...