Geico Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Geico Case Study - Essay Example Of a lot number of benefits, even few elements shall bring, aspirants, home about the benefits they can enjoy. Health and well being, that is in itself a complete program, is a well designed plan for its associates. The well being and health of the full time associate is covered 360 degrees making it perfect set of benefits. Education and training program, with, GEICO, is a lifelong learning opportunity that cares for career development coupled with trainings, tuition reimbursements and even family scholarships. Finance and retirement benefits are reinforced by astounding plan of profit sharing and variety of plans with over 20 investment options. For holidays and other leaves GEICO provides a plan that can help contentment for its associates. Similarly, family and life program and other perquisites along with a bunch of amenities are a great convenience. At GEICO the notion that family requirements should be understood to create affinity among the company and the associate is a way to integrate its associate well. The dependents of associates are also cared for and numbers of programs have been formed for the purpose. In these programs, long term care insurance plan, adoption assistance, associate assistance program are few that need a mention. Under associate assistance program GEICO provides up to three phone and/or in-person counseling sessions without any cost. AAP also includes work-life balance programs, baby welcome program, day care and elder care referrals, counseling for stress, anxiety and depression, and financial counseling, aid during crisis situation and legal consultation. To evaluate such perks are not only important for integrating its associates with the company, but also to make them realize that the relationship is symbiotic. In this paper a comparison of GEICO Total Rewards Program is being made with top advantages of Total Rewards program. Total Rewards program is now, known as an integrated part of HR best practices with a view of emplo yee retention and satisfaction. The World-at-Work Handbook of Compensation, Benefits & Total Rewards by John Wiley is perhaps a definitive guide to compensation and benefits from modern HR professionals. In accordance with the best practices, the management must be vigilant enough to attract, motivate and retain quality employees. This manual provides for an indispensable method to make HR professionals comprehend and implement Total Rewards concept (Bus.iastate.edu). GEICO plan in comparison to Total Rewards Program: In Total Rewards program organizational culture, business strategy and Human Resource strategy are key players that shape overall planning, initiated through this program. It includes above mentioned plans that primarily attract, motivate and retain employees. It is an employee centric program that causes satisfaction and dedication only for the purpose of better business and performance results. It can be seen from the offers under this GEICO Total Rewards Plan that t he initiative is more likely to achieve â€Å"benchmark and standards of Total Rewards Plan†. They are far sighting and can be termed as closer to an excellent level (Awlp.org). To analyze the program, let us see the advantages that are important for an organization to maintain its integrity and lead: No single element is left isolated, meaning that all elements are taken care of, yet certain â€Å"elements are prioritized†

ICT and Society Essay Example for Free

ICT and Society Essay My mobile phone is a Nokia 6020. I got it a year ago, for my birthday. It is on a pay as you go tariff, and I have to pay it all my self. I have had to get myself a paper-round to contribute towards some of the costs. I use it to make phone calls, but mainly to text, and take pictures, with the camera. I often use the video camera to make low quality videos. I quite like the look of my phone but it is getting slightly old now. It is still a very good, basic phone however I think that the memory is much too small. It can acess the internet; but I dont use that mainly because of the cost. Describe how you use the ICT technology. My phone is mostly used in the social category because I use it most to communicate with others. However, it can also come under the personal category because I use it to entertain myself by playing games on it among other things. Because I have to pay for it myself I tend not to spend as much as my friends, whos parents pay for it. I am probably more conscious about the cost than them too. I am not someone who relies on it completely, I have lost it for a whole week before, without even realising. Saying this I do tend to text friends who dont live near me. This way I can keep in touch with them. I would like to text them more but a phone is quite expensive to run and I would rather spread out my remaining money on other things. I also use my mobile to arrange outings with my school friends during the holidays or weekends. I like to text them because it is quick and easy. I dont really use any kind of predictive text when I write text messages. This is because I dont really like it that much. The avantages of it is that it writes texts quicker with less movement of fingers. However it doesnt have text talk words in the program, like 2moro so therefore the text is longer and you cant fit so much in the text. I find having a camera on the phone very useful too. Like most people I can take a picture any time, any where. This means I can caputure really cool pictures. I can send the good pictures to people via multimedia messages. If Im on holiday they can see what Im doing and generally keep in touch. Another thing which makes my phone more personal is the fact that I can change the background and the order of the lists in menu. I like to do this but it is quite complicated to do. I also use my phone for entertainment, I play games when I am bored like on the train. Although the games are not that advanced, they keep me entertained. I use the calculator appliance a bit but I cant use it in school because the school has banned mobiles. I often use the calander. The calander, if set, will remind me of peoples birthdays a week or so before. However it does take a while to set and add information. My phone also has an alarm, which I use when I am camping or sleeping in a hotel. I use most of t he things that are on my phone and usually they work well. What are the advantages of using the ICT technology. One of the things which I find most useful about having a mobile phone, is having so many things on one device. It has endless uses all in one tiny object. It saves people carrying around lots of different devices each with one use. The other thing which I find most useful about having a mobile is that it gives me freedom. This is so important. My parents will let me go out and know that I can phone them at any time. Theyll say well, as long as you have got your mobile with you. For my parents, it gives them a slight chance to relax. My parents also know that they can log onto a website and track my phone, this is an advantage for them. Say, should the worst happen, I was hurt and got rushed to hospital. The paramedics could look at my phone and find mum in my contacts and immediately let her know. Another reason for having a phone with lots of things on it, is money. It could actually save money, not having to buy a digital camera, ect. What are the disadvantages, if any, of the ICT technology. There were several studies recently that warned of a possible health risk to teens who use their phone a lot. It was worried about the waves that a phone uses damaging heavy users. Now I dont use my phone that much but I dont exactly like the thought. Nothing has been proved yet but, then again, nothing has been not proved. So at the moment I am just cautious. For me, the fact that my parents can track my phone is generally a bad thing. I dont want my parents to know exactly where I am all the time, theyve got to learn to let go a little. But if I got into trouble I think that I would be really glad so as long as they only use it when they are really worried its OK. The fact that it costs quite a lot to run a phone also is a bad thing. Handsets cost a lot to buy, the better and more features it has, the more expensive the price. Packages where users are lured into by the promise of free weekend texts or 100 free picture messages are often not right for the customers. Most people end up paying a set amount per month, say à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20. Thats fine if they would use à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 credit on pay as you go tariff but most wont. They dont realise that theyd get a better deal if they went onto another tariff. I think this is how phone companies make all their money. Bullying is another major problem. More and more, younger and younger children possess phones for all the reasons I have listed above. Bullying via text messages is becoming a substantial problem, big enough for many schools to start to ban mobile phones. This leads us onto the next disadvantage. Many schools have banned phones completely. My school still allows us to have phones in school however were not allowed to use them or get them out during the day. We can turn them on at the end of the school but not otherwise. If a teacher sees them they confiscate them. This is a real pain because a parent needs to come in and collect it. A wider problem is security. If you have a phone apparently some hackers can hack onto phones, steal personal information and stuff. Also having a phone makes you a target to thieves and muggers. They will just whip your phone anytime. It has now been made harder for thieves as you can block the SIM card and make it un-useable. However if you take out the blocked SIM, and put in another the handset will still work perfectly. This still makes stealing a phone worth it. What companies need to develop is a way of blocking the handset too. If I lived and the mobile phone wasnt around today I wouldnt be able to keep in touch with my friends as easily or arrange to meet up with them. My parents would feel less comfortable with me going out so I would have less freedom and if I got into trouble I couldnt ring for help. The mobile is so convienient that many people would have to change too. So although there seem to be more disadvantages than advantages I still find a mobile the most useful piece of IT I use, secondary only to the computer. This is simply because it gives me the freedom I want in more than one way. The freedom to go out without my parents worrying and the freedom to walk around with one little device in my pocket.

Abraham Lincoln as a Dangerous Speaker Essay -- Presidents essays rese

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many people remember President Abraham Lincoln as being a very gifted orator as well as a dignified leader of our country. Through his many speeches and writings, Abraham Lincoln captivated American minds and gained millions of followers. In Lincoln's "Perpetuation speech," given before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, in 1838, Lincoln himself stated that our country was in great danger. He speaks of people such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon and then asks, "Is it unreasonable to expect , that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us?" (Grafton, page 7). In this, he shares his fear that some man with great ambition and power could exist in this country who is not satisfied with just the power of the presidency and strive for more than that. I believe that Lincoln had the power to be one of those people. When Lincoln's orati ons and writings are carefully analyzed, one can see how he used his wit and intelligence to manipulate the American people. With his intelligence and immense popularity, Lincoln could have easily been one of the men that he spoke of. He used his gift as an orator to get ahead and that, I believe, made him a threat to American society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Abraham Lincoln was a very popular man among the American people. He was there for the country through the Civil War, whether good or bad times. In the North he was the great emancipationist. Lincoln was loved by many, and he could have used this to his advantage. One reason that he was so loved was because he had the ability to draw people's attention with his speeches. After his assassination and the reaction of the American people, the fact that he was so loved was a surprise to some people in Washington. There was a three week funeral procession where Lincoln's body was taken to the big cities by a special train so that the people could mourn him. "Democrat Charles Mason of Iowa thought the whole affair a political trick, like the 'crafty skill of Mark Antony in displaying to the Roman people the bloody mantle of Caesar'," (Donald, page 5). This analogy was made as an argument between political parties, but I think that it just shows how important Lincoln real ly was, being compared to the great Julius Caesar. It is widely believed that popular Preside... ...vement is wrong. Lincoln, however, when giving this speech doesn't come right out and say that he believes that they are wrong. In this way he gains more supporters by befriending them and not telling them straight out that they are wrong. At that point in time, Lincoln needed those votes. However, he got them by dishonest means. That really doesn't sound like the "Honest Abe" that all of the people knew and trusted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I believe that President Abraham Lincoln was a man with a lot of power. Lincoln was a very dangerous speaker. He could have easily used this power and his ability as an orator to become one of those men that are not satisfied with just the presidency and could have tried to have more. I believe that for this reason, Lincoln was a threat to our society. However, the people did not realize this because he had them so entranced by his wonderful speeches and writings. At a normal glance, it looks as if there is nothing hidden in those speeches. When they are looked at a little more closely though, one can see how Lincoln used his immense talent to trick the people into supporting him. Through his beautifully crafted orations, Abraham Lincoln gained many followers.

Caribbean culture Essay

Creolisation is a top element of the Caribbean culture. It is a word derived from the word Creole; it however is not meant to just describe the Creole culture. It is a broad anthropological term used to describe the coming together of different cultural traits especially of the West Indies to form a new trait. This occurs when two or more languages are combined to give one unique language. In essence, Creolisation refers to the blending of diverse cultures to give one unique culture. The adaptability of Creolisation by the Caribbean culture in this age of globalization is a good thing for the Caribbean economy but may be injurious to the culture of the Caribbean peoples. Because the people of the caribbeans will be speaking a common, creolized language it will be relatively easy for the member states of the Caribbean region to communicate with each other. Creolisation of their cultures will enhance further understanding among the creolized states of the Caribbean. ( Ancelet et al, 2001) Nearly all the states of the Caribbean have â€Å"creolized† cultures. From the Jamaicans, the Cajuns, the Bahamas, British Guyana etc. Their various cultures have been creolized. They all speak the language of their colonial masters in the pidgin form and have adopted certain cultures form their colonial masters. Like the drinking of processed liquor, smoking of cigarettes etc. These imperialist cultures have made several African countries’ economies to suffer. Country like Nigeria which used to eat the type of the imperial master’s food, his wine and wear his clothes spent fortunes of its country earnings to fund the importation of these items. This led to a plunge in the fortunes of this country. The Caribbean however are people that are very proud of their heritage. They designed their own music form (e. g. reggae) have their own drinks- which are largely influenced by the culture of their forefathers. Their food has however been creolized as it is influenced by imperialist cultures. Though it is still very much part of their own creation. In creolising, care must be taken not to change an existing culture completely. This fear is as captured by Appiah as thus: â€Å"Nevertheless, contemporary multiculturalists are right in thinking that a decent education will teach children about the various social identities around them. First, because each child has to negotiate the creation of his or her own individual identity, using these collective identities as one (but only one) of the resources; second, so that all can be prepared to deal with one another respectfully in a common civic life. Much of current multicultural education seems to me to have these reasonable aims: let us call this weak version â€Å"liberal multiculturalism† (1997). † From Appiah’s documentation, creolisation has been viewed from these perspectives: a. creolisation as the major social and cultural fact about Caribbean life (what matters will of course be the social process but it may prove illuminating to proceed via linguistics) and b. Arnold’s accounts of i. Western culture as an amalgam of Hellenism and Hebraism, and ii. the English race as an amalgam of Celtic, German and Norman â€Å"bloods†. Considering the errors that are often linked with cultural talk, the creole context, and an Arnoldian perspective on the West or simply on England, both reveal that a culture lives, changes, innovates, is in a process of continuous evolution. Where alternatives are to hand, this often means selection, not simply preserving and reproducing. It is not therefore a complete or necessarily coherent bundle to which we may add Gellner’s point about the multiplicity of nearly all cultures: the official first eleven has a fall-back for other occasions, scriptural Islam versus the dervishes. The Creole context makes it plain that there is nothing genetic in operation. More importantly, that context gives no one reason to think a culture will continue in the same old way. As noted already, we find proper examples in Trinidad or now in St Lucia. Alleyne was sad to see that a form of Twi-Asante is â€Å"dying† (Alleyne, 1988) in Jamaica. There is reason for the Caribbean to regret that they no longer speak like Chaucer, or Arnold. One may regret death, but that does not entail that one would endorse immortality — we must move to a view that puts life and death in their place and accepts both. Or to return to less exalted matters, it may be pleasant to discover†retention† but it is not what makes or breaks a culture. â€Å"Transculturation† (Bolland, 2001) can be endorsed with out it. without it. Economic integration will automatically come in with the achievement of cultural integration. This will provide for a bigger, more cohesive, stronger and unity front for which the Caribbean states can push for economic and political relevance in the world order. It is good to note however that there is a significant level of creoliastion in the Caribbean. They all speak an almost similar language; pidgin English, have similar music etc. however a lot can still be done in the creolisation of the in the Caribbean. Major impediments to a successful creolisation in the Caribbean are the influence of colonialists. Different states of the Caribbean had different colonialists who set then in captivity, freed them and are now coming back in the name of neo-imperialism. The different states of the Caribbean speak the languages of their colonialists-maybe in the pidgin form. A perfect example of creolisation is with the Cajun language, which is a mixture of French and English and also African languages. Language is in general evaluatively neutral. As Macaulay pointed out long ago, there is no intrinsic basis in the language to prefer Latin to Chinook as a component of elite education. If one thinks of culture by reference to conventions like language, there is scarcely any scope for evaluatively ranking exemplars, but if one focuses on the way culture operates as â€Å"an engineering program for producing persons† (Nerlich, 1989) then there is no more reason not to discriminate among them than there is not to distinguish a saint or an ordinary decent person from the likes of Pinochet or Burmese generals. â€Å"Moral† equality among persons is no bar to moral discriminations. Of course creolisation doesn’t provide us with a recipe. There is still much difference of opinion on what has actually happened in the case of prototypical creoles and pidgins. But one lesson I would wish to draw from recent debates is that what is salient for ordinary usage (once upon a time, foreign-born, now whatever it is) or for some theoretical perspective (e. g. , origin in a colonial slave plantation) does not uniquely characterise the outcomes of contact situations. There are a host of types of language contact bringing with them a host of outcomes, perhaps depending on particular social or historical configurations. Mufwene has enunciated his idealised and apparently deterministic version of this idea in relation to creoles, immigrant workers’ varieties, etc. by saying that â€Å"in all these cases of language contact we still deal with the same equation for restructuring; only the value of some variables keep changing† (Mufwene, 1997). Taking this in conjunction with the fact he has particularly stressed, that the categories we rely on have been taken from the contingencies of the social reality, not from theory, we find that what structurally or in some other respect are very similar situations become classified differently. The terminology remains affected by the connotations attached to terms by metropolitan non-specialist users. So, speaking of American or Australian English, Mufwene remarks â€Å"there are other good socio-historical reasons why these varieties have not been called creoles: they developed in settings in which descendants of non-Europeans have been in the minority; and they have not been disowned by Europeans and descendants thereof† (Mufwene, 1997). References 1. Appiah, K. A. (1997). The Multiculturalist Misunderstanding, New York Review of Books, October 9, 2006 2. E. P. Brandon, (2001). Creolisation, syncretism, and multiculturalism

Benchmarking conflict management

Benchmarking is a process of determining what is best, may it be a company, organization, business or individual. This is done by setting standards and who attains the set standards. Benchmarking is done by comparing two or more companies in order to get which emerges the best among them. The companies or individuals that do the same kind of work or business are best benchmarked. In benchmarking, also known as geodetic control points there need to be a process to follow in order to get the winner, what process the winner followed to get there.Benchmarking is a quality improvement initiative this encourages companies and organizations to improve their quality to avoid being the last. (Galdin, 2005) Conflict is the struggle between the incompatible or opposing needs, wishes or individuals. Benchmarking conflict management is trying to come up with the best method to solve the conflicts between the companies or individuals with the same goal or wish e. g. two companies wishing to buy th e same piece of land for expansion. Benchmarking Conflict approach Gadency bus services are a company operating from Manchester city to London city.It is a public transport company having a fleet of more than a hundred buses. It wanted top buy a piece of land to build a garage, it targeted a piece of land owned by Manchester city council. The conflict arises when the city council refuses to sell the land to the company. Conflict rose when the city authority declined to sell the piece of land to them. The company had to look for means to solve the conflict. In this situation the bus company is responsible for the city council actions. Conflict situations offered the company an opportunity to choose a style for responding to the conflict.The most effective conflict prevention and management is to choose the conflict management style appropriate for the conflict. The company chooses a compromising style to solve the conflict which was very important to them to satisfy their interests, the company compromised to split the difference between them and the city council. The company chooses to ask for lease which was granted for the council was not ready to sell the land. Gadency bus acquired the land for choosing the best method to solve the conflict. (Cavenagh, 1999)London breweries are a brewing company situated is western suburb of London city. It wanted top buy a piece of land to build a warehouse, it targeted a piece of land owned by London city authority. The conflict arises when the city authority refuses to sell the land to the company. Conflict rose when the city authority declined to sell the piece of land to them. The company had to look for means to solve the conflict. In this situation the bus company is responsible for the city authority actions. Conflict situations offered the company an opportunity to choose a style for responding to the conflict.The most effective conflict prevention and management is to choose the conflict management style appropria te for the conflict. The company chooses an accommodating style put their interests last and let the city authority have what they want. The brewing company believes that keeping a good friendship is more important than anything else. The city authority declined completely to sell the land to the company and the company moved on by the decision of the city authority’s decision and did not acquire the land. This was as a result of the conflict solving style used by the company. (Simons, 2002) ConclusionBenchmarking conflict management between the two companies would solve the conflict between them and also improve the quality of their services. By the setting of some standards by the city council has also encouraged the companies to choose appropriate style that is preferred in solving the dispute. Interaction of the Manchester city council and London city authority helped in improving the group behavior and avoiding completely spoiling of the inter-group relation and also hel ped in solidifying the groups. By each company applying different conflict solving style, this determines the result each company gets.