The Work Of Belbin And My Personal Experiences - 988 Words

The work of Belbin and my personal experiences The Financial Post (2015) stated teamwork is key to success; this is true in the context of building careers as at some point you will have to work in a team, which is sometimes challenging. Steve Jobs also believed in the importance of teamwork â€Å"Great things in business are never done by one person they’re done by a team of people.† (BusinessNewsDaily, 2013). There are many different aspects of teamwork for example; skills, team conflict and group size. This essay reflects on my personal experiences of working in a team. First I will talk about the literature of Belbin, describing key elements about teamwork. Then I will assess how accurately the literature reflects my experiences of teamwork. Lastly, I will look at what I have learned from the experience, by putting the literature and my experiences into context. I have various experiences in team projects, which I will be relating to the project that I recently took part in regarding leadership. Belbin’s 1993 book concludes that an effective team has members covering all 9 key roles. It is beneficial to have a dynamic team that contributes a wide range of skills, whereby people will be appointed on the basis of their functional roles as and when their skills would be needed (Belbin, 1993). Managing team conflict is also important as Belbin, (2002) argues that if a team were to reach mutual grounds on each member’s goals prior to starting tasks this would ensure theShow MoreRelatedReflective Writing on Team Work Essay1542 Words   |  7 PagesA Reflective Paper On The Importance On Teamwork Nursing Essay What is a team work? Team work can be defined as when actions of individuals are brought together for the purpose of a common goal. Each person in a team puts his efforts to achieve the objectives of large group. Teams make efforts to achieve the success but not necessarily the success is achieved every time. Within a team every member plays a role to achieve the team’s objectives. These roles add new and important dimensions to interactionsRead MoreThe Developments And Learning I Experienced During Buxton Residential1298 Words   |  6 Pagesindividually with a view of improving my shortcomings. I was assessed and given feedback by the supervisor in the areas I was not performing better and guided throughout the residential to accomplish better individually as well as in a group. I am reviewing the work I performed in the group under the current research and methods to present the learning I gained from the feedback and guidance provided by the supervisors. (Tuckman, Belbin, Kolb and other researcher’s work is used). However, this essay willRead MoreThe 21st Century Manager Needs More710 Words   |  3 PagesThere is a growing understanding that managers of the 21st century need certain theories to help and support the work place, theories such as Maslow, Hertzberg , Elton mayo ,Beldins , John Adair , Isabel Briggs, Dougles Mc Gregor, Tajfel , Tuckmen , Jung , bloom. The 21st century manager has an immense importance in the workplace because; they have the responsibility to make sure teams are working effectively to develop and achieving individual goals in the workplace, to meet them business aims andRead MoreA Research On Team Work1178 Words   |  5 PagesTeam work involves the actions undertaken by a group of individuals in order to achieve a common goal.They work together in a cooperative environment to achieve the common goal through sharing ideas,knowledge and skills. The goal is the target or common objective and it is greater than the personal aspirations of each member of the team.It is a cooperative process that enables target oriented individuals to achieve great results(Scarnati 2001).A team has a common objective and the team members workRead MoreSatff in the Work Place and The Twenty-First Managers Essay1209 Words   |  5 PagesThere is a growing understanding that managers of the 21st century need certain theories to help and support them when dealing with staff in the work place. Theories such as Maslow, Hertzberg , Mayo , John Adair , Mc Gregor and Fredrick taylor The 21st century manager has an immense importance in the workplace because; they have the responsibility to make sure teams develop their skills and achieve their set goals in the workplace. In this essay, I will firstly attempt to analyze and evaluate theRead MoreSelf Reflection Ppd Plan1486 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract The following report is a personal and professional development plan that shows a self reflection of me using the various tool (Belbin team role analysis, Career survey guide, MBA skills audit etc) discussed in the PPD sessions in the class room. This also provides insights of various strengths and weakness I possess and the various things which I want to develop during the course of my MBA programme both in respect to my personal and professional development. It also gives out stepsRead MoreOrganizing A Fundraising Event At The South And City College Enterprise Day1480 Words   |  6 PagesThis report evaluates my own experience working within a team to organise a fundraising event at the South and City College Enterprise Day. We were aimed to raise money for Teenager Cancer Trust by selling handmade crafts. Below, I am going to reflect about my own experience and about how the team worked together to achieve our goals. Team roles and problem solving techniques will be evaluated an d suggestions for improvement will be given as we have now learned from this experience. 1. Team roles EveryoneRead MoreProject Management : Application Of Knowledge, Skills, Tools, And Methods1493 Words   |  6 Pages estimating, and controlling work activities to reach a desired end result on time- within budget and according to specification (Wysocki, R.K. 2007). Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet project requirements (PMI, Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 2000, p. 6). In this essay I will be explaining some of the theories and try them to apply to explain the process of my group project. Project motivationRead MoreWhat Makes an Effective Senior Leadership Team (Slt)?2159 Words   |  9 Pagesteam (SLT)? The nature of an effective a senior leadership team (SLT) will be the topic of this essay. The idea of team work and various models of SLT will be covered linking their roles, strategy, values and pitfalls. I will interlace this essay with some personal experience and relevant literature Belbin and Fullan to conclude through an historical analogy, my personal understanding of what SL T represents. The combination of words in the sentence â€Å"Effective Senior Leadership Team† bringsRead MoreWho Am I as a Learner2953 Words   |  12 Pagesif they know their team roles (Edmondson, Bohmer and Pisano 2001). Therefore, I have done three psychometric tests. The three psychometric tests included VARK, MBTI and Belbin. VARK can let me know my learning style (William and Richard 2004); MBTI can let me know my personality (Shu and Yang 2009); Belbin can let me know my team role (Woods 1992). 2. Learning Style Learning Styles refers to the difference of learning method between individual (William and Richard 2004). The characteristics

ITIL Service Strategy Processes

Question: Discuss about the ITIL Service Strategy Processes. Answer: Introduction: Help desk software is used by different organizations to serve customer satisfaction. The consumers who are suffering from various issues generally contact help desks to reduce the consumers issues. In order to achieve organizational goals operational efficiency are needed to be enhanced. The main features of help desk software are as follows: Ticket managements system and tracking: While different technical issue arises in organizations help desk act to resolve the issue (Meijerink, Bondarouk Lepak, 2016). It also provides enough tracking and management system to the users. Different organizations rather individuals can also take help of this software. It provides cloud based platform so that, all user can access the service regardless of the geographical location and even time. This is software intended to provide a solution to the clients of organizations (Jamali, El Dirani Harwood, 2015). Several factors fall under the help desk category such as consumers feedback, toll free number for the customers and websites with an independent platform where, all the users can share their view with one another. The consumers ask for query through help desk whereas, the service desk solve the query for the consumers. It is capable to track and monitor the requests and can also perform efficiently (Chan Chen Chen, 1999). The clie nts can access this and gain help accordingly. Help desk is a system which operates by human but the management of the system is done by using help desk software. In order to provide timely respond to the consumers an office level applications are needed to be served properly. Quick access to the database and easy statistical measurement: The system provides efficient access so that consumers from different domain can get help from this (Sung Choi, 2014). In order to improve IT infrastructure, help desk act as a technical support to the users. There are two complimentary desks are found such as help desk and service desk. It is platform independent and communication to the suppliers can be made by using office network, internet access and digital devices (Meijerink, Bondarouk Lepak, 2016). According to Moore, McGraw and Shaw-Kokot, (2001) training and development is the most important part that should be considered to reach the goal or objective of an organization. The first journal depicts the importance of training and development while recruiting someone for a particular designation. In the year of 1999, new single service desk was created by the Health Science Library. The management of the organization was not properly structured rather the construction of the health care building threw challenges to its staffs and clients also. Thus, effective staffs training is how much important is mentioned in this journal. On the other hand, the second journal illustrates the crucial necessity of developing an intelligent case based system to improve the desk operations (Chan Chen Chen, 1999). After reviewing both the journals it has been concluded that, computer aided environment provides most of the possible solutions to the consumers but improvement in the training and development is much more important. Therefore, selection of the first journal is more appropriate from the consumers perspective. Training and development is the most crucial thing where the staffs recruited for a particular organization can gain more knowledge from outside sources (Meijerink, Bondarouk Lepak, 2016). In order to handle the management challenges, help desk system and help desk software are needed to be adopted by the system. As the paper is published in the year of 2001, technological solutions are not provided appropriately (Suhairi Gaol, 2013). Nowadays, different technological solutions are provided to the help desk management system to improve the overall configuration. The recommendations o develops the journals solutions are as follows: Staffing required in help desk: The content of the paper does not provide enough solutions to the help desk based issues. Therefore, in order to improve the management functionality the author might have mentioned the criteria and development requirement off staffing. The staffs of the healthcare association can get knowledge if technological training and development programs are developed by the management of the organization (Jamali, El Dirani Harwood, 2015). Infrastructural development: Development in IT infrastructure is needed to improve the help desk management system. Software innovations and other office level and application based issue can also be discussed in this paper. The paper can be improved if different advanced communication channels such as office network, mobile devices, internet access and telephonic access control are mentioned. Position measurement of help desk: The help desk software packages are supported by different Microsoft operating system is not mentioned in this journal. User support management should also have been added for development. Information technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) helps to improve the help desk management system utilizes by different organizations. The system helps the business and IT based help desks to provide uninterrupted organizational services to the users. ITIL is referred to as a framework practice, most widely used for IT operations management and improvement (Stanley, 2014). In the year of 1980 Government of commerce ok UK stated that, ITIL is one of the most efficient managements systems that can be used by large organizations also. The goal of the technology is to provide best IT based solution to the organizations. According to Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood, (2015) the ITIL do not only manage the IT system but also apart from hardware and software it also manages the Human resource of different organizations. The core of the system is to provide uninterrupted and user friendly services to the consumers. The service also provides five different processes such as incident management, problem management, configuration management, release management and change management to the users (Sung Choi, 2014). All the components and frameworks are not mandatory to be utilized by the organizations. The specifications of all the frameworks are not required for organizations. Considering office environment it has been discovered that, quality of service is also associated to IT infrastructure functionalities (Garavan et al., 2015). The requests generated from the user ends are classified in two sections such as problems and incidents. The survey implies that, in order to eliminate problems preplanning must be generated by the management team, to achieve the goal of the organizations (Moore, McGraw Shaw-Kokot, 2001). By implementing the ITIL based desk solutions enterprises stay focused to the goal. Two application of ITIL are provided to the vehicle breakdown services are mentioned in this assignment. The examples are as follows: Recruiting help desk agent: Help desk agents are needed to be recruited for the organizations so that the consumers can get to know about the issues and discuss the solution process accordingly (Stanley, 2014). In this case, the system is vehicle breakdown service, where the vehicle users can appoint to the consumer care centre for repairing their vehicles. If they have any query regarding the service they can take help of the help desk management system to resolve their queries. Only the well trained staffs recruited for the system can provide appropriate solutions to the users. Vendor specific certification: Vendor specification is required to develop the management system from the root. Microsoft office, Cisco network administrations are able to configure the help desk system properly (Al Mourad Hussain, 2014). In vehicle breakdown service users can use this operating system to generate proper access and also provide feedback to the platform. References Al Mourad, M. B., Hussain, M. (2014). The impact of cloud computing on ITIL service strategy processes.International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering,3(5), 367. Chan, C., Chen, L., Chen, L. L. (1999, May). Development of an intelligent case-based system for help desk operations. InElectrical and Computer Engineering, 1999 IEEE Canadian Conference on(Vol. 2, pp. 1062-1067). IEEE. Garavan, T., Watson, S., Carbery, R., OBrien, F. (2015). The antecedents of leadership development practices in SMEs: The influence of HRM strategy and practice.International Small Business Journal, 0266242615594215. Jamali, D. R., El Dirani, A. M., Harwood, I. A. (2015). Exploring human resource management roles in corporate social responsibility: the CSRà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ HRM coà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ creation model.Business Ethics: A European Review,24(2), 125-143. Meijerink, J. G., Bondarouk, T., Lepak, D. P. (2016). Employees as Active Consumers of HRM: Linking Employees HRM Competences with Their Perceptions of HRM Service Value.Human resource management,55(2), 219-240. Moore, M. E., McGraw, K. A., Shaw-Kokot, J. (2001). Preparing staff to work at a single service desk.Medical Reference Services Quarterly,20(1), 79-86. Stanley, R. (2014). Cocreation and implementing ITIL service management in the Cloud: A case study. InThe 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management in Organizations(pp. 61-71). Springer Netherlands. Suhairi, K., Gaol, F. L. (2013). The Measurement of Optimization Performance of Managed Service Division with ITIL Framework using Statistical Process Control.Journal of Networks,8(3), 518-529. Sung, S. Y., Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations.Journal of organizational behavior,35(3), 393-412.

Project Failure Deepwater Horizon and the Bp Oil Spill Essay Example

Project Failure: Deepwater Horizon and the Bp Oil Spill Essay Introduction The Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22, 2010, two days after the Macondo well blowout and explosion that killed 11 workers. The Deepwater Horizon accident, also known as the BP Oil Spill, was a project failure of immense proportions. It went from an oil exploration â€Å"project† to a massive program with portfolios of projects related to dealing with the families of those killed on the oil rig, stopping the oil leak, capturing the oil (from the well and from the ocean), cleaning the environment (seashores, wetlands, Gulf of Mexico), saving and cleaning wildlife (underwater and on shores), responding to human needs (fishermen, economically impacted families), dealing with the public (PR campaigns), dealing with shareholders and employees, and dealing with governments(state and federal). The mission and scope changed and grew significantly over night. It changed from a $500 million oil prospect development project to over a $100 billion program with global reach and hundreds of projects. In addition, the inability of BP to stop the flow in a timely manner, communication problems by BP management, and long lasting negative media coverage of the slow reaction to the spill have resulted in serious negative consequences for BP, subcontractors on the project and the oil exploration industry as a whole. Additionally, the US federal government responded to the accident with poor organization and leadership. We will write a custom essay sample on Project Failure: Deepwater Horizon and the Bp Oil Spill specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Project Failure: Deepwater Horizon and the Bp Oil Spill specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Project Failure: Deepwater Horizon and the Bp Oil Spill specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Analyzing the chain of events, some of the lessons from the failure become very apparent including the facts that BP and Transocean risk management plans were inadequate, BP was not prepared for the accident (or any accident for the most part), project management mistakes were made during drilling of the well, communication blunders were made by BP executives following the accident, the impact on the environment and stakeholders were underestimated, and the future of a company can be at risk from a critical failure of this magnitude. The DeepWater incident was largely a result of poor initial project planning, inadequate project risk management, poor project management execution including decision making and communication, and unprepared crisis management on the part of BP and the US government in the event of project failure. This paper will analyze the series of events leading up to the April 20, 2011, disaster, the decisions and lack of actions which compounded the possibility and severity of project failure and the mishandling of the crisis that ensued after the failure of the well. Background On March 19, 2008, BP acquired the federal lease for Mississippi Canyon Block 252, located in 4,992 feet of water 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana for just over $34 Million from the Minerals Management Service (MMS). BP was highly confident in the seismic data and the presence of oil that the company proceeded to implement the project of drilling a $100 Million well named, Macondo. BP hired Transocean to supply the crew and the oil drilling rig to drill the well. On October 7, 2009, drilling began on the Macondo well using Transocean’s Marianas semisubmersible oil rig. The Marianas operated to a depth of 4,023 feet below the mudline, or 9,000 feet below sea level before it was damaged on November 9, 2009, by Hurricane Ida. Work on the Macondo well was suspended until January 31, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon rig was delivered to the site. The Deepwater Horizon was a 33,000 ton semisubmersible oil rig which was controlled by a satellite guided dynamic positioning system and had a series of thrusters to keep it afloat. The Deepwater rig was extremely technologically advanced and viewed by many in the oil industry as having superior technology that was foolproof to error. On February 8, 2010, the Deepwater crew placed a blowout preventer on the well in 5,067 feet of water and used remotely operated vehicles to guide the preventer to the latching collet on the well head using video feeds. Once the preventer was latched up, the riser was hung in the tensioning system, the other necessary lines were hung, and the drilling commenced on the well. Research now shows that over the ensuing next three months, the Macondo well had multiple incidents of trouble which continued until the disastrous day when the well blew out and went out of control. During the early drilling in shallow depths, the crew experienced multiple well problems, gas kicks, and dangerous lost circulation zones-sometimes all at once. On four occasions prior to the blowout, the crew experienced well-control events. During one of the well-control problems, a drill pipe became stuck and could not move in or out of the hole. A stuck pipe can be very dangerous and is indicative of poor well hole conditions. After fighting the stuck pipe for a week, the crew separated the pipe from the assembly and placed a cement cap plug on it and continued to drill a sidetrack hole at 17,500 feet. As the days wore on, the crew became wary after experiencing multiple kicks, lost circulation, and stuck pipe to the point that Mike Williams testified to the Joint Investigation Committee in July 2010 that the crew had been calling it the â€Å"Well from Hell†. (In Too Deep pg25) After weeks of battling the well, the well reached its total depth of over 18,200 feet and the engineers ran measurements to analyze the subsurface intervals, their content, and their pressures. These measurements were used to make the decision to run pipe to the bottom of the well and to prepare the well for temporary abandonment prior to production. At this point, the engineers may have made a mistake which contributed to the well blow out. BP engineers decided to run one long string of casing from the bottom of the well all the way to the wellhead. This decision resulted in the only protection provided for the flow of oil and gas in to the wellbore was the cement that would be pumped down the casing and capped with a seal assembly at the well head. If the cement failed, the oil and gas could travel up the pipe to the well head and escape uncontrolled. BP chose a cementing design which had one avenue of protection through a single cap as opposed to other designs that had multiple layers cementing and caps which provided additional protection in case of well failure. By choosing this single cap well design, the BP engineers knowingly chose a less safe design and their managers willingly approved the decision. Haliburton was the cementing servicing company hired by BP to cement the well and attach the seal assembly to cap off the well until a new rig was connected to initial actual oil production. Haliburton supplied the cement used in the sealing of the well which is now known to have been of inferior quality. According to the BP team’s plan, if the cementing went smoothly, Haliburton could skip a scheduled cement evaluation. Planning The project plan for the Macondo well should have been one unique to the well itself. The research of the Deepwater incident indicates that the plan for the well was changed on multiple occasions and management seemed to be influencing decisions based on financial and schedule implications rather that the risk implications the decisions might present. Additionally, the lack of a clear project plan resulted in a poor organizational structure and accountability of the multiple subcontractors involved with the project. There were numerous occasions in which the crew of the Deepwater which was comprised of employees from BP, Transocean and Haliburton were unsure of which company was in charge at different points of the project. The lack of planning was even more evident within the issues of the inadequate risk planning and the execution problems that contributed to the failure of the project. As a result of the failure, a disaster comprised of death and monumental environmental damage was poorly addressed in that crisis management planning had not been addressed in the planning for the project as well. The crisis to contain the well itself would have been more readily addressed by BP had the company anticipated a blowout as a possible risk and therefore had a crisis management plan which had been communicated to all of its crew members. Instead the crisis itself is a First, on April 20, the oil and gas industry was unprepared to respond to a deepwater blowout, and the federal government was similarly unprepared to provide meaningful supervision. Second, in a compressed timeframe, BP was able to design, build, and use new containment technologies, while the federal government was able to develop effective oversight capacity. Both industry and government must build on knowledge acquired during the Deepwater Horizon spill to ensure that such a failure of planning does not recur Planning is even more important during a crisis. Such projects can be described as turnaround projects, where every minute is critical. Turnaround projects are often planned for months in advance, scheduled in minutes, with a well defined set of actions which are constantly monitored, and everyone prepared in advance for everything they need to do. BP and its subcontractors did not use their initial planning to develop disaster response or recovery plans. Without this type of planning built into the initial framework, time and lives can be lost when a company is forced to react to a disaster such as the Deepwater. ttp://www. oilspillcommission. gov/sites/default/files/documents/C21462-408_CCR_for_web_0. pdf Execution Failure The lack of a clear, unique plan for the Macondo project exacerbated the likelihood of problems during the execution of the drilling of the well. Additionally, Deepwater rig had several players involved with the project which resulted in a complex interrelationship among several companies all of whom had differ ent roles and conflicting interpretations of their accountability and responsibilities. Transocean was the owner and responsible for running the rig. Haliburton was a servicing subcontractor who was responsible for cementing the well. BP was lease owner and operator of the Macondo well and in that capacity had both the overall responsibility for everything that went on including promoting a culture of safety on the rig. BP’s safety culture failed on the night of April 20, 2010, as reflected in the actions of BP personnel on- and offshore and in the actions of BP’s contractors Research prior to April 20 shows that most crew members felt that safety was not a priority for BP or any of the other contractors on the rig. A survey during the second week of March showed that 46 percent of crew members surveyed felt that crewmembers feared reprisals for reporting unsafe situations and 15 percent felt that there were not always enough people available to carry out work safely. This extensive involvement of these contractors underscored the compelling need for BP to properly communicate a clear decision making process as well as emphasize safety. This poor safety culture was also evident in the meeting the day before the Deepwater accident in which the Transocean managers discussed with their BP counterparts the backlog of rig maintenance. A September 2009 BP safety audit had produced a 30-page list of 390 items requiring 3,545 man-hours of work. The lack of a safety culture may have contributed to the fact that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean did not adequately identify or address risks of an accident—not in the well design, cementing, or temporary abandonment procedures. Their management systems were marked by poor communications among BP, Transocean, and Halliburton employees regarding the risks associated with decisions being made. The decision making process on the rig was excessively compartmentalized, so individuals on the rig frequently made critical decisions without fully appreciating just how essential the decisions were to well safety—singly and in combination. As a result, officials made a series of decisions that saved BP, Halliburton, and Transocean time and money—but without full appreciation of the associated risks. There were several causes for execution failure that were identified after the accident. First, the cement that BP and Halliburton pumped into to the bottom of the well did not seal off hydrocarbons in the well. This was caused by the engineers changing the plans for the cement job during the effort due to drilling complications that were encountered. As a result, the engineers approved a lower volume of cement to be used in the process. This lower amount of cement resulted in the well not being sealed with a proper amount of cement weight. Second, the cement slurry used in the sealing of the well was poorly designed. Halliburton’s own internal tests showed that the cement mixture was unstable but the company still used the mixture on the Deepwater well. Lastly, the temporary abandonment procedures for the well were finalized at the last minute by BP and required the crew to severely underbalance the well before installing any additional barriers to back up the cement job. Risk Management BP failed to analyze the risk possibilities and plan risk mitigation strategies for the Macondo project. This lack of risk planning and mitigation can be attributed to several factors including: a bias in the oil industry itself which dismissed the possibility of a disaster as monumental as the Deepwater Horizon, a BP management culture which stressed cost savings and time savings in decision making, and a lack of a detailed crisis management plan in an industry whose failures can be monumental. Risk Management and the Oil Industry Bias The Deepwater incident has resulted in a dramatic reassessment of the risks associated with offshore drilling. Before April 20, many in the oil industry felt that drilling was safer in deep than in shallow waters. Since deepwater rigs worked farther off the coast, it would take longer for spilt oil to reach shore, giving more time for intervention to protect the coast. Also, the companies working in the deeper waters were typically the â€Å"big guys† of the oil industry who could afford to utilize more advanced technologies than the smaller firms working near the coast. Therefore, many believed that these companies were more adept at handling challenging conditions with the more technologically advanced equipment. Additionally, there had been no major well blowouts in federal offshore waters since 1970, which made the chances of another one seem remote. Another problem for appropriate risk assessment was the failure to adequately consider published data on recurring problems in offshore drilling. This included powerful â€Å"kicks† of unexpected pressures that sometimes led to a loss of well control, failing blowout preventer systems, and the drilling of relief wells. These problems occurred rarely and were of minor consequence relative to the number of wells in the world. However, these issues demonstrated that wells do not perform in a flawless manner and must be assessed for in risk planning. Additionally, working in the deeper depths of the ocean posed a numerous problems after a loss of well control or a blow out due to failure of the blow out preventer. Before the Deepwater accident, little attention was devoted to containment of a blown out well in the deepwater, largely because its occurrence was considered so unlikely. Therefore, many of the same technologies used for the blow out preventers in shallow water drilling were used in deepwater drilling with little innovation. That is despite the fact that containment problems become much more challenging and real-time decisions become more difficult when working in extreme depths of the ocean. Connecting and maintaining blowout preventers thousands of feet beneath the surface can only be performed by remote-operating vehicles. â€Å"A 2007 article in Drilling Contractor described how blowout preventer requirements got tougher as drilling went deeper, because of low temperatures and high pressures at the ocean bottom. The author discussed taking advantage of advances in metallurgy to use higher-strength materials in the blowout preventers’ ram connecting rods or ram-shafts. More generally, he suggested â€Å"some fundamental paradigm shifts† were needed across a broad range of blowout-preventer technologies to deal with deepwater conditions. † Page 51 pres book All things considered, the oil industry itself was overconfident and somewhat negligent in assessing the need for comprehensive and detailed risk management planning that addressed all facets of possibilities of failure within an oil well. Instead, the industry disregarded many of the possibilities as impossibilities despite the contrary research. This widespread view among the oil industry was reflected in the culture of the BP management and may have influenced some of appeasement with the lack of planning on the Macondo project. Risk Management and Decision Making BP had a tarnished reputation for safety. Among other BP accidents, 15 workers died in a 2005 explosion at its Texas City, Texas, refinery. In 2006, there was a major oil spill from a badly corroded BP pipeline in Alaska. As of April 20, BP and the Macondo well were almost six weeks behind schedule and more than $58 million over budget. BP did not adequately identify or address risks created by last-minute changes to well design and procedures. BP changed its plans repeatedly and up to the very last minute, sometimes causing confusion and frustration among BP employees and rig personnel. ? When BP did send instructions and procedures to rig personnel, it often provided inadequate detail and guidance. ? It is common in the offshore oil industry to focus on increasing efficiency to save rig time and associated costs. But management processes must ensure that measures taken to save time and reduce costs do not adversely affect overall risk. BP‘s management processes did not do so. ? Halliburton appears to have done little to supervise the work of its key cementing personnel and does not appear to have meaningfully reviewed data that should have prompted it to redesign the Macondo cement slurry. ? Transocean did not adequately train its employees in emergency procedures and kick detection, and did not inform them of crucial lessons learned from a similar and recent near-miss drilling incident When the BP engineers were faced with making a decision on the well design, they chose a design with one preventative layer. If the engineers would have put more credence into the high risks associated with deep well drilling, they may have picked a design which encompassed risk mitigation of several layers which prepared for failure. Additionally, by not really putting credence into the possibility of a well blowout, the engineers and BP management negated risk planning for the possibility of the environmental amage which could be caused by such a sizeable well having a blowout. In a case of an uncontrolled blowout, large volumes of oil and gas would be uncontrollably spewed into the environment. Transocean, for instance, was a major contractor for the Macondo well and is the world’s largest operator of offshore oil rigs, including the Deepwater Horizon; Transocean personnel made up the largest number of crew members on the rig at the time of the accident, and 9 of the 11 men who died on April 20 worked for the company. number of the mistakes made on the rig can be directly traced to Transocean personnel, including inadequate monitoring of the Macondo well for problems during the temporary abandonment procedures and failure to divert the mud and gas away from the rig during the first few minutes of the blowout. Project Crisis Management The effort and resources needed to contain and control the blowout of the Macondo well were unprecedented. From April 20, 2010, the day the well blew out, until September 19, 2010, when the government finally declared it dead, BP expended enormous resources to develop and deploy new technologies that eventually captured a substantial amount of oil at the wellhead and, after 87 days, stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The government organized a team of scientists and engineers, who took a crash course in petroleum engineering and, over time, were able to provide oversight of BP, in combination with the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service (MMS). BP had to construct novel devices, and the government had to mobilize personnel on the fly, because neither was ready for a disaster of this nature in such ocean depths. BP initially underestimated the scale of the disaster and overestimated their ability to address it. Therefore, there was little action in the days following the accident that resembled crisis management. Two days after the explosion, BP had mobilized a mere 32 vessels and 4 aircraft. To be in full response capacity, BP needed 205 times the number of vessels and 32 times the number of aircraft initially deployed. It took until nearly Day 80 before BP was a full response capacity. http://strategicppm. wordpress. com/2010/08/03/bps-project-management-of-the-deepwater-disaster/ This understated reaction was driven by the belief that the well was only leaking 5,000 barrels a day. In reality, the well was leaking ten times that amount. At day 31, the government established a public underwater feed and panel of experts to analyze the flow rate. This resulted in all parties becoming fully aware as of the amount of oil leaking from the well and the response effort of BP and the US government continued to increase. BP immediately focused on repairing the failed the blowout preventer for the first ten days after the explosion. BP did not have planned alternatives to address the incident of a blown out well. Therefore, when the blowout preventer could not be repaired, BP had to develop alternate solutions. These solutions were explored sequentially,  rather than in parallel, which caused further delay. The exception to that was the digging of relief wells which take several months to complete. BP did not have any alternate solutions prepared and developed in advance to be deployed immediately during a time of crisis. The facts indicate that BP didn’t understand (or didn’t want to understand) the scale of the project it was involved in. Government Response Failure The failure of the US federal government to react to the Deepwater disaster is comprised of two components- pre-disaster regulatory efforts and post disaster readiness and response preparedness. First, the government organizations which were tasked to regulate the oil industry for safety compliance were not doing their jobs. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) was responsible for approving the disaster plans of the oil companies as well as regulating their actions in the environment with the Environmental Protection Agency. It is now evident that MMS failed miserably in the oversight of the offshore oil industry. The agency’s resources did not keep pace with the oil industry’s expansion into deeper waters and reliance on more demanding technologies. As a result, MMS was not familiar with many of the technologies presented by oil companies and as a result it frequently relented to a lower number of required tests including testing on blow out preventers. Ironically, BP did have an Oil Spill Response Plan for the Gulf of Mexico applicable to the Macondo well in the MMSfiles. The plan identified three different worst-case scenarios that ranged from 28,033 to 250,000 barrels of oil discharge and used identical language to analyze the shoreline impacts under each scenario. Five of the pages were copied from material on NOAA websites and as a result were not specific to the Gulf of Mexico region. As a result, the BP Oil Spill Response Plan described biological resources nonexistent in the Gulf—including sea lions, sea otters, and walruses. Even more troubling, the MMS Gulf of Mexico Regional Office approved the BP plan without additional analysis. There is little evidence that MMS or BP gave any scrutiny to the contents of the Oil Spill Response Plan submitted. However, the MMS Regional Office did adhere to the timeline to review and approve oil-spill response plans within 30 days of their receipt. This lack of emphasis on the content of the response plan surely contributed to the lack of planning on both the part of the government and BP. As a result, when the disaster struck the MMS and the US federal government reacted slowly to the event. For the first couple of weeks the government barely reacted as it thought BP was more prepared and capable to deal with the spill. When it became evident that BP was coming up with solutions on a day to day basis, the government became more involved with the process. MMS was disbanded 19 days into the disaster. The government continued to work with BP and the other parties to find solutions to killing the well as well as manage the economic impact the disaster was having on the Gulf states. All in all it can be assessed that the US federal government was even less prepared than BP itself. Conclusion Based on the mindset and common practices, it was only a matter of time for this kind of accident to occur within the oil industry. An accident, and certainly any disaster, can be considered as a disruptive event. After a disruptive event, anything and everything can change, with serious repercussions. Many disruptive events can be both predicted and planned for. This should be a major element of the risk planning associated with major programs and projects. And disruptive events can have unexpected and significant consequences – in this case, enormous impact on the environment, BP market valuation, BP’s public image and credibility, many other BP projects and people, public perception of both BP and the oil industry itself, and possibly BP survival. The lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon project disaster and the BP Oil Spill will continue to influence the regulation of the oil industry into the future. BP learned that adequate project planning and risk management analysis is essential in the event of a project failure. Additionally, a crisis management plan for an unplanned disaster should always be in place prior to any possibility of occurrence. BP’s $500 million oil prospect development project became a crisis management project which has cost over $100 billion to date. BP will continue to struggle with its public relations image as well as continue to deal with endless lawsuits and environmental and economic claims into the future. BP’s lack of planning, lack of risk management analysis and lack of a crisis management plan in the face of project failure could have resulted in the demise of the company altogether. The Deepwater incident will continue to serve as an example to project managers everywhere that the basic concepts of project management should never be neglected, even when you are one of the largest companies in the world. - Bibliography â€Å"BP’s Project Management of the  Deepwater  Disaster† StrategicPPM. com. 3 August 2010. 28 May 2011 http://strategicppm. wordpress. com/2010/08/03/bps-project-management-of-the-deepwater-disaster/ Cavnar, Bob. Disaster on the Horizon: High Stakes, High Risks, and the Story Behind the Deepwater Well Blowout. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2010. Kuzmeski, Maribeth. â€Å"Pinpointing BP’s Pitfalls: Eight Ways to Reconnect After a Disaster† PM World Today, Vol. XII Issue VII July 2010. 28 May 2011 http://www. pmworldtoday. net/tips/2010/july/Pinpointing-BP-Pitfalls. html Lepsinger, Rick. â€Å"Execution Meltdown: Four Key Failures That Sank BP. † . † PM World Today, Vol. XII Issue VIII August 2010. 28 May 2011 http://www. pmworldtoday. net/tips/2010/aug/Execution-Meltdown. html Maltzman, Rich, et al. â€Å"Green Project Management and the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill. † PM World Today, Vol. XII Issue IX- September 2010. 28 May

A Near Death Experience Essays

A Near Death Experience Essays A Near Death Experience Essay A Near Death Experience Essay How near have you come to deceasing? What value do you put on your ain life? Mary Oliver poses these really deep and challenging inquiries to the reader in her short verse form. ?Alligator Poem. ?In the verse form. the character has an experience in which she comes really close to decease: an alligator walks by her as she drank some H2O out of a river while sitting on a riverside. Oliver describes it in this manner: ?I didn’t understand/I drank up to the really minute it came/crashing toward me/its tail flailing/like a package of swords/slashing the grass/and the interior of its cradle-shaped mouth/gaping/and rimmed with dentitions and/that’s how I about died/of foolishness/in beautiful Florida. ?Clearly she has had a near-death experience. The linguistic communication used in depicting that transition shows true fright: ? tail flailing/like a package of swords/slashing the grass. ? This experience has exposed the character to the really existent possibilities of deceas e. This experience besides was most likely the persona?s foremost near-death experience. Oliver indicates this with the statement ? that?s how I about died/of foolishness/in beautiful Florida. ? People who have many near-death experiences normally ever exercising cautiousness in state of affairss that could be fatal. In this state of affairs. she walked straight up to the river bank and stuck her olfactory organ in. and started imbibing ( ? I didn?t understand/I drank up to the really minute it came? ) . The remainder of the verse form goes on to demo how the character changed and reacted from this near-death experience. She clearly takes a new value for life off from her first near-death experience: ? but about how I rose from the ground/and saw the universe as if for the 2nd time/the manner it truly is. ? The transmutation that she shows after the experience can be attributed to the new value that she places on life. which before the near-death experience was much lower. Most likely. she will exert cautiousness further in the hereafter. Another facet that the character takes off from this experience is her recognition of the life qualities of nature. Oliver explains this with the transition straight after the description of the metempsychosis: ? The H2O. that circle of shattered glass/healed itself with a slow whisper/and lay back/with the back-lit visible radiation of polished steel/and the birds. in the eternal waterfalls of the trees/shook open the snowy plaits of their wings. and drifted off. ?The character now sees populating value of nature. and how it is non simply inanimate objects. but a being merely like us. Before the near-death experience. the character of the verse form was blind to this truism. Unfortunately. it took a turn with decease to expose these facts. but it is every bit of import that she now understands this. This newfound value is already apparent in the persona?s life. Oliver makes certain to demo the persona?s transmutation in concrete inside informations: ? I reached out/I picked the wild flowers from the grass around me/blue stars/and reddish trumpets/on long green stems/for hours in my trembling custodies they glittered/like fire. ? The character picks the flowers and recognize their life qualities. hence the simile to fire in the last line of the verse form. The verse form contains many literary devices that Oliver uses to convey her message in the verse form. The full verse form is a amour propre. or drawn-out metaphor. for a rebirthing procedure. Oliver gives us the sightlessness in the beginning of the verse form ? when the character unwisely walks up to the riverside without any respect for the home ground of the animate beings that live in and around the river ( e. g. the alligator ) . and the possible hazards of an alligator brush ( e. g. decease ) . Next was the near-death experience. as the alligator crossed waies with the character. which caused the transmutation. Finally. the metempsychosis occurs. and the alterations in her life are happening every bit shortly as the metempsychosis happens. Clearly. Mary Oliver illustrates the rebirthing procedure in her verse form Alligator Poem. She attractively demonstrates this procedure with personification. amour propre. and metaphors. She is a great poet. and ?Alligator Poem? is a great illustration of her enormous organic structure of work. Plants Cited Oliver. Mary. Alligator Poem. 50 Great Poems and Short Stories. Random House. 1990.

Operations Decision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Operations Decision - Essay Example The company has got systems and strategies which assist their clients meet their goals and objectives. XYZ Inc. has in the past adopted a partnership approach to ensure that they work closely and optimize customer contact strategies to live their clients satisfied, increased revenue and with advanced competitive advantage. The company has assisted a number of businesses to develop software’s that fits their operations and also get them new markets. With the designed outbound solutions the company helps cover full spectrum of the clients products with the mind that there are the voice of the clients’ products. Evaluation of Performance Through its various products, the company aims ensuring customer satisfaction through well managed reduced costs by optimizing the business process to support clients. XYZ Inc. has also developed mechanisms to help customers adopt those strategies that ensure valuable long term relationship with their clients. All these strategies have hel ped XYZ Inc. to remain on top of the game and high speed expansion to a number of countries across the globe. Environmental scanning involves study and in-depth interpretation of factors such as political, economical, political, social and technological events which impact the performance of a business. The analyses of these factors are very important as they help determine whether the company should remain in operation or not. Some of the political factors which can influence manager’s decision include taxation policy, trade regulations, government stability and unemployment policy. Given that XYZ Inc. operates in many countries the management is always keen about various regulations. The instability in Syria currently influenced the closure of the offices in that country. Economic factors are also very important in influencing management’s decision. Some of these are inflation rate, recession and customer liquidation. These factors usually influence the way performan ce as it dictates the company’s sales. Socio-cultural factors that influence the management’s decision include age distribution, religion, education levels, life expectancies, population, and income level. The social factors are important as it dictates the purchasing power amongst the clients. When the socio-cultural factors are healthy and favorable in an economy then the power of the targeted clients to buy will be higher. Technology is very important given that XYZ Inc. deals a lot in technological related services. It usually dictates whether the company is in a position to meet the client’s needs. Some of the technological factors include technological changes, improved distribution channels, improved communication skills. Finally the legal and environmental factors which can also be important to the management include; health and safety law, product safety law, advertising regulations law and the labor laws. All these factors are very important in influen cing the management’s decisions on either to shut or remain in operation. Total Variable Cost = (Number of Employees X Employees Daily Wage) + Other Variable Costs = (100 X 70) + $2000= $9000 Total Cost = Total Variable Cost  +Total Fixed Cost = $ 9,000+ Fixed Cost Worker Productivity = Units of Output per Day / Number of Employees 6,000 units in 20 days= 6,000/20=300 per day 300/100= 3 Total Profit/Loss = Total Revenue –

Migration from Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico in the 80's Essay

Migration from Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico in the 80's - Essay Example The journey of the Dominican Republic was not an easy one but the fact remains that they were able to reach their destination using some boats by the name â€Å"Yolas†. This essay aims to discuss the Dominican Republics migration to Puerto Rico in the 80’s. (Ferguson and James) To start with, history has it that there is a close link between Dominican Republic and the Puerto Rico since the pre-Columbian times. This happened when the Arawak people who originated from the Amazon basin of South America came and settled in both territories. The fifteenth and the sixteenth century mark the starting point of the problems in the Dominican Republic when Spain conquered Dominican Republic as well as the Puerto Rico. Spain remained in control until the 19th century and during this time there was a gradual constant flow of people in both directions. The bureaucrats, soldiers, clerics, professionals, students, artisans and slaves were flowing to both directions. Precisely, there we re many exiles that moved from the Hispaniola Island of Puerto Rico in 19th century; this was due to political upheavals. (Falcon and Douglas) The political upheavals comprises of Spain cession of the Island to France, Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo and the Haitian Revolution of the 1804’s. ... a result of development swift when the Dominican sugar industry moved to the eastern province of San Pedro de Macoris, La Romana and Puerto Plata which attracted so many interested workers form the Caribbean island as well as Puerto Rico. (Bulmer) From this time the historians continued to document the growing number of the people from Puerto Rico in the Dominican Republic and especially in the 20th century. For instance the census done in Dominican showed that there were six thousand and d sixty nine Puerto Ricans living in the Dominican Republic. The religious affinities, linguistic and cultural likeness made the Dominicans and the Puerto Ricans to intermarry which made their second generation not to term themselves as the Puerto Rican but Dominican. However, the period between 1930 and the 1960 had a very minute number of Puerto Ricans migrating to the Dominican Republic and very few Dominicans migrated to Puerto Rico. In 1940 there was a drastic stop of Puerto Rican to the Domini can Republic. Similarly, there was a strict control coming from the Trujillo regime which made it very hard for the Dominicans to travel and only professionals, entrepreneurs and political exiles were able to move and settle in Puerto Rico. Nevertheless, after the death of Trujillo in 1961, there was a large-scale migration from the Dominican Republic to the Puerto Rico. Research shows that there was a dramatic growth of the Dominican population in Puerto Rico. (Moya and pons) There were two major factors that contributed to the migration of the Dominican Republic especially in the 80s. These comprises of political and economic factors. Firstly, the political factors largely contributed to the Dominicans migration. (Ferguson and James) For example, the earliest migrates were linked to the

Puritan Ideals of Work and Play in Our World Today Essay Example for Free

Puritan Ideals of Work and Play in Our World Today Essay When Columbus landed in the New World in 1492, he changed the world forever. When the Puritans landed in the same New World, they changed the tides of America’s future everlastingly as well. They brought with them many ideas that are still being used today. The Puritan work ethic was a huge portion of the beliefs carried by the community; it was the idea that all members should strive to do as much as they could for the community, and all should work to gain God’s favor. The Puritans’ idea of duty before self-fulfillment was another evident notion every Puritan held. They believed that everyone should do their obligations first and foremost before anything else. The life of a puritan was full of hard work which was done willingly to gain the favor of God and of the community, and contained the concept of fulfilling each person’s individual responsibilities and then only partaking in activities which where self-fulfilling; in our modern society we volunteer and each member of the family is given duties to complete, similarly to the jobs the Puritans held 100’s of years ago. In the Puritan world everything revolved around God. He was the cornerstone for every action they took. For them, one way to get redemption from the sins that they had committed was to work and toil for God and the people around them. In the Puritan era people helped one another, not for the chance to gain a reward, but a chance to gain favor amongst themselves, strangers and God. As William Bradford states, â€Å"But when he grew weak, they had compassion on him and helped him,† this refers to the time when the new colonists helped the sick sailors who had brought them there (Bradford 21). They did this just for the sake of helping others and in doing so gained more of God’s favor. This work ethic inspired the generations of people who followed, and created the standards for American work ethic, which are still being used today. In modern day America, people volunteer at a variety of places to help the poor, needy or injured. My parents when they had just got married spent quite a while at an orphanage in India to help the poor kids there, and I actively volunteer at Mercy Medical to help the sick and injured. Neither my parents nor I had to do so, but it gave us a sense that we were benefiting our communities. Like us, many people in America and the world help others, making the world a better place with every helpful hand. Just as the puritans strived to do work, they also strived to do work which was necessary, even if they did not relish it. For instance when given the choice between trimming tree to make it look better, or helping the neighbor sow his crops, most Puritan’s would choose the later. They had the notion to do your duty first, and all else came afterwards. The Puritan’s believed that the woman of the household should be a good mother and wife first and all else came second. In the same household a man should be a good husband for his wife and a supportive father of his children. In the community, there is not one person who does not have some sort of duty. In Anne Bradstreet’s poem To My Dear and Loving Husband, she describes her love for her husband as his wife, â€Å"I prize thy love more than mines of gold or all the riches the East doth hold (Bradstreet 35). Bradstreet made it quite clear that she was a wife before anything else, being a poet came afterwards. Many of her other poems are about family and hers sense of duty toward them. Puritan’s strove to make their children’s lives better, and by being responsible they entailed their kid to do so as well. In modern day America, every member of the household has a specific task that they must do. An example of this is my family, where my parents both maintain their jobs, while tending to the household chores of cooking, cleaning, etc. while my brother and I both do our jobs of doing well in school, while helping our parents where we can. Whether Puritan or modern day American, or Indian in my case, the idea is the same, everyone has tasks they need to do to maintain a functioning household. The Puritan work ethic simply entails that, only after all the work that is needed to be finished is done, should a person partake in other activities or chores. In the Puritan lifestyle family was important; to maintain a good family all the members of it needed to be diligent of their du ties. When someone volunteers in today’s world they are doing more work to make their society better, when the Puritans did extra hard work they tried to make their community better, and to have a better standing with God. The Puritan’s also did their duty to the best of their ability, and each member of the family functioned together to get their work finished. Both the Puritans and Modern day Americans were partook in hard work and were consistent with their duties to improve their community, and make it a better place for all to live in. All we have to do is maintain these standards in the future, do you think we can?