Drama Performance Evaluation

In our most recent performance we created a play called “The Streets” In this my characters friend dies as he is shot by my brother. I have to show sadness towards his death during the slow motion reaction scene whilst also being shocked. When the scene comes to life I have to use body language and facial expression to show that at the same time. I am upset that my brother has shot my friend and that he took his to dislike towards him that far. Whilst being panicked and anxious, because I don’t know how to deal with the grief. I am searching for help, with my desperate pleas, but nobody is around to help me, as they are all in the same situation as my character. Everybody is dealing with same emotions.

I think the piece was effective as the music throughout would have set the mood and atmosphere as the music is quite calming and relaxing, which contrasts with the harshness of the death. Also the “gangs” reaction is contrasted when they refuse to help him, and then later regret this decision. The sorrow begins to set in, the community will never be the same, as every single persons character is connected in some way to Tom. Whether that’s his friend, family or just someone who knew his family. We are all deeply affected by what has happened. During this performance we touch on the themes of domestic abuse, lies, relationships and drugs. The mood of the play stays the same throughout.

As I was a gang member I had to change how I walked, the way I talked and my overall attitude and reactions to things to make it believable. I walked with a lisp, spoke in slang and reacted as if I thought that I was better than everyone else and that I could beat the all if it came to a fight. These are all the ways that I changed my character from my personality to get a higher mark. Of course costume was another factor to help me get in character.

Overall I think that as a whole class we did very well, people remembered their cues and lines. Everyone knew what the next scene was. People used facial expressions to convey how they were feeling to the audience. And body language was used to make characters believable. Although of course there were some bad points, people lost focus and came out of character, people mimed actions and they were looking at the teacher whenever she didn’t get the lighting or music cues right. People also talked in between scenes.

I would grade myself at a merit, as although it was effective towards the end, I lost my focus and it wasn’t clear as to who I was. As I became my comfortable with the audience being there then I began to become myself more and more towards the end of the performance which would obviously pull my grade down from a distinction.

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Understanding High Street Performance

There has been much development and change in Dartford after the eighteenth century. One of the many reasons for this is the growth of industry and the manufacture of the railway, this town has gone from being solely from being a market-town and coaching post to developing more towards industry. The High Street has changed a lot since the nineteenth century in terms of functions, shops, conditions, etc. There are many ways of finding out what it used to be like, including sources, the census, and the existing buildings. There are six main buildings in Dartford high street which I am studying.

These buildings are generally quite simple to put a rough date to them. The rough date that we can confidently give these buildings is that they are from the Georgian era, with a couple also being from the Victorian era. Some of these buildings, such as the Bull’s Head yard building have certain features about it which can help give details about the actual street and its functions, not just the building. The Bulls Head yard building has a pulley system attached to it, which could suggest a warehouse and cart way on the other hand this does not necessarily mean that the street had many carts going over it.

Although, source C (the engraving of Dartford high street), suggests that carts were common in Dartford high street. Moreover, the Bull and Victoria Hotel gives some evidence to suggest that coaches were popular in Dartford as well. We can see this because the entrance is fairly wider than it would normally be for an ordinary building or hotel, therefore suggesting that this building could have been a coach house. So overall, although the buildings show individual purpose and use, they in themselves, do not necessarily show what the high street was like in the 1800s.

The strengths of this source are that this report gives detailed information on the conditions of Dartford High Street concerning matters of hygiene and sanitation. It is an official enquiry by the General Board of Health and written by William Ranger; therefore, it must have some reliability. It was also written in the nineteenth century so Ranger would have known exactly what it was like. The report implies that Dartford is not a very prosperous town, saying things like ‘The general character of this place is such that humans ought not to be allowed to occupy it. This tells us that the area being described has very poor sanitary conditions. The report therefore contrasts with Dunkin’s description of a wealthy, aesthetically-pleasing town. There are also weaknesses to the report. Firstly, it only focuses on Clark’s alley rather than the High Street itself and therefore it does not directly tell us about the High Street. Furthermore, only the conditions are described, rather than other aspects such as its function and people.

Also, as the report was written for the Board of health, it describes the worst case scenario of the conditions of the High Street so that the Board of Health would know where to improve-due to the government Public Health Act of 1848, people were hired to report on the sanitary conditions of places. Dunkin’s history of Dartford is a detailed description of Dartford. It was written in 1844. Due to the fact that it is a book, it could be said that there were bias motives for writing it, as there is an advertising side to it, not just an informative side.

This is because the source comes across a bit like a brochure, which means that Dunkin could be promoting Dartford and its shops in particular since he himself owned one. So this could be seen as not very helpful in gaining an understanding of Dartford High Street. Although, Dunkin was a local man which means that he should know what he is talking about. Moreover, he was also a historian, which also means that he uses factual information, and has researched what he was writing. The reliability of the source could be questionable, as it doesn’t actually tell us a lot of information about the function or look of the buildings themselves.

The report to the general board of health was an official document which means that the likeliness of the report being bias is very low. This source contradicts Dunkin’s view of the appearance and prosperity of the high street saying how it may be incorrect. It gives information on what life may have been like for the ordinary working people in Dartford. However, it is a limited discussion regarding the appearance of the high street itself. It refers more to the alleys and side streets than the high streets.

Peter Boreham was a historian who relatively recently wrote an overview of Dartford for the book ‘Dartford Through Time’. The strengths of Boreham’s account are that the fact that Boreham was a historian gives this source reliability due to the fact that his aim would have been to report the truth, as that was his job. He also has the advantage of hindsight and neutrality, as he was not there at the time. Boreham describes the function of the High Street in his account when he talks of “Dartford’s role as a shopping centre”; this tells us that shopping was one of the High Street’s major functions.

This is supported by the evidence from the census which says that 30% of all of the jobs in the High Street were as shopkeepers. In fact, Boreham probably used the census in order to obtain this information. We can tell from Boreham’s account that he has used other sources, including the census as mentioned previously, when writing this. For example, he says: “Housing conditions… were atrocious. ” This is probably based on Ranger’s report to the Board of Health which states a similar thing.

He also writes how the shop windows are “tightly packed with as many goods as possible” which could refer to when Dunkin writes about “handsome shops, well stocked with a choice assortment of goods tastefully displayed”; as well as referring to the photographs mentioned. The wide range of sources used adds reliability to the account, as it means that he has not just used a narrow perspective of the High Street but has considered many points of view. The book Boreham wrote was written for schoolchildren in 1990. Therefore, in order to provide the right information to the children, he would have had to have made it as accurate as possible.

However, the weaknesses are that Boreham was not there at the time and therefore did not know for sure exactly what the High Street was like. In addition to this, the book was published by Dartford Borough Council and therefore they might have edited it in favour of Dartford. Also, Boreham’s account was aimed at secondary school pupils so it might not include all of the information in order to make it more interesting or easier to understand. Furthermore, Boreham’s source lacks detail and can only give us an approximate overview of the function of Dartford, rather than a detailed description.

Although Boreham used some sources, there are some which he did not use. For example, the engraving was probably not used, as he does not describe the appearance of the High Street. Therefore, we do not know what other important information he has left out. Overall, Peter Boreham’s source gives a reasonably reliable overview of Dartford High Street in the mid-nineteenth century, which uses a wide range of sources to help give us an idea of some of the functions and buildings of Dartford High Street at that time. The engraving of Dartford high street was done in 1860.

It is a Detailed engraving which gives a clear and complete view of the high street itself, and also a large range of buildings. It gives great detail on the appearance of the buildings, showing all the architectural styles of the buildings, such as Tudor, Georgian, and early Victorian architectural styles are all visible. Although it gives great detail on the appearance of the buildings and the high street, it doesn’t give a lot of detail towards the actual functions of the high street in the mid nineteenth century.

However, it does show some basic information which can help us gain an understanding of what Dartford high street was like, such as in the engraving, we can clearly see carts and carriages in the street. This shows, as mentioned in previous sections, that carts and coaches were popular in the high street, which is backed up by the image of the Bull and Victoria Hotel. Also, some other functions are visible, these include: trade, shopping, and transport. From this engraving, we can also see evidence of prosperity in Dartford.

This is made apparent by the obvious wide open ‘airy’ streets’, the fashion, street lighting, and it is obviously clean. We don’t, however, know who drew this engraving, which means that it could actually be very unreliable, or it could be reliable. Overall, although it doesn’t give detailed evidence of the high street, it does give sufficient evidence of the functions, appearance and prosperity of the high street to give us a rough understanding of what Dartford high street was like in the mid nineteenth century.

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Financial performance of Skechers Inc

This paper is an evaluation of the financial performance of Skechers Inc.. This company is incorporated in the US and quoted on the NYSE. It is a designer and marketeer of its branded footwear for men, women and children under 8 different lines.

This evaluation will not only determine the financial performance of the company over a period of time but also bring to light the key factors involved in it.

COMPANY OVERVIEW:

Skechers came into existence in 1992 when Robert Greenberg who also founded LA Gear was ousted from the LA Gear board. It is headquartered on Manhattan Beach, California USA. Robert Greenberg along with his son as a distributor launched their first shoe line which comprised of  utility styled boots and suede skate shoes. Initially it only distributed within the US , however later they made their prescence felt worldwide i.e. distributing in countries as diverse as Hong-Kong, Brazil and Italy.

Later on they diversified into various styles of footwear stretching from Sneakers to Athletic shoes and also launched many lines of apparel which  comprise mostly of T-shirts. Some of their famous brands being SOHO Lab, Rhino Red, 310 Motoring, BEBE Sportswear.

Over the years many well known celebrities have signed endorsements with them for instance Britney Spears, Ashlee Simpson. In 2009 former American Idol winners Carrie Underwood and David Cook also signed an endorsement deal with Skechers which will continue throughout the year.

Skechers Inc. is a relatively new company as compared to some of its competitors for instance Nike Inc. which is more than 30 years old.

Although Nike is a much bigger company also but Skechers has done quite well in shorter p of time and has given Nike and many others stiff competition over the years.( Skechers Inc., n.d.)

Skechers’ Inc. has increased its working capital from $ 450. 8 million in 2006 to $ 523. 9 billion in 2007. The Cash Conversion Cycle in 2006 was 78 days however in 2007 it improved to 66 days. The CCC has seen a considerable improvement although receivables, payables and inventory levels remained much the same in 2007. The reason is the increase in business activity i. e. the increase in revenue and the subsequent increase in cost of sales.

Skechers’ operating cycle also improved , as we discussed above that inventory turnover has improved in 2007 ; talking in days it has reduced from above 100 days in 2006 to 94 days in 2007. High number of inventory turnover days are also not a good sign since it might expose the company to future losses incase inventory prices fall. As for Skechers Inc. their inventory levels have remained the same as last year, efforts should be made to reduce them in future periods besides increasing business activity.

Days Receivables Outstanding have also reduced in 2007 to 47 days as compared to 56 days in 2006. This shows that Skechers has put in efforts to improve debt collection Days Payables Outstanding were also quite high in 2006 at 86 days which got reduced in 2007 to 75 days. Although this is still quite high and management should make efforts to ensure that liabilities are paid off timely because delay in payments to suppliers can damage their relationship with the suppliers which could ultimately prove detrimental for the company.

 

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Scope and Aims of Performance Measurement Practices

This study provides empirical evidence on performance measures practices in Jordanian industrial companies. It identifies the type and extent of usage of a broad set of financial and non-financial measures. The results indicate that Jordanian companies place more emphasis currently on non-financial measures such as customer response time, on-time delivery, customer retention, employee training, number of new product launches and defect rates. Although Jordanian companies place more emphasis on the use of performance measures to evaluate organisational and managerial performance, they also use them for other reasons.

The results also indicate that Jordanian industrial companies still operate under significant institutional and government controls. Keywords: Performance measurement diversity; Non-financial performance measures, Medium and large Industrial companies; Developing country; Jordan. Scope and Aims of Performance Measurement Practices: Evidence from Jordan Introduction Performance measurement is an important management control tool for business firms in the currently competitive environment.

It is directly related to the formation of a firm’s core competency and has a significant impact on the firm’s growth (Xiong, Su & Lin, 2008). Different definitions for performance measurement system (PMS) exist. Neely (1994) defines PMS as the set of metrics used to quantify both the efficiency and effectiveness of actions (cited in Neely, Gregory & Platts, 2005, p. 1229). In respect to performance measurement, Marshall, Wray, Epstein and Grifel (1999) define performance measurement as a development of indicators and collection of data to describe and analyse performance.

To be more precise, performance measurement refers to the use of a multi-dimensional set of performance measures. This set of measures is multi-dimensional if it includes both financial and non-financial performance measures. Both internal and external measures of performance are included and both measures quantify what has been achieved. These measures are used to help predict the future (Bourne, Neely, Mills & Platts, 2003, p. 3). However, Neely et al (2005, p. 1229) define performance measures as a metric used to quantify the efficiency and/or effectiveness of an action.

The usage of performance measures has two dimensions: the level of use or the frequency of use-that is the focus of this study-and the manner of use. The level and manner of performance measurement use relate respectively to an organisation’s quantity and quality of application of the measures (Braam ; Nijssen, 2004). Improving the PMS is one of management accounting’s major roles. However, an effective PMS should include the traditional financial measures and cost-accounting measures used by senior management and also the tactical-performance measures that are used in evaluating a firm’s current level of performance (Chen, 2008).

Most of the empirical research that has focused on issues related to these measurements has overlooked the use of a non-financial dimension of PMS. In this context, Stivers, Covin, Hall and Smalt (1998) argued that although we know much about the use of financial measures, our knowledge of non-financial performance measures is limited. Performance measures usage differs from one managerial purpose to another (Ittner, Larcker ; Randallb, 2003). Veen-Dirks (2010) argued that performance measurement literature pays little attention to the purposes for using performance measures.

Thus, Franco-Santos et al. (2007) emphasised the importance of researches clarifying the different roles that performance measures play in the firms they were investigating. Franco-Santos (2007) argued that the importance of the relative benefits that firms obtain through using financial and non-financial performance measures has been of particular interest in management accounting research. The role of management accounting in Jordanian companies has become increasingly important and critical in providing management with appropriate information for decision-making.

Knowledge about how Jordanian companies design and use accounting systems is limited. This is because previous accounting research “… has focused on developed countries particularly Europe and northern America, while Jordan (and the Middle Eastern region) has been neglected despite recent changes in its economic and accounting regulatory environments” (Al-Akra, Ali ; Marashdeh, 2009, p. 164). Therefore, Jordan and other developing countries in the Middle East are in need of further studies to examine accounting systems such as PMS.

However, previous research conducted in Jordan (Zuriekat, 2007; Hawamdah, 2006; Hutaibat, 2005) indicated that Jordanian companies do use multiple performance measures both financial and non-financial. These studies, however, did not identify the relevant performance measurement instruments or measures in the context of Jordan or other developing countries. This paper extends previous research by building an appropriate multiple performance measurement instrument relevant to the Jordanian business environment.

All the above arguments justify the need for this study which seeks to contribute to the development of knowledge in the field of PMS in Jordan as a developing country and to set out the basis for establishing key performance measures (Ahmad ; Dhafr, 2002) in Jordanian industrial companies and to encourage further research in the area. This study extends the previous performance measurement literature by investigating two issues related to performance measurement, namely, extent of use, and the purposes of use.

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Performance Appraisal Critique Essay

Performance appraisal is a process of identifying, observing, measuring and developing human performance in organizations and has attracted the attention of both academicians and practitioners. The process is also viewed as making an important contribution to effective human resource management as it is closely interlinked to organizational performance. Performance appraisal is a management tool that helps management in its drive towards optimizing performance, primarily individual performance and therefore, organization performance now and in the future. The aim of performance appraisal can be achieved through assessing how effectively employees are working in their present jobs and what they need to do and know to perform even better . Gupta defines performance appraisal as a process of assessing the performance and progress of an employee or of a group of employees on a given job and his potential for future development.

He further argues that performance appraisal consists of all formal procedures used in work organizations to evaluate personalities, contributions and potentials of employees. (Torrington et al. 2005), define performance appraisal as a system that provides a formalized process to review the performance of employees. Performance appraisal varies between organizations and covers personality, behavior or job performance and it can be measured quantitatively or qualitatively. Performance appraisal involves unstructured narrative on performance of the appraiser. Political behaviors in an organization consist of actions that are taken by individuals or group (Mintezberg, 1983). Their direction is pointed toward the goal of one’s own self-interest without focusing on regard for the humans and others in the organization.

These actions are informal and are considered a part of an organization’s culture, help to maintain interpersonal relationships. As Mayes and Allen noted, that the actions can implement a dynamic power of influence. When this influence is practiced within organizational boundaries, the behaviors are not considered political. Self-promotion and ingratiation are considered to be examples of political behavior in the workplace include .

Self-promotion actions are mostly proactive. Their purpose is to earn the attention, to build an image of oneself as a competent committed employee. Ingratiation behaviors are less proactive then self-promotion. They emphasis on “attention- giving” to a targeted person or persons relative to “attention is getting” from others. A recent study found that politically skilled employees who were involved in ingratiatory behavior toward their supervisors were not only graded positively by them, they were subsequently rewarded for doing this .

In fact, career success is typically affected by an ability to make accept others that one has the necessary skills needed to perform higher level jobs effectively (Rafaeli, Dutton, Harquail, & Mackie-lewis, 1997). Self-promotion is one important way to do this. Affective commitment refers to an emotional attachment. Employee beliefs and values regarding their job and role in the organization measure their organizational commitment (Swailes, 2012).

Affective Organizational commitment is the measure of employee’s identification with the mission and values of the organization perspectives  and supervisor. It is the commitment approach that provides a clearer and more focused scale of organizational commitment (Jaros, 1997) . In addition, recent measures of organizational commitment are attitudinal , and the build validity of affective (attitudinal) commitment is provided support . With strong supervision from their current employers the level of employee knowledge understanding and their commitment level in operations will be higher (Okpara, 2014).

Process in evaluating the performance of employees is one of the most important determinants of organizational justice . Affective organizational commitment is beneficial to the employee as well. Employees that have affective commitment at their higher levels, experience less stress levels even if they work for longer and harder hours than those not committed.

Affective commitment helps in employee’s motivation (Meyer & Allen, 1997) and low downs psychological physical, work-related stress .Employees are committed to the organization, their jobs and careers exists comfortable, and are able to spend more quality time to their families and hobbies (Reilly & Orsak, 1991). The employee’s commitment is the perception of employees procedures used to evaluate their performance is fair . Further review in the literatures indicates that fair practices in human resource management, particularly in terms of performance appraisal has a predictive role in the employees’ attitude such as the organization’s commitment .

Performance appraisal is viewed as an important mechanism for changing employees’ attitude and behaviors such as affective commitment . Moreover, a study by (Tam 1996) indicates that the commitment of government employees is higher in the federal government agencies that implement a fair and transparent assessment.In our study the psychological attachment of the employee with the organization i.e. organizational commitment .

It can be due to the comfort level with the current organization, cost and fear associated with leaving of the organization and joining the other and social disruption caused by new acquaintances in the new environment and leaving the old ones. This particular component which is the need component is known as effective commitment. It may also be due to the feeling that after joining the organization the employee is ought to be loyal and faithful to it (Bruckner 2002). This sense of obligation towards the organization is also termed as the normative commitment. The attachment of the employee can be due to some emotional reasons by which the employees identify him with the goal of the organization. This shows that the employee is affectively committed towards the organization .

There can be many antecedents of organizational commitment as suggested by  who after investigating a state owned IT industry in Malta, Europe indicated that the employees with lesser educational qualification, having a higher position in the organizational hierarchy and with lesser ambiguity in the role performed, with lower role conflict and positive impact of overall state of roles played within an organization are more committed to their organization. It increases all the normative, continuance commitment and affective components of the organizational commitment.

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High-Performance Team

Not all groups are always successful in meeting their objectives. A group or team which constantly achieves its goals and which consists of team members working for the common goal is said to be high performing. For a team to be high-performance, it should have the characteristics needed to succeed. Any group can become a high-performance team if the group members are willing to contribute as a part of the team. Each member should be aware that a high-performance team is “maximized for performance in productivity and effectiveness” .

Also, members must know that if they are pitted against each other due to factors such as compensation, organizational structure and competing goals, the group can never become a high-performance team. To avoid this, the team’s structure must support the members’ unity and working relationship. Furthermore, each member must share goals and rewards for achieving the goals. And more importantly, each member should know the impact that one member can contribute to the team .

A team can be called as such if there are two or more members, resources  which include time, money, materials, and many others – and a common goal. Teams are built with specific tasks, such as making decisions for the organization . Members in a group must cooperate and depend on each other in order to complete the task. Also, a team can be dissolved in a matter of months. Other teams extend, while some become permanent in an organization. A team can be high performing depending on certain factors.

Having a high-performance team, whether at school or workplace, is necessary in achieving goals and creating significant change. According to experts at team building, a high-performance team is “highly adaptive, difficult to build, expensive to maintain, and glorious to behold”. A high-performance team is not as easy as finding members to form a group. Nearly every person has experienced being a member of a team. It is interesting to note that maintaining a high-performance team is indeed a very challenging task even for an experienced leader . There are complex tasks that a high-performance team needs to do, and leaders must know how to facilitate the team so that it can become successful in meeting its objectives. A high-performance team knows how to balance team leadership skills, purpose and process, measures and outcomes, and team relationships. Furthermore, a high-performance team facilitates effective communication between the leader and the team members in a way that leads to stronger relationships and greater trust.

Trust, respect, and support are the primary characteristics that set a high-performance team apart from other groups . Trust is necessary in creating a good working atmosphere. Trust indicates that each member believes that every person in the team can do his tasks in a timely and professional manner and can contribute to the success of the team. In a high-performance team, members must be coached in the need to support and trust each other. Respect for members and mutual respect for their ability, meanwhile, is as important in creating and maintaining a successful team.

Respect is necessary in maintaining the strong relationships in the team. Also, support indicates that members should keep an eye on their teammates and must be willing to lend a hand when help is needed. Furthermore, team members should actively encourage each other especially when one member needs it. Aside from all these, members of a high-performance team should continue to strive to improve quality, whether in their teamwork or output. Members are also aware that being in a high-performance team means that they are able to maximize their performance and productivity.

Above all else, a high-performance team unvaryingly achieves results in tune with the set goals (MDA Leadership Consulting, Inc. , 2009). A high-performance team will not work without a team leader, whose role is very important in managing the whole team. For a leader to be effective, he or she must know how to properly and effectively allocate resources to match the members and their skills with the roles and responsibilities appropriate for them. Furthermore, a leader should know the importance of the whole team being strong and flexible even with the absence of one member.

Other characteristics of a high-performance team include the following: participative leadership, task focused, aligned on purpose, problem solving, responsive, innovative, shared responsibility, and communicative (Traut, n. d. ). With everything becoming modernized, there are many factors which can affect the team and team dynamics. One of these is globalization, a process wherein people, governments and companies are integrated (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, n. d. ). In the aspect of business, globalization is beneficial as it increases “corporate profits and power” .

In response to this, globalization can affect the performance of the team in such a way that members may become more concerned about working for the money, thus neglecting the more important tasks needed to succeed in the team. There were also declarations which suggest that globalization leads to the understanding of other cultures. But on the other end of the spectrum, reports showed that the “freedoms granted by globalization are leading to increased insecurity in the workplace. ” In addition, those who are pro-human rights agree that the corporate power that globalization brings limits individual freedom . Furthermore, globalization in business indicates that team members are assigned at different locations. As globalization led to the rise in information technology, more and more people tend to choose to telecommute and using off-site consultants, thus meetings are more dispersed.

References

  1. Adventureworks. (n. d. ). Adventureworks partners with organizations to build high performance teams. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. adventureworks. com/corporate-team-building/index. html
  2. Bodwell, D. J. (n. d. ). High performance teams. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://highperformanceteams. org/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (n. d. ).
  3. What is globalization? Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. globalization101. org/What_is_Globalization. html? PHPSESSID=3d695e214a624bf57a17b23fde49dfee
  4. Center for Creative Leadership. (2001). What is a team? Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. ccl. org/leadership/pdf/publications/whatTeam. pdf
  5. DeFranco-Tommarello, J. , and F. P. Deek. (2002). Collaborative software development: A discussion of problem solving models and groupware technologies.
  6. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. hicss. hawaii. edu/HICSS_35/HICSSpapers/PDFdocuments/CLUSR13. pdf
  7. E-encyclopedia. (2000). Globalisation: What on Earth is it about? BBC News. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/711906. stm Gerhardt, P. (2006).
  8. What are high performance teams? LeadershipSuccess Productions, Inc. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. paulgerhardt. com/teambuilding/High_Performance_Teams. htm Kellner, D. (n. d. ).
  9. Globalization and the postmodern turn. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. gseis. ucla. edu/courses/ed253a/dk/GLOBPM. htm
  10. MDA Leadership Consulting, Inc. (2009). High performance team development. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. mdaleadership. com/Services/high-performance-team-development. asp
  11. Traut, T. R. (n. d. ). Characteristics of high performance teams. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from http://www. themanager. org/HR/High_Performance_Teams. htm

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Proposal To Provide Performance Improvement Consultancy Services To Tk Maxx

Table of contents

This proposal to provide performance improvement consultancy services to TK MAXX is in response to the request of the Director of Human Resource Management of TK MAXX, Mr. Robert Daniels, in a “Request for Proposal” letter dated January 15, 2007 (Ref. No. TKM-LTR-HR-07-023) to CAYAE Continental Consultants.

INTRODUCTION

We are the proud CAYAE Continental Consultants—a performance management consultancy based in Los Angeles, California. We have been in the industry for more than 20 years. Our coverage of operation is within North America, Europe and Latin America.

Among our top performance management consultancy services are listed below (these are derived from the Management Services Body of Knowledge (IMS)):

  1. Quality Management (total quality management, statistical quality control, benchmarking, compliance, organization culture, appraisal techniques)
  2. Management Control (cost control, energy management, financial accounting and management, activity-based planning and costing, materials control, procedure audit, operations planning and control, risk analysis, performance measurement and control, conformance to regulations.
  3. Business transformation (corporate business strategy and planning, organization and methods, organization development, business process engineering, process management, automated work distribution and management
  4. Human resource management (communication, health and safety, payment systems and incentives, industrial relations, manpower planning, motivation work and job design, work organization, job evaluation, investor sin people) With our wide scope of specialization, we can provide specific areas of improvement to TK MAXX organization.

UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS OF TK MAXX

In the initial meeting of the designated performance consultant of CAYAE, Mr. Alberto Sanchez, with Mr. Robert Daniels, an initial assessment of the current situation of some problem areas of TK MAXX was undertaken with inputs coming mostly from Mr. Daniels but not from any one the actual people involved in identified organizational problem areas. The following were found to be the current issues and problems in certain areas of the organization:

  1. Tight budget for staf
  2. Location (retail park, not high street… ie high street have more sales than retail park)
  3. Untrained staff (lengthy training process)
  4. Over-ringing
  5. Managing staff (around three departments, over 10 people)

It was further learned that TK MAXX is engaged in the retail industry and specializes in the selling of clothing, accessories, toys, and furniture. TK MAXX provides discount rates to cheap designer wears particularly on buy bulk purchases and after seasonal occasions, like, Christmas.

SCOPE OF WORK

After carefully studying the current issues/problems of TK MAXX, CAYAE proposes the following actions to undertake under each identified issue/problem along with the identified actions to be taken by TK MAXX indicated in the Table below. CAYAE Continental Consultants has been in the management consultancy business for more than 20 years. The main strength of CAYAE is its people—professional, dedicated, commitment, and honest, and trustworthy.

Another strength of CAYAE is its affiliation with professional organizations, like, the: Institute of Management Consultants USA, Inc. (ICMCI), International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), American Society for Quality (ASQ), and American Management Association (AMA). What is significant with our corporate membership with these respected organizations is that we internalize and practice their respective codes and professional ethics and integrate them directly or indirectly with ours.

A performance consultant is one who practices a “disciplined approach to assessing individual; and organizational effectiveness, diagnosing causes of human performance problems, and recommending a set of interventions. The approach is based on a body of knowledge about organizational and human performance. The outcome is [an] advice on how to improve organizational and people performance” (Hale, 1998, p. 9).

References

  1.  AMA. American Management Association. http://www. amanet. org/ (February 23, 2007). http://www.imcusa.org/

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