Improving service productivity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Improving service productivity - Essay Example So, a higher ratio indicates higher productivity. Compared to manufacturing industries, it is much difficult to measure productivity in services industries, especially those that are enabled by Information Technology. (Saari, 2006) Yet, management gurus have identified a few proven techniques for improving service productivity, which are discussed below. One way of improving service productivity is by applying operations-driven strategies. This entails reducing costs and wastage of resources, setting production capacities to meet demands, computerizing mechanical or routine tasks, upgrading systems to latest standards, re-training employees to adapt to upgraded systems, expanding the range of tasks that an employee can perform, redesigning service process where applicable, etc. All of these improvements in operations will lead to overall improvement in service productivity. (www.slideshare.net, 2011) There is another approach to increasing service productivity, which is via Customer- driven strategies. The first component of these strategie is to â€Å"change the timing of customer demand†. The rationale is that â€Å"by shifting demand away from peaks, managers can make better use of firm's productive assets and provide better service†. (www.slideshare.net, 2011) Similarly, involving customers in the production process is also helpful.

Rose For Emily :: essays research papers

In â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, William Faulkner tells a story about a young women who is overwhelmingly influenced by her father. Her father controls her live and makes all of her decisions for her. Without him she could not do anything except stay at home. When her father dies, Emily has to confront a new life without her sponsor. Since she is not able to function without the presence of her father, it is hard for her to adapt and accept the truth. When Emily’s father dies, women of the town call on her to offer their help, which is their custom when someone suffers a tragic loss. Emily denies that as she meets them in front of her house with no emotion in her face. She sends them away as she considers her father still alive instead of being death. Her father controls all over her life; therefore, she couldn’t accept the death of her father. In her thought, her father still exists in her house and he is the only one source that she can support to.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It’s time for her to make her decision herself. She spends majority of her time in the house where she feels comfortable and where her father still exists and protects her. She decides to live herself in the house regardless of changes outside in the world. She could not escape from her father’ ghost shadow. Everything changes; nevertheless, she still lives with the past. For example, when a new age of city authorities in town visit her house in order to collect taxes they feel she own; she explains that: â€Å"I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.† Yes, it is true; however, colonel Sartoris has been dead almost for ten years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are two characters in this story described opposite to each other. They are Miss Emily and Mr. Homer. Miss Emily is described as a short, fat, aged and mysterious woman. She is very stubborn lady and very hard to change; Miss Emily refuses modern change into her desolate life; for example, she refuses to allow attaching numbers on her door and a mailbox for free mail service. All her attitude is a result of her father’s over-control her when she was very young. On the other hand, Homer is â€Å" a Yankee- a big dark, ready man, with big voice and eyes lighter the his face.

The Great Gatsby- East Egg vs. West Egg

East Egg versus West Egg East Egg and West Egg are â€Å"identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay †¦ They are not perfect ovals †¦ but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size. â€Å"(9) In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates different worlds, where many different people live amongst each other. The areas of East Egg and West Egg in Long Island find isolation not just geographically, â€Å"separated only by a courtesy bay† (9), but more significantly in the way the two societies contrast. Along with East and West Egg, Fitzgerald creates another symbol where a dark and lifeless community lives: the Valley of Ashes, â€Å"a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air† (22,4. With vivid settings Fitzgerald creates for the audience, the audience is able to connect with the settings at a more personal level and receive more insight about the characters to establish a full understanding of them. East Egg is home to the fashionable group of social elite, also known as â€Å"old money† or people who have always had money. Tom and Daisy represent the ‘old establishment', having lived with money their whole lives. Daisy is very materialistic and is consumed with being associated with her ‘social class'. These people are shallow and lack any moral principles. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together. † They are careless and selfish, which is exemplified through Jordan Baker. Jordan Baker is a professional golfer who thinks so highly of herself. She feels people should be careful of her when she drives. The society of East Egg are ruthless. Although these are clearly people who live to please themselves, the West Eggers constantly envy and imitate them. Throughout the novel it seems the West Eggers are trying to fit in with the East and be ccepted by the East Eggers. West Eggers are the newly rich; the people who have worked hard and earned their money in a short period o f time. Their wealth is epitomized on material possessions. Gatsby, like the West Eggers, lacks the traditions of the East Eggers. He is considered ‘new money', in the sense that his wealth came to him more recently through his own success. Although Gatsby is now a part of this class, his faith and belief in the success of his dreams has allowed him to preserve some morality. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, lives in West Egg and exhibits honesty in this place of superficiality. Clearly the West is able to preserve some ethics while the East is not able to grasp any. Although West Egg is the more moral, it is still a place of superficiality and materialism. Daisy, Tom, Nick, Jordan, and Gatsby all move to the east, where they move from a world of values to a moral vacuum, represented by the â€Å"valley of ashes. † The valley of ashes represents a world, which is like a distorted hell created by modern industry. Factories and trains, produced in the manufacture of wealth, has polluted America with its waste. Overlooking the valley, are the sightless eyes of T. J. Ecklburg, an advertisement on a billboard, that is actually confused as God. It represents a god who has been created by modern society to make money, and a god who no longer sees nor cares. The whole valley symbolizes a world whose ethnics are so spiritually lost, that they worship money and wealth. The promise of happiness, hope, and freedom that America gave its first settlers, has been corrupted by the lies of greed, and the emptiness of a dream based on wealth. Within these settings many of the lifestyles contrast, from the â€Å"old money,† to the â€Å"rags to riches,† to the â€Å"ruthless wealthy. † F. Scott Fitzgerald creates different types of people who are so different, yet have the same drive to be a part of the wealthy upper class. These places have different standards and tend to conflict with each other. In The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald creates many different lifestyles the cities he creates: East and West Egg and the Valley of Ashes. These settings each have contrasting components that exemplify the true colors of the characters. Fitzgerald shows the differences between East and West Egg and The Valley of Ashes, what each town represents, and finally how the contrast shows the meaning of the character’s lifestyles.

Things Fall Apart Character Analysis - 1568 Words

The story of â€Å"Things Fall Apart† is a three part story that tells the life of Okonkwo. The main character in the story to which he is much known in nine villages. In part one of the story, it shows us the way on how Okonkwo rose to power and becoming a very valuable person. He is very well respected for how hard he worked to get at the top. The struggles Okonkwo went through as a young child was pretty tough. His father Unoka was a failure. He had owed money to every neighbor, he lived around. One thing that Unoka loved to do was playing the flute. When Okonkwo father had passed away, Okonkwo was ashamed of him. Okonkwo started to become a great farmer growing up and then became the greatest wrestler out of the nine villages becoming†¦show more content†¦From there he was well received by his mother’s kinsmen in Mbanta. Note that Okonkwo mother is dead and Okonkwo has not been in Mbanta years ago. Uchendu which is the kinsmen has noticed Okonkwo and his fa mily carrying their personal items. Uchendu has not spoken the reason why Okonkwo has come until the following day and from there Okonkwo has told him the whole story about what had happened and the reason why he came to Mbanta. In his second year of exile Okonkwo has gotten a visit from his friend Obierika to tell him some things that has been going on in Umuofia. Obierika has told them that a white man has appeared in their clan with an iron horse riding on it. The elders had spoken to the white man and the white man in response has told them that they would break their Oracle, break their clan, and also spread destruction. From that point on Obierika has left and paid another visit nearly two years later, but this time the circumstances were less happy. Obierika has told Okonkwo that the missionaries had come to Umuofia and built a church, won a handful of converts, and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding villages. Next after hearing everything that has been happe ning in Umuofia about the white man and missionaries taking over places and telling the villagers that there is only one God and trying to change their view on religion. Okonkwo exile of 7 years has come to an end he isShow MoreRelatedThings Fall Apart Character Analysis1564 Words   |  7 Pagesstory of â€Å"Things Fall Apart† is three part story that tells the life of Okonkwo. The main character in the story to which he is much known in nine villages. In part one of the story it shows us the way on how Okonkwo rose to power and becoming a very valuable person. He is very well respected on how hard he worked to get at the top. The struggles Okonkwo went through as a young child was pretty tough. His father Unoka was a failure. He had owed money to every neighbor he lived around. One thing that UnokaRead MoreThings Fall Apart Character Analysis1071 Words   |  5 PagesIn life, we all have fears whether it’s spiders, darkness, or even death. In Things Fall Apart, we see the fears of many of the main characters being shown especially in Okonkwo. Okonkwo was not born into power and wealth and it was up to him whether he was going to make something out of his life. His choice was to disregard his father’s ways and work as hard as possible so that he can become one of the most powerful men in his village of Umuofia. His work ethic and passion for success drive himRead MoreThings Fall Apart Character Analysis1007 Words   |  5 PagesThe theme of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is that life is shaped more by outside events than what is inside you. Okonkwo is a man grappling with adversity and trying to define and walk his own path according to his own wisdom. Okonkwo rejects his father, and lives his life to be as different from his father as he can. Okonkwo is trying to determine his fate, yet the thing he wants to be least like he becomes which parallels his society’s struggle to navigate the changes of colonisation andRe ad MoreThings Fall Apart Character Analysis824 Words   |  4 PagesChinua Achebe’s novel, â€Å"Things Fall Apart† is an extraordinary example of life lessons and internal battles characters can face. The novel show cases that sometimes characters can have struggles within themselves and that it does don’t necessarily have to be a person. Throughout the novel the audience gets to meet Okonkwo, the main character who is quite hard to read. As the book progresses the true Okonkwo is discovered. Okonkwo is faced with this immense pressure he puts on himself and soon weRead MoreThings Fall Apart Character Analysis1130 Words   |  5 PagesPower â€Å"No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and children (and especially his women) he was not really a man† (Chinua Achebe 53). This quote from Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart demonstrates the power of men as it is presented throughout the novel. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo’s struggles in society, and his search for power throughout his life. During his exile, cultures clash and chaos erupts in the Igbo village. Okonkwo’s father, his exile in MbantaRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart917 Words   |  4 PagesEA 3.2 Literary Analysis: character analysis The introduction of a new culture to another culture can be quite a challenge, as well as life-changing for those individuals who decide to assimilate the new beliefs and customs. The arrival of the missionaries to Nigeria affected the the Ibo culture and introduced its people to a new set of religious beliefs and westernized customs. Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, portrays the contrasting reactions of people to the new culture brought to theirRead MoreThings Fall Apart: Okonkwo Character Analysis Essay856 Words   |  4 PagesIn the novel Things Fall Apart, strength and pride are very important aspects of the main character, Okonkwo, however, these traits may sound like excellent traits to possess but because of the way he was raised, Okonkwo harbours many of his emotions under an outer shell of violence, strength and pride. His traits can be shown by looking at where he has come from in his life, for example, Okonkwo has acquired a large amount of wealth in his life because of his hard work and dedication which he alsoRead MoreEssay Character Analysis of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart541 Words   |  3 PagesIn the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village. Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected individual inRead MoreThe Analysis of the Main Characters and the Impact of Colonialism in Things Fall Apart and Avatar1868 Words   |  8 Pagesnatural resources, all the while disrupting your way of life. The only thing that you can do is react, maybe you choose to fight back, or maybe you learn to accept these new ways as your own. The Navi from Avatar and the Ibo from Things Fall Apart are both under the attack of an imposing nation, although the way that the natives and the invadors handle the situation are very different. Okonkwo and Jake Sully, the main characters from these two stories, have a huge impact on the outcome of the nativesRead MoreWork1068 Words   |  5 Pages2013 Things Fall Apart: Character Analysis Research Paper In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character Okonkwo has only one tragic flaw; he has raised himself so that looking weak or effeminate is the worst thing to him that he could do. Okonkwo is a model clansman based on his success. However, he is more alienated from his culture based on his lack of respect for it. In this research paper, I’ll walk through a character analysis of Okonkwo. The protagonist of Things Fall