MRO Activities in Aviation Industry

MRO Activities in Aviation Industry Definitions: MRO: Maintenance, repair and overhaul organization. OEM: Aircraft original equipment manufacturers. Such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier Embraer and others. Airworthiness Authorities: Regulate all aspects of civil aviation. These include the construction and operation of airports, the management of air traffic, the certification of personnel and aircraft. There are two main organizations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States of America and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Airworthiness: FAA Part 3 defines Airworthy as, the aircraft conforms to its type design and is in a condition for safe flight. A more generic and non-process oriented definition is required. Airworthiness is defined in JSP553 Military Airworthiness Regulations (2006) Edition 1 Change 5 as: The ability of an aircraft or other airborne equipment or system to operate without significant hazard to aircrew, ground crew, passengers (where relevant) or to the general public over which such airborne systems are flown. Mother airline: In MRO aviation sector mother airline is the core airline from with the MRO unit segregates, for instance British Airways is the mother airline of British Airways Engineering. Virtual airline: Is an airline that has outsourced as many possible operational and business functions as it can, but still maintains effective control of its core business. Line Maintenance: Usually carried out at or near the aircraft dock or parking. The level of dis-assembly is usually limited to what can be reassembled and restored within a short period in order to allow the continuous aircraft operation. A limiting factor is usually the level of Ground Support Equipment and the scope of the revisions reaches to the A-Check. Heavy Maintenance: The mayor level of maintenance with capabilities of disassembling, inspecting, repairing, refurbishment, overhaul and restoration. It is usually carried out into specific installations called Hangars with and extensive source of facilities, tools and equipment. The scope of the revisions in this kind of maintenance is focus in C-Checks and in mayor structural repairs and inspections. Engine Overhaul: Comprises of the whole disassembly of an engine. The overhaul facility inspects the engine, repairs it as necessary, reassembles, tests, clean and approves it for return to service within the fits and limits specified by the manufacturers overhaul data (Lee et al, 2008). This kind of maintenance need to be done in a very specific installations approved by the engine manufacturer. Component Maintenance: Reparation of aircraft components is slightly different from a complete overhaul, as the workshop needs to determine the cause of a given defect, correct that defect, perform bench tests and release the component back to service. Very specific workshops needed for different components such as: Radio transceivers, Hydraulic valves, batteries, passengers seats, etc. Modifications: This kind of maintenance is performed in order a manufacturer option or an authority requirement. During the manufacturing process of an aircraft, improvements have been implemented over time, for early versions, these improvements can be made later in the form of modification, on the other hand civil aviation authorities generates Airworthiness Directives (AD) of mandatory compliance to the aircraft operators , that needs specific modifications. Introduction Maintenance, repair and overhaul in the aeronautical sector is a complicate procedure that has strict and particular requirements defined by airworthiness authorities to guarantee the safety of passengers and aircrew. MRO could be defined such all actions that have the objective of retaining or restoring an item in or to a state in which it can be perform its required function. (Vieira, Loures, 2016). The aviation MRO engineering could be defined such the arm of the aviation industry responsible for the retaining or restoring aircraft parts to a state in which they can perform the required design applications (Al-kaabi, Potter et al. 2007). Chang and Abdullah (2014) states that the business model of the MRO is a combination of technical capacity and logistic configuration counting the level of supply chain vertical integration and outsourcing practices. Chris Markou (2015) estimates the maintenance cost for an airline is 17% of the operational cost. MRO Activities and Models: Al-kaabi, Potter et al (2007) study assesses the decision-making process of an airline when deciding on the outsourcing of maintenance services, the study define three different phases: The first phase corresponds to the activities developed by the MRO, in this section the critical activities of the organization that are included (figure 1). The second phase deals with the study of demand based on a series of entries that will take into account the logistical complexity, the age of the fleet and its use, among others. The MRO have to focus on the actual market and need to develop a plan strategy for short, medium and long term. The third phase addresses the study of capacity and the true need to outsource taking into account the MRO cost, that include maintenance resources such hangar space, qualified equipment , qualified manpower and the dispatch reliability related with technical delays. During 2014 Global Market of MRO spends was value at %62.1 billion, excluding overheads, with a 3.8% increase per annum, the market size is estimated to reach $90 billion in 2024 (Chris MARKOU, 2015). The following graph represents the distribution of cost between MRO activities for the year 2014. Al-kaabi, Potter et al (2007) states that according with the critical activities of an MRO and the level of outsourcing developed, a MRO could be categorized in different models: Fully Integrated MRO: Where all MRO activities are generated and performed internally and in addition the MRO can support other airlines different to the mother airline generating external revenues. Partially Outsourced MRO: Where airlines try to maintains most of their MRO activities internally but some are externalised, for example the outsourcing of the Engine Maintenance. Mostly Outsourced MRO: Where only critical activities are performed internally for instance, generally airlines consider Line maintenance such a critical activity for the relation with the punctuality, for this reason is maintained such as in house activity. Wholly outsourced MRO: Where all activities are outsourced, it is similar to the Virtual airline model and it is highly extended across the new Low-Cost airlines that cannot afford the initial investment to create their own MRO. The following table represents an SWOT evaluation performed by Al-kaabi, Potter et al (2007) of the difference structure models. This variety of organizational models in which certain critical activities are externalized requires a maximum level of coordination between the actors involved, as well as within the organization itself. One of the leading issues in aviation industry today is how information is managed and retained in an organization (Flouris, Oswald 2006). Regarding to the operational aspect of the MRO activities Vieira and Loures (2016) states that the maintenance could be: Scheduled Maintenance: Defined as an anticipatory action to ensure that a product works properly at pre-defined intervals. The intervals can be defined in terms of hours of operation, number of flights or flight cycles. (Figure 5). Unscheduled Maintenance: Defined as not planned or programmed is performed when an unexpected component failure occurs. Actual MRO Scenario in aviation industry Aviation MRO activities cannot be precisely defined solely within manufacturing or service term alone, Given that it is a product of both (Ayeni, Ball et al. 2016). The process are very complex, each component needs to be certified by the competent airworthiness institution which define severe requirements to guarantee safety (Vieira, Loures ,2016). Due to the high quality requirements, there is a very small number of authorized companies to serve parts and services in the sector, this fact generates limitation in the options available when a MRO or manufacturer has to select the provider, creating a lack of influence to discuss commercial conditions. It can be highlighted four stakeholders in the service flow of an aviation MRO: Subtier/Supplier, Aircraft OEMs, Aircraft MRO and Customer. The flow model used by OEMs provides for key suppliers working as system integrator, this means in comparison with other sectors aircraft OEMs have very few suppliers approximately 50. The production parts is very standard and similar compared with other industrial sector, OEMs submit a purchasing order with the system supplier and making and respect a commercial agreement the part is delivered. The complexity increases with spare part due to the logistic and regulatory framework. Customers can purchase orders to the rest of the stakeholders always depending of the type of structure and also can request the MRO services. In order to obtain a complete an actual vision of the MRO sector, the following table shows the top 10 aviation MROs ordered by the number of airframe maintenance hours during 2014. (AWST, 2015) MRO Procedures: Lifecycles: Two main flows can be identified within an MRO Aviation (CHANG, Abdullah 2014): The Physical flow: Is the aircraft maintenance process which comprises: professional methodology, material, machine, manpower and environment. The information flow: Defined as the company management process which comprises the cycle of P-D-C-A (Plan-DO-Check-Action) that includes functions of demand integration and material logistic. These flows have to be analysed through the lifecycle of the different components of the Aviation MRO activity: The previous diagrams show a generic lifecycle for the different elements with which MROs work, they are valid regardless of the level of outsourcing that the organization has, because it is the complete cycle, which would vary the organization that would perform the task in case they were outsourced. Many common characteristics can be seen in the different cycles, such as logistics for the receipt and delivery of the product, personnel and tooling distributions, documentation and various final tests. During the development of the phases, the physical flow and the information flow must be taken care of equally. Is very important visualize the wide intricacy of the MRO organization management (Bierer, Gtze et al. 2016). The two types of flow mentioned above are then analyzed further in detail: Physical flow Regarding the physical flow, the maintenance process does not vary significantly with the product to be treated within the 3 life cycles previously exposed. Chang and Abdullah (2014) divides the aircraft maintenance process in 8 parts: Review Flight history: Make a review of previous maintenance actions and evaluate the current status. Determine Maintenance Items: Following manufacturer requirements and documentation, perform an engineering evaluation and determine the maintenance items. Receiving Process: Accept the aircraft from customer and perform the maintenance previous set-up. Disassembly: Gain access to the maintenance item. Inspection and testing: Perform the evaluations and approved test to ensure the state of the maintenance item. Assembly: Substitute and assembly the relative parts of the maintenance item, including de aces panel to the maintenance item area. Functional test: Perform a functional test of the maintenance item. Flight test: In some maintenance action could be necessary a flight test to ensure achieve the original performance requirement according to the regulatory framework. Figure 12: General Maintenance Process of Aircraft flow shop. Source: (CHANG, Abdullah 2014) It can be seen the easy allocation of the parts to the previous discussed lifecycle in Figure 8. The complexity and the resources used in the maintenance task may vary, however the process remains essentially unchanged. Information Flow The information flow is the company management process, Chang and Abdullah (2014) argues that is composed by two major functions: Demand integration: Divided in three stages: Delivery schedule: Where is necessary the management of customers orders taking into account the delivery date, aircraft model and requirements, this stage makes the link with the investment and business plan. Rough-cut capacity: Consider the information and the overall demand, during this stage the rough-cut capacity for midterm and long term is computed. Material requirement planning (MRP): In this stage inputs are receive from engineering evaluation (Bill of material), current inventory and current capacity, after the pertinent evaluation the detail production schedule is generated. Material Logistic: Divided in three stages: Detail production schedule: Generated in the MRP phase, it is based in the feasibility of the production schedule, taking into account the lead time of the details parts, outsourcing level, procurements and resources. Shop floor control: This phase monitor the progress and daily performance in order to achieve the targets of the detail production schedule. Delivery: After the maintenance task and checks, all the documentation and quality records should be prepared for reviewing and approval. In this section it is necessary to differentiate information from knowledge. The information is the raw content of the metric being used, Gunasekaran, Patel et al (2001) use some of the following metrics in the aircraft maintenance process: Documents rejected, Defects at final inspections, Rework, Tool bag audit among others. Knowledge however is formed through the analysis and study of information, and gives a real vision of the state of the process as well as the achievement of objectives. Significant knowledge construction and application involves information to be accessible and relevant moment and relevant situation (Iyengar, Dharwada et al.). One of the most important factors in the Aviation industry is how information is managed and retained in the organization. The concept of Knowledge Management in an organization is supply managers to with all the tools and knowledge necessary for decision making. Knowledge should be made available to the correct people at the correct time, and it must be sheltered so that this knowledge does not leave the organization. (Flouris, Oswald 2006). Bierer, Gtze et al (2016) indicates that the knowledge management is necessary to obtain a successful generation and correct handling of knowledge, they also emphasize the tendency of MROs to outsource services by aggravating the problem of making knowledge accessible within the company. Little literature exits on information management of the data obtained from various aircraft maintenance process which have direct consequence on the safety of the aircraft. (Iyengar, Dharwada et al. ). Nonetheless, in the publication the authors describe the hierarchy through different levels of the maintenance environment: Senior managers refers to the higher managers who reviews all the maintenance activities. Manager refers to the individual who reviews and report all the maintenance activities to the senior manager. Airline representative refers to the individual who performs day-to-day surveillance at the vendor location. Vendor refers to the independent maintenance operator who performs maintenance operations on the aircraft. Human resources: One of the most critical and most important components within the physical and information flows within an MRO is the human component, two main roles are mainly involved in the whole process (CHANG, Abdullah 2014). Engineer: The role is related with planning, certification liaison, and regulation, specifications to maintain the reliability, relations with financial departments and provide technical and analytical support. Technician: The qualified technician cover three main categories: structure repair, avionics and mechanical. The technicians are the main component of the manpower and they performed the designed maintenance task accourding to the valid regulation. . Mapping information flows is a process for analysing how information is transferred between two points inside an organization (Hibberd, Evatt 2004). There are two types of information flows: Direct information and indirect information, companies have for a long time tried to optimize and improve the physical material flow within the supply chain but is needed also improve the information which is connected to the physical flow (Chibba, Rundquist 2004). Figure 17: The physical material flow and the information flow showing two different Approaches (Indirect and direct information). Source: (Chibba, Rundquist 2004). Hibberd and Evatt (2004) indicates some benefits of mapping information: Enables the understanding of who is the user of information and how is used. It identifies the ultimate client or key stakeholder for various types of information services. Help to focus information services where more necessaries are. Steps: They also pinpoints a process of five steps to perform the information flow mapping: Describe current situation: They suggest a hierarchical chart showing the mission, goals and objectives of an organization, in addition it is also exposed the interaction with various business units and how these units support these goals. Describe potential clients: Identification of potential clients in other business units. Determining the organizational goals and objectives of each unit and identify what information may need. Map potential clients: Listing the units, needs and resources help to analyse the potential overlap areas, the current clients maps is completed with the potential clients information. The map should be completed with suggestions and reallocation of resources, products and services. Rank solutions for prioritization: Make a classification of the possible solutions: Low Risk: Organizations is not making a mission-critical decision. Moderate Risk: Organizational activity involves a complete department and its budget. High Risk: Organizations is making a mission-critical decision. Create an Information map: Mapping the final solution to show each department and the suggestions for their information, the information map will require updating to continue its function. Chibba and Rundquist (2004) argues that a data flow diagram (DFD) could be used to map typical supply chain information flows the article present difference commercial solutions for DFD creation and the characteristics for a process: Is necessary a supplier that contribute with some measurable entity into the process. The process comprises a number of activities that convert the object in a more valuable object. The process should have well defined start and concrete ending. The process should be regularly iterated. The process should use the organization resources. Is good for organization to work with a process model that all the member could understand, they should know how their process are connected, the hierarchy, hat resources are critical to the clients. References AL-KAABI, H., POTTER, A. and NAIM, M., 2007. Insights into the maintenance, repair and overhaul configurations of European airlines. Journal of Air Transportation, 12(2), pp. 27. AL-KAABI, H., POTTER, A. and NAIM, M (2007) An outsourcing decision model for airlines MRO activities, Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 13(3), pp. 217-227. AYENI, P., BALL, P. and BAINES, T., 2016. Towards the strategic adoption of Lean in Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry: An empirical study into the industrys status. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, , pp. 38-61. AWST. 2015. Aviation Week Announces Top 10 Airframe MRO Providers: Biennial survey examines MRO developments, 2014 airframe maintenance hours and revenue. Aviation Week and Space Technology, MRO Edition, Aviation Week Ranks. May 2015. BIERER, A., GTZE, U., KHLER, S. and LINDNER, R., 2016. Control and Evaluation Concept for Smart MRO Approaches. Procedia CIRP, 40, pp. 700-705. CHANG, H.M. and ABDULLAH, K., 2014. The Operation Management Model of Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Business. International Journal of Trends in Economics Management Technology (IJTEMT), 3(3), CHIBBA, A. and RUNDQUIST, J., 2004. Mapping flows-an analysis of the information flows within the integrated supply chain. Chris MARKOU Assistant Director, IATA Operations, MRO, December 2015 Airline maintenance cost executive commentary: public mctf An Exclusive Benchmark Analysis (FY2014 data) by IATAs Maintenance Cost Task Force. FLOURIS, T.G. and OSWALD, S.L., 2006. Designing and executing strategy in aviation management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. HIBBERD, B.J. and EVATT, A., 2004. Mapping information flows: a practical guide. Information Management, 38(1), pp. 58. IYENGAR, N., DHARWADA, P., KAPOOR, K., GRAMOPADHYE, A. and GREENSTEIN, J., DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO REDUCE ERRORS IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE. M. TAAFFE, K., WILLIAM ALLEN, R. and GRIGG, L., 2014. Performance metrics analysis for aircraft maintenance process control. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 20(2), pp. 122-134. SAHAY, A., 2012. Leveraging information technology for optimal aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). Elsevier. VIEIRA, D.R. and LOURES, P.L., 2016, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Fundamentals and Strategies: An Aeronautical Industry Overview.

Patient-Centered Care and Comminication in Critical Care Essay

Introduction Communication is a key component in nursing care. As nurses we must communicate with our patient’s, patients’ families, and a wide variety of healthcare team members. Communication can be vital to patient’s lives, informative to physicians, and calming or educational to families. The communication method, or theme, that a nurse uses as part of her care can positively, or negatively, affect every aspect of patient care. Communication plays a huge role in the way I care for patients and their families. Without positive, supportive communication I would have a very difficult time building a trusting relationship with my patients. My nursing career goal is to one day become a critical care nurse. I chose this article to further educate myself about affective communication and how I can apply this knowledge in a critical care setting. As a nurse working in the Intensive Care Unit, communication has a critical role in patient-centered care. The objective of this study was to perform a qualitative analysis of nurses’ communication behaviors to develop interventions that will improve patient-centered communication in the critical care setting. The theoretical model of patient-centered care contains five domains. The five domains include: the biopsychosocial perspective; the patient-as-person; sharing power and responsibility; the therapeutic alliance; and the clinician-as-person domain. During the course of this study communication interactions between nurses’, patients, and patients families were analyzed and placed into one of the five domains. Interviews with the nursing staff were also analyzed to identify specific themes in nurses’ roles and their preferences for communicating with patients and families. The data collected for this study contained a combination of interviews, direct observations within the ICU, family conferences, and informal conversations that took place between a patient’s family member and healthcare providers. Summary Analysis of the collected data found that the majority of nurses’ involved in  the study communicated most often in the biopsychosocial, patient-as-person, and clinician-as-person domains. The biopsychosocial domain focuses mainly on information exchange. A majority of the nursing communication interactions observed were in this domain. Communication between the nurse, the patient, and the patients family were often related to life-sustaining interventions, however, the implications as to why these interventions were necessary was never directly addressed. Many communication behaviors also fell into the patient-as-person domain. Within this domain the nurse seeks to understand a patient’s personality outside of their illness. Non-verbal communication behaviors were frequently noted in this domain. The clinician-as-person domain involves interactions between the nurse and other clinicians, most often a physician, and recognizing one’s own emotional response to a particular patient and the situation. In the two remaining domains, it was noted that the participating nurses’ generally refrained from communication in these areas. Sharing power and responsibility includes the active involvement of a patient, or family member in treatment decisions and forming an agreement about the plan of care. The therapeutic alliance domain includes a clinician that is involved with learning the patient’s desires and then working together alongside the patient to agree on a plan of care. A majority of the nurses’ interviewed agreed upon the importance of these two domains, they felt that it was not a part of their nursing role. Instead they regarded that the shared power and therapeutic alliance domains should be fulfilled by a physician. Once the communication behaviors were analyzed and placed into one of the patient-centered care domains, further evaluations were done to understand any reasoning as to why nurses chose to communicate more in certain domains and less in others. During the evaluation of nurses’ roles in communication two themes were discovered. These themes tended to guide nursing communication behaviors based on their perspective of a nurse’s role within the patient-centered care domains. In the first theme nurses’ felt their role was to act as translator between the physicians, the patients, and the patients’ families. As a translator, nurses’ are able to clarify the overall plan of care for patients and the patient’s family members that may have been missed or misunderstood. It was also recognized that nurses’ sometimes acted as only one-way translators. This involved reporting patient information to the  physician only. The nurses’ felt it was not their role to translate any critical health changes, or any misunderstandings that a patient, or a patient’s family member may have about critical life procedures. Nurses’ felt that it was the physicians’ role to fulfill those duties. The second theme involved topics that nurses were willing to discuss wit h patients and the patient’s family, as well as topics they refused to discuss with them. The said verses not said theme tends to overlap with the translator theme. Once again, nurses’ did not feel that communicating bad news to a patient or the patient’s family was not their role but the physician’s role instead. Within this theme nurses’ often rarely shared their opinions to patients or the family when it differed from that of the physician. At other times nurses’ often conferred, or shared their opinions with other healthcare providers for any corroboration before they spoke with a patient or the patient’s family. During the nurses’ interviews, physicians were often referred to as the primary decision makers in patient care and that their role was to support and carry out the consequences of those decisions. Application As healthcare providers try to accomplish more in less time these days, the relationship between patients and patient’s families suffer. Miscommunication, false understandings and failed patient relationships can all lead to poor outcomes. Patient-centered care involves treating patients as partners, involving them in decision making, and helping them feel a sense of responsibility in managing their care all while respecting their individual values and concerns. Nurses are usually the first healthcare providers to develop a trusting relationship with a patient and a patient’s family. Nurses’ are quick to discover a patient’s personality, beliefs and values, as well as their family dynamics. Interdisciplinary communication between physicians and nurses needs to be improved. By emphasizing shared decision making and interpersonal communication between nurses and physicians patient outcomes will improve. Two ways that nurses’ can enhance interdisciplin ary communication is by maintaining the use of the SBAR communication tool. This ensures that messages are organized and clear for the physician. Secondly, the nurse and physician should discuss the plan of care together before speaking with the patient or the patient’s family. The  nurse may have more insight into the background, values, and wishes of the patient that may affect the plan of care. This intervention directly targets the said verses not said theme and involves the nurse in the shared decision domain. As a nurse on a critical care unit, it would be extremely beneficial to learn and explore what specifically the nurse role is in regards to communication and information that can be shared. Is the nurse able to participate in the shared power and responsibility or the therapeutic alliance domains, or is it truly defined as the role of a physician? As a nurse on the critical care unit, I would seek clarification as to what my role is in regards to communicating with the patient and the patient’s family. I would also maintain the use of SBAR as part of my communication techniques and work on developing a trusting relationship with a wide variety of physicians. Effective communication is an important aspect of all nurse-patient interactions. It wasn’t until recent that nursing communication and its effect on patient-centered care began to be studied. Nursing communication interactions between the patient and the patient’s family highly contributes to patient-centered care and outcomes. By continuing to study nursing communication behaviors and interactions, interventions to improve patient-centered care can further be determined and implemented into practice. References BIBLIOGRAPHY Slatore, C., Hansen, L., Ganzini, L., Press, N., Osborne, M., Chesnutt, M., & Mularski, R. (2012). COMMUNICATION BY NURSES IN THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF DOMAINS OF PATIENT-CENTERED CARE. American Journal Of Critical Care, 21(6), 410-418.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Review

The Jungle Book is one of the works for which Rudyard Kipling is best remembered. The Jungle Book falls in line with works like Flatland and Alice in Wonderland (which offer satire and political commentary underneath the genre title of childrens literature). Likewise, the stories in The Jungle Book are written to be enjoyed by adults as well as children—with a depth of meaning and symbolism that delves far beyond the surface. Relationships and events related to The Jungle Book are important to any human being, including adult men and women, with or without families. While the tales can be read, or children may listen to them from an older reader, these stories need to be re-read later, in high school, and again in later adult life. They are enjoyable in every subsequent reading and the longer one lives, the broader is the frame of reference one has against which to draw the stories into perspective.The Kipling stories offer a marked perspective of a reminder of human origins and history as well as animal. As the Native American and other Indigenous Peoples often state: All are related under one sky. A reading of ​The Jungle Book at age 90 will reach several more levels of meaning than a childhood reading and both are just as brilliant an experience. The stories can be shared inter-generationally, with interpretations shared by all. The book is a group of stories that are actually quite good for â⠂¬Å"Grandparents in the School† types of family literacy programs of the current day. Importance of the Tales Kipling is still much quoted, via Gunga Din and his famous poem â€Å"IF,† but The Jungle Book  is also important. They are important because they address the prime relationships in one’s life—family, coworkers, bosses—and everyone’s relationship with Nature. For instance, if a boy is raised by wolves, then wolves are his family until the last one dies. The themes of The Jungle Book revolve around noble qualities such as loyalty, honor, courage, tradition, integrity, and persistence. These are good to discuss and ponder in any century, making the stories timeless.My favorite Jungle Book story is of a young mahout and his elephant and the legend of the elephant dance in the middle of the forest. This is Toomai of the Elephants. From wooly mammoths and mastodons to our zoological parks, to the Elephants Sanctuary in the American South to Disney’s Dumbo, and Seuss’s Horton, elephants are magical creatures. They know friendship and heart ache and can cry. Kipling may have been the first to show that they can also dance.br/>The young mahout, Toomai, believes the tale of the infrequent event of Elephant Dance, even when the seasoned elephant trainers try to dissuade him. He is rewarded for his belief by being taken to that very dance by his own elephant, spending time in another world that few can enter. Faith makes entrance possible, so Kipling tells us, and there is the possibility that childlike faith can be translated to any number of human events. â€Å"Tiger-Tiger† After Mowgli left his Wolf Pack, he visited a Human village and was adopted by Messua and her husband, who both believed him their own son, previously stolen by a tiger. They teach him Human customs and language and help him adjust to a new life. However, the wolf-boy Mowgli hears from Grey Brother (a wolf) that trouble is afoot against him. Mowgli does not succeed in the Human village but makes enemies of a hunter, a priest, and others, because he denounces their unrealistic comments about the jungle and its animals. For this, he is reduced to the status of the cowherd. This story suggests that perhaps the animals are more just than Humans.The tiger Sheer Khan enters the village, while Mowgli takes half his cattle to one side of a ravine, and his wolf brothers take the rest to on the other side. Mowgli lures the tiger into the middle of the ravine and the cattle trample him to death. The envious hunter broadcasts that the boy is a wizard or demon and Mowgli is exiled to wander the c ountryside. This certainly shows the dark side of human beings, again suggesting that animals are nobler creatures.​ Other Favorite Tales Other favorites from this collection are â€Å"The White Seal†, the tale of a Bering Sea’s seal pup that saves 1000s of his kindred from the fur trade, and â€Å"Her Majesty’s Servants†, a story of the conversations heard by a man among the camp animals of the Queen’s military. The entire collection observes mankind from a stance of needing improvement that is possible if they listen to animal wisdom.

The Cause And Effect Of Typhoons - 2046 Words

Background The controversy faced by the Philippines is Typhoons. On average, typhoons strike the Philippines at least 20 times and among them, five are regarded to be devastating. An example of such destructive typhoons is Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Super Typhoon Yolanda) that struck on November 2nd, 2013, and lasted till November 13th, 2013. This report is relevant because it’s stated, as above, by the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC) that a least 20 typhoons times a per year, five are devastating, which is a massive amount devastation done to a small country there needs to be a way in which everyone could be safe. There needs to be a way in which everyone could be safe and only need to invest a little to no amount. Purpose The purpose is to analyze the cause and effect of typhoons and find a strategic way we could do to save the people from all the damages done by this natural disaster. 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Jewish Folk Dance As A Means Of Creating A New Israeli...

Jewish national identity was colonized when Jewish people were forced out of ancient Israel and dispersed to various different nations. Anti-Semitism was one of the principle means for this colonization because it made it dangerous for Jewish people to express their own national identity in the European nations they dispersed to. As a result, certain traditions, like Jewish folk dance, which were not codified, were lost. Jewish folk dance also disappeared because folk traditions are strongly connected to the land in which they originated and the majority of Jews left Israel. Furthermore, because of the third commandant of the Torah, Jews were not allowed to depict images of their dance. Consequently, their traditional dance was lost forever. However, when the Jews returned to Israel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they found it important to recreate traditions like folk dance to reassert their fractured nationhood after so many years of diaspora. Thus, Israeli folk dance was a means of creating a new Israeli culture. Israeli folk dance was created by using elements from other dance cultures with themes and music of modern Israel. In this paper, I will argue that while anti-Semitism resulted in the colonization of Jewish national identity, women re-created Israeli folk dance as a means to establish a new Jewish identity, as well as an identity for themselves. By focusing on Romania and Yemen, we will identify the vestiges of colonialism in Israeli folk dance, andShow MoreRelatedA Critical Review of â€Å"the Ambiguities of Football, Politics, Culture, and Social Transformation in Latin America† by Tamir Bar-on.14147 Words   |  57 PagesA Critical Review of â€Å"The Ambiguities of Football, Politics, Culture, and Social Transformation in Latin America† by Tamir Bar-On. Introduction: In Latin America, soccer is not a game; it is a way of life. It is mixed in with politics and nationalism. It defines social classes. How politically influential is soccer in Latin America? It is used by â€Å"various Latin American socio-economic elites in order to retard the acceleration of working class and popular discontent† (Bar-On 1997:1.8). Is itRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesFine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography Allida M. Black, ed., Modern American Queer History Eric Sandweiss, St. Louis:

Game Theory and Life Insurance Free Essays

string(281) " make optimal use of the information lie does have \? It is sufficient for our purposes to characterize tile medical information by two parameters : Ps, tile probability of successfully noticing a bad risk, and PF, tile false alarm probability of detecting a non-existant illness\." Astln Bulletin 11 (198o) 1-16 A GAME T H E O R E T I C LOOK AT L I F E I N S U R A N C E UNDERWRITING* JEAN LEMAIRE Universit6 Libre de Bruxelles Tim decision problem o[ acceptance or rejection of life insurance proposals is formulated as a ~vo-person non cooperattve game between the insurer and the set of the proposers Using the mmtmax criterion or the Bayes criterion, ~t ~s shown how the value and the optunal stxateg~es can be computed, and how an optimal s e t of medina! , mformatmns can be selected and utlhzed 1. FORMULATIONOF THE GAME The purpose of this paper, whose m a t h e m a t i c a l level is elementary, is to d e m o n s t r a t e how g a m e t h e o r y can help the insurers to formulate a n d solve some of their underwriting problems. The f r a m e w o r k a d o p t e d here is life insurance acceptance, but the concepts developed could be a p p h e d to a n y other branch. We will write a custom essay sample on Game Theory and Life Insurance or any similar topic only for you Order Now The decision problem of acceptance or rejection of life insurance proposals can be f o r m u l a t e d as a two-person non cooperative g a m e the following w a y : player 1, P~, is the insurer, while player 2, P2, is the set of all the potential pohcy-hotders. The g a m e is p l a y e d m a n y times, m fact each time a m e m b e r of P. – fills m a proposal. Ve suppose t h a t tlfis person is either perfectly h e a l t h y (and should be accepted) or affected b y a disease which should be detected and cause rejection. We shall assume for the m o m e n t t h a t the players possess only two strategies each. acceptance a n d rejection for P~, health or disease for P2. To be more realistic we should introduce a third pure s t r a t e g y for P~: a c c e p t a n c e of the proposer with a surcharge. To keep the analysis as simple as possible we shall delay the introduction of surcharges until sectmn 4. Consequently we can define a 2 x 2 p a y o f f m a t r i x for the insurer. .P~ †¢ P2 healthy proposer A B ill proposer C D acceptance rejection I t iS evident t h a t the worst o u t c o m e for the insurer is to accept a b a d risk. I n t e r p r e t i n g the payoffs as utilities for P1, C should be the lowest figure. Clearly D B : it is better for the insurer to reject a b a d risk than a good risk. Also A must be greater t h a n B. One anight argue a b o u t the relative * Presented at the 14th ASTIN Colloqumm, Taornuna, October x978. 2 JEAN LEMAIRE values, A and D, of the good outcomes. We shall suppose in the examples and the figures that D A, but the analysis does not rely on this assumptmn. In order to find the value of the game and the optimal strategy for P~, we can apply – – the minimax criterion, or – – the Bayes criterion. 2. THE MINIMAX CRITERION To apply the minimax criterion assimilates P2 to a malevolent opponent whose unique goal is to deceive the insurer and to reduce his payoff. This is of course an extremely conservative approach, to be used by a pessimistic insurer, concerned only by its security level. 2. 1. Value and Optimal Strategies without information Since P2’s objective is to harm P~, the game becomes a 2 x 2 zero-sum twoperson game, which can be represented graphicaUy. The vertical axis of fig. 1 is the payoff to P1. His possible choices are represented by the two straight lines. The horizontal axis is P2’s choice: he can always present an healthy proposer, or a non healthy, or pick any probability mix in between. The use of mixed strategies is fully justified here since the game is to be played m any times. Since P2’s payoff is the negative of Pl’s’, his objective is to minimize the insurer’s maximum gain, the heavy broken line. The ordinate of point M Payoff Io p~ D A B healthy i’x~n hi’Klllh Fig. i LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING 3 is then the value of the game. The abscissa of M provides the optimal mixed strategy of P2 P~’s optimal strategy can be obtained similarly (for more details see for instance OWLN (1968, p. 29) ) Thus, by adopting a mixed strategy (to accept any risk with a probability D-B PA = A + D – B – c ‘ and t  ° reject w i t h a p r o b a b i l i t y p n = I AD-BC ? ‘A),. P~ can guarantee himself a payoff of v~ = A + D – B – C ‘ D-C PH = A + D – B – C whatever the strategy adopted by his opponent. P2’s optmml strategy is to present a proportion of good risks. 2. 2. Introduction of Medical Information The preceding model is extremely naive (and vv1Lt only be used as reference for comparisons) since it does not take into account P,’s possibility to gather some information about the proposer’s health, by asking him to fill in an health questmnnaire, or by requiring him to undertake a medical examination. This information is of course only partially reliable. But, however imperfect, it can be used to improve P~’s guaranteed payoff. How can the insurer make optimal use of the information lie does have ? It is sufficient for our purposes to characterize tile medical information by two parameters : Ps, tile probability of successfully noticing a bad risk, and PF, tile false alarm probability of detecting a non-existant illness. Let us introduce a third pure strategy for P , : to follow the indications of tile medical information. If tile proposer is not healthy, his illness is detected with a probabihty Ps, and remains undetected with a probability 1 – – P S . . P i ‘ S expected payoff thus equals E = Dps + C(1-ps). Smailarly, his payoff m case the proposer is healthy is F = (1–pF)A + t~FB. Fig. 2 represents a â€Å"detector† with a . 7 success probability and a . 4 false alarm probability. We notice that, m this case, P1 can guarantee himself a payoff v2 vl by mixing the strategies â€Å"to accept† and â€Å"to follow the detector’s indication†. Of course, for other values of Ps and PF, tile optimal mixed strategy varies and can mix a different set of pnre strategies. The detector can even be so imperfect that the line . FE passes below the intersection of B D and AC; then the medical information is so weak that it is useless. 4 Payoff to Pl JEAN LEMAIRE JD1 J E~ ao % 7o % 4o % 6o % I A. healthy f~n heall hy Fig. 2 2. 3. Optimal Deteclwn System A detector is characterized by a pair (Ps, PFF) of probabilities. The underwriters can decide to render the standards of acceptation more severe, by rejecting more people, thereby incrcasing the success probabihty Ps. Unfortunately, the false alarm probability PF will then increase too. Can gaine theory help us to select an optimal detection system ? Must the company choose a â€Å"nervous† detector, with a high success probability, but also a high false alarm rate, or a â€Å"pldegmatic† or â€Å"slow† system with low probabilities Ps and PF ? Let us assume for sunplicity that all the medical information has been aggregated mto a single discriminating variable (for instance by using discrlminant- or regression analysis). The distribution of the discriminatmg variable for the healthy population will usually overlap the dastribution for the non healthy group. The choice of a particular detector can consist of selecting a critical value, any higher observed value leading to rejection, any lower value to acceptance (this procedure is optimal if the distributions are normal with equal variances Otherwise, tile decision rule can be obtained by a hkelilaood ratio method (see appendix or LEE (1971, pp. 2oi-2o3)). The shaded zone represents the false alarm probability, the dotted region the success probability. Each critical value determines those two probabilities. If the critical value is moved to the right, the detector becomes slower. If it is moved to the left, it become~ more nervous. The set of all the critical values LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING healthy [ non healthy value acceptance t | of the t n g variable dlSCrlmlnat relectlon Fig. 3 Y Ps Fig 4 defines the efficiency curve of the d i s c n m i n a n t variable. The weaker the dlscriminant power of this variable, the nearest to the bissectmg line its efficiency line. A perfect discrimmant variable has a triangular efhciency x y z . The set of all the detectors determines a set of values for the game. The highest value v* for the insurer is reached when the p a y o f f line is horizontal. This can be roughly seen as follows (for a more rigorous proof see LUCE and RAIFFA (1957, pp. 394-396)): the critical value, m o v i n g from left to right, generates a family of hnes with decreasing slope. If . Pat chooses a d e t e c t o r with 6 JEAN LEMAIRE a pos~ttve slope, P= can reduce his payoff below v* b y always presenting h e a l t h y proposers. Similarly, ~f the slope is negative, a continuous flow of non h e a l t h y proposers will keep P~’s payoff below v*. yotl to Pt I D A C h , a i r h~ rmn heulth, Fig 5 The optimal detector can be easdy obtained b y equating the payoffs E and F : Dps + C ( 1 – p s ) = A ( l – p y ) Then (1) + BpF. D-C C-A PF – B – A PS + B – A defines a straight line in fig. 4, whose intersection with the efficiency line determines the o p t i m u m . N o t e t h a t the optimal s t r a t e g y of P~ is a pure s t r a t e g y : to follow the advace of the d e t e c t o r , the insurer does not have to t h r o w a coin after the mecidal examination m order to decide if tile proposer is accepted. W h a t happens is t h a t the â€Å"noise† in the observation system, however small, provides the necessary r a n d o m i z a t i o n in order to p r e v e n t P2 from outguessing the insurer. 2. 4. The Value of Improving the Detectton System A medmal e x a m i n a t i o n can always be improved† one can introduce an electrocardmgram, a blood test . . . . for each proposer. B u t ~s it w o r t h the cost ~ An i m p r o v e d discrimination ability means t h a t tile distributions of fig. 3 are more LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING 7 Fig. 6 Payoff to p, D A im rn i ir~f r m i n B C healthy on hl, olt h Fig. 7 separated and present less overlap. The characterizing probabilities ibs and PF are maproved, and the efficiency line moves away from the bisecting line. The intersection of the improved efficiency line with (1) (which is determined only by the payoffs and therefore does not change with increased discrimina- 8 JEAN LEMAIRE tion) provides the new optimal detector; the ass ociated value is higher for the insurer. If the cost of implementing the new system is less (in utilities) than the difference between the two values, it is worthwhile to introduce it. The insurer should be willing to pay any amount inferior to the difference of the values for the increase in lus discrimination ability. 2. 5. A n Example 1 All the proposers above 55 years of age willing to sign a contract of over 3 million Belgian Francs in a given company have to pass a complete medical examination with electrocardiogram. We have selected 200 male proposers, loo rejected because of the electrocardiogram, and loo accepted. This focuses the attention on one category of rejection causes: the heart diseases, and implicitly supposes that the electrocardiogram is a perfect discriminator. This (not unrealistic) hypothesis being made, we can consider the rejected persons to be non healthy. Correspondingly the accepted proposers will form the healthy group. We have then noted the following characteristics of each proposer: x~: overweight or underweight (number of kilograms minus number of centimeters minus loo) ; x2: number of cigarettes (average daily number); m: the presence of sugar x4: or albumine in the urine; x s : the familial antecedents, for the mother, xs† and the father of the proposer. We then define a variable x0 = l o if the proposer is healthy 1 otherwise nd apply a standard selection technique of discriminant analysis in order to sort out the variables that slgnihcantly affect Xo The procedure only retains three variables xj, x2 and m, and combines them hnearly into a discriminating variable. The value of this variable ~s computed for all the observatmns, and tile observed distributions are presented in fig. 8. As was expected, the discrimination i s quite poor, the distributions strongly overlap. The multiple correlation between Xo and the set of the explaining variables equals . 26. The group centroids are respectively . 4657 and . 343We then estmaate for each possible crltmal value Ps and PF and plot them on fig. lo. t This e x a m p l e p r e s e n t s v e r y w e a k d e t e c t o r s a n d is o n l y i n t r o d u c e d m o r d e r to illus t r a t e t h e p r e c e d m g theory. LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING 9 Fig 8 S Fig 9 We must now assign uNhtlcs to the various outcomes. We shall select A = 8, B = 4, C = o and D = lo. Then the value of the g a m e w i t h o u t medical information is 5. 714, P2 presenting 2/7 of bad usks and P i accepting 3/7 of the proposals. Let us now introduce the medmal reformation nd for instance evaluate the s t r a t e g y t h a t corresponds to a . 5 critical value. On fig. lO, we can read ~s = . 51 a n d PF = 33. Then E = . 5] ? ]o + . 4 9 x o = 5-], a n d F = 3 3 x 4 + . 67 x 8 = 6. 68. The value of this game is 6 121, P2 presenting more bad risks (34. 1%), P I mixing the strategies † r e j e c t † and â€Å"follow d e t e c t o r † with respect- 10 JEAN LE/vIAIRE F i g . 1o Fig. 11 LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING 11 lye probabilities . 208 and . 792 Fig. 11 shows t h a t this s t r a t e g y is too â€Å"slow†, t h a t too m a n y risks are accepted. On the other hand, a detector w~th a . 4 critical value is too nervous: too m a n y risks are rejected T h e value is 5. 975, P2’s optimal s t r a t e g y is to present 74. 7% of good risks, while Pa should accept 29. 7% of the tmle and trust the d e t e c t o r otherwise. To find the o p t i m u m , we read the intersection of the efficiency line with equation (1), in this case 5 ~F = 2 – 2 Ps We find PF = . 425 Ps = . 63 with a critical value of . 475. T h e n E = lOX. 63 + ox. 37 = . 425Ãâ€"4 + – 5 7 5 x 8 = 6. 3. f the insurer adopts the ptu’e s t r a t e g y of always accepting the a d w c e of the medical information, he can g u a r a n t e e himself a value of 6. 3 irrespective of his o p p o n e n t ‘ s strategy. L e t us now a t t e m p t to improve the me examination b y a d n g a new variable xT, the blood pressure of the proposer Because of the high positive correlation between xt and xv, the selection procedure only retains as signific ant the variables x. % xe and x7 Fig. 9 shows t h a t the distributions are more separated. In fact, the group centroids are now . 4172 and . 828 and the multiple correlation between xo and the selected variables rises to . 407. T h e efficiency hne (fig IO) is uniformly to the right of the f o r m e r one. The intersection with (1) is PF = 37 P,s = . 652 with a critical value of approxunatxvely . 45. The value of the game rises to 6. 52, an i m p r o v e m e n t of 22 for the insurer at the cost of controlling the blood pressure of each proposer (see fig. 1~). 3’ THE BAYES CRITERION I n s t e a d of playing as if the proposer’s sole objective were to o u t s m a r t him, the insurer can a p p l y the B a r e s crlter~on, i. . assume t h a t P2 has a d o p t e d a fixed a priori s t r a t e g y H e can suppose (from past experience o1†³ from the results of a sample s u r v e y p e r f o r m e d with a m a x n n a i mecal examination) t h a t a p r o p o r t i o n Pn of the proposers is healthy. The analysis is easier m this 12 JEAN LEMAIRE case, since P2’s m i x e d strategy is now assumed to be known P t only faces a one-dimensional p r o b l e m ‘ he must maximize his utility on the d o t t e d vertical line of fig. 12. Pc/Of f p~ to JD A t B, N C ol eall hy 1 – PH PH non heoll hy Fig 12 One notices from fig. 12 t h a t a medical examination is sometimes useless, especially if PH is near 1. In this case, P t ‘ s optimal s t r a t e g y is to accept all the proposers. In the general case, P t should m a x m n z e the linear function of PF a n d PH [~5FB + (1 – – pF)A]~SH + [paD + (I – ps)c] (1 – PH), under the condition t h a t PF and Ps are linked b y the efficiency curve of fig. 4. As far as the example is concerned, this economic function (represented in fig lo) becomes 1. Ps – 3 4PF if one supposes that p2’s mixed s t r a t e g y is to present 15% of bad risks. 6. 8 + F o r the first set of medical information (xl, x2, x6), tile m a x i m u m is reached at the point Ps = . 28, PF = . 09. Since PH is r a t h e r tngh, this is a v e r y slow detector, yielding a fmal u t d l t y of 6. 914. Comparing to the optimal n n x e d strategy, this represents an increase in utility of . 614, due to tlie exploitation of . P2’s poor play. Of course, tliis d e t e c t o r is only good as long as P2 sticks to LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING 3 his mixed strategy. It is uneffective against a change in the proposers’ behaviour: if for instance PH suddenly drops below . 725, P~’s utlhty decreases under 6. 3, the guaranteed payoff with the mlmmax strategy In this aspect, the Bayes criterion implies a more optimistic attitute of P1. For the second set of medical information (x2, m, xT), the opblnal detector (Ps = . 45, ~bF = o9) grants a utility of 7. t69 if PH = . 85, an improvement of . 649 colnparing to the ininimax strategy (see fig. 11). 4. T O W A R D S MORE R E A L I S M 4. 1. Surcharges Conceptually, the introduction of the possibility of accepting a proposer with a surcharge presents little difficulty: it amounts to introduce one more pure strategy for the insurer. Payoll to ID A G B heollhy non heoil hy F , g . 13 A detector could then be defined by two critical values C1 and C2 enveloping an m c e m t u d e or surcharge zone. The two critical limits would detelmme 4 probabihtles fl~ f12 p8 p4 = = = = probability probabihty probability probability of of of of accepting a bad risk surcharging a bad risk rejecting a good risk surcharging a good risk 14 JEAN LEMAIRE ealthy non healthy V Surchar~le I C1 C2 Fig. 14 and two efficiency curves. A necessary condition for a detector to be optimal is that the corresponding payoff hne is horizontal, i. e. that (2) (1–p3-~@A + 7b,G + p3B = ( 1 – p ~ – p 2 ) D + P2H + P~C. The two efficiency curves and (2) determine 3 relations between the probabilities. One more degree of freedom is thus available to maxim ize the payoff. 4. 2. Increaszng the Number of Strategies of P2 In order to practically implement the preceding theory one should subdivide P2’s strategy â€Å"present a non healthy proposer† according to the arious classes of diseases. P1 should then have as pure strategaes: reject, accept, a set of surcharges, and follow detector’s advice, and P2 as m a n y pure strategms as the number of health classes. The graphical interpretation of the game is lost, but linear programming fan be used in order to determine its value and optimal strategies. Appendix: The Likehhood Ratio Method Let — x be the value of tlle discriminant variable, healthy, – – p(H) and p(NH) the a priori probabihties of being healthy or non – – f(x I H) and f(x ] NH) the conditional distributions of x. We can then compute the a posterior1 probability of being non healthy, given the value of the discriminant variable (1) p = p ( N g ix) = f(x l g H ) p ( N H ) f(x l N H ) p ( g g ) + f ( x l H)p(H)† LIFE INSURANCE UNDERWRITING 15 Similarly p ( H I x) = l – p. T h e e x p e c t e d payoffs for the two decisions are EPA = ( 1 – p ) A EPR = (1-p)B Define D* to be D* = EPA — + pC + po. EPn = [(A-B)+(D-C)]p – (A-B). Consequently, D* is a linear function of p, with a positive slope. There exists a critical ~b, ~b,, for which D* = o’ (A – B ) Pc = ( A – B ) + ( D – C ) nd the optimal decision rule is to reject if p Pc ( t h e n D * o ) a n d t o – – accept if p Pc (then D * o ) . — If f ( x [ H) and f(x I N H ) are normal densities with equal variances, there is a one-to-one m o n o t o n i c relationship between p and x, and thus the crttmal p r o b a b l h t y Pc induces a critical value xe. In general , however, the cutoff point is not unique. T h e r e m a y be two or more critical values. In t h a t case, we define the likelihood ratio of x for hypothesis N H over hypothesis H as f(x [ N H ) L(x) Of f(x I H) c o u r s e o _- L(x) = oo. S u b s t i t u t i n g L(x) in (1) gives 1 P = or 1 L(x) p ( N H ) + p(H) p 1 (2) L(x) – p ( N H ) l – p † F o r constant a priori probabilities, there is a m o n o t o n e relationship between p and L(x); L(x) goes from o to oo as p goes from o to 1. Therefore, a unique critical likelihood ratio Lc(x) exists and can be obtained b y replacing Pc for p in (2) (3) p(H) A – B Lc(x) – p ( N H ) D – C† ] 6 JEAN LEMAIRE p 1. 0 ~-Pc = 0 5 0. 5 I I I NH H I_-~ X? I J_ X? 2 H — Fig. 15 The optimal decision rule reads if L(x) L c ( x ) , reject; if L ( x ) L c ( x ) , accept. Notice that, i f A – B = D – C , pc = 1/2 The decision rule is equivalent to maximizing the e x p e c t e d n u m b e r of correct classifications. F r o m (3) p(H) L e(x) #(NH)† If, furthermore, the prior probabii]ties are equal, Lc(x) = 1. REFERENCES AXELROD, 1~ (1978) Copzng wzth deception, International conference on applied game theory, Vmnna LEE, V,r. (1971) Dec~szon theory and human behaviour, J. Wiley, New York LuCE, R and H ]{AIFFA (1957). Games and deczszons, J Wiley, New York. OWEN, G. (1968) Game theory, ~V. Saunders, Philadelphia. How to cite Game Theory and Life Insurance, Essays

Labour Dispute in Honda-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Discuss about the Event that took place in China Concerning Labour Dispute in Honda. Answer: Introduction The report analyses an event that took place in China concerning labour dispute in Honda. The situation related to the case study depicts the issues that arise in managing human resources and employee relations. Employee relations are important in order to understand the relations that exist between employees and employers (Tansel Gazo?lu, 2014). The case study provides an analysis of lessons from the strike that took place in China and the understanding of the issues that caused these issues. The report sheds light on two values that are related to the application of strategic management and the impact it has on the employee relations in the market of China. Background relevant to the problem On 17th May 2010, a strike at the Honda automobile factory suspended operations in four of the bases of Honda production in China. The managers raised the pay if the employees by 24% that resulted in halting the action of a strike as early as June. Due to the strike, it was reported that Honda had suffered a great loss in the business. About 3 billion yuan worth of sales was lost due to the results of the strike. The main reason behind the strike was the fact that workers in China demanded a greater pay due to the rise in the economy of the country. Hence, the Japanese company was forced to increase the payment of the staffs. However, in certain areas in China, the factories remained closed due to the lack of presence of important components required for manufacturing the vehicle. Reports suggest that Honda produces about 650,000 vehicles per year in China. Due to the loss of these factories the company suffered huge loss (Routerlogin.com, 2017). Nearly a quarter of the Chinese emplo yees did not receive any pay raise for the last five years. The strike was also the result of the fact that Japanese people working in Honda received 50 times more salary than the Chinese workers. For about three days, the labour problem existed that saw two factories and two assembly plants being shut down. The strike resulted in the loss of supply of labour as most of the employees refused to work in an environment conditions that required more manual labour at a less pay (Washingtonpost.com, 2017). The strike which lasted for a couple of weeks ultimately ended after the managers of Honda agreed to raise the wages of the Chinese people. About 1900 Chinese workers were offered a raise from 24% to 32%. However, the lockdown that took place in Honda resulted in the rise of other strikes around the country due to low salary and minimum wages. Hence, the Government of China passed a law demanding the rise of minimum wage standards and to treat the employees with dignity (Nytimes.com, 2017). It has been seen that the strikes that occurred due to low pay and mistreatment of employees working in Honda, had a bad influence in the other sectors of the country. This was particularly seen among the foreign countries that have set up base in China. The labour unrest that the country witnessed due to the coverage of the Honda incident became national news in the country. Zhao (2012) stated that the most of the labour issues remain unreported due to the poor reputation of the company or due to political interference. The introduction of labour law that helps in addressing the grievances of the employees saw the grievance rate being doubled. The rate, at which the low-wage and migrant workers revolted against the policies adopted in Honda, is indicative of the level of unrest of labours that was prevalent in the country (World.time.com, 2017). Relevant values applied with the problem Application of unitarist value The unitarist theory states organisations to be considered as one member. The employees working in an organisation are related to each other and at towards the objective of the organisation by forming a team. Bray, Waring Cooper (2014) stated that the cooperation between the members helps in the growth of organisational harmony and the united effort help an organisation to attain its goals. It also demands the loyalty of the employees and the managers in terms of achieving organisational success. Hence, in order to keep an organisation united, unitarist theories propose the idea of managers and leaders becoming the main source that binds an organisation together. Fox (1966) stated that it is the duty of the leaders to promote loyalty and responsibility among the people working in an organisation. The fact that organisations can be divided into groups and subgroups cannot be considered by the unitarist theorists. The unitarist embrace a united view of an organisation in terms of an e mployment relationship. The fact that employees and employers can be rivals to one another and that any rift can be caused between them is rejected by the unitarist philosophy. The fact that conflicts of interest exist among different members in an organisation is not entertained by the unitarist approach (Ross Bamber, 2009). This is because conflicts are seen to cause negativity among the members of an organisation. In order to mitigate the effect of labour reform in China, Honda can follow the unitarist approach in order to attain sustainability in the organisation. In the case of the Honda situation in China, the main reason for the cause of the conflict was due to disputes over payment. It has been seen that the local people of the country were paid a very low wage and asked to work more than the payment structure. This caused dissatisfaction among the employees as a perception prevailed that the organisation is improving the financial stability without by ignoring the needs of the employees (Ft.com, 2017). Hence, measures such as raising the salary were taken by the managers of Honda. The application of the unitarist practice could have helped Honda to remain united during the labour revolution. This could have been with the help of the leaders. According to Lyddon et al., (2015), it is the duty of the leaders to communicate with the employees and ensure that any grievances of the employees are brought forward to the attention of the managers. The unitarist approach does not support the interference of trade unions in the matters between mana gers and employees. The trade unions are not considered legal and consequently, the opinion provided by the union members are not taken into consideration by the unitarist theorists. Hence, the manager of Honda needed to ensure that the company does not face problems regarding the labour laws. In this regard, the advantages, as well as the disadvantages of the application of unitarist approach, can be considered. Benefits of the issue The advantages of unitarist approach include integrating the interests of the employees and employer (Waltman, 2008). The integration of interests enhances the commitment of the employees and the loyalty. Wailes et al., (2016) stated that this is important as a committed employee can contribute more to the success of an organisation. The loyalty and commitment also employees to bond with one another thereby, making a successful team. This can also lead to managing stakeholders of the company in an effective manner as employees are perceived to be the important stakeholder in an organisation. Hence, the welfare of the employees is considered as important as the organisations. Apart from this, the managers attain an all win situation while leading the employees. According to Fiorito Jarley (2008), proper management and leadership styles are developed in order to align the interests of the managers with the employees. This is important in order to ensure that the organisational objecti ves are maintained keeping in mind the interests of the employees as well as the employers. In the case of Honda Company situated in China, the integration between the employees and employers were absent. This resulted in the rise of misunderstanding between the employees and the employers (Black, 2005). Apart from this, the objective of the managers of the organisation was not inclined with that of the employees. The aim of the organisation is to make profits by paying minimum wages to the workers. Hence, the employees were denied fair payment. Unfair means of treating employees led to the strikes in the organisation. In this regard, it can be said that the unitarist approach was not applied by Honda while operating in China. Keeping the advantages of the theory in mind, the disadvantages can also be analysed. Risk of the issue The fact that unitarist theory does not separate the power and designation of managers with that of the employees can act as a disadvantage. This is because the employees may take certain decisions that may not involve the consent of the managers. Conflict of interests that arise between the employees and employers are also perceived negatively. According to Blanpain (2010), conflicts are a part of the organisation that helps to understand the interests and demands of the employees and the employers. Conflicts may generate different opinions of the employees but the changes suggested during conflict situations can help in the development of an organisation. Unitarist approach also integrates common interests of the employees and shares it with the organisation. This is another disadvantage as the personal individuals of the employees do not matter to the organisational success. It does not provide any guidelines for the managers to follow. Thus, in the case of the conflict of China, the presence of the conflict of interest was seen among the employees. Hence, following unitarist approach could have helped the company as the conflict resulted in the lockdown of the facilities of the company (Boxall, 2008). The main conflict of interest that arose in the company was that of task management. In this regard, it can be said that the management of Honda had adopted a pluralist approach in regard to the practices adopted by the company. Hence, the limitations of unitarist approach lead managers to ignore the possibility of adopting this practice. Application of pluralistic value According to Thunnissen, Boselie Fruytier (2013), pluralistic perspective considered organisations that consisted of powerful and divergent sub-groups. The people within these sub-groups prove to be loyal towards the objective of the organisation and the leaders. This is mainly because of the fact people in the organisation have diverse thoughts and beliefs. Such diversity in organisations exists due to the existence of different cultural people in the organisations. Employees are of diverse backgrounds that possess different values and beliefs. These beliefs are mainly based on the cultural background of the countries (Schregle, 1981). Apart from this opposing leadership and attachments exist in organisations. The leadership styles of people are different from one another and as a result, there exists the difference of loyalty in the organisations. This also leads to a conflict of interest among the employees. Hence, managers, as well as employees, need to play multiple roles in or der to achieve organisational success. Unlike unitarist approach, pluralists believe that conflict can be helpful for organisations if it is dealt with the industry. Conflict and stability of the employee relation can be maintained providing concession and negotiations between employee and employers. Processes can be used in order to come to a conclusion about the conflict in the organisation by collective bargaining. In this regard, the situation faced in China can be attributed to the pluralist approach. This is mainly because the managers need to mediate among the conflicting interests of the employees. In the case of Honda, the approach of some of the employees of China was mainly based on the pluralistic approach. This is because of the fact that the some of the Chinese employees felt that they are being paid less than the Japanese counterparts. The workload done by both employees varies as well. Reports state that the Chinese employees are made to work more in the automobile company than the Japanese employees (Whitfield, Delbridge Brown, 1999). Hence, the organisations had practised pluralist approach. However, the negativity of the approach is the fact that the conflict of interest among the employees and employers did not contribute to the success of the organisation. Instead, most of the organisations were under lockdown due to the existence of labour issues. As stated by Khoreva et al., (2017) the managers of the company had created opposing leadership in the organisation. The fact that the Japanese employees were differentiated with the Chinese employees provided the sourc e of opposing leadership. This also led to the loss of commitment and loyalty towards the organisation. Due to the existence of such pluralistic approach, the organisation had to suffer. The fact that Honda is an internationally famous company, the diversity among the employees results in varying interests among the employees. This is also indicative of the fact that the reason for the conflict of interest is due to the existence of such diverse employees. Despite trying to divide the organisation into various departments and ensuring that conflicts exist, a pluralistic approach has certain advantages. Benefit of the issue One such advantage includes the effectiveness of the intervention of Industrial Relations. According to Armstrong Taylor (2014), pluralists believe that intervention techniques related to Industrial Relations can help in resolving conflicts. Managers can use a consultative approach that can help in negotiating conflicts in the organisation. The consultation needs to be done between the employees as well as the employers in order to understand any prospects of conflict. Apart from this, the alternate decision-making process can also be used in the case of resolving conflicts. Unlike the unitarist approach, pluralists do not overlook conflict. Instead, it is managed by the stakeholders in an effective manner. It can be used to understand the demands of employees as well as the employers and come to a mutual conclusion about the policies that need to be followed. In this regard, such conflict management technique can be used by Honda in order to manage the conflict within the organisat ion. The use of the groups that are involved in conflicting among one another can be used in order to help Honda deliver proper services in the market of China (Purce, 2014). However, this was not to be as the managers had not paid heed to the initial demands of the employees. After the lockdown of a couple of manufacturing firms, the managers agreed to raise the wages of the employees. In this regard, it can be said that the conflict started by the employees of Honda instigated more regional conflicts in China. Risk of the issue In this regard, certain disadvantages of pluralist approach can also be considered. One such disadvantage is the fact that the pluralist theory follows the process and rules that help in the success of an organisation. It disregards other processes that also contribute to the success of an organisation. These processes include a survey of the people, recognising talents of the employees and rewarding each employee for their performances. With the application of pluralists theories, laws can be formulated that help in the effective analysis conflict. These laws include ignoring the presence of a negotiator. Greenwood Van Buren (2017) pointed out that such an approach helps in an open conversation between employees and employers. However, these rules cannot be applicable in organisations that undergo frequent changes in the policies that abide by the legal rules. In this regard, it can be said that the problem related to Honda Company in China, may not have been solved with the applic ation of pluralist theory. This is mainly because of the rate at which the Chinese laws keep on changing in relation to industries. Poole (2013) stated that with the rise of conflict of interest among payment of wages, the Government of China increased the wage rate of the employees. Another disadvantage of a pluralist theory is the fact that it fails to undertake the interest of the state in the commercial sector. The fact that any conflict can be resolved without involving the state is a misconception among pluralists (Whitfield, Delbridge Brown, 1999). Thus, the intervention of the Government of China proved that organisations do not have a pluralistic view of managing conflicts. Possible benefits for the application of the value Based on the analysis of the sustainable values it can be said that Honda Company in China needs to embrace the unitarist approach. This is mainly because of the fact that the unitarist approach helps in uniting an organisation. The fact that the Chinese Government plays an important role in the commercial sector of the country proves that the use of pluralistic approach cannot help in improving the condition of the Honda Companies. Despite its disadvantages, the application of unitarist approach is important in order to ensure that the conflict in the Honda Companies does not get repeated. The unity brought about in the organisations is such that, the labours can approach the managers regarding any issues that arise in the organisations. As stated by Siebert et al., (2015) the production prowess of Honda in China helped in the exceptional growth of revenue of the company. The application of a united effort of the employees and managers can help in the effective growth of revenue in the organisation. However, it can be said that the united effort in the organisation may cease the rise of conflict. This can also be harmful to the employees as lack of conflict of interest may lead to the absence of opinion among the people about improvement in organisations (Fiebich Coltheart, 2015). Hence, it can be said that the unitarist approach is one of the best policies that can be applied in order to maintain the productivity of Honda as well as reduce chances of any further serious conflicts in the organisation. Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that the application of unitarist and pluralist approach can help in managing organisations in different manners. The different approach and perspective regarding managing organisations result in the adoption of these approaches based on the type of organisation. 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