General Motors and AvtoVaz of Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

General Motors and AvtoVaz of Russia - Essay Example However, GM could not market their automobiles at this price even though the company had employed different tactics on manufacturing and distribution. Similarly, AvtoVAZ, the largest automobile producer in Russia, had been struggling with sales declines due to product quality issues and tax evasion allegations. In addition, the firm had no sufficient capital to rebuild their business although it had innovative product designs including Niva. Hence, either GM or AvtoVAZ was not in a position to develop and market the Niva without an external assistance. At this juncture, they jointly decided to integrate AvtoVAZ’s domestic market dominance with GM’s technical expertise and market repute. Evidently, the proposed Joint venture (JV) is potential for both organizations. This JV strategy will certainly add value to GM’ global expansion vision since Russia is a potential emerging market. From the case study, it is clear that GM failed to operate successfully in Russian market even though it had practiced the traditional emerging market approach of manufacturing complete cars in its own plants and reassembling the deassembled parts in Russia with local labor. The main cause of failure of GM in Russian market was low income levels of Russians that forced the company to fix extremely cheaper prices for its products. If GM operates its plants in Russia, it can avoid shipping charges and import duties and ultimately use the economies of domestic production to set affordable prices for Russian customers. Furthermore, AvtoVAZ is the most leading player in Russian automobile industry although it currently struggles with some quality issues. Therefore, the JV will assist GM to take advantages of widespread business territories as well as deep Russian market experience of AvtoVAZ. In addition, the national distribution network established by the AvtoVAZ dealers will be beneficial for the GM to skip from the difficulty of developing a dealer network from scr atch. Hence, the proposed integration would promote value creation, a process of identifying competitive alternatives to trim down costs and thereby to provide maximum benefits to customers. Many of the economists hold the view that business integration would contribute to value creation due to operational efficiencies from an internal market and selection of distributors and suppliers (Means of corporate strategy, slide 6). Likewise, the case background clearly points out that it would be very difficult for the firm to compete in Russian automobile market. The Russian automobile sector noticeably lagged behind other huge players in the industry even though the Russian government had specifically focused on the industry’ modernization and development. The case report reflects that the Russian automobile industry’s â€Å"inadequate capital, poor infrastructure, and deep-seated mismanagement and corruption resulted in outdated, unreliable, and unsafe automobiles† (â€Å"General Motors and†¦:, 2). In addition, the instability of Russian economy often causes problems to automobile manufactures as a result of unexpected tax impositions and changes in regulations. Intense political issues in Russia adversely affected the sustainable growth of the country’s automobile industry. Increased rate of defects in new cars was another issue, which persuaded the people to boycott Russian made automobiles. Finally, higher crime rates in the country forced the foreign marketers and

Methodology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Methodology - Essay Example In the training step, the characteristics will be derived from a recognized speaker sound then stored in a database that has a model or an outline like Password or Name. The stored information is then extracted by means of the model given by an unidentified speaker. The recovered data is then compared with characteristics extracted from the unidentified speaker sound. If the evaluation result is positive, then the unidentified speaker will be validated. The figure above 3.2.2 demonstrates two things: how the word will be accepted from the speakers voice as well as how to distinguish the personality of the speaker. The speech identification will need from the speaker to record the word. The classifier will be employed so as to extract the characteristics of the voice of the speaker and then the representation will be made and saved in the catalog. Just for the speaker identification the speakers voice will be recorded then features will be taken out and will be evaluated against the other speakers models so as to accept or reject the personality of a speaker. The figure above 3.2.3 demonstrates the enrollment along with verification phases, in the previous stage the speakers voice will be recorded so as to extract the attribute from his/her voice. After that, the replica will be created for every speaker word and will be stored it in the database. During the verification stage, the speaker’s voice will be recorded, and then the traits will be extorted from the speakers voice. After that, the choice will be made so as to accept or reject the speaker depending on the assessment of the extracted characteristic from a speaker along with the other recognized speaker models that were stored in the database. For this project, I employed Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for recognition of speech. 3.1 Hardware depiction: The software will be executed by means of some devices such as Microphone in addition to the computer, the microphone should

Townsends Theories of Recruitment and Selection

Townsends Theories of Recruitment and Selection This essay will argue Townsends research into the paradox of recruitment and selection, training and the high level of turnover that appears in the growing industry of call. His research is based on PowerGrid, which is an Australian Government owned Power Company. There has been an enormous increase in the number of call centres, due to this a large number of interesting issues have arisen such as high level of turnover in call centres, despite companies spending vast sums of money on training and recruiting. The research of Townsend is valuable and meaningful for there has been little academic research conducted in the area of recruitment, training and turnover in call centres. This essay will be based on the critical review of Townsends use of research methods, findings, practical implications and the concepts he used. Townsend adopts a three-step research strategy. Specifically, a seven-month non-participant job observation, ten interviews of managers and leaders in the organization and an analysis of the human resource documents compose the research method. Townsend considers the importance of PowerGrid call centre mainly for two reasons: At first, during the 1990s Australian government deregulation to power supplies session, PowerGrid had grew out of joint efforts by other power suppliers; Next, the PowerGrid call centre was based on Erlang C model which uses mathematical method to calculate and predict call volumes and keep balance of contact within the call centre (Angus, 2001).ÂÂ  Townsends findings suggest that the company was able to reduce its cost of training and recruitment through internal transfers. Moreover, Townsend points out that training should focus more on emotional labour as it is important for call centre agents to show to their customers rather than solely focus on techn ical trainings and the role of the human resource department is to hire the best candidates and filter out the ones who may be incompetent. Looking at the literature, the paradox between high cost of recruitment and training and high ratio of employees turnover in the sector of call centres, could be described as a sacrificial HR strategy (Wallace, Eagleson Waldersee, 2000), this formed the basis of Townsends research. By agreeing with (korczynski, 2002) Townsend accepts the idea that organizations face dual imperatives for instance call centres want to minimise their costs but on the other hand have to provide excellent service to its customers. But companies mainly use call centres to minimize their cost rather than offer customer service, although call centre managers describes customers service as their main goal (Robinson Morley, 2006). Townsend agrees with (Mulholland, 2002) that whatever the type of call centre it may be, Customer service representatives (CSRs) have to show a high degree of emotional labor to the customers. CSRs are also required to have the ability of micro-self manage (Wray-Bliss, 2001).But on the other hand he disagrees with (Hochschild, 1983) that those CSRs who displayed artificial emotional labour suffered from negative consequences. Townsends argument is supported by findings of (Wharton, 1993) who through his research suggested that emotional labour does not cause any negative consequences. Townsend discusses the importance of the role of recruitment towards the future and wellbeing of an organisation and compares it to the role of a gate keeper (2007: 57). It should be noted that by hiring competent applicants the firms productivity and performance can be improved significantly (Russo, Rietveld, Nijkamp Gorter, 1995). It is also better to employ those people who are willing to learn. (2007: 478). Besides, Townsend agrees with (Breaugh Starke, 2000) who suggested that new recruits job satisfaction and initial performance should be more important to organisations. That is, when the applicants are being hired it is important for the employers to see, whether the applicants attitude is suitable to organisations and this should be considered more important than ones technical skills. As mentioned before, PowerGrid is a government-owned Australian electricity supplier. Townsend acknowledges that there is difference between governments owned companies and privately owned companies. As he identifies the unique characteristics, there is a debate on whether the findings of this case could be generalized to private companies. Moreover, its rational to doubt whether Townsend has paid attention to the fact that his research is conducted in Government run working environment. Townsend argues that PowerGrid being a Government owned company has to have its call centers in the country, which increases costs, while on the other hand they need to be efficient in terms of operations. But being a Government owned company it has the protection of the Government in terms of costs. Private companies on the other hand do not have this advantage and may need to outsource their call centres in order to cut down their costs, to low costs countries such as India and Philippines (Snow, 2 005). Townsend identifies that PowerGrid makes internal transfers which it called positive turnover; this is when CSRs moved within the organisation. Due to this the organisation is able to reduce its training and recruitment cost which otherwise would have been spent on hiring and training new candidates. As (Robinson Morley, 2006) confirmed high staff turnover rate in call centres can greatly affect the cost impact on business and that could be direct costs; that are training, recruiting etc. or could be indirect for instance bad customer service. But Townsend fails to give any evidence for his findings as to how we can see if the organization was able to reduce its costs by internal transfers. According to Townsend, PowerGrid used a three stage training programs for the new recruits (2007: 485). He mentions that the first stage is the basic training program away from the computer and it is done in an environment that is decorated with nappies, baby clothes and pacifiers. He mentions that the management calls it the nursery. However, he questions the logic of using this word and shows some reservations about whether using this word is appropriate for this level but then agrees to the concept of the management who call it as part of the fun in the organization. But training programs are at the entry level of the company and may give wrong perceptions of the company, the perceptions may become permanent and in future it would be difficult to change these perceptions (Marchington, 2005). Townsend points out at some of the problems faced by Powergrid with regards to training of new CSRs. Previously the training time for news CSRs was eight weeks (2007: 484). A new system was to be introduced that would half that time to nearly four weeks. Even though the management spend AU$ 30 million on the new system, it turned out to be a failure as it not only doubled the training time as new recruits would have to learn both the systems but also increased employee dissatisfaction. He points out the ineffective communication and low employee involvement during the development and implementation of this new system when he mentions about the training team leader who points out that the management did not disclose to him information about the new system due to which the new system became an add on (2007: 484) to the old system rather than a completely new system. According to Lewis, (1999) there is a direct link between communication process within the organisation and organisationa l change implementation. Townsend identifies that the training for the employees was mostly focused on technical and product knowledge rather than on emotional labour. He believes that money would be well spent if it was spent on trying to improve the emotional labour rather than spend it on other skills. But he fails to provide any ideas on how this can be improved. Townsend points out at the dissatisfaction of the CSRs with the management (2007: 485). The employees are unhappy with the schedule for their trainings because they had to perform their training modules outside their working hours. The employees felt they were already overburdened as they only got thirty minutes of release time which was spent mainly to check their emails. The CSRs would be dissatisfied because a CSRs job is more stressful and less satisfying as compared to other jobs (Holdsworth Cartwright, 2003). Dissatisfaction of managers can be identified in PowerGrid. As a call centre manager called himself between a rock and a hard place (2007: 487) as they had to do continuous recruitment as some of their employees would move through to the larger organization due to internal transfers and many would leave the organization altogether as they would be heavily scrutinized through the software analysis system or will not get enough pay or benefits. So in order to retain the employees the organization must offer its employees good pay and benefits and should adopt a transparent performance management system (Raman, Budhwar Balasubramanian, 2007). There can be weaknesses identified in Townsends research methods. He used three steps to conduct his research. Firstly, he used non participant job observations to carry out his research. Non participant job observations include two types direct or indirect observations (Rowley, 2004). It has not been mentioned if he used direct or indirect observations, as in direct observations questions can be asked and may lead to change in behavior of the people observed, on the other hand indirect observations cannot be used for gaining information on perceptions, attitudes etc. (Rowley, 2004). He made observations only once or twice a week which seem not enough. Effective observation is an art and needs to be honed and perfected overtime (Rowley, 2004). There is nothing mentioned in the article that suggests that whether the author has experience or has gone through training to conduct and observation at this level. Secondly, he then conducted eighteen interviews of key personnel in the company who included contact centre manager, call centre manager, training team leader, roster and planning officer and human resource representatives, out of which he selects only ten interviews that he believed were relevant to topic of his research. The author should provide more detailed criteria for choosing only ten interviews out of the original eighteen. Thirdly, he obtained data from the organisation related to the Human resource department and analysed it to reach the conclusion. He has not mentioned what type of data he used to come to conclusions neither he has mentioned any process or methods that he used to analyse and interpret the data. There are two methods for data analysis; Computer based analysis and manual analysis (Borch Arthur, 1995). So in this case we dont know if he has used manual or computer based analysis or a combination of both. As some researchers use one type of methodology while some use a combination of both (Borch Arthur, 1995). Due to the debatable nature of Townsends research methods it is very difficult to find his results conclusive. However, he agrees with (Mulhollands, 2002) which suggest that CSRs need to show a high degree of emotional labor to the customers. Lack of proper planning and communication can be seen between the management of PowerGrid as they wasted AU$30 million in trying to implement a new software without consulting the training team leader and it turned out to be an add on (2007: 486). He identified that the recruitment and selection department should act like a gate keeper (2007: 478) in order to only let in the right candidates. He emphasized that training should focus more on emotional labour, as it is the most important aspect while communicating with the customers, rather than focusing on technical skills. Townsend fails to identify by how much the company was able to reduce the cost of turnover when they had to keep recruiting throughout the year due to employees moving into th e larger organization or leaving the organization altogether. This research provides useful information for practitioners in the call centres. However, researchers who further study, need to research in depth into industry of call centre and should specially address the limitations found in Townsends study. Townsend wanted to consider the paradox of extensive recruitment and training conducted in call centres that are faced with high levels of turnover. He came to the conclusion that PowerGrid was able to reduce its cost of recruitment and training, by having internal transfers within the larger organisation. Furthermore, Townsend has been able to identify certain problems within PowerGrid. He has failed to highlight is there any difference between this call centre and other private call centres. He has advocated that there should be a great emphasis on training of emotional labour rather than technical training but he has been unable to provide any suggestion how it can be done. Finally, Non-participant job observations, interviews are types of qualitative research methods which can be called problematic because of problems with their validity and reliability (Kirk Miller, 1986) REFERENCES: Angus, I. (2001). An introduction to Erlang B and Erlang C. Telemanagement, (187): 6-8. Breaugh, J. and Starke, M. (2000). Research on employee recruitment: so many studies, so many remaining questions.Journal of Management, 26(3): 405-34. Borch, O.J. and Arthur, M.B. (1995). Strategic networks among small firms: implications for strategy research methodology. Journal of Management Studies, 32(4): 419-441 Catterall, M. (1996). Using Computer programs to code qualitative data. Marketing Intelligence Planning Journal, 14(4): 29- 33. Hochschild, A. (1983).The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human feeling.University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. Holdsworth, L and Cartwright, S. (2003). Empowerment, stress and satisfaction: an exploratory study of a call centre.Leadership Organisation Development Journal, 24 (3):131-140. Kirk, J. and Miller, M. (1986). Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research.London, Sage. Lewis, L.K. (1999). Disseminating information and soliciting input during planned organisational change: implementers targets, sources, and channels for communicating.Management Communication Quarterly, 13(1):43-75. korczynski, M. (2002).Human Resource Management in Service Work. Palgrave, Basingstoke Marchington, M. (2005). Human Resource Management at Work. London: Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks New Delhi. Mulholland, K. (2002). Gender emotional labour and teamworking in a call centre.Personnel review, 31(3):283-303. Raman, S.R.;Budhwar P. andBalasubramanian G. (2007).People management issues in Indian KPOs.Employee Relations, 29(6): 696-710. Robinson, G. and Morley, C. (2006). Call centre management: responsibilities and performance.International Journal of Service Industry Management, 17(3): 284-300. Rowley J. (2003) Researching people and organisations, Library Management Volume, 15(4/5): 208-214. Russo, G.; Rietveld, P.; Nijkam, P. and Gorter, C. (1995).Issues in recruitment strategies: an economic perspective.The International Journal of Career Management, 7(3): 3-13. Snow, J. (2005). UK call centres: crossroads of an Industry. Journal of Property Investment Finance, 23(6): 525-532. Townsend, K. (2005). Considering progress in Greenfield site.International employment relations review, 11(1/2):76-79 Wallace, C.;Eagleson, G. and Waldersee, R. (2000). The sacrificial HR strategy in callcentres. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 11(2): 174-184. Wharton, A.S. (1993). The affective consequences of service work.Work and Occupations, 20: 205-232 Wray-Bliss, E. (2001). Representing customer service: telephones and texts. Customer service. in Sturdy, A., Grugulis, I., Willmott, H. (Eds),Customer Service: Empowerment and Entrapment, Palgrave, London, .

leadership and management :: essays research papers

The Functions of management Henri Fayol – first person to come up with a list of functions or elements of management †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Planning – setting objectives and also strategies, policies, programmes and procedures for achieving them. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organising – managers set tasks which need to be preformed if the business wants to achieve its objectives. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Commanding – this involves giving instructions to subordinates to carry out tasks. The manager has the authority to make decisions. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Co-ordinating – this is the bringing together of the activities of people within the business. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Controlling – managers measure and correct the activities of individuals and groups, to make sure that their performance fits in with plans. The management process Peter Drucker – grouped the operations of management into five categories †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Setting objectives for the organisation †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Job measurement – assessing whether the business has met its objectives †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organising the work †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Motivating employees †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Developing people – the management should bring out the best in people Four styles of management Autocratic – orders come form the top, and no leeway is allowed Democratic – less centralised, give space for initiative Laissez faire – arises from over worked or lazy management, staff is left to their own devices Paternalistic – decision making is still centralised but a noticeable attention and care for staff McGregor’s Theory X & Y Douglas McGregor undertook a survey of managers in the USA and identified two styles of management, which he called Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X managers tend to distrust their subordinates; they believe employees do not enjoy their work and that need to be controlled. Theory X is about the views managers have on their workforce. Theory Y managers believe that employees do enjoy their work and they want to contribute ideas and effort. Theory Y manager is more likely to involve employees in decisions Why do leader adopt different styles? Fiedler – argued that ‘it is easier to change someone’s role or power, or to modify the job he has to do, than to change his leadership style’. He found that it is difficult for people to change their leadership styles – an autocrat will always lead in n autocratic style. Fiedler suggested that a business should attempt what he called leadership match – to find a leader to fit the situation. Leader can either be task orientated or relationship orientated Hersey and Blanchard – argued that a leader’s strategy should not only take account of the situation, but also the maturity of those who are led. A leader will have task behaviour or relationship behaviour.

Life Lessons Essay

A moment that will forever change my life happened two years ago during my sophomore year, I will never forget it, but I am also thankful that it happened because I have learned from my mistake and it has taught me a few valuable life lessons. Two years ago, I moved up to Eugene to live with my aunt and uncle for the year to experience a new life setting. I was thrilled to experience new things, meet new people, and learn new ways of living in a big city. It was the first day of school at Willamette High school, I was filled with excitement to be attending a new school and meet different people, I had a goal that day to make a great first impression to start my year off. When lunch time came, I was going to have lunch with my cousin and his friends to get a start on meeting people. We found out that our ride was making its way down the street already, my cousin Artees, said to me to run and jump into the car. Without fully thinking about this, I made the decision to go for it. Running to catch up to the car felt like forever, but I made it to the door that was open for me to jump in, I was able to get up inside the car and was almost fully in, I suddenly felt a tug on my backpack and started falling back out, not being able to catch myself, I fell out of the car landing underneath and have both legs ran over from the ankles down. I remember this happening very quickly and seeing nothing but the bright sun in my view. The pain I went through is indescribable, it felt as if you had your legs cut off and a burning sensation as if you were being burned. Read more:Â  Essay About Lessons Learned From Parents I wasn’t unconscious but felt as if I was in another world, everything was happening very slow and I could hear people screaming around me and Artees above me saying he was sorry and if I was doing okay. All the voices I was hearing sounded like a whisper and as if everything was a blur. It seemed like I was lying in the middle of the road for hours and fell into a little sleep, I remember opening my eyes to people circled around me looking down at me with my cousin holding me, then came paramedics breaking the crowd. I was quickly in put in a neck brace, and strapped to a board. I had my pants cut off while in the road to get to my legs, at the time I didn’t care at all how many people were watching me, but now it is weird to think how many hundreds of people saw me in my underwear. Quickly I was in the hospital was doctors all around me and my family devastated by my bed side. After many x-rays and CT scans, we discovered that I miraculously broke no bones, but fractured my ankles badly, crushed arteries and muscles, severe nerve damage and broke blood vessels that still two years later, have not grown back. I spent a week back in Bend to recover, which was a struggle all in itself. I was bed ridden for seven days and to shower or use the bathroom, I had to be carried everywhere. When I attempted to walk on my own, shooting pain would soar my entire body and my ankles would make a cracking noise. After a week, I felt well enough to try and go back to school. I wore ankle braces day and night, and used crutches. As I expected, I got many stares daily and had people whisper when I was around. I made it through with much support from my cousin. It has almost been three years now since my accident, and still I have pain in my ankles that have spread throughout my legs that I deal with daily. I am not able to stand for more than ten minutes and now have a disease called neuropathy that makes my entire leg either very cold or very hot, tingle, swell, and I am in sever pain daily. I also have nightmares and flashbacks about that day weekly, and have anxiety being in cars and walking on sidewalks. I have been told by my orthopedic doctor that I am going to live with this for the rest of my life, so I have learned to deal with this better. What I have learned from my experience is to always think things through even if you think if you do something, it is going to impress someone, the result can be bad, leave you with injuries, or even be fatal. I am thankful everyday that this didn’t turn out worse, and I am still here today.

Internet Security Essay

During the past ten years, the intensiveness and variety of electronic financial transactions have increased dramatically. The last decade was characterised by the rapid spreading of financial transactions involving the use of online and/ or remote mechanisms. E-services and e-transactions have become an essential element of the postmodern technological reality. As the number of online financial services increases, so do the number and variety of security threats. Small and large companies are equally vulnerable to the risks of security breaches in various types of financial transactions. These threats are becoming more and more complex and can take full advantage of the existing network and application vulnerabilities. The current state of technology provides numerous solutions to the existing and emerging security threats; however, the success of the proposed countermeasures will depend on how well businesses realise the seriousness of the major security threats and are prepared to invest additional resources in the development and implementation of the complex security strategies. Security threats and statistical information: The current state of literature A wealth of literature was written about the most serious security threats and the financial losses which security breaches and various types of system vulnerabilities cause to large and small businesses. The period between 2006 and 2008 was marked with the slight decrease in the number of financial frauds and security breaches in financial operations: U. S. Federal Trade Commission asserts that frauds as a percentage of online revenue in the United States and Canada has decreased slightly over the past few years and stabilised at 1. 4 percent in 2008 (Paget 2009). Meanwhile, the losses caused by security breaches and financial fraud display a marked increase – in 2008 alone, the American market lost over $4 billion due to security breaches and financial frauds (Paget 2009). This is a 20 percent increase compared with 2008 (Paget 2009). Given the new trends in technology-related financial services and businesses’ striving to reduce their transaction costs, the development of new methods of e-payment and the use of open architectures will create new technological challenges for professionals and new fraud opportunities for hackers (Glaessner, Kellermann & McNevin 2002). The current state of literature provides the basic overview of the most serious security threats and proposes unique solutions businesses and individuals can take to address these threats. Financial transactions and security threats: what literature says The discussion of security threats in the context of e-financial transactions is one of the most popular topics in scholarly literature. Today, the rapid growth of wireless technology and the increasing role of wireless solutions in daily financial operations turn electronic security into the issue of the major public concern. Numerous authors tried to identify the most important security threats and to categorise them according to their severity and define the risks they pose to the stability of the financial e-flows. For example, Glaessner, Kellerman and McNevin (2002) state that the most frequent problems in the financial transactions arena include (a) insider abuse, (b) identity theft, (c) fraud, and (d) hacking. Cate (2005) concentrates on the discussion of identity-based fraud and suggests that account fraud, true identity fraud and synthetic identity fraud are the three most frequent forms of security threats in online financial transactions. In this context, Keller et al. (2005) seem the most objective and detailed in their observation of the existing security threats and financial transaction issues. According to Keller et al. (2005), the first generation of vulnerabilities started in the middle of the 1980s and took a form of boot viruses that affected computers and networks over the course of weeks; the next generation of viruses was spread by means of macros and e-mails. Denial-of-service attacks became prevalent in the middle of the 1990s and still present one of the basic problems in financial transactions domains (Keller et al. 2005). New types of threats include worms that affect individual and multiple computers and networks, and can easily self-replicate to infect large number of users (Keller et al. 2005). Trojans are used extensively to steal passwords or create back doors on computers, compromising network security (Keller et al. 2005). Keller et al. (2005) believe that the rapid expansion of spyware and malware are of particular concern to IT specialists and business people – these programmes are downloaded into computers without users’ knowledge or consent, typically run in the background, track personal information and execute damaging commands. Statistically, every PC contains approximately 27. 5 pieces of various malicious programmes (Keller et al. 2005). Fortunately, IT professionals actively work to develop effective countermeasures against the most sophisticated security threats. Financial transactions and security threats: Potential solutions Given that malware presents one of the most serious issues in the field of electronic financial transactions, numerous authors sought to offer their solutions to the problem. Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) provide an overview of the so-called Proactive malware identification system, which is based on the computer hygiene principles and demonstrates relative effectiveness in combating the risks of malware in financial transactions. Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) call the proposed algorithm PROMIS and base it on a peer-to-peer architecture; the choice of the P2P architecture is justified by the fact that P2P networks often become a propagation vector for various types of malicious software. The P2P architecture used by Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) contains two types of nodes, the member and the super nodes, and all nodes wishing to participate in the discussed P2P networks must authenticate themselves to the super nodes. PROMIS nodes generally fulfill the two basic types of operations – a Notifier daemon regularly checks the log files on the security applications, while a Handler daemon analyses the incoming rates from other peers of the group and computes a global malicious activity rate (Vlachos & Spinellis 2007). The researchers use experimental design to prove that the performance of the P2P group improves proportionately to the number of P2P members. Extensive simulations suggest that PROMIS has a potential to protect the operating networks from known and unknown worm activity (Vlachos & Spinellis 2007). That during virus epidemics PROMIS exploits only specific vulnerabilities and leaves all other systems intact is considered as one of the basic system’s benefits (Vlachos & Spinellis 2007). However, Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) are not the only professionals in the field of financial security. The fact is in that malware is often associated with denial-of-service attacks, which continue to plague the Internet. Malware substantially lower the bar for massive distributed denial-of-service attacks (Wang & Reiter 2008). Unfortunately, the current state of protection against DoS attacks is passive by nature and does not offer incentives to the owners of the Internet networks to protect their computers from the risks of malware (Wang & Reiter 2008). Wang and Reiter (2008) suggest that client puzzles be a potentially effective mechanism against DoS attacks in financial transactions. Client puzzles imply that â€Å"a client solves a computational puzzle for requesting service before the server commits resources, thereby imposing a massive computational burden on adversaries bent on generating legitimate service requests to consume substantial server resources† (Wang & Reiter 2008). End-to-end puzzles imply that each client bidding for a financial service from the Internet server must present his solution to a puzzle; meanwhile, the server will allocate its limited resources to the bidders who solve the most difficult puzzles (Wang & Reiter 2008). In this system, an adversary cannot seize the financial and informational resources of a victim without committing its own resources first (Wang & Reiter 2008). These systems are effective in mitigating DoS threats at all application layers and can be readily interoperable with various legacy systems (Wang & Reiter 2008). These, however, are unique technological solutions to the existing security threats. Other authors offer less sophisticated but no less effective ideas of how to deal with security threats in financial transactions. According to Corzo et al. (2008), Automated Banking Certificates (ABC) can be readily used to timely identify unauthorised financial transactions. In the current system of electronic transactions, a financial transaction is considered authentic if it (a) is performed by an authorised entity; (b) has not been altered since the moment it was generated; and (c) is not a replay of another valid transaction (Corzo et al. 2008). Unfortunately, current banking systems can identify non-valid and fraudulent transactions only by means of audit after the transaction took place; as a result, there is an urgent need to develop a mechanism which will trace and identify fraudulent transactions before and while they are taking place (Corzo et al. 2008). An ABC is a data structure which allows monitoring the relationships between various transactions within one workflow (Corzo et al. 2008). A complete ABC allows tracing operations within workflows that go beyond the boundaries of one financial institution, as long as their tasks are related (Corzo et al. 008). The use of ABC’s in the current system of financial transactions proves that the task of identifying an unauthorised user is absolutely achievable. The use of network smart cards is another potential solution to the existing and emerging security threats. A network smart card â€Å"is a smart card that is an Internet node and is accessible from the Internet† (Lu & Ali 2006). The Smart Card stores user information and provides this information only to the trusted client or server, as soon as the user authorises the service or transaction (Lu & Ali 2006). Smart cards are beneficial in the sense that they can create and maintain secure Internet connections with another Internet node, a web server or a web browser (Lu & Ali 2006). As long as the smart card sends selected user information directly to the service provider, this information does not go through the local computer and the threats of identity theft or similar security breaches becomes minimal (Lu & Ali 2006). Unfortunately, the effectiveness of these developments is yet to be discovered. Meanwhile, companies continue using more traditional solutions to their security issues. The current research suggests that AdAware and Spybot are the most common tools used by businesses to deal with such threats (Keller 2005). Moreover, despite the availability of effective tools that cost little or nothing at all, many businesses recognise that they do not use any spyware at all (Keller 2005). As a result, businesses either lose significant material resources or fail to timely identify the emerging threats. The case is particularly difficult with the so-called insider threats, when security threats are being born from within the business entity. For example, in 2008, the FBI alleged that a former Intel employee copied top secret documents that posed a threat to the future of the whole company and its business projects (Patel 2009). The cases when bank workers become the basic sources of the security threats and the initiators of the complex financial frauds are not rare. As a result, the success of financial transactions, their security, and the technical safety of consumers depends on how well companies realise the seriousness of the security threats and whether they are prepared to deal with them. The current state of technology provides numerous solutions to the security issues in financial transactions, and businesses can secure themselves from the potential risks and failures by using the proposed technological Internet solutions at low or no cost. Conclusion The past years have been marked with the rapid increase in electronic financial transactions. The use of online and/ or remote mechanisms in financial operations has already become an essential element of the daily business routine. Financial transactions are associated with numerous security threats, including identity fraud, insider abuse, and the use of malware and denial-of-service attacks to access and steal personal user information. The current state of literature provides numerous solutions and ideas, which businesses could use to address the existing and emerging security threats. Smart cards, automated banking certificates, and the use of client puzzles are just some out of many ways to address security threats in financial transactions. Unfortunately, businesses often neglect the existing technological opportunities and do not deem it necessary to use effective protection from the real security threats. As a result, the effectiveness and safety of financial transactions largely depends on how well businesses realise the seriousness of the discussed threats and are prepared to invest additional material resources in the development of effective security strategies and solutions.

Success of Online Learning

Success of Online Learning Free Online Research Papers Different studies have been made regarding the success rate of online distance learning. Some show a significant higher pass rate versus the classical classroom approach. Example of this is a study conducted at the Riverside Community College (Anon, 2008) showing a significant higher number of achievements for mathematical courses delivered through the internet (average 66%) versus traditional courses (average 50%). An other study at a College of the Sequoias in California (COS) revealed just the opposite, with a 70% success rate for the face-to-face course versus only 46.6% success for students in distance education (Rapid Intellect Group Inc., 2004). This immediately shows that neither formulas in themselves are a guarantee for success. Several factors have an impact on the final result. There exists a huge variety in the types of courses offered through distance learning. Some simply provide a text to read, others check students learnings through online multiple choice tests, and yet others develop a more personal relationship with and between participants. Although some approaches were statistically proven to be more successful than others, it is the responsibility of the student to find the course and the way of working best suited for his personal situation. Characteristics of Virtual Education One of the great advantages of asynchronous online learning, is the freedom and the flexibility this offers to the student. He can choose when and where to study, combining his academical ambitions with his work obligations and social agenda. This, on the other hand, seems to be one of the great pitfalls (Reid, n.d.). With no fixed time table, the student must find his own way to keep all those balls in the air and manage his time in the most efficient way. This requires self-knowledge, time management and discipline. Even though this often is a new way of studying, it is a situation most professionals have learned to deal with throughout their working experience. He will have developed his own method to respect deadlines and to keep an overview of the tasks at hand, and a similar methodology will have to be used to get the most out of his studies. A second great advantage is the opportunity to learn from others, and their experience. Adult students have learned a great deal during their career, both from a knowledge point of view as with regards to behavioural development. They have acquainted the processes and procedures of their company and most likely helped to shape or fine-tune some of them. Distance learning now gives them the change to not only discover new theoretical aspects, but also how they are applied in other environments. This may lead to a critical assessment of their own way of working, and the sharing of best practices. Conclusion There are many different formats and formulas of online learning. None offer a guarantee for success. Aspirant students should first carefully assess their personal situation: what motivates them; what do they want to achieve; how much time do they have available; do they master the required technological skills, †¦ Knowles (1980 cited in Galusha, n.d.) believes that† learner behaviour is influenced by a combination of the learners needs plus the learners situation and personal characteristics. Knowing these personal characteristics is an important aspect of planning distance learning course-ware and strategies.† REFERENCES Anon. (2008) Delivery Method and Success in MAT63MAT64MAT52 [Online] Riverside Community College. Available from: http://academic.rcc.edu/ir/Research/Delivery%20Method%20and%20success%20in%20MAT63MAT64MAT52.doc (Accessed 30 May 2010) Galusha J.M. (n.d.) Barriers to Learning in Distance Education [Online] The Infrastruction Network. University of Southern Mississippi. Available from: infrastruction.com/barriers.htm (Accessed 1 June 2010) Rapid Intellect Group Inc. (2004) Impacting distance learning success rates [Online] Available from: thefreelibrary.com/Impacting+distance+learning+success+rates-a0129973235 (Accessed 30 May 2010) Reid (n.d.) What Every Student Should Know About Online Learning [Online] Kennesaw Georgia: Kennesaw State University. Available from: ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/overview/reid.html (Accessed 30 May 2010) Research Papers on Success of Online LearningStandardized TestingThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseResearch Process Part OnePersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalOpen Architechture a white paperEffects of Television Violence on Children