Productivity in the Workplace
An average employee lives around 10,000 days of his lifetime working. When one looks at it this way, it is rational to try and make this time at work as gratifying and rewarding as one can, so that people can be saved from burning out in advance. As a matter of fact, it is proven by research that the easiest and most effective way to uplift morale, be proof against turnover, and enhance output at the office is through encouraging fun in the workplace. Though most people draw back at the likelihood of achieving momentous goals and having fun simultaneously, it is a very viable blend.

Impediments to Productivity at Workplace productive workplace without discrimination is a key concern of a number of existing and proposed programs and policies, as well as the focus of substantial current research. An analysis of demographic, income and health care characteristics of…...

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References

1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce, Families and Work Institute.  http://www.familiesandwork.org 

Abbott, Langer & Associates, Inc. Fun at Work. http://www.abbott-langer.com/alafun.html

Hale, Thomas W.; Hayghe, Howard V.; McNeil, John M. Persons with disabilities: Labor market activity. (1994)

Hemsath, Dave; Yerkes, Leslie The Value Of A Work Hard/Play Hard Environment. 301 Ways To Have Fun At Work.

Productivity After quarters increasing levels production, CEO Canadian Fabrication & Design upset learn, time expansion, productivity newly hired sheet metal workers declined worker hired. Believing workers lazy inefficiently supervised (possibly), CEO instructed shop foreman "crack" workers bring productivity levels.
Q1.Production

The apparent downturn of productivity on the part of workers has nothing to do with worker laziness and everything to do with the law of marginal returns. For every additional unit manufactured and every additional worker on the floor of the 'shop,' the profit gained from that item decreases. Workers must be paid more in overtime, which decreases the revenue gained, and additionally workers are less efficient on the floor of the factory because of logistical reasons. Crowding, impeded access to machinery and other logistical issues will diminish the marginal return from the increased production. "As the number of new employees increases, the marginal product of an additional employee will at some…...

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References

Law of diminishing marginal returns. (2011). Investopedia. Retrieved October 26, 2011 at  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lawofdiminishingmarginalreturn.asp#ixzz1bw5tr9NW

These traits are extraversion, conscientiousness, and leadership experience. hile extraversion is a personality trait that has largely nothing to do with one's biography, the other two characteristics can be explained in part by biography. hat the study found was that each trait was correlated with success in job interviews. This implies that the candidate was viewed as superior to others, presumably because the candidate would be able to generate more profit per hour than other employees, which is a base measure of productivity.
Analysis

The role that different biographical traits play in productivity is still under study. There is evidence that gender to some extent plays a role, and this should be considered by managers. Other biographical traits are generally not as important as assumed, and there is conflicting evidence with respect to age/tenure. Most interesting is the influence of family history. Families have passed professions down from one generation to…...

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Works Cited

Management Guidebook. (2010). Biographical characteristics. Management Guidebook. Retrieved December 3, 2010 from http://www.management-guidebook.org/biographical-characteristics.htm

Soethout, M.; Heymans, M. & ten Cate, O. (2008). Career preference and medical students' biographical characteristics and academic achievement. Medical Teacher. Vol. 30 (1) e15-e22.

Tay, C.; Ang, S. & van Dyne, L. (2006). Personality, biographical characteristics and job interview success: A longitudinal study of the mediating effects of interviewing self-efficacy and the moderating effects of internal locus of causality. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 91 (2) 446-454.

The oldest method of measuring nursing productivity is hours spent upon a patient per day (Huber 2000: 703). However, in the modern era, a variety of productivity measures have been employed to assess employee productivity and efficacy. Patient improvement or outcomes measurement is sometimes deployed, although this is obviously an imperfect measure, given that many factors can impact patient success rate. Measuring improvement against overall (national) general benchmarks of patient improvement for similar ailments is occasionally used. But this does not take into consideration other environmental factors within the hospital besides nursing care, and demographic factors that could impact patient improvement (Huber 2000: 704). Other measures might include patient return rates (given that rapid return visits can indicate improper care during the first visit) and E wait time but even these are far from 'foolproof.'

One valuable indicator has been to assess patient outcomes in relation to numbers of nurses on…...

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Reference

Huber, Diane L. (2000). Leadership and nursing care management. Saunders.

productivity and the decrease in controllable rejects?
It may be that the workers were given more autonomy now and they felt more creative and in charge of decisions that they may wish to effectuate.

This coheres with Maslow's model of motivation where he ranks creativity as the highest hierarchy on the pyramid. Workers are not only motivated by money. Many individuals are motivated as much and sometimes even more by acknowledgment, recognition, and their higher needs being met.

Previously, workers had to cohere to an "assembly line [that] had been carefully balanced by industrial engineers, who had used a time and motion study to break the job down into subassembly tasks, each requiring about three minutes to accomplish. The amount of time calculated for each subassembly had also been "balanced" so that the task performed by each worker was supposed to take almost exactly the same amount of time. The workers were…...

Law of Marginal Productivity comes to Macy's
In theory, the more demand there is for a good or service, the more a producer wishes to provide this good, and that producing in bulk lowers costs. Even when consumer demand is down, a supplier can also produce more, in the hopes of defraying a decrease in price with a bulk increase in sales. However, certain costs of production are fixed. In other words, the Law of Marginal Productivity holds constant. This economic law states, namely that "when the technology of production and some of the inputs are held constant and the quantity of a variable input increases continually, the marginal productivity of the variable input will eventually decline." (King, 2004)

This law is perhaps most obviously evidenced in agriculture or conventional factory production, where even if there is an increased demand for grapes, putting more and more workers onto the field to…...

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Works Cited

"Company News: Macquarie & Regency to Buy 101 Shopping Centers." (16 Feb 2005) Business Financial Desk. The New York Times. Retrieved 1 Mar 2005 at   fta=yhttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E5DD133AF935A25751C0A9639C8B63& ;

King, William (2004) "Law of Diminishing Returns." Economics. Drexel University. Retrieved 1 Mar 2005 at http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/prin/txt/MPCh/firm8a.html

Rozhon, Tracey (2 Mar 2005) "No Longer the Queens of the Mall, Department Stores Try Makeovers." The New York Times. Retrieved 1 Mar 2005 at  http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/business/01shop.html ?

In such cases, production does not even cover operating costs. Yet, even hydraulic fracturing cannot help increase the overall productivity of wells in the form of these shales. In such cases, the best way to increase efficiency is to actually drill horizontal wells. After this has been done, hydraulic fracturing can be conducted at multiple points over a period of time within the structure of the horizontal well. There are thus a number of benefits from drilling horizontal wells. First, horizontal wells increase the actual contact length "between the wellbore and formation" which will help increase the ability to use hydraulic fracturing to implement more efficient well measures (Daneshy 8). With horizontal wells, the ability to fracture at multiple locations makes for a greater contact area, thus increasing the overall efficiency of the well itself. Fracturing can even take place within cased and cemented horizontal wells. The well must…...

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References

Daneshy, Ali. "Increasing Productivity of Oil and Gas Wells."

Improving Efficiency in Product Manufacturing:
A Case Study of EMC's Plasti-brack

Excellent Manufacturing Company's goal this year is to improve overall efficiency by 8%. Having looked at the manufacturing processes and organization dynamics, I believe this is an achievable goal. My area -- the Plasti-brack product line -- has several productivity indicators that can be improved, which will save EMC time and cost, and contribute to better consumer value. In the following productivity improvement plan, I will identify areas that are currently highly productive, areas in which productivity can be enhanced, quantitative measurements of the productivity of processes involved in Plasti-brack manufacture, and provide a plan for how these processes can be improved.

Basic Process Improvement

A first-pass analysis should lay the groundwork for productivity improvement: What indicators exist that can be improved? In the processes that are central to or connect to Plasti-brack manufacture and packaging, the most relevant productivity indicators are (in…...

Productivity is the relationship between and enterprise's output and its inputs. High productivity implies that resources (inputs) are being efficiently utilized to produce output. For a logistics company dealing in the storage and movement of materials, productivity can be measured on the basis of:
Volume of Materials -- the volume of materials being shipped or stored at any one time should tally with the costs (resources) incurred for such shipment and storage. Costs such as warehouse rent and insurance would be constant regardless of the amount of material stored, in which case productivity would be higher if the volume of material efficiently utilizes the available space.

Volume of Rework -- repeated work would translate to higher input costs at relatively constant output levels. Furthermore, the time used up in rework could otherwise have been put to more productive value-adding activities. This implies that the higher the volume of rework, the lower the…...

Productivity Issues and Social Media: A Case Study of Wal-Mart Inc.
A Case Study of Wal-Mart Inc.: Productivity Issues and Social Media

Using Social Media and Networking Tools to Address Productivity Issues at Wal-Mart Inc.

First Section: Communication and Productivity Issues at Wal-Mart

A review of literature reveals two issues that have a negative effect on the productivity and competitiveness of Wal-Mart Inc., the organization selected for analysis in week 1. These have to do with workers' rights and customer needs when venturing into foreign markets.

Workers' ights

ecent years have seen Walmart come under serious criticism from labor unions and civil rights organizations for its large number of violations regarding work hours and wages for its associates. Besides issues of low pay, the company also faces an increasingly large number of lawsuits regarding managers tapering with employees' wage and time records, and forcing them to skip lunch and short breaks and to work off the…...

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References

Adler, N. & Gundersen, A. (2008). International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (5th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson Learning Inc.

Brunn, S. D. (2006). Walmart World: The World's Biggest Corporation in the Global Economy. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J. & Ferrell, J. (2009). Business Ethics 2009 Update: Ethical Decision-Making and Cases (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Gandolfi, F. & Stratch, P. (2009). Retail Internalization: Gaining Insights from the Walmart Experience in South Korea. Review of International Comparative Management, 10(1), 187-199.

The year 2020 etched itself into history not just for the devastating grip of a global pandemic, but also for the transformative shift it ignited in the world of work. The COVID-19 crisis, with its unprecedented measures of social distancing and lockdowns, forced a sudden and massive experiment in remote work – propelling millions from office cubicles to makeshift home offices on kitchen counters. This unforeseen pivot, while initially marked by chaos and uncertainty, has had a lasting impact on how we define work, its location, and the very fabric of our professional lives. This essay explores the rise of remote work in the wake of COVID-19, delving into its driving forces, the unexpected benefits and challenges it has presented, and its potential to reshape the future of work.
The pandemic's immediate threat to health and safety provided the strongest impetus for the surge in remote work. With physical proximity deemed…...

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Sources

Autor, D. H., Dorn, D., Hanson, G. H., & Masters, G. (2020). The growth of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. CEPR Discussion Paper (15593).

Microsoft. (2021). Work Trend Index 2021: Annual report.

PwC. (2021). Global workforce hopes and fears survey 2021. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/workforce/hopes-and-fears.html

McKinsey

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index

Besides calculating the return on investment of different inputs, or ROI, another approach is to calculate the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) - the cost of defects in the current process, product or service in contrast to the calculated cost of the existing process using a weighted risk of potential failures. This is a kind of modified Six Sigma risk management strategy to determine which process has the lowest risk of a potential failure. (Sharma, 2004) This strategy would mean calculating the risk of the potential failures of reducing inventory vs. The risks of having a lower inventory base to draw from in comparison to the competition's inventory stock.

orks Cited

Sharma, Pankaj. (2004) "Calculating COPQ Using eighted Risk of Potential Failures." Retrieved 10 Feb 2005 at http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c040510a.asp

orstell, Jeffrey. (Mar 2002) "Identifying, Justifying, Prioritizing." CEP Magazine. Volume March 2002: 72-79. Retrieved 10 Feb 2005 at http://www.cepmagazine.org/pdf/030272.pdf...

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Works Cited

Sharma, Pankaj. (2004) "Calculating COPQ Using Weighted Risk of Potential Failures." Retrieved 10 Feb 2005 at  http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c040510a.asp 

Worstell, Jeffrey. (Mar 2002) "Identifying, Justifying, Prioritizing." CEP Magazine. Volume March 2002: 72-79. Retrieved 10 Feb 2005 at  http://www.cepmagazine.org/pdf/030272.pdf

Productivity/Infrastructure
The success and effectiveness of Brinkmann Grills is partly dependent on its logistics and supply chain management. However, the company faces various challenges in the area of logistics and supply chain just like other enterprises. While there are various kinds of logistics challenges depending on the kind of a firm's business or operations, some challenges are universal regardless of these factors. Similar to other enterprises, one of the major challenges in the area of logistics for Brinkmann Grills is the nation's deteriorating infrastructure. This is a major challenge for the organization because it depends on infrastructure within the United States and its cities for logistics and logistical support. Therefore, the business needs to find ways of dealing with this supply chain issue in order to lessen its impact on business operations and productivity.

The Deteriorating Infrastructure:

As previously mentioned, United States deteriorating infrastructure is one of the major challenges that business enterprises…...

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References:

Buddress, L. & Smith, M.E. (2010, April). Logistics and Infrastructure: Are We Out of the Woods Yet? Retrieved July 18, 2014, from  http://www.ism.ws/files/Pubs/Proceedings/2010ProcAE-Buddress-Smith.pdf 

Buddress, L. & Smith, M.E. (2007, May). Combating the Logistics Perfect Storm. Retrieved July

18, 2014, from  http://www.ism.ws/files/Pubs/Proceedings/EFBuddressSmith.pdf 

Little, R.G. (2004, December 11). Tending the Infrastructure Commons: Ensuring the Sustainability of Our Vital Public Systems. Retrieved from University of Southern California website:  http://www.usc.edu/schools/price/keston/pdf/tending-infrastructure.pdf

multifactor productivity. The basic concept is that MFP calculates output over all inputs. In the example given, the inputs are labor and capital. The MFP formula is used to measure the change in productivity that results from specific changes in the production process. In addition, the importance of firms studying productivity changes is explained. Firms need to understand the implications of changing different inputs, in order that they may seek the path of profit maximization. Sensitivity analysis to different changes can help with that process. In addition, the MFP concept is useful for firms seeking to maximize other variables besides profit. The same principles behind MFP can be applied broadly in business to ensure that the best decisions are being made and that productivity is being maximized.
The basic principle is that MFP is based on the outputs per a combination of labor and capital (Jaxworks, 2010). This is in…...

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Works Cited:

Banker, R., Datar, S. & Kaplan, R. (no date) Productivity measurement and management accounting. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from  http://astro.temple.edu/~banker/Accounting/32_Productivity%20Measurement%20and%20Management%20Accounting.pdf 

CliffNotes. (2011). Profit maximization. Cliff Notes. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from  http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Profit-Maximization.topicArticleId-9789,articleId-9769.html 

Jaxworks. (2010). Multifactor productivity. Jaxworks.com. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from http://www.jaxworks.com/calc5.htm

Lane Report. (2011). Multifactor productivity rose in 14% of detailed manufacturing industries studied in 2009. The Lane Report. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from  http://www.lanereport.com/articles/fastlane_article.cfm?id=multifactor_productivity_rose_in_14_of_detailed_manufacturing_industries_studied_in_2009

One of the first pioneer's in this activity was the Australian company Mcllwrath McEacharn of Melbourne. They began by offering to ship cargo in containers on a door to door basis from the Eastern States to ports in Western Australia using three ton Seatainers. (Taming the Australian Stevedoring Industry: who really runs the show?)
In 1969 two more container ships were added to their fleet. This move of using containers to move cargo on ships and on a door to door basis threw open the flood gates to increase the through put of ports and was very soon embraced by almost all other shippers in the movement of cargo around the world. This increased movement of goods by sea and in containers saw a sea of change in the way goods were handled at the ports by the use of bigger and better cranes and efforts at increasing their efficiency…...

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References

De, Prabir; Park, Ro-Kyung. "An Alternative Approach to Efficiency Measurement of Seaports" Maritime Economics & Logistics, 2004, 6, (53-69). Retrieved at Accessed on 19 January 2005http://www.palgrave-journals.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/mel/journal/v6/n1/full/9100094a.html&filetype=pdf.

Fletcher, Tony. "Taming the Australian Stevedoring Industry: who really runs the show?" Retrieved at Accessed on 19 January 2005http://mh2001.murdoch.edu.au/links/submissions/fletcher.html.

Leschine, T. M; Dowd, T.J. "Container terminal productivity: A perspective"

Retrieved at   Accessed on 19 January 2005http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu/pubs/Ports/Washington/ContainerTerminalProduct.pdf .

When I think about what I have learned in my professional skills course, I think of those things that my parents would have called “soft skills.”  To me, they are the factors that make the difference between someone looking good on a resume and someone doing well in an interview and on the job.  They include several factors that relate to how well a person can work in a team, as well as factors that demonstrate someone’s ability to manage time.

Time management is probably the most important skill I have learned from this course.  I never had....

Leisure is an interesting topic that spans many different areas.  On its own, leisure is big business.  Recreation and hospitality both represent huge sectors of the economy.  Leisure is also an important psycho-social issue.  It impacts family life, health, lifestyle, work-life balance, human resources, and many other issues.  Therefore, it is important to study leisure on its own and as a component of other factors.

Some titles and topic ideas for an essay on leisure include:

Compulsive Productivity- How an emphasis on work and hustling has degraded the concept of leisure time in the United....

One way that lean principles could apply to daily life is by practicing the 5S methodology. 5S stands for Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. This methodology can be applied to declutter and organize our living spaces, improving efficiency and reducing stress.

1. Sort: Start by going through your belongings and categorize them into three groups - keep, donate, or discard. Only keep items that are necessary or bring you joy.

2. Set in Order: Arrange the items you've decided to keep in a logical and organized manner. Designate specific places for each item and ensure they are easily....

Certainly! Here are some science essay topic suggestions:

1. The impact of climate change on the environment.
2. The role of renewable energy sources in reducing carbon emissions.
3. Exploring the potential health benefits of genetic engineering.
4. The effects of plastic pollution on marine life and ecosystems.
5. The future of space exploration and its potential for human colonization.
6. The ethical considerations of using animal testing in medical research.
7. The development and implications of artificial intelligence in various fields.
8. The challenges and benefits of using nanotechnology in medicine.
9. Exploring the effects of deforestation on biodiversity and climate change.
10. The impact of technology on human....