What is Strain in Geology

Strain is a word widely used in geology, and its an important concept. In everyday language, strain seems to signify tightness and tension, or effort expended against unyielding resistance. This is easy to confuse with stress, and indeed the dictionary definitions of the two words overlap. Physicists and geologists try to use the two terms more carefully. Stress is a force that affects an object, and strain is how the object responds to it.​ Various common forces that operate on Earth impose stress on geologic materials. Gravity does, and currents of water or air do, and the tectonic movements of the lithospheric plates do. The stress of gravity is called pressure. The stress of currents is called traction. Fortunately, tectonic stress is not called by another name. Stress is simple to express in calculations. Deformation from Stress Strain is not a force, but a deformation. Everything in the world—everything in the universe—deforms when subjected to stress, from the vaguest cloud of gas to the most rigid diamond. This is easy to appreciate with soft substances, where its change in shape is obvious. But even solid rock changes its shape when stressed; we just have to measure carefully to detect the strain. Elastic strain Strain comes in two varieties. Elastic strain is the strain that we sense in our own bodies—it is stretching that bounces back when the stress is reduced. Elastic strain is easy to appreciate in rubber  or metal springs. Elastic strain is what makes balls bounce and the strings of musical instruments vibrate. Objects that undergo elastic strain are not harmed by it. In geology, elastic strain is responsible for the behavior of seismic waves in rock. Materials that are subjected to enough stress may deform beyond their elastic capacity, in which case they may rupture, or they may stretch which is the other kind of strain: plastic strain. Plastic Strain Plastic strain is deformation that is permanent. Bodies do not recover from plastic strain. This is the kind of strain we associate with substances like modeling clay, or bent metal. In geology, plastic strain is what results in landslides in sediment, particularly slumps and earth flows. Plastic strain is what makes metamorphic rocks so interesting. The alignment of recrystallized minerals—the metamorphic fabric of schist, for instance—is a plastic response to the stresses imposed by burial and tectonic activity.

Analysis Of Cass Sunstein s `` Simpler `` And A Proposed...

This memo is an application of some of the policy ideas Cass Sunstein has described in his book â€Å"Simpler,† to a proposed â€Å"soda tax† in Oakland California. The introduction of the tax, contained in â€Å"Measure HH† (as it appears on the ballot) has been met with stiff opposition by some members of the Oakland area while others have embraced the idea. Three ideas from â€Å"Simpler† will be tested in this California case. First of is a â€Å"nudge.† What is a nudge? According to Sunstein, nudges are â€Å"approaches that influence decisions while preserving freedom of choice† (Sunstein 2013, p.38). In other words, they are things that make one act or behave in a certain way, but your resolve to choose still lies within your power. It could be taxes or fines, according to Sunstein. This Oakland case satisfies the two main parts of nudges: â€Å"approaches† (one-cent-per-ounce excise tax) and â€Å"freedom of choice† (shoppers still have the freedom to choose between sweetened and sugar-free sodas). So, the city council, in order to get people to consume less sugar, would want to impose â€Å"soda tax† on the manufacturers (because they have the tendency of feeling the real effect in terms of cost) and not the consumers. Consequently, if the council members vote in favor of it, the authorities would have indirectly gotten its citizen to change behavior with respect to sugar intake, without directly telling them to reduce sugar intake because it has health consequences. They (the citizens) have been nudged

Strategic Management for Restructuring Strategy of Etihad Airlines

Question: Discuss about the case study Strategic Management Project for Restructuring Strategy of Etihad Airlines. Answer: Introduction: Etihad airways started its operation in 2003. It comes second, in the largest airlines in the United Arab Emirates. It is also the third largest in the Middle East. In the history of commercial aviation, it is one of the fastest growing airlines. The Etihad was formerly known as Gulf Air. Khalifa city is the head office of Etihad. It operates more than thousand flights a week. Peter Baumgartner is the CEO of the company. More than 25000 employee works for Etihad.On 2014, Etihad took 49% stake of Alitalia, the Italian flag carrier for over 500 million. Etihad is the former sponsor of the rugby union football team (Abu Dhabi) and the Abu Dhabi international marine sports club. The company has won more than thirty awards in a span of thirteen years. It belongs to the very few carriers that serve to all the six inhabited continents (Etihad Global 2016). Organization structure: Figure 1: Organizational Structure (Source: Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014 ) The organizational structure of Etihad airlines consists of a board of chairman, a board of vice chairman,executive vice president for different departments and senior vice president. Etihad Airways is led by HH SeikhHamed Bin Zayad Al Nahyan, who is the board of director and also the Vice chairman of the company. James Hogan, the former CEO of Gulf air is the president of the company. The board also has a group of seven independent (non executive) members and a couple of sub comittes.The notable member of the board includes Ahmed Ali Al sayegh, Khalifa Sultan Al Suwadi, Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, George Cheaib (Etihad Global 2016). Business case for restructuring: Being an executive Vice President of the Human Resource department, there are some important responsibilities to cater, such as planning and development, evaluation and maintenance, utilizing and retention of employees. The Human resource department focuses on the management of the airline, it also finds out the reason of restructuring and how the plans can be executed. The board of directors want to investigate about various factors, such as current situation of the airline, its main issue and concerns faced by customers. (Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014). Most of the customers are dissatisfied as per the reviews. The director is searching for a particular reason and wants to come up with a proper solution, which will help the customers in their journey. Porters five forces: Figure 2: Porters five forces (Source: Dobbs 2014) Porters five forces can be explained as an identification tool which classify and investigates about the competition in the industry, possibility of the new entrants, power of customer and supplier, and treat of substitute. This simple tool allows one to judge both strengths and weaknesses of the position of the company and provides enough understanding for further steps to be taken (Dobbs 2014). The following paragraphs give an understanding of the various elements of Porters Five Forces. Supplier power (LOW) Suppliers hold an important place in any business situation. If the products provided by the suppliers are unique and there are not many suppliers available, they have much power to control the prices. Thus, they become very powerful. Airline companies does not change suppliers easily. Generally, most of them have a long-term contract with the suppliers. Etihad airways have implemented the cloud-based solution in procurement and supply management department. It has plans to introduce the supplier performance management solutions for more productivity and fulfilment. Bargaining power of the suppliers also has a low treat. Buyer power (HIGH) Buyer power refers to the pressure consumers can create on business to get high quality products, better customer service and lower prices. If a company deals with very powerful yet small number of buyers, these buyers have the capacity to change terms to suit them. Airline industry has two kinds of buyers. One of them are individual buyers. They can buy the flight tickets for a number of reason. It can be for the personal or business use. Another group of buyers buy the tickets from the agents or agencies. Here, the ticket buyer works as a middleman between the flight and the flyers. Flights have very low switching cost as customers choose it according to the time and cost. Each customer prefer different things when it comes to flight. Overall the industry has a low threat to the bargaining power of buyers. Competitive rivalry (HIGH) This stage discusses about the rivalry among existing players. The industry is very stagnant and the fixed costs are high. Different firms has different brand identity, which lessen the competition in the industry. Competitions among the existing firms are the strongest forces in the industry. The biggest rival of Etihad Airways is the Emirates Airways. Apart from Emirates, Qatar Airways also gives a tough competition to Etihad. The Turkish airlines plans to invest more than three billion on the new airlines (Gazzar 2016) Threat of substitution (MEDIUM) Due to global recession, most of the customers are choosing low cost airlines. Sometimes the customers prefer such airlines, which do not have any major benefits. There are some flights, which offer the same benefits as Etihad but on a lower cost. Customers tend to prefer these flights rather than investing too much on Etihad. Threat of new entry (LOW) United Arab Emirates is developing rapidly in the aviation industry. The region is expecting more growth in the airlines as more commercial airlines planned to operate from the international airport of Abu Dhabi. This may threat Etihad airways with the customers opt to fly with low cost airlines of the country. Newer competitors will try to take advantage of any industry that is yielding great revenue. A company already established in such a market should be well protected and keep improving to retain their position and hold over the market. Dafts structural dimension: Figure 3: Dafts structural dimension (Source: Anwar 2015 ) Goals and strategy It defines the principle and the reasonable techniques that can be different among organizations. The Etihad airline focuses more on hospitality, which is the primary goal of the organization. It is continuously working on the enhancement of the hospitality between east and west (Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014). Organizational technology The organizational technology refers to the tools and techniques, which are used for transforming the structure of the organization. All the flights have instant Wi-Fi connectivity and entertainment for the customers ( Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014). Organizational structure This discussed about the internal characteristic of the organization. The structure can be based on capacity, frequency, air fares, application of traffics. Organizational culture The culture discusses the beliefs and key values; it also tries to understand the norms and conditions shared by the employee. Problems: Etihad is one of the latest flights to join the airlines industry. The airlines company choose to adopt a different strategy, which included acquiring stakes and code-sharing partnerships. This meant they had tie-ups with several companies to sell seats to each other which lead to dramatic growth of the network. They have invested over $1 billion in several airlines like the Virgin Australia, Air Siberia, Jet Airways India and Air Seychelles ( Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014).Eventually after the very successful few years, Etihad started seeing signs of trouble. The airlines they have invested in required larger cash inflows and further management time.Etihad faced a lot of problem as their deal with Airberlin gradually grew into a legal battle. The German transport ministry were not happy with their agreement of code sharing. They acquired growth with numbers but it ultimately lead to much complexity and required great management. They even faced loss with the Italian carrier. They had invest ed to buy 49% of carriers stakes ( Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014). Other than this, the company has received several complaints and discouraging reviews about the airline. The main problems faced by the passengers include faulty entertainment systems, rude behaviour from the cabin crew. The first and foremost problem the passengers are reporting is the problem with booking and cancelling their tickets. They customer care personnel have not been able to completely help the customers to go through the process and this is mainly because of their complex booking and code-sharing methods with other flights. Their airbuses are not at the best state. The seats are falling apart and not well maintained. The other flights clean their toilets after short intervals while one of major complaints of customers has been about unclean toilets. The economy class is neglected and the food provided is not up to the standards. They face several operational challenges because of the already explained methods of complex sharing amongst the other airlines. This often lead s to delays which range from 30 minutes to even two hours. It becomes extremely problematic for the passengers who are travelling at night. The Abu Dhabi airport receives an astronomical amount of traffic because it acts as a connection between several parts of the world. These passengers who travel at night often have to face the delay which leads to problems with coordinating with the next connecting flight. The lounge lacks the necessary facilities ( Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014). In the past year, a lot of tension has been generated between Etihad and their counterparts in the US and Europe and it is gradually growing. They have faced a lot of anti-completive reaction from the bigger and already established carriers. This is simply because they are only protecting their share in the market and improving their position. The problems are easily identified with the Porters Five Factor (Dobbs 2014). The fluctuating and highly unstable fuel prices are responsible for the suppliers to gain much power over the airline companies. The availability of better services at the Emirates Airlines and others at almost similar prices is driving the crowd of customers towards the other companies. These airlines do not have much complicated booking or cancelling procedures. The quality of food is better when compared with Etihads. Thus, the other airlines are racing far ahead of the Etihad in competitive rivalry and thus, being easily replaced. There is always a threat of newer business spawning up to make the competition even tougher for them. Literature review Organisational restructuring strategies can be of three modes, financial restructuring, portfolio and organisational restructuring. Organisational restructuring mainly discusses the changes in the policies of human resource. The human resource policies must be changed. Many symptoms indicate that the organisation needs a restructure. Such symptoms can be staff problems inefficient communication and Innovation in technologies, which have created changes in the workflow and in the process of production. For the new operational requirements, innovative skills and capabilities are required. Financial distress can be another major issue for any organization. The restructuring procedure always looks forward to identifying a variety of investment opportunities that will result in a higher return. The financial restructuring can be accomplished with the motive of lowering the cost of capital, avoiding loss of control, enhancing liquidity and improving shareholder value. For significant regar ding improvement in productivity, the company can break itself into smaller independent business unit. Outsourcing helps the company to reduce work force. Other than outsourcing the company can be merged with other companies for better result. Mergers can be of three types. Horizontal mergers, when two companies compete in the same market together. Vertical mergers, when two companies produce different goods for one specified finished goods and conglomerate mergers corporate to achieve three objectives, extension of the product, entrance into the new geographical market, entry into different business ( Al-Ali and Ahmad 2014). Industry analysis: The paper surveys about the issues in airlines performance across all the regions. It also focuses on the problems faced by the Etihad airlines. Customer satisfaction has been the major issue for the airlines. Lots of research has been done in the airline industry for efficiency and productivity. Figure 4: Organizational design model (Source: Rice 2013 ) The organizational design model is also known as a star model. The design policies can be divided into five categories. Strategy, system, structure, process and leadership. Strategy: Strategy is the winning formula of the company. It specifies the objectives and goals to be achieved. It also discusses about the missions that are to be pursued and helps the company to find out the correct direction. The strategy mainly focuses on the product or services of the company. It also focuses on a specific target segment. Structure: The placement of the power and authority in an organization is distributed by its structure (Goetsch and Davis 2014). Every organisation has a specific structure. Structure policies basically define four areas namely specialization, shape, distribution and departments Specialization is the different kind of job specialities that can be used to perform a work. Shape is the number of people divided by the department. Large number of people helps the organization to divide the organisation into departments. Centralization and decentralization refers to the distribution. The department usually deals with the issues critical to the organisations mission. To from the departments departmentalization is necessary. Departments are usually formed on the products, markets, functions, customers and geographies. Processes: The information and other processes belong to the structure of the organization. Management processes can be both vertical and horizontal (Goetsch and Davis 2014). Vertical processes are usually the planning of business and budgeting. Different departments are selected accordingly to the budgets and the priorities are set. Horizontal is a lateral process, which deals with the new business with fulfilling the customers. Leadership: Leadership qualities are very important for any organization. The goal of the leader is the goal of the organization. A leader needs to lead from the front every time the organization requires. A leader also needs to be transparent, confident and inspirable (Tremaine 2016). The reward system align the goals of the employee with the organization. The organizational reward system defines the policies, salaries and promotions. System: System refers to the people in the organizational model (Rice 2013), which governs the policies of human resource, such as recruitment, selection, training and development. System produces the talents required by the organization (Goetsch and Davis 2014). In other words, System explains the exact strategy of the organisation. System focuses on generating require skills and policy choices of the other areas. It deals with the execution of the strategic directions. Organisations require flexible people. Who can manage people without confliction and influence without any authorities (Flamholtz 2012). Analysis and restructuring The Etihad functions in an extremely complicated manner and thus requires a larger number of manpower to function smoothly. Unstable and high fuel costs, shortage of staff along with a lot of airbuses being out of business has led to exorbitant prices of the tickets. This has resulted in a decrease of passengers. (Squalli 2014). The main aim of Etihad must be improving their efficiency. They must be able to banish any sort of airline delays that includes both crowd sourcing and security checks. People do not like to be overburdened with time-consuming paperwork concerning security. Airports are always at high-security situations. The management faces an exhausting struggle to keep the revenues in positive, manage the security needs, and tackle extreme competition and adverse weather conditions. An effective way to deal with the present situation is to simplify the process of ticket booking they follow. It will save time and the passengers will not be frustrated with the process. They require more managerial effort for such change to happen. The whole system must have technological upgrade to make it a faster process. To achieve all these, the company needs higher revenue returns and that can be achieved by potential cost-cutting methods which will attract more customers. They can attract more business class travellers by providing more flight time options to bring up the revenue. It will not only generate greater revenue but also lead to efficient services and better hold over the competitive industry. Security is a great concern in all airports. It is important that the airport as well as the passengers remain safe throughout the process. Installing various body scanners and intricate methods of searching has been a source of controversy for a long time. Certain airports refuse to let their passenger fly if they refuse to go through scanners. They must come up with a balance between viability and security at an acceptable level to shorten the delay incurred in security checks and delays in flights (Gillen and Morrison 2015). The ground staff must be able to help the passengers understand the need of such checks and hasten the process. The airbuses of Etihad somewhat lack the necessary modern technological connectivity advantages. All flights have instant Wi-Fi connectivity and entertainment for the customers. This is what a modern consumer demands. The economy classes generally suffer from crippled entertainment devices. Until new airbuses are being used, these minor things may be fixed for higher customer satisfaction. Safety in air is important. For the last fifty years travelling by air has been the safest way of travel, but recently there has been terrible crashes and planes lost due to unpredictable weather conditions. These may be lessened in number by using high-end technology to monitor and predict weather conditions (Maille and Chaudron 2014). Channelling money here than keeping excess superior heads in the company will lead to higher profits. The customers will be reassured about their safety when they come to know about the advance technology is being used to safeguard their lives they will not be hesitant to shell out some more money. Airlines need to have great amount money assigned for the fuel charges. With the recent rise in the fuel prices, the airlines are facing great challenges to keep up to their schedules of multiple flights daily. This problem can be partially sorted by use of biofuels. They might be extremely financially sound but they are getting better at reducing the cost.Cutting off weight in aircrafts will be profitable too. The company needs to reduce the number of senior vice presidents. One person could be assigned to look after minimum of three departments. This will reduce the cost of the company a lot. The HR department should be assigned to deal with better recruitment of the group as well as the in-flight cabin crew. Proper pilots must be chosen adhering to the new rules and regulation of aviation. Ground staff should be reduced in number and in place of manpower technology must be employed to hasten the security checks. As Etihad has a complicated process of operations, more manpower should be concentrated in the basic managerial posts. The HR department should choose creative and technologically sound people to suit the needs of the company (Ulrich 2013). Thus, the changed hierarchy should be the Board of chairman would be there, who has the highest authority to take the major decisions in the organization. One Vice president would do there instead of four. Every group should have a group leade r, who can report to the Vice President. Minimum number of people in the management will help the organisation to structure properly. The reframed structure of the Etihad Airways will help them to cope with the losses have incurred in the past because of the legal conflicts and other partner airlines not performing up to the mark. The needed manpower in the managerial sector will look after the problems faced by the customers. The lesser number of senior heads will reduce the cost of functioning of the company. This amount of money can be allocated towards improving the customer experience by providing the necessary benefits. This will slowly bring in the lost customers and the company will gain back the lost position in the market. Communication is very important in restricting any company. Any sort change in the prevalent structure will upset the working system. Most of the employees will be bewildered and perplexed by the changes that appear to them as sudden. The managers must be able to clear out the all the ambiguity and help to curb the fear of uncertainty amongst the employees. There must be regular announcements to keep the employees informed about all the changes that are taking place even if they are negligible. It will allow them to settle into the newer system faster and get adjusted to it. Every restructuring will see loss of jobs and this will yield negative impact among the remaining employees. Talking to them about the changes, the needs for the changes that are taking place and results they are yielding will help the company gain back the confidence of the employees. Restructuring requires great amount of planning and re-planning to achieve the most viable plan to achieve the changes and goals in hand. It requires looking at every aspect and how it affects the company, group and revenue returns. It is also important to see how the customer will be affected with the following changes that are to be implemented. Etihad requires both changes in the structure of the hierarchy of the company and the financial sector. It needs reallocation of funds to services and customer satisfaction that will generate higher revenues. To prepare such a structural change a lot of other factors have been kept in mind. The main has been how the rivals or competitors have framed their companies and analysing their profit returns. This provided the backbone of the research of the whole planning. It is necessary to have everything properly planned and mapped out. To smoothly implement the changes there must be adequate amount of communication between the employer and the employees. There will be reallocation of several teams and the team leaders as well. The new management heads should talk to the groups on a personal level to ease out the process of reallocation. They will have to adjust to the newer working structure than the managerial heads high up in the hierarchy. Feedback must flow in specific intervals to analyse how the restructuring is affecting the internal atmosphere of the company. Their ideas and solutions also come in handy. The proposed vision to achieve the goals combined with their ideas may lead to even greater results. They know their sector of work in intricate details and can identify any problem much easily than others. Etihad is mainly lacking in proper management of the operations and thus requires more attention. There must be emphasis on the ground staff and the cabin crew as well. This is source of the major problems that company faces. Thus, the focus should be on these two sectors. The benefits of restructuring using this plan for the company are varied. Some of them are purely financial. This plan will bring back the loss of the money the company has been facing in the past few years, increase the value of the company and revive the declining state. With such revival, the company will gain competitive advantage. There will be steady growth with the elimination of the problem areas. This plan is aimed at better survival strategies and success. Conclusion: Restructuring any organization or company will face challenges and hardships. There is no specified equation to success. It has to be achieved by careful market analysis and trial and error method because each and every company is unique. Etihad Airways is one of the three gulf carriers and growing rapidly. It has great tie-ups with eight other airways. The basic change the company will face is change in the hierarchy and more focus will be on the operations along with the cabin crew. With slow but steady improvements as projected before, the Etihad Airways will gain a well-recognised place in the aviation industry. The managers along with their staff will achieve the goals paving the path for glorious future. Thus, this plan will be a success and encourage the growing together, working together, giving together and greener together. Introduction Professional experience Being an Executive Vice President of the Human Resource department, the main responsibilities in respective of improving the business processes of the airline company are catering to planning and development, evaluating and maintaining, utilizing and retaining the employees. The responsibilities of Human resource department are the proper management of the business processes, finding out the reasons of restructuring and to execute the plans properly. The other responsibilities include the allocation of the tasks to the employees such that to get the optimal performance from them (Trullen et al. 2016). The responsibilities also include the provision of carrier services to the customers of the airlines company with the dedication of meeting the expectations of the customers. Learning outcomes Etihad Airways is one of the three carriers providing services to the gulf countries, which has been growing rapidly on a global market. In the last few years, the customers of the airline company have been facing problems with the customer services. The company has also received several complaints and discouraging reviews about the airline. Moreover, the availability of better services from the competitor airlines at almost similar prices is affecting the loyalty of the customers towards Etihad Airways. Thus, the management of the airline company is urgently required to plan and implement appropriate strategies in order to help the organization revive in the market and to enhance its sustainability in future (Jones and Saundry 2012). When keeping records, the managers are required to be very careful about documentation. They are also required to figure out specific goals, time lines, and expected outcomes for the airlines company. The managers should be taking pride in developing wa ys to overcome a barrier to a solution. Company facing problems with the customer services. Complaints and discouraging reviews from customers. Affecting the loyalty of the customers towards Etihad Airways. Strategy Management topics to be considered Etihad requires both changes in the structure of the hierarchy of the company and the financial sector. It needs reallocation of funds to services and customer satisfaction that will generate higher revenues. In order to implicate such a structural change, the company needs to implement appropriate strategies. Thus, the first topic would be to plan effective business strategies, which could be implemented within the business processes of Etihad Airways. This would provide the backbone of the research of the whole planning. It is necessary to have everything properly planned and mapped out (Kooij et al. 2013). In order to smoothly implement the changes, there must be adequate amount of communication between the employer and the employees. Thus, proper communication among the employees should also be facilitated that could help in enhancing their knowledge and would help in improving their performances as well. This implementation of the proper communication would be the second topic. Application of learning An effective way to deal with the present situation is to implicatemore managerial effort for such change to happen (Coleman 2015). The entire business processes are required to be automated in order to make them faster. In order to achieve its goals, the company needs higher revenue returns and that can be achieved by implementing potential cost-cutting methods. Etihad Airways has chosen to adopt a different strategy for acquiring stakes and code-sharing partnerships. The company can attract more business class travellers by providing standard customer service. It will not only generate greater revenue for the company but also lead to efficient services and better hold over the competitive industry (Al-Aliand Ahmad 2014). Critical reflection Reflection on organizational design Etihad requires both changes in the structure of the hierarchy of the company and the financial sector. To prepare such a structural change many other factors have been kept in mind. The main has been how the rivals or competitors have framed their companies and analysing their profit returns. From the critical reflection on the organizational design, I have to understand and recognize all the understandings of Etihad Airlines. From the critical reflection about the strategy management of the airlines company, I found three learning outcomes. First, the customers of the airline company have been facing problems with the customer services. Second, the company has received several complaints and discouraging reviews about the airline. Third, the availability of better services from the competitor airlines at almost similar prices is affecting the loyalty of the customers towards Etihad Airways. Thus, the airline company is urgently required to plan and implement appropriate strategies in order to revive its position in the market and to enhance its sustainability in the future. In order to achieve the learning outcomes, I am, required to develop criteria, and critically evaluate the strategies that could help in choosing the most likely strategies to prove successful for the company. I need to keep records and be very careful about documentation of the same as relevant to the company. I also need to figure out specific goals, time lines, and expected outcomes for the airlines company. The execution of my learning plan will enable the company to overcome a barrier to a solution. Self-Reflection Strategy and performance strength As a potential manager, the main responsibility would be to formulate the strategy and find out how to handle the challenges and issues as faced by the airline company. According to Wetzel (2012), the manager is required to ensure that the strategies should be open to the wide range of ideas and assumptions. Based on the scoring (refer to Appendix 1), I have a stronger will in supporting and assisting my organization. My skills would be helpful for Etihad Airlines for achieving the excellence and operational efficiencies. My professional background as a Human Resource manager would be contributing in enhancing the performance of the business processes of the company by exploiting on the creativity and abilities of the employees working in the company. Technology for control and social business My score (refer to Appendix 1) suggest that I have a positive personality who is capable of setting goals for the company. My skills suggest that I am better prepared for the managerial role in the organization. These skills would enable me to set up the targets for the company and manage the business processes in aneffective way such that to remain competitive and sustainable in the global market. Making important decisions As a potential manager, the main responsibility would be to make important decisions for the company, which could be able to handle the challenges and issues as faced by the airline company. According to Longeneckerand Fink(2013), the manager is required to ensure that the decisions benign made for the long-term benefits of the organization. Based on the scoring (refer to Appendix 1), I am more of a linear decision maker. I use logical rationality in order to make my decision that could be beneficial for the company. I make decisions based on the facts and information as available related to the company. Relation with the experience In order to achieve the operational outcome, I used to prefer specific goals to develop the strategies for the organizations. I also helped my resources to define their own goals in choosing the most likely to prove successful for the company. I kept records about documentation as relevant to the company. I also figured out specific goals, time lines, and expected outcomes for the airlines company. The execution of my efficient learning plan enabled the company to overcome a barrier to a solution. These skills enabled me to set up the targets for the company and managed the business processes in and effective way (Kaufman 2015). I also used logical rationality in order to make my decision that could be beneficial for the company in the future. Application to the future professional development and achieving the goals My Strategy and performance strength skills would be helpful for Etihad Airlines for achieving the excellence and operational efficiencies (Wetzel 2012). My professional background as a Human Resource manager would be contributing in enhancing the performance of the business processes of the company by exploiting on the creativity and abilities of the employees working in the company. My social skills as evident from the score (refer to Appendix 1) suggest that I am better prepared for the managerial role in the organization. These skills would enable me to set up the targets for the company and manage the business processes in an effective way such that to remain competitive and sustainable in the global market use logical rationality in order to make my decision that could be beneficial for the company in the future. I make decisions based on the facts and information as available related to the company. Personal action plan Identification of three goals Short-term goals (3-6 months) The short-term goals for Etihad Airlines would be to implement strategies for achieving its goals. Firstly, it should be implementing appropriate strategies for influencing the customers to choose the flyer across the globe. Secondly, it should be raising the standards of the customer service, which is the main requirement of the airlines industry (Al-Aliand Ahmad2014). Medium term goals (6 months) It should also monitor the progress of its business processes such that to identify any issues and correct the same. The Etihad Airlines need to look for improving its business processes including maximizing its cargo profitability, improving the customer service, reducing administration, minimizing transit times, and maximizing load factors as well (Kaufman 2015) Long-term goals (18- 36 months) The mission of the airline company is to be the 21st century global airline. The company also needs to reflect on the best hospitality in the world. However, the company is known for its high priced tickets as compared to other airlines, which the majority of population cannot afford. Thus, the long-term goal of the company would be to reduce down its operations costs by automating the services. The vision of the company is to remain competitive and sustainable in the global market (Lewis 2013). Action table for the goals Proposed action Challenges Approach Key Performance Indicator Start Date Duration Short term goals Enhancing customer care service Rise in competition from Lufthansa and other competition airlines Openness to a wide range of assumptions and feedback from the customers and solving out the issues if any Increase in customer base 3rd July 2016 2nd Oct- 2nd Nov 2016 Influencing customers to select the flyer High priced tickets Reducing down the ticket prices and providing offers to the customers Increase in travelling frequency of the customers 3rd July 2016 2nd Oct- 2nd Nov 2016 Achieving goals Managing adhocs Implementing the business processes that could provide optimal yield Analysing the documents in the annual report 3rd July 2016 2nd Oct- 2nd Nov 2016 Medium term goals Monitoring the progress of business processes Long term skill development Setting the goals by phases Analysing the documents in the annual report 3rd July 2016 2nd Jan 2017 Reducing administration Difficulty of handling manual labour Implementing automation in the business processes like ticket booking counters, baggage counters and others Savings from reduced labour costs 3rd July 2016 2nd Jan 2017 Long term goals Maximizing the profitability Huge investment involved in enhancing its business expansion Penetrating the pricing strategy and reducing down on the operation costs Income statement in the financial report 3rd July 2016 2nd March 2018 Remain competitive and sustainable in the global market Rise in competition from Lufthansa and other competition airlines Discuss with manager and objectify the goals and mission statement by implementing appropriate strategies Annual report data 3rd July 2016 2nd March 2018 Infusing loyalty in the customers Retention of older employees Enhancing the customer service standard and building healthier relationship with them by providing with offers and discounts Increase in travelling frequency of the customers 3rd July 2016 2nd June 2018 Table 1: Action table for Etihad Airlines Source: Created by author References Al-Ali, H.A. and Ahmad, S.Z., 2014. Etihad Airlines: growth through successful strategic partnerships. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 4(5), pp.1-17. Coleman, M., 2015.Regulatory Responses to the Challenges Facing Large European Carriers in the New Global Market.The Air and Space Lawyer, 28(1), p.1. Jones, C. and Saundry, R., 2012. The practice of discipline: evaluating the roles and relationship between managers and HR professionals. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(3), pp.252-266. Kaufman, R., 2015. The Air Mauritius story: how HR can impact company culture. Strategic HR Review, 14(1/2), pp.2-7. Kooij, D.T., Guest, D.E., Clinton, M., Knight, T., Jansen, P.G. and Dikkers, J.S., 2013. How the impact of HR practices on employee well being and performance changes with age. Human Resource Management Journal, 23(1), pp.18-35. Kyriazopoulos, P. and Samanta, I., 2012. exploring the relationship Between Price and Service Quality in airlines services. Journal of Marketing and Operations Management Research, 2(4), p.237. Lewis, S., 2013.Positive psychologya useful tool for HR directors. Longenecker, C.O. and Fink, L.S., 2013. Creating human-resource management value in the twenty-first century: Seven steps to strategic HR. Human Resource Management International Digest, 21(2), pp.29-32. Trullen, J., Stirpe, L., Bonache, J. and Valverde, M., 2016. The HR department's contribution to line managers' effective implementation of HR practices. Human Resource Management Journal. Wetzel, N., 2012. The changing mission of human resources management. Al-Ali, H.A. and Ahmad, S.Z., 2014. Etihad Airlines: growth through successful strategic partnerships. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 4(5), pp.1-17. Anwar, M., 2015.Contingency Theory and Its Implications to Corporate Financial Planning and Organization Structure.JurnalAplikasiManajemen, 13(3), pp.363-370. Dobbs, M., 2014. Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), pp.32-45. Etihad Global. 2016. Enjoy great fares on flights and holidays from India to the world - Etihad.com. [online] Available at: https://www.etihad.com/en-in/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2016]. Flamholtz, E.G., 2012. Human resource accounting: Advances in concepts, methods and applications. Springer Science Business Media. Gazzar, S. 2016. Emirates, Qatar Airways face new rivalry with rapidly growing Turkish Airlines | The National. [online] Thenational.ae. Available at: https://www.thenational.ae/business/aviation/emirates-qatar-airways-face-new-rivalry-with-rapidly-growing-turkish-airlines [Accessed 12 Aug. 2016]. Gillen, D. and Morrison, W.G., 2015. Aviation security: Costing, pricing, finance and performance. Journal of Air Transport Management, 48, pp.1-12. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson. Maille, N.P. and Chaudron, L., 2014. Towards more integrated safety management tools for airlines. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 228(3), pp.342-354. Rice, A.L., 2013. The enterprise and its environment: A system theory of management organization (Vol. 10). Routledge. Tremaine, R.L., 2016. THE HIGH FLYING Leadership Qualities: What Matters the Most?.Defense Acquisition Research Journal: A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University, 23(2). Ulrich, D., 2013. Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business Press. Vakola, M., Armenakis, A. and Oreg, S., 2013. Reactions to organizational change from an individual differences perspective: A review of empirical research. The Psychology of Organizational Change: Viewing Change from the Employee's Perspective, pp.95-122. Wensveen, J.G., 2016. Air transportation: A management perspective. Routledge. Competitive rivalry (HIGH)

Whats New in Hestia 2.0 We Remastered Our Material Design WordPress Theme

A year and a half ago, we  welcomed Hestia  to the ThemeIsle family after months of hard work. Since then, it has become our flagship project, and we never left it aside for a single minute. This translates into we kept updating and improving Hestia on a regular basis. And all that hard work culminates in Hestia 2.0, a complete remaster of our material design WordPress theme.If youre already a Hestia user, this is awesome news for you. And if you dont know what Hestia is, well, youre about to discover a great WordPress theme thats kind of good at everything. You can use it for any type of site (and thats even easier now thanks to Hestia 2.0).As part of this release,  which we internally, refer to as Hestia 2.0, we improved  both the free and the premium version. And dont worry we didnt remove any of the existing features just added a bunch of awesome new stuff that enhances all the features youve already been using. A lot of things actually, but Ill only cover the really co ol features. Youll find the following improvements in  both the free and premium versions:Compatibility with Elementor and Gutenberg. You can customize Hestia via your front-end by using blocks and drag-and-drop elements (we assure you that nothing will break). Team Hestia up with the free Orbit Fox plugin to have access to even more free templates that can be customized with the best page builders.  Three new pre-built demos. We built the default Hestia design as a multipurpose theme. But now, its even multipurposer with three new niche-specific demo sites. They are:Online shopPet centerEnergy companyNew homepage sections. Now, you can get even more creative with your homepage with extra ribbons with a call-to-action, as well as a Clients bar to let everyone know which companies youve worked with.Flexible Big Title layout. You can change the position of the Big Title, while also being able to display widgets (with a call-to-action) next to it. Moreover, you can make the section friendlier with the new parallax effect.You can now change the font size for both the homepage and internal sections. This adjustment was not available before.While we previously recommended pairing Hestia together with WPForms for the contact form section, now were leaving this totally up to you. Just paste in the shortcode for your favorite contact form plugin and it will automatically work.Youll get  new style options for the blog page, too. And youll also be able to add featured posts by categories.Fresh blog layouts (two in the lite version and three in the pro). If youre just getting tired of using the same design, theres space for diversity now.New styling options for buttons. You get more control over the padding, border radius, and shadow.Whats new in Hestia Pro 2.0?Hestia Pro users get all the stuff from above,  plus these bonus goodies:Refined scrolling and animations. Hestia had elegant animations before, but now we revamped it which makes it more interactive and a ppealing. It just gives you a good vibe, thats all Im saying.If you feel like improving your online shop from a marketing standpoint, youll be happy to know that you can add ANY WooCommerce shortcode to your pages/sections  now.Remember when I said that the Big Title section is more flexible now? In the pro version, you can also  change the fixed image in the header with a video. Furthermore, you can use different headers across your website  (that is, you dont have to use the same header design on all the pages, you can change them up as needed).You can also customize the Features section by replacing the icons with images if you feel that they represent you and your company better.Hestia Pro is translation-ready  and should work with any WordPress translation plugin, including WPML, Weglot, and Polylang.You can also  reuse shortcodes from the homepage. For example, you can repeat a section from your homepage on your about page just by adding its shortcode.Even more pre-b uilt demos! You get four additional designs: lawyers, travel, coffee shops, and gym  salons. Which brings us to seven demos in total (together with the three free ones).LawyersTravelCoffee shop/cafeteriaGymWhen it comes to your blog, you can choose between many grid layouts (from 1 to 4-column layouts) and use a  masonry effect on the pages. You can add infinite scroll to your blog posts, too.The layout extendability applies to the shop section as well. Now you have two different ways (and two hover styles) to display your product pages, the option to hide the categories, and the possibility to select the style of the pagination (numbers or infinite scroll). The checkout page was also improved with new settings.Where to get Hestia 2.0?If you want to play with the new Hestia, you can try it for free by downloading the Lite version: Download Hestia Free Version If you want access to all the new and existing Pro features, upgrade to the premium version. We have three pricing plans for you in this case: Essential $89, Business $129, and VIP $199. You can opt for either yearly or lifetime packages. Get Hestia Pro Even though we believe (thereby recommend) that buying the whole package of goodies would be a more advantageous choice for you (if you think of both the price and the value that youll be going to receive), we do have a single theme option in case youre not interested in buying all the products. With the following link, you can buy Hestia Pro alone, without additional tools.A new theme in the worksReleasing Hestia 2.0 doesnt mean were going on vacation! Were actually hard at work on a brand new theme thats going to be fully compatible with Gutenberg (we are all preparing for the big event, its kind of mandatory if you want to survive the new wave of trends).But we wont be offering more spoilers on this segment yet, we just wanted to let you know what will be the next priority in the ThemeIsle office over the next month. Call it a teaser if you will. When will the new theme be released?, you may ask. We dont have an official date, but expect it sometime towards the end of November. Which is not that far, by the way. 🙂Wrapping upSo these are the fresh stories from our  office. Before starting off with the next project, we would love to hear your feedback on the Hestia remastering. Do you find the new features useful? If youre planning to launch a website with Hestia, we would love to see the final result, so feel free to share it here in the comments.Also, if you have any questions or need more info on a specific aspect, let us know and well be happy to clarify the things for you. Check out the new features in Hestia 2.0. #WordPress #theme