Describe the Process Consultation Essay

Describe the  process consultation. Discuss when it should be used and how it applies to organization development. Process consultation (PC) is a general framework for carrying out helping relationships. It is oriented to helping managers, employees, and groups assess and improve processes, such as communication, interpersonal relations, decision making and task performance. Schein argues that effective consultants and managers should be good helpers, aiding others in getting things done and in achieving the goals they have set. Thus, PC is more a philosophy than a set of techniques aimed at performing this helping relationship. The philosophy ensures that those who are receiving the help own their problems, gain the skills and expertise to diagnose them, and solve them themselves. Thus, it is an approach to helping people and groups help themselves. Schein defines process consultation as â€Å"the creation of a relationship that permits the client to perceive, understand, and act on the process events that occur in (her/his) internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client. † The process consultant does not offer expert help in the form of solutions to problems, as in the doctor-patient model. Rather, the process consultant works to develop relationships, observes groups and people in action, helps them diagnose the way they are carrying out tasks, and helps them learn how to be more effective. In the OD literature, team building is not clearly differentiated from process consultation. This confusion exists because most team building includes process consultation—helping the group diagnose and understand its own internal processes. However, process consultation is a more general approach to helping relationships than is team building. Team building focuses explicitly on helping groups perform asks and solve problems more effectively. Process consultation, on the other hand, is concerned with establishing effective helping relationships in organizations. It is seen as key to effective management and consultation and can be applied to any helping relationship, from subordinate development to interpersonal relationships to group development. Thus, team building consist s of process consultation plus other, more task-oriented interventions (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p. 253). Describe the key success requirements for a microcosm group intervention. A microcosm group onsists of a small number of individuals who reflect the issue being addressed. For example, a microcosm group composed of members representing a spectrum of ethnic backgrounds, cultures, and races can be created to address diversity issues in the organization. This group, assisted by OD practitioners, can create programs and processes targeted at specific problems. In addition to addressing diversity problems, microcosm groups have been used to carry out organization diagnoses, solve communications problems, integrate two cultures, smooth the transition to a new structure, and address dysfunctional political processes. Microcosm groups work through â€Å"parallel processes,† which are the unconscious changes that take place in individuals when two or more groups interact. After groups interact, members often find that their characteristic patterns of roles and interactions change to reflect the roles and dynamics of the group with whom they were relating. Put simply, groups seem to â€Å"infect† and become â€Å"infected† by the other groups. The following example given by Alderfer helps to clarify how parallel processes work. An organizational diagnosis team had assigned its members to each of five departments in a small manufacturing company. Members of the team had interviewed each department head and several department members, and had observed department meetings. The team was preparing to observe their first meeting of department heads and was trying to anticipate the group’s behavior. At first they seemed to have no ‘rational† basis for predicting the top group’s behavior because they â€Å"had no data† from direct observation. They decided to role-play the group meeting they had never seen. Diagnostic team members behaved as they thought the department heads would, and the result was uncanny. Team members found that they easily became engaged with one another in the simulated department-head meeting; emotional involvement occurred quickly for all participants. When the team actually was able to observe a department-head meeting, they were amazed at how closely the simulated meeting had approximated the actual session. Thus, if a small and representative group can intimately understand and solve a complex organizational problem for themselves; they are in a good position to recommended action to address the problem in the larger system (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p. 279). Discuss why the matrix structure is the best and most flexible organization structure. Some OD practitioners have focused on maximizing the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of both the functional and the self-contained-unit structures, and this effort has resulted in the matrix organization. Matrix organizational designs originally evolved in the aerospace industry where changing customer demands and technological conditions caused managers to focus on lateral relationships between functions to develop a flexible and adaptable system of resources and procedures, and to achieve a series of project objectives. Matrix organizations now are used widely in manufacturing, service, and nonprofit, governmental, and professional organizations. Every matrix organization contains three unique and critical roles: the top manager, who heads and balances the dual chains of command, the matrix bosses (functional, product, or area), who share subordinates: and the two-boss managers, who report to two different matrix bosses. Each of these roles has its own unique requirements. In a matrix organization, each project manager reports directly to the vice president and the general manager. Since each project represents a potential profit centre, the power and authority used by the project manager come directly from the general manager. Matrix organizations, like all organization structures, have both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, this structure allows multiple orientations. Specialized, functional knowledge can be applied to all projects. New products or projects can be implemented quickly by using people flexibly and by moving between product and functional orientations as circumstances demand. Matrix organizations can maintain consistency among departments and projects by requiring communication among managers. For many people, matrix structures are motivating and exciting. On the negative side, these organizations can be difficult to manage. To implement and maintain them requires heavy managerial costs and support. When people are assigned to more than one department, there may be role ambiguity and conflict, and overall performance may be sacrificed if there are power conflicts between functional departments and project structures. To make matrix organizations work, organization members need interpersonal and conflict management skills. People can get confused about how the matrix works, and that can lead to chaos and inefficiencies (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p. 319). What is the TQM approach to employee involvement and how does it differ from other approaches? Discuss Deming’s influence on this approach. Total quality management (TQM) is the most recent and, along with high-involvement organizations the most comprehensive approach to employee involvement. Also known as â€Å"Continuous process improvement† and â€Å"continuous quality,† TQM grew out of a manufacturing emphasis on quality control and represents a long- term effort to orient all of an organization’s activities around the concept of quality. Quality is achieved when organizational processes reliably produce products and services that meet or exceed customer expectations. Like high-involvement designs, TQM increases workers’ knowledge and skills through extensive training, provides relevant information to employees, pushes decision-making power downward in the organization and ties rewards to performance. When implemented successfully. TQM also is aligned closely with a firm’s overall business strategy and attempts to change the entire organization toward continuous quality improvement. TQM is a philosophy and a set of guiding principles for continuous improvement based on customer satisfaction, teamwork, and empowerment of individuals. TQM applies human resources and analytical tools to focus on meeting or exceeding customer’s current and future needs. There are a series of planned improvements that will ultimately influence the quality and productivity of the organization. Like high-involvement designs, TQM increases workers’ knowledge and skills through extensive training, provides relevant information to employees, pushes decision-making power downward in the organization and ties rewards to performance. When implemented successfully TQM also is aligned closely with a firm’s overall business strategy and attempts to change the entire organization toward continuous quality improvement. (Cummings ;amp; Worley, 2009, p. 359). Discuss the motivational approach to job design. What are the key dimensions that lead to high work quality and internal motivation? The motivational approach to work design views the effectiveness of organizational activities primarily as a function of member needs and satisfaction, and seeks to improve employee performance and satisfaction by enriching jobs. The motivational method provides people with opportunities for autonomy, responsibility, closure (that is, doing a complete job), and performance feedback. Enriched jobs are popular in the United States at such companies as AT;amp;T Universal Card, TRW, Dayton Hudson, and GTE. The motivational approach usually is associated with the research of Herzberg and of Hackman and Oldham. Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation proposed that certain attributes of work, such as opportunities for advancement and recognition, which he called motivators, help increase job satisfaction. Other attributes that Herzberg called hygiene factors, such as company policies, working conditions, pay, and supervision, do not produce satisfaction but rather prevent dissatisfaction—important contributors because only satisfied workers are motivated to produce. Successful job enrichment experiments at AT&T, Texas Instruments, and Imperial Chemical Industries helped to popularize job enrichment in the 1960s. Although Herzberg’s motivational factors sound appealing, increasing doubt has been cast on the underlying theory. Motivation and hygiene factors are difficult to put into operation and measure, and that makes implementation and evaluation of the theory difficult. Furthermore, important worker characteristics that can affect whether people will respond favorably to job enrichment were not included in his theory. Finally, Herzberg’s failure to involve employees in the job enrichment process itself does not suit most OD practitioners today. Consequently, a second, well-researched approach to job enrichment has been favored. It focuses on the attributes of the work itself and has resulted in a more scientifically acceptable theory of job enrichment than Herzberg’s model. The research of Hackman and Oldham represents this more recent trend in job enrichment. Considerable research has been devoted to defining and understanding core job dimensions. Figure 50 summarizes the Hackman and Oldham model of job design. Five core dimensions of work affect three critical psychological states, which in turn produce personal and job outcomes. These outcomes include high internal work motivation, high-quality work performance, satisfaction with the work, and low absenteeism and turnover. The five core job dimensions—skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the work itself—are described below and associated with the critical psychological states that they create (Cummings ;amp; Worley, 2009, p. 377). References Cummings, T. G. , ;amp; Worley, C. G. (2011). Organization development ;amp; change (11th ed. ). Australia; Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

The Critique of Dr. Larry Crabb and Dr. Ron Hawkins

Two theorists, Dr. Crabb and Dr. Hawkins have different theories but the same goal in mind when discussing integrating spirituality and psychology. The ultimate goal for all theorists should be to reach the needs of the client. Dr. Crabb discusses the difference between the process of a secular counselor and those of a Christian counselor. He explains that even though their ultimate goal is the same the avenue they take is different due to a different set of rules. Dr Crabb‘s theory relies heavily on the Bible and Abraham Maslow’s classical needs hierarchy. Dr Crabb describes the difference in how people perceive their problems, some take ownership, and other may blame the environment. According to Dr. Crabb, our reactions to our difficult life experiences take one of three forms: guilt, resentment or anxiety (Crabb, 1977). In Dr. Crabb’s book, Effective Biblical Counseling, he summarizes a three-level counseling program which can be performed by members of the church, using the concept that every Christian can minister the word of God. Also read this  Critique of Stuff Is Not Salvation The first level is about educating the members of the church members on the basic practices and principles of biblical scripture, strategies of counseling and the tools to use to accomplish the counseling. The second level the uses scripture to persuade the client to perceive the situation and solution christianly. By using scripture to explain the situation and solution the client make the comparison to their situation. The third level is establishing a character which displays godly behavior that conforms to the standards of the church. The counselor should represent Christian values and principles in their everyday life. Dr. Crabb also discusses his four approaches to integration of Christianity and psychology. The first approach and the most balance of Dr. Crabb’s four approaches are â€Å"Spoiling the Egyptians† (Crabb, 1977). In the teachings of this approach Dr. Crabb changes the direction of teaching away from the traditional teaching that man has three parts. Dr. Crabb suggests that man has only â€Å"two parts; physical and personal, or material and non-material† (p. 88). The physical side belonging to the material side and the spirit and soul belonging to the immaterial side (p. 88). This approach also teaches that psychology is under God’s perfect, incapable of mistakes, brilliant revelations. According to Dr. Crabb scripture is to have precedence over non-biblical opinion in a purposeful capacity. The second approach is â€Å"Separate but equal†. This viewpoint establishes that psychology and spirituality does not mix anymore than if a person needs a serious operation they do not go to the bible for direction, they go to the hospital. Scripture is used to help a person deal with their troubling emotions or teaching of lessons. For example inProverbs 4:23 states, â€Å"above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. † The â€Å"heart† includes the mind and all that proceeds from it. Next we have the â€Å"Tossed Salad† approach which blends theology and psychology. It can be confusing because it does not blend in with secular concepts when suggesting Biblical truth. Last approach is the â€Å"Nothing Buttery† approach which disregards psychology all together. This approach says that all that is needed is Christ. â€Å"This is clearly seen in Paul’s commendation to Timothy: â€Å"†¦ from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work† 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (King James Version). He suggests that most patients are self centered because they seek counseling in their desire to be happy. He navigates away from the teachings that man is a tri-part creature and suggests that man has a two part division: The material side and immaterial side (p. 88). He explains that the path to true happiness is to be like Christ. He believes the goal of counseling is spiritual and psychological maturity and concern in helping people enter into greater worship and affective life of service. Dr. Crabb explains in his book that â€Å"Maturity involves two elements: long range character growth and immediate obedience† (p. 3). He feels that by using the seven stage model a counselor will be able to identify where wrong belief was learned, encourage expression of emotions surround beliefs, support the client as they change their beliefs, helping the client decipher the true meaning of the word, securing a commitment from the client to act on these beliefs, build a plan with the client on what action needs to be taken with their new beliefs and help them identify their lack of sin rel ated feels and the presence of â€Å"spiritual feelings†. Dr. Hawkins (2010) utilizes a set of concentric circles to demonstrate the factors that make up an individual. He starts with the innermost self, which is the core self. He explains that a healthy psychological person has a Holy Spirit at the core, He adds more circles to show how the individual’s personality in influenced. This is similar to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory, which describes an individual’s development within the context of the individual’s environment. Unlike Dr Crabb, Dr. Hawkins emphasizes more on working with the client to build an intervention where the client will take ownership of the strategy and process of personal change. Dr Hawkins describes the first phase of a four phase model to understand the real problem. The client talks the counselor listens. Phase two, is paraphrasing and tracking what the client is really saying. Phase three is setting up a plan of action involving the client so the client is engaged in ownersh ip for this plan of action and responsibility for its outcome. In the final phase the counselor supports and guides the client to take accountability in the process of change. Evaluation of Strengths and Weaknesses Both these theories are similar and the outcome will be the same but the execution is different. In both theories the strength outweigh the negative because they are letting the client learn about themselves and how to breakdown their own problems. Both men rely on God’s guidance to lead in changing hurting humanity. Each model is well put together and easy to use. Dr. Crabb’s theory is more detailed whereas Dr. Hawkins’ presented his model in a more condensed form. Dr. Crabb proposes the counselor guides the client to be godly like and use the scriptures from the Bible to help the client understand the situation in comparison of a parable in the Bible, the compare the solution to what can be done to fix the problem. Dr. Hawkins theory starts out with the core self and explains that a psychologically healthy perso n has the Holy Spirit at the core. As he adds circles to tailor the influences to the client’s individual environment and life events explain the client’s personality. The Counselor listens to the client and then paraphrase to make certain of the problem. The client is involved in the plans and goals of overcoming the situation. By doing this the client can take accountability and responsibility of the outcome. Personal Reflection and Application In reflection of both these theories, I agree that the client should be guided in understanding the problem and in using the biblical parables to build a comparison to the underline problem and the best solution. As Christian children we are taught from the bible and use biblical verses to understand what’s and why’s of life. In using Dr. Crabb’s theory we can break down what is going on in the conscious mind and what is hidden in the unconscious mind. As counselors, we can breakdown the how the problem developed and what we can do to change the situation. We can guide the client into making these changes to better their lives. Dr Hawkins’ theory makes the client be responsible for the outcome by using the demonstrating the concentric circles to demonstrate how the problem gave birth to using the client’s environment and personality to change the situation and have a better outcome. I, personally was very interested in Dr, Crabb’s four approaches of integrating Christianity and psychology, especially the â€Å"Spoiling the Egyptians† (Crabb, 1977). As he explained that in this approach Dr. Crabb that man has only â€Å"two parts; physical and personal, or material and non-material† (p. 88). The physical side belonging to the material side and the spirit and soul belonging to the immaterial side (p. 88). When working with clients in a Christian Counseling scenario scripture is to have precedence over non-biblical opinion in a purposeful capacity.

Development of Moldova

Moldova is a land locked country that lies between Ukraine and Romania.   It gained independence in 1991 after an aborted coup against Russia.   It is ranked as the most poor country in Europe, attributable to the economic crisis that faced Russia in 1998.   This is because Moldova's foreign trade heavily relied on Russia and the crisis naturally had adverse effects on its economy.   The current president, Vladimir Voronin, has made attempts to bring the country closer to Russia in a bid to resuscitate the economy.Economic development is the effort to increase wealth of a country through empowering the citizens (Leornard, 2006).   It goes beyond economic growth and focuses on social and political sectors of the society.   This includes uplifting the standards of living of the people as well as enhancing democracy and freedom of the people.   Measures include economic growth, literacy rates, poverty rates, life expectancy among others.Moldova is able to attain the status of highly developed countries, in the next fifty years due to the changes that the current government is implementing, that facilitate reaching this level.Economic aspectFor development to be achieved, there has to be a systematic effort to increase the economic growth.   Moldova does not have major mineral resources and consequently relies on agriculture, due to the favorable climate.   It relies on Russia for nearly half of the exports and major import partners include Russia, Romania, Belarus and Ukraine.   Major imports are fuel, electricity, chemicals, textiles and machinery while exports are foodstuffs, textiles and tobacco.   It experiences unfavorable balance of trade and in 2007, it was recorded at $2.3 billion.   Moldova has high external debt that was estimated at $900 million in 2000, most of which came from the World Bank and the IMF.The GDP declined over the years due to the effect from Russia but is now slowly coming around.   Moldova's strategy to improv e the economy was to free prices and interest rates, land privatization and the removal of export restrictions.   Economic progress is gradually being achieved since indicators like the GDP are rising.   Inflation is reducing and the economy is growing due to the government's expenditure framework that stresses fiscal discipline as well as efficient resource use.Social aspect.Ten years ago, 75% of the population in Moldova was below the poverty line (Berglund, 2004).   Other social problems include human trafficking and influx of drugs such as opium, since Moldova is a route for drugs destined for Europe and US.   This has an adverse effect on the health of the people.   The government is slowly addressing these issues, for example by empowering the population through investment geared towards economic growth.   This is being done by reducing hurdles to business entry, by for example, reducing number of licenses required for trade.   This results in increase of disposa ble income to households.   The government is also constructing infrastructure like roads, schools and hospitals to improve the standards of living of the people.Political aspectMoldovan political parties lack internal democracy and accountability.   Opposition parties do not take part in formulation of policies due to parliament's attitude of ignoring alternative opinions.   In 2005, Freedom House gave Moldova a score of 5.75, in terms of democracy, which is a poor show.   Political parties do not also hold dialog with civil societies.   The government is slowly increasing the democratic space.   It has also dedicated time to solve the Transnistrian conflict which will increase political development.ChallengesPrivatization of state owned corporations is marred by corruption. There is political and economic uncertainty and ineffective law enforcement.   Over reliance of Russia in trade is also a challenge.   Ban on Moldovan wine and agricultural products by Russia in 2006 adversely affected its revenue, since wine accounted for a third of its exports, of which 80% went to Russia (Leornard, 2006).   In 2007, Moldova faced drought that led to losses in the agricultural sector amounting to over $100 million.   There is financial challenge due to external debt and uncertainty towards future assistance.   Finally, there is a challenge of involving poor people in activities of Non-Governmental Organizations.RecommendationsMoldova should reduce reliance on Russia for trade since in the past, any adverse policy changes by Russia have greatly affected Moldovan economy.   It should also reduce the reliance on agriculture and diversify in other sectors of the economy, since climate change tends to greatly affect the economy.   Support for medium and small size enterprises would facilitate increase the employment opportunities in the country.   There should be motivation for development for example rewards, to encourage innovation.   Use of r enewable energy sources like wind would reduce reliance on electricity.Moldova should   ensure that the civil society participates in the formation of policies at all levels so as to integrate the views of the citizens.   It should put in place reforms that strengthen civil control over the military.   It should design legal frameworks that define rights and tasks of parliamentary, civilian and public control mechanisms.ConclusionMoldova is on track in achieving development in the next few decades.   All it has to do is reduce reliance on Russia and look for alternative markets.   It should also strengthen democracy and improve the standards of living of the people.   A stable political environment coupled with infrastructure to attract investments, efficient use of the available resources as well as having effective monetary and fiscal policies should enable Moldova achieve development before the next fifty hours are over. References Leonard, T. M. (2006), Encyclopedia of the developing world. Washington: Routledge. Berglund, S. (2004), The handbook of political change in eastern Europe. New York: Edward

Multicultural Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Multicultural Education - Essay Example The essay "Multicultural Education " talks about the difficulty to talk with their peers and teachers in the classroom for culturally diverse students. This imparts the need for schools to develop such programs that increase the cooperation among the culturally diverse students. TeachHUB.com has learning material that caters for the needs of a vast population of multicultural students ranging from preschoolers to graduate level students. Some of the features offered by TeachHUB.com pertinent to multicultural educational setting include lessons and teaching tools designed for culturally diverse student base, culture-related hot tips and topics, a platform for intercultural interaction, professional development opportunities, and Real Teacher Blogs. Finding knowledgeable and experienced guest speakers and visitors that are well-informed and masters of their fields is a big way for the schools and educational institutions to improve the knowledge of their students as well as gain a good reputation in the market. It is often difficult for the educational institutions to locate such speakers on their own or to arrange their visits to the institutions because of time and financial constraints. In addition to that, it is difficult to accommodate the needs of students coming from a variety of cultural backgrounds in any site visit or lecture. In this regard, the service provided by TeachHUB.com is remarkable and makes it very convenient for the administrators to regularly and frequently arrange guest speakers.

Argyle Diamonds Strategic Business Plan Case Study

Argyle Diamonds Strategic Business Plan - Case Study Example Companies should have successful competitive strategies to be able to attract, retain and grow customers. However, before the company can plan and execute these strategies, it should be able to pinpoint its sources of competitive advantage which can be differentiated through products, services, channels, people and to age (Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). Since the market is in the international orientation, the advertisers should keep in mind the differences that are distinct between and among the target market from different cultural backgrounds which may significantly affect the effectivity of the campaign. The fact is, there may be ideas that will not be applicable across the diverse target market population. Studies on the relationship of consumer behavior and their personal values and cultural orientation as well as their beliefs on certain principles, the dispositions they hold and the side they take on political, gender and social problems and issues should be duly accorded. Moreover, other elements, such as understanding the right target audience for a product or service, an indeed, researching such an audience in considerable depth, are equally important. Similarly, even if the appropriate channels are known and understood, the content of the messaging and communications developed for those channels, and that audience, or nature of critical importance. Such channels, for example, will include TV advertising, or an outdoor campaign. Advocates of such channels will argue with justification, that media can now be bought to give a highly articulate degree of one to one targeting, but more importantly the inclusion within messaging across these channels of a telephone number, email address, or website, fulfill our requirement to develop one to one dialogue (Elgar, 2003).

Goldman Sachs Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Goldman Sachs - Term Paper Example 2.A.i. Key Products and Services 7 2.A.ii.Function of Products and Services in the World of Investments 7 2.A.iii. Goldman Sachs’ Role in IPOs 8 2.B. Goldman Sachs’ Influence on the Capital Markets 8 2.B.i. Positive Influences 8 2.B.ii. Debated Influences Among Investors and other Firms/Companies 9 3. Role of Goldman Sachs in China 10 3.A. Key Investment Areas in China 10 3.A.i. Key Areas of Interest of Goldman Sachs in China 10 3.A.ii. Successful Cases/Engagements in China 11 3.B. Valuing China’s Present Economic Situation 11 3.B.i. Current Investment Climate in China- Views 11 3.B.ii. Forecasts for Future Prospects in China 11 4. Conclusion 12 4.A. Goldman Sachs’ Performance in the World of Investments 12 4.B. Goldman Sachs’ Role in China 12 References 13 1. Introduction to Goldman Sachs 1.A. Goldman Sachs History Goldman Sachs is an American investment bank that has its roots in Manhattan in New York City, having been founded there in 1869, with its key competencies being in general investment banking, financial services, the management of investments, and securities. It leads the world in the management of mergers and acquisitions, the provision of services tied to underwriting, the management of assets, as well as prime brokerage services that it is able to provide to individuals, companies, and countries. Once unassailable and with a pristine reputation built over its lifetime, the bank had seen its reputation and standing in the banking community tarnished as a result of its actuations during the financial crisis that erupted from 2007 and whose after effects are still being felt up to the present day. From its founding by Marcus Goldman in 1869, the firm emerged by the early part of the 20th century as one of the premier banking entities in the US, with expertise and market leadership in the establishment of the market for initial public offerings or IPOs. It was during the time after that, however, that the firm evolved from a trading company to an investment banking entity. The firm further evolved and developed into the 1999’s, to the point where it was able to launch its IPO of its own shares in 1999, transferring about 12 percent ownership of the firm into the hands of the investing public. Throughout this time and after, key personnel in Goldman Sachs went on to become key public officials managing the nation’s finances, as well as key executives in some of the country’s and the world’s major financial institutions, including Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. On the other hand, the controversies surrounding the alleged role of Goldman Sachs in inducing the financial crisis in 2007 and of aggravating the crisis have largely resulted in the reputation and fortunes of the investment bank being heavily hit in recent years, putting into doub t even its future prospects as a going concern and as a bastion of the capitalist system (Answers Corporation, 2012; Google, 2012; Thomson Reuters, 2012; Goldman Sachs, 2012; Taibbi, 2011; Taibbi, 2009; Smith, 2012). 1.B. Goldman Sachs Background The key activities of Goldman Sachs worldwide revolve around the management of investments, investment banking and securities management, as well as the provision of related financial services to countries, rich people, individuals, as well as corporations and other related entities. Its four business segments reflect its core businesses, which are Investment Management, Lending and Investing, Investment Banking, and Institutional Client Services. It has presence in key financial centers all over the world by way of vital offices, while being present likewise in a total of 30 countries Its key officers are the following (Google, 2012; Reuters Thomson, 2012): Lloyd C. Blankfein Chairman of the Board, Chief

The Making Of the Black Revolutionaries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Making Of the Black Revolutionaries - Essay Example These small steps come from the struggles faced in everyday life, at school, in church, and the local restaurant. By remaining true to his personal convictions throughout his life, the revolutionary inside was allowed to grow. The book traces this evolution in Forman, and the people that he worked with in the civil rights movement, from being political activists to becoming powerful forces behind revolution. The book is divided into two parts and highlights the evolutionary change from political thought to action for social change. Book One, "A Constant Struggle", details the experiences of the author's early life and his experiences with the state of race relations in America from the 1930s through the 1950s. It is in these years that Forman forms his political views and forges his hunger to pursue social justice. The author is faced with the everyday hatred and discrimination that confronted blacks during this period, yet he does not preach about their evils. The author is a master at describing the situation and letting the reader draw their own conclusions. He tells the story of a black sharecropper that was evicted from her land and home because she registered to vote in Fayette County Tennessee in 1960. The author tells the story in Georgia Mae Turner's own words and simply reminds us, "The price is high for all acts of rebellion and Georgia Mae had paid dearly for hers" (124). It is this constant struggle that is addressed in Book One and contends that revolution is the continuous addressing of these injustices. One of the major threads that run throughout the book is that being a political revolutionary is a day to day struggle that deals with real people and real events. Forman sets the stage for the book in the opening chapters by describing his life in Mississippi and Chicago. Faced with discrimination and segregation, he was able to complete school, serve in the Air Force, and graduated from college. It's in these early years that the author forms his political ideas and their radical overtones. He writes, "This was economic in origin, but not just a matter of money. The issue was sheer survival, the survival of the black working-class in a hostile world" (54). Forman viewed the hostility in the world from the philosophy of W.E.B. DuBois and would be determined to use his talents to correct even the smallest injustice. The book is more than just the author's personal accounts of the struggle for civil rights. Book Two "A Band of Sisters and Brothers, in a Circle of Trust" is an accurate historical record of some of the most important organizations of the period. He details his work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The author is able to take the reader behind the scenes and meet the players who were influencing their policies and doing the difficult work. The stories are a reminder that the job of revolutionary is often confronted with compromise. When the SNCC, SCLC, and CORE leaders met to discuss their stand on Vietnam in 1966, there was wide disagreement on how to

Staffing & Talent Management F12 Assignment #3 Essay

Staffing & Talent Management F12 Assignment #3 - Essay Example Most organisations in today’s world are high profit seeking business partners. They have their plans, objectives and actions aligned with financial goals in mind. Therefore for such organisation, strategic monitoring of performance by the leadership is very important. This is the contribution area registering the contribution made by employees in the area of their core competency. This accounts for the main work that give the organisation its â€Å"bread butter†. For an IT organisation, it is developing applications, building software, providing software solution consultancy etc. For manufacturing companies it could be throughput of manufacturing operation, reduction of waste, optimisation of processes. For a public service company it could be generating ideas related to a particular field, implementation of internal projects, ability to cut down on departmental expenses etc. This is the leadership contribution area responsible for training and development of staff. This parameter is necessary for understanding the impact of leaders on their team and peers. It measures training and motivation efficiency, it calibrates and provides a benchmark for trainings to be taken and leadership roles to be undertaken in order to ensure growth of the organisation. It is a crucial area that registers responsibilities taken over and above current responsibilities. It encompasses the qualities of ownership, accountability, customer satisfaction and dedication towards achieving 100 % customer satisfaction score keeping in mind larger topics like: future business, long term goals, long lasting customer relationships, joint efforts, partnerships, forecasted future financial benefit etc. Value Creator contribution area also records the value addition that an employee brings to his work through added effort out of the set of assigned results. Apart from

Existentialism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Existentialism - Essay Example If the tragic hero Oedipus could assert in his conscious pain that "all is well", Camus's concept of 'Sisyphus Happy' must be accurate because, it is true that "there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn" (121). Camus enumerates the passions that define Sisyphus-"his scorn of the gods, his hatred of death and his passion for life." These have gained him the most unspeakable of penalties in which he has to strive with all his heart and might to accomplish nothing. But exerting oneself to accomplish nothing is a classic example of negation, and Sisyphus must have seen that adding the emotion of joy to his labors would be the best way of negating the gods-admittedly, one of his prime interests. Therefore, when Camus says that Sisyphus, the 'proletarian of the gods' is Sisyphus Happy-the statement is irrefutable. For Sisyphus was said to have been the wisest of mortals. Camus reminds us that the fate of modern man in the modern workplace, working every day at the same tasks, is no less absurd than that of Sisyphus. Modern man then lives and works in true absurd fashion, but the birth of the tragic, the opportunity for heroism, the potential for authentic existence only becomes possible in those rare moments when he becomes aware of the absurdity. Sisyphus's strength, as well as his joy, rises out of his consciousness of his condition. Out of consciousness, out of awareness, out of lucidity springs Sisyphus's victory over the rock, over the gods, over the oppression of his situation. The films of Charlie Chaplin depict beautifully the absurdity at the heart of much of human endeavor in 'modern times.' Chaplin shows that the modern absurd hero is the man who is aware of the absurdity of his condition. Such a man can overcome the oppressiveness of his life and work by means of the weapon of scorn. He does not hope to achieve happiness because of his work, or as a consequence of it. However, the weapon of scorn gives him the feeling of joy while engaged in the work. That joy is his way of achieving mastery over the work as well as over any who may have hoped that the work would frustrate his soul. On the other hand, unmixed joy would not be the absurd hero's chosen cup of tea or bowl of vinegar. The emotion of joy cannot be divorced from the experience of pain and sorrow. Sisyphus's descent is therefore, sometimes done in sorrow. Camus believes that the sorrow was in the beginning, when memories of the earth plagued his soul. At times like these, the rock triumphs. But Sisyphus rarely allows himself such lugubriousness or such agonizing. Most of his effort is undertaken, in Camus's vision, in silent joy. This is because Sisyphus knows that "His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing" (123). It is his rock-not the rock of the gods, not the instrument devised by the gods to punish him-but something that defines him, that expresses the essence of his spirit, his existence, and his supreme scorn for pompous authority. The Last Castle is a movie starring Robert Redford in the role of former general who has been sent to a prison under the control of an officious Chief Warden. The film highlights a penalty inflicted by the Warden on the imprisoned general for a minor offense. The punishment involved the single-handed lifting and transportation of a large heap

How the Stock Market Crash of 1929 Affected the United States Essay Example for Free

How the Stock Market Crash of 1929 Affected the United States Essay The year of 1929 is marked by the Stock Market Crash in which most consider to be the beginning of the Great Depression. This was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, though. The Stock Market Crash was caused by an economy that was not stable enough to handle the high stock prices. The Stock Market Crash helped bring on the Great Depression which forced the United States government to make changes in the regulation of stock exchanges, providing much greater protection for investors. The United States was a young nation and was not always as powerful as it is now or was in 1929. The United States was formed from European citizens who wanted to start their lives over. So the United States had relatively little money compared to the financial status of the rest of the world. London at the time was considered the center of finance. The United States borrowed money from England and other countries to spur its industry. By 1960 it seemed that the United States would inevitably be the worlds most important business and financial power. The Civil War provided a boost for industry, which jump-started the gradual shift of financial power from London to New York. The United States had a valuable asset in the form of land. â€Å"The United States was forced to develop itself before it could worry about competing with the world. Hence, the amount of capital was far greater once available to be spent outside the United States. The year of 1914 can be considered the point at which the United States would never be second in the world again.† (Axon, 32) Europe was stricken with war and the United States was turned to for supplies. The â€Å"wealthy European countries were ravaged by war because of casualties, economic losses, and expensed of war over four years.† (Axon, 33) The United States only was in the war for a year and did not have its country damaged by the war. The United States emerged from World War I being owed billions of dollars for having financed most of the war and was acknowledged to be the leader of the Western world. The early 1920s were a time of booming industry, of soaring hope and confidence. The ups and downs of the stock market were hardly noticed by the average American. The average American was more concerned with their daily life than the state of the stock market. The economy was such that many new products and services were available to almost everyone, including the automobile, radios, and other products for the home. The stock market was controlled by professionals that worked for large firms who had good financial backing which made it easier to use the market advantageously. Small investors were never shut out of Wall Street but the professionals paid for stock tips and also rigged the market so that certain stocks would rise and fall. This gave small investors a much harder time in making money through the stock market. As the market began to grow more small investors entered the game and were really just gambling their money. Most were not successful but some got lucky or got a good stock tip and rode the rising market until they lost their money too with the Stock Market Crash. At this time nobody had any reason to believe that the stock market would not keep rising. â€Å"Throughout the 1920s a long boom took stock prices to peaks never before seen. From 1920 to 1929 stocks more than quadrupled in value. Many investors became convinced that stocks were a sure thing and borrowed heavily to invest more money in the market.† (PBS) As the market grew, the stock market became a way of life and was a highly discussed topic among common Americans who were eager to get a piece of the pie. Americans no longer were connected by the common bond of making a life for themselves like at the birth of the nation. The 1920s were an era of revolution in ideas, beliefs, inventions, and ways of living. â€Å"The nation was totally different after World War I than before. The United States experimented with Prohibition. The Jazz age rose from the streets of Harlem, NY. Women got the right to vote. The whole of society was convinced that anything was possible, not only in the stock market and finances, but also in every facet of life.† (Sherrow, 12) Most of this is taken for granted now because what was considered a new idea seems commonplace and because the Stock Market Crash of 1929 overshadowed the great improvements in society. Societys attitude affected Wall Street, though. The large investing firms thought that the government should not be allowed to interfere with the speculation of finances. This is a common feeling when the economy is booming, that the government is always trying to oppress. The exact opposite is seen when the economy is in a depression and everyone turns to the government for help. The federal government was very limited in its control of the market and could not impose new control efforts at the time because the nation would not agree. As we know now, the stock market would have been better off if the government would have stepped in when the stock market became dangerously high. One of the main causes for the stock market to become dangerous was because large firms or groups of individuals practiced unfair techniques when buying and selling stocks. This was known as rigging the market. The stock market flows more smoothly through normal buying and selling activity but when certain groups tried to make money in an unfair way they hurt others in the process which concentrated capital. Large pools could control prices more than was healthy for the stock market. Some made fortunes others lost everything. An example was â€Å"a cigar stock at the time was selling for $115 a share. The market collapsed. I got a call from the company president. Could I loan him $200 million?† (Blaszczyk and Scranton, 337) To the public, the stock market seemed as though it would surely make them money, and were buying. The craze was a â€Å"frenzied finance that made Ponzi look like an amateur. (Blaszczyk and Scranton, 337) The insiders were controlling the market though, setting the stage for the greatest crash of all time. The booming economy in the United States was not typical of the whole world. England had its share of problems concerning currency. The people wanted gold to again be used as it was before the war. They felt that it was a valuable metal and provided a solid backing for currency. The British government finally agreed, after a lot of pressure, to re-instate the gold standard but it was a new version where gold would be used to back up paper money and gold would be used to handle international debts. The pound was put into use, which created a problem. The pound was overvalued in terms of other currencies meaning that people had to pay more to by British goods. Naturally, people bought goods elsewhere to avoid the currency exchange rate of the pound. Instead of realizing what was happening, the British tried to lower the price, which in turn lowered wages and caused strikes to break out in England around 1926. Germans were not better off. Of course their country was destroyed physically by war, but the financial system was very poor at this time in Germany. Germany was forced to pay reparations according to the Treaty of Versailles plus the inflation was so bad that German currency was absolutely worthless. The German public was enraged about this and the fact that they lost a lot of what they considered their land because of the war. The new government installed in Germany after the war called the Weimar republic was a democracy. The German public could not adjust to this making governmental intervention a difficult task. France and the rest of Europe faced the same effects. Inflation was uncontrolled and the political systems were thrown into upheaval. Since the United States was so financially secure at this time, countries like Britain and France naturally asked for assistance. They appealed to the Federal Reserve Board to make cuts in interest rates in the United States. This would make the United States less attractive to investors and would maybe cause investment in Europe instead. By increasing the money supply in the United States, the dollar would be worth less and make American goods more expensive while lowering the price of foreign goods. At this time the United States thought that this would not benefit it at this time. After all, the economy was booming, nearly everyone was working, people were making money from the stock market, and life was generally pleasant. Taking actions that would have hurt the United States would not have been appreciated by businessmen and normal citizens as well. The United States paid little attention to these pleas. There has always been talk that if the Federal Reserve Board would have stepped in that there would have been no boom in speculation, greatly reducing the risk of a crash. The argument against this is the fact that the Federal Reserve Banking system has little control of the economy, but can only make changes spurring growth or decline. Other theories put the blame on foreign countries too. One allegation states that stock speculation and gambling the market was a trait the United States adopted from Europe. However, the get rich quick attitude of Americans is just as great as the Europeans. The California Gold Rush and the Florida Real Estate Boom prove this. The United States Government can still consume most of the blame. At that day and age, it was hard to expect economists to predict exactly what would happen with the stock market rising so rapidly. They could have realized that it was a dangerous situation. The government felt too threatened by  business. When the government stepped in businessmen, bankers, and society in general criticized them for trying to take action when none was deemed necessary. By 1928 the stock market had reached the point of no return. The stock market fluctuated greatly and the risk of the stock market became greater. The rigging of stocks became so common that people of great esteem thought nothing wrong of manipulating stocks in way that actually defrauded the public. By† the inevitability of a market collapse was upon the United States but nobody expected that a full-fledged business depression was to come about because of it.† (Axon, 47) At this time three million shares were traded each day. Slowly it rose to four and five million shares per day. By November 1928 a daily volume of six million shares was reached. It must be realized that industrial stocks rose at a normal rate at this time, approximately growing by a third. The individual stocks are what marked disaster. For example, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) grew an unheard of 400 percent in 1928. In 1929 the stock market continued to grow at a dangerous pace. People borrowed money at high interest rates figuring to make enough in the stock market to cover the interest and still profit greatly. With people concentrating so much energy in the stock market, few realized that production could not keep up with the stock market. The automobile and construction industries had a small decline but people disregarded it as normal. Few Americans decided to sell-out for a profit. Most refused to believe the boom was coming to a halt. Stock market prices were now driven up by the sheer power of speculative demand. In other words, there was nothing concrete to back up the stock prices. By mid-October, the stock market was in a bad state. No major boom could revive the quality stocks that took a sharp dive. Fear began to take the place of greed in Wall Street. The word sell was now heard more than the word buy. Brokers asked for more margins or more cash from the customer to be paid into their accounts. The customers, of course, could not afford it and the brokers sold the stock. This pushed stock prices even lower. Everyone began banking the large operators on Wall Street would step in because they had much more to lose than the small investor. The problem was that they could not afford to because they were already in trouble because of the sharp decline in their stocks. October 24, 1929 was called Black Thursday because this hope was squashed and stock prices plummeted. Even after this there was still some hope. That same day, bankers moved in trying to restore some of the mess. They were trying to restore some of the optimism in the market. This was not the case as the following Monday, October 28, 1929, the market was flooded with selling orders. The big bankers were no longer there because they were in their own trouble. The people that were hurt the most are those that put their whole lives into the stock market and now walked the streets, stunned about their losses. â€Å"Some of the more badly declining stocks from 1929 to 1933 are as follows: Consolidated Cigar common stock fell from $115 to $3. General Foods dropped from $82 to less than $20. General Motors fell from $91 to less than $8. US Steel dropped drastically from $261 to just over $21. The railroad stocks were hit the hardest. The New York Central Railroad alone fell to $9 from $256.† (Klingaman, 111) The Stock Market Crash of 1929 marked a new era that was not immediately realized. Just as the rising stock market had provided industry with the capital to expand, the falling market caused industry to move into recession.

Parent Firms of Joint Ventures

Parent Firms of Joint Ventures Are joint-ventures and their parent firms more closely related in terms of skill-relatedness than in terms of value-chain? Abstract The distance between joint-ventures and their parent firms is a fairly new topic of research in the field of diversification. In the process of determining the actual parent firm of a joint-venture out of all alternative industries, it turned our that both vertical- and skill-relatedness proved to be significant. The results indicate further that skill-relatedness is more predictive in this process than vertical relatedness and that joint-ventures are more likely to have parents that have skill overlap to their primary activity than industries that do not. These results hold for the entire sample and a subsample of manufacturing firms. Another finding is that joint-ventures and their parents tend to be more closely related in skills than their parents active in the joint-venture. Suggesting that joint-venture are a mechanism to reduce cognitive distance and increase the absorptive capacity of the new knowledge being transferred. 1. Introduction Diversification and relatedness between firms has been widely researched and finds their theoretical foundation in Coase (1937); Penrose (1959) and others. Coase (1937) can be regarded as one of the first to address the transaction costs theory, while Penrose (1959) addressed the resource based view of the firm. Both theories form the basis of many empirical research to understand more about diversification behavior of firms. These theories therefore form a basis for further research in diversification and especially in the distance between joint-ventures and their parents for this paper. Output produced by one industry often form the basis of production in other industries. It makes economic sense to integrate these activities into already existing activities to improve efficiency, make the company less dependable on their primary activity and expand the company, in order to achieve growth. Fan and Lang (2000) found this already before in their research about diversification. Firms tend to have secondary segments that are related in terms of in-output. This vertical integration of activities is most likely to occur when facing high market transaction costs. Neffke and Henning (2010) also investigated diversification behavior of firms using in-output relatedness. Their research however introduced a new measure of skill-relatedness, which turned out to be dominant in predicting diversification behavior of firms. Conform the resource based view, regarding human capital as the prime asset of the firm, their research firstly compared observed job switchers against the predicted job switchers between certain industries. Individuals gain, certain specific skills during their working life and can only redeploy this knowledge (â€Å"know-how†) in other industries which posses some degree of knowledge overlap. If this is not the case, switching will only hurt the individual, since he or she will be not valued for all acquired skills during his working life. This measure of skill-relatedness between industries proved to outperform in-output relatedness and supported the resource based view in diversification activities of firms. While diversification behavior and relatedness is widely researched, this is not the case for the relationship between joint-ventures and their parents. A joint-venture is a separate legal entity (Harrigan, 1988) and has at least two parents, who are in joint-control and reliable for their equity share in the joint-venture. This paper will discuss, why a joint-venture might be preferred over alternatives and how this might influence the distance between joint-ventures and their parent firms. This will provide new insights in the relationship between joint-ventures and their parent firms. In order to investigate the relationship between joint-ventures and their parent firms and testing for dominant mode in this relationship, this paper used a sample of 237 German joint-ventures between 2005-2011 and constructed an average vertical relatedness according to Fan and Lang (2000) for German industries between 2005-2007. It than included the skill-relatedness of Neffke and Henning (2010) based on Swedish labor switchers between 2004-2007. These data allowed us to make an overview of all joint-ventures and all industries in which it can have their parents. We then tagged the actual parent firms of the joint-ventures with a one and all other industries with a zero, allowing us to run a logit regression with the actual parent firms as our dependent variables. The findings indicate, that the resource based view is the dominant mode in explaining distance between joint-ventures and their parent firms. This provides more insight in the importance of close relatedness in terms of skills over other forms of relatedness. In the following chapter, we start with a theoretical framework about diversification and argue that the resource based view can be regarded as the most important in diversification moves. We will then discuss the alternative diversification possibilities and the limitations of diversification. This will be followed by a discussion of the most important strategic motives on joint-ventures choice. These strategic motives and the theoretical framework will be summarized at the end of chapter 2 and we will explain how this all will relate on the distance between joint-ventures and their parents. In chapter 3 we will discuss empirical evidence on diversification and joint-ventures and their implications on our research. Then we will follow with a data discussion and our method of research in chapter 4 and 5. The results and out findings will be presented in chapter 6 and the final chapter will discuss our outcomes, provides some more insight in the distance between both parents active in the joint-venture, limitations, policy implications and future research. 2. Theory on diversification: an introduction This paper investigates the distance between joint-ventures and their parents. Before we can have a look at this relation, we start with a theoretical framework about diversification and the implications of this framework for our research. Thereafter, we will explain more about diversification motives and the problems and limitations firms might face when diversifying. We then summarize all this and discuss how this all relate to our expected findings on joint-ventures and the relatedness with their parents. 2.1 Theoretical framework behind diversification strategies A theoretical framework behind diversification strategies will be discussed in the coming chapter. This theoretical framework provides more insights in the diversification motives of firms. After these motives have been discussed, we can discuss their influence on the distance between joint-ventures and their parents at the end of chapter 2. 2.1.1. Transaction cost theory The transaction cost view is a theory of Coase (1937) and Williamson (1975, 1985) and addresses the view that economizing is the core problem of economic organizations. The core of these problems in organizational context lay in the assumptions of incomplete information and self interest seeking firms / people. Incomplete information in contracts implies that it is impossible for individuals and firms to predict each future event, therefore all contracts are incomplete and exposed to uncertainty of future situation not foreseen by firms and individuals. If these future states / conditions change, the incentives for the individuals and firms involved might also change. In other words, there is room for self-interest of individuals. In the transaction cost theory, these assumptions of bounded rationality and self-interest seeking are paired and as a result there is room for fraud or guile of economic agents. Economic agents are driven by self-interest and the transaction costs theory a llows these agents to deceive, disguise and confuse in order to maximize their self interest. Opportunistic behavior and moral hazard are thus included in the theory of transaction costs. These assumptions are the basis for the theory of transaction cost and have some consequences, especially when it comes to contract modes and thus joint-ventures. Due to bounded rationality and opportunistic behavior of economic agents, all contracts are incomplete (Williamson, 2006). This means, economic agents have an incentive to behave to their own optimal ex post outcome if situations change which cannot be contracted. The second assumption is contract as promise (Williamson, 2006). This assumes that economic agents will fulfill contracts as promised. However, this will not be obtained if these agents are given opportunistic opportunities. â€Å"The transaction costs analysis entails an examination of the comparative costs of planning, adapting, and monitoring task completion under alternative governance structures† (Williamson, 2006, p. 58). The transaction will become the basic unit of analysis and minimizing transaction cost will result in the most efficient governance structure. Transactions differ in three ways from each other; (1) frequency at which transactions recur; (2) level of uncertainty to which they are subjected; (3) level of asset specificity involved. Since asset specificity is of crucial importance, we elaborate some more about the characteristics of asset specificity. â€Å"Asset specificity has reference to the degree to which an asset can be redeployed to alternative uses and by alternative users without sacrifice of productive value† (Williamson, 2006, p. 59). This asset specificity becomes of importance in the context of incomplete contracts, while asset specificity can take different forms; (1) physical asset specificity; (2) site specificity; (3) dedicated asset specificity and (4) human asset specificity. The complexity of a transaction is therefore highly dependent on the asset specificity (k) of the asset and investments in that asset. A supplier can for example use a general purpose technology with low asset specificity (k=0) or it might invest in a specialized technology with high asset specificity (k=1). High asset specificity is likely to involve high bilateral dependency between the parties in the transaction. Since the parties involved in the contract become vulnerable of each other, switching is difficult and costly option due to the mutual dependency and the investments done in specific assets. The buyers cannot easily turn to an alternative supplier and the current supplier is highly dependable on the demand of its current buyer. Therefore the higher the asset specificity, the more likely it become that higher contract costs have to be faced. Both parties have more incentives to devise safeguards to protect the investment in the transaction if asset specificity is high. How ever, if there is low asset specificity (k=0) and we thus have a general purpose asset, contract are easily monitored and market transactions will be preferred. Back to the diversification decision, minimizing transaction costs is regarded of crucial importance for the choice in governance mode. This implies that firms choose between a wholly owned subsidiary, a simple market transaction or a hybrid made, as a joint-venture for example. This trade-off between a joint-venture and other governance modes has been widely researched. Hennart (1991) for example found that; Japanese firms start joint-ventures with U.S. counterparts to combine intermediate inputs when they are subjected to high market transactions costs. This paper uses a relatedness in terms of in-output and can therefore measure the distance in terms of the use of intermediate products between industries. The influence on joint-ventures and partner distance will be discussed at the end of chapter 2. At this point of the paper, it is however important to understand that high relatedness in the use of intermediate products is likely to be caused due to high transaction costs. This w ould imply that if diversification has a high level of relatedness in value-chain and are thus closely relatedness in terms of vertical relatedness, this is most likely caused by high transaction costs and supports the transaction costs view of diversification.. 2.1.2. Knowledge and resource based view In the resource based view, knowledge (â€Å"know-how†) is regarded as the most important production factor within the firm. The origin of the resource based view goes back to the work of Penrose (1959), who inspired the discussion of the resource based view of the firm and the importance of resources to achieve firm growth. Penrose stated that: â€Å"the firm is a collection of productive resources (human and non-human) under administrative coordination and authoritative communication that produces goods and services for sale in the market for a profit† (Penrose, 1959, p. xvii).† â€Å"The administrative coordination and authorities communication define the boundaries of the firm† (Penrose, 1959, p. xvii). The firm specific human resources are regarded as the most important of all resources within the firm. Without these human knowledge, there can be no operating firm. As a result, the firm cannot make decisions, long-term planning, run operations and it c an certainly not make any expansions. From this point of view Penrose (1959) indentified two major causes of firm growth. First of all, causes external to the firm and secondly those causes that are internal to the firm. â€Å"External causes for firm growth, as capital constraints, cannot be fully understood without an examination of the nature of the firm itself† (Penrose, 1959, p. 532). We may therefore conclude that firm growth is endogenous to the firm; this is a result of two reasons mentioned by Penrose (1959). In order to execute plans and strategic action, human capital is required. After completion of the project/action, managerial resources will be released with increased knowledge. These resources gained experience and knowledge during the time of the expansion and can be redeployed at alternative use after the time of the expansion. The redeployed individuals with an increased knowledge and skills might improve efficiency and organization of the firm, but might also be able to development new or speci alized services. Depending on the expansion, individuals involved might also gain ‘unique knowledge of their experience; this is particularly true for certain forms of tacit knowledge, which are more difficult to transmit. The theory of firm growth of Penrose (1959) has been regarded as one of the earliest contributions to the resources based view of the firm, stressing the importance of knowledge as the key production factor within a firm. The drive of firms for growth, is a drive for new knowledge that is not accessible to the firm before their diversification. However, the motives and goals of each diversification differ and so do the resources possessed by each firm in a diversification. These differences and similarities in knowledge are of crucial importance in the resource based view, where acquiring new knowledge is the ultimate goal for achieving growth. Acquiring knowledge comes with certain problems; the â€Å"fundamental paradox† of knowledge and the difficulty arising from transferring tacit knowledge are two of those problems. In the fundamental paradox of information it is extreme difficult to determine the value of the knowledge for the buyer of the knowledge, which causes high c ontract costs. Since it is impossible for the buyer of knowledge to estimate ex ante the characteristics of what is being bought. On the other hand, if the seller of the knowledge provides this information, he will be revealing important information and transferring his â€Å"know-how† free of charge (Arrow, 1959). If the targeted knowledge, is a certain â€Å"know-how† which cannot be patented and protected against spillovers to competitive firms and other industries it become far more difficult. Certain types of knowledge cannot be put on paper and granted a patent. Firms experiences in manufacturing, distribution, and country-specific knowledge, knowledge of markets, customers and especially high educated employees cannot be patented but are of crucial importance of a firms success in the resource based view. â€Å"This type of knowledge that cannot embody specifications, designs and drawings, but instead is embedded in the individual is called ‘tacit knowledge†. (Polanyi, 1959; Hennart, 1988, p. 366). These individual characteristics of experience and social nature make transfer, coordination and spread of knowledge between firms, extreme complex and difficult (Lam, 2006). The transfer and spread of this tacit knowledge is one of the difficulties when facing diversificat ion decisions. The transfer and spread of this tacit knowledge can be done in different alliance forms, which will be discussed later in this paper. However, for now, it is important to know that diversification is undertaking to gain new knowledge, which must be for same part related to the knowledge of the firm. This is the case since the new resources must be redeployed at alternative use after a project, which might be a joint-venture for example. As for distance in diversification, higher skill-relatedness and thus diversification activities that are more closely related in skills stresses the importance of the resource based view. 2.1.3. Portfolio management theory A third and final theory behind diversification motives is the portfolio theory of Markowitz (1952). Diversification decisions of firms are important decisions taken by firms management in order to maximize the expected returns of their portfolio of investments. These investors are the shareholders of the firm and have a claim on the residual value of the company assets, when debt has been paid. In order to maximize this expected return of the firm outstanding shares, the law of large numbers will ensure that the actual yield of the portfolio will be almost the same as the expected yield. In any case, holding a diversified portfolio would be preferred over all non-diversified portfolios (Markowitz, 1952). Increasing variance in your portfolio would mean an increase in the number of projects, since each project would be successful / unsuccessful at a certain probability, which is referred to as risk. Holding a large variety, in other words, betting on more than one horse, increases yo ur probability on having a winning project. The portfolio management theory suggests that diversification tends to take place in activities that are unrelated to the primary activity of the firm. If this is the case, diversification activities (such as a joint-venture) would be unrelated to the primary activity of the firm. There would be a large distance between the firm and its diversification activities, while transaction costs and the resource based view are stressing the importance diversification in more closely related activities, although for different motives. 2.2 Different diversification alternatives In all theories discussed, the main driver for diversification is in order to achieve growth. Either, by minimizing transaction costs in the transaction costs economy or by diversification of risk, which increases the probability of a winning innovation. In all these theories is explained how they might influence the distance between diversification activities. Is there however any limit to firm growth in their challenge to innovate and to expand? According to Penrose (1959) there is no limit on the size of a firm, however the growth of the firm has some limits it can reach. In the Hercules Powder Company case study Penrose claimed: â€Å"Growth is governed by a creative and dynamic interaction between a firms productive resources and its market opportunities. Available resources limit expansion; unused resources (including technological and entrepreneurial) stimulate and largely determine the direction of expansion. While product demand may exert a predominant short-term influence, over the long term any distinction between ‘supply and ‘demand determinants of growth becomes arbitrary† (Penrose, 1959, p.1) How does this reflect to diversification strategies? Penrose (1959) distinguished between different areas of diversification. The firm can be divided into different productive activities, that consist of machines, processes, skills and materials, all closely and complementary associated in the production process, which Penrose (1959) calls the production/technology base. The firm now faces the decision to diversify into a new market using the existing technology base. It might prefer entering an existing market using a new technology base, which is referred to as horizontal/complementary expansion. The last scenario would be to enter a new market using a new technology base. As described above, the ability of a firm to expand and grow is limited by its internal resources, from which human resources is regarded as the most important. Diversification increases the creative and dynamic interaction of a firm and its resources. All these forms of diversification have implications on the expected distance between the diversification activities and thus joint-ventures and our research. Entering a new market using a new technology would probably have a larger distance in terms of skills from its primary activity than entering a new market with an existing technology. In this latest case, the technology and specific knowledge can be partially redeployed at alternative use, while this is not the case in the first alternative. The main implication from Penrose (1959) famous work is that firms diversify in order to achieve growth. According to Penrose (1959) the resource based view of the firm is the dominant view in order to achieve this growth by diversification. This would suggest that the distance between diversification activities would be more closely related in terms of skills and less closely in vertical relatedness, used as a measure for the transaction costs theory. If diversification is undertaken in order to diversify risk, conform the portfolio management theory diversification activities would not be related at all. 2.3 Limits on diversification and diversification distance? There are different diversification forms as discussed in the previous chapter. It is important to understand that firm growth is limited by its human capital (Penrose, 1959). A firm should therefore carefully choose its diversification activities. A clear understanding of these limits and where these limits depend on is extremely important to understand the distance between firms diversification activities. Since this implicitly answers the question, to what extent firms diversify and is there a limit on the distance between partners and their diversification activity? Cohen and Levinthal (1990) discuss the ‘absorptive capacity of a firm, which indicates: â€Å"the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends, which is critical to its innovative capacity† (Cohen and Levinthal (1990), p. 128). This absorptive capacity puts limits on the commercialization of new knowledge and boundaries on diversification. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) assume that a firms absorptive capacity and the individual absorptive capacities of its employers are largely a function of the firms level of prior related knowledge. Earlier research suggest that absorptive capacity might be a byproduct of a firms RD investments and others suggest that firms can also invest directly in absorptive capacity while investing in specialized educ ation/training. The key to absorptive capacity is that organizations needs prior related knowledge to assimilate and use new knowledge for exploitation. This is very important for the resource based view in our paper, since this implies that diversification activities of firms should be related in terms of skills. Since, the higher the prior knowledge in ones memory, the higher their ability to acquire new knowledge and the ability to recall and use that knowledge. What is often the case in organizations and especially expected in joint-ventures is the transfer of learning skills across bodies of knowledge that are organized and expressed in similar ways. Mowery et al. (1996) indicated that joint-ventures are the most efficient alliance form for transferring tacit knowledge, which could certainly human specific skills. As a consequence, experience or performance on one learning task may influence and improve performance on some subsequent learning task (Ellis, 1965). Cohen and Levin thal (1990) make two important assumptions about knowledge, important for diversification strategies. â€Å"Firstly, knowledge is cumulative and secondly, learning performance is greatest when the object of learning is related to what is already known† (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990, p. 131). This implicit that learning is more difficult in novel domains, in other words radical exploration of new ideas, products, technologies and standards. Diversification might offer an advantage, since with diversification comes a wider knowledge base and as a results an increasing probability that the new knowledge is already / partially known to the organization. The absorptive capacity of an organization however, does not only exist off the aggregated absorptive capacity of its individuals, but also on the ability to exploit this knowledge. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) mention there is a trade-off between high levels of absorptive capacity of an organization and the ability to exploit this. They describe this as a trade-off between inward-looking (specialization) versus outward-looking (diversify) trade-off, where excessive dominance by one or the other will be suboptimal. Exploitation can best been seen as specialization of old familiar ideas and certainties in organizational learning, while exploration can best be described as the invention of new technologies, standards, products or ideas in an organization. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) discuss also the importance for innovation of close relationship with both buyers and suppliers, suggesting a vertical relatedness would be beneficial for innovation performance. In the trade-off described, Co hen and Levinthal (1990) suggest that to the keep an effective, creative utilization of new knowledge a portion of prior knowledge should be closely related with a the firm new knowledge, and another part should be fairly diverse, although still related. If this is the case, firm diversification activities should be closely related in terms of skills supporting the resource based view of the firm. Why is it important to have both creative utilization and a portion of prior knowledge is best described by March (1991), who distinguishes between exploration and exploitation. Returns of exploration are systematically less certain than those of exploitation (March, 1991), this might influence the choice for diversification for the long term however, exploration has long run positive return although this outcome is certainly not always the case in the short run. Exploration activities therefore capture much more risk taking, uncertainty, variation, flexibility, discovery and innovation than exploitation. Exploitation is more focused on production, choice, efficiency, marketing, costs and benefits (March, 1991). The importance of exploration is best described in a model of mutual learning in an closed organization and its personnel in it (March, 1991). The organization is regarded as a storage of knowledge (consisting of procedures, norms, rules and tacit assets) and the organization, accumulate knowledge over time by learning from their personnel. â€Å"Individuals (personnel) however, are socializing the organizational beliefs, which are diffused to individuals through various forms of instruction, indoctrination, and exemplification† (March, 1991, p. 74). This mutual learning approach between organizations and individuals has implications for the choice between exploitation and exploration in organizations and has therefore consequences for the short-run and long-run incentives. In this model of mutual learning organizational code is affected by the beliefs of their personnel, the other way around, the individuals are influenced by the organizational code / norm. Important to know is, that individuals can not influence each other, the influence each other through the organizational code. What will happen in this closed model? In this organization, each adjustment in beliefs is served to eliminate the difference between the organizational code and the individual beliefs. If the individuals over time become more knowledgeable about the code, they become also more homogeneous with respect to knowledge and in the end will find an equilibrium. In this equilibrium the individuals beliefs share the same organizational code. It is therefore important to keep a portion of new knowledge in order to increase the organizational code. March (1991) also describes a second model, evaluating the role of personnel turnover in the organization and turbulence environment are considered. The length of service of an individual in an organization has a positive effect on the knowledge of the individual and therefore also a positive effect on the average knowledge of the individuals. A recruit therefore has a negative effect on the average knowledge of the individuals. The role of turnover on the organization knowledge is more complicated and is a problem of learning rates versus turnover rates. As described in model of mutual learning the strength of the recruit is, the diversity in knowledge, since the recruit posses on average less knowledge than the individual it replaces. Long serving individuals, on average know more, but their knowledge is already reflected in the organizational code over time and therefore they are less likely to contribute to the organizations knowledge base. Now consider environmental turbulence t o the organization, this can be the case of processes involving lags in adjustment rates. Consider an organization without personnel turnover, in this organization the beliefs reflected by the individual and these beliefs do not change, although the environment is changing. After some time the organizational code is systematically degraded through changes in reality and a much lower equilibrium is reached. Organizations with a moderate personnel turnover however, are resistant to these environmental shocks and adjust to the new knowledge of the recruits (diversified knowledge). March (1991) extent this model of competitive ecology in a model to compete for scarce resources and opportunities. Assuming the performance of a firm is a measure of the average value (x) and some measure of variability (v), which are normally distributed. An increase in both will increase the probability to gain competitive advantages over competitors. In this part there consist a trade-off between an increase in the mean and the variance. Which supports earlier literature, that diversification is undertaken to gain excess to new knowledge to some extent, but is expected to be related to prior knowledge of the firm. March (1991) conclude that exploration firms compete far more on variance than exploitation firms. 2.4 Implications and differences between the theories discussed The main difference between the management portfolio theory and the resource based view and the transaction costs view is that the management portfolio expect that diversification tends to take place in unrelated industries, while this is not the case for the other two theories, although at different level of relatedness. The resource based view stresses the importance of knowledge gain and the benefits of this new knowledge in diversification. Transaction costs theory however focuses more on the cost side of the transaction.Leaving the transaction costs as basic unit of analysis to determine an appropriate alliance form, which will minimizes the transaction costs of the firm. According to Wang (2007), a firm shoul

Development of Hard Water Sensor using Fluorescence

Development of Hard Water Sensor using Fluorescence Ph.D. Thesis: Dibyendu Dey Development of hard water sensor using fluorescence resonance energy transfer 7.1. Introduction â€Å"Hard water† has high mineral content in compare to â€Å"soft water†. Generally the hard water is not harmful to one’s health, but can cause serious problems in industrial settings, where water hardness should be monitored to avoid breakdowns of the costly equipments that handle water. The hardness of water is determined by the concentration of multivalent cations in water. The most common cations found in hard water include Ca2+ and Mg2+. The presence of dissolved carbonate minerals (CaCO3 and MgCO3) provide a temporary hardness in water, which can be reduced either by boiling the water or by addition of lime (calcium hydroxide) [1, 2]. On the other hand the dissolved chloride minerals (CaCl2 and MgCl2) cause the permanent hardness of water that can not be removed easily, as it becomes more soluble as the temperature increases [3]. In that sense it is very important to identify the permanent hardness of water before use. The FRET phenomenon may be very effective tool for the designing of hard water sensors. Based on the FRET between two laser dyes here we demonstrated a hard water sensor. To the best of our knowledge this could be the first attempt, where FRET process has been used for the detection of the hardness of water. FRET between two molecules is an important physical phenomenon, where transfer of energy from an excited fluorophore to a suitable acceptor fluorophore occurred [4, 5]. This technique is very important for the understanding of some biological systems and has potential applications in optoelectronic and thin film devices [6–10]. Combining FRET with optical microscopy, it is possible to determine the approach between two molecules within nanometers. The main requirements for the FRET to occur are (i) sufficient overlap between the absorption band of acceptor fluorophore and the fluorescence band of donor fluorophore and (ii) both the donor and acceptor molecule must be in cl ose proximity of the order of 1–10 nm [4, 5]. The intervening of solvent or other macromolecules has little effect on the FRET efficiency. If the distance between the donor and acceptor changes then FRET efficiency also changes. In this chapter of the present thesis we tried to investigate the effect of Mg2+ or Ca2+ or both on the FRET efficiency between two fluorophores, Acf and RhB in presence of nanoclay sheet laponite. Here we have chosen Mg2+ or Ca2+ because the presence of these two cations mainly determines the extent of hardness of the water. Our investigation showed that FRET efficiency decreases with increasing salt concentration. It has also been demonstrated that with proper calibration, FRET between Acf and RhB can be used to sense the hardness of water. 7.2. Experimental 7.2.1. Solution preparation Both the dyes Acf and RhB were used in our studies are cationic in nature. The clay mineral used in the present work was Laponite. Dye solutions were prepared in Milli-Q water. For spectroscopic measurement the solution concentration was optimized at 10−6M. In order to check the effect of hard water components (Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions) on spectral charecteristics, MgCl2 and CaCl2 were added to the dye solution. The clay dispersion was prepared using Millipore water and stirred for 24 h with a magnetic stirrer followed by 30 min ultrasonication before use. The concentration of clay was kept fixed at 2 ppm throughout the experiment. To check the effect of clay on the spectral characteristics the dye solutions (Acf and RhB) were prepared in the clay suspensions (2 ppm). In order to check the effect of salt on spectral characteristics in presence of clay, first of all the salts were added in the clay dispersion at different concentration. Then the dyes were added in the salt mixed clay dispersions. In all cases the clay concentration was 2 ppm and the dye concentration was 10−6M. 7. 3. Results and discussion 7.3.1. Sensing of Hard Water by FRET FRET between Acf and RhB has already been studied and the results are shown in details in chapter 5 of this thesis. Here in this chapter we have used this same FRET pair for the sensing of water hardness. Our main purpose is to detect CaCl2 and MgCl2 or their mixture as a permanent hard water component in aqueous solution by using the FRET process between Acf and RhB. Fluorescence spectra of aqueous solution of Acf-RhB mixture in presence of MgCl2, CaCl2 and their mixture (CaCl2+MgCl2) have been studied (figure 7.1). For all the cases, the concentration of CaCl2/MgCl2/their mixture was kept at 0.06 mg/ml, which is the initializing concentration of hard water known as moderately hard water. Fig. 7.1. Fluorescence spectra of Acf+RhB (1:1 volume ratio) in water solution (1), with MgCl2 (2), CaCl2 (3), and CaCl2+MgCl2 (4), pure Acf (5), pure RhB (6). Dye concentration was 10-6M and salt concentration was 0.06 mg/ml. It was observed that the transfer of energy from Acf to RhB decreased in presence of salt (shown in table 7.1). The FRET efficiencies are calculated by using the Fà ¶rster theory. The introduction of cationic Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions in the solution may cause an increase in the electrostatic repulsion between cationic Acf and RhB molecules which can result in a large intermolecular separation. Accordingly, the FRET efficiency decreases. Samples E% Acf+RhB 11.37 Acf+RhB+ CaCl2 1.7 Acf+RhB+ MgCl2 5.2 Acf+RhB+ MgCl2 +CaCl2 4.38 Acf+RhB+clay 78.17 Acf+RhB+ CaCl2 with clay 37.78 Acf+RhB+ MgCl2 with clay 51.59 Acf+RhB+ MgCl2 +CaCl2 with clay 48.18 Table 7.1 Values of energy transfer efficiency (E %) for Acf and RhB mixture (1:1 volume ratio) in different conditions. The salt concentration was 0.06 mg/ml (moderately hard water). Fig. 7.2. Fluorescence spectra of Acf+RhB (1:1 volume ratio) in clay suspension (1), with MgCl2 (2), CaCl2 (3), and CaCl2+MgCl2 (4) pure Acf with clay (5), pure RhB with clay (6). Dye concentration was 10-6M and clay concentration was 2 ppm and salt concentration was 0.06 mg/ml. In the present study our aim is to design a sensor which can sense the presence of Ca2+ or Mg2+ or both by observing the change in FRET efficiency. Accordingly it is very important to have large FRET efficiency between Acf and RhB as well as noticeable change in FRET efficiency between Acf and RhB due to the introduction of hard water components (Ca2+ or Mg2+), so that we can use it as a hard water sensor with minimum error level. Accordingly in order to enhance the FRET efficiency, we have incorporated nano clay laponite in Acf-RhB mixture (figure 7.2). It has been observed that the FRET efficiency increases in presence of laponite particle. The reason of increase in FRET efficiecy in presence of clay has been explained in details in chapter 5. It was also observed that the transfer of energy from Acf to RhB decreases quite remarkably due to the introduction of CaCl2/MgCl2/their mixture for the concentration of 0.06 mg/ml in presence of clay. It was observed that the transfer of ene rgy is much smaller due to the presence of CaCl2 in compare to MgCl2. (Table 7.1 summarize the calculated efficiencies). Fig. 7.3. Schematic representation of FRET between Acf and RhB in presence of clay and salt. The decrease in FRET between Acf and RhB in presence of hard water components, must involve the reaction of the cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) present in hard water with the clay minerals through cation exchange reaction. In general, this bonding energy is of the order: Ca > Mg > K > H > Na. Thus the probability of adsorption of Ca2+ in clay suspension is more than Mg2+. The tendency of Ca2+ ion to interact with the negatively charged clay layers is more compared to Mg2+ ion of same concentration of both clay suspension and salt solution. Accordingly, most of the negative charges in the clay surfaces are neutralized by Ca2+ ion compared to Mg2+ ion and there exists very few unoccupied negative charges on the clay surface for the cationic dye molecules to be adsorbed. As a result the separation between the cationic dye molecules increases more in CaCl2 solution rather than MgCl2 leading to a less FRET in presence of CaCl2 compare to MgCl2 (shown schemetically in figure 7.3). 7.3.2. Variation of salt concentration In order to check the extent of hardness on the FRET efficiency, we have measured the fluorescence spectra of Acf+RhB mixture with different salt (MgCl2, CaCl2, and MgCl2+CaCl2 mixture) concentration in presence of clay laponite and the FRET efficiency have been calculated. It has been observed that the FRET efficiency decreases with increasing salt concentration of either MgCl2 or CaCl2, or their mixture (figure 7.4). This result suggests that it is possible to sense the hardness of water by observing the change in FRET efficiency with salt concentration. Fig. 7.4. The fluorescence spectra of Acf–RhB mixture in presence of clay with varying amount of salt (MgCl2+CaCl2 mixture) concentration viz. 0.05 mg/ml (1), 0.06 mg/ml (2) and 0.12 mg/ml (3). Inset shows the variation of FRET efficiency as a function of salt concentration of either MgCl2 or CaCl2, or CaCl2+ MgCl2 mixture from 0.03 mg/ml to 0.20 mg/ml. Salt concentration (mg/ml) FRET efficiency (E%) in presence of MgCl2 CaCl2 MgCl2+CaCl2 mixture 0.03 78.52 64.27 73.73 0.05 71.55 55.32 68.34 0.06 51.59 37.78 48.18 0.08 32.47 18.75 21.57 0.12 19.67 10.54 13.48 0.20 11.34 5.67 07.38 Table 7.2 Values of energy transfer efficiency (E %) for Acf-RhB mixture (1:1 volume ratio) at different salt (MgCl2, CaCl2, MgCl2+CaCl2 mixture) concentration in presence of clay. MgCl2 and CaCl2 mixture were prepared by adding 1:1 volume ratio of individual salts of same concentration. 7.3.3. Design of sensor In the process of hard water sensing first of all clay (laponite) dispersion will be prepared using the sample water followed by addition of dyes (Acf and RhB). By observing the FRET efficiency between Acf and RhB it would be possible to sense the hardness of the test water. Fig. 7.5. FRET efficiency of Acf-RhB mixture for the different concentration of CaCl2 + MgCl2 in presence of clay (values of FRET efficiencies were calculated from spectra of Fig. 7.4). From figure 7.5 it has been observed that the FRET efficiency for 0.06 mg/ml and 0.12 mg/ml concentration are 48.2% and 13.5% respectively. If the FRET efficiency is observed to be higher than 48.2%, then the water will be recognized as soft water whereas, if the efficiency lies in between 13.5% and 48.2% then the water will be recognized as moderately hard. On the other hand if the observed FRET efficiency is less than 13.5% then the water will be recognized as very hard. Therefore with proper calibration it is possible to design a hard water sensor which can sense hard water very easily. 7.4. Conclusion In order to demonstrate hard water sensor based on FRET, we have investigated the FRET between Acf and RhB in presence of salts CaCl2 or MgCl2 or both. It was observed that the presence of hard water components Ca2+ or Mg2+ or both affected the FRET efficiency to a large extent. In presence of CaCl2 or MgCl2 the FRET efficiency is decreased to 37.78% and 51.59%, respectively. With suitable calibration of these results it is possible to design a hard water sensor that can sense the water hardness within the range 0.03–0.2 mg/ml. Here the incorporation of clay platelate laponite enhances the sensing efficiency.