Organisational Behaviour Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organisational Behaviour - Assignment Example Overview Of The OrganiZation This company came into the financial arena in the year of 1983. The company is an employee owned investment and, as mentioned earlier, it specializes in mergers and acquisitions in the financial service sector. The company is headquartered in the city of New York, which is the financial hub of the country. Berkshire capital is considered by experts in the industry to be the leading experts in the areas of wealth management, money management, alternate investment, and real estate brokerage (Berkshire Capital a). Due to its vast experience in this area, clients trust the company’s advice in this domain. Clients trust the company to provide conflict-free advice to them, which would help them to maximize their corporate objectives. It is this trust from clients that motivates the people in Berkshire capital to undertake successful transactions for their clients (Berkshire Capital b). The service portfolio of the company includes the following services: sales and divestures, acquisitions, valuations and fairness opinions and strategic advisory (Berkshire Capital c). The fundamental focus of the company is on maximising the corporate goals of their clients through their objective opinions and recommendations. By doing this, the company hopes to build long term relationships with their clients. Organisational Structure of Berkshire Capital: The company is basically having a flat Organisational structure to govern its operations. The company’s top management consists of 13 well experienced and well seasoned partners, who are in turn supported by 29 domain experts or professionals. The domain experts provide the partners with their insight about the company’s underlying projects, which is used by senior partners to deliberate over. In this way, the company amalgamates experience with insight to come up with the highest quality of services (Berkshire Capital a). As the company is operating in a services industry, therefor e, it is very cautious about nurturing a strong pool of employees, so that its services are of the highest possible quality. The flat structure prevalent in the Organization ensures that two-way communication between experts and partners is facilitated. This ensures that everyone is on the same page when it comes to handling the intricacies of the project. The structure that is currently working in the Organisation is the reflection of the fact that the management believes in a democratic and participative management style. The Organisational philosophy of governance is extremely efficient because it is extremely appropriate for companies operating in the services industry. Not only is the Organizational structure supportive and democratic but also the company’s management (partners) is also helpful. Since the management believes that their fundamental role is to impart their experience onto the second tier employees, therefore, this philosophy act as a guiding hand for exper ts who are new in the company (Robbins & Sanghi, 2006). Organisational Goals Berkshire capital can be classified as an employee and customer driven company. This company, by employing the talent of its employees, aims to satisfy the needs of its clients. The company considers its employees as an integral part of its business model and therefore employs all

Project Management Organizational Structures paper Essay

Project Management Organizational Structures paper - Essay Example The functional structure is often referred to as classical or traditional organizations which were developed from Marx Weber’s classical theory (Braden). In these types of organizations the power structured follows a vertical chain of command that is clearly defined. The general manager has control over the entire operations. All the division bosses report to him and the employees within each department report to the division managers. Employees working within this structure have a clear understanding of the power system. This is beneficial and it enhances loyalty among the workers since they understand who will help them move up in the corporate chain. The system itself is very organized and this simplifies the budgeting and control duties. A company establishing a new operation oversees would benefit from this model. In such a scenario management does not have a clear understanding on how the culture affects the employee’s productivity. A tight control is necessary to gear the employees into becoming a synergic unit with its unique corporate culture. Another situation in which the traditional corporate structure is beneficiary is in very large companies with lots of human resources. There are some disadvantages to a functional corporate structure. The model is not good at responding to the needs of the customers since no one in particular within the organization is focusing on their needs. Each department focuses in their particular task and the model does not allow effective communication between departments. The lack of communication makes the structured not suited for efficient project teams. There is very little project planning, reporting and practically no project authority. Innovation is not encouraged in this system. The different departments concentrate their efforts on their specific work tasks and do not visualize the importance of project teams. A pure product or projectized organizational structure is a

Physical health Essay Example for Free

Physical health Essay 1. Discuss the meanings Steve now places on health and physical activity. Steve doesn’t put much meaning on his health, either mentally, physically, emotionally or socially. He hasn’t got his family to encourage him to get out and participate in sport, so he let himself go and does not get motivated. From his point of view his health is good and is living the â€Å"good life† because he hasn’t got support to get his life back to what he was. The â€Å"good life† from his view is to go out every weekend or night and party out late. He drinks alcohol and smokes so he is ruining his health every day, but he doesn’t see it is a problem. He might not have got taught the right health ways and think he can do whatever he want because he is young and free. This will affect him later in life but he doesn’t seem to care as he is living how he has wanted to, his family were the ones encouraging him to do this, and without them around he doesn’t feel the need to do it. 2. Demonstrate how Steve’s lifestyle choices could be affecting his physical health. List any possible future problems. Steve’s lifestyle choices are affecting all areas of his health but one in particular that could affect his life span and that is his physical health. He started smoking and drinking. His dating life could also be a problem. His job can cause problems to his health. They are all decreasing his physical health. Every time he smokes he is increasing his chance of getting lung cancer. His drinking is going to affect him heavily later as he will end up with all sorts of problems, example- he could once turn up to work drunk and do everything wrong, resulting in him having no job. His dating life could result in somehow contracting a sexually transmitted infection. His job is affecting his health, as his job doesn’t require much; he just sits down all day, he could end up with bad pains all through his body. They all cause future problems to Steve an d by doing all these things he is decreasing his life expectancy, giving him a shorter life than expected. 3. List the changes in his social circumstances that have influenced the changes in Steve’s health and physical activity levels. Steve social circumstances have changed affecting the way he lives now, causing him to change. He has changed as he has moved out of home, leaving his family out of his life without them pushing him to do his best he found new friends who do what he is doing. His job has changed his social circumstances as he can have a night out and do what he needs to, his work friends should be encouraging him that he needs to take more pride in his job. When he finished school he might have lost all of his friends that were impacting him in a good way with the training and playing of different sports. His social circumstances have changed his life because he left school and not having family made him think he could live however he wants and not care. 4. Describe the possible outcomes for Steve’s emotional health is he continues with his current lifestyle. Emotional health refers to the ability to express emotions when they are appropriate and control them when they are not. If Steve continues with his behaviour he may not be able to control his emotions, his self-esteem will be very low. He won’t be able to see him as he is, he will see his self-image as worse than it actually it because of his low emotional health and low self-esteem. His late night partying will put down his emotional health is he keeps going with his routine, he will continue to think girls will fall for him but sometimes they will not, possibly causing his emotional health to deteriorate. His health on the health continuum will be very low, as he isn’t being able to control all of his health especially the physical and emotional health. If he picks up more exercise and does committee to his job he will have better emotional health stabili ty, meaning he will be able to control his emotions and express them accordingly to the situation. 5. Identify the 5 action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and describe what each area means in your own words. Developing personal skills: is about improving the individuals skills, developing a better understand for the individual to help them better their health. It helps the individual find ways to help better their health, giving them more confidence about their health. Creating supportive environments: is about the environment and making it better. It’s about creating a better environment for a person to be able to do what they want. It’s got both physical and social aspects, like a park for exercising or close friends supporting you in a big sporting event. Strengthening community action: is about getting the community involved to better the health of those within the community. The ideas from the community are called ‘bottom-up’ meaning the community comes up with the ideas and tries to get help to impose them in the areas, and a ‘top-down’ is when the ideas are coming from the government on what they think will better the health of those in that community. Reorientating health services: is about trying to invest more money into prevention rather than a cure. They believe if they can put more money into prevention then they will save more money. It doesn’t dismiss the importance on health care, as you can still get diseases genetically, but this is about trying to prevent those who get diseases that they can prevent by choosing better lifestyles. Building healthy public policy: is about the rules, laws and legislations. It is about the government and organisations that work towards better health, emplacing rules and laws, example- restricted smoking location within public places, or in schools where they have the ‘no hat, no play’ policy. 6. Recommend ways Steve can improve his health by following at least 2 of the 5 action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Give specific examples. Steve can improve his health in any of the five action areas, but the two that he should increase in are developing personal skills and creating supportive environments. Those two areas will help build up his health again. Developing personal skills is all about the individual and what they can do better for their health. Creating supportive environments is all about physical and social sides. It is increasing the family/friends bond for them to support you. Steve can develop his personal skills by going back to do some vigorous exercise. He needs to go and get help, and see if sleeping with different women can cause him to have a sexually transmitted infection. With him developing his personal skills, he can change his life around, making it better for him to live. Steve can create a supportive environment with his friends and family by getting them to help him change out of his bad habits. With his family by his side it can help him to make the right decisions. The physical side of a supportive environment can be getting his friends or family to go out and exercise with him. The two action areas developing personal skills and creating supportive environments can change his life around for the better, bettering his life expectancy, he then will put a better look on his health instead of wanting to always live the â€Å"good life,† he can go out sometimes but always going out is not good for his health. If his family and friends help him to go and see a doctor they can help him change his life around.

Hrm Models Of Best Fit And Best Practice Management Essay

Hrm Models Of Best Fit And Best Practice Management Essay Report on LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton), the worlds leading luxury products group propose of making a report is to pass out edexcel program with a important subject of human resource planning and developments task assignment on lvmh company for find out difference in hrm modeles and how they worked on lvmh. Another task is on learning and development in multinational company as well as provide a recommendation for lvmh director for improve their strategy towards the staff for archive globally. And the last task for find out difference between recruitment and selection and hr function of international recruitment for lvmh. My approach for report is more practical and theoretical. INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONS LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton), the worlds leading luxury products group, including prestigious champagnes, wines, cognacs and spirits, as well as luxury goods, luggage and leather goods, fragrance and cosmetics products, watches and jewelry. The Company is also occupied in the haute fashion design and fashion businesses. LVMHs business consists of five principal business groups: Wines and Spirits, Fashion and Leather Goods, Perfumes and Cosmetics, Watches and Jewelry and Selective Retailing. In adding, LVMH has interests in financial media companies and in sale art sales, included under other performance. A vital part of the Companys production is situated in France, but sold through supplementary worldwide, in five major physical zones: France, Europe, the United States, Japan and the Far East. Louis Vuitton, a trunk-maker in Paris since 1854, became a star in the art of travel by creating baggage, bags and accessories as inventive as they were elegant and practical. A century and a half later, the legend lives on. Strengthened by its global renown, the Louis Vuitton legend is embodied by the Louis Vuitton Monogram Canvas, which has enjoyed unequalled victory since 1896 and played a starring role in the growth of modern luxury. Modernism form the story of Louis Vuitton. Task 1- HRM MODELS DIFFERNCE BETWEEN HRM MODELS OF BEST FIT ,BEST PRACTIS AND RESORSED BASED MODELS. Best practise vs Best fit It considers strategic human resource management approaches in conditions of the leadership that they offer for reward practices. There are difficulties in the sense that different writers from each perspective have different opinions about what comprise best fit or best practice. In spite of this, there are a few areas of conformity and as well as a number of points of difference. In the most common sense, both approaches view HR as having an significant role in following organisational strategy and objectives. Both approaches agree that payment practices should be consistent with other HR practices. There is a mutual view that an externally competitive reward system has an important role in attracting appropriate candidates and keeping employees. Both see rewards as a way of reinforcing organisational culture and structure. However, there are several significant difference. At the most broad level, best fit is a possibility approach while best practice is a universal approach. For best fit, organisational strategy comes first and all organisation systems and practices, together with reward. Just as organisational strategy is unique to the organisation, so is the reward system that will reinforce that strategy. For best fit, a narrow set of practices, including reward, precede strategy but provide the human resources needed to fulfil the organisations objectives, whatever they are. At a more specific level, best fit advocates display great self-reliance in the ability of the reward system to inspire specific individual behaviours. They support this view with hope Theory, a theory of motivation that advise that people with act in particular ways if they believe that their performance will lead to valued rewards. They suggest the use of variable incentives that are not combine into base pay to promote particular behaviours that are significant to achieving organisational objectives. inducement also provide financial flexibility because they are joined to an organisations ability to pay. Best fit proponents see rewards as the attach and the incentive. Since pay varies with performance, poor performers vote with their feet. outstanding performers are attracted to the large pay differentials that reward their performance. The Resource-Based Model The Resource-Based model approve an internal standpoint to explain how a companys exclusive bundle or collected works of internal resources and capabilities signify the foundation upon which value-creating strategies should be construct.Resources are inputs into a companys production process, such as brand names, individual employees skills, capital equipment, finance and talented managers and employee These resources can be tangible or intangible. Ability is the capacity for a set of resources to interactively or in combination achieve a task or activity.   Thus, according to the Resource-Based model, a companys resources and capabilities are more significant to formative the suitability of strategic actions than are the circumstances and characteristics of the external environment.   Thus, strategies should be selected that enable the company to best exploit its core competencies, relative to opportunities in the external environment. According to my thinking lvmh deploys their workforce planning and development in resourced best models because of following reasons The Resource-Based model of average returns is grounded in the uniqueness of a lvmh internal resources and capabilities.   Lvmh is identify the set of resources that provide the company with capabilities that are unique to the lvmh, relative to their competitors. Lvmh also identify those capabilities that enable the company to perform a task or activity better than its competitors. Lvmh assess or determine the potential for their unique sets of resources and capabilities to outperform its competitors in terms of returns. And also determine how a companys resources and capabilities can be used to gain competitive advantage. Lvmh is having with Locate and compete in an attractive industry. It is determine the industry that provides the best fit between the characteristics of the industry and the companys resources and capabilities.lvmh formulate and implement strategies that enable them to better exploit their resources and capabilities to take advantage of opportunities in the external environment than can their competitors.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, taking advantage of or exploiting resources and capabilities in the new competitive landscape may always result in a lvmh achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and above-average returns.   The potential to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage will be realised when lvmh resources and capabilities are valuable, rare, costly imitate, and no n substitutable TASK 2 LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Key Approaches Of Mnc For Learning And Development Of Their Staff Are Following Employee skills Review of Skills ,Prosperity for all in the global economy world class skills consider as implementing initiatives such as Train to Gain and signing the Employer Skills in mnc More organisations raise educational standards among young people before they enter the workforce rather than employers responsibility to raise literacy/numeracy standards within the workforce Mnc are requiring a broader range of skills and a higher level of skills . The key skills that employers class as very important include interpersonal and communication skills. However organisations feel that new employees currently lack communication/ interpersonal skills and management/leadership skill that organisations feel will be required to meet business objectives in the future. E-learning Nonetheless, over half (57%) of MNC organisations use e-learning, while nearly half tend to agree that e-learning is the most important development in training in the past few decades. There is some indication that e-learning will be increasingly used as a training tool in MNC. that e-learning demands a new attitude to learning on the part of learners for achieving a goal MNC make e-learning more effective by combined with other forms of learning. Coaching MNC undertake coaching activities, with a similar proportion finding coaching to be an effective tool.However, the purpose of coaching would appear to vary according to whom coaching is offered. Thus, within organisations that offer coaching to all of their employees, the purpose of this coaching is evidently used for general personal development and to remedy poor performance , whereas within organisations that offer coaching only to managers, the emphasis for the purpose of coaching shifts towards its position as part of a wider management and leadership development programme. The bulk of the responsibility for delivering coaching lies with line managers coaching those who report to them and to HR and learning, training and development specialists in MNC The main methods used for evaluating the effectiveness of coaching in MNC include through observation of changes and reviews of objectives conducted with line managers, coach and coachee. Expectations of new employees MNC required greater demand for learning and development among new employees (joining from school, college or university) compared with five years ago. More than half also feel that these new employees also require more structured career development, while two in five have seen greater demands for professional qualifications and greater feedback on performance Future skill requirements Reflecting the current need for both a diverse range of skills and an increased competency within those broader skill bases, MNC will require a broader range of skills. In terms of the types of skill that organisations feel need to be specifically developed to meet business needs over the years, most feel that management or leadership skills , communication or interpersonal skills , customer service skills and business skills are the highest priorities. Literacy and numeracy skills Training spends and budgets MNC organisations have a training budget and continue to spend more per employee per year on training, compared with the private sector and with the public sector. Learning and development for the future goal The majority of MNCS have experienced change over the last few years in delivering learning and development, with the most significant change concerning management development in the form of new programmes to develop the role of line managers Indeed, the crucial role of line managers highlighted in previous surveys is resistant this year, with the widely held being involved in determining learning and development needs and half predicting line managers will have greater responsibility for learning and development over the next five years On the whole, learning and development managers in MNC have accurately forecast changes in learning and development practices; e-learning, coaching, mentoring and in-house development programmes were all previously highlighted as growth areas. In-house development programmes and coaching by line managers are both now used more than previously. Lvmh face the problem of international development of its staff. There some recommendation for learning and development of its staff globally LVMH has required to create a pool of global managers with a working knowledge of international markets. A global manager should be defined as a person with the training or experience needed to manage a global business. He or she can perform from any place in the world thanks to a global vision and skills in managing multicultural and multilingual teams. To have such abilities, an individual must have worked in a number of countries so that his or her potential can be realised and perceived. LVMHs performance appraisal system should not only based on results but also on the ability to propose and implement new ideas. LVMH has a career management process called organisational and management review (OMR) . This annual process aims at reviewing HR objectives and results. The OMR is an essential tool for the organisations HR planning, taking into deliberation organisational needs for the next three years. It defines sequence planning and high-potential and ready to move lists. Employees identified on these lists are should be given development experiences, including international assignments, in order to arrange them for top management place. The OMR particularly seem back on the previous years objectives for high-potentials and those ready to move and assesses their current development. LVMH should manages to staff internally two in every three executive positions. To develop the skills and capacity of LVMH staff to ensure that flexibly and effectively to changing demands for service delivery, now and in the future, and strategic aims are achieved.their should be create an environment which encourages and supports excellence. For example LVMH should spends approximately  ¾ of its budget,  £11m, on employing staff. It is therefore important we have a robust strategy to ensure that they have staff with the right skills to deliver strategic aims. 1.4% of the  £11m budget is spent on staff learning and development and it is important that this investment is maximised. This sum keeps out on the job learning and development activities and support. All staff of LVMH are expected to develop the skills, knowledge and attributes required in their job through all learning and development processes not only training courses. Every year each member of staff should have the opportunity to engage in learning and development activities .LVMH should invest in staff development in order to make a direct impact on service delivery TASK 3 RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Selection is different from recruitment, where recruitment technically lead selection. Recruitment involves recognize the sources of manpower and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organizations. On the other hand, selection is the p rocess of decideing the best out of those recruited. Recruitment is positive as aims at rising the number of applications for wider choices or for increasing the selection ratio. Selection is an significant function as no organization can get its goals without selecting the correct people, where defective in selection leads to wastage of time, money and plunder the environment of an organization. In this regard, scientific selection and placement of personnel can go a long way in structure up a steady work force, where it helps to decrease absence and labour turnover at the same time very helpful inside increasing the efficiency and productivity of the enterprise The ultimate objectives of both recruitment and selection are to acquire suitable candidates but their instant objectives be different, where the basic objective of recruitment is to attract maximum number of candidates so that more options are offered .The basic purpose of recruitments is to create a talent pool of applicant to enable the selection of best applicant for the organization, by attracting more and more workforce to apply in the organization whereas The basic purpose of selection process is to choose the correct candidate to fill the Selection involves the sequence of steps by which the candidates are screened for various positions in the organization. Recruitment is a positive process i.e. encourage more and more employees to apply whereas Selection is a negative process as it involves refusal of the unsuitable candidates. Recruitment is troubled with tapping the sources of human resources whereas Selection is troubled with selecting the most suitable candidate through various interviews and examination. . There is no agreement of recruitment recognized in recruitment whereas Selection results in a agreement of service between the employer and the selected employee. Recruitment is the process of probing the candidates for employment and inspiring them to apply for jobs in the organization Whereas Selection involves the sequence of steps by which the candidates are screened for choosing the most suitable persons for empty posts. the ultimate objectives of both recruitment and selection are to obtain appropriate candidates but their instant objectives differ, where the vital objective of recruitment is to draw maximum number of candidates so that more options are available; the basic purpose of selection is to choose most excellent out of the available candidates. recruitment be different from selection in terms of process, where it take on the process of making application pool as large as possible; while selection take on the process through which more and more candidates are discarded and less candidates are selected or for a moment not even a single candidate is selected. in respect to techniques concerned, recruitment techniques are not very intensive, requiring high skills, as next to this, In selection process, highly dedicated techniques are required. Therefore, in the selection process, only personnel with exact skills like expertise in using selection tests, conducting interviews and the like are concerned. since recruitment and selection are two inter-linked steps in the process of manpower gaining, they be different in term of outcome; where the outcome for recruitment is application pool which becomes input for selection process, on the other hand, the outcome of selection process is in the form of finalizing candidates who will be offered jobs. Argument for lvmh international recruitment HR function The busy global organizations and the rapid changing companies do not find time to perform various functions of recruitment. Therefore LVMH should advise the candidates to be present for an interview directly and without a prior application on a specified date, time and at a specified place. The busy and dynamic global LVMH should encourage the possible job seekers to move towards them personally and consult them regarding the jobs. And select the suitable candidates from among such candidates though the selection process. LVMH should request the professional organizations to search for the best candidates particularly for the senior executive positions. The professional organizations search for the most suitable candidates and advice to company regarding the filling up of the positions. LVMH should develop the pool of human resources for possible employment. The prospective employers contact these organizations to recruit the candidates. The body shoppers appoint people for their association and give the required/specific employees to various organization on request. In fact, body shoppers collect fee/commission from the organizations and pay the salary/benefits to the employees. It is like acquisitions, mergers, and takeovers help in getting human resources. In addition, LVMH do also have alliances in sharing their human resources on ad-hoc basis. The technological revolutions in telecommunication helped LVMH to use internet as source of recruitment. lvmh advertise the job vacancies though the World Wide Web internet. The job seekers send their application though e-mails or internet websites. RECOMMENDATIONS The luxury goods are very receptive to the fluctuation of economy; any economic wave could influence its sales. LVMH is business mainly depends on the economic condition, if economy was depressed, its sales growth slow down sharply like it did in 2002, since demand for luxury goods declines markedly when recession or depression happens. Broad gaining makes no sense and could bring load, such as it acquired Pury Luxembourg, which is criticized since there was no room for art auction market. The mission of the LVMH group is to represent the most refined qualities of Western Art de Vivre around the world. LVMH must continue to equal to elegance and creativity. lvmh should take young graduates , mostly single for their international assignment and should give support neede to ensure smooth relocation. there should be some insurance schemes available and also international insurance. Lvmh should recruit more individuals whos having international knowledge and know at least four language and also immersed in several cultural and tradition. LVMH should have clear and and simple principal that can be applied to all countries with having harmozinious practise to allow for more global workforce between both countries and employee. the employee should be pay higher than his colleagues.

Multiple Churn Prediction Techniques And Algorithms Computer Science Essay

Multiple Churn Prediction Techniques And Algorithms Computer Science Essay Abstract-Customer churn is the business term that is used to describe loss of clients or customers. Banks, Telecom companies, ISPs, Insurance firms, etc. use customer churn analysis and customer churn rate as one of their key business metrics, because retaining an existing customer is far less than acquiring a new one. Corporates have dedicated departments which attempt to win back defecting clients, because recovered long term customers can be worth much more to a company than newly recruited clients. Customer Churn can be categorized into voluntary churn and involuntary churn. In voluntary churn, customer decides to switch to another service provider, whereas in involuntary churn, the customer leaves the service due to relocation, death, etc. Businesses usually exclude involuntary churn from churn prediction models, and focus on voluntary churn, because it usually occurs due to company-customer relationship, on which the company has full control. Churn is usually measured as gross churn and net churn. Gross churn is calculated as loss of previous customers and their associated recurring revenue, generated by those customers. Net churn is measured as sum of Gross Churn and addition of new similar customers. This is often measure as Recurring Monthly Revenue (RMR) in the Financial Systems. INTRODUCTION Predicting and preventing customer churn is becoming the primary focus of many enterprises. Every enterprise wants to retain its each and every customer, in order to maximize maximum profits and revenue from them. With the introduction of business and management systems, and automation of operation flow, corporates have gathered lots of customer and business related data during the daily operating activities, which give data mining techniques a good ground for working and predicting. Lots of data mining algorithms and models have emerged to rescue from this issue of customer loss. These algorithms have been widely used, from past decades, in this field. For prediction of customer churn, many algorithms and models have been applied. Most common of them are Decision tree [1], Artificial Neural Network [2], Logistic Regression [8]. In addition, other algorithms such as Bayesian Network [4], Support Vector Machine [], Rough set [5], and Survival Analysis [6] have also been used. In addition of algorithms and models, other techniques, such as input variable selection, feature selection, outlier detection, etc. have also been applied to get better results out of the above algorithms. First three models i.e. Decision tree, Artificial Neural Network and Logistic Regression have been applied maturely at multiple corporates. Each algorithm has been improved over multiple iterations, and are now pretty much stable. But as the operation and activities of business are growing, it is becoming more and more complex challenge to solve the problem of customer churn, and this is requesting for the generation of new churn prediction models, which are fast and robust, and which can quickly be trained and scored on large amounts of data. Literature review Jiayin and Yuanquan [1] presented a step by step approach on selecting effective input variables for customer churn prediction model in telecommunication industry. In telecommunication industry, there are usually very large number of input variables is available for churn prediction models. Of all these variables, there could be variables which have positive effect on the model, and few which are redundant. These redundant variables cause overload for the churn prediction model. So it is always better to select only important features and remove redundant, noisy and less informative variables. In their study, they have proposed Area under ROC (AUC) method for calculating classifying abilities of the variable, where ROC is Receiver Operating Characteristics, and then selecting variables which have the highest classifying abilities. In addition, he also proposed to compute mutual information among all selected variables and finally selecting variables which have relatively low mutual i nformation co-efficient. Huang and Kechadi [11] proposed a new technique for Feature Selection for the churn prediction models. As their primary focus was telecommunication industry, and in telecom the amount of input variables / feature is very large, and it is always better to select a subset of features, which have the most ability to classify the target classes. Otherwise running algorithm on all the input variables will be too much to time and resource consuming. Most commonly used techniques for selection of features only judges whether an input feature is helpful to classify the classes or not. The approach proposed by them takes into account the relationship between the specified categorical value of the feature and a class for selecting or removing the feature. Luo, Shoa and Lie [2] proposed the customer churn prediction using Decision Tree for Personal Handyphone System Service (PHSS), where the number of variables in input data set is very small. Decision Tree is probably the most commonly used data mining algorithm. Decision Tree model is a predictive model that predicts using a classification process. It is represented as upside down Tree, in which root is at the top and leaves are at the bottom. Decision Trees is the representation of rules. This helps us in understanding, why a record has been classified in a particular way. And these rules can be used to find records that fall into some specific category. In their work they found out the optimal values of input dataset with reference to time sub-period, cost of misclassification and sampling method. With their research, they came up to conclusion that 10-days of sub-period, 1:5 cost of misclassification and random sampling method are the most optimal parameters when training a data m odel using decision trees, when the number of input variables is very small. Ming, Huili and Yuwei [4] proposed a model for churn prediction using Bayesian Network. The concept of Bayesian Network was initially proposed by Judea Pearl (1986). This is a kind of graphics mode used to show the joint probability among different variables. It provides a natural way to describe the causality information which could be used in discovering the potential relations in data. This algorithm has been successively used in knowledge representation of expert system, data mining and machine learning. Recently, it has also been applied in fields of artificial intelligence, including causal reasoning, uncertain knowledge representation, pattern recognition cluster analysis and etc. A Bayesian network consists of many nodes representing attributes connected by some lines, so the problems are concerned that more than one attribute determine another one which involving the theory of multiple probability distribution. Besides, since different Bayesian networks have different structures and some conceptions in graph theory such as tree, graph and directed acyclic graph can describe these structures clearly, graph theory is an important theoretical foundation of Bayesian networks as well as the probability theory, thus the results of Customer Churn using Bayesian network are very promising. Jiayin, Yangming, Yingying and Shuang [10] proposed a new algorithm for churn prediction and called it TreeLogit. This algorithm is combination of ADTree and Logistic Regression models. It incorporates the advantages of both algorithms and making it equally good as TreeNet ® Model which won the best prize in 2003 customer churn prediction contest. As Treelogit combines the advantages of both base algorithms so it becomes very powerful tool for customer churn prediction. The Modeling process of TreeLogit starts by Designing Customers character variables based on prior knowledge. Then the character variables are categorized into m sub-vectors, and a decision tree for each sub-vector is created. Once we have the decision tree for each sub-vector, then we develop logistic regression models for each sub-vector. And finally we evaluate the accuracy and interpretability of the model. If they are acceptable then the customer retention process is started, otherwise the model is re-tuned for better results. Jing and Xinghua [5] in their work on customer churn prediction, presented a model based on Support Vector Machines. Support Vector Machines are developed on the basis of statistical learning theory which is regarded as the best theory for the small sample estimation and predictive learning. The studies on the machine learning of finite sample were started by Vapnik in sixties of last century and a relatively complete theoretical system called statistical learning theory was set up in nineties. After that, Support Vector Machines, a new learning machine was proposed. SVM is built on the structural risk minimization principle that is to minimize the real error probability and is mainly used to solve the pattern recognition problems. Because of SVMs complete theoretical framework and the good effects in practical application, it has been widely valued in machine learning field. Rough set Xu E, Liangeshan Shao, XXuedong Gao and Zhai Baofeng introduced Rough set algorithm for customer churn prediction [2]. Dengh Hu also studied the applications of rough set for customer churn prediction[5]. According to them, Rough set is a data analysis theory proposed by Z. Pawlak. Its main idea is to export the decision or classification rules by knowledge reduction at the premise of keeping the classification ability unchanged. This theory has some unique views such as knowledge granularity which make Rough set theory especially suitable for data analysis. Rough set is built on the basis of classification mechanism and the spaces partition made by equivalence relation is regarded as knowledge. Generally speaking, it describes the imprecise or uncertain knowledge using the knowledge that has been proved. In this theory, knowledge is regarded as a kind of classification ability on data and the objects in the universe are usually described by decision table that is a two-dimensional t able whose row represents an object and column an attribute. The attribute consists of decision attribute and condition attribute. The objects in the universe can be distributed into decision classes with different decision attributes according to the condition attributes of them. One of the core contents in the rough set theory is reduction that is a process in which some unimportant or irrelevant knowledge are deleted at the premise of keeping the classification ability unchanged. A decision table may have several reductions whose intersection was defined as the core of the decision table. The attribute of the core is important due to the effect to classification. Survival Analysis Survival analysis is a kind of Statistical Analysis method to analyze and deduce the life expectancy of the creatures or products according to the data comes from surveys or experiments. It always combines the consequences of some events and the corresponding time span to analyze some problems. It was initially used in medical science to study the medicines influence to the life expectancy of the research objects. The survival time should be acknowledged widely, that is, the duration of some condition in nature, society or technical process. In this paper, the churn of a customer is regarded as the end of the customers survival time. In the fifties of last century, the statisticians began to study the reliability of industrial products, which advanced the development of the survival analysis in theory and application. The proportional hazard regression model is a commonly used survival analysis technique which was first proposed by Cox in 1972. CRITICAL REVIEW Jiayin and Yuanquan [1] proposed a very simple method for the variable selection. The method proposed is very effective and practical, But there are more systematic methods available, which use advance neural network, induction algorithms and rough set. Huangs and Kechadis [11] concept for taking into account the categorical values into account when feature selection is being performed, is good. But their concept is limited to categorical values and continues values cant be applied on their approach. Continues values need to be discretized into categorical values, before their feature selection concept could be applied, but this conversion from continues to discrete may result in loss of information. Luo, Shoa and Lie [2] selected Decision Tree as their choice of data mining algorithm for churn prediction, which is the simplest and understandable algorithm for classification. Its simplicity also makes it the most widely used algorithm. But decision tree has its own limitations, they are very unstable and a very little change in the input variables, such as addition of newer ones, require rebuilding and re-training of complete decision tree. In addition, they should have also focused on how to enrich the input variables, by adding new derived variables that could enhance the efficiency of the model. Ming, Huili and Yuwei [4] Bayesian network model has advantages and some short comings. It has the ability to product best results even when the input datasets are incomplete. In addition, it has the ability to take connections into account when predicting churn and to take prior knowledge into consideration. This algorithm also has the ability to effectively prevent over fitting. But if the dataset is large, the structure learning of the Bayesian networks will be too difficult. Thus this model is not fit for telecom, where the dataset is always very large. Jiayin, Yangming, Yingying and Shuang [10] TreeLogit combines the advantages of both algorithms i.e. ADTree and logistic regression, thus it is both data-driven and assumption-driven and it has the capability of analyzing objects with incomplete information. Moreover, its efficiency is not affected by the bad quality data and it generates continues output with relatively low complexity. Jing and Xinghua [5] used Support Vector Machine algorithm for Churn Prediction. This algorithm is best if you have a limited number of sample records, but on the other hand its theory is very complex and there are many variations in it. So it is difficult to find the version which best suites your problem. Conclusion There are multiple solutions available for customer churn prediction. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. So a single solution might not be best for any organization. The organization may have to use the combination of algorithms and techniques to get the best results for churn prediction.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder Essay -- BDD Self Image Health Essays

Body Dysmorphic Disorder People now a days have a problem with the way they appear. For hundreds of years, people, especially females, have been concerned with their weight, the way they look, and the way people perceive them. In the article, Do You Have a Body Image Problem? author Dr. Katharine A. Phillips discusses the concerns with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Dr. Phillips uses her knowledge or ethics to discuss the effects that BDD has on people today. She also uses emotion to show the reader how people are seriously affected by this disorder. In Dr. Phillips article, she discusses how people are emotionally and socially affected by the body dysmorphic disorder, and how society is also affected by it. The human body is one of the most beautiful things that anyone can have. There is not one body that appears to be the same. However, many people think that their body should look the same as somebody on the cover of a magazine. But little do people know that the bodies on the covers of magazines are airbrushed, or are a combination of a couple of different people put into one body. If it is so simple to see that we should not idealize others bodies, then how come people do? That is where media plays a role; they make the average person believe that they should look like the models today. When people realize they cannot look like models, they develop different disorders. One of the disorders that Dr. Phillips discusses is BDD, which is body dysmorphic disorder. This disorder consists of people who are obsessed with how they appear. Everybody is concerned with how they appear, but people who have BDD are overly concerned with how they look. This disorder can socially affect them by not al... ..., the picture has good symbolism because it shows that you should have fun, and you should enjoy how you look. Another advertisement that this site contains is a rounded rectangular box that contains the words â€Å"Everyone tells you how to look good† and it shows a lady in a sitting position possibly doing yoga. The box does not contain what it is advertising for, but it gives the viewer the eagerness to check out what it contains. This web site contains plenty of examples of ethos, pathos and logos. Women.com and Dr. Phillips did a good job creating a web site that appeals to the human eye. This site gives someone comfort in trusting the information that it contains due to who wrote the article and who sponsors it. I found this site to be very informative, and I liked how it allowed the spectator to link to many other trustworthy and helpful sites.

Migraines: A Complex Disorder Essay -- Headaches Medical Neurology Pap

Migraines: A Complex Disorder If I can only make it to my bed, I'll be fine. My head hurts terribly. I would do anything to stop the pain. I've taken three extra strength Tylenols and the pain hasn't diminished at all. My head is spinning. Ever so often, the world around me turns dim and then bright. I close my eyes. I need to lie down, but I am driving. I feel nauseous. The pain that started on one side of my head is spreading as it pulsates. I squeeze my head and rub my temples, but the pain remains. I wish for a lobotomy. I wish somebody could stop the pain. I'm home. I run to my room. I tie a rag tightly around my head. It doesn't help. I press my head against a wall. I feel like vomiting again. I know relief is coming soon. I pass out. I am a Migraineur, and have been ever since I can remember. Migraine headaches are a type of vascular headache that affects 28 million Americans, 75 percent of whom are women 1) "http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/pubs/migraineupdate.htm">National Institute of Health, a good source of general information on migraine headaches. Annually, migraines cost the American taxpayers $13 billion in missed work and reduced productivity 1) "http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/pubs/migraineupdate.htm">National Institute of Health, a good source of general information on migraine headaches. Migraines are not a disorder unique to overworked Americans. In fact, the World Health Organization identified migraine among the world's top 20 leading causes of disability name="2">2) "http://www.w-h-a.org/wha/info.asp">World Health Alliance, a source of current articles about migraine headaches. According to the World Health Organization, aside from the physiological exp... ...lth Alliance, a source of current articles about migraine headaches 3) "http://archneur.ama-assn.org/issues/v57n8/ffull/nhn8476.html">Archives of Neurology, provides a historical perspective on topics related to neurology (3) 4) "http://www.achnet.org/understanding/">American Council for Headache Education, provides information on all types of headaches 5) "http://www.wfubmc.edu/neurology/migweb2/introduc.htm#INTRODUCTION">Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, lecture notes of a professor at the medical school 6) "http://www.migraines.org/myth/">MAGNUM, a good site for individuals who suffer from migraine headaches 7) "http://www.intelihealth.com/">Intelihealth, a site sponsored by Harvard Medical School 8) "http://www.neurologychannel.com/migraine/">Neurology Channel, provides a comprehensive look at migraine headaches