Managing Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Managing Change - Essay Example This move would have resulted in the loss of 600 jobs in its combined workforce of approximately 4,200 employees from the two plants. For that year, annual production targets were also reduce from 70,000 units to merely 40,000. Global overproduction and a 17% slump in domestic sales for the second half of 1999 were the reasons cited by Mitsubishi for the downsizing. Mitsubishi officials also claimed that the decline in the value of the Australian dollar had made it too costly to import Mitsubishi components. The decision to downsize in 2000 followed the downsizing of already 300 production jobs for the company yet despite these decisions, profits for the company did not improve. As of December 1999, the company reported a $A 130-million loss, its worse in twenty years in Australia (Cook, 2000). In 1997, the Howard government suspended plans to end tariff protection for the car industry until 2010 due to pressure from car manufacturers and threats by Mitsubishi that it will wind-up production in Australia. This was initially regarded as guaranteeing job security for worker, but despite the existence of tariff protection, major restructuring and downsizing still continued in Mitsubishi. The reason is that downsizing is attributed not to the company's national performance but to a major global restructuring program announced by Mitsubishi in October 2000 to cut costs by $US 3 billion by 2001. The plan involved cutting 9,900 jobs from the company's international workforce of 88,800 over a span of four years. Of the 9,900 jobs to be cut, 1,400 of these are production and clerical jobs in Japan (Cook, 2000). Another factor that compounds to the company's problems is its debt of 1.75 trillion yen or $A 27 billion. Mitsubishi continues to be under pressure from Daimler-Chrysler, who has a one-third holding in the company, and the power of veto over Mitsubishi's board. Daimler-Chrysler is demanding Mitsubishi to take drastic steps to reduce its huge debt and that the company focuses its future investment in more efficient production plants in Malaysia and Thailand (rather than Australia) where there is cheaper labour and favourable local investment incentives (Cook, 2000). In addition to these problems, Mitsubishi is also burdened by a failed vehicle financing scheme in the U.S. and losses amounting to approximately $US 2.8 billion in 2003. Daimler-Chrysler, the majority shareholder for the company, also refused to give Mitsubishi a $US 6.5 billion restructuring package (Spoehr, 2004). In 2004, Mitsubishi released a restructuring plan and formally announced its decision to close down its Lonsdale Plant resulting in the loss of 650 jobs, including the reduction of 350 workers in their Tonsley Park assembly plant workforce (Spoehr, 2004). The

Social Networking Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social Networking - Research Proposal Example The synergy of the quantitative and qualitative approaches in the mixed method approach was necessary to address the research problem in its totality. The fact that the entire sample would be coming from the same university also ensured consistency in the measurement of one of the variables, which was the respondents' academic standing. This variable relates to the effects of the use of social networking on students. The study used the nonprobability sampling technique since it would not be practical and feasible to do scientific random sampling (Trochim, 2006) from the entire student population of the University of Chester's Warrington campus given the scope and limitations of the study. From among the nonprobability sampling techniques, purposive sampling (Trochim, 2006) was used, targeting undergraduate students of the university. This enabled the researcher to have quick access to the target sample since undergraduates make up the majority of the student population. Under purposive sampling, nonproportional quota sampling (Trochim, 2006) was then used to ensure that male a... Under purposive sampling, nonproportional quota sampling (Trochim, 2006) was then used to ensure that male and female students were represented, although not necessarily according to their actual distribution in the target population. Since the distribution of male and female students in general is not a fixed proportion in all schools, proportion was not deemed to be a relevant factor and representation of both genders was ensured instead. Of the 50 respondents for the study, the target was to have no less than 20 male students and no less than 20 female students. The respondents were then chosen from among volunteers who fit the criteria, on a first-come-first-serve basis, ensuring that the minimum number of male and female students was met. Discussion of Variables Quantitative variables (Quantitative data analysis, n.d.) covered by the study are the age of the respondents, number of male and female respondents, number of respondents who participate in social networking, the number of social networking sites joined by the respondent, the number of hours per day spent by the respondent on social networking sites, the number of hours per day spent by the respondent online, the number of hours per day spent by the respondent in recreational activities outside social networking sites, the number of hours per day spent by the respondent in class, the number of hours per day spent by the respondent studying outside class and the quality point average (QPA) of the respondent in the previous term. The QPA of the respondent for the previous term is the closest most accurate measure possible for the respondent's academic standing. This measure was meant to be used to correlate the effect of the respondent's level of participation in social