The microstructure of cast iron

The microstructure of cast iron ABSTRACT THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF CAST IRON: In the experiment, the microstructures of five samples of different cast iron forms were observed and investigated under the optical microscope and an iron-carbide phase was studied. The suitable drawings were made under different magnification of 100 and 200. Each constituent of the microstructure was identified and also other structural features of the sample provided were identified. The samples areBlackheart malleable cast iron, Ferritic spheroidal graphite iron, Pearlitic spheroidal graphite iron, White cast iron and Phosphoric grey cast iron. The differences in the microstructure were due to the difference in heat treatment, process of cooling and additives present. COPPER SILVER EUTECTIC ALLOY: The eutectic alloy formed between silver and copper was observed. The microstructure of all the four samples was drawn using the optical microscope with 200 magnifications. 90%Ag 10% Cu, 72%Ag 28% Cu, 50% Ag 50% Cu, 30% Ag 70% Cu are the samples provided. An equilibrium diagram was constructed for the copper-silver alloy system, the features of interest as well as the constituent of the structure was identified for all the samples. INTRODUCTION THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF CAST IRON Cast irons are a class of ferrous alloys with a carbon content of between 2.0 4.5%; they contain sufficient carbon so that the eutectic reaction occurs during solidification. They are the most economical in terms of foundry cost which makes the useful even though they are quite brittle; they are fine for low stressed components like cylinder block. Their versatility makes them a high demand in the market. Cast iron contain contrasting amount of manganese, sulphur and phosphorus. They have varying strength and can resist wear and abrasion and corrosion and they can be easily machined. They are easily melted and cast making the good casting impression. The carbon in a cast iron exists in two forms, as a free form of graphite or in a combination as a cementite which is unstable iron carbide. Iron is hard and difficult to machine due to how brittle the cementite is while graphite is soft making the iron softer and easy to machine. Graphite weakens metal due to its occurrence in flakes by breaking up its continuity. Because of the characteristics of these two carbon form, the relative amount, the shape and distribution in the cast iron produces different cast irons variety of properties. Grey cast iron contains tiny interconnected flakes of graphite that allow low strength and ductility. Its the mostly used cast iron and named after its grey colour on fracture surfaces. White cast iron produces more cementite than graphite during solidification, it is a hard brittle alloy containing massive amount of fe3c. Alloyed white cast iron is used due to their hardness and wear resistance for abrasive wear. The name was given due to white fractured surface. Malleable cast iron is formed by the heat treatment of white cast iron, it has better ductility and they produce rounded clumps of graphite. It is very machinable and is made by heat treating unalloyed 3% carbon. A spherodite are micro constituent of coarse spheroidal graphite particles in a matrix of pearlite or ferrite, permitting excellent machining characteristics in high carbon steel. The structure of cast iron is affected by a number of factors. The type of iron form is determined by the rate of solidification as slow cooling will produce grey iron and the rapid one will produce white iron structure. Whether graphite or cementite is formed and by what quantity is determined by the carbon content of the melt and presence of other element. For example nickel and silicon promote the formation of graphite in the iron structure. The structure is affected by the type of heat treatment, cementite will decompose to ferrite and graphite will produce a completely different structure. COPPER-SILVER EUTECTIC ALLOYS: There are three single phase regions on the phase diagram of binary alloys of silver and copper. The phase is a solid solution rich in copper which has silver as the solute and an FCC structure it also include pure copper and is considered to include pure copper. An eutectic region can be defined as a three phase invariant reaction in which one liquid phase solidifies to form two solid phases. Copper and silver form an eutectic at 72%Ag and 28%Cu at a temperature of 780oC.The temperature at which an alloy become totally liquid decreases as silver is added to copper which is also the same as the addition of copper to silver. A microstructure may be defined as the structural feature of an alloy, its grain and phase structure that are subject to observation under microscope. Copper is a face centred cubic structured metal possessing good ductility, good thermal and electrical conductivity. It is often used as a constituent of various metal alloys. The melting point of pure copper is 1083oC while that of pure silver is 961oC. Silver possesses one of the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal. It has FCC structure and is sometimes produced as a by-product of copper. When the full liquid solubility is possible with complete solid insolubility or very limited solid solubility then an eutectic relationship exist. This exists in copper and silver but they are fully soluble in liquid state. EXPERIMENTAL THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF CAST IRON Five prepared micro specimens were provided and the microstructure of each studied and drawn using a microscope. The specimens provided were Blackheart malleable cast iron at magnification 100 Ferritic spheroidal graphite iron at magnification 100 Pearlitic spheroidal graphite iron at magnification 200 White cast iron at magnification 100 Phosphoric grey cast iron at magnification 200 Each constituent and other structural feature of importance in the microstructure of white cast iron was labelled on the drawing. The procedure was performed to all specimens. COPPER-SILVER EUTECTIC ALLOYS Four polished and etched micro sections of copper silver alloys were provided. 30% Ag 70% Cu 72%Ag 28% Cu 50% Ag 50% Cu 90%Ag 10% Cu These alloys have already been melted in a gas fired furnace, deoxidised by polling with graphite rod and then cast in refractory moulds preheated to 500oC. I placed the samples under the microscope at a magnification of 200; my observation was drawn with the help of the microscope. The constituent and structural features are drawn and labelled, I repeated the steps for the entire specimen and the equilibrium diagram was drawn from the data. RESULTS The results are compiled in the couple of pages attached to the next pages. DISCUSSION THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF CAST IRON The way a metal is cooled produces the different structures of cast iron. Two of these structures are white and grey cast iron. As the metal is cooled, the amount of austenite in the matrix increases. At the eutectic temperature of 1130Â °C the remaining liquid solidifies producing austenite in a eutectic matrix. A structure consisting of cementite, Fe3C and eutectoid iron starts to form as structure starts to decompose. The eutectoid contains area of pearlite and cementite and its also a mixture of cementite and ferrite. The pearlite is formed as a result of the decomposition of the austenite on cooling. This structure is that of white cast iron which is formed due to the rapid rate of cooling. The cooling rate of white and grey cast iron affects the structure; fast cooling rate promotes white cast iron while slower cooling rate promotes grey cast iron. The carbide composition can have effect on the structure of the iron produced; high amount of chromium promotes white cast iron while low amount promotes grey cast iron. Section size can also determine iron structure obtained. Cool section cool faster and produce white cast iron while thick sections will cool slower promoting formation of grey cats iron. A number of variables must be controlled in order to produce grey cast iron instead of white cast iron. For a grey cast iron to form, the rate of cooling must be made as slow as possible. High silicon content will also promote the formation of grey cast iron as silicon has strong graphitising tendencies. Phosphoric grey iron is stronger, has a lower melting point and better fluidity than normal grey cast iron. The Blackheart malleablising process is the packing of white iron castings into pots with a neutral packing, such as sand or crushed slag, and heating them to 900Â °C for three days. After the three days they are cooled very slowly. The cementite in the white iron is being decomposed into ferrite and graphite is being precipitated in a smoothly dispersed form. The structure is composed entirely of ferrite and graphite. The graphite present in the structure is shown as ‘rosettes of carbon in the ferrite. After the process, the small amount of pearlite left has no effect on the properties of the casting. The steel produced in this process has good wear resistance and strength and reasonable toughness. Additives are used to produce spheroidal graphite iron rather than flake graphite iron. Magnesium amounting to 1-2% of the weight of the iron is added in the form of a nickel magnesium alloy of 10-20% magnesium. The alloy is used to prevent an extremely violent reaction from occurring. The presence of silicon also assists the formation of the nodules therefore Ferro-silicon is added. The sulphur level needs to be kept low in order to avoid removing the Mg as sulphide. In the production of a ferritic graphite iron, spheroids of graphite in pearlite matrix are heat treated to form spheroids of graphite in ferrite matrix. This is time dependent process and doesnt go into completion therefore causing pearlite area to still be seen. COPPER-SILVER EUTECTIC ALLOYS On drawing of the 30%Ag70%Cu, alpha particles can be seen and dark patches show primary dendrites outside eutectic. The 50%Ag50%Cu alloy sample also shows primary alpha dendrites outside eutectics. In the 90%Ag10%Cu sample there is small amount of eutectic and light areas show beta particles while the dark areas show alpha particle. On the equilibrium diagram ADB is the liquidus and ACDEB is the solidus. The area ACF represents the alpha phase of the silver in copper while BEG represent the condition of limited solid solution of copper in silver which is the beta phase. Below FCDEG the two phases alpha and beta exist side by side. The 72%Ag28%Cu micro section has an all eutectic composition with dark areas also representing alpha particles and light areas showing beta particles the centre of the microstructure is the first to solidify then the outside area. Composition of solid and liquid phases will vary with the temperature along the solidus and liquidus lines. The final liquid between composition C and E will always end at eutectic regardless of what the initial composition may be. As a result the solid will be composed of masses of A and B. At eutectic CW parts liquidus composition Y while WY parts composition C. During casting its virtually impossible to achieve equilibrium conditions. Coring is the non equilibrium cooling on microstructures. Coring explains how the varying primary dendrites allow lighter areas in the centre than in the outside. The properties of a cored structure are less than optimal, as a casting having a cored structure is reheated causing grain boundaries regions will meet first as long as they are richer in low melting components. The liquid film that separate the grain gives an outcome of sudden loss of mechanical integrity. The melting may begin at a temperature below the equilibrium solidus temperature of the alloys. Homogeneous heat treatment can be used to remove coring at a temperature below the solidus point of the alloy composition. During the process, atomic diffusion occur producing compositionally homogeneous grain. CONCLUSION Cast irons have many different structures each one caused by a different cooling rate, additives and different heat treatments. Formation of grey cast iron over white cast iron is promote by slow cooling rate and enormous silicon content Coring can be eliminated by a homogenising heat treatment. Magnesium and silicon help to produce spheroidal graphite iron rather than flake graphite iron To produce a ferritic spheroidal graphite iron from pearlitic spheroidal graphite iron the steel must be heated to just below the lower critical temperature. Phosphoric iron will enable to cast very fine details and in blackheart malleablising process, rosettes from graphite in ferrite matrix are produced from white cast iron. The composition of the copper silver eutectic alloys has a very large effect on the microstructure of the alloy, with different amounts of the phases being produced on cooling.

How does Shakespeare portray the nature :: essays research papers

How does Shakespeare portray the nature of love in â€Å"A Midsummer Nights Dream†?‘A Mid-summer Nights Dream’ is evidentially concerned with the series of hindrances in the course of true love. Shakespeare reverses the categories of reality and illusion, portraying to the audience with a comic edge that when overcome with the illusion of love couples become blind to the misfortunes that are bound to cross their path. The most basic part of Shakespeare’s plays is the relationship between men and women. In a society so closely woven with Christianity, it seemed natural to take the mandate for this relationship from the bible. This names the husband the head of the household; he can govern his family as he pleases. Despite the pervading view in Elizabethan England of women as the property of their fathers. Shakespeare’s form does not take a firm stance on how he thinks marriage should work. Marriage was considered as a way to establish order most of Shakespeare’s plays have to do with the making or breaking of family ties. The Characters are drawn from three different worlds: the Athenian Gentry, the Craftsmen of Athens, and the Fairy World. The protagonist is the bizarre nature of love, as represented by four couples: Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, Titania and Oberon, and Hippolyta and Theseus. The whole play centers on the central idea of lovers, ironically and comically coming together and being free to marry. The opening exposition is first set in Medieval Athens; Shakespeare uses familiar figures from Greek mythology, which would be seen as autocratic and mature mirroring the future portrayal of their love. Theseus as the male is dominant over Hippolyta; her submission brings forth the imminent wedding. Because they meet in an adverse environment it creates dramatic and passionate tension, which is later resolved. This is in stark contrasts with the young lovers, who are erratic and indecisive. ‘Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword; And won thy love doing thee injuries; But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.’ (Theseus 1:1 lines 16-19) Oberon and Titania are noble fairies. Although they have high status, fairies were seen to be avid and passionate. This passion causes human-like, vindictive quarrels between them. ‘†¦I have forsworn his bed and company;’ (Titania 2:1 lines 61-62) Oberon plays tricks on Titania to prove his authority over her, but the sight of her humiliation arouses his love and they reinstate their love to one another.

Horses as My Pen :: Invention Writing Technology Papers

Horses as My Pen When I was told that I had to develop a form of writing using solely nature, my initial reaction was a groan. Despite the fact that nature is abundant where I live--on a farm--is was the middle of winter and my creativity was definitely limited. Additionally, I actually felt lost that I couldn’t use a writing utensil, Dennis Baron was definitely right when he wrote, "We have a way of getting so used to technologies that we come to think of them as natural rather than technological. We assume that pencils are a natural way to write because they are old" (51). Then it hit me, my family has been involved with the use/production/processing of fibers for generations. So my initial idea for this project was to utilize natural wool and dyes or needlepoint of some fashion to create kind of text naturally. As I began formulating more specific ideas for that avenue, I realized that it would be very time consuming and I was unsure of the exact outcome. With sheep in mind, the thought of other barnyard friends danced in my head. I opted to utilize my equines, family and friends. The plan was to align the horses to spell out Hi, although, my first idea was to spell out some random quote, I did not have enough horses to write anything longer than a single word. Just as Twain noted, "Dictating...to a type writer is a new experience for me, writing with horses was new to me" (501). Because I had to take into account my horses’ temperaments, it took some deliberation about who will cooperate next to who and who should be handled by who. At last, a balance was struck and arrangements made to meet on what happened to be a very frigid day. Six of my very dependable helpers showed up and the horses were groomed, we walked them to a field, overlooked by a Harvester Silo. My dad scaled the silo to get an aerial view and we lined up four horses, one pony, two miniature horses and my dog Riley into the Hi formation. Unfortunately, because the weather was brisk, to say the least, the equines were feeling a bit frisky and were not so keen on standing still. This made the process last about 20 minutes, twice as long as I anticipated. Additionally, my mom, who is not a horse person at all, was holding the two mini’s as the i and Riley was antagonizing them, which made the experience slightly stressful since nobody wants to chase down loose horses!

Lucent Technologies :: essays research papers fc

Lucent Technologies BACKGROUND   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1996, AT&T decided to split into three different companies. These new companies were the new AT&T, NCR, and Lucent Technologies. Lucent Technologies is one of the leading designers, developers, and manufacturers of telecommunications systems, software, and products.1 They are beginning to emerge as a Fortune 40 company. Lucent Technologies builds local networks, business telephone systems, and consumer telephones that access the global networks.2 Lucent Technologies was launched with an initial public stock offering in April.3 AT&T owns an 82% share of the company.4 KEY PERSONNEL   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lucent technologies has 125,000 employees worldwide. Approximately 82% of its employees come from the United States and the other 18% come from foreign countries.5 Lucent Technologies has offices in more than 90 countries, and Bell Labs has offices in 13 countries.6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The chairman and chief executive officer is Henry B. Schacht. Schacht has been on AT&T's board of directors since 1981. He has also held chairman and chief executive officer positions at Cummings Engine Company, INC.7   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lucent Technologies' President and chief operating officer is Richard A. McGinn. McGinn joined AT&T in 1978. He has previously served as executive vice president and chief executive officer of AT&T's network group. From 1994 to 1996, McGinn served on the AT&T management executive committee.8 BUSINESS STRUCTURE   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lucent Technologies is composed of four operating units. These four units are: Business Communication Systems, Consumer Products, Microelectronics Group, and Network Systems. These units are designed to work together to provide innovative and cost-efficient solutions for customers. Bell Laboratories supports each group.9   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bell Laboratories is a research and development organization that is recognized throughout the world for its achievements in science and technology. Currently, Bell Laboratories is focusing on developing: Digital signal processor algorithms, Lightwave communications (photonics), Networking, Silicon chips, Software, and Wireless communications.10   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Business Communications Systems design, manufacture, install, and service advanced voice and multimedia systems worldwide.11 Consumer Products design, manufacture, sell, and lease communications products for consumers, small offices, and home offices. In 1995 in the United States, Consumer Products sold 31% of the corded phones, 28% of the cordless phones, and 35% of answering machines.12 The Microelectronics Group makes integrated circuits, power systems, and optoelectronic components for Lucent Technologies.13 The largest unit of Lucent Technologies is the Network Systems. The Network Systems designs, develops, and manufactures networking systems and software for telecommunications providers, wireless communications is growing at an annual rate of 33 percent.14 BUSINESS STRATEGY   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The worldwide demand for communications systems is booming. Lucent Technologies is predicting a 10% annual growth for the communications industry. The business is pursuing growth opportunities around the world and is trying to build on Bell Laboratories established global relationships with its key customers. 15   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Much emphasis for advancement is being put on the areas of Wireless

Reward Strategy: Reasons and Perspectives Essay

Modern business environment is famous for various new trends. An environment where the businesses used to hire employees for the sake of monetary benefits only is now changed in multi dimensional and multi pronged environment. Now business are not run for the sake of money and short term financial benefits only but for a long time sustainable growth and development. Now the only focus of all business is customer  and Customer Satisfaction. This Customer Satisfaction (CS) cannot be achieved without proper involvement of internal customers i. e. , employees. Companies start their business philosophy from their main goals or objectives and make clear statements showing their mission and values. All lateral developments are performed on the basis of these predetermined values. Modern businesses focus only on customer satisfaction and this is the core concept of business as well. Who is Responsible for Customer Satisfaction? Now question is the responsibility of achieving customer satisfaction without any failure. Many plans are made for wining customer satisfaction, but all would be failure if company is not sure about the persons, method and tactics of achieving customer satisfaction. Whole management and its team is responsible for achieving business results so is the customer satisfaction. Modern management has no doubt in it that customer satisfaction can only be achieved if all employees regardless their departments work hard to satisfy customer. Conclusion is all employees are responsible for achieving and maintaining customer satisfaction on long term basis. How would Employees work for Achieving Customer Satisfaction? Employees are important for achieving customer satisfaction then the responsibility comes how these employees should work for achieving high standards of customer satisfaction? It’s an open secret that employees mainly intend to work for the physical work giving to them according to their job description. Though companies make different efforts to ensure quantitative and qualitative efforts to ensure performance of employees but there is not specific way to know how do employees behave and work for achieving customer satisfaction. As per Hertz Berg’s two factor motivation theory, people treat salary and working environment as routine requirement of their jobs and don’t fee motivated on the basis of nominal salaries. For doing something extra, they need motivation and for motivation they need to be given something extra by the employer. To overcome problems and obstacles on their way to customer satisfaction, companies design a special approach to involve employees into their challenging task of customer satisfaction. Reward Strategy Why do people work is the question often answered differently by all respondents. Few people surely confirm the cause of their work, mostly are trapped in wordy reasons like, just to make my life comfortable, to earn my livelihood, to support my family, to spend my spare time or to establish myself. Business psychologists still fail to understand the only common reason among people who work at different places. Similar to the concepts of employees, business researchers and scholars are also divided on certain human needs and employees’ concern bout growth. But all researchers and business psychologists are of the opinion that rewards really award. If you give rewards to your employees reward, they will award business with better results. Various rewards to employees make different behavioural and motivational changes in their personalities. Almost modern business and non-business organizations believe in good reward system that would base on financial compensation or Remuneration, certain benefits regardless their job hierarchy and business status, and perquisites of different types based on hierarchy. These three factors make the most successful blend of modern reward package. As such package is a motivating blend of financial and non-financial benefits, this suites majority of people.

Collapse of the Ussr

Stephen Wears Assess the mall factors of the break-up of the soviet Union The break up and dissolution of the soviet union on the 25th December 1991 heralded the end of the Cold War. It ushered In what had been termed ‘the new world order', furthermore, it was suggested by Francis Fauvism to have signaled the end of history and the battle of ideas which had dominated much of the twentieth century (Huntington, 1996; 31). The ‘clash of civilizations' had already seen the demise of fascism as a credible force in 1945, the close of 1991 would see the end of communism in Europe.The relatively sudden collapse of the USSR has compelled winkers and analysts to seek answers as to why the world's second superpower could collapse so quickly and so utterly. Can it be attributed to one single catastrophic event, or is it far more appropriate to place blame on a number of contributing factors? The controversy surrounding the collapse of the USSR has been compared to the collapse of the Roman Empire among others and will also continue to be interpreted and reinterpreted for many years to come (Liqueur 1993; 387).This essay will look at some of the factors which lead to dissolution and assess the importance of each. The key issues that this essay will assess include the problem of he nationalities, the Geographer factor, economic problems, and the social and political upheavals caused by Perestroika and Glasnost. The Geographer factor must be viewed In the context of state of the country he Inherited from his predecessors coupled with the effects of Glasnost and Perestroika. It has been suggested that Glasnost and Perestroika played key roles in hastening the collapse of the world's second superpower.Glasnost (meaning openness) allowed people to see the flaws In the system and questions were raised as to whether or not communism had been good for Russia. Perestroika (meaning restructuring) also highlighted flaws in the lattice and bureaucratic system that could not be given a quick fix. The economic problems of the USSR have also been cited as a considerable factor in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The command economy had stifled Innovation and its existence outside of the world economy had caused major problems. Further to this the USSR could not keep up with the military spending of the USA during the 1 sass.Competing against the military spending of the Reagan Administration as well as fighting a protracted war against the Munched in Afghanistan had all but exhausted the economy of the USSR. The nationalities provided a great problem for any ideas of national unity. It has been argued by Lord William Wallace that it would be very difficult for the European union evolve into a unified state because there is a lack of identity and little sense to shared history across the continent (Smith, 2005). This is the same problem facing attempts by soviet leaders to foster a single soviet nationality.The very same Issue had been faced by the Ts arist system before It. One of the few things the nationalities had in common was the centuries of Russian domination. Sitting on what 75 years before had been the Tsarist Russian Empire, the Soviet union faced same problem as had the Tsarist regime, namely the Incredibly republics of the USSR, was made up of many smaller semi-autonomous republics. Russians formed the biggest ethnic group at Just over 50%, followed by the Ukrainians with 15% of the total population. Other nationalities included Zebu; Biliousness; Khaki and Volta Attar among many others.The downfall of the Soviet Union gave an opportunity for peoples across the vast territory from Kampuchea to the Kola Peninsula to glamour for recognition (Dukes, 1998; 332). This suggests that the problem of the nationalities would continue to e a headache for the newly formed Russian Federation. The rise of nationalism added to the troubles faced by the Kremlin during the sass. The growth of the Transactions and Baltic Popular Front s had brought the problem of the nationalities to the fore when in 1989 the Red Army entered Tidbits to assist the Georgian authorities in putting down a rally.Soviet troops were also used to prop up the communist government of Azerbaijan under threat from nationalist forces (Chubbier, 2001; 195). The Baltic States did not Join the chorus of statements of sovereignty which had come from Astrakhan and Ukraine, this was because they regarded their incorporation into the USSR as an illegal act. They challenged the legality of the Molotov – Robertson pact of 1939 and achieved international support in the form of the American refusal to recognize the annexation of the region (Strayed, 1998; 152-153).The policy of Perestroika can be seen as the catalyst for the increase in nationalism as the planned restructuring of the USSR exposed fundamental flaws in the Soviet system. The policy of Glasnost also exposed corruption within the Caucasian and Central Asian republics, Geographer res ponded by replacing the Khaki Communist Party leader Sunken with a Russian. This caused a great deal of rioting in Almost (Strayed, 1998; 150-151). Further to the rise of popular front movements within the constituent republics, the Soviet Union was also facing a crisis with its East European satellites due in part to the policies of Glasnost and Perestroika.Glasnost and Perestroika are often cited as the most important factors in speeding the demise of the Soviet Union. Eric Hobbies claims that the only thing that made the soviet system work was the command structure of the party and the state which had been inherited from the days of Stalin (1995; 480). Once again it mimed that reform from the top was going to introduce fundamental change which was to be ultimately uncontrollable. Hobbies also suggests that ‘glasnost amounted to the disintegration of authority' and ‘perestroika amounted to the destruction of the old mechanisms which made the economy work' (1995; 483).P erestroika had to an extent legalized dissent, and groups in cities across the USSR began forming larger political groups known as ‘clubs of socially active citizens' (Chubbier, 2001; 190). This radical departure from the Soviet norm of suppressing membership of political parties other than the Communist Party was acclimated by the decision to stop arrests on the grounds of political activity. The release of political prisoners saw the growth of new organizations outside of the Soviet system, however by 1988 this opposition numbered Just a few thousand (Chubbier, 2001; 191).Glasnost played a major part in the unraveling of the Soviet Union. It brought forward into stark light the myriad of social problems which had 320-321). Part of glasnost and perestroika involved the relaxing of censorship of the press and other media. It was clear to Geographer that hard line censorship was a utile exercise given the increasing public access to western broadcasts, particularly in the after math of the Coherency disaster of 1986 (Acton, 1995; 320). It was recognized that reform of the economy and wider society could not happen under the current level of state censorship.Not even Lenin escaped criticism under glasnost, it was claimed that the October revolution had been an unmitigated disaster for Russia, leading the nation on a long road to nowhere (Acton, 1995; 323). Geographer and his policies of glasnost and perestroika soon faced serious problems with regards to implementation of the reforms. It seemed that Geographer was trying to do the impossible by marrying completely opposing concepts, ‘socialism with capitalism, totalitarianism with democracy'(Chubbier, 2001; 194). This was also known as the Geographer Factor.The Geographer Factor stems from the problem of the Soviet Union being too reliant on the top figure in government (Chubbier, 2001; 194). It was almost impossible to override the powers held by Geographer, even if it did mean following his lead to the destruction of the USSR. It can be argued that this same problem led to economic stagnation under Brethren and the less than successful schemes of Khrushchev. Regional fragmentation and the erosion of the USSR as a ‘political and economic empire' pushed the republics further towards secession, the communist parties in the Baltic States split from the main communist party of the Soviet Union (CUPS).This caused a wave of similar actions in other constituent republics and served to hasten the disintegration of the country. The process of demonstration initiated by Geographer set the Soviet Union on the course to oblivion for it allowed the republics to elect popular governments and vote to secede from the union via referendum. This most significant of these was the referendum held by Ukraine the results of which indicated the will of the people to leave the union. However this is at odds with the referendum set down by Geographer regarding the retention and reform of the USSR , which received overwhelming popular support.Nevertheless the simple fact that the largest republic in the USSR other than Russia had voted to leave the union could only have a catastrophic effect on the future of the country as a whole. Geographer had no choice but to accept these events, as there could be no return to Stalinist era of brutal suppression such as that en during the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. Geographer faced opposition to the introduction of restructuring and openness to the soviet system. The opposition came to a head in August of 1991, the central state bureaucracy made an attempt at regaining political control of the country (Chubbier, 2001; 193).A coup d'Â ©tat was launched in an attempt to reassert conservative values to the Soviet system. Geographer was put under house arrest in Crimea while attempts were made at reversing the damage done by perestroika. This however received no popular support from the public, prompting Boris Yielding to act to put a stop to the coup. Yielding, President of the Russian SF led a three day resistance movement which involved barricades being set up in central Moscow and around the ‘White House' to prevent the plotters from assuming power (Chubbier, 2001; 193).This proved to be Geographer's power almost completely eroded, a secret meeting of the leaders of the three main Slavic states declared that the USSR officially ceased to exist. Without a country to lead Geographer tendered his resignation on 25th December 1991. All but five signatures were present on the declaration of the end of the USSR. The Baltic tastes had long maintained their annexation was illegal, Georgia would sign later. The other noticeable absence was that of Mikhail Geographer (Chubbier, 2001 ; 194-195).This essay has given an assessment of the events leading to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Although it cannot be said with any great certainty that any one factor was more influential than another, it must be noted that Gl asnost and Perestroika have not been too far away from any of the issues discussed here. The two flagship policies of Geographer had been intended to complement each other, in reality they had the opposite effect. Attempting to Join opposing concepts was a futile exercise which no doubt hastened the demise of the Soviet superpower.The problems faced by the Soviet government ran much deeper than appeared to the Soviet public. Years of economic stagnation and bureaucratic strangulation had left the Soviet Union a spent force by the late sass. Robert Strayed suggests that ‘tinkering with its fragile structures would send it [the USSR] spinning into oblivion' (1998; 88). One can't avoid this harrowing assessment being very similar to the assertion made by Doll Hitler shortly before launching Operation Barbarous, hat ‘one has only to kick in the door, and the whole rotten edifice will come crashing down'.Of course this was a statement of propaganda and should be viewed with t hat in mind. Ultimately the Soviet Union was broken by a series of intertwining events, both long term and short term, some more important than others but each playing a crucial role. Just as the USSR was established on the ruins of the Tsarist Empire, the newly formed Russian Federation is established on the ruins of the USSR, marked by the raising of the Russian Atrocious, watched by a small group of pro-communist supporters. List of References

Managing Employee Motivation and Performance

INTERNATIONAL BURCH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT MANAGING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE RESEARCH PAPER by Nedzad ISAKOVIC Project Supervisor M. A. Edin SMAJIC SARAJEVO April, 2012 Contents 1. Introduction2 1. 1. The Motivation Process2 1. 2. Wath Managers Do In Practice2 2. Motivating by Structuring Jobs to Make Them Interesting3 2. 1. Job Design3 2. 2. Job Enrichment and Job Enlargement3 2. 3. The Job Characteristics Model4 3. Conclusion5 4. References7 1. Introduction Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst, reading a book to gain knowledge or performing some specific job assignment to get pay. Why is the motivation of employees so important at the workplace? It is important for managers because it determines individual performance of the workers along with ability of the workers and work environment . The most challenging factor for manager to control of these three is motivation. Individual behavior is a complex phenomenon, and the manager needs to enter the core of the problem if he is going to solve it. 1. 1. The Motivation ProcessThe motivation process progresses through a series of discrete steps. Content, process, and reinforcement perspectives on motivation address different parts of this process (Griffin, 2008). Content perspective tries to find what factor or factors motivate people. The most popular content theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the ERG theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Process perspectives on motivation explore how the motivation process works and how it occurs. They try to find out why people certain behavior options to fulfill their needs and how workers evaluate their satisfactions after their decisions.Theories of process perspectives are expectancy theory, equity theory and the newer attribution theory. The reinforcement perspective tries to find out which factors force employees to continue being motivated. It tells us that employees will repeat the behavior for which they are rewarded, and they won’t repeat behavior for which they are punished. Reinforcement perspective uses positive reinforcement, avoidance, punishment and extinction as tools to keep employees motivated. These are just theories which help managers to determine what to do in practice. 1. 2.What Managers Do In Practice The most shared thought and strategy among managers in practice is that money motivates. Because of that managers use large variety of reward systems such as merit reward systems, incentive reward systems and team reward systems to improve motivation and performance of their employees. Their assumption is correct and employees do actually perform better when they know that they will receive more money for their improved performance. But another question arises: How long will the improved performance last if mo ney is key motivator?The answer is that it won’t last long. The studies have shown that individuals have difficulty recalling the bonus they receive and it does not seem to have the same impact it did within the first few weeks or months of receiving it. That's because money, in and of itself, will not continuously motivate individuals. Employees are motivated much more if money rewards are combined with recognition and with improved job design. Another problem that arises from using the money as a key factor of motivation is that it costs.The companies need to give large amounts of money to employees as bonuses and there were several cases where bonuses are actually larger than annual salaries of some employees. This becomes a real problem if company wants to decrease the amount of bonuses employees receive. Employees become more dissatisfied and unmotivated because they are used to have large bonuses, so their performance falls quite a lot. My opinion is that the best way t o motivate employees to perform better is to design jobs by making them more appealing to people. 1. Motivating by Structuring Jobs to Make Them Interesting 2. 3. Job DesignThis approach of motivation is directed at improving the essential nature of the work performed by changing the design of the job. Job design is concerned with structuring jobs in order to improve organization efficiency and employee job satisfaction (Snell/Bohlander, 2007). Employees today engage in repetitive movements, which they find highly routine and monotonous. Not surprisingly, people became bored with such jobs and their performance falls with time. Fortunately, today’s organizational scientists have found several ways of designing jobs that aren’t just efficient, but are also pleasant and motivating.Job enlargement and job enrichment are two approaches that improve motivation by changing job design. 2. 4. Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment One of the first modern approaches to redesigning jobs suggested that boredom of employees by engaging in highly repetitive jobs could be minimized by having people perform an increased number of different tasks all at the same level. This approach is known as job enlargement (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). Because of this approach employees don’t need higher skills or have higher responsibility, but perform more different actions at the same level.Changing job in this way is an increase in the horizontal job loading. Several studies showed that job enlargement is very useful way to increase employee job satisfaction and employee boredom at the workplace. A more effective approach, job enrichment, gives employees not only more jobs to do, but more tasks to perform at a higher level of skill and responsibility (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). The main idea of job enrichment is making jobs more interesting to people so that they will be more highly motivated to perform them.Job enrichment gives employees the opportunity to take greater contr ol over how to do their jobs. Because people performing enriched jobs work at higher levels than others, this approach increases a job’s vertical job loading. Even the job enrichment is successful it has some problems in implementation. First one is difficulty of implementation because it is expensive to redesign existing facilities. Second problem is lack of employee acceptance because not all employees are ready to accept the changes in their job accomplishment and higher obligations for the work they perform. 2. 5. The Job Characteristics ModelIn previous text I stated that employers should enrich the jobs, but I failed to specify precise what elements of a job need to be enriched for it to be effective. Job characteristics model answers this question. It assumes that jobs can be designed so as to help people get enjoyment out of their jobs and care about the work they do (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). It tells us how jobs can be redesigned to help employees feel that they are d oing meaningful and valuable work. The model specifies that enriching certain elements of jobs influences employee’s psychological states in a manner that increases their work effectiveness.It identifies five core job dimensions that help create three critical psychological states, leading to several beneficial personal and work outcomes. The five critical job dimensions are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Skill variety shows us how many different tasks the employee performs using several of his skills and talents. Task identity shows us how much is employee involved in one piece of work, from beginning to end. Task significance shows us how much impact employee’s work has on others.Autonomy shows us how much freedom employees have in planning and performing jobs as they wish. Feedback shows us how much the job allows employees to know is their performance efficient enough. The model tells that these various job dimensions have important effects on many critical psychological states. Combination of these job dimensions have effect on experienced meaningfulness of the job performed, which is then experienced as highly important, valuable and worthwhile. Job dimensions also determine how much employees are personally responsible and accountable for their work.When they are free to decide what to do and how to do it they feel more responsible for their work. Finally, these job dimensions impact employee’s knowledge of the results of their work. When a job is designed to provide employees with information about the effects of their actions, they better understand how effective they are – and such knowledge improves their effectiveness. These critical psychological states affect personal and work outcomes such as: feelings of motivation, the quality of work performed, satisfaction with work, absenteeism and turnover.The higher these psychological states are, the more positive the personal and work benefits and outcomes will be. The job characteristics model is highly applicable and it has high and positive results. The employees that respond best to this model are the ones which have high need for personal growth and development. The model has been focus of many empirical tests, most of which are supportive of many aspects of the model. One study conducted among a group of South African clerical workers found particularly strong support for the job characteristic model (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). . Conclusion In my opinion altering employee motivation by changing job design is much more productive and better than improving motivation by incentive reward systems. It is true that inducing motivation by changing job design has several problems, such as difficulty of implementation and lack of employee acceptance, but these problems are easier to overcome than problems that occur when companies use money to motivate their employees. Incentive reward systems have problems beside the incredibly high costs to organization.These systems may lead to lower job satisfaction as the employees work until they reach their limit and then they become unhappy. They can also create competition within the organization and destroy cooperation among employees. Employees cannot be treated just as machines and the money they receive for their work just isn’t enough to satisfy them. They need recognition for their work and they need to see that the work they do is meaningful and worthwhile, and this is the thing that job design allows them to have. They feel respected and fulfilled and, at the end, motivated to perform the best they know. . References Ricky W. Griffin (2008). Management (9th Edition ed. ). Houghton Mifflin Company. Jerald Greenberg ; Robert A. Baron (2008). Behavior in Organizations (9th Edition ed. ). Pearson Prentice Hall. Luis R. Gomez-Mejia ; David B. Balkin ; Robert L. Cardy (2007). Managing Human Resources (5th Edition ed. ). Pearson Prentice Hall . Scott Snell ; George Bohlander (2007). Human Resorce Management. Thomson. http://psychology. about. com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition. htm , http://www. entrepreneur. com/article/202352