Acanthaster planci on the Great Barrier Reef Essay examples -- Crown o

Acanthaster planci on the Great Barrier Reef The organism Acanthaster planci, commonly known as the crown of thorns starfish, has a drastic effect on the health of coral reefs all over the world, including the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. This poisonous echinoderm feeds upon the coral, and although this should be a healthy and natural part of the ecosystem, the population explosions of the starfish have caused devastation in many portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Reef sections take anywhere from ten to fifteen years to recover, and some never recover completely with the same species distribution. The starfish outbreaks seem to travel southward down the reef with the two primary outbreaks reported in the last 40 years both beginning around Green Island and ending between Cairns and Townsville. The cause of these outbreaks is still unknown. They may be natural phenomena occurring throughout history, or they may be caused by human influences. The most effective control method currently is the injecting of sodium bisulfate in to the starfish which kills the organism in a matter of days. However, this method is costly and is not a permanent solution to the problem. The Cooperative Research Centre for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and the Australia Institute of Marine Science Research are conducting various research projects looking for environmentally sound and economically practical methods of controlling Acanthaster planci populations. Introduction Acanthaster planci, commonly known as the crown-of-thorns starfish, is an echinoderm that has attracted much attention and has been the focus of much research over the past few decades. Although the starfish has interesting physic... ...vestigations: Form, Function, Diversity, and Process Sixth Edition. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Head, M.J., Henderson,R.A., Jull, A.J., and Walbran, P.D. 1989. Evidence from sediments of long-term Acanthaster planci predation on corals of the Great Barrier Reef. Science 245: 847-50. Keats, Derek W. 2001. Introduction to Coralline Algae. . Accessed March 2003. Moran, Peter. 1988 and 1997. Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Questions and Answers. Australian Institute of Marine Science. . Accessed March 2003. Reichelt, R. E. 1990. Dispersal and control models of Acanthaster planci populations on the Great Barrier Reef. In Lecture Notes in Biomathematics: Acanthaster and the Coral Reef, ed. R. H. Bradbury, pp. 6-16. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

Office Management – Assessment 1

Levels of Decision Making Overview Strategic decision making is when decisions are made to determine the long term direction of an organisation at the highest level within the organisation. According to Gregory Hamel (Hamel, G. 2008) (Small business, 2012) Strategic decision making is an on-going process that involves creating strategies to achieve goals and altering strategies based on observed outcomes. Operational decision making is a short term decision made within an organisation which involves the day to day running of the organisation. These short term decisions are usually made by the office manager.According to Npower (Business Case Studies) Often these decisions are administrative in nature and can be implemented quickly and tend to carry a little risk and are smaller scale, but are never the less important choices that people have to make to fulfil their role. Strategic Decision Implementing that laptops are to be used by partners while out of the office would be a strateg ic decision. There are lots of problems with the partners being out of the office and with the use of laptops as communication tools this will provide a direct link between the office staff and the partners.I believe that this is a strategic decision as with the right planning and overseeing the development this could really be a step forward for Classic Interiors because work can be exchanged between partners and the office and messages can be passed on effectively meaning that there won’t be a build-up of work or office staff with no work and communication between everyone will be made a lot easier. Operational Decision Stipulating a lunch time for each staff member would be an organisational decision. The current system for lunch time is not convenient as the employees get to decide when they go as long as one of them is in the office.I believe this is an operational decision because if affects the day to day running of the organisation. If the administrators were set a lu nch hour each they would have to stick to it and get used to working alongside the time set. Role of Office Manager Operational Planning Process As the office manager my role in establishing a new routine for lunch hour would be to organise a meeting to communicate the proposed changes with administrators and gain their views. Then I would create a plan to put forward to the administrators and partners.When a decision has been reached and the new plan is put into action I would have to oversee the progress of the plan gathering feedback at every opportunity. Issues There is increased frustration between partners and administrators due to the partners carrying out task they believe the administrators could be doing which would free up more time for the partners. The solution to this would be to for all administrators to be trained how to use the specialist interior design software, this would enable them to alleviate the work load from the partners and feel more involved in the desig n side of their work.This would likely be time consuming to train the administrators but the overall outcome would be beneficial to the company. The relationship between partners and the administrators is suffering due to the partners being out of the office as communication is often via short telephone messages and emails which has led to information being mis-communicated. The solution would be to introduce the use of PDA’s (Personal digital Assistants) for partners to be able to communicate with administrators.This would enable the administrators to contact the partners if a problem arises while carrying out work so that no mistakes are made and also they would be able to check their diaries to make appointments without the chance of double booking. Instant messaging could also help with communication as they are received instantly and can be replied to in seconds. Financial Planning and Budgetary Control Financial Planning According to Jim Priebe (ehow) A financial plan i s like a blue print. It is a description of what you want to achieve and the tools you need to achieve it.Financial planning is the process of asking questions to ensure that you manage your risk against unexpected events. Managers need to be able to exercise control over the organisation that they manage to make sure that financial plans are being achieved both for the long term and the short term. Benefits of financial planning are: 1 Reducing the risk of a financial crisis. 2 Allows you to understand how each financial decision made affects other areas of finance. Barriers of financial planning are: 1 It can be time consuming 2 Can be costly as will involve accountants. Budgetary ControlBudgetary control is precise control of an organisations operations through establishment of standards and targets concerning income and expenditure. Continuous monitoring is required to be effective. Benefits of budgetary control are: 1 Coordinates activities across departments. 2 Provides a reco rd of organisational activities. Barriers of budgetary control are: 1 Budgets can demotivate staff. 2 May cause competition for resources. Effective Delegation Delegation is the distribution of tasks by the office manager. Giving responsibilities to employees to carry out the work but the work will remain liable to the office manager.When delegation is carried out properly very good results and high productivity can be achieved. The Process of Delegation Delegation can be very difficult. The process of delegation is: 1 Define the task 2 Select the Individual 3 Explain what must be achieved (clear instructions) 4 Discuss requirement to completion 5 Agree a deadline 6 Be there for support 7 Always give feedback Benefits Time management would be a benefit of delegation as this would allow partners to delegate work so that they have a more manageable work load.Delegating tasks will motivate staff and increase productivity. Barriers Forcing someone to do a task that they don’t wan t to or are not capable of would be a barrier, this can be seen in the case study when Izzy asked one of the administrators to just follow what had been done before. This lead to the administrator getting upset and Izzy feeling unable to approach anyone else. This could have been avoided by management setting out a procedure for staff to follow and allocating the task to someone suitable.Confusion about who is ultimately responsible for tasks is a barrier to effective delegation, this can be seen in the case study as partners are frustrated because they believe that administration is responsible for some of their tasks. This can be corrected by training administrators to make the delegation process easier. Leadership Models I think Tomi uses democratic leadership. As Tomi involves the staff in the decision making process of meeting times and encouraged staff to offer their opinions which made the administrators feel like what they said mattered.I believe Izzi uses Autocratic Leaders hip. When Izzi was in charge she would decide the times of meetings even when it was inconvenient to the others meaning work started to suffer which she then thought they could not manage and devised a new procedure which is hopeless but Izzi cannot see this. Staff find it difficult to communicate with her. Autocratic Leadership works where there is no need for input on the decisions and Democratic leadership works when a leader seeks help and guidance from staff to make decisions.Democratic leadership The impact of this leadership style is that it gives staff a voice and they are able to communicate better with management. Democratic leadership style encourages better cooperation and motivates staff because they feel well informed in everything that affects their work. Autocratic Leadership The impact of this leadership style is that it fails to motivate staff and they feel forced to do things managements way although It is not always the best way and staff become stressed being pu shed.Autocratic leadership style encourages no communication between staff and management as management make all the decisions based on what they feel is best for the organisation. References Hamel, G. (2008) ‘What is strategic Decision Making’ http://smallbusiness. chron. com/strategic-decision-making-23782. html Npower. ‘Developing people through decision making’ http://businesscasestudies. co. uk/npower/developing-people-through-decision-making/tactical-decisions. html Priebe, J. ‘What is the purpose of Financial Planning’ http://www. ehow. com/info_7755005_purpose-financial-plan. html

The Importance of Teamwork and Communication Essay

I personally think that teamwork and communication are very important during CA1, CA2 and CA3. We need to cooperate well, discuss amiably with one another to find a suitable solution for some of the challenges or obstacles faced in the process of accomplishing the task assigned to us by our teacher. One such example would be the games for our CA1, the aim of our first game was to score a ball into the bins which are of different colors and entitled us to different score. Our initial plan was to score the ball into the bins which will enable us to attain a higher score. When it was my turn to toss the balls into the bin, I was feeling really anxious at that moment. I wanted to successfully toss the ball into the bin which will entitle us a†¦show more content†¦From the experience that I had encountered, I believe that communication and teamwork played a vital role in a group. With communicate and teamwork, the processes of work would progress much faster than what an individu al would accomplish within the same period of time. Besides that, during our CA2, which requires us to explain the parts that we had research on to our fellow group members. Communication is evidently essential as some of our members might not be clear on what the other members had researched on. Therefore, communication comes in handy as we had to ask several questions among one another to clarify our doubts. There are certain times when the questions asked are more in depth and relevant towards our points. It ignites brainstorming which improved our productivity as we can complete our project within a shorter time frame when everyone has a clearer picture of their points. I think that it is also very important for us to take responsibility of our individual roles. I still remember that I had forgotten to bring my laptop to school to show my tutor the links that I had obtain information from. I tried to keep calm and search for relevant material using my smartphone so that my grades will not be affected by my carelessness of not brin ging my laptop to school. As an outgoing person, I tend to discuss all theShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Teamwork And Effective Communication880 Words   |  4 PagesTeamwork and effective communication are essential for patients to receive safe, quality care. The goal of healthcare workers are to communicate information in an effective and timely manner which in turn helps staff work as a team and coordinate care for patients. This was demonstrated effectively when Gary communicated the change in Mrs. Everett’s mental status. Failure to work as a team and convey pertinent patient information can cause harm and even death to patients. 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