Nursing medication administration and work flow using computerized Research Paper

Nursing medication administration and work flow using computerized physician order entry - Research Paper Example The research problem in this study was on how medication errors can be reduced plus the impact of the CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry). The Institute of Medicine had filed an earlier report showing that nearly 7000 patients every year die due to medication errors. In minimizing medication errors and time wasted by nurses in the course of administering medications. The CPOE system became introduced with the sole purpose of reducing the time taken by nurses in ordering and administering medications. According to the observation Keohane and colleagues did on nurses activities, they found out that nurses spent 26.9 percent of their time in medication related activities compared to other work. Hence, the introduction of the CPOE system ought to have eased the nurses’ workflow plus to minimize medication errors. In the study conducted by Dana et al. (2011), the author agrees to the fact that their exists advantages and disadvantages of the CPOE system on the nurses after it s introduction to help reduce the nurses work flow . The literature review in Dana et al. research is quite relevant and directly related to the problem being researched (2011). In this research, the author uses recent literature reviews to get hold of the reader’s attention concerning problems nurses faced before the introduction of CPOE system. An excellent example includes Keohane and colleague studies on the amount of time nurses spent in a variety of their activities. Another example includes a research conducted by Elganzouri et al. confirming that nurses spent a lot of time in issues dealing with medications. In the two literature review, the author would like the reader to be aware of the problems that faced the nursing team before the introduction of the CPOE system, which were spending more time on medication processes plus higher rates of medication errors. The author in the literature review critically compared and appraised key studies in a good way. Research questions in this research could have been what are the impacts of CPOE system on the nurses’ workflow? What are the disadvantages of using Computerized Physician Order Entry system to the nurses? The author’s hypotheses this case is justifiable after realizing that the introduction of CPOE systems in hospitals led to minimal interaction between nurses and physicians. In terms of the literature review, the hypotheses were not related since the literature review entirely talked of the problems nurses experience before CPOE system the introduction while the theoretical rationale speaks of the impact the system had on the nurses. The researcher offers in his justification statement that so far the CPOE system would reduce the time spent by the nurses in medication processes as evidenced by a study conducted by Bate and colleagues. By the use of DeLeon and McLean model, the research was meant to find the impact of CPOE system. The author’s hypotheses were directional since they predicted the impact of CPOE system on the nurses to be either negative or positive (Dana et al., 2011). The variable of interest from the research question will be the impact of CPOE system on the workflow of the nurses (Dana et al., 2011). In accordance to the Delone and McLean IS Success model framework, dependent variables of any information system are defined as its success. It goes further to define success as a combination of variables and include systems quality, information quality, use, individual impact, user satisfaction and organizational impact. From the author, these 6 variables are less dependent o n each other than interrelated. From the research, conducted by the author, the variable being investigated is well defined. The study is predictive in nature and tries to evaluate the impact of the system on the nurses and organization in general. From his research finding, the dependent variables are organizational quality and individual quality. The independent

European Efforts for the Empowerment of Talent Essay Example for Free

European Efforts for the Empowerment of Talent Essay The author gives the tremendous account for the efforts put by the European Commission in empowering its talent by facilitating, sponsoring, and being a driving force behind its universities. There is high stress on innovation, research, promotion of research, and association of research into teaching for the last two decades. There is also serious effort put by the European Commission in nurturing the link between its universities and industry so that talent empowerment can be up to the latest requirement by developing curricula through research and collaboration of industry and universities. There are considerable programs being run by the European Commission to meet its set targets which seem well organized as compared to the rest of the world in relation with empowering the youth through education in globalization. There is also great effort put by the same region on the development of distance learning programs that aim to foster the back benchers of society. Additionally, information and communication technologies and continuing education or learning as a lifelong process are other milestones that European Commission is set to cover. Among a number of programs, the very recent ones are: the European Research Area (ERA), the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)/Bologna process . Thus, by putting efforts on the reformation of the ways of education today the world can be rightly globalized in a positive way that can benefit all the nations and peoples. This way, universities can play a more vital role as important, indeed, as it was in the past. The global approach to education calls for â€Å"research on strategic and monitoring planning to manage globalization and technological and scientific change. To properly manage this, a more holistic view and a better interface across all relevant knowledge areas is necessary† .

Limitations And Advantages Of A Directional Antenna

Limitations And Advantages Of A Directional Antenna Abstract A discussion of directional antennas and performance, the limitations or drawbacks and advantages of using directional antennas compare to omnidirectional antennas. INTRODUCTION The definition for directional antennas is antennas which radiates in one or more directions that allowing to increases the performance on transmit, receive and reduce the interference from other sources, or in another way to say is the antennas that receives or sends signals most effectively in a particular. The Radio Frequency (RF) energy can be diverted in a particular direction to father distance. Therefore, it has long range coverage but the effective beam width decreases. Due to the size of directional antennas, the frequencies used are above 200 to 300 MHz. The antennas wideband property depends on the type of the antennas and the directional properties of the antennas are a function of their electrical size. Figure 1 : Directional Antenna with 6 zones. [6] Each zone is a wedge with radius r spanning à Ã¢â€š ¬/3 radians. Zone 1 always faces east. The dashed circle shows the omnidirectional communication radius. A few types of directional antennas are available. [5] Fixed Beam Fixed beam antenna has fixed gain profile with a primary lobe pointing in a single direction. We only can steering the beam by changing the orientation of the antenna physically , which permit relatively slow changes at best. This kind of antenna does provide high gain for their cost and are widely deployed in practice. Figure 2 : Fixed Beam antennas gain pattern Sector In sector antennas, there is multiple fixed beams antennas where each of these beam antennas aims in different direction. Each has covering different area and total 360 ° coverage. Packets may be sent on any sector. Switching between antennas is done electronically and allows the choice of sector to occur on a per packet basis. Figure 3 : Sector Antenna Gain Pattern Analog Phase Array Analog Phase Array antennas work by calculates phase shifts into the signal at antennas elements. There will be individual signals after from phase shifts interfere constructively and destructively with each other in order to form a particular gain pattern. Figure 4 : Analog Phase Array Antenna Gain Pattern Digital Phase Array Another description for Digital Phase Array is smart antenna uses digital signal to accomplish phase shifting. Even the additional power required to do this had increase the cost and complexity greater than the Analog Phase Array, but there is some significant function had been added. Lobes and nulls may be steered very precisely to amplify desired signals and eliminate extraneous ones and angle of arrival information for packets may be obtained as well. Multiple patterns may be realized simultaneously using the same set of elements. Figure 5 : Digital Phase Antenna Gain Pattern THE GAIN OF DIRECTIONAL ANTENNAS [1] The definition for directivity according to [7], The directivity of a wireless antenna is given by the ratio of maximum radiation intensity (power per unit solid angle) to the average radiation intensity (averaged over a sphere). The directivity of any source, other than isotropic, is always greater than unity. Both omnidirectional antennas and directional antennas have directivity but the difference between these two antennas is the coverage pattern. For omnidirectional antennas, the coverage pattern is torus-shaped. The directivity in directional antennas case in higher than the omnidirectional because of its ability to focus the beam. Because of the greater gain in the directional antennas, compare to onmidirectional, the signal transmitted with some power will be able to reach wider distance than the signal transmitted in the omnidirectional antennas. LIMITATION S OF DIRECTIONAL ANTENNAS Deafness [1] Deafness is one of the problems happen when using the directional antennas and it had limited the network performance. Deafness is the problem of failed to hearing from the others. In omnidirectional antennas, all neighboring node are capable of listening to all ongoing transmission but not in directional antennas. The node may be turned into particular sector while receiving and the node said to be locked. In this situation, all the signals that arrive in other sectors cannot be received by the nodes. The nodes said to be Deaf in all other sectors. Figure 6 : Deafness In the figure 2 above, it shows that Node A is communicating with Node B. During the communication, Node A is facing to Node B and turned away from Node C. When Node C is sending a transmission to node A, Node A failed to hear for the transmission unless it is available. Node A can be said Deaf towards Node C . The implement of directional antennas said to reduce the interference but it has increase the ratio of packet loss. Multiple retransmissions may also cause the node to misunderstanding that the connection is lost due to mobility and triggering for route discovering search. In another way to say, it causes the destructive interactions with the upper layers. Drawbacks Specific to Directional MAC (DMAC) The above layer in OSI model does not seem to harness the features of the model even there is some or specific changes in the physical layer. Reusing the same approaches as that omnidirectional MAC, DMAC has created or bring new problems which were not exists in omnidirectional MAC. There is a few drawbacks : Heightened hidden terminal When a node transmits a signal that may affect an ongoing transmission, the hidden terminal problem will be arise. The Ready to send and clear to send are not reaching all the neighbor nodes and this will cause those nodes unaware of ongoing transmission. Head of line blocking- The queuing mechanism used is the First-In-First-Out (FIFO). So the node with antennas will pick the first packet in the queues to transmit. The node will send the packets if the channel in the direction that the node wish to communicate with. If the channel is not idle, the node has to wait until the channel is idle and then transmit the packet. There is still has others packet in the queue waiting to transmit, and there is possible that the channel is not idle. Because of the first packet is still waiting for transmission, it blocks all the packets that can be transmitted. Imperfect virtual carrier sensing Nodes often do not listen to all the signals around them due to the deafness problem. This causes an incomplete Directional Network Allocation Vector (DNAV) table which doest not consistently store the state of the channel in different directions. This leads to imperfect virtual carrier sensing. Effect of mobility [1] Figure 7 : Effect of mobility The reach-ability due to higher range (Position 1) In the communication between two nodes, Node X to Node Y, the coverage using omnidirectional antennas is in circle pattern while the coverage pattern using directional antennas is in lobes pattern. If the Node Y moves out of the circle area, it will unable to receive any packet transmitted by Node X. Since the gain of directional gain is more higher, it is possible that Node Y is still in the directional range X and hence, Node Y still able to receive the packet transmitted. If not, Node Y still will be unable to receive the packet transmitted. Reach-ability in different sector (Position 2) In any area inside the circle area when using omnidirectional antennas, the Node X will be able to reach the Node Y. While using directional antennas with DMAC, Node X failed to reach the Node Y using the same sector. It is because Node Y has gone out of the range of the signal that is transmitted in that sector. Un-reach-ability due to omni-discovery (Position 3) Node X tries to send the packet in its old direction. After failing to reach it after Directional retransmit limit, Node Y will tries to send an omnidirectional signal. Since the Node Y is unreachable by directional signal, Node X cannot discover the Node Y and thus, Node X will assume that the Node Y is unreachable. Node X will never tries to reach the Node Y using different sector even though it is be done by transmitting directional signal in different sector. Node X will reports the error to the above routing layer and drops the packet due to no route. In fact this problem can be solved by transmitting the packet directionally in another sector. Totally unreachable (Position 4) This is another case where the Node Y moves to out of range for both and directional. Node X will be unable to reach the Node Y both in omnidirectional and directional. This case of mobility will lead to disconnection and cannot be recovered. ADVANTAGES OF USING DIRECTIONAL ANTENNAS Security Issue Use directional antennas to prevent Wormhole attack [6] Figure 8 : Wormhole attack where the adversary controls nodes X and Y and connects them through a low-latency link. Wormhole attack means that a forwarded packet from attackers through a high quality out-of-band link and replays those packet at another locations. The attackers will replay the packet received by node A at node B and vice versa. A more intelligent attacker may able to replace the wormhole endpoints at particular locations and this may disrupt nearly all communications to or from a certain node and to all the nodes in the communications. In directional antennas, based on the signal received, a node can get the approximate direction information. Thus, an attacker cannot execute the wormhole attack if the wormhole transmitter is recognized as a false neighbor, that is not the real neighbor and so ignore the messages. There are three increasingly affective protocols to help to prevent the wormhole attacks. As bidirectional information is added, it is more difficult to allot the attacker to launch the wormhole attack successfully. The three protocols are Directional neighbor discovery protocol, that is does not rely on any cooperation between nodes and cannot prevent many wormhole attacks. Verified neighbor discovery protocol, that is preventing wormhole attacks where the attacker control any two endpoints and the victim nodes are at least two hops distant. Strict neighbor discovery protocol where to prevent wormhole attacks even when the victim nodes are nearby. To Support Symmetric traffic services In Time Division Duplex (TDD) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) [2] Code Division Multiple Access comprises of two operations , that are Time Division Duplex and Frequency Division Duplex, which to provide two-way simultaneously. A pair of frequency bands is used for uplink and downlink transmissions in FDD. In TDD, the uplink sand downlink transmissions are multiplexed into time slots on the same frequency band, the system is its capability of flexibly to adjusting the uplink and downlink bandwidth by allocating different numbers of time slots. It is more suitable for applications with asymmetric traffic suck as Internet Browsing and file transfer compare to FDD. However, Cross-slot Interference which may seriously degrade the system capacity may happen in TDD-CDMA system during the transmission of asymmetric traffic from adjacent cells. Cross-slot interference is the interference due to opposite direction transmissions between two adjacent cell. In the [2], this paper has shown that the by applying developed interference analysis framework how the interference between virtual cells can be suppressed due to the directivity of directional antennas and thus proposed a virtual based interference resolving algorithm to support asymmetric traffic services in TDD-CDMA Systems. In this paper, it stated that how the directional antennas take effect in supporting the asymmetric system in TDD-CDMA. By using directional antennas in a trisector cellular system can restrict the strong base-base interference into a hexagon and consequently, it is possible by just coordinating the switching points of downlink and uplink bandwidth ratio in only three sectors for TDD-CDMA. The cross-slot-interference level in the omnidirectional case is larger if compare with the directional antennas case. This is due to the transmissions power from a mobile station in omnidirectional cellular system is greater than the trisector cellular system. The reason is because the smaller antennas gain. In ad hoc network Spatial reuse factor Figure 9 : Spatial reuse in directional antenna In figure 9, Node A want s to have communications with Node B , Node C and Node D. In omnidirectional case, the communication between Node C and Node D is not allowed if there is packet sending from Node A and Node B. This is to avoid that the packet from Node C to interfere with Node A to Node B communications. If we using directional antennas, then the sender may focus the beam towards to the receiver. It allows that the coomunications between Node A to Node B and Node C to Node D go on currently. As conclusion, if the nodes use directional antennasthen neighboring nodes that are not in the direction of the signal can go ahead with their transmission. Multiple transmissions can be initiated by different nodes instead of a single transmission if they are not interfere with one another. This increasing the spatial reuse factor. Extended Range and Energy Savings Figure 10 : Extended range in directional antenna In the figure 10, the Node A want to communicate with Node C. in omnidirectional case, the communications cannot reach in single hop. Node A has to transmit the packet to Node B and Node B will transmit the packet to Node C. When using directional antennas, there is larger directional gain. Hence, Node A is able to reach the Node C in single hop. With higher directional gain, focused beam can travel larger distance than those unfocused beam in omnidirectional beam. The sender can reach to receiver with farther away and this has increase the transmission range. Also with higher directional gain, the power required to reach a maximum distance is less than the power used in omnidirectional antennas. This reduce the energy spent by nodes for transmission and reception. Conclusion As conclusion, directional antennas have those benefits that is not exist or stronger or solve the problem exist in using omnidirectional antennas but there is also a few problem that occur only in using directional antennas. There is a few solution proposed to reduce the problem but there is still have a lot of space for improvement.

Witchcraft of the Past Essay -- Essays Papers

Witchcraft of the Past What images does the word "witch" create in a person’s mind? Most people would tend to think of an old woman wearing a black, cone-shaped hat, with a large mole on her face, and perhaps flying on her broom. This is the stereotype of witches, and although some witches of the past may have fit into this category, one must remember witchcraft is a religion with a variety of followers. On the Covenant of the Goddess website, the basic philosophy of witchcraft is stated in one simple sentence: "Our religion is not a series of precepts or beliefs, rather we believe that we each have within ourselves the capacity to reach out and experience the mystery – that feeling of ineffable oneness with all Life." 1 This website is devoted to finding the origins of witchcraft, specifically faith and reason, and how it has affected society over the past 700 years. In the thirteenth century, witches, then called cunning folk, "played a positive role in helping people cope with calamity."2 They provided hope to townspeople that through magical means, natural disasters might some how be avoided. The cunning folk provided this important service that kept village life moving ahead. Possession of these so-called magical powers made one an important member of village society. People in need of "security and influence, namely, the old and the impoverished, especially single or widowed women" most often made these claims.3 In the late thirteenth century, the Christian church "declared that only its priests possessed legitimate magical powers," and "those who practices magic outside the church evidently derived their power from the Devil."4 The church wanted to rid society of the witches’ influence, and thus witch-hunts began. .. ...tion." 8. "The Burning Times." 9. Kagan, 491. 10. Witches in the Bible and in the Talmud, http://popeye.cc.biu.ac.il/~barilm/witches.html (8 March 1999). 11. Witches in the Bible and in the Talmud. Bibliography "About the Covenant of the Goddess." Covenant of the Goddess. http://www.cog.org/general/iabout.html (8 March 1999). "Beliefs & Superstitions." The Library of Witchcraft. http://witchcraft.simplenet.com/belief.html (9 March 1999) "The Burning Times." The Library of Witchcraft. http://witchcraft.simplenet.com/burningtimes1.html (9 March 1999). Kagan, Donald, Steve Ozment and Frank M. Turner. The Western Heritage Volume II: Since 1648. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998. Witches in the Bible and in the Talmud. http://popeye.cc.biu.ac.il/~barilm/witches.html (8 March 1999).

Analysis of The Movie “Patch Adams” Essay

The film opens. Patch has checked into a mental institution. His condition was depression. The environment looks like a jail cell, dark and depressing. During his stay, he realizes that the doctors did not help him in his recovery. Patch Adams’ psychologist was indifferent to the patients in general. The psychologist did not show any interest in his patient. Pach Adams’ psychologist seems to not have any interest in listening to Patch Adams’ feelings. In many cases, he is more interested in his cup of coffee. Patch Adams realizes that he is not being heard and lose the trust of his psychologist. He makes great friends at the mental institution; regardless of his condition, Patch Adams was able to help some of the patients at the mental institution. He started by showing interest in their problems and helping them to overcome their fears. Without studies, Patch Adams showed more skillfulness in listening and having a humanistic tool than the medical staff. Later, Patch Adams decided to become a doctor, which gave him a purpose in life. Patch Adams was very wise and happy man. Helping others made him cure his depression. As a medical student, he uses humor and happiness as medicine with the patients. Most of the students and professors did not like him at all. It was like when Bernie Sanders tried to convince Republicans and Democrats that they supposed to be working for the working people not only for the one percent. In addition, Patch Adams observed a lot of problems in the hospital. Nurses were not treated the same as doctors. Children who suffered from cancer passed in their rooms without joy and hope. Relatives of patients who had to fill out tedious forms instead of being with relatives in life or death situations. He had a revolutionary idea after seeing these problems. He wanted to have a system where patients were not seen as a business because doctors should act more human when they treat their patients. He wanted to help them to b e healed not only of their illnesses but also of their social problems. After many difficulties, he graduated as a doctor. INTRODUCTION Communication in a Healthcare setting is one of the most important tools. Communication skills are something that many individuals have to work on. Not everyone knows how to communicate effectively, especially when dealing with a variety of cultures. Physicians must master their skill communication to improve the patient’s experience. Communication is both verbal and physical. Communication has been shown to favorably affect clinical outcomes, patient adherence, patient satisfaction, and reduced malpractice risk. The movie is based on Dr. Adams’ real life. Dr. Adams’ fundamental idea is to make us understand that medical attention is not only about focusing on the problem or disease. The medical attention is also listening to the patients. Providers should help their patients in an integrated manner. Patients should be approach physically and emotionally as well. The film has many aspects of health communication. Some of them are therapeutic communication (patien t-center), communication empathy. active listening (empathy), and trust. The communication between Patch Adams and his patients is very deep. Patch Adams does not focus only on their pains or symptoms. Rather, he asks them about their lives, family, work, friends interests, etc. Therapeutic communication (Patient Center communication) is very important. It is not just about touch-feeling and more humanistic. Interrupting a patient prematurely closed-ended questions. When doctors do that they fail to address the patient’s concern’s and fail to really understand the patient’s full agenda for why they are seeking healthcare. Additionally, when doctors ignore personal information, patients get the idea that they are not being heard and that the doctor did not care about them. As a result, patients will not take their medication or follow the procedure that the doctor recommended. For instance, Patch Adams’ relationship with his psychologist was untrusty, resulting in the abandonment of treatment and distrusting the system of the do ctor and provider as well. This causes a lot of problem in our healthcare. On the other hand, when doctors use open-ended questions, it can be utilized to allow patients to freely talk about their own problems or feelings associated with the complication.† Open-ended general inquiries claim a lack of knowledge of patient’s problems, encourage their de-novo presentation, and frame patients (at least initially) as being active authorities over their own health information.† (Robinson, Heritage, 2005). Active Listening is different from just hearing and repeating what was heard. This skill can help us reveal not only what the patient is saying but what the patient is thinking and feeling (Servellen, pg. 91). Patch psychologist showed lack of this skill. When Patch was telling his childhood story about his dad death †Dad told Patch Adams at the Korean world hid dad lost his sold, all the time Patch Adams thought he was the one who lost his sold† The disconnection between psychologist and patient showed lack of empathy, focus, and attention. Patch Adams at the Medical School was able to display active listening to friends, patients, and classmates. Active listening requires providers not only to hear, but to listen; not only to see but to perceive; and not only to touch but to feel (Servellen, pg.92). Trust, I personally think that trust is the most important quality to get from patients. It is probably one of the most difficult quality to achieve and keep in these days. †Patients’ trust in providers usually evolves over time. Patients most of the time will self-disclosure until they observe that providers are acting on their behalf.† (Servellen, pg. 109). Building trust is very crucial for a good relationship and for the outcomes of the patients. For example, a patient who does not trust or like the practitioner will not disclose complete information efficiently. Patients who are anxious will not understand the instructions clearly (Dorr & Lipkin, pg. 4). Conclusion: The main reason for communication in the healthcare setting is not just to ask and collect information. Should be beyond, not only focusing on the problem of the patient, communication help us as well to establish trust and good relationship with patients. If we are able to gain the trust of our patients we can guarantee a good relationship and better outcomes for patients. If we gain trust Healthcare professionals will not feel fear to be transparent as a result our communication with patients will be fructose. Making patient participate in their care, in quality of life and have higher satisfaction.

TerraCog

Terracotta management failed to respond to competition in its market. Although competitor introduced a new GAPS with satellite imagery to the market, Terracotta team dismissed the threat and decided not to take a responsive action. However, quickly the new GAPS succeed and gained a significant market share. Eventually, Terracotta president decided to pursue a development of a directly competing product, and named the project Aerial. Unfortunately, the projected high costs of this project questioned its profitability and doubt its wisdom.The key managers of the company were not able to decide whether to execute the project or not, and Emma Richardson, the new executive vice-president, needed to push the group toward a decision. The analysis we have done indicates that Terracotta case is an outcome of two major problems. The first problem is the existence of a poor decision making process, and the second is the lack of departmental cooperation and harmony. Alternative Courses of Action : We believe that Richardson should postpone the launch of Aerial, and focus on creating a more efficient decision making process and increasing departmental cooperation.Since time is crucial in this case, we see a need to decrease the time of decision making process and re-defining communication channels between the departments. We also argue that the size of this team as well as the fact that the teammates came from four different departments created complex communication channels that slowed down decision making. In this case, small groups can undertake better the urgent tasks. Hence, we think that Richardson should break the complex process of launching a new product into micro-processes.We believe that by brainstorming with the heads of every department separately, defining criteria and performance tankards, and listening to each team's requirements and reservations, Richardson will be able to clarify for the teams their importance to the company and motivate them to act toward the company's goal. Commitment to a common goal is more easily achieved if the number of team members is small (Essentials for an Effective Team, To keep the work on track and to increase departmental cooperation, 2006).Richardson should conduct update meetings every other week with all the departments' heads. The agenda of these wide department meetings should be clear and exclude decisions making. The different decisions should be made within smaller groups that include only the relevant teams. To increase harmony among the departments, Richardson can open department wide meetings with a short speech about similar past experiences of the company to remind the teams how they worked well together and performed successfully when they cooperated.Recalling past experiences may increase sense of belonging and help to put the big picture in mind before discussing current issues. Moreover, Richardson can invite the teams' mangers to have lunch together before department wide meetings. So cializing with each other right before getting to business can cool things down, ease the tension, and increase departmental cooperation. We believe that if the heads of the different departments will understand the importance and the needs of other departments, working together will become easier and more efficient.Another way to increase departmental cooperation is by sharing information on the processes each department went through. For example, while discussing the price of a new product, Tony could provide specific details regarding production's costs to explain why further lowering of costs is impossible. While this alternative might be time consuming, sharing information can help the teams to understand better the different points of view of the different departments. Recommended Course of Action: We believe that a combination of the alternatives above would be the best way to address the situation in this case.First, we recommend postponing the launch of the current prototyp e. Launching Aerial on its current form will damage the company's reputation and can lead the company to a big loss. We assume that if Aerial wont provide its users a significant advantage, customers wouldn't pay more than the Bird's price to buy it. Second, in order to accelerate the decision making process, Richardson should redesign the current communication channels in the company. Decisions need to be made in smaller teams, and wide department meetings need to be designated for updates only.Third, to increase departmental cooperation and harmony, Richardson should establish a process of sharing information between the departments. Furthermore, structuring time for socializing can ease the stress and increase harmony among the departments. We believe that this alternative course of action will lead to minimum damage in Terracotta position, ND allow the company to improve its productivity and ability to respond faster to competition in the future. Implementation: First, Richardso n should invite all the people who were present in the last two meetings to announce her decision.This meeting should be friendly and short, and most important, clear and motivating. Richardson should open the meeting with demonstrating an appreciation for the hard work done by all the departments. Then, the announcement of her decision to postpone the launch of Aerial should be followed by a short explanation about the upcoming changes: From now on, once a week, every department should email a rife description of the progress they made at the past week to the entire company.This weekly update emails will enable an efficient way to share information between the departments. In addition, wide department meetings will take place every other week, and once a month these meetings will include a friendly lunch prior to the meeting. After the meeting, Richardson should meet with the heads of design and development department. In this meeting, they need to agree and define the requirements to develop a product that is superior to the Birds, on minimum costs and time, and draw a realistic schedule to move forward.Now, when the new product is in its first stages of creation, and there is a general idea of what specifications and characteristics it will have, as well as an expected time for launching, Richardson should meet with the UP of Sales, to create marketing plan for the new product. The production team will work alone on costs estimating for the new product, and the sales team in consultation with finance department will determine a pricing and develop a â€Å"go- to market† plan. Moreover, Richardson should set clear limits to the continuance of commitment to the project for every department.Determining what criteria and performance standards Justify continued investment in the project can help the team avoid escalation of commitment (Team Decision Making Pitfalls and Solutions, n. D). Whenever disagreements on to what level the teams should commit to a specific task will arose, they could refer to the performance's standards and make a decision accordingly. The process will be managed by Richardson from the top, and the heads of every department will make decisions that are relevant to their departments' areas of knowledge and responsibility, and report to Richardson, who ill manage the whole process. TerraCog Terracotta management failed to respond to competition in its market. Although competitor introduced a new GAPS with satellite imagery to the market, Terracotta team dismissed the threat and decided not to take a responsive action. However, quickly the new GAPS succeed and gained a significant market share. Eventually, Terracotta president decided to pursue a development of a directly competing product, and named the project Aerial. Unfortunately, the projected high costs of this project questioned its profitability and doubt its wisdom.The key managers of the company were not able to decide whether to execute the project or not, and Emma Richardson, the new executive vice-president, needed to push the group toward a decision. The analysis we have done indicates that Terracotta case is an outcome of two major problems. The first problem is the existence of a poor decision making process, and the second is the lack of departmental cooperation and harmony. Alternative Courses of Action : We believe that Richardson should postpone the launch of Aerial, and focus on creating a more efficient decision making process and increasing departmental cooperation.Since time is crucial in this case, we see a need to decrease the time of decision making process and re-defining communication channels between the departments. We also argue that the size of this team as well as the fact that the teammates came from four different departments created complex communication channels that slowed down decision making. In this case, small groups can undertake better the urgent tasks. Hence, we think that Richardson should break the complex process of launching a new product into micro-processes.We believe that by brainstorming with the heads of every department separately, defining criteria and performance tankards, and listening to each team's requirements and reservations, Richardson will be able to clarify for the teams their importance to the company and motivate them to act toward the company's goal. Commitment to a common goal is more easily achieved if the number of team members is small (Essentials for an Effective Team, To keep the work on track and to increase departmental cooperation, 2006).Richardson should conduct update meetings every other week with all the departments' heads. The agenda of these wide department meetings should be clear and exclude decisions making. The different decisions should be made within smaller groups that include only the relevant teams. To increase harmony among the departments, Richardson can open department wide meetings with a short speech about similar past experiences of the company to remind the teams how they worked well together and performed successfully when they cooperated.Recalling past experiences may increase sense of belonging and help to put the big picture in mind before discussing current issues. Moreover, Richardson can invite the teams' mangers to have lunch together before department wide meetings. So cializing with each other right before getting to business can cool things down, ease the tension, and increase departmental cooperation. We believe that if the heads of the different departments will understand the importance and the needs of other departments, working together will become easier and more efficient.Another way to increase departmental cooperation is by sharing information on the processes each department went through. For example, while discussing the price of a new product, Tony could provide specific details regarding production's costs to explain why further lowering of costs is impossible. While this alternative might be time consuming, sharing information can help the teams to understand better the different points of view of the different departments. Recommended Course of Action: We believe that a combination of the alternatives above would be the best way to address the situation in this case.First, we recommend postponing the launch of the current prototyp e. Launching Aerial on its current form will damage the company's reputation and can lead the company to a big loss. We assume that if Aerial wont provide its users a significant advantage, customers wouldn't pay more than the Bird's price to buy it. Second, in order to accelerate the decision making process, Richardson should redesign the current communication channels in the company. Decisions need to be made in smaller teams, and wide department meetings need to be designated for updates only.Third, to increase departmental cooperation and harmony, Richardson should establish a process of sharing information between the departments. Furthermore, structuring time for socializing can ease the stress and increase harmony among the departments. We believe that this alternative course of action will lead to minimum damage in Terracotta position, ND allow the company to improve its productivity and ability to respond faster to competition in the future. Implementation: First, Richardso n should invite all the people who were present in the last two meetings to announce her decision.This meeting should be friendly and short, and most important, clear and motivating. Richardson should open the meeting with demonstrating an appreciation for the hard work done by all the departments. Then, the announcement of her decision to postpone the launch of Aerial should be followed by a short explanation about the upcoming changes: From now on, once a week, every department should email a rife description of the progress they made at the past week to the entire company.This weekly update emails will enable an efficient way to share information between the departments. In addition, wide department meetings will take place every other week, and once a month these meetings will include a friendly lunch prior to the meeting. After the meeting, Richardson should meet with the heads of design and development department. In this meeting, they need to agree and define the requirements to develop a product that is superior to the Birds, on minimum costs and time, and draw a realistic schedule to move forward.Now, when the new product is in its first stages of creation, and there is a general idea of what specifications and characteristics it will have, as well as an expected time for launching, Richardson should meet with the UP of Sales, to create marketing plan for the new product. The production team will work alone on costs estimating for the new product, and the sales team in consultation with finance department will determine a pricing and develop a â€Å"go- to market† plan. Moreover, Richardson should set clear limits to the continuance of commitment to the project for every department.Determining what criteria and performance standards Justify continued investment in the project can help the team avoid escalation of commitment (Team Decision Making Pitfalls and Solutions, n. D). Whenever disagreements on to what level the teams should commit to a specific task will arose, they could refer to the performance's standards and make a decision accordingly. The process will be managed by Richardson from the top, and the heads of every department will make decisions that are relevant to their departments' areas of knowledge and responsibility, and report to Richardson, who ill manage the whole process.