An Investigation of Safety Practices in the Saudi Arabia Construction Research Paper - 1

An Investigation of Safety Practices in the Saudi Arabia Construction Industry - Research Paper Example accidents 17 2.6.2 Continuous safety practices by top management 19 2.6.3 Continuous safety practices by safety professionals 20 2.7 Measurement of safety performance 20 3. Project Plan, Methods and Techniques 24 3.1 Project Plan 24 3.2. Methods and Techniques 24 3.2.1. Sampling 24 3.2.2. Data Collection 25 3.2.3. Data Analysis 25 3.3. Skills and Experience 26 3.4. Time Scale 26 List of References 27 1. Introduction 1.1 Background Saudi Arabia has experienced rapid growth over the last few decades. In 2011, the GDP growth rate was 3.8% (TradingEconomics, 2011). This is roughly an average for the 21st century with lows having occurred during 2002-2003 and 2010 and highs during the mid 2000s. Exports at present are over 200,000 million SAR and over 90% of these are oil exports, which account for 75% of government revenue. The rapid growth is therefore mainly due to increases in the kingdom’s oil revenues. ... The construction industry engages in designing, constructing and maintaining unique buildings. In Saudi Arabia, its growth in recent years has been remarkable, especially due to increased foreign investment from international companies seeking to expand their businesses. According to Saudi Arabia’s Infrastructure Report for the second quarter of 2011, Saudi’s construction industry is set to grow by 4% in 2011, and it will continue to grow at this rate for the next four years (Roberts, 2011). In particular, during the period 2011 to 2015, Saudi Arabia’s residential building construction is set to grow at a rate of 7.2% (Saudi Entrepreneurship, 2011). The Saudi construction sector is the largest and fastest growing in the Gulf region. The government is completing the establishment of six economic cities; it has invested almost SR513.8 billion during the period October 2008 to April 2009, and it is expected to spend around SR1.5 trillion over the next half decade (U S-SA Business Council, 2010). However, the construction industry is also one of the most highly hazardous industries. Its unique nature, difficult work-site conditions, human behaviour, and poor safety management are the main causes of accidents (Koehn and Chih-Shing 1995, 261). Unfortunately, despite the construction evolution in Saudi Arabia, the work methods, equipment and procedures are still unsafe. As an example, in a recent incident in Riyadh in January 2011, it was reported that three workers were killed and eleven were left injured when scaffolding collapsed (Abbas, 2011). Several other highly publicised accidents at construction sites have also taken place in Saudi Arabia in recent years. Regulations do exist but many

Social work. Domestic violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social work. Domestic violence - Essay Example It is quite concerning that incidences of domestic and intimate partner violence in the United States have in recent times experienced a surge that has now caused them to start occurring in rather epidemic proportions. The growth of the domestic violence epidemic is highlighted by the fact that it is estimated to annually be affecting an estimated about 6.2 million American women. Domestic violence has been shown to be causing these women more serious injuries as compared to muggings, car accidents and rape combined. During an average 12 month period, it has been shown that at least 4 million women experience an incident involving serious assault and is perpetrated by an intimate male partner(Schuler, 2010, p.164). As a result of the large number of domestic violence incidences perpetrated against women, Women have been shown to represent about 95 percent of the victims of domestic violence. While most of the research and focus of domestic violence is often targeted at women, of note is that there are a large number of cases whereby men have been noted to be the victims of domestic violence. Shuler (2010, p. 163)points out that in the 1970’s the issue of domestic violence was brought into the country’s general conversations by a number of feminist groups that organized and conducted numerous protests that were targeted at the criminal justice system and it is for this reason that the vast majority of individuals that happen to report incidences of domestic violence often tend to be women. The issue of male victims of domestic and intimate partner violence has now become an extremely serious issue in the United States. Shuler (2010, p. 164) points out that there are about 3.8 women and 1.3 men per 1000 that fall victim to domestic or intimate partner violence annually.Although it is a rather serious problem, the victimization of men by their women partners has largely been ignored by the general society. This is because of the

Starbucks corporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Starbucks corporation - Essay Example In relation to the study the company which has been selected is Starbucks. Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 50 countries worldwide, Washington based Starbucks is the largest coffee retailer in the world at present. Starbucks has more than 16000 outlets all over the world. Out of these 16000 stores, nearly 12,000 stores are located across North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and the Pacific. In America, they have coffee outlets virtually in every corner. In other words, America is a saturated market for Starbucks now and they are looking for overseas markets as part of their expansion. In addition to coffee, Starbucks has other products such as tea, cake, cake filling leather goods, beverages, food, confections, coffee related machineries such as expresso machine, stainless steel coffee filters etc. Starbucks Corporation is a profitable organization, earning more than $600 million in 2004. The company generated revenue of more than $5000 million in the same year . Starbucks was one of the Fortune Top 100 Companies to Work For in 2005. In 1992, Starbucks listed on the stock exchange. Since then, its growth was phenomenal. Its annual average growth rate is 20% and profit growth is around 30%. Its share price marked a record 3500% increase, since its listing on the stock exchange. In other words, the market value of Starbucks shares from increased from $400 million to $15 billion recently. Starbucks is a reputed company with huge brand value and enormous resources. Its major strength is the ability to forecast market trends correctly and to make changes in business strategies. It should be noted that Starbucks was one among the few American companies which was unaffected by the recent recession. Starbucks top management team is extremely smarter in guiding the company even in unfavorable market conditions. Not even a single management decision went wrong for Starbucks in the last decade. Satisfied employees are another strength of Starbucks. à ¢â‚¬Å"They always treat the employees as their partners as mentioned earlier. Firm strategy, executive compensation and the performance of the firm can be divided into different streams and fit between firm strategy and compensation system is one among them† (Rajagopalan, n.d., p.4). Moreover, Starbucks is a socially committed company which gives something in return to the communities in which it operates. They are eager to recycle all industrial wastes produced by their activities. Smart business strategies, good suppliers, efficient leadership, talented employees are some other major strengths of Starbucks. Through the selling of coffee-related products such as brewing equipment and accessories, many consumers can enjoy high quality coffee at home rather than traveling out of their way. The equipment available includes Expresso machines, stainless steel coffee filters, and Starbucks cleaner and canisters. This is another example of how Starbucks is meeting the needs of curre nt customers as well as increasing its attractiveness to potential customers (Kembell, 2002). Weakness â€Å"Starbucks products are expensive compared to their competitor’s products (Starbucks Swot Analysis, n. d)†. One of the major weaknesses of Starbucks is the heavy pricing of their products. Starbucks never bothered to reduce the prices of their products irrespective of the market conditions. They do believe that for quality products, heavy pricing may not affect the customers very much. Starbucks is trying to implement the same price which they charge in America for coffee products, in international markets also. They are forgetting the fact that America is a wealthy country and the per capita income of Americans is more than that of the people in other countries. In other words, they are thinking that same product needs same pricing everywhere in the

Classical mythology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Classical mythology - Essay Example However, when Greek myths [stories] are mentioned, most Christians and other contemporary religions shun them as mere fantasy, or fictional stories that never existed but were rather coined from human imagination. This and other disagreeing points exist when Greek mythology is being compared to other systems. However, the similarities are evident in some cases too. This paper will conduct a comparative research on Greek mythology and Christianity (as a non-Greek system), and in the comparison highlight significant emergent similarities and differences. Religion is the comparable element between Greek mythology and Christianity. Multiple differences and similarities are evident here. One similarity is that in Christianity and in the Greek system, there was a supreme being. In ancient Greek, there was Zeus, who was the god above all gods, and the Supreme Being that ruled over fate, order, law, the weather, and the sky. Although defined in terms of humanistic features such as being a sturdy man with a dark beard and one who depicted maturity, he held supernatural powers. He was attributed to the eagle, royal scepter, and a lightning bolt. Additionally, there were other gods under Zeus, such as the god of war, the god of fertility, and the god of love1. Similarly, the Christians have a Supreme Being, their God, who is the creator of mankind and rules over all creation. He is referred to as Yahweh, Jehovah, or simply â€Å"God†. The Christian God is referred to as â€Å"He† and is also attributed human features such as the famous Christian principle that says humans were made in God’s image2. Unlike Zeus, however, he has no specific attributes such as a beard, since He is spiritual and not visible to human eyes. Christians do not have lesser gods like the Greek in that Yahweh is the one and only God recognized by the religion. However, there is the definition