Cigna Corporation Internal and External Factors Evaluation Matrix Assignment

Cigna Corporation Internal and External Factors Evaluation Matrix - Assignment Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that Cigna Corporation (Cigna) has services organized under five main divisions, health care, disability, and life, international (CIGNA International) and Runoff Reinsurance. Having wide operations in the United States and beyond means, the company is a greater challenge to handle external factors than a local business. Similarly, the wider operations mean the company has a wide management structure and numerous employees. This also means the company has numerous internal factors that affect its operations in one way or the other. Similarly, the wider operations mean the company has a wide management structure and numerous employees. This also means the company has numerous internal factors that affect its operations in one way or the other. As is the case with every other business, Cigna Corporation (which will be referred as Cigna in this text) has a great interest in factors happening beyond it. These factors largely determine their chanc es of survival and most importantly inform the organization’s strategy. This is because external factors cannot be avoided or controlled. An organization can only adapt operations to maximize opportunities and adjust to any threats. In the case of Cigna, the following six factors have the greatest impact on their operations. The factors are considered from the wider grouping of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. The most prominent political factor affecting Cigna at the moment is government regulations and policies. Since the election of President Obama, there has been continuous debate and eventual passage of the â€Å"Obama Care†. This is a health scheme which has sought to guarantee healthcare to all Americans. This is of great interest to health insurers who have been required to reconsider certain policy regulations. The most notable is a directive to have them ensure patients who have preexistent health conditions. From a business perspective, this government policy is likely to affect the profitability of Cigna as they will be required to make payments for conditions they would have avoided. Cigna is affected by almost every economic factor.

Theoretical Models Essay Example for Free

Theoretical Models Essay Theoretical Models Colleen M. OLeary HCS/587 March 18, 2013 Theoretical Models The benefits of a motivated staff should prove an impetus to managers to use motivation as a driving force to obtain a high degree of functioning by employees. According to Musselwhite (2011) â€Å"managers who are effective at motivating their direct reports reap the reward of employees who can handle a variety of assignments, work more autonomously, report higher levels of job satisfaction, and contribute more to the success of the department, the organization, and in return, to the success of their manager† (p. 46). This in turn may motivate the manager to work harder and look at ways to improve and increase departmental functioning in the future. In health care managers have diverse staff to motivate. Employees may be of varied ages, experience, educational levels, and job descriptions. Staff ranges from minimally educated secretarial staff to professionals such as licensed professional nurses, physicians, and physician extenders (Borkowski, 2005). The manager who takes the time to get to know the employees he or she is responsible for will know the individual positive or negative attributes of each employee. This will assist in determining how best to motivate everyone for the good of the department. Many motivational theories exist but only equity and goal-setting theories will be discussed here. Equity Theory Theory Description Equity theory basis relies on the comparison of inputs to outcomes. In the work setting an employee’s education, skill set, and anything else he or she brings to the job position provides the input. The salary, promotion, bonus or anything else attributed to the inputs provides the employee’s outcomes. Equity exists when the ration of inputs to outcomes of one employee equates to those of another employee (Borkowski, 2005). Equity Theory in the Workplace In the work setting equity theory exists as the comparison of inputs to  outcomes of employees. According to Sweeney (1990) â€Å"Inequity can result from getting fewer outcomes or more outcomes than relevant others† (p. 329). Equity gives employees the sense of fairness in the workplace. A perceived inequity may result in decreased productivity and a sense of dissatisfaction in the workplace. An equitable workplace shows increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, and less staff turnover. Equity theory in the workplace shows greatly in matters of wages (Sweeney, 1990). Goal-Setting Theory Theory Description Goal-setting theory developed in the 1960s and 1970s by Gary Latham and Edwin Locke promotes the notion that if a manager provides an employee with specific, challenging goals the worker tended to outperform a worker assigned a vague, non-specific goal such as â€Å"do the best you can.† This theory relies on the manager’s awareness of the skill level and abilities of all employees (Borkowski, 2005). Goal-Setting Theory in the Workplace The concept of the goal-setting theory necessitates planning in advance by management after a thorough thought process of the goal needing to be met and the resources, including employees, available to assist in the goal achievement. The three steps required by the goal-setting theory, goal setting, goal commitment, and support elements, need careful consideration by the manager (Borkowski, 2005). Goals need the characteristics of specificity and measurability. As employees perform the different levels of self-confidence, the goals set by management must show attainability by the employee in accordance with the ability to attain the specific goal. Employees unable to attain a goal may develop a feeling of frustration leading to distrust of management (Borkowski, 2005). Commitment to the goal requires acceptance of the objective by the employee. The employee needs to identify his or her ability to achieve the goal and realize the benefit in attaining the objective. Providing support elements necessitates management ensuring the availability of adequate resources such  as equipment, staff, and assistance to the employee. Goal-setting shows the most success with adequate and frequent employee feedback by management (Locke Latham, 1990). Conclusion When managers work to create a culture of motivation the resulting workplace tends to be more productive, workers tend to feel more valued, and the organization and the staff benefit. Motivation theories provide management with guidelines to follow in an attempt to have staff reach full potential and have the department operate at its most productive. Employees need frequent feedback from management no matter which theory so they may receive direction and feel valued by the organization. Motivation theories, of which equity theory and goal-setting theory are just two, assist management in realizing and using the full potential of staff. Reference Borkowski, N. (2005). Organizational behavior in health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Locke, E. A., Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions In Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 15(5), 265-268. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00449.x Musselwhite, C. (2011). Creating a culture of motivation. T+D, 65(9), 46-49. Sweeney, P. D. (1990). Distributive justice and pay satisfaction: A field test of an equity theory prediction. Journal of Business Psychology, 4(3), 329-341.

Taking the Rap :: essays research papers

The role of rap as a music form and the perception of rappers as a whole has changed over the past ten years. It was a slow process for rap as a whole to be accepted as music and eventually be recognized by critics and award ceremonies. The advent of â€Å"gangster† rap brought about a new group of rappers with criminal histories and raunchy over the top lyrics. Many rappers today, like Eminem, have highly publicized criminal histories that overshadow the meaningful messages and damage the careers of otherwise model citizen rappers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eminem became the next hit in rap in 1999 with extremely violent and shocking lyrics that included descriptions of raping and killing his ex-wife and vicious slurs against homosexuals. I was a fan of the music simply for the shock factor like many teens of the time but I grew tired of it and moved on to more meaningful work. He followed this formula for two more albums which sold over a million copies just like his debut. He then backed up this image with drug, weapons, and assault charges in the following years. Then Eminem discovered the next â€Å"big hit† in rap when he signed 50 Cent, another convicted criminal who survived 9 bullet wounds. These are just a few cases of the media hyped crimes of a few rappers. All of these deliquent activities were used to stereotype rappers as a whole, while many other rapper’s positive activities and attempts for career advancement went unnoticed or were hindered.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the same time Eminem released his controversial albums rap acts like Outkast, Goodie Mob, Mos Def, and The Roots produced albums with positive life morals, uplifting messages, and politically charged lyrics. I was displeased to see some of the albums sell well but gain none of the notoriety of the artists constantly in the news. Only rap fans and a few music critics were aware of these positive notes, while the rest of society only got the news story of the most recent rapper’s unlawful blunder. The effects were not fully realized until a large promotional deal between rapper Ludacris and Pepsi came to light.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ludacris signed a multi-commercial ad campaign with Pepsi in 2002 when the company began to look for a â€Å"hipper† image. Ludacris uses profane language and mature situations in his lyrics but it is humorous and so over the top it is obvious it is a persona that he knew would sell.

Drama Evaluation

I think, although there were still a few mistakes, that my groups' (made up of; Liegha, Charlotte, Max, Robert, Katie, Claire and myself) performance went quite well. Rehersals at the beginning of this term were horrible, with group arguing and not listening to eachother, but after a few weeks we began to pick it up with better communicational skills and having different people in charge (director) really helped with decision making and getting everyone to listen to different ideas.MY personal rehersals worked really well, I managed to learn most of my lines within a few weeks, which gave me more time to practise my staging positions and interaction with the other characters on stage, although I don't feel this showed in my perfomance. My weakest scene would have been the ‘Lancelot and Guineverre' scene, where Max and I were lead characters. I think due to the fact that all eyes were on us, as we were very close together, gave me slight ‘stage-frieght' as my movement was quite stiff, unlike in rehersals.I forgot most of the stage directions we, as a group, decided to use, to make the scene more ‘slap-stick comemdy' for the year 6's. Although I feel my vocal skills were my strongest skills for the scene; I sounded more like a queen/princess then a normal teenager, I articulated so that audience members could understand me, and I think I projected my voice quite loudly. Our ‘Booties' scene came over quite effectively, with everyone looking realistly hypnotized.Katie, our Leader, came off really strong and wise and Claire, our McConnamal, came off really well in the fact that she was trying to trick poor Liegha, Someone, into handing over all her money. All the Booties remember their lines, on time, so we were close to ‘in sync' with eachover, which made the hypnotizism even more believeable. I think since the performance we have improved this scene, in the fact that we've got alot of energy for our new song ‘Money, Money, Money ' which could engage the audience with them swaying and enjoying the music.All in all, I think that our performance went great, not perfect, but really, really well. As a group I feel we communicated well, engaged the audience in a few scenes, and mangaged to make as few mistakes as posseible. As an indivual actor, I feel I can make alot of improvements to my serperate parts and to the whole group together, and to be honest it was alot of fun. CaraMay x

Pangloss and Martin: Fate and Reality

As far as my simple self could deduce from Voltaire's Candide, Pangloss and Martin are as different as they are wise when it comes to the brightness or, in Martin's case, the darkness with which they view the world. Pangloss is evidently a man of knowing and has put much thought Into his philosophy that â€Å"everything Is for the best In the physical as well as the moral universe and nothing could be otherwise†¦ Quite the optimist, he went about life accepting things the way they were, putting up little fight nd attributing everything to the will of God or whatever higher power runs this universe (fate). I'd Ilke to think that Pangloss even looked forward to living life, gathering experiences even If they werent exactly Ideal. Martin on the other hand, finds life very depressing what with having no one to love and nothing to look forward to; he sees no goodness in his fellow man and no happiness in any situation and often expresses exasperation with life.The Interesting thing about him however Is that he carries still this energy, an angry passion if you will. o live as well as he can (i. e. Martin decides to hang around with Candide because he has nothing to his name while Candide is flowing with riches and people treat the rich much better than those who have none); he's actually a dark version of a realist, I think. Personally, find Martin to be a much better companion to be with for rather than Just placidly allow things to run way they do, he decides to take action and make things better in spite of his supposedly being fed up with the way the universe is.

Edward MacDowell essays

Edward MacDowell essays Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860-1908) was one of the most well known composers in the nineteenth century and as also one of the first to gain international recognition. His native land not only accepted but encouraged him-and heaped praise upon him, often so extravagantly as to put his sensitive nature ill at ease. (539, Kingman) Very talented at the piano and a great composer, Macdowell is one of the first American composers to win international praise. He stands critically as one of the pioneers of artistic music in our nations history. Not only is his music compelling, his personal life is also quite eventful. Born on December 18th 1860, Edward MacDowell was a musically and artistically talented as a boy who started piano lessons at the age of eight with Juan Buitratgo, a violinist living with MacDowells at the time. Later he studied with a Cuban friend of Juans, Pablo Desvernine, and also took occasional lessons from Teresa Carreno, another of Juans friends. In April of 1876, Edward, his mother, and Juan moved to Paris, France so he could better his studies. On October 31, 1877 he was accepted at a music academy called the Conservatoire. In that year he won a full ride scholarship and admission award as a regular piano student. On September 9, 1878 MacDowell withdrew from the Conservatoire to move to Germany to continue his piano studies. At the end of July of 1880, MacDowell came back to America to teach lessons of his own. One of his students was his future wife Marian Griswold Nevins Then in 1881 the Darmstadt Conservatory, where he taught for one year, appointed him piano instructor. His reason for leaving was that his profession gave him little time to compose. After creating such successful works as First Modern Suite op.10 and his First Piano Concerto, he realized that he had a talent for composing. He decided to ask advice from his former friend and teacher Teresa Car...

Free Essays on English Bill Of RIghts

English Bill of Rights The English Bill of Rights set out strict limits on the Royal Family's legal privileges. It strictly prohibited the arbitrary suspension of Parliament's laws. More importantly, it limited the right to raise money through taxation to Parliament. The English elite had greatly offended the protestant Church of England when they began promoting the Roman Catholic religion, in spite of laws that Parliament had passed. Soon after William of Orange and his wife Mary were crowned King and Queen of England. (Mary was actually the daughter of the deposed King James II) in Westminster Abbey on April 11, 1689. As part of their oaths, the new King William III and Queen Mary were required to swear that they would obey the laws of Parliament. The Bill was completely passed through Parliament after the coronation ceremony for William and Mary. On December 16, 1689, the King and Queen gave it Royal Assent, which represented the end of the concept of divine right of kings. The Bill of Rights was designed to control the power of kings and queens. Another key factor was to make them subject to laws passed by Parliament. This has formally been called the "bloodless revolution" or the "glorious revolution." The Bill of Rights was one of three very important laws made at this time. The other two were the 1689 Toleration Act (which promoted religious toleration) and the 1694 Triennial Act, which prevented the King from dissolving Parliament at his will and held that general elections had to be held every three years... Free Essays on English Bill Of RIghts Free Essays on English Bill Of RIghts English Bill of Rights The English Bill of Rights set out strict limits on the Royal Family's legal privileges. It strictly prohibited the arbitrary suspension of Parliament's laws. More importantly, it limited the right to raise money through taxation to Parliament. The English elite had greatly offended the protestant Church of England when they began promoting the Roman Catholic religion, in spite of laws that Parliament had passed. Soon after William of Orange and his wife Mary were crowned King and Queen of England. (Mary was actually the daughter of the deposed King James II) in Westminster Abbey on April 11, 1689. As part of their oaths, the new King William III and Queen Mary were required to swear that they would obey the laws of Parliament. The Bill was completely passed through Parliament after the coronation ceremony for William and Mary. On December 16, 1689, the King and Queen gave it Royal Assent, which represented the end of the concept of divine right of kings. The Bill of Rights was designed to control the power of kings and queens. Another key factor was to make them subject to laws passed by Parliament. This has formally been called the "bloodless revolution" or the "glorious revolution." The Bill of Rights was one of three very important laws made at this time. The other two were the 1689 Toleration Act (which promoted religious toleration) and the 1694 Triennial Act, which prevented the King from dissolving Parliament at his will and held that general elections had to be held every three years...