Saturday, October 5, 2019

Dispute Resolution in Oil and Gas Contracting Essay

Dispute Resolution in Oil and Gas Contracting - Essay Example The tribunal authority comes from the parties’ agreement on overcoming their argument through mediation. Various statute and international conventions reinforce this approach making it to be a preferred method in determining cross-border viable disputes. This approach has many benefits associated to civil litigation because it is enforceable, malleable, unbiased, reserved, and personal and the involved parties select their preferred arbitrator. UK is the most conspicuous Centre, which applies arbitration in dispute resolution. Most of the UK parties involved in disputes agree on their disputes decided in accordance with the enacted law by the Arbitration Act 1996 6(p.159). This Act has been operational in UK since 31 January 1997. In disagreement resolution amid the oil and gas contracting, an arbitrator has permission to rule a substantive jurisdiction. According to the Arbitration Act 1996, all the parties involved in oil and gas dispute have a prospect to file all their cas es in order to avoid unnecessary delays and find resolution to their problems. The arbitrator has fundamental tools, jurisdiction and powers to accomplish his/her responsibilities efficiently. Purpose of arbitrator’s dominion is beneath either the Arbitration Act or the arbitration guidelines. According to the arbitration act 1996, the arbitration reports should succumb in a concluding writing article on the contract among the parties. The agreement offered before the arbitration is in writing in order for it to be confirmation before both parties and the arbitration. On confirmation that the contract is an applicable statute, all the jurisdiction authorities are of consideration to the arbitrator13 (p.682). The Arbitration Act underwent some changes thus providing the arbitrator with powers to rule according to his/her individual authority. This boosted the arbitrator’s supremacy because previously, parties challenged the arbitrator’s jurisdiction through forwa rding the case to the court, which restrained the arbitrator from proceeding with the ruling. This led to different unwanted expenses and delays in the proceedings until another rightful authority is in place to continue with the hearing. To resolve this, the experienced arbitrators welcomed the statutory approach, which significantly promoted the manner of conducting arbitration progression11 (p.33). According to the Act, the arbitrator may decide on substantive jurisdiction whether there is a lawful agreement or not, whether the hearing is appropriately established or not and whether the type of troubles acquiesced to arbitration is in agreement with the arbitration contract or not 11(p.33). Considering the above three, the situation where there lack lawful mediation contract, the Act states that such matters lack both the arbitrator and the arbitration so, whoever decided on the validity of the agreement was not the required arbitrator; therefore, that person who decided had no p ermission to make verdicts. Upcoming of such situations leads to the problem at hand be solved by the court and the ruling of the case derived from the statute and not arbitration agreement. Under section 30 (1) (a) of the Arbitration Act 1996, Arbitrator’s power to claim whether he/she has powers comes from the

Friday, October 4, 2019

Safety, Health & Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Safety, Health & Security - Essay Example The impact of positive and negative stress on the workplace should be determined. The need for workplace health, safety, and security training should be assessed. And last but not least, effective violence prevention programs should be designed to prevent sexual harassment, unethical behavior, etc. at work. In the western world, development of workplace has been characterized by technologies and jobs that are designed to improve productivity and processes. However, in many cases it has been found that adequate care has not been taken in ascertaining the impact of the job process or technology on the workers. This has led to various imbalances at the workplace, which resulted into attrition, job dissatisfaction, excessive stress, and fall in productivity, etc. Sometimes, it can be observed that machines involved in the work processes have been unnecessarily dangerous. Hence, there is urgency in the industries to improve the conditions at the workplace to give the workers a better environment. Thus, a need of ergonomic research and development has emerged. Ergonomics can be defined as a multi-disciplinary science that seeks to conform the workplace and all its physiological aspects to the worker (Goetsch, 2011). It deals with the different subjects entailed in the improvement of the work place conditions. Ergonomic problems in the workplace manifest among the workers in various ways. The problems are indicated by the conditions of the human factors at the workplace. The bad effects of below standard or unsuitable equipments and systems on the human beings at work can become discernable in the following ways: 1. Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) can vary from common pains and aches to relatively more serious difficulties. Medical practitioners recommend that symptoms and signs of physical difficulties at work must be reported before a permanent damage or serious injury actually occurs. The most frequent MSDs that can be observed among the workers in particularly

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Bridgford Foods Essay Example for Free

Bridgford Foods Essay Bridgford Foods is known as a small, publicly traded company of the food industry. Clients of Bridgford Foods have a relatively high inherent risk. The operation of the said industry is subject to various risks, such as adverse changes in the general economic conditions, the evolution of consumer preferences, nutritional and health-related concerns, the inspections done, including the processing controls involved in the federal, state, and local products. The liability claims of consumer products and the risks associated with product tampering were also taken into careful consideration. Furthermore, several recalls made were associated with the recent outbreaks of illnesses among the meat and poultry products. Such greatly affected the operating results and the financial position of the company. In addition to this, industry characteristics were related to the factors that affected the assessment of materials of Bridgford Foods Corporation. Since the industry was very competitive, price cutting would have its related effects on the revenue. Unfortunately, Bridgford Foods was not part of the leading industries in the country. In terms of performance, the products of the said company were not as competitive as those of the leaders in the industry. In addition to this, the company is not as profitable and as financially stable as those of the major companies in the industry. For the year 2007, Bridgford Food had a decrease in its total sales, as compared to the other years. In a report issued, the company stated that, â€Å"sales for the first quarter ended in January 25, 2008, and was an estimated $1,319,000. Prior to the first twelve weeks of the fiscal year, there was a decrease in the total, which was 3.1%. The industry factors result in an increased assessment of the risk material misstatement of BridgFord Foods Corporation. This led to a lower determination of detection risk and more substantive tests. Estimations and assumptions were particularly important in the assessment of risks for material misstatement of Johnson, Inc. The management made certain estimations and assumptions that affected the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. In addition to this, reported revenues and expenses during the respective reporting periods were also given much considerations. The amounts estimated related to liabilities for workers’ compensation, employee healthcare and pension benefits are especially subjected. The inherent risk relating to the accuracy of an account balance that involves a high degree of management judgment, or that is difficult to compute, is evaluated as high. Moreover, the credit risk of the company was diversified across a broad range clients and geographic regions. Losses incurred due to credit risks have recently been immaterial, with the client maintaining the cash balances at financial institutions. At times, these clients exceed the amounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of $100 million per institution. However, the clients have significant amounts receivable amounts with few of the well known clients, although historically secure, could also be subject to material risk when the operations of these clients begin to deteriorate. Regardless of such dilemma, the members of the Bridgford family can still exercise significant control over the company. This is due to the fact that the family owns approximately 77% in stocks of the company, making them own more than three fourths of the whole company. On top of this, three members of the Bridgford family were members of the Board of Directors. This gives the members of the Bridgford family the ability to exert substantial influence and power over the management and affairs of the company. This include matters requiring the action of shareholders. the amendment to by-laws, the election and removal of directors, merger proposals, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of the assets and other corporate transactions. The Bridgford family members who own majority of the stocks dominate in the decision making of the company. This factor led to a higher risk assessment of material misstatement fore there were no reviews regarding important decisions and actions taken. However, these should be taken in the best interest of the company and its stockholders. The inherent limitations included the realities of faulty judgments and decision makings, including the breakdowns that can occur due to simple errors and mistakes. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some people, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the control. All the above factors increased inherent risk for a particular account balance assertion, making the evaluation relatively high. In the audit planning stage, where the evaluation of inherent risk for an account balance assertion is high, auditors regard this as a significant risk requiring special audit attention. The control risk of Bridgford foods is low. The client maintains and evaluates a system of internal accounting controls, and a program of internal auditing designed to provide reasonable assurance. In so doing, the company’s assets are protected and transactions were performed in accordance with the proper authorization, and were recorded accordingly. This system of internal accounting control is continually reviewed and modified in response to evolving business conditions and operations and to recommendations made by the independent registered public accounting firm and internal auditor. The client also has an established a code of conduct. Furthermore, the audit committee is composed of independent directors who are not officers or employees of the client, and do not have other relationships that impair independence. The audit committees also employ two financial experts. They are effective in overseeing the quality of controls and the management of fraud. From those mentioned, I believe that the accounting and internal control systems provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded and financial information is reliable, with the overall control risk low. In general, the design and implementation of internal control are considered effective. The increase in the risk of material misstatement due to these factors will result in a lower determination of detection risk and an increase in the scope of the auditors work. Pre-audit engagement risk is significantly and positively associated with the estimated level of discretionary accruals reported in audited financial statements. As higher levels of discretionary accruals have been shown to be associated with higher risk of post-audit litigation, it appears that rather than taking actions that result in higher-risk clients reporting less aggressive discretionary accruals, auditors instead are accepting a higher post-audit risk for these clients.

Satisfaction And Service Quality In Uk Budget Hotels Tourism Essay

Satisfaction And Service Quality In Uk Budget Hotels Tourism Essay The outline for the research is presented here. It includes Introduction to the topic and of the company. This is followed by Literature Review. Next comes methodology of research and then Analysis and Results. These are followed by Discussion and Recommendation. Finally the Conclusion and its contents are given. The budget hotels or low-cost hotels are in great demand today. This is because currently the world is facing the worst economic recession in decades, which has reduced the ability of people to spend on non-essential products and services like holidays. Also there have been huge cuts in the travel budgets of many firms as a result of which more and more companies are using budget hotels for business travel. Another key target market for budget hotels are the backpackers who stay in either youth hostels or budget hotels. This sentiment has been echoed by the author Fiorentino (1995) stating that budget hotels especially thrive in the recessionary environment. The author has further gone to say that, the budget hotel is not only a booming short-term phenomenon, but a major strategic development in the international hospitality industry that represents the introduction of the no-frills, purpose-designed and branded product concept in hospitality. However the quality of service and the level of satisfaction in such types of accommodation has been an area of interest for academics and hotel managers for a long time. But it is especially important in the current economic scenario and presents a great opportunity to study these. Background The concept of budget hotels originated in America but it is widely used in the developed world including the UK and many successful chains of such hotels are thriving today. Prominent amongst them are Travelodge and Premier Inn. With the exponential usage of the internet in the serach and booking of accommodation there has been an explosion of websites that offer value for money or budget accommodation and this is causing strong demand for such accommodations. Aims and Objectives The aim of this study would be explore the significance of the service quality and satisfaction in the budget hotels operating in the UK. The principal aim of this research will be met by following objectives: To identify factors affecting service quality in UK budget hotels; To explore the consumers perceptions of service quality in UK budget hotels; To explore the consumers expectations for service quality in UK budget hotels; To report the gap between the perceptions and expectations for service quality in UK budget hotels; To study the factors affecting the customer satisfaction in the budget hotels Literature Review Importance of Service Quality The effectiveness and importance of the service quality according to the academics and marketing experts will be researched and written Importance of Customer Satisfaction The effectiveness and importance of the service quality according to the academics and marketing experts will be researched and written Service Quality in Hospitality Industry The quality of service is a much researched subject in the hospitality arena. According to the authors Benà ­tez, Martà ­n and Romà ¡n (2007), Hotels provide an ample range of services to customers, including lodging services, reception, meals, room service, among others. Service quality can be regarded as a composite measure of various attributes. It not only consists of tangible attributes but also intangible/subjective attributes such as safety, quietness, which are difficult to measure accurately and usually studied throughout linguistic information. Thus details and expert views on what constitutes service quality will be researched here. Measurement of service Quality SERVQUAL instrument by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry is the most popular one used in the measurement of quality of service today in the hospitality industry. This is the one which will be used here as well for the measurement of service quality Measurement of customer satisfaction The ways of measuring customer satisfaction are varied from periodic surveys to continuous ones. The best and most popular methods will be studied here. Methodology of Research To assess the service quality and customer satisfaction levels in the firm chosen a number of factors will have to be studied. Both primary and secondary data will be used to understand this. A budget hotel chain in the UK will be chosen and firstly secondary data will be gathered on that organisation to understand its marketing strategies and the overall strategic direction the firm has undertaken. Then a questionnaire will be developed for the survey that will be carried out to gather primary data on that organisation and its customers. Rationale for Research There has been tremendous increase in the number of budget accommodations in the UK and surge in demand created increase in the supply with lots of new budget hotels creeping up in the pre-recession growth years. This led the hotels to compete on prices and service quality was side-lined but the view today is changing and the hotels are feeling that there is a need to focus on the customer satisfaction and quality of service being offered in the budget hotels to gain a sustainable competitive advantage amongst the increase in the competition. However, globally the hotel sector is experiencing the decline in service quality and consumers satisfaction. Decline is perceived by the consumer, because in 1990s consumers expectations were raised to the standard that hotels couldnt sustain and exceed (Briggs, Sutherland, Drummond, 2007:1009). Similar pattern has also been noticed in relation to the budget hotels where, constant updates of tangible and intangible aspects in budged hotels resu lted to development of upper budget hotel type, with the provision of full-service three star hotel facilities (Fiorentino, 1995: 457). There has been a lot of research in the field of service quality and customer satisfaction in the hospitality sector but there is very little such research done in the budget hotel segment which is one of the fastest growing segments in the hospitality industry today. Hence this research attempts to study and evaluate the factors that affect customer satisfaction and service quality. Selection of Research Methodology Secondary data will be used to meet the research objectives. A range of academic journals and other literature will be used to understand the already published experts views and data on the subject. As author Churchill (2001) suggested the data to be collected for this research will be decided on the different aspect of the research and their importance and relevance to this study. Questionnaire Design A structured questionnaire will be designed for the purpose of this study. It will have questions relating to the customer satisfaction and service quality regarding the chosen hotel. The service quality will be based on SERVQUAL elements of Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. The SERVQUAL is the most popular and commonly used tool for measuring the quality of service in the hospitality sector. The questionnaire will also include question on customer satisfaction. Analysis and Results The data gathered from the survey will be analysed to gain insight into the results and to find the levels of satisfaction and the quality of service offered by the company. The results will be given in both tabulated form as well. Discussion and Recommendation This chapter will discuss the results found and the insight generated by the analysis. It will then give the recommendations for managers Conclusion: This will list the findings of the study and the recommendations for the future studies as well as the limitations of this study

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Artificial insemination :: essays research papers fc

Artificial insemination is the injection of SEMEN into the vagina by instrumental means. The first artificial inseminations of viviparous (live-bearing) animals were performed by the 18th-century Italian physiologist Lazzaro Spallanzani, who proved that the male contribution to reproduction resided in the semen, although he did not recognize spermatozoa as the fertilizing agents. Pioneering work in the artificial insemination of dairy and beef animals was done in Russia about the time of the Revolutions of 1917. By the 1930s it was being practiced throughout Europe and the United States. The principal advantage of artificial insemination over natural breeding is that a single male of superior genetic quality can be used to impregnate thousands of females, thereby improving herds and increasing dairy and meat production. With artificial insemination, dairy farmers need not risk the deterioration of their herds from excessive inbreeding, nor incur the expense of maintaining their own bulls. In humans, artificial insemination is used to achieve pregnancy when an anatomical impediment prevents direct fertilization. When the male is sterile, semen is collected from an anonymous donor who is known by the physician to have a family history free of genetic disease. The same precautions are taken when, as in recent years, artificial insemination has been used as a means of providing a child to a couple where the woman cannot conceive. In such cases the husband's sperm is used to fertilize a SURROGATE MOTHER, who has volunteered to bear the child, usually for a fee, and to give it up immediately after its birth. At question are the legal aspects of surrogate motherhood as well as unresolved moral and religious issues. In cases where a woman is unable to conceive as a result of defective oviducts, an egg can be removed surgically from her ovary and fertilized "in vitro": in a petri dish under laboratory conditions that simulate the environment inside the oviduct where fertilization normally takes place (see IN VITRO FERTILIZATION). The embryo is then transferred to the woman's uterus to develop normally. Zoo workers are in the process of refining artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization technologies to help breed a rare and endangered species, to replace the expensive and not-always-successful practice of shipping animals around for mating purposes. Importing semen will make it easier to mate rare animals from far-flung zoos, keeping a good amount of variety in the gene pool.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Civic Engagement: Voting, TV, and Efficacy Essay -- Politics Political

Civic Engagement: Voting, TV, and Efficacy Abstract Well known is the fact that active participation in America has gone down. Voting, especially, has been affected. Literature and statistics on voting behavior have demonstrated these shocking results. But lack of voting is simply the beginning, several factors affect civic engagement among those are the negative perceptions of politics received through televised media. This study found that several factors of significance with respect to efficacy, amount of TV watching, politician trust, and differences in gender factors. Though Robert Putnam’s suggestion of too much television does hold true, other factors can be predictors as well. Introduction America was founded on the idea of democracy. As Piven and Cloward put it, â€Å"Americans generally take for granted that ours is the very model of democracy† (2000). There seems to be an evident breakdown in American politics, the electorate is voting less than they did in previous generations (Putnam 2000). I question whether this is the beginning of a massive breakdown in American politics or simply a flux in the activity of the people. In sorting through much of the research on political opinions and voting very little is clear. Theorist and researchers differ on what is the major factor in the decline of voting in America. An influential idea provided by Robert Putnam was the increase in television watching and its effect on the American people. Others suggest that the growing economic inequality in American lives. But we are working with people who can be very surprising and strange as maybe the outcomes. I try to look at many factors that may indicate some reasons to what a portion of the population ... ... the American Electorate Eighth Ed. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. (2000). Why Americans Still Don’t Vote: And Why Politicians Want It that Way. Boston: Beacon Press, 229-237. Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Bowling Alone. New York: Touchstone, 252-253. Rust, Roland, Mukesh Bajaj, and George Haley. (1984). Efficient and Inefficient Media for Political Campaign Advertising. Journal of Advertising,13, 3, 45-49. Sifry, Micah L. Finding the Lost Voters. The American Prospect, 11, 6, 23-27. Stanley, Harold W. and Richard G Niemi. (2000). Vital Statistics on American Politics 1999-2000. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. Uslaner, Eric. (1998). Social Capital, Television, and the ‘Mean World’: Trust, Optimism, and Civic Participation. Political Psychology, 19, 3, 441-467.

Workshop Critique

Designing a more effective workshop is a daunting challenge to today’s fast moving world that exhibits dynamism in various aspects. As a result it poses a daunting challenge to the workshop organizers and planers especially when there are sensitive issues regarding to conflicts, interracial misunderstanding and poor communication among the participants. In this regard, designing and implementing workshop for the young persons who face challenging issues when they have been asked to work in a group such as Communication, language barriers, culture differences and conflicts, on which the participants wanted to improve on becomes a challenge. As a consequence, design for such a workshop it is deemed necessary to critically balance the goals of the participants and the learning and facilitating resources against the philosophy and objectives of designers (Barbazette, 2001). This aspect of workshop planning and implementation is a key principle to a successful workshop implementation that guarantees positive outcomes of the workshop which some planners usually neglect. In circumstances that balancing principle is neglected the planers usually dominate their design with their views and views of the participants obtained from surveys such as TNA for this case. Although in most cases in the process of workshop designing both planners and participant’s philosophical ands theoretical goals may be coherent in the sense that both aims at improving their educational process, the reality of the school environment can cause inappropriate planning and miscommunication in regard to workshop design. However, planers creativity, innovativeness and awareness can help arrive at a tangible workshop that participants can implement the skills, attitudes, behaviors and knowledge to their daily practices in their respective schools and groups. Therefore in designing an effective workshop the key domains that were considered are logistics, recourses and content. Rationale for Workshop Design The rationale for workshop design was informed greatly by logistics involved, content and the learning and teaching resources. The design was highly influenced by the TNA conducted which revealed that the students or participants had difficulties working in groups in terms of communication, language, barriers, conflicts and cultural differences. In this regard, the workshop was stimulated in away that it became a leaner centered. The logistics involved in the workshop design to a greater extend contributed to the success of the workshop. By summing up the aim of the logistics involved in the workshop design, the workshop was supposed to impact day-to-day group work tasks of the participants (Barbazette, 2001). The focus of the workshop was centered on the understanding the principles and process of effective group formation and functioning with respect to diversity. In order to ensure that the workshop materials are applied by workshop participants to their normal schooling life, the workshop plan utilized the following strategies: first, Individualization technique that used appropriate teaching technological resources to present individualized learning materials to the participants like reference to special links on the internet because we recognize that every participant has quite a bit to learn. Second, Time was sufficiently allocated that facilitated absorption of principles and by most participants. Third, the school support â€Å"buy in† was also central to the plan as the school had to buy in the value of the workshop by permitting workshop to be conducted and students to participate. And the fourth aspect, was the selection of learning materials â€Å"Take to class materials† that are relevant to content and participants. However, despite the logistics involved in planning for the workshop effective learning during workshop proceeding is determined by quality and concern of faculty, peer group, and effective content and pedagogy. These factors are addressed by content, instructional approach and resources used in the following section. The content instructional approach was largely drawn from Kolb learning cycle (see figure 1) that utilized participant’s experiential knowledge as learning resource. Kolb learning cycle model (Kolb, 1984) emphasizes the use of learners experience to build new content. This approach is very important in learning and teaching undertakings especially to students in the sense that facilitator induces reflective aspect to learners in order for it to become a process and routine to develop learners. Kolb learning cycle comprise of four phases: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation, which must be adhered to in order to attain meaningful learning. By adhering to these four stages, the participants were able to reflect on their experience to formulate concepts which can be applied to their future situations relating to group work. The new participant’s behavior is tested out by exposing him or her to new situation or previous situations and comparing the effectiveness of learning outcome. For instance, in this case speed ball was reintroduced to participants after learning and revealed that group competency has been gained evident by reduction in task performance time for 17seconds to 1 second. Briefly the four phases of Kolb’s cycle are significant in enhancing learning and skills long term skills that the workshop participants can apply to real life situation. For instance, Concrete experience phase involves ‘doing’ aspect that drive for process and content of workshop through materials. The use of interactive games in workshop like speedball, this enhances experience on the past of participants. Reflective observation is the participant’s qualities and judgments of events and discussion of the learning process with peers (Cranton, 1995; Trotman, 2000; Gordon, 2002). As a result, participants were able to reflect on their training at the workshop and at the same time normal school learning situation this enable the students to have confidence with their colleagues and mitigate painful learning experiences. To enhance a meaningful reflection of the participants keep their journals or a log. Importantly, reflection aspect is vital mechanism to promote learning and professional development. Abstract conceptualization helps learners to plan better future activities added to their reflection of their personal experience by being informed by educated theories. In this context, Educational theories were major drawn from luck man’s model of learn development, forming, worming, storming and performing. While at the same time the Taylor’s set of 16 guiding principles of effective groups was utilized see [table 1] (Taylor, 1996). Through educational information added to the students own reflection, enables the participants to integrate theories and the analysis of the past actions to draw conclusion about their group work practices. Active experimentation is the final and actualization phase according to Kolb cycle of learning in the sense that it enables the work shop participants to use conclusion drawn about present actions from Abstract conceptualization phase as a basis to plan changes to their group work performance, the Active experimentation phase is vital because it generates concrete experience to the participants thereby forming knowledge base to inform, educate others and develop effective group interactive skills. Moreover, the attained concrete experience serve as a platform on which the participants of the work shop can review and reflect to form conclusion about the effectives of the outcomes. The content emphasis was drawn from Turkman’s Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and ending model (see figure 1). These four distinct stages were emphasized on because the students complaint on their difficulties they do experience during working in groups greatly lie in the misunderstanding of the critical process of effective group formation and functioning. The content planned was aimed at covering and teaching the participants how to form, storm, norm, perform and adjourn the group once it is through with the task assigned. The group forming stage the emphasis was on the group leader role was stressed since there is little agreement from the team other than leader guidance and direction. Moreover, the many questions relating to objectives, purpose and individual concerns should be answered by the leader, while the members can engage in system testing to understand it better. Therefore, the forming phase entirely is dependant on the leader’s directives. The second phase of storming, the members may experience difficulties in decision making and struggle for positions. As a result, these struggles cause increase of purpose clarity but plenty of uncertainties may also persist. Therefore, the workshop participants were informed to be tolerant with different views of members disregarding their ethnic, gender or race, and try as much as possible to reach an agreeable compromise in line with their goals to avoid emotions distract their progress (Farbstein, 2003). The workshop participants were informed that if they successful undergo the first two phases, then the third stage of norming will come in automatically with ease in decision making and agreement amongst the members. Moreover, the group shall have strong unity, commitment and respect for the leader. Thereafter, the team moves to performance stage where the team shall be more strategically aware of why it is doing what it is doing due to shared vision without strict supervision or leader direction. As a result, the team shall have ambitions to over achieve their goals, easy conflict and disagreement solving and the group shall work with less instructions and directives, while the leader’s role shall only be streamlined to delegate and oversee the performance. Then lastly, the group can adjourn as the last stage when the task has been accomplished successfully. The participants were informed the joy and fulfillment of adjourning stage rests on group dissolution when everyone move to do other things or assignments feeling good about what's been achieved. Therefore, group member ought to strive to have a happy ending by facilitating a successful group formation and functioning in their school learning activities. In addition to Turkman’s model of group formation and performing, Taylor’s 16 principles of effective group performance were included in the content since they guide and help group running normally. These included: Testing inferences and assumptions, Sharing all relevant information, Focusing on interests as opposed to positions, Agreeing on what important words mean, Being specific when referring to anything like using examples like Peterson and not you, Disagreeing openly with any member of the group, Make statements and then invite questions and comments and Explaining the reasons behind questions, actions and statements. Additionally, jointly designing ways to test disagreements and solutions, Discussing undiscussable issues, Keeping discussions focused, there should be no taking of cheap shots as they may distract the group, All members are expected to be participating in all phases of the group processes, Exchange relevant information with non-group members, Make decisions by consensus, Doing self-critiques. These principles are vital and useful to group as they offer guidelines to successful group functioning and performance. Workshop resources were carefully selected since the learning resources can be turned into a factor with a positive impact (Farbstein, 2003; Kieren, 2005; Smith, 1998). The challenge towards meeting sufficient workshop resources was funding or financial limitation to avail the necessary resources to the participants such as handouts on principles of effective group performance and the Turkman’s model of group forming, storming, norming and performing. Despite financial limitation, there was use of relevant text books, reference to important websites for information regarding effective group functioning and use of charts was widely used. In addition to that, the participants were requested to write a position paper in rejection or support of the pedagogical innovations used in the workshop. Workshop outcomes The workshop outcome from my observation, it was very good and the team was able to communicate with each other, they have followed exactly the Tuchman’s model of team development, forming, storming, and norming, performing, and then ending. Moreover, I observed that the conflict on the norming stage was not obvious because the number of the team members were few; therefore they were able to overcome their conflict so easily. Additionally, during the activity, I noticed that some students showed leadership skills and some were just followers and listeners. The major theory that can be used to explain this show of behavior is goal setting and reinforcement theories. This is in the sense that the participants were able to set their personal goals that motivated and spurred their behavior and need to achieve. While on the other hand, the facilitators were able to reinforce positively the participants especially by use of extrinsic motivators. As a result, the survey results obtained from students showed that they all liked a lot the workshop (Kirkpatrick, 1994). Recommendations for improvements The workshop was successful but needed more aspects and issues to be looked at or incorporated. For instance, during facilitation there is need to integrate workshop design with more academic theory and application in sense that they are interwoven to have it deliver skills and knowledge at its best. The making of this linkage can help to continue the momentum from the participants’ experience. However, there is need to revolve around more personal theory around participants responses to the experience and less of academic theories. Furthermore, there is need to allocate sufficient time to maximize the outcomes of the activity by considering its implications and impacts of day-to-day participants academic undertaking. And finally, learning and teaching resources ought to have more attention paid to and proper resources mobilization to even include handouts to help participants with application outside the workshop. Lastly, the TNA need to be clearer and all inclusive to include wide views of stakeholders. Conclusion In conclusion, the paper has looked at the workshop design and implementation with insight to its outcomes. The success of the workshop demonstrate the fact that technical competency at any organization is not enough, but rather the interpersonal skills that facilitates individuals development of effective work relationships. In order to attain that, there was collaborative approach to design and implement the workshop to meet the needs from various participants’ perspectives. As a result, the workshop was able to successfully transfer of learning to behavior because: first, participants improved their communication skills demonstrated by reduction in speedball exercise time from 17 seconds to 1 second. This also indicates that Participants had attained an increase in self-awareness in relation to body language, tone of voice and active listening. Moreover, the participants showed that they were less aggressive and more assertive in relation to their approach while interacting with their peers. Secondly, the participants gained insight into behavior of self and others. Therefore, the participant developed a sense to appreciate others’ cultural, racial and ethnic differences and was able to adapt necessary communication styles aimed at improving their interpersonal relations.