Contingency Theories of Organizations Essays

Contingency Theories of Organizations Essays Contingency Theories of Organizations Essay Contingency Theories of Organizations Essay Part 2 Ob: What is the nucleus statement of eventuality theories of organisations? Discuss giving illustrations from at least one such theory. Measure the claims of this theory and measure its relevancy for organisations today. Organizations operate in many different environments and it is critical to measure how they influence their constructions. Effective and efficient organizing has become progressively of import in the modern universe characterized by rapid alterations. Eventuality attacks emphasize that in order for organisations to win they must follow a construction suitable for the environment in which they operate. There are many signifiers of eventuality theory. In general, eventuality theories are a category of behavioural theory that claim that there is no best manner to form a corporation and the organisational construction of the company. An organisational or leading manner that is effectual in some state of affairss may non be successful in others. Therefore, the best manner of forming the company, is contingent upon the internal and external state of affairs of the company. External environments influence organisations in a varied figure of ways. Critical external factors include, but are non limited to, the size of the organisation, labour markets, handiness and cost of capital, rivals, governmental Torahs and policies, managerial premises about employees, schemes, engineerings used, etc. The chief thoughts of eventuality theory are: * There is no cosmopolitan or one best manner to pull off * The design of organisations and its subsystems must fit with the environment * Effective organisations non merely have a proper fit with the environment but besides between its subsystems * The demands of an organisation are better satisfied when it is decently designed and the direction manner is appropriate both to the undertakings undertaken and the nature of the work group. Several eventuality attacks were developed at the same time in the late sixtiess. The outgrowth of the theory was the consequence of unfavorable judgments of the classical theories such as Weber s bureaucratism ( Weber, 1946 ) and Taylor s scientific direction ( Taylor, 1911 ) which had failed because they neglected that direction manner and organisational construction were influenced by assorted facets of the environment: the eventuality factors. The eventuality attack originated with the work of Joan Woodward ( 1958 ) , who declared that successful organisations in different industries with different engineerings were characterized by different organisational constructions. In this essay I will discourse three influential eventuality theories, those of Burns and Stalker ( 1961 ) , Lawrence and Lorsch ( 1967 ) and Fiedler ( 1967 ) . Tom Burns and Graham Stalker in their 1961 book, The Management of Innovation studied about 20 Scots and British electronics companies runing in progressively competitory and advanced technological markets. Their findings demonstrated that organisations runing in stable environments are really different from those which have to confront a changing and dynamic environment. The writers have discovered that differences in the manner houses approached alteration and invention related to the values and mission of the houses. Nathan birnbaums and Stalker classified the houses into 2 classs on the footing of their managerial constructions and patterns: mechanistic and organic. The writers found that mechanistic organisations, besides called bureaucratisms, are suited for comparatively stable environmental conditions. Such organisations are clearly programmed, purely controlled and hierarchically structured. Often they do non hold mission and vision statements, and alternatively depend on established regulations for counsel, mensurating success by the grade to which staff conforms to treat and process. Organizational undertakings are typically broken down into specialised activities. Persons are responsible for their specific maps in a comparative isolation from the overall organisational end. The organic organisations are more likely to be under unstable environmental conditions. Organic organisations are orientated towards consequences, have a level organisation construction alternatively of a hierarchy, and small construction in footings of procedure and regulations. They focus on consequences and employees receive positive wagess for originative and matter-of-fact parts. Given these conditions it becomes necessary to reexamine and redefine the duties, methods, inter-role relationships, and even ends on a continual footing. Nathan birnbaums and Stalker emphasized that each system is appropriate under its ain specific conditions. Neither system was superior to the other under all state of affairss. Since the 1960s much of Hagiographas in organisation theories field is a changeless argument between the machine/organ analogies, and efforts to develop growing theoretical accounts of how simple mechanistic signifiers can turn into the more complex organic signifiers. Another important survey to show the relationships between environmental features and effectual organisational constructions was conducted by Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch ( 1967 ) . They studied ten US houses in three separate industries ( plastics, nutrient, containers ) that confronted changing grades of uncertainness, complexness and alteration. The research workers found that successful houses in each industry had a different grade of distinction. The houses runing in unsure, complex, quickly altering environments had more extremely differentiated internal constructions: gross revenues, production and R A ; D sections. Such organisations require the greater demand for suited mechanisms for incorporating and deciding struggles between scopes of sections. Successful houses in more homogenous and stable environment were more formalistic and hierarchal in their signifiers. Writers concluded that successful houses must hold internal constructions every bit complex as environments in which they operate. This seminal work of Lawrence and Lorsch refined the eventuality theory by showing that different markets and technological environments require different sorts of organisations, and that fractional monetary units or functional sections within an organisation might be managed in different ways, due to fluctuations ensuing from their sub-environments. Their position is ecological those organisations that can outdo adapt to the environment will last. Managerial leading has influenced organisational activities in many ways. These influences include actuating subsidiaries, budgeting scarce resources, and functioning as a beginning of communicating. Contingency theories of leading argue that no individual leading manner is effectual in all fortunes, but the leading manners are contingent on the organisational and situational context. Fred Fiedler s theory ( 1967 ) is the earliest and most extensively researched is besides known as eventuality theoretical account of leading effectivity. Fiedler s thoughts originated from trait and behavioural theoretical accounts by saying that public presentation of the group is dependent on the leader s psychological orientation and on three contextual variables: group atmosphere, undertaking construction, and leader s power place. The eventuality theoretical account underlines the importance of both the leader s personality and the state of affairs in which that leader operates. The first major factor in Fiedler s theory is known as the leading manner. This is the consistent system of interaction that takes topographic point between a leader and work group. In order to sort leading manners, Fiedler has developed an index called the Least-Preferred Coworker ( LPC ) graduated table. To acquire an LPC mark a leader is asked to believe of colleagues with whom he/she has of all time worked and take the 1 with whom the work was the most hard. Then this individual is rated on a figure of eight-point bipolar graduated tables ( friendly/unfriendly, hostile/supportive, etc. ) . The responses to these graduated tables are summed and averaged: a high LPC mark suggests that the leader has a human dealingss orientation, while a low LPC mark indicates a undertaking orientation. The 2nd major factor in Fiedler s theory is known as situational favourableness or environmental variable. This fundamentally is defined as the grade a state of affairs enables a leader to exercise influence over a group. Fiedler so extends his analysis by concentrating on three cardinal situational factors, which are leader-member, task construction and place power. For leader-member dealingss, Fiedler maintains that the leader will hold more influence if they maintain good relationships with group members who like, regard, and swear them, than if they do non. Fiedler explains that undertaking construction is the 2nd most of import factor in finding structural favourableness. He contends that extremely structured undertakings, which specify how a occupation is to be done in item provide a leader with more influences over group actions than do unstructured undertakings. Finally, as for place power, leads who have the power to engage and fire, subject and wages, have more power than those who do non. For illustration, the caput of a section has more power than a file clerk. By sorting a group harmonizing to three variables, it is possible to place eight different group state of affairss or leading manner. These eight different possible combinations were so classified as either undertaking orientation or relationship orientated. Several deductions can be derived from Fiedler s findings. First, it is non accurate to talk of effectual and uneffective leaders. Fiedler goes on by proposing that there are merely leader who perform better in some state of affairss, but non all state of affairss. Second, about anyone can be a leader by carefully choosing those state of affairss that match his or her leading manner. Last, the effectivity of a leader can be improved by planing the occupation to suit the director. For case, by increasing or diminishing a leader s place power, altering the construction of a undertaking, or act uponing leader-member dealingss, an organisation can change a state of affairs to better suit a leader s manner. The undermentioned facets can be considered as strengths of Fiedler s theory: it is prognostic and supported by a batch of empirical research, it does non necessitate that people be effectual in all state of affairss and provides a manner to measure leader manner that could be utile to an organisation. However among its failings are the fact that it is cumbrous to utilize, it does nt explicate what to make when there is a mismatch between manner and state of affairs and it does nt take into history situational variables, like preparation and experience, which besides have an impact in a leader s effectivity. Finally, there is some uncertainty whether the LPC is a true step of leading manner. In drumhead, the kernel of eventuality theory is that best patterns depend on the eventualities of the state of affairs. Contingency theory is frequently called the aˆ?it all dependsaˆ? theory, because when a eventuality theoretician is being asked for an reply, the typical response will be that it all depends. While this may sound simplistic, measuring the eventualities on which determinations depend can be a really complex. Eventuality theoreticians try to place and mensurate the conditions under which things will probably happen. Sing that organisations should achieve both external and internal tantrum to accomplish superior public presentation, at the same clip, the procedures of scheme preparation and execution are non dissociable activities ; there is a demand for an integrative attack that incorporates both schools of idea. The appropriate direction manner and organisational construction depend on the environmental context of the organisation concerned. The ability to pull off alteration is now recognized as a nucleus organisational competency. Mentions: 1. Fineman, S. , Sims, D. A ; Gabriel, Y. ( 2005 ) Forming and organisations, London, Sage. 2. Smith, M. J. ( 1984 ) . Eventuality regulations theory, context, and conformity behaviours. Human Communication Research, 10, 489-512. 3. Burns, T. , Stalker, M. ( 1961 ) . The Management of Innovation, 3rd Edition, 1994, Oxford University Press 4. Lawrence, P. R. , Lorsch, J. W. ( 1967 ) . Organization and Environment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 5. Fiedler, F. E. ( 1964 ) . A Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness. Progresss in Experimental Social Psychology ( Vol.1 ) . 149-190. New York: Academic Press. Burnes, B. ( 1996 ) , No such thing as aˆÂ ¦ a aˆ?one best wayaˆ? to pull off organisational alteration. Management determination, Vol. 34, Issue 10, pp. 10-18

Data Analysis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Data Analysis - Coursework Example The APS is intended to be representative of the whole of the population of the UK. The population covered by the survey is all people resident in private households and young people living away from the parental home in student halls of residence or similar institution during term time. The survey covers a target sample of at least 875 economically active persons for each Unitary Authority (UA)/Local Area District (LAD), and at least 450 economically active persons in Greater London Boroughs. The number of jobseekers is derived from the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS), which also contains data on jobseekers allowance claimants. The data was obtained from computer systems used to administer the benefits. Although the data downloaded covers the whole Great Britain, only figures relating to London were extracted for analysis. Both datasets were downloaded from government’s Neighbourhood Statistics website  http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk Selection Process The process of selecting the jobseeker’s allowance data is as follows: on the Neighborhood Statistics website, click on Topics, then Economic deprivation, then Jobseekers allowance claimants, choose the year and tick download on the right hand side, choose Microsoft Excel file. The file download is initiated. The process is repeated for all five years. For the unemployment data, click on topics and then proceed to Economic deprivation, Worklessness: economic activity, choose the time period and check download on the right hand side, choose Microsoft Excel file. The file download begins automatically. The process is repeated for all five years. Since the analysis only sampled data from cities in London, the findings may be skewed and hence not applicable to all other cities in the rest of Great Britain. However, one strength of the paper is that it uses data covering duration of five years and therefore takes account of any seasonal or periodic fluctuations. Objective This pa per will investigate the relationship between the number of unemployed persons and the number of persons claiming jobseekers’ allowance in London region. To ensure that eligible persons are included in the survey, data pertaining to persons aged 16-64 years only was used in the analysis. Types of analyses to be conducted Analyses of the data provided will begin with an exploratory analysis followed by in-depth statistical analyses which will act as confirmatory tests to any hypothesized relationships made in the first stage of analysis. Under exploratory analyses, descriptive statistics will be computed, a relationship will also be hypothesized using a scatterplot and bar graphs. In the second phase of analysis, the equation relating the two variables will be modeled. Correlation analysis will also be used to investigate the strength of the relationship observed above. A residual plot will be used to confirm the presence or absence of outliers, the plot will also indicate whe ther there were any particular areas where the model greatly under or over-predicted the relationship between unemployed persons and persons seeking employment1. Detailed analysis and conclusions will also be made using a regression model. Data collected from the five year period has been consolidated in to two variables: unemployed (Unemployed Persons Count) and jobseekers (Jobseekers Allowance Claimants). EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS Descriptives of the data is as shown: A plot for the individual years covered during the study is shown

South Africa Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

South Africa - Research Paper Example The cultural diversity influences the business practices, working relations, business hierarchy, and business etiquette within South Africa. In extending its services to South Africa, it is quite significant for Kelly Services to understand the aspects of cultural diversity in South Africa’s business platform (Macleod, 2002). This report will detail the cultural aspects in South Africa’s business field and explain why South Africa will be a good target for Kelly Services. South Africans encourage good working relationships coupled with honesty, trust, and politeness. They have utmost respect for all and derive their moral values from their diverse culture (Bruckner, 2001). South Africans prefer a conservative and formal dressing in all business meetings and practices. Men dress in suits and ties while women wear formal dresses and suits (Macleod, 2002). They prefer handshakes and business cards as they manifest commitment and formality in business (Gorill, 2007). They significantly observe time consciousness and expect honesty and fairness in all business dealings. South Africans business people have abject respect for their business leaders and business organizations. The mode of communication between the employees, employers, and the public is well established. There is sound cooperation between the employees and employers in carrying out business operations. Indeed, the views and interests of employees are highly considered in any organizational decision or change. Hence, all stakeholders participate in running the business enterprises though the management reserves the right of initiating new dimensions and making critical decisions in the business (Gorrill, 2007). South Africans value inclusiveness, fairness, and honesty in all business activities. They equally disregard titles such as Mister or Miss in the context of business operations. They regard them as sources of

Health Safety and Security Practices Assignment

Health Safety and Security Practices - Assignment Example Belonging is all about having a relationship that is secure or having a connection with the customers, as well as the working staffs. In a salon, having the security of belonging is important in maintaining a good relationship with other people in the working environment. It is also important in boosting individuals self-esteem making one has the courage to do his or her job perfectly. Therefore, in any working environment, the sole priority of the leader is to encourage and ensure that all the working staffs develop a sense of security to avoid any misunderstanding and quarrels. Additionally, one should ensure that the client belongings are safe and secure. Prior to hanging any coats, counterchecking the pockets remain vital, remove all the important items and keep them in a safe place. In a salon, there are different types of solid as well as liquid wastes that require safe disposal. By disposing of the materials safely, the environment will be protected from causing any potential harm. In disposing of the materials, salon policies for hazardous wastes and management must be followed correctly. All the sharp materials in the salon such as needles and pins should be safely be disposed of in sharp boxes. The dilute chemicals should be disposed of in running water. The single used items such as gloves should be disposed of in peddle bins. Finally, the materials that can be recycled are put in recycled empties for decontamination and drying. Before an emergency occurs, ensure that the emergency equipment is in place and working. The first aid box should contain all the needed materials that will be used in an event of an emergency. The fire extinguishers should be in a strategic location where it can be accessed and in a working condition. In a case of an emergency, call the ambulance and the fire extinguishers. Inform all the people to go to fire assembly points.

Comparing Poems From Other Cultures Essay Example for Free

Comparing Poems From Other Cultures Essay In these two poems, identity is seen to be important, for in half-caste the author is trying to seek acceptance from others around him for who he is as a person, but in search for my tongue the author is losing her identity and is seeking help in finding out who she as a person. Half-caste portrays someone who feels that people label others without knowing them as people first, and how much it can hurt them. For John Agard says:Explain yuself, wha you mean, when yu say half caste. This shows that he is confused about how he portrays himself to others, and how others perceive him. This make you think that the way in people perceives you on first appearance makes you who you are.  Search for my tongue is like a cry out to others to help with her lost mother tongue, and she doesnt know what her identity is because she is confused about which language is her. It also shows how people dont understand how she feels or understand what she is going through with her struggle with the two languages that she uses. For it says: You ask me what I mean by saying I have lost my tongue. This shows that she feels isolated from others as they do not understand the internal struggle she is going through having to lose her original identity her mother tongue to a new identity, a foreign tongue.  In half-caste, the tone is quite angry and harsh. I feel that the tone is displayed in this way because he is angry with others for judging him for being mixed race, and the prejudices that everybody has towards others. For even though in the poem it just confronts the prejudice at half-caste people, there is always prejudice towards everybody, not just half-caste people. So in this poem he is challenging the fact that prejudice is wrong and unfair, and hurts people because they are being judged before people know them properly as a person. Some of this aggressive confrontational work is evident by the line: So spiteful dem dont want de sun pass.  This shows that prejudice people are so spiteful that they dont think half-caste should be able to walk past them in the street. This shows that people can be severely hurt by a label, and that because of the way peoples minds have been brought up, they believe they are superior to so called half-castes, and believe the half-castes not worthy enough to even walk the same streets as the superior people.  In search, the tone is quite confused and lonely, and is unsure of who she is as a person. For her original identity was gujarati, but having had convert to a foreign language she feels that she has lost her original identity, and has been forced to take on a different identity because of the different language she has to communicate to others in the place she lives in now. For she says: You could not use them both, even if you thought that way.  This shows that she feels she is losing her sense of identity, and feels she has to choose between the life she lives now and her original identity. She feels that the new language is pushing the other one away, and dominating her life so much that she forgets how her life used to be before it was controlled by the foreign language.  In half-caste Agard rejects the conventional punctuation, for there isnt a single comma or full stop in the whole of the poem. Also, he misspells half of the words in his poem purposely to help get his message across to the reader. The lack of punctuation and misspelling is all for the purpose of the poem. As people think that he is half-caste, they believe him to be incapable of any proper thoughts, feelings or being capable to produce something that could make an impact on somebody elses life. It is also used to strike the audience hard with his message of how everybody is equal no matter what their ethnic background is. For he says: Wid de whole of yu eye an de whole of yu ear an the whole of yu mind.  This shows that he feels that those who mock him are the whole who considered themselves to be perfect and have no faults of their own, and are known to be the superior race. It shows that he knows that they like downgrading him by saying hes half-caste, and has only half a mind, showing that they think he is incapable of proper thoughts, or proper feelings. In Search, the punctuation is consistent, but the poem structure is always different. The line lengths are all different, and there are no stanzas to separate the poem out it is all just one long stanza. In Half-caste, there is 3 stanzas of various lengths, to help get the meaning of the poem across better to the audience and the poems lines are all of similar lengths, to keep it sharp and continuous.  The layout of search, with its punctuation and line lengths shows that she is trying to find some consistency in her life she is trying to find what she knows in life to find in the end that she can, in her dreams. The fact that she also includes both English and Gujarati in her poem shows that even though she does use the English language, Gujarati is still an important part of her life, as it makes up part of who she is as a person. For she says: Everytime I think Ive forgottenit blossoms out of my mouth.  This shows that even if she forgets, or is so used to using the foreign language, she cannot forget her native language even if she tried. This is because it has been a part of her culture and identity for so long, she cannot part from it, no matter what she is faced with or what ever happens to her.  So the identity that is portrayed in half-caste is no matter what ethnic background you come from, no matter what you look like as an individual, we are all equal human beings and all deserve the right to be able to live our lives to the full.  The identity that is portrayed in search is one that suggests that you cannot lose who you are as a person, no matter what you are faced with, even if you have to change your language or move somewhere else, you cannot change who you truly are as a person.

Ethics of Torture and Preventive Detention

Ethics of Torture and Preventive Detention Discuss the ethical implications of preventive detention and interrogation tactics. Preventive detention is a pretrial detainment without the right to bail of a person accused or suspected of a crime and assumed to pose a danger to society. This type of detention can apply to political prisoners, alleged terrorists, those seeking asylum, and does not always result in a trial. Detention involves keeping people in confined conditions, often behind razor wire and electric fencing. The increase in human rights abuses, and a lack of due process occurring in immigration centers, gives authorities the power of preventive detention without trial on the basis of suspicion alone. Guantanamo Bay, for example, was once a detention center for refugees. Since September 11, 2001, it has become a detention center for suspected terrorists, some of whom have been detained without charges for years. Human rights and ethics abuses have been documented in Guantanamo Bay because of the hidden public scrutiny and lack of accountability. The human rights issue is how a terrorist is defined . In the US during the cold war, anyone who opposed the government was deemed an enemy of the state, and was legislated in the Allen Registration Act of 1940. During the 1940s and 1950s, people were executed in the US for simply refusing to name fellow communists (Doerr-Zegars, Hartmann, Lira Weinstein, 1992). Critics of this type of detention claim that just by supporting Al Qaeda or the Taliban may make a person dangerous, but it is not a mental illness. No one states that Al Qaeda members are not able to control their behavior, or are treated through psychiatric treatment. In their minds, preventive detention is an unnecessary and dangerous expansion of government power and because of this the Guantanamo Bay detainees should be charged or released. The word torture needs to be put in a context of ethics as it relates to interrogation techniques. Water boarding is an awful technique, but it is much different than mutilation with drills, rape or forcing a suspect to watch their family tortured, putting hummus in a mans anus, forcing suspects to stand on broken feet, and playing detainees songs at loud volumes on repeat. Ethical morality involves a balance of ends and means. It is pertinent to consider that there are benefits from these interrogation techniques. Critics of interrogation tactics must answer critical questions such as if by performing these activities such as water boarding, and we may be able to elicit information that would stop a massive attack on an American city, would it then be considered feasible. Or, if by doing so, we can save a thousand innocent lives? Ten thousand? What about if we knew of a possible strike on American soil and the only way to prevent such an attack was by using unethical interrogation t echniques?, would preventing such devastation be worthy of a green light to do so? The Democratic members of Congress think so. Physical torture and manipulation will successfully produce intelligence information and confessions. To some, the harsh methods of torture and interrogation lack a value that proves costly to criminal justice efforts to provide security and solve crimes. Individuals who undergo long periods of torture have been shown to exhibit considerable long-term effects of PTSD which is considered a human rights violation. Human rights law recognizes that certain rights may be suspended by governments during a time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed.(p.365, 2008) The ethical implications used by interrogation methods are ones that depend on the definition of ethics. If saying the ends justifies the means then ethics must have a place in the issues that surround interrogation. Ethics are defined as value, belief, principle and convictions that a group of people hold to be a noble part of life and strive to practice every day (Sheikh, MacIntyre Perera, 2008). Interrogation by itself is on no way an ethical process and the attempts to introduce ethics into interrogation methods would require that the purpose of interrogation and detention would need to be redefined. References Doerr-Zegers, O., Hartmann, L., Lira, E., Weinstein, E. (1992). Torture: Psychiatric sequelae and phenomenology. Psychiatry, 55(2), 177-184. Sands, P., Q.C., Fraser, M.,A.C.C.H. (2008). TORTURE TEAM: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LAWYERS FOR ABUSIVE INTERROGATION/TORTURE TEAM: HUMAN RIGHTS, LAWYERS, INTERROGATIONS AND THE WAR ON TERROR A RESPONSE TO PHILIPPE SANDS. Melbourne Journal of International Law, 9(2), 365-390. Sheikh, M., MacIntyre, C. R., Perera, S. (2008). Preventive detention: The ethical ground where politics and health meet. focus on asylum seekers in australia. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62(6), 480.

The rate at which Alka-Seltzer tablets reacts with water Essay examples

The rate at which Alka-Seltzer tablets reacts with water Statement of problem The aim of the experiment is to find out the rate at which Alka-Seltzer tablets react with water. The input variable that I will change is temperature. The output variable will be measured by the time it takes for the Alka-Seltzer tablets to dissolve. Input variables In this experiment there are two main factors that can affect the rate of the reaction. These key factors can change the rate of the reaction by either increasing it or decreasing it. These were considered and controlled so that they did not disrupt the success of the experiment. Temperature- As the temperature increases, the movements of molecules also increase. This is the kinetic theory. When the temperature is increased the particles gain more energy and therefore move around faster. This gives the particles more of a chance with other particles and with more force. The increase in temperature will therefore increase the rate of reaction. As this is the variable I am measuring I will not keep the temperature constant and therefore I will be varying it. Volume of water- if the volume of the water is increased there is more likelihood that there will be more collisions. This is because there are more water molecules in a given volume to react with the Alka-Seltzer tablets. However if there are sufficient water molecules to occupy the Alka-Seltzer tablets an increase in the water molecules will not alter the rate of the reaction. This is because the Alka-Seltzer tablets are already working as fast as they can to react with the water. The concentration can be increased by increasing the volume of the water used in the reaction to dissolve the Alka-Seltzer tablets in. To control the... ... different from what it should be. To solve this problem a thermostatic water bath could be used as stated above. * If the stop watch was stopped to early or late, again the overall reading would not be as accurate as it could have been. * It was almost impossible to tell when the Alka-Seltzer tablet had dissolved, each time the experiment was done. This was a huge problem for the experiment as this could have totally caused problems to the experiment. A special type of detector apparatus, which bleeped when the correct amount of Alka-Seltzer tablet dissolved, could improve this, each time the experiment was done. This would give us an extra measure of accuracy each time. Another way to improve the experiment and to produce consistent readings was to used distilled water. This is because the distilled water contains no impurities and therefore no hardness in water.