Career Development Plan Part I Job Analysis Hrm 531 Essay Example

Career Development Plan Part I Job Analysis Hrm 531 Essay Career Development Plan Part I – Job Analysis and Selection HRM/531 – Human Capital Management Week Two Assignment Interclean has just merged with EnviroTech and as a result has taken on a new strategic direction. The company will no longer sell only cleaning products, but provide full service cleaning solutions for organization in the health care industry. As mid-level sales manager, I will be facing the challenge creating a job analysis in selecting five to seven new hires for the sale team and explaining why they were chosen, and their knowledge, skills, abilities and their roles which is the combined employees from Interclean and EnviroTech in creating a development workforce plan, selection method including it’s advantage and disadvantages. Although there are many ways to define workforce planning, the following definition addresses key aspects of planning for HR professional, workforce planning is the strategic alignment of an organization’s human capital with its business direction. It is a methodical process of analyzing the current workforce, determining future workforce needs, identifying the gap between the present and future, and implementing solutions so the organization can accomplish its mission, goals, and objectives. We will write a custom essay sample on Career Development Plan Part I Job Analysis Hrm 531 specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Career Development Plan Part I Job Analysis Hrm 531 specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Career Development Plan Part I Job Analysis Hrm 531 specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer As a process, workforce planning includes elements such as strategic planning (by both the organization and its partners), workload projections, legislative forecasts, turnover analyses, and budget projections. Workforce planning forecasts the numbers of people and types of skills needed to achieve success by comparing the available workforce with future needs to determine needs that may be unmet (gaps). Workforce planning is a management tool that affects the full life cycle and range of human resources activities including recruitment/selection, classification and compensation, training and development, performance management, and retention. Strategic is not about how to position products and businesses within an industry. Rather, it’s about changing industry rules or creating tomorrow’s industries. Workforce planning process as following: †¢ What is the target amount to achieved through lower cost to the company But accomplish an increase in profit sales each year? What sale is necessary to accomplish the mission of company? †¢ What do the sale team need to do no matter what? †¢ What work can be consolidated or restructed in some way? †¢ It may be helpful to consider the following to determine which workforce planning actions to take: Is a particular course of action within the timeline of the sale team Does the sale team alignment with the team short-term and long-term planning priorities What is the difficult with implement the action or problem resolution In job analysis is the study of jobs to identity the observable work activities, focus on work behaviors, tasks, method for gathering information, identifies the personal qualifications necessary to perform the job, the conditions under which is performed and responsibilities associated with a particular job or group of jobs. Job analysis is not of thought processes, attitudes, traits or aptitudes and not an analysis of an individual position. Job analysis does obtain job data, which serves a variety of organizational purposes and provides a basis for decision-making. Job analysis servers as a legal compliance tool for EEOC and ADA. Also, OHR Compensation study is using job analysis to meet goals in develop broader, more flexible job classifications, describe the work of the job family, and identify and differentiate functions within the job family. The job description for the new sales team main job tasks and responsibilities: 1) Develop and maintain a customer database 2) Generate and qualify leads 3) Source and develop client referrals 4) Prepare sales action plans and schedules ) Develop and maintain sales and promotional materials 6) Plan and conduct direct marketing activities 7) Make sales calls to new and existing clients 8) Participate in sales events 9) Monitor competitors, market conditions and product development 10) Able to communicate with the sales team and our customers Education and Experience 1) Knowledge of relevant computer applications 2) Knowledge of principles and practices of sales 3) Knowledge of customer service principle s 4) Knowledge of basic business principles 5) Experience in sales ) Proven ability to achieve sales targets 7) Goal driven The selection of methods was perform to new sale team is based on several methods: †¢ Observation- a trained observer observes a worker, recording what the worker does, how long it takes. Advantages are firsthand information, simple to use, verifies data from other sources and disadvantages are time consuming, may bias worker performance, small sample size, requires skilled observer †¢ Interview – a trained job analyst interviews a job incumbent, usually utilizing a standardized format. Sometimes more than one worker is interviewed, and the results are aggregated. Advantages are incumbent describes work, can yield data about cognitive and works well for jobs with long job cycles †¢ Critical incident – behaviorally based critical incidents are used to describe work, and a job analyst determines the degree of each behavior that is present or absent in the job. Advantages are analysis based on concrete behavior. Disadvantages are scales require some expertise to develop †¢ Questionnaire- there are two types of questionnaires: the structured questionnaire uses a standardized list of work activities, called a task inventory, that job incumbents or supervisors may identify as related to the job. In addition, the respondent may also identify additional information such as how much time is spent on the task, and the amount of supervision required. The open-ended questionnaire asks the job incumbent to describe the work in his or her own words. Advantages are does not require trained interviewer, relatively less expensive, and can reach more workers. Disadvantages are may be difficult to construct, may have low response rate, responses may be incomplete, and responses may be difficult to interpret (open-end) Here the list of employees I have selected for the new sale team after interviewing and reviewing profile as following: 1. Jim Martin, Vice President of Sales: He is an experienced and knowledge sales manager in the industrial cleaning and sanitation industry. He is customer-oriented. He shows aggressive in taking initial concept in achieving new sales ideas. 2. Tom Gonzalez, Sales Manager: He will become the assistant to Jim Martin. He has the ability to lead the team with his expertise in developing solutions-based products for the customer. Also, he has experience with the cleaning industry for over twenty-five years. He is a people-person that enjoys establishing long-term relationships with customers and shows concerns. 3. Susan Burnt – Sale Representative: She will be an excellent candidate to the team. She is very valuable; she was the founder of Interclean. She has performed numerous jobs during her twenty-four years at the company. She is an over achiever in each position. Also, she transferred to sales six years ago and met her sales goals each year. She is aggressive and enthusiastic 4. Dennis White – Sale Representative: He has four years of experience in sales. He is an aggressive sales representative who likes to hunt for new customers and close the deal. 5. Eric Borden – Sale Representative: He has a solid reputation for serving the customer and helping the customer get the best products for the best prices. During fourteen years with the company, in addition to performing the role of team leader on several special projects which contributed to the financial growth of EnviroTech. He takes pride in keeping current with the latest industrial cleaning and sanitation industry developments as well as on the changes to regulations and compliance issues affecting industry. Reference: 1. Casio, W. , 2006, Managing Human Resources, Ch. 5 2. University of Phoenix, 2008. Web Link: InterClean – EnviroTech Merger Scenario 3. Job Analysis methods and disadvantages and advantages , University of Minnesota 2006-2010 4. Job Description – http:www. best-job-interview. com

Albert Einstein Essays (1603 words) - Albert Einstein, Free Essays

Albert Einstein Essays (1603 words) - Albert Einstein, Free Essays Albert Einstein Of all the scientists to emerge from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there is one whose name is known by almost all living people. While most of these do not understand this man's work, everyone knows that its impact on the world of science is astonishing. Yes, many have heard of Albert Einstein's General Theory of relativity, but few know about the intriguing life that led this scientist to discover what some have called, "The greatest single achievement of human thought." Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1874. Before his first birthday, his family had moved to Munich where young Albert's father, Hermann Einstein, and uncle set up a small electro-chemical business. He was fortunate to have an excellent family with which he held a strong relationship. Albert's mother, Pauline Einstein, had an intense passion for music and literature, and it was she that first introduced her son to the violin in which he found much joy and relaxation. Also, he was very close with his younger sister, Maja, and they could often be found in the lakes that were scattered about the countryside near Munich. As a child, Einstein's sense of curiosity had already begun to stir. A favorite toy of his was his father's compass, and he often marvelled at his uncle's explanations of algebra. Although young Albert was intrigued by certain mysteries of science, he was considered a slow learner. His failure to become fluent in German until the age of nine even led some teachers to believe he was disabled. Einstein's post-basic education began at the Luitpold Gymnasium when he was ten. It was here that he first encountered the German spirit through the school's strict disciplinary policy. His disapproval of this method of teaching led to his reputation as a rebel. It was probably these differences that caused Einstein to search for knowledge at home. He began not with science, but with religion. He avidly studied the Bible seeking truth, but this religious fervor soon died down when he discovered the intrigue of science and math. To him, these seemed much more realistic than ancient stories. With this new knowledge he disliked class even more, and was eventually expelled from Luitpold Gymnasium being considered a disruptive influence. Feeling that he could no longer deal with the German mentality, Einstein moved to Switzerland where he continued his education. At sixteen he attempted to enroll at the Federal Institute of Technology but failed the entrance exam. This forced him to study locally for one year until he finally passed the school's evaluation. The Institute allowed Einstein to meet many other students that shared his curiosity, and It was here that his studies turned mainly to Physics. He quickly learned that while physicists had generally agreed on major principals in the past, there were modern scientists who were attempting to disprove outdated theories. Since most of Einstein's teachers ignored these new ideas, he was again forced to explore on his own. In 1900 he graduated from the Institute and then achieved citizenship to Switzerland. Einstein became a clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in 1902. This job had little to do with physics, but he was able to satiate his curiosity by figuring out how new inventions worked. The most important part of Einstein's occupation was that it allowed him enough time to pursue his own line of research. As his ideas began to develop, he published them in specialist journals. Though he was still unknown to the scientific world, he began to attract a large circle of friends and admirers. A group of students that he tutored quickly transformed into a social club that shared a love of nature, music, and of course, science. In 1903 he married Mileva Meric, a mathematician friend. In 1905, Einstein published five separate papers in a journal, the Annals of Physics. The first was immediately acknowledged, and the University of Zurich awarded Einstein an additional degree. The other papers helped to develop modern physics and earned him the reputation of an artist. Many scientists have said that Einstein's work contained an imaginative spirit that was seen in most poetry. His work at this time dealt with molecules, and

Homicide criminal law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Homicide criminal law - Essay Example e criminally liable if his conduct was the factual cause of Tom’s death and the consequence of death would not have happened â€Å"but for† Sanjay’s conduct. If we apply the â€Å"but for† test to the current situation, arguably Tom would not have been in hospital with severe internal injuries if had not been for Sanjay’s actions, therefore under the â€Å"but for test†, it is more than likely that Sanjay’s conduct will have satisfied the requirement of factual cause of death. However, it is also evident from the facts that Tom subsequently died of a blood transfusion at the hospital as a result of receiving the wrong blood type, which the doctors failed to notice. As a result, Tom died and this begs the question as to whether Sanjay was in fact the legal cause of death or whether the failure to give Tom the correct blood type in the transfusion was in fact the cause of death. Under the legal causation test, it is not necessary for Sanjay’s conduct to be the sole cause of death however it must be the substantial cause and have made a significant contribution to Tom’s death3. Ultimately, this is determined according to the facts of each case, however case law has established that the original wound must still be operating and a substantial cause at the time of death4. With regard to the current scenario, the doctors failed to administer the correct blood type in the transfusion and therefore one could argue that it was their failure was the substantial cause of Tom’s death. However, UK courts have been reluctant to break the chain of causation in cases where medical negligence is involved. A prime example is the case of Smith,5 where the victim was stabbed by Smith but died due to medical negligence. Despite there being a 75% chance of recovery but for these events occurring, the courts still held that the chain of causation was not broken. Although a different approach was used in the case of Jordan6 where negligent medical treatment was

Wall Street Journal Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wall Street Journal - Article Example Now a new product is making a name for itself. Nuvo, a sparkling vodka, from France has made a big splash in bars and liquor stores across the country. People are attracted to its promise of high quality. Its brand is taking off. What accounts for the new interest in artisinal spirits, and for Nuvo in particular? During the financial crisis of 2008, many luxury brands took a hit as people had less money to spend and had to scale back a lot of their spending habits. But as the recovery takes off, people are coming out of their hibernation and starting to spend time searching for new brands to try out. Nuvo has found a niche in the market and is riding that niche all the way to the bank. People want to feel good again. They want to be seen in the clubs with the latest thing. And Nuvo is that latest thing. Nuvo was originally intended to be marketed towards women, but its creators soon found that it had wide appeal and sought to market it towards both men and women. It is an artisinal l iqueur, but much of the artisinal quality is communicated through the product's packaging. A bottle of Nuvo looks very similar to a bottle of perfume. The colour too suggests that this is something you might find behind the counter at an expensive department store. The creators have taken the aesthetic quality of a perfume bottle and put a new liqueur twist on the concept. Americans seem to love it, especially young New Yorkers. A survey of a number of bar-going young women by this reporter found that Nuvo was one of the hottest drinks of the season. Sally, a 24-year-old real estate developer called Nuvo a â€Å"breath of fresh air.† She gushed when talking about the bottle's design, â€Å"I feel more like I'm in a boudoir when I see the bottle than a bar. It looks beautiful.† Others agree with her opinion. A word frequently used to describe it is â€Å"chic† (Scott). It plays up its Frenchness, which in America is a byword for sophistication and class. Nuvo has made a splash in the city. The product's website describes the drink as an â€Å"accessory† and plays up its trendiness. It boasts that it will â€Å"dazzle your taste buds† and says that it is a premium vodka infused with passion fruit nectar. The product is evocative of artisinal champagnes and capitalizes on that concept to suggest it is a luxurious product. Little is said about how it is actually made or produced. The packaging and branding do all the work in suggesting it is artisinal. The product has been featured in a number of music videos and has rapidly become a part of the cultural furniture, largely due to its distinctive bottle, which again suggest craft and care in the production process. People know what the product is because of its bright colours and unique shape. This is an important point. Some artisinal alcohol products such as bourbon have a powerful story to tell about how they are made. The bourbon must stored in particular barrels for a certain amount of years at a certain temperature. There is a real craft to the product. For Nuvo, there may be a similar process, but much more emphasis is placed on the branding and marketing aspects to suggest that it is artisinal. Even the brand-name itself suggests refinement and freshness. The word â€Å"nouveau†Ã¢â‚¬â€French for â€Å"new†Ã¢â‚¬â€has been shortened and made easier to pronounce, while still maintaining a kind of exoticism. While there is much to praise about the product, it is not for everyone. A story from last year indicates that Nuvo is so distinctive there has

The benefit Consuming organic and whole foods Essay

The benefit Consuming organic and whole foods - Essay Example This leads to the food being less healthy. During processing, there is the addition of preservatives, and artificial coloring, which might affect an individual’s health negatively. There is no processing of whole foods and they do not have any unhealthy additives. Whole foods as well do not have added salt or sugar, which might contribute to high blood pressure or obesity. The human body only handles the natural salts or sugars in food (Gussow 4). It is healthier to eat organic food than inorganic food. This is because they lack chemicals and pesticides. Some types of organic foods have high levels of vitamins, as well as, proteins compared to inorganic food. Animals that feed on organic food are as well more healthier compared to animals that feed on inorganic food (Edward 26). Consumption of organic and whole food is not only important for individuals’ health, but also important as far as the environment is concerned. For example, they do not lead to fertilizers or pesticide run-off, which go to the streams or rivers. Such chemicals contaminate water and results in the destruction of habitats. Some pesticides contain toxins, which contribute to health problems like cancer (Benbrook

Defensive Strategies By Cadburys Against Craft Marketing Essay

Defensive Strategies By Cadburys Against Craft Marketing Essay Discuss the types of defensive strategies available to target companies and in particular, describe the strategies used by Cadbury to, albeit unsuccessfully, defend the bid by Kraft. With the development of economy and technology, competition among enterprises is becoming increasingly intense. Many companies decide to expand their companies scale and business through mergers and acquisitions to achieve maximum profits. Takeover is a business behaviour that one company is purchased by another one. There are several types of takeover, including friendly takeovers, hostile takeovers, reverse takeovers and backflip takeovers. Even though some mergers and acquisitions can bring about synergy and more substantial profits, some takeovers are not welcome. Therefore, a large numbers of measures are taken by target companies to defend the hostile takeover. In this essay, I state different types of takeover defence and their characteristics. Furthermore, I introduce their practical application taking the merger of Kraft and Cadbury as an example. Different types of defensive strategies Defensive strategies can be classified into active measures and preventive measures. Active measures consist of greenmail, standstill agreement, white knight, and so on, while preventive measures are made up of poison pills, people pill and other defences. In particular, greenmail, poison pills, staggered board terms and supermajority rules are common used defensive strategies by incumbent managers. Greenmail is purchasing enough shares of the target company to threaten its shareholders interests and then forcing the target company to agree to buy the bidders stock back at a premium as long as it does not want to be taken over. It has brought fabulous profits for investors. For example, in June 1979, Icahn Corporation in the United States bought 9.9% of the shares of the Saxon Industries Corporation at $7.21 per share. And in February 1980, Saxon repurchased its own shares held by Icahn Corporation at the price of $10.50 per share. Icahn also bought 10% of shares of Hammermill paper Corporation at 25 dollars per share in the late of 1979. After that, the latter bought back these shares held by Icahn at the price of 36 dollars per share. Icahn totally invested $20,000,000 in the merger activities and made 900 million dollars profits after these stocks were repurchased. As the US tax law regulates that the income from greenmail should pay 50 percent of the tax. Moreover, disputes often lead to high legal costs, as a result, the use of this takeover defence are greatly restricted. Stock price of the target company usually goes down after it pays greenmail to the firm which want to take over the company. For instance, in 1984, David Murdoch held 5% of Occidental Petroleums stock and forced it to take measures to increase the value of its stock. Occidental Petroleum responded to the pressure by buying Murdochs shares back at a substantial premium to the fair stock market price. It repurchased the 5 percent of stocks at a price of $40.1 per share instead of the market price of $28.75, that is, it enabled Murdoch to gain the extra 42 percent of profits to the market value and made the total profits up to 56 million dollars. After paying greenmail to Murdoch, the market price per share of Occidental Petroleum stock dropped by $0.875, indicating the market value of the company declined over 80 million dollars. Since the stock price had decreased before the announcement of the repurchase, the actual losses were more than $80 million. A poison pill, which is also called a shareholder rights plan, is the most effective defence strategy. It was devised in the mid-1980s which forced the acquiring firm to negotiate the purchase price of the stock with the target firms board of directors, rather than negotiate with shareholders directly. Even though there are different kinds of pills, they have one thing in common that they increase the cost of takeover as a transfer occurs from the bidder to shareholders. Poison pills are forbidden in some countries such as the United Kingdom. In Europe, due to the complicated political environment and the uncommon explicit poison pills, many governments can prevent companies from buying other firms by taking a series of political actions, but some hostile takeovers may be successful. There are five types of poison pills, including preferred stock plan, flipover rights plan, ownership flip-in plan, back-end rights plan and voting plan. Flipover rights plan is the most popular takeover defence in these five kinds of poison pills. Shareholders of the target firm have the right to buy stocks of the acquiring enterprise at a discounted price after the merger, which is equal to a stock dividend. In the event of the acquisition, the number of shares held by the bidder will decrease as well as stock prices. If Corporation A decide to merger with Corporation B and Corporation B have the option to purchase As shares at a discount, the acquisition cost is quite expensive for A so that it may choose to give up the acquisition of B ultimately. An acquirer which has gained over fifty percent of a target firms stocks may be unable to take over the company as some companies have regulations that who acquire at least two thirds supports from shareholders and sometimes 90% of shares have the right in charge of the company. Staggered board of directors or classified board refers to that the board of directors is divided into different classes, and companys articles of association formulate that only a part of directors, commonly one third or one fourth, can be re-elected each year. The measure means that even if the acquirer has held enough shares of the target firm and gained control of the company, it can neither make a substantive restructuring of the board of directors nor immediately take over the board of directors. The staggered board of directors plays a significant role in delaying the process of hostile takeover. As the majority of directors in the board are original, they still hold the majority voting power and contr ol the company. They can decide to broad investments and increase their shares to dilute the bidders stock shares, or take other actions to achieve the purpose of anti acquisition. Staggered Boards is an effective takeover defence that has less impact on share prices. Case Study: Cadburys defences against the bid of Kraft Cadbury is an international company to produce, promote and distribute sweets and beverage products. It is the worlds second largest confectionery company as well as the second largest chewing gum company. Kraft food is the second largest food company in the world, whose core products are coffee, candy, dairy products and beverages. It has over sixty thousand employees around the world and has launched business in 145 countries. Even though the American blue-collar are enthusiastic about Kraft products, Krafts sales performance was far less than expectation as its revenue declined by 6%. Due to the excessive reliance on low end market and the lack of new growth points, Kraft faced a crucial decision: one was introducing new products and promoting a new brand, the other was taking over the existing namely brands. On 28 August 2009, Rosenfeld, the chairman of Kraft, proposed an offer to absorb Cadbury at a price which was 31% higher than the closing price at that day and amounted to nearly 10.2 billion pounds. Although Roger, the chairman of Cadbury realized that the development of the company size had suffered bottlenecks, he convinced that in the acquisition game, Cadbury would be able to reap the initiative opportunity. On 7 September, Cadbury formally stated that it rejected Krafts acquisition, because the proposed acquisition greatly underestimated the value and development prospects of Cadbury. Because of the acquisition news, Cadburys share price rose by 37% at that day, causing its total market value up to an unprecedented 106 billion pounds, which was more than Krafts bid. On September 22nd, intolerable Cadbury asked the British MA supervision institution to give a ruling to Kraft, forcing it to nail down before the 9 November. If it cannot submit a more reasonable offer, Kraft would not take acquisition activities within at least six months. Immediately, Rosenfeld said that Kraft did not have to take over Cadbury. This made a lot of Cadburys shareholders begin to worry that Cadburys share price would collapse if Kraft gave up the acquisition. Roger appeased shareholders and he believed that refusing the acquisition and remaining independence of Cadbury could bring about best interests to shareholders. Cadbury was confident of its independent strategy and development prospective in the future, while merging with Kraft, which had low growth, may have an obscure prospect. On October 21st, Cadbury released the third-quarter financial statement which indicated that the quarterly revenue rose by 7%. On that day, its stock price reached a record high, with a total market value as much as 11.08 billion pounds. Shareholders of Cadbury took the opportunity to express that if Krafts offer was 122 million pounds, they were able to discuss on the issue of acquisition. This price was 20 billion pounds higher than Krafts original offer price. On 9 November, Kraft announced that it would launch a hostile bid for Cadbury in accordance with the previous offer. In late November 2009, the US Hershey Corporation, the Italian Ferrero Corporation and Nestlà © of Switzerland had expressed their willingness to bid. Therefore, Cadbury must not be so easily accept Krafts offer. Because Kraft is not the only one which tended to take over Cadbury, while Cadbury is almost the only choice for Kraft. Roger Carr said that Cadbury preferred to merger with Hershey rather than Kraft, because this merger was expected to generate higher earnings per share. It was reported that the directors of Cadbury secretly contacted Hersheys directors to encourage it to act as a white knight and launch a tender offer in order to compete with Kraft. It is a takeover defence known as white knight. When a company become the hostile takeover target, it may invite another company to make friendly acquisition proposal to defuse the pressure of hostile takeovers. The company which is invited to help the target firm defend hostile takeovers is called white knight. Success for the Cadbury takeover would bring about less synergy and make Nestle face antitrust scrutiny, while Hershey had no ability to bear acquisitions without Ferreros assistance. As a result, they gave up taking over Cadbury. Finally, Krafts merger of Cadbury was successful at the price of $19.5 billion. Conclusion Takeover defences mentioned above are effective and commonly used measures to resist the hostile takeover of acquiring firms. Different strategies have different characteristics and applications. For instance, staggered broad of directors has less influence with the companys stock price than greenmail, while poison pills are forbidden in some countries. The merger of Cadbury and Kraft is a well-known and significant MA case in this century. Even if Cadbury had taken a series of actions to defend Krafts takeover and achieve some results initially, causing Kraft had to sell its pizza business at a super low price and issue new shares, eventually, Kraft gained the victory of the campaign. In my opinion, adopting efficient defensive strategies do not mean obtaining desired results. The surrounding economic environment and views of counterparty also play a vital role in merger and acquisition activities.

Vitamin C in Treatment of the Common Cold :: Health Medicine Papers

Vitamin C in Treatment of the Common Cold Is Vitamin C the cure for the common cold? Will it reduce the severity and duration of a cold? Will it prevent you from ever having another cold? Of course, we would all like to think that would be true, but what’s the real effect of Vitamin C supplements? What is Vitamin C and Where Can I Find It? Vitamin C is water soluble and functions as an antioxidant and as a coenzyme. Furthermore, it can perform different functions in various situations, such as aiding in collagen formation for teeth, cartilage, and connective tissue and aiding in the formation of new tissue in wound healing. Vitamin C can be found in foods such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, grapefruit, kiwi, oranges, peppers, and strawberries. Presently the RDA is 60 mg. What are the Dangers? Vitamin C Deficiency Vitamin C deficiency is rather rare in Western countries, however, it still occurs in alcoholics, drug addicts, and the elderly--groups whose dietary intakes are often very poor. Marginal deficiency symptoms are gingivitis, loose teeth, aching limbs and joints, poor wound healing, and weakening of tissues which increases the risk of infection. (Grodner, Anderson, & DeYoung; 1996) Vitamin C Toxicity Despite the fact that Vitamin C is essential to good health, you can have too much of a good thing. Although toxicity from foods high in Vitamin C does not occur, taking supplements in large doses (1 gm to 15 gm) may result in symptoms such as cramps, nausea, diarrhea, kidney stones, and gout. After receiving excessive amounts of Vitamin C, the body begins to destroy much of the excess Vitamin C that is in circulation. Furthermore, there is a potential rebound effect upon abruptly stopping supplementation for the body is still in the process of destroying the vitamin. (Grodner, Anderson, & DeYoung; 1996) Brown (1973) also warned that chronic massive doses of Vitamin C resulted in increased mobilization of calcium and phosphate from the skeletons of chicks, weakening the bone structure. Although unsure if massive doses would produce the same effect in humans, the author warned against chronic massive supplementation. Vitamin C and Colds: How Does it Work? Vitamin C is often used for both prophylactic and therapeutic purposes. Wilson, Loh, and Foster (1972) state that the prophylactic effect refers to the ability of vitamin C to prevent a cold Furthermore, commencement of administration of vitamin C when cold symptoms first appear constitutes the therapeutic use.