A handbook designed to provide the reader with the Spanish skills needed to communicate on the job site and effectively manage today's diverse workforce.
If you were dropped into the middle of Managua, Mexico City, or Miami, would you know how to speak not only the language, but also the lingo? In The Street-Wise Spanish Survival Guide, the reader who is already familiar with Spanish will discover the banter and metaphor (both polite and rude) that enrich the spoken language as it is really used, hints on avoiding embarrassing mistakes in grammar, and a list of dreaded false cognates. Full of advice on pronunciation and tips on customs and manners, and keyed with time-saving symbols, this is the best guide available to understanding and appreciating Spanish as it is spoken in Latin America and the United States.
Easy-to-use pronunciation guides and practical explanations of the most basic grammar concepts in Spanish make this volume a great resource for travelers, students, or anyone who wishes to learn the basics of Spanish conversation.
Although usage-based linguistics emphasises the need for studies of language change to take frequency effects into account, there is a lack of research that tries to systematically model frequency effects and their relation to diffusion processes in language change. This monograph offers a diachronic study of the change in Spanish perfect auxiliary selection between Old and Early Modern Spanish that led to the gradual replacement of the auxiliary ser ‘be’ with the auxiliary haber ‘have’. It analyses this process in terms of the interaction between gradience, gradualness, and the conserving effects of frequency and persistence in language change. The study contributes to the theory and methodology of diachronic linguistics, additionally offering insights on how to explain synchronic grammatical variation both within a language and between languages. The book is of interest to the fields of Spanish and Romance linguistics, syntax, as well as historical and variationist linguistics.
This book examines the ways in which quality management methods, tools, and practices help improve an organization’s performance and achieve sustainable competitive advantages. This volume includes quality techniques and tools such as the EFQM Model, SERVPERF model, E-S-Qual scale and the ISO 9001 certification and provide a wide variety of empirical studies in different economic sectors. In the current economic environment, characterized by economic turmoil and fierce competition, quality management has become a key strategy for organizations to overcome today’s challenges. Organizations benefits from implementing quality management systems by following two approaches. First, they implement quality practices aimed at ensuring customer satisfaction by considering consumer expectations and establishing strategies accordingly. Second, organizations improve processes by establishing efficient and effective process management systems that improve productivity, lower costs, reduce unnecessary expenses, eliminate all non-value added activities, and ultimately maximize excellence and customer satisfaction. Quality management thereby provides tools, techniques, and methods for continuous process improvement in both the professional and academic worlds, which, when implemented by organizations in times of crisis, enable more effective administration of activities undertaken by managers. Containing contributions from various academics and scholars, this new book provides cutting edge research, methods and techniques providing a reference manual for academics, scholars, practitioners and policy-makers.
This book gathers the best papers presented at the 19th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering, which was held in Granada, Spain in July 2015. It covers a range of project management and engineering contexts, including: civil engineering and urban planning, product and process engineering, environmental engineering, energy efficiency and renewable energies, rural development, information and communication technologies, safety, labour risks and ergonomics, and training in project engineering. Project management and engineering is taking on increasing importance as projects continue to grow in size, more stakeholders become involved, and environmental, organisational and technological issues become more complex. As such, this book offers a valuable resource for all professionals seeking the latest material on the changing face of project management.